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Declaración sobre Autonomía, Democracia Radical y autodeterminación [ English ] [ Español ] [ Français ] [ Português] Redactado en la “Confluencia Global sobre Democracia Radical, Autonomía y Autodeterminación”, Port Edward, Sudáfrica, del 2 al 6 de febrero de 2025. Organizado por el Tejido Global de Alternativas, la Academia de Modernidad Democrática, WoMIN y el Comité de Crisis de Amadiba. Ver AlternativesAlternatives

Declaration on Autonomy, Radical Democracy and Self Determination [ English ] [ Español ] [ Français ] [ Português] Issued at ‘Global Confluence on Radical Democracy, Autonomy and Self-determination’, Port Edward, South Africa, 2-6 February 2025. Organised by Global of Alternatives, Academy of Democratic Modernity, WoMIN, Jineology and the Amadiba Crisis Committee. See alternativesalternativesAlternativesMASSAAlternativesGTAAlternatives

Registered nurses and resident physicians at University of California San Francisco will protest a UC Regents meeting on July 15 to highlight their patient safety concerns about boarding in the emergency department. Combined with existing unsafe staffing, the boarding has created unsafe conditions caused by providing patient care in waiting rooms and hallways.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) today filed formal comments calling on the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to withdraw its sweeping proposed overhaul of the federal grantmaking system, warning that the rule would institutionalize political cronyism across over a trillion in annual public funds, destroy the independence of American science, and threaten the constitutional separation of powers.

The OMB proposed rule would require all discretionary federal awards to “demonstrably advance the President’s policy priorities” and would essentially abandon merit-based federal grantmaking. Specifically, this rule would:

• Require senior political appointees to review most awards before they are issued and allow them to terminate multi-year existing grants at will.
• Explicitly forbid appointees from “deferring to peer reviewers or routinely ratifying their recommendations,” thus leading to funding decisions not based on scientific merit.
• Allow political appointees to bypass public notice requirements for funding opportunities under broad national security interest exemptions that are not defined in the rule.

“This is not a grant reform — it is a blueprint for a spoils system applied to federal science funding,” said Tim Whitehouse, executive director of PEER, noting that this proposed rule arrives at a time when independent oversight mechanisms designed to detect corruption and financial mismanagement have been systematically destroyed or weakened by this administration.

The administration is already targeting grants on important environmental and public health issues that conflict with its political narrative, such as climate science, vaccine safety, chemical safety, and emerging infectious diseases, while it is simultaneously working to steer federal money to political allies such as Elon Musk and family members of the president, according to PEER’s comments.

“Grant money has historically been distributed through programs authorized by Congress using statutory, regulatory, formula-based, or competitive criteria rather than direct tests of political loyalty,” added Whitehouse. “Placing all scientific research funding under the unreviewable discretion of political appointees is not an administrative reform, it is a recipe for corruption on a scale not seen even in this administration.”

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Read the PEER comments

See the OMB proposal

President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order this afternoon shrinking Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah. Sources told ABC4 the signing is planned for 4:30 p.m. Eastern in the Oval Office. A White House official called the reports “pure speculation” in statements to multiple outlets.

This would be the second time Trump has attempted to shrink the two monuments. In 2017, Trump reduced Bears Ears by 85 percent and Grand Staircase-Escalante by nearly half. President Biden restored both monuments in 2021, and lawsuits over Trump’s original cuts remain pending in federal court in Washington, D.C. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals recently allowed a separate Utah lawsuit challenging Biden’s restoration to move forward.

Reducing or eliminating national monuments is a broadly unpopular idea across political parties. “The American people have made it clear over and over again that they want our national monuments protected, not sold out to drilling and mining companies. President Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum would be wise to remember that,” said Center for Western Priorities Executive Director Aaron Weiss in a statement.

A 2024 poll conducted for the Grand Canyon Trust found 71 percent of Utah voters support keeping Bears Ears as a monument, and 74 percent support keeping Grand Staircase-Escalante. Colorado College’s 2026 Conservation in the West poll found 91 percent of Western voters, including 87 percent of Republicans, want existing national monument designations kept in place.

Trump administration finalizes rule weakening endangered species protections

The Interior Department and NOAA Fisheries finalized a rule Friday redefining “harm” under the Endangered Species Act to exclude habitat destruction, reversing a long-standing interpretation. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the change “restores common sense, respects private property, provides much-needed certainty for landowners and follows the statute Congress actually passed,” while critics say it clears the way for oil and gas drilling, mining, and logging on habitat that imperiled species depend on. “For more than four decades, the definition of ‘harm’ recognized a simple truth: if you destroy the places wildlife need to survive, you are putting species on a path to extinction,” said Ben Greuel, wildlife campaign manager at the Sierra Club.

Quick hits Trump expected to shrink Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments

Fox13 | ABC4 | Deseret News | KSL | Backpacker | Heatmap | KMYU | Center for Western Priorities [press release]

Trump administration finalizes rule weakening endangered species protections

Washington Post | Reuters | E&E News | Associated Press | Fox 13 | Los Angeles Times

Park ranger exposes impact of 2025 public lands layoffs

Denver7

Interior proposes to rewrite grazing rules on 155M acres of BLM land

Deseret News

‘L.A. at rush hour.’ ‘Disney World.’ American national parks feeling the strain this summer

CNN

Amid blistering drought, feds tap New Mexico aquifers to build border wall without permits

WBUR

Trump administration clears path for controversial Mojave Desert water pipeline

Los Angeles Times

Opinion: Selling off your off-road trails was never about affordable housing. Mike Lee’s latest vote proves

RideApart

Quote of the day

There’s no money for overtime in a lot of national parks, there’s less people to save people when they get in trouble in national parks. So, less people to come for search and rescues, less law enforcement rangers to respond, less normal rangers to clean bathrooms. It is causing rangers to also have to go outside of their job description, which again is not what we signed up for, but we are public service, and a lot of us will do it because it’s for the greater good of the public.”

