1,800 cookies, 30 cakes and 500 cupcakes among the items

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Gotta Dance by Miss Amy on Saturday hosted a cookie and dessert stroll, and nine “pop up shop” vendors, all selling Valentine’s Day-themed items. Proceeds from the event will go to Pat Levandowski, an Albion elementary teacher recently diagnosed with breast cancer.

This group is pictured at a table with merchandise to raise awareness about breast cancer. They are from left: Tina Page, Amy Zaccaglino, Stephanie Rustay, Katie Rustay and Amy Luft.

Amy Luft puts some of the desserts in a box for Andrea Neal and her daughters, Kasey and Adelynn.

Amy Luft and her friend Amy Zaccaglino baked and decorated 1,800 cookies, 500 cupcakes and 30 cakes, with the proceeds going to Levandowski.

There was also many baskets to be raffled off in one of the dance studio rooms.

Cole Schmitt was one of the nine pop up vendors. He makes frames, shadow boxes and other items out of repurposed wood.

Upcoming 2-day tourney is named for Kirby, an RIT student who was killed in a car accident

The Albion Soccer Club is using this logo to promote the Ben Kirby Memorial Tournament.

ALBION – A two-day indoor soccer tournament later this month will honor Ben Kirby, a long-time Albion soccer player whose family has been dedicated to the program at Albion.

Ben Kirby

Kirby was a student at the Rochester Institute of Technology when he died in a car accident on Nov. 6, 2017, on Route 531 in the Town of Gates. He was 21 at the time, in his senior year majoring in software development.

The Ben Kirby Memorial Soccer Tournament will be Feb. 22-23. There will be 72 teams competing in nine different divisions.

Cole Schmitt, the tournament director, expects about 600 players, from elementary, middle and high school levels, as well as an open division for adults.

The tournament will be at the school district using the gyms. The Albion Soccer Club organizes the event. The Soccer Club wanted to name the tournament in honor of Kirby, who played youth soccer for Albion and also on the school teams.

His older brother Aaron also was a key defensive player for Albion many years. Ben and Aaron’s parents, Dennis and Wendy Kirby, also have been active volunteers for the Soccer Club, working in concessions, even after their kids graduated. Mrs. Kirby always could be counted on to have homemade cookies for the players after a game, Schmitt said.

“The family has been so prevalent in the soccer community,” Schmitt said. “They have given so much to the program and we wanted to recognize that.”

Bower and Sobieraski headed for June 25 Primary

ALBION – None of the candidates for sheriff for Orleans County gained enough votes today for the Orleans County Republican Party endorsement.

The candidates – incumbent Randy Bower and challenger Brett Sobieraski – needed a super majority of support, at least two-thirds for the endorsement.

Voting was done by secret ballot, and the results weren’t released, except to say neither of the two reached the 66.7 percent threshold.

Brett Sobieraski speaks during his campaign announcement for sheriff on Jan. 27 in Holley.

Sobieraski, a Rochester Police Department sergeant, took the result as a victory because Bower, the current sheriff, won’t have the endorsement. Party officials also are freed to support whichever candidate they want. If there had been an endorsed candidate, the party would have been duty-bound to back that candidate through the petition process and with fundraising.

“I take it as great news,” Sobieraski said at Tillman’s Village Inn, where the Republican Party Committee met for about three hours. “It levels the playing field to whoever resonates the most with the public.”

Sobieraski heads a narcotics team in Rochester. He also is an endurance athlete who has swam across Lake Ontario and done many long distance runs, including for 50 hours straight last summer along the Erie Canal towpath.

He compared the election to another endurance challenge.

“This is an ultra-distance race I’m in,” he said.

Sobieraski said a stepped up law enforcement effort, targeting drug dealers, would reduce the opioid epidemic in the county.

Bower is seeking a second term for sheriff. He missed the Republican endorsement in 2015, when the committee backed Tom Drennan. Bower forced a primary and won.

Bower touted a record of accomplishment during his presentation to the committee. He and Sobieraski each were allowed to give a five-minute speech.

Bower noted an increased law enforcement presence in the rural areas of the county, so much that Lyndonville and Kendall school districts each are paying the county $100,000 to have a deputy assigned to the districts as a school resource officer.

