RENT GOUGING IS INFLATIONARY

"I Felt Devastated And Powerless" — This Woman's Story Of Her Landlord Trying To Raise Her Rent An Extra $700 Proves It's Becoming Impossible To Live Anywhere Right Now

Wed, July 20, 2022 

If you're a fellow adult trying to make their way in the world, then you've probably noticed that everything seems to be getting more and more expensive these days. With inflation in the US reaching 9.1% (the highest it's been in 40 years), people are doing whatever they can to cut costs, and it's starting to feel impossible just to live right now.

Tbs

Grace James, an actor, writer, and comedian living in New York City — specifically South Williamsburg, also known as Los Sures — experienced this firsthand when she received an email from her landlord letting her know that upon renewing her lease, they'd be increasing her rent by a whopping $700 a month. Yes, you read that right: SEVEN HUNDRED DOLLARS. Their reasoning? "It's what the apartment's worth."

@justgracejames / Via tiktok.com

Grace, who moved into her apartment in August 2021 and was originally paying $2500 per month, took her experience to TikTok, where she shared some photos of her apartment building, repeating her landlord's message, "It's what the apartment's worth" over and over.

@justgracejames / Via tiktok.com

Clearly, no significant "updates" were made to justify raising the monthly rent by such a huge amount.

@justgracejames / Via tiktok.com

In fact, Grace's landlord may be just taking advantage of the rental situation in New York City right now (which, btw, does NOT make it right). New York has always been one of the most expensive cities in the US, and despite thousands of people leaving the city during the height of the pandemic in 2020, rental prices continue to surge now more than ever. In fact, the median rent in Manhattan reached $4,000 in May 2022, while median rent in Brooklyn reached $3,250, which is 18% more than last year.

@justgracejames / Via tiktok.com

BuzzFeed reached out to Grace, who said that she felt "devastated and powerless" when she received the email from her landlord. "Several of my neighbors are long-term residents, which led me to think and hope that our property managers cared about retaining good tenants. I’d been naïve to the reality of how faceless we are to those who own our buildings. I told my friends, 'I wish our landlords could see us scrambling to figure out what we’re going to do. I wish they could see how a single piece of mail turned our lives upside down.'"

"Personally speaking, I believe the business of housing has gone too far. We’re seeing towns get taken over by short-term rentals such as Airbnb and Vrbo. We’re seeing developers with no personal ties to a neighborhood put up buildings with no thought for the community. And they can do this because they have the money."

"The result has been the depersonalization of an incredibly intimate experience: home."

Grace decided to share her story on TikTok because she'd heard about the same kind of increases happening across the city and knew others would be able to relate. In the comments, plenty of people pointed out the sheer callousness (and ridiculousness) of the situation.

@justgracejames / Via tiktok.com

@justgracejames / Via tiktok.com

"I think a lot of people have felt pretty powerless to do anything about it," Grace told BuzzFeed. "We’re just individuals, whereas many of these rental companies are major corporations with lawyers and copious resources. It’s a bit of a David and Goliath dynamic."

@justgracejames / Via tiktok.com

To get some help with her rent situation, Grace said she contacted Southside United HDFC - Los Sures, a community organizing group that advocates for tenants' rights in the South Williamsburg area. After ordering the rental history for her unit, they discovered that Grace's apartment was actually rent-stabilized, and her landlord couldn't legally raise the rent $700 per month like they claimed. Grace then filed a DHCR overcharge complaint against the rent increase.

A24

Lulu Kirtchuk, a representative for Southside United HFDC - Los Sures, spoke to BuzzFeed and explained that Grace's story is just one of many in their neighborhood, mostly due to the gentrification that's been happening in the area. "South Williamsburg, more communally known as Los Sures, is originally an immigrant, Hispanic-based neighborhood. As we know, Williamsburg has become one of the most rapidly gentrified neighborhoods in New York City, essentially ground zero other than maybe the Lower East Side (also originally Puerto Rican). North Williamsburg, as we can see now, is almost completely developed, equipped with Whole Foods, CorePower Yoga, and buildings that cover the skyline. South Williamsburg is slowly but surely on its way to becoming its neighbor."

Ucg / UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

"What we’re seeing in Los Sures is an uprise of 'transplants' moving into rent-stabilized units without knowing what rent-stabilized units are," Lulu told BuzzFeed. "Therefore, the landlord kicks out low-income tenants who are able to pay the rent-stabilized rent, and they move in tenants (usually white) who will pay a rent double than what it’s supposed to be without checking. It’s all kinds of discrimination, whether racial or economic. This then leads to rent-stabilized units, which are only supposed to go up by very small increments (1%-5%), becoming the equivalent to market rate apartments, which have absolutely no regulations and can be raised by any amount."