—Anonymous park ranger, Denver7

Picture This
@u.s.forestserviceGolden hour? Nah, this is legendary hour.

Coconino National Forest offers a field of sunshine with a side of dramatic skies.

Drop a pin, drop your jaw and hit the trail in your big backyard.

(Forest Service photo by Deborah Lee Soltesz.)

 

Featured photo: Indian Creek at Bears Ears National Monument, Utah. Bob Wick, BLM

The post Trump expected to shrink Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

By KAY MATTHEWS

Editor’s Note: Robin Collier of KCEI radio 90.1 recorded the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) July 7 meeting on the Questa Chevron Superfund site where the Kit Carson Electric Coop’s (KCEC) proposed hydrogen facility will be located. He sent La Jicarita the transcript, which I read and am reporting on in this article. The EPA provided detailed information that I can’t adequately cover in this article, so I’ve focused on the agency’s relationship with Chevron, the company responsible for the clean-up at its former molybdenum mine, and how that may affect the proposed hydrogen facility. Kudos for Robin for recording almost all the community meetings held to discuss this controversial proposal.

Representatives of the EPA (Region 6 based in Dallas), the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED), and New Mexico Minerals and Natural Resource Department introduced themselves and after their presentation on the Chevron Superfund site agreed to take questions. They explained how a situation becomes a Superfund site, when an assessment that contamination is present then leads to what type of contaminants are present and what options are available to clean up that site. Those options are ranked and then a NEPA-like process ensues with a proposed plan presented for public comment. An ROD (Record of Decision) is then released. The Chevron Questa ROD was filed in December of 2010. The Chevron molybdenum facility closed down in 2014.

What followed was a detailed explanation of the risk assessment period that tries to identify risks to human health and the environment at the Superfund site. There was also a lengthy presentation by a representative from the Department of Health who stated that the Town of Questa municipal water system has to meet federal drinking water standards but there is the possibility of future private wells being contaminated. People can request tests of their wells that would provide updated information to the state.

An EPA representative went through the cleanup activities that are being overseen by that agency. The site was divided into five different areas to address the remedy for each one, whether it be the groundwater or the soil that have contamination. The first area was the mill, where the PCB contaminated mining material was removed. At the mine site, there are 300 million tons of waste rock material. These piles of rock were regraded to a slope that’s stable and doesn’t potentially have the ability to move should there be an earthquake or other types of activity. They are then revegetated. Seepage interceptor systems are in place to rout the water away from the waste rock material. There are also groundwater extraction systems, located inside the mine area that handle the water that’s in the underground workings. At the tailings facility the ROD calls for the material to be covered and revegetated. There are also provisions for seepage collection and groundwater extraction. She then discussed what has already been achieved in the clean-up up process, what is next on the agenda, and the various agreements that Chevron has agreed to.

Finally, there was an announcement that a public meeting for the issuance of the Chevron Questa National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit will be held at the VFW in Cerro on July the 23rd.

Public comment then ensued and the moderator quickly got to the heart of the matter with this statement: “ . . . okay, I hear you, are we shilling for Chevron?” People wanted clarification on the EPA’s relationship with Chevron, and who was responsible for the clean-up. The moderator explained that the EPA doesn’t use taxpayer dollars on a clean-up when they have a responsible party “that made the mess and can afford to clean it up.” The EPA does oversee some Superfund sites that break the terms of settlement agreements, but so far, Chevron has been cooperating.

This raised the issue that if KCEC) disturbs the tailings area where the hydrogen facility is proposed, will it be the responsible party. Under the consent decree Chevron is required to provide the EPA with a 60-day notice of intent to lease or sell any land on the Superfund site. There are deed restrictions placed on the property that includes the clause that if the new owner or lessee encounters tailing material on that property, they are to immediately notify Chevron of that. They also have to notify the state and the EPA to further investigate those areas.

A member of the audience then asked if the agencies knew that the Village of Questa had rezoned the tailings area for heavy industrial use. The representative responded that the ROD lists the use as light industrial. She went on, “We don’t have a lot of power over the hydrogen plant unless it messes with our remedy at the tailings facility. And if we find out it’s going to mess with the remedy, EPA has a lot of power.” She made it clear that KCEC never notified the EPA Superfund that it was going to construct the facility and that they have no record that it will occur on the tailing facility. The solar array is not on an actual tailing site, but people asked about dust from the tailings that could blow onto those acres. The EPA position is that it’s not harmful for people to breath that dust.

The NMED is going to investigate whether there are any permits for the solar array that’s currently under construction. They’re now looking to see if in fact Kit Carson has applied for necessary construction permits that are covered under the construction general permit. If someone is disturbing an acre or more, they’re required to submit a notice of intent for coverage under the construction general permit. As a part of the permit, they have to provide a stormwater pollution prevention plan and they have to identify any type of critical species that are identified. EPA will coordinate with NMED on this.

