Daily Archives: May 3, 2022

Novak Djokovic, the top seed this week at the Mutua Madrid Open, has been eager for competitive match play as he ramps up his activity on the ATP Tour. He got that and more in Belgrade, where he played four three-setters in a runner-up finish at his hometown Serbia Open.

Though he lost to Andrey Rublev in a three-set final "running out of gas", as he described it Djokovic left the ATP 250 event happy with his performance.

"I was looking to spend more time on the court, and that's what I got. So of course playing finals is a good result and I have to be positive about it," he said in a Madrid pre-tournament presser.

"I like a lot of things about the way I was hitting the ball. Of course it's not at the level still where I wish it to be. It is a process, and I have to be patient. Hopefully things will progress in the right direction also this week."

While Djokovic attributes the gaps in his game to his lack of match play, he feels his fitness struggles are due to lingering effects from an illness he had prior to Monte Carlo.

"But [it was] different in Belgrade than it was in Monaco," he explained of his fitness level. "Knowing that I played four almost-three-hour matches and long, three-set battles gives me enough reason to believe that it's headed in the right direction.

"I had a very good week of training now, put more emphasis on fitness and building the stamina and endurance, because that's what's going to be necessary in order to compete with top guys on the slowest and physically most demanding surface in our sport."

Djokovic will open his Madrid campaign against Gael Monfils or Spanish wild card Carlos Gimeno Valero. His last-16 matchup promises to be an enticing one against one of Dominic Thiem, Andy Murray, Denis Shapovalov and Ugo Humbert.

More:

Novak Djokovic Hopeful Of Further Progress In Madrid - ATP Tour

At the start of each new Congress, Heritage Foundation analysts recommend pro-life policies to Congress and the Administration.REF The following year, a progress report analyzes whether and how those policies have been enacted.REF During the Trump Administration, policymakers followed many of these suggestions and achieved significant pro-life policy victories.

In 2021, the tide turned against life. The Biden Administration enjoys a narrow pro-abortion majority in the House with a divided Senate (in which Vice President Kamala Harris can break a tie). This has allowed policymakers to roll back key pro-life victories and advance policies that violate the right to life of every human being. The pro-life policy landscape will be more dynamic than ever for the remainder of the 117th Congress. By this summer, the Supreme Court will issue a highly anticipated decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health OrganizationREF and may finally overturn Roe v. Wade.

This Backgrounder provides an important snapshot on the status of pro-life policy and legislative and administrative dynamics under the current legal regime. By taking stock of where we are and where we have come from with respect to pro-life policy, this Backgrounder sets the stage for The Heritage Foundations forthcoming road map for legislating in a post-Roe world.

As expected, in 2021 the pro-life cause came under siege. An energized and well-funded abortion lobby and its allies in Congress sought to reverse long-standing consensus pro-life policies and promote radical alternatives.

The Equality Act. The Equality Act redefines sex discrimination in federal civil rights law to include discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Such a policy would gut a host of vital pro-life policies and protections.REF It would open the door to taxpayer-funded abortions at the state and federal level, purge statutory pro-life conscience protections in health care, and nullify hard-fought court battles that protected religious freedom for people like the Little Sisters of the Poor.REF The Equality Acts harms also go far beyond the issue of life, and are discussed in other Heritage Foundation publications.REF

The Equality Act passed in the House on February 25, 2021.REF The next month, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the bill, but it has not yet been brought to the Senate floor for a vote. Proponents acknowledge that the bill does not have the 60 votes it needs to advance in the upper chamber.REF Policymakers should continue to reject this harmful policy.

The Womens Health Protection Act (WHPA). The so-called Womens Health Protection Act is the most pro-abortion bill ever considered in Congress. It passed in the House of Representatives on September 24, 2021, but on February 28, 2022, it fell short of the 60 votes required to advance in the Senate.REF

The WHPAs defenders claim that the bill simply codifies Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion-on-demand across the country. While this would be bad policy on its own, this act goes far beyond Roe. It would mandate an abortion regime far more radical than that put in place by Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.REF The act endangers both current and future state and federal laws that protect unborn childrens lives, womens health and safety, medical providers consciences and religious liberty, laws that separate tax dollars from the abortion industry, and more.REF

Americans across the country believe that women and children deserve better than abortion and broadly support policies that the WHPA would prohibit. Americans want to help women who face a difficult or unplanned pregnancy. Rather than take away Americans role in pro-life policymaking, Congress should seek to protect unborn human children and their mothers.

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). The ERA was proposed by Congress in 1972 but not ratified before the legal deadline, therefore it is no longer viable. But that has not stopped Congress from trying to resurrect it in some form. In recent years, this has included treating the 1972 amendment as still pending before the states, reintroducing the original ERA, and proposing a new ERA. As a Heritage Foundation Legal Memorandum explains, each of these strategies will fail.REF

Policymakers should understand that an ERAif ever ratifiedcould provide a separate basis for a right to unrestricted abortion and mandatory taxpayer funding of abortion. In fact, courts have interpreted state-level ERAs and similar state equal rights measures to require taxpayer-funded abortions in states including New Mexico and Connecticut.REF The original objectives of the ERAthat is, equality under the law between men and womenhave been effectively furthered through legislatures and courts. Policymakers should abandon attempts to bring back the 1972 ERA from the historical graveyard or to promote a reincarnated version.