CBS

"These apartments are not de-stabilized, but rather the issue tends to be that transplants do not actually need these apartments, so they move out after a couple of years rather than staying and advocating for fair rent for themselves and the next tenant. And so the cycle continues, the rent goes up an exorbitant amount, and low-income tenants and transplants move out alike."

ABC

Grace's story fits into this cycle, according to Lulu, but the difference is that she reached out to learn more about her and her neighbors' rights. In New York, "No one can file anything against [the landlord] or report it other than the tenant in the unit that is being taken advantage of. So, unfortunately — what a lot of advocates and activists have tried to change — the onus has yet to be lifted off the tenants, and put on the government, or anybody other than individuals who are renting, for them to prosecute their landlords."

Andrew Lichtenstein / Corbis via Getty Images

Although this situation is beyond frustrating, it's not isolated to New York City. Across the US, rental prices continue to rise, and millions of Americans are feeling the strain. According to a report from Redfin, the median monthly asking rent surpassed $2,000 for the first time ever in May 2022. Grace told BuzzFeed that she received comments on her TikTok from people in rural areas experiencing the exact same thing she was dealing with. "It makes you wonder — who is the housing market for? Who is this system working for?"

BusàPhotography / Getty Images

Despite the help she received from Southside United, Grace ultimately decided to leave her apartment and move back to Texas to be closer to family. "I’ve wrestled with my disappointment in not being able to stay and fight, but I take comfort knowing how many more people are aware of their rights just by way of having seen my video. I also plan to talk to everyone in my building about my increase so they’re prepared and have the resources they need to unionize."

When asked what she thinks needs to change in order to prevent something like this from happening in the future, Grace responded, "While I don’t have the perfect regulatory plan drawn up just yet, I do believe housing is a human right and I’d like to see more protections for the individual — the individual renter and the individual mortgage holder, because I recognize mortgage inflation is a huge part of the problem."

"Your biggest asset — in times of challenge and regarding the overall quality of your life — is the strength of your community," she concluded. "Form a tenant’s union with the neighbors in your building so your landlords and property management companies know you are a united front. Get to know your neighbors and support each other in the good and the bad. And if you’re moved by this story, consider donating to or volunteering with your local community organizers. We have more power than we think."

You can follow Grace's journey on TikTok and Instagram. For more information on New York City tenant advocacy, check out Southside United HDFC - Los Sures and Housing Justice for All. And to learn more about rental and housing laws in your state, click here.

One Medical: Why Amazon's acquiring this health care company for $3.9 billion

Alexandra Garfinkle

·Senior Reporter

Thu, July 21, 2022 

Amazon (AMZN) announced today that it would acquire subscription health care provider One Medical for $3.9 billion.

The deal marks one of Amazon's most high-profile pushes into health care to date. So, why One Medical? To start, One Medical — which was founded in 2007 and focuses on so-called concierge primary care — was on the market. The company had reportedly been fielding takeover interest from giants like CVS (CVS).

One Medical's $199 annual subscription offers 24/7 access to telehealth services, same-day appointments, and an app. The company had 188 U.S. locations and more than 750,000 members, as of a May filing. The company's focus is on primary care and boasts virtually no wait times, and in its IPO filing expressed interest in moving into behavioral health. The Carlyle Group has been one of One Medical's key investors, and is reportedly set to exit after Amazon's acquisition.

One Medical, whose parent company 1Life Healthcare trades under the ticker ONEM, went public in 2020. The company's shares, as of close Wednesday, were down about 44% year to date. However, as of this morning, One Medical's shares have skyrocketed in the wake of the news of the Amazon deal, up nearly 70% in midday trading.

Physician John Jones, D.O. tests administrative assistant Morgan Bassin for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at One Medical in Scottsdale, Arizona, U.S. June 17, 2020. One Medical employees receive testing every two weeks. REUTERS/Courtney Pedroza

One Medical, should the deal close, will also be one of Amazon's biggest acquisitions ever, surpassed only by MGM and Whole Foods — which clocked in at $8.45 billion and $13.7 billion, respectively.

Amazon's health care moves (so far)

Amazon's efforts to expand its footprint in health care stretch back a few years, and some initiatives have been more successful than others.

In 2018, the company bought online pharmacy PillPack and used that deal to launch "Amazon Pharmacy" the following year. Amazon also partnered with JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway on a health care initiative called Haven, which shuttered somewhat ignominiously last year.

Still Big Tech's push into health care has persisted. Apple (AAPL) just published a report outlining its moves into health care, and how it plans to build on its health features — from sleep monitoring to step-tracking — and what its partnerships with medical institutions entail.

