Go read this survey about tech workers and H-1B visas under the Trump administration

The current system benefits employers, not employees

By Bijan Stephen Feb 24, 2020

Photo by Scott Olson / Getty Images

Over the last couple of decades, the US technology industry has become one of the dominant global forces shaping the ways we connect with each other; it’s easy to think about how much different and perhaps atomized the world would be if Facebook, for example, didn’t exist. Less discussed, however, is the effect the rest of the world has on Silicon Valley.

Today, the Medium technology publication OneZero published the results of a survey it conducted about America’s H-1B visa program — which, according to Pew, is “the primary way that companies in the United States hire high-skilled foreign workers.” That’s capped at 85,000 workers, which is less than 1 percent of the country’s workforce. President Trump’s Stephen Miller-designed “Buy American, Hire American” policy, however, has slowed the use of the program, as has Trump’s anti-immigrant views and policies. The picture that emerges is grim.

OneZero reporter Sarah Emerson writes that “foreign laborers who enter the program also report feeling like an underclass, with stressful working conditions and discrimination due to their visa status” because, in the case of the H-1B, a person’s visa is totally dependent on their employer sponsoring it. That means “for thousands of workers on H-1B visas, conditions are challenging, and can feel as if they’re designed to keep them silent,” Emerson says.

According to OneZero — which conducted the survey in partnership with the anonymous workplace feedback app Blind — many workers on H-1B visas feel like their place in this country is highly conditional. And because they’re not necessarily empowered to speak up about their experiences, it means they experience forms of workplace discrimination and pressure to perform that other, less conditional employees don’t.

On the topic of workplace discrimination:


When OneZero asked Blind users if they have “ever perceived discrimination at work” because of their H-1B visa status, most participants said they had not. Of the 35 companies represented by the survey, only one, Capital One, had more than 50% of its respondents reply “Very often” or “Often” to the question. At Apple, Salesforce, Lyft, Airbnb, Samsung, Intuit, Bloomberg, Symantec, and Goldman Sachs, between 20% and 40% of respondents replied “Sometimes.”

OneZero and Blind ran another survey in early 2020 to see what tech workers who are not on H-1B visas feel about the program. They found that almost 60 percent of respondents opposed policies that would limit the program.

The story is worth reading in full because, as with everything else, politics is about exercising power over groups of people. Tech workers aren’t exempt.

ILL-FITTING GEAR PUTS FEMALE FIREFIGHTERS AT RISK, BUT THAT’S CHANGING

LIKE ILL FITTING SPACE SUITS FOR WOMEN ASTRONAUTS

California Department of Forestry firefighter Faith Qualtieri watches the Vision Fire. The fire ravaged 11,300 acres and cost over $3 million. Photo: Raymond Gehman / Getty Images

As climate change fuels more devastating fires, all firefighters need gear that fits

By Justine Calma@justcalma Feb 21, 2020,

When Heather Buren first started fighting fires in California more than 20 years ago, she remembers often wearing boots that were a size too big, but she couldn’t let that slow her down. She recalls other women with even smaller feet finding ways to adapt with the ill-fitting gear, like tucking an extra sock in the boots to keep them from slipping.

“When you’re in a situation and department that is so male dominated, you’re fighting all these fights about just fundamentally being able to be there,” Buren says. When it came to the gear, “This is one of those ones where we’ve just been like, oh well, we’ll just make it work.”

Big boots, slipping helmets, and uniforms that needed tailoring are just more barriers women need to overcome in order to thrive in fire departments that are still overwhelmingly male. Fire seasons in places like Australia and California are growing longer and deadlier, and fire services need every qualified person they can get to meet the challenge. Phasing in gear that fits a broader range of body types is one of the last frontiers to building a more diverse force of emergency responders. It’s also a necessary transition to keep them safe on the job in a world that’s increasingly on fire.

“IT’S KIND OF A WICKED PROBLEM.”

“It’s kind of a wicked problem,” Jennifer Taylor, director of the Center for Firefighter Injury Research and Safety Trends at Drexel University, tells The Verge. Baggy gear can be more than just a nuisance, Taylor explains. It can get caught on debris or branches, which can slow someone down or be downright dangerous while battling a blaze. Some women have tried altering clothing on their own to make it fit better, only for those alterations to fail in the midst of a rescue.

“You can imagine that if I am wearing gear that’s made for a six foot tall man I’m going to have a problem getting it to fit me and that can encumber my movement, my flexibility, my ability to evade hazards, to have the gear fit my body, the way it should because it’s been optimized through research and development for protection,” Taylor — who is five-foot-five — says.

try to control a back burn as the Carr Fire continues to spread toward the towns of Douglas City and Lewiston near Redding, California, on July 31st, 2018. Photo by Mark Ralston / AFP via Getty Images

Gear needs to fit well for another reason: to protect firefighters from being exposed to the toxins that are often present in smoke and debris. Ill-fitting gear can leave skin exposed to nasty chemicals, Taylor says. Anywhere where there’s a gap is an opportunity for toxins to creep inside the gear and eventually inside the body.

The risk of exposure to carcinogens is growing as fire seasons become more destructive in places like California. Hotter weather, less snow, and more intense droughts have extended fire season across California’s Sierra Nevada mountains by two and a half months — and that means more blazes to battle. There are new hazards to face, too. Thanks to urban expansion and climate change fueling perfect conditions for firestorms in the west, firefighters are increasingly responding to blazes straddling both wildlands and neighborhoods. These conditions unleash dangerous fumes from burning homes and the consumer products inside, a threat that wildfires, in particular, haven’t posed in the past.

“Firefighters are literally on the front lines of climate change, and the toxic chemical exposures that come with fighting these wild and urban interface fires that are happening with more intensity and frequency,” says Rachel Morello-Frosch, a professor at the University of California Berkeley who is conducting a study to monitor female firefighters’ exposure to chemicals linked to breast cancer. In another recent study, she found that firefighters who responded to the 2017 Tubbs Fire in wine country north of San Francisco had elevated levels of mercury in their bodies, which can damage a person’s nervous, digestive, and immune systems and even lead to neurological disorders. They also found elevated levels of perfluoroalkyls, or PFAS, in their blood, which are chemicals used in fire retardants that some lawmakers have recently pushed to ban because they’ve been associated with an increased risk of cancer and damage to the immune system.

“FIREFIGHTERS ARE LITERALLY ON THE FRONT LINES OF CLIMATE CHANGE.”

In San Fransisco, 15 percent of the department’s female firefighters between 40 to 50 years old have been diagnosed with breast cancer. That’s a rate six times higher than the national average, NBC News reported in 2018.

San Fransisco’s fire department is unique in the United States. A string of discrimination lawsuits forced it to hire more women and people of color after 1988, and now it has more female firefighters than any other department in the country. It swore in its first openly LGBTQ fire chief last year, Jeanine Nicholson, a breast cancer survivor.

