An AOPA petition to expand pilots’ ability to use certain Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) Out equipment in anonymous mode has resulted in the FAA clarifying that what AOPA sought actually is what the agency intended when it wrote the ADS-B requirements.

Why is the FAA transitioning away from radar and towards ADS-B technology?
ADS-B is an environmentally friendly technology that enhances safety and efficiency, and directly benefits pilots, controllers, airports, airlines, and the public. It forms the foundation for NextGen by moving from ground radar and navigational aids to precise tracking using satellite signals.

With ADS-B, pilots can see what controllers see: displays showing other aircraft in the sky. Cockpit displays also pinpoint hazardous weather and terrain, and give pilots important flight information, such as temporary flight restrictions.

ADS-B reduces the risk of runway incursions with cockpit and controller displays that show the location of aircraft and equipped ground vehicles on airport surfaces – even at night or during heavy rainfall. ADS-B applications being developed now will give pilots indications or alerts of potential collisions.

ADS-B also provides greater coverage since ground stations are so much easier to place than radar. Remote areas without radar coverage, like the Gulf of Mexico and much of Alaska, now have surveillance with ADS-B.

Relying on satellites instead of ground navigational aids also means aircraft are able to fly more directly from Point A to B, saving time and money, and reducing fuel burn and emissions.

The improved accuracy, integrity and reliability of satellite signals over radar means controllers will be able to safely reduce the minimum separation distance between aircraft and increase capacity in the nation's skies.

The FAA published Federal Regulation 14 CFR 91.225 and 14 CFR 91.227 in May 2010. The final rule dictates that effective January 1, 2020, aircraft operating in airspace defined in 91.225 are required to have an Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) system that includes a certified position source capable of meeting requirements defined in 91.227. These regulations set a minimum performance standard for both the ADS-B transmitter and the position sources integrated with the ADS-B equipment.

Does your aircraft have an electrical system?
NO →
Typically balloons, gliders

14 CFR 91.225 (e) states the requirements under the provision of 14 CFR 91.225 (b) do not apply to certain aircraft without an electrical system, including balloons and gliders. Refer to 14 CFR 91.225(d) & (e) for specific exemptions and airspace limitations.

Do you operate your aircraft above 10,000 feet MSL within the 48 States or DC?

YES

If you operate your aircraft above 10,000 feet MSL within the 48 States or DC do you remain below 2,500 feet AGL?

YES

ADS-B not required

It seems that some higher powers in government think encryption is only used for nefarious purposes. //

Here, though, as my colleague Asha Barbaschow reported, are the public thoughts of the commission: If you use encryption, you're likely a crook. Which may surprise one or two iMessage and WhatsApp users. //

The commission's actual words about encrypted communication services were: "These platforms are used almost exclusively by SOC [serious and organised crime] groups and are developed specifically to obscure the identities of the involved criminal entities and enable avoidance of detection by law enforcement."

I do understand that there are many bad people in the world. I fear I have done business with some. A few may have even become my friends for a short while. //

But to suggest -- with a straight face and a public voice -- that encryption is almost exclusive to the evil seems like the sort of exaggeration that only a politician would embrace. Publicly.

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission has said an encrypted communication platform is not something a law-abiding member of the community would use.

Jim and Nancy Crawford say they see Elon Musk about once a week when they are in Boca Chica Village. //

In echoes of the Old West, the Tesla CEO’s rocket firm has been building a company town in seaside Boca Chica, pressuring locals to sell their properties

Yesterday, the worst miss in job’s report history made its debut. Only 266,000 out of over one million projected jobs were added to the economy, and it wasn’t just the economists who were surprised. //

It was a watershed moment in the new administration that showed that policy actually matters, and obsessions over decorum seem rather shallow when the bullets really start to fly.

Naturally, given the seriousness of what we witnessed, that meant resident Never Trumpers were talking about Donald Trump yesterday — instead of the failures of Joe Biden and how inflation is threatening to crush the middle class. //

Stephen Hayes
@stephenfhayes
For 6 years, elected GOPers have rationalized their Trump support saying to themselves "if I just compromise my values this one time" the worst will be behind me. They've been wrong every time.

