Calls mount for Filipino ex-senator freedom after jail riot

ASSOCIATED PRESS
JIM GOMEZ and JOEAL CALUPITAN
Mon, October 10, 2022 

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Human rights activists pressed their call Monday for the immediate release of a former Philippine opposition senator after she was taken hostage in a rampage by three Muslim militants in a failed attempt to escape from a maximum-security jail.

Police killed three Islamic State group-linked militants behind Sunday’s violence in which a police officer was stabbed and former Sen. Leila de Lima was briefly taken hostage. The militants tried to escape from the jail for high-profile inmates at the national police headquarters in metropolitan Manila, police said.

National police chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr. acknowledged there were security lapses in the detention center and said its commander has been removed as part of an investigation.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch separately expressed deep alarm over the violence and the hostage-taking of de Lima. The groups call for her immediate release.


“That she has had to endure this traumatizing and frightening experience on top of being arbitrarily detained for over five years now is the height of outrage, negligence and injustice,” Amnesty International Philippine director Butch Olano said.

About two dozen supporters held a protest for de Lima, who was brought to a metropolitan Manila trial court Monday for a hearing, which was postponed.

“We condemned what happened yesterday,” said protester Charito del Carmen. “It’s painful for us because if she got killed what would happen to the fight for justice that we’ve been waging for her?”

One of the three inmates stabbed a police officer who was delivering breakfast after dawn in an open area, where inmates can exercise outdoors. A guard in a sentry tower fired warning shots then shot and killed two of the prisoners when they refused to yield, police said.

The third inmate ran to de Lima’s cell and briefly held her hostage, Azurin said.

De Lima, 63, told investigators the hostage-taker tied her hands and feet, blindfolded her and pressed a pointed weapon to her chest and demanded access to journalists and a military aircraft to take him to southern Sulu province, where the Muslim militant group Abu Sayyaf has long had a presence.

The man continually threatened to kill her until he was gunned down by a police negotiator, she told investigators.

Following the jail violence, Filibon Tacardon said he and other de Lima lawyers were hoping the court would now grant her appeal for bail. There have also been appeals to place de Lima under house arrest.

De Lima has been detained since 2017 on drug charges she says were fabricated by former President Rodrigo Duterte and his officials in an attempt to muzzle her criticism of his deadly crackdown on illegal drugs. It left thousands of mostly petty suspects dead and sparked an International Criminal Court investigation as a possible crime against humanity.

She has been cleared in one of three cases, and at least two witnesses have retracted their allegations against her.

Duterte, who has insisted on de Lima’s guilt, stepped down from office on June 30 at the end of his turbulent six-year term.

Newly elected President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. talked to de Lima, who was confined in a hospital, by telephone and asked if she wanted to be transferred to another detention site but she rejected the offer, Azurin said.

Even before the jail violence, the European Union Parliament, some American legislators and United Nations human rights watchdogs have demanded that de Lima be freed immediately.

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Associated Press journalist Aaron Favila contributed to this report.

Philippine then opposition Senator Leila de Lima arrives at a regional trial court for a brief personal appearance Friday, Feb. 24, 2017, in Paranaque city southeast of Manila, Philippines. Philippine police killed three inmates, including a top Abu Sayyaf militant, after they stabbed a jail officer and briefly held a detained former opposition Senator Leila de Lima Sunday in a failed attempt to escape from the police headquarters in the capital region, police said. 

Supreme Court to hear case that could raise price of pork

By JESSICA GRESKO

today

The Supreme Court is seen at sunset in Washington, on Jan. 24, 2019. The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Oct. 11, 2022, over a California animal cruelty law that could raise the cost of bacon and other pork products nationwide. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)


WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will hear arguments over a California animal cruelty law that could raise the cost of bacon and other pork products nationwide.

The case’s outcome is important to the nation’s $26-billion-a-year pork industry, but the outcome could also limit states’ ability to pass laws with impact outside their borders, from laws aimed at combating climate change to others intended to regulate prescription drug prices.

The case before the court on Tuesday involves California’s Proposition 12, which voters passed in 2018. It said that pork sold in the state needs to come from pigs whose mothers were raised with at least 24 square feet of space, including the ability to lie down and turn around. That rules out the confined “gestation crates,” metal enclosures that are common in the pork industry.

