Steelmaker CEO Warns North America Market a ‘Falling Knife’




Joe Deaux
Thu, January 20, 2022, 

(Bloomberg) -- The North American steel market is in for some rough months ahead, with excess supplies, rising inventories and shrinking demand, according to the head of Stelco Holdings Inc. Steelmaker shares fell.

“It’s a falling knife,” Stelco Chief Executive Officer Alan Kestenbaum said Thursday in an interview. “The question is when does it go the other way and where are we in the economic cycle? I think it turns at some point, but I don’t know where it bottoms out.”

The grim view for 2022 follows a stellar year for the industry, with the largest U.S. steelmakers expected to post record full-year earnings after domestic steel prices surged as much as 94% to an all-time high of nearly $2,000 a short ton. Kestenbaum was the first steel CEO to publicly sound the alarm two weeks ago when he warned investors that his company’s steel shipments are taking a hit as the rapid spread of omicron accelerates absenteeism internally and even more among customers’ work crews.

Shares of Stelco fell alongside the major U.S. steelmakers following Kestenbaum’s comments. The Canadian producer fell 6.3% in Toronto, while Nucor Corp., U.S. Steel Corp., Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. and Steel Dynamics Inc. erased gains for the day. An index of 14 steel companies dropped 3.5% and is on pace for the biggest weekly decline since June.

The situation is especially negative delivering into the automotive and construction sectors, with those industries reporting inventories are rising and customer demand is drying up, the head of the Hamilton, Ontario-based steelmaker said.

“When I spoke two weeks ago, there was a lack of visibility. Now we have vastly more and it’s pretty clear what’s happening: significant oversupply and significant shrinkage of demand right now and you’re seeing it in the inventory numbers,” he said

Steel shipments in the U.S. and Canada have plunged 17% since August and inventories have climbed 15% in the same period, according to data from the Metals Service Center Institute. Benchmark steel prices are down more than 26% since touching an all-time high at the end of August. And analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence said inflationary pressures and demand slowdown could make it harder for steel sector stocks to outperform in 2022.

“I don’t think there will be a choice but for people to acknowledge in the next couple weeks we’re in a difficult environment,” Kestenbaum said.

A well-supplied North American steel market sits in stark contrast to other industrial metals that are currently surging in price. Investors are worried supplies of aluminum, nickel and copper are dwindling across the globe, leaving consumers without material necessary to make enough of everything from beer cans to washing machines and automobiles. The price of steel, currently about $1,440 a ton, is still well above recent historical levels of about $840 a ton.

(Updates with closing share prices in fourth paragraph and base metals performance in final paragraph)

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Worker was scheduled as ‘Black boy,’ suit says. Now Louisiana meat company must pay up



Hayley Fowler
Thu, January 20, 2022, 3:29 PM·3 min read

A specialty meat supplier in southern Louisiana will pay a former employee $67,500 to settle allegations of pervasive racial discrimination at its two facilities outside Lafayette, federal officials said.

Don’s Specialty Meats, a purveyor of Cajun favorites like Boudin and Cracklin, is accused of allowing its general manager to routinely use derogatory language and racial slurs against a Black worker — one of two out of 79 employees, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said in federal court filings.

The EEOC is the federal agency tasked with enforcing anti-discrimination laws in the workplace and filed the lawsuit on the former employee’s behalf.

“Harassment based on race and the use of racial slurs is intolerable, and an employer must act to assure that harassment of this kind is prevented and, if it happens, is vigorously addressed,” EEOC trial attorney Peter Theis said in a news release announcing the settlement.

Lawyers and a representative from Don’s Specialty Meats did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on Thursday, Jan. 20.

Under the terms of the agreement, Don’s Specialty Meats has agreed to pay the employee $50,000 in damages and $17,500 in back pay, according to court documents. The company is also barred from discussing the litigation if asked for a job reference regarding the former worker and must wipe it from his personnel file.

Employees will additionally undergo training on anti-discrimination laws, and the company will revise its written anti-discrimination policies and provide compliance reports to the EEOC.

The federal agency first reached out to Don’s Specialty Meats in August after the former employee filed a charge of discrimination and the EEOC determined there was reasonable cause to believe the company had discriminated against him.

But attempts to resolve the dispute outside of court failed, the EEOC said, and a federal complaint was filed in the Western District of Louisiana on Sept. 24.

According to the lawsuit, Don’s Specialty Meats hired the now-former employee in 2018. He worked first at its facility in Scott, Louisiana, and later at its original location in nearby Carencro. Don’s was started in 1993 and opened a second location in 2005, according to its Facebook page. The meat supplier is famous for its Boudin, a mixture of rice, ground pork and seasonings stuffed into sausage casing.

The employee, whom the EEOC described as African American, was one of just two Black workers employed by Don’s Specialty Meats at each facility during his tenure.

The general manager repeatedly referred to him as “Black boy,” “the Black boy” or “little Black guy,” the EEOC said, and he was listed on the work schedule as “Black boy” while his non-Black colleagues were identified by name.

Racial slurs were also common at Don’s Specialty Meats, according to the lawsuit. The general manager was accused of routinely using the n-word and referring to another Black employee’s baby as such. When Don’s was looking for new hires, the employee was told applicants “just can’t be Black,” the EEOC said, and if trash needed to be picked up on the roadside, it was always “the Black boy” who was assigned to do it.

