Tag Archives: local

We Asked Protesters What They Pledge to Do for the Next 4 Years

by FinlayMaresca Posted on January 21, 2017

Mother Jones

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More than a million people took to the streets of cities across the country Saturday to protest President Donald Trump on his first full day in office. Demonstrators at the events, which were billed as Women’s Marches, criticized the president’s policy agenda and his attacks on women and minorities. Many of the marchers pledged to use the rallies as a springboard to get involved in local politics.

“This is the first election in which I’ve become politically involved,” said Olivia Lezcano, 20, from Cleveland. “So I’m considering getting involved with my local congressman and local municipal government.”

The flagship event in Washington, DC, overwhelmed the city’s train system, as event organizers were swamped with more than double the 200,000 people they expected. People packed Independence Avenue in downtown DC, which runs along the National Mall, eventually clogging the planned march route, according to the Associated Press, and likely surpassing the turnout for Trump’s inauguration on Friday. Large numbers of marchers also came out in Denver, New York City, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Miami, and dozens of other cities around the United States and abroad.

We asked a range of the marchers in DC what they were committing to do over the next four years. You can check out their answers in the video above.

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We Asked Protesters What They Pledge to Do for the Next 4 Years

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Tired of waiting on humans, microbes cooperate to clean up our messes.

by TriciaLee572 Posted on December 20, 2016

That’s according to a Reuters investigation that analyzed blood tests from state health departments and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Over 1,100 of those communities have lead levels four times as high as those observed in Flint.

Nationwide, the exposure could be much higher: Data was only available for 21 states, accounting for 61 percent of the U.S. population.

The CDC estimates that 2.5 percent of children across in the United States have at least slightly elevated levels of lead, which can lead to lowered IQs, developmental delays, and learning difficulties, as well as miscarriage and premature birth. The local water supply is frequently the source of lead, but some communities are additionally plagued by industrial waste, lead paint, and lead pipes.

On the campaign trail, President-elect Trump vowed to address the nation’s crumbling infrastructure — including the lead crisis — but many of his cabinet picks have a history of combating legislation that protect public health.

Scott Pruitt, Trump’s pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency, sued that very agency for using the Clean Water Act to prosecute waterway polluters. According to Pruitt, the Act threatens the “property rights of the average American.” He didn’t mention their brains.

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Tired of waiting on humans, microbes cooperate to clean up our messes.

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ERP Blogstorm Part 2: Education

by GilbertRied Posted on December 18, 2016

Mother Jones

Part two of our series of charts from the Economic Report of the President is all about higher education. First off, here’s the college premium over time:

When I graduated from my local state university in 1981, I had no debt because attending public universities was practically free. On the other hand, my earning prospects were only about 20 percent higher than a non-college grad. Today, college grads often have tens of thousands of dollars in debt, but their earning prospects are 70 percent higher than non-college grads. So who got the better deal? That’s not entirely obvious.

Next up is a different measure of the value of a college education:

This helps answer the question, “How high can university costs go?” The answer is, “Pretty high.” Even with higher tuition, college is still a great deal. A bachelor’s degree, on average, pays off nearly 10:1. That means there’s a lot of room to raise tuition and still provide enough of a bargain that anyone who’s qualified will be willing to pay. Treating higher education this way may be a bad idea, but nevertheless, this chart suggests that states can continue to raise prices if they want to.

The first two charts have been all about nonprofit schools: community colleges, state universities, and private universities like Harvard and Morehouse. But for-profit institutions—which are typically trade schools—have exploded over the past three decades:

The number of trade schools has skyrocketed since 1987, from about 300 to well over a thousand. And that brings us to our final chart:

At first glance, this chart seems odd: the students with the smallest debt have the highest chance of defaulting. There are multiple things going on here, but the biggest one is that a lot of these students attended trade schools for a semester or a year and then dropped out. Their debts aren’t the biggest, but with not even a trade school certificate they can only get low-paying jobs that make it very hard to pay back their loans.

Too often, for-profit schools cajole people into signing up with promises that the government will pay for everything. Unfortunately, a lot of their students just aren’t suited for further schooling, so they drop out and end up with less than nothing: no certificate, and a big chunk of debt. The trade schools themselves don’t care much, since they get paid whether anyone graduates or not, but it’s a helluva bad deal for the students who end up broke. This is why President Obama’s recent crackdown on the worst offenders among for-profit trade schools is so welcome.

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ERP Blogstorm Part 2: Education

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Denver Isn’t the Only City Seizing Homeless People’s Gear

by Rich6968mhoql Posted on December 16, 2016

Mother Jones

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On Saturday, Denver’s mayor, Michael B. Hancock, announced that city police officers would be asked to stop seizing sleeping bags, blankets, tents, and other items that help homeless people keep warm in the winter. The announcement came after a video showing officers confiscating blankets in frigid weather provoked outcry. And while the announcement was a win for Denver’s homeless, Maria Foscarinis, executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, notes that the seizure or destruction of homeless people’s property is common practice in the United States.

