UK
Government plans to bury power lines underground in wake of Storm Arwen
THE USA NEEDS TO DO THIS TOO

Olivia Rudgard
Sat, December 11, 2021

The Government will consider putting power lines underground to make the energy system more resilient in the face of storms - Phil Noble/REUTERS

Power lines could be buried underground to preserve them from the effects of bad weather under plans being considered by the Government in the wake of Storm Arwen.

A review launched this week will examine ways to make the energy system more resilient after thousands of people in Scotland and the north of England were left without power for more than a week in the aftermath of the storm.

Ongoing National Grid projects are burying cables in National Parks and other areas valued for their natural beauty to remove the visual impact of pylons.

Campaigners called for more cables to be buried to protect them from the effects of storms.

Putting local lower-voltage cables underground can cost more than £150,000 per kilometre, with high-voltage pylon lines costing even more.

The Government said the measure would be considered as part of the review, set to report its findings in March next year.

Public ‘prepared to pay more’ on energy bills to remove pylons

Tom Fyans, the director of campaigns and policy at countryside charity CPRE, said: “Electricity pylons are one of the original blots on the landscape and surveys repeatedly show the public are prepared to pay a little more on their energy bills to remove them from our most treasured landscapes, such as National Parks.

“Measures such as undergrounding power cables instead are a win-win, in terms of improving the view and reducing the risk of disruption to supply due to storms and extreme weather conditions, which, with the climate emergency, are likely to increase in both severity and frequency.”

A spokesman for BEIS said: “Our review into how energy operators responded to Storm Arwen will consider a wide range of options, including putting more electricity cables underground.

“This is so that we can ensure our system, which has had £60 billion of investment by gas and electricity networks in the last eight years, is as resilient as possible.

“Extensive plans are underway to address the risks associated with climate change and we are working very closely with the energy industry to ensure they are prepared for future severe weather conditions.”
Managing trees more cost-effective than 'undergrounding'

Dave Openshaw, a director at energy consultancy Millhouse Power, said that other measures including insulated lines and managing trees were more cost-effective, as storm disruption is usually caused by trees falling on lines.

“The first preferable option would be to divert the line clear of the trees if you can’t clear the trees themselves.

“If you are going to ‘underground’ you’ve got to think about undergrounding a significant part of the circuit.

“But then you’re probably looking at a completely different route, because you don’t want to be damaging tree roots when you underground the line. So you might be diverting the line through an underground route, along the highway, and picking up the line at a different point.

“Some of that can be done. It is extremely expensive, and it would be pretty much a last resort. There’s probably better ways of spending the money to benefit the majority of customers.”

Randolph Brazier, the director of innovation and electricity systems at industry group Energy Networks Association, said: “There’s a balance that needs to be maintained when it comes to putting electricity cables underground, which depends on how we keep costs down for bill payers and the impact on the land itself.

“It’s important that electricity networks continue to work with local communities to help find the solution that’s right for them.”

Wildlife concerns blunt Germany's green power efforts



According to a study, the German network will be expanded by only 120 kilometres in 2021 -- a third less than in 2020 (AFP/John MACDOUGALL)

Florian CAZERES
Sat, December 11, 2021

Germany is expanding its power grid to aid the transition to renewable energies, but local residents in some areas are holding up the process over concerns about wildlife.

"I am not saying that the energy transition is not necessary. But we don't want these pylons," Hartmut Lindner, 75, told AFP.

Lindner has been campaigning for 15 years against a planned high-voltage power line in the Schorfheide-Chorin nature reserve, a few kilometres from Berlin.


Energy company 50Hertz is planning to install around 115 kilometres (71 miles) of new lines between the towns of Bertikow and Neuenhagen, replacing an existing network of smaller pylons.

The new network is intended to supply the region with wind energy produced in northern Germany.

But it could pose a threat to "thousands of species of birds, some of them endangered" in the nature reserve, according to Lindner, a retired teacher.

Together with several hundred local residents, Lindner started a campaign in 2008 to oppose the project.

After years of public consultations and discussions, he is unhappy about the "lack of response" from 50Hertz, which has refused to change the route of the line and began construction work earlier this year.