The transcript of this presentation will eventually be on the Chevron Questions website.

 

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By Mariah Meek, Michigan State University and Karrigan Börk, University of California, Davis

It wouldn’t make much sense to prohibit people from shooting a threatened woodpecker while allowing its forest to be cut down, or to bar killing endangered salmon while allowing a dam to dry out their habitat.

But that’s what the Trump administration is doing by changing how one word in the Endangered Species Act is interpreted: harm.

For 50 years, the U.S. government has interpreted the Endangered Species Act as protecting threatened and endangered species from actions that either directly kill them or eliminate their habitat. A new federal rule change, announced July 10, 2026, keeps the first part – protecting against the direct killing of the species – but removes habitat destruction.

That matters, because most species on the brink of extinction are on the Endangered Species list because there is almost no place left for them to live. Their habitats have been paved over, burned or transformed. Habitat protection is essential for their survival.

Green sea turtles, like this hatchling in Florida, are endangered due in part to habitat destruction and fishing nets. Keenan Adams/USFWS

As an ecologist and a law professor, we have spent our entire careers working to understand the law and science of helping imperiled species thrive. We recognize that the rule change could green-light the destruction of protected species’ habitats, making it nearly impossible to protect those endangered species.

The Legal Gambit

The Endangered Species Act, passed in 1973, bans the “take” of “any endangered species of fish or wildlife,” which includes harming protected species.

Since 1975, regulations have defined “harm” to include habitat destruction that kills or injures wildlife. Developers and logging interests challenged that definition in 1995 in a Supreme Court case, Babbitt v. Sweet Home Chapter of Communities for a Great Oregon. However, the court ruled that the definition was reasonable and allowed federal agencies to continue using it.

In short, the law says “take” includes harm, and under the regulatory definition at the time, harm included indirect harm through habitat destruction.

The Trump administration has now changed the definition of “harm” in a way that leaves out habitat modification.

Critical habitat throughout the U.S., including many coastlines and mountain areas. Note: Alaska is not to scale. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

This narrowed definition unravels the most significant protections granted by the Endangered Species Act.

Why Habitat Protection Matters

Habitat protection is the single most important factor in the recovery of endangered species in the United States – far more consequential than curbing direct killing alone.

A 2019 study examining the reasons species were listed as endangered between 1975 and 2017 found that only 17% were primarily threatened by direct killing, such as hunting or poaching. That 17% includes iconic species such as the red wolf, American crocodile, Florida panther and grizzly bear.

In contrast, a staggering 81% were listed because of habitat loss and degradation. The Chinook salmon, island fox, southwestern willow flycatcher, desert tortoise and likely extinct ivory-billed woodpecker are just a few examples. Globally, a 2022 study found that habitat loss threatened more species than all other causes combined.

As natural landscapes are converted to agriculture or taken over by urban sprawl, logging operations and oil and gas exploration, ecosystems become fragmented and the space that species need to survive and reproduce disappears.

The Catalina Island fox is endemic to Catalina Island. Habitat loss, diseases introduced by domestic dogs, and predators have diminished the population of these small foxes to threatened status. Catalina Island Conservancy/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

Currently, more than 107 million acres of land in the U.S. are designated as critical habitat for Endangered Species Act-listed species. Industries and developers have called for changes to the rules for years, arguing it has been weaponized to stop development. However, research shows species worldwide are facing an unprecedented threat from human activities that destroy natural habitat.

Under the new change, development could be accelerated in endangered species’ habitats.

Gutting the Endangered Species Act

The definition change is a quiet way to gut the Endangered Species Act.

It is also fundamentally incompatible with the purpose Congress wrote into the act: “to provide a means whereby the ecosystems upon which endangered species and threatened species depend may be conserved [and] to provide a program for the conservation of such endangered species and threatened species.” It contradicts the Supreme Court precedent, and it would destroy the act’s habitat protections.

The golden-cheeked warbler breeds only in Texas, primarily in Texas Hill Country. It has been losing habitat as development expands in the region. Steve Maslowski/USFWS, CC BY

Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum has argued that the recent “de-extinction” of dire wolves by changing 14 genes in the gray wolf genome means that America need not worry about species protection because technology “can help forge a future where populations are never at risk.”

But altering an existing species to look like an extinct one is both wildly expensive and a paltry substitute for protecting existing species.

The administration has also didn’t conduct the usual analysis of the environmental impact that changing the definition could have. That means the American people won’t even know the significance of this change to threatened and endangered species until it’s too late, though wildlife groups are already planning to sue over the change.

The ESA is Saving Species

Surveys have found the Endangered Species Act is popular with the public, including Republicans. The Center for Biological Diversity estimates that the Endangered Species Act has saved 99% of protected species from extinction since it was created, not just from bullets but also from bulldozers. This regulatory rollback seeks to undermine the law’s greatest strength: protecting the habitats species need to survive.

Congress knew the importance of habitat when it passed the law, and it wrote a definition of “take” that allows the agencies to protect it.

This is an update to an article originally published May 13, 2025.

Mariah Meek, Associate Professor of Integrative Biology, Michigan State University and Karrigan Börk, Professor of Law, University of California, Davis

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The post Harm: How Redefining One Word Strips the Endangered Species Act’s Ability to Protect Vital Habitat appeared first on The Revelator.

