'Is this really happening?' Nurses say they were fired for raising safety concerns


Jean Lee
Sun, February 6, 2022, 10:37 AM·9 min read

Marian Weber says she wanted to make Ketchikan, Alaska, her forever home. With its widespread greenery and rainy days, and waterfront crowded by houses, it was a long-awaited dream. And staying for good seemed like a real possibility.

Weber, 47, was a travel nurse contracted to work at the city-owned Ketchikan Hospital, run by PeaceHealth, a not-for-profit health care system. She says she arrived in April 2021, and the hospital renewed her contract in August before promptly terminating it within the same month.

“They thanked me for extending, they were excited that I was going to stay through the winter, and then a few hours later, they rounded back just asking if we had anything we wanted to discuss,” said Weber. “I escalated a problem.”

The problem Weber said she escalated was a patient safety concern. She explained that two intensive care level Covid-19 patients — one who was intubated and one who required continuous BiPAP (ventilator) support — needed the central monitoring system and transparent doors an ICU room provides.

Instead, Weber said the patients in need of critical care had been placed in the medical-surgical unit with opaque doors and without a central monitoring system, making continuous observation difficult. She says she was worried that nurses might miss something, potentially leading to “catastrophic consequences.” Weber said there were available ICU beds at the time and that the hospital’s possible solution of keeping a nurse in the room for 12 hours, “for prolonged exposure” to Covid-19, didn’t seem sustainable to her.

“I worked my shift Saturday, I had Sunday off, and then I worked Monday,” said Weber. “And then Tuesday morning, my phone is blowing up at 4:30 in the morning, and I wake up and see all these missed calls. I call back, and that’s when my agency said that PeaceHealth has terminated my contract immediately. And that I was not to go to work that day.”

Days before she was terminated, Weber filed an internal complaint after she said she was afraid of retaliation for reporting a safety concern.

“It’s our job to advocate for safety,” she said. “We should be doing this stuff. That’s what we’re supposed to do.”

Following her termination for what PeaceHealth said was “creating an unsafe hostile environment,” she filed a charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

“Then the NLRB started their investigation of her charge quickly,” said Robert Liu, Weber’s attorney. “After that, they investigated this claim by interviewing some of the key witnesses provided by Marian. After a series of interviews, the NLRB found Marian’s charge was credible.”

PeaceHealth said that it has “carefully listened to and evaluated concerns about levels of care required for patients” at Peace Health Ketchikan. “After independent review by medical staff, we determined that appropriate standards were in place and adhered to,” said PeaceHealth Chief Physician Executive, Doug Koekkoek.

Careworn health care workers, burned out after nearly two years of fighting the pandemic, are duty-bound to speak up for their patients but some fear risking retribution from their employers for doing so. Five nurses at hospitals either owned or operated by PeaceHealth spoke to NBC News about the consequences they say they faced when trying to advocate for patient and nurse safety.

“Nurses have to speak up in order to make sure the patient doesn’t have a bad outcome,” said Donna Phillips, Alaska Nurses Association’s labor council chair and a former nurse.

The issue of ignored safety reports and fear of retribution for bringing up safety concerns isn’t unique to Covid-19, said Phillips, who added that she feels as if hospitals sometimes used the pandemic as a scapegoat for longtime problems.

“In my 42 years as a nurse, not once did I receive a response when reporting a safety concern,” said Phillips. According to Phillips, Weber’s consequences were severe but her contract termination was not a stand-alone case.

Sarah Collins, who was fired from PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center after raising safety concerns. (Courtesy Sarah Collins)

Sarah Collins said she was fired from her staff nurse position at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center in Washington state after raising safety concerns.

“I just feel like, ‘Is this really happening?’ Because I’ve always just really prided myself on being a nurse,” said Collins, 41. “That’s part of my personality, being a nurse and making sure that I take really great care of my patients. And so it’s been a huge blow to my sense of worth.”

Collins, who worked at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center since 2016, rented a separate apartment in the early days of Covid-19.

“I was terrified of bringing it home to my family,” she said.

She said she worked 12-hour shifts with almost no breaks and spent every free moment during that time having brief, socially distanced visits with her family in their yard. Collins said she was concerned about nurse and patient safety, specifically nurse-to-patient ratios.

She brought the issue, along with other concerns, to news outlets and started a Facebook group for nurses after trying to raise her concerns with PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center.

“Nurses need to have everything that they need in order to promote healing,” Collins said. “Staffing is a challenge. People have needs.”

The problem of nurses being overworked, even in unionized hospitals, has been an issue for at least a decade, said Ruth Milkman, a sociologist of labor and professor at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center, but Covid has made the problem even worse.

“If nurses and other health care workers are overworked, the probability of medical errors goes up, and care is compromised,” Milkman said. “So patients and their families have a lot at stake here.”

In mid-September, Collins gave an interview to the local news interview set up by her union and was put on a three-month administrative leave for violating the company’s media policy. When she returned from her administrative leave, the hospital had a list of reasons for her job termination that included “operating outside her scope of practice” and “failing to follow policy,” she said.

Following her termination she filed complaints with the NLRB and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Those complaints are still pending.

With regard to staffing ratios Koekkoek said, “Across all our facilities, in Washington and elsewhere, PeaceHealth consistently meets or exceeds all regulatory requirements for staffing and the provision of safe, effective care.”

There is an ongoing lawsuit with a certified class of about 9,000 hourly paid health care workers at three PeaceHealth hospitals: PeaceHealth St. Joseph, PeaceHealth St. John and PeaceHealth Southwest, where Collins worked.

The lawsuit, filed in April 2020 in Clark County Superior Court in Washington, claims that the work environment at PeaceHealth Southwest prevented workers from taking all lawfully required meal and rest breaks, and that employees were discouraged from reporting all the breaks they missed.

“I didn’t participate in this suit because I always claimed my breaks,” said Collins. “But I’ve been watching closely and doing my part to encourage nurses.”

In addition to the claim against PeaceHealth Southwest, there was a separate claim on alleged unpaid wages due to time-clock rounding made against PeaceHealth St. Joseph and St. John.

The parties in that case agreed this week on the terms of a settlement and will present them to the Clark County Superior Court in Washington for approval.

