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reasonsforhope · 4 months

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"In an unprecedented step to preserve and maintain the most carbon-rich elements of U.S. forests in an era of climate change, President Joe Biden’s administration last week proposed to end commercially driven logging of old-growth trees in National Forests.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, who oversees the U.S. Forest Service, issued a Notice of Intent to amend the land management plans of all 128 National Forests to prioritize old-growth conservation and recognize the oldest trees’ unique role in carbon storage.

It would be the first nationwide amendment to forest plans in the 118-year history of the Forest Service, where local rangers typically have the final word on how to balance forests’ role in watershed, wildlife and recreation with the agency’s mandate to maintain a “sustained yield” of timber.

“Old-growth forests are a vital part of our ecosystems and a special cultural resource,” Vilsack said in a statement accompanying the notice. “This clear direction will help our old-growth forests thrive across our shared landscape.”

But initial responses from both environmentalists and the logging industry suggest that the plan does not resolve the conflict between the Forest Service’s traditional role of administering the “products and services” of public lands—especially timber—and the challenges the agency now faces due to climate change. National Forests hold most of the nation’s mature and old-growth trees, and therefore, its greatest stores of forest carbon, but that resource is under growing pressure from wildfire, insects, disease and other impacts of warming.

Views could not be more polarized on how the National Forests should be managed in light of the growing risks.

National and local environmental advocates have been urging the Biden administration to adopt a new policy emphasizing preservation in National Forests, treating them as a strategic reserve of carbon. Although they praised the old-growth proposal as an “historic” step, they want to see protection extended to “mature” forests, those dominated by trees roughly 80 to 150 years old, which are a far larger portion of the National Forests. As old-growth trees are lost, which can happen rapidly due to megafires and other assaults, they argue that the Forest Service should be ensuring there are fully developed trees on the landscape to take their place...

The Biden administration’s new proposal seeks to take a middle ground, establishing protection for the oldest trees under its stewardship while allowing exceptions to reduce fuel hazards, protect public health and safety and other purposes. And the Forest Service is seeking public comment through Feb. 2 (Note: That's the official page for the proposed rule, but for some reason you can only submit comments through the forest service website - so do that here!) on the proposal as well as other steps needed to manage its lands to retain mature and old-growth forests over time, particularly in light of climate change.

If the Forest Service were to put in place nationwide protections for both mature and old-growth forests, it would close off most of the National Forests to logging. In an inventory concluded earlier this year in response to a Biden executive order, the Forest Service found that 24.7 million acres, or 17 percent, of its 144.3 million acres of forest are old-growth, while 68.1 million acres, or 47 percent, are mature."

-via Inside Climate News, December 20, 2023

Note: This proposed rule is current up for public comment! If you're in the US, you can go here to file an official comment telling the Biden administration how much you support this proposal - and that you think it should be extended to mature forests!

Official public comments really DO matter. You can leave a comment on this proposal here until February 2nd.

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batboyblog · 26 days

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Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #14

April 12-19 2024

The Department of Commerce announced a deal with Samsung to help bring advanced semiconductor manufacturing and research and development to Texas. The deal will bring 45 billion dollars of investment to Texas to help build a research center in Taylor Texas and expand Samsung's Austin, Texas, semiconductor facility. The Biden Administration estimates this will create 21,000 new jobs. Since 1990 America has fallen from making nearly 40% of the world's semiconductor to just over 10% in 2020.

The Department of Energy announced it granted New York State $158 million to help support people making their homes more energy efficient. This is the first payment out of a $8.8 billion dollar program with 11 other states having already applied. The program will rebate Americans for improvements on their homes to lower energy usage. Americans could get as much as $8,000 off for installing a heat pump, as well as for improvements in insulation, wiring, and electrical panel. The program is expected to help save Americans $1 billion in electoral costs, and help create 50,000 new jobs.

The Department of Education began the formal process to make President Biden's new Student Loan Debt relief plan a reality. The Department published the first set of draft rules for the program. The rules will face 30 days of public comment before a second draft can be released. The Administration hopes the process can be finished by the Fall to bring debt relief to 30 million Americans, and totally eliminate the debt of 4 million former students. The Administration has already wiped out the debt of 4.3 million borrowers so far.

