"We are New Orleans”: A Workers’ Bill of Rights Finds Common Ground

“When we came up with the Workers’ Bill of Rights, it wasn’t just for one group, it was for all.”

SARAH JAFFE

JULY 1, 2024

A waiter working at a restaurant in New Orleans in 2021. A new effort to secure a Workers' Bill of Rights for workers in New Orleans is finding common ground.

PHOTO BY MARIO TAMA/GETTY IMAGES

NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana’s government made headlines in recent weeks for passing a slate of right-wing policies that range from requiring the Ten Commandments be displayed in every classroom to eliminating lunch breaks for young workers. Other priorities, like banning collective bargaining for most public sector workers, didn’t pass this time around but may come back to haunt working people soon enough.

If that’s not enough, the state already has preemption laws on the books that prevent local ordinances that would raise the minimum wage, provide paid leave, require prevailing wage for workers on city contracts, or regulate the gig economy.

So what are workers in Louisiana, particularly in its most progressive city, New Orleans, to do?

So what are workers in Louisiana, particularly in its most progressive city, New Orleans, to do?

Despite some of the least favorable conditions for labor in the country, workers here have been organizing — and making gains. The most recent victory came from Tulane’s non-tenured faculty, and workers have been pushing for union rights and safer, better conditions in workplaces from hospitals to dollar stores. And now workers in New Orleans, organizing with Step Up Louisiana, are campaigning for a Workers’ Bill of Rights in the city, an initiative which will be on the ballot in November.

Workers in New Orleans, organizing with Step Up Louisiana, are campaigning for a Workers’ Bill of Rights in the city, an initiative which will be on the ballot in November.


It was those dollar store workers whose campaign for better conditions sparked the idea for a local ordinance, explained Kisha Edwards, operations and membership coordinator for Step Up Louisiana. During conversations with local church leaders and members of the City Council, they began to discuss ways to incentivize businesses to do better by their employees. ​“We were thinking of a grading system attached to the bill of rights,” Edwards explained, to let customers know that workers in a particular place have safe and secure working conditions, health benefits and paid leave.

The key issues, added David Williams, a Dollar General worker organizing with Step Up, are ​“the opportunity for workers to have a living wage, the right to heal, when they need time off or need to spend time with their family, the right to organize where they don’t have to feel threatened by anything. Also, affordable healthcare coverage because everything costs, inflation is real.”
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After the early conversations, Step Up held listening sessions around the city, asking people what they would want in a workers’ bill of rights. Britain Forsyth, the legislative coordinator for Step Up, joined the organization in December 2022 and began working on crafting a proposal from the results of those listening sessions. The plan involves creating a Healthy Workplace designation for employers who uphold those four principles: a minimum of $15 per hour wage, paid leave for health, family, bereavement and holiday time, the right to organize a union, and employer-provided health insurance. They also want to build a workers’ commission to hear complaints by workers and to hold bad bosses accountable.

Details, Forsyth said, are still being hammered out. ​“We’ve been working a little bit with the Office of Human Rights and Equity and talking to them about what’s possible.” The Healthy Workplace designation would be managed by the city health department, who have been, he said, enthusiastic partners. A lot of people, he said, have felt hopeless about the political situation in the city because of the preemption laws and the election of Jeff Landry as governor, and so public officials have jumped at the chance to do something positive, even if they have to rely on incentivizing good behavior more than punishing or banning bad.

“Our city council has really been eager to pass this,” Forsyth said. ​“Their leadership on this has been great because it’s showing unity — something that they may not always have.” Edwards added, ​“That’s the message I believe that the city council is sending, that our city deserves more and we deserve better for our workers.”

But the bill of rights will have to be passed by the people, with a ballot initiative to amend the city charter. And so Step Up is preparing for a campaign that will run throughout the summer and into election season. They have a year-round canvassing operation already that can be turned to this work, and plan to dedicate organizers to the issue. They also intend, Forsyth said, to mobilize business owners who are supportive, both as part of the campaign and to make sure that anything put forward in the bill is actually achievable for business owners who want to do right by their employees. There will be rallies and community events, and collaboration with the campaign to pass a housing trust fund, which will also be on the ballot in November.

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But Forsyth is hopeful that the measure will pass with broad support. ​“I am sure there are bad actor bosses who would be upset about this passing,” he said. ​“But there are a lot of things in New Orleans that have become non-controversial, and the things that we have on here are some of them.”

