Colorado officials committed to cleaner air and reducing reliance on fossil fuels have reached a turning point on whether to tolerate the hulking oil refinery north of Denver that ranks among the state’s major polluters and regularly malfunctions . They must approve or deny Suncor Energy’s applications to renew its operating permits, which serve as contracts governing the emission levels of toxic pollutants that can cause cancer and serious heart, lung and other health problems. This is oversight power Colorado air pollution regulators have declined to use over nearly a decade of letting Suncor run the refinery under the equivalent of an expired driver’s license — a perk granted to companies if they submit timely renewal applications. Suncor’s outdated permits, which records show were issued in 2006 and 2012, allow emissions of 866,100 tons a year of heat-trapping gases and toxics including sulfur dioxide, benzene and hydrogen cyanide . During malfunctions, pollution exceeds what the permits allow. Colorado air pollution control officials defended their approach, saying it doesn’t impinge on their ability to enforce provisions of the old permits, and blamed bureaucratic backlogs. They’re acting now, they say, because Colorado is cracking down on pollution. Suncor’s refinery, built 89 years ago on a 230-acre site along Sand Creek in Commerce City, malfunctioned 108 times over the past five years, according to state records obtained by The Denver Post. That’s an average of about one breakdown every three weeks — often visible when putrid yellow grit wafts over Denver. The records show toxic pollution spiked above permit limits more than 500 times over the past two years. Suncor also benefits from annual state tax credits, $2.3 million in 2019, for investing in an enterprise zone. But now state officials, reviewing Suncor’s permit applications, say all options up to and including closure are on the table — though they’re mindful of the ...
Containment analysis baton
Josh Hawley To Introduce Bill That Would Hold Universities Financially Liable For Defaulted Student Loans
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri announced Tuesday he will introduce two pieces of legislation this week targeting institutions of higher education, one of which would put universities on the hook financially if its students are unable to repay their student loans. Americans hold nearly $1.5 trillion in outstanding student debt, 10.9% of which is over 90 days delinquent, according to the latest figures available by the New York Fed . Hawley’s proposal would require universities to pay off 50% of the debt incurred by their students facing default. The Missouri senator’s proposal would also prohibit universities from increasing their tuition rates to offset their increased liability. Fox News host Tucker Carlson explicitly called on congress in March to pass a law forcing colleges to shoulder a portion of the liability on defaulted student loans. “Colleges get all of the benefit and none of the risk,” Carlson, who is the co-founder of the Daily Caller News Foundation, said. “That’s the definition of a scam. It’s amazing it could even be legal. It shouldn’t be.” “Maybe congress could take twenty minutes from the Russia hoax and posturing about climate change and fix one of the biggest problems this country faces,” Carlson said. “Pass a law forcing colleges to share the liability on defaulted student loans.” WATCH: Hawley said his bill is “meant to address the concentration of power that has accumulated in the higher education space,” during an interview with The Hill on Tuesday. He noted that “many of them have built massive endowments that has been enabled by federal tax dollars.” Hawley’s second proposal would expand Pell Grant eligibility to more job-training and certification programs such as employer-based apprenticeships. My bill would also put universities on the hook for student loan debt. If a student defaults, the university would be obligated to pay 50 percent. Universities have gobbled up truckloads of ...
Students Pursuing Risky Degrees Draw More Than $25 Billion In Yearly Federal Loans
Noël Flynn is spending more than 80 percent of her income to pay back tens of thousands of dollars in debt for her Art Therapy degree. In 2016 alone, the Department of Education loaned $25.9 billion to students who, like Flynn, chose degrees under the umbrella of the liberal arts and humanities , an analysis by The Daily Caller News Foundation found. A significant portion of those students are unlikely to have the means to pay back their debt after graduating. “I find myself struggling financially, and the biggest reason why is student loans,” said Flynn, 23, who says she was told the loans “wouldn’t be overwhelming” once she graduated. Most federal student loan programs do not require a credit check , nor do they require a cosigner. Rather, the loans are backed by nothing more than the borrower’s future earnings with a college degree, but the kind of degree isn’t a consideration in the loan process. “What you make depends on what you take,” Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, wrote in a 2016 report . “A major in social work pays $30,000 a year compared to $120,000 a year for a major in petroleum engineering.” Business, vocational, and STEM majors all have significantly better chances of paying off their loans, TheDCNF’s analysis of federal data shows. In addition to lower pay, many liberal arts and humanities majors enter a job market with less opportunity, leading to high rates of unemployment and underemployment, according to the New York Fed . Are students being set up to fail? The $25.9 billion in arts and humanities represents a massive annual investment in students who are likely to struggle to pay back their loans. Flynn said she was drawn to Art Therapy because it married her passion for art with clinical psychology. The program offered what she believed could feasibly become a viable career. But it wasn’t until her junior year when she started interning ...
