Dear friends,
The Brush With Climate project takes advantage of the intimate relationships hairdressers and their clients and the fact that many of the folks who work in salons are young mothers.
“[T]heir children are learning more about environmental issues and climate change. And they want to see action.
“These children are coming home and they’re yelling,” says [the founder of Sustainable Salons]. “Hairdressers are signing up [for Brush With Climate trainings] because they want to be on the right side of history.”
New Yorkers also want to be on the right side of history — curbside! Curbside composting in Queens is back, and here to stay, as of yesterday.
The Mayor is also proposing a new compost mandate that would require city residents to compost yard waste. According to the notice from the Department of Sanitation,
“Yard waste is generated separately from other types of recyclable and non-recyclable waste — in the yard or garden rather than in the home.
“Requiring mandatory separation of yard waste is therefore straightforward; residents need not change their behavior other than to set yard waste out on the designated recycling day.”
The new rule will be phased in, first in Queens and then in Brooklyn this year. Bronx and Staten Island residents will be required to separate yard waste for composting starting early in 2024, and folks in Manhattan (relatively few of whom have yards) will be covered by the mandate later in 2024, when voluntary curbside composting for all organic waste will be in place throughout the city.
Jessica Valenti, author of Abortion Every Day, frequently reminds her readers to talk about abortion. The strategy of talking up the issues that matter — climate change, composting, reproductive rights, health care, and so on — is one I have adopted.
Yesterday, I struck up a conversation with Vincent, a young man who had accompanied his elderly and disabled parents to medical appointments in the same office I was visiting. By the time his mom had finished in the bathroom, he had information about the NY Caring Majority’s Fair Pay for Home Care campaign.
Friends are in Albany this week, keeping the pressure on for Fair Pay for Home Care.
Please call the Governor and tell her that her budget needs to include money for home care workers. There’s a script and this takes just a minute!
I like to cherry-pick Valenti’s columns for good news: she linked yesterday to a story about a new clinic opening in Maryland, about five miles from the border of West Virginia. Central Appalachia has been an abortion desert, so this is a big deal.
Last week, Hawaii (the first state to decriminalize abortion. . . before 1973) enacted a law to expand abortion access and protect health care workers from prosecution if they provide abortion care to visitors from other states.
When — instead of paying lip service to the sanctity of life — legislators are really thinking of people’s best interests, we get good action. In New Mexico, they just outlawed life sentences without parole for young people convicted of serious crimes.
Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, famously wrote,
“Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.”
Any of us who have been given a second chance will agree that it’s a mistake to give up on people. The New Mexico law specifies that a person who committed a crime before their 18th birthday — even if they were tried as an adult — will be entitled to a parole hearing within 15 to 25 years of their conviction, depending on the offense/s for which they were convicted. They will be able to reapply for parole every two years if they are initially denied parole.
Machaela Cavanaugh’s filibuster to prevent the passage of bill to block gender-affirming care for trans kids is effectively blocking all legislative work in Nebraska. Her unwillingness to give up fighting this attack on vulnerable young people is deeply admirable.
The bill will expand Medicaid to adults who make up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $41,000 for a family of four. State officials say the expansion will cover an estimated 600,000 people.
The federal government covers all but 10 percent of the cost of the expansion and the benefits to the people of the state are immeasurable.
Jessica Craven of Chop Wood, Carry Water brought this piece of good news to my attention:
Like expanded Medicaid, free school meals should be available in every state. The Universal School Meals Act would eliminate “lunch debt” and expand access to meals for children year-round.
Call on your Congressional delegation to support the Universal School Meals Act. This action is from More Perfect Union.
And this reminds me to talk up one of my favorite existing federal programs: SNAP benefits. Congress is right now negotiating the Farm Bill.
We already know that pandemic expansions of benefits have ended even though food prices are high. Furthermore, we know that it is often extremely difficult to access SNAP benefits because of the multiple bureaucracies involved. Here’s the good news:
[I]t’s possible to administer SNAP in a human-centered way, providing clear, equitable and respectful ways to apply for help.
There are already legal standards for user-centered, mobile friendly digital services for many federally-administered programs. Congress should extend similar standards to SNAP, ensuring that states prioritize improvements that keep people from falling through the administrative cracks.
Call on Congress to expand SNAP benefits to meet the need. While you’re at it, add the second paragraph (above) to your comment! This quick action is from Feeding America.
with love,
L