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Explore "pruitt" with insightful episodes like "The Vespers Project - Season 2 - Episode 1 : Goodbye", "2020 Democrats on Climate, Trump's Environmental Speech and #TeamEndlessWinter (w/ Rebecca Leber, Katherine Hamilton and Connor Ratliff)", "Episode 41: A Tale of Two Companies", "The Vespers Project - Episode 10 : Respect" and "The Vespers Project - Episode 9 : Masterpiece" from podcasts like ""The Vespers Project", "The Climate Pod", "Neal Pruitt's Secrets of WCW Nitro | wrestling stories from the voice of the nWo | Bischoff | Schiavone | Flair | Austin", "The Vespers Project" and "The Vespers Project"" and more!
Episodes (72)
2020 Democrats on Climate, Trump's Environmental Speech and #TeamEndlessWinter (w/ Rebecca Leber, Katherine Hamilton and Connor Ratliff)
Three guests this week! First, Rebecca Leber (Mother Jones) recaps Trump's wild environmental speech on Monday and talks about the Green New Deal and Climate Debate!
Next, Katherine Hamilton (The Energy Gang Podcast) helps us understand the issues that might define the 2020 Democratic Primary and what policies she hopes to see implemented!
Finally, comedian Connor Ratliff (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The Chris Gethard Show) explains #TeamEndlessWinter!
As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher and more!
Buy Connor's album at https://statechampionrecords.bigcartel.com/product/the-spirit-of-ratliff
Episode 41: A Tale of Two Companies
In Episode 41 of Secrets of WCW Nitro, Neal discusses his impressions of both a recent WWE show, and AEW's 'Double or Nothing' event. Enjoy!
-> Don't forget to order NITRO: The Incredible Rise and Inevitable Collapse of Ted Turner's WCW. Go to www.wcwnitrobook.com or Amazon.com NOW!
Subscribe on iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/neal-pruitts-secrets-of-wcw-nitro/id1276032841?mt=2
Subscribe on Android:
https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ipkzridq3wpauwkb2wkdl4de4su
Twitter: @secretsofnitro
Facebook: www.facebook.com/secretsofnitro
E-mail: secretsofnitro@gmail.com
The Vespers Project - Episode 10 : Respect
The Vespers Project - Episode 9 : Masterpiece
Episode 40: More Listener Questions...and Answers!
We are back with answers to more of your questions! Neal talks about the wrestling media, rushing segments to air, why WCW was such a "mess" in terms of music, and much more...enjoy!
-> Don't forget to order NITRO: The Incredible Rise and Inevitable Collapse of Ted Turner's WCW. Go to www.wcwnitrobook.com or Amazon.com NOW!
Subscribe on iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/neal-pruitts-secrets-of-wcw-nitro/id1276032841?mt=2
Subscribe on Android:
https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ipkzridq3wpauwkb2wkdl4de4su
Twitter: @secretsofnitro
Facebook: www.facebook.com/secretsofnitro
E-mail: secretsofnitro@gmail.com
Learn more about the upcoming Starrcast convention in Las Vegas: www.starrcast.com
The Vespers Project - Episode 8 : Vulnerability
The Vespers Project - Episode 7 : Inclusion
Episode 39: The Voice of the nWo returns!
After eight long months, Neal Pruitt's Secrets of WCW Nitro returns! In this long-awaited comeback episode, Neal answers YOUR questions...and also discusses meeting Guy in Chicago, the upcoming Starrcast convention in Las Vegas, attending Ric Flair's 70th Birthday party, and much, much more. Enjoy!
-> Don't forget to order NITRO: The Incredible Rise and Inevitable Collapse of Ted Turner's WCW. Go to www.wcwnitrobook.com or Amazon.com NOW!
