2 delivery companies in Oregon reportedly stopped working for Amazon, their only client, alleging 'intolerable' conduct and unsafe working conditions

sjackson@insider.com (Sarah Jackson) 

 Provided by Business Insider Patrick Fallon/Getty Images

Two delivery companies reportedly cut ties with Amazon, accusing it of poor pay and work conditions.

Triton Transportation and Last Mile Delivery say Amazon changed rules and routes without notice.

They're reportedly seeking $36 million and won't resume deliveries unless their conditions are met.

Two delivery companies in Oregon made the decision to effectively shut down rather than keep delivering for Amazon, according to Vice.

Last Mile Delivery and Triton Transportation stopped working with Amazon, which is their only client, last week, The Oregonian reported.

"Amazon has been nickel and diming us so bad that if we don't make change we can no longer offer the support and incentives that thus far we have been able to provide," wrote Last Mile Delivery co-owner Tracy Bloemer in a letter to workers seen by The Oregonian. "We believe most of the routes are unsafe and require drivers to deliver in an unsafe manner."

The companies sent a letter to Amazon accusing the e-commerce giant of "intolerable, unconscionable, unsafe, and most importantly, unlawful" conduct in the past two years, according to Vice. Together, the delivery companies employ roughly 150 drivers and make more than 20,000 Amazon deliveries in the Portland area on average every day, The Oregonian reports.

The companies said Amazon nixed delivery routes and changed rules without notifying them, according to Vice. The letter, obtained by Vice says that, because drivers commit to routes ahead of time, Last Mile and Triton are still on the hook for wages even if Amazon cuts routes at the last minute due to low inventory or warehouse staffing.

In the letter, the companies also accused Amazon of accessing drivers' personal information, reducing reimbursements, firing drivers without giving the companies a say in the matter, and allocating deliveries unevenly among workers. Because deliveries weren't evenly divided, some workers ended up needing to drive faster, potentially endangering other drivers or pedestrians, and work 12-hour shifts, even though Amazon only reimburses them for 10-hour shifts, according to Vice.

Last Mile and Triton are seeking $36 million to cover company damages and pay for laid-off drivers, Vice reports. They told the news outlet they won't resume Amazon deliveries unless the company agrees to its terms regarding pay and working conditions.

"Earlier this week, two Delivery Service Partners abruptly threatened to stop servicing the Amazon account and jeopardize the livelihood of their drivers if we did not pay them $35MM within 48 hours along with a string of other demands," Amazon spokesperson Kate Kudrna told Insider in an email response on Friday. "We refused their demands and they followed through with their threat, terminating their contract with us, leaving their employees confused and looking for answers. We're doing everything we can to support the affected employees including connecting them with other Delivery Service Partners in the area who are hiring."

Amazon says it has more than 2,000 delivery service partners employing more than 115,000 delivery associates across the US. These workers earn more than $17.50 an hour on average, according to the company.

Amazon came under fire earlier this year after drivers said they had to pee in bottles because they didn't have time to use the restroom on their routes. Amazon has denied those claims. Delivery workers have also expressed frustration with surveillance cameras that Amazon said it installed in vans for workers' safety.

Working conditions for the company's warehouse workers are also under scrutiny, with one analysis finding that these Amazon workers were almost twice as likely to be injured than their counterparts at Walmart.

Last Mile Delivery, and Triton Transportation did not respond to requests for comment.
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RCMP union first-ever tentative deal with Ottawa could mean $20,000 hike for constables

Christopher Nardi 

OTTAWA – RCMP constables will receive a $20,000 hike to their top salary by next April if the first ever tentative agreement signed between the national police service and its new union is approved.

© Provided by National Post According to the latest numbers on the RCMP’s website, there are currently 11,913 constables within its ranks, meaning that the raise could add up to $238 million to the force’s annual payroll.

According to documents obtained by the National Post, constables — which represent over half of the RCMP’s 20,000 police officers — will see their maximum salary jump from $86,110 as of April 2016 to $106,576 in April 2022 if the agreement is ratified by National Police Federation members.

