It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Tuesday, February 01, 2022
Letters to the Editor: Anti-vaxxers are losing their jobs. It's called 'consequences'
Mon, January 31, 2022 Protesters gather for a rally against COVID-19 vaccine mandates in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on Jan. 23. (Patrick Semansky / Associated Press)
For the anti-vaccine and anti-mandate people who worry that the vaccines are rushed, of course they were developed quickly. There was a concerted effort fueled by government and private sector resources and better technology. I only wish the vaccines could have been developed faster.
As far as religious exemptions are concerned, I could claim my pet dog is the second coming of Christ, and he told me in my dreams that the vaccines are bad, so of course I'll believe him and demand that everyone accept this. These people vaccinate their children against other diseases to enroll them in school, and there's no reason not to include the latest inoculations.
The loss of jobs and differences in medical treatment (including a patient who said she was denied a heart transplant because she was unvaccinated) are what can be expected in response to such senseless claims. With 76% of the country having had at least one COVID-19 shot, there is no reason to allow the remaining 24% to prolong the pandemic.
Alan Bews, Los Angeles
.. To the editor: Your article quotes unvaccinated people spouting off at length about all kinds of anti-vaccine nonsense. You do not include a single quote from a medical professional with expertise in pandemic response.
You do manage to mention that the vaccines are 90% effective at preventing infected people from being hospitalized and that the shots were thoroughly studied, but that should be the headline.
Data show the vaccines to be extraordinarily safe and effective. If more of us had been following the advice of medical professionals and scientists, we would be in much better shape and closer to getting back to normal.
Dave Courdy, Huntington Beach
.. To the editor: "My body, my choice," say anti-vaxxers. They forget: "My consequences."
It's the first principle of being an adult. You don't get to do anything you want without consequences. These people remind me of me when I was a young teenager, when my guiding principle was "you can't make me."
As I see it, our country is facing a crisis and needs the people's help, and anti-vaxxers have chosen to put themselves and everyone around them in greater danger. They've listened to lies by people who are very good at lying, and this is the choice they've made. Losing their job is the consequence of that choice.
Adults have to do things they don't like everyday. Grow up.
An Amazon factory whistleblower who says he was tortured by Chinese police before being jailed has called on Jeff Bezos to help overturn his conviction
Isobel Asher Hamilton
Amazon Executive Chairman Jeff Bezos.Paul Ellis - Pool/Getty
Tang Mingfang was jailed after disclosing illegal work practices at a factory making Amazon products.
Tang says he was tortured during the police interrogation process that led to his conviction.
He has called on Amazon Executive Chairman Jeff Bezos to support an appeal against his conviction.
A man who was jailed after blowing the whistle on illegal working practices at a Chinese factory that makes Amazon Echo and Kindle devices has called on Jeff Bezos to help overturn his conviction.
In 2019, Tang Mingfang leaked documents to China Labor Watch, which revealed that the Foxconn factory in Hengyang, China, was making schoolchildren work illegally long hours. Tang was later charged and convicted by Chinese authorities of leaking trade secrets. He was released in September.
In a letter to the Amazon executive chairman and founder, published by China Labor Watch on Sunday and first reported by The Observer, Tang said he was "tortured during the interrogation process" at the hands of police and "forced to make false confessions."
In the letter, Tang calls on Bezos to "ask Hengyang Foxconn to face up to its own problems and apologise to me" and "communicate with the local court and assist me in my complaint about the case so that the court can finally revoke my guilty verdict."
An Amazon spokesperson said: "We do not tolerate violations of our supply chain standards. We regularly assess suppliers, using independent auditors as appropriate, to monitor continued compliance and improvement — if we find violations, we take appropriate steps, including requesting immediate corrective action."
Foxconn did not immediately reply when contacted by Insider for comment.
Opinion: Olympic movement has sold its soul by not challenging China on human rights abuses
Nancy Armour, USA TODAY
The Olympic Games can never be seen in the same way again. Once aspirational, radiating hope and the promise of all that could be, they have been tainted by the crass calculations of their leaders.
The International Olympic Committee has sold the people of China out, refusing to hold the hosts of next month’s Winter Olympics accountable for a litany of human rights abuses and, worse, providing cover for some of the atrocities. In doing so, it has sold itself and its ideals out, too.
“We know they have very close relations with China, we know it’s very corrupted. But we didn’t know (the IOC) would not only be silent but actively collaborate with the Chinese government,” Badiucao, an artist-dissident who had to flee China because of his criticism of the government, told USA TODAY Sports.
