In cities across the US, thousands took to the streets to demand abortion rights on Tuesday, a day after the leak of a draft supreme court opinion that would overturn Roe v Wade, the landmark ruling in 1973 that legalised abortion nationwide. The judgment, which is due by the end of June, would be the court’s biggest since the former president Donald Trump succeeded in naming three conservative justices to the court.
Benchmark interest rate raised 0.5 percentage points, with more rises expectedThe Federal Reserve moved to tamp down soaring inflation in the US on Wednesday, announcing the sharpest rise in interest rates in over 20 years.The Fed’s benchmark interest rate was raised by 0.5 percentage points to a target rate range of between 0.75% and 1%. The hike is the largest since 2000 and follows a 0.25 percentage point increase in March, the first increase since December 2018. Continue reading...
Salem-based group asks to mark Satanic Appreciation Week in July after city’s denial of request by Christian activist ruled illegalA Satanic temple is requesting to fly a flag over Boston City Hall after the US supreme court this week ruled the city violated the free speech rights of a conservative activist seeking to fly a Christian flag outside the downtown complex.The Salem-based group on Tuesday tweeted a copy of its request to raise a flag to mark what it termed Satanic Appreciation Week, from 23 to 29 July. Continue reading...
Chad Wolf, then acting homeland security secretary, demanded changes and delayed report, risking perception of politicisationChad Wolf, Donald Trump’s acting secretary of homeland security, interfered with a report on Russian interference in the 2020 election by demanding changes, delaying its dissemination and creating a risk the report might be seen as politicised, a government watchdog said.Eventually declassified in March 2021, the report was a summary of foreign election interference into the 2020 election. It found that, as one headline put it, “Russia tried to help Trump in 2020, Iran tried to hurt him and China stayed out of it”. Continue reading...
It sounds mundane, but a phone-in on listeners’ favourite spoons showed how much memory can be invested in themI have started getting feelings for my spoons. I blame Tim Hayward, restaurant critic for the Financial Times, for this. He wrote a brilliant piece last week about his search for the perfect spoon. At first glance this was a bit random, even for me. But before long I was with him all the way in his quest for the spoon of his dreams, a spoon of just the right depth, size, shape, length and other variables.I surveyed my spoon drawer and considered my feelings. I was disappointed to see I have no fewer than 17 wooden spoons. Disappointed because this implies a certain shallowness, as if I’m some kind of spoon lothario, collecting notches on my bedpost, focusing on quantity rather than quality. Stirring without love is just exercise, after all. But sorting through them, I realised I do have a favourite. It’s more of a spatula than a spoon, but it suits me very well. I had always looked out for it without knowing I was doing so and felt a twinge of disappointment if it didn’t come to hand. If ever I lost it for good, I now understood, I would miss it for ever. Continue reading...
We would like to how the landmark case Roe v Wade affected youAbortion could potentially be banned in 26 US states if a draft supreme court decision remains substantially unchanged and the issue is returned to the states to decide.We would like to hear how having the right to an abortion has affected you. How would your life have been different if you didn’t have access to care? What difference did Roe v Wade make to you? Perhaps you had an abortion before the 1973 landmark case. Continue reading...
Ex-president found in contempt of the court last month for failing to comply with subpoena from the New York attorney generalA New York court has rejected an attempt by Donald Trump to halt a contempt order and $10,000 in daily fines levied against the former US president for failing to properly comply with an investigation into his company.Trump was found in contempt of the court last month for failing to comply with a subpoena from Letitia James, the New York state attorney general, who is seeking financial records for her civil fraud investigation into the Trump Organization. Continue reading...
US abortion row is dominating headlines, with international concern about ‘terrible regression’ for womenThe prospect of the US supreme court overturning Roe v Wade has dominated front pages across the world, with the global media reporting in detail on one of the most polarising issues in American politics.The Washington Post leads on concerns that overthrowing the legislation represents a threat to abortion rights for women everywhere. The newspaper quotes leaders from across the world in support of the 1973 ruling, including comments from the French senator Julien Bargeton that it would be “a terrible regression for American women” and that “progressives around the world must mobilise”. Continue reading...
