EPA tightens mercury emissions limits at coal power plants

By MATTHEW DALY

April 5, 2023

 Environmental Protection Agency administrator Michael Regan testifies before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing to examine President Joe Biden's proposed budget request for fiscal year 2024 for the Environmental Protection Agency, on Capitol Hill, March 22, 2023, in Washington. The Environmental Protection Agency is tightening rules that limit emissions of mercury and other harmful pollutants from coal-fired power plants, updating standards imposed more than a decade ago.

 (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana. File)


WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency is tightening rules that limit emissions of mercury and other harmful pollutants from coal-fired power plants, updating standards imposed more than a decade ago.

The rules proposed Wednesday would lower emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants that can harm brain development of young children and contribute to heart attacks and other health problems in adults.

The move follows a legal finding by EPA in February that regulating toxic emissions under the Clean Air Act is “appropriate and necessary” to protect the public health. The Feb. 17 finding reversed a move by former President Donald Trump’s administration to weaken the legal basis for limiting mercury emissions.

The proposed rule will support and strengthen EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, which have delivered a 90% reduction in mercury emissions from power plants since they were adopted in 2012 under former President Barack Obama, EPA Administrator Michael Regan said.

“By leveraging proven, emissions-reduction measures available at reasonable costs and encouraging new, advanced control technologies, we can reduce hazardous pollution from coal-fired power plants — protecting our planet and improving public health for all,” Regan said in a statement.

The proposed rule is expected to become final next year, “ensuring historic protections for communities across the nation, especially for our children and our vulnerable populations,” Regan said.

The new rule aims to eliminate up to 70% of mercury emissions and other toxic pollutants such as lead, nickel and arsenic, while also reducing fine dust from coal plant emissions.

The mercury rule is among several EPA regulations aimed at coal plants, including proposals to restrict smokestack emissions that burden downwindareas with smog, tighten limits on wastewater pollution and toughen standards for fine particle pollution, more commonly known as soot.

Biden has pledged to make the U.S. electricity sector carbon neutral by 2035, and stricter pollution standards have pushed electric plants to replace coal and oil with natural gas, wind and solar power.

The EPA said the mercury rule would result in the likely retirement of 500 megawatts of power by 2028 — an amount produced by a single large plant — but a spokesman for the National Mining Association called that number “grossly underestimated.″

The mercury rule “is one piece of a larger agenda to force retirements of well-operating coal plants,″ said Conor Bernstein, a spokesman for the mining group. “The cumulative effect of EPA’s agenda is a less reliable and increasingly expensive supply of electricity as the nation continues to struggle with energy-driven inflation.″

Regan did not attend a news briefing Wednesday, but he said last year that industry should “take a look at this suite of rules all at once and say, ‘Is it worth doubling down on investments in this current facility? Or should we look at the cost and say no, it’s time to pivot and invest in a clean energy future?’ ”

If some plants decide that investments in new technologies are not worth the cost ” and you get an expedited retirement, that’s the best tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” Regan said at a March 2022 energy industry conference.

Coal-fired power plants are the largest single man-made source of mercury pollutants, which enter the food chain through fish and other items that people consume. Mercury can affect the nervous system and kidneys; the World Health Organization says fetuses are especially vulnerable to birth defects via exposure in a mother’s womb.

Environmental and public health groups praised the EPA proposal, saying it protects Americans, especially children, from some of the most dangerous forms of air pollution.

“There is no safe level of mercury exposure, and while we have made significant progress advancing clean energy, coal-fired power plants remain one of the largest sources of mercury pollution,″ said Holly Bender, senior director of energy campaigns for the Sierra Club.

“It’s alarming to think that toxic pollutants from coal plants can build up in places like Lake Michigan,″ where many Americans camp and swim during the summer, “and where people fish to feed their families,″ Bender said. “Our kids deserve to live and play in a healthy, safe environment.″

The Edison Electric Institute, which represents investor-owned electric companies, said it was reviewing details of the EPA proposal, but added that its members “have fully and successfully implemented the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards” for 11 years, “resulting in dramatically reduced mercury and related emissions” from U.S. power plants.

“We look forward to continuing to work with” EPA to ensure the final standard “is consistent with our industry’s ongoing clean energy transformation,” said Emily Fisher, the group’s executive vice president of clean energy,

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., took a more combative approach, saying Biden’s administration “continues to wage war on coal and affordable, reliable energy by issuing unnecessary regulations intended to drive down electricity production from our nation’s baseload power resources.″

Capito, the top Republican on the Senate Environment Committee and a fierce champion of coal produced by her home state, said Biden “has again put politics over sound policy. With one job-killing regulation after another, the EPA continues to threaten the livelihoods of those in West Virginia and other energy-producing communities across the country.″

Mindful of such criticism, the White House said this week it is making $450 million available for solar farms and other clean energy projects at the site of current or former coal mines, part of Biden’s efforts to combat climate change. Up to five projects nationwide will be funded through the 2021 infrastructure law, the White House said Tuesday.

Coal capacity climbs worldwide despite promises to slash it

By SIBI ARASU

Steam rises from the coal-fired power plant Niederaussem, Germany, on Nov. 2, 2022. 

The potential to burn coal for electricity, cement, steel and other uses went up in 2022 despite global promises to phase down the fuel that's the biggest source of planet-warming gases in the atmosphere, a report late Wednesday, April 5, 2023, found. 

(AP Photo/Michael Probst, File)

The capacity to burn coal for power went up in 2022 despite global promises to phase down the fuel that’s the biggest source of planet-warming gases in the atmosphere, a report Wednesday found.