The Department of Agriculture announced a $1 billion dollar collaboration with USAID to buy American grown foods combat global hunger. Most of the money will go to traditional shelf stable goods distributed by USAID, like wheat, rice, sorghum, lentils, chickpeas, dry peas, vegetable oil, cornmeal, navy beans, pinto beans and kidney beans, while $50 million will go to a pilot program to see if USAID can expand what it normally gives to new products. The food aid will help feed people in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Haiti, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Yemen.

The Department of the Interior announced it's expanding four national wildlife refuges to protect 1.13 million wildlife habitat. The refuges are in New Mexico, North Carolina, and two in Texas. The Department also signed an order protecting parts of the Placitas area. The land is considered sacred by the Pueblos peoples of the area who have long lobbied for his protection. Security Deb Haaland the first Native American to serve as Interior Secretary and a Pueblo herself signed the order in her native New Mexico.

The Department of Labor announced new work place safety regulations about the safe amount of silica dust mine workers can be exposed to. The dust is known to cause scaring in the lungs often called black lung. It's estimated that the new regulations will save over 1,000 lives a year. The United Mine Workers have long fought for these changes and applauded the Biden Administration's actions.

The Biden Administration announced its progress in closing the racial wealth gap in America. Under President Biden the level of Black Unemployment is the lowest its ever been since it started being tracked in the 1970s, and the gap between white and black unemployment is the smallest its ever been as well. Black wealth is up 60% over where it was in 2019. The share of black owned businesses doubled between 2019 and 2022. New black businesses are being created at the fastest rate in 30 years. The Administration in 2021 Interagency Task Force to combat unfair house appraisals. Black homeowners regularly have their homes undervalued compared to whites who own comparable property. Since the Taskforce started the likelihood of such a gap has dropped by 40% and even disappeared in some states. 2023 represented a record breaking $76.2 billion in federal contracts going to small business owned by members of minority communities. This was 12% of federal contracts and the President aims to make it 15% for 2025.

The EPA announced (just now as I write this) that it plans to add PFAS, known as forever chemicals, to the Superfund law. This would require manufacturers to pay to clean up two PFAS, perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid. This move to force manufacturers to cover the costs of PFAS clean up comes after last week's new rule on drinking water which will remove PFAS from the nation's drinking water.

Bonus:

President Biden met a Senior named Bob in Pennsylvania who is personally benefiting from The President's capping the price of insulin for Seniors at $35, and Biden let Bob know about a cap on prosecution drug payments for seniors that will cut Bob's drug bills by more than half.

#Thanks Biden #Joe Biden #jobs #Economy #student loan debt #Environment #PFAS #politics #US politics #health care

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dadsinsuits · 7 months

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Sonny Perdue

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samvadprakriya · 2 years

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कृषि और किसान कल्याण विभाग के सचिव ने कृषि क्षेत्र में भू-स्थानिक प्रौद्योगिकी का उपयोग करने के लिए एमएनसीएफसी को उत्कृष्टता केंद्र में बदलने को लेकर तकनीकी सलाहकार समिति की बैठक की अध्यक्षता की

प्रधानमंत्री श्री नरेन्द्र मोदी के नेतृत्व में सरकार हमेशा कृषि क्षेत्र और किसानों के लाभ के लिए प्रौद्योगिकी के उपयोग पर बल देती रही है। केंद्र सरकार ने डिजिटल कृषि को बढ़ावा देने की दिशा में कई पहल की हैं। कृषि मंत्रालय ने फसल का अनुमान लगाने के बारे में सुदूर संवेदी उपग्रह और भौगोलिक सूचना प्रणाली (जीआईएस) प्रौद्योगिकियों को बढ़ाने पर ध्यान केंद्रित करते हुए, वर्ष 2012 में कृषि और किसान कल्याण…

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#Agriculture Sector #farmers #MNCFC #Secretary

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best24news · 2 years

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हरियाणा में पैक्स का होगा डिजिटलीकरण -Best24news

हरियाणा: मुख्य सचिव संजीव कौशल ने कहा कि हरियाणा के सभी प्राथमिक कृषि सहकारी समितियों ( पैक्स ) का डिजिटलीकरण होगा। इसके तहत 31 अगस्त तक प्रदेश के 307 पैक्स पूरी तरह कंप्यूटरीकृत हो जाएंगे। बिहार में आकाशीय बिजली गिरने से 16 लोगों की मौत, सीएम नीतीश ने जताया दुख संजीव कौशल ने संबंधित अधिकारियों को निर्देश दिए कि नवंबर माह तक हरियाणा की लगभग सभी 307 पैक्स पूरी तरह कंप्यूटरीकृत हो जाने चाहिए। इस…