- 12,000 kilometres -

Lindner is one of a growing number of Germans fighting against the construction of electricity pylons near their homes, a trend that risks slowing down the transition to renewables.

The country is planning to phase out both coal and nuclear energy in the coming years, with renewables such as wind energy playing an increasingly important role in keeping the lights on.

"The problem is that wind energy is produced largely in the north, while many needs, especially industrial ones, are in the south. This electricity must therefore be transported using new networks," Dierk Bauknecht, an expert at the Oeko-Institut research centre, told AFP.

To meet these needs, the German government has launched more than one hundred new power line projects over the past few years spanning 12,000 kilometres, according to official figures from the economy ministry.

And the trend looks set to continue, with Germany's new ruling coalition of the Social Democrats, Greens and Free Democrats aiming for renewables to make up 80 percent of the energy mix by 2030.

- 'Too slow' -

But the construction work on new power lines has been "too slow" due to "procedures" and "local resistance to these projects", Bauknecht said.

According to a study by energy price comparison company Check24, the German network will be expanded by only 120 kilometres in 2021 -- a third less than in 2020.

If nothing is done to speed up the process, Germany could "miss its objectives in terms of ecological transition", Bauknecht said.

In a bid to address the problem, Berlin introduced new rules last year that simplify the bureaucratic procedures required for the approval of power lines and limit the possibilities for appeal.

But Lindner and his fellow campaigners, backed by environmental association NABU, still won a key legal victory this summer leading to the temporary suspension of construction on a section of the 50Hertz line.

A court will decide next year whether 50Hertz can continue with construction as planned or whether it must yield to the campaigners' demands that it be rerouted or moved underground to protect the region's biodiversity.

Such solutions have so far been ruled out by 50Hertz, which considers them too expensive.

50Hertz did not immediately reply to AFP's requests for comment.

In a field a few kilometres from Lindner's house, the huge pylons have already been built. But he still has hope of saving the wetlands a few hundred metres away, along with the birds that inhabit them.

"We must protect this unique place," he said.

fcz-fec/hmn/imm/tgb

'Smooth ride': UAE taxis drive towards autonomous future



Self-driving TXAI in Abu Dhabi (AFP/Giuseppe CACACE)More

Dana Moukhallati
Sat, December 11, 2021, 9:00 PM·2 min read


Mustafa sits motionless behind the wheel, upturned hands in his lap, as his taxi drives itself, bringing the United Arab Emirates closer to an autonomous future.

The "safety officer" is part of a trial for driverless cabs in the capital Abu Dhabi, where customers can be picked up and dropped off at nine pre-determined spots on Yas Island.

It's been a "smooth ride" so far, said Mustafa, with no incidents that required any major intervention.

"In the past few days, we've had most customers order taxis from the mall or hotel," he told AFP.

Bayanat, a branch of the Abu Dhabi-based Group 42 tech company, last month launched the trial of four driverless vehicles, two electric and two hybrid, under the name TXAI.

A second phase will include at least 10 vehicles and multiple locations across Abu Dhabi, the company said. Customers can order the vehicles using the TXAI app.

Robotaxis have been tested at various locations around the world in recent years, but commercial use of the vehicles has so far been tentative.

Last month, autonomous cabs were rolled out in Beijing, but also with a safety officer in the driver's seat in case of an emergency.

Hasan al-Hosani, CEO of Bayanat, said removing the safety officers would be a major step.

"The milestone to move from L3 (where a safety officer is present) to L4 (without a safety officer) would be a big one," Hosani told AFP.

"The vehicles are already operational... We are collaborating with the authorities to further expand our operation area geographically, as well as to upgrade to L4 level."

Abu Dhabi is not the only member of the UAE eyeing a driverless future.

Neighbouring Dubai says it wants 25 percent of all of its transport driverless by 2030, cutting costs, pollution and accidents.

Dubai aims to launch a small fleet of self-driving taxis by 2023, according to state media, with plans to reach 4,000 by 2030.

The shift is expected to hit taxi drivers, the vast majority Asian migrant workers, in a country where foreigners make up 90 percent of the 10-million population.

The UAE last month approved a temporary licence to test self-driving cars on the roads, but there is no federal legislation yet governing autonomous vehicles.

