Acting EPA chief Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist, just signed his first major regulatory amendment — making it easier for corporations to discard coal ash however they see fit.

The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday finalized a rule that rolls back standards for disposing of the toxic ash produced by burning coal, The Hill reports. The amendment was in the works for several months, but when Wheeler took over for Scott Pruitt earlier this month, he took the reins. Pruitt resigned as EPA administrator following a string of ethics scandals.

The amendment backpedals on regulations put in place by the Obama administration, which mandated strict federal standards for coal ash disposal in 2015. In a statement, the EPA said relaxing the standards would save $31.4 million a year in regulatory costs, as states are given authority to loosen or waive requirements for companies.

"These amendments provide states and utilities much-needed flexibility in the management of coal ash, while ensuring human health and the environment are protected," said Wheeler in the statement. Environmental groups disagree, reports The Hill, and immediately condemned the measure as dangerous to groundwater and air pollution.

Companies with lax standards may not be required to monitor whether coal ash leaches into surrounding groundwater and will have extended deadlines to reduce coal ash disposal. The EPA has also loosened pollution standards on acceptable levels of lead, lithium, cobalt, and molybdenum in groundwater. Read more at The Hill. Summer Meza

President Trump's latest claim takes precisely 13 seconds to fact check.

At a Wednesday night rally in North Carolina, Trump openly degraded Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), prompting the crowd to erupt into a chant of "send her back" that echoed his racist tweet against the Democratic congresswoman earlier this week.

Trump was asked about the chant on Thursday, and while he said he "felt a little bit badly about it," he also referred to his supporters in pointing out that he "didn’t say that, they did." Trump also claimed he "started speaking very quickly" to shut down the chants.

Yet as a video of the situation reveals, Trump actually waited for at least 13 seconds before starting to speak again. And when he did, he only continued to criticize Omar.

Democrats have started to warn that Trump's rhetoric has put Omar's life in "imminent danger," though Omar chose to respond to the tweets with a powerful Maya Angelou quote. Kathryn Krawczyk

The House of Representatives has just passed a bill to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.

The legislation, which would raise the federal minimum wage for the first time since 2009 from $7.25 to $15 by 2025, passed on Thursday in a 231-199 vote, The Washington Post reports. The vote mostly occurred across party lines, with three Republicans supporting it.

Activists in recent years have pushed for the federal minimum wage to be raised to $15 an hour, as some states have done, as part of a movement known as Fight for $15. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) celebrated this "historic day" on Thursday, saying that "no one can live in dignity with a $7.25 an hour wage," Reuters reports.

Republicans opposed the bill, saying it would result in the loss of jobs; a recent Congressional Budget Office report said the legislation would increase wages for up to 27 million people but result in 1.3 million jobs being lost, The New York Times reports. The bill is not expected to advance further. "This would depress the economy at a time of economic boom," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Thursday, per Reuters. "We're not going to be doing that in the Senate." Brendan Morrow

Jeffrey Epstein won't be released to the scene of his alleged crimes.

As the multimillionaire faces charges for allegedly running a sex ring involving dozens of minor girls, Epstein's lawyers proposed a bail package that would allow him to wait for his trial in his Manhattan townhouse. U.S. District Judge Richard Berman dismissed what he called an "irretrievably inadequate" package Thursday, saying he posed a "danger to the community" if he returned home, NBC News reports.

Epstein has been accused of sexual abusing girls both in his Manhattan and Palm Beach, Florida, properties, and faces sexual abuse charges that carry a maximum sentence of 45 years in prison. He recently pleaded not guilty to the charges, and his lawyers then proposed a $77 million bail package that would let Epstein stay in his townhouse guarded by private security. The package would also require he deregister his vehicles and private jet.

But on Thursday, Berman still decided that prosecutors displayed "clear and convincing evidence" that Epstein remained a flight risk. Berman also cited Epstein's failure to comply with a 1980 plea deal that required him to check in with the New York Police Department and mentioned that he "considered" the recent testimonies of two of Epstein's alleged victims in making his decision. Kathryn Krawczyk

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) both defended President Trump after a Wednesday rally in which his supporters chanted "send her back" about Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), while Democrats warned about the danger of this rhetoric.

Graham on Thursday argued that chanting "send her back" about a minority congresswoman who came to the United States as a 12-year-old refugee from Somalia isn't racist and that this rhetoric is fine because Trump doesn't want to "send back" those who agree with him.

"A Somali refugee embracing Trump would not have been asked to go back," Graham said, per CNN's Manu Raju. "If you're a racist, you want everyone from Somalia to go back because they're black or they're Muslim." Graham also suggested that this means the rhetoric is "about the criticism and the critic," although he offered some light criticism by saying that "I don't like it" and "I'm not going around telling anybody to leave the country who's an American citizen," The Hill reports.

McConnell also came to Trump's defense Thursday on Fox Business, saying the president is "onto something" with his attacks on the four congresswomen, although McConnell did not reference the "send her back" chant and instead praised the president as being "right about 'the squad' wanting to turn us into a socialist country," Mediaite reports.

Democrats, meanwhile, slammed Trump after the Wednesday rally, with the Congressional Black Caucus' Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) saying Omar's "life is in imminent danger" as a result of his rhetoric, Politico reports, and Rep. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) accusing Trump of "instilling fear." Omar herself said that "racism distracts, racism hurts, racism kills." Brendan Morrow

Merriam-Webster has a bit of information it would just like to leave right here after President Trump's Wednesday rally.

After Trump supporters at the event chanted "send her back!" about Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), the dictionary company tweeted that its top search results that night included "racism," "fascism," "xenophobia," and "bigot," with "racism" topping the list.

"Socialism" also made the list at number two, as Trump labeled the Democratic congresswomen he has been attacking as socialists.

This isn't the first time Merriam-Webster has weighed in on the controversy over Trump's tweets telling minority Democratic congresswomen to "go back" to where they came from. When Fox News' Brit Hume earlier this week claimed that Trump's comments don't "meet the standard definition of racist," linking to Merriam-Webster's definition, Merriam-Webster seemed to respond by gently pointing to an entry noting that its definitions are "not always well suited for settling disputes." Brendan Morrow

South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg's resume in politics is deeper than he lets on.

The 2020 candidate has broken barriers as the first openly gay man to make a presidential debate stage, while his folksy yet progressive charm have earned him comparisons to former President Barack Obama. And yet he also has a less public history of working for Democratic presidential campaigns and in political strategy, giving him "more in common with Bill Clinton than Obama," Mark Leibovich reports for The New York Times Magazine.

The 37-year-old Buttigieg has brushed off questions regarding his age and distance from national politics, touting that he has more "executive experience" than all the senators and congressmembers in the Democratic field. Yet that inexperience is also some of the appeal of his campaign, and Buttigieg embraces it, broadly promising Leibovich that he'll fashion a "completely different" response to the outrage against President Trump that's encompassed this presidential cycle. But as Leibovich writes, Buttigieg is still "at heart, a fairly conventional political animal:"

Buttigieg is steeped in campaign life, having worked for John Kerry in 2004 and Obama in 2008, and he tends to talk, more than most candidates, like an operative. In 2017, he ran unsuccessfully to be chairman of the Democratic National Committee — a position that is essentially that of a glorified fund-raiser, talking head and political strategist rolled into one. His early ambitions, his methodical climb up the accomplishment ladder and his youthful attention to networking have more in common with Bill Clinton than Obama.

Read more about Buttigieg's political history at The New York Times Magazine. Kathryn Krawczyk