Monthly Archives: March 2022

Rights Groups Herald Reported End to Cruel Title 42 Expulsions

“Title 42 was never about public health and safety,” said Rep. Juan Vargas. “It was implemented to deny due process to people seeking refuge and protection.”

By Kenny Stancil.  Published 3-30-2022 by Common Dreams

Photo: BanderasNews

Human rights defenders on Wednesday welcomed the White House’s reported plans to soon end the use of Title 42, a public health measure both the Biden and Trump administrations used to turn away asylum-seekers at the southern border for the past two years.

The Wall Street Journal, which obtained a draft of the order that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) plans to issue later this week, reported Wednesday that the agency “is taking the step because ‘there is no longer a serious danger’ that migrants would introduce or spread Covid-19 inside immigration detention facilities.” Continue reading

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As Consumers Pay, Oil CEOs Refuse to Testify to Congress About Soaring Prices

“While Americans struggle with high gas prices, these companies are doing victory laps, showering their already wealthy executives and shareholders with billions in stock buybacks and bonus compensation,” said one watchdog group. “They should be ashamed.”

By Julia Conley  Pubished 3-29-2022 by Common Dreams

Photo: Joel Kramer/flickr/CC

As people across the United States face record-high gas prices—compounded by rising grocery bills and prices for other essentials—executives at three major oil companies are refusing to testify before Congress about what their firms could do to lessen the burden on U.S. households, leaving Democratic lawmakers and consumer advocates to condemn the companies for profiting amid lower and middle-class people’s financial pain.

Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee, had invited the CEOs of EOG Resources Inc., Devon Energy Corp. and Occidental Petroleum Corp. to testify next week, only to be rebuffed Tuesday by the executives, who have personally profited off gas prices which averaged $4.24 per gallon on Monday. Continue reading

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‘This Law Will Not Stand,’ Say Equality Defenders as DeSantis Signs ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis “has damaged our state’s reputation as a welcoming and inclusive place for all families,” said one rights advocate. “Worse, he has made schools less safe for children.”

By Julia Conley.  Published 3-28-2022 by Common Dreams

Community leaders, parents, kids, doctors, lawyers, assemble in front of the White House to protest the non-science based policy of segregating LGBTQ children in public schools based on the schools’ determination of their gender identity. Photo: Ted Eytan/CC

Rights advocates on Monday said they will continue to fight against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ attacks on LGBTQ+ families after the Republican governor signed the so-called Parental Rights in Education bill that’s come to be known as the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” proposal.

After DeSantis signed the bill Monday, standing at a podium with a sign reading, “Protect Children,” the law will go into effect July 1. Continue reading

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‘Utter Travesty’: Uninsured Americans Will Now Be Charged $125 for a Single PCR Covid-19 Test

Government funding cuts to key pandemic programs forced by GOP opposition arrive as progressives in Congress renew their push for Medicare for All.

By Jon Queally.  Pubihed 3-26-2022 by Common Dreams

Employees operating a testing center at the Walmart Supercenter in Elizabethville, PA. Photo: Governor Tom Wolf/flickr/CC

A major testing company in the United States announced this week that it will now charge people without Medicare, private coverage, or other insurance a $125 out-of-pocket charge to receive a Covid-19 PCR test—a fresh example of how the U.S. remains an outlier among wealthy nations for refusing to provide universal healthcare for its people.

According to ABC News, Quest Diagnostics, one of the largest testing companies in the country, has decided that those “who are not on Medicare, Medicaid or a private health plan will now be charged $125 dollars ($119 and a $6 physician fee) when using one of its QuestDirect PCR tests either by ordering a kit online or visiting one of the 1,500 Quest or major retail locations that administer the tests, such as Walmart or Giant Eagle.” Continue reading

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Misogyny helped South Korea’s president win. Now feminists are fighting back

Yoon Suk-yeol was swept to victory on a wave of ‘anti-feminism’ among young Korean men. Now, he wants to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality

By Hannah Pham.  Pubished 3-26-2022 by openDemocracy

Yoon Seok-youl leaves the main opposition People Power Party’s headquarters in Seoul on July 30, 2021 Photo: 고려/Wikimedia Commons/CC

“I threw up and cried.” This was 30-year-old Haein Shim’s reaction to the results of South Korea’s presidential election, held on 9 March. As the senior director of foreign media of Seoul-based feminist group Haeil (translated as ‘Tsunami’), Haein had felt neither candidate was necessarily a strong or progressive choice. But ultimately it was Yoon Suk-yeol of the People Power Party – in Haein’s eyes, the worse of two evils – who won.