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#Haryana Hindi news #computerized by August #Digitization of packs #Haryana Goverment Chief Secretary Sanjeev Kaushal #HARYANA NEWS #Hindi Breaking News #primary agricultural cooperatives

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don-lichterman · 2 years

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John Norwood speaks on campaign as Democratic candidate for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture | News

John Norwood is the Democratic candidate for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture. He will run against the current Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Naig. Courtesy of John Norwood for Secretary of Agriculture John Norwood, the Democratic candidate for Iowa secretary of Agriculture, sat down for an interview with the Iowa State Daily to discuss ethanol use, cannabis and overall agriculture in…

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#cannabis #carbon pipelines #Featured #iowa secretary of agriculture #john norwood #precision agriculture

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maturemenoftvandfilms · 1 year

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Tom Vilsack (D) United States Secretary of Agriculture

#Tom Vilsack #american politician #handsome daddy #husky daddy #daddy #suited daddy #suit & tie #us secretary of agriculture #politician #sitting #PILF

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27-moons · 1 month

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Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades:

The Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades - Popular Resistance Forces exalts with all pride and honor the martyr leader and writer, Walid Nimr As'ad Daqqah.

One of the heroes of the kidnapping operation of the soldier "Moshe Tammam" in 1986, who dismounted today, Sunday 7/4/2024 after suffering from medical negligence in the bastilles of zionist repression.

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine:

The Popular Front mourns the imprisoned national and Frontsman leader, the great intellectual, thinker and writer, Walid Daqqah “Abu Milad”.

With the greatest sadness, grief, and revolutionary anger, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine mourns, in the name of its Secretary-General and his deputy, the Political Bureau, the Central Committee, its fellow prisoners, and all the comrades in the homeland and the diaspora, its companion, the great national and Front leader, the prisoner, the intellectual, the revolutionary thinker, and the writer Walid Nimr As’ad Daqqah “Abu Milad,” 62 years old, one of the most prominent leaders, theorists, and thinkers of the prisoners’ movement, who was martyred this evening as a result of a policy of medical negligence after suffering from a long illness.

The Popular Front extends to the comrade leader, Secretary-General, Ahmed Saadat, the comrades in the prison branch and the prisoner movement, his struggling wife, Sanaa, his daughter Milad, his entire family, and all his comrades, its deepest condolences on the martyrdom of this comrade, leader and inspiration, one of the generals of steadfastness, and the distinguished national and Front leaders and writers who engraved their name in letters of gold for what he presented in rich and inspiring struggle experience for many generations of prisoners in the occupation prisons. He also had a rich and distinguished intellectual and literary experience that was unparalleled in its influence on the lives of the prisoners, its meanings, its revolution, and its exploits. He was one of the most prominent symbols of prison literature. Rather, it is its dean and first writer, as he contributed important intellectual and literary studies to the Palestinian, Arab and international library. In parallel, the martyr was one of the most prominent national leaders and prisoners of the occupied interior who advanced the ranks in confronting the practices and violations of the occupation, and participated in all the struggle battles of the prisoner movement.

Biography of Comrade Commander Walid Daqqah “Abu Milad”:

- Born on July 18, 1961.

- He is from the town of Baqa al-Gharbiya, Haifa district.

- Commander Walid grew up in a Palestinian family consisting of 6 brothers and 3 sisters.

- The martyr received his basic education in Baqa al-Gharbiya schools, and obtained his high school diploma in 1979 from Yimma Agricultural Secondary School. He joined the university and continued his scientific and academic studies.

- During his studies, his views and awareness of the issues of his people and his deep affiliation to his Palestinian national identity blossomed.

- In 2010, he obtained a bachelor’s degree in the interdisciplinary study of democracy, and in 2016 he obtained a master’s degree in regional studies, “Israeli Studies track” from Al-Quds University, but he was unable to complete his preparation for the degree of PhD.

- He joined the ranks of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in 1983, and joined a military cell affiliated with the Front.

- In 1984, he received military training at the Front’s military bases in Syria, and then he contributed to the formation of a secret military apparatus for the Front inside the occupied interior, whose mission was to collect information about zionist leaders and officials who participated in committing massacres in the invasion of Lebanon.

- The martyr Walid and his comrades within the military cell carried out a series of operations, including the kidnapping and killing of the zionist soldier “Moshe Tammam”, as a result of which he and a group of comrades were arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment.

