April 20, 1950: the CIA’s behavior-control program project BLUEBIRD officially began. CIA Director Roscoe Hillenkoetter approved the behavior-control program (the predecessor to Project ARTICHOKE) and authorized the use of unvouchered funds to pay for its most sensitive areas. At this point, LSD was not known to the CIA. (LSD, see August; Red Scare, see April 29)
Elvis Presley
April 20, 1960: Elvis returned to Hollywood for the first time since coming home from Germany to film G.I. Blues (see April 25 – May 22)
April 20 Music et al
FREE SPEECH
April 20, 1961: the Borough President’s Community Planning Board 2, a semi-official Greenwich Village community planning board, voted to uphold Park Commissioner Newbold Morris’s ban against folk-singing in Washington Square Park. (see NYC bans for expanded story)
Jazz Samba
April 20, 1962: Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd released Jazz Samba, the first major bossa-nova album on the American jazz scene.
From Wikipedia: Getz and Byrd were accompanied by two bassists: Keter Betts and Joe Byrd, Charlie Byrd’s brother who also played guitar. They were joined by two drummers: Buddy Deppenschmidt and Bill Reichenbach. The album was recorded at All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington, D.C. on February 13, 1962.
Antonio Carlos Jobim composed two songs, “Desafinado” (Out of Tune) and “Samba de Uma Nota Só” (One Note Samba), both released as singles in the U.S. and Europe. Charlie Byrd wrote one song, and the rest were by Brazilian composers.
Stan Getz won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance of 1963 for “Desafinado”, and went on to make many other bossa nova recordings, notably with João Gilberto and Astrud Gilberto and the popular song “The Girl from Ipanema”.
April 20 Music et al
West Side Story
April 20 – May 3, 1963 – West Side Story soundtrack returns as the Billboard #1 album.
April 20 Music et al
Paul McCartney
April 20, 1970: the US release of Paul McCartney’s first album. Apart from then-wife Linda’s vocal contributions, he performed and recorded the entire album solo. Featuring loosely arranged (and in some cases, unfinished) home recordings, McCartney further explored the “back-to-basics” style which had been intended for The Beatles’ Let It Be
From Wikipedia: McCartney explored the back-to-basics style that had been the original concept for the Let It Be (then titled Get Back) project in 1969. Partly as a result of McCartney’s role in officially ending the Beatles’ career, the album received an unfavourable response from the majority of music critics, although the song “Maybe I’m Amazed” was consistently singled out for praise. Commercially, McCartney benefited from the publicity surrounding the break-up; it held the number 1 position for three weeks on the US Billboard 200 chart and peaked at number 2 in Britain. (see May 18)
April 20 (Easter), 1710: another Virginia conspiracy in the same area as 1709—perhaps inspired by Peter and involving only African American slaves—was to have begun on Easter 1710. A slave named Will, however, betrayed it to authorities. Will got his freedom and his owner Robert Ruffin was reimbursed for his value with £40 of public money. Two of the plot’s leaders were tried by the General Court, convicted, and executed. Wrote Governor Edmund Jennings in his report to the London Lords of Trade, “I hope their fate will strike such terror in the other negroes as will keep them from forming such designs for the future, without being obliged to make an example of any more of them.” (see April 6, 1712)
Civil Rights Act of 1871
April 20, 1871: President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Enforcement Act of 1871. The Act has several other names: Civil Rights Act of 1871, Force Act of 1871, Ku Klux Force Act, Ku Klux Klan Act, Third Enforcement Act, or Third Ku Klux Klan Act. The act empowered the President to suspend the writ of habeas corpus to combat the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and other white supremacy organizations during the Reconstruction Era. (Federal Judicial Center article) (BH, see Oct 10;Terrorism, seeOct 12)
Nelson Mandela
April 20, 1964, Mandela delivered his famous “I am prepared to die” speech while on trial.