Outcry after thieves in Oklahoma chopped statue of Marjorie Tallchief into pieces and sold parts to recycling center for $250Thieves have destroyed a statue of a Native American ballerina and sold the broken parts to a recycling center in Oklahoma for about $250.Last week, thieves chopped the statue of Marjorie Tallchief into pieces, prompting outcry among residents in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Tallchief was an American ballerina, primarily in the 1940s and 50s, and a member of the Osage Nation. Continue reading...
A Democratic majority in both houses of Congress could make abortion a right by law, and it’s worth remembering Mexico, Ireland and Argentina are among the countries that recently did soHow do you strip away cherished rights? The best strategy is incrementally and undramatically, a death of a thousand cuts. That’s how Republicans were hacking at voting rights until recently, when the rest of us woke up and began to pay attention to the cumulative impact of voter ID laws, the shuttering of polling places, restrictions on voting by mail, and all the rest. Reproductive rights have been under attack for more than 30 years – by rightwing terrorism against abortion providers all through the 1990s and as recently as 2015 in Colorado Springs, but also by a sort of attrition, narrowing down access by shutting clinics, limiting how many weeks pregnant you can be, and other such measures. Overturning Roe v Wade upends all this stealth and incrementalism. Judging by the reaction, it may be exactly the kind of overstep that leads to a backlash. After all, the great majority of Americans support the right to choose.There are many kinds of actions to take in response to this likely overturning of a fundamental right to bodily self-determination and privacy. (And it’s bitterly amusing that a court that wants to set policies reaching into the uteruses of women across the country apparently feels violated by having its own internal workings exposed with this leaked draft opinion.) Direct support for the poor and unfree women who will be the most affected is already under way – and by unfree I mean those who are under the domination of a hostile partner, family, church or community. People have organized to offer travel to clinics for those far from them, access to abortion pills, and other forms of support. But by backlash I mean and am hoping for the kind of backlash Trump’s election and subsequent outrages provoked, the 2018 election that swept the Squad and many other progressives into office and took back the House of Representatives. A Democratic majority in both houses could make abortion a right by law, and it’s worth remembering that Mexico, Ireland and Argentina are among the countries that recently did so.Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. Her most recent books are Recollections of My Nonexistence and Orwell’s Roses Continue reading...
Trump is framing the midterms as a referendum on his continuing influence over the Republican party – even as polls show most voters want him to go awayThe beginning of May before midterm elections marks the start of primary season and six months of fall campaigning. The conventional view this year is that Democrats will be clobbered in November. Why? Because midterms are usually referendums on a president’s performance, and Biden’s approval ratings are in the cellar.But the conventional view could be wrong because it doesn’t account for the Democrat’s secret sauce, which gives them a fighting chance of keeping one or both chambers: Trump.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...
Last year Idaho approved the killing of 90% of its wolves and Wisconsin killed 200 in less than 60 hours. Recently 500 were killed in the northern Rockies. This is a disaster for our ecosystemWill Americans ever stop killing wolves?We stopped commercially hunting whales, and the mass slaughter of bison. We no longer clearcut old-growth redwoods, or use explosives on prairie dog towns, or build massive dams on wild salmon rivers. We no longer kill egrets and herons to adorn women’s hats with their feathers.Kim Heacox writes frequently for The Guardian about the climate crisis, biodiversity loss and threats to US public lands. He is the author of many books, including The Only Kayak, a memoir, and Jimmy Bluefeather, a novel, both winners of the National Outdoor Book Award. He lives in Alaska Continue reading...
Biden condemns abortion opinion that, if handed down, would mean ‘fundamental shift’ in law and imperil many other rightsGood morning.Joe Biden has warned that a leaked draft supreme court ruling overturning Roe v Wade, the 1973 case that guaranteed the right to abortion, would represent a huge change in US law and could imperil a wide range of other civil rights.What’s the reaction been like? As news broke, demonstrators gathered in major cities across the US. There were tears and tension as protesters swarmed outside the US supreme court to voice their outrage.How soon could US states outlaw abortions if Roe v Wade is overturned? While the draft could still change, if it is not substantially altered it would result in 26 states immediately or as soon as practicable banning abortion, a sea change in the American legal and political landscape.How significant is a leak of a draft supreme court ruling? The Guardian’s Washington correspondent, David Smith, called the leak “stunning and unprecedented” and said it would be the worst security breach in the court’s history.What else is happening? More than 100 evacuees who managed to leave the besieged city of Mariupol – many trapped under the Azovstal steel plant – reached the relative safety of Ukraine-controlled Zaporizhzhia. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy confirmed in his latest national address 156 people, mainly women and children, were successfully evacuated.What else do we know? Here’s a roundup of everything we know on day 70 of the invasion. Continue reading...
