ARCHIVED NEWS

CIVIL RIGHTS ARCHIVES

Escalating threats to Reproductive Rights Threatens Civil Liberties for over half the US population.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Thursday signed into law a bill that bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, providing no exemptions for rape, incest, or human trafficking Kentucky lawmakers Wednesday enacted a law suspending all statewide legal abortion access. Effective immediately, House Bill 3 will force providers to stop offering abortions in clinics and will halt all abortion services until certain requirements are met.Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union filed separate lawsuits Thursday to block a Kentucky law that effectively bans abortion in the state.

Civil rights were a hot topic at a high of 32 percent in early 21 following the death of George Floyd and then toward the end of that year subsequently went back to 2019 levels at 27% in the face of other social and economic concerns according to Statista. According to a Brookings Institute article, part of the reason for a stalled agenda might be lingering problems over equity; whether America's unfinished civil rights agenda has its origin in race or social class.The hope is that a new coalitional leadership will challenge normalized inequities and build self sufficiency models that combine sixties' experience with new technologies.

New York's new Governor, Eric Adams, says yes to facial recognition. Opponents say research shows correlations between clusters of non-white residents and concentrations of facial recognition technology.

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GOVERNMENT ARCHIVES

By a hefty margin and a record turnout, progressive leader Xiomara Castro was elected Honduras' new president. Her election breaks decades of oppression and 12 years of the right wing National Party domination of the Honduras which had US support. She signals changes which could mean a new and perhaps more independent era for Central America.

Barbados finally shook off colonial rule and, by a two-thirds vote in the Parliament House of Assembly and Senate, Dame Sandra Mason, 72, called by some the “voice of the Caribbean”, was sworn in November 30 as the President and Head of the State of Barbados. She will lead the island in its transition from a colonial past into a new era. Barbados Prime Minister, Mia Mottley said following the vote, “it is a woman of the soil to whom this honor is being given.”

The two women join Estonian’s first female prime minister, reform party leader Kaja Kallas, sworn into office January 2021.

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ENVIRONMENT ARCHIVES

Legal challenges ahead for new SEC Greenhouse Gas Rule giving SEC greater power to enact its proposed regulations. The proposed rules are open for public comment until May 20, 2022.

In Pakistan, landowners are petitioning the government's plan to acquire agricultural lands in order to build a green megacity from the ground up on the banks of the Ravi river, a once-thriving waterway that’s been depleted by pollution and dwindling water levels.

An urban design project to be built in the port of Busan in South Korea shows buildings clustered on floating platforms linked to the mainland through pedestrian bridges.

A virtual hearing was held on October 13 conducted by New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) administrative law judge regarding whether or not an air permit should be issued to one of the country’s larger bitcoin operations, Greenidge generation LLC. The company seeks to expand on the shores of Seneca Lake, New York’s second largest and deepest of five Finger Lakes. October 16, 2021

Are Wall Street investors more sensitive to climate change? October 5, 2021 Read More.

Charges against Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro and his Administration were officially filed at the International Criminal Art (ICC) by Allrise a Austrian NGO. The argument that violating the environment is a crime against humanity would be a first for the ICC if it decides to take the case , The Rio Times, October 12, 2021

UN Human Rights Council passes resolution in a historic vote calling for countries to adopt a framework that recognizes the interplay between human rights and protection of the environment. US was a holdout but with no vote since its Trumpian withdrawal from the Council, Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, October 8, 2021

The Biden Administration set new policy for the Tongass National Forest in southeast Alaska which offers protection to rich biodiversity as well as the region's indignenous populations. (Read More)

The Biden Administration notes that times have change and that is good for lobbyists who want affordable access for renewable power projects on public lands August 31, 2021, Reuters ((Read More)

Volunteers identify urban hot spots to help city planners beat the heat and hopefully save lives.

At press conferences held in Geneva and Albany --businesses and citizens asked Gov. Kathy Hochul for a statewide moratorium, including an embattled Greenidge application for renewal of its air emissions permit. Speakers reiterated the extent of damages and lost opportunity costs that will occur to a region known for its wine trail, tourism, and natural beauty, Peter Mantius, Water Front, Bitcoin Mining Foes Urge Hochul to Deny Greenidge a New Air Permit, as Hudro-Powered Crypto Mining Surges, November 19, 2021.

