Moscow Mitch McConnell is pathetic. He is lost to the demands of Trump. He has no interest in the citizens of the USA.

The US Senate has no leader. The US Senate is an autonomous governing body under the US Constitution. There is not supposed to be collusion with the President on laws it passes. Moscow Mitch isn't interested in a Senate majority to override a veto. He surrendered to Trump and Russia a long time ago.

September 3, 2019
By Kate Sullivan and Ted Barrett

Washington - Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (click here) said Tuesday he will not put a gun bill of any kind on the Senate floor unless President Donald Trump says he would sign it into law.

Days after a West Texas mass shooting that killed at least seven people, the Kentucky Republican said on "The Hugh Hewitt Show" he expects to get an answer from the Trump administration within the next week on what, if anything, it is prepared to support.

"If the President is in favor of a number of things that he has discussed openly and publicly, and I know that if we pass it, it will become law, I'll put it on the floor," McConnell said on the radio show....

August 14, 2019
By Tom Hamburger and Rosalind S. Helderman

The picture to the left is Trump with thumbs up and Craig Bouchard. There isn't anything else to say. Trump tells Moscow Mitch to jump and he asks "How high?"

In January, (click here) as the Senate debated whether to permit the Trump administration to lift sanctions on Russia’s largest aluminum producer, two men with millions of dollars riding on the outcome met for dinner at a restaurant in Zurich.

On one side of the table sat the head of sales for Rusal, the Russian aluminum producer that would benefit most immediately from a favorable Senate vote. The U.S. government had imposed sanctions on Rusal as part of a campaign to punish Russia for “malign activity around the globe,” including attempts to sway the 2016 presidential election.

On the other side sat Craig Bouchard, an American entrepreneur who had gained favor with officials in Kentucky, the home state of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Bouchard was trying to build the first new aluminum-rolling mill in the United States in nearly four decades, in a corner of northeastern Kentucky ravaged by job losses and the opioid epidemic — a project that stood to benefit enormously if Rusal were able to get involved.

But the timing of their meeting shows how much a major venture in McConnell’s home state had riding on the Democratic-backed effort in January to keep sanctions in place.

By the next day, McConnell had successfully blocked the bill, despite the defection of 11 Republicans....

No matter how it is looked at that is CORRUPTION at the highest levels of government. Moscow Mitch McConnell is not capable of leading. 

There are families lost in the burned boat tragedy,

September 2, 2019
By Stephanie Dazio, Janie Har and Julie Watson

Santa Barbara - A broken-hearted mother (click here) posted on her Facebook page Tuesday that her three daughters, their father and his wife were among those presumed dead after flames engulfed a dive boat off Southern California over the holiday weekend.

Susana Rosas of Stockton, California, thanked people for their prayers and support.

The family of five, celebrating a birthday with an activity they enjoyed, was among 34 people presumed dead in the blaze. All were sleeping below deck when the fire started early Monday.

Other victims included students from a Northern California charter school serving grades 7-12, a high school science teacher and his daughter, an Arizona couple and a marine biologist who owned the diving company and was leading the tour.

Five crew members were rescued, and the bodies of 20 victims have been recovered so far. Many need to be identified by DNA analysis, and officials are collecting samples from family members....    

3 September 2019
By Kate Aronoff

Grand Bahama island (click here) before and after Hurricane Dorian made landfall.

News of Hurricane Dorian’s first casualty (click here) came early on Monday morning from the Bahamas Press. A seven-year old boy named Lachino Mcintosh drowned as his family attempted to find safer ground than their home on the Abaco islands. Dorian is reportedly the strongest hurricane to have ever hit the Bahamas and the second most powerful Atlantic storm on record. Five deaths have been reported so far, and more are likely. The Bahamian MP and minister of foreign affairs, the Honorable Darren Henfield, offered a bleak update form the area he represents to reporters: “We have reports of casualties, we have reports of bodies being seen.”

The after photo, note the yellow lines that mark where the land was before the storm flooded the area.

Rising temperatures don’t make hurricanes more frequent, but they do help make them more devastating. Each of the last five years have seen Category 5 storms pass through the Atlantic, brewed over hotter than usual waters. How many more people have to die before political leaders treat climate change like the global catastrophe it is?...      

Mr. Anthony Basco's loss is more than many people can accept.

He is elderly, poor and alone. He was gracious in the face of the loss of his wife. He and his wife were probably dependent on their income together. He needs a great deal of support. She is gone and also any financial support she may have brought. Her loss should have never happened.

