Monthly Archives: September 2021

Victory! Dynegy Will Move Its Ash

Posted on 09/23/2021 by Pam and Lan Richart

No More “Cap and Run” After a multi-year campaign calling for the clean-up of coal ash along the Middle Fork of the Vermilion, Illinois’ only National Scenic River, Dynegy Midwest Generation, owner of the coal ash, has finally agreed to … Continue reading →

1,634 total views

Posted in Environment, Environment, IL, Politics | Comments Off

On the Front Lines of the Climate Crisis: Our Farmworkers Face Heat’s Deadly Dangers

Posted on 09/23/2021 by Pat Simpson

Heat kills, and it kills farmworkers with distressing regularity. The list of the dead includes migrants like 17-year-old Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez in the grape fields of California; 38-year-old Francisco Perez working in a tree nursery outside Portland; Miguel Angel … Continue reading →

991 total views, 1 views today

Posted in Farmworkers, Immigrants, Labor, Worker Health and Safety | Comments Off

Debt Peonage in the 21st Century: The Shamar Betts Case Continues

Posted on 09/23/2021 by Janice Jayes

On August 19, Shamar Betts was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison (minus 12 for time served) for authoring a Facebook post. The sentencing also made Betts personally responsible for repaying $1.5 million for damage committed by others at … Continue reading →

1,600 total views

Posted in African American, Justice, Police | Comments Off

How the Campus Becomes the Border

Posted on 09/22/2021 by Daniel Gonzalez and Alex Sager

In August, 2020, the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC) opted for a hybrid in-person/online semester. The decision to partially reopen was made possible by the innovative SHIELD: Target, Test, Tell initiative. A crucial part of this program was … Continue reading →

1,554 total views

Posted in COVID-19, Immigrants, Students, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Comments Off

The Nest Postpartum Support

Posted on 09/22/2021 by Paige Raab

Five years ago, my world turned upside down after the birth of our first son. What should have been the happiest day of our lives turned into one crisis after another, a transfer to a hospital two hours away, and … Continue reading →

833 total views

Posted in Community, health care, Voices, Women, Women | Comments Off

The Ubuntu Project and the Need for a Progressive Shift in Policing

Posted on 09/22/2021 by Alex Horton

Ubuntu is a term that originated with the Zulu people and roughly translates to “humanity” in English. The term emerged as a political concept following apartheid’s disintegration in South Africa. Now a collective of local community members, scholars, clergy, and … Continue reading →

1,672 total views

Posted in African Americans, Community, Justice, police accountability, Police Brutality, Policing, Voices of Color | Comments Off

Police Brutality is Not Uniquely American: Try France

Posted on 09/22/2021 by Richard Esbenshade and Belden Fields

While we are rightly preoccupied with abuse by the police in the United States, almost no Americans know anything about policing and justice in other countries. France offers a particularly interesting case. In January, six nongovernmental organizations, including Amnesty International … Continue reading →

1,007 total views

Posted in 1968 Revolt, France, International, Justice, Police, Police brutality, Police Brutality, Policing, Racism, Students | Comments Off

The WTO Vaccination Charade

Posted on 09/21/2021 by Paul Mueth

It’s not an accident that the World Trade Organization (WTO) is the site for the battle over the pandemic and the health of the world. Many critics of corporate control of international trade, and of most of everyday life, have … Continue reading →

1,640 total views

Posted in Big Pharma, COVID-19, Foreign Policy, International, pandemic, Politics, Public Health, World-wide death and suffering | Comments Off