Trump's not going away. This isn't going to get easier. Trump won't bring GOP unity //

Mollie
@MZHemingway
Replying to @MZHemingway
What's more far and away the largest source of division in the party has not been Trump but the NeverTrumpers who refused to accept the legitimacy and significance of his election, spending five years trying to throw him out of office and undermine his electorally winning agenda. //

Stephen Hayes
@stephenfhayes
"Electorally winning agenda."

In 2016 and 2020, Trump underperformed Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign at the national level. Romney won a higher share of the total vote in 2012 (47.2%) than Trump did in either 2016 (46.1%) or 2020 (46.9%). Romney was challenging a popular incumbent //

This is the delusion of Never Trump, in as stark of terms as I’ve ever witnessed.

Note the appeal to participation trophies instead of actually, you know, winning elections. Mollie Hemingway is obviously correct because Trump did actually win, and her qualifier of “electorally winning” is important. //

It is an exercise in beating one’s head against a brick wall to continue to sugar-coat Mitt Romney as the true representation of a winning coalition. He simply wasn’t, as evidenced by the fact that he did not win. Hayes can cherry-pick whatever results he wants, but in the end, the GOP has moved past Romney’s vision of the Republican party. No amount of fluffing The 2012 loss and obsessing over Donald Trump is going to change that. That doesn’t mean you have to support Trump himself as the 2024 nominee, but it does mean you have to accept the reality of how the party has changed in regards to policy and posture.

The current dynamic is simple. Republican voters prefer a far more restrained foreign policy; they see China as a threat to be combated; they oppose big tech monopolizing the means of information distribution; they want immigration laws followed; and they give no quarter to big corporations that turn around and spit in their faces with woke ideology. It’s not 2005 anymore. Mitt Romney and those like him are never going to represent the GOP at a high level again. Liz Cheney is not the future of the party.

These are facts that can be accepted and worked with, or one can continue to yell at the clouds as they pass. Hayes and his cohorts have chosen the latter path. We’ll see how that works out for them.

With news on the disappointing April jobs report out of the way, the crew at CNS News did some digging and found some pretty fantastical, pre-jobs report headlines from mainstream media news outlets that were difficult to distinguish from an official White House press release. Here’s what they found: //

G6095
an hour ago
The real problem is not the headline writers, liars that they are, it's the, shall I say lack of intelligence, of the vast majority of readers who invest the sum total of their information gathering in headline reading. //

mlmorrison44
14 hours ago
So it's all up from here. As soon as jobs hit 500K they will be saying how Biden doubled growth. //

Skeptical Techie
11 hours ago edited
Love how that last guy absolutely steps on the guy who is reading out the whole point of the segment and then starts shouting out about other stats and oohing and ahing about them.

Look over here!

At the end he oohs about the Workforce Participation of 61.7%...? What? That is STILL WORSE than before all the economic pandemic hitting the world February 2020! We are still in the hole and he is shouting, "Yes, yes, yes, look at that, we are IN THE HOLE!"

Witnesses are gathering upon the scene where a woman has been crushed, dragged, disemboweled, dismembered and killed by a city trolley and a guy from the City's PR firm is shouting, "Hey look over here, she was just given a chrome engagement ring. Isn't it shiny?"

In response to the news of the Civil Service Board’s ruling, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D) issued a statement defending the decision to terminate Rolfe’s employment at the time, and it was – quite frankly – one of the most embarrassing justifications I’ve ever seen a so-called “leader” give for this type of knee-jerk decision:

“Given the volatile state of our city and nation last summer, the decision to terminate this officer, after he fatally shot Mr. Brooks in the back, was the right thing to do,” she said. “Had immediate action not been taken, I firmly believe that the public safety crisis we experienced during that time would have been significantly worse.”

In other words, the decision to kick Rolfe off the police force rather than give him due process was done in an effort to appease mobs of violent rioters so they wouldn’t get more violent or something.