Pro-Life and Conscience Rights Policy Riders. Congressional leadership and President Biden have called for Congress to strip policy riders like the Hyde Amendment from appropriations legislation. The Hyde Amendment has, since its inception in 1976, prohibited federal funds from being spent on abortions. It has saved 2.4 million lives and counting.REF The current Hyde Amendment applies to programs funded through the annual Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies funding bill, such as Medicaid and Medicare.REF

Over the years, the spirit and goals of the Hyde Amendment have been incorporated in other contexts as well, such as

But the Hyde Amendment and these other pro-life policy protections have been under constant threat during appropriations debates. Proposals in both the House and Senate have lacked these key protections. Other at-risk protections include policies such as

Notably, Congress has recently passed short-term continuing resolutions rather than new fiscal year (FY) appropriations bills. Under these continuing resolutions, pro-life riders still applied. At the beginning of the 117th Congress, 200 RepresentativesREF and 48 SenatorsREF opposed a funding bill that weakens pro-life measures such as the Hyde Amendment. Members reaffirmed that commitment for 2022.REF In March, Congress advanced a $1.5 trillion omnibus spending billREF for FY 2022 that retained existing pro-life riders. Congress must resist all attempts to weaken pro-life and conscience riders in future appropriations bills.

New Funding Streams Without Pro-Life Protections. Several times Congress has failed to incorporate policy riders like the Hyde Amendment to prevent new funding streams outside the traditional appropriations process from funding abortions. For example, the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan lacked Hyde language. This means billions in new spending were allocated without Hyde protections to ensure these dollars cannot be spent to fund or promote abortion.REF

The behemoth $3.5 trillion Build Back Better proposal raises similar concerns.REF When Congress first began the budget reconciliation process, the Senate voted on a bipartisan basis for an amendment calling for the budget tocomplywith pro-life policies like the Hyde Amendment. Though nonbinding, the amendment showed that policymakers would continue the long-standing consensus that tax dollars should not fund elective abortions. However, the House passed a version of the bill which lacked Hyde protections. The Build Back Better proposal has now stalled in the Senate.

President Biden, at the behest of the abortion industry, has pursued a pro-abortion agenda both at home and abroad. His Administration:

The Biden Administration will continue its assault on life and conscience rights, particularly via HHS, which has repeatedly underminedand been outright hostile towardconscience rights.REF HHS intends to rescindREF a Trump Administration regulation that strengthenedREF enforcement of long-standing conscience rights statutesincluding those that protect individuals and health care entities from discrimination based on their moral or religious convictions regarding abortion.

HHS has also indicated that it intends to propose rulemaking regarding Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act,REF modifying existing sex discrimination provisions to encompass sexual orientation and gender identity. Among the harms of such a change, which are extensive,REF the proposal would extend the definition of sex discrimination to encompass reproductive health decisions and termination of pregnancy. People or entities with objections to dangerous and experimental interventions such as gender transition treatments or abortion procedures could find themselves nonetheless required to perform them, including on minors.REF

At the federal level, pro-life policymakers must remain vigilant. Even if the Supreme Court corrects a grave error and overturns Roe,REF President Biden and his allies in the House and Senate will push pro-abortion policies through legislation. Abortion advocates are also calling on the Administration to advance abortion through other means. For instance, they are urging the Food and Drug Administration to argue that its regulations permitting telemedicine abortion preempt state laws to the contrary and calling for the federal government to lease land to abortion clinics. This could mean that an abortion clinic could operate on certain federal land even within a pro-life state.REF

Pro-life policymakers are not powerless. They should be laser-focused on defending current pro-life language that protects life, conscience rights, and religious freedom in federal spending bills. They should also resist every effort to advance radical pro-abortion laws and continue to hold the Biden Administration accountable by conducting robust oversight of federal agencies and administrative decision-making.

The Supreme Court has the chance to correct the grave error of Roe v. Wade, which has poisoned our laws, our courts, and our culture. If they do, policymakers will have more opportunities to protect the youngest and most vulnerable members of our human family. But with a pro-abortion President and narrow pro-abortion majorities in the 117th Congress, pro-life policymakers will still face challenges. Regardless of what happens at the Supreme Court, protecting existing pro-life policies and blocking new pro-abortion legislation must be key priorities as the policy landscape evolves in 2022.

Of course, federal policymakers should not just play defense. As will be discussed in the Heritage Foundations forthcoming road map for a post-Roe America, Congress must be forward-looking and prepare for post-Roe policymaking by introducing legislation that would protect unborn children from abortionists who profit from their deaths.

This means using all available constitutional authority to protect the youngest among us in states that refuse to protect them from abortion after their heartbeats can be detected. This means continuing the work to protect babies who survive abortions, to stop the interstate flow of abortion drugs, and to stop taxpayer dollars from funding the abortion industry. This means ensuring that nobody is forced to violate his or her moral or religious convictions by participating in abortion. Finally, policymakers must commit to the central goal of the pro-life cause: to see the day when every person, from the moment of conception, is protected in law and welcomed in life.

Melanie Israel is a Policy Analyst in the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family at The Heritage Foundation.

