Dear friends,
In the category of public health and peace of mind: the city will make COVID testing at all elementary, middle, and high schools weekly, instead of bi-weekly. It also looks as though the Pfizer vaccine will be heading for approval for 5-11 year olds because their trials show the shot to be safe and effective.
The White House invited Nicki Minaj for a phone call with a doctor after she tweeted some nonsense about a friend of her cousin becoming impotent as a result of getting a COVID vaccine. I love this story so much. It is easy to make fun of someone who is misguided or ignorant; teaching is the proper response. Minaj has 22 million followers on Twitter, and it’s a good investment of time to educate someone who reaches so many other people.
Educating the public is a mission close to my heart. Tomorrow night, three Science Moms (yup! moms who are scientists) are going to talk about what we can do to insure a sustainable future.
Join the Science Moms on Instagram for a live chat Wednesday at 7 PM.
You can join Science Moms even if you are not scientist or a mom.
Nabisco workers represented by the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Union ended their strike and approved the new contract with Mondelez International. The strike lasted almost six weeks and by the end, involved more than 1000 employees. The new contract includes wage increases for each year as well as increased company contributions to 401(k) retirement accounts. A lot of the details are not yet public, especially related to overtime pay and the workers’ complaints about excessively long shifts.
A lot of our good news is of the silver lining variety. There’s still high unemployment in NYC — a rate over 10 percent — AND television and movie production payrolls have increased almost 50 percent since January. (I know I am not the only person who needs Netflix to get through this pandemic.) CUNY’s School of Labor and Union Studies completed a study that shows that New York City’s strong public sector unions were able to preserve jobs for their members — especially women — who otherwise have suffered disproportionately from job loss.
We can’t properly celebrate workers without championing child care. There’s an unsurprising shortage of child care workers;
98 percent of occupations pay more [than child care].
Tell Congress to fund child care and early learning as part of the care infrastructure.
There’s some justice happening in the court system, which is not something we take for granted. Judges struck down a 2018 North Carolina voter ID law, having determined that the motivation for the law was racial discrimination.
Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg made his first court appearance before a grand jury in the investigation of the company’s “sweeping and audacious” criminality. There is speculation that more indictments are coming. Yes, please.
Forty-five witnesses testified against R Kelly before the prosecution rested their case yesterday. They described rape, imprisonment, brainwashing, forced abortion, and a pattern of abuse that is very difficult even to read about. The defense phase of the trial began this week. We will be watching for the outcome of this trial.
Kudos to the Texas doctor who performed a first-trimester abortion in violation of the state’s new highly restrictive abortion law and then wrote about it. Dr. Alan Braid went public about his decision to violate the law in order to set up the legal test of the ban. He explained why he did it.
“I have daughters, granddaughters and nieces. I believe abortion is an essential part of healthcare. I have spent the last 50 years treating and helping patients. I can’t just sit back and watch us return to 1972.”
As Beverly Cleary’s Ramona said, when she wanted to practice her cuss words, “Guts! Guts! Guts!”
Have a good day!
with love,
L