TIMES BEACON RECORD NEWSPAPERS
Making Democracy Work: Charging plastics producers for their impact on our communities
by Nancy Marr May 27, 2025
Since the mid-20th century, when mass production of plastics began, they have infiltrated our lives. Their production and incineration release significant greenhouse gases, which contributes to climate change. The fact that plastics resist natural decay makes it difficult to recycle them. Nearly all the plastic ever produced still exists in one form or another, and it is estimated that its production is expected to triple by 2060.
Because they are inexpensive to produce and can be lightweight, the single-use plastics are useful as trash bags, utensils, and household items, and are used by the food and healthcare industries for hygiene, durability and cost effectiveness.
Plastics also pose risks to human health. Recent studies have found microplastics in almost every part of the human body, including breast milk, the placenta, testicles, hearts, livers and kidneys. Although the full effects are still under research, the presence of plastic in our bodies raises serious concerns. Plastics also contain chemicals like bisphenol-A (BPA) and phthalates, which can leach into food and beverages. These disrupt hormones and are linked to health issues such as infertility, obesity, and cancer. Microplastics, formed when larger plastics degrade, are now found in seafood and even drinking water.
A key issue is not how much plastic waste is produced, but how much of it is mismanaged — improperly disposed of, often ending up in nature. Many developing nations lack the infrastructure to properly collect, sort, or recycle plastic, resulting in widespread dumping into the environment. Nigeria (87.5%), India (68.6%), and Indonesia (43.8%) have some of the highest rates of mismanaged waste, while wealthier countries such as the U.S.(5.1%) and the U.K. (6%) perform better, though not ideally.
The United States produces more than any other nation, over 42 million metric tons of plastic waste, largely impacting communities of color and low income communities. New York State produces 6.8 million tons of packaging waste each year. Most of this packaging is sent to landfills, burned in incinerators, or littered in our streets, parks and beaches. Far too much finds its way into our rivers, lakes, and the Atlantic Ocean.
There were hopes that a United Nations global plastics treaty would be finalized by the end of 2024. However, due to resistance, especially from oil-producing companies, it did not happen. Talks are set to continue, but progress will depend on local action.
Since 2020, at least 5 states (California, Montana, Oregon, Minnesota and Maine) have enacted Extended Producer Responsibility legislation to make plastics producers responsible for curbing plastic pollution and paying municipalities for their share of managing the waste. In response, plastics producers have worked to improve their recycling efforts.
As reported in Resource Recycling, Nicole Portley, program leader for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, pointed out “It’s important for producers to remember that the EPR came about as a compromise between industry and anti-plastic advocates, who wanted regulations like product bans.”
In New York State, Assemblymember Deborah J. Glick and Senator Peter Harckham (S1462) have introduced The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act. The bill requires big companies to cut their plastic packaging by 30% over the next twelve years, bans 14 highly toxic chemicals including PFAS, formaldehyde, mercury, lead, vinyl chloride, and bisphenols that are used in packaging, and requires the companies responsible for dealing with the packaging waste to pay the municipalities dealing with it.
A question has been raised about the cost to consumers from the introduction of EPR requirements. Satyajit Bose, Columbia School of Professional Studies, estimates that there would be no more than a maximum increase of $4 per household in monthly grocery costs, while plastic manufacturers claim $40 to $60 more per month. The bills are currently in committee; they will amend the Environmental Conservation Law, passed by the New York State Legislature in 2014, which included Article 27, Plastic Bag Reduction, Reuse and Recycling.
This bill is urgently needed. Long Island is responsible for 1.6 million tons per year of which 205,000 tons go to landfills off Long Island, and 1.4 million tons are sent to waste-to-energy facilities, resulting in 400,000 tons of ash that must be landfilled. The one wise choice everyone agrees with is to reduce our waste stream. This bill does just that.
We need to press the Assembly and Senate and Governor Hochul to sign this bill this year in June to reduce the impact of plastic waste on our communities.
Nancy Marr is Vice-President of the League of Women Voters of Suffolk County, a nonprofit nonpartisan organization that encourages the informed and active participation of citizens in government and influences public policy through education and advocacy. For more information, call 631-862-6860.
View the above article on the TimesBeaconRecord Media website here.
Making Democracy Work: Democracy during detention — A critical step for voting rights
by Clyanna Lightbourn April 18, 2025
In New York State, thousands of eligible citizens are routinely denied access to the ballot—not because of a law, but because of logistical failure and oversight. These are New Yorkers held in local jails—people who have not lost their right to vote under state law but are effectively unable to exercise it. Voter suppression isn’t always loud or explicit; sometimes it happens quietly, buried in bureaucracy, process, and inaction.