Read the original:

Pro-Life Progress Report for the 117th Congress and Administration - Heritage.org

Klaus Vedfelt | DigitalVision | Getty Images

When Anat Ashkenazi became CFO of Eli Lilly in 2021, she noticed a data point that was frustrating: she was the only female CFO in the biopharma sector.

Her path had been relatively easy, she says, moving to the U.S. from Israel 21 years ago and coming from a substantially different culture in which gender inequality was less of an issue. "I was never thinking about being the only women in the room," said Ashkenazi, a CNBC CFO Council member.

Though two more female CFOs have been appointed within the biopharma sector since Ashkenazi became Lilly's CFO and there are some very high-profile female CFO examples to cite, including Ruth Porat of Alphabet and Christine McCarthy of Disney the overall numbers for female CFOs remain relatively low relative to the population and educational degree data.

The U.S. is doing better than some countries, with its 15% of female CFOs at large companies above the global average of 13%, according to Equileap data, but it is well below some close peers, such as Canada, which is at 19%.

"Everyone is low and the U.S. doesn't do great," said Equileap co-founder and CEO Diana van Maasdijk.

Worldwide, across the 4,000 companies included in Equileap's research, only 1% have a female CFO and female CEO.

"The adage that it's lonely at top it becomes lonely at an even earlier management level, director or v.p. level, and at the CFO level even lonelier," said Carolyn Childers, co-founder and CEO of Chief, a professional network focused on trying to get women senior in their careers into the ultimate positions of power "and keep them there," Childers said.

Equileap's data matches that of Crist|Kolder Associates, the U.S. search firm, which analyzes C-suite composition across the S&P 500 and Fortune 1000, and reported that as of last year, the U.S. was just under 15% female CFOs.

While many headlines have cited the progress, Josh Crist, co-managing partner of the search firm, who focuses on financial officers, takes another view. "That is a number that is extraordinarily low," he said. "Gender diversity is ahead of racial diversity in the CFO position and C-suite, but not by much. It's a numbers game, and a population numbers game, and we are talking about a massive gap."

Ashkenazi is focused on the issue of how to get more women into the CFO position, and at a broader level, how to understand the journey of women in the corporate world. Lilly conducted an internal study in recent years to track the career progress of women, and overlay it with other demographic factors, such as race and ethnicity, to get a better sense for why women in the world of work may stall at certain levels. "We wanted to know why women didn't advance, and the conclusions are not unique to Lilly," she said. "But not many companies are spending a lot of time and resources on it," she added.

She estimates getting to gender equality in the C-suite could take 30 years to 40 years.

It could take even longer, according to Equileap. Women have been coming out of universities with good degrees since the 1970s, at least an equal number of degrees if not more degrees than men, and so it has been quite some time they could have been placed into these positions.

"CFOs are 15%, but CEOs are 6% in a country that is the strongest economy in the world with amazing universities and degrees. How is that possible?" Van Maasdijk said. "We believe the right number is 40% to 60%. If you go beyond that then it is no longer balanced, but 51% of the population of the world is female."

At the current rates of progress, a gender equality target that matches the population may not be reached for another seven generations, according to Equileap. "That's not just daughters or granddaughters," Van Maasdijk said.

What's to be done?

Changing how the C-suite conducts searches is key.

Crist says this starts with the composition of an interview slate, in which diverse candidates still represent the subset candidates. Searches need to be tilted to 75% of the slate being diverse rather than 25%. The latter is more common today for example, four of twelve candidates being diverse, rather than eight out of twelve.

And the four who are invited for interviews are often the same few people on a list who get pinged and are having conversations with multiple other companies, according to Childers. "The same people are always getting picked and we need to think more broadly about the qualifications rather than a specific CFO at X company," she said.

What often happens, according to Crist, is companies will say they want to be more diverse, but a "best candidate" approach leads to many good candidates being overlooked.

CFO searches aren't easy, according to Childers, and can be the most time-intensive within the C-suite, and that means an already long process to find the right person can become even longer when a priority is ensuring diversity for the role. "They go after exactly what makes sense and often not what diversity shows you, because you have to stretch a little," she said.

Getting to 75% diverse candidates may mean there is no industry overlap in candidates, and less total years of experience. But boards are starting to realize the "best" available may not be in their industry. "Boards are stuck in this 'we check boxes during recruitment and if we don't check boxes we are not successful in recruiting' mindset," Crist said.

The mindset needs to evolve throughout the talent pipeline as well, well below the C-suite level.

The NFL's recent decision under fire and facing a lawsuit from several Black coaches over discrimination in hiring to mandate that every team has a minority offensive assistant coach, is an example of how intentionality in designing talent pipelines is required. There is a greater likelihood of the next coach being diverse based on the data showing the history of where head coaches are sourced from.

"You would think a company of 100,000 employees would have someone they could train to take on that roll eventually," Crist says. "A lot falls on the companies themselves. With a finance function 3,000 people for a Fortune 50 company, you would think there would be someone very skilled and diverse."

According to Equileap, the target level for candidates being interviewed for open roles should be 50/50 across an organization, forcing search teams out of the smaller circles of candidates who they think are the right interviews.If companies reach 50-50 in the recruitment pipeline, it will break this cycle.

And getting more women into CFO roles, specifically, will lead to greater board representation, according to Childers, because boards are looking for CFOs to serve on audit committees. "It unlocks the next opportunity," she says.

