ZIONIST HACKERS

AP Source: NSO Group spyware used to hack State employees

By ALAN SUDERMAN, ERIC TUCKER and FRANK BAJAK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The phones of 11 U.S. State Department employees were hacked with spyware from Israel's NSO Group, the world's most infamous hacker-for-hire company, a person familiar with the matter said Friday.

The employees were all located in Uganda and included some foreign service officers, said the person, who was not authorized to speak publicly about an ongoing investigation. Some local Ugandan employees of the department appear to have been among the 11 hacked, the person said.

The hacking is the first known instance of NSO Group's trademark Pegasus spyware being used against U.S. government personnel.

It was not known what individual or entity used the NSO technology to hack into the accounts, or what information was sought.

“We have been acutely concerned that commercial spyware like NSO Group software poses a serious counterintelligence and security risk to U.S. personnel,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at briefing Friday.

Senior researcher John Scott-Railton of Citizen Lab, the public-interest sleuths at the University of Toronto who have been tracking Pegasus infections for years, called the discovery a giant wake-up call for the U.S. government about diplomatic security.

“For years we have seen that diplomats around the world are among targets,” he said, “and it looks like the message had to be brought home to the U.S. government in this very direct and unfortunate way. There is no exceptionalism when it comes to American phones in diplomats' pockets.”

News of the hacks, which were first reported by Reuters, comes a month after the U.S. Commerce Department blacklisted NSO Group, barring U.S. technology from being used by the company. And Apple sued NSO Group last week seeking to effectively shut down its hacking of all iPhones and other Apple products, calling the Israeli company “amoral 21st century mercenaries.”

The State Department employees were hacked on their iPhones, the person familiar with the matter said.

NSO Group said in a statement that after being asked Thursday about the Ugandan phones “we immediately shut down all the customers potentially relevant to this case,” but did not say who the customers were. The company said its spying technology is blocked from hacking phones based in the U.S. and is only sold to licensed customers.

If the allegations turn out to be true “they are a blunt violation” of contract terms and NSO Group “will take legal action against these customers,” it added.

In announcing the lawsuit, Apple sent out notifications globally to people whose iPhones were hacked with Pegasus in countries ranging from El Salvador to Poland. The targeted State Department employees were among them.

Apple declined comment Friday on the Uganda hacks.

Marketed to governments for use solely against terrorists and criminals, Pegasus has been abused by NSO customers to spy on human rights activists, journalists and politicians from Saudi Arabia to Mexico, including such high-profile targets as the fiancee of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist murdered in his country’s consulate in Istanbul.

NSO Group has been broadly denounced for allowing such targeting, and its placement on the Commerce Department’s "entity list” last month was the first time a company outside of China had been added over human rights violations, said Kevin Wolf, an attorney at Akin Gump and former top commerce official in the Obama administration.

Analysts wonder whether NSO Group can survive financially under such circumstances. Last week, Moody’s downgraded NSO Group’s financial outlook to negative, saying it risked defaulting on more than $300 million in loans as a result of “high uncertainty” of its ability to sell new licenses. It said NSO Group, which is privately held, has about 750 employees with 60 customers in more than 35 countries

The impact on companies blacklisted by the Commerce Department, about half of which are Chinese, is often far broader than barring them from using U.S. technology. Wolf said many companies choose to avoid doing business with them completely “in order to eliminate the risk of an inadvertent violation” and the legal costs of analyzing whether they can.

NSO Group was asked by The Associated Press prior to Friday’s news whether it could survive as long as it is on the entity list. While not directly responding, it said it was “working on all appropriate channels to reverse the Department of Commerce’s decision.”

The company again claimed that it does not operate the Pegasus command-and-control system that remotely manages hacks “and has no access to the data collected by its customers.” Cybersecurity researchers who have closely tracked NSO’s spyware dispute that claim. They say NSO’s government clients are incapable of running the online infrastructure and their sleuthing has confirmed centralized control of post-infection operations.

Apple’s lawsuit added major heft to a Big Tech legal onslaught against NSO Group. Facebook sued it in 2019 for allegedly hacking its globally popular encrypted WhatsApp messaging app. Last month, a U.S. federal appeals court ruled that the case could go forward, rejecting NSO’s claim it should be thrown out because it is a “sovereign entity.”

___

Suderman reported from Richmond, Va., and Bajak from Boston. Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Energy companies accused of bid rigging and racketeering in US lawsuit

Lindsay Fendt for Searchlight New Mexico - 

A cybersecurity company filed a $110m lawsuit in New York this week, accusing the Spanish global energy company Iberdrola and its US subsidiary Avangrid of bid rigging and racketeering.

The 72-page federal court complaint outlines an elaborate scheme by Iberdrola executives to generate millions of dollars in wasteful equipment expenditures in order to turn a profit from its utility customers in New York, Connecticut and Maine.


© Photograph: Sergio Pérez/ReutersIberdrola came to prominence about 20 years ago with investments in large wind farms, natural gas and hydroelectric power. In addition to Avangrid, it holds subsidiaries throughout Europe, Brazil and Mexico.