Things came to a head in early July 2020, when a supervisor repeatedly called the employee a racial slur and other insulting names in front of his coworkers, the complaint states.

The employee complained to management and was subsequently dismissed for the day, the EEOC said. When he returned to work, he was reportedly told the supervisor would not be punished. According to the lawsuit, the general manager then told the employee he loved him and referred to him by the same derogatory name the supervisor had used.

He quit the following day, the EEOC said, and the only discipline his supervisor ever faced was being told she couldn’t wear her Don’s Specialty Meats T-shirt for a day.

Ukraine got a signed commitment in 1994 to ensure its security – but can the US and allies stop Putin's aggression now?

Lee Feinstein, Founding Dean and Professor of International Studies, Hamilton Lugar School, Indiana University 

 Mariana Budjeryn, Research Associate, Harvard Kennedy School

Fri, January 21, 2022,

A Ukrainian soldier uses a periscope to view the positions of Russian-led forces on Dec. 12, 2021, in Zolote, Ukraine. Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images

Russia’s illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 was the first change of internationally recognized borders in Europe through military force since World War II.

Russia proceeded to instigate and fuel a war in eastern Ukraine that has claimed some 14,000 lives so far. Last year, Russia began massing a force of more than 100,000 troops along Ukraine’s eastern and northern border and in the occupied Crimea, and taking other provocative actions. U.S. President Joe Biden said on Jan. 19, 2022, about Putin: “Do I think he’ll test the West, test the United States and NATO, as significantly as he can? Yes, I think he will.”

Ukraine as an independent state was born from the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Its independence came with a complicated Cold War inheritance: the world’s third-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons. Ukraine was one of the three non-Russian former Soviet states, including Belarus and Kazakhstan, that emerged from the Soviet collapse with nuclear weapons on its territory.

The U.S., in a burst of diplomatic energy and at a time of unmatched global influence, worked to prevent the unprecedented collapse of a nuclear superpower from leading to history’s largest proliferation of nuclear weapons.

This diplomatic activity manifested in security assurances for Ukraine embedded in what has become known as the Budapest Memorandum. With the entrance of Ukraine into the international order as a non-nuclear state, Russia, the U.S. and the U.K. pledged to “respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine.” The memo reaffirmed their obligation to “refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine.” The signatories also reaffirmed their commitment to “seek immediate” UN Security Council action “to provide assistance to Ukraine … if Ukraine should become a victim of an act of aggression.” These assurances upheld obligations contained in the U.N. charter and the 1975 Helsinki Final Act.

Ukraine, in turn, gave up the nuclear weapons within its borders, sending them to Russia for dismantling.

In light of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its current threat to Ukrainian sovereignty, it’s fair to ask: What is the significance now of the Budapest Memorandum?

A soldier wearing a face mask and large helmet and carrying a rifle.

Ukrainian regrets

The memorandum, signed in 1994, is not legally binding.

Nonetheless, it embeds and reaffirms the solemn assurances that are the hallmark of the international system. These include respect for state sovereignty, the inviolability of international borders and abstention from the threat or use of force.

Ukraine’s decision to give up nuclear weapons signaled its desire to be seen as a member in good standing of the international community, rather than an outlier.

The decision was not just symbolic. While Ukraine did not inherit a fully fledged nuclear capacity – Russia still held important parts of the nuclear infrastructure – Ukraine had the necessary technological and industrial ability to close the gaps.

Many in Ukraine feel that the country’s 1994 decision to give up its nuclear arms was a mistake.

Popular support for nuclear rearmament rose to a historic high of nearly 50% in the wake of Russia’s invasion in 2014. Since then, that view has been supported by some Ukrainian public figures.

Vladimir Putin in a winter coat with a fur collar, speaking into a microphone at a rally and looking excited and happy.

‘No changing of borders by use of force’

Russia has blatantly violated the Budapest Memorandum. And the initial response to the annexation of Crimea by the other signatories, the U.S. and U.K., was hesitant and restrained.

The U.S. has committed more than US$2.5 billion in military assistance since 2014 to Ukraine, including lethal defensive arms. Legislation pending in Congress would increase military aid. The Biden administration has also threatened severe economic sanctions in the event of Russian aggression, backed by sustained efforts to build support among allies. The adminstration’s resolute approach is consistent with the security assurances of the Budapest Memorandum.

We are both foreign policy scholars; one of us is a former U.S. ambassador to Poland. The strong defense of the fundamental principle of the international system – no changing of borders by use of force – has consequence for all of Europe, for U.S.-Russia relations and for other potential flash points, including China and Taiwan.

Whether the strong actions – such as the promise of military support for Ukraine and the threat of sanctions on Russia, backed by diplomacy by the United States and its allies – will be enough to deter Russia is uncertain and, many say, unlikely.

The size and scope of Russian military buildup are deeply troubling: Shifting 100,000 troops across Russia’s vast territory is a costly operation. The Kremlin is unlikely to pull back that kind of force without any diplomatic or military wins, such as closing the door to Ukraine’s future membership in NATO, which the United States has ruled out.

