What's behind calls for Puerto Rico statehood? Here are 4 things to know.



Nicole Acevedo
Wed, March 3, 2021, 

Rep. Darren Soto, D-Fla., and Rep. Jenniffer Gonzalez, Puerto Rico's nonvoting member of Congress and a Republican, introduced new legislation Tuesday to make the U.S. territory a state.

The Puerto Rico Statehood Admissions Act seeks to establish "a framework for admission, including a presidential proclamation upon its passage, a ratification vote, the election of U.S. senators and representatives and the continuity of laws, government, and obligations," Soto said at a news conference.
Why now


The bill comes amid renewed efforts from pro-statehood Puerto Ricans to pressure Congress after passage of a nonbinding referendum in November that directly asked voters whether Puerto Rico should immediately be admitted as a state. With nearly 55 percent voter turnout, about 53 percent of Puerto Ricans who voted favored statehood while 47 percent rejected it, according to Puerto Rico's Elections Commission.

The new legislation was introduced Tuesday on the 104th anniversary of the Jones Act, the first piece of legislation that opened a pathway for Puerto Ricans to earn U.S. citizenship.

"But still it's not a first-class citizenship," Gonzalez, who represents 3.2 million Puerto Ricans on the island, said. "We cannot vote for our commander-in-chief, we do not have four members of Congress, and yet Congress has all power over us."

The bill has the support of at least 49 House members, 13 Republicans and 36 Democrats, according to Gonzalez. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., is expected to eventually introduce a version of the bill in the Senate.
Why statehood

Puerto Ricans living on the island are U.S. citizens who are unable to vote for president. They don't pay federal income taxes, since they don't have voting representation in Congress. But they do pay payroll taxes, helping fund federal programs such as Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Earned Income Tax Credit, which often serve as lifelines in a territory where 44 percent of the population lives in poverty. But as a U.S. territory, Puerto Rico has unequal access to these programs compared to states.

While similar versions of the Soto-Gonzalez statehood bill have unsuccessfully been introduced in Congress since at least 2015, the newest version is different because it seeks to mirror the process used to bring Hawaii and Alaska into the union, said Soto.

Soto said there's a renewed sense of urgency to advocate for statehood as Puerto Rico works to resolve the compounding crises that have been heaped on the island over the last few years.

The island is still recovering from Hurricane Maria in 2017 — the deadliest U.S.-based natural disaster in 100 years, which led to the deaths of at least 2,975 people — while simultaneously working to get out of the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history and survive the pandemic.
An opposing bill wants more options

The statehood bill was met with opposition from four Puerto Rican advocacy groups Tuesday. They bought an ad in The New York Times calling out statehood supporters such as Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi for their use of "cherry-picked statistics."

"If you're only listening to the governor of Puerto Rico, you're not even getting half the story," the ad reads. "True equity can only be achieved when Puerto Rico is free to decide its own destiny, armed with information and a full understanding of the entire range of nonterritorial political status possibilities available."

The four groups — Vamos Puerto Rico, Boricuas Unidos in the Diaspora, Diaspora in Resistance and Our Revolution Puerto Rico — argue in the ad that a bill that Reps. Nydia Velazquez and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, both Puerto Rican Democrats from New York, are seeking to reintroduce in the House is a better option to resolving Puerto Rico's territorial status.

Related: The election on the island follows the historic protests following the scandal that led to Gov. Ricardo Rosselló's resignation.

The Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act of 2020 initially proposed creating a "status convention" made up of delegates elected by Puerto Rican voters who would come up with a long-term solution for the island’s territorial status — whether it be statehood, independence, a free association or any option other than the current territorial arrangement.

During Tuesday's news conference, Pierluisi said that proposals advocating for "a new process with other options, because some didn't like the result, show a lack of respect to the people's vote."

Puerto Rico has held a few other referendums in recent years.

In a 2017 plebiscite, 97 percent of those who voted favored statehood but opposition parties boycotted the vote, resulting in a record low turnout of 23 percent. In another 2012 plebiscite, 61 percent of voters sided with statehood, but that referendum was also mired in controversy over the way the choices for voters were phrased.

Independence didn't have 'fair chance'

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., recently said that Puerto Rico's debate over statehood demonstrates that Puerto Ricans are divided on issues surrounding their territorial status.

Most Puerto Ricans favor statehood or its current territorial status. Historically, the island's chances to meaningfully explore independence as an option were often met with roadblocks.

A 1948 Gag Law made it illegal for Puerto Ricans on the island to display the Puerto Rican flag, and a government-sanctioned surveillance program known as "las carpetas," (the binders) illegally tracked Puerto Ricans advocating for independence for about 40 years. Especially during the Cold War, Puerto Rico was of strategic importance to the U.S. and the nation's military.

"There was not a fair chance for Puerto Ricans to explore independence as an option, because both the government of Puerto Rico and the United States government did not allow that option to be on the table," Puerto Rican photographer and journalist Chris Gregory-Rivera, whose six years of reporting on "las carpetas" is also being showcased in an exhibition in Abrons Arts Center in New York City, previously told NBC News.

