u/Wearing_shooz

This ABC News interview is really something.

Senators Kelly, Young make case for bipartisanship, political courage

Apparently, we're to blame for inflation, the illegal war, high gas prices, a general lack of affordability, algae in the Reflecting Pool, the elimination of scientific research at universities across the country, abandoning our allies, etc., etc.

The senator also admits he is a coward when asked why he didn't speak out publicly when Trump threatened Senator Kelly after he and his colleagues reminded members of the military that they were legally obligated to disobey illegal orders.

Young said he texted him and prefers to keep what was said private.

“There are times when one must speak up when you feel strongly about things," he said in the interview. "That was a case when one could fairly say that should have been the singular moment.”

Published May 9 in Science magazine. https://www.science.org/content/article/after-usda-request-indiana-plant-biologist-locked-out-lab-school

A faculty member at IU, who has sharply criticized the government’s recent prosecution of several Chinese scientists accused of smuggling biological materials into the U.S., has been locked out of his laboratory by the school in response to a request by one of his federal funders.

IU plant microbiologist Roger Innes says the move Thursday evening is the latest instance of retaliation for a letter he wrote last fall on behalf of Yunqing Jian, a plant scientist postdoc at the University of Michigan who had pled guilty to smuggling biological material and making false statements.

The letter to Jian’s attorney, intended to be used at her sentencing, argued that what the Chinese postdoc had transported was not dangerous, but she was still ultimately deported. Her conviction triggered an investigation of Youhuang Xiang, a Chinese postdoc in Innes’ lab, that led to Xiang also pleading guilty last month to smuggling loops of DNA known as plasmids. He was also deported.

Innes says he was told by IU lawyers that the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which has oversight over import and export of plant-related biological material, ordered the school to “secure” his lab, which works on improving resistance to a fungus that damages wheat. In response, IU police arrived at the lab at 8 p.m. on May 7, informed one person present that she had to leave, and changed the locks. Innes says he wasn’t notified ahead of time and has not entered the lab since then.

The FBI searched Innes’ lab last December in connection with the USDA investigation of Xiang. In February it notified Innes that his lab “was in compliance.” But on 27 April, 3 weeks after the postdoc was sentenced, Innes received another email from USDA saying the earlier notice “was issued in error” and that his lab was still under review. Innes says he’s heard nothing since then from USDA.

Todd Young blames Americans for what's happening in the U.S., also admits he's a coward

IU plant biologist locked out of lab after request from USDA