Expert Voices

Louisiana Public Service Commission Casts Historic Vote for Energy Efficiency

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Baton Rouge, La. (Jan. 24, 2024) – Together Louisiana, the state’s largest grassroots organization, is celebrating reforms passed today by the Louisiana Public Service Commission (LPSC). The vote establishes an independent, statewide energy efficiency program with Commission oversight, solving a conflict of interest that has been hampering the LPSC’s energy efficiency efforts for the last decade. 

“Finally, our state’s residents can look forward to energy savings and lower bills as a result of the Public Service Commission’s historic vote today,” said Jodie Manale, a leader with Together Louisiana. “For too long the program meant to save energy has been administered by the companies that sell energy – the fox has been guarding the henhouse. Now that conflict of interest has been eliminated.”

Ms. Manale was joined by approximately 80 leaders with Together Louisiana from every LPSC district who attended the meeting to advocate for the reforms. 

Since 2014, the LPSC has had an energy efficiency program to help ratepayers consume less electricity and save money. Through lobbying, utility companies delayed the implementation of a “comprehensive” energy efficiency program and, instead, set up an optional program that the utility companies themselves administer. The program included a provision that compensated utility companies, from ratepayer funds, for electricity they never sold as a result of the program. These ghost recovery charges cost ratepayers $37 million over the last nine years. 

“Energy efficiency is affecting a lot of people in our community, including my 70-year-old mother,” said Dani Moses, a resident of LaPlace and leader with Together Louisiana. “It is hard to watch her struggle to pay her utility bill month after month, and ghost recovery charges make the problem even worse.”

Today’s vote at the LPSC shifted control over energy efficiency programs to an independent, third-party administrator selected by and accountable to the LPSC. The new, expanded program will fund upward of $200 million of energy efficiency investments to fix wasteful, leaky homes and businesses just in its first four years, accomplishing more in its first cycle than the existing program has for the last decade. The approved rule also removes the provision for ghost recovery charges, which means more dollars for energy efficiency investments. 

Furthermore, it will create a surge in energy efficiency projects, providing good-paying job opportunities for local union contractors and the opportunity to train new workers in apprenticeship programs.

“Today’s vote means more good paying jobs, safer weatherized homes and lower bills,” said Danny Walker, Political and Legislative Director with the South Central Pipe Trades and leader with Together Louisiana. “The expansion of the program will allow us to train more people in high wage careers and put them to work.”

About Together Louisiana 

Together Louisiana, a statewide network of more than 250 religious congregations and civic organizations across Louisiana, representing more than 200,000 people. It is one of the largest grassroots organizations in the history of Louisiana. The mission of Together Louisiana is to give faith and community-based organizations an opportunity to develop the leadership capacity of their members and affect change on a larger scale than they could alone. Together Louisiana is currently working on issues that include utility reform, workforce development, tax fairness, disaster response, access to healthcare, criminal justice reform and improving infrastructure and transportation.

Dexter Scott King, MLK’s Youngest Son Dies at Age 62

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The youngest son and third child of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Dexter King has died, the King Center announced. The civil rights leader’s youngest son, 62, died Jan. 22 following a battle with prostate cancer. Born in Atlanta, Dexter would have celebrated his 63rd birthday on Jan. 30. He was named after Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, where his father served his first pastorate.

In a statement, The King Center stated that the second-born son of Dr. and Mrs. King “was the family member delegated to take on the mantel of continuing the precedent his father set by legally protecting his work. He devoted his life to the continued perpetuation of his father’s legacy and the protection of the intellectual property (IP) his father left behind.  At the time of his death Dexter served as both Chairman of The King Center and President of the King Estate. Becoming well versed in intellectual property law, and its management and licensing was the result of his dedication to the delegated task and the memory of both his father and mother.”

The statement goes onto to say, “He was preceded in death by his father (1968), his mother (2006) and sister Yolanda (2007). He is survived by his loving and devoted wife of 11 years Leah Weber King, his sister Rev. Dr. Bernice A. King, his brother Martin Luther King, III, his niece, Yolanda Renee King and a host of immediate and extended family members.

The King family will respond to media inquiries following a press conference planned for Tuesday January 23rd, at 10:00 am ET, at The King Center’s Yolanda D. King Theatre inside Freedom Hall. A memorial service will be announced at a later time.

At the time of his death, Dexter served as both Chairman of The King Center and President of the King Estate.

A Snow Day in Two Americas

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A winter storm hit the D.C. area last week and it looks like cold temperatures will follow for the rest of this week, too.