[exerpt] “Africans want to be paid a living wage. Africans want to perform work which they are capable of doing, and not work which the Government declares them to be capable of. We want to be allowed to live where we obtain work, and not be endorsed out of an area because we were not born there. We want to be allowed and not to be obliged to live in rented houses which we can never call our own. We want to be part of the general population, and not confined to living in our ghettoes. African men want to have their wives and children to live with them where they work, and not to be forced into an unnatural existence in men’s hostels. Our women want to be with their men folk and not to be left permanently widowed in the reserves. We want to be allowed out after eleven o’clock at night and not to be confined to our rooms like little children. We want to be allowed to travel in our own country and to seek work where we want to, where we want to and not where the Labour Bureau tells us to. We want a just share in the whole of South Africa; we want security and a stake in society.
Above all, My Lord, we want equal political rights, because without them our disabilities will be permanent. I know this sounds revolutionary to the whites in this country, because the majority of voters will be Africans. This makes the white man fear democracy.
But this fear cannot be allowed to stand in the way of the only solution which will guarantee racial harmony and freedom for all. It is not true that the enfranchisement of all will result in racial domination. Political division, based on colour, is entirely artificial and, when it disappears, so will the domination of one colour group by another. The ANC has spent half a century fighting against racialism. When it triumphs as it certainly must, it will not change that policy.
This then is what the ANC is fighting. Our struggle is a truly national one. It is a struggle of the African people, inspired by our own suffering and our own experience. It is a struggle for the right to live.
During my lifetime I have dedicated my life to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal for which I hope to live for and to see realised. But, My Lord, if it needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.” (text via Nelson Mandela dot org site) (see June 12)
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education
April 20, 1971:in a 9-0 decision, with the opinion written by Chief Justice Warren Burger, the Supreme Court upheld the use of busing as a “remedial technique” for achieving desegregation. (Oyez article) (BH, see Apr 21; SD, see Aug 30)
Fair Housing
April 20, 1976: in Hills, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development v Gautreaux et al. the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Racially discriminatory public housing programs violate the 5th Amendment and Civil Rights Act of 1964, and remedial action to alleviate the effects of such a practice not only is appropriate but also extends beyond city limits to the housing market of the city.
Chicago’s public housing policy had been that a project could go into a neighborhood only with the approval of that neighborhood’s Alderman, which meant that the City Council could and did exclude minorities from white neighborhoods.
In this case, a number of Chicago families living in housing projects were awarded Section 8 vouchers allowing them to move to the suburbs in compensation for the housing project’s substandard conditions. The federal government had challenged that policy. (Justia dot com article) (see October 1977)
Voting Rights
April 20, 2015: the U.S. Supreme Court revived a challenge to North Carolina’s election map, which civil rights groups complained illegally concentrated black voters in a handful of districts.
The North Carolina Supreme Court in December had upheld a redistricting map set by the Republican-controlled state legislature following the 2010 census. But in March, the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated a similar lawsuit against Alabama’s map, which also had previously passed muster with a lower court.
