Trump taps former Delta executive to head aviation regulator

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will nominate former Delta Air Lines executive Steve Dickson to head the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the White House said on Tuesday, as the aviation agency grapples with fallout from two fatal crashes in Boeing airplanes. Reuters reported on March 8 that Trump was expected to soon nominate Dickson to run the 45,000-employee agency that oversees U.S. airspace. Dickson left Delta in October after 27 years.

The FAA, which has been run by an acting chief for 14 months, is facing mounting questions over its certification of the Boeing 737 MAX from federal prosecutors and lawmakers. Dickson’s nomination had been in the works for months before the March 10 Ethiopian Airlines crash. On Tuesday, the U.S. Transportation Department’s inspector general office said it planned to audit the FAA certification of the Boeing 737 MAX. The office is developing the scope and objectives of the review and is expected to formally announce and begin audit work as soon as possible, an official told Reuters. The FAA declined to comment, while Boeing said it would cooperate in the audit.

Last year, Reuters and other outlets reported that Trump was considering his longtime personal pilot, John Dunkin, to lead the FAA, an idea that came under criticism from some lawmakers. At Delta, Dickson oversaw more than 13,000 pilots and an internal support team of 400 employees. He flew the A320, B27, B737, B757 and B767 during his career at Delta and is a former U.S. Air Force officer and F-15 fighter pilot. The FAA is dealing with a number of other issues, including how to integrate drones into the nation’s airspace and modernizing air traffic control.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-aviation-trump/trump-taps-former-delta-executive-to-head-aviation-regulator-idUSKCN1R02JC?il=0

U.S. judge rebuts Trump on transgender troop limits

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal judge on Tuesday contradicted the Trump administration’s “incorrect” claim that no legal blocks remain for it to enforce a contentious policy to restrict many transgender individuals from the U.S. armed forces starting on April 12.

In a three-page notice, U.S. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said an injunction that she issued against the policy in 2017 remains in place. “Defendants were incorrect in claiming that there was no longer an impediment to the military’s implementation” of the transgender policy, the judge wrote. A spokeswoman for Pentagon said it was consulting with the U.S. Justice Department, which declined to comment.

Three other injunctions issued by judges in separate cases have already been lifted, in part by a Jan. 22 U.S. Supreme Court decision and subsequent action by a federal judge in Maryland. That prompted the U.S. Defense Department to sign a memo on March 12 that would enforce its service limitations on transgender people, effective one month later.

Kollar-Kotelly’s injunction, however, had been set aside by a three-judge panel of the District of Columbia U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Jan. 4. The panel said it would hold off on issuing a “mandate” to finalize the higher court’s decision until it resolves any request by the plaintiffs who challenged the transgender policy as a violation of the U.S. Constitution to rehear their appeal. “The Trump administration cannot circumvent the judicial process just to fast track its baseless, unfair ban on transgender servicemembers,” said attorney Jennifer Levi of the anti-discrimination group GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, who represents the plaintiffs. President Donald Trump in 2017 announced a plan to ban transgender people from the military, reversing Democratic former President Barack Obama’s policy of allowing transgender troops to serve openly and get medical transition care.

In March 2018, Trump backed a revised policy from then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. It banned, in some circumstances, transgender people with gender dysphoria, or distress due to internal conflict between physical gender and gender identity. The Mattis policy also banned transgender people who seek or have undergone gender transition steps.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-transgender/u-s-judge-rebuts-trump-on-transgender-troop-limits-idUSKCN1R02NR?il=0