Food Insecurity. Nationwide Drive Launched to Get 200 Congressional Signers in 10 Days on Bipartisan Senate Letter About Food Crisis

Opportunities arise before the crisis of no return strikes

BEMA International

R-CALF United Stockgrowers of America "Fighting for the Independent U.S. Cattle Producer"

 

For Immediate Release May 20, 2021

 

R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard Phone: 406-252-2516; r-calfusa@r-calfusa.com   View and share this news release on Facebook here or view the web version here.

 

Nationwide Drive Launched to Get 200 Congressional Signers in 10 Days on Bipartisan Senate Letter About Food Crisis

 

 

Billings, Mont. – Yesterday, U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD) and U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-MN) called attention to a food crisis in America. In a comprehensive bipartisan letter, the senators succinctly described the anatomy of the nation’s food crisis marked by consumers paying an unnecessary, over-inflated price for beef in the store while the nation’s cattle ranchers and farmers are on the verge of going broke. The letter explains that if Congress does not take immediate action, current policies will “cause the demise of the American rancher and American consumers will be forced to pay a higher price for a much lower quality product.” The letter attributes the crisis to a failed marketing structure in which the middlemen have a stranglehold over both consumers and ranchers. Following a Facebook Live event held yesterday, the ranch group R-CALF USA launched an urgent, nationwide drive to get 200 members of Congress, from both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House, to join with Senators Rounds and Smith by adding their name to the bipartisan letter within the next 10 days. “The most important step consumers and cattle producers can do today is to share this senate letter with their own senators and representative and get them to sign on,” said Brett Kenzy, a rancher and director of R-CALF USA. Kenzy said there have been many joint letters circulated by Congress, but not since the passage of the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 – exactly 100 years ago – has there been a more important letter than this one. “This letter describes the crisis so clearly that representatives of both consumers and ranchers will immediately understand that they must join the bipartisan letter to reverse the crisis before it gets any worse.” Kenzy said he encourages every consumer and every cattle producer to put this bipartisan letter into the hands of each of their congressional members and to get their commitment to put an end to this serious crisis that affects everyone. Congressional members can join the letter by contacting the office of either Rounds or Smith. The public can check to see if their members of Congress have joined the bipartisan letter by going to the R-CALF USA Website at www.r-calfusa.com, which will be updated daily.

 

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R-CALF USA (Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America) is the largest producer-only lobbying and trade association representing U.S. cattle producers. It is a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring the continued profitability and viability of the U.S. cattle industry. Visit www.r-calfusa.com or, call 406-252-2516 for more information.

 

Woody Strode. Black Actor should be recognized for his achievements. May 2021

 https://www.britannica.com/biography/Woody-Strode

Woody Strode, byname of Woodrow Wilson Woolwine Strode, (born July 28, 1914, Los Angeles, California, U.S.—died December 31, 1994, Glendora, California), American character actor who was part of director John Ford’s "family" of actors, appearing in nearly a dozen of Ford’s films. Strode also had a brief career as a professional gridiron football player and was among the first African Americans to play in the National Football League.

While a student at the University of California, Los Angeles, Strode starred on the football team along with two other African American players, Jackie Robinson and Kenny Washington. In 1946 Strode and Washington signed with the Los Angeles Rams, thus (along with two others) integrating professional football in the United States. After a single season with the Rams, Strode played football in Canada and also did a stint as a professional wrestler. He made his film debut in Sundown in 1941, but it was not until the 1950s that he worked regularly in the movie industry. He appeared as the king of Ethiopia in The Ten Commandments (1956). He also gave memorable performances in Spartacus (1960) and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), as well as the Ford-directed films Sergeant Rutledge (1960), Two Rode Together (1961), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). In Sergeant Rutledge Strode played the lead role of a cavalry officer wrongly accused of rape and murder. In 1968 he starred in Black Jesus, an Italian production of a story based on the life of African nationalist leader Patrice Lumumba.