This decision, issued without comment, ordered the North Carolina high court to reconsider its ruling in light of the March opinion. The Alabama ruling required a lower court to consider that packing more minority voters in a district than necessary to give them political strength could violate the Voting Rights Act, by reducing the number of districts where minority voters could wield influence. (see June 29)
BLACK & SHOT
April 20, 2018: three current and former officials said that federal civil rights prosecutors recommended charges against Daniel Pantaleo, the New York police officer involved in the 2014 death of Eric Garner, but top Justice Department officials expressed strong reservations about whether to move forward with a case they say may not be winnable. (B & S, see June 19; Garner, see July 16)
April 20 Peace Love Art Activism
Cultural Milestone
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
April 20, 1841: Edgar Allen Poe’s, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, first appeared in Graham’s Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine. The tale is generally considered to be the first detective story. The story describes the extraordinary “analytical power” used by Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin to solve a series of murders in Paris. Like the later Sherlock Holmes stories, the tale is narrated by the detective’s roommate. (text of story via americanenglishdotstatedotgov) (see August 19, 1846)
April 20 Peace Love Art Activism
US Labor History
Ludlow Massacre
April 20, 1914: Colorado National Guards volley machine-gun fire into the union tent village in Ludlow, Colorado. Tents are set on fire. At least five miners, twelve children and two women are killed. The event leads to a series of demonstrations against the Rockefeller family at their home in Tarrytown, NY, as well as to further violence in Colorado as hundreds of miners take up arms and attack mines. (2014 New Yorker article) (next Anarchism, see Apr 29; LH, see Apr 28; see Goldman for expanded story)
April 20 Peace Love Art Activism
Women’s Health
Emma Goldman
April 20, 1916: Goldman tried at Special Sessions for lecturing on birth control; she is sentenced to fifteen days in Queens County Jail after refusing to pay a $100 fine. (see July 22 for next Anarchism; see Goldman for her expanded chronology)
April 20 Peace Love Art Activism
LSD & the Cold War
April 20, 1950: the CIA’s behavior-control program project BLUEBIRD officially began. CIA Director Roscoe Hillenkoetter approved the behavior-control program (the predecessor to project ARTICHOKE) and authorized the use of unvouchered funds to pay for its most sensitive areas. At this point, LSD was not known to the CIA. (CIA site article) (LSD, see August; Red Scare, see Apr 29)
April 20, 1960: Elvis returned to Hollywood for the first time since coming home from Germany to film G.I. Blues (see April 25 – May 22)
FREE SPEECH
April 20, 1961: the Borough President’s Community Planning Board 2, a semi-official Greenwich Village community planning board, voted to uphold Park Commissioner Newbold Morris’banagainst folk-singing in Washington Square Park. (see NYC Bansfor expanded story)
Jazz Samba
April 20, 1962: Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd released Jazz Samba, the first major bossa-nova album on the American jazz scene.
West Side Story
April 20 – May 3, 1963 – West Side Story soundtrack returns as the Billboard #1 album.
L.A. Free Festival
April 20, 1969: the L.A. Free Festival in Venice, CA ended early following an audience riot. 117 arrested. (see LA Free Festival for expanded story)
Paul McCartney
April 20, 1970: the US release of Paul McCartney’s first album. Apart from then-wife Linda’s vocal contributions, he performed and recorded the entire album solo. Featuring loosely arranged (and in some cases, unfinished) home recordings, McCartney further explored the “back-to-basics” style which had been intended for The Beatles’ Let It Be (see May 18)
Side one
“The Lovely Linda” – 0:45
“That Would Be Something” – 2:41
“Valentine Day” – 1:43
“Every Night” – 2:35
“Hot as Sun/Glasses” – 2:09
“Junk” – 1:56
“Man We Was Lonely” – 3:00
Side two
“Oo You” – 2:50
“Momma Miss America” – 4:07
“Teddy Boy” – 2:24
“Singalong Junk” – 1:56
“Maybe I’m Amazed” – 3:52
“Kreen-Akrore” – 4:15
April 20 Peace Love Art Activism
Space Race
Surveyor 3
April 20, 1967: the American probe, Surveyor 3, launched on April 17, landed on the Moon at the Mare Cognitum portion of the Oceanus Procellarum. It transmitted a total of 6,315 TV images to the Earth. (2014 Popular Science article) (see Apr 23)
April 20, 1977. In a 6-to-3 decision, the Court held that New Hampshire could not constitutionally require citizens to display the state motto upon their vehicle license plates. Chief Justice Burger, writing for the Court, found that the statute in question effectively required individuals to “use their private property as a ‘mobile billboard’ for the State’s ideological message.” The Court held that the State’s interests in requiring the motto did not outweigh free speech principles under the First Amendment, including “the right of individuals to hold a point of view different from the majority and to refuse to foster. . .an idea they find morally objectionable.” The state’s interest in motor vehicle identification could be achieved by “less drastic means,” and its interest in fostering state pride was not viewpoint-neutral. (next Free Speech, see April 28; see Maynard for expanded story)
Connick v. Myers
April 20, 1983: Connick v. Myers, was a United States Supreme Court decision concerning the First Amendment rights of public employees who speak on matters of possible public concern within the workplace context. It was first brought by Sheila Myers, an Orleans Parish, Louisiana, assistant district attorney (ADA). She had been fired by her superior, District Attorney Harry Connick Sr., when, after receiving a transfer she had fiercely resisted in private conversations with him and his chief assistant district attorney, she distributed a questionnaire to her fellow prosecutors asking about their experience with Connick’s management practices. At trial, Judge Jack Gordon of the Eastern District of Louisiana found the firing had been motivated by the questionnaire and was thus an infringement on her right to speak out on matters of public concern as a public employee. After the Fifth Circuit affirmed the verdict, Connick appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court justices reversed the lower courts by a 5-4 margin. Justice Byron White wrote for the majority that most of the matters Myers’ questionnaire had touched on were of personal, not public, concern and that the action had damaged the harmonious relations necessary for the efficient operation of the district attorney’s office. William Brennan argued in dissent that the majority’s application of precedent was flawed. He argued that all the matters in the questionnaire were of public concern, and feared a chilling effect on speech by public employees about such matters would result. (see May)
April 20 Peace Love Art Activism
Calvin Graham
April 20, 1978: the New York Times reports that US Senators Lloyd Bentsen and John Town of Texas had introduced a bill to give Graham his long-sought discharge. (see Graham for expanded story)
April 20 Peace Love Art Activism
AIDS
April 20, 1998: Donna Shalala, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, determined that needle-exchange programs (NEPs) were effective and did not encourage the use of illegal drugs, but the Clinton Administration did not lift the ban on use of Federal funds for NEPs. (see June 25)
April 20 Peace Love Art Activism
Technological Milestone
April 20, 1999: the Disney film ‘A Bug’s Life‘ was released. It was the first 100% digital DVD. It was transferred directly from the digital source to DVD. (see January 9, 2001)
April 20 Peace Love Art Activism
LGBTQ
Connecticut
April 20, 2005: Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell signed a civil union bill into law, affording same-sex couples some – but not all – of the projections that marriage provides. (see Sept 6)
National Organization for Marriage
April 20, 2015, LGBTQ: the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear one last legal attempt by the National Organization for Marriageto overturn a federal judge’s ruling allowing gays and lesbians to marry in Oregon. The high court’s action came nearly a year after U.S. District Judge Michael McShane of Eugene on May 19, 2014, struck down Oregon’s voter-approved constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage. (see Apr 28)
April 20 Peace Love Art Activism
Cannabis
April 20, 2006: the FDA released a statement titled “Inter-Agency Advisory Regarding Claims That Smoked Marijuana Is a Medicine.” The FDA stated that “there is currently sound evidence that smoked marijuana is harmful. A past evaluation by several Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agencies… concluded that no sound scientific studies supported medical use of marijuana for treatment in the United States, and no animal or human data supported the safety or efficacy of marijuana for general medical use…” (Procon.org article) (see June 21)
April 20 Peace Love Art Activism
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
April 20, 2010: an explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig killed 11 workers, caused the rig to sink two days later, and caused a massive offshore oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. (Offshore Tech site timeline) (see Apr 24)
