GOP Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar vote against sex abuse survivors, of course


EJ Montini, Arizona Republic
Thu, January 5, 2023 

Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar.

Arizona Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar, along with a small band of GOP guerrillas, have spent recent days humiliating, weakening and exacting several pounds of political flesh from House speaker-wannabe Kevin McCarthy, a pathetic victim of his own ambition.

Last month, however, Biggs and Gosar found time to turn their backs on actual victims.

It didn’t receive the attention it deserved.

Shortly before Christmas, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a measure designed to improve how the Federal Bureau of Investigations handles sex abuse cases involving children.

The proposal had wide bipartisan support, winning approval by a vote of 385 to 28.

All of the opposing votes came from Republicans. And two of those no votes came from … do I need to print their names?

Bipartisan effort to 'prevent re-traumatization'

The bill was formulated after testimony from Olympic gymnasts Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney and others concerning sex abuse by one-time USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar.

The investigation into Nassar (now serving a 200-plus year prison sentence) had numerous problems.

Another view:Biggs, Gosar refuse to help Ukraine. They're wrong

The bill passed by the House requires the FBI to form multi-disciplinary teams to aid sex abuse victims and their families. The idea is to keep cases from being dropped and to prevent re-traumatization of victims during active investigations.

This is done through a team that includes “investigative personnel, mental health professionals, medical personnel, family advocacy workers, child advocacy workers, and prosecutors.”

Biggs, Gosar and 26 other Republicans voted no.

Biggs, Gosar would rather spread conspiracies

Many of those casting votes against protection for sex abuse victims are the same members of the GOP who attack teachers and members of the LGBTQ community with unfounded claims of sexually “grooming” children.

Like when Biggs tweeted: “Many public schools today are grooming American children. Why is there such an effort to sexualize our children when test scores in virtually every academic subject are hitting historic lows?”


And when Gosar tweeted:

“Children do not belong to the government, the public school system, or the groomers that have infiltrated them.”


Politicians like this are more interested in spreading fearmongering conspiracy theories than in seeking solutions that come to light through the testimony of actual victims.
Bill offers training to help victims

The bipartisan bill was sponsored by Democratic U.S. Sens. Chris Coons and Amy Klobuchar and Republicans John Cornyn and Lindsey Graham.

In a statement, Sen. Cornyn said in part, “This legislation requires the FBI to include trauma-informed experts in interviews with victims to ensure they are not retraumatized during the interview process, and I urge President Biden to swiftly sign it into law.”

Sen. Klobuchar added, “As we work to support survivors of child sexual abuse and trafficking, we need to provide law enforcement with the training and skills they need to investigate these crimes and help victims. Our bipartisan legislation will ensure law enforcement officers can partner with child advocacy centers to use the most effective techniques when conducting these critical investigations.”

Geez, who would vote against that?

Do I even need to print their names?

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

Maryland hospital violated Affordable Care Act in denying medical care to trans patient, court rules



Brooke Migdon
Fri, January 6, 2023 

The University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center violated federal law when it refused to provide gender-affirming surgical care to a transgender man because of his gender identity, a federal court ruled Friday.

Jesse Hammons, a transgender man diagnosed with gender dysphoria, was denied a hysterectomy to remove his uterus in 2020 after his scheduled surgeon discovered Hammons was transgender, citing a hospital policy that prohibits medical personnel from providing gender-affirming health care to transgender individuals.

St. Joseph Medical Center, now part of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), was, up until 2012, owned and operated as a Catholic hospital by Catholic Health Initiatives. As a condition of its purchase agreement, UMMS pledged to continue operating St. Joseph “in a manner consistent with Catholic values and principles.”

That includes complying with a “formal reporting mechanism” to ensure the hospital is held accountable for its Catholic identity. The National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) audits the hospital every two years to assess its adherence to a set of religious directives for Catholic health services set by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

While the directives themselves – known as the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Services – state that medical procedures that induce sterility “are permitted when their direct effect is the cure or alleviation of a present and serious pathology,” guidelines for transgender health care set by the NCBC are much more stringent.

“Gender transitioning should never be performed, encouraged, or positively affirmed as a good in Catholic health care,” reads a guidance document issued by the group. It adds that government mandates “do not alter the immorality of gender transitioning interventions” and Catholic hospitals should seek religious exemptions.

“Litigation may be appropriate in response to unjust legal coercion,” the document states.

On Friday, District Court Judge Deborah K. Chasanow ruled that UMMS and St. Joseph Medical Center had violated Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act – which prohibits discrimination in health care on the basis of sex – in denying Hammons a hysterectomy simply because he is transgender.

“The undisputed facts establish that the decision to cancel Mr. Hammons’ hysterectomy pursuant to a policy that prohibits gender-affirming care was discrimination on the basis of his sex,” Chasanow wrote.

“Defendants have not identified evidence that suggests that Mr. Hammons’s surgery was cancelled for any other reason,” she added. “Therefore, Defendants’ position that the denial of Mr. Hammons’s surgery had nothing to do with his sex or gender identity is simply not supported by any evidence.”

UMMS had tried to remove itself as a defendant in Hammons’ case, arguing that only the funding recipient for the “specific discriminatory program” – which in this case is St. Joseph Medical Center – is liable under Section 1557.

Chasanow on Friday denied that claim, arguing that UMMS is “undoubtedly” engaged in the business of providing health care through its network of hospitals.

