PENCE WON’T RULE OUT MEETING WITH NORTH KOREA
Vice President Mike Pence said he has not ruled out the possibility of meeting with North Korean officials at the upcoming Olympics in South Korea.
“Let me say President Trump has said he always believes in talking, but I haven’t requested any meeting,” Pence said before departing Monday on a six-day Asia trip. “But we’ll see what happens.”
Pence arrived Tuesday in Japan, where he will meet with Prime Minster Shinzo Abe and U.S. service members.
The vice president’s trip will be highlighted by his stop at the Pyeongchang Games. He said no plans have been made for him to meet with any members of the North Korean delegation.
New York-area rail crashes blamed on lack of apnea testing.
A lack of adequate testing for a pernicious sleep disorder was the primary cause of two serious train crashes in New Jersey and New York, federal investigators concluded in a report Tuesday as they renewed the call for the testing to be mandatory.
The crashes involving a New Jersey Transit train at the Hoboken terminal in September 2016 and a Long Island Rail Road train in Brooklyn in January 2017 killed one person, injured more than 200 and caused more than $11 million damage.
In both instances, the train engineers were found to have suffered from undiagnosed sleep apnea, a condition connected to obesity that robs sufferers of sleep and contributes to daytime drowsiness.
White House to release infrastructure principles Monday.
President Donald Trump is expected to release Monday his $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan, a top administration priority in 2018 that will rely heavily on state and local governments, as well as private investors.
A White House official said the administration’s plan would include principles for generating private and public investment, cutting the regulatory process from 10 years to two years and outlining funding for projects in rural America. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Trump administration wants to generate $1 trillion in infrastructure spending over the next decade. But only $200 billion would be federal dollars.
Pruitt pushes back on finding that would restrict pesticides, protect fish.
WASHINGTON» For months, chemical companies have waged a campaign to reverse findings by federal fisheries scientists that could curb the use of pesticides based on the threat they pose to endangered species. They scored a major victory this week, when Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt announced he would press another federal agency to revisit a recent opinion triggering such restrictions.
Pruitt denied a petition to ban the agricultural use of chlorpyrifos after questioning EPA scientists’ conclusions that exposure impedes brain development in infants and fetuses.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service issued a recent biological opinion by the environmental law firm Earthjustice, finding that the current use of chlorpyrifos and malathion “is likely to jeopardize the continued existence” of 38 species of salmon and other fish in the Pacific Northwest and destroy or harm the designated critical habitat of 37 of those species.
State Senate votes to condemn pornography.
The state Senate condemned pornography on Tuesday, citing a host of problems, including infidelity, objectification of women and erectile dysfunction.
Senators passed a resolution in a 35-4 vote after little debate. The resolution, which has no legal effect, comes a year after the House approved a similar measure.
“Pornography exploits and humiliates those being used and it dehumanizes the user at the same time,” said Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, RShawnee.
The resolution says pornography is potentially biologically addictive and is linked to lessened desire. It also cited dissatisfaction in marriage and infidelity.