US NEWS & WORLD REPORT 3/27/17 By Michael Shank President Donald Trump is missing a major market opportunity in loosening fuel economy standards, a direction decided in Detroit last week. Trump, apparently, wants America to miss out on the global growth of energy efficient vehicles. The numbers speak for themselves. […]
JOURNAL NEWS 03/21/17 By Michael Shank America has a dangerous addiction to plastic. If recent trends in New York State are any indication, it’s not going away anytime soon, thanks to multi-million-dollar lobbying by the plastics industry. The recent showdown over plastic bag fees in Albany shows the unwillingness of […]
NEWSWEEK 03/17/17 By Michael Shank and U.S. Congressman Hank Johnson As thousands of Native Americans protested across the country this weekend, led in part by the Standing Rock Sioux, taking the protest to the White House and to Trump Tower, it’s important to remember that Standing Rock was recently a […]
USA TODAY 03/17/17 By Michael Shank Diplomacy and foreign aid are best ways to end terrorist groups. Why is Trump slashing them? President Trump, who promised as a candidate to “bomb the hell out of ISIS,” authorized a military raid in Yemen during his first couple of weeks in office […]
HUFFINGTON POST 03/09/17 By Michael Shank America has a dangerous and deadly addiction to plastic. If recent trends in New York State are any indication, it’s not going away anytime soon, thanks, in part, to multi-million-dollar lobbying by the plastic manufacturing industry. Yet the recent showdown over plastic bag fees […]
US NEWS & WORLD REPORT 03/06/17 By Michael Shank Yemen is now a White House talking point. It was in President Donald Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress last week and there’s speculation of increased American military involvement. While most Americans aren’t tracking the complexities of the civil […]
amNY 02/24/17 By Mark Chiusano Rep. Yvette Clarke’s progressive approach to the town hall chaos around the nation. A town hall in Brooklyn. Some 800 people pack into Union Temple to speak to their congresswoman. At capacity, more constituents are told to go across the street to the Brooklyn Public Library’s […]
THE HILL 02/17/17 By Michael Shank and Danya Hakeem This year is set to witness one the greatest rollbacks of environmental protections in Republican history. Even if Scott Pruitt hadn’t been confirmed this week as the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) administrator, Republicans are already easing the restrictions on coal mining […]
TIME 02/17/17 By Michael Shank and U.S. Congresswoman Yvette Clarke As President Donald Trump’s Cabinet confirmation hearings continue, it’s shocking to see how far the President has deviated from Republican presidential precedent when it comes to selecting his Cabinet. President Richard Nixon, for example, after reading and reacting to the […]
JOURNAL NEWS 02/13/17 By Michael Shank Food and fashion are among the industries contributing to climate change, writer says As climate change becomes more visible, with 2016 as the hottest year ever on record, Peekskill residents, myself included, organized an environmental film series to raise awareness about what we can […]