Subscribe on iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/neal-pruitts-secrets-of-wcw-nitro/id1276032841?mt=2
Subscribe on Android:
https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ipkzridq3wpauwkb2wkdl4de4su
Twitter: @secretsofnitro
Facebook: www.facebook.com/secretsofnitro
E-mail: secretsofnitro@gmail.com
Learn more about the upcoming Starrcast convention in Las Vegas: www.starrcast.com
The Vespers Project - Episode 6 : Passion
The Vespers Project - Episode 4 : Caring
The Vespers Project - Episode 3 : Patriotism
The Vespers Project - Episode 2 : Light
The Vespers Project - Episode 1 : Love
Ep 67 - Home Alone 3
Star ratings help us build our audience! Please rate/review/subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen, and share us with your animatronic parrot. Email us at sequelrights@gmail.com with feedback or suggestions on future franchises!
September Terror Threat Snapshot Released
The Secure Transportation and Executive Protection News for Wednesday, September 5th, 2018
In Executive Protection News
NBC News
Scott Pruitt's $3.5 million, 24/7 security detail not justified, says EPA watchdog
Former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's use of around-the-clock security detail that cost taxpayers more than $3.5 million was not justified and was more than twice as expensive as his predecessor's, according to a new report by the Environmental Protection Agency's Inspector General.
Pruitt resigned from the EPA effective July 6 after facing a barrage of investigations and audits.
The inspector general found the decision to assign a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week security detail to protect Pruitt was made by the Trump transition team before the administrator even started the job. The decision was supposed to be re-evaluated two weeks after Pruitt arrived but the IG says that never happened. It also cost 110 percent more than the security protection given to Pruitt's predecessor, Gina McCarthy, during a similar time period.
======================
In Terrorism News
Terrorist wannabes plotted self-driving car bomb attack
Two wannabe ISIS terrorists planned an attack involving a self-driving car — because they didn’t want to blow themselves up, British prosecutors said Tuesday.
Farhad Salah and Andy Star were busted in England in December for allegedly plotting the car-bomb attack, the Telegraph reported.
=======
And from Homeland Security
MCCAUL RELEASES SEPTEMBER TERROR THREAT SNAPSHOT
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) today released September’s Terror Threat Snapshot, a monthly assessment of the Committee’s continuing effort to highlight the growing threat America, the West, and the world face from ISIS and other Islamist terrorists.
======================
In Vehicle News
From Auto Remarketing
Consumer satisfaction with vehicle technology on rise, says J.D. Power tech study
According to the J.D. Power 2018 U.S. Tech Experience Index (TXI) Study, released Wednesday, overall satisfaction with new-vehicle technology among owners of luxury vehicles averages 766 (on a 1,000-point scale), while satisfaction among owners of mass-market vehicles is 765. This is a 16-point and 15-point improvement, respectively, from last year.
Interestingly, J.D. Power found that owners may find the systems to be more of a problem than a benefit. In fact, 23 percent of owners said that their lane-keeping/centering system is annoying or bothersome.
======================
Links to all news stories mentioned in this podcast are available at the archive website securitydrivernews.libsyn.com. You can also listen to past news briefings and leave comments.
As a reminder, the news briefing is available on all variations of Apple and Google Play podcast apps, Spotify, Spreaker, and Stitcher.
======================
This podcast is brought to you by the International Security Driver Association
ISDA is a valuable resource for all practitioners working in the protection profession. We offer benchmark educational, networking, and marketing programs.
The ISDA Membership
ISDA Members represent all facets and levels of the protective services profession. The membership can be defined as a group of practitioners from different disciplines within the profession and with years of experience coming together to assist ISDA Members.
Here is a collection of Books, and Articles authored by ISDA Members.
Learn More about the ISDA Advantage and Become a Member Today
Episode 38: NITRO reviewed!
In a very special episode of Neal Pruitt's Secrets of WCW Nitro, Neal and Guy discuss the making of NITRO: The Incredible Rise and Inevitable Collapse of Ted Turner's WCW!
ORDER THE BOOK NOW AT www.wcwnitrobook.com and Amazon.com!
175,000+ words, 56 chapters, and more new info than you'll believe!
Synopsis
In April 1999, Entertainment Weekly asked its readers what many Americans were surely wondering to themselves: how did wrestling get so big?
