December, 16 2010, 09:20am EDT
Amnesty International Welcomes U.S. Government Civil Action to Ensure Justice in Gulf Oil Spill
WASHINGTON
Amnesty International USA said today it welcomes the Obama administration's civil action to help ensure justice is served for Gulf Coast communities whose lives have been thrown into turmoil as a result of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
"Under international law, the U.S. government has a duty to protect human rights against abuse by business and to ensure that corporations and other business enterprises are held accountable and respect human rights," said Vienna Colucci, senior policy director for AIUSA. "Today's announcement by Attorney General Eric Holder is an important step toward enforcing laws designed to protect people and the environment and ensuring accountability for the extensive damage sustained as a result of the spill."
Amnesty International is urging the U.S. government to ensure that coastal communities affected by the spill are guaranteed fair and expedited means of assistance. In addition, the long-term impact of the disaster must be taken into account in ongoing decisions about the resources needed to help the region recover. The U.S. government should continue to monitor the impact of the spill on human health and on marine and coastal wildlife, and all information and data gathered should be made available to the public.
Amnesty International is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights for all. Our supporters are outraged by human rights abuses but inspired by hope for a better world - so we work to improve human rights through campaigning and international solidarity. We have more than 2.2 million members and subscribers in more than 150 countries and regions and we coordinate this support to act for justice on a wide range of issues.
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Helene's Catastrophic Potential Stokes Fear Amid Florida Insurance Crisis
Florida already has one of the nation's largest shares of homeowners "who don't have meaningful insurance."
Sep 26, 2024
Hurricane Helene continued barreling toward Florida on Thursday, highlighting the impacts of the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency, including difficulties securing insurance coverage in regions most affected by extreme weather.
"The Air Force Hurricane Hunters found that the maximum sustained winds have increased to near 120 mph," the National Hurricane Center said Thursday afternoon. "This makes Helene a dangerous Category 3 major hurricane. Additional strengthening is expected before Helene makes landfall in the Florida Big Bend this evening."
Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Deanne Criswell said during a White House briefing that forecasts suggest Helene will make a "dead-on hit to Tallahassee" and "this is going to be a multistate event with the potential for significant impacts from Florida all the way to Tennessee."
Although this Atlantic hurricane season hasn't yet been as intense as U.S. scientists expected, trends in extreme weather disasters have led some insurance companies to exit the Florida market in recent years. Farmers Insurance announced last year that it would stop covering property in the state, in an effort to "effectively manage risk exposure."
While the Insurance Information Institute, an industry trade group, said in May that "legislative reforms passed in 2022 and 2023 have created a pathway to a stable Florida market," reporting from this week shows that residents—who aren't ultrarich—are still struggling to get and keep coverage.
"Florida ranks sixth among states with the largest shares of homeowners who don't have meaningful insurance. About 18% of homeowners across the state—about 1 in 6—are without it," NBC Newsnoted Wednesday. "Nearly 20% of Florida homeowners pay $4,000 or more a year for homeowners insurance—the largest share in the country, according to the Census Bureau."
According toThe Palm Beach Post, the global reinsurance broker Gallagher Re said in a Wednesday analysis that "landfall in the Big Bend or Panhandle region of Florida as a major hurricane (Category 3, 4, or 5) has historically translated to insured losses in the low single-digit billions."
"But Helene is not a typical storm," the firm explained. "Given Helene's very large wind radius, this would still bring hurricane-force wind gusts and high storm surge to coastal areas in the heavily populated Tampa Bay area, tropical storm force winds across most of the Florida peninsula, Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, and southern Appalachia."
Gallagher Re suggested that "Helene's private insurance market losses should be expected to land in the range" of $3 billion to $6 billion, but if the hurricane "unexpectedly" moves toward Tampa, it could be over $10 billion.