“Now more than ever, we recognize the invaluable role health care workers play in our communities,” said Peter Stutheit, one of the lawyers representing health care workers in the case. “I’m pleased that PeaceHealth came to the table and settled on terms I believe to be fair.”

PeaceHealth said it could not comment at this time on the lawsuit as details of the settlement are not yet available.

Ming Lin, an emergency medicine physician, filed a lawsuit to get his job back at St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham, Washington, which is owned by PeaceHealth. He says he was fired in March 2020 after critiquing his hospital’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. He posted to Facebook a letter he sent to the hospital’s chief medical officer.

The letter outlined seven safety concerns related to Covid-19, including “waiting for influenza test" before deciding it's the coronavirus. He suggested checking staff temperatures at the start of shifts and triaging patients in the parking lot outside the emergency room to mitigate infection.

“Dr. Lin spoke out about PeaceHealth’s inadequate COVID-19 procedures,” the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, currently representing Lin, told NBC News. “Instead of being met with gratitude and collaboration, PeaceHealth fired him. People rely on emergency room and medical staff to provide the best health care possible. This is impeded when hospitals silence advice meant to protect workers and the public.”

A representative from the ACLU of Washington told NBC News that his case was currently awaiting a trial date, delayed because of Covid-19.

According to the lawsuit, PeaceHealth Chief Operating Officer Richard DeCarlo said in an interview with ZdoggMD in April 2020 that Lin was terminated because he “created a toxic work environment.” DeCarlo went on to say that Lin posted misinformation on Facebook.

In a statement issued to NPR in May 2020, PeaceHealth said Lin “chose to not use designated safety reporting channels, and his actions were disruptive, compromised collaboration in the midst of a crisis and contributed to the creation of fear and anxiety.”

PeaceHealth said that its Covid-19 protocol has changed throughout the pandemic, saying, “requirements for specific actions, such as temperature checks, have evolved on the basis of best available scientific evidence over the course of the pandemic.”

“Ensuring the safety of our caregivers and the patients we care for is PeaceHealth’s highest priority. We have hardwired safety into all our processes,” Koekkoek said.

Weber and Collins both said they were making every effort to maintain a sense of hope that things would change, looking toward a future where nurses and other health care workers had what they needed to advocate for patients during a crisis. But neither is sure they can maintain this hope.

Weber is still a traveling nurse, working her way through the country as cases rise (they have reached almost 76 million, according to NBC News' tally). She summed up her last year by saying she has no regrets, just a lot of disappointment.

“So that’s my history,” she said. “But here I am wondering if I can keep this up.”

Kuwaiti women protest against ban on ‘indecent’ yoga retreat

By AFP
07 February 2022 | 8:21 pm


Women activists rally in support of their right to exercise activities, outside the National Assembly in Kuwait City on February 7, 2022. – A Kuwaiti women’s yoga retreat that was denounced as “immoral” has been postponed after authorities said it needed a permit, its organiser said, prompting a backlash online and a complaint to parliament. 

(Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat / AFP)

Dozens of Kuwaiti women staged a protest Monday against the suspension of a women’s yoga retreat deemed “indecent” by conservatives — a move that sparked controversy in the small emirate.

Event organiser Eman al-Husseinan announced the suspension of the retreat last Thursday, stating she had not received a permit from the authorities, a day after MP Hamdan al-Azmi tweeted to denounce the retreat as “dangerous”.

“This is not about sports, although that is important,” said activist and university professor Ibtihal al-Khatib, who attended the demonstration in Kuwait City’s Erada Square, in front of the parliament building.

“The important point is that if we give in, we will see much more regression,” she said.

Unlike most Gulf countries, Kuwait is known to have an active political scene, with MPs regularly challenging the ruling authorities.

Women in the square carried placards denouncing the “exploitation of women’s issues” by parliament and government, and rejecting the “regime of fatwas” (religious edicts) and “guardianship of women”.

Rights activist Hadeel Buqrais told AFP: “What we want the government and MPs to understand is that we do not accept the exploitation of women’s issues and their freedoms for the settlement of political scores.”

In a video posted on social media, the event’s organiser decried a smear campaign in local media.

In his tweet, Azmi had called on the interior ministry to put an end to “practices that are alien to our conservative society”.

Though several Kuwaiti women have previously held government posts and parliament seats, women failed to win any seats in elections to the last parliament, which is dominated by the Islamist opposition.

Danish pension giant dumps shares in Wizz Air over alleged labour abuses


August Graham, PA City Reporter
Mon, 7 February 2022, 



One of Denmark’s biggest pension funds will sell its shares in London-listed Wizz Air over the company’s alleged human and labour rights abuses.

AkademikerPension said it would sell all of its £2.5 million of shares in the Hungarian airline, listing a series of anti-union behaviour.

“Patience ran out,” the pension fund said in a statement on Monday.

“After engaging with the company’s management, we are in no way reassured that they will initiate the changes we have requested with regard to human and labour rights issues. Therefore, we see no other way forward than to exclude the company,” said AkademikerPension chief executive Jens Munch Holst.

The pension fund said Wizz Air repeatedly refused to accept the right of staff to unionise.

It mentioned alleged events in Romania, Ukraine, Norway and Italy.

In 2014, AkademikerPension said Wizz Air dismissed 19 workers in Romania shortly after they told the company they had formed a union.

The airline was fined by the Romanian supreme court.

AkademikerPension also pointed to comments by Wizz Air boss Jozsef Varadi, who two years ago said “unions are killing the business”.

He said Wizz Air would “simply close the base and move on” if “unions try to catch us and to kill us”.

The pension fund’s decision to divest comes around four months after it, and 13 other investors, sent a letter to the airline’s management, raising their concerns.

Wizz Air only agreed to meet with investors after they went public with the allegations, but at that meeting bosses said they would not change their approach.

Mr Munch Holst said: “Exclusion is the last tool in our toolbox. If we are not ready to use it, we have no leverage when as an investor we try to influence companies to change course in these kinds of cases. So now Wizz Air is excluded from our investment universe.”

Shares in Wizz Air had dropped 0.7% on Monday afternoon.