The coal fleet grew by 19.5 gigawatts last year, enough to light up around 15 million homes, with nearly all newly commissioned coal projects in China, according to a report by Global Energy Monitor, an organization that tracks a variety of energy projects around the globe.

That 1% increase comes at a time when the world needs to retire its coal fleet four and a half times faster to meet climate goals, the report said. In 2021, countries around the world promised to phase down the use of coal to help achieve the goal to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit).

“The more new coal projects come online, the steeper the cuts and commitments need to be in the future,” said Flora Champenois, the report’s lead author and the project manager for GEM’s Global Coal Plant Tracker.

New coal plants were added in 14 countries and eight countries announced new coal projects. China, India, Indonesia, Turkey and Zimbabwe were the only countries that both added new coal plants and announced new projects. China accounted for 92% of all new coal project announcements.

China added 26.8 gigawatts and India added about 3.5 gigawatts of new coal power capacity to their electricity grids. China also gave clearance for nearly 100 gigawatts of new coal power projects with construction likely to begin this year.

But “the long term trajectory is still towards clean energy,” said Shantanu Srivastava, an energy analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis who is based in New Delhi. Srivastava said the pandemic and the war in Ukraine temporarily drove some nations toward fossil fuels.

In Europe, where the Russian invasion of Ukraine meant a scramble for alternative energy sources and droughts stifled hydropower, the continent only saw a very minor increase in coal use.

Others went the other way. There were significant shutdowns in the U.S. where 13.5 gigawatts of coal power was retired. It’s one of 17 countries that closed up plants in the past year.

With nearly 2,500 plants around the world, coal accounts for about a third of the total amount of energy installation globally. Other fossil fuels, nuclear energy and renewable energy make up the rest.

To meet climate goals set in the 2015 Paris Agreement, coal plants in rich countries need to be retired by 2030 and coal plants in developing countries need to be shut down by 2040, according to the International Energy Agency. That means around 117 gigawatts of coal needs to be retired every year, but only 26 gigawatts was retired in 2022.

“At this rate, the transition away from existing and new coal isn’t happening fast enough to avoid climate chaos,” said Champenois.

Srivastava added that its important to make sure the millions employed in coal and other dirty industries are not left behind when transitioning to clean energy, although that gets more difficult the more coal projects get locked in.

“Every day we delay a transition to clean energy,” Srivastava said, “it not only makes it harder to achieve climate goals but it also makes the transition more expensive.”



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This story has been corrected to make clear that the report looked into coal generation capacity, not coal use.

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Follow Sibi Arasu on Twitter at @sibi123

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Are robot waiters the future? 

Some restaurants think so

WE HAVE ONE AT A BUFFET IN EDMONTON VERY PRIMITIVE DELIVERY SERVICE NOT REPLACING HUMANS YET

By DEE-ANN DURBIN

A BellaBot robot greets guests at the Noodle Topia restaurant on Monday, March 20, 2023, in Madison Heights, Mich. Many think robot waiters are the solution to the industry’s labor shortages and sales have been growing rapidly in recent years, with tens of thousands now gliding through dining rooms worldwide. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

MADISON HEIGHTS, Mich. (AP) — You may have already seen them in restaurants: waist-high machines that can greet guests, lead them to their tables, deliver food and drinks and ferry dirty dishes to the kitchen. Some have cat-like faces and even purr when you scratch their heads.

But are robot waiters the future? It’s a question the restaurant industry is increasingly trying to answer.

Many think robot waiters are the solution to the industry’s labor shortages. Sales of them have been growing rapidly in recent years, with tens of thousands now gliding through dining rooms worldwide.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that this is where the world is going,” said Dennis Reynolds, dean of the Hilton College of Global Hospitality Leadership at the University of Houston. The school’s restaurant began using a robot in December, and Reynolds says it has eased the workload for human staff and made service more efficient.

But others say robot waiters aren’t much more than a gimmick that have a long way to go before they can replace humans. They can’t take orders, and many restaurants have steps, outdoor patios and other physical challenges they can’t adapt to.

“Restaurants are pretty chaotic places, so it’s very hard to insert automation in a way that is really productive,” said Craig Le Clair, a vice president with the consulting company Forrester who studies automation.

Still, the robots are proliferating. Redwood City, California-based Bear Robotics introduced its Servi robot in 2021 and expects to have 10,000 deployed by the end of this year in 44 U.S. states and overseas. Shenzen, China-based Pudu Robotics, which was founded in 2016, has deployed more than 56,000 robots worldwide.

“Every restaurant chain is looking toward as much automation as possible,” said Phil Zheng of Richtech Robotics, an Austin-based maker of robot servers. “People are going to see these everywhere in the next year or two.”

Li Zhai was having trouble finding staff for Noodle Topia, his Madison Heights, Michigan, restaurant, in the summer of 2021, so he bought a BellaBot from Pudu Robotics. The robot was so successful he added two more; now, one robot leads diners to their seats while another delivers bowls of steaming noodles to tables. Employees pile dirty dishes onto a third robot to shuttle back to the kitchen.

Robot waiters are rolling into more restaurants amid labor shortages

Are robot waiters the future? It’s a question the restaurant industry is increasingly trying to answer (April 6)(AP video: Mike Householder)

Now, Zhai only needs three people to do the same volume of business that five or six people used to handle. And they save him money. A robot costs around $15,000, he said, but a person costs $5,000 to $6,000 per month.

Zhai said the robots give human servers more time to mingle with customers, which increases tips. And customers often post videos of the robots on social media that entice others to visit.

“Besides saving labor, the robots generate business,” he said.

Interactions with human servers can vary. Betzy Giron Reynosa, who works with a BellaBot at The Sushi Factory in West Melbourne, Florida, said the robot can be a pain.

