SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
For Immediate Release
February, 27 2019, 11:00pm EDT
Contact:
Phil LaRue, Earthjustice - plarue@earthjustice.org, (202) 797-4317
Senate Republicans Confirm Coal Lobbyist Andrew "Wheeler-Dealer" to Head EPA
Confirmation of dirty industry insider alarms leading environmental advocates, including law firm Earthjustice
WASHINGTON
The U.S. Senate voted to confirm Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist with extensive ties to dirty energy companies now advocating for severe rollbacks for public health protections, to head the Environmental Protection Agency this afternoon. Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, who has received over $2 million in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry and thousands from coal interests throughout his legislative career, joined with the majority voting in favor of Wheeler's confirmation.
Earthjustice noted that during his confirmation hearings, Wheeler totally dismissed the significance of climate change and shied away from committing to any significant action to protect children and families from harmful contaminants. Over 18,000 Earthjustice supporters nationwide sent letters of opposition to their Senators on the nomination.
The following is a statement from Martin Hayden, Vice President of Policy and Legislation at Earthjustice:
"It shouldn't be hard to understand: a former coal lobbyist has no business running the Environmental Protection Agency. Sadly, once again, Senator McConnell and his Republican majority put the wealth of a few over the health of the many by confirming the coal industry's favored Wheeler-dealer to what used to be the leading environmental enforcement post in the federal government. With Andrew Wheeler-dealer at the helm, it's truly time to rename EPA the 'Environmental Pollution Agency.'
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.
800-584-6460LATEST NEWS
DOGE Employees May Have Improperly Accessed Social Security Data With Aim to 'Overturn Election Results'
The DOJ filing also appeared to corroborate claims that DOGE employees improperly tried to make "a live copy of the country’s Social Security information" on a third-party cloud platform.
Jan 20, 2026
The US Department of Justice acknowledged last week that two members of the Department of Government Efficiency may have improperly accessed Social Security data at the request of an unidentified organization whose goal is challenging US election results.
In a court filing dated January 16, the DOJ revealed that the unidentified organization last March reached out to two DOGE employees, who were working at the Social Security Administration (SSA), and requested that they "analyze state voter rolls that the advocacy group had acquired."
"The advocacy group’s stated aim was to find evidence of voter fraud and to overturn election results in certain states," the DOJ wrote. "In connection with these communications, one of the DOGE team members signed a 'Voter Data Agreement,' in his capacity as an SSA employee, with the advocacy group."
The filing said that SSA has "not yet seen evidence that SSA data were shared with the advocacy group," but that it had reviewed emails indicating that "DOGE team members could have been asked to assist the advocacy group by accessing SSA data to match to the voter rolls."
The DOJ also revealed that the SSA in December 2025 made referrals of the two DOGE employees to the US Office of Special Counsel for possible violations of the Hatch Act, which bars federal government employees from using their positions for political purposes.
Politico, which first reported on the DOJ filing, noted that the disclosure "came as part of a list of 'corrections' to testimony by top SSA officials during last year’s legal battles over DOGE’s access to Social Security data," and also included revelations that "DOGE team members shared data on unapproved 'third-party' servers and may have accessed private information that had been ruled off-limits by a court at the time."
The admission that DOGE employees shared data on a third-party server bolsters an explosive whistleblower complaint filed in August from former SSA chief data officer Charles Borges, who alleged that DOGE officials have been responsible for “serious data security lapses” that “risk the security of over 300 million Americans’ Social Security data.”
At the heart of Borges’ complaint was an effort by DOGE employees to make “a live copy of the country’s Social Security information in a cloud environment” that “apparently lacks any security oversight from SSA or tracking to determine who is accessing or has accessed the copy of this data.”
Should hackers gain access to this copy of Social Security data, the Borges complaint warned, it could result in identity theft on an unprecedented scale and lead to the loss of crucial food and healthcare benefits for millions of Americans. In a worst-case scenario, the complaint said, the government may also have to give every American a new Social Security number “at great cost.”
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Now Is Your Time of Need': Bernie Sanders, Mayor Mamdani Join Striking Nurses in NYC
"Don't tell me you can't provide a good nurse-staff ratio when you're paying your CEO at New York Presbyterian $26 million a year, the CEO at Montefiore $16 million a year, Mount Sinai $5 million a year," said Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Jan 20, 2026
As the largest nurses strike in the history of New York City marched into its second week with no resolution in sight, US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Mayor Zohran Mamdani joined hundreds of picketers in the bitter cold on Tuesday to support their fight for better pay and workplace protections.
Last week, the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) announced that nearly 15,000 NewYork-Presbyterian, Mount Sinai, and Montefiore hospital employees had "no choice" but to go on strike after the hospitals failed to meet their demands for safe staffing, workplace violence protections, safeguards against the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare, and to maintain 100% of their healthcare benefits.
Outside Mount Sinai West on 10th Avenue, Mamdani, attending his second picket, called for a "swift and urgent resolution" to the workers' demands after negotiations with the hospitals stalled last week and the chains began hiring replacement workers.
"This is about safe working conditions. This is about a fair contract. This is about dignity. And today is day nine—day nine—of those demands, and I want you to know that wherever I go in New York City, I hear about the plight of our nurses," the democratic socialist mayor said. "Now is your time of need, where we can ensure that this is a city that you don't just work in but a city that you can also live in."
