EnviroPolitics Blog

Italian homes evacuated over risk of Mont Blanc glacier collapse

Roads near Courmayeur closed to tourists because of threat from falling Planpincieux ice

Planpincieux glacier, Mt Blanc massif, 6 Aug 20

Angela Giuffrida in Rome for The Guardian

Homes have been evacuated in Courmayeur in Italy’s Aosta valley, after a renewed warning that a huge portion of a Mont Blanc glacier is at risk of collapse.

The measures were introduced on Wednesday morning after experts from the Fondazione Montagne Sicura (Safe Mountains Foundation) said 500,000 cubic metres of ice was in danger of sliding off the Planpincieux glacier on the Grandes Jorasses park.

Some 65 people, including 50 tourists, have left homes in Val Ferret, the hamlet beneath the glacier. Roads have been closed to traffic and pedestrians.

“We will find [alternative] solutions for residents,” Stefano Miserocchi, the mayor of Courmayeur, told the Italian news agency Ansa. “The tourists will have to find other solutions.”

Glaciologists monitoring Planpincieux say a new section of ice is at risk of collapse. Homes were also evacuated in September last year following a warning that 250,000 cubic meters of ice could fall. The movement of the glacial mass was due to “anomalous temperature trends”, the experts said.

The glacier has been closely monitored since 2013 to detect the speed at which the ice is melting.

In August 2018, a heavy storm unleashed a debris flow, killing an elderly couple when their car was swept from the road that is currently closed.

In the event of a collapse, it would take less than two minutes for the mass to reach the municipal road below.

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Coronavirus hospitalizations and transmission rate lower in NJ

By Brent Johnson | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

New Jersey on Friday reported 12 more deaths attributed to the coronavirus and 384 more positive tests as the state’s hospitalizations dropped dramatically and its rate of transmission fell again but remained above the critical benchmark that shows the virus is expanding.

The Garden State has now announced 15,860 lab-confirmed and probable deaths related to COVID-19, with 184,061 total cases, since the outbreak here began March 4.

Of those deaths, 14,007 are confirmed by lab results, while 1,853 are considered probable.

“I know we’re all getting a little fatigued — I am, too — but we cannot give coronavirus one more inch,” Gov. Phil Murphy said while announcing the new numbers during his latest coronavirus briefing in Trenton. “Let’s keep doing what we need to get our numbers back down, and to get our restart and recovery back moving forward. … Keep wearing your masks, and no house parties.”

Seven of the 12 newly reported deaths Friday happened within the past five days — two on Aug. 2, one on Aug. 4, and four on Aug. 5, Murphy said. Of the rest, three occurred in July and two others before that as state officials continue to examine past deaths to confirm fatalities related to the virus.

Friday marks the 29th straight day New Jersey has reported fewer than 50 new deaths in one day and the seventh straight day it has reported fewer than 15. It also marks the seventh straight day the state has announced fewer than 500 new cases after seeing sudden upticks late last month.

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Court rules House can sue to force ex-White House counsel Don McGahn to comply

By Ann E. Marimow and Spencer S. Hsu Washington Post
August 7, 2020 at 12:00 p.m.

House Democrats can sue to force President Trump’s former White House counsel Donald McGahn to comply with a congressional subpoena, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

In a 7-2 decision, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said the House has a long-standing right to force government officials to testify and produce documents. The ruling came in one of a set of historic clashes between the White House and Democratic lawmakers.

The “effective functioning of the Legislative Branch critically depends on the legislative prerogative to obtain information, and constitutional structure and historical practice support judicial enforcement of congressional subpoenas when necessary,” Judge Judith Rogers wrote for the majority.

The decision is a legal victory for House Democrats, but the ruling does not mean that McGahn will immediately appear on Capitol Hill. The court sent the case back to the initial three-judge panel, which had ruled against the House, to consider McGahn’s other challenges to the subpoena. The timeline makes it unlikely that the case will be resolved before Congress adjourns in January and the subpoena expires.

The opinion also cleared the way for a second House lawsuit, finding that lawmakers have a right to go to court to challenge the Trump administration to block the diversion of billions of dollars to build the president’s signature southern border wall.

White House can subpoena former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify, appeals court rules (CNN)

In response to the rulings in the pair of cases, Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said, “While we strongly disagree with the standing ruling in McGahn, the en banc court properly recognized that we have additional threshold grounds for dismissal of both cases, and we intend to vigorously press those arguments before the panels hearing those cases.”

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Eight new coronavirus deaths and 411 new cases in N.J.

New Jersey’s most recent rate of transmission — a key metric the state is using to determine how to further lift coronavirus restrictions — is 1.32 for the second day in a row, down slightly from 1.41 reported on Tuesday.

