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For Immediate Release
August, 24 2016, 01:45pm EDT
Contact:
Email:,communications@environmentamerica.org
On the Eve of National Park Centennial, Environment America Doubles Down on effort for Greater Grand Canyon Heritage National Monument
To celebrate the National Park Service centennial, Environment America touted a nationwide campaign calling on President Obama to stop new uranium mining by creating a new National Monument surrounding America's most iconic national park: the Grand Canyon.
More than 40 organizers are on the ground in cities across Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada, gathering petitions and rallying small business support for creating the Greater Grand Canyon Heritage National Monument.
Phoenix, Ariz.
With Environment America, you protect the places that all of us love and promote core environmental values, such as clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, and clean energy to power our lives. We're a national network of 29 state environmental groups with members and supporters in every state. Together, we focus on timely, targeted action that wins tangible improvements in the quality of our environment and our lives.
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'What Tyranny Looks Like': Democracy Defenders Slam Trump DOJ's Indictment of NY AG James
"This isn't justice," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. "It's revenge. And it should horrify every American who believes no one is above the law.”
Oct 09, 2025
Critics sounded the alarm Thursday after the US Department of Justice indicted Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James—who successfully prosecuted President Donald Trump for financial crimes—for alleged bank fraud in what democracy defenders called the president's latest weaponization of the DOJ against a political foe.
Days after another prosecutor in Virginia resisted intense pressure from Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi and declined to pursue charges against James, US Attorney of the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan—a former personal attorney for Trump whom the president appointed to her lifetime seat despite having never prosecuted a case—indicted James for allegedly defrauding a bank and making false statements to a financial institution.
"This is nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system," James said in response to the news. "I am not fearful—I am fearless. We will fight these baseless charges aggressively, and my office will continue to fiercely protect New Yorkers and their rights."
This is nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system.I am not fearful — I am fearless. We will fight these baseless charges aggressively, and my office will continue to fiercely protect New Yorkers and their rights..
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— New York Attorney General Letitia James (@newyorkstateag.bsky.social) October 9, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in response to the indictment: "This is what tyranny looks like. President Trump is using the Justice Department as his personal attack dog, targeting Attorney General Tish James for the ‘crime’ of prosecuting him for fraud—and winning."
“One US attorney already refused this case," Schumer added. "So, Trump handpicked an unqualified hack that would go after another political enemy. This isn't justice. It's revenge. And it should horrify every American who believes no one is above the law.”
Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) said on social media that the Trump administration is targeting James "for one reason: She had the courage to hold Donald Trump accountable."
"This is political weaponization of our courts, plain and simple—and proof that when you stand up to corruption, they come for you," she added. "I stand with Attorney General Letitia James. This attack won’t silence the truth."
Trump Wants the Nobel Peace Prize for War, Insurrection, and Indicting Letitia James with @mehdirhasan.bsky.social A desperate Trump is attempting to distract from the Epstein Files by indicting Letitia James and declaring war on American critics.thelefthook.substack.com/p/trump-want...
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— Wajahat Ali (@wajali.bsky.social) October 9, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Politico reported that James' case has been assigned to Judge Jamar Walker, an appointee of former President Joe Biden.
Halligan recently filed criminal charges against former FBI Director James Comey—who oversaw investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election and potential ties to Trump's campaign—for allegedly making a false statement to Congress and obstruction of a congressional proceeding.
Critics accuse Trump of signaling to Bondi his wish for her to go after some of his political enemies, who in addition to James and Comey include Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who led the first House impeachment trial of the president. Following Comey's indictment, Trump vowed that "there'll be others."
Trump forced out Erik Siebert, Halligan’s predecessor, amid his refusal to indict Comey or file charges against James, who in 2022 filed a civil lawsuit against the then-former president, his two eldest sons, and the Trump Organization for business fraud. Trump and his organization were found liable for fraud and ordered to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties, although an appeals court later overturned the fine while upholding the fraud findings.
Last month, the DOJ subpoenaed James as part of a probe into whether she violated Trump’s civil rights by suing him, his sons, and his business.
In addition to Democratic lawmakers, pro-democracy campaigners also slammed Thursday's indictment, with Stand Up America executive director Christina Harvey contending that "this is revenge and another dangerous abuse of power."
"Just days after prosecuting James Comey, Trump’s Justice Department pursued charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James in a thinly veiled act of retaliation for defeating Trump in court," Harvey added. “Americans do not want our president using taxpayer-funded prosecutors and law enforcement to exact revenge. If prosecutors can't even do their jobs without facing prosecution themselves, none of us are safe from Trump's overreach.”
