EnviroPolitics Blog

Politics/Clout: DA Larry Krasner says ‘you are stuck with me’ after a bogus resignation rumor flies

A news release stoked speculation across the state just as GOP lawmakers worked to revive the case for impeachment.

*Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner speaks at a news conference on July 19.Allie Ippolito / Staff Photographer*

By Chris Brennan, Clout, Updated on Jul 28, 2023, 6:00 a.m. ET

Clout today details the perfect summer recipe for a juicy rumor.

Take a slow time in the political calendar, such as the fourth week in July. Mix in a controversial politician — Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner. Have him call an all-staff meeting. Then circulate a bogus “news release” claiming he’s leaving for a new job.

Stir all week until it comes to a rolling boil, with people viewing this rumor through their own prism of partisanship — Krasner critics hoping aloud that it comes true, Krasner fans fearing a progressive prosecutor is calling it quits.

Then dump it in the trash. Because that’s what it is.

“You are stuck with me,” Krasner told Clout this week, sounding half-bemused by the rumor and half-ticked off about the bogus news release. “I actually love my job. I like what I’m doing.”

Someone claiming to be Abigail Symond-Fakour — a Clout search of the Lexis-Nexis database found no such person exists — declared in a news release being passed around that Krasner would become the executive director of the National Lawyers Guild next week.

Read the full story here

If you liked this post, you’ll love our daily environmental newsletter, EnviroPolitics. It’s packed daily with the latest news, commentary, and legislative updates from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware…and beyond. Don’t take our word for it, try it free for an entire month. No obligation.

Politics/Clout: DA Larry Krasner says ‘you are stuck with me’ after a bogus resignation rumor flies Read More »

Climate change deniers read this: Ocean temps are off the charts

By Tim Meko and Dan Stillman, Washington Post

The Earth’s oceans have never been warmer. Every day since late March, the world’s average sea surface temperature has been well above the previous highest mark for that day. And there will be ripple effects: Marine heat waves are affecting about 44 percent of the global ocean, whereas only 10 percent is typical, and they can have “significant impacts on marine life as well as coastal communities and economies,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Baffled scientists are unsure what exactly has caused the rapid spike in ocean temperatures first detected in March. They believe it could be some combination of numerous factors: the massive heat domes that have July on track to be the planet’s hottest month on record and could make this the hottest year on record; reduced air pollution from ships; weaker winds carrying less Saharan dust over the Atlantic Ocean; and the influence of human-caused climate change and El Niño, which itself is an abnormal warming of the waters in the tropical Pacific Ocean that alters weather patterns worldwide.

The exceptionally warm oceans are making heat waves worse, disrupting marine life, and destroying coral reefs. They are also intensifying fires and flooding by increasing land temperatures and could make hurricanes stronger. Here, we take you on a tour of the worst of the ocean’s hot spots.

In the North Atlantic, levels beyond even extreme predictions

Read the full story here

Climate change deniers read this: Ocean temps are off the charts Read More »

The first U.S. utility-scale offshore wind farm just got the first offshore substation built in the U.S.

By Michelle Lewis, Electrek

The first US-built offshore substation is now standing at New York’s South Fork Wind, the first utility-scale offshore wind farm in US federal waters.

South Fork Wind’s 1,500-ton, 60-foot-tall offshore substation was designed and engineered in Kansas and then built near Corpus Christi, Texas, by Kiewit Offshore Services, the largest offshore fabricator in the US. The substation sailed from Texas to New York in May.

Offshore substations collect and stabilize the power generated by wind turbines, preparing the power for transmission to shore.

Read the full story here

The first U.S. utility-scale offshore wind farm just got the first offshore substation built in the U.S. Read More »

NJ girl becomes youngest to ever play in FIFA World Cup

16-year-old Casey Phair becomes the youngest-ever player in history to play at the FIFA Women's World Cup! 🇰🇷 pic.twitter.com/S8ukNYUUlk
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) July 25, 2023

NJ teen, Casey Phair, becomes the youngest ever World Cup player at 16 years and 26 days of age

SYDNEY, Australia — Throughout South Korea’s Women’s World Cup opener against Colombia on Tuesday, players stayed loose behind the goal. Early in the 78th minute, one player broke away from the group. Casey Phair, at 16 years and 26 days, stepped onto the field and became the youngest player to do so in a World Cup – women’s or men’s.

“Going on, I was really, really nervous,” said Phair, who has an American father and a South Korean mother and was raised in Warren Township, New Jersey. “It was a scary moment, but then going on and running around, I think it just settled in.”

The record previously was held by the late Ifeanyi Chiejine, who was 16 years and 34 days old when she played for Nigeria in the 1999 Women’s World Cup.

In the 17 minutes she spent on the field in South Korea’s 2-0 loss, Phair was near the ball at all times, competing with Colombian players for possession every chance she got.

“She deserved the chance to play,” South Korea’s head coach Collin Bell said. “She trained really well, just as well as anybody. I wanted to throw her on to give her that experience.”