Randy Bower speaks to local high school students during a leadership forum last March.

Bower previously worked as a county dispatcher in the Public Safety Building. He wanted state police cars to be included in dispatch and that is now happening. The DEC conservation officers also are expected to be added soon.

The county has expanded animal control services and is having those officers trained as peace officers. The Civil Division has increased expectations to promptly process orders of conviction.

Bower has also pushed to expand services to fight the opioid epidemic, including a treatment program in the county jail. The federal government is funding that program with GCASA providing the treatment.

Bower said he has strengthened many partnerships locally with churches, Mental Health providers, and the state and federal government to assist people with addictions.

“We’ve met the goals I set out I do and we’ve kept our budget flat through all of these partnerships,” Bower said this afternoon.

Bower this past June received a national award for his work to implement several new initiatives in the county, including expanded substance abuse and mental health services for inmates in the Orleans County Jail. He was honored at the National Sheriffs’ Association Conference in New Orleans with a MAGNUS Leadership Award.

The candidates can start getting signatures for their petitions on Feb. 26. They need a minimum of 543 signatures from registered Republicans in the county. Those petitions are due in April.

Incumbent county legislators are endorsed, but not Tyler Allport

The 80-member Republican committee also endorsed the six incumbents seeking re-election to two-year terms. They include Lynne Johnson of Lyndonville, Bill Eick of Shelby, Skip Draper of Medina, Don Allport of Gaines, Ken DeRoller of Kendall and John DeFilipps of Clarendon.

Tyler Allport, the son of Don Allport, asked for the committee’s support so he could challenge Fred Miller of Albion for a district that includes the towns of Albion and Gaines. Miller is the only Democrat on the seven-member Legislature.

Allport didn’t reach the two-thirds threshold for an endorsement. A Republican official said some of the committee members were uncomfortable with a father and son serving on the Legislature together. Tyler Allport just finished his first year on the Gaines Town Board. The Republican Party two years ago didn’t run a candidate against Miller.

Allport can still run as a Republican if he submits petitions signed by enough registered Republicans.

ALBION – The Bonfire at Bullard winter event has been cancelled for today due to the small amount of snow.

The event has been rescheduled for Feb. 23, with the same time and event schedule.

ALBION – The costs are going up 30 percent next school year to transport Albion students on buses.

School officials say rising minimum wage is the main reason for the increase by Student Transportation of America (Ridge Road Express), the district’s transportation provider the past 30 years.

For many years, Albion would just renew the contract each year with STA at a cost of living rate. But STA wasn’t willing to do that for next school year. The contract was re-bid, and STA came back with a proposal for a 30 percent increase. (Another company also submitted a proposal that was about double STA’s bid.)

Under Andrew Cuomo, who is starting his ninth year as governor, the minimum wage in Orleans County has gone from $7.25 to $11.10 this year. In 2020 it will be $11.80 and then $12.50 in 2021.

Student Transportation of America submitted the four low bids for the following contracts: $1,199,928 for the main student contract; $923,612 for the out-of-district contract; $105,000 for the student charter contract; and $97,740 for the summer school contract.

The out-of-district contract includes busing students with disabilities to schools in Rochester, Buffalo, Lockport and other sites outside of the county.

The higher minimum wage has pushed up the personnel costs for drivers and aides on the buses.

State aid covers about 90 percent of the transportation so the increase won’t be a direct hit to Albion school taxpayers.

Shawn Liddle, the district’s assistant superintendent of business, said that even with the increase Albion’s transportation costs are lower than similar-size districts.

Under the new contract, Albion will spend $1,094 per pupil for transportation costs. A nearby similar-size district spends $1,443 per pupil, Liddle said.

Group will consider Bower or Sobieraski for sheriff, candidates for county legislator

ALBION – The 80 members of the Orleans County Republican Committee will meet today to consider endorsements for county positions, including sheriff and seven county legislators.

Randy Bower, the current sheriff, is being challenged by Brett Sobieraski of Kent, a sergeant with the Rochester Police Department, to lead the Orleans County Sheriff’s Office.

Bower was elected in 2015, winning a contentious election over Tom Drennan. Both sought to succeed Scott Hess, who retired after 2015.

