Biden sending emergency funding bill for disaster relief to Congress
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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden will send Congress an emergency funding bill “in the coming days,” with the intent to address the urgent need for disaster relief throughout the United States following a brutal storm season, a White House official said in a memo on Monday.
Several agencies said they are running low of money in the wake of back-to-back major hurricanes, the memo stated.
“The Biden-Harris Administration stands ready to work with lawmakers to deliver the vital resources our communities need with strong bipartisan and bicameral support — just as Speaker Mike Johnson has promised,” Shalanda Young, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote in the memo.
It emphasized the fact that Congress last passed a comprehensive disaster relief package in 2022, and it stated that the Biden-Harris administration would be putting forth a new one in a matter of days.
“We look forward to working with Congress to quickly pass emergency funding so the Federal Government can meet its obligations to the American people,” Young’s memo continued.
However, it also noted that prior attempts to secure such funding, including outreach as recently as June, had failed to garner support.
Young also pointed to Johnson’s remarks after Hurricane Helene, which were delivered in North Carolina in October.
“What happens next after a storm like this is that the states then do their individual assessments and calculations of the damages and then they submit that need to the federal government. Then Congress acts,” Johnson said at the time. “So as soon as those calculations are prepared, Congress will act in a bipartisan fashion to supply what is needed to help these communities recover, the appropriate amount that the federal government should do.”
The memo also said that FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund, which has been used in the immediate aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, “is in need of additional funding.”
“To ensure these communities get comprehensive recovery assistance, our Administration has made multiple requests to Congress outlining the need for emergency funding to address these disasters, and detailing the consequences of failing to deliver this aid,” Young wrote.
“To date, Congress has yet to act,” she added.
Over the last week, the heads of several departments, including at the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Agriculture Department of Transportation, have written letters to Congress expressing their need for additional funding.
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(NEW YORK) — The Christmas season is one of the most carbon-intensive holidays of the year, experts say.
The carbon footprint of the holiday season — from eating and drinking to giving and receiving — can weigh heavily on the environment. Household waste increases by more than 25% from Thanksgiving to New Year’s, from 4 million to 5 million tons, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Those who celebrate can significantly lower their individual carbon footprints with these tips:
Dispose of organic decorations properly
After the holiday, it’s important to think about the best way to dispose of organic decorations, including everything from Christmas trees to wreaths and poinsettias, according to Keep America Beautiful, a community improvement nonprofit.
An estimated 25 million to 30 million live Christmas trees are purchased in the U.S. every year, according to the Sierra Club.
After the holidays, trees and other plant decorations are often sent to the nearest landfill every year, adding to the millions of tons of organic materials that will release methane while decomposing. Just like carbon dioxide, methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.
Experts say there are several easy alternatives to throwing out your organic holiday decorations.
However, before you get started, you need to make sure that your tree and any other holiday decorations are free of any non-organic materials. These should be discarded in the trash.
One popular alternative is composting. This can be done in your backyard or at a local community-based composting program. Real Christmas trees, wreaths and poinsettias are all biodegradable.
Tree recycling and mulching programs are a fast-growing trend in communities across the country, according to the National Christmas Tree Association. They chip and shred the trees, making mulch that can be used for landscaping.
If you have a garden or other outdoor area, you could also place your Christmas tree outside and use it as a bird feeder or sanctuary. According to the National Christmas Tree Association, fresh orange slices or strung popcorn will attract birds to the tree and they can use the branches for shelter.
Recycled Christmas trees can even be used to combat coastal erosion. For over 25 years, New Orleans has partnered with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Louisiana Army National Guard in an annual Christmas Tree Recycling Program.
The recycled trees are placed in the wetlands at Bayou Sauvage Urban National Wildlife Refuge to help protect the natural marsh and shoreline by reducing wave action and slowing erosion, according to officials.
Reuse as much as possible
One of the easiest ways to keep the holidays sustainable is to reuse the things that help to create joy and magic, according to experts.
Things like ornaments, gift bags and other holiday decor can be stored for years to come and can even eventually become family heirlooms passed down through generations, according to Keep America Beautiful.
Even leftover food can be repurposed into new dishes, said Lauren Gropper, co-founder and CEO of Repurpose, a brand of compostable household goods, adding that discarded food is one of the biggest sources of methane in the world.
Organic materials, including food waste, are responsible for 58% of fugitive methane emissions from municipal solid waste landfills, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Gift wrapping is a huge source of waste. The production of 1 pound of wrapping paper generates 3.5 pounds of carbon emissions and uses up 1.3 pounds of fossil fuel, according to the Ecology Center, an environmental nonprofit.
Getting creative with gift wrapping can significantly reduce the carbon footprint of gift-giving.
Gropper once worked in the construction and architecture industry, and old plans were often repurposed into gift wrapping, she said.