Allie Garfinkle is a senior tech reporter at Yahoo Finance. Find her on twitter @agarfinks.

Chinese headphone maker in Dongguan shuts down, intensifying country's woes in manufacturing, cross-border e-commerce

Thu, July 21, 2022 

A major Bluetooth headphone maker, Dongguan Koppo Electronics Co, has decided to shut down for good and dismiss all its workers, becoming the latest casualty of the economic headwinds, supply chain disruptions and trading woes that have hit China's manufacturing heartland.

Koppo Electronics, which has operated its factory in the city of Dongguan in southern Guangdong province for 12 years, said it was ceasing operations partly because "a number of cross-border e-commerce clients have failed to make due payments", according to a notice seen by the Post.

"Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, global economic and trade flows have seen unprecedented disruptions," the notice said. "The company has been hit by delayed payments by a number of cross-border merchants, and a huge amount of finished goods are stockpiling in the warehouse."

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Koppo Electronics is expected to lay off 100 workers, according to a report on Wednesday by Chinese digital media Jiemian News. At its peak, the company had more than 1,000 workers and produced about 400,000 headphones a month.

A production line inside the factory of Dongguan Koppo Electronics Co, a major Bluetooth headphone maker in China. 

"The company has been making losses in recent years and it's difficult to continue the operation," the notice said. "The sudden outbreak of [the Ukraine] war has dealt another heavy blow to the company's business and the market situation is just grim."

Phone calls to Koppo Electronics went unanswered on Wednesday.

Its collapse comes on the heels of a number of high-profile factory closures in the Pearl River Delta, which has raised concerns about China losing its competitive edge in manufacturing and major role in global supply chains.

Trouble in China's manufacturing heartland has the potential to ripple through the wider economy. The export sector provides jobs for 180 million people, or more than a third of the country's 530 million non-farming jobs, according to data from China's Ministry of Commerce.

The demise of Koppo Electronics also reflects more signs of trouble for the "Made in China, Sold on Amazon" community, following the US e-commerce firm's extensive crackdown that removed thousands of Chinese sellers from the platform since last year.

One of the company's biggest clients to miss payments was Shenzhen-based cross-border consumer electronics firm Sunvalley, a large seller of Chinese-made gadgets on Amazon, according to the report by Jiemian News, which cited major Koppo Electronics shareholder Wei Yongning.

That Amazon vendor's accounts were frozen last year by the US e-commerce giant for failure to comply with the online platform's rules, which led to its failure to pay Koppo Electronics for the products it ordered, the Jiemian News report said.

Sunvalley and its parent company, Guangdong SACA Precision Manufacturing Co, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The "Made in China, sold on Amazon" community faces a gloomy future after years of rapid growth. 

In June last year, Amazon banned the sale of three popular product lines under Sunvalley - RAVPower power banks, Taotronics earphones and VAVA cameras - for attempts made by the seller to solicit positive customer reviews. Last October, three more of the company's gadget brands - Anjou, Sable and Hootoo - were removed online by Amazon.

A total of 367 Amazon online stores operated by Sunvalley were suspended by the platform in 2021, accounting for 70 per cent of all of the Chinese firm's accounts, according to the annual report of parent SACA. It said more than 32 million yuan (US$4.74 million) of Sunvalley funds were frozen by Amazon.

Shenzhen-listed SACA's cross-border e-commerce sales for 2021 were nearly halved because of Amazon's crackdown, which led to a 1.52 billion yuan loss in the period, according to its annual report. Koppo Electronics was one of the top suppliers for Sunvalley, the company's filing showed.

When Amazon started to clamp down on fake reviews last year, the US platform shut 3,000 online merchant accounts backed by about 600 Chinese brands, damaging the operations of the "Made in China, Sold on Amazon" community.

Copyright (c) 2022. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Black woman says Target rejected her for a job, until she applied as 'Tori' under a different race


A Black woman says Target rejected her for a job, until she applied as 'Tori' under a different race

Lindsay Dodgson,Yoonji Han
Thu, July 21, 2022 at 7:42 AM·5 min read


Target has been sued multiple times over allegations of racial discrimination in hiring.John Minchillo/ASSOCIATED PRESS

In a viral TikTok video, Naturi Greene says she was rejected by Target for a job.

But when she changed her name to "Tori" and listed her ethnicity as "mixed race," she heard back.

Target has been sued multiple times over allegations of racial discrimination in hiring.

After being rejected from a job at Target multiple times over the past few years, Naturi Greene decided to try a different approach. She joked to her boyfriend, who had also been denied, that if they changed their names and race on their applications, they would have gotten the job.

