Trump calls for adding 10,000 Border Patrol agents after derailing a bipartisan border bill

MEG KINNARD and NICHOLAS RICCARDI
Updated Sun, October 13, 202

PRESCOTT VALLEY, Ariz. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump on Sunday proposed hiring 10,000 additional Border Patrol agents and giving them a $10,000 retention and signing bonus, after he derailed a bipartisan bill earlier this year that included funding for more border personnel.

Trump made his pledge during a rally in Prescott Valley, Arizona, roughly 260 miles north of the state's border with Mexico. He accepted an endorsement from the agents’ union, the National Border Patrol Council, which is a longtime Trump backer that endorsed him during his prior two campaigns.

Trump has made illegal immigration the focus of his campaign and blamed Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent, for a record spike in unauthorized crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border. He frequently denounces people entering the U.S. illegally as invaders and criminals, and he has vowed to stage the largest deportation operation in American history if he is elected president again.

He did defy the union earlier this year when he convinced Republicans to kill a bipartisan immigration bill that contained additional border resources. According to the White House, the bill would have funded 1,500 personnel at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which includes the Border Patrol.

Trump at the time said he did not want to give Democrats a political victory on his key issue. At the rally, Trump contended the legislation was “a horrible bill.”

Trump and his allies routinely call Harris the “border czar,” even though she's never had that title. President Joe Biden did ask Harris early in his administration to study the “root causes” of migration from Central America.

“If we allow Border Czar Harris to win this election, every city, every community in this great country is going to go to hell,” union president Paul Perez said as he stood next to Trump on stage with a group of agents.

Matt Corridoni, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign, noted Trump’s move against the border bill and his vows that Mexico would pay for his signature border wall, which ultimately was funded by the U.S. government.

“Trump doesn’t care about solving problems, he only wants to run on one,” Corridoni said in a statement.

Trump has vowed to complete a border wall if he's returned to the White House. He routinely trumpets his comparatively low numbers of border crossings with the much higher ones during Biden's first three years in office, though currently crossings are back down to levels at or below those seen during most of Trump's term.

Trump's term was also marked by a struggle to crack down on illegal crossings before the COVID-19 pandemic led to international border closures. Under his administration, Border Patrol agents separated immigrant children from their parents, one of several enforcement programs the Trump administration implemented to target illegal immigration.

On Sunday, Trump said that Border Patrol agents deserved the higher pay and bonuses and bemoaned how he said Biden and Harris had neglected the border.

Trump Calls for Border Agent Hiring Spree With New Pay Hikes

María Paula Mijares Torres and Stephanie Lai
Sun, October 13, 2024 




(Bloomberg) -- Republican nominee Donald Trump called for raises and bonuses for border agents in an attempt to recruit 10,000 new people to secure the US-Mexico border.

Trump said Sunday that, if elected in November, he will call on Congress to pass a 10% pay increase for border patrol agents and approve $10,000 retention and signing bonuses.

“This will ensure that we can hire and keep the border patrol agents that we need to keep, and we can also bring in a lot of new ones, really great ones,” Trump said at a rally in Prescott Valley, Arizona, a town in a Republican-leaning county where Trump took 64% of the vote in the 2020 presidential race.

Trump’s bid to recruit thousands more border agents comes as he is sharpening his immigration pitch to court voters in swing state that President Joe Biden won by fewer than 11,000 votes four years ago. Polls show that voters consistently rank Trump higher on border security than his opponent Vice President Kamala Harris.

An additional 10,000 agents would represent a roughly 50% increase from the nearly 19,500 employed by the US Customs and Border Protection in fiscal year 2022. Immigration remains a top concern among the state’s voters. Trump has pledged to finish building a border wall and conduct mass deportations of undocumented migrants.

Arizona opened early voting on Oct. 9, kicking off the 2024 choice in a closely contested state that was central to Trump’s false claims of election tampering after the last election. Trump has a 1 percentage point lead in Arizona over Harris, his Democratic opponent, in the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls.

Harris, meanwhile, has assailed Trump for his role in killing a bipartisan immigration bill that would have addressed the border crisis, and has said she would sign it into law if it came to her desk. She has said she’d strengthen border security and boost prosecutions of repeat offenders while also providing legal pathways to citizenship for migrants already in the US.

Arizona Campaigning

Trump’s Arizona stop caps his latest tour of western states, which included an unusual trip to Coachella in heavily Democratic California and a roundtable in Las Vegas to meet Latino supporters, including Goya Foods Inc. Chief Executive Officer Robert Unanue.

Harris visited Arizona last week for a rally and a visit with Republicans who don’t support Trump. She pledged to create a bipartisan policy advice council if she’s elected, part of efforts to broaden the Democratic ticket’s appeal among independents and Republicans wary of the former president.

With Trump and Harris vying for Latino votes, Harris defended her record on immigration and health care at a Univision town hall on Oct. 10. Univision also is airing a town hall with Trump on Oct. 16.

Latinos have grown at the second-fastest rate of any major racial and ethnic group in the US electorate since the 2020 presidential election, according to a Pew Research Center survey, which also found an estimated 36.2 million are eligible to vote this year, up from 32.3 million in 2020.

A recent USA Today/Suffolk University poll concluded that Harris has the edge among likely Latino voters in Nevada and Arizona, though Trump led among Latino men under age 50.

Arizona’s number of eligible Latino voters has more than doubled since 2000 to an estimated 1.3 million, and they now make up a quarter of the state’s electorate. They also skew significantly younger than the average Arizona voter.


Trump receives unanimous endorsement from Border Patrol Union

Greg Wehner

FOX NEWS
Sun, October 13, 2024 


The official union of the U.S. border patrol announced its full support of former President Trump during a rally in Prescott Valley, Arizona on Sunday.

During the rally, Trump told the crowd that he was "honored to receive… the endorsement" of the union of the entire union of the border patrol agents, the National Border Patrol Council.

"It’s a great honor," Trump said. "They said it was unanimous. Thousands of people."

He then invited Paul Perez, the president of the National Border Patrol Council, onto the stage.

House Committee Ramps Up Pressure To Obtain Important Docs On Harris' Role In Border Crisis

National Border Patrol Council president Paul Perez announced the union's endorsement of former President Trump during a rally in Prescott Valley, Arizona, on Oct. 13, 2024.

