This week we celebrated Earth Day, an annual reminder that protecting our planet is not just an environmental challenge, it is fundamental to the future of our city. Everything we do will be impacted by the rising costs of extreme weather and our response to it.

This week my office released a series of reports, each designed to help us strengthen the physical systems and infrastructure that keep our city green – like trees.

Listen to “New York City Comptroller Mark Levine” on Spreaker.On Tuesday, the Parks Department announced a laudable goal to increase natural street and parks coverings to 30% of the City by 2040. But while tree planting has been funded through capital budget initiatives, maintenance and upkeep is an operational cost that has not kept pace. Compounding the issue is the lack of a dedicated funding stream specifically for tree maintenance.

In a new report, New York City’s Living Infrastructure, my office outlined ways for the City to realize its plan to expand tree canopies in the five boroughs, including generating more revenue from Parks Department concessions to fund their care.

We also have opportunities to improve our organics waste management, particularly in schools. The Zero Waste Schools Program was launched in 2016 with the goal of diverting all recyclable and compostable waste that our schools produce. What started as a pilot of 100 schools has grown to include all schools, which are now all required to separate compostable waste from regular garbage.

But while every school participates, a new review by my office has found that only about one-third of waste is currently collected and diverted from landfills.

As Comptroller, I will continue to advance a disciplined, data driven approach to climate risk and opportunities, one that protects the pensions systems, strengthens infrastructure, and ensures New York City remains resilient and competitive for generations to come.Sincerely,

#MarkLevine #DrJaneGoodall

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We speak to Jill Gonzalez of Water hub, Dr. Larry Gluck and Austin G.-S. Tang also share their thoughts. A Good News time was had by all.

To find the best cities for professional- and college-basketball fans, WalletHub compared more than 290 of the largest cities across 21 key metrics, ranging from the performance level of each city’s NBA and NCAA Division 1 basketball teams to ticket prices to stadium accessibility.

Best Cities for Basketball Fans
Worst Cities for Basketball Fans
1. Los Angeles, CA
283. Santa Clara, CA
2. Boston, MA
284. Berkeley, CA
3. Salt Lake City, UT
285. Evansville, IN
4. Philadelphia, PA
286. Wilmington, NC
5. San Francisco, CA
287. Daytona Beach, FL
6. Miami, FL
288. New Britain, CT
7. San Antonio, TX
289. Montgomery, AL
8. Houston, TX
290. Pocatello, ID
9. Washington, DC
291. St. George, UT
10. Oklahoma City, OK
292. Stephenville, TX

Best vs. Worst

Charlotte, North Carolina, has the lowest average ticket price for an NBA game, $32.05, which is 3.9 times less expensive than in San Francisco, the city with the highest at $125.43.

The Houston Rockets have the highest performance level among NBA teams, 68.34 percent, which is 2.3 times better than that of the New York Knicks, the team with the lowest at 29.31 percent.

The Gonzaga Bulldogs have the highest performance level among college basketball teams, 89.87 percent, which is 8.3 times better than that of the Chicago State Cougars, the team with the lowest at 10.85 percent.

Miami has the highest fan engagement for NBA teams, 43.40, which is 30.6 times higher than in New York, the city with the lowest at 1.42.

To view the full report and your city’s rank, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/best-worst-cities-for-basketball-fans/11034 (https://wallethub.com/edu/best-worst-cities-for-basketball-fans/11034)

https://wallethub.com/edu/best-worst-cities-for-basketball-fans/11034

#best #worst #fans #basketball #cities #sports #football #covid #pandemic #nba #uniforms #teams #revenues #traditions #stadiums #tickets #costs #college #ncaa #winners

The post 2021’s Best & Worst Cities for Basketball Fans – WalletHub Study appeared first on Good News!.

• Why the U.S. needs to raise the age for social security benefits
• How mandatory military and social service could cut down on student loan debt
• Why regulating too-big-to-fail banks will stop damage to jobs and small businesses
• Why “Right to Die” is important for improving healthcare costs and efficiencies

“Five Easy Theses sets out key issues of public policy easy to identify in concept but long unresolved in practice. Stone proposes sensible approaches to breaking the long-standing political deadlock. The specific measures to deal with budgetary balance, income inequality, public education, healthcare, and financial reform should provide a guide for constructive debate as we choose our next president.”
— Paul A. Volcker, Chairman of the Federal Reserve (1979-1987)
Current Chairman of the Volcker Alliance

At a time of political gridlock in Washington, Americans are eager to end infighting and find solutions.

FIVE EASY THESES: Commonsense Solutions to America’s Greatest Economic Challenges, is an urgent call to action to all of us and our leaders to find solutions to five of our most pressing economic and domestic public policy issues: Fiscal Balance, Inequality, Healthcare, Education, and Financial Sector Reform.

Highly praised by leading authorities in each of these five areas and from both sides of the political aisle including Paul Volcker, Edward O. Wilson, Atul Gawande, FIVE EASY THESES relies on straightforward common sense to liberate the public discourse from partisanship and focus it instead on what might really work to solve the economic problems most directly impacting our lives today.
James M. Stone, the founder, Chairman and Chief Executive of the Plymouth Rock Group of companies, former Massachusetts Insurance Commissioner, and former Chairman and Commissioner of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, argues that it is time for the electorate to challenge the deadlocked status quo and pressure our political leaders in both parties to stop running away from the issues that really matter.

