Ohio train derailment

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      What’s in the air in East Palestine, Ohio? – podcast

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      When a train derailed in a small town in Ohio last month, it shed its toxic load, spewed smoke and set off a political firestorm that is still raging

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      On the evening of 3 February, a train made up of 149 carriages and more than a mile long came off the rails in the small Ohio town of East Palestine. No one was injured but the train shed its cargo, which included toxic chemicals including vinyl chloride, a known carcinogen. The Guardian’s Nina Lakhani has been reporting from East Palestine where residents have returned to their homes after those within the disaster’s exclusion zone were forced to leave the area. She tells Michael Safi that local people are furious about the way the accident happened – and how the cleanup has been handled. Seeing an opportunity, Donald Trump arrived last week to distribute bottles of water as well as campaign material for his 2024 presidential run. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden was criticised for visiting Ukraine rather than East Palestine. This week, Ohio’s two senators have prepared a bill aimed at federal regulations around what trains can legally transport and under what conditions. But much of the anger from local people is focused on how close the rail industry has got to government in recent years, in order to allegedly water down existing restrictions, which many in East Palestine believe to be an important factor behind the disaster in their town. More

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      Ohio senators introduce safety rules after toxic train derailment disaster

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      Ohio senators introduce safety rules after toxic train derailment disasterRailroads would be subject to new federal regulations and financial consequences under legislation Railroads like the one involved in last month’s crash and toxic chemical release in East Palestine, Ohio, would be subject to new federal regulations and financial consequences under legislation introduced on Wednesday by the state’s two US senators.The Railway Safety Act of 2023 is cosponsored by Sherrod Brown and JD Vance, a Democrat and Republican, and others of both parties.The bill responds to the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train near the Pennsylvania border on 3 February, when 38 cars derailed and more burned.‘Crafting an illusion’: US rail firms’ multimillion-dollar PR pushRead moreThough no one was injured or killed, the accident imperiled neighborhoods in both states, prompting an evacuation of about half the 4,000 residents of East Palestine, a multi-agency emergency response and worries about health impacts.The new bill aims to address questions including why the Ohio state government was not made aware the hazardous load was coming through and why the crew did not learn sooner of an impending malfunction.“Through this legislation, Congress has a real opportunity to ensure that what happened in East Palestine will never happen again,” Vance said. “We owe every American the peace of mind that their community is protected from a catastrophe of this kind.”Brown said it shouldn’t take a disaster for elected officials to work for their communities.“Rail lobbyists have fought for years to protect their profits at the expense of communities like East Palestine and Steubenville and Sandusky,” he said. “These commonsense bipartisan safety measures will finally hold big railroad companies accountable, make our railroads and the towns along them safer, and prevent future tragedies, so no community has to suffer like East Palestine again.”Under the bill, all trains carrying hazardous materials, including those that do not fall under existing regulations for high-hazard flammable loads, would face new requirements. Carriers would need to create emergency response plans and provide information and advance notification to emergency response commissions in each state a train passes through.Hazardous materials shipments account for 7% to 8% of roughly 30m railroad shipments in the US each year. But almost any train, aside from grain or coal trains, might carry one or two cars of hazardous materials, because railroads often mix shipments.The Association of American Railroads says 99.9% of hazardous materials reach their destinations safely, and railroads are generally regarded as the safest option to transport chemicals on land.Railroad unions argue that operational changes and widespread job cuts have made railroads riskier. They say employees are spread thin and train crews deal with fatigue because they are on call 24/7.The new bill would set train crews at a two-person minimum. The provision isn’t in response to East Palestine – where the train had three crew members – but to a trend toward one-person crews. The Federal Railroad Administration was already considering requiring two-person crews in most instances. That rule