Plant? Alien? A newly identified thistle is ‘funkiest of all,’ Colorado botanist says


Denver Botanic Gardens

Alison Cutler
Wed, February 16, 2022

Colorado’s newest identified plant species is funky, to say the least. That’s exactly what botanist Jennifer Ackerfield decided to name it: the funky thistle.

But there’s another meaning behind the quirky name. Ackerfield’s mentor in the profession was Dr. Vicki Funk, and the name is an honor to Funk’s work in the field, Ackerfield said in a study.

“Vicki Funk had a special tune she sang when collecting thistles because of sharp spines - ‘Ooh Eeh Ooh Ah Aah Ting Tang Walla Walla Bing Bang,’” Ackerfield wrote in the study published online Jan. 29. “I can think of no better way to commemorate her memory than by naming the funkiest of all new thistles, Cirsium funkiae, in her honor.”



Ackerfield led an expedition of researchers from Denver Botanic Gardens and the U.S. Forest Service and a student from Colorado State University to the top of Mount Sherman to look for new plants, Denver Botanic Gardens said in a news release. They didn’t come back disappointed.

The plant now known as the funky thistle is, according to Ackerfield, “the funkiest of all new thistles.” It appears to be hairy and grows up to 3 feet tall, according to the study. It has yellow branches with pale yellow or brown flowers and clusters of fuzzy heads that bumblebees sometimes nestle into.

The funky thistle is the first of its kind found to exist primarily above the treeline in central and southern Colorado, according to The Colorado Sun, and it may help answer questions about how plants adapt to warming temperatures.

Unlike other plants in the species’ environment that cower closer to the ground to avoid wind chill, the funky thistle stands tall and uses its thick hairs to protect the flowers from cold conditions, Ackerfield told Denver Botanic Gardens.

“Although the correct common name is technically ‘Funk’s thistle,’ I like to think of this thistle as ‘the funky thistle.’ Cirsium funkiae, with its dense mass of woolly, nodding heads, is funky indeed,” Ackerfield wrote in the study.

The funky thistle is the “first formally described living organism of 2022” in the Rocky Mountain Region, according to the Denver Botanic Gardens, and is a critical piece of the alpine landscape.

“This (description) is significant because effective conservation of a species relies on accurate taxonomy. We can’t protect what we don’t know is out there,” Denver Botanic Gardens wrote in the release.

Researchers acknowledged that the thistle may have been discovered by indigenous communities prior to the recent findingby the botanists.

“As herbaria have grown and connected with each other, we now have billions of snapshots from all over the world, some going back centuries. We can use that to answer all kinds of questions,” Ackerfield told The Colorado Sun.

Pakistan honors Bill Gates for efforts on poverty, disease





In this photo released by Pakistan's Press Information Department, Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, left, listens to Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan during their meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. Gates praised Pakistan on Thursday for its response to COVID-19 despite its limited resources, as fatalities from coronavirus continued a steady decline in the country. 

(Press Information Department via AP)

MUNIR AHMED
Thu, February 17, 2022

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan awarded Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates its second-highest civilian honor on Thursday, in recognition of his work to alleviate poverty and diseases like polio and tuberculosis.

On a daylong visit to the capital, Islamabad, Gates was given the prestigious Hilal-e-Pakistan award by President Arif Alvi in a televised ceremony, after he met with Prime Minister Imran Khan at his office.

“Pakistan’s commitment to ending polio is inspiring,” Gates said in a statement released by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates' foundation has helped nearly eradicate the disease.

“Government leaders, health workers, and parents are working tirelessly to ensure this disease never paralyzes a child again. This is the final, and hardest, phase of the eradication effort, but by keeping up the momentum and staying vigilant, Pakistan has an opportunity to make history by ending polio for good,” Gates said.

The statement quoted Khan as thanking Gates and saying that polio eradication is a “top priority” for the government, which is working “at all levels to ensure that every child is protected with the polio vaccine.”

According to a government statement, Khan during his meeting with Gates thanked the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for its continued partnership with Pakistan to eradicate polio.

Later, Gates told reporters in Islamabad that he was impressed by Pakistan's efforts. He said there polio had spread less in Pakistan than anticipated because people were moving around less during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said the eradication of polio in Pakistan was possible in a few years.