“You can’t really tell it to move or anything,” she said. She has also had customers who don’t want to interact with it.

But overall the robot is a plus, she said. It saves her trips back and forth to the kitchen and gives her more time with customers.

Labor shortages accelerated the adoption of robots globally, Le Clair said. In the U.S., the restaurant industry employed 15 million people at the end of last year, but that was still 400,000 fewer than before the pandemic, according to the National Restaurant Association. In a recent survey, 62% of restaurant operators told the association they don’t have enough employees to meet customer demand.

Pandemic-era concerns about hygiene and adoption of new technology like QR code menus also laid the ground for robots, said Karthik Namasivayam, director of The School of Hospitality Business at Michigan State University’s Broad College of Business.

“Once an operator begins to understand and work with one technology, other technologies become less daunting and will be much more readily accepted as we go forward,” he said.

Namasivayam notes that public acceptance of robot servers is already high in Asia. Pizza Hut has robot servers in 1,000 restaurants in China, for example.

The U.S. was slower to adopt robots, but some chains are now testing them. Chick-fil-A is trying them at multiple U.S. locations, and says it’s found that the robots give human employees more time to refresh drinks, clear tables and greet guests.

Marcus Merritt was surprised to see a robot server at a Chick-fil-A in Atlanta recently. The robot didn’t seem to be replacing staff, he said; he counted 13 employees in the store, and workers told him the robot helps service move a little faster. He was delighted that the robot told him to have a great day, and expects he’ll see more robots when he goes out to eat.

“I think technology is part of our normal everyday now. Everybody has a cell phone, everybody uses some form of computer,” said Merritt, who owns a marketing business. “It’s a natural progression.”

But not all chains have had success with robots.

Chili’s introduced a robot server named Rita in 2020 and expanded the test to 61 U.S. restaurants before abruptly halting it last August. The chain found that Rita moved too slowly and got in the way of human servers. And 58% of guests surveyed said Rita didn’t improve their overall experience.

Haidilao, a hot pot chain in China, began using robots a year ago to deliver food to diners’ tables. But managers at several outlets said the robots haven’t proved as reliable or cost-effective as human servers.

Wang Long, the manager of a Beijing outlet, said his two robots have both have broken down.

“We only used them now and then,” Wang said. “It is a sort of concept thing and the machine can never replace humans.”

Eventually, Namasivayam expects that a certain percentage of restaurants — maybe 30% — will continue to have human servers and be considered more luxurious, while the rest will lean more heavily on robots in the kitchen and in dining rooms. Economics are on the side of robots, he said; the cost of human labor will continue to rise, but technology costs will fall.

But that’s not a future everyone wants to see. Saru Jayaraman, who advocates for higher pay for restaurant workers as president of One Fair Wage, said restaurants could easily solve their labor shortages if they just paid workers more.

“Humans don’t go to a full-service restaurant to be served by technology,” she said. “They go for the experience of themselves and the people they care about being served by a human.”

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AP researcher Yu Bing contributed from Beijing.

A BellaBot robot at the Noodle Topia restaurant delivers food and drinks to a table, Monday, March 20, 2023, in Madison Heights, Mich. Many think robot waiters are the solution to the industry’s labor shortages and sales have been growing rapidly in recent years, with tens of thousands now gliding through dining rooms worldwide. 



Li Zhai of the Noodle Topia restaurant points out features on his BellaBot robot, Monday, March 20, 2023 in Madison Heights, Mich. Zhai was having trouble finding staff for the restaurant in the summer of 2021, so he bought a robot which was so successful he added two more. With the robots, Zhai only needs three workers to do the same volume of business that five or six people used to handle. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

New Ram electric pickup can go up to 500 miles on a charge

April 5, 2023

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Mike Koval, RAM Brand Chief Executive Officer, introduces the REV Ram 1500 at the New York International Auto Show in New York Wednesday, April 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)

DETROIT (AP) — An electric Ram pickup truck with up to 500 mile (800 kilometers) of range per charge and a battery-powered people-hauling Kia SUV are among the new vehicles being introduced Wednesday at the New York International Auto Show.

The two debuts in New York on Wednesday are among only nine automaker news conferences, far short of previous years. Many of the new models have been rolled out previously as automakers move away from auto shows and introduce new products virtually.

The Ram 1500 Rev joins pickups from Ford, General Motors, Rivian and Lordstown Motors in a field that’s growing increasingly crowded. Tesla is supposed to start selling its long-awaited Cybertruck later in the year.

The Ram looks more like the current gas-powered model than a more futuristic concept vehicle the company showed off in January. But it’s full of new technology.

The Rev will come with a choice of two battery packs, the standard one with up to 350 miles (560 kilometers) of range and an optional larger pack with an expected range of 500 miles (800 kilometers).

The company says it also can tow up to 14000 pounds (6350 kilograms) and carry 2700 pounds (1,225 kilograms) in its bed. The 654-horsepower truck also can travel from zero to 60 mph (97 kilometers per hour) in 4.4 seconds, exceptionally quick for a vehicle that size.

Stellantis, which makes Ram vehicles, says the all-wheel-drive Rev can add up to 110 miles (177 kilometers) of range in about 10 minutes with a 350 kilowatt fast charger. The truck also is capable of powering worksite tools, sending power back to the grid or powering a home during an outage, the company says.

It’s built on a new frame designed specifically for larger electric vehicles.

The truck isn’t due in showrooms until the fourth quarter of 2024. The price will be announced closer to the on-sale date.

