Only in America

The owners of a full-scale replica of Noah’s Ark in Kentucky are suing their insurance company for rain damage. The biblical literalists who own the Ark Encounter exhibit, a 510-foot-long “sister attraction” of the nearby Creation Museum, claim they suffered “tortious injury” to the tune of $1 million when their insurers failed to adequately compensate them for the damage done by recent “heavy rains.”

The Department of Energy has started referring to U.S. natural gas as “freedom gas.” In a rebranding effort, department officials described a project to export liquefied natural gas as “critical to spreading freedom gas throughout the world, by giving America’s allies a diverse and affordable source of clean energy.” To drive home the point, an official described natural gas as “molecules of U.S. freedom.”

Ethics questions on Chao’s China ties

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao’s apparent efforts to boost her family’s shipping company alarmed government officials planning Chao’s trip to Beijing, The New York Times reported this week. The company, Foremost Group, does extensive business in China. Ahead of a planned official visit to the country in 2017, Chao asked that family members be included in meetings with Chinese officials. After her requests on behalf of her family prompted the U.S. Embassy in Beijing to write to the State Department with an “ethics question,” Chao abruptly canceled the trip. She maintains she did nothing improper. Chao and her husband, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, have received millions of dollars in gifts from Chao’s father, who ran Foremost Group until last year.

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June 7, 2019 THE WEEK