When all else fails and the data shows that today that case can still be made legislation is another option. Equileap's data from the past five years shows a clear correlation between legislation and better representation. France has a requirement for 40% of a board of directors' members to be women, and the nation's corporate sector reached the target.

Many times, governments don't want to get involved in the corporate sector, and more research is showing that recent financial performance of companies has been better with more gender balance. Equileap's work on the Russell 1000 from 2014 through the present shows that companies with higher gender equality scores outperformed those with the lowest scores.

France's experience with the the board legislation was so successful it is now asking for the C-suite to also be 30% women, going up to 40% in a few years.

"We can't find the women is not an excuse, it is a matter of where you are looking and how you are looking," according to Van Maasdijk.

But Equileap's CEO says even with the data on financial performance and diversity, the truth today remains largely that "when legislation is forcing, it happens, and when there isn't legislation, it doesn't happen."

In 2018, California became the first U.S. state to pass a law mandating gender diversity on corporate boards based in the state. That coincided with a period of rising female representation on boards. In 2020, the state went farther, with a law requiring publicly traded companies based in California to have at least one board member from among underrepresented races, ethnic groups and the LGBTQ community. But a California court recently ruled the 2020 law unconstitutional.

The summary judgment against the state from Judge Terry Green of Los Angeles County Superior Court didn't explain the court's reasoning, though the judge had previously described the law as "a bit arbitrary."

The successful lawsuit from conservative-leaning legal group Judicial Watch argued that the California law violated the state's constitutional equal protection clause, while the state argued that the measure didn't discriminate. California also noted that while firms can be fined for not complying with the law, the state had taken no action against any companies even though many in the state had yet to comply with the law's disclosure requirement.

The 2018 law on gender diversity faces a separate legal challenge brought by Judicial Watch. It is also targeting a Nasdaq rule on corporate diversity for companies listed on its exchange.

Childers says legislation should be a last resort.

"I hope it doesn't take legislation and I have optimism about what has happened over the past few years," she said. "We used to be in a world where the C-suite still needed to be told the business case for diversity. Now they know the business case, but the action hasn't started. I would hope it would start without the force function of legislation, but we have been an advocate of legislation where action is not happening fast enough."

More:

By the numbers, corporate progress on gender diversity is a failure - CNBC

MEXICO CITY, April 28 (Reuters) - General Motors (GM.N) made "important progress" in wage negotiations with a new independent union representing several thousand workers at a GM plant in central Mexico, the auto giant told Reuters on Thursday.

Reuters reported earlier this week that the union, SINTTIA, said it initially proposed a 19.2% raise, which GM countered with an offer of 3.5%. read more

The pay negotiations are part of a high-profile test case for a new trade deal that seeks to close the vast gap between U.S. and Mexican wages. If SINTTIA lands a big raise for the workers in the central Mexican city of Silao, the victory could usher in similar demands at other companies, experts say.

Register

"The meeting was productive, both parties showed the commitment we have for the workers of GM Silao," the company said in a statement to Reuters.

GM on Thursday did not address which wage proposals were under discussion. It said talks would continue on May 5 in an effort to reach a deal quickly.

Hector de la Cueva, an adviser to SINTTIA from worker rights advocacy group CILAS, said the company took a "less aggressive" position and that talks moved forward. He declined to discuss specific wage proposals.

SINTTIA and the U.S. automaker began talks last month after workers ousted their powerful long-time union and elected an independent group led by fellow workers, one of the first such elections under the new trade deal, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

The provisions in the 2020 deal that replaced NAFTA were meant to help Mexican workers elect unions they feel will best fight for their interests, breaking the grip of business-friendly groups that operated behind workers' backs for years as cheap labor lured companies to Mexico.

Register

Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon; Writing by Laura Gottesdiener; Editing by Sandra Maler and Lincoln Feast.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Read the original:

GM says 'progress' made in wage talks with new union in Mexico - Reuters

Singapore, April 28, 2022 Olam Agri, a global food, feed and fibre agri-business, has released its Specialty Grains & Seeds, Peru Sustainability Report 2021 that outlines its continued progress towards more sustainable quinoa and chia supply chains, which are delivering positive social and environmental impacts for local quinoa and chia farming communities in Peru.

While nutrient-rich quinoa and chia seeds are seeing strong growth in demand as healthier eating and plant-based foods grow in popularity amongst consumers, smallholder farmers in Peru still struggle to realise the positive economic and social impact. Through on-the ground training and public-private collaboration, Olam Agri empowers these smallholder farmers to grow more efficiently and sustainably, and to get better access to the marketplace. This enables them to improve crop quality and yields, increase their incomes, and tackle key challenges such as improving soil fertility, preventing soil erosion, and controlling pests and diseases, while working towards a more traceable, transparent, responsible supply chain. Additionally, communities are benefitting from initiatives that are improving nutrition and well-being in these farming regions.

Olam Agris Specialty Grains & Seeds business in Peru is a leading supplier of processed quinoa grains and chia seeds, offering services to distributors, manufacturers, supermarkets, and private brands across 5 continents. It supports more than 2,100 smallholder farmers to adopt sustainable and regenerative practices, achieving AtSource certification.

