Category: National Headlines

In response to the extreme drought conditions in California, the Metropolitan Water District—one of the largest in the state—in recent days called a Water Supply Alert, asking people to voluntarily reduce the amount of water they are using.

For the first time in California’s state history, a water shortage was declared on the Colorado River, which supplies 25 percent of Southern California’s water.

But there are solutions to our water shortage.

My guest is Scott Maloni, vice president of Poseidon Water in California, whose company has so far spent 20 years and $100 million to build a desalination plant off the coast—and still, there’s no plant.

He explains what’s slowing down the process and how progress can be made.

California Insider is an Epoch Times show available on YouTube, R

LOS ANGELES—Antonio Senzatela pitched seven sparkling innings, C.J. Cron slugged a three-run homer and the Colorado Rockies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-0 on Sunday, taking two of three from the defending World Series champions.

Senzatela (3-9) cooled off the Dodgers, winners of 17 of 20, by allowing two hits in just their fourth shutout loss of the season. They missed an opportunity to gain ground on NL West-leading San Francisco, which lost 9-0 to the East-leading Atlanta Braves, who come to Los Angeles on Monday. The Giants lead the Dodgers by 2½ games.

Senzatela struck out five and walked one on 90 pitches. The Dodgers finished with three hits.

Senzatela had a perfect game through four innings. Corey Seager finally broke through with a leadoff single in the fifth. He moved to third on a single by Cody Bellinger, putting runners at the corners, but Austin Barnes grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the threat.

Senzatela walked Seager leading off the seventh and hit Chris Taylor, but the right-hander retired the next three batters.

The Rockies nearly gave the game back in the eighth. Tyler Kinley got two quick outs, but Trevor Story lost Trea Turner’s high popup to left-center in the sun and Kinley walked Max Muncy. Kinley’s second wild pitch of the inning moved the runners up before he got AJ Pollock on a swinging strike.

The Rockies had runners on base in every inning except the fifth and eighth after managing just three hits in a 5-2 loss on Saturday. They won the opener 4-2.

Colorado improved to 16-49 on the road.

Cron leads the majors with 33 RBIs in August. Brendan Rodgers singled and Charlie Blackmon doubled to set up Cron, who blasted his 24th homer of the season and 10th this month for a 3-0 lead against Mitch White (1-2) in the first.

Colorado extended its lead to 5-0 in the seventh. Rio Ruiz hit a bases-loaded sacrifice fly off Joe Kelly. Shane Greene came in and his wild pitch got by Austin Barnes and rolled to the backstop, allowing Story to score.

Facing an overworked bullpen, the Dodgers sent All-Star third baseman Justin Turner to the mound in the

BEAVER CREEK, Colorado | Rep. Lauren Boebert, Colorado Republican, lashed out Friday at President Biden after she spoke to a Colorado mother whose son was among the Marines killed in Afghanistan on Thursday, saying that “his blood is on Joe Biden’s hands.”

In remarks at the Steamboat Institute Freedom Conference, Ms. Boebert said she talked with a woman in her western Colorado district who lost her son in the Thursday terrorist attack at the Kabul airport that left at least 13 military members dead and 18 injured.

“I just had one of the most disturbing phone calls I’ve ever experienced in my entire life,” Ms. Boebert said. “I had to pull the car over and speak to a new Gold Star mother in my district. Her son since [he was] 8 years old has spoken about serving our country.

“But yesterday was inexcusable. Yesterday, he was one of the 13 Marines that we lost in vain in Afghanistan.

“And I make no apology after hearing the voice of his mother in saying that his blood is on Joe Biden’s hands,” Ms. Boebert said. “Her son was murdered yesterday because of this poor execution of getting our troops, our American citizens out of Afghanistan. This has been disgusting and shameful.”

The names of the 13 slain service members have not been released, but Ms. Boebert’s office said the Marine was Rylee McCollum of Wyoming and that his mother lives in the congresswoman’s district.

Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon on Friday ordered the U.S. and state flags to be flown at half-staff until Monday to honor Lance Cpl. McCollum, who was 20.

“I’m devastated to learn Wyoming lost one of our own in yesterday’s terrorist attack in Kabul,” Mr. Gordon said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Rylee McCollum of Bondurant. Jennie and I, along with all of Wyoming and the entire country thank Rylee for his service.”

.@laurenboebert says she spoke today to a new #GoldStar mother, who is part of her district. This mother’s son was one do true Marines who died in the #KabulAttack this week. #freedomconference

— The Steamboat Institute (@Steamboat_Inst) August 27, 2021

Ms. Boebert drew enthusiastic applause after announcing that her office is drafting articles of impeachment “for everyone who is involved in this,” referring to the botched U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

She urged House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to bring House Republicans back even if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refuses to do so before the chamber’s recess ends Sept. 20.

Saturday, August 21, 2021: Epoch Cr

Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will lose significant portions of their water supply in 2022 after a U.S. federal agency declared the first-ever water shortage condition at Lake Mead, a massive reservoir formed by the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced on Monday that the projected water elevation in Lake Mead for Jan. 1 next year is 1,065 feet, which is 9 feet lower than the level which triggers the shortage condition.