The airline said: “Wizz Air takes the engagement with its employees very seriously and we are confident that our structures and processes that have been in place to support open and transparent engagement are working extremely well, including our People Council, which provides a forum for employees to discuss important issues, frequent employee engagement surveys and a regular ‘Floor Talks’ programme which allows for a regular two-way dialogue with our CEO.”

Canada's Trudeau says anti-vaccine trucker protest 'has to stop'



Issued on: 08/02/2022 -

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau demanded an end Monday to a protest by hundreds of truckers against Covid-19 restrictions that has paralyzed the capital, as Ottawa's mayor called on federal authorities for support.

"It has to stop," Trudeau said during an emergency debate in the House of Commons on his return to parliament after isolating for week due to a positive Covid-19 test.

"This pandemic has sucked for all Canadians," the premier said, visibly frustrated over the protests that have brought Ottawa to a standstill for more than week.

"But Canadians know the way to get through it is continuing to listen to science, continuing to lean on each other," he added.

He pledged federal government support "with whatever resources the province and city need," without elaborating what measures might be planned.

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson earlier urged the federal government to send an additional 1,800 police officers and appoint a mediator to work with protesters to "end this siege" that has infuriated local residents with incessant honking and diesel fumes.

On Sunday, Watson declared a state of emergency in the capital, declaring the protests "out of control."

"They don't know what to do with us," said 59-year-old farmer and trucker John Lambert, who was taking part in the protest.

"All they've got to do is come to their senses. It's up to them to resolve it."
Police measures

The "Freedom Convoy" demonstrations began January 9 in western Canada as protests by truckers angry with vaccine requirements when crossing the US-Canadian border.

They have since morphed into broader protests against Covid-19 health restrictions and Trudeau's government.

Protest organizer Tamara Lich said activists were willing to engage with the government to find a way out of the crisis, but insisted that pandemic restrictions be eased.

"What we're trying to do right now is reaching out to all of the federal parties so that we can arrange a sit down," Lich said during a meeting streamed on YouTube.

With the capital's center blocked and businesses forced to close, police have come under fire for the protracted crisis.

To up the pressure on protesters, Ottawa police Sunday announced new measures to tame the demonstrations by banning people from bringing fuel and other supplies to the rallies.

"Anyone attempting to bring material supports (gas, etc) to the demonstrators could be subject to arrest," the police said on Twitter.

Officers have since arrested several people, seized multiple vehicles and issued hundreds of traffic tickets.

Protesters had been raising funds to keep up the protests, but were cut off by fundraising site GoFundMe, which said they had violated its policy against content that "promotes behaviour in support of violence."

Organizers quickly launched a fundraising campaign on Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo that had raised more than $5 million as of Monday night.
'Reacted too strongly'

Trudeau last week ruled out deploying the army to disperse the protesters "for now," saying that one must be "very, very cautious before deploying the military in situations against Canadians."

"Trudeau has nothing to gain by going to speak to the demonstrators," Genevieve Tellier, a political scientist at the University of Ottawa, told AFP.

But another political analyst, Frederic Boily of the University of Alberta, said the protests could escalate into a full-blown political crisis.

"Justin Trudeau reacted badly initially," Boily said. "He reacted too strongly and too abruptly at the start of the protests when he tried to paint them as a far-right protest."

Boily added that Trudeau "added fuel to the fire" by turning vaccination into a political issue, especially during last summer's election campaign.

But the opposition also finds itself in a bind politically.

The Conservatives, who will soon be voting to elect their new leader, are themselves divided on the issue of the protests.

"They are afraid that part of their supporters will be tempted by the extreme right, but it is a risky bet for them," said political analyst Daniel Beland.

While only about 10 percent of Canadian adults remain unvaccinated, as many as 32 percent of the population support the anti-mandate protests, according to a recent survey.

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino voiced support for vaccines and hit out at the protests, saying, "We cannot allow an angry crowd to reverse a course that continues to save lives in this last stretch" of the pandemic.

"This should never be a precedent for how to make policy in Canada."

(AFP)

PIRACY IS THE ORIGIN OF CAPITALI$M

UN experts: North Korea stealing millions in cyber attacks

By EDITH M. LEDERER

Portraits of late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il sit in downtown Pyongyang, North Korea on Dec. 19, 2018. North Korea is continuing to steal hundreds of millions of dollars from financial institutions and cryptocurrency firms and exchanges, illicit money that is an important source of funding for its nuclear and missile programs, U.N. experts said in a report quoting cyber specialists. 

(AP Photo/Dita Alangkara, File)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — North Korea is continuing to steal hundreds of millions of dollars from financial institutions and cryptocurrency firms and exchanges, illicit money that is an important source of funding for its nuclear and missile programs, U.N. experts said in a report quoting cyber specialists.

The panel of experts said that according to an unnamed government, North Korean “cyber-actors stole more than $50 million between 2020 and mid-2021 from at least three cryptocurrency exchanges in North America, Europe and Asia, probably reflecting a shift to diversify its cybercrime operations.”

And the experts said in the report’s section on cyber activities obtained Sunday by The Associated Press that an unidentified cybersecurity firm reported that in 2021 the North’s “cyber-actors stole a total of $400 million worth of cryptocurrency through seven intrusions into cryptocurrency exchanges and investment firms.”

These cyberattacks “made use of phishing lures, code exploits, malware, and advanced social engineering to siphon funds out of these organizations’ internet-connected ‘hot’ wallets into DPRK-controlled addresses,” the panel said, using the initials of the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The cryptocurrency funds stolen by the DPRK cyber actors “go through a careful money laundering process in order to be cashed out,”″ the panel of experts monitoring sanctions on North Korea said in the report to the U.N. Security Council.

A year ago, the panel quoted an unidentified country saying North Korea’s “total theft of virtual assets from 2019 to November 2020 is valued at approximately $316.4 million.”

In the executive summary of the new report, the experts said North Korea has continued to develop its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

“Although no nuclear tests or launches of ICBMs were reported, DPRK continued to develop its capability for production of nuclear fissile materials,” the panel said. Those fissile materials — uranium or plutonium — are crucial for a nuclear reaction.

The experts noted “a marked acceleration” of North Korean missile launches through January that used a variety of technology and weapons. The experts said North Korea “continued to seek material, technology and know-how for these programs overseas, including through cyber means and joint scientific research.”

