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-- 01-18-19***Bravo to the City of Melbourne: onestepoffthegrid.com.au/city-of-melbourne-hits-100-renewables-as-crowlands-wind-farm-comes-online/?utm_source=RE+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=8155eb84c9-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_01_18_02_40&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_46a1943223-8155eb84c9-40427077  
The City of Melbourne has set a high bar for governments around the country, kicking off 2019 with the news that 100 per cent of the its operations are now powered by 100 per cent renewable energy – an Australian first.

“We are immensely proud to be the first Australian capital city council powered by 100 per cent renewable energy,” said Deputy Lord Mayor Arron Wood in a statement.

“Every light on our streets, every treadmill in our gyms and every barbecue in our parks is now powered by renewable energy,”

The council’s success was driven by the Melbourne-led bulk buy renewables project, built around a consortium of 14 of leading local universities, cultural institutions, corporations and Councils.

The ground-breaking Melbourne Renewable Energy Project (MREP) paved the way for development of Pacific Hydro’s 80MW Crowlands Wind Farm, near Ararat.

The project was underpinned by a unique group purchasing model that contracts the 14 consortium members to buy a total of 88GWh, or one-third of the assumed output of the wind farm, at an undisclosed price.

The MREP partners include the University of Melbourne, RMIT, Federation Square, City of Port Phillip, City of Yarra, Moreland City Council, Bank Australia, Zoos Victoria, Citywide, National Australia Bank, Australia Post, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre and NEXTDC.

Construction began on Crowlands in May of last year, and this week, according to Wood, was nearing completion, with 25 of the 39 turbines fully installed and energy flowing into the power grid.

That progress has in turn taken the City to 100% renewables, topping up previous efforts in energy efficiency and rooftop solar installs.

“Making the move to 100 per cent renewable energy is the ultimate New Year’s resolution,” Wood said.

“We were also the first group in this country to implement a renewable energy power purchasing agreement.

“We have led the nation in responding to climate change, securing a sustainable energy supply for the future and have shown a great example of how a major city with a $92 billion economy can influence positive outcomes in our regional towns.”

Wood said that construction of the Crowlands wind farm – which had created more than 140 regional jobs, and eight ongoing maintenance jobs – was ongoing and on target to be fully completed in May.

And there are more plans for MREP, too.

“Leading by example, we will expand the ground-breaking project to facilitate power purchase agreements for businesses across the city,” Wood said.

“This will continue to generate investment in new renewable energy which is the cheapest cost for new build electricity generation.

So it’s good for the environment, great for the economy with new jobs and really good for the hip pocket to manage energy costs into the future.”

--01-21-19 BRAVO!!!: www.cnbc.com/2018/11/30/taco-bells-live-ms-scholarship-awards-21-million-in-aid.html  
Taco Bell wants to help send you to college.

The Taco Bell Foundation, has announced that it will be giving away more than $21 million in college scholarships by 2021.

To apply, students must submit a two-minute video describing their passion. That's it — no grades, essays or test scores required.

Earning a college degree gives you a serious advantage in the workforce. College graduates consistently out-earn workers with just a high school diploma and, a
according to the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce 65 percent of all jobs in the American economy will require education beyond high school by 2020.

But most Americans struggle to cover the cost of college and philanthropic efforts like Taco Bell's have become increasingly common among major corporations interested in appealing to young consumers.

While vacation giveaways and celebrity endorsements used to be tried-and-true marketing techniques for brands, efforts like Taco Bell's reflect changing priorities.

In February, Natural Light announced that it would be giving away $1,000,000 to help grads pay off student loans.

The Taco Bell Foundation has offered the Live Más Scholarship for four years now. The initiative was originally designed to give away just $10 million, but the organization recently decided to double its efforts.

"We know that affordability is a major barrier to education," said Tina Nguyen, Executive Director of the Taco Bell Foundation, in a statement, "so we hope that by doubling our funding we can double the number of doors opened for young people, and remove twice as many obstacles for innovators, creators and dreamers."

