October, 03 2011, 02:01pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Paul Cort, Earthjustice, (510) 550-6725, pcort@earthjustice.org
Timothy O’Connor, Environmental Defense Fund, (916) 549-8423, toconnor@edf.org
Gordon Nipp, Sierra Club – Bakersfield, (661) 477-1140, gnipp@bak.rr.com
Supreme Court Rejects National Homebuilders Effort to Pollute
Ruling upholds air pollution rule. Conservation Groups Praise Court Victory for San Joaquin Air District
WASHINGTON
The US Supreme Court today rejected an effort by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) seeking to invalidate a landmark regulation in California's San Joaquin Valley to reduce air pollution from new development projects.
The regulation, known as the Indirect Source Rule (ISR) was adopted by the San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District in December 2005 and took effect in March 2006. It requires developers to mitigate pollution from the increased traffic generated by new development. Developers can either incorporate into their projects elements that will minimize these traffic-related emissions such as building near public transit, adding bicycle lanes, or building walkable shopping into the plans, or pay a mitigation fee to the district to be used to purchase off-site emission reductions.
"We were glad to stand with the San Joaquin air district to defend this rule," said Paul Cort an attorney for Earthjustice who participated in the litigation of the issue in the lower courts and filed an opposition to the Homebuilders petition for Supreme Court review. "No special interest should have a free ride in a region where schools and parents are frequently warned to keep children indoors on bad air days."
On June 6, 2007, the National Association of Home Builders filed a challenge in federal district court seeking to invalidate the rule, claiming that only the federal government can regulate these activities. The court rejected the Homebuilders' challenges, finding the indirect source rule an appropriate exercise by the District to address air pollution under the federal Clean Air Act.
The NAHB appealed the decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. On December 7, 2010, the Court rejected the appeal and upheld the District Court decision. On June 16, 2011, NAHB petitioned for review in the Supreme Court.
"The Supreme Court's action supports this common sense regulation to clean up the air in one of the most polluted areas in the country," said Timothy O'Connor of the Environmental Defense Fund. "Now the trade associations will have to follow the lead of the hundreds of California developers who have complied with this pollution-cutting measure."
Gordon Nipp of the Sierra Club's Bakersfield chapter said, "Every sector must do its part to help clean up our air in the San Joaquin Valley, some of the worst in the nation. Agriculture is learning to comply with the federal Clean Air Act, and now the homebuilders will join the fight against air pollution, despite their past legal recalcitrance."
Earthjustice represented Environmental Defense and the Kern-Kaweah (Bakersfield), Tehipite (Fresno), and Mother Lode (Sacramento) Chapters of the Sierra Club in the lower court litigation.
Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the magnificent places, natural resources, and wildlife of this earth, and to defending the right of all people to a healthy environment. We bring about far-reaching change by enforcing and strengthening environmental laws on behalf of hundreds of organizations, coalitions and communities.
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While Bethlehem Holds First Full Christmas Since Genocide Began, Little to Celebrate in Gaza
"This year's celebrations carry a message of hope and resilience for our people and a message to the world that the Palestinian people love peace and life."
Dec 24, 2025
With Gaza's Christian population decimated by Israeli attacks and forced displacement over the past two years, those who remain are taking part in muted Christmas celebrations this week as the West Bank city of Bethlehem displays its tree and holds festivities for the first time since Israel began attacking both Palestinian territories in October 2023.
Middle East Eye reported that while Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, led a Christmas Mass at Holy Family Church in Gaza City on Sunday and baptized the newest young member of the exclave's Christian community, churches in Gaza have been forced this year to keep their celebrations indoors as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have continued its attacks despite a "ceasefire" that Israel and Hamas agreed to in October.
"Churches have suspended all celebrations outside their walls because of the conditions Gaza is going through," Youssef Tarazi, a 31-year-old Palestinian Christian, told MEE. "We are marking the birth of Jesus Christ through prayer inside the church only, but our joy remains incomplete."
"This year, we cannot celebrate while we are still grieving for those killed, including during attacks on churches," Tarazi said. "Nothing feels the same anymore. Many members of our community will not be with us this Christmas."
The IDF, Israeli officials, and leaders in the US and other countries that have backed Israel's assault on Gaza have insisted the military has targeted Hamas and its infrastructure, but Christian churches are among the places—along with schools, refugee camps, hospitals, and other civilian buildings—that have been attacked since 2023.
At least 16 people were killed just days into the war when the IDF struck the Church of Saint Porphyrius, one of the oldest churches in the world. In July, Israel attacked the only Catholic church in Gaza, killing two women and injuring several other people.