“It’s really ridiculous that we have the organization in charge of the Olympic Games, championing it as an event celebrating humanity and saying sportsmanship is more than just entertainment. How can it be so corrupted and play along with this evil regime, this evil government?”
In a word? Greed. In another? Expediency.
China is an economic powerhouse. It is the world’s fastest-growing consumer market and its largest manufacturer, and two Chinese-based companies are now among the IOC’s TOP sponsors. The last thing IOC members, partial to five-star hotels and first-class cabins, want is to alienate that growing source of wealth.
Several in Europe considered bidding only to say “Thanks, but no thanks.” By the time the vote was taken, the choices were Beijing or Almaty, Kazakhstan. Having dazzled the world with the Summer Olympics in 2008, and knowing the Chinese government would spare nothing and no one to do it again, the IOC saw Beijing as the safe and easy choice.
All it had to do was turn a blind eye when China suppressed dissent among its people. Stripped Hong Kong of its autonomy and cracked down on religious freedom in Tibet. Imprisoned more than a million of the minority Muslim Uyghur population and subjected them to slave labor, forced sterilization and abortion.
When criticism of the Chinese was at its most intense, and there were calls for substantive responses to the disappearance of Peng following her allegations of sexual assault by a former senior Chinese official, IOC president Thomas Bach staged what was essentially a photo op with her and declared that she was fine. Peng still has not spoken freely, and she has essentially been erased from Chinese social media.
“It shows us pretty clearly that the IOC is not serious when it comes to human rights concerns,” said Michael Mazza, a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
“Yes, it will be a stain on the legacy of the IOC and I think it will be a stain on Thomas Bach’s legacy, in particular.”
Bach will defend the IOC’s shameful inaction by saying the Olympics are supposed to be above politics. Yet he plays politics when he wants to, brokering a truce between North and South Korea ahead of the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang.
And high-minded as the idea of Olympic neutrality is, it was politics that brought the Games into being, both in ancient times and the modern era. The Olympics were seen as a way to create unity among warring peoples, to make them see their enemies in a different light.
“O Sport, you are peace!” Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Games, wrote in his poem, Ode to Sport. “You forge happy bonds between the peoples by drawing them together in reverence for strength which is controlled, organized and self-disciplined. Through you the young of all the world learn to respect one another, and thus the diversity of national traits become a source of generous and peaceful emulation.”
Now Olympic leaders stand by while the host nation wages war against its own people.
“They’re going to have to do a lot of brand protection, brand rebuilding, after this sequence of events,” said David Black, a professor at Dalhousie University whose areas of expertise include the politics of sports and governance.
“They felt themselves as having little choice but to take the line that politics should not intrude, but clearly politics have intruded. And could have been anticipated to have intruded.”
Because we have been here before.
When China was bidding for the 2008 Olympics, part of its pitch was that hosting the Games would lead to democratic reforms and an improvement in human rights. Yet before the flame was even lit, the government had gone back on that promise, and experts say conditions now are even worse.
“There’s nobody left to lock up,” said Sophie Richardson, Human Rights Watch’s China director.
“Xi Jinping’s government has worked so assiduously since (China) was awarded these Games to just crush independent civil society,” Richardson said. “Most people who could have or would have wanted to try to find ways to protest around these Games have already been arbitrarily detained, disappeared or driven in to exile.”
The IOC has rare leverage with China and other autocratic nations. Hosting an Olympics is an immense source of pride, a declaration of their status as a world power. Even the threat of taking that away would be a colossal embarrassment, one a country like China would do almost anything to avoid.
But the IOC backed down from challenging China in 2008. This time around, it didn’t even bother to try.
“The IOC is dishonest and duplicitous and weak,” Richardson said, “and perfectly willing to sacrifice the people who are doing the hard work to try to make the kind of change in China that the IOCs of the world say they care about.”
The United States, Canada and a handful of other Western nations have announced diplomatic boycotts of the Beijing Olympics, their only way of showing condemnation without punishing their athletes. But sponsors have been silent, dodging questions by reporters and human rights groups alike, and COVID protocols are such that, if there are protests during the Games, they will go unseen.
So the Beijing Olympics will go on. The athletes will bring us to cheers and stun us into silence with their performances, and China will stage another spectacle grand enough to hide the ugliness that occurs when the world isn’t watching.
Almost.
“Obviously, this Olympic Games is not stopping. It will be happening in China,” Badiucao said. “But the power is in our own hands. When the whole entire world has shifted their camera and is focused on China, let’s talk about China and not be fooled by its propaganda.
