Why Tennessee's law limiting drag performances likely violates the First Amendment

Mark Satta, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Wayne State University
Mon, March 6, 2023 

Protesters against a bill restricting drag shows march from a rally outside of the Tennessee Capitol in Nashville on Feb. 14, 2023. AP Photo/Jonathan Mattise

On March 2, 2023, Tennessee became the first state to enact a law restricting drag performances.

This law is part of a larger push by Republican lawmakers in numerous states to restrict or eliminate events like drag shows and drag story hours.

These legislative efforts have been accompanied by inflammatory rhetoric – not grounded in fact – about the need to protect children from “grooming” and sexually explicit performances.

Such rhetoric reveals that those seeking to restrict drag performances sometimes don’t understand what drag is or seeks to do.

Drag is an art form in which performers play with gender norms. Drag shows often include dancing, singing, lip-synching or comedy. Some common forms of drag include cisgender male and transgender female performers dressed in stereotypically feminine ways and cigender female and transgender male performers dressed in stereotypically masculine ways.

Drag artists also participate in many other kinds of events. For example, drag queens host family-friendly story hours at local libraries where they read age-appropriate books to children.

Current Supreme Court decisions suggest that laws like the one just passed in Tennessee probably violate the First Amendment’s protection of free speech. This is, in part, because many drag performances are protected by the First Amendment, which safeguards not only spoken, written, and signed speech but also many other actions meant to convey messages.

Republican legislators appear to have written the law to try to avoid running afoul of the First Amendment by treating drag shows as if they meet the legal definition of obscenity. Speech, including expressive conduct, that meets the Supreme Court’s criteria for obscenity is not covered by First Amendment protection.

I’m a scholar who studies U.S. free speech law. Looking at the text of Tennessee’s new law, I see several ways in which this anti-drag law appears susceptible to significant First Amendment challenges.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed the drag show restrictions into law. AP Photo/Mark Zaleski
Tennessee’s new law

The law amends what Tennessee considers “adult cabaret entertainment” and bans “male or female impersonators” from performing on public property or in any other location where the performance “could be viewed by a person who is not an adult,” when such performances are “harmful to minors” as that phrase is defined by Tennessee law.

This law thus regulates not only public spaces but also privately owned locations like bars and performance venues. A first violation is a misdemeanor. Subsequent violations are felonies.

Because the law is limited to drag performances that are “harmful to minors,” in theory, most drag shows should be unaffected.

But various Republican legislators in Tennessee have recently fought to prevent even vetted family-friendly drag shows with no lewd or sexual content from being held in public.

Given this, drag performers and other artists have reasonable grounds for suspecting that Tennessee officials may seek to interpret the new law broadly to include many kinds of drag performances and other shows that play with gender norms.

Given the popularity of drag shows, this new law could stifle a lot of expression and damage the ability of full-time drag performers to make their living.

But even if Tennessee officials interpret the new law narrowly, the law still appears likely to run afoul of the First Amendment.

Drag is protected ‘expressive conduct’

The First Amendment protects more than just written, oral or signed speech. It also protects many other actions designed to convey ideas. The legal terms for these actions are “expressive conduct” or “symbolic speech.”

Some activities courts have recognized as expressive conduct include making and displaying art and music, picketing, marching in parades, desecrating a U.S. flag, burning a draft card, dancing and other forms of live entertainment.

Drag shows typically consist of various forms of protected speech – such as telling jokes and introducing performers – and protected expressive conduct such as lip-synching and dancing. Thus, drag shows are usually covered by the First Amendment.

But Tennessee’s new law insinuates that drag performances might be part of a category of speech exempt from the First Amendment protection: legally defined obscenity. If this were so, then Tennessee’s law likely would pass constitutional muster. But the law seems to target more than merely legally obscene material.

However, Tennessee lawmakers have not provided viable examples of obscene drag performances in Tennessee. And current Supreme Court precedent makes it highly unlikely that all the expressive conduct Tennessee seeks to regulate falls into the narrow legal category of obscenity.

Defining obscenity

In considering whether something is legally obscene, the Supreme Court requires courts to consider whether (1) the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to prurient interest; (2) the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct defined by the applicable state law, and (3) the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.

In the relevant part of its criminal code, Tennessee law states that:

“Harmful to minors means that quality of any description or representation, in whatever form, of nudity, sexual excitement, sexual conduct, excess violence or sadomasochistic abuse when the matter or performance (a) Would be found by the average person applying contemporary community standards to appeal predominantly to the prurient, shameful or morbid interests of minors; (b) Is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable for minors; and (c) Taken as whole lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific values for minors.”

Given the similarities between Tennessee’s description of “harmful to minors” and the Supreme Court’s definition of “obscenity,” Tennessee appears to be trying to avoid First Amendment scrutiny for its new law.

But there are some important differences between Tennessee law and the Supreme Court’s description of obscenity.

Perhaps most importantly, the Supreme Court limits obscenity to speech that lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value full stop; not just work that lacks such serious value specifically for minors.

As is widely recognized, drag is artistic and political. Drag performers use drag to push artistic boundaries and to discuss pressing political issues.

There is no First Amendment requirement to determine when or whether the value of speech applies “for minors.” Adults living in a democratic society need to be able to discuss a wide range of issues, not all of which will have value for children. Supreme Court free speech precedent recognizes this.

Thus, Tennessee probably cannot rely on a claim that it is criminalizing only legally obscene expressive conduct. Instead, it must regulate drag performances in accordance with the First Amendment’s free speech protections.
Discriminatory and overly broad

Freedom of speech, like all rights, is not absolute.

