By MATTHEW DALY

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency enhanced enforcement efforts this year, significantly reducing pollution in overburdened communities, the agency said in a report Thursday.

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The EPA said it concluded more than 1,800 civil cases, a 3% increase over 2023, and charged 120 criminal defendants, a 17.6% increase over the previous year. The “revitalized enforcement and compliance efforts” resulted in more than 225 million pounds of pollution reductions in overburdened communities, the agency said in its final report on Biden-era enforcement actions before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.

Bolstered by 300 new employees hired since last year, the enforcement program focused on “21st century environmental challenges,” including climate change, environmental justice and chemical waste, said David Uhlmann, EPA’s assistant administrator for enforcement and compliance assurance. More than half the agency’s inspections and settlements involved poor and disadvantaged communities long scarred by pollution, reflecting the Biden administration’s emphasis on environmental justice issues.

Enforcement efforts included first-ever criminal charges for a California man accused of smuggling climate-damaging air coolants into the United States. The case involved hydrofluorocarbons, a highly potent greenhouse gas also known as HFCs, a gas once commonly used in refrigerators and air conditioners.

The EPA has pledged to enforce a rule imposing a 40% reduction in HFCs as part of a global phaseout designed to slow climate change.

In other highlights, engine maker Cummins Inc. paid more than $2 billion in fines and penalties — and agreed to recall 600,000 Ram trucks — as part of a settlement with federal and California authorities. Cummins was found to use illegal software that let Ram trucks — manufactured by Stellantis — to skirt diesel emissions tests for nearly a decade.

The fine is the largest ever secured under the federal Clean Air Act.

The EPA and Justice Department also reached a $241.5 million settlement with Marathon Oil for alleged air quality violations at the company’s oil and gas operations on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota. The settlement requires Marathon to reduce climate- and health-harming emissions from those facilities and will result in over 2.3 millions tons worth of pollution reduction, officials said.

Uhlmann, who was confirmed as head of the enforcement office last year, said in an interview that with the help of a spending boost approved by Congress, the agency has made “consequential changes in how we approach enforcement at EPA.”

“We’ve revitalized an enforcement program that suffered more than a decade of budget cuts and and was badly hampered by the (COVID-19) pandemic,” he said. The agency also weathered a series of actions by former President Donald Trump’s administration to roll back environmental regulations and reduce overall staffing.

“We’ve strengthened the partnership between the criminal and civil programs, and we’ve also focused on moving our cases with greater urgency so that we provide meaningful results to communities in time frames that make sense to the people who are harmed when unlawful pollution occurs,” Uhlmann said.

With Trump set to return to the White House, Uhlmann said he hoped enforcement would not suffer, noting that a host of civil and criminal investigations begun in the past two years could bear fruit in 2025 and beyond. Trump, who has named former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin to be EPA administrator, has said he will again slash regulations and target what he calls onerous rules on power plants and oil and natural gas production.

Uhlmann declined to speculate on how enforcement will change under Trump but said, “Upholding the rule of law and making sure that polluters are held accountable and communities are protected from harmful pollution is not a partisan matter. We do enforcement at EPA based on the law, based on the facts, without regard to politics.

“So, you know, communities should expect that EPA will continue to protect them from harmful pollution.”

By THALIA BEATY

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. donors gave $3.6 billion on Tuesday, an increase from the past two years, according to estimates from the nonprofit GivingTuesday.

The Tuesday after Thanksgiving, now known as GivingTuesday, has become a major day for nonprofits to fundraise and otherwise engage their supporters each year, since the 92nd St Y in New York started it as a hashtag in 2012. GivingTuesday has since become an independent nonprofit that connects a worldwide network of leaders and organizations who promote giving in their communities.

“This just really shows the generosity, the willingness of American citizens to show up, particularly collectively,” said Asha Curran, CEO of the nonprofit GivingTuesday. “We are just seeing the power of collective action and particularly collective giving over and over and over again.”

The amount donated this year represents a 16% increase compared to 2023, or an 11.9% increase when adjusted for inflation.

This year, about 18.5 million people donated to nonprofits and another 9.2 million people volunteered, according to GivingTuesday’s estimates. Both the number of donors and the number of volunteers increased by 4% from the group’s 2023 estimates.

“For us, it’s not just about the number of dollars,” Curran said. “It’s about the number of people who feel like they have agency over the way their communities progress forward into the future.”

