Tag Archives: senate spot

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GoFundMe


It’s been a few months since we sent you an update about our GoFundMe-Darren Wilson campaign. In that time we’ve been in dialogue with the company and its lawyers, and here’s where we’re at:

In October, GoFundMe donated its profits from the hateful Darren Wilson fundraisers to the Ferguson-Florissant school district. This was one of our top-line asks: for GoFundMe to stop profiting from racially-motivated donors. This donation was an important step and would not have happened without the actions of 130,000 ColorOfChange members. Collectively, we spoke up and put pressure on the crowdfunding company that they could not ignore, including this billboard right outside their offices:


Moving forward, tech companies like GoFundMe know what the ColorOfChange community is capable of. And they know we’ll remain vigilant. Since the launch of our campaign, we haven’t seen anything like the Darren Wilson fundraisers on GoFundMe’s platform. If a similar fundraising drive does show up, the company knows that it will have to answer to us.

Our campaign targeting GoFundMe began when people started giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to Michael Brown’s killer, celebrating his death. We were disgusted and outraged. We know that these types of fundraising drives lower the social and financial costs of taking Black lives. They send the message that shooters will be supported in the aftermath of killing Black men and boys.

In 2015, we’ll continue our work combating the culture of hostility against Black folks that’s present across our country. Thank you for being part of it every step along the way.

Onwards!

—Arisha, Rashad, Matt, Bhavik, and the ColorOfChange team

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Rashad Robinson, ColorOfChange.org


President Obama has the power — and responsibility — to help end the nationwide crisis of police violence and its unjust consequences.

Dr. King quote: Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

Urge Pres. Obama to issue an executive order directing the Department of Justice to rigorously enforce and expand civil rights law and federal bans on violent and discriminatory policing:

Take Action

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Official Google blog …


Often the hardest part of traveling is navigating the local language. If you’ve ever asked for “pain” in Paris and gotten funny looks, confused “embarazada” with “embarrassed” in Mexico, or stumbled over pronunciation pretty much anywhere, you know the feeling. Now Google Translate can be your guide in new ways. We’ve updated the Translate app on Android and iOS to transform your mobile device into an even more powerful translation tool.

Instant translation with Word Lens
The Translate app already lets you use camera mode to snap a photo of text and get a translation for it in 36 languages. Now, we’re taking it to the next level and letting you instantly translate text using your camera—so it’s way easier to navigate street signs in the Italian countryside or decide what to order off a Barcelona menu. While using the Translate app, just point your camera at a sign or text and you’ll see the translated text overlaid on your screen—even if you don’t have an Internet or data connection.

This instant translation currently works for translation from English to and from French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish, and we’re working to expand to more languages.

Have an easier conversation using the Translate app
When talking with someone in an unfamiliar language, conversations can… get… realllllllly… sloowwww. While we’ve had real-time conversation mode on Android since 2013, our new update makes the conversation flow faster and more naturally.

Starting today, simply tap the mic to start speaking in a selected language, then tap the mic again, and the Google Translate app will automatically recognize which of the two languages are being spoken, letting you have a more fluid conversation. For the rest of the conversation, you won’t need to tap the mic again—it’ll be ready as you need it. Asking for directions to the Rive Gauche, ordering bacalhau in Lisbon, or chatting with your grandmother in her native Spanish just got a lot faster.

These updates will be coming to both Android and iOS, rolling out over the next few days. This is the first time some of these advanced features, like camera translations and conversation mode, will be available for iOS users.

More than 500 million people use Google Translate every month, making more than 1 billion translations a day to more easily communicate and access information across languages. Today’s updates take us one step closer to turning your phone into a universal translator and to a world where language is no longer a barrier to discovering information or connecting with each other.

Posted by Barak Turovsky, Product Lead, Google Translate

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YOU fought for the Amazon!


Thank YOU! View in your browser
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As we enter this exciting New Year, we’re so grateful for your continued support! Thanks to partnerships with so many of you across every continent the global movement to protect the Amazon is thriving and growing. Thank YOU!

Every donation you made is a powerful statement about who you are and what you stand for. You believe in justice. You support indigenous rights. You work to defend the Amazon and to protect our global climate. Thank YOU!

Thanks to this growing support Amazon Watch continues to meet and surpass our online fundraising goals and 2014 was wildly successful. You shared our stories, promoted our work and inspired others with your support. Thank YOU!

2015 is going to be a tough one:

  • Investments from China in Ecuador are increasing pressure to expand oil drilling into the most ecologically sensitive parts of the Amazon
  • The newly re-elected president of Brazil has made terrible choices already by naming the “Chainsaw Queen” as Minister of the Environment and a climate change denier as Minister of Science & Technology
  • Five separate oil spills still plague the Marañon River in Peru, a country who continues to chop up its Amazon into oil concessions

We know we have a lot of work ahead of us, and we can’t thank you enough for helping us ramp up capacity to take on these challenges. If you haven’t yet made an investment in the future of the Amazon or you are able to make another, the time is now. What better way to start the new year than to invest in a greener, healthier and more just planet?

Join Amazon Watch as we work together to defend the rainforest and advance the rights of its indigenous guardians in 2015!

Your partnership truly means the world to us. Thank YOU!

For the Amazon,
– The team at Amazon Watch
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A Benefit To Businesses


By

Health Insurance Giant Aetna Is Raising Wages For Its Lowest Paid Workers

A common refrain from some in the business community who oppose a minimum wage increase is that higher wages for low-income workers will be costly enough to either force businesses to raise prices for consumers or cause them to lay off workers. Aetna, a Fortune 100 company with nearly 50,000 employees, just made a decision that sharply rebukes that argument. The health insurance giant has announced it is raising the minimum wage for its workers to $16 per hour. In doing so, the company specifically cited the business benefits, not the costs, of the move.

The raises, which comes on the heels of similar wage increases by big name companies like Starbucks and Gap, are significant. An estimated 5,700 Aetna employees will get a pay bump — an 11 percent increase on average and up to 33 percent for some workers. And it won’t be free: the company expects the move to cost an estimated $14 million this year, and $25.5 million in 2016.

Nonetheless, Aetna CEO Mark T. Bertolini laid out the business case for raising the wages of low-income employees. Here are a few of the reasons he cited, in an interview to the Wall Street Journal:

  • Adapting the company for the future: “We’re preparing our company for a future where we’re going to have a much more consumer-oriented business.”
  • Workforce development: “[Aetna wants] a better and more informed work force.”
  • Reducing turnover costs: According to the Wall Street Journal, “Mr. Bertolini said Aetna hopes to reduce its turnover costs of around $120 million a year and improve the quality of job prospects and the engagement of workers who interact with consumers and health-care providers.”

And then there is a broader reason that factored into Mr. Bertolini’s decision: “It’s not just about paying people, it’s about the whole social compact,” Mr. Bertolini said, adding, “Why can’t private industry step forward and make the innovative decisions on how to do this?”

BOTTOM LINE: The decision by Aetna to raise wages for their low-income employees demonstrates one of the business imperatives for raising wages. Simply put, investing in workers pays off for companies in more ways than one. We’d thank Aetna for it’s decision, but we know that the company didn’t made this move because of groups like ours. It made the move because it cares about its workers, and it cares about its bottom line.