So how exactly did that work out for Mayor Bottoms? As noted above, a child was murdered by rioters who were “protecting” the parking lot, and others were shot in the area as well in weeks following Brooks’ death – all because Bottoms refused to have the Wendy’s parking lot cleared and opposed measures eventually carried out by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) to get the situation under control.

hoot.smawley
4 hours ago edited
Name one Freedom Caucus leader who has actually built a coalition of GOP votes capable of winning that position. Just one. I’ll wait.

I actually support the goals of the Freedom Caucus and share concerns about Stefanik (and loathed Cheney), but here’s a harsh truth…not one of the members of that caucus has built any kind of base of support that could elevate them to leadership. Not one. They preen for the cameras, they complain to the friendly press, and they do little to nothing to actually lead when it comes to doing the work in Congress, so nobody votes to make them leaders. They’re grandstanders who alienate people, and so the only people with sufficient support to get promoted to leadership are the squishes.

We spend a lot of time trashing Dems, RINOs, and weak-kneed conservatives (deservedly so)…but we also need to ask why the people saying things we want to hear to friendly journalists (cough Gaetz) can’t seem to impress their colleagues enough to get a leadership position. Because that’s actually on the person pursuing the leadership job when they fail to perform. We can’t clear the entire path for them…they actually have to do more than produce a bunch of pithy soundbites in order to get promoted. And until they d0 that, Stefanik is an improvement over Cheney, so she’ll do for now. //

hoot.smawley writeofcenter
2 hours ago edited
There was an observation from Elizabeth Warren (when she first got into office) that at some point politicians have to make a choice between being insiders or outsiders. If you’re an insider, you get to lead and make changes and have authority, but the one rule is that you can never criticize other insiders. If you’re an outsider, you can say and do anything you want, but nobody with the ability to change anything will care what you think and you probably won’t accomplish much. And if you’re not sure which you are, you’re an outsider.

I happen to think there’s a middle ground between those positions…you can have sway and criticize insiders, but only if you’ve actually accomplished something impressive first and demonstrated your value. Usually that means you kept your mouth shut, focused on building smart legislation, did a solid job in your committees, and built up a raft of allies. Then you can start taking the big guys down a few pegs…you put in the work, you earn the respect from enough people that you matter. That way, you shift what qualifies as “inside” and you build your army before going to war.

Problem is that too many of these guys in the Freedom Caucus (especially Gaetz) just came to D.C. to play the R vs. D game and get their faces on camera so they can maybe land a gig on Fox like Chaffetz or Gowdy (two guys who ran their mouths a lot while accomplishing very little that mattered) did. You’re not going to build a winning movement by building around the mouthy malcontents who mainly produce hot air,

I suspect that middle way is going to look an awful lot like Ron DeSantis…who takes a lot of shots at the press and prominent Dems, but doesn’t take shots at his own party even when he disagrees. He stays in his lane and doesn’t alienate potential allies while dismembering adversaries.

While Cheney needed to go for a host of reasons, I’m just not sure we are improving our lot by rushing to anoint Stefanik as GOP Conference chairwoman. //

I’m a big believer in redemption and I would happily kill the fatted calf to welcome a prodigal child home, but nothing about this leaves me feeling all that good about what we’re about to do in the House.

I’ve written it before and I’ll write it many more times over the next several years. You get what you vote for, and policy always outweighs personality in the end. If you were shallow enough to vote against Donald Trump and a roaring economy because you wanted the government to represent some quasi-religious bastion of decorum instead, congrats and enjoy your consequences. //

tomferal
4 hours ago
" Sure, the media tried to play Joe Biden off as a harmless geriatric, but the words that were coming out of his mouth continually said otherwise. "

His mumbling mouth is full of lies
As he gazes out of increasingly empty eyes
He too might see the disaster draw ever nearer
If only he would only look in the mirror //

tomferal
4 hours ago
Yesterday upon the stair
I saw and heard a man whose brain wasn't all there
Even less of it was there today
Oh, how I wish Joe Biden would just go away //

Chris Bolts Sr
4 hours ago
"Nothing about Biden’s career was moderate."

