TN: Ousted Memphis lawmaker reinstated; GOP Governor orders tighter gun background checks – National & International News – WED 13Apr2023

TN: Ousted Memphis lawmaker reinstated; GOP Governor orders tighter gun background checks.

Texas town waits and worries as giant sinkhole expands.

China menaces Taiwan with military drills circling island.

NATIONAL NEWS

TN: Ousted Memphis lawmaker reinstated; GOP Governor orders tighter gun background checks

Today, the Shelby County Board of Commissioners voted 7-0 to return Justin Pearson to the statehouse to represent the western edge of Memphis. Pearson and fellow lawmaker Justin Jones of Nashville, both Black, were expelled from the legislature last week. Two weeks ago, Reps. Pearson, Jones and Gloria Johnson of Knoxville addressed a crowd of protesters demanding gun reforms on the floor of the House. The Republican supermajority then set a vote to expel all three for a “breach of decorum”. Johnson, who is white, survived expulsion by one vote. Nashville’s Metro Council unanimously reappointed Jones on Monday.

Justin and Pearson’s expulsion garnered nationwide attention. It also brought more scrutiny for Republican lawmakers who refused to even allow discussion of new gun reforms on the House floor following last month’s school shooting in Nashville. In a surprise move yesterday, Tennessee’s Republican Gov. Bill Lee passed an executive order to tighten background checks for gun purchases. The order requires all criminal history and court mental health records to be entered into the Tennessee Instant Check System or provided to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation within 72 hours.

With this order, Lee hopes to make it easier to screen individuals who are unfit to have access to firearms. Lee, who lost a close friend in the March 27 shooting at Nashville’s Covenant School, has called on lawmakers to go further by passing a red flag law. Red flag laws empower a close family member or a member of law enforcement to temporarily confiscate firearms from people who pose a threat to themselves or others.

Texas town waits and worries as giant sinkhole expands

In 2008, a 20-foot sinkhole opened up in Daisetta, TX, about 50 miles northeast of Houston. Over two days, it grew to be about 900 feet across and 260 feet deep. Following this alarming growth, the sinkhole seemed to stabilize.

The Daisetta sinkhole

The sinkhole has since become something of an attraction in Daisetta and locals even take small boats out to fish on it. But on April 2, locals heard loud popping sounds which they described as sounding like gunfire. Overnight, the hole swallowed up a few more acres and is now more than 1000 feet wide and 400 feet deep.

Families who have homes near the sinkhole have feared being swallowed up in the middle of the night, having seen other structures and oil tanks fall into it. Sinkhole expansion is unpredictable. Some grow gradually and some grow rapidly all at once.

For now, local officials haven’t ordered any evacuations, and it’s not really clear what they can do. The EPA has been checking storage tanks near the sinkhole to see whether their contents might pose any environmental threats if they fall in.

A geologist explains

Randall Orndorff is a research geologist who studied the sinkhole when it first opened in 2008. He explains that the town of Daisetta sits on a salt dome, which was formed by tectonic processes during the Middle Jurassic period over 160 million years ago.

These salt domes are important in oil exploration, and, in the case of Daisetta, storage for wastewater from drilling. “They drill these vertical holes [through the salt dome] and pump the waste down there. And usually, everything is fine,” Orndorff said. “But the problem is salt is dissolvable.”

This part of Texas has been hit by intense hurricanes in recent years. The rain washes down into the bedrock, seeps into existing fissures which expand to form caves. At the same time, surface soil slowly washes into these new gaps.

“That means that you could have this void underneath your feet and never know it. As time goes by, that void is getting closer and closer to the surface,” Orndorff explained. Then you add all of the weight of water from a heavy rain or a storm and it just can’t hold up”.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

China menaces Taiwan with military drills circling island 

Last week, Taiwan’s pro-independence Prime Minister Tsai Ing Wen met with Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy as she traveled through the US. China has responded by conducting military drills which have encircled the island for several days, essentially cutting it off. This is similar to what occurred last year following a visit to the island from then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

China claims Taiwan as a renegade province and has long sought Taiwan’s political reunification with the Mainland. Taiwan is self-governed and democratic and has been courting greater diplomatic ties with the US in recent years. While the US nominally acknowledges Taiwan as part of China, the US has embraced a policy of “strategic ambiguity” regarding its reunification with China. US policy states that reunification must be peaceful and a US law requires the US to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself.

The Taiwan issue has contributed to growing friction between China and the West, which many fear is spiraling out of control. French President Emmanuel Macron recently cautioned his European neighbors against blindly following the US lead on Taiwan.

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