Illinois to vote on banning 'right to work' in constitution, a model for blue states

Zachary Halaschak - 

Voters in Illinois will decide on Election Day whether to enshrine collective bargaining in the state constitution, a strategy that labor organizers might try to replicate in other states.


Illinois to vote on banning 'right to work' in constitution, a model for blue states© Provided by Washington Examiner

Amendment 1, also known as the Workers’ Rights Amendment, would amend the state constitution to block the legislature from promulgating right-to-work laws in the future. Right-to-work laws, which are in place in about half the states, allow workers to decide whether to join a labor union.

Unions in the Prairie State, which already is known for the powerful grip that organized labor has over its workforce, strongly support the measure.

Proponents of the amendment contend that it will help improve working conditions and provide better pay and benefits for workers in Illinois. They also assert that its passage will prevent the rights of workers from being curtailed in the future.

“It’s going to help us put more money in the pockets of Illinoisians,” said Joe Bowen, communications director for Vote Yes on Workers’ Rights, during a recent forum. “When working families do better, they don’t hoard it for themselves. They contribute even more to the communities that they love and call home.”

The state’s Republican Party is vehemently opposed to the measure, though. They fear that handing unions more power will make it more expensive for businesses to operate in the state and could mean that companies will move their operations, and jobs, out of the Land of Lincoln.

The Illinois Policy Institute, a libertarian-leaning think tank that opposes the ballot measure, has also argued the amendment would cause taxes to increase for residents across the state.

The group estimates that, because Amendment 1 would give public unions more power in the collective bargaining process, it would increase the average property tax bill that families pay by more than $2,100 over four years — a number that it contends is a conservative estimate.

“Already, the $75 billion in pension debt held by local governments is the main driver of Illinois’ rising property tax burden. But Amendment 1 would give government unions more extreme powers to make demands on taxpayers than have existed in any state in U.S. history, meaning property taxes could be significantly higher than $6,444 for the average family by 2026,” said Bryce Hill, director of fiscal and economic research for the Illinois Policy Institute.

Opponents have also argued that the ballot measure could be construed as redundant, as collective bargaining is already permitted at the federal level under the National Labor Relations Act.

Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker was asked about the need for the amendment given the NLRA and said it is because corporations hold too much power over individual workers, according to the State Journal-Register.

“Workers ought to be able to get together and go in together to try to get a better wage, a safer workplace, and benefits,” he said. “That’s what we're trying to guarantee.”

While the amendment would be a big deal for the state, it has even broader implications for unions in other states that could use it as a blueprint.

“I gotta tell you, we’re getting a lot of interest on this amendment from other states,” said Illinois AFL-CIO President Tim Drea during a radio appearance on WMAY.

The amendment will not pass with a simple majority. It must get the green light by at least 60% of voters in the upcoming election. Michigan unions tried to pass a similar amendment in 2012, but it was defeated 57% to 42%.

Amendment 1 is the only ballot initiative that Illinois voters will consider during this year’s election. But Pritzker is running for reelection, as is Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL).

Protests rage in Iran's southeast, amid crackdown call

DUBAI (Reuters) -Protests broke out in restive southeastern Iran on Friday, with demonstrators attacking banks, state media reported, as a senior hardline cleric called for tough measures against demonstrators across the country.


FILE PHOTO: A newspaper with a cover picture of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by Iranian morality police, is seen in Tehran© Reuters/WANA NEWS AGENCY

The Islamic Republic has been gripped by five weeks of demonstrations that erupted after the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini last month.

On Friday, police arrested at least 57 people, described as "rioters", after protesters threw rocks and attacked banks in the city of Zahedan, provincial police chief Ahmad Taheri was quoted as saying by the official news agency IRNA.

State television said up to 300 protesters marched in the city after Friday prayers. It showed banks and shops with smashed windows.

Videos posted on social media purported to show thousands of protesters chanting "Death to the dictator", a reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and "Death to Basijis", in reference to the Basij militia which has been widely used to crack down on protests. Reuters could not verify the videos.

Zahedan is the capital of restive southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan province which is the home of Iran's Baluch minority. Amnesty International has said security forces killed at least 66 people in a violent crackdown after Friday prayers in Zahedan on Sept. 30.

Zahedan's top Sunni cleric said on Friday senior Iranian officials had to take responsibility for the Sept. 30 killings.

"For what crime were they killed? Officials, the country's managers, the Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader (Khamenei) who commands all armed forces are all responsible before God," said Molavi Abdolhamid, a leading Sunni cleric, according to a video of his Friday prayers sermon in Zahedan posted on his website.

State media said at the time that "unidentified armed individuals" opened fire on a police station, prompting security forces to return fire.

Sistan-Baluchistan, on the borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan, is a hotbed of Sunni Muslim militant activity against the Shi’ite-dominated government.

In Tehran, hardline cleric Ahmad Khatami said: "The judiciary should deal with the rioters - who betrayed the nation and poured water into the enemy's watermill - in such a way that others don't again fancy to riot."

"They have told deceived kids if they stay in the streets for a week the regime will fall. Dream on!," Khatami said in a Friday prayers sermon, according to state media.

Iran has blamed "thugs" linked to "foreign enemies" for the unrest.

The nationwide protests have turned into one of the boldest challenges to Iran's clerical rulers since the 1979 revolution. Protesters have called for the downfall of the Islamic Republic, although the protests do not seem close to toppling the system.

Videos posted on social media and said to be from northwestern Tabriz showed protesters shouting "Disgraceful!" at riot police who shot tear gas to disperse them on Friday.

Tabriz, Iran's sixth most populous city, is home to many from the Azeri ethnic minority.

Other online videos purported to show protests in the central city of Isfahan and in Tehran's Ekbatan highrise neigbourhood.