Palestinian officials say at least 44 Christians are among more than 71,000 Palestinians who have been killed since Israel began its assault in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack. Some have been killed in airstrikes and sniper attacks while others are among those who have died of illnesses and malnutrition as Israel has enforced a blockade that continues to limit food and medical supplies that are allowed into Gaza.
United Nations experts, international and Israeli human rights groups, and Holocaust experts are among those who have called Israel's assault a genocide, and the International Criminal Court issued a warrant last year for the arrest of Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
George Anton, the director of operations for the Latin patriarchate in Gaza, estimated that the number of Christians killed so far is at least 53, with many dying "because we could not reach hospitals or provide medicine, especially elderly people with chronic illnesses."
In the past, Muslims in Gaza have joined Christian neighbors for the annual lighting of Gaza City's Christmas tree and other festivities, and churches have displayed elaborate lights and decorations in their courtyards for the Christmas season.
"We decorated our homes," Anton told MEE. "Now, many homes are gone. We decorated the streets. Even the streets are gone... There is nothing to celebrate."
"We cannot celebrate while Christians and Muslims alike are mourning devastating losses caused by the war," he added. "For us, the war has not ended."
Hilda Ayad, a volunteer who helped decorate Holy Family Church earlier this month, told Al Jazeera that "we don't have the opportunity to do all the things here in the church, but something better than last year because last year, we didn't celebrate."
“We are trying to be happy from inside.”
Palestinian children are decorating Gaza’s only Catholic church for Christmas celebrations for the first time after 2 years of genocide. Pope Francis used to call the Holy Family Church almost every day until his death. pic.twitter.com/dtCdFjcTyo
— AJ+ (@ajplus) December 24, 2025
About 1,000 Christians, who were mainly Greek Orthodox or Catholic, lived in Gaza before Israel's latest escalation in the exclave began in 2023.
Greek Orthodox Church member Elias al-Jilda and Archbishop Atallah Hanna, head of the church's Sebastia diocese in Jerusalem, told the Washington Post that the population has been reduced by almost half. More than 400 Christians have fled Gaza in the last two years. Those who remain have often sheltered in churches, including the ones that have sustained attacks.
Al-Jilda told the Post that this year's celebrations "will not be full of joy, but it is an attempt to renew life."
In Bethlehem in the West Bank, officials have sought to send a message to the world this Christmas that "peace is the only path in the land of Palestine," Mayor Hanna Hanania told Anadolu Agency.
"This year's celebrations carry a message of hope and resilience for our people and a message to the world that the Palestinian people love peace and life," he said.
At Al Jazeera, Palestinian pastor Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac wrote that "celebrating this season does not mean the war, the genocide, or the structures of apartheid have ended."
"People are still being killed. We are still besieged," he wrote. "Instead, our celebration is an act of resilience—a declaration that we are still here, that Bethlehem remains the capital of Christmas, and that the story this town tells must continue."
"This Christmas, our invitation to the global church—and to Western Christians in particular—is to remember where the story began. To remember that Bethlehem is not a myth but a place where people still live," Isaac continued. "If the Christian world is to honor the meaning of Christmas, it must turn its gaze to Bethlehem—not the imagined one, but the real one, a town whose people today still cry out for justice, dignity, and peace."
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Before Executing 2 Shipwrecked Sailors, US Admiral Consulted Top Military Lawyer: Report
A military spokesperson refused to comment on what the admiral told Congress beyond confirming that "he did inform them that during the strike he sought advice from his lawyer and then made a decision."
Dec 24, 2025
The journalist who initially revealed that President Donald Trump's administration killed shipwrecked survivors of its first known boat bombing reported Tuesday that the admiral in charge consulted with a US military lawyer before ordering another strike on the two alleged drug traffickers who were clinging to debris in the Caribbean Sea.
Just days after Trump announced the September 2 bombing on social media, Intercept journalist Nick Turse exposed the follow-up strike that killed survivors, citing US officials. The attack has sparked fresh alarm in recent weeks, since late November reporting from the Washington Post and CNN that Adm. Frank "Mitch" Bradley ordered the second strike to comply with an alleged spoken directive from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to kill everyone on board, which Hegseth has denied.
After the first strike, "Bradley—then the head of Joint Special Operations Command—sought guidance from his top legal adviser," according to Turse. He interviewed several sources familiar with the admiral's recent classified briefing to Congress, former members of the Judge Advocate General's (JAG) Corps, and ex-colleagues of the JSOC staff judge advocate to whom Bradley turned, Col. Cara Hamaguchi.
