Free Republic

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — Former President Donald Trump visited East Palestine on Wednesday, where he delivered truckloads of bottled water following a train derailment earlier this month that left the small town in disarray. “President Trump is meeting with the citizens of East Palestine, and he will never forget them and what they are going through. Contrast that with Biden and the federal government, who have failed them from the beginning,” Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung told Breitbart News. John Rourke, the CEO of Blue Line Moving, which transported the pallets of water to East Palestine, told Breitbart News the company...

Just started speaking.......

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg acknowledged Tuesday that he "could have spoken sooner" about the disastrous Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, that has caused serious health and environmental concerns because of the hazardous chemicals it was transporting. The 38 cars that derailed roughly two weeks ago [cut] "I have followed the normal practice of transportation secretaries in the early days after a crash, allowing NTSB to lead the safety work and staying out of their way," he said. "But I am very eager to have conversations with people in East Palestine about how this is impacted them." [cut]...

Confirming next week's planned trip to East Palestine, Ohio, former President Donald Trump took a bow for motivating the Biden administration into action on responding to the toxic fallout from the train derailment earlier this month. "Biden and FEMA said they would not be sending federal aid to East Palestine," Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday morning, a statement also posted to his campaign website. "As soon as I announced that I'm going, he announced a team will go. Hopefully he will also be there. This is good news because we got them to 'move.' The people of East...

The White House explained why it turned down Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine's request for disaster relief this week in the aftermath of a derailment of a train hauling toxic chemicals. A Biden administration official told Fox News Digital that it has provided extensive assistance to surrounding communities following the chemical release earlier this month in eastern Ohio. However, the official said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the agency that usually provides relief to communities hit by hurricanes and other natural disasters, isn't best equipped to support the state's current needs.

The memories of surviving Hurricane Maria still haunt people in Puerto Rico, four years after the storm wreaked havoc on the U.S. territory on Sept. 20, 2017. ...Hurricane Maria left $90 billion in damages and Congress allocated at least $63 billion for disaster relief and recovery operations. Four years later, about 71 percent of those funds have not reached communities on the island archipelago. Puerto Rico has received about $18 billion, according to FEMA's Recovery Support Function Leadership Group.... ...The Fiscal Oversight and Management Board overseeing Puerto Rico’s finances has said the remaining bulk of the reconstruction aid is scheduled...

The federal government has denied Gov. Tim Walz's request for aid to help rebuild and repair Twin Cities structures that were damaged in the unrest following George Floyd's death. Walz asked President Donald Trump to declare a "major disaster" for the state of Minnesota in his request to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on July 2. More than 1,500 buildings were damaged by fires, looting and vandalism in the days of unrest that followed Floyd's May 25 death in Minneapolis police custody, racking up more than $500 million in damages, according to Walz. The governor's spokesman, Teddy Tschann, confirmed...

Volunteers build temporary housing for refugees

Over the weekend, we looked at allegations that HUD had broken the law by not kicking off disaster relief fund disbursement for Puerto Rico in a timely fashion following Hurricane Maria. HUD officials offered some reasons why they didn’t meet the deadline, but none of them seemed to be particularly persuasive under the circumstances.At the time I noted that the press (and their friends, the Democrats) would likely take this opportunity to go after HUD Secretary Ben Carson, who has long been a target to tag some sort of scandal on. As the old saying goes… that didn’t take long....

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, blocked a disaster relief bill in the House on Friday by objecting to a unanimous consent vote. The Texas Republican who previously worked for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), argued the House should not have recessed before debating the legislation and holding a vote. “I'm here today primarily because if I do not object, Congress will have passed into law a bill that spends $19 billion of taxpayer money without members of Congress being present in our nation's capital to vote on it,” he said on the floor. “Secondly,...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The federal government has rejected $306 million in reimbursements for California's repair of damaged spillways on the nation's tallest dam, a state agency said Friday. California has so far requested about $639 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the Oroville Dam repairs, said Lisa Lien-Mager of the state's Natural Resources Agency. FEMA has agreed to cover $333 million. That's less than about a third of the $1.1 billion the state's Department of Water Resources said it took to repair the dam. Spillways on the Oroville Dam crumbled and fell away during heavy rains in February...

Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló has long blamed his predecessors and those in Washington – namely Republicans including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) – for his woes.Rosselló has called the ground-breaking Tax Cuts and Jobs Act a setback for the island.  The governor has also criticized the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, despite their efforts to rebuild the power utility long-neglected by a long line of Puerto Rico leaders.While many things about Puerto Rico’s governance remain opaque, one thing is quite clear: Gov. Rosselló will stop at nothing to blame everyone else for his own failings. By blaming others and feigning...

As Hurricane Irma leaves behind a trail of destruction and pain, the nation again turns its eyes to disaster relief. Just a few weeks ago, Hurricane Harvey brought out the best in many of us. Desiring to aid victims in Texas, celebrities traded on their popularity to encourage donations and volunteers. Average citizens opened up their wallets, gave of their time, and expended energy as they rushed to help fellow citizens. Local non-profits and large multi-national corporations alike demonstrated that compassion is a universal trait of humanity. No doubt, the response to Hurricane Irma will be just as compassionate and swift.As people and organizations rush to Florida to aid...

As Hurricane Harvey’s inland sea drains from Houston, the cleanup tally is rising: $180 billion for Texas alone, equal to the entire GDP of New Zealand. We in Texas and Louisiana – and perhaps Florida – direly need funds to haul debris, fix houses and schools, replace cars, and build better flood protection. With all these needs, a carbon tax can help. A federal tax on carbon would discourage emissions of carbon dioxide and other GHGs that are warming the seas and the air. Done right, a carbon tax would also bankroll cleanup campaigns led by FEMA and local agencies....

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is promising billions to help Texas rebuild from Harvey-caused epic flooding, but his Republican allies in the House are looking at cutting almost $1 billion from disaster accounts to help finance the president’s border wall. The pending reduction to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief account is part of a massive spending bill that the House is scheduled to consider next week when lawmakers return from their August recess. The $876 million cut, which is included in the 1,305-page measure’s homeland security section, pays for roughly half the cost of Trump’s down payment...

Three months after leaving the White House in 2001, former President Bill Clinton arrived in India to cheering throngs to help those who had just lost a million homes in the aftermath of a massive earthquake that killed 20,000 and injured 166,000. In classic Clinton style, he solemnly promised that his new nonprofit — called the American India Foundation (AIF) — would rebuild 100 villages. Rajat Gupta, his millionaire co-chairman, pledged $1 billion for the victims. It never happened. Years later, AIF’s annual reports were reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation and show only seven villages were partially rebuilt...

President Obama is expected to travel to Baton Rouge next Tuesday to get a first hand look at the devastating flood damage in the state. This is a developing story. Please check back in for updates.

When a devastating earthquake leveled Haiti in 2010, millions of people donated to the American Red Cross. The charity raised almost half a billion dollars. It was one of its most successful fundraising efforts ever. The American Red Cross vowed to help Haitians rebuild, but after five years the Red Cross' legacy in Haiti is not new roads, or schools, or hundreds of new homes. It's difficult to know where all the money went. NPR and ProPublica went in search of the nearly $500 million and found a string of poorly managed projects, questionable spending and dubious claims of success,...

The presidential ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton have become ensnared in an obscure gold-mining project in Haiti, as the Democratic favorite for the presidency begins her second run for the White House. In a story that suggests cronyism, questionable ethics and a blurring of the lines between charity and profiteering, The Daily Mail reported on Sunday that Hillary Clinton's brother, Tony Rodham, sat on the board of VCS Mining when the unlisted, Delaware-based junior was granted a permit to mine gold in Haiti following a massive earthquake on the impoverished island nation in 2010. The permit was the first to...

Adding a headache for Gov. Chris Christie, a federal agency will investigate whether New Jersey improperly spent Hurricane Sandy relief money on an ad campaign that featured the governor while he was running for re-election, a lawmaker said Monday. The Department of Housing and Urban Development will audit $25 million in federal money that the state spent to promote tourism and the Jersey Shore, said Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey. Pallone is a Democrat, Christie a Republican. …