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, said in a statement:
Yet again, the vengeful Donald Trump has demanded the perversion of justice, this time with the vindictive charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James. Yet again, career prosecutors have recommended against bringing criminal charges. Yet again, only an interim US attorney who previously served as Trump’s personal lawyer was willing to seek the indictment.
Attorney General James will defend herself from these unjust charges and continue to do her job. But this prosecution is directed not only against Letitia James, but all Americans. No one should fear criminal prosecution because they stand up to Donald Trump.
“The government should be for the people," Gilbert added. "It should serve justice and law and regular Americans. It should not be distorted to serve the vindictive revenge effort of a single man. Even if that man is the president and the president thinks he is a king.”
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Millions of US Families Could Soon Go Hungry Thanks to Trump-GOP Government Shutdown
"Trump and congressional Republicans have driven America headfirst into a government shutdown," said one campaigner. "It is poor women and children who will feel the impacts first and worst."
Oct 09, 2025
A federal food program serving vulnerable women and children could run out of money next week due to the Republican government shutdown, a prospect that on Thursday spurred calls for Congress to pass a bipartisan funding bill that protects nutritional assistance for needy Americans.
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides free staples including fresh produce, milk, and formula vouchers for nearly 7 million pregnant and breastfeeding parents and children under the age of 5. The program currently benefits more than 1 in 4 young US children.
“We will have babies being born to low-income women who will not have any breastfeeding support, and they will have no way to get infant formula if they’re not breastfeeding,” Nicole Flateboe, executive director of Nutrition First, Washington state’s WIC association, recently told the Washington State Standard, calling the specter of defunding a "disaster."
The Trump shutdown is threatening to force kids to go hungry. We need, at the very least, a bipartisan spending bill that protects access to food and clean water.
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— Food & Water Watch (@foodandwater.bsky.social) October 9, 2025 at 7:58 AM
In Puerto Rico, 76% of children under age 5 rely upon WIC. In California, that figure is 38%, followed by 35% in New York and 34% in Delaware and North Carolina.
"WIC is a lifeline that helps new parents keep their babies fed. But thanks to Republicans' government shutdown, WIC funds could run out in a matter of weeks," Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) said Thursday on social media. "Republicans must reopen the government NOW and stop playing with people's lives."
Food & Water Watch warned Thursday that over 5 million US children stand to lose food assistance, with many likely to go hungry, if the government shutdown is not resolved.
“Trump and congressional Republicans have driven America headfirst into a government shutdown," Food & Water Watch managing director of policy and litigation Mitch Jones said in a statement Thursday. "It is poor women and children who will feel the impacts first and worst."
Democrats in Congress have introduced a short-term appropriations bill that would fully fund WIC, a proposal that stands in stark contrast with Republican legislation that would maintain current funding levels for the program. The GOP proposal is the equivalent of a $600 million cut, due to inflation and price pressures, according to Food & Water Watch.
Making matters worse, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) signed by President Donald Trump in July stripped Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits from more than 2 million people. The legislation contains the deepest cuts to Medicaid and SNAP in history while slashing billions from other essential social programs to fund massive tax breaks for billionaires and corporations.
The OBBBA ends health coverage and food assistance for millions of people at a time when more than 47 million Americans—including 1 in 5 US children—are living in food insecure households.
The Trump administration's staffing and funding cuts at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), which administers SNAP, have also hamstrung the government's ability to provide assistance to those in need.
“It’s a big mess,” Flateboe said. “We don’t have a lot of trust that the USDA is going to handle this real seamlessly.”
While Trump said this week that he would use tariff revenues to temporarily fund WIC, it is unclear how he could do so absent an act of Congress.
"Congressional Republicans need to put food back on the table for struggling families by passing a bipartisan spending bill that protects food access," Jones said.
Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) said on social media: "Families shouldn’t pay the price for GOP dysfunction. We must protect WIC and the people who rely on it."
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‘We Must Keep the Pressure On’: Humanitarians Say Ceasefire Doesn't Erase Gaza Genocide
"This much-needed and welcomed ceasefire does not change the simple fact that Israel has just committed a genocide in Gaza," wrote the co-founder of European Jews for Palestine.
Oct 09, 2025
After two years of destruction in the Gaza Strip, Israel signed a ceasefire agreement with Hamas on Thursday that is expected to take effect within the next day. But even as the world reacts with jubilation that the nonstop death and destruction may soon abate, skepticism abounds about whether the agreement will result in a just and lasting peace.
Israel is expected to withdraw troops to an agreed-upon line and to allow an influx of aid into Gaza, along with releasing Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli hostages. Already, signs have emerged that the Israeli government may seek to collapse the fragile agreement, as happened earlier this year.
