Colombia Bans All New Oil And Mining Projects In Its Amazon–An Area The Size Of Sweden
by Andy Corbley, Good News Network
It’s 42% of Colombia’s territory. It’s 7% of the total Amazon Rainforest. It’s the same size as Sweden, and it’s now free from future oil and mineral extraction. The news that half a million square kilometers of territory in the Amazon biome of Colombia was now limited only to renewable and regenerative economic activities only came out of Brazil, where the 30th annual meeting of the parties to the UN convention on climate change is taking place. Acting Environment Minister Irene Vélez Torres made the announcement, and invited all South American countries to make similar commitments.
Good Samaritan Bill
by Aaron Schrank, LAist
California lawmakers passed a bill protecting residents’ rights to provide food, water, and other basic aid to homeless people without facing criminal penalties. Local advocates for the unhoused say the new law will protect service providers and good Samaritans. “ You can’t say that it’s a crime to give somebody a bottle of water or food or to provide them with legal services or medical services just because they don’t have a home,” said Ishvaku Vashishtha, an Inner City Law legal fellow. “That is the fundamental premise of this bill.”
How The Deep-Red State Of Montana Could Save Democracy
by Robert Reich, AlterNet
Several of you responded to my “Sunday thought” yesterday by saying that the first step out of the mess we’re in is to get rid of the Supreme Court’s bonkers Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision of 2010, which held that corporations are people — entitled to the same First Amendment protection as the rest of us. Corporate political spending was growing before Citizens United, but the decision opened the floodgates to the unlimited super PAC spending and undisclosed dark money we suffer from today. Most people I talk with assume that the only way to stop corporate and dark money in American politics is either to wait for the Supreme Court to undo Citizens United or amend the U.S. Constitution (this is extraordinarily difficult). But there’s another way!
Cincinnati School District To Open Parking Lot To Students Experiencing Homelessness
by Lisa Mullins and Jenna Griffiths, WBUR
More than 4,000 students in the Cincinnati Public School System are experiencing homelessness, and approximately 300 of them are sleeping outside or in vehicles. Project Connect, a homeless advocacy organization within the school system, has a plan to help those students and their families: It’s called a “Safe Sleep Lot,” and it’s set to open in March of 2026. It would allow families to sleep in their cars in a designated lot while they await temporary or long-term housing. In order to get into the Cincinnati shelter system, a case worker must see a person sleeping in their car. Setting up a designated place to park would allow officials to see the families and then move them into housing.
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