According to the latest numbers on the RCMP’s website, there are currently 11,913 constables within its ranks, meaning that the raise could add up to $238 million to the force’s annual payroll if all constables reach the top salary echelon (generally after three years of service) beginning next year.

The documents do not contain numbers regarding raises for other uniformed RCMP members, such as corporals, sergeants and inspectors.

RCMP constables, also referred to as 1 st class constables, last received a pay increase in 2016, and no further pay raises were to be given until union negotiations were concluded. The tentative agreement thus contains a 1.5 per cent annual salary increase effective April 1, 2017, as well as a “market adjustment” worth between 1.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent each year until 2022, according to the documents.

If approved, the agreement also stipulates that the annual increases since 2016 will be paid retroactively to members, who are expected to vote on the tentative deal over the summer.

A spokesperson for the NPF declined to comment on details of the tentative deal except to say that it is being submitted to union members for review and discussion ahead of the ratification vote for which there is no fixed date yet.

But in a letter to members obtained by this newspaper, union leadership says the potential deal comes after a “long year of intense and at times contentious negotiations” between the NPF, which is the first ever union to represent federal police members, and the RCMP via the Treasury Board of Canada.

“This Collective agreement ends 4.5 years without a raise and an unprecedented 148 years without a negotiated contract,” reads the letter. “We at the NPF recognize that this has been a roller coaster 5 years, from inception of the NPF, our membership drive, the drawn-out certification and ultimate bargaining process.”

According to union leadership, members’ sick leave and benefits remain “unchanged” in the new agreement, which they say bolsters pay so that it’s “competitive with other police agencies across Canada.”

The letter also explains that process took time because NPF negotiators wanted the “best” deal, not the “fastest”, and that Treasury Board officials originally offered a new salary that was many thousands of dollars below $106,576.

According to each municipal police service’s website, a constable in Ottawa will max out their salary at $100,420.02, a constable in Toronto can earn up to $104,491.87, and a constable in Edmonton can be paid upwards of $112,000.

The boost in salary also comes at a time when critics are calling for a review or even a decrease of police funding in Canada and the United States, a call that has come on the heels of intense scrutiny and protests regarding police use of force following the deaths of a number of people of colour while in custody.

If ratified, the new agreement will also put new pressures on municipal and provincial governments who have struck deals with the RCMP to cover their local policing needs.

For example, the Alberta government is currently studying the feasibility of establishing an Albertan provincial police service to replace the RCMP. In a statement, Jason van Rassel, a spokesperson for Alberta Justice and Solicitor General, said that a “significant increase” to the government’s payments for the police force’s services caused by a new collective bargaining agreement “will be extremely relevant to the ongoing study and discussion of this issue.”

“It’s too early to say what the precise financial impact will be until the Ministry of Justice and Solicitor General analyzes the distribution in rank among officers funded by the Provincial Police Service Agreement (PPSA). Suffice to say, the financial impact will be significant,” van Rassel wrote.

Craig Hodge, a city councillor for the city of Coquitlam, B.C., and a member of the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) executive, says cities and towns are likely to feel an even stronger pinch after the COVID-19 ran roughshod on many local economies.

In many cases, municipalities will likely have no choice but to pass the increased cost on to real estate owners via property tax increases, Hodge said. That hike may be particularly sharp for municipalities that have not heeded the UBCM’s warnings for over a year now to prepare for a “substantial” RCMP salary increase.

“This is going to have a really big impact for those 63 municipalities (in B.C.) that do currently contract with the RCMP. Protective services are probably the single biggest item in local governments’ budgets,” Hodge said.

“Local governments really only have one main source for revenue, and that’s property tax,” he added. “Essentially operational expenses, such as emergency services, are paid by through property taxes. So ultimately, this will flow through property tax increases.”

In a statement announcing the tentative agreement (but which contained no financial details) on Monday, RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki congratulated both sides for reaching a potential deal. She also highlighted that this was the “first time in history” that there will have been a collective agreement between the force and its uniformed members.

Posthaste: Labour shortages are set to get worse in Canada — and you can blame immigration

Victoria Wells 

© Provided by Financial Post Canadian firms are starting to catch up with the U.S. when it comes to labour shortages.

© Provided by Financial Post

Good morning!