International law matters, but it does not determine what states do. Strong deterrence, diplomacy and international solidarity can influence Russian decision-making. The U.S. is also actively working with Ukraine, an essential element to a successful diplomatic and deterrence strategy.

Ultimately, however, the de-escalation decision is Russia’s to make. The role of the U.S., its NATO allies, and Ukraine is to make sure the consequences of Russia’s decisions are clear to the Kremlin and that they can be carried out with strong and united Western backing in the event Russia chooses the path of war.


This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Lee Feinstein, Indiana University and Mariana Budjeryn, Harvard Kennedy School.

Read more:

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Still think voter suppression is a myth? This Republican bill proves otherwise

Elvia Díaz, Arizona Republic
Thu, January 20, 2022

Arizona Rep. Walt Blackman has proposed a bill to scale back 

early voting and ratchet up the ID requirements to vote.

Arizona state Rep. Walt Blackman is busting the Republican narrative that voter suppression is just a myth.

There are a flurry of bills being introduced at the Arizona Legislature that Republicans say deal with “election integrity” but are just tools to make it a lot harder for people to vote.

Don’t believe me? I give you Exhibit A.

Blackman is proposing that early voting occur only by request, and that non-early voting must to take place in a polling place or a center.

Blackman also wants to require a new voter ID card, which would require a passport or citizenship certificate and other documents, to vote. On top of that, anyone voting in person would also need either fingerprints or a “unique security code” issued to the voter.

It's a hurdle to keep people from voting

Don’t tell me this isn’t a blatant hurdle to discourage people, especially minorities, the poor and Native Americans from voting.

The proposed legislation, House Bill 2577, would replace existing voter ID requirements, including driver’s licenses and all forms of tribal IDs.

Arizona already doesn’t issue driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants, which means none of these people could vote illegally, as some Republicans have falsely claimed.

But even if we were to give them the benefit of the doubt and agree to extra layers of security, requiring fingerprints and a passport or naturalization papers is just over the top and nothing more than a hurdle to voting.

Why is this voter suppression if the requirements apply to everyone? Because so many people of color don’t have equal access to these types of ID.

Unfortunately, too many minorities still need multiple jobs to make ends meet and are more likely to rely on public transportation to go anywhere. They don’t have money to spare for a passport or may not even know how to navigate the system to get one.

Rural voters and Native Americans are particularly vulnerable to these types of hurdles. Arizona has 22 tribes, many in remote areas where residents already have to travel long distances just to vote.

And now, Blackman is proposing to invalidate their tribal ID card for the purpose of voting. You don’t call that voter suppression?

This isn't about 'election integrity'

Blackman’s legislation has nothing to do with “election integrity” and everything to do with keeping certain segments of the population from voting.

Republicans in Arizona and across the nation will keep invoking Trump’s “Big Lie” that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him to push through restrictive election laws.

They’re free to do so after the U.S. Senate failed this week to approve sweeping federal legislation that would have overridden state voter suppression bills.

Blame Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia for that. They joined the 50 Senate Republicans in opposing changing the filibuster to approve the federal voting legislation.

Democrats like Arizona House Minority Leader Reginald Bolding are vowing to keep fighting, but the near future is bleak.

“History will remember those who chose to silence the voice of voters for their own political gains,” Bolding, who also is running for secretary of state, said in a statement about the U.S. Senate’s failed attempt to pass voting legislation.

“But like those before us, we cannot give up. We cannot sit down. We cannot tolerate the efforts by the Right to take away our most sacred American right, our freedom to vote.”

That sounds great. Meanwhile, though, Republicans like Blackman are free to try anything to discourage people from casting a ballot – the cornerstone of any democracy.

Indiana bill proposal seeks ivermectin as COVID treatment. Why pharmacists are up in arms


Shari Rudavsky, Indianapolis Star
Thu, January 20, 2022, 

An Indiana lawmaker has proposed a bill that would open the door for the use of a controversial medicine to prevent and treat cases of COVID-19.

Under House Bill 1372, a doctor or advanced practice registered nurse could write a standing order for ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug, that would allow pharmacists to dispense the drug. The legislation also stipulates that the pharmacist must not provide information that discourages using ivermectin to treat COVID-19.

Approved to treat infections caused by worms, ivermectin has gained popularity in some circles as a prophylactic treatment against COVID-19. The Food and Drug Administration, however, says that ivermectin should never be used to treat or prevent COVID-19 and says that its incorrect use has required some to seek medical treatment.

But others believe that many doctors are overlooking ivermectin’s potential as a therapy for COVID-19.

"The risks are low and the potential gains are high,” said Rep Curt Nisly, R-Goshen, the bill’s author, in an emailed statement. “Why wouldn't we make this available, especially if we want Hoosiers to stop using horse paste. Hoosiers should be able to care for their health safely and effectively."

COVID-19 cases: Indiana schools buckling under weight of eye-popping new record

Some people who have been unable to get a doctor's prescription for ivermectin have opted instead to self-medicate, using medicine designed for horses and cows rather than humans.

Noting that the drug is available over the counter in some countries, Nisly cited Wisconsin physician Pierre Kory, who has said that a treatment that includes ivermectin could reduce COVID-19 deaths by about 75%. Kory himself later contracted COVID-19 though that did not shake his belief in ivermectin.