Related: The divide reflects the ongoing debate about how to best vote on the U.S. territory's future.

"What does that do to a country's ability to participate in civil society and self-determine? As we're talking about another referendum, taking statehood to Congress and a myriad of legal issues about things that have happened over the last few years, you can't ignore that part of the situation that we're in now has links to this moment in history," Gregory-Rivera said.

Pro-independence groups organized counterprotests in Washington on Tuesday as lawmakers announced their pro-statehood bill.

Monday was the 67th anniversary of an armed attack on Congress by four Puerto Rican nationalists who fired on the House as it was in session. Five members of Congress were hurt and recovered; the attackers' prison sentences were commuted in the late 1970s by President Jimmy Carter.

The attack came two years after the 1952 agreement that made the island a commonwealth.

"The political purpose of that military attack was to draw the world's attention to the U.S. colonial situation in Puerto Rico and the repression against the Puerto Rican independence movement," Ana Lopez of the Boricua Independence Front said in a statement.

It’s time for Congress to give Puerto Ricans what they have demanded: statehood  Opinion


Pedro Pierluisi

Pedro Pierluisi is governor of Puerto Rico

and former resident commissioner for Puerto Rico in Congress.

Mon, March 1, 2021

On Nov. 3, as U.S. citizens in the 50 states voted for their federal representatives, more than a million U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico declared in no uncertain terms, in a nonbinding referendum, that they want equality and that they no longer consent to being subject to that same federal government without having a voice and a vote.

For the third time in less than a decade, the people of Puerto Rico voted in favor of becoming a state of the United States. It is time for Congress to act on the moral and political imperative conveyed by our clear message.

Since 1898, when the United States took possession of Puerto Rico as a product of the Spanish-American War, our political status has been an open question — and an open wound.

Our current status denies us the most important principle of our democracy: equality. It keeps us perpetual second-class citizens, with American passports, but without having the same rights as our fellow citizens on the mainland, including millions of our family members. As a result, our economy suffers, our ability to respond to disasters such as Hurricane Maria suffers, our vulnerable citizens suffer and so many of our brothers and sisters move to the mainland in search of the rights and opportunities they should have at home.

We have been proud American citizens for more than 100 years. Puerto Ricans have fought in each of America’s wars in the 20th and 21st centuries. Nine Puerto Ricans have won the Medal of Honor, and the 65th Infantry Regiment was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. However, more than 375,000 Puerto Rican soldiers and veterans and 3 million of their brethren cannot vote for our commander-in-chief and lack equal representation in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.

Now that the people have spoken so clearly, there is no excuse. Congress must act.

For years, those opposed to statehood for Puerto Rico, both on the island and on the mainland, hid behind the flimsy argument that Puerto Ricans had not made a clear, democratic choice expressing that statehood was their preferred path forward. This, despite the fact that there have been three island-wide elections in the past 10 years, and statehood has won each time.

Today, there can be no doubt about where the American citizens of Puerto Rico stand. On Nov. 3, we were asked a simple question: “Should Puerto Rico be admitted immediately into the Union as a state?” and given two alternatives, “Yes” or “No.” “Yes” carried the day by a clear majority.

Moreover, the statehood question, which shared the ballot with other island-wide elections, garnered more than 100,000 votes more than the candidate who received the most votes. The statehood question was clearly on voters’ minds, and the “Yes” vote transcended party politics.

In fact, for the past 80 years, the divide between the Democratic and Republican parties on Puerto Rico was defined largely in terms of support and opposition to statehood. But, in the wake of the plebiscite, pro-statehood activists were elected to the top leadership roles in both the Republican and Democrat parties. For the first time in living memory, both of the major American parties are united on the political future of our island.

The last obstacle, however, appears to be party politics on the mainland. Members of both major parties have voiced opposition to Puerto Rican statehood for various reasons, including the idea that federal representatives from Puerto Rico would be perpetually for one party or the other. Of course, Alaska was admitted to the union as a “perpetual” blue state while Hawaii was “destined” to be a GOP stronghold. Neither of those assumptions hold true today and, if we have learned anything from the recent election, it is that concerted efforts to address a community’s concerns can produce surprising results.

But even if partisans remain unconvinced, there are far greater issues at play. Now that Puerto Rico’s desire to become a state is clear to all who believe in the sanctity of free and fair elections, it is time for Congress to act. The alternative — maintaining the status quo by doing nothing — is a betrayal of the fundamental American principle that a legitimate government requires the consent of the governed.

As the democratically chosen governor of Puerto Rico, I will work every day to ensure that my constituents, the proud American citizens whom I serve, are finally granted the rights due them.

Ultimately, however, history will be on the shoulders of the 535 voting members of the 117th U.S. Congress.

I suspect that none of them would idly stand by if their constituents were stripped of their right to have a voice and a vote in the federal government. I urge each to think about why that same principle should not apply to my constituents and to respond accordingly to their call for equality.