Congress’s extraordinary new Lend-Lease plan commits billions of dollars to the war effort, echoing a second world war strategyIn the spring of Russia’s war on Ukraine, Washington DC seems haunted by the ghosts of history. The US Congress has passed the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022 to expedite aid to Ukraine – just as Franklin D Roosevelt did, under the Lend-Lease Act, to the British empire, China and Greece in March 1941.The sums of money being contemplated in Washington are enormous – a total of $47bn, the equivalent of one third of Ukraine’s prewar GDP. If it is approved by Congress, on top of other western aid, it will mean that we are financing nothing less than a total war.Adam Tooze is a professor of history at Columbia University Continue reading...
by Sirin Kale, Leah Harper and Ann Lee on (#5YVQG)
With US abortion rights in jeopardy, Judy Chicago, Bonnie Greer, Rebecca Solnit and more explain why they are determined to fight backThe US was shaken earlier this week by the news that Roe v Wade – the ruling that gives American women the constitutionally protected right to safe and legal abortion – could be overturned.If the leaked ruling by the supreme court does come into effect abortion would be a matter for individual state legislatures and Congress to rule upon. The change would mean women and girls no longer having the same rights their mothers and grandmothers fought for if Republican-controlled states move quickly to end abortion access and Republicans in Congress attempt to enact a nationwide abortion ban. Continue reading...
In a state where labor culture isn’t strong, a Denver store’s union drive is notable. As soon as it was announced, high-ranking company figures began visitingWhen Starbucks management came for Sean Andrews, it didn’t surprise him, exactly. Tensions were already running high in the Denver coffee shop where he worked. A few days prior, Andrews’ fellow baristas had walked off the job in a six-hour strike. They were demonstrating for their unionization effort and against what they saw as a sustained pattern of anti-labor tactics by Starbucks.Workers knew the strike was an escalation and expected retaliation. Even so, Andrews was unprepared when the Denver Starbucks district manager pulled him aside before a shift, forced him to turn off his phone and asked him to take a call. The woman on the other end would eventually identify herself as a “corporate investigator” who looks into losses in stores. Continue reading...
Lawyers for Frank Atwood urge him not to choose as method of execution poison gas used to murder millions during HolocaustA death row inmate in Arizona has two weeks to decide whether to be executed with cyanide gas, the poison known as Zyklon B used by the Nazis to murder millions of people in Auschwitz and other extermination camps.On Tuesday the supreme court of Arizona issued an execution warrant for Frank Atwood that, barring last-minute appeals, will see him put to death on 8 June. The prisoner now has until 19 May to choose his preferred method of death – either lethal injection or hydrogen cyanide, a poisonous gas made notorious by the Nazis as a mass killing technique during the Holocaust. Continue reading...
A reckoning with what the 14th amendment enshrines could affect consensual sex and even marriage rightsFollowing the bombshell release of a draft decision showing a majority of US supreme court justices may overturn Roe v Wade, legal experts believe other laws about individual autonomy may be in danger, including the right to access contraception.Laws broadly banning abortion may also prohibit certain forms of birth control that opponents incorrectly say are working as abortion-causing medications. And the supreme court decision underpinning the right to access contraception, Griswold v Connecticut, could also come under fire in much the same way as Roe did. Continue reading...
If the draft supreme court decision is not substantially altered it would result in 26 states banning the procedureAn unprecedented leak of a draft supreme court decision shows a majority of justices support ending federal protections for abortions in arguably the most controversial court case in generations.While the draft could still change, if it is not substantially altered it would result in 26 states immediately or as soon as practicable banning abortion, a sea change in the American legal and political landscape. Continue reading...
The music critic began reporting on the star’s abuse of Black women and girls back in 2000 – and he kept going for 20 years. Why were his revelations ignored for so long?It all began with the bodyguards, and the balled-up pieces of paper. So many pieces of balled-up paper. The bodyguards pressed them into the hands of teenage athletes and aspiring singers and girls on their way home from prom. They kept slipping them into warm, young hands even after their boss, the R&B artist R Kelly, had been indicted for producing child abuse images in 2002, and acquitted in 2008.On the paper was R Kelly’s phone number. The underage teenage girls would contact Kelly in the hope he would help them in their careers, or because they liked his music, or even just out of youthful curiosity: would he text back? None had any clue of the horror that would unfold. Kelly raped and sexually abused dozens of them. He forced them to live according to degrading restrictions, inflicted physical violence upon them, and even, if reports are to be believed, forced them to eat faeces if they displeased him. Continue reading...