Perez said he had a message for everyone in the crowd.

"If we allow border czar Harris to win this election, every city, every community in this great country is going to go to hell," Perez said. "The untold millions of people unvetted, who she has allowed into this country that are committing murders, rapes, robberies, burglaries and every other crime will continue to put our country in peril.

"Only one man can fix that. That is Donald J. Trump," he continued. "He has always stood with the men and women who protect this border, who put their lives on the line for the country."

The union president told the crowd they have a choice to make this November.

He said the chaos can continue, and criminal cartels can continue to be allowed to control the border which will allow for drugs and fentanyl to filter into the U.S., or voters can put an end to the chaos.

"On behalf of the 16,000 men and women represented by the National Border Patrol Council, we strongly support and endorse Donald J. Trump for President of the United States," Perez said.


Border Patrol picks up a group of asylum seekers from an aid camp at the U.S.-Mexico border near Sasabe, Arizona, on March 13, 2024.

Trump appeared pleased with the endorsement from what he called an "incredible group of people" he will always stand with.

After announcing the endorsement, Trump continued to rally for votes from the people of Arizona, a key swing state on the border.

He made numerous digs toward his opponent, Vice President Harris, and vowed to never allow the U.S. military to become woke.

Trump then told those in attendance to watch a video on a screen behind him.

Immigrants line up at a remote U.S. Border Patrol processing center after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border on Dec. 7, 2023, in Lukeville, Arizona.

The feed featured clips from Stanley Kubrick’s movie, "Full Metal Jacket," which features a brash drill sergeant played by the late actor, R. Lee Ermey.

Ermey’s character was featured shouting at his new soldiers, telling them they will not laugh or cry, before the video took a turn.

"Happy pride. Happy pride month, and actually, let’s declare it a sunny day," the video showed.

Trump also addressed the changing of the names of bases before later telling the crowd his administration will crush violent crime and support police.

Trump will continue to campaign up to election day on Nov. 5.

Trump, Harris Locked In Dead Heat In 7 Battleground States, Poll Finds: ‘Could Not Be Closer’

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris

According to a Wall Street Journal poll released last week, there was little separation between Trump and Harris in seven battleground states, which prompted a Democratic pollster to say that the 2024 election "really could not be closer."

The survey of 600 registered voters in each of the states, which was conducted Sept. 28-Oct. 8 with a margin of error of +/-4 percentage points, found that in a head-to-head contest, Trump and Harris are tied in North Carolina and Wisconsin.

Harris leads Trump 48%-46% in Arizona and Georgia, and 49%-47% in Michigan, according to the poll. In Nevada, Trump has his biggest swing state lead of 49%-43%, while he leads Harris in Pennsylvania 47%-46%, the poll also found.

On the issues, voters say they trusted Trump more to handle the economy, inflation and immigration and border security.

They preferred Harris when it comes to housing affordability, abortion, health care and having someone in the Oval Office who cares about you.

Fox News’ Greg Norman contributed to this report.











APTOPIX Election 2024 Trump
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump talks with members of the U.S. Border Patrol before speaking at a campaign rally, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, in Prescott Valley, Ariz. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

ABOLISH THE HOUSE OF LORDS!

Hereditary nobles have sat in Britain's Parliament for centuries. Their time may be up

JILL LAWLESS
Tue, October 15, 2024 


FILE - Members of the House of Commons and Lords during the State Opening of Parliament, in the House of Lords, in London, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023. (Aaron Chown/Pool Photo via AP, File)

Britain Aristocrats Ousted

LONDON (AP) — Like his ancestors for centuries, the Earl of Devon serves in Parliament, helping to make the laws of the land. But not for much longer.

British lawmakers will vote Tuesday on a bill to strip hereditary aristocrats of the right to sit and vote in House of Lords after more than 700 years. The Labour Party government says the decision will complete a long-stalled reform of Parliament’s upper chamber and remove an “outdated and indefensible” relic of the past.

“In the 21st century, there should not be places in our Parliament, making our laws, reserved for those who are born into certain families,” Constitution Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said Tuesday as he opened debate on the bill in the House of Commons.


He noted that Britain is one of only two countries — the other is Lesotho — with a hereditary element to its parliament.

But Lord Devon thinks it’s risky to tinker with the U.K.'s unwritten constitution, which “has survived an awful lot of slings and arrows of misfortune over a thousand years.”

“The fact that I am doing a job that was granted by the Empress Matilda to my forebear in 1142, and is still ongoing and is still functioning, is a remarkable example of consistency and continuity,” said the earl, a 49-year-old lawyer whose given name is Charles Peregrine Courtenay.

Britain’s Parliament has two chambers: the House of Commons, whose members are directly elected by voters in 650 constituencies across the U.K.; and the unelected Lords. For centuries it was made up of noblemen — women were not allowed until 1963 — whose voting rights were passed down to their children along with their titles. In the 1950s these were joined by “life peers” — retired politicians, civic leaders and other notables appointed by the government.

In 1999 the Labour government of then-Prime Minister Tony Blair evicted most of the more than 750 hereditary peers from the Lords, though to avoid an aristocrats’ rebellion, 92 were allowed to remain temporarily.

A quarter-century on, 88 hereditaries are still there, an all-male group with an average age of almost 70. When one dies or retires, their fellow bluebloods hold elections to replace them. Courtenay joined the House of Lords in 2018 after winning an election in which there were 19 candidates and 31 eligible voters.

Peers who sit in the ornate, gilded Lords chamber do not get a salary but can claim 361 pounds ($472) a day in expenses and can enjoy Parliament’s subsidized bars, tea rooms and restaurants. It’s a job for life, unless members choose to retire or — in a recent change — are expelled for non-attendance.

The appointment of peers by successive governments means the Lords is overstuffed, with about 800 members — the second-largest legislative chamber in the world after China’s National People’s Congress.

The opposition Scottish National Party has filed a motion to abolish the House of Lords altogether, though that stands little chance of passing. Labour remains committed eventually to replacing the Lords with “an alternative second chamber that is more representative of the U.K.”

While more Lords support the Conservatives than any other party — others, like Courtenay, are nonaligned — some on the left of British politics have come to value the upper house for its role in helping to moderate controversial plans by the previous Conservative government over Brexit and immigration.

