UN report paints dire picture of the Gulf of Mexico’s future

By REBECCA SANTANA and CURT ANDERSON

FILE-In this Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017 file photo, Businesses are surrounded by floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey, in Humble, Texas. Extreme weather is becoming more common, and that's just one of the warnings for the Gulf of Mexico region in a United Nations report released this week.

 (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)


NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Hurricane Harvey dumped more than 50 inches of rain on parts of the Texas coast in 2017. Then in 2020, ferocious winds from Hurricane Laura destroyed homes across coastal Louisiana. Hurricane Ida hit in 2021, leaving the entire city of New Orleans without power for days.

Such extreme weather is becoming more common, and that’s just one of the warnings for the Gulf of Mexico region in a United Nations report released this week. The devastating effects of climate change in the region also include rising seas, collapsing fisheries and toxic tides, even if humanity somehow manages to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial era.

“The hurricanes that we get, there’s a higher probability that they can bloom up into major hurricanes,” Louisiana’s state climatologist Barry Keim said, agreeing with the report’s details on more dangerous weather.

The report, an “atlas of human suffering,” details numerous ways in which climate change will affect the gulf. From Texas to Florida, which has the longest coastline of any state, the entire U.S. Gulf coast is under serious threat from rising seas as the planet’s polar ice caps melt, the U.N. report says.


The region, home to major oil and gas production in Texas and Louisiana and tourist destinations in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, tends to be conservative politically, and its mostly Republican leaders have stressed adaption to climate change — higher roads, sea walls, preventing saltwater intrusion — more than broad efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or promote cleaner energy.

For example, the Republican-led Florida House of Representatives refused on Tuesday to add clean-energy measures to a plan to bolster the state against sea level rise and flooding. The bill’s sponsor, GOP Rep. Demi Busatta Cabrera of the Miami area, said her aim is to do “what we can fix today.”

Democratic Rep. Ben Diamond, who is running for a St. Petersburg-area congressional seat, was disappointed lawmakers didn’t do more.

Improved climate change resiliency is good, he said, but “then there’s also stopping the causes of those problems in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, in terms of reducing our carbon emissions.” The Florida House bill does not get into that.

People considering 30-year mortgages are already looking for homes and commercial buildings that pose lower flood risks. One study cited by the U.N. says the trend is evident in Florida’s Miami-Dade County, where some buyers are shying away from expensive waterfront homes.

In Miami Beach, streets already flood on sunny days, especially during the so-called King Tides, and the report says the Tampa Bay area, surrounded by shallow seas, and is considered one of the most vulnerable places in the nation for storm surges.


Sea level rise poses an existential threat to much of Louisiana, because so much of the Mississippi River delta has been sinking due to human interventions. The loss of sediment from leveeing the river and saltwater intrusion caused by coastal oil and gas development are two big culprits, Keim noted.

“South Louisiana is probably the most vulnerable place to climate change in the United States,” Keim said.

Other parts of the Gulf face different problems, the report warns. Tourism and fishing industries depend on thriving habitats off the coasts of Florida and the Yucatan Peninsula, but coral reefs are bleaching due to “warming ocean waters interacting with non-climate stressors.” In Florida alone, the decline of the reefs could translate into $24 billion to $55 billion in economic losses by 2100, the report said.

The report details efforts in the region to adapt to climate change. Miami-Dade released a strategic sea level rise response plan in 2021 that calls for adapting infrastructure, elevating roads, building on higher ground and expanding waterfront parks and canals.

The city of Miami Beach has already spent more than $500 million installing pumps to flush water off the island, with no guarantees that this will keep the tourists’ feet dry. The city of Miami is spending potentially billions of dollars to keep the ocean at bay and limit saltwater intrusion into freshwater supplies.

“The most common question I get asked is whether Miami is going to be here in 50 years, whether it’s going to be here in 100 years,” Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said at a recent news conference. “This is the beginning of having a comprehensive plan to answer that question in the affirmative.”

In Louisiana, the state’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority has a plan with “very specific projects,” the U.N. report said, such as dredging to replenish wetlands and rebuilding barrier islands damaged by storms.

Alex Kolker, an associate professor of coastal geology at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium in Cocodrie, noted that on Feb. 1, Louisiana also announced a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.

Outbreaks of red tide, which are natural toxic organisms originally noticed by the Spanish explorers, have become more frequent and more deadly because of warmer air and water, experts say.

The increasing outbreaks kill more fish and sea life and harm the tourist industry with smelly fish-strewn beaches, poor fishing and the possibility of harms to human health, especially among people with asthma or other lung conditions.

From 2017 to 2019, according to a University of Florida study, tourism sectors lost $184 million in revenue because of red tide. The warmer water also fosters algae blooms, caused by pollution from agricultural, urban and other sources, that are getting worse along Florida’s coasts, contributing to the lack of seagrass that has led to a record die-off of manatees in the past year. The state resorted to feeding one group of starving manatees romaine lettuce instead.

“You can’t just go out and plant a bunch of seagrass,” said Tom Reinert, regional director of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

_____

Anderson reported from St. Petersburg, Florida.