The activist news agency HRANA said in a posting that 244 protesters had been killed in the unrest, including 32 minors.

It said 28 members of the security forces were killed and more than 12,570 people had been arrested as of Friday in protests in 114 cities and towns and some 82 universities.

Meanwhile, CNN reported that the White House was in talks with billionaire Elon Musk about setting up SpaceX's satellite internet service Starlink in Iran.

The satellite-based broadband service could help Iranians circumvent government restrictions on accessing the internet and certain social media platforms. Iranian activists say videos of protests have been delayed because of the curbs.

Separately, Germany issued a travel warning for Iran, saying there was a real risk of being arbitrarily arrested and sentenced to long prison terms, above all for dual nationals. Friday’s announcement raised the warning level for Iran travel, after Berlin strongly advised against it last month.

On Wednesday, an Iranian news agency said security forces had arrested 14 foreigners, including American, British and French citizens, for their involvement in the protests.

(Reporting by Michael Georgy and Dubai newsroom; Additional reporting by Riham Alkousaa in Berlin; Editing by Angus MacSwan, Nick Macfie and Daniel Wallis)

Iran protests continue: Starlink terminals reportedly smuggled into Tehran

By TZVI JOFFRE - 

Anti-government protests in Iran continued throughout the country on Thursday night and Friday, with videos showing large crowds chanting and blocking roads in Tehran and initial reports indicating that Starlink satellite internet service terminals have been smuggled into the country.

Video shared on social media showed protests in Mahabad, Tabriz, Tehran and Isfahan, among other locations.

One video reportedly from Tehran showed a large crowd of protesters blocking a road and burning what appeared to be a dumpster, while another video from Iran's capital showed a woman chanting "death to the dictator" from a loudspeaker on the roof of a building, with an unseen crowd repeating the slogan.

Another video from Qom showed a man knocking a headdress off of a religious man walking through the city. A number of videos from throughout Iran also showed women walking in public without wearing hijab, with one video showing women eating at the Palladium Shopping Center in Tehran without headscarves.

Another video from Tehran published on Wednesday showed two women offering hugs to passersby with a sign reading "a hug for a sad nation."

Government continues to intensify violent crackdown on protesters

Videos shared on social media in recent days continued to show a heavy government crackdown on protesters, with security forces firing tear gas and live bullets towards residential buildings in multiple cities. One video showed security forces beating protesters with batons in Rasht in northern Iran.

The exact number of casualties remains unclear, but has been reported as over 240 by Iranian opposition-affiliated human rights organizations.

Related video: Iran without internet as 50 die in anti-Hijab protests; Elon Musk rushes to ‘activate Starlink’

Iran without internet as 50 die in anti-Hijab protests; Elon Musk rushes to ‘activate Starlink’

The Organizing Council for Protests of Oil Contract Workers reported on Thursday that over 250 workers in the petrochemical industry had been arrested amid strikes and protests in the past two weeks.

Moeen Nehzati, an Iranian who recently moved to the US to begin university studies, tweeted this week that the "crackdown in Iran is way worse than you think, even if you've been following the news."


Nehzati stressed that most news agencies are only reporting what they can verify, but a lack of reporters on the ground and Iranians fears of talking to foreign press make verifying much of the information about the protest nearly impossible. The Iranian student added that the casualty numbers are higher than being reported, but many of the relatives of those killed are unwilling to speak publicly or to foreign press.

Voice of America journalist Shahed Alavi tweeted on Thursday that a doctor treating political prisoners at the Evin Prison saw at least 20 dead bodies in a van after a fire tore through the prison on Saturday.

Internet access heavily restricted in Iran

Iranian authorities continued heavy restrictions on internet access on Thursday and Friday, with the widely cited 1500tasvir Twitter account reporting in recent days that the condition of internet access was even worse than it has been in the past month.

The internet restrictions have made it exceedingly difficult for reports and footage from the protests in Iran to be published on social media, meaning that the full extent of the ongoing protests is unclear.


On Thursday video and photos were shared on social media purporting to show Starlink satellite internet service equipment being set up in Iran, although reports conflicted on whether the equipment was set up in Ahvaz or Tehran.

Firouz Naderi, an Iranian-American who formerly served as the director of Solar System Exploration at NASA, tweeted on Wednesday that middle men were trying to sell Starlink terminals on the black market in Iran for $2,000-$3,000, despite about three dozen terminals having been donated for free with paid subscriptions.

Protests set to continue in coming week

Next week, Iranians will mark 40 days since the killing of Mahsa Amini, an important marker in Shi'ite mourning rituals.

Demonstrations will also be held in Berlin on Saturday in support of Iranian protesters.

 

CRIMINAL CAPPITALI$M

JD Vance's firm invested in food company now facing lawsuits


COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A high-tech indoor farming company in Appalachia promoted by JD Vance and financed in part by his venture capital firm is facing five lawsuits alleging it misled regulators and duped investors.


JD Vance

The shareholder suits against Morehead, Kentucky-based AppHarvest were filed between November 2021 and August 2022 by individual investors and a county retirement association. They allege the agricultural startup, where Vance — who is Ohio’s Republican U.S. Senate nominee — also briefly sat on the board, repeatedly overstated its hiring and retention figures, including in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings that investors use to evaluate companies. The suits also argue that investors were misled by press releases, analyst presentations and other public statements, including an interview the company's chief executive gave to The Associated Press touting a hiring spree.

Lawsuits of this kind were not unexpected as the newly public AppHarvest’s stock price plummeted. Since last year, equity incentive and stock purchase plans that Vance and other AppHarvest directors set up for the company’s mostly Appalachian workforce have lost hundreds of millions of dollars in value. Ohio teachers also lost more than $100,000 in retirement savings in AppHarvest’s decline before the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio sold its 16,000 shares in June.

