All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Number of Palestinian children in Israeli prisons doubles

Children kept in filthy cells and denied adequate treatment for bullet wounds

Canada launches inquiry into murdered and missing indigenous women

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Justin Trudeau promises ‘total renewal’ of relationship with aboriginal people with investigation of nearly 1,200 murders and disappearances in three decades

Canada’s government has launched a long-awaited national inquiry into the murder or disappearance of hundreds of indigenous women, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised a “total renewal” of the country’s relationship with its aboriginal population.

Speaking to an Assembly of First Nations (AFN) special chiefs gathering in Gatineau, Québec, the Liberal leader announced that his government had begun the process to create the inquiry into the nearly 1,200 indigenous women and girls who have been murdered or who have gone missing in Canada over the past three decades.

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US to ban soaps and other products containing microbeads

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New act would phase out the tiny pieces of plastic found in soap, toothpaste and body washes, which pollute waters and spread throughout the food chain

The US is set to ban personal care products that contain microbeads after the House of Representatives approved a bill that would phase out the environmentally-harmful items.

The bill, which had been backed by a bipartisan committee, will now go to the Senate for approval.

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Donald Trump shows hate speech is now out and proud in the mainstream | Comment is free | The Guardian

Those who saw him only as an entertainer kept waiting for his Republican audience to get the joke and move on to more plausible candidates. But on Monday, after he called for Muslims to be prevented from entering the US, his presence had become so toxic, even his most dismissive detractors could ignore him no more.To cheers from the faithful, Trump read out a statement referring to himself in the third person: “Donald J Trump is calling for a complete and total shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.”Americans are used to such venom dripping from the lips of talk radio hosts and the occasional Fox News anchor. But to be uttered by the frontrunner for the nomination of one of the two main parties was more than many had bargained for. What once had been considered hate speech confined to the margins of political life is now out and proud in the mainstream. “Probably not politically correct,” Trump said afterwards. “But I don’t care”.

This is a large part of his appeal. He articulates the frustration and bewilderment of that section of uneducated, unskilled, low-paid white America, whose wages have stagnated and social mobility has stalled that is nostalgic for its local privileges and global status. In recent times, they have lost wars, jobs, houses and confidence.So when he brands Mexicans “rapists”, Chinese “cheats” and all Muslims potential threats he gives free rein to their insecurities about an increasingly cosmopolitan and less predictable world they feel they have been excluded from.To that extent, his base is not too different from that of the Front National, which just triumphed in the French regional elections, Ukip or any of the range of far-right parties currently making headway in Europe.

Source: Donald Trump shows hate speech is now out and proud in the mainstream | Comment is free | The Guardian

California water nuked – what about crops, as well as people?

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — In a trailer park tucked among irrigated orchards that help make California’s San Joaquin Valley the richest farm region in the world, 16-year-old Giselle Alvarez, one of the few English-speakers in the community of farmworkers, puzzles over the notices posted on front doors: There’s a danger in their drinking water.Uranium, the notices warn, tests at a level considered unsafe by federal and state standards. The law requires the park’s owners to post the warnings. But they are awkwardly worded and in English, a language few of the park’s dozens of Spanish-speaking families can read.”It says you can drink the water – but if you drink the water over a period of time, you can get cancer,” said Alvarez, whose working-class family has no choice but keep drinking and cooking with the tainted tap water daily, as they have since Alvarez was just learning to walk. “They really don’t explain.”Uranium, the stuff of nuclear fuel for power plants and atom bombs, increasingly is showing in drinking water systems in major farming regions of the U.S. West – a naturally occurring but unexpected byproduct of irrigation, of drought, and of the overpumping of natural underground water reserves.An Associated Press investigation in California’s central farm valleys – along with the U.S. Central Plains, among the areas most affected – found authorities are doing little to inform the public at large of the growing risk.That includes the one out of four families on private wells in this farm valley who, unknowingly, are drinking dangerous amounts of uranium, researchers determined this year and last. Government authorities say long-term exposure to uranium can damage kidneys and raise cancer risks, and scientists say it can have other harmful effects.In this swath of farmland, roughly 250 miles long and encompassing major cities, up to one in 10 public water systems have raw drinking water with uranium levels that exceed federal and state safety standards, the U.S. Geological Survey has found.More broadly, nearly 2 million people in California’s Central Valley and in the U.S. Midwest live within a half-mile of groundwater containing uranium over the safety standards, University of Nebraska researchers said in a study published in September.Everything from state agencies to tiny rural schools are scrambling to deal with hundreds of tainted public wells – more regulated than private wells under safe-drinking-water laws.That includes water wells at the Westport Elementary School, where 450 children from rural families study outside the Central California farm hub of Modesto.At Westport’s playground, schoolchildren take a break from tether ball to sip from fountains marked with Spanish and English placards: “SAFE TO DRINK.”The school, which draws on its own wells for its drinking fountains, sinks and cafeteria, is one of about 10 water systems in the farm region that have installed uranium removal facilities in recent years. Prices range from $65,000 for the smallest system to the millions of dollars.Just off Westport’s playground, a school maintenance chief jangles the keys to the school’s treatment operation, locked in a shed the size of a garage. Inside, a system of tubes, dials and canisters resembling large scuba tanks removes up to a pound a year of uranium from the school’s wells.The uranium gleaned from the school’s well water and other Central California water systems is handled like the nuclear material it is – taken away by workers in masks, gloves and other protective garments, said Ron Dollar, a vice president at Water Remediation Technology, a Colorado-based firm.It is then processed into nuclear fuel for power plants, Dollar said.