Two industry groups, the Iowa-based National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation, sued over the proposition. They say that while Californians consume 13% of the pork eaten in the United States, nearly 100% of it comes from hogs raised outside the state, primarily where the industry is concentrated in the Midwest and North Carolina. The vast majority of sows, meanwhile, aren’t raised under conditions that would meet Proposition 12′s standards.

The question for the high court is whether California has impermissibly burdened the pork market and improperly regulated an industry outside its borders.

Pork producers argue that 72% of farmers use individual pens for sows that don’t allow them to turn around and that even farmers who house sows in larger group pens don’t provide the space California would require.

They also say that the way the pork market works, with cuts of meat from various producers being combined before sale, it’s likely all pork would have to meet California standards, regardless of where it’s sold. Complying with Proposition 12 could cost the industry $290 million to $350 million, they say.

So far, lower courts have sided with California and animal-welfare groups that had supported the proposition. But for a number of reasons the law has yet to go into effect.

The Biden administration, for its part, is urging the justices to side with pork producers. The administration says Proposition 12 would be a “wholesale change in how pork is raised and marketed in this country.” And it says the proposition has “thrown a giant wrench into the workings of the interstate market in pork.”

California’s Proposition 12 also covers other animals. It says egg-laying hens and calves being raised for veal need to be raised in conditions in which they have enough room to lie down, stand up and turn around freely. Those parts of the law aren’t at issue in the case.

The case is National Pork Producers Council v. Ross, 21-468.

PHOTO ESSAY

Florida shrimpers race to get battered fleet back to sea

By JAY REEVES

1 of 21

Damaged shrimp boats and debris litter the waterfront and the pier at Erickson & Jensen Seafood following the passage of Hurricane Ian, on San Carlos Island in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., Friday, Oct. 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)


FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The seafood industry in southwest Florida is racing against time and the elements to save what’s left of a major shrimping fleet — and a lifestyle — that was battered by Hurricane Ian.

The storm’s ferocious wind and powerful surge hurled a couple dozen shrimp boats atop wharves and homes along the harbor on Estero Island. Jesse Clapham, who oversees a dozen trawlers for a large seafood company at Fort Myers Beach, is trying to get boats back to sea as quickly as possible — before their engines, winches and pulleys seize up from being out of the water.

One of two shrimpers that didn’t sink or get tossed onto land went out Sunday, but the victory was small compared with the task ahead.

“There’s 300 people who work for us and all of them are out of a job right now. I’m sure they’d rather just mow all this stuff down and build a giant condo here, but we’re not going to give up,” said Clapham, who manages the fishing fleet at Erickson and Jensen Seafood, which he said handles $10 million in shrimp annually.

The company’s fractured wharves, flooded office and processing house are located on Main Street beside another large seafood company, Trico Shrimp Co. There, a crane lifted the outrigger of grounded shrimper Aces & Eights — the first step toward getting it back in the water. Across the yard, the massive Kayden Nicole and Renee Lynn sat side-by-side in the parking lot, stern to bow.

Shrimping is the largest piece of Florida’s seafood industry, with a value of almost $52 million in 2016, state statistics show. Gulf of Mexico shrimp from Fort Myers has been shipped all over the United States for generations.

Now, it’s a matter of when the fishing can resume and whether there will still be experienced crews to operate the boats when that happens.

Deckhand Michele Bryant didn’t just lose a job when the boat where she works was grounded, she lost her home. Shrimping crews are at sea for as long as two months at a time, she said, so members often don’t have homes on land.

“I’ve got nowhere to stay,” she said. “I’m living in a tent.”

Richard Brown’s situation is just as precarious. A citizen of Guyana who was working on a boat out of Miami when Ian hit southwest Florida, Brown rode out the storm on one of four boats that were lashed together along a harbor seawall.

Shrimpers race to get battered fleet back to sea

A sun-worn dockside community is racing against time and the elements to save what's left of both a major shrimping fleet and a lifestyle on the hurricane-battered coast of southwest Florida. (Oct. 11)

 (AP Video: Jay Reeves, Rebecca Blackwell)

“We tried to fight the storm. The lines were bursting. We kept replacing them but when the wind turned everybody was on land,” he said.