A year ago, the panel said North Korea had modernized its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles by flaunting United Nations sanctions, using cyberattacks to help finance its programs and continuing to seek material and technology overseas for its arsenal including in Iran.

“Cyberattacks, particularly on cryptocurrency assets, remain an important revenue source” for Kim Jong Un’s government, the experts monitoring the implementation of sanctions against the North said in the new report.

In addition to its recent launches, North Korea has threatened to lift its four-year moratorium on more serious weapons tests such as nuclear explosions and launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The Security Council initially imposed sanctions on North Korea after its first nuclear test explosion in 2006 and toughened them in response to further nuclear tests and the country’s increasingly sophisticated nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The panel of experts said North Korea’s blockade aimed at preventing COVID-19 resulted in “historically low levels” of people and goods entering and leaving the country. Legal and illegal trade including in luxury goods “has largely ceased” though cross-border rail traffic resumed in early January, it said.

The panel has previously made clear that North Korea remains able to evade sanctions and to illicitly import refined petroleum, access international banking channels and carry out “malicious cyber activities.”

U.N. sanctions ban North Korean coal exports and the experts said in the new report that although coal exports by sea increased in the second half of 2021, “they were still at relatively low levels.”

“The quantity of illicit imports of refined petroleum increased sharply in the same period, but at a much lower level than in previous years,” the panel said, adding that direct deliveries by non-North Korea tankers has ceased and only tankers from the North delivered oil, “a marked change of methodology” probably in response to COVID-19 measures.

The experts said North Korea also continues to evade maritime sanctions “by deliberately obfuscated financial and ownership networks.”

While the humanitarian situation in the country continues to worsen, the panel said the almost complete lack of information from the country makes it difficult to determine the “unintended humanitarian consequences of U.N. sanctions affecting the civilian population.”

Chimps in Gabon national park use insects for wound healing, video shows

By HealthDay News

Researchers at Loango National Park in Gabon captured chimpanzees on video applying insects to their wounds. Photo by Tobias Deschner/Ozouga Chimpanzee Project

Chimpanzees aren't monkeying around when they catch insects and place them on open wounds, researchers report.

An ongoing study of about 45 chimps in Loango National Park in Gabon is the first to document via video that such "healing" behavior is occurring, according to the team from Osnabrück University in Germany and the Ozouga Chimpanzee Project.

The study was published Monday in the journal Current Biology.

"In the video, you can see that [chimp] Suzee is first looking at the foot of her son, and then it's as if she is thinking, 'What could I do?' and then she looks up, sees the insect, and catches it for her son," Alessandra Mascaro, a volunteer at the Ozouga Chimpanzee Project in Gabon, said in a journal news release.

"Self-medication -- where individuals use plant-parts or non-nutritional substances to combat pathogens or parasites -- has been observed across multiple animal species including insects, reptiles, birds and mammals," cognitive biologist and project co-leader Simone Pika said in a university news release.

"Humans use many species of insect as remedies against sickness - there have been studies showing that insects can have antibiotic, antiviral and anthelmintic functions," Pika said.

And Suzee's home remedy isn't the only medicine higher primates employ.

RELATED Outsider threats inspire bonding, cooperation among chimpanzees

"Our two closest living relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos, for instance, swallow leaves of plants with anthelmintic [antiparasitic] properties and chew bitter leaves that have chemical properties to kill intestinal parasites," Pika explained.

But the new research is "the first evidence that chimpanzees regularly capture insects and apply them onto open wounds," primatologist and project co-leader Tobias Deschner said in the university news release.

"We now aim to investigate the potential beneficial consequences of such a surprising behavior," Deschner said.

During a year of observation, the researchers recorded 22 events where members of this group of chimps applied insects, mostly tiny flying species, to open wounds.

In most cases, the chimps used the insects on their own wounds, but there were a number of times when chimps tried to help other chimps.

Applying insects to wounds may provide anti-inflammatory or antiseptic benefits, or the behavior of this group of chimps may simply be part of their culture, in much the same way that certain treatments are unique to specific human societies, according to the researchers.

They said the next steps include identifying the insect species used by the chimps and analyzing them to determine any potential benefits in wound treatment, and also learning more about the social aspects of this behavior, including chimps teaching it to other chimps.

"It is just fascinating to see that after decades of research on wild chimpanzees, they still surprise us with unexpected new behaviors," Deschner said.

"Our study shows that there is still a lot to explore and discover about our closest living relatives, and we therefore need to still put much more effort into protecting them in their natural habitat," he said.

He added that the research sheds new light onto the origins of human behaviors. But to continue, more needs to be done to preserve primate sanctuaries and ecosystems.

"Studying great apes in their natural environments is crucial to shed light on our own cognitive evolution," Deschner said. "We need to still put much more effort into studying and protecting them and also protecting their natural habitats."

More information

For more on chimpanzees, go to the World Wildlife Fund.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Samsung employees set to go on first-ever strike

By Kim Ji-woo & Kim Tae-gyu, UPI News Korea

Samsung Electronics' unionized workers may go on strike for the first time if the arbitration of the country’s government agency falls apart. Photo courtesy of Samsung Electronics

SEOUL, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- The unionized workers of Samsung Electronics are set to go on a strike for the first time since the tech giant was established in 1969.

Its first trade union was formed in 2018.

The National Samsung Electronics Labor Union, the biggest out of Samsung's four trade unions, filed an arbitration to the National Labor Relations Commission on Friday.

As a result, Samsung Electronics is required to reach a wage agreement with the four trade unions within 10 days. Otherwise, unionists are entitled to walk out.

"We have gone through 15 rounds of talks in six months. But the management delayed the negotiations in a deceitful manner," the NSEU said in a statement. "We have filed an arbitration, as the talks are not likely to proceed any longer."

Under the umbrella of the Federation of Korean Metalworkers' Trade Union, the NSEU is composed of around 4,800 workers, about 4% of total Samsung employees.

Their collective action is feared to negatively affect the operation of Samsung Electronics, the world's largest memory chip maker, during a shortage.

The NSEU and other Samsung unions have initially requested a salary raise of $8,300 for all the workers, as well as a yearly bonus amounting to 25% of the company's operating profit.