Governor Gavin Newsom said an amendment is being proposed that would ‘enshrine the right to choose’ in the state’s constitutionWith reproductive rights in peril across the US and a draft supreme court ruling that would overturn Roe v Wade, California is working to further enshrine abortion rights and expand access in anticipation of a surge of people seeking care from out of state.California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, has long pledged that the state would become a “sanctuary” for people seeking reproductive care if the supreme court were to overturn the 1973 case that guaranteed the right to abortion. After a draft ruling leaked showing the court may have decided to do just that, Newsom said he and state leaders were proposing an amendment that would “enshrine the right to choose” in California’s constitution. State lawmakers are currently considering recommendations from a council tasked to finding solutions in case Roe is overturned. Continue reading...
As news broke of the possibility of Roe v Wade being overturned, demonstrators gathered in major citiesOutside the US supreme court the morning after a bombshell leak revealed justices are poised to overturn Roe v Wade, the day began with dozens of protesters. By the afternoon, thousands had arrived to make their voices heard – with many on opposite sides of America’s abortion debate.The possibility of a repeal of the landmark 1973 decision brought energized and sometimes emotional supporters of Roe to protests in major cities from New York to San Francisco. But the supreme court was ground zero. Continue reading...
He faces off Democrat Tim Ryan in the crucial midterm election as Republicans push to take control of US Senate in NovemberAuthor JD Vance won the Senate Republican primary in Ohio on Tuesday, securing a victory after receiving Donald Trump’s endorsement in the hotly contested race.Vance was leading the crowded pack of primary candidates with 32% of the vote when the Associated Press called the race, about two hours after polls closed. Former state treasurer Josh Mandel looked likely to finish second, and state Senator Matt Dolan, who saw a last-minute surge in support, rounded out the top three. Continue reading...
The activist, who has performed similar stunts in the past, was arrested at the top of the Salesforce tower Tuesday afternoonA man was arrested in San Francisco on Tuesday after free-climbing the Salesforce tower, in a stunt apparently indented as a protest against abortion.The man, who calls himself the “pro-life Spiderman”, was reportedly arrested on Tuesday afternoon. The city’s fire department confirmed the incident on Twitter and encouraged the public to “join us in condemning this action”. Continue reading...
'I am angry, upset and determined,' said Massachusetts Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren in Washington, after joining a protest at the supreme court on Tuesday following the release of the draft opinion that would overturn Roe v Wade. The previous presidential hopeful said: 'The United States Congress can keep Roe v Wade the law of the land, they just need to do it,' referring to the Women’s Health Protection Act, which fell down in the Senate in March because of lack of Republican support and one Democrat opposing.
President says production of Javelin anti-tank missiles in Alabama critical to war effort, as he urges Congress to approve $33bn in aidJoe Biden on Tuesday told assembly-line workers at an Alabama factory that the weapons they are crafting are going into “the hands of Ukrainian heroes” on the front lines of the effort to repel Russian forces.The US president praised the employees of the Lockheed Martin plant that manufactures Javelin anti-tank missiles, saying their work was critical to the Ukrainian war effort and to the defense of democracy itself. Continue reading...
Given the US state department’s reclassification of the basketball star as ‘wrongfully detained’ – the moment to speak out is nowBrittney Griner dropped her impassive game face, looked at me with big sad eyes and said, “The nightmare for me was definitely feeling like I was forgotten and that I was going to end up alone.”I no longer saw a superstar. My heart ached for a young person who was an ocean away from everyone she knew. “Got here and I was all alone… I was just like ah, hell no, my life is coming to an end,” she said. Continue reading...