was proposed last summer but the agency is reviewing comments received.Under the Senate bill, the US Department of Transportation would be required to revisit rules on train size and weight and to work to stop delays causing trains carrying hazardous loads to block rail crossings.Train lengths have grown to two miles or more, as railroads streamline operations. Unions say longer trains are more prone to problems and can clog lines because they extend farther than sidings off main tracks.Brown, Vance and their cosponsors – including the Pennsylvania Democrats Robert Casey and John Fetterman and the Republicans Marco Rubio, of Florida, and Josh Hawley, of Missouri – also would increase the maximum fine the US Department of Transportation can impose for safety violations. It would rise from $225,000 to up to 1% of a railroad’s annual operating income, which could be tens of millions of dollars.The bill also requires railroads to pay for hazardous materials training for first responders.The National Transportation Safety Board determined the crew in East Palestine was alerted by a device detecting overheating bearings, but not soon enough to prevent the crash. Federal regulators have urged rail operators to re-examine practices regarding such detectors. The Senate proposal would make them more prevalent.The bill would set requirements for installing, maintaining and placing the devices and mandate they scan trains carrying hazardous materials every 10 miles, twice as often as the East Palestine train was scanned. No federal requirements exist for wayside detectors, though they are widely used.The Federal Railroad Administration would be required under the bill to update inspection regulations to ensure cars carrying hazardous materials receive regular checks. Railcar inspectors previously had about two minutes to inspect every car but now get about 30 to 45 seconds, unions say. Signalmen who maintain signals and warnings at crossings have bigger territories to cover.Two Democrats, Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania and Ro Khanna of California, have introduced a separate bill in response to East Palestine in the Republican-held House.TopicsOhio train derailmentUS politicsRail industrynewsReuse this content More

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      ‘Crafting an illusion’: US rail firms’ multimillion-dollar PR push

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      ‘Crafting an illusion’: US rail firms’ multimillion-dollar PR pushNorfolk Southern, the company behind the Ohio train crash, and other rail firms spent millions on marketing and lobbyingSix children, smiling and laughing, sit at a table with lunch boxes open in front of them. “Hey guys! My dad can stop a train with his finger,” one brags. “My mom can see into the future,” another says, holding up her hands as binoculars. “My mom? She speaks train,” a third claims.‘Nobody has answers’: Ohio residents fearful of health risks near train siteRead moreJust then, her mom walks into the room. Another child asks if it’s true that she can talk to trains. “You betcha,” she says with a wink, as she stands in front of a sky-blue sign emblazoned with the logo of the Norfolk Southern Corporation.The kids’ conversation takes place in “Everyday Superheroes”, a 2018 video created for Norfolk Southern, the $12.7bn operator of the train carrying toxic chemicals that derailed earlier this month in East Palestine, Ohio, causing an environmental disaster of still unknown proportions.The video, part of an ad campaign called “Reimagine Possible”, was produced by RP3, a Maryland-based public relations agency. RP3 said the campaign was designed to reach “policymakers and opinion elites… whose perceptions are vital to Norfolk Southern’s success.” The people targeted by the campaign “tend to support companies whose leadership helps spur innovation and growth”, the agency wrote, explaining in a case study how the campaign was designed to “convince people they’re actually innovative”.The PR push is a window into a years-long, multimillion-dollar campaign by America’s biggest railroad corporations to win favor among federal regulators and policymakers and push back against calls for tougher regulation – a successful campaign that is coming under closer scrutiny following the Ohio disaster.Another video, set to its own version of School House Rock’s Conjunction Junction, starts with the lyrics: “Norfolk Southern, what’s your function? Hooking up the country, helping business run. Trains! They haul everything, safely and on time.”Between 2015 and 2022, the Association of American Railroads (AAR), the trade organization representing large train companies, spent more than $39.4m lobbying the federal government, according to data compiled by the nonprofit OpenSecrets. The AAR and its dues-paying members, who include Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific, BNSF and CSX, have also made millions of dollars’ worth of political contributions.But as Norfolk Southern’s “Reimagine Possible” campaign reflects, the industry also employs more indirect tactics to promote what the AAR calls “balanced regulation”, its euphemism for eliminating mandatory, government-enforced safety standards in favor of voluntary, industry-led oversight.An analysis by the Guardian found that between 2015 and 2019, the most recent year for which data are available, the AAR paid Subject Matter, a Washington DC-based PR and government affairs firm, more than $23.3m for “paid media consulting + advertising,” according to the AAR’s annual filings with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). That sum represents nearly as much as the group spent on lobbying during the same period.Subject Matter’s work for the AAR included “Freight Rail Works”, which the agency described as “a comprehensive campaign to help ensure this critical industry remains top-of-mind for Washington DC-area policymakers and influencers.” “Transforming for Tomorrow”, another campaign produced by Subject Matter, was designed to “showcase the surprising technological advancements that power America’s rail network” and “cover all major touchpoints for our DC beltway audience”. Neither Subject Matter nor RP3 responded to a request for comment.According to the AAR’s 2019 tax filing, the trade association’s “integrated communications campaign” is designed in part to demonstrate “how railroads use modern technology to improve safety and provide public benefits”.As part of its communications push, the AAR has paid for dozens of sponsored articles in the Washington Post and Politico, two publications widely read by the “policymakers and opinion elites” who the group targets with its messages of innovation and self-regulation. Under headlines such as “No need to fix a freight rail system that is thriving” and “How America’s freight railroads became great again,” the AAR touts its members’ impact on the US economy and warns of the consequences of new regulations. Other stories, including “How freight rail is putting the brakes on human error,” argue that the industry is already making technology investments on its own, with the implication (and sometimes the explicit connection) that new safety requirements are unnecessary or even detrimental to those efforts.The rail industry has also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars a year funding GoRail, a tax-exempt 501(c)4 organization that advocates for the railroad industry before local, state and federal policymakers and officials. According to IRS filings, between 2015 and 2019 the AAR gave $2m to GoRail, a sum that represents more than one-fifth of GoRail’s total revenue during that period.GoRail’s operations are tightly integrated with the country’s largest rail companies, and its agenda is closely aligned with their interests. GoRail’s board consists almost entirely of railroad executives and the president of the AAR, and the role of board chair rotates annually among executives from Norfolk Southern, BNSF, Union Pacific and other firms. GoRail and the AAR, as well as Railpac, the AAR’s political action committee, all operate out of the same building in Washington DC. Neither GoRail nor the AAR responded to requests for comment.Unlike the AAR, however, GoRail exists to generate grassroots support – or the appearance of grassroots support – for the industry’s policy agenda. GoRail’s annual reports and IRS filings regularly boast of how many letters it sent to Congress, social media “impressions” it generated and “lawmaker-advocate connections” and “educational meetings” it organized. As a Norfolk Southern executive who chaired the GoRail board wrote in the organization’s 2017 annual report, “Via thousands of field meetings with key local influencers annually and a sophisticated media strategy, GoRail’s team is able to build the relationships that matter and then utilize these connections to impact policy decisions when it counts.”One policy decision to which the industry remains strongly opposed is a proposal from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to require most trains, particularly those carrying hazardous materials, to have at least two crew members on board. The “train staffing” rule’s supporters, including railroad workers and their union representatives, argue that having multiple workers on board makes trains safer to operate and leaves them more capable of responding to accidents when they occur.Individual companies such as Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific, as well as GoRail and the AAR, have helped lead the industry’s opposition to the proposal, frequently using the same arguments that they deploy in their PR campaigns to argue that the rule is unnecessary because of their investments in new technologies.Crew tried to stop Ohio train after alert about wheel bearing, safety report findsRead moreDuring a 14 December FRA hearing about the rule, for instance, a representative for Norfolk Southern told the FRA that the company opposed the train staffing requirement in part because it would prevent the company from “redeploy[ing]” conductors from trains to “ground-based role[s]”. “Once again technology has supplanted the conductor’s traditional safety role,” the representative said.A Union