Florida isn't the only state facing insurance trouble thanks to climate chaos. Voxreported last year that "insuring property in California has been a dicey proposition," pointing to torrential rainfall that "caused as much as $1.5 billion in insured losses" and "the costliest wildfires in U.S. history, including the 2018 Camp Fire, which led to more than $10 billion in losses."
Amid the intertwined climate and insurance crises, scientists, campaigners, and homeowners have demanded policy action—and elevated criticism of right-wing attacks on crucial programs.
In a June blog post, Rachel Cleetus, policy director with the Union of Concerned Scientists' Climate and Energy program, wrote that "Congress and regulators need to ensure more transparency in the insurance market on how companies are evaluating risks as they make decisions about premiums. There also needs to be better information on what kinds of incentives companies are providing for adaptation measures that would help reduce risks."
"Alongside the necessary but ultimately bounded role of insurance in a warming world, public and private decision-makers must also shift investments away from business-as-usual maladaptive and risky choices to more resilient ones," Cleetus continued. "The nation must scale up resources for climate resilience and ensure they are reaching communities in a just and equitable way. Funding for safe, affordable, and climate-resilient housing must be expanded."
The Climate & Community Institute on Wednesday also shared recommendations in a new report—Shared Fates: A Housing Resilience Policy Vision for the Home Insurance Crisis—using case studies from California, Florida, and Minnesota.
"We propose the creation of Housing Resilience Agencies (HRAs), either by states or the federal government," the institute said. These agencies would:
- Provide public disaster insurance that offers fair and equitable protections;
- Coordinate and oversee comprehensive, community-oriented disaster risk reduction;
- Address existing market failures by providing coverage for oft-neglected sectors such as multifamily housing providers, mobile home dwellers, and heirs properties; and
- Host public risk models, climate risk advisory councils, and diverse governing boards to inform decision-making in a transparent and democratic manner.
"In order to confront the growing housing safety and affordability crisis, we need to understand our fates as shared," the institute added. "We must reimagine our home insurance system for it to reduce risk and provide equitable and fair protection."
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Giuliani Permanently Disbarred in DC Over Effort to Overturn 2020 Election
"Imagine once being dubbed 'America's Mayor' and having an illustrious legal and political career, and throwing it all away for Donald Trump," said one observer.
Sep 26, 2024
Former Republican New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani can no longer practice law in the nation's capital after a federal appeals court on Thursday concurred with a disciplinary committee's recommendation for permanent disbarment over his efforts to "undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election" in service of then-President Donald Trump's "Big Lie."
In a one-page ruling, the Washington, D.C. Court of Appeals permanently revoked Giuliani's law license, finding that the former federal prosecutor and personal attorney for Trump failed to explain why he should not be subject to reciprocal punishment after the New York Supreme Court's Appellate Division disbarred him in July for lying about the 2020 election.
The New York tribunal found that Giuliani "repeatedly and intentionally made false statements, some of which were perjurious, to the federal court, state lawmakers, the public... and this court concerning the 2020 presidential election, in which he baselessly attacked and undermined the integrity of this country's electoral process."
Giuliani is also facing criminal charges related to alleged election subversion in Arizona and Georgia. He filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last December following a $148 million defamation judgment for falsely accusing two former Georgia election workers of engaging in a nonexistent conspiracy to "steal" the 2020 election.
These blows, culminating in Thursday's D.C. disbarment, mark a stunning fall from grace for Giuliani, who, as "America's Mayor" in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, was named Time's "Person of the Year." Giuliani parlayed his popularity into a 2008 run for president in which he was an early GOP front-runner.
Giuliani spokesperson Ted Goodman slammed the D.C. court's ruling as a "miscarriage of justice."
"Members of the legal community who want to protect the integrity of our justice system should immediately speak out against this partisan, politically motivated decision," Goodman said in a statement.
Some observers linked Giuliani's disbarment to Thursday's indictment of current New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, on corruption charges.
"Tough day for New York City mayors,"
quippedDemocracy Docket founder Marc Elias.
