Do you suffer from climate anxiety? A new survey suggests that you might find yourself increasingly alone. Apparently, the constant fear-mongering isn’t working too well anymore.

When American adults last month were given a list of issues and asked to judge their importance, “climate change” scored near the bottom, with only 45 percent considering it “very important”, alongside “issues of race and diversity” at 40 percent.
Compare that with the list-toppers: the economy (82 percent), inflation (79 percent), and crime (65 percent), according to the CBS News poll conducted last month by YouGov. When real problems arise, fake ones tend to fade.

CBS News has pointed out that a “big majority of Americans support U.S. taking steps to reduce climate change,” but their survey suggests that respondents had much more pressing priorities. And nowhere is there any mention of what exactly people especially want the government to do about the climate. Not like anyone, anywhere really knows. Which is why, when the countries of the world came together to define an objective, the best they could come up with was to not surpass an overall global temperature of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels from the year 1900. Since that limit was already surpassed, despite constant harassment and taxation of their citizens under the climate change pretext, they clearly have no idea what they're doing. Their argument is that they just haven’t governed hard enough yet or taken enough of your money. How convenient.

Voters told YouGov that they didn’t see any difference between the climate change policies of Joe Biden and Donald Trump, and more than half of them said that regardless of whether Biden or Trump is re-elected in November, the winner’s policies won’t make any difference at all on climate change.

When specifically asked about which of Biden’s environment-related policies they support, the only ones considered favorable involved tax rebates — because who’s going to say no to the government taking less of your money — and also “more regulations to reduce toxic chemicals in drinking water.” A whopping 70 percent of people voted for that one. Poisoning prevention was the most popular policy initiative of the whole survey — a measure that has nothing at all to do with climate change. But concrete environmental policies with measurable results are no fun for governments because they involve the risk of accountability.

There are worse things than uselessness, though. For instance, there could be a federal carbon tax, like Canada’s Liberal Party Prime Minister Justin Trudeau foisted upon Canadians, and which has contributed to massive inflation as the tax is factored into every part of the supply chain. The European Union has a similar tax, but the elites in charge are messing everything up right now at such a breakneck pace, including imposing sanctions that effectively cut themselves off from their own cheap Russian gas supply — that it’s hard for Europeans to pinpoint specifically which of the many policy errors is actually responsible for anything anymore.

The US government, by contrast, seems to be in on the joke and isn’t overly keen on driving its own economy to ruin over climate change. Quite the opposite, in fact. The U.S., apparently, sees a whole world rife with suckers. Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act was presented as a climate initiative, but it really just serves to lure foreign “green” companies to the U.S. The U.S. doesn’t have a carbon tax, but rather just tax credits for companies that “capture” or “sequester” the carbon. European farmers, specifically the Dutch who’ve been strong-armed into selling off their farmlands to comply with European climate change law, would have loved the option of just being able to submit paperwork claiming the capture and safe disposal of cow farts and defecation.

Judging by the YouGov poll, much of the American public is getting wise to climate change nonsense, as well, which is rather remarkable considering the incessant global propaganda.

“Eco-anxiety” is real, according to the American Psychological Association. Defined as “chronic fear of environmental doom,” it’s a wonder that the affliction hasn’t been included on the disabilities disclosure list for job applications. The fear can come from direct experience of “extreme weather events”, according to the Mental Health Commission of Canada— a country whose extreme weather events were previously just considered an integral part of its national identity.

“Exposure to climate change information through news media” can also apparently cause eco-anxiety. No kidding.

Climate change propaganda is just like one big advertisement for self-indulgence. And thanks to western governments’ own actions, that's now become something that most can no longer afford.

The operation officially begun a few hours ago.

Russian authorities have detained an American soldier on criminal misconduct charges, the U.S. Army said Monday.
Army spokeswoman Cynthia Smith said Russia’s government had notified the State Department that the soldier, whose identity was not disclosed, was taken into custody May 2 in Vladivostok, near the country’s borders with China and North Korea.


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“The Army notified his family and the U.S. Department of State is providing appropriate consular support to the soldier in Russia,” Smith said in a statement.
The circumstances of the soldier’s presence in Vladivostok or the nature of the criminal charges were not immediately clear. The detention was first reported by NBC News.

A State Department spokesperson affirmed that an American citizen had been detained by Russian authorities and indicated that U.S. consular officials there would “seek to aid him or her with all appropriate assistance.”


