New California law forms panel to examine reparations for slavery

Protesters march in New York City on Juneteenth, June 19, the longest-running African-American holiday in the United States. The day is significant as it marks the day that slavery ended in the United States. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 30 (UPI) -- California on Wednesday became the first state to adopt a law seeking to develop a path to pay reparations to Black residents and descendants of slavery.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the law, which orders a nine-person committee to study and develop proposals for reparations.

"Our past is one of slavery, racism and injustice. Our systems were built to oppress people of color," Newsom tweeted. "It's past time we acknowledge that."

The governor and legislative leaders will appoint the committee, which will conduct a sweeping examination of slavery in California and the United States -- as well as lasting consequences and recommend what kind of compensation should be provided and who should receive it.

"As a nation, we can only truly thrive when every one of us has the opportunity to thrive," Newsom added. "Our painful history of slavery has evolved into structural racism and bias built into and permeating throughout or democratic and economic institutions."

The new law states that 4 million Africans and their descendants were enslaved in the United States between 1619 and 1865.

California was founded as a free state in 1850, but several laws allowed for residents to maintain slaves if they lived there temporarily or bought slaves before it obtained statehood.

Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, chair of California's Legislative Black Caucus and the author of the bill, said the law was written last year prior to widespread national unrest that was driven by the police killings of George Taylor in Minnesota and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky.

"This is not just because of the circumstances we face," she said. "What happened is that, of course, those circumstances reinforced the fact that what we were saying all along was true.

"Some think we're just responding to the moment, but we're responding to the history of California and the life of Black people in California and this nation."

Air Force conservation efforts aid red cockaded woodpecker

Baby red-cockaded woodpeckers receive plastic identification bands. An effort including the U.S. Air Force led to the planned reclassification of the rare species from endangered to threatened. Photo by Senior Airman Destinee Sweeney/U.S. Air Force

Sept. 30 (UPI) -- A rare woodpecker species is moving from "endangered" status to "threatened" after a conservation project involving the U.S. Air Force.

Ceremonies held last week by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services at Fort Benning, Ga., noted the return of the red cockaded woodpecker, a rare species listed as endangered since 1970.

Restoration of over 23,000 acres of pine trees since 2012 on Air Force bases has resulted in a 178% increase of the birds' on-base populations, the Air Force said on Wednesday in a statement. Air Force bases now house 585 active potential breeding groups.

"Our ranges are home to a diversity of wildlife, and with increasing urban development around them, these installations can become the last refuge for some species like the red cockaded woodpecker," Kevin Porteck of the Air Force Civil Engineer Center said.

The bird, native to the southeastern United States, grows to about eight or nine inches in height at maturity, and has a sharp beak.

Eglin Air Force Base and Tyndall Air Force Base, both in Florida, are among locations included in over 373,000 acres of pine forests actively managed by the Air Force.

Natural resources managers at Eglin also drilled more than 1,500 artificial nest cavities as potential nest sites for the birds. Recovery efforts there have been so successful that the installation donated 212 juvenile woodpeckers to enhance other populations in the region, the statement noted.

Secretary of the Interior David L. Bernhardt, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue and Fort Benning Garrison Commander Col. Matthew Scalia were at Fort Benning on Sept. 25 to celebrate the proposed downlisting, from endangered to threatened status, of the red cockaded woodpecker under the Endangered Species Act.

"Partnering for conservation has improved the condition of the red cockaded woodpecker," said Bernhardt. "It also allows us to take this important downlisting step."

United pilots union votes to approve deal to stop furloughs


The United Airlines pilot union announced Monday that members approved a deal to avoid almost 3,000 furloughs. File Photo by Brian Kersey/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 28 (UPI) -- The United Airlines pilot union members voted to approve an agreement with airline management that would cancel almost 3,000 previously announced furloughs, the union said Monday.

"Our members understood that in order to protect pilot jobs, we needed to approve this agreement," Todd Insler, United Master Executive Council chairman said in a statement. "We're spreading the existing flying among our pilot group while locking in permanent contractual gains. I am proud of our pilots for showing the unity and resolve needed in the face of uncertainty."

The deal prevents any United pilot from being furloughed at least until June 2021, the union said. The company also agrees to allow early retirement for all pilots over age 50 with 10 years of experience. The deal will also shield pilots from temporary work reductions based on market demands, the union said.

"While we still face a difficult path to recovery, your support of this creative and unique agreement puts us in an unparalleled position of strength when demand recovers," Brian Quigley, the airline's senior vice president of flight operations, said in a statement on Monday. "In addition to avoiding furloughs, this agreement greatly enhances our ability to bounce back -- so we can welcome more passengers and return to the 2019 levels of seat and fleet advancement more quickly

About 2,850 pilots were scheduled for layoffs beginning in October, with 1,000 more pilot furloughs scheduled for next year.