Canada may not be suffering from a labour shortage the way the U.S. is, but that doesn’t mean it won’t in the near future.

And the reason isn’t because available workers lack skills, but rather, because of muted immigration levels.

According to Capital Economics, Canada’s job recovery is in pretty good shape. The labour force has rebounded faster than in the U.S., thanks to a quicker reopening of schools, fewer retiring workers and also because many returning employees are able to keep collecting the Canada Recovery Benefit.

In fact, Capital Economics expects employment in Canada to return to its pre-pandemic levels by October. It’s after that, though, that things start getting dicey.

Stephen Brown, senior Canada economist at Capital Economics, points to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business’s latest small business survey , which shows that Canadian firms are starting to catch up with the U.S. when it comes to labour shortages. Forty-one per cent of businesses surveyed in the June CFIB Business Barometer said a lack of skilled labour was limiting sales and growth. Another 28 per cent said a shortage of un- or semi-skilled labour was affecting operations.

Brown says the reason for these shortages is ultimately a lack of newcomers to Canada.

“The big issue is immigration has slowed sharply,” he said.

Last week, Canada announced it would begin letting 23,000 people who’ve been approved as permanent residents into the country. But, it will take some time to get those people into the workforce.

“For the past year, they have only been processing applications for people working in Canada,” Brown says. “So while the government announced last week that migrants are allowed to travel to Canada again, the processing backlog means immigration will remain low into 2022.”

A report from RBC Economics breaks down the immigration issue a bit further and explains why getting more people into Canada is so critical for the labour market.

Before the pandemic, an aging population was one of the biggest problems facing the Canadian economy. That hasn’t changed. And while Canada has some of the highest immigration inflows in the world, it’s still not enough to offset the decline in the working-age population.

The report says the country will need a steady stream of immigrants with “future-focused skills” post-pandemic. Jobs in advanced tech, skilled trade and health care will be more important than ever. And training current Canadians won’t be enough to meet demand.

Tapping into Canada’s temporary resident population — people who come here as international students or to work short-term — might be one way to increase immigration numbers and make sure skilled workers fill jobs. Historically, only 25 per cent of these people go on to become permanent residents. And, RBC says, evidence has shown that immigrants with prior experience in Canada go on to do “significantly” better than those that don’t.

“Over the longer term, Canada would benefit from a more responsive approach to immigration: one that addressed labour-force gaps and targeted the world’s best talent all while helping to offset domestic aging,” Andrew Agopsowicz, a senior economist at RBC, said in the report.

In the meantime, labour shortages appear inevitable.

More people than ever are unemployed because they quit their jobs. It shows Americans are getting pickier about pay

 and benefits.

insider@insider.com (Juliana Kaplan,Andy Kiersz) 

© Provided by Business Insider A "now hiring" sign at a BevMo store on April 2 in Larkspur, California. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

In June, 942,000 people were unemployed because they voluntarily quit, a pandemic-era high.

It reflects labor-market tightness, which is strange when 9.5 million are out of work.

Wages ticked up in June, but they remain relatively low for leisure and hospitality workers.

While the number of jobs added in June trounced expectations, another measure also paradoxically ticked up: More unemployed people said their reason for being jobless was quitting than in any other month of the pandemic.

In June, 164,000 more unemployed people quit or voluntarily left their jobs, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated, bringing the total number of so-called job leavers to 942,000 for the month. That latter figure is a new pandemic-era high for people who quit and remain unemployed.

It continues a trend of elevated quits throughout the past couple of months, showcasing that while recovery may be on the horizon, the labor market is still pretty weird.

Video: 40% of Workers Would Think About Quitting Their Jobs If They Weren’t Allowed to Work Remotely (Veuer)

Job vacancies reached record highs in April, the BLS said, a month when the total number of Americans leaving their positions hit a 20-year record: 4 million Americans quit their jobs that month. That data included people who quit and found new jobs.

The number of people quitting might show that workers are still choosier about their jobs and work, especially as employers vie to lure them in with everything for $50 to show up for an interview to hiring bonuses. The number of quits also comes as 26 states move to end their participation in federal unemployment benefits, a measure that many governors explicitly implemented to compel workers back into the workforce.