“A plain reading of the statute supports a conclusion that UMMS could be held liable under Section 1557 for discrimination that occurs in any of its hospitals,” she wrote in the ruling.

Hammons in a statement released by his attorneys at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said Friday’s win was an important step toward ensuring transgender people are no longer denied equal treatment because of who they are.

“All I wanted was for UMMS to treat my health care like anyone else’s, and I’m glad the court recognized how unfair it was to turn me away,” Hammons said. “I’m hopeful UMMS can change this harmful policy and help more transgender people access the care they need.”

In a statement to The Hill, a UMMS spokesperson said the hospital system is “carefully reviewing” Chasanow’s ruling and disagrees with “many of the conclusions that were reached in this decision.”

“This legal claim stems directly from, and is traceable to, a surgeon mistakenly scheduling a procedure that could not be performed at UM SJMC,” the spokesperson said. “Although our offer to perform gender affirming surgery at a different location was declined by Mr. Hammons, the University of Maryland Medical System remains committed to meeting the unique medical needs of transgender individuals and patients who are routinely scheduled by physicians for appointments and procedures at UMMS member organizations.”

Oklahoma ‘Millstone Act’ seeks to ban gender-affirming care under age of 26



Brooke Migdon
Thu, January 5, 2023

An Oklahoma senate bill filed late Wednesday would prevent a person under the age of 26 from accessing gender-affirming health care, the latest sign that conservatives are seeking to block the procedure for not only children, but people well into adulthood.

The bill filed ahead of the legislature’s February start would bar health care providers in Oklahoma from administering or recommending gender-affirming medical care including puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries for patients younger than 26 years old, punishable by an unclassified felony conviction and the possible revocation of their medical license for “unprofessional conduct.”

The measure would also prohibit public funds from being used to either “directly or indirectly” provide gender-affirming health care to an individual younger than 26 and bar the state Medicaid program from covering procedures related to a person’s gender transition.

The legislation being introduced by Oklahoma GOP state Sen. David Bullard, who last year authored a new state law that prohibits transgender youth from using school restrooms or locker rooms consistent with their gender identity. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a lawsuit on behalf of three transgender students against that law.

The bill filed Wednesday is titled the “Millstone Act of 2023” – a reference to a Bible passage that a person would be better off tying a large boulder around their neck to “be drowned in the depths of the sea” than harm a child.

The reference was first made in April when conservative pastor Jackson Lahmeyer, who earlier this year tried unsuccessfully to unseat Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), pledged during an interview with the far-right news network Real America’s Voice to introduce his own “Millstone Act” that would cut off funding to “any school district in America that teaches critical race theory or woke sexuality.”

With Bullard’s proposal, Oklahoma joins nearly a dozen other states seeking to heavily restrict or ban access to gender-affirming health care for transgender youth and adults in 2023.

Another Oklahoma bill filed in December aims to bar physicians from providing “gender transition procedures” to patients younger than 21 years old, punishable by a $100,000 fine and up to a decade in prison.

COVID REMAINS THE CAPITALI$T CRISIS

‘Kraken’ COVID symptoms: What to know about the strain sweeping through the U.S. and now in at least 28 other countries



Eleanor Pringle
Fri, January 6, 2023 

COVID hospitalizations in the U.S. have spiked 16.1% in the past week as a new "escaped" variant of the virus has continued to sweep across the country.

XBB.1.5— dubbed 'Kraken' by Canadian biology professor Dr. Ryan Gregory and his following in the Twitterverse—is the most transmissible COVID variant yet, according to the World Health Organization.

A risk assessment is currently being drawn up for the new mutant strain by WHO's technical advisory group on virus evolution, Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead for COVID-19 response at the authority, said on Wednesday.

XBB.1.5 began alarming scientists at the tail end of last year after the number of Kraken cases in the U.S. rose from 1% of all cases at the start of December to 41% just three weeks later.

This week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projected that it comprised around 75% of infections in regions 1 and 2, which include Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The strain is believed to be in at least 28 other countries—including Europe—with cases of XBB.1.5 now thought to make up 4% of COVID cases in the U.K.

What are the symptoms of 'Kraken' COVID variant XBB.1.5?

Dr. Allison Arwady, the Chicago Department of Public Health commissioner, said in a press conference on Tuesday that Kraken "basically just a combination of two of the earlier subtypes, two variants" from the Omicron strain.

She added that although XBB.1.5 is a new mutation its symptoms have not hugely changed because it is a descendant of the variant that was discovered in mid-2020.

Arwady explained: “We're seeing more people actually just have cold-like symptoms”—such as a runny nose, sore throat, cough and congestion—“but are less likely to have those flu-like, really feeling very sick [symptoms such as] the high fevers."

This is especially the case in people who are fully up to date on vaccines or who have preexisting immunity built up from having a COVID infection in the past.

More widely, the CDC's COVID symptoms to look out for are fever or chills, difficulty breathing, fatigue, body aches and headaches, loss in taste or smell, nausea, and diarrhea.

WHO researchers are currently focusing on the variant’s ability to quickly spread and overtake other strains of Omicron, but Van Kerkhove added that disease severity was also being explored.

There is not yet any evidence to suggest that Kraken prompts a more severe reaction, she said.

XBB.1.5 is causing concern as it binds tightly to the cells it infects, WHO officials added, which means the virus replicates easily in a host.

Does being vaccinated help protect against 'Kraken' COVID?

