Heidi Pascual's web site

By Sam Zeno and Jenny Rowland-Shea

On his first day in office, President Joe Biden signed an executive order committing to tackle the nature crisis and increase the country’s ambition on protected areas by conserving 30 percent of the nation’s lands, waters, and ocean by 2030, otherwise known as the 30×30 goal. A few months later, as part of his America the Beautiful Initiative, the president expanded that commitment to address nature deprivation and Tribal-led conservation. In October of 2021, President Biden called his decision to restore the boundaries of three national monuments “the easiest thing I’ve ever done.” And, just this past fall, he touted that his administration was “investing billions of dollars to protect our iconic outdoors, preserve our historic sites, and address the devastating impacts of climate change.”-- READ MORE

By Angelo Villagomez, Humna Sharif, Alex Verdeja Perez, Margaret Cooney, & Andrew Sonntag

Tribal and Indigenous communities have been stewards of land, waters, and wildlife since time immemorial. Increasingly, the Biden administration and conservation organizations across the country are coming to understand the importance of Indigenous-led conservation approaches. A report published in 2021 found that although Indigenous peoples make up just 5 percent of the global population, they are protecting 80 percent of the world’s remaining biodiversity. An earlier analysis from 2018 found they manage or have tenure rights over a quarter of the world’s land surface—including about 40 percent of all terrestrial protected areas and ecologically intact landscapes. -- READ MORE

By Leo Banks

On January 1, 2023, a slate of new tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act—also known as the climate bill—became available to U.S. households aiming to transition to cleaner energy consumption. Making these opportunities known to consumers and leveraging them to transform the country’s energy landscape will be critical to tackling climate change. Taking advantage of these credits will also yield significant cost savings for millions of Americans create new high-paying jobs and ensure a more secure and stable economy and environment.

The Inflation Reduction Act includes critical tax credits for households. -- READ MORE

By David Madland

In one of the more important advances in collective bargaining around the world, New Zealand recently passed an innovative sectoral bargaining policy, called Fair Pay Agreements. Labor supporters in Britain and Australia want to replicate elements of the policy in their countries, while for American audiences the most important lesson may be how New Zealand’s experiences highlight that sectoral bargaining — in conjunction with worksite bargaining — is necessary to improve working conditions in today’s economy and thus should be part of policy efforts to strengthen unions.

Sectoral bargaining, sometimes called broad-based bargaining or industrywide bargaining, is a type of collective bargaining between unions and employers that sets minimum standards on issues such as wages, benefits, safety, and training for all workers in a sector or occupation. ​-- READ MORE

By Maggie Jo Buchanan & Kierra B Jones

On January 3, 2023, as court challenges continue over abortion access, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released new guidance to allow retail pharmacies—the types of places where most people pick up their medications—to provide medication abortion for the first time. Already, Walgreens and CVS have announced they plan to offer the medication in states where abortion is legal. This news represents a potential major step forward in access to care. Since first approved by the FDA more than 20 years ago, medication abortion has been used by more than 4 million women, such that it now makes up the majority of abortion care in America. Furthermore, the ready willingness of two of America’s largest pharmacy chains to offer access to these drugs is yet another sign that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to end Roe v. Wade does not reflect the values of the strong majority of the American people.-- READ MORE

I am a lovechild of engineering. No, really, my parents fell in love through long-distance phone calls and faxes about homework. They were Vietnamese immigrants in the ’80s working full-time blue-collar jobs to put themselves through college. I was born the year before my mother graduated with honors in electrical engineering from UT El Paso. Their American dream felt within their grasp… until my mother could not find a job and my father kept getting passed over for promotions at work even though he was leading all the projects.

Tired of workplace discrimination, my mother turned to doing nails. My dad took the risk of leaving behind the safety of a corporate job, and my parents opened a nail salon. By the age of ten, I was really good at closing daily sales, translating for my mom, and painting nails. This became my parents’ opportunity to drill in my head, “You don’t want to end up like this do you? You need to be a doctor. You can help people, be your own boss, and have a stable job.”-- READ MORE