Biden administration to reinstate mercury pollution rules weakened under Trump
The Biden administration on Monday reinstated a way of measuring the benefits of reducing air pollution, the first step in a plan that could tighten limits on the amount of mercury that can be discharged from coal-burning power plants. Mercury is a neurotoxin that poses a particular danger to the brain development of children and fetuses. The announcement is among recent actions taken or planned by the Biden administration aimed at reducing pollution in air and water. After a first year in which President Joe Biden tried to push ambitious climate legislation through Congress only to see it stall, the administration is using its regulatory machinery to try to curb pollution.
Federal judge rejects hate-crime plea deals in Arbery killing
A federal judge Monday rejected plea agreements with the Justice Department for two of the three white men facing hate crime charges in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery after his family expressed fierce opposition to the deal. It was a surprising and extraordinary twist in a case in which a 25-year-old Black man was chased through a southern Georgia neighborhood by three white men and then shot to death. The plea deals would have been the first time that any of the men had admitted that Arbery’s killing was racially motivated. All three men had been convicted of murder in state court in November.
FDA grants Moderna’s vaccine full approval
The Food and Drug Administration on Monday granted full approval to Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine, the second-most widely used in the United States and the second to receive full regulatory approval. The vaccine, which can be administered to adults and has been shown to be highly effective at preventing virus infections and severe cases of COVID-19, has been in use for more than a year under an emergency-use authorization. That rigorous standard lets federal regulators allow use of the shot in a public health emergency before they complete a longer, more detailed review. The vaccine received emergency-use authorization in December 2020.
US, allies close to reviving nuclear deal with Iran, officials say
The United States and its European allies appear on the cusp of restoring the deal that limited Iran’s nuclear program, Biden administration officials said Monday, but cautioned that it is now up to the new government in Tehran to decide whether, after months of negotiations, it is willing to dismantle much of its nuclear production equipment in return for sanctions relief. Speaking to reporters in Washington, a senior State Department official signaled that negotiators had reached the broad outlines of a potential agreement after discussions last week in Vienna. It would essentially retur n to the 2015 deal that President Donald Trump discarded four years ago.
Georgia prosecutor investigating Trump seeks safety assistance from FBI
The district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, who is conducting a criminal investigation of former President Donald Trump has asked for an FBI risk assessment of the county courthouse in downtown Atlanta, citing “alarming” rhetoric used by Trump over the weekend. The Fulton County prosecutor, Fani Willis, is planning to impanel a special grand jury to look into accusations Trump and his allies tried to improperly influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. The investigation is looking into a call that Trump made to Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, to pressure him to “find 11,780 votes” — the margin by which Trump lost the state.
By wire sources