EnviroPolitics Blog

Opinion: NJ move against party boss fails. Will the system ever change?

By Charles Stile, NorthJersey.com

On Wednesday, state Superior Court Judge Peter E. Warshaw Jr. tossed out the entire indictment against South Jersey Democratic party boss George Norcross and several allies. It was a slam-dunk rejection to state Attorney General Matt Platkin’s sweeping case, which Democratic Party activists and progressives had hoped would serve as the long-sought breakthrough, a building block for lasting reform.

Platkin’s response to ruling:

“After years in which the U.S. Supreme Court has consistently cut back on federal public corruption law, and at a time in which the federal government is refusing to tackle corruption, it has never been more important for state officials to take corruption head on. But I have never promised that these cases would be easy, because too many have come to view corruption as simply the way the powerful do business in New Jersey.”

Now the unsettling question for the progressive activists who challenged the Democratic machine in Camden, Norcross’s base of political and community operations, and for the neighborhood residents who fought for redress and recognition in the shadow of office buildings rising along the Delaware River, is this: Will New Jersey’s corroded system ever change?

Certainly, lawmakers who owe their very careers to the boss-dominated system can’t be counted on to dismantle it.

And if not the courts, then who?

Read the full story here

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Panama Canal Approves Reservoir Project to Secure Water Supply After Historic Drought

Photo credit: Flystock/Shutterstock

By Mike Schuler, gCaptain

The Panama Canal Board of Directors has approved critical funding for the construction of a new reservoir in the Rio Indio basin, marking a significant step toward ensuring water security for both the vital waterway and the country’s population.

Resolution No. ACP-JD-RM 25-1542 allocates resources for the project, which aims to increase water storage capacity in response to challenges posed by extreme weather events like the severe 2023-2024 drought that forced the Canal to implement draft restrictions and reduce daily transits.

“The project is part of the comprehensive solution to Panama’s water problem as it increases water storage capacity and is therefore preparation for future droughts,” according to official documentation from the Panama Canal Authority.

The Rio Indio initiative forms a critical component of the broader Water Projects Program designed to guarantee water availability for more than half of Panama’s population, nearby communities, and ongoing Canal operations.

Construction is expected to span approximately six years, positioning the project as “one of the most important public investments of the present decade” with significant implications for national job creation and economic growth.

The resolution includes comprehensive provisions for affected communities, allocating funds for compensation, resettlement, and support for families and property owners impacted by the development. Canal officials emphasize that this process will adhere to international best practices for social and environmental standards while ensuring informed community participation.

Read the full story here

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PFAS levels in this NJ community could be nation’s highest

By Michael Sol Warren, NJ Spotlight News

A private well at the heart of a pollution hot spot in Warren County has levels of toxic “forever chemicals” that appear to be the highest recorded in New Jersey and among the highest ever seen in the nation.

Records from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection show that a drinking water sample from a private well at a self-storage facility in the area of South Lincoln Avenue in Washington Township had a total concentration of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — PFAS — of 18,997 parts per trillion. The sample was pulled from the well on June 13, 2023.

PFAS, often called forever chemicals, are a family of thousands of chemicals used for decades in a variety of applications and are now a widespread pollution problem around the world. The chemicals are incredibly durable, which makes them very useful but also means they are very difficult to break down. PFAS have been linked to serious health problems, including cancer and birth defects.

New Jersey has drinking water standards for three of the most common PFAS: perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA). Those regulations set a maximum level of 14 parts per trillion for PFOA and 13 parts per trillion for both PFOS and PFNA.

Well contamination at the storage facility dwarfed those standards, with PFOS at 8,350 parts per trillion, PFOA at 5,950 parts per trillion and PFNA at 354 parts per trillion. Other PFAS, which remain unregulated, were also found in the well.

What sparked the investigation

Read the full story here

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DOGE barrels toward the most widespread round of firings yet

Records show a Labor Department component that enforces equal employment opportunity laws is developing a plan to reduce its workforce by 90 percent.

By Emily Davies, Jeff Stein and Hannah Natanson, Washington Post, February 26 2025

Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service is barreling toward a fresh round of firings, preparing to strike entire categories of jobs from the federal workforce as it escalates the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the bureaucracy.

