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Feeling Abandoned, Community Contaminated By Toxic Train Decides ‘We Only Have Ourselves’

What happens to people in the months and years after a corporation worth billions creates an environmental catastrophe that disfigures their community? Myriad answers emerged a few weeks ago in a hotel conference room in Columbiana, Ohio, where eight people from the East Palestine, Ohio, area met with a Pittsburgh psychiatrist experienced in treating people who’ve endured traumatic events. One of the first to speak up was Lonnie Miller. She’s been open about discussing her family’s struggles since a Norfolk Southern train tumbled off a set of railroad tracks 1,200 feet from her home on Feb. 3, 2023.

Federal Leaders Are Failing On PFAs

The Environmental Protection Agency is rolling back critical protections that ensure safe drinking water. These regulations help ensure that our water is free of PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals,” an especially hazardous form of industrial chemicals that linger in the environment indefinitely. PFAS are damaging to human health at even the lowest doses. Exposure to PFAS can contribute to serious illnesses including kidney cancer, liver disease, thyroid disorders, or autoimmune disorders. There are no current treatments to remove PFAS from the body. Despite the evidence of these dire health risks, the administration is shirking their responsibility to protect people across the country from PFAS exposure.

Health Groups Shun Advertisers Working For Fossil Fuel Companies

More than 30 medical organisations representing 12 million health professionals worldwide have pledged to boycott advertising and public relations agencies that work with the fossil fuel industry, citing the impacts of the climate crisis on human health. “Health organisations have great power that they can bring to bear in their hiring of advertising, marketing, and design companies by choosing to work only with agencies that do not take money from fossil fuel companies,” said Jeni Miller, global executive director of the Climate and Health Alliance, a consortium of more than 200 organisations that developed the initiative.

Amid ‘Catastrophic’ Food Insecurity, Child Illness In Gaza Turns Deadly

Before the war, conditions like scabies and lice were manageable. Treatment required basic medication and hygiene. Now, overcrowding, shared living spaces, and limited hygiene supplies have made containment nearly impossible, the doctor says. Secondary infections, fever, and pneumonia are becoming more frequent.  By mid-2024, recorded cases of scabies and lice surpassed 96,000, mostly among displaced children. Chickenpox cases rose to nearly 9,274. “Amidst the massive numbers of affected people, we suffer a serious deficiency in access to medicines,” a pediatrician in Gaza told Mondoweiss. “We’re forced to treat patients with whatever limited quantities we receive from the Ministry of Health.”

National Day Of Action To Demand Health Care, Not Profit

On May 31, a large coalition of labor and community groups is holding a nationwide day of action to demand a national single payer healthcare system. Clearing the FOG speaks with Kay Tillow, an organizer of the action and member of the leading organization, NationalSinglePayer.com. Tillow speaks about the current healthcare crisis in the United States and why it is imperative that people organize now for a solution, such as national improved Medicare for all. Tillow critiques the Medicare for All legislation that was recently introduced in both houses of Congress and what we need to do to move the bills forward.

In Uncertain Times, The Port Of Oakland Goes Electric

The Port of Oakland’s surrounding Black communities have fought for decades for their right to cleaner air. Now that dream is within reach. In October 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded the port a $322 million grant to transition its cargo handling operations to zero emissions. Matched by the port and local partners, the total investment will be close to half a billion dollars, all flowing into green, sustainable energy. This effort will reduce the more than 69,000 tons of yearly greenhouse gas — the equivalent of burning more than 160 Statues of Liberty’s weight in coal — emitted by drayage trucks, cranes, forklifts, and tractors.

Finding And Keeping Our Balance: Elders At The Crossroads

I long for peace and ease as stress and anxiety overtake me. How can I be an active part of the resistance against the fascist regime bludgeoning my people and still hope for some comfort along the way? Many of us elders who are seasoned activists are halted at rocky crossroads: Do we put on our protective masks, dig out our marching boots and join the protests flooding the streets of our towns and cities? We’re not those sure-footed, fearless, feisty, determined warriors we once were. We have osteoporosis, bronchitis, vestibular imbalance, high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis. … We’re vulnerable and afraid.

