Air quality has been a daily concern for all Californians in recent weeks due to the fires ravaging our state, but the truth is pollution has been choking Black and Brown communities for generations. It is time to hold our elected leaders accountable and ensure our voices are heard on important policies affecting our ability to breathe. ... read more »

Jones said voting rights had been under attack since the 2013 Shelby V. Holder decision, which eliminated a lot of voter protections. “It’s not the same as the old Jim Crow laws, but there’s still efforts out there to suppress votes and keep people from having that free access to the booths,” he stated. Jones noted that he’s working to restore “teeth” in the Voting Rights Act but doubts that the current GOP-led Senate and President Trump’s administration would approve. “I don’t see it happening, so it’s all the more important to get out and vote in the 2020 elections.” ... read more »

U.S. Senators Kamala D. Harris (D-CA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), both former state attorneys general, on Wednesday sent a letter to every Trump cabinet official calling on them to cooperate with all ongoing and future investigations related to the potential wrongdoing by the President of the United States, preserve all evidence relevant to their departments, and protect whistleblowers and the independence of inspectors general. ... read more »

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors directed all departments to stop using a popular weed killer until more is known about its potential health and environmental effects. ... read more »

Our world is melting. Glaciers are disappearing. Oceans are rising. Lowlands (mostly populated by low income and Black people) are disappearing. And, before Democrats took power in this term, few other than Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the New Green Deal have been able to address matters of climate change and, in the words of the New Poor People's Campaign, "ecological devastation." ... read more »

During a recent press conference held at the Environmental Protection Agency, acting EPA Administrator, Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist, announced more rollback regulations on coal-fired power plants. ... read more »

Omarosa Manigault Newman, the president’s former aide, claims there is a tape of him using the vile racial slur. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she “can’t guarantee” that a tape doesn’t exist. Trump tweeted, “I don’t have that word in my vocabulary.” The press pursued the question as if this would establish for one and for all whether Trump is a racist. ... read more »

More than 20 trillion gallons of rain poured across Texas and Louisiana since Harvey landed on August, 25. ... read more »

Proposed Trump Administration departmental budget cuts will result in the loss of the equivalent of 46, full-time positions. For remaining staff, caseload levels will rise. ... read more »

In a letter last Thursday, she also told Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Flint Mayor Karen Weaver that the water treatment plant is understaffed and lacks enough experienced employees ... read more »

A group of people who lived or worked near an urban oil field blamed for causing chronic respiratory illnesses and nosebleeds in a neighborhood near USC sued the company that owned the closed facility on December 10. The Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit names as a defendant AllenCo Energy Inc., which in July 2014 agreed to pay a $99,000 penalty for violations of federal environmental laws. The penalty was in addition to the ongoing work identified in an April 2014 consent agreement between AllenCo Energy Inc. and the Environmental Protection Agency. ... read more »