This remains one of the biggest obstacles.

"This technology is new and regulations pertaining to safety and other operational aspects are being developed in real time," said Hosani.

dm/th/jsa/hc

German carmakers race to retrain workforce for electric age



Robots mount doors on an ID.3 Volkswagen electric car. Germany's pivot to electric vehicles means carmakers are racing to retrain their workforces 

(AFP/RONNY HARTMANN)

Sophie MAKRIS
Sat, December 11, 2021

After her apprenticeship at Volkswagen, Michelle Gabriel was a master at welding, cutting, bending and stretching metal, but just a few years later it's not chassis but software frameworks she's piecing together after a speedy change of career.

The 24-year-old's professional journey reflects the transformation the auto sector is undergoing, moving away from its traditional focus on building combustion engines to developing software.

Germany's new government led by Olaf Scholz, which took office on Wednesday, wants to speed up this pivot with the aim of having 15 million electric vehicles on its roads by 2030 from just over 500,000 today.

But the upheaval being caused by the electric revolution is putting in doubt the livelihoods of thousands of employees in jobs where their skills may no longer be needed.

Managers are now confronted with the challenge of preparing their workforce to build the car of tomorrow.

A fully automated production line at Volkswagen's Wolfsburg headquarters. The German car giant has launched a programme to retrain workers as software developers 

(AFP/John MACDOUGALL)

- Cognitive faculties -

Despite thinking the welding work during her apprenticeship was "super", Michelle Gabriel could not imagine entering a profession that "could disappear in five years", she told AFP.

But "construction mechanic was a job already in the process of disappearing when I finished my training," said Gabriel, who like all apprentices began work on the factory line.

When the auto giant presented her with the opportunity to join its "Faculty 73" programme, intended to train software developers, Gabriel signed up.

Open to Volkswagen employees as well as outside applicants -- who must sit a series of tests but do not need a degree -- the new kind of apprenticeship is the storied carmaker's response to the need for new skills.

Electric cars require fewer employees to assemble units on the factory line and more IT technicians and electrochemists to develop the batteries that power them.

With around 100 students a year, the Faculty 73 programme launched in 2019 at Volkswagen's flagship plant in Wolfsburg in the north of Germany. Yet the initiative still will not cover the manufacturer's needs for new skilled workers.

- Digital drive -

That has prompted Volkswagen, like many other German carmakers and their suppliers, to launch an unprecedented internal drive to update existing roles.

Depending on the employee, the digital course could last between a few weeks and a year, time enough to acquire the knowledge needed.

"There are masses of people that we have to get qualified and we will not achieve it using just traditional methods," said Ralph Linde, director of the Volkswagen Group Academy.

Instead of teaching in classrooms, Volkswagen is using online resources that can be rolled out on the scale necessary, without which Volkswagen "would not be able to manage this big task", Linde told AFP.

The group plans to offer employees a personalised online platform to identify potential career development opportunities.

One issue, Linde conceded, is that "rapid technological developments" mean it is sometimes difficult to anticipate what skills the group's workers will need even in the next year or two.

Electric vehicles and the increasing role of software in the auto industry represent a "fundamental paradigm change" for workers, even if it "does not mean fewer jobs overall but different ones", said Johannes Katzan, a representative for the IG Metall union in the states of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt.

In all, including its vast web of suppliers, the car industry in Germany employs 830,000 individuals directly and 1.3 million indirectly.

Experts' estimates for how many of these jobs may be threatened by the digital switchover vary from 180,000 to as many as 288,000.

Yet a report by the Fraunhofer Institute, commissioned by VW last year, found that massive layoffs could be avoided -- on condition that it accelerated its training programmes.

smk-sea/hmn/tgb

DAESH IS A SAUDI FRONT GROUP

Canadian man pleads guilty to joining ISIS, serving as translator

Dec. 11 (UPI) -- A Saudi-born Canadian man has pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court to charges he fought for the Islamic State and played a key role in the militant group's recruitment efforts.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III of the Eastern District of Virginia accepted the plea deal entered by Mohammed Khalifa, 38, on Friday.