Most people in jail are detained pretrial or serving time for a misdemeanor—circumstances that do not result in the loss of voting rights. As of January 2025, over 12,700 people held in New York’s jails were legally unsentenced and likely eligible to vote, yet very few are able to cast a ballot.
Barriers to voting include a lack of internet access, no access to stamps, minimal information about how to register or request an absentee ballot, and limited or no coordination between jails and Boards of Elections. A 2023 League of Women Voters report found that one-third of counties in New York State either have no jail voter access program or couldn’t describe how it worked. These gaps result in ballots not being cast—not because of disinterest, but because of institutional neglect.
In other institutional settings—like nursing homes and veterans’ hospitals—Boards of Elections conduct in-person visits to help residents register and vote. But even those programs vary widely. When it comes to jails, the disparity is sharper.
Despite similar absentee voting eligibility, New York State has no consistent jail-based voter access program, unlike what is required in nursing homes under Election Law § 8-407. There are no regular ombudsmen, no uniform voter education, and no state-enforced protocols for voter registration or ballot return. Examples of jail staff coordinating with election officials to deliver and return absentee ballots are rare and highlight the need for uniformity, not ad-hoc goodwill. That’s not how democracy should work.
The Democracy During Detention Act (S440/A2121) provides a bipartisan, commonsense solution. Sponsored by New York State Senator Zellnor Myrie and New York State Assemblymember Latrice Walker, and backed by dozens of legislative co-sponsors, the bill would ensure that every eligible voter held in a local jail has a fair and equal path to the ballot.
The legislation requires county Boards of Elections to provide at least one method of jail-based voting access—either through in-person absentee ballot collection visits, or by establishing on-site polling places for early voting. These programs would be governed by formal coordination between local election and corrections officials, much like those already in place for nursing homes and hospitals. The bill also guarantees privacy, ensures language access, and affirms voting rights under the New York Voting Rights Act.
This isn’t about changing who can vote. It’s about making sure everyone who is already eligible can actually cast a ballot—because voting rights mean nothing without real-world access.
Civic participation also has broader benefits. Research shows that individuals who vote after incarceration are less likely to be rearrested, and more likely to successfully reintegrate. Engagement builds public safety. Exclusion undermines it.
New York has made progress—restoring voting rights to people on parole, expanding early voting—but we’ve left a glaring gap in our jail system. And that gap has a racial and economic edge: in 2021, 78% of New York’s pretrial jail population was Black or Latinx.
The Democracy During Detention Act is more than a policy update—it’s a test of our values. It draws a clear line in the sand: Do we believe in equal access to democracy, or do we allow systemic neglect to continue disenfranchising thousands of our fellow New Yorkers? This is a moment for lawmakers—and for all of us—to decide what kind of democracy we’re building.
If we believe in a democracy that includes everyone—not just the well-connected or the free—then we must ensure that the right to vote is more than a promise on paper. The Democracy During Detention Act draws a clear line: either we uphold access to the ballot for every eligible New Yorker, or we allow silence and neglect to continue disenfranchising thousands.
This is our moment to choose. Call your lawmakers. Speak out in your community. Join the growing coalition demanding action. Because in a true democracy, no one should lose their voice just because they lost their freedom.
Clyanna Lightbourn is Campaign Director, Democracy During Detention Act for LWVNY. For more information or sources contact Clyanna [at] lwvny.org
View the above article on the TimesBeaconRecord Media website here.
Making Democracy Work: How legislation could improve New York prisons
by Nancy Marr February 15, 2025
New York is home to one of the largest prison populations in the nation. Nine thousand New Yorkers are currently serving life sentences, with 10,000 who have sentences of ten or more years in prison, according to a report issued by The Sentencing Project. Despite overwhelming evidence that incarceration is one of the least effective strategies to improve public safety, New York taxpayers spend three billion dollars a year incarcerating people.
The Center for Community Alternatives (CCA), founded in 1981 by Marsha Weissman and directed since 2015 by David Condliffe, is part of a statewide network of direct services, advocacy and organizing groups and directly impacted people and their families, founded with the belief that solutions to poverty, addiction and violence rest in communities, not incarceration. In addition to working with prisoners and their families to provide court support and advocacy, sentencing mitigation and re-entry advocacy, it supports the creation of rehabilitative programs that support re-entry of incarcerated people into their communities. It has worked with New York State legislators to write bills that advocate for reform of drug laws expanding earned time, allowing a second look at a prisoner’s sentence, and an end to mandatory minimum sentencing.