The suits could raise additional questions, though, about one of the central narratives of Vance’s campaign: that the “Hillbilly Elegy” author left behind a lucrative business career in San Francisco's tech world to focus on revitalizing his native Appalachia. Some of those efforts have already come under scrutiny. In a region that has been devastated by opioid addiction, for instance, he has faced criticism for launching an anti-drug charity that enlisted a doctor with ties to a major pharmaceutical company. Vance's campaign said he was unaware of those ties.

AppHarvest said the lawsuits are baseless. Vance, the Republican nominee for a critical U.S. Senate seat in Ohio, is not named in any of the suits. He left AppHarvest in April 2021 ahead of announcing his Senate campaign.

Vance’s campaign said his Cincinnati-based firm, Narya Capital, is itself an investor in AppHarvest and would suffer if the lawsuits' allegations were true. Spokesperson Taylor Van Kirk also emphasized that the actions were all filed after Vance left the board.

Colin Greenspon, a co-founder and managing partner of Narya, which lists Vance as on "a partial leave of absence,” said the firm continues to stand behind AppHarvest.

“We believe that AppHarvest is transforming America’s food supply in ways that will be impactful for generations to come,” he said in a statement.

Vance is running against Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan in one of the country’s most competitive Senate races. He has been touting AppHarvest since at least 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic.

The company grows tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables by sustainable agriculture methods on some of the world’s largest high-tech indoor farms, its website says. It has described its mission in SEC filings as empowering Appalachians, driving positive environmental change in the agriculture industry and improving the lives of its employees and the community.

“The last few months have taught us that our food system is a little more precarious than we realized,” Vance said in an August 2020 article in Greenhouse Grower. “AppHarvest will change that, and it will do so by building a sustainable, durable business in Appalachia, and investing in the people who call it home.”

Related video: Vance Bags $5.8m In A Seed Round, Founder Parth Garg Discusses Venture's Growth Blueprint & More

The lawsuits, which allege misstatements going back to January 2021, contend the training AppHarvest provided to workers was “a joke,” that its workforce “suffered massive attrition, churn and COVID-19-related absences that negatively affected productivity” and that its first harvest last year was “ravaged by operational issues” and 50% was wasted. The litigation variously seeks undetermined monetary damages, governance reform and greater transparency at AppHarvest and, in two cases, jury trials.

AppHarvest attorneys have pushed back.

“This case is a textbook example of a plaintiff trying to spin a company’s reduction of its annual revenue guidance into a violation of the federal securities laws,” they told the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in a filing last month. “Those laws and relevant pleading standards, however, prohibit pleading fraud-by-hindsight. And for good reason: markets are complex, and financial predictions made months or even a year into the future — particularly for a young, public company like AppHarvest — are always uncertain.”

Vance's level of involvement in the company while he was a director is unclear. He was among a roster of celebrities, including media mogul Martha Stewart, who got behind AppHarvest early on, and he spoke positively about the company on Fox Business News on Feb. 1, 2021, plugging its stock the day it went public in a business combination with Novus Capital, a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.

“What we saw as an opportunity here is if you could use technology, bring the point of production a little bit closer to the end consumer, you could actually pay people a decent wage, you could build a company that investors and consumers would be proud of, but you just have better produce,” he said.

Narya was an investor in that merger, reporting ownership of 2.9 million shares of AppHarvest stock at the time — a stake valued beforehand at $24.95 a share, or $73 million, and nine days later, when it had to be listed publicly, at $36 a share, or almost $106 million. AppHarvest stock closed at $1.57 a share on Thursday, with Narya saying it still holds all its shares.

Matt Sheridan, a senior finance lecturer at the Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business, said mergers involving SPACs — also known as shell or blank-check companies — are “a bad deal for investors” whose stock prices as a group have declined around 70%. They are an alternative to a traditional initial public offering, or IPO, for taking a company public, with fewer guardrails and less transparency.

A month after AppHarvest went public, the SEC issued a warning for investors not to invest in a SPAC “just because someone famous sponsors or invests in it or says it is a good investment.” The investment vehicles are now the subject of new regulatory scrutiny.

“Any time you have a collapse like that, that’s going to cause alarms,” Sheridan said. “And if there were misleading statements, fraudulent statements, then that can lead to legitimate lawsuits.”

AppHarvest spokesperson Darla Turner said the lawsuits have no merit and the company is thriving. It is poised to quadruple its farm network by year’s end, she said, as it adds locations specializing in salad greens and berries. Turner said AppHarvest is living-wage certified and provides a robust benefits program to employees.

Vance resigned from the AppHarvest board two months after it went public, on April 9, 2021, to make his Senate run. He had served since August 2020. The company told regulators his departure was “not the result of any disagreement between the Company and Mr. Vance on any matter relating to the Company’s operations, policies, or practices.”

Although Vance’s name is nowhere in the suits, a watchdog group focused on private equity and venture capital firms called his actions surrounding the company into question.

“As a venture capitalist, J.D. Vance promised to invest in Appalachia and touted AppHarvest’s stock, but then bailed before the company’s troubles came to light,” said Jim Baker, executive director of Private Equity Stakeholder Action. “Venture capital firms generally try to grow the value of companies they invest in, but AppHarvest plummeted in value shortly after going public.”

___

Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2022 midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections. And check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play in the midterms.

Julie Carr Smyth, The Associated Press

Ocasio-Cortez fires back at Pence: ‘Absolutely no one wants to hear what your plan is for their uterus’

Mychael Schnell - Yesterday 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) shot back at Mike Pence on Wednesday night after the former vice president said Republican majorities in Congress will protect the right to life, telling Pence on Twitter, “Absolutely no one wants to hear what your plan is for their uterus.”