As Turse reported:
How exactly [Hamaguchi] responded is not known. But Bradley, according to a lawmaker who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a classified briefing, said that the JSOC staff judge advocate deemed a follow-up strike lawful. In the briefing, Bradley said no one in the room voiced objections before the survivors were killed, according to the lawmaker.
Five people familiar with briefings given by Bradley, including the lawmaker who viewed the video, said that, logically, the survivors must have been waving at the US aircraft flying above them. All interpreted the actions of the men as signaling for help, rescue, or surrender.
Bradley, now the chief of Special Operations Command, declined to comment, the reporter noted. SOCOM also declined to make Hamaguchi available, though the command's director of public affairs, Col. Allie Weiskopf, said: "We are not going to comment on what Admiral Bradley told lawmakers in a classified hearing. He did inform them that during the strike he sought advice from his lawyer and then made a decision."
Tuesday's reporting caught the attention of the former longtime executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), Kenneth Roth, who has stressed that not only is it "blatantly illegal to order criminal suspects to be murdered rather than detained," but "the initial attack was illegal too."
Various other experts and US lawmakers have similarly condemned the dozens of strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean since September—which as of Monday have killed at least 105 people, according to the Trump administration—as "war crimes, murder, or both," as the Former JAGs Working Group put it after the Hegseth reporting last month.
"Extrajudicial executions," declared public interest lawyer Robert Dunham on social media Wednesday, sharing Turse's new report and tagging the groups Amnesty International USA, HRW, and Reprieve US, as well as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and independent experts who report to the UN Human Rights Council.
Those experts on Wednesday rebuked Trump's recent aggression toward Venezuela, including not only the boat strikes but also threats to bomb the South American country and attempts to impose an oil blockade. They said that "the illegal use of force, and threats to use further force at sea and on land, gravely endanger the human right to life and other rights in Venezuela and the region."
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'Merry Christmas!' Declares Trump Moments After Threat to Destroy Broadcasters Who Air Criticism of Him
Trump's latest threat came shortly after he once against lashed out at late-night host Stephen Colbert.
Dec 24, 2025
President Donald Trump sent out a cheery Christmas greeting early Wednesday morning just three minutes after threatening to shut down US broadcasters if their programs did not provide him with more positive coverage.
In a Truth Social post sent out at 12:36 am, Trump renewed his threat to once again strip broadcast licenses from networks that cover or portray him and his administration in a negative light.
"If Network NEWSCASTS, and their Late Night Shows, are almost 100% Negative to President Donald J. Trump, MAGA, and the Republican Party, shouldn’t their very valuable Broadcast Licenses be terminated?" Trump wrote. "I say, YES!"
Just three minutes afterward, at 12:39 am, Trump posted an all-caps message that read, "MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!"
It is unclear what sparked Trump's latest threat, although shortly before it was posted he lashed out at comedian Stephen Colbert, whose time hosting CBS' "The Late Show" is set to end in May 2026.
"Stephen Colbert is a pathetic trainwreck, with no talent or anything else necessary for show business success," he wrote. "Now, after being terminated by CBS, but left out to dry, he has actually gotten worse, along with his nonexistent ratings. Stephen is running on hatred and fumes. A dead man walking! CBS should, 'put him to sleep,' NOW, it is the humanitarian thing to do!"
While Trump frequently delivered angry rants about media coverage throughout his first term, his words appear to be carrying significantly more weight during his second term.
For example, the announcement of Colbert's cancellation raised eyebrows earlier this year because it came shortly before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) signed off on an $8 billion deal for CBS parent company Paramount to be bought by Skydance Media, the company founded by David Ellison, son of Trump ally Larry Ellison.
Weeks after this, Trump-appointed FCC Chairman Brendan Carr threatened to rescind broadcast licenses for Disney-owned ABC unless it took late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, a frequent Trump critic, off the air. Hours after Carr's threat, Kimmel's show was suspended before being put back on the air days later amid a public outcry.
Over the weekend, CBS News boss Bari Weiss spiked a segment on the network's flagship news program "60 Minutes" that cast a critical eye on the Trump administration for sending hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants to a notorious El Salvadoran prison where they were allegedly subjected to abuse and torture.
Weiss' decision to at least temporarily quash the story came as Larry Ellison is making a hostile bid to buy Warner Brothers Discovery that will once again need FCC approval in the future in order to succeed.
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