NASA probe makes closest ever pass by the SunDALLAS — The Dallas City Council conducted virtual interviews Monday with three finalists for the city manager position, marking a significant step in a 10-month search process that will continue into 2025. The candidates under consideration are Fort Worth Assistant City Manager William Johnson, Sacramento Assistant City Manager Mario Lara and Dallas Interim City Manager Kim Tolbert. The next city manager will oversee Dallas' $5 billion budget, hire permanent police and fire chiefs, and manage departments responsible for road repairs and park maintenance. The position became vacant after former City Manager T.C. Broadnax left to become Austin's city manager earlier this year. "I think we have a great three candidates and I'll look forward to introducing them to our community," said City Councilmember Jesse Moreno. The selection process has faced criticism for its length, but Mayor Pro Tem Tennell Atkins defended the timeline. "I feel like the process was transparent, very open," Atkins said. "We always said that we were going to have the selection of the city manager the latter part of December, first part of January so we're still on that timeline." An initial timeline projected finishing the process by the end of 2024, but a revised timeline calls for the new city manager to take the reins in February. Among the candidates, Tolbert has emerged as a frontrunner, securing endorsements from multiple organizations including the Dallas Fire Fighters Association, the Black Fire Fighters Association of Dallas, the Dallas Hispanic Firefighters Association and the Dallas NAACP. "Not only is she qualified, she's had on the job training," said Sharon Middlebrooks of the Dallas branch of the NAACP. "Why would we want to bring someone in new when we already have a person on the job that has trained?" The finalist pool narrowed from four to three after Mark Washington, an assistant city manager in Grand Rapids, Michigan, withdrew from consideration. Zachary Williams, a county manager in Georgia, was also previously in contention but is no longer among the candidates. The search has been complicated by recent developments in Dallas governance. Art Davis, a director with Baker Tilly, the firm conducting the search, reported that some candidates expressed concerns about recently passed city charter amendments. These include requirements to hire 900 more police officers and allocate half of the city's new revenue to improving police and fire pensions. Following these amendments, Moody's downgraded Dallas' economic outlook from stable to negative. The council plans to allow public input before making a final decision. "The community, those we represent, have an opportunity to give us their feedback on our final selection," Moreno said. Councilmember Cara Mendelsohn expressed optimism about the remaining candidates: "I am very excited about our three qualified candidates and I can't wait for the community to meet them." The successful candidate will also need to hire a new police chief to replace Eddie Garcia, who recently left to take an administration role in Austin.
By MICHELLE L. PRICE WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — An online spat between factions of Donald Trump’s supporters over immigration and the tech industry has thrown internal divisions in his political movement into public display, previewing the fissures and contradictory views his coalition could bring to the White House. The rift laid bare the tensions between the newest flank of Trump’s movement — wealthy members of the tech world including billionaire Elon Musk and fellow entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and their call for more highly skilled workers in their industry — and people in Trump’s Make America Great Again base who championed his hardline immigration policies. The debate touched off this week when Laura Loomer , a right-wing provocateur with a history of racist and conspiratorial comments, criticized Trump’s selection of Sriram Krishnan as an adviser on artificial intelligence policy in his coming administration. Krishnan favors the ability to bring more skilled immigrants into the U.S. Loomer declared the stance to be “not America First policy” and said the tech executives who have aligned themselves with Trump were doing so to enrich themselves. Much of the debate played out on the social media network X, which Musk owns. Loomer’s comments sparked a back-and-forth with venture capitalist and former PayPal executive David Sacks , whom Trump has tapped to be the “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar.” Musk and Ramaswamy, whom Trump has tasked with finding ways to cut the federal government , weighed in, defending the tech industry’s need to bring in foreign workers. It bloomed into a larger debate with more figures from the