April 20 Peace Love Art Activism
Death Penalty
April 20, 2017: Arkansas executed Ledell Lee, 51, who was sentenced to death in 1995. (NYT article) (see Apr 24)
April 20 Peace Love Art Activism
Immigration History
April 20, 2020: President Trump announced a plan to close the United Statesto people trying to come to the country to live and work. He justified the drastic move as a necessary step to protect American workers from foreign competition once the nation’s economy begins to recover from the shutdown caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
“In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!” (next IH, see April 21); ban lifted, see February 24, 2021)
April 19, 1929: after years of lobbying by National Women’s Party and other groups, Puerto Rican women granted suffrage subject to literacy testing. (Puerto Rican Women’s History book text) (Feminism, see November 20, 1930; Voting Rights, see September 9, 1957)
April 19 Peace Love Art Activism
Black History
Scottsboro 9
April 19, 1933: Judge Horton postponed the trials of the other Scottsboro defendants because of dangerously high local tensions. The judge feared that local tensions were too strained to result in a “just and impartial verdict.” (see Scottsboro for expanded story)
FREE SPEECH
April 19, 1960: the City of Montgomery filed a $500,000 libel suit against The New York Times in the wake of an advertisement that was critical of Alabama. (see May 30)
Z. Alexander Looby
April 19, 1960: KKK terrorists bomb the home of Z. Alexander Looby, a Nashville civil rights lawyer who defended students arrested in Nashville, TN sit-ins. He and his wife survive. (Black Past dot org article on Looby) (see Greensboro Four for expanded story)
George Whitmore, Jr
April 19, 1965: in view of the “the antipathy and antagonism” Justice Dominic Rinaldi had shown Whitmore’s attorney, Stanley Reiben, Reiben asked to withdraw from the case, saying he can no longer effectively represent his client. Rinaldi denied the request. (see Whitmore for expanded story)
James Earl Ray
April 19, 1968: the FBI announced that James Earl Ray was being sought under the alias of Eric Starvo Galt for the murder of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (see Apr 25; Ray seeJune 8)
Afro American Society
April 19, 1969: more than 80 members of the Afro American Society took over Willard Straight Hall, Cornell University’s student union.
The takeover had been prompted by a reprimand of three Black students for an incident the previous December and a cross burning (both incidents occurred the previous day) in front of the Black women’s cooperative and other cases of alleged racism. Protesters and administrators reached an agreement and the students left the building a day later. (Cornell U article) (see Apr 25)
Jill E Brown
April 19, 1978: Jill E Brown of Baltimore got her flight wings from Texas International Airlines, which made her the first black woman who was known to have qualified as a pilot for a major US airline. Brown, 27, began flying as a teenager and later became a pilot for a local airline in North Carolina before becoming a first officer on TIA. (Black Past dot org article) (BH, see June 8; next Feminism, see Apr 25)
Confederate battle flag
April 19, 1983: about 100 African-American students at the University of Mississippi protested against the use of the Confederate battle flag as a symbol of the university. The night before, white students had waved the flag, sung “Dixie,” and shouted racial slurs. The next day, the university chancellor announced the flag would no longer be used as a university symbol. (see June 2)
Rodney King
April 19, 1994: The U.S. District Court in Los Angeles awarded King $3.8 million in compensatory damagesin a civil lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles. King had demanded $56 million, or $1 million for every blow struck by the officers. (Black History, see May 10; King, see June 1, 1994)
Freddie Gray
April 19, 2015: Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man, died of a spinal cord injury after police arrested handcuffed, and placed him in a police wagon without a seat-belt. (B & S and Gray, see Apr 27)
April 19 Peace Love Art Activism
April 19 Music et al
Bicycle Day
April 19, 1943: Albert Hofmann intentionally took LSD (250 ug) for the first time. This was the first intentional use of LSD. He asked Susi Ramstein, a laboratory assistant, to escort him home and, as use of motor vehicles was prohibited because of wartime restrictions, they had to make the journey on a bicycle. On the way, Hofmann’s condition rapidly deteriorated as he struggled with feelings of anxiety, alternating in his beliefs that the next-door neighbor was a malevolent witch, that he was going insane, and that the LSD had poisoned him.
