'Forever Chemicals' Contamination To Be Tested Near US Army Sites

Published Jul 29, 2024 
NEWSWEEK
By Matthew Robinson
US News Editor

Levels of water contamination through harmful "forever chemicals" will be tested near U.S. Army sites across the country in a new joint project.

The scheme, announced on Friday by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army, will sample and test water from private drinking water wells for the presence of per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

PFAS are long-lasting chemicals used to make products resistant to heat, oil, stains, grease and water. This means they are present in numerous household items, including nonstick cooking tools, toilet paper, food packaging, cosmetics and dental floss.

If the testing indicates the presence of PFAS in ground or drinking water above the maximum contaminant levels set out by the EPA, the Army will work with state regulators and the agency to mitigate exposure for the public and implement remedial measures.

The project has initially identified a priority list of nine Army installations out of 235 locations where the testing will take place. These include; Fort Novosel in Alabama; Fort Hunter Liggett – Parks Reserve Forces Training Area in California; Fort Stewart in Georgia; Fort Stewart – Hunter Army Airfield in Georgia; Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky; Fort Campbell in Kentucky and Tennessee; Fort Liberty in North Carolina; Fort Sill in Oklahoma; and McAlester Army Ammunition Plant in Oklahoma.

Once the initial testing at these nine locations is completed, the project will evaluate additional installations to determine whether the scheme should be expanded.

A scientist tests water for PFAS at the EPA's Center For Environmental Solutions and Emergency Response in Cincinnati in 2023. PFAS levels in water from private drinking water wells near a number of U.S. Army... More Joshua A. Bickel/AP

Commenting on the scheme, David M. Uhlmann, an assistant administrator at the EPA, said in a statement: "PFAS pose significant risks to drinking water supplies and public health, which is why the EPA and the Army are testing water from wells in communities near Army installations to determine if these dangerous forever chemicals are polluting drinking water.

"Members of the military, their families, and surrounding communities deserve access to clean, safe drinking water. EPA welcomes the opportunity to share our expertise and work with the Army on this important project, which will help advance EPA's PFAS National Enforcement and Compliance Initiative."

Rachel Jacobson, assistant secretary of the Army for installations, energy and environment, added: "For the nine installations that are part of our joint pilot program with EPA, the Army has already begun more in-depth investigations. The Army welcomes EPA's collaboration as it continues to evaluate whether PFAS from past Army activities has impacted our neighboring communities and if so, takes steps to mitigate those impacts."

The EPA noted that PFAS have been found in "groundwater and soil at many federal facilities, including at military sites." It added: "The Army has used PFAS in various operations, including in foam to extinguish fires."


The U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has identified these "forever chemicals" as potential causes of health problems like increased cholesterol and blood pressure, diminished immune function, reproductive problems and a heightened risk of certain cancers.

Read more

Contaminated drinking water gave man testicular cancer, lawsuit says
"Forever chemicals" ban could impact millions of Americans
Toxic forever chemicals pass into human skin, scientists warn
Drinking water map shows cities with high contamination levels

Maaike van Gerwen, director of research for the department of otolaryngology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, told Newsweek previously: "Because of the ubiquitous presence of PFAS in our environment, including water, soil and food, almost the entire population is exposed on a daily basis and it is thus difficult to completely avoid exposure."

She added: "PFAS are chemicals that have been produced since the 1940s and are used in a variety of industry and consumer products, including nonstick cookware, stain-resistant fabric and firefighting foam.

"In the early 2000s, major American chemical companies voluntarily agreed to eliminate the production of PFOA- and PFOA-related chemicals... This does not mean that the production of PFAS declined. On the contrary, multiple new PFAS chemicals were developed and are still being manufactured."

‘Criminalization’ of climate protests in Europe
July 27, 2024 CounterVortex


European governments have reacted to a growing wave of direct-action protests by climate activists with heavy-handed policing, effectively criminalizing such campaigns, seeking to dissolve groups, and imposing restrictions on basic rights, Human Rights Watch charged in a July 22 statement. “This creates serious risks to environmental activism and civil society as a whole and undercuts vital efforts to address the climate crisis,” the group found.

In Germany, there has been a particularly harsh response to climate activism. A special target has been the group Last Generation, whose tactics have included such actions as spraying paint on private jets. Five Last Generation activists were indicted in May for forming a “criminal organization.” A ruling that upholds this designation “could pave the way for prosecuting anyone who participates in or supports the group, whether administratively or financially, and would mean criminal sanctions well beyond anything the activists should reasonably and foreseeably expect to face.”