At this point, Kory is an outlier in the medical community. Both the government and major medical groups are warning against its use and ivermectin-related poisonings skyrocketed in 2021.

The bill also protects any health care provider who prescribes ivermectin from disciplinary action for doing so. The Federation of State Medical Boards in a statement last summer issued a thinly veiled threat that doctors who spread misinformation about COVID-19 are risking disciplinary action from their state medical boards. At least one Washington State physician assistant had his license suspended after he promoted the use of ivermectin.

While the bill has been assigned to the House Committee on Public Health, at this point it looks unlikely to advance.

'Everyone is so tired': Inside IU Health Methodist as it is overwhelmed by COVID patients

Some people are ingesting these two horse dewormers that contain the controversial drug ivermectin as a prevention against COVID-19.

 TOM E. PUSKAR/TIMES-GAZETTE.COM

Both the Indiana Pharmacists Association and the Indiana State Medical Association decried the bill as “dangerous,” particularly the part that would prohibit providers from discouraging patients from using the treatment.

“Pharmacists, and all health care professionals, should be free from government interference in the professional advice they provide patients,” the Indiana Pharmacists Association’s executive vice president Darren Covington said in an email. “This bill would set a dangerous precedent by having the government substitute its own medical advice for that of a trained, health care professional. “

In a similar vein, ISMA President Dr. Elizabeth Struble said in an emailed statement that she found the proposed legislation concerning.

“A health care provider prescribing an unproven therapy can be dangerous for the health of Hoosiers,” said Struble, a family practice physician with the Lutheran Health Network in North Manchester: What’s even more dangerous is legislating the creation of a very broad standing order mechanism so pharmacists can freely dispense an unproven therapy, preventing patients from receiving accurate information about the risks of that unproven therapy and insulating the health care providers who facilitate patients receiving this unproven therapy.”

Some ivermectin supporters have tried other avenues to access the drug. In September a woman sued Ascension St. Vincent, asking the courts to intervene and require the doctors to prescribe ivermectin for her mother. A few weeks later she dropped the suit after her mother started improving without the drug.

'An extraordinary disruption': Hoosiers struggle as COVID shutters schools and businesses

Nisly also pushed unsuccessfully to end Gov. Eric Holcomb's orders to close many businesses during the initial year of the COVID-19 pandemic and pushed to limit the governor's authority in such emergencies.

He was one of two lawmakers who declined to wear masks during the ceremonial start of the 2020 legislative session at the Statehouse before vaccines were available. At the time, all Hoosiers were under an order from the governor to wear masks when in public spaces, though the governor said he did not have such authority over lawmakers at the Statehouse.

‘Like witnessing a birth in a morgue’: 

the volunteers working to save the

 Joshua trees


Max Ufberg, with photographs by Kovi Konowiecki

Thu, January 20, 2022, 

The trees are not exactly imposing. Slim and spiny, with limbs that grip small poms of sharp leaves, they look like something a child might dream up. Or maybe Salvador Dalí. Even the name, Joshua tree, sounds kind of awkward.

On a wet and chilly December morning, I stood at a makeshift encampment in the Mojave national preserve in San Bernardino county, California, listening as a group of strangers fretted over the trees’ precarious future. Within the preserve is Cima Dome, a broad-sloping mound that, until recently, contained the densest Joshua tree forest in the world.

That changed in August 2020, when a lightning storm ignited the Dome fire, which ripped through over 43,000 acres of Cima Dome and burned about 1.3m Joshua trees. Given that Joshua trees – which technically are not trees but a species of desert succulent – are native only to the south-western US, the Dome fire represented an outright disaster to their survival.

Looking out that morning, I saw seemingly endless fields of the trees’ scorched and tortured carcasses. This was a terrible harbinger of things to come: a 2019 Ecosphere journal study determined that, if carbon emissions stay at current levels, just 0.02% of the species would survive.



The August 2020 Dome Fire in the Mojave national preserve burned more than 1m Joshua trees to varying degrees.

Now, a year and a half later, a wide-ranging group of volunteers are working alongside the National Park Service, which manages the preserve, to replant Joshua trees.

When I visited in early December, the plan was to plant 1,500 seedlings over the next several weeks. The 18 people spending their day (or days, in some cases) with the trees included civilians from all walks of life, members of the Arizona and Nevada Conservation Corps, and a group of women who brought along two pack camels to help carry baby Joshua trees through some of the more treacherous terrain. Joshua trees typically have a lifespan of 150 years; if all goes according to plan, these saplings will become a fixture of the preserve for a long, long time.

Among those assembled was Brendan Cummings, the conservation director with the Center for Biological Diversity, a national non-profit focused on saving imperiled plants and animals. Tall and wiry with a thick head of salt and pepper hair and a pensive demeanor, Cummings is spearheading an attempt to list the tree under the state-level Endangered Species Act. “What they’re doing could be the model for what climate restoration will look like,” he told me on the phone a few weeks prior.

In December 2021, a group of volunteers traveled to the Mojave national preserve to plant 1,500 eastern Joshua tree seedlings

The threat isn’t just wildfires. The climate crisis, invasive grasses and poor migration patterns for the trees’ seeds all contribute to the species’ imperilment. Human development – the trees have been cleared out to build anything from new neighborhoods to solar farms – isn’t helping matters. Because the threats are so varied, it can be difficult to calculate exactly how many trees are in danger (something land developers love to point out).

