In the more than a decade since Alabama regulators allowed a landfill to take in tons of waste from coal-burning power plants around the U.S., neighbors in the majority-Black community of Uniontown frequently complain of thick air so pungent it makes their eyes burn. On some days, it can look like an eerily white Christmas […]
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Posted inAir Pollution, Environmental Justice, Partner Content
Detroit Residents Battle Against Neighborhood Concrete Crusher
Detroit building officials are waging a court fight to shut down a concrete crushing operation on the city’s west side that has been covering a majority Black neighborhood in dust. The city issued nearly 300 blight tickets to Grand Rapids-based Green Valley Properties over two years, according to a BridgeDetroit analysis of online city records. […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Partner Content
‘What Corruption Gets You’: How Utility Companies Bought Support in the Black South
Former Florida state Rep. Joe Gibbons sat in the library of the Faith Community Church in Greensboro, North Carolina, trying to convince its pastor to quit promoting rooftop solar. With a lobbyist’s charm, Gibbons told the Rev. Nelson Johnson that rooftop solar, which allows customers to generate their own renewable electricity, was bad for people […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Partner Content
Environmentalist’s Warning About Toxic Beauty Products Allows Black Women to Own Their Health
Dereliction of Beauty: Part of a series from Inside Climate News on how lax regulation of beauty care products victimizes women of color. ICN is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter here. When Heather McTeer Toney thinks about the disproportionate harms that she […]
Posted inAir Pollution, Environmental Justice, Partner Content
Public outcry against carbon capture in Louisiana growing
Communities across south Louisiana want to protect themselves from what they consider to be a risky and possibly dangerous prospect of having tons of carbon dioxide injected underground to reduce the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) — capturing the planet-warming gas from industry and storing it permanently underground — has become […]
Posted inHealth, Partner Content
The Cosmetic Industry’s Toxic Toll on Black Women
Dereliction of Beauty: First in a series from Inside Climate News on how lax regulation of beauty care products victimizes women of color. ICN is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter here. For Jeanette Toomer, the hours she used to spend to ensure that […]
Posted inPartner Content, Politics & Policy
The Spelman College Community Has Stood in Solidarity With Palestinians for Years
Originally published by The 19th The demonstrators in downtown Atlanta held Palestinian flags and wore keffiyehs. They prayed, they sang. They carried signs stating “Stop the Genocidal Bombing of Palestine” and “End All U.S. Aid to Apartheid Israel.” Numbering in the several thousands, the throngs included born-and-bred Georgians and visitors from as far as Ireland. […]
Posted inEducation, HBCUs, Partner Content
‘Money Like That Would Not Come to Someone Like Me’
Rayquan Smith, a running back at Virginia State University who has landed 88 brand deals, fancies himself as the “King of NIL.” That’s “name, image, likeness” — a set of rules allowing athletes to sign endorsement deals and earn money while in college. The National College Athletic Association enacted the policy in 2021, a major step […]
Posted inMoney, Partner Content
Can Detroiters Afford More Dollar Stores?
This story was originally published by BridgeDetroit, a nonprofit news site that reports on America’s largest majority Black city. Sign up for their newsletter here. Trash strewn grass and parking lots, overgrown sidewalks, and messy interiors are mainstays at Detroit’s dollar stores. Consistently out of compliance with city blight requirements, dollar stores in Detroit from […]