This is a start by Walmart. The USA has a long way to go to protect the lives of its citizens from gun violence.

September 3, 2019

Mr. Antonio Basco was Married for 22yrs to his wife Margie Reckard, He had no other family. He welcomes anyone to attend his Wife's services.

New York - Walmart (click here) on Tuesday announced it will reduce its gun and ammunition sales, one month after more than 20 people were killed in a mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. Walmart also pressured Congress to enact gun safety measures.

The company, America's largest retailer, said it will stop selling handgun ammunition and ammunition for short-barrel rifles after selling all of its current inventory. Walmart (WMT) will also stop selling handguns in Alaska, the only state where it still sells handguns. And Walmart will request that customers no longer openly carry guns into its 4,700 US stores, or its Sam's Club stores, in states that allow open carry.

However, Walmart will continue to sell long barrel deer rifles and shotguns and much of the ammunition for those guns. Walmart will also continue to allow concealed carry by customers with permits in its stores.

In a memo to employees on Tuesday, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said Walmart's changes were prompted by the El Paso, Texas, shooting, as well as recent mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and Midland and Odessa, Texas.

Trump Hotels are luxury hotels. There is no reason for any government official at any level to carry out such expenses. Whatever happened to the other hotel chains such as Choice Hotels, Ramada, Hilton and their economic level hotels such as Hampton Inn which is usually $100 per night. There are a myriad of hotel chains that deserve the attention of the government.

Trump Hotels are far to expensive and often "exclusive." I don't believe Vice President Pence is a member of any Trump property.

Expect the reality of Puerto Rico after Maria and worse.

There are reports of a storm surge covering two stories of homes and buildings. People were on their rooftops to evade the flooding. That is up to a 40 foot storm surge. Be prepared, it is going to a horrific scene when the water recedes.

September 3, 2019
By Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs and Daniel Victor

NASA astronaut Nick Hague of the Expedition 60 crew snapped this photo of the eye of Hurricane Dorian, a Category 4 storm, from the International Space Station on Sept. 2, 2019 as the storm stalled over the northern Bahamas. 

The storm was just north of Grand Bahama Island, (click here) delivering 120 m.p.h. winds and ceaseless downpours. It could move “dangerously close” to Florida later Tuesday....

...Hurricane Dorian, now a Category 3 storm, remained stalled over the Bahamas early Tuesday, pummeling the islands with unrelenting rain and winds as the United States waited to see what destructive path it would take.

The storm, one of the strongest on record in the Atlantic, remained stationary just north of Grand Bahama Island, delivering 120 mile-per-hour winds and ceaseless downpours that have flooded neighborhoods, destroyed homes and killed at least five people. The hurricane was expected to finally move northwest early Tuesday before turning north near Florida’s eastern coast by Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service....

Decades ago the USDA approved the dumping of arsenic as a "agricultural enhancement."

The public land where the retired David Beckham hopes to build his soccer stadium is highly polluted with arsenic. Miami needs to step up and remove all the contaminated land.

The public park can be rehabilitated. It will require removing ALL the contaminated soil and replacing it with CLEAN soil before construction can begin. I wish Mr. Beckham great success with his ambitions.

August 29, 2019
By Joey Flechas

Update: Tuesday afternoon, (click here) Miami City Manager Emilio Gonzalez announced he was closing Melreese until further notice for additional analysis of environmental test results. Read more here.

The proposed site for a Major League Soccer stadium and mall in Miami is far more toxic than previously expected, with arsenic contamination levels reaching more than twice the legal limit and surface-level soil samples containing debris that poses a “physical hazard.”

A new environmental analysis has shed more light on the large extent of the environmental problems in the dirt at Melreese golf course, Miami’s only city-owned golf course and the potential site for a sprawling $1 billion commercial and stadium complex that would serve as the venue for home games played by David Beckham’s MLS team, Inter Miami....

The USA is a consumer economy. It is losing it's consumers.

Texas loosened its gun laws. Texas wants everyone to be armed. There is no more law enforcement that can protect citizens so they have to arm themselves in order to live.

How many people in Texas cannot even afford the required firearms, ammunition and time at the shooting gallery?

How many families lost their main support of their household, not to mention emotional and spiritual support to the family? Yet, those aspects of living aren't even addressed by Texas.

We have recently witnessed the ruthlessness of a highly respected drug company. People died to benefit the profits of Johnson and Johnson. A lot of people died for those profits. What is so different about the gun industry?