hard-right weighing in about the need to hire U.S. workers, whether values in American culture can produce the best engineers, free speech on the internet, the newfound influence tech figures have in Trump’s world and what his political movement stands for. Trump has not yet weighed in on the rift, and his presidential transition team did not respond to a message seeking comment. Musk, the world’s richest man who has grown remarkably close to the president-elect , was a central figure in the debate, not only for his stature in Trump’s movement but his stance on the tech industry’s hiring of foreign workers. Technology companies say H-1B visas for skilled workers, used by software engineers and others in the tech industry, are critical for hard-to-fill positions. But critics have said they undercut U.S. citizens who could take those jobs. Some on the right have called for the program to be eliminated, not expanded. Born in South Africa, Musk was once on an a H-1B visa himself and defended the industry’s need to bring in foreign workers. “There is a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent,” he said in a post. “It is the fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley.” Related Articles National Politics | Should the U.S. increase immigration levels for highly skilled workers? National Politics | In states that ban abortion, social safety net programs often fail families National Politics | Court rules Georgia lawmakers can subpoena Fani Willis for information related to her Trump case National Politics | New 2025 laws hit hot topics from AI in movies to rapid-fire guns National Politics | Trump threat to immigrant health care tempered by economic hopes Trump’s own positions over the years have reflected the divide in his movement. His tough immigration policies, including his pledge for a mass deportation, were central to his winning presidential campaign. He has focused on immigrants who come into the U.S. illegally but he has also sought curbs on legal immigration , including family-based visas. As a presidential candidate in 2016, Trump called the H-1B visa program “very bad” and “unfair” for U.S. workers. After he became president, Trump in 2017 issued a “Buy American and Hire American” executive order , which directed Cabinet members to suggest changes to ensure H-1B visas were awarded to the highest-paid or most-skilled applicants to protect American workers. Trump’s businesses, however, have hired foreign workers, including waiters and cooks at his Mar-a-Lago club , and his social media company behind his Truth Social app has used the the H-1B program for highly skilled workers. During his 2024 campaign for president, as he made immigration his signature issue, Trump said immigrants in the country illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country” and promised to carry out the largest deportation operation in U.S. history. But in a sharp departure from his usual alarmist message around immigration generally, Trump told a podcast this year that he wants to give automatic green cards to foreign students who graduate from U.S. colleges. “I think you should get automatically, as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country,” he told the “All-In” podcast with people from the venture capital and technology world. Those comments came on the cusp of Trump’s budding alliance with tech industry figures, but he did not make the idea a regular part of his campaign message or detail any plans to pursue such changes.
ICC Champions Trophy 2025 Schedule: India vs Pakistan Match Set for February 23 in Dubai The International Cricket Council (ICC) has officially announced the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 calendar, which includes the highly anticipated India vs. Pakistan match at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on February 23, 2025. This high-profile match between fierce rivals is a part of the elite event, which matches the world's top eight ODI teams against each other. Highlights of the competition: The Champions Trophy 2025 match between Pakistan and New Zealand will take place in Karachi's National Stadium on February 19. The final will take place at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on March 9 unless India qualifies, in which case it will be moved to Dubai. Matches in India and the Neutral Venue Schedule Because of security and political issues, India will use a hybrid hosting format and play all of its matches in Dubai. The team plays Bangladesh on February 20 to start the competition, followed by India vs. Pakistan on February 23, 2025, and New Zealand on March 2. Teams in Groups A and B Two groups will compete in the tournament: Group A: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and New Zealand Group B: South Africa, England, Australia, and Afghanistan Teams competing for a