The Supreme Court has allowed states to put some limits on protected speech. For example, states may impose restrictions on the time, place and manner in which speech occurs, so long as such limitations are content-neutral.

Examples include requiring permits to hold parades on city streets and not allowing loud music between midnight and 6 a.m. on public sidewalks.

However, Tennessee’s law goes far beyond these kinds of limited regulations of protected speech in at least two ways.

First, it legislates more than mere time, place and manner restrictions. Instead, the law bars, at all times, “male or female impersonation” that it deems “harmful to children” from any public property and from many private venues, too. This is a wholesale ban on such speech in all public forums and in many private spaces. Courts will likely find this too broad.

Second, by singling out “male and female impersonators,” Tennessee’s law fails to be content-neutral. It instead discriminates on the basis of the expressive conduct’s content.

Tennessee’s new law bolsters the case that anti-drag laws are antidemocratic, discriminatory and unconstitutional.

This story has been corrected to describe the amended version of Tennessee’s SB3, which was signed into law on March 2, 2023, and to remove reference to a Kentucky state legislator.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. 

It was written by: Mark Satta, Wayne State University.

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OKLAHOMA

After transgender protest incident, state House censures OKC lawmaker Mauree Turner

Dale Denwalt, Oklahoman
Wed, March 8, 2023 

State Rep. Mauree Turner, D-Oklahoma City, speaks to a transgender rights rally inside the state Capitol in early February.

The Oklahoma House of Representatives censured Oklahoma City state Rep. Mauree Turner on Tuesday, a week after a transgender rights protester sought refuge in Turner's Capitol office following an altercation with state troopers.

According to statements made on the House floor and media reports about the incident last week, a protester threw water on Tahlequah Republican state Rep. Bob Ed Culver after the House passed legislation that would ban insurance coverage of trans health care and prohibit gender-affirming care for minors.

That individual was arrested on suspicion of assault, and troopers with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol tried to locate another person who allegedly interfered with the arrest. Troopers discovered the second person had gone into Turner's office, said state Rep. Anthony Moore, R-Clinton.

Moore, who presented the censure motion, said that Turner refused to let the troopers see their suspect. Only after House leadership intervened did Turner unlock the door and let the troopers inside the office.

"The actions willfully taken by Rep. Turner, without question, rise to the level of criminal. We are not made better by protecting those that assault our troopers," Moore said, drawing immediate rebuke from Turner's Democratic colleagues.

House Speaker Charles McCall also indicated in a news release issued immediately after the party-line vote that Turner may have committed a crime.

"This member knowingly, and willfully, impeded a law enforcement investigation, harboring a fugitive and repeatedly lying to officers, and used their official office and position to thwart attempts by law enforcement to make contact with a suspect of the investigation," McCall wrote in the news release.

State Rep. Mauree Turner, D-Oklahoma City, speaks to a transgender rights rally inside the state Capitol in early February.

Turner, however, has not been charged with a crime. Trooper Eric Foster, a spokesman for the highway patrol, said the agency hasn't recommended charges to the district attorney and only sent information about the incident to the district attorney.

Turner and members of the House Democratic Caucus said Tuesday's censure motion came as a surprise, since no one, not even law enforcement, had followed up with Turner about the incident.

"What happened last week in my office was the same thing that happens all the time," Turner said during debate on the censure motion. "People do not feel represented or protected by the people in this (Legislature). They come to find refuge in my office. They come to decompress from the most stressful times."

State Rep. Mauree Turner, D-Oklahoma City, speaks with an assistant inside her office in this 2021 file photo.

Along with being publicly reprimanded with a censure, Turner will be stripped of all committee assignments unless they apologize.

"For me personally, I think an apology for loving the people of Oklahoma is something that I cannot do. It's something I actively refuse to do," Turner said at a news conference after the censure vote. "I'll never apologize for showing up fully and freely as myself. I will never apologize for allowing the people of Oklahoma to show up fully and freely as themselves. Because that is the work that they elected me to do."

Turner has served as a state representative in House District 88 since 2021. The district encompasses part of northwest Oklahoma City west of the state Capitol building. As the Oklahoma Legislature's first openly nonbinary member, Turner has been an outspoken voice for the LGBTQ+ community.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: After transgender protest incident, state House censures OKC lawmaker

What are PFAS, and why is the EPA warning about them in drinking water? An environmental health scientist explains

Kathryn Crawford, Assistant Professor of Environmental Health, Middlebury

 The Conversation
Tue, March 7, 2023 

PFAS, often used in water-resistant gear, also find their way into drinking water and human bodies. CasarsaGuru via Getty Images

You’ve probably been hearing the term PFAS in the news lately as states and the U.S. government consider rules and guidelines for managing these “forever chemicals.”

Even if the term is new to you, chances are good that you’re familiar with what PFAS do. That’s because they’re found in everything from nonstick cookware to carpets to ski wax.

PFAS stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which are a large group of human-made chemicals – currently estimated to be around 9,000 individual chemical compounds – that are used widely in consumer products and industry. They can make products resistant to water, grease and stains and protect against fire.

Waterproof outdoor apparel and cosmetics, stain-resistant upholstery and carpets, food packaging that is designed to prevent liquid or grease from leaking through, and certain firefighting equipment often contain PFAS. In fact, one recent study found that most products labeled stain- or water-resistant contained PFAS, and another study found that this is even true among products labeled as “nontoxic” or “green.” PFAS are also found in unexpected places like high-performance ski and snowboard waxes, floor waxes and medical devices.