The lawsuit further alleges that much of this equipment was never put to use and is instead collecting dust in warehouses across the region.

Iberdrola came to prominence about 20 years ago with investments in large wind farms, natural gas and hydroelectric power. In addition to Avangrid, it holds subsidiaries throughout Europe, Brazil and Mexico.

But in recent years, the company has come under scrutiny. Two of the Iberdrola defendants named in the lawsuit, Antonio Asenjo and Enrique Victorero, are currently under investigation in Spain for alleged corporate espionage and fraud.

Legislators and environmentalists in the U S have attacked it for price-gouging tactics, citing Maine’s soaring electricity bills and frequent, long-lasting outages ever since Avangrid assumed control of the state’s utility company.

This latest lawsuit, brought by Security Limits Inc, comes amid a series of high-profile utility malfeasance cases in the US, involving bribery and dark money groups used to influence elections and public officials. The largest of these criminal cases, a $60m alleged bribery scheme in Ohio this summer led to the expulsion of the state’s speaker of the House and a $230m fine levied against the utility, FirstEnergy.

The complaint also comes as Avangrid is looking to expand its operations to the American West by merging with New Mexico’s largest utility, PNM.

Mariel Nanasi, executive director of the Santa Fe-based environmental group New Energy Economy, has long been an ardent opponent of the merger, often voicing concerns about Iberdrola’s criminal investigations in Spain and the potential implications for New Mexico.

“Fraud, bid rigging, jacking up customer rates by making phantom capital expenditures – there is a pattern of misconduct that has emerged,” she said. “Avangrid and Iberdrola act outside the law and the public be damned.”

The complaint was filed in the southern district court of New York by lawyers representing Paulo Silva, a cybersecurity expert and CEO of Security Limits Inc. In it, lawyers describe events in the nearly two years that Silva spent working as a subcontractor for Avangrid, designing and building secure data centers for its utilities.

Silva alleges that in 2018 he complained about overspending on equipment. Shortly after, Avangrid executives began manipulating the bidding process and steering lucrative contracts toward five companies with ties to Iberdrola, he added.

According to the complaint, these companies were charged with buying large amounts of equipment for new data centers, for which they charged Avangrid markups of 40% or more. According to the complaint, much of this equipment was never put to use, but instead was stored in a warehouse, which had to be expanded three times over the course of several years, according to the lawsuit.

Iberdrola and Avangrid “actually paid to have structures erected to house the dust-gathering hardware that lacked any discernible purpose apart from serving as a vehicle for the [companies’] accounting misfeasance”, the complaint states.

In response to the complaint, Joanie Griffin, an Avangrid spokeswoman, described Silva as a disgruntled former subcontractor, bitter that he did not win bids from the company.

“The allegations and claims have no merit, and the company will vigorously defend itself,” she said.

The alleged benefit to Avangrid and Iberdrola derives from a half-century-old utility regulation strategy designed to encourage the development of critical infrastructure. These regulations allow utilities to charge customers for the cost of capital expenditures – long-term investments in things like equipment – plus an additional 7 to 15 percent, which the utility keeps as profit.

Under these regulations, Avangrid was allegedly able to charge its customers on their electrical bills for every piece of over-priced and unused equipment – while greatly enriching its shareholders. While the civil complaint does not include an exhaustive review of Avangrid’s alleged unnecessary purchases, the company’s SEC filings show that when the alleged scheme took place, Avangrid increased its capital expenditures by nearly $1 billion.

As technology has changed and improved, utility watchdogs have lambasted such regulations, saying they create a perverse incentive for companies to invest in unneeded equipment, while ignoring important maintenance and operational expenses. In Iberdrola’s case, the complaint says that the company over-purchased certain equipment, while also leaving major lapses in the utility’s cybersecurity. These lapses left critical utility infrastructure unprotected from things like cyberattacks, the complaint asserts.

“The [scheme], and its inherent waste, deprived SLI of valuable contracts it would have otherwise been awarded in an unrigged bidding process, wasted millions of rate-payers’ dollars, and wrongly enriched the [scheme’s] participants,” lawyers concluded in the complaint.

Years After Flint Water Crisis, Michigan Senate Approves Billions to Fix State Water Systems

Aaron McDade - 

© Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images


Years after the onset of the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, the state's Senate unanimously approved over $3 billion in funding Thursday for improvements to the state's water infrastructure, The Associated Press reported.

The money would be used to fix old dams and replace lead pipes, of which Michigan has about 460,000, the third-most in the nation, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The proposal moves to Michigan's House next, which will likely discuss and vote on the package in 2022.

Of the $3.3 billion in the proposal, about $2.4 billion would come from federal funding in the form of $1.4 billion from the infrastructure law signed into law by President Joe Biden in November, and $1 billion from a pandemic-related funding law passed in March.

Republican Sen. Jon Bumstead, a sponsor of the bill, said it was "a step towards ensuring that our state water infrastructure undergoes transformational improvements that will benefit every Michigander for generations to come."