“I am sure there are bad actor bosses who would be upset about this passing,” he said. “But there are a lot of things in New Orleans that have become non-controversial, and the things that we have on here are some of them.”


Louisiana has passed some progressive legislation in recent years, Edwards noted. With the state’s ​“fair chance” hiring law and New Orleans’s ​“ban the box” ordinance, formerly incarcerated people have been given better access to jobs, she said, but if those jobs don’t pay a living wage and allow people to afford decent housing, they aren’t truly sustainable.

“Our society sees that lengthy punishment, what does it do? What does it do for the human being? You’re deteriorating a human being,” she said. That understanding has been spreading in recent years as the movement against mass incarceration grows, but, Edwards noted, when people are released from prison, they often come out with health issues that are harder to tend in the low-end jobs that they are often relegated to. Without healthcare, without paid leave, it is too easy to lose a job; without a job, you can’t pay the rent, and the constant stress makes those health issues worse.

New Orleans, she noted, is a tourist city, which relies on service sector workers to provide a good experience for visitors. ​“If our workers aren’t treated right, of course they can’t go to work and perform at their best if they don’t have an affordable place to live, if they don’t have livable wages.”
“If our workers aren't treated right, of course they can't go to work and perform at their best if they don't have an affordable place to live, if they don't have livable wages.”


For the dollar store workers, safety has been a core concern, and Edwards noted that the right to paid leave would incentivize employers to pay more attention. Robberies and violence have been common at the discount retailers, enough that the issue has been central to their organizing.

The right to heal that the bill of rights includes is drawn expansively for just this reason: to include the right to time off to recover from a traumatic experience in the workplace itself. ​“This would send a message to businesses and employers in the city that we are not taking it anymore. We’re standing up and we’re fighting back,” she said. ​“We demand action. We demand a difference. We want a change in our city.”

Visitors to New Orleans come from all over the world, Forsyth noted, and the Healthy Workplace rating could be something that businesses use to promote themselves to visitors, similar to the way that LGBT-friendly businesses market themselves as safe and welcoming places for queer and trans visitors. After all, no one wants to be served food made by a sick chef, but few of us have any way to know what working conditions are like when we visit a strange place.

“You've always got to dedicate yourself to make things right and make things better,” Williams said. “When we came up with the Workers' Bill of Rights, it wasn't just for one group, it was for all. We are New Orleans.”

To Williams, it feels good for New Orleans to potentially be a leader in passing progressive legislation that can be upheld even with a deeply hostile state government. ​“When you have this Workers’ Bill of Rights in place in the city, it’s a domino effect,” he said. ​“Somebody asked me one day, ​‘What is New Orleans?’ I say, simple. It’s the people. It’s the people that make New Orleans, New Orleans. It is the culture. There’s so many names to call us, and most of it is the Big Easy, but if I’m being honest, there’s nothing really easy about it because you’ve always got to hustle.”

“You’ve always got to dedicate yourself to make things right and make things better,” Williams said. ​“When we came up with the Workers’ Bill of Rights, it wasn’t just for one group, it was for all. We are New Orleans.”

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Sarah Jaffe is a writer and reporter living in New Orleans and on the road. She is the author of Work Won’t Love You Back: How Devotion To Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone; Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt, and the forthcoming From the Ashes: Grief and Revolution in a World on Fire, all from Bold Type Books. Her journalism covers the politics of power, from the workplace to the streets, and her writing has been published in The Nation, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The New Republic, the New York Review of Books, and many other outlets. She is a columnist at The Progressive and a contributing writer at In These Times. She also co-hosts the Belabored podcast, with Michelle Chen, covering today’s labor movement, and Heart Reacts, with Craig Gent, an advice podcast for the collapse of late capitalism. Sarah has been a waitress, a bicycle mechanic, and a social media consultant, cleaned up trash and scooped ice cream and explained Soviet communism to middle schoolers. Journalism pays better than some of these. You can follow her on Twitter @sarahljaffe.

Under pressure on plane safety, Boeing is buying stressed supplier Spirit for $4.7 billion

Boeing previously owned Spirit, and the purchase would reverse a longtime Boeing strategy of outsourcing key work on its passenger planes.

By The Associated Press • Published 6 hours ago

The Spirit AeroSystems factory in Wichita, Kansas, US, on Monday, July 1, 2024.

Boeing announced plans to acquire key supplier Spirit AeroSystems for $4.7 billion, a move that it says will improve plane quality and safety amid increasing scrutiny by Congress, airlines and the Department of Justice.

