Pennsylvania woman being treated for rabies after encountering monkey in aftermath of crash
Mike Snider, USA TODAY
Thu, January 27, 2022
A woman who happened upon the Friday crash of a pickup towing a trailer transporting 100 monkeys is being treated after a monkey spit at her and she developed pink-eye symptoms.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said the U.S. Department of Agriculture is investigating the accident, which occurred on an east-central Pennsylvania highway, and the subsequent attempts to round up some of the cynomolgus macaque monkeys who had escaped from their crates.
The accident involved the collision of the pickup and a dump truck near the Danville exit on Interstate 80. Pennsylvania State Police said several monkeys had escaped following Friday's collision and one remained unaccounted for overnight.
Michele Fallon, the Danville, Pennsylvania woman who came upon the crash told the Press Enterprise newspaper when she and another motorist who stopped to help, the other driver said he thought he saw a cat run across the road.
Since Fallon's comments about the incident have been in local and national news, she told USA TODAY some people are accusing her of being paid by the media to talk about the crash – and for not using common sense at the accident site.
At the time, Fallon said after she learned the crates contained monkeys, she assumed they were being transported to a zoo because the driver never mentioned anything about the monkeys being imported and being transported to a lab.
"If I had been told … I would never have touched anything," Fallon said. About going to get medical treatment after developing a cough, runny nose and pinkeye-like symptoms, Fallon said, "I wanted to be cautious. I even told the doctors I don't want to overreact on this, but I don't want to underreact either."
A young long-tailed macaque monkey, also known as a cynomolgus or crab-eating macaque monkey, in Cambodia. This monkey was released after biological samples were collected to study the types of infectious agents that they may harbor or have been exposed to.
Some local residents, Fallon said, "are making out like, 'Oh, I have this new monkey virus. It's a monkey pox and there is going to be an outbreak. … It's just a monkey hissed in my face. That's all that happened. I want to protect myself."
Kristen Nordlund, a spokesperson with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an email to the Associated Press Saturday night that all 100 of the monkeys had been accounted for. Three were euthanized.
Fallon, who will be on preventative medicine for about two weeks, shared a letter she got from the CDC dated Jan. 21 in which she is told that if she was within 5 feet of the crates holding the monkeys and not wearing personal protective equipment, she should be alert to any illnesses in the next month. The CDC requires a minimum quarantine of 31 days for monkeys after they arrive in the U.S., the letter said.
PETA criticized the CDC for what it considers shoddy follow-up in the aftermath of the incident. Persons scratched or bitten by a macaque monkey are at risk for the Herpes B Virus, as well as other diseases including salmonella, tuberculosis, yellow fever and other illnesses, according to the CDC's site.
Reports from the scene suggested that "feces and urine from the terrified monkeys were reportedly smeared across the highway as crates – that weren’t strapped in as required – flew from the truck, and the CDC should be scrambling to ensure that numerous people who were at the scene aren’t in danger," PETA said.
Follow-up is not only important for passersby who came across the accident but for first responders, Lisa Jones-Engel, senior science advisor for primate experimentation at PETA, told USA TODAY. "I'm surprised the CDC has not been more responsive to the first responders on this."
After Fallon checked on the health of the pickup driver and passenger at the crash site, Fallon told USA TODAY she began checking the trailer it had been pulling. Some crates had come out of the trailer and she was concerned for the animals, which at the time she assumed were cates.
She pulled up a cloth covering one of the crates and stuck her finger inside the chicken wire enveloping it and "I hear this weird noise," Fallon said. When she tried to get a closer look, "it just pops his head up and hisses at me. It's a monkey."
After the incident, Fallon said she developed the symptoms and went to the emergency room Sunday where she began a series of rabies shots and antibiotics – she had an open cut that concerned health care workers – and tested negative for COVID. Fallon, who is 45, is uncertain if the symptoms are related because her family had been ill recently, too. And two people who attended a party she went to Saturday later tested positive for COVID-19.
"So I'm like, maybe that's where my symptoms are coming from, because I was around people who had been sick," she said. "It's like I went from a monkey situation to a COVID party situation. It's ridiculous."
USDA spokesman Andre Bell told USA TODAY the agency is looking into PETA’s letter. The CDC did not respond to requests for comment on the incident.