Prosecutors said Khalifa traveled to Syria in 2013 and joined ISIS, swearing his allegiance to leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Due to his proficiency in both English and Arabic, Khalifa provided narration and translation for about 15 videos created by ISIS, some of which depicted scenes of violence, executions and attacks. In two videos, he's shown executing two Syrian soldiers.

During his time with the group, the ISIS Media Bureau was also responsible for releasing images and videos showing the slayings of James Foley and Steven Sotloff, U.S. journalists who were taken hostage.

The Justice Department said he fought with the group until 2019, when he was captured by members of the Syrian Democratic Forces. They handed him over to the U.S. government for prosecution.

Khalifa is scheduled to be sentenced April 15, facing up to life in prison.

Canadian Man, Narrator of Daesh Propaganda Videos, Pleads Guilty

© AP Photo / Militant website

The former Canadian IT worker was captured by Syrian Defence Forces in 2019 and held overseas until he was brought to Virginia earlier this year to face charges.

A Canadian citizen, Mohammed Khalifa, suspected in the United States of assisting the Daesh* terrorist group has pleaded guilty.

The 38-year-old Canadian had confessed to conducting executions for Daesh on two occasions, the US Department of Justice said.

Also, according to the Department of Justice, Khalifa took part in the hostilities in Syria on the side of the terrorists.

“In addition to serving as a fighter and executing two Syrian soldiers on behalf of ISIS, Khalifa served as a lead translator in ISIS’s propaganda production and the English-speaking narrator on multiple ISIS videos,” the US Department of Justice said, as quoted by Global News.

According to court records, Khalifa left Canada for Syria in 2013.

Prosecutors said that Khalifa narrated two Daesh propaganda videos: "Flames of War" in 2014 and "Flames of War II" in 2017.

The former Toronto IT worker was collaborating with Daesh terrorist group between 2013 and 2019.

Khalifa was born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In Toronto, he graduated in Computer Systems Technology from Seneca College and worked for Kelly Services, a temp agency, which placed him with IBM. In 2013, he began listening to online lectures from a radical Islamic preacher.

*Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) is a terrorist group banned in Russia

THEY ARE SUNNI JIHADIS FOLLOWING SAUDI WAHABIST IDEOLOGY

Turkish lira collapse piles misery on northern Syria

AFP , Sunday 12 Dec 2021

Mohammed al-Debek, a schoolteacher in northern Syria, is on strike: the currency devaluation in neighbouring Turkey has slashed the value of his salary by two-thirds.

Hana al-Yasbu, a displaced Syrian widown currently living in a camp in northern Syria near the village of Tarhin in an area under the control of Turkish-backed factions in the northern countryside of Aleppo, huddles under a cover with her children, on December 5, 2021. (Photo by AFP)

His town of Al-Bab lies in a northern area of war-torn Syria that in recent years has turned into a de facto Turkish protectorate.

Related

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 Turkish lira drops to new low after harsh interest rate cut

Because the Turkish lira is now the main currency in the area, its recent nose-dive has heaped further pain on the people living there.

"My salary in 2017 was worth 160 dollars, but today it is worth 50 dollars, a fraction of its value," the 33-year-old told AFP outside the washed-out yellow walls of his school.

"It's barely enough to pay the rent."

Ankara does not only have military control of the border region, but most of the products available on the markets and even the mobile phone operator are also Turkish.

Areas of northern Syria run by Turkish-backed rebel groups switched to the lira as the main currency last year, replacing the massively devalued Syrian pound.

The lira has lost 45 percent of its value against the dollar this year alone and Debek's purchasing power has plummeted, as has everybody else's in the region.

"After the collapse of the lira, I was forced to look for a second job after school," he said.

His new afternoon job in a bookshop earns him another $40 but that still leaves him short of the $200 he says he needs to make ends meet.

Turkey directly administers several districts of northern Syria and, to seal its presence in the area, has invested heavily in education, health and other sectors.

Sleep hungry

The region's economic fate is inextricably tied to Turkey's and the lira's sharp fall in recent weeks piled more misery on an enclave whose inhabitants are already scarred by war.

A recent UN report on the humanitarian situation cited estimates that "97 per cent of the population, even those that are in employment, are living in extreme poverty".