The detention is likely to test already strained relations between Moscow and Washington, which has accused the government of President Vladimir Putin of unjustly imprisoning Americans to extract concessions from Washington.

The Biden administration says that Evan Gershkovich, a journalist for the Wall Street Journal, and Paul Whelan, a former Marine, are both wrongfully detained by Russia. The United States has released several Russians imprisoned in the United States in recent years for Americans imprisoned in Russia.
Michael Birnbaum contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. It will be updated.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/05/06/us-soldier-detained-russia/

So Brendan Sullivan committed to play for Iowa next fall....outstanding!
Great insurance in case Cade gets injured again and competition for Marco to elevate his game.

I liked what I saw from Sullivan last year. At 6' 3" 225lbs he moves very well in scrambling to buy time and can take a hit.

Let's go Hawks!

I think we are in for a 25 run shootout here.

Where would you rank them in your greatest bands list?

Woke up to my boys watching this on Netflix this morning.

I had forgotten how silly it was

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Is olive oil really a health boon? Or is it just a sign of healthy eating habits?
A study published in JAMA Network Open on Monday rekindles that debate. The observational study led by researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health examined two groups of U.S. health professionals and found daily olive oil consumption is associated with a lower risk of dying from dementia.

The facts​

• The study found that consuming at least a half tablespoon of olive oil every day was associated with a 28 percent lower risk of dying from dementia, as compared with those who never or rarely consumed olive oil.
• Participants who reported more olive oil consumption had a lower risk of dying from dementia, regardless of the quality of their diet or their adherence to the Mediterranean diet, which consists of plenty of fresh fruit, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and moderate amounts of fish and poultry.
• Researchers found replacing about one teaspoon of margarine and mayonnaise with the equivalent amount of olive oil was associated with an 8 to 14 percent lower risk of dying from dementia.
• The study observed two cohorts of more than 92,000 male and female U.S. health professionals over 28 years. Roughly 65 percent of the participants were women. And 4,751 of the participants died of dementia during the study period.

Background​

Olive oil use has been associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. The oil is a fixture of the Mediterranean diet. One study published in 2014 found extra virgin olive oil, specifically, to be associated with lower cardiovascular risk in older adults.

A 2022 examination of the same two cohorts in the study published Monday found higher olive oil consumption was associated with a roughly 19 percent lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, as compared with those who never or rarely consumed olive oil.

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And olive oil, when used in the Mediterranean diet, “appears to have a beneficial effect against cognitive decline,” said Marta Guasch-Ferré, an adjunct associate professor in nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a co-author of both studies of the two cohorts.
A 2015 randomized clinical trial in Barcelona found a Mediterranean diet with olive oil “may counteract age-related cognitive decline” in older adults.

“Olive oil is rich in monounsaturated fats and contains compounds with antioxidant activity that may play a protective role for the brain,” Guasch-Ferré said in an email.
Olive oil “may directly benefit the brain by crossing the blood-brain barrier” and may indirectly support the brain by having positive effects on a person’s heart health as well, said Anne-Julie Tessier, a research associate in nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the lead author of the study published Monday.

How the study was conducted​

The more than 92,000 participants in the two cohorts studied were asked how frequently they consumed different foods every four years for 28 years, starting in 1990. The respondents recorded how frequently they used olive oil in salad dressing, in food or bread, and in baking or frying at home.



A physician reviewed the death certificates of the participants who died during the study period to determine whether dementia was the cause of death, Tessier said. It was determined that 4,751 of the participants died of dementia.

What we don’t know​

The observational study found an association between the consumption of olive oil and a comparatively lower risk of dying from dementia. The researchers did not find a causal relationship.
Guasch-Ferré said in an email that “intervention studies are needed to confirm causal associations and optimal quantity of olive oil intake.” Future studies could try to determine “the mechanisms” by which olive oil intake is associated with a lower risk of dying from dementia, she said.

The study also observed the diets of health professionals, which means the results may not be generalizable to a broader, more diverse population.


And the researchers say they couldn’t differentiate between the use of different varieties of olive oil, such as virgin or extra virgin, which have “higher bioactive compounds and antioxidants,” Guasch-Ferré said.

President Biden leads former president Donald Trump in the battleground state of Wisconsin, but the matchup tightens to nearly a tie when third-party candidates are included, according to a new poll.
The Quinnipiac University survey, released Wednesday, found Biden receiving the support of 50 percent of voters and Trump getting 44 percent in a head-to-head matchup. Biden’s lead was just outside the margin of error.