“I think the steps taken in Pakistan during 2022 will probably set us up to finish polio eradication," he said.

“I would say that the polio campaign helped the Covid campaign and now the Covid campaign is helping the polio campaign," Gates said. As for Afghanistan, he said that more polio vaccination was taking place there now compared to recent years.

Earlier, Gates visited the National Command Operations Center (NCOC), the body overseeing Pakistan's coronavirus response since the pandemic began, where he was given a detailed briefing about Pakistan's vaccination drive.

The NCOC said in a statement that Gates recognized Pakistan’s success against COVID-19 despite its limited resources, as fatalities from the coronavirus continue a steady decline in the country.

Pakistan has registered some 3,000 COVID-19 cases and 40 fatalities over the past 24 hours, compared to nearly 8,000 daily cases and about 50 deaths just weeks ago. Since the pandemic began, Pakistan has registered 1,494,293 cases, including 29,917 deaths.

Cabinet Minister Faisal Javed Khan congratulated Gates for the award on Twitter, calling it “a well-deserved honor" for his “valuable, exceptional and extraordinary services fighting poverty, disease, and inequality around the world.”

Last year, the country reported only a single case of polio, in its remote southwestern Baluchistan province. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries in the world where polio remains endemic. The disease can cause partial paralysis in children.

EPA investment in Cancer Alley

Shannon Dosemagen, opinion contributor 
The Hill

Recently, EPA Administrator Michael Regan announced a $600,000 investment in air monitoring in Louisiana's "Cancer Alley," an area with a heavy concentration of petroleum facilities. This is a big step in a direction that residents have been calling on for years - government action.

As I read this news, I thought back to when I was a young organizer with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade. We worked with "fenceline" communities - those directly adjacent to industrial facilities. Residents would share binders filled with years' worth of articles detailing refinery explosions and accidents or demonstrate how touching a residential surface would leave one's finger covered in the black dust of petroleum coke.

In the decade since, I've attempted to answer the question of why it is so hard for people to be involved in environmental decisions affecting their health. And so when I see news of such a significant investment, I can't help but ask what the end result will be. What is the role of more data without strong accountability toward ensuring ongoing community involvement, especially of those who have been ignored for so long?

Fenceline communities are not only aware, but they live the consequences of the industrial era every day: The air doesn't get cleaner as refineries self-report emissions and fly under the radar in our nation's long reliance on, and reluctance to give up, petroleum and other fossil fuels. They've collected articles, tracked noxious smells, used an assortment of air monitors and partnered with researchers to document air quality. They've organized and continue to organize through it all.

This new EPA investment in monitoring infrastructure is a win for Cancer Alley residents, and environmental justice communities more broadly. It feels even more promising during a political moment when justice is being centered in a whole-of-government approach. But we will continue to do a disservice if we overlook what comes after the data is collected and observations have been made.

Alongside the additional monitoring capacity and attention of regulators, EPA needs to ensure adequate places for feedback loops with communities in the process of accountability, and create mechanisms to begin repairing long-broken trust between communities and government. When people's actual experiences have been denied, we must integrate processes from the outset that allow for participation in environmental governance. We need clear places of input for communities to not just understand, but use the information that will drive decisions, because we simply won't find justice in the data alone.

Part of the announcement also cited Regan's symbolic letter to DuPont and Denka, requesting them to consider community input and how they can repair the harm they have caused. Framed as a request, this does not yet go far enough in addressing industrial facilities that have long controlled the cards. These requests must be accompanied with stronger provisions (though Justice Department involvement is noted, there is no additional information available) - for instance, through the incorporation of models such as citizen advisory boards, or the required establishment of health centers to ensure there are ways for people to remediate conditions resulting from poor environmental quality.

The EPA is admirably doubling down on air monitoring, conducting surprise inspections at facilities and addressing the cozy relationships between industry and enforcement. A great start but not quite enough. They also have to self-examine how politics and behaviors allowed for this malfeasance to occur in the first place.

Shiny, metallic monitoring objects - and the data they collect - are not silver bullets of justice.

