Archive by Author

How to restore America’s dominance in technology

“We believe that the people of this country have a right … to find out why a nation with our vastly superior scientific, economic, and military potential is being at the very least equaled and perhaps surpassed by a country that less than two decades ago couldn’t even play in the same scientific ballpark. They also have the right to make decisions as to whether they want their government to maintain our current leadership of the free world regardless of the cost in dollars and sweat.”

These words, written in aftermath of the United States’ strategic surprise from Sputnik, ring true again today. Facing growing scientific and technical competition, Congress and President Eisenhower enacted the 1958 National Defense Education Act, increasing Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) talent to invigorate American competitiveness and win the Cold War. Today, we face a similar problem in key technical fields that underpin both military and economic competitiveness.  

There is no single, unilateral action that will restore American dominance in technology. Progress requires both aggressively attracting the world’s talent to the United States and cultivating our own domestic talent. The United States may buy time in the immediate and near-term through much-needed immigration reform, while parallel educational reforms – driven by realigned incentives – take hold. We support liberal education and immigration policies for illiberal reasons: We want to win the long-term strategic competition with China.

The winds of both politics and history are blowing in the right direction, as Congress is set to debate bills on competition and talent. Among other things, the proposed United States Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) would remove green-card limits for those with STEM degrees. To date, legislative efforts to increase STEM participation have been mixed. Some members of Congress have pushed to increase S&T funding, but without clear outcomes. One recent proposal would have granted $100B over five years to the National Science Foundation, including an expanded focus on applied research, but was subsequently watered down.

Instead, we propose that Congress take a multi-pronged approach, using existing pipelines and programs, which will afford much better long-term results for America.

The most important action in the immediate term is attracting and keeping foreign STEM talent in the United States. When foreign students – including those from our strategic competitors – come to the United States to study, we have a choice. On the one hand, we can educate these students and send them back home, to support their economies, governments and defense establishments. Alternately, we can encourage them to stay in the United States, strengthening our economy and effectively facilitating “brain drain” from our strategic competitors. 

We are strong proponents of the second approach. Students that come to the U.S. to study are a loan of talent — it is a loan that does not necessarily need to be repaid to their country of origin.

Congress should pursue complimentary efforts in parallel. It should modify student and H-1B visa rules that currently make it difficult for international STEM graduates to remain and work in the U.S. Streamlining this process would help reduce chances for international students to suffer from a modern indentured servitude by ensuring fair wages and that the individual, not a company, holds the green card. Accelerated pathways to U.S. citizenship for STEM professionals who desire it should be a priority. STEM immigrants who contribute to the U.S. economy are a benefit, not a burden, to America. 

For the longer-term, education incentives should be realigned. American prosperity depends on talent, ingenuity, and persistence. Current domestic production of STEM talent is insufficient; currently only 18 percent of U.S. college graduates receive a STEM degree, or approximately 130,000 per year. Some technical fields, especially mathematics and statistics, have a 33 percent forecast growth rate, far faster than average. American industry across all sectors and products continues to have an insatiable appetite for STEM talent.

Signature initiatives, such as the establishment of a U.S. Digital Service Academy, could help focus some top talent, but will not provide a sufficient scale. For undergraduates, the U.S. should seek a 10 percent increase in STEM opportunities for U.S. citizens. Support should come from interest-free federal loans to the student, which was a key component of the original National Defense Education Act.

For graduate degrees in STEM, interest-free loans should be portable — going to the student and not the institution. The U.S. government  should be able to maximize the use of existing program vehicles, such as the Department of Defense (DoD) SMART scholarships, the NDSEG graduate fellowships and Boren fellowships, while also expanding and applying these models to Department of Energy labs and other government labs.

Other existing programs to support top research talent, like the DoD Young Investigator Program to fund early-career professors in STEM, could be further expanded, and include clear requirements stipulating that research funds must be used to support U.S. citizen graduate students.

The combination of the immediate and longer-term effort can be realized through a new National Defense Education Act (NDEA). The first NDEA in 1958 was funded at a level of approximately $9B in today’s dollars (less than the bailout of a single airline company during the 2020 COVID pandemic, or less than one tenth of the Secret Service’s current estimate for stolen COVID funds). While this level of funding would be a start, we propose a more aggressively resourced program across the spectrum should be implemented to counter the triple factors of: (1) increased demand for STEM skills for 21st century jobs, (2) a growing deficit of available STEM talent to jobs and (3) an imminent U.S. government brain drain partially driven by demographics that are rapidly converging.