On the same day HRW issued its statement, a record-breaking sentence was handed down in the United Kingdom, with five Just Stop Oil activists given multi-year prison terms. The case concerned a protest action that disrupted the M25 motorway in London for more than four days in November 2022. The defendants were accused for participating in a Zoom call in which the action was discussed, rather than in the action itself. Roger Hallam, 58, was given a five-year term, while four others received four years, after being found guilty of “conspiracy to cause a public nuisance.” An open letter signed by more than 1,200 UK celebrities and academics described the terms handed to the “Whole Truth Five” as “one of the greatest injustices in a British court in modern history.” (Jurist, BBC News, The Guardian)

No major emitter country has yet decarbonized enough to meet the 2015 Paris climate agreement goals.

See our last report on the European climate protests.

Photo: Stefan Müller via Wikipedia

Canadian Coast Guard Penalties Highlight Environmental Accountability for Boat Owners

Since 2016, the Canadian Coast Guard has tackled over 2,000 wrecked, abandoned, or hazardous vessels across Canada's waters, significantly reducing environmental risks and enhancing marine safety under the Oceans Protection Plan. (Credit: Unsplash+)


by Donna Gregory | Jul 26, 2024

Wrecked, abandoned, or hazardous boats pose significant threats to the environment, local communities, and economies. Through the Oceans Protection Plan, the Government of Canada continues to address problem vessels and ensure owner accountability. Vessel owners are responsible for maintaining their boats and properly disposing of them when no longer seaworthy.
Enforcement of the Wrecked, Abandoned or Hazardous Vessels Act

Recently, the Canadian Coast Guard exercised its authority under the Wrecked, Abandoned or Hazardous Vessels Act, imposing a $12,000 administrative monetary penalty on the owner of a 6.4-meter pleasure craft in the Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu area. The vessel posed hazards to the marine environment and public safety due to pollution risks, debris not intended for submersion, potential injury to boaters, risk of drifting in a busy river, and shoreline erosion.

Compliance and Penalty

The fine followed the owner’s failure to comply with the Canadian Coast Guard’s directives to remove the vessel and prevent pollution by April 4, 2024. Due to the dangers presented, the vessel was removed from the marine environment by the Canadian Coast Guard.

The Canadian Coast Guard collaborates with vessel owners to resolve issues, resorting to penalties only after all other avenues are exhausted. The owner was given 30 days to pay the fine or request a review hearing with the Transportation Appeal Tribunal of Canada. Penalties issued under the Wrecked, Abandoned or Hazardous Vessels Act are publicly reported on the Canadian Coast Guard’s website.
Public Assistance in Reporting Vessels


The Canadian Coast Guard urges citizens to report problematic vessels, including those that are wrecked, abandoned, or pose hazards. To manage this issue, the Coast Guard maintains a nationwide database of troublesome vessels, prioritizing their removal based on severity.

This national inventory has logged over 2,000 reported vessels so far, aiding in tracking and addressing the problem efficiently. Since 2016, the Canadian government’s Oceans Protection Plan has taken significant action, funding more than 580 projects dedicated to removing and disposing of problematic vessels. Additionally, the plan has established legal measures, making it unlawful to abandon vessels in Canadian waters.

PEW POLL

War in Ukraine: Wide Partisan Differences on U.S. Responsibility and Support

Majorities in both parties approve of keeping strict economic sanctions on Russia

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken walks down a street in Kyiv during an announced visit to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on May 14, 2024. (Brendan Smialowski/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

• REPORT

|

JULY 29, 2024

How we did this

With the conflict in Ukraine now in its third year, Republicans and Democrats continue to differ over U.S. policy toward the war-torn country.

A 62% majority of Republicans say the United States does not have a responsibility to help Ukraine defend itself from Russia’s invasion.

Americans overall are evenly divided on whether the U.S. has a responsibility to help Ukraine (48% say it does, 49% say it does not).

• About two-thirds of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (63%) say the U.S. has this responsibility.
• Only about a third of Republicans and Republican leaners (36%) say the same.

Americans remain divided on levels of U.S. aid to Ukraine. Today, 29% of Americans say the U.S. is providing too much support to Ukraine, and a similar share say it’s providing about the right amount (26%). About two-in-ten (19%) say the U.S. is not providing enough support, while a quarter are not sure.

• Democrats largely say the U.S. is providing either the right amount of aid (36%) or not enough assistance (27%). Just 13% say the U.S. is sending too much aid to Ukraine.
• Nearly half of Republicans (47%) say the U.S. is providing too much aid to Ukraine, more than three times the share of Democrats who say this. Only 18% say current aid levels are about right, while just 12% say the U.S. is providing too little aid.

The new Pew Research Center survey of 9,424 U.S. adults was conducted July 1-7, 2024 – before President Joe Biden announced he was dropping his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Related: Joe Biden, Public Opinion and His Withdrawal From the 2024 Race.

