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As the US hits record high temperatures, some people are forced to choose between food and energy bills

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Climate change, record heat, U.S. climate change, U.S. record heat, heatwaves and economics, energy poverty, record heat and energy costs, energy costs, Stacey Freeman North Carolina, theGrio.com

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — During the heat dome that blanketed much of the Southeast in June, Stacey Freeman used window units to cool her poorly insulated mobile home in Fayetteville, N.C. The 44-year-old mom relied on space heaters during the winter.

In each cases, her energy bills bumped into tons of of dollars a month.

“Sometimes I have to choose whether to pay the electric bill,” Freeman said, “or pay all the rent, buy food, or not let my son play sports?”

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As a regional field organizer for PowerUp NC, Freeman’s job is to help people properly weatherize their homes, especially in the Sandhills region where she lives and works and where poverty and rising temperatures make residents vulnerable to the health effects of climate change.

But Freeman’s income is just too high to afford the services she helps others obtain through her grassroots initiative for sustainability, clean energy and environmental justice.

Like a growing variety of Americans, Freeman is battling what is named energy povertyincluding the inability to pay utility bills for heating or cooling the home. Households that spend greater than 6% Some researchers suggest that around 20% of their income from electricity bills goes to the energy poor.

Energy poverty can increase exposure to extreme heat or cold, which increases the risk of respiratory problems, heart problems, allergies, kidney disease and other health problems. And that burden falls disproportionately on households in communities of color, which experience it at a rate 60% higher than in white communities.

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Public health and environmental experts say that as climate change continues to drive extreme weather, greater policy efforts are needed to help vulnerable communities, especially during heatwaves.

“Energy poverty is just one example of how climate change can exacerbate existing inequities in our communities,” said Summer Tonizzo, spokeswoman for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

Extreme heat is the leading explanation for weather-related deaths in the U.S., and the risk increases as temperatures rise. Last yr, 2,302 people died in the U.S. died of heat-related causeswhich is a 44% increase compared to 2021. In one week in early July this yr, extreme heat killed at the very least 28 people, according to The Washington Postbased on reports from government officials, health workers and local media reports.

Yet 1 in 7 households spends about 14% of their income on energy, according to RMI, an energy and sustainability think tank. Nationally 16% of households lives in energy poverty, according to an evaluation co-authored by Noah Kittner, an assistant professor of public health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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“Old, inefficient buildings and heating systems force people to supplement their energy needs in ways that increase costs,” Kittner said.

Pregnant women, people with heart or lung disease, young children, older people, and people who work or exercise outdoors are most vulnerable to heat-related health problems. High temperatures have also been linked to mental health problems, equivalent to suicide and severe depression.

Location is one other risk factor. For example, in the historically black community in Raleigh often called Method, temperatures might be 10 to 20 degrees warmer than nearby areas with more vegetation and less development, said La’Meshia Whittington, an environmental justice and clean energy advocate. Interstate 440 runs through Method, and the city stores shuttle buses there, often with their engines running.

“That creates a lot of pollution that heats the area,” Whittington said. “There’s no ground to absorb the heat. Instead, it bounces off the shingles, the roofs, the sidewalks, and creates a furnace.”

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Method residents often complain of chronic headaches and respiratory problems, she added.

While rural areas tend to have cooler temperatures than nearby urban areas because they’ve less asphalt and more trees, they often lack resources like health care facilities and cooling centers. Substandard housing and higher poverty rates contribute to high rates of heat-related illnesses.

As Ashley Ward, director of the Heat Policy Innovation Hub at Duke University, puts it, energy poverty “is about burdens piling up without any means of addressing them at the individual level.”

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In many parts of the country, extreme heat is a comparatively latest problem. Policymakers have historically focused on the risks posed by lower temperatures.

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The federal low-income home energy assistance program, established greater than 4 a long time ago, has a funding formula that favors states with a chilly climate over those experiencing extreme heat, according to a Georgetown University study. Florida, Georgia, Arizona, Texas and Nevada have the lowest proportional allocations of federal funds, while North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska have the highest.

