Chicago activists urge Pritzker to pass law to make polluters pay for climate change damages
'Illinois can and must do the same,' said Oscar Sanchez, co-executive director of the Southeast Environmental Task Force, at a Sunday rally.
'Kids get asthma before they learn to ride a bike. Cancer becomes a ZIP code issue. Our elders breathe toxic poison in their own home,' he said. 'It's not just the pollution, it's the climate crisis bearing down on us right now. We see streets turn into rivers after storms, basements flood, families lose everything. Meanwhile, oil and gas companies — the same ones fueling this crisis — are posting record-breaking profits.'
The group, a coalition led by the local Sunrise Movement chapter, gathered across the University of Chicago's David Rubenstein event venue in Woodlawn, where the Aspen Ideas Climate Conference officially kicked off Sunday afternoon with hundreds of leaders from business, government, academia and other fields.
Pritzker was set to discuss green tech and infrastructure investments; also invited were Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who were expected to talk about their approaches to energy and economic development.
Some of the young activists praised Pritzker for his commitment to climate issues and said he has an opportunity to demonstrate that by standing with Illinoisans and holding corporate polluters accountable. Passing a 'Make Polluters Pay' law, they say, would make these companies responsible for the public health and climate change impacts in Illinois that are a direct result of their activities.
In Chicago, for instance, such legislation would help address what activists have long protested as discriminatory zoning practices, which have pushed heavy industry into poor communities of color — exposing residents to toxic chemicals and pollutants and leading to a higher prevalence of negative health effects in the population, including cardiovascular and respiratory disease.
'We know what environmental racism looks like, because we live it every single day,' Sanchez said.
Some primarily Black and Hispanic neighborhoods and suburbs, like Chatham, Austin, Cicero and Berwyn, also experience severe flooding during heavy rains.
'If I'm going to be honest with everyone, I don't like being here. Because this shouldn't have to be our reality — that polluters are polluting Black, Latino, working-class communities across Chicago and Illinois,' said Gianna Guiffra, a Sunrise Movement volunteer. 'We shouldn't have to be protesting simply to tell them that we are human beings too. These big oil and gas companies make it very clear to everyone that they are choosing profit over life, that they are choosing profit over human beings, that they are choosing profit over our planet.'
In 2024, Vermont became the first state to require oil companies to pay for damages from extreme weather driven by climate change, after catastrophic flooding that summer. Later last year, New York also passed its own Climate Change Superfund Act, which would raise $75 billion over 25 years from the fossil fuel industry to fund climate change adaptation and mitigation projects in the state.
'These polluters should pay for the damage they have done to our communities,' Guiffra said.
Following suit, the activists say, means Pritzker would be standing up to the Trump administration, which has made 250 million acres of federal public land eligible for sale to the highest bidder, led regulatory rollbacks on polluters, and cut tax incentive programs for renewable energy projects.
'This could be the ground zero of a mass movement that puts the billionaires in check, takes power back for the people and guarantees hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of good, clean energy jobs,' said Sage Hanson, a Sunrise Movement volunteer.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Washington Post
a minute ago
- Washington Post
Darren Walker's new book is still hopeful despite growing inequality as he leaves Ford Foundation
NEW YORK — Darren Walker needed to be convinced of his new book's relevance. The outgoing Ford Foundation president feared that 'The Idea of America,' set to publish in September just before he leaves the nonprofit, risked feeling disjointed. In more than eight dozen selected texts dating back to 2013, he reflects on everything from his path as a Black, gay child from rural Texas into the halls of premiere American philanthropies to his solutions for reversing the deepening inequality of our 'new Gilded Age.'
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
New York's Sexual Assault Law Excludes the Intoxicated. This Bill Aims to Fix It.