Stellantis says the truck will be built in the U.S., but it hasn’t disclosed which factory. The company says that under current rules, the Ram Rev should qualify for a $7,500 U.S. electric vehicle tax credit. To qualify, vehicles must be assembled North America. Also, a certain percentage of battery minerals and parts must come from the U.S. or free trade partners.

Kia’s new EV9 is a little longer than the automaker’s popular gas-powered Telluride, and it can seat up to seven people in three rows of seats.

The EV9 comes with two powertrain options, a standard battery and rear-wheel-drive, and an optional larger battery that’s expected to go 300 miles (480 kilometers) on a charge. All-wheel-drive also is an option.

Kia says the dual-motor GT line comes with 379 horsepower and can go from zero to 60 mph (97 kilometers per hour) in five seconds. The battery can be charged from 10% to 80% in under 25 minutes at a fast-charging station, Kia says.

The EV9 will hit U.S. showrooms late this year, and it’s expected to be built at the company’s plant in West Point, Georgia, starting next year. The automaker says it’s reviewing requirements and doesn’t know yet whether it will qualify for the $7,500 tax credit.

The EV9′s price will be announced closer to the date it goes on sale.

No driver? No problem. Robotaxis eye San Francisco expansion

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE

April 5, 2023

Driverless taxis navigate complex road to future

Two car companies, Waymo and Cruise, want to expand driverless taxi service in San Francisco and other U.S. cities. But as they seek regulatory approvals, some officials are raising concerns about erratic driving behavior. (AP Video/Terry Chea) (April 5)


SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Two trailblazing ride-hailing services are heading toward uncharted territory as they seek regulatory approval to transport passengers around the clock throughout one of the most densely populated U.S. cities in vehicles that will have no one sitting in the driver’s seat.

If Cruise, a subsidiary of General Motors, and Waymo, a spinoff from Google, reach their goal before year’s end, San Francisco would become the first U.S. city with two totally driverless services competing against Uber, Lyft and traditional taxis — all of which depend on people to control the automobiles.

But Cruise and Waymo still must navigate around potential roadblocks, including complaints about their vehicles making unexpected, traffic-clogging stops that threaten to inconvenience other travelers and imperil public safety.

Cruise already has been charging people for driverless rides in less congested parts of San Francisco during night-time hours since last June. Waymo has been giving free driverless rides in a broader swath of the city while awaiting clearance to begin charging passengers in robotic vehicles that Google secretly began working on 14 years ago.

The effort to unleash dueling driverless services throughout San Francisco is shaping up to be just the first step in a far more ambitious expansion centered in California — a state where more than 35 million vehicles driven by humans are currently registered.

Cruise recently applied for permission to begin testing its robotic vehicles throughout California at speeds of up to 55 miles per hour (88 kilometers per hour) — 25 miles per hour (40 kilometers per hour) above the maximum speed for its robotaxis in San Francisco. Waymo is already testing its driverless cars in Los Angeles — the second largest city in the U.S.

The California push comes on top of Cruise starting to test its robotaxis in Austin, Texas, as well as Phoenix, where since 2020 Waymo’s driverless ride-hailing service has been carrying passengers on Arizona roads that are far less congested and challenging than the streets of San Francisco.

″We still have work to do, but it’s improving at a pretty rapid rate,” Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt told The Associated Press. “As it gets fine-tuned, it will get really elegant over time, but also the safety continues to improve.”

Saswat Panigrahi, Waymo’s chief product officer, expects the company’s past experience to pay off as it transplants what it has learned from operating a driverless ride-hailing service in Phoenix to more heavily trafficked cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles.

“The uncertainty is definitely now far lower, having operated a fully autonomous service with real riders,” Panigrahi said.

Two Waymo driverless taxis stop and face each other on a street in San Francisco before driving past each other, on Feb. 15, 2023. Cruise, a subsidiary of General Motors, and Waymo, a spinoff from Google, both are on the verge of operating 24-hour services that would transport passengers throughout one of the most densely populated U.S. cities in vehicles that will have no one sitting in the driver’s seat. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)

Both Cruise and Waymo recently announced their driverless fleets each have covered more than 1 million miles without a major accident. But their robotaxis also have experienced nagging problems in San Francisco that have caused traffic headaches and other nuisances that threaten to inconvenience people or, worse, block emergency vehicles rushing to a fire or other urgent calls for help.

“The expected things are easy, but it’s the unexpected things that humans react to in real time that are a concern,” said transportation expert Nico Larco, who is director of the Urbanism Next Center at the University of Oregon. “Best case, it will just causes confusion, havoc, congestion if the cars stop in the middle of the road. But the worst cases could actually be harmful to someone.”

A pair of Associated Press reporters witnessed the potential problems first hand in mid-February after a Waymo vehicle safely transported them on a trip through San Francisco that required navigating hilly terrain, turning in rush-hour traffic and yielding to pedestrians darting out into the crosswalks.

During one ride, the robotaxi stopped in the middle of the street after the AP reporters got out, and remained there for several minutes while a line of human-operated cars stacked up behind it. It turned out that a back door on the driver’s side hadn’t completely closed.

In another glitch involving Cruise last September, an AP reporter took a roughly five-mile ride in a robotaxi nicknamed “Peaches,” which repeatedly bypassed the designated destination. The reporter finally had to use the Cruise app to contact a dispatcher in a remote center so the car could be stopped — in the middle of the street.

Vogt noted that a number of improvements have been made since then, and indeed two different Cruise robotaxis — one named “Cherry” and the other named “Hollandaise” — dropped off the same reporter and his colleague at their designated designations on a follow-up trip, although Cherry stopped at a bus stop that briefly prevented the arrival of an oncoming bus.

