BRINGING OVER:
Schiff, Nadler call for DOJ inspector general review of Barr comments related to Trump firing of ICIG
... the Justice Department on Friday responded to the calls from Feinstein and Warner and argued Barr’s remarks were entirely accurate.
A Justice Department official told Fox News that the dispute between Atkinson and Maguire was based on his demand that the whistleblower complaint, which prompted the president’s impeachment inquiry, be sent to Congress before it was sent to the Criminal Division of the Justice Department for review.
The seven-day period, according to the DOJ official, gave the DNI the time to review whether the allegations presented an “urgent concern,” but they said it was not intended or provided the time to review the merits. The official maintained that Barr correctly described Atkinson as insisting that the complaint go immediately to Congress before “the executive branch [could] look at it and determine whether there was any problem.”
1,508 posted on 4/20/2020, 4:20:52 PM by Steven W.
Newsom’s secretive $1-billion mask deal with Chinese automaker sparks bipartisan concerns
https://news.yahoo.com/newsoms-secretive-1-billion-mask-190626226.html
BYD, a Shenzhen-based company whose initials stand for “Build Your Dreams,” has staked its reputation on building electric vehicles. It has a U.S. subsidiary based in Los Angeles, with a vehicle manufacturing facility in Lancaster. The company currently employs about 1,000 people in California, a company spokesman said.
Exactly how BYD has converted some of its manufacturing efforts in China to begin producing protective masks is unclear. On March 13, it touted the creation of “the world’s largest mass-produced face masks plant” in a news release posted on the company’s website. The company announced that it would make 5 million masks a day — far surpassing the 100 million masks a month promised by 3M, the company best known for producing N95 masks, used to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
A spokesman for BYD referred all questions about negotiations over the purchase of masks to Newsom’s office.
Newsom and other top officials have described the gambit as straightforward: Leverage the state government’s purchasing power, backed up by a multibillion-dollar cash surplus, to buy 200 million masks a month. The masks would then be distributed to healthcare and emergency workers across California, a supply chain that would continue through the end of June.
Administration officials have said that each monthly shipment from BYD will contain 150 million N95 masks and 50 million surgical masks.
“We made a big, bold bet on a new strategy, and it is bearing fruit,” Newsom said on April 8.
That same day, The Times asked for a copy of the contract to purchase the masks. On Monday, the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services delayed responding to the request until May 4.
BYD is well known in California government circles. In 2013, then-Gov. Jerry Brown announced the company’s decision to build electric buses in Southern California during a trade mission to China. It was a key component of the state’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, he said.
I suppose we could remind them of the Kevin Johnson matter.
President Barack Obama says he has lost confidence in the inspector general who investigates AmeriCorps and other national service programs and has told Congress he is removing him from the position.
Obama’s move follows an investigation by IG Gerald Walpin finding misuse of federal grants by a nonprofit education group led by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, who is an Obama supporter and former NBA basketball star.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/31325894/ns/us_news-giving/t/obama-fires-americorps-inspector-general/