As a consequence of the heated ratings competition between World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), the spectacle had taken over Monday nights on prime-time cable television. But in a departure from the family-friendly programming produced by the last industry boom - the 1980s wave, which made household names of Hulk Hogan, 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper and Andre the Giant - the new era of wrestling combined stunning athleticism with a raunchy sex appeal, engrossing story lines and novel production techniques that reflected a changing society and its shifting values.
Once again, wrestling was a ubiquitous phenomenon - only this time, it seemed as though the fad would never end. With both WCW and WWF expanding into other forms of entertainment - movies, video games, music and the like - the potential for growth appeared to be limitless.
But with uncertainty surrounding its corporate future, and increasingly uninspired programming eroding its audience, WCW stood on the verge of collapse. Three years into a five-year plan devised by its charismatic leader - a former Blue Ribbon Foods salesman named Eric Bischoff - the company whose unexpected ascension initiated the entire boom was operating on borrowed time.
For by the end of the five-year plan, WCW ceased to exist.
But NITRO is a story about much more than WCW and the Monday Night Wars. It is a story of an era, a time in which the media and cultural landscape precipitated - and later supported - pro wrestling's mainstream popularity. It is a story of how a company made in the image of an intuitively brilliant risk-taker betrayed its original promise. It is a story of how a handful of men, each struggling with their own limitations, facilitated a public obsession that changed television forever.
And so, with the inside knowledge of a journalist, the perspective of a historian, and the passion of a fan, author Guy Evans provides a fresh look at an unfortunate inevitability - the downfall of World Championship Wrestling. Bolstered by exclusive interviews with over 120 former TBS and WCW employees, NITRO is the definitive picture of the last wrestling boom.
Featuring exclusive interviews and comments from:
Eric Bischoff, fmr. President of World Championship Wrestling;
Harvey Schiller, fmr. President of Turner Sports;
Jamie Kellner, fmr. CEO of Turner Broadcasting System;
Bill Burke, fmr. President of TBS network;
Joe Uva, fmr. President of Turner Entertainment Sales and Marketing;
Scot Safon, fmr. SVP of Marketing for TNT network;
Kevin Nash, WWE Hall of Famer and 5-time WCW world champion;
Diamond Dallas Page, WWE Hall of Famer and 3-time WCW world champion;
Vince Russo, fmr. WCW writer;
Marcus 'Buff' Bagwell, fmr. WCW superstar and 5-time world tag team champion;
Kevin Sullivan, fmr. WCW superstar and head booker;
Hugh Morrus, fmr. WCW superstar;
Neal Pruitt, fmr. WCW Feature Producer and voice of the nWo;
David Crockett, fmr. WCW Vice President of Production;
Dick Cheatham, fmr. Group Controller for TBS;
Alan Sharp, fmr. WCW Director of Public Relations;
Mike Weber, fmr. WCW Director of Marketing;
Rob Garner, fmr. WCW Vice President of TV Programming and Sales
Jerry Jarrett, legendary wrestling promoter and booker...
And many, many, many more!
NITRO IS HERE!
THE WAIT IS OVER!
NITRO: The Incredible Rise and Inevitable Collapse of Ted Turner's WCW is here!!!
175,000+ words, 56 chapters, and more new info than you'll believe!
Synopsis
In April 1999, Entertainment Weekly asked its readers what many Americans were surely wondering to themselves: how did wrestling get so big?
As a consequence of the heated ratings competition between World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), the spectacle had taken over Monday nights on prime-time cable television. But in a departure from the family-friendly programming produced by the last industry boom - the 1980s wave, which made household names of Hulk Hogan, 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper and Andre the Giant - the new era of wrestling combined stunning athleticism with a raunchy sex appeal, engrossing story lines and novel production techniques that reflected a changing society and its shifting values.
Once again, wrestling was a ubiquitous phenomenon - only this time, it seemed as though the fad would never end. With both WCW and WWF expanding into other forms of entertainment - movies, video games, music and the like - the potential for growth appeared to be limitless.