Read the full story here

NJ girl becomes youngest to ever play in FIFA World Cup Read More »

Why the famed Appalachian Trail keeps getting longer — and harder

As America has transformed, so too has its celebrated footpath. Less than half the A.T. remains where it was originally laid.

Robert Weiss of Tewksbury, Mass., left, photographs his brother-in-law, Matthew Ferri of Dracut, Mass., and his wife, Andrea Weiss, just before sunrise from their campsite on the Appalachian Trail in Beans Purchase, N.H., in September 2017. (Robert F. Bukaty/AP)

By Lizzie Johnson and Lauren Tierney, Washington Post

MCAFEE KNOB, Va. — The morning fog had just begun to clear as the hikers made their way uphill, beckoned by a series of white blazes splashed on the trunks of hardwood and tall pine, the paint cracked where the bark rippled and whorled.

It was a weekday in mid-May on the Appalachian Trail, and their footsteps were muffled by the forest. Away they hiked — from the cramped parking lot glittering with vehicles, from the frenetic buzz of highway traffic, from the busyness and anxiety that compel people to step out of their lives, if only for a few hours, and escape into the wilderness.

Here, on what everyone calls the A.T., it was quieter. The leaves on the oaks were pearled with rain. Mushrooms erupted from softened logs, and in the crepey mass of damp leaves on the ground, roses and purple irises bloomed, sweetening the air.

One woman, a sweatshirt tied around her waist, pulled at the retractable leash of her German shepherd. She passed two brown-haired sisters in oversize T-shirts, hunched beneath the weight of their backpacks. With each step, their cooking pans tinkled like wind chimes. They paused beside a device that counts the hikers passing by on the trail.

“Did you know?” a sign read. “McAfee Knob is considered the most photographed spot on the Appalachian Trail.”

Four more miles uphill was the landmark, where hikers meet the open sky. The rocky ledge — at 3,200 feet — resembles a diving board. In the valley below, creeks slanted through the green. There were pinpricks of farms and shaved fields. The vast ocean of Jefferson National Forest lapped the horizon.

This panorama atop Catawba Mountain draws more than 50,000 people each year, causing a logjam and necessitating a seasonal shuttle to the trailhead on weekends.

“Once at the top, you can’t put words to it,” one hiker wrote on the popular outdoor website AllTrails.

But for almost a decade, McAfee Knob wasn’t part of the A.T. at all.

Read the full story here and see maps of the relocated trail

If you liked this post, you’ll love our daily environmental newsletter, EnviroPolitics. It’s packed daily with the latest news, commentary, and legislative updates from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware…and beyond. Don’t take our word for it, try it free for an entire month. No obligation.

Why the famed Appalachian Trail keeps getting longer — and harder Read More »

Sister Mary Scullion to step down as head of anti-homelessness nonprofit Project HOME

Associate Executive Director Joan Dawson McConnon is also leaving. The pair worked for 34 years building the nationally known $52 million operation that has helped thousands experiencing homelessness.

Joan Dawson McConnon (left) and Sister Mary Scullion, co-founders of the anti-homelessness nonprofit Project HOME, are pictured at JBJ Soul Homes in Fairmount.

By Alfred Lubrano, Philadelphia Inquirer, Updated on Jul 27, 2023, 3 p.m.

Sister Mary Scullion, the powerhouse advocate and street angel fueled by enough “bad-ass rebel energy” to minister to multitudes of people experiencing homelessness, will be leaving her job as president and executive director of the nationally renowned Project HOME.

Joan Dawson McConnon, the associate executive director who co-founded the Philadelphia nonprofit with Scullion in 1989, will also be stepping down.

Scullion will remain in her role through December 31, 2024, and will be assisting with the leadership transition through June 30, 2025. McConnon will stay on through June 30, 2024, then will consult through the end of the year.

“We’ve done the best we can. It’s time for someone else to come in,” Scullion, 70, said during an interview earlier this week, occasionally crying softly. “The work has been such a blessing.”

In 34 years, Scullion and McConnon grew Project HOME from a winter shelter in South Philadelphia where volunteers washed dishes in a washing machine, to a formidable institution with 1,000 units of housing in 19 residences across the city. The nonprofit has a $52 million operating budget,1 million square feet of real estate, dozens of programs, and a staff of 450 that’s helped countless people in need find homes, improve their health, become educated, and get jobs.

Throughout, the duo has adhered to their organization’s now familiar motto: “None of us are home until all of us our home.”

Jon Bon Jovi and Sister Mary Scullion have been partners in fighting homelessness for years.© ED HILLE / Staff Photographer/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

Unassuming and self-deprecating, Scullion graduated from St. Joseph’s University in 1976 and Temple University’s School of Social Work in 1987. She’s famous for being tireless and tough.

“Believe me, if she needs to tell you off, she will,” said Sam Santiago, the former Philadelphia police officer who’s long worked on Project HOME’s outreach team. “She don’t take no s—.”

Read the full story here

Sister Mary Scullion to step down as head of anti-homelessness nonprofit Project HOME Read More »