Google, Facebook, Amazon and more urge SEC to mandate regular climate reports
Lauren Feiner 

CNBC

In a letter to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler on Friday, Google-parent Alphabet, Amazon, Autodesk, eBay, Facebook, Intel and Salesforce shared their view in response to a request for public input on such disclosures.
The tech industry has been vocal on climate issues in the past, even as employees have pressed the companies themselves to do better.

© Provided by CNBC Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announces the co-founding of The Climate Pledge at the National Press Club on September 19, 2019, in Washington.

A group of seven tech companies urged the Securities and Exchange Commission to require businesses to regularly disclose climate-related matters to their shareholders.

In a letter to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler on Friday, Google parent Alphabet, Amazon, Autodesk, eBay, Facebook, Intel and Salesforce shared their view in response to a request for public input on such disclosures. The tech industry has been vocal on climate issues in the past, even as employees have pressed the companies themselves to do better.

"We believe that climate disclosures are critical to ensure that companies follow through on stated climate commitments and to track collective progress towards addressing global warming and building a prosperous, resilient zero-carbon economy," the companies wrote.

In the letter, the group outlined several principles they believe the SEC should incorporate into rules around climate disclosures. They said businesses should report on their relevant greenhouse gas emissions measured by relevant global standards and the SEC should lean on existing frameworks to ensure disclosures are consistent and comparable to one another.

The group said that collectively, it's purchased 21 gigawatts of clean energy and each aims to procure 100% renewable energy.

Separately, Microsoft submitted its own letter to encouraging the SEC to adopt rules requiring material disclosures related to climate impact. Microsoft similarly emphasized that the reports should be based on common standards but said rules should not be "excessively prescriptive."

Honolulu Police Department Used $150,000 in CARES Funds on Robot Dog

Whitney Kimball 

The Honolulu Police Department spent $150,045 in CARES Act funding to buy Spot the robot dog from Boston Dynamics, the world’s sickest dogbot famed for backflips, games of fetch, and also hanging out with law enforcement. As the Honolulu City Beat reported last week, some feel that the expense was a bit excessive.

© Photo: Josh Reynolds (AP)

“Toys, toys, toys,” one anonymous officer told the paper. “Everything we could buy, we would buy.”

Two department officials can be seen defending the purchase in a video of a Honolulu City Council meeting in January. In a presentation, Major Mike Lambert and Acting Lieutenant Joseph O’Neal explained that Spot is intended for the POST program, “Provisional Outdoor Screening and Triage facility,” an encampment of tents to shelter people experiencing homelessness who are unable to quarantine in existing facilities. As the Star Advertiser has reported, thousands of people are living on the streets in Honolulu.

“We’ve been waiting for this moment to vindicate ourselves on the bad press that’s been going around, so thank you so much,” Major Mike Lambert told the City Council.

They opened the presentation with mention of another reference to “bad press” involving a pricey fleet of vehicular toys such as ATVs that the police department also purchased around the time it received CARES funding. As Hawaii News Now reported in April, the department spent $16.5 million after it received the pandemic relief aid. (At the hearing, the Honolulu Police Department reported that the money was gone.) A Spot model for developers can be purchased for about half of what the Honolulu Police Department paid for theirs.

Lambert and O’Neal went on to explain that the robot protects officers working onsite by reducing contact with covid-positive and symptomatic people. “To put a price tag on a possible exposure to the officers and their families... $150,000 is... I wouldn’t put that price on anybody,” O’Neal said. “Not one of the homeless people, not a social worker, and not one of the officers.” They didn’t expand on how the robot benefits unhoused people more than a less expensive contactless option or other health amenities.

They confusingly referenced the need for “infrastructure” (technology), and minutes later, O’Neal mentioned that “this is an outdoor environment with no infrastructure.” It’s unclear why the Spot money couldn’t be spent constructing traditional infrastructure such as shelter.

It’s also unclear why they need the robot at all, given that one of the major perks mentioned was that it carries a temperature screening device that can be used from several feet away and logically might be altered as a handheld gadget.