We must couple more data and tech with addressing the other shortfalls in agency inaction. The problematic reporting and monitoring workflows that have detracted from the mission of agencies like EPA need transformation. This must include actively identifying how residents, who have been calling foul on these facilities for decades, will play a critical role in ensuring EPA follow-through on justice for their communities.

I'm excited about a whole-of-government approach to justice, and specifically to environmental justice for communities who have doggedly worked toward it. That is why, while we engage the tools of data and tech, I implore us - data collectors, residents, EPA itself - to look more deeply and ensure that first, there is room for ongoing community involvement, second, that "requests" to facilities are given the backbone needed to ensure results, and finally, that EPA is willing to internally assess their own practices and behaviors. This is how we will truly see justice for communities who have so pointedly been required to work within these broken systems.

Shannon Dosemagen is a Shuttleworth Foundation fellow directing the Open Environmental Data Project in New Orleans. Dosemagen was a member of the, now defunct, National Advisory Council on Environmental Policy and Technology (NACEPT) when it drafted reports to EPA in 2016 and 2018 on community monitoring.

El Salvador's Bukele tells bitcoin-wary U.S. senators to stay out of internal affairs

"Ok boomers… You have 0 jurisdiction on a sovereign and independent nation," 


El Salvador President Nayib Bukele inaugurates the expansion of

 the San Oscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdamez International Airport, in San Luis Talpa

Wed, February 16, 2022
By Nelson Renteria

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - President Nayib Bukele on Wednesday asked U.S. senators to stay out of El Salvador's "internal affairs" after they called for an investigation into the economic risks the United States faces due to the Central American country's adoption of bitcoin as legal tender.

Senators Jim Risch, Bill Cassidy and Bob Mendez asked the State Department to submit a report on the implementation of bitcoin in El Salvador with the purpose of assessing the risks it poses to the U.S. economy.

"Ok boomers… You have 0 jurisdiction on a sovereign and independent nation," Bukele, 40, said in a tweet, referring to the older generation of "baby boomers". "We are not your colony, your back yard or your front yard. Stay out of our internal affairs. Don’t try to control something you can’t control."

El Salvador was the first country in the world to adopt cryptocurrency for official use, in parallel to the U.S. dollar, a decision that has drawn it harsh criticism from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The U.S. senators also expressed fear over the fact that adopting bitcoin could weaken the U.S. government's sanctions policy and increase the activity of criminal organizations.

"This new policy has the potential to weaken U.S. sanctions policy, empowering malign actors like China and organized criminal organizations. Our bipartisan legislation seeks greater clarity on El Salvador’s policy," said the senators in a statement.

The Salvadoran government, which has acquired some 1,801 bitcoins since September, has been questioned by economists and the opposition for its refusal to be accountable in the process of buying and managing the funds.

Diplomatic relations between El Salvador and the United States have deteriorated after the White House denounced publicly cases of corruption in Bukele's government and an escalation of measures to accumulate power.

(Reporting by Nelson Renteria; Writing by Valentine Hilaire; Editing by Drazen Jorgic and Lincoln Feast.)

Newsom Rips Into Fox News, OAN, Newsmax, Calling Them “Propaganda Networks”; Announces New State Unit To Combat Misinformation


Tom Tapp
Thu, February 17, 2022


California Governor Gavin Newsom lashed out today at what he called “Perhaps one of the great disinformation networks in America…One America News” for spreading “a lot of misinformation” about Covid. He did not stop there.

“I’m not just referring to Newsmax or the primetime propaganda lineup at Fox News and all of their pundits that safely have been boosted, fully vaxxed that continue to promote a lot of misinformation. Forgive me for being so pointed and candid. People are quite literally losing their lives.”

The governor went on to offer an example.

“There was a tragic example of that….A state trooper in Washington state quit, and quit because he just couldn’t take it anymore and lost his life because of those propaganda networks, because of what was being stated and spread.”

Newsom was referring to Former State Trooper Robert LaMay, who quit after decades of service rather than being vaccinated and in his final radio signoff told WA Gov. Jay Inslee to “kiss my a**.” LaMay’s video signoff got millions of views online. He was later told by Fox News host Laura Ingraham that he had awakened “a sleeping giant” of vaccine resistance in the U.S. The unvaxxed LaMay died last month of Covid.