At first glance, PFAS sound pretty useful, so you might be wondering “what’s the big deal?”

The short answer is that PFAS are harmful to human health and the environment.

Some of the very same chemical properties that make PFAS attractive in products also mean these chemicals will persist in the environment for generations. Because of the widespread use of PFAS, these chemicals are now present in water, soil and living organisms and can be found across almost every part of the planet, including Arctic glaciers, marine mammals, remote communities living on subsistence diets, and in 98% of the American public.

The Environmental Protection Agency recently issued new warnings about their risk in drinking water even at very low levels.

Health risks from PFAS exposure

Once people are exposed to PFAS, the chemicals remain in their bodies for a long time – months to years, depending on the specific compound – and they can accumulate over time.

Research consistently demonstrates that PFAS are associated with a variety of adverse health effects. A recent review by a panel of experts looking at research on PFAS toxicity concluded with a high degree of certainty that PFAS contribute to thyroid disease, elevated cholesterol, liver damage and kidney and testicular cancer.

Stain-resistant fabrics and carpets often contain PFAS. Deagreez via Getty Images

Further, they concluded with a high degree of certainty that PFAS also affect babies exposed in utero by increasing their likelihood of being born at a lower birth weight and responding less effectively to vaccines, while impairing women’s mammary gland development, which may adversely impact a mom’s ability to breastfeed.

The review also found evidence that PFAS may contribute to a number of other disorders, though further research is needed to confirm existing findings: inflammatory bowel disease, reduced fertility, breast cancer and an increased likelihood of miscarriage and developing high blood pressure and preeclampsia during pregnancy. Additionally, current research suggests that babies exposed prenatally are at higher risk of experiencing obesity, early-onset puberty and reduced fertility later in life.

Collectively, this is a formidable list of diseases and disorders.

Who’s regulating PFAS?

PFAS chemicals have been around since the late 1930s, when a DuPont scientist created one by accident during a lab experiment. DuPont called it Teflon, which eventually became a household name for its use on nonstick pans.

Decades later, in 1998, Scotchgard maker 3M notified the Environmental Protection Agency that a PFAS chemical was showing up in human blood samples. At the time, 3M said low levels of the manufactured chemical had been detected in people’s blood as early as the 1970s.

Despite the lengthy list of serious health risks linked to PFAS and a tremendous amount of federal investment in PFAS-related research in recent years, PFAS haven’t been regulated at the federal level in the United States.

The EPA has issued advisories and health-based guidelines for two PFAS compounds – PFOA and PFOS – in drinking water, though these guidelines are not legally enforceable standards. And the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has a toxicological profile for PFAS.

Federal rules could be coming. Congress is considering legislation to ban PFAS in some food packaging. The EPA has a road map for PFAS regulations it is considering, including regulations involving drinking water. The Biden administration has said it also expects to list PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances under the Superfund law, a move that worries utilities and businesses that use PFAS-containing products or processes because of the expense of cleanup.

States, meanwhile, have been taking their own actions to protect residents against the risk of PFAS exposure.

At least 23 states have laws targeting PFAS in various uses, such as in food packaging and carpets. But relying on state laws places burdens on state agencies responsible for enforcing them and creates a patchwork of regulations which, in turn, place burdens on business and consumers to navigate regulatory nuances across state lines.

So, what can you do about PFAS?

Based on current scientific understanding, most people are exposed to PFAS primarily through their diet, though drinking water and airborne exposures may be significant among some people, especially if they live near known PFAS-related industries or contamination.

The best ways to protect yourself and your family from risks associated with PFAS are to educate yourself about potential sources of exposures.

Products labeled as water- or stain-resistant have a good chance of containing PFAS. Check the ingredients on products you buy and watch for chemical names containing “fluor-.” Specific trade names, such as Teflon and Gore-Tex, are also likely to contain PFAS.

Check whether there are sources of contamination near you, such as in drinking water or PFAS-related industries in the area. Some states don’t test or report PFAS contamination, so the absence of readily available information does not necessarily mean the region is free of PFAS problems.

For additional information about PFAS, check out the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, EPA and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention websites or contact your state or local public health department.

If you believe you have been exposed to PFAS and are concerned about your health, contact your health care provider. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has a succinct report to help health care professionals understand the clinical implications of PFAS exposure.

This article was updated July 8, 2022, with new legislation signed in Rhode Island and Hawaii.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

It was written by: Kathryn Crawford, Middlebury.

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PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ are widespread and threaten human health – here’s a strategy for protecting the public

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Kathryn Crawford has received funding from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

Regulating 'forever chemicals': 3 essential reads on PFAS

The Conversation
Tue, March 7, 2023 

A new federal regulation will set national limits on two 'forever chemicals' widely found in drinking water. Thanasis Zovoilis/moment via Getty Images

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to release a draft regulation limiting two fluorinated chemicals, known by the abbreviations PFOA and PFOS, in drinking water. These chemicals are two types of PFAS, a broad class of substances often referred to as “forever chemicals” because they are very persistent in the environment.

PFAS are widely used in hundreds of products, from nonstick cookware coatings to food packaging, stain- and water-resistant clothing and firefighting foams. Studies show that high levels of PFAS exposure may lead to health effects that include reduced immune system function, increased cholesterol levels and elevated risk of kidney or testicular cancer.

Population-based screenings over the past 20 years show that most Americans have been exposed to PFAS and have detectable levels in their blood. The new regulation is designed to protect public health by setting an enforceable maximum standard limiting how much of the two target chemicals can be present in drinking water – one of the main human exposure pathways.