Indeed. Nothing about Biden's career ever evinced success, decency or competence. Biden is a congenital liar, a racist who has contempt for any other race not white, and is absolutely corrupt. People who thought he would be anything else are fools and like being lied to.

The case has been assigned to Senior Federal District Court Judge Paul A. Magnuson.

Judge Magnuson was appointed to the Court — by Pres. Reagan in 1981. He turned 84 in February and is reported online as having an active caseload.

In my experience, many federal judges quit handling criminal trials when they assume Senior Status, as they are able to limit the types and amount of work they do at that stage.

The Senior Status judges who continue to take criminal cases do so because they enjoy the criminal trial process. I suspect that in his 40 years on the bench Judge Magnuson has presided over hundreds of criminal jury trials.

We won’t have cameras in the courtroom this time, and this case might move quite fast. A federal defendant has a statutory right to go to trial within 70 days of his initial appearance. Given that the state trial just ended, and the defense has that transcript to work from in terms of the facts and witnesses likely to testify, it might make sense for the defense to push the matter to the earliest possible trial date.

I’ll have another story soon taking a closer look at these and other issues.

But very little about what DOJ did today makes sense to me. I think it has the potential to cause problems in a variety of ways.

Did the Minnesota Attorney General request DOJ to charge the three officers who haven’t gone to trial yet? Will the Minnesota AG drop that case out of fear of maybe losing it??

Hmmm.

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Former solicitor general Ken Starr's new book, 'Religious Liberty in Crisis,' is an excellent and educational introduction to a complex topic, but fails to offer much reassurance. //

A federal lawsuit filed on March 29 against the U.S. Department of Education cites 33 current and former LGBTQ students at federally funded Christian colleges and universities for what the nonprofit Religious Exemption Accountability Project refers to as “unconstitutional discriminatory policies.”

According to the class-action suit, the religious exemption status of the 25 listed schools allows them to maintain discriminatory policies while receiving government funding. This suit, perhaps intentionally, follows the recent passage of the Equality Act in the House — effectively adding gender identity and sexuality to the groups protected under the Civil Rights Act — which is now with the Senate.

The lawsuit and the bill represent a significant escalation of attacks on religious liberty within the first 100 days of the Biden administration. Religious Liberty in Crisis: Exercising Your Faith in an Age of Uncertainty, by former solicitor general of the United States, Baylor University president, and dean of the Pepperdine University School of Law is thus well timed. Indeed, Baylor is one of the 25 schools named in the class-action suit (perhaps surprisingly, Pepperdine, which also has strong evangelical chops, is not). //

Starr recognizes these threats to religious liberty. His practical suggestions to combat them are threefold: get elected, vote your faith, and become a genuine friend of freedom. However, those with antipathies towards many forms of Christianity and other religious traditions believe it is precisely those religions that are the opponents of true freedom.

What is more important: one’s religious belief, which many characterize as simply a subjective choice; or one’s racial, sexual, or gender identity, which many define as a biological given? Or perhaps even more sinister, what if American civil religion finds its fulfillment not in some generic Judaeo-Christian ethic, but racial, sexual, and gender identitarianism?

As Pecknold observes: “The ‘Great Awokening’ is an attempt to give civil religion some real doctrines, real moral claims on lives. It’s both a parasite on the old underdetermined civil religion, and a brand new, bolder civil religion.”

Federal American law and jurisprudence have never sought to coherently and consistently define what constitutes legitimate religion — apart from such acts as once demanding that conscientious-objector emanate from belief in a “supreme being” — largely because of the influence of disestablishmentarianism and indifferentism. Perhaps that worked when the majority of Americans adhered to a shared, coherent ethical and cultural framework that owed its character to Christianity. Those days are increasingly behind us.

Classical liberalism, its adherents often argue, is designed to accommodate all religions and none. But, says Pecknold, “this amounts to a non-answer which insists on toleration while the Woke Hierarchy establishes its church.”

In an America increasingly antagonistic to many traditional forms of religious practice, especially those who are suspicious of the sexual revolution, it’s worth questioning the strength of our legal and jurisprudential levees against the progressivist flood. As a person of religious conviction, I confess I have my doubts.

