Crowley’s warning was sent out in a memo on Dec. 4, more than a month before a string of large fires threatened Los Angeles County, after what is normally the off-season for wildfires. Fire season in Southern California typically runs from the summer through October.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass approved the changes to the budget last June.

The fire chief claimed that the budget reduction left many administrative jobs unfilled. It also pulled funding from the overtime budget which had been used for training and fire prevention, including the Federal Aviation Administration’s mandated pilot training and helicopter coordination staffing for wildfire suppression.

“The reduction … has severely limited the department’s capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies, including wildfires,” Crowley wrote in the memo. “Without this funding, pilot compliance and readiness are jeopardized, and aerial firefighting capabilities are diminished. […]

— Read More: justthenews.com

This is the highest total in Texas history – shattering last year’s record by nearly $1 billion.

What the industry paid in one year, $27.3 billion, is more than what 34 states received in total tax revenues.

It translates to $74.8 million paid every day for a range of public services, including toward Texas’ public schools, universities, roads, first responders and other essential services.

“Remarkably, 2024 was yet another record-breaking year as the Texas oil and natural gas industry does its part to help reach Governor Abbott’s goal for our state’s economy to surpass France as the 7th largest economy in the world,” TXOGA president Todd Staples said. “From tax revenues and production to pipelines, storage, processing, refining, and exports, Texas’ oil and natural gas industry has achieved record-breaking performance across every sector.”

Staples said the industry has been so successful because “Texas leaders embrace policies that recognize oil and natural gas as an asset, not a liability. They view businesses as a partner, not an adversary. For its part, the industry has persevered through hostile federal policies of the outgoing Administration, global unrest and market volatility – including negative prices for natural gas – to shatter its own records, all while protecting and improving the environment.”

The industry primarily funds three major state funds: the Economic Stabilization Fund (Rainy Day Fund), Permanent School Fund and Permanent University Fund.

Since the Texas legislature created the Rainy Day Fund in 1987, it’s received more than $33.9 billion from Texas oil and natural gas production taxes.

The industry is a major funder of Texas public education. In fiscal 2024, 99% of Texas oil and natural gas royalties were deposited into the Permanent School Fund and the Permanent University Fund, $1.5 billion and $1.9 billion, respectively.

By the end of fiscal 2024, the value of the funds totaled $57.3 billion and $31.7 billion, respectively.

“The Texas Permanent School Fund is larger than Harvard’s endowment and is the largest education endowment in the nation,” Staples notes. “The oil and natural gas industry is the only significant contributor of fresh investment capital to these critical Texas education funds.”

In addition to these funds, in fiscal 2024, Texas school districts directly received $2.92 billion in property taxes from mineral properties producing oil and natural gas, pipelines, and gas utilities. Counties directly received $1.03 billion in industry property taxes.

According to TXOGA data of ISDs, the districts that received the most oil and natural gas industry property taxes are in west Texas in the Permian Basin. In these and many districts, the industry represents the majority of the tax base.

Pecos-Barstow-Toyah ISD received the most of $304.4 million, with industry taxes representing 83% of the tax base.

Midland ISD received the next greatest amount of $217.5 million, representing 50.7% of the tax base. Wink-Loving ISD received $184 million, representing 92.4% of the tax base. Rankin ISA received $130 million, representing 92.4% of the tax base.

According to TXOGA data of counties, the top counties receiving the most oil and natural gas property taxes are in West Texas in the Permian Basin.

Reeves County received the most of $110.1 million with industry taxes representing 85% of the tax base. Martin County received the next greatest amount of $54.9 million, with industry taxes representing 94.5% of the tax base; Loving County received 53.6% million, with industry taxes representing 94.7% of the tax base.

In counties where the industry paid significantly less property taxes, it still represented a majority share of the county’s tax base. In Andrews County. for example, the industry paid $23.2 million in property taxes but represented 80.5% of the tax base; it paid $13.2 million in Crockett County representing 83% of the county’s tax base.