PRO-CHOICE; SO RARE IN THE USA

California could OK abortions by solo nurse practitioners
By ADAM BEAM

 People rally in support of abortion rights at the state Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., May 21, 2019. A bill announced, Thursday, March 3, 3022, by Senate President Pro Team Toni Atkins, a Democrat, that would let nurse practitioners who have the required training to perform first trimester abortions without the supervision by a doctor. 

(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)


SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A bill announced Thursday in the California Legislature would let some nurse practitioners perform abortions without the supervision of a doctor — part of a plan to prepare for a potential influx of patients from other states if the U.S. Supreme Court allows states to ban or severely restrict the procedure.

State Senate leader Toni Atkins, a Democrat from San Diego, said the goal is to increase the number of health care workers in California who can perform abortions ahead of a potential Supreme Court ruling this summer.

“As states like Texas and others start to restrict further abortion, it just makes sense that women are going to find other places to go. California will be one of those states,” she said.

Nurse practitioners are not doctors, but they have advanced degrees and can provide a number of treatments. In 2013, California passed a law allowing nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives and physician assistants to perform abortions during the first trimester of pregnancy — but only if they completed special training and were under the supervision of a doctor.

Atkins’ bill would change the law by letting nurse practitioners with the required training perform first trimester abortions without a doctor’s supervision. California has about 30,000 nurse practitioners. But it’s unclear how many more of them would be allowed to perform abortions if this bill becomes law.

The U.S. Supreme Court now has a conservative majority after former President Donald Trump made three appointments during his term. Many conservative-led states have responded by passing new abortion restrictions, hoping the court will uphold them.

Texas has a law that bans nearly all abortions in the state, but it is only enforceable by civil lawsuits. Abortion rights groups have sued to block that law, but the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed the law to remain in effect while the case is pending.

Last year, the court heard arguments over whether to uphold a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The court likely won’t make a decision on that case until June. But during a hearing on the case, a majority of justices indicated they were likely to uphold the law and could even overturn Roe v. Wade, the court’s 1973 ruling that banned states from outlawing abortion.

If the court overturns or significantly weakens the Roe ruling, multiple states would likely act quickly to ban or severely limit access to abortion.

But California, led by Democrats who support abortion rights, would do the opposite by passing laws to increase access to abortion. That could include helping women who live in states where abortion is banned or severely limited travel to California for care.

A proposal filed last month would potentially use taxpayer money to help women from other states get to California by paying for things like travel, lodging, child care and food. Atkins said the government couldn’t pay for everyone, saying the bill would create a fund that would also accept private donations.

“You will see a bill that tries to set up a framework for where we can do that and take private dollars,” Atkins said.

Jonathan Keller, president and CEO of the California Family Council, called Atkins’ bill “a tragic example of the legislators putting abortion numbers above abortion safety and putting ideology above patients.”

“We are essentially treating abortion like no other health care service,” he said. “We’re not flying people from poor states to California to get heart transplants.”

A 2013 study led by the University of California-San Francisco concluded first trimester abortions are “just as safe when performed by trained nurse practitioners, physician assistance and certified nurse midwives as when conducted by physicians.”

“When we’re within our areas of training, we are absolutely qualified to provide the care that we do,” said Patti Gurney, president of the California Association for Nurse Practitioners.

LIBERAL DYSTOPIA

Newsom proposes mental health courts for homeless people

By DON THOMPSON and JANIE HAR

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, center, helps clean a homeless encampment alongside a freeway on Jan. 12, 2022, in San Diego. California's governor proposed a plan on Thursday, March 3, 2022, to force homeless people with severe mental health and addiction disorders into treatment. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s governor proposed a plan Thursday to offer more services to homeless people with severe mental health and addiction disorders even if that means compelling some into care, a move that many advocates of homeless people oppose as a violation of civil rights.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said at a press conference that he has no intention of rounding people up and locking them away. Instead, he said his plan would offer a way for people to get court-ordered psychiatric treatment, medication and housing, preferably before they are arrested.

Under the plan, which requires approval by the Legislature, all counties would have to set up a mental health branch in civil court and provide comprehensive and community-based treatment to those suffering from debilitating psychosis. People need not be homeless to be evaluated by a court.

But if approved, they would be obligated to accept the care or risk criminal charges, if those are pending, and if not, they would be subject to being held in psychiatric programs involuntarily or lengthier conservatorships in which the court appoints a person to make health decisions for someone who cannot.

“There’s no compassion stepping over people in the streets and sidewalks,” Newsom told reporters at a briefing at a mental health treatment facility in San Jose. “We could hold hands, have a candlelight vigil, talk about the way the world should be, or we could take some damn responsibility to implement our ideals and that’s what we’re doing differently here.”



Newsom, a Democrat and former mayor of San Francisco, has made homelessness and housing a focus of his administration as the number of unsheltered people grow across the country. Last year, the Legislature approved $12 billion for new housing and treatment beds for the homeless and this year Newsom has proposed an additional $2 billion, primarily to shelter people suffering from psychosis, schizophrenia and behavioral health disorders.

It was not immediately clear how much the program might cost, although Newsom proposed in his budget this year more money for mental health services. He has called distressing behavior on the streets heartbreaking and maddening and says residents are right to complain that government is not doing enough.

