Scholars Strategy Network: Why Maine needs L.D. 2
This bill would require the Legislature to assess the potential racial impact, however unintended, of any act the legislature passes.
By Steven E. Barkan
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“Systemic racism” refers to the complex interaction of societal institutions and embedded normative practices that produce racial inequality by disadvantaging Black Americans, Latinx, Asian, and Indigenous peoples.
We hear this term often these days, and rightly so. Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic began, people of color across the nation have been contracting and dying from the virus at higher rates than white people. The killing of George Floyd last summer reminded Americans everywhere that Black people, and others of color, are also more likely to be killed or maimed by police and arrested for a wide range of offenses.
Editorial Roundup: New England
Boston Globe. March 4, 2021.
Editorial: Winter is almost over. Almost.
Positive signs abound in the state’s fight against the coronavirus. But it would be premature to let our guard down.
America is entering a dangerous phase of the coronavirus crisis: jumping the gun.
Yes, three different vaccines against the disease have been approved. Millions of the most high-risk Americans have been inoculated. Both new infections and deaths are trending down, and statistical models are promising. The weather will soon improve, which should reduce infections.
But that doesn’t mean the country, or Massachusetts, should declare victory quite yet.
Editorial Roundup: New England washingtontimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from washingtontimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Lagging education, health care and other needs that disproportionately affect the state s low-income and nonwhite residents could begin to be solved with a $400 million annual boost in revenue, achieved through state tax codes changes, a wide-ranging group of organizations says.
A group of 13 organizations including the AFL-CIO, Maine Council on Aging, and others, told the state s legislators in a letter this week that the move would not only help fund Maine’s COVID-19 recovery, but also begin to undo the damage of years of underfunded programs that are having an exponential effect, including increasing hunger and homelessness.
The letter, sent to every member of the House and Senate, comes as lawmakers get ready to consider several bills that would raise revenue, including changing the tax code for higher incomes; increasing taxes on corporate profits of more than $3.5 million; closing corporate tax loopholes, including the offshore tax haven loophole; and strengthening t