Belongings are often seized under anti-camping laws or laws that prohibit sleeping in public—part of a larger trend of what Foscarinis calls “the criminalization of homelessness.” Earlier this year, her organization released a study tracking the phenomenon in 187 cities. It found that one-third of cities prohibit camping citywide, an increase of nearly 70 percent over a decade ago. But many courts have ruled such practices unconstitutional. Here’s a rundown of what’s happening in a few key cities.

Los Angeles: In March, lawyers sued on behalf of four homeless people whose property was destroyed by the city. One plaintiff, Judy Coleman, was hospitalized for pneumonia after her tent and blanket were taken. The judge in the case issued a preliminary injunction requiring the city to stop seizing homeless people’s belongings during arrests or clean-ups. The order also prohibits the city from storing seized items in a manner that makes them difficult to reclaim—a common problem, according to the Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty. A similar case from 2014 is in the process of being settled out of court.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles City Council approved a law limiting the storage of items in parks, alleys, and sidewalks to what will fit in a 60-gallon container. Under the law, homeless people may also be cited or arrested if they fail to take down their tents between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. An LAPD spokesman told me the department is no longer doing sweeps of homeless encampments. The current policy on seized possessions, he says, is to store the items, unless they are too wet or are deemed unsanitary—that determination is left to the officer’s discretion.

Denver: The mayor’s order only applies until April, when officers may resume seizures of bedding and camping gear. In the interim, police still intend to enforce the pubic camping ban—violators can face fines of up to $999. Back in August, a group called Denver Homeless Out Loud filed a class-action lawsuit arguing that the city’s sweeps are unconstitutional.

Seattle: The city’s regular raids on homeless camps have come under fire due to the loss of personal property and the city’s failure to give homeless residents proper notice. Seattle has been embroiled in an ongoing debate about how best to handle its sweeps, some of which have been halted by city civil rights monitors because the approved protocols were not followed.

San Francisco: Homeless sweeps are common in San Francisco. According to Mission Local‘s examination of the Department of Public Works records, the city only preserved 23 people’s seized belongings over a six-month period this year. On Tuesday, Bay Area civil rights groups filed a class-action lawsuit against the California Department of Transportation over the seizure of items such as stoves, tents, and bedding by Caltrans employees.

Honolulu: Though winter survival is less of a problem in Hawaii, Foscarinis points out that homeless people are also at risk in warm weather when their belongings are essential to keeping cool. In a survey of homeless residents by the Department of Urban Planning at the University of Hawaii-Manoa, nearly 60 percent reported losing personal identification, 40 percent lost tents, and 21 percent lost medicine in sweeps. The National Law Center on Poverty and Homelessness report stated, “The city has been transparent about its goal of removing Honolulu’s homeless population from view” and has proposed to “relocate homeless people to a separate island that previously served as a garbage dump and former internment camp during WWII.”

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Denver Isn’t the Only City Seizing Homeless People’s Gear

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For the next 24 hours, Al Gore is treating us to celebs, interviews, and his favorite slideshows all about climate change.

by moragatliff049 Posted on December 5, 2016

Grist sent former fellow Melissa Cronin aboard a four-seat prop plane to the tiny village of Tyonek, Alaska, this summer. Her on-the-ground investigation helped expose a Texas energy company’s plans to develop a coal mine across wetlands and forest that are extremely valuable to the local indigenous people.

Through her dogged reporting, Melissa published Coal’s Last Gamble — the type of fearless journalism we are proud to produce. If you missed the story, check it out here.

As part of our annual winter fund drive, we’re highlighting the stories of 2016 that defined our year. Why? Now more than ever, the world desperately needs independent nonprofit journalism. With the media landscape rife with antagonism, spectacle, and fake news, Grist dives deep and brings important stories you just can’t find elsewhere.

Donate Now

Grist’s journalism is powered by readers like you. So, if you learned something valuable from Coal’s Last Gamble or any of the great work the team brought you this year, please consider making a gift!

As an added bonus, all new monthly donors will receive a limited-edition Grist steel pint glass to drink your political sorrows away toast to the progress we make toward a more sustainable, just future. Supplies are limited — get yours now.

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For the next 24 hours, Al Gore is treating us to celebs, interviews, and his favorite slideshows all about climate change.

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, ONA, PUR, Radius, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on For the next 24 hours, Al Gore is treating us to celebs, interviews, and his favorite slideshows all about climate change.

Al Gore and Exxon’s CEO enter Trump Tower …

by MargoMoritz Posted on December 5, 2016

Grist sent former fellow Melissa Cronin aboard a four-seat prop plane to the tiny village of Tyonek, Alaska, this summer. Her on-the-ground investigation helped expose a Texas energy company’s plans to develop a coal mine across wetlands and forest that are extremely valuable to the local indigenous people.

Through her dogged reporting, Melissa published Coal’s Last Gamble — the type of fearless journalism we are proud to produce. If you missed the story, check it out here.

As part of our annual winter fund drive, we’re highlighting the stories of 2016 that defined our year. Why? Now more than ever, the world desperately needs independent nonprofit journalism. With the media landscape rife with antagonism, spectacle, and fake news, Grist dives deep and brings important stories you just can’t find elsewhere.

