Twinkle Cavanaugh leaves Public Service Commission for Trump administration job
Twinkle Cavanaugh leaves Public Service Commission for Trump administration job
Show Caption
Hide Caption
President Donald Trump speaks at the University of Alabama
President Donald Trump spoke at a pre-commencement event to graduates and supporters in Coleman Coliseum at the University of Alabama.
Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh will step down as president of Alabama's Public Service Commission to take a role in President Donald Trump's administration, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Cavanaugh will serve as the state director of rural development in Alabama.
According to the news release, Cavanaugh will 'affirm the mission of the Trump Administration by focusing on finding ways to empower rural America and unleash economic prosperity.'
A message seeking comment was left Tuesday with Gina Maiola, a spokeswoman for Gov. Kay Ivey, who is responsible for appointing the interim president. According to al.com, Maiola said the governor will appoint someone 'in the coming days.'
Cavanaugh, a former chair of the Alabama Republican Party, was first elected to the Public Service Commission in 2010. In 2012, she was elected president of the commission, defeating Lucy Baxley, who at the time was the last Democrat holding statewide office in Alabama.
The Public Service Commission is the state's utility regulator, though critics have long accused it of being passive toward the companies it oversees. The PSC since 1982 has operated under a system that guarantees utilities a profit, a process different from a formal rate hearing, where an entity must justify any rate increases.
Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, an independent nonprofit website covering politics and policy in state capitals around the nation.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Chicago Tribune
35 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
US boosts emergency Middle East evacuations and travel warnings after Trump orders strikes in Iran
WASHINGTON — The State Department has doubled the number of emergency evacuation flights it is providing for American citizens wishing to leave Israel, ordered the departure of nonessential staff from the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon and is stepping up travel warnings around the Middle East amid concerns Iran will retaliate against U.S. interests in the region. In internal and public notices, the department over the weekend significantly ramped up its cautionary advice to Americans in the Mideast. In a notice on Sunday, after American strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities, the department said it had ordered nonessential personnel and the families of staff at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut to leave Lebanon 'due to the volatile and unpredictable security situation in the region.' The notice made no mention of any potential evacuation flights or other assistance for private Americans wanting to leave Lebanon but said those who want to should try to use existing commercial services to depart. At the same time, the department issued warnings to U.S. citizens in Saudi Arabia and Turkey to take extra security precautions given the uncertainty. 'Given reports of regional hostilities, the U.S. Mission to Saudi Arabia has advised its personnel to exercise increased caution and limit non-essential travel to any military installations in the region,' the department said in its notice for Saudi Arabia. In Turkey, the department said U.S. personnel 'have been cautioned to maintain a low profile and instructed to avoid personal travel to the U.S. Consulate Adana consular district,' which includes the NATO airbase at Incirlik. 'Negative sentiment toward U.S. foreign policy may prompt actions against U.S. or Western interests in Turkey,' the statement said. Late Saturday, the department said it was stepping up evacuation flights for American citizens from Israel to Europe and continuing to draw down its staff at diplomatic missions in Iraq. But even before the U.S. airstrikes on Iran were made public by President Donald Trump on Saturday evening in Washington, the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem had announced the start of evacuation flights for private Americans from Israel. Sixty-seven American citizens left Israel on two government flights bound for Athens, Greece on Saturday and four more evacuation flights to Athens were planned for Sunday, according to internal State Department document seen by The Associated Press. A nongovernment charter flight is scheduled to depart Israel for Rome on Monday. In addition to the flights, a cruise ship carrying more than 1,000 American citizens, including several hundred Jewish youngsters who had been visiting Israel on an organized tour, arrived in Cyprus, according to the document. It also said the evacuation of non-essential personnel at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and consulate in Erbil is continuing. Those staffers had been ordered to leave even before Israel began its military operation in Iran more than a week ago. 'As part of our ongoing effort to streamline operations, additional personnel departed Iraq on June 21 and 22,' the department said. 'These departures represent a continuation of the process started on June 12.' As of Saturday, more than 7,900 Americans had asked for assistance in leaving Israel and more than 1,000 had sought help in leaving Iran, where the U.S. has no diplomatic presence, the document said. There are roughly 700,000 Americans, many of them dual U.S.-Israeli citizens, in Israel and many thousands of Americans, most of them dual in Iran. It was not clear how many Americans had successfully made it out of Iran through overland routes, although the document said more than 200 had entered neighboring Azerbaijan as of Saturday since the conflict began. After the U.S. strikes in Iran, security officers at all U.S. embassies and consulates have been instructed to conduct reviews of their post's security posture and report back to the State Department by late Sunday.