Inflation is soaring just as fast as it is in neighbouring Turkey, with basic food items such as bread selling at record prices and purchasing power at its lowest ever.

And when the price of a bag of flatbread stops rising, locals say, the amount of bread inside goes down.

Ahmed Abu Obeida, an official with the region's chamber of commerce who also owns a company importing food products from Turkey, acknowledged that consumption had slumped.

"The demand for basic materials has decreased, and the citizens in general cannot afford basic things such as their daily needs in food, medicine and heating," he told AFP.

Hanaa al-Yasbu, a 36-year-old woman who was widowed in an air strike five years ago and has since been living in a camp for war-displaced people, is one of them.

She usually earns around 20 Turkish lira a day by harvesting wheat and potatoes, enough to keep her five children warm and fed.

With her daily income now worth just a dollar and a half, Hanaa has to venture into the countryside to find firewood.

"I dream that I have about 50 lira a day to buy food for my children to feed them, so they do not sleep hungry," she said.

Iranian animal lovers decry plan to ban pets

An Iranian woman poses for a picture with her dog at a park in the capital Tehran, on December 7, 2021. Atta Kenare/ AFP

TEHRAN, Iran - "No, my cat is not dangerous," says Iranian animal lover Mostafa, outraged by a proposal from ultraconservative lawmakers to ban pets.

The 25-year-old, who runs a pet supplies shop on busy Eskandari Street in downtown Tehran, is stunned.

"Crocodiles can be called dangerous, but how can rabbits, dogs and cats be dangerous?" he asked incredulously about the bill introduced a month ago.

The proposed law pits growing numbers of people with pets against those who consider the practice decadent and hold that under Islamic law dogs, like pigs, are unclean.

According to media reports, 75 MPs, or one quarter of parliamentarians, recently signed a text entitled "Support for the rights of the population in relation to harmful and dangerous animals."

In their introduction, the authors condemn the practice of humans living under one roof with domesticated animals as a "destructive social problem."

The phenomenon, they explain, could "gradually change the Iranian and Islamic way of life" by "replacing human and family relationships with feelings and emotional relationships towards animals."

The proposed law would prohibit "importing, raising, assisting in the breeding of, breeding, buying or selling, transporting, driving or walking, and keeping in the home wild, exotic, harmful and dangerous animals."

It lists the animals to be banned as "crocodiles, turtles, snakes, lizards, cats, mice, rabbits, dogs and other unclean animals as well as monkeys."

- 'Chaos, corruption, disobedience' -

Offenders would risk a fine equivalent to 10 to 30 times the "minimum monthly working wage" of about $98 or 87 euros and the "confiscation" of the animal.

In addition, vehicles used to transport the animal would be confiscated for three months.

While Iran is engaged in difficult negotiations on its nuclear programme and enduring a painful economic downturn because of US sanctions, the bill has sparked criticism in the press, mockery on social networks and anger among residents of the capital.

"These projects will certainly cause chaos, corruption and collective disobedience to this law because... living with animals is now a cultural phenomenon," warned the reformist daily Shargh.

Some internet users reacted with irony and sarcasm.

"How many times have cats sought to devour you so that you consider them wild, harmful and dangerous?" journalist Yeganeh Khodami asked on Twitter.

Another posted a photo of his kitten with the message: "I have renamed my cat 'Criminal' since I heard this proposed law."

An actress who asked to remain anonymous said she had planned a demonstration against the pet ban plan in front of parliament but then dropped the idea because of pressure on her.

In the face of the public outcry, few parliamentarians are willing to strongly defend the bill.

"I agree with the project in general, but I certainly disagree with some of its clauses," said the head of parliament's judicial commission, Moussa Ghazanfarabadi, who signed the text.

"It is just a bill, but whether it succeeds is another matter," he told AFP.

- 'Animal rights, human rights' -

Another lawmaker from Tehran, the environmentalist Somayeh Rifiei, said she believes that a law is needed on which animals can be kept, and which cannot.

"No one can deny the services that animals provide to humans, but this area must be regulated," she said. "That is the basis of social life."