After surviving rape twice, calling 911 for help wasn't Akia Nyrie Smith's first instinct. As a Black nonbinary person, they knew all too well how law enforcement might respond, especially when alcohol was involved, as it had been both nights in Michigan. When Smith moved to New York in 2020, in the depths of the pandemic, they never imagined experiencing a third assault. But that was their breaking point. 'When it happened in New York, I felt stupid. I didn't tell anyone,' Smith, who goes by they/them pronouns, told Capital B. They took deep breaths and shed a few tears before revealing the truths of their childhood, and young adulthood, during a May interview with Capital B. Prior experiences with police have stayed with them — and has made each consideration of calling 911 feel like a calculated risk — echoing concerns shared by many Black families across the country about the gamble of calling 911 for help. 'I didn't think anything would happen, because it was my word against theirs — and he's a white man,' the 29-year-old said, wiping away tears. 'I didn't know what happened was something I could fight for because I was putting myself in bad situations. Because I kept drinking.' Now, alongside a coalition of sex-crime survivors and human rights advocates, Smith is calling on New York lawmakers from both sides of the aisle to support legislation that ensures survivors who were voluntarily intoxicated at the time of an assault are still protected under the law. The bill, known as A101A in the Assembly, would close a legal loophole that currently allows prosecutors to dismiss cases where the survivor was drinking voluntarily — effectively denying justice. Advocates say the measure, similarly enacted in more than two dozen other states, is critical to affirming that choosing to drink alcohol should never disqualify someone from being believed or protected after a sexual assault. The bill passed through the state Senate Health Committee in May — a small feat advocates had long awaited since the bill's introduction in 2019. It was written in response to a letter penned in 2018 by former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., who called on then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo to strengthen the state's laws sex crime laws. For privacy, the letter didn't cite a specific case that drew Vance to send the letter. 'Among the most common fact patterns that we have in sex crime investigations is this situation, where a woman is intoxicated because of her drinking at a party or a bar and then ends up being assaulted sexually by a man,' Vance told NBC-4 in 2018. 'There's a real problem that we have with people getting drunk and then being taken advantage of.' Nonetheless, Cuomo did not advance the Bill A101A to his desk, but did include it in his 2020 proposed budget. The following year, multiple women came forward with allegations of sexual harassment against Cuomo. He resigned in 2021 amid the scandal. He is now running for mayor of New York, a city of nearly 8.5 million people, where reports of sexual assault have risen in 2024 — though many cases still go underreported. Capital B has contacted Cuomo's campaign via email for comment on whether he would support efforts to move the bill forward for a hearing or vote. Rich Azzopardi, a campaign spokesman, said Cuomo's thoughts from 2019 supporting the legislation remains the same. Capital B has reached out via email to New York State Assembly members Carl E. Heastie, chair of the Rules Committee, and Jeffrey Dinowitz, chair of the Committee on Codes, for comment on whether the bill will be scheduled for a vote or hearing with committee members and advocates. We have not received a response from Heastie's office of this publication. Until now, New York law has included a loophole that made it difficult to prosecute cases where a victim was voluntarily intoxicated. This meant that people who were sexually assaulted while under the influence of alcohol or drugs were often denied justice, despite their inability to give consent. Dinowitz told Capital B over the phone that passing this bill is a 'no brainer.' The state had been enforcing a version of a 25-year-old federal law enacted under former President Bill Clinton, which was introduced in response to a rise in the use of date-rape drugs, commonly known as 'roofies.' Since its signing, 27 states and Washington, D.C., have laws enacted to allow people who voluntarily got drunk, and were sexually violated, to come forward to file a police report and have a rape kit administered, advocates with the coalition Justice Without Exclusion said. 'If somebody has several drinks or takes some drugs, it is not in and of itself an invitation to be raped,' said Dinowitz, a sponsor of the bill, in a statement to the coalition. 'It's not a get out of jail free card and we need to change the law to make sure that everyone is protected.' 'This is a predatory action' Chris Lake, executive director of the nonprofit Community for a Cause and leader of the advocacy coalition, said an overwhelming number of women in his life are survivors of sexual assault. 