Russia and election security
The Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee concluded this week that Russia targeted election systems in all 50 states in the 2016 election, and issued a bipartisan report warning that the U.S. remains vulnerable in 2020. It also made recommendations, many of them redacted for security reasons, for securing our elections. Though the committee found no evidence that any votes were changed, it said Russian hackers “were in a position” to delete or change voter data in the Illinois voter database, David Sanger and Catie Edmondson report for The New York Times.
“The report — the first volume of several to be released from the committee’s investigation into Russia’s 2016 election interference — came 24 hours after the former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III warned that Russia was moving again to interfere ‘as we sit here,'” the Times reports.
Though some details about Russian hacking are well-known, the report calls attention to a more wide-reaching effort than has been previously acknowledged, and one that federal and state officials, and local election officials, mostly weren’t aware of at the time, Sanger and Edmondson report.
“While the Senate Intelligence Committee’s findings were bipartisan, they came on a day when Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, moved again to block consideration of election security legislation put forward by Democrats,” the Times notes. “And despite the warnings about the Russia threat, he argues that Congress has already done enough, passing $380 million worth of grants for states to update their election systems and supporting executive branch agencies as they make their own changes. Some administration officials have suggested that the issue is not getting enough high-level attention because President Trump equates any public discussion of malign Russian election activity with questions about the legitimacy of his victory.”
–The Rural Blog
Details of $16 billion farm bailout package revealed
“The Trump administration revealed details of its $16 billion aid package for farmers hit in the U.S.-China trade war — with key provisions meant to avoid large corporations scooping up big payouts at the expense of small farmers,” Laura Reiley reports for The Washington Post.
Here are the highlights:
The payout for individual farmers has been raised to $250,000 per person or legal entity, up from $125,000 per category in the 2018 package. Also new this year: a $500,000 cap in total payments across three categories, which was created in response to claims of significant abuse in last year’s aid package. The categories are: row crops; specialty crops like nuts or fruit; and dairy or pork.
Eligible farmers will get between $15 and $150 per acre, regardless of crop. Counties will determine the exact amount of reimbursement. Payment rates are based on Department of Agriculture estimates of trade damage.
The aid will be paid out in three installments; half will be paid out in the first installment, in August.
Most of the aid goes directly to farmers, but $1.4 billion is set aside to purchase food from farmers and distribute it to food banks.
“While America’s farmers and ranchers are grateful for the administration’s agriculture assistance package, it only begins to relieve the great difficulty the agriculture industry is currently facing, ranging from extreme weather conditions to depressed markets,” said Dale Moore, executive vice president of the American Farm Bureau Federation.
Supreme Court lifts freeze on money for Trump’s wall
The Supreme Court cleared the way Friday for the Trump administration to tap Pentagon funds to build sections of a border wall with Mexico.
The court said it would lift a freeze on the money put in place by a lower court. The court’s action means the Trump administration can tap the funds and begin work on four contracts it has awarded.
Federal government resumes executions
The Associated Press has reported that the federal government will resume executing death-row inmates for the first time since 2003, ending an informal moratorium even as the nation sees a broad shift away from capital punishment.
Reporters Michael Balsamo and Colleen Long wrote:
Attorney General William Barr
Attorney General William Barr instructed the Bureau of Prisons to schedule executions starting in December for five men, all accused of murdering children. Although the death penalty remains legal in 30 states, executions on the federal level are rare.
“The Justice Department upholds the rule of law — and we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system,” Barr said.
The move is likely to stir up fresh interest in an issue that has largely lain dormant in recent years, adding a new front to the culture battles that President Donald Trump already is waging on matters such as abortion and immigration in the lead-up to the 2020 elections. . .
The death penalty remains legal in 30 states, but only a handful regularly conduct executions. Texas has executed 108 prisoners since 2010, far more than any other state.
Executions on the federal level have long been rare. The government has put to death only three defendants since restoring the federal death penalty in 1988, the most recent of which occurred in 2003, when Louis Jones was executed for the 1995 kidnapping, rape and murder of a young female soldier. . .