There’s no way to catch shrimp on a boat surrounded by dirt, so Brown is staying busy scraping barnacles off the hull of the Gulf Star. “It’s like it’s on dry dock,” he said — but he’s no more sure what to do now than at the height of the storm.

“It was terrifying – the worst experience,” said Brown, who is more than 2,160 miles (3,480 kilometers) from his home in South America. “I was just thinking, ‘You could abandon the ship.’ But where are you going?”

Seafood fleets along the Gulf Coast are used to getting wiped out by hurricanes. Katrina pummeled the industry from Louisiana to Alabama in 2005, and the seafood business in southern Louisiana is still recovering from Hurricane Ida’s punch last year. But this part of Florida hasn’t seen a storm like Ian in a century, leaving people to wonder what happens next.



Dale Kalliainen and his brother followed their father into the shrimping business and owns the trawler Night Wind, which landed amid a mobile home park near a bridge. He said high fuel prices and low-cost imported seafood took a bite out of the industry long before Ian did its worst.

“There used to be 300 boats in this harbor and now there’s maybe 50,” he said. “It’s going to be probably years before this business is even close to being back to what it was.”

Clapham, the 47-year-old fleet manager, has spent his entire life on shrimp boats. The industry already operates on a thin margin and needs help recovering from Ian, he said.

“These boats go out and catch $60,000, $70,000 worth of shrimp a month, but it costs $30,000 to $50,000 to put fuel on them and groceries and supplies, and then you’ve got to pay the crew. And sometimes these boats’ (catches) don’t even pay for everything,” he said. “We take money from one boat and get another boat going and send ’em back fishing just to keep going.”

Supreme Court: Gay marriage case video can be made public


The U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, Monday, June 27, 2022. The satirical site The Onion has some serious things to say in defense of parody. The online humor publication has filed a Supreme Court brief in support of a man who was arrested and prosecuted for making fun of the Parma, Ohio, police force on social media. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)


WASHINGTON (AP) — Video of a landmark 2010 trial that cleared the way for gay marriage in California can be made public, the culmination of a years-long legal fight. The Supreme Court announced Tuesday that it would not intervene in the dispute over the recordings, leaving in place lower court rulings permitting the video’s release.

The trial more than a decade ago led to the resumption in 2013 of gay marriage in the nation’s most populous state. That was two years before the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage is a nationwide right.

As is typical the justices said nothing about the case in declining to hear it, and it was among many the court declined.

The case the justices rejected began in 2008 when a California Supreme Court ruling legalized same-sex marriage. Voters, however, responded by passing Proposition 8 forbidding it. Two gay couples then sued and proponents of Proposition 8 defended it when the state said it wouldn’t.

Because of the interest in the case, the judge overseeing it, Vaughn Walker, initially ordered that it be livestreamed to other courthouses. Proponents of the measure objected, and the Supreme Court stopped the proposed broadcast from happening. Walker did, however, record the trial under rules allowing the practice, but he said it was for his own use and not for the purpose of being broadcast or televised. The video became part of the record of the case but remained under seal.

In the case itself, Walker eventually sided with the gay couples, ruling that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional and barring the state from enforcing it. The case went to the Supreme Court and in a 2013 technical ruling the justices cleared the way for the resumption of same-sex marriage in the state. Two years later the justices ruled 5-4 that same-sex marriage was a nationwide right.

Walker, for his part, has been retired since 2011. After the trial was over, however, the judge used video clips of it during public appearances. A court stopped that practice but there continued to be efforts to unseal the recording. An appeals court determined that the seal on the video would expire in 2020 under local rules.

Some proponents of Proposition 8 argued that the video should remain sealed. But a judge concluded that there was no evidence that anyone involved in the case “fears retaliation or harassment if the recordings are released.” The judge also said no one believed at the time of the trial that Walker’s “commitment to personal use of the recordings meant that the trial recordings would remain under seal forever.” A federal appeals court also ruled against the Proposition 8 proponents, leading them to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The case is Dennis Hollingsworth v. Kristin M. Perry, 21-1304.