These three articles from The Conversation’s archives explain growing concerns about the health effects of exposure to PFAS and why many experts support national regulation of these chemicals.

1. Ubiquitous and persistent

PFAS are useful in many types of products because they provide resistance to water, grease and stains, and protect against fire. Studies have found that most products labeled stain- or water-resistant contained PFAS – even if those products are labeled as “nontoxic” or “green.”

“Once people are exposed to PFAS, the chemicals remain in their bodies for a long time – months to years, depending on the specific compound – and they can accumulate over time,” wrote Middlebury College environmental health scholar Kathryn Crawford. A 2021 review of PFAS toxicity studies in humans “concluded with a high degree of certainty that PFAS contribute to thyroid disease, elevated cholesterol, liver damage and kidney and testicular cancer.”

The review also found strong evidence that in utero PFAS exposure increases the chances that babies will be born at low birth weights and have reduced immune responses to vaccines. Other possible effects yet to be confirmed include “inflammatory bowel disease, reduced fertility, breast cancer and an increased likelihood of miscarriage and developing high blood pressure and preeclampsia during pregnancy.”

“Collectively, this is a formidable list of diseases and disorders,” Crawford observed.

Read more: What are PFAS, and why is the EPA warning about them in drinking water? An environmental health scientist explains

2. Why national regulations are needed

Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to set enforceable national regulations for drinking water contaminants. It also can require state, local and tribal governments, which manage drinking water supplies, to monitor public water systems for the presence of contaminants.

Until now, however, the agency has not set binding standards limiting PFAS exposure, although it has issued nonbinding advisory guidelines. In 2009 the agency established a health advisory level for PFOA in drinking water of 400 parts per trillion. In 2016, it lowered this recommendation to 70 parts per trillion, and in 2022 it reduced this threshold to near-zero.

But many scientists have found fault with this approach. EPA’s one-at-a-time approach to assessing potentially harmful chemicals “isn’t working for PFAS, given the sheer number of them and the fact that manufacturers commonly replace toxic substances with ‘regrettable substitutes – similar, lesser-known chemicals that also threaten human health and the environment,” wrote North Carolina State University biologist Carol Kwiatkowski.

In 2020 Kwiatkowski and other scientists urged the EPA to manage the entire class of PFAS chemicals as a group, instead of one by one. “We also support an 'essential uses’ approach that would restrict their production and use only to products that are critical for health and proper functioning of society, such as medical devices and safety equipment. And we have recommended developing safer non-PFAS alternatives,” she wrote.

Read more: PFAS 'forever chemicals' are widespread and threaten human health – here's a strategy for protecting the public

Medical assistant Jennifer Martinez draws blood from Joshua Smith in Newburgh, N.Y., Nov. 3, 2016, to test for PFOS levels. PFOS had been used for years in firefighting foam at the nearby military air base, and was found in the city’s drinking water reservoir at levels exceeding federal guidelines. AP Photo/Mike Groll

3. Breaking down PFAS

PFAS chemicals are widely present in water, air, soil and fish around the world. Unlike with some other types of pollutants, there is no natural process that breaks down PFAS once they get into water or soil. Many scientists are working to develop ways of capturing these chemicals from the environment and breaking them down into harmless components.

There are ways to filter PFAS out of water, but that’s just the start. “Once PFAS is captured, then you have to dispose of PFAS-loaded activated carbons, and PFAS still moves around. If you bury contaminated materials in a landfill or elsewhere, PFAS will eventually leach out. That’s why finding ways to destroy it are essential,” wrote Michigan State University chemists A. Daniel Jones and Hui Li.

Incineration is the most common technique, they explained, but that typically requires heating the materials to around 1,500 degrees Celsius (2,730 degrees Fahrenheit), which is expensive and requires special incinerators. Various chemical processes offer alternatives, but the approaches that have been developed so far are hard to scale up. And converting PFAS into toxic byproducts is a significant concern.

“If there’s a lesson to be learned, it’s that we need to think through the full life cycle of products. How long do we really need chemicals to last?” Jones and Li wrote.

Read more: How to destroy a 'forever chemical' – scientists are discovering ways to eliminate PFAS, but this growing global health problem isn't going away soon

Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. 

It was written by: Jennifer Weeks, The Conversation.

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North Carolina’s economic boom is wreaking havoc on rivers, creeks and streams near you | Opinion

Stephen J. McConnell
Wed, March 8, 2023

Walk along a stream that slips through North Carolina’s cities, towns and rural communities and you may witness filthy water and suspicious colors and smells.

Vital contributors to public water systems, our rivers are under assault.

In 2022, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality released its bi-annual impaired and threatened waters list, a catalog that reveals hundreds of waterways statewide that are violating water quality standards, including for fecal coliform, turbidity, mercury and arsenic.

From the Appalachians to the rolling hills of the Piedmont to the Coastal Plain, numerous rivers, streams and creeks have made the list, such as the Neuse in the Triangle, several waterways in the Catawba River Basin enveloping the Charlotte area, and many other smaller, less conspicuous creeks that quietly wind through our communities.

The catalog bulges in size, offering a blaring and sad warning sign of our sick rivers.

Stephen McConnell

Substantial population growth is straining antiquated sewer treatment plants that discharge into our waterways. Adding to the problem, haphazard development continues to mow down protective forests and vegetation, natural barriers that help prevent a cocktail of pollutants from reaching rivers.

