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'Public Health Emergency': Report Calls for Multi-Agency Action to Address PFAS Crisis
Environmental Working Group, a research and advocacy nonprofit, released a roadmap on Thursday calling for a comprehensive government program to address the PFAS contamination crisis facing the United States. The EWG roadmap details the agency-by-agency response the group says is needed to deal with the environmental and public health threat posed by the nearly ubiquitous presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which are linked to many cancers and other serious health conditions. EWG's plan involves not just steps that should be taken by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) but also the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the departments of Agriculture,...
Harris Applauded for Proposing First-Ever Ban on Corporate Price Gouging
Economic justice advocates on Thursday applauded the Harris campaign's announcement the Vice President Kamala Harris is planning to unveil a historic ban on food and grocery price gouging amid widespread discontent about costs that have ballooned by 26% in the last five years. The Democratic presidential candidate is expected to unveil the proposal for the first-ever federal price gouging ban at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina on Friday, detailing plans to direct the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to impose "harsh penalties" on companies that hike food prices to pad their profits. As president, the campaign said late Wednesday, Harris...
Project 2025's Plan to Kill Medicare Via Default Enrollments in For-Profit Alternative
Project 2025—the far-right initiative to expand U.S. presidential power and purge the federal civil service—poses a dire threat to the government-run healthcare coverage enjoyed by tens of millions of senior citizens by making private, for-profit Medicare Advantage plans the default option for all Medicare enrollees, a report published Thursday warned. The Center for American Progress (CAP) report said the goal of the Heritage Foundation and other right-wing groups behind Project 2025 involves "pushing the United States toward a future of fully privatized Medicare." "If implemented, Project 2025 would lead to a multibillion-dollar annual giveaway to corporations at the expense of Medicare...
Poll Shows Backing Israel Arms Embargo Would Help Harris in 3 Swing States
As the official death toll from Israel's U.S.-backed assault on the Gaza Strip topped 40,000 on Thursday, new polling showed that Democratic and Independent voters in three key swing states would be more willing to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris in the November presidential election if she supported cutting off weapons to Israeli forces.The poll was commissioned by the Institute for Middle Eastern Understanding (IMEU) Policy Project, conducted by YouGov, and initially reported on by Zeteo. It involved hundreds of Democrats and Independents in Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania.From July 25 through August 9, pollsters asked voters if and how...
Is the US Still a Democracy? 'Yes and No,' Says Bernie Sanders
Asserting that money is the "real power" in U.S. politics, Sen. Bernie Sanders warned Wednesday that the country is rapidly moving away from democracy and toward "oligarchy." Asked by "The Chief Nerd" podcast host Theo Von if the U.S. electoral system is "still democratic," Sanders (I-Vt.) replied, "Yes and no." "I mean, you want to run for office, can you? Yup, you can," the senator said. "But if... I have 10 times more money than you do, I will beat you 95% of the time... By and large, money people will win. So if you're asking me, are we a democracy, in...
'New Era of Affordability': Historic Medicare Negotiations Slash Drug Prices
After six months of negotiations made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden administration on Thursday announced that Medicare officials had reached agreements with drug companies to lower the prices of 10 widely used drugs promising estimated savings of $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs for millions of Americans with Medicare prescriptions coverage. The negotiations have "ushered in a new era of affordability for patients across the country," said Merith Basey, executive director of Patients for Affordable Drugs, with patients due to save hundreds and even thousands of dollars per month on medications when the new prices go into effect...
Over 1,000 Disaster Survivors Demand DOJ Probe Into Big Oil Climate Crimes
Over 1,000 survivors of extreme weather events on Thursday demanded a federal investigation into Big Oil's role in perpetuating the climate crisis, adding to pressure on the Biden administration to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for spreading disinformation and obstructing a clean energy transition. With the support of nonprofits Chesapeake Climate Action Network and Public Citizen, the survivors signed a letter addressed to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and delivered to the Department of Justice (DOJ). "Some of us have lost our homes and property, our businesses, and our entire communities to climate-driven disasters," they wrote. "While our stories and experiences are diverse,...
Columbia President Resigns After Violent Crackdown on Pro-Palestine Student Protests
The president of Columbia University announced her resignation late Wednesday, months after she authorized a violent police crackdown on student demonstrators urging the school to divest from Israel over the country's devastating assault on the Gaza Strip. Minouche Shafik said in her announcement that recent months have been "a period of turmoil where it has been difficult to overcome divergent views across our community." Dozens of Columbia students were arrested and injured during a Shafik-approved police raid of a campus building in late April. "This period has taken a considerable toll on my family, as it has for others in our community,"...