But Cummings believes that fact is beside the point. “You don’t need to know whether there were 500 passengers or 2,000 passengers on the Titanic to know that the entire population was threatened when they hit an iceberg,” he said as we stood near the basecamp on that frigid winter day.

A western Joshua tree in the Mojave Desert. About 40% of the western varietal is on private land that will probably be developed.

After about an hour’s wait – the camels were ultimately unwilling to saddle the load of supplies, “living up to the stereotype of being recalcitrant”, as Cummings put it – the volunteers were split into small groups and directed to designated sites. There they would plant the spiky green seedlings that, if all went according to plan, would over the course of a few decades replace the blackened husks of trees that now line the landscape.

•••

Though they look pretty similar, there are in fact two different species of Joshua trees: western and eastern. The majority of easterns are located on federal land and are not under threat by developers. Cummings’ work as a conservationist focuses on the western variety. “Most of the range of the eastern species is on federal land, which is never going to get bulldozed,” he said. “About 40% of western Joshua tree habitat is on private land, and most of that will ultimately get developed.”

A solar panel at the Antelope Valley solar ranch in the western Mojave Desert. Solar farms such as this one can contribute to the endangerment of Joshua trees because building them can require forests to be cleared out.

Cummings’ fight to save the western species picked up steam in September 2020, when the California fish and game commission accepted a petition he authored to offer endangered protections to Joshua trees for one year (since extended to May of 2022), during which the agency is conducting research into the plants’ long-term viability. Those protections made it illegal to damage or remove Joshua trees without special permits. (That ban didn’t apply to everyone: the commission approved an exemption allowing solar projects in Kern and San Bernardino counties to continue removing Joshua trees during construction.)

“After the commission receives the report, it can complete the process to make a final determination whether or not to list the Joshua tree as threatened or endangered under the California Endangered Species Act,” said Rachel Ballanti, deputy executive director of California fish and game commission.

Though temporary, the decision was still precedent-setting: it marked the first time a plant species was given protection as a result of a climate crisis threat.

“Climate change is creating a much hotter and much drier desert environment, and that is restricting species’ ability to reproduce,” said Cameron Barrows, one of the Ecosphere study’s authors and an ecologist with the University of California, Riverside. In the case of Joshua trees, drought has left the soil too dry to sustain saplings. As a result, we’re left with a species that skews quite old. It’s sort of akin, as Barrows explained, to a community with a senior center but no elementary school: “You would immediately realize the community has a very short lifespan.”

•••

This isn’t Cummings’ first conservation rodeo. He was also part of the successful push to get the polar bear listed as endangered under the Bush administration. Yet, all these years later, the bear is still on thin ice, with recent estimates warning the species could be wiped out by the end of the century.

I asked Cummings if, given this fact, all the conversation around government protections really matter in the first place. He nodded his head in amusement; clearly he was expecting the question.


Volunteers Brendan Cummings and Chris Clarke plant eastern Joshua tree saplings in the Mojave national preserve.

“If you look at the modeling for say, polar bears in Alaska, if we halt global warming in the next 20 years, even in that optimistic scenario, polar bears have about an 80% chance of extinction,” he said. “However, if you reduce other threats that kill polar bears – oil development in their habitat in the Arctic Refuge, trophy hunting – the extinction risk drops from 80% down to about 50%. You have a significantly greater chance of a species surviving, if you can reduce those other threats.”

The same thing, he explained, applies to Joshua trees.

It’s not exactly a sunny outlook, but coming from a man who’s dedicated his life to the preservation of the natural world, it’s probably the most clear-eyed view we’ve got.

Map of Joshua tree planting sites at a basecamp in the Mojave national preserve.

In the meantime, all he can do is dig. Crouching over a sapling, Cummings and the other volunteers were given a quick run-down on planting the dozen eastern babies they had been assigned: why, for example, it’s important to build a berm around the sapling (it helps to retain water), or why only half of the saplings are encased by small chicken-wire cages (a maze of regulations prohibit the use of fencing, so they’re conducting a mini-field experiment to evaluate whether the barriers will improve life expectancy). “A lot of red tape to navigate,” explained Nic Anderson, the unofficial supervisor and a researcher with the Great Basin Institute, an environmental group working closely with the National Park Service.

Soon enough the volunteers were packing their infant plants into the soil, all under the mournful gaze of the thousands of burned Joshua trees. It was a hopeful sight, but also an eerie one: like witnessing a birth in a morgue.

Left: Chris Clarke and Brendan Cummings place a chicken-wire cage around recently planted saplings. Right: A western Joshua tree in the west Mojave.

I got to talking with volunteer Chris Clarke, an associate director with the National Parks Conservation Association, another environmental group. Clarke explained how the Dome fire didn’t just impact the trees, but also the antelope squirrels that eat their seeds, and the ladder-backed woodpeckers that look for insects in their limbs. And the desert night lizards that seek shelter under their stumps. And tortoises. And jackrabbits. And cottontail rabbits. “There are lots of animals that depend on the Joshua tree forest for food,” he explained. “The Joshua tree is really the linchpin of the ecosystem.”