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A mere ½ in. closer, and this screw could have done some serious damage to the EMT and the conductors inside. This is a great example of why Sec. 300.4(E) requires raceways, cables, and boxes to be installed and supported to provide no less than 1½ in. of separation between the lowest surface of the metal-corrugated sheet roof decking and the top of the raceway cable or box. //

I will certainly give this installer credit for installing the Class 2 control wires in a raceway separate from the power wires feeding this air-conditioning equipment. Section 725.136 generally requires Class 2 and Class 3 circuits to be kept separated from power conductors and provides several methods to achieve this separation. However, the choice to install liquidtight flexible nonmetallic conduit (LFNC) in this outdoor, sun-drenched area may need to be reviewed. Section 300.6(C)(1) requires nonmetallic raceways exposed to direct sunlight to be listed or identified as being sunlight resistant. Section 356.10(3) does permit LFNC to be installed in outdoor locations if the LFNC is listed and marked for this purpose. According to the product standards, LFNC suitable for installation outdoors is marked “outdoor.”

The best thing you can do with biased media outlets is to laugh in their face and let them go whine. It makes them look small and petty. Most of all, it ensures that you are driving the ship and not the other way around. If they are reacting, they are losing. Every Republican should take notes on how DeSantis is handling himself because it’s the way forward.

Breaking911
@Breaking911
JUST IN: The U.S. economy added 266,000 jobs in April, far below the Wall Street consensus of 978,000; unemployment rate 6.1% - Reuters
8:43 AM · May 7, 2021

Mike Berg
@MikeKBerg
The April jobs report was so bad @CNBC had to double check the number to make sure they read it correctly.

Jeff Stein
@JStein_WaPo
The White House believes today's job reports illustrates the importance of providing robust unemployment support with millions of Americans still out of work, a senior administration official says
10:15 AM · May 7, 2021

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who frankly are getting what they paid for (they gave huge contributions to the Biden for President campaign), had the nerve to weigh in:

U.S. Chamber
@USChamber
“The disappointing jobs report makes it clear that paying people not to work is dampening what should be a stronger jobs market."

See the full statement from our EVP @NeilBradleyDC on this morning's @BLS_gov jobs report: https://bit.ly/3h98rbF

Jen O'Brien
@JenOBrien2
I work with small businesses. We’re open for biz since June. They can’t get people to work although they offer well above minimum wage. Many have had to reduce hours b/c of lack of staff. Now small biz is suffering b/c of perceived poor svc. Fed Govt is destroying small biz. //

This is not building anything back; it’s the slippery slope of an economic depression. What’s more, it’s a deliberate effort to tank the economy’s engine: small businesses and entrepreneurs. The U.S. Department of Labor Secretary actively attacking independent professionals, freelancers, and entrepreneurs is further confirmation that the Biden administration wants you dependent on government, not on your ingenuity and your ability to earn, grow, and build an enterprise. //

Eric Bott
@BottAFP
How is this surprising to anybody? The government is paying people to not work. What did they expect to happen?
10:28 AM · May 7, 2021

david spratt
@Oil_vampire
Worst take of the day @CNBC
" There's a labor shortage & labor demand shortage."

Neither is true, there's plenty of labor & demand, there's a people willing to work shortage
10:13 AM · May 7, 2021

The concept of storing renewable energy in stones has come one step closer to realization with the construction of the GridScale demonstration plant. The plant will be the largest electricity storage facility in Denmark, with a capacity of 10 MWh. The project is being funded by the Energy Technology Development and Demonstration Program (EUDP) under the Danish Energy Agency.

Pea sized stones heated to 600°C in large, insulated steel tanks are at the heart of a new innovation project aiming to make a breakthrough in the storage of intermittent wind and solar electricity.

The technology, which stores electrical energy as heat in stones, is called GridScale, and could become a cheap and efficient alternative to storing power from solar and wind in lithium-based batteries. While lithium batteries are only cost-effective for the supply of energy for short periods of up to four hours, a GridScale electricity storage system will cost effectively support electricity supply for longer periods – up to about a week.