News Articles
The House Intelligence Committee, led by Republicans, has concluded that there was no deliberate wrongdoing by the Obama administration in the 2012 attack on the U.S.
The House Intelligence Committee, led by Republicans, has concluded that there was no deliberate wrongdoing by the Obama administration in the 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, said Rep. Mike Thompson of St. Helena, the second-ranking Democrat on the committee.
The panel voted Thursday to declassify the report, the result of two years of investigation by the committee. U.S. intelligence agencies will have to approve making the report public.
The Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport has received a $1 million federal grant for environmental work associated with its runway expansion project, Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, announced Monday.
The project's environmental mitigation costs, to deal with endangered plant and animal species, have run to $21 million, mostly borne by the county. The $53 million runway project is 90 percent federally funded.
Thanks to the efforts of Congressman Mike Thompson, management of a four-mile stretch of a 22-mile flood control project along I-680 will be transferred from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to the Contra Costa Flood Control and Water Conservation District. Removing the bureaucratic hurdles set forth by the Corps' control will let local experts directly perform habitat restoration and flood control. Next up, a community-based planning process will begin to bring a broad local vision into the mix.
Congressman Mike Thompson on Wednesday hosted a meeting with Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Undersecretary for Benefits Allison Hickey and Julianna Boor, the new director of the VA's Oakland Regional Office.
Thompson and his Northern California colleagues discussed the claims backlog at the Oakland Regional Office and the recent controversies at other VA offices around the country. Since 2012, Thompson has hosted four separate oversight meetings with Hickey on Capitol Hill and has toured the Oakland Regional Office with her, according to Austin Vevurka of Thompson's office.
Wilfred Alexander, a Vallejo resident and Vietnam War veteran, said the Agent Orange herbicide he handled at war led to prostate cancer later in life, but he had to wait months for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to process his treatment claim. Another veteran said he has to drive an hour and a half for a dentist, doctor or hospital appointment.
As lawmakers cobble together a temporary fix for the nation's crumbling infrastructure, the North Coast's two congressional representatives have reiterated their call for a long-term plan to fund federal highway projects.
Reps. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, and Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, said the highway funding bill that the House passed last week does little to address the long-term health of the Federal Highway Trust Fund, which accounts for half of California's transportation spending.
Sonoma County's congressional representatives are right. Six months of secrecy surrounding the federal raid of a Petaluma slaughterhouse and a nationwide recall of meat processed there in 2013 is more than enough. It's time for federal investigators to come clean with their investigation into Rancho Feeding Corp. — if only to allow local ranchers who relied on Rancho for food processing to move on with a better understanding of what they can do, if anything, to address their losses.
Six months after federal regulators closed a Petaluma slaughterhouse and initiated a nationwide beef recall, two North Bay congressmen are calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture for answers about the still-ongoing investigations.
"Six months has been ample time," Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, said Monday of the probes into Rancho Feeding Corp. "They should have been able to give us information, and they haven't."