As Samsung Electronics earned $43 billion in operating income last year, the unionists' demand is to receive more than $10 billion in total.

"What we're really asking for is that the company set a rule for the performance bonus. At present, we're not demanding 25% of the operating profit," NSEU Secretary-General Son Woo-mok told UPI News Korea.

"One of our key complaints is that our vacations are way too short. But the management refuses to consider that. It's one of the main issues," he added.

Observers said Samsung Electronics would not be able to give a big chunk of its operating profit to employees as annual bonuses.

"I don't think that the Samsung union workers would walk out. They appear to be pressuring the management to make further concessions," Seoul-based business tracker Leaders Index CEO Park Ju-gun said in a telephone interview.

"As Samsung Electronics' profit is way too high, it would be improbable to give out 25%, or more than $10 billion, to employees," he said.

Jill Biden 'disappointed' free community college cut from Build Back Better plan
By Adam Schrader


First lady Jill Biden speaks at an event in the East Room of the White House on Wednesday. Biden said Monday her initiative to include free community college education has been removed from the Build Back Better plan pushed by her husband. 

File Photo by Yuri Gripas/UPI | License Photo

Feb. 7 (UPI) -- First lady Jill Biden on Monday acknowledged that her initiative to include free community college education has been removed from the Build Back Better plan pushed by her husband.

Biden, speaking to the Community College National Legislative Summit, addressed the removal of the provision she had championed, which was cut by Democrats working to trim spending in a bid to save the bill after opposition from Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.

"Joe has also had to make compromises. Congress hasn't passed the Build Back Better agenda -- yet. And free community college is no longer a part of that package," Biden said.

"We knew this wouldn't be easy -- Joe has always said that. Still, like you, I was disappointed. Because -- like you -- these aren't just bills or budgets to me. We know what they mean for real people. For our students."

Biden, a longtime teacher, has worked as an English professor at Northern Virginia Community College since 2009 and is a vocal advocate for higher education.

"Build Back Better isn't just a piece of legislation. And it's certainly not a football to pass or pivot. It's about helping community colleges train our workforce for 21st-century skills," Biden said. "It's about supporting students with tutoring, child care, and transportation."

The costs for attending both community colleges and four-year institutions have skyrocketed since the 1980s -- even after adjusted for inflation, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

The average cost for attending a two-year college was $3,367 in current dollars but rose to $11,389 for the 2018-2019 school year. Many community colleges are two-year institutions providing associates degrees and certificates but some provide four-year baccalaureate degrees.

More than 40% of undergraduate students in the U.S. attend community colleges, according to the College Board, a nonprofit organization that develops and administers standardized tests such as the SAT and PSAT.

However, the Teaching College at Columbia University has noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to "steep enrollment drops" at community colleges.

Data from the American Association of Community Colleges shows that 62% of full-time community college students work to put themselves through school and that 29% of students were among the first generation in their families to attend college.

The Build Back Better bill, a major priority for the Biden administration, had passed in the House in November by a vote of 220-213 with unanimous disapproval from Republicans and just one Democratic vote against its passage.

National history museum to honor Ruth Bader Ginsburg


Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg arrives at the Georgetown University Law Center, on September 26, 2018, in Washington, D.C

. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

Feb. 7 (UPI) -- The late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will posthumously receive the National Museum of American History's highest honor, museum officials announced Monday.

Ginsburg will be recognized with a "Great Americans" medal on March 30 for her "groundbreaking commitment to gender equity and human rights," according to an update on the museum's events calendar.

Ginsburg, a liberal justice known for challenging social norms and using her intellect to win consensus among her peers, died of complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer on Sept. 18, 2020, at age 87.

The medal is awarded by the museum -- a part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. -- for "lifetime contributions embodying American ideas and ideals," particularly honoring "individuals who have not only made a lasting impact in their fields, but whose philanthropic and humanitarian endeavors set them apart."

Ginsburg's children, Jane C. Ginsburg and James S. Ginsburg, will accept the medal on their mother's behalf during the virtual ceremony, officials said.

At the same time, a "significant selection" of artifacts representing Ginsburg's Supreme Court career will be donated to the national museum by her family and revealed for the first time.

The event, described as the capstone of Women's History Month at the museum, will also include video tributes to the late Justice, a short biographical film and remarks by benefactor David M. Rubenstein.

Last month, Ginsburg's personal library sold for nearly $2.4 million at an auction, including a copy of her 1957-58 Harvard Law Review book which fetched more than $100,000.

Mourning Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Female members of Congress stand on the steps of the U.S. Capitol as the flag-draped casket of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is carried by a joint services military honor guard after Ginsburg lied in state at the U.S. Capitol on September 25. 

Pool Photo by Alex Brandon/UPI | License Photo

plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose 

Marijuana use high among adolescent, teen, young adult vapers, study finds

A high percentage of teens and young adults who vape use the devices for marijuana, according to a new study. Photo by sarahj1/Pixabay

Feb. 7 (UPI) -- More than one-third of adolescents and half of teens and young adults who vape use the devices for marijuana, a study published Monday by JAMA Pediatrics found.

About 35% of adolescents ages 12 to 14 years report vaping marijuana, compared with 51% of teens ages 15 to 17 years and 54% of young adults ages 18 to 24 years, the data showed.

One in four young adults ages 18 to 24 years reported using e-cigarettes, compared with 14% of those ages 15 to 17 years and 3% of those 12 to 14 years, the researchers said.

"Our findings suggest that many adolescents and young adults who use e-cigarettes are vaping cannabis," study co-author Ruoyan Sun told UPI in an email.

RELATEDCDC, FDA data find 2 million current teen e-cigarette users

"Vaping devices such as e-cigarettes, vaping pens, e-cigars and e-hookahs can be used to vape multiple substances, including nicotine, cannabis and opium," said Sun, an assistant professor of healthcare organization and policy at the University of Alabama-Birmingham.

Recent estimates suggest as many as one in five youths age 18 years and younger nationally use e-cigarettes.

Studies have found that young people who vape prefer flavored tobacco products, which led the Food and Drug Administration to order ban on the sale of these devices that took effect in February 2020.