How much of a threat does the war in Ukraine pose to U.S. interests?

The share of Americans saying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a threat to U.S. interests has declined significantly since 2022. Today, about a third of the public (34%) says Russia’s invasion of Ukraine poses a “major threat” to U.S. interests. Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, half said it was a major threat.

There is a wide and growing gap between Republicans and Democrats over whether the war in Ukraine is a major threat to U.S. interests.

Both Democrats and Republicans are less likely to say the conflict is a major threat to the U.S. than they were in its early days. But that decline is far sharper among Republicans.

• 45% of Democrats now say Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a major threat, 5 percentage points lower than in March of 2022 but 7 points higher than a year ago.
• 26% of Republicans say the war is a major threat to the U.S. This share has been essentially flat since early 2023 and remains well below the 51% of Republicans who said this early in the war.

Views of U.S. policies toward Ukraine: Sanctions, military aid, strikes on targets in Russia

A greater share of Americans approve of keeping strict economic sanctions on Russia (69%) than approve of continuing to send military equipment to Ukraine (54%) or allowing Ukraine to use U.S. weapons to strike targets inside Russia (54%).

Majorities of both Republicans (66%) and Democrats (77%) approve of keeping strict economic sanctions on Russia.

Much smaller shares of Republicans approve of continuing to provide military equipment and weaponry to Ukraine (42%) or allowing Ukraine to use U.S.-made weapons inside Russia’s borders (46%).

Most Democrats approve of continuing to send military aid to Ukraine (71%) and allowing Ukraine to use American-made weapons to strike targets in Russia (65%).

Views of U.S. aid to Ukraine

Americans continue to be divided over the amount of aid the U.S. is providing to support Ukraine against Russia.

Over the past year and a half, the leading view among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents has been that the U.S. is providing too much support to Ukraine (47% say this currently).

This balance of opinion among Republicans has not changed much over this period, and it represents a reversal from early in the conflict when fewer than a quarter of Republicans said the U.S. was providing too much aid.  

Most Democrats and Democratic leaners have consistently said the U.S. is providing either too little or about the right amount of aid since the war began.

The share of Democrats who said the U.S. was sending too little aid increased in April, before a new $95 billion aid bill passed Congress. It has now returned to about where it was in late 2023. Only 13% of Democrats say the U.S. is providing too much aid to Ukraine.

Assessments of Ukraine’s military efforts and concerns about the war

Americans have mixed views of Ukraine’s military effort. Only 11% say Ukraine’s efforts to defend itself are going extremely or very well. More than twice as many (26%) say they are going not too well or not at all well. About four-in-ten (42%) say they’re going somewhat well.

Republicans are slightly more pessimistic about Ukraine’s defense than Democrats. About a third of Republicans (32%) say Ukraine’s military efforts are not going well, compared with 21% of Democrats.

Nearly half of Democrats (47%) say Ukraine’s defense is going somewhat well. About four-in-ten Republicans (39%) say the same.

Concerns over the war in Ukraine

Americans express a range of concerns arising from the Russia-Ukraine war:

• 51% say they are extremely or very concerned that the war will continue for many years.
• A nearly identical share (50%) are extremely or very concerned that Russia will invade other countries in the region.
• Somewhat smaller shares are at least very concerned about Ukraine being defeated by Russia (43% are extremely or very concerned) and U.S. and NATO support for Ukraine leading to a war with Russia (41%).

Related: NATO Seen Favorably in Member States; Confidence in Zelenskyy Down in Europe, U.S.

Democrats are significantly more likely than Republicans to say they are highly concerned about Russia invading other countries in Europe and that Ukraine will lose and be taken over.

Six-in-ten Democrats say they are extremely or very concerned that Russia will invade other countries in the region. Roughly four-in-ten Republicans (42%) are as concerned about this.

A majority of Democrats (56%) say they are extremely or very concerned about Ukraine being defeated and taken over by Russia, compared with 33% of Republicans. Democrats’ concerns about Ukraine losing have increased modestly since 2022.

Republicans (45%) express somewhat higher levels of concern than Democrats (38%) that U.S. and NATO support for Ukraine will lead to a direct war between the U.S. and Russia. Concern among members of both political coalitions is somewhat higher than it was two years ago.

Next: Acknowledgments

NEXT PAGE →

Archaeologists discover ancient Jerusalem moat, solving 150-year-old mystery

A different piece of the ancient moat was discovered in the 1960s but mistaken as a natural valley.

Yiftah Shalev, of the Israel Antiquities Authority, overlooks a section of the excavated moat fortification of Jerusalem. (Photo by Eric Marmur, City of David)
July 25, 2024
By Michele Chabin

JERUSALEM (RNS) — Archaeologists from Tel Aviv University and the Israel Antiquities Authority have discovered a remnant of a massive ancient moat in Jerusalem that fortified the city during the time of the First Jewish Temple and the Kingdom of Judah — the ninth century BCE.

