Month: June 2018

A lawyer tapped to lead a task force at the Environmental Protection Agency overseeing cleanups at the nation’s most polluted places worked until recently for a top chemical and plastics manufacturer with a troubled legacy of creating some of those toxic sites. Steven D. Cook has been named as the new chair of the Superfund …

An anonymous bidder offered more than $3.3 million Friday for a private lunch with Warren Buffett, an amount just short of the record paid in 2016 and 2012 for the chance to pick the brain of the renowned investor and philanthropist. An online auction that raises money for the Glide Foundation’s work to help the …

For Muslims, the month of Ramadan is a time for self-reflection and prayer — and fasting from sunrise to sunset. After sunset, families and friends enjoy a meal called Iftar. At a mosque in Virginia, outside Washington, people of various faiths came to Iftar one evening and to join Muslims in prayer. VOA’s Deborah Block …

President Donald Trump says America is safe because the U.S. Coast Guard is “strong.” Trump calls the Coast Guard the “elite force” that defends borders, patrols the waters, protects U.S. cities and keeps enemies at bay. He spoke Friday while presiding over a Coast Guard change-of-command ceremony in Washington. Adm. Karl Schultz became the 26th …

Puerto Rico’s Institute of Statistics is suing the island’s health department and demographic registry to obtain data on the number of deaths following Hurricane Maria as a growing number of critics accuse the government of lacking transparency. The lawsuit was filed Thursday, the same day that Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello told CNN there would …

Officials say the remaining wreckage of United Flight 93 will be returned later this year to the Pennsylvania memorial marking where it crashed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Flight 93 National Memorial Superintendent Stephen Clark says the wreckage will be buried in a restricted area of the park Shanksville that’s accessible only to loved ones …

U.S. comedian Samantha Bee has apologized for comments directed at White House adviser Ivanka Trump that Bee now says were “inappropriate and inexcusable.” Bee hosts a late-night talk show on the U.S. network TBS where she often comments at length on U.S. politics. On Wednesday, Bee took to task a U.S. immigration policy that separates …

A federal court in New Orleans on Thursday indicted five men for allegedly conspiring to smuggle 90 endangered birds to Taiwan. They included parrots, macaws, cockatoos and corellas. The birds are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. “These indictments demonstrate our commitment shared with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service to investigate and …

The race to become president on the country’s largest American Indian reservation has drawn a record number of candidates with 19 filing for the office. The field includes tribal President Russell Begaye, Vice President Jonathan Nez, three women, and others who have previously held or sought the tribe’s top two elected positions.  The number is …