https://www.hcn.org/issues/48.20/the-bundy-family-on-trial

On Oct. 27, in federal district court, a jury delivered a not-guilty verdict for Ryan and Ammon Bundy and five other defendants, on charges stemming from their 41-day armed occupation of Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge early this year.

Finally, the defense team managed to bring an FBI informant to the witness stand, through what Schindler calls “some kind of investigative miracle.” The appearance of an informant led to the government revealing that nine occupiers were actually informants. “You can’t be part of a conspiracy if it’s you and a government informant,” Schindler says. One juror told Schindler that this information swayed a fellow juror.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/biden-transition-official-87-million-house-migrants-banned-working-ice-contracts

The Biden transition team official who brokered an $87 million immigration contract for a nonprofit organization that he was simultaneously advising was never cleared by federal authorities to work on the deal and has since been banned from any future work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to agency documents.

At ICE, Lorenzen-Strait reported directly to Tae Johnson, who is now the temporary leader of the agency. Another ICE official, Claire Trickler-McNulty, worked directly under Lorenzen-Strait at the time that he left ICE in 2019. Trickler-McNulty this year was given full authority over acquisitions and contracts despite it being outside her responsibility, three people with knowledge of the situation confirmed.

Lorenzen-Strait left ICE in mid-2019 and initially joined the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, where he oversaw “100 partners in 39 states across the country who provide child welfare services to refugee and migrant children.”

He joined the Biden-Harris transition team in 2020, where he was responsible for “conducting interviews and vetting for political appointees” at Health and Human Services, the department that cares for unaccompanied migrant children who show up at the border.

‘Very Nervous’: Tim Allen Returns To Stand-Up Roots, Worries About ‘Government Agents Policing Comedy’

https://www.wwdmag.com/industrial-water/epa-announces-intent-strengthen-limits-water-pollution-power-plants?

The U.S. EPA announced that it is initiating a rule-making process to strengthen certain wastewater pollution discharge limits for coal power plants that use steam to generate electricity.

This decision comes after EPA undertook a science-based review of the 2020 Steam Electric Reconsideration Rule under Executive Order (E.O.) 13990, according to EPA’s news release.

Based on this review, EPA found that there are opportunities to strengthen certain wastewater pollution discharge limits, including treatment systems using membranes as an option for treating a wide variety of industrial pollution.

According to EPA, this technology will continue advancing and the agency will evaluate its availability as part of the new rule-making.

“EPA is committed to science-based policy decisions to protect our natural resources and public health,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan in the EPA news release. “In conducting a review of the 2020 rule as directed by President Biden, EPA determined that moving forward with implementing the existing regulations would ensure that water resources are protected now, while we quickly move to strengthen water quality protections and further reduce power plant pollution that can contain toxic metals such as mercury, arsenic, and selenium.”

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/01/25/2021-01765/protecting-public-health-and-the-environment-and-restoring-science-to-tackle-the-climate-crisis

To that end, this order directs all executive departments and agencies (agencies) to immediately review and, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, take action to address the promulgation of Federal regulations and other actions during the last 4 years that conflict with these important national objectives, and to immediately commence work to confront the climate crisis.