Labour's large House of Commons majority means lawmakers will almost certainly vote Tuesday to send the bill on for further scrutiny, despite Conservative misgivings.

“The checks and balances of the Lords — its tried and tested conventions — work," said Conservative lawmaker Oliver Dowden, a former deputy prime minister. “We should only fix what is broken and be cautious about rushing into change.”

To become law, the bill also has to get through the House of Lords, which has the power to delay and amend legislation approved by the Commons, but ultimately can’t block it. It is likely to become law in the coming year.

Courtenay, who owns Powderham Castle and its 3,500 acre (1,400 hectare) estate in the southwest England county of Devon, is sanguine about becoming the last in his storied family to sit in Parliament.

“We were responsible for crowning Henry VII. We fought alongside the Black Prince at the Battle of Crécy, and we financed the Agincourt campaign in 1415. And we were first cousins of Henry VIII until he chopped our head off,” he said. “So we’ve been somewhat involved in the workings of government over a long, long time.

“And outside of those moments in the spotlight, there’s been an awful lot of plodding along, trying to support Devon and help the community … a long and satisfying service, which will continue.”

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters arrested during Wall Street demonstration


Oct. 15, 2024 

Hundreds of protesters demonstrated Monday outside of the New York Stock Exchange with signs that read "As Gaza is bombed, Wall Street booms." About 206 people were arrested after they breached a security fence around the building, according to the New York Police Department. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters failed to disrupt the New York Stock Exchange on Monday, despite chants of "As Gaza is bombed, Wall Street booms," outside of the lower Manhattan building.

None of the approximately 500 protesters, wearing red shirts, made it inside the building or disrupted trading, but some chained themselves to security fences around the NYSE on Broad Street.

About 206 people were arrested after they breached the barrier, according to the New York Police Department. The protesters, who started demonstrating at about 9:30 a.m. EDT, dispersed about three hours later.

Protesters with signs, "Jews for Palestinian Freedom" and "Fund FEMA Not Genocide," said they were rallying against Israel's bombing of Gaza.

"Let's be clear once and for all: the United States is not arming Israel to protect Jews. The United States is arming Israel for its own profit and control of the region," Jewish Voice for Peace, the Jewish-led pro-Palestinian group that organized Monday's protest, wrote in a post on X along with video showing protesters being carried away by NYPD.

"The reason we're here is to demand that the U.S. government stop sending bombs to Israel and stop profiting off of Israel's genocide against Palestinians in Gaza," said Beth Miller of Jewish Voice for Peace.

"Because what's been happening for the last year is that Israel is using U.S. bombs to massacre communities in Gaza while simultaneously weapons manufacturers on Wall Street are seeing their stock prices skyrocket," Miller added.

Israel launched its war in Gaza, just over a year ago after Hamas militants' surprise attack in Israel. The Oct. 7, 2023, attack killed more than 1,200 people and took another 250 hostage. Israel's ongoing war in Gaza has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.

Israel has also vowed revenge after Iran retaliated for the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah by firing nearly 200 ballistic missiles in a limited attack earlier this month.

"Endless war, profits soar, arms embargo now!" protesters chanted Monday in New York.

"As Jews, many of us are descendants of those who survived genocide. Our ancestors taught us to never be bystanders in the face of injustice," Jewish Voice for Peace wrote in a post on X.

"We are all responsible for taking action to change the course of history and stop this genocide that is being waged in our name."

Protesters stage sit-in outside New York Stock Exchange to spotlight Gaza attacks

Rob Wile and Kyla Guilfoil and Brandon Gomez, CNBC and Max Butterworth and Mithil Aggarwal and Brittany Kubicko
Mon, October 14, 2024 

Police officers detain demonstrators protesting Israel's war against Hamas as they occupy an area outside the New York Stock Exchange on Monday.

A group of protesters staged a sit-in outside the New York Stock Exchange on Monday morning amid continued Israeli attacks in Gaza.

Approximately 500 individuals representing Jewish Voices for Peace, a Jewish-led pro-Palestinian group, arrived at the exchange at 85 Broad St. as part of an "unscheduled protest" just before the stock market's official 9:30 a.m. opening, according to a New York Police Department spokesperson.

Demonstrators protesting Israel's war against Hamas lock themselves on the fence while they protest and occupy an area outside the New York Stock Exchange on Monday.

A total of 206 arrests were made, the spokesperson said. An NYSE representative said at least one person had handcuffed himself between an interior and exterior door.


In an email to NBC News ahead of the action, a spokesperson for the protest group said "hundreds" were planning to gather at the exchange to demand that the U.S. government "fund FEMA, not genocide."

"As Gaza is bombed, Wall Street booms," Jewish Voices for Peace said in a post on X. "The stock prices of weapons manufacturers have skyrocketed this year. The U.S. war economy is profiting from genocide."

Police officers detain demonstrators protesting Israel's war against Hamas as they occupy an area outside the New York Stock Exchange on Monday.

The Israeli conflict last week passed the first anniversary of the deadly Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas militants.

A renewed Israeli operation in northern Gaza put a refugee camp and hospitals in the area under siege over the weekend, with more than 200 people killed.

Early Monday, a fire broke out in an encampment housing displaced civilians following Israeli attacks in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza.

Police officers detain a demonstrator protesting Israel's war against Hamas as they occupy an area outside the New York Stock Exchange on Monday.

The Associated Press reported Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was mulling a plan to seal northern Gaza in an attempt to "starve out" Hamas militants there, something that would also affect hundreds of thousands of Palestinians unwilling or unable to leave their homes.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

Police arrest pro-Palestinian protesters outside of New York Stock Exchange

Victoria Bekiempis
Mon, October 14, 2024 

New York police department officers detain some protesters and intervene in the pro-Palestinian demonstration outside the New York Stock Exchange building in New York, on Monday.Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images


New York City police arrested numerous pro-Gaza protesters outside the New York Stock Exchange on Monday after a demonstration highlighting Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza and Lebanon.

Demonstrators voiced chants such as “Let Gaza live!” and “Up up with liberation, down down with occupation!” and managed to get inside a security fence outside the exchange on Broad Street in downtown Manhattan.

