News

The New York Times offered a stark assessment of New York City's preparedness for serious flooding, which would have a crippling impact on its 520 miles of coast. In the article, executive director Eddie Bautista of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, Inc., an RBF grantee, highlighted the urgency of preparing industrial areas on the waterfront, where many low-income residents live.

New York City's Office of Environmental Remediation has published a series of videos on brownfields reclamation and remediation. Cleaning Up NYC is a four-part video series about these previously developed urban sites that have been affected by environmental contamination limiting their future uses and often falling into disuse.

Doreen Wang, program assistant for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund’s New York City and Southern China programs, reflects on her experience of discovering that “those random, fenced in strips of land in New York City, that that have been empty and abandoned for years” were brownfields.

Advocates working toward the establishment of a regional commission (RECOM) to identify and disclose facts about war crimes that occurred in the Balkans during the 1990s, met with European Union ambassadors in Belgrade, Serbia on June 21, 2012. Maja Mićić of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights, an RBF grantee, represented the coalition for RECOM.

At Rio+20, innovative and determined leaders committed to advancing climate change solutions outside the bureaucratic process, according to Michael Northrop, program director of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund's Sustainable Development program. In a blog entry for the Huffington Post, he highlights some of the positive outcomes of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, which took place June 20–22, 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Vice President for Programs Elizabeth Campbell was elected chair of the Winrock International board of directors at its May 7 meeting. Winrock International is a nonprofit organization that works nationally and globally to empower disadvantaged people, stimulate economic development, and promote sustainable use of natural resources. Ms. Campbell has served on the Winrock International board since 2006, most recently as vice chair since May 2009.

Seventy percent of the 2012 primary ads aired on television were negative, according to analysis released by the Wesleyan Media Project, an RBF grantee. In 2008, only nine percent were negative during the same part of the election cycle. The surge of negative ads correlates to the rise in the number of ads sponsored by interest groups; in 2008, 97 percent of ads came from candidates, while this year, 60 percent were sponsored by super PACs.

Clean economic growth has the potential to raise GDP contributions to $142.7 billion in the United States' West Coast region by 2020, growing clean economy jobs by 200 percent over current numbers, according to a report published by Globe Advisors with RBF grantee The Center for Climate Strategies. The three key sectors with the highest potential for job growth are energy efficiency and green building, environmental protection and resource management, and clean transportation.

Civic Engagement: The Next Chapter sheds light on the critical role human service organizations play in strengthening democracy in the United States by developing and supporting an engaged and active citizenry. The report was released by the Alliance for Children and Families, an RBF grantee, and its sister organization United Neighborhood Centers of America.

The Center for Political Accountability has reached a major milestone, as 100 companies have committed to its framework for political transparency and accountability. During this 2012 proxy season, 12 additional companies have adopted corporate disclosure of political spending, including Halliburton, one of the country's largest oil field service companies, and supermarket chain Safeway.