Three pieces of legislation that have been introduced and are in committee would support prisoners’ reintegration and re-entry: The Earned Time Act, introduced by Jeremy Cooney (S.774) and Anna Kelles (A.1128), and now in the Corrections Committee, would expand eligibility for merit time earned for participating in vocational, educational, and rehabilitative programs.
New York is behind other states where people can gain earned time allowances, and where earned time programming and job-training has resulted in a notable reduction in recidivism. The Act would expand the access to educational programs for persons who are eligible, offered by many colleges as online and in- person classes to students. (During the 1990’s New York State slashed programs for incarcerated people by eliminating financial aid for them, and decimating college programs held in prison.) By incentivizing good behavior and program participation, the Earned Time Act would provide correctional offices with tools to help reduce conflict within the prison.
The Second Look Act, submitted by Julia Salazar (S.321) and Latrice Walker (A.531), now in the Codes Committee, would allow incarcerated persons to petition for re-sentencing if they have already served a certain amount of time, permitting a new judge to revisit and possibly reduce sentences for prisoners after they have served ten years, or over half of their sentences (if their sentence is more than a decade).
The law would create a presumption that resentencing will be granted if the person is over 55 years old or was under 25 years old at the time the crime occurred. There are over 8,000 people in New York prisons today over the age of 50 and 44% of New Yorkers in state prisons who struggle with chronic health conditions. Those who are serving lengthy sentences have no opportunity to demonstrate to a judge that they have changed after years in prison, or that, given changed laws and norms, the sentence is no longer appropriate.
Decades-long prison terms have become the norm in New York. Every year, 1,000 people are sentenced to ten or more years in prison, and 5,000 people have been there for fifteen years or longer.
The Marvin Mayfield Act, sponsored by Zellnor Myrie (S.6471A) and Gregory Meeks (A.2036), now in the Codes Committee, would eliminate the mandatory minimum sentences for prisons, jail, and probation. They began in the 1970’s for drug offenders with the Rockefeller Drug Laws but were expanded to cover non-drug-related cases; they contribute to the pleas whereby prisoners forfeit their rights to a trial. The law would allow judges to consider the individual factors and mitigating circumstances in a case before sentencing.
The CCA is looking for support for these initiatives to come out of committee by June to be considered by the Governor for this year’s budget. For more information, visit CommunitiesNotCagesNY.org or CommunityAlternatives.org.
Nancy Marr is Vice-President of the League of Women Voters of Suffolk County, a nonprofit nonpartisan organization that encourages the informed and active participation of citizens in government and influences public policy through education and advocacy.
View the above article on the TimesBeaconRecord Media website here.
Making Democracy Work: Empowering voters and defending our democracy
by Judie Gorenstein March 14, 2025
The League of Women Voters (LWV) was founded in 1920, the year that the 19th amendment was passed, giving women throughout the country the right to vote. A major goal at that time was to educate women to be informed voters.
Over the years, the LWV has remained a grassroots, nonpartisan organization, but its mission evolved to encouraging informed and active participation of citizens in government and to influence public policy through education and advocacy. Now, 105 years later, it is more important than ever that the LWV “Empowers Voters and Defends Our Democracy.”
Long Island is served by eight Leagues: four in Suffolk County (Brookhaven, Huntington, Smithtown, and The Hamptons, Shelter Island and the North Fork) and four in Nassau County (Central Nassau, East Nassau, Port Washington/Manhasset, and Great Neck). Although the communities they reach may be socially and economically diverse and the size of each League varies, they have the same core values and mission.
Working together through regional zoom meetings builds strength. Last month’s meeting began with their regional liaison stating “Our democracy is being tested like never before. We acknowledge problems but focus on solutions. Otherwise we become powerless.”
Strong Leagues with engaged members are needed to accomplish goals. Leadership, membership, and orientation strategies are shared. Membership increases as a result of not only what is happening all around us but also by increased visibility in the community via street and volunteer fairs, networking with diverse groups, and generally meeting people where they are. The Leagues then use orientation meetings to not only educate new members on the values, policies and activities of the League, but to engage these new members, survey their interests and get them involved with hands-on experience.
Leagues will continue to register and educate voters and get out the vote. But this year, all our Leagues are committed to doing whatever they can to make certain the Safeguard American Elections (SAVE) Act does not pass. Rather than safeguarding our elections, the SAVE Act silences voters by making it harder if not impossible for millions of eligible voters to register or reregister to vote. It undermines our election integrity based on lies about who is voting.