The Republican Committee that year endorsed Drennan, and Bower forced a primary and topped Drennan for the Republican in a razor-thin race.

Sobieraski ran with Drennan and would have served as his undersheriff if Drennan won the election.

There is a chance the committee won’t make an endorsement today because the candidate now needs to get two-thirds or 66.7 percent of the committee’s weighted vote.

The committee will also hear from seven candidates for county legislator. Tyler Allport, a current Gaines town councilman and son of legislator Don Allport, is seeking the endorsement to challenge Fred Miller, the only Democrat on the Legislature. Miller is well liked by the other legislators, so much that Republicans didn’t run a candidate against him in 2017. He represents a district that includes the towns of Albion and Gaines.

The other Republican legislators are seeking re-election to two-year terms and include Lynne Johnson of Lyndonville, Bill Eick of Shelby, Skip Draper of Medina, Don Allport of Gaines, Ken DeRoller of Kendall and John DeFilipps of Clarendon.

The meeting today is at Tillman’s Village Inn. The committee is also expected to accept the resignation of Ed Morgan, who is stepping down as GOP chairman. Skip Draper, the current first vice chairman, will be acting chairman.

“Overlooked Orleans” – Vol. 4, No. 4

Frederick Douglass

As we celebrate Black History Month in February, I was researching local African American families in Orleans County and attempting to assemble an understanding of this particular topic in local history. Without a doubt, it is an area that requires deeper research and is indicative of larger gaps in our understanding of how history was traditionally recorded; ideas of power and disparity. I thought it pertinent to recall some early pieces of abolitionist history in our area.

In 2015, the Orleans Renaissance Group erected a historic marker in Medina to commemorate the site of an address delivered by Frederick Douglass entitled “We Are Not Yet Quite Free,” on August 3, 1869. As the marker notes, a large crowd traveled from across New York to hear the renowned abolitionist speak; the engagement was focused on celebrating the 30th anniversary of emancipation in the British West Indies.

This particular event was not the first time that Douglass spoke in Orleans County. Four years earlier on October 2, 1865, Douglass spoke at Bent’s Hall on the subject of Lincoln’s assassination and its lessons. As Douglass so eloquently spoke, “Some of our friends seem to think our emancipation complete and our claims upon them at an end. A greater mistake could hardly be made. The colored people of the United States are still the victims of special and peculiar hardships, abuses and oppressions, and we still need time, labor and favorable events to work out our perfect deliverance.”

Combing through issues of The North Star, published by Douglass in Rochester, we find that men and women traveled throughout the area lecturing on the antislavery cause. John S. Jacobs, the brother of abolitionist lecturer, reformer, and escaped slave Harriet Jacobs, visited Orleans County in March and April of 1849. Upon the completion of his lecture circuit, he addressed a lengthy letter to Frederick Douglass which appeared in The North Star on April 20, 1849. The words expressed by Jacobs reflect poorly on our area’s willingness to lend an ear to the abolitionist cause.

On March 19, 1849, Jacobs arrived at Clarendon and spoke to a small audience at the Universalist Church, followed by a visit the next day at “Southbarr,” or South Barre as we would call it. While attending a religious meeting held in the local school house, Jacobs asked the Rev. Albert H. Gaston of the Presbyterian Church if he could speak to the congregation at Barre Center. Gaston noted that a revival was taking place and that the “introduction of the subject of Slavery, Peace, Temperance, or anything calculated to draw off their minds from the importance of getting religion,” was unacceptable. Jacobs notes that a man referred to as Mr. O. T. Burns agreed with Gaston, stating that he “knew that we (abolitionists) said some hard things of slaveholders that they did not deserve; he said they were kind and hospitable.”

Trips to Pine Hill, Oakfield, and Barre followed before a visit to Albion on March 24th. Jacobs notes that no effort was made to arrange a meeting and that the Court House was “the only public building that is not barred against the cause of the oppressed,” a building which was “newly painted.” A deacon in the Presbyterian Church attempted to arrange for use of the building for a lecture, but the Rev. William McHarg objected. The deacon in turn referred Jacobs to Eagle Harbor where he “would find friends and an antislavery church.” He spoke to a small group that had assembled for morning worship – muddy streets made it impossible to travel by foot.