“This is an extremely important discovery,” Yosef Garfinkel, a professor at the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University who was not involved in the excavation, told Religion News Service. “It shows that by the ninth century BCE, Jerusalem was an important city.”

Although no one knows exactly when or why the moat was created, the archaeologists say it could have been quarried as far back as 3,800 years ago. At the time, the moat physically separated the southern residential part of the city (the City of David) from the upper city — the Temple Mount area — where the palace and First Temple stood.

Open questions and excavations at the City of David archaeological site have persisted for 150 years, so any new discovery must be cross-referenced with earlier finds. In this case, the team reexamined 70-year-old excavation reports written by the renowned British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon, who worked on a nearby site in the 1960s.

“It became clear to us that Kenyon noticed that the natural rock slopes towards the north, in a place where it should naturally have risen,” said Yuval Gadot, excavation co-director and head of the Institute of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University. While Kenyon believed it to be a natural valley, she had discovered a different remnant of the moat, carved to the west.

RELATED: The scientific meltdown over a controversial discovery of ‘biblical Sodom’

Professor Yuval Gadot of Tel Aviv University stands next to the northern side of the moat that protected Jerusalem. Alongside him are carved bedrock channels. (Photo by Eric Marmur, City of David)

Taken together, the two parts of the moat extend at least 70 meters (230 feet) from west to east. The trench is at least 30 feet deep. The dig site is altogether 3,500 square feet and had previously been used as a parking lot for visitors to the Western Wall.

“Cut into the hill’s natural bedrock, the ditch would have required the quarrying of nearly half a million cubic feet of stone, making it a truly monumental achievement,” an article on the website of the Biblical Archaeology Society notes. “This barrier appears to have remained in place until the late second century BCE, when it was finally filled in and covered over to allow for new construction.”

Gadot said the “dramatic discovery” has reenergized the discussion over the meaning of the topological terms used in the Hebrew Bible, such as Ophel, which is believed to be an elevated area, and the Millo, which various scholars have interpreted to mean a stepped stone structure, a tower, a landfill or an embankment.

In the first Book of Kings (11:27), Solomon built the Millo and repaired the breaches of the City of David.

The First Jewish Temple was built by King Solomon in 1000 BC, after his father, King David, conquered Jerusalem. Led by King Nebuchadnezzar, Babylonians breached the Temple’s walls and destroyed it in 586 BCE. The Jews who remained were killed or exiled.

Yiftah Shalev, the excavation’s co-director on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said the team exposed 6 to 7 meters of the moat, or nearly 10%. He dismissed the notion that the enormous trench was nothing more than a stone quarry.

Yiftah Shalev of the Israel Antiquities Authority stands in front of a section of the moat. (Photo by Eliyahu Yanai, City of David)

“We assume it served as some kind of defense,” Shalev told RNS. “You don’t leave a large trench in the heart of the city during the period Jerusalem was the capital of the Judean Kingdom. It would be an obstacle to residents at the time.”

RELATED: UK archaeologists use metal-detecting hobbyists’ finds to study medieval faith

Given the magnitude of the moat, Shalev speculates that it also served as a symbol of the Judean kings’ wealth and prowess.



A section of the monumental fortifications that protected the kings of Jerusalem. \(Photo by Eliyahu Yanai, City of David)

“It’s as if they are saying, look, if we can build something so impressive, imagine what else we can do!”

Garfinkel agreed. “There has long been a debate about when Jerusalem became a real capital city,” he said. “This discovery, and discoveries in other ancient cities from that time, altogether change the notion of the strength of the Kingdom of Judah.”

Eli Escusido, director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said the City of David digs “never cease to amaze” not only because they enhance our understanding of the Bible, but because of the engineering skill needed to build the kingdom.

“It is impossible not to be filled with wonder and appreciation for those ancient people who, about 3,800 years ago, literally moved mountains and hills,” Escusido said.

Catholic Rio Grande Valley migrant shelter wins victory against Texas AG

It's the latest legal defeat for a Republican-led investigation of Catholic migrant shelters.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton makes a statement at his office, May 26, 2023, in Austin, Texas. 

(AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

July 25, 2024
By Aleja Hertzler-McCain

(RNS) — In the latest legal defeat for a Republican-led investigation of Catholic migrant shelters, a Hidalgo County, Texas, judge on Wednesday (July 24) denied a request from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to depose a Catholic Charities leader in the Rio Grande Valley.