Some workers had been "rage quitting" their positions during the pandemic amid poor working conditions and low wages, Insider's Áine Cain previously reported.

Wages also ticked up in June, potentially indicating that employers are being forced to increase wages to lure in and retain workers. The average hourly earnings for all workers rose by $0.10 to $30.40 in June, following increases in April and May, In fact, the jump between April and May marked the fastest rate of wage growth since 1983 (excluding a 2020 lockdown-driven spike).

For instance, leisure and hospitality made up a large chunk of gains in June, adding 343,000 jobs. That industry has seen consistent strong wage growth over the past few months, and just hit $16.21 in hourly earnings. It's also an industry that saw elevated quits in April, before wages climbed up even higher. That could support claims that raising wages across the board might be one solution for bringing workers back.
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Biden's Labor Secretary is watching 'very closely' after Indiana tried to cancel federal unemployment benefits and a judge intervened

insider@insider.com (Juliana Kaplan) 

© Provided by Business Insider Labor Secretary Marty Walsh. Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Indiana moved to cancel extra unemployment benefits, but a judge has halted that.

Labor Secretary Marty Walsh told Insider he's watching the situation closely.

The state has since said that it can't start up those benefits again, HuffPost reports.

In Indiana, federal unemployment benefits ended early - until they didn't. Biden's Labor Secretary told Insider that he's on the case.


After the state's announcement that the $300 weekly benefits would end on June 19, instead of the scheduled September end date for the program nationwide, impacted Hoosiers brought a lawsuit against the state and won a preliminary injunction last week that would preserve benefits for thousands as the case proceeds.

But, as HuffPost's Arthur Delaney reported, the state's Department of Workforce Development "claims it can't bring back the benefits." Scott Olson, a spokesman for the agency, told Delaney in an email that Indiana is "is determining how to proceed because the federal programs in Indiana no longer exist after their termination on June 19."

When asked if the Department of Labor has any plans to step in and ensure impacted Indiana residents receive their benefits, Labor Secretary Marty Walsh told Insider, "we've been in contact with the state, and we're watching this unfold very closely."

"I was actually in Indiana last week - I was at a vaccine site - and I was talking to a mother, with her son, to get vaccinated, and she talked to me about the unemployment benefit piece and that she was having a hard time finding a job," Walsh said. He added: "We're gonna monitor the situation as we move forward here."

The case represents one of the latest attempts by unemployed workers to retain their benefits. Over half of the states in the country have opted to end their federal benefits early, cutting off workers throughout the summer.

Many jobless workers who were newly eligible for unemployment insurance under the expanded federal programs could now lose all benefits.

Broadly, 4 million workers will be impacted by benefits ending early. Some politicians and advocates - including Sen. Bernie Sanders - have argued that the Department of Labor is obligated to continue paying out Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), which made gig workers, among others, eligible for benefits. However, the Labor Department concluded it probably can't step in and continue those payments in states that have ended the program early.

When asked about the impact that benefits ending early had on jobs, Walsh said that, "in the states that have threatened or have cut unemployment benefits, we have not seen an uptick of job searches."

He added: "I think that what's driving our economy is not the threat of cutting unemployment benefits. What's driving the economy is confidence in people coming back to work."

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Fast-food workers describe melting food and air so hot it 'felt like the grease from the kitchen was sliding down our throats' as record heat pummels parts of the US

gkay@businessinsider.com (Grace Kay) 1 hour ago

© Courtesy of Fight for $15 McDonald's workers protest heat conditions at a Los Angeles store. Courtesy of Fight for $15

Workers at McDonald's and Jack in the Box protested working in 100-degree temperatures.

Jack in the Box workers filed an OSHA complaint after their manager said they were exaggerating.

Workers at a Hooters and a Voodoo Doughnut shop also held walkouts over the high temperatures.

Fast-food workers are struggling to beat the heat as many areas in the US continue to face record temperatures.

"It was uncomfortable and hard to breathe," Laura Pozos, a Los Angeles McDonald's worker, told Insider after she said her location went several months without an air conditioner or working kitchen ventilator, with the in-store temperature hitting about 100 degrees. "It felt like the grease from the kitchen was sliding down our throats."

