Emily: Hey there, it is Thursday, April 27. I am Emily Reppert. We begin today with two new executive orders from the president: one targeting education, the other national parks. The goal, President Trump said, is to get the federal government out of the way.

The first order signed by President Trump yesterday asks the Department of the Interior to review all national monuments dating back to 1996. President Clinton, President Bush and President Obama used the Antiquities Act of 1906 to create nationally protected land. For example, last year, President Obama set aside 1.35 million acres from future development in Utah by declaring Bears Ears a national monument.

President Trump said it was an overreach of power.

President Donald Trump: The Antiquities Act does not give the federal government unlimited power to lock up millions of acres of land and water, and it’s time we ended this abusive practice.

Emily: Environmental groups argue federal protection is better for the environment.

Later in the day, President Trump signed another order that aims to pull the federal government out of K through 12 education and return schools to state and local control.

Trump: This executive order directs Secretary DeVos to review current federal regulations and ensure that they don't obstruct the ability of states, local governments, teachers and, most importantly, parents to make the best decision for their students and, in many cases, for their children.

Emily: Both orders will not have an immediate effect on parks or school districts, but instead start the review process.

Coming up, a modern debate over Civil War monuments.

Emily: This week, New Orleans began the removal of four Confederate monuments, just one of the cities in the South to bring down statues put up nearly 100 years ago. And Arielle, all of this is sparking a big debate, right?

Arielle: Yeah, Emily, with many asking the question, are we erasing our history or moving toward a better future?

They are the remains of a painful past — memorials to the Civil War. Generals’ names are etched in history, like Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee. But now there are new battlegrounds, from Charlottesville to New Orleans. Confederate monuments have been vandalized, and some cities have voted to remove them.

1 | P a g e Just this week in New Orleans, city officials took down a Confederate monument at nighttime to avoid any confrontations. Workers wore scarves and helmets to hide their identities as police watched over them, all part of a heated debate over whether these statues memorialize racism.

Councilman Wes Bellamy: It’s a symbol, in my personal opinion, of white supremacy, and it’s a symbol that we cannot have in the middle of our city.

Arielle: Charlottesville City Councilman Wes Bellamy has led the fight to move the town's statue of Robert E. Lee. But opponents, led by attorney Charles Weber, argue the statue symbolizes something else.

Charles Weber: These are war memorials that exist for one purpose: to honor the men who fought. It is not to promote a cause of the war; it is not to glorify war; it is to honor the men who fought.

Arielle: Weber points to a Virginia law, similar to others across the South, that blocks cities and towns from removing war memorials, even though many might find the memorials disturbing — even offensive.

Weber: Offensive is a way to stop a conversation about the meaning of the statue, all right? It's not a way to start the conversation.

Arielle: University of South Carolina Professor Thomas Brown studies Confederate symbols.

Professor Thomas Brown: There are hundreds of these across the landscape of the South. The controversies over removal of monuments are partly over, well, what, who's going to decide what that public space is going to endorse.

Arielle: For years these fights focused on the Confederate flag, which largely has disappeared from public spaces — a reflection of changing attitudes.

Bellamy: We've seen there's still a lot of issues in regards to race here in this community, and the only way for us to move forward is to deal with them head on.

Arielle: So we want to know what you guys think. Should Confederate memorials be taken down? Vote over at ChannelOne.com.

Emily: Yeah, and make sure to leave us a comment.

All right, after the break, changing the way of fast fashion.

2 | P a g e Emily: All right, fast fashion, cheap bargains and cheap labor — all week, we have shown you how companies make cheap clothes, but we also saw the high price and toll on the people who make them and the environment. Today, Azia Celestino has the story of one company changing the tide and turning fast fashion into sustainable fashion.

Azia: From the runway to celebs to your closet; for many following the latest fashion trend is an obsession.

Lucy Siegle: There is a thrill. We're used to this, “Oh, I have a date tonight? Let me go buy a whole new outfit."

Azia: That is where fast fashion comes in. Cheap prices and endless options provide a way to seemingly keep up not only with the Kardashians but the Hadids, the Smiths and any other celeb.