There is NO evidence of widespread non-citizen voting in federal or state elections. Newly registered voters may be asked to show identification when they vote the first time. The New York State voter registration form already clearly states that it is a crime to procure a false registration or to furnish false information to the Board of Elections. You must affirm that you are a citizen and either enter your DMV driver’s license number or last 4 digits of your social security number.
Under the SAVE Act this information would no longer be sufficient, and online or mail-in registration would not be valid. New voters, or voters with registration changes (e.g. new address) would have to physically go to their County Board of Elections with proof of citizenship, primarily an original birth certificate or passport. Married women who have changed their name would not only need their original birth certificate, but also their marriage certificate. The SAVE Act thus puts an undue burden on voters of color, rural voters, tribal voters, military members and married women.
Would organizations like the LWV even be able to hold voter registration drives in high schools, colleges and the community? We know our democracy works best when everyone participates. The SAVE Act works to do exactly THE OPPOSITE. Millions of active voters would be unable to satisfy the SAVE Act’s requirements. There are about 12 million American citizens who cast a ballot in 2020 but who would be functionally unable to register to vote if the SAVE Act were passed.
The League of Women Voters continues to monitor and oppose the SAVE Act. This bill is being fast-tracked in the House of Representatives. Should it pass both houses of Congress and make it to the president’s desk he is certain to sign it. Leagues all across the country are networking with other organizations to oppose the SAVE Act; educating their community and calling their representatives in Congress. Enfranchising voters is a core principle of the LWV. Defending and protecting our democracy is what we do!
For more information and data, go to Brennan Center for Justice at NYU: The SAVE Act Would Hurt Americans Who Actively Participate in Elections at https://www.brennancenter.org
Judie Gorenstein has been voter service chair of LWV of Suffolk County and past president of LWV of New York State, and is currently on LWV Huntington’s Leadership Team.
View the above article on the TimesBeaconRecord Media website here.
Making Democracy Work: How legislation could improve New York prisons
by Nancy Marr February 15, 2025
New York is home to one of the largest prison populations in the nation. Nine thousand New Yorkers are currently serving life sentences, with 10,000 who have sentences of ten or more years in prison, according to a report issued by The Sentencing Project. Despite overwhelming evidence that incarceration is one of the least effective strategies to improve public safety, New York taxpayers spend three billion dollars a year incarcerating people.
The Center for Community Alternatives (CCA), founded in 1981 by Marsha Weissman and directed since 2015 by David Condliffe, is part of a statewide network of direct services, advocacy and organizing groups and directly impacted people and their families, founded with the belief that solutions to poverty, addiction and violence rest in communities, not incarceration. In addition to working with prisoners and their families to provide court support and advocacy, sentencing mitigation and re-entry advocacy, it supports the creation of rehabilitative programs that support re-entry of incarcerated people into their communities. It has worked with New York State legislators to write bills that advocate for reform of drug laws expanding earned time, allowing a second look at a prisoner’s sentence, and an end to mandatory minimum sentencing.
Three pieces of legislation that have been introduced and are in committee would support prisoners’ reintegration and re-entry: The Earned Time Act, introduced by Jeremy Cooney (S.774) and Anna Kelles (A.1128), and now in the Corrections Committee, would expand eligibility for merit time earned for participating in vocational, educational, and rehabilitative programs.
New York is behind other states where people can gain earned time allowances, and where earned time programming and job-training has resulted in a notable reduction in recidivism. The Act would expand the access to educational programs for persons who are eligible, offered by many colleges as online and in- person classes to students. (During the 1990’s New York State slashed programs for incarcerated people by eliminating financial aid for them, and decimating college programs held in prison.) By incentivizing good behavior and program participation, the Earned Time Act would provide correctional offices with tools to help reduce conflict within the prison.
The Second Look Act, submitted by Julia Salazar (S.321) and Latrice Walker (A.531), now in the Codes Committee, would allow incarcerated persons to petition for re-sentencing if they have already served a certain amount of time, permitting a new judge to revisit and possibly reduce sentences for prisoners after they have served ten years, or over half of their sentences (if their sentence is more than a decade).
The law would create a presumption that resentencing will be granted if the person is over 55 years old or was under 25 years old at the time the crime occurred. There are over 8,000 people in New York prisons today over the age of 50 and 44% of New Yorkers in state prisons who struggle with chronic health conditions. Those who are serving lengthy sentences have no opportunity to demonstrate to a judge that they have changed after years in prison, or that, given changed laws and norms, the sentence is no longer appropriate.