STATEHOOD OR INDEPENDENCE FOR PUERTO RICO


Statehood for DC could come sooner than Puerto Rico — here’s why

April Ryan
Wed, March 3, 2021

Senate Majority Leader Schumer reveals a divide in the Latinx Hill leadership splits members on statehood for Puerto Rico.

Statehood for the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico appears to be within reach this year as significant movement on the For the People Act (H.R.1 and S.1) clears a pathway for the territories to gain equal representation in the federal government.

But in the case of Puerto Rico, the island lacks the same unified support D.C. has built.

(Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

With the U.S. House, Senate and the White House in Democrats’ control, many believe this is the time to add the two territories into the statehood.

When it comes to statehood for the District of Columbia, President Joe Biden has been a long-time supporter according to White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. Additionally, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is in favor of the status change. He said the Democratic Caucus “will do everything it can to see that it happens [statehood]” for the nation’s capital.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki speaks during the daily press briefing at the White House on March 3, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

During a roundtable call with Black journalists, Leader Schumer said that there is “division” in the ranks of Latinx federal lawmakers on the Hill. Some are supportive of statehood for Puerto Rico and others are seeking different options.

Congressmen Ritchie Torres (D-NY) is supportive of statehood for Puerto Rico and wants to end “colonialism.” He contends this plan not only gives Puerto Rico representation in the House and Senate, but it will provide additional money for benefits like SNAP, Pell Grants, Medicare and Medicaid.

“If Puerto Rico had statehood, it would have five members of the House of Representatives, as well as two senators,” Torres tells theGrio. “When you have two senators and five representatives in the House, you are in a much stronger position to secure federal funding.”

Torres thinks the difference in making Puerto Rico a state “would mean billions of dollars in new funding.”

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) speaks at a press conference endorsing New York City Mayoral candidate Andrew Yang on January 14, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

In some instances, not granting Puerto Rico statehood could leave the country in dire straits.

According to Torres, without federal representation, Puerto Rico lacks financial control, but as a state, the island would have more sovereignty over its funds. He pointed to the PROMESA bill of 2016, introduced by Republican Sen. Roger Wicker, as the root cause for the case for statehood hinging on financial autonomy.

“The law that establishes the financial control board to handle the debt crisis, deprives Puerto Rico of self governance. It has deepened colonialism in Puerto Rico,” Torres said.

In 2020, Puerto Rico voted on a referendum for statehood, which showed the majority of those on the island are in favor. Among the four Puerto Rican members of Congress, Torres is one of half who shares the opinion that statehood is “the only escape from colonialism,” and that a vote on statehood is democracy in action.


The post Statehood for DC could come sooner than Puerto Rico — here’s why appeared first on TheGrio.

THIRD WORLD USA

‘There’s no excuse for this’: thousands in Mississippi city still without water weeks after storms

Jackson, a city of mostly Black residents, is the only city in the state still having issues.



Oliver Laughland in Jackson, Mississippi
Thu, March 4, 2021, THE GUARDIAN

As the sound of rainwater droplets crescendoed around him, Rodrick Readus stood by his front door and took a moment to reflect on the many indignities of the past fortnight.

“It’s just the simple fact you can’t wash your hands,” he said. “You can’t take a bath. Every time I touch something I know I’m not clean.”

Like every other resident in his two-story apartment complex, Readus has been without running water since mid-February, when Jackson, Mississippi’s state capital, was lashed by two back-to-back winter storms. They crippled the city’s ailing water infrastructure and left thousands of residents now entering their third week without flowing pipes. While most national and international attention has focused on the aftermath of the storms in Texas, Mississippi has been largely ignored.

Buckets, jugs, bottles and plastic trays litter the ground outside Readus’s apartment complex, many are perched under gutters to capture the rainwater before it disperses into the mud. It’s the water he uses to flush his toilet.

The 47-year-old self-employed home repairman has no car, meaning he relies on family members and neighbours to drop off small containers of non-potable water to wash his dishes, which are piling up in the sink. He has already spent a few hundred dollars on bottled water to drink, an amount he simply cannot afford.

“We are all citizens and there’s no excuse for this,” Readus said. “Don’t treat us as second class because we don’t have the things that others do.”

The winter storms, which crippled power sources throughout the US south, brought record low temperatures to parts of Mississippi. In Jackson, where 80% of residents are Black, the cold led to at least 96 breakages in the city’s ageing pipes, which, combined with power outages, lead to catastrophically low pressure throughout its water system. As of Monday evening 35 breakages remained, and although pressure was slowly coming back, thousands of residents are without water. Most of them in the city’s south, which sits on higher ground and is furthest away from the treatment plant. A citywide boil notice remains in effect and officials have offered no timeline for full restoration.

K’Acia Drummer, a 27 year-old middle school teacher, also lives in south Jackson. She tried in vain to stick it out at her apartment after the ice receded last month, but with no running water and the increasing cost ($40 a day) of purchasing bottled water, she elected to leave and stay with friends. She returned home on Tuesday hoping to see her water restored but felt a sinking feeling as the taps dribbled an insignificant stream and her toilet still wouldn’t fill.