As the COP26 meet moves forward, inch by inch, characterized by squabbles and resistance, generations subsist on lentils and rice as they walk 500 miles toward Glasgow for climate change. They have few illusions about how the powerful can stall progress but they endure blisters, aches and pains anyway. Such is the nature of the pilgrimage (SEE: publicspacemag.com archives), Phoebe Weston, The Guardian, October 31, 2021.

Netflix, You Tube, Disney...? Streaming is a feel good escape, but at what cost? It is likened to driving a car to Saturn which spells high costs for the environment. Some companies claim technologies exist to make streaming greener but that is only part of the equation, Mark Sweeny, The Guardian, October 29, 2021.

World leaders, climate scientists, and activists are meeting in Glasgow October 31-November 12 for the 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26). A groundswell of people have gathered in Glasgow and around the world, want real action. The common cry supported by a UN published 2021 report on the state of the planet is… this is the moment when significant change will or will not occur.

Most recently, a head to head battle between Greenidge Generation on the shores of Seneca Lake New York and activists that want to protect the lake includes letters from the Greenidge CEO which mention possible legal action for falsehoods.

The recipient represented the letters as threatening.  A Greenidge representative replied that  Greenidge never said they would take legal action.

Meantime, Governor Kathy Hochul, is under pressure to make a call for either approval of an air permit renewal or a moratorium on Greenidge's expansion.

 The decision would significantly impact New York's leadership on climate change even as other bitcoin operators or potential operators, representing a still young and increasingly hungry industry, consider taking over the State's 30 defunct fossil fuel plants.   Her response to date is whatever presents the least harm to people, October 30 2021.

The Biden Administration has set new policy for the Tongass National Forest in southeast Alaska. The new policy curtails road development, which as in the Amazon rainforest has a large impact on ecosystems, and ends large-scale old-growth logging. The policy offers protection to rich biodiversity as well as the region's indignenous populations. in the region as well. in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. (Read More)

The Biden Administration notes that times have change and that is good for lobbyists who want affordable access for renewable power projects on public lands August 31, 2021, Reuters ((Read More).

Available, unleased blocks in a more than 90 million acre area in the Gulf of Mexico will be opened up for sale by the Biden Administration(Read More).

Climate change as a global crisis underlying the pandemic has failed to get the recognition it needs. The pandemic allowed some semblance of a simultaneously activated network response, at least for a while. Yet, “For all its upheaval the pandemic did not become a focusing event. Instead it is the latest in a long line of disasters for which the US is unprepared...There is no plan for what happens when everyone is in crisis at once.” writes Samantha Montano, disaster researcher and author of Disasterology: Dispatches from the Frontline of the Climate Crisis (2021)

Peter Greenfield writing for the Guardian warns that, according to a Business for Nature report on global expenditures, "humanity is financing its own extinction" with farming subsidies of at least $1.8 trillion a year. The state subsidies contribute to water pollution, land subsidence, and deforestation.

Even as he steps into his father's shoes, yet uncrowned Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is moving at breakneck speed to transform an endless desert into a green oasis with millions of trees which will transform water poor and car polluting Riyadh into a testimony to net zero goals. This is only one of the country's green ventures. Realization of a net zero goal by 2060 will be largely funded by the country's oil revenues and these revenues will be guaranteed by maintaining and enhancing a stabilized oil producing economy.

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LAW ARCHIVES

On November 2 Minneapolis voters will decide what to do about a history of police violence. One poll found that based on race most black voters wanted change but not necessarily a reduction in the police force. The question for voters is can an embattled police department learn from the death of George Floyd and others. Back to top of page

On December 1 the U.S. Supreme Court takes on Abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health. Following the Court's decision over the Texas ban, even as the majority of Americans support Roe v. Wade , the fate of the 50-year precedent hangs in the balance as a conservative Court takes on Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban.