Pacific representative, meanwhile, told the FRA that while the company “has always been, and continues to be, a driver of innovation in this industry”, the train staffing proposal “is threatening to take us down the path of obsolescence”. A GoRail issue brief makes a similar claim that “Mandating a specific railroad crew is a disincentive to research new technologies”.In quarterly earnings calls and presentations to shareholders, however, the companies suggest that reducing the number of workers on trains is as much about cutting short-term costs as it is about developing new technology or promoting innovation. Even as Norfolk Southern’s PR campaign calls its workers “everyday superheroes”, over the past two decades the company has managed to cut more than 9,600 jobs while increasing shareholder dividends and stock buybacks by 4,500%, as More Perfect Union recently reported. “Crew staffing of trains…has remained consistent,” a company spokesperson told the Guardian in a statement. “Norfolk Southern continues to make substantial progress recruiting new crew members.”“When [companies] think of railroad, they do not think of cutting-edge. They think of cutting crew size and cutting corners to do it,” said Vincent Verna, a representative of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and a former locomotive engineer for Union Pacific, during the 14 December FRA hearing. “Simply cutting the size of the crew for more profits has nothing to do with technology and everything to do with avarice.”The railroad industry has deployed a similar two-step argument in opposition to other safety proposals, including a rule that would have required trains to use electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes, as the Lever reported. The publication found that during the Trump administration, Norfolk Southern and the AAR helped defeat a proposal to require ECP brakes on trains carrying hazardous materials – even though ECP brakes were one of the innovations that industry leaders, including Norfolk Southern, had “previously touted” as examples of the industry’s technological prowess.While there is little doubt that railroad companies are indeed investing in and implementing new technology, the industry appears determined to use the idea of technology – as well as the prospect of future technology – to defeat new safety requirements and regulations.Its approach was summed up in a 2017 blog post from the PR agency hired by the AAR to “deliver [the] message home to policymakers” that the industry’s technology investments are important for the US economy. The agency created a video of a hard hat- and yellow safety vest-clad spokesperson for Freight Rail Works being “cloned” dozens of times. The video’s header: “Association of American Railroads: Crafting an illusion to deliver a powerful message”.TopicsOhio train derailmentRail industryUS politicsOhiofeaturesReuse this content More

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      Trump’s environmental rollbacks in focus on visit to Ohio toxic train site

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      Trump’s environmental rollbacks in focus on visit to Ohio toxic train siteFormer president criticizes Biden administration’s response to train derailment in East Palestine as he visits townDonald Trump’s record of rolling back environmental protections was highlighted by critics on Wednesday as the ex-president visited the town of East Palestine, Ohio, and called the federal response to the toxic train derailment there earlier this month a “betrayal” .Trump’s administration, which rolled back more than 100 environmental rules in total, watered down several regulations at the behest of the rail industry.‘We just need answers’: distrust grows in Ohio town after toxic train derailmentRead moreHe withdrew an Obama-era plan to require faster brakes on trains carrying highly flammable materials, shelved a rule that demanded at least two crew members on freight trains and dropped a ban on transporting liquified natural gas by rail, despite fears this could cause explosions.“His trip serves as a reminder that Trump and his administration made gutting transportation and environmental safety regulations a key priority of their Maga agenda,” the Democratic National Committee said in an email to reporters.Linking to a number of media reports of his transportation policies, it said, “Trump and his administration rolled back … transportation safety and environmental rules, including toxic chemical regulations,” and “Trump’s budget proposals slashed funding for investigating accidents, enforcing environmental rules, and prosecuting environmental crimes”.