President Joe Biden on Tuesday blasted the 'radical' draft opinion suggesting the supreme court may be be poised to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade case that legalised abortion nationwide, saying it would threaten 'a whole range of rights' if it holds. Speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One, Biden said he hoped the draft would not be finalised by justices, contending it reflects a 'fundamental shift in American jurisprudence' that threatens other rights such as privacy and marriage
John Roberts says leak of opinion to overturn Roe v Wade ‘intended to undermine the integrity of our operations’John Roberts, the US chief justice, has announced an investigation into a leak showing that the supreme court provisionally voted to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade case that legalised abortion nationwide.Publication of the draft opinion by the Politico website on Monday night sparked demonstrations outside America’s highest court, condemnation from Joe Biden and fears that the judiciary has suffered profound damage to its reputation for independence. Continue reading...
Regulation would be returned to states where lawmakers in south and midwest have enacted bans in anticipation of court’s decisionMore than half of US states will outlaw abortion immediately or as soon as practicable, if a leaked draft decision from five supreme court justices remains substantially unchanged.The result would send hundreds of thousands of people in 26 states hostile to abortion elsewhere to terminate a pregnancy – either by traveling hundreds of miles to an abortion clinic or seeking to self-manage abortion through medication from grassroots or illicit groups. Continue reading...
Officials have been searching for murder suspect Casey Cole White and corrections officer Vicky White since FridayA corrections officer at an Alabama jail was having a romantic relationship with a murder suspect who recently escaped from the facility, allegedly with the guard’s help, authorities said on Tuesday.Since Friday, officials have been searching for both the inmate, 38-year-old Casey Cole White, and the corrections officer, Vicky White, 56. The pair are not related despite sharing the same last name. Continue reading...
Democrats condemn supreme court’s draft opinion and urge voters to support them in November to protect reproductive rightsThe stunning revelation that the US supreme court has privately voted to overturn Roe v Wade immediately thrust one of the most polarizing issues in American life to the forefront of the national political debate, and now abortion rights promises to reshape the dynamics of the coming midterm elections.The draft opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito and obtained by Politico in a highly unusual and possibly unprecedented leak from the nation’s highest court, would strike down Roe, the landmark supreme court decision that has guaranteed access to abortion for nearly half a century, and a subsequent 1992 decision – Planned Parenthood v Casey – that largely upheld that right. Continue reading...
Microsoft co-founder reflects on ‘a tough year’ after end of 27-year marriage to Melinda French GatesBill Gates has responded to allegations of an extramarital affair on the first anniversary of the joint announcement that he and Melinda French Gates were getting divorced.“I certainly made mistakes and I take responsibility,” the Microsoft co-founder told Today on Tuesday morning when asked if he was ever unfaithful throughout his 27-year marriage to French Gates. Continue reading...
Fifty to 100 people arriving at camp every day as some told at US border in Tijuana they would no longer be admittedOn a dusty field on the east side of Mexico’s sprawling capital, about 500 Ukrainian refugees are waiting in large tents under a searing sun for the United States government to tell them they can come.The camp has only been open a week and 50 to 100 people are arriving every day. Some have already been to the US border in Tijuana where they were told they would no longer be admitted. Others arrived at airports in Mexico City or Cancún, anywhere they could find a ticket from Europe. Continue reading...
Having spoken to women across the business, I know abuse is rife. But speaking out is made incredibly hardThanks to a joint investigation by BBC Three and the Guardian, allegations of sexual misconduct against the DJ Tim Westwood – claims he firmly denies – are finally being heard. As I listened to the testimony of the seven women who came forward, I had a strong sense of deja vu. Last year I spoke to women across the industry for another BBC Three film, Music’s Dirty Secrets, and many stories mirrored those told by Westwood’s accusers.What I learned from making my film, and in my research for a follow-up documentary, is that across the music industry, there is a problem with sexism, misogyny and sexual misconduct. It seems those at the top are only moved to act when there’s a major scandal (and therefore serious negative publicity) brewing. Part of the problem is that proving allegations of sexual misconduct is notoriously hard, especially if those accused are powerful and extremely litigious. Yet the #MeToo movement, which led to the downfall of the film producer Harvey Weinstein and other powerful figures, seems to have bypassed the music industry entirely, even though many people I’ve spoken to believe it is even worse than Hollywood.Tamanna Rahman is a film-maker based in London Continue reading...
