The United States federal government is coming to Virginians’ doorsteps to ask for their personal medical information and vaccination status. Vaccination efforts in the western Tidewater counties of Franklin, Suffolk, Isle of Wight County, and Southampton County are ramping up to include door-to-door operations.
Read the full story
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson (R-GA-03) have blasted the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for denying the state’s appeal for emergency assistance. This, after a tornado struck the city of Newnan and surrounding areas in March.
Read the full story
President Joe Biden will travel to Miami-Dade County, Florida on Thursday to examine the site of the muti-story building that collapsed to ruble — leaving nearly a dozen dead and over 100 still missing.
Further, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that Biden will thank first responders for sacrifices and attempt to comfort families who have fallen victim to the tragedy.
Read the full story
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is set to dole out thousands of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in Cleveland, according to Friday reports.
“A mass coronavirus vaccination center will open on March 17 at Cleveland State University’s Wolstein Center, with the capability to vaccinate 6,000 people a day,” Cleveland.com reported.
Read the full story
Tennessee will receive federal assistance in response to the bomb that exploded in downtown Nashville on Christmas morning after the Federal Emergency Management Agency approved a disaster declaration Tuesday.
Gov. Bill Lee formally requested a disaster declaration in a letter to President Donald Trump dated Dec. 25. Lee told reporters last week President Trump called him to express concern about the bombing and he intended to approve the disaster request.
Read the full story
Tuesday morning on the Bill Cunningham Show broadcast weekdays from 12 pm to 3pm on Cincinnati’s News Radio 700WLW, host Cunnigham welcomed The Ohio Star Managing Editor, Jack Windsor, to the show.
Read the full story
Ohio will now mandate public colleges and universities to create non-congregate sheltering space for quarantining coronavirus patients.
Ohio Department of Health (ODH) Interim Director Lance Himes issued the order Sunday “to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” alongside Governor Mike DeWine and Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted.
Read the full story
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) approved for Minnesotans to receive $300 in weekly unemployment benefits this fall. FEMA Administrator Pete Gaynor issued the grant through the Lost Wages Supplemental Payment Assistance program.
The approval comes one day after Governor Tim Walz announced his decision to apply for additional unemployment payments. Walz explained this was a necessary decision based on the continued COVID-19 mandates.
Read the full story
Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) sent a letter to the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Monday asking the agency to help fund schools in Michigan as they prepare to open during the coronavirus.
In the letter, Peters pushed FEMA to allow schools in Michigan and nationwide to access to funding from the Disaster Relief Fund to help pay for public safety trainings, adapting classrooms and acquiring personal protective equipment for students and staff.
Read the full story
President Donald Trump has rejected Gov. Tim Walz’s request for federal financial assistance to help rebuild portions of the Twin Cities that were destroyed by rioting.
Nearly 1,500 Twin Cities businesses were vandalized, burned, or looted during the late May riots, with current estimates of the damage exceeding $500 million.
Read the full story
The federal government granted Gov. Bill Lee’s request this week for a major disaster declaration for 20 Tennessee counties impacted by severe weather in early May.
President Donald Trump announced in a Thursday press release that he approved the declaration, which will make federal funding available for state and local recovery efforts in the affected areas.
Read the full story
Gov. Tim Walz has requested federal financial assistance to help the Twin Cities recover from more than $500 million worth of damage caused by rioting.
In a press release, Walz’s office said nearly 1,500 Twin Cities businesses were vandalized, burned, or looted during the late May riots, with current estimates of the damage exceeding $500 million.
Read the full story
On Friday’s Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Michael Patrick Leahy spoke to special guest Hogan Gidley who serves as the current Deputy Press Secretary at the White House.
Read the full story
President Donald Trump directed aid to Tennessee Tuesday to supplement state and local recovery efforts due to wide-spread damage caused by Monday’s overnight storms, tornadoes, straight-line winds, and flooding.
“The President’s action makes federal funding available to affected individuals in Davidson, Putnam, and Wilson Counties. Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster,” according to a White House statement.
Read the full story
cting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan said federal agencies are prepared to take on Hurricane Dorian, which upgraded to a catastrophic Category 5 storm.
Read the full story
Reuters The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) exposed 2.3 million disaster survivors to possible identity theft and fraud by sharing sensitive personal information with an outside company, according to an internal government watchdog. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) said FEMA had shared financial records and other sensitive information of people who had participated in an emergency shelter program after being displaced by hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria and the California wildfires in 2017. The Inspector General’s office said FEMA had shared participants’ home addresses and bank account information with the contractor, along with necessary information like their names and birthdates. That “has placed approximately 2.3 million disaster survivors at increased risk of identity theft and fraud,” the Inspector General’s office said in a report. The name of the contactor was redacted. In a statement released on Friday, FEMA spokeswoman Lizzie Litzow said the agency had found no indication to suggest survivor data had been “compromised.” She said the agency has removed unnecessary information from the contractor’s computer systems. But FEMA’s review only found that the contractor’s computer systems had not been breached within the past 30 days because it did not keep…
Read the full story
A report from the Office of Inspector General says Nashville-Davidson County owes the Federal Emergency Management Agency $413,074 in grant money from the May 1, 2010 flood, NewsChannel 5 said. The Inspector General report is available here. The city estimated that it cost the city and its residents $1.5 billion. Nashville was declared a federal state of emergency three days after the rivers began rising, WVLT said. According to the Inspector General’s report, “We determined the County was not fully aware of Federal grant administration requirements and FEMA Public Assistance Program guidelines. Specifically, for the projects we reviewed in the second phase of our two-phase audit, the County mostly accounted for FEMA funds project by project, as required.” The report continued, “However, the County did not always follow regulations and guidelines when spending the funds. As a result, we identified $413,074 in project costs that FEMA should disallow. These costs consist of $402,552 in contract charges not supported by adequate documentation and $10,522 in duplicate costs. Additionally, FEMA has not finished reviewing insurance proceeds and allocating them to the County’s projects although doing so could reduce FEMA’s project costs under this grant.” “We reviewed $365,684 of contract costs the County…
Read the full story
by Natalia Castro Introduction Corey Coleman spent years creating a toxic work environment on the taxpayer’s dime. Despite receiving complaints regarding Coleman’s hostility toward female employees and inappropriate behavior since 2015, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) maintained Coleman’s employment until he chose to resign in April 2018. Coleman, who led the agency’s personnel department, made the decision to resign to avoid testifying as part of an internal investigation. [1] While this is one instance of abuse, stories like Coleman’s permeate the U.S. civil service industry. Our civil service is comprised of over 2.79 million employees working to run the “fourth arm” of the U.S. government: the bureaucracy. [2] Career bureaucrats implement federal policy via central offices in Washington, D.C. and regional offices across the country. As an unelected body, these workers are not accountable to the American people and due to the structure of our civil service are seemingly unaccountable to anyone. This system encourages poor performance, breeding corruption, waste, and abuse. Historical context The bureaucracy was created to implement the laws as written by Congress, but since its establishment government leaders have feared that a partisan civil service would serve its own interests rather than the interests…
Read the full story
Faith-based groups – Christian nonprofits, specifically – have been busy bees of late, providing more aid to hurricane victims than even FEMA, the federal agency that’s supposed to swoop to the scenes of natural disasters, assess the situation and speed the recovery and rebuilding process. Just goes to show: Where charity exists, government is not needed.…
Read the full story