EnviroPolitics Blog

Big rumble in South Jersey: An earthquake?

By Rob Jennings | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

A loud, sustained rumbling shook residents and buildings along the Jersey Shore on Friday afternoon leading some to speculate on social media that an earthquake could be to blame.

But the U.S. Geological Survey site shows no signs of seismic activity in New Jersey or neighboring states as of 2:30 p.m., about 30 minutes after the tremors rattled windows and houses.

Residents from as far south as Cape May and up to Manahawkin along the coast and as far west as Glassboro in Gloucester County reported feeling the shaking on social media. The tremor lasted at least 10 seconds.

“I thought my house was about to explode,” posted one user to Facebook.

Read the full story here

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Big rumble in South Jersey: An earthquake? Read More »

What’s whacking whales off the New Jersey coast?

Shore and wildlife advocates want offshore wind farm development paused until a cause can be determined.

Whale deaths — Cindy Zipf, from Clean Ocean Action, speaks during a press conference just off Florida Avenue in Atlantic City and the Boardwalk, to demand specific actions from President Biden to the alarming increased whale deaths, Monday, Jan. 9, 2023. In a span of 33 days, six whales, all endangered species, washed up in the New Jersey and New York coastal region. (Tim Hawk photo) |

By Steven Rodas | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Tire tracks in the sand marked the burial ground of a massive humpback whale Monday.

The dead 30-foot female whale washed up ashore Saturday and two days later lay buried underneath, leaving behind a decaying rotten smell.

“What a sad end to an animal in the prime of her life and an endangered species,” Cindy Zipf, executive director of Long Branch-based non-profit, Clean Ocean Action, told NJ Advance Media while walking on the beach. “The federal government should have been here with busloads of people really doing an examination if they were taking this seriously.”

Zipf was in Atlantic City on Monday afternoon — after the sixth dead whale was found on the New York-New Jersey coastline in 33 days — to ask the federal government to investigate if the whale deaths and work being done for offshore wind turbines could be to blame. She called the string of deaths “unprecedented.”

Steve Sweeney: NJ economy depends on offshore wind energy

While New Jersey moves toward a “cleaner” future, offshore wind continues to be among the hot-button renewable energy alternatives. Among the concerns expressed by residents and some officials is the impact to whales and other animals before, during, and after, construction.

It’s unclear if the deaths of half-a-dozen whales in the region since December is high. And although the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is currently studying an uptick of reported humpback whale deaths since 2016 across the East Coast, officials there say so far offshore wind has not been the culprit.

Read the full story here

What’s whacking whales off the New Jersey coast? Read More »

NY State Police SIU raids Troopers PBA offices

Members of the SIU kept a low profile as they executed the search warrants at the PBA’s State Street headquarters and a related office

A member of the State Police Special Investigations Unit loads boxes of records from the New York State Troopers Police Benevolent Association into a van outside the PBA's headquarters on Tuesday in Albany. The SIU executed search warrants at the PBA’s headquarters and the adjacent office of the Signal 30 Benefit Fund, a non-profit associated with the union. — 1of15A member of the State Police Special Investigations Unit loads boxes of records from the New York State Troopers Police Benevolent Association into a van outside the PBA’s headquarters on Tuesday in Albany. The SIU executed search warrants at the PBA’s headquarters and the adjacent office of the Signal 30 Benefit Fund, a non-profit associated with the union. (Jim Franco photo)

The State Police Special Investigations Unit executed a search warrant at the New York State Troopers Police Benevolent Association on Tuesday in Albany and confiscated dozens of boxes of records. It also executed a search warrant on the office of the adjacent Signal 30 Benefit Fund offices, a non-profit associated with the union.

By Brendan J. Lyons, Times-Union

ALBANY — The State Police Special Investigations Unit on Tuesday raided the headquarters of the New York State Troopers Police Benevolent Association and the nearby office of its related Signal 30 Benefit Fund, which has raised millions of dollars for charitable causes.

It’s unclear whether the court-authorized searches also targeted the “Surgeons Group,” which like the Signal 30 Benefit Fund is a fundraising arm of the PBA that provides honorary memberships to paid supporters. The Surgeons Group, which shares offices with the PBA, has raised millions of dollars for the union through its sales of official-looking dashboard “Trooper Surgeon” placards that also come with an identification card and a gold badge reading “PBA State Police Surgeon.”

Members of the SIU kept a low profile as they executed the search warrants at the PBA’s State Street office and also at Signal 30’s nearby office on Howard Street. They used unmarked vehicles and, in the case of the PBA’s office, a rear entrance. The office is located a block from the state Capitol, where Gov. Kathy Hochul was delivering here State of the State address Tuesday afternoon as the raid quietly unfolded.

Read the full story here

NY State Police SIU raids Troopers PBA offices Read More »

Can you believe it? George Santos is a Congressman

The GOP strategy of acclimatizing us to scandal is still working.

