UnDer trumP, Pollution Prosecutions DroPPeD Cut cable shuts down online voter registration. extremist sentenced to jail over Neo- Nazi symbol.

Prosecutions of environmental crimes have “plummeted” during the Trump administration, according to a new report.

The first two years of the Trump administration had a 70% decrease in criminal prosecutions under the Clean Water Act and a decrease of more than 50% under the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Crimes Project at the University of Michigan law school found.

The research examined cases brought between 2005 and 2018, and the two- year period starting in 2017 had “the worst pollution prosecution numbers in the 14 years covered by our study,” said David M. Uhlmann, author of the study.

3 denied bond in alleged plot to kidnap governor.

GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. » Members of antigovernment paramilitary groups implicated in an alleged plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor over measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus during a fraught election year also discussed abducting Virginia’s governor during a June meeting, an FBI agent testified Tuesday.

During a hearing in a Grand Rapids federal court to review the evidence against the five Michigan defendants, Magistrate Judge Sally Berens ordered Kaleb Franks, Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta to be held without bond until the trial. She said she would rule at a later date on the bond status of the other two Michigan men, Adam Fox and Ty Garbin. A sixth defendant from Delaware, Barry Croft, was ordered Tuesday to be transferred to Michigan to face the charges.

RICHMOND, VA. » An accidentally severed fiber optic cable shut down Virginia’s online voter registration system for several hours Tuesday, the last day to register before the November general election, authorities said.

The Virginia Department of Elections said in statement on Twitter that a “fiber cut” affected connectivity for multiple agencies, including the department’s citizen portal and registrar’s offices.

BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA » A Slovakian court sentenced the country’s leading neo- fascist politician, Marian Kotleba, to more than four years in prison after he used a well- known neo- Nazi symbol.