Israel, US announce Lebanon sea deal, but questions remain

By ILAN BEN ZION

In this photo released by Lebanon's official government photographer Dalati Nohra, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Makati, right, receives the final draft of the maritime border agreement between Lebanon and Israel from his deputy Elias Bou Saab who leads the Lebanese negotiating team, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022. Israel's prime minister said Tuesday that the country has reached an "historic agreement" with neighboring Lebanon over their shared maritime border after months of U.S.-brokered negotiations. (Dalati Nohra via AP)


JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s prime minister said Tuesday that the country has reached a “historic agreement” with neighboring Lebanon over their shared maritime border that could pave the way for natural gas exploration and reduce tensions between the enemy countries.

The agreement, coming after months of U.S.-mediated talks, would mark a major breakthrough in relations between Israel and Lebanon, which formally have been at war since Israel’s establishment in 1948. But the deal still faces some obstacles, including legal and political challenges in Israel. There was no formal announcement from Lebanon, though officials indicated they would approve the agreement.

In Washington, President Joe Biden announced that Israel and Lebanon agreed to “formally end” their maritime boundary dispute. He said he spoke Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Lebanese President Michael Aoun and both men said they were ready to move forward with the agreement.

The agreement “will provide for the development of energy fields for the benefit of both countries, setting the stage for a more stable and prosperous region,” Biden said.

At stake are rights over exploiting undersea natural gas reserves in areas of the eastern Mediterranean claimed by the two countries. Lebanon hopes gas exploration will help lift its country out of its spiraling economic crisis. Israel also hopes to exploit gas reserves while also easing tensions with its northern neighbor.

Lapid called the deal a “historic achievement that will strengthen Israel’s security, inject billions into Israel’s economy, and ensure the stability of our northern border.”

Lebanon and Israel both claim some 860 square kilometers (330 square miles) of the Mediterranean Sea. Under the agreement, those waters would be divided along a line straddling the strategic “Qana” natural gas field.

Israeli officials involved in the negotiations said Lebanon would be allowed to produce gas from that field, but pay royalties to Israel for any gas extracted from the Israeli side. Lebanon has been working with the French energy giant Total on preparations for exploring the field, though actual production is likely years away.

The agreement would also leave in place an existing “buoy line” that serves as a de facto border between the two countries, the officials said.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were discussing behind the scenes negotiations, said the deal would include American security guarantees, including assurances that none of the gas revenues reach Hezbollah.

Many leading Israeli security figures, both active and retired, have hailed the deal because it could lower tensions with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, which has repeatedly threatened to strike Israeli natural gas assets in the Mediterranean. With Lebanon now having a stake in the region’s natural gas industry, experts believe the sides will think twice before opening up another war.

The two sides fought a monthlong war in 2006, and Israel considers the heavily armed Hezbollah to be its most immediate military threat.

“It might help create and strengthen the mutual deterrence between Israel and Hezbollah,” said Yoel Guzansky, a senior fellow at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies. “This is a very positive thing for Israel.”

The final draft of the agreement will be brought before Israel’s caretaker government for approval this week ahead of the Nov. 1 election, when the country goes to the polls for the fifth time in under four years.

An Israeli official said the Cabinet is expected to approve the agreement in principle on Wednesday, while sending it to parliament for a required two-week review. After the review, the government would give final, official approval, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss government strategy. It remains unclear if parliament needs to approve the agreement, or merely review it.

Approval is not guaranteed. Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the caretaker government has no authority to sign such an important agreement and has vowed to cancel the deal if re-elected. On Tuesday, he accused Lapid of caving in to Hezbollah threats.

“This is not a historic agreement. It’s a historic surrender,” Netanyahu said in a Facebook video.

The Kohelet Policy Forum, an influential conservative think tank, already has filed a challenge with the Supreme Court trying to block the deal.

Eugene Kontorovich, the forum’s director of international law, claimed the agreement requires parliamentary approval. He accused the government of trying to rush through an agreement under pressure from Hezbollah. “This means Hezbollah now overrides Israel’s democracy,” he said.

But Yuval Shany, an expert on international law at the Israel Democracy Institute, another prominent think tank, said it is customary, but not mandatory, to seek Knesset approval for such agreements.

