For your Holiday Giving: RI Community Food Bank

Charitable giving is a fine alternative to buying people gifts they don't need. Here's a favorite:

Right now in Rhode Island, there are working parents struggling to provide food for their families. Children are going to bed with hunger pains, and grandparents are skipping meals to buy medicine. But you can make a difference. Your support for the Rhode Island Community Food Bank helps provide nutritious meals for individuals in our communities who are hungry. In fact, every dollar donated helps us acquire 3 pounds of healthy food to assist those in need. #GivingTuesday is November 29, and I hope you'll join us by making a gift for families, children and seniors in Rhode Island who might not know where their next meal will come from. Help Share Meals and Hope We are so grateful for generous friends like you. Together, we can make a difference for Rhode Islanders struggling with hunger. With gratitude, Andrew Schiff Chief Executive Officer Help Hungry Rhode Islanders Rhode Island Community Food Bank 200 Niantic Avenue Providence, RI 02907 P: (401) 942-MEAL (6325)

For your holiday giving: Planned Parenthood

Another of many options if you decide to cut back on giving people things for Christmas that they don't need. Here's something that millions of people will rely on over the next four years.

Why does Planned Parenthood matter to you? Share your Reason

"Because you told me the truth." "Because I didn't know what to do and you were there." "Because birth control matters!" Everywhere I go and every person I talk to, I hear it: The reason you are part of this great big Planned Parenthood family. And right now, those reasons matter more than ever. Will you share why Planned Parenthood matters to you? There is no question that the coming months and years bring uncertain times for reproductive health and rights. But every reason why Planned Parenthood matters to you is a reason why we won't back down in the fights to come. It's a reason why Planned Parenthood doctors, nurses, and health center staff will get out of bed, open their doors, and continue to provide quality care every day — no matter what. It's a reason why we've been standing strong for 100 years, and will be here for 100 more. Share your reason by Friday night. We'll combine your responses together into a poster that you can download — and that will be shared with Planned Parenthood health center staff to thank them for their service and dedication to the people they care for. I can't wait to hear your reason. As we reflect on all we're grateful for this week, your dedication and support are at the top of the list. Sincerely, Cecile Richards, President Planned Parenthood Federation of America Donate  »

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Big surprise

Trump's Advisor on Wall Street Regulations is a Longtime Swamp-Dweller
by Jesse Eisinger for ProPublica

President-elect Donald Trump's transition-team adviser on financial policies and appointments, Paul Atkins, has been depicted as an ideological advocate of small government.

But the ways that the Trump administration and Congressional Republicans are likely to approach financial deregulation could serve Atkins' wallet as well as his political agenda.

Like Trump himself, Atkins himself faces potential conflicts between his business dealings and his public role.

Newly nominated Education Secretary hates public education

Trump Nominates 'True Enemy' of Public Schools for Education Secretary

By Deirdre Fulton, staff writer for Common Dreams

President-elect Donald Trump has tapped for U.S. Education Secretary "a 'reformer' who does not hide her contempt for the public schools," according to historian Diane Ravitch.

Of conservative billionaire Betsy DeVos, a longtime supporter of charter schools and vouchers for private and religious schools, National Education Association president Lily Eskelsen García said, "her efforts over the years have done more to undermine public education than support students."

"She has lobbied for failed schemes, like vouchers—which take away funding and local control from our public schools—to fund private schools at taxpayers' expense," García continued.

Paying Rhode Island and drivers

Volkswagen to Pay R.I. Owners for Rigged Emissions

By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff

The owners and leaseholders of some 500,000 Volkswagen and Audi vehicles across the country will soon be receiving their share of the settlement in the most expensive consumer-fraud case in U.S. history. 

State governments also will receive large settlement checks from the $15 billion payout by the German automaker for its fraudulent “Clean Diesel” advertising campaign.

Here is the breakdown of the payout to Rhode Island and local Volkswagen\Audi owners duped by the emission-rigging scandal.

$13.5 million goes into a state trust that will be spent on environmental projects. A court-appointed trustee will oversee the trust’s payments. The structure and objective of the trust is the same as the $4.6 million payment Rhode Island received in a 2007 settlement with American Electric Power (AEP). The power company paid $75 million to eight states for violating clean-air standards from AEP’s 16 coal-fired power plants.

Don’t get it if you don’t need it

The Last Straw for Wasteful Convenience Products

By JOANNA DETZ, EcoRI news

Fellow citizens: We need to suck it up, without plastic straws.

Americans use 500 million straws daily. That’s enough to fill 127 school buses each day for a year.

If that visual of plastic-straw-filled yellow buses makes you think of the children. Then let’s really Think of the Children and not leave them a legacy of insidious plastic waste. 

Here you go kids. We had our fun. Now clean up our mess.

Plastic straws aren’t recyclable. They go in the trash (best-case scenario), but often (worst-case scenario) they are discarded on the ground where they wash into local waterways, bays and oceans, where they pose a risk to wildlife and serve as a persistent memorial to human carelessness.

Unless you are younger than 3 or have no teeth, you don't need a plastic straw. It’s an unnecessary manufactured trinket that’s impossibly wasteful.