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Senior Counsel

Jeff serves as Senior Counsel to PEER, where he specializes in civil service, scientific integrity, and whistleblower protection issues. Jeff was PEER’s Executive Director from 1997 to 2019 and its Pacific Director from 2019 to 2025. Previously, he was the Policy Director and a staff attorney at the Government Accountability Project, representing whistleblowers from both the public and private sectors. Before coming to DC, Jeff worked in California state government for 17 years, mostly in the State Legislature as counsel to various committees where he drafted hundreds of laws on topics ranging from energy conservation to the rights of employed inventors. Jeff served stints as a deputy district attorney and an appellate court clerk. He is a graduate of the California Correctional Officers Academy.

Letter to the Editor: More lessons from the pandemic

by Peter Jenkins | November 18, 2020
“The Nov. 15 editorial “To catch a killer” ​was spot on as far as the world’s need to learn from the current pandemic to prevent the next one. It identified several concrete steps but omitted one. ​A​ travesty​ occurred​ in ​April​ when President Trump, based ...

Trump Names Ex-Northrop Exec as Chemical Safety Board Adviser

“President Donald Trump‘s late-in-term appointment of a former Northrop Grumman Corp. vice president as an adviser to the federal chemical safety board has raised eyebrows in the worker advocacy community. As the Trump administration winds down, there is also the question of Lemos ...

‘Forever chemicals’ found in Chesapeake seafood and Maryland drinking water

by Elizabeth Duan | November 17, 2020
“More testing has found so-called “forever chemicals” in a striped bass, blue crab and oyster from the Chesapeake Bay, as well as in drinking water from household taps in Maryland’s Montgomery County. Laboratory analyses released by the nonprofit group Public Employees for ...

Delray Beach Mayor Shelly Petrolia On the Offensive Again

“Delray Beach Mayor Shelly Petrolia wants to purge a member of the planning and zoning board for saying something that she didn’t like. Rob Long is that board member. A civil engineer by training, he’s also chairman of the Palm Beach County Soil and Water Conservation District. ...

NASA loses bid to list contaminated tract as historic site

by Elizabeth Duan | November 16, 2020
“The National Park Service has issued a first-round denial to NASA’s request to conserve one of America’s most contaminated sites, a move that critics said would allow the government to sidestep cleanup efforts. NASA applied to add the Santa Susana Field Laboratory near ...

Park Service needs a new conservationist leader

by Jeff Ruch |
“Today, four years into its second century, the National Park Service is stumbling forward into a new era, without a plan, a leader or, most importantly, a vision for how to both protect and enhance what is often called America’s best idea. The agency has just received one of the ...
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