Biden re-opens Trump-era child migrant prison – National & International News – THU 25Feb2021

Biden re-opens Trump-era child migrant prison. Postmaster: USPS in “death spiral”. Overboard sailor survives 14 hours clinging to sea rubbish. US to release declassified report on Saudi journalist’s murder.

NATIONAL NEWS

Biden under fire for re-opening Trump-era child migrant prison

Progressives have criticized the Biden administration for re-opening a private child migrant detention facility in Carrizo Springs, TX.  In the last month, officials have found 6000 lone minors crossing the southern border. The Office of Refugee Settlement, which oversees the care of unaccompanied minor migrants, says this influx has made it necessary to re-open the controversial facility. Other facilities where lone minors would normally be housed are over capacity due to COVID.

During the 2020 campaign, Biden promised to shutter these facilities for good. Progressives in Congress, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have taken the White House to task, saying they are trying to dress-up what is essentially a kiddie jail as a summer camp. The Carrizo Springs facility has dormitories, classrooms sports fields and other recreational facilities. But children are not allowed to leave the camp. The administration has used COVID as an excuse to re-open the camp, but while the children will be tested, the administration has not yet commented on whether others coming and going from the camp will be tested.

The conditions of the children’s incarceration in the camp is also illegal. The 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement stipulates that the federal government can house unaccompanied children to a licensed, “non-secure” facility for up to 20 days. Carrizo Springs is “secure” (children can’t leave), unlicensed, and the White House children may be kept there at least 30 days.

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Postmaster: USPS in “death spiral”

Trump-appointed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that the US Postal Service is in a “death spiral” and requires urgent reform. Dejoy said the service is losing $10 billion a year and has proposed a 10-year “break-even” plan.

DeJoy garnered controversy last summer for changes he proposed to delivery standards and other operational aspects that would have made it more difficult for people to get mail-in ballots in on time. Those changes were suspended until after the election. However, the USPS is still plagued by unprecedented service delays.

Democrats have been pressuring President Biden to remove DeJoy, but so far he has made no move to do so. Instead, he has appointed three new members of the postal board to serve under DeJoy. 

Budget crunch

Part of the reason for the USPS’ budget woes is a 2006 law requiring the service to pre-fund $120 billion in retiree health care and pension liabilities for its employees. No other private business or federal agency is subject to such a requirement. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney has drafted legislation to do away with this requirement and require postal employees to enroll in Medicare. This would save the agency $40-$50 billion over ten years. Dejoy says this alone won’t solve the problem.

New Postal Board chairman Ron Bloom says the USPS will lose $160 billion over the next decade. He told lawmakers “we can’t just throw money at the problem. We must address the systemic issues plaguing its outdated model”. One of his proposals called on the White House to calculate pension obligations “using modern actuarial principles”, which would save another $12 billion.

American Postal Workers Union head Mark Dimondstein urged Congress to award a further $15 billion grant and a separate $25 billion “modernization grant”.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Overboard sailor survives 14 hours clinging to sea rubbish

After falling overboard from his cargo ship in a remote area of the Pacific Ocean, Vidam Perevertilov, 54, survived 14 hours without a life jacket by clinging to floating debris. Perevertilov, a Lithuanian, is the chief engineer of the Silver Supporter. The ship was making a supply run between New Zealand’s Tauranga port and the remote British territory of Pitcairn (of “Mutiny on the Bounty” fame). In the early morning of Feb. 16, Perevertilov became dizzy in the heat of the engine and went up top for some fresh air. He may have fainted before falling overboard.

Perevertilov’s decision to swim to a distant “black dot” 2 kilometers away saved his life. The dot turned out to be an abandoned fishing buoy, which Perevertilov clung to until his rescue.

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US to release declassified report on Saudi journalist murder

The White House will soon release a newly-declassified report on the 2018 murder of Saudi dissident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Khashoggi had entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to apply for a marriage license. As Khashoggi’s fiancee waited outside, agents of the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman brutally murdered and dismembered Khashoggi inside the consulate. The agents then removed Khashoggi piece-by-piece from the consulate in garbage bags.

Many expect that the report will implicate Prince Mohammed. Officials say the report indicates that Prince Mohammed approved “and likely ordered” Khashoggi’s murder. These are based on the findings of an earlier CIA investigation, which then-President Trump denied existed. The CIA assessment cites a phone call from the crown prince’s brother, Prince Khalid bin Salman. At the time of the murder, Prince Khalid was the Saudi ambassador to the US.

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