spot in the semifinals will face fierce competition during the group round. ICC Champions Trophy Schedule Overview: The ICC Champions Trophy 2025 will comprise 15 matches hosted across four venues: Dubai, Karachi, Rawalpindi, and Lahore. The semi finals will take place on March 4 and 5, with reserve days allocated for both semifinals and the final. Full ICC Champions Trophy 2025 Schedule: February 19: Pakistan vs. New Zealand – Karachi February 20: Bangladesh vs. India – Dubai February 21: Afghanistan vs. South Africa – Karachi February 22: Australia vs. England – Lahore February 23: Pakistan vs. India – Dubai February 24: Bangladesh vs. New Zealand – Rawalpindi February 25: Australia vs. South Africa – Rawalpindi February 26: Afghanistan vs. England – Lahore February 27: Pakistan vs. Bangladesh – Rawalpindi February 28: Afghanistan vs. Australia – Lahore March 1: South Africa vs. England – Karachi March 2: New Zealand vs. India – Dubai March 4: Semifinal 1 – Dubai March 5: Semifinal 2 – Lahore March 9: Final – Lahore Note: The final will shift to Dubai if India qualifies. ICC Champions Trophy 2025 and the Model of Hybrid Hosting Months of negotiations between the PCB and BCCI resulted in the ICC Champions Trophy schedule. The selection of a hybrid hosting arrangement resulted from India's decision to forego visiting Pakistan because of security concerns. Likewise, the same format will be used for Pakistan's matches at ICC tournaments that India hosts in the future. With this agreement, the concerns of the two cricketing titans are balanced and the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 is guaranteed to go off without a hitch. The 2026 T20 World Cup and the 2025 Women's ODI World Cup will likewise follow the hybrid model. Background: Because of political difficulties, India and Pakistan have not played a bilateral series since 2012. Their ICC tournament matches continue to rank among the most watched events in the world. Fans can anticipate exciting cricket throughout the tournament with Group A (Bangladesh, India, New Zealand, and Pakistan) guaranteeing suspenseful action and Group B (Afghanistan, Australia, England, and South Africa) offering similarly formidable competition.
DELAND, Fla. (AP) — Luke Bailey threw for 204 yards and three touchdowns with only five incompletions and Drake eased by Stetson 49-10 on Saturday to secure a second straight outright Pioneer Football League title. Davion Cherwin rushed for 161 yards on 11 carries and scored two times for Drake. Jun Ahn and Luke Woodson also had rushing scores. Cherwin scored a 91-yard touchdown, the longest run in the PFL this season, to make it 21-7 early in the second quarter. Kemani Wilson made a diving interception at the Drake 25-yard line with just over two minutes left in the first half and seven plays later, Bailey found Hunter Johnson for a 24-yard touchdown to make it 28-10 at halftime. Drake defensive lineman Finn Claypool forced a fumble on the third play of the second half and his teammate recovered it. Then Bailey lofted a pass to Jaxon Laminack for a touchdown and a 35-10 lead. Drake (8-2, 7-1) was coming off a 29-20 loss to Morehead State to end a 17-game PFL winning streak — the longest active conference winning streak in the FCS. Stetson (2-9, 0-7) quarterback Brady Meitz was intercepted three times and Matt O’Connor had one of his four pass attempts intercepted. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-footballEAGAN, Minn. (AP) — Justin Jefferson might be weary of all the safeties shadowing his every route, determined not to let the Minnesota Vikings go deep, but he's hardly angry. The double and triple coverage he continually faces, after all, is a sign of immense respect for his game-breaking ability. The strategy also simply makes sense. “I would do the same," Jefferson said. "It’s either let everybody else go off or let Justin go off. I’m going to let everybody else go off. That would be my game plan.” When the Vikings visit Chicago on Sunday, they're expecting the usual heavy dose of split-safety coverage designed to put a lid on the passing attack and force them to operate primarily underneath. “We see that every week: Teams just have different tendencies on film, and then when we go out on the field they play us totally different,” Jefferson said, later adding: “I don’t really feel like anyone else is getting played how I’m getting played.” Jefferson nonetheless is second in the NFL in receiving yards (912) behind Cincinnati's Ja'Marr Chase, his former college teammate at LSU. Last week, Jefferson set yet another all-time record by passing Torry Holt for the most receiving yards over the first five seasons of a career. Holt logged 80 regular-season games and accumulated 6,784 yards for St. Louis. Jefferson has 6,811 yards — in just 70 games. “I want to go up against those single