For years, environmental groups, researchers and media outlets have sounded the alarm on our ever increasingly tainted waterways. Watchdogs have published many reports detailing how a wicked storm of harmful chemicals, animal waste, excessive dirt, and other human disturbances are purged into rivers daily.

According to a recent analysis by Environment America, North Carolina’s industries earned the dubious distinction of releasing the most developmental toxins — chemicals that interfere with childhood development — into our waterways in the nation, with 602,927 pounds discharged in 2020 alone.

North Carolina is also among the top 10 states in the level of cancer-causing substances flushed into rivers and streams, according to the report. Other reports reveal further problems, including dozens of sanitary sewer overflows into the Catawba River, a source of drinking water for more than 2 million people in southwest North Carolina.

A troublesome environmental and public health problem is brewing. Rivers and streams feed reservoirs and lakes that are drawn from to provide drinking water to millions of homes and businesses. Waterways also serve as sources of food for people and animals, and rivers provide a plethora of recreational opportunities.

State legislators and policymakers are likely, and rightly, enjoying the economic growth they have sown, but that tight-laced paradigm quickly reveals its shortcomings when it wreaks havoc on our environment.

To restore our rivers, the state needs to significantly increase investment in environmental protection, including fully addressing the backlog of upgrades to the strained wastewater treatment plants that the state’s own analysis says must be fixed. Recent efforts are laudable, but admittedly advanced by lucky injections of federal money.

A rendering of the River District, a 1,400-acre development expected to transform a largely vacant tract along the Catawba River about 8 miles from uptown Charlotte. Work has already begun on infrastructure like roads, water and sewer.

State and local governments must also better manage residential and commercial development and ensure that economic objectives are fully aligned with environmental protection, a paradigm that fosters smart growth for the benefit of all, including our rivers and health.

The state must also bolster water quality monitoring and enforcement efforts. We need only remember the lessons from the years-long discharges of cancerous “forever chemicals” into our waters and playing the risk-laden catch-up game there.

We must be stewards of our home and think holistically. Otherwise, wins and ribbon-cuttings will be undercut by consequences with a life-threatening price that is absolutely not an indicator of success.

Stephen J. McConnell was an investigative reporter for several newspapers in the U.S. He currently teaches writing at New York University and lives in Durham.

Siemens will invest $220 million in North Carolina rail car factory



Tue, March 7, 2023 
By Nandita Bose and Lisa Baertlein

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Engineering company Siemens AG announced on Tuesday it is investing over $220 million to build a rail car manufacturing facility in North Carolina.

The announcement comes as the Biden administration and fellow Democrats direct billions in federal funding to upgrade aging infrastructure and increase U.S. manufacturing, hoping to encourage private-sector spending and create jobs. A bill subsidizing chip manufacturing has attracted large investments from companies such as IBM and Micron.

Siemens' new passenger-coach manufacturing facility, which will be built on a 200-acre site in Lexington, a 20,000 population town in central North Carolina, will bring 500 new jobs by 2028, the company said.

"We have a clear commitment from the administration to invest in infrastructure and in making a transformation of the mobility sector towards greener (power sources)," Siemens AG Chief Executive Roland Busch said in a telephone interview.

Busch said Siemens has a "strong foothold" in the market and sees longer term growth opportunities in high-speed rail.

The company's customers include Amtrak and dozens of transit agencies across the United States, which will be eligible for federal incentives for cleaner-powered locomotives.

Siemens' rail unit will be receiving a jobs development grant from the state of North Carolina, and the average salary for the new positions at the facility will be $51,568.

The grant agreement authorizes the potential reimbursement to the company of up to $5.63 million over 12 years, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper's office said in a statement.

The German trains and software maker reported its strongest-ever quarter for its industrial business in February and raised its full-year profit forecasts.

Biden, who rode Amtrak for more than three decades while in Congress, has pushed investment in passenger rail and modernization of the busy "Northeast corridor," which is one of the nation's most congested rail corridors.

Mitch Landrieu, the White House official responsible for coordinating infrastructure fund disbursement, said the investment is "further proof that we're driving unprecedented private sector investment," with the implementation of the infrastructure law.

It is also critical for the Biden administration's climate goals, he said. "On the climate side we are getting ready for a clean energy economy. This is going to be a net zero facility."

The $1 trillion infrastructure law provides $66 billion for rail, an unprecedented boost in federal aid for trains. This includes $24 billion in grants for projects in the Northeast corridor.

Amtrak said in November it wants to expand dramatically across the United States and add up to 39 corridor routes and up to 166 cities by 2035.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington; Editing by Heather Timmons and Nick Zieminski)

NC city lands passenger rail manufacturing plant with promise of 500 new jobs


Courtesy Siemens Mobility

Brian Gordon
Tue, March 7, 2023 

On Tuesday, the North Carolina Economic Investment Committee awarded the German company Siemens Mobility a $5.6 million grant to construct a passenger rail vehicle manufacturing plant in the Davidson County city of Lexington, part of a broader $32.9 million package state and local governments plan to invest in the site.

The facility is expected to create 506 jobs by 2029 with a minimum average wage of $51,568.

Siemens Mobility, a division of the Munich-based conglomerate Siemens, currently produces passenger vehicles at a facility in Sacramento, California, but the company had sought to add a second U.S. plant east of the Mississippi River.

On Tuesday, the state shared that Siemens selected Lexington over an alternative site in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The county seat of Davidson County, Lexington is about 60 miles northeast of Charlotte and 100 miles west of Raleigh.

