Public Policy
News releases, reports, statements and associated documents from public policy organizations whose goal it is to influence the debate Washington.
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Trump Axes Research Into Health Effects of Mountaintop Coal Removal
CHARLESTON, W.Va., Aug. 21 -- The Sierra Club issued the following news release:
Donald Trump late last week instructed the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to cease all work on studying of public health effects of mountaintop removal coal mining - threatening the lives of thousands of people living near mine sites in Appalachia and across the country.
In response, Bill Price, Senior Appalachia Organizing Representative for Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign:
"It's infuriating that Trump would halt this study on the health effects of mountaintop removal coal mining,
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CHARLESTON, W.Va., Aug. 21 -- The Sierra Club issued the following news release:
Donald Trump late last week instructed the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to cease all work on studying of public health effects of mountaintop removal coal mining - threatening the lives of thousands of people living near mine sites in Appalachia and across the country.
In response, Bill Price, Senior Appalachia Organizing Representative for Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign:
"It's infuriating that Trump would halt this study on the health effects of mountaintop removal coal mining,research that people in Appalachia have been demanding for years. Trump has once again shown the people of Appalachia that we mean nothing to him. From his proposed budget cuts to Appalachian Regional Commission, to pushing to take away healthcare from thousands of Appalachian people, and now stripping doctors and scientists of the ability to warn us about the health effects of mountaintop coal removal, Trump's showing that he's only been pretending to care about our communities.
"What did we ever do to him? Everyone knows there are major health risks living near mountaintop coal removal sites, but communities living with daily health threats were counting on finally getting the full story from the professionals at the National Academies of Science. To take that away without warning or adequate reason is beyond heartless. It appears that the only people Trump cares about in Appalachia are coal executives, not the people who've lived and worked here for generations. People here trusted him, but he is proving he didn't deserve that trust.
Mat Staver Responds to 'Hate Labels'
ORLANDO, Fla., Aug. 21 -- Liberty Counsel issued the following news release:
Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty, responds to the recent "hate label" from the Southern Poverty Law Center and calls for prayer and healing in a country divided.
Staver says, "As a pastor before becoming an attorney, my heart then and now is for hurting people. Liberty Counsel is a peaceful Christian ministry that opposes violence. We believe that each person is created in the image of God and each one should be treated with dignity and respect. Differences of opinion is no cause for violence or hatred. I
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ORLANDO, Fla., Aug. 21 -- Liberty Counsel issued the following news release:
Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty, responds to the recent "hate label" from the Southern Poverty Law Center and calls for prayer and healing in a country divided.
Staver says, "As a pastor before becoming an attorney, my heart then and now is for hurting people. Liberty Counsel is a peaceful Christian ministry that opposes violence. We believe that each person is created in the image of God and each one should be treated with dignity and respect. Differences of opinion is no cause for violence or hatred. Ihave previously condemned the violence in Charlottesville perpetrated by KKK and white supremacist groups.
"We must not allow the seeds of the Holocaust or the violence against people of color to take root again in America. But instead of speaking with a united voice against violence and hatred, the Southern Poverty Law Center and some irresponsible media have falsely included some Christian, pro-family, or conservative groups with real hate groups like the KKK. This false labeling is defamatory and dangerous. Moreover, this false label is exploiting a serious situation to push a self-interested political agenda. This must stop! We need to come together to speak against hatred and violence. I urge everyone to pray for the healing of our nation."
Watch his entire message here: Mat Staver Responds to Hate Labels (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kEBXw5aY8g)
Lawsuit Challenges Destructive Delta Tunnels Project in California
SACRAMENTO, Calif., Aug. 21 -- The Center for Biological Diversity issued the following news release:
A coalition of conservation groups today sued the California Department of Water Resources over its approval of the controversial Delta tunnels project.
The lawsuit was filed in Sacramento Superior Court by AquAlliance, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, California Water Impact Network, Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Food Safety, Friends of the River, Friends of Stone Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Planning and Conservation League, Restore the Delta, Save Our Sandhill
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SACRAMENTO, Calif., Aug. 21 -- The Center for Biological Diversity issued the following news release:
A coalition of conservation groups today sued the California Department of Water Resources over its approval of the controversial Delta tunnels project.
The lawsuit was filed in Sacramento Superior Court by AquAlliance, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, California Water Impact Network, Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Food Safety, Friends of the River, Friends of Stone Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Planning and Conservation League, Restore the Delta, Save Our SandhillCranes and Sierra Club California.
"Once again Big Ag in the San Joaquin Valley has come begging for more corporate welfare," said Adam Keats, a senior attorney at the Center for Food Safety. "Only this time it's at an obscene scale, with tens of billions of dollars to be pilfered from the people's pockets, an entire ecosystem driven to collapse, and incredible harm caused to the Delta farming economy and California's sustainable salmon fishery."