This book is not just for policy wonks but for anyone worried about their rising healthcare costs, the future of their Social Security and Medicare, the effectiveness of education to prepare their children, and how their prosperity might be affected by income inequality and recklessness in the financial sector.
In FIVE EASY THESES, Stone presents a researched analysis of each sector, offering the context needed to understand what got us to where we are, and proposes the potential solutions that will lead us on the right path. These include:

Fiscal Balance
Stone identifies the worst loopholes and sources of waste in today’s tax policy. The federal government should stop making commitments it has no plans to fund. This problem is most severe with respect to our Social Security promises to the next generation of elders. Congress should cease to offer expensive tax breaks that serve no useful policy purpose. The most wastefully extravagant of these tax expenditures is the deduction available to corporations and individuals for payment of interest on their debts. The Social Security system can be secured by ceasing to automatically expand benefits as life expectancies rise. The corporate and personal interest deduction should be flat-out repealed.

Income Inequality
The greatest threat to traditional American values today is the drift toward an aristocracy of wealth. It is harmful that the fruits of our recent economic growth have virtually all been taken by top 0.1% of the population. To remedy this, and restore the economic strength of the middle class while maintaining a safety net for those in need, we must take steps that may sound as radical as the income tax sounded a hundred years ago but are just as necessary. We must begin to tax unrealized gains resulting from investment asset appreciation, and we must stop cold the leakage from inheritance taxes brought about through trust loopholes and excessive exemptions.

Education
Our system of grade school education and our private-public balance of higher education are in need of major repair. The grade school curriculum is poorly serving those who will not be earning a four-year college degree. The costs of college are undermining the benefits of higher education to all but the wealthiest students. Our nation ranks no better than mediocre by international measures of educational attainment. A universal national service program would offer a powerful set of solutions to the educational shortcomings, while providing other social and economic benefits as an extra dividend. The book lays out an 8-point plan and a bold post-secondary program to make education more effective and affordable for both college-bound and work-bound young people.

Healthcare
The United States spends about 18 percent of its GNP on healthcare, while the rest of the developed world averages a little more than half that. Yet, our people experience worse health outcomes than those in other nations. The extra spending exceeds a trillion dollars a year, a vast amount you could put to many better uses. Only within the framework of a single-payer, single-negotiator, single-regulator system can we provide rationality, sensible incentives, and cost-effective administration. The gain to the public of a trillion dollars a year would be the largest available boost to the economy within reach today, and proper incentives would improve America’s health outcomes

Financial Sector Reform
With first-hand experience as a financial regulator, Stone shows how an out-of-control gargantuan banking, derivatives and hedge fund sector can be curbed to make finance serve, rather than dominate, America’s real commercial sector. The emergence of unmanageably large and complex banks whose failures would bring all of us down, the creation of hedge funds whose security and business practices remain beyond regulatory purview, and the rise of derivatives traded with nearly unlimited leverage, all contribute to the financial sector’s enrichment at the rest of the economy’s expense. The overall scale of the financial sector is out of proportion to its economic value. The current situation is at least as hazardous as before the crash. Banks should be downsized. Hedge funds should cease to exist outside of the successful and safe regulatory structure applied to mutual funds. And derivatives trading should be backed up by reserves that would reduce its volume to a tiny fraction of today’s unimaginable numbers.

While these theses are by no means “easy”, together they have the potential to break through political paralysis and transform the future prospects of America’s next generation. FIVE EASY THESES is the book that is needed now to inspire people on both sides of the political aisle to demand the solutions and leadership that it will take to set our country on the right path.

About the Author:
James (Jim) Stone is the founder, Chairman and CEO of the Plymouth Rock group of companies. He began his career by teaching economics, after earning a Ph.D. in economics at Harvard. He served as Massachusetts Insurance Commissioner from 1975 to 1979 and then as Chairman and Commissioner of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission for four years. On his return from Washington, he founded Plymouth Rock.

He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Boston Globe, and currently serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Global Post, a web-based international news service. Jim is a member of the Board of Directors of two non-profit organizations, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Management Sciences for Health, for which he serves as Chairman of the Board. Jim has served as an advisor to governments in three developing countries, and he has authored a book and numerous articles on insurance and finance. Jim is married, the father of two children, and lives in Boston.

FIVE EASY THESES
Commonsense Solutions to America’s Greatest Economic Challenges
By James M. Stone

The post FIVE EASY THESES: Commonsense Solutions to America’s Greatest Economic Challenges, by James M. Stone. appeared first on Good News!.

In 2010, Jada and Will gave up their birthdays for charity: water and asked their fans to join them. More than 4,000 people entered their birthday contest, and together they raised $789,000.
We sent 100% of the money to fund water project costs in the field.

Last week, Jada and Will took the top fundraisers from their contest with them to Ethiopia to see how their hard work changed the lives of the people living here.

Join the Smiths. Pledge to give up your next birthday.

Pledge to ask for donations to clean water projects instead of birthday gifts this year. 100% of the money you raise goes to build water projects and when the work is complete, we’ll prove each project you helped fund with photos and GPS coordinates. You’ll see how your birthday changed lives.

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