The deal was ratified by 58% of the pilots who voted on it. About 13,000 United pilots are represented by the Air Line Pilots Association.

Meanwhile United still plans to lay off 12,000 other union employees this week, including flight attendants and mechanics.

The Delta Air Lines pilot's union announced Tuesday that the company would postpone the furlough of more than 1,700 pilots until Nov. 1 to give the union and company more time to negotiate, including the possibility of wage cuts.

Most of Delta's tens of thousand of workers won't face job cuts due to voluntary leaves of absence, buyouts and shorter schedules, the airline said.

United and other airlines announced furloughs and job cuts starting Thursday, when $25 billion of federal pandemic rescue aid and protection against furloughs expires. CEOs of U.S. airlines such as Delta and American Airlines are lobbying Congress and the White House for another $25 billion to delay furloughs through next March, but Congress seems unable to come to an agreement on a fourth installment of pandemic relief.

Passenger traffic on U.S. airlines dropped by two-thirds during the second quarter in June to 236,000 flights down from 670,000 flights last year, the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported.

Airlines worldwide have experienced significant losses since the pandemic began early this year and virtually all have made cutbacks to offset the lost revenues from declines in passenger traffic.

South Korean labor unions agree to wage freezes

Members of Hyundai Motor’s trade union vote on this year’s wage deal at the carmaker’s factory in Ulsan, South Korea on Friday. Photo courtesy of Hyundai Motor trade union

SEOUL, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- COVID-19 is having such a profound effect on South Korea's economy that even labor union members are agreeing to freeze wages at major conglomerates.

Hyundai Motor Co. said Friday that the automaker's management and labor union had agreed to freeze wages for the first time in 11 years. Later in the day, some 52 percent of its union members voted in favor of the decision.


It marks the third time that Hyundai unionists have accepted a wage freeze after the Asian Financial Crisis really took root in 1998.

"We did our best for job security and proper salaries of employees amid the worst situation caused by COVID-19," Hyundai's trade union chief, Lee Sang-soo, said in a statement.

SK Securities analyst Kwon Soon-woo said Hyundai's management-labor agreement would likely trickle down to the wage contracts at Kia Motors, an affiliate of Hyundai.

"The chances are that Kia Motors would come up with a similar wage deal as Hyundai," Kwon said.

The management and labor of the country's largest steelmaker, POSCO, also agreed to freeze the wages in late August for the first time in five years. Nearly 94 percent of unionists voted for that deal.

However, other unionized workers -- like those at General Motors Korea -- are threatening to launch a strike.

GM Korea's union is asking for more than $17,000 in bonuses and incentives per worker, as well as a roughly $100 raise to monthly salaries. The company's management is so far declining the request, citing recent losses.

GM Korea has been reporting operating losses over the past six consecutive years, totaling more than $2.5 billion to date.

"The strong stance of GM Korea unionists can make things worse. In this climate, the government would not be able to offer any support at a time when GM Korea is feared to leave the country," said Sung Tae-yoon, a professor at Yonsei University.

Korean media outlets have repeatedly reported on concerns that GM Korea might withdraw due over continued losses and ongoing disputes with its trade union.

Former United Auto Workers president pleads guilty to embezzling funds


Sept. 30 (UPI) -- Dennis Williams, the former president of the United Auto Workers, pleaded guilty Wednesday to embezzling funds from the union.

Williams, 67, of Corona, Calif., pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to embezzle union funds, after resigning his membership on Sept. 18.

The plea comes after Williams' successor, Gary Jones, pleaded guilty in June to embezzling more than $1.5 million in union funds along with two co-conspirators.

Williams said he suspected Jones was improperly using union funds to pay for golf trips, meals and rental stays for conferences but "deliberately looked away" after Jones twice told him "everything was above board."

"I made a deliberate and conscious decision not to press the matter, even though I strongly suspected that if I looked into how Gary Jones was funding those expenses, I would find union funds were being misused," he said.

An investigation into the auto industry has resulted in 15 former union and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and has resulted in the exposure of offenses such as breaking federal labor laws and receiving illegal benefits from union contractors.

Williams faces up to two years in prison for the charges, depending on his plea deal.

The UAW on Wednesday condemned Williams' actions and said he should face consequences.

"Former UAW President Dennis Williams has pled guilty to serious infractions and in doing so put his personal and self-interest above that of our members and this Union. These serious charges deserve serious legal consequences as they violate the oath of UAW officers and they violate the trust of UAW officers to handle our members' sacred dues money," the union said.