Biswajeet Singh, General Manager, Specialty Grains & Seeds, Olam Agri, Peru, said, Our efforts in Peru are a natural extension of Olam Agris purpose to transform food, feed and fibre to cultivate a sustainable and food- secure future. With demand for quinoa and chia continuing to rise, we are building our business in a way that contributes positively to the prosperity and well-being of people along our supply chains. This includes a continued focus on the production of organic and sustainable products, the protection and regeneration of our natural resources base, and the fight against climate change.

Key highlights from the report include:

Improving farmer livelihoods:

Helped more than 2,100 smallholder farmers to increase productivity and achieve organic certification through trainings and technical assistance, thus driving household incomes Supported 300 farmers to gain access to infrastructure, inputs, funding and technical assistance for organic quinoa production through partnership with Ministry of Agriculture

Started working directly with farmer leaders from six farming districts in the Junin region through our digital platform Olam Direct to give them a fairer, more transparent and more efficient sourcing process along with full traceability to the supply chain

Improving nutrition and health:

Started a nutrition program with the Peruvian Association of Nutrition Professionals to fight anaemia and malnutrition that benefitted 300 farmers and their families

Improved dental health of more than 1,000 children in the highlands of the Peru through partnership with Colgate and their Bright Smiles, Bright Futures (BSBF) Programme

Continued the Kilo per Ton initiative which gives back 1kg of processed quinoa and chia for every ton sold to promote consumption among farming communities

Stepping up on our carbon emission reduction plan:

Worked with the Ministry of Environment of Peru to establish carbon footprint baseline at our processing mill and implementing third party verification and reduction plans

Marisol Escobar, Sustainability Head, Specialty Grains & Seeds, Olam Agri, Peru, said, This latest report reaffirms Olam Agris commitment to creating positive change for farmers and communities in Peru. We are in a unique position to drive impact at scale; we have robust partnerships with like-minded partners, a dedicated team on the ground and strong relationship with farmers and communities all along our supply chains. Complementing our efforts is our unique ability to derive insights and implement action plans via our agtech tools such as Olam Farmer Information System (OFIS) and AtSource.

View the full report here.

More information on Olams Specialty Grains & Seeds is available here.

This press release was provided to Sprudge for Sprudge Press Releases. Interested in submitting a press release?Get in touch!

Link:

Olam Agri Strengthens Progress Towards Sustainable Quinoa And Chia, Positively Benefitting Farming Communities In Peru - Sprudge

Nuclear Shutdown News chronicles the decline and fall of the nuclear power industry in the US and beyond, and highlights the efforts of those working to create a nuclear free world.

By Michael Steinberg

The 103 nuclear power plants in America produce 20 % of the nations electricity without producing a single pound of air pollution or greenhouse gases.

President George W. Bush, June 22, 2005.

The above quote cited in no nukes activist Dr. Helen Calicotts 2006 book Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer illustrates the irony of a March 22 Associated Press report Biden announces $6 Billion to revive dying nuclear plants.

The names and faces and political parties in power may change, but the shill game remains the same: waste incredible fortunes on dangerous discredited boondoggles.

Nuclear power came into being as a reaction to the publics horror after the USs use of nuclear bombs to devastate Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In reaction to this the government instituted the Atoms for Peace program, most notably encouraging electric companies to build large nuclear power plants with huge subsidies that would produce electricity promised to be too cheap to meter.

The Associated Press Article said Bidens scheme was intended to bailout financially distressed owners and operators of US nuclear reactors.

A bidding process started earlier in April to shell out megabucks to nuke owners who have already announced plans to shut down their bankrupt nuclear plants.The US taxpayer scam is to come from Bidens $1 Trillion infrastructure bill, enacted last November.

Over the past decade, a number of nuke plants closed prematurely because they no longer made money.

Nuclear reactors in the US were designed to last only 40 years. Most of them started up in the 1970s and 80s. so now many are approaching or have surpassed their operating lives. As they age increasingly expensive repairs keep shutting them down.

For example, Unit 2 at the fittingly named Millstone nuclear plant in my old stomping ground of southeastern Connecticut started up in 1975, making it 47 years old now. Last year its failure to follow established safety rules during Hurricane caused flooding in the reactor building and a subsequent spanking from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Under the Biden scheme, the San Onofre nuclear plant in Southern California, which closed permanently in 2012 after gross mismanagement, could still be operating at great risk of causing another Fukushima.

Californias last nuke plant, the aptly monickered Diablo Canyon, is planning to close its two reactors in a few years, to be replaced with renewable energy generation. But Bidens boondoggle threatens to undo this too.

Sources: Associated Press, ap.com; Nuclear Power is Not the answer, Dr. Helen Caldicott, 2006.

See more here:

Biden's Nuclear Boondoggle Threatens to Unravel Decades of Progress - OB Rag

Despite the winds and dry conditions there has been little fire progression along the perimeter, there are still areas of concern where firefighters are still actively fighting. Currently the priority remains on preventing the fire moving north on the northwest perimeter and protecting structures near Mount Tritle. With the assistance ofUnmanned Aerial Systems (UAS)otherwise known as drones, firefighters have made significant progress in locating and extinguishing hot spots in and around the perimeter.