To rectify the situation and reestablish American advantage, education and immigration incentives need to be realigned for both economic and national security reasons. All these factors provide a unique, important and bipartisan opportunity. Congress and the Biden administration should take this opportunity to enact a new National Defense Education Act, along with immigration reforms and fund it with sufficient resources.

If they work together, Congress, U.S. government agencies and industry can create and build the pool of STEM talent America needs. A new National Defense Education Act for the 21st century will be the foundation for American prosperity and growth for many decades to come.

Christopher Bassler, Ph.D. is a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA). He previously worked as a civilian engineer, researcher, technologist and strategist in the Department of Defense. Harrison Schramm is president of the Analytics Society of INFORMS, a principal research scientist at Group W and a non-resident senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

Source: TEST FEED1

Americans growing concerned over baby formula shortage: poll

The overwhelming majority of Americans appear to be worried about the ongoing baby formula shortage as top Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials warn supplies will not return to normal until July. 

A new poll from the progressive think tank Data for Progress found 84 percent of voters said they are either “very” or “somewhat” concerned about the lack of formula across the U.S. That includes 86 percent of Democrats, 84 percent of Republicans and 83 percent of independents. 

Eighty-two percent said they favor importing baby formula from abroad, an operation President Biden kicked off this week in a scramble to get product on the shelves. The same share supports expanding the number of baby formula products made available to families participating in the government’s nutrition program for women, infants and children.

Currently, four companies make up 90 percent of the formula market. 

America is changing faster than ever! Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news.

Among the 6 percent of respondents who are parents of infants, more than half said they have struggled to find formula since the widespread shortage started in February. The national survey was conducted among 1,169 voters between May 20-24 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. 

Earlier this week, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf was grilled by lawmakers over the agency’s “lack of action” to mitigate the shortage that’s left parents nationwide desperate to find formula. 

Abbott Nutrition’s Sturgis, Mich., manufacturing facility was closed by the FDA in February after four infants who drank formula produced there contracted bacterial infections and two died.

The plant has yet to reopen, but the FDA reached a preliminary agreement with Abbott to restart production on June 4.

In the meantime, Biden is utilizing the Defense Production Act to prioritize ingredients for formula companies and is importing supplies from overseas. 

But Califf told lawmakers during a Senate Health Committee on Wednesday the shortage likely won’t be fully resolved until late July. 

“It’s going to be gradual improvement up to probably somewhere around two months until the shelves are replete again,” Califf said. 

Senators pressed Califf over the FDA’s response leading up to the closure of the plant and questioned delays to inspect the issues at the nation’s largest baby formula facility. 

The FDA head admitted the agency moved “too slow” and said inspection delays were due to a COVID-19 outbreak at the plant and a whistleblower complaint that never made it up to leadership because of “an isolated failure in FDA’s mailroom.” 

READ MORE STORIES FROM CHANGING AMERICA

THE LEGAL AGES FOR BUYING A GUN IN THE US

MAYE MUSK FEATURED ON SI SWIMSUIT COVER AT 74

GOP STATE SENATOR IN NEW JERSEY INTRODUCES ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ BILL

MARVEL INTRODUCES NEW TRANSGENDER SUPERHEROES

KENTUCKY MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS ASKED TO WRITE LETTERS TO IMAGINARY FRIEND ‘STRUGGLING WITH HOMOSEXUALITY’

Source: TEST FEED1

Man pleads guilty to hate crime for arson at Seattle gay bar

A Washington man has pleaded guilty to committing a hate crime for arson at a Seattle-area gay bar, the Justice Department said this week.

Kalvinn Garcia, 25, of Sedro Woolley, Wash., on Thursday admitted to setting fire to the contents of a dumpster in an alleyway behind Queer/Bar, a known LGBTQ+ nightclub and event space, in Seattle in 2020. Garcia, who was arrested just minutes after setting the fire, said he targeted the establishment because it had a sign outside that said “queer.”