coverages. I want to go have my opportunities to catch a deep pass downfield, just one-on-one coverage, like a lot of these other receivers get," Jefferson said. "It’s definitely difficult going up against an extra person or an extra two people, but it is what it is and the concepts that we’re drawing up and the ways that we’re trying to get me open, it definitely helps.” With fellow tight end Josh Oliver ruled out of the game on Sunday because of a sprained ankle, T.J. Hockenson is certain to have his heaviest workload since returning from knee surgery four weeks ago. He's also certain that Jefferson will continue to see persistent double-teams. “It puts it on us to make some plays and do some things to get them out of that,” Hockenson said. Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell has been forced to dig deeper into the vault of play designs and game plans to help keep quarterback Sam Darnold and the offense on track. O'Connell said after Minnesota's 12-7 win at Jacksonville, when Darnold threw three interceptions to precipitate a safer strategy down the stretch, that he superseded his play-calling role with the wisdom of a head coach to help win that game. "Not just the egomaniac of wanting to score points and constantly show everybody how smart we are. There was a mode that I think you have to go into sometimes to ensure a victory,” O'Connell said on his weekly show on KFAN radio. Taking what the defense gives is usually the shrewdest strategy. “You’ve got to really implement some new things and some things that maybe you didn’t come across during your early coaching years whether as a coordinator or position coach or even when you’re responsible for a small area of the game plan as a younger coach," O'Connell said. "You really have to kind of look outside the lens of always what you see on tape.” AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFLIn keeping with a long-standing Thanksgiving tradition, President Joe Biden recently pardoned a pair of turkeys . During a ceremony at the White House, the birds — named Peach and Blossom — were spared from the dinner table and given a new lease on life. While it was an act of pure political pageantry, it highlights the president’s expansive pardon powers — which could be used liberally during his final two months in office. Historically, presidents have issued numerous pardons during their lame duck periods, including quite a few that have raised eyebrows. Here is what to know about presidential pardons. Presidential pardon power Article II of the Constitution enables the president to grant clemency for any federal crime, according to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report. This authority is rooted in an old English law that permits monarchs to bestow mercy on criminals. “The president’s power to pardon is astronomical,” Taylor Stoermer, a historian at Johns Hopkins University, told McClatchy News. “The Constitution doesn’t even require an explanation. The only real limits are that it doesn’t apply to state crimes or impeachment cases.” “So the president can grant full pardons, commute sentences, or even offer amnesty, on an individual basis or for an entire class of people,” Stoermer said. How often do presidents grant clemency? Most presidents have issued numerous acts of clemency throughout their terms in office, according to historians. For example, Donald Trump, during his first term, granted 143 pardons and 94 commutations, according to the Pew Research Center. During Barack Obama’s eight years in office, he issued 212 pardons and 1,715 commutations. Among the commutations granted by both men were multiple that concerned low-level drug offenses , such as possession of marijuana. However, these acts of clemency have not typically been distributed evenly throughout a president’s tenure. Since 1945, every president — with the exception of Lyndon Johnson — granted clemency at a higher rate during the last four months of their terms, according to CRS. For example, Obama granted an average of 296 acts of clemency per month during his final four months in office, compared with an average of eight per month before that. Similarly, Trump issued an average of 50 per month during the last four months compared with an average of one per month before that. “Trump certainly kept to that pattern, and I would not be surprised if Biden does as well,” Thomas Balcerski, a presidential historian at Eastern Connecticut State University, told McClatchy News. Additionally, these 11th hour acts of mercy tend to be the most controversial ones. “Most save the big, bold pardons for the end of their terms,” Stoermer said. “And because exactly why you’d think: No voters to answer to.” Controversial acts of clemency Throughout history, presidents have issued a fair number of pardons, commutations and acts of amnesty that have received