 Dr. Raj Rajnarayanan, assistant dean of research and associate professor at the New York Institute of Technology campus in Jonesboro, Ark., previously told Fortune that the best form of protection from mutations is to get a booster vaccination.

Speaking following the Omicron spawn BA.2.75, dubbed Centaurus, Rajnarayanan confirmed that escaped mutations such as Centaurus and Kraken are "immune evasive" to some extent—but won't be able to defy all of the human body's resistance.

https://twitter.com/mvankerkhove/status/1570752012660412416

Professor Paul Hunter, of the U.K.-based National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit, added that the extent to which Kraken can bypass immunization is not yet known.

Pavitra Roychoudhury, the director of COVID-19 Next Generation Sequencing at the University of Washington, told Forbes there are no "spectacular" measures members of the public should be taking bar the bivalent vaccine, which Roychoudhury described as the “best defense against severe illness”.
What has the impact been on health services?

The seven-day average to January 3 of COVID hospitalizations has increased 16.1% compared to the prior weekly rolling average, according to data from the CDC.

From Dec. 21 to 27, 2022, 5,613 people were admitted with positive COVID tests, compared to 6,519 from Dec. 28 to Jan. 3.

However this is still a far cry, down 69.7%, from the peak seven-day average in mid-January 2022 when 21,525 were admitted with COVID.

The WHO also reported a 20% increase in global COVID deaths Thursday over the past month; however, Van Kerkhove was quick to confirm that the trend—or variant—behind the deaths is unknown.

She added it could be due to more people meeting indoors around the public holidays as opposed to threats from a new and more dangerous strain.

Meet the biology professor who named the surging ‘Kraken’ COVID variant. He has more to help make sense of Omicron’s ‘alphabet soup’



Erin Prater
Thu, January 5, 2023 

Everyone knows the names of the major COVID variants Alpha, Delta, and Omicron. But last year, viral evolution shifted, muddying the waters as well as the names of the major variants. Instead of spawning new variants, COVID began evolving within Omicron itself—at a breakneck pace, no less. The organization responsible for figuring out what to call the latest variants of concern—the World Health Organization—stopped using Greek letters after Omicron, arguing that all the new variants weren’t different enough to warrant nicknames.

Do you remember the previously ubiquitous COVID strains BA.4, BA.5, or BQ.1.1? Have you heard of the currently surging XBB.1.5, and do you understand what the tangle of letters and numbers mean? You probably don't—and some experts say it's because of the names. You could be forgiven for thinking another strain of Omicron poses no new threat—especially if you’ve already had Omicron or received the new Omicron booster.

New strains of Omicron are becoming increasingly more transmissible and evasive, with the ability to dodge immunity from prior vaccination and infection. And using the term “Omicron” or something like XBB.1.5 to describe them just isn’t cutting it anymore, Dr. Ryan Gregory, a biology professor at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, told Fortune.

“Kraken” is what he calls XBB.1.5, which the WHO just declared the most transmissible Omicron variant yet. For months, Gregory has worked to offer up “street names” for complicated COVID strains, in a bid to better communicate the evolving Omicron threat to the public.

And as pseudonyms go, he’s got a lot more where the kraken came from.

With input from both professional and “citizen” scientists around the globe, Gregory has compiled a list of memorable monikers from Greek mythology and other realms— Chiron, Argus, Basilisk, and Typhon—for the Omicron spawn that medical experts believe pose the greatest threats in the near future. He told Fortune he was inspired by a Twitter user who dubbed the Omicron strain BA.2.75 “Centaurus” this summer, and saw the media and some experts pick that up.

Since Gregory began using "Kraken"—an aggressive sea monster from Scandinavian folklore—shortly after Christmas, it's quickly gained steam, as reported by Bloomberg. The term has been picked up by a host of other international and national news outlets including Insider and Sky [hotlink ignore="true"]News. Centaurus was named in journal articles and used by the likes of Nature and the Guardian. And some variant trackers are now using the proposed names as hashtags on Twitter.

Gregory likened Omicron and its variants to different species within the mammal family of vertebrates.

“If you said, ‘Oh, what’s that thing in my yard?’ and I said, ‘It’s a mammal,’ you’d say, ‘Is it something that will eat me? Will it steal my vegetables? Does it carry disease? Is it somebody’s pet?'” he explained.

"Omicron" remains a useful descriptor, he maintained. But more than a year after the highly transmissible Omicron strain burst onto the global scene, someone needs to name new, concerning variants.

If the WHO won’t, he's decided, he will.

Gone are the days of Greek letters?

When COVID variants began materializing, the WHO devised the strategy of naming them after Greek letters, skipping some that might be confusing—like Nu, which sounds like “new,” which would apply to all variants at some point—or offensive to some, like Xi, the first name of China’s president.

Generally, the approach worked, Gregory said. But Omicron muddled matters.

Dr. Raj Rajnarayanan, assistant dean of research and associate professor at the New York Institute of Technology campus in Jonesboro, Ark., is on Gregory’s informal team to develop nicknames for particularly troublesome Omicron spin-offs.

Even as a seasoned scientist and professor, Rajnarayanan said he’s found it difficult to effectively communicate with nonscientists regarding the tangled mess of variants scientists are monitoring.

“When you keep calling 200 different lineages of different potential the same name, it becomes a problem,” he recently told Fortune.