A lot has changed in San Fransisco in the past 32 years, but women still make up less than 20 percent of San Francisco’s fire department. Across the US, fire departments remain overwhelmingly white and male. Career firefighters within departments in the US are still, on average, 95.5 percent male and 81.8 percent white, according to the most recent report from the National Fire Protection Association. The lack of diversity is a problem when it comes to the cultural sensitivity needed to best serve a community, experts say. “They’re frequently interacting with members of the public in the worst, most traumatic situations of their lives. They are often entering people’s homes, entering people’s bedrooms,” says Corinne Bendersky, a professor of management and organizations at UCLA. “If the fire service doesn’t look like the community it serves, it challenges their ability to effectively consistently deliver that high quality level of intimate professional engagement.”

Strike team firefighters prepare to roll out on January 06, 2020 in Cann River, Australia. Photo by Darrian Traynor / Getty Images

As fire services across the world start to diversify, they have begun providing gear and equipment in more sizes and even ensure that it’s custom-fit. “Most things, the chair that you’re currently sitting on, it was developed for a six foot tall, 175 pound man,” Taylor says. “The man was the standard and that’s our history and that’s how we design things. That’s changing.”

Honeywell, a major manufacturer of firefighter turnout gear, tells The Verge that it became the first company to customize its gear to individual firefighters about 25 years ago. About 10 years ago, the company noticed the shift in demographics and began interviewing women to get input on how to make its gear fit better and be more comfortable. Taking inspiration from sportswear, it started offering even more customized tailoring, making the gear more ergonomic. It now customizes gear for 285,000 active firefighters, a majority of career firefighters in the country.

“THE LAST FRONTIER OF THE FIRE SERVICE”

But Taylor says that while there’s been important progress in big-city departments in the US, smaller departments and volunteer firefighters haven’t necessarily had access to all of those changes. Sixty-five percent of firefighters in the US are volunteers, according to the most recent numbers from the National Fire Protection Association. And while women make up 4 percent of career firefighters, a higher ratio — 9 percent — are volunteer fighters. Volunteer firefighters usually serve communities in rural areas with populations of less than 25,000 people. With smaller budgets, they often rely on older or borrowed equipment. “That is kind of the last frontier of the fire service,” Taylor says. To beat its worsening blazes, California relies on inmate firefighters, including women, that volunteer through the Department of Corrections’ firefighting program. (They’re paid a small amount, well under the state’s minimum wage.) Across the sea, similar issues are playing out in Australia

Nine in ten of the firefighters battling Australia’s historically bad blazes this year are volunteers. The country has historically viewed firefighting as a shared, community duty — particularly in remote, rural areas where nearly a third of the population lives. Like the US, volunteer forces there are still majority male, but they have higher proportions of women in comparison to career firefighters: 19 to 44 percent of volunteer firefighters are female across fire services in different regions, while just 2 to 5 percent of career firefighters are women. They’re given government-issued gear that is usually off-the-rack, but recently, more fire services have offered personal protective clothing designed to better fit female figures. (Although it hasn’t been rolled out everywhere just yet.)

That’s “been completely revolutionary because all of a sudden you’re getting jackets and pants that are shaped for hips and chests,” says Stephanie Looi, a volunteer firefighter and vice president of Women and Firefighting Australasia, a nonprofit group that advocates for women in firefighting. She says she first got the more tailor-made gear a couple of years ago. “It’s pretty amazing to be able to climb up into a truck without having to hitch your pants up or to be able to climb over a tree that’s fallen on the ground without having to stop and hitch your pants up,” she says.

This picture taken on December 31st, 2019, shows firefighters struggling against strong winds and flying embers in an effort to secure nearby houses from bushfires near the town of Nowra in the Australian state of New South Wales. Photo by Saeed Khan / AFP via Getty Images

There are still unfair assumptions that anyone who doesn’t fit that six-foot male mold somehow isn’t strong enough or fit to serve in the service. Pushing to make changes in order to accommodate people with different body types has been met with the argument that it lowers standards. Ladders have been a flashpoint for this argument. Efforts to make ladders with lighter materials or to add additional pulleys to extension ladders to reduce the amount of force needed to extend them have received pushback in California. When extension ladders were modified in Los Angeles, some complained that it “lowered standards,” Bendersky tells The Verge. “It creates a narrative that increasing representation of women is undermining the integrity of the force,” she says. In reality, making the extension ladder easier to use reduced the risk of injury for all firefighters, not just women, Bendersky explains.

Her research found that women were more likely to be constantly drilled on the toughest physical tasks, regardless of how long they had been in the force. That type of pressure is not only unfair and exhausting for women, but it can be detrimental for departments to value brute force over other important strengths. Intellectual, social, and emotional skills are necessary for the job, too, Bendersky says. And recognizing those skills — in firefighters of any gender — can help departments become more inclusive.

Taylor’s research found that having different perspectives in a firefighting team was also good for fostering a safer work environment. Women are socialized to respond to risk differently than men, Taylor explains, and that can help them find ways to solve a problem while minimizing unnecessary risk and injury. “[Women] may look at risk differently and have something to say that slows down the kind of heroic and macho way that we’ve traditionally responded to fires and really thinks about how do we get this job done, save the community, but also save the firefighters from getting unnecessary exposures,” Taylor says.
MORE INCLUSIVE AND DIVERSE DEPARTMENTS ARE MORE EFFECTIVE DEPARTMENTS

Ultimately, more inclusive and diverse departments are more effective departments. That’s all the more important because, as climate change tests firefighters’ abilities to meet new challenges, fire services will need to be at their best.

In Australia, where extreme weather conditions exacerbated by climate change have fueled one of the most intense fire seasons yet, the value a more diverse force adds can come down to simple math: “It’s not rocket science that having more women in the volunteer fire service just makes more sense in this context,” Looi says. “The more bums on seats you get, the more trucks you get out the door, and the more people you have to fight a fire.”

Correction 2/21/20 6:24 PM EST: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Stephanie Looi’s name. A previous version of the article misspelled her name. We regret the error.

Wendy's Pays $400K For 2,000+ Child Labor Law Violations: AG

$200 PER VIOLATION CHUMP CHANGE
Wendy's agreed to a $400,000 settlement for thousands of child labor law violations across dozens of corporate-owned locations in Massachusetts, Attorney General Maura Healey's office announced Tuesday. 

© AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File Wendy's agreed to a settlement after an estimated 2,100 child labor law violations.

The investigation started after a complaint from a minor who worked at a Worcester Wendy's that minors were working too late and too many hours. Healey's office said Wendy's cooperated and showed records of 16- and 17-year-old workers working later than allowed and longer than nine hours per day.

Under state law, 16- and 17-year-olds are not allowed to work beyond 10 p.m. on a school night or midnight on a non-school night.

Healey's office said there were an estimated 2,100 violations in Wendy's across the state.

Wendy's has taken steps to put an end to the violations, Healey's office said. In addition to training and auditing efforts, minors must wear a red visor to let managers know they are under 18.

