Required reading from around the web of the best, most interesting, or most though provoking things we’ve read:
U.S. Department of Interior: Trump Administration Improves the Implementing Regulations of the Endangered Species Act
“‘The revisions finalized with this rulemaking fit squarely within the President’s mandate of easing the regulatory burden on the American public, without sacrificing our species’ protection and recovery goals,’ said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. ‘These changes were subject to a robust, transparent public process, during which we received significant public input that helped us finalize these rules.’ […] The ESA directs that determinations to add or remove a species from the lists of threatened or endangered species be based solely on the best available scientific and commercial information, and these will remain the only criteria on which listing determinations will be based. The regulations retain language stating, ‘The Secretary shall make a [listing] determination solely on the basis of the best scientific and commercial information regarding a species’ status.’ The revisions to the regulations clarify that the standards for delisting and reclassification of a species consider the same five statutory factors as the listing of a species in the first place.”
Read more from the Department of the Interior.
Krumholz & Dulahunty: Why Mass Illegal Immigration Probably Costs More Than You’ve Been Told
“We must weigh the costs of illegal immigration to our local, state, and federal governments. Illegal workers and their families have access to taxpayer-provided benefits, such as free public schooling. If some of the current Democrat presidential hopefuls have their way, these workers will enjoy free health care, too (they already enjoy certain medical benefits). How large is the tally? According to a 2017 study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, federal and state governments pay nearly $135 billion annually to cover the cost of an estimated 12.5 million illegal immigrants and their 4.2 million citizen children present in the country. FAIR found the cost of federal provision of medical care to be about . . . […] But our point is not to represent FAIR’s study as definitive. It is that any sound analysis of the overall costs and benefits of mass illegal immigration has to probe much more deeply than merely looking at comparative food costs. And other costs should be added to the tally.”
Kredo: U.S. Knocks Germany in Row Over Middle East Peace Process
“The Trump administration is pushing back against recent criticism from German representatives regarding U.S. efforts to foster peace between the Israelis and Palestinians in what sources described as an ongoing diplomatic fight over the American administration’s refusal to let the United Nations dictate the terms of the peace process. Following an unprecedented July 23 speech before the U.N. Security Council in which Middle East peace envoy Jason Greenblatt scolded the body for its one-sided attempts to demonize Israel, Germany’s ambassador attempted to mischaracterize the Trump administration official’s remarks, sources told the Washington Free Beacon.”