She said that, aside from the pet ban bill, "the government has drafted a bill that gives special attention to biodiversity and wildlife. It deals with both animal rights and human rights.

"Basically, I would prefer to see this bill on the agenda rather than a proposal that focuses only on criminalisation."

On Eskandari Street, vendors fear the consequences of any such law.

"It might destroy thousands of jobs," said Mohsen, 34.

His wife Mina, said she was more worried about her dog.

"Why should I imprison him at home?" she said of her canine companion. "The MPs probably assume that young couples today don't have children because they have a pet dog, but that's stupid.

"It's not the dogs but the economic conditions that don't allow us to have children," she added.

"At one time they banned satellite television, yet people continued to use it, but with fear and anxiety. People will keep their animals at home to protect them."

by Ahmad Parhizi

AFP

Retirees in the Maze of Poverty in Iran: Download Zamaneh Special Labor Report
by Zamaneh Media
December 11, 2021


Protests of retirees in at least 10 provinces in Iran in December 2020. The placard read: "Pensions are not comparable to the inflation rate".

Zamaneh Media’s special report on the situation of pensioners and the labor rights of retirees in Iran is available for download.

In 2021, 6.7% of Iran’s population was over 65 years old and the government of Iran estimates that in the next 15 years, this age group will make up about 11% of the country’s population. In Iran, the retirement age is 60 for men and 55 for women. Anyone can retire after 30 years of paying insurance premiums, regardless of how old they are. 55% of the senior citizens in Iran do not receive pensions and up to 35% of them live below the poverty line.

Download the Zamaneh Special Report on the Situaton of Retiree’s in Iran:



Downlowd: PDF / Epub

Poverty does not only affect senior citizens that are not on a pension plan but also retirees covered by the Social Security Organization (SSO) pension plan and other pension funds. Iranian retirees receive pensions from eighteen pension funds.

The Supreme Audit Court of Iran has announced in the budget deduction report that only 11% of retirees receive more than 10 million tomans per month (about $334 at the current rate of 1 USD = 30,000 tomans). 89% of retirees have a monthly salary of between 5 and 10 million tomans, a figure lower than the minimum subsistence basket estimated by the wage committee of the Supreme Labor Council. In November 2021, this committee estimated the subsistence basket at 11.5 million tomans. According to a study by the Saba Institute, affiliated with the Civil and Military State Fund, 86% of retirees covered by the pension funds do not meet their living expenses, and they are forced to seek a bank loan or borrow from relatives.

Over the past decades, the government’s fiscal policy included wage suppression, nonpayment of debt to pension funds (especially the Social Security Fund), clearing its debt with the stocks of loss-making companies, and reducing social welfare programs. These policies have left the Social Security Organization (SSO) and other subordinated pension funds in a permanent “risk state.” The government’s debt to the SSO has reached more than 340 trillion tomans (USD 11 billion – at the current rate of 1 USD = 30,000 tomans).

As a result of this, Iranian retirees are receiving pensions that are lower than the poverty line and have been staging protests in several cities in Iran in the past two years. In the first seven months of this year (the year 1400 of the Iranian calendar beginning March 21, 2021), retirees from the Social Security Fund, the Steel Fund, the Radio-Television Fund, the Shiraz Telecommunications Company Fund, the Tehran Bus Company Fund, and Islamic Republic Airlines Fund rallied several times in Tehran and other Iranian cities. The main demands of the retirees are to adjust retirement salaries, eliminate discrimination in the payment of pensions, provide full and free health insurance, and increase retirement salaries based on the actual inflation rate and livelihood basket.

Iran’s social security system is in crisis due to a change in population composition over the past decade and ongoing economic problems such as inflation, recession, a decline in the working population, and structural corruption and this will amplify the problems retirees face in Iran in the years to come.

Visist Zamaneh Media’s Labor page to downlaod other special reports:
Labor Rights in Iran

Column: Big-money coaches a symptom of misguided priorities

By PAUL NEWBERRY

1 of 10

Mario Cristobal, left, Miami's new football coach, makes the sign of the "U" with Harry Rothwell, right, after being introduced at a NCAA college football news conference, Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021, in Coral Gables, Fla. Cristobal is returning to his alma mater, where he won two championships as a player. Rothwell is a local businessman and Hurricanes fan. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)


A new college football coach doesn’t come cheaply, especially when the one you’ve targeted has a well-paying gig at Nike’s Oregon campus.