They then sat down and waited for police to take them into custody, according to the Associated Press.

Jewish Voice for Peace, which organized the protest, said: “ 200 Jews are risking arrest risking arrest in the largest act of civil disobedience in the history of the New York Stock Exchange.

“Stocks are rising while children are dying. As Israel drops bombs on homes, schools, and hospitals in Gaza, Wall Street booms, and all the members of Congress who invest in these companies get richer every day,” Jay Saper of Jewish Voice for Peace said in a press release.

Video of the protest posted by independent journalist Noah Hurowitz on Twitter/X shows a large group of protesters walking briskly toward the exchange, converging in front of the entrance, and blocking it. Police reportedly told some media that there had been up to 200 arrests.

Asked to confirm the number of arrests, an NYPD spokesperson said there had been multiple, but that they did not have a final number yet. Police were also witnessed detaining a credentialed journalist and then released her shortly thereafter, Hurowitz said on X.

The demonstration came a week after the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s 7 October attack against Israel. Hamas fighters crossed into Israel from Gaza and killed 1,200 people, including more than 40 Americans, and took at least 251 hostages of whom nearly 100 remain in Gaza, according to NBC News.

Israel has since carried out a military campaign in Gaza. The Gaza ministry of health says that more than 41,000 have died, ABC News said.

Related: Protesters rally across the US on 7 October anniversary – in pictures

The Israel-Gaza war has expanded into other parts of the region and stoked fears that military action will spread further, especially if Iran carries out larger attacks than it has done so far. Hezbollah, allied with Iran, on 8 October 2023 started launching rockets at northern Israel in support of Hamas.

The conflict deepened recently after Israel bombed southern Lebanon, the Bekaa valley and Beirut’s southern suburbs, and deployed ground troops across the border.

“At this very moment, the Israeli military is massacring family after family in North Gaza – with US-made bombs. The Biden Administration wants the public to believe that the US’s $18 billion slushfund for Israel’s genocide is for the sake of ‘Jewish safety,’” Elena Stein, director of organizing strategy for Jewish Voice for Peace, said in a press release.

“We’re here refusing to be used as the US’s moral cover and to expose its true interests: financial gain and control in the region. Weapons embargo now,” Stein also said.



Jewish Protesters Target Wall Street As Israeli Strikes Hit Hospitals In Gaza

Lex McMenamin
Mon, October 14, 2024

Sophie Hurwitz

Wall Street’s Monday began with Jewish protesters and anti-war advocates gathering outside the New York Stock Exchange in protest of U.S. funding for Israel’s attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, some reportedly locking themselves to the gates of the building, in an action organized by Jewish Voice for Peace. Protesters laid out a banner reading “Gaza Bombed, Wall Street Booms” in front of themselves on the street in front of the Stock Exchange.

In a press release, Jewish Voice for Peace noted that the stock price of arms manufacturing companies Lockheed Martin and Raytheon have “skyrocketed” in the past year of warfare. “As Gaza is bombed, Wall Street booms,” Emma Seligman, writer and director of the film “Bottoms,” said in a statement to Teen Vogue from the protest. “Right now, the Israeli military is dropping bombs on homes, schools, refugee camps, and hospitals in North Gaza. Meanwhile, the members of Congress who vote to send these weapons to Israel invest in these companies and get richer every day.”

Today has been a day of carnage. Footage of the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike on a hospital in central Gaza spread across social media, showing burning tents housing sleeping families in refuge, as well as one man burning alive, as reported by the Washington Post, which puts the reported death toll from the attack currently at 70. The majority of those injured were women and children. Meanwhile, the Guardian reported, another Israeli strike killed at least 18 in the town of Aitou in northern Lebanon.

That same day, it was reported by the Associated Press that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering “seal[ing] off humanitarian aid to northern Gaza in an attempt to starve out Hamas militants, a plan that, if implemented, could trap without food or water hundreds of thousands of Palestinians unwilling or unable to leave their homes.”

At the end of last week, the U.N. announced that no food has entered northern Gaza since the beginning of October, and that “aid entering Gaza is at its lowest level in months,” per ABC News. A U.N. inquiry, also at the end of last week, “accused Israel of carrying out a ‘concerted policy’ of destroying [Gaza’s] health care system,” reported CNN. Per the BBC, the same inquiry called the attacks on Gaza’s hospitals and healthcare workers “[amounted to] the crime against humanity of ‘extermination.’”

“At this very moment, the Israeli military is massacring family after family in North Gaza – with US-made bombs,” Elena Stein, Director of Organizing Strategy for Jewish Voice for Peace, said via a statement. “The Biden Administration wants the public to believe that the US’s $18 billion slush fund for Israel’s genocide is for the sake of ‘Jewish safety.’ We’re here refusing to be used as the US’s moral cover and to expose its true interests: financial gain and control in the region. Weapons embargo now.”


A JVP protester is arrested.Jewish Voice for Peace

JVP connected their action at the Stock Exchange targeting those they accuse of profiting off the war to the recent Hurricanes Helene and Milton: FEMA spent almost half its disaster relief budget for the next 12 months in the first eight days of the fiscal year, right after the U.S. government approved $8.7 billion in military funding to Israel. A banner at the protest read “FUND FEMA NOT GENOCIDE.”

The protest is in part a reference to the first action from the protest group ACT UP in 1987, targeting pharmaceutical companies amid the AIDS crisis. Two years later, a similar protest from ACT UP became the first to disrupt the opening bell of the Stock Exchange. Their protests helped force lowered prices for AIDS medication.



Protesters locked themselves to doors at the New York Stock Exchange.Jewish Voice for Peace


A protester with Jewish Voice for Peace is arrested by New York police.

Jewish Voice for Peace

“ACT UP’s first action took place on Wall Street to protest the lack of funding for AIDS care and medications. Today, a growing anti-war movement returns to this street to demand healthcare not warfare,” artist and ACT UP activist Gregg Bordowitz, who was at the 1989 protest and joined the JVP action today, said in a statement. “For those of us still alive today the continuity of struggle and commitment remain clear.”

Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue


Pro-Palestinian protesters chain themselves to the door of the New York Stock Exchange

Mira Wassef

THE HILL
Mon, October 14, 2024 

Pro-Palestinian protesters chain themselves to the door of the New York Stock Exchange


LOWER MANHATTAN (PIX11) — A group of pro-Palestinian protesters who chained themselves to the front door of the New York Stock Exchange were among hundreds arrested during a massive demonstration in Lower Manhattan on Monday, police said.

About 206 people were taken into custody during the protest at 11 Wall St., which began at 9:30 a.m. in Lower Manhattan, according to the NYPD. The charges were not immediately available.

More: Latest News from PIX11

Approximately 500 people showed up at the event before the crowd dispersed about three hours later, police said.

The protesters lined the streets in the Financial District to protest Israel’s bombing of Gaza. They hung banners reading, “Jews for Palestinian Freedom,” “Jews Say Divest from Israel,” and “Fund FEMA Not Genocide.”

More News: Israel-Hamas War

“The reason we’re here is to demand that the U.S. government stop sending bombs to Israel and stop profiting off of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza,” said Beth Miller, political director of Jewish Voice for Peace, the group that organized the demonstration. “Because what’s been happening for the last year is that Israel is using U.S. bombs to massacre communities in Gaza while simultaneously weapons manufacturers on Wall Street are seeing their stock prices skyrocket.”

The group chanted, “Let Gaza live!” and ”Up up with liberation, down down with occupation!” in front of the landmark building. None of the protesters got inside the exchange, but at least 200 made it inside a security fence on Broad Street.

The gathering was peaceful until about six people chained themselves to the front door of the New York Stock Exchange, police said. Several NYPD officers removed those protesters before several other demonstrators were seen boarding an NYC Correction bus near the famed building, Citizen App video shows.

The protest happened a week after the world marked one year since Hamas’ surprise Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the start of Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza, which has since spread to Lebanon and beyond.

More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the conflict began. At least 1,200 people were killed, and Hamas took 250 people hostage in its attack on Israel.

This story comprises reporting from The Associated Press.

Mira Wassef is a digital reporter who has covered news and sports in the NYC area for more than a decade. She joined PIX11 News in 2022. See more of her work here.

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. 

Ocasio-Cortez criticizes Biden administration over ‘unrestrained’ Israel government

Tara Suter
Mon, October 14, 2024 


Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) criticized the Biden administration on Monday over what she called an “unrestrained” Israeli government.

“The horrors unfolding in northern Gaza are the result of a completely unrestrained Netanyahu gov, fully armed by the Biden admin while food aid is blocked and patients are bombed in hospitals,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a post on the social platform X.

”This is a genocide of Palestinians,” she added. “The US must stop enabling it. Arms embargo now.”

Ocasio-Cortez’s post comes a day after Vice President Harris pushed for Israel to ramp up aid to Gaza in a post of her own, citing a World Food Program (WFP) report.

“The UN reports that no food has entered northern Gaza in nearly 2 weeks. Israel must urgently do more to facilitate the flow of aid to those in need,” Harris said in her post on X. “Civilians must be protected and must have access to food, water, and medicine. International humanitarian law must be respected.”

In a Saturday press release, the WFP said “escalating violence in northern Gaza is having a disastrous impact on food security for thousands of Palestinian families” and “that the main crossings into the north have been closed and no food aid has entered since 1 October.”

The WFP also said that food distribution points, kitchens and bakeries in northern Gaza have had to shut down due to airstrikes, military ground operations and evacuation orders.

“The north is basically cut off and we’re not able to operate there,” Antoine Renard, WFP country director for Palestine, said in the release. “WFP has been on the ground since the onset of the crisis. We are committed to delivering life-saving food every day despite the mounting challenges, but without safe and sustained access, it is virtually impossible to reach the people in need.”

Ocasio-Cortez’s Monday critique also came as the U.S. announced that it is sending 100 troops and a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system to Israel, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calibrates the country’s response to Iran’s latest attacks.

The New York progressive has been calling on the U.S. to stop arming Israel since well before Hamas launched its Oct. 7 attack on Israel last year. She and other “Squad” members have ramped up calls for a weapons embargo as the toll of Israel’s retaliatory war has grown.

While former President Trump and Republican groups have sought to tie Harris to far-left figures in her party, the Democratic nominee has consistently said she would not break from President Biden’s staunch support for Israel.

The Hill has reached out to the White House and Israeli prime minister’s office for comment.

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. 

Study: Half of patients with sepsis die within 2 years

By Dennis Thompson, HealthDay News
Oct. 15, 2024 

Half of people who develop blood poisoning, otherwise known as sepsis, are dead within a couple of years, a new study finds. Photo by Adobe Stock/HealthDay News



Half of people who develop blood poisoning, otherwise known as sepsis, are dead within a couple of years, a new study finds.

A little more than 50% of patients admitted to an ER with sepsis died within two years, Danish researchers report.

"We found that certain factors increased the risk of death after sepsis, including, not surprisingly, advanced age," said Finn Nielsen, a senior scientist of clinical epidemiology at Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark.

"Additionally, conditions such as dementia, heart disease, cancer and previous hospitalization with sepsis within the last six months before admission also elevated the risk of dying during a median follow-up period of two years," Nielsen added in a hospital news release.

For the study, researchers tracked outcomes among patients admitted to Aarhus University Hospital with sepsis between October 2017 and March 2018.

"Our study relied on a sepsis database, which provided valuable information based on prospectively collected patient data," Nielsen said. "Unlike frequently used routine registry data, this approach minimized errors, and allowed for more accurate and detailed insights into sepsis effects."

The researchers identified 714 patients who developed sepsis during that time.

After an average two years, 361 had died -- not just from sepsis, but from any cause.

Old age increased a person's risk of sepsis by 4% for every additional year of age, researchers found.

Further, a history of cancer more than doubled a person's risk of death, clogged arteries increased risk by 39%, and dementia increased risk by 90%, results show.

People with repeated bouts of sepsis also were 48% more likely to die, based on data from hospital patients previously admitted with sepsis within the past six months.

"We believe this knowledge is useful for both clinicians and researchers in the field of acute medicine," Nielsen said. "Recognizing that sepsis is a serious illness with high mortality is crucial."

However, larger studies are needed, given that this research was done at a single hospital, Nielsen noted.