Some closures are still in effect. Over the weekend many took advantage of the snow with an official snowball fight, sledding and even cross-country skiing on the mall. Across the area Washingtonians enjoyed several inches of snow, up to four in parts of D.C. and temperatures dropped to the 20s, it’s been reported.

It has been nearly two years since D.C. saw more than an inch of snow.

Officials say the Arctic air that brought subfreezing temperatures across the U.S. left tens of millions under wind chill warnings and dangerous icy conditions. The death toll was above 60, according to reports. It is also noteworthy in these hard economic times — paying for multiple wars — D.C’s snowiest days in two years started to fall on Martin Luther King, Jr Day.

And while most are focusing on the joy snowy days bring to briefly numb us from the harsh reality of the state of America, many can’t afford to forget that we still live in a socially, culturally and economically divided nation. Families, especially Black and Brown people are struggling with severe poverty in our so-called wealthy nation. Even today, people stand in line, including veterans, the homeless and those with disabilities, to receive what may be their only hot meal of the day. The list of improvements for a better and more just America is long and America is still under construction.

Nevertheless, we can never forget that all underserved Americans face the worst outcomes on snowy days, especially when the other America still frolics when it snows.

Sen. Hiram Revels: First African American to Serve in Congress

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On this day in 1870, Hiram Rhodes Revels became the first African American to serve in the U.S. Congress. White officials tried to declare his election null and void.

One hundred and fifty-four years ago, on February 25, 1870, visitors in the packed Senate galleries burst into applause as Senator-elect Hiram Revels, a Republican from Mississippi, entered the Chamber to take his oath of office. Those present knew that they were witnessing an event of great historical significance. Revels was about to become the first African American to serve in the United States Congress. Just 22 days earlier, on February 3, the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, prohibiting states from disenfranchising voters “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Revels was indeed “the Fifteenth Amendment in flesh and blood,” as his contemporary, the civil rights activist Wendell Phillips, dubbed him.

Hiram Revels was born a free man in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on September 27, 1827, the son of a Baptist preacher. As a youth, he took lessons at a private school run by an African American woman and eventually traveled north to further his education. He attended seminaries in Indiana and Ohio, becoming a minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1845, and eventually studied theology at Knox College in Illinois. During the turbulent decade of the 1850s, Revels preached to free and enslaved men and women in various states while surreptitiously assisting fugitive slaves.

When the Civil War began in 1861, Revels was serving as a pastor in Baltimore. Before long, he was forming regiments of African American soldiers in Maryland, serving as a Union army chaplain in Mississippi, and establishing schools for freed slaves in Missouri. He settled in Natchez, Mississippi, at war’s end, where he served as presiding elder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1868 he gained his first elected position, as alderman for the town of Natchez. The next year he won election to the state senate, as one of 35 African Americans elected to the Mississippi state legislature that year.

In 2020 Senate Stories, a new Senate history blog, was created. And in recognition of Black History Month, its first blog post celebrated the sesquicentennial of the swearing in of Hiram Rhodes Revels, the first African American senator. Read the first full Senate Stories blog on Sen. Revels HERE.

New Study Project Thousands of U.S. Cities Turning Into Ghost Towns by 2100

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A recent Scientific American article highlighted the findings of a depopulation study published in Nature Cities that predicted thousands of U.S. cities will become virtual ghost towns by 2100.

The study was conducted using US census population data from 2000, 2010 and 2020. The article states “These projected findings about depopulation in U.S. cities are shaped by a multitude of factors, including the decline of industry, lower birth rates and the impacts of climate change.”

The study conducted by Nature Cities can be found HERE.

BY RACHEL NUWER

The Urban U.S. could look very different in the year 2100, in part because thousands of cities might be rendered virtual ghost towns. According to findings published in Nature Cities, the populations of some 15,000 cities around the country could dwindle to mere fractions of what they are now. The losses are projected to affect cities everywhere in the U.S. except Hawaii and Washington, D.C.

“The way we’re planning now is all based on growth, but close to half the cities in the U.S. are depopulating,” says senior author Sybil Derrible, an urban engineer at the University of Illinois Chicago. “The takeaway is that we need to shift away from growth-based planning, which is going to require an enormous cultural shift in the planning and engineering of cities.”