After about two hours, the group had all 12 of their saplings firmly planted into the ground. By then the rain had picked up and temperatures had dipped into the 40s, and the caravans of tree-huggers decided to head back to base. It was a modest effort, and one that even in the best-case scenario, won’t come to approaching the scale of devastation wrought by the Dome fire. But the process was therapeutic for the humans involved as much as it was restorative for the ecosystem.


Park ranger Sierra Willoughby caresses the burned bark of a Joshua tree.

And maybe the dead trees aren’t so dead after all. Though the Mojave national preserve staff had initially believed every tree was dead, they’d suddenly noticed a handful of natural new growths sprouting from the husks of the charred trees (though it’s macabre, imagine a baby limb on a decaying corpse). As Cummings and I strolled through the forests near the basecamp, he couldn’t help but eagerly point out any unexpected saplings. Even after 16 years living among the trees in the town of Joshua Tree, he’s still amazed by them.

“You walk through the burned Cima Dome and feel a little hopeless,” Cummings said. “But dig a hole and plant a new tree in the ground and suddenly it feels a little less hopeless.”

Canada's Trudeau vows action after four freeze to death in 'mind blowing' tragedy


FILE PHOTO: A sign post for the small border town of Emerson,

 near the Canada-U.S border crossing


Fri, January 21, 2022
By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) -Canada is doing all it can stop people smuggling across the U.S. border after a family of four froze to death in a "mind blowing' tragedy, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday.

U.S. authorities have charged a U.S. man with human trafficking after the four - a man, woman, baby and teenager - were found dead in the province of Manitoba, a few yards north of the frontier with Minnesota.

The four have tentatively been identified as a family from India, part of a larger group trying to enter the United States by walking across snow-covered fields in a remote region during blizzard-like conditions.

"It was an absolutely mind-blowing story. It's so tragic to see a family die like that, victims of human traffickers ... and of people who took advantage of their desire to build a better life," Trudeau told a news conference.

"This is why we are doing all we can to discourage people from crossing the border in an irregular or illicit manner."

Canada, Trudeau said, was working very closely with the United States to stop smuggling and help people "taking unacceptable risks."

The four people died about 6 miles (10 km) east of Emerson, a small farming community. David Carlson, head of the local municipal council, said there was no shelter at all in the area.

"It would almost be like a lunar-type landscape and you can become lost or disoriented very quickly in those kinds of conditions, especially as you're beginning to freeze and no doubt panic," he told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

"There's no lights up there. You would have probably been in close to zero visibility."

Emerson said the incident was unusual since in the past, people have tried to cross into Canada from the United States, rather than the other way round.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa and Ismail Shakil in BengaluruEditing by Tomasz Janowski and Aurora Ellis)

Letters to the Editor: 

Here's a revolutionary idea to fix

homelessness — lower rent

Fri, January 21, 2022

Recreational vehicles that serve as homes for the unhoused line Main Street in Venice Beach on Tuesday. (Los Angeles Times)

To the editor: I read Steve Lopez's column on L.A. mayoral hopeful Rep. Karen Bass that focused on our favorite complaint here on the Westside — homelessness. While I agree that it's a huge problem, I'm tired of hearing about it.

How about fixing homelessness by fixing rent? If people could afford apartments, they wouldn't be desperate for housing.

I want our local and state politicians to address homelessness on the front end, not just the back. All around me are new housing developments, some comprising hundreds of apartments, including studios that rent for $3,000. How is that helping anyone but the developers and corporate landlords?

Our politicians, from the local to the state level, sidestep legislation to provide affordable housing, continuing to give rich real estate investors great deals in prime locations. What's going to happen when we run out of tax and grant money for alleviating homelessness and still have a problem?

Barbara Pawley, Los Angeles

$350 Billion in Pandemic Aid to Build … Golf Courses?


Michael Rainey
Fri, January 21, 2022

Congress has provided state and local governments with about $350 billion to help them navigate the coronavirus crisis, but according to The Washington Post’s Tony Romm, the money is sometimes being used in surprising and perhaps questionable ways.

A wealthy town in coastal Florida, for example, is spending $2 million in federal aid to help build a golf course – in an area that already has more than 150 of them.

In other examples cited by Romm, North Dakota is using $150 million in federal pandemic aid to help build a gas pipeline, Alabama is spending $400 million to rebuild a prison, and Indiana will put $3 million toward the expansion of the Fort Wayne International Airport.

Do we have a problem? At first glance, the use of federal relief funds for things like golf courses seems deeply problematic. In general, the money provided by Congress was intended to be used for important initiatives related to the pandemic, such as vaccinations, the purchase of medical equipment, and the support of local school budgets, and a golf course is a long way from a hospital or fire station.

But Congress put few restrictions on the use of the funds, opting to allow state and local officials to spend the money as they see fit. And some of the funds were meant to be used to help prop up local economies, which in sunny Florida might include the construction of yet another golf course.

“What’s a good and bad use of money? It’s not really clear,” Marc Goldwein of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget told Romm.

Defending the fiscal firehose: White House economic adviser Gene Sperling, who is overseeing the enactment of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, said the federal aid has played a crucial role in softening the blow of the pandemic. It has given “state and localities the fiscal fire power and flexibility to deal both with immediate crisis as well as continuing disruptions and lingering impacts that could hamper a full, durable and equitable recovery,” Sperling said.