Newsweek
36 minutes ago
- Newsweek
DHS Issues Heightened Terror Threat for Americans
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a threat summary in a National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin Sunday following Saturday's strikes on three key-nuclear facilities in Iran. "The ongoing Iran conflict is causing a heightened threat environment in the United States," the DHS statement said. DHS also said, "low-level cyber attacks against US networks by pro-Iranian hacktivists are likely, and cyber actors affiliated with the Iranian government may conduct attacks against US networks." The warning came amid escalating tensions between the US, its allies, and Iran and its supporters. President Donald Trump authorized the strikes on nuclear weapons facilities because he felt that Iran was no longer negotiating in good faith and instead was waiting out the clock to continue to build up their nuclear power, Vice President JD Vance said during an interview on Meet The Press Sunday. The department has issued information on resources to stay safe, outlining who to call and how to report concerns. This is a breaking news story. Updates to come.
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
What is Iran's next move? US bracing for response to nuke strikes: Live updates
Concerns swirled Monday over possible payback by Tehran against the U.S. or its allies after a strike on three Iranian nuclear facilities amid fears of an all-out Mideast conflict. The U.S. remained on "high alert" with its 40,000 troops in the region two days after President Donald Trump ordered the bombing of Fordow, a uranium enrichment facility deep inside a remote mountain in Iran, and facilities at Natanz and Isfahan. The Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin warning of a "heightened threat environment" in the U.S. The alert from the National Terrorism Advisory system said attacks from low-level cyber 'hacktivists' are likely, and larger attacks could follow if Iranian leaders issue a religious ruling 'calling for retaliatory violence against targets in the Homeland.' On Sunday, U.S. officials claimed an exhubertant victory with the pinpoint strikes, saying Iran's nuclear program had been decimated. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called the bombings an "incredible and overwhelming success." Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine warned Iranian retaliation "would be an incredibly poor choice. We will defend ourselves. The safety of our service members and civilians remains our highest priority." Concerns also mounted over the possible closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil and gas route. The Iranian parliament backed a measure to close the strait, but the final decision was up to Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Iranian TV said. Will Iran strike back at the US? Iran − and its hard-line supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – are almost certainly going to strike back in response to historic U.S. military strikes on three of its suspected nuclear facilities. But if history is any guide, that response could happen at any time − and anywhere, and in any form, former U.S. intelligence officials and diplomatic experts say. 'Missiles, militias and acts of hostage-taking – that's their go-to' range of options, the Biden administration coordinator for the Middle East, Brett McGurk, said on CNN June 21. 'I suspect Iran will have to do something.' Read more here. −Josh Meyer Visual look at the strikes: See how Operation Midnight Hammer unfolded Operation Midnight Hammer used 'bunker busters' The U.S. used more than a dozen multimillion-dollar, 30,000-pound "bunker busters" to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities in the strike, known as Operation Midnight Hammer, marking the weapon's first operational use, according to the Pentagon. U.S. bomber planes dropped 14 of the massive bombs on three of Iran's nuclear facilities, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said. The bombs used in the strikes, called Massive Ordnance Penetrators, or MOPs, weigh 30,000 pounds each and cost millions to produce. MOPs, also known as the Guided Bomb Unit, or GBU-57, are GPS-guided weapons designed to burrow deep into underground targets, such as fortified tunnels or bunkers. The bombs are about 20 feet long and span 6 feet at their widest point. Read more here. − Cybele Mayes-Osterman What is the War Powers Act? Some lawmakers, including rigid conservatives and key progressives, are calling the U.S. strikes a breach of the Constitution,. "The President's disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and Congressional War Powers," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, posted on X. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, responded to Trump's social media assessment of the attack with the statement: "This is not Constitutional." The War Powers Resolution of 1973 requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of military action. The law also limits the deployment of armed forces beyond 90 days in the absence of a formal declaration of war. − Savannah Kuchar Why did the US strike Iran's nuke sites? Trump ordered the strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, effectively joining a war that Israel started on June 13 when it began bombing Iranian nuclear and military infrastructure. Israel said it helped the U.S. coordinate and plan the strikes. Trump said all three sites were "totally obliterated." But an independent assessment has not yet been carried out. The International Atomic Energy Agency − the United Nation's nuclear watchdog − released a statement saying that so far it had not detected an increase in "off-site radiation levels," one of the feared consequences of the strikes. Vice President JD Vance insisted Sunday that the U.S. is not entering an open-ended conflict in the Middle East. 'We're not at war with Iran. We're at war with Iran's nuclear program.' Vance said on NBC.