Derrible and his colleagues were originally commissioned by the Illinois Department of Transportation to conduct an analysis of how Illinois’s cities are projected to change over time and what the transportation challenges will be for places that are depopulating. As they got deeper into the research, though, they realized that such predictions would be useful to know for cities across the entire U.S.—and not just for major ones, such as New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. “Most studies have focused on big cities, but that doesn’t give us an estimation of the scale of the problem,” says lead study author Uttara Sutradhar, a doctoral candidate in civil engineering at the University of Illinois Chicago.

The authors analyzed data collected from 2000 to 2020 by the U.S. Census and the American Community Survey, an annual demographics survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. This allowed them to identify current population trends in more than 24,000 cities and to model projections of future trends for nearly 32,000.  They applied the projected trends to a commonly used set of five possible future climate scenarios called the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways. These scenarios model how demographics, society and economics could change by 2100, depending on how much global warming the world experiences.

The authors’ resulting projections indicated that around half of cities in the U.S., including Cleveland, Ohio, Buffalo, N.Y., and Pittsburgh, Pa., are likely to experience depopulation of 12 to 23 percent by 2100. Some of those cities, including Louisville, Ky., New Haven, Conn., and Syracuse, N.Y., are not currently showing declines but are likely to in the future, according to the findings. “You might see a lot of growth in Texas right now, but if you had looked at Michigan 100 years ago, you probably would have thought that Detroit would be the largest city in the U.S. now,” Derrible says.

The full article by Nuwer on America’s projected depopulation can be found in Scientific American and by clicking HERE.

New York Lawmaker Rises on ‘Moral and Legal Obligation’ Measure for Reparations

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Rep. Jamaal Bowman, (D-NY) along with a handful of his democratic colleagues, have offered a $14 trillion pathway to finally reach a deal on the long standing issue of reparations.

The measure is calling on the federal government to be held accountable for slavery and the aftermath of it. The lawmaker cited the federal government’s response to the pandemic and the “space race” as examples that can make H.Res. 414 feasible. “When COVID was destroying us, we invested in the American people in a way that kept the economy afloat,” said Bowman. “The government can invest the same way in reparations without raising taxes on anyone.” “…Where did the money come from?” Bowman said. “We spent it into existence.”

Bowman is among nine sponsors of H.Res. 414, which seeks to establish that the US has “a moral and legal obligation to provide reparations for the enslavement of Africans and its lasting harm on the lives of millions of Black people in the United States.”

The measure would prompt the federal government to spend $14 trillion on a reparations program that would support descendants of enslaved Black people and people of African descent. Another measure to establish a federal commission on the impact of reparations was reintroduced this year and Bowman is a sponsor of it. The lawmakers say the bill must also address racial disparities in housing, mass incarceration, and education outcomes and “eliminate the racial wealth gap that currently exists between Black and White Americans.”

A recent report by David McKay Wilson in the Journal News provides this whitewashed summary on America’s long history with slavery:

“State-sanctioned slavery existed in what became the United States for 246 years. Ten of the nation’s first 12 presidents enslaved Black people, including one who engaged in slave trading from the Oval Office. Enslaved people — both in the North and the South — helped build our nation and were a foundation of the 18th and 19th century economies. The Hudson Valley’s Philipse family, with a mansion in Yonkers and a mill up the river at Philipsburg Manor, made a portion of their fortune through the slave trade.

New York’s gradual emancipation in 1799 subjected current slaves to lifelong bondage but granted freedom to those born after 1799 by 1827. National emancipation came in 1865, but freedom for the former slaves did not bring prosperity or the rights enjoyed by other Americans.”

Another important historical fact shared on X by Equal Justice Initiative states that on January 18, 1771, North Carolina approved payments of nearly 1,000 pounds, or the equivalent of $230,000 today, to “reimburse” white “owners” for enslaved Black people executed by the state.  Dr. Kind said “the time is always right to do the right thing,” especially when it comes to this long and arduous battle to bring about economic justice for Black people who built America under the brutality of slave labor, and creating the richest nation the world has ever known. In his famous I Have A Dream speech, he said, “We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and security of justice. We have also come to his hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now.” America must now go beyond honoring Dr. King’s legacy and deliver this check to repair what remains broken.

World Report 2024: The Human Rights System Is Under Threat

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A call to action to turn the tide of human rights around the world.

Tirana Hassan, Executive Director at Human Rights Watch in a keynote address on the state of human rights.

 Download the easy-to-read version of the keynote essay

We only have to look at the human rights challenges of 2023 to tell us what we need to do differently in 2024. It was a formidable year not only for human rights suppression and wartime atrocities but also for selective government outrage and transactional diplomacy that carried profound costs for the rights of those not in on the deal. Yet amid the gloom, we saw signs of hope showing the possibility of a different path.