The heat wave has prompted several walkouts across the West Coast. On Tuesday, workers at a Sacramento, California, Jack in the Box went on strike when conditions inside the restaurant hit as high as 109 degrees, according to a complaint the workers filed with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Sacramento County Public Health.

In the complaint, the group said that the air conditioning at the store was frequently broken and that management had not implemented any strategies to keep workers safe from excessive heat exposure.

© Provided by Business Insider Jack in the Box workers protest heat conditions in Sacramento, California. Courtesy of Fight for $15

"She said we were exaggerating and hot because of menopause," one worker said in the OSHA complaint.

The location is one of many fast-food sites in California that has faced backlash from employees who say they have been forced to work in extreme heat.

On Sunday, workers at a Voodoo Doughnut store in Portland, Oregon, staged a walkout over heat conditions. The union Doughnut Workers United said in a Facebook post that temperatures were so high that doughnuts were melting and the frosting wouldn't dry. A Voodoo Doughnut spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment from Insider but told HuffPost that they had kept the store air conditioner running and altered the store schedule to keep employees from working under peak temperatures.

Earlier in June, Hooters workers in Houston held a walkout, saying the location went a month without air conditioning. A waitress told local news the store was so hot that the workers would gather in the ice cooler.

Similarly, a McDonald's off Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles staged a protest on June 17 to demand the company repair its air-conditioning unit.

Pozos told Insider the heat poses an imminent risk to fast-food workers. She said that while the air conditioning and kitchen-ventilation system were fixed when her store hired a new manager, workers' health should not be dependent on the generosity of their managers.

Pozos pointed to workers' support of a bill introduced in the state Legislature at the beginning of the year that would create a California Fast-Food Sector Council and give workers a voice in setting industry standards for fast food in California.

"We need a better place to go," Pozos said. "We need to go directly to the people who would help enforce these issues or we will definitely continue to keep having these issues."

McDonald's, Jack in the Box, and Hooters did not respond to requests for comment. Insider reached out to the individual stores, but the managers said they were not able to provide statements without corporate approval.
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'Apocalyptic': Out-of-control fire consumes B.C. town, First Nation reserve amid record heat

Adrian Humphreys 

An out-of-control fire that continues to rage after consuming almost the entirety of a small town and a First Nations reserve in British Columbia spread so quickly and fiercely that people scrambled to escape with just the clothes they were wearing.

© Provided by National Post Flames rise from a burning building along a street during a wildfire in Lytton, on June 30 in this still image obtained from a social media video.

And it is not certain everyone made it out alive, officials said.

By late Thursday, 24 hours after the first alarm, residents of the Village of Lytton and a reserve of the Lytton First Nation in the B.C. interior were still searching for neighbours and relatives, taking stock of what they had lost and searching for answers on what brought such devastation in so little time.

Mike Farnworth, B.C.’s public safety minister, said most homes and buildings in the town of Lytton have been destroyed by a fire that forced the evacuation of nearly 1,000 people, including the RCMP detachment and ambulance station.

Several residents remain unaccounted for, he said.

“The town has sustained structural damage and 90 per cent of the village is burned, including the centre of town,” said Brad Vis, MP for Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon, in a Facebook message. Nearby electrical, cellphone, rail and highway infrastructure were also damaged, making travel and communication difficult.

Photos show one of the town’s main intersections almost devoid of buildings, just littered with burnt debris and gutted vehicles where a village core once stood.

© Darryl Dyck / The Canadian Press Structures destroyed by the wildfire are seen in Lytton on July 1, 2021.

“I’m very worried,” said Rosanna Stamberg, whose son and daughter, Alfred and Marjorie Nelson, live eight kilometres from the centre of town.

“I don’t know which direction they went. I don’t know if they went down towards Chilliwack. I don’t know if they went to Lillooet. I don’t know if they went to Spencer’s Bridge or Merritt or Kamloops. I have no idea,” she said.

“Or if they stayed home.”

John Haugen, a deputy chief with the Lytton First Nation, said there is “devastation and loss” on reserve land and officials are still trying to account for all its members.

