On January 20, 2021, newly inaugurated President Biden announced the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, a broad immigration bill he sent to Congress immediately upon taking office. The bill would provide a path to citizenship for the undocumented population, a border management approach that includes a … [Read more...]
UN Sounds ‘Red Alert’ for National Climate Goals
"Today's interim report from the UNFCCC is a red alert for our planet," said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. UN Climate Change Chief Patricia Espinosa pointed out that the last 10 years had been the hottest decade in human history. The record rise in temperatures, for example in the Arctic … [Read more...]
Seaquarim’s Shame: Episode 2 – Talequah
A mother orca grieves the death of her only minutes old baby in the Salish Sea in the summer of 2018. The world media becomes fixated. 4 years later she has a new baby boy, Phoenix. A landlocked girl from Ohio won’t let her dreams of the sea go unrealized. Be there as has her first encounter with an … [Read more...]
Seaquarim’s Shame: Episode 1 – Tokitae
Something is wrong at Miami Seaquarium.. They have been keeping an orca who doesn’t belong to them for over 50 years. A produce salesman turned vegan activist fights for over a decade on the street corner in front of Miami Seaquarium, turning away thousands of cars. A new legal fight launches in … [Read more...]
WA legislature takes on systemic racism in insurance rates
Live in Columbia City, ZIP code 98118? Then your average annual car insurance premium is $928. Live in Belltown, ZIP code 98121? Lucky you, because your average annual car insurance rate is $810. What’s the difference between these two Seattle ZIP codes? The median household income in Columbia City … [Read more...]
Washington’s vaccine rollout slower for BIPOC communities
For example, 3.6% of those 65 and older in Washington state identify as Latino, yet only 2.5% of that population has been vaccinated. And 2.1% of Washingtonians older than 65 are Black, but only 1.2% have been vaccinated so far. Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, for her part, said she has focused on … [Read more...]
Seattle’s controversial ‘poverty defense’ proposal stalls out
A controversial “poverty defense” proposal, which would have expanded legal defenses for poor or mentally ill people accused of a misdemeanor, has stalled in Seattle City Hall before it ever became an official bill and has no immediate timeline for its revival. . . … [Read more...]
Washington’s plastic bag ban on hold during COVID-19
The state Legislature passed the ban on single-use plastic bags with bipartisan support in 2020, but the pandemic has delayed its implementation. On March 9, 2020, 33 state senators voted to pass Senate Bill 5323, making Washington the ninth state to ban single-use plastic bags. Two days later, … [Read more...]
Hidden Barriers
Bias, prejudice and discrimination pervade our health care systems. Explore the issues and meet the stakeholders attempting to change that. Asian Americans are perceived as the "model minority": wealthier, better educated and healthier than other minority groups. But this preconception hides many … [Read more...]
Quebec’s Magpie River becomes first in Canada to be granted legal personhood
In accordance with Innu customs and practices, the Alliance has granted the river nine rights: 1) the right to flow; 2) the right to respect for its cycles; 3) the right for its natural evolution to be protected and preserved; 4) the right to maintain its natural biodiversity; 5) the right to fulfil … [Read more...]
THE DEMOCRATS’ LONG WAR ON IMMIGRANTS
AS JOE BIDEN took the oath of office last month, Guatemalan security forces at the Honduran border thwarted thousands of U.S.-bound migrants. While decadeslong American imperialism has facilitated displacement throughout the region, the U.S. is increasingly outsourcing its deadly immigration policy. … [Read more...]
IN LOUISIANA AND Texas, immigrants seeking asylum are facing dire conditions in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers hit by this week’s extreme cold. At the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, advocates say parents and children have been living with … [Read more...]
Indigenous Standing Rock Activist Imprisoned for Resisting Grand Jury
FOLLOWING PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN’S executive order to revoke the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, activists and organizers are escalating calls for similar actions to shutter other major pipelines. They are addressing projects like Enbridge’s Line 3 tar sands pipeline and the Dakota Access … [Read more...]
Enbridge Line 3 divides Indigenous lands, people
It’s a conflict facing growing numbers of Native people along Line 3’s nearly 400-mile path. As it cuts across the Fond du Lac reservation, treaty lands of several other bands of Ojibwe and the headwaters of the Mississippi River in northern Minnesota, the project has brought not just jobs but … [Read more...]
Listened to This Changes Everything yet?
In the second season of "This Changes Everything," Crosscut takes a deep dive into policing policy, alternatives to policing and the lives at the center of the criminal justice debate. (Matt M. McKnight/Crosscut and Dorothy Edwards/Crosscut) More than six months after George Floyd was … [Read more...]
Investigation finds Latino ballots in WA more likely to be rejected
Experts and voters themselves have suggested a variety of explanations for signature rejections among Latino voters, including language barriers, education levels and implicit bias. This issue is amplified by Latino voters seeming to be less successful than other voters at “curing,” or fixing, their … [Read more...]
WA lawmakers look to fix climate while solving the housing crisis
Efforts to expand the state’s green building rules would, among other things, phase out gas heat and appliances in most homes and businesses. As Washington lawmakers work to get ahead of a brewing post-pandemic housing catastrophe, efforts are underway to join that effort with responses to … [Read more...]
Judge rules national archives will stay in Seattle for now
With the support of dozens of tribes, a lawsuit successfully halted the sale of the national archives building last week. When expedited plans to sell Seattle's National Archives building first surfaced in January, dozens of tribes joined Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s lawsuit … [Read more...]
Tracking plans to tax the rich in the 2021 Washington Legislature
One new measure would focus on taxing billionaires. Other proposals revive the idea of taxing capital gains. A tax on capital gains, such as profits from selling stocks and bonds, is something that has been discussed in Olympia for many years, but so far hasn’t had the votes to pass. A new payroll … [Read more...]
WA health care often lacks language services for immigrant patients
Season 1, Episode 3, Video duration, 6 min 43 s Washington mandates language-access services for patients who speak limited English, but lack of oversight means many fall through the cracks. A growing immigrant population means that these services are more crucial than ever. Listen … [Read more...]
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