“I feel displaced,” she said. “Now I know what it feels like to live without basic necessities, and it’s one of those things that puts you in a different place mentally. My anxiety has been through the roof.”

With no shower water, she plans to bathe at her gym. With no functioning toilet, she has decided to “take in less fluids”.

Jackson’s mayor, Chokwe Antar Lumumba, has said the city requires $2bn to revitalize its ailing piping and treatment system. He compared the city’s pipes to peanut brittle, explaining that as repair crews move in to fix the pipes, one repair can lead to another breakage.

Mississippi, American’s poorest state, has long faced chronic infrastructure problems. A 2020 report card published by the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the state a D+ grade, noting decaying systems across roads, energy, solid waste and a host of other essential services. On its drinking water systems, the report noted some were losing as much as 50% of treated water due to breakages and that certain systems were still dependent on pipes laid in the 1920s. “Many of these networks have aged past their useful life span,” the report notes.

But at a press conference on Monday, Mayor Lumumba made clear that the changing climate was exacerbating the issue.

“One thing that is clear is that our winters are colder, our summers are hotter and the rain we experience is more abundant,” he said, pointing out that the city’s outdoor water treatment facility was simply not built to endure the cold. “And so not only do we need this investment because of the ageing infrastructure we need this investment because of the increased pressure that these extreme weather conditions are taking.”

Jackson is far from unique, as Texas’s widespread power outages last month revealed, but with systems across the US faltering under the climate crisis, experts predict these catastrophic events are likely to become more and more frequent.

“The climate is changing. Infrastructure is ageing. Funding for updating infrastructure is decreasing. And we as a society do not like thinking about paying for infrastructure, we only typically do when there is something as dramatic as the Flint water crisis or hurricane Katrina,” said Professor Martin Doyle, a director of the water policy program at Duke University.

In Jackson, the city has moved to raise sales taxes in order to pay for water and sewage upgrades in the wake of the crisis, but Mayor Lumumba made clear on Monday he believed the federal government should also be offering financial assistance.

Doyle points out that until the 1980s the federal government was a major source of water infrastructure funding, which was “largely taken away … so cities and utilities are now on their own financially and they are having to figure it out”.

The issue was the subject of a major investigation by the Guardian last year.

At the Forest Hill high school in south Jackson a steady stream of residents queued for non-potable water being distributed by national guard troops on Tuesday morning. Residents came with buckets, milk bottles, bins and tankers, anything to bring home as many gallons as possible.

Many did not want to talk during what was an intimate, and for some almost humiliating, moment of need.

But Cedric Weeks, a local restaurant owner who had been forced to temporarily close his business, took a moment to reflect.

“I saw [the water crisis in] Flint and I didn’t flinch at it,” he said. “But to be in that predicament now. I see the major need of water. I’ve never lived without it. So to have to haul it and to have to flush toilets and take baths with what you hauled … it’s terrible, you know.”

It was something one of the troops themselves could relate to.

Specialist Christopher Shannon, out to assist residents and media with queries about the operation, had also been living without water for two weeks. “You hate to see people struggle, but we love to come out and help,” he said. “No one expected it. Nothing is built for winter out here … You can prepare all you want, but if you’re not built for it, you’re not built for it.”

Jackson, Mississippi residents have lived two weeks without water following winter storm
Tue, March 2, 2022


Mississippi's largest city is still without full access to water after sub-zero temperatures severely damaged its aging infrastructure. Jackson, a city of mostly Black residents, is the only city in the state still having issues.

Janet Shamlian has more on the growing frustration.

Video Transcript

- Extreme weather is also creating a water crisis in Mississippi's largest city. The huge winter storm that devastated much of the country last month has also left Jackson, Mississippi without drinkable water for the past two weeks. The National Guard was called to Jackson to distribute water to its 160,000 people, and our Janet Shamlian is there.

JANET SHAMLIAN: Eddie Mitchell has been coming to this distribution site for two weeks to get these jugs filled with water he can't even drink.

EDDIE MITCHELL: Just for flushing. We don't wash dishes with it or nothing.

JANET SHAMLIAN: The 75-year-old veteran is among thousands in Jackson about to enter their third week without full access to water. How hard is it on people here?

EDDIE MITCHELL: Some people don't have water-- I mean, don't have a vehicle to come get water. Be here at 5:30 or 6:00 this afternoon when the line stretches around the corner.

JANET SHAMLIAN: There's such desperation, some drivers seeing this spouting pipe, pulled off a busy road to fill buckets. The entire city whose residents are 82% Black is under a boil water notice. The unprecedented mid-February freeze strained Jackson's aging system, dozens of pipes burst. Charles Williams is the public works director. What is the status of getting water back to the people in the city?

CHARLES WILLIAMS: Well, we feel like a majority of the city has received water pressure back. So that is a good thing, but we are concerned about our residents who live farthest away from the plant.

