Tag Archives: California

Icebergs, Chimps, and Mysteries of the Deep

This week we’re diving deep to bring you an insider’s look at what’s happening around National Geographic.First up: Polar bears aren’t the only threat in the Arctic.

There Was This Other Iceberg…

National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Enric Sala and his team are exploring Franz Josef Land, one of the world’s most remote archipelagoes. Recently, a chance event saved them from a dangerous encounter.

See what threat is bigger than a polar bear.

What Made These Mystery Circles?

No, it’s not aliens of the deep—it’s actually male pufferfish building elaborate nests to woo females. These puffy perpetrators spend about ten days carefully constructing and decorating these strange structures.

Get the story behind this labor of love.

Well, half the fish are female—I guess we could put up with a few women. - Join the Conversation

Battling the Yosemite Rim Fire

See photos of firefighters battling a massive fire that menaces Yosemite National Park.

New “Teddy Bear” Species Discovered

This rare, fuzzy forest dweller is found in Andean cloud forests.

Six Stealthy Energy Hogs

These power-hungry devices eat up more than their fair share of energy.

In Pursuit of Poachers

The typical drama of chimpanzee life, punctuated by a frequent chorus of hoots and screams, was heightened by gunshots and a foot chase through the forest to catch poachers on a recent afternoon in Uganda.

Read Young Explorer Aaron Sandel’s account of the action.

Go Beyond the Yellow Border

A lot has happened in our 125-year history. Now, go behind the scenes to learn National Geographic’s insider secrets on special expert-led tours of our headquarters in Washington, D.C. And if you can’t come to us, we’ll come to you. Experience the best of National Geographic with Nat Geo Live events in cities across the country.

Learn more about “Inside the Geographic” tours.

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Stand with the people of Richmond

08/27/2013 Nativegrl77

Campaign for a Fair Settlement a project of Action for the Common Good

Take Action

Get more people involved in fighting back against Wall Street bullies by sharing this image or sharing the petition to Stand with Richmond.

Impressive.
We’re getting reports from our partners in California that this is how the people fighting for Local Principal Reduction (LPR) in Richmond are describing all the support and media attention that’s been focused on them since that city started using that policy to move towards helping struggling families stay in their homes.

Thanks to the efforts of supporters like you, 20,000 people have signed on to support Local Principal Reduction and over 6500 have signed on to support Richmond, CA, efforts in particular. Activists at the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) and the Home Defenders League delivered those signatures directly to Wells Fargo branches the same week the Wells CEO, John Stumpf led the charge of the Wall Street criminals in trying to stop Richmond’s efforts by suing the city the week after Richmond announced its policy. Just last week over 200 of you also called Stumpf’s office to tell him to stop suing and start negotiating.
Another thing that’s impressive is how important this support is in fighting back against Wall Street’s bullying of cities like Richmond. The lawsuit isn’t just about stopping Richmond, it’s about stopping ANY city from trying this common sense solution to fixing what Wall Street broke. The more people standing up the more likely we are to win! Can you help find more fighters by forwarding the Stand with Richmond petition with 5 friends? http://www.homedefendersleague.org/stand_with_richmond_ca You can also share it on Facebook here or on Twitter here.

You can also share this great Facebook graphic that the Home Defenders League created about the LPR fight between Richmond and the criminal bankers led by Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf (it’s the one in the picture at the top of the email).
This campaign is really heating up because there’s finally a way to fix what Wall Street broke and it doesn’t have anything to do with coddling Wall Street criminals; its main priority is keeping struggling families in their homes. Naturally, Wall Street bankers are desperate to stop it. If you want to stay up-to-date on these fights, the HDL has set up a special section of their website with information, updates, and ways to take action: http://www.homedefendersleague.org/local_principal_reduction
Thanks for standing up and fighting back in support of Local Principal Reduction!