PETA asked the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to investigate the incident for potential violations in the transportation and handling of the monkeys, which PETA said were en route to a laboratory in Missouri. "We believe the handling and treatment of monkeys before, during and after the collision may constitute violations," PETA vice president Alka Chandna, said in a letter addressed to Robert Gibbens, director of animal welfare operations at the USDA's APHIS.
https://www.scribd.com/document/555000513/Concerns-From-PETA-Re-Vehicular-Crash-in-Pennsylvania-w-Addendum#download&from_embed
Crates holding live monkeys are collected next to the trailer they were being transported in along state Route 54 at the intersection with Interstate 80 near Danville, Pa., Friday, Jan. 21, 2022, after a pickup pulling the trailer carrying the monkeys was hit by a dump truck.
In laboratories, workers wear personal protective equipment to protect them from monkeys' bodily fluids, scratches and bites. Any exposures, such as the kind Fallon has described, "are immediately treated following strict and rigorous protocols to reduce the risk of disease transmission," Jones-Engel said.
About 1.2 million macaque monkeys have been imported into the U.S. since 1975, Jones-Engel said. She provided a CDC PowerPoint presentation showing the number of non-human primates imported declining between 2019 and 2020 – China is limiting how many it exports – and more animals reported dead on arrival and dying during quarantine.
"In the end, this doesn't work," she said. "The monkeys are not giving us the treatments, they're not giving us the vaccines. All we're doing is increasing the risk for the human population. "
An editorial in the Press Enterprise took a different tack, suggesting that studies on monkeys and primates are essential to medical research including helping "wounded soldiers and stroke victims regain independence after losing limbs or the control over them," it wrote.
It’s easy to understand why many people found themselves on the monkeys’ side when they broke loose of their cages near Danville and fled for freedom," the editorial said. "They’re furry, cute, intelligent animals. And our nation’s labs should be doing absolutely everything possible to ensure the minimum number of animals are subjected to tests that will secure a scientifically valid result. … But if we value the medical advancement non-human primate research has brought, we must also recognize shipments like the one that crashed in Danville on Friday are needed."
Contributing: The Associated Press
Follow Mike Snider on Twitter: @mikesnider.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Monkey encounter at Pennsylvania crash: Woman being treated for rabies
Oregon tribes boost stake in key renewable energy project
Utility says the resource ‘plays an important, and difficult to replace, role’ in its portfolio.
By Pete Danko – Staff Reporter, Portland Business Journal
Jan 27, 2022
The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs have pushed their ownership stake in Portland General Electric’s Pelton Round Butte hydroelectric project in central Oregon from one-third to just shy of 50%.
Both parties said the move reflects the close partnership they have forged over an energy resource type that elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest has delivered little but pain to Native Americans.
“It could have been a completely different story, but we’re working together to make progress in the right direction,” James Manion, general manager of Warm Springs Power and Water Enterprises, said.
Pelton Round Butte, which adjoins the Warm Springs Reservation, was completed in 1964 with three dams on a 20-mile stretch of the Deschutes River.
Under a 2000 agreement, the tribes acquired their one-third stake on the last day of 2001, with an option to purchase another one-sixth share in 20 years. They recently exercised that option, giving them a 49.99% ownership stake. The agreement gives the tribes the further option of boosting their ownership to 50.01% in 2037.
Like all major hydro projects, Pelton Round Butte has faced habitat-impact issues. An ongoing challenge is managing dam operations to keep water temperature and dissolved oxygen levels within acceptable bounds.
At the same time, its importance for PGE (NYSE: POR) has only grown as climate change had put a premium on clean energy, especially clean energy that can be counted on at virtually any time.
The tribes have always sold their portion of Pelton Round Butte’s energy and capacity to PGE, and will continue to do so under a new deal reached last year that runs through 2040. That revenue stream will help address the debt service for the tribes’ expanded ownership, Manion said.
PGE said the agreement will reduce a forecasted 2025 capacity shortfall from 511 megawatts to 287 megawatts. In a filing, PGE said Pelton Round Butte is its “largest hydroelectric on-system resource and thus plays an important, and difficult to replace, role in PGE’s portfolio.” It generates enough electricity to power about 150,000 homes.