Lytton is 150 kilometres northeast of Vancouver as the crow flies, but a winding, rugged 310-kilometre drive by car.

Dry air, low elevation helped create record-breaking hot spell in Lytton, B.C.: meteorologist

An Oregon town's daunting challenge: How to rebuild when wildfires left almost nothing behind

An evacuation order was issued Wednesday at 6 p.m., a day after the village posted a Canadian record temperature of 49.6 C as a heat wave gripped the province.

The heat may have already had a devastating impact across much of British Columbia, with elderly and other vulnerable residents appearing to have been hit hardest.

British Columbia’s Coroners Service had received reports of 486 sudden and unexpected deaths between June 25 and Wednesday afternoon, Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe said, well over double the usual number.

At the time of the fire, Lytton had set records for high temperatures for three days in a row — surpassing the highest temperature ever recorded in Las Vegas.

Lytton Mayor Jan Polderman said the fire spread so swiftly that within 15 minutes people had to run, leaving behind belongings and pets.

© Jennifer Gauthier / Reuters A view shows a wildfire burning in the mountainous area outside the town of Lytton.

Scott Hildebrand, chief administrative officer of the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, said billows of smoke filled the air and buildings started to erupt in flames within minutes.

Many residents fleeing the town set out for Lillooet or Merritt, where emergency shelters were set up and hotels were asked to find space for evacuees.

Photos and videos posted on social media revealed the dramatic and horrifying scenes, both from afar and terrifyingly close.

An aerial photo shows the widening plume of smoke, starting white and narrow above the tree line, then widening into a panorama of grey haze across the horizon.

Photos from a small convoy of vehicles leaving the area showed two separate fires, with white smoke from a wildfire that has been burning for two weeks on the mountainside above town, and a second plume, darker and denser, in the valley, consuming the town itself.

A dramatic video posted on Vimeo shows a harrowing escape along a curving road, racing past burnt and burning buildings, cars, trucks, RVs and tall trees as the vehicle is repeatedly buffeted by blowing smoke and ash, that sometimes came so thick that visibility was reduced to almost nothing.

© Jennifer Gauthier / Reuters Martha Van Dyke of Lytton was fortunate to rescue her cats, Tigger, and Kona (in the cage).

“I am incredibly overwhelmed by the news of the fire. It happened so fast and is completely devastating almost everyone I’ve ever known,” Shianna McAllister, a Nlaka’pamux from the Lytton First Nation, said on Twitter. She said several residents chose to stay to try to protect their houses.

“The town itself and surrounding reserves have been severely hit. Fire continues up towards other surrounding reserves between Lytton and Lillooet and Lytton and Shackan,” she said.

Lytton has a “quirky tourist draw,” McAllister said: it is one of the few places where the Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway lines cross, leaving Lytton nestled between the two railways.

While rail buffs find that intriguing, it brings danger to the community, including regular fires set by sparks from the metal wheels of passing trains grinding on metal rail lines lighting dry areas of brush along the tracks, McAllister said.

“Many people in the community expressed concerns that the railways were still up to their usual traffic when the temperatures in Lytton were reaching the high 40s (Celsius) this week,” she said.

© Karin Schmidlin via Reuters The Lytton wildfire as seen from an airplane.

There is no cause for the fire announced, or confirmation if the Lytton fire is separate from the wildfires around it. Meteorologists said the unusual weather contributed to thousands of lightning strikes in the B.C. interior. The tremendous, unrelenting heat seems a likely reason why it spread quickly.

Jo-Anne Beharrell said the heatwave made the area “very dry, very dusty.”

“I’m telling you, it was like being in the desert.”

When she drove into town to check on friends and neighbours there was smoke hanging over the area, she said.

“It definitely feels apocalyptic.”

Edith Loring-Kuhanga, an administrator at the Stein Valley Nlakapamux School, says she and fellow staff members were forced to end a Zoom interview with a prospective teacher as fire burned down their block.

“This is so devastating — we are all in shock,” she wrote in a Facebook post. “Our community members have lost everything. I understand our Band office is also gone.”

Jean McKay said she smelled smoke at her home about 15 km from Lytton, a sign for her that it was time to leave.

