ACTIVE NONVIOLENCE AND PEACEMAKING |
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TAKE ACTION: Pass a National Red Flag Law to Help Reduce Gun Violence
When someone is in the midst of a mental crisis, they can pose a danger to themselves and others. And with access to guns, the consequences can be devastating. That’s why red flag laws are so crucial to saving lives. They allow family members or law enforcement to petition for a court order to temporarily prohibit a person from accessing firearms if they present a danger to themself or others. The Juggernaut Project urges us to tell Congress to pass a national red flag law. TAKE ACTION
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Senators Introduce Legislation to Curb Endless US Wars, Lethal Arms Sales
A trio of U.S. senators has introduced legislation that would beef up congressional authority in national security with provisions to narrow presidential power to launch hostilities, make it easier to block certain weapons sales. The National Security Powers Act would also sunset authorizations of the use of military force including the 2001 AUMF that paved the way for the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. MORE
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How One Local Ministry Is Living Out Its Call to Restorative Justice
All Catholic religious communities are centered upon a unique charism, which guides the work of each community’s ministry. For the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, that focus has long been reconciliation and restorative justice. After a year of meeting with community members in a Chicago neighborhood, a nonprofit ministry was founded based on what the community said they needed: help dealing with gun violence, poverty, and a lack of work and educational opportunities. MORE
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TAKE ACTION: Say No to Funding Sea-Launched Cruise Missiles
Funding for Sea-Launched Cruise Missiles is set to take up $9 billion of our tax dollars. This money should be spent on getting American's back on their feet, on helping businesses reopen, on getting long haulers back to health. While funding for these missiles has made it into Biden's budget, there is still an opportunity to help cut them out before the budget is finalized. Women's Action for New Directions invites us to tell Congress to defund these weapons. TAKE ACTION
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Washington’s Arms Controllers Brace for Loss of Their Biggest Backer
For more than 40 years, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has been a primary benefactor of a host of non-profit organizations dedicated to reversing the spread of nuclear weapons. Since 2015 alone, MacArthur directed grants totaling more than $100 million to “nuclear challenges”. But its recent conclusion that it wasn't achieving its goals and decision to pull out of the arena could be detrimental without alternative sources of funding, according to multiple veterans of the nuclear policy community. MORE
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Dreamers, Advocates Call for Urgent Action by Congress After Judge Rules DACA Illegal
Immigrant rights advocates last week called for the immediate codification of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program into law after a federal judge in Texas blocked new DACA permit approvals in a ruling asserting that former President Barack Obama exceeded his authority when he implemented the policy that has protected hundreds of thousands of so-called Dreamers from deportation. MORE
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Immigration Judges Can Temporarily Shelve Non-Priority Deportation Cases
Attorney General Merrick Garland has reversed a Trump-era policy barring judges from temporarily shelving non-priority cases, a process called administrative closure. Judges say the process allows them to focus on priority cases and that barring it adds to the case backlog. MORE
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New Child Tax Credit Will Extend Benefits to Many Immigrant Parents
The new child tax credit includes benefits for undocumented immigrants whose children have Social Security numbers. To claim the credit for their children, parents must have an IRS-issued Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, used by many undocumented immigrants to file taxes. MORE
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US Farm Workers Labor in Deadly Heat with Few Protections
The climate crisis is endangering farmworkers around the US who work outside in excessive heat throughout the year without any federal protections from heat exposure in the workplace. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 53 workers died in the US due to temperature extremes in 2019, and the climate crisis is creating more hazardous conditions for workers, as temperature extremes become more common. MORE
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Biden to Restore Protections for Tongass National Forest in Alaska
The Biden administration is moving to restore full environmental protections for Tongass National Forest in Alaska. President Trump had opened more than half the protected forest, or about nine million acres, to logging and construction, stripping away protections that had been in place since 2001. MORE
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Why Fossil Fuel Pipelines Are Bad for Our Climate and Communities
Over 2.6 million miles of oil and gas pipelines crisscross the country, running through lakes, rivers, aquifers, and waterways, endangering the ecosystems and communities in their paths and fueling the climate crisis. As the fight to stop construction on the Line 3 pipeline in northern Minnesota continues to draw national attention, EarthJustice explains the risks that fossil fuel pipelines pose and how they are key battlefronts in the fight for a just climate future. MORE
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Senators Introduce Bill to Protect Children from Human Trafficking
Legislation has been re-introduced in the Senate to help schools to understand, recognize, prevent, and respond to signs of human trafficking—the Human Trafficking and Exploitation Prevention Training Act of 2021. The legislation would provide grants to develop and implement age-appropriate, culturally competent, and gender-responsive curriculum, all while prioritizing geographic areas with the highest prevalence of human trafficking. MORE
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DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT |
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‘We Can Do Anything’: The Indian Girls’ Movement Fighting Child Marriage
Priyanka Bairwa was 15 when her family began to look for a husband for her. In Rajasthan, one in three women aged 22 to 24 were married before the age of 18. Bairwa, who is Dalit, considered the lowest caste in India, defied the trend. And then did more: starting a movement of young women and girls to rally for their right to education, scholarships for higher education and freedom from child marriage, child labor and caste and gender discrimination. MORE
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‘Nobody Believed Me’: How Rape Cases Get Dropped
The Me Too movement led to heightened awareness of sexual assault, an increase in reports to police, and a new hope that people accused would be more frequently held accountable. But in New York City, statistics suggest that little has changed about how rape accusations are handled. In the Manhattan district attorney’s office, prosecutors dropped 49 percent of sexual assault cases in 2019 — among the highest rates in the city and an increase from 37 percent in 2017. MORE
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HUMAN RIGHTS AND INCOME INEQUALITY |
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Texas Senate Votes to Remove Required Lessons on Civil Rights
The Texas Senate last week passed legislation that would end requirements that public schools include writings on women’s suffrage and the civil rights movement in social studies classes. Among the figures whose works would be dropped: Susan B. Anthony, Cesar Chavez, and Martin Luther King Jr. The bill, which was passed on a vote of 18 to 4, now is stalled because the House can’t achieve a quorum while a breakaway group of Democrats is out of the state. MORE
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What Critical Race Theory Is—and What It Isn’t
U.S. Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana sent a letter to fellow Republicans on June 24, 2021, stating: “As Republicans, we reject the racial essentialism that critical race theory teaches … that our institutions are racist and need to be destroyed from the ground up.” But others say that critical race theory pays attention to what has happened in this country, and how what has happened in this country is continuing to create differential outcomes. MORE
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'Profiteering Healthcare System' Blamed as US Medical Debt Surges to $140 Billion
A new study shows that people in the United States now owe collection agencies a staggering $140 billion due to unpaid medical bills—making healthcare the nation's largest source of debt in collections. The researchers estimate that in June 2020, roughly one in five people in the U.S. had medical debt in collections—meaning their debt had been sold to a third-party tasked with retrieving the money, often by harassing low-income people who are unable to pay. MORE
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John Ramirez is scheduled to be executed on September 8 by the state of Texas for the murder of Pablo Castro. Please hold John, Pablo, their families, and the people of Texas in prayer.
Rick Rhoades is scheduled to be executed on September 28 by the state of Texas for the murders of Charles Allen and Bradley Allen. Please hold Rick, Charles, Bradley, their families, and the people of Texas in prayer.
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