People with addiction issues or mental health disorders often pinball among various public agencies, namely hospitals, court and jail. There is no one place that manages the person’s health, offering steady and safe housing combined with resource intensive care and California, like the rest of the country, suffers from a shortage of treatment beds.

Newsom’s plan could apply to an estimated 7,000 to 12,000 people, said Dr. Mark Ghaly, secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency.

Compare that to just over 200 people forced into court-ordered treatment last year under Laura’s Law, a program for people with severe and persistent mental illness who may pose a risk to themselves or others, he said. The program is optional and just over half of California’s 58 counties participate.

The governor said under his proposal, people would have a say in their treatment plan and have a public defender to represent them. Most importantly, the proposal allows a broader array of people, including family member or first responder, to refer the person for help, he said. Care could last up to 24 months.

But the idea of compelling treatment rattled some, and the California State Association of Counties objected to the requirements put on counties. Other groups called on the need for more resources, which Newsom has proposed for additional psychologists and treatment beds.

“At this point there are a million questions and a million things that could go horribly wrong,” said Kevin Baker, director of government relations for ACLU California, in an email. He said homeless is caused by skyrocketing housing costs “and we won’t solve homelessness, mental health, or substance abuse problems by locking people up and drugging them against their will.”



Los Angeles city councilmember Paul Krekorian, right, walks past tents where people are living as he walks with staff member Karo Torossian during an official homeless count on Feb. 22, 2022, in the North Hollywood section of Los Angeles. California's governor proposed a plan on Thursday, March 3, 2022, to force homeless people with severe mental health and addiction disorders into treatment.

 (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

The Western Center on Law and Poverty pointed to a 2020 state audit that found many people put under conservatorship wound up with limited treatment and follow-up.

“Forcing people into temporary hospitalization will not help individuals move out of homelessness when there are not enough services or housing units to begin with,” it said in a statement.

Still, others say that mandated treatment is necessary for some who are too sick to realize they need care.

In San Francisco, a state law designed to get more people into conservatorships has resulted in just two people being forced into care, said Rafael Mandelman, a city supervisor who has watched helplessly as homeless residents languish outdoors.

He would welcome more money for emergency psychiatric treatment beds and staffing. But he also says there needs to be a major change in both the deployment of resources and in the way judges think.

“We also clearly need better systems that are able to respond to the needs of this population much better,” he said, “and we need laws that are clear to judges, and that reflect the expectations of the community.”

Har reported from Marin County.

Keto diet may help improve symptoms of multiple sclerosis
By HealthDay News

A new study found that when people with multiple sclerosis ate a keto diet for six months, they reported less fatigue and depression, and an improved overall quality of life .Image by zuzyusa from Pixabay

The Keto diet is a low-carb lover's dream, but a new study suggests the popular eating plan may also improve some symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS).

MS is an autoimmune disease that occurs when your body attacks the insulation wrapped around its nerves, causing numbness, fatigue, bladder problems, mood issues and mobility problems that can interfere with daily life. There is no cure for MS.

But there may be a way to ease symptoms.

In the study, when folks with MS ate a keto diet for six months, they reported less fatigue and depression, and an improved overall quality of life.

"Our study provides evidence that medically supervised ketogenic diets are safe and tolerable when studied over a six-month period, and convey clinical benefits to persons living with MS," said study author Dr. J. Nicholas Brenton. He is the director of the Pediatric MS & Related Disorders Clinic at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

Keto diets restrict your intake of carbs while increasing fats and protein. The goal is to shift from burning blood sugar for energy to a fat-burning state (ketosis), producing weight loss.

Exactly how a keto diet improves symptoms of MS isn't fully understood yet, but the researchers have their theories, starting with the weight loss it induces given the emerging role of obesity in MS. Ketogenic diets may also reduce inflammation and help re-balance the bacteria in the guts of people with MS. Certain gut bacteria create more inflammation in the body and this has been observed in some people with MS, Brenton said.

The study included 65 people with relapsing-remitting MS, the most common form of the disease. It is marked by periods of flares followed by remissions. Patients ate a strict keto diet for six months. Researchers measured ketones in their urine each day to see if they were sticking to the diet. (Ketones are produced by the body when it is burning fat for fuel.) Fully 83% of participants adhered to the diet for the six-month study period.

Those who followed the diet had less body fat and showed about a 50% decline in fatigue and depression scores after six months. What's more, their quality of life and mental health scores improved over the course of the study. They also performed better on tests measuring MS disability. Specifically, study patients walked an average of 1,631 feet on a six-minute walking test at the start of the study, compared to 1,733 feet after six months on a keto diet.

Levels of inflammatory markers in their blood also improved through the study period, Brenton said.

So, should everyone with MS start eating a keto diet?

Not necessarily, Brenton said. There is no one-size-fits-all MS diet. "What works for some patients may not work for others, and accumulating evidence suggests that there are numerous benefits to diet interventions in patients living with MS," he said. "My current advice is to eat a healthy, well-balanced diet and to maintain a healthy weight, as both of these aspects likely play a positive role in MS."

The study is scheduled for presentation at the American Academy of Neurology's annual meeting in Seattle, to be held April 2 to 7. Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

This study builds on previous work in animals and smaller studies in people, said Dr. Barbara Giesser, a neurologist at the Pacific Brain Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif.

