Feds want to put away Philly Proud Boys leader for 30 years


Zach Rehl, head of the Philadelphia chapter of the Proud Boys, could spend three decades in federal prison if prosecutors get their way later this month at his sentencing hearing

Philly Proud Boys president Zachary Rehl, left, and Ethan Nordean, a regional leader of the organization, march toward the U.S. Capitol in Washington, in support of President Donald Trump, on Jan. 6, 2021.
Philly Proud Boys president Zachary Rehl, left, and Ethan Nordean, a regional leader of the organization, march toward the U.S. Capitol in Washington, in support of President Donald Trump, on Jan. 6, 2021. Carolyn Kaster / AP

By Jeremy Roebuck, Philadelphia Inquirer

The role that Rehl and three other leaders of the neofascist organization played in organizing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol “threatened the bedrock principles of our country” and warranted the significant punishment, government lawyers argued in a court filing late Thursday.

Their recommendation of 30 years is considerably more than that of the most serious prison sentence imposed so far against a participant in the Capitol siege — the 18-year term given in May to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes.

Proud Boy on house arrest in Jan. 6 case disappears ahead of sentencing

“These defendants and the men in their command saw themselves as the foot soldiers of the right — they were prepared to use, and they did use, force to stop the ‘traitors’ from stealing the election,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jason B.A. McCullough and Conor Mulroe wrote of Rehl and his codefendants. “They failed. They are not heroes; they are criminals.”

Like Rhodes, Rehl, 37, of Port Richmond, and three codefendants — Enrique Tarrio, the Proud Boys national chairman; and regional leaders Ethan Nordean and Joseph Biggs — were convicted by a federal jury on seditious conspiracy charges, the most serious count levied against any of the more than 1,000 charged participants in the Jan. 6 riot and one that carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years.

Read the full story here

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EPA strikes a NY Superfund site from its national priority list

From the Environmental Protection Agency

NEW YORK (August 17, 2023) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has deleted the Smithtown Groundwater Contamination Superfund site in Smithtown, New York, from the National Priorities List (NPL) of Superfund sites. EPA has determined all cleanup work has been completed and that no further federal action is required at the site.

“A few decades ago, people were drinking the contaminated groundwater at this site, but thanks to our Superfund program EPA was able to quickly give them a safe and permanent source of drinking water, allowing the aquifer time to recover,” said EPA Regional Administrator Lisa F. Garcia. “Contamination levels in the groundwater have fallen to a level that meets drinking water standards, and EPA is now removing the designation of this site as a Superfund site.”

“I applaud EPA’s successful efforts to address the toxic contamination at the Smithtown Groundwater Contamination Site that has threatened the health of local residents for years. It is imperative that all New Yorkers have access to clean drinking water, and everyone deserves to know that their community is a safe place to live, work, and raise a family,” said New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. “Thanks to this 24-year effort, residents of Nissequogue and Head of the Harbor can now take solace in knowing their groundwater is safe, and I will never stop fighting to ensure it remains that way.”

Groundwater at the site became contaminated with tetrachloroethylene (or PCE), a solvent used in dry cleaning and metal cleaning, though in this case EPA was not able to pinpoint specific sources of the contamination. Exposure to PCE can have serious health impacts, including liver damage and an increased risk of cancer. EPA selected a cleanup plan in 2004 to clean up groundwater contaminated with PCE. The plan included providing alternate water supplies to homes affected by the contamination and relied on existing state and local regulations to restrict future groundwater use.

In 2005, EPA began installing service lines to connect people’s homes to the public water that is regulated and regularly tested. In addition, EPA extended the water main so all the impacted homes could be connected. EPA monitored groundwater using a network of monitoring wells to gauge the concentration and movement of the PCE in the groundwater over time.

When hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants remain on a site at levels that limit use and restrict exposure, EPA conducts follow-up reviews every five years. These five-year reviews, ensure that the cleanup actions continue to protect people and the environment. Several five-year reviews of the site were performed from 2011 through 2020 to ensure that contamination was not posing a risk to people. The most recent five-year review, conducted in November 2020, determined that EPA’s actions at the site protect people’s health and the environment. Levels of PCE in the groundwater have fallen below state and federal drinking water standards. As a result, no additional five-year reviews will be required.