"Similar but larger studies of sepsis-related outcomes need to be repeated across departments, regions and countries to obtain a comprehensive epidemiological picture of sepsis," Nielsen said.

Neilsen presented these findings at the European Society for Emergency Medicine's annual meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark.

"Sepsis is a serious and potentially fatal medical condition. The incidence of sepsis is increasing in several countries, yet so far, there has been limited, reliable information about long-term outcomes for patients who develop sepsis," Dr. Barbra Backus, chair of the society's abstract selection, said in a meeting news release.

"This study has shown certain risk factors that should alert clinicians to the risk of patients with sepsis at an increased risk of dying, so that they can monitor them and follow them up more closely," added Backus, an emergency physician in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, who was not involved in the research.

Findings presented at a medical meeting should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed article.

More information

The U.S.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about sepsis.

Copyright © 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Human sense of smell may be quicker than you think

By Ernie Mundell, HealthDay News

Oct. 15, 2024 

People sense millisecond shifts in odor as quickly as they might spot a change in color, new research shows. Photo by Adobe Stock/HealthDay News

People sense millisecond shifts in odor as quickly as they might spot a change in color, new research shows.

The study discounts the notion that smell is a "slower" sense than sight or hearing, scientists say.

"A sniff of odors is not a long exposure shot of the chemical environment that averages out" over time, explained study lead author Dr. Zhou Wen, at the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Instead, smell can spot fluctuations in odors with a "sensitivity on par with that for color perception" in vision, she said in an academy news release.

Zhou's team published its findings Monday in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.

Human's sense of smell is nowhere near that of many animals, such as dogs. But it may not be as sluggish as most people think, the new study found.

In their experiments, the Chinese team constructed a special sniff-triggered device that organized the emissions of odors with a precision of 18 milliseconds.

Using the device, they had it produce two odors one after the other, separated by milliseconds, switching which odor came first.

They then had 229 people sniff the odors to see if they could sense any differences.

According to the academy news release, "participants could tell the difference when the delay between the compounds was just 60 milliseconds -- about a third of the time it takes to blink."

That's roughly equal to the time it takes the human visual sense to distinguish the order of green and red lights blinking, Zhou's team noted.

In an accompanying journal editorial, Dr. Dmitry Rinberg, a professor of neuroscience and physiology at NYU Langone Health in New York City, described the new findings as akin to how people hear music.

"The timing of individual notes in music is essential for conveying meaning and beauty in a melody, and the human ear is very sensitive to this. However, temporal sensitivity is not limited to hearing: our sense of smell can also perceive small temporal changes in odour presentations," he wrote. "Similar to how timing affects the perception of notes in a melody, the timing of individual components in a complex odour mixture that reaches the nose may be crucial for our perception of the olfactory world."

Rinberg believes it's time the human sense of smell was taken more seriously by science.

"The study of human olfaction has historically lagged that of vision and hearing, because as humans we think of ourselves as visual creatures that largely use speech to communicate," he said.

Her team's findings aren't just a scientific curiosity, Zhou told CNN.

"Our apparatus could be used for therapeutic purposes, such as olfactory training for patients with olfactory loss," she said. "More broadly, our findings could guide the design and development of electronic noses and olfactory virtual reality systems, which could have significant clinical benefits."

More information

Find out more about how your sense of smell works at the Cleveland Clinic.

Copyright © 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

True Value files for bankruptcy as Do it Best bids to acquire assets

Oct. 14, 2024 / 

Hardware retailer True Value announced Monday it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and is entertaining a bid to sell its assets to competitor Do it Best. If approved, the deal would create a network of 8,000 stores in the United States and around the world. File Photo by Ammodramus via Wikimedia Commons

Oct. 14 (UPI) -- Long-time hardware retailer True Value announced Monday it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and is entertaining a bid to sell its assets to competitor Do it Best.

The home improvement industry deal, if approved, would create a network of more than 8,000 stores in the United States and around the world.

"After a thorough evaluation of strategic alternatives, we determined that the sale of our business was the path forward to maximize value and best serve our retail partners and other stakeholders into the future," said Chris Kempa, True Value's chief executive officer.

"We believe that entering the process with an agreed offer from Do it Best, which has a similar decades-long history in the home improvement space and also operates with a focus on supporting members and helping them grow, is the most beneficial next step for True Value and our associates, customers and vendor partners," Kempa added. "We thank these valued stakeholders for their continued loyalty as we work to secure a stronger future for True Value."

True Value, which is based in Chicago and has been in the home improvement business for more than 70 years, was founded in 1948 and serves more than 4,500 stores worldwide with total retail sales of $10 billion, according to the company.

Ace Hardware interested in buying competitor True Value

In 2017, Ace Hardware expressed an interest in buying True Value, amid reports True Value was considering putting itself up for auction with a potential asking price of $800 million. Ace Hardware is also based in Illinois.

True Value currently operates as a wholesaler cooperative that sells its products to hardware sellers and garden centers. Independently owned True Value stores are not part of the bankruptcy.

If Do it Best is the winning bidder for True Value's assets, the transaction could be on track to close by the end of the year, pending regulatory and court approval.

"A successful acquisition of True Value assets would represent a strategic milestone for Do it Best and home improvement retailers around the world," said Dan Starr, Do it Best president and CEO.

"Do it Best has a proven track record of driving profitability through the most efficient operations in the industry," Starr added. "This acquisition, if consummated, would provide True Value and independent hardware stores the strongest opportunities for growth for years to come."

True Value declares bankruptcy and sells itself to a hardware rival

True Value is selling "substantially all" of its business to rival Do it Best.

 · CNN Business · Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post/Getty Images

Jordan Valinsky
Updated Mon, October 14, 2024 

True Value, a 75-year old hardware store brand, has filed for bankruptcy and is selling substantially all of its operations to a rival, the company announced Monday.

In a press release, True Value said it will continue day-to-day operations of selling hardware and other homeware tools to its 4,500 independently operated locations during the Chapter 11 process, which includes a $153 million stalking horse bid from rival company Do it Best.

True Value said its stores will remain open, because they are not part of the bankruptcy proceedings.

In bankruptcy court filings, True Value said it faces a significant cash crunch as the housing market stalled and consumers have become far more picky about discretionary purchases like hardware. Bigger rivals like Home Depot and Lowe’s have also been in a yearslong slump since the pandemic boom, but they remain in a significantly stronger financial situation than True Value.