The post-pandemic “S.M.A.R.T.E.R” Plan that Newsom put forth today to combat Covid seeks to combat misinformation “through the newly proposed Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications,” funding for which the governor indicated is included in his proposed 2022-23 budget.

“So we have a team here that are in the trenches…that go out and are battling [misinformation],” he said. It will “go out on social media…trying to push back.”

The Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications will be “a brand new unit in the state government. It’s a strategic partnership unit and a communications unit,” according to Newsom, that will also “support and amplify local and community-based partnerships” and work with trusted community voices to get the message out.

“We put out this week a partnership with 250 media outlets,” said the governor today of a new, related initiative, “these Mythbuster videos in a culturally-competent way to go after this misinformation.”

The governor added, “And we continue to ask these outlets promoting misinformation to stop. People, quite literally, have lost their lives because of that promotion.”

Deadline reached out to Fox News for comment, but did not hear back.

Hillary Clinton On Fox News' Amplification Of "Spying" Claims: "They're Getting Awfully Close To Actual Malice In Their Attacks"

‘Irreversible’: No easy fix for water fouled by gas driller









2 / 9
Ray Kemble talks about his water issues in his home in Dimock, Pa., Feb. 14, 2022. Kemble recently met with officials in the Pennsylvania attorney general's office regarding the criminal case against a gas driller charged with polluting Dimock's groundwater with methane. Faulty gas wells drilled by Cabot Oil & Gas were blamed for leaking methane into the groundwater in Dimock, in one of the best-known pollution cases ever to emerge from the U.S. drilling and fracking boom. 

(AP Photo/Mike Rubinkam)

MICHAEL RUBINKAM
Fri, February 18, 2022

DIMOCK, Pa. (AP) — Meeting with a man whose well water has been polluted for years, officials in the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office asked him whether he’d consider accepting a treatment system from the gas driller charged with fouling his aquifer.

Not a chance, Ray Kemble told them.

“Are you going to drink and bathe in it?” Kemble asked the prosecutor and her colleague, a special agent, according to a recording of the conversation obtained by The Associated Press. “Are you two going to come here and live in this house on that system for a month and use that water?”

The officials demurred.

One of the best-known pollution cases ever to emerge from the U.S. drilling and fracking boom has entered a difficult new phase as prosecutors pursue criminal charges against the state’s most prolific gas driller — and push for a settlement they say could yield more significant benefits for homeowners than a conviction.

But the option prosecutors recently discussed has put them at odds with some residents who reject individual water treatment systems as inadequate and unworkable. These residents want to be hooked up to public water — itself a controversial idea in their rural community, one that state environmental officials talked up more than a decade ago but ultimately abandoned under legal threat from the driller and local officials.

The residents’ opposition to treatment systems illustrates the delicacy of the attorney general’s task in Dimock, a place synonymous with the fracking debate, where acrimony and distrust are the default after nearly 14 years of bad water and broken promises to fix it.

It was an exploding water well that first aroused public attention in the previously anonymous patchwork of homes and farms about 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of Philadelphia. Around that time, residents began reporting their well water was making them sick with symptoms including vomiting, dizziness and rashes.

Anti-drilling celebrities and documentary filmmakers descended, holding Dimock up as an example of natural gas industry malfeasance in the nation’s No. 2 gas-producing state. Industry backers, meanwhile, touted the economic benefits of cheap gas and accused green groups of greatly exaggerating the threat, even as state regulators concluded that Texas-based Cabot Oil & Gas had fouled Dimock’s groundwater.

The hoopla eventually died down, but Dimock’s water remained polluted. Fresh contamination cases have been reported as recently as December.

The state’s criminal case against the driller dates to 2020, when Attorney General Josh Shapiro — a Democrat now running for governor — charged Cabot with violating the law by allowing methane from the company’s faulty gas wells to escape into drinking-water aquifers in Dimock and nearby communities.

Shapiro’s spokesperson, Jacklin Rhoads, declined to answer questions about the “existence or substance of any discussions” with the company regarding a settlement.

But she said the state’s criminal environmental laws offer “limited tools” for holding polluters accountable. The penalty for a conviction under the state’s Clean Streams Law is a maximum $50,000 fine for each violation.