The Live Más Scholarship offers students between the ages of 16 and 24 prizes ranging from $5,000 to $25,000. Students have until by February 21, 2019, to submit their video applications and do not need to include their SAT scores or grades. READ MORE…

--01-12-19 BRAVO: www.huffingtonpost.com.mx/entry/caifornia-gavin-newsom-family-parental-leave_us_5c377614e4b045f67689e0e0?ec_carp=7261380564328955179  
Newly elected California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Thursday proposed what would be the most generous paid parental leave policy in the nation: six months of partially paid leave so parents or other family members can care for a newborn or newly adopted baby.

Right now, some California parents have access to a combined four months of leave at partial pay. Those who get less include adoptive parents, same-sex couples and single parents.

Two-thirds of countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development guarantee six months of paid time off to new mothers.

Newsom’s plan doesn’t go that far. Instead, the proposal, unveiled as part of his 2019 budget, would allow two caretakers to split six months off, according to a fact sheet provided by his office.

One parent could take three months, and the other parent or partner or another family member could take three more months, or vice versa.

The policy would roll out slowly. At a press conference unveiling the state’s $209 billion budget on Thursday, Newsom said that leave would be paid for mainly with existing funds.

“It’s a developmental necessity,” Newsom said of paid leave. “We’re committed to this.”

Newsom’s proposal counts as groundbreaking and radical for the U.S., the only developed country in the world that doesn’t guarantee paid time off to new mothers; just two of 34 OECD countries do not guarantee paid leave to new fathers.

And it comes at a time when Democratic state and local politicians around the country are proposing new liberal social programs ― beefing up Obamacare protections and provisions and passing greater labor protections.

These guys are just catching up with others around the world, however.

“Look, the whole world has this, except for the United States,” said Ruth Milkman, a sociology professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and a co-author of a book analyzing California’s leave policy.

“This is not some utopian proposal. In the U.S. it would be a breakthrough.”

California’s policy would be a big step up from what the state currently offers: six weeks of caregiving leave, plus six to eight weeks for birth mothers through the state’s disability fund.

The policy covers new parents and those who need time off to care for a sick loved one, offering a percentage of pay up to $1,216 a week.

It’s not clear if the extension would include caregiving leave; about 13 percent of Californians who seek paid leave need it to look after sick spouses, partners, children or parents, according to the state’s data.

New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island currently offer paid parental and caregiving leave, and Washington state, the District of Columbia and Massachusetts have policies set to start paying out within the next couple of years.

These states offer between four and 12 weeks to new parents.

There’s a belief in the U.S., promoted mostly by business interests, that paid maternity leave is costly and hurts businesses. That’s a myth, said Milkman.

California’s existing program, started more than a decade ago, is relatively cheap.

Workers in the state pay a 1 percent payroll tax on wages of up $115,000 to fund the program. And the fund is currently running a surplus, Newsom said Thursday.

One way to pay for an expansion would be to tap into that surplus. He also mentioned raising the payroll tax as an option or raising the income limit so those earning more than the current taxable ceiling would contribute more.

It’s a small price to pay for the peace of mind in knowing that if they need time off for a health crisis or new child, they can take it, said Milkman.

“The money is not a lot, and it is so worth it,” she said.

And businesses have been largely unaffected by the paid leave program, according to a widely cited survey Milkman co-authored a few years ago.

For those employers already offering leave, the policy means they spend less on the benefit.

There are some issues with California’s existing law: Job protections are limited. Many employers still have leeway to fire workers who take leave ― a limitation that activists hope Newsom will address.

Worryingly, even after more than a decade, many Californians don’t know they have access to paid leave. Take-up rates for leave have been low.

Newsom’s announcement could help raise awareness. “It can fuel the momentum we need to make this happen the way it needs to happen,” said Jenya Cassidy, an activist who helped pass the state’s first law.

The director of the California Work & Family Coalition, she said the group hopes to work with the governor’s office to sharpen and improve the proposal.

The budget Newsom unveiled Thursday offered up a bunch of goodies for young children and their parents, including a plan for statewide universal pre-K and all-day kindergarten, as well as more money for subsidized child care.

He also announced an increase in benefits to undocumented immigrants. It was an astonishing contrast to the policy priorities of the Trump administration.