Experts like Gregory and Rajnarayanan worry that a lack of a new and specific names for Omicron variants could lead members of the public to draw false conclusions—like that the virus isn’t evolving, or that a months-ago infection with Omicron will confer protection against newer strains of Omicron, which isn’t necessarily true.

‘The public can’t keep these numbers straight’

So far, the WHO has declined to give particularly concerning Omicron variants a Greek letter. Fortune reached out to the international health organization to ask why and didn’t receive a response.

Its resistance is based in science, since new Omicron variants can be traced back to older Omicron variants. But it’s not practical, Dr. Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research and founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, told Fortune last fall.

“And it’s not a good defense for not naming them,” he added. “I would implore them to do so. The public can’t keep these numbers straight.”

Topol says he would have called BA.5, dominant globally until recently, Pi or Sigma because it’s “so distinct” from the original Omicron, BA.1, as well as the so-called stealth Omicron, or BA.2.

Two particularly worrying recent variants—BQ.1.1 and XBB—should also be assigned Greek letters because researchers have called them “extreme in terms of immune-evasiveness and resistance to monoclonal antibodies,” he said at the time.

“They could be given new Greek letter names instead of the ones some people invent,” he said of the new strains. “If different people are going to make up names, it’s going to be just as confusing as the numbers or letters.”

Basilisk here, Hydra there

When describing potentially threatening variants, the WHO currently uses so-called Pango lineages—combinations of letters and numbers you’ve likely heard of, like BA.2.75.2 and BA.4.6.

Pango labels have maintained their specificity as the virus mutates unrestrained, Gregory said. But such labels are almost too precise for the general public. And aside from being forgettable, they’re easily confused.

“When I talk to people, I say BA.1, they think I’m saying BL.1—and that’s a different variant,” Rajnarayanan said. “Even the two-letter system causes confusion.”

Gregory equates Pango names to technical species names, like Mus musculus for mouse or Rattus norvegicus for rat. Such technical names aren’t often used by the general public. Some species of animals, however—like Oncorhynchus mykiss, or rainbow trout—get a common name because “we encounter them a lot, they’re important to us, they’re dangerous or useful or delicious or whatever,” he said.

And so it should be with COVID variants, he contends. Particularly rampant, “high-flying” variants like XBB, a blend of BJ.1 and BM.1.1.1, should get a nickname—Gryphon, per his system—for ease of communicating the threat to the general public.

It’s especially important, he says, as a menagerie of Omicron spawn spike in different locations around the world in a fashion unlike any seen in the pandemic so far.

“If we want to make it clear that what’s rising in the U.K. is not the same as what’s rising in the U.S.—the ‘alphabet soup’ is going to be very difficult for that,” he said. He's convinced that if his system was adopted, with, say Basilisk and Cerberus in the U.K., and Hydra and Aeterna in the U.S., "you can immediately recognize which names are the same and which are not.”

If COVID keeps spawning new mutations, there are other lists of names to tap—planets, stars, constellations, galaxies, Gregory said.

What in the world will he think of next?

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Phoenix police detain Wall Street Journal reporter; investigation opened


Miguel Torres, Arizona Republic
Fri, January 6, 2023

Phoenix police opened an administrative investigation into the detainment of a Wall Street Journal reporter on Nov. 23 in north Phoenix, officials said. The investigation will be conducted by the department's Professional Standards Bureau.

Dion Rabouin, a finance reporter for the Journal, stood outside a Chase Bank at around 2:40 p.m. in north Phoenix, conducting brief interviews with people walking inside for a story about banking.

A Phoenix police officer, Caleb Zimmerman, approached Rabouin about a trespassing call he said was placed by bank employees, according to reporting by ABC 15.

In a police report filed by Zimmerman, bank employees claimed they told Rabouin to leave the property after getting complaints from customers who felt uncomfortable.

In a video provided by a concerned citizen Katelyn Parady, Rabouin told Zimmerman that no one at the bank had asked him to leave but he would if he was given a chance.

In the video, Zimmerman handcuffed Rabouin as Rabouin repeated that he would voluntarily leave.

According to the report, Zimmerman wrote that Rabouin didn’t provide identification and told him he was trespassing.

Zimmerman claimed that he had spoken with an employee at the bank and was told that the bank was willing to “aid in prosecution if Dion was unwilling to leave,” and wanted Rabouin removed from the property.

Throughout the video, Rabouin told Zimmerman that he would walk away from the property if he would uncuff him.

But Zimmerman held that he had to trespass him from the property, which involves personally removing him from the property and writing up a trespass notification that identifies Rabouin to the property owner so they can make sure he does not return.

Zimmerman pressed Rabouin into the back seat of his patrol SUV and pulled Rabouin’s ID from his pants, but Rabouin sat with his feet out of the vehicle, preventing Zimmerman from closing the door.

According to an interview with ABC 15, Rabouin was afraid of what would happen if he got into the car and Zimmerman closed the door.

“I didn’t trust what was going to happen," he told ABC15. “While the woman was recording, I thought the odds of him not doing anything to me, whether physically or anything else, are a lot higher. Once he closes that door, he could take off. He could take me somewhere. I could be placed under arrest.”

The video showed Zimmerman and Rabouin at a standstill, facing each other and stating their positions. Zimmerman claimed Rabouin refused to leave when asked to by the property owner and was trespassing, while Rabouin kept repeating he had never been asked to leave but would do it now.

Rabouin explained to Zimmerman in the video that someone at the bank had come outside and asked if he had been soliciting, and he said he wasn’t.

