Heidi Pascual's web site

Approximately $4 million from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s Low- and No-Emission Grant will help Racine, Wisconsin, buy 13 new electric buses to replace its old diesel buses. This investment in electric buses will reduce the carbon footprint of the city by approximately 922 tons, save money, and provide faster transportation.

Historical context

The bus system carries more than 1 million riders per year. “Racine Transit (RYDE) carries more than one million riders per year, utilizing 35 buses on ten routes and 155 miles of mixed traffic right-of-way.” – The Journal Times, June 6, 2020

The plans to switch to electric vehicle (EV) buses began years before, with a few purchases starting the trend but the fleet still predominantly diesel. “In November 2018, the city received $6,190,906.00 from the Volkswagen Transit Capital Assistance Grant Program to fund the purchase of six electric buses and related infrastructure. The FTA grant will increase that capacity from six electric buses to nine.” – The Journal Times, June 6, 2020​​ - CLICK STORY TO READ MORE

By Karla Walter

Anti-worker lawmakers are quietly advancing House Joint Resolution 98 through Congress, a bill that would harm working people across the economy by undercutting workers’ ability to come together in unions. The Biden administration has announced that the president will veto the bill, which would invalidate new rules adopted by appointees to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB):

“Reversing this rulemaking will prevent workers from exercising their right to bargain for higher wages, better benefits, and safer working conditions.” Moreover, the legislation demonstrates a growing divide between the economic values of everyday Americans and policymakers in Congress who say they support the working class but advance policies designed to weaken workers’ power in the economy and allow corporations to break the law without accountability. -- CLICK STORY TO READ MORE

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By Chandler Hall

Preliminary data suggest that gun violence broadly trended down in 2023 across the United States, representing a historic decrease. Crime data analyst Jeff Asher estimates that in more than 175 cities, 2023 homicides were down by as much as 12 percent compared with 2022. This preliminary data estimates a decline in murders that would be the largest single-year drop in the country’s recorded history. As the vast majority of homicides in the United States are committed with a firearm, similar declines in gun homicides are projected: The Gun Violence Archive estimates that there was a 7.7 percent decline in gun homicides from 2022 to 2023, the largest such decline since it began reporting in 2014.

Although these decreases are historic and worth celebrating, putting them into context is important. Gun violence surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, and 2021 saw a record number of gun murders—up 45 percent from 2019. ​ -- CLICK STORY TO READ MORE

By Patrick Gaspard, Debu Gandhi, & Dan Restrepo

Feb. 5 -- The just-released Senate border deal is a sincere, bipartisan attempt to create much needed order at the U.S.-Mexico border release pressure on the broken asylum system, resource agencies, and communities and provide other targeted solutions across the immigration system. However, to achieve and sustain order at the border, Congress must more boldly address what drives migration in the region and must create accessible lawful pathways that are an alternative to asylum. Americans are rightly frustrated with the humanitarian and administrative crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border and in our cities, as 30 years of band-aid “fixes” to a broken immigration system have collapsed under the weight of record human displacement around the globe and across the Americas. ​ ​-- CLICK STORY TO READ MORE

By Jeevna Sheth & Devo Ombres

On the morning of January 17, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a pair of cases that could upend 40 years of administrative jurisprudence, impede the federal government’s ability to effectively serve the American people, and allow the federal judiciary to amass unchecked levels of power. At issue in both Loper Bright v. Raimondo and Relentless v. Department of Commerce is a challenge to a regulation created by the National Marine Fisheries Service, under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, requiring commercial fishing vessels to pay for federal monitors who collect data to ensure that fisheries remain sustainable and viable for decades to come. Rather than address the narrow and technical question on this regulation, however, the Supreme Court opted instead to take up the broader and far more existentially threatening question of whether to completely do away with 40-year-old precedent known as Chevron deference. ​-- CLICK STORY TO READ MORE

By Patrick Gaspard & Allison McManus

Feb. 5 --Recent bipartisan Senate legislation provides security and humanitarian assistance in critical areas—Ukraine, Israel and Palestine, and the Indo-Pacific—but Congress must ensure more oversight so that the funds are used according to U.S. law and policy. Last night, the Senate produced bipartisan legislation that would provide emergency supplemental assistance to Ukraine and Israel, fund humanitarian aid, and offer assistance for security in the Indo-Pacific. The bill is imperfect it does not go far enough to ensure that security assistance will be used in compliance with U.S. and international law and policy, and it places restrictions on humanitarian aid to Palestine that will impede timely and effective delivery. However, the House version of the legislation provides only for Israel’s defense. Removing assistance for Ukraine and humanitarian needs will only undermine the United States’ reliability as a partner and severely curtail important efforts to protect democracy worldwide. ​. -- CLICK STORY TO READ MORE