“It looks so cool,” she said. “I think small swaps make a huge difference.”
The same can be done with newspaper and the back of paper grocery bags — just top it off with a ribbon or bow repurposed from the year before, she said.
(NEW YORK) — Active shooter drills have become the norm in schools across the U.S., but experts warn they have the potential to cause more harm than good.
Though the exercises seek to prepare students to respond to gun violence in their schools, little evidence exists proving their efficacy, experts told ABC News, days after two people were killed during a shooting at a Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin.
They can, however, cause marked damage to mental health and even serve as an instruction manual for potential school shooters, according to some experts.
“There’s too little research confirming the value of [drills] involving students — but evidence is absolutely mounting on their lasting harms,” Sarah Burd-Sharps, the senior research director at the anti-gun violence advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety, told ABC News.
Over 95% of public schools in the U.S. have trained students on lockdown procedures to be used in the event of an active shooter incident, a number that has risen significantly since the early 2000s, according to a 2017 U.S. Department of Education report. At least 40 states have laws requiring these drills, according to data collected by Everytown.
Despite their ubiquity, few standards exist regulating how these drills should be conducted, Burd-Sharps said. As a result, the practices can range widely, she said. In some schools, training may consist of basic education on lockdown procedures. Others, however, have taken it further, simulating a real life active shooting scenario with sounds of gunfire or even school staff members posing as shooters.
Trainings of this kind can be deeply traumatizing to students and have a negative impact on mental health. A 2021 study by Burd-Sharps and others, which examined 114 schools across 33 states, found an approximate 40% increase in anxiety and depression in the three months after drills.
The effects can be especially pronounced among students with preexisting mental health struggles and those who have personal experience with gun violence, such as those who regularly hear gunfire in their communities or who have survived a prior shooting, Burd-Sharps said.
Rebekah Schuler, a 19-year-old Students Demand Action leader who survived the 2021 Oxford High School shooting in Michigan, said she and her classmates hadn’t taken active shooter drills very seriously until the attack that killed four students and injured seven others.
After the shooting, many of her classmates transferred, going on to schools that held their own active shooter trainings, she said. Many found these drills retraumatizing, she said, and some would have panic attacks.
“I hadn’t known the seriousness of it, but after the shooting, they were traumatizing to a different level,” Schuler told ABC News of the drills.
Advocacy groups like Everytown, as well as Sandy Hook Promise — the nonprofit formed by the families of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting — are pushing for stricter guidelines for active shooter drills that serve to better prepare school communities while avoiding negative effects.
In a report, Sandy Hook Promise recommended guidelines for these trainings, including requiring that they are announced in advance, allowing students to opt out and requiring regular reviews of practices.
The organization urged strongly against simulated gunfire, which they say can traumatize participants and risk physical injuries, without improving the exercises’ effectiveness. It’s a stance Burd-Sharps and other experts said is crucial for conducting safer trainings.
“No fake bullets, fake blood, janitors dressed as gunmen. That is deeply traumatizing,” she said. “And it’s not just traumatizing for the kids, it’s traumatizing for the teachers as well.”
Though few laws govern how these trainings are run, some states have begun taking steps to limit the most hyperrealistic practices. In July, New York banned drills that seek to realistically simulate shootings, and guidelines released by the Kentucky Department of Education recommend avoiding “dramatic crisis simulations.”
Active shooter drills also can come with another grim risk: serving as a blueprint for would-be school shooters on how to circumvent safety measures in planning their own attack. For instance, Natalie Rupnow, the alleged shooter at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, was a student at the school.
“Because 3 in 4 school shooters are a current or former student, by drilling multiple times a year, you are giving the roadmap of what’s going to happen during an active shooter incident to a potential shooter,” Burd-Sharps said, citing a 2016 New York Police Department report.
Experts recommend focusing training efforts more on teachers than on students, and concentrating more efforts around prevention strategies — particularly convincing parents to lock up their guns and teaching students who they can safely go to if they observe concerning behavior among their peers.
“When you compound actual shootings that kids see on TV all the time with these drills, and with lockdowns in response to new incidents, it’s actually not surprising that many American school kids are in crisis. The last thing they need is additional trauma from drills multiple times a year,” Burd-Sharps said.
(NEW YORK) — A man has been taken into custody after allegedly killing two people and injuring a third in an apparent stabbing spree in Manhattan, authorities said.
The first victim, a 30-year-old construction worker, was fatally attacked on West 19th Street at 8:22 a.m. Monday, the NYPD said.
About two hours later, another man was fatally stabbed on East 30th Street, police said.
The third victim, a woman, is in critical condition after being attacked around 10:55 a.m. on East 46th Street, police said.
The 51-year-old suspect — who lives at the Bellevue Men’s Shelter on East 30th Street — allegedly provoked disputes with the victims, according to police. He appeared to pick the victims at random, police said.