”They said they were going to go inside and talk to someone, and then you showed up and I said I would leave,” he told Zimmerman on the recording.

Eventually, two other officers showed up and were seen on the video watching over Rabouin as Zimmerman used Rabouin’s ID to write a trespassing notice.

Parady tried to stay close to Rabouin, but at one point, an unidentified police officer told Parady to step back, exclaiming, “Eight feet is the law,” citing a defunct Arizona law deemed unconstitutional in September.

Minutes later, Zimmerman uncuffed and let Rabouin go.

Rabouin’s Editor-in-Chief Matt Murray, wrote a letter to Phoenix police Chief Michael Sullivan, stressing his concern about how officers treated Rabouin.

“I am appalled and concerned that officers at your department would attempt to interfere with Mr. Rabouin’s constitutional right to engage in journalism and purport to limit anyone's presence in a public location. Such conduct is offensive to civil liberties, and also a pretty good news story,” Murray wrote.

Phoenix police spokesperson Sgt. Melissa Soliz told The Arizona Republic the department received a copy of the letter and opened an administrative investigation.

Rabouin said he got a call from a Phoenix official weeks later and was told that after reviewing the case the department found the officer did nothing wrong, according to ABC 15.

Black Wall Street Journal reporter detained, cuffed while working on bank story

TheGrio Staff
Fri, January 6, 2023

Dion Rabouin submitted an internal complaint, claiming that a few weeks after the incident, a Phoenix official called to inform him they found no evidence of police misconduct relating to his detainment on Nov. 23, 2022.

Phoenix police are conducting an administrative probe into a Black Wall Street Journal reporter’s detainment while working on a bank story.

ABC15 News reported that the Nov. 23, 2022, incident involving Dion Rabouin prompted Journal editor-in-chief Matt Murray to send a letter to Phoenix Chief Michael Sullivan requesting a review and demanding they take action to protect journalists’ rights.

“I am appalled and concerned that officers at your department would attempt to interfere with Mr. Rabouin’s constitutional right to engage in journalism and purport to limit anyone’s presence in a public location,” Murray wrote, according to ABC15.

Dion Rabouin interviews Michelle Girard of NatWest Markets during the 2018 Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit at The Times Center on Sept. 20, 2018, in New York City. Rabouin has filed an internal complaint against the Phoenix Police Department after he was detained while working on a story for The Wall Street Journal. (Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images)More

The event prompts further accusations that Phoenix violated First Amendment rights.

Rabouin, a journalist for the Journal based in New York, visited family in Phoenix for the Thanksgiving break.

He asserted that he dressed casually when he visited a Chase Bank location in north Phoenix to conduct man-on-the-street interviews for a report about savings accounts.

While he was on the sidewalk outside the building, two employees allegedly approached Rabouin and asked what he was doing before heading back inside.

The bank allegedly never asked him to leave, and he was unaware that the sidewalk was private property.

Rabouin said he identified himself to a police officer who showed up and told them bank employees knew what was going on, to which he replied, “Well, you can’t do that.”

Officer Caleb Zimmerman reported that bank staff claimed Rabouin refused to leave, and the reporter initially declined to identify himself.

A bystander started recording on her cell phone after seeing the scene unfold. Katelyn Parady’s video starts several minutes after the exchange between Rabouin and Zimmerman begins, with the reporter being placed in handcuffs.

Rabouin claimed that he told the officer he would leave if he weren’t on public property, but the officer shifted his body to keep him from doing so.

Zimmerman noted in his incident report that he had sufficient grounds to detain Rabouin for trespassing.

Backup officers came around eight minutes into the cell phone video. After two more minutes, with other cops present as witnesses, Zimmerman releases Rabouin from his handcuffs.

Rabouin submitted an internal complaint, claiming that a few weeks later, a Phoenix official called to inform him they found no evidence of police misconduct that day.

“As journalists, we don’t really want to be the story. We want to report the story,” Rabouin said, ABC15 reported. “I think it’s important to talk about. This is a department that’s under DOJ investigation for excessive force, under investigation for the way they operate and handle business, and despite that, they continue to operate this way.”

Tesla, EV rivals absorb costs after China pulls plug on subsidy

ELON MUSK  TESLA VS WARREN BUFFETS BYD

Thu, January 5, 2023 

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s decision to end a more than decade-long subsidy for electric vehicle purchases has forced automakers, including Tesla, to deepen discounts to maintain sales as demand eases in the world's largest market.

The government originally planned to phase out the support scheme for EV makers and battery suppliers by the end of 2020, but extended it until the end of December in response to the pandemic.

As China grapples with the upheaval of an upsurge in COVID-19 cases and its economy grows at the slowest pace in decades, Tesla, Xpeng and SAIC-GM-Wuling have opted to hold consumer prices flat in January.

The subsidy accounted for around 3% to 6% of the cost of the best-selling electric vehicles in China last year, a Reuters analysis found.

Other EV makers, including Tesla's larger rival BYD and SAIC-Volkswagen, have raised prices for some models but opted to absorb most of the cost of the subsidy, the Reuters tally showed.

The subsidy, paid to the automaker at the point of purchase, began in 2009 and was scaled back over time. It paid out nearly $15 billion to encourage EV purchases through 2021, according to an estimate by China Merchants Bank International.

As some consumers rushed to take advantage of the subsidy while there was time, BYD doubled its retail sales in China in December from a year earlier, while Tesla's retail sales in China fell by 42%.