In Solidarity,
Brian Kettenring, Executive Director, Action for the Common Good

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Her worst fear

08/06/2013 Nativegrl77

by Emily J. Martin, National Women’s Law Center

When Svetlana Arizanovska found out she was pregnant, she was very excited. A mother of three daughters, Svetlana worked two jobs to support her family. By day, she worked for a medical supply company. At night, she worked at Wal-Mart.
At Wal-Mart, Svetlana often lifted heavy merchandise to stock the store’s shelves. Due to her pregnancy, her doctor told her not to lift more than 20 pounds — but Wal-Mart refused to comply. In fact, Wal-Mart has a policy saying pregnant employees are not eligible for reassignments to another position, even though reassignments are available when employees need them because of a disability. One day, while she was lifting heavy merchandise for Wal-Mart, Svetlana started bleeding. She told her boss, but he ignored her.
The next morning, Svetlana went to the emergency room and realized her worst fears were true — she had miscarried.
No one should have to choose between her pregnancy, her health, and her job. But that’s exactly what happens to many women like Svetlana.
Please help us fight for women facing challenges in the workplace and beyond. We need to raise $10,000 by midnight on Thursday. Click here to chip in $10 or more to help us reach our goal.

Employers typically accommodate workers with limitations due to a temporary disability and often accommodate workers with injuries — but when pregnant women need a temporary change in their job, many bosses refuse to make even the smallest adjustments. They may not know they’re breaking the law when they deny women like Svetlana the ability to work without compromising their health or the health of their pregnancies.
Too many pregnant women have been faced with a choice no one should have to make: Keep working and risk the health of their pregnancy — or lose their job. It’s time for employers to stop breaking the law by using pregnancy as an excuse to push women out of work.
It’s up to us to take a stand against policies that punish women.
Your donation will help us fight back. We depend on your support for our work on behalf of women and families.
Thank you, as always, for everything you do.
Sincerely,
Emily J. Martin Vice President and General Counsel National Women’s Law Center
P.S. We depend on your support to help us fight for women and their families. Please help us reach our $10,000 goal before midnight on Thursday.

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Fact Sheet ObamaCares

08/04/2013 Nativegrl77

GET THE FACTS ON HOW OBAMACARE IS ALREADY WORKING:

THE 80/20 REBATE RULE:

If insurance companies

aren’t spending your premium dollars on your health

care — at least 80% – they’ve got to give you money

back. Insurance companies returned $1.1 billion last year,

benefiting 13 million Americans.

YOUNG ADULTS STAY COVERED:

Children can

stay on their parent’s insurance plans until the age of

26. Already, 3.1 million previously uninsured young

adults have gained coverage.

Good health care is a vital piece of every American’s

daily life, and decisions about health are some of the

most personal and individual decisions anyone makes.

But too many Americans are left to struggle each

and every day with a system that works better for the

health insurance companies than it does for them.

The Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, builds on

what works in our health care system, and it fixes

what is broken, so that Americans can have access to

insurance plans that fit their budgets and are there

when they need them. It is a key piece of strengthening

the middle class in this country.

Obamacare is already making America’s health care

system work better for everyone. And that’s even for

those who have health insurance, because if you like

your plan, you can keep your plan. Over 70 million

children and adults with private insurance have been

able to receive preventive care – like annual checkups,

blood pressure screenings, and mammograms – for

free. When insurance companies overcharged for

care, Americans received a total of $1.1 billion in

direct rebates.

Lifetime limits are banned: no longer will Americans

go bankrupt because they fall seriously ill. More than

3 million young adults continued to have health care

coverage because they can stay on their parents’

insurance until the age of 26 and children with

pre-existing conditions can no longer be locked out

by insurance companies. States like New York,

California and Oregon have announced that monthly

premiums for their residents buying plans on their

own are set to decrease once the health insurance

Marketplace opens in October.

This is the kind of security that Americans deserve

and need to build a future for themselves and their

children. But there remains a concerted effort to

dismantle the law and move our country backwards.