This trip was followed by a stop at West Gaines and then Johnson’s Creek, where Jacobs was required to pay fifty cents to the local church for the privilege of opening the building for a lecture. Other lectures followed at Ridgeway Corners, Lyndonville, and Medina, the latter having a large gathering of pro-Zachary Taylor Whigs, much to the chagrin of the visitor. After attempts to gather a crowd at Gaines and Albion, he returned to the Methodist Church at Eagle Harbor on April 7th where he spoke to a large, disorderly crowd made up of canal boatmen “whose highest idea of manliness seemed to be disturbance.” His final stop at Holley on the 8th of April was met by a Presbyterian minister who kindly waived an evening meeting so that Jacobs would have the benefit of a full house.

He concluded the letter by writing, “At no time during my laboring in the cause as a lecturer, have I found so few friends, as on the present occasion. In some of these towns, it has been more than a year since the slaves of this land have had anyone to tell of their wrongs.”

Over the coming years, multiple visits by William J. Watkins, Charles Lenox Remond, and Frederick Douglass to communities throughout Orleans County gave rise to changing mentalities on the disease of slavery.

Theresa Norton

ELBA – A mother and her son who were killed in a car accident on Feb. 2 in Elba will be remembered with a vigil at the crash site on Sunday.

The vigil will be at 5 p.m. for Theresa Norton, 53, and her son, Thomas, 22. Family friend Kamryn Nickel urges family and friends to attend the vigil and light a candle in their memory. Nickel said she will bring the candles for the vigil.

Thomas Norton

A GoFundMe on-line fundraiser also has been established to assist the family during this difficult time. Karen Zok sent up the GoFundMe and said Theresa’s husband Roger was in intensive care at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester for several weeks prior to the accident in Elba.

Teresa Norton was driving a 2008 Suzuki northbound with her son at about 1:30 p.m. on Saturday in Elba. State Police say Norton lost control on the snow-covered roadway and slide sideways into the path of a 2011 Chevrolet pickup truck. The Chevrolet struck the passenger side of the Suzuki.

The Nortons were both declared deceased at the collision scene by Karen Lang, Genesee County coroner. The accident happened on Route 98 between Edgerton Road and Batavia Elba Townline Road.

Contributed Photo – A happy group of Albion coaches and swimmers celebrate the Purple Eagles earning the Section VI Class C co-championship this evening in competition held at City Honors.

Taking first place in five events, Albion earned co-champion honors with Frewsburg at the Section VI Class C swim championships held this evening at City Honors.

Albion and Frewsburg finished the competition with identical scores of 286 points.

Matt Kovaleski was a double winner in the 50 Freestyle and 100 Breaststroke and Sam Sanchez captured the 100 Butterfly for Albion as Harrison Brown added a second place finish in the 100 Free.

Kovaleski set a new school record time of 1:04.8 in the Breaststroke as did Sanchez in the Butterfly with a time of :55.6.

The Purple Eagles also took first place honors in the 200 Medley Relay with the foursome of Thomas Furmanski, Kovaleski, Sanchez and Ryan Krenning and in the 400 Free Relay with the quartet of Sanchez, Brown, Kovaleski and Chase Froman.

“It’s pretty amazing what they did this evening,” said Coach Carlos Burroughs. “Everyone did their part.”

Medina got second place finishes by Hunter Heil in the 100 Backstroke and Ray Paull in the 100 Breaststroke. Heil and Paull also teamed up with Isaac Pace and August Pietrafesa to take second in the 200 Medley Relay.

Ben Franklin, Sally Ride, King Tut among the featured personalities

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Brianna Trejo portrays Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor during a living wax museum at the Ronald L. Sodoma Elementary School today. Sotomayor was confirmed as Supreme Court justice in August 2009. She is the first Hispanic and Latina justice on the nation’s highest court.

Students in Cheryl Rightmyer’s and Shani Faraci’s classes did the presentations on about 40 famous people, most of them esteemed Americans. There were a few people portrayed from outside the U.S., including King Tut, Queen Elizabeth, Shakespeare, Anne Frank, Jesus and some others.

The students also helped make their costumes and brought along props to highlight their character.

