Massachusetts
Federal judge orders FEMA to restore billions in canceled disaster mitigation funding
A federal judge in Massachusetts on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to restore billions of dollars in canceled FEMA disaster mitigation funding, siding with 22 states and the District of Columbia that sued over the canceled grants this summer.
President Donald Trump’s administration said in April it was “ending” the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, which helped communities with predisaster projects to harden infrastructure and improve resilience against the increasing threats of climate change.
The administration called the program “wasteful and ineffective” and said it would halt $3.6 billion in funding awarded but not yet paid and would not award $882 million in grants for the following fiscal year.
The program’s disruption upended projects across hundreds of communities in both Republican- and Democratic-led states, thwarting plans to improve stormwater drainage, harden electrical lines and even help relocate households living in areas most vulnerable to disasters.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told The Associated Press Thursday that DHS “has not terminated BRIC,” but did not elaborate on the program’s status.
“The Biden Administration abandoned true mitigation and used BRIC as a green new deal slush fund,” the spokesperson said, referring to a Democratic plan to combat climate change. “It’s unfortunate that an activist judge either didn’t understand that or didn’t care.”
The order comes at a time of profound uncertainty over FEMA’s future and on the same day that a long-awaited meeting of the FEMA Review Council to present a report recommending reforms to the agency was abruptly canceled by the White House because it had not been fully briefed on the latest version of the report, according to a White House official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Congress funded BRIC during the first Trump administration through the 2018 Disaster Recovery Reform Act, and FEMA launched the program in 2020. The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act made an additional $1 billion available for BRIC over five years, though only about $133 million had been delivered to communities by April, according to FEMA.
The program was criticized by some for being difficult to access for rural and less wealthy communities due to a complicated application process and cost-sharing requirements. But even Republican lawmakers like Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana opposed the cancellations and called for BRIC’s reinstatement.
“It protects families and saves taxpayer dollars in the long-run,” Cassidy said on the Senate floor a week after the funding cancellation. “That’s efficient in my book.”
Judge Richard G. Stearns found that FEMA’s actions were unlawful since Congress appropriated the money specifically for the grants and that there was an “inherent public interest in ensuring that the government follows the law.”
“The BRIC program is designed to protect against natural disasters and save lives,” Stearns wrote in the court order.
The Trump administration has slashed disaster preparedness dollars across multiple FEMA programs this year as part of its campaign to transfer more responsibility for disasters to states.
Since February, Trump has not approved any requests for hazard mitigation funding, a typical add-on that helps states, tribes and territories complete resilience projects after major disasters.
Emergency preparedness grants that states and local governments rely on to staff emergency management agencies and buy equipment are currently frozen after 12 states sued the Trump administration over unprecedented grant stipulations related to the administration’s immigration agenda.
Multiple studies have shown that preemptive investments in disaster readiness can yield significant savings. A 2024 study funded by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce found every $1 invested in disaster preparation saved $13 in economic impact, damage and cleanup costs.
Alaska
Lawsuit challenges the approval of an exploratory drilling program in national petroleum reserve
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Conservation groups and an Iñupiat-aligned group sued Thursday to overturn the recent approval of an exploratory drilling program in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, saying it was improperly analyzed by the federal government and could harm caribou and important habitat areas.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management approved a one-year program proposed by ConocoPhillips Alaska last month that included seismic surveys aimed at helping identify oil and gas reserves and plans to drill four exploration wells. Activities would occur near existing ConocoPhillips Alaska developments, including the large Willow oil project, the lawsuit states.
The complaint, filed by Earthjustice on behalf of Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic, the Center for Biological Diversity and The Wilderness Society, says the process around the company’s application and its subsequent approval lacked transparency and was rushed. A final decision was issued days after a limited public comment period ended, it says.
The Bureau of Land Management “has pushed this project through without proper analysis or process and without considering the significant flaws in the measures it relies on to justify its approval of the exploration program,” the lawsuit states.