Ocasio-Cortez fires back at Pence: ‘Absolutely no one wants to hear what your plan is for their uterus’© Provided by The Hill

The spat between Pence and Ocasio-Cortez spurred from President Biden’s announcement on Tuesday that the first bill he will send to Congress if Democrats hold their majorities in both chambers next month is legislation to codify the Roe v. Wade ruling on abortion rights.

Pence, in a tweet on Tuesday night, said Congress will be controlled by “Pro-Life majorities” next year that will block access to the procedure.

“I’ve got news for President Biden. Come January 22nd, we will have Pro-Life majorities in the House and Senate and we’ll be taking the cause of the right to Life to every state house in America!” Pence wrote.

Ocasio-Cortez fired back at Pence on Wednesday night, writing on Twitter, “And I’ve got news for you: Absolutely no one wants to hear what your plan is for their uterus.”

The exchange comes in the final stretch before the midterm elections, which will determine the breakdown of the House and Senate for the next two years.

Democrats have sought to make abortion a prime focus on the campaign trail after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, while Republicans have sought to make the economy and rising inflation central to their bids.

Those on the left expressed outrage at the Supreme Court’s ruling over the summer, while many on the right celebrated the move. Pence, shortly after the bench published its decision, said the bench “righted a historic wrong,” and called for all states to ban abortion.

The former vice president is one of many Republicans seen as potential presidential candidates in 2024. Some see his recent activities as preparing for a future bid, including delivering speeches on his perspective for the future of conservatives and taking trips to states that host early primaries and caucuses, including Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Pence has also encouraged the party to focus on its future rather than the past — a veiled push to move away from former President Trump.

Asked on Wednesday if he would support Trump should he run for president in 2024, Pence responded, “Well, there might be somebody else I prefer more.”

Democrats are favored to retain their majority in the Senate but lose their edge in the House, according to FiveThirtyEight.

On Tuesday, Biden promised that if Democrats can retain control of both chambers next month, the first issue he would tackle is abortion rights.

“In these midterm elections, it’s so critical to elect more Democratic senators to the United States Senate and more Democrats to keep control of the House of Representatives,” Biden said in remarks at the Howard Theatre in Washington, D.C.

“And, folks, if we do that, here is the promise I make to you and the American people: The first bill that I will send to the Congress will be to codify Roe v. Wade. And when Congress passes it, I’ll sign it in January, 50 years after Roe was first decided the law of the land,” he added.

The House passed two bills aimed at protecting access to abortion in July, but they have since stalled in the Senate because of Republican opposition.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head

The West’s Biggest Source of Renewable Energy Depends on Water. Will It Survive the Drought?

Emily Pontecorvo, Grist - GIZMONDO

Low water levels at Lime Saddle Marina at Lake Oroville on July 22, 2021

 in Paradise, California. 

(REMEMBER PARADISE IT BURNT TO THE GROUND DUE TO WILDFIRE)

This story was originally published by Grist as part of its series Parched, an in-depth look at how climate change-fueled drought is reshaping communities, economies, and ecosystems. You can subscribe to Grist’s weekly newsletter here.

Reports of low water levels at a few big hydropower plants in the West over the last few years have made it seem like hydropower is becoming less reliable. Last summer, officials in California were forced to shut down the Edward Hyatt Powerplant when water levels in Lake Oroville, the reservoir that feeds the plant, dropped below the intake pipes that send water into its turbines. In March, water levels dropped to historic lows in Lake Powell, the reservoir that supplies the Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona, bringing warnings of a potential plant shutdown in the near future.

These reports are alarming, because hydropower is a major source of carbon-free energy for the West — during a wet year, it can meet 30 percent of the region’s annual electricity demand in the West.

But a recent study by scientists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory challenges the idea that hydropower’s role as a backbone for the electric grid is fading. The authors looked back at the historical record to see how the western hydropower fleet has been affected by periods of drought over the 20th and 21st centuries. What they found shows that the reality is more complex, and that even during a serious drought, hydropower is more reliable than people might think.

“I think the misconception about hydro is driven by these marquee cases like Glen Canyon and the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River,” said Sean Turner, a hydrologist and water resources engineer and one of the authors of the study. “Those are really big and significant plants, but they’re a very, very small part of the overall Western hydropower fleet, which consists of hundreds of plants across the entire western region, contributing to an interconnected power grid. You need to study the whole system.”

The Edward Hyatt Power Plant intake facility at Lake Oroville (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images) and a photo of Sean Turner (Andrea Starr / Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)

I spoke with Turner about his findings, and about whether hydropower’s past performance is a good predictor of how reliable it will be in the future.

This interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.

Grist: What was the driving question behind your recent study on hydropower and drought?

Sean Turner: The question was, what does drought actually mean for hydropower in the West? How does it affect different regions? We’re talking about 11 states, an enormous area, and diverse climates throughout the West. We’ve got the data to answer that question really rigorously.

Grist: What did you find?

Turner: Even during the most severe droughts of the last 20 years, the Western hydropower fleet still maintained 80 percent of its average annual output — equal to the total output from all other renewables combined in the West. The reason you get this reliability is that despite the West’s notoriously volatile climate, there’s climate diversity. Drought in one region may be associated with wet conditions in another region, and so you’re unlikely to see the entire hydropower fleet affected by drought at the same time.

Grist: Is the past a good predictor of the future in this case, because of climate change?