“I was still sitting there and wondering what to pack — emotionally walking out my door but thinking, ‘I’m leaving all this behind,’ it’s hard, very hard — when my girlfriend told me her house was burning, it really hit home,” McKay said.

“My daughter phoned before we lost services and stuff, she’s telling us, ‘Get out of there, get out of there.’”

For McKay and her daughter, Deirdre, 22, leaving home was hard.

“I cried. My daughter cried. She said, ‘I don’t even know why I grabbed my key. We might not even have a home.’”

Before leaving, her daughter grabbed a photo of her grandfather off the wall to hang on to, McKay said.

“As long as we’re together we’ll survive,” McKay said. “I just pray that our houses are OK.”

The BC Wildfire Service said the blaze is raging out of control over an area spanning roughly 80 square kilometres.

To help the victims of Lytton, a GoFundMe campaign has been set up .

With additional reporting by Vancouver Sun, Canadian Press, Reuters

• Email: ahumphreys@postmedia.com | Twitter: AD_Humphreys

Alaska's Extreme Heatwave Triggered an Ice Quake

An extreme heatwave has been sweeping the Pacific Northwest, and now the region has gotten so hot, it caused an ice quake in Alaska.

© Provided by Travel + Leisure Melting glaciers caused a 2.7-magnitude ice quake on Tuesday.

A 2.7-magnitude ice quake was recorded 25 miles east of Juneau on Tuesday, caused by melting glaciers, according to Gizmodo. While it is normal for melting to cause flooding, the site reported it is rarer that the water refreezes and expands as ice, triggering enough stress to cause seismic activity.

The quake is known as a cryoseism, or a non-tectonic seismic event, and was recorded at a depth of about 8 miles, Gizmodo noted.

Temperatures in the Last Frontier have been hot over the past several days. On Monday, a temperature of 92 degrees Fahrenheit was recorded in Hyder, Alaska, according to the National Weather Service Juneau, causing the agency to dub it Hyderzona. And in Ketchikan — renamed Los Ketchikangeles — temperatures reached 84 degrees.© Provided by Travel + Leisure Sergi Reboredo/VW PICS/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Video: Alaska's Extreme Heatwave Just Triggered an Ice Quake (Travel + Leisure)

"The heat wave continues today possibly making you question what city you are in," the NWS tweeted.

The rise in temperatures in Alaska comes as hundreds of deaths have been reported in Canada and throughout the Pacific Northwest as a record-breaking heatwave swept the area, CNN reported. On Tuesday, British Columbia recorded a temperature of 121 degrees, the highest ever recorded in Canada.

"While it is too early to say with certainty how many of these deaths are heat related, it is believed likely that the significant increase in deaths reported is attributable to extreme weather (British Columbia) has experienced and continues to impact many parts of our province," British Columbia chief coroner Lisa Lapointe told the network in a statement.

The extreme heat also comes just months after The Weather Channel predicted the summer of 2021 would be hotter than average, especially in the western and central parts of the United States.

While Alaska's glaciers might be disappearing (and even rumbling), it's not too late to see them, go for a glacier hike, or even jump in a helicopter to land on top of one.

Alison Fox is a contributing writer for Travel Leisure. When she's not in New York City, she likes to spend her time at the beach or exploring new destinations and hopes to visit every country in the world. Follow her adventures on Instagram.

Nuclear-powered superyacht aims to host cutting-edge climate research

THE BILLIONAIRES CLIMATE CHANGE SOLUTION

Isabella O'Malley 

WEATHER NETWORK

Many researchers are exploring solutions to problems like soaring greenhouse gas emissions, collapsing ecosystems, plummeting biodiversity levels — but few of them are doing so aboard a scientific superyacht. That’s where the Earth 300 comes i

Entrepreneur Aaron Olivera and superyacht specialist Ivan Salas Jefferson designed Earth 300, a nuclear-powered exploration vessel that will stretch 300 metres long and features a 13-storey Science Sphere. The groundbreaking design includes 22 laboratories fully equipped for approximately 160 scientists that can collect and analyze data as the ship travels around the world.

In addition to accommodations for the scientists, there will be room for 20 ‘Experts-in-Residence,’ 20 students, 40 VIP guests, and 165 crew members. The company strives to foster an intermingling of the scientific community, artists, and citizens to promote knowledge-sharing and collaboration.

