Inches to one of the country's bedrock environmental laws if finalized federal agencies would no longer have to consider climate change before approving big projects such as oil pipelines and highways N.P.R.'s Jeff Brady has more the National Environmental Policy Act or Nepa is 50 years old and requires federal agencies to analyze a project's environmental consequences and also gives the public a chance to comment on government decisions for many years now a wide range of industries have complained that the need for a process is time consuming and expensive the changes expected today are designed to streamline that process but environmental groups say the changes would undermine the intent of the law and make it difficult to plan for the effects of climate change court challenges are expected and the changes are unlikely to be made final before the November election Jeff Brady n.p.r. News Puerto Rico continues to be shaken by earthquakes there have been half a dozen already today some with magnitudes greater than 3 a powerful tremor on Tuesday left one person dead several others injured and collapsed many buildings people in Puerto Rico are sleeping in the streets on a cots and under plastic sheeting about half the island's residents still lack electricity. You're listening to n.p.r. News from Washington support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include I drive maker of remote p.c. Providing remote access to computers anywhere for remote assistance and featuring remote p.c. Vision and augments a reality support tool learn more at remote p.c. Dot car. Good morning from News I'm Lisa Ray I'm the Atlanta Police Department is shifting its focus away from illegal narcotics as Lisa Hagen reports the a p d says it will disband its narcotics unit and use that manpower to instead focus on violent crime in guns it's not clear yet when members of the 20 person narcotics unit may start being reassigned but the agency says it will be soon in a statement spokesman Carlos Campos told. The department is decentralizing its narcotics unit in recognition that the violence that surrounds this trade should be the focus of the entire department not just one team The move follows on the heels of another policy shift from a.p.t chief Erika shields she announced late last week that her officers will no longer chase suspects fleeing in cars to innocent bystanders were killed in December by a car attempting to get away from officers Lisa Hagan w a b e News Mayor Kesha lands bottoms just a point in a new city contract compliance director that comes after former director Larry Scott was sentenced to 2 years in prison this week Scott pleaded guilty to wire fraud and tax evasion he worked under former Mayor casino reads administration new director Martin Clark will start immediately Lance bottom's has said that she chose Clark because of his history of prioritizing women and minority owned businesses and lettering slow when it comes to the nation's highest paying jobs that's according to the u.s. News and World Reports best jobs in 2020 list the Atlanta Business Chronicles Crystal Edmonson has more if you're looking for a lot of high paying jobs New York San Jose and San Francisco are the places to be in fact San Francisco paid well for most of the jobs on the list 77 positions by comparison metro Atlanta was considered a best paying city for just 4 positions according to u.s. News and World Report Atlanta pays a competitive salary for art directors and health. Gaiters the median salary for those Atlanta based jobs about $100000.00 Meanwhile the best paying job overall according to the list anesthesiologist with an average salary of $267000.00 from the Atlanta Business Chronicle I'm Krista Levinson for w.a.v. . On the next closer look at land a city council member a mere is calling for peace between the u.s. And Iran also our focus on the Georgia voter continues with Fulton County Elections Director Richard parent plus this is the secret room this is where all the yucky stuff ends up Georgia Tech's new research facility and why it's called a living building i'm room Scott closer look today at 190 point one. Ready to watch the best of p.b.s. Any time anyway on nearly any device it's easy with passport now you can watch the latest episodes of p.b.s. News Hour b.b.c. World news and frontline we'll catch up on documentaries and science shows you've missed and when you donate to w.a.b. Eat you can get passport giving you access to more episodes more specials more of what you get passport now and it's been the best of p.b.s. Any time you want any way you are go to w a b e dot org slash passport to start streaming day the Trump administration has informed the United Nations that when it killed Iran's general in a drone strike it was acting in self defense but members of Congress haven't seen evidence of that and according to some lawmakers who were briefed by the White House yesterday they have been instructed not to question the legitimacy of the strike or even ask tough questions about it our next guest was in that closed door briefing and afterwards called it quote insulting and demeaning he is Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah and he joins us now Senator thank you so much for talking with us thank you it's good to be with you you came out and came to the microphones and said it was the worst briefing you have seen on a military issue in your 9 years in the u.s. Senate what how. You know my anger was not about the salon monic health killing it was instead about the possibility of future military action against Iran and it was on that topic that they refused to make any commitment about when whether and under what circumstances it would be necessary for the president or the executive branch of government to come to Congress seeking authorization for the use of military force because Congress has not been able Congress was not given a heads up that the the