HHS Employees Learn Of Layoffs When Their ID Badges Stop Working

The Department of Health and Human Services is laying off thousands of employees, in some cases eliminating entire offices and programs. HHS began sending reduction-in-force (RIF) notices around 5 a.m. EDT Tuesday morning, according to more than half a dozen employees who spoke to Federal News Network. Several HHS employees shared photos of staff waiting in long lines to get into their buildings. Employees targeted by the RIF learned their Personal Identity Verification (PIV) cards were deactivated. “The way people are finding out whether they are RIF’d this morning is to go through this very long process to get to the building and to go through security, and then badge-in at the main atrium.

Organizing To ‘Green’ Your Job: What Works?

Stewards often build fights around small issues, and they need to. But stewards also have a special charge to stay ahead of the boss—to think big about shifting power on the job, including by driving the move to green production. The union can fight smarter when it’s not just reacting to the boss’s plans—when members have talked over their own goals for making work different. The first task is to open up talk beyond the usual suspects. No matter the good intentions, passing resolutions and creating isolated green committees doesn’t flex much worker power.

Climate Justice Committee Holds Community Meeting On Big Polluter

The Climate Justice Committee (CJC) and East Side Environmental Justice hosted a community meeting, March 15, in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood of Saint Paul, raising awareness among community members about the growing campaign against the Northern Iron foundry, a major polluter in the area. Around 50 people were in attendance, including local residents, neighborhood activists, elected officials such as Saint Paul City Council Member Nelsie Yang and state House Representative Peter Fischer, and other concerned community members.

Landless Workers’ Movement Pressures Government With Occupations

A series of actions on Thursday led by women from Brazil’s Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST, in Portuguese) increased the pressure on the Lula government (Workers’ Party) to push agrarian reform policies forward. The mobilization occurred in 24 Brazilian states where there are MST activities and was part of the Landless Women’s Day of Struggle,previous to the MST’s Red April, massive actions to demand agrarian reform in the country. Landless families occupied areas in the states of Bahia and Ceará that did not comply with the social function provided for in the Brazilian Constitution.

New Study: Highways Block Social Connection

A new study confirms what urban residents and advocates have known for decades: that America’s urban highways are barriers to social connection. The research, published this month in the journal PNAS, quantifies for the first time how highways have disrupted neighborhoods across the 50 biggest U.S. cities. Every single city studied showed less social connectivity between neighborhoods where highways are present. “Nobody could put a number on the disruption, and now we can give a score to every single highway segment,” says Luca Aiello, a professor at the IT University of Copenhagen and the study’s lead author.

Long Covid Awareness Day On March 15

Saturday 15 March marks Long Covid Awareness Day, a critical opportunity to raise awareness of the ongoing and often debilitating effects of Long Covid, which continues to impact millions of individuals across the UK. As the pandemic’s long-term consequences remain stark, communities and advocacy groups across the country are coming together to raise their voices in solidarity and demand urgent action from the government. This year’s awareness day is marked by a series of coordinated campaigns, focusing on increasing government commitment to funding crucial research and support services.

Trump Bids World Health Organization Goodbye

In January 2026, the World Health Organization (WHO) is poised to lose a member state, following US President Donald Trump’s executive order to withdraw from the UN health agency. Should this plan go ahead, it will mark the end of US participation in the world’s main global health forum and bring budgetary headaches to the WHO, given that the US remains its top financial contributor. The WHO’s rather dry response to the announcement suggests it was expected and that the agency has likely begun preparing to navigate a second Trump presidency on reduced resources.

3M Knew ‘Forever Chemicals’ In Its Firefighting Foams Were Toxic

For decades, 3M — a multibillion-dollar chemical company based in Minnesota — sold its firefighting foams as safe and biodegradable, while having knowledge that they contained toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), according to newly uncovered documents, reported The Guardian. Starting in the 1960s and continuing until 2003, 3M’s firefighting foams contained perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), two types of PFAS “forever chemicals.” The synthetic chemical compounds have been linked to a variety of health problems like thyroid disease, hormonal and fertility problems, high cholesterol and cancer.

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Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

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