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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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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?”

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.

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.

“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.”

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.

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.

“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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Naomi Campbell’s charity falsely claimed to be a UNICEF partner, the UN says

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The saga of Naomi Campbell’s Fashion for Relief charity continues.

Nearly a week after it was revealed that the organization had misappropriated funds and Campbell was banned from serving as a UK charity board member for the next five years, further allegations of misconduct by the 19-year-old organization have come to light.

In 2022, the charity was the subject of a “serious” investigation by the United Nations for falsely representing itself as an envoy for global kid’s charity UNICEF, the charity Guardian reports. An investigation was launched into a 2019 celebrity charity fashion show organized by Fashion for Relief at the British Museum. At the time, Campbell’s charity claimed it was using the event to help UNICEF with fundraising, in addition to several other charities.

However, UNICEF UK has denied these claims, saying it isn’t a partner of Fashion for Relief and has not received a cent of the proceeds from the event. In 2022, UNICEF presented an incident report regarding Campbell’s charity to the committee. In the report, UNICEF expressed concerns that its brand was getting used without an appropriate contract and potentially to mislead donors.

The global organization also questioned why Campbell was named an “envoy” for UNICEF during an official government meeting with then Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson in 2018. Campbell has never held an official role at the charity.

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After news of her organization’s inappropriate actions first emerged last week, Campbell released a statement Saturday, per CBS News and Guardiancalling the report “deeply flawed.”

“First of all, I realize that as the face of Fashion for Relief, I am ultimately responsible for its conduct,” she said, adding: “Unfortunately, I was not involved in the daily functioning of the organization, I entrusted the legal and operational management to others.”

She explained that she had “instructed new advisers” to look into the matter.

“Second, I have never undertaken philanthropy for personal gain and never will,” she continued. “Contrary to media reports, I have never received compensation for participating in Fashion for Relief nor have I charged the organization with any personal expenses.”

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Raven-Symoné announces the death of her father, Christopher Pearman

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Raven-Symoné’s father and former manager, Christopher Pearman, has died.

The 38-year-old actress announced her death on Tuesday Instagram post with a childhood photo of the two hugging.

“My life was long and abundant. And the path I’m on began with a dream. I hope he watches with a smile on his face,” she wrote in the caption.

In the comments, the “Raven’s House” star confirmed that Pearlman had died when asked by other social media users. Symoné didn’t provide any further information, including when exactly he can have died or the cause of death.

Along with her mother, Lydia Gaulden, Pearman managed Symoné’s Hollywood profession, which began when she was a baby. At the age of three, she landed on “The Cosby Show” and from then on, her profession continued to blossom. In 2010, the parents were now not managed by Symoné.

While talking to NPR in June 2010, Pearman confirmed that he had stopped managing his daughter’s profession several years earlier, emphasizing that it was time for her “to take over.”

“You know, she got to the point where she said, ‘Daddy, I can run my very own business. A number of years ago I used to be in a position to run my very own business,” he explained. “And I said, ‘You know, you have the tools.’ “

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He also confirmed that there was no bad blood between them over the move. Asked if he was offended by Symoné taking on, Pearman replied: “No, absolutely not. I’ve been managing this little girl’s profession since she was six months old. It’s like having a baby and saying, “You know, I’m ready to go to college, mind my own business, and move out of home.” You know, it’s like, “OK, go ahead.”

Her father’s death also comes almost a 12 months after she lost her younger brother, Blaize Pearman, to colon cancer in November 2023.

In a video uploaded to Instagram around Blaize’s birthday, the ‘That’s So Raven’ star said: ‘He has been battling colon cancer for about two years and is doing higher now. He is loved and missed, and the emotions that wove through my body, mind and family were like a roller coaster.”

She thanked her followers and fans for all their love and support, then added, “I love you, Blaize.”


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Acclaimed artist Richard Mayhew has died at the age of 100

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On September 26, 2024, the renowned artist Richard Mayhew died at the age of 100. Known for his hazy depictions of landscapes, Mayhew became known for his “mindscapes” and “moodscapes”, a mode that combined representations of the world and emotions.

“I’m a painter of the landscape of the mind. I’m not a landscape painter… because when I’m going to a canvas I just put paint on it and it’s evocative, very evocative.” – Mayhew he said in 2019explaining the thought process behind his artistry. “Because I’m connected to the feeling of desire, ambition, love, hatred, fear – these are my images. It adopts this type of structure and imagery. I take advantage of landscape as a metaphor to specific emotions.

Born in 1924 in Amityville, Long Island, New York, Mayhew became all for the visual arts at an early age. Under the tutelage of his grandmother, Sarah Steele Mayhew, the young artist often visited the Metropolitan Museum of (*100*), took art classes and discovered connections in his ancestors. Mayhew, who’s of black and Native American heritage, said his heritage inspired him to color landscapes because “when it comes to African Americans and Native Americans, their blood is in the soil of the United States,” he says. ARTnews.

After serving in the Marine Corps during World War II and spending time in Europe, Mayhew returned to New York in 1947. At age 23, he began his semi-formal education, taking classes at Pratt Institute, Columbia University, the Brooklyn Museum School of (*100*), and more, without having to totally enroll in any of these institutions or possibly go abroad to check.

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Although Mayhew achieved his own fame, he gained recognition primarily through his association with Spiral, a mid-century black artist collective. Founded in 1963 at the height of the civil rights movement, the group, which included Romare Bearden, Norman Lewis, Hale Woodruff and Charles Alston, served as an area to debate issues facing black artists and showcase their art.

“It was an advisory panel of all African-American artists,” he added. “It involved debating and questioning the system and challenging each other. …we took up the challenge of the New York community at the time, which did not include African-American artists in various major exhibitions and galleries. Spiral was one of the initiators of that time who challenged the system of arts.”

Mayhew’s work lives on, with the (*100*) Institute of Chicago hosting everlasting exhibitions across the country; Detroit (*100*) Institute, Detroit; Atlanta High (*100*) Museum; Los Angeles County Museum of (*100*); Metropolitan Museum of (*100*), New York; National Gallery of (*100*), Washington, DC; The Smithsonian Museum of American (*100*) in Washington, D.C.; San Francisco Museum of Modern (*100*), San Francisco; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; and the Whitney Museum of American (*100*) in New York.

This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
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