JANET SHAMLIAN: City leaders say it could cost more than $2 billion to fix the infrastructure, in a city with a $300 million budget. Communities nearby dealt with similar outages after the storm, but Jackson is the only Mississippi city still struggling with water weeks later.

SUMMER WILLIAMS: The city wasn't prepared and there was no warning about there not being water. It just stopped working unexpectedly.

JANET SHAMLIAN: Summer Williams, eight months pregnant, wants more definitive answers for her growing family.

SUMMER WILLIAMS: Because I'm due soon and only thing that's on my mind is how I'm going to handle it when the baby gets here.

JANET SHAMLIAN: As the city works to repair water main breaks, Jackson's mayor says, they need help from the state and federal government to update the system, but the people we've talked to here say they need a different kind of help. They feel like they are not seeing the mass distributions of drinkable water that they've seen in other cities. Anthony.

ANTHONY MASON: Two weeks without drinking water. Janet, thank you very much.

Water crisis continues in Mississippi, 

weeks after cold snap






Winter Weather Water Woes Mississippi Army National Guard Sgt. Chase Toussaint with the Maneuver Area Training Equipment Site of Camp Shelby, right, fills 5-gallon buckets with non-potable water, Monday, March 1, 2021, at a Jackson, Miss., water distribution site on the New Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church parking lot. Water for flushing toilets was being distributed at seven sites in Mississippi's capital city — more than 10 days after winter storms wreaked havoc on the city's water system because the system is still struggling to maintain consistent water pressure, authorities said. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

JEFF MARTIN, LEAH WILLINGHAM and EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS
Wed, March 3, 2021, 

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi’s largest city is still struggling with water problems more than two weeks after winter storms and freezing weather ravaged the system in Jackson, knocking out water for drinking and making it impossible for many to even flush their toilets.

Residents in the city of 160,000 are still being warned to boil any water that does come out of the faucets.

“I pray it comes back on,” Jackson resident Nita Smith said. “I’m not sure how much more of this we can take.”

Smith has had no water at home for nearly three weeks.

Smith is concerned about her mother who has diabetes. Her mother and most of the other older people on her street don’t drive, so Smith has been helping them get water to clean themselves and flush their toilets.

A key focus of city crews is filling the system's water tanks to an optimal level. But, public works director Charles Williams said Wednesday that fish, tree limbs and other debris have clogged screens where water moves from a reservoir into a treatment plant. That caused pressure to drop for the entire water system.

“Today was not a good day for us,” Williams said.

He said about a fourth of Jackson's customers remained without running water. That is more than 10,000 connections, with most serving multiple people.

City officials on Wednesday continued distributing water for flushing toilets at several pick-up points. But they're giving no specific timeline for resolving problems. Workers continue to fix dozens of water main breaks and leaks.

The crisis has taken a toll on businesses. Jeff Good is co-owner of three Jackson restaurants, and two of them remained closed Wednesday. In a Facebook update, Good said the businesses have insurance, but he’s concerned about his employees.

“We will not be financially ruined,” Good wrote. “The spirits of our team members are my biggest concern. A true malaise and depression is setting in."

Mississippi's capital city is not alone in water problems. More than two weeks have passed since the cold wave shut down the main power grid in Texas, leaving millions in freezing homes, causing about 50 deaths and disabling thousands of public water systems serving those millions.

Four public water systems in Texas remained out of commission Wednesday, affecting 456 customers, and 225 systems still have 135,299 customers boiling their tap water, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Also, 208 of the state’s 254 counties are still reporting public water system issues.

Bonnie Bishop, 68, and her husband, Mike, 63, have been without water at their Jackson home for 14 days. Both have health problems.

She's recovering after months in the hospital with the coronavirus. She's home but still in therapy to learn how to walk again and deals with neuropathy in her hands and feet.

She has not been able to soak her feet in warm water, something that usually provides relief for the neuropathy, or to help her husband gather water to boil for cooking for cleaning.

Mike Bishop just had elbow surgery. The first week the couple was without water, he still had staples in his arm and was hauling 5-gallon containers from his truck, his wife said. Bonnie Bishop said she told him not to strain himself, but he wouldn’t listen. They feel they have no choice.

On Monday, the couple drove 25 miles (40 kilometers) to Mike’s mother’s house to do laundry.

Jackson's water system has not been able to provide a sustainable flow of water throughout the city since the mid-February storms, city officials say.

The system “basically crashed like a computer and now we’re trying to rebuild it,” Williams said at a recent briefing.

The city's water mains are more than a century old, and its infrastructure needs went unaddressed for decades, Democratic Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba has said.

“We more than likely have more than a $2 billion issue with our infrastructure,” he said.

Jackson voters in 2014 approved a 1-cent local sales tax to pay for improvements to roads and water and sewer systems. On Tuesday, the city council voted to seek legislative approval for another election to double that local tax to 2 cents a dollar.

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves would have to agree to letting Jackson have the tax election.