“We could,” he added, “turn this into an opportunity.”
The damage has been done, however. Much like the 1936 Games in Nazi Germany, now seen as an affront to the Olympic ideals, the 2022 Games in Beijing will forever leave a stain on the Olympic movement, and those who allowed it to happen.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour.
Canada's Nutrien eyes potash production boost amid turmoil in Russia, Belarus
An entry to the tunnels is seen at Nutrien's Cory potash mine near Saskatoon
Mon, January 31, 2022, By Rod Nickel and Polina Devitt
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - Nutrien Ltd, the world's biggest potash miner, could boost production by up to 29% in coming years, depending on any sanctions facing rival producers in Russia and Belarus, the Canadian company's interim CEO told Reuters. Prices of granular potash fertilizer are near 10-year highs in the United States and Brazil, helped by Western economic sanctions against Belarus. Russia, home of Uralkali and EuroChem potash mines, faces possible economic sanctions if it invades Ukraine.
Uralkali and Belarus Potash Company (BPC) together account for more than one-third of global potash sales, according to BMO Capital Markets.
Soaring fertilizer prices have cut in to farmers' incomes and contributed to global food inflation. Additional potash production may slow rising costs.
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based Nutrien could restart up to 4 million tonnes of idled annual capacity in that Canadian province in coming years as it assesses the long-term outlook for sanctions against competitors, interim Chief Executive Ken Seitz said in his first interview since his promotion in January.
"If these are short-lived events, we don't want to spend all kinds of money staffing and opening up ground," he said. "If this is going to be a longer-term problem for the market, we will absolutely do that. "We will absolutely step into that void."
A Russian troop buildup near Ukraine has stoked fears of war. The United States and United Kingdom are prepared to punish Russian elites close to President Vladimir Putin with asset freezes and travel bans if Russia sends troops into Ukraine, the White House and British government said on Monday.
As a first step in raising production, Nutrien may raise output by 700,000 to 1 million tonnes in the second half of 2022 at low expense, Seitz said, reiterating comments he made last year. Nutrien currently produces nearly 14 million tonnes, representing 19% of global sales.
Seitz could not say how soon Nutrien might restart the remainder of Nutrien's idled capacity, which would involve more work.
Nutrien has had no talks, Seitz said, in his short time at the helm about any form of potash partnership with BHP Group, which is building a Canadian mine.
Canpotex Ltd, the export company owned by Nutrien and Mosaic Co, is fully committed for sales through March 31, illustrating strong demand for Canadian potash.
Global operational capacity, however, exceeds demand by over 10 million tonnes this year, according to BMO Capital Markets.
"In a normal situation, the potash market is oversupplied," said BMO analyst Joel Jackson. "If I was Nutrien, I would probably hold back on my decision to expand too much too fast."
Additional production from competitors will not fully replace BPC, which previously sold about 12.5 million tonnes a year, said Elena Sakhnova, an analyst at VTB Capital.
The board of Lithuanian Railways on Monday voted to stop transporting Belarus' potash, isolating it from a key port.
Russian producers are unlikely to rush to increase their output because of speculation that Washington may grant a waiver to BPC's U.S. buyers, essentially postponing sanctions from taking effect on April 1, Sakhnova said.
A EuroChem spokesperson said the company has no plans to accelerate ramp-up of its new production. Uralkali declined to comment.
Unlike the last time potash prices were this high over a decade ago, there are few advanced junior projects to add production. Construction of a small, 250,000-tonne Gensource Potash facility could start in Canada this summer, with first output in 2024.
For larger producers, adding additional tonnes is not as inexpensive or simple as they say, Gensource CEO Mike Ferguson said.
"They are so used to just controlling things in the industry and have started to believe their own marketing about having excess capacity," Ferguson said.
(Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg and Polina Devitt in Moscow; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
From Kabul, pregnant reporter fights NZ govt to come home
In this recent photo provided by Charlotte Bellis, Bellis poses in a selfie with her partner Jim Huylebroek in Kabul, Afghanistan. Bellis, a pregnant New Zealand reporter who is expecting her first child with Huylebroek, has chosen Afghanistan as a temporary base for her uphill fight to return home because of her country's stringent COVID-19 entry rules. Huylebroek, a freelance photographer and Belgium native, has lived in Afghanistan for two years.
(Charlotte Bellis via AP)
KATHY GANNON Sun, January 30, 2022
ISLAMABAD (AP) — She reported on the difficult conditions mothers and babies face just to survive in desperate Afghanistan. Now, a pregnant New Zealand reporter has chosen Kabul as a temporary base for her uphill fight to return home because of her country's strict COVID-19 entry rules.
