Government tries to shelve pollution action plan until after election

The government has made a last-minute application to the high court to delay the publication of its plan to tackle the air pollution crisis.

Ministers were under a court direction to produce tougher draft measures to tackle illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution, which is largely caused by diesel traffic, by 4pm on Monday. The government’s original plans had been dismissed by judges as so poor as to be unlawful.

But following the announcement by Theresa May of a general election on 8 June, ministers lodged a lengthy application to the court late on Friday. It is understood they are asking judges to allow them to breach Monday’s deadline and submit a draft in June – after the general election.

It is understood that a full policy will not be produced until September this year.

The government has had months to come up with its air quality plans and Whitehall sources indicated to the Guardian this week they would be published in time.

The late application to delay publication was condemned by the environmental lawyers group ClientEarth, which successfully took the government to court over its air quality plans. MPs have said air pollution in the UK is a public health emergency that causes 40,000 premature deaths a year.

James Thornton, CEO of ClientEarth, said: “We are urgently considering the government’s application to delay the publication of the draft air quality plan which was received on Friday evening, less than one working day before the plans are due.

“It is far from acceptable that ministers have left this to the very last minute. The government proposes to delay the publication of the air quality plan despite the clear public health risk caused by illegal air quality. These plans are essential to safeguard public health and they should be put in place without delay.”

The application is likely to be considered by judges on Monday. Judges have already told ministers that their plans were taking too long and imposed the deadline to force the government to come up with new measures more quickly.

The government lodged a lengthy application shortly before 7pm on Friday to the court, which was too late for the court to accept. It will now be considered early next week.

Thornton said the general election was not an acceptable reason to delay taking action against air pollution.

“This is not a political issue but a public health issue. Whichever party is in power, the British public need to see an air quality plan which relies on good scientific evidence and which ensures that people no longer have to breathe toxic air and suffer the grave consequences to their health as a result,” he said.

Greenpeace also condemned the delaying tactics. Anna Jones, from Greenpeace UK said: “Ministers have had months to come up with a robust plan to tackle illegal air pollution. They have no excuses to delay its publication any further.

“The Cabinet Office guidance makes it clear that essential consultations can still be launched during purdah, and even mentions safeguarding public health as a ground for exceptions.

“Air pollution is a full-blown public health emergency, linked to thousands of premature deaths and a host of health problems. If the government intends to use the election as a pretext to buy more time, that would only be a sign that they just don’t get the gravity of the situation.”

A joint Guardian/Greenpeace investigation revealed this month that hundreds of thousands of children were being educated within 150 metres of a road where levels of nitrogen dioxide from diesel traffic breached legal limits.

A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs said: “We are firmly committed to improving the UK’s air quality and cutting harmful emissions. We are seeking an extension to comply with pre-election propriety rules.”

Government tries to shelve pollution action plan until after election

Arkansas Governor Tries To Muzzle Opposition To State"s ObamaCare Medicaid Expansion

By Josh Archambault and Chris Cinquemani. Mr. Archambault is a Senior Fellow, Mr. Cinquemani directs communications at the Foundation for Government Accountability.

When it comes to Arkansas’ “Private Option” Medicaid growth, we have not shied away from highlighting its significant design and style flaws and the political fallout a lot of of its most vocal cheerleaders have endured for embracing this keystone of ObamaCare.

For illustration, we have reported that the Personal Option has run over budget every single month of operation. We have reported that Arkansas officials are searching for a bailout from the federal government — which would be paid for by all American taxpayers — to deal with these overruns. And we have noted that the political tides have turned towards the Personal Option among Arkansas voters, with its chief architect, a three-phrase Republican state legislator, dropping his primary election to a political novice.

Gov. Mike Beebe’s (D) workers has been functioning to silence individuals examining private choice data and implementation. Photo Credit: Danny Johnston, AP

Not everyone appreciates our efforts to safeguard taxpayers. As the news surrounding the Personal Option will get worse, proponents are seeking to silence their opposition.

In late May, Apothecary editors obtained an e mail from Matt DeCample, communications director and spokesman for Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe. Apparently DeCample was none-as well-pleased with our reporting, or what he calls “political activism being spread below the Forbes banner.”

RAZOR BACK, THIN SKIN

Gov. Beebe’s spokesperson gives sufficient lip service to cost-free speech, acknowledging that “criticism and opposing viewpoints are element of an open and full debate.” But DeCample proceeds to display a surprising dose of intolerance for dissent. Although claiming the Beebe Administration is “not making an attempt to stop truthful criticism and differences of viewpoint,” DeCample is attempting to do just that by contacting the editors here at Forbes to propose that our operate is a blight on their track record.

Even worse, DeCample refers to our perform as “misinformation and fabrication,” “fallacies” and “dishonest political activism.” But he ignores the fact that every single argument and claim we have manufactured on this site concerning Arkansas’ Personal Option has been sourced to on-the-record feedback, news accounts, election results and information launched by the Administration’s own Department of Human Solutions.

