Tag Archives: George Orwell

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Turn up the heat on McDonald’s

11/24/2014 Nativegrl77

Let’s take to Twitter and tell McDonald’s there’s no excuse to continue buying palm oil that pollutes our atmosphere and drives forest destruction.

Turn Up the Heat on McDonald’s

Add your voice to publicly call out McDonald’s and tell them that—for the sake of our atmosphere, tropical forests, and endangered species—the time to act on deforestation-free palm oil is now.

Share our graphic today!

ACTION ALERT
Tell McDonald’s: It’s Time to Go Deforestation-Free!

Today, on National Fast Food Day, we need your help to turn up the heat on McDonald’s. Let’s take to Twitter to publicly call McDonald’s out.

As our report Donuts, Deodorant, Deforestation: Scoring America’s Top Brands on Their Palm Oil Commitments documented, a new standard for responsible palm oil—one that protects tropical forests and our climate—has emerged. As tropical forests are cleared to make way for plantations for palm oil production, carbon is released into the atmosphere, driving global warming and shrinking habitats for endangered species. Tropical deforestation currently accounts for about 10 percent of the world’s heat-trapping emissions.

More than 28,000 UCS supporters like you told six of America’s top brands that there’s no excuse to continue buying palm oil that pollutes our atmosphere and drives forest destruction.

And five out of six listened! Thanks to your letters, Dunkin’ Brands (owner of Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins), Colgate-Palmolive, Procter & Gamble, General Mills, and PepsiCo released or strengthened their palm oil policies. Everyone, that is, except McDonald’s.

McDonald’s continues to use palm oil that could be wreaking havoc on our environment. As the largest fast food company in the world, McDonald’s should set the bar high and make a firm commitment to use only deforestation-free palm oil. Instead, they continue to stall.

Join our mass mobilization by tweeting our graphic telling McDonald’s that—for the sake of our atmosphere, tropical forests, and endangered species—the time to act is now. If you’re not on Twitter, you can still get involved.

Together, we are holding corporations accountable and transforming the palm oil industry.

Sincerely,

Miriam Swaffer
Outreach Coordinator
Tropical Forest & Climate Initiative
Union of Concerned Scientists

P.S. McDonald’s isn’t the only fast food laggard who continues to use palm oil that could be wreaking havoc on our environment. Join nearly 50,000 UCS supporters in telling the largest global fast food chains—including McDonald’s, Burger King, Yum! Brands, Wendy’s, Subway, CKE Restaurants (Hardee’s, Carl’s Jr., La Salsa, and Green Burrito), Starbucks, Dairy Queen, and Domino’s—that for the sake of our atmosphere, tropical forests, and endangered species, now is the time to adopt strong deforestation-free and peat-free palm oil policies!

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

ABB Client Armanda Legros Testifies Before U.S. Senate Subcommittee!

11/20/2014 Nativegrl77

Armanda Legros, ABB Client & Community Advocate, testifies before the U.S. Senate HELP Committee

Dear Friend,

Two weeks ago, we honored ABB client Armanda Legros from Queens, NY for her inspiring advocacy on behalf of working families. By sharing her own story of pregnancy discrimination and speaking out for others like her, Armanda has become a powerful voice in the fight for fairness in the workplace.

Today, Armanda brought her message to Washington D.C., where she testified in a hearing before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions in support of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) and other protections for working families. We are excited by this movement in the Committee, but we need your help to make the PWFA a reality. Armanda also spoke about the importance of paid sick time and paid family leave. ABB will continue to fight for the PWFA and paid leave, so that no worker has to face the impossible choice between their economic security and taking care of their family.

“If you truly value families, and children,” Armanda told the Committee, “then you have to make sure that the women who bear those children and raise them can earn the fair and equal wages we need to support them.”

We are so proud to work with such a dedicated activist and would like to thank Armanda for her courage and leadership. The rest of Armanda’s testimony is available here.

Thank you for all that you do,

Sherry, Dina, Phoebe, Jared, Liz, Elizabeth, Risha, Rachel, Morenike & Meredith

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Open Enrollment Starts

11/16/2014 Nativegrl77

In this week’s address, the President reminded Americans that Affordable Care Act open enrollment begins this weekend. In the past year more than 10 million people have gained health insurance, including more than seven million who enrolled in Health Insurance Marketplace coverage. They are proof that the Affordable Care Act is working, making health care more affordable, accessible, and of higher quality for millions of people. The President encouraged all Americans to take advantage of open enrollment, and remind their friends and families to do so as well.

Click here to watch this week’s Weekly Address.

Need health insurance? Go to HealthCare.gov right now.