The US supreme court leak shows that the levers of power are pulled by those with no skin in the game, at the expense of those with an entire uterus in itAn American girl born this week will have fewer rights than an American girl born in 1973. This is the likely import of the leaked US supreme court draft opinion on abortion rights – and cause for a huge thank-you-very-much to all those guys who suggested that women marching on Washington in January 2017 were “overreacting” to the election of Donald Trump. Please make sure to tell women again when they are being overemotional – even as they sit and watch one of Trump’s justice picks scream and sob his way through his own confirmation hearings. In the meantime, resign yourself to yet another “quirk” of the looking-glass world Trump has created. Of course – OF COURSE – women’s access to abortion would end up being restricted or removed by the deliberate decisions of a man widely imagined to have personally helped to keep the Manhattan abortion sector afloat for decades.I’m kidding, of course! We have absolutely no idea whether abortion services have or haven’t ever been accessed by anyone connected with a draft-avoider who described avoiding STDs in the 80s as “my personal Vietnam”. “That’s an interesting question,” Trump replied to the New York Times when asked, during the 2016 campaign, if he’d ever been involved with a woman who had undergone a termination during their relationship. “What’s your next question?” Continue reading...
Most attendees avoided a full embrace of the theme, or an interesting subversion of it – they showed up in dresses that looked lovely and uneventfulAmid a global economic downturn and worsening inflation in America, critics had described the theme for this year’s Met Gala – Gilded Glamour and White Tie – as “out of touch”.Though one might argue it was incredibly apt; poverty was rife in late-19th century New York, even while elites on the Upper East Side continued to hold “patriarch balls”, in order to create “a circle of elite New Yorkers at the top of the city’s social hierarchy”, as Sven Beckert wrote in his 2003 book The Monied Metropolis. Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Las Vegas, New Mexico on (#5YTQ3)
Authorities encouraged by shifting winds but blaze feeding on drought-parched landscape expected to keep growingFire crews were battling on several fronts to keep the largest wildfire burning in the US from pushing into more populated areas as it fed on drought-parched landscape in northern New Mexico.Authorities were encouraged by a forecast for Tuesday of improving humidity and shifting winds. But the blaze was expected to keep growing, putting it on track to possibly be one of the largest and most destructive in state history. Continue reading...
New York passed a law to improve pay transparency, which would shrink the gender pay gap. But a group of companies are using some vile tactics to delay itAn average job description these days reads something like this. Duties: Everything from editing short films to creating pivot tables in Excel to wowing clients with interpretative dance! Hours: Every single hour in the day. Qualifications: 15 years in this field, plus a PhD. Compensation: Haha, why would we tell you that? Nah, you’re going to have to waste your time filling in a ton of paperwork and going to a bunch of interviews before we’ll let you in on that little secret. For now, all we can say is that it’s “competitive”. But not so “competitive” that we’re keen to advertise it.As anyone who has ever looked for a job knows, companies can be maddeningly cryptic about their compensation packages; it’s pretty rare to see a salary range in job postings. But that’s starting to change. There is a growing body of evidence that salary transparency is a powerful tool in closing the gender and racial pay gap, and there’s increasing pressure around the world for employers to start being more open about what they pay people. The EU, for example, is currently mulling a groundbreaking proposal that would mean large employers would have to provide salary ranges on job ads and workers would have the right to request pay data broken down by gender and job level. Continue reading...
Ron Galella, nicknamed the Godfather of US paparazzi, has died at his New Jersey home aged 91. The photographer gained notoriety for his candid shots and celebrity feuds, including with Jackie Onassis and Marlon Brando – who punched him outside a New York restaurant and broke his jaw Continue reading...
by Jonathan B Jarvis and Christy Leavitt on (#5YTG5)
According to a recent poll, 82% of American voters would support a decision by the National Park Service to stop selling and distributing single-use plastic at national parksThe writer Wallace Stegner once called the national parks “America’s best idea”, but the second half of that quote is more resonant today: “They reflect us at our best rather than our worst.” In these challenging times, we must look for decisions that reflect us at our best.National parks like the Grand Canyon in Arizona, Yellowstone and Acadia provide the closest thing we have to experiencing unbridled nature. They also represent our collective decision not to do something in special places that can harm their environment, like cutting down the forest, mining for minerals or hunting wildlife. Over time our understanding of what is the right thing not to do has grown and matured. One of those right things not to do is provide single-use plastics in our national parks.Jonathan B Jarvis served 40 years with the National Park Service and was its 18th directorChristy Leavitt is the plastics campaign director for the international ocean advocacy organization Oceana Continue reading...
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