Jessica Corbett, Senior editor and Staff Writer - Common Dreams
Stephan:
Here is both good news and an example of how Democrats govern. I simply do not understand why Americans, particularly Americans in Red states do not seem to be able to comprehend the difference and how it affects the quality of their personal lives. But they don’t.
Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed climate legislation on November 28, 2023. Credit: Gretchen Whitmer / X
As scientists worldwide continue to sound the alarm about the need to swiftly ditch planet-heating fossil fuels, Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer won praise from green groups on Tuesday for signing what she called “game-changing” legislation that “will help us become a national leader in clean energy.”
“These bills translate into better air, water, and health for everyone,” said Derrell Slaughter, Michigan clean energy advocate at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “The pathbreaking standards for the Midwest industrial heartland will see the state move to 100% clean energy by 2040 and put more resources toward energy efficiency.”
“Michigan has seized the opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to combating climate change and ensure a sustainable, just, and prosperous future for our state,” he added.
Senate Bill 271 is the part of the “Clean Energy Future” package that features the 100% clean energy standard. S.B. 273 increases Michigan’s energy waste reduction standards, and
In contrast to the previous report on Democrat Governor Whitmer here is an example of how Republican governance operates. If you live in a Red state maybe your 14 year old should be looking for a job instead of doing their homework.
Workers at a Tyson Foods factory in Springdale, Arkansas, where a protest took place earlier this week. Credit: Gregory Smith / Corbis / Getty
Child labor violations have been soaring in the US, but efforts to render solutions through legislation have received little support, and Republicans at the state level continue pushing bills that would roll back current child labor protections.
In most recent fiscal year, the US Department of Labor wage and hour division reported 835 cases of child labor violations affecting 3,876 minors, and 688 minors employed in violation of hazardous occupation, a 283% increase since 2015. Civil penalties against employers totaled just under $4.3m.
The Department of Labor has pushed to ramp up enforcement against child labor and the exploitation of migrant child labor, but the wage and hour division remains too underfunded and too understaffed to protect workers adequately.
At the state level, labor departments also saw sharp increases in child labor violations last year. A record number of employers were cited for child labor violations in Washington and in New York, the state labor department […]
Anne Kauranen in Helsinki, Attila Cser in Nuijamaa, and Kevin Liffey in London, Reporters - Reuters
Stephan:
Finland which has an over 800 mile border with Russia has had enough. They have closed their borders to Russian immigrants fleeing the disaster Putin has made of Russia. For over a decade I spent a lot of time in Russia, and find what Putin has done to Russia an even bigger disaster than I think Trump and the Republicans have done to the U.S.
The Finnish-Russian border Credit: Reuters
HELSINKI, FINLAND – Dozens of migrants stood behind barriers at two crossings on Finland’s border with Russia on Saturday, the Finnish Border Guard said, after Helsinki erected barricades to halt a flow of asylum seekers it says was instigated by Moscow.
The Finnish government has accused Russia of funnelling migrants to the crossings in retaliation for its decision to increase defence cooperation with the United States, an assertion dismissed by the Kremlin.
The Finnish Border Guard erected barriers from midnight on Friday at the Vaalimaa, Nuijamaa, Imatra and Niirala border posts in southeast Finland, which account for most of the traffic between the two countries.
Despite the closure, dozens of migrants arrived on Saturday afternoon at the Nuijamaa and Vaalimaa crossings, and lit a campfire in sub-zero temperatures behind razor-wire barriers mounted by border guards, Finnish Border Guard told reporters.
In Nuijamaa, two people managed to breach the barriers and enter Finland, it added.
“We are currently improving the barriers so that something similar will no longer be possible,” Colonel Mika Rytkonen said, […]
Vladimir Putin, Just like his buddy Donald Trump, has trashed his country, albeit in a different way. Russia has become a very sad nation. Hundreds of thousands have immigrated or been killed in the war Putin started in Ukraine that has made Russia’s economy a disaster. The only thing they have to sell is oil and gas — do you know anyone with a Russian refrigerator or smart phone — and only to the few countries willing to buy their oil and gas. Young families aren’t having children, or only one or two. A large skew in gender distribution has formed in Russian society. It has gotten so bad that Putin is demanding that women have at least eight children. The absurdity of his demand says it all.
Putin called on Russian women to have more children. Credit: Getty
Russian President Vladimir Putin is demanding that women in his country have “seven, eight or more” children to boost the population.
He warned that this is needed to prevent “catastrophic demographic problems” that could impact the country’s economy.
Speaking via video link at the World Russian People’s Council on Tuesday, he said: “Many of our peoples maintain the tradition of the family, where four, five or more children are raised. Recall that in Russian families our grandmothers and great-grandmothers had both 7 and 8 children. Let us preserve and revive these traditions.
“Having many children, a large family, should become a norm, a way of life for all the people of Russia. A family is not just the foundation for state and society, it is a spiritual phenomenon, the source of morality.”
Putin himself reportedly has six children with three partners, but only publicly acknowledges his two daughters.
His comments come as Russia‘s population fell by 550,000 during first year of the […]
Thom Hartmann makes what I think is the critical and relevant point. Why isn’t Merrick Garland investigating and prosecuting the Trump/Giuliani/Kushner pardon for sale racket? Come to that, why isn’t anyone being held responsible, why are the Trump trials running on for almost three years? These people are destroying our democracy in front of our eyes.
Yesterday’s New York Times has a fascinating article about Trump pardoning a major drug dealer and violent loan shark; it’s titled “A Troubling Trump Pardon and a Link to the Kushners.”
Like with so much reporting on Trump and his possible criminal activity while in the White House, it somehow manages to miss a possible larger picture, in this case the multiple allegations that Trump and Giuliani were selling pardons for $2 million a pop. Although the allegations are well documented, including under oath in a lawsuit, there’s not a single mention of it in the Times article.
The reporters do, however, an excellent job of laying out a case for Jonathan Braun not being pardoned. First, he was a convicted major drug dealer who was less than 2 years into a 10 year prison term. Second, he was also allegedly running a mafia-like illegal loan shark operation, using threats of violence to make sure people paid up. As the Timesnotes:
“A Staten Islander with a history of violent threats, Mr. Braun had told a […]