“Spot carries a camera that is so advanced it can scan someone from 8 feet away,” O’Neal boasted. “Now this is not a scan of general temperature. This camera...scans a three-pixel area in the corner of your eye. So the most accurate body temperature you can possibly get in that site and probably almost anywhere—this is the same camera that’s been used at the Pentagon.” This supposedly helps solve the problem of “accuracy problems” in measuring body temperature from heat exposure. And Spot can disinfect areas with UVCs and atomizers, they added.

In a slide, the department displayed an estimate of staffing and equipment costs which supposedly justify Spot paying itself off in around 90 days. This includes two shifts with two officers to cover operation and set up for alternative equipment, which, they claim, would cost about $1,800 daily including overtime.

Another was providing a communication and telehealth portal which also could be installed as an iPad with advanced two-way communication capabilities that can also be held and operated remotely by humans. Why the delivery device for a screen and a temperature scan needs to be a bad boy with unparalleled agility and dog legs rather than wheels? The City Council didn’t probe the matter.

Instead, Councilmember Augusto E. Tulba inquired about potential non-covid-related uses, such as cracking down on a fireworks problem.

“You could send this technology into a neighborhood to give you a visual perspective of what’s occurring in a neighborhood or detect explosions in the air, that’s not beyond reason,” O’Neal answered. He paused and added: “Or capture people lighting them. Capture people lighting the fireworks. You could.”

The New York City Police Department retired their own $94,000 Spot after activists made noise over a viral video of the robot policing streets in the Bronx. “Shout out to everyone who fought against community advocates who demanded these resources go to investments like school counseling instead,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted in February. “Now robotic surveillance ground drones are being deployed for testing on low-income communities of color with under-resourced schools.”

Homeless encampments certainly fall in the “under-resourced” category.

Neither Boston Dynamics nor the Honolulu Police Department, which was contacted by Gizmodo at 3:30am Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time, was immediately available for comment. We will update this post when we hear back.

Wuhan virologist Dr. Shi Zhengli denies COVID-19 lab leak theory in rare interview

aharoun@businessinsider.com (Azmi Haroun) 

This aerial view shows the P4 laboratory (C) on the campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on May 27, 2020. - Opened in 2018, the P4 lab conducts research on the world's most dangerous diseases and has been accused by some top US officials of being the source of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images

"I'm sure that I did nothing wrong," she told The New York Times. "So I have nothing to fear."

In a rare interview with The New York Times, Wuhan virologist Dr. Shi Zhengli denied claims that the COVID-19 virus originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

"My lab has never conducted or cooperated in conducting gain-of-function experiments that enhance the virulence of viruses," she told The Times. Experts in the international community have struggled to gain transparent access to the lab, in order to determine the coronavirus' origin.

Video: WHO Weighs in On Covid-19 Wuhan Lab Leak Theory (The Independent)

"How on earth can I offer up evidence for something where there is no evidence?" Zhengli said in the interview. "I don't know how the world has come to this, constantly pouring filth on an innocent scientist," she said.

Dr. Zhengli said that claims that the lab bolstered the virus and kept information about it's spread under wraps are "speculation rooted in utter distrust."

"I'm sure that I did nothing wrong," she told the Times. "So I have nothing to fear."
Read the original article on Business Insider

RIGHT WING CONSPIRACY THEORY

GOP senators call for HHS and NIH to hand over records on COVID-19 origins and Wuhan lab

Jerry Dunleavy 

WASHINGTON EXAMINER


Five Senate Republicans are urging the leaders of the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health to hand over records related to the origins of COVID-19 and China's Wuhan Institute of Virology following recent revelations within heavily-redacted emails from Dr. Anthony Fauci.

© Provided by Washington Examiner

THE USUAL COLLECTION OF BAT SHIT CRAZY NUTTERS
Sen. Ron Johnson, ranking member on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, along with Sens. Josh Hawley, James Lankford, Rand Paul, and Rick Scott, sent a letter obtained by the Washington Examiner to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and NIH Director Francis Collins on Monday. In the letter, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee members wrote they wanted answers about NIH’s “handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

“The recent release of approximately 4,000 pages of NIH email communications and other documents from early 2020 has raised serious questions about NIH’s handling of COVID-19,” the GOP letter said. “Between June 1 and June 4, 2021, the news media and public interest groups released approximately 4,000 pages of NIH emails and other documents these organizations received through Freedom of Information Act requests. These documents, though heavily redacted, have shed new light on NIH’s awareness of the virus’ origins in the early stages of the COVID19 pandemic.”