J.P. Morgan said in a research note on Thursday, it expects "a transitional pain period," with January and February industry-wide sales of EVs and plug-ins in China down between 40% to 60% from year-end levels.

DYNASTIES AND DISCOUNTS

BYD raised prices on its best-selling EVs, named after Chinese dynasties.

Tesla, meanwhile, is defending its market share by selling the basic, rear-wheel drive Model Y for 288,900 yuan ($42,053.63) in China, unchanged from December.

It is also offering another 10,000 yuan in cash incentives and insurance rebates for buyers in January, which means it has effectively cut prices in China by up to 12% since early September, when that model was sold for 316,900 yuan.

Buyers of BYD's best-selling electric cars have to pay 2,000 yuan to 6,000 yuan more in January, depending on the model they choose, compared to those who placed the orders in 2022, posted prices show. That represents a price hike of between 2% and 3%.

China's Association of Automobile Manufacturers said in December it expected sales of EVs and plug-in hybrids to grow by 35% in 2023, accounting for a third of total vehicle sales.

But William Li, chief executive of automaker Nio, said it could take until May for China's EV market to begin to recover.

"It will take time for both the supply chain and consumer demand to recover," Li told reporters last month.

Russia taking of Ukraine nuclear plant a hit to clean energy future -Holtec


A view shows the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant outside Enerhodar

Thu, January 5, 2023 
By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of Holtec, a private U.S. nuclear power company working in Ukraine, said Russia's occupation the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is a serious hit to the future of clean energy.

Russia took over the plant, Europe's biggest, soon after its Feb. 24, 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The plant has suffered shelling and cut power lines during the war, raising concerns of a nuclear catastrophe. Russia and Ukraine blame each other for the shelling.

Kris Singh, the chief executive of New Jersey-based Holtec International said in an open letter published on Thursday that Russia President Vladimir Putin's military occupation of the plant should be viewed as a "serious blow to humanity's clean energy future."

Singh said it has "normalized a new horrendous instrument of war".

Nuclear power backers, including the Biden administration, say the electricity source is critical to fight climate change, because it generates virtually emissions-free power. Nuclear's critics say it's too costly and building new plants is too time-consuming to do much to curb climate change, though some acknowledge that current reactors should keep running if they operate safely.

In Ukraine, Holtec works on storage of spent nuclear fuel and wants to build next-generation small modular reactors there.

Russia's war in Ukraine and the taking of Zaporizhzhia could be costly for its international nuclear business. Last year a Finnish-led consortium scrapped a contract for Russia's state-owned Rosatom to build a nuclear power plant in Finland, citing delays and increased risks due to the war in Ukraine.

The Hanhikivi 1 project would have increased Finland's dependency on Russia for its energy.

Singh urged the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to call on its member states to agree resolutions that make attempts to interfere with peaceful generation of nuclear power "punishable by expulsion of the aggressor state."

The IAEA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Deere Jumps Into Electric Excavators in Tech Transformation



Joe Deaux
Thu, January 5, 2023

(Bloomberg) -- Deere & Co., the world’s largest manufacturer of farm equipment, launched a new electric excavator amid rising demand to reduce emissions in heavy industry.

The Moline, Illinois-based company said the battery-powered machine will reduce daily operating costs for construction workers and road builders, while eliminating tailpipe emissions. The company said the electric version won’t sacrifice any power or performance, but did not immediately give details about how often the machine will need to recharge and how long it will take.

“We’re not in the business of creating new technology just because it’s cool,” John May, Deere’s chief executive officer, said at an industry presentation in Las Vegas. “Technology is the key to driving sustainability on the farm and construction sites and empowering our customers to become more efficient and profitable in the age of significant challenges.”

The announcement comes as large machinery companies like Deere and competitor Caterpillar Inc. begin to improve offerings of fully electric and autonomous equipment that miners, contractors and other heavy industry customers are demanding amid the energy transition. Producing these technologies at scale present some of the biggest challenges for these companies, which could be forced to make costly overhauls of their manufacturing processes.

Deere also unveiled its so-called “ExactShot” technology, which uses a sensor to know when an individual seed is planted and immediately sprays the exact amount of fertilizer needed directly on it. The technology could save more than 93 million gallons of starter fertilizer per year, according to a statement.

is wasting an icon as Prius falls behind other brands

Mark Phelan
Fri, January 6, 2023

Toyota is wasting an icon, allowing an historic vehicle to slide into irrelevance.

The Prius gasoline-electric hybrid revolutionized the auto industry, until Toyota decided to rest on its laurels.

The 2023 Prius that goes on sale next month is arguably the best hybrid you can buy, but being the best hybrid barely qualifies as a consolation prize in a world that’s moved on to electric vehicles, largely without Toyota.

The 2023 Toyota Prius is dramatic despite retaining its aero-hatchback looks.

That’s a disservice to a nameplate that belongs alongside – or above – Corolla, Camry and Tacoma in the pantheon of great Toyotas.

The Prius changed the auto industry, and how people think of Toyota. The first generation – introduced in Japan in 1997, the U.S. 2001 – was a dowdy econobox, but Prius II, introduced in 2003, was a monumental achievement, arguably the most advanced – and certainly the most environmentally conscious – vehicle in the world.