Michigan's water systems have been under public scrutiny for years since Flint, Michigan decided in 2014 to change where its drinking water came from. The move led to studies that later revealed contaminated water was sent to homes for over 18 months and caused dangerous levels of lead in the blood of children around the city.

Reports of increased lead levels in the water of Benton Harbor led to a November Environmental Protection Agency investigation that revealed several flaws in the city's water treatment facility.

The Detroit area faced flooding in June that affected thousands, which Gov. Gretchen Whitmer attributed to "old infrastructure and climate change."

For more reporting from The Associated Press, see below.

Senators initially proposed $600 million to replace service lines that can leach lead into drinking water if the supply isn't properly treated. They upped it to $1 billion following the passage of the federal infrastructure bill.

State regulations, made tougher following Flint's water crisis, generally require that every line be replaced by 2040 — which could cost $2.5 billion in today's dollars.

"This is a huge part of that," Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Tony Stamas said of the $1 billion, which is more than triple the $300 million for pipe replacements proposed by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Communities would not have to contribute matching funds to get a grant, he said.

The legislation includes $650 million in state money for a new loan fund for dam owners and $400 million for the Great Lakes Water Authority in southeastern Michigan, which provides water to nearly 40 percent of the state's population and wastewater services to nearly 30 percent.

More than $245 million of the $400 million is designated for sewer improvements.

More than one-third of the lending for dams is set aside for a task force that oversees dams and lakes in Midland and Gladwin counties, where a "500-year" flood resulted in the failure of two dams and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to property.

Other funding would help install filtered water stations inside schools, remove "forever" PFAS chemicals from abandoned sites and create special accounts to pay for emergency dam repairs. The funding also would, among other things, provide "clean water infrastructure grants," to help replace contaminated wells or connect their users to community water systems, and fund loans to address failing septic systems.

"We look forward to working with both the House and the governor's office to get this across the line," said Stamas, a Midland Republican. "We have to start somewhere."


City workers and volunteers unload a truck containing PUR water filters to residents of Hamtramck on October 26, 2021 in Hamtramck, Michigan. The state Department of Health and Human Services has begun distributing water filters and bottled water due to elevated levels of lead found in the drinking water due to old and un-maintained water pipes in the city. Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images

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Missouri commissioned, then buried, a report that found mask mandates save lives

Peter Weber - 

The office of Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) asked the state health department on Nov. 1 to study how mask mandates affected COVID-19 numbers in the state, the health department responded Nov. 3 that its analysis found they saved lives and reduced the spread of the coronavirus, and that analysis wasn't made public until nonprofit news organizations obtained it through a public records request, The New York Times reports.


© Provided by The Week

The Missouri Independent reported Wednesday that the health department's analysis found lower infection and death rates in the four areas of Missouri with mask mandates — St. Louis, St. Louis County, Kansas City, and Jackson County — from the end of April until the end of October, the peak of Missouri's Delta wave.

There are a number of variables that affect infection and death numbers, but "I think we can say with great confidence reviewing the public health literature and then looking at the results in your study that communities where masks were required had a lower positivity rate per 100,000 and experienced lower death rates," state Health Department director Donald Kauerauf told Parson in a Nov. 3 email obtained by the Independent.

The Independent's analysis found that the "masked" areas had 15.8 new COVID-19 cases a day for every 100,000 residents, versus 21.7 cases per 100,000 residents in the areas with no mask mandates, and less frequent deaths.

Parson responded to the Independent's report by attacking the reporter, calling the article "purposefully misleading," and suggesting Kauerauf also opposes mask mandates. "The governor's statement did not explain why his office chose not to publish the analysis it had requested," the Times notes.

Kauerauf hasn't publicly commented on the report, but in his first remarks as state health director in September, he said from "everything I've read, everything I've seen: masks work." A global study published Nov. 18 in the British Medical Journal found that mask-wearing reduces COVID-19 incidence by 53 percent, making it the single most effective public health measure.

St. Louis and St. Louis County still have mask mandates in place, but Kansas City and Jackson County ended theirs in early November. "In Missouri, new cases have risen from a daily average of about 1,000 in early November to more than 2,000 this month, and hospitalizations are up 32 percent over the past 14 days," the Times reports. "More than 15,540 people have died from COVID-19 in Missouri."

Missouri Governor Mike Parson Commissioned, Then Hid, a Study Showing Mask Mandates Save Lives

Vivian Kane - 4h ago
 The Mary Sue



After spending the entire COVID-19 pandemic refusing to implement a statewide mask mandate (and actively fighting cities and counties that did), Missouri Governor Mike Parson reportedly commissioned a study to look into whether mandates actually helped save lives and reduce the spread of COVID-19. And when that study came back showing that yes, they do, the governor buried it.

The study of mask mandates was conducted in early November by the state’s Department of Health and Senior Services at the request of the governor, according to reporting from the Missouri Independent. But after the analysis came in, the results were not made public or even apparently shared internally, as they were “kept out of material the department prepared for cabinet meetings.” The study was only obtained by the newspaper and the Documenting COVID-19 Project through a Sunshine Law request.