Newly released emails from early 2020 sent by Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, show he seemed aware of the looming gain-of-function research and Chinese collaboration controversies. They also indicate Fauci worked behind the scenes to promote the natural origins hypothesis.

EVIDENCE MOUNTS WUHAN LAB STUDIED LIVE BATS DESPITE DENIALS

EcoHealth Alliance received at least $3.7 million from NIH from 2014 to 2020, and Peter Daszak — a key member of the World Health Organization-China joint study team — maintained a long collaborative relationship with Wuhan lab “bat lady” Shi Zhengli, steering at least $600,000 in NIH funding to that lab for bat coronavirus research. He also criticized the Biden administration earlier this year for appearing skeptical of the WHO’s findings and defended China to Chinese Communist Party-linked outlets.

U.S. Embassy officials in China raised concerns in 2018 about lax biosecurity at the Wuhan lab.

The new GOP letter noted an email from Jan. 9, 2020, in which Fauci senior scientific adviser David Morens asked Daszak for “any inside info on this new coronavirus that isn’t yet in the public domain.”

The letter also pointed to a Jan. 27, 2020, message from Daszak to Morens with the subject line: “Wuhan novel coronavirus – NIAID’s role in bat-origin Covs” and the message, “Happy to have a phone call re: the Wuhan CoV, but just wanted to mention a few things for your information and hopefully to pass on to Tony Fauci for when he’s being interviewed re. the new CoV: NIAID has been funding coronavirus research for the past 5 years… Collaborators include Wuhan Institute of Virology (currently working on the nCoV) and Ralph Baric.”

The Republican letter highlighted the fact Fauci sent an email to NIH Principal Deputy Director Hugh Auchincloss on Feb. 1, 2020, with an attachment labeled “Baric, Shi et al - Nature medicine - SARS Gain of function.pdf” and the subject line, “IMPORTANT.” Fauci’s message had a tone of urgency, saying, “Hugh: It is essential that we speak this AM. Keep your cell phone on... Read this paper as well as the e-mail that I will forward to you now. You will have tasks today that must be done.”

Auchincloss replied to Fauci, saying, “The paper you sent me says the experiments were performed before the gain of function pause but have since been reviewed and approved by NIH. Not sure what that means since Emily is sure that no Coronavirus work has gone through the P3 framework ... She will try to determine if we have any distant ties to this work abroad.”

Fauci replied: “OK. Stay tuned.”

After a pause in 2014, HHS announced the Potential Pandemic Pathogen Care and Oversight Framework in 2017, which was ostensibly set up to review any grants that might involve gain-of-function research. But, the 2019 renewal of EcoHealth grants was not subjected to the P3CO review.

During a Senate hearing, Paul pointed to the work between Baric and Shi as evidence of U.S. support for gain-of-function research in China and asked, “Dr. Fauci, do you still support funding of the NIH funding of the lab in Wuhan?”

Fauci replied, “Sen. Paul, with all due respect, you are entirely and completely incorrect — that the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”

He added, “Dr. Baric is not doing gain-of-function research, and if it is, it is according to the guidelines, and it is being conducted in North Carolina, not in China … If you look at the grant and you look at the progress reports, it's not gain-of-function.”

An article in Nature Medicine published in 2015 following a study by Baric, Shi, and others noted, “Using the SARS-CoV reverse genetics system, we generated and characterized a chimeric virus expressing the spike of bat coronavirus SHC014.”

An “editor’s note” added to the article in March 2020 added, “We are aware that this article is being used as the basis for unverified theories that the novel coronavirus causing COVID-19 was engineered. There is no evidence that this is true; scientists believe that an animal is the most likely source of the coronavirus.”

