Latest news with #MORNING
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
New safety guidelines available for major Oklahoma events
Gov. Kevin Stitt shakes hands with Oklahoma County Sheriff Tommie Johnson Thursday as he thanks Johnson for his work developing a set of safety guidelines for major events in Oklahoma. (Photo by Emma Murphy/Oklahoma Voice) OKLAHOMA CITY — As Oklahoma City prepares to host the first games of this year's NBA Finals, Gov. Kevin Stitt on Thursday announced the launch of new security protocols for major events developed by the Secure Oklahoma NOW advisory council. The guidelines were crafted over five months by a 12-member advisory council who are 'subject matter experts' on emergency preparedness and response. The tool is currently available online for use in planning large events and in case emergency response is needed. Oklahoma Commissioner of Public Safety Tim Tipton said having this set of standards will help to prevent emergency events and allow for proper responses. 'Prevention is always our primary goal, but then we also have to be prepared for response,' he said. 'If that bad thing happens, then how do we respond? How do we mitigate the amount of damage or harm or hurt that our citizens might be affected by?' The guidelines are a 'living document' that will change as threats and technology evolve, Tipton said. 'It's one of those deals that there's really no room for failure on our part, we've got to make this work every time,' he said. The nine-page guide creates a rating system based on various factors at an event like attendance, venue, traffic and event type. Recommendations for steps to take are offered based on an event's rating, with resources provided to implement the guidelines. The council is made up of Oklahoma's public safety, law enforcement, emergency management and counterterrorism officials who helped craft the recommendations. Stitt established the council with an executive order Jan. 13 following an attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on New Year's Day that killed 14 people. 'We're just seeing some of these kind of attacks happen,' he said. 'And as we look forward to the big events here in Oklahoma, I just want to make sure that that as Oklahoma, we're as well prepared as we can to address it in these threats. So tonight, we have the Oklahoma City Thunder game coming up and then we're going to have a championship parade, hopefully, in a couple of weeks. And so the whole world's going to be looking at our city.' Local officials will have a better understanding of what state resources are available to them, Stitt said, including threat assessments from the Oklahoma Counter Terrorism Intelligence Center and a drone response team from the state Department of Public Safety. Both Stitt and Tipton encouraged Oklahomans to use the Protect OK app to report concerning or suspicious activity. Submissions to the app are constantly monitored, Tipton said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Pulaski and Izard Counties subject to election integrity review by state board
From left, Chris Madison, director of the State Board of Election Commissioners, and commissioners William Luther, Jamie Clemmer and Bilenda Harris-Ritter. (Photo by Sonny Albarado/Arkansas Advocate) The Arkansas State Board of Election Commissioners on Wednesday authorized election integrity reviews for Pulaski and Izard counties. The board also voted unanimously to decertify all three members of an unnamed county's election commission after hearing the results of its staff's investigation of complaints about the 2024 general election. The board doesn't name counties when levying sanctions until the affected county and individuals have an opportunity to respond and either accept or challenge the proposed sanctions. State law allows the board to conduct election integrity reviews in the odd-numbered years following an election. The board can choose the counties randomly or by a two-thirds vote if it has received information a substantial violation of election or voter registration laws has occurred. The board issued a letter of reprimand earlier this month to Pulaski County Clerk Terri Hollingsworth over violations of state election law during early voting last year. A deputy clerk changed the street addresses of 132 voters in a precinct file without authorization, according to the SBEC letter. Other clerk's office employees caught the changes two days later but not before four voters had cast the wrong ballots. The employee resigned shortly after the incident, the letter says. Unauthorized changes to voter records are considered a felony under A.C.A. 7-1-104, and the SBEC referred the matter to the Pulaski County prosecutor and the attorney general's Election Integrity Unit. The SBEC also issued a letter of warning to the Pulaski County clerk for failing to prevent unauthorized changes to voter records. The election integrity reviews approved by the state board Wednesday will seek to identify errors and any evidence of fraud in voter registration records and absentee voting documents as well as verify the accuracy and integrity of election results, according to ACA 7-4-124. No specific mention was made about the reason Izard County will be the subject of an election integrity review, but the board voted at its December meeting to refer complaints from election monitors to SBEC staff for investigation. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Separate votes by the seven-member SBEC mean the chairman of the unnamed county's election commission won't be able to work in an official election role for 14 years and the other two commissioners for eight years. SBEC Director Chris Madison said it would be up to the respective county political party committees to appoint new members to the election commission if the sanctions are accepted. County election commissions are composed of three members, two from the majority political party and one from the minority party. County election officials were the subject of six complaints to the state board, including two that referred to a hostile environment created by the election commission chair and poll supervisors toward poll watchers. The allegations included 'hostility and [an] overall lack of professionalism in dealing with poll watchers' and a failure by the chair and poll supervisors to 'recognize the rights and responsibilities of the poll watchers, thereby preventing the poll watchers from performing their duties,' SBEC legal counsel Waylan Cooper said. Cooper said the investigation found evidence supporting the allegations, including an incident when the county commission chairman called sheriff's deputies to remove a poll watcher after the poll supervisor tried to prevent the watcher from sitting in a chair that allowed a full view of the voting process. The chairman also raised his voice while telling poll watchers they were being ejected from the location, intimidating at least one potential watcher from participating further, Cooper said. 