The suit challenges the proposal to build two 35-mile-long tunnels to siphon water from the Sacramento River and San Francisco Bay-Delta to send to Southern California, which could cost up to $67 billion. The project would increase extinction risk for several endangered species and potentially devastate Delta farmers, Sacramento Valley communities and fishermen throughout the region.
"This project no doubt sets the all-time record for the combination of environmental destruction and economic waste threatened by a single California public-works project," said Bob Wright, senior counsel for Friends of the River.
The project's approval violates the state's environmental review law, as well as laws and policies intended to fairly allocate water resources and preserve salmon and other natural resources. The agency's flawed and misleading environmental impact report for the project failed to consider alternatives to building the tunnels.
"The environmental impact report is an 80,000 page omelet of distortion and half-truth pretending that massive water diversions won't harm this severely degraded estuary," said Bill Jennings of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance. "The Delta has already been deprived of most of its natural flow. This project would push native fisheries into extinction and significantly diminish the quality of water to farmers, municipalities and the environment."
The Department's project approval is one of a number of hurdles the tunnels project must clear before construction. The county of Sacramento and cities of Antioch and Stockton filed separate lawsuits last week against the state water department's approval. Conservation and fishing groups have already filed two lawsuits challenging flawed federal Endangered Species Act permits for tunnel construction. Challenges are likely against issuance of state endangered species permits, the inadequate federal environmental review, additional permits from federal wildlife agencies, wetlands fill permits and water-rights changes.
"Californians aren't going to sit back and let this multibillion-dollar boondoggle destroy the Bay-Delta ecosystem and what's left of our salmon runs," said Jeff Miller at the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups suing. "This Southern California water grab would be an economic and ecological nightmare for everyone."
The two giant Delta tunnels, both expected to be as wide as a four-story building is tall, would withdraw enormous amounts of freshwater from the Sacramento River to pumping plants in the South Delta. The tunnels could divert up to 15,000 cubic feet per second, on top of diversions from the existing Delta pumping facilities of the Central Valley Project and State Water Project.
"DWR's project won't create new water, but will create huge environmental and economic damage," said Kathryn Phillips, director of Sierra Club California. "It's irresponsible for the agency to not consider alternatives that are more responsible."
The water diversions would significantly degrade environmental conditions in the Delta by reducing flows, increasing salinity, damaging the food web and promoting harmful algal blooms. They would prevent flows needed for fish habitat and water quality, during critical life stages for protected fish species including chinook salmon, steelhead trout, green sturgeon, and delta and longfin smelt. Transmission lines associated with the tunnels project are also likely to harm and kill greater sandhill cranes, in violation of California's "fully protected species" statutes.
Background
The complaint states that the project approval violates the California Environmental Quality Act, Delta Reform Act, California's "Fully Protected Species" statutes and California Public Trust Doctrine.
The Department of Water Resources ignored project alternatives even though the California Environmental Quality Act requires consideration of a range of reasonable alternatives, and conservation groups repeatedly called for analyses of alternatives that would increase freshwater flows and reduce water system reliance on Delta water through recycling, conservation and water use efficiency. Despite demands from the public that a new environmental review be prepared, the Department certified the flawed review and approved the project on July 21, 2017.
The 2009 Delta Reform Act mandated state water-policy reforms intended to solve the decades-long conflict over California's water resources and saving endangered salmon runs. The tunnels project violates the Act's "coequal goals" of providing a more reliable water supply while protecting the Bay-Delta ecosystem. A required conservation plan has been abandoned, and the tunnels are now simply a water diversion project.
The state's water department has never attempted to determine the water flows necessary to recover the Delta ecosystem. The Act prohibits construction of new Delta water conveyance facilities unless the beneficiary water users pay for all costs, but it was recently revealed that the tunnels would require a $6.5 billion taxpayer subsidy. The Department concealed its own economic analysis showing that a subsidy would be required.
Federal Court Allows ACLU Lawsuit Challenging Civil Asset Forfeiture to Proceed--a Win in the Fight Against Policing for Profit
PHOENIX, Aug. 21 -- The American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona issued the following news release:
On Friday, a federal court ruled that a far-reaching lawsuit challenging the profit motive at the core of Arizona's civil asset forfeiture law can move forward because the plaintiff has properly asserted that policing for profit violates her constitutional rights.
The ACLU, the ACLU of Arizona, and the law firm Perkins Coie filed the case against the Pinal County Sheriff, the Pinal County Attorney, and other Pinal County officials for their enforcement of Arizona's civil asset forfeiture laws.
Arizona
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PHOENIX, Aug. 21 -- The American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona issued the following news release:
On Friday, a federal court ruled that a far-reaching lawsuit challenging the profit motive at the core of Arizona's civil asset forfeiture law can move forward because the plaintiff has properly asserted that policing for profit violates her constitutional rights.