widespread scrutiny. “The most famous, of course, is Gerald Ford’s pardoning of Richard Nixon,” Vernon Burton, an emeritus history professor at Clemson University, told McClatchy News. In September 1974, following the Watergate scandal and Nixon’s resignation, Ford issued a full pardon for any crimes Nixon “committed or may have committed” against the United States. Jimmy Carter also took flak for pardoning “all of the Vietnam War draft dodgers,” Burton said. “That was huge.” This pardon, issued on Carter’s first day in office in 1977, applied to roughly 100,000 military-age men who avoided going to war , according to Politico. “Then there’s George H.W. Bush pardoning key players in Iran-Contra,” Stoermer said. With less than one month until he left office, Bush pardoned six people , including a former secretary of defense, wrapped up in the illegal arms scandal. More recently, Obama reduced the sentence of Oscar Lopez Rivera, a Puerto Rican activist whose political organization was responsible for dozens of robberies and bombings in the U.S. And Trump preemptively pardoned adviser Steven Bannon, who was charged with bilking donors out of money they gave toward the construction of a border wall. “These kinds of moves show how the pardon power can get tangled up in political strategy or personal connections — and that’s what makes it fascinating (or infuriating) to watch,” Stoermer said. Have presidents pardoned family members? Given that Biden’s son Hunter Biden has been convicted of felony offenses , some have wondered whether he will issue a pardon before he leaves office. “Would he pardon Hunter Biden? That’d be quite something,” Balcerski said. “There is some precedent.” On his last day in office, President Bill Clinton issued a pardon for his half-brother Roger Clinton, who had pleaded guilty to a cocaine distribution charge. “That was slightly less impactful because Roger Clinton had already served the time,” Stoermer said. “So that was mostly about clearing his record than dodging accountability.” Biden, though, has said he has no plans to grant clemency to his son. Could Trump break the mold? Trump could break with long-standing tradition of issuing controversial pardons at the end of his term, historians said. The president-elect has vowed to pardon some of the people convicted of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot on his first day in office. “I am inclined to pardon many of them ,” he wrote on social media in March, according to ABC News. Throughout the country, about 1,500 people have been charged in connection with the riot, including about 547 who were charged with “assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees.” “It wouldn’t be surprising to see an unprecedented wave of pardons right out of the gate, particularly for January 6 rioters,” Stoermer said. “That would take the use of the pardon power into completely uncharted territory.” “Of course, there is a precedent: Carter’s first-day pardon of draft evaders of the Vietnam era,” Stoermer said. “That applied to hundreds of thousands of people. But that’s not quite the same as a coup.” ©2024 The Charlotte Observer. Visit charlotteobserver.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Discover FC 25: The Future of Duplicate Storage in Gaming! Uncover the Hidden Gem
NEW YORK (AP) — The man accused of fatally shooting the CEO of UnitedHealthcare pleaded not guilty on Monday to state murder and terror charges while his attorney complained that comments coming from New York’s mayor would make it tough to receive a fair trial. Luigi Mangione, 26, was shackled and seated in a Manhattan court when he leaned over to a microphone to enter his plea. The Manhattan district attorney charged him last week with multiple counts of murder, including murder as an act of terrorism . Mangione's initial appearance in New York’s state trial court was preempted by federal prosecutors bringing their own charges over the shooting. The federal charges could carry the possibility of the death penalty, while the maximum sentence for the state charges is life in prison without parole. Prosecutors have said the two cases will proceed on parallel tracks , with the state charges expected to go to trial first. One of Mangione’s attorneys told a judge that the “warring jurisdictions" had turned Mangione into a “human ping-pong ball” and that New York City Mayor Eric Adams and other government officials had made him a political pawn, robbing him of his rights as a defendant and tainting the jury pool. “I am very concerned about my client’s right to a fair trial,” lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo said. Adams and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch stood among a throng of heavily armed officers last Thursday when Mangione was flown to a Manhattan heliport and escorted up a pier after