Decades-long prison terms have become the norm in New York. Every year, 1,000 people are sentenced to ten or more years in prison, and 5,000 people have been there for fifteen years or longer.
The Marvin Mayfield Act, sponsored by Zellnor Myrie (S.6471A) and Gregory Meeks (A.2036), now in the Codes Committee, would eliminate the mandatory minimum sentences for prisons, jail, and probation. They began in the 1970’s for drug offenders with the Rockefeller Drug Laws but were expanded to cover non-drug-related cases; they contribute to the pleas whereby prisoners forfeit their rights to a trial. The law would allow judges to consider the individual factors and mitigating circumstances in a case before sentencing.
The CCA is looking for support for these initiatives to come out of committee by June to be considered by the Governor for this year’s budget. For more information, visit CommunitiesNotCagesNY.org or CommunityAlternatives.org.
Nancy Marr is Vice-President of the League of Women Voters of Suffolk County, a nonprofit nonpartisan organization that encourages the informed and active participation of citizens in government and influences public policy through education and advocacy.
View the above article on the TimesBeaconRecord Media website here.
Making Democracy Work: The Journey to Becoming a U.S. Citizen Involves Several Key Steps
by Karen Anderson January 16, 2025
The journey to become an American citizen begins by meeting general requirements. You must be 18 or older to file Form N-400, Application for Naturalization, and be a lawful permanent resident (have a “Green Card”). You must prove continuous permanent residence in the U.S. for at least 5 years, or 3 years if married to a U.S. citizen, and have lived at least 3 months in your state of residence. The general filing fee is $765. There can be other fees depending on the applicants situation. Applicants who have served in the military can have the fee waived. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (www.uscis.gov) has more information on other requirements and documentation needed. This can be a difficult process to wade through and sometimes requires the services of an immigration lawyer, which can add an enormous expense and burden.
USCIS officers interview applicants to test their ability to read, write, speak and understand English. During the interview the applicants are asked personal questions about their background. The speaking test consists of photographs of everyday activities. The applicant must explain what is happening in the photos. Their knowledge of U.S. history and government is also tested. USCIS provides materials to study and prepare for the test. There are vocabulary lists focusing on history and civics topics. The civics test will have 10 questions taken from the list of 100 study questions, such as: What is the supreme law of the land?, or Who wrote The Declaration of Independence? The applicant must answer six out of 10 questions correctly.
The Naturalization Ceremony is the last joyous step. It’s the culmination of a long and difficult process filled with red tape, bureaucracy, hard work and determination. The pandemic caused a backlog of applications with the shutdowns and shuttered immigration offices. But now large ceremonies at parks, arenas and courthouses are making a comeback. Each month hundreds of immigrants from many countries across the world take the Oath of Allegiance - giving up allegiance to their country of origin, promising to defend and protect the United States and its Constitution against all enemies, bear arms on behalf of the U.S. and perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by law.
Most immigrants come to America with the hope of achieving the American dream for themselves and their families. The judges presiding over the ceremonies often relate stories of immigrant ancestors who took a similar journey and made it possible for them to attain their own dreams. All Americans can relate to this and understand how challenging and life changing an experience that is. The applicants are reminded that once they take the oath they are American citizens with all the rights, responsibilities, freedoms and privileges of every American. The happy smiles of the new citizens, and the friends and family members there to support and celebrate with them, makes it an inspiring occasion.
The League of Women Voters often attend these ceremonies to welcome the new citizens and assist them in registering to vote. This is a privilege and responsibility the new citizens cherish, as all Americans should. The League works diligently to register all eligible citizens and provides information to educate voters. Getting out the vote is a priority as the League believes everyone should make their voice heard. Voting is an American right (and responsibility) envied around the world. The League works to help voters understand and make an informed choice in the voting booth.
Last September 17 was Constitution Day, Citizenship Day andNational Voter Registration Day. The Smithtown League and Five Towns College collaborated to register students. All students were quizzed about the Constitution and tried to answer basic civics questions that aspiring citizens are asked (and could win food or candy for participating!). The League also provided information about early voting and propositions appearing on the ballot. It was a great day to celebrate our democracy with enthusiastic young people who we hope will be responsible voters and civically engaged as adults.
Karen Anderson is a member of the leadership team of the Smithtown League of Women Voters, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that encourages the informed and active participation of citizens in government and influences public policy through education and advocacy. For more information, visit https//my.lwv.org/new-york/suffolk-county.
View the above article on the TimesBeaconRecord Media website here.