But with uncertainty surrounding its corporate future, and increasingly uninspired programming eroding its audience, WCW stood on the verge of collapse. Three years into a five-year plan devised by its charismatic leader - a former Blue Ribbon Foods salesman named Eric Bischoff - the company whose unexpected ascension initiated the entire boom was operating on borrowed time.
For by the end of the five-year plan, WCW ceased to exist.
But NITRO is a story about much more than WCW and the Monday Night Wars. It is a story of an era, a time in which the media and cultural landscape precipitated - and later supported - pro wrestling's mainstream popularity. It is a story of how a company made in the image of an intuitively brilliant risk-taker betrayed its original promise. It is a story of how a handful of men, each struggling with their own limitations, facilitated a public obsession that changed television forever.
And so, with the inside knowledge of a journalist, the perspective of a historian, and the passion of a fan, author Guy Evans provides a fresh look at an unfortunate inevitability - the downfall of World Championship Wrestling. Bolstered by exclusive interviews with over 120 former TBS and WCW employees, NITRO is the definitive picture of the last wrestling boom.
Featuring exclusive interviews and comments from:
Eric Bischoff, fmr. President of World Championship Wrestling;
Harvey Schiller, fmr. President of Turner Sports;
Jamie Kellner, fmr. CEO of Turner Broadcasting System;
Bill Burke, fmr. President of TBS network;
Joe Uva, fmr. President of Turner Entertainment Sales and Marketing;
Scot Safon, fmr. SVP of Marketing for TNT network;
Kevin Nash, WWE Hall of Famer and 5-time WCW world champion;
Diamond Dallas Page, WWE Hall of Famer and 3-time WCW world champion;
Vince Russo, fmr. WCW writer;
Marcus 'Buff' Bagwell, fmr. WCW superstar and 5-time world tag team champion;
Kevin Sullivan, fmr. WCW superstar and head booker;
Hugh Morrus, fmr. WCW superstar;
Neal Pruitt, fmr. WCW Feature Producer and voice of the nWo;
David Crockett, fmr. WCW Vice President of Production;
Dick Cheatham, fmr. Group Controller for TBS;
Alan Sharp, fmr. WCW Director of Public Relations;
Mike Weber, fmr. WCW Director of Marketing;
Rob Garner, fmr. WCW Vice President of TV Programming and Sales
Jerry Jarrett, legendary wrestling promoter and booker...
And many, many, many more!
Party Politics, Ep. 65: President Trump Picks Brett Kavanaugh For The Supreme Court
On Party Politics this week, co-hosts Jay Aiyer and Brandon Rottinghaus are going to catch you up on the week’s political news:
Texas:
- Jenkins blames Cruz for not making ballot
- U.S. Senate Debate?
- Fundraising roundup
- Breitbart poll
- Vet school debate?
National:
- Pruitt!
- NATO Visit
- British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson resigns
- Trump WH misses the deadline to reunite families
Brandon and Jay talk about President Trump Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court.
You can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts. Tweet us using #PartyPoliticsPod or email partypoliticspod@houstonpublicmedia.org.
Party Politics is produced by Don Geraci, audio engineer is Todd Hulslander and our digital editor is Giselle Bueno.
032 | How the Trump Administration Is Undermining the Clean Water Act, Part One
This is the fifth in a five-part series. You can find the first installment here.
US Environmental Protection Agency boss Scott Pruitt is gone – not because of his environmental malfeasance, but because his $43,000 phone booth, his $100,000 trip to Disneyland, and his attempts to get his wife a lucrative job were too tacky even for an administration built on bling.
His replacement, Andrew Wheeler, is less embarrassing but more dangerous. A coal lobbyist until last year, Wheeler is also a long-time adviser to climate-science denier James Inhofe and a sure bet to continue Pruitt’s policies – albeit with more stealth and fewer attention-grabbing abuses of power.