Boeing previously owned Spirit, and the purchase would reverse a longtime Boeing strategy of outsourcing key work on its passenger planes. That approach has been criticized as problems at Spirit disrupted production and delivery of popular Boeing jetliners, including 737s and 787s.

“We believe this deal is in the best interest of the flying public, our airline customers, the employees of Spirit and Boeing, our shareholders and the country more broadly,” Boeing President and CEO Dave Calhoun said in a statement late Sunday.

Concerns about safety came to a head after the Jan. 5 blowout of a panel on an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 at 16,000 feet (4,876 meters) over Oregon. The Federal Aviation Administration soon after announced increased oversight of Boeing and Spirit, which supplied the fuselage for the plane.

No one was seriously injured in the Alaska Airlines door incident, which terrified passengers, but Boeing is under pressure from the U.S. Justice Department to plead guilty to criminal fraud in connection with two deadly plane crashes involving its 737 Max jetliners more than five years ago.

Boeing has until the end of the week to accept or reject the offer, which includes the giant aerospace company agreeing to an independent monitor who would oversee its compliance with anti-fraud laws, according to several people who heard federal prosecutors detail a proposed offer Sunday.

The Justice Department said in a May court filing that Boeing violated terms of a 2021 settlement allowing the company to avoid prosecution for actions leading up to the crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia, which killed 346 people.

Those crashes were blamed on a faulty sensor in a flight-control system and the investigation is separate from the probe of the more recent Alaska Airlines blowout, which involved Spirit.

Boeing spun off Spirit, which is based in Wichita, Kansas, and not related to Spirit Airlines, in 2005. In recent years, quality problems have mounted, including fuselage panels that didn’t fit together precisely enough and holes that were improperly drilled.

Spirit removed its CEO in October and replaced him with Patrick Shanahan, a former Boeing executive who served as acting defense secretary in the Trump administration.

Things seemed to be going more smoothly until the Alaska Airlines incident. Investigators said a panel used in place of an extra emergency door had been removed at a Boeing factory to let Spirit workers fix damaged rivets, and bolts that help hold the panel in place were missing after the repair job. It is not clear who removed the bolts and failed to put them back.

Spirit said in May that it was laying off about 450 workers at its Wichita plant because of a production slowdown since the January incident. Its total workforce was just over 13,000 people.

“Bringing Spirit and Boeing together will enable greater integration of both companies’ manufacturing and engineering capabilities, including safety and quality systems,” Shanahan said.

The acquisition's equity value of $4.7 billion is $37.25 per share, while the total value of the deal is around $8.3 billion, which includes Spirit’s last reported net debt, the aerospace company said.

Boeing common stock will be exchanged for Spirit shares according to a variable formula that depends on a weighted average of the share price over a 15-trading-day period ending on the second day before the deal closes, Boeing said.

The companies also announced an agreement with Airbus to negotiate the purchase of Spirit assets involved with programs operated by the European aerospace firm. The Airbus agreement is set to commence when Boeing's acquisition of Spirit is completed, the two U.S. companies said.

Shares of both companies rose by more than 3% Monday.

Union says Boeing penny-pinching has hurt supply chain


By AFP
June 28, 2024

Jon Holden -- seen here with Hillary Clinton in March 2016 -- is president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers for District 751, which represents some 30,000 Boeing workers - Copyright AFP Emmanuel DUNAND

Elodie MAZEIN

Boeing’s practice of aggressively pressuring suppliers on costs has damaged its own supply chain, contributing to the aviation giant’s current woes, a top union negotiator told AFP this week.

“Boeing has spent a long time, since 2012 trying to squeeze the supply chain by forcing them to cut their costs to Boeing, year over year,” said Jon Holden, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) for District 751.

“I’m fine with efficiency,” Holden said. “What I’m not okay with is undermining the health of the manufacturing process.”

Holden’s local chapter in Seattle represents 32,000 workers, with some 30,000 at Boeing. The union hopes for significant gains from the new contract after negotiations kicked off in March.

“Boeing went through an effort to sell off different factories, to reduce their net assets, and those factories are now part of the supply chain,” Holden told AFP in an interview, adding such moves contributed to the storied manufacturer’s current woes.

“The company looks at ways to make things more efficient, but they cut out important redundancies like quality assurance,” he said.

For months, Boeing has been dealing with production problems in three commercial jets — the 737 MAX, the 787 Dreamliner and the 777.