To test her theory, Greene, a Black woman from Charlotte, North Carolina, changed her name to "Tori" and listed her ethnicity as "mixed race." After multiple rejections as Naturi, Target offered "Tori" a job interview.

"I'm not sure how it can be proved to be discrimination," Greene told Insider. "But as a person of color in America, I can't help but to think that is the reason."

Greene posted her story on TikTok, where, as of July 20, it has been viewed nearly 264,000 times. She showed Insider screenshots of her application forms from May 18 and July 3, 2022, the first using "Naturi," which was rejected, and the second "Tori," which was accepted.

@lilbby_torii I always wondered if i l changed my name and race would i get hired..we got the answer ! I used the exact same application and applied to the same store but my name and race was changed. #racist #fyp #target ♬ original sound - cvmgvzzler

"After looking into this claim, we found that the two applications were filed several weeks apart and the store was not hiring at the time the application was rejected," Target spokesperson Brian Harper-Tibaldo told Insider.

According to the reference on the email exchange Greene showed Insider, there was a live job listing for a "Guest Advocate." There was also no mention of the store not hiring in the rejection email Greene received. Target did not respond to a request for comment on why the job was posted online if the company was not hiring at the time.

Greene told Insider the job she applied for was present in the "search jobs" section of the website.

"It's hard to believe the store was not hiring at the time if the position was still available to apply for on the website," she said.
Target has been sued multiple times for allegedly discriminatory hiring practices

Target has previously faced multiple claims of discriminatory hiring practices, which have resulted in legal settlements and vows to change their hiring procedures. More than 20 years ago, Kalisha White, who is Black, suspected her application for a job at a Target in Wisconsin was being ignored because of her race. She sent in another one under another name, Sarah Brucker — and scored an interview, even though the fake resume was less credentialed than White's.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal agency that enforces civil rights laws involving hiring practices, sued Target on behalf of White and three other Black job applicants, resulting in a $510,000 settlement.

In 2015, Target also paid a $2.8 million fee and agreed to change its job applicant tracking system after the EEOC found it was screening candidates based on race and sex. Then, just a few years later, it paid $3.74 million to settle claims that its background criminal checks discriminated against thousands of Black and Latino applicants.

Target has maintained in the settlements that it had not committed any wrongdoing, but said it would review its screening and hiring practices.

There's a 'penalty' for job applicants with 'Black-sounding' names

Studies have shown that despite a recent boom in diversity initiatives, job applicants with "Black-sounding" names are less likely to hear back from employers.

Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Chicago recently found that after sending 83,000 fictitious job applications to more than 100 Fortune 500 companies — half with traditionally white-sounding names and the other half with distinctively Black-sounding names — applicants with "Black names" were contacted 10% fewer times.

"The penalty is real," Evan Rose, a researcher at the University of Chicago and one of the study's co-authors, told Insider.

The study also found that customer-facing industries, like retail, were systematically less likely to contact applicants with distinguishable names. How the company organizes hiring internally can have an impact as well: Companies where the decision-maker is a local branch manager tend to discriminate more, whereas those with a centralized hiring representative are less likely to do so.

"What our paper established is that this problem hasn't gone away. But some firms seem to have figured out a way not to discriminate like this. The fact that some differ gives us hope that there is a way to address these discrepancies," Rose said.
Other creators shared similar stories of discrimination

Greene said people have been sharing their own experiences of discrimination with her since she posted her video, which she believes is indicative of a larger problem in hiring.

"It's many jobs that seem to be discriminatory," she said. "People have generally been supportive simply because they have been through the same thing."

In March this year, other creators shared similar stories of discrimination when applying for jobs. TikToker Journee, said she was denied an interview for a job so she reapplied saying she was caucasian. She said she got a call the next day. Fellow TikToker Gina Banks said she finally received an offer to interview after five years of rejections from one company, but only when she applied as a white woman.

Greene said after her experience, she has no interest in attending the interview with Target.

"I don't want to work anywhere where I couldn't get hired for the person I am," she said. "I would just like to see people of all races treated equally and have access to the same opportunities."

IN CANADA YOU CANNOT ASK RACE/ETHNICITY,

AGE OR MEDICAL QUESTIONS ON JOB APPLICATIONS

THANKS JOE

DeSantis uses federal COVID-19 relief funds to send nearly 60,000 Florida families a $450-per-child check to 'offset the costs of rising inflation'

Katie Anthony

Thu, July 21, 2022 

• Thousands of Florida families will receive one-time checks for $450 per child starting this week.

• Gov. Ron DeSantis announced he set aside $35.5 million of COVID-19 relief funds to send out the checks.