Kyle Rittenhouse is found not guilty... claims self defense... judge helps with jury decision ... Charlottesville civil court in progress with divided jury... viewed as a potential antidote protecting a rule of law since a lower standard of proof found in civil courts ensures that the pre-requisite evidence of a conspiracy is more likely... January 6 defendants receive light sentences...

On November 24, defendants Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael, and William “Roddie” Bryan, the trio who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery while he was jogging, were convicted in the Glynn County court in Georgia on nine counts, including murder.

In the civil court trial Sine v. Kessler Charlottesville far right rally organizers were ordered to pay $25 million in punitive damages based on conspiracy charges in accordance with Virginia law. It was a partial victory. The jury was deadlocked in relation to claims based on a section of the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 which would allow plaintiffs to sue in federal court. While a hope is that punitive damages awarded will weaken far right activities, the more pragmatic question is whether or not there will be compliance. The plaintiff’s attorney are considering trying the case again in federal court to pursue charges under the KKK Act. More generally, the KKK Act is cited in other upcoming cases.

Biden's U.S. Supreme Court Commission released a 280-page draft report December 5 recommending changes to the Court. Despite disagreement within the Commission regarding the extent of change needed, the report contained a yes on more transparency and a no - rejection of proposals on changing term limits and adding more justices.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) vaccine or test mandate to employers with 100 or more employees was a no with four dissents. Among several lines of reasoning: OSHA had no right to a broader interpretation of public health without clear language from Congress. Another associated argument was there is already a broad risk, why single out the workplace? That would open the door to OSHA expanding its regulatory powers

The dissent: In the middle of this pandemic who is deciding how to handle a public health crisis? Who is the expert anyway, the states and Congress or OSHA who is accountable as a government agency and whose primary task is to protect workers.

Meantime, following a split decision the Court gave a green light for a vaccine mandate covering many healthcare workers January 13, 2022 decisions.

Despite moral outrage over what is called an unprecedented assault on democracy most January 6 Capitol attackers have been charged with petty misdemeanors. Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the DC district court says charges brought by the prosecutors are “baffling” and “peculiar", Marshall Cohen, CNN politics, October 28, 2021.

New York's 108 year old gun law challenged. On November 3 the US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on how the right to keep and bear arms applies to carrying guns in public in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen. Oral arguments are available here, October 31, 2021.

On September 28 in an 8 to 11 decision Mexico's Supreme Court issued a landmark decision decriminalizing abortions saying that no person shall be tried or sanctioned under criminal codes that fail to recognize the right to interrupt a pregnancy. Shortly after the Court's decision the Secretariat of Governance announced that efforts would be made to identify women that had been prosecuted or sentenced in order to provide them with legal counsel, Joy Monserrat Ochoa Martínez and Roberto Niembro Ortega, The Decriminalization of Abortion: A Landmark Decision by the Mexican Supreme Court, Int’l J. Const. L. Blog, Oct. 12, 2021,

As reported in the Federal Register, on April 9, 2021 a presidential commission was formed to review the role of the US Supreme Court. Among items to be consider were term limits, the number of Supreme Court justices, the role of the Supreme Court.

In a full appellate hearing to take place October 27 and 28 Julian Assange will face another attempt by the US to seek extradition despite a ruling issued in January by British District Judge Vanessa Baraitsera refusing a US appeal. The British High Court then accepted a broadened US appeal and cited misleading evidence presented in the earlier hearing by an expert witness, Michael Kopelman, a professor of neuropsychiatry. The Belmarsh Tribunal, a group of global progressives, plan to use the hearing to “turn things upside down” on October 22 by using the Assange hearing as an opportunity to air US war crimes. Netflix has chosen this moment to air a 2013 documentary titled “We Steal Secrets” critical of Assange. October 16, 2021

On September 28 in an 8 to 11 decision Mexico's Supreme Court issued a landmark decision decriminalizing abortions saying that no person shall be tried or sanctioned under criminal codes that fail to recognize the right to interrupt a pregnancy.

