CURRENT EVENTS MARCH 30 - April 2

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“… While the Army Rangers, Green Berets and Navy SEALS have always required equal fitness test thresholds, the Army and the Marines, for instance, do not. As of the end of 2022, women—who had been banned from combat roles until 2013—comprised 17.5 percent of the active duty force, according to the Defense Department.

Hegseth’s order also requires military leaders to determine which are combat roles and which are not—an issue that may not be clear-cut.“

Background:

Standards for the Army were adjusted in 2022 after a Rand Corp study of expanded requirements implemented in 2019 were harder for women and older men to pass without actually predicting combat job performance:

apnews.com

Army eases fitness test standards for women, older troops

The Army has scrapped its move to have a physical fitness test that's gender- and age-neutral, and will now allow women and older soldiers to pass while meeting some reduced standards.
apnews.com apnews.com

“After three years of complaints and debate, the Army has scrapped its move to have a physical fitness test that is gender- and age-neutral, and will now allow women and older soldiers to pass while meeting some reduced standards.

The decision comes after a study by the RAND research organization confirmed that men were passing the new six-event fitness test at a much higher rate than women and that older soldiers were also struggling with their scores in the expanded, more difficult test developed in 2019.

The change, however, will affect only the regular fitness test that soldiers take annually. Qualifying for certain Army jobs, particularly more demanding combat positions or specialties such as Ranger school, will continue to require that everyone — regardless of age or gender — must pass the same fitness tests and standards.

… The new program [in 2022] also brings the Army back in line with the other military services, which have varying fitness tests, but all use tiered event requirements based on age and gender.

Hardison said the RAND study, which included analysis of about 460,000 soldiers’ tests, concluded there was limited evidence showing that the resulting scores accurately predicted combat job performance or that doing well led to reduced injuries —- two reasons the changes were made in the first place.

Overall, RAND said the test was better used to assess a soldier’s general physical fitness, and not to predict job performance, and that using a tiered scale for passing scores made the test less punitive. …”
 
In case you quit reviewing the thread on deporting immigrants to El Salvador:

1moretimeagain said:
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GIFT LINK 🎁 —> An ‘Administrative Error’ Sends a Maryland Father to a Salvadoran Prison

“… But in Monday’s court filing, attorneys for the government admitted that the Salvadoran man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, was deported accidentally.

“… Although ICE was aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error,” the government told the court.

Trump lawyers said the court has no ability to bring him back now that Abrego Garcia is in Salvadoran custody.

Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, Abrego Garcia’s attorney, said he’s never seen a case in which the government knowingly deported someone who had already received protected legal status from an immigration judge.

He is asking the court to order the Trump administration to ask for Abrego Garcia’s return and, if necessary, to withhold payment to the Salvadoran government, which says it’s charging the United States $6 million a year to jail U.S. deportees.

Trump administration attorneys told the court to dismiss the request on multiple grounds, including that Trump’s “primacy in foreign affairs” outweighs the interests of Abrego Garcia and his family. …”
 
www.newscientist.com

Dramatic cuts in China’s air pollution drove surge in global warming

The rate at which the planet is warming has sped up since 2010, and now researchers say that China's efforts to clean up air pollution are inadvertently responsible for the majority of this extra warming
www.newscientist.com www.newscientist.com

A recent surge in the rate of global warming has been largely driven by China’s efforts to reduce air pollution, raising questions about how air quality regulations are influencing the climate and whether we fully understand the impact of removing aerosols from the atmosphere. This extra warming, which was being masked by the aerosols, accounts for 5 per cent of global temperature increase since 1850.

But there is a sting in the tail of this environmental success story. According to a new analysis, China’s dirty air had inadvertently been cooling the planet, and now that it is gone we are starting to see a greater warming effect.
 
nycfan said:
In case you quit reviewing the thread on deporting immigrants to El Salvador:


GIFT LINK 🎁 —> An ‘Administrative Error’ Sends a Maryland Father to a Salvadoran Prison

“… But in Monday’s court filing, attorneys for the government admitted that the Salvadoran man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, was deported accidentally.

“… Although ICE was aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error,” the government told the court.

Trump lawyers said the court has no ability to bring him back now that Abrego Garcia is in Salvadoran custody.

Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, Abrego Garcia’s attorney, said he’s never seen a case in which the government knowingly deported someone who had already received protected legal status from an immigration judge.

He is asking the court to order the Trump administration to ask for Abrego Garcia’s return and, if necessary, to withhold payment to the Salvadoran government, which says it’s charging the United States $6 million a year to jail U.S. deportees.

Trump administration attorneys told the court to dismiss the request on multiple grounds, including that Trump’s “primacy in foreign affairs” outweighs the interests of Abrego Garcia and his family. …”
Click to expand...
If somebody did this to your family member, most anyone would want that man dead.
 
ChileG said:
If somebody did this to your family member, most anyone would want that man dead.
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The "we can't get him back now" response may be the most infuriating thing I've seen in this two month shitshow. In any company in America, whether Fortune 50 or a mom and pop hardware store, that blase, unaccountable type of response by an employee who fucked up would get him fired within five seconds. I am so done with the catastrophic incompetence of the idiots the GOP has put in power.