In an email that was forwarded to Parson, state health Director Donald Kauerauf wrote that while there are a lot of variables that need to be considered, it seems clear that mask mandates do have a big effect on COVID-19 cases and deaths.

“I think we can say with great confidence reviewing the public health literature and then looking at the results in your study that communities where masks were required had a lower positivity rate per 100,000 and experienced lower death rates,” Kauerauf wrote.

The analysis contained graphs showing the difference in cases as well as in death rates between areas where masks were required and areas where they were not. As this annotated version from the Documenting COVID-19 project shows, the results seem pretty clear:

When some Missouri cities reinstated their mask mandates earlier this summer, Parson tweeted that doing so was "WRONG." His attorney general Eric Schmitt went further and filed a lawsuit against cities requiring masks. Parson has argued that mask mandates "infringe on our personal liberties" and he's said, "The vaccine is how we rid ourselves of COVID-19, not mask mandates that ignore common sense."

Except Missouri ranks among the lowest vaccination rates in the country, likely thanks in no small part to Parson's role in politicizing the pandemic. And with so many people unvaccinated, the state has continued to see spikes in cases and deaths, leading counties to have to reinstate their mask mandates—which Parson then condemns, further perpetuating that politicization.

St. Louis and St. Louis County still have a mask mandate in place but Kansas City and the surrounding Jackson County ended their mandate early last month. According to the New York Times, "In Missouri, new cases have risen from a daily average of about 1,000 in early November to more than 2,000 this month, and hospitalizations are up 32 percent over the past 14 days."

It's not clear what result Parson was hoping to get from the mask mandate study or why he chose to bury these results. He denied deliberately hiding the analysis, which he received a full month ago, but did not give an explanation for his failure to release the information, nor (not that anyone would ever expect this) an apology for the entirely preventable rise in cases and deaths since he received it.

(via Missouri Independent, image: SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
The post Missouri Governor Mike Parson Commissioned, Then Hid, a Study Showing Mask Mandates Save Lives first appeared on The Mary Sue.

US Supreme Court denies lobster fishers' bid to halt environmental protections

John Kruzel - 

THE HILL

The Supreme Court on Friday denied a request by lobster fishers to halt environmental protections that restrict fishing in a large swath of the Gulf of Maine.

The application, filed earlier this week by a lobster fishers' union and two lobster fishing companies, was rejected without comment by Justice Stephen Breyer, who handles emergency matters arising from the region.

At issue are federal limits that aim to protect the North Atlantic right whale, one of the planet's most endangered species, by restricting the use of lobster traps in nearly 1,000 square miles off Maine for several months of the year. The whales are prone to becoming tangled in nets or colliding with boats.

In their Wednesday filing, the lobstering groups said the restrictions would curtail fishing by more than 100 of the state's "largest and most productive" boats.

Their application to the Supreme Court came after a Boston-based federal appeals court ruled against them last month, handing a win to environmental groups that seek to protect the endangered species.

In its November ruling, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the federal government has a "congressionally assigned task of assuring the right whales are protected from a critical risk of death."

The economy's problems are way bigger than a labor shortage. Over 12 million people want a better deal right now.

asheffey@businessinsider.com (Ayelet Sheffey,Juliana Kaplan,Andy Kiersz) - 

A "help-wanted" sign in Patchogue, New York, on August 24.

 Steve Pfost/Newsday RM/Getty Images

November's jobs report found millions of Americans were looking for better employment conditions.

Over 12 million people are either long-term unemployed, seeking work, or employed part time.

This could point to a deeper issue, in which people aren't finding the jobs that suit them.

While the latest numbers on the state of jobs in the US showed that the US was still creeping toward recovery, one thing remained consistent: The economy isn't working for millions of workers.

Even with the Delta wave easing, the number of jobs added in November was a big miss compared with expectations. On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said just 210,000 nonfarm payrolls were added in November — a far cry from the 550,000 that economists surveyed by Bloomberg forecast.

Last month, 7.4 million Americans fell into the government's official definition of being unemployed, which meant they were out of work and actively looking for a job.

Among those, 2.2 million had been unemployed for at least 27 weeks, which suggested that many prospective workers had been struggling to find a job for months.

Aside from the officially unemployed, 4.3 million Americans were employed part time because of economic reasons, like having their hours cut or being unable to find a full-time job. The 5.9 million people who weren't actively seeking work but said they wanted a job weren't seeing much improvement, either.

Add those three groups up, and at least 12.4 million Americans just weren't getting what they needed from the economy.

Additionally, the bureau said, among those unemployed but still seeking a job, the number of people marginally attached to the labor force remained relatively unchanged, at 1.6 million.

"The number of discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed that no jobs were available for them, was essentially unchanged over the month at 450,000," the bureau added.

That might seem at odds with reports of persistent labor shortages, but it could point to the deeper root issue: People do want to work, but the jobs available to them aren't the right fit — or their standards have changed.

Take leisure and hospitality, for example. Previously, the low-wage industry had been leading the hiring charge, with wages pushed up month after month. But last month, employment in the sector "changed little," according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and wages for nonsupervisory employees went down.