“The expansion will provide additional capacity to meet anticipated growth in demand, provide facilities for maintenance and servicing for the Eastern region,” said Mark Poole, finance director for the North Carolina Department of Commerce.

Siemens Mobility’s initial agreement with North Carolina was set to begin in 2024, but the company requested a one-year delay citing potential supply chain issues and labor shortages.

According to the Walden Model, which North Carolina uses to calculate the value of incentives it awards companies, the Siemens plant in Lexington will increase the state GDP by around $1.6 billion by 2036, the last year of the company’s agreement with the state.

By then, the state estimates the project will have added $30.3 million in net revenue.

The $5.6 million job development investment grant, or JDIG, will only be realized if Siemens achieves its hiring targets. But the project’s overall incentive package is much greater, as the North Carolina Department of Transportation will allocate $9.4 million to improve infrastructure around the site and the state will put $626,300 into a local utility fund. Additional public money will go to local community colleges to train future Siemens employees.

In total, North Carolina’s package for the Siemen’s plant is worth $16.8 million, while local incentives from Davidson County and the city of Lexington total an additional $16.1 million.

This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.

US pick for World Bank says 'emission heavy' growth model outdated

Wed, March 8, 2023 


The United States' candidate to head the World Bank, Ajay Banga, on Wednesday called for a revamp of the development model to better meet the challenge of climate change.

Banga, who is on trip to Kenya, said the world cannot continue to "pursue the prior model of (an) emission heavy growth system," and rallied for adaptation.

"We cannot afford it, our children cannot afford it," he told reporters in Nairobi.

The 63-year-old Indian American was last month nominated by US President Joe Biden to head the global lender after its current chief David Malpass announced plans to step down early.

The nomination comes amid a push for development lenders to revamp and address global problems like environmental issues more effectively.

Banga is currently serving as vice chairman at equity firm General Atlantic and was previously chief executive at Mastercard.

Malpass had been accused by former US vice president Al Gore of being a climate skeptic and of not having being able to strengthen the financing of climate projects in developing nations.

Faced with global warming, "we must do more on adaptation," Banga said, urging partnerships with the private sector.

The World Bank last month began accepting candidate nominations in a process set to run until March 29, with the bank saying that women contenders would be "strongly" encouraged.

- 'Champion of equality' -

Banga, a Sikh who was born and raised in India, is so far the only declared candidate and has received the support of several countries including India, Kenya and Ghana.

"I am not a woman but I do bring a lot of diversity."

"I am a champion of equality not just of gender, of ethnicity, of sexual orientation, of where you grew up, I don't care about all that, what I care about is what you do, and I am an example of that myself," he added.

Kenya is Banga's second stop on a global tour after Ivory Coast.

He is planning to meet officials in Europe and parts of Asia including China, India and Japan, as well as Latin America in the coming weeks.

The US nominee has drawn criticism over his corporate background and gender.

"We don't need another World Bank president who will further corporate interests like fossil fuel and industrial agriculture," Friends of the Earth said last month.

The president of the World Bank is typically American, while the leader of the International Monetary Fund is customarily European.

The United States is the World Bank's largest shareholder.

Last month, Malpass said he would step down nearly a year early, ending a tenure that has been clouded by questions over his climate stance.

dyg/emp/ho/lc

Czech President Milos Zeman leaves, opponents celebrate





Czech Republic's President Milos Zeman answers questions during an interview with The Associated Press at the Prague Castle in Prague, Czech Republic. Wednesday, March 8, 2023 marks the final day in office of outgoing Czech President Milos Zeman, with his opponents planning to celebrate. Zeman has polarized the Czechs during his two five-year terms in the normally largely ceremonial post with his support for closer ties with China and by being a leading pro-Russian voice in European Union politics. 

(AP Photo/Petr David Josek/File)

KAREL JANICEK
Wed, March 8, 2023


PRAGUE (AP) — Over the past 10 years, Czech President Milos Zeman has courted controversy, seeking a referendum on whether his country should leave the European Union, targeting migrants and joking about killing journalists.

Many Czechs will cheer the departure of their outgoing head of state Wednesday — with one activist group planning to burn Zeman in effigy and cast the ashes into Prague's Vltava River.

Zeman will be replaced in the largely ceremonial post by retired army general Petr Pavel, who beat a populist billionaire in the second round of presidential elections on Jan 28. Pavel formally takes over Thursday.

In his two consecutive terms in office, Zeman, 78, has polarized public opinion. A divided nation to which he contributed will be the most visible legacy of his reign while much of his political agenda at home and abroad failed.

While his predecessors, Vaclav Havel and Vaclav Klaus, were elected by Parliament, when former prime minister Zeman took the office in 2013 it was in a direct vote by the Czech public. His ally Andrej Babis — who unsuccessfully ran against Pavel in January — became finance minister the same year before later assuming the post of prime minister.

“It turned out that a directly elected president can turn semi-dictator if he has the will and faces a weak opponent in the prime minister,” said Vera Kovarova, a deputy speaker of Parliament’s lower house from the STAN party.

Zeman was considered more pro-European than his euroskeptic predecessor Klaus, but gradually used every opportunity to attack the EU, including its plan to tackle climate change. After Britain decided to leave the EU, he proposed a referendum on the country’s membership in the bloc — while saying he would vote to stay.

He also sought closer ties with China and became a leading pro-Russian voice in EU politics.

His critics called him “a servant of the Kremlin” after he sided with Russia and cast doubt on the findings of his country’s own security and intelligence services on the alleged participation of Russian spies in a huge 2014 ammunition explosion.