The poll was conducted from Thursday to Monday and included 1,457 self-identified registered Wisconsin voters. The margin of error was plus-or-minus 2.6 percentage points.
With third-party candidates involved, Biden garnered 40 percent to 39 percent for Trump. Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. got 12 percent, Green Party candidate Jill Stein received 4 percent and independent candidate Cornel West had 1 percent.
The survey showed that Kennedy siphoned off similar levels of support from the two major-party candidates. Eleven percent of voters who backed Biden in the head-to-head matchup shifted to Kennedy in the five-way race, while that figure was 10 percent for Trump supporters.
The poll was released the same day Biden visited Wisconsin and criticized Trump over an ill-fated manufacturing project there that Trump had touted in his first term. Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 but lost it to Biden four years later.

Sure hope her parents voted for biden..........

With a mutual understanding that student needs are changing, public perceptions are shifting, and higher education — especially across the small private landscape — is facing an existential threat, at least in its current form, the presidents of Mount Mercy and St. Ambrose universities in January 2023 met for breakfast.



With St. Ambrose President Amy Novak coming from Davenport, where her university boasts 2,706 students, and Mount Mercy President Todd Olson driving from his Cedar Rapids campus of 1,449, the two met each other part way at a Perkins in Iowa City — symbolic of the spirit of their conversation.


“It was really a conversation of possibilities and what-ifs,” Novak said. “What if we could think a little bit differently about how two universities, who have similar values and missions, could come together and really expand opportunity for students?”




What emerged from that and subsequent talks was both short-term programmatic collaboration and the prospect for a more significant and long-running “strategic combination.”


The immediate agreement — approved by the institutions’ respective boards in April — lets students take a range of in-person, online, or hybrid courses from either university starting in the upcoming fall of 2024. The goal is to create more flexibility and academic pathways for traditional and non-traditional students seeking a degree without debt and opportunities without obstacles.


“When we came together, it was really a conversation to say — are there ways, given our size, that we could be more agile, more responsive to the needs of our community partners, and build out a series of opportunities that we think improve access and affordability for students going forward?” Novak said.


In addition to that arrangement, the two private Catholic institutions — situated about 83 miles apart — are considering a more systemic “strategic combination” aimed at strengthening their position and their ability to meet student needs through a unified mission moored in tradition, innovation, and collaboration.


“We're announcing our exploration of that strategic combination, which — if it moves forward — would mean that we'd eventually join together to become one institution,” Mount Mercy President Todd Olson told The Gazette. “We're not announcing that that's a definite outcome today. But we are announcing that’s something that we're seriously exploring.”

‘Significant obstacles’​

Although not yet final, the vision of a union would be to maintain two separate campuses and two separate athletics programs — and even two separate names — while also trimming redundancies, creating more options for students, and streamlining operations.


“We are doing serious exploration, bringing in more stakeholders in the months ahead,” Olson said. “We anticipate that we may get some real clarity on that by sometime in midsummer, possibly end of June, possibly in July.”


Should the campuses move in that direction, Olson said, the union could take years, “given the regulatory environment, working with the creditors, making sure we're following all those policies and guidelines.”


“But we may get to a decision this summer,” he said.


When asked what combining could mean for the campus’ separate endowments, Novak said, those are things they’ll have to work through.


“But I don't think there's any intention of commingling those funds at this point,” she said. “We recognize donors have given to Mount Mercy to support particular scholarships for various programs and students, similarly at St. Ambrose, we would continue to honor donor intent.”






The discussion comes in the context of the high-profile closure last year of Iowa Wesleyan University — which had been Iowa’s second-oldest college, dating its founding back 181 years to 1842, before Iowa gained statehood in 1846.


Wesleyan — which also had pursued a range of partnerships and collaborations before its closure — was one of four private universities that together in early 2023 asked Gov. Kim Reynolds for a combined $48 million in COVID-relief funds to help navigate “significant obstacles” facing rural private institutions.


Reynolds denied Wesleyan the $12 million it sought — precipitating its closure. And she hasn’t yet answered the other campuses. Although St. Ambrose and Mount Mercy weren’t among those involved in the COVID funding request, they cited some of those same headwinds in sharing news of their collaboration.


“You've heard I'm sure some of the critiques leveled against higher education — about not being as relevant, being too costly, not connected to business and industry,” Novak said. “And we said, what if we just say, how can we do that collectively better? And it's easier to bring two people together than for us to each individually start a whole bunch of new programs.”

