July 08, 2020

Nurses call for immediate PPE production as states run low; How to negotiate for lower rent as prices drop; Newsom issues new fracking permits to Big Oil

1 hour 26 minutes

Nurses in Florida represented by National Nurses United raise their fists during a demonstration protesting unsafe conditions during the Covid-19 pandemic. Photo from NNU.

On this show:

0:08 – Are states running low on Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) again, amid the surge in coronavirus cases? The union National Nurses United is leading calls for states to reimplement closure measures, and for the Trump administration to invoke the Defense Production Act to manufacture needed PPE for frontline healthcare workers risking their safety during the pandemic. We hear from NNU co-president Jean Ross (@NationalNurses).

0:21 – A group of tenants in a rent-controlled building on Genoa Street in Oakland are being evicted during the pandemic under the Ellis Act — and they say it’s retaliation. Reporter Danielle Kaye (@danielledkaye) has the story.

0:34 – Rents in the Bay Area are dropping. How do tenants negotiate for lower rents as the market changes? We take listener calls with Eric Toscano of the Tenant Law Group, based in San Francisco. If you have a tenants’ rights question you’d like us to follow up on, call our off-air voicemail box at 510-306-2371.

1:08 – California’s moratorium on fracking permits quietly ended, and Newsom’s government has been handing out permits to big oil. Environmental activists condemn the decision, and journalists have raised questions about the power of the oil and gas lobby in the Newsom administration. Hollin Kretzmann of the Center for Biological Diversity discusses the permits and advocates’ efforts to force California to end fracking.

1:20 – The Oromo ethnic group in Ethiopia has been facing brutal repression after the latest wave of demonstrations over the killing of musician Haacaaluu Hundeessaa. Some U.S. Ethiopians have also been jailed in the recent protests in Addis Ababa, including residents of Washington State, prompting protests in Seattle. Temesgen Mengesha is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, an Oromo Lutheran congregation in El Cerrito. He talks with us about the history of repression of the Oromo people in Ethiopia, and the mounting daily death toll to violence.

1:34 – “Stop Hate for Profit” — that’s the name of a major Facebook ad boycott led by the NAACP, Sleeping Giants, the Anti-Defamation League and Color of Change, charging that Facebook has failed to act to curb hate and anti-Black racism on its platform, resulting in violence. The civil rights groups are calling for major changes, and the company has so far failed to meet their demands. Advocates met with Facebook leadership yesterday. Our guest Nandini Jammi (@nandoodles) co-founded Sleeping Giants, a social media activism organization, as well as her brand safety consultancy, Check My Ads.

The post Nurses call for immediate PPE production as states run low; How to negotiate for lower rent as prices drop; Newsom issues new fracking permits to Big Oil appeared first on KPFA.

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