Siegle: There's more and more of this idea that we should constantly be wearing different stuff for all the different photographs and this documentation of our lives in the way that paparazzi document celebrities.

Azia: But fast fashion goes far beyond what we wear. It is taking a slow but steady toll on our environment.

Elizabeth Cline: If the fashion industry doesn't change, we're going to see more protests, more factory fires. And from an environmental standpoint, the price of cotton is going to go up because demand is going to outstrip supply, and there's not going to be enough water to cultivate all the cotton that we're generating. There's not going to be enough oil to produce all the polyester that we need to feed the fashion industries.

When I say that the way the fashion industry works currently is unsustainable, I mean that literally. It can't continue doing what it's doing.

Azia: But you can start making better choices right now.

People come to this Greenmarket to recycle their clothes, shoes and other fabric they are no longer using. I dropped by to meet Elizabeth Cline, the author of “Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion.”

Cline: One of the biggest issues with fashion right now is textile waste. We have 85 percent of all of unwanted clothing in the United States going directly into the landfill right now. One of the great alternatives to that is hosting clothing collection drives.

3 | P a g e Azia: The items at this drive are collected and sorted out to reuse or recycled to create new products like rags or insulation for buildings. And the Greenmarket is just one way to slow the negative impacts of fast fashion.

Cline: All the time, I hear about new startups, new independent designers who are making really cool clothing that is sustainable and made with the garment worker in mind just as much as the fashion.

Azia: So I went across town to find a company doing just that. Veja is a sneaker brand that was recently featured in “Vogue” magazine. Emma Watson and Eddie Redmayne are just a few celebs who have been seen sporting the kicks, which also happen to be sustainably made.

Erin Allweiss: And a lot of people don't know that about them, just because they see the sneakers and are super excited to buy them because of the way they look.

Azia: Erin Allweiss is a spokesperson for the company.

Allweiss: They're carried here at ANTHOM; they’re carried at Club Monaco, Reformation — you can find them all over. They get shipped from Paris, from an ethical shipping company there.

Azia: Veja works with artisans to ethically source different parts of the shoes, from the rubber on the soles to the organic cotton in the shoelaces. Some sneaker designs even use a material called B-mesh, which is made of recycled water bottles.

Allweiss: Every time they think about a material, they determine how to make it as sustainable and clean as possible and also making sure that the people making the sneakers are getting paid fairly.

Azia: Veja's mission includes not only transparency for customers but a living wage for the company's partners.

What does it mean to be a living-wage company?

Allweiss: It means that they take good care of the people who are making the shoes. This is a key component of Veja; it's the people who are making all of the different elements of the cool sneakers we're wearing.

Azia: A living wage is when workers are paid enough money to pay for their basic needs. Veja is just one of the fashion brands and influencers who are working to change the industry.

4 | P a g e Why do you think this method of producing fashion is really needed right now?

Allweiss: I think we're all looking for ways to take action, and it does start with purchase power and what we wear.

Azia: And redesigning the fashion industry can start with the customer.

Allweiss: Every morning, when we wake up, and we have, like, a dollar in our hand, we can use that dollar to invest in things that we care about. So when people ask what you're wearing, you can say, like, you can say the designer, but you can also say, “By the way, it was made this way.”

Azia: Redefining what it means to make a fashion statement. Azia Celestino, Channel One News.

And there are some easy things you can do: Buy less clothes, trade clothes with your friends, or shop at a thrift store. Plus, we have more tips on ChannelOne.com.

Emily: Very cool. Thanks, Azia. I think we should definitely try swapping clothes.

Azia: I am with it!

Emily: Yeah, for sure.

And another thing trending on ChannelOne.com: your poems! We have received so many great submissions from you guys for National Poetry Month.

Azia: Yeah, and we have been sharing them all week on the show. And as we wrap up today, here is one of my favorites. It is by Alicia from Colorado, and it is called “The Wolf.”

Not being able to sing another note I sprint through the trees lucky to be me, for I am speed I am fight I am fury I am night

5 | P a g e