“I do think it’s really important that the city of Jackson start collecting their water bill payments before they start going and asking everyone else to pony up more money,” Reeves said Tuesday.

Jackson has had problems for years with its water billing system and with the quality of water.

Melanie Deaver Hanlin, who was without water for 14 days, has been flushing toilets with pool water and showering at friends’ homes. She said Jackson’s water system “needs to be fixed, not patched.”

“That’s the issue now — poor maintenance for far too long," Hanlin said. "And Jackson residents are paying the price.”

___

Associated Press writer Terry Wallace contributed from Dallas. Martin reported from Marietta, Georgia.

HAWAII INTRODUCES BILL TO LEGALIZE PSILOCYBN

Natan Ponieman

Mon, March 1, 2021

Last month, a group of Hawaiian legislators introduced a bill that would legalize and regulate psilocybin, the active compounds in “magic mushrooms.”

“The reason I wanted to introduce this measure is because, as you know, in the 2020 election, a number of jurisdictions across the country, including Oregon, Oakland, Sacramento, Denver, Somerville, have moved forward with different legislation on psilocybin and further research and application of its mental health properties. And I believe that Hawaii should be part of that movement,” said Hawaii Senator Stanley Chang, one of the bill’s proponents.

Last November, Oregon became the first state to legalize and launch a program for the therapeutic use of psilocybin. A number of other jurisdictions are currently looking into developing similar programs.

Chang introduced his bill, SB738, with Sens. Laura Acasio, Les Ihara, Jr. and Maile Shimabukuro. The goal is to remove psilocybin and psilocin from the list of Schedule I substances and require Hawaii’s Department of Health to establish treatment centers for the therapeutic administration of these compounds.

Will The Bill Pass?

The bill could have a significant effect on the Hawaiian population when it comes to providing access to alternative mental health treatments. However, according to Chang, the bill is not a sure victory yet.

There are over three thousand bills introduced every year in Hawaii’s legislature. Only less than 10% make it through both houses and get signed into law.

“The odds are that it is relatively not likely,” said the senator. “A big part of the legislative process is not just actually passing a bill, but taking part in a community discussion about what the issues are, what the priorities should be."

Psilocybin may not be at the point today where there's a community wide-consensus of its therapeutic value, he explained.

“That's our job as legislators and policymakers, to engage in that conversation, to determine what is valuable, what's not valuable," Chang said. "And, you know, that's an ongoing conversation that we need to have.”

A Growing Emphasis On Mental Health

For Chang and his colleagues, the psilocybin bill is part of a larger process to improve mental health treatment across the state. Chang sees mental health as one of his legislative priorities.

“I think that there's a growing emphasis on mental health,” said Chang. He observes a growing belief that mental health should be treated in the same way as physical health and given the same level of priority.

Despite decades of activism, mental health continues to be placed behind physical health when it comes to policy-making priorities.

Earlier this year, Chang introduced a bill that requires insurers to offer annual mental health check-ups in addition to physical health check-ups.

Psilocybin could also be a key element in a shift towards achieving a balance between mental and physical health coverage.

“At the policymaking level, we're finally catching up to a process that's been going on for years in the medical community. And we're finally starting to understand that the research shows that there are significant benefits to this type of treatment and that, at the very least, we should be conducting a lot more of this research.”

Benzinga Photo

Teamsters Hoffa: House Vote On Policing Legislation Is Necessary Step Towards Justice

PR Newswire

WASHINGTON, March 4, 2021

WASHINGTON, March 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is a statement from Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa on the House's passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. 

"For too long, communities of color have found themselves unfairly targeted by some in law enforcement. Excessive force is used in too many cases. That needs to stop, and will, when this legislation becomes law.

"Putting in place key reforms like the elimination of racial, religious and other forms of discriminatory profiling by federal, state and local law enforcement; the prohibition of excessive force practices like chokeholds and carotid holds; and the establishment of strong, enforceable criminal and civil penalties for police misconduct, will bring needed equity and accountability to policing.

"For more than a century, the Teamsters have stood up for equality in the workplace. But that can't stop at the job site. This union supports comprehensive reform that protects the rights of people of color to equal justice under the law while also allowing the vast majority of those in law enforcement who do their jobs well to continue to do so."

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Visit www.teamster.org for more information. Follow us on Twitter @Teamsters and "like" us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/teamsters.

Recent killings in Afghanistan highlight ongoing issue of violence against women

ALEEM AGHA and GUY DAVIES
Fri, March 5, 2021, 

The killing of three female journalists and one doctor this week have once again thrown the issue of violence against women in Afghanistan into sharp focus, even as peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government continue.

ISIS in Afghanistan has claimed responsibility for an attack on Tuesday in the city of Jalalabad, which saw journalists Mursal Waheedi, Saadia Sadat and Shahnaz Raufi, of the Enikas television station, shot dead. Then, on Thursday morning, a female gynecologist, Dr Sadaf Elyas, was killed in another attack.

