Baltimore will be the next Detroit

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

2015 Baltimore Inner Harbor HDR (22)

Here we go again. When do people stand up and fight back?

Starting this week, 25,000 households in Baltimore will suddenly lose their access to water for owing bills of $250 or more, with very little notice given and no public hearings.

Rita, a renter in Southeast Baltimore who asked to remain anonymous for this story in order to protect her two children from being taken away, told ThinkProgress she was served with a shutoff notice last week. Maryland law states that a child that is “neglected” may be taken out of his or her home and put into foster care. One characteristic of “neglect” as defined by the Maryland Department of Human Resources is a child with “consistently poor hygiene” that is “un-bathed, [having] unwashed or matted hair, noticeable body odor.”

“I love my kids, and I’d do anything for them,” Rita told ThinkProgress. “But if I turn on the shower or the sink and there’s no water, how can I give them a bath?”

Food and Water Watch researcher Mary Grant explained that making water unavailable to residents is a major health risk, and that if Baltimore were to deprive 25,000 households of water, diseases would have a high chance of propagating throughout densely-populated neighborhoods.

“There is direct risk associated with lack of access to water,” Grant told ThinkProgress. “When you lose your water service, you lose water to wash your hands to flush the toilet, there is risk of disease spreading.”

City officials like Department of Public Works director Rudy Chow claim that residents using water without paying are to blame for the $40 million in overdue water bills. In fact, the Baltimore Sun found more than a third of the unpaid bills stem from just 369 businesses, who owe $15 million in revenue, while government offices and nonprofits have outstanding water bills to the tune of $10 million. One of those businesses, RG Steel (now bankrupt) owes $7 million in delinquent water bills all by itself.

“It’s interesting that the city isn’t targeting those businesses first,” Grant said.

According to Grant, Baltimore has steadily increased water usage rates over the past three years by a total of 42 percent, once another 11 percent rate increase takes effect this July. The Baltimore Sun reported that the public works department elected to raise the rates in 2013, when 19,500 customers owed $29.5 million. While the city has pointed out that there are payment plans available for residents behind on water bills, Grant said the help is far too small to make any real difference for overdue households.

“There is low-income assistance, but it’s only a one-time payment of $161,” Grant said.

Approximately half of Baltimore’s 1.8 million residents rent their homes, and many are counting on property owners to promptly pay water bills. Even if a landlord is not making payments, Baltimore’s water department refuses to open new water accounts for any

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~ susie ~ 2 Comments

IRELAND-US-DIPLOMACY-NATO-OSCE

Gee, I wonder why so many people are working so hard to make Hillary Clinton seem unlikeable:

Research commissioned by the Barbara Lee Family Foundation, which seeks to advance the electoral prospects of female candidates, has found that a double bind still exists. While male politicians can attract voters’ support by appearing strong and decisive, even when they are not perceived as being particularly likeable, women still have to prove to the world they are both qualified for office and likeable.

“Voters are perfectly willing to vote for a male executive they think is qualified but do not like. However, they will not vote for a woman they find unlikeable even if she is qualified,” the researchers concluded.

This is very frustrating for women activists, because male progressives insist this “just isn’t true” — right after they list all the personal attributes they dislike so much about her.

NC wants to prohibit med students from learning how to do abortions

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

Pat McElraft
Rep. Pat McElraft cares so much about the wee babies.

And also want to prevent anyone who isn’t a board-certified OB-GYN from doing abortions. Because they care so very, very much about the medical qualifications of whoever is performing the still-perfectly-legal procedure. You know, Wisconsin gets a lot of press, but North Carolina is the Koch Brothers’ favorite wingnut incubator:

RALEIGH, N.C. — Doctors working for the medical schools at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill or East Carolina University would be prohibited from performing elective abortions under a bill filed Wednesday.

House Bill 465 would also require women seeking abortions to speak with a doctor or other “qualified health care provider” three days before undergoing the procedure, tripling the state’s current 24-hour waiting period.

“We do not want state funds being used for abortions,” Rep. Pat McElraft, R-Carteret, saidWednesday. “Our constituents have made that loud and clear from all over the state of North Carolina.”

McElraft is one of a quartet of Republican women who filed the measure. She is joined by Reps. Jacqueline Schaffer, R-Mecklenbrug, Rena Turner, R-Iredell, and Susan Martin, R-Wilson.

McElraft said there is data to show that the 24-hour waiting period had led to fewer abortions. Making that wait three days, she said, could lead to even fewer abortions.

“There’s no effort here to try to restrict a woman’s right to have an abortion,” she said. “What we’re trying to do is make her care competent.”

Although McElraft pitched the bill as a measure that would help protect women as well as curb the use of taxpayer money, the topic of abortion is always a volatile one. An abortion measure passed in 2013 sparked protests at the Legislative Building and garnered national attention.

The bill would “prohibit two of the finest medical schools in the the country from providing doctors with the training necessary to provide safe abortion care,” said Melissa Reed, a vice president for public policy for Planned Parenthood, a women’s health care nonprofit known for its advocacy for abortion rights.

Reed said a third provision of the bill, requiring that any physician performing an abortion be ob-gyn, rather than just any doctor, ignores current practice and creates more of a barrier than is necessary.

“The politicians supporting this bill completely disregard the complex decisions women and their families face every day,” she said. “It is shameful that North Carolina legislators continue to sacrifice women’s health in their ideological attempts to take this state backwards.”

The House measure is the second abortion measure filed at the General Assembly this year. Senate Bill 604 would place more requirements on clinics where abortions are performed.