If information is public is it still a state secret? The US Supreme Court will consider the case of Zayn Al-Abiden Muhammad Husayn, A.K.A. Abu Zubaydah, et al.Zubaydah, detained at Guantanamo without charge since 2006 and in Poland as part of a CIA rendition, detention and interrogation program known as the "torture program". Abu wants public acknowledgement of the black site in Poland as he is also suing Poland for his detention. The US defense is national security, Supreme Court takes up secret CIA black sites in 9/11 detainee's case, ABC News, October 6, 2021. 21. Also see more recent, Amy Howe, Argument over state secrets and CIA black sites takes unexpected turn in final few minutes, Scotus Blog, October 6, 2021

With two dissents, Our Children's Trust hit a roadblock in its defense of rights of children to a stable environment and the responsibility of government, October 6, 2021 Read More

In a blow against Roe v. Wade the state of Texas implemented the strictest abortion laws in the nation effective September 1, 2021. In a 5/4 decision The US Supreme Court is silent.(Read More).

On stage and clothed in dignity the Court is back (October 4 until June). Three constitutional topics are on the menu that polarize US citizens: abortion, guns, and religious freedom. November 3 the justice will consider the right to carry a gun in public areas across the states. December 1 Mississippi will defend its ban on abortion procedures after the 15th week of pregnancy. Finally, yet again, religious rights. Should religious schools have the same rights as public schools. Should a prisoner have a right to laying on of hands and prayer as he dies from a lethal injection. Read More

November-December

The US Supreme Court to review extent of EPA powers .The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit tossed Trump's last minute "twisted" reading of the Clean Air Act. However, last Friday the US Supreme Court announced that it will review four petitions filed by two Republican-led states and two coal companies. The Court's ruling would potentially rein in efforts to establish a critical cornerstone of climate change remediation in the US by limiting EPA powers to broaden the meaning of point source emissions beyond what is called "regulating in the fenceline". Legal observers find the Court's decision to review surprising, Zoya Teirstein, Grist, November 5, 2021.

Jessica Reznick was incarcerated last August for domestic terrorism which brought an eight-year sentence. In June, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Iowa, Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger, had ruled against the defense and further enhanced Reznick's sentence using the Patriot Act. Reznick appealed her sentence.

On November 10, the Climate Defense Project (CDP), among other groups and organizations, filed an amicus brief with the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in support of the CND defense.

One argument presented by the defense was that the broad movement, of which Reznick was a part, diminished the rationale that had led to an overly punitive sentence. Additionally, the judge partially ruled based on public statements made by Reznick which was a violation of the First Amendment.

Land and water defenders, through reported actions, want to ignite public discourse given the proven urgency of climate change. It is reasonable to expect that there will be more lawsuits involving the Climate Necessity Defense.

The New Hampshire chapter of the American Federation of Teachers filed litigation on behalf of several parents and teachers, asking a U.S. District Court judge to block the new law, which prohibits teaching about systemic racism and sexism in public schools and state-funded programs.

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PUBLIC ART

 

Fidelio, a story about false imprisonment, directed by Matthew Ozawa, runs at the San Francisco Opera through October 30. An exhibition of art by inmates at San Quentin State Prison is on view in the main lobby. The Commonwealth Club of California will host an online live-streamed discussion with the William James Association and formerly incarcerated artists on October 25. 

A free online event celebrating artist Nancy Rubins' receipt of the Legacy Foundation's 2021 Artist Award will take place Friday, October 22, Hyperallergic, Artists' Legacy Foundation, October 5, 2021

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PUBLIC HEALTH

New spikes and the potential threat of new variants, such as the more recent “Omicron" variant, which threaten available hospital beds, have caused New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul,  to declare a disaster emergency effective November 26, 2021 through to January 15, 2022.

“We are moving past the crisis phase into a phase where we will work to live with this virus,” Newsom said during a January 20 news conference from a state warehouse brimming with pandemic supplies in Fontana, east of Los Angeles. A disease reaches the endemic stage when a virus still exists in a community but becomes manageable as immunity builds. The World Health Organization and other officials have warned that the world is nowhere close to declaring the pandemic over. 