Some members of the House have voted nearly 40

times to repeal the legislation – and have promised

to continue – while conservative groups have funded

$385 million in misleading advertising since 2010 –

outspending proponents 5 to 1. In the name of petty

politics, these groups are threatening the stability of

hard-working families.

OFA and its volunteers are taking action now to

combat these attacks. We will inform and empower

Americans to receive better care at a lower cost.

Starting October 1, millions more Americans can see

the benefits of Obamacare – and it’s our job to show

them how.

OBAMACARE FACT SHEET

BETTER COVERAGE, LOWER COSTS

PRINTED BY VOLUNTEERS

ELIMINATING LIFETIME LIMITS:

Insurance

companies are no longer allowed to place an arbitrary

lifetime cap on your coverage, so if you or a family

member gets sick you won’t be billed into bankruptcy.

Already, 105 million Americans have seen this benefit.t

RECEIVE FREE PREVENTIVE CARE:

Obamacare

ensures that you can receive preventive care services,

like vaccinations, mammograms, cancer screenings,

annual checkups, blood pressure and cholesterol tests

at no cost to you. Already, over 70 million Americans

have received free preventive care

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Airport keeping out WWll Survivors

07/31/2013 Nativegrl77

Stop the Proposed Fence at the Tulelake Municipal Airport, site of the former Tule Lake Segregation Center, California

By Satsuki Ina with Stop the Fence at Tulelake Airport

Sacramento, California

During World War II, more than 120,000 men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry were forced from their homes and unjustly imprisoned in ten concentration camps across the United States, solely on the basis of race. The Tule Lake camp in Modoc County, California (near the California-Oregon border) became a maximum-security Segregation Center to incarcerate 12,000 inmates who resisted their imprisonment and branded by the federal government as disloyal. Today, a small airport used primarily by crop dusting planes cuts through the center of the Tule Lake site.

I need your help because the Federal Aviation Administration is proposing construction of an eight-foot high, three-mile long fence around the perimeter of the airport that will cut off our access to the Tule Lake site. Besides being utterly unnecessary in such a desolate place, such a fence would desecrate the physical and spiritual aspects of Tule Lake, which has great historical and personal importance to me and many others.

I am shocked by this insensitive and disrespectful plan. This massive fence will interfere with the desire I and visitors to Tule Lake have — to mourn the unjust imprisonment and to heal the scars of the past. Instead, we will be assaulted with a reminder of rejection, exclusion, and emotional pain.

I was born in the Tule Lake Segregation Center. My parents were American citizens who protested their unjust incarceration and answered “no” to the government-imposed “loyalty questionnaire.” As punishment for their dissidence, the government removed them from the Topaz concentration camp to the maximum-security Tule Lake Segregation Center. From there, my father was taken from us and interned as an “enemy alien” in a Department of Justice camp in North Dakota. Incarcerated for no other crime than having the face of the enemy, my family lived behind barbed wire for 4-1/2 years.

I’m part of a group of survivors, their families, and friends who organize tours and educational events at the Tule Lake Segregation Center. If this fence is constructed, it will send a strong message to Japanese Americans that they are not welcome at the site where they walked long distances to eat meals, attend school, and use the latrines. A fence will prevent all Americans from experiencing the dimension and magnitude of the concentration camp where people experienced mass exclusion and racial hatred.

The FAA has the power to protect Tule Lake, a sacred site. In doing so, it has the power to honor, rather than desecrate, the remembrance of one of the darkest chapters in American history.

According to the FAA, in an effort to be more “sensitive” to our concerns, the proposed fence would not be topped with barbed wire — but that’s just not enough. Our nation’s history of the unjust incarceration of those of Japanese ancestry during WWII is often forgotten. We must be able to remember what happened to our ancestors to be sure this never happens again.

I’m calling on the FAA to respect our community’s needs and wishes and reject this proposal. Please show your support for the most sensitive solution: DO NOT BUILD THE FENCE AT TULE LAKE.