Legislative Today

03/16/2023

The Rights of Nature in Equador

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=757284689088305&id=100044203430980&mibextid=qC1gEa

Intag Valley in Ecuador, a haven for biodiversity, is under threat - sign the open letter today to show your support for local communities and the rights of nature. https://www.rewild.org/support-intag-valley

Hearings to determine the future of Intag Valley, where local communities are fighting a large-scale copper mining project that threatens their home, have been repeatedly postponed.

We implore that judges from the Imbabura provincial court honor their commitment to visit Intag, to hear testimony from the people who rely on the area for their freshwater and livelihoods, and to witness first hand the essence of this irreplaceable place, home to unique and threatened wildlife including the Longnose Harlequin Toad, once considered extinct until its remarkable rediscovery.

We will continue to stand with the communities of Intag until the rights of nature, as outlined in the Ecuadorian constitution, have been upheld.

El valle de Íntag en Ecuador, un paraíso para la biodiversidad, está amenazado. Firma hoy la carta abierta para mostrar tu apoyo a las comunidades locales y a los derechos de la naturaleza.

Las audiencias para determinar el futuro del Valle de Intag, donde las comunidades locales están luchando contra un proyecto de minería de cobre a gran escala que amenaza su hogar, se han pospuesto en repetidas ocasiones.

Imploramos a los jueces de la Corte Provincial de Imbabura que cumplan con su compromiso de visitar Intag, que escuchen los testimonios de las personas que dependen de la zona para provision de agua dulce y mantenimiento de sus medios de subsistencia, y sean testigos de primera mano de la importancia de este lugar irremplazable, hogar de una vida silvestre única y amenazada, incluido la rana arlequín de nariz larga, considerada extinto hasta su redescubrimiento.

Seguiremos apoyando a las comunidades de Íntag hasta que se respeten los derechos de la naturaleza consagrados en la Constitución ecuatoriana.



Photo by Lucas Bustamante

03/13/2023

My thanks to Iuliia and Orhan who paid me a visit during my constituency surgeries last week. Iuliia’s father and brother are both on the front lines defending Ukraine as part of the 59th Motorized Brigade, and I was deeply honoured by this gift of their commemorative calendar

03/13/2023

At a Washington dinner event, Mike Pence criticized the president he served under as well as Republicans who are minimizing the Capitol riot.

03/11/2023

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Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has spent his life fighting for American democracy and the liberties guaranteed by the Constitution. He has battled against corporate greed and government corruption to protect our children, our health, our livelihoods, our environment, and above all, our freedom.

03/09/2023

Harriet Tubman Quotes | Black History | Maryland Black History | Harriet Tubman | Harriet Tubman Facts

03/06/2023

03/03/2023

03/03/2023

Population declines are likely for 65% of the continent's plants and wildlife by the year 2100, according to a recent study. Here's what is at stake.

03/02/2023

Watkins garnered national attention when she stole the show during the 2020 DNC during a speech delivered from the Hidden Valley neighborhood in north Charlotte.

02/24/2023

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is fighting for her political survival, seeking to finish in the top two in Tuesday's crowded primary and advance to an April runoff in her quest for a second term.

02/24/2023

02/24/2023

Thanks to the incredible leadership of Ecuador’s provincial government of Morono Santiago and four Indigenous nationalities, the country has established one of the largest nature reserves in the Amazon region this month. The Tarímiat Pujutaí Nuṉka Reserve (which translates to ‘Territory for Well-being’ in the Shuar Indigenous language) covers more than 3 million acres of the Andean and Amazonian forests in Ecuador.

The new reserve is in the Morona Santiago province, which includes the territories of the Shuar and Achuar Indigenous communities, who have guarded these forests for thousands of years. Its creation recognizes the territorial rights of the Shaur and Achuar peoples and allows them to protect and manage the area according to their collective traditions, while supporting sustainable livelihoods.
The reserve overlaps with the Cordillera de Kutukú, Cordillera del Condor, Co**ha and Territorio Achuar Key Biodiversity Areas, places that are critical to the planet’s persistence of biodiversity. The region is home to more than 1,000 bird species, the Near Threatened Jaguar, and the Vulnerable Spectacled Bear and Lowland Tapir. It is also one of the country’s wildlands with the most plant species found nowhere else in the world.

In addition to the Shuar and Achuar communities and the provincial government of Morona Santiago, this victory was made possible by the technical assistance of and Culture International, and the financial support of Amazon Fund, Wyss Foundation, Art into Acres, Bezos Earth Fund, ’s International Climate and Forest Initiative - NICFI, NORAD, and .

Photo by Naturaleza and Cultura Internacional NCI

02/20/2023

President Carter Enters Hospice.

