Northeast

Blackburn slams Secret Service chief for 'celebrating herself' at RNC after Trump assassination attempt

Published

2 years ago

July 20, 2024

Blackburn slams Secret Service chief for 'celebrating herself' at RNC after Trump assassination attempt

MILWAUKEE — Republican Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn doubled down on her demand for Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to answer questions about the assassination attempt against former President Trump.

“Director Cheatle can run, but she can’t hide. If she has time to sweet-talk folks in a luxury suite at the RNC, she has time to answer how the Secret Service’s failures resulted in President Trump’s near-assassination,” Blackburn told Fox News Digital on Thursday. “The last thing she should be doing is celebrating herself while rank-and-file agents are working around the clock to provide security in Milwaukee.”

During the third night of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Wednesday, Blackburn and fellow GOP Sens. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., James Lankford, R-Okla., and Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., confronted Cheatle over the security failures to prevent an assassination attempt on Trump’s life at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.

SECRET SERVICE DIRECTOR REFUSES TO STEP DOWN AS FBI INVESTIGATES TRUMP SHOOTER THOMAS MATTHEW CROOKS

This image shows Sens. Marsha Blackburn and John Barrasso confronting Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle. (@VoteMarsha/X)

“Stonewalling,” Barrasso can be heard yelling at Cheatle as she walks through the convention center.

“This was an assassination attempt, you owe the people answers, you owe President Trump answers,” Blackburn said.

SENATORS CONFRONT SECRET SERVICE CHIEF AT REPUBLICAN CONVENTION: ‘YOU OWE PRESIDENT TRUMP ANSWERS’

Cheatle was in a luxury box at the RNC viewing speakers as they took the stage in the lead-up to Ohio Sen. JD Vance’s first speech since he was announced as Trump’s running mate.

In another clip, the lawmakers were seen shouting at the Secret Service chief, with Cheatle responding, “I don’t think that this is the forum to have this discussion.”

Cheatle has refused to step down amid the calls for answers on how a gunman was able to open fire on Trump and rallygoers in Pennsylvania on Saturday.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., speaks during the first day of the Republican National Convention at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on July 15, 2024. (Reuters/Mike Segar)

“Continuity of operations is paramount during a critical incident and U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has no intentions to step down,” Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said. “She deeply respects members of Congress and is fiercely committed to transparency in leading the Secret Service through the internal investigation and strengthening the agency through lessons learned in these important internal and external reviews.”

HOUSE GOP LEADERS DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY ON TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT: ‘SO MANY QUESTIONS’

Gunfire rang out at the start of Trump’s campaign rally on Saturday. Trump was seen abruptly grabbing his right ear before ducking and hitting the floor of the stage. Secret Service personnel quickly surrounded Trump before they rushed him from the stage, his right ear covered in blood.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is shown after being grazed by a bullet during his campaign rally in Butler, Pa., on July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Before he was ushered out, Trump repeatedly yelled, “Fight!” while giving a fist pump to the crowd to indicate he was all right.

DISCORD REVEALS DETAILS OF WOULD-BE TRUMP ASSASSIN’S ACCOUNT ON PLATFORM

The shooter was identified as 20-year-old Pennsylvania man Thomas Matthew Crooks, who, in addition to injuring Trump, injured two rally-goers and killed 50-year-old father Corey Comperatore.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is seen with blood on his face and surrounded by Secret Service agents as he is rushed off the stage in Butler, Pa., on July 13, 2024. (Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images)

Calls and questions about the attack have mounted, with conservative lawmakers increasingly calling on Cheatle to resign over the security failure.

“How could this have occurred? This close to the death of a former president, we didn’t get any kind of satisfaction. Time for the head of the Secret Service to go,” Barasso said.

Security at the Republican National Convention was amplified after the shooting, with officers from jurisdictions across the country staged across the massive convention in Milwaukee.

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Maine

NECEC conservation plan will not protect Maine’s mature forests | Opinion

Published

28 minutes ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

NECEC conservation plan will not protect Maine’s mature forests | Opinion

Robert Bryan is a licensed forester from Harpswell and author or co-author of numerous publications on managing forests for wildlife. Paul Larrivee is a licensed forester from New Gloucester who manages both private and public lands, and a former Maine Forest Service forester.