Turner: It depends. The reservoirs in the Southwest are totally unique. They store such huge volumes of water equal to multiple years of flow in the river. On balance, it looks like the impact of climate change in this area is going to be to slightly reduce the availability of water. And you have a system that’s already on a knife’s edge, where the amount of water allocated for cities, for agriculture, is already pretty much equal to the mean flow of the basin. So over a long period of time, if you don’t change how much water’s being taken out of the system, reservoirs are going to draw down. And you can kind of say that the past is no longer a reliable predictor of the future.

There are other systems, most other systems in the West, where your reservoirs fill up and draw down over much shorter periods of time. And that can be on the order of days in some of the major plants in the Columbia River Basin. In those cases, the past is a much more reliable predictor of the future. Even minor changes to the flow regime in the Columbia River are not going to greatly impact how much power can be generated from those plants.

Grist: Even though the Southwest is a small part of the overall hydropower picture in the West, will states there need to compensate for that lost electricity in other ways, looking ahead?

Turner: At the moment, those dams are still producing power. If drought conditions continue and there are no extreme management actions to alleviate them, then those plants may have to shut down for a period of time until the reservoir levels recover. If that occurs, certainly other resources would need to be brought online. They’re part of an interconnected grid, so electricity can be imported from elsewhere. The impact is less likely to be power cuts and lights out, it’s more likely to be increased electricity costs and potentially increased carbon emissions, because there’s likely to be more reliance on gas and other resources.

Grist: Is this something those states should be more proactively worried about in terms of achieving their clean energy goals?

Turner: It depends on how long the impact is. If drought conditions in the Southwest become a permanent feature, then those reservoir levels aren’t going to recover. And so you’ve got permanent loss of a significant source of carbon-free electricity. If that’s not replaced by some other carbon-free source, then there’s gonna be a long-term impact on the emissions of the electricity sector.

That’s a huge if. A lot of people are confidently making projections about the demise of Western water resources, particularly in the Southwest, due to the recent conditions, due to the threat of climate change. But hydrology is notoriously difficult to predict. It wouldn’t surprise me if in five years’ time, those reservoir levels were raised back up after a significant wet period. You just don’t know. And if that occurs, then you’ve got another lengthy period of time where you can continue to rely on those resources to produce carbon-free electricity.

Grist: The study warns about a repeat of the drought that occurred in 1976 and 1977. What happened then?

Turner: This was a really severe historical drought. Most of the hydropower fleet was built by this period, and unlike more recent droughts, it affected most of the West. The two powerhouses of hydro generation in the West are the Northwest and California. California is really sensitive to two-year droughts. 1976 was a dry year in California. Then you had ’77 which was a really dry year throughout the West. We don’t have data for all plants that were operating during that time, but from the plants that we do have, that appears to be the year with the largest number of shutdowns.

Grist: Is the idea that that’s sort of a worst-case scenario for the future?

Turner: It could be. The climate can produce things that you haven’t seen in 50 years. There’s potential for even worse cases. It may be 100 years before you see something like that again, or maybe it’ll be next year. But even in that case, the overall impact on hydro was still 25 percent or something below average total Western generation. So even in the most extreme drought, when we look back 100 years, there’s nothing that cripples hydro in a serious way. Hydro still supplies a lot of electricity during those periods.

Grist: What are you looking at next?

Turner: Another study, which I think will be done relatively soon, will be on trying to understand more about the impacts of climate change on drought and whether or not that increases the risk of what we call Dead Pool events, so those cases where you get reservoir levels dropping below intakes. The historical record that we’ve got — 100 years — is a short period, and in hydrological terms, you don’t get a full view of variability of what the climate could possibly produce. What happens if you have some megadrought, multi-year, and it starts causing lots of plant shutdowns at the same time? How does that then affect the power grid?

Grist: So does this recent study not actually tell us much about the future for hydro under climate change? What should people take away from it?

Turner: It’s not necessarily the case that the West is gonna be more and more dry. The hydropower powerhouse is the Northwest, and most general climate models predict wetter conditions in the Northwest. Even in the Southwest, there’s still a debate to be had about what’s likely to happen over the next 100 years as a result of climate change, because the system is extremely complex. Warming temperatures are likely to be associated with more precipitation. It’s really the balance between the impact on precipitation and the impact on evapotranspiration. So the climate change impacts remain very uncertain.

We are really focusing on a retrospective analysis of the impact of drought. It does reveal a lot about the present and future because the hydrological system will continue to produce droughts, many of those droughts will be similar in nature to the droughts that have been experienced in the past. And those general conclusions about the importance of climate diversity throughout the West, and the resiliency of the hydropower fleet — those are going to apply for future droughts as well. I can understand why people care so much about Glen Canyon and Hoover because those are such iconic systems. It’s not the whole story. That would be the main thing I want people to grasp.

Wildfire smoke may warm the Earth for longer than we thought

Seattle’s air was choked with smoke for a second day. Wildfires have left the states of Oregon and Washington with what official data shows is the worst air quality in the U.S. /21/10/2022

This article was originally published on The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Disclosure information is available on the original site.

___

Authors: 

Nealan Gerrebos, PhD Student, Chemistry, University of British Columbia

Allan Bertram, Professor, Chemistry, University of British Columbia

Wildfires are a major source of air pollution. They are also predicted to worsen as climate change progresses.

Within the smoke particles produced by these fires is a wide range of organic chemical compounds known as “brown carbon.” Brown carbon absorbs sunlight, and in doing so, contributes to global warming.

Over time, the brown carbon is bleached by chemical reactions with oxidants in the atmosphere (such as ozone) and becomes white. This means that it stops absorbing light and stops warming Earth.

This bleaching process is heavily dependent on atmospheric conditions, which vary across regions. The longer it takes for brown carbon to become white, the greater an impact it can have on the environment.

As atmospheric chemists living in a region frequently polluted by wildfire smoke, we wanted to know more about these effects. We worked together with atmospheric chemists at the University of Toronto and Oklahoma State University, along with atmospheric modellers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to find out just how long this bleaching process takes and the atmospheric impacts.