"Ketogenic diets may be of benefit in persons with MS by several mechanisms, including decreasing inflammation, reducing body fat, and/or promoting a less inflammatory gut microbiome," said Giesser, who has no ties to the new study.

The study did have its share of limitations, including its small size and lack of a control group for comparison's sake, Giesser noted.

And keto diets aren't risk-free, she said. "Ketogenic diets could lead to other medical complications or nutrient deficiencies," Giesser explained, "and any dietary regimen should be undertaken after consultation with a physician."

General dietary recommendations for people with MS include eating a heart-healthy diet that limits saturated fats and highly refined grains, sugars and processed foods, and is abundant in colorful plants, lean proteins and polyunsaturated fats such as omega-3 fatty acids found in salmon and other fatty fish, Giesser advised.

More information

The American Academy of Neurology's patient education magazine, Brain and Life, offers more on living with MS.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

MURDERER OF LGBTQ CHECHEN'S

Ukraine forces say Chechen commander Magomed Tushayev killed near Kyiv


Volunteers make a masking net at a help center in Lviv in western Ukraine, on March 2. Photo by Oleksandr Khomenko/UPI | License Photo

March 3 (UPI) -- Ukrainian military officials say Chechen-Russian Gen. Magomed Tushayev, who has been accused of torturing and killing LGBTQ+ people in the past, was killed fighting in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces said Tushayev was killed Saturday in fighting north of Kyiv.

"Magomed Tushayev, the head of the 141st Motorized Regiment of the Kadyrov Guard, was destroyed!" the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a tweet.

Tushayev was commanding a Chechen armored column in Ukraine when he was killed. Chechnya is a Muslim-majority constituent republic in southern Russia that has feuded with Moscow for years. Tushayev has been accused of killing LGBTQ+ Chechens in recent years during a violent crackdown ordered by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

On Saturday, a convoy of 56 Chechen tanks was targeted by Ukrainian missile fire near the town of Hostomel and was wiped out, the Kyiv Independent reported.

A reporter for the Independent said that Tushayev was killed by Ukraine's elite Alpha Group.

The Chechen fighters were sent to assassinate Ukraine President Zelensky, according to Ukrainian security official Oleksiy Danilov.

Russian newspaper Pravda reported that Ukrainian forces received information about Tushayev's convoy and mission from someone claiming to be a Russian intelligence officer.

#HALTDEATHPENALTY #RIGHTTOLIFE

Expert testifies Okla. death row prisoners likely felt 'extreme pain' during executions

March 3 (UPI) -- An expert of anesthesiology has testified in trial challenging Oklahoma's lethal injection protocol that a prisoner the state executed last month was likely in "extreme pain."

Gail Van Norman, a professor at the University of Washington who has trained anesthesiology students for 36 years, told the court Wednesday that Gilbert Postelle attempted to make a fist after prison officials declared him unconscious during the lethal injection process. The state executed him Feb. 17 for killing four people in 2008.

"It was a purposeful movement," Van Norman said, according to The Oklahoman.

She said she believed with "virtual medical certainty" that Postelle, along with the state's three other most recent executed prisoners "experienced extreme pain and suffering.

Van Norman's testimony comes as part of a federal lawsuit filed by a group of Oklahoma death row prisoners challenging the state's lethal injection protocol.

Attorneys for the prisoners rested their case Wednesday, KOTV-TV in Oklahoma City reported. Witnesses from the Oklahoma Department of Corrections were expected to testify on behalf of the state later in the week.

The state announced Feb. 13, 2020, that it plans to resume executions, nearly six years after the use of an incorrect drug led to the botched execution of a convicted murderer.

RELATED Lawyers for Texas death row prisoner say judge, DA have conflict of interest

Gov. Kevin Stitt said that after mulling the option of using nitrogen gas to cary out executions, the state has now found a "reliable supply of drugs" to resume lethal injections.

Oklahoma's lethal injection protocol came under scrutiny in 2014 when Clayton Lockett died of a heart attack amid complications during his execution.

Autopsy reports released a year later indicated Oklahoma corrections officials used the wrong drug -- potassium acetate instead of potassium chloride -- during the process. Lockett complained of a burning sensation and attempted to raise his head and speak after doctors declared he was unconscious.

The same incorrect drug was delivered to corrections officials for use in the planned 2015 execution of Richard Glossip. Former Gov. Mary Ballin called off Glossip's execution with a last-minute, indefinite stay after she learned of the discrepancy.

Oklahoma carried out one other execution after Lockett's, that of Charles Warner in January 2015, before resuming executions in 2021.

After Warner's execution, the state had an unofficial moratorium on executions as it attempted to secure a supply of lethal injection drugs. Oklahoma uses a three-drug cocktail of midazolam, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride.

Van Norman testified Wednesday that midazolam, which is supposed to make the execution painless, doesn't actually numb the pain. She compared it to anti-anxiety medications Valium and Xanax.

Instead, she said midazolam together with the muscle relaxant vecuronium bromide, leave the prisoners unable to express pain. She also noted that documentation from Postelle's execution listed "rocuronium" was used instead of "vecuronium bromide."

"We can't rule out that the wrong drug was given," she said.

The Oklahoma Department of Corrections said the mistake was a transcription error and that the correct drugs were given to Postelle.

