July 29, 2022

Number of migrants crossing border is dropping, in part due to US agents helping nab human smugglers

Source: NBC News

Arrests of undocumented migrants crossing the U.S. southern border have fallen by nearly 14 percent from an all-time high in May, driven in part by an increase in U.S.-assisted arrests of smugglers in Central America, far from U.S. soil, according to internal briefing materials obtained by NBC News. 

Agents from Customs and Border Protection, as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, some of them in Central American countries, were responsible for the arrests of an average of 240 smugglers in a single week in June, according to the materials, prepared by the Department of Homeland Security for a White House briefing.

Agents working outside the U.S. provide intelligence to local law enforcement on smugglers to target for arrests, according to the document.

More than 1,300 DHS personnel are focused on targeting smugglers, and the agency has spent more than $50 million on the effort since April, a DHS spokesperson said. 



Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/number-migrants-crossing-border-dropping-part-due-us-agents-helping-na-rcna40528

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Meanwhile, Fox is lying about a "surge of illegals at the border."

July 25, 2022

The Salton Sea could produce the world's greenest lithium, if new extraction technologies work

About 40 miles north of the California-Mexico border lies the shrinking, landlocked lake known as the Salton Sea. Though the lake was once the epicenter of a thriving resort community, water contamination and decades of drought have contributed to a collapse of its once-vibrant ecosystem and given rise to ghost towns. But amid this environmental disaster, the California Energy Commission estimates that there’s enough lithium here to meet all of the United States’ projected future demand and 40% of the world’s demand. That’s big news for the booming electric-vehicle industry, as lithium is the common denominator across all types of EV batteries.

Traditionally, lithium extraction involves either open-pit mining or evaporation ponds, which work by pumping lithium-containing brine to the surface and waiting for the water to dry up. Both of these methods have huge land footprints, are often very water intensive and can create a lot of contamination and waste.

But at the Salton Sea, three companies are developing chemical processes to extract lithium in a much cleaner way, taking advantage of the Salton Sea’s rich geothermal resources. Near the lake, there are already 11 operating geothermal power plants, 10 of which are owned by Berkshire Hathaway’s renewable energy division, BHE Renewables.

“We are already pumping 50,000 gallons of brine per minute across all of our 10 geothermal facilities to the surface,” said Alicia Knapp, president and CEO of BHE Renewables, “and we’re using the steam from that brine to generate clean energy. So we’re really halfway there in that we’ve got the lithium right here in our hands.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/04/the-salton-sea-could-produce-the-worlds-greenest-lithium.html

July 20, 2022

Everyone should know who is the Director of the Secret Service, James Murray.

As Lawrence O'Donnell pointed out tonight, James Murray is a Trump guy, and has done a really good job of keeping his name out of the news, even though he oversaw the purging of the January 5 & 6 texts at the Secret Service. Trump appointed him head of the Secret Service in 2019, after Murray proved his loyalty to Trump. He needs to be subpoenaed to explain what happened to those January 5 & 6 texts.

The irony is Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, has hired James Murray, to start on August 1, 2022, as the company’s chief security officer---after he oversaw the loss of the most important texts in Secret Service history. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/snap-james-murray-secret-service-snapchat-1235176832/

July 8, 2022

Doctors fear another COVID-19 surge is coming due to subvariant's 'capacity for reinfection'

A new omicron subvariant known as BA.5 has the potential to reinfect those who tested positive only a few months ago. It’s now the dominant strain in the U.S., and it’s highly contagious, even for those who are vaccinated and boosted.

“Unlike any other variant, it has this incredible capacity for immune escape … Because it tends to have this capacity for reinfection, we’re worried we’re going to see increasing cases this summer,” said Dr. Nicole Van Groningen of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

This is bad news for the 3.1 million people in the L.A. area who’ve already recovered from COVID-19, according to Dr. Dean Blumberg of UC Davis.

“There’s emerging evidence to suggest with each repeat infection, there are other complications that may occur, such as strokes, heart attacks and other long-term complications,” Blumberg said.

https://ktla.com/news/doctors-fear-another-covid-19-surge-is-coming-due-to-subvariants-capacity-for-reinfection/