"Employers have a duty to follow our child labor laws and protect their young employees," Healey said. "Wendy’s came into compliance as a result of our investigation and took meaningful steps to ensure a safe and productive work environment for its young workers."

Half of the $400,000 settlement will go to a fund that educates about and enforces child labor laws.

Healey's office has been cracking down on child labor law violations at food chains. Recently Chipotle was hit with a $2 million citation for more than 13,000 violations, while Qdoba had to pay $400,000 for more than 1,000 violations.

EPA OKs continued use of tuberculosis drugs to fight citrus disease in California, Florida

WHY US DRUG PRICES ARE SO HIGH

AND HOW YOUR FRESH FRUIT IS KILLING YOU

AND INCREASING ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE 
ALWAYS WASH FRUIT


Mark Olalde, The Desert Sun

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency quietly issued another emergency approval for farmers in California and Florida to continue applying a medically important antibiotic to citrus crops. Because the drug is used to treat tuberculosis in humans, the move has raised concerns that it could exacerbate widespread antibiotic resistance. 

© Jay Calderon and Richard Lui/The Desert Sun drone photograph Seley Ranches produces grapefruits, lemons and tangerines in the desert near Borrego Springs. The orchard relies on groundwater pumped from the aquifer.

Although the decision is dated April 2019, it was not published in the Federal Register until January, and the EPA did not publicize the approval. The authorization runs until April in California and December in Florida.

The EPA says that widespread application of the drug streptomycin, as well as a similar antibiotic it has approved called oxytetracycline, is necessary to fight citrus greening disease, which has decimated much of Florida's orange and grapefruit yield and appeared in Southern California in 2008.

The disease is spread by bacteria riding on the Asian citrus psyllid, an insect.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 2.8 million people are infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and more than 35,000 people die as a result.

In a statement provided to The Desert Sun, EPA staff said the impact of streptomycin use in agriculture is "considered negligible" when compared to the level of antibiotics used in livestock. "Streptomycin, an antibiotic, is a critical tool used by farmers to control citrus greening. Citrus greening is considered the most serious citrus disease worldwide," the statement said.

But the decision to approve the continued use of streptomycin, which was initially approved to combat citrus greening in Florida in 2016 and California in 2018, was predicated on "loopholes and weird things going on with the law," said Emily Knobbe, an EPA policy specialist with the Center for Biological Diversity, which has for years acted as a watchdog on the federal government's approvals of pesticides and related chemicals. The center was first to note the January Federal Register entry.

The approval of streptomycin and other antibiotics came via emergency exemptions, meaning they skipped a full safety review. If farmers choose to apply as much of the drug as the EPA allows, potentially hundreds of thousands of pounds of streptomycin could be deposited on crops in California and Florida. By total weight, this is several dozen times more than what Americans ingest annually.

"To be risking such a significant problem for really not even a cure, not even a solution to citrus greening disease is really irresponsible on the part of EPA," Knobbe said.
Citrus greening in the valley

Craig Armstrong is the owner of Thermiculture Management, a farming company in Thermal that specializes in citrus and dates, and he sits on the industry-elected California Citrus Pest and Disease Prevention Committee that advises the state's Department of Food and Agriculture. He said the committee neither endorsed nor suggested prohibiting the use of streptomycin, partly because its efficacy is not fully proven.

Farmers did not receive the green light with fully open arms, though. "There was quite a bit of push-back, even from some of the large growers in the industry, because the verdict is still out on it," Armstrong said.

The disease has appeared on crops elsewhere in California, and the insects that carry it are present in the built-up portions of the Coachella Valley. But, Armstrong said, fields in the valley have so far escaped the disease due to the desert's heat, coordinated pest control measures, and releases of green lacewing, a predator of psyllids.

Trevor Murphy is a third-generation citrus grower in Florida where he's the COO of Kahn Citrus Management. He said that when antibiotics were first held up as a potential answer to citrus greening disease, his company tested them on trial plots. When the test run brought an increase in costs but not crop yields, the company decided against using them.

Instead, he said the most effective techniques to fight the disease all focus on plant health: composting to increase the soil's nutrient load, better water management and a massive increase in fertilizer application, although that comes with its own downstream environmental impacts.

"We're trying to give the tree everything that it needs to keep going," Murphy said.
© J. Scott Applewhite / AP Under Administrator Andrew Wheeler's watch, the EPA has taken an industry-friendly approach to deregulating.

Higher costs aside, scientists, politicians and environmentalists caution what allowing antibiotic application means for public health.

In 2017, the CDC gave a presentation to the EPA about streptomycin and other antibiotics, which the Center for Biological Diversity obtained via a records request. The presentation noted that "the use of antibiotics as pesticides has the potential to select for antimicrobial-resistant bacteria present in the environment."

There were 9,025 reported cases of tuberculosis in the U.S. in 2018 — 2.8 cases per every 100,000 people — according to CDC data. While the U.S. has kept its rate of tuberculosis low compared to other countries, drug-resistant strains increase treatment costs many-fold.

In August, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and other members of Congress sent a letter to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler lambasting the agency's emergency exemptions.

"The fact that EPA arrived at conclusions that appear to disregard scientific evidence showing significant risks to human health and our environment raises grave concerns that EPA has not appropriately considered all available evidence," they wrote.

In its statement, agency spokespeople wrote that "EPA does not take antibiotic resistance lightly." They said the agency "worked closely" with CDC and FDA staff in coming to the decision to again approve the drug's use and that three years was the standard length of time for which they granted emergency exemptions.
Long-term emergencies

But streptomycin emergency exemptions have already been granted for longer than that, about five years in Florida.

The Center for Biological Diversity's research suggests the EPA is quick to issue such emergency orders despite concerns about the underlying scientific analyses. In the case of the pesticide sulfoxaflor, which the agency has acknowledged harms pollinators such as bees, the EPA granted at least 78 emergency exemptions between 2012 and 2017 for its use on cotton and sorghum fields alone, only eight of which went through a public review.

The environmental nonprofit is currently suing the EPA and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to compel further disclosure of records relating to these decisions under the Freedom of Information Act. 

© California Department of Food and Agriculture Asian citrus psyllid carry the bacteria that cause citrus greening disease.

"The thing that we think is really abusive about how EPA uses emergency exemptions is that they do not use them as 'emergencies,'" Knobbe said. "They use them year after year after year after year rather than going through the full registration process."

Even the agriculture industry, which has been quick to defend the Trump administration's industry-friendly pesticide policies, is wary of fast-tracking antibiotics that come with likely consequences for public health.

"A lot of these things will come out as a silver bullet," Armstrong said. "You really have to look at the full 360-degree perspective."

Mark Olalde covers the environment for The Desert Sun. Contact him at molalde@gannett.com, and follow him on Twitter at @MarkOlalde.

This article originally appeared on The Desert Sun: EPA OKs continued use of tuberculosis drugs to fight citrus disease in California, Florida

Harvey Weinstein found guilty of third degree rape, escapes predatory sexual assault conviction

Warning: This story includes graphic language of a sexual nature.

