Day 802

[matt (Matt Kiser)]

Updated 4/1/2019 1:59 PM PDT

1/ Senior Trump administration officials overturned and granted at least 25 security clearances – including two current senior White House officials – to people who were initially denied by career employees for "serious disqualifying issues" in their backgrounds. Tricia Newbold, a whistleblower working in the White House Personnel Security Office, told the House Oversight and Reform Committee that she warned her superiors that clearances "were not always adjudicated in the best interest of national security." Newbold claims she was retaliated again for declining to issue security clearances, including being suspended without pay for 14 days. (New York Times / Washington Post / Politico / Associated Press / CNN / Wall Street Journal)

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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2019/04/01/day-802/

[macro (M A Croft)]

@matt

More than 750,000 people would likely lose their food stamps under a new proposal by the Trump administration to encourage able-bodied adults to get a job . The administration wants to stop food stamps after three months for able-bodied adults without dependents who don’t work, volunteer or get job training for at least 20 hours a week

Yeah that’ll work.
Here in NZ our last National led govt (right wing) implemented a similar policy by making it much harder for unemployed to get the benefits to which they as citizens were entitled. This programme, coupled with a hugely rampant housing bubble, has resulted in NZ now having the highest rate of homelessness in the western world.

NZ tops list of developed countries with most homeless

I am associated with our local food bank here in a small town of around 7500 people, which now accommodates around 30 - 40 rough sleepers each night. Our number of food parcels reached an all time high in 2017 - 18. The demand is now dropping away as a more enlightened govt under Jacinda has changed direction and eased access to social assistance. Just yesterday (that’s 1 April here) the govt raised the minimum wage to $17.20 per hour and benefits by around 2.6%. So we should see a further drop in demand at the food bank.

[anon95374541]

Um…WTF?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/chinese-woman-charged-with-illegally-entering-mar-a-lago/2019/04/02/e01a6b2c-557d-11e9-aa83-504f086bf5d6_story.html?utm_term=.eecad8efc5b2

A woman carrying two Chinese passports and a device containing computer malware lied to Secret Service agents and briefly gained admission to President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club over the weekend during his Florida visit, federal prosecutors allege in court documents.

Yujing Zhang, 32, approached a Secret Service agent at a checkpoint outside the Palm Beach club early Saturday afternoon and said she was a member who wanted to use the pool, court documents said. She showed the passports as identification.

Agents say she wasn’t on the membership list, but a club manager thought Zhang was the daughter of a member. Agents say that when they asked Zhang if the member was her father, she did not answer definitively but they thought it might be a language barrier and admitted her.

Zhang’s story changed when she got inside, agents say, telling a front desk receptionist she was there to attend the United Nations Chinese American Association event scheduled for that evening. No such event was scheduled and agents were summoned.