After Russia invaded Ukraine last year, Zeman condemned the “unprovoked act of aggression," but he had opposed the initial EU sanctions against Russia after the 2014 annexation of Crimea.

Zeman declared he would focus on economic diplomacy but his promises of Chinese investments worth billions of dollars never materialized and his hopes to boost ties with Russia came to a complete end with the invasion of Ukraine.

On the 25th anniversary of the 1989 anti-communist Velvet Revolution that year, protesters pelted him with eggs, sandwiches and tomatoes, accusing him of betraying the commitment to human rights enshrined by Havel, the hero of the revolution.

Zeman was one of the few European leaders to endorse Donald Trump’s bid for the White House and support his decision to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. His pro-Israeli views were perhaps the only part of his foreign policy that was positively welcomed in his country, which is one of the strongest allies of Israel in the EU.

Among other controversial acts, Zeman also linked Islamic extremist attacks in Europe to immigration, which he has described as an “organized invasion.” And he made derogatory comments about the #MeToo movement and transgender people, and vowed to veto legislation allowing same-sex marriages should it be approved by Parliament.

The media presented another target. On his first day in office, Zeman said some journalists “brainwash” and “manipulate public opinion.” He told Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting in China that there were too many journalists and some should be “liquidated.”

At home, Zeman was accused of trying to adjust the Constitution to his own needs. In 2019, the upper house of Parliament, the Senate, voted to charge him with failing to act in line with the Constitution in eight cases, including a repeated failure to appoint proposed government ministers. But the lower house dominated by Babis’ party didn’t follow suit and the case was never sent to the Constitutional Court for a final verdict.

In 2013, following the collapse of a government, Zeman ignored a coalition that had a majority in Parliament and named a new government of technocrats led by his adviser as prime minister. Most constitutional lawyers and experts said he had no right to do it.

That Cabinet lost a confidence vote but remained in power for half a year until an early election, pushing some of Zeman's projects, including a artificial waterway that would link rivers in Austria, Poland and Czechia. Experts dismissed the project as unrealistic and it was recently completely abandoned by the current government.

Zeman is a chain smoker with a soft spot for alcohol but has said he changed his habits an his doctors' advice. He has diabetes, has trouble walking and has been using a wheelchair.

Zeman has said he will settle in his new home near the presidential chateau in Lany, west of Prague, and he is planning to open an office near Prague Castle, the seat of presidency.

‘This is how I’m going to die’: police swarm activists protesting ‘Cop City’ in ‘week of action’

100
Timothy Pratt in Atlanta
Tue, March 7, 2023 

“Check their shoes and look for mud!” shouted one Atlanta police department officer to another.

The sun was setting against a tree line growing greener daily due to recent balmy, spring-like weather in Atlanta, but the bucolic setting of a Sunday in the sun at a free music festival abruptly became panic and chaos.

Related: ‘Sadness in the whole forest’: family of Cop City activist killed by police seeks answers

Dozens of law enforcement officers, many with automatic weapons, swarmed into a forest of hundreds of acres, seeking to find any of the 200 or so activists who had set fire to a bulldozer, trailer and other infrastructure used for construction on “Cop City”, a $90m, 85-acre police and fire department training center, about an hour earlier.

The clash was just the latest dramatic chapter to hit the Cop City project, which has already seen one environmental activist shot dead by police – the first incident of its kind in the US – and drawn national and international attention to the fight to save the Georgia forest where the giant project is planned.

The one officer’s frenzied order about dirty footwear seemed as absurd as any part of the Sunday night operation, since Georgia rains had left muddy patches all over the forest, and at least 600 people were lying on the grass, or camped among the trees, or entering the forest to catch an evening’s music under the stars or leaving – thus many had mud on their shoes.

But such was the situation on Sunday night, on the second night of the fifth “week of action” by activists over the last year dedicated to protecting the land called South River forest on municipal maps and Weelaunee forest by activists – using the Muscogee (Creek) word for “brown water”.

The scene included police running through trees, arresting a legal observer from the National Lawyers Guild, sending a negotiator to agree on terms with five randomly chosen individuals for letting about a hundred music festival audience members safely leave the forest, and detaining journalists for questioning on “what they were there to cover”.

The first two days had included free music, herbal workshops and a peaceful march through neighborhoods surrounding the forest south-east of Atlanta. Then, around 5.30 on Sunday evening, about 200 activists, most in balaclavas and camouflage clothing, began lining up to the right of the stage. They marched around three sides of the audience, chanting “Viva Tortuguita” – a reference to Manuel Paez Terán, a 26-year-old activist who was camping several hundred feet away from that spot on 18 January when police shot and killed him in another raid. It was the first time police killed an environmental activist while protesting in US history. Authorities said that Paez Terán fired first.

After several hours of chaos on Sunday night, 23 people – including a legal observer with the National Lawyers Guild – had been arrested and charged with “domestic terrorism” under state law, adding to the 18 defendants facing the same unprecedented charges who have been arrested in recent months.

People protest against ‘Cop City’ at Atlanta’s city hall on 6 March. Photograph: Erik S Lesser/EPA

Police officers had also threatened to arrest the hundred or so people who were lolling about in the field and listening to music only hours earlier if some agreement couldn’t be reached for their evacuation, said Jeff Simms, a retired federal endangered species biologist who was there.

Simms – who had come to the forest from Tucson, Arizona, to spend the week camping in the forest with his 21-year-old daughter, Alyssa – found the two of them thrust into unexpected positions as members of a five-person negotiating team on Sunday night.