Radical Democracy: recovering the roots of self-governance & autonomy Introduction In the face of escalating crises—climate collapse, widening economic inequities, and the entrenched power of neoliberal states—the quest for radical democracy and autonomy has never been more urgent. It is in this convulsing global terrain that the Global alternativesGTAGTAtapestryGTA

Let’s be ecologically and historically honest with ourselves. It’s not a fertilizer crisis we’re facing. It’s a soil health trainwreck brought on by the agricultural inputs industry itself.

In the global debate around food security, climate change, and sustainable agriculture, soil is finally receiving the attention it deserves. For decades, mainstream agriculture and policies around agriculture treated soil as an inert medium, ignoring soil biodiversity, both above and below ground. Understanding of fertility has been exceptionally narrow, with recommendations limited to a small number of nutrients supplied by synthetic fertilizers.

But this model is now showing strain. Across continents, soil has become increasingly degraded by global supply chains that favor monocultures and chemical inputs, perverse public subsidies, and self-serving narratives and advertisements that claim that industrial agriculture feeds the world (even as it ruins our soil). According to the World Atlas of Desertification, 75 percent of the land globally is degraded, with UNESCO warning that 90 percent of the land surface will be degraded by 2050.

Over thousands of years, long before the advent of industrial agriculture, farmers have sought to improve soil to grow nutritious and abundant food. During two days in May 2026, collaborative initiatives from India, Brazil, and Kenya, supported by the Agroecology Fund, shared insights in a conversation circle on soil health management as a climate resilience and food security strategy.

From India, organizations described how farmers they worked with faced soils left sterile by years of heavy chemical input use. Brazil’s Cerrado region, a vast, biodiverse tropical savanna, has been degraded by deforestation and monocultures dependent on the extensive use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. In Kenya, organizations highlighted declining soil fertility and the loss of beneficial organisms caused by hazardous agrochemicals.

These initiatives shared techniques to detect and improve soil biodiversity, including by applying participatory methodologies that value local knowledge. From India to Kenya to Brazil, successful soil restoration is emerging from collaboration between farmers, indigenous practitioners, and researchers.

Steve Vanek, a researcher in soil science at Colorado State University, and partner of the Manor House Agricultural Centre in Kenya, said that when farmer groups discuss the difference between good and poor soils, they often identify characteristics that align closely with scientific indicators. Farmers mention soils that are “easy to plough,” not crusty, rich in earthworms, and darker in color—observations linked to aggregation and organic matter.

In 2022, the Agroecology Fund joined a donor field visit to a diversified coffee farm on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. A foundation’s technical staff inquired about the technologies the farmer applied to measure carbon sequestration. The farmer crouched, scraped soil together with his fingertips, balled it in his palm and said, “this is how we know.”

Scientific research becomes powerful when it helps explain and strengthen farmers’ observations. It becomes more inclusive and accessible when it doesn’t rely on simplistic or reductionist metrics that may be misleading or onerous for farmers to measure.

In Kerala’s Wayanad district, a climate-vulnerable hilly region in southern India, farmers had long grappled with soil erosion, acidity, declining productivity, and the overuse of chemical fertilizers.

In response to this, Thanal Trust, an NGO based in the region and part of the conversation circle, established a local soil testing laboratory, generating soil health cards for farmers, and combining findings with field-level training rooted in agroecological practice. Farmers learned about structure, texture, microbial life, mulching, trap crops, green manures, and intercropping. Thanal invested in the farmer-to-farmer approach, working with a group of farmers—men and women—who became soil management experts, testing and validating the practices, and disseminating them within their communities.

As farmers observed improvements in their soil, they also scaled up traditional engineering practices on their farms, like mud pot irrigation—a traditional practice where water drips through micro-pores of clay pots to maintain moisture exactly where it is needed. Similarly, the practice of husk burial, where coconut husks are buried in trenches, serves to retain moisture and also provide potassium.

Sreelekshmi KJ from Thanal said, “The results were visible not only in yields but also in the soil itself. Organisms such as earthworms reappeared, soil microbes returned, and biodiversity thrived. Fields once described as sterile, lifeless mediums became living laboratories.”

In Kenya, the Manor House Agriculture Centre (MHAC) developed accessible soil health tools that allow farmers to test infiltration, organic matter, and biological activity using low-cost materials.

Vanek, who is a researcher in soil science at Colorado State University, USA, said their work focuses on “the biological and physical aspects as well as some of the major chemical limitations” in smallholder systems while “building based on local knowledge.”

Instead of expensive labs disconnected from communities, MHAC came up with soil health assessment kits for smallholder farmers. These provide simplified methods to test soil health for smallholder farmers, research for development, and citizen science.

The laboratory uses 3D-printed troughs, or even simple sieves made from cardboard and old stockings. With these low-cost methods to measure particulate organic matter, farmers are quantifying the food available for the soil-food web.

These learnings are enhanced through a Farmer Research Network (FRN) supported by the McKnight Foundation, which brings farmers together to diagnose problems, test practices, compare results, and co-produce knowledge. Farmers rank their own soils, identify constraints, and learn simple methods to assess organic matter, infiltration, pH, and biodiversity.

The relationship between scientific research and farming communities is changing in both directions. Farmers are learning from researchers—just as researchers are also learning from farmers.

In Brazil, the Centro Ecologico described partnerships with academics from federal institutes to study soils biologically rather than only chemically.