‘Catholic ethics’​

That ideation is what brought them to the agreement to cross-offer courses and to a possible second arrangement to “facilitate the seamless transition of qualified students from undergraduate into graduate degree programs.”


Collectively, that would encompass 18 separate graduate programs, along with other certificate and degree-completion options for adult learners.


“So this is the start of what we hope will be a more extensive strategic collaboration as we go forward,” Novak said, noting administrative plans to work this summer toward further developing all the options for the coming fall.


“We know there are some opportunities that our faculty are already providing that are hybrid or entirely online courses that we believe we can open up,” Mount Mercy President Olson said. “And all of this depends on the enrollment level in the course, the major that students are pursuing. So there's a lot that we're still working through.”


When asked whether duplication is something the campuses will consider as they unify and look for efficiencies, Olson said, “There certainly are programs that we both offer.”


“And there also are some really complementary strengths that we have both at the undergraduate and the graduate level,” he said, committing to work with faculty on determining the best academic offerings for each campus going forward.


“There still will certainly be a number of courses that are taught on both campuses; that that will be still a core part of our model,” Olson said. “But we believe we can both open up new pathways and opportunities for students and work to become more efficient.”


Both campuses — like many across the state — have seen their enrollment decline in recent years. Mount Mercy, founded in 1928, is down 22 percent from its 1,849 students in 2017. St. Ambrose, founded in 1882, is down 13 percent from its 3,118 student tally that year.


Public documents show Mount Mercy reported endowment funds over $39 million in 2022, the most recent year available. St. Ambrose reported an endowment of $194 million that year.


Both said one key aspect of their partnership — in some ways making it possible — is their common Catholic foundation.


“When we talk about the challenges facing both higher education and our larger community and world, the unique and distinct attributes of what both Mount Mercy and St. Ambrose value and embrace is a commitment to really developing students that are centered around Catholic ethics, that appreciate the values that both of our institutions hold dear as Catholic institutions,” Novak said.

Cites "MAGA style populism".

Politico reports:

FreedomWorks, the once-swaggering conservative organization that helped turn tea party protesters into a national political force, is shutting down, according to its president, a casualty of the ideological split in a Republican Party dominated by former President Donald Trump.
“We’re dissolved,” said the group’s president, Adam Brandon. “It’s effective immediately.” FreedomWorks’ board of directors voted unanimously on Tuesday to dissolve the organization, Brandon said.
After Trump took control of the conservative movement, Brandon said, a “huge gap” opened up between the libertarian principles of FreedomWorks leadership and the MAGA-style populism of its members

Click to expand...

Over 11 games in 2023, Suggs put together 21 tackles, including 7.5 TFLs and five sacks. He also registered four PBUs and a forced fumble. Has two years of eligibility remaining.

Already has offers from Wisconsin, Arkansas, Kansas State, Indiana, Houston and a ton of G5 schools.

Link isn’t loading on my phone, hope it is for everyone else. Suggs hasn’t deleted the tweet or anything.
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Reported by the Des Moines Register. I've got from a few secondary sources that he's planning on visiting today and into tomorrow, would've written if I had it more solid, but a couple other folks have reported. Could be a big get for the Hawkeyes. Tabbed a three-star transfer by Rivals. Has two years of eligibility remaining.

As you well know by now, he was recruited by Tim Lester at Western Michigan before committing to NW.

Career stats for Sullivan:

-13 games played
-134-195 (68.7%) passing, for 1,303 yards, 10 TD, and 5 INT. Average of 100 yards per game.
-129 rushes for 257 yards and three TDs

This is from our Northwestern writer, Louie Vaccher:
Sully definitely has some swag about him. He’s a confident kid, definitely a quarterback’s personality. He’s athletic but has an average arm. He was a leader and hard worker, a gutsy player who was always willing to take a hit or throw his body around. He was always the bridesmaid at NU. In 2022, he lost the job in fall camp to Ryan Hilsinki. He eventually got the starting job, but then suffered a season-ending injury after five starts (I believe; check the number). Then last year, he lost the job to grad transfer Ben Bryant in camp. He wound up starting four games when Bryant was hurt and had a career game against Maryland. Then this spring, with a new OC, he was reportedly beaten out by Jack Lausch and transferred. I don’t think he liked the way things ended. He’s a very good backup to have, but I’m not sure if he’s the answer as a starter.

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Just got it confirmed. Iowa has been in contact with the Booty.