being extradited from Pennsylvania. Friedman Agnifilo said police turned Mangione’s return to New York into a choreographed spectacle. She called out Adams' comment to a local TV station that he wanted to be there to look “him in the eye and say, ‘you carried out this terroristic act in my city.’” “He was on display for everyone to see in the biggest stage perp walk I’ve ever seen in my career. It was absolutely unnecessary,” she said. She also accused federal and state prosecutors of advancing conflicting legal theories, calling their approach confusing and highly unusual. In a statement, Adams spokesperson Kayla Mamelak Altus wrote: “Critics can say all they want, but showing up to support our law enforcement and sending the message to New Yorkers that violence and vitriol have no place in our city is who Mayor Eric Adams is to his core.” “The cold-blooded assassination of Brian Thompson — a father of two — and the terror it infused on the streets of New York City for days has since been sickeningly glorified, shining a spotlight on the darkest corners of the internet,” Mamelak Altus said. State trial court Judge Gregory Carro said he has little control over what happens outside the courtroom, but can guarantee Mangione will receive a fair trial. Authorities say Mangione gunned down Thompson as he was walking to an investor conference in midtown Manhattan on the morning of Dec 4. Mangione was arrested in a Pennsylvania McDonald’s after a five-day search, carrying a gun that matched the one used in the shooting and a fake ID, police said. He also was carrying a notebook expressing hostility toward the health insurance industry and especially wealthy executives, according to federal prosecutors. At a news conference last week, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said the application of the terrorism law reflected the severity of a “frightening, well-planned, targeted murder that was intended to cause shock and attention and intimidation.” “In its most basic terms, this was a killing that was intended to evoke terror,” he added. Mangione is being held in a Brooklyn federal jail alongside several other high-profile defendants, including Sean “Diddy” Combs and Sam Bankman-Fried. During his court appearance Monday, he smiled at times when talking with his attorneys and stretched his right hand after an officer removed his cuffs. Outside the courthouse, a few dozen supporters chanted, “Free Luigi,” over the blare of a trumpet. Natalie Monarrez, a 55-year-old Staten Island resident, said she joined the demonstration because she lost both her mother and her life savings as a result of denied insurance claims. “As extreme as it was, it jolted the conversation that we need to deal with this issue,” she said of the shooting. “Enough is enough, people are fed up.” An Ivy-league graduate from a prominent Maryland family, Mangione appeared to have cut himself off from family and friends in recent months. He posted frequently in online forums about his struggles with back pain. He was never a UnitedHealthcare client , according to the insurer. Thompson, a married father of two high-schoolers, had worked at the giant UnitedHealth Group for 20 years and became CEO of its insurance arm in 2021. The killing has prompted some to voice their resentment at U.S. health insurers, with Mangione serving as a stand-in for frustrations over coverage denials and hefty medical bills. It also has sent shockwaves through the corporate world , rattling executives who say they have received a spike in threats.Unlocking Innovation in Canada: Insights from Jess Sinclair of the Canadian Council of Innovators
Arsenal up to second after Kai Havertz goal sees off struggling IpswichMaryland is suing the company that produces the waterproof material Gore-Tex often used for raincoats and other outdoor gear, alleging its leaders kept using “forever chemicals” long after learning about serious health risks associated with them. The complaint, which was filed last week in federal court, focuses on a cluster of 13 facilities in northeastern Maryland operated by Delaware-based W.L. Gore & Associates. It alleges the company polluted the air and water around its facilities with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances , jeopardizing the health of surrounding communities while raking in profits. The lawsuit adds to other claims filed in recent years, including a class action on behalf of Cecil County residents in 2023 demanding Gore foot the bill for water filtration systems, medical bills and other damages associated with decades of harmful pollution in the largely rural community. “PFAS are linked to cancer, weakened immune systems, and can even harm the ability to bear children,” Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said in a statement. “It is unacceptable for any company to knowingly contaminate