The students would sit still almost like statues. After someone pressed a button, the students came to life and portrayed an influential person, either in the past or present. This is the first year the fourth-graders have tried the wax museum. Cheryl Rightmyer, one of the teachers, said she was impressed with the students, how they took on the roles of the characters and built their confidence in delivering a public presentation.

Nicholas Luft is Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Franklin was a leading author, politician, inventor, civic activist and statesman. As a scientist, he made many discoveries and theories regarding electricity. As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals and the Franklin stove.

Brittany Lewis portrays George Washington Carver, an American agricultural scientist and inventor who is best known for his work with peanuts. While a professor at Tuskegee Institute, Carver developed techniques to improve soils depleted by repeated plantings of cotton. He wanted poor farmers to grow alternative crops, such as peanuts and sweet potatoes, as a source of their own food and to improve their quality of life.

Loralei Gailie is Sally Ride, an astronaut, physicist and engineer. She joined NASA in 1978 and became the first American woman in space in 1983.

Albion parents, school staff and teachers gather round Yaritza Fernandez Perez to hear her portray Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate.

Analiah Figueroa Fuentes picked Julia Child, an American chef, author and television personality. She is recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public with her cookbook and television programs.

Kamryn Simmons is Gloria Steinem, a feminist, journalist and political activist. She became a nationally recognized leader for the American feminist movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Photo by Tom Rivers: Michael Bonnewell greets students after the final school bell today at about 2:20 p.m. Bonnewell is filling in as principal while the district looks to hire an interim for the remainder of the school year.

ALBION – The school district’s superintendent is spending the school days out of the district office and at the high school as the principal.

Michael Bonnewell has been serving as principal since Jan. 14. Matthew Peterson left Albion to start as principal at Oakfield-Alabama Central School. That school is closer to Peterson’s home.

Albion is looking to hire an interim principal for the rest of the school year with a new permanent replacement to start in July. The search for the next permanent principal will start in March.

Until then, Bonnewell is doing two demanding jobs. He said he enjoys being in the school with the 550 students in grades 9 through 12. He high-fived many of them when they headed out of school today after the final bell of the day at 2:20 p.m.

“I love being with the kids,” he said today.

He usually stops by the district office before getting the high school around 7 a.m. He is back at the district office at 3, and often works late into the evening.

Bonnewell also is available throughout the day when he in the principal’s role if there is an issue for him to handle as superintendent.

He might be doing the two jobs for a while. The potential interim candidates for principal are retired and many are spending the winter in Florida or don’t want to return to full-time work.

Bonnewell said the district isn’t rushing to have an interim principal in place.

“We have to have the right person who is appropriate and beneficial to our school,” he said. “The principal needs to support kids and teachers and make sure the building operates as a benefit to kids.”

Bonnewell is in his ninth year as Albion superintendent. Before Albion he worked at the Schroon Lake school district in the Adirondacks. That district only has about 200 students. Bonnewell was the district’s superintendent, K-12 principal and also served as the business administrator.

Before Schroon Lake, he was principal of Honeoye Middle-High School.

Bonnewell said he has enjoyed getting to know many of the Albion High School students better the past month.

“Our students are vibrant and caring, and being with them reminds me how privileged I am to work with them each day,” he said in a letter to parents.

Press Release, Lyndonville Central School

LYNDONVILLE – Lyndonville L.A. Webber Middle-High School is ranked No. 36 among upstate NY high schools for its graduation rate in June 2018.

The top 50 ranking is according to data recently released by the New York State Education Department for 2018 graduation rates. Lyndonville’s graduation rate was 96 percent in June 2018, more than 15 points higher than the state average.

The district also annually receives high marks on several surveys for school safety and student support.

“This ranking is credit to our teachers, counselors, and administration who continually to work closely with our students and families to ensure their success,” said Jason Smith, Superintendent of Schools.

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – This pine tree toppled at about 10 a.m. on Caroline Street in Albion today. High winds have taken down several trees, including that landed up against a house on Taylor Road in Clarendon.

Dawn Voorhees of 310 Caroline St. had just put a flag out on her front porch when the pine tree fell. It pulled the electric and cable wires off her house. She was thankful the tree didn’t make a direct hit on her house or porch.