“I don’t know exactly what he’s planning to do there, especially since his administration was anti-regulation and pro-industry every step of the way,” Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary, told CBS the day before Trump’s visit.Buttigieg has been attacked by Republicans for failing so far to visit the site of the Ohio disaster, and the Department of Transportation said on Wednesday that he will visit the town on Thursday. The statement said: “As the secretary said, he would go when it is appropriate and wouldn’t detract from the emergency response efforts. The secretary is going now that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said it is moving out of the emergency response phase and transitioning to the long-term remediation phase.”The head of the National Transportation Safety Board – the lead agency investigating the crash – has said that the improved braking system wouldn’t have applied to the train that veered off its tracks in East Palestine, but environmental groups are pushing for the Biden administration to reinstate the rule anyway.There has been pressure from some Republicans to review safety rules, with Mike DeWine, the Ohio governor, saying it is “absurd” that the train could be marked as non-hazardous because it wasn’t exclusively carrying toxic material. But many other GOP figures have so far shied away from calling for tighter regulation of the rail industry, instead focusing on what they say has been a ponderous response from the Biden administration.Residents have expressed distrust at official statements that the water and air in the town is safe. In his visit on Wednesday, Trump, who is running for the White House again in 2024, said the community needs “answers and results”, not excuses. He spoke at a firehouse roughly half a mile from where more than three dozen freight cars – including 11 carrying hazardous materials – came off the tracks near the Pennsylvania state line.“In too many cases, your goodness and perseverance were met with indifference and betrayal,” Trump said. He appeared with Senator JD Vance, Mayor Trent Conaway and other state and local leaders.The former president and other Republicans have intensified criticism of the Biden administration’s handling of the 3 February derailment, which led to evacuations and fears of air and water contamination after a controlled burning of toxic chemicals aboard the rail cars.The Biden White House has defended its response to the derailment, saying officials from the EPA, National Transportation Safety Board and other agencies were at the rural site within hours of the derailment. The White House says it has also offered federal assistance and that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been coordinating with the state emergency operations center and other partners.EPA administrator Michael Regan visited the site last week and earlier this week and tried to reassure skeptical residents of the town, which has a population of around 5,000, that the water was fit for drinking and the air safe to breathe.“I’m asking they trust the government,” Regan said. “I know that’s hard. We know there’s a lack of trust.” Officials are “testing for everything that was on that train”, he said.The Associated Press contributed reportingTopicsDonald TrumpOhio train derailmentOhioUS politicsPollutionnewsReuse this content More

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      Georgia grand jury foreperson’s remarks on Trump investigation could fuel legal challenges – as it happened

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      Lawyer for Republican officials who a special grand jury in Georgia may have recommended for indictment over their effort to meddle in the 2020 election could use the grand jury foreperson’s public statements to challenge any charges, CBS News reports:News: CBS News has learned that lawyers close to several GOP witnesses in Fulton Co. investigation are preparing to move to quash any possible indictments by DA based on the public statements by the forewoman of the special grand jury, per two people familiar with the discussions— Robert Costa (@costareports) February 22, 2023
      Emily Kohrs, the foreperson of the special grand jury empaneled in the Atlanta area to investigate the effort by Donald Trump and his allies to overturn Joe Biden’s election win in Georgia, has in recent days spoken publicly about the panel’s work. While she hasn’t named names, she confirmed that the panel did recommend indictments, and when it comes to the former president, “You’re not going to be shocked. It’s not rocket science.”Donald Trump traveled to East Palestine, Ohio, where he took the opportunity to criticize the Biden administration’s response to the derailment and toxic waste spill earlier this month. Two can play at that game, however, and Democrats have seized on his trip to remind voters of his administration’s friendliness to the rail industry, and argue it set the stage for the derailment. We may hear more about that tomorrow, when transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg pays his own visit to the village.Here’s what else happened today:
      The foreperson of the special grand jury investigating Trump’s election meddling campaign in Georgia has been making the rounds of news outlets, and that might not be helpful for prosecutors.
      Democrats got some good news in their quest to hold the Senate after next year, when Montana’s Jon Tester announced he’d stand for re-election. However, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin remains non-committal on another term.