By Matt Arco and Brent Johnson NJ.com

New Jersey on Thursday reported eight more deaths attributed to the coronavirus and 411 more positive tests as the state’s rate of transmission decreased slightly again but stayed above the critical benchmark that shows the virus is expanding.

The Garden State has now announced 15,849 lab-confirmed and probable deaths related to COVID-19, with 183,701 total cases, since the outbreak here began March 4.

Of those deaths, 13,996 are confirmed by lab results, while 1,853 are considered probable.

Gov. Phil Murphy announced the new figures on Twitter. He did not hold a public briefing Thursday.

Murphy also did not say when the eight newly reported deaths occurred.

Thursday marks the 28th straight day New Jersey has reported fewer than 50 new deaths in one day and the sixth straight day it has reported fewer than 15. It also marks the sixth straight day the state has announced fewer than 500 new cases after seeing sudden upticks late last month.

New Jersey’s most recent rate of transmission — a key metric the state is using to determine how to further lift coronavirus restrictions — is 1.23, down slightly from 1.32 reported on Wednesday.

The transmission rate hit a four-month high Sunday, at 1.49. That’s well above the key benchmark of 1, which means each new case is leading to more than one additional infection and the virus is spreading.

The rate had been below 1 for weeks during the strictest parts of New Jersey’s coronavirus lockdowns but had fluctuated above and below 1 in July as the state took more reopening steps.

The rate has dropped incrementally each day this week.

But Murphy said Friday the rising rate was “setting off alarms that we take very seriously.” And the most recent spike rate prompted him on Monday to lower limits on indoor gatherings in New Jersey to 25% with a maximum of 25 people, with exceptions for weddings, funerals, and religious and political events. Up to this point, there could be indoor gatherings of up to 25% of a building’s capacity or a maximum of 100 people.

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Alan Dershowitz claims a fictional lawyer defamed him. The implications for novelists are very real.

By Ron Charles Critic, Book World, Washington Post

Alan Dershowitz, who is a real lawyer, claims he has been defamed by Benjamin Dafoe, who is a fictional lawyer.

Hang on, your honor. Things are about to get complicated.

“The Good Fight,” which streams on CBS All Access, frequently revolves around ripped-from-the-headlines events. On May 28, the legal drama aired an episode called “The Gang Discovers Who Killed Jeffrey Epstein,” about the wealthy sex offender who died in prison last year. On the show, Benjamin Dafoe, Epstein’s (fictional) former attorney, says he formed a very bad opinion of Epstein after “he ditched me for Dershowitz.” Then he adds: “At least I didn’t get a massage, like that shyster.”

In a letter sent to CBS and made public by Variety, Dershowitz’s lawyer claims that this episode is defamatory and constitutes “a direct attack on his professional reputation as an attorney and professor of law.” Dershowitz wants CBS to delete the offending dialogue and issue him a public apology.

Is ‘The Good Fight’ worth adding another streaming subscription? Afraid so.

A real-life lawyer for CBS responded with all the pluck and wit you would expect from a character on “The Good Fight.” “Benjamin Dafoe is not a real lawyer,” wrote attorney Jonathan Anschell. “. . . In other words, as one might explain to a small child, the Series, its characters and the things they say are all make-believe. People don’t watch the Series for factual information about Professor Dershowitz or anyone else.”

Dershowitz’s objection to “The Good Fight” may sound like a variant of the strange legal battle that Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) launched last year against a parodic cow on Twitter. But his complaint, if successful, could pose a challenge to the vibrancy of contemporary historical fiction and biographical fiction — indeed, to any creative work that includes interactions between fictional and real-life public figures.

Just this summer, for instance, several prominent writers have published novels that borrow, embellish and manipulate the details of well-known people’s lives. Their stories freely mingle fiction and nonfiction, statements people have said and statements they have never said. There are no footnotes in these novels to distinguish truth from fantasy, research from invention. Those elements are as hard to pick out as the lentils that Cinderella’s stepmother tossed in the ashes. (Note: A lawyer for Cinderella’s stepmother categorically denies that accusation.)

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New York Attorney General files suit to dissolve NRA

Letitia James, one of four Democrats seeking the nomination for state attorney general, speaks to the Times Union editorial board on Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2018, at Times Union in Colonie N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)

Amanda Fries Times Union

New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday said her office was filing a lawsuit to force the dissolution of the National Rifle Association.

James accused of the organization of illegal conduct for diverting millions of dollars from the NRA’s charitable mission to personal use by the organization’s leaders.

https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Breaking-New-York-AG-files-suit-to-dissolve-NRA-15463653.php?utm_campaign=timesunion_breakingnews_20200806&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#photo-16349920

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