​On December 27, 2018, during the middle of the government shutdown that continues, the EPA issued a proposed rule change that would revise the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, aka the MATS rule.  This rule put in place by the Clean Air Act of 2018 required air emissions from various places to be monitor and to have harmful substances removed from their exhaust.  During this episode of Lessons from the Screen, we are going to dive into what that all means and how it affects us as well as what we can do about it.  

​EPA will accept comments on the proposed rule for 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. Comments should be identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2018-0794 and may be submitted by one of the following methods.

Online: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and follow the instructions for submitting comments to EPA-HQ-OAR-2018-0794.

Email: Comments may be sent to a-and-r-Docket@epa.gov. Include Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2018-0794 in the subject line of the message.

Mail: Environmental Protection Agency, EPA Docket Center (EPA/DC), Mail Code 28221T, Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2018-0794, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20460.

Fax: Fax your comments to: (202) 566-9744. Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2018-0794. 

Hand/Courier Delivery: EPA Docket Center, Room 3334, EPA WJC West Building, 1301 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20004, Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2018-0794.

​Such deliveries are only accepted during the Docket’s normal hours of operation, and special arrangements should be made for deliveries of boxed information.

​September of last year the master returned with his latest project.  Michael Moore (love him or hate him) has been a very powerful figure politically and socially through his documentaries and this time he was taking aim at what seemed to be the very institutions of Political America.  In this episode of Lessons from the Screen we are going to be diving into Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 11/9.

​On the 21st of December 2018, the First Step Act or S.756 was passed into law.  It was hailed as a landmark passage, one that was desperately needed and that would change the American Justice System for the better making it more equitable and more humane.  While it is just a first step as the name implies, it was treated with such fanfare and such excitement that many thought this was the law to end the discriminatory practices of the Justice System.  We took a few weeks, let that fanfare die down, and studied the text of the law to determine if it really was worth all the excitement.  On this Episode of Lessons from the Screen, we are going to be diving into the First Step Act of 2018.