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- President Trump Has a Pet-Project Docket at the National Parks
President Trump gets what he wants, when he wants it, from the National Park Service. One and a half million dollars to replace brick pavers in Lafayette Park, across from the White House? Contracting officials at the NPS Washington headquarters found the money within five days last month. A $170,000 request to remove a fence around the Hains Point golf course, preparing the ground for a new “championship-quality” layout? Six days this summer. And the more–than–$5 million project to gild equine statues along the nearby Memorial Bridge? That took 12 days.The rapid-approval system is specific to projects Trump wants, thanks to a reorganization at the Interior Department led by Secretary Doug Burgum. Trump issued an executive order to make the District of Columbia “safe and beautiful,” justifying the creation of an NPS docket of “White House priorities” that is handled separately from other park projects and is prioritized both for funding and contracting resources, according to documents I obtained and interviews with five current or former NPS officials. Meanwhile, many other projects throughout the nationwide system of parks are languishing.The list I received includes Trump’s well-known projects on the National Mall and the refurbishment of the White House, along with several lesser-known efforts: The hiring and equipping of 450 new U.S. Park Police officers in the Washington region, and more than $12.8 million—some of which came from the Department of Justice—for police equipment, including new Flock license-plate-reading cameras, radios, tasers, laptops, body cameras, and body armor. Internal documentation for park projects typically includes “Consequences of Failure to Act,” which scores the urgency based on health and safety measures. When work began in January on fountains near the White House, officials described the need for the work in this way: “Such failure will disappoint visitors, as well as residents and employees of the White House.”The new project-funding system was described by a contracting officer during an April meeting with NPS officials. “There’s three different lists: White House priorities, high priorities, and low priorities,” the official told colleagues on the virtual call, according to a written account that was provided to me. Those on the call, who do not work on White House priorities, were advised that projects on the low-priority list likely would not be completed, so they should attempt to get their needs moved to the high-priority list. White House priorities, meanwhile, were nonnegotiable. As Washington is beautified at great… [TheTopNews] Read More.4 days ago - How American Media Is Gaslighting Europeans on Air Conditioning
In the southern foothills of the Italian Alps, the crystal waters of Lago d’Orta have been disturbed by an unfamiliar ritual this month. A small yellow plane dips down to skim the surface of the lake and fill its tank, then hums away to drop its cargo on wildfires. Lightning struck Monte Barone, a humble peak that boasts not-so-humble views of taller peaks beyond, on August 3. My boyfriend typically climbs the mountain each year on his birthday, August 5. Instead, for two weeks, we watched from the relative safety of Guardabosone, a small, terracotta-roofed village from which his great-grandfather immigrated to London, and to which his family has returned annually since, as flames crept down toward us. By the end of our stay, nearly four square miles had burned, and two other fires had started between Monte Barone and the Swiss border. Smoke obscured views of the ridges around us, and the orange sunlight that landed slanted on the floor mirrored the sort I’ve become increasingly familiar with as a daughter of California, but which this region—typically lush and green until the foliage turns in fall—has not previously known. For months, Europe has sweated through the circumstances that birthed the Monte Barone blaze, as well as far larger fires in France and Spain: successive heat waves and drought conditions. As we watched the plumes of smoke grow day after day, a thought pounded through my overheated skull. These infernos were entirely foreseen, yet international media spent a whole lot of words on air conditioning (AC) this summer. American outlets in particular opined from an unduly high horse. On June 26, the week France recorded its hottest day on record (a record broken the following day), Fox News hosted Bjørn Lomborg, the Danish political scientist and climate contrarian known for his opposition to conventional policy prescriptions, who chided Europeans for their slow adoption of AC. “We’ve had this technology for more than a century,” Lomborg said, “and Europe doesn’t want to use it mostly because they want to feel virtuous,” adding that European Union energy taxes increase the cost of running AC. The same week, Breitbart blasted “left-wing climate change alarmists” for demonizing AC; The Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote that European “governments prefer that their citizens sweat it out rather than use the modern invention known as air conditioning”; and CNN asked… [TheTopNews] Read More.4 days ago - Workforce Pell’s Missing Rudder
For decades, Washington has been generous to Americans who could spend semesters or years earning a college credential. It has done far less for those who couldn’t follow that path because they were raising children, working full time, or simply needed income sooner than a standard college degree or certificate could provide. When those students managed to get any postsecondary credential, it was usually because they paid for it themselves, borrowed the money, or patched together support from an employer or a state program that Washington had no hand in. They were relegated to the least-developed corners of higher education, mostly workforce programs offered by community colleges or for-profit providers, where students were sometimes badly served and left with debt and a credential that never paid off. Extending Pell aid to short-term credentials is one of the more significant expansions of access the federal government has made in higher education in years. They also rarely received the advising or other support available to degree-seekers down the hall. Often, the courses they completed did not even count toward a further credential. That changed, at least on paper, in July 2026. Workforce Pell was created under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. It made students in short-term job-training programs eligible for Pell Grants for the first time. The program stretches a financial-aid system built around fifteen-week college semesters to cover programs as short as eight weeks. Workforce Pell was grafted onto a Pell Grant program that distributed roughly $39 billion in the 2025 fiscal year, almost all of it to traditional degree-seekers. Extending that aid to short-term credentials is one of the more significant expansions of access the federal government has made in higher education in years. The case for the program is strong. For students who could never justify stepping away from work or family for two or more years, Workforce Pell could open a real door into the traditional college system. It gives colleges a reason to connect noncredit certificates to further credit-bearing study rather than treating workforce students as customers who pass through and disappear. And because the law ties funding to outcomes, it could push colleges to build the same kind of tracking and advising infrastructure for workforce students that degree-seekers already have. To remain eligible, a Workforce Pell program must show a completion rate of at least 70 percent and a job-placement rate of at least… [TheTopNews] Read More.4 days ago - 0% intro APR until 2024 is 100% insane
[TheTopNews] Read More.5 days ago - CNN Political BriefingThe political news you need to know, in 10 minutes or less. Hosted by David Chalian. [TheTopNews] Read More.5 days ago
- The Axe Files with David AxelrodGo beyond the soundbites and get to know some of the most interesting players in politics. [TheTopNews] Read More.5 days ago
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