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Earthjustice Statement: 'We'll Defend President Biden's Restored Protections to our National Monuments'
The proclamation reaffirms the country’s commitment to protecting treasured and sacred natural places.
WASHINGTON
Today President Biden issued a proclamation restoring protections to Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monuments in Utah and to Northeast Canyons and Seamounts off the New England coast, reversing the largest rollback of federal land protection in U.S. history.
The Trump administration's 2017 proclamations sought to remove 85% of land protected in the Bears Ears National Monument and to cut the size of Grand Staircase Escalante by half. Almost immediately following the rollback of Bear Ears, Native American tribes sued the government. Conservation groups followed suit. Earthjustice, on behalf of nine conservation organizations, and in coordination with attorneys from the Natural Resources Defense Council and Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, filed lawsuits to challenge the attacks on both monuments.
In 2020, President Trump rolled back protections of Northeast Canyons and Seamounts, opening up a fragile deep-sea ecosystem to destructive commercial fishing practices. Earthjustice participated in litigation defending President Obama's original declaration of the Seamounts marine monument.
The following are statements from Earthjustice:
"We celebrate today as an act of vindication for the Tribes in their fight to preserve these sacred places, and for the many, many people across the country who believe public lands should be protected, and not exploited for short-term, corporate gain. And we'll be prepared to defend these places against anyone who would try to challenge President Biden's proclamation today," said Heidi McIntosh, Earthjustice attorney.
"Today's administrative action also restores to its full protection our only Atlantic marine monument - the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts - a site of staggering biodiversity, a refuge for endangered marine wildlife, and a rich forest of seagrasses, and ancient corals. These ocean ecosystems are crucial to the health of not just the Northeast, but to the wellbeing of coastal economies along the eastern seaboard and to the resilience of the entire ocean. Now this national treasure is again fully protected," said Steve Mashuda, Managing Attorney of Earthjustice's Oceans Program.
Background can be found here.
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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'Let Us Vote': House GOP Blocks Dems’ Iran War Powers Resolution
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Democrats will force a full vote when lawmakers return from recess next week.
Apr 09, 2026
US House Republicans thwarted an effort by Democrats to pass a war powers resolution to rein in President Donald Trump's attacks on Iran on Thursday, pushing it off until at least next week.
During a pro forma session Thursday morning with most members still out of town on recess, Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) attempted to bring the resolution to the floor for a vote using unanimous consent—a shortcut allowing legislation to pass instantly if all lawmakers agree.
But with a furious thwack of the gavel, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), the pro forma speaker, abruptly brought the session to a close without allowing him to speak, prompting loud objections from other Democrats in the room.
“End the war. Let us vote,” shouted Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-Va.).
Ivey was attempting a long shot bid to pass a resolution introduced back in March by Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), which Democrats opted to punt until after the recess despite building momentum on Capitol Hill and despite Trump's growing belligerence against Iran, which culminated this week in a threat to wipe out the "whole civilization."
"My Democratic colleagues and I showed up on the House floor today to do our job and defend Congress’s constitutional war powers," said Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.). "Republicans refused to even recognize our resolution."
"They’re choosing this war, and Trump’s violence and chaos," he said.
The US and Iran reached a ceasefire on Tuesday night, but it's currently hanging by a thread after Israel launched an unprecedented assault on Lebanon that led Iran to retaliate by once again choking off travel through the critical Strait of Hormuz.
Calls from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to reconvene the House have fallen on deaf ears. War powers votes are expected to occur in both the House and Senate next week.
Previous measures have failed to pass both chambers. But prior to the recess, it appeared that reluctant House Democrats and at least three Republican defectors had gotten on board, potentially giving the measure enough votes to pass.
The Senate may pose more of an uphill battle. Most of the 47 Democratic Caucus members are expected to be on board, as is Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) But the hawkish Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) has stood in the way of past resolutions, and no other Republicans have signaled solid support.
However, lawmakers voting to continue the war will have to explain that decision to a wary public. An Economist/YouGov poll published Tuesday showed that 53% of Americans oppose the war, while just 34% approve. The prospect of sending ground troops into Iran, which Trump has heavily considered, is even less popular, with just 15% of Americans supporting the idea.