“I think it’s wrong that we have a bunch of queers in our society,” Garcia told law enforcement officials. Weeks after the incident, he told a stranger that his intent in setting the fire was to trap and harm the people inside the building, the Justice Department said Thursday in a news release.

“Garcia endangered countless people who he did not know and who were simply trying to live their lives, solely because of his own hatred,” U.S. Attorney Nick Brown for the Western District of Washington said Thursday in a statement. “We must stand up to this hate at every opportunity, to demonstrate to our community that acting on hate will not be tolerated.”

America is changing faster than ever! Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news.

Garcia faces a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine, according to the Justice Department. His sentencing is scheduled for September 20.

Garcia according to court documents set fire to the dumpster behind Queer/Bar around 9 p.m. on February 24, 2020. At the time, the nightclub shared the alleyway with the Seattle Police Department East Precinct, which was famously abandoned later that year during citywide protests that followed the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota.

Flames from Garcia’s fire quickly crawled up the side of the bar, where more than 50 people had been attending an event, the Justice Department said last year, citing surveillance footage from the East Precinct. The fire attracted “immediate attention,” the department said.

Following his arrest, Garcia reportedly told Seattle Police Department Detective Scott Kawahara that he had recently become homeless, which he blamed on LGBTQ+ people, according to court documents.

“Hate crimes have no place in our society today and we stand ready to use our federal civil rights laws to hold perpetrators accountable,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said Thursday in a statement. “All people deserve to feel safe and secure living in their communities, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Memorial Day weekend could kick off long, hot summer for gas prices  

Soaring gas prices have Americans bracing for an expensive Memorial Day weekend, the traditional start of the summer when vacation-related travel typically spikes.   

Despite the increases — last week, every state had gas prices over $4 for the first time ever —AAA is predicting travel for the three-day weekend will return to near pre-COVID pandemic levels.   

In its forecast, AAA projected an 8.3 percent increase in travel compared to Memorial Day weekend in 2021, or 92 percent of 2019 levels. Car travel in particular will reach 93 percent of pre-pandemic volume, the group predicted.   

Policymakers are eyeing holiday travel for insights into how to approach pain at the pump.   

“Everybody’s feeling the pain now, or they’re going to as we’re coming out of.. the big travel weekend, when everyone pays attention,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) told The Hill. At the end of the long weekend, Cramer said, “I think we’ll have some data that will be helpful, [that] will be instructive as we consider what to do next.”   

Devin Gladden, AAA National’s manager for federal affairs, said travelers are hitting the roads to make up for lost travel time during the pandemic.   

“However, with gas prices being at highs that they have not seen before, they certainly are going to be looking for ways to save money during their trips,” he said.   

Gladden added that in the past week, demand has cooled somewhat, but said it is likely to spike again with the weekend.   

“We could see demand settle back lower, which could again take some gas out of price increases as crude prices remain volatile,” he said.   

“Refiners normally build up their inventories in the spring as summer demand is expected to exceed day to day refinery production in the summer months. This year however we’re entering the peak driving season with abnormally low stocks,” Antoine Halff, an adjunct senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, told The Hill in an email earlier this month.   

“Furthermore, Europe, which normally ships excess gasoline production to the us East Coast, may not be able to do so this year following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” she added.   

Another x-factor, Gladden noted, is the possibility that high prices may spur travelers to find another mode of transportation.    

“Air travel would certainly be an alternative as well as, if they’re taking regional trips, there may be some train options as well,” he said. “And we’re noting that because travelers want to make up for lost time they may be more willing to travel further distances, even at higher costs given that inflation has increased jet fuel costs, as well as other travel expenditures, particularly if you’re traveling abroad.”   

The Biden administration has taken several steps to ease or offset gas prices, including the largest-ever release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and removing seasonal restrictions on the sale of certain ethanol-heavy fuel blends. However, numerous other factors causing prices to rise are beyond government control, such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine.   

Another factor is one of the major causes of the original increases, a sudden spike in demand for gas after demand plunged in the first year of the COVID pandemic.   

A number of weaker refineries closed during the initial wave of the pandemic, and the U.S. has lagged in replenishing the lost stocks, according to Halff.   

The Memorial Day driving season will begin with inventories better suited for the end of the driving season on Labor Day weekend, said Halff. 

