Citylab reports that “landlords feel empowered to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement to handle their evictions, especially in areas around California where rent prices have skyrocketed as tech-related gentrification takes over… A policy advocate at the Western Center on Law & Poverty, Jith Meganathan [said], “We have somewhere between two-and-a-half million and three million undocumented individuals living in California, most of whom are renters. Unscrupulous landlords are taking advantage of their knowledge of that fact to deprive tenants of their legal rights.” House Democrats expressed concern that the Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented families is denying undocumented students access to public education and asked the administration to “minimize the impact these policies have on school attendance and student learning.”
Pepsi launched and then withdrew a controversial ad, described as “almost surreal in its thoughtlessness,” after public outcry. The ad appropriated protest movements like Black Lives Matter and diminished struggles against police violence (in the ad, white model Kendall Jenner breaks a tense moment in the protest to give a Pepsi to a cop, leading the protesters to cheer), all to sell Pepsi to young consumers and consumers of color. DeRay Mckesson, a Black Lives Matter activist, responded – in part - by tweeting, “If I had carried Pepsi I guess I never would have been arrested. Who knew?” Vox reports on the beverage industry’s long history of targeting African-American and Latino customers, “exacerbating health problems in those communities. We now have a big pile of evidence that sugary drink consumption is linked to health problems, including obesity, type-II diabetes, and tooth decay. Low-income African Americans and Hispanics tend to consume higher levels of sugary drinks compared with white Americans. They are also much more likely to be obese and die from diabetes compared with their white counterparts.” Feministing blogged, “The message in these commercials is clear: we should all get over our differences (and their deeply entrenched systemic roots and the unequal positions of the parties in conflict), hold hands, and buy whatever product we’re being sold. The key to happiness and peace isn’t any sort of change to the status quo, but is instead consumerism. These commercials take people’s life’s work and turn it into meaningless, content-less images designed to line the pockets of the very people financially backing oppressive policies in the first place. They make a mockery out of movements that have cost people their freedom and their lives.”
Trump revoked an executive order issued by President Obama that required companies that contract with the federal government to adhere to 14 different labor and civil rights standards, including a broadened non-discrimination policy that covers race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and national origin, including paycheck transparency regarding wages and overtime; a ban on forced arbitration clauses for harassment, assault, and discrimination claims workers bring against employers; and other protections designed to ensure compliance with the Family Medical Leave Act and other government policies.
The Tampa Bay Times investigated 827 Florida police shootings from 2009 to 2014, using police reports, news articles, lawsuits and autopsies to “break down each one to its most basic traits.” Although whites outnumber African Americans in Florida by three-to-one, more black people were shot by police, and unarmed African Americans were two times more likely to be shot by police than unarmed white people (72 African Americans in the six-year time period vs. 31 whites), twice as likely to be shot during a police encounter over a minor traffic violation (driver unarmed), four times as likely to be shot in the back.
Mother Jones reports on plans to eliminate two Environmental Protection Agency programs that reduce lead exposure, as well as programs to prevent poisoning, punish polluters, and research climate change: “The proposed cuts, outlined in a 64-page budget memo revealed by The Washington Post on Friday, would roll back programs aimed at reducing lead risks by $16.61 million and more than 70 employees, in line with a broader project by the Trump administration to devolve responsibility for environmental and health protection to state and local governments. Old housing stock is the biggest risk for lead exposure — and the EPA estimates that 38 million U.S. homes contain lead-based paint.”
GOP leaders tried, and failed, to get a new healthcare repeal bill going before they left town for the Easter recess; the bill would have eliminated protections for pre-existing conditions, the New York Times reports.
New York Times columnist Frank Bruni writes about Manhood in the Age of Trump, along with a recently-released survey of young men in the US, UK, and Mexico by the nonprofit Promundo entitled The Man Box. The survey results, he says, “suggested that plenty of American men live in what some sociologists call the Man Box, constricted by a concept of manhood that includes aggression, hypersexuality, supreme authority and utter self-sufficiency.” Among other things, he said, the survey found 75% of American men surveyed reported that they believe “that they’re supposed to act strong even when scared or nervous.”
Colorlines covers a report from the American Psychological Society that finds climate change takes a toll on our mental health, and that people of color are disproportionately affected. According to the report, changes in the climate that affect everything from agriculture to livability can contribute to stress, anxiety, and PTSD. The report suggests that people of color may be more affected because of factors including inequitable economic opportunities and reduced access to healthcare.
Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin vetoed a Bill that would enable judges in some cases to order people with mental illness to undergo outpatient treatment. The Republican governor said the law would "restrict the liberty of individuals based on nothing more than a finding that they are 'unlikely to adequately adhere to outpatient treatment on a voluntary basis,'" according to U.S. News. Advocates argued the law would help prevent people with mental illness from going untreated. The State Legislature overrode the veto.
The top one percent of healthcare spenders uses more resources, collectively, than the bottom 75 percent, according to a new study reported on in the Washington Post. “Slice the data a different way, and the bottom half of spenders all together rack up only about 3 percent of overall health care spending — a pattern that hasn’t budged for decades.”
A GenForward poll found that young people support the Affordable Care Act and think the government should be responsible for making sure Americans have coverage, Kaiser Health News reports.
Modern Healthcare reports on a Health Affairs study that found a lot of turnover among physicians who participate in ACOs, and that that the sickest and most expensive beneficiaries were seen by a small minority of physicians. “This distribution could, theoretically, give ACOs the opportunity to cherry-pick patients by selecting only certain physicians each year… a relatively simple mechanism to 'game' the risk pool.’”
In this New York Times op-ed, a retired Army general makes the case for PBS funding in a New York Times op-ed, commenting that by engaging young learners and providing them with vital skills, public media "acts as our largest classroom."