Still, a number of other chains have voiced similar problems that also tipped them into bankruptcy, including Big Lots and LL Flooring.

“After a thorough evaluation of strategic alternatives, we determined that the sale of our business was the path forward to maximize value and best serve our retail partners and other stakeholders into the future,” said True Value CEO Chris Kempa in a release.

Do it Best is a member-owned wholesaler that sells hardware, lumber and other home goods to independent stores.

“Do it Best has a proven track record of driving profitability through the most efficient operations in the industry,” said Do it Best CEO Dan Starr in a statement. “This acquisition, if consummated, would provide True Value and independent hardware stores the strongest opportunities for growth for years to come.”

The transaction with Do it Best is expected to close by the end of the year, unless there’s better offers.

North Carolina's Wolfspeed to receive $750 million for semiconductor plant

ALL CAPITALI$M IS STATE CAPITALI$M


Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo speaks during a House Subcommittee on Innovation, Data, and Commerce on June 26. She announced a $750 million investment to help North Carolina's Wolfspeed build a facility on Tuesday. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo

UPI

Oct. 15, 2024 

Oct. 15 (UPI) -- The Biden administration said on Tuesday that North Carolina's Wolfspeed Inc. has entered into an agreement with the Commerce Department to receive $750 million to help create a new silicon carbide wafer manufacturing facility.

The plant, which will be built in Siler, N.C., will help the country build a reliable domestic supply of semiconductors during the artificial intelligence boon and future energy economy, the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology said in a statement.

The funds will come from the CHIPS and Science Act.

"Artificial intelligence, electric vehicles and clean energy are all technologies that will define the 21st century and thanks to proposed investments in companies like Wolfspeed, the Biden-Harris administration is taking a meaningful step toward reigniting U.S. manufacturing of the chips that underpin these important technologies," Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement.

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Wolfspeed said it is the largest producer of silicon carbide technology in the world, pioneering the technology more than three decades ago. It is one of the fastest-growing components of the broader semiconductor industry.

"As a key player in the semiconductor industry, this proposed investment will enable us to solidify our leadership position with a first-of-its-kind 200-mm silicon carbide manufacturing footprint in upstate New York and central North Carolina, while contributing to the resilience and competitiveness of the U.S. supply chain," said Wolfspeed CEO Gregg Lowe said in a statement.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said the CHIPS and Science Act is allowing local semiconductor companies like Wolfspeed have an international impact by building their domestic capacity.

"Wolfspeed is a homegrown semiconductor innovator and manufacturer creating great jobs in North Carolina and it's important they receive this major grant," Cooper said.

Walgreens reveals 1,200 stores to close by 2027, company earnings on par

Despite closures, Walgreens report 'sales growth across all segments.'

Oct. 15, 2024 

 On Tuesday during an earnings call with Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth, he said the closures will give the company a “healthier store base” and “will enable us to respond to shifts in consumer behavior and buying preferences.”

 File Photo by Billie Jean Shaw/UPI

Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Walgreens on Tuesday reported growth within its business segments but said it will shutter more than 1,000 stores over the next few years following June's announcement it would close "underperforming" U.S. stores.

Walgreens announced that it will close roughly 1,200 of its stores through 2027. The company looks to close at least 500 stores by next year alone.
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Of roughly 8,700 U.S. store locations, Walgreens said a quarter of them are unprofitable.

Despite this, Walgreens stock shares jumped 12% as of just before noon and new information released by Walgreens on Tuesday reflected "sales growth across all segments," according to a company release.

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Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth said during an earnings call that the closures will give the company a "healthier store base" and "will enable us to respond to shifts in consumer behavior and buying preferences."

Wentworth added that Walgreens hopes to keep on a majority of its workforce impacted by the pending store closures but for now how many will lose jobs or otherwise be impacted is not entirely clear.

Walgreens is estimated revenue for the year to be somewhere between $147 billion to $151 billion. Meanwhile, Wall Street analysts estimated roughly $147.3 billion.

In its statement on Tuesday, Wentworth said FY 2025 "will be an important rebasing year as we advance our strategy to drive value creation."

"This turnaround will take time," he said. "But we are confident it will yield significant financial and consumer benefits over the long term."

For fiscal 2024 sales, Walgreens saw a 6.2% bump to $147.7 billion, which company officials say is up 5.7% on a constant currency basis.

But in better news for Walgreens, the company outpaced Wall Street estimates and reported profit in its fourth quarter for this fiscal year.

Walgreens reported its 2024 fourth-quarter loss per share was $3.48 versus a loss per share of $0.21 in the year-ago quarter.

But fourth-quarter sales increased 6% year-over-year to $37.5B, which Walgreens said is up 6.1% on a constant currency basis.

This appears to be the follow-up to Wentworth's revelation in June that Walgreens had plans to close a "significant portion" of its "underperforming" 8,500 U.S. stores.

But this arrives during a rocky year for the retail chain still seeing highs and lows.

Walgreens recently agreed to pay a $106.8M fine for alleged fraudulent federal billing.

The company, however, reported $28.5 billion in revenue during the second quarter of FY2024, which was up slightly over the same period last year but still below expectations.
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However, Walgreens has made efforts over recent months to put itself in a better financial position.

June's announcement slashed 10% of Walgreens employees at its Chicago corporate offices after it was forced to pay nearly $6 billion to settle opioid lawsuits with several states.

Following its numerous legal battles, the company reported earnings per share were down 20.3% for the second quarter of fiscal year 2023.

Iowa Supreme Court mulling Summit pipeline lawsuit


Oct. 15, 2024 

 Iowa landowners and opponents to the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline project rally outside the Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines on Oct. 8, during a state supreme court hearing. 

Photo courtesy of Bold Alliance

Oct. 15 (UPI) -- The Iowa Supreme Court is weighing a decision that could uphold a pipeline company's eminent domain right to survey property without landowner permission.

The state's high court held a hearing last week over the appeal of a district court decision. A landowner brought the appeal to the supreme court after the lower court ruled in favor of Summit Carbon Solutions in a lawsuit against him.