“On top of that, U.S. and international sanctions in Russia have already stopped the flows of Russian oil into the U.S. and are about to do the same for shipments to Europe, thus fueling concerns over a dramatic acceleration of supply constraints over the peak summer season,” he said.   

Halff added that the Biden administration’s options to directly affect prices are limited as the year wears on. Steps that could help, such as development of alternative fuels or improved refinery operations, would likely be effective in the long term but take too long to implement to be useful.    

Gladden noted that while demand is likely to spike over the weekend, the picture for the summer as a whole is harder to predict.   

“It’s still an open question about what demand will look like for the summer as prices remain high,” he said. The softer demand suggests that prices may be so high that the expense itself could drive demand down, he added.   

Source: TEST FEED1

Biden to attend Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles next month

President Biden will travel to Los Angeles next week to host the Summit of the Americas even as it remains uncertain which countries will attend.

The summit, which typically takes place every few years, “will bring together governments from across our hemisphere to focus on pressing challenges, including economic prosperity, climate change, the migration crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic,” the White House said in a statement. 

Vice President Harris, first lady Jill Biden and second gentleman Doug Emhoff will also attend on Tuesday, the White House said.

The Biden administration, which is organizing the summit, has yet to announce a formal guest list, but Latin American leaders have asked for every head of government in the Western Hemisphere to be included.

Some Latin American officials have taken issue with the United States’s expected exclusion of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua from the guest list. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said Wednesday that he would not attend.

U.S. allies in the region, particularly Mexico, have reacted negatively to the impending exclusion of leaders who are either not signatories or have openly disdained the Inter-American Democratic Charter.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has said he will attend and is expected to have a one-on-one meeting on the sidelines of the summit.

Source: TEST FEED1

Texas officials say officers should have confronted school shooter earlier

Texas law enforcement officials now say local police were wrong to have waited to enter the Texas elementary school in Uvalde where a shooter killed 19 students and two teachers Tuesday.

At a press conference Friday, Steven McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said officers outside the school believed students were no longer in harm’s way after the suspected gunman barricaded himself in a classroom.

Police have received increasing scrutiny over the past few days for their handling of the shooting.

DEVELOPING

Source: TEST FEED1

EPA must provide certainty for low-carbon fuels In 2023 and beyond

When the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works held a hearing on the nomination of Joseph Goffman to be the EPA’s Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation (OAR), lawmakers met one of the most experienced people in Washington on issues ranging from transportation regulation to agricultural emissions sources. I can say this because in my decades of experience in renewable energy, I have rarely seen anyone with the dedication and drive to stakeholder engagement, negotiation, and problem-solving.  

If confirmed, Goffman will need to use all those skills — and all the regulatory authorities and tools enabled by the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) — to advance the U.S. toward a lower-carbon, energy independent future. In the next few months, EPA will need to establish new targets for the minimum volume of renewable fuels required in the liquid transportation market for 2023 and beyond. If Goffman is confirmed, he will have the opportunity to move this rulemaking quickly and set strong, multi-year targets to send a critical signal to the fuels markets: the future of the RFS program will be about delivering greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions. 

Since it was established by Congress in 2005, the RFS has been the main policy tool for expanding the production and use of low-carbon fuels in the United States and has helped the advanced biofuels industry triple the gallons blended into the U.S. transportation fuel supply since its implementation. 

Under the RFS, the EPA proposes annual Renewable Volume Obligations (RVO), which are specific target volumes of renewable fuels that refiners or importers of petroleum-based gasoline or diesel fuel must use. However, in recent years, these targets have been set retroactively, which has ultimately distorted the biofuels markets and created uncertainty around the future of the RFS program.

This year is no exception, as the EPA is currently preparing to finalize the 2020, 2021, and 2022 RVO package half-way through this year. Completing this soon, and setting the highest volume obligations possible, is critical. But, to fully capture the environmental, societal, and economic benefits of the RFS as Congress intended, the Agency must quickly pivot and focus on proposing the next RVO rulemaking for 2023 and beyond, no later than early summer 2022. This process is colloquially known as the “set”, as after 2023 the RFS statutory volume standards expire and the law broadens EPA’s authority to set volume standards, making the role at the helm of OAR that much more important.

