Dear friends,
Let’s start the day with a little good news in the criminal justice category, since that is often hard to come by.
No layoffs are anticipated, a spokesman said, and the cost-cutting through the closures is expected to save $142 million.
Usually, I start my day by checking the numbers of new cases and deaths on the front page of the Times. Today’s uptick of cases is not good news, however, there are important developments.
Vaccine mandates continue to do what reason cannot do. Yesterday, the Biden Administration urged businesses to ignore the 5th Circuit Court, which ordered a pause on corporate mandates.
The Biden administration asked the court to lift the pause, dismissing the states’ and companies’ claims of harm as “premature” given that the deadlines for vaccination and testing are not until January. The administration claimed that pausing the requirements “would likely cost dozens or even hundreds of lives per day” as the virus spreads. The Labor and Justice Departments also argued that OSHA acted within its authority as established by Congress.
The Administration is right to encourage vaccine mandates without delay. Tyson Foods put its own vaccine mandate in place in August, requiring all employees to get the shot.
More than 96 percent of the company’s work force is now vaccinated.
The demand for vaccine has exceeded the supply at the DOE’s Covid vaccination sites for 5-11 year olds. This is good news because
demand far exceeded the interest last spring at school-based vaccine clinics for teenagers. They pledged to return to any school where children were turned away for lack of supply.
Two precious humans, vaccinated yesterday!
The De Blasio administration is granting additional paid sick leave to parents taking children to be vaccinated. At this point in the year, folks may have burned through their sick time. This important move covers city employees and those who work with companies holding city contracts.
The administration is also working with the city council to pass legislation to extend the added sick leave to employees of other private businesses. Note: there is not yet a bill number for this legislation.
Let your council member know that you support legislation to extend paid time off to all workers so they can take their children for their shots.
I still take some solace from stories like this: a man who spent almost a month in a Seattle hospital battling Covid-19 visited his doctors this week to thank his doctors and apologize for his failure to get vaccinated. Admitting mistakes is a justice move.
If it were a state, Puerto Rico would lead the US as the most vaccinated state; it also has the lowest COVID case rate in the nation. It’s nice to hear good news from PR!
Contact your congressional representative and urge them to support the Puerto Rico Statehood Admission Act.
DC statehood has already passed in the House. I have to use the f-word again; it is conventional wisdom that the legislation will never come to a vote in the Senate as long as the filibuster remains in place. But is the admission of a state a legislative matter?
Constitutionally, the admission of a new state is not actually a legislative matter, so the legislative filibuster shouldn't apply. In recent years both Democrats and Republicans, by ending the filibuster for confirming presidential appointments (a power outlined in Article II, Section 2), have in effect agreed the filibuster shouldn't apply to certain constitutional matters that aren't covered by Article I of the Constitution, which lays out the design of Congress and its legislative powers. The admission of a new state is also not included in Article I. The drafters set it apart as something distinct, not a change to law but a change to the structure of government.
Admission of states is dealt with separately in Article VI, Section 3 which says, "New states may be admitted by the Congress into this union; but no new states shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned as well as of the Congress."
Contact your US Senators and demand that they move on DC statehood. I made it easy! Pass this action along to friends in other states.
While I remain hopeful that meaningful international agreements on climate action are within reach and that the US government will make further investments in climate resiliency and green energy, my greatest hopes rest with states and localities that are moving forward with a sensible climate agenda of their own.
The city of Ithaca, NY voted last week to decarbonize every building.
The city of about 30,000 people consists of some 6,000 homes and buildings. Decarbonization would involve looking at everything from how a building is heated to what appliances it uses, with the aim of moving away from the consumption of fossil fuels such as oil and natural gas.
“It’s a project for the whole city, not just municipal buildings,” said Aguirre-Torres.
Buildings account for nearly 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Ithaca’s initiative is projected to cut about that much from the city’s overall carbon footprint — saving approximately 160,000 tons of carbon dioxide. That’s the equivalent of the emissions from about 35,000 cars driven for a year.
Yesterday, I discussed the work that our state government is doing to identify the disparate impacts of climate change on local communities. This is important because there is a formula for allocating 40 percent of funds for remediation in those communities that are hardest hit.
New York City has also been engaged in the important process of identifying environmental racism as a means of addressing it. Adriana Espinoza has been on the job as leader of New York City’s first environmental justice study since early 2020. She notes:
The reality is more folks are recognizing, day by day, that structural racism impacts every aspect of how a person moves through society. There is a reckoning that your health and your physical environment and your economic outlook are intrinsically linked to each other and have to be addressed systematically in order to improve people’s lives.
In the not-exactly good news category: it turns out that Mayor-elect Adams has a weird obsession with blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. Crypto is an environmental scourge. I’m concerned about who has his ear on this issue.
This morning I read that Adams wants schools to teach about cryptocurrency. The question is, what should they teach. We will continue to treat this as an educational issue.
Educate Adams about cryptocurrency. There’s a ready-made message and he really needs to hear from all of us!
Bike ridership has nearly doubled on the Brooklyn Bridge since the new dedicated bike lanes opened.
It’s a beautiful day in New York City. Get outside — wherever you are —and look at the sky!
with love,
L