reACTIONary
reACTIONary's JournalArizona city cuts off a neighborhood's water supply amid drought
Source: Washington Post (No Paywall)
Historic shortages of Colorado River water and a bitter political feud have conspired to leave a Scottsdale, Ariz., neighborhood in a desperate scramble to find enough water to sustain themselves.
This grim forecast prompted Scottsdale to warn Rio Verde Foothills more than a year ago that their water supply would be cut off. City officials stressed their priority was to their own residents and cast Rio Verde Foothills as a boomtown of irresponsible development, fed by noisy water trucks rumbling over city streets. “The city cannot be responsible for the water needs of a separate community especially given its unlimited and unregulated growth,” the city manager’s office wrote in December.
Read more: https://wapo.st/3Xw6EPI
Santos's Lies Were Known to Some Well-Connected Republicans
Source: New York Times (No Paywall)
George Santos inspired no shortage of suspicion during his 2022 campaign, including in the upper echelons of his own party, yet many Republicans looked the other way.
Some of Mr. Santos’s own vendors were so alarmed after seeing the study in late November 2021 that they urged him to drop out of the race, and warned that he could risk public humiliation by continuing. When Mr. Santos disputed key findings and vowed to continue running, members of the campaign team quit, according to three of the four people The New York Times spoke to with knowledge of the study.
The episode, which has not been previously reported, is the most explicit evidence to date that a small circle of well-connected Republican campaign professionals had indications far earlier than the public that Mr. Santos was spinning an elaborate web of deceits, and that the candidate himself had been warned about just how vulnerable those lies were to unraveling.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/13/nyregion/george-santos-republicans-lies.html?unlocked_article_code=GTdewFz2g4ypaAHi7CQ4ysrjEBsqY9iV2G-mirmHXyXzMkOCUPRTnS4QgZRGj9eWx_-R_SGaArUrzBzaMe2_G88qXRrcVzBezWeQpAjQeFZQDRGyF2hUf3ITHgqE1EHVbY3xCXR01X4LXbLYamN0
Justice Department clears Postal Service to carry abortion drugs into red states
Source: Politico
The Justice Department has cleared the U.S. Postal Service to deliver abortion drugs to states that have strict limits on terminating pregnancy, and has offered limited assurances that a federal law addressing the issue won’t be used to prosecute people criminally over such mailings.
A legal opinion, from Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel, concludes that a nearly 150-year-old statute aimed at fighting “vice” through the mail is not enforceable against mailings of abortion drugs as long as the sender does not know that the drugs will be used illegally.
“We conclude that [the statute] does not prohibit the mailing, or the delivery or receipt by mail, of mifepristone or misoprostol where the sender lacks the intent that the recipient of the drugs will use them unlawfully,” OLC chief Christopher Schroeder wrote in the 21-page opinion posted online Tuesday.
“There are manifold ways in which recipients in every state may use these drugs, including to produce an abortion, without violating state law,” Schroeder added. “Therefore, the mere mailing of such drugs to a particular jurisdiction is an insufficient basis for concluding that the sender intends them to be used unlawfully.”
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/03/justice-department-postal-abortion-drugs-00076274
2 Charged in Attacks on Substations in Washington State
Source: New York Times, No Paywall
One man told law enforcement officials that he and another person had planned to disrupt power in the area to commit a burglary, according to court documents. The attacks left thousands without power.
Two men were charged on Tuesday in connection with attacks on four power substations in Washington State on Dec. 25 that left thousands without power, a crime that the authorities said had been intended as a ruse so that the men could burglarize a local business.
The men, Matthew Greenwood, 32, and Jeremy Crahan, 40, of Puyallup, Wash., were arrested on Dec. 31 after an investigation led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Both were charged on Tuesday with conspiracy to damage energy facilities and possession of an unregistered firearm, the Justice Department said.
After he was arrested, Mr. Greenwood told law enforcement officials that he and Mr. Crahan had been planning to disrupt power in the area to commit a burglary, according to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Western District of Washington. Mr. Greenwood said that he and Mr. Crahan broke into the four substations by using bolt cutters. The men caused the outages using various methods, including manipulating breakers and tampering with switches, according to court documents.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/03/us/power-substation-attacks-arrest-washington.html?unlocked_article_code=fKiDoTbOBuDY4AOuz-of84sriEYnWnlky1iHYo2iVkPuDFLiY5axxfpUJ2B255_ErVEqXIrVl6fTvFfLRfaAE2YNwDesPoEGO3dS_IbtL_M9-d8_gmSoRhVv-rPQbnAZAXmVdHJOE7JClmuEEqgaMwDU7wKROBmy_iZQCBZJhhdOyD0xX9VtsA14ME2t3WYM73dJ1CPGgqHg_Jdn4R8_Z40FSzZrU8UVLjui1abxokUeWm9OlWLwbY3mRI6vmr9oeUjWfqFu3W-QIbPS_Ea5tT0LCjOqkFg9-561azfPN-HR1QBM03CocGAb11hRD8FpaXmvFGMFojmv1-m6sWuB67JZp5NIMZ-vVXqrTmUVZg&smid=share-url
Profile Information
Member since: Sun Jun 5, 2011, 07:28 PMNumber of posts: 5,788