President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, as well as daughters Sasha and Malia, just returned from their June 26 – July 3 visit to Senegal, South Africa, and Tanzania. And our photographers have chosen some of their favorite photos from the trip — capturing some incredible behind-the-scenes moments.

Click here to view a photo recap of the First Family’s trip.

We’re Listening to Businesses about the Health Care Law

As we implement the Affordable Care Act, we have and will continue to make changes as needed. In our ongoing discussions with businesses we have heard that you need the time to get this right. We are listening. So in response to your concerns, we are cutting red tape and giving businesses more time to comply

Earlier this year, legendary singer and songwriter Carole King was honored at the White House as the recipient of the 2013 Gershwin Prize for Popular song. King is the first woman to receive the award, which was created in 2007 by the Library of Congress to recognize “the profound and positive effect of popular music on the world’s culture”.

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Powering Africa

Nearly 70 percent of Africans lack access to electricity, and yesterday, President Obama visited the Ubungo Symbion Power Plant in Dar es Salaam to highlight a new initiative called Power Africa, which aims to double the number of people across the continent who have access to power.

Shell heads to Russia

07/04/2013 Nativegrl77

Shell was forced to quit in the US Alaskan Arctic this year after a series of dangerous and humiliating failures. But now Shell has a Plan B to enter the Arctic through Russia, and it’s urgent that we spread the word before it’s too late. We need you to share this video to expose Shell’s ruthless new plan, and ask your friends to sign the petition to save the Arctic from oil destruction:

Increasingly desperate to plunder the Arctic in any way possible, Shell has made a deal with the devil: partnering with monstrous Russian oil and gas giant Gazprom to access the Arctic through Russia, where laws are lax and corruption is rife.

Shell’s new bedfellow Gazprom is infamous for a catastrophic accident in 2011 when its oil rig sank in stormy weather – and 53 people died. This new partnership is a guaranteed oil spill in the making, and the environmental catastrophe zone of northern Russia is a preview of the Arctic’s future if we don’t act.
We know that spreading this video will harm Shell’s carefully-tended reputation. The last thing the company wants is to appear as a risky investment to its shareholders and partners, so broadcasting this treacherous new deal to the world could help keep Shell out of the Russian Arctic.
Help us trash Shell’s brand before they trash the Arctic. Click here to see the video, share it with your friends and invite them to our movement. You can also just forward this email, or copy and paste the text below.
Thanks so much.
Ian Duff

Arctic Campaign

Greenpeace

—————–Copy and paste this text into an email for your friends—————-
Friend,
Have you seen this petition to save the Arctic? www.savethearctic.org. I’ve signed and you should too.
The Arctic is under threat like never before. As polar sea ice melts faster than ever, huge oil companies like Shell are rushing to profit from Arctic oil at any cost. An oil spill would have deadly consequences for this fragile environment, destroying the home of Indigenous communities and amazing species like polar bears.
Help us declare a global sanctuary in the uninhabited area around the North Pole, and a ban on offshore drilling and industrial fishing in the whole region. Join our 3 million-strong movement now at www.savethearctic.org.
Thanks!

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Emily J. Martin, National Women’s Law Center

07/04/2013 Nativegrl77

As Americans, we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal.
This is true not only on the 4th of July, but every day in our country.
Last week, the Senate passed a historic bipartisan immigration reform bill. Though the bill was flawed, it was a good first step toward creating a pathway to citizenship for millions of immigrant women and men who contribute to our communities. Now it’s time for the House of Representatives to follow suit.
Tell your Representative to pass comprehensive immigration reform that meets the needs of immigrant women and their families.
Immigration reform should help families reunite and stay together, ensure that immigrant women have fair access to the path to citizenship and green cards, protect against the exploitation of workers, make affordable health care available to lawfully present immigrants, and preserve tax credits and Social Security benefits for lawful immigrants.
Fight for immigrant women and their families. Tell your Representative we need immigration reform to provide a roadmap for people who aspire to be citizens and to give immigrant women and families a fair chance.
It’s not what you look like or where you were born that makes you American — it’s how you live your life. We believe that families should stick together, and that we have a responsibility to help our neighbors. Common-sense immigration reform will make this possible for the millions of immigrant families contributing to our communities today.
Thank you for everything you do for women and their families.
Sincerely,

Emily J. Martin Vice President and General Counsel National Women’s Law Center

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Demand the snack food industry remove rainforest destruction from its products.

07/03/2013 Nativegrl77 1 Comment

www.ran.org

I stand with RAN in calling on the US snack food industry to help stop the destruction of Indonesia‘s rainforests for palm oil.

The rainforests of Indonesia are some of the most biodiverse forests in the world and home to a number of endangered species, like Sumatran orangutans, Sumatran tigers, pygmy elephants and rhinoceros. These rainforests continue to be destroyed to produce palm oil so it can be used in the manufacturing of food products, including in snack foods and sweets that are some of America’s favorite brand name products.

I would prefer my crackers, chocolate, cookies, peanut butter, and ice cream not to come with orangutan extinction. That is why I am standing with RAN in calling on snack food companies to protect Indonesia’s rainforests and all of the people and wildlife who depend on them by cutting palm oil tied to rainforest destruction and social conflict out of their supply chains.

We have reached the last stand for Sumatran orangutans, but it’s not too late to save them.

Many Americans are being made into unwitting accomplices in the destruction of Indonesia’s rainforests—which provide crucial habitat for a number of endangered species like the Sumatran orangutan—because palm oil is in half of all the products on their neighborhood grocery store‘s shelves. In the months ahead, we’re going to tackle this problem at its source.

RAN has just sent letters to 20 snack food companies—makers of some of the most popular brand name products in America—alerting them to the rainforest destruction and orangutan extinction in their supply chains.

Stand with us: Sign our petition and demand the snack food industry remove rainforest destruction from its products.