Charlotte Bellis, 35, is expecting her first child with her partner, freelance photographer Jim Huylebroek, a Belgium native who has lived in Afghanistan for two years. Bellis, who is 25 weeks pregnant with a daughter, told The Associated Press on Sunday that each day is a battle.
She said she has been vaccinated three times and is ready to isolate herself upon her return to New Zealand. “This is ridiculous. It is my legal right to go to New Zealand, where I have health care, where I have family. All my support is there," she said.
Bellis first wrote about her difficulties in a column published in The New Zealand Herald on Saturday. She had tried without success to enter New Zealand via a lottery-style system and then applied for an emergency return, but was rejected.
Thousands of New Zealand citizens wanting to return home have faced delays due to a bottleneck of people in the country's border quarantine system.
On Monday, New Zealand’s COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said officials had suggested Bellis amend her application or try again under different criteria.
“I want to be clear, there is a place in Managed Isolation and Quarantine for people with special circumstances like Ms Bellis. No one’s saying there is not," Hipkins said. He said while officials had needed to make some difficult choices, the quarantine system had worked well overall by saving lives and preventing the health system from getting swamped.
However, Bellis insists the decisions have been arbitrary. She said she sent dozens of documents to the New Zealand authorities, including ultrasounds and physicians' letters specifying her due date is around May 19. Yet she said she was rejected because she was told her pregnancy didn’t meet the criteria of “threshold of critical time threat.”
“If I don’t meet the threshold as a pregnant woman, then who does?” she asked.
Bellis had worked as an Afghanistan correspondent for Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based news network. In November, she resigned, because it is illegal to be pregnant and unmarried in Qatar. Al Jazeera did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bellis then flew to Belgium, trying to get residency there, but said the length of the process would have left her in the country with an expired visa. She said she could have hopped from country to country on tourist visas while she waited to have her baby. She said this would have meant spending money on hotels without support or health care, while she fought to return to New Zealand.
In the end, she and her partner returned to Afghanistan because they had a visa, felt welcome and from there could wage her battle to return to her home. They have a house in Afghanistan and after “evaluating all of our options,” returned to Kabul, she said.
Bellis said she has set herself a deadline for leaving Afghanistan once she is 30 weeks pregnant, to protect the health of herself and her baby. “I am giving myself to the end of February,” she said. At that time, she will still have more than a month left on her Belgium visa so that she can re-enter the country, if she fails to get back to New Zealand by that time.
She said she tries to stay calm as she wages a paper war with New Zealand's quarantine system, but that she worries about how the stress she has been under will impact her baby.
“I am very concerned about a premature birth and ... also the implication of stress,” she said.
Bellis has found an Afghan gynecologist, who promised she could call her if she wakes up in the night with a problem. Bellis toured the doctor's clinic which has basic facilities, including one incubator. The doctor told her the incubator is often occupied.
Bellis has found a lawyer who is handling her case pro bono and has submitted over 60 documents to the New Zealand government, answered countless questions, only to be rejected twice for entry to her home country.
On Sunday, she received another email from the New Zealand government, this one telling her to apply as a person in danger and that this will get her home, she said.
Bellis said that prior to returning to Afghanistan, she sought permission from the Taliban. She said she had feared arriving "with a little bump and not married” could be problematic.
Instead, the Taliban response was immediate and positive.
“I appreciate this isn't official Taliban policy, but they were very generous and kind. They said ‘you are safe here, congratulations, we welcome you'," said Bellis.
The Taliban have come under international criticism for repressive rules they imposed on women since sweeping to power in mid-August, including denying girls education beyond sixth grade. However, they have said that all girls and women will be allowed to attend school after the Afghan New Year at the end of March. While women have returned to work in the health and education ministries, thousands of female civil servants have not been allowed to return to their jobs.
As she ponders her next move, Bellis said she is contemplating whether to take the latest option offered by New Zealand — applying as a person in danger — because it would exonerate the government of responsibility for her earlier rejections.
“It gives them an opportunity to deny any responsibility and frankly that is not true,” she said. The government's current COVID-19 policy has left “how many stranded around the world with no pathways to get home.”
Hipkins, the New Zealand minister, said officials had offered Bellis several options. Bellis said the only other option after her two rejections was Sunday's offer — to apply as a person in danger.
“I encourage her to take these offers seriously,” said Hipkins.
___
Associated Press reporter Nick Perry in Wellington, New Zealand, contributed to this report.