District Judge Bobby Flores denied the petition after lawyers for Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, one of the largest migrant shelters on the U.S.-Mexico border, argued that the nonprofit had already cooperated with the investigation by providing more than 100 pages of documents. The lawyers for Catholic Charities also argued that the attorney general’s request imposed “a significant expenditure of resources” on the Catholic agency and its ability to exercise its faith.

“We hope that we can put this behind us and focus our efforts on protecting and upholding the sanctity and dignity of all human lives while following the law,” Sister Norma Pimentel, Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley’s executive director, said in a statement. Pimentel, a member of the Missionaries of Jesus, was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2020 for her three decades of work with migrants. Pope Francis has also praised Pimentel and the work of the nonprofit.

According to filings by both Paxton’s office and Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, the attorney general’s office sent a notice to the nonprofit on March 25 demanding that a representative of Catholic Charities sit for a deposition. March 25 was the first weekday of Holy Week, when Catholic schedules are packed with events commemorating the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Paxton’s office did not respond to a request for comment. In explaining his request for the deposition, Paxton’s office cited Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s December 2022 call for an investigation into the “role of NGOs in planning and facilitating the illegal transportation of illegal immigrants across our borders.”

Abbott, a Catholic, launched the multibillion-dollar initiative Operation Lone Star in 2021, shortly after President Joe Biden’s election, arguing the federal government was failing to protect the state’s border. The operation deployed thousands of Texas soldiers at the border, where razor wire, pepper balls and patrols with guns and drones have been used to prevent migrants from crossing. Abbott’s office claims the operation is responsible for at least 516,300 migrant apprehensions and more than 45,300 criminal arrests.


Migrant parents talk at the Annunciation House, June 26, 2018, in El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Paxton’s office also cited a February 2022 letter by Texas Republican Congressman Lance Gooden to Catholic Charities USA, the national membership organization that Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley belongs to, that accuses the national Catholic nonprofit of fueling “illegal immigration by encouraging, transporting, and harboring aliens to come to, enter, or reside in the United States.”

Gooden’s letter is part of a broader far-right campaign targeting Catholic Charities agencies that has resulted in several agencies receiving threats.

“The targeting of this faith-based agency and broader attacks on the Catholic Church should deeply concern Catholics, religious liberty advocates and all people of good will,” Kerry Alys Robinson, president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA, told Religion News Service in a statement, referring to Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley.
RELATED: Threats to Catholic Charities staffers increase amid far-right anti-migrant campaign

Paxton often participates in legal action through the Republican Attorneys General Association, which has received millions in donations from the Concord Fund, a dark money fund linked to conservative Catholic legal activist Leonard Leo.

Catholics, like Americans more broadly, have split views on immigration. In a December 2023 poll by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, 43% of Catholics said immigration should be decreased, while 23% said it should be increased and 34% said it should be kept at its present level.

Nineteen percent of Catholics said that their Catholic faith “very much” informed their opinions about immigrants and refugees, and 35% answered that it informed their opinions “somewhat.”

Responding to Paxton’s request to the court, Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley’s lawyers said, “The Attorney General’s investigation of CCRGV is based solely on CCRGV’S religiously motivated provision of charitable services to asylum seekers, which do not violate any law.” The nonprofit emphasized that it cooperates closely with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and that all migrants it serves have been processed by the federal government.

In a back-and-forth after Paxton’s initial request, Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley provided sworn testimony in addition to documents to the office, but the attorney general’s office continued to press for a deposition, calling some of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley’s answers “non-responsive and evasive.”

Saying that Paxton’s office failed to provide any evidence or “even concrete factual allegations” that would show that the benefit of the deposition would outweigh its burden even after the Catholic nonprofit’s “extensive cooperation with his overreaching inquiry,” Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley’s lawyers said that Paxton’s request represented “a fishing expedition into a pond where no one has ever seen a fish.”

The attorney general’s filing says that its office is investigating the possibility that Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley is assisting migrants who have not been processed by U.S. Border Patrol, a legal violation that the office said would have “a cause of action to strip CCRGV’s right to operate in the State of Texas.”

In February, about a month before Paxton’s office requested the deposition from Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, the office sued to attempt to revoke the nonprofit registration of another Catholic migrant shelter organization, Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas.

Annunciation House had sued the state and sought a restraining order after Paxton’s office’s demanded that it quickly turn over documents about its operations, which would have included identifying information about the migrants it serves. Paxton’s office framed the attempt to shut down the network of migrant shelters as a “consequence” of that legal action.

RELATED: Judge rules against Texas Attorney General Paxton in campaign against migrant shelters

El Paso District Court Judge Francisco Dominguez ruled that Paxton had violated the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, as well as the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Dominguez said the Paxton office’s request for documents was “a pretext to justify its harassment of Annunciation House employees and the persons seeking refuge.”