Re-Think Federal Disaster Aid. May 2021

 

 

If you're a Green subscriber and want to start getting the CityLab Daily newsletter, sign up here. If you're a CityLab subscriber and want to start getting our daily Green newsletter, sign up here. By Leslie Kaufman What makes a disaster? When we think of calamity, most of us think of flood waters that submerge towns, or hurricane winds that shred buildings. The U.S. federal government uses another kind of measure to decide whether an act of nature becomes an official disaster: its cost.  In deciding when to dole out federal assistance, the Federal Emergency Management Agency looks to see if per capita damage to uninsured assets exceeds a certain threshold; for 2021, that would be $1.55 per person in a state. The agency has a proposed rule to update that number to $2.33 per person and then index it to the consumer price index going forward. Why should anyone care about that 80 cents? The answer is climate change.   A warming climate is contributing to more and bigger disasters. But human beings are stubborn. We continue to live and build in risky areas just like nothing is happening. Proverbial frogs in the boiling pot. One of the best ways to make the costs of climate change more transparent is to price the rising risk into insurance policies. Private insurers and reinsurers are very sophisticated at guessing when things will go wrong and charging customers accordingly. Customers can refuse to pay the higher price, but if a disaster strikes they will bear the cost. Eventually the true cost of living by the ocean or in a wildfire zone becomes apparent. It is an effective feedback loop, but brutal — which is where the federal government comes in. To greatly simplify the history here: As disasters have increased in certain areas, private insurers found flood insurance in particular too risky, and sent premiums sky-high. The federal government stepped in to provide subsidized flood insurance, racking up tens of billions of dollars in debt for covering claims.  But the government hasn’t just covered the claims of individuals; it’s also covered the claims of cities, states and some nonprofits through the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act.  Helping local governments recover from a public disaster might seem like an unalloyed good, but for a long time federal officials have argued that it creates perverse incentives for the localities to under-insure, knowing that in the end they’ll never have to pick up the cost. There are some areas, like debris clean-up and utility repair, where this argument doesn’t really apply because localities would have a hard time getting insurance. But there is one category assistance in the Stafford Act that is particularly controversial because private insurers are downright eager to cover these areas: Category E applies to buildings, their contents, vehicles and equipment (BCVE). Think of school buses, court buildings and even churches. A January analysis by the Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center looked specifically at whether states and localities were under-insuring for Category E. It found that while most of the states and localities did have some insurance, the proportion of overall building repair costs covered by insurance has only been 28% over the last decade or so. In other words, Uncle Sam has been on the hook for 72% of repairs. And according to an analysis by Hagerty, an emergency management consulting firm, Category E has historically accounted for the largest chunk of FEMA’s assistance obligations. Craig Fugate, who ran FEMA under the Obama administration, sees in these numbers not just under-insurance “but rather a wholesale risk transfer.”  