Group warns of potential catastrophe on old tanker off Yemen
This satellite image provided by Planet Labs PBC shows FSO Safer in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen, Jan. 9, 2022. A 42-page Greenpeace report warned Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022, of a potential major oil leak or explosion on the aging oil tanker. The rusting, neglected Japanese-built tanker has been moored in its location 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) away from Yemen’s western Red Sea port of Ras Issa since the 1980s, when it was sold to the Yemeni government. (Planet Labs PBC via AP) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)More
NOHA ELHENNAWY
Thu, January 27, 2022
CAIRO (AP) — A leading environmental group warned Thursday of a potential major oil leak or explosion on an aging oil tanker moored off of Yemen's Red Sea coast. The neglected vessel is loaded with more than a million barrels of crude oil.
Greenpeace released a report listing the environmental, humanitarian and economic impacts of a potential oil spill from the FSO Safer on conflict-riddled Yemen and the Red Sea region in general.
“The event could be one of the biggest oil spill disasters in history and would cause widespread severe environmental damage and exacerbate the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the country,” the group said in its report.
The rusting, neglected Japanese-built tanker has been moored in its location 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) away from Yemen’s western Red Sea port of Ras Issa since the 1980s, when it was sold to the Yemeni government. Prior to the escalation of Yemen's conflict in 2015, the vessel was used to store and export oil from fields in eastern Marib province.
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The 42-page Greenpeace report argues that an oil spill or explosion on the tanker would lead to the closure of desalination plants in Yemen, which will eventually disrupt the supply of drinking water to nearly 10 million people.
“The entire Red Sea region’s drinking water supply could be contaminated by oil in just three weeks following a spill,” said Greenpeace.
A major spill would also lead to the closure of Yemen's western ports, including Hodeida and Salif, through which 68% of aid is brought into the Arab world's poorest country, the report said. Up to 8.4 million people relying on food aid supplies would be affected, said the Amsterdam-based advocacy group.
An oil leak would also cause the closure of fisheries, the rise of air pollution levels in the region and the disruption of shipping traffic through Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Suez Canal, said the report.
Internal documents obtained by The Associated Press in 2020 show that seawater has entered the tanker's engine compartment, causing damage to pipes and increasing the risk of sinking. Rust has covered parts of the tanker and the inert gas that prevents the tanks from gathering flammable gases has leaked out. Experts say maintenance is no longer possible because the damage to the ship is irreversible, according to the AP report.
“The question is no longer whether the catastrophe will happen. The question is when it will happen,” Greenpeace MENA Campaigns Manager Ahmed El Droubi told reporters in a virtual news conference Thursday.
Ras Issa is controlled by the country's Houthi rebels. Since 2015, the Houthis have been at war with the internationally recognized government, which is backed by a Saudi-led coalition and the United States.
Last month, a Yemeni official with the U.N.-recognized government said there was an oil leak from the tanker. Undersecretary of Hodeida province Waleed al-Qudaimi blamed the situation on the U.N. Security Council and called on countries bordering the Red Sea to act urgently.
The U.N. has constantly warned of the catastrophic impact of a potential leak from the aging and neglected tanker. However, none of its diplomatic efforts to resolve the matter has materialized. Last year, the U.N. accused the rebels of using the tanker as a “bargaining chip” to advance their political agenda in Yemen.
“The technology and expertise to transfer the oil to other tankers exist, but despite months of negotiations we are still at a stalemate,” said Paul Horsman, project leader of Greenpeace's Safer response team. “It is really time to put aside the politics and agree on a contingency plan.”
Horsman told reporters that his group is calling for the deployment of a containment boom around the tanker as a first line of defense. Booms are interconnected floating barriers that are usually spread across the water to stop a major oil spill.
“The boom is not a solution but it could potentially buy us time in case there is a spill,” said Horsman. “The only solution is to move the oil safely from Safer to another tanker.”
Chris Johnson, a U.N. senior policy advisor who was present during the release of the Greenpeace report, said the U.N. is already working on bringing a boom from Djibouti to Hodeida port. She added that the U.N. is pursuing with diplomatic efforts to reach an agreement between the Houthis, the Saudi-led-coalition and the Yemeni government to resolve the matter.
Meanwhile, the U.N. is trying to locate a suitable vessel to which the oil could be transferred, Johnson told reporters.