Aerosols and climate

Aerosols are microscopic liquid and solid particles suspended in the atmosphere. They’re smaller than the width of a human hair, but are still made up of many molecules.

Aerosol particles are everywhere and have a large effect on both health and the climate. When aerosol particles interact with light, a portion of the light is absorbed but the rest reflects and scatters off of the particles.

For most types of aerosol particles, the amount being absorbed is negligible. That means a lot of the light reflects back to space. Through this mechanism, some of the pollution we create actually masks the full impact of greenhouse gases.

Some aerosol particles, however, are coloured, which means they are absorbing some light. Any light from the sun that is absorbed instead of getting reflected back into space is converted into heat and warms the planet.


Related video: Drone flyover of fields shrouded in smokey haze from nearby wildfires


Aerosol particles from smoke contain brown carbon. The various molecules that make up brown carbon are similar to some organic dyes, overall giving it a characteristic brown colour. However, when ozone in the atmosphere reacts with brown carbon, it can transform it into new colourless molecules that do not warm the earth.

Significantly slower reaction

It was previously assumed that reactions between brown carbon and ozone were relatively fast. Within one day of being emitted from a fire, brown carbon would mostly stop absorbing solar radiation. But now, through a combination of laboratory experiments and atmospheric simulations, it is clear that the reaction between brown carbon and ozone can be significantly slower.

Experiments on pine wood smoke showed that brown carbon quickly lost its colour when exposed to ozone in a warm, humid environment. Conversely, when the temperature and humidity were decreased, the brown carbon remained.

This is because temperature and humidity change the viscosity of aerosol particles. Humid conditions lead to a lot of water getting absorbed into the particles, and as a result they become very fluid. But if that water is removed and the aerosols get cold, they become very viscous, like molasses — or even glass in extreme conditions.

For an oxidant like ozone to bleach brown carbon, ozone needs to penetrate and mix within the smoke particles. When smoke particles become viscous, the oxidants take an extremely long time to mix — over a year in some cases.

At altitudes less than 1 km in the atmosphere, conditions are relatively warm and humid so smoke particles are often not very viscous and brown carbon bleaches quickly. But at higher altitudes the air is drier and colder. When smoke particles get up to these heights, they can become highly viscous and the bleaching process can be so slow that it practically does not happen.

Atmospheric modelling

The result is significantly different when we put this new, longer-lasting brown carbon into an atmospheric model that simulates the transport of aerosols around the planet and how they interact with solar radiation. The new results show a warming effect on the climate from brown carbon that is twice that of the previous estimate.

This represents another important piece of the climate puzzle.

The Stockholm Resilience Centre’s Planetary Boundaries framework identifies the processes that regulate the stability and resilience of the Earth system. Aerosols are classified as one of the nine key ways that humans change the environment, but the total risk they pose remains unquantified within the Planetary Boundaries framework.

Research on aerosols can bring us closer to understanding their total effect on the environment, which will make us more prepared and better equipped to deal with the future of our planet.

___

Allan Bertram receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Nealan Gerrebos does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

___

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Disclosure information is available on the original site. Read the original article: https://theconversation.com/wildfire-smoke-may-warm-the-earth-for-longer-than-we-thought-191643

Nealan Gerrebos, PhD Student, Chemistry, University of British Columbia and Allan Bertram, Professor, Chemistry, University of British Columbia, The Conversation

GOOD WHEN DOES THE DOJ GET INVOLVED
EPA civil rights case targets Mississippi over Jackson water

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The federal government is investigating whether Mississippi state agencies discriminated against the state's majority-Black capital city by refusing to fund improvements for its failing water system, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday.



The announcement came days after leaders of two congressional committees said they were starting a joint investigation into a crisis that left most homes and businesses in Jackson without running water for several days in late August and early September.

The EPA gave The Associated Press the first confirmation that it is conducting a civil, not criminal, investigation of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality and the Mississippi State Department of Health. The federal agency could withhold money from the state if it finds wrongdoing — potentially millions of dollars. If the state agencies don’t cooperate with the investigation, the EPA could refer the case to the Department of Justice.

Heavy rainfall in late August exacerbated problems at Jackson's main water treatment facility. Republican Gov. Tate Reeves declared an emergency Aug. 29, and the state health department and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency have been overseeing operations and repairs at the facility since then.

About 80% of Jackson’s 150,000 residents are Black, and about a quarter of the population lives in poverty. By the time Reeves issued the emergency order, Jackson residents had already been told for a month to boil their water to kill possible contaminants. Volunteers and the National Guard had distributed millions of bottles of drinking water. Although the boil-water notice was lifted in mid-September, many residents remain skeptical about water safety.

NAACP President Derrick Johnson, who lives in Jackson with his family, called the EPA investigation a step in the right direction after years of the state withholding federal funds needed to improve the city’s water system.

“We believe we gave compelling evidence that the state of Mississippi intentionally starved the city of Jackson of the resources to maintain its water infrastructure,” Johnson told The AP on Thursday. “We want the EPA and this administration to put forth a course of action to prevent the state of Mississippi from ever doing this again.”

Johnson was named among several residents in the NAACP’s civil rights complaint against Mississippi. He said the state’s inaction and record of divestment in Jackson amounts to “systemic neglect.”

“We believe that all citizens of this country should be entitled to clean, fresh drinking water,” Johnson said. “Unfortunately, we live in a state that is still dealing in racial politics. And as a result of that, you have state leaders who seek to penalize African American residents of the city of Jackson in a very discriminatory way.”