This comes at a time when Democratic leaders in blue states are pushing progressive agendas that go far beyond what the divided federal government is capable of these days.

Just this week, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed giving workers in the city two weeks of paid time off each year ― the nation’s first guaranteed vacation policy.

The egalitarian nature of Newsom’s scheme could avoid one of the pitfalls of paid leave: putting women at a disadvantage in the workplace. Mothers wind up taking long workforce leaves, and fathers don’t.

Under his plan, if parents want their child to have six months of care provided by a family member, fathers would theoretically have to step up. Mothers still take the majority of leave in the state.

The effect of a paid leave policy on improving public health and the economy is hard to overstate.

Studies have shown that paid maternity leave reduces infant mortality rates, increases the amount of time women spend breastfeeding and makes it more likely that infants will be immunized.

Paid leave for women also helps keep them in the workforce. And the U.S. lags other nations when it comes to the percentage of women who work outside the home.

--01-09-19 BRAVO: www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/muslim-youth-group-cleans-national-parks-government-shutdown?utm_source=Weekly+Newsletter&utm_campaign=e6e18639e7-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_WED0109_2019&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fcbff2e256-e6e18639e7-40201173  
Members of a Muslim youth group spent the weekend collecting trash and otherwise cleaning up national parks around the country — helping out in the midst of the government shutdown.

Volunteers with the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association (AMYA) emptied overflowing trash cans, picked up piles of litter and swept the streets in Everglades National Park in Florida, the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and Joshua Tree National Park in California.

Members of the group were joined by additional volunteers. At least 70 volunteers — both Muslims and non-Muslims — took part in the weekend cleanup, group spokesperson Salaam Bhatti, tells MNN.

"Service to our nation and cleanliness are important parts of Islam," said Dr. Madeel Abdullah, president of the group, in a press release. "We could not sit idly by as our national parks collected trash.

We will lead by example and dispose of this garbage appropriately and invite all Americans to join us in these parks and others across the nation."

More than a dozen young men worked in the pouring rain to clean up Independence Mall in Philadelphia, according to The Inquirer.

"We just came out here because we thought it’s our responsibility as a Muslim community to help the neighborhood and help the community," Zubair Abaidullah, 17, told the paper, while he scooped up litter, including cigarette butts and plastic bags. READ MORE…

--01-19-19: reneweconomy.com.au/new-york-governor-outlines-plans-to-increase-renewable-energy%e2%80%a8-41729/?utm_source=RE+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=8155eb84c9-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_01_18_02_40&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_46a1943223-8155eb84c9-40427077  
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo gave his annual State of the State address earlier this week in which he announced a raft of new policy promises and plans for the first 100 days of 2019, including plans to quadruple the state’s offshore wind target to 9GW by 2035 and double its distributed solar to 6GW by 2025.

In his ninth State of the State address, and his first since Democrats took control of the State Legislature, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo made no secret that he was stepping steadily to the left.

His speech combined his State of the State address with his 2019 budget proposal, and his big-ticket items included everything from legalising marijuana to passing the DREAM Act to a $150 billion infrastructure plan.

Included amongst the numerous policy initiatives and plans were several renewable energy announcements which were warmly welcomed throughout the industry, founded on a plan to mandate 100 per cent clean energy by 2040.

California recently set a target of 100 per cent clean energy by 2045 which means, if approved, New York’s target would be the most ambitious in the United States.

Most notable of Cuomo’s specifics, however, was his intention to quadruple New York’s offshore wind target from 2.4 GW by 2030 to 9 GW by 2035.

“Offshore wind has potential, we know it, the industry is moving that way,” Governor Cuomo said, adding “We want to locate the industry in this state and we want to use it as an alternative. Let’s invest $1.5 million, it’s a real source of renewable energy, and let’s do it this year.” READ MORE…

--01-16-19 BRAVO: www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/roku-alex-jones_us_5c3ecad5e4b0e0baf5426ae3?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=__TheMorningEmail__011619&utm_content=__TheMorningEmail__011619+CID_374182dc6ab7a94e8a24019be60197d7&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=HuffPost&ncid=newsltushpmgnews__TheMorningEmail__011619  
Roku had no problem giving a voice to notorious conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, but then the backlash started. Now the company has decided to dump his content.