Renewed hostilities between Israel and Hamas and in Sudan caused tremendous suffering, as did ongoing conflicts in Ukraine, Myanmar, Ethiopia, and the Sahel. Governments struggled to deal with the hottest year on record and the onslaught of wildfires, drought, and storms that wreaked havoc on millions of people in Bangladesh, Libya, and Canada. Economic inequality rose around the world, as did anger about the policy decisions that have left many people struggling to survive. The rights of women and girls and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people faced harsh backlashes in many places, exemplified by the Taliban’s gender persecution in Afghanistan.

The drivers of these human rights crises and their consequences often transcend borders and cannot be solved by governments acting alone. Understanding and responding to these threats needs to be rooted in universal principles of international human rights and the rule of law. These ideas built on shared human histories agreed upon by nations across all regions 75 years ago in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the basis for all contemporary human rights conventions and treaties.

This foundation is needed now more than ever. But this very system we rely on to protect the human rights of people everywhere is under threat. Every time a government overlooks or rejects these universal and globally accepted principles, someone pays a price – in freedoms and liberties, in their health or livelihood, and at times their lives.

The complete human rights watch world report 2024 can be found HERE.

Do Scientists and Big Pharma Want to Find a Cure for Cancer?

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No, they don’t. That’s according to rock legend Rodger Daltrey of The Who and longstanding patron of the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Over $100 billion is spent worldwide every year in the quest to cure cancer. However, despite this exhaustive effort, the number of cancer cases is estimated to increase by 70% over the next two decades, and is expected to reach 25 million new cases per year by 2030. Is there a prospect of stopping, or even slowing the spread of this debilitating disease? In a recent interview with Daltrey – by Fraser Lewry – it seems the odds are against those waiting for a cure.

“I don’t think they’ll ever find a cure for cancer. I don’t think they want to find a cure,” Roger Daltrey said questioning Big Pharma as he nears the end of his time at the Teenage Cancer Trust. 

The Who’s Roger Daltrey is signing off his 24-year patronage of the Teenage Cancer Trust with a final run of charity shows.

Roger Daltrey is coming to the end of his hugely successful 24-year stewardship of the Teenage Cancer Trust’s annual charity shows, and his latest round of press interviews find him in typically skeptical form. Speaking with The Times about his tenure in charge of the Trust, Daltrey – whose sister died from breast cancer aged just 32 – expresses reservations about the scientific establishment’s approach to finding a cure for the disease.

“I don’t think they’ll ever find a cure for cancer,” says Daltrey. “I don’t think they want to find a cure. I’m being cynical here, but scientists look after the science but they also look after themselves. You do imagine if they did find a cure tomorrow it would be fabulous for the country, but there’d be an awful lot of scientists out of work. You might think I’m being cynical, but I do think that.”

Daltrey goes on to reiterate that so-called ‘Big Pharma’ has more to lose than it does to gain by finding a cure. “It’s just human nature, isn’t it?,” he says. “You’re not going to invent something that’s going to put you out of work.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Daltrey reveals that he’s looking for an actor to play late Who drummer Keith Moon in a forthcoming biopic. Daltrey has co-written the script for the film with Nigel Hinton, author of the Buddy trilogy for teenage readers, and the Beaver Towers stories for younger children.

“It will be a psychological film about the guy who I thought was one of the funniest people I ever met,” says Daltrey. “But yes, he was also an addict and addiction is a waste of a life.” Joining The Who at Daltrey’s final Teenage Cancer Trust shows at London’s Royal Albert Hall in March will be Robert Plant with Saving Grace, Eddie Vedder, Noel Gallagher, The Chemical Brothers and more. Full details below.

Teenage Cancer Trust: 2024 Royal Albert Hall Schedule

Mar 18: The Who with Orchestra, with special guests Squeeze
Mar 19: Evening Of Comedy – line-up tba
Mar 20: The Who with Orchestra, with very special guests Squeeze
Mar 21: Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, with very special guests Blossoms
Mar 22: Young Fathers plus special guests
Mar 23: The Chemical Brothers
Mar 24: Ovation – A Celebration of 24 Years of Gigs For Teenage Cancer Trust’ with Roger Daltrey, Kelly Jones, Robert Plant with Saving Grace, Pete Townshend, Eddie Vedder, Paul Weller

Biden Administration Sued For Actively Supporting Israel’s Genocide of Palestinians

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The UN’s top legal body —  the International Court of Justice (ICJ) —  that heard two days of powerful legal argument from South Africa against Israel on the crime of all crimes: genocide, is not the only legal body hearing a case of genocide. The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) is suing the Biden administration in federal court for its complicity in the war in Gaza by supporting Israel, a state that stands accused of an attempt to “destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, in whole or in part,” as defined by the 1948 Convention on Genocide.