The company has been in crisis mode since a 737 MAX flown by Alaska Airlines was forced to make an emergency landing in January after a fuselage panel blew out.

Boeing has undertaken training programs and other initiatives to boost quality control and reassure the Federal Aviation Administration. Many of these efforts center on the IAM-represented Boeing factory in Renton, Washington where the MAX is built.

Along with another union at Boeing, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), the IAM has sought two seats on Boeing’s board of directors, an effort Boeing opposes.

– Seeking ‘substantial’ raise –

In light of Boeing’s current travails, the union wants to be able to bargain on any changes to quality management that could affect the production system.

“We never proposed those things in the past but it’s our reputation, it’s our jobs, it’s our livelihoods,” Holden said.

Key demands include a “substantial” salary hike of at least 40 percent, as well as provisions for health care, retirement and job security.

Holden said a hefty wage hike is imperative after workers only received nominal cost-of-living support over the last eight years in spite of “massive inflation” of recent years.

The union is also seeking assurances from Boeing that it will build its next new aircraft — expected around 2035 — in the Seattle region.

“It’s job security for the next 50 years,” he said.

At a congressional hearing earlier this month, Boeing Chief Executive Dave Calhoun said of workers, “they will definitely get a raise.”

Holden said most of the major issues in the contract talks remain unresolved, meaning the two sides will be adding hours to upcoming negotiations.

The IAM plans to take a vote July 17 authorizing a possible strike. To mark the event, it has rented T-Mobile Park in Seattle, the stadium for the Seattle Mariners baseball team, which holds up to 48,000.

“When we all participate in this important event, the factory will be quiet,” the union said on its website.

The current contract, in place for 16 years, expires at midnight on September 12. The union last called a strike in 2008 that lasted 57 days.

During a media visit of the Renton plant organized by Boeing this week, an AFP reporter observed a boisterous union rally with representatives wearing IAM buttons and carrying signs as they marched through the plant in a show of solidarity.

“We have a very strong leverage right now and we’re going to use it,” said Holden.

Boeing is currently engaged in talks to buy back Spirit AeroSystems, a supplier of the fuselage for the 737 MAX. The company was once part of Boeing before being spun off in 2005.

Holden welcomes the shift, saying it was “foolish” for Boeing to separate from Spirit, adding, “it’s important that they are healthy.”

DOJ reportedly preparing to present Boeing with plea deal for 737 Max crashes

"The families will strenuously object to this plea deal."


Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun takes a seat as family members of those killed in Boeing 737 Max 8 crashes hold up pictures of their loved ones before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs -- Subcommittee On Investigations at the Hart Senate Office Building on Tuesday, June 18. on Capitol Hill. Photo by Jemal Countess/UPI | License Photo

July 1 (UPI) -- The Justice Department is planning to present Boeing with a plea deal related to two fatal crashes of the embattled American aerospace company's 737 Max 8 jet that lawyers representing the victims' families describe as a "sweetheart deal" that they will "strenuously object" to.

The Justice Department has been investigating Boeing and its safety practices following a series of recent issues that have plagued the company's public image, most notably when a door plug flew off a 737 Max jet in January mid-flight.

Last month, federal prosecutors said those issues violated a 2021 agreement that shielded it from criminal charges stemming from the two crashes of 747 Max jets that killed 346 people in 2018 and 2019.

The conditions of the plea deal have not been publicly disclosed but lawyers representing the families said it was presented to them during a two-hour call on Sunday. If Boeing accepts, it means a criminal trial will be avoided.

"The deal will not acknowledge, in any way, that Boeing's crime killed 346 people. It also appears to rest on the idea that Boeing did not harm any victim," Paul Cassell, a lawyer representing victims' families in a criminal action pending in a Texas federal court, said in a statement.

"The families will strenuously object to this plea deal."

Robert Clifford, a senior partner at Clifford Law Office who participated in the call, also said accountability and admission that Boeing committed a crime resulting in the deaths of hundreds of people were absent from the plea deal.

"I can tell you that the families are very unhappy and angered with DOJ's decisions and proposal," he said. "And the families will most certainly object before Judge Reed O'Connor and ask that he reject the plea if Boeing accepts."

Justice Department officials told the families and their attorneys during the call that they have yet to present the deal to Boeing but would do so later Sunday, according to the lawyers.

UPI has contacted both the Department of Justice and Boeing for comment and confirmation.

Lion Air Flight 610 crashed in October 2018, killing 189 people. Six months later, a second Boeing 737 Max jet, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, crashed shortly after take off, killing 157 people.

