DONNA CASSATA, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — House libertarians and liberals joined in a surprise win against the secretive National Security Agency, securing support for new curbs on government spying a year after leaker Edward Snowden’s disclosures about the bulk collection of millions of Americans’ phone records.

The Republican-led House voted late Thursday to add the limits to a $570 billion defense spending bill. The provision, which faces an uncertain fate in the Senate, would bar warrantless collection of personal online information and prohibit access for the NSA and CIA into commercial tech products.

One supporter said, “The American people are sick of being spied on.”

The House also endorsed several new roadblocks to President Barack Obama’s effort to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The House is expected to pass the bill Friday.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) joined John Barrasso (Wyo.) and 28 of their colleagues today to introduce the “Protecting Water and Property Rights Act of 2014,” legislation to stop the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from taking over all private and state water in the United States. The bill prevents the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) from finalizing their March 2014 proposed rule, which would significantly expand federal authority under the Clean Water Act (CWA).

“The EPA’s proposed water rule is another blatant overreach into Americans’ private lives and property by the Obama Administration. Not only would it have a devastating impact on Missouri farm families, it would also inflict serious harm on productive activities like the construction of homes, businesses, roads, and even the development of energy,” said Blunt.

In addition to Blunt and Barrasso, the Protecting Water and Property Rights Act is also co-sponsored by U.S. Senators John Boozman (Ark.), Richard Burr (N.C.), Saxby Chambliss (Ga.), Tom Coburn (Okla.), Thad Cochran (Miss.), John Cornyn (Texas), Mike Crapo (Idaho), Ted Cruz (Texas), Mike Enzi (Wyo.), Deb Fischer (Neb.), Chuck Grassley (Iowa), Orrin Hatch (Utah), Dean Heller (Nev.), John Hoeven (N.D.), Jim Inhofe (Okla.), Johnny Isakson (Ga.), Mike Johanns (Neb.), Mike Lee (Utah), Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Rand Paul (Ky.), Jim Risch (Idaho), Pat Roberts (Kan.), Marco Rubio (Fla.), Jeff Sessions (Ala.), John Thune (S.D.), Pat Toomey (Pa.), David Vitter (La.), and Roger Wicker (Miss.).

Background:

On March 25, 2014, EPA and the Corps released their proposed rule redefining “waters of the United States” under the CWA.  The term “waters of the United States” is the CWA’s threshold provision which determines whether the law’s permitting and regulatory requirements apply to a particular waterbody.

If finalized, the rule would represent a massive land grab by the federal government, since few water bodies would escape the agencies’ broad definition of “waters of the United States.”  The proposal effectively eliminates the CWA’s “navigable waters” provision, which Congress included to guarantee limits to federal authority.

The proposed rule would provide EPA, the Corps, as well as environmental groups with a powerful tool to delay and prevent development and land use activities on property owned by homeowners, farms, small businesses, and municipalities.  Federal bureaucrats—and not state and local authorities—could assert control over thousands of streams, creeks, wetlands, ponds, and ditches throughout the country.

The proposed rule is the agencies’ latest attempt to achieve unlimited regulatory authority over local waterbodies.  During the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) debate in 2013, 52 Senators voted to support an amendment prohibiting a similar effort by the agencies to expand their jurisdiction through a “guidance” document.

The “Protecting Water and Property Rights Act of 2014” updates the WRDA amendment supported by a majority of Senators so that it now prevents finalization of the agencies’ proposed rule. It also tracks the WRDA amendment’s “similar circumstances” provision by preventing EPA and the Corps from using the proposed rule or any substantially similar rule or guidance document in any other rulemaking or regulatory decision.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – A new state audit says Missouri regulators haven’t completed investigations of numerous properties containing potentially contain hazardous materials.

The audit says the Hazardous Waste Program has not investigated 111 former lead smelters that could have a high probability of contamination, nor about 3,300 former mining sites.

The program also has not investigated 23 sites that could have formerly been used as manufactured gas plants. The audit says those sites also have a high probability of containing hazardous waste.

The Department of Natural Resources oversees the Hazardous Waste Program. It prioritizes sites based upon the potential risks to human health and the environment.