Secret Service Chief of Communications and spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, comments on former President Jimmy Carter's health as he enters hospice care.

02/17/2023

02/17/2023

RHETT TO GOResidential, Health-based, Employment, and Entrepreneurial Transition Training “RHETT TO GO”A TOWN HALL MEETINGWITH CONSTANCE LOV JOHNSON, US SENA...

02/17/2023

So… I knew that the success of my studio would affect all the property values around it. But make no mistake the seniors on fixed incomes around the studio will not lose their homes because of past due or rising taxes… no sir!!

We ain’t doing that to our legacy.

Thank you Mayor Dickens and Invest Atlanta for caring about our folks.

God bless

02/17/2023

Honesty and Integrity are vital and essential to our economic sustainability. The transactions we make through financial institutions online, through the internet, and social media, must be as safe and trustworthy as shopping in person using cash to determine the potential for profitability.

We must track the online pirates and swiftly imprison them to sustain our economy.

~Constance Lov Johnson, Fashion Show Dinner, LLC

02/16/2023

A Black History Moment: The Toxic Train Derailment in Ohio of February 2023

The Ohio train derailment by Norfolk Southern on Friday, Feb. 3, is the Iceberg before the collapse, and is a tragic reminder of the contributions of Black patentors and engineers throughout history and the omission of Black entrepreneurs in our modern day economy. Black businesses are being “economically depleted” throughout the United States.

The contributions made by Black entrepreneurs to the railroads of the world are worthy of honoring in every celebration of the railroad industry.

ELIJAH MCCOY

“The U.S. Patent and Trademark office in Detroit bears the name of Elijah McCoy, a pioneering African-American inventor. McCoy was born in the mid-1840s, nearly 170 years before the office opened. McCoy had more than 50 patents to his name. He’s best known for inventing an automatic lubricator that impacted speed and durability.”

GRANVILLE WOODS

“Granville Woods is also credited with inventing the steam boiler furnace and the automatic air brake system that is used to slow and stop trains.”

ANDREW BEARD

For many years, train cars had to be connected manually. Railroad workers would stand between cars as they slowly came together and couple them by hand. This scary task resulted in lost fingers and limbs, and many people were crushed by the cars. But Andrew Beard developed a much better way. In 1897, Beard patented an automatic coupler with horizontal jaws that ensured cars would lock together when they came into contact.”

There are numerous others that date from the 1500’s through 2023. These inventions brought billions to the American economy, and today Black engineers are omitted from board positions and leadership in the railroad corporations. When you remove a group of people by culture and race that founded a larger percentage of the operations of an industry that industry will suffer catastrophic setbacks, accidents, irregularities, and economic depletions. A culture brings with it key rituals, processes, and systems that are not revealed in the filed patents. What if Japan’s technology market omitted the United States? We would suffer lapses in all areas of our economy.

Today, there are numerous derailments, bridges falling, and poorly designed road mappings. It is because our healthy economic competition has removed the systematic, mathematic, and structural designs of most of the transportation systems. There is a national effort underway to promote one race or culture of people over another, rather than balancing the outlays of contracts to sustain all people and communities of the nation. In the process of promoting by race we lose the quality, functionality, and stability of many of our stable and safe federal, state, and local operations. All government entities and namely agencies must focus on balancing the cultural economies of America.

Let’s get back to hiring by qualifications, contracting with equity and quotas, and honoring the heroes that invested in inventions that made our nation the greatest. We must never forget the shoulders we stand on. God knows they live on, and we are guided through our business developments today. Let’s be systematic and build upon what our inventors have already succeeded in creating for our nation’s industries. We must carry on, not start anew.

Constance Lov Johnson
US Senate for California
2024
Facebook.com/ConstanceLovJohnsonforUSSenate
[email protected]
704-371-9471

References:

US Patent and Trade Office
https://www.michiganradio.org/news/2020-02-10/elijah-mccoy-african-american-inventor-from-michigan-changed-railroad-industry #:~:text=The%20U.S.%20Patent%20and%20Trademark,people%20excited%20about%20becoming%20inventors.

Direct Connect
https://blog.directauto.com/news-events/ways-african-american-inventors-transformed-transportation/

National Inventory Hall of Fame
https://www.invent.org/inductees/andrew-j-beard

02/15/2023

She was vaulted to stardom after wearing a deerskin bikini for the film “One Million Years B.C.”

02/15/2023

$100 million in grants now available to Clean California!

Since launching in 2021, Caltrans HQ has removed enough trash to fill 400 Olympic swimming pools while transforming public spaces & creating jobs! This $$ will help communities clean up litter while creating neighborhood spaces.