The General Services Administration told its staff in an email that terminations are imminent. Social Security Administration leadership is under instruction to swiftly produce plans to cut its staff by half, according to two employees at the agency who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.And an office within the Labor Department that enforces equal employment opportunity laws is developing a plan to reduce its workforce by 90 percent, an internal document shows.

Meanwhile, leaders of some agencies have received a list of federal leases being terminated, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post, upending return-to-work plans and potentially leading to attrition.

Read the full story here

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She Lobbied for a Carcinogen. Now She’s Approving New Chemicals at the EPA

Aerial vied of the curved, colonnaded facade of the Environmental Protection Agency building. — *The Environmental Protection Agency in Washington. Dr. Dekleva runs an office that has the authority to approve new chemicals for use. Credit…Eric Lee/The New York Times*

Lynn Dekleva, who recently took a senior role at the agency, once led an aggressive effort by industry to block regulations on formaldehyde.

By Hiroko Tabuchi, New York Times Feb. 26, 2025, 5:02 a.m. ET

Formaldehyde, the chemical of choice for undertakers and embalmers, is also used in products like furniture and clothes. But it can also cause cancer and severe respiratory problems. So, in 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency began a new effort to regulate it.

The chemicals industry fought back with an intensity that astonished even seasoned agency officials. Its campaign was led by Lynn Dekleva, then a lobbyist at the American Chemistry Council, an industry group that spends millions of dollars on government lobbying.

Dr. Dekleva is now at the E.P.A. in a crucial job: She runs an office that has the authority to approve new chemicals for use. Earlier she spent 32 years at Dupont, the chemical maker, before joining the E.P.A. in the first Trump administration.

Her most recent employer, the chemicals lobbying group, has made reversing the Environmental Protection Agency’s course on formaldehyde a priority and is pushing to abolish a program under which the agency assess the risks of chemicals to human health. In recent weeks it has urged the agency to discard its work on formaldehyde entirely and start from scratch in assessing the risks.

Read the full story here

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George Norcross, allies, beat NJ corruption charges

Prosecutors will appeal judge’s dismissal

Prosecutors had alleged Democratic power broker George Norcross and his allies were guilty of extortion and more, but the judge overseeing the case said their actions did not violate the law. (Photo by Hal Brown for New Jersey Monitor)

By Nikita Biryukov – February 26, 2025 12:07 pm

A Superior Court judge on Wednesday dismissed all charges lodged in a racketeering indictment against Democratic power broker George Norcross and others, finding the indictment failed to state the elements of a crime.

Prosecutors had alleged Democratic power broker George Norcross and his allies were guilty of extortion and more, but the judge overseeing the case said their actions did not violate the law. (Photo by Hal Brown for New Jersey Monitor)

Judge Peter Warshaw’s dismissal comes just over a month after he heard oral arguments in which attorneys for Norcross and five others charged in the alleged conspiracy argued the case must be dismissed because prosecutors had failed to name criminal conduct in their indictment.

“The indictment must be dismissed because its factual allegations do not constitute extortion or criminal coercion as a matter of law,” the judge wrote in his order to dismiss the charges.

Prosecutors had accused Norcross and others of leveraging Camden government and the threat of reputational harm to strong-arm Philadelphia-based developer Carl Dranoff into ceding development rights and to oust Anthony Perno, the former CEO of the nonprofit Cooper’s Ferry, now called Camden Community Partnership.

Charges against former Camden Mayor Dana Redd, NFI CEO Sidney Brown, Michaels Organization CEO John O’Donnell, and attorneys Philip Norcross (George Norcross’ brother) and Bill Tambussi were likewise dismissed.

Because Warshaw dismissed the case without prejudice, prosecutors can appeal the decision. Attorney General Matt Platkin said he intends to do just that.

Read the full story here

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Opinion: NJ move against party boss fails. Will the system ever change?

Panama Canal Approves Reservoir Project to Secure Water Supply After Historic Drought

Photo credit: Flystock/Shutterstock

PFAS levels in this NJ community could be nation’s highest

DOGE barrels toward the most widespread round of firings yet

Records show a Labor Department component that enforces equal employment opportunity laws is developing a plan to reduce its workforce by 90 percent.

She Lobbied for a Carcinogen. Now She’s Approving New Chemicals at the EPA

Lynn Dekleva, who recently took a senior role at the agency, once led an aggressive effort by industry to block regulations on formaldehyde.

George Norcross, allies, beat NJ corruption charges

Prosecutors will appeal judge’s dismissal

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