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, pointed out that within hours after the deal was announced by US President Donald Trump on Wednesday, Israeli tanks were filmed firing at civilians attempting to return to their homes in Gaza City.
Middle East Eye reported: "Heavy airstrikes and artillery shelling were reported in Gaza City and Khan Younis overnight, according to local media. Israeli quadcopters were also reported to have dropped bombs on civilians in Gaza City. At least nine people were killed in the attacks since dawn, health officials said."
Albanese said: "Just hours after the deal—as in January—Israel shoots at Palestinians waiting to return home. Before any next step, member states must ensure that Israel honors the ceasefire."
Whether the ceasefire will even be finalized remains an open question, as two leading far-right figures in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government—Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir—have come out in opposition to the deal's ratification and suggested that their parties may defect from Netanyahu's government if they don't get their way, which could be enough to collaose his narrow governing majority.
In a video at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Jerusalem's Temple Mount on Wednesday, Ben-Gvir said Israel must pursue "full victory in Gaza," a move seen as deeply provocative by the Arab world outside one of Islam's holiest sites, made only more so by his declaration that "we [Jewish Israelis] are the owners of [the] Temple Mount."
In recent months, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich have said this goal of "total victory" includes carrying out the forced expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza so they can be replaced with Israeli settlers.
Even if this ceasefire proves more durable than previous ones, human rights advocates say that simply halting the violence is not enough.
"We can breathe again, in relief for the end of the daily killing, the starvation, the human suffering beyond imagination, beyond words," wrote Yoav Shemer-Kunz, the co-founder of European Jews for Palestine in EUObserver. "This much-needed and welcomed ceasefire does not change the simple fact that Israel has just committed a genocide in Gaza."
Over the past two years, more than 10% of Gaza's population has been the casualties of Israeli attacks: At least 67,000 people—including over 20,000 children—have been killed, while at least 169,000 people have been injured, many with life-altering wounds, according to official estimates from the Gaza Health Ministry. Other studies suggest the death toll may be even higher when the effects of disease and starvation are taken into account.
Craig Mokhiber, a former United Nations human rights official, said that while Israel and the US had agreed to end the "military component of [the] genocide... they have not yet ended the food and medical components of the genocide."
Nearly 78% of the buildings, including over 9 in 10 homes, in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, leaving its medical, water, and sanitation infrastructure in ruins.
And as a result of Israel's near-total blockade on humanitarian aid, Gaza is now the center of a historic famine. According to the United Nations-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), nearly a third of the population—641,000 people—is estimated to face catastrophic conditions of hunger, while 1 in 4 children suffers from acute malnutrition.
"A temporary pause or reduction in the scale of attacks and allowing a trickle of humanitarian aid into Gaza is not enough," said Agnès Callamard, the secretary general of Amnesty International.
"There must be a full cessation of hostilities and a total lifting of the blockade," she said. "Israel must allow the unhindered flow of basic supplies, including food, medicine, fuel, and reconstruction material, into all parts of the occupied Gaza Strip, as well as the restoration of essential services, to ensure the survival of a population reeling from starvation, repeated waves of mass forced displacement, and a campaign of annihilation."
Though the deal signed Thursday calls for 400 aid trucks to begin entering the strip each day, marking a massive surge from previous levels, it is still fewer than the 600 per day that were allowed to enter during January's ceasefire, which occurred when starvation was at a less critical point.
Though the ceasefire will require the withdrawal of some troops, Israel has said it will still control 53% of the Gaza Strip after it goes into effect and the prisoner exchange ends.
"This fragile ceasefire must be the beginning of a sustained and principled effort that leads to ending Israel's unlawful occupation and blockade," said Oxfam International. "It must be focused on restoring rights and rebuilding lives. Any political or reconstruction plan must not entrench the occupation or further undermine Palestinian sovereignty."
Others emphasized the importance not just of remedies to the suffering of Palestinians, but legal accountability for those in Israel's government, including Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, for whom the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for crimes against humanity.
"The current plan—the so-called 'Trump peace plan'—falls woefully short in this," said Callamard. "It fails to demand justice and reparations for victims of atrocity crimes or accountability for perpetrators. Stopping the cycle of suffering and atrocities requires an end to longstanding impunity at the heart of recurring violations in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. States must uphold their obligations under international law to bring to justice those responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide."
Mokhiber said: "We must keep the pressure on until all perpetrators and complicit actors are held accountable for the genocide, the apartheid regime is dismantled, and Palestine is free."
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