By now you know that good citizens of Hong Kong have been peaceably protesting in the streets by the tens of thousands, demanding that the Chinese government (which has controlled Hong Kong since 1997) redress its grievances. For their trouble, these protestors have faced brutality not only at the hands of the police (the usual pepper spray, gas, and unwarranted arrests -- what a shame that has become the "usual") but at the hands of counter-protestors as well. Hong Kong protestors want completely democratic elections, versus the elections the Chinese are planning for them, where the Chinese government gets to veto the candidates if they don't like them. Hong Kong also has one of the highest per-capita incomes on Earth, but also has the largest degree of income inequality among the world's advanced nations, which, as you know, happens when a select few control absurdly high amounts of wealth -- and which a fully democratic Hong Kong might be able to do something about. Hence CREDO helps you tell the Hong Kong government to stop oppressing peaceful protestors. It's really not too much to ask, that a government serve the people it's supposed to serve, instead of serving its current power brokers and their corporate paymasters.
Meanwhile, the EPA is mulling a stronger Risk Management Program for chemical plants, about a year after President Obama issued an Executive Order mandating that all federal agencies update their chemical plant safety regimens. You recall the explosion in West, TX that destroyed three schools and a nursing home and left over a dozen folks dead and 200 injured? And the Elk River chemical spill in West Virginia that left 300,000 good West Virginians without drinking or washing water for over a week? And the recent findings that one in three children go to school within the "vulnerability zone" of a plant making or storing hazardous chemicals? Fact is, chemical corporations can use safer chemicals in their processes and protect their hazardous chemicals more adequately, and anyone who tells you they can't is probably advocating for chemical corporation CEOs. And our government can certainly inspect chemical facilities with more boots on the ground -- and anyone who says they can't is probably a nihilist trying to convince you that government never does anything good, though it's really your government. Both the Center for Effective Government and the Union of Concerned Scientists help you tell the EPA to write the most vigorous rules possible.
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