• The stimulus is aimed at offsetting the costs of inflation, according to state officials.

Thousands of low-income Florida families are expected to receive relief checks to help offset inflation costs.

Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration on Thursday announced he's re-allocating some COVID-19 relief funds and sending $450 per child directly to struggling families in the state.

"This one-time payment assists families who are being affected by rising inflation and preparing to send their children back-to-school," Laura Walthall, spokesperson for the Florida Department of Children and Families, said in a statement to Insider.

The governor has set aside $35.5 million from the state's $1 billion American Rescue Plan Act to send out the checks, according to an announcement from Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis.

Eligible recipients include foster parents, relative and non-relative caregivers, and families recieving funds from the Florida Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program or Guardianship Assistance Program, according to Walthall.

Florida's Department of Children and Families said they expect around 59,000 families to receive the check, and, like other COVID-19 relief funds, there's no application.

Food expiration dates don't have much science behind them – a food safety researcher explains another way to know what's too old to eat


Jill Roberts,

 Associate Professor of Global Health, 

University of South Florida
Thu, July 21, 2022 

THE CONVERSATION

Without obvious signs of contamination like the mold in this jam, consumers use expiration dates to decide whether to keep or throw away food. 

Ralf Geithe via iStock/Getty Images

Florida’s outbreak of listeria has so far led to at least one death, 22 hospitalizations and an ice cream recall since January. Humans get sick with listeria infections, or listeriosis, from eating soil-contaminated food, undercooked meat or dairy products that are raw, or unpasteurized. Listeria can cause convulsions, coma, miscarriage and birth defects. And it’s the third leading cause of food poisoning deaths in the U.S.

Avoiding unseen food hazards is the reason people often check the dates on food packaging. And printed with the month and year is often one of a dizzying array of phrases: “best by,” “use by,” “best if used before,” “best if used by,” “guaranteed fresh until,” “freeze by” and even a “born on” label applied to some beer.

People think of them as expiration dates, or the date at which a food should go in the trash. But the dates have little to do with when food expires, or becomes less safe to eat. I am a microbiologist and public health researcher, and I have used molecular epidemiology to study the spread of bacteria in food. A more science-based product dating system could make it easier for people to differentiate foods they can safely eat from those that could be hazardous.

Costly confusion

The United States Department of Agriculture reports that in 2020 the average American household spent 12% of its income on food. But a lot of food is simply thrown away, despite being perfectly safe to eat. The USDA Economic Research Center reports that nearly 31% of all available food is never consumed. Historically high food prices make the problem of waste seem all the more alarming.

The current food labeling system may be to blame for much of the waste. The FDA reports consumer confusion around product dating labels is likely responsible for around 20% of the food wasted in the home, costing an estimated US$161 billion per year.

It’s logical to believe that date labels are there for safety reasons, since the federal government enforces rules for including nutrition and ingredient information on food labels. Passed in 1938 and continuously modified since, the Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act requires food labels to inform consumers of nutrition and ingredients in packaged foods, including the amount of salt, sugar and fat it contains.

The dates on those food packages, however, are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. Rather, they come from food producers. And they may not be based on food safety science.

For example, a food producer may survey consumers in a focus group to pick a “use by” date that is six months after the product was produced because 60% of the focus group no longer liked the taste. Smaller manufacturers of a similar food might play copycat and put the same date on their product.

More interpretations

One industry group, the Food Marketing Institute and Grocery Manufacturers Association, suggests that its members mark food “best if used by” to indicate how long the food is safe to eat, and “use by” to indicate when food becomes unsafe. But using these more nuanced marks is voluntary. And although the recommendation is motivated by a desire to cut down on food waste, it is not yet clear if this recommended change has had any impact.

A joint study by the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic and the National Resources Defense Council recommends the elimination of dates aimed at consumers, citing potential confusion and waste. Instead, the research suggests manufacturers and distributors use “production” or “pack” dates, along with “sell-by” dates, aimed at supermarkets and other retailers. The dates would indicate to retailers the amount of time a product will remain at high quality.

The FDA considers some products “potentially hazardous foods” if they have characteristics that allow microbes to flourish, like moisture and an abundance of nutrients that feed microbes. These foods include chicken, milk and sliced tomatoes, all of which have been linked to serious foodborne outbreaks. But there is currently no difference between the date labeling used on these foods and that used on more stable food items.

Expiration dates could be more meaningful if they were based on scientific studies of a food’s rate of nutrient loss or microbial growth.