The audit notes that the agency has not received enough funding to complete all of the investigation work.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has signed legislation that continues a loan forgiveness program for students of large-animal veterinary medicine.

The loan forgiveness program expired at the end of June 2013. Nixon signed a higher education bill Thursday that includes a provision removing that expiration date.

Townley was a veterinarian from Chamois (shuh-MOY’) who practiced throughout mid-Missouri. He also served as a Republican in the Missouri House from 1983 through 1994 and again from 1997 through 2004.

He died in November 2012 at the age of 78.

By  KHI News Service

OLATHE — The Johnson County Department of Health and Environment has joined the vanguard of local and state health departments that have gained national accreditation. It is one of only 44 across the nation and the first in Kansas.

The Public Health Accreditation Board, a relatively new organization bent on standardizing and improving the quality of health departments, today announced that the Johnson County agency and a dozen others across the U.S. had gained accreditation.

The board is an independent organization that administers the national public health accreditation program.

“Each time PHAB’s Accreditation Committee meets, we are excited to see a growing number of health departments for their review,” said PHAB chief executive Kaye Bender. “The group of health departments achieving accreditation this week is our largest group to date. They represent a diverse array of sizes and organizational structures of health departments, all committed to continuous improvement of their work to protect the public’s health.”

The Kansas City, Mo., health department not quite a year ago became one of the first in the nation to gain PHAB accreditation.

A number of other Kansas counties were laying groundwork to gain accreditation as early as 2011 and continue to work toward the goal.

Lougene Marsh, director of the Johnson County department, said, “we are quite excited around here,” by the news they received from the board.

The department began the process in August 2011, she said, and then had a site visit from the accrediting team in April.

Marsh said the Sedgwick County Health Department and the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department might not be far behind in gaining accreditation. Lawrence submitted its application this week and Sedgwick County has its site visit scheduled for next month.

The site visit is one of the last steps in the process.

Accreditation is good for five years, but annual updates must be submitted, Marsh said, “giving them information on areas you continue to work on.”

“Really the whole accreditation process is not just demonstration of capacity but building a robust process by which you are continuously improving,” Marsh said. “To me, that’s one of the greatest benefits.”

Other departments that gained national accreditation in the latest round of approvals are:

Champaign-Urbana Public Health District, Champaign, Ill.
Deschutes County Health Services, Bend, Ore,
DuPage County Health Department, Wheaton, Ill.
Florida Department of Health, Tallahassee, Fla.
Lexington-Fayette County Health Department, Lexington, Ky.
Madison County Health Department, Richmond, Ky.
Minnesota Department of Health, St. Paul, Minn.
New Orleans Health Department, New Orleans, La.
Norwalk Health Department, Norwalk, Conn.
RiverStone Health, Billings, Mont.
Ventura County Public Health, Oxnard, Calif.
Vermont Department of Health, Burlington, Vt.
“Residents in these 13 jurisdictions can be confident they have access to services and public health protections that meet the PHAB standards of performance,” said Dr. Leslie M. Beitsch, chair of PHAB’s board of directors and chair of the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine at the Florida State University College of Medicine.

The Minnesota Department of Health became one of five state health departments to achieve national accreditation.

“Accreditation is much more than a public recognition of a department’s effectiveness and adherence to best practices,” said Dr. Ed Ehlinger, Minnesota commissioner of health. “This accreditation provides a valuable framework for connecting more closely with our communities, identifying ongoing improvement opportunities, and building even stronger accountability with the public and our partners.”

PHAB-accredited health departments range in size from small health departments serving communities of 37,000 to those serving millions. Hundreds of health departments are preparing to seek national accreditation through the program, which launched in September 2011 after more than a decade in development.

PHAB is jointly funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A firecracker you buy from a stand can legally have no more than 50 milligrams of flash powder.

But Kyle Lovelady, a federal explosives expert, has seen illegal fireworks 20 times more powerful — and sometimes far more potent than that.

The results can be far worse when something goes wrong in a basement where illegal fireworks are being made.

A Kansas City man died recently after an explosion in his house tore off both legs and one arm. Three years ago in Independence, a garage exploded, killing a man and throwing his body into the backyard of another house.

This time each year, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives begins hearing more reports of illegal fireworks on the street.