monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

[...] During an interview on “CBS This Morning,” Wray flatly denied being the author and declined to say whether Trump’s request would meet a threshold to investigate.

“First off, I can tell you I didn’t write it. I didn’t have anything to do with it,” Wray said. “Second, I would tell you we’re not really in the practice of confirming or discussing whether we’re going to be conducting a particular investigation. I would tell you that we’re going to make decisions about that kind of thing based on all the factors we normally do, which is whether or not we have sufficient evidence of federal crime.”

Wray’s statement might disappoint some who have been hoping the Justice Department would forcefully reject the idea of a politically driven investigation. But his hint that the FBI needs to find evidence of a crime might be read as a gentle way of saying no to Trump’s demand.

When President Trump arrived in Puerto Rico about two weeks after Hurricane Maria hit the island, it was still only in the early stages of its recovery. Days after he left, only 10 percent of the island had power, only a quarter of cellphone towers were operational and only half the island had water. A report from the Government Accountability Office released earlier this month noted that there were any number of reasons for the slow recovery, including a lack of resources, difficult terrain and crippled infrastructure.

During that visit, Trump praised the efforts of federal workers to aid the island and celebrated the low death toll. At the time, only 16 people were counted in the official death toll -- but this was well before much of the island had been thoroughly assessed, much less aided or restored to normal. By the time Trump was on Air Force One headed back to the United States, the number of people reported to have died as a result of the storm had more than doubled to 45.
... ... ...

Number of immigrant children in U.S. detention facilities nears 13,000

A new report reveals figures have skyrocketed as the Trump administration struggles to release minors to sponsors or family members.

The number of immigrant children held in detention facilities in the United States has skyrocketed over the past year, according to a New York Times report published Thursday.

The report cites “data collected by the Department of Health and Human Services” and was shared with members of Congress, who then gave the information to the Times. It reveals the Trump administration is currently holding at least 12,800 immigrant minors in various detention facilities across the country. In May 2017, the number was around 2,400.

“The huge increases, which have placed the federal shelter system near capacity, are due not to an influx of children entering the country, but a reduction in the number being released to live with families and other sponsors […],” the Times wrote. “Some of those who work in the migrant shelter network say the bottleneck is straining both the children and the system that cares for them.”

Rush Limbaugh on Hurricane Florence: "The forecast and the destruction potential doom and gloom is all to heighten the belief in climate change"
Limbaugh: "Hurricanes and hurricane forecasting is like much else that the left has gotten its hands on, and they politicize these things"

FEMA will put 1,000 displaced Puerto Ricans out on the streets this Friday

“They are going to be left on the streets and organizations are scrambling, trying to figure out what to do."

More than 1,000 Puerto Ricans, displaced by last year’s hurricanes, have been living temporarily in hotels and motels throughout the country while they await more permanent housing alternatives — major repair to their own homes, for example, or help finding a new place to live. But they are now bracing for the likelihood they will become homeless this week.

A federal judge in Massachusetts on August 30 allowed the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to stop funding its Transitional Shelter Assistance (TSA) program, which allows hurricane-displaced people to live in hotels or motels throughout Puerto Rico and the U.S. mainland.

The Trump administration has been heavily criticized on its failure to support recovery efforts in Puerto Rico after Hurricanes Maria and Irma ravaged the island, killing an estimated 3,000 people. With Hurricane Florence set to rock much of the mid-Atlantic coast over the weekend, it was reported the Trump administration moved nearly $10 million from FEMA to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. Trump has repeatedly said the administration did a good job handling last year’s hurricanes, and is prepared to handle this year’s.

On top of the thousands left dead by the storms, the administration continues to bungle its response. FEMA had placed more than 19,000 storm-displaced people into short-term shelters between October 2017 and June 2018. But advocates say thousands more have been living on the streets, in cars, in storm-destroyed homes, or crammed into overcrowded homes on the U.S. mainland and in Puerto Rico.

The latest court ruling to allow FEMA to kick families out of temporary shelter is in line with the administration’s careless approach to families left homeless for almost a year now.

FEMA told ThinkProgress 1,002 households are currently checked into hotels through the program, and they will be losing their federal support at check-out on Friday. The federal judge who authorized FEMA to end the program, urged the agency to work with the people enrolled in the program to find alternative housing so they are not left homeless. However, according to the civil rights advocacy group LatinoJustice PRLDEF, which represents the hurricane survivors enrolled in the program in court, the federal agency has not done that.

“The concrete consequence of FEMA ending the TSA program program without ensuring a safe transition into alternative housing is, in fact, eviction,” said Natasha Lycia Ora Bannan, an associate counsel at LatinoJustice.

“It’s a struggle to make sure they are not left homeless,” Bannan added. “They are going to be left on the streets and organizations are scrambling, trying to figure out what to do… This is exactly what we were trying to avoid.”

FEMA has been trying to cut funding to the program since June. U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Hillman temporarily blocked FEMA from doing so after LatinoJustice filed a restraining order against the federal agency. On August 30, Hillman denied the advocacy group’s request for a preliminary injunction, but he acknowledged people were going to be left homeless and ordered the program remain funded for a few more weeks so FEMA could help people find other arrangements.

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