The concern is that this risk transfer will beget even bigger bills down the line. Without an incentive to purchase expensive insurance, states, cities, and tribes are largely shielded from the most immediate costs of a warming Earth. If towns had to pay for real risks, they would have a financial incentive to place new buildings and bridges out of harm’s way. Instead, towns, eager to return to normal after a disaster, rebuild again in the same spots. (By law, FEMA can make them elevate the new properties, but not move them.) There are endless examples of FEMA money that’s been used to rebuild in an area that’s very likely to flood in the future, from prisons and airports in Louisiana to public schools in New York City. This is important not just because of the expense of immediate replacement, but also because town planning and infrastructure often dictate where private residences and businesses are built. “If the state locals aren't internalizing the costs of these risks, you totally get the wrong incentives to encourage development in certain areas,”  said Lloyd Dixon, a co-author of the Homeland Security report and a senior economist at the RAND Corporation.  Within FEMA, there is relatively broad agreement that something needs to change about the current federal regime. The White House’s fiscal year 2021 budget proposed ending Category E funding altogether. Such a position was, understandably, very unpopular with states and the proposal didn’t make it very far. That’s where the current rule comes in. It won’t eliminate Category E, but it does raise the threshold for state assistance. Not only does it raise the per capita minimum by 80 cents; it also raises the total minimum storm damage from $1 million to $1.5 million, a number that will also be indexed to inflation going forward. In theory, over time as the thresholds increased, the number of storms covered would decrease and states and localities would be forced to have a more robust insurance practice. “They can either use their own budgets, or increase their use of insurances to cover risk,” Fugate said. But former FEMA administrator Brock Long is skeptical. He argues that raising the threshold for disaster assistance might just force states to look for even more uninsured assets. He says FEMA can’t fix the problem with just rule-making. “The Stafford Act was innovative when it was introduced in 1979 but it did not encompass climate change,” he said. “It is time for Congress to consider legislative changes that reward communities for doing the right thing,” he continued, “things like proper building codes and reinsurance capabilities need to be incentivized not penalized.” Colin Foard, who studies this issue for the Pew Charitable Trust, has a similar view. He says cities and states desperately need the money from the federal government to prepare for the future. If they want to reform the current problem, they shouldn’t spend less, he says. They should just spend differently, perhaps mandating that Category E funds go toward buildings that are disaster resistant. “Every dollar spent on mitigation can save 6 in recovery,” he said. “So if the federal government wants to do something about this, there is a more strategic way to lower everyone’s costs.” Because cities are uniquely vulnerable to climate change, they’re also likely to be remade the fastest by the human need to survive and eventually thrive on a warmer planet. Of the 100 most environmentally vulnerable cities, 99 are in Asia. Yet, globally, cities aren’t making the most important investments needed to tackle global warming. Paul Buckingham, an electrical engineer in the U.K., has been taking thermal images to persuade home- and business-owners to invest in efficiency. For example, his heat camera shows where London is succeeding and failing at saving power: Camden Station: London black cabs leave their engines on as they wait for passengers in front of the Camden metro station and become constant emitters of heat and air pollution. Photographer: Thermal Image by Paul Buckingham for Bloomberg Green In a bid to cut emissions, central Paris will ban most traffic in 2022. Shanghai’s grand plan for suburbia: Avoid becoming like L.A. Air conditioners might be one water source of our urban future. From Singapore to Rio, these green buildings keep people cool.     If you're a Bloomberg Green subscriber and want to start getting the CityLab Daily newsletter, sign up here. If you're a Bloomberg CityLab subscriber and want to start getting our daily Green newsletter, sign up here. If you already get both: Give yourself a pat on the back.  Black Emergency Managers Association International Washington, D.C.  20020 bEMA International Cooperation, Collaboration, Communication, Coordination, Community engagement, and  Partnering (C5&P)