State attorneys took issue with Van Norman's testimony relying on media accounts of Postelle's execution.

Executions in the United States have undergone changes in recent years after states started running out of the essential lethal injection drug pentobarbital. The European Union in 2011 voted to prohibit the sale of the drug and seven other barbiturates to the United States for use in torture or executions. Other pharmaceutical companies have refused to sell drugs for lethal injection purposes outright, and some will only sell if their name is kept confidential.

Now states are being forced to use new drug cocktails, scramble to restock their stores of drugs and review their lethal injection policies.

In 2018, Oklahoma's attorney general's office announced it would use nitrogen gas inhalation as its primary method of execution. Officials, though, had difficulty finding a manufacturer to sell a method for administering the gas for an execution. Additionally, state law says nitrogen hypoxia may be used for executions only if drugs for lethal injections are unavailable.

In addition to Postelle, Oklahoma has put to death three prisoners since its resumption of executions, including John Grant on Oct. 28, Bigler Stouffer on Dec. 8 and Donald Grant on Jan. 27.

CAPITALI$M IS ADDICTION

Purdue Pharma deal has families deflated, angry but hopeful

By JOHN SEEWER and DAVE COLLINS

1 of 6

Lynn Wencus of Wrentham, Mass., holds a sign for her son Jeff along with wearing a sign showing loved ones lost to OxyContin and Opioid overdoses, during a protest at Purdue Pharma headquarters in Stamford, Conn., Friday, Aug. 17, 2018. Wencus lost her son Jeff to a heroin overdose in 2017. OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and virtually all U.S. states have agreed to a new settlement of opioid lawsuits. The deal reached Thursday, March 3, 2022, would require members of the Sackler family who own the drugmaker to pay $5.5 billion to $6 billion in cash. They also apologized. A bankruptcy judge must still approve the deal. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File)

For those who lost loved ones in the opioid crisis, making sure the family behind OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma paid a price was never just about money. What many wanted was a chance to confront the Sackler family face to face, to make them feel their pain.

While some may get that chance — at least by video — under a tentative settlement reached Thursday that also would force the Sacklers to pay out billions, the families still are coming away feeling empty, conflicted and angry yet again. There’s a bit of hope mixed in, too.

Nothing, though, will bring back any of the lives lost or hold the Sacklers fully accountable, in their eyes.

“I’d like to see the Sacklers bleed all they can, but the bigger picture for me is what they’re doing to clean up the mess,” said Vicki Meyer Bishop of Clarksburg, Maryland, who lost her 45-year-old son, Brian Meyer, in 2017. “We’re all so very worried about the next generation and the next child who will be lost.”

The Sacklers, whose wealth has been estimated in court filings at over $10 billion, will get to hang on to a chunk of their vast fortune and be protected from current and future civil lawsuits over opioids.

The deal announced Thursday, which must be approved by a federal bankruptcy judge, requires the Sacklers to pay as much as $6 billion, with $750 million for victims and their survivors. Most of the rest will go to state and local governments to fight the crisis. They also must give up ownership of their company, with the new entity’s profits going toward fighting opioid addiction through treatment and education programs.

Some of the survivors of the opioid crisis and relatives of those who died will receive payments. But most will get just a few thousand dollars — not even enough to reimburse the cost of a funeral — and many more who have not filed claims already will be shut out altogether.

“These families do need to get something,” said Beth Schmidt, who started a support group in Sykesville, Maryland, after her son Sean died in 2013, one of 13 lost in their town in little over a year. “We have families that can’t afford to bury their children. They’re choosing cremation because it’s less expensive. They shouldn’t have to do that.”

The agreement also recommends that the victims be allowed to directly share their heartache with Sackler family members by videoconference at a hearing scheduled for Wednesday.

Meyer Bishop would love to face the Sacklers and show them a picture of her son that’s “so big they couldn’t look away.”

“It’s what I see before I fall asleep every night,” she said. “I don’t even know if that would touch them. I don’t think it would.”

The Sacklers have been cast as the leading villains in the country’s opioid crisis by activists who point to their lack of remorse and long-running efforts to shield their wealth while maintaining a lavish lifestyle. Their role in the epidemic was spotlighted in Hulu’s miniseries “Dopesick.”

A half-million Americans have died from opioids over the past two decades, a toll that includes victims of prescription painkillers like OxyContin and Vicodin and illicit drugs such as heroin and fentanyl.

“Everyday this goes on, we lose all of these people,” said Lynn Wencus, of Wrentham, Massachusetts, whose son Jeff died of an overdose in 2017. “If states use the money the way it’s supposed to be, then we will be saving lives.”

It bothers her that more money won’t end up in the hands of the families, but she also knows nothing would make up for what she and so many others have lost.

“Even if I got a billion dollars, it’s not going to bring back my son,” she said.

In one of the hardest-fought provisions in the settlement, the Sacklers will be protected from future opioid lawsuits. While they weren’t given immunity from criminal charges, there have been no indications they will face any.

Allowing the Sacklers to avoid any more lawsuits or jail time is a dangerous message to send to the pharmaceutical industry or any other business, said activists who have fought for Purdue owners and company officials to be charged with crimes.