Pruitt’s departure comes just one week after Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his own retirement from the US Supreme Court, and those two departures have overshadowed the publication of a document that Pruitt and Army Public Works boss Ricky James dropped on us last Friday – a document that mentions Kennedy 64 times and illustrates as well as anything the underhanded way Pruitt subverts environmental protections: not through argumentation, but through sabotage in the name of regulatory certainty (and just in time for summer break).
It’s a document that will show up on the Federal Register any day now, and that you and any member of the public will then have 30 days to comment on, but which you’ll only understand if you know a bit of history, and that’s by design. It’s part of an effort to torpedo a Supreme Court opinion that Kennedy penned in 2006 – an opinion that builds on decades of precedent and practice, and that provides the foundation for the 2015 Waters of the United States (WOTUS) Rule (also known as the “Clean Water Rule”), which sets the ground rules for determining which of the waters of the United States are protected by the Clean Water Act (CWA).
If Wheeler and James can rescind that rule, they’ll manage to undermine the popular Clean Water Act without the voting public knowing until it’s too late, and last week’s document is part of their effort to do just that.
Specifically, it’s a supplemental notice to the Trump Administration’s year-old proposal to repeal the WOTUS rule and instead “recodify” the mess that predated it in accordance with an opinion written by the late Justice Antonin Scalia – an opinion mostly ignored by courts and practitioners, for reasons we covered in earlier installments of this series.
Scalia, as we saw in part three, believed the CWA should only protect “relatively permanent, standing or flowing bodies of water” – basically, lakes rivers, and streams, but not the wetlands or creeks that feed them, and not waterbodies that only flow intermittently.
The repeal would leave 80 percent of US waterways unprotected by federal authorities, and it’s one part of a multi-pronged attack on WOTUS that includes a two-year delay on its implementation and a more insidious order to ignore the local scientists and specialists who review dredging permits and instead “involve the Administrator’s Office early on in the process of developing geographic determinations” – a move that Kyla Bennett, director of science policy for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) described as “a crude Clean Water Act coup d’état.”
“This latest move by Pruitt is his Plan B as it is becoming increasingly clear that his Clean Water rewrite plan is illegal and will be tossed out in court,” she said.
In this, the fifth, final, and long-overdue installment in a five-part series on the Clean Water Rule, we try to offer a clear and simple explanation of the state of WOTUS in the current administration. You can see the first installment here.
More on the Bionic Planet Podcast
The story continues below, but I’ll also be editing audio from the interviews I conducted with Shrader and others for this series into episode 32 of the Bionic Planet podcast, which which I hope to have ready over the weekend. You can access Bionic Planet via iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, and pretty much anywhere you access podcasts, as well as on this device here:
Timeline
The story continues below, but here is a timeline to help you keep key dates in order:
- June 19, 2006: The Supreme Court’s Rapanos v United States split decision introduces massive uncertainty over what are and are not protected waters, sparking hundreds of court cases and demands for clarity. Over time, Justice Kennedy’s “significant nexus” guidance becomes the rule of the land.
- August 27, 2015: As the Obama Administration prepares to implement the WOTUS Rule, a district court in North Dakota issues a preliminary injunction against the rule until arguments can be heard, essentially freezing the rule in 13 states.
- October 9, 2015: The Sixth Circuit Court issues a nationwide stay, which the Obama Administration begins to fight before the 2016 elections sweep Donald Trump into office.
- February 28, 2017: Donald Trump signs an executive order instructing the EPA to scrap the WOTUS rule and “consider interpreting the term ‘navigable waters’…in a manner consistent with the opinion of Justice Antonin Scalia.”
- July 27, 2017: Pruitt and acting Army Civil Works boss Douglas Lamont publish their proposal to rescind the 2015 WOTUS Rule – a move that cannot be challenged in court until the rule becomes official.
- January 22, 2018: The Supreme Court rules that challenges to the WOTUS rule must be filed in district courts, forcing the Sixth Circuit Court to vacate its nationwide stay but leaving the North Dakota injunction intact.
- February 6, 2018: With the Sixth Circuit Court’s stay vacated, Pruitt and Lamont implement an “applicability date” two years in the future – namely, in February, 2020 – sparking an immediate court challenge.