The GNR group of independent researchers assesses the global state of malnutrition and produces annual reports using available data. According to its most recent report some progress has been made in the US with breastfeeding, stunted children, holding the line on overweight children, and wasting. The US is not doing well in other areas. Women of reproductive age are anemic (11.8%). The prevalence of low birth weight remains high, adult obesity remains extremely high. Accompanying this there is a high incidence of food-related diseases including type 2 diabetes and heart disease. There are a number of other critical global health concerns related to nutrition and malnution that have little or no US data.  In general, despite its relative wealth, the US pays increasingly higher prices for empty calories which affects the health of future generations.

Even if you're not poor healthcare costs too much for too little. A recent survey showed that nearly one-third of Americans did not seek medical care in the past three months due to costs. The survey is the largest conducted on health care since the pandemic began. The pandemic has brought increasingly negative feelings about the US healthcare system. More than two-thirds of Americans hold out little hope that Build Back Better legislation will reduce costs. The report can be found here.   

A Menino Survey of 126 mayors across the country, conducted annually by Boston University's Initiative on Cities, found that of the potential pandemic fallouts mental health was a top concern of 52% of the respondents.

A proposed Keeping Renters Safe Act of 2021 would direct the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to put in place a new eviction moratorium that would last through the duration of the pandemic plus 60 days. Sharon Zhang, Truthout, September 21, 2021

Supply chains link the world. Supply chains are a major determinant of health and they are generally fragmented and unsustainable, The Conversation, October 5 2021

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HUMAN RIGHTS

During pandemic times companies promoting classroom monitoring devices profited. However, the exploration, creativity, and private lives of k-12 children were at risk. As reported on the Center for Democracy and Technology website children from lower income families who were more dependent on school-issued laptops were more likely to be monitored. L. Holden Williams, Guest Post, Center for Democracy and Technology, October 6, 2021

An Annual Trust Conference held by the Thomson Reuters Foundation took place November 17, 18. The agenda included the need for more inclusive economies and Media risks and needs today. The 2021 agenda and the archived 2020 Conference are available here

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TECHNOLOGIES

The city of Seoul and the island nation of Barbados earlier this month said they will enter the metaverse to provide administrative and consular services, respectively. The claim is that they are small and can't afford physical infrastructure. According Keith Carter an associate professor at the National University of Singapore's School of Computing. "the virtual world will replicate life and business." Metaverse Seoul, a platform for public services, is scheduled to be complete by the end of next year. Barbados will open what it says will be the world's first metaverse embassy in the virtual reality platform Decentraland.

Democracy 3.0? NFT’s (non fungible tokens) are many things including some ideal ownership of participation in governance which is maybe democracy. It is estimated that there were 500 copies of the U.S. Constitution printed close to the time of its signing. ConstitutionDAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) with a governance token called PEOPLE crowdsourced more around $40 million in ether from “thousands of strangers” to buy a copy of the Constitution.

On November 19, the crypto enterprise lost out to Ken Griffin, a very rich hedge fund CEO, at a Sotheby auction. He was known for his dislike of cryptocurrency.

After the loss there was confusion on the part of ConstitutionDAO. There were expensive transaction fees associated with returns and nobody got to vote, and $PEOPLE had lost its purpose.

The ConstitutionDAO team then provided two choices to its donors: either they could return their $PEOPLE tokens for ETH cryptocurrency minus gas fees (transaction fees users pay to miners on a blockchain protocol to have their transaction included in a block.), or they could choose to receive a new governance token called We The People (WTP).

Now there were new ether-backed We The People reserves. New ideas voted on by the “community” ranged from pursuing a copy of the Bill of Rights or making a new Web 3.0 constitution from scratch.

Bitcoin calls for short-lived machines with a singular purpose. What is the environmental cost? It is high. According to Alex de Vries, founder of Digiconom the solution must come from within Bitcoin itself, Scott Chipolina, Decrypt, September 24, 2021.

Google promises small technologies that can multiply in efforts to manage climate. October 6, 2021 CBS news.