Broader concerns about robotaxis operating in ways that cause headaches for the people outside the vehicle were raised in a cautionary letter sent to California regulators in January by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority.

The letter cited at least 92 reported incidents of Cruise robotaxis making sudden stops in the street through Dec. 31. At least three of the incidents blocked the right of ways for public transportation for periods ranging from nine to 18 minutes.

Within the past year, driverless Cruise vehicles have also obstructed firefighters rushing to a three-alarm fire and or illegally entered into areas where there were ongoing efforts to douse a fire, according to the authority, which is asking regulators to hold off on unleashing robotaxis throughout San Francisco at all hours until there is more information about why and how often the cars periodically clog traffic. The abrupt braking and stops by Cruise’s robotaxis have also been under investigation by federal regulators since late last year.

“We are just very wary,” said Tilly Chang, the executive director for the San Francisco transportation authority. “We want to be supporters and help facilitate (driverless rides), but we have to make sure it’s safe.”

Meanwhile, dozens of other technology companies and automakers have joined in a race to develop self-driving car technology at a collective cost of more than $100 billion. Their ultimate goal is to make money off robotic drivers that are safer and less expensive than human drivers. Robotaxis could also lower prices for passengers, although Vogt believes consumers may be willing to pay more for rides without a stranger behind the wheel.

The investments so far have produced a mixed bag of successes, flops and hyperbole from the likes of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who predicted nearly four years ago that the electric automaker would be running a huge robotaxi service by the end of 2020 but still hasn’t come close to realizing that ambition.

Cruise’s owner, the nearly 125-year-old General Motors, is nonetheless so confident robotaxis will drive more responsibly than humans and be able to expand its driverless service into more U.S. markets that it made the bold prediction last fall that Cruise would generate $1 billion in revenue by 2025 — a big jump from Cruise’s revenue of $106 million last year when it also lost nearly $2 billion.

That optimism is in sharp contrast to the disheartening experience of another storied automaker, Ford Motor, which paid $1 billion in 2017 to acquire driverless startup Argo AI, only to shut down the division last October and swallow a $2.7 billion loss after failing to find a buyer for the technology.

Montana judge upholds suit over Native education requirement

By HALLIE GOLDEN

April 4, 2023

Activists hold signs promoting Native American participation in the U.S. census in front of a mural of Crow Tribe historian and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Joe Medicine Crow on the Crow Indian Reservation in Lodge Grass, Mont., on Aug. 26, 2020. A judge in Montana refused to dismiss a lawsuit Tuesday, April 4, 2023, brought by Native American tribes, parents and students against state education leaders that alleges the state's unique constitutional requirement to teach students about Native American history and culture has not been upheld. 

(AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File)

A judge in Montana refused to dismiss a lawsuit Tuesday brought by Native American tribes, parents and students against state education leaders that alleges the state’s unique constitutional requirement to teach students about Native American history and culture has not been upheld.

“It’s shocking to me that we are this many decades down the road, with this many court challenges, this many legislative enactments … that this is where we sit here today in 2023,” said Judge Amy Eddy, who explained she would provide the specific rationale for her ruling in about a month.

The hearing came 50 years after the state’s constitution that embedded this educational requirement took effect. Other states, including Connecticut, Washington, Oregon, California and North Dakota, have committed in recent years to boosting these types of educational requirements, but Montana remains the only one that includes it in its constitution.

Deputy Attorney General Thane Johnson, representing the defendants, which includes the Montana Office of Public Instruction and the Montana Board of Public Education, argued that not only is the constitutional clause — aside from funding — “aspirational,” but it’s not up to the state to enforce these content standards.

“I think this case is about this old cliché, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink … The defendants can provide the funding, can provide the resources to the school districts, but ultimately the school districts are in charge of teaching the curriculum of the school,” Johnson said.

Alex Rate, legal director for ACLU of Montana, pushed back, saying leading a horse to water and making him drink is indeed the responsibility of the state.

“If tomorrow half of the schools in the state decided to stop teaching math, the state would certainly not take the position that it has no role in uniformizing math curricula in those circumstances,” Rate said. “And the ironic thing is, find me math in the Montana constitution. It doesn’t exist.”

In 1999, the Legislature passed the Indian Education for All Act, which once again calls for Native American instruction and requires education officials to work directly with tribes when developing that curriculum.

In a 2004 lawsuit over school funding, a state court found that Montana’s educational goals showed no commitment to the preservation of Native American cultural identity. Funding started to be allocated a few years later.

The current lawsuit, which was filed in 2021 in District Court in Great Falls, Montana, aims for school districts to account for the program’s funding they are allocated and spend the funds on Native American education, as well as face consequences for not doing these things, Rate told The Associated Press.

During the hearing, Eddy brought up a claim in the lawsuit that school districts documented spending only about 50% of the $6.7 million allocated for the Indian Education for All program funds in 2019 and 2020.

She said she is having a difficult time wrapping her head around the argument that the state doesn’t have a responsibility for making sure that funding is allocated properly.

“I have a really difficult time with that conclusion,” she said. “What if this was special education funding?” Eddy asked.

The lawsuit cites an independent evaluation of the program from 2015, which found its implementation to be “very minimal” in some districts, attributing this to “the absence of accountability.”

Schools have also reported using the funds on things that don’t directly relate to the program, including an elementary school library in Helena that appeared to have purchased a book on marmots using the funds, according to the lawsuit.

Shauna Yellow Kidney, a citizen of Blackfeet Tribe and a parent of three elementary school students in Missoula, said Monday night ahead of the hearing that she wants the cultural knowledge of the eight federally recognized tribes in the state taught, but also the value of Indigenous practices.

