By Miriam Raftery

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Trump Tower in New York, Creative Commons 3.0 image by Bin im Garten

September 29, 2023 (New York, NY) --  Donald Trump and his sons Eric and Don Jr. stand to lose their business empire, after New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron ruled that the company repeatedly violated the state’s fraud laws. The judge found that the Trumps  inflated the value of their assets by billions of dollars to get favorable loans and insurance terms, while claiming far lower values on the same properties when it suited them to do so.

For example, Trump valued his Mar-a-Lago golf club at $714  million on his annual financial statements, even though a tax assessor estimated its value at must $18 million. Trump even listed the size of his Mar-a-Lago  penthouse at 30,000 square feet, instead of its actual size—just 10,000 square feet, according to the civil fraud lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Judge Engoron has ordered business certificates for Trump’s New York properties cancelled and ordered independent receivers be appointed within 10 days to manage dissolving the companies, which could include selling off the assets. Trump could be entitled to money from any such sale.

By Miriam Raftery

File photo: Dead trees smoulder during controlled burn in San Diego’s East County

January 10, 2019 (San Diego’s East County) – Putting all San Diego County residents at higher risk of a major wildfire, winter controlled burning of two to three thousand acres in Cleveland National Forest have been put on hold due to the federal shutdown, fire officials have advised ECM news partner 10 News.

By Miriam Raftery

August 9, 2018 (Washington D.C.) – U.S. District Judge John Bates issued a ruling last week order the Trump administration to fully restore the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.  The program protects many young immigrants who came here as children from deportation.

Trump announced plans to shut down the program and his administration has stopped accepting applications or processing renewals. But the judge ruled Trump’s rationale for dropping DACA, a program created during the Obama administration, did not pass legal muster.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Santa Barbara oil spill, 1969, dumped up to 100,000 barrels of crude oil off California's coast, killing 3,500 sea birds as well as marine mammals such as dolphins and seals. (Dick Smith Collection, University of Santa Barbara)

January 5, 2018 (Washington D.C.) – Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke yesterday issued a sweeping proposal to open up 98% of all outer continental shelf areas for offshore oil drilling -- including off San Diego’s coastline.  By contrast, drilling is currently allowed in only 6% of those areas.

The proposal, which also includes plans to drill in the Arctic, elsewhere along the west coast, the Atlantic coast and the Gulf coast, has drawn strong opposition from environmental groups and from California’s Attorney General.  View map of proposed drilling sites. The public will have an opportunity to weigh in however in public comments and public meetings to be held around the country.  A schedule of those meetings will be posted here.  Online comments at regulations.gov will be accepted starting January 8^th.

By Miriam Raftery

An East County Magazine Special report

May 17, 2017 (Washington D.C.) – In a bombshell announcement, the U.S. Justice Department has  issued an order to appoint a special prosecutor  to investigate Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, including any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump campaign.  Far more broadly, the order allows investigation of any matters that arise from the investigation and all other matters within a special prosecutor’s jurisdiction under federal law – including authorization to prosecute federal crimes arising from the investigation.   

Acting Attorney General  Rod. J. Rosenstein issued the order to appoint Robert Mueller, a former federal prosecutor who served as FBI director from 2001 to 2013 under both Republican President George W. Bush and Democratic President Barack Obama.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo by Gage Skidmore

May 17, 2017 (Washington D.C.) –President Donald Trump pressured FBI director James Comey to halt the FBI investigation into former National Security Director Michael Flynn’s Russian connections, but Comey refused, according to a memo written by Comey at the time,  the New York Times reports.  Comey also refused Trump’s demand to jail journalists for publishing leaked materials—shortly before the President fired Comey.   The revelation has top Republican and Democratic Senators preparing to subpoena records that could, potentially, lead to impeachment.

“Obstruction of justice is what it looks like to anybody who’s looking at it,” Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat working with Republican  Senator Lindsey Graham to investigate the FBI’s role in the federal Russia investigation,  Politico reports. “This is about as lay down a case…as a prosecutor could imagine,” he added.

Republican Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight Committee who has said he won’t seek reelection,  today announced on Twitter that his committee will “get the Comey memo, if it exists,” adding, “I need to see it sooner rather than later. I have my subpoena pen ready.”

By Miriam Raftery

November 11, 2016 (Washington D.C.)—President-Elect Donald Trump has wasted no time in appointing environmental and health experts’ worst nightmares to key cabinet posts, though oil energy executives are praising the moves.

Energy lobbyist Mike McKenna has been named to head Trump’s Department of Energy transition team; his recent clients include Dow Chemical and the oil tycoon Koch brothers,  Climate Wire and Scientific American report. Trump has also named infamous climate change denier Myron Ebell to lead the Environmental Protection Agency transition team. Ebell has said climate change is “nothing to worry about” in an interview with Vanity Fair. 

Monday, May 31  is deadline for nonpartisan voters to request a party ballot to vote for a presidential candidate--but lawsuit seeks to extend that to June 7

By Miriam Raftery

May 21, 2016 (Sacramento) – Only 15% of California’s nonpartisan voters with mail-in ballots have requested a presidential primary ballot.  That means the vast majority won’t be able to vote for president in the June 7^th election--and many are unaware of that restriction.

Now civil rights lawyers have filed suit against California and some counties, claiming the laws are confusing, inconsistent, and amount to disenfranchisement.  If they win, the biggest beneficiary could be Bernie Sanders, the Democratic contender who draws heavy support from independent voters, who account for nearly a quarter of the electorate in California.