“What makes me most angry is they’re getting away with it,” said Tim Kramer, of Waterford Township, Michigan. “They’ve got more money than God, so it’s not going to hurt them. I’d like to see them go to prison, and a regular prison, not one of those resort prisons.”

His common law wife, LeeRae Conn, was 46 when she overdosed in 2018. He found out she was addicted soon after they met a decade earlier.

“No matter what she did, no matter what I did, she couldn’t get off it,” he said. “She tried.”

Sackler family members have never unequivocally offered an apology, but on Thursday issued a statement of regret about the toll of OxyContin.

The settlement comes more than two years after the Stamford, Connecticut-based company filed for bankruptcy while facing some 3,000 lawsuits that accused it of fueling the crisis by aggressively pushing sales of its signature painkiller.

An earlier settlement fell apart last year, but this time the Sacklers agreed to add another $1 billion and accepted other terms.

“It’s money, but there’s still no accountability,” said Liz Fitzgerald, of Southington, Connecticut, who said she wanted to hear a public apology.

She lost two adult sons, who first used OxyContin in high school, to overdoses in 2013 and 2017.

“My three children have lost two brothers, and I think that a lot more needs to be done to support families because of the traumatic PTSD. They just destroyed our lives,” she said.

“I have a granddaughter who lost her dad. No money in the world is going to bring back her dad,” Fitzgerald said. “How do you tell a 10-year child that your dad’s gone and not even understanding addiction? It’s just horrific.”

___

Associated Press writers Geoff Mulvihill and Susan Haigh contributed to this report.

Purdue and US states agree new $6bn settlement for opioid litigation

March 4, 2022


Members of the Sackler family who own Purdue Pharma have agreed to increase their financial contribution to a settlement with US states over their role in the opioid crisis to $6bn.

It follows a decision by a group of US states to drop their opposition to provisions in a deal to resolve Purdue bankruptcy’s that would protect the family from current and future civil lawsuits over the US opioid crisis.

Under the draft agreement, which was published by a court-appointed mediator on Thursday, the family members issued a statement of regret over the role that OxyContin — a highly addictive painkiller made by Purdue — played in fuelling an opioid crisis that has killed more than 500,000 Americans.

The Sackler family members have also agreed to a clause that allows any US institutions or organisations to remove their names from buildings, scholarships or endowments that they have sponsored, accelerating a process that has already begun amid public outrage over the opioid crisis’s death toll.

The revised settlement would still grant the Sackler family protection from all current and future civil liability claims that could threaten their remaining fortunes. They would not be protected from criminal prosecution, although there is no indication that any charges are pending.

In December an US federal court judge threw out a previous settlement worth at least $4.5bn following a legal appeal by a group of eight US states and the US attorney for the southern district of New York. The states argued the Sackler family owners were benefiting from the liability releases without having personally filed for Chapter 11 protection themselves.

Lawyers for Purdue warned that without such a settlement, years of litigation would delay payments to victims and shrink the available pot.

The objectors pointed to analysis presented in the bankruptcy court that showed the Sackler family members had taken more than $10bn out of Perdue between 2008 and 2017. As a requirement for the Sacklers’ contribution to the original agreement, the family members had demanded that they could no longer be pursued for liability.

The new agreement must be approved by Judge Robert Drain, who is overseeing the Purdue bankruptcy.

Carl Tobias, professor of law at University of Richmond, said the settlement could mark the end of the long-running Purdue Pharma bankruptcy. But this would depend on approval by Judge Drain and whether the US bankruptcy trustee, and the Department of Justice, which helped persuade the US federal court to throw out original bankruptcy deal, are satisfied, he said.

In compliance with the new settlement the families of the late Dr Mortimer Sackler and the late Dr Raymond Sackler issued a statement on Thursday, expressing regret for the role that OxyContin played in the opioid crisis. The statement reiterated they did not break any laws and emphasised that it was not an admission of wrongdoing.

“The families have consistently affirmed that settlement is by far the best way to help solve a serious and complex public health crisis. While the families have acted lawfully in all respects, they sincerely regret that OxyContin, a prescription medicine that continues to help people suffering from chronic pain, unexpectedly became part of an opioid crisis that has brought grief and loss to far too many families and communities,” the statement read.

The mediator recommended the bankruptcy court hold a virtual hearing to allow victims of the opioid crisis to tell their personal stories. At least one member from the two sides of the Sackler family who own Purdue should attend, the mediator said.

Source: Financial Times

Sacklers and Purdue Pharma Reach New Deal With States Over Opioids
March 3, 2022


The new settlement, however, still faces two potential hurdles. Even if Judge Drain, the bankruptcy judge, signs off, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has to approve the plan, which would formally reverse the December ruling that rejected the earlier plan.

A key component of the deal — the immunity shield for the Sacklers from civil suits — is being contested by the U.S. Trustee program, which serves as a watchdog over the bankruptcy system. The Justice Department did not return a request for comment on whether it would continue to pursue that case.

Under the agreement, Purdue will be renamed Knoa Pharma and overseen by a public board. The restructured company will contribute $1.5 billion through 2024 to funds for the plaintiffs’ programs, plus more as the company evolves into a manufacturer of medications for addiction reversal and treatment, among other drugs, including OxyContin.