NEW YORK — Harvey Weinstein, the formerly powerful movie mogul whose sexual misconduct jump-started the #MeToo movement, was convicted of two sex crimes here after a historic weeks-long trial featuring graphic testimony from six tearful accusers. Weinstein was found guilty of criminal sexual act in the first degree related to accuser Miriam "Mimi" Haleyi and rape in the third degree related to accuser Jessica Mann.
© Mark Lennihan/ AP Harvey Weinstein arrives at a Manhattan courthouse for jury selection in his rape trial, Monday, Jan. 13, 2020, in New York.The split verdict was rendered after during the fifth day of deliberations by a jury of seven men and five women. He escaped two charges of predatory sexual assault and one charge of rape in the first degree, which spared him the possibility of a sentence that included life in prison.

Weinstein's mouth was agape as the verdict was read, and his defense attorney Donna Rotunno shook her head.


The jury reached the verdict around 11:30 a.m. ET Monday, and the defense immediately filed a motion for a mistrial citing an anonymous email sent to a member of Weinstein's legal team regarding a juror, which Judge James Burke denied.


During the lengthy trial, each of the six accusers testified, sometimes for hours, and cried often as they recounted in graphic detail what they said Weinstein did to them, described the appearance of his body and genitals, his intimidating bulk and trigger temper.

Two accusers quoted him saying shocking or outrageous things, testifying that he told them the way to get ahead in Hollywood is to trade sexual favors and that A-list actresses had done the same.

Weinstein, 67, who was indicted in Manhattan in May 2018, was charged with five sex-crimes, including rape and predatory sexual assault, involving two women: Haleyi, 42, who accused Weinstein of forcing oral sex on her in his New York apartment in July 2006, and Mann, 34, who accused Weinstein of raping her in a New York hotel room in March 2013.

He pleaded not guilty.

Weinstein has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex since media exposès were published in October 2017. He has been accused by more than 80 women of sexual misconduct, ranging from harassment to rape, over decades and in multiple jurisdictions around the world.

Besides the two accusers whose allegations were central to the case, Weinstein's trial also featured testimony from four other accusers who testified that Weinstein sexually assaulted them in New York or California as far back as 1993 and as recently as 2013.

Three of these women, Dawn Dunning, 40, Tarale Wulff, 43, and Lauren Young, 30, were the so-called "Molineux witnesses," whose accusations were either too old or out of jurisdiction to prosecute but were intended to help prosecutors prove that Weinstein was a serial predator with a recognizable pattern.

A fourth witness, "Sopranos" star Annabella Sciorra, 59, who testified that Weinstein raped her in her New York apartment in the winter of 1993-94, was intended to help bolster the prosecution's argument about the "predatory" nature of Weinstein's behavior, thus enhancing his sentence if convicted.

Weinstein's reckoning with accusers is not over. For one thing, he faces multiple civil suits from dozens of accusers; a proposed settlement in the civil cases is on hold and at least some of the plaintiffs have rejected it as not good enough in terms of either money or punishment.

“Weinstein may have been able to avoid testifying in the criminal trial, but he will not be afforded that right in his civil trials," said Douglas Wigdor, an attorney for civil plaintiffs who have rejected the proposed settlement. "I relish the day when I get to cross-examine him and ask him to answer for the wrongs he has committed against so many women.”

More ominously, on the day the Weinstein trial opened on Jan. 6, prosecutors in Los Angeles County charged him with raping one woman and sexually assaulting another in separate incidents over two days in 2013.

He was charged with four sex crimes, including one felony count each of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration by use of force and sexual battery by restraint.

The latter charge involves Young, who testified in New York as a Molineux witness. In Los Angeles she will be a complaining witness. She testified that in February 2013, Weinstein cornered her in a Beverly Hills hotel bathroom and masturbated while groping her.

The other complaining witness in Los Angeles is an Italian model whose name has not been disclosed.

The Los Angeles case is on hold – Weinstein has not yet been arraigned – until the New York case is resolved.

The New York trial considered historic because it's the first major celebrity sex-crime trial of the #MeToo era. It culminated more than two years of world-wide condemnation of Weinstein and scores of other powerful men in multiple industries for an array of alleged crimes and misconduct.

But so far the Weinstein case is the only #MeToo case to be brought before a jury in a criminal court. (An earlier alleged groping case against Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey collapsed at the pretrial stage in Nantucket, Massachusetts, after the accuser refused to testify.)

Weinstein's prosecution by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office of Cyrus Vance Jr., was no accident. For one thing, Weinstein's downfall began with bombshell reports in The New York Times and The New Yorker detailing for the first time on the record shocking accusations by such Hollywood stars as Salma Hayek, Ashley Judd, Angelina Jolie and Rose McGowan.

Meanwhile, Vance had been under pressure from activists since 2015 when his office declined to prosecute Weinstein on groping allegations made by an Italian model/actress, Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, leading to tensions with the New York Police Department. (Even with a less-than-clear audiotape of Weinstein apologizing to her, Vance's deputies said then they didn't have enough evidence to prosecute at the time. They later reached an out-of-court settlement for an undisclosed fee.)

It didn't help when a lead NYPD detective on the new cases against Weinstein failed to tell prosecutors about a witness who cast doubt on allegations by accuser Lucia Evans, who said he forced her to perform oral sex on him in 2004.

As a result of that botch, prosecutors agreed to drop Evans and her allegation from the charges months before the trial, leaving only two complaining witnesses. It also led to the prosecution's strategic decision not to call any police witnesses to testify at the trial about their investigation of Weinstein.

If you or someone you know experienced sexual assault and is seeking resources, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

Related slideshow: See photos from Harvey Weinstein's New York sex-crimes trial:





 3/29 SLIDES © Elizabeth Williams, AP
In this courtroom sketch, Harvey Weinstein sits in a Manhattan court room as the judge instructs the jurors before they begin deliberating on charges he faces in his sex-crimes trial, Feb. 18, 2020, in New York.

Brazilian transgender dancer shatters Carnival parade taboo
By MAURICIO SAVARESE, Associated Press

SAO PAULO (AP) — When dancer Camila Prins entered Sao Paulo's Carnival parade grounds, a costume of feathers clinging to her sinuous body, she fulfilled a dream of feminine beauty nearly three decades old. 

