Palestinians are justifiably worried that the mandate granted to the United Nations Agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, might be coming to an end. UNRWA’s mission, which has been in effect since 1949, has done more than provide urgent aid and support to millions of refugees. It was also a political platform that protected and preserved the rights of several generations of Palestinians. 

 Though UNRWA was not established as a political or legal platform per se, the context of its mandate was largely political, since Palestinians became refugees as a result of military and political events - the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people by Israel and the latter’s refusal to respect the Right of Return for Palestinians as enshrined in UN resolution 194 (III) of December 11, 1948. 

This workshop will help explain how different types of nonprofit organizations can work together while staying in compliance with the law.

Different types of organizations are increasingly collaborating on lobbying, voter engagement, and other advocacy activities, but they need to be aware of the rules governing organizations with different tax-exempt statuses. If your organization wants to engage in coalition work with multiple types of tax-exempt organizations, this workshop will help explain how different types of nonprofit organizations can work together while staying in compliance with the law.

Participants will learn:

• The different roles of 501(c)(3)s, 501(c)(4)s, unions, and political organizations;

• The federal tax rules affecting how these organizations can work together;

• The legal separations necessary between affiliated organizations, such as funding and fundraising constraints; and

• Permissible joint activities of different types of nonprofits, including election-year activities.

When I ran for mayor of Buffalo, New York, last year, my past-due parking tickets became a major reason for reduced favorability among voters. When Stacy Abrams ran for governor of Georgia in 2018, there was a lot of talk in the mainstream media about how much debt she was in. I share these examples because in general, the working poor do not willfully withhold payment for debts. We are faced with the very real decision between paying often illegitimate debts (like parking tickets and student loans) and feeding our children or paying for life-saving medical treatment for our loved ones.

The latest stab at reviving nuke power is mocked by the actual reactors.

Today 93 are allegedly operable in the US, more than 400 worldwide….including the 15 in Putin’s Ukraine crosshairs, plus four lethal corpses at Chernobyl.

Every atomic reactor is an apocalypse in progress, set to explode at any time from error, terror, age, nature.

Every nuke spews heat, radiation, carbon, gases. They all kill birds, fish, people, eco-systems, the planet. They all create unmanageable wastes, untamable fire, unconscionable inequity, uninsurable danger.

All US reactors are more than 25 years old. They can’t get private insurance. Nobody can guarantee their individual safety.

A dozen-plus earthquake faults could shatter California’s Diablo Canyon, says former NRC site inspector Michael Peck. So could the San Andreas.

Diablo is embrittled, cracked, decayed, under-maintained. Its radiation, heat and chemicals fry the planet and the seascape. Its owner killed eight people in San Bruno with an avoidable gas explosion, then eighty more torching northern California.