Dylan Corbett, executive director of Hope Border Institute, a Catholic organization that supports migrants across the El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, border, called Paxton’s legal strategy a “troubling attack on religious liberty” and part of a broader “escalation in the campaign of state leadership — not only to criminalize those who migrate but now to go after those who living out our faith seek to offer a compassionate response to those who migrate.”

Now that judges have ruled Paxton “out of bounds” in both El Paso and Hidalgo County, Corbett urged the state to “desist in its attack on what is actually working at the border and pivot to real, humane solutions that work for our state, our border communities and those who migrate.”

In Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley’s statement after Flores’ decision, the organization wrote: “A deposition would have been a waste of time, distracting CCRGV from its work serving all residents of the Rio Grande Valley.”

The nonprofit had previously written in its legal filing that Paxton’s inquiry was harming the individuals that Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley serves by taking away resources to serve them. The Catholic organization houses about 1,000 migrants a week, sometimes soaring to 2,000 women and children at once, who usually stay only a few days before moving on. In addition to migrants, the charity aids homeless people, veterans, people impacted by natural disasters, children who do not have access to school lunch during the summer and more.

“CCRGV will always strive to fulfill its legal obligations while continuing to steadfastly pursue its mission, inspired by Sacred Scripture and the Social Teaching of the Catholic Church: ‘For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me,’” the organization wrote in a statement, citing Matthew 25:35.

This story has been updated.

Mennonites march 135 miles to White House for Gaza cease-fire

Outside the White House on Sunday (July 28), the core group of about 15 who had walked with Aidan Yoder every day from Harrisonburg, Virginia, had grown 10 times larger, all gathered in prayer for a cease-fire.

Participants in the “All God’s Children March for a Ceasefire" event cross the Potomac River, Sunday, July 28, 2024, entering Washington, D.C., from Virginia. 

(RNS photo/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)

July 29, 2024
By Aleja Hertzler-McCain

WASHINGTON (RNS) — Many of the Mennonites who marched over 135 miles from Harrisonburg, Virginia, to the White House had someone in mind as they walked, nursing blisters and removing ticks as they crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Shenandoah Valley in 11 days.

For Aidan Yoder, an organizer and college student at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, it was the people he met while visiting the West Bank in Palestine during the summer of 2023 on an intercultural college program. One of them was a dancer from Gaza who could not visit her family due to Israeli restrictions on movement, and another was an Arabic teacher who told him she is afraid that her community will face the same devastating bombings that have decimated Gaza.

Outside the White House on Sunday (July 28), the core group of about 15 who had walked with Yoder every day from the main Mennonite hub in the Southeast U.S. had grown 10 times larger, all gathered in prayer for a cease-fire. The Mennonite tradition developed as a peace church believing that the Gospel teaches nonviolence. Organizers said the group included Mennonites from at least 40 different churches in the U.S. and Canada, as well as interfaith supporters from Catholic, Lutheran, Jewish, evangelical Christian and Southern Baptist traditions.

“We need to do something that doesn’t make sense because what’s happening in Gaza doesn’t make sense,” said organizer Nick Martin, explaining the rationale behind “All God’s Children March for a Ceasefire.” Martin continued, “It violates all common sense. It violates basic tenets of human compassion.”

Martin said the group had marched through parking lots, along highways and through suburban neighborhoods. “We felt like we needed to go into places where we would see everyday people and disrupt these spaces where politics supposedly doesn’t exist, but everywhere is political,” he said.

The group had timed their arrival to coincide with the first day of the Christians United for Israel summit, where thousands of pro-Israel activists are expected to gather in National Harbor, Maryland. An interfaith coalition including Christians, Jews, Hindus and Muslims has planned counter-protests for the duration of the event, which Mennonites plan to join.

In February, an interfaith group led by Faith for Black Lives organized a similar march called “Pilgrimage for Peace” from Independence Hall in Philadelphia to the White House over eight days, starting February 14, a day that commemorates abolitionist Frederick Douglass.


“All God’s Children March for a Ceasefire” participants pose together in front of the White House, Sunday, July 28, 2024, in Washington. (RNS photo/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)

This July march followed months of other actions and organizing by Mennonite Action, a group formed in November to protest for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war and an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

RELATED: As Netanyahu addresses Congress, protests rock Capitol

In January, about 130 Mennonites were arrested after holding a cease-fire hymn sing in the Cannon House Office Building. Song leaders kept the group in time and four-part harmony, even after their arms were zip-tied behind their backs, by stomping their feet. In December and March, local groups across the U.S. and Canada visited their representatives’ offices with quilts and more hymns.

On Eastern Mennonite University’s campus in March, students rang the campus bell for each of the people who had been killed in Palestine and Israel since the beginning of the war. At the time, it took three days of ringing the bell from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. each day.