Clean network initiative? A shared internet with principles - more multilateralism, shared governance among nations, citizens’ privacy protection, better governmental transparency. These concepts are promoted as a coalition effort by the US, etc based on the idea of a “trusted democracy “ But, what about motive ?Is “clean” actually a free internet? Or is the motive of muzzling China when it comes to 5G technology ultimately a problem coined as a “splinter net? Council on Foreign Relations, David P. Fidler Blog Post, October 5, 2020. Back to top of page

Opera isn't for everyone - or is it?

Fidelio, a story about false imprisonment, directed by Matthew Ozawa, runs at the San Francisco Opera through October 30. An exhibition of art by inmates at San Quentin State Prison is on view in the main lobby. The Commonwealth Club of California will host an online live-streamed discussion with the William James Association and formerly incarcerated artists on October 25. 

A free online event celebrating artist Nancy Rubins' receipt of the Legacy Foundation's 2021 Artist Award will take place Friday, October 22, Hyperallergic, Artists' Legacy Foundation, October 5, 2021.

Bitcoin calls for short-lived machines with a singular purpose. What is the environmental cost? It is high. According to Alex de Vries, founder of Digiconom the solution must come from within Bitcoin itself, Scott Chipolina, Decrypt, September 24, 2021

Google promises small technologies that can multiply in efforts to manage climate. October 6, 2021 CBS news

Clean network initiative? A shared internet with principles - more multilateralism, shared governance among nations, citizens’ privacy protection, better governmental transparency. These concepts are promoted as a coalition effort by the US, etc based on the idea of a “trusted democracy “ But, what about motive ?Is “clean” actually a free internet? Or is the motive of muzzling China when it comes to 5G technology ultimately a problem coined as a “splinter net? Council on Foreign Relations, David P. Fidler Blog Post, October 5, 2020,

Clearview AI only mines public faces? Not good enough say watchdog groups who claim the company's subpoenas in their defense represent a "chilling effect", Alexandra S. Levine, Politico, September 24, 2021

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BASIC NEEDS

September-October 2021

Sixty one percent of Maine voters across party lines supported a change in the state's constitution to ensure that all Mainers had a "right to food." On November 2, Maine approved a right to food amendment to the constitution. It is the first of its kind in the nation.

The pandemic is not the only culprit for heavy increases in food prices. The consumer price index for all urban consumers shows the trend toward higher food prices since 2011 had a mega jump during a year of the pandemic. Packaging, bottlenecks, and transportation costs during this period are only a partial explanation. As a hedge against inflation corporations expect consumers to protect their bottom line. However, says Rakeen Mabud, chief economist at the Groundwork Collaborative, mega-corporations are raking in profits for their shareholders, October 15, 2021

A recent study shows low income mothers have severely limited choices in work or school choices for their children during the pandemic. Their voices are rarely heard in media accounts, Melissa Radey and Joedrecka Brown, I don't have much of a choice: Low-income Single Mothers; COVID-19 School and Care Decisions, Florida State University, College of Social Work, September 28, 2021

Many baby boomers wanted to work past retirement. it turns out they are a critical part of America's labor force. Many faced age discrimination and at will employment without mandated sick leave or vacation time. With COVID 19 many seniors, with a new pespective, but often too little savings, are leaving the workforce at a rate that threatens the economy.

On January 12, 2022 inflation jumped by 7 percent. The rate of inflation is the fastest in 40 years and it is hitting the grocery carts of poorer Americans the hardest as food, energy, and gas prices jump. In a recent article, Jacob Orchard, a doctoral candidate, calculated that while inflation ran at 7.2 percent for the lowest income families, for the highest income group the rate of change was 6.6 percent. The explanation of the gap? The well off can hold back on luxury goods and stock up when prices are good. The poor still need heating and food whatever the price.The Conversation, January 13, 2022

Seventeen municipalities across the US have laws prohibiting sharing food with people who are homeless in public spaces according to a National Law Center (2019) report. The fundamental premise is that it will encourage people to stay homeless. It also interferes with urban development. Some say it is just plain messy. The counter argument is eating is a basic right and any argument that it encourages homelessness is simply upside down.

