(2018-09-25). Hanford nuke workers win health and safety deal. peoplesworld.org 
HANFORD, Wash. — Union workers, who have been repeatedly exposed to toxic chemicals as they toil to clean up the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, won a victory last week. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) signed an agreement to install catalytic scrubbers to remove poisonous vapors leaking from more than 700 tanks filled with radioactive wastes. | Hanford, considered the worst "Superfund" site in the Western Hemisphere, produced the plutonium used in the atom bomb that destroyed Nagasaki, killing an estimated 70,000 people — mostly women, children, and senior citizens — during World War II. | Speaking at a news conference in Richland, WA, Sept. 19, Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson hailed the agreement. "We're finally moving towards a lasting solution," he said. "We should not have to file lawsuits. It shouldn't have to come to this." Ferguson stressed that the lawsuit is…
(2018-09-25). Fracking Chemicals Dumped in Allegheny River a Decade Ago Entered Food Chain. truthout.org Chemicals from fracking wastewater dumped into Pennsylvania's Allegheny River before 2011 are still accumulating in the bodies of freshwater mussels downstream, according to a new study. | Researchers at Pennsylvania State University found elevated concentrations of Strontium in the shells of freshwater mussels downstream from a former fracking wastewater disposal site in Warren, Pennsylvania, about 143 miles northeast (and upstream) of Pittsburgh. | While the potential health impacts on humans from this contamination are unclear, high levels of exposure to non-radioactive Strontium can disrupt bone growth in children. | "Mussels record the changes in water quality that they see over their lifetimes in the layers of their hard shells," Nathaniel Warner, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Pennsylvania State University who co-authored the study, told EHN. "We can go back about 10 years and see the…
(2018-09-24). China's Arch of Peace Vessel Docks in Venezuela for Health Mission. venezuelanalysis.com A Chinese hospital ship has arrived in Venezuela as part of the recently signed agreements between the nations.
(2018-09-24). SPLC statement on Trump administration's proposal to punish legal immigrants for seeking public assistance. splcenter.org News that the Trump administration is proposing to penalize lawful immigrants for accessing health care, food and housing assistance and other government programs shows how far this administration will go to rip apart immigrant communities.
(2018-09-24). Trump Administration Targets Children, Families and Communities of Color in Latest Immigration Regulation. naacp.org Contact: Malik Russell / mrussell@naacpnet.org Changes to Public Charge Could Put Health and Immigration Status at Risk for Millions BALTIMORE (September 24, 2018)— On September 22, the Trump Administration Department of Homeland Security announced it would issue a proposed regulation that would severely curtail the ability of immigrants to secure a green card by expanding […]
(2018-09-24). Hatewatch Headlines 9/25/2018. splcenter.org Wisconsin ICE raids target homes, businesses; Charlottesville forced Reddit to change; Soros is an unhealthy obsession among Texas pols; and more.
(2018-09-22). Koch-Funded Think Tank at Public University Uses Private Email Server, Because Of Course It Does. theintercept.com We asked for records related to its "Medicare for All" study, and learned that the university doesn't have access to the Mercatus Center email server.
(2018-09-21). There's Nothing Natural About Puerto Rico's Disaster. theintercept.com 
Alma Morales Rosario poses for a portrait between the beams of her home being rebuilt after it was destroyed by Hurricane Maria one year ago in the San Lorenzo neighborhood of Morovis, Puerto Rico, on Sept. 8, 2018. | textbook example. Before those fierce winds came, the debt — illegitimate and much of it illegal — was the excuse used to ram through a brutal program of economic suffering, what the great Argentine author Rodolfo Walsh, writing about four decades earlier, famously called miseria planificada, planned misery. | This program systematically attacked the very glue that holds a society together: all levels of education, health care, the electricity and water systems, transit systems, communication networks, and more. | It was a plan so widely rejected that no elected representatives could be trusted to carry it out. Which is…
(2018-09-20). South Carolina: Two Women from Mental Health Facility Drown in Flood During Transport by Deputies. democracynow.org 
Two women being transported by sheriff's deputies to a mental health facility drowned Tuesday in South Carolina when the van they were riding in was overcome by floodwaters. The two sheriff's deputies in the vehicle survived. Forty-five-year-old Windy Newton and 43-year-old Nicolette Green are two of at least 37 people killed by Hurricane Florence since the storm made landfall. Both women had gone to hospitals Tuesday morning when they were involuntarily committed and detained. Less than 24 hours later, they were dead. "There are a lot of questions remaining about why this had to occur then, why there couldn't ha…
(2018-09-20). Chicago Hotel Workers Strike for Decent Health Care. therealnews.com 
Chicago's UNITE HERE union is engaged in one of the largest labor actions in the city in decades, for a new contract for service workers at 30 hotels, with simultaneous strikes at 26 of these. We speak to the Local 1 strike captain |
(2018-09-19). Rev. William Barber: Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court Would Endanger Rights of Women, Workers & Voters. democracynow.org 
Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh have cast doubt on whether President Trump's Supreme Court nominee will be confirmed by the Senate. "The process was bad from the beginning," says Rev. Dr. William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign and president of Repairers of the Breach. "We are poised to have two presidents that did not win the popular vote, now will have appointed four extreme members to the Supreme Court." Barber says Kavanaugh will be dangerous to voting rights, to labor rights, to healthcare and to women's rights.
(2018-09-19). New Bill Would Ensure No Woman Is Forced to Give Birth in Chains. aclu.org The practice of shackling pregnant women who are incarcerated is as shocking as it is widespread. | When a woman becomes pregnant, the nature of her health care by necessity becomes tailored to her being pregnant. This is no less true when a pregnant woman is incarcerated. But corrections officials across the nation would often rather ignore the fact and needs of incarcerated pregnant women than address their health care needs or even their basic rights. For example, pregnant prisoners are often shackled during childbirth in this country as well as put in solitary confinement, practices that are as shocking as th…
(2018-09-18). Make Nutrition an Issue in Food Drives. progressive.org How healthy is the food you donate?
(2018-09-18). For Black College Students, Balancing Activism and Mental Health Takes Work. thenation.com For Black College Students, Balancing Activism and Mental Health Takes Work appeared first on The Nation.
(2018-08-30). Venezuela Denounces Regional Anti-Migrant 'Xenophobia' as Brazil Militarises Border. venezuelanalysis.com The Maduro administration contrasted the recent attacks against Venezuelan migrants to its own open door policy which has seen foreigners benefit from free health, housing, education, and food programs.