The Sacklers’ shield against lawsuits was the major sticking point for states that fought the plan. The District of Columbia and nine states — California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington — had voted against the earlier proposal, contending they should have the right to pursue the Sacklers under state civil laws.

The earlier deal, which included a $225 million federal settlement, had less money but it was to be paid out over roughly nine years. The Sacklers now have 18 years to pay the additional $1 billion, according to the revised plan.

As marathon sessions of negotiations dragged on, the opioid crisis continued to deepen, with overdoses soaring during the pandemic. The dilemma for the holdout governments was whether to keep pursuing the Sacklers in court, a process that could take years with no guarantee of victory, or just take the money, now that the cash offer had increased.

While all the states and, in turn, their local governments, will get a bigger payout than the original deal outlined, the holdout states will get even more, as a bonus for their resistance. The $750 million set aside to compensate more than 100,000 individual victims and survivors and whose stories help build the governmental lawsuits will not grow, but states have committed to funding an “opioid survivors trust” specifically for them.

Source: NY Times

Purdue Pharma agrees to new settlement with states to resolve opioid lawsuits


As part of the settlement deal, the Sackler family must give up control of Stamford, Conn.-based Purdue -- which will be turned into a different company that will fight opioid abuse. File Photo by Justin Lane/EPA-EFE

March 3 (UPI) -- The Sackler family and their company Purdue Pharma agreed to a new settlement on Thursday to resolve lawsuits in almost every state over their connection to the opioid crisis.

The family agreed to a new bankruptcy plan with states that had been holding out on an earlier agreement. The new bankruptcy settlement will free billions of dollars for opioid addiction treatment nationwide.

Under the settlement, the Sackler family will pay as much as $6 billion -- and the deal could be worth around $10 billion over time. The Sacklers said earlier this week that they were close to increasing the total amount of the settlement to get the remaining states to sign on.

The settlement was filed in federal bankruptcy court in New York state. It still must be approved by judge Robert Drain to make it final.

The proposal would end all claims against the Sackler family now and in the future over Purdue's role in the opioid crisis. Purdue introduced OxyContin in 1995 and the painkiller has been at the center of opioid abuse in the United States virtually ever since.

As part of the deal, the family also must give up control of the Stamford, Conn.-based pharma company -- which will be turned into a different company that will fight opioid abuse.

"This settlement is both significant and insufficient -- constrained by the inadequacies of our federal bankruptcy code," Connecticut Attorney General William Tong told The New York Times. "But Connecticut cannot stall this process indefinitely as victims and our sister states await a resolution.

"This settlement resolves our claims against Purdue and the Sacklers, but we are not done fighting for justice against the addiction industry and against our broken bankruptcy code."

Connecticut, California, Delaware, Maryland, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and the District of Columbia, which had declined to sign on to an earlier agreement, approved the new proposal. The other states accepted a previous settlement last year, but the deal was ultimately rejected by a bankruptcy judge.

While Purdue Pharma has pleaded guilty to criminal charges -- for misleading marketing and minimizing OxyContin's addiction risk -- the Sacklers have never taken responsibility for playing any part of the opioid crisis and they have never been charged with an offense.

Last month, hundreds of Native American tribes agreed to a settlement with opioid producers worth almost $600 million.

The bleak market outcome for Russia after Ukraine invasion

March 4, 2022



The writer is an investment director at GAM

The implosion of Russia’s financial markets following the country’s invasion of Ukraine is not the first crisis to befall emerging markets. Nor will it be the last.

Since emerging markets were popularised as a collective asset class in the 1980s and 90s, there have been events like the Asian financial crisis, the 1998 Russia debt crisis and Argentina’s serial defaults. The scale of such episodes are a reminder of the risks that come with returns in emerging markets. Investors are notoriously amnesiac but it will be a long time before they regain trust in Russian markets.

Those unfortunate enough to be caught with investments in Russian assets should obviously attract limited sympathy while Ukrainian civilians are being bombarded. But the combination of western sanctions on Russia in response to its aggression and Moscow’s response has severely disrupted Russian markets — including, crucially, sending the rouble spiralling.

Index provider MSCI is removing Russian stocks from its widely tracked emerging markets indices and is likely to record the last price for them as “effectively zero”. Holders of Russian rouble bonds have either left their holdings marked at stale prices or marked them down in line with the external debt. The endgame there looks to be similar.

Cutting some of Russia’s banks from the Swift financial messaging system has drawn many headlines but the most powerful international action was to freeze the foreign reserves of the Russian central bank. It is this that caused the 25 per cent drop in the rouble after the sanctions were announced, and this which prompted the effective declaration by Moscow of economic hostilities on foreign investors.

The central bank first instructed local investors not to bid for assets held by foreigners, next froze foreigners’ accounts and then dictated that dividends and coupons would not be paid to foreigners. Neither equity nor bond markets had been reopened at the time of writing.

Russia might believe it is self-sufficient in capital. After the experience of the 1998 financial crisis, the country opted for rigid fiscal discipline and has been running a sustained current account surplus. So the combination of capital controls and sanctions should in theory not require a significant adjustment at the macroeconomic level. However, that theory is reliant on sanctions not inducing big changes in behaviour. This seems optimistic.