“Peace agreements are usually brought to the Knesset, but this is not a peace agreement. It’s a border and limitation agreement,” he said.

Senior U.S. energy envoy Amos Hochstein, whom Washington appointed a year ago to mediate talks, delivered a modified proposal of the maritime border deal to lead Lebanese negotiator, Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab late Monday night, according to local media and officials.

The office of Aoun, the Lebanese president, said the latest version of the proposal “satisfies Lebanon, meets its demands, and preserves its rights to its natural resources,” and will hold consultations with officials before making an announcement.

A senior official involved in the talks told The Associated Press that Aoun, Prime Minister Najib Mikati, and Speaker Nabih Berri are all satisfied with Hochstein’s latest reiteration of the maritime border deal. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Hezbollah did not immediately comment, but its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has said that the group would endorse the Lebanese government’s position. In the past, however, he has threatened to use its weapons to protect Lebanon’s economic rights.

Nasrallah was expected to make an official statement later Tuesday.

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Associated Press correspondent Eleanor Reich contributed reporting from Jerusalem.

Conservative PACs inject millions into local school races

By COLLIN BINKLEY and JULIE CARR SMYTH

today

 Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis addresses the crowd before publicly signing HB7, "individual freedom," also dubbed the "Stop Woke" bill during a news conference at Mater Academy Charter Middle/High School in Hialeah Gardens, Fla., on Friday, April 22, 2022. As Republicans and Democrats fight for control of Congress this fall, a growing collection of conservative political action groups is targeting its efforts closer to home: at local school boards. DeSantis endorsed a slate of school board candidates, putting his weight behind conservatives who share his opposition to lessons on sexuality and what he deems critical race theory. (Daniel A. Varela/Miami Herald via AP, File)


As Republicans and Democrats fight for control of Congress this fall, a growing collection of conservative political action groups is targeting its efforts closer to home: at local school boards.

Their aim is to gain control of more school systems and push back against what they see as a liberal tide in public education classrooms, libraries, sports fields, even building plans.

Once seen as sleepy affairs with little interest outside their communities, school board elections started to heat up last year as parents aired frustrations with pandemic policies. As those issues fade, right-leaning groups are spending millions on candidates who promise to scale back teachings on race and sexuality, remove offending books from libraries and nix plans for gender-neutral bathrooms or transgender-inclusive sports teams.

Democrats have countered with their own campaigns portraying Republicans as extremists who want to ban books and rewrite history.

At the center of the conservative effort is the 1776 Project PAC, which formed last year to push back against the New York Times’ 1619 Project, which provides free lesson plans that center U.S. history around slavery and its lasting impacts. Last fall and this spring, the 1776 group succeeded in elevating conservative majorities to office in dozens of school districts across the U.S., propelling candidates who have gone on to fire superintendents and enact sweeping “bills of rights” for parents.

In the wake of recent victories in Texas and Pennsylvania — and having spent $2 million between April 2021 and this August, according to campaign finance filings — the group is campaigning for dozens of candidates this fall. It’s supporting candidates in Maryland’s Frederick and Carroll counties, in Bentonville, Arkansas, and 20 candidates across southern Michigan.

Its candidates have won not only in deeply red locales but also in districts near liberal strongholds, including Philadelphia and Minneapolis. And after this November, the group hopes to expand further.

“Places we’re not supposed to typically win, we’ve won in,” said Ryan Girdusky, founder of the group. “I think we can do it again.”

In Florida, recent school board races saw an influx of attention — and money — from conservative groups, including some that had never gotten involved in school races.

The American Principles Project, a Washington think tank, put a combined $25,000 behind four candidates for the Polk County board. The group made its first foray into school boards at the behest of local activists, its leader said, and it’s weighing whether to continue elsewhere. The group’s fundraising average surged from under $50,000 the year before the pandemic to about $2 million now.

“We lean heavily into retaking federal power,” said Terry Schilling, the think tank’s president. “But if you don’t also take over the local school boards, you’re not going to have local allies there to actually reverse the policies that these guys have been implementing.”

In a move never before seen in the state, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis endorsed a slate of school board candidates, putting his weight behind conservatives who share his opposition to lessons on sexuality and what he deems critical race theory. Most of the DeSantis-backed candidates won in their August races, in some cases replacing conservative members who had more moderate views than the firebrand governor.

