EPA releases $1B to clean up toxic waste sites in 24 states – By Michael Rubinkam, Associated Press
Nearly 50 toxic waste sites around the U.S. will be cleaned up, and ongoing work at dozens of others will get a funding boost, as federal environmental officials announced Friday a $1 billion infusion to the Superfund program.
The money comes from the $1 trillion infrastructure bill that President Joe Biden signed into law last month and will help officials tackle a backlog of highly polluted Superfund sites in 24 states that have languished for years because of a lack of funding, the Environmental Protection Agency said.
About 60% of the sites to be cleaned up are in low-income and minority communities that have suffered disproportionately from contamination left by shuttered manufacturing plants, landfills and other abandoned industrial operations.
"No community should have to live in the shadows of contaminated waste sites," EPA Administrator Michael Regan said Friday at a news conference at the Lower Darby Creek Superfund site in Philadelphia, where a former landfill leached chemicals into soil and groundwater in the largely minority Eastwick neighborhood.
"With this funding, communities living near many of these most serious uncontrolled or abandoned releases of contamination will finally get the protection they deserve," said Regan, who has made environmental justice a top priority.
The funding is the first installment of a $3.5 billion appropriation to the Superfund program from the bipartisan infrastructure law. The announcement comes a day after Regan disclosed plans to release $2.9 billion in infrastructure law funds for lead pipe removal nationwide and to impose stricter rules to limit exposure to lead, a significant health hazard.
Sites to be cleaned up under the Superfund program include one in Roswell, New Mexico, where dry cleaners that went out of business almost 60 years ago laced the aquifer with toxic solvents; dozens of residential backyards in Lockport, New York, where a former felt manufacturer contaminated the soil with lead; and a residential and commercial district in Pensacola, Florida, where the defunct American Creosote Works once used toxic preservatives to treat wood poles and fouled the neighborhood's soil and groundwater.
In Philadelphia, fed-up residents approached the EPA in 2015 to push for cleanup of the contaminated Clearview Landfill. Work began two years later. More than 25,000 tons of contaminated soil has already been removed from nearly 200 residential properties, parks have been cleaned up and stream banks have been stabilized.
The $30 million cash infusion from the infrastructure law will accelerate those efforts, with work to be completed in 2023 — a year ahead of schedule.
"Our property values have never been higher," said Eastwick resident Ted Pickett, who serves on a community group that has been advising the EPA. "We no longer fear that our health is negatively impacted by concerns about contamination from the landfill.. Our social fabric is stronger."
New Jersey accounts for seven sites on the Superfund backlog list, while Florida has five and Michigan and North Carolina have four each. Pennsylvania has two — and 90 on the Superfund list as a whole.
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf said many of these toxic sites are in low-income and minority neighborhoods like Eastwick that have "borne a disproportionate share of the harmful effects of environmental damage." He said the harms have been compounded by a historical lack of funding for cleanup.
"We have to work tirelessly to clean up polluted places that are harming and holding back communities in which they are located," said Wolf, adding the new Superfund money "is going to help make the promise real for communities all across Pennsylvania."
Police: Van full of Christmas toys stolen in New Mexico – Associated Press
Time is of the essence for the Salvation Army in New Mexico now that the Grinch has thrown a wrench into the group's holiday toy program.
A van loaded with $6,000 worth of toys set to be passed out to hundreds of children was stolen this week from a store parking lot in Farmington.
"It is a pretty Grinch-like thing to do," Farmington police spokesperson Nicole Brown told the Farmington Daily Times.
Brown said a detective conducted interviews following Tuesday's theft and the investigation is ongoing.
Farmington police reached out via Facebook for the public's help in finding the white minivan.
"Shock, disbelief, just how somebody could do that — especially in a marked vehicle, taking gifts for children," Lt. Christopher Rockwell with the Salvation Army Farmington Corps told KOB-TV.
Meant for more than 350 kids, the toys were set to be distributed on Dec. 20. Now, the hope is to replace the stolen toys before Monday. Rockwell said the community has already responded in a big way by donating more toys and money.
"The response of the community and what they're doing is absolutely heartwarming because this area is just so generous and giving here in Farmington and the Four Corners area," he said.