Fortunately for the University of Miami, the school’s hospital system raked in record profits last year during the devastating COVID-19 pandemic.

Turning lemons into lemonade, the U threw some of that coronavirus cash at Mario Cristobal in what may be the ultimate indictment of college athletics — not to mention our health-care system and the nation’s entire set of misguided priorities.

Of course, the Hurricanes were merely the latest to join the crowd when they lured Cristobal away from Nike-backed Oregon and its wide array of ugly uniforms, clumsily working out a 10-year, $80-million deal while Manny Diaz was still their coach.

Indeed, it’s already been quite an offseason for a season that still has a month to go.

Eager to raise its fallen star, Southern Cal plucked Lincoln Riley away from Oklahoma with a massive financial package that was surely somewhere north of $100 million, though the exact details were not available from the private university.

Not to be outdone, LSU stunningly persuaded Brian Kelly, the winningest coach in Notre Dame history, to leave the Fighting Irish while they were still in contention for a berth in the College Football Playoff.

(They just missed out with a No. 5 ranking, which at least prevented the ludicrous scenario of Kelly’s hastily appointed successor, Marcus Freeman, making his coaching debut in a national semifinal game.)

Kelly, who has never won a national championship and will be hard-pressed to do so in Baton Rouge as long as that Nick Saban guy rules in Tuscaloosa, nevertheless received a staggering 10-year, $95 million deal from LSU.

We presume he used some of that money to take a crash course in Cajun-speak, because the Massachusetts native who has never coached in the Deep South suddenly sounded like he just rolled in from an alligator hunt on the bayou.

The massive expenditure comes on top of the $16.8 million buyout that the Tigers agreed to pay former coach Ed Orgeron, who was dumped just two years after winning a fortuitous national title while Joe Burrow was his QB.

Big-money boosters undoubtedly stepped in to largely fund the huge deals at USC and LSU — hey, rich people can spend their money however they like — but Miami’s hiring of Cristobal raised some troubling red flags.

You see, the pandemic proved to be a boon to the University of Miami’s healthcare operations, which was the school’s strongest area of growth over the past year.

Saying the quiet part out loud, Miami officials openly stated they would funnel some of that reported $400 million profit into their struggling athletic program.

The hiring of Cristobal, a former Hurricanes players who went 35-13 with a pair of Pac-12 titles in five years at Oregon, is a big part of the effort to restore the school to its 1980s and ’90s gridiron glory.

Like USC, Miami is a private university that can prioritize its spending however it chooses.

One can certainly make the case — look no further than Saban’s impact at Alabama — that a successful football team can more than pay for itself by bolstering a university’s national reputation and fundraising efforts.

But no one worth their weight in public relations would advise a school to link a worldwide health crisis, one that has claimed nearly 800,000 American lives and more than 5 million victims around the world, to more wins on the football field.

That’s downright sick.

In another PR blunder, Miami started its pursuit of Cristobal while Diaz was uncomfortably still dangling on the payroll.

When the Hurricanes were certain they would get their man, Diaz was fired.

“I am disappointed in the university’s decision and the manner in which this played out over the last few weeks,” the ousted coach said. “The uncertainty impacted our team, our staff and their families — these are real people that gave everything to this program. For that, for them, I hurt.”

Of course, Diaz conveniently failed to mention how he got the job in first place, abandoning Temple just 17 days after he was hired in December 2018, bolting for Miami as soon as he learned of Mark Richt’s surprise retirement.

Coach Karma got the final laugh, it would seem.

The Hurricanes weren’t the only ones blundering their way through one PR crisis after another.

Kelly’s departure from Notre Dame could provide a textbook full of examples on how not to do a job transition.

His assistant coaches and players found out through social media that he was heading to LSU. He finally delivered the news himself in an uncomfortable, early morning meeting that lasted about as long as a three-and-out possession. Then there was that Cajun accent he conjured up when speaking at an LSU basketball game.