Celebrities lined up to be seen arriving at fancy events in Priuses. It was a halo vehicle that brightened prospects for everything Toyota made, accelerating its decades of steady growth into a leap to become the world’s largest automaker.
Icons don’t come along every day

The Prius is to Toyota as the Model T and Mustang are to Ford, the Wrangler is to Jeep and the Beetle was to Volkswagen: Vehicles that define their makers and embody the values to which they aspire.

Henry Ford next to a Model T in 1921.

Automakers agonize over changes to those vehicles. But Ford and Jeep have transformed the Mustang and Wrangler in recent years.

Ford’s decision went all the way to the CEO’s desk, but the automaker eventually attached the cherished pony car name to the Mustang Mach-E electric SUV.

It was an instant hit, winning awards and erasing perceptions of Ford as an EV laggard.

More: Kia’s 576-hp EV6 GT could teach Ford and Porsche a thing or two

Jeep resisted market trends for years before adding a four-door version of the Wrangler, only to see that Wrangler Unlimited model increase sales and reach three-fourths of production. Jeep later made the Wrangler its first plug-in hybrid model, and saw the 4xe become America’s best-selling PHEV.

Icons that rusted and faded away include the Model T and Beetle. The Model T wasn’t just the car that put America on wheels and created the middle class. At one point .more than half the automobiles in the world were Model Ts. The VW Beetle was Europe’s first mass-market vehicle. It helped put post-war Germany on wheels, revitalizing the country’s shattered industrial sector along the way.
Electrification began with Prius

Brilliant achievements of engineering and business acumen, the Model T and Beetle both stagnated because the companies that created them didn’t have a follow-up. Ford built the Model T virtually unchanged from 1908 to 1927. Not to be outdone, VW produced Beetles that stuck to the original car’s formula from 1938 to 2003. By the end of its run, the affordable, reliable family car, though, was relegated to being built at a single plant in Mexico, for use as a taxi, with the front passenger seat ripped out.

More: Innovation drives family-owned auto company's 100-year run

The new-Beetle revival was fan fiction, a car that looked like a Beetle but lacked its space efficiency, innovation and practicality. And now it’s gone too.

Vehicles whose silhouettes were synonymous with efficient modern transportation became quaint, then extinct.

Once a leader, the Prius is at risk of becoming a relic too.

Volkswagen Beetle sales broke a previous manufacturing record set by the Ford Model T.

The Prius changed the auto industry because it was simultaneously the cleanest vehicle on the road and affordable to the vast majority of drivers.
If you want to be a leader, you have to lead

Toyota calls the 2023 Prius that goes on sale next month “the hybrid reborn,” but it’s an exercise in incrementalism: 1 mpg more fuel efficient, a sportier design, more power, quicker to 60 mph.

It’s a testament to yesterday's best idea, the best CD player in a download world.

Toyota may be right to keep refining hybrid tech, improving and adding the feature across its lineup. There will be a market for hybrids for years, if not decades.

Doing it under the Prius banner is a mistake, however. A new Prius should be Toyota’s technical flagship, a bold statement that the world’s biggest automaker also leads in vision and innovation.

“Toyota is resting on its laurels after the success of the Prius hybrid, refusing to innovate and produce pollution-free electric vehicles. The company’s opposition to zero-emission vehicle mandates, including its global anti-climate lobbying efforts, is a harbinger of Toyota losing its edge and along with it, its faithful customers and green image," said East Peterson-Trujillo, clean vehicles campaigner for Public Citizen.

2023 Toyota bZX4 electric vehicle

Why doesn’t Toyota build the most efficient, longest range, most affordable electric vehicle in the world, and why doesn’t it bear the Prius badge? Instead, Toyota’s sorties into making EVs have been halting at best.

Maybe Toyota’s corporate culture doesn't have another revolutionary idea in it. Maybe lightning won't strike twice in the same corporate offices.

But the burden of leadership is that you have to actually lead, evolve and take risks.

The Prius made Toyota the world's leading automaker in many ways.

If a lack of imagination or daring keeps Toyota from even attempting to regain that mantle, the company's leaders will have nobody but themselves to blame when other automakers pass it by.

Biden admin quietly admits canceling Keystone XL Pipeline cost thousands of jobs, billions of dollars

Thomas Catenacci
Thu, January 5, 2023 

The Biden administration published a congressionally mandated report highlighting the positive economic benefits the Keystone XL Pipeline would have had if President Biden didn't revoke its federal permits.

The report, which the Department of Energy (DOE) completed in late December without any public announcement, says the Keystone XL project would have created between 16,149 and 59,000 jobs and would have had a positive economic impact of between $3.4-9.6 billion, citing various studies. A previous report from the federal government published in 2014 determined 3,900 direct jobs and 21,050 total jobs would be created during construction which was expected to take two years.

But immediately after taking office in January 2021, Biden canceled the pipeline's permits, effectively shutting the project down.

"The Biden administration finally owned up to what we have known all along — killing the Keystone XL Pipeline cost good-paying jobs, hurt Montana’s economy and was the first step in the Biden administration’s war on oil and gas production in the United States," Sen. Steve Daines. R-Mont., said Thursday in a statement. "Unfortunately, the administration continues to pursue energy production anywhere but the United States."

FORMER KEYSTONE PIPELINE WORKER RIPS BIDEN AFTER COMMENTS ON OIL PRODUCTION

"These policies may appeal to the woke left but hurt Montana’s working families," he continued. "I’ll keep fighting back against Biden’s anti-energy agenda and supporting Montana energy projects and jobs."

