The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe won a major victory today in their ongoing battle to protect their drinking water and ancestral lands from the Dakota Access Pipeline. This victory is the result of the Tribe’s inspiring and courageous fight, supported by hundreds of thousands of people like you who spoke up and made your voices heard.
Just days after President Trump’s inauguration, his administration hastily issued federal permits authorizing construction of the pipeline across the Missouri River, just upstream of the Standing Rock Reservation. Today a federal judge ruled that those permits violated the law.
The court ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers did not adequately consider the impacts of an oil spill on fishing rights, hunting rights or environmental justice, or the degree to which the pipeline’s effects are likely to be highly controversial. In short, the Trump administration broke one of our nation’s bedrock environmental laws.
Today the federal courts stepped in where our political systems have failed, but the fight is far from over. The oil continues to flow, and we will continue to fight back in court. Thank you for standing with us.
While President Trump continues to impede progress towards battling climate change, the City of Oakland – Amazon Watch’s hometown – took an important step yesterday toward divesting city funds from banks that fund fossil fuels, violation of indigenous sovereignty, and mass incarceration.
In a unanimous vote, the City Council’s Finance and Management Committee adopted an amendment to the Linked Banking Services Ordinance that will require that any bank seeking to provide depository services to the City of Oakland disclose investments that support the Dakota Access Pipeline, violate indigenous sovereignty, or support mass incarceration. Currently, the city banks with JPMorgan Chase, one of the funders of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The full Council is set to vote on the ordinance at its next meeting, to take place sometime in the next two weeks.
Check this out — unemployment in Washington just hit a record low. In fact it’s the lowest it’s been in the history of state unemployment stats, going back more than 40 years.
Do you think this record-low unemployment rate has anything to do with the fact that we just raised the minimum wage?
For sure! Higher wages lift up the whole economy — when more people have more money, it means more customers for more businesses.
Who cares? I’m no economist, but jobs are growing and wages are up, so it’s all good.
No way. Maybe unemployment would have been even lower than the lowest it’s ever been if the minimum wage had been voted down?
Anyway, just wanted to make sure you heard the good news. And thanks for taking a moment to let us know what you think!
The morning started with an official statement (tweet) from the president about his illegal Muslim ban. Below is what happened immediately after that led to him blocking VoteVets on Twitter.
Iraq War Veteran and Director of Government Relations, Will Fischer, took to Twitter on the VoteVets handle to respond with a series of tweets of our own:
And that was it… as the most powerful man in the world sat somewhere in the White House, probably with cable television on and looking at his Twitter mentions, he gave us the presidential block.
Like we said, Trump can block VoteVets on Twitter, the voice of 500,000 progressive veterans, military family members, and their civilian supporters, but we will NOT be silenced. Stand with us today:
Be a Seed for Change 
You must be logged in to post a comment.