More important is the effect on the rouble. Since the end of communism, convertibility of the rouble was crucial to restoring the domestic currency as a store of value.

At least part of the rationale for preventing foreigners from selling Russian assets was to reduce the pool of roubles looking to buy foreign currency. The situation is clearly perilous. Before sanctions were announced, a dollar was worth 83 roubles in the market. Three days later, the currency market rate touched 122, while ordinary Russians faced much higher retail rates — where there were dollars available at all. Financial uncertainty leads to capital flight — the proximate cause of the 1998 meltdown.

The Russian authorities have boasted of how little the country relies on imports. It is comfortably self-sufficient in food and energy. However, Russian industry is reliant on western machinery and parts. And Russia’s efforts to prepare for sanctions have also been heavily reliant on China.

China is unlikely to match western sanctions. It is an eager buyer of Russian resources and Moscow is also the biggest foreign holder of Chinese bonds, according to ANZ. But there would be an irony if Russia’s attack on Ukraine left it at the mercy of a richer, more populous neighbour.

The good news for international investors is that almost none of the factors that caused the 1998 debacle are in place. The default then triggered a chain reaction that ripped through highly leveraged markets, starting at hedge fund Long Term Capital Management. There is now far less leverage applied in emerging market assets and the run-up to the Russian attack was drawn out, giving some investors time to adjust.

But what this week has illustrated is how important access to international capital markets have been for Russia. It has allowed the country to import a degree of institutional certainty — vast foreign reserves in reserve currencies and the use of western courts for dispute resolution. These are not available to a country with arbitrary government. And the current crisis serves as an excellent example of what can go wrong for investors braving erratic jurisdictions in search of higher yields.

Source: Financial Times

Credit Suisse names Rawra head of clean tech banking for Canada - memo

March 3 (Reuters) - Credit Suisse has named Saad Rawra as its head of clean-energy technology banking and Canadian head of diversified industries group to help drive the Swiss bank's growing global energy tech franchise, according to a memo seen by Reuters.

Rawra will be based in Toronto and report to Credit Suisse Canada CEO Ron Lloyd and Robert Santangelo, the co-head of global energy and infrastructure banking. Rawra returns to the Swiss bank after spending the past three years with National Bank Financial as the head of cleantech, the memo said.

In his new role, Rawra will be responsible for advancing Credit Suisse's Canadian platform to help drive its "rapidly growing Global Energy Tech franchise," according to the memo.

He has worked on deals including Brookfield's $4.6 billion purchase of Westinghouse and $13.2 billion buyout of Power Solutions, as well as Bombardier's sale of its Aerostructures business for $1.2 billion.

A Credit Suisse spokesperson confirmed the content of the memo.

(Reporting by Shariq Khan in Bengaluru)

Total’s Top Financier Urged to Sever Ties Due to Russia Exposure

Alastair Marsh
Wed, March 2, 2022


(Bloomberg) -- Credit Agricole SA, which provides more financial support to TotalEnergies SE than any other institution, has become the target of an activist campaign urging it to sever ties with the French oil major due to its continued operations in Russia.Reclaim Finance, a Paris-based nonprofit focused on sustainable investing, wrote to the chief executive officers of Credit Agricole and its asset management unit, Amundi SA, to demand that they stop providing capital to Total and all other fossil-fuel companies still active in Russia. Amundi, which oversees more than $2 trillion, is Total’s biggest shareholder after BlackRock Inc., while Credit Agricole is its biggest lender.

Total’s stance has left it increasingly isolated as rivals such as BP Plc, Shell Plc, Equinor ASA and Exxon Mobil Corp. all turn their backs on Russia in response to President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. It’s part of a mass exodus that’s rapidly turning Russia into a political and economic pariah amid international condemnation of Putin’s war.

“If TotalEnergies refuses to burn ties with Putin's oil and gas industry, then Credit Agricole must burn ties with TotalEnergies,” Lucie Pinson director at Reclaim Finance, said in Wednesday’s letter . She also condemned the French bank’s continued role as one of the main financiers for Russian state-controlled energy giant Gazprom PJSC.In a letter addressed to Credit Agricole CEO Philippe Brassac and Amundi CEO Valérie Baudson, the nonprofit called on Credit Agricole and its subsidiaries to cease financing not only Gazprom, but all non-Russian fossil-fuel companies active in the country “until these groups have withdrawn from their operations.” Credit Agricole has paused its financing of new business related to Russia, including for projects and movements of commodities, people familiar with the matter said Tuesday. “In the context of the current crisis, any isolated initiative can only be risky and could prove unfortunate,” said a spokesperson for Credit Agricole. The bank will observe sanctions and the firm’s corporate and investment banking division now “deals only by exception with Russian counterparties and only in response to the needs for goods and services essential to Europe, as long as these remain of course authorized by the public authorities.” A spokesperson for Total didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.The list of those cutting ties or reviewing their operations is growing by the hour as foreign governments ratchet up sanctions against Russia. The role of fossil fuels in bankrolling the Russian war machine has exposed Western oil majors still doing business in the country to intense criticism. On Wednesday, Exxon CEO Darren Woods pointed to the “ needless destruction” caused by the war in Ukraine as he mapped out plans to end a decades-long relationship with Russia.