The Salvation Army operates out of 25 centers around New Mexico and provides church service, food for the hungry and shelter and clothes for the homeless, among other services.
New Mexico governor approves 3-district congressional map – By Morgan Lee, Associated Press
New Mexico's Democratic governor signed legislation Friday to redraw the state's three congressional districts and divide a conservative stronghold into multiple districts over the objections of Republicans.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a former three-term congresswoman, on Friday said the new congressional map establishes a "reasonable baseline for competitive federal elections, in which no one party or candidate may claim any undue advantage."
Republicans disagree, calling it a power grab by Democrats who have long dominated state politics.
"These maps are far from fair representation, and they are a disservice to constituents," said Steve Pearce, chair of the Republican Party of New Mexico. "The real losers are the rural voices of New Mexico, conservative Democrats, Republicans and independents. Democrats have deliberately carved up and extended areas in order to have an advantage. "
Consultants to the Legislature say the new congressional map gives Democrats an advantage in all three districts to varying degrees, based on past voting behavior.
Republicans need a net gain of five seats in 2022 to take control of the U.S. House and effectively freeze President Joe Biden's agenda on everything from climate change to the economy.
Democrat-backed redistricting plans for the House and Senate also were on their way to the governor's office Friday after a final House vote. Both plans embrace recommendations from Native American communities for shoring up Indigenous voting blocs in New Mexico's northwest corner.
Under the new congressional map, the traditionally conservative-leaning 2nd District would incorporate heavily Hispanic neighborhoods of Albuquerque and cede portions of an oil producing region in southeastern New Mexico. GOP U.S. Rep. Yvette Herrell, a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump, won the district in 2020 by ousting a one-term Democrat.
The changes also hold political implications for first-term Democratic U.S. Reps. Melanie Stansbury of Albuquerque and Teresa Leger Fernandez of Santa Fe.
Republicans have warned that the congressional map is aimed at imposing political representation that is hostile to a thriving oil and natural gas industry in the southeast.
State Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth said the districts each bring together urban and rural residents.
"The new congressional map creates districts where we have to work together — rural and urban, north and south, and Democrats, Republicans and independents. That is a good thing," Wirth said in a statement.
Republicans unsuccessfully fought provisions of the state Senate redistricting bill that would pit two incumbent Hispanic Republican senators against each other in the same district for the next election cycle.
Republican House minority whip Rod Montoya of Farmington said the Senate map placed Democratic and Native American priorities over the interests of other communities, including politically conservative Latinos.
"I think if you are a New Mexico Hispanic with certain priorities, you have a target on your back," said Montoya, a Latino legislator whose wife and children are Native Americans of Navajo descent.
Democratic State Rep. Anthony Allison, a member of the Navajo Nation from Fruitland, on Friday commended colleagues for adopting detailed Native American recommendations.
He said the painstaking, eight-month process of consultation among Indigenous communities on redistricting priorities was like assembling a well-balanced ball of yarn.
"What I have witnessed ... is a resilience of people who have been here since time immemorial," Allison said.
Ghislaine Maxwell declines to testify as defense rests case – By Tom Hays and Larry Neumeister, Associated Press
After 12 days of testimony over three weeks, jurors heard from the final witnesses Friday in the sex trafficking trial of British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who told the judge she wouldn't testify because she was confident prosecutors hadn't proved their case.
Closing arguments are now set for Monday in the trial, in which Maxwell is accused of helping the wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse four teenage girls.
The defense rested its case after a tight two days of presenting witnesses who attested to Maxwell's character or said they hadn't witnessed any wrongdoing.
U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan asked Maxwell, 59, to stand up, and explained she had the right to testify, if she wished.
"Your Honor, the government has not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt so there is no reason for me to testify," Maxwell responded. As she spoke, her lawyer, Bobbi Sternheim, stood at her side, her arm wrapped around her lower back.
Maxwell has been accused by multiple women in civil lawsuits of running a yearslong operation to recruit teenage girls and young women to give sexualized massages to Epstein. One woman has said she was also coerced by the pair into sexual encounters with numerous famous men, including Britain's Prince Andrew.
Prosecutors, though, have kept the case narrowly focused on Maxwell's interactions with four girls from 1994 to 2004. During that span, Maxwell was romantically involved with and then later worked for Epstein.