Now, more than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of Israel’s military campaign, in addition to the 1,200 people killed in Israel during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, according to their respective governments. The students would have to add another day of ringing if they repeated the protest.

In prayer, Sunday’s protesters uplifted current dire conditions in Gaza, where polio is beginning to spread. We repent of “dehumanizing the dead in Gaza, by counting them as numbers, but not as people who have dreams and aspirations,” said one protester. “How long, oh Lord, will this nightmare continue?”

They prayed for Gazans, including Muhammed Bhar, a Palestinian man with Down syndrome and autism, who was found dead by his family one week after an Israeli army dog attacked him. The Israeli military confirmed that soldiers had left Bhar alone after they ordered his family to leave.

For many Mennonites, the Palestinians they thought about as they walked were people they had known from peace and development work.

Mary Yoder, from Columbus, Ohio, thought of a Palestinian shepherd she had been assigned to protect during a mission with Christian Peacemaker Teams, a faith-based nonviolence organization, in the West Bank in the early 2000s. She witnessed an Israeli settler break the shepherd’s ribs in front of her and said that since then, he’s had his ribs broken “all the time,” his arms broken and bruises all over his body.

“So many of the people that I know are being attacked, and so it just leaves me feeling kind of helpless,” Yoder said. But walking with Mennonite Action since Friday has been “invigorating” and “inspiring,” the 63-year-old said. (Aidan and Mary said they were not related. Yoder is a common Mennonite last name.)

Anna Johnson carries a sign while marching through Washington, D.C., Sunday, July 28, 2024. (RNS photo/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)

Anna Johnson, who walked on Sunday with her mother, a Lutheran pastor, told RNS she became Mennonite after learning about Mennonite Central Committee’s work while she was serving with Lutherans in Palestine. Out of her seven years living in Palestine, she served with the Mennonite development and peace organization for three, coordinating learning tours in Bethlehem.

“I communicate regularly with friends in Gaza, and they’re so tired and scared for their children,” said Johnson, now a member of Kern Road Mennonite Church, in South Bend, Indiana.

Johnson said that being in community gave her strength to continue, even as she doesn’t have a lot of hope. “Fundamentally, I continue through fatigue because my friends in Palestine don’t have the choice to stop until they are free. Neither do I,” she said.

Mennonite Central Committee has worked in the West Bank since 1949, just a year after the Nakba, the Palestinian word for the Zionist violence and intimidation that drove about 750,000 Palestinians from their homes. The Nakba began a day after Israel declared independence, after British forces withdrew from the region and neighboring Arab states attacked Israel.

In recent years, Mennonite Central Committee has faced a reckoning for its entanglement with Nazi Germany. The organization was in debt to the German government as Nazis came to power. After World War II, the organization resettled some Nazis, including some complicit in the Holocaust, among 12,000 Mennonite refugees. In 2021, Mennonite Central Committee released internal research about this history and committed to develop antisemitism training for its employees.

“Because of complicity with the genocide of the Holocaust is even more reason for me to be in the streets today saying definitively that we will not be complicit in this genocide,” said Johnson.

Johnson expressed excitement about the opportunity to work together with Jews and Muslims through the interfaith actions of the coming week and spoke about the importance of combating antisemitism “in our theology, in our churches, in our organizing spaces.”

Anti-war protesters march through Washington, D.C., Sunday, July 28, 2024. (RNS photo/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)

Mackenzie Miller, a student at Goshen College, told RNS she sees participating in Mennonite Action protests as another important departure from history, a history of “passive pacifism.”

Historically, Mennonites resisted war by being conscientious objectors and participating in alternative service. But until the 1970s, many Mennonites didn’t vote and avoided involvement in public life, seeking separation as part of the theological imperative to be “in the world but not of it.”

While some Mennonites participated in anti-war protests against the Vietnam War and subsequent wars, Mennonite Action is ramping up an invigorated kind of coordinated activist pacifism that is drawing a broad base of support among the members of Mennonite Church USA, the largest Mennonite denomination in the U.S., which leans to the left on issues of LGBTQ+ inclusion and political involvement compared to more conservative Mennonite groups.

RELATED: Dozens of Christians arrested after shutting down Senate lunch in protest of Gaza famine

They draw on deep political knowledge with organizer Adam Ramer, who resigned as California Rep. Ro Khanna’s political director after the congressman initially failed to back a cease-fire.

Aidan Yoder, an organizer of “All God’s Children March for a Ceasefire,” at the White House, Sunday, July 28, 2024, in Washington. (RNS photo/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)

“I believe that we need an active pacifism, actively seeking peace, seeking that justice as we care for our neighbors all over the world,” Miller said.

The next generation of Mennonites are embracing that call.