'It has always bothered me,' he said about his reason for joining in advocating for the legislation in 2020. The bill, originally introduced in 2019, aimed to close a legal loophole that made it difficult for law enforcement to investigate — or for prosecutors to pursue charges — when a person was voluntarily intoxicated before being sexually assaulted. Lake noted in an interview with Capital B that most bartenders in America can tell when a customer is in a stupor: 'If they are incapacitated, can't walk, can't talk, can't defend themselves. If they [the survivor] want to say, 'No,' they can't. If they want to push someone off and say, 'Cut it out,' they can't.' 'This is a predatory action, and we're targeting that specific predatory style that unfortunately is the most common form of rape,' Lake said. 'Far more than getting a drink spiked.' Studies have linked alcohol to most sexual assault crimes. Smith, who has remained sober and pursued mental health therapy since surviving a 2021 attack in New York, expressed frustration that the bill has been introduced six times without becoming law. Shortly after Smith joined the coalition, they thought it would be easy legislation to lobby for, but it hasn't been. They did not achieve justice through the legal system, and they do not want the same conclusion for other survivors. Admittedly, Smith said they did receive what they called 'student protections' through a Title IX complaint for an on-campus attack by someone, a Black student, who she thought was a friend. 'He was expelled,' Smith said. 'I was harassed for a bit because he was well known. … It wasn't my first time being drunk on campus. I had a rough senior year.' Smith, a manager and coordinator for CAMBA Inc. Brooklyn YAS (Youth Against Substance Misuse), believes the bill's struggle is due in part to 'those lawmakers [who] are worried that when this bill gets passed, they will be prosecuted.' Lake said the bill has stalled, based on conversations with lawmakers from both parties, because of myths and fearmongering such as claims of rising false accusations, wrongful convictions, and the targeting of Black and brown boys and men. Despite bipartisan support from more than 90 of the state's 150 Assembly members, including 17 of the 47 Republicans, this has remained the prevailing messaging, advocates said. But those numbers have fluctuated because some assembly members 'are skeptics on this bill, unfortunately,' Dinowitz said. And unless the chairperson of committees like Heastie 'feels that there's going to be enough votes among Democrats to pass it, the bill doesn't get brought to the floor,' he said. 'Because even — I mean, I hate to say it this way but — if Republicans see that there are enough Democratic votes, even if they support the bill, they may not support the bill. We really need to get a few supporters behind the bill from both sides.' The bill also has backing from the District Attorneys Association of the State of New York, which represents 62 elected DAs, along with attorneys from law enforcement agencies across the state. Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark, and the four other elected prosecutors of New York City, agree with the bill. 'Nobody should take advantage of somebody that you know is clearly too drunk to say yes,' Clark told WSKG, a local public broadcast station, in a June interview. A coalition expands to close the loophole In at least half of all sexual assault cases between 2000 and 2016, either the victim, the perpetrator, or both had consumed alcohol, research shows. The researchers, Katherine Lorenz and Sarah E. Ullman, also found that the most common reported survivor accounts were those of white, college-age women. 'But somehow, we think that once we escape college — when we believe these crimes are most prevalent and we're in our 20s — that type of risk is behind us,' said Lizzie da Trindade-Asher, president and director of policy for Cura Collective, a nonprofit women's advocacy organization. 'Rape is not about sex. Yes, it's a sex crime — but rape is a crime of power. It doesn't lapse in time if you're seen as prey to a predator.' While da Trindade-Asher was studying at Harvard Law School in January 2023, she came across a case in Minnesota, where that state Supreme Court in 2021 overturned the conviction of a man a jury had found guilty of raping an intoxicated woman. The court ruled that, under Minnesota law at the time, a victim who voluntarily consumed alcohol was not considered 'mentally incapacitated' — and therefore, legally, unable to consent. Stunned by the court's ruling, she immediately searched to see whether her home state of New York had similar legal protections. When she discovered the bill was stalled, she could only describe her reaction as 'an emoji mind blow.' 'It was even more affronting to me to learn that in this kind of fashion of progressiveness, as we tend to see ourselves in New York State, this was the law. And even worse, the solution was being ignored,' said da Trindade-Asher. She and her organization also joined Lake's coalition. New Jersey has had similar legislation on the books since 1978, advocates said. But on the other side of the tri-state area in Connecticut, as well as Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, legislation has yet to be passed to close the loophole. For Smith, their work in advocating for the passage of this legislation is part of some semblance of closure. It's a truth they've come to terms with in their healing journey. 'I know that what happened to me is not my fault. Even if I did voluntarily drink, that does not mean I consented,' Smith said. The post New York's Sexual Assault Law Excludes the Intoxicated. This Bill Aims to Fix It. appeared first on Capital B News.