- He completed his sentence in March 2023, but an additional two years were added to his sentence because he was accused of smuggling mobile phones into prisons.

- He was among 23 prisoners whom the occupation refused to release in all exchange deals. The occupation also withdrew from placing him on the list of released long-term prisoners in 2013-2014.

- He is considered one of the most prominent prisoner theorists and thinkers inside the occupation prisons. He has intellectual and literary productions that have reached the international level, the most famous of which are the books “The Melting of Consciousness” and “Parallel Time,” and the novel “The Story of the Secret of Oil,” which won international fame and many awards, continued with the novel “The Story of the Secret Sword,” a second part, and it was expected that the third part, “The Tale of the Secret of the Spectrum,” would be published.

- His book, Fusion of Consciousness or “Redefining Torture,” is considered one of the most prominent productions of the prisoner movement, and is considered an important reference. Through this study, he laid out the ABCs of steadfastness, discipline, rooting organizational work, and the strength of the will inside prisons. He is also credited with crystallizing concepts that describe the reality inside prisons, such as the concept of “Parallel Time” (i.e., the time of prisoners versus the time of those outside the prisons), and he wrote a large number of political, intellectual, and literary articles and studies, and is considered a first-class political thinker. He produced inside the occupation prisons a huge intellectual project during which he answered all issues, inquiries, and existential questions, as well as issues of liberation, strengthening the state of criticism within it, on his way to reaching the truth and the crisis of the national project. He was a painter who provided the prison with many important national paintings, speaking the Hebrew language fluently.

- He was subjected to torture, solitary confinement, and being prevented from visiting during his long detention, and his writings and publications were pursued by the Prison Service.

- He smuggled sperm out of prison, became a father at the age of 57, and gave birth to a daughter he called “Milad.”

- On December 18, 2022, it was announced that he was suffering from a rare bone marrow cancer, as a result of which his health condition deteriorated and he was transferred to the hospital. In June 2023, his request for release was rejected, and the Central Court also rejected the appeal he submitted against the committee’s decision.

- He died this evening as a result of a policy of medical negligence, after a serious deterioration in his health.

As the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine bids farewell to its comrade, the leader, thinker, writer, inspiration and great theoretician, it pledges to him to be loyal to his national, intellectual and Front legacy, through which he made Palestine and the cause of its liberation his compass. Until his departure, he remained inhabited by Palestine, all of Palestine from its river to its sea.

Glory to the great martyr of Palestine and humanity.

We will certainly be victorious.

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine

Central Information Department

7-4-2024

RNN Prisoners:

"You are the most beautiful smuggling of my memory. You are my message to the future."

Milad Walid Daqqah is the product of struggle, steadfastness, and hope for the future.

Abu Milad, who ascended to martyrdom today at 62, spent most of his life in the colonial prisons, since he was 24, for allegedly kidnapping and killing IOF soldier Moshe Tammam in 1986.

Sanaa interviewed him in prison, and they fell in love, marrying in 1999 inside the very prison. After years of trying, Sanaa gave birth to beautiful Milad, one of dozens of children borne out of smuggled sperm. Walid was punished, sent to solitary confinement for creating life outside the confines of the prison walls.

He wrote to his daughter:

"Who will take the rest of my life and grant me a moment of embrace with your tiny arms. Who, my little one, who with your tiny hands brushed against my heart, making the pulse steady, the body heal, and decades of pain vanish. Who, my heart's joy, will come to rest on her father's chest, so he can caress her soft hair...

To my beloved Milad.. Happy birthday and may you have thousands of moments of joy.

Your father, Walid Daqqah."

In fact, Walid named Milad, which means "birth," nearly 10 years before she was miraculously born in 2020. In his 2011 letter to Milad, he wrote:

"Dear Milad,

I have now reached the age of 50, and my years have been split halfway between prison and life, for prison is a fire that feeds on the fragments of my memory. And my memory, O joy of my heart, has become brittle and its roots have dried. As for you, you are the most beautiful smuggling of my memory. You are my message to the future."

Walid did not see his freedom, and Milad did not see Walid. But Walid and Sanaa left behind an enduring tale, a living testament to continue his story and path.

"I admit that I am a human still holding onto his love, gripping tightly, as difficult as it is, with all my might. I will remain steadfast in this love. I will continue to love you, for love is my only humble victory over my jailer."

#glory to the martyrs #glory to the resistance #walid daqqah #palestine #israel #pflp

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