As a result, Arizona’s annual water apportionment was reduced by 18 percent or 512,000 acre-feet. An acre-foot is the volume necessary to cover one acre of land with water. Nevada will lose 21,000 feet, and Mexico will lose 80,000 acre-feet, totaling 7 percent and 5 percent of their annual apportionment respectively.

“Like much of the West, and across our connected basins, the Colorado River is facing unprecedented and accelerating challenges,” Tanya Trujillo, the assistant secretary for water and science at the Department of the Interior, said in a statement.

Most of the water in the Colorado River comes from the Rocky mountains. The river’s basin in that area had a severely dry spring this year despite a regular snow season.

As a result, the unregulated inflow into Lake Powell, the amount which would have flowed to Lake Mead if not for the Hoover Dam, was approximately 32 percent

Authorities in Colorado this week said they are investigating after election systems passwords and other data were recently posted online.

Passwords that were posted online were for individual hardware stations belonging to Mesa County, according to Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s office. The secretary ordered Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters to provide surveillance video footage and other documentation.

The breach, according to Griswold, “has not created an imminent direct security risk to Colorado’s elections” and it didn’t occur during an election, including the 2020 contest.

“Several items were published online that constituted a breach in the security protocols for Mesa County voting system components,” her office said in a statement. “The posted images depict the BIOS passwords specific to the individual hardware stations of Mesa County’s voting system. The public disclosure of the BIOS passwords for one or more components of Mesa County’s voting system alone constitutes a serious breach of voting system security protocols, as well as a violation” of other rules, she continued.

The sensitive data was published on social media platforms, the news release said, although it did not say what website. It occurred after the software was installed in Mesa County on May 25, 2021, it added.

“We have these security protocols in place for a reason,” Griswold told a local media outlet on Monday. “This is a very serious breach in chain-of-custody and security protocols.”

In the interview, Griswold said that if Peters can’t provide proof of the chain of custody, the voting equipment in Mesa County will be decertified.

The secretary noted that potential criminal charges could be filed as a result of the breach, but didn’t say whether Peters or another election official would be held liable, according to the

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell capped the first day of his election symposium Tuesday with a keynote appearance by embattled Tina Peters, a county clerk and recorder who delivered her address hours after she says her office was raided as part of an investigation into a potential election security breach.

The investigation, announced Monday by Colorado Secretary of State Jenna Griswold, is in response to a Mesa County voting system password being revealed in photos posted by a QAnon follower on the social media platform Telegram. 

The photos, said to have been received from a “whistleblower” in Ms. Peters’ office, were used to propel a conspiracy theory that voting machine manufacturer Dominion Voting Systems had access to the county’s voting machines.

“Just yesterday I got an order from the Secretary of State that she was going to invade my elections department today,” Ms. Peters said. “And guess what, when I was on a plane to come to see you kind folks and to talk to you out there, guess what they did. They provided a search warrant and raided my office.”

Ms. Peters denied accusations that she was involved in the release of the passwords, and said the raid raised suspicions of her own.

“We don’t know what they were doing in there, because for several hours they wouldn’t let my chief deputy clerk, who was the acting clerk of Mesa County when I’m absent, wouldn’t even let her observe what the secretary of state and Dominion were doing in my office.”

Ms. Peters, who has said Mesa County citizens have brought questions over the election to her office, said she has been at odds with Ms. Griswold over her stance on election integrity.

“She has come into my office several times already in the last two years since I’ve been the elected official,” Ms. Peters said. “Because I am a Republican, I’m a conservative and she’s not. And she weaponizes her position to attack people that disagree with her.”

Mr. Lindell kicked off his three-day “Cyber Symposium” Tuesday. He claims he will present “indisputable” proof of a Chinese hack of the 2020 presidential election.

Mr. Lindell says he has 37 terabytes of “irrefutable” evidence that hackers, who he said were backed by China, broke into election systems and switched votes in favor of President Biden.

He said he will present that evidence at the event.

Mr. Lindell promoted a “world-changing” announcement throughout Tuesday, which was supposed to take place at 8 p.m. EDT but was delayed.

Mr. Lindell announced the raid when he took the stage to introduce Ms. Peters.

GREELEY, Colo.—Michael Gray, a visual artist, found Shen Yun Performing Arts resonating with his world view of beauty and values at an evening performance in Greeley, Colorado on Aug. 1.

“Growing has to come from inside,” he said.

Shen Yun, based in New York, showcases China’s 5,000 years of traditional culture through the medium of classical and ethnic dances. These dances are accompanied by a unique world-class orchestra that blends the sounds of traditional Chinese and European instruments.

“Beautiful things like this … those traditional cultures were ways of expressing these really unique and beautiful ideas,” Gray said.

Shen Yun’s stories are based on the traditional spiritual teachings of Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism—a legacy of spiritual civilization that preceded the rise of the Chinese Communist Party when such values were lost.

Dance and art forms are part of the “universal element that binds all of us together,” Gray said. They express the universal values of freedom and goodness.

“No matter where you are in the world, and what your fundamental beliefs are, it’s just that ultimate goodness that brings all of us together,” Gray said.

The storytelling was playful and joyful, he added. Shen Yun’s mini-dramas portra