Some job switchers said in a survey, "Life is too short to stay in a job they weren't passionate about." Childcare crunches and COVID-19 fears also don't seem to be subsiding anytime soon as the number of daycare workers drops and a new variant makes its way through the US. All these factors suggest that labor shortages may be sticking around for quite some time, perhaps even forever.

"Labor shortages aren't going away anytime soon because the pandemic is still going on," Daniel Zhao, a senior economist at Glassdoor, told Insider. Even if employers slow hiring because of the pandemic, workers will still likely hold back on returning.

"The imbalance between supply and demand is still large enough that the reduction in available workers will mean that labor shortages are continuing," Zhao said.

Insider's Ben Winck previously reported the November jobs report could reflect Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's attempt to pursue "maximum employment," rather than "full employment," which presents a risk.

Full employment is a tactic the Fed has stood by for decades. It refers to minimizing deviations when employment is too high or too low. This time around, the Fed is looking at maximum employment — an uncharted territory that hopes to push for not just low unemployment but also inclusivity and healthy wage growth. In other words, it's getting these 12 million workers into better jobs.

But sticking with that model could cause inflation to soar — something Americans across the country are experiencing right now, especially during a holiday season. And as seen with the jobs numbers, people aren't happy about it.

'Stressed and worn thin' workers seek more fulfilling jobs, better work-life balance amid COVID-19

Charisse Jones, USA TODAY 


For Michelle Rickert, the COVID-19 pandemic gave her time to realize that while she could do it all, it was wearing her out.

The owner of a consulting business in New York City, Rickert says she decided to put work on hold last spring to focus on her family, including her children, ages 8 and 12.

"That time gave me the space to think about how I could balance things, and really I don't need to schedule meetings from 8:30 in the morning to 5,'' Rickert, 52, says of the break. "If it’s time to pick up my kids ... or I want to make breakfast or whatever it is so we can spend time together, now I make space for that."


© Aimee Gindin changed the focus of her career after

 cultivating a new passion during the pandemic.

The pandemic has spurred many workers to reevaluate their lives and the role work plays in them, leading some to set fresh boundaries, find new jobs or maintain the side hustles that got them through the shutdowns and layoffs.

►Unemployment slips: Economy adds 531,000 jobs in October as COVID cases drop, unemployment falls to 4.6%

►More and more quitting: Great Resignation sets off 'vicious cycle': As more people quit, exhausted colleagues also head for the exit

Nearly 6 in 10 American workers in an October survey by job search site LinkedIn said they had gone through a career awakening during the COVID-19 pandemic, whether it was a desire for better work-life balance, deciding to pursue a promotion, or redefining their meaning of success.

"The pandemic drove many people to reevaluate what’s most important to them in life, including not just where, and how, but why they work,'' says Catherine Fisher, LinkedIn's career expert.

The survey also found a majority of American workers who say the pandemic has altered the way they feel about their career report being less fulfilled in their current positions.

"We’re seeing that lack of fulfillment motivating people to make changes, whether they’re looking for a new job, a new career or picking up a side hustle,'' Fisher says.
'I was scheduled to the hilt'

Rickert has been in the workforce for decades.

"Like many people, I've been working since I’ve been in college, so really my go-to is ... to try to handle everything,'' she says.

Rickert was able to make it to her children's events and deal with her many other tasks, "but I was stressed and worn thin,'' she says. "If something ran over, there was a lot of pressure that something else was getting cut into. I was scheduled to the hilt.''

But as she dealt with her children's education and other concerns during the pandemic, Rickert decided to temporarily stop working, and she began to reconsider her previously frantic pace.

"The perspective that I really gained was it benefited no one,'' she says. "It didn't benefit clients, it did not benefit myself and it didn't benefit my family although I was getting everything done. During the time that I took a break and paused, my definition of success changed greatly... I needed to have more positive boundaries.''

Rickert returned to work in September, but now she tells clients "there are going to be times when I'm not available,'' she says. " We can handle what's needed before and after, but I'm going to be focused on my kids and, afterward, we can handle the rest of what we need to do.''

Her clients have been overwhelmingly supportive, she says.

"It doesn’t hinder my ability to be a high-performing partner with them," Rickert says. "It helps because I’m a happier person."

'I will never let myself get stuck ... again'

Two cats named Peanut Butter and Fluff helped Aimee Gindin blend two passions into a single career.

Her family, which lives in Sharon, Massachusetts, adopted the rescue felines last November, and Gindin began snapping their pictures during lunch breaks while working from home.

“I just thought, wouldn’t it be funny to start an Instagram account for Peanut Butter and Fluff,’’ says Gindin, 38, who was employed at the time by a marketing company that worked with cybersecurity firms and other industries. “I felt like I wanted to do something that made people feel good.''

During the pandemic, Gindin also began to reflect on how she felt stagnant in her job. As she carved out a presence on social media and burrowed into volunteer social justice work, she says she decided to pursue a job that felt more fulfilling.

A year later, her Instagram account Peanutbutter_n_fluff has 8,000 followers and, as a digital creator, Gindin earns income both from Instagram and brands that she promotes. Gindin also has a new job, heading marketing and strategy for a digital health company that supports family caregivers.