"We need a permanent end to Donald Trump's costly and reckless war of choice," Jeffries said at a press conference Thursday afternoon. "Upon our return, we will force another vote on the House floor around the war powers resolution that will compel the Trump administration to cease military hostilities immediately."
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As Zeldin Embraces Climate Crisis Deniers, 290+ Health Experts Demand His Removal
"We cannot tolerate an EPA administrator who treats our families as expendable."
Apr 09, 2026
Hundreds of health experts are demanding the removal of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin over his gutting of key regulations that they say will endanger Americans' livelihoods.
A letter released Thursday by Climate Action Campaign outlines Zeldin's threats to public health and explains why he should not be serving as the top US environmental regulator.
"Administrator Zeldin is pursuing a deregulatory agenda that will result in a massive increase in health-damaging air pollution, toxic chemicals, and climate-heating greenhouse gases," says the letter, which is signed by nearly 300 medical experts, including physicians, nurses, and public health researchers.
"And just last month, the administration laid bare its decision to no longer count the economic value of health benefits when setting Clean Air Act rules," the letter adds, "refusing to acknowledge the value of lives saved, hospital visits avoided, and lost work and school days prevented."
The letter also points to the EPA's February decision to revoke the so-called "endangerment finding," which gave the agency authority to regulate greenhouse gases as threats to public health.
Repealing this finding, the letter contends, "will increase the frequency and severity of climate disasters."
According to a Wednesday report from The Associated Press, Zeldin celebrated the EPA's revocation of the finding while delivering a keynote address at the Heartland Institute, a right-wing think tank that has long pushed climate denialism.
"Today is a moment to celebrate," Zeldin said at the event. "It is a day to celebrate vindication."
Margie Alt, director of the Climate Action Campaign, said her group decided to organize the letter among medical experts because "Lee Zeldin is too dangerous to ignore."
"When health experts—the people who see the effects of pollution on their patients every single day—say enough is enough, the rest of us need to pay attention," said Alt. "Zeldin is not just failing Americans. He is actively endangering us. We cannot tolerate an EPA administrator who treats our families as expendable."
This is the second "Game Over Zeldin" letter, following another from over 160 advocacy groups, including Climate Action Campaign and Moms Clean Air Force, last month.
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Viral Parody Video Exposes Absurdity of Trump's Illegal Iran War
"Our goal from day one was for Iran to open the strait that didn't close until after we attacked."
Apr 09, 2026
Comedian Dave Columbo on Wednesday released a parody video that lampooned the Trump administration's contradictory and constantly changing rationales for its unconstitutional war with Iran.
In the video, which was first posted on Instagram and has since gone viral on other social media platforms, Columbo assumes the role of a White House spokesperson trying to explain what the US has achieved so far with its war, which Trump illegally launched without any congressional authorization more than a month ago.
"This is a victory for the US," Columbo says at the start of the video. "Because our goal from day one was for Iran to open the strait that didn't close until after we attacked, which was completely controlled by their military that we had total dominance over. And it was a waterway that we could have taken over, but instead we asked for help that we didn't need, but we'll remember our allies did not give us."
10/10. No notes. pic.twitter.com/YQ3JPNIR02
— Barney Panofsky's Best Intentions (@mynamesnotgordy) April 8, 2026
Columbo then explains that this purported victory has only come about due to "a FIFA Peace Prize recipient's threat to annihilate a civilization in order to liberate them."
The comedian next touts the administration's success in changing the Iranian regime from "an old man who hates us to his younger son, who hates us for those reasons, and that we killed his father."
Columbo acknowledges that the administration is unsure about "the status of Iran's nuclear capabilities that we obliterated last year, but were going to be a problem in two weeks," before boasting that Iran now has "more money and control over the strait than they had when they made the old deal that we ended because it was terrible."
While Columbo's video is intended as satire, much of it simply relies on arguments that the Trump administration has made throughout the course of the war, such as the president's demands that NATO allies give help to reopen the Strait of Hormuz that he also says is unnecessary given US military strength.
As of this writing, the Iran War has cost US taxpayers more than $45 billion, and the Strait of Hormuz has still not reopened.
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