When the house doctor arrived, however, he could detect no physical abnormalities, save for a pair of incredibly dilated pupils. Hofmann was reassured, and soon his terror began to give way to a sense of good fortune and enjoyment, as he later wrote:“… little by little I could begin to enjoy the unprecedented colors and plays of shapes that persisted behind my closed eyes. Kaleidoscopic, fantastic images surged in on me, alternating, variegated, opening and then closing themselves in circles and spirals, exploding in colored fountains, rearranging and hybridizing themselves in constant flux …” (see Hofman for more; next LSD, see Apr 22)
Cultural Milestone
April 19, 1961: the Federal Communications Commission authorized regular FM stereo broadcasting starting on June 1, 1961. (see FCC delivers rock for expanded story)
The Beatles & Co
April 19, 1967:in order to control their various business interests, The Beatles’ tax advisors suggested they form an umbrella company. It was named The Beatles & Co.
At the time the group had large amounts of capital, which they were in danger of losing to the Inland Revenue. To avoid this occurring they chose to invest in a business venture.
The Beatles & Co. was essentially a new version of Beatles Ltd, their original partnership. Under the new terms, each Beatle took ownership of 5% of the company, and a new corporation – which eventually became Apple Corps – would be collectively owned and would control 80% of The Beatles & Co. (from Beatles & Co) (see May)
April 19 Peace Love Art Activism
Vietnam
April 19, 1971: Vietnam Veterans Against the War began a five-day demonstration in Washington, D.C. Called Dewey Canyon III in honor of the operation of the same name conducted in Laos, about 1,000 veterans participated some throwing their combat ribbons, helmets, and uniforms on the Capitol steps, along with toy weapons. (VVAW article) (next Vietnam, see April 24)
April 19 Peace Love Art Activism
DEATH PENALTY
Charles Manson
April 19, 1971: Charles Manson was sentenced to death for ordering the murders of Sharon Tate and others. The sentence was then commuted to life after the Supreme Court of California overturned the death penalty in 1972. (see February 18, 1972)
Walter Leroy
April 19, 2018: Alabama executed Walter Leroy Moody Jr., who used mail bombs to assassinate a federal appeals court judge and a civil rights lawyer in 1989, at the Alabama prison where he spent decades denying his guilt.
With his execution by lethal injection, Mr. Moody, 83, became the oldest prisoner put to death in the modern era of American capital punishment, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a research group. (see Aug 2)
April 19 Peace Love Art Activism
Oklahoma City Explosion
April 19, 1995: car bomb exploded outside federal office building in Oklahoma City collapsing wall and floors. 168 people were killed, including 19 children and 1 person who died in rescue effort. Over 220 buildings sustained damage. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols later convicted in the anti government plot to avenge the Branch Davidian standoff in Waco, Tex., exactly 2 years earlier. (see Apr 21)
April 19 Peace Love Art Activism
LGBTQ
BSA
April 19, 2013: officials of the Boy Scouts of America proposed ending their ban on openly gay scoutsbut continuing to bar gay adults from serving as leaders. The decision, which follows years of heated controversy within the organization and growing outside criticism, must be approved by the roughly 1,400 voting members of the Scouts’ National Council at a meeting in Texas the week of May 20. (next BSA & LGBTQ, see Apr 27)
Transgender students
April 19, 2016: the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Va., ruled in favor of a transgender student who was born female and wishes to use the boys’ restroom at his rural Virginia high school.
As a result of the ruling, advocates said, that portion of the North Carolina law that applied to public schools clearly violated Title IX — the federal law that prohibits gender discrimination in schools. (see May 6)
Title IX/Transgender
April 19, 2024: the Biden administration issued new rules cementing protections for L.G.B.T.Q. students under federal law and updating the procedure schools must follow when investigating and adjudicating cases of alleged sexual misconduct on campus.
