Author: potus

(The Center Square) – A Thurston County Superior Court Judge on Friday dismissed on technical grounds the Building Industry Association of Washington’s lawsuit against the state regarding a voter-approved natural gas initiative.The case involves a lawsuit in which BIAW asked the court to direct the Washington State Building Code Council to modify state energy codes to comply with Initiative 2066, passed by voters in November, which ensures natural gas remains an energy choice even as the state moves toward clean energy like electric.Judge John Skinder did not rule on the merits of the case brought by BIAW but sided with…

Thomas Jefferson, primary author of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States, enslaved more than 600 people in his lifetime. Best known among them: Sally Hemings, who lived at his Virginia estate Monticello along with their children. As with most people in bondage, there is little documentation about Hemings in the historical record. But her presence—and her decisions—loom large in the Jefferson story. A half-sister to Jefferson’s wife Martha, Hemings was the daughter of Jefferson’s wealthy white father-in-law John Wayles and an enslaved woman he owned named Elizabeth. Despite being close kin—and most certainly the mother…

Hello and happy Valentine’s Day from Munich, where SitRep spent the day at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof with hundreds of current and former world leaders, military officials, diplomats, and lawmakers during an action-packed first day of the Munich Security Conference. Here’s what’s on tap for the day: U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance stuns the MSC, Europeans express consternation about being sidelined from Ukraine peace deal negotiations, and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi delivers a thinly veiled criticism of the United States. When Vance took the stage in Munich, most people were expecting him to hold forth on the topics that…

The top foreign policy official for the European Union had a blunt assessment on Friday of the Trump administration’s apparent willingness to give Russia’s leader, Vladimir V. Putin, much of what he wants in Ukraine, even before negotiations to end the three-year war begin.“It’s appeasement,” the official, Kaja Kallas, declared at the Munich Security Conference. “It has never worked.” Ms. Kallas, a former prime minister of Estonia, was hardly the only European diplomat uttering the word “appeasement,” with all its historical resonance, though she was one of the few willing to do so on the record.It was an almost-universal description…

President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order halting federal funds for schools that require students to be vaccinated against coronavirus before they can attend classes in person.Trump’s administration has already taken steps to end coronavirus vaccine requirements at the federal level, including for green card applicants, and reinstated service members who were discharged for refusing the vaccine. Trump was joined in the Oval Office by members of his Cabinet. The decision to vaccinate should be up to the parents of a student, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said.The order was first reported by Breitbart News.Currently, Covid vaccines are no longer…

United States Vice President JD Vance has taken aim at European countries during his first international trip, accusing leaders of rollbacks on free speech, lax migration policies and delinquency in their defence commitments. In a speech at the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Friday, Vance announced that the administration of President Donald Trump would mark a pivot in terms of the US relationship with its European allies. “There is a new sheriff in town under Donald Trump’s leadership,” Vance told an audience of political leaders, military officers and diplomats at the annual conference. He proceeded to accuse European leaders…

(The Center Square) – Community members are voicing their anger following the announcement that UPMC Cole in Coudersport has made the decision to end their labor and delivery services in April.The move signifies the expansion of rural Pennsylvania’s maternity care deserts.The network says it will centralize care at its facility in Wellsboro and expand outpatient women’s health services at Cole and throughout the region. Wellsboro is about 40 miles and 51 minutes from Coudersport, where Cole is located.“This is another devastating health care blow to our region. UPMC executives clearly lack knowledge and understanding of the region they serve, and…

As United States President Donald Trump barrels forward with tariff threats against key trading partners Canada and Mexico, a renegotiation of the three countries’ trade agreement could be in the offing. In his first term as president, Trump pushed to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement with the current United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA. Under Trump’s leadership, the US added a clause, Article 34.7, which requires a joint review of the pact within six years, a deadline that lands on July 1, 2026. The agreement also includes a sunset clause to render the pact void by 2036 in the…

Senator Roger Wicker, Republican of Mississippi and the chairman of the panel that oversees the Pentagon, criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for recent remarks about Ukraine’s future, saying the newly confirmed secretary made a “rookie mistake” by ruling out a return to the country’s prewar borders.Mr. Wicker, who helped salvage Mr. Hegseth’s chances of confirmation last month amid Republican resistance, made the remarks in interviews with Politico, in response to comments Mr. Hegseth made earlier this week during a trip to Brussels. The secretary said that NATO membership for Ukraine was unrealistic and that the country should abandon its hopes…

Chief Executive Officer of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of Twitter, Elon Musk attends the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre on June 16, 2023 in Paris, France.Chesnot | Getty ImagesDell shares rose 4% on Friday following a report from Bloomberg that Elon Musk’s startup xAI was preparing an agreement to buy $5 billion in artificial intelligence servers from the hardware maker.The equipment containing Nvidia’s GB200 graphics processing units (GPUs) would be delivered this year, according to Bloomberg, which cited unnamed sources.Many data center gear manufacturers have been seeing growth from…