More evidence the Sunshine State will try to kill you
Bill Wolcott, Rockland/Westchester Journal News
Who doesn't love jumping on a plane to Florida to escape the misery of winter? There's the sun, the warmth, the beautiful Atlantic Ocean on one side and the warm Gulf of Mexico waters on the other side.
Before you dip a toe in that water, just know that Florida, once again, ranked No. 1 in unprovoked shark bites in 2021, according to Ed Killer, outdoors writer for the TC Palm.
Shark bites are one of those one in a million occurrences. However, data released by the Gainesville-based organization revealed suggests that the rate may be a bit higher:
73: Unprovoked shark bites worldwide
47: Unprovoked shark bites in U.S. waters (ranked 1st)
28: Unprovoked shark bites in Florida (ranked 1st)
17: Unprovoked shark bites in Volusia County (ranked 1st)
51%: Surfing, activity when bit by a shark (ranked 1st)
11: Fatalities worldwide, 9 unprovoked
Researchers with ISAF, which is a division of the University of Florida's Florida Museum of Natural History, scour media reports for news of shark bites, include reports from field researchers and verify with medical personnel the veracity of the information. The ISAF team investigated 137 alleged shark-human interactions in 2021 to confirm the 73 unprovoked bites and an additional 39 provoked bites.
"Unprovoked attacks" are defined as incidents in which a live human is bitten in the shark’s natural habitat with no human provocation of the shark, according to the report. "Provoked attacks" occur when a human initiates interaction with a shark in some way, including spearfishers, divers that harassed or tried to touch sharks, people that tried to feed, unhook or remove sharks from a fishing net.
Eleven fatalities are alarming, up from 10 in 2020, which was the highest since 2013. It's about twice the annual average of five, but there were two in 2019 and one in 2018.
The majority of the fatalities once again occurred in Australia, where three people lost their lives. New Caledonia (2) and New Zealand (1) meant six of the fatalities took place in the Southern Pacific Ocean, where great white sharks, the largest carnivorous shark, prey on seals. One fatality occurred in the U.S. in California on Dec. 24 when an unresponsive male surfer was pulled from the surf at Morro Bay. It was the 29th unprovoked shark bite and second shark bite fatality in the state in the past 10 years.
Kitesurfer Stephen Shafer, 38, of Stuart, was the most recent victim of an unprovoked and fatal shark bite in Florida. He was kite surfing Feb. 3, 2010, when he was accidentally bitten on the thigh by a suspected bull shark and died of severe blood loss.
The ISAF reports the odds of being killed by a shark are lower than 1 in 3.7 million.
"This year’s increase in fatalities does not necessarily constitute a shift in the long-term trends. Fatality rates have been declining for decades, reflecting advances in beach safety, medical treatment and public awareness. While the incidence of fatal bites in 2021 was higher than is typical, we do not consider this cause for alarm. At this time, there is no evidence that the recent spike in fatalities is linked to any natural phenomena. Rather it is likely the consequence of chance, a conclusion underscored by the fact that the number of unprovoked bites is in line with recent five-year trends."
Tourists and transplants beware
The shark bite news follows in wake of a recent column on the perils that await the unwary who set foot in the Sunshine State.
There's the “tree of death," manchineel tree, whose bark, wood, small limbs, sap and leaves are all deadly poisons.
According to Jan. 7 article by the New York Post, hikers say they spotted the missing woman in Wekiva Springs State Park on Dec. 18 — a day after her family last saw her.
Possibly even more dangerous are the wild hogs of Florida and their nasty tusks.
Florida forecast calls for cold weather – and stunned iguanas falling from trees
Marina Pitofsky, USA TODAY
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s an iguana falling out of a tree?
The forecast for parts of Florida is looking colder in the coming days, with temperatures Sunday morning expected to range from 32 degrees or below in inland portions of South Florida. Near the coast, temperatures are forecast in the mid-to-upper 30s.
Brian Shields, a meteorologist at WFTV in Orlando, warned that iguanas can slow down and become immobile when temperatures drop below 40 degrees. As they slow down, the animals can fall from trees onto the ground.
This isn’t the first time that the reptiles getting too chilly and tumbling down from trees has been in the forecast. In 2020, the National Weather Service in Miami issued an unofficial warning to residents to look out for “falling iguanas” during a cold snap.
But why do green iguanas in Florida have such a dramatic reaction to cold weather? Sarah Funck, nonnative fish and wildlife program coordinator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, explained to USA TODAY that iguanas are not native to Florida, so they are unable to tolerate cooler temperatures.