The movement claims to be an opposing force to left-leaning teachers unions. They see the unions as a well-funded enemy that promotes radical classroom lessons on race and sexuality — a favorite smear is to call the unions “groomers.” The unions, which also support candidates, have called it a fiction meant to stoke distrust in public schools.

In Maryland’s Frederick County, the 1776 group is backing three school board candidates against four endorsed by education unions. The conservatives are running as the “Education Not Indoctrination” slate, with a digital ad saying children are being “held captive” by schools. The ad shows a picture of stacked books bearing the words “equity,” “grooming,” “indoctrination” and “critical race theory.”

Karen Yoho, a board member running for re-election, said outside figures have stoked fears about critical race theory and other lessons that aren’t taught in Frederick County.

The discourse has mostly stayed civil in her area, but Yoho takes exception to the accusation that teachers are “grooming” children.

“I find it disgusting,” said Yoho, a retired teacher whose children went through the district. “It makes my heart hurt. And then I kind of get mad and I get defensive.”

In Texas, Patriot Mobile — a wireless company that promotes conservative causes — has emerged as a political force in school board races. Earlier this year, its political arm spent more than $400,000 out of $800,000 raised to boost candidates in a handful of races in the northern Texas county where the company is based. All of its favored candidates won, putting conservatives in control of four districts.

The group did not respond to requests for comment, but a statement released after the spring victories said Texas was “just the beginning.”

Some GOP strategists have cautioned against the focus on education, saying it could backfire with more moderate voters. Results so far have been mixed — the 1776 Project claims a 70% win rate, but conservative candidates in some areas have fallen flat in recent elections.

Still, the number of groups that have banded together under the umbrella of parental rights seems only to be growing. It includes national organizations such as Moms for Liberty, along with smaller grassroots groups.

“There is a very stiff resistance to the concerted and intentional effort to make radical ideas about race and gender part of the school day. Parents don’t like it,” said Jonathan Butcher, an education fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

The foundation and its political wing have been hosting training sessions encouraging parents to run for school boards, teaching them the basics about budgeting but also about the perceived dangers of what the group deems critical race theory.

For decades, education was seen as its “own little game” that was buffered from national politics, said Jeffrey Henig, a political science and education professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College who has written about outside funding in school board elections. Now, he said, local races are becoming battlegrounds for broader debates.

He said education is unlikely to be a decisive issue in the November election — it’s overshadowed by abortion and the economy — but it can still be wielded to “amplify local discontent” and push more voters to the polls.

Republicans are using the tactic this fall as they look to unseat Democrats at all levels of government.

In Michigan, the American Principles Project is paying for TV ads against the Democratic governor where a narrator reads sexually explicit passages from the graphic novel “Gender Queer.” It claims that “this is the kind of literature that Gretchen Whitmer wants your kids exposed to,” while giant red letters appear saying “stop grooming our kids.”

Similar TV ads are being aired in Arizona to attack Sen. Mark Kelly, and in Maine against Gov. Janet Mills, both Democrats.

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The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

PHOTO ESSAY
Families bid farewell as Thai massacre victims are cremated

By TASSANEE VEJPONGSA

today

1 of 18

A monk lights funeral pyres to cremate those who died in the day care center attack at Wat Rat Samakee temple in Uthai Sawan, northeastern Thailand, Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022. A former police officer burst into a day care center in northeastern Thailand on Thursday, killing dozens of preschoolers and teachers before shooting more people as he fled. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)


UTHAI SAWAN, Thailand (AP) — Hundreds of mourners and victims’ families gathered Tuesday evening to watch flames burn from rows of makeshift furnaces at cremation ceremonies for the young children and others who died in last week’s mass killings at a day care center in Thailand’s rural northeast.

Families bid their final goodbyes at a Buddhist temple a short distance from the Young Children’s Development Center in the town of Uthai Sawan, where a former policeman, who was fired from his job earlier this year for using drugs, barged in last Thursday and shot and stabbed children and their caregivers.

The police sergeant, Panya Kamrap, ended up killing 36 people, 24 of them children, in this small farming community before taking his own life. It was the biggest mass killing by an individual in Thailand’s history.