Also ULM, Tulsa, Samford and New Mexico State.

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If Biden turns down debating Trump (even though he already said he would), what would happen if Trump and Kennedy decided to debate? Would it hurt Trump more or Biden more? Because it stands to reason Kennedy can only get more support. Not less. The people voting for him are locked in. Who would he pull from in that instance? I think Kennedy hurts Trump way more.

More than a dozen conservative federal judges are threatening to not hire law clerks who attend Columbia University or its law school starting this fall — an attempt to show the judges’ displeasure over the institution’s handling of pro-Palestinian protests.

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In a letter addressed to Minouche Shafik, the embattled president of Columbia University, and Gillian Lester, dean of Columbia Law School, 13 judges nominated by President Donald Trump said the university has become “ground zero for the explosion of student disruptions, anti-semitism, and hatred for diverse viewpoints on campuses across the Nation.”

“As judges who hire law clerks every year to serve in the federal judiciary, we have lost confidence in Columbia as an institution of higher education,” the judges wrote. “Columbia has instead become an incubator of bigotry. As a result, Columbia has disqualified itself from educating the future leaders of our country.”



The lead signatories include Judges Elizabeth L. Branch of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit; James C. Ho of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit; and Matthew H. Solomson of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, who became known across the nation for his decision to suspend federal approval of the abortion pill mifepristone, also signed onto the letter.
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College protests over Gaza war​

Waves of antiwar protests are spreading across colleges campuses, with growing police arrests as graduation season approaches. See the universities where protests are intensifying.
Are you a college student? Tell us about protests on your campus.

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Federal judges hire top law school graduates for prestigious year-long clerkships. The clerks conduct legal research; prepare bench memos; draft orders and opinions; and assist their judge during courtroom proceedings, gaining valuable work experience and job recommendations to help launch their legal careers.
The boycott, announced this week, would not apply to students already enrolled at the university. Instead, the 13 judges wrote in the letter that they would not hire any student who attends Columbia University as an undergraduate or a law student beginning in the coming academic year.



In a statement, Lester did not directly address questions about the planned boycott, but said “we are proud that Columbia Law School graduates are consistently sought out by leading employers in the private and public sectors, including the judiciary. And we are deeply committed to supporting our exceptional students as they prepare to embark on their careers in the legal profession.”
A spokesperson for Shafik’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
Monday’s clerkship boycott is the latest fallout from the ongoing demonstrations over Israel’s military invasion of Gaza following Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Shafik, who is the first woman to lead Columbia University since its founding, has faced calls from Republicans to resign over her handling of the protests. Lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), have accused her of not acting quickly enough to quell student unrest or make Jewish students feel safe on campus. House Democrats have also expressed outrage over antisemitic harassment of Jewish students on and around campus.



More than 200 people have been arrested at Columbia, prompting criticism from free speech advocates who say the crackdown is antithetical to the university’s tradition of celebrating student activism. The university on Monday canceled its main commencement ceremony.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...mc_magnet-campusprotests_inline_collection_14

The authors of the letter either did not respond to requests for comment or declined to comment.
One federal judge familiar with the letter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak freely, said the purpose of the boycott is not to make “schools more conservative or more liberal,” but to “make schools more like schools,” and to address what these judges see as an unwillingness to accept diverse viewpoints.

“I worry that we are teaching people, including in law schools, that we should not see the law as a neutral endeavor,” the judge said. “We’re starting to see the world in terms of red and blue, and we’re teaching law students to view it [that way].”


Former federal judge Jeremy Fogel questioned whether it’s appropriate for judges to weigh in on the campus protests — even if doing so does not violate a specific ethics rule — because taking a stance reflects on their impartiality.
“Why do we have [ethics] rules in the first place?” said Fogel, who spent 13 years as a judge in the Northern District of California. “One of the reasons we have the rules is to convey the idea that the judiciary is impartial and independent, and they’re going to decide cases based on the law. So when judges weigh in on controversial issues, it’s an indication that they have a certain orientation or a certain philosophical outlook that could cause people to think that they’re not going to be open to things as you want judges to be.”

Fogel said he wouldn’t have signed the letter.


Stephen Gillers, a judicial ethics expert at New York University’s law school, shared similar concerns.

“Judges do get to choose their law clerks, but they hold that power in trust and must exercise it fairly and based on merit,” Gillers said in a statement. “The judges here, however, abuse their power when they punish Columbia graduates not for what they did but for where they went to school. This is a form of collective guilt that American law has always rejected.”
The judge who spoke on the condition of anonymity defended the signatories’ decision to sign the letter, arguing that “judges do a lot of stuff beyond just deciding the case in front of them,” and saying that judges have wide latitude when hiring clerks.