In comments to CBS News New York, the hospital chains have scoffed at the NYSNA's demands for a 25% pay increase, especially in the wake of massive healthcare funding cuts from President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year.
A spokesperson for NewYork-Presbyterian said its nurses—who it said earn $163,000 on average—are among the highest-paid in the city, calling demands for a pay increase "unrealistic." A Montefiore spokesperson told the network that progress on negotiations will be impossible until the nurses "back away from their reckless and dangerous $3.6 billion demands."
But New York is also one of the most expensive cities in the world to live in. According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Living Wage calculator, the nurses' wages are often barely enough to meet a family's basic needs, especially for single parents with children.
NYSNA, meanwhile, has said management "is threatening to discontinue or radically cut nurses’ health benefits" and has done nothing to combat severe understaffing.
"We’re talking an emergency room filled to the brink,” said one of the strikers, staff nurse Morgan Betancourt. “Ninety patients, and we have maybe nine nurses.”
On Tuesday, Sanders (I-Vt.) emphasized that the hospitals' sudden frugality has been of little concern when it comes to compensating hospital executives.
"Don't tell me you can't provide a good nurse-staff ratio when you're paying your CEO at NewYork Presbyterian $26 million a year, the CEO at Montefiore $16 million a year, Mount Sinai $5 million a year," Sanders shouted to applause from the strikers. "Don't tell me you can't treat nurses with dignity when you're spending hundreds of millions of dollars on traveling nurses."
According to the Greater New York Hospital Association, the three hospitals combined had spent approximately $100 million to pay temporary nurses as of the fourth day of the strike. Temporary staffing agencies have required hospitals to pay scabs two to three times as much as they'd pay their regular nurses, Bloomberg reported.
Negotiations remain at a total standstill after breaking down last week. While the hospitals claim the union refused to budge on unreasonable demands, Jonathan Hunter, a negotiator for Mount Sinai nurses, told Spectrum News NY1, "They basically stonewalled us, presented us with nothing, and we left with nothing."
The strike has left the hospital system in a state of upheaval, forcing some patients to be moved and nonemergency surgeries to be canceled. Mamdani said it's all the more reason for the hospitals to reach an agreement with their workers.
"Too often when we see a strike, people forget that that is not where workers want to be," Mamdani said. "A strike is an act of last resort. What workers want is to be back at work. So what this will mean is making that possible. And so we call on every side to come back to that negotiating table. Have a swift and urgent resolution."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Not Doing What They Say They’re Doing': ICE Broke Down Door Without Warrant to Arrest US Citizen in St. Paul
"The family strongly objects to DHS's attempt to publicly justify this conduct with false and misleading claims," said a spokesperson for the family of ChongLy "Scott" Thao.
Jan 20, 2026
The Trump administration continues to insist it is only arresting violent criminals who are eligible for deportation—despite records showing that nearly three-quarters of people booked into detention by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in recent months had no criminal convictions.
This week, the arrest of a US citizen in St. Paul, Minnesota by agents who broke down his door offered the latest evidence that, as the city's mayor said, "ICE is not doing what they say they’re doing."
"They’re not going after hardened criminals," Kaohly Her said in a statement in response to her constituent's violent arrest. "They’re going after anyone and everyone in their path. It is unacceptable and un-American.”
In subfreezing temperatures on Sunday, ICE agents arrived at the home of ChongLy "Scott" Thao without a warrant and banged on the door before forcing their way in and brandishing guns at Thao and his family, including his daughter-in-law and four-year-old grandson.
Thao, who has been a US citizen for decades and whose mother fled Laos in the 1970s, told the AP that he asked his daughter-in-law to find his ID to prove his citizenship as the agents were yelling at and handcuffing him, but the agents said they weren't interested in seeing it.
In a video that was posted on social media, Thao's neighbors were heard blowing whistles and yelling at the agents as they led him outside, wrapped in a blanket and wearing nothing but shorts and sandals in 14°F temperatures.
Yesterday, ICE raided a home on St. Paul’s East Side. Their target was ChongLy Scott Thao, an elderly Hmong American man.
He’s a U.S. citizen with no criminal record.
Armed ICE agents broke down the door without presenting a valid warrant, entered with guns drawn, and… pic.twitter.com/hxECEkcIqK
— Dede Watson (@Dede_Watson) January 20, 2026
Thao reported that the agents drove him around for nearly an hour before telling him to get out of the car in "the middle of nowhere" and demanded his ID—which they had prevented him from getting at his house.
The treatment Thao was subjected to, said a spokesperson for the family, Louansee Moua, was "unnecessary, degrading, and deeply traumatizing."
The agents ultimately determined what Thao and his family had been telling them all along—that he was a US citizen with no criminal record—and drove him back home, leaving without apologizing for his wrongful detention or the damage they did to his front door.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also expressed no remorse for erroneously detaining a US citizen and accused Thao of living with "two convicted sex offenders." The claim is not supported by Minnesota's sex offender registry, which shows the nearest convicted sex offender living more than two blocks away from the family. Thao lives with his son, daughter-in-law, and grandson.
"The family strongly objects to DHS's attempt to publicly justify this conduct with false and misleading claims," said Moua. "These statements have caused additional harm to a family already struggling to recover from a terrifying and unjustified encounter."
Thao told the AP he plans to file a civil rights lawsuit against DHS.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular