Fattah surrenders to begin serving 10-year prison term

Ex-Congressman Chaka Fattah after sentencing – Jessica Griffin Inquirer photo

Jeremy Roebuck reports for the Philadelphia Inquirer

Chaka Fattah’s new residence on the edge of the Allegheny National Forest doesn’t quite have the charm of the Poconos vacation home he bought in 2012 with help from a $18,000 bribe.

But on Wednesday, the man who represented Philadelphia in Congress for the last two decades moved into a federal prison camp in Lewis Run, McKean County, Pa., to begin serving a 10-year sentence for corruption-related crimes.

Officially, the new abode is known as Federal Correctional Institution-McKean, a medium-security prison with a minimum-security satellite camp, on the New York-Pennsylvania border.

Its 1,200 or so inmates have included Wesley Snipes, who spent two years there for tax evasion, and former Colombo crime family boss Alphonse Persico, who still resides there serving a life sentence.

As Fattah joined their ranks just after 11 a.m., he was assigned a fresh moniker to match his new address: Inmate No. 72340-066.

His arrival put a period on his career as one of the region’s most recognizable political names and the scandal that led to his conviction last year of charges including racketeering, bribery, money laundering, and fraud.

Fattah’s fate had been forecast since December, when U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III imposed Fattah’s sentence, the second longest ever received by a member of Congress, and condemned him for abusing “the trust voters placed in [him] time and time again.”

Still, he resisted up until the last minute.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit denied his request earlier this month to remain free while he challenged his conviction. The White House remained silent on his last-minute bid for a pardon from former president Barack Obama.

Yet in an interview Tuesday with WHYY-FM, Fattah remained upbeat.

“There won’t be a day in my life in which I’m not upbeat,” he said. “I’m not talking about any unusual or unhealthy sort of enjoyment out of my predicament. That’s not my point. My point is that I’m more than capable of dealing with these challenges than most people in our country.”

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CDC abruptly cancels long-planned climate conference

Brady Dennis reports for The Washington Post:
With little warning or explanation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently canceled a major climate change conference that had been scheduled for next month in Atlanta.
The Climate and Health Summit, which had been in the works for months, was intended as a chance for public health officials around the country to learn more about the mounting evidence detailing the risks to human health posed by the changing climate. But CDC officials abruptly canceled the conference the week before President Donald Trump‘s inauguration, sending a terse email to those who had been scheduled to speak at the event. The message did not explain the reason behind the decision.
But one scheduled keynote speaker, Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, said agency officials decided to pre-emptively call off the summit, rather than risk running afoul of an incoming president who has repeatedly called climate change a “hoax” and has nominated climate change skeptics to his Cabinet.
“They ran it up the flagpole and realized that it was so close to the inauguration, the chances of it being canceled were pretty real with the administration that was coming in,” said Benjamin, whose organization was one of the promoters of the event. “Some might argue they should have said, ‘We’re going to do this and make them tell us no.’ But that was the decision they made. We should think of this as a strategic retreat.”
Another scheduled speaker, Edward Maibach, director of the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University, argued that the summit should have gone forward, no matter who had just been sworn in as the next president. He said he fears the move will set a precedent of government officials self-silencing, in part over fears of reprisal or loss of funding, rather than standing behind the established science around climate change.
“I don’t know why they canceled the meeting, but I do know the meeting was important and should have been held. Politics is politics, but protecting the health of our citizens is one of our government’s most important obligations to us,” Maibach said in an email. “Climate change is bad for America, and bad for the world, in so many ways. One of these ways is that it is harming our health, already, and is likely to get much worse over the next few decades unless we take action. As the nation’s public health agency, we need CDC to be fully engaged in protecting our health from climate change.”
“Unfortunately, we are unable to hold the Summit in February 2017,” CDC officials wrote, adding that the agency is “currently exploring” whether it could reschedule the event later in the year.
CDC officials contacted by The Washington Post have not commented about the cancellation, which was first reported by E&E News.
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Trump signs orders reviving two controversial pipelines