      House Republicans want to learn everything they can about American support to Ukraine.
      Joe Biden is taking a page out of Trump’s book with new restrictions meant to dramatically crack down on asylum seekers arriving at the border with Mexico.
      “Serious vulnerabilities” in Arizona’s election systems? Apparently not.
      One of the most under-the-radar political stories of the year is happening in Wisconsin, where voters yesterday cast ballots in a primary election that could set the stage for a change in the ideological balance on the state supreme court. That won’t just affect Wisconsinites, but particularly all Americans, since the Badger state is crucial to any victorious presidential campaign. Here’s more on that from the Guardian’s Sam Levine:Wisconsin voters on Tuesday chose one liberal and one conservative candidate to face off in a race to determine control of the state supreme court in what is likely the most important election of 2023.Janet Protasiewicz, a liberal Milwaukee circuit court judge, will be on the ballot against Daniel Kelly, a conservative former supreme court justice, in the state’s 4 April general election. Protasiewicz, who received 46% of the statewide vote, and Kelly, who received 24% of the statewide vote, advanced from a four-member field that included Everett Mitchell, a liberal judge in Dane county, and Jennifer Dorow, a conservative judge in Waukesha county.Conservatives currently have a 4-3 majority on the court, but if Protasiewicz wins, the balance of the court would flip.That would have enormous impact in Wisconsin, one of the most politically competitive states in America that often determines the outcome of the presidential election. The court is expected to have a say in the near future on a range of major voting rights and abortion decisions.Wisconsin judicial race: contenders chosen in pivotal election for 2023Read moreAmong the news outlets Emily Kohrs, foreperson of the Georgia special grand jury investigating the 2020 election meddling campaign, spoke to was CNN.Their legal analyst Elie Honig, a former assistant US attorney, was not impressed by her disclosures. Here’s what he had to say:Emily Kohrs (and other jurors in Trump investigations, or any investigations for that matter), if you’re listening:“It’s a prosecutor’s nightmare.”Former federal and state prosecutor @eliehonig with @andersoncooper discussing effects of grand jury members speaking publicly. pic.twitter.com/s11guYp3Ef— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) February 22, 2023
      Legal experts who spoke to the Washington Post say the Georgia special grand jury foreperson’s media blitz won’t be helpful to prosecutors looking to hold Donald Trump’s allies to account, but aren’t necessarily fatal to their case.“What the forewoman said in this case was nothing more than hearsay, and in theory isn’t damaging. But her statements could allow for stalling and delaying on the part of those facing indictment who might question the impartiality of the proceedings,” Jeffrey Fagan, a law professor at Columbia University, told the Post.Washington University in St. Louis law professor Peter A. Joy said her comments could be fodder for future investigations.“It could lead to an investigation into the grand jury itself and the possibility that anyone indicted may be able to obtain a copy of the transcript of the grand jury proceedings, which would be helpful to the defense,” he said.Clark D. Cunningham of Georgia State University summed it up best: It is “speculative and maybe alarmist to say that her media appearances will be a problem for the prosecution. But the adverse effect on public confidence, I think, is clear.”Lawyer for Republican officials who a special grand jury in Georgia may have recommended for indictment over their effort to meddle in the 2020 election could use the grand jury foreperson’s public statements to challenge any charges, CBS News reports:News: CBS News has learned that lawyers close to several GOP witnesses in Fulton Co. investigation are preparing to move to quash any possible indictments by DA based on the public statements by the forewoman of the special grand jury, per two people familiar with the discussions— Robert Costa (@costareports) February 22, 2023
      Emily Kohrs, the foreperson of the special grand jury empaneled in the Atlanta area to investigate the effort by Donald Trump and his allies to overturn Joe Biden’s election win in Georgia, has in recent days spoken publicly about the panel’s work. While she hasn’t named names, she confirmed that the panel did recommend indictments, and when it comes to the former president, “You’re not going to be shocked. It’s not rocket science.”Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, marked Ash Wednesday in Warsaw today.This is Facebook’s translation from the Polish of what the attending priest, Wieslaw Dawidowski, had to say:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Today is Ash Wednesday. Also the greats of this world accept the ashes – if they belong to the Catholic tradition. I had the honor to put ashes on the head of the President of the United States himself Mr Joe Biden.