“These funds were meant to ensure that unlike the post-Great Recession recovery — where Congress later refused to add more state and local resources — we would see state and local governments adding to growth and jobs, instead of being a major source of austerity, job loss and barrier to stronger growth,” Sperling added.

VIOLATION OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT
‘Punched in the gut’: Jewish couple was denied adoption due to religion, lawsuit says

 

Vandana Ravikumar
Thu, January 20, 2022

A Jewish couple is suing the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services, saying a state-sponsored adoption agency declined to help them because of their religion.

At the beginning of 2021, Elizabeth and Gabriel Rutan-Ram were making plans to adopt a child from Florida, according to a news release from Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the nonprofit organization that filed the lawsuit on their behalf. Before they could do so, they had to complete state-mandated foster-parent training and receive a home-study certification.

The child they were hoping to adopt had a disability, and the couple wanted to provide him a “loving and nurturing home” in Knox County, the lawsuit said.

The two of them turned to the only agency near them that would help out with an out-of-state adoption. But on the day they were set to begin their foster-parent training, they were told by the agency, Holston United Methodist Home for Children, that it only provided help to prospective families that “share our [Christian] belief system,” the lawsuit said.

As a result, the lawsuit said, the couple was left unable to foster or adopt the child, as no other agencies in the Knox County area could provide the services necessary for out-of-state adoptions.

“I felt like I’d been punched in the gut,” Liz Rutan-Ram told Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “It was the first time I felt discriminated against because I am Jewish. It was very shocking. And it was very hurtful that the agency seemed to think that a child would be better off in state custody than with a loving family like us.”

The couple, along with “six other Tennessee taxpayers,” sued the government agency, saying that state-funded child placing agencies and services should not be able to discriminate against prospective parents or families on the basis of religion. The lawsuit also urges the department to cut ties with Holston for as long as the agency continues to deny services on that basis.

The Department of Children’s Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on Thursday, Jan. 20.

Holston United Methodist Home for Children responded to the lawsuit in an emailed statement to McClatchy News. In the statement, Brad Williams, a top leader with the agency, said everything Holston does “is guided by our religious views.”

“We seek to be a force for good, living out the words of Christ to care for children and ‘the least of these,’ and it is vital that Holston Home, as a religious organization, remains free to continue placing at-risk children in loving, Christian families, according to our deeply held beliefs,” Williams said. “We view the caregivers we partner with as extensions of our ministry team serving children.”

Williams also said the agency would help people who were refused service to find other agencies that could help them, and that “finding other agencies is not hard to do.”

“Vulnerable children should not lose access to Christian families who choose to become foster or adoptive parents,” Williams said. “Holston Home places children with families that agree with our statement of faith, and forcing Holston Home to violate our beliefs and place children in homes that do not share our faith is wrong and contrary to a free society.”

Four of the plaintiffs joining the Rutan-Rams are faith leaders from elsewhere in the state — one is an interfaith pastor, one a Disciples of Christ minister, one a Christian minister and one a Unitarian Universalist minister. The other two are a retired psychologist who has prior experience working with foster and adoptive children and the treasurer of the organization’s Tennessee chapter, the release said.

The lawsuit accuses the state of Tennessee of allowing child-placing agencies to discriminate based on religion and said the agency never told the Rutan-Rams they didn’t serve Jewish people until the day they were supposed to start their training.

It also says that allowing child-placing agencies that receive state funding to refuse services on the basis of religion violates Tennessee’s constitution, alleging that the Department of Children’s Services is violating the law.

The lawsuit pushes the department to stop providing funding to Holston as long as the agency continues to “discriminate, in services or programs funded by the Department, based on the religious beliefs of prospective or current foster parents.” The plaintiffs are also seeking to recoup attorney’s fees and expenses.

The couple is fostering and hopes to adopt a teenage girl from another agency. They also hope to adopt another child in the future, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit is the state’s first to challenge a law that allows adoption agencies to deny services to families if their moral or religious beliefs are at odds with one another, according to The Knox News. That measure was signed into law about two years ago, the outlet reported.

Jewish couple challenges Tennessee law after Christian agency’s policy prevented adoption



Kerry Breen
Fri, January 21, 2022

A couple in Knoxville, Tennessee filed a lawsuit against the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services this week alleging that they were denied services by a state-funded foster care agency because they are Jewish.

Elizabeth and Gabriel Rutan-Ram told TODAY that they first connected with the Holston United Methodist Home for Children in January of 2021, when they were hoping to adopt a child from Florida. Elizabeth Rutan-Ram said that state required the couple to have specific training — including Tennessee-mandated foster parent training and a home-study certification — and after reaching out to multiple agencies, the Holston United Methodist Home for Children was the only agency she could find that offered that training for out-of-state adoptions.

Elizabeth told TODAY that she asked if her and Gabriel's faith would be a problem for the organization early in the process.