DeCample failed to recognize a single factual error in our coverage. As an alternative, he dismissed sourced, factual details — significantly of which came from Beebe’s own bureaucrats — as “activism” within an “echo chamber,” even though pointing in the direction of a left-leaning blogger in the state as a far more independent supply of data. If DeCample or the Beebe Administration had been really interested in getting a policy debate, they could just situation a public, fact-primarily based response to our arguments. They chose as an alternative to resort to private intimidation and identify-calling, which, in our view, says a great deal about the intellectual strength of their position.

GOVERNOR’S Staff CONFIRMS THAT THE Personal Selection Truly IS OBAMACARE MEDICAID Growth

While we strongly disagree with the Beebe Administration about the merits of ObamaCare expansion, DeCample deserve credit for admitting what many ObamaCare Personal Choice supporters will not. Numerous of them — particularly the Republican legislators who pushed it by way of the Arkansas Legislature — have been adamant that the Private Option is neither portion of ObamaCare, nor Medicaid growth:

But the spokesperson for the Governor who signed the Private Selection into law clearly disagrees:

We’ve lengthy know that its [Apothecary] editor, Avik Roy opposes the Arkansas Personal Option, our model of Medicaid growth under the Affordable Care Act.- (Emphasis added)

On this we complete-heartedly agree with DeCample and the Beebe Administration. It is impossible to see the Private Selection as something but an ObamaCare Medicaid expansion. It makes use of ObamaCare dollars to offer Medicaid companies to the entire population of folks targeted for ObamaCare’s Medicaid growth. Those Medicaid positive aspects are delivered via ObamaCare-accredited insurance coverage ideas sold on the ObamaCare exchange. Kudos to Gov. Beebe and his office for admitting what many legislative advocates of the Personal Choice will not.

One thing TO HIDE?

Arkansas Governor Tries To Muzzle Opposition To State"s ObamaCare Medicaid Expansion

So Fresh, So Unclean: NCAA Tries To Make University Freshmen Into NBA Outcasts

As soon as once more, the Kentucky Wildcats have sophisticated to the NCAA men’s basketball finals with a starting up lineup consisting of five freshmen.

Nevertheless, University of Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari nonetheless thought it would be sensible to publish an post in the Wall Street Journal, arguing that the NBA must not enable university freshmen to enter the NBA draft.  According to Calipari’s post,  ”very number of [freshmen] are truly prepared for the rigors of the NBA,” and college freshmen would advantage from “more class time and much more time on a university campus.”

Since then, NCAA President Mark Emmert has reiterated Calipari’s message in a nationwide press conference — explicitly calling for the NBA and its players union to modify its age requirement to preserve school freshmen out of the league.

Nevertheless sadly, this argument for trying to keep school freshmen out of the NBA draft looks fraught with NCAA leaders’ unclean hands.

With respect to Calipari’s claims that most freshmen basketball gamers are not ready for the rigors of playing in the NBA, the accomplishment of his personal staff led by freshmen would seem to entirely rebut that stage.

In addition,with regards to Calipari and Emmert’s suggestion that university freshmen want far more time in the classroom just before turning pro, then perhaps it is time for NCAA men’s basketball packages to stop pulling their own students out of class for up to 25% of spring semester days, just to play in nationally televised basketball games on channels this kind of as ESPN ESPN, CBS CBS, and Turner Sports.

Kentucky coach John Calipari desires to maintain university freshmen in college, even if NCAA schedules hold them out of class. (Photograph credit score: Wikipedia)

At present, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament is scheduled on Monday evening, exclusively for television functions.  This implies the two teams in the championship game need to miss class on Monday for the game, as properly as on Tuesday for travel and sleep.

If school freshmen really necessary more class time, the NCAA could simply move the championship game to a Sunday afternoon.

College basketball players could also simply perform the initial 3 rounds of the NCAA men’s basketball tournaments exclusively on Saturday and Sundays (back to back style, as is done in the Ivy League), obviating the require to miss up to six further class days throughout the first these rounds of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

Yet, these basic adjustments to give university freshmen much more class time also have constantly been rejected by the NCAA’s membership since it would cost the trade association useful tv dollars.

With that stated, it is tough to dispute the argument that several school basketball players would advantage from acquiring a conventional training before turning professional.  For numerous, a college education is a valuable experience.  And, as trite as it might sound, we only get to be younger once.

But as prolonged as the NCAA and its member schools carry on to pull school basketball gamers out of class for functions of maximizing their very own television revenues, it is hard to fathom a good faith purpose for these athletes to remain in college longer than the absolute minimum necessary.

Beneath the recent way that university basketball operates, NCAA men’s basketball players from day one have lost the innocence of amateurism.

They just are not obtaining paid for it.

____________________________

Marc Edelman is an Associate Professor of Law at the City University of New York’s Baruch College, Zicklin College of Business, in which he has published a lot more than 25 law assessment articles on sports activities law issues.  His most latest articles contain “A Quick Treatise on Amateurism and Antitrust Law” and “The Future of Amateurism following Antitrust Scrutiny.”

So Fresh, So Unclean: NCAA Tries To Make University Freshmen Into NBA Outcasts