By Tom Nichols, The Atlantic

Remember Herschel Walker, the Georgia football star who was a shoo-in for a Senate seat—until the press discovered the children he didn’t acknowledge and the abortions he’d allegedly paid for? The Republican Party decided to tough it out with Walker, but the humiliation was too much for voters in a state that sent Marjorie Taylor Greene to Congress, and Walker narrowly lost.

Narrowly. It is amazing to realize that Walker lost by only a few points, when not so long ago, a candidate with his baggage (and inability to speak in coherent sentences) would have simply dropped out of the race. Surely, we’d reached the bottom of what even the most jaded voters would tolerate.

Or so I thought until I started following the improbable tale of George Santos—so far, that does seem to be his name—the weird fabulist who has been elected to the Congress of the United States of America. Almost everything about the life story Santos has told is a lie; likewise, he has not, so far, been able to adequately explain where he got all the money that he poured into his campaign.

As you might expect, this has caused fury in his district, powered a recall movement, and led the national Republicans to act on principle and refuse to seat him in Congress.

I am, of course, kidding. Nothing in that last sentence happened. If George Santos can make stuff up, so can I, but The Atlantic requires that I tell you when I’m joking.

Read the full story here

Can you believe it? George Santos is a Congressman Read More »

Montecito, California residents ordered to get out of town

James Claffey pushes his stalled car from the southbound Highway 101 Freeway in Montecito on Jan. 9, 2023.

BY CHRISTIAN MARTINEZ, LA TIMES
JAN. 9, 2023 UPDATED 9:02 PM PT

MONTECITO, Calif. — A powerful winter storm barreled into Southern California on Monday, forcing the mass evacuation of Montecito and other communities exactly five years after mudslides in the same area left 23 people dead.

Pounding rain wreaked havoc throughout the coastal counties north of Los Angeles, bringing flooding, road closures and deaths, including in San Luis Obispo County a 5-year-old boy who was swept away by flood waters and a motorist who entered a flooded roadway.

Montecito Resident Ellen DeGeneres, Sheltering In Place
Residents of wealthy California enclave ordered to evacuate

The storm, which was expected to move through Los Angeles, Orange and other southern counties through Tuesday, dumped more than 10 inches of rain in some areas and prompted pleas for people to stay indoors.

“This is not a day to be out doing anything you don’t have to,” said Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown

Normally tame creek beds were transformed into raging torrents. Roads were choked with water and debris and, in one case, a person was seen kayaking down a street swamped by windshield-high water.

Montecito, California residents ordered to get out of town Read More »

Details on NJDEP’s virtual hearing Wednesday on its delayed and controversial inland flood rule

Supporters of a plan to increase flood protection for inland areas of New Jersey urged the state to put a hold on new development applications until the rule becomes effective.

By Jon Hurdle, NJ Spotlight News

More than a dozen environmental and community groups gathered at the State House Monday to voice their support for the new Inland Flood Protection Rule but called on officials to resist an expected influx of development plans before the rule is formally adopted sometime in the first quarter of this year.

The advocates fear that developers are scrambling to submit their applications under existing rules that allow construction 2 feet lower than the new plan.

DEP plans a virtual public hearing for Wednesday at 1 p.m., public comment will be open until Feb. 3

Register for the virtual public hearing here

Environmental attorney Bruce Katcher delves into the details of the proposed rule here

“Even though these inland flood rules have been proposed, no one has to design to these new standards until these rules are adopted,” said Mike Pisauro, policy director of the nonprofit Watershed Institute. “I suspect there is going to be a flood of applications – and I use that word very intentionally – while these rules are pending. There should be a hold unless those applicants want to apply under the new standards,” he said at the news conference.

Putting a hold on development would be consistent with the actions of previous governors such as Brendan Byrne and Thomas Kean who imposed moratoria on topics including the Pinelands and wetlands until relevant rules became effective, advocates said in a letter to Gov. Phil Murphy in October.

The Department of Environmental Protection referred a question about the proposed moratorium to Murphy’s office, which did not respond.

The rule would raise the “design flood elevation” – the minimum level of the habitable first floor of a new building in non-tidal areas – by 2 feet from existing Department of Environmental Protection flood maps, and by 3 feet from maps drawn by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

It would also require the use of future projected precipitation in calculating flood elevations, as well as ensure that the DEP flood-hazard permits meet state standards on construction codes and comply with federal flood insurance requirements.

Read the full story here

Details on NJDEP’s virtual hearing Wednesday on its delayed and controversial inland flood rule Read More »

Big rumble in South Jersey: An earthquake?

What’s whacking whales off the New Jersey coast?

NY State Police SIU raids Troopers PBA offices

Members of the SIU kept a low profile as they executed the search warrants at the PBA’s State Street headquarters and a related office

Can you believe it? George Santos is a Congressman

The GOP strategy of acclimatizing us to scandal is still working.

Montecito, California residents ordered to get out of town

Details on NJDEP’s virtual hearing Wednesday on its delayed and controversial inland flood rule

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