A 501 (c) 3 organization

 

Change without Sacrifice is an Illusion.  Lisa Ellis      

Put simply: The cure for homelessness is a home. Opinion: D.C. has the resources and the know-how to ensure nobody else lives (or dies) without housing

 Homelessness can end in all major cities with a systematic approach.  One of the key features when disasters strike, and homeless can be considered a national\global disaster is to provide shelter, water, and food during recovery. 

Homelessness is an end result of individuals and families in a phase of recovery.  From domestic violence, financial recovery, mental & physical health recovery, drug recovery, loss of family member, a disability or functional need, retirement, and aging.

 Displacement of the most vulnerable.  Women and girls.

BEMA International

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/05/14/dc-chronic-homelessness-bowser-housing/ Opinion: D.C. has the resources and the know-how to ensure nobody else lives (or dies) without housing Homeless people living in tents in the L Street NE tunnel in January 2020. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post) Opinion by Christy Respress Christy Respress is executive director of Pathways to Housing DC. May 14, 2021 at 9:00 a.m. EDT   Though D.C. continues to make progress toward ending both family and veteran    homelessness, which have decreased significantly from prior years, the number of single adults experiencing chronic homelessness increased by an alarming 21 percent in the past year, according to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments’s annual report of homelessness in our region, which was released Wednesday. D.C. is to be applauded for having made significant investments over the years to end homelessness for families and veterans. Now we need to bring even greater focus, energy and financial resources toward ending chronic homelessness. The spike in chronic homelessness is distressing. Ending chronic homelessness is not only possible and cost-effective but also urgent. At least 180 people experiencing homelessness died in 2020. We can and must do better as a community and as a region. It’s time the city made big, bold investments to end homelessness for all residents. D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) has a crucial choice to make: Save lives by investing in housing or underinvest in the urgent housing needs of our unsheltered neighbors. D.C. has the resources and the know-how to ensure that nobody else lives (or dies) without housing. I’m thinking of Clemit Jones, one of 5,111 neighbors sleeping in shelters and designated pandemic sites, in parks, under bridges and in doorways the night of Jan. 27, when surveyors fanned out across D.C. to conduct the annual census, known as the Point-in-Time Count. (Though not perfect, the annual snapshot captures valuable data used to allocate funding and track progress). Jones’s life began to unravel in 2008 when he lost his job. For 13 years, he has bounced from place to place — couch surfing or sleeping outside the library, in parks, in a shelter or in his car. In December, he landed in the hospital with a blood clot, the result of sleeping for so many years in his car, doctors told him. Tests also revealed a previously undiagnosed heart condition. Back on the streets, he found life even more challenging during the pandemic. “There are so many things you take for granted when you have a home,” he says. Like sleeping in a bed. Or having access to a bathroom — something that has been much harder during the coronavirus pandemic. He is grateful for store owners who helped him when he hadn’t eaten for four or five days. Since introducing the Housing First approach to this region 17 years ago, Pathways to Housing DC has met thousands of people like Jones, men and women who have been homeless for a year or more (sometimes decades) who are living with challenging health conditions. Their lives might be complicated, but the solution is not: Provide them with housing first, then combine that permanent housing with supportive services in the areas of mental and physical health, substance use, education and employment. Put simply: The cure for homelessness is a home. The past year has reminded us not only how integral housing is to health but also that homelessness is caused by a persistent legacy of systemic racism, not personal failings. The annual Point-in-Time Count confirms what we know: People of color are disproportionally impacted. A staggering 86.5 percent of individuals experiencing homelessness in D.C. are Black. Centuries of racist policies have denied entire communities the ability to thrive. Against an ongoing backdrop of racial inequities and a looming eviction tsunami, and as a member of the Way Home Campaign, I call upon Bowser and the D.C. Council to follow through on the goal of making homelessness “rare, brief and nonrecurring” by ending chronic homelessness for 2,761 individuals and 432 families with an investment of $100 million. This figure is based on government and nonprofit projections of what it costs to house an individual in a given year. In addition, let’s invest in prevention and street outreach, in wide-scale rent and utility relief, the Local Rent Supplement Program and the Housing Production Trust Fund. Similar investments must be made by leaders across the region to ensure a more aggressive plan to end homelessness, address issues of racism and housing affordability, and ensure that no person experiences homelessness again. Let’s also use lessons of the past year to continue to find innovative solutions going forward. I’m thinking of virtual housing inspections and converting office space and hotels for housing, among other new approaches that eliminate barriers and add more housing options. In January, when Jones was released from the hospital, he was beginning to wonder whether he’d ever move off the streets. Yet, with the help of his Pathways housing navigator, he was recently approved for an apartment and expects to move into his own place by summer. I asked him what he is most looking forward to. “Stability. Solitude. A shower.” Not that long ago, individuals who had lived on the streets for years had little hope of living independently. Today, with targeted funding, ending homelessness is within our grasp.

GULLAH JUNETEENTH FREEDOM CELEBRATION. Saturday, June 19, 2021 12Noon - 3:00 PM.

 

You are invited to the following event: Gullah Juneteenth Freedom Celebration Event to be held at the following time, date, and location: Saturday, June 19, 2021 from 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM (EDT) Charleston Gardensboro Park 10 Wharfside Drive Charleston, SC 29401 View Map   Click here for Registration   Cum jayn de Gullah/Geechee Family Foundation fa "Gullah Juneteenth" een de Gullah/Geechee Nation. We gwine honor we ancestas. Share this event on Facebook and Twitter. We hope you can make it! Cheers, Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition & All Mobile Productions™ (AMP™)