Tonight!
Women’s Reproductive Rights Ballot Initiative is Happening! Tuesday, February 21 @ 7 pm. Click the link to register and receive the Zoom link
CCPC Recommended
Local
Bedrock’s Tower City Center riverfront expansion concept elicits praise, big questions from city planning commission Questions about design details, impact on traffic patterns and the infrastructure that would be needed. But nothing about public sector dollars being used.
Some Cleveland Leaders Took the Transit Week Challenge and Rode RTA Instead of Driving. What now? As expected many of the politicians took selfies to promote themselves on social media. But maybe there were some critical observations about frequency and funding.
After Protests of ” Unlivable ” Conditions, New York Landlords Will Meet With Residents of Shaker Square Apartments Councilwoman Deborah Gray actually traveled to New York to confront the owners and force the meeting. While awaiting the meeting the residents are continuing to suffer.
It’s time to renew the fight against housing voucher discrimination The Housing Choice Voucher Program ( Section 8 ) helps families experiencing poverty by paying 70% of their rent to private landlords. Unfortunately many landlords are refusing to accept tenants with the vouchers.
Euclid Beach Park Mobile Home residents speak out against their displacement The Western Reserve Land Conservancy is planning to convert the Mobile Park to greenspace that will become part of the MetroParks. But what about the residents?
State
Dead animals and reports of sickness as ecological disaster unfolds after Ohio toxic train derailment The toxic chemicals are in the air, soil and water. One of the substances released in the ” controlled ‘ detonation was phosgene, a gas deployed as a chemical weapon in the First World War
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine Green Lights Fracking on State Lands Believe it or not time. There are no existing state or federal regulations that treat waste from fracking as hazardous material. This is known as the Halliburton Loophole in the federal Safe Drinking Water Act
Ohio House GOP’s first bill would lower state income property taxes while cutting $1.2 billion to schools and local governments So if you want a functioning local government and school district you’ll have to pay higher taxes to them. Republicans will claim they lowered taxes when in reality they simply shifted them.
HB6 Utility Bailout Sprung Out of Fertile, Corrupt Ground in Ohio, Recordings Show The ground in Ohio has always been very fertile for corruption. Usually it’s below the ground where no one can see it. This time there are giant weeds for everyone to see.
National
Progressive group calls on Buttigieg to add regulations after East Palestine train derailment So far Pete has done nothing but tweet about ‘ accountability.’ Not surprisingly the Trump administration rolled back regulations that may have prevented the disaster. Maybe Pete should do more than tweet.
The Supreme Court showdown over Biden’s student debt relief program The law is very explicit that Biden’s student debt relief program is lawful. Sadly, the Court’s Republican majority is unlikely to care. The Fascist Court will consider the case on February 28.
Musk follows divide – the – nation – for – profit model, raking in ad revenues via restored far – right trolls This very lucrative business model was first discovered by Fox News in the 1990’s. The model continues to grow and evolve as social media continues to grow and expand.
El Paso shooter pleads guilty to hate crimes, but his rhetoric continues on in elected Republicans Laren Boebert and Ted Cruz are among the Republicans who continue to use the same ” invasion at the southern border ” disinformation that was in the shooter’s manifesto.
An activist group is spreading misinformation to stop solar projects in rural America Citizens for Responsible Solar sounds like a great name. Their stated goal is to make sure the solar panels are safe. Their real goal is to use misinformation to convince rural communities that solar is unsafe.
Black Lives Matter
5 ex – cops plead not guilty in Tyre Nichols’ fatal beating The charges are second degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression. If you haven’t seen the video yet you can watch it here and see what you think.
Buffalo shooter gets life sentence shortly after man charges at him during emotional hearing The man who charged the shooter and the other victims’ families did not seem to be in the mood to accept his apology.
Cleveland police chiefs discipline of officers improves, but some problems persist, consent decree monitoring team says The good news is discipline is improving. The bad news is problems persist.
Police suspect illegally arrested armed Black man and deserves heavy discipline, oversight board rules An obvious example of a persisting problem. Community Organizer Antoine Tolbert was arrested last May and spent the night in jail. He was released the next day.
Fears of renewed FBI abuse of power after informant infiltrated BLM protests This is reminiscent of the 1970’s when the FBI regularly harassed minority groups. One would have hoped we would be long past those days.
Immigration
America Turns Against Immigration The percentage of Americans who want less immigration has spiked across the board since Biden took office, Sadly the Republican disinformation campaign seems to be working.
Supreme Court removes oral arguments over Title 42 immigration policy from its calendar Hopefully this a good sign that the policy will end May 11 when the COVID – 19 public health emergency ends
Mayorkas goes on the offensive as GOP scrutiny builds, says it’s up to Congress to fix immigration system Which is true but almost impossible given the political environment the Republicans have created to satisfy their base.
Litigation challenging ICE’s ‘ deceptive ‘ police impersonation tactic granted class action status ICE agents commonly wear vests and jackets emblazoned with ‘ POLICE ‘ and are encouraged to lie and say they are. The court has not yet commented on the legality of the trickery but allowing litigation to proceed as a class action lawsuit is encouraging.
CCPC March Membership Meeting
CCPC March Membership Meeting: Browns Domed Stadium – Who Pays? Wednesday, March 15 from 6:30 to 8 pm. As you may know, the Cleveland Browns have been floating the idea of building a new domed stadium which could cost as much as $2 billion. At our March meeting we’re going to do a cost vs. benefit analysis of public sector dollars going into projects like this. Our special guest is West Virginia University professor and renowned stadium finance expert Dr. Brad Humphreys. CCPC will also provide a local activist perspective from our past work on the 2017 Q renovations and referendum effort and the Guardians’ more recent Progressive Field renovation project. We’d like to hear from you ahead of time. Included in the registration link is a section where you can share your thoughts on the issue. Please click here to register for the event. After registering you’ll receive an email with the Zoom link.
And if this topic interests you please check out the video below Robert Reich recorded just before the Super Bowl
And in case you missed it
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