Joaquim Martins, a family farmer, noted how their approach seeks to understand the vision and perspectives of farming families on soil health while helping strengthen their management practices.

“We conducted a series of interviews with farmers to analyze soils through the lens of their lived experiences, priorities, and local knowledge. The aim was to translate scientific data into the everyday realities of farmers’ lives. It also raises an important question: How can scientific research engage in meaningful dialogue with people’s knowledge systems, and how can we, as scientists, remain self-critical in that process?” he said.

The program has engaged 200 farming families on the northern coast of Rio Grande do Sul, Southern Brazil. It has also involved Indigenous communities, who bring their own traditions of soil care and green manure practices, as well as women farmers who are helping share and strengthen local knowledge across the region.

Researchers applied the BioAS method promoted by the public Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA) to examine respiration, carbon dynamics, and enzyme activity to compare conventional and agroecological systems. But just as importantly, they conducted participatory interviews to understand how families themselves define soil health: porous soils, moisture, insects, worms, easier rooting, and fewer hard crusts.

In other words, scientific research is beginning to respond to farmers’ diverse questions. Some traditional practices long treated as informal are now gaining recognition for their rigor.

Alessandra Karla da Silva from CEDAC, in Brazil, described work on “green nitrogen” produced from Gliricidia sepium biomass, a tree legume capable of fixing atmospheric nitrogen and cycling nutrients through biomass. Researchers from EMBRAPA and farmers supported by CEDAC agroecological center, in a co-creation model, are exploring how it can reduce dependence on synthetic nitrogen fertilizers while maintaining productivity.

These approaches exemplify that the idea is no longer to choose between modern science and traditional wisdom, but rather how to combine them inclusively, intelligently, and effectively.

Simply put, the global soil crisis will not be solved by chemistry and simplistic metrics alone. It requires memory, biodiversity, experimentation, and a trusting collaboration with farmers who know their soils.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Thanal Trust

The post Op-Ed | How Soil Health Is Promoted Through Traditional Knowledge and Modern Science appeared first on Food Tank.

As recently as 2025, human rights advocate and President of Black Class Action Secretariat (BCAS) Nicholas Marcus Thompson (pictured above, centre) has been publicly discussing...

The post Centring equity in the fight for socialism: A hard lesson from the Human Rights Commission  first appeared on Spring.

Sussex County supervisors said they cut the funding for the county’s fire chief and deputy fire chief because they lacked the money to pay for increased fire and emergency medical service in the rural county.

That, Supervisor Thomas Baicy told Checks & Balances Project (C&BP), included contracting with the Stony Creek Volunteer Rescue Squad (SCVRS) run by Sussex Board Chairman Steve White despite concerns raised by the lack of information about SCVRS’ finances.

But Sussex supervisors are currently reviewing proposals that could drastically increase their annual EMS revenues and pay for the services they lack like a professionalized EMS service, which could reduce response times, county records show.

A proposed data center in Sussex County could be one of largest sources of local government revenue in the county’s history. According to an economic impact study prepared by Mangum Economics for the project:

The proposed data center would generate approximately $81.5 million annually in new Sussex County tax revenue once fully built in 2036, including $80.5 million in direct property taxes.

Total private investment is estimated at $17 billion ($5 billion in buildings and infrastructure plus about $12 billion in servers and other equipment installed by the eventual operator). 

The proposed Blackwater solar project would contribute $170 million in local taxes over the 35-year life on the project, developers say. It would provide enough electricity to power 85,000 homes or the proposed data center.

Broken down annually, the solar project alone would contribute approximately $4.9 million to the county budget each year, which would be more than twice the annual amount Sussex County spends on emergency medical services, according to the county’s 2025-26 budget.

County supervisors will meet at 6 p.m., Thursday, July 16 to discuss economic development opportunities and other business. 

Ray Locker is the executive director for Checks & Balances Project, an investigative watchdog blog holding government officials, lobbyists, and corporate management accountable to the public. Funding for C&BP is provided by Renew American Prosperity and individual donors.

You may also want to read:

Sussex supervisor says White drove surprise firing of county administrator

Sussex County Sheriff Ernest Giles Sr. refers C&BP complaint to local prosecutor and state police

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The post Two proposed projects could help Sussex pay bills, boost EMS appeared first on Checks and Balances Project.

Each week, Food Tank is rounding up a few news stories that inspire excitement, infuriation, or curiosity.

USDA Reinstates $127 Million in Land Access Grants

Following a federal court order, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reinstated 24 grants totaling US$127 million under the agency’s Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access Program.

The program was designed to support underserved producers across the U.S. Amanda Koehler, who manages an informal network of the grantees, calls it “the largest public investment in land access in our nation’s history.”

The Trump-Vance Administration undermined the program for months before officially terminating funds for 49 of the 50 projects this past spring. But organizations fought back. Over two dozen joined a lawsuit last year to argue that the awards were canceled illegally.

This past week, Judge Beryl Howell granted a preliminary injunction and wrote that the plaintiffs, represented by Earthjustice, Farmers Justice Center, and FarmSTAND, demonstrated that they will suffer “irreparable harm in the absence of relief.”

Litigation will continue, but in the meantime, the 24 organizations can expect to hear from Farm Service Agency staff about their restored awards, which will support land access, farmer training, and infrastructure and market development projects.