Thomas Faull/iStock via Getty Images

Scientific formula

Infant formula is the only food product with a “use by” date that is both government regulated and scientifically determined. It is routinely lab tested for contamination. But infant formula also undergoes nutrition tests to determine how long it take the nutrients - particularly protein – to break down. To prevent malnutrition in babies, the “use by” date on baby formula indicates when it’s no longer nutritious.

Nutrients in foods are relatively easy to measure. The FDA already does this regularly. The agency issues warnings to food producers when the nutrient contents listed on their labels don’t match what FDA’s lab finds.

Microbial studies, like the ones we food safety researchers work on, are also a scientific approach to meaningful date labeling on foods. In our lab, a microbial study might involve leaving a perishable food out to spoil and measuring how much bacteria grows in it over time. Scientists also do another kind of microbial study by watching how long it takes microbes like listeria to grow to dangerous levels after intentionally adding the microbes to food to watch what they do, noting such details as growth in the amount of bacteria over time and [when there’s enough to cause illness].
Consumers on their own

Determining the shelf life of food with scientific data on both its nutrition and its safety could drastically decrease waste and save money as food gets more expensive.

But in the absence of a uniform food dating system, consumers could rely on their eyes and noses, deciding to discard the fuzzy bread, green cheese or off-smelling bag of salad. People could also might pay close attention to the dates for more perishable foods, like cold cuts, in which microbes grow easily. They can also find guidance at FoodSafety.gov.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Jill Roberts, University of South Florida.

Read more:

How do food manufacturers pick those dates on their product packaging – and what do they mean?

‘Upcycling’ promises to turn food waste into your next meal

Parkland survivor David Hogg was kicked out of a House gun control meeting

Parkland survivor David Hogg was kicked out of a House gun control meeting after tearing into Rep. Andy Biggs for using the same logic of 'mass shooters in your manifesto'

Lauren Frias
Wed, July 20, 2022 

March for Our Lives founder David Hogg confronted Rep. Andy Biggs over his rhetoric on gun ownership.

The Parkland shooting survivor spoke out at a House Judiciary meeting on gun control Wednesday.

Biggs said Americans need guns to defend themselves against an "invasion of the southern border."

Parkland survivor David Hogg was thrown out of a House gun control meeting on Wednesday after he accused GOP Rep. Andy Biggs of parroting the same rhetoric employed by gunmen in mass shootings.

The House Judiciary Committee gathered on Wednesday to discuss gun control policies, including the 2021 Assault Weapons Ban and the Equal Access for Victims of Gun Violence Act.

During the meeting, Biggs, a Republican from Arizona, claimed Americans, specifically residents of his state, need assault weapons to protect themselves against an "invasion" of undocumented migrants, whom the conservative lawmaker said posed "a danger or threat."

"The reality is it is an invasion of our southern border," Biggs said.

Biggs' remarks prompted Hogg to rise from his seat in the gallery and yell: "You're reiterating the points of mass shooters in your manifesto!"

"The shooter at my high school: antisemitic, anti-Black, and racist. The shooter in El Paso described it as an invasion," the gun control activist shouted at Biggs during the meeting, referring to a 2019 shooting at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas.

"Guess what? Those guns are coming from the United States of America. They aren't coming from Mexico," he added as security escorted him from the committee room. "You are reiterating the points of a mass shooter, sir. You are perpetuating violence."

A spokesperson for Biggs did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

David Hogg Confronts Politicians 

During House Judiciary Committee 

Meeting

Wed, July 20, 2022

David Hogg, a gun control activist and survivor of the 2018 Parkland school shooting, confronted politicians during a House Judiciary Committee meeting on Wednesday, July 20.

The committee was holding a meeting on legislation that would ban the sale, import, manufacture or transfer of some semi-automatic weapons.

This footage, filmed by Po Murray, shows Hogg standing up and yelling at the representatives, saying, “you are reiterating the points of mass shooters in their manifestos. The shooter at my high school, anti-semitic, anti-black and racist. The shooter in El Paso described it as an invasion…”. Hogg is then seen being escorted out of the room by a security officer.

In a video posted to Twitter after the meeting, Hogg said “before that video was recorded, there was a Republican who was repeatedly saying there was a ‘Mexican invasion’, a ‘hispanic invasion’… reality is, these mass shooters are reiterating talking points that sure as hell sound a lot like what these Republicans are saying.”

“if you’re saying something that mass shooters are also agreeing with, maybe you shouldn’t be saying that same thing at the same time.” He continued: “The shooter at my high school was not on opioids, the shooter at my high school was not mentally ill, the shooter at my high school was not an undocumented or illegal immigrant… Stop saying these talking points that these mass shooters are using”. Credit: Po Murray via Storyful

Video Transcript

- --reiterating the points of mass shooters in your manifesto. The shooter at my high school, anti-Semitic, anti-Black, and racist. The shooter in El Paso described it as an invasion. Guess what, those guns are coming from the United States of America! They aren't coming from Mexico! They are not coming from Mexico!