'The hostility toward poll watchers later spread' to another voting site in the same city on Election Day, Cooper said, when a disagreement between the poll supervisor and a poll watcher led to the supervisor's husband, who was also a poll worker, verbally accosting the watcher with profanity and telling the watcher to leave. 'The backstory is that there's two political factions in this community, and the election officials are on one side of a local issue and the poll watchers on the other,' Madison told the board. Madison made a similar remark about Izard County during the board's December meeting: '[Izard County] has a city that has two very engaged factions, and Hatfields and McCoys kind of comes to mind.' 'They have to be professional and adult enough to put aside that they don't like the people who are poll watchers and allow them to do their jobs,' SBEC member Sharon Brooks said. The law requires it and their training demands it, 'and they're not doing that,' she said. The board voted unanimously to decertify the supervisor and her husband for four years. Madison noted that the couple has since moved to another county and Clemmer's motion applies statewide. Regarding the allegations against the county commission chairman, SBEC member Bilenda Harris-Ritter said, 'I think it's unconscionable that the chair of the election commission is behaving like this … and encouraging other officials to behave like this.' Harris-Ritter offered the motion to decertify the commission chair for seven two-year federal election cycles, the maximum the state board can impose. Madison said the action was appropriate 'to help solve some problems up there.' The SBEC staff will be intimately involved in the county's election processes going forward, he said. The board voted separately to decertify the other two members of that county's election commission over a complaint that the commission didn't deliver provisional ballots to the clerk and secretary of state until a week after the deadline. Unlike in many Arkansas counties, the clerk there is not the election coordinator; another member of the election commission is the coordinator. In another case, the board voted to decertify an election commissioner in a different county for 14 years over his failure to show up on time to open a polling place at the start of early voting. Board members in support of decertification noted similar issues had happened in previous years. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Ohio lawmakers want to replace all of the state's lead water lines
Drinking water photo from the Ohio Governor's Office. Ohio lawmakers are introducing a bipartisan bill they are hoping will not only improve the state's water quality, but also save lives. Ohio state Reps. Dontavius Jarrells, D-Columbus, and Monica Robb Blasdel, R-Columbiana, are introducing the Lead Line Replacement Act. 'This legislation aims to keep our community safe and healthy by implementing a comprehensive regulatory framework to plan, execute, and assist in the replacement of all lead water lines in the state of Ohio,' Robb Blasdel said. 'Lead water lines are a relic of the past. However, despite the danger, we know these are still in use all across our state.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Ohio has 745,000 lead service lines and nearly 4,000 Ohio children are tested for high levels of lead poisoning, said Jarrells, who is a survivor of lead poisoning. 'Ohio is in a crisis,' he said. 'The number (of lead poisoning) is likely higher because of the reality that not every child in this state is tested.' The use of lead pipes was banned by Congress in 1986. In 2021, Ohio ranked third in the nation for the most lead pipes, according to the EPA. Lead is able to enter drinking water through the corrosion of lead or lead-contaminated water service lines. No amount of lead exposure is safe for children, the lawmakers said. 'Replacing each of these (lead lines) will be a challenging task, but one we firmly believe is attainable,' Robb Blasdel said. 'This bill would mandate local water providers to work with the state to identify these lines, develop a plan to replace these lines with safe alternatives, and execute this plan over a 15 year time period.' The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency would be responsible for overseeing enacting this mandate if the legislation passes. 'This bill also prohibits partial replacements that can make contamination worse,' Jarrells said. It would cost nearly $5 billion to remediate every single lead line in Ohio, he said. 'I didn't introduce this in the budget because I wanted to do the work to make it bipartisan,' Jarrells said. He put forth a similar bill during the last General Assembly, but it only had sponsor testimony in committee. 'This is necessary,' Jarrells said. 'This is a human issue, and to introduce this bill with bipartisan support, that's how we're going to ultimately see this bill become law.' Lawmakers say replacing Ohio's lead lines would lead to fewer cases of dementia, depression, anemia, coronary heart disease, cardiovascular mortality, infant mortality, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Lead poisoning poses a threat not just to children. Adults exposed to lead are more likely to experience increased risks of cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, kidney and nervous system problems, said Annalisa Rocca, the drinking water manager for the Ohio Environmental Council Action Fund. 'I grew up turning on the kitchen tap without a second thought, and most Ohioans still do the same, unaware that an unseen lead service line may be supplying their water,' she said. Archie Beasley, lead program director of the Junction Coalition, serves a Toledo neighborhood that has 100-year-old homes with lead lines underneath them that are transporting lead into kitchens and bathrooms. 'We're going to make sure that no child goes to their kitchen sink, that no child goes to their grandmother's kitchen sink and gets water out of the refrigerator, and they're going to be drinking lead water that is going to impact their health,' he said. Follow Capital Journal Reporter Megan Henry on Bluesky. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