Riley’s introduction at USC was also cringeworthy, looking like something that Garth and Wayne might’ve filmed in their parent’s basement (look it up, kids) — not the motion picture capital of the world.

Of course, college athletics going out of its way to embarrass itself is nothing new.

There are far more serious concerns than fake accents and amateurish pep rallies.

Our priorities are all out of whack.

Sadly, no one seems to care.

___

Paul Newberry is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at pnewberry(at)ap.org or at https://twitter.com/pnewberry1963 and check out his work at https://apnews.com/search/paulnewberry

___

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Regulators' endless devotion to fracking industry will cost Ohioans in money, health

Leatra Harper
Sat, December 11, 2021

In January 2021, fracking waste spewed out of this old oil well in Noble County, causing a spill that killed fish three miles away. Records show the company responsible for the spill could not afford to plug the well, so ODNR had to pay a contractor to stop the leak. The company has hundreds of other wells, none of which are producing.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil and Gas Resource Management has once again demonstrated its complete fealty to the fracking industry.

It has done so by its continuing failure to propose rules to appropriately protect the environment and public health from the consequences of the irresponsible handling, processing and disposal of toxic, radioactive frack waste.

More: Ohio study says water safe despite risk of hydraulic fracturing waste contamination


Instead of addressing the serious issues arising from the disastrous federal failure to regulate through the “Halliburton Loophole,” thereby falsely classifying frack waste as “non-hazardous,” the division fails to address the problems this entails, although it has seen enough of the serious issues the lack of regulation has caused.

Leatra Harper is co-founder of FreshWater Accountability Project, a non-profit dedicated to protecting the environment and public health and advocating for climate change solutions to promote a healthier and more sustainable economic future. She has a graduate degree in organization development and is a former contract administrator, small business owner and college instructor.

Even the courts have not demanded the agency do needed rulemaking, and our citizen’s case lost on standing only – not on the merits.

We even appealed to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to revoke primacy because the agency was not properly protecting citizens from the harms of the lack of regulation.

Without recourse, we waited over 8 years for the division to propose rules that would effectively address the mishandling and toxic releases from frack waste processing and disposal.

The agency obviously has no intention to deal with this serious issue as evidenced by its most recent attempt at rulemaking by proffering totally inadequate rules with public review and comment closed in only 30 days ending Nov. 29, just after a holiday.

More: Ohio moves fracking waste facility rules forward, 8 years after requested by Ohio lawmakers

The very little time to engage, educate and formulate responses to the substantial deficiencies in the proposed rules substantiates our continued experience that the agency does not genuinely want public input to counter its support of the fracking industry by allowing cheap disposal of its massive amounts of toxic waste.

To be most expeditious in the flawed process, the division combined the review and commenting process for two totally different waste handling/disposal schemes, Class II injection wells and Surface Waste Processing Facilities, into one.

More: Still no Ohio rules for bringing sanctions against oil and gas drilling waste

By now, the division has enough evidence to realize the serious deficiencies in the proposed regulations that deserve separate scrutiny.

Frack waste facilities are handling millions of tons of frack waste with inadequate traceability of where the resultant concentrations of toxic chemicals and radionuclides go to assure proper disposal and accountability for those generating the waste.

Historically, both types of facilities lack adequate monitoring and oversight, which will not be addressed in the proposed regulations. This ruse of rulemaking process is just another example of industry capture of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

Our elected representatives are letting this happen, and Ohio taxpayers will pick up the bill, just as we are paying already to remediate leaking frack waste injection wells and cap abandoned wells.

More: Report: Ohio fracking counties saw declines in jobs, population and income

In addition to the lack of adequate bonding and severance taxes assessed the fracking industry, Ohio is giving the industry another massive subsidy in the completely inadequate rules proposed by the Division of Oil and Gas Resource Management.

Ohioans will pay with their health and tax dollars for the continuing designation of the state as the cheap dumping ground for frack waste generated within the state and imported from other states, solving the industry’s biggest problem at our expense.

Leatra Harper is co-founder of FreshWater Accountability Project . She has a graduate degree in organization development and is a former contract administrator, small business owner and college instructor.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Oil and gas agency turns blind eye to harm from frack waste