(CNN) The Supreme Court cleared the way for a New York prosecutor to obtain former President Donald Trump’s tax returns, dealing a massive loss to Trump who has fiercely fought to shield his financial papers from prosecutors.
The documents will be subject to grand jury secrecy rules that restrict their public release.
The ruling is a bitter loss for Trump, even if the tax records are shielded from public disclosure, after he consistently argued that the subpoena issued by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance was overbroad and issued in bad faith.
Yes, Donald Trump is in very *real* legal jeopardy It means that the grand jury investigation into alleged hush money payments and other issues will no longer be hampered by Trump’s fight to keep the documents secret.
The committee will receive testimony from invited guests concerning the impact of climate change and how variable weather patterns, sea level rise, and rising temperatures would exacerbate issues like flooding, water supply problems, and State or regional droughts.
Due to the public health emergency, the State House Annex remains closed to visitors. The public may not attend the committee meeting in person but may view the meeting via the New Jersey Legislature home page at https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/.
The Senate Thursday approved legislation sponsored by Senate President Steve Sweeney and Senator Troy Singleton that would help schools and small businesses in New Jersey upgrade their water and ventilation systems to protect the health of students, educators, customers and workers.
The bill, S3033, would establish the School & Small Business Energy Efficiency Stimulus Program within the Board of Public Utilities to provide the resources to ensure that heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems in schools and small businesses are upgraded to improve the health and safety of the environment and to allow safe operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The program will also fund improvements to old, inefficient plumbing fixtures that waste water and energy.
The legislation would create two separate sub-programs to administer the water system improvements and ventilation upgrades. It would allocate 25 percent of the funding for water systems and 75 percent for ventilation / HVAC systems. Further, the bill is expected to create jobs around the state.
The program would be funded by the Societal Benefits Charge, an existing surcharge on the energy bills of New Jersey’s seven investor-owned electric public utilities and gas public utilities, and would make use of other resources. President Biden’s economic relief plan, which includes $130 billion for schools, could be another potential source of funding.
The Senate vote was 24-9. The measure now goes to the Assembly where an identical version, A4819has been referred to the Telecommunications and Utilities Committee.
Bipartisan legislation sponsored by Senator Steve Oroho (R-24) and Senator Paul Sarlo (D-36) that would establish the Government Efficiency and Regulatory Review Commission was cleared by the Senate today and now moves to the Governor’s desk for consideration.
The bill, A-4810/S-441, would improve government efficiency and reduce damaging regulations in the state.
“With the commission’s help, we can ease the impact of restrictive government regulation in the state, something that is desperately needed and long overdue,” said Oroho. “The overwhelming glut of onerous laws and rules are responsible for our State’s reputation as unfriendly to business. By targeting and eliminating the most damaging examples of counter-productive bureaucratic overreach, we can rebuild our competitive edge and restore New Jersey’s position as an economic powerhouse.”
The nine-member Government Efficiency and Regulatory Review Commission established by the legislation would evaluate all proposed and adopted regulations, rules and executive orders. The commission would consider the impact of rules on the economy and determine if their benefits outweigh the burdens placed on business and government.
“Bureaucratic red tape has a stranglehold on the state’s economy, and the situation seems to compound every year,” Oroho noted. “With this bill we can begin unraveling the web of rules, regulations and edicts that discourage business and limit growth.”
The members of the commission, representing the Executive and Legislative branches of State government, would be committed to the goal of addressing the State’s economic viability and prosperity, according to the bill.
The legislation requires the commission to deliver an annual report to the governor and Legislature with recommendations on items to repeal or amend. The findings are advisory only, and cannot be used for legal challenges.
If you liked this post you’ll love our daily newsletter, EnviroPolitics. It’s packed with the latest news, commentary and legislative updates from NJ, PA, NY, Delaware…and beyond. Try it free for an entire month.
FILE PHOTO: Nathan Phillips (C) marches with other protesters out of the main opposition camp against the Dakota Access oil pipeline near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, U.S., February 22, 2017. REUTERS/Terray Sylvester
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Environmentalists and labor unions that threw their support behind U.S. President Joseph Biden now find themselves on the opposite sides of a battle over the construction of big pipeline projects between Canada and the United States.
The United States is the world’s largest producer of oil and gas. Biden’s administration aims to transition the U.S. economy towards net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and his initial moves towards that goal included cancelling a permit for the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline (KXL) and reducing oil-and-gas leasing.
The reaction from Biden’s supporters, however, illustrates the challenge of managing the impact of the energy transition on different communities.
While climate activists celebrated KXL’s demise, labor unions, reeling from the global oil downturn, have mobilized to keep ongoing projects from being derailed.
Mike Knisely, secretary and treasurer of the Ohio State Building and Construction Trades Council, which endorsed Biden, said he has been leaning on state officials to talk to the president about how his rapid-fire climate announcements are affecting his union membership’s support.