Baric was among several scientists who signed a letter in Science magazine in May arguing "theories of accidental release from a lab and zoonotic spillover both remain viable."

The Republican senators said Monday that “in order to better assist Congress in performing its oversight function,” HHS and NIH should hand over “all records” involving Fauci, Collins, Daszak, Baric, Shi, Auchincloss, Morens, and other Chinese and international scientists “referring or relating to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, COVID-19, coronavirus, EcoHealth Alliance, or Dr. Baric’s 2015 coronavirus study.”

A State Department fact sheet in January contended Wuhan lab researchers “conducted experiments involving RaTG13, the bat coronavirus identified by the WIV in January 2020 as its closest sample to SARS-CoV-2 (96.2% similar)” and that the lab “has a published record of conducting ‘gain-of-function’ research to engineer chimeric viruses.”

The fact sheet said the lab “engaged in classified research, including laboratory animal experiments, on behalf of the Chinese military” and that lab workers became sick with COVID-19-like symptoms in autumn 2019.

“It is unclear the extent to which NIH officials, including Dr. Fauci, considered the possibility that the virus originated in a laboratory and what, if any, actions they took to seriously investigate this possibility,” the new GOP letter contends. “It is also unclear why NIAID officials eventually decided to downplay the likelihood that the virus originated in a laboratory and, instead, promote that it originated naturally.”

The GOP letter asked for “complete and unredacted copies of all documents and communications responsive” to Freedom of Information Act requests made by the Washington Post, BuzzFeed, and Judicial Watch. It also requested similar FOIA requests by other organizations and outlets related to U.S. government officials, the Wuhan lab, and other coronavirus-related issues, which are listed on NIH’s online FOIA log.

Citing legal authorities, the Republican senators asked for the information “as soon as possible” but no later than the end of the business day on June 25.

Last year, Fauci laughed off the possibility that COVID-19 escaped from a lab, arguing "a number of very qualified evolutionary biologists have said that everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that it evolved in nature and then jumped species."

However, Fauci said last month he was unsure about whether he was still confident COVID-19 emerged naturally.

The U.S. intelligence community said at least one of its 18 agencies is leaning toward the lab leak hypothesis, and Biden ordered all of the spy agencies to “redouble” their investigative efforts last month. Those findings are expected to be delivered to Biden later this summer.

Tags: News

Original Author: Jerry Dunleavy

Original Location: GOP senators call for HHS and NIH to hand over records on COVID-19 origins and Wuhan lab

Broadway Tour Crews Must Be Fully Vaccinated as Part of New Labor Deal

Jeremy Fuster 

THE WRAP

In a big step towards the reopening of live theater, Actors Equity announced on Monday that it has reached an agreement with Broadway producers on COVID-19 safety protocols for touring productions, including a mandate that all cast and crew must be fully vaccinated

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© TheWrap

The agreement also requires cast and crew to undergo weekly COVID-19 tests and bans interaction between performers and audience members. Other rules are similar to the ones implemented by Hollywood guilds for film and television productions, including requiring masks and social distancing, except when job responsibilities do not allow for it, face shields and regular glove changes for hair and makeup artists, and the appointment of a compliance officer to make sure that all protocols are upheld.

The agreement only covers touring companies and not shows on Broadway itself, which are still under negotiation. Actors Equity will also work with the Broadway League to determine "appropriate Health & Safety protocols" in states where vaccine mandates are not allowed by law.

"After months of working together in the midst of an ever-changing landscape, it was great to finalize the protocols with Actors Equity that will help bring Touring Broadway back and keep our employees safe," read a statement from the Broadway League sent to TheWrap.

The new rules come as national tours for major Broadway musicals have announced plans to resume performances, including "Hamilton" at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles this August. Broadway tours of "My Fair Lady" and "Moulin Rouge" are also set to arrive in L.A. later this year.

Meanwhile, Hollywood guilds are preparing to once again review COVID-19 safety protocols to determine if any can be loosened as California prepares to lift nearly all COVID-19 safety requirements and capacity limits on Tuesday. The guilds will also consider whether to require vaccinations for all production crew members for film and TV shoots as it continues to monitor potential variant cases of the virus in parts of the world where infection rates remain high.