Simms had watched dozens of police officers entering the forest from various sides and thought: “We’re all going to jail.”

He had spent one night camped in what is technically called Intrenchment Creek park. At least 85 acres of the forest is under threat from the construction of Cop City and another 40 acres is under threat from Ryan Millsap, former owner of Blackhall Studios, who made a deal with DeKalb county in 2020 to swap the land, in use as a public park, for another piece of land nearby. That deal is on hold due to a local environmental group’s lawsuit, and residents of surrounding neighborhoods continue to use the park for recreation.

The two parts of the forest are divided by a stream, Intrenchment Creek. The pair of threats to the forest led dozens of “forest defenders” to camp in the woods on both sides of the creek starting in late 2021. After Tortuguita’s death, hundreds recently began camping on the park side again – where all the arrests on Sunday were made.

On Sunday night, even as music continued on stage – mostly soft folk tunes, Simms said – police formed a line on the field. One had an AR-15 assault-type rifle, he said. Another announced on a bullhorn that they had a negotiator, and asked for five people to step forward.

“My daughter and I went, along with three others, and we all took turns speaking,” the 61-year-old said. The officer assured the team that they weren’t setting a trap, and said the crowd, which included at least one elementary school-aged child, would have 10 minutes to clear the field – or “we will arrest you for domestic terrorism”, Simms said the police told him.

“We told them the musicians had equipment, people had gear and bags, and we’d need at least 15 minutes,” Simms said. Then “I went back and told them, ‘We’re not gonna make it in 15.’”

People were hiding in the woods, and not sure how to get out

Mariah Parker

The group of five spoke to the crowd and helped arrange transportation out of the forest for those who hadn’t arrived in their own cars. Organizers on stage urged them to “stay together. They can’t arrest us all,” Alyssa said.

Eventually, the crowd was able to leave – even as officers in other parts of the forest were attempting to find, and arrest, anyone who had participated in vandalizing the construction equipment.

Simms and his daughter returned to the forest on Monday, to camp for the rest of the week. “I want to take notes about the biology of this forest,” he said. “I came here to do that.” The Center for Biological Diversity, a national organization, recently issued a statement calling for protecting the forest due to its biological and ecological importance.

Mariah Parker, a union organizer, rapper and former Athens-Clarke county commissioner, went to the forest for the first time on Sunday. She had already been public in her opposition to the Cop City project for months, based on concerns about the increasing militarization of police and mass incarceration, particularly in Black communities.

After spending an afternoon in the forest and at the music festival, she said: “It was so beautiful – seeing people building community. I was feeling excited for what this space could be, what kind of a world we could really have.” Parker, who is Black, had met a Black mother and her two children who lives near the forest, other rap artists, and local community gardeners and teachers.

She left at about 5.30pm – right before activists entered the training center construction site. Several hours later, friends in the forest texted her, frightened. “People were hiding in the woods, and not sure how to get out – and they weren’t even involved [in the vandalism],” she said.

Several of Parker’s friends were Black. For them, she said, “it must have been one of the worst moments of their lives, not being able to leave, or know what would happen. Particularly for Black folks, it must have felt like, ‘This is how I’m going to die.’”

Denmark hopes to pump some climate gas beneath the sea floor

JAMES BROOKS and FRANK JORDANS
Wed, March 8, 2023 

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark is cutting the ribbon Wednesday on an ambitious project to bury vast amounts of planet-heating carbon dioxide gas beneath the sea floor.

An international consortium of companies says the Greensand project in Denmark's North Sea will be the world’s first cross-border CO2 storage project.

Initially it will see 1.5 million metric tons of the greenhouse gas buried in a sandstone reservoir 1.8 kilometers (1.1 miles) below the seabed each year, rising to 8 million tons per year by 2030.

In a recent report, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said carbon capture and storage technology has to be part of the range of solutions to reduce emissions and curb global warming.


But critics of carbon capture and storage maintain the technology is unproven and undermines efforts to decarbonize the energy sector.

The project is led by chemicals giant INEOS and gas and oil producer Wintershall Dea.
___

Jordans reported from Berlin.

U.S. private payrolls increase in February -ADP

Wed, March 8, 2023

WASHINGTON, March 8 (Reuters) - U.S. private payrolls increased more than expected in February, pointing to continued labor market strength.

Private employment increased by 242,000 jobs last month, the ADP National Employment report showed on Wednesday. Data for January was revised higher to show 119,000 jobs added instead of 106,000 as previously reported. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast private employment increasing 200,000.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told lawmakers on Tuesday that the U.S. central bank would likely need to raise interest rates more than expected and opened the door to a half-point rate hike this month to combat inflation, following a recent raft of strong economic data.

Job growth was robust in January, with the unemployment rate falling to more than a 53-1/2-year low of 3.4%. Consumer spending rebounded strongly and inflation picked up in January.

The ADP report, jointly developed with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, was published ahead of the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics' more comprehensive and closely watched employment report for February on Friday.

It has not been a reliable gauge in forecasting private payrolls in the BLS employment report. The ADP initially reported 106,000 private jobs were created in January, a fraction of the 443,000 surge in private payrolls estimated by the BLS.

"More broadly, in the several months since the ADP data started being released with a new methodology, the first prints have not reliably predicted the first prints of the related BLS data," said Daniel Silver, an economist at JPMorgan in New York.

According to a Reuters survey of economists, private payrolls likely increased by 213,000 jobs in February. Total nonfarm payrolls are forecast rising by 203,000 jobs last month after surging 517,000 in January. 

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)