The Texas oil and natural gas industry has paid more than $257.6 billion in state and local taxes and state royalties since TXOGA began compiling the data in 2007. The total excludes hundreds of billions of dollars in payroll for some of the highest paying jobs in the state. It also excludes taxes paid on office buildings and personal property, as well as other service jobs that depend on the industry and taxes paid by other sectors benefitting from the industry, TXOGA notes.

The study from researchers from Rutgers University and the Network Contagion Research Institute, follows preliminary findings from the group released in August and is now backed by more evidence than before.

The findings are set to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, Frontiers in Social Psychology, as the embattled social media app faces a forced sale to continue operating in the United States. The company is currently challenging the law passed by Congress earlier this year that would ban the app if it doesn’t cut ties with its Chinese owners, ByteDance, before January 19, 2025.

President-elect Donald Trump has also injected himself in the case in an attempt to delay the law from taking effect. The president-elect credits the video-sharing app with his electoral gains among young voters in the 2024 election and has spoken favorably of the platform leading up to his inauguration.

“We did go on TikTok and we had a great response with billions of views,” Trump said in a speech at AmericaFest, a conference hosted by Turning Point USA and Turning Point Action in December, shortly before seeking to intervene in the case. […]

— Read More: justthenews.com

Dorsey says letting people languish on the streets amounts to “drug enableism and neglectful cruelty,” and that the arrests and involuntary holds should be “approached as life-saving interventions.”

Dorsey’s calls for arresting 100 of the 6th Street Corridor’s estimated 200 drug users “per night for offenses related to public drug use, intoxication, and/or possession” come just days after the start of consolidated city-county’s ban on cash welfare for addicts who refuse substance abuse treatment.

Dorsey noted “even the most conservative” estimates say untreated drug addiction costs San Francisco more than $1 billion per year, and doubled down on his call for a rapid adoption of Proposition 36 enforcement measures.

“I am optimistic that more recently enacted laws like Californiaʼs SB 43 (used to compel individuals into drug treatment under certain circumstances) and Proposition 36 (which creates Treatment-Mandated Felonies, or TMFs, for repeated misdemeanor drug possession offenses) offer new hope for much-needed progress,” wrote Dorsey in a letter to city-county leaders. “As someone in recovery from drug addiction myself, I know I’m not alone among recovery community members in believing strongly in the life-changing possibilities of drug treatment – including court-mandated treatment – and long-term recovery.”

“I believe it is past time for San Francisco to move boldly beyond its civic practice of drug enablism and neglectful cruelty,” continued Dorsey. “New approaches are needed to restore order to our streets; to diminish the attraction San Francisco now holds as a destination city for drug use and drug dealing; and to make consequential and lifesaving interventions in drug-related behavior that is deadlier and more costly than ever before in human history.”

Prop. 36, passed by more than two-thirds of voters and the majority of voters in every county, allows prosecutors to pursue felony charges for serial thieves and major drug crimes after Prop. 47, passed in 2014, made many only chargeable as misdemeanors that would be rarely prosecuted.

Prop. 36 also created a new class of crime called “treatment-mandated felony” that would allow individuals to complete mental health or substance abuse treatment instead of going to prison; this portion of the measure is targeted at the state’s homeless population, which includes many individuals who refuse services and treatment for addictions and disorders.

Unsheltered homeless individuals in San Francisco refused 60% of the city’s 1,530 offers for free shelter earlier this year, highlighting the extent to which “service resistant” individuals are prevalent among unsheltered populations.

Fatal drug use remains a major issue in the state and is the main driver of rising mortality rates; In California, mortality rates for residents between the ages of 15 and 44 is higher than pre-pandemic levels, with 60% of the increase from drug overdoses – largely from fentanyl.

Johnson said this during a private meeting on Capitol Hill, sources told Just the News.

Trump referred to the single reconciliation bill as “one big beautiful bill,” according to The Hill.

Members of the House Freedom Caucus are pushing for a two-bill plan.