“Depending on temperature and the amount of time cold temperatures are sustained, iguanas can be cold-stunned or even killed. When we reach near-freezing or freezing temperatures, iguanas can sometimes fall from trees and lie stiff on the ground,” Funck said, explaining that the animals’ muscle control can shut down in those lower temperatures.
As temperatures warm up, the creatures usually "recover fairly quickly,” Funck said.
She also explained that other reptiles native to Florida have adapted to the state’s weather and can better tolerate colder temperatures.
Green iguanas are native to South America, Central America and the Caribbean, and they arrived in Florida through the pet trade. They were first reported in the state in the 1960s, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Funck also emphasized that well-meaning individuals should not try to bring the cold-stunned iguanas into their homes or vehicles.
“Iguanas are wild animals, and once they recover and warm up, they could act defensively. Iguanas have sharp teeth, claws and a long tail that they may use to protect themselves when acting defensively which can potentially be a safety risk,” she said.
But the potential safety risk hasn’t stopped meteorologists and others from sharing run-ins with fallen iguanas and discussing the strange phenomenon on social media.
White House says judge Fed nominee Raskin on her credentials, not marriage
FILE PHOTO: Sarah Bloom Raskin, in her role as Deputy Treasury Secretary, participates in an open meeting of the President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability for Young Americans in Washington
Mon, January 31, 2022 By Jeff Mason and Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Monday rejected concerns that Sarah Bloom Raskin would be unable to maintain independence at the Federal Reserve given that her husband led impeachment proceedings against former President Donald Trump.
Raskin, U.S. President Joe Biden's nominee as the Fed's vice chair for supervision, should be judged on her "impeccable credentials" and not her marriage to Representative Jamie Raskin, who served as the lead Democratic prosecutor for the unsuccessful 2021 impeachment trial, Psaki told reporters.
"I think she can stand on her own qualifications, not just because she's a woman, but because she's done a lot in her career," Psaki said. "She has been said by many to be the most qualified person to be nominated to this role, which I think is probably more important than who she's married to."
Raskin, a former Fed governor and senior Treasury Department official who is strongly backed by progressive Democrats, has become a lightning rod for criticism from business groups and fiscal conservatives for her views on climate change.
Psaki told reporters Raskin had pledged her commitment to the independent role of the Federal Reserve and would work with her colleagues to mitigate a range of risks, if confirmed.
"Just like any nominee, she should be judged by qualifications," Psaki said. "Her experience and her impeccable credentials were the determinant in her being nominated for this role, and I think it's a little questionable for anyone to raise otherwise."
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce last week sent an unprecedented letter to lawmakers https://www.reuters.com/business/us-chamber-issues-rare-warning-fed-nominee-raskin-citing-oil-gas-views-2022-01-28 raising concerns about Raskin and her calls for federal regulators to transition financing away from the fossil fuel industry.
On Monday, 24 members of the fiscally conservative State Financial Officers Foundation, representing 21 states, urged Biden to withdraw Raskin's nomination, warning that what they called her "radical banking and economic views" could shut oil and gas companies out of bank loans and send energy costs sharply higher.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown last week said he met with Raskin and Biden's nominees for two other Fed jobs, and said there was no question that they were qualified.
Administration officials say Raskin's views on climate change are in line with public comments by Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
But the top Republican on the panel, Pat Toomey, has blasted Raskin for what he called "demonstrated hostility" toward the oil and gas sector.
The committee, which must approve the Fed nominees before they are considered by the full Senate, will hold a confirmation hearing on Thursday for Raskin and two Black economists nominated for the board, Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Andrea Shalal; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Lincoln Feast.)
Commercial driver's license insufficiency hits western North Dakota
Jackie Jahfetson, The Dickinson Press, N.D. Mon, January 31, 2022,
Jan. 31—DICKINSON — The American Trucking Association release an annual report, and in 2022 they estimate that the truck driver shortage will surpass historic highs as the industry desperately needs more than 80,000 drivers to maintain the status quo. This figure alone highlights the high demand for drivers based as freight and logistical chains remain gridlocked across much of the country.
Over the past few months, the shortages of qualified and experienced truck drivers have created significant issues in North Dakota leading to the slowing of distribution of goods, which has greatly impacted supply chains for businesses. This issue hit home recently with the closure of two major milk distributors in North Dakota: Lakeview Dairy and Red River Dairy.
On Jan. 25, Gov. Doug Burgum announced an effort to remedy the problem by waiving portions of the U.S. Department of Transportation's regulations concerning how many hours drivers of commercial vehicles transporting milk can work.