“Even though this started out as a fun hobby, seeing the success of it gave me the confidence I needed to finally switch jobs and do something that I love,’’ she says adding that her new position allows her to combine her passions for health care and marketing.

“I will never let myself get stuck in a career rut ever again,'' she adds. "The only thing holding me back was having the confidence I could make a big shift.’’
'More money than I made in my regular job'

Marcela Kartaszewicz, 46, had always loved decorating her home in Granada Hills, California, during the holidays, including creating wreaths.

So when the communications executive was laid off during the pandemic last November, she fell back on her hobby.

“My husband and I both lost our jobs,’’ she says, “so I’m locked in the house, nowhere to go, no one to see, and I have all this time and the urge to start creating things.’’

She was giving away her homemade decorations, but as friends told her they’d be willing to buy the wreaths, she decided to try selling them. Kartaszewicz took a course on how to develop a website and launched Languageofwreaths.com in September.

Kartaszewicz thought she might sell about 40 wreaths by the end of the year, but as of early November, she'd already sold 80.

“In the last two months, I made more money than I made in my regular job,’’ says Kartaszewicz, who is once again working full time. "It really was unexpected. … It’s allowing me to discover a part of myself I never explored.’’

And it's also shown her what she's made of, she says.

"I’ve learned in these crazy two years ... you have to have comfort with the unexpected and you have to be flexible,'' Kartaszewicz says. "It’s proven to me that I can survive even if I’m unemployed.''

She's not stopping. "Now,'' she says, "I have two full-time jobs."

Follow Charisse Jones on Twitter @charissejones

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Stressed and worn thin' workers seek more fulfilling jobs, better work-life balance amid COVID-19

To end poverty in America, we need to start telling the truth about poor people

Michael Tubbs - 


In 2019, when I was mayor of Stockton, California, I launched the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration, the first major guaranteed income program in any American city. The pilot provided 125 randomly selected residents with $500 per month for two years — no strings attached and no work requirements. To be eligible, an individual only had to be at least 18 years old, reside in Stockton and live in a neighborhood with a median income at or below the city’s then-median household income of $46,033.

I was motivated to try something radically different because the status quo was unacceptable to me: Stockton’s median household income was far lower than the state median of about $62,000; we were also among the worst in the nation when it came to child poverty.

The findings of our pilot were significant: Compared to the control group, the people receiving the benefit experienced significantly less income volatility, so they were able to plan, pay for unexpected expenses and pay down debt. They were also healthier, exhibited less depression and anxiety and reported enhanced well-being. Recipients spent the money on essentials like food, utilities and transportation. And full-time employment increased dramatically for residents who were part of the pilot program (from 28 percent to 40 percent) as folks were able to stop working multiple jobs and take some time to find a single, better job.

Many of these findings fly in the face of stereotypes that this nation has maintained for generations about people who are struggling, and particularly about people of color. However, for me, someone who grew up in poverty, the findings were not all that surprising. I’ve long known talent and intellect are universal, but resources and opportunities are not.

Indeed the results of giving people more resources were so positive that now more than 60 mayors across the country have committed to guaranteed income as a tool to abolish poverty, with about half already running pilots in their own cities.

We absolutely can implement bold policies on the local, state and federal levels that will dramatically change the trajectory of people’s lives, eliminate poverty and improve the nation’s productivity. But we can only achieve that kind of change if we disrupt and replace the current narrative on poverty based on racist, classist, sexist and xenophobic stereotypes. It’s a narrative that blames people for their struggles — labeling them as lazy, corrupt, unintelligent or worse — and deems them undeserving of our trust, our investment or even their own dignity.

This framing allows politicians to ignore and maintain blatantly unjust systems that keep people trapped in poverty — like jobs that pay unlivable wages or students at poor schools not having adequate, if any, access to resources like guidance counselors and extracurricular activities that affluent schools provide.

By viewing poor people as less than wealthier people — or even as disposable — actions like treating their communities as America’s dumping ground for hazardous waste and pollution will continue, all while leaving them barren of health care infrastructure.

A narrative that blames people for not rising out of poverty also permits policymakers to look the other way as so many young people are denied access or priced out of continuing education, even when we know higher education is necessary (though not a silver bullet) for advancing in today’s economy. It’s a narrative that contributes to continual mass incarceration that breaks up families and strips talent and potential from Black and brown communities.

But what would happen if we were to replace this false and destructive narrative with an authentic one that centers the experiences of people who actually live in poverty? These are people like my mother, grandmother and aunt — my “three moms,” as I refer to them in my memoir “The Deeper the Roots” — who together raised me while my father served a sentence of 25 years to life due to a draconian “Three strikes, you’re out” law. A fundamental shift in how communities like the one I grew up in are talked about would recognize the strengths, assets and dignity of individuals and families. It would look squarely at how people are set up for failure through under-resourced schools, low pay with no benefits, over policing and much more, and it would therefore create space for new policies that would, as I call it, upset the setup.