      Everything happened in great secret but now I can say: in an improvised house chapel just next to the president’s apartment, we held a Holy Mass with the intention of peace, the conversion of Russia and the light of the Holy Spirit for the president.Dawidowski’s post included pictures of presidential challenge coins and of the priest and president together, ash on the president’s forehead.Democrats and immigration advocates have harshly criticized Joe Biden over a new proposal that could stop migrants claiming asylum at the US-Mexico border. One advocate said the move would cause “unnecessary human suffering”.The pushback came after the Biden administration unveiled the proposal that would deny asylum to migrants who arrive without first seeking it in one of the countries they pass through.There are exceptions for children, people with medical emergencies and those facing imminent threats but if enacted the proposal could stop tens of thousands of people claiming asylum in the US.The move prompted comparisons to Donald Trump’s attempts to limit asylum, attempts repeatedly struck down by federal courts. As a presidential candidate, Biden pledged to reverse those policies.The proposal “represents a blatant embrace of hateful and illegal anti-asylum policies, which will lead to unnecessary human suffering”, said Marisa Limón Garza, executive director of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center.“Time after time, President Biden has broken his campaign promises to end restrictions on asylum seekers traveling through other countries.“These are mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles and thousands of children who are simply looking for a fair chance for their case to be heard. We urge the Biden administration to abandon policy initiatives that further the inhumane and ineffective agenda of the Trump administration.”The proposed rule was posted in the Federal Register this week, with 30 days for public comment.Mary Meg McCarthy, executive director of the National Justice Immigration Center, said the brief comment period “suggests that the president already knows that this policy is a betrayal of his campaign promises”.Full story:Biden’s proposal denying asylum at border would cause ‘unnecessary suffering’, say criticsRead moreJon Tester has announced a run for re-election – good news for Democrats facing a tough map in their quest to hold the Senate in 2024.In a statement earlier today, the Montanan, for three terms an increasingly rare blue (Democratic) senator from a very red (Republican) state, said: “I know that people in Washington don’t understand what a hard day’s work looks like or the challenges working families are facing in Montana.“I am running for re-election so I can keep fighting for Montanans and demand that Washington stand up for our veterans and lower costs.”Politico reports an unusually cross Republican response, in the form of a statement from Steve Daines, the other Montana senator.“Jon Tester just made the same mistake Steve Bullock did in 2020. Both should have ended their political careers on their terms. Instead, they each will have their careers ended by Montana voters.”Bullock, a former Montana governor, ran against Daines in 2020 … and was soundly beaten.As Politico puts it, “it’s rare for an intra-state senator … to hammer someone on the record like this. Part of the history here is that Tester helped recruit Bullock to run against Daines”.An interesting report from Politico says Joe Biden’s failure to say whether he will run for re-election or not has created a creeping “sense of doubt” among Democratic operatives.Most expect Biden to announce a run for a second term in April and thereby answer those who say he is too old for the office, the report says, “but even that target is less than definitive”.Politico adds: “According to four people familiar with the president’s thinking, a final call has been pushed aside as real-world events intervene.”One such event, of course, was the president’s visit to Ukraine and Poland this week.Nonetheless, “some potential presidential aspirants and scores of major donors” are reportedly “strategising and even developing a Plan B while trying to remain respectful and publicly supportive of the 80-year-old president”.Among possible candidates should Biden not run, the site names three governors – JB Pritzker (Illinois), Gavin Newsom (California) and Phil Murphy (New Jersey) – and some of the usual suspects in Congress, including senators Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota) and Bernie Sanders (Vermont), who it says are keeping the door open, just in case.Sanders, of course, is a year older than Biden. Here’s what he says about those who say 80, or indeed 81, is too old to run for president: Bernie