The news comes as the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration implemented new guidelines requiring that all entry level driver training across the country require students to have a minimum of 40 hours — practical, class and behind-the-wheel time. The change will go into effect on Feb. 7.
Street Operations Manager David Clem addressed the new requirements and how the city plans to maintain cohesive operations under the new laws.
"... As a city... when you're trying to hire employees that don't have a CDL (commercial driver's license)... well, there's a cost to that. And some of these training schools, they can be pretty costly," Clem said.
The city entered into a one-year contract with J. J. Keller & Associates — based out of Wisconsin — which will allow Dickinson to become a certified private entity to train its employees while maintaining compliance with the new rules.
The city has sent four of its employees to become certified trainers who will return and begin the process of training new hires. The program will be accredited through the Federal Motor Carriers Act.
Once those new employees complete the proper training, they will be able to take the final test at the DMV to obtain their CDL — required to operate many of the larger vehicles owned by the city. The Public Works' budget will bear the $15,000 cost needed to launch this effort and are expected, by the end of February, to have those trainers ready to go.
Though Clem said they'd prefer to hire people with a CDL out of the gate, that's not always the case. Having the ability to adapt and train new hires in-house will be beneficial moving forward, he added.
"... We figure this gives us a little opportunity to give back to our current employees and also bring new employees in and show the value of us, (saying), 'Hey, we're going to spend the time (and) the effort to train you.' So hopefully the longevity is there," he said. "A lot of people are out there chasing that money. So it makes it a little tough on entities like the city and little small businesses. So we're trying to just get ahead of the curve."
In Public Works, the city has approximately 56 employees that operate various classes — A, B and C — of CDLs from tractor-trailers, straight trucks to tank trucks. These operators range from all the divisions of Public Works, including Buildings and Grounds, Cemetery, Forestry, Recycling, Solid Waste, Storm Water, Street, Waste Water and Water Distribution.
"Our operators just don't operate the equipment. They do everything. They go from trucks to trailers, they haul equipment, we do all kinds of things. So you got to be robust... When you come to the city and in Public Works, you can be on a blade one day, you can be in a dump truck, you can be in a snow plow. And so it's... (an) advantage if you have a CDL or we help you obtain a CDL," Clem noted.
To recruit city operators, it can be a challenge especially in the oil and gas market with competitive wages, Clem said, adding that he spent more than 28 years in the oil and gas industry.
"A lot of the younger generation, they're chasing that money and it's tough. They're looking at now, not the future. I think we've all been there. I'm 50, so I remember I chased the money back in the day too," he said. "But coming to the city, you can make it a career. You can be here for 20 (to) 30 years."
The city has a 90-day probation period for new hires and that gives those employees the time to obtain their CDL if they haven't already done so, Clem noted. With four upcoming trainers on site, the city will be able to document that training via the national database, which will "hold everybody to the same standard."
"That really puts a kibosh on backyard training, so to speak. So now, it's regulated — your classroom hours, you're practical, your behind-the-wheel — it's all regulated," he said.
Clem noted that the trucking industry has affected the city of Dickinson from week delays in shipments from street line paint.
"Trucking is what keeps North America alive and there's a lot of regulations. I'm not disagreeing with any of them. But at the end of the day, it makes it tough when you don't have the trucks on the road, bringing the material that you ordered... (It's) just like rail cars. If you don't have rail getting your oil out and you don't want to put it into pipelines, what's oil going to do? It's going to sit," Clem said. "So transportation is very big."
Chief Street Maintenance Operator Darryl Wehner, who's been with the City of Dickinson for 36 years, received his CDL through Dickinson State University and began his career at the city shortly thereafter.
"A lot of the stuff that we're going to have to teach in this doesn't apply to the city because we're not driving over the road... We're going to be teaching our guys more than we need to know for here, but it's a good thing... It also helps all of our drivers understand what other CDL drivers have," Wehner said.
ORNL tech licensed for 3D printing of reactor parts
The Oak Ridger Mon, January 31, 2022 Oak Ridge National Laboratory's method for 3D printing nuclear reactor parts has been licensed by Ultra Safe Nuclear Corp., or USNC.
"USNC will incorporate this method to boost their mission to develop and deploy nuclear-based, energy-generating equipment that is safe, commercially competitive and simple to use," an ORNL news release
The technology uses a sophisticated additive manufacturing technique to print refractory materials, which are highly resistant to extreme heat and degradation, into components with complex shapes needed for advanced nuclear reactor designs.