“We have ways of knowing that are different from the white community, and they’re powerful and they’re beautiful,” she said. “And that would benefit my girls, with every step of their education, by being able to share that with their classmates -- the beauty and the power of Indigenous tribes here in Montana – what they once stood for and what they still stand for today.”

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Report: Croatian officials shared information on migrants

 Croatian police officers stand as people walk with banners during a protest against the violent pushbacks of migrants, allegedly conducted by Croatian police, near the border crossing between Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina in Maljevac, Croatia, on June 19, 2021. An independent investigative group on Thursday April 6, 2023 accused Croatian officials and police of using a clandestine WhatsApp group to share sensitive information about migrants trying to enter the country. (AP Photo/Edo Zulic, File)

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — An independent news outlet reported Thursday that Croatian officials and police used a clandestine WhatsApp group to share sensitive information about migrants trying to enter the country without authorization.

An investigation published by Lighthouse Reports, a nonprofit that collaborates with other news organizations, said the participating journalists think many of the monitored migrants were later forcibly removed from Croatia, which would be illegal under international treaties.

Croatian police denied any wrongdoing.

Lighthouse Reports said it received 60 leaked screenshots and managed to identify 33 participants in an encrypted chat group used between August 2019 and February 2020.

“We found that among them were Croatian high-ranking officials,” the report, titled “Inside Croatia’s Secret WhatsApp Group,” said. “The WhatsApp group was used to exchange information about apprehensions of more than 1,300 people of mostly Afghan, Pakistani and Syrian nationality.”

The messages often included photos of individuals with their faces clearly visible and some who were forced to lie face down on the ground or to remove their shoes. The WhatsApp group also was used to exchange information about journalists visiting the border area, the report said.

It added that the WhatsApp group “sat outside any official means of communication and away from the usual monitoring procedures, and there are strong indications that the foreign nationals referenced in the messages went on to be subject to illegal pushbacks.”

The Lighthouse report was done in collaboration with Der Spiegel, Nova TV, Novosti weekly, Telegram news portal and ORF.

One screenshot published by the Telegram news portal allegedly showed Jelena Bikić, the head of Interior Ministry’s public relations’ office, saying that The Associated Press had requested permission to accompany the police manning the border with Bosnia.

“We will reject the request, so we can expect them to film on their own,” Bikic reportedly wrote. The AP could not independently verify the information.

Croatian officials said they would neither confirm nor deny the authenticity of the screenshots published in the report. Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic acknowledged the existence of a police operation named Corridor that was mentioned in the report and which he said was designed to curb illegal migration and people smuggling.

“We cannot know if these messages are authentic,” Bozinovic said of the posts quoted by Lighthouse Reports. “Corridor II-West is no secret operation. It is an action carried out against migrant smugglers and intensively in the past five years.”

In a separate statement, the Croatian Interior Ministry denied police mistreatment of migrants. The use of private chat groups by officers is not forbidden, the ministry’s statement insisted, adding that all police work is officially documented.

“The fact that some information was exchanged via encrypted application does not mean that the practice of police officers is in any way incriminating or illegal,” the Interior Ministry said.

Croatia, a European Union member which joined the EU’s visa-free Schengen Area this year, has repeatedly faced accusations of migrant pushbacks at its borders, a practice that is illegal under international refugee treaties.

Pushbacks typically involve authorities using force or collective expulsions to prevent people from exercising their right to apply for international protection if they fear for their lives or face persecution.

Migrants seek to enter Croatia from neighboring Bosnia or Serbia. They initially come from Turkey or Greece, go to North Macedonia and Serbia and Bosnia and then on toward Western Europe along what is known as the Balkan land route.

In 2019, Lighthouse Reports published video footage of uniformed men in balaclavas beating groups of migrants, saying they were Croatian police. That release resulted in an investigation and removal of police officers from duty.

OLDE FASHIONED CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Dirty money: Ex-lawmaker gets 2 years for cesspool bribes

By AUDREY McAVOY

Former state Rep. Ty Cullen speaks to reporters outside U.S. District Court in Honolulu on Thursday, April 6, 2023 after he was sentenced to two years in prison for taking bribes in exchange for influencing cesspool legislation. Cullen's federal corruption case has drawn attention to a perennial problem in the islands: the tens of thousands of cesspools that release 50 million gallons of raw sewage into the state's pristine waters every day.(AP Photo/Audrey McAvoy)

HONOLULU (AP) — A former Hawaii lawmaker was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison in a federal corruption case that’s drawn attention to a perennial problem in the islands: the tens of thousands of cesspools that release 50 million gallons of raw sewage into the state’s pristine waters every day.

Cesspools — in-ground pits that collect sewage from houses and buildings not connected to city services for gradual release into the environment — are at the center of the criminal case against former Democratic state Rep. Ty Cullen. He has admitted to taking bribes of cash and gambling chips in exchange for influencing legislation to reduce Hawaii’s widespread use of cesspools.

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Oki Mollway said she gave Cullen a sentence at the shortest end of the term recommended by prosecutors because he had cooperated extensively with investigators. Yet she didn’t go as low as the 15 months requested by his defense attorney because of the serious nature of his crimes.

“This was a grievous breach of public trust on your part. It appears to have been motivated by greed, and it stretched out over a number of years,” Mollway told Cullen. “I am very concerned that this was not a momentary lapse of judgement.”

Cullen told the judge he took full responsibility for and was ashamed of his actions.

“I want to say I’m sorry to my family who stayed by me, to my friends, to my constituents, my community and the people of Hawaii,” Cullen said, choking up. “I will continue to work to make my wrongs right. And ensure that this never happens again.”

