Happy Tuesday, friends!
Today’s the day for some good news you might have missed.
The NYS legislature may yet get back to Albany before the year’s end to attend to the important business of raising taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers. Cuomo continues to resist the measure, which is needed to close the budget gap.
Contact Governor Cuomo to tell him that we cannot wait on federal money; we must raise taxes on the richest New Yorkers now.
Yesterday, Dr. Fauci credited Kizzmekia Corbett, a Black scientist who led the team at the National Institutes of Health that worked with Moderna to develop one of the two highly effective coronavirus vaccines. That the vaccine will be FDA-authorized imminently is one piece of good news; that a Black scientist is being recognized for her work in developing it is another.
Honor Dr. Kizzy Corbett by retiring some medical debt!
I trust you saw the Supreme Court’s summary rejection late Friday of the meritless suit brought by the state of Texas against Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. On Thursday, the Court made another unanimous ruling in a case brought by three Muslim men, all legal residents of the US, who were placed on a “no-fly” list that damaged their reputations and employment prospects and prevented them from visiting family in their home countries for years. SCOTUS ruled in their favor, allowing them to seek monetary damages because “federal agents placed them on the No Fly List for refusing to act as informants against their religious communities.” The damage should never have occurred, and money does not fix what was lost, but it is an important principle that the government can be held to account for abuses of power.
At a moment when the president has recommitted to federal executions, the American Institute of Architects announced the adoption of new ethics rules prohibiting members from “knowingly designing spaces intended for execution or torture, including for prolonged periods of solitary confinement.”
And finally, a small triumph of conservation shows that sometimes, indigenous activists can reign in the abuses of capitalism. Bowhead whale populations have made a comeback. Bowhead whales almost disappeared as a result of commercial whaling operations in the 18th century.
Surprisingly, the whales’ recovery has actually accelerated as the Arctic warms.
“This is really one of the great conservation successes of the last century,” said J Craig George, a retired biologist with the North Slope borough department of wildlife management.
George also credits sustainable management and stewardship of the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission (AEWC), who have fought against offshore oil drilling and other activities that could harm the species.
Have a good day!
with love,
L