The DOE was forced to issue the report after Daines and Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, successfully inserted a bill mandating the report into the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Biden signed into law in November 2021. The agency was required to publish the report within 90 days of the bill's passage but ultimately waited more than a year before releasing it.

In a statement Thursday, the DOE noted that the project would have had minimal permanent job impacts, but didn't mention the thousands of jobs that were estimated during the construction of the pipeline.

"The U.S. Department of Energy released a report evaluating existing analysis on economic and job effects of the XL portion of Keystone pipeline," the DOE told Fox News Digital. "It concluded there were limited job impacts, with approximately 50 permanent jobs estimated to have been created were the pipeline operational."

Biden's decision to cancel the pipeline has received widespread criticism from Republican lawmakers and energy industry representatives who have argued it would have helped keep gas prices down and ensure energy security.

Keystone XL had been slated to be completed early this year and transport an additional 830,000 barrels of crude oil from Canada to the U.S. through an existing pipeline network, according to its operator, TC Energy.

Welders work on a joint between two sections of pipe during construction of the Gulf Coast Project pipeline in Prague, Okla., on March 11, 2013. Inset: President Biden.

The project labor agreement that TC Energy signed in August 2020 with four labor unions promised the pipeline would create 42,000 American jobs and provide $2 billion in total wages.

TC Energy ultimately gave up on the project in June 2021 as a result of Biden's decision. Last year, a federal judge tossed a legal challenge from nearly two dozen states asking the court to reinstate the pipeline's permits.

"The Department of Energy finally admitted to the worst-kept secret about the Keystone Pipeline: President Biden’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline sacrificed thousands of American jobs," Risch said Thursday.

The Keystone XL Pipeline would have created up to 59,000 jobs and had a positive economic impact of up to $9.6 billion, according to the Department of Energy.

"To make matters worse, his decision moved the U.S. further away from energy independence and lower gas prices at a time when inflation and gas prices are drastically impacting Americans’ pocketbooks," he added.

"The president must turn to American-made energy and jobs rather than dictators and despots to fix the energy crisis he created on his first day in office."

The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Biden Hands Rare Win to Permian Drillers With Pause on Smog Rule



Jennifer A Dlouhy
Fri, January 6, 2023

(Bloomberg) -- The Biden administration is deferring a plan to crack down on smog in the drilling hotbed of the Permian Basin, handing a win to oil producers along with their allies in Texas and New Mexico.

The Environmental Protection Agency had been considering formally labeling parts of the region as violating federal air quality standards for ozone — a designation that would have spurred new pollution curbs and potentially deterred drilling in the world’s biggest oil field.

But the administration omitted the policy from an agenda of planned regulations released late Wednesday and instead deemed the measure “inactive,” indicating it’s not expected to be finalized in the next six to 12 months.

The move comes after President Joe Biden exhorted oil companies to produce more crude in a bid to keep gasoline prices in check and a spate of industry lobbying against the plan. New Mexico officials also were concerned the designation effort would dovetail with a state legislative session that runs through late March.

In an emailed statement, the EPA confirmed the potential Permian Basin designation is no longer considered an active issue but signaled it could be revived later.

“If EPA decides to advance this action, EPA would initiate the redesignations process by sending a notification letter to the appropriate state governors soliciting their input and recommendations,” the agency said in the emailed statement. “As part of a potential redesignations effort, EPA would also provide an opportunity for public comment on the action.”

Smog Levels

The deferral is a blow to conservationists who have called for urgent action to stem surging ground-level ozone in the oil-drilling hotbeds that straddle the Texas-New Mexico border. The key ingredient of smog, ozone forms when volatile organic compounds and other air pollution from smokestacks, tailpipes and oil wells reacts with sunlight. Even at low levels, it can worsen asthma, emphysema and other respiratory illnesses.

“The agency seems to be backing down from this critical initiative to safeguard clean air and public health in the Permian Basin,” said Jeremy Nichols, climate and energy program director for WildEarth Guardians. “While the Biden administration talks a good talk on public health and environmental justice, the reality is they’re bending over backward to let the oil and gas industry trash air quality and communities.”

The move was cheered by oil industry heavyweights who had lobbied Biden administration officials to abandon its approach or at least move more slowly on the policy, arguing that any move to redesignate parts of the Permian Basin as violating ozone air quality standards posed grave risks to US energy and economic security.

“The wide-open spaces of West Texas and Eastern New Mexico are home to the oil and natural gas that fuel our economy and enhance modern life,” Todd Staples, president of the Texas Oil & Gas Association, said in an emailed statement. “Excessive government regulation is unnecessary and stifles affordable and reliable energy supplies.”

Previously, the administration had anticipated action on the ozone nonattainment designation by September last year.

New Mexico Environment Secretary James Kenney said he’d recently spoken with a regional EPA official and verified the agency was not likely to start the redesignation process until after the state’s legislative session concludes in late March. “We’d rather have the certainty of knowing that the process has begun and that we can focus on it with all our intention and effort, and that's not possible for us to do during the legislative session,” Kenney said.

New Mexico has not opposed the redesignation, he said, and the state has left open the possibility of filing its own petition with the EPA asking the agency to regulate contributing pollution from the Texas side of the Permian.

Federal law and air monitoring data “suggest we should be going down this path, and that means tougher rules, tougher permits and more enforcement,” Kenney said. “Those are all aspects of necessary regulation when air quality degrades as it has in the Permian Basin.”