Like firefighters, drones are actively used for day and night operations. Trained professionals, utilize this essential tool for fighting wildfires. These drones give firefighters a birds eye view of the terrain and can assist with determining where the fire moves next, allowing swift decisions can be made about where crews should go. It is illegal for the public deploy or utilize a personal Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS)in a fire area to get a closer view of the fire. This can interfere with firefighting operations and place both pilots and firefighters lives in danger. During a wildfire incident a Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFR) around the fire and privately owned drones (UAS) can interfere with wildland fire air traffic, such as air tankers, helicopters, and other firefighting aircraft that are necessary to suppress wildland fires. Even the smallest drone (UAS) can cause a serious or fatal accident if it collides with firefighting aircraft and disrupts firefighting operations.

Per the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, 43 CFR 9212.1(f), it is illegal toresist or interfere with the efforts of firefighter(s) to extinguish a fire.Doing so can result in a significant fine and/or a mandatory court appearance. So, be smart and just don't fly your drone anywhere near a wildfire. No amount of video or photos are worth the consequences.

WEATHER:On Saturday, high pressure will bring a continuation of very dry conditions, but light southwest winds.

SMOKE INFORMATION:Residents should be aware of increasing smoke conditions do to winds out of the south.Residents can monitor current conditions for the Crooks Fire, viaArizona Smoke Forecasting system locatedathttps://azdeq.gov/wildfireforecast?fire=crooksfire

EVACUATIONS: Several areas remain in both the READY and SET status. Residents should continue to monitortheYavapaiCounty Sheriffs Department Facebook page for additional information.https://www.facebook.com/YavapaiCountySheriff/

FOREST CLOSURE: To provide public health and safety due to firefighting operations and fire danger

associated with the uncontrolled Crooks Fire the Prescott National Forest has expanded the fire area emergency closure to the south. To view the Crooks Fire area closure order and map visit:Prescott National Forest - Alerts & Notices (usda.gov)

A Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) is in place:Wildfires are a NO Drone Zone. Flying recreational and media drones within a TFR is illegal and impedes fire suppression efforts. Report drones to local law enforcement. If You Fly, We Cant!

FIRE DETAILS

Read the original here:

Crooks Fire: firefighters make progress with drones, areas of concern remain | Arizona Emergency information Network - az.gov

In 2019, the Atlantic ran an opinion piece titled The struggle for gay rights is over. Written by the rightwing academic James Kirchick, the piece was obviously meant as a provocation, but its argument that for those born into a form of adversity, sometimes the hardest thing to do is admitting that theyve won was at least considered cogent enough at the time to publish.

It came towards the end of a slew of political victories for the LGBTQ+ cause. At that time, it seemed as though the US supreme court would hand down a landmark ruling immediately before Pride Weekend every couple of years. The demise of the homophobic Defense of Marriage Act in 2013 was followed by the end of the federal ban on marriage equality in 2015. Widespread acceptance of same-sex marriage rights, gay people serving in the military and the need for protections for LGBTQ+ people followed. As recently as 2020, the court, then with two Trump appointees, ruled that the 1964 Civil Rights Act protected gay, lesbian and transgender workers. For all the terrible crises of our century, LGBTQ+ peoples rights were solidly enshrined, and attitudes were shifting in line with legislation. In 1985, 89% of parents said they would be sad if they discovered their child was gay or a lesbian. By 2015, it was down to 39%.

Yet in the past few months, those victories have come under threat as the US has witnessed a pronounced acceleration of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and legislation, fueled chiefly by misinformation about what it means to be trans and hysteria over so-called grooming. A rash of laws concerning the teaching of human sexuality in school curricula, banning trans student athletes and stripping parents of the right to help their gender-variant children obtain appropriate care have popped up in numerous red states this year.

As same-sex marriage is now part of the fabric of America, conservatives have chosen to exploit Americans unfamiliarity with trans people and piggyback on parental anger over the perceived overreach of Covid-era school closures, conflating it with an insidious sense of wokeness, in the hopes of finding an electorally viable sluiceway for anti-LGBTQ+ hysteria.

The most famous of these anti-LGBTQ+ laws is the piece of Florida legislation banning instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in schools between kindergarten and third grade, the so-called dont say gay law.

A state hasnt passed a law like this in more than 20 years, said Shannon Minter, the legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and a trans man. Like many other people, I thought there was no way they would, because its so draconian and obviously unconstitutional.

Laying groundwork for a potential 2024 presidential campaign, Floridas Trump-like governor, Ron DeSantis, has positioned the state as the last stronghold of liberty in America. The governor and his supporters have labeled as a groomer anyone who believes children can learn LGBTQ+ people exist, arguing that simply by talking about gay relationships to a child, you are sexualizing that child. DeSantis press secretary, Christina Pushaw, for example tweeted: If youre against the Anti-Grooming bill, you are probably a groomer or at least you dont denounce the grooming of 4-8 year old children.

To be gay, in their view, is to be inherently sexualized, a threat to innocence in a way that straight Americans are not.

Such vehemence has caught even veteran LGBTQ+ advocates by surprise. At first, it was like 2015 again, with the bathroom bills, and I thought, Therell be a little pressure from national orgs and itll stop, but it didnt, says Ada-Rhodes Short, a roboticist and trans rights activist. It started escalating and escalating.

For her, the catalyst was when Texas Republicans such as Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton, the governor and attorney general, not only banned gender-affirming medical care for trans youth but reframed their parents as child abusers, Paxton signing a 13-page legal opinion that parents or doctors who helped children transition were abusers who should be investigated by law enforcement. He was followed by Arizonas governor, Doug Ducey, who, after barring minors from gender-affirmation treatment, wouldnt even state for the record that trans people were real.

