June, 14 2012, 03:27pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Tel: (520) 623.5252,Email:,center@biologicaldiversity.org
Lawsuit Challenges Second Massive Newhall Ranch "Village"
Sprawling Development in Floodplain Would Devastate Wildlife Habitat, Hurt Cultural Resources
LOS ANGELES
Five public-interest groups sued Los Angeles County in superior court on Wednesday over its approval of permits for the second phase of the sprawling Newhall Ranch development -- Mission Village. The Newhall Ranch development, conceived in the 1980s as one of the largest single residential development projects ever contemplated in California, is archaic and out of step with contemporary urban planning.
The project is intended to eventually include 60,000 housing units -- the size of a mid-size city -- including development in the floodplain along the Santa Clara River, the last mostly free-flowing river left in Los Angeles County. The sprawling project threatens endangered species and natural areas and will bury many of the river's tributaries.
The lawsuit -- brought by the California Native Plant Society, Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Santa Clara River, Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment (SCOPE) and Wishtoyo Foundation and its Ventura Coastkeeper program -- challenges the legality of the county's approval process in order to protect the rare plant, animal, cultural resources and water quality.
The plan approved by the county on May 15 will develop open space that is home to endangered species in and along the Santa Clara river; eliminate habitat for the highly endangered San Fernando Valley spineflower; harm California condor habitat; and unearth and desecrate American Indian burial sites, sacred places and cultural natural resources.
"Decades have passed, planning principles have shifted and improved, and yet the county has failed to incorporate contemporary planning principles into this dinosaur of a project," said David Magney with the California Native Plant Society. "As a result, rare plants, including the San Fernando Valley spineflower, are going to be needlessly bulldozed and replaced by more strip malls, parking lots and houses no one can afford."
"It's unimaginable that L.A. County is so reckless with the last free-flowing river in the region," said Ron Bottorff with the Friends of the Santa Clara River. "Southern California has paved over and lost all but 3 percent of its historic river woodlands, yet these are resources are key to protecting our precious water."
The Santa Clara River Valley is home to a great diversity of very rare species, among them the unarmored threespine stickleback fish, California condor, least Bell's vireo, southwestern willow flycatcher, California red-legged frog, arroyo toad, southern steelhead trout and San Fernando Valley spineflower. Wildlands of the Santa Clara River provides a full accounting of rare environmental resources of this precious landscape.
"Developing in endangered species habitat pushes rare plants and animals to the brink of extinction," said Ileene Anderson, a biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. "These days, smart planning protects them instead of destroying their habitat."
Los Angeles County approved an overall plan for the Newhall Ranch development more than a decade ago. Approval of this second phase, called Mission Village, follows just months after the county approved the first phase, Landmark Village. Northern Los Angeles County is already plagued by high foreclosure rates and thousands of permitted housing units that have not been built. Financial bankruptcy by the development's previous investors cost California's public pension fund more than $970 million of state employees' retirement. New investors are out-of-state hedge fund managers with no interest in California's rich natural legacy.
"Before a single house has been built, Newhall Ranch has already cost California's taxpayers and workforce, including the county's own staff, nearly a billion dollars of lost pension funds," said Lynne Plambeck, president of the Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment. "Although the state will never recover any of the largest single loss ever suffered by CalPERS, and will spend millions more in public monies to build roads, bridges and other infrastructure to serve this project, the county has once again endorsed this same development that will threaten the region's water supply, worsen air pollution and cause further gridlock on our highways."
"The project will impart irreversible impacts to the ecological integrity and water quality of the Santa Clara River watershed and Ventura's coastal waters, harming the wellbeing of watershed residents and visitors for years to come," said Jason Weiner, associate director and staff attorney for the Wishtoyo Foundation's Ventura Coastkeeper Program.
"The impacts to hundreds upon hundreds of our burial sites, and natural cultural resources such as the California condor that are such a vital component of our culture and religious practices, will be devastating and irreversible," said Mati Waiya, a Chumash ceremonial elder and executive director of the Wishtoyo Foundation.
"Mission Village contains a former oil field now proposed for housing. Project information on toxic contamination was substantially changed at the very last minute just prior to the county's approval," said attorney Dean Wallraff. "Tetrachloroethene (PCE) contamination was discovered on the old oil field but the public was not given a chance to review any of this data in the review process, which is a violation of law."
At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.
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AOC Pleads for Biden to End Israel Aid Amid 'Unfolding Genocide' in Gaza
"The time is now to force compliance with U.S. law and the standards of humanity."
Mar 22, 2024
Progressive Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to the House floor Friday to demand a suspension of U.S. military aid to Israel as it wages a genocidal war on Gaza and deliberately starves Palestinians to death in the besieged enclave.
"As we speak, in this moment, 1.1 million innocents in Gaza are at famine's door. A famine that is being intentionally precipitated through the blocking of food and global humanitarian assistance by leaders in the Israeli government," Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said during her speech. "This is a mass starvation of people, engineered and orchestrated following the killing of another 30,000, 70% of whom were women and children."