'Willful ignorance': Joe Rogan’s comments on Blackness challenged by Vanderbilt professorStephen ProctorThu, January 27, 2022, Michael Eric Dyson, professor of African American and Diaspora studies at Vanderbilt University, appeared Wednesday on Don Lemon Tonight and addressed comments made on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast on Tuesday.Rogan’s guest, CANADIAN psychologist and commentator Jordan Peterson, questioned Dyson’s Blackness because he is fairly light-skinned. Peterson also questioned his own whiteness, trying to make the point that unless someone’s skin is literally black or literally white, then that person should not be called Black or white. In this context, Peterson said of Dyson, “He was brown, not Black.”“The Black and white thing is so weird because the shades are so — there’s such a spectrum of shades of people,” Rogan added. “Unless you’re talking to someone who is, like, 100 percent African, from the darkest place where they're not wearing any clothes all day and they've developed all that melanin to protect themselves from the sun, you know, even the term Black is weird. When you use it for people that are literally my color, it becomes very strange.”I think that's a deliberate, willful ignorance, and it's the unintentional hilarity of a certain kind of whiteness that refuses to own up to what it is.Michael Eric DysonDyson explained for Rogan what Blackness means besides just the color of one’s skin.“We’re not talking about a genetic predisposition toward darker skin, we're speaking about an existential context,” Dyson said. “We're talking about a philosophical idea. We're speaking about rooted cultures in deep histories that have vast traditions that have generated complicated identities.”Dyson believes that Rogan, whose platform on Spotify was unsuccessfully challenged by rocker Neil Young just a day earlier due to rampant COVID misinformation on Rogan's podcast, is too smart to believe what was said.“Brother Rogan is smarter than that,” Dyson said. “People who are in Africa who don't wear clothes, who have deeper melanin? Was he speaking about thousands of years ago? Is he talking about today? When he refers to what it means to be African. When he refers to what it means to be Black. Are you that obtuse? Indifferent to truth? Ignorant about traditions?”What Dyson really found astonishing is that Rogan would make such comments after having opened for comedian Dave Chappelle. Dyson said he met Rogan at that show.“Joe Rogan, you're opening up for a guy who has redefined, for many people, Blackness in the last 15 years, and yet you're claiming not to know what Blackness is,” Dyson said. “Yeah, I think that's a deliberate, willful ignorance, and it's the unintentional hilarity of a certain kind of whiteness that refuses to own up to what it is.”
Race to salvage US F-35C fighter jet that crashed in hostile South China Sea
Julian Borger in Washington
Thu, January 27, 2022,
Photograph: Tim Kelly/Reuters
The US navy is racing to salvage an F-35C fighter jet from the bottom of the South China Sea after it crashed on an aircraft carrier and plunged overboard – taking with it highly classified technology that would be a coup if China retrieved it first.
The F-35C crashed-landed on the deck of the USS Carl Vinson during routine operations on Monday, the navy said, injuring six sailors and the pilot, who ejected from the plane before it fell into the sea.
The most advanced US fighter, a stealth plane costing over $100m, is packed with highly classified technology and if found would represent an intelligence boon for China, which claims almost all of the South China Sea as its own territory. The Vinson was on a patrol intended to challenge that territorial claim and defend international freedom of navigation.
The F-35C is a version of the plane specially designed to operate from aircraft carriers. Maritime experts have said it could take a US salvage ship more than 10 days to reach the site of the crash, potentially giving Chinese submarines the opportunity to find it first.
Related: US nuclear-powered submarine hits submerged object in South China Sea
“We’re certainly mindful of the value of an F-35 in every respect of what value means,” said John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman. “And as we continue to attempt recovery of the aircraft we’re going to do it obviously with safety foremost in mind, but clearly our own national security interests. And I think I will just leave it at that.”
In Beijing the foreign ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, said the Chinese government had no ambitions to find the crashed plane. “I noted relevant reports. This is not the first time that the US has an accident in the South China Sea,” he said.
“We have no interest in their aircraft. We urge the country concerned to do things that are conducive to regional peace and stability, rather than flex muscles in the region.”
In 2001, a heavily damaged American EP-3 surveillance plane made a daredevil emergency landing on China’s Hainan island after a collision with a pursuing Chinese fighter plane. The fighter crashed and its pilot was killed.
