Out d’Coup | Recovery Act; PRO Act; Gun Control; OK Protester Law; Cancel Cuomo; Big Money for PA; PASSHE Fail Fast; Octavia Butler on Mars; Navajo Nation and NASA; Galicia Noir; Free Will Releases

The American Recovery Act is now law. President Biden signed the bill into law a day ahead of schedule and some people will start receiving deposits in their bank accounts as early as this weekend. The American Recovery Act is a real game changer and is raising the prospect that the Reagan Era is finally coming to an end. 

The House of Representatives passed the PRO Act, one of the most significant pieces of pro-labor legislation in decades. AFL-CIO president RIchard Trumka called the legislation “a game changer.” The PRO Act would effectively undercut so-called right-to-work (for less) lawes in more than two dozen states; prevent employers from forcing workers to attend anti-union “captive audience” meetings; allow newly certified unions to seek arbitration and mediation for first contracts; prevent employers from using an employee’s immigration status against them when determining the terms of their employment; and; establish financial penalties for companies, executives, corporate directors, and other company officials who violate workers’ rights. The bill faces a fight in the Senate, which may push Democrats to finally end the filibuster. 

The House also passed gun legislation that would strengthen background checks. 

Oklahoma’s Republican dominated state house passed a bill to give immunity to drivers who run over protesters. If signed into law, the legislation would shield from liability any driver who “unintentionally” injures or kills a protester while “fleeing a riot” as long as they had a “reasonable believe” that they were in danger. Yep, that would be qualified immunity to run down protesters. The bill also calls for $5000 in fines and jail time for protesters who “unlawfully obstruct” traffic. 

John Carroll University in Cleveland now says it can fire individual tenured faculty members without cause in cases of “budgetary hardship.” Several faculty have already been fired and programs are slated to be eliminated at the stroke of the pen. Look out higher ed. 

Biden’s dogs get kicked from the White House. 

And what’s this about Little Marco supporting Amazon workers union organizing drive?

A majority of New York’s Democratic Delegation to the United States House has called on Governor Cuomo to resign in the wake of his growing scandal.  This includes Jerry Nadler, Mondaire Jones, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Jamaal Bowman, Carolyn Maloney and more. 

The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center has a complete rundown on what Pennsylvanians can expect from the American Rescue Package.  5.9 million Pennsylvanians will receive $14.8 billion in direct payments.  Hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians will see their healthcare premiums decrease and a quarter of Pennsylvania’s uninsured are now eligible for free bronze or low-cost silver packages. 

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania will be receiving $7.2 billion from the American Rescue Package, which will help plug the state’s $2.5 billion budget deficit and county and municipal governments from around the state will receive an extra $5 billion dollars.  

Bucks County Republican Party uses “Johnson & Johnson” for its caller ID to trick residents who are hoping to get the vaccine only to hear a Republican Party message about attending a petition-signing event before next week’s signature deadline. 

The York-based convenience store company, Rutter’s, said that the $2/hour “hazard pay” they provided employees during the pandemic will now be permanent. That means that the starting wage will be $12.50/hr, increased to $13/hr after three months. 

PASSHE Chancellor Greenstein was at a Zoom town hall with faculty and staff at Kutztown University. When pressed on a series of problems at the university including lack of access to mental health services and racism in the campus police, Greenstein said that the solution is to do what they do in the tech industry, wildly experiment 

NASA named the landing site of the Perseverance rover, “Octavia E. Butler Landing,” after the celebrated African American science fiction writer. Butler’s novels include Kindred, Parable of the Sower, and her Xenogenesis or “Lilith’s Brood” series. Her dystopian novels explore themes of racism, exploitation, global warming, and women’s rights. She died Feb. 24, 2006.  

The Navajo Nation is working with NASA’s Perseverance Rover team to name new features identified on Mars. The President of the Navajo Nation, Jonathan Nez said that “The partnership that the Nez-Lizer Administration has built with NASA will help to revitalize our Navajo language. We hope that having our language used in the Perseverance mission will inspire more of our young Navajo people to understand the importance and the significance of learning our language. Our words were used to help win World War II, and now we are helping to navigate and learn more about the planet Mars.” Among the words chosen to be used for Mars formations, are Navajo words for “red rock,” “diligence,” and “amongst the sand,” and “Máaz” – the Navajo word for “Mars.” One of the Perseverance mission scientists, Aaron Yazzie, is Navajo and said they worked hard to come up with translations that resemble Navajo spellingsPresident Jonathan Nez and a team of advisors came up with a list of 50 names for the NASA team to start with and plan to keep adding more. According to a news release, the team had some suggestions like, “tséwózí bee hazhmeezh,” or “rolling rows of pebbles, like waves.” 

China and Russia sign an agreement to build a Moon base. According to a Russian statement, the station "is a complex of experimental research facilities created on the surface and/or in the orbit of the Moon, designed to carry out multidisciplinary and multipurpose research work." The move suggests that Russia is moving away from its long collaboration with the U.S. and may chart a new path once the International Space Station as the program is scheduled to end at the end of the 2020s. Russia also notably did not sign the Artemis Accords, calling the rules too “U.S. centric.” Are you ready for Moonraker the sequel?

Thanks to my friend Stu in Northern Ireland, I’ll be watching Galician Noir this weekend. Stu’s wife is from Galicia, the Northwestern corner of Spain that feels like your in the Northwest corner of Ireland. 

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