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Donald Trump is breaking America — our children will suffer worst
Last month, a Quinnipiac University poll asked voters to identify their biggest concerns six months into the second Trump presidency. The pollsters asked about nine specific issues, ranging from the health of democracy to President Trump's performance on immigration, the economy, climate change and crime. However, the most important issue wasn't on the list. It's the impact Trump is having on our children. Studies show they are more influenced by his example than we might think. We have been amply warned about Trump. His former chief of staff, retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, famously called the president 'the most flawed person' he has ever known. He correctly predicted that Trump's second term 'would be chaotic because he'd continually be trying to exceed his authority, but the sycophants would go along with it.' A month before the 2024 election, 200 mental health professionals signed an open letter published by the anti-Trump Anti-Psychopath PAC describing him as a 'malignant narcissist' with an untreatable personality disorder. They cited his 'lifetime pattern of 'failure to conform to social norms and laws,' 'repeated lying,' 'reckless disregard for the safety of others,' 'irritability,' 'impulsivity,' 'irresponsibility,' and 'lack of remorse.'' A new book by James Kimmel, a Yale psychiatrist, calls Trump a 'revenge addict' who feels victimized, nurses perceived grievances, ruminates about retaliation, and has a compulsive and potentially violent desire for retribution. We are witnessing these and other malignant behaviors. The news media have been generous in calling Trump a transactional president. He doesn't transact — he extorts. 'President Donald Trump prides himself on being a dealmaker, but his negotiating style is more ultimatum than compromise,' an AP dispatch explains. 'For Trump, a deal isn't necessarily an agreement in which two sides compromise. It's an opportunity to bend others to his will.' His punitive trade tariffs, exorbitant lawsuits and unlawful freezes on congressionally appropriated funds are all examples. And Trump explodes with juvenile insults to disparage people he doesn't like. Trump's policies and behaviors affect America's reputation at home and abroad, but they may have the most lasting effect on children. He dominates the daily news cycles with bad behavior. Our children notice. Margaret Hagerman, a sociologist at Mississippi State University, told an interviewer last year, 'It would be great to see kids motivated by the Trump presidency, to join together and create a new era of civil rights. But I'm actually more worried about the opposite being true.' At recess, she said, some children were playing ICE agents and pretending to shoot kids playing immigrants. Others were taunting Latino children with chants of 'build a wall.' 'Listening to young children, ages 11, 12, and 13, express dehumanizing, racist ideas and think it's fine and normal — that's really concerning to me,' she said. During the 2016 presidential campaign, the Southern Poverty Law Center said that Trump's platform was 'producing an alarming level of fear and anxiety among children of color and inflaming racial and ethnic tensions in the classroom. Many students worry about being deported. … Teachers have noted an increase in bullying, harassment, and intimidation of students whose races, religions, or nationalities have been the verbal targets of candidates on the campaign trail.' One in four students in America's K-12 classrooms are children of foreign-born parents. Southern Poverty Law Center education expert Marueen Costello quoted a middle-school teacher who said, 'My students are terrified of Donald Trump. They think that if he's elected, all black people will get sent back to Africa. … In North Carolina, a high school teacher says she has 'Latino students who carry their birth certificates and Social Security cards to school because they are afraid they will be deported.'' 'In state after state, teachers report similar fears among minority children,' Costello continued. 'The gains made by years of anti-bullying work in schools have been rolled back in a few short months.' Trump's policies are creating physical as well as psychological damage to children. Five years ago, the Union of Concerned Scientists warned they 'will have ramifications for the next generation, and many of these policy moves will disproportionately harm young children' — especially those in low-income families and non-white communities. Trump is setting children up for a dystopian future by allowing climate change to go unabated and allowing more pollutants that are ' particularly harmful to babies and children from before birth to age eight because their bodily systems are still developing…' Nelson Mandela said, 'There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children.' Today, through his pollution and psychological influence on them, we are virtually letting Trump abuse ours. William S. Becker