In 2021, Boeing struck a deferred prosecution agreement to resolve a criminal charge of conspiracy to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration over pilots withholding information about issues with the jet.

Boeing has apologized over the crashes. Its outgoing CEO, Dave Calhoun, repeated the apology earlier this month during a bipartisan hearing on Capitol Hill.

"I apologize for the grief we have caused," he said. "We are focused on safety."

UK
Hospital workers to strike in row over pay

By Dan Wareing, BBC News, Merseyside
2 days ago

BBC
The hospital said it had made "comprehensive arrangements" for the industrial action

Healthcare workers at a Merseyside hospital will begin a week-long strike from tomorrow amid a dispute over pay.

Recovery theatre practitioners at Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral are walking out from Monday until Sunday following what they said was a "continued failure to recognise their workplace responsibilities and pay them accordingly".

The Unite union said workers had been left "up to £8,000 out of pocket due to being wrongly graded".

Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust denied they had failed to "acknowledge the responsibilities" of staff and said Unite had "chosen" not to participate in banding reviews.

'A disgrace'

"In our effort to resolve this dispute, we have offered additional flexible options for staff to provide evidence of work at a higher grade.", the trust added.

"It is therefore disappointing that strike action is being pursued."

The trust said it had made "comprehensive arrangements" for the industrial action to minimise disruption for patients.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said the trust must "do the right thing".

“It is a disgrace that an NHS employer is refusing to acknowledge the hard work our members are doing and the vital care they provide to patients," she said.

"The trust must immediately do the right thing and pay our members the proper rate for the job.”

Unite said staff were "determined" to complete the strike until "the trust begins to negotiate".

Derek Jones, Unite regional officer added: “The Wirral trust is behaving appallingly".

Airline Caterer Gate Gourmet Inches Closer to Possible Strike

Mary Schlangenstein, Bloomberg News  July 1,2024

Catering service Gate Gourmet Photographer: Patrik Stollarz/Getty Images Europe , Photographer: Patrik Stollarz/Getty Images Europe

(Bloomberg) -- Gate Gourmet and unions representing some of its workers were released from mandatory labor talks, moving the airline catering company one step closer to a strike that would cause problems for US carriers this summer. 

The National Mediation Board said Monday that a 30-day “cooling off” period had begun for the company and labor groups Unite Here and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Without an agreement or intervention from the White House, a walkout could occur as early as July 30, the board said in a statement. The employees are barred from walking off the job until then under the terms of the Railway Labor Act, which governs union relations in the air travel industry.

“While Gate Gourmet presented an industry-leading offer to the union at our latest negotiations, we were unfortunately unable to come to an agreement,” the company said in an emailed statement. Gate Gourmet said it will continue to work toward a deal that “recognizes our valued employees” and avoids disruption. 

Unite Here didn’t immediately comment on the NMB action.

The pro-labor Biden administration has been hoping that pressure from the NMB would lead to agreements and avoid any disruptions during the busy summer travel season. Mediators are also overseeing negotiations between American Airlines Group Inc. and the Association of Professional Flight Attendants.

--With assistance from Ted Mann.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.

Judge calls Jeffrey Epstein ‘most infamous pedophile in American history' as he releases transcripts

The judge's release of the approximately 150 pages came as a surprise as he had scheduled a hearing for next week on when and how to release them

By Terry Spencer • Published 31 mins ago

Stephanie Keith/Getty Images
 US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman announces charges against Jeffery Epstein on July 8, 2019 in New York City.

A Florida judge released Monday afternoon the transcripts of a 2006 grand jury investigation that looked into sex trafficking and rape allegations made against the late millionaire and financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The judge's release of the approximately 150 pages came as a surprise as he had scheduled a hearing for next week on when and how to release them. Gov. Ron DeSantis had signed a bill in February allowing the release on Monday or any time thereafter that Circuit Judge Luis Delgado ordered.

“The details in the record will be outrageous to decent people,” Delgado wrote in his order. “The testimony taken by the Grand Jury concerns activity ranging from grossly unacceptable to rape — all of the conduct at issue is sexually deviant, disgusting, and criminal.”

After the grand jury investigation, Epstein cut a deal with South Florida federal prosecutors in 2008 that allowed him to escape more severe federal charges and instead plead guilty to state charges of procuring a person under 18 for prostitution and solicitation of prostitution. He was sentenced to 1.5 years in the Palm Beach County jail system, followed by a year of house arrest. He was required to register as a sex offender.