The 24 crew of the EP-3, who had been lucky to survive the collision, were detained and interrogated by Chinese authorities before their release 10 days later. Meanwhile, the Chinese military stripped and examined the EP-3’s highly classified equipment and intelligence materials over several months – eventually giving back the plane in pieces.
It is the third time an F-35 has crashed into the sea and had to be salvaged. In November a British F-35B, the short takeoff and vertical landing version, crashed as it lost power taking off from the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth in the Mediterranean. The pilot ejected and the plane was recovered from the seabed a few weeks later.
In April 2019 a Japanese F-35A, the conventional takeoff and landing version, crashed at over 1,000km/h into the Pacific, leaving the pilot dead and only debris to be recovered.
Dramatic images and video show Navy stealth fighter jet crashing into ocean
Andrew Naughtie
Fri, January 28, 2022,
F-35C fighter crash (Twitter)
Pictures and video footage have emerged showing the moments before and after a US Navy fighter jet crashed into the South China Sea while attempting to land on an aircraft carrier.
In the video, which has circulated widely on social media, the plane – an F-35C stealth fighter – approaches the landing deck of an aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, during a routine operation. The footage shows the plane coming in to land and then disappearing from view with a bang, but the clip cuts off before the crash itself can be seen.
Still images are also circulating showing the plane in the water, partially submerged with its ejector seat missing.
According to the Navy, the fighter hit the flight deck of the Vinson, at which point the pilot ejected before it fell into the water. Along with the pilot, six sailors aboard the ship were reportedly injured.
The wreckage of the advanced aircraft has yet to be recovered from the ocean floor, a risky situation given that the crash took place in the South China Sea – an enormous body of water claimed almost in its entirety by the Chinese government on a premise not accepted by most of the rest of the world.
Over the last decade and more, the Chinese military has steadily increased its presence in the region, building new bases on artificial land and intermittently harassing civilian ships belonging to neighbouring countries.
For their part, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said after the crash that they have “no interests” in the US plane, and advised that the American military “contribute more to regional peace and stability, rather than flexing force at every turn.”
EXXON UNION BUSTING
Exxon, union swap proposals to end lockout at Texas refinery
FILE PHOTO: Exxon Mobil begins lockout of workers from Texas plant
Thu, January 27, 2022
By Erwin Seba
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp and the United Steelworkers union (USW) have swapped proposals as they work toward possibly ending a nearly 10-month lockout by the company of Beaumont, Texas, refinery workers, Exxon said on Thursday.
The company did not offer details about either offer made at a meeting on Wednesday. It did say it rejected the proposal from USW local 13-243 in Beaumont during the meeting, which was the 55th between the two sides "and provided a new counter offer which included two, union-requested changes."
A spokesperson for the USW was not immediately available on Thursday to comment.
Both sides are waiting for the U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to decide on charges filed by the USW that Exxon is using the lockout, which began on May 1, to force the removal of the union from the 369,024 barrel-per-day refinery and an adjoining lubricating oil plant.
On Dec. 29, the NLRB impounded ballots cast between November and December by over 600 USW members in a vote on the union's removal.
Exxon has said the lockout will end when either a contract that meets its goals is accepted or the union is removed. The company has said its contract proposals would enable it to be competitive in even low-margin environments.
USW 13-243 members rejected Exxon's offer in October because it would remove a long-standing, key provision that allows workers a say over job assignments and would split the refinery workers from lubrication plant employees.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by David Gregorio)
Blizzard is working on a brand new survival game that could define its next era
Taylor Hatmaker
Wed, January 26, 2022,
It might still be in the headlines every day for organizational chaos, union busting and being part of the biggest gaming acquisition ever, but Blizzard is apparently hard at work on its next original gaming world.
Though it offered few specifics, the company teased a "survival game in an all-new universe" this week, known for now only as "Unannounced Survival Game." The company linked to a job postings page with the announcement, which also featured a few glimpses of art from the forthcoming game.
In the art, a hunter clad in furs and some kind of skull helmet situation crouches with an axe, appearing to track something near a fairy tale-esque portal. Another piece of concept art shows a modern scene with two people peering through another portal to a magical land.