Kent Kasischke, a landowner in Hardin County, Iowa, was sued by Summit for refusing to allow surveyors onto his property to survey for its pipeline project. The Iowa Utilities Commission approved Summit's petition to build nearly 700 miles of CO2 pipeline across the state.

There are conditions Summit must meet before it can begin construction. Conditions include obtaining approval from other states that the pipeline will be built in, maintaining at least $100 million in liability insurance and offering to purchase voluntary easements from affected landowners under the same terms offered to landowners prior to the board's decision.

Summit must submit additional filings and prove it has met these conditions before the board will fully grant a permit. The board has ruled that the pipeline serves a public benefit, granting it eminent domain rights.

The pipeline project is planned to transport CO2 through Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and South Dakota to North Dakota where it will be stored at a sequestration site. It was originally slated to be completed in 2024 but has faced setbacks due to permitting issues and resistance from landowners.

Brian Jorde is the attorney representing Kasischke in his appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court. Jorde is representing more than 1,000 landowners against the pipeline, including landowners in South Dakota. He also represented South Dakota landowners in a case against the Navigator pipeline project. Navigator canceled that project last year after losing the case.

"It's not a public use," Jorde told UPI of Summit's proposed pipeline. "I don't know if the court wants to deal with that now. There will be at some point a determination whether transporting waste to never be put out to commercial use is in fact common carriage or not."

Jorde and Kasischke have three main arguments against Summit. First, they argue Summit is not a pipeline company as described by Iowa code. The code defines a pipeline company as one that transports a liquid, solid or gaseous substance except for water.

Summit plans to transport CO2 in a supercritical state.

Summit, represented by Des Moines-based attorney Ryan Koopmans, pushes back on the argument that it does not fit the description of a pipeline company due to it planning to transport CO2 in a supercritical state. Koopman writes in his briefing that this is a "hyper-technical interpretation" that ignores the intent of the legislature when it established the code.

"As the district court observed, it is 'clear that Summit's proposed pipeline is the exact type of hazardous liquid pipeline that the Iowa Legislature intended to be governed by Chapter 479B, regardless of the fact that the carbon dioxide being transported may not always meet a scientifically precise definition of 'liquefied' at every moment in the transportation process,'" the briefing reads.

Second, Kasischke argues he was not given proper notice by Summit that his land would be surveyed. Iowa code requires a pipeline company to give 10 days notice before entering a person's property.

Summit says it submitted evidence during the lower court trial in Hardin County that it sent three notice letters by restricted certified mail to Kasischke in 2022 and 2023, notifying him of its intention to access his property for surveys. The first letter was delivered and returned with Kasischke's signature. The next two were refused.

Kasischke's argument about being notified also claims that Summit's earliest attempts to notify him did not comply with Iowa code because they did not include the endorsement "Deliver to Addressee Only" on the envelope. Jorde writes that Summit admitted to not complying with this requirement initially and claiming at trial that it did not have to before changing course in subsequent mailings.

Summit responded in its briefing that it sent notices marked "Restricted Delivery" by certified mail, claiming this is a "functional equivalent."

Third, Jorde cites the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Cedar Point Nursery vs. Hassid. The court ruled that government regulations allowing access to private property can be considered as taking that property, requiring compensation to the property owner. Jorde says Iowa's code is too broad as it is and must be either narrowed or considered unconstitutional.

"In essence, if Summit will just say they will not use eminent domain ever and they're only going to work with people who want the project, that would be a thing a good company would do," Jorde said. "They know, because this project is so wildly unpopular, that without eminent domain they won't be able to build what they want."

Koopmans raises concern that ruling the Iowa code unconstitutional could have ramifications on survey access across the board. He notes that courts have recognized that entities with eminent domain rights have the right to enter private land to conduct surveys.

Tuesday's hearing was held at Iowa's historic supreme courtroom in the capitol building instead of its usual location at the Iowa Judicial Branch Building. This was due to the expectation that there would be a larger than usual crowd. An overflow room was also filled to capacity.

Emma Schmit, director of the Pipeline Fighters hub with Bold Alliance, attended the hearing. While she is confident in the arguments made by Jorde, she is hesitant to anticipate who Iowa's seven supreme court justices will rule.

"It wasn't as positive as we got from South Dakota but it also wasn't negative," Schmit told UPI. "They don't like to issue split decisions if they can avoid it."

A decision could come at any time, Schmit said. The court's term ends in June.

Kasischke is not the only landowner who has refused Summit's bid to survey their property, nor is he the only one Summit has filed a lawsuit against. Schmit is aware of at least seven more Iowa landowners who have been sued for refusing surveys. Some of those lawsuits were dropped before the Iowa Utilities Board hearings last fall.

"One of our speakers at the rally before the supreme court hearing shared his story of being sued," Schmit said. "It was an intimidation tactic. Kent is one of the first landowners to get a court date so his lawsuit wasn't dropped."

The pipeline project has drawn the interest of the legislature. Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley said in a statement that the state utility board's approval of the project's route makes landowner rights a priority.

"This just further confirms what we already knew -- that the Legislature must conduct a comprehensive review and update the state's eminent domain laws," Grassley said. "We will seek feedback from Iowans on the best way forward and in the meantime, I stand ready to assist my constituents however I can."

Thirty-seven Republican legislators filed a lawsuit against the Iowa Utilities Commission last month in an attempt to stop the project. When the group, Republican Legislative Intervenors for Justice, filed a motion for the IUC to reconsider, it was critical of the board for being dismissive of the many public comments and testimonies it received.

In the board's final ruling, it notes that it conducted a hearing that spanned eight weeks, amassed a 7,500-page transcript and received about 4,200 comments. It also received 50,000 pages of prefiled testimony and exhibits. It refers to the large amount of testimony "unduly repetitious."

"Few developments could be more of an affront to democracy than a government agency -- this government agency -- dismissing the considered views of Iowans under its thumb as 'repetitious,'" the RLIJ wrote in its motion to the board. "The Board's complete dismissal of the 'repetitious' engagement by affected citizens is a tacit admission that the Board has pulled loose from its Constitutional moorings."

The Republican lawmakers also note that Summit Carbon Solutions has not made its shareholders known. This is something opponents of the pipeline have objected to since the project was announced.

"We've seen Democrats and Republicans on the same side of this issue which is not something you can say about most issues," Schmit said.