Source: News from The Associated Press

Venezuela election results

“The bad guys won, like the bad guys always do, through lies and fraud,” said Maduro. “Workers of the fatherland know that you have a president, a son of Chavez, who will protect you.”Hardliners in the notoriously fractious opposition seem similarly inflexible, preferring to talk about ending Maduro’s rule before his term ends in 2019 rather than resolving Venezuela’s triple-digit inflation, plunging currency and the widespread shortages expected to worsen in January as businesses close for the summer vacation.Moderates however are calling for dialogue to give Maduro a chance to roll back policies they blame for the unprecedented economic crisis. But with most Venezuelans bracing for more hardship as oil prices, the lifeblood of the economy, hover near a seven-year low, even they recognize the window for change is small and closing fast.

Source: News from The Associated Press

On Artificial Turf Issue, U.S. Women Dig In at Last – The New York Times

“We have become so accustomed to playing on whatever surface is put in front of us,” the team wrote in an open letter posted Monday on The Players’ Tribune. “But we need to realize that our protection — our safety — is priority No. 1.”Good for them. With their stock and their visibility as high as it has ever been, the players realized that there has never been a better time to find their voices.So goalkeeper Hope Solo shared a photo with her one million Twitter followers and forward Alex Morgan, who battled a leg injury for much of the past year, grumbled publicly about the “horrible” conditions. Morgan even told Fox Sports that she now encourages her teammates to speak their minds and ask “whether we should be playing on it if the men wouldn’t be playing on it.”And there’s the rub. The men’s national team does not play on artificial turf. Even when it schedules a game in a stadium that has it, sod is laid down for the game, no matter the cost. The women, however, were to play eight of the 10 games of their current World Cup victory tour on artificial turf.

Source: On Artificial Turf Issue, U.S. Women Dig In at Last – The New York Times

L.A. County supervisors vote to welcome Syrian refugees – LA Times

The supervisors also voted to send a letter to President Obama and the county’s congressional delegation “expressing the board’s support of federal efforts to help Syrians fleeing violence and oppression and to increase the overall number of refugees that the U.S. will resettle over the course of the next two years.”The question of how many refugees from Syria the United States will take in and where they will live has become politically charged in recent weeks. More than 30 state governors, mostly Republicans, have voiced concerns that extremists could infiltrate the United States and vowed to stop the refugees from settling in their states.

Source: L.A. County supervisors vote to welcome Syrian refugees – LA Times

Working Together to Help Americans #GetCovered

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, the nation’s uninsured rate now stands at its lowest level ever. But still, in communities across the country, 10.5 million people who are eligible for Marketplace coverage remain uninsured. In addition to launching the Healthy Communities Challenge to engage key communities in reducing the uninsured during this third Open Enrollment period, the White House also issued a challenge:

Build outreach efforts that can reach these remaining uninsured Americans and help them gain coverage.

Health Uninsured rate

Today, the White House is highlighting the creative ways that two health care companies, ZocDoc and Oscar Health, stepped up to answer this call, and showing how they are part of a growing trend of companies using the Internet to address our nation’s problems together.

Starting today, ZocDoc, which helps people book appointments online with doctors across the country, will be using its Web and email products to reach out to hundreds of thousands of customers it believes may not have health insurance, for example, people who have booked doctors’ appointments on ZocDoc but signaled that they will pay with cash. ZocDoc will remind these customers to sign-up for coverage at Healthcare.gov before the December 15 deadline to enroll in or change plans for coverage starting on January 1, 2016. 

We know that many uninsured Americans question whether they can afford coverage, and may not realize that more than 7 in 10 HealthCare.gov customers can find insurance for $75 a month or less after tax credits. So for uninsured Americans who remain skeptical about the costs of getting insured, health insurance company Oscar Health has created a digital video public service announcement (PSA) that explains why health insurance is actually more affordable than people may think. Oscar will distribute this video in key markets online, too, including in California, New York, and Texas.

Both ZocDoc and Oscar Health are just two recent examples of how creative use of new technologies can help empower citizens with knowledge and opportunities to help address today’s public policy challenges together. In October, in response to a call issued by the President to help aid refugees, tens of thousands of Americans donated to refugee relief efforts — with opportunities to donate made ubiquitous thanks to independent product integrations from Kickstarter, Instacart, and others. And when the First Lady called for the private sector to help employ veterans and end veterans’ homelessness, companies across the economy responded with hiring commitments and other creative actions. This past Veterans Day, ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft enabled tens of thousands of Americans to donate free rides to homeless veterans to help them get to job interviews, employment events, and home from new jobs when public transportation is not an option.

Scores of companies and non-profits, from a wide range of sectors, are stepping up to help address today’s collective challenges and support expanded civic participation. The President and First Lady have rallied citizen engagement on many key collective challenges: protecting the climate, improving access to healthcare, giving our veterans the support they deserve, fighting childhood obesity, making sure every child finishes school ready for college and career, and so many more. The Internet’s ability to empower citizens to engage and take immediate action has helped expand opportunities for companies and non-profits to work with members, customers and the public to facilitate broader civic participation. At the White House, the Office of Digital Strategy is constantly looking for new and creative ways to expand opportunities for civic participation in solving todays’ problems together. If your organization is using the Internet to help citizens pitch in to solve our nation’s problems, or would like to and think you can help in some way, please get in touch.

President Barack Obama fist bumps a middle-school student participating in an "Hour of Code" event to honor Computer Science Education Week in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Dec. 8, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
President Barack Obama fist bumps a middle-school student participating in an “Hour of Code” event to honor Computer Science Education Week in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Dec. 8, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

And, don’t forget: the deadline for January 1 coverage is December 15, and open enrollment ends on January 31. If affordable health insurance is available, but you choose to not enroll in coverage for 2016, you may be required to pay a fee when you file your 2016 federal income taxes. So go to HealthCare.gov or call 1-800-318-2596 for more information or to sign up today.

Get Covered