The stakes for a new narrative, new politics and new policy around poverty couldn’t be higher. That’s why I launched that seemingly radical policy pilot in Stockton and why lawmakers from both parties in cities across the U.S. are now following suit.

With approximately 37 million people in the U.S. living below the official poverty line ($26,496 for a family of four) — a woefully inadequate measure that doesn’t account for the true cost of living — we are at a pivotal moment when we will make significant progress or retreat in the face of backlash. Government assistance in response to the pandemic kept 53 million people above the poverty line in 2020, according to a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analysis of Census Bureau data. Stimulus checks (cash), expanded help with food, emergency rental assistance and extended unemployment insurance all played important roles and, in many cases, literally provided people with a lifeline. And since the child tax credit was expanded in July, 3 million children have been kept out of poverty each month, according to estimations from Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy.

Yet we already see the backlash. As the Biden administration and most Democrats work to make the child tax credit permanent through the Build Back Better Act, others are urging to include work requirements and questioning whether parents are deserving of this benefit without some kind of extra effort.

There is no harder work than raising children in poverty. Nothing demands greater effort: from advocating in schools to cobbling together transportation, child care and other essentials; dealing with dangerous health impacts from the environment; trying to keep your kids safe from state and neighborhood violence; juggling bills and multiple jobs in the formal or informal economy; and navigating byzantine bureaucracies to get a little help.

Moreover, we’ve seen that hard work doesn’t necessarily guarantee anything but more hard work. You can do everything right and still not receive the promised payoff. The proverb “If you work hard and play by the rules, anyone can make it” just isn’t true.

What is true is that a little assistance can go a long way — and we’ve known that for a long time. So it is past time to end paternalistic and stigmatizing policy and instead pursue bold solutions that are morally just and economically smart.

In addition to giving people cash, other bold policies include creating baby bonds so everyone has access to capital to pursue education, entrepreneurship or home ownership when they reach adulthood. The racial wealth gap didn’t happen by accident: Among the contributing factors were Black and brown people being excluded from Social Security and New Deal labor protections, barred from GI benefits, denied mortgages through redlining, targeted by job and pay discrimination and blocked from accessing capital to create, sustain or expand small businesses.

We also need to create good jobs with family-supporting wages and benefits — and if you visit any poor community in the country, that’s one of the first things they will say they want (the other likely being more resources for their schools). If the private sector can’t do it, then the government should provide a job. Call it a job guarantee or a Green New Deal (the climate change proposal includes a federal jobs guarantee) — call it whatever you want — but there is needed work to be done in many fields like elder and child care; public transit and infrastructure; building, rehabilitating and retrofitting affordable, energy-efficient housing; creating parks and green space; and more.

Finally, we will never eliminate poverty unless we create a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented people already here — the vast majority of whom are already contributing to our economy and communities every day. Citizenship is one of the clearest routes out of poverty. Compared to work authorization programs like Temporary Protected Status, it offers greater protection against exploitation by employers, ends the fear of deportation (as well as its abuse for political gain) and allows individuals and families access to support when they need it. Remember how undocumented immigrants — many of whom pay taxes and were front-line essential workers during the height of the pandemic — were deemed ineligible for stimulus checks?

How will we pay for these and other new policies? We can start by demanding — as most Americans do — that wealthy corporations and people finally pay their fair share in taxes. We can also revamp an upside-down tax code that largely rewards the already wealthy, drives economic inequality and widens racial inequities, according to Prosperity Now.

When I was a child, my mother used to say to me, “Don’t tell nobody our business.” That was based in part on a sense of shame that she and many others absorbed just for having to struggle. Since then, I’ve learned that telling the truth in fact sets us free. It did for me in my life, it has in fits and starts for our nation and it can again if we resolve to identify and dismantle the systems that create, sustain and perpetuate poverty.

It all begins with telling a new and authentic story.

PRO-LIFE IS ANTI WOMEN

Sen. Tammy Duckworth says it's 'inhumane' to require people to return to work immediately after pregnancy loss

insider@insider.com (Kelly Burch) - 

In 2018, Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois became the first US senator to give birth while in office. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

In 2018, Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois became the first sitting senator to give birth.

This summer Duckworth introduced a bill that would provide paid leave after pregnancy loss.

Duckworth recently appeared on a podcast to discuss her path to motherhood.

Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois encourages her staff members to pursue passion projects, advocating for causes that are meaningful for them. When one staff member approached Duckworth about paid family leave after pregnancy loss, Duckworth understood the cause deeply.

Duckworth had had a miscarriage while campaigning for office. But working and staying on the campaign trail meant she had no time after the loss to heal or grieve, she said.

"It's inhumane," she said on a recent episode of the podcast "Me Becoming Mom."

This summer Duckworth introduced the Support Through Loss Act, which would provide three days of paid leave to people after a pregnancy loss, failed adoption, or medical diagnosis that affects fertility. A House version of the bill was introduced by Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts. The bills have been referred to committees and haven't been voted on.

Family delayed by service

When her daughter Abigail was born in 2014, Duckworth became one of only 10 people to give birth while serving in the US House of Representatives. When her daughter Maile was born in 2018, Duckworth became the first sitting senator to give birth.