Christian Parent Furious After School Instructs Children To Write Out Their Submission To Allah
A West Virginia school has come under fire for instructing junior high students to write the Islamic profession of faith ostensibly to practice calligraphy. Rich Penkoski, a Christian parent and founder of online ministry Warriors for Christ, raised alarms over a packet on Islam his daughter’s seventh grade social studies teacher issued to students, according to Christian Post . The packet, edited from the full version of a world religions workbook , instructed students to practice writing the Shahada, or Islamic profession of faith, in Arabic calligraphy — an assignment that, if left undone, would result in detention, according to Penkoski’s daughter. (RELATED: ‘Continue The Momentum’ — San Diego Schools Continue Coordinating With CAIR After Rescinding Controversial Anti-Islamophobia Initiative) The Shahada states: “There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.” [Shahada Calligraphy assignment from ‘Exploring World Beliefs: Islam’ (Screenshot/Teacher Created Resources)] Penkoski called Mountain Ridge Middle School Principal Ron Branch and objected to the packet, saying it disturbed him and had misinformation about the history of calligraphy. “I saw the assignment of writing the Shahada in Arabic. Their excuse was calligraphy,” Penkoski told The Christian Post. “I was like, ‘Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!’ First of all, calligraphy was invented in China 3,000 years prior to Muhammad. The fact that they were trying to get my daughter to write that disturbed me.” “I said, ‘That is not happening. My daughter is not doing that.’ My daughter told me that if she didn’t do the assignment, then she was going to get a [detention] slip,” Penkoski added. Branch informed Penkoski that the teacher who gave the assignment, Katherine Hinson, clarified to students that the assignment was optional and would not be graded. Penkoski, however, remained unconvinced given the nature of past assignments on world religions in Hinson’s class. ...
UN Calls On Ethiopia to Allow Probe Into Alleged Mass Killings in Tigray
The United Nations high commissioner for human rights called on Ethiopia to permit an investigation into allegations of murders and sexual violence in the Tigray region, which may amount to war crimes. “We urge the government of Ethiopia to grant my office and other independent monitors access to the Tigray region, with a view to establishing the facts and contributing to accountability, regardless of the affiliation of the perpetrators,” Michelle Bachelet said Thursday in a statement. Federal troops deployed by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed have been fighting forces of the region’s former ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). Thousands of people have been killed in the area where hundreds of thousands of people were dependent on food aid before the conflict began, according to the U.N. “A preliminary analysis of the information received indicates that serious violations of international law, possibly amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity, may have been committed by multiple actors in the conflict,” Bachelet said. In addition to the TPLF, Bachelet cited the Ethiopian National Defense Force, Eritrean armed forces, and Amhara regional forces and affiliated militia as suspected perpetrators of the alleged murders and sexual assaults. Abiy’s government, the Tigray administration, and the TPLF did not immediately comment on the human rights chief’s statement. The prime minister’s office, however, said “no individual or entity, nationally or internationally, is above the laws of the land,” in a statement issued on March 3 addressing reports of human rights violations in Tigray region. Bachelet’s call for an investigation also follows separate reports by Amnesty International and U.S. cable news channel CNN, about massacres allegedly committed by Eritrean troops in the city of Axum and the ancient church of Maryam Dengelat. Amnesty also found that Ethiopian forces may have committed war crimes. Additionally, multiple victims ...
