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Groton Daily Independent
Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 223 ~ 33 of 52
“We live in a very toxic environment politically, particularly around issues of the environment,” Pruitt said in an interview with a New Hampshire newspaper. “We’ve reached the point where there’s not much civility in the marketplace and it’s created, you know, it’s created some issues and the (security) detail, the level of protection is determined by the level of threat.”
Pruitt is the rst EPA administrator to have a 24-hour security detail, even inside the agency’s secured headquarters in Washington. He has also taken other security precautions, including the addition of a $25,000 soundproof “privacy booth” inside his of ce to prevent eavesdropping on his phone calls and spending $3,000 to have his of ce swept for hidden listening devices.
Pruitt has denied he played any role in purchasing the premium-class tickets, saying his chief of staff and EPA security had made those decisions.
Federal regulations allow government travelers to y business class or rst class when no cheaper op- tions are “reasonably available” or if there are exceptional security circumstances. However, past federal audits have found that those rules have been routinely violated by high-ranking government of cials under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Pruitt’s frequent government-funded travel, which records show has often included weekend layovers in his home state of Oklahoma, is already under review by EPA’s internal watchdog.
The use of luxury air travel by members of Trump’s Cabinet has been attracting attention for months. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price was forced to resign in September following media reports he spent at least $400,000 in taxpayer funds on private jets for himself and his staff.
A report recently released by the inspector general at the Department of Veterans Affairs found that Secretary David Shulkin and his staff made “false representations” to justify his wife accompanying him at taxpayer expense on an 11-day European trip that mixed business and sightseeing.
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Follow AP environmental writer Michael Biesecker at http://Twitter.com/mbieseck
Pennsylvania congressional map battle lands in Supreme Court By MARK SCOLFORO, Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A request by Republican leaders in the Pennsylvania Legislature to stop a new congressional map from being implemented is now in the hands of the nation’s highest court.
The ling made late Wednesday asked Justice Samuel Alito to intervene, saying the state Supreme Court overstepped its authority in imposing a new map.
More litigation may follow, as Republicans are considering a separate legal challenge in federal court in Harrisburg this week.
The state Supreme Court last month threw out a Republican-crafted map that was considered among the nation’s most gerrymandered, saying the 2011 plan violated the state constitution’s guarantee of free and equal elections.
The new map the state justices announced Monday is widely viewed as giving Democrats an edge as they seek to recapture enough U.S. House seats to reclaim the majority.
House Speaker Mike Turzai and Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati said the state’s highest court made an unprecedented decision.
“The Pennsylvania Supreme Court conspicuously seized the redistricting process and prevented any meaningful ability for the Legislature to enact a remedial map to ensure a court drawn map,” they wrote in a ling made electronically after business hours.
The challenge adds uncertainty as candidates are preparing to circulate nominating petitions to get their names on the May primary ballot.
A spokesman for Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, responding to the lawmakers’ ling, said Wolf was “focused on making sure the Department of State is fully complying with the court’s order by updating their systems and assisting candidates, county election of cials and voters preparing for the primary election.”
It is the third time in four months that Turzai and Scarnati have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to put a