Maxwell's lawyers offered a spirited defense, portraying her as a scapegoat targeted by the government because prosecutors could no longer bring Epstein to justice after he killed himself at a federal lockup in August 2019 while awaiting his own sex trafficking trial.
While she did not testify before the jury, Maxwell seemed active in her defense throughout the past three weeks of the trial, frequently writing notes to her lawyers and hugging them as she entered and left court each day.
On the last day of testimony, her lawyers called one of Epstein's one-time paramours to the stand: a former Miss Sweden, New York City doctor and tabloid fixture who told the jury that she trusted the financier with her young daughters and denied taking part in a group sexual encounter with a key accuser.
Eva Andersson-Dubin, 60, testified that she dated Epstein "off and on" from 1983 to the early 1990s, before he dated Maxwell.
Epstein and Andersson-Dubin remained friends after breaking up and, in 1994, she married another moneyed financier, Glenn Dubin, with whom she had three children.
One of the key accusers in the Maxwell trial, identified in court only as "Jane" to protect her identity, testified that a woman named "Eva" joined a group sexual experience with Epstein.
On Friday, Andersson-Dubin was asked by one of Maxwell's attorneys if she had ever been in a group sexual encounter with Jane.
"Absolutely not," she responded.
Asked if she had ever been in a group sexualized massage of Epstein with Jane, she responded: "I have not."
The Dubins have denied knowing anything about Epstein's sexual misconduct, but were publicly supportive of Epstein when he initially was prosecuted and convicted of sex crimes in Florida in 2008.
Another Epstein accuser whose allegations are not part of Maxwell's trial, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, has said that she was trafficked to Glenn Dubin, among other powerful men, all of whom have denied her accounts.
As the Dubin children — including two daughters — grew up, they sometimes joined their parents on flights with Epstein, Andersson-Dubin said.
She testified that Epstein was fond of her children and the children viewed him like an uncle, sometimes calling him "Uncle F," an apparent abbreviation of his name, minus the "J."
When Andersson-Dubin was asked by a defense lawyer if she ever witnessed any inappropriate conduct between Epstein and teenage girls, she responded: "I did not."
The judge told jurors Friday afternoon to return at 9 a.m. Monday for closing arguments, which are expected to take several hours. Then, she'll instruct them on the law and deliberations will begin.
Proposal would expand aid to more victims of nuclear weapons tests – Madelyn Beck, Boise State Public Radio News
A 30-year-old federal fund that compensates people sickened by radiation from nuclear weapons testing in the West is set to expire next year, but a new proposal would both extend and expand it.
Proposed changes to the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act would allow far more "downwinders" to seek aid, including people in Montana, Idaho, Colorado, New Mexico and Guam. It would also expand eligibility in Utah, Arizona and Nevada.
Lawmakers largely agree that government officials should have been more transparent about what they knew when the testing began: materials and fallout could cause illness, cancer and death.
Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah, explained to fellow lawmakers during a hearing Wednesday that the weapons tests were done when wind was blowing away from Las Vegas or California, but towards many other communities.
“Between 1945 and 1992, the United States conducted 206 above-ground nuclear weapon tests, releasing harmful radiation dust into the air and literally blanketing parts of the United States, including Utah, with poisonous air,” he said.
The proposal would also include aid for uranium miners who the federal government paid to provide materials for weapons testing. Many belonged to nearby tribes, including the Navajo Nation.
“Although the U.S. government – and the private mining companies it contracted with – knew the dangers inherent in uranium mining, they did little to warn these Native American uranium workers, or their communities,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-NY.
Support for the bill in the House Judiciary Committee was bipartisan but wasn’t unanimous. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, noted that uranium miners were not federal employees. He also said the proposed increase in compensation for current victims, alone, would be pricey.
“No one here disputes that the federal government recklessly took actions that led to our citizens getting cancer,” he said. “But based on what we now know [from this 2005 study], the science simply does not support the expansion of the program under this bill.”
But that study – a National Academy of Sciences report to Congress – was explicit in saying the law's geographic boundaries for compensation eligibility should be expanded beyond the scope of the bill written in 2000, when it was last updated.
This proposal would extend RECA benefits for another 19 years after enactment.