That deal has been widely criticized as too lenient. Epstein in 2018 was charged with federal sex trafficking crimes in New York — where he also had a mansion that was a scene of abuse — after the Miami Herald published a series of articles that renewed public attention on the case, including interviews with some victims who had been pursuing civil lawsuits against him. Epstein was 66 when he killed himself in a New York City jail cell in August 2019, federal officials say.

A federal judge ordered the identities of more than 150 people mentioned in court documents related to Jeffrey Epstein be made public. Here’s what you need to know.

Delgado in his order called Epstein “the most infamous pedophile in American history."

“For almost 20 years, the story of how Jeffrey Epstein victimized some of Palm Beach County’s most vulnerable has been the subject of much anger and has at times diminished the public’s perception of the criminal justice system,” Delgado wrote.

“Epstein is indeed notorious and infamous and is widely reported to have flaunted his wealth while cavorting with politicians, billionaires, and even British Royalty," he continued. "It is understandable that given those reports the public has a great curiosity about what was widely reported by news (agencies) as 'special treatment’ regarding his prosecution.”

The Associated Press is currently reviewing the transcripts.

Plans underway for Jimmy Carter’s 100th birthday

Former President Jimmy Carter and first lady Rosalynn Carter wave to a beauty queen during the Peanut Festival on Saturday Sept. 26, 2015, in Plains. The former president has been in hospice care since February 2023. Rosalynn Carter passed away in November. (Ben Gray/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS)

By TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE | Tribune News Service
PUBLISHED: July 1, 2024
Matt Kempner | The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (TNS)

The unthinkable is being thought among those close to Jimmy Carter.

The former president, who entered hospice care 16 months ago, may make it to his 100th birthday on Oct. 1. Some are making plans to mark the occasion.

Among them is Jill Stuckey, a family friend and superintendent of the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park in the former president’s hometown. She said she visits with him nearly every day.

“I think he is going to make it to 100,” Stuckey said. “I don’t know that he is saying that, ‘I’m going to live to 100.’ But I do know there is will to live in all of us, and I think he has that same will.”

When Carter entered hospice care in February of last year, doctors told the family he might have only days to live.

About 500 days have passed since then.

Carter has outlived Rosalynn Carter, his wife of 77 years, who entered hospice nine months after he did and died in November. The former president hasn’t made a public appearance since her funeral. Instead, he remains inside the couple’s modest home in Plains in south Georgia. Still, he cast a mail-in ballot for the primary election in May.

He has already lived longer than any U.S. president in history.

Recognitions for Carter’s centennial include a 100-mile community bicycle ride in his home county and a free film festival in Atlanta organized by the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum.

“We have always planned to celebrate the 100th anniversary of his birth, and it just makes it even more special that he is still with us,” said Tony Clark, a spokesperson for the Atlanta-based library.

Staff are still working out some of the plans. But locked in is an indoor and outdoor film festival at the presidential library on Sept. 28, the Saturday before Carter’s birthday, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., featuring some of his favorite movies while in office.

According to the library’s records, hundreds of movies were shown at the White House during his presidency, including All the President’s Men, Rocky, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Blue Lagoon, Caddyshack, Kramer vs. Kramer and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. He watched parts or all of at least some of the films.

While Carter was Georgia’s governor he helped create an economic development push to film more movies in the state. He has another important connection to the big screen. Carter’s first date with Rosalynn Carter was at the movies. The next morning he told his mother he had found the person he would marry.

Admission to the library will be free on the day of the film festival. And on Oct. 1, Carter’s actual birthday, the library will follow its tradition of having the admission price match the president’s age: $1.00. (Last year on his 99th birthday, it was 99 cents.) As always, kids 16 or younger get in free.

The library and museum also intends to have a new exhibit about Carter’s 100 years, including documents, photos and art that haven’t been on display at the facility before, Clark said.

The adjacent Carter Center, the nonprofit that the former first couple founded to improve health, encourage freedom and spread peace globally, has yet to disclose how Carter’s birthday will be celebrated. The center’s chief executive, Paige Alexander, offered little more than a one-word hint: “music.”

“Music was an important part of his life. It will have something to do with that,” she said.

Habitat for Humanity, the Georgia-based homebuilding nonprofit that the Carters championed for more than three decades, already does a special building push each year coinciding with the former president’s birthday. This year the weeklong Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project will be in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Alexander said this past week that there hasn’t been a change in Carter’s condition. She told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s “Politically Georgia” in May that he was “enjoying peanut butter ice cream.”