© Provided by The Weather Network

The company plans on featuring the latest quantum computer on board, which will be the first time this technology has ventured out to the high seas. (Earth 300)

“We are combining exploration with education so that consumers become contributors. The interaction is immediate and constant. Imagine embarking on one of the most exhilarating and meaningful voyages of a lifetime where you’ll witness the cutting edge of science – you’re sitting under the tree with Newton when the apple falls, you’re walking on the moon with Armstrong and Aldrin, you’re holding Galileo’s telescope with one hand and a fine libation with the other. You will create and imagine with some of the most eminent thinkers of the day. You’ll make history,” Earth 300’s website states.

The massive vessel will be around the same size as the world’s largest cruise ship, and powering the superyacht will require a significant amount of energy. The designers plan on using Molten Salt Reactors, a type of nuclear energy that releases zero carbon emissions.

“We have considered the Molten Salt Reactors because you can literally fuel up and go at 32 knots for 30 years without refuelling, not to mention that they are safe and sustainable. There’s no way at present that solar or wind or geothermal can deliver that,” Earth 300 told The Weather Network. However, the company says that other technologies are being considered and they will monitor how various energy sources develop over the next four years before an official decision is made.

 

Provided by The Weather Network

The 300 metre vessel aims to reframe the capabilities of floating research laboratories. (Earth 300)

Some of the main areas of research that Earth 300 will focus on include energy independence, education, water and food security, global health resilience, and climate change. The ship’s Science Sphere will house the labs where this research will take place and each one will be dedicated to a specific topic, such as Indigenous maritime economies, cultures and strategies, robotics, visual arts and architecture, and quantum sciences and technologies.

The superyacht will also act as an open platform repository for oceanic and terrestrial data and aims to launch in 2025.

“Our vessel promises to reframe what a floating research laboratory can achieve. The capabilities that our scientists will have at their disposal are exceptional: artificial intelligence, robotics, machine learning, real time data processing. We will also have the latest quantum computer on board, the first to take to the high seas,” their website says.

“It is by acting together, collectively, leaving no one out, that we can achieve breakthroughs and bring the right solutions quickly to market, ensuring the survival of humanity for generations to come. Welcome to Earth 300. Come aboard and help us protect the planet.”

USA Boy Scouts reach $850M settlement with thousands of sex abuse survivors



The deal states that the plan has "significant" support of those representing about 60,000 abuse survivors, and provides a framework to resolve their complaints. File Photo by torbakhopper/Flickr

July 2 (UPI) -- The Boy Scouts of America have reached an $850 million settlement with tens of thousands of people who sued the organization saying they were sexually abused while under its care, according to court documents late Thursday.

The settlement follows the Boy Scouts of America filing for bankruptcy in February 2020 to restructure its finances and compensate those who were harmed while members of the 110-year-old organization.


The agreement was announced in a court filing entered late Thursday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware concerning resolutions met with official and major creditors as part of its bankruptcy.

The deal states that the plan has "significant" support of those representing about 60,000 abuse survivors, and provides a framework to resolve their complaints.

The agreement is the result of months of "intensive negotiations" between BSA and creditors, the document says.

"This agreement ensures that we have the overwhelming support of survivors for the BSA's proposed Plan of Reorganization, which is a key step in the BSA's path toward emerging from bankruptcy," the organization said in a statement emailed to UPI.

"Bringing these groups together marks a significant milestone and is the biggest step forward to date as the BSA works toward our dual imperatives of equitably compensating survivors of abuse and preserving the mission of scouting.

"As part of this agreement the national organization has agreed to contribute assets with up to $250 million in value to a trust that will provide compensation to survivors of abuse."

Ken Rothweiler, one of the attorneys representing more than 16,800 people suing the organization, said he's "pleased that both the Boy Scouts of America and their local councils have stepped up to be the first to compensate the survivors.

"We will now negotiate with the insurers and sponsoring and chartering organizations who have billions of dollars in legal exposure, of which a substantial portion is necessary to fairly compensate the survivors," he said, according to NBC News.