NEW YORK – Every minute of every day, usually without thinking, thousands of New Yorkers reach across the counter at shops and supermarkets and accept a disposable plastic bag. The city’s sanitation department estimates that 10 billion bags a year are tossed in the trash – roughly 19,000 per minute.
Now, city officials are poised to test whether a 5-cent charge can wean New Yorkers from the convenient but environmentally unfriendly sacks.
The City Council approved a bill Thursday that would require most merchants to charge customers at least a nickel for each bag, including those made of paper. Technically, the fee isn’t a tax. Stores will get to keep the money they collect.
The law will go into effect Oct. 1 if, as expected, it is signed by Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has a goal of sending zero waste to landfills by 2030.
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration on Thursday commuted the prison sentences of 58 federal convicts, part of a broader push to revamp the criminal justice system and ease punishments for nonviolent drug offenders.
The people whose prison terms were cut short include 18 who were given life sentences. Most who received clemency are now due for release on Sept. 2, though others will be released over the next two years.
The latest wave – which includes defendants convicted of dealing cocaine, crack and methamphetamine – brings to 306 the total number of inmates whose sentences Obama has commuted, the vast majority for drug crimes. The pace of commutations – along with pardons, which are less common – is expected to increase as the end of Obama’s presidency nears.
WASHINGTON – House Speaker Paul Ryan is refusing to support Donald Trump as the Republican nominee for president, insisting Thursday that the businessman must do more to unify the GOP.
The surprise declaration from Ryan on CNN’s “The Lead” amounted to a stunning rebuke of Trump from the Republican Party’s highest-ranking officeholder.
“I’m just not ready to do that at this point. I’m not there right now,” the Wisconsin Republican said. “And I hope to. And I want to, but I think what is required is that we unify this party.”
In a statement, Trump responded that he isn’t ready to support Ryan’s agenda, either.
Associated Press