- March 30, 2018: EPA boss Scott Pruitt directs the agency to ignore local experts and defer instead to his own office when issuing permits.
- June 29, 2018: Pruitt and James issue a supplemental notice to the earlier proposal. The new notice summarizes existing court challenges and argues that their existence introduces more uncertainty than existed before the rule was created.
- July 5, 2018: Scott Pruitt resigns, and former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler is named his replacement.
New Notice, Old Arguments
Last week’s supplemental notice will soon be listed in the Federal Register, after which the public has 30 days to comment on it. Some organizations, like the American Farm Bureau, a longstanding WOTUS opponent, have welcomed the notice.
“The issuance of this additional notice shows that EPA listened to public comments that showed confusion over what was being proposed and why,” they said in a statement. “This supplemental notice will provide a more meaningful opportunity for public comment by clarifying that EPA’s proposal is to permanently repeal the 2015 WOTUS rule because that rule was illegal in multiple respects.”
Beyond clarifying the position, however, the notice does little to bolster the Administration’s claim that the existing rule should be repealed before the agency can “recodify” the mess that the rule was created to fix. After finding that the previous regime was riddled with uncertainty, the agency has a duty to explain why it must repeal the whole rule rather than leaving the rule in place while working to correct whatever problems the agency claims to have found in the rule.
“It’s ironic that they claim they’re doing this to provide certainty, considering the fact that before 2015 there was a world of very little certainty,” says Bethany Davis-Noll, Litigation Director at New York University’s Institute for Policy Integrity. “Getting rid of the 2015 rule doesn’t reduce regulatory uncertainty; it creates regulatory uncertainty.”
In addition, the administration has yet to explain how returning to the confusing regime in place before the 2015 rule complies with the Clean Water Act or how the agency is justified in imposing forgone wetlands benefits on the public.
“Without that explanation, this could be a pretty good lawsuit for anybody who wants to challenge the agency,” says Davis-Noll
That is, in fact, a pillar of the suit currently underway to block the delayed implementation of the rule.
The Lack of Analysis or Reason
This series began back in February, when 11 states sued to block the delay in implementing the WOTUS rule, based in part on their contention that the new applicability date was pulled out of thin air while going through the motions of scientific review and public consultation as required by the Administrative Procedures Act.
A key argument is that the Trump Administration ignored the existing cost/benefit analysis and failed to conduct one of its own. Columbia University Assistant Professor Jeffrey Shrader says the Trump Administration not only overstates the costs of implementing the rule, but ignores the benefits of scenic beauty, resilient agricultural systems, and income from mitigation banking.
“They left out any benefit from mitigation or protection of wetlands,” says Shrader, who co-wrote an analysis called “Muddying the Waters: How the Trump administration is obscuring the value of wetlands protection from the Clean Water Rule”.
Specifically, he points out, the administration simply ignored all wetland benefit studies published between 1986 and 2000 on the premise that their age makes them untrustworthy, but the administration also took its own cost analysis from the same period – despite the fact that more recent studies focused on coastal wetlands show that valuation benefits have increased since then. At the same time, the rise of mitigation banking has both reduced the cost of compliance and created income for people who restore degraded landscapes.
The End of the Restoration Economy?
Proponents of the repeal argue that states will pick up the slack, but current laws evolved because upstream cities and states had little inclination to do that.
“About half of the states have laws on the books that say they cannot implement stricter protection for wetlands than the federal government, and those are the states where the largest at-risk wetlands are located,” says David Groves, a former policy advisor to the Obama Administration who now works as Director of Business Development at The Earth Partners, an environmental consultancy.
“The vast majority of economic activity in the mitigation banking industry is in the southeast, which is made up of states with no state-level protections,” he adds. “Significantly reducing the scope of the Clean Water Act would present an existential threat to the mitigation banking industry and would destroy a huge amount of value.”
The result, he says, would be more taxpayer spending overall, but the costs would flow to downstream states.