According to Attaullah Khogianai, the spokesperson for the governor of Jalalabad, Elyas was on her way to the central hospital in Jalalabad when a sticky bomb was attached to the three-wheeler rickshaw she was riding in. The bomb exploded, and she was killed on the spot, the spokesperson said.

MORE: Targeted killings threaten Afghanistan's postwar future

While most of the recent attacks on women have been claimed by ISIS, the Afghan government has accused the Taliban of being behind the spate of killings. The militant group has denied responsibility.

Part of the reason the Afghan government is blaming the Taliban is because people linked to the group were recently found guilty of killing various government employees, and one suspect detained in connection to the killings is a known member of the Taliban, an official said.

Now, the government will likely face criticism for failing to protect its citizens at a crucial time in the country's history, when attacks by the Taliban are constant despite the historic withdrawal agreement the militant group reached with the U.S. and despite the group's continued negotiations with the government.

PHOTO: Afghan journalists film at the site of a bombing attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Feb. 20, 2021. (Rahmat Gul/AP)

Some believe the killing of the four female professionals in a country as conservative as Afghanistan, is an attempt by extremists to create a climate of fear in a nation which has long struggled with incorporating the rights of women into public society. Hard-won gains could now be at risk, rights groups have repeatedly warned.

"These attacks are meant to intimidate; they are intended to make reporters cower; the culprits hope to stifle freedom of speech in a nation where the media has flourished during the past 20 years," the U.S. Embassy in Kabul tweeted. "This cannot be tolerated."

The killings of Waheedi, Sadat and Raufi also highlight another ongoing problem: the targeted killing of journalists.

PHOTO: Relatives carry the body of one of three women working for a local radio and TV station who were killed on Tuesday in attacks claimed by the Islamic State group, during her funeral ceremony in Jalalabad, east of Kabul, Afghanistan, March 3, 2021. (AP)More

In 2020, the Committee to Protect Journalists said that Afghanistan was the most dangerous country in the world for media workers.

MORE: New killings deepen Afghan journalists' assassination fears

Shaharzad Akbar, the chairperson of the Afghanistant Independent Human Rights Commission, reacted to the news of the killings on Twitter, saying that the "Afghan media community has suffered too much" and "Afghan women have been targeted and killed too often."

MORE: Fear, uncertainty meet US troop withdrawal announcement in Afghanistan

"Afghan women are again anxious about an uncertain future," Akbar wrote. "To reach peace, fundamental human rights for all should be recognized & preserved. Any [political] process should include women's voices, concerns & aspirations & benefit from their expertise & experience."

She added that recognizing equality "is key to lasting peace" in the country.

Afghan official: Gunmen kill 7 workers, bomb kills doctor


The bodies of Afghan civilians, who were killed by unknown gunmen at a plaster factory overnight, lie in a hospital morgue in Jalalabad, Nangarhar, east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, March 4, 2021. The victims were Hazaras, members of Afghanistan's minority Shiite community. (AP Photo)

RAHIM FAIEZ
Thu, March 4, 2021


KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — At least seven Afghan civilians were shot and killed by a group of gunmen overnight in the country's east and a physician died when a bomb attached to her rickshaw exploded on Thursday, provincial officials said.

The Islamic State group in a statement claimed responsibility for the bombing, saying its fighters had detonated a so-called sticky bomb placed on the vehicle of a woman. The statement claimed she worked for the Afghan intelligence service in Jalalabad, the capital of eastern Nangarhar province.

Gen. Juma Gul Hemat, provincial police chief in Nangarhar, said the shooting attack victims were workers at a plaster factory in the Sorkh Rod district. Police arrested four suspects, he added.

The laborers were all from Afghanistan's minority Shiite Hazara community, according to Farid Khan, spokesman for the provincial police chief. Some had come form the capital of Kabul, as well as central Bamyan and northern Balkh provinces, to work in the factory.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for that attack, but militants from the Islamic State group have declared war on Shiites and frequently target the Hazaras. Eastern Afghanistan has witnessed and increase of attacks by IS, including an attack on Tuesday in which three women who worked at a private TV station were gunned down in Jalalabad.

IS claimed responsibility for killing the three women — Mursal Wahidi, Sadia Sadat and Shahnaz Raufi. The three left work together and were gunned down in separate attacks while on their way home, almost at the same time.

But many other attacks have gone unclaimed. The government blames most on the resurgent Taliban, who today hold sway over nearly half the country. The Taliban, in turn, deny any role in some of the attacks and blame the government.

In Thursday's bombing in Jalalabad, the female doctor was killed while on her way to work at the provincial hospital's maternity ward.

Meanwhile in western Herat province, 39 people, both military and civilians, were wounded when security forces launched an operation to arrest a local militia commander, sparking a firefight, the governor's office said. The wounded, including three children, are being treated.

The militiaman was not arrested and remains on the run, said Wahid Qatali, the provincial governor in Herat.