National Grid reports that 493 customers in Orleans County have had their electricity knocked out due to the high winds. That’s out of 19,423 National Grid customers in Orleans. The company is estimating power will be restored at 3:15 p.m.

The county is under a high wind warning until 5 p.m., with some gusts expected to hit 60 miles per hour.

Here is another photo of the pine tree that fell on Caroline Street in Albion this morning.

Rate of growth among lowest in WNY, Finger Lakes

Photo by Tom Rivers: Open flags are outside the Uptown Browsery in downtown Albion in this photo from last month.

Sales tax in Orleans County grew by nearly $500,000 in 2018, part of a trend around the state.

However in Orleans County the rate of growth, at 2.92 percent or $475,614, was among the lowest in this part of the state. Of the 14 counties in Western New York and the Finger Lakes, only Monroe at 2.38 percent and Wyoming at 1.81 percent had lower growth rates.

Sales tax revenues jumped by $1 million for Orleans County in 2017, up 6.45 percent from $15,287,529 to $16,273,192.

The county budgeted for a $610,000 increase in 2018, and just missed that projection, with sales tax increasing from $16,273,192 to $16,748,806. (The county keeps about 92 percent of the sales tax and shares $1,366,671 with the four villages and 10 towns. They have been frozen at that level since 2001.)

The county budget for 2019 is counting on additional growth of $560,000. The sales tax increases have helped the county pay for infrastructure projects and also stay under the state-imposed tax cap, which is usually about 2 percent a year.

Sales tax collections across the state came in at $17.5 billion, which was up by $872 million or 5.3 percent, according to a report from State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

“Local sales tax collections grew at a faster pace in 2018 than in recent years, boosting local revenues,” he said in his report. “Despite the good news, a slowdown in collection growth in the fourth quarter shows that sales tax revenue can be unpredictable. Local officials should keep a watchful eye on consumer spending and this revenue source and be prepared to react accordingly.”

Among the rural GLOW counties, two had robust growth while the other two had a modest increase.

Genesee County’s sales tax grew by 9.00 percent, from $38,683,226 to $42,163,430, and Livingston went up by 9.12 percent from $31,880,449 to $34,788,736.

Orleans grew 2.92 percent, which was more than the 1.81 percent for Wyoming County, which increased from $18,262,292 to $18,592,593.

‘I urge my colleagues: Rise to this challenge, prevent the catastrophe, and pass a Green New Deal that protects and strengthens our country in this new, uncertain era.’ – Sen. Kirtsen Gillibrand

Press Release, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, on Thursday joined Senator Ed Markey (D-MA), Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY-14), and other members of the House and Senate to introduce a bold and ambitious resolution to set a framework for creating a Green New Deal for America.

The landmark bicameral resolution comes after Gillibrand’s public call to action in a letter last month to Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) Chairman John Barrasso (R-WY) urging him to make climate change, green jobs, and a sustainable economy a central part of the Committee’s agenda this Congress. Gillibrand’s Green New Deal legislation and her public call to action come amid overwhelming evidence that the climate change crisis is growing worse and can only be stopped with large-scale effort that mobilizes and transforms the entire economy.

“Climate change is real, it threatens us, and the evidence is now irrefutable that if we don’t act immediately to stop it, then our land, our water, our air, and our lives will all be upended in potentially catastrophic ways. There will be no going back. I urge my colleagues: Rise to this challenge, prevent the catastrophe, and pass a Green New Deal that protects and strengthens our country in this new, uncertain era,” said Senator Gillibrand.

“We can end the climate change crisis, we can dramatically modernize our economy, and we can create countless new jobs across the entire country that can’t be shipped overseas – but we can only do it if Congress seizes this opportunity and acts now, instead of wasting more time arguing about whether or not the problem is even real. We cannot wait another day. I urge all of my colleagues to fight with me for a Green New Deal that puts Americans to work to solve this extraordinary challenge.”

The landmark Green New Deal resolution calls on the Federal government to initiate a 10-year national mobilization to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions; create millions of good, high-wage union jobs and guarantee a job to every American; invest in infrastructure and transform our transportation sector; secure clean air and water, climate resiliency, healthy food, access to nature, and a sustainable environment for current and future generations; and promote justice and equity for oppressed and marginalized people and communities.