“While a settlement has the potential to deliver more for victims than the penalties of a guilty verdict, our goal is to resolve the case — through trial or through settlement — in a way that maximizes the restoration and protection of clean water for residents,” Rhoads said.

A company spokesperson declined to comment, citing the “active legal matter.” The company has long defended its record and denied responsibility for the contamination of Dimock’s groundwater.

It’s not clear if treatment systems remain under consideration, given the pushback from residents, but Kemble has his reasons for being skeptical.

In 2010, after discarding their plan to connect residents to public water, state environmental officials entered into a settlement with the company. Cabot offered to install individual water filtration systems, as well as a monetary award equal to twice the tax value of each resident’s home.

The agreement, struck without residents’ input or consent, infuriated those who had made it clear they did not trust Cabot with their water. But many residents took the money — and the treatment systems.

Some worked well, others were prone to breaking down, and all required costly upkeep, according to Joe Nally, who installed and maintained dozens of the systems for Cabot and other drilling companies.

“It was absolutely a maintenance issue with them,” said Nally, who left the industry years ago.

- Ray Kemble of Dimock, Pa., protests hydraulic fracturing outside a Marcellus Shale industry conference as he holds a jug of what he says is his well water, Sept. 20, 2012, in Philadelphia. Faulty gas wells drilled by Cabot Oil & Gas were blamed for leaking methane into the groundwater in Dimock, in one of the best-known pollution cases ever to emerge from the U.S. drilling and fracking boom. It has now entered a difficult new phase as prosecutors pursue criminal charges against Pennsylvania's most prolific gas driller — and push for a settlement they say could yield more significant benefits for affected homeowners than a conviction. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

The system Cabot installed at Tim and Deb Maye’s house now sits, disused, in a shed outside their home.

Handwritten logs show hundreds of visits by contractors over the years as the elaborate setup of tanks, filters and control panels broke down, leaked and failed to remove bacteria.

Eventually, the DEP allowed Cabot to hand financial responsibility for repairs and maintenance to the Mayes. The couple said they never agreed to that. The system never worked right, they said.

The Mayes now use their untreated well water for bathing and flushing toilets, and bottled water for everything else.

“This was supposed to be our forever home,” said Deb Maye, who had moved with her family to Dimock to escape the bustle of the Philadelphia suburbs. “And the DEP and the gas company ruined it.”

Until Feb. 11, when he left state employment, Scott Perry was a DEP deputy secretary and longtime head of the agency’s oil and gas division. He acknowledged in a late January interview that treatment systems “did not work perfectly right out of the gate.” But he said they “absolutely do work,” adding some residents are satisfied.

“All of the homeowners were provided with two times the value of their home so that they could attend to their drinking water needs in the matter they best see fit. And several of them have chosen to not maintain their systems, and that’s unfortunate,” Perry said.

He said the water line his agency once touted as a permanent fix couldn’t have been built, given the political, logistical and legal realities of the day, and asserted that Dimock’s aquifer is healing even as Coterra remains banned from drilling in a part of the township.

“We will not allow the oil and gas industry to leave a legacy of polluted groundwater,” he said.

SHARE THE WEALTH THE COMMONWEALTH 

Tim Cook got a 500% pay raise last year. Now Apple store employees are considering unionization


Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Chris Morris
Fri, February 18, 2022

Apple Store employees at several locations around the country are taking steps to unionize as the divide between hourly workers and executives at the tech giant grows wider.

The Washington Post reports at least two stores are preparing to file paperwork with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in the near future, with an additional half-dozen in earlier stages of labor organization talks.

The impetus to unionize comes as retail workers grow unsatisfied with their compensation as inflation soars in the U.S. It also follows word that Apple CEO Tim Cook’s 2021 compensation increased 569% last year, hitting $98.7 million—$3 million in annual salary, $82.3 million in stock awards, and a $12 million cash bonus. That works out to 1,400 times what the average Apple employee earned.

The potential for unionization at Apple Stores comes on the heels of Starbucks workers in many locations successfully launching the first union in the company’s history, something Starbucks has actively fought for years. Amazon, too, is not finished with a bitter union battle, as workers in Alabama will have the opportunity to vote again after a judge ruled the company “gave a strong impression that it controlled the process” by arranging the installation of a mail collection box at the warehouse.