The NPL includes some of the nation’s most serious uncontrolled or abandoned releases of contamination. EPA deletes sites or parts of sites from the NPL when no further cleanup is required to protect human health or the environment. Years, and sometimes decades, of complex investigation and cleanup work, have gone into getting these sites to where they are today.   

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Why a trailblazing Assemlywoman won’t return after one term

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[EP Editor’s Note: Another example of hate driving out the good]


By Hannan Adely, NorthJersey.com

She was the first female Muslim mayor in the United States. Then she was the first of two Muslims — both women — elected to the New Jersey State legislature.

Now, Assemblywoman Sadaf Jaffer, D-Montgomery, has decided that she will not seek reelection after just one term.

In an interview with The Record and NorthJersey.com, Jaffer said she had face sustained harassment both online and in opponents’ attack ads because of her religious background. She will not seek re-election because she doesn’t want her family to put her family, including her young daughter, through another ugly election cycle.

Jaffer’s experience underscores a larger problem of harassment and bigotry that Muslim women in the public eye often face. The Assemblywoman, in her interview, talks about ways to make the journey easier for other women as they run for and serve in office.

Assemblywoman Sadaf Jaffer, PhD, who represents New Jersey’s 16th Legislative District is a Princeton University Researcher and Lecturer in South Asian Studies. Passionate advocate for racial, economic, and gender justice.

Every campaign is a commitment. It is a sacrifice for family. I just decided this was best in terms of being able to focus on my daughter and, you know, not having to subject myself and my family, including my daughter, to the type of harassment I get as a Muslim official, as a woman of color running for office.  

What type of haassment did you face?

It’s a slow drip of messages, comments, emails, tweets, Facebook comments that give the impression that my participation is not welcome. There are questions about my intentions. Unfortunately, my political opponents have also used that type of messaging against me in the campaign for assembly last year. My opponents had television ads, text messages, everything saying Sadaf Jaffer is a radical, reject extremism don’t vote for her, that sort of thing.

We all know it just takes one person to have a negative reaction to that sort of messaging and someone can get hurt. When I was making my decision there had been a series of state legislators whose homes had been shot into, including one where a 10-year-old girl was sleeping. Just thinking about that environment, I decided to focus on keeping my family safe and protected both emotionally and physically.

Read the full story here

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EPA Overrules Texas Plan to Reduce Haze From Air Pollution at National Parks

Critics called the state’s plan, which rejected a request to cut sulfur emissions at coal plants, a “do nothing” strategy. The EPA now wants six power plants to slash emissions by 80,000 tons.

The view from Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas, is often obscured by haze from both local and regional air pollution sources. Credit: Martha Pskowski/Inside Climate News.

By Martha Pskowskids, Inside Climate News

The National Parks Conservation Association Texas Young Leaders Advocacy Council and other environmental groups are pushing state and federal regulators to take aggressive action to eliminate air pollution at national parks through the Environmental Protection Agency’s Regional Haze Rule. Issued in 1999 under the Clean Air Act, the rule calls for state and federal regulators to work together to improve visibility in national parks and wilderness areas. 

States submit progress reports every five years and update their action plans, known as implementation plans, every 10 years. Each plan is divided into an initial phase that covers the largest individual polluters and a second one that focuses on ongoing emissions reductions from a range of sources.

In July 2021, Texas submitted its updated implementation plan to the EPA. But in April 2023, 

the EPA announced that the plan’s first phase was inadequate because it did not include the best available technology for reducing sulfur dioxide and particulate matter. 

Members of the National Parks Conservation Association Texas Young Leaders Advocacy Council visited Guadalupe Mountains National Park in June from San Antonio. They summited Guadalupe Peak and learned about sources of regional air pollution. Credit: Courtesy of NPCA.
Members of the National Parks Conservation Association Texas Young Leaders Advocacy Council visited Guadalupe Mountains National Park in June from San Antonio. They summited Guadalupe Peak and learned about sources of regional air pollution. Credit: Courtesy of NPCA.

