A Plan to Keep Microbeads Out of Lake Michigan

A state representative in Michigan has introduced a bill to ban the manufacturing and sale of products that contain microbeads, the tiny pieces of plastic often used as exfoliants in beauty and hygiene products. Microbeads are already banned in some products at the federal level, but Rep. Laurie Pohutsky, a Democrat, said that the state needs to take action because the microbeads are so harmful to Michigan’s waterways. “Their purpose is not as important as the risk that they’re posing by just creating an exorbitant amount of plastic waste that’s just being sent down the drain,” said Pohutsky. She also wants to ensure that a prohibition is in place at the state level, should the Trump administration choose to repeal the Obama-era federal ban. “Being shackled, essentially, to these federal rules can be very problematic, which is why it’s important to make sure that we’re taking the initiative here at the state level,” she said. Scientists estimate that 8 trillion microbeads enter the country's water every day, and the microplastics don’t dissolve easily in water, lasting for over 50 years. Dr. Anthony Andrady, a plastics expert, said that “except for a small amount that has been incinerated, every bit of plastic manufactured in the world for the last fifty years or so still remains. It’s somewhere in the environment.” Knowing this, some companies, including L’Oreal and Johnson & Johnson, agreed to phase out use of the beads before the federal ban went into effect. At least 15 states have already banned microbeads, with some of the largest being California, Washington, New York, and Illinois. Many of the states surrounding Michigan, especially those that border the Great Lakes, have also banned the beads. Microbeads have also been banned in several other countries, including the U.K., because scientists fear they are entering oceans, lakes, and rivers at alarming rates. While they make up only a small percentage of plastic in waterways, microbeads that wash down drains cannot be filtered out by wastewater treatment plants—and then are often mistaken for food by fish, introducing potential toxins into the food chain. When humans eat fish tainted with microplastics, the beads can pose serious risks for people with gastrointestinal illnesses. [Michigan Public Radio; CNN; Daily Commercial]

50% FEMALE LEGISLATURE | A Florida state senator is proposing a constitutional amendment that would prohibit the state legislature from voting on a bill that would restrict access to abortion unless at least half the members of the legislature are women. Men hold a supermajority of both chambers, representing 70% of the House and Senate. “Seeing what state legislatures across the country have done, I believe it is time to stand up and fight to ensure women have access to comprehensive health care and family planning. No vote about us without us,” said state Sen. Lauren Book, the Democrat who proposed the amendment. More than a dozen abortion bills were filed in Florida during the 2019 session, although none made it to a floor vote. But some state representatives have already said they intend to file abortion restrictions during the 2020 session. Book’s proposal will also be reviewed during the 2020 session.The proposal have to be approved by the legislature before voters would have the chance to consider it as a constitutional amendment. [Tallahassee Democrat; New York Daily News]

CONVERSION THERAPY | North Carolina this week became the first state in the South to ban state funding for LGBTQ conversion therapy, a practice that has been widely decried as inhumane and ineffective. Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, signed an executive order, which noted that suicide rates are particularly high among the nearly 700,000 people nationwide who have undergone this type of therapy, which attempt to convert people to heterosexuality. “The American Medical Association has concluded that ‘it is clinically and ethically inappropriate for health care providers to direct mental or behavioral health interventions … with a prescriptive goal aimed at achieving a fixed developmental outcome of a child's or adolescents sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression,’” the order stated. Cooper tweeted that “conversion therapy has been shown to pose serious health risks, and we should be protecting all of our children, including those who identify as LGBTQ, instead of subjecting them to a dangerous practice." The bill does not ban private organizations from engaging in the practice, but does restrict state funding to them. NC Values Coalition, a Christian advocacy group, criticized the move, calling it “one of the most blatant attacks of this governor on the First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion.” But Casey Pick, a lawyer for the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth advocacy group, said that it’s possible that no conversion therapy practice in the state is even receiving any funds in the first place. “We know there are conversion therapy practitioners, licensed and unlicensed, active across North Carolina today. While it is difficult to precisely track state funds flowing to this dangerous activity, because conversion therapists are often deceptive in how they describe their practices, we know that the Governor’s order sends a clear message that any such funding is an inappropriate use of North Carolina’s taxpayer dollars,” Pick said. [NBC News; Raleigh News & Observer]

BALLOT INITIATIVES | Residents of Idaho are packing town hall meetings to express their displeasure with currently shelved proposals that would have limited citizen-led ballot initiatives. Two bills that passed the state legislature this session (but was eventually vetoed by Gov. Brad Little) would have increased the number of signatures required to get on the ballot and decreased the amount of time organizers had to acquire them. Retired Idaho Supreme Court Chief Justice Jim Jones has been touring the state, speaking in opposition to any changes to the process. "[It’s] completely unreasonable. Under our Constitution, the people are the source of government power. They have the constitutional right to amend, revoke or change government at any time. How can they do it if all roads to power lead through the Legislature?” he said. State representatives pushed the change on the basis that ballot initiatives do not provide enough vetting of legislation. Reclaim Idaho executive director Rebecca Schroeder said that the changes came only after voters approved expanding the Medicaid health insurance program by ballot initiative. “This is a constitutional right we have cherished for more than a hundred years. It is a lever of power that is available to all Idahoans and we want to keep it that way,” Schroeder said. [Idaho Public News Service; Spokane Public Radio; KLEW TV]

OBAMA LIBRARY | President Barack Obama selected a site on the south side of Chicago for his presidential library, a move that the city cheered, but which now has local residents afraid of displacement and rising housing costs. The $500 million center will be built in Jackson Park, a largely black neighborhood near where Obama lived before becoming president. Obama has said that the center will become a youth leadership hub that will attract new businesses and around 800,000 visitors per year, but some residents say that he is forgetting the people who elected him. Jeannette Taylor, an alderwoman on the Chicago City Council, is now sponsoring an ordinance calling for protections within a two mile radius of the library. The ordinance would require that 30% of the area’s housing to be affordable, that buildings for sale first be offered to current tenants, and that a community trust fund would help residents with property taxes that may rise as the value of their homes increase. "It is morally wrong to get investment in a community that's long overdue investment and then to displace the very people who have been dealing with disinvestment. It is a conversation that should have been had way before this, way before the library,” Taylor said. The Obama Foundation has not responded yet to the proposed ordinance. [NBC Chicago]