Politicians are supported in the media by commentators like Tucker Carlson, who claimed no one had heard of this trans thing four years ago, or Charlie Kirk, channeling 1980s fears in saying gays want to corrupt your children.

Newly rejuvenated, the right wing is poised to make transphobia and homophobia cornerstones of the midterms and 2024 elections, with promises to deliver dont say gay legislation in states including Michigan and New York.

Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, a conservative lobbying group, inveighed against the governors of Indiana and Utah for vetoing legislation banning trans women from participating in sports, calling the bills timely, mainstream protections. The Republican US representative Marjorie Taylor Greene vowed to introduce a federal dont say gay bill if Republicans win the House this November, only to one-up herself days later by tweeting that for people to be pro-trans is to be pro-pedophilia. The dynamic is one of perpetual ratcheting-up.

What began in Florida could spread nearly everywhere.

Convinced that theres a culture shift happening and we need to be focused on survival, Rhodes-Short and a dozen others co-founded Tear It Up. Modeled on Act Up, the organization that staged die-ins and other aggressive tactics to draw attention to the lack of funding for HIV/Aids, it is simultaneously confrontational and focused on mutual aid.

While we are under a huge attack, we can see whats coming in November and the spring and we need to prepare for the next fight. People are running on insane nonsense, like trans people should face a firing squad, says Rhodes-Short, referring to to Robert Foster, a former Mississippi lawmaker and gubernatorial candidate who said that anyone advocating to put men pretending to be women in locker rooms and bathrooms with young women should receive the death penalty by firing squad.

Republican-dominated state legislatures have even begun bringing back North Carolina-style bathroom bills mandating that people use the facilities that correspond with the sex they were assigned at birth.

That started to supercharge this issue, says Alejandra Caraballo, an attorney and instructor at Harvard Universitys Cyberlaw Clinic. Thats what DeSantis ran with. Its the new tactic du jour. You saw Tucker Carlson saying that Disney supports the chemical castration and sexual grooming of children stuff you would have heard two years ago and thought it was off the wall. Now its going to an audience of 4 million.

The business-friendly wing of the GOP that would quietly team up with Democrats to scuttle rabidly homophobic bills is now outnumbered, and legislators in a dozen or more states that lean even farther to the right than DeSantis are taking note.

Minter, the National Center for Lesbian Rights legal director, believes Florida is the test case for a renewed push for an aggressive, Christian-nationalist program.

Thats why its important that Disney has dramatically stepped up, Minter says, referring to its initially uneven but increasingly vocal opposition to Floridas new law. The GOP is in an internal battle between the moderate, center-right legislators who have historically controlled the party and a very extreme Trumpian right wing that poses a threat not just to the Republican party but to our democracy, he says. Were seeing that play out in real life. LGBTQ+ people and women and people of color are the primary targets.

The dont say gay bill, Minter notes, is very similar to whats been passed in Russia, tethering American conservatives to their authoritarian counterparts who have successfully rolled back democratic norms across eastern Europe.

There is a worldwide authoritarian resurgence and our country is not immune from that, Minter says.

Ive seen this movie before over the last 30 years: The right wing decided to target the LGBTQ community, whether its around marriage or adoption or trans kids playing sports or bathrooms, says the California state senator Scott Wiener, who is gay. One state does something, and then they all start proposing it.

Wiener introduced legislation to explicitly make California a refuge for families who may no longer feel that they can raise a queer or trans child in states such as Texas.

I thought it was really important to push back on the policy level, and to send a clear signal that California and other states really care about these kids, he says.

He believes that dont say gay is patently unconstitutional but also contends that relying on the judicial system to protect human rights may no longer be a sound option.

Once the court lawlessly allowed that Texas abortion law to stay in place, that sent a powerful signal that we cant rely on the courts, Wiener said. We have to rely on the political process.

But even that process has limits. Bella Blue, a burlesque dancer in New Orleans who is a pansexual, queer cis woman, homeschools a teenager whose stepfather is a trans man. Her child is very aware of the full spectrum of human sexuality, she says, but he himself has not kind of landed on a firm identity.

I guarantee you when theyre writing these bills, theyre not asking how the kids feel, she says. The only thing you can do is remember theyre going to turn out to be whoever they are.

The urge to legislate the diversity of human experience so it conforms with the Christian-nationalist project Minter points to seems certain to intensify. Although the confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson didnt change the ideological balance of the supreme court, Republican senators opposition to her consisted mainly of conjuring up a nonexistent sympathy for child abuse images, tying her to the QAnon-led tropes about satanic child trafficking that seem ever closer to Republican orthodoxy.

Indeed, conservatives messaging heading into 2024 feels like a hypercharged version of the eternal paranoia that Americas very existence is forever on the cusp of annihilation at the hands of liberals, immigrants, and LGBTQ+ people. The far-right One America Network recently called Joe Biden the groomer-in-chief, alleging that Democrats are now the party of perversion, gender mutilation and an end to human reproduction itself.

This renewed movement, channeling itself through overheated rhetoric about parents rights that first gained traction during discussions of students masking up, now threatens to undo much of the progress America has made on LGBTQ+ rights over the last 15 years.