RELATED Marijuana use in teen years may hinder brain development, study finds

However, although the flavored products were popular with young vapers, marijuana was preferred by many as well, according to Sun and her colleagues.

Based on their survey of 4,121 adolescents, teens and young adults ages 12 to 24 years, about one-third of those ages 12 to 14 years who use e-cigarettes for marijuana do so most or all of the time, the researchers said.

Just under 15% of marijuana vapers ages 15 to 17 years use the devices to consume the drug most or all of the time, the data showed.

RELATED Study: Youth vaping down, but 1 in 5 U.S. teens still using e-cigarettes

Roughly one in five vapers ages 18 to 24 years reported using the devices for marijuana most or all of the time, according to the researchers.

"We were surprised that more than half of young adults who were e-cigarette users reported cannabis vaping," Sun said.

"Furthermore, some of these e-cigarette users, about 10%, reported vaping cannabis every time they vaped," she said.

Most children have 'thirdhand' smoke exposure on hands, study finds


Young children are at risk for thirdhand smoke exposure through touching, according to a new study. 

Photo by cat6719/Pixabay


Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Nearly all young children have traces of nicotine on their hands, even those living in non-smoking households, a study published Monday by JAMA Network Open found.

Just over 97% of the more than 500 children age 11 years and younger in the study had evidence of nicotine, an ingredient of tobacco that works as a stimulant and is potentially addictive, the data showed.

This includes more than 95% of children in this age group living in non-smoking homes, the researchers said.

Children from lower-income families had significantly more nicotine on their hands than children from higher-income families, according to the researchers.

RELATED Study finds thirdhand smoke affects weight, blood cells

In addition, children of Black parents had higher amounts of nicotine on their hands than children of White or multiracial parents, they said.

"This study further highlights the importance of the quality of indoor environments," study co-author Georg Matt said in a press release.

"If you live in an environment where people smoke or used to smoke, you're going to be more exposed to thirdhand smoke than you were before," said Matt, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University and director of the Thirdhand Smoke Resource Center.

RELATED Thirdhand smoke an under-recognized health threat

When young children touch the floor, tabletops, toys, clothes and other surfaces and then touch their mouths and faces, they are especially vulnerable to third-hand smoke, he and his colleagues said.

Thirdhand smoke refers to the chemical residue from tobacco smoke left behind in dust and on surfaces after someone smokes or vapes, they said.

Exposure to nicotine and other chemicals found in tobacco products through "thirdhand smoke" can increase the risk for cancer in children, according to Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla.

RELATED 'Thirdhand' smoke hurts infant lungs

For this study, Matt and his colleagues swabbed the hands of 504 children age 11 years and younger and analyzed traces of substances found on their hands.

Parental protections, such as home and car smoking bans, dramatically reduced the amount of nicotine detected on these children's hands, the data showed.

The researchers plan to continue analyzing other markers of third-hand smoke exposure and investigate health outcomes, they said.

They hope their research will further support stricter smoking bans and policies requiring real estate agents and landlords to disclose thirdhand smoke levels in homes.

"This is a wake-up call to protect vulnerable children and is an overlooked part of housing disparities," study co-author Penelope Quintana, a professor of public health at San Diego State, said in a press release.

Texas push to remove LGBTQ books spotlights partisanship on school boards

By Jeremy Schwartz, The Texas Tribune & ProPublica

Melanie Graft won a seat on the Granbury school board in Hood County, Texas, last fall after conducting a longstanding campaign to remove books with LGBTQ themes from libraries. 

Photo by Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune

LONG READ

Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Nearly seven years ago, Melanie Graft's 4-year-old daughter was in the children's section of her local North Texas library when she picked up a book about an LGBTQ pride parade. Within the colorful pages of the book, This Day in June, children and adults celebrate with rainbow flags and signs promoting equality and love over hate. Adults embrace and kiss one another.

Alarmed, Graft launched a campaign against the book and another about a boy who likes to wear dresses, suggesting that their presence in the library foisted inappropriate themes on unsuspecting children. By June 2015, the Hood County Library Advisory Board had received more than 50 complaints asking that the two books be removed from the shelves of the children's section. The board refused, saying the books did not promote homosexuality, as some complaints had suggested, and arguing that the library already required parents of young children to accompany them and check out materials. Librarian Courtney Kincaid called This Day in June a tool to teach respect and acceptance of the LGBTQ community, but she agreed to move it to the adult section. She kept My Princess Boy in the children's section.

Opponents of the books then turned to the entirely Republican Hood County Commissioners Court, which appoints members to the library advisory board. After an emotional three-hour meeting that July, commissioners declined to remove the books on the advice of the county's attorney, who concluded that such action could spur a lawsuit over unlawful censorship because of potential violations of state law and the U.S. Constitution.

Anger over that decision helped fuel a seven-year effort by far-right Christian conservatives in Hood County to seize control of elected offices and government boards from more traditional Republicans. They won spots on the commissioners court, grabbed seats on the library advisory board and, last year, launched a months-long campaign to oust Michele Carew, the county's independent elections administrator, accusing the Republican of harboring a secret liberal agenda.

In November, the group claimed a major victory after Graft won a seat on the school board in Granbury, the county seat. Also elected was Courtney Gore, the co-host of a local far-right Internet talk show who has railed against masks and vaccines and promoted Donald Trump's false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. On the campaign trail, the women promised to comb through educational materials for any signs of "indoctrination" in the form of books or lesson plans that they charged promote LGBTQ ideology or what they referred to as critical race theory, a university-level academic discipline based on the idea that racism is embedded in U.S. legal and other structures.

"When my daughter was 4 years old, my parental rights were taken away here at the public library in Hood County," Graft, who said on the campaign trail that her school-age children did not attend Granbury public schools, told attendees at a GOP forum before the election. "I stood up for my daughter then, and I'll stick up for our kids now."

The years-long journey in Hood County offers a window into the fiercely contentious debates over curriculum and library books that have cropped up across the state and country in recent months. Once-nonpartisan school board races are taking on a decidedly partisan tone, and administrators are now sounding like political operatives

Peter Coyl, a librarian who testified on behalf of the American Library Association in 2015 against removing the books, recalls thinking at the time that Hood County was an outlier because of how extensively the fight consumed the community. In retrospect, Coyl said, Hood County foreshadowed the larger battle that is playing out in school board races and over library books across the country.