"I asked early on if it would be an issue and they said they didn't think so, but that they would get back to me, and in the meantime we kept working on everything," Elizabeth said. "We had signed up for the class. The class was supposed to start that day. I had a check in my hand that I was going to drive out to them ... And I got an email that very clearly said they could not work with us because we didn't match up with their values."
'Committed to Christian biblical principles'

The email that Elizabeth referenced was submitted in the couple's lawsuit. TODAY was able to review the document. While the Holston United Methodist Home for Children did offer to connect the Rutan-Rams with another agency, it also said that "as a Christian organization," the agency's executive team had "made the decision several years ago to only provide adoption services to prospective adoptive families that share our belief system in order to avoid conflicts or delays with future service delivery."

In an email to TODAY, Brad Williams, the president and CEO of the agency, confirmed that the organization had rejected the couple due to their religious beliefs.

“Since 1895, Holston United Methodist Home for Children has been committed to Christian biblical principles in our calling to provide hope and healing for a brighter future by sharing the love of Jesus with children and families struggling with life’s challenges," said Williams, in part. "Everything Holston Home does is guided by our religious views. We seek to be a force for good, living out the words of Christ to care for children and ‘the least of these,’ and it is vital that Holston Home, as a religious organization, remains free to continue placing at-risk children in loving, Christian families, according to our deeply held beliefs. ... Vulnerable children should not lose access to Christian families who choose to become foster or adoptive parents. Holston Home places children with families that agree with our statement of faith, and forcing Holston Home to violate our beliefs and place children in homes that do not share our faith is wrong and contrary to a free society.”

Tennessee House Bill 836

Gabriel Rutan-Ram said that he was shocked to have such a response from an agency that receives state funding.

A recently passed Tennessee law, House Bill 836, "prohibits, to the extent allowed by federal law, a private licensed child-placing agency from being required to ... participate in any child placement for foster care or adoption that would violate the agency's written religious or moral convictions."

"We were completely unaware of that bill," Gabriel said. "I was like, 'Something seems a little off about this,' and then I started looking into it a little bit, and then the other shoe dropped when I found out about it. I was like, 'Oh, OK, this is incredibly unfortunate.'"

The law, which passed in early 2020, is similar to bills in ten other states. In Alabama and Michigan, the law does not include taxpayer-funded organizations, but in Kansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas and Virginia, agencies that receive state funding can discriminate based on religious belief.

Suing the Tennessee Department of Children's Services

Now, the Rutan-Rams are suing the Tennessee Department of Children's Services, with the assistance of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, a civil rights organization. Alex J. Luchenitser, associate vice president and associate legal director at Americans United, said that they are seeking a declaratory judgement, which is a legal declaration that the law violates the Tennessee constitution. Luchenitser said that the ultimate goal of the judgement is to prevent taxpayer-funded adoption and foster care agencies from discriminating against prospective parents due to religious beliefs.

"The ultimate goal of this lawsuit is to prevent this type of discrimination ever happening to Elizabeth and Gabe or to anyone else again," said Luchenitser.

The Tennessee Department of Children's Services declined to comment, telling TODAY that they could not discuss pending litigation.

The Holston United Methodist Home for Children does receive money annually from the state, according to Luchenitser, who reviewed the agency’s financial reports. The agency did not respond to a request for comment on the amount of state funding.

'It was heartbreaking'

The Rutan-Rams said they were devastated to hear that they would not be able to proceed with the adoption of the child in Florida. Elizabeth said she felt "awful" and heartbroken after receiving the email from the Holston United Methodist Home for Children.

"We had already worked so hard to get to that point and I didn't really know where it would go from there," Elizabeth said. "I was disappointed in myself for being so upset. I thought I was prepared for something like that, and then I wasn't, so it was very emotional, and I felt like we'd already invested so much time and so much into it, just emotionally, that it was heartbreaking."

Gabriel said that the couple had already converted their guest room into a nursery, and made other preparations like getting a car that would fit a carseat, when they got the news.

"Suddenly, all the wind was just taken out of the sails. And kind of just left this big empty feeling inside," Gabriel recalled.

Rachel Laser, the president and CEO of Americans United, said that the organization has handled several similar cases, including that of a Catholic woman in South Carolina who was turned away from a government-funded foster care agency operated by evangelical Protestants.

"Unfortunately, this sort of heartbreaking and unconstitutional activity is not unique to Gabe and Liz," Laser said. "Unfortunately, there are a lot of unconstitutional laws that pass in state legislatures and even in Congress. And it’s up to brave citizens like Gabe and Liz to challenge them, and stand up for their own rights and the rights of other Americans."

117,000 children awaiting adoption

Daniele Gerard, a senior staff attorney for Children's Rights, a social services organization, said that laws like House Bill 836 make it harder for children to find stable homes.

"On any given day in the United States, there are about 400,000 kids in foster care and about 117,000 of them waiting to be adopted ... What (this law) does is this reduces the safe, loving, stable families," Gerard said. "The decisions about whether or not to train and license foster families should be done with the best interests of the child in mind, not the religious objections of adults."

"The biggest barrier to placing children with families is a lack of qualified foster or adoptive parents, and you don't want to further shrink the pool based on anything other than a merit-based reason," Gerard added.

The Rutan-Rams said that although they could not adopt the child in Florida that they had wanted to adopt, they are still pursuing adoption. The process for in-state foster-to-adopt is different, so they don’t have to go through the agency that rejected them. They are currently fostering a child who they hope to adopt.

“We’re still looking to add to our family,” Gabriel said.