Related video: Lawmakers demand answers for Jackson, Mississippi, water crisis

Duration 2:30   View on Watch

The AP reported in September that years before Reeves became governor, he touted his own track record of fiscal conservatism by citing his opposition to spending state money for Jackson's crumbling water and sewer infrastructure. The EPA is not investigating Reeves.

Reeves said Thursday that the state took control of Jackson’s water system because of “absolute and total incompetence” of the city's Democratic mayor and administration. The governor’s latest remarks are an escalation of a dispute between him and Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba over whether the state or the city will decide on a private firm to operate Jackson’s water system.

“They have proven that they have no ability to manage the water system,” Reeves told reporters during an event at the Governor’s Mansion, according to a video of the event by WLBT-TV.

Melissa Payne, a city spokesperson, said Lumumba would not respond to the governor's statements.

In a federal complaint Sept. 27, the NAACP said Mississippi officials “all but assured” a drinking water calamity by depriving Jackson of badly needed funds to upgrade its infrastructure. The organization asked the EPA to investigate the state’s alleged pattern of steering money to majority-white communities with less need.

The group said the state’s refusal to fund improvements in Jackson culminated in the near-total collapse of the water system in late August. Over 25 years, Jackson received funds from an important federal program only three times, the NAACP said. When Jackson tried to fund improvements itself, those efforts were repeatedly blocked by state political leaders, according to the complaint.

The NAACP wants the EPA to make sure that from now on, federal funds are distributed equitably.

Reeves said Thursday that the state has bought chemicals and hired workers for the water plant since he declared the emergency, after the city failed to do both of those things.

The NAACP filed its complaint under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which forbids recipients of federal funds from discriminating based on race or national origin. While previously the law was rarely used to pursue environmental matters, the Biden administration has increased its enforcement efforts in communities overburdened by pollution.

Recently, the EPA said it had preliminary evidence that Louisiana officials allowed air pollution to remain high and downplayed the threat to Black residents who live in the industrial section of the state commonly referred to as cancer alley. The agency has also opened up an investigation into Colorado’s air permitting program and into state and local officials in Alabama over chronic wastewater problems in majority-Black Lowndes County.

___

Associated Press writer Michael Phillis in St. Louis contributed to this report. Daly reported from Washington and Morrison reported from New York.

Emily Wagster Pettus, Matthew Daly And Aaron Morrison, The Associated Press

Postage stamp honours Canadian Indigenous war hero

Jill Croteau - 2h ago

To Karen Braun-Prince, her collection of aged newspaper clippings is a treasured keepsake. She cherishes the historic headlines showcasing a war hero-- a father she never met.


Stamp honouring Tommy Prince.© Courtesy: Canada Post

"I really wish I had known him, I really do," Braun-Prince said.

She is his youngest daughter and has devoted part of her life to finding the stories of his past and giving a voice to Sgt. Tommy Prince.

"I found it empowering. I wanted to be the daughter my dad would have been proud of," Braun-Prince said.

"I am overwhelmed and I am amazed by how much he accomplished in his life. It’s inspiring."

Read more:
Why all Canadians should know the story of a Great War hero known as ‘Peggy’

Prince is Canada’s most decorated Indigenous war hero.

He was awarded 11 medals, among them a silver star for his bravery for venturing into enemy territory. He served in World War II and the Korean War.

He was part of an elite unit: the First Special Service Force, also known as the Devil’s Brigade.

"He was referred to as the forgotten soldier. His story wasn’t out there," Braun-Prince said.

A street in Calgary's Marda Loop neighbourhood bears his name, along with a monument detailing his story.

Now a stamp with his picture commemorates his life.

"I can honestly tell you, I was overwhelmed, excited, and I was thinking, 'Wow, what an honour,'" Braun-Prince said. "I am just very proud."

Read more:
‘It was within our DNA’: Indigenous veterans honoured for sacrifice at ceremonies in Vancouver

She is grateful beyond words to Canada Post for commemorating his accomplishments in the stamp.

The stamp features Northern Lights in the background, designed to represent the sky above the Brokenhead Ojibway Nation, where he was raised.

The stamps will be issued on Oct. 28.

Prince died in 1977 at the age of 62. He is buried in the Field of Honour.

"There are so many First Nations people that have been involved in military and who dedicated their lives, and their stories need to be told," Braun-Prince said. "I want to try to keep capturing their stories and their legacies."

  

Remembering Tommy Prince | Canada’s Forgotten Indigenous War Hero

Streamed live on Aug 3, 2019
APTN News

Parks Canada is paying tribute to Sgt. Tommy Prince on Treaty 1 territory in Manitoba. Prince is a descendant of one of the chiefs who signed the treaty. A special ceremony will commemorate the signing at Lower Fort Garry outside Winnipeg.

Alberta Health Services awaits advice before rolling out new COVID treatment

Author of the article: Dylan Short
Publishing date: Oct 21, 2022 •

A photo taken on February 8, 2022 shows a box of Evusheld, a drug for antibody therapy developed by pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca for the prevention of COVID-19 in immunocompromised patients at the AstraZeneca facility for biological medicines in Södertälje, south of Stockholm, Sweden.

 PHOTO BY JONATHAN NACKSTRAND /AFP via Getty Images

Alberta Health Services is awaiting further guidance before deciding how to roll out a recently approved Health Canada treatment for COVID-19.

AHS spokesman Kerry Williamson said the provincial health authority is seeking direction from Canada’s Drug and Health Technology Agency before making any decision on the use of AstraZeneca’s Evusheld as a treatment option. He said that guidance is expected to be released before the end of the month,

“The specific details around timing and availability are being considered, and will be shared publicly in the near future,” Williamson said in an email.

Evusheld was approved on Tuesday by Health Canada as a treatment for mild to moderate cases of COVID-19. It had previously received approval to be used as a preventive measure for people unable to build up antibodies against the virus on their own.

