Saturday, June 24th

(Adapted from Rogan's List, EcoWatch, EarthJustice and NPR)

A grizzly mother and her cub in Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park.
Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images

In a controversial decision, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has delisted the Yellowstone Grizzly Bear from the Endangered Species Act opening these bears up to trophy hunting.  This is a mistake. "Grizzly bears are the slowest reproducing mammal on the planet, and a population decline can take decades to reverse," Derek Goldman of the Endangered Species Coalition says in a statement emailed to NPR.  "Therefore," he continued, "we have been calling on Fish and Wildlife Service and the states to develop adequate management plans for grizzly bears before any delisting is finalized. We will closely review the final rule to ensure there are adequate protections for grizzly bears."

You can use the Sierra Club's tool to send a note to Ryan Zinke and the Dept. of Interior: https://goo.gl/USQbVQ  

While you're at it, you might want to mention that Zinke should continue to protect national monuments such as the Coral Canyons and Seamounts National Monument, which is off the coast of New England and is the first marine national monument in the Atlantic Ocean.

NOAA OKEANOS EXPLORER PROGRAM, 2013 NORTHEAST U.S. CANYONS EXPEDITION SCIENCE TEAM

Coral Canyons is now under review for drilling by Zinke's department.  As noted by EcoWatch, "In April, Trump signed an executive order to aggressively expand drilling in protected waters off the Atlantic and Arctic oceans....The monument, which consists of 4,913 square miles of underwater canyons and mountains off the New England coast, was designated by President Obama last September to protect critical ecological resources and marine species, including deep-sea corals, whales, sea turtles and deep-sea fish."  

Zinke recently told Reuters that the development of America's protected federal lands could help the country become a "dominant" global energy force. "There is a social cost of not having jobs," he said. "Energy dominance gives us the ability to supply our allies with energy, as well as to leverage our aggressors, or in some cases our enemies, like Iran." (Read more.)

Tell the Ryan Zinke and the Interior Department that we want to keep this monument, and all the others under question, as is. They are irreplaceable national treasures.  

Write: Ryan Zinke, US Dept of Interior, 1849 C Street NW, Washington DC 20240

Friday, June 23rd

(Adapted from Rogan's List and other sources)

What Really Matters: Our Environment

There is bipartisan support for the EPA in Congress. As reported by Buzzfeed, "Republicans and Democrats came together [last week] to jointly attack the Trump administration’s proposal to slash the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget by $2.4 billion, or 31%, next year."  Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nevada) told Pruitt during the hearing “You may be the first person to get more than you asked for, because, quite frankly, as many people have made the point, nobody is standing on the rooftops begging for dirty water and dirty air and dirty soil and those sort of things." (Read more in Mother Jones.)

Action You Can Take Today

Let Congress know that you agree that slashing the EPA budget will not benefit the American people. Bonus: You can use a new app, Stance, to leave a message for your representative, even if their voicemail is full. Try it out at: http://www.takeastance.us/

And more:

Less than two weeks ago, Director Scott Pruitt's EPA dismissed 12 scientists from a major scientific review board, and is looking to replace them with members who come from industries whose pollution the agency is supposed to regulate. More foxes in charge of the henhouse. Tell Pruitt his actions are unacceptable and counter to what the American people want from the EPA, which is exactly what his agency's name says: Environmental Protection. 

• Write to:  Scott Pruitt, EPA, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave NW, MC 1101A, Washington DC 20460
• Call him at: 202-564-4700
• Send an email to: [email protected]

Thursday, June 22nd

(Adapted from Rogan's List)

Emotions and actions continue to run high about the secretive Senate health care process.

As reported today in The Guardian, "The Senate’s 142-page proposal, unveiled on Thursday, would eliminate or reduce key benefits provided by Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act; lower taxes for the wealthy; strip funding from the women’s reproductive health provider Planned Parenthood; and dramatically cut and restructure Medicaid, America’s public health insurance program for low-income and disabled Americans....Experts believe the legislation could leave millions of Americans without health insurance, and could have a stark impact on vulnerable populations such as people recovering from addiction, ageing middle-class baby boomers, and women and children."

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats held the floor recently to shine light on the flaws of the male-only, closed meetings, as reported by Reuters this week: "Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said that the closed-door Republican meetings on healthcare amounted to "the most glaring departure from normal legislative procedure that I have ever seen."

"Republicans are writing their healthcare bill under the cover of darkness because they are ashamed of it," Schumer charged. The resulting legislation would likely throw millions out of health insurance, he said, while granting "a big fat tax break for the wealthiest among us."

Action You Can Take Today

Although it is sometimes unbearably boring to keep calling and writing to the same people all the time, they still need to hear from you, all the time.  

• Please thank our Senator Chuck Schumer for navigating these unprecedented times.
  You can find his contact info here: http://www.philipstowndemocrats.org/senator_chuck_schumer
  
  
• While you're at it, thank our Senator Kirsten Gillibrand for her stand on protecting our healthcare too.  
  You can find her contact info here: http://www.philipstowndemocrats.org/senator_kirsten_gillibrand

Wednesday, June 21st

(Adapted from Rogan's List)

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has indicated that he would like to work directly with the Russians on issues of cybersecurity – even after the Russians used cyber methods to influence our election: http://www.newsweek.com/russia-us-cyber-security-tillerson-627379  

Russia has orchestrated many kinds of cyberattacks on other nations. As reported in Wired this week, "In a public statement in December, Ukraine’s president, Petro Poroshenko, reported that there had been 6,500 cyberattacks on 36 Ukrainian targets in just the previous two months. International cybersecurity analysts have stopped just short of conclusively attributing these attacks to the Kremlin, but Poroshenko didn’t hesitate: Ukraine’s investigations, he said, point to the “direct or indirect involvement of secret services of Russia, which have unleashed a cyberwar against our country.” (The Russian foreign ministry didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.)"

The Trump Administration needs to get the message: Russia is not a friendly partner.

Action You Can Take Today

Let Tillerson know that we do not need to invite the fox to the henhouse: 

• Write to him at: US Department of State, 2201 C Street NW, Washington, DC 20520
• Fill out a "Contact Us" request form online: https://register.state.gov/contactus/
• Call the US Department of State: 1 (202) 647-6575

Tuesday, June 20th

(Adapted from Rogan's List)

With Pride Week coming up, it seems appropriate to focus on some LGBTQ+ related issues.



The Trump administration continually works to erase our LGBTQ+ community. The Department of Commerce has released their 2017 Equal Opportunity Employment statement, and language protecting sexual orientation and gender identity is gone. (Read more: http://bit.ly/2sFlkRM).

Action You Can Take Today

• Give the Department of Commerce a call and let them know that you value our LGBTQ+ community, and expect them to do the same: (202) 482-4883 
• You can also send an e-mail to express your thoughts on the matter to [email protected]v 
• While you're at it, call our members of Congress about this as well.  We value everyone.