This report by Caira Piriano, first published in Medium, tells the full story that many are not aware of.

Biden Administration Lawsuit

If you follow news about Palestine (and if you watch something other than mainstream US news), you’ll know about South Africa’s ICJ case. However, you may not be aware that the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) has sued the Biden administration in US federal court for violating the genocide convention by failing to prevent genocide and instead actively supporting it.

Let’s take – a quick look at this case.

👉 Who are the plaintiffs?

The CCR is suing on behalf of a group of Palestinian individuals and organizations, including Palestinian Americans and people in Gaza. The organizations include Defense for Children International — Palestine and Al Haq, and the individuals include Ahmed Abu Artema, who started the 2019–2019 Great March of Return protest movement. All of the individuals have had family members killed in Israeli attacks.

👉 Who are the defendants?

The lawsuit accuses President Biden, Secretary of State Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Austin, in their official capacities.

👉 What is the dispute about?

The plaintiffs say that the Biden administration has enabled Israel to commit genocide, in violation of international customary law and US law, causing direct harm to the plaintiffs and their families. Actually, in its most recent filing, the CCR says that one of their plaintiffs themselves may have been killed in Gaza since the case was filed. The Biden administration has moved for dismissal, saying that this issue is a political question and cannot be decided by the courts.

👉 What law does the CCR say the Biden admin is breaking?

The complaint is that the defendants have “violated their duty under customary international law, as part of federal common law, to take all measures within their power to prevent Israel from committing genocide.” Confused? Stick with me.

The US is a common law system, meaning that the law isn’t just the statutes in the US code; what’s more important is the precedent of past legal decisions and established legal principles. All this precedent and tradition together is called common law.

Customary international law is defined as “international obligations arising from established international practices”; prohibition of genocide and failure to prevent genocide, as one such established practice, was also codified in the UN Genocide Convention. Customary international law is part of common law and can be enforced in federal courts.

👉 What is CCR asking the court for?

The “relief” (action) requested by the plaintiffs is basically just that the defendants stop supporting genocide in Gaza through diplomatic, military, and financial assistance. They are also seeking injunctive relief, which is basically the equivalent of the ICJ’s “provisional measures — Biden et al. must stop their violation of international law immediately while the case is pending, because allowing the attacks to continue for years while the case is decided is too risky.

👉 How has Biden responded? 

The Biden administration’s lawyers have moved for the case to be dismissed because they say the court can’t act on political issues. Their response doesn’t address the genocide claims at all and uses only procedural arguments.

You can access all the case files in a very well-organized page on the CCR’s website. https://ccrjustice.org/home/what-we-do/our-cases/defense-children-international-palestine-v-biden

Annual MLK Holiday DC Peace Walk & Parade “Bending Toward Peace, Truth and Justice”

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DMV residents braved a snowy Monday morning to celebrate the birthday and legacy of Civil Rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. with the Annual MLK Holiday DC Peace Walk & Parade.

Today marks 45 years of the memorial parade, held after the assassination of Dr. King on April 4, 1968. Participants carried political signs demanding change, an end to violence and accountability in service to the American people, keeping in step with the legacy of the Civil Rights giant. The event also featured local performance groups of all ages.

Regina Pixley, community activist served as this year’s grand marshals and was joined by retired 7News DC Bureau Chief Sam Ford, Lourdes Robinson, DC Youth Mayor; Tyrone Parker, founder, Alliance of Concerned Men; Reverend Wanda Thompson, pastor of Ambassador Baptist Church. The Annual MLK Holiday parade is a strong tradition in the District.

Click the link to watch the parade: https://wjla.com/watch

The parade is part of a full week of activities honoring King, hosted by the 19th Annual MLK Observance Week. This year’s theme is “Bending Toward Peace, Truth and Justice.” The 19th Annual MLK Observance Week 2024 committee is led by Washington Informer Publisher Denise Rolark Barnes and community activist Stuart Anderson.

Additional details about the annual event, its history and the community organizers who help make it all happen can be found HERE.