“We have to choose the head of the state, but there is no candidate for women to choose from,” says Haein, who originally hails from Gwangju in south-west South Korea and now lives in the US. “No candidate sees women as they really are.” Continue reading

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‘Wake-Up Call’: Antarctic Ice Shelf the Size of Los Angeles Has Collapsed

“While humans are killing humans, and governments are spending on weaponry as if there is no tomorrow, the environment is collapsing.”

By Andrea Germanos.  Published 3-25-2022 by Common Dreams

This satellite image taken by NASA on February 2022 shows The Conger/Glenzer (Bowman Island) ice shelf and associated fast ice pre-collapse.

Satellite imagery showing the recent “complete collapse” of the Conger Ice Shelf in East Antarctica sparked fresh alarm over the climate emergency on Friday.

“While humans are killing humans, and governments are spending on weaponry as if there is no tomorrow, the environment is collapsing—so that there will be no tomorrow,” said former Greek finance minister and Progressive International co-founder Yanis Varoufakis.

The collapse, as The Guardian and CNET reported Thursday, occurred around March 15. Continue reading

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In World-Historic First, Microplastics Detected in Human Blood

“We’ve choked this planet with plastic, from the highest mountains to the deepest oceans—and we’ve no idea at all about costs for public health,” said a British lawmaker.

By Kenny Stancil.  Pubished 3-24-2022 by Common Dreams

Microplastics from the Patapsco River are pictured at the laboratory of Dr. Lance Yonkos in the Department of Environmental Science & Technology at the University of Maryland in College Park, Md., on Feb. 6, 2015. Photo: Chesapeake Bay Program/flickr/CC

A team of toxicologists found microplastics in nearly 80% of the healthy adult blood samples it analyzed, marking the first time that tiny polymer fragments—measuring less than 5mm in size—have been detected in human blood, The Guardian reported Thursday.

Using techniques that allowed them to detect particles as small as 0.0007mm, the scientists, whose research was published in the peer-reviewed journal Environment International, examined blood samples provided by 22 anonymous donors in good health and discovered microplastics in 17 of them. Continue reading

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Critics Blast ‘Absolutely Shocking’ Supreme Court Decision on Wisconsin Voting Maps

Journalist John Nichols called it “a stunning decision that confirms just how extreme the U.S. Supreme Court’s majority has become.”

By Jessica Corbett.  Pubished 3-23-2022 by Common Dreams

Photo: Wally Gobetz/flickr/CC

In a move that shocked progressive political observers, the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected Wisconsin legislative districts drawn by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and sent the case back to the state’s highest court, which previously approve the voting maps.

Wisconsin-based journalist John Nichols called it “a stunning decision that confirms just how extreme the U.S. Supreme Court’s majority has become.” Continue reading

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Ukraine’s women fighters reflect a cultural tradition of feminist independence

A Ukrainian soldier on March 9, 2022, waits for a train in Lviv that will take her to the front line.
Vincenzo Circosta/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Mia Bloom, Georgia State University and Sophia Moskalenko, Georgia State University

Tens of thousands of Ukrainian women have taken up arms during the war sparked by Russia’s invasion. According to media reports, women constitute as much as 15% to 17% of the Ukrainian fighting force.

In the first two weeks of the conflict, social media was replete with images of Ukrainian women training for combat. On March 15, CNN reported that after dropping off their parents and children in the border town of Przemysl, Poland, some Ukrainian women are turning around to go back to the fight. Continue reading

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‘A Win-Win-Win’: Analysis Shows Sweeping Benefits of BBB’s Childcare and Pre-K Proposals

“This isn’t just a problem for families—it’s holding businesses and our economy back.”

By Jessica Corbett.  Published 3-21-2022 by Common Dreams

A daycare in Portland, Oregon. Photo: Fotos_PDX/flickr/CC

The childcare and universal pre-K provisions included in a $1.75 trillion package passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in November would hugely benefit not only families but also the American economy, businesses, and state governments.

That’s according to a report published Monday by the Century Foundation (TCF) and Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) as the Build Back Better (BBB) package remains stalled in the evenly split Senate due to Republicans and a few right-wing Democrats. Continue reading

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