"If you want to know what an unfolding genocide looks like, open your eyes," she continued. "It looks like the forced famine of 1.1 million innocents. It looks like thousands of children eating grass as their bodies consume themselves, while trucks of food are slowed and halted just miles away. It looks like good and decent people who do nothing. Or too little. Too late."
"As we speak, in this moment, 1.1 million innocents in Gaza are at famine's door."
Noting that much of the death and devastation in Gaza was "accomplished with U.S. resources and weapons," the congresswoman pointed out that "it is against United States law to provide weapons to forces who block United States humanitarian assistance."
"That is exactly what is happening right now," she said. "So much so that the president himself stated, during the State of the Union, that the United States must and will be building its own port to let aid through. It will be too late."
"The time is now to force compliance with U.S. law and the standards of humanity," the lawmaker asserted. "And fulfill our obligations to the American people to suspend the transfer of U.S. weapons to the Israeli government in order to stop and prevent further atrocity."
There is no world in which the forced famine of 1.1 million people cannot be considered genocide. And that is exactly what we are watching unfold in Gaza now.
We must enforce U.S. laws and halt weapons transfers to the Israeli government to stop an atrocity in the making. pic.twitter.com/N40Jk3yKc7
— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@RepAOC) March 22, 2024
Ocasio-Cortez related that "a decent man" once said: "'Preventing genocide is an achievable goal, a goal that requires a level of government organization and engagement that matches in its intensity the brutality and efficiency required to carry out mass killing. Too often, these efforts have come too late, after the best and least costly opportunities to prevent them have been missed.'"
"The man who said that was then-Vice President and now President Joseph Biden," she revealed. "And he was right."
Ocasio-Cortez was referring to a 2011 speech during which Biden told an audience at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum that "when a state engages in atrocity, it forfeits its sovereignty."
This, as U.S. troops were committing atrocities while violating the sovereignty of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia as the Obama administration continued and expanded the so-called War on Terror launched after 9/11 by then-President George W. Bush.
"This is not just about Israel or Gaza. This is about us," Ocasio-Cortez added. "The world will never be the same. And we will never be the same. And we must write our story in this moment, of what it means and who we are as Americans. And our story must be not that we were good men who did nothing. But that we were a committed democracy that did something."
Ocasio-Cortez's plea came as her House colleagues voted 286-134 on Friday to extend U.S. sanctions on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) until March 2025, while authorizing another $3.8 billion in military aid to Israel. Ocasio-Cortez was one of just 22 House Democrats to vote against the measure, which also authorizes more than $1 trillion in spending on U.S. militarization.
Responding to unfounded Israeli claims—reportedly resulting from torture—that 12 of UNRWA's more than 13,000 workers in Gaza took part in the October 7 attacks on Israel, the U.S. and more than a dozen other countries suspended funding for the lifesaving agency, even as famine loomed amid Israel's relentless bombardment and siege. Numerous nations have since reinstated financing for UNRWA, most recently Finland on Friday.
The Biden administration—which is seeking an additional $14.3 billion in military aid for Israel—continues to support the country's war on Gaza even as evidence mounts that the key ally is violating an International Court of Justice order to avoid genocidal acts. However, the administration has ramped up its criticism of Israeli war crimes, with Biden imploring the Israel Defense Forces to stop its "indiscriminate bombing" of civilians and Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week asserting that "children should not be dying of malnutrition in Gaza."
"It's time for the president to bring real leverage to bear, in accordance with existing U.S. law, and suspend military assistance to Israel."
But they are dying, and critics say U.S. humanitarian airdrops and construction of an aid port are essentially meaningless as long as Washington also continues to back Israel's genocidal onslaught. And now the world is watching as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his far-right government vow to invade Rafah, where around 1.5 million Palestinians—the vast majority of them refugees forcibly expelled from other parts of Gaza—are sheltering.
"The Biden administration has rightly been sounding the alarm about the threatened Israeli incursion into Rafah, and the looming famine resulting from Israel's indiscriminate war on Gaza," said Matt Duss, executive vice president of the Center for International Policy. "But the devastating last five months have shown the limits of the power of words."
"It's time for the president to bring real leverage to bear, in accordance with existing U.S. law, and suspend military assistance to Israel," Duss added. "We applaud Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez's courageous call today for President Biden to do that."
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Russia Says 40 Killed in Fiery Attack on Concert Hall Near Moscow
While the attack comes over two years into Russia's war on Ukraine, an adviser for the Ukrainian president said the neighboring nation "certainly has nothing to do with the shooting/explosions in the Crocus City Hall."
Mar 22, 2024
This is a developing story… Please check back for possible updates...
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack in which at least dozens of people were killed and wounded when individuals reportedly armed with automatic weapons opened fire at Crocus City Hall, a concert venue in suburban Moscow, Russia.
"According to preliminary data, as a result of the terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall building 40 people were killed and over 100 were injured," Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said in a statement reported by TASS.
Citing eyewitnesses, the Russian news agency reported that the group of unidentified men "armed with assault rifles went on a shooting spree in the lobby and then inside the concert hall just before a concert by the rock band Picnic."