strike was going to happen again that's right that's right and now I want to be clear with respect to this strike against soul of money that was the arguably lawful I still have questions that remain unanswered on that point I'm going to set that aside Sayah in a moment and I'm going to assume for purposes of this discussion that that may well have been lawful what I'm most concerned about about is about where that goes from here or what comes next is there another strike coming against Iran if so at what point do they need to come to us seeking an authorization for the use of military force the fact that they were unable or unwilling to identify any point at which that would be necessary yesterday was deeply distressing to me what kind of hypotheticals were you putting to them in hopes of understanding when the administration sees a need for congressional authority. As I recall one of my colleagues asked a hypothetical involving the supreme leader of a law or wrong if at that point the United States government decided that it wanted to undertake a strike against him personally recognizing that he could be a threat to the United States would that require authorization for the use of military force the fact that there was nothing but a refusal to answer that question was perhaps the most deeply upsetting thing to me in that meeting I think it was unprofessional inappropriate and reflective of a certain cavalier attitude toward the Constitution to refuse to make a commitment on that front so. The. Reporting has it that you all in that briefing were were outrightly discouraged from asking tough questions that the tone in the room got a little tense when people tried to push Is that correct Well when people asked tough questions it's not so much that we were discouraged from asking them in that context as much as it was we weren't getting direct answers and at one point at least one of the briefers discouraged us even from having a debate on the Senate floor including among other things in the context of a War Powers Act resolution talking about future military action that that might somehow embolden the Iranian regime in future attacks against the United States it wouldn't be helpful I think that is the very kind of advice that is counterproductive and decidedly not helpful and I found that upsetting so they were discouraging debate over a potential war powers act that would limit the president's ability to deploy military force against Iran this is something we should mention House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is bringing a vote on this very kind of resolution today it is my understanding that you were against limiting the president's power in that respect before you went into this briefing and you came out and changed your mind I wouldn't put it quite like that I was undecided as to whether I would be supporting the resolution introduced by Senator Kaine. And amended modified version of that pursuant to amendments that he agreed with me to make yesterday. But you know where do you stand on joining that I'm going to I'm going to join it I'll be supporting it I'll not only be voting for it I'll become a co-sponsor of it as soon as those changes are made I do want to as a member of a sorry interrupt I do want to play a clip of Florida Senator Marco Rubio he and other Republicans had a dramatically different take on the outcome of the briefing it was very well done I think they've done an excellent job of outlining the rationale behind both the decision to go after Solomonic and the response. So to the Iranian attack yesterday now you have said earlier that you you believe in the in the legal justification of the strike but how could Marco Rubio come out of that briefing with such a different opinion than you I think he must have been in a different briefing than I attended I literally find it difficult to imagine how my friend Marco who is smart who listens carefully who cares about these things and how he could emerge from that meeting and say that it was good it was terrible I think it was an unmitigated disaster what kind of dangerous precedent or what kind of precedent rather I shouldn't characterize it what kind of precedent do you think this sets a not a good one it's a precedent that is unfortunately not itself unprecedented we have had many decades now going back 506070 years in which we've been drifting away from this idea and bedded within the Constitution that the power to declare war belongs to of Congress it's enumerated in Article one Section 8 there's a reason for that we want to make sure that the power to put American blood and treasure on the line is given only to that branch of government most accountable to the people at the most regular intervals ours is not a system in which we can be taken into war by the executive and it never should be Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah we appreciate your time thank you sir thank you N.P.R.'s Mara Liasson was listening in to that conversation she joins me now Mara what's your my garments What did you think about the. Well this I have there have been a lot of clashes between the president and his own party on foreign policy even though Republicans are usually in lockstep with him on almost everything else but I have never seen it reach this level of ferocity even if it isn't that widespread other then Senator Lees Senator Paul was also expressed his disappointment in the briefing I don't know how many more Republicans would come forward but this is a pretty big split and as Senator Lee said the clash between the branches about war powers have been going on for a long time Congress has been ceding its constitutional authority to declare war bit by bit to the executive but this is a president who has said that Article 2 of the Constitution lets him do whatever he wants and Mike Lee said he has a cavalier attitude towards Congress others have said it's contemptuous