Joint ceremonies for most of the victims were held at three temples to spare families from having to wait long hours for successive cremations to be completed, Phra Kru Adisal Kijjanuwat, the abbot of the Rat Samakee temple, said.

A ceremony for 19 of the dead, 18 of them children, was held at his temple. With a large crowd watching, monks slowly walked out of the temple hall, followed by grieving relatives. Each family was led by one monk, with police bearing the coffin behind them.

After the coffins were placed on each of the small, brick furnaces, the victims’ relatives came forward in the darkening skies to put portraits of their loved ones on top. Some family members also placed children’s toys alongside.

A large mesh barrier was set up, separating onlookers from the relatives, monks and royal palace officials tasked with lighting the fires, who began putting paper flowers along the sides of the pyres and dousing them with gasoline. The officials then ushered the family members to take the portraits and toys away, and move several meters (yards) from the coffins where they knelt on mats.

Buddhist chants played from a speaker system set up behind the relatives, as the officials and monks began lighting the pyres one by one. The coffins were soon engulfed by flames, at times stoked by the officials adding more gasoline. The victims’ relatives sat silently by, hands clasped in prayer.

“Each one of them watched the cremation with their minds in a state of conscious awareness,” said the abbot. “The support they received from people all around has blessed them, lessened the sorrow they have.”

On Tuesday morning, many of the young victims’ bodies had been outfitted as doctors, soldiers or astronauts — what they wanted to be when they grew up — before their evening cremation.

“The more we talked (to the families), we realized that these children also had dreams of becoming doctors, soldiers, astronauts, or police officers,” said volunteer rescue worker Attarith Muangmangkang, whose organization arranged for the costumes.

Petchrung Sriphirom, 73, was one of many local residents who traveled to the temple to offer condolences to the families and make a small donation to help with funeral costs, which is a common Thai custom.

“I just want to help our friends and share our thoughts with them,” said Petchrung. “We are not talking about money or anything but rather sharing our thoughts and feelings as a fellow human being,”

The perpetrator’s body was cremated Saturday in a neighboring province after temples in Uthai Sawan refused to host his funeral, Thai media reported.

Mass shootings are rare but not unheard of in Thailand, which has one of the highest civilian gun ownership rates in Asia, with 15.1 weapons per 100 people compared to only 0.3 in Singapore and 0.25 in Japan. That’s still far lower than the U.S. rate of 120.5 per 100 people, according to a 2017 survey by Australia’s GunPolicy.org nonprofit organization.

Thailand’s previous worst mass killing involved a disgruntled soldier who opened fire in and around a mall in the northeastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima in 2020, killing 29 people and holding off security forces for some 16 hours before eventually being killed by them.

Statement: Alberta’s Homelessness Action Plan


October 7, 2022

The Edmonton Social Planning Council is cautiously optimistic about the Government of Alberta’s recent announcements of funding to address homelessness and the ongoing addictions crisis.

These announcements commit $63 million and $124 million towards social programs for homelessness and addictions over the next two years, respectively. Among the homelessness funding, this commitment seeks to expand the number of shelter spaces, shift provincially funded shelters to 24-7 access, pilot a service hub model to connect clients with supports, improve data collection, and equalize funding to community-based organizations. For the addictions response funding, this commitment seeks to support recovery communities, medical detox, therapeutic services, as well as harm reduction and recovery outreach teams.

In order to meaningfully address these persistent social problems, a coordinated approach among all levels of government is essential. The province making a funding commitment is sorely needed in order to make progress. On top of the supports to help persons experiencing homelessness, we will also need robust and consistent funding to increase the supply of adequate and affordable housing, which includes operating funding to run permanent supportive housing. On the addictions side, while $8 million has been earmarked for harm reduction, we would like to see more support allocated for this crucial component of responding to Alberta’s addiction crisis.

Announcements of this nature should serve as a beginning in the journey to uplift some of the most marginalized Albertans and do not represent the end. We expect the provincial government to continue doing its part in meaningfully addressing these issues.

Rail union rejects deal brokered by White House, renewing possibility of strike

A union representing about 12,000 rail workers on Monday voted down a tentative contract that was brokered by the White House last month ahead of a possible rail strike.