Williamson said there is a healthy supply of Evusheld in the province and Alberta Health Services will work with federal counterparts whenever there is a gap to be addressed. He said approximately 1,581 doses of Evusheld have been administered in the province.

Dr. Jia Hu, a public health physician, welcomed the federal approval of Evusheld as a treatment, calling it another “tool in the tool kit” to fight COVID-19. However, he said immunizations through vaccines continue to be the best option to fight serious infections.

Dr. Jia Hu, a public health expert, poses for a photo

 in Prince’s Island Park. Saturday, June 26, 2021. 

PHOTO BY BRENDAN MILLER /Postmedia file

He said it will take time for provinces to find the right way to make the treatment fit into the broader public health response, particularly as fewer people appear to be getting their latest booster shots.

“The more we have, the better, especially as people are less likely to be vaccinated, which remains the best thing for people to do,” said Hu.

Hu said until Evusheld is more widely distributed, the main form of treatment for mild cases is Pfizer’s Paxlovid; however, there are people that are unable to take that drug due to the way it interacts with other medications. He said Evusheld could help fill some of those treatment gaps.

The latest approval comes as the number of people in hospital with COVID-19 in Alberta is on the rise. The latest data from the province, provided earlier this week, shows there are 1,070 hospitalizations, including 33 people in the ICU. The hospitalization number is up from the 1,014 reported a week earlier.

A total of 32 people died during the past reporting week, bringing the total number of fatal cases in Alberta since the start of the pandemic to 4,983.

Meanwhile, wastewater tracking out of the University of Calgary shows that the rolling average levels of COVID-19 have risen slightly since the start of the month as Alberta enters into the fall respiratory illness season.


dshort@postmedia.com

ALBERTA

Fishing rights are broader than waiving of domestic licence requirement

The discussion that needs to take place with Alberta Environment and Parks goes well beyond exempting Indigenous people from having to possess domestic fishing licences to exercise their inherent and treaty rights to fish, says Treaty 8 Grand Chief Arthur Noskey.

“We never used licences. We never needed licences. Our treaty basically was that…hunting, fishing, trapping privileges will remain as if we never entered treaty,” said Noskey.

A news release issued earlier this month announced that the province was exploring “a non-licence alternative to remove this obstacle while still ensuring that fish conservation protections remain in place. As an interim step, Environment and Parks (AEP) has requested enforcement leniency on certain terms and conditions related to domestic fishing licences.”

Currently, First Nations and Métis harvesters in Alberta are required to hold a free-of-charge domestic fishing licence when exercising their right to harvest fish for food.

Recent discussions have taken place mainly with Treaty 8, AEP spokesperson Jason Penner told Windspeaker.com in an email.

“This will be explored in further discussions with Indigenous communities,” Penner said.

Noskey confirmed that talks about domestic fishing licences are happening with the province.

“We were talking to them, but basically when we addressed that issue…they said, ‘We still want you to adhere to the size restrictions (for fish).’ And we said, ‘No,’” said Noskey.

He says he takes exception to treaty rights to fishing, hunting and trapping being addressed as if they are equivalent to recreation.

“When the province tries to regulate that stuff (it’s) for the public, therefore the public’s recreation. This is not recreation for us. It’s a way of life. We don’t adhere to any laws the province does in relation to hunting, fishing, trapping and gathering. It's for their sport. To us it’s a way of life, protected by treaty, protected by the Constitution,” said Noskey.

Way of life also includes bartering, which means exchanging fish for meat, or providing fish and meat for a household other than the harvester’s. These actions are prohibited by provincial regulations.

“It’s always been part of our culture,” said Noskey. “There are some First Nations that are in some good fish-bearing lakes (areas) and some First Nations are in wildlife-abundance land, animals… So we’ve always bartered.”

Sharing of harvested meat is a broader policy topic than the requirement to hold a domestic fishing licence, said Penner.

“To date, there has been no discussion regarding the sharing of harvested meat,” he said.

As far as Noskey is concerned, former Premier Jason Kenney’s “cutting red tape” policy has resulted in First Nations people losing their constitutionally protected rights to fish, hunt and harvest on lands the province wants to develop.

“This process, what the province has been doing, more so under Jason Kenney and his (red tape) rule, is to criminalize treaty rights. That was their intent,” said Noskey.

Changes brought in through various Red Tape Reduction Implementation acts from 2019 to 2022 included removing legislative requirements so certain oil sands schemes would require Cabinet approval only. They made it easier to enter into contracts or agreements for mines and minerals. They implemented a more flexible approach to managing activities on Crown land through locally specific directives and guidelines, and they reduced delays for forest-management agreements and small-scale and low-impact hydroelectric developments. All of these activities impact and diminish Indigenous harvesting rights.

As for the province’s direction under new Premier Danielle Smith, Noskey isn’t any more hopeful. Smith’s push to prioritize Alberta at the cost of all other provinces has him wary. He points out that Treaty 8 comprises territories in Alberta, British Columbia, Northwest Territories and Saskatchewan.

“And all we’re saying to the government, telling the government, is that this treaty was here and agreed to by the Imperial Crown and that’s what we’re going to push for, that they recognize the treaty territory…and start fulfilling the treaty promises for First Nations people that were promised …” said Noskey.

Penner said AEP has requested enforcement leniency on the requirement to hold a domestic fishing licence and this will continue along with ongoing engagement with Indigenous communities.

Federal legislation also needs to be amended to take into account changes in the domestic fishing licence requirement.

“We don’t have a timeline regarding federal legislation amendments (but) our intention is to move as quickly as possible,” said Penner.

Windspeaker.com

By Shari Narine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com, Windspeaker.com