“I’ve heard plenty of judges talk about how they prefer their own school — their alma mater,” the judge said. “There are judges who want to hire more women, there are judges who like to hire veterans, on and on and on and on. … This is simply one kind of that.”
Ho and Branch had previously announced boycotts of clerks from Yale Law School and Stanford Law School because of “cancel culture” and free speech concerns. Ho’s chambers confirmed in a statement to The Washington Post that his boycotts of students from those schools remains in effect.

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In other news....the tax cuts and incentives (roads improvements, eminent domain) Wisconsin gave up to FoxConn over the next 40 years WOULD HAVE been enough money to fund a light rail between Milwaukee and Madison for >400 years (in another post made somewhere on the boards in the last 6 months)

That's an impressive level of GOP/Walker incompetence.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...e-lcd-panels-at-wisconsin-plant-idUSKCN1PO0FV

“A Matter Of Economic And National Security": Sen. Brown Urges Biden To Ban Chinese EVs In US​

U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) has urged President Biden to ban Chinese-made electric vehicles to safeguard Ohio autoworkers and address the economic and national security risks from Chinese automakers.

In a letter to President Biden this week, Brown highlighted that these companies, backed by the Chinese government, threaten the U.S. auto industry and argued that tariffs are not enough to counter this government-led challenge.

“Chinese electric vehicles are an existential threat to the American auto industry. Ohio knows all too well how China illegally subsidizes its companies, putting our workers out of jobs and undermining entire industries, from steel to solar manufacturing. We cannot allow China to bring its government-backed cheating to the American auto industry. The U.S. must ban Chinese electric vehicles now, and stop a flood of Chinese government-subsidized cars that threaten Ohio auto jobs, and our national and economic security,” Brown wrote.

Brown expressed concerns that government subsidies for Chinese automakers would prevent American companies and workers from competing fairly, potentially devastating the United Autoworkers and their ability to secure higher wages and benefits. He also noted the national security risks of Chinese electric vehicles due to the technology used and the potential for data access by the Chinese government.

In a letter to President Biden, Brown wrote: "Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) threaten our economic and national security, and the entire American auto industry. Allowing these automobiles into the United States would harm American manufacturing, American workers, American consumers, and American security. Chinese EVs, highly subsidized by the Chinese government, could decimate our domestic automakers, harm American workers – many of whom are represented by the United Autoworkers (UAW) – and give China access to sensitive personal data."

"There are currently no Chinese EVs for sale in the United States, and we must keep it that way. I implore you to take bold, aggressive action and to permanently ban EVs produced by Chinese companies or whatever subsidiaries they establish to conceal their origins. Further, I urge you to work with our allies to address these concerns in a wholistic manner that supports American jobs and innovation."

Brown writes: "The level of subsidization and resulting sale price differential between an EV produced by a Chinese entity and those manufactured in the U.S. using union labor presents extreme challenges to enforcing a level playing field. Currently, Chinese-built cars are subject to an extra 25 percent tariff on top of the regular 2.5 percent import duty that generally applies to imported vehicles."

“But Chinese automaker BYD, now the world’s largest producer of electric cars, sells an electric hatchback named the 'Seagull' for the equivalent of less than $10,000 USD. In addition to China’s heavily-subsidized, artificially low vehicle pricing, Chinese automakers are finding new ways to cheat by establishing factories in Mexico."

The letter adds: "Lastly, allowing Chinese EVs on our roads could pose risks to our national security. The technology in EVs includes apps, sensors, and cameras. China should not have access to the data these technologies can collect – whether it be information about traffic patterns, critical infrastructure, or the lives of Americans. China does not allow American-made electric vehicles near their official buildings."

"To allow their vehicles freedom to travel throughout the United States would be foolish and highly dangerous. I appreciate the Department of Commerce’s initiation of an investigation into the technology embedded in EVs from China, but we must act expeditiously to ban these vehicles from the United States," Brown argues.

"The automotive sector is undergoing rapid, dramatic changes. As these market- and technology-driven changes arise, it is imperative that American companies innovate and lead in the technologies of the future. American companies cannot compete against Chinese companies that are heavily subsidized. For this reason, the United States must ban Chinese-made EVs as soon as possible. This is a matter of economic and national security."