The art doesn't give much away, but the concept does look compelling, particularly for a company so good at building creative, seamless multiplayer worlds. And the survival game concept would be a fresh and probably very refined entry into a genre popularized on Twitch by games like Fortnite and Rust. Blizzard's last major fresh IP was esports mega-hit Overwatch, which has a now-delayed sequel on the way at some point, possibly 2023.
It's a tumultuous time for one of the world's biggest gaming studios. Activision Blizzard, which publishes hit games like the Call of Duty franchise, Overwatch and World of Warcraft, remains embroiled in a scandal that broke open with news of a California state lawsuit alleging sexual harassment and discrimination at the company last year.
The company is also being investigated by the SEC, which began issuing subpoenas to employees late last year. Meanwhile, for now the broader company is still led by Bobby Kotick, its chief executive who was aware of the serious allegations of workplace misconduct within his company and failed to do anything about them. Bloomberg reports that Kotick is expected to leave once the deal closes, with longtime Head of Xbox Phil Spencer stepping into the role of Microsoft Gaming CEO to help lead the company.
Amid all of this — or rather because all of this — Microsoft announced plans to acquire the company for $68.7 billion earlier this month. The massive deal would set records, consolidate a number of the biggest games under one of the biggest console makers and tempt fate at a time that federal and state regulators are more wary than ever about tech companies building unstoppable monopolies.
It didn't need another reason to make headlines, but Activision Blizzard also declined to voluntarily recognize a union created by a group of QA testers at Raven Software, a division within the company, this week. The group at Raven had previously been on strike for more than a month to protest the firing of 12 contract workers.
On Twitter, a number of Blizzard workers expressed optimism that the new ownership could help stabilize the company while also setting it on a better track, leaving its history of toxic workplace culture behind. Assuming the deal with Microsoft goes through, the gaming giant will have one of the most established tech companies in the world calling the shots, and that kind of maturity and stability surely won't hurt as it seeks to hire up for its next major IP.
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Biden Administration Canceled $15 Billion in Student Loan Debt During First Year in Office
Joe Price
Wed, January 26, 2022,
Image via Getty/Drew Angerer
According to a press release from the Department of Education, the Joe Biden administration has canceled $15 billion in student loan debt since he took office.
On Wednesday, the department confirmed more than 675,000 borrowers have benefitted from student loan forgiveness. This is far from all of those who have yet to qualify for loan writeoffs through programs such as Public Service Loan Forgiveness. Although Biden has now eliminated more debt in this area than any other president, the Education Data Initiative indicates over 43 million Americans still owe a total of approximately $1.75 trillion, or roughly $40,000 per student loan recipient.
The statement comes as upwards of 80 House and Senate members shared a letter urging Joe Biden to release a memo that confirms his authority to write off student debt, per CNBC. The lawmakers, who include Chuck Schumer and Elizabeth Warren among them, also said the president should forgive $50,000 per student loan recipient. That would come with a price tag of $1 trillion, but it would cancel debt for 36 million additional students.
Last year, Biden announced his administration would extend the pause on student loan debt payments until at least May 2022. “Given these considerations, today my Administration is extending the pause on federal student loan repayments for an additional 90 days—through May 1, 2022—as we manage the ongoing pandemic and further strengthen our economic recovery,” he wrote. “Meanwhile, the Department of Education will continue working with borrowers to ensure they have the support they need to transition smoothly back into repayment and advance economic stability for their own households and for our nation.”
Prior to that pause, the Education Department paused payments four times.
Biden's Education Department just laid out its plan to make college more affordable — and it didn't include broad student-loan forgiveness
Ayelet Sheffey
Thu, January 27, 2022,
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.GREG NASH/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona outlined his department's priorities in a Thursday address.
One was college affordability, but broad student-loan forgiveness went unmentioned.
Cardona did cite targeted loan forgiveness along with improvements to forgiveness programs.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona outlined priorities for his department in a speech delivered on Thursday. And while college affordability was a primary focus, broad student-loan forgiveness didn't make the cut.
Cardona's first major address of 2022 laid out how he plans to address four major priorities for his department: supporting students through pandemic recovery, addressing opportunity and achievement gaps, ensuring higher education leads to successful careers, and making higher education more inclusive and affordable.
On the last item, Cardona acknowledged the soaring costs of college and how they can lead to a lifetime of student debt for some of those who seek higher education. But he stopped short of detailing a plan for broad relief.