Steven Mufson and Juliet Eiperin report for the Washington Post:
President Trump signed executive orders Tuesday clearing the way for the controversial Dakota Access and Keystone XL oil pipelines to move forward, another step in Trump’s effort to dismantle former President Obama’s environmental legacy.
He also signed an executive order to expedite environmental reviews of other infrastructure projects, lamenting the existing “incredibly cumbersome, long, horrible permitting process.”
“The regulatory process in this country has become a tangled up mess,” he said.
It remained unclear how Trump’s order would restart the pipeline projects or expedite environmental reviews. Many of those reviews are statutory and the legislation that created them cannot be swept aside by an executive order.  The White House did not immediately release texts of the orders.
Trump said that both pipeline projects would be subject to renegotiation. In an Oval Office signing before reporters, the president said he would want any new projects to make use of American steel.
“I am very insistent that if we’re going to build pipelines in the United States, the pipe should be made in the United States,” he said.
The orders will have an immediate impact in North Dakota, where the pipeline company Energy Transfer Partners wants to complete the final 1,100-foot piece of the 1,172-mile pipeline route that runs under Lake Oahe. The pipeline would carry oil from the booming shale oil reserves in North Dakota to refineries and pipeline networks in Illinois.
The Standing Rock Sioux tribe and other Native American groups have been protesting the project, which they say would imperil their water supplies and disturb sacred burial and archaeological sites. The Army Corp of Engineers called a halt to the project in December to consider alternative routes.
The executive order from Trump on the Keystone XL pipeline threatens to undo a major decision by President Obama, who said that the project would contribute to climate change because it would carry tar sands crude which is especially greenhouse gas intensive because of the energy it takes to extract the thick crude.
TransCanada, the Calgary-based project owner, has said it would be interested in reviving the pipeline. But it was unclear what Trump’s caution about renegotiation would mean for TransCanada’s plans. Originally, TransCanada had planned to get about 65 percent of the steel pipe from U.S. manufacturers but other supplies from Canada.
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More bad news for journalism in New Jersey


Gannett, the publisher of The (Bergen) Record, the (Passaic) Herald-News, and a chain of weekly newspapers has announced an additional layoff of 141 employees


Anthony G. Attrino reports for NJ.com:

Gannett-owned North Jersey Media Group, which publishes The Record, the Herald News and dozens of weekly newspapers – announced another round of layoffs on Monday.
“By week’s end, 141 employees are to receive notices required by New Jersey and federal law when significant layoffs are planned by private employers,” the company reported in story posted on its website, NorthJersey.com.
Last year, Gannett purchased North Jersey Media Group, acquiring The Record and about 50 community newspapers across North Jersey. 
After the purchase, the company announced about half of the 426 employees working in sales and news could be let go in November. About 130 jobs were eliminated, leaving an editorial staff of just under 200 at North Jersey Media Group.
The company said the latest round of layoffs would occur “across the operation.”

The 121-year-old Record was purchased by the Borg family in 1930 and operated for decades in Hackensack until editorial operations moved to Woodland Park in 2008.

On Monday, the company announced North Jersey Media Group would restructure several departments, calling the move a “major strategic reorganization that was unveiled in September.”

“The aim of that reorganization is to continue to meet the growing digital demands of readers and advertisers while responding to changes in the publishing industry,” the company said in the online post. 


Below is the full Gannett announcement:

North Jersey Media Group announced Monday a restructuring in several of its departments, the latest step in a major strategic reorganization that was unveiled in September.
The aim of that reorganization is to continue to meet the growing digital demands of readers and advertisers while responding to changes in the publishing industry.
The reorganization will result in job losses across the operation. Despite that, North Jersey Media Group — the publisher of The Record, the Herald News of Passaic County, NorthJersey.com, a Community News Group with about 30 weekly newspapers and the (201) magazine group — remains committed to meeting the needs of readers, advertisers and communities across North Jersey.
It comes at a highly transformative time for the media industry, especially publishers with large print portfolios.
“We remain committed to transforming the North Jersey Media Group into a digital powerhouse in response to the unprecedented change sweeping throughout our industry,” said Nancy A. Meyer, president of NJMG, which was purchased in July by Gannett Co. Inc. “Our top priority is serving our readers, advertisers and communities across North Jersey — not just today, tomorrow or next month, but for years to come. The difficult actions we’re announcing today will enable us to continue building on our strong foundation and enable us to continue to deliver award-winning journalism and highly effective sales and marketing solutions to the region.”
By week’s end, 141 employees are to receive notices required by New Jersey and federal law when significant layoffs are planned by private employers.
In September 2016, North Jersey Media Group unveiled a consolidation of its three separate content divisions. Blended with an expanded digital team, the moves made NJMG one of the largest newsrooms in New York City’s metro market.
Gannett Co. Inc., the nation’s largest news publisher and creator of the USA TODAY NETWORK, purchased North Jersey Media Group in July 2016 from the Borg family.
Gannett already owns the Asbury Park Press and six other dailies in the state. The acquisition made it the largest local media operator in New Jersey. Even with Monday’s announcement, the NJMG newsroom remains one of Gannett’s largest.
“We are proud to be North Jersey’s No. 1 local news source,” Meyer said. “We are confident today’s actions will position us to remain that content and advertising leader while putting us in an even stronger financial position.”

