McDonald’s Beefs up its’ Environmental Policy

Bet you’re used to hearing about how bad McDonald’s stance towards the environment is, about how the corporation razes the rainforest to make room for cattle and creates millions of tons of waste each year. But have you heard the latest? A new McDonald’s restaurant opening in North Carolina on July 14th will have a station to charge your electrical car in the parking lot.

Yup, it’s true. You’ll soon be able to order a burger and charge your car at the same time.
Granted, it’s just one restaurant out of the more than 30,000 McDonald’s around the world. And electric cars probably won’t even be on the roads in any great number until 2011. At this point, it seems more of a symbolic gesture than anything that will impact change.

But you’ve gotta start somewhere, right? Give McDonald’s credit; it’s installing the first charger of its’ kind in the United States. Plus Ric Richards, the owner of the innovative McDonald’s in Cary, North Carolina, has gone even further and constructed the entire building using environmentally-friendly materials. I’d say that’s a step in the right direction.
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Yolanda Clatworthy

Who Says You Can’t Pimp An Electric Ride?

Countless men and women across the country will agree with this one: your first ride was your first love. You probably remember it as junky and cheap, prone to breaking down every morning, but you loved it just the same. Let’s face it: even though it probably guzzled gas like Gatorade and needed to be started just the right way or else it might have blown up, it was still yours. In the near future, 16 year olds will remember the first time they plugged their car in, rather than the first time they filled up the gas tank.

Let’s hear about some electric cars and green jobs, after the jump!
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Steve Romain

Nydria Humphries wants you to Respect Your Vote

Astronauts can see trash in the ocean from space? That’s insane. We have got to get up for our planet, make a stand like this ol’ world deserves. We’re not just gonna talk at you, though; this week we’ll be bringing you info you can use to start tipping the balance from pollution to people power.

This is our world, and we gotta stand up in the greatest tradition of American society; stand up for change when it seems impossible, when all the odds are against us. The world is at stake, and everything that we have is imperiled. There’s never been a more important moment to be on the right side of history!

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Sam Patton

Obama’s 100th Day: Action is the Price of Change

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Heather Box

Too Broke to Go to Work

When people think of New York City, images of the Statue of Liberty, skyscraping penthouses and high paid Wall Streeters come to mind. There’s a side to the city that the tourists never see, such as the struggling worker in Brooklyn who spends three or four hours a day commuting to work, barely scraping by to feed his family. That commute is about to get longer, harder and more expensive.

Due to a $1.3 billion budget gap, the Metropolitan Transit Authority of New York City is planning a widespread cut of services in the outer boroughs - namely lower income areas of Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. Even with these massive service cuts, base subway and bus fares could jump 50%, from $2 to $3 per ride. The Access-A-Ride service, which is used by the elderly and disabled as an alternative, may increase 300% to $6 per ride, hitting those who are the most financially vulnerable where it hurts the most.

New Yorkers aren’t taking this lying down, however. A number of groups around the city, such as the Straphangers Campaign and the Bailout The People movement are actively protesting the service cuts and fare hikes. Today’s Action is a single account of flyering in Union Square, New York and people’s reactions to the MTA’s proposals.

Today’s Artist: Larry Wright

All that Larry Wright needs to show off his incredible drumming is a couple of buckets and a pair of drumsticks. The subways in which he performs are the perfect backdrop to his frenetic, stripped down music, and street musicians like Wright keep New York City vibrant.

The subways of New York are an underground community, another world that travelers enter and exist on their way to wherever they’re going. The culture of music and performance that developed in the NYC subway systems is built upon the passion of artists who pick the masses over massive success. They play for the people.

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Steve Romain