You are reiterating the point of a mass shooter, sir. Sir, you are perpetuating the violence. You need to realize this not a Democrat or Republican. Stop these things now.

- Go, David!

[INAUDIBLE]

- --reiterating the points of mass shooters in your manifesto. The shooter at my high school, anti-Semitic, anti-Black, and racist. The shooter in El Paso described it as an invasion. Guess what, those guns are coming from the United States of America! They aren't coming from Mexico! They are not coming from Mexico!

You are reiterating the points of a mass shooter, sir. Sir, you are perpetuating the violence. You need to realize this is not about a Democrat or a Republican. Stop these things now.

- Go, David!

- [INAUDIBLE]

Norfolk Southern to increase conductor trainee pay to $25 an hour and add biweekly $300 incentive

Published: July 21, 2022 

By Ciara Linnane


Norfolk Southern Corp. NSC, +1.78% said Thursday it is increasing pay for its conductor trainees to $25 an hour with a minimum fo $200 in earnings per shift. The railroad operator said it's also offering an on-the-job training incentive of $300 per bi-weekly pay period, for trainees who make themselves available for work. Applicants interested in the program can apply online at Jobs.NSCorp.com, the Atlanta, Ga.-based Norfolk said in a statement. Conductor trainees in priority locations can earn up to $5,000 in starting bonuses. Those locations include: Bellevue, Ohio, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Binghamton, New York, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Cincinnati, Ohio, Louisville, Kentucky , Conway, Pennsylvania, Peru, Indiana, Decatur, Illinois, Princeton, Indiana , Elkhart, Indiana and Roanoke, Virginia. At non-priority locations, starters can get a bonus of up $2,500. In their first year, conductors can earn an average of $67,000 and are entitled to join a pension and have a a 401 (k) savings option, health care coverage and other benefits. Training takes about 16 weeks and includes classroom and field training. Shares were not active premarket but are down 20% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 SPX, +0.99% has fallen 17%.

Clench your teeth and take a look at the private jet flight patterns of the rich and famous

Reid McCarter
Thu, July 21, 2022 

Warming up for a quick run to the grocery store.

The celebrities are not doing a good job of persuading all of us unwashed masses that they’re handling their wealth responsibly. Last week, in the middle of a summer that’s seen the weather across vast swathes of the planet resemble the air just above a low-boiling pot of soup, Kylie Jenner posted a photo showing her and Travis Scott posing between their matching private jets. In reaction to the post, people started sharing records of Jenner’s private flights, digging up tweets showing her jet taking off and landing to run errands that required as little as three minutes in the air.

These tweets come from Jack Sweeney, the creator of the automated Celebrity Jets Twitter account, which, as its name implies, gives us a way to watch our demigod rulers’ behavior in despair via posts that track the private flights of various celebrities along with their financial and environmental cost.

Aside from spotting the especially egregious three minute Jenner flight, Celebrity Jets includes a wealth of information about other frequent, short private flights by jets owned by everyone from Taylor Swift, Mark Wahlberg, Oprah Winfrey, Floyd Mayweather, and Steven Spielberg to Kenny Chesney, Drake, Kim Kardashian, and Blake Shelton.

A typical example of one of these posts sees Spielberg’s jet flying for approximately 24 minutes last Tuesday, using 1,437 pounds of jet fuel and producing 2 tons of CO2 emissions in the process. On Monday, in another example, one of Drake’s private flights lasted about 52 minutes, burned 10,190 pounds of jet fuel, and created 16 tons of CO2 emissions. Most of the celebrities whose names appear on the tracker take these kind of flights regularly.

As Mel Magazine points out in an article about Celebrity Jets, private jets “are disproportionately wasteful” and “pollute up to 14 times more than commercial planes per passenger, and up to 50 times more than rail travel.” The same article notes that private jet usage is only increasing, with 2021 marking a huge increase in new buyers and flights.

This leave us with only one conclusion: The celebrities, like the Roy family from Succession, must be pressured to give up their “PJs” for the good of the rest of the world.

[via Mel Magazine]

A 17-minute flight? The super-rich who have ‘absolute disregard for the planet’


Oliver Milman, graphics by Andrew Witherspoon
Thu, July 21, 2022 

Photograph: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Kylie Jenner has faced a torrent of criticism for her decision to take her private jet on a flight that lasted just 17 minutes. But the practice of taking brief journeys on luxury aircraft appears to be common among the rich and famous despite mounting concerns over the climate crisis.