Sanders: Nikki Haley’s demand for mental tests is ageist and ‘absurd’Read moreA former Arizona attorney general omitted key context from investigators when he publicly said his office had discovered “serious vulnerabilities” in state election systems, according to new documents obtained by the Washington Post.The documents provide new insight into how Mark Brnovich, a Republican who left office last year, investigated allegations of fraud in his state. The investigation took 10,000 hours and had the participation of all of the office’s 60 investigators at one point or another.In April last year, Brnovich released an interim report saying there were issues with the handling and verification of mail-in ballots. The documents obtained by the Post show that in a draft report, Brnovich’s staff wrote: “We did not uncover any criminality or fraud having been committed in this area during the 2020 general election.”Brnovich’s interim report also suggested that Maricopa county, the largest in the state, had not turned over information, making the investigation more difficult. In a draft report, staff wrote that investigators collectively believed the county “was cooperative and responsive to our requests”.The Post documents also show that top Arizona Republicans who claimed widespread fraud in the 2020 election could not substantiate their claims when they met investigators and were subject to criminal penalties if they lied.When Mark Finchem, a prominent election denier who unsuccessfully ran for secretary of state last year, met investigators, he did not have much to show, “specifically stating he did not have any evidence of fraud and that he did not wish to take up our time”. He offered four ballots that had not been opened nor counted, the Post said.Sonny Borrelli, another GOP lawmaker, only provided the name of one voter he believed to be deceased. The voter turned out to be alive.The Department of Transportation has sent out a statement, from “a spokesperson”, about why Pete Buttigieg has announced his own visit to East Palestine, Ohio, site of the toxic Norfolk Southern rail spill, tomorrow.It’s basically an outline of the how and why of the federal response, which crosses jurisdictions and departments, in answer to Republican attacks on Buttigieg (and Joe Biden) for not visiting the disaster site sooner.The statement says: “As the secretary said, he would go when it is appropriate and wouldn’t detract from the emergency response efforts. The secretary is going now that the Environmental Protection Agency has said it is moving out of the emergency response phase and transitioning to the long-term remediation phase.“His visit also coincides with the National Transportation Safety Board issuing its factual findings of the investigation into the cause of the derailment and will allow the secretary to hear from [department] investigators who were on the ground within hours of the derailment to support the NTSB’s investigation.”The statement says the EPA is leading federal efforts to hold Norfolk Southern accountable “and make the company clean up its mess”, because “that is how it works in response to a chemical spill”.The statement also takes a veiled shot at Republicans, including Donald Trump, due in East Palestine today, for weakening federal safety regulations applicable to companies like Norfolk Southern and businesses like transporting dangerous chemicals.“The [department] will continue to do its part by helping get to the bottom of what caused the derailment and implementing rail safety measures, and we hope this sudden bipartisan support for rail safety will result in meaningful changes in Congress.”Donald Trump is expected in East Palestine, Ohio later today, where he’ll undoubtedly take every opportunity to criticize the Biden administration’s response to the derailment and toxic waste spill in the community earlier this month. Two can play at that game, however, and Democrats have seized on his trip to remind voters of his administration’s friendliness to the rail industry, and argue it set the stage for the derailment. We may hear more about that tomorrow, when transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg pays his own visit to the community.Here’s what else has happened so far today:
      Democrats got some good news in their quest to hold the Senate after next year, when Montana’s Jon Tester announced he’d stand for re-election. However, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin remains non-committal on another term.
      House Republicans want to learn everything they can about American support to Ukraine.
      Joe Biden is taking a page out of Trump’s book with new restrictions meant to dramatically crack down on asylum seekers arriving at the border with Mexico. More