The Week in Six Minutes: “The Future That We See”

This week, the President issued a statement on net neutrality, and convened both congressional leaders and his Cabinet to discuss the agenda in the years ahead. He also dove into an eight-day trip to China, Burma, and Australia to foster deeper relations with countries around the Pacific and open up markets and opportunities for businesses here at home.

This week, the President is traveling to Asia and Australia to highlight our country’s trade and investment ties to the region, and its critical role in our future economic growth and generating American jobs.

President Obama’s first stop was Beijing, China, where he attended the 2014 APEC Leaders’ Summit, met with leaders of countries in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and made historic progress on climate change with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

READ MORE

A Free and Open Internet

The Internet has unlocked possibilities that we could just barely imagine a generation ago. A big reason why we’ve seen such incredible growth and innovation is “net neutrality” — the principle that says Internet service providers (ISPs) should treat all Internet traffic equally.

That’s why President Obama asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to implement the strongest possible rules to protect net neutrality. The President’s plan would reclassify consumer broadband services under what’s known as Title II of the Telecommunications Act, and would work to “ensure the network works for everyone — not just one or two companies.”

Keep the Internet open and free

11/16/2014 Nativegrl77

Student Net Alliance via Change.org

President Obama just announced a plan to save net neutrality and the Internet as we know it. Sign our petition to the FCC in support of the president’s plan.

Sign the petition

~ my 2cents ..., ~ pop culture

internship programs … a change needed in 2014?

11/15/2014 Nativegrl77

by McKenna Grant, USA TODAY

11:13 a.m. EDT October 23, 2013

The magazine publisher will no longer offer students an internship program starting in 2014.

Internship programs have proven to be a touchy subject for magazine publishing giant Condé Nast in the last few years, but that will not be the case beginning next year.

Condé Nast – one of the nation’s largest magazine publishers and home to Vogue, Vanity Fair and Glamour – is stripping its internship program all together starting in 2014, according to Women’s Wear Daily.

The discontinuation comes after t wo lawsuits, filed by former interns, who claimed the media company failed to pay them minimum wage at their internships in 2009 and 2010.

The former interns — Lauren Ballinger (W ) and Matthew Leib (The New Yorker) — claimed in their suit they were paid less than $1 an hour. The case is still pending.

Other media companies, such as Hearst Corporation, have faced similar scrutiny regarding internship programs — long hours and insufficient payment.

In Feb. 2012, a former Harper’s Bazaar intern, Xuedan Wang, sued Hearst saying the company breached overtime and minimum wage laws.

Gawker and Fox Searchlight have also been sued for similar reasons.

All current Conde Nast interns will remain with the company through to their prearranged terms, according to WWD.

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Do you have an internship story to share ?

In 2013, I saw an article asking if unpaid internships were possibly illegal. Well, I will say that the internship of today has gone from work in the industry you were interested in to work on the cheap by college students then work on the cheap with college credit only or maybe some pay. The fact is, some businesses use interns instead of paying an adult out of college a living wage and while I have know idea how long this has been going on, it is happening more frequently than parents probably are aware of. The idea that companies are choosing to add to our jobless by sidestepping possible living wages to folks who want to work not just cost effective for them it is not hard to understand and sad.

On October 30, 2013 I posted the following …

I spent some time looking for the old story in Conde Nast about ending internships and why on their website, but found nothing. I have/had a subscription to subsidiaries of the magazine and still deciding if it is time to move on … not that ending my free access will make an impact. This intern story is not new and while it is old news, the rules keep changing. I have experience as an intern and as someone who had a few interns work for me. In my opinion, it is possible the whole idea of what an intern does, why and salary requirement needs a major makeover. In the old days, interns actually were assigned to positions that gave them a taste of what their field or degree of choice was like and when those options dried up the disbursement of internships became tied to money, 19 credit hours and or what the department or company needed. I believe internships are important. The fact is, and unfortunately, they have definitely become a way of getting part-time or fulltime work wages for what seemingly looks like on the cheap and students are very lucky if it is tied into your degrees. I know that some of our interns were ok with filing, data entry and answering phones because they had plenty of exams, a lot of reading while others were going into the service industry on some level. The lack of training or experience in their specific area of choice was not a big deal while getting credit; it also was a break from 20credit qtrs. or more and with lunch …well, when they actually allowed themselves to eat lunch and do some homework

I also feel getting students to work on the cheap, allowing them to believe they would not only be performing duties in their field of choice then find out something different when they get to the office is unacceptable. It is not only a problem for their credit hours, but most students are unable to opt out easily to go work somewhere else, top that off with the possibility of long work hours and little or no pay, it’s just wrong.

… PointCounterPoint