🎧 After comparing hundreds of pages of new rules with the old ones, NPR’s Geoff Brumfiel says he and a colleague found that there are some very important changes to the safety guidance. The new rules alter groundwater protections by replacing the strict requirement to protect water from radiological contamination. They now say that consideration must be given to avoid contamination. Similar language rollbacks were found for discharges into public sewers and the environment. Brumfiel says the changes could potentially impact everything from worker radiation exposure to reactor security.
President Trump spoke in Iowa last night as part of a midterm election campaign. The president focused his speech on a top voter concern: the economy. The state's Republicans are defending an open Senate seat and other positions they normally expect to win easily. But the GOP candidates may need to put in more work to garner the votes they need this year. 🎧 NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben tells Up First that it seemed the president’s speech was trying to shift the narrative away from the federal officers who shot and killed two people in Minneapolis. Trump maintained his typical tone, touting a strong economy. But the data contradicts his message. According to Kurtzleben, inflation has cooled but remains elevated, and the job market appears to be slowing. Even more so, Americans do not feel the economy is currently doing well, which has left Trump's approval rating on the economy in double-digit negative territory.
After a yearlong investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board blamed multiple systemwide failures for the midair collision of an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet near Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people. In the findings, investigators laid much of the blame on the Federal Aviation Administration. 🎧 NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said that the FAA should have known about the conflict between the helicopter route and where the regional flight was attempting to land. She revealed that, for years, air traffic controllers repeatedly flagged close calls at the exact spot where the crash happened, but their pleas were ignored. NPR’s Joel Rose noted that there were a few key moments where things could have gone differently, including if the helicopter crew had heard the traffic controllers better and realized that the plane was coming from the left side of the Potomac River, not the right.
A man rushed at Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., last night during a town hall, spraying her with an unknown liquid from a syringe. Footage from the event shows the man approaching her at the lectern as she delivered remarks before security swiftly tackled him to the ground. Moments before the assault, Omar had been calling for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to resign or face impeachment. | 
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