JUNE 30, 2023 - On this last day of June in a 6 to 3 decision the cconservative majority on the US Supreme Court rejects President Biden's school loan forgiveness program and votes no to affirmative action.
JUNE 29, 2023 -These days more than ever necessity is the mother of invention and Africa is producing its share of innovators. When Kenyan physics teacher Paul Waweru’s electric motorbike stopped working, he couldn’t travel to work. He turned to old laptop batteries.
JUNE 29, 2023 - Speakers and attendees at June 28, 2023 event held on the shores of Seneca Lake (see archived PSM article) in Geneva and organized by Seneca Lake Guardians say the Greenidge plant continues to endanger the famous lake despite an DEC air quality permit denial. The large lake attracts international visitors. It is a critical part of the region’s economy in the heart of wine making country.
Vinny Alipert, co-owner of the Billsboro Winery, spoke about the larger problem saying there are hundreds of facilities like Greenidge and that they all have to go.
A 2022 report released by the American for Financial Reform Education Fund found that fossil fuel emissions at private equity-owned power plants like Atlas holdings, (the Greenidge parent company) currently amount to one-seventh (14 percent) of total CO emissions in the United States.
JUNE 25, 2023 - On June 24, 2023 Reuters reported that the Canadian wildfires were intensifying with warnings that labor was in short supply and there were likely to be more wildfires to come with a return of hotter weather. It was noted that Canada has spent more on fighting and suppressing wildfires rather than maintaining firefighting personnel and programs.
JUNE 18, 2023 - Spearheaded by French President Emmanuel Macron, a global financial system summit will be held on June 22 and 23 in Paris. The purpose of the summit, attended by heads of state and civil society members, is to establish a new consensus toward an overdue comprehensive reform of the World Bank, the IMF, and public and private funding systems and practices. The summit will address both economic decarbonization and the need for realistic investments in poor and emerging countries. With the exception of some closed sessions, the event will be live-streamed. The Mary Robinson Centre will follow this event with a climate conference to be held July 5-7 in Ballina, Ireland. Mary Robinson is the former president of Ireland. She observes that with these events it is important that a “firewall” is established between this and other precursor events and the controversial COP28.
JUNE 18, 2023 - Fossil fuel lobbyists will have to identify themselves as such in registering for the UN Cop28 climate summit, making polluting and carbon-intensive industries more accountable.
JUNE 17, 2023 - A Global Climate Justice movements event will take place September 15&17 ahead of a September 20 Climate Ambition Summit, which will be held in conjunction with a 2nd SDG Summit convening September 18&19, in New York City and a few weeks before the controversial COP28 to be held from November 30th through December 12th. The Global Climate Justice movements' plan is to build on alliances that support an all-sector mass mobilization toward finally ending the fossil fuel era. The hope is that this preceding event, in the wake of disappointments surrounding COP27, will contribute to a stronger presence at COP 28.
JUNE 27, 2023 -On June 26, 2023 Oxfam released a comprehensive and damning report , titled Sick Development, revealing how healthcare in the global south has fallen victim to the greed of corporate interests and development finance institutions (DFIs). Highlighted examples include patients imprisoned until bills paid, a push into poverty due to billing practices and unnecessary treatments, out of reach maternity care, denied emergency care, and COVID-19 profiteering to name a few examples. The report challenges the ongoing narrative against universal healthcare.
LAW
JUNE 30, 2023 - On this last day of June in a 6 to 3 decision the cconservative majority on the US Supreme Court rejects President Biden's school loan forgiveness.
JUNE 29, 2023 - US Supreme Court rules against affirmative action in a 6-2 conservative vote with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson recusing.
JUNE 26, 2023 - COP CITY UPDATE -DeKalb County District Attorney, Sherry Boston, announced on June 24 that she would not try the criminal cases involving 43 activists. Boston cited a difference of opinion. She said, “There’s absolutely been destruction and violence, but how you approach all of these cases needs to be approached individually — every case, individually.” Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr will now have sole oversight over the cases. On MAY 20, 2023 it was reported in Happenings - that a referendum was in the works to stop the lease agreement for Cop city. After apparent stalling on the part of the City of Atlanta Municipal Clerk to approve the referendum petition Stop Cop City organizers submitted a Writ of Mandamus Petition to the the Superior Court of Fulton County. Court. The referendum petition was approved on June 21, 2023. It will require 70,000 signatures within a 60 day period. (READ MORE)
JUNE 23 The US Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 against the Navajo Nation’s request that the Court step in and identify water rights for the Nation based on its judiciary responsibility to the Nation. In a 5 to 4 vote the US Supreme Court followed United States v. Jicarilla Apache Nation deciding that once the federal government had recognized the Nation’s property rights through the treaty it had no further general trust relationship to the Nation. Given the massive and varied relocations of Native Americans which resulted in treaties Justice Neil Gorsuch dissented citing the lack of historical understanding behind the majority decision. Water rights in the southwest have historically been a source of tension.