As The Moscow Timesdetailed:
According to a journalist who was at Crocus City Hall during the attack, a grenade or an incendiary bomb was thrown after the shooting broke out and caused a fire.
"People in the hall were lying down on the floor to escape from the shooting, lying between 15 and 20 minutes, after which they began to crawl out. Many managed to get out," the unnamed journalist was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti.
The attack comes on the heels of Russian President Vladimir Putin's contested reelection and over two years into Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has received weapons support from around the world, including the United States.
In a lengthy social media post, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said that "Ukraine certainly has nothing to do with the shooting/explosions in the Crocus City Hall."
"There is not the slightest doubt that the events in the Moscow suburbs will contribute to a sharp increase in military propaganda, accelerated militarization, expanded mobilization, and, ultimately, the scaling up of the war," Podolyak added. "And also to justify manifest genocidal strikes against the civilian population of Ukraine."
According toThe Guardian, John Kirby, the White House national security spokesperson, told reporters that "there's no indication at this time that Ukraine, or Ukrainians were involved in the shooting... We're taking a look at it, but I would disabuse you at this early hour of any connection to Ukraine."
Asked whether the attack signals cracks in Putin's regime, Kirby said that "there are people in Moscow and in Russia that object to the way Mr. Putin is governing the country, but I don't think we, at this early hour, can make a link between the shopping mall attack and political motivations. I think... we just need more time and we need to learn more information."
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Just 22 House Dems Oppose Bill That Bars UNRWA Funding While Giving Billions to Israel
"Our elected leaders are funding Palestinian death," said one advocacy group.
Mar 22, 2024
The House of Representatives on Friday approved a sprawling government spending package that prohibits U.S. funding for the United Nations' Palestinian refugee agency for at least a year and hands Israel billions of dollars in unconditional military assistance, even as the country massacres and starves Gaza civilians.
The 1,012-page legislation passed in a 286-134 vote, with 112 Republicans and just 22 Democrats opposing the bill. All but one of the bill's Democratic opponents are members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC).
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chair of the CPC, said in a statement after voting against the measure that she is "very concerned that this package continues funding for the Netanyahu government with no conditions, while at the same time prohibiting funding" for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)
"For decades, UNRWA has played a unique and integral role in supporting the welfare and survival of Palestinians in several countries," said Jayapal. "Humanitarian aid in the region is already severely restricted. Implementing a prohibition on UNRWA funding is irresponsible and unacceptable. As the largest contributor of funding to Israel, we should use our funding leverage to demand that humanitarian aid enter Gaza and that we have a lasting cease-fire and a return of all hostages."
In a
social media post ahead of Friday's vote, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) announced his intention to "vote no on this bill that bans aid to children in Gaza who are dying of hunger."
"Forget the politics and procedural jargon," Khanna wrote. "This is a test of first principles. The America I believe in must never be indifferent to the man-made starvation of children."
The legislation now heads to the Senate, which must pass the bill by Friday night to avert a partial government shutdown.
"Instead of banning funding for UNRWA, the U.S. should restore its aid to Gaza and halt weapons transfers to the Israeli military. No more money for massacre."
If passed and signed into law by President Joe Biden, the measure would bar the U.S. from resuming funding for UNRWA until at least March 25, 2025. The Biden administration and other Western governments suspended donations to UNRWA in January after Israel accused a dozen of the agency's 13,000 Gaza employees of taking part in the October 7 Hamas-led attack—allegations it has not substantiated.
While Canada, Finland, and other countries have since resumed funding for UNRWA, the U.S. has kept its contributions frozen as famine spreads rapidly in Gaza. The territory's entire population is facing "high levels of acute food insecurity," according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.
By including such a provision in must-pass government funding legislation, Congress is "further deepening U.S. complicity in Israel's starvation of Palestinian children," said Josh Ruebner, an adjunct lecturer at Georgetown University and the former policy director of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights.
While barring U.S. funding for the primary humanitarian relief agency in Gaza, the measure includes $3.8 billion in military support for Israel, whose forces have used
U.S.-made weaponry to commit atrocities against civilians in the Palestinian enclave.
As Security Policy Reform Institute co-founder Stephen Semler pointed out, the bill also prohibits U.S. funding for the United Nations commission that is investigating potential war crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel.
The House just passed a bill that cements genocide as official US policy. The legislation gives Israel $3.8 billion in weapons, sanctions UNRWA as Palestinians starve, and defunds a UN investigation into Israel's violations of international law.
All but 22 Democrats voted for it pic.twitter.com/8q9xaMVeJI
— Stephen Semler (@stephensemler) March 22, 2024
IfNotNow, an American Jewish group that campaigns for Palestinian rights, said in response to Friday's vote that "our elected leaders are funding Palestinian death."
"It's unsurprising that the GOP is working to ban funding for UNRWA while the Israeli military massacres and starves Palestinians in Gaza with U.S. financial and diplomatic backing," the group said. "It's unconscionable that so many Democrats are joining them."
"Instead of banning funding for UNRWA, the U.S. should restore its aid to Gaza and halt weapons transfers to the Israeli military," IfNotNow added. "No more money for massacre."
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