“After the InfoWars channel became available, we heard from concerned parties and have determined that the channel should be removed from our platform,” the company announced in a statement Tuesday night.

“Deletion from the channel store and platform has begun and will be completed shortly.”

The controversy appears to have started on Monday when a Twitter user noticed Jones’ show was added to Roku and informed media watchdog Sleeping Giants.

--01-19-19 BRAVO: www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2019/01/colorado-mandates-electric-vehicle-sales-state-dealers-association-angry/  
The State of Colorado will be the next territory in the United States to join California in embracing electric vehicles. Democratic Governor Jared Polis has signed an executive order (his very first) proposing that the zero-emission vehicle rule be enacted no later than May of 2019.

The rule would require automakers to sell more electric cars within the state each year until it reaches utopian status.

However, that could still be decades away. Thus far, Polis has only asked the state’s Department of Public Health and Environment to propose new rules to the Air Quality Control Commission over the coming months.

As of now, there are no official rules stipulating how many EVs need to be sold every year. And California, which started is ZEV program years ago, estimates electric vehicles will account for between 8 and 9 percent of all new car sales within the state by 2025.

According to Bloomberg, Colorado State officials plan to use the remaining $68 million received from Volkswagen’s diesel emissions penalty to assemble an improved charging infrastructure to support the presumed influx of plug-in vehicles.

There’s also a proposal to use some of the funds to support electrified school busses, work vehicles, and mass transit solutions.

“As we continue to move towards a cleaner electric grid, the public-health and environmental benefits of widespread transportation electrification will only increase,” Polis said in a statement. “Our goal is to reach 100 percent renewable electricity by 2040 and embrace the green energy transition already underway economy-wide.”

The nine other predominantly Democratic-leaning states include New York, Massachusetts and Oregon. They have established similar electric-car requirements by using a provision of the U.S. Clean Air Act that allows states to adopt rules California developed, which Polis’ executive order cited. The act gives California the authority to set rules more stringent than federal standards.

This group and other states are positioning themselves as a bulwark against the Trump administration’s push to ease cleaner-vehicle rules.

Federal regulators have proposed capping national fuel-economy and carbon-emissions requirements for new autos at a 37 mile-per-gallon fleet average after 2020.

Standards set by the Obama administration would’ve increased the average to 47 mpg by 2025.

As part of the plan, the Trump administration also proposed stripping California of its zero-emission-vehicle mandate.

Of course, not everyone is a fan of Polis’ executive order. The Colorado Automobile Dealers Association (CADA) expressed its discontent, while bemoaning the state’s plan as overly ambitious and not in the best interest of consumers or the industry.

“We trust Colorado consumers, who care about the environment as much as anyone, to be able to freely choose to buy the vehicles that they need at home or work,” CADA President Tim Jackson said in a statement.

“These consumers range from rural Coloradans who farm and ranch to suburban parents who need to transport the Little League or soccer team.

Three-quarters of Coloradans choose vehicles from the light truck category, which includes pickups and SUVs, to meet Colorado’s challenging driving conditions. There is a reason you don’t see electric vehicles pulling horse trailers or hauling six kids to their events.”

“Colorado’s consumers do not need the government telling them what vehicles they should buy. Let’s keep car-buying decisions in the hands of our citizens, not unelected California bureaucrats.”

Polis countered by saying Colorado already has some of the highest consumer preferences for EVs in the entire country. He complained, however, that “many manufacturers don’t sell all of their models here, and instead offer them in states that have adopted the ZEV [zero emission vehicle] standard.”

That’s technically true. California is the only place in the U.S. where you can purchase hydrogen models and certain battery electric cars. But, with no hydrogen fueling infrastructure, Colorado would have no reason to sell low-volume fuel cell vehicles.

 
There are also concerns that pure electric cars are negatively affected by colder climates. While that is also accurate, it’s really only an issue due to the already diminished range of some electric vehicles vs their internal combustion counterparts.