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Beach protection case: Rocks vs. sand at Jersey Shore

Associated Press story by Wayne Parry:

BAY HEAD, N.J. (AP) — Oceanfront homeowners in this wealthy New Jersey shore enclave have so little faith in the government’s ability to protect them from catastrophic storms that they’ve spent $5 million of their own money on boulders placed between their homes and the ocean.

Members of the group, which includes a national Republican fundraising powerhouse, wants a judge to exempt them from a plan by Republican Gov. Chris Christie to erect protective sand dunes along New Jersey’s entire 127-mile coastline. Their homes lie in an area that was devastated by Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

But they claim that parts of the town that had a rock wall underneath the sand fared better than those that didn’t. And they are deeply skeptical of the ability and willingness of the federal and state governments to pay to maintain the dunes for the next 50 years.

On Feb. 6, they will go before the same Superior Court Judge who has already ruled in favor of Christie’s administration. Judge Marlene Lynch Ford ruled last year that the state Department of Environmental Protection has the legal right to use eminent domain proceedings to seize strips of land from oceanfront homeowners who don’t voluntarily sign easements allowing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to carry out the work on their land.

The homeowners want her to allow them to opt out of the project, asserting that what they have done privately offers as much protection, if not more, than what the government proposes.

“We already have sand twice as big as what they say we need, with rocks underneath it,” said Thacher Brown, a leader of the group. He estimated about 18 homeowners paid for the bulk of the rock wall, but noted that more than 100 residents contributed to it, including those who don’t live on the ocean.

“I’m a firm believer that no rational, intelligent person can look at the two options — a big pile of rocks and a big pile of sand — and not see that ours is better,” said resident Bob Hein.

Read the full story here


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House Republicans are determined to undo regulations

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarty (Reuters photo)

This story by Elizabeth Shogren, from the Jan 22, 2017 of Grist, was originally published by High Country News. Depending upon which side of the Trump Divide you are, it likely will thrill or chill you.  Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment box below the post.

In 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Interior Department’s argument that the Endangered Species Act protects rare species’ habitat, not just the animals themselves. The court’s decision in Sweet Home vs. Babbitt was key to preserving broad stretches of old-growth forest for the northern spotted owl, an action that contributed to the collapse of the Northwest timber industry. 


The justices relied in large part on the principle that courts defer to federal agencies as long as their regulations reasonably interpret laws. They cited Chevron, a 1984 Clean Air Act case that for three decades has made it easier for agencies to win when regulations are challenged.
So it’s not surprising that House Republicans are determined to undo Chevron — part of their ambitious legislative blitz to change the way government works. In the first weeks of the new legislative session, they easily passed three bills that would make it easier to repeal President Barack Obama’s recent regulations, including one aimed at curbing greenhouse gases, and give the courts and Congress more authority to block new ones. 
This is far from tinkering around the edges: The bills already passed by the House envision huge changes to the 1946 Administrative Procedures Act, the basic rule book for how federal agencies implement laws. Agencies have broad authority to propose and establish regulations without congressional approval, but under one of the current bills, the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act, new regulations could not go into effect without that approval. 
Under the Regulatory Accountability Act, which also would undo Chevron, all court challenges would have to be exhausted before new regulations went into effect. 
The Midnight Rules Relief Act would make it easier for Congress to overturn Obama’s regulations. Currently, under the rarely used Congressional Review Act, Congress has 60 legislative days to reject a rule but must debate each one for up to 10 hours, limiting the number that lawmakers have time to invalidate. The Midnight Rules Relief Act would let Congress lump multiple rules together and eliminate them en masse. “These proposals would in major ways upend that long-standing consensus and make it very hard for agencies to solve problems and protect Americans,” says William Buzbee, professor at Georgetown University Law Center.
Revamping government is exactly what House Republicans hope to do, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told Washington’s conservative Hoover Institution in mid-January. “I’m a firm believer that structure dictates behavior,” he says. “You have to get the structure right. Otherwise, you’ll get the same behavior and outcome as it goes forward.”
Going after Chevron, he says, is “key” to reestablishing three coequal branches of government and lifting the burden rules put on the economy. And requiring Congress to approve any major regulation, as the REINS Act does, would give the people a “voice,” he adds, because their elected representatives, not “bureaucrats,” would get the final say.
Starting at the end of January, the House plans to begin undoing Obama administration regulations, including Bureau of Land Management rules to better protect streams from surface coal mining and reduce methane leaks from oil and gas fields on public land, McCarthy says. Under the Congressional Review Act, only 51 votes in the Senate are needed to do so.
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