It is noted that given climate change the question of water rights will become even more crucial in the southwest.
JUNE 16, 2023 - Montana's extraction of fossil fuels is being challenged by Held v. State of Montana. The case led by Montana Youth has live coverage through June 12-23. It is the first constitutional climate trial in the U.S.
JUNE 24 2023 - On June 14, 2023 they died anonymously. An estimated 750 souls ….with great courage and the greatest despair - were packed into the boat. The adults and the children were present and future husbands, wives, scientists, teachers, janitors, and perhaps explorers.
On June 22, 2023 it was determined that five people died in the Titan submersible. They were, other than the sugared attraction of their wealth and prestige, on an equal par with the 750 souls, at least in the name of humanity.
That is the way it should be; the real story of a continuing saga. But other than the barest nod that is no story for mainstream media.
JUNE 24 2023 - In the Guardian, protests planned across US to mark one year since the loss of abortion rights.
GOVERMENT
JUNE 24 2023 - Almost a year after its launching in August 2022 Evanston’s Illinois participatory budgeting (PB) pilot program will hold a public vote in September 2023 to allocate $3 million of the city’s budget from the American Rescue Plan Act dedicated to 20 possible projects. PB public involvement is open to any resident 14 years or older. 4,500 residents signed up to participate in the PB project.
However, it was reported in June that only 835 residents had registered to vote. Some responses were the City Council will do what it wants so why vote.
Lack of public response is a common challenge for PB. One reason is the public’s growing distrust of municipal government decision making processes. The public often feels disconnected from policy and outcomes as evidenced by relegation from those in power to small less meaningful discretionary projects where outcomes tend to defeat the initial empowerment goals of earlier generations of PB, particularly in relation to social justice.
Still, the overall growth of PB pilot projects in the US and globally continues to hold the promise of a more deliberative democracy.
In Evanston Illinois public registration remains open through September 2023. (read more about PB from the archives).
JUNE 19, 2023 - A memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Canada and South Africa signed in 2019 includes the exchange of woodland fire management resources. As of June 19 Just over 400 South African firefighters are currently fighting wildfires in Alberta, Canada. Already present in the country are firefighters from the United States, Australia, New Zealand, France, Chile, Portugal, and France. The majority of the fires are raging in Alberta, Quebec, British Columbia and Ontario.
JUNE 18, 2023- Pennsylvania mushroom farmers are denied the benefit of crop insurance. Senator John Fetterman, serving on The Subcommittee on Food and Nutrition, Specialty Crops, Organics, and Research, introduced a bipartisan bill, Protecting Mushroom Farmers Act , to require that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) conduct a study on providing crop insurance to mushroom farmers.Why mushrooms? Sen. Fetterman says they are economically important to PA , most likely very healthy, and it is important to share with the public the daily workings of the Senate. There was, of course, predictable pushback from more conservative PA senators when Sen. Fetterman argued the potential mental health benefits of mushrooms.
MAY 20, 2023 - UPDATE COP CITY: A seven-hour City Council public meeting was held on May 15, 2023 regarding an upcoming vote on June 5, 2023 concerning the release of $30 million to fund Cop City. The hundreds that attended were 100% opposed to to the construction of the Cop City. May 31, 2023 - Armed SWAT team raids Atlanta Solidarity Fund office to enact RICO with a warrant that employs the charge of material support for 'domestic terrorists' ahead of the June 5 Atlanta City Council vote. UPDATE: JUNE 6 - Despite the heartfelt testimonies, fact-finding, and arguments provided by hundreds of diverse people, mostly local, against Cop City at the June 5 Atlanta City Council meeting the City Council voted 11 to 4 in favor of Cop City. JUNE 7 - Protestors warn that it isn't over until it's over. Legal challenges, broad appeals to the general public, and a referendum are in the works. READ MORE
JUNE 18, 2023 - Daniel Ellsberg died on June 16, 2023. In a Zoom interview with Politico on May 6, 2023 Ellsberg spoke of his release of 7000 government pages, called The Pentagon Papers. The release of the papers resulted in an historic clash between the First Amendment and the 1917 Espionage Act. In this case, the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of freedom of the press. During the Politico interview Ellsberg said about his role as a whistleblower, "From the point of view of a civilization and the survival of eight or nine billion people, when everything is at stake, can it be worth even a small chance of having a small effect?" he said. "The answer is: Of course... You can even say it's obligatory."