Apple has 270 Apple Store locations in the U.S. and over 500 globally. Last year, the company reported revenues of $378 billion, and in January, it saw its market capitalization top $3 trillion—the first company to ever do so.

U.S. Apple store workers working to unionize - Washington Post


FILE PHOTO - People shop for smartphones in an Apple Store in Manhattan, New York City

Fri, February 18, 2022, 6:27 AM·1 min read

(Reuters) - Employees at many Apple Inc stores in the United States are working to unionize, the Washington Post reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the efforts.

The move comes against the backdrop of unionization efforts gaining momentum at large U.S. corporations, including Amazon.com Inc and Starbucks Corp.

The report said employee groups at at least two Apple retail stores are backed by major national unions and are preparing to file paperwork with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in the near future.

At least six more locations are at less advanced stages in the unionization process, the report said, adding that Apple employees more than 65,000 retail workers.

Apple and the NLRB did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

Apple has 270 stores in the country and made 36% of its total $365.82 billion net sales in fiscal 2021 through its retail stores and website, according to a regulatory filing.

Its boss Tim Cook's pay last year was 1,447 times that of the average employee at the tech giant, fueled by stock awards that helped him earn a total of nearly $100 million.

The company had decided to temporarily shutter several outlets across the United States during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year, it planned to give store workers one-time bonus of as much as $1,000, Bloomberg News had reported in September, amid tight labor market conditions and unrest among employees.

(Reporting by Chavi Mehta in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Arun Koyyur)

Brookfield, Australian billionaire Cannon-Brookes in bid for AGL Energy -media


Sun, February 20, 2022, 12:33 AM·1 min read

MELBOURNE, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Canada's Brookfield Asset Management Inc and Australian tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes have made a joint bid to take over Australia's AGL Energy Ltd, the Australian Financial Review reported on Sunday.

The newspaper, citing unnamed sources, said the two propose shutting down AGL's coal-fired power stations earlier than planned. AGL is one of Australia's major energy providers.

Representatives for Brookfield, AGL and for Cannon-Brookes, co-founder of Australian software firm Atlassian Corp, did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

The proposal envisages buying AGL's retailing and power generation divisions including coal, gas and renewable energy assets across the country, and it would halt AGL's plans to split into a bulk power generator and a carbon-neutral energy retailer, the newspaper said.

It said the bid values AGL at about A$8 billion ($6 billion), including debt, or A$7.50 a share, less than a 5% premium to AGL shares' last close.

The company's board was due to meet on Sunday to discuss the offer, the AFR reported.

AGL said this month it had significantly progressed with plans to split the business by June, identifying 350 roles to be eliminated. ($1 = 1.3941 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Lidia Kelly; Editing by William Mallard)

Women are driving the labor shortage, and experts have identified a crucial solution


Hinterhaus Productions—Getty Images

Chloe Berger

FORTUNE
Fri, February 18, 2022

As of last month, there are still more than one million fewer women in the labor force than in February 2020. The most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report indicates that men are back to normal and have recouped their pandemic-related job loss rate. Women, on the other hand, have been left behind, due in part to the struggle to find and retain childcare during the ongoing pandemic.

But as companies are struggling with a labor shortage, the issue becomes more complicated than simply recruiting a million women back into the workforce. It’s an opportunity for companies to figure out how to retain women at all levels and set them up for success.

Even before COVID-19, Schneider Electric outlined company goals that focused on building a more diverse workforce. It was aiming to hire 50% women and make sure that 30% of candidates for senior leadership positions were women. The company found that to compete with startups and tech organizations like Google, it had to create a strong pipeline of diverse talent and institute flexible working conditions that could allow employees to also manage any caregiving responsibilities they might be juggling.

For Schneider Electric that meant offering hybrid and remote options to employees, providing benefits like discounts to caregiving services via Care.com, and more extensive mental health benefits.

But executives knew they had to go further to help employees feel empowered in their return to the workplace. Schneider Electric’s latest solution to addressing the increased gender divide in labor participation is its returnship program called Return2Work.