More here:

After years of progress on gay rights, how did the US become so anti-LGBTQ+? - The Guardian US

I am writing this on the evening of May 1. May Day, we call it. For me, it is one of my favorite holidays as it combines both left wing history with a bit of Paganism.

When I was a kid, we would fill up May Baskets full of treats and ring the doorbell of the person on whom we had crushes. It was then the tradition that the person who received the May Basket would run out of the house and attempt to kiss the person leaving the basket.

I remember leaving a basket at the age of 6 for a 6-year-old girl. I didnt run too fast, so she caught me. Why anyone would run from receiving a kiss from a person you like strikes me as odd.

The Pagans of northern Europe called the day Beltane. It is from this that we have the tradition of the May Pole, which actually started 2,000 years ago with the Romans, and maybe some of you have participated in such celebrations. It is the celebration of spring and fertility and new life.

Among my more Pagan friends I have had throughout life, the Beltane celebration had a bit of a more randy side. One lady of such a persuasion used to say: Hurray, Hurray, it is the first of May. Outdoor sexual activities begin today. Of course, she used a different word for the carnal nature of the holiday but this is a family newspaper.

May Day was designated the day of the worker back in 1889 by a bunch of socialists and trade unionists to commemorate the Haymarket Riot, which occurred in Chicago on May 4, 1886. The Haymarket strike was in support of something we all enjoy today the 8-hour work day.

Industrial relations at the time were horrendous and workers were often expected to work 6 days a week, working up to 16 hours a day for an average of $1.50 a day. The 1880s is often called the Great Upheaval due to the explosion of the labor movement along with a governmental backlash that often resulted in beatings and death.

On May 1, 1886, a general national strike was called by socialists, anarchists and trade union groups in support of the 8-hour day. The numbers of people who went out on strike was impressive 70,000 people in Chicago and 40,000 people in New York City went on strike. Milwaukee and Detroit similarly had thousands of people out on strike for the 8-hour day. Nationwide, it is estimated that between 350,000 and half a million workers went on strike that day.

The strikers all sang a popular song called The 8 Hour Day in which the last lyrics were: Eight hours wed have for working; eight hours wed have for play; eight hours wed have for sleeping in free Amerikay.

The strike lasted for a few days and on May 3, 1886, the police killed a couple of protesters in Chicago. This upset the strikers who then had a huge rally in Haymarket Square in Chicago on May 4. The police came to break up the demonstration, which had begun peacefully, until someone threw a bomb at the police killing several of them. Mayhem ensued and Haymarket square was cleared within five minutes.

Eight police officers died during the riot and four protesters, 70 protesters were injured. Eventually 7 anarchists were sentenced to death by hanging for their unproven participation in the violence.

As often happens after a riot where there has been violence, a backlash against the labor movement ensued. In modern times, think of the negative Fox coverage of the Minneapolis riots after the killing of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police. Something similar happened back in the 1880s.

However, by 1889, as mentioned above, Samuel Gompers and the American Federation of Labor, in concert with a group of international Socialists called the Second International decided to begin a new push for the 8-hour day on May 1 of that year.

In the United States, it wasnt until 1937 and the New Deal that the 8-hour day became the standard for everyone with overtime established for work beyond the 8-hour day. However, the fight for the 8-hour work day began in earnest as early as the late 1860s. Some social innovations happen slowly. It took nearly 70 years of advocacy to establish the 8-hour work day in the United States.

May Day as the day of the worker is celebrated in 80 countries. Of course, most of us of a certain age remember the Soviet Union and its spectacular parades they used to have in Red Square. The tradition lingers on in many countries and it seems a bit ironic that the country that first designated May Day doesnt have it as an official holiday.

In the United States, Labor Day was created as a holiday by President Grover Cleveland after the Pullman Strike, but he moved it to the first Monday in September to avoid giving any credit to the socialists and the union folk who pushed for the holiday on May 1.

Allan Stellar is an RN and a freelance writer who moved to Red Bluff after the Camp Fire. He can be reached at Allan361@aol.com.

Read the original post:

May Day celebrates the progress of the labor movement - Red Bluff Daily News

WWE is reportedly giving its new talent just 90 days to show improvements or else they may get reported, according to Dave Meltzer on the latest edition ofWrestling Observer Radio.

Releases in WWE have become more frequent over recent years, and last week the company cut another 10 employees last week from NXT. There were a variety of reasons for that, and it had been reported that Harland had been let go due to a lack of progress. That is something that WWE is now looking at for all the new wrestlers that join.

Talent will reportedly be fine if theyre showing steady progress throughout their time. But, if there is not a quick improvement, then there is a chance they will not be kept around long past 90 days. This even includes those who sign on to long-term contracts, as even they are being given 90 days to showcase their ability.

Meltzer did add that Harland had not shown enough progression in his time with the company overall. Not all of the wrestlers were released for that reason though, such as Dakota Kai. Her release was down to WWE not seeing her as a main roster talent.

The full list of released talents from last week are as follows:

It has been reported that there could be more releases coming in the future in regards to NXT talent. But, at this point, nothing has been confirmed in regards to anyone else being cut.

Have a news tip or correction? Send it to [emailprotected]

See the original post here:

WWE Reportedly Giving New Talent 90 Days To Progress - Wrestling Inc.