"It is also unacceptable to be burdened with unmanageable loan debt for several decades because you chose to earn a college degree," he said during his address. "Today too many talented Americans are choosing against enrolling in higher education due to the fear of debt and the feeling that college is out of reach.
Cardona continued: "We maintain a posture of neglect when postsecondary education is out of reach for students and their families. This is un-American."
Here's how Cardona says he plans to tackle college affordability:
Continue providing targeted student-loan relief to certain groups of borrowers, adding to the $15 billion already canceled for those defrauded by for-profit schools and those with disabilities
Enacting stricter enforcement on colleges that mislead and defraud borrowers
Ensuring borrowers have loan-repayment options that match their financial circumstances
Implementing long-term improvements to loan-forgiveness programs like the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and creating a strong Gainful Employment Rule to ensure borrowers have good job opportunities.
Cardona has already begun to carry out reforms to PSLF, but President Joe Biden's campaign promise of $10,000 in student-loan relief for every federal borrower went unmentioned.
Along with the $15 billion in relief Cardona referenced, Biden has also extended the pause on student-loan payments three times, with the most recent extension being through May 1. And during that time, the Education Department prepared a memo on Biden's legal ability to cancel student debt broadly using executive action — but recently released documents found White House officials saw the memo in April and are choosing not to release it.
That prompted 85 Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday to not only call on Biden to release the memo but also cancel up to $50,000 in student debt per federal borrower before payments resume on May 1. The White House responded to that letter by noting that "no one has been required to pay a single dime" in federal loans under Biden while adding that if Congress sends Biden a bill to cancel $10,000 in student debt per borrower — his campaign promise — he would be happy to do so.
It's unclear when, or if, federal borrowers will experience broad relief. When asked about the issue, Cardona has frequently said that "conversations are continuing" on the issue, but he has not commented on the student-debt memo and says he remains focused on the targeted relief he has already begun to carry out — along with ensuring everyone can access higher education.
"Students, today, with a greater sense of urgency, we re-commit to fulfill the promise to support you as you seek the education that will give you the tools to enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," Cardona said. "Let's get to work."
NRC fines owner of former nuke plant for 2nd security lapse
This photo shows the Oyster Creek nuclear plant and the large square structure that houses the reactor in Lacey Township, N.J., Feb. 25, 2010. For the second time in as many months, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has fined the owners of the former New Jersey nuclear power plant for security-related violations. The agency on Wednesday, jan. 26, 2022 said it fined Holtec Decommissioning International $50,000 for security violations at the former Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey Township. (AP Photo/Mel Evans, File)
WAYNE PARRY
Wed, January 26, 2022
LACEY TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — For the second time in as many months, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has fined the owners of a former New Jersey nuclear power plant for security-related violations.
The agency said Wednesday it fined Jupiter, Florida-based Holtec Decommissioning International $50,000 for security violations at the former Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in the Forked River section of Lacey Township.
The plant was one of the oldest in the U.S. when it shut down in 2018.
The fine involved a company employee working as an armorer at the plant.
In an investigation that concluded in March 2021, the NRC determined the armorer “deliberately failed to properly perform required annual material-condition inspections of response unit rifles, and falsified related records.”
The plant has several fortified bunkers from which armed security staff can fight off attackers.
The NRC said the violation was the work of “a now-former security superintendent.”
The fine is separate from a $150,000 penalty the NRC imposed on Holtec in December for different security-related violations that neither the NRC nor the company would detail, citing the sensitivity of the matter.
Asked for comment by The Associated Press on Wednesday, Holtec issued the same statement it issued in December for the previous fine.
“Protecting the security and safety of the public is the number one priority of Holtec International at all our facilities,” both statements read. "We have taken steps to address the concerns and overall security performance at Oyster Creek and shared those learnings with our fleet to prevent a reoccurrence.
“The NRC has determined that the overall security program at the plant remains effective,” it read. “We take these issues very seriously and reviewed and acted on the NRC’s violation findings.”
Company spokesperson Joe Delmar said Holtec could not comment beyond its statement.
Corrective actions agreed to by Holtec include making the corporate security director a standalone position; the use of external experts to conduct independent assessments of security at Oyster Creek and other Holtec-owned decommissioning nuclear power plants; and the implementation of training and communications related to the issue, the NRC said.