Indian State Passes Bill to Empower Women Farmers

In India, the Maharashtra state Assembly voted unanimously last week to pass the Women Farmers’ Empowerment Bill.

The first of its kind in the country, the legislation aims to broaden the formal recognition of all women farmers, not just those who own land. This will make it easier for women in agriculture to access bank loans, crop insurance, government subsidies, training programs, farming technology, and more.

As a next step, the Bill will be taken up in the Maharashtra Legislative Council. Agriculture Minister Dattatray Bharane is confident that they will adopt it.

Plant-Forward Procurement Can Unlock €11.6 billion in the EU

Plant-forward public procurement practices in the European Union could generate over €11 billion annually, according to a new study commissioned by ProVeg International.

The study looked at the potential impact for three procurement strategies across all 27 EU Member States. Under the most ambitious plan, the total combined returns includes €3 billion in food budget savings, €4.7 billion in avoided environmental costs, and €4 billion in avoided societal health costs.

To unlock the full benefits, the researchers recommend reforming public procurement rules, updating the EU School Scheme to include more legumes and plant-based drinks, investing in skills and training for public catering teams, supporting farmer diversification, and using behavioral insights to make healthier and sustainable choices easier.

ProVeg calls public procurement “a strategic policy lever hiding in plain sight,” which can shape outcomes across public spending, health systems, food security, and climate.

Nigeria’s Hunger Crisis Deepens

The World Food Programme warns that Nigeria’s food security crisis is worsening faster than previously thought.

In the northern region, hunger levels driven by conflict are rising to levels not seen in nearly a decade. Kinday Samba, WFP’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa is particularly concerned by how the crisis is expanding, stating that “insurgent attacks and violence…are spreading across a much wider area and forcing people from farmland.”

Displacement and restrict, WFP can only reach around 740,000 of the 6.2 million people facing food insecurity in the northeastern states. Samba says “resources are at their lowest at the time they are needed most.”

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Unsplash

The post Food Tank’s Weekly News Roundup: India Acts to Empower Women Farmers, $127 Million in USDA Grants Restored, Nigeria’s Hunger Crisis Worsens appeared first on Food Tank.

Checks & Balances Project’s (C&BP) offers to brief state Sen. Lashrecse Aird, Sussex County Commonwealth Attorney Regina Sykes and Sussex County Attorney Danielle Powell on the apparent corruption in Sussex County government have gone unanswered.

In the last three weeks, C&BP has revealed that the county has no policy governing when elected officials should recuse themselves, the Stony Creek Volunteer Rescue Squad (SCVRS) run by Board Chairman Steve White lost its nonprofit status and that White routinely votes to send taxpayer money to SCVRS.

C&BP has also shown that White forced the departures of Fire Chief Nick Sheffield and Deputy Fire Chief Chris Bailey after both raised questions about SCVRS and its relationship to the county. White led the supervisors to remove the funding for Sheffield and Bailey’s positions in a September 2025 special retreat.

Despite these issues, Aird, Sykes and Powell have not responded to offers to learn more about the corruption wracking Sussex County.

Ray Locker is the executive director for Checks & Balances Project, an investigative watchdog blog holding government officials, lobbyists, and corporate management accountable to the public. Funding for C&BP is provided by Renew American Prosperity and individual donors.

You may also want to read:

Sussex supervisor says White drove surprise firing of county administrator

Sussex County Sheriff Ernest Giles Sr. refers C&BP complaint to local prosecutor and state police

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These toys of the ultrarich are environmentally destructive and multiplying fast. They should not exist.

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Tejido Global de Alternativas: Declaración Popular de Bandung [ English ] [ Español ] [ Français ] [ Português] Emitida en la segunda Asamblea presencial celebrada en Bandung, Indonesia, del 11 al 17 de abril de 2026. A los pueblos del mundo y a quienes luchan contra todas y cada una de las formas de opresión e injusticia. A toda la vida, incluidas todas las especies no humanas. A los gobiernos de los Estados-nación del mundo y a las instituciones internacionales.

Global Tapestry of Alternatives: People’s Bandung Declaration [ English ] [ Español ] [ Français ] [ Português] Issued after the second in-person Assembly of the Global of held in Bandung, Indonesia, 11-17 April 2026 To the peoples of the world and to those struggling against any and all forms of oppression and injustices. To all of life, including all non-human species. To the nation-state governments of the world, and to international institutions.TapestryAlternativesalternativesalternati…

Climate change and chronic disease are often treated as separate challenges.

One belongs to environmental policy. The other belongs to healthcare. Different experts study them. Different institutions address them. Different budgets support solutions. But increasingly, both are being shaped by the same system: Food.

Food production contributes substantially to greenhouse-gas emissions (GHGs), land-use change, freshwater use, and biodiversity loss. At the same time, unhealthy dietary patterns are helping drive rising rates of obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other chronic illnesses around the world.

These trends are usually discussed separately. They shouldn’t be.

As a physician and clinical researcher, I spend most of my time studying nutrition and metabolic health rather than climate policy. Recently, my colleagues and I conducted a randomized clinical trial involving people with type 1 diabetes. Participants who adopted a low-fat plant-based diet improved insulin sensitivity, reduced insulin requirements, lost weight, and improved several cardiometabolic measures.

The health benefits were encouraging. But what interested us afterward was a different question. What happened to the environmental footprint of participants’ diets? When we analyzed their dietary records, food-related greenhouse-gas emissions had fallen by more than 50 percent within just 12 weeks.