 

© Provided by Associated Press Transgender godmother Camila Prins, representing the Colorado do Bras samba school, performs at Carnival in the Sambadrome in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020. Prins entered the parade grounds, in a costume of feathers that displayed her sinuous body, fulfilling a dream nearly three decades old. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Prins says she first realized she wanted to be a woman at a Carnival party at age 11, when, like the other boys, she was allowed to dress like a girl as part of the burlesque festivities. Now, in the final minutes of Saturday, she became the first transgender woman to lead the drum section of a top samba school in either of the renowned Carnival parades put in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

© Provided by Associated Press Transgender godmother Camila Prins gets her make up done prior to performing for Colorado do Bras samba school in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020. The 40-year-old dancer is the first transgender godmother of a top samba school in Sao Paulo. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Prins, 40, was hand-picked to be “godmother” of the Colorado do Brás samba school's drum section, an iconic role fought over by dozens of models and TV celebrities. Her duty was to dance infectiously for 65 minutes in front of the drummers, using her legs to drive their rhythm while judges assessed the school's parade.© Provided by Associated Press Transgender godmother Camila Prins gets her make up done prior to performing for Colorado do Bras samba school in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020. At a Carnival party in Sao Paulo state when just 11 years of age, Prins had her first realization she wanted to be a woman, when, like the other boys, she was finally allowed to dress like a girl as part of the burlesque festivities. On Saturday, she became the first transgender woman to lead the drum section of a top samba school in either Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro's world famous parades. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

“Gorgeous women wanted to be here. I'm very excited because this shows we can be anywhere. We can be godmother of the drummers, we can be owners of a samba school,” Prins told The Associated Press before the parade. “Soon they will see many other transgender girls, who will find it easier than I did.”

Colorado do Brás, which rose to Sao Paulo's top samba league only two years ago, made a bold decision in picking Prins for the role, despite Brazil's Carnival being a party at which few things have never been tried.

Transgender people remain something of a taboo among Brazilians, even in Sao Paulo, the country’s most cosmopolitan city and host to the world’s largest gay pride parade. Brazil has more slayings of transvestites and transgender people than any country in the world. In 2019, 124 were killed, 21 of them in Sao Paulo state.

As godmother of the drum section, Prins teamed up with a drum queen who has a similar role, and together they worked to dazzle fans in the Sambadrome bleachers with their beauty and sex appeal. Prins said she was counting on her penetrating brown eyes, long blond hair, strong legs, open smile and imposing breasts to help win points from the judges.

© Provided by Associated Press Transgender godmother Camila Prins gets her make up done prior to performing for Colorado do Bras samba school in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020. At a Carnival party in Sao Paulo state when just 11 years of age, Prins had her first realization she wanted to be a woman, when, like the other boys, she was finally allowed to dress like a girl as part of the burlesque festivities. On Saturday, she became the first transgender woman to lead the drum section of a top samba school in either Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro's world famous parades. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Colorado do Brás finished the 2019 parade in 11th place, only two spots above the cutoff for being relegated back to a lower league. Directors of the samba school decided to try for something different this year, since the group has fewer resources than richer samba schools. Its floats and costumes were clearly less luxurious than the main challengers for the title.

Keila Simpson, president of Brazil's National Association of Transvestites and Transsexuals, was happy Prins secured her prominent Carnival role, and said their community aims to make cases like hers the new normal.

"We have to be proud of Camila and hope her symbolic message allows us to think of reducing violence against trans people. Why can people celebrate her at the Sambadrome while trans people on the street are subject to violence?" Simpson said. “We don't have data, but there are many violent cases against us during Carnival. Because there's more of us outside, there's more attacks.”

© Provided by Associated Press Transgender godmother Camila Prins from the Colorado do Bras samba school performs during a Carnival parade in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2020. Prins entered the parade grounds, in a costume of feathers that displayed her sinuous body, fulfilling a dream nearly three decades old. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Sao Paulo is trying to root out persecution of LGBT people during Carnival, and this year set up 20 tents spread among major street parties to handle cases of violence against the community. Psychologists, police officers and social workers are on hand until Wednesday for revelers who are victimized.

English teacher Alessandra Salvador, a transgender woman who encouraged revelers to come to the city hall tent at the LGBT street party Minhoqueens, said she was excited by Prins' selection.

"I don't even watch parades that much, but this year I will when she is on,” Salvador said. “It is good to see one of us being talked up. We don't get it so often. If we don't get that in Carnival, we won't get it anywhere else."

© Provided by Associated Press Transgender godmother Camila Prins poses for pictures prior to performing for Colorado do Bras samba school in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020. Prins entered Sao Paulo's Carnival parade grounds, in a costume of feathers that displayed her sinuous body, fulfilling a dream nearly three decades old. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

It’s been a long road for Prins to reach the big leagues. She has worked as a professional dancer for 20 years and, though she lives in a small town in Switzerland with her husband, practices her steps at home all year and listens to samba incessantly. As Carnival nears, she splits her dance routine with ab workouts and squats at a gym, then makes her annual return to Brazil. 

© Provided by Associated Press Transgender godmother Camila Prins from the Colorado do Bras samba school performs during a Carnival parade in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2020. Prins entered the parade grounds, in a costume of feathers that displayed her sinuous body, fulfilling a dream nearly three decades old. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Prins’ first time dancing as a samba school’s godmother came in 2018, in the second division of Sao Paulo's Carnival league. And it wasn't easy.


“Many people turned their backs, because they thought I shouldn't be there. They thought it was a role for a woman,” Prins said. “Little by little I won them over with a lot of respect and true dancing.”

Prins said her friends in Switzerland feared for her because of the increase in violence against transgender people, and because of the rise of far-right political groups in Brazil. She said she was worried about an increase in hateful comments aimed at LGBT people since President Jair Bolsonaro took office Jan. 1, 2019, but she planned to keep her smile and march on.

Just before midnight, when Colorado do Brás finally started its parade, a TV Globo reporter approached a tearful Prins in front of her drummers. She was already the most talked about of all 2,200 members of the samba school, even more than eight young topless women dressed as “goddesses of the sea."

“I feel so blessed this is happening. I came here to hold my banner and dance samba to the face of prejudice, for all the LGBT community,” she said. “Trans girls, I am sure your day will come, too. I am just the first, many more of you will follow.”

Sea Shepherd says it was fired upon by poachers in Mexico


Pete Thomas
2/10/2020

The crew of a vessel involved in a campaign to protect the critically endangered vaquita porpoise in Mexico says it was fired upon Sunday by poachers. 

© File Photo File Photo

Capt. Jacqueline Le Duc of the M/V Sharpie says in the accompanying video that her crew was surrounded twice by angry fishermen in the Sea of Cortez, and that at one point crew members heard what sounded like gun shots.

Viewers can hear the possible reports of weapons at 49 seconds. Subsequently, when the footage is slowed, viewers can see splashes, possibly from bullets, well short of the ship. Nobody was injured during the confrontation.

Video player from: YouTube (Privacy Policy)

"It just shows how aggressive the poachers are here, and it proves to us that they are armed, and that we need to take every [skiff] that we come across seriously, because we have no idea what they're capable of," Le Duc says.

The M/V Sharpie is one of four Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessels working in conjunction with Mexico to patrol a vast area in the northern Sea of Cortez, or Gulf of California, and remove gill nets set by fisherman to snag a type of fish called totoaba.

