(Part 30): U.S. Attorney General Jeff Session's war on forensics/crime: Context: A brief survey of Pres. Donald Trump's assault on science (and scientists) in America. (Author Jimmy Tobias: PSMag)..." In a new report, "Sidelining Science From Day One," released on July 20th, the Union of Concerned Scientists attempts to document this "war on science" in detail. The report contains, among other things, a timeline of all the actions the administration has undertaken since inauguration day to ignore or intimidate scientists and undermine their important work. "By our measure," says Gretchen Goldman, a UCS research director with a Ph.D. in environmental engineering and one of the report's co-authors, "the administration has averaged one major attack on science every four days."

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: In numerous posts, I have lamented the assault on science launched by 'beleaguered' U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. This assault was aptly set out by reporter Spencer S. Hsu in the Washington Post, on April 10, 2017, as follows. "Attorney General Jeff Sessions will end a Justice Department partnership with independent scientists to raise forensic science standards and has suspended an expanded review of FBI testimony across several techniques that have come under question, saying a new strategy will be set by an in-house team of law enforcement advisers.
In a statement Monday, Sessions said he would not renew the National Commission on Forensic Science, a roughly 30-member advisory panel of scientists, judges, crime lab leaders, prosecutors and defense lawyers chartered by the Obama administration in 2013. A path to meet needs of overburdened crime labs will be set by a yet-to-be-named senior forensic adviser and an internal department crime task force, Sessions’s statement said." The following article, "A brief survey of Trump's assault on science,'  by Jimmy Tobias, allows readers to see how Session's (Trumps's) assault on science in the context of America's criminal justice system, fits in with Trumps overall assault on science (and scientists)  in America.

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;

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STORY: "A Brief Survey of Trump's Assault on Science," by Jimmy Tobias, published by PSMag  on July 24, 2017.

SUB-HEADING: "In a new report, the Union of Concerned Scientists strives to document and detail all of the Trump administration's anti-science actions." "In a recent Washington Post op-ed, a scientist and federal civil servant named Joel Clement blew the whistle on a White House that he says "chooses silence over science." Until recently, Clement was the director of the Department of the Interior's Office of Policy Analysis, a top-level position where his duties included helping native Alaskan communities prepare for the effects of climate change. He was a bureaucratic advocate of sorts, using his scientific knowledge and policy expertise to press the Trump administration and the United Nations, among other parties, to protect Alaska's coastal villages from melting permafrost, rising seas, and dangerous storm surges. He was laboring to prevent native peoples from becoming internally displaced refugees. His work, however, was brought to a sudden halt on June 15th, when departmental brass demoted and involuntarily reassigned him to a job in an "accounting office that collects royalty checks from fossil fuel companies." Clement believes that his reassignment was retaliation. "It is clear to me that the administration was so uncomfortable with this work, and my disclosures, that I was reassigned with the intent to coerce me into leaving the federal government," he writes. He goes on to call the move "an abuse of power." Clement's story is about the Trump administration's attempt to purge and silence a scientific expert. It's sad, it's unfair, but it isn't unique. In fact, it is just one more entry in the president's record of anti-science actions and activities during his first six months in office.

The entire story can be found at:
https://psmag.com/environment/a-brief-survey-of-trumps-assault-on-science

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.