THIRD WORLD USA

COVID-19 vaccines are low in areas where eviction rates are high, report finds

asheffey@businessinsider.com (Ayelet Sheffey) 

© Provided by Business Insider Housing activists gathering in Massachusetts in October. Michael Dwyer/AP Photo

The Eviction Lab found vaccinations rates are low in areas where eviction filings are the highest.

These evictions are happening despite a CDC eviction ban, which is set to expire on June 30.

Several courts have ruled the ban unconstitutional, but this suggests COVID-19 cases will pick up along with evictions.

The eviction moratorium from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is set to expire at the end of June, but courts have begun overruling the ban, putting tenants at risk of eviction.

New data suggests that lifting the moratorium will not only increase evictions, but also increase the spread of COVID-19.

Insider reported last month that US District Judge Dabney Friedrich, the first judge to strike down the CDC's eviction ban nationwide, also issued an order keeping the ban in place for the time being because she agreed with the Department of Health and Human Services' projections that lifting the moratorium would amount to 433,000 additional cases of COVID-19. In other words, infection risk could go up with evictions.

Princeton University's Eviction Lab, which examines eviction data, released a report last week that found that in every jurisdiction the lab could locate data, eviction rates were higher in neighborhoods with lower vaccination rates.

It analyzed nine cities with sufficient data: Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Phoenix, New York, and South Bend, and found those most at risk of being evicted are still at high risk of contracting and passing on the virus.

"The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, and while vaccination access is improving, it's still limited in disadvantaged communities that are at greatest risk for eviction," the report said. "The CDC eviction moratorium is, for many tenants behind on rent, the last remaining protection from the threat of displacement."

In Phoenix, for example, the average neighborhood with a low eviction filing rate of under 5% since the start of the pandemic had a vaccination rate of 56%, while the average zip code with a high eviction filing rate of above 15% had a vaccination rate of just 35%, according to the report.

The report also found that the relationship between eviction filings and vaccination rates is "deeply linked with race." Black renters routinely face higher eviction rates, and Black and Latinx people are also much less likely to be vaccinated against COVID-19, reflecting the higher transmission rates that would result when evictions restart.

The Eviction Lab's findings only further strengthen the concerns that experts, and judges, have had with lifting CDC's eviction ban early.

Since the eviction ban extension was implemented, multiple landlords have filed lawsuits questioning its legality, with multiple courts ruling the ban unconstitutional. These rulings came at a time when the Treasury Department still had $50 billion in emergency aid to give to renters, but the department needed to get the funds to renters quickly before the ban lifts and they're at risk of eviction.

The Alabama Association of Realtors, which sued to challenge the moratorium in Friedrich's case, argued landlords will lose $13.8 billion to $19 billion each month in unpaid rent as as a result of the moratorium. Landlords and housing organizations have been making this argument since the ban was implemented.

But some lawmakers and advocates are concerned with the implications of overruling the eviction ban and want to ensure that renters remain protected. Insider reported on April 26 that Washington became the first state to ensure that if its residents do get evicted, they will have access to legal aid.

Nevertheless, the CDC has not commented on whether its eviction ban will be extended past June 30. New York previously extended its own eviction ban through August, but if evictions pick up, the spread of COVID-19 might also pick up.

The report said: "As its expiration nears, few protections stand in the way of a family losing their home, and potentially contracting a life-threatening virus."

Indigenous constellations; part-science, part-art, all-important
Randi Mann 

WEATHER NETWORK

© Provided by The Weather Network Star maps from Dakota/Lakota and Ininew/Cree First Nations. Credit: Annette S. Lee, William P. Wilson, Carl Gawboy, © 2012, Annette S. Lee & Jim Rock © 2012, and Annette Lee, William Wilson

Have you ever checked your horoscope to see what the day has in store for you? Whether you’re a dramatic Leo, a scientific Aquarius, or an adventurous Sagittarius, you’re looking to the ancient Greeks and Romans to tell your story. You don’t have to look that far.