"It was obvious that there was a portion of the community that was not happy with the outcome," said Coyl, who now leads a library in Sacramento. "But I think now we are in an era, a time where people aren't willing to have discourse or conversations about things. They want their way and they want to impose their view on anyone and everyone, because they feel that they're right."

The Granbury Independent School District elections last fall served as a litmus test of loyalty to the GOP's most conservative wing, which pushed candidates for nonpartisan posts to declare their party affiliation and to explain how they would actively push far-right initiatives.

"This was the first election where candidates felt the need to put 'conservative' or 'Republican' on their campaign signs and in their literature that they sent out," said Nancy Alana, a self-described conservative Republican who lost to Gore in November after serving on the school board since 2009. "And I have always shied away from that because I understood that the school board position was nonpolitical. And that was what I was trying to uphold."

A career educator who spent 30 years as a teacher and principal, Alana shares views similar to those of Graft and Gore on books and curriculum, but was pegged by some far-right Republican activists as too passive for their vision of a more uncompromising "new Granbury." Alana said she worried that the focus on culture-war battles over books and curriculum could distract leaders from important issues like overcrowding in the growing district.

Graft did not respond to requests for comment. Gore said in an email to ProPublica and The Texas Tribune that declaring party affiliation makes school board elections more transparent. She said that the board "​​more accurately reflects the population now."

"Any entity that taxes or oversees school curriculum is inherently partisan, whether people want to admit it or not," Gore said. "I proudly ran as a Conservative Republican and will never apologize for being one."

Challenges to books about sexual orientation and racial identity in Texas are the latest in a wave of divisive national political issues driving local campaigns. In October, Matt Krause, a Republican state representative from Fort Worth who was then running for attorney general, sparked national attention when he released a list of 850 books that he said should be investigated and potentially banned from school libraries. The majority of the titles dealt with LGBTQ themes, and some were targeted for merely including LGBTQ characters, according to an analysis by BookRiot.

Gov. Greg Abbott, facing a Republican primary challenge from two opponents running to his right on education issues, later ordered the Texas Education Agency to investigate the availability of "pornography" in public schools, a term that some politicians and district leaders have interpreted as a catchall for books on sexuality and sexual orientation. He urged criminal prosecutions under the state penal code of educators who make such material available.

At a January school board meeting, Granbury Superintendent Jeremy Glenn, who is appointed by the board, referenced Krause and Abbott in defense of the district's recent decision to remove more than 130 books that deal with race and sexual orientation from school libraries, pending a review.

The Granbury school board went a step further during its meeting Jan. 24. Led by Graft, the school board cleared the way for the district to strip any material deemed vulgar or unsuitable by administration and the board from its shelves without a committee review.

The next night, at Brazos Covenant Ministries church, Glenn assured attendees at a Republican Party gathering that school board members would act as gatekeepers against books and "woke" curriculum about sexual orientation and racial identity.

Speaking in partisan political language not common among school superintendents, Glenn pointed to decreasing margins of victory for Republican presidential candidates in the state, and warned local party leaders that "there are individuals out there that want to destroy what you believe."

"They don't believe in the same America that you and I grew up in, and that's just the truth," he said. "Our community has to decide whether or not we want to hold the line."

Old fight resurfaces

A week after the November election, Emily Schigut, a fifth-grade reading teacher and soccer coach, put her house on the market. She knew it was time to leave her job.

Schigut, who has family in Hood County, was teaching in Midland five years ago when the principal of STEAM Academy at Mambrino in Granbury reached out to her about an opening at its campus.

She recalls her excitement at coming to the district, which she said was a model of innovation. Now she worries that politics have taken hold in a way that makes it difficult for teachers to do their jobs. And as someone who identifies as queer, she is concerned about the message the district is sending to educators and students.

"It's absolutely terrifying," Schigut said in an interview. "All anyone has to do is listen to the words they've said. They aren't there for the kids. They are there for a political agenda. You watch all these things happening around the country, and in the blink of an eye, it was happening here.

"It's very sad because I 100% believed in this district. But I do not feel safe here any longer."

While the shift in tone at the school district felt sudden to Schigut, far-right Republicans had spent years working toward electing candidates to local political offices. Their efforts gained steam in the summer of 2015 amid outrage over two failed fights: one over the LGBTQ books and another when Hood County was required to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision legalizing same-sex marriage. County Clerk Katie Lang initially refused to issue a marriage license to a gay couple.

Despite losing the debate over books, opponents claimed a major victory that year when Kincaid, Granbury's librarian, resigned. She said she could no longer endure harassment and bullying by the group, which she recalled had posted someone at the library's circulation desk every day to watch her.

"Even going out to lunch was a gamble because I didn't know if my food would be tainted in any way by someone who disagreed with my decision to keep the books. Whenever I would leave the library, be it during my lunch time or running an errand for work, I was followed," Kincaid told the American Library Association in 2017 after her resignation. Kincaid, who faced additional harassment following her departure from Hood County, declined an interview.

Graft became increasingly active in local politics, serving on the local library advisory board and as a Republican Party precinct chair. Her fight against the books made her popular in far-right circles, giving her a platform across the state.

During an interview with Doc Greene, a self-described conservative activist radio show host, at the 2016 state Republican convention in Dallas, Graft described the moment her daughter encountered This Day in June by Gayle Pitman.

"She picked it up, turned to the page and showed it to me, and I was appalled," Graft said. "There were political issues. Signs like love over hate, equal rights, things that a child certainly can't understand. And this book on the back binding was recommended for children ages 4 to 8."

She continued, "They have an agenda and an indoctrination for our children. It's not enough to tolerate. They want us to participate. And they want our children."

After Graft had finished, Greene said he was not a violent man, then added, "But something like this enrages me to such a degree that violence is not completely ruled out. Because when you go after the children, this is not the time to just stand by and talk about it."

Graft responded that she was not a proponent of violence, but Greene continued pressing.

"If you're not willing to kill for what you believe, you've already lost the war. Our children are worth saving," said Greene, who did not respond to requests for comment.