Dr. Fauci blames gov't for 'mixed messages' on COVID-19; NYC diners reopen


Masked patrons eat outside a restaurant on Madison Avenue in New York City on Wednesday, as restaurants were allowed to resume indoor dining at 25% capacity. 

Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 30 (UPI) -- The top infectious diseases expert in the United States said he's concerned that some Americans are reticent to trust in vaccines and again blamed mixed messages from the federal government as a cause.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said during the Texas Tribune Festival on Tuesday that it's "disturbing" a portion of the U.S. population is reluctant to believe in vaccine safety. He asked citizens to trust in the process and expressed optimism that a safe COVID-19 vaccine might be available before the end of the year.

"I feel cautiously optimistic, as a scientist, that we will have a safe and effective vaccine," he said. "I believe it will happen, and it will happen likely by this end of the calendar year."

Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said "mixed messages that have come out of Washington" are at least partly responsible for Americans' skepticism.

Fauci has previously criticized the Trump administration for sending mixed messages about a vaccine.

The United States added 42,200 cases and more than 900 deaths on Tuesday, according to updated data Wednesday from Johns Hopkins University. The death toll was the highest in several days.

Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 7.19 million cases and 206,000 coronavirus deaths in the United States.

In Wisconsin, officials are working to contain a surge in cases. The state reported its highest single-day death toll since May and health officials are warning of a looming shortage of hospital beds.

The state's positivity rate is presently 22%.

"We are in a crisis right now," said Ryan Westergaard, chief medical officer of the Wisconsin Department of Health. "The likelihood that this is going to get much worse before it gets better is a real one."

With hospitalizations at a record high, health officials are reporting staffing shortages and warn that they may even have to set up field hospitals.

"We are nine months into this pandemic, and right now it's not slowing down, it's picking up speed," Gov. Tony Evers said, lamenting some residents who are still "carrying on business as usual" and gathering in large groups.

Evers blamed Republican lawmakers for the situation and a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling in May that struck down most of his emergency health orders, including a directive for residents to stay home.

Evers also said repeated dismissive remarks by President Donald Trump and state Republicans have persuaded some residents to behave recklessly.

Trump is scheduled to hold campaign rallies in Green Bay and LaCrosse, Wis., on Saturday.

In New York City, indoor dining at restaurants were allowed Wednesday to reopen at 25% capacity,

The reopenings were approved earlier this month by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who praised residents for keeping the city's positivity rate below 2%.

Reopening diners must undergo temperature checks and submit information for contact tracers. Bar service, however, is not allowed to reopen and masks must be worn by all visitors unless they're seated at a table.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio celebrated the milestone for restaurants but said said he will keep an eye out for signs of rising cases.

"We are going to watch that carefully, but bottom line is indoor dining will go forward," he said.

Timothy Ray Brown, first person cured of HIV/AIDS, dies at 54

Sept. 30 (UPI) -- American Timothy Ray Brown, the first person in history who was said to be cured of HIV/AIDS, has died of terminal cancer. He was 54.

Brown became known as the "Berlin patient" when he was diagnosed with HIV while living in Germany in 1995. In 2007, he was given a bone marrow transplant from a rare donor who was naturally resistant to the virus that causes AIDS.

Brown received the transplant when it was discovered that he had acute myeloid leukemia, which was not related to his HIV status.

Brown died on Tuesday at his home in Palm Springs, Calif.

"I am truly blessed that we shared a life together but I'm heartbroken that my hero is now gone," partner Tim Hoeffgen wrote in a Facebook post.

"Tim's spirit will live on and the love and support from family and friends will help me through this most difficult time."

Hoeffgen said Brown returned to the United States in 2010 and went public with the treatment he'd received.

A year later, doctors said it appeared that Brown had become the first person in the world to be "functionally cured" of HIV/AIDS.

"I quit taking my HIV medication the day that I got the transplant and haven't had to take any since," Brown said in 2011.

Sharon Lewin, president-elect of the International AIDS Society and director of the Doherty Institute in Australia, said Brown helped open the door for the development of HIV treatments.

"Timothy was a champion and advocate for keeping an HIV cure on the political and scientific agenda," she said in a statement.

"It is the hope of the scientific community that one day we can honor his legacy with a safe, cost-effective and widely accessible strategy to achieve HIV remission and cure using gene editing or techniques that boost immune control."

Report: Trump policies could add 1.8B gigatons of greenhouse gases


Environmental rule changes under the administration of President Donald Trump, could result in 1.8 gigatons of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere by 2035, a new report released Thursday said. 

Sept. 18 (UPI) -- The Trump administration's unraveling of Obama-era environmental rules could lead to the release of an additional 1.8 billion gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions by 2035, according to a new examination released Thursday by the Rhodium Group.