© File Photo File Photo Vaquita image courtesy of Tom Jefferson/NOAA

Totoaba swim bladders are sold on the black market in China for up to $10,000 per bladder, and illegal fishing operations inside the Vaquita Refuge are directed largely by Mexican drug cartels. The nearly invisible gill nets pose a grave danger to vaquita, whose numbers are said to be fewer than 20.

The skiffs, referred to as pangas, are speedy and not easy to detect. Their crews set gill nets inside protected waters at night and hope to retrieve them before they can be found by authorities.

Sea Shepherd, whose ships typically have Mexican authorities on board, have retrieved several illegal nets since it launched Operation Milagro in 2015.

Monday morning's encounter was not the first scary confrontation involving angry fishermen. In January 2019 Sea Shepherd captured footage of fishermen racing alongside the M/V Farley Mowat, hurling objects and attempting to foul the ship's propellers with nets.

The vaquita porpoise, the world's smallest cetacean, is endemic to the northern Sea of Cortez. The estimated size of the vaquita population in 1997 was 600, but they've been in sharp decline for decades, thanks mostly to the use of indiscriminate gill nets.

-Tom image is courtesy of Sea Shepherd; vaquita image is courtesy of Tom Jefferson/NOAA

HOW YOUNG LATINOS DELIVERED NEVADA TO “TÍO BERNIE”

Ana Maria Archila reacts, overwhelmed by the large turnout for Bernie Sanders during the caucus at Desert Pines High School in Las Vegas, Nev., on Feb. 22, 2020. Photo: Krystal Ramirez for The Intercept

Aída Chávez February 22 2020, 6:31 p.m.

ON SATURDAY, caucus-goers began gathering around 10 a.m. at the Desert Pines High School in Las Vegas, Nevada. It had started raining early in the morning — a rare occurrence in Las Vegas — and didn’t lighten up until the rain stopped in the early afternoon.

The high school, whose mascot is a jaguar, is located in a predominantly Latino, working-class neighborhood. Almost all the caucus-goers were people of color. The school served as the caucus site for 12 precincts, divided between the cafeteria and the gym. None of the caucuses were very crowded; a precinct chair guessed that it was due to the heavy rainstorm earlier that morning — giant puddles spotted the courtyard — and huge early-voter turnout, with some 75,000 votes across the state coming early, compared with a total 86,000 people who caucused in 2016.

Sen. Bernie Sanders was projected as the winner early by multiple outlets, with former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg vying for second place. By Sunday night, with 88 percent of precincts reporting, Sanders led every other candidate with 47 percent of the county convention delegates. Biden is a distant second, ending up with around 21 percent of state-level delegates. And entrance polls showed that Sanders was the strong favorite among Latinos, earning 53 percent of their votes.

After the debacle of the Iowa caucuses, observers looked to Nevada with trepidation, but Sanders’s campaign remained focused on its major strategy of mobilizing Latino voters, who comprise nearly 30 percent of the state’s population. In the polls leading up to the caucuses, Sanders not only had an overall lead, but he was also the candidate with the greatest share of Latino support, at 33 percent. While Sanders’s polling numbers had remained consistent since the summer, he benefited from a slip by Biden, who was leading among Latino Nevadans at 34 percent in June but fell to 22 percent support this month. In 2016, Sanders received 53 percent of the Latino vote in Nevada.



Voters, including Dan and Elvia Baca, check in for the Nevada Democratic Party caucuses at Desert Pines High School in Las Vegas on Feb. 22, 2020.Photos: Krystal Ramirez for The Intercept

This year, Sanders redoubled his efforts to win their votes, not only focusing on turnout, but also organizing specifically for the caucuses. Those efforts — such as holding trainings in Spanish and providing translation services at the caucuses — appear to have paid off. One such training — for the “Strip” caucuses located on Las Vegas’s famous main drag so that hotel and casino workers can attend — took place Thursday night at the offices of Make the Road Action, an immigrant-rights group. Conducted entirely in Spanish, a young volunteer explained what a caucus is and how it works. The group concluded the training with a mock caucus, where they voted between prominent Sanders surrogates such as rappers Cardi B and Killer Mike.

In his victory speech from San Antonio, Texas, Sanders highlighted the support his campaign got from the group. “I wanna thank Make the Road and all of the grassroots organizations that helped us win there,” he said.


Related
Bernie Sanders’s Secret to Attracting Latino Support: Talking to Them


Sanders’s win is also thanks to young Latinos like 19-year-old Christopher Santoyo, who told The Intercept that he’s been volunteering for Sanders since he was 15 and worked to convince his family to caucus for the candidate.

“At first, they actually didn’t like him,” Santoyo said. “But I think based off the fact that I’ve been so involved in his campaign, and I’m directly reaching out to them telling them to vote, they’re supporting Bernie Sanders.” He walked some of his family into early-voting locations and said he now has elder relatives from coast to coast supporting Sanders.


Voters wait for the tally at the caucus at Desert Pines High School in Las Vegas. Sanders supporters are gathered on the left, while on the right was the sole supporter for Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.

Photo: Krystal Ramirez for The Intercept


When asked whether he thought other young people are convincing their parents to vote Sanders, Santoyo said, “One hundred percent.”

“I think these ideas are so radical to them. Like free college or a Green New Deal, Medicare for All. And then when you actually have a serious conversation as to seeing it through our lens, they really start to change.”

“A lot of them, especially my family specifically, they’re Latino so they listen to Telemundo, Univisión, and more corporate media. And they kind of echo those talking points. But when I fight back on it, they’re like, ‘Oh wow, you’re right,’” Santoyo said. “If you really speak to them, their mind will change.”

While cable networks were wrapping their heads around Sanders’s lead (Chris Matthews compared Sanders’s win to France’s invasion by the Nazi army on MSNBC), the mood at the actual caucuses was one of hope.




Voters gather for the Nevada Democratic Party caucuses at Desert Pines High School in Las Vegas, including Angelica Romero, left/top, and Ana Maria Archila, right/bottom.Photos: Krystal Ramirez for The Intercept


Belén Sisa, the Latino press secretary for Sanders, and Ana Maria Archila, co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy whose political arm endorsed Sanders, both teared up on the sidelines at Desert Pines as the majority of caucus-goers at one of the precincts huddled for Sanders.

“There are like a vast majority of people sitting in the Bernie side of the caucus,” Archila told me. “Brown people, mostly, who believe that a new world is possible, that it is entirely within our reach to have health care and free college and to end deportations, and I’m so moved by the hopefulness of people in a moment of so much darkness, and that’s why I’m crying.”



Listen to what @AnaMariaArchil2 of Center for Popular Democracy Action
said when I asked her why she was crying at one of the Nevada caucuses pic.twitter.com/4MxsSvZCFP— aída chávez (@aidachavez) February 22, 2020


For Pablo Montoya, 28, a first-generation Mexican American and the first of his family to vote, the caucus was an opportunity to represent the entire Latino community. “Basically what I’m trying to do as well is to give a voice to the Latino population as well,” he said, “to the Dreamers, to DACA.” Montoya supports Sanders, with Warren as his second choice.