Making sure people get enough to eat has become a larger problem during the pandemic. Despite this reality, Newark New Jersey sent an email out just before Thanksgiving announcing to churches and relief organizations that the city was prohibiting feeding homeless people in public places, including parks and Newark Penn Station. Newark mayor, Ras Baraka, back peddled on the ban and said a permit was required. Opponents' response was bureaucratic permitting was not good enough, satisfying hunger is immediate and essential...and compassionate.

Winn Companies, Boston’s largest landlord, invested in a new way of handling the escalation of evictions during the pandemic in favor of stabilizing housing. Rather than going directly to court the for-profit company implemented an eviction prevention plan with a pre-eviction procedure that is paying off and costs the company less money. The company had no evictions in 2020. The idea is spreading. However, in its present form the model does not benefit smaller landlords without a different infrastructure.

Philadelphia has an Eviction Diversion Program which launched in August to keep people from losing their homes during the pandemic. Mediation successfully opened up lines of communication between tenants and landlords usually involving a plan to pay the landlord back.

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CIVIL LIBERTIES

On December 6 a lawsuit against the Illinois Way Forward Act was dismissed by a federal judge setting a precedent making immigrant detention illegal. The decision comes at a time when ICE centers have been emptied for the most part and in many cases replaced with ankle bracelets, which have been used since 2000, along with other alternatives. However, critics note that there still is no federal policy commitment from the White House to close centers permanently and families are still expelled without due process under Title 42.

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CIVIC ACTIONS

September-October 2021

A Carnegie Civic Research Network paper offers example of how civil society groups are adapting and finding new strategies toward a post-pandemic future, Richard Youngs, et al., Civil Society and the Global Pandemic:Building back different?, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace/Carnegie Civic Research Network, September, 30, 2021

Egg Harbor City residents came together in a school cafeteria to protest development plans to build a 70,000 square-foot warehouse and retail building on 50-acres of the 400-acre Egg Harbor City Lake Park, which has been public land since 1872. A land use board had passed the redevelopment plan several weeks earlier. The mayor said that COVID stopped the developers from attending the meeting, "that was their only chance to make a case". Residents are ready to litigate if necessary.

A Carnegie Civic Research Network paper offers example of how civil society groups are adapting and finding new strategies toward a post-pandemic future, Richard Youngs, et al., Civil Society and the Global Pandemic:Building back different?, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace/Carnegie Civic Research Network, September, 30, 2021. Back to top

PUBLIC EDUCATION

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PUBLIC SPACES

Unions have historically had their ups and downs but they remain essential to a functioning society according to a December 15 report. The Economic Policy Institute compared economic, personal, and democratic well-being with census reports and found that union density made a difference. The report indicated that organized labor gave workers an important voice in shaping their communities and political representation. Black and brown workers, especially women in low-wage service sectors, particularly benefited from higher-union density states. 

Hart Island, the country’s largest “potters field” located in the Bronx has a bleak history. This month jurisdiction of New York’s Hart Island was officially transferred from the Department of Corrections to the Parks Department. The plan is to turn Hart Island into a public park. Various plans for a park are both imaginative and unclear. Whatever is decided, climate change has already caused erosion of its shores ,

The pandemic has led to increased pop-ups as an adaptable strategy for innovations, not only in the retail sector but as a public forum for visionary ideas for healthier cities. On November 8 the university of Louisville’s Urban Design Studio, part of the Department of Urban and Public Affairs will open its first mobile living library called the Healthful City Design Studio. Community members and diverse disciplines in a public forum will dive into issues and opportunities specific to the city’s downtown area, November 5, 2021.

Back to top MOVEMENTS

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DEVELOPMENT

Love and Function

Francis Kere ...won the Pritzker Prize. His work soars with commonly shared beauty and yet stays grounded in community.   He designs for seats of government and the transparency of other public spaces while his heart remains in a classroom, in a clinic, or a library. He is bound by a sense of place and by people in communities as active players in the design and building of structures where generations and diverse people cohabitate. So,  he won the Pritzker Prize.   His work and the work of others committed to participatory design are this era's new monuments for  peace from the ground up.     

Planetizen announced its its list of top urban planning books for 2021. The featured books cover varied subjects such as transportation, redlining, hip hop architecture, designing for inclusion, how hunger for ownership reshaped the world, among a number of other topics, James Brasuell, et al, Planetizen, November 26, 2021.