ETA -- And to make it worse, I just saw Vance's inaccurate, inhuman response to this travesty. Vance is a smart guy, but he has just completely sacrificed his soul on the altar of unlimited power. I am utterly, completely ashamed the man calls himself a Christian.
 
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nrsair said:
Big cuts at CDC, FDA and other health agencies started today:

www.reuters.com

Trump begins mass layoffs at FDA, CDC, other US health agencies

Security guards barred entry to some employees just hours after they received dismissal notices.
www.reuters.com www.reuters.com
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Let's see what the courts do. And THANK GOD we at least got the AG vote right in November.

 
lawtig02 said:
The "we can't get him back now" response may be the most infuriating thing I've seen in this two month shitshow.
Click to expand...
While I'm with you on this 100%, you could make this statement about a lot of things.

I've stopped trying to compare infuriation. For instance, did you see the 5th circuit opinion I quoted on another thread? That was the worst legal argument I've ever seen. Actually, it wasn't a legal argument at all, and it would fail a high school debate class. It makes Cannon look like a legal genius. And it's infuriating to me that nobody thought to say, "um, admittedly absurd hypotheticals do not establish propositions."
 
nycfan said:


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HHS starts layoffs of thousands of workers across its agencies​

As many as 10,000 — one-quarter of the department — are expected to be let go​


www.statnews.com

HHS starts layoffs of thousands of workers across its agencies

Layoff notices began arriving early Tuesday for thousands of employees of HHS and its subsidiary agencies, with as many 10,000 workers potentially expected to be hit by the cuts.
www.statnews.com www.statnews.com

“… The cuts and reorganizations affected people who help approve new medicines, track emerging pathogens, and uncover the secrets held in our DNA. But they also reached those developing safer tobacco policies, trying to reduce injuries, and protecting people who rely on Medicare and Medicaid — as well as the staff who made the agencies operate day to day and aimed to communicate health updates, new recommendations, and policy shifts to the public. …”
 
nycfan said:




HHS starts layoffs of thousands of workers across its agencies​

As many as 10,000 — one-quarter of the department — are expected to be let go​


www.statnews.com

HHS starts layoffs of thousands of workers across its agencies

Layoff notices began arriving early Tuesday for thousands of employees of HHS and its subsidiary agencies, with as many 10,000 workers potentially expected to be hit by the cuts.
www.statnews.com www.statnews.com

“… The cuts and reorganizations affected people who help approve new medicines, track emerging pathogens, and uncover the secrets held in our DNA. But they also reached those developing safer tobacco policies, trying to reduce injuries, and protecting people who rely on Medicare and Medicaid — as well as the staff who made the agencies operate day to day and aimed to communicate health updates, new recommendations, and policy shifts to the public. …”
Click to expand...

“… In some cases, it appeared that leaders of affected programs and divisions were being kept in the dark about the impending layoffs. At one of the affected agencies on Tuesday, some staff received emails from a supervisor asking them to notify their higher-ups if they received a RIF notice — the government’s term for reduction in force.

“I regret to inform you that you have been affected by a reduction in force (RIF) action,” an email to selected employees said. It went on to tell the recipients that they were placed on immediate administrative leave, offering no details of the length of that leave. The email also stated that their firing was not a reflection of their work.

The email was signed by Tom Nagy, deputy assistant secretary for human resources at HHS. “Leadership at HHS appreciates your service,” it said in closing. Emails to other workers cited performance as the reason for their layoffs, and in some cases included information that recipients said wasn’t accurate.

…
Cuts hit particularly hard at the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, including key scientists who were overseeing projects on avian influenza, antimicrobial resistance, and chemical contaminants in the food supply. “It’s going to be pretty hard to see how the center functions after this,” said one former employee.

One division that was not touched as of Tuesday morning was the FDA’s Oncology Center of Excellence, sources said.

At the National Institutes of Health, several directors were let go, while others, including Jeanne Marrazzo, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, were put on administrative leave. Marrazzo, a longtime infectious disease specialist and the successor to Anthony Fauci, was told not to report to work Tuesday and offered a reassignment to the Indian Health Service, according to a source familiar with the matter. …”
 


“… HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the layoffs last week, acknowledging it would be a “painful period for HHS.”

Former HHS staffers, including those who were just laid off, took to social media to decry the layoffs and warned that the functions of HHS offices would suffer as a result.

Robert Califf, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), said the agency was effectively “finished.”

“The FDA as we’ve known it is finished, with most of the leaders with institutional knowledge and a deep understanding of product development and safety no longer employed. I believe that history will see this a huge mistake,” Califf wrote on LinkedIn.

… Jennifer Hoenig, director of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), relayed that she and an entire team at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) had been terminated as part of the reorganization’s Reduction in Force (RIF).

“If you need data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health going forward #NSDUH, don’t,” Hoenig wrote in a LinkedIn post.

“This morning myself and the entire team of the Office of Population Surveys in SAMHSA, the team overseeing all of NSDUH, were RIF’d. My office, OPS, was staffed the by the brightest, most dedicated, and statistically savvy scientists who care deeply about improving the lives of Americans.”

“We are the only national survey focusing specifically on drug use and mental health. We had planned briefs coming up on illegally made fentanyl, mental health treatment access, and of course the 2024 NSDUH data release,” she added. “I don’t know who will continue on with this work, or if it will, as CBHSQ scientists were let go en masse.”“
 
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