Montoya wants to remake the Democratic Party — and he’s optimistic about the outcome in Nevada. “Basically, I’m focusing my choices right now for the people who are more focused on helping millennials at the moment,” he said, dismissing other candidates like Biden as the party’s past. “I think Bernie and Warren are ready to start a new Democratic Party, with new beliefs, with a new set of rules. And I really think we’re at a point where we can make that happen.”

Update: February 23, 2020

Culinary Workers Bucked Their Leadership by Backing Bernie Sanders in Nevada. Here’s What They Knew.

Richard (RJ) EskowFebruary 23 2020

Supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders cheer as members of the Culinary Workers Union watch a Democratic presidential caucus at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino on Feb. 22, 2020, in Las Vegas.
Photo: John Locher/AP

DESPITE A HIGH-PROFILE battle with the leadership of Nevada’s powerful Culinary Workers Union leading into the caucuses on Saturday, Bernie Sanders emerged with a decisive victory — even dominating other candidates among culinary workers themselves, according to entrance surveys.

The big fear expressed by union leadership was the loss of the health care plan workers fought for several years to achieve. But union members who caucused for Sanders against the advice of their leadership may have been better analysts of their own financial system than pundits expected: Indeed, if Sanders does manage to enact his Medicare for All plan as it’s written, their coverage will improve.

A review of the Culinary Union’s health plan documents, along with other data sources, shows that it’s done an excellent job under difficult circumstances. The review also shows that the union’s members would be much better off under Medicare for All, and that this plan — like virtually every plan — is held back by deep flaws in today’s health care system.

First, the backstory: The Culinary Union’s Local 226 administers an employer-funded health plan called the Culinary Health Fund, or CHF for its Las Vegas members. Union leaders reacted angrily when Sanders, at a town hall, told its members that their employers would save $12,000 per employee under Medicare for All, and that they’d see that money in their paychecks. They fired back again after a barrage of online criticism from Sanders supporters.

“Workers should have the right to choose to keep the healthcare Culinary Union members have built, sacrificed for, and went on strike for 6 years, 4 months, and 10 days to protect,” union leader Geoconda Argüello-Kline said in a statement.

The union is proud of its health plan, and understandably so. They fought hard for it, and its coverage outdoes most employer-funded plans. Still, the union’s members would be much better off under Medicare for All. The same is true for most, and probably all, of today’s union plans. So why are so many people demanding the “choice” to keep them — especially if that means preserving some of the worst flaws in today’s system?

The Culinary Health Fund Has Done Good Work

The union’s plan, as well as the infrastructure it has built, are impressive.

The plan runs its own well-regarded clinics, and some doctors are salaried rather than paid by fee-for-service. This reduces insurance profit-taking (the plan likely has some form of reinsurance for especially costly cases) and removes incentives for physicians to over-treat, a problem that’s likely to get worse as investors and hospitals continue to buy up medical practices.

Workers don’t make premium contributions from their paychecks. That doesn’t mean the plan is “free.” Most economists believe employers compensate for benefit costs by reducing wages. But it does add a level of predictability to workers’ household budgets.

This puts the Fund’s members well ahead of the curve. The Kaiser Family Foundation’s 2019 survey of employer benefits found that 5 percent of workers in large firms, and 31 percent in smaller firms, pay no portion of their premiums. For those that do pay a premium, the average worker with employer-based insurance paid $1,242 for single coverage and $6,015 for family coverage.

There are no deductibles in this plan, either, which means members don’t need to pay a certain amount themselves before coverage kicks in. Here, too, they’re doing well compared to most other workers. The Kaiser survey reports that 82 percent of workers with employer health insurance have a deductible, and that the average deductible for single coverage is $1,655 (rising to $2,271 in small firms).

Copays (a flat rate per visit or treatment) and coinsurance (where the patient pays a percentage of the cost) are another area of out-of-pocket expenses. Here, too, the CHF plan beats most employer coverage. There are also no copayments or coinsurance for in-network primary care or some forms of specialty care. When these costs occur, copays are typically $25 for primary doctors and $40 per visit for specialists, and coinsurance is typically in the 18 percent range. These and other patient costs are relatively modest when they occur, when compared with other such plans.

There are copayments for in-network hospital and outpatient facility care, but there is no coinsurance. Again, the plan is ahead of the curve. Two-third of covered workers in the U.S. must pay coinsurance in these facilities, at an average rate of 20 percent. That can add up extremely fast.

But its members could do better.

Even this above-average plan falls seriously short of the coverage its members would receive under Medicare for All.

The maximum amount CHF members could pay out-of-pocket for their own care is $6,350 per person per year, $12,700 per family. That means households covered by the plan are not protected from financial catastrophe.

If the coverage is that good, how could they incur those expenses? First, the benefits listed above are for in-network services, and it can be challenging for working people to find in-network providers. They may have a preexisting doctor relationship, or may find themselves taken to an out-of-network hospital after an accident. (Provider access is limited in Las Vegas, but that can cut both ways when it comes to finding in-network care.)

The employee plan summary warns, “Be aware, your PPO network provider might use a Non-PPO provider for some services (such as labwork). Check with your provider before you get services.”

That’s not always top of mind for working people who are sick or injured and may need immediate treatment.

In addition, the plan only waives coinsurance and other costs up to “100% of allowable charges.” What charges are allowable is determined by the plan and while in-network providers cannot bill patients for the difference, this can create serious problems in some circumstances.

Provider choice is even more strictly limited for other forms of care. For example, the Culinary Health Fund provides some of its coverage solely as “capitated services.” This is an arrangement where a medical center or other provider serves members on a “per-capita” basis. Plan materials warn that, “If you need a capitated service, you can only visit the capitated provider for that service.” That is as strict as it gets, and it covers a number of grave conditions. If, for example, you have a form of blood cancer and want to see a specialist who is not part of the plan, this says that you can’t.

These programs typically give health providers a financial incentive to keep costs down. Although contracts normally have some provisions regarding outcomes too, that’s a source for concern.

The fund’s capitated service programs include “blood disorder & cancer services,” “cardiology,” “high-risk pregnancy,” and “mental health & addictions.” These specialties routinely deal with life-threatening conditions for patients and families who are already under extreme duress.

Shadow Work

The Culinary Health Fund plan imposes another major burden on its enrollees, and it’s one that virtually all private-sector health plans in this country place on their members: There is a lot of paperwork and legwork.

The need to find in-network providers is only the beginning. The plan’s “Forms and Information” web page alone contains more than 100 links. Although some of those links offer employees assistance and education, a lot of administrative functions are represented. They include a set of 10 documents on plan provisions and limitations, a “Co-payment Book” listing out-of-pocket costs for various services and providers, and a set of 12 forms. One of them, the “appeals form,” lists 11 categories for appeal including “late filing,” “maximum benefit,” “no prior authorization,” “non-covered service or supply,” and “non-PPO to non-PPO referral.”