But even before she had children, Duckworth's career affected her family planning. As a helicopter pilot in the US Army Reserve, Duckworth knew that if she became pregnant she would have to stop flying for at least six months before the birth, so she delayed having children, she said.

Duckworth and her husband were starting to think more seriously about getting pregnant when Duckworth was deployed to Iraq in 2004, and they decided to try when Duckworth returned. But in November 2004, the helicopter Duckworth was flying was attacked; she was seriously injured and lost her legs. She spent the next few years recovering.

Trying to conceive at 40

Once Duckworth was able to think about having children again, she was 40. She said she tried for about a year before getting a referral to a fertility specialist.

At the time, the Department of Veterans Affairs, which provides healthcare to veterans, didn't provide fertility treatment, she said, so Duckworth went to a civilian hospital.

There, she said, a doctor met with her in the waiting room and delivered a blunt message: "You're just too old." Duckworth had less than a 5% chance of conceiving, the doctor said. Duckworth said the doctor told her to "go home and enjoy your husband."

Duckworth was resigned. But she said that after a congressional event where she spoke about how her focus on her career had cost her an opportunity to have children, a woman came up to her and suggested a doctor, who was eventually able to help Duckworth conceive.

Mom and senator

Duckworth continued to serve in Congress while going through several failed rounds of IVF. Finally, she got pregnant. She said her doctor initially recommended a C-section because of Duckworth's amputations, but she wanted to attempt a vaginal birth. She also knew she wanted an epidural.

"I've been in a lot of pain in my life," she said. "I want the painkillers."

After a long labor, the baby got stuck, and Duckworth needed an emergency C-section, she said. When she was pregnant with Maile, Duckworth had planned a C-section but had a fast, spontaneous labor and ended up delivering vaginally without any pain medications, she said.

Just 10 days after giving birth, Duckworth voted with Maile in her arms on the Senate floor.

"It meant so much to be able to cast a vote as a new mom, to do my job and be able to take care of my baby," she said.

Duckworth encouraged other women to let go of the idea of balance. "Work-life balance is a lie," she said, adding: "Women who work outside the home need to just be honest with ourselves about that and stop trying for the perfect and go for the 80% solution."

BAM!

On student-debt cancellation, AOC slams the 'ridiculous assertion' it would benefit the rich: 'Do we really think that a billionaire's child is taking student loans?'

asheffey@businessinsider.com (Ayelet Sheffey) 

US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

 SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

AOC pushed back against the argument that student-debt cancellation would benefit the rich.
Experts are split on whether student-debt cancellation would be regressive or progressive.
But many Democrats believe it would help low-income borrowers and want Biden to cancel student loans broadly.

Acore argument some make against student-debt cancellation is that it would benefit the wealthy. AOC just shut that argument down.

"I'm greatly looking forward to the Biden administration canceling student debt and no longer advancing the false narratives that student loan debt is for the privileged," New York Rep. Ocasio-Cortez said on the House floor on Thursday. "What a ridiculous assertion. Do we really think that a billionaire's child is taking student loans? Come on!"

A group of progressive Democrats, including Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley and New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman, joined Ocasio-Cortez in pushing President Joe Biden to end the $1.7 trillion student debt crisis and forgive student loans for 45 million Americans. This is a cause that many Democrats have been championing for years to help eliminate the racial wealth gap, stimulate the economy, and ensure debt is not a barrier to pursuing a higher education.

But, as Ocasio-Cortez pointed out, those against broad student-debt cancellation, like the nonprofit public policy organization Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, argue that it would be regressive and disproportionately benefit the wealthy because it would target those most likely to spend on higher education. That's an argument even Biden has used, saying during a CNN town hall in February that he is hesitant on canceling student debt broadly because it would benefit those who went to "Harvard and Yale and Penn."

However, Insider reported in June that cancelling $50,000 in student debt per borrower — which is Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's proposal — would actually be progressive, according to the think tank Roosevelt Institute.

The institute found that 61% of students with incomes of $30,000 and under who began college in 2012 graduated with student debt, compared to the only 30% of students with incomes $200,00o and higher who left school with such debt.

That's the argument progressives are going with, along with the benefits debt-cancellation would have for communities of color. Pressley said during Thursday remarks on the House floor that the disproportionate burden of student debt on Black and brown borrowers is creating "systemic barriers" to education.

"For too long, the narrative has excluded us and the unique ways in which this debt is exacerbating racial and economic inequities, compounding our gender and racial wealth gap," Pressley said. "We have to borrow at higher rates just for a shot at the same degree as our white peers."

She also thanked the president for extending the student-loan payment pause during the pandemic but said that in two months, when that pause lifts, borrowers are facing "a disastrous financial cliff" that can be prevented with student-debt cancellation.

"Failure to act would be unconscionable," Pressley said. "And so we must move with urgency as we continue the work of building a just and equitable recovery from the current economic crisis. Broad based, across the board, permanent student debt cancellation must remain front and center. The people -- the broad and diverse coalition that elected President Biden -- demand, deserve and require nothing less."