Donate Now

Grist’s journalism is powered by readers like you. So, if you learned something valuable from Coal’s Last Gamble or any of the great work the team brought you this year, please consider making a gift!

As an added bonus, all new monthly donors will receive a limited-edition Grist steel pint glass to drink your political sorrows away toast to the progress we make toward a more sustainable, just future. Supplies are limited — get yours now.

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Al Gore and Exxon’s CEO enter Trump Tower …

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Trump and his key advisors stand to profit from the Dakota Access Pipeline.

by lr9porfs Posted on November 14, 2016

On Monday at COP22, leaders of 7,100 cities in 119 countries announced progress on locally-driven emissions reductions is already underway.

Launched as the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy, the group will formalize city-focused climate action under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Local leaders committed to slash emissions by 27 percent by 2020 — higher than some national cuts promised in the Paris Agreement. An analysis from the European Commission shows a smaller group of 6,201 cities had already achieved reductions of 23 percent by September.

The coalition already represents 600 million people, or 8 percent of the global population. According to the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, over 66 percent of people will live in cities by 2050, with the most urban growth occurring in developing countries.

Think of the cooperative as a mini-COP agreement of sorts, with cities accountable for establishing, measuring, and achieving climate goals.

“We need the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy to empower cities to take bolder steps in this fight, to challenge other cities to do the same, and to ensure that leaders from around the world recognize the significance of cities,” said Maroš Šefčovič, vice president of the European Commission, in a press release.

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Trump and his key advisors stand to profit from the Dakota Access Pipeline.

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Democracy Under Siege In Irvine

by MaricruMusselma Posted on October 23, 2016

Mother Jones

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I went out to get the paper this morning and noticed that my yard sign was gone. Some Trumpkin vandalizing Hillary signs? Nope. All the other signs in my neighborhood were gone too. City council signs, school board signs, Irvine mayor signs—all gone.

So I investigated. I went over to our sister neighborhood on the other side of the tennis courts. No signs. I don’t know what that neighborhood looked like yesterday, but I’ll bet there some signs there.

I went farther afield and finally found some signs. But only about half as many as there used to be. How strange. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to which signs were left standing. When I went even farther out, signs reappeared in full force. Half a mile from my house everything was normal. Out on the main drag, signs were still piled high, just as they’ve always been.

What’s going on? Did some local busybodies decide that colorful yard signs were polluting our beautiful all-beige neighborhood? Did my local association suddenly decide they didn’t care about the First Amendment anymore? Did a yard sign neutron bomb go off? It’s very mysterious.

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Democracy Under Siege In Irvine

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Here’s another source of greenhouse gases you should be worrying about: hydropower.

by COEMonikaof Posted on September 29, 2016

Cannabis, according to a new report from EQ Research, could require as much energy as data centers to grow indoors.

In states where cannabis has been legalized like Washington and Colorado, growing operations may account for as much as 1 percent of total energy sales. And a lot of energy usually means a lot of emissions. A 2012 study found that indoor marijuana-growing operations produce 15 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year, equivalent to 3 million cars.

The high energy use comes mostly from lighting, ventilation, and dehumidifying, as GreenTech Media reports. But unlike other energy hogs (like data centers), it’s difficult for growers to take part in state and utility-run energy efficiency programs. That’s because the cannabis industry is illegal, federally.

According to the report, it will take electric utilities, regulatory commissions, state and local governments, and cannabis growers and business associations working together to create completely new incentives, programs, and financing tools for energy-efficient growing systems.

In the meantime, what’s the concerned marijuana user to do? Well, you can try to buy pot that’s grown outdoors — or, if that’s not an option, install some LEDs and grow your own. Just be sure to brush up on your local laws first.

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Here’s another source of greenhouse gases you should be worrying about: hydropower.

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Weed might make you feel chill, but its impact on the climate is anything but.

by FelicaGoodlet Posted on September 29, 2016

Cannabis, according to a new report from EQ Research, could require as much energy as data centers to grow indoors.

In states where cannabis has been legalized like Washington and Colorado, growing operations may account for as much as 1 percent of total energy sales. And a lot of energy usually means a lot of emissions. A 2012 study found that indoor marijuana-growing operations produce 15 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year, equivalent to 3 million cars.

The high energy use comes mostly from lighting, ventilation, and dehumidifying, as GreenTech Media reports. But unlike other energy hogs (like data centers), it’s difficult for growers to take part in state and utility-run energy efficiency programs. That’s because the cannabis industry is illegal, federally.

According to the report, it will take electric utilities, regulatory commissions, state and local governments, and cannabis growers and business associations working together to create completely new incentives, programs, and financing tools for energy-efficient growing systems.

In the meantime, what’s the concerned marijuana user to do? Well, you can try to buy pot that’s grown outdoors — or, if that’s not an option, install some LEDs and grown your own. Just be sure to brush up on your local laws first.

Excerpt from:  

Weed might make you feel chill, but its impact on the climate is anything but.

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