In November 2025, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) approved a conservation plan and forest management plan as mitigation for impacts from the NECEC transmission corridor that runs from the Quebec border 53 miles to central Maine.

As professional foresters, we were astonished by the lack of scientific credibility in the definition of “mature forest habitat” that was approved by DEP, and the business-as-usual commercial forestry proposed for over 80% of the conservation area.

The DEP’s approval requires NECEC to establish and protect 50,000 acres to be managed for mature-forest wildlife species and wildlife travel corridors along riparian areas and between mature forest habitats. The conservation plan will establish an area adjacent to the new transmission corridor to be protected under a conservation easement held by the state. Under this plan, 50% of the area will be managed as mature forest habitat.

Under the forest management plan, a typical even-aged stand will qualify as “mature forest habitat” once 50 feet tall, which is only about 50 years old. These stands will lack large trees that provide wildlife denning and nesting sites, multiple vegetation layers that mature-forest birds use for nesting and feeding habitats and large decaying trees and downed logs that provide habitat for insects, fungi and small mammals, which in turn benefit larger predators.

Another major concern is that contrary to the earlier DEP order, the final approval allows standard sustainable forestry operations on the 84% of the forest located outside the stream buffers and special habitats. These stands may be harvested as soon as they achieve the “mature forest habitat” definition, as long as 50% of the conserved land is maintained as “mature.”

After the mature forest goal is reached, clearcutting or other heavy harvesting could occur on thousands of acres every 10 years. Because the landowner — Weyerhaeuser — owns several hundred thousand acres in the vicinity, any reductions in harvesting within the conservation area can simply be offset by cutting more heavily nearby. As a result, the net
mature-forest benefit of the conservation area will be close to zero.

Third, because some mature stands will be cut before the 50% mature forest goal is reached, it will take 40 years — longer than necessary — to reach the goal.

In the near future the Board of Environmental Protection (BEP) will consider an appeal from environmental organizations of the plan approval. To ensure that ecologically mature forest develops in a manner that meets the intent of the DEP/BEP orders, several things need to change.

First and most important, to ensure that characteristics of mature forest habitat have time to develop it is critical that the definition include clear requirements for the minimum number of large-diameter (hence more mature) trees, adjusted by forest type. At least half the stocking of an area of mature forest habitat should be in trees at least 10 inches in diameter, and at least 20% of stands beyond the riparian buffers should have half the stocking in trees greater than or equal to 16 inches in diameter.

Current research as well as guidelines for defining ecologically mature forests, such as those in Maine Audubon’s Forestry for Maine Birds, should be followed.

Second, limits should be placed on the size and distribution of clearcut or “shelterwood” harvest patches so that even-aged harvests are similar in size to those created by typical natural forest disturbance patterns. These changes will help ensure that the mature-forest block and connectivity requirements of the orders are met.

Third, because the forest impacts have already occurred, no cutting should be allowed in the few stands that meet or exceed the DEP-approved definition — which needs to be revised as described above — until the 50% or greater mature-forest goal is reached.

If allowed to stand, the definitions and management described in the forest management plan would set a terrible precedent for conserving mature forests in Maine. The BEP should uphold the appeal and establish standards for truly mature forest habitat.

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Massachusetts

Foul play suspected after human remains found in water in Shirley

Published

46 minutes ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

Foul play suspected after human remains found in water in Shirley

Human remains were discovered Wednesday in the water in Shirley, Massachusetts, and authorities suspect foul play.

Police in Shirley said in a social media post at 7:15 p.m. that they responded to “a suspicious object in the water near the Maritime Veterans Memorial Bridge on Shaker Road.” Massachusetts State Police later said the object was believed to be human remains.

The bridge crosses Catacoonamug Brook near Phoenix Pond.

The office of Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said a group of young people was walking in the area around 5:30 p.m. and “reported seeing what appeared to be something consistent with a body part in the water.”

Foul play is suspected, Ryan’s office said.

Authorities will continue investigating overnight into Thursday, and an increased police presence is expected in the area.

No further information was immediately available.

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