The independent research firm said the extra release of the carbon dioxide is equivalent to one-third of all greenhouse emissions pumped into the atmosphere in 2019 and could speed up global warming.

"While some of these moves remain mired in legal uncertainty, the Trump administration has successfully unraveled the majority of Obama-era climate policies, including the Clean Power Plan, fuel economy standards for passenger vehicles, and efforts to curb potent greenhouse gases from refrigerants and air conditioning."

The White House in August eased regulations preventing methane leakage from oil and gas facilities, the firm said.

RELATED Study: Full transition to electric cars would improve U.S. air, health

The Trump administration had been fighting to prevent California from creating its own emissions standards, which would be stricter than once proposed by the White House.

Other possible greenhouse contributions could come from methane emissions from the oil and gas industry and coal-fired power plants that have found some new life under Trump.

"Having promised to cut environmental regulation on the campaign trail, President Trump wasted no time once in office," the report said. "In March 2017, Trump signed an executive order directing then-Environmental Protection Agency director Scott Pruitt to repeal and replace the Clean Power Plan (CPP), former President Obama's signature climate policy."
RELATED Study: Models underestimate amount of carbon absorbed by Earth's oceans


The report said Trump doubled down on his environmental policy by taking the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord in 2017.

Shell to cut thousands of jobs in step toward renewable energy

WORKERS SHOULD BE RETRAINED FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY JOBS BY SHELL & BP! NO LAYOFFS!


The company also said it expects gasoline sales to rebound in the third quarter, after COVID-19 lockdowns eased in many parts of the world. File Photo by Gary Rothstein/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 30 (UPI) -- Oil producer Royal Dutch Shell announced Wednesday it will lay off thousands of workers by the end of 2022 as part of a step toward renewable energy.

The job cuts, which Shell said could number 9,000, represent more than 10% of the company's workforce and include about 1,500 who have volunteered to be part of the reduction, the company said in a third quarter update.

The cuts are expected to reduce costs by as much as $2.5 billion within two years -- and are part of a drive by Shell to reduce "organizational complexity" and restructure operations for net-zero emissions by 2050.

"We will have some oil and gas in the mix of energy we sell by 2050, but it will be predominantly low-carbon electricity, low-carbon biofuels, it will be hydrogen and it will be all sorts of other solutions too," Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said in a statement, calling the cuts "very painful."

"[We] will be saying goodbye to people we know well and really like and who have great loyalty to the company. But we are doing this because we have to."

Rival BP announced earlier this year it would cut about 10,000 jobs as it contends with lower oil prices and depressed demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shell said it will report sharply lower oil and gas production in its third-quarter earnings report, citing the pandemic and hurricane-related shutdowns of oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico where production was curtailed by the equivalent of up to 70 thousand barrels of oil per day.

The company also said it expects gasoline sales to rebound in Q3, after COVID-19 lockdowns eased in many parts of the world.

Gallup: 8 in 10 Americans favor some form of legal abortion

Abortion rights supporters demonstrate during the "Stop Abortion Bans Day of Action" rally in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on May 21, 2019. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 30 (UPI) -- Eight in 10 Americans approve of legalized abortion in some form -- but the vast majority also believe there should be at least some restrictions on the procedure, a new Gallup survey shows.

According to the poll, 79% said abortion in the United States should either be legal in all (29%) or some (50%) circumstances.

Of those who favor abortion with restrictions, 14% said it should be legal in most circumstances, 35% in some circumstances and 1% did not specify conditions.

Thus, a total of 43% of U.S. adults believe abortion should be legal in all or most circumstances, the survey found.

The numbers also show, though, that 70% of all respondents said abortion should either be entirely illegal (20%) or available only under certain circumstances (50%).

The survey found that two-thirds of respondents favor upholding the landmark Supreme Court abortion case Roe vs. Wade, which legalized abortion in the United States in 1973.

"The combined 79% of Americans who think abortion should be legal in all or under certain circumstances echoes the majority public support Gallup consistently finds for upholding Roe vs. Wade," Gallup wrote.

The survey found that 44% said abortion is morally acceptable and 47% said it's morally wrong.

Politically, 59% of Republicans and half of independents favor at least some restrictions for abortion while 49% of Democrats said it should be available in all conditions.

Seventy-eight percent American women say the procedure should either be fully legal (32%) or legal with some restrictions (46%). Among men, 79% said the same.

The age range that most favored fully legalized abortion in all cases was the 18-29 group (39%).

Gallup polled more than 1,000 U.S. adults in May for the survey, which has a margin of error of 4 points.