“I tell them they need to get back with Biden and ask if this all really has to happen on Day Two of the new administration,” Knisely said. “I just get so frustrated that there’s almost no common ground (on pipelines) with the environmental community.”
Climate groups have had successes in recent years, persuading large investors to reduce holdings in fossil fuel industries, as well as lobbying banks to shun investment in Arctic drilling.
But Biden was endorsed by a number of key labor unions that work on pipelines, refineries and other energy installations, including the International Teamsters and North America’s Building Trades. Those unions celebrated the victory of a pro-labor president, but opposed the Keystone move, and are lining up against threats to the other pipelines.
Environmentalists see Biden as an ally in the battle to wean the United States off fossil fuels and stymie imports of carbon-intensive heavy crude from Canada’s vast oil sands. They are intensifying efforts to shut three other pipelines: Enbridge Inc’s Line 3 and Line 5, and Energy Transfer’s Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL).
Unlike KXL, these three lines are all currently in service. The Enbridge lines deliver crude oil and fuels from Canada, while DAPL sends crude from North Dakota to the Midwest and Gulf Coast.
Legal and regulatory battles threaten all three pipelines.
A White House spokesman said the Biden administration is reviewing a court decision last week that upheld orders for a lengthy environmental review for DAPL. He declined to comment on the two Enbridge pipelines.
Enbridge is more than doubling Line 3’s capacity to 760,000 barrels per day (bpd), a project supported by Minnesota’s Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat.
To be sure, not all unions backed Biden. Phillip Wallace, business representative for Pipeliners Union 798 in Minnesota, said his union, which supported former President Donald Trump, was concerned the new administration may try to stop the project.
“We have got full construction going right now in Minnesota and I am worried that this new administration could throw a monkey wrench in our gears,” Wallace said. His union is planning on rallies to support construction once COVID-19 restrictions ease.
On Friday, environmental protesters halted construction on a Line 3 work site in Minnesota by locking themselves to each other between barrels of concrete, one of several disruptions so far this year that has resulted in dozens of arrests.
“If KXL can’t pass the climate test for Biden, Line 3 certainly can’t,” said Winona LaDuke, executive director of Honor the Earth, an indigenous environmental group.
Read the full story
If you liked this post you’ll love our daily newsletter, EnviroPolitics. It’s packed with the latest news, commentary and legislative updates from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware…and beyond. Try it free for an entire month.
Jessica Marie Watkins, third from left, and Donovan Ray Crowl, center, both from Ohio, march down the east front steps of the U.S. Capitol with the Oath Keepers militia group Jan. 6. (Jim Bourg/Reuters)
U.S. authorities on Friday alleged a broader conspiracy to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 among members and associates of the Oath Keepers, naming six new individuals charged in the case, all of whom appeared to be group members or associates.
One member posted on Facebook that 50 to 100 Oath Keepers planned to attend and that Jan. 6 would be “wild,” echoing then-President Donald Trump’s comment on Twitter rallying supporters to D.C.
A 21-page indictment alleged that the defendants “did knowingly combine, conspire, confederate, and agree with each other and others known and unknown” to force entry to the Capitol and obstruct Congress from certifying the election of Joe Biden as president in riots that led to five deaths and assaults on 139 police.
The nine-person indictment named three already charged military veterans — Jessica Marie Watkins, 38, and Donovan Ray Crowl, 50, both of Woodstock, Ohio, and Thomas E. Caldwell, 66, of Berryville, Va. The six new defendants include siblings Graydon Young, 54, of Englewood, Fla., and Laura Steele, of Thomasville, N.C. It also includes married couples Kelly and Connie Meggs, ages 52 and 59, of Dunnellon, Fla., and Bennie and Sandra Parker, ages 70 and 60, of the Cincinnati area.
On Dec. 22, Kelly Meggs wrote a Facebook message saying that Trump’s comment that Jan. 6 would be “wild” meant he “wants us to make it WILD. . . . He called us all to the Capitol. . . . Gentlemen we are heading to DC,” the indictment alleges.
Meggs added a few days later that there would be “at least” 50 to 100 Oath Keepers in attendance.
Steele allegedly emailed Meggs and Florida Oath Keepers on Jan. 3 at her brother’s suggestion, to expedite her application to join the group to participate in the events on Jan. 5 and 6.
“Trump said It’s gonna be wild!!!!!!! . . . He wants us to make it WILD that’s what he’s saying,” Steele allegedly wrote in an electronic message. “He called us all to the Capitol. . . . !!! SirYesSir!!! Gentlemen we are heading to DC,” the charging document stated.
Prosecutors allege that the group conspired to attend or schedule paramilitary combat training; recruited supporters online; and “coordinat[ed] . . . and join[ed] forces” with members of Oath Keepers and people from other regions to invade the Capitol in military-style camouflage tactical gear and in a single-file “stack” formation.
If you liked this post you’ll love our daily newsletter, EnviroPolitics. It’s packed with the latest news, commentary and legislative updates from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware…and beyond. Try it free for an entire month.