The Indigenous Peoples of Canada have been connecting with the world around them via sky stories for epochs. Though the stories have been disrupted, there are leaders within the Indigenous community that continue to teach the importance of connecting with their stories as a way to connect with ourselves, others and nature.

And the stories are darn-right beautiful, in their meanings and visually. Before we get into some of the science, meanings and expert insight, take a look at these two beautiful interpretations of what hangs out in our skies.

THE SCIENCE OF INDIGENOUS CONSTELLATIONS

Astronomy is the oldest form of science. It helps us understand how to prolong survival and how to navigate the world while we’re here. Astronomy is critical in understanding the weather, water, and climate changes. It’s a pretty big deal. And it’s pretty significant that it’s culturally normalized to only talk about one interpretation of sky stories.

Will Morin, a professor in the Department of Indigeous Studies at the University of Sudbury, explains that many Indigenous communities use stories of the stars to communicate seasonal focuses and traditions. And living in what is now Canada, we can all appreciate the very distinct four seasons. These are some key events that Indigenous Peoples use to connect the sky, the season, the people and the environment around them:
Winter: a time for family, storytelling, and reconnection with one another
Spring: the time when ice melts, floods could occur, and therefore danger is imminent
Summer: a time for trapping and enjoying hanging out in the warm weather
Fall: the season to hunt moose and get ready for the winter

So for example, what is widely known as Pegasus, the Anishinaabe people know as the Moose. And it couldn’t get more Canadian even if we had a maple syrup-dipped Celine Dion constellation.

© Provided by The Weather Network Credit: Ontario Parks Blog

Morin continues to associate the connection between Indigenous star stories and science by explaining the pattern of a dreamcatcher (another nice intersection between art and science). Morin explains that the “Dreamcatcher is more than a “craft”, it is in fact part of the creation stories for some tribes. The dreamcatcher pattern echoes the math formula for ‘phi’ found in nature. This pattern is a star map of the constellations.”

The Indigenous studies professor continues to connect the sky stories with earth sciences by explaining that “Looking to the stars helps us to prepare for the future and links us to the past. The animals and beings among the constellations related to our relationship here on the earth, with the animals, the plants, and each other.”

If these stories have had great impacts on generations of Indigenous Peoples of Canada, then why won’t we hear about them? Why aren’t we still learning from them? How can we reconnect with the history of the people and land of Canada?

THE RECLAIMED ART OF INDIGENOUS SKY STORIES

J'net Ayayqwayaksheelth, the Indigenous Outreach and Learning Coordinator for the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), explains that there’s a vast diversity of Indigenous star stories that span our country. But the Potlatch Ban, that span from 1884-1951, disrupted the transmission of traditions, including singing, dancing, seasonal celebrations and storytelling.

Ayayqwayaksheelth shares that in times when we need to ground ourselves, like during a worldwide pandemic, star stories provide a sense of belonging by learning directly from our ancestral homelands. She continues to explain that stories offer “Timeless knowledge of being in good relations with ourselves, our kin, and the land.’

Morin echos Ayayqwayaksheelth’s sentiments by sharing that “constellation beings tell us of when to hunt, to plant, to rest, when to sacrifice and prepare for the changes to come.” Though many Canadians don’t connect with hunting, or even planting, we’re a country of diversity, and learning about new ways to rest and prepare for changes can provide additional strength throughout the everchanging seasons.

Luckily, there are experts like J'net Ayayqwayaksheelth and Will Morin to help spread the word.

RESOURCES TO LEARN ABOUT INDIGENOUS SKY STORIES

There are certainly many ways to learn and experience the arts and sciences that comprise Indigenous sky stories. Ayayqwayaksheelth, and the ROM Learning Department, directed us to the knowledgeable and engaging Wilfred Buck. Buck has live virtual events, but his stories are also accessible on YouTube.

There are also books that share the sky stories of a particular Indigenous group. For example, this Ojibwe Sky Star Map.

Overall, Canada is lucky to be composed of rich cultural and biological diversity. Indigenous star stories teach us about Canada's heritage and suggest ways to connnect with our environment to move into a stronger future.

