Probe sought into EPA chief:

Discovery

An ethics watchdog group filed a complaint asking for an investigation into Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt’s frequent flights to his home state of Oklahoma at taxpayer expense.

The group American Oversight sent a letter Thursday to the US Office of Special Counsel asking for an investigation into whether Pruitt violated federal rules by using government resources to travel to Oklahoma for “personal or political reasons.”

“The Trump administration is seeking to cut EPA’s budget by 31%, putting Americans’ health and safety at risk,” American Oversight Executive Director Austin Evers, who was a lawyer for the State Department under president Barack Obama, said in a written statement. “At the same time, Pruitt is spending scarce taxpayer dollars to fuel his personal ambition for higher office.”

Pruitt’s expense reports from March, April and May were released following a Freedom of Information request filed by Environmental Integrity Project, a nonprofit watchdog group. The records show Pruitt traveled home at least 10 times, typically leaving Washington on Fridays and returning on Mondays. Pruitt was either in Oklahoma or on trips that included stops there for nearly half the days encompassed in the three-month period, costing more than $15,000. (AP)

This handout photo released by the European Southern Observatory on July 26, 2017 and taken with the wide field optical camera on ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope (VST) shows the Orion Nebula and its associated cluster of young stars. (AFP)