These findings were not theoretical projections or computer simulations. They reflected the choices of real people living their everyday lives.

One study does not solve the climate crisis. And dietary change alone cannot replace the need for clean energy, transportation reform, or industrial innovation.

But it highlights something important. Food occupies a unique position among climate solutions because it influences both human health and environmental sustainability simultaneously.

The same dietary patterns associated with lower greenhouse-gas emissions are also associated with lower risks of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and premature mortality.

Unlike many climate interventions, food can generate benefits that people experience personally and relatively quickly. Weight may decrease. Blood pressure may improve. Insulin sensitivity can increase. And environmental impacts decline at the same time. That alignment matters.

Many sustainability policies ask people to accept short-term sacrifices for long-term societal gains. Food often works differently. Personal and collective benefits can occur together.

This creates a rare opportunity. But food remains surprisingly underrepresented in many climate conversations. Climate discussions understandably focus on energy, transportation, and industry. Food systems deserve a larger place at the table.

Not because food can solve climate change by itself. It cannot. But because meaningful progress on both climate and public health will require addressing some of the same upstream drivers.

Agricultural policy, food marketing, pricing structures, supply chains, and food access influence what people eat. And what people eat affects not only human health, but the health of ecosystems as well.

Food systems are health systems. For decades, policymakers have treated climate change and chronic disease as separate crises. Increasingly, they appear to be two expressions of the same underlying problem.

That should give us hope. Because solutions that improve both human and planetary health are rare. And in an era of growing urgency, we cannot afford to overlook them.

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Photo courtesy of Ella Olsson, Unsplash

The post Op-Ed | The Food System Is Driving Two Crises at Once—and Could Help Solve Both appeared first on Food Tank.

What better way to mark the 250th anniversary of a nation founded on lofty ideals now plunged into ugly discrepancies than to double down on hate-and-fear-mongering? Cue a Racist-In-Chief who stays silent when 400 masked Nazis march in D.C. but goes online to assail graduating kindergarteners in Minnesota for wearing hijabs - goading his followers in vicious lockstep to dutifully screech, "Deport them, big and small!" Stay classy, MAGA.

Somehow, we still manage to be shocked at how ludicrously low the bar's sunk. Never mind the unhinged May hearing where House Repubs attacked the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), following up on equally unhinged fraud charges, by directly quoting a letter from the same hate groups unhappy they'd been named hate groups. In a blistering response, a Dem rep called out their "embrace of white nationalist rhetoric" with the melted clock from the KKK’s 1983 firebombing of the SPLC, charging, "They’re trying to turn back the clock (on) some of the darkest days of our past.”

Then there's the Kentucky pastor of a Baptist church "befuddled" by this year's backlash against a 30-year-old ritual of their vacation Bible school wherein men in military garb march down their church aisle, pull "sinners" outside to a mock firing squad and pretend to open fire. Pastor Dewayne Walker blamed "misinformation" - "part of what this generation has become" - for outrage at “nothing more than a small part" of their school helpfully aimed at identifying good and evil. Others called the ritual "depraved" and "appalling abuse," noting, "There’s not enough context in the world to make this okay."

Same, alas, for much of what passes these dark days for political discourse. On America's 250th birthday, it was reported, about 400 neo-Nazis from the white nationalist Patriot Front joined the day's tawdry mayhem in D.C. by marching in masks and uniforms - seeking "the menace of a mob with none of the accountability" - chanting "Reclaim America." They looked unsettling enough that many on the right uneasily dismissed them as bad actors or imaginary Antifa; Laura Ingraham sneered, "I call fake," then righteously, nonsensically added, "No one should be allowed to cover their faces."

One image of the day went viral: A lone, young, tense Black woman, sitting on the Metro, surrounded by Nazis. "I have taught this photograph before," wrote a longtime teacher on I Fucking Love Australia, describing the September day in 1957 in Little Rock, AR. when 15-year-old Elizabeth Eckford, trying to integrate Central High School, was stopped by the National Guard. In the image, she walks alone in the white dress her mother had sewn for her first day through a screaming, snarling white mob. Asked for their response, one of today's students inevitably offers, "Look at their faces. They wanted to be seen."

"They believed history would agree with them," notes the teacher. "The men on that Metro" - in their masks and khakis - "did not." In the 1940s and '50s, states in the Jim Crow South passed laws banning masks in public, their nod to the brutal presence of the KKK; even they understood that a man who covers his face is not expressing an opinion - he is issuing a threat. "In 1957, the mob showed their faces because they thought history was on their side. In 2026 they hide their faces because they know it is not," the teacher wrote. "That is not nothing. That is 69 years of progress, measured in cowardice."

There was another, less widely viewed photo from that day on the train. Roswell Encina, a gay Filipino American, came to the US as an infant; his father served in the U.S. Navy. Roswell is head of the non-partisan U.S.Capitol Historical Society; as part of his job, he places replicas of the Declaration of Independence in embassies, stadiums, public places so ordinary people can read it and see it as their own story. The train on the 4th had been full of red, white and blue families heading to the fireworks; when they got off and the Nazis got on, he said the mood felt "unnerving" and he had to "summon my better angels" to stay put.