A group of Republican senators seeks to ban the physical desecration of the American flag, including attempts to burn it

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© Provided by Washington Examiner

Sen. Steve Daines of Montana reintroduced a constitutional amendment on Monday, which was also Flag Day.

"The American flag is a symbol of liberty and a beacon of hope," Daines said in a statement. "It represents the ideals that our nation was built upon and for decades, brave men and women have carried its colors into battle to defend the United States of America. The Stars and Stripes are a representation of freedom. We must always protect and respect the American flag."

Sens. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Mike Crapo of Idaho, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, and Kevin Cramer of North Dakota co-sponsored the amendment.

Daines pursued a similar measure on Flag Day of 2018 and 2019, unveiling a report of 50 "offensive acts" done against the country's flag since 2014.

Among the incidents the senator listed included one in 2016 when anti-Trump protesters burned an American flag and a "Make America Great Again" hat after a San Jose Trump rally. He also said there was a 2017 incident involving the burning of a flag by vandals that belonged to a Marine veteran in Ohio and a 2017 incident in which a flag was hung outside of a local business in Arlington, Virginia, and burned.

In 2019, former President Donald Trump called the amendment a "no-brainer," saying he was "all-in" for the proposal.

The Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that desecrating the American flag was constitutionally protected as free speech.

Amendments, however, can be added to the Constitution if two-thirds of both chambers of Congress agree on a proposal and three-fourths of states ratify it, or two-thirds of state legislatures call a convention in favor of the proposed changes.

The closest Congress has come to passing such a proposal in recent history was in 2006. A measure to ban burning the flag passed the House, but it failed by one vote in the Senate, which needed two-thirds support to be sent to the states for ratification. The vote was 66-34.

The Fraternal Order of Police, the American Legion of Montana, and the Department of Montana Veterans of Foreign Wars are among organizations that support the measure, Daines's office said.

More than 100 lawmakers, led by Ocasio-Cortez, push to increase congressional staff salaries

Savannah Behrmann, USA TODAY 


WASHINGTON – More than 100 lawmakers, led by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., called for higher wages for congressional staffers in order to better retain employees working for members of Congress

In a letter sent Monday, the lawmakers asked the House Appropriations Committee to increase congressional office budgets by 21% to be used to ramp up staff salaries.

"For years, pay and benefits for the staff of Member offices, leadership offices, and committees have fallen farther and farther behind what is offered in the private sector. At the same time, the cost of living here in our nation’s capital has risen substantially, placing opportunities such as homeownership, rental housing, and childcare out of reach for many," the lawmakers penned to Appropriations Chair Rosa 

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez(D-NY) walks after speaking during a press conference to re-introduce the Green New Deal in front of the US Capitol in Washington, DC on April 20, 2021. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images) ORG XMIT: 0 ORIG FILE ID: AFP_98D99A.jpg

They continued, "These realities have hamstrung the House in our ability to recruit and retain the talented and diverse workforce we need to serve the diversity and needs of the American people in the best way possible."

Per the lawmakers' letter, House staff salaries were cut last year by 20.7% from the Congressional Budget Office's 10-year baseline projection, and the average staff member leaves employment on Capitol Hill after three years.

According to the Congressional Research Service, the median salary for a staffing position such as a legislative assistant was $56,250 in 2020.

“It is unjust for Congress to budget a living wage for ourselves, yet rely on unpaid interns and underpaid, overworked staff just because some conservatives want to make a statement about 'fiscal responsibility,'" said Ocasio-Cortez in a statement. “The lack of diversity on the Hill can be traced directly to our failure to pay staff a living wage."

'How much worse does it get?' Trauma from Capitol riot, car attack, COVID takes toll on Hill staffers

The call for higher staff salaries comes amid a traumatizing and stressful year working for the legislative branch.

Morale among those on Capitol Hill has been exceedingly low, and continued to be exacerbated, over the last year as they have had to face the COVID-19 pandemic that spread amongst the complex, two deadly attacks on their place of work within months of each other, and ramped-up rhetoric.

One Democratic congressional staffer had asked USA TODAY in April: "How much worse does it get?"