The ACLU, the ACLU of Arizona, and the law firm Perkins Coie filed the case against the Pinal County Sheriff, the Pinal County Attorney, and other Pinal County officials for their enforcement of Arizona's civil asset forfeiture laws.
Arizonalaw allows law enforcement to seize -- and then keep or sell -- property they allege is involved in a crime. Owners need not ever be charged with or convicted of a crime for their cash, cars, or even real estate to be taken away permanently by the government.
In this case, Pinal County law enforcement used this unconstitutional scheme against Rhonda Cox, an innocent county resident, to seize and keep her truck. Ms. Cox sued, arguing that the policing for profit law violates her due process rights and seeking to prevent the sheriff and county attorney from enforcing the law against her ever again. U.S. District Court Judge Diane Humetewa, formerly the top federal prosecutor in Arizona, ruled Friday that the claims at the heart of Ms. Cox's case will move forward, even though the defendants sought to have the whole case thrown out of court.
"For too long, Arizona's civil asset forfeiture laws have motivated law enforcement officials to line their pockets rather than fight crime," said Emma Andersson, staff attorney with the ACLU's Criminal Law Reform Project. "The court's order is a huge step towards protecting our client from this perverse system that is fundamentally incompatible with the right to have due process before the government can deprive you of your property."
"The court's ruling pointed to numerous specific pieces of evidence offered in Ms. Cox's lawsuit that show the unconstitutional profit motive inherent in Arizona's forfeiture laws - a motive that has long corrupted the work of law enforcement in our state," said Jean-Jacques Cabou, a partner at Perkins Coie in Phoenix. "We're confident that our upcoming discovery will reveal even more about these unconstitutional laws and the practice of policing for profit in Arizona."
Explicitly rejecting defendants' arguments that Ms. Cox's lawsuit failed to properly allege that county officials did anything legally wrong, Judge Humetewa cited several documents filed by Ms. Cox that "[b]olster" the argument forfeiture laws provide a financial incentive for law enforcement. For example, the order notes that "[a]n excerpt from a forfeiture training stat[es] 'when your bosses can't find any money in their budget they get depressed. When they get depressed they tell you to start doing forfeiture cases ... When you feel like a winner you go back to your jurisdiction and just start seizing everything in sight.'" The order also notes that Ms. Cox "specifically identified how defendant Voyles used the forfeiture proceeds ... to fund 'pet projects' including many that provide[d] favorable exposure to him amongst his [former] constituents."
Judge Humetewa recognized that U.S. Supreme Court precedent "implie[s] that there is a limit" "'on a financial or personal interest of one who performs a prosecutorial function,'" and she concluded that Ms. Cox's "complaint sets out a plausible claim for violation of her due process rights in the enforcement of the Arizona forfeiture statutes because Defendants have a financial incentive to zealously enforce the forfeiture laws."
Boston Residents Rally for Protection of Marine Monuments Threatened by Trump Administration
BOSTON, Aug. 21 -- The Sierra Club issued the following news release:
Today, Boston residents joined with multiple advocacy groups to stress threats to the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Marine Monument. The event came just days before Zinke's final monument recommendations--which is putting marine and public lands monuments on the chopping block. Recently, Zinke signaled threats to land and cultural sites in other states and is considering revamping a plan for oil extraction off of coasts. Today's attendees were a part of over 2.7 million who offered public comment on the review--98%
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BOSTON, Aug. 21 -- The Sierra Club issued the following news release:
Today, Boston residents joined with multiple advocacy groups to stress threats to the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Marine Monument. The event came just days before Zinke's final monument recommendations--which is putting marine and public lands monuments on the chopping block. Recently, Zinke signaled threats to land and cultural sites in other states and is considering revamping a plan for oil extraction off of coasts. Today's attendees were a part of over 2.7 million who offered public comment on the review--98%which supported keeping protections for public lands and marine monuments.
In response, Jacob Stern Organizer at Sierra Club Massachusetts Chapter issued the following statement:
"Once again, Boston residents urged Zinke to protect public lands and marine spaces, keeping them open for the public-- not closed for offshore drilling and other destructive activities.
"Northeast Canyons and Seamounts is the lifeline for a ton of ocean life and endangered sea corals but their protection is under threat twofold: proposed drilling off the East Coast and this unprecedented review and threat to erase this marine monument.
"This administration's efforts to remove critical land and wildlife protections is part of an extreme political agenda which is detrimental to our communities, this region's economy, and sealife."