The nonprofit GivingTuesday estimates the amount of money and goods donated and the number of participants using data from donor management software companies, donation platforms, payment processors and donor-advised funds. Curran said they are purposely conservative in their calculations.

Nonprofits in the U.S. raised $3.1 billion in both 2022 and 2023 on GivingTuesday. That mirrored larger giving trends where the overall amount of donations dropped in 2022 and mostly held steady in 2023 after accounting for inflation.

It’s never easy to predict current giving trends, but Una Osili, associate dean at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, said there were economic forces pushing in both directions.

“At the very same time, there’s a lot of uncertainty, especially around prices, the cost of living, the supermarket toll that people are expecting to continue even though inflation has moderated,” she said.

Donating or volunteering with nonprofits aren’t the only ways people participate in their communities. Many give to crowdfunding campaigns, political causes or support people directly in their networks. But tracking charitable donations is one way that researchers use to understand people’s civic engagement.

“This country is undeniably in a lot of pain and very divided right now,” Curran said. “And so to have a day that felt as hopeful and as optimistic as yesterday did, I’m sure was not only comforting to me, but to many, many millions of people.”

Only one NBA team has held an opponent to 80 points or fewer in a game this season. It’s the Timberwolves, and they’ve now done in twice in consecutive outings.

Minnesota surrendered just 80 to the Clippers on Wednesday after holding the Lakers to 80 on Monday in Minneapolis. The Clippers also scored just 92 points against Minnesota last Friday. Three games, three stellar defensive performances.

Which, in the aftermath of an accountability session during and after a loss to the Kings on the eve of Thanksgiving, creates a narrative that the Timberwolves have turned the page and returned to their dominant defensive ways from a season ago.

Minnesota is now sixth in the NBA in defensive rating, surrendering just 108.6 points per 100 possessions, two tenths lower than the mark it sported a year ago to lead the League.

The Wolves are back, baby.

Well, maybe.

Context is important when evaluating any stretch of schedule, good or bad. So. it should be noted that Minnesota is holding down teams that were already lying on the mat.

The Lakers sport the third-worst offense in the NBA since Nov. 23, a seven-game stretch in which they’ve gone north of 105 points just twice. The Lakers have been held below 95 points in three of their past four outings, including another drubbing Wednesday in Miami.

After the loss to the Wolves, LeBron James aptly characterized his team’s offense as “nasty.”

The Clippers aren’t much better, specifically without Norman Powell. They rank 24th in offensive rating, scoring just 1.1 points per possession. But even that number swan dives when Powell — who’s averaging 24 points per game this season, while shooting 51 percent both from the field and from distance — isn’t on the floor. The Clippers’ offensive net rating improves by nine points when Powell is on the floor this season, per CleaningTheGlass.com.

That on/off split is in the 91st percentile league-wide.

Powell missed both games against Minnesota, and both the Lakers on Monday and the Clippers on Wednesday were playing the second of back-to-backs. So, the schedule certainly did Minnesota a solid at a time when the Wolves appeared to need it most.

But the Timberwolves did take advantage of the good fortune to the fullest extent. Eighty points is 80 points, no matter who you’re playing or the circumstances. It’s undeniable that Minnesota’s activity and attention to detail have both heightened in recent contests, and it’s worth noting that the Wolves’ defense was getting torched even by bad teams over the first dozen-plus games of the season.

The recent results signify progress; just how much progress is a question that will be determined over the weekend, when Minnesota plays a pair of games in San Francisco. The Warriors have lost five-straight games as of Thursday afternoon and, go figure, they play Houston on Thursday night ahead of their first bout with the Wolves on Friday.

The two teams will play again Sunday in the same location.

Golden State does sport the NBA’s ninth-best offense. Steph Curry and Draymond Green are missing Thursday’s game for injury management, and it appears as though Curry is a good bet to return against Minnesota, although Green’s situation is a bit murkier.

Regardless, the Warriors’ movement-based offense, centered on the shooting threat of Curry, will provide a stiff test for the communication and commitment that Minnesota struggled with to open the season. A defense is only as good as it is when pressed by offensive creativity and competency.

After a perfectly-timed, three-game stretch that allowed Minnesota to rebuild its image and identity on the defensive side of the ball, it’s time for a stress test.

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