North Carolina relies heavily on private donors and local nonprofits like PowerUp to provide fans and air conditioners during the summer, but the state doesn’t subsidize energy bills.

On extremely hot days, Freeman and her colleagues at PowerUp NC work with state health officials to direct vulnerable people to cooling centers.

On a private level, staying cool this summer meant sending my son to a free, open-air recreation center as a substitute of paying for him to play in a sports league.

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“We do things that don’t cost anything,” she said. “We’re just trying to keep up with the electric bill.”


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This article was originally published on : thegrio.com

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NY Public Schools inform Trump’s administration that they will not comply with the DEI order

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New York state officials told Trump’s administration that they would not comply with her ending demands apprenticeships of diversity, justice and inclusion In public schools, despite the threat of administration related to the termination of financing of federal education.

Daniel Morton-Bentley, adviser and deputy commissioner of the Department of Education of State, said in a letter with the Department of Education dated Friday that officials do not think that the Federal Agency is entitled to make such demands.

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“We understand that the current administration is trying to censor everything he considers” diversity, justice and inclusion, “he wrote. “But there are not any federal or state regulations prohibiting the principles of Dei.”

Morton-Bentley also wrote that state officials were “unaware” of any authority whose Federal Education Department must demand that states agree with the interpretation of court decisions or completing financing with out a formal administrative process.

The United States Education Department did not immediately reply to the request for a message e -mail for commentary.

Trump administration on Thursday I ordered K-12 schools nationwide for certification Within 10 days, wherein they observe federal regulations regarding civil rights and ending all discriminating practices of Dei as a condition for receiving federal money. Federal financing accounts for about 6% of complete financing for schools in New York K-12.

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“Federal financial assistance is a privilege, not a law,” said Craig Trainor, who’s the assistant secretary for civil rights, in an announcement when the application was submitted. He said that many faculties had their legal obligations, “including using Dei programs to discriminate against one group of Americans to favor another.”

The demand for certification asked the leaders of states and schools to sign “reminders of legal obligations”, recognizing their federal money, compliance with federal regulations regarding civil rights was made. It also requires compliance with several pages of legal evaluation written by the administration.

The demand specifically threatens the financing of the title and, which sends billions of dollars a yr to American schools and is addressed to low income areas.

Morton-Bentley wrote that the Department of State Education at again and again certified the Federal Government, that it complies with the title of VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, recently in January. He said that the Federal Department rests his demands at the end of Dei programs on an incorrect legal interpretation.

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“Considering the fact that you are already in possession of the warranty by Nysed, that he has it and will be consistent with title VI, no further certificate will be available,” he wrote.

No country has completed income taxes since 1980. These two states can change this

He also said that the administration position is a “sudden shift” from the first Trump administration, citing comments in 2020, the secretary of education of Betsy Devos, that diversity and inclusion were “the cornerstone of high organizational results”. He wrote that the administration did not explain why it modified its position.

Critics of certification demands stated that that is contrary to Trump’s promise to return education to colleges and countries.

The threat of economic sanctions is comparable to those that the Trump administration was Use against the university Trying to interrupt down protests against Israel, which he considers anti -Semitic.

The New York state similarly refused to comply with the Trump administration request to shut the mass transit financing program in New York with high automobile fees that go to Manhattan.

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8 books that help maintain mental health

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Mental health is a vital aspect of health, but in the case of taking good care of the black community, there’s a niche. When he’s healthy, 40% of white Americans reap the benefits of psychiatric care When they need it in comparison with only 25% of black Americans. This gap is commonly related to system barriers, a stigma surrounding mental health and an absence of varied suppliers.

Pay attention and awareness in regards to the problems of mental health, Black company He gathered eight books that can help in education, manage and overcome mental health problems experienced within the black community. These resources provide necessary invaluable information on the struggle for mental health and easy methods to search for psychiatric care.