Approximately $22.6 Million Raised by Global Impact for Its Members Through Workplace Giving Campaigns in Fiscal Year 2017
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 21 -- Global Impact issued the following news release:
Global Impact, whose mission is to build partnerships and resources for the world's most vulnerable people, announced today that it raised approximately $22.6 million in fiscal year 2017 (July 1, 2016 - June 30, 2017) for its charity alliance of more than 100 international relief and development charities. These organizations are working on the front lines every day providing food, shelter, health care, education and other essential services to millions of people around the world.
Collectively, Global Impact charity
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ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 21 -- Global Impact issued the following news release:
Global Impact, whose mission is to build partnerships and resources for the world's most vulnerable people, announced today that it raised approximately $22.6 million in fiscal year 2017 (July 1, 2016 - June 30, 2017) for its charity alliance of more than 100 international relief and development charities. These organizations are working on the front lines every day providing food, shelter, health care, education and other essential services to millions of people around the world.
Collectively, Global Impact charityalliance members have continued to see growth in revenues generated through workplace giving campaigns and other initiatives. This success is attributed to Global Impact's fundraising strategy, as well as the great work of its charity partners, and private sector companies that are choosing to partner with Global Impact to raise awareness of global issues and charities as part of a larger corporate initiative to engage employees in creating greater social impact.
Currently, Global Impact raises much needed unrestricted funding through more than 300 private and public sector workplace giving campaigns with organizations such as Accenture, TIAA, American Express, Wells Fargo and the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC).
Global Impact has also developed a number of High Impact Funds and specific disaster funds, for example the Africa Famine Relief Fund, that have helped raise money for charities focused on pressing issues that are most important to donors. "We are continually seeking new ways to promote our charity alliance members and engage donors in the work they are doing," said Joseph Mettimano, Global Impact vice president of marketing and campaign engagement. "It is an honor to work on behalf of these great charitable organizations and see interest growing by enlightened companies that understand the connection between creating employee satisfaction and opportunities for increased social impact within their workforces."
Charity alliance partners range from renowned organizations with worldwide reach to nonprofits providing essential services on a regional scale. Rigorous membership standards ensure that each organization practices sound financial management and effective program delivery. Global Impact's eight new charity partners for the 2017 campaigns are:
* Agora Partnerships, striving to accelerate the shift to a more sustainable, equitable and abundant world that supports entrepreneurs intentionally working to create social impact.
* EcoHealth Alliance, leading cutting-edge research into the critical connections between human and wildlife health and delicate ecosystems.
* Global Health Council, supporting and connecting advocates, implementers and stakeholders around global health priorities worldwide and acting as the collaborative voice of the global health community.
* Human Rights Watch, defending the rights of people worldwide. Scrupulously investigating abuses, exposing the facts widely, and pressuring those with power to respect rights and secure justice.
* Interaction, acting as a platform for global change, a pathway to global progress.
* Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon, helping women access preventive care and treatment for cervical and breast cancers where the need is greatest.
* Seed Programs International, providing quality vegetable seed, expertise, and training resources to help impoverished people become self-sufficient and healthy.
* ZanaAfrica Foundation, supporting adolescent girls in Kenya to stay in school by delivering reproductive health education and sanitary pads.
ACLU of New Mexico Issues Statement in Response to Charlottesville
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., Aug. 21 -- The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico issued the following statement by Peter Simonson, Executive Director on Charlottesville:
"Throughout its history, the ACLU has been a fierce defender of the First Amendment right to free speech and has often stood in defense of the free speech rights of groups whose ideas it opposes. Our commitment to the First Amendment is unabated and we will continue to defend free speech, even when that speech is controversial. However, the recent surge of white nationalism and white supremacy and the events in Charlottesville,
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., Aug. 21 -- The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico issued the following statement by Peter Simonson, Executive Director on Charlottesville:
"Throughout its history, the ACLU has been a fierce defender of the First Amendment right to free speech and has often stood in defense of the free speech rights of groups whose ideas it opposes. Our commitment to the First Amendment is unabated and we will continue to defend free speech, even when that speech is controversial. However, the recent surge of white nationalism and white supremacy and the events in Charlottesville,VA have prompted us to reflect on how we choose to spend our limited legal resources.
The white nationalist groups that assembled in Charlottesville have made clear with word and deed that their aim is not merely to express a political viewpoint, but also to use intimidation and terror to smother the voices of communities that historically have been oppressed. Although these groups cloak themselves in the rhetoric of free speech, the protections granted by the First Amendment never were meant to be a sword for those who act with malice or a shield to protect those who seek to inflict harm. The ACLU of New Mexico will not devote its resources to defending people who use violence to advocate their beliefs.
Furthermore, the ACLU of New Mexico remains committed to combatting white supremacy and institutional racism in all areas of our work. We will continue fighting against biased and militarized policing, a criminal justice system that unfairly targets communities of color, and an immigration enforcement system that tears hard-working families apart. We believe in a diverse and vibrant New Mexico where all of our communities are treated with dignity, respect, and equal justice under the law."