Rep. Rho Khanna, D-Calif., said in a statement that “A career in public service shouldn’t translate to unsustainable, unlivable low-wages. If we want to continue to recruit the best and the brightest to inspire change in the halls of Congress, we need to pay them a living salary."

The lawmakers' letter follows earlier concern by some House leaders, who raised alarms in April that the pay discrepancies made it difficult to retain talent and staff.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., also wrote to DeLauro to boost office budgets by 20%.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: More than 100 lawmakers, led by Ocasio-Cortez, push to increase congressional staff salaries

Songbirds act as one when they sing together, new study suggests

By Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman, CNN 

Singers performing a duet, jazz players riffing together effortlessly, paired-up dancers never skipping a step: great performers are so coordinated, they become one.

© Courtesy Melissa Coleman The brains of duetting songbirds may be linked together during performances, according to a new study.

What are the mechanisms that regulate coordination and cooperation? Neurobiologists are learning more from some of nature's foremost musical performers: songbirds.

The brains of duetting songbirds are linked together during performances, a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found.

The exchange of auditory feedback between the birds "momentarily inhibits motor circuits used for singing in the listening partner, which helps link the pair's brains and coordinate turn-taking for a seemingly telepathic performance," according to a news release.

© Courtesy Melissa Coleman Plain-tailed wrens are songbirds that live in bamboo thickets in the Andes region.

It's not telepathy -- but almost, according to study coauthor Eric Fortune, a neurobiologist and associate professor at New Jersey Institute of Technology's department of biological sciences.

"The birds hearing each other links their brains to act as one," he told CNN.

"The male's brain has expectations of what the female brain is going to do. The female brain has expectations of what the male brain is going to do. And when they start operating together, they're tied," Fortune added.

A songbird's brain and a trampoline

The study focuses on what happens in the brains of male and female plain-tailed wrens -- a species native to the Andes region, living in bamboo thickets -- while they sing duets.

The duets of Pheugopedius euophrys are frantically paced call-and-response songs, and they take turns singing so rapidly, it sounds as if a single bird is singing, according to the study.

Working from the Yanayacu Biological Station's lab in Ecuador, right by the active Antisana volcano, scientists specifically investigated an area of the songbirds' brain known to control singing.

Researchers recorded the birds' brain activity during duets using electrodes much thinner than a hair, Fortune explained. The team observed that when a bird sings, the neurons spike in activity, but when a bird hears a partner sing, the neurons quiet down.

The fact that neurons quiet down is especially significant, Fortune explained.

"Oftentimes, what happens is after you have inhibition, you have a rebound, and that rebound can change the timing of your own behavior," he said.

Fortune compared that effect to that of jumping on a trampoline: "You bounce down, that's kind of slow, but then you shoot off."

The scientists hypothesize the release from inhibition could help a bird respond faster when it is its turn to sing.

According to Fortune, there are similarities between how the birds take turns singing and how humans do that while they converse.

"If you watch your own interactions with people, you'll see that the other person starts talking a nanosecond after you stop uttering your last word -- it's really amazing," he said.

What humans and robots can learn from songbirds

"Every achievement of humankind is based on cooperation, that is the feature of humans that has allowed us to do the amazing things we do," Fortune said.

Learning more about how songbirds stay in sync during their singing performances can help illuminate the mechanics of coordination in humans, a complex phenomenon that involves many different types of information being exchanged among parties.

"A lot of us understand how hard it is to dance, and in part it's because you are exchanging complex sets of information at different times -- touch, vision, acoustic, you have to signal your intent, there has to be some set of variations, and it turns out to be a real mess."

Songbirds, on the other hand, take turns in their duets in a more structured fashion, making it easier to analyze how cooperation works, according to Fortune.

Furthering our understanding of cooperation in songbirds could also help us build better robots, Fortune explained.

"Robots are actually more precise and better controlled than a human can control themselves, and yet robots can't cooperate with us," he said.

The brains of duetting songbirds link up to create "a single control system" spanning two individuals, according to Fortune. This could inspire the development of robots that can better form partnerships with humans.

"It's this linkage of the control systems across individuals that is critical insight for roboticists," Fortune said.