1)

Published in January 2022, the work of Tricia Hersey is concentrated on worked culture and calls on rest as a revolutionary type of self -care. According to Hersey, people must stop and recognize that rest is obligatory for us as units and a collective. Hersey assumes that we must always not buy social narrative, that only performance is vital.

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2)

The breakthrough work of Sonyi Renee Taylor 2018 on the positivity of the body requires readers to rethink the norms of body image, and Taylor inspires his audience to radical love for self -feeling and liberation.

3)

Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Bruce Perry’s was published in April 2021. A mix of private stories and experts, ITOJ book SA fin finance, how trauma can influence our lives disproportionately and the way we will treat and develop into resistant as a consequence of sympathetic strategies.

4)

Viola Davis 2022 A memory, a journey of immunity through personal and skilled challenges, presents a beloved actress sharing the story of discovering herself, perseverance and mental well -being with harsh honesty, while learning to have her story in an inspiring way.

5)

The book by Dr. Rheedy Walker 2020 provides a deep study of specific problems affecting the black community. Readers will discover psychological and emotional problems and learn the way these issues affect good existence, relationships and quality of life. They may even gain real psychological strategies in the sector of stress management and easy methods to move on an unjust psychiatric care system with the talents of trust and spokes.

6)

The book Nedra Glover Tawwab 2021 provides readers tools they need to ascertain borders and regain their self -esteem. Tawwab is shared by tangible guidelines on how people can properly convey boundaries and deal with their mental health to have higher relationships and greater self -esteem.

(*8*)

7)

Written by Aaren Snyder was published in April 2020, it’s a really needed work specializing in mental health problems, which particularly affect black people. The book accommodates invaluable information and suggestions, but additionally discusses the fundamental causes, ways of coping and the treatment process within the black community.

8)

Convincing examination of hard truths, that are first published in 2008. Williams reveals hidden emotional truths and calls for the very obligatory conversations regarding identification and helping such compassion problems.

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This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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Sheryl Lee Ralph is blown to find out that she is associated with Samuel L. Jackson

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Sheryl Lee Ralph may have an invite to the subsequent Family Congress Jackson. As it turns out, the actress has long been a distant cousin of one other actor Samuel L. Jackson.

While last yr it was revealed that the 76-year-old actor is actually associated with the Jackson family, like Michael and Janet, the famous family blood line doesn’t end with this. In the PBS episode of April 1 “”Finding your roots“The 68-year-old actress is literally literally affected to find out about her relationship with the star of the” Piano Lesson “.

“Finding your roots”, host and historian Henry Louis Gates, Jr. He explained that two actors are distant cousins ​​because they divide “a long section of DNA on their 16 chromosomes”, which suggests “they have a common ancestor somewhere in their family trees.”

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When Ralph realized who the historian was talking about, she burst out laughing and said: “Are you kidding me?! I like him so much!”

She added that Jackson all the time reminded her of her brother Timothy, “I don’t know why for any reason.”

Before the episode wraps the star “Abbott Elements” Pantommes her mind is blown up in response to the message.

The message is particularly interesting since it appears only a couple of months after Janet Jackson confirmed that the rumors surrounding her famous distant cousins ​​were true. During the BBC radio interview in August, the singer revealed that she was distant with Jackson, Tracy Chapman and Stevie Wonder on the mother’s side.

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“Few people know it,” she said.

Elsewhere within the episode, Ralph also learns that she has come from at the very least two generations of people that were free from slavery before the Civil War, including a person named George Thomas Ralph. The message almost takes her breathtaking and makes her emotional before she thank God and “Skip” (nicknamed Gates Jr.) for clarifying her family history.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” she said. “When I look at my family as far as I can, I always see how they have something. I always see how they strive for something. I always see how they work.”

She added that others noticing her family all the time said things in admiration: “This Ralph family.”

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Levar Burton discovers unexpected connections with his alien Father

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