Photo by DUSTIN SLAUGHTER

BY DUSTIN SLAUGHTER & KENNETH LIPP More than 100 activists blockaded three entrances of the Federal building at 6th and Market streets today as part of a nationwide campaign to pressure President Obama to block construction of the last leg of Keystone Pipeline construction. The demonstration was mounted by of a coalition of environmental groups including Earth Quaker Action Team, Rising Tide Philadelphia, 350 Philadelphia, and Be the Change. Today’s action resulted in 24 arrests, although 23 were cited on misdemeanor obstruction charges and released. One man faces felony charges for allegedly assaulting a federal officer.

The protest grew tense for a brief moment after two federal officers grabbed a woman by her hair and threw her to the ground during the blockade. The male facing assault charges, aged 70, grew upset and, according to eyewitnesses, threw a sandwich at the officers.

Protesters detained by officers were quickly replaced by a new group of blockaders, which prompted police to then set up barricades to prevent more from standing in front of the entrances. However, activists climbed over barricades to continue the protest. Law enforcement eventually “threw their hands up” and left the scene, according to a legal observer, after a rabbi identified as Arthur Wasskow slipped under the barricades towards the end of the action.

The Federal building in Philadelphia houses a satellite office of the State Department, an agency that has drawn strong criticism for its ties to pipeline company TransCanada. Last month, the State Department released an environmental assessment stating that the pipeline would not have a “significant” impact on greenhouse gas emissions. The validity of the reports conclusion has come into question given that a TransCanada contractor was closely involved in crafting the report.

If completed, the Keystone Pipeline would pump over 830,000 gallons of heavy crude from Alberta, Canada to Texas refineries on the Gulf Coast every day. Activists here and across the country clearly feel a sense of urgency, particularly in light of serious incidents like the recent Exxon crude spill in Arkansas, an event the EPA characterized as “major.” Similar spills have occurred in Utah at a rate of three times a year since 2010. A 2011 Montana spill dumped 63,000 gallons of crude into the Yellowstone River.

As these spills continue to occur — and undoubtedly will again if TransCanada’s pipeline receives the green light from President Obama — the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Agency has come under increased scrutiny from activists and watchdog organizations, who charge that PHMSA lacks the necessary number of inspectors, and doesn’t have the resources to hire more. In the absence of a sufficient number of inspectors, oil companies will be left to inspect themselves. A late April deadline has been set for President Obama make a decision on whether pipeline construction will continue.

WASHINGTON POST: The power struggle between Egypt’s would-be revolutionaries and its defiant ruler wobbled to a standstill Monday as both sides girded for a prolonged test of wills that could shape the political future of the Arab world. President Hosni Mubarak sought to defuse a mass revolt against his 30-year reign by offering further concessions to an opposition movement that continued to jam Cairo’s central Tahrir Square with tens of thousands of protesters. Reports of arrests and clashes with security forces, meanwhile, appeared to ebb, and protesters said Mubarak seemed to be trying to split the opposition by compromising on all but their core demand – that he leave office. Responding to frustration with an inequitable economy that has left most of Egypt’s 80 million people impoverished, Mubarak’s government announced a 15 percent pay raise for public employees and pensioners, about 6 million people. It also pledged a judicial investigation into allegedly corrupt dealings by three former ministers and a senior ruling-party official. Egypt’s feared security police also released more of the estimated 1,500 activists seized during two weeks of protests in Cairo and other cities. MORE

RELATED: “Mubarak, he’s gone, one way or the other. He is not going to be the leader of Egypt. That’s a given,” Palin said. “So now the information needs to be gathered and understood as to who it will be that fills now the void in the government. Is it going to be the Muslim Brotherhood? We should not stand for that, or with that or by that. Any radical Islamists, no that is not who we should be supporting and standing by. So we need to find out who was behind all of the turmoil and the revolt and the protests so that good decisions can be made in terms of who we will stand by and support.” MORE

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

WARNING: VERY GRAPHIC

FACEBOOK: Basij shots to death a young woman in Tehran’s Saturday June 20th protests At 19:05 June 20th Place: Karekar Ave., at the corner crossing Khosravi St. and Salehi st. A young woman who was standing aside with her father watching the protests was shot by a basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight her heart. I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim’s chest, and she died in less than 2 minutes. The protests were going on about 1 kilometers away in the main street and some of the protesting crowd were running from tear gass used among them, towards Salehi St. The film is shot by my friend who was standing beside me. Please let the world know. MORE

CNN: Unconfirmed reports put the death toll as high as 150 on the seventh day of post-election protests. Sources at one Tehran hospital confirmed 19 deaths Saturday. MORE

NEW YORK TIMES: The violence unfolded on a day of extraordinary tension across Iran, as opposition protesters swore to continue pressing their claims of a stolen election against Iran’s embattled and increasingly impatient clerical leadership. Iran’s divisions played out on the streets. Regular security forces stood back and urged protesters to go home and avoid bloodshed, while the feared pro-government militia, the Basij, beat protesters with clubs and, witnesses said, electric prods. In some places, the protesters pushed back, rushing the militia in teams of hundreds: At least three Basijis were pitched from their motorcycles, which were then set on fire. The protesters included many women, who even berated as “cowards” men who fled the basijis. There appeared to be tens of thousands of protesters in Tehran, far fewer than the mass demonstrations earlier this week, possibly because of intimidation. A BBC journalist at Revolution Square reported seeing one person shot by security forces. MORE

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

BBC: Basically, the security forces have really tried hard to pre-empt this demonstration. They set up a big presence there before the demonstration was due to start. What seems to be going on is a concerted government attempt, a much more organised crackdown than we’ve seen since the election. They’ve got a strategy, or least a tactic, for dealing with these demonstrations. They have massed themselves today. They are in these running battles with the protesters but at the very least they seem to have prevented the mass of protesters from coming together and for the moment those government forces seem to have the upper hand. MORE

Anti-casino rally in Harrisburg; 14 arrested

Fourteen anti-casino protestors were arrested today at the Gaming Control Board offices in Harrisburg when they demanded to see documents about proposed casinos that they say are being withheld from the public. The group was among 50 demonstrators who travelled in two buses from Philadelphia in a bid to delay the scheduled announcement of two casino sites in the city on Dec. 20.

The protestors rallied in a park outside the Statehouse before marching to the Gaming Control Offices in a building located across the street.

Those arrested included two women in wheelchairs. Police were called after the demonstrators filled the entranceway to the gaming control office and read from what they called “a citizen’s search warrant” demanding the casino planning documents.

Harrisburg Police Captain Pierre Ritter said the arrested demonstrators were charged with disorderly conduct, issued summonses and released. The two protestors in wheelchairs, along with one other, were issued summonses at the scene. The other 11 went to a local police station to be charged.

INQUIRER: “It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.? Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice.” — HENRY DAVID THOREAU, 1849