It names as defendants the Bureau of Land Management and its parent agency, the Department of the Interior, along with top officials including Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
Interior Department spokesperson Alyse Sharpe said the department does not comment on pending litigation.
Dennis Nuss, a spokesperson for ConocoPhillips Alaska, said in an email that the company is confident in the “robustness” of its plan and permits and looks forward to completing its work within the limited winter exploration season.
There has been longstanding debate over how much of the petroleum reserve — which covers an area roughly the size of Indiana — should be open for development. President Donald Trump’s administration has moved to roll back limits on drilling and protections enacted during the Biden administration, and a law passed this year calls for the first lease sales in the reserve since 2019.
The push has been cheered by the state’s Republican congressional delegation and governor, but it raised concerns among environmentalists who caution against the continued embrace of new oil production in the face of climate change. The reserve is home to Teshekpuk Lake, the largest lake in Alaska’s arctic region and third-largest in the state.
Nauri Simmonds, executive director of Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic, said the proposed exploration program is “not only an assault on caribou and tundra — it is another chapter in the enfoldment of our people into systems designed to fracture us from within.”
“Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic stands against this approval because our future depends on protecting our homelands, our unity, and our right to live free from the harms of industrial expansion,” Simmonds said in a statement.
The group describes itself online as “an organization of Iñupiat Peoples and community members that believe in a balanced Earth for future generations.”
There are differing views among Alaska Natives, however, over further oil development in places like the petroleum reserve. A group representing many North Slope leaders, Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, has supported efforts to drill there.
The lawsuit says work under the proposed program could begin “any day” and last until April or May.
Oklahoma
Black Lives Matter leader indicted for fraud, money laundering
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A federal grand jury indicted the leader of the Black Lives Matter movement in Oklahoma City over allegations that millions of dollars in grant funds were improperly spent on international trips, groceries and personal real estate, prosecutors announced Thursday.
Tashella Sheri Amore Dickerson, 52, was indicted earlier this month on 20 counts of wire fraud and five counts of money laundering, court records show.
Court records do not indicate the name of Dickerson’s attorney, and messages left Thursday at her mobile number and by email were not immediately returned.
According to the indictment, Dickerson served since at least 2016 as the executive director of Black Lives Matter OKC, which accepted charitable donations through its affiliation with the Arizona-based Alliance for Global Justice.
In total, BLM OKC raised more than $5.6 million dating back to 2020, largely from online donors and national bail funds that were supposed to be used to post bail for individuals arrested in connection with racial justice protests after the killing of George Floyd by a Minnesota police officer in 2020, the indictment alleges.
When those bail funds were returned to BLM OKC, the indictment alleges, Dickerson embezzled at least $3.15 million into her personal accounts and then used the money to pay for trips to Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, retail shopping, at least $50,000 in food and grocery deliveries for herself and her children, a personal vehicle, and six properties in Oklahoma City deeded to her or to a company she controlled.
The indictment also alleges she submitted false annual reports to the alliance stating that the funds were used only for tax-exempt purposes.
If convicted, Dickerson faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for each count of wire fraud and 10 years in prison and fines for each count of money laundering.
In a live video posted on her Facebook page Thursday afternoon, Dickerson said she was not in custody and was “fine.”
“I cannot make an official comment about what transpired today,” she said. “I am home. I am safe. I have confidence in our team.”
“A lot of times when people come at you with these types of things ... it’s evidence that you are doing the work,” she continued. “That is what I’m standing on.”
The Black Lives Matter movement first emerged in 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer who killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida. But it was the 2014 death of Michael Brown at the hands of police in Ferguson, Missouri, that made the slogan “Black lives matter” a rallying cry for progressives and a favorite target of derision for conservatives.
The Associated Press reported in October that the Justice Department was investigating whether leaders in the Black Lives Matter movement defrauded donors who contributed tens of millions of dollars during racial justice protests in 2020. There was no immediate indication that Dickerson’s indictment is connected to that probe.
