21 Jan 2021 | News
Biden vows immigration reform to attract top talent to the US
New President’s plans could make visas easier for foreign students and tech-industry workers – but it will be a long battle in Congress, and the debate is already underway
In one of his first acts, US President Joe Biden began a sweeping overhaul of US immigration law that – if approved by Congress – would make it easier for researchers, engineers and science students to come to the US.
By executive order, Biden immediately dismantled his predecessor’s ban on US travel for citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. While affecting all kinds of travelers from those countries, in the research and tech sectors it had disrupted some collaborative research projects, and interrupted the flow of international students and tech workers. In a statement, the new administration called the ban “inconsistent with American values.”
Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour
5 (Recent) Actions That Epitomize Andrew Wheeler’s Caustic Chemical Safety Legacy
Genna Reed, Senior Analyst | January 15, 2021, 12:53 pm EDT
As peoples’ minds have rightfully been on the state of our democracy and the Trump administration has been shedding agency heads left and right after inciting insurrection, the EPA’s administrator Andrew Wheeler has stuck around to finalize a long list of destructive items that represent the administration’s agenda all along: industry profits over public health.
Specifically, in its final days, the administration has taken a wrecking ball to the scientific basis for public protections against hazardous chemicals. Wheeler even had the gall to promote the EPA’s Environmental Justice report, after we know that under his leadership, longstanding inequities have been neglected or made even worse. For example, environmental conta
David Legates and Ryan Maue were dismissed from White House positions due to unauthorized involvement in producing papers bearing presidential seal that question climate science findings.
Published: Tuesday, January 12, 2021
David Legates. Photo credit: The Heartland Institute/Youtube
David Legates, a political appointee at NOAA, attends a Heartland Institute conference in 2019. Legates is promoting researchers who reject climate science. Heartland Institute/YouTube
A climate denier working under the purview of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy is attempting to publish cherry-picked and inaccurate research so that it can be permanently archived as a government record.
David Legates, who serves in a senior role at NOAA and is heading the U.S. Global Change Research Program, was brought to the Trump administration recently to challenge consensus climate science. A geologist from the University of Delaware and an affiliate of the Heartland Institute, he has said climate scientists make false claims for money and that humans need to burn more fossil fuels.