our drinking water with these toxins, putting Marylanders at risk of severe health conditions.” Gore spokesperson Donna Leinwand Leger said the company is “surprised by the Maryland Attorney General’s decision to initiate legal action, particularly in light of our proactive and intensive engagement with state regulators over the past two years.” “We have been working with Maryland, employing the most current, reliable science and technology to assess the potential impact of our operations and guide our ongoing, collaborative efforts to protect the environment,” the company said in a statement, noting a Dec. 18 report that contains nearly two years of groundwater testing results. But attorney Philip Federico, who represents plaintiffs in the class action and other lawsuits against Gore, called the company’s efforts “too little, much too late.” In the meantime, he said, residents are continuing to suffer — one of his clients was recently diagnosed with kidney cancer. “It’s typical corporate environmental contamination,” he said. “They’re in no hurry to fix the problem.” The synthetic chemicals are especially harmful because they’re nearly indestructible and can build up in various environments, including the human body. In addition to cancers and immune system problems, exposure to certain levels of PFAS has been linked to increased cholesterol levels, reproductive health issues and developmental delays in children, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Gore leaders failed to warn people living near its Maryland facilities about the potential impacts, hoping to protect their corporate image and avoid liability, according to the state’s lawsuit. The result has been “a toxic legacy for generations to come,” the lawsuit alleges. Since the chemicals are already in the local environment, protecting residents now often means installing complex and expensive water filtration systems. People with private wells have found highly elevated levels of dangerous chemicals in their water, according to the class action lawsuit. The Maryland facilities are located in a rural area just across the border from Delaware, where Gore has become a longtime fixture in the community. The company, which today employs more than 13,000 people, was founded in 1958 after Wilbert Gore left the chemical giant DuPont to start his own business. Its profile rose with the development of Gore-Tex , a lightweight waterproof material created by stretching polytetrafluoroethylene, which is better known by the brand name Teflon that’s used to coat nonstick pans. The membrane within Gore-Tex fabric has billions of pores that are smaller than water droplets, making it especially effective for outdoor gear. The state’s complaint traces Gore’s longstanding relationship with DuPont , arguing that information about the chemicals' dangers was long known within both companies as they sought to keep things quiet and boost profits. It alleges that as early as 1961, DuPont scientists knew the chemical caused adverse liver reactions in rats and dogs. DuPont has faced widespread litigation in recent years. Along with two spinoff companies, it announced a $1.18 billion deal last year to resolve complaints of polluting many U.S. drinking water systems with forever chemicals. The Maryland lawsuit seeks to hold Gore responsible for costs associated with the state’s ongoing investigations and cleanup efforts, among other damages. State oversight has ramped up following litigation from residents alleging their drinking water was contaminated. Until then, the company operated in Cecil County with little scrutiny. Gore announced in 2014 that it had eliminated perfluorooctanoic acid from the raw materials used to create Gore-Tex. But it’s still causing long-term impacts because it persists for so long in the environment, attorneys say. Over the past two years, Gore has hired an environmental consulting firm to conduct testing in the area and provided bottled water and water filtration systems to residents near certain Maryland facilities, according to a webpage describing its efforts. Recent testing of drinking water at residences near certain Gore sites revealed perfluorooctanoic acid levels well above what the EPA considers safe, according to state officials. Attorneys for the state acknowledged Gore’s ongoing efforts to investigate and address the problem but said the company needs to step up and be a better neighbor. “While we appreciate Gore’s limited investigation to ascertain the extent of PFAS contamination around its facilities, much more needs to be done to protect the community and the health of residents,” Maryland Department of the Environment Secretary Serena McIlwain said in a statement. “We must remove these forever chemicals from our natural resources urgently, and we expect responsible parties to pay for this remediation.”