The long-time Seattle-based collaborator also plans to expand its operations into East Tennessee to take advantage of proximity to ORNL’s expertise while scaling up production of specialty components for nuclear and industrial applications.
“This technology is ideal for manufacturing structure and core components for USNC’s advanced reactor designs,” Kurt Terrani, USNC executive vice president, said in release.
Terrani came to USNC from ORNL, where he was technical director of the lab’s Transformational Challenge Reactor program, leveraging expertise at the lab’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility with leadership in nuclear technology to pilot the concept of 3D printing components for energy applications.
“It’s rewarding to see the transition from basic concept to a more mature technology that is actively being developed and deployed by our industry partners,” Jeremy Busby, director of ORNL’s Nuclear Energy and Fuel Cycle division, stated in the release. “This is exactly the sort of impact that ORNL strives to make for our energy portfolio.”
USNC’s existing advanced nuclear systems, Terrani said in the release, are designed to deliver the highest levels of safety and reliability. While the company is currently meeting that goal, “we don’t stop there.”
“We also utilize materials in our reactor cores that can withstand very harsh environments and high temperatures and don’t result in any degradation,” he stated. “We engineer multiple redundant barriers against any potential release of radiation through fundamental application of nuclear engineering and materials science.”
USNC’s refractory material of choice for nuclear reactor core components is silicon carbide, a high-temperature-resistant ceramic that has been tested and proven to be radiation tolerant. Yet, traditional machining of silicon carbide into parts for a reactor are so time-intensive and expensive that it’s nearly impossible.
The ORNL-developed alternative combines binder jet printing as the additive manufacturing technique and a ceramic production process called chemical vapor infiltration, which will allow USNC to make components more efficiently with desired complex shapes, such as fluid channels in a heat exchanger.
“This is the holy grail of additive, that you can do things faster, that are in geometries that were previously very difficult or impossible with conventional manufacturing methods,” Terrani stated.
USNC’s new Pilot Fuel Manufacturing, or PFM, facility will be located at the East Tennessee Technology Park in Oak Ridge, which is home of the former K-25 plant and mere minutes from ORNL’s main campus. The energy company plans to continue its collaboration with ORNL.
“We look forward to continuing our strong relationship with ORNL,” said Francesco Venneri, chief executive officer of USNC. “Proximity to the lab and its world-class scientists and facilities allow us easy access to expertise in reactor core technologies and additive manufacturing, as well as the latest in radiation, fuels and materials research, all of which benefit USNC’s commitment to bring safe, reliable and secure nuclear energy to world markets.”
USNC and ORNL also signed a Memorandum of Understanding in September on advanced nuclear fuel and reactor development activities.
Along with Terrani, other inventors of this technology include ORNL’s Brian Jolly and Michael Trammel. Enabled through ORNL’s entrepreneurial leave program, Jolly and Trammell joined USNC as group leaders for Chemical Vapor Processing and Additive Manufacturing, respectively, to participate in full commercialization of their intellectual property.
The Transformational Challenge Reactor program was supported by DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy and made possible by the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at ORNL. The MDF is supported by the Advanced Manufacturing Office within the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
Employees quit over 'catch the virus' promotion at Washington state bar
Mon, January 31, 2022
Employees at a Washington state bar quit over their former employers' "catch the virus" COVID-19 promotion.
Vessel Taphouse owner Steve Hartley told The Daily Herald that four employees quit their jobs and three bands refused to play at the pirate-themed bar over the promotion.
The bar promoted a concert on Jan. 22 by urging bargoers to bring proof of a positive COVID-19 test to get $4 off of their tickets.
"Come see the show, maybe catch the virus, or just stay home and whine," Vessel Taphouse said in a now-deleted Facebook post. "Tickets 10 bucks or 6 with proof of omicron positive test. Have you had enough???"
"After talking it over, we feel really disturbed that this post was ever allowed to be made. We do not condone this behavior and do not think COVID is a joke. While we want to play and love being out there, we encourage everyone to stay safe!" the band wrote.
"I was appalled," Angel said in a statement. "I was really, really disappointed that anybody could ever really make a post like that."
Hartley said the promotion was "an ill-advised attempt at humor" and that the employees responsible have been fired from the bar, according to The Daily Herald.
"We were getting comments that we were trying to infect the public," Hartley said. "Clearly we have no interest in that. People aren't going to come and drink if they get sick, and we know that."
With the highly transmissible omicron variant now accounting for nearly all coronavirus cases in the U.S., the country was reporting upwards of 600,000 daily cases and nearly 2,000 daily deaths as of last week.