Pamphlet on Arizona Abortion Measure Can Say 'Unborn Human Being'
While celebrating that Arizona voters will get to weigh in on an abortion rights ballot measure this November, reproductive rights advocates on Wednesday blasted a state Supreme Court ruling about language in a related informational pamphlet. Overturning a decision from the Maricopa County Superior Court, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that Republican legislators' use of "unborn human being" to refer to a fetus in the pamphlet "substantially complies" with the state's impartiality requirements."The Arizona Supreme Court today reversed the trial court's well-reasoned ruling and held that the phrase 'unborn human being'—a watchword for anti-abortion advocates with no basis in medicine...
Citibank Staffer Punches Climate Activist During Protest
A climate protester was taken to a hospital bleeding on Wednesday, according to organizers, after a security guard at Citibank's global headquarters in New York punched him in the face as campaigners assembled in the lobby of the building. The climate advocate, Eren Can Illeri, was taking part in an action organized by Summer of Heat, which is supported by a coalition including New York Communities for Change, Planet Over Profit, and Stop the Money Pipeline. Illeri was joining other campaigners in calling on Citibank executives to meet with them to discuss the bank's funding of fossil fuel projects. Citibank...
'Permit to Kill': LNG Buildout Would Boost Premature Deaths, Health Costs
Permitted emissions from both currently operating and planned liquefied natural gas terminals in the United States "have a major price tag for communities' public health," with existing facilities already estimated to cause scores of premature deaths and nearly a billion dollars in damage each year, according to an analysis published Wednesday. The report— Permit to Kill—was published by Greenpeace USA and the Sierra Club, which said the analysis "adds to the mounting body of evidence showing that LNG exports are not in the public interest." Greenpeace USA senior research specialist and report co-author Andres Chang said in a statement that "this study shows...
WHO Drops Weak PFAS Guidelines and Starts Anew After Criticism Over Industry Influence
The World Health Organization has scrapped its draft guidelines for "forever chemicals" in drinking water and restarted scientific review following criticism that its previous process was unduly influenced by industry-linked science, The Guardian reported Wednesday. Leading scientists and public health experts from around the world had for the last two years called on the WHO to reverse course after the organization released draft guidelines they deemed to be far too weak to protect human health. Regulators in the United States and the European Union now have much stricter standards for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) than those the WHO was...
Little-Known Project 2025 Policy Would Tax Benefits for More Than 15 Million Workers
Project 2025, the right-wing policy blueprint spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation and co-authored by more than 100 former Trump administration staffers, has been denounced for several of its tax proposals, including slashing the corporate tax rate and the capital gains tax to benefit wealthy Americans—but a research group on Wednesday warned that one economic policy that hasn't gotten much attention could "greatly increase" financial hardships for millions of working families. EPI Action, a nonpartisan research and advocacy organization affiliated with the Economic Policy Institute, published an analysis of a proposal that appears on page 7 of Project 2025's section on...
Extremist Israeli Leaders Slammed for 'Reckless Pursuit' of New West Bank Colony
The Israeli government said Wednesday that it has completed plans for the first new apartheid settlement in the occupied West Bank since 2017, a move the country's far-right finance minister said was due in part to increasing international recognition of Palestinian statehood amid Israel's obliteration of Gaza and a recent World Court affirming the occupation's illegality. The Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, also known as the Civil Administration, announced what's known as a "blue line"—which defines and delimits the boundaries of a new settlement—for Nahal Heletz, one of five Jewish-only colonies proposed for construction or expansion on...
Teachers Union Demands Probe of Predatory Big Banks Loans That Made Chicago Schools 'Broke on Purpose'
The Chicago Teachers Union on Wednesday demanded a state investigation into a series of loan deals made with "predatory" Wall Street banks under ex-Mayor Rahm Emanuel and former Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner that left the city's school system "broke on purpose." "For years, banks scammed [Chicago Public Schools] with predatory financial deals, taking money out of our classrooms and shortchanging our students," CTU detailed in an online contract update. "For years, CPS and many other Illinois school districts have been systematically underfunded, burdened by bad bank deals, and forced to do more with less. We will need leadership from every...
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