Mollway also fined Cullen $25,000.

The toxic pits proliferated in Hawaii in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. when investment in sewer lines didn’t keep up with rapid development. Today Hawaii has 83,000 of them — more than any other state — and only banned new cesspools in 2016.

Now Hawaii is eager to get rid of them because of the environmental damage they do and the risk of groundwater contamination.

 This 2022 photo provided by Stuart Coleman shows shows a cesspool in Waialua, Hawaii. A former Hawaii lawmaker is expected in court for sentencing in a federal corruption case that's drawn attention to a perennial problem in the islands: the tens of thousands of cesspools that release 50 million gallons of raw sewage into the state's pristine waters every day. (Stuart Coleman via AP)

Public spending on such efforts and the lack of knowledge about the specialized field can create conditions ripe for corruption, said Colin Moore, a political science professor at the University of Hawaii.

“That just creates a lot of opportunities because comparisons are so difficult to make, especially in a really small market like Hawaii where there may only be two, or in some cases even one, contractor who can do the work,” Moore said. “Who’s to say that the bid is inflated?”

Criminal cases related to Cullen’s have led to guilty pleas from the Honolulu businessman who bribed the lawmaker and a former Senate majority leader.

An estimated 16% of Hawaii housing units have cesspools, but the share is much higher on more rural islands like the Big Island, where more than half of the homes have them. They’re found everywhere from the mountains to the seashore and even in urban neighborhoods just miles from downtown Honolulu.

In these homes, effluence from toilets and showers flows through drains into a pit in a yard instead of into a sewer line and to a central wastewater treatment plant. Raw sewage — including all its bacteria and pathogens — then seeps from the pit into the ground, groundwater, aquifers and ocean.

The sewage can contaminate drinking water, and in the ocean it can fuel the growth of reef-smothering algae. As sea levels rise due to climate change, scientists expect the ocean to increasingly inundate cesspools on coastal properties, pushing sewage into waters where people swim.

Such concerns have prompted the Legislature to draft bills to phase out cesspools. In 2017 the state enacted a law requiring homeowners to close their cesspools and hook up to sewer systems or install cleaner on-site waste treatment systems by 2050. The most common on-site alternative is a septic tank and leach field combination, in which bacteria break down solids inside a tank and a disposal field removes wastewater and pathogens while safely returning water to the environment.

This year lawmakers are considering additional legislation, including one bill that would accelerate conversion deadlines for cesspools in more environmentally sensitive areas to 2035 and 2040. Another would establish a pilot program to expand county sewage systems.

In a plea agreement, Cullen admitted receiving envelopes of cash to help pass a bill related to cesspool conversions. He was vice chair of the powerful House Finance Committee for part of the time he received bribes.

Cullen accepted a total of $30,000 from Honolulu businessman Milton Choy, who is due to be sentenced next month. He’s also admitted accepting $22,000 in gambling chips from Choy during a trip to a New Orleans wastewater conference.

Court documents say Choy’s company regularly entered into contracts with government agencies to provide wastewater management services and was well-placed to benefit from publicly financed cesspool conversion projects.

J. Kalani English, a Democrat and the former Senate majority leader, has already been sentenced to three years and four months in prison for taking bribes from Choy, also in exchange for influencing cesspool legislation.

Prosecutors did not recommend a sentence more lenient than federal guidelines because English did not cooperate the way Cullen did, said Ken Sorenson, the assistant U.S. attorney on that case.

Separately, a former Maui County wastewater manager admitted taking $2 million from Choy in exchange for steering at least 56 sole-source contracts to his business. He was sentenced to 10 years in February.

The case has invited jests likening the unsanitary disposal pits to underhanded political behavior.

“We were joking that, ‘Oh, now these politicians have given cesspools a bad name,’” said Stuart Coleman, a longtime advocate for shutting down Hawaii’s cesspools and the executive director of the nonprofit Wastewater Alternatives and Innovations.

“It’s not too far a jump when you talk about this kind of corruption and (then) you talk about the cesspool that is politics.”

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This story has been updated to correct to $30,000 the amount Cullen accepted from Choy.

GOP KILLS KIDS WITH PRO GUN LAWS & TRANS BANS
Indiana, Idaho governors sign bans on gender-affirming care

By ARLEIGH RODGERS

Protesters stand outside of the Senate chamber at the Indiana Statehouse on Feb. 22, 2023, in Indianapolis. Republican Governors in Indiana and Idaho have signed into law bills banning gender-affirming care for minors early April 2023, making those states the latest to prohibit transgender health care this year. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings, File)

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Republican governors in Indiana and Idaho have signed into law bills banning gender-affirming care for minors, making those states the latest to restrict transgender health care as Republican-led legislatures continue to curb LGBTQ+ rights this year.

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb signed legislation Wednesday that will prohibit transgender youth from accessing medication or surgeries that aid in transition and mandate those currently taking medication to stop by the end of the year.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little had signed legislation Tuesday evening that criminalizes gender-affirming care for youth.

More than a dozen other states are considering bills that would prohibit transgender youth from accessing hormone therapies, puberty blockers and transition surgeries, even after the approval of parents and the advice of doctors. Other proposals target transgender individuals’ everyday life — including sports, workplaces and schools.

“Permanent gender-changing surgeries with lifelong impacts and medically prescribed preparation for such a transition should occur as an adult, not as a minor,” Holcomb said in a statement about the Indiana bill.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed a lawsuit rapidly after Holcomb signed the Indiana legislation — something the group had promised to do after Republican supermajorities advanced the ban this session. The American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho announced Wednesday it also planned to sue over that state’s new law.