Jason Carter said on the AJC’s Monica Pearson Show in May that he recently told his grandfather that he’s never sure how to respond when asked how the former president is doing.

“He kind of laughed a little bit, and he looked at me, and he said: ‘I don’t know myself,’” Jason Carter told Pearson. “But I think he’s OK. You know, he’s hanging in there, and he knows he’s not in charge. So he’s just waiting for what’s next.”

Groups in Carter’s hometown of Plains are still sketching out plans for how to pay tribute around the time of his birthday.

Sumter Cycling, a nonprofit of southwest Georgia cyclers in Carter’s native Sumter County, typically holds a nearly 50-mile bicycle ride to coincide with the Plains Peanut Festival, which this year falls on the Saturday before Carter’s birthday. Now organizers are hashing out plans to more than double the Plains, Trains and Bike Chains ride to 100 miles in recognition of the former president’s big day.

The nearby Jimmy Carter National Historical Park is planning a riff on the Carters’ frugality. Staffers are putting together a list of 100 ways to save time, energy and money.

“That’s near and dear to the Carters’ hearts,” said Stuckey, the park’s superintendent.

©2024 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Visit at ajc.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

LINE 5

Environmentalists appeal Michigan regulators’ approval of pipeline tunnel project

in this photo shot from a television screen provided by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy in June 2020, shows damage to anchor support EP-17-1 on the east leg of the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline within the Straits of Mackinac in Mich. Environmentalists are challenging Michigan regulators’ decision to approve encasing part of an aging Enbridge Energy oil pipeline that runs beneath a channel connecting two Great Lakes, arguing that they failed to properly consider alternatives that would minimize climate impacts. 

(Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy via AP, File)


by: By TODD RICHMOND
Posted: Jul 1, 2024 

MICHIGAN (AP) — Environmentalists are challenging Michigan regulators’ decision to approve encasing part of an aging Enbridge Energy oil pipeline that runs beneath a channel connecting two Great Lakes, arguing that they failed to properly consider alternatives that would minimize climate impacts.

The Environmental Law & Policy Center and the Michigan Climate Action Network filed a brief with a state appellate court Thursday. They argue in the filing that since the state Public Service Commission determined construction would produce greenhouse gases the panel should have forced Enbridge to prove there were no alternatives to the project.

The groups also contend the commission failed to adopt any methodology to measure how the gases could impact climate change and didn’t consider what could happen if the pipeline was shut down.

An email The Associated Press sent to the commissioners’ general inbox on Friday wasn’t immediately returned.

Enbridge spokesperson Ryan Duffy said in an email that the commission carefully examined all aspects of the tunnel project. He questioned why the groups would want to overturn that decision. Even if they prevail, the line will continue to operate in the straits, Duffy said.

Enbridge wants to build a protective tunnel around a 4-mile (6-kilometer) portion of its Line 5 pipeline that runs along the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac, which link Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.


Enbridge has been operating the pipeline since 1953. It moves up to 23 million gallons (87 million liters) of crude oil and natural gas liquids daily between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario. Concerns about a potentially catastrophic spill in the straits has been building since 2017, when Enbridge officials revealed engineers had known about gaps in the pipeline’s protective coating in the straits since 2014. Those fears only grew after a boat anchor damaged the line in 2018.

Enbridge officials maintain the line is structurally sound, but they still reached an agreement with Republican then-Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration in 2018 that calls for the company to build the protective tunnel at a cost of $500 million.

Current Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, opposes the continued operation of the line under the straits even if it is encased in a tunnel, siding with conservation groups, Indigenous tribes and tourism businesses that feel the line is vulnerable.

Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a lawsuit in 2019 seeking to void the easement that allows the line to run beneath the straits. That case is still pending. Whitmer ordered Enbridge in 2020 to shut down the pipeline, but the company ignored the shutdown deadline.


The state Public Service Commission approved the tunnel project in December. Enbridge needs only a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to move forward.

Meanwhile in Wisconsin, a federal judge in Madison last year gave Enbridge three years to shut down part of Line 5 that runs across the reservation of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.

The tribe sued Enbridge in 2019 to force the company to remove about 12 miles (19 kilometers) of pipeline crossing its reservation, saying the pipeline is prone to spills and that land agreements allowing it to operate on reservation land expired in 2013.