Automakers are working to remedy the issue through increased battery capacity and measures aimed at keeping the pack temperature controlled, regardless of climate.

--01-14-19 BRAVO: www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/judge-blocks-trump-birth-control-coverage-rules-in-13-states/ar-BBScXOq?li=BBnbcA1&ocid=U147DHP  
OAKLAND, Calif. — A U.S. judge in California has blocked Trump administration rules, which would allow more employers to opt out of providing women with no-cost birth control, from taking effect in 13 states and Washington, D.C.

Judge Haywood Gilliam on Sunday granted a request for a preliminary injunction by California, 12 other states and Washington, D.C. The plaintiffs sought to prevent the rules from taking effect as scheduled on Monday while a lawsuit against them moved forward.

But Gilliam rejected their request that he block the rules nationwide.

California and the other states argue that the changes would force women to turn to state-funded programs for birth control and lead to unintended pregnancies.

The U.S. Department of Justice says the rules protect a small group of objectors from violating their beliefs.

--01-17-19 BRAVO: www.msn.com/en-us/news/good-news/a-10-year-old-boy-had-an-idea-to-help-poor-people-fourteen-years-and-8000-bikes-later-he%e2%80%99s-still-at-it/ar-BBSmN6H?li=BBnbcA1&ocid=U147DHP  
In 2005, Winston Duncan was traveling with his mother in southern Africa when he saw an old lady and a young boy walking down a road together.

He thought of his own grandmother, who used an oxygen tank, and wondered how he could help the old lady and others he had seen enduring long walks in Africa.

Duncan, who lived in Arlington, was 10 at the time, and his solution was to give them bikes.

Unlike most 10-year-olds with crazy ideas, he actually did it. With his mom, he started Wheels to Africa, an organization that for the past 14 years has taken bicycles donated from residents of the Washington metropolitan area and shipped them across the world to people in need.

Most of the 8,000 bikes they have collected have gone to countries in Africa, helping cut down hours of walking for students and other recipients.

But last week, Duncan, now 24, and his mother, Dixie Duncan, traveled with a handful of volunteers and 400 bikes to a destination much closer to home yet still in dire need: Puerto Rico.

More than a year after it was devastated by Hurricane Maria, the island suffers from infrastructure and transportation problems, said Dixie Duncan. “They’re American citizens, and I personally felt like we need to do what we can to help.”

Wheels to Africa teamed up with a Puerto Rican organization, the JJ Barea Foundation, to organize recipients among local schools, orphanages and others.
READ MORE…

--01-17-19 BRAVO: www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/microsoft-pledges-dollar500-million-for-affordable-housing-in-seattle-area/ar-BBSm5sG?li=BBnbfcL  
SEATTLE — The Seattle area, home to both Microsoft and Amazon, is a potent symbol of the affordable housing crisis that has followed the explosive growth of tech hubs.

Now Microsoft, arguing that the industry has an interest and responsibility to help people left behind in communities transformed by the boom, is putting up $500 million to help address the problem.

Microsoft’s money represents the most ambitious effort by a tech company to directly address the inequality that has spread in areas where the industry is concentrated, particularly on the West Coast.

It will fund construction for homes affordable not only to the company’s own non-tech workers, but also for teachers, firefighters and other middle- and low-income residents.

Microsoft’s move comes less than a year after Amazon successfully pushed to block a new tax in Seattle that would have made large businesses pay a per-employee tax to fund homeless services and the construction of affordable housing.

The company said the tax created a disincentive to create jobs. Microsoft, which is based in nearby Redmond, Wash., and has few employees who work in the city, did not take a position on the tax.

The debate about the rapid growth of the tech industry and the inequality that often follows has spilled across the country, particularly as Amazon, with billions of taxpayer subsidies, announced plans to build major campuses in Long Island City, Queens, and Arlington, Va., that would employ a total of at least 50,000 people.

In New York, elected officials and residents have raised concerns that Amazon has not made commitments to support affordable housing.

Microsoft has been at the vanguard of warning about the potential negative effects of technology, like privacy or the unintended consequences of artificial intelligence. Executives hope the housing efforts will spur other companies to follow its lead. READ MORE…