The Indiana ACLU filed the lawsuit on behalf of four transgender youth and an Indiana doctor who provides transgender medical treatment. It argues the ban violates the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection guarantees as well as federal laws regarding essential medical services.

“The legislature did not ban the various treatments that are outlined,” said Ken Falk, the ACLU of Indiana legal director. “It only banned it for transgender persons.”

Under the Indiana law that takes effect July 1, doctors who offer gender-affirming care to minors would be disciplined by a licensing board. And under the Idaho law set to go into effect next January, providing hormones, puberty blockers or other gender-affirming care to people under age 18 would be a felony crime.

“In signing this bill, I recognize our society plays a role in protecting minors from surgeries or treatments that can irreversibly damage their healthy bodies,” Little wrote. “However, as policymakers we should take great caution whenever we consider allowing the government to interfere with loving parents and their decisions about what is best for their children.”

Supporters of the legislation have contended the banned care is irreversible or carries side effects. They argue that only an adult — and not a minor’s parent — can consent to the treatments.

But opponents say such care is vital and often life-saving for trans kids, and medical providers say most of the procedures are reversible and safe. Transgender medical treatments for children and teens have also been available in the U.S. for more than a decade and are endorsed by major medical associations.

“When I started hormone therapy, it made me feel so much better about myself,” said Jessica Wayner, 16, at an Indiana House public health committee hearing last month.

At least 13 states have laws banning gender-affirming care for minors: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Utah, South Dakota and West Virginia. Federal judges have blocked enforcement of Alabama and Arkansas’ laws.

The GOP-led Kansas Legislature on Wednesday also overrode Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of a bill to ban transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports from kindergarten through college.

Nineteen other states have imposed restrictions on transgender athletes, most recently Wyoming.

The Arkansas Senate also sent a bill Wednesday to Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders that would require parental approval for Arkansas teachers to address transgender students using their preferred name and pronouns. It also would prohibit schools from requiring teachers to use the pronouns or name a student uses.

In some states where Democrats control the legislature, lawmakers are enshrining access to gender-affirming health care. Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a bill Wednesday that protects providers of gender-affirming health care against potential civil and criminal prosecution.

Dr. Molly McClain, who provides gender-affirming health care to patients of all ages, said the new legislation sends a message to people exploring their identity in ways that may not conform to gender norms.

“It says you are seen, you are safe, you are precious, and your access to health care will be protected here,” said McClain, who teaches medicine at the University of New Mexico. “I think that that sends a huge message to trainees” in the medical field.

 Kristen Cooper holds signs outside of the Senate chamber at the Indiana Statehouse on Feb. 22, 2023, in Indianapolis. Republican Governors in Indiana and Idaho have signed into law bills banning gender-affirming care for minors early April 2023, making those states the latest to prohibit transgender health care this year. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings, File)

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Associated Press writers contributed to this report — Tom Davies in Indianapolis; John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas; Morgan Lee in Santa Fe, New Mexico; and Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho.

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Arleigh Rodgers is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/arleighrodgers

OpenAI to offer remedies to resolve Italy’s ChatGPT ban

By KELVIN CHAN

The OpenAI logo is seen on a mobile phone in front of a computer screen displaying output from ChatGPT, on March 21, 2023, in Boston. The Italian government’s privacy watchdog said Friday March 31, 2023 that it is temporarily blocking the artificial intelligence software ChatGPT in the wake of a data breach. 

(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)

LONDON (AP) — The company behind ChatGPT will propose measures to resolve data privacy concerns that sparked a temporary Italian ban on the artificial intelligence chatbot, regulators said Thursday.

The Italian data protection authority, known as Garante, last week blocked San Francisco-based OpenAI’s popular chatbot, ordering it to temporarily stop processing Italian users’ personal information while it investigates a possible breach of European Union data privacy rules.

Experts said it was the first such case of a democracy imposing a nationwide ban on a mainstream AI platform.

In a video call late Wednesday between the watchdog’s commissioners and OpenAI executives including CEO Sam Altman, the company promised to set out measures to address the concerns. Those remedies have not been detailed.

The Italian watchdog said it didn’t want to hamper AI’s development but stressed to OpenAI the importance of complying with the 27-nation EU’s stringent privacy rules.

The regulators imposed the ban after some users’ messages and payment information were exposed to others. They also questioned whether there’s a legal basis for OpenAI to collect massive amounts of data used to train ChatGPT’s algorithms and raised concerns the system could sometimes generate false information about individuals.

So-called generative AI technology like ChatGPT is “trained” on huge pools of data, including digital books and online writings, and able to generate text that mimics human writing styles.

These systems have created buzz in the tech world and beyond, but they also have stirred fears among officials, regulators and even computer scientists and tech industry leaders about possible ethical and societal risks.

Other regulators in Europe and elsewhere have started paying more attention after Italy’s action.

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission said it’s “following up with the Italian regulator to understand the basis for their action and we will coordinate with all EU Data Protection Authorities in relation to this matter.”

France’s data privacy regulator, CNIL, said it’s investigating after receiving two complaints about ChatGPT. Canada’s privacy commissioner also has opened an investigation into OpenAI after receiving a complaint about the suspected “collection, use and disclosure of personal information without consent.”

In a blog post this week, the U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office warned that “organizations developing or using generative AI should be considering their data protection obligations from the outset” and design systems with data protection as a default.

“This isn’t optional — if you’re processing personal data, it’s the law,” the office said.

In an apparent response to the concerns, OpenAI published a blog post Wednesday outlining its approach to AI safety. The company said it works to remove personal information from training data where feasible, fine-tune its models to reject requests for personal information of private individuals, and acts on requests to delete personal information from its systems.