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New Report on Pandemic-Era Funding Shows 'Childcare Crisis Is a Policy Choice'
"Childcare is a public good and needs robust federal investment to maintain progress that was made with relief funds and to avoid further crisis," reads an analysis.
Sep 26, 2024
With the last of the federal childcare funding included in coronavirus pandemic relief set to expire at the end of September, two civil society groups on Thursday released an analysis of the "significant benefits" the funding included for families and early childhood educators across the U.S.—showing that the federal government could, and "must," gain control of the nationwide childcare crisis with robust investments.
Published by the National Women's Law Center (NWLC) and the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), Cliff Notes: Key Takeaways From Pandemic-Era Child Care Relief and the Child Care Funding Cliff analyzes the childcare benefits included in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021, which provided $24 billion in childcare stabilization grants and $15 billion in supplemental money for the existing Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG)—the latter of which is set to expire September 30.
The funding helped stabilize 220,000 childcare programs across the country, according to the report, assisting centers to pay staff members, rent, and continue providing services to families. A 2022 survey of childcare programs by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) showed that the funding also allowed 75% of respondents to pay employees sufficiently, with 53% providing bonuses and 38% increasing baseline wages in a notoriously low-paying industry.
When the childcare stabilization grants expired last September, Thursday's study found, it was felt across the country by families and childcare workers alike. Twenty-nine percent of families faced higher tuition due to rising operating costs for providers, and as employees told NAEYC in another survey in February 2024, staff shortages led to increased burnout among early childhood educators.
"Childcare is a public good and needs robust federal investment to maintain progress that was made with relief funds and to
avoid further crisis," reads a fact sheet accompanying the report by NWLC and CLASP.
The $15 billion in supplemental CCDBG funding set to expire at the end of the month allowed states to make "substantial improvements to their childcare assistance policies," which in turn eliminated waiting lists for childcare assistance, expanded eligibility for assistance, lowered or waived copayments for families, and increased payment rates to providers.
Now, said the groups, "the United States can and must make long-term investments in women, children, and families."
Melissa Boteach, vice president of childcare and income security at NWLC, said Congress must pass "$16 billion in emergency relief, alongside long-term investments, so that families and early educators can have the robust, fully funded childcare system that they need and deserve."
The report emphasizes that the U.S. government "has the resources to fulfill this vision," using as an example tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans that were included in former Republican President Donald Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
"The soon-to-expire $15 billion ARPA supplemental CCDBG discretionary funding was a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of revenue lost from decades of tax cuts for the wealthy and large corporations," reads the report. "We can't afford to put off investing in early learning and childcare any longer, and we have an imminent opportunity to raise public dollars to support investments in childcare. In 2025, some provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act are scheduled to expire. If we allow the tax cuts for the wealthiest to expire and make additional progressive changes to the tax code, we could raise trillions of dollars in tax revenue that could support investments in women, children, and families."
Increasing the law's federal corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% would raise $1.35 trillion over 10 years, "which could fully fund President [Joe] Biden's childcare proposal twice over and still have money left over," reads the report.
The report makes clear, said Boteach, "that public investment in childcare works, and that our current childcare crisis is a policy choice."
The report was released as U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) prepared to introduce a bill that would cap childcare costs for families earning under $250,000 per year at $10 per day, modeled on a Canadian initiative. The proposal includes a grant program that would allocate $780 billion over 10 years to fund childcare providers.
"As a father of young kids, I understand how difficult this is for families," Khanna told Time magazine. "Particularly for those who are away from grandparents or uncles or aunts and are working or middle class. But I also think that it is fundamental to giving people a fair shot at the American dream—that the biggest investment we can make is in young children to have a big economic return."
Unless the federal government makes a "significant and sustained" investment in childcare, said Stephanie Schmidt, director of childcare and early education at CLASP, "the challenges and inequities plaguing the childcare sector will worsen and states will backslide on the progress they achieved using the relief funds to make care more affordable and easier to find."
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