SD tests for ‘forever chemicals' in rivers to identify, address potential contamination
The Big Sioux River flows under a Highway 34 bridge near Egan in southeastern South Dakota. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight) South Dakota's state government is testing for 'forever chemicals' in rivers across the state. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been used in industry and consumer products since the 1940s, including in modern products such as nonstick cookware and water-resistant clothing, and don't break down easily in the environment or in the human body. Research indicates PFAS exposure may be linked to negative developmental and reproductive effects, and an increased risk of some cancers. Concerns about their prevalence in the environment and their impacts on human health have grown steadily in recent years, as they've been discovered in drinking water, fish and food packaging. State offering free PFAS cleanup to local fire departments, schools The Biden administration set first-ever limits on the chemicals in last year. EPA-mandated testing has found them in nearly half of Americans' drinking water. Publicly available test results found a type of PFAS called perfluorooctane sulfonic acid at Mount Rushmore National Memorial as well as smaller amounts of other PFAS contaminants in Aberdeen, Harrisburg, Rapid Valley Sanitary District, Lincoln County Rural Water System and the Mni Wiconi water system. The Trump administration is planning to weaken drinking water limits on PFAS, according to Politico. The state Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources began testing rivers this spring to 'establish a baseline' for the presence of PFAS in surface waters across the state, according to Ben Koisti, spokesman for the department. The department will use results to determine risks and help 'identify and address potential contaminant sources,' Koisti said in an emailed statement. 'The results can also be beneficial for water systems that use surface water as their water source,' Koisti said. 'If PFAS contamination is identified in an area and at concentrations that pose a potential risk to a drinking water system, DANR will take action to further identify the source and mitigate the contamination to protect the impacted water supply.' Testing is underway with additional sampling planned at the 30 testing sites this fall. Results will be posted on the department's website. The East Dakota Water Development District tested 11 sites along the Big Sioux River in eastern South Dakota last year, finding the contaminants were most concentrated downstream of cities like Watertown and Sioux Falls in its preliminary data. The department's sampling sites were selected based on geographic distribution, population density, and whether the surface water contributes to a drinking water supply. There are 26 water systems in the state that rely on surface water for drinking water. The project costs about $15,000 using federal EPA funds through the Public Water System Supervision grant. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Dingell and McDonald Rivet to co-chair congressional PFAS task force
U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor) and Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Bay City), will serve as co-chairs of the Bipartisan Congressional PFAS Task Force. | Photos by Andrew Roth and the Michigan Senate Two Michigan Democrats announced they will serve as co-chairs of the Bipartisan Congressional PFAS Task Force, working to stem the spread of so-called 'forever chemicals' in communities across the nation. U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor) and Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Bay City) will serve as the committee's Democratic co-chairs, alongside Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Penn.) and Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.), one of the task force's founding members. PFAS, a family of chemicals which are heat and oil resistant, are commonly used in products like nonstick cookware, carpeting, waterproof clothing and food packaging. The chemicals break down very slowly and can accumulate in the blood and organs of people and animals. Alongside products manufactured using PFAS, the chemicals can be found in food, drinking water and in the soil and water near waste sites. Labeled as an emerging contaminant by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, PFAS has been linked to several health conditions including harm to the immune system, increased risks of certain cancers —including prostate, kidney and testicular cancers — decreased fertility, high blood pressure in pregnant women and developmental delays or effects on children. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The state has previously estimated there are more than 11,000 sites within the state contaminated by PFAS, with the Michigan PFAS Action Response Team identifying 300 sites where groundwater has been contaminated by the hazardous chemicals. 'In Michigan we know all too well the urgent, growing threat PFAS pose. It's more important than ever we're taking serious action in Congress to keep PFAS out of our homes, water, and environment, hold polluters accountable, and clean up existing contamination,' Dingell said in a statement. Over the next two years, the task force's priorities will include: Advancing comprehensive legislation to end harmful PFAS pollution. Educating lawmakers and the public on the serious health and environmental consequences of PFAS exposure. Securing historic federal investments in research, remediation, and prevention. 'Our country needs to address the problems PFAS chemicals create head-on, which is why I'm proud to co-chair the bipartisan Congressional PFAS Task Force with both Republicans and Democrats,' McDonald Rivet said. 'We will work together to raise awareness of the risk of PFAS chemicals and advocate for commonsense solutions for our constituents.'