Samuel Miller Gonzalez, a 13-year-old member of Shalom Mennonite Congregation in Harrisonburg, Virginia, told RNS he’d joined the march for four days and camped at farms “to show people in Gaza that we actually care.” His faith taught him that “every single one of us is important. Everybody is the same, so how can you kill somebody that’s just like you?” he said.

Erica Weaver told RNS that her congregation, North Baltimore Mennonite Church, had been praying for a cease-fire. The 14-year-old joined Sunday’s protest because “people’s lives are being taken that don’t deserve it,” she said. “Even kids are getting killed for no reason … kids my age, and they haven’t lived that long.

For Aidan Yoder, these young families of parents and children fighting for the children of Gaza bring him hope, he told RNS.

Dennis Lehmann told the Mennonites outside the White House he had marched for the children of Gaza. “I walked for the children of Gaza who can no longer walk,” he said, speaking of the children who died by bombs or lack of medicine.

“I also walk for the children of Gaza who still live,” Lehmann continued. “May my walking soften the hearts of our president and our congresspeople. May their hearts become so full of compassion that they demand Israel stop the killing,” he prayed.

Doug Luginbill, the conference minister for Mennonite Church USA’s central district, emphasized to those assembled that their walking “with sore feet and knees and hips and thirsting mouths and hungry bellies” was a choice.

“There are so many who did not choose to leave their homes,” the minister continued. “Some are forced by bombs that we paid for. God forgive us.”

After writing prayers on papers to leave outside the White House, the Mennonites again began singing: “There is more love somewhere/ I’m gonna keep on till I find it.”

AMERIKA

Why small business owners want their employees to have affordable healthcare

By Pat Kreitlow
July 29, 2024

Main Street Alliance members know the Affordable Care Act keeps premium prices low so that they don’t lose good workers to corporate competitors.

On a recent visit to Wisconsin, the new national leader for a group representing small businesses explained why their organization lobbies to strengthen the “care economy” and opposes efforts by former President Donald Trump and Republicans to erase progress on health insurance affordability.

Richard Trent, executive director for Main Street Alliance, oversees a group dedicated to giving a larger voice to entrepreneurs with fewer than 50 employees—a group often drowned out by big business lobbyists who oppose pro-employee policies such as paid family leave, a higher minimum wage, access to quality childcare, and affordable healthcare. Each of those factors can play a role in the loss of good workers who either have to take jobs with large companies that can afford better benefits—or leave the workforce and stay home.

“I feel like we’re really just starting to connect the dots between what a strong ‘care economy’ means for the sustainability of small businesses,” Trent said. “The fact of the matter is that there’s a big showdown looming, especially around affordable health care for small business owners and American citizens.”

In an interview with UpNorthNews, Trent specifically touted the importance of extending subsidies that help keep Affordable Care Act insurance premiums low for working families.


“They were re-upped during the pandemic and have been keeping premiums low for American citizens for a while now,” Trent said. “They’re slated to expire next year, and it’s going to be a part of this larger tax. debate between Democrats and Republicans.”

While it’s apparent that premium supports have allowed lower-income working families to afford health insurance, they’ve also helped middle class families who might decide to go without healthcare coverage if it’s not offered on the job.

“Just to put things in perspective, if those premium tax credits expire, a 60-year-old couple making around $80,000 a year can expect to pay $17,500 more in health care costs annually,” Trent said. “That’s not me misspeaking. It’s literally $17,500 on the line for working class families, which is unacceptable. And a lot of our members know that when you have to incur those sorts of expenses, it can totally throw your business operations out of whack.”

Trent said he was encouraged to meet conservatives at the Republican National Convention who sounded supportive of other policies that could help protect small businesses and the incomes of their workers—such as stronger antitrust laws.

“I think that’s because so many folks—Democrats and Republicans—have witnessed what actually happens on Main Street,” Trent said. “You’ve got these massive corporations that come into our communities, drive down the prices so that small businesses nearby can’t compete—and then once those businesses are out of the game, then they jack the prices back up.”


Main Street Alliance also has a focus on policies at the state level, like raising the minimum wage, Medicaid expansion, and paid leave, and will be working to get voters engaged, registered, and educated on issues that affect their ability to afford local goods and strengthen local jobs.

Author

Pat Kreitlow
The Founding Editor of UpNorthNews, Pat was a familiar presence on radio and TV stations in western Wisconsin before serving in the state Legislature. After a brief stint living in the Caribbean, Pat and wife returned to Chippewa Falls to be closer to their growing group of grandchildren. He now serves as UNN's chief political correspondent and host of UpNorthNews Radio, airing weekday mornings 6 a.m.-8 a.m on the Civic Media radio network and the UpNorthNews Facebook page.