The company has proposed a 41-mile (66-kilometer) reroute of the pipeline to end its dispute with the tribe. It has appealed the shutdown order to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; the case is still pending.

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Ownership group of NBA champion Boston Celtics putting team up for sale

Boston Basketball Partners LLC intends to sell majority interest in 2024, early 2025

Kyle Hightower · The Associated Press · Posted: Jul 01, 2024 

Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck is seen holding up the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy in June in Boston. The Celtics defeated the Mavericks in five games to capture the franchise's 18th championship. (Charles Krupa/The Associated Press)

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The ownership group that controls the NBA champion Boston Celtics says it intends to sell all its shares of the team.

In a statement released Monday, Boston Basketball Partners LLC said it intends to sell the majority of its shares in 2024 or early 2025. The balance of its shares would then close in 2028.

Wyc Grousbeck, whose family leads the ownership group, is expected to remain the team's NBA governor until the sale is complete.

"The controlling family of the ownership group, after considerable thought and internal discussion, has decided to sell the team for estate and family planning considerations," the statement said.

The Celtics defeated the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals last month to capture the franchise's 18th championship.

Boston Basketball Partners — led by venture capitalist Grousbeck, his father and investor H. Irving Grousbeck, along with venture capitalist Steve Pagliuca — purchased the Celtics for $360 million from the Gaston family in 2002. The Gastons had owned the team since 1983.

One of the NBA's original and storied brands, the Celtics were valued at $4.7 billion US last year by Forbes, placing them behind only the Golden State Warriors ($7.7 billion), New York Knicks ($6.6 billion) and Los Angeles Lakers ($6.4 billion).

The current ownership group was in charge when the Celtics won the NBA title in 2008.

In an email to Celtics staff that was obtained by The Associated Press, Wyc Grousbeck wrote they are "committed to finding a worthy incoming ownership group who will guide the Celtics to more decades of success."

He added: "There will be a thoughtful and thorough process to find a buyer that recognizes the importance of Celtic Pride on the court and in the community."

Last year, the Phoenix Suns were purchased by mortgage firm owner Mat Ishbia for $4 billion. That was followed by the sale of the Milwaukee Bucks to Cleveland Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam for $3.5 billion. Last November, Mark Cuban agreed to the sale of the majority of his Dallas Mavericks' ownership shares to Miriam Adelson and son-in-law Patrick Dumont, who operates the Las Vegas Sands casino company, for $3.5 billion.

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Appeals court allows part of Biden student loan repayment plan to go forward


FILE - President Joe Biden speaks about student loan debt relief at Delaware State University, Oct. 21, 2022, in Dover, Del. A federal appeals court has allowed the U.S. Education Department to move ahead with a plan to lower monthly payments for millions of student loans borrowers. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

BY ANNIE MA
 July 1, 2024

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court has allowed the U.S. Education Department to move ahead with a plan to lower monthly payments for millions of student loan borrowers, putting on hold a ruling last week by a lower court.

The ruling from the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals puts back on track a central part of President Joe Biden’s efforts to address student debt — a rule that lowers from 10% of discretionary income to 5% the amount that some borrowers qualifying for a repayment plan need to pay.

The reduced payment threshold was set to take effect July 1, but federal judges in Kansas and Missouri last week blocked much of the administration’s student loan repayment plan in two separate rulings. The appeals court ruling on Sunday means the department can move ahead with the reduced payments already calculated.

The rulings have created a difficult environment for borrowers to navigate, said Persis Yu, deputy executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center, which advocates for eliminating student debt. The stay granted by the 10th Circuit is temporary and subject to appeal, Yu said, leaving many borrowers in the dark about future financial obligations.

“Borrowers are having to make decisions right now about their financial lives, and they don’t know the very basic information that they need in order to make informed decisions,” Yu said.

The Biden administration created the SAVE plan last year to replace other existing income-based repayment plans offered by the federal government. It allowed many to qualify for lower payments, and forgiveness was granted to borrowers who had made payments for at least 10 years and originally borrowed $12,000 or less.

The appeals court ruling does not impact the injunction issued by a federal judge in Missouri, which prevents the Education Department from forgiving loan balances going forward.

The injunctions are the result of lawsuits from Republican-led states seeking to invalidate the Biden administration’s entire loan forgiveness program, which was first available to borrowers in the summer of 2023, and at least 150,000 have had their loans cancelled. The suing states argued that the administration’s plan was a workaround after the Supreme Court struck down the original plan for student loan forgiveness earlier that year.