Prior authorization is required for a number of services, as well as for some medications and more costly medical equipment. This places a burden on both patient and doctor.

Philosopher Ivan Illich coined the term “shadow work” to describe the enormous amount of unpaid labor that people are called upon to perform, inside and outside the home. The administrative burden reflected in these forms is one more category of shadow work that Culinary Health Fund members, and most of us in the current system, are called upon to perform. For a union whose members work hard, often for low wages, this burden must not be overlooked.

Diagnosis: Precarity

One form of shadow work that plan members must carry out reflects the economic and health insecurity imposed on them by the current system. If union members don’t work enough hours in any given two months (240 hours), they are required to pay the cost of their health coverage themselves if they want to keep it.

It’s not a simple process. They must report their hours for those months, use an online calculator to determine how many hours they are short, and then pay a per-hour fee for those hours. If they are short in January, for example, they will need to pay by April 30 to keep coverage through the months of May and June. If their employers failed to report their hours accurately (something employers have a financial incentive to do), there’s an additional process to address that.

Workers must then pay a premium of $4.74 for each lost hour of work. Employees who already live in financial precarity due to unpredictable hours are faced with an additional challenge: either paying an additional cost after working a short month, or take their chances and go without coverage. And since they already worked shorter hours during that period, they by definition have less money to make those payments.

Plan Comparison

Here are some of the advantages Fund members would gain by switching to Medicare for All:

Plan members would no longer pay any copayments or deductibles.

Plan members would now be able to see any provider they choose, without financial penalty.

Plan members would not have to wonder whether their provider has a financial incentive to provide less treatment (though they would conceivably have to worry about over-treatment).

Plan members would no longer have to fear the insurance-related expense, uncertainty, and paperwork associated with fewer work hours in a month. Their coverage would no longer depend on their work status.

All that “shadow work” would go away.

They would be protected from financial harm caused by the need for medical care.

They would still be insured if they, for some reason, no longer held their union job.

But would plan members really gain $12,000 in wages?

It’s not clear where the $12,000 figure came from, but the Sanders Medicare for All proposal would require employers to return any savings in health care costs back to their employees in wages or other benefits.

It’s hard to know for certain what the employers in this plan are currently paying for health care coverage. Matt Bruenig of People’s Policy Project annualized the $4.74 per hour “Self Pay” charge and estimated the total cost of their coverage at $9,859 per year.

That’s not impossible. Survey data from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that average PPO premiums in 2018 were $7,149 for single coverage and $20,324 for family coverage. A typical split of roughly 50/50 between single and family coverage gives us $13,736 as an average premium.

But there are adjustments to be made and unknowns to consider. Workers in the Fund may be younger than average. That would make them both healthier and more likely to be single than the average employee. But their plan is also more generous than the average.

If we shift from a 50/50 split of single to family coverage to 75/25 percent single, we wind up with an average premium of $10,442 for the Culinary Fund plan — not far from Bruenig’s figure. But if we add in the cost of the plan’s more generous benefits, we might find ourselves back with the original, higher figure. The union probably doesn’t take profits off the top like insurers do. But it does use a third-party administrator, Zenith American, to pay claims, and the plan’s administrators add another layer of expense.

Without more information, a decent range for their per-employee costs is $9,859 to $13,736.

Now for the savings. The Sanders plan charges employers a 7 percent payroll tax. The average annual salary for all “Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations” in Nevada was $26,500, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The plan’s unionized, Las Vegas-based members almost certainly earn more, raising payroll costs. But they only need to work roughly three quarters of the full-time work hours in a month to retain their employer-funded coverage, which brings the cost back down.

Weighing all that (have I lost you yet?), let’s assume that the average yearly salary for a covered worker in the Fund plan is $32,000, making the average payroll tax $2,240. Our estimate — with limited data! — is that employers would save between $8,202 and $11,496 per employee per year under Medicare for All. That money would be returned to workers under Bernie’s plan.

Back to the beef: The higher number is close to Bernie’s $12,000, but the lower number clearly isn’t. Still, it’s a very decent chunk of change for most working people. Looking only from the perspective of workers, not union leaders who oversee the fund, it’s hard to understand the anger. Indeed, there may not be much, at least among the rank and file, judging from the results of the caucuses.

Why Do Some Union Leaders Push Back Against Medicare for All?

Then why was there such a furious response? The health centers administered by the plan have a strong reputation, and they could be funded and maintained under the Sanders plan. The union could also design other services, and could offer them to its members, their employers, or the single-payer system itself. So why the pushback?

David Dayen provides some political and institutional context for the Culinary Union’s response, but the heat isn’t coming from Las Vegas alone. As Reuters reported in August 2019, AFL-CIO head Richard Trumka said, “You can’t ask the American worker, who sacrificed wages and everything, to simply say: ‘Okay, I’ll accept this plan here.’”

That sounds a lot like the sunk-cost fallacy. Most workers probably would accept a plan that gives them better benefits, regardless of past history.

According to Reuters, Trumka also noted that “some union plans likely provide more benefits than Medicare.” That’s not accurate. Medicare for All has better benefits than today’s Medicare, and a side-by-side comparison with the CHF plan suggests it probably outperforms even the best union plan.

That is probably why other union leaders, like the SEIU’s Mary Kay Henry and Association of Flight Attendants-CWA’s Sara Nelson, support Medicare for All. The advocacy group Labor for Single Payer lists 21 unions who support it. But the controversy lingers, kept alive in part by politicians who oppose Medicare For All.

Now, perhaps the union believes it’s unreasonable to expect Sanders’s Medicare for All plan to be enacted as written, and that some of the generosity will be stripped out as it is whittled down to some version of a public option. That’s not an unreasonable concern, but in such a scenario, the fear they expressed — the loss of their private insurance — would be safely off the table.

WEINSTEIN FOUND GUILTY

Photos: 52nd Feast of the Hunters' Moon

1/37 SLIDES

 © Nikos Frazier | Journal & Courier

Brad Belcher of Danville, Ind. answers questions about his Kentucky Rifle after a demonstration during the 52nd Feast of the Hunters' Moon, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2019, at Fort Ouiatenon in West Lafayette. Belcher first came to the Feast in 1977 as a student and Purdue University and hasn't missed one since.

                                    A group of musicians perform as they walk around during the 52nd Feast of the Hunters' Moon, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2019, at Fort Ouiatenon in West Lafayette.


Niagara River Iroquis lead a game of lacrosse during the 52nd Feast of the Hunters' Moon, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2019, at Fort Ouiatenon in West Lafayette.




A worker prepares Croquignoles during the 52nd Feast of the Hunters' Moon, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2019, at Fort Ouiatenon in West Lafayette. 

The Northwest Territory Alliance performs a tactical demonstration during the 52nd Feast of the Hunters' Moon, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2019, at Fort Ouiatenon in West Lafayette.


A reenactor rows in a canoe during the 52nd Feast of the Hunters' Moon, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2019, at Fort Ouiatenon in West Lafayett