Federal judge orders FEMA to restore billions in canceled disaster mitigation funding
A federal judge in Massachusetts on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to restore billions of dollars in canceled FEMA disaster mitigation funding, siding with 22 states and the District of Columbia that sued over the canceled grants this summer.
President Donald Trump’s administration said in April it was “ending” the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, which helped communities with predisaster projects to harden infrastructure and improve resilience against the increasing threats of climate change.
The administration called the program “wasteful and ineffective” and said it would halt $3.6 billion in funding awarded but not yet paid and would not award $882 million in grants for the following fiscal year.
The program’s disruption upended projects across hundreds of communities in both Republican- and Democratic-led states, thwarting plans to improve stormwater drainage, harden electrical lines and even help relocate households living in areas most vulnerable to disasters.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told The Associated Press Thursday that DHS “has not terminated BRIC,” but did not elaborate on the program’s status.
“The Biden Administration abandoned true mitigation and used BRIC as a green new deal slush fund,” the spokesperson said, referring to a Democratic plan to combat climate change. “It’s unfortunate that an activist judge either didn’t understand that or didn’t care.”
The order comes at a time of profound uncertainty over FEMA’s future and on the same day that a long-awaited meeting of the FEMA Review Council to present a report recommending reforms to the agency was abruptly canceled by the White House because it had not been fully briefed on the latest version of the report, according to a White House official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Congress funded BRIC during the first Trump administration through the 2018 Disaster Recovery Reform Act, and FEMA launched the program in 2020. The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act made an additional $1 billion available for BRIC over five years, though only about $133 million had been delivered to communities by April, according to FEMA.
The program was criticized by some for being difficult to access for rural and less wealthy communities due to a complicated application process and cost-sharing requirements. But even Republican lawmakers like Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana opposed the cancellations and called for BRIC’s reinstatement.
“It protects families and saves taxpayer dollars in the long-run,” Cassidy said on the Senate floor a week after the funding cancellation. “That’s efficient in my book.”
Judge Richard G. Stearns found that FEMA’s actions were unlawful since Congress appropriated the money specifically for the grants and that there was an “inherent public interest in ensuring that the government follows the law.”
“The BRIC program is designed to protect against natural disasters and save lives,” Stearns wrote in the court order.
The Trump administration has slashed disaster preparedness dollars across multiple FEMA programs this year as part of its campaign to transfer more responsibility for disasters to states.
Since February, Trump has not approved any requests for hazard mitigation funding, a typical add-on that helps states, tribes and territories complete resilience projects after major disasters.
Emergency preparedness grants that states and local governments rely on to staff emergency management agencies and buy equipment are currently frozen after 12 states sued the Trump administration over unprecedented grant stipulations related to the administration’s immigration agenda.
Multiple studies have shown that preemptive investments in disaster readiness can yield significant savings. A 2024 study funded by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce found every $1 invested in disaster preparation saved $13 in economic impact, damage and cleanup costs.
Alaska
Lawsuit challenges the approval of an exploratory drilling program in national petroleum reserve
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Conservation groups and an Iñupiat-aligned group sued Thursday to overturn the recent approval of an exploratory drilling program in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, saying it was improperly analyzed by the federal government and could harm caribou and important habitat areas.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management approved a one-year program proposed by ConocoPhillips Alaska last month that included seismic surveys aimed at helping identify oil and gas reserves and plans to drill four exploration wells. Activities would occur near existing ConocoPhillips Alaska developments, including the large Willow oil project, the lawsuit states.
The complaint, filed by Earthjustice on behalf of Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic, the Center for Biological Diversity and The Wilderness Society, says the process around the company’s application and its subsequent approval lacked transparency and was rushed. A final decision was issued days after a limited public comment period ended, it says.
The Bureau of Land Management “has pushed this project through without proper analysis or process and without considering the significant flaws in the measures it relies on to justify its approval of the exploration program,” the lawsuit states.