The group was civil and chatting; he tried not to make eye contact, looked up their patches on his phone, texted friends in a familiar safety ritual to say where he was. Later, neither wearing nor needing a mask, he spoke to reporters, in part to protect the young Black woman whose name was unknown. As a historian, he said he felt reassured unnerving" reassured a photographer was documenting the moment. "Democracy is very fragile," he said. "We need to stay engaged with history, civics, education. History is a conversation, and this is part of it." Then he cited another name and image from that earlier era: Ruby Bridges.

Ruby Bridges was six years old in November 1960 when she walked between federal marshals into her New Orleans school as its first Black student after a federal court ordered schools to integrate; white parents were so outraged they kept their kids home, and Ruby spent the year alone in her classroom. To memorialize the historic day, Norman Rockwell painted her, small and again set between marshals, walking along a stone wall where a member of another mob had scrawled "NIGGER" and thrown a tomato, which oozed down. Rockwell titled the 1964 painting, "The Problem We All Live With."

Ruby was 6. The 20 or so kids who proudly stood and joyfully sang on a stage in St. Paul, Minnesota last month were all five and six. A brief video clip from Somali TV of Minnesota shows them celebrating their kindergarten graduation at Gateway STEM Academy, a public charter school serving about 180 students, many Somali, most with legal immigration status, not that it should matter. They wore small sweet blue robes and caps, with hijabs under their mortarboards and white stoles around their shoulders whose rainbow letters, under a teddy bear, read, "Kindergarten Graduate."

Theirs was one of several school graduations celebrated around the state, and the country. It was the only one spotlighted online by a right-wing account named “End Wokeness,” which in 2024 went viral with the claim Haitian immigrants in Ohio were stealing and eating people’s pets.This time, it posted a photo of the small celebrants with an enraged, "Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab…in kindergarten.” When 400 masked Nazis marched through the nation's capitol on the nation's birthday, the President of the United States said nothing. But hijabs: "He found his voice."

This week, months after he called Minnesota's Somali community "garbage," after vandalism at mosques, women harassed for wearing hijabs, a fire on a school bus at another largely Somali charter school, the ongoing terror of ICE's Metro Surge, he shared the "End Wokeness" post - twice - in hopes of siccing maybe just a modest mob of his 13 million followers, though not the sharpest tools in the shed, on the tiny perps in gowns and terrorist caps. And, oops, when he "pointed at babies," he did not blur their faces, which only takes seconds, and which normal people unthinkingly do to protect babies.

The “anti-human” rhetoric found its mark. From Truth Social, "There are just some cultures that don't belong and for good reason," "I think they have stolen enough money from the US that they can buy their own ticket. I could help them out with a size 13 boot," and "This is the case for literally every single immigrant we unfortunately let in our country. They’re here to take advantage of our system and tell us how great their country is because they can rape their way through the population without consequence," which for damn sure wouldn't happen here in Epstein land, right?

Parents and advocates expressed "shock and horror" at the reckless cruelty of targeting kids in kindergarten. CAIR: Trump "is putting lives at risk (in a) dangerous escalation of religious hatred. Children deserve to feel safe in their schools and communities...to recognize this is their country.” Tim Walz: "The President (is) attacking a group of kindergarteners because of the clothes they wore to school.” A local Imam: "Our children (are) fully part of this state and country. That is the Minnesota we believe in. That is the America we hope for." Educator Ms. Rachel: “Hijabs are beautiful...No matter what we wear, we all belong.”

Online commentators offered, "At least he is attacking his intellectual peers." Outraged parents of kindergarteners protested the insult by noting their kids can "run intellectual circles around that fool," read at higher grade levels, learn new things daily, nicely share without being asked, and are potty-trained. Despite his vast resources, added the teacher at I Fucking Love Australia, he did not find the 60 seconds to at least blur their faces, "Because he was never trying to show you a graduation. He was showing his people where to aim. That is the whole story. Everything else is commentary."

Checks & Balances Project (C&BP) has filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking all records, texts, and other communications related to Sussex County Board of Supervisors Chairman Steve White assuming the role of acting county administrator after he apparently engineered the firing of then-County Administrator Richard Douglas.

According to another supervisor, Douglas’ firing was engineered by White after a surprise closed session during the April 16 board of supervisors meeting, Supervisor Thomas Baicy told C&BP.

By serving as acting county administrator, White is in apparent violation of Virginia law that prohibits elected officials from serving in administrative jobs. And, county administrator positions are typically full-time. White has been employed full-time with the state of Virginia’s Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Services.

This apparent violation of state law is in C&BP complaints filed with Sussex County Commonwealth Attorney Regina Sykes, Sheriff Ernest Giles Sr., the Virginia State Police and Attorney General Jay Jones.

C&BP has filed four Freedom of Information Act requests for the county’s recusal policy, whether any supervisors have recused themselves in the last 25 years, and any records related to Douglas’ firing.

The county has not provided any records sought in those requests as of July 10. An AI-assisted online search suggests that County has no such policy, undercutting the rationale for a delay in providing the policy.

Ray Locker is the executive director for Checks & Balances Project, an investigative watchdog blog holding government officials, lobbyists, and corporate management accountable to the public. Funding for C&BP is provided by Renew American Prosperity and individual donors.

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Sussex supervisor says White drove surprise firing of county administrator

Sussex County Sheriff Ernest Giles Sr. refers C&BP complaint to local prosecutor and state police

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The post C&BP files Freedom of Information Act request seeking documents related to White serving as acting Sussex County administrator appeared first on Checks and Balances Project.