The RFS program operates at the confluence between fuel markets and the environment, where crises are gripping the world and impacting Americans’ health and wallets on a daily basis. The EPA’s leadership has never been more important in strengthening the U.S.’s advanced biofuels sector, which would ultimately increase the U.S.’s energy independence and reduce our transportation sector’s GHG emissions footprint.

To the Biden administration’s credit, it has taken steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, most notably by committing to electrify 50% of our nation’s passenger automobiles by 2030. Still, this plan leaves 50 percent of the cars on the road reliant on traditional fossil fuels — not to mention all of the freight trucks, aircraft, ships and boats, and other large transport vehicles that will remain reliant on high carbon-fuels. 

Low-carbon advanced biofuels can power these trucks, planes, and shipping tankers, and deliver significant carbon reductions with almost no change to the country’s current fuel distribution infrastructure. Plus, the technology and consumer demand for advanced biofuels is growing — the members of the Advanced Biofuels Association alone expect to account for five billion gallons of renewable diesel production by the end of 2024. 

For the long-term, Goffman must prioritize a forward-thinking “set” rulemaking that is tailored to maximize the opportunity of the RFS to meaningfully tackle climate change. For advanced biofuels, this also includes separate regulatory actions on approving new technologies and feedstocks under the program’s pathway process, and statutory clarity for feedstock definitions to allow emerging markets such as sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) more feedstock choices. 

EPA is also currently undertaking an effort to reevaluate its methodology and models for calculating lifecycle GHG analysis under the RFS program. To meaningfully deliver on the U.S.’s climate objectives, EPA should make this process as broad and inclusive as possible to deliver a durable, defensible methodology that will help drive the U.S. closer to President Biden’s net-zero by 2050 target.

It is incumbent that the EPA use its authority to support programs that can push the nation closer to achieving critical climate and energy independence targets. And the best way to do that will be to start by confirming Goffman.

Michael McAdams is president of the Advanced Biofuels Association.

Source: TEST FEED1

Police searching for man that appeared to point gun at TV news crew

Chicago police are searching for a man who appeared to point a gun at a reporter and camera crew for a FOX Chicago affiliate. 

The incident happened Wednesday between 6:30 and 7 a.m. while the team was doing a report on gun violence in the city.

The Chicago Police Department has issued a community alert to request the public’s assistance in finding him. Police are currently considering him a person of interest for aggravated assault with a firearm, according to police and the FOX affiliate. 

The alert states the man fled the scene on foot after the incident. The news station reported that no one was injured during the event. 

The incident happened amid heightened national attention to discussions of gun violence and control following two high-profile mass shootings at a supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y., and an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, earlier this month. 

The police department forwarded the community alert when The Hill reached out for comment. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Daniel Defense, maker of gun used in Texas shooting, skipping NRA meeting in Houston

Daniel Defense, the manufacturer of the rifle used by a gunman to kill 21 at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, will not be present at the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) annual meeting in Houston, Texas.

“Daniel Defense is not attending the National Rifle Association (‘NRA’) meeting due to the horrifying tragedy in Uvalde, Texas where one of our products was criminally misused,” a spokesperson for the company told The Hill. “We believe this week is not the appropriate time to be promoting our products in Texas at the NRA meeting.”

The NRA summit will take place Friday through Sunday at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston and will “showcase over 14 acres of the latest guns and gear from the most popular companies in the Industry.”

The House Oversight Committee launched an investigation Friday into gun manufacturers including Daniel Defense, writing, “Our country faces an epidemic of gun violence, which is now the leading cause of death for children in the United States.”

“I am deeply concerned that gun manufacturers continue to profit from the sale of weapons of war,” said Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) in the investigation announcement.

Daniel Defense has also come under scrutiny due to a promotional tweet posted a week before the Uvalde shooting that featured a photo of a child holding an assault-style rifle.

The photo’s caption, apparently referencing a Bible verse unrelated to guns, read: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

Multiple Texas politicians have canceled their appearances at the NRA meeting in the aftermath of the Uvalde massacre, including Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) and Gov. Greg Abbott (R), the latter of whom will hold a press conference at Uvalde High School Friday in lieu of a planned live speech at the NRA event.

Source: TEST FEED1