It names as defendants the Bureau of Land Management and its parent agency, the Department of the Interior, along with top officials including Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
Interior Department spokesperson Alyse Sharpe said the department does not comment on pending litigation.
Dennis Nuss, a spokesperson for ConocoPhillips Alaska, said in an email that the company is confident in the “robustness” of its plan and permits and looks forward to completing its work within the limited winter exploration season.
There has been longstanding debate over how much of the petroleum reserve — which covers an area roughly the size of Indiana — should be open for development. President Donald Trump’s administration has moved to roll back limits on drilling and protections enacted during the Biden administration, and a law passed this year calls for the first lease sales in the reserve since 2019.
The push has been cheered by the state’s Republican congressional delegation and governor, but it raised concerns among environmentalists who caution against the continued embrace of new oil production in the face of climate change. The reserve is home to Teshekpuk Lake, the largest lake in Alaska’s arctic region and third-largest in the state.
Nauri Simmonds, executive director of Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic, said the proposed exploration program is “not only an assault on caribou and tundra — it is another chapter in the enfoldment of our people into systems designed to fracture us from within.”
“Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic stands against this approval because our future depends on protecting our homelands, our unity, and our right to live free from the harms of industrial expansion,” Simmonds said in a statement.
The group describes itself online as “an organization of Iñupiat Peoples and community members that believe in a balanced Earth for future generations.”
There are differing views among Alaska Natives, however, over further oil development in places like the petroleum reserve. A group representing many North Slope leaders, Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, has supported efforts to drill there.
The lawsuit says work under the proposed program could begin “any day” and last until April or May.
Oklahoma
Black Lives Matter leader indicted for fraud, money laundering
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A federal grand jury indicted the leader of the Black Lives Matter movement in Oklahoma City over allegations that millions of dollars in grant funds were improperly spent on international trips, groceries and personal real estate, prosecutors announced Thursday.
Tashella Sheri Amore Dickerson, 52, was indicted earlier this month on 20 counts of wire fraud and five counts of money laundering, court records show.
Court records do not indicate the name of Dickerson’s attorney, and messages left Thursday at her mobile number and by email were not immediately returned.
According to the indictment, Dickerson served since at least 2016 as the executive director of Black Lives Matter OKC, which accepted charitable donations through its affiliation with the Arizona-based Alliance for Global Justice.
In total, BLM OKC raised more than $5.6 million dating back to 2020, largely from online donors and national bail funds that were supposed to be used to post bail for individuals arrested in connection with racial justice protests after the killing of George Floyd by a Minnesota police officer in 2020, the indictment alleges.
When those bail funds were returned to BLM OKC, the indictment alleges, Dickerson embezzled at least $3.15 million into her personal accounts and then used the money to pay for trips to Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, retail shopping, at least $50,000 in food and grocery deliveries for herself and her children, a personal vehicle, and six properties in Oklahoma City deeded to her or to a company she controlled.
The indictment also alleges she submitted false annual reports to the alliance stating that the funds were used only for tax-exempt purposes.
If convicted, Dickerson faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for each count of wire fraud and 10 years in prison and fines for each count of money laundering.
In a live video posted on her Facebook page Thursday afternoon, Dickerson said she was not in custody and was “fine.”
“I cannot make an official comment about what transpired today,” she said. “I am home. I am safe. I have confidence in our team.”
“A lot of times when people come at you with these types of things ... it’s evidence that you are doing the work,” she continued. “That is what I’m standing on.”
The Black Lives Matter movement first emerged in 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer who killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida. But it was the 2014 death of Michael Brown at the hands of police in Ferguson, Missouri, that made the slogan “Black lives matter” a rallying cry for progressives and a favorite target of derision for conservatives.
The Associated Press reported in October that the Justice Department was investigating whether leaders in the Black Lives Matter movement defrauded donors who contributed tens of millions of dollars during racial justice protests in 2020. There was no immediate indication that Dickerson’s indictment is connected to that probe.
