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By a vote of 220-213, the $2 trillion Build Back Better bill passed the House of Representatives this morning, November 19. The package now goes to the Senate. For about 8 hours, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy built the case against the bill while Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, said it is "historic, transformative, and bigger than anything we've ever done." For details on what is in the bill including a $2.5 billion grant and technical assistance title relating to community violence and...

November is a month of Thanksgiving and it’s a time to literally “give thanks” for the bounty in our life. We rejoice in the major highlights but in reality it’s the little micro-moments of joy that give us the strength to carry on. These precious, seemingly insignificant moments can be stored as a resource for us to draw on when times are tough. Life isn’t easy, and this is true for all of us. The immutable value we focus on in the Choose Love Movement is love, but there is another one that...

By Travis Lupick, Illustration: Frances Murphy, Yes! Magazine, November 15, 2021 “I’ve always been a rebel,” Gabor Maté says in The Wisdom of Trauma , a new documentary about the acclaimed physician’s groundbreaking work in mental health. “In communist Hungary, in grade six, my teacher wrote in my report card that, ‘You should watch it, because he incites the other students.’” Nearly 70 years later, although far from the playground, Maté is still doing exactly what his teacher warned of. He...

By Soo Youn, Illustration: Washington Post/iStock, November 10, 2021 Tuesday was the first day in more than a month that Eileen Funke, 43, had both of her children in school and was feeling well enough herself to get anything done. A Slinky of sickness had uncoiled between her 7-year-old daughter, her 3-year-old son and herself with the colds that have been circulating through her kids’ two schools in Santa Monica, Calif. But things were looking up: Her daughter had just gotten her first...

By Oriya Cohen and Rebecca Marx, Photo: Konoplytska/Shutterstock, Housing Matters, November 17, 2021 Since the founding of this country, the United States government has persecuted tribal communities and forced many to relocate—resulting in the loss of 99 percent of their ancestral land . Today, the areas to which tribes were forcefully relocated are some of the most vulnerable to climate change. Exacerbating these hardships, the federal government has severely underinvested in the housing...

By Nadine Burke Harris, Photo: Bob Minkin, CNN Opinion, November 16, 2021 Now that the Pfizer vaccines have been authorized for emergency use in children ages 5 to 11, I, like so many parents across the US, am breathing a sigh of relief that my little ones can finally be protected against Covid-19. We still have a lot of work to do to ensure we emerge from this pandemic as soon as possible, but as a pediatrician and the Surgeon General of California, I recognize that reining in the virus...

CalEndow Live Virtual Programming Presents If We Want to Win: A Latine Vision for a New American Democracy REGISTER TODAY! A Virtual Event Thursday, December 9, 2021 5:30 – 6:30 p.m. PT On December 9, contributors to If We Want to Win will join CalEndow Live to discuss the just-released book’s provocative vision for moving the United States toward a fairer and more inclusive democracy. Editor Diana Campoamor will moderate this virtual conversation, joined by contributors Antonia Hernández,...

Aligning Resources Across Georgia To Support Resiliency To Our Resilient Georgia Partners and Stakeholders: First, some announcements: We are incredibly grateful to everyone who attended Resilient Georgia's General Meeting on October 28th with special guests, U.S. Olympian and American Track & Field Champion Kenny Selmon and Storyteller Chrishaunda Lee Perez! Kenny Selmon knows how to overcome hurdles in the race of life. We encourage you to watch the interview if you have not already...

By Josyana Joshua, Photo: Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post/Getty Images, Bloomberg City Lab, November 15, 2021 Of the 4.1 million young people in the U.S. who were neither working nor in school in 2019 , a disproportionate number came from low-income neighborhoods of color. From Chicago’s West Side to east central Houston, some of the country’s hotspots for youth disconnection are places that lack clear pathways to economic opportunity. Stemming from racial wealth gaps , inequitable...

By Ovetta Wiggins, Photo: Astrid Riecken, The Washington Post, November 17, 2021 Uchenna Ndubisi was blown away when she first noticed the “African American” notation on a diagnostic test designed to show doctors how well her kidneys are working. What did her race have to do with the toll lupus was taking on her body? The answer left her more resigned than surprised: an equation used to estimate how well a person’s organs filter waste included a decades-old racist assumption about Black...

By Stephan Bisaha, Photo: jsmith/Getty Images, National Public Radio, November 16, 2021 Charities are always looking for an answer to one big question: What's the best way to help people? Increasingly, the approach they're trying is perhaps the simplest one — just give people money. This has been a trend overseas for more than a decade. The nonprofit GiveDirectly has been providing cash aid across Africa since 2009. But in recent years, more stateside groups have been handing out cash after...

By Matt Barnum, Photo: Youngrae Kim, Chalkbeat, November 15, 2021 Earlier this year, Congress decided to try a remarkably straightforward approach to reduce child poverty: give their families more money. As part of the Biden-backed American Rescue Plan, Congress expanded the child tax credit, which provides cash benefits to most households with children, including some of the country’s poorest families. The IRS has been distributing that money monthly since July. How well has it worked?