Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
You'd think it would be impossible to kill 100 people a day, every day, without inducing widespread shock and deafening demands for action. But that's what opioids have been doing for the past decade, and Americans have given it only passing attention.
WASHINGTON: Why does Congress want to cut the jobs and benefits of federal civilian employees who are volunteering their time to help fellow citizens recover from this year's devastating hurricanes? That's the question being asked in a new video from the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest labor union representing federal and D.C. government workers. "It might be the politicians up on the Hill that have the purse strings, but it really is the civil servants that do their best to keep America A-OK," says Wesley McCarville, a legislative political coordinator at AFGE Local 1924, which represents McCarville and other employees at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services .
President Donald Trump on Thursday declared the opioid crisis a nationwide public health emergency - a step that won't bring new dollars to fight a scourge that kills nearly 100 Americans a day but will expand access to medical services in rural areas, among other changes. "This epidemic is a national health emergency," Trump said in a speech at the White House, where he bemoaned a crisis he said had spared no segment of American society.
President Donald Trump has finally declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency, two months after he first said he would. The belated declaration is short of what is immediately needed to combat this epidemic.
President Donald Trump, escorted by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., arrives on Capitol Hill to have lunch with Senate Republicans and push for his tax reform agenda, in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2017. President Donald Trump waves to reporters after a lunch with Republican senator at the U.S. Capitol Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2017, in Washington.
The Senate passed a $36.5 billion emergency aid measure Tuesday to refill disaster accounts, provide a much-needed cash infusion to Puerto Rico, and bail out the federal flood insurance program. The 82-17 vote sends the measure to the White House, where President Donald Trump is sure to sign it.
Dozens of lawsuits have been filed on behalf of Houston homeowners seeking compensation as a result of a federal decision to release water from two reservoirs during Hurricane Harvey. The homeowners contend the release by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers amounts to an improper taking under the Fifth Amendment, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Hurricane Harvey just drowned Southeast Texas. The storm gained strength as it crossed the abnormally warm Gulf waters and grew to a Category 4 hurricane.
With that said, there was one department of the federal government that was exemplary, even heroic in its response to Katrina. Days before Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans, the U.S. Coast Guard began marshalling resources - including their iconic red and white rescue helicopters - to the area.
A Georgia state representative - who is also an anesthesiologist and the wife of the former federal Health and Human Services secretary - asked at a public hearing Tuesday about the legality of quarantining HIV patients to stop the spread of the virus that causes AIDS. "What are we legally able to do?" Dr. Betty Price, a Republican, asked Dr. Pascale Wortley, director of the HIV/AIDS Epidemiology Surveillance Section at the Georgia Department of Public Health.
President Donald Trump released a video message commending the five living ex-presidents appearing together at a hurricane relief concert in Texas Saturday, putting aside past criticism of his predecessors to call them "some of America's finest public servants." Democrats Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter and Republicans George H.W. and George W. Bush are appearing together for the first time since 2013 to raise money for parts of Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands devastated by hurricanes.
Democrats Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter and Republicans George H.W. and George W. Bush are putting aside politics in contrast with President Donald Trump, who has vowed to help Texas and Florida for as long as it takes but has criticized Puerto Rican leaders while suggesting aid there won't be unlimited. Puerto Rico was devastated by Hurricane Maria, which made landfall after Harvey and Irma had battered other areas.
Electrical linemen descend from helicopters, balancing on steel girders 90 feet high on transmission towers in the mountains of central Puerto Rico, far from any road. At the same time, crews fan out across the battered island, erecting light poles and power lines in a block by block slog.
While meeting with Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello today, Trump issued himself and his administration a "10" when asked how his "administration: reacted to the Hurricane that devastated Puerto Rico. During a presser with Gov. Rossello, a reporter asked, "Mr. President, between 1 and 10, how would you grade the White House response so far?" Trump replied, "I'd say it was a 10. I'd say it was probably the most difficult -- when you talk about relief, when you talk about search, when you talk about all of the different levels and even when you talk about lives saved."
President Donald Trump, who has made four visits to hurricane zones in recent weeks, isn't rushing to survey the damage from California's wildfires. The president has no immediate plans to visit the state to inspect the aftermath of the wind-whipped wildfires, which have swept through parts of Northern California, including the region's famed wine country.
Northern California homeowners allege in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that Pacific Gas & Electric Co. failed to adequately protect its power lines before the region's deadly wildfires, a theory that state investigators are considering as they try to determine the cause.
First lady Melania Trump is encouraging Americans to take action in a new public service announcement following the devastating damage of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. "The President and I have witnessed firsthand the compassion and commitment of Americans as friends, neighbors, and strangers continue to volunteer time and money to help one another following the recent hurricanes," Trump said in the video, which was recorded last week in the White House library.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he would review a report that his nominee for drug czar championed a law that weakened the government's ability to fight the nation's opioid epidemic, and said he could consider jettisoning the pick. Asked if the report had undercut his confidence in his nominee to head the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Representative Tom Marino, Trump said: "I have not spoken to him, but I will speak to him, and I'll make that determination.
On the mid-August day when President Donald Trump first called the nation's opioid epidemic a "national emergency," plaudits from the state's congressional delegation were quick to follow. Sen. Sherrod Brown, DOhio, said the designation was overdue.
Newly released body camera footage shows a sheriff's deputy braving flames to rescue a disabled woman and get people to flee from a lethal wildfire that was about to devour a Northern California community. Sonoma County announced Saturday evening that its coroner had confirmed two more deaths, taking the total in the county to 22 and the overall count to 40. A residence in the hills above Sonoma, Calif., has a posted sign alerting people to an available pool if needed to shelter from wildfires Friday, Oct. 13, 2017.