Canada iZEV electric car incentive program begins May 1
Canada will provide a $5,000 rebate to electric and plug-in hybrid car buyers called iZEV and goes into effect on May 1.
North & Central America
Johnny Cash and Daisy Bates to replace Confederate and Jim Crow era statues on Capitol Hill
The likenesses of music legend Johnny Cash and civil rights icon Daisy Lee Gatson Bates will appear in the hallways of the U.S. Capitol in marble form, replacing two Confederate figures from the Civil War.
New research suggests MDMA lets PTSD victims form new bonds and memories to overcome trauma
Research from Johns Hopkins University finds that MDMA seems to re-open a window of opportunity for social bonding and rewiring trauma-related faulty connections in the brain.
Arbor Day Foundation launches 100 million tree-planting initiative
The Arbor Day Foundation recently announced its Time for Trees initiative, which aims to plant 100 million trees by 2022.
Inexpensive ‘first-of-its-kind’ device can generate electricity from snowfall
UCLA researchers have developed a first-of-its-kind device that can generate electricity from falling snow. The inexpensive device scientists is small, thin, and flexible like a sheet of plastic.
6,034 Amazon employees demand company climate change plan
“We, the undersigned 6,034* Amazon employees, ask that you adopt the climate plan shareholder resolution and release a company-wide climate plan that incorporates the principles outlined in this letter.”
Morehouse College, the nation’s only black all-male college, will begin admitting transgender students in 2020
“In a rapidly changing world that includes a better understanding of gender identity, we’re proud to expand our admissions policy to consider trans men who want to be part of an institution that has produced some of the greatest leaders in social justice, politics, business, and the arts for more than 150 years,”
In major shift, Mormon Church reverses anti-LGBT policies
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is reversing its controversial 2015 policy that classified people in same-sex marriages as “apostates.” Children of parents who identify as LGBT may now also be blessed as infants and baptized.
Chicago makes history electing Lori Lightfoot as first black woman mayor
Lori Lightfoot, a political newcomer, was elected the first black female mayor of Chicago. Lightfoot, who will also become the first openly gay mayor of the third-largest U.S. city, appealed to voters who are tired of politics as usual.
New York becomes second U.S. state to ban plastic bags
State lawmakers in New York have approved a ban on plastic bags at retail and grocery establishments that would take effect next year as part of the state’s budget.