“There are a group of us who support breaking it up into two pieces,” Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., told Fox News during an interview. “The first piece, a very small border piece where we give the president the money that he needs to secure our southern border and start deporting illegal, criminal aliens.” […]

— Read More: justthenews.com

Last year, then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden reached a deal, which was passed by Congress, that suspended the debt ceiling until next month. President-elect Donald Trump last week tried to get Congress to raise the debt ceiling again or even eliminate it before he’s sworn in next month, but 38 Republicans voted against a House spending bill that included raising the ceiling.

Yellen said the extended the deadline was mostly because of the timing of debt payments associated with a Medicare trust fund, which is projected to reduce the outstanding debt by about $54 billion.

“Treasury currently expects to reach the new limit between January 14 and January 23, at which time it will be necessary for Treasury to start taking extraordinary measures,” Yellen wrote in the letter to congressional leadership. “I respectfully urge Congress to act to protect the full faith and credit of the United States.”

It is not clear how long Congress will have to secure a deal on funding or raising the debt ceiling again once the measures are taken, but in the past it has helped stall the default for several months, Politico reported. […]

— Read More: justthenews.com

This is the ninth U.S. telecoms company that has been hacked in the operation known as Salt Typhoon, according to The Associated Press. Dozens of other nations have also been affected by it.

Deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger said that the Biden administration has released information to companies on how to identify hacking tricks from China.

This campaign by China, which denies any involvement in the operation, “has alarmed national security officials, exposed cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the private sector and laid bare China’s hacking sophistication,” according to the AP.

While FBI officials said there have only been a limited number of individuals whose communications have been accessed, senior government officials and prominent political figures are among them. […]

— Read More: justthenews.com

It’s projected to get even worse.

A year ago, the U.S. national debt amounted to more than $33.8 trillion, according to Senate Republican Joint Economic Committee data. As of Dec. 24, 2024, the debt has climbed to nearly $36.3 trillion, a $2.5 trillion increase within the past 12 months.

If the average daily rate of debt growth over the past three years continues, the gross national debt will reach $37 trillion within 5 months, $39.2 trillion in 2026, and $40.95 trillion in 2027, according to the most recent Congressional Budget Office 10-year forecast.

Economist Romina Boccia, director of Budget and Entitlement Policy at the Cato Institute, told The Center Square that the “excessively high, and growing unsustainably fast” national debt has “real implications” for the future of the country. […]

— Read More: justthenews.com

The new law is modeled after the federal Superfund law, which was invoked last year in East Palestine, Ohio, after a disastrous train derailment, and requires companies that cause pollution to cover costs associated with cleaning it up. In East Palestine, the Environmental Protection Agency forced the company that carried hazardous materials to pay for the clean-up.

Under the new law, companies that are responsible for most of the emissions between the years 2000 and 2018 will need to pay approximately $3 billion a year over the next 25 years, according to The Hill.

“Too often over the last decade, courts have dismissed lawsuits against the oil and gas industry by saying that the issue of climate culpability should be decided by legislatures,” the bill’s co-sponsor, Democratic state Sen. Liz Krueger, said in a statement.

“Well, the Legislature of the State of New York — the 10th largest economy in the world — has accepted the invitation,” she continued. “I hope we have made ourselves very clear: the planet’s largest climate polluters bear a unique responsibility for creating the climate crisis, and they must pay their fair share to help regular New Yorkers deal with the consequences.” […]

— Read More: justthenews.com

Musk and Ramaswamy have been tasked by President-elect Donald Trump to run the newly-created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is expected to crack down on federal spending. They have also been supportive of Trump’s proposed immigration plan, which promises mass deportations of illegal immigrants.

Ramaswamy on Thursday claimed that there were not enough competitive U.S.-born engineering candidates for the open positions, and suggested the reason for that was because of American culture celebrated jocks and popularity instead of brainiacs.

“The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over ‘native’ Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & wrong explanation),” Ramaswamy wrote in a post on X. “A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture.”

“Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer),” Ramaswamy continued. “A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.” […]

— Read More: justthenews.com