In its pilot stage, Return2Work is a six-month program that matches professional candidates who have taken a break from the corporate world with internal employment opportunities. While you don’t need to be a woman to participate in the program, the first round of candidates are. Schneider Electric’s returnship program sets out to train participants with the skills they need to thrive in their careers and help build their confidence, with the goal of finding full-time roles for all participants after six months.

“We used to have a policy in place where if you had an open position, you had to interview at least two females to make sure that we've got an even playing field,” Amy deCastro, an HR executive at Schneider Electric, tells Fortune. “Now, we can't even get the two females [to interview].”

DeCastro sees Return2Work as a proactive way to fix this pipeline program. With so many women leaving the workforce during COVID, she argues there’s an incentive to fix many of the problems facing working women.
Finding role models has never been easy

Another solution for addressing the deficit of women in the workplace is fostering opportunities for mentorship and sponsorship. When choosing candidates for the Return2Work program, deCastro says she was looking for future mentors who will grow and stay within Schneider Electric.

Finding a female mentor can be difficult when women don’t stay in their leadership roles, says Christine J. Spadafor, a lecturer at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. As a result, younger women struggle to find role models.

Structured mentorship initiatives only have a 60% success rate, says Spadafor. Instead, effective mentorship involves deliberate planning and making an intentional match so that women are set up with someone who can guide them throughout their careers.

Finding a mentor can be daunting, Spadafor acknowledges, especially with so many people working from home. As uncomfortable as it might be, connecting with a mentor is all about asking for introductions and asserting oneself whenever the opportunity arises, she says.

Women shouldn’t wait for someone to acknowledge their performance, Spadafor says. “In general, women are promoted on performance, and men are promoted on potential. So we believe ‘if I work harder, if I do super great work, someone's going to notice me.’ And what I tell women is you can be doing that a long time, but don't have any expectation someone's going to notice you. Because you're going to be waiting a long time.”

Spadafor cautions that women will fail to be noticed if they don't take initiative and advocate for themselves.

A shift in hiring practices is necessary

Companies are beginning to re-evaluate their hiring strategies in an effort to have a more diverse workforce. Yet, there’s still a lot of worry among women who’ve taken career breaks that they won’t be able to find a new job.

According to deCastro, some of the candidates in the Return2Work program described feeling like they would never return to the corporate world due to their employment gap and feeling disheartened when they were rejected numerous times.

Some of the Schneider Electric hiring managers admitted to deCastro that while they’ve impressed by the Return2Work cohort, they might have initially passed over their resumes. Recruiters and managers have to change their mindset when seeking to hire a more diverse team, including women seeking to reenter the workforce.

“A gap on the resume is no longer a negative thing,” deCastro argues. “It's an opportunity to ask a question and to learn more about what that person did during that gap.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
U.S. lawsuit claims L'Oreal makes up products to appear being from France


FILE PHOTO: A man walks by the logo of French cosmetics group L'Oreal in the western Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret

Fri, February 18, 2022
By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A new U.S. lawsuit filed on Friday accuses L'Oreal SA of causing American shoppers to overpay for its beauty products by misleading them into thinking they are actually made in France.

Veronica Eshelby, the plaintiff in the proposed class action, said L'Oreal's labeling its products "L'Oreal Paris" and use of French words such as "fini mat" (matte finish) and "sans huile" (oil-free) are meant to suggest its products are French.

She said the products are in fact neither made nor sold in France, but are designed by the company's New York subsidiary for the American market, and made in its North Little Rock, Arkansas, plant or elsewhere in the United States and Canada.

Eshelby, a resident of Orange County, California, said she bought shampoo and two other products labeled L'Oreal Paris, and "did not notice or read the fine print" revealing the products' North American origins.

"Millions of American consumers are overpaying for L'Oreal 'Paris' products that are not what they claim to be," according to the complaint filed in the Manhattan federal court. "The fine print does not stop reasonable consumers from being misled."

L'Oreal did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Lawyers for Eshelby did not immediately respond to similar requests. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

Companies are periodically sued over their products' origins in American courts.

In 2015, Anheuser-Busch offered refunds to settle a Florida lawsuit claiming it tricked consumers into thinking it brewed Beck's beer in Germany, though production had moved in 2012 to St. Louis, Missouri.

The case is Eshelby v L'Oreal USA Inc, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 22-01396.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Marguerita Choy)