Spiced with a bit of comic relief, New York's Landmarks Preservation Commission must decide whether billionaire William Ackerman should be allowed to build a glass structure on the roof of a co-op. Feelings from the public are mixed when it comes to intrusions on the New York skyline, which is, maybe, public domain. There are concerns over the fate of increasingly vulnerable migratory birds that are likely to fly into the glass, the glare from the all glass structure, and the precedent that might be set encouraging other billionaires to follow suit. The subject of class is a definite theme. One neutral observer puzzled, "how are they going to keep it clean?" Ginia Bellafante, New York times, November 20, 2021.

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MEDIA

Two journalists received the award on October 8,2021 for their work safeguarding freedom of the press.

Dmitry Muratov has weathered legal and physical threats and watched his peers in journalism fall prey to deadly attacks yet he maintained a critical voice in Russia with a large following.

Journalists around the world face unprecedented threats of death, imprisonment, "cyber libel", social media attacks, and deadly violence. These are the observations of Maria Ressa Filipina who has faced all of that and continues to live under the threats of death or imprisonment. Her acceptance speech on October 8 covered hard core realities about the state of democracy as well as her belief in change with greater journalistic and citizen involvement. She urged journalists to hold up truth to power. She warned, "you must fight for your rights while you still can."

Back to top FAREWELLS

"Paul Farmer changed the way healthcare is delivered in the most impoverished places on Earth. He saw every day as a new opportunity to teach, learn, give, and serve – and it was impossible to spend any time with him and not feel the same,” (Former President Bill Clinton).

Paul Farmer changed medical practices throughout the world. These practices continue to be sustained through thousands of his students.

Paul Farmer, medical anthropologist, physician, teacher, and advocate for the underserved, died in Rwanda on February 21, 2022 at the age of 62.

Paul Farmer saw global public health as a biopsychosocial concern that needed to address broad and inter-related challenges such as poverty, the environment, infrastructure, self-care knowledge, and development practices.

He believed in health care as a human right and made it happen by turning critical precepts into systemic changes in global healthcare.

Farmer's achievements included managing infectious diseases, the provision of medical care in isolated places around the globe, infrastructural changes in severely underserved places, advocacy for health care justice, and teaching generations of Harvard students and villagers alike to carry on his work.

He founded Partners in Health which continues his work along with the students whose lives he touched.

As a former student of applied anthropology and researcher in southeast Appalalchia, which included some of the poorest areas in America, Saul Alinsky, Paulo Freire, and Paul Farmer, among others, were staples in my library. I feel both gratitude for his teachings and loss.

Joan Didion, journalist, author, and anthropologist, a California native, died on December 23 of Parkinson's disease at 87. Among the eulogies,Governor Gavin Newsom said, "she was easily the best writer in California." She was an astute observer of life. Her editor at Knopf said, "her writing is timelessly original, prescient and unexpected."

Gloria Jean Watkins, better known by her pen name, (lower case) bell hooks was an author, professor and activist. She published more than 30 books in her lifetime, covering topics such as race, feminism, capitalism and intersectionality. She was born in 1952 in Hopkinsville, Kentucky and taught at Berea College. 

Lucille Gerber King, co-founder of the American Musical Theater and renown social activist in education, the ERA, and an active figure in the civil rights movement, died on November 1, 2021. she was also an actress, producer, director, and teacher of theater and dance for more than five decades.

In another loss to America's musical theater, Stephen Sondheim died on November 26, 2021. The composer and lyricist was described as a "relentlessly innovative theatrical force". Sondheim brought a new voice to theater with musicals such as "Westside Story", "Assassins", and "Passion".

"The real enemy of man is not man...
It is ignorance, discrimination, fear, craving and violence." Thich That Hang, Buddhist monk and antiwar activist, died at age 95 in Vietnam on January 22, 2022

There are a couple of generations who most likely have no idea who Ed Asner, (Mary Tyler Moore Show and more) was. He was however a leading activist that, at the least, rivaled Bernie Sanders (Read More)