The new rules, which would take effect on Aug. 1, effectively broadened the scope of Title IX, the 1972 law prohibiting sex discrimination in educational programs that receive federal funding. They extend the law’s reach to prohibit discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
“These regulations make it crystal clear that everyone can access schools that are safe, welcoming and that respect their rights,” Miguel A. Cardona, the education secretary, said. [NYT article] (next LGBTQ+, see Apr 29)
April 19, 2018: Raúl Castro, who had taken over from his brother Fidel 12 years ago, stepped down and handed power to Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, 57, a Communist Party loyalist who was born a year after Fidel Castro claimed power in Cuba. (next CW, see Oct 16; next Cuba/CW, see June 5, 2019)
April 19 Peace Love Art Activism
Environmental Issues
Coal Ban/Public Lands
April 19, 2019: Judge Brian Morris of the United States District Court of the District of Montana delivered a significant setback to the Trump administration’s policy of promoting coal, ruling that the Interior Department acted illegally when it sought to lift an Obama-era moratorium on coal mining on public lands.
Morris’s decision did not reinstate President Barack Obama’s 2016 freeze on new coal mining leases on public lands. That policy was part of an effort by the Obama administration to curtail the burning of coal, a major producer of greenhouse gases contributing to climate change.
But the court ruling did say that the 2017 Trump administration policy, enacted by former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, to overturn Mr. Obama’s coal mining ban did not include adequate studies of the environmental effects of the mining, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970, or NEPA, one of the nation’s bedrock environmental laws.
“Federal Defendants’ decision not to initiate the NEPA process proves arbitrary and capricious,” Judge Morris wrote. [NYT article](next EI, see Apr 25)
Forever Chemicals
April 19, 2024: the Biden administration designated two “forever chemicals,” man-made compounds that were linked to serious health risks, as hazardous substances under the Superfund law, shifting responsibility for their cleanup to polluters from taxpayers.
The new rule announced empowered the government to force the many companies that manufacture or use perfluorooctanoic acid, also known as PFOA, and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, known as PFOS, to monitor any releases into the environment and be responsible for cleaning them up. Those companies could face billions of dollars in liabilities.
The pair of compounds are part of a larger family of chemical substances known collectively as PFAS. [NYT article] (next EI, see Apr 25)
April 19 Peace Love Art Activism
Space
April 19. 2021: 117 years after the Wright Brothers’ historic flight on this planet, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter made the first-ever powered flight on another planet,
The flight itself was modest. The 4-pound helicopter rose 10 feet in the air, hovered briefly, and returned to the Martian surface. An images taken from the craft showed Ingenuity’s shadow on the surface and another taken from the Perseverance rover showed an airborne Ingenuity.
“We can now say that human beings have flown a rotorcraft on another planet,” project manager MiMi Aung announced to her team. [NPR article] (next Space, see Dec 14); Ingenuity, see January 25, 2024)
April 19 Peace Love Art Activism
Sexual Abuse of Children
April 19,2022: the Diocese of Camden, N.J., said that it had agreed to pay $87.5 million to settle claims made by hundreds of people who accused clergy members of sexually abusing them, one of the largest such settlements involving the Catholic Church in the United States.
In what may have been a first for such litigation, the ultimate payout to the plaintiffs could be substantially higher, lawyers representing them said, because the settlement allowed for further litigation against insurance companies for the diocese and related entities like parishes and schools.
“This is a triumph of courage, with all credit to the survivors for staying unified and strong,” Jeff Anderson, a lawyer for about a quarter of the roughly 300 plaintiffs, said.
In a statement announcing the settlement, Bishop Dennis J. Sullivan, the leader of the diocese, said, “I want to express my sincere apology to all those who have been affected by sexual abuse in our diocese.” [NYT article] (next SaoC, see Sept 8)
April 19 Peace Love Art Activism
US Labor History
April 19, 2024: in a landmark victory for organized labor, workers at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee voted overwhelmingly to join the United Automobile Workers union, becoming the first nonunion auto plant in a Southern state to do so.
The company said in a statement that the union had won 2,628 votes, with 985 opposed, in a three-day election. Two earlier bids by the U.A.W. to organize the Chattanooga factory over the last 10 years were narrowly defeated. [NYT article] (next LH, see )
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