This vote will force the two sides back to the negotiating table and creates the possibility of a nationwide strike. The potential work stoppage could paralyze the nation's supply chain and transportation rail service later this fall as the U.S. enters peak holiday season.

Four unions have ratified contracts based on the agreement brokered by the White House, while seven have votes pending on the deal. The eleven unions represent about 115,000 rail workers.

The two largest rail unions -- the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers Trainmen, or BLET, and the SMART Transportation Division, or SMART-TD, which make up roughly half of all rail workers -- are set to finish voting in the middle of next month.MORE: What's behind rise of women in US manufacturing amid industry revival?

The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division of the Teamsters, or BMWED, rejected the tentative contract due to frustration with compensation and working conditions, particularly a lack of paid sick days, BMWED President Tony Cardell said in a statement on Monday.

"Railroaders do not feel valued," Cardell said. "They resent the fact that management holds no regard for their quality of life."

The National Carriers' Conference Committee, or NCCC, the group representing the freight railroad companies, said in a statement that there is no risk of immediate operational impacts due to this vote. But the NCCC expressed "disappointment" in the decision to reject the contract.



U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh discusses organizing unions in the workplace during the Black Caucus Foundation's Annual Legislative Conference, on Sept. 30, 2022 in Washington, D.C.© Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for SEIU

The tentative contract included a 24% compounded wage increase and $5,000 in lump sum payments, as well as "significant increases" to the reimbursements for travel and away-from-home expenses for the roughly 50% of BMWED members employed in traveling roles, the NCCC said.

American railway companies and unions reached a tentative labor agreement last month amid the threat of strikes. That agreement came after 20 consecutive hours of negotiations led by U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh at his office in Washington, D.C., Walsh said last month.MORE: The Fed says unemployment will rise. Here's who economists say would lose their jobs first.

The agreement improved the time-off policies at the rail companies, which made up a key sticking point in the negotiations, BLET and SMART-TD said in a statement last month.

A potential strike could lead to $2 billion a day in lost economic output, according to the Association of American Railroads, which lobbies on behalf of railway companies.

Rail is critical to the entire goods side of the economy, including agriculture, manufacturing, retail and warehousing. Freight railroads are responsible for transporting 40% of the nation's long-haul freight and a work stoppage could endanger those shipments.

"The artery of the U.S. economy is the rail system. It's one of the ways we get everything around. One-third of everything gets around this way. And when you cut it, you have a stroke," Diane Swonk, chief economist at global tax firm KPMG, told ABC News last month.

U.S. Labor Department to issue new rules on independent contractors

By Patrick Hilsman

The U.S. Department of Labor said Tuesday it will file new rules outlining which workers are employees and which are independent contractors, sending shares of Lyft and Uber falling. 

File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 11 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Labor will introduce guidance on which workers are employees and which are independent contractors under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

In a news release, the Department of Labor said it would introduce the proposed rule on Oct. 13, stating that the misclassification of workers "is a serious issue that denies workers' rights and protections under federal labor standards, promotes wage theft, allows certain employers to gain an unfair advantage over law-abiding businesses, and hurts the economy at large."

"While independent contractors have an important role in our economy, we have seen in many cases that employers misclassify their employees as independent contractors, particularly among our nation's most vulnerable workers," Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh said.

The rule change is also aimed at undoing a Trump-era rule that considered five factors to determine if the worker's relationship to the business classified them as a worker or an independent contractor.

Under the Trump-era rule, the worker's level of control over their work and their ability to profit from their position with personal investment were given more weight than other factors. The proposed rule change under Biden's Department of Labor would also consider investments by the employee and employer, the skill displayed by the employee, the permanence of the working relationship and the degree to which the worker performs a function that is integral to the business.

Shares of Uber and Lyft, which both classify their drivers as independent contractors, fell as the new proposal was announced. During a call with reporters, Seema Nanda, the top lawyer at the Department of Labor, insisted the rule is "not intended to target any particular industry or business model."

Lyft in a statement said that there "is no immediate or direct impact on the Lyft business at this time" as the proposal has not exited the 45-day public comment period, also noting that it "does not reclassify Lyft drivers as employees" or force the company to change its business model.