Jenner, the 24-year-old socialite and businesswoman, has faced online opprobrium after she posted an Instagram picture of herself and her partner, rapper Travis Scott, on the runway of an airport between two private jets with the caption “you wanna take mine or yours?”

According to an automated Twitter account that tracks celebrity flights based on transponders and tail fin marking, Jenner’s flight on 12 July lasted just 17 minutes, taking her from Van Nuys in Los Angeles to the nearby town of Camarillo. The model had earlier taken a 27-minute trip in her jet, a $72m Bombardier BD 700, to Van Nuys from Thermal, California.
Interactive

She was subsequently attacked by Twitter users for her “absolute disregard for the planet” and for being a “full time climate criminal”.

It’s estimated that her 17-minute jaunt would’ve resulted in a ton of carbon dioxide emissions, which, while in itself not a huge amount, is about a quarter of the total annual carbon footprint of the average person globally. The trip would have taken Jenner about 40 minutes in a car, causing just a fraction of the emissions.

But Jenner – who took an even shorter flight, lasting just nine minutes, between the same two locations in June – is far from the only celebrity to make short hops using private aircraft rather than driving or using public transport.

A review of the Celebrity Jets tracking account shows that just in the past month, the rapper Drake took an 18-minute flight from Hamilton, Ontario to Toronto; Kenny Chesney, the country music singer, was in the air for just 20 minutes between Akron, Ohio and Pittsburgh and the actor Mark Wahlberg took a 23-minute flight from Dublin to County Clare in Ireland, among other short trips.

Many of these brief flights are to “park” an aircraft at a convenient or less expensive location, or are part of a longer, two-part journey, but many appear to have an unclear rationale, such as the decision of Floyd Mayweather, the boxer, to fly 14 minutes from Las Vegas to nearby Henderson, then to fly 10 minutes back on Sunday.Interactive

“I’m not surprised people are upset, they are right to be mad at this,” said Jack Sweeney, creator of the Celebrity Jets account, which uses data from a company that tracks aircraft transponders.

Sweeney, a student at the University of Central Florida, has a similar account that just tracks the private jet of Elon Musk, the multi-billionaire head of Tesla. In May, Musk took a 28-minute flight in his jet between Houston and Austin, Texas, but Sweeney believes he should be judged differently for this.

“With Elon he’s just trying to be as quick as possible and efficient for work, but someone like Kim Kardashian (who has taken long and short private jet flights) is posting ‘Kim Air’ and flexing and all that,” he said.

Private jets are responsible for around 4% of all aviation emissions, according to a 2016 study, with the airline industry keen to point out that flying in general comprises just a small fraction of the overall sources of planet-heating gases.

However, private aircraft still emit more than 33m tonnes of greenhouse gases, more than the country of Denmark, and because they carry so few people they are five to 14 times more polluting than commercial planes, per passenger, and 50 times more polluting than trains, researchers have found.

“These startlingly short flights show the immense impact of the wealthy in overall aviation emissions,” said Scott Hochberg, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute.

“The problem starts at the top with Kylie Jenner and other celebrities with private jets, which have a much larger impact than commercial aircraft on a per passenger basis. But it also includes many others, as the US constitutes the bulk of the wealthy elite that have the luxury of flying.”

Emissions from private jets flown in the US have surged since the 1990s and will balloon further as larger and more polluting aircraft come onto the market. Short trips using private jets are not solely an American phenomenon; in 2019, one tenth of all flights departing France were private jets, with half traveling less than 500km. The frequent use of aviation is the domain of the world’s wealthy, with just 1% of the global population responsible for half of the emissions associated with flying.

“There are plenty of alternatives to private jets and wanting to avoid traveling with the hoi polloi isn’t a good enough reason for excessive pollution,” said Nikita Pavlenko, fuels team lead at the International Council on Clean Transportation.

“These short flights have emissions that are small in relative terms but per person they are staggering. Aviation emissions are growing exponentially year over year and private jet pollution is growing more than general aviation.”

Major US airlines have announced climate plans that include commitments to ramp up the use of low-emission sustainable aviation fuels (or SAFs), such as cooking oil or hydrogen, with Joe Biden’s administration last year unveiling a goal of a 20% cut in aviation emissions by 2030. This target, however, is voluntary and there has been no significant shift by the industry towards lessening its climate impact.

“Aviation decarbonization is largely all talk and little substance in the US,” said Pavlenko. “As for celebrities, they need to set a positive example and ditch the planes. At the very least, they should exhibit some leadership and use sustainable fuels or a zero emissions plane when that becomes available.”