is this going to be a problem for the president who up until now as you have noted has has enjoyed a kind of unanimity among Republicans on the Hill I don't think that the war the War Powers Resolution is going to affect him in the short term 1st of all he seems to be willing to accept the off ramp that Iran was offering doesn't want to escalate and also this is a resolution it's not a law it doesn't have the law N.P.R.'s Mara Liasson with context for us thank you thank you as Australia has been ravaged by one of its worst bushfire seasons in history there is a lot of debate about controlled burns and the role that fire can play in managing fire Aboriginal Australians used fire to manage brush lands and forests long before Britain started sending convicts to the continent in the 1700s N.P.R.'s Jason Beaubien caught up with an Aboriginal teacher who just lost his home and camp to the raging inferno knoll Butler and his wife Trish used to run the Noura going yeah Aboriginal culture and education camp deep. In a forest in New South Wales but last week an inferno swept through their Canyon in front of us of course there that's what's left of a house that was a 2 story I frame house which are built the inferno torched the camp their house and the surrounding woods for miles and once you can see. There's nothing not a single thing left its own absolutely completely destroyed the ground is now covered in powdery ash every tree trunk is charred black some of them still smolder there's not a single green leaf left anywhere so Butler is putting out hay for the kangaroos and chicken feed for the Wallabies Wallabies. Anything Butler has also been burying kangaroos and wallabies that were killed in the blaze but he's seen one large grey kangaroo still alive in the tracks of some wallabies and a few birds have returned Butler and his wife used this place to hold camps and workshops on Aboriginal culture and a program for troubled indigenous use school groups would come to learn about native art history and food fire was a key issue they teach about far in this place is their friend far has been used to bind. This whole continent for native peoples used what they called Cool burns low intensity fires and tended to balance the various plants and trees growing in an area how we balance. By not letting any one thing dominate something else the eucalypt shouldn't be allowed to overrun all the other trees if one tribe starts to take over a grassland if you get burned back Aboriginal people have generations of knowledge about managing the landscape on this continent Butler says but they were ignored by public officials who rely on massive back burns this week the New South Wales Rural Fire Service Commissioner defended the large scale controlled burns firefighters have been using There's been a torrent of criticism over the blazes the clearly frustrated commissioner declare . The burns are necessary to try to cut back the amount of fuel available for the next blaze but Butler says there's clearly a problem fires have been burning since October all across Australia and officials say they could continue to burn for months to play hating destruction nobody can deny never going to say just yet. Australia had its hottest and driest year on record in 2019 Butler puts the blame squarely on humans by his words not respecting Mother Earth mismanaging the land and continuing to burn fossil fuels I think this is a wake up call not only for you but for the rest of the world you cannot just destroy the land you cannot destroy what keeps you annoyed Butler's father told him a long time ago he says that the white man may have to destroy himself in order to save himself and Butler is worried that now that may be coming true. Jason Beaubien n.p.r. News New South Wales Australia. This is n.p.r. News. Support for w a b e comes from Georgia State's Robinson College of Business its executive m.b.a. Program is now ranked the number one m.b.a. 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News I'm Rachel Martin and I'm David Greene they are called the one percent the richest of the rich and as income and wealth inequality have grown significantly in this country they've become more of a political economic and social focus we have a new poll out today that breaks down people's views on a number of topics by income and it's pacifically looks at the one percent comparing them to the views of everyone else this telephone polls conducted by n.p.r. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Harvard University's th chance School of Public Health and let's talk about the poll with n.p.r. Political reporter Daniel Kurtz Lavan Hi Daniel Hey David so the poll covers a number of issues but I want to hear about how it isolates the views of the one percent what happened here. Right so this is a really unique poll we have here because usually in a poll we take a sample we ask people questions but that sample of people is usually not big enough to really drill down and see what a small tiny subgroup really like the one percent things by want by definition the one percent is tiny. Right and the one percent is people earning at least somewhere in the ballpark of $500000.00 a year or more so pretty rich people this poll allows us to see how the views of those highest earners differ from people of other income levels because we have enough of them in this poll to look at this well how big are the differences I mean to do people who are making that kind of money have really different views on on some really important topics yes no I want to start here with something that was pretty similar across the board on income inequality itself a majority of respondents overall say it's a very or somewhat serious problem so not too much of a difference there by income but then when you ask people what should be done about it there you see a bigger gap 45 percent of one percenters say it should be a very or a somewh