Jeff Tittel, the retired president of the Sierra Club's New Jersey chapter, faulted the agency for failing to impose a more severe penalty.
“NRC really stands for ‘no real consequences,’” he said. “NRC is supposed to be the cop on the beat, and when you catch someone doing violations that could lead to catastrophic consequences and you let them off with a slap on the wrist, it sends the message that you can continue to break the rules almost with impunity.”
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Follow Wayne Parry on Twitter at https://twitter.com/WayneParryAC.
WEST VIRGINIA
Senate passes fossil fuel boycott bill; House panel OKs two bills to promote rare earth element extraction from mine water
David Beard, The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.
Thu, January 27, 2022, 10:01 PM·4 min read
Jan. 28—MORGANTOWN — Legislators moved several energy-related bills on Thursday, dealing with fossil fuels and rare earth elements.
The Senate approved SB 262. It allows the state treasurer to put financial institutions that openly boycott fossil energy companies on a publicly available Restricted Financial Institution List and to refuse to enter into a banking contract with those institutions.
It requires the treasurer to notify the company of the restricted status and allow the company to appeal and demonstrate it is not engaged in a boycott. The list would be updated annually. Deposits made by the Investment Management Board are excluded, as are decisions by lenders made in the course of ordinary banking business.
Sen. Eric Nelson, R-Kanawha, praised the bill as a "sincere effort to show our strength and what we care about in our energy sector " but opposed it for financial reasons.
"What kind of message does this potentially send out, " he asked. "How can we improve capital needs in this state, not only for our energy sector but all sectors ?"
The treasurer will decide what firms go on the list, and no one knows who future treasurers will be, he said. New York and other firms may talk green energy but their portfolios have a lot energy in them. So his "no " vote reflected a cautionary standpoint.
Sen. Owens Brown, D-Ohio, also voted no. He said the bill is bad law and hypocritical, infringing on free speech and the right to boycott. "What happened to the belief in the free market ?"
Sen. Mark Maynard, R-Wayne, aired the view that drove the bill. "If we continue to allow these investment firms to dictate what industries are OK and not OK, then we'll be answering to them. West Virginia will not allow corporatism to be in our state and tell us what we can get behind or what we can't."
Sen. Randy Smith, R-Tucker, agreed. "All this is is a statement to a bully. ... If you do this, we can make a statement and not do business with you."
Sen. Mike Caputo, D-Marion, supported the bill from a different perspective. BlackRock, the investment management company, has 13 % ownership of Warrior Met Coal in Alabama, where 1, 100 miners have been on strike for a year and BlackRock hasn't budged on terms.
Meanwhile, he said, BlackRock is divesting in coal. "Not only are they divesting in coal, they're divesting in hard-working American coal miners."
The vote was 31-2 and it goes to the House of Delegates.
House Energy moved two bills dealing with rare earth elements and critical minerals.
Rare earth elements, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, as 17 metallic elements "necessary components of more than 200 products across a wide range of applications, especially high-tech consumer products, such as cellular telephones, computer hard drives, electric and hybrid vehicles, and flat-screen monitors and televisions. Significant defense applications include electronic displays, guidance systems, lasers, and radar and sonar systems."
About 97 % of the world REE production is from China, USGS says.
But, as previously reported, they can be extracted from mine drainage, as an ongoing WVU project is demonstrating.
HB 4003 is aimed to clarify ownership of the elements and critical minerals. The committee passed a substantially rewritten version that, committee counsel said, preserves the intent of the introduced version — which is to allow whoever is treating the mine drainage to commercially benefit from any extracted byproducts.
Counsel said that the new version of the bill separates how the Department of Environmental Protection may benefit from how other entities, including nonprofits such as Friends of Deckers Creek or Friends of the Cheat might benefit. DEP may only use proceeds from the sales for governmental purposes.
Delegate Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, talked about the efforts Friends of Deckers Creek and Friends of the Cheat are making to clean those waterways. "Any time we can do something to transform a waste product into an asset is a good thing, " he said.
The bill passed unanimously and goes next to Judiciary.
HB 4025 provides for a five-year severance tax exemption for extracting and producing for commercial benefit rare earth elements and critical minerals.
It also passed unanimously and goes next to Finance.
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