Three female media workers killed on way home from work in eastern Afghanistan


Afghan men transport the body of one of three media workers who were shot and killed by an unknown gunmen, at a hospital in Jalalabad

Ahmad Sultan and Orooj Hakimi
Tue, March 2, 2021,

JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Three female media workers were shot dead in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad on Tuesday, government officials said, amid a wave of killings that is spreading fear among professional workers in urban centres.

Zalmai Latifi, head of local broadcaster Enikas TV, said the three women were recent high school graduates aged between 18 and 20 who worked in the station's dubbing department.

Government sources said the women were killed on their way home from work and witnesses said gunmen shot the women in the head before fleeing. A fourth woman was injured and a hospital spokesman said she had been admitted to hospital and was fighting for her life.

Provincial police chief Juma Gul Hemat said that the suspected lead attacker had been arrested and that he was connected to the insurgent Taliban. A Taliban spokesman denied the group had any involvement in the attack.

A wave of shootings and small bombs attached to vehicles in have targeted journalists, civil society workers and mid-level government employees in recent months.

The Afghan government and some foreign powers have blamed the attacks largely on the Taliban, which denies involvement. The Islamic State group also has a presence in the eastern Afghan province of Nangahar, of which Jalalabad is the capital.

"The targeted killing of journalists could cause a state of fear in the journalistic community, and this could lead to self-censorship, abandonment of media activities, and even leaving the country," said Mujib Khalwatgar, head of Afghan media advocacy group Nai.

Enikas TV's Latifi said the channel, which was set up in 2018, had employed 10 women but four had now been killed, including Malala Maiwand, a television journalist shot alongside her driver late last year.

The Taliban and Afghan government are carrying out peace talks in Doha, though progress has slowed while U.S. President Joe Biden's administration, is reviewing its plans for the peace process and the withdrawal of troops.

"These attacks are meant to intimidate; they are intended to make reporters cower; the culprits hope to stifle freedom of speech in a nation where the media has flourished during the past 20 years. This cannot be tolerated," the U.S. Embassy in Kabul said in a statement on Twitter.

(Reporting by Ahmad Sultan in Jalalabad, Orooj Hakimi and Abdul Qadir Sediqi in Kabul; Writing by Charlotte Greenfield and Rupam Jain; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Gareth Jones and Alex Richardson)

ENVIRONMENT, SOCIAL, GOVERNANCE

Wall Street wants to end Trump-era(ANTI) ESG fund rule for 401(k) plans

Investor demand for ESG funds has grown sharply in recent years.

EVEN CRAMER LOVES ESG

Greg Iacurci  CNBC

3/4/2021

The Labor Department issued a rule in October, during the Trump administration, that experts say would curb use of ESG funds in 401(k) plans.

Money managers and other stakeholders are pushing the Biden administration to scrap the rule or agree not to enforce it, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

Investor demand for ESG funds has grown significantly. 401(k) plans represent a big untapped growth source.

© Provided by CNBC Wind turbines operate at the Gouda wind power facility alongside a road at dusk in Gouda, South Africa, on Wednesday, March 3, 2021.

Wall Street firms are lobbying the White House to reverse a rule issued by the former Trump administration that makes it harder to offer environmental, social and governance — or ESG — funds in 401(k) plans.

That information is according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

The Labor Department issued the rule in October.

Lobbyists who represent money managers (and other stakeholders, such as pensions and retirees) made calls to the Biden transition team after the rule was announced, according to the WSJ. Some asked the administration not to enforce the rule and to place it under review, according to the report.

The Biden administration in January announced a review of the rule.
ESG growth

Investor demand for ESG funds has grown sharply in recent years.

Investors poured $51.1 billion of net new money into such funds in 2020, a record and more than double the prior year, according to Morningstar.

 VIDEO "More and more shareholders are demanding a focus on ESG, Smurfit Kappa CEO says"

Such funds may, for example, invest in energy firms that aren't reliant on fossil fuels or in companies that promote racial and gender diversity.

Money managers have also been offering new ESG funds to investors. The number of sustainable funds available to U.S. investors grew to almost 400 last year — up 30% from 2019 and a nearly fourfold increase over a decade, according to Morningstar.

Trump rule

Yet, a small percentage of workplace retirement plans offer ESG funds.

Around 3% of 401(k) plans have an ESG fund, according to the Plan Sponsor Council of America. A fraction of plan assets (a tenth of 1%) are held in such funds.

Workplace retirement plans — one of American's biggest pots of wealth — represent a huge untapped source of growth.

The Labor Department measure doesn't explicitly call out or outright forbid ESG funds in 401(k) plans. But it could stymie already lackluster uptake, according to experts.

The Trump-era rule requires employers — who make decisions around 401(k) investments — to only consider factors like a fund's risk and return (rather than characteristics like social or environmental good) when choosing 401(k) funds. Otherwise, employers may invite more legal scrutiny.

The Labor Department also explicitly disallowed employers from automatically enrolling workers into an ESG-focused fund. Automatic enrollment has become an increasingly popular way to nudge workers to invest in a 401(k).