Those other officials were not necessarily bound by NOAA’s scientific integrity policy, Volz notes. The statement was widely interpreted within NOAA’s National Weather Service as contradicting an accurate forecast because of political pressure from the White House and the Commerce Department. First, it found that Jacobs and Roberts violated NOAA’s code for science supervision and management for not giving the NWS Birmingham office an opportunity to engage in the drafting of the unsigned NOAA statement in which they were reprimanded. The inspector general’s memo makes that clear enough: “ [this] appears to be directly linked to the content of our report and the findings of responsibility of the high-level individuals involved.” Donald Trump was wrong. NOAA leaders violated agency’s scientific integrity policy, Hurricane Dorian ‘Sharpiegate’ investigation finds. And in his refusal to not be wrong, men like Ross forced their underlings to make changes to weather forecasts—which is itself a federal crime. Why would that be? It’s simply not in him. Tonko had made an integrity complaint and is the sponsor of a bill that would increase accountability for such violations across federal science agencies. The NOAA investigation is the first of three expected in the aftermath of Sharpiegate. In reply, Ross’ team has indicated that “portions of that report contain information that cannot be made public.”, A reminder: This is not a report on military positions, or even the details of a trade deal. The investigation, requested by two NOAA employees, a former NOAA administrator and Tonko, among others, was conducted on NOAA’s behalf by a panel assembled by the National Academy of Public Administration. The report, whose findings were accepted by NOAA’s leadership and released Monday, found that Neil Jacobs, the acting administrator, and former NOAA deputy chief of staff and communications director Julie Kay Roberts twice violated codes of the agency’s scientific integrity policy amid their involvement in the Sept. 6 statement. Most of the nonsense, like most of Trump’s lies, slid through the news without comment or correction, but there was one thing Trump did that was so obvious, and so obviously trivial, that it generated something big; something that eventually became known as Sharpiegate. That means that when Trump is wrong, he’ll just keep lying about it, and he will move the whole world in an attempt to prove that he was right in the first place. “The Panel concludes that Jacobs and Roberts felt that the situation they were in was out of their hands and their actions were driven by the direction of unnamed and uninterviewed Commerce officials who may well have been the subjects of the redactions,” McLean writes. It specifically calls for the Commerce Department’s inspector general’s office or other agencies to investigate alleged violations of scientific integrity when they involve senior NOAA and Commerce political leadership. New bill would prohibit the president from nuking a hurricane, As a busy hurricane season looms, NOAA’s credibility has taken a hit, new emails show, Siberia’s persistent, freakishly mild weather is reverberating around the world, From national parks to the deep sea, plastic pollution is showing up wherever scientists look, National Weather Service proposes eliminating ‘advisories’ to simplify severe warning system. The investigation recommends no punishments for either Jacobs or Roberts, the latter of whom has since moved on to a different position within the Commerce Department. On Friday September 18, 2020, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a women's rights icon, died at 87. “NAPA never questions or refutes the scientific veracity of the actual statement,” he writes, claiming it was “accurate.”, Moreover, he asserts that the statement is not the kind of scientific activity for which the integrity policy was intended to be applied and that the application, in this case, was “overbroad.” Jacobs writes, “Using NAPA’s interpretation, all social media posts, including tweets, that referenced any NOAA employee’s work would have to be reviewed by the scientist who completed the initial or previous work.”, Roberts argues she was not in violation of the NOAA’s scientific integrity policy, as the drafting of the statement was directed by officials at the Commerce Department. They recommended, at two different points, that the reference to the Birmingham WFO be removed — an edit that, if accepted, may have avoided the policy violation,” Volz wrote, using the acronym for a National Weather Service forecast office. Craig McLean, NOAA’s acting chief scientist, who immediately called for a scientific misconduct investigation after the Sept. 6 statement, wrote that he concurred with the NAPA findings but lamented that no one would be held accountable for them within NOAA. “However, when the edit was not incorporated, they chose to release the statement as a NOAA document.”, Andrew Rosenberg, a former NOAA official who directs the Union of Concerned Scientists Center for Science and Democracy and who was one of the complainants to NOAA, said: “There are absolutely no consequences for those who actually engaged in misconduct.” He called it “very disappointing.”, “It’s hurricane season again,” Rosenberg said in an interview. On September 18, 2020, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away at age 87. ortions of that report contain information that cannot be made public.”, Why would that be? Editor and writer covering weather and climate, who immediately called for a scientific misconduct investigation. Any election results reported on November 3rd will be incomplete and inaccurate. This is an investigation into whether or not professionals at NOAA were coerced into changing their statements in order to protect Donald Trump. Western states are entering an active wildfire season just as coronavirus cases spike. By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. A report from the Commerce Department looking into whether officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were pressured into changing information about Hurricane Dorian is now complete. “While there may be found causes of sympathy for the oppressed and meek subordinates of domineering autocratic ogres, I hardly can find sympathy in this scintilla of an argument for clemency. In September of 2019—a time that now seems at least a decade ago—Donald Trump told a series of lies centered around his response to Hurricane Dorian. Her storied... Sign and send the petition: The Senate must wait until after Inauguration Day to confirm a new Supreme Court justice. Her storied 27-year tenure as the... Sign the petition: Traditional media cannot make premature calls on Election Night. The National Weather Service issues highly accurate thunderstorm forecasts. Second, it concluded that Jacobs and Roberts violated the same code for their role in developing and releasing the statement, which “compromised NOAA’s integrity and reputation as an independent scientific agency.”, NOAA predicts Atlantic hurricane season will be unusually active, Jacob’s four-page response to NAPA’s report disputes he violated any policy, arguing that NAPA ignored the actual substance of the statement. Trump’s inability to admit a mistake, no matter how obvious or how small, is one of his defining characteristics. NAPA, a nonprofit, nonpartisan institution dedicated to facilitating good governance, conducts assessments for government agencies. The inspector general’s memo makes that clear enough: “, Inspector general completed report on Trump's SharpieGate lies, but Wilbur Ross is blocking release, amateurishly redrew the boundaries of the possible path to make himself “right.”, Ways to get involved in the 2020 Election. As The Washington Post has reported, the White House sought for NOAA to correct the record on the Hurricane Dorian forecast, and orders to NOAA were handed down through top aides to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, because NOAA is part of the department. The public doesn’t understand them. After the unsigned Sept. 6 statement was released, NOAA’s scientific integrity officer, Cynthia Decker, received four complaints of misconduct. However, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has blocked the release of the report. Decker, along with others, determined “it was in the best interest of NOAA” for an independent review of the matter. It also advocates mandatory scientific integrity training. “It will be clear to anyone reviewing the accounts captured in this highly credible, independent Scientific Integrity report that the political leaders who interfered in our emergency response system need to publicly apologize or resign,” said Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.). She contends that “additional reviews by NOAA officials would have done little to change the outcome.”. Importantly, the NAPA panel was not permitted to interview the Commerce Department officials who demanded the statement be released. “Dr. And yet, Ross’ team is claiming this information “cannot be made public.”. During its review, which lasted from December to March, the NAPA panel found Jacobs and Roberts violated NOAA’s scientific integrity policy in two instances, doing so “intentionally, knowingly, or in reckless disregard” of the agency’s code of scientific conduct. The scandal over the forecast for Hurricane Dorian has come to be known as “Sharpiegate,” after President Trump displayed a modified NOAA forecast map during an Oval Office briefing to depict the storm threatening Alabama. And, as The New York Times reports, they’re pretty damn happy about that.

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