The agency proposed a new strategy for Texas that would require six coal plants, all major contributors to haze, to reduce their emissions of sulfur dioxide. The public comment period on that proposed rule closed on Aug. 2. The EPA has not announced when it will release the final rule. 

Environmental advocates are calling on the EPA to similarly reject Texas’s plan for the second phase of the haze rule, submitted in July 2021. They also want Texas to implement more pollution controls in the second phase for the numerous oil and gas drilling sites contributing to air pollution at national parks.

Read the full story here

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Cold weather surfers face microbial danger at Jersey shore

Surfers at beaches where stormwater drainage pipes discharge into the ocean risk catching more than waves on a rainy day.

By Monmouth University’s Urban Coast Institute

Monmouth University researchers studying the influence of weather and ocean conditions on microbial pollution found that within 6-24 hours of moderate rainfall, enterococcus bacteria levels exceeded state health safety standards about half the time at tested beaches. While rain is a known driver of illness-causing microbial pollution at New Jersey beaches, this was the first peer-reviewed study to formally investigate the linkage.

Endowed Professor of Marine Science Jason Adolf and Specialist Professor Jeff Weisburg of Monmouth University’s Biology Department collected water samples with students on dry days and following storms at five Monmouth County beaches with outflow pipes in 2019 and 2020. The research was conducted both in the summer bathing season when the state monitors pollution levels weekly, and in September-May, which is not regularly monitored by the state. Although the throngs of beachgoers largely vanish after Labor Day, the fall and winter months are considered prime surfing season for the Jersey Shore and its waters remain crowded with riders taking advantage of hurricane swells.

“Without a system on the beach to warn them, surfers could unknowingly be exposed to bacteria that can cause respiratory infections, nausea, abdominal pain, and fevers,” said Dr. Weisburg, whose research focus is immunology and disease. “Since the restrictions on which beaches you’re allowed to surf at are lifted in the offseason, surfers should take advantage of the other beaches open to them and steer clear of outfall pipes during and after rains.”

The samples were tested for enterococcus levels and checked for relationships with data for three important drivers: precipitation, which transports animal waste and other pollutants to beaches via stormwater discharges; water temperature, which determines how easy it is for bacteria to thrive; and tide stage, which can control whether the pollutants are diluted or concentrated.

The research found that rainfall within 6-24 hours of sampling and higher water temperatures were the best predictors of high enterococcus counts, although exceedances of the state regulatory threshold of 104 colony-forming units (CFU) per 100 mL seawater were found in all seasons – even in seas as cold as 44 degrees, following rainy periods. Although not an explicit part of this study, observations during sampling suggested that these bacteria spikes subsided quickly at these sites, within one or two days of occurring.

The researchers created a model that could predict the likelihood of bacteria spikes at the sampling sites with accuracy based on data for rainfall accumulations, water temperature, and water levels. When the model focused on sites having stormwater drainage in the surf zone, its predictions that levels would exceed the state threshold were correct 69 percent of the time; it was a perfect 100 percent when it predicted levels would stay safely below the threshold.

Read the full story here

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Ban on semiautomatic weapons upheld by Illinois Supreme Court


By JOHN O’CONNOR AP Political Writer

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The Illinois Supreme Court has upheld the state’s ban on the sale or possession of the type of semiautomatic weapons used in hundreds of mass killings nationally.

The law bans dozens of specific brands or types of rifles and handguns, .50-caliber guns, attachments and rapid-firing devices. No rifle is allowed to accommodate more than 10 rounds, with a 15-round limit for handguns. The most popular gun targeted is the AR-15 rifle, which can be found in at least 25 million American households, according to 2021 research by Georgetown University.

In a 4-3 decision Friday, the high court found that the Protect Our Communities Act does not violate the federal Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection of the law nor the state constitution’s bar on special legislation.

The court also decreed that state Rep. Dan Caulkins, a Decatur Republican, and like-minded gun-owners who brought the lawsuit had earlier waived their claims that the law infringes on the Second Amendment to own firearms and could not raise it before the Supreme Court.

The Second Amendment claim is alive, however, in several federal lawsuits filed in southern Illinois, later consolidated and awaiting appeals court action.

Read the full story here

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