Senate Republicans Block Electoral Reform – Senate Republicans rejected a broad election reform bill that would have made it easier to vote using national minimum standards and would have imposed additional penalties for electoral corruption. Democratic leaders warn that this bill was only the beginning and are preparing to debate the so-called filibuster rule, which makes minority obstruction possible. José López Zamorano has the details from Washington.
In Oregon, Emergency Protections Urged for Farm Workers Against Heat Waves and Fires- The nation’s farm workers are so vulnerable during heat waves that dozens die each year from exposure to high temperatures. To protect them, the Asunción Valdivia Act has been presented in Congress. Meanwhile, and as intense heat waves exacerbate wildfires, Oregon farmworker advocates are asking Oregon-OSHA, the state’s occupational health and safety agency, to pass emergency rules to protect workers from heat stress and smoke. Ira Cuello Martínez, an environmental policy analyst at Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste in Salem, discusses this topic. You can listen to the full interview in the archives of Línea Abierta from Monday, June 21 at radiobilingue.org.
California Farming Town Shelters Central American Minors – Mendota, an impoverished town in California’s Central Valley, has recently become an emergency home for unaccompanied minors migrating from Central America who are released at the border. Mendota is home to a large population of Central American families that has settled there over the years, drawn by work in the fields. Madi Bolaños, a reporter for the public radio station KVPR and part of the Central Valley News Collaborative, visited the town and brings us the story of a young man who arrived there five years ago.