"I can't argue with that," Graft said. "I agree."

A month later, the Northeast Tarrant Tea Party near the library where Kincaid had relocated uploaded a video of Graft speaking at one of its meetings to YouTube.

"This is Courtney Kincaid. You need to know her name," Graft told the group as a screen flashed behind her. "We have to stand in the gap between the liberal left and our children. It only takes one liberal library with an agenda to steal the innocence of your child."

Two years later, one of Graft's allies in the fight against the books, Dave Eagle, a former Tea Party leader, was elected to the Hood County Commissioners Court. Eagle, who lost a bid for the school board in 2016, had vowed in a letter to the Hood County News the previous August that the Hood County Tea Party would "continue to reap political dividends" from the fights over same-sex marriage and LGBTQ books, as he complained about the local news organization's coverage.

Eagle, who claimed credit for Kincaid's departure, frequently sparred with members of the library's advisory board and worked to change the makeup of the panel. In 2019, the Hood County Republican Party issued a formal resolution calling for the board to be disbanded, claiming that it failed to represent the "moral character" of the community. County commissioners dissolved the board last year after political divisions had made it difficult for the board to get much accomplished.

"It has become a lightning rod," David Wells, the former library advisory board chair, said after the board disbanded. "It's lost its sense of purpose, of what it's there for. It's way beyond the purpose for which it is designed."

Eagle, who did not respond to a request for comment, also helped lead an effort last year that sought to abolish the elections administrator position held by Carew and transfer her duties to Lang, the county clerk, who has used social media to promote baseless allegations of widespread election fraud. Aside from saying that she would abide by the Constitution, Katie Lang has declined to discuss how she would approach elections management if given the role. Carew resigned in October. She is now running for office against Lang, an effort she said she undertook to prevent partisans from taking control of elections if commissioners decide to dissolve the independent election office.

Debates over national issues have left the ground fertile for takeovers in rural counties and small towns across Texas, provided local far-right activists can organize as they have in Hood County, said Brandon Rottinghaus, a professor of political science at the University of Houston.

"Local organizers can ride these national waves to power," Rottinghaus said. "With the right spark, I think that's a model they can replicate across the state."

Pitman, the author of This Day in June, one of the children's books targeted by Graft and Tea Party members in 2015, said the school board election in Hood County marks a worrisome escalation of rhetoric that previously seemed more isolated. "It just seems like there's been a shift in the political climate," Pitman said, adding that she never expected to see the massive wave of current book challenges.

"I think the most disturbing thing about this to me is that if you look historically at book challenges, for the most part, books were challenged because of the ideas that were in them," Pitman said. "And that, to me, is really disturbing because it's no longer about ideas or exchange of information or discourse, it's about marginalizing an entire community."

Reviewing 130 books

In January, administrators in the Granbury school district summoned its librarians to a meeting to review library offerings "based upon the Governor's criteria," according to emails obtained by a Granbury parent through the Texas Public Information Act and shared with ProPublica and The Texas Tribune.

District officials immediately removed from the library shelves five books unrelated to LGBTQ themes by Abbi Glines, an author known for including explicit sex scenes that push the boundaries of young adult fiction. They also pulled about 130 other titles from school libraries, pending a review by a district committee composed of teachers, librarians and parents.

"​​Let's not misrepresent things. We're not taking Shakespeare or Hemingway off the shelves," Glenn said at a school board meeting last week in which he blasted opponents of the book removal effort. "And we're not going and grabbing every socially, culturally or religiously diverse book and pulling them. That's absurd. And the people that are saying that are gas-lighters, and it's designed to incite division."

Glenn made no mention of the dozens of LGBTQ-themed books that had been pulled from the shelves for further review. Of the 130 books temporarily removed, about 94, or 73%, feature LGBTQ characters or themes, according to a ProPublica and Tribune analysis of the popular book review site Goodreads.

Coyl said he is concerned that political candidates are increasingly using the issue of book censorship to win public office. "People need to be very vigilant and aware of it," he said. "It's a slippery slope. If we allow the restriction of one thing, it's very easy to slide into more suppression."

Experts say waves of backlash against LGBTQ communities often follow moments of cultural transformation. Schools have long been the battleground, dating at least to the 1970s, when anti-gay crusader Anita Bryant led a national movement to save children from gay adults.

But fed by social media, the same message today is spreading farther and faster than during past waves, experts said.

Vox Jo Hsu, an assistant professor of rhetoric and writing at the University of Texas at Austin who specializes in the effect of public rhetoric on racial, gender and sexual minorities, said movements to censor LGBTQ books can leave young people feeling alone.

"I can't overstate the type of damage it does to create a culture of shame and silence around LGBTQ topics," Hsu said. "You are teaching them, from a young age, these false narratives about who they are that they will have to unlearn, and you're depriving them of resources and communities they will need to do so." Leaving a school district is not an option for all LGBTQ students or families, and children who are left behind when others depart will only become more isolated, Hsu said.

Last month, students in the Granbury district launched an online petition opposing the book removal effort. Within days, the petition had gathered more than 600 signatures. Students also spoke against the removal at last week's school board meeting.

"I don't think that little children should be shocked or disgusted by our identities," a queer senior at Granbury High School said at the meeting, warning that removing the books would send a dangerous message. "It's disgusting that, even in 2022, we still have to have these discussions about censorship."

Glenn saluted the students for speaking out, but then took aim at those who questioned the removal of the books.

"During my tenure, I have witnessed radicals come into our boardroom and go onto social media platforms to distort the truth, exaggerate issues and bad-mouth our trustees," Glenn said. "To those individuals, please know, like the little boys who cried wolf, you have lost all credibility to the majority in this community. We will not back down from you."

In an email, Gore applauded the book removals and said the district is not taking aim at LGBTQ students or community members. "All students at GISD are loved and cared for by the amazing staff and administration," she said. "With that, public schools are not the place for young people to express themselves sexually."

Near the end of the discussion, Graft made a motion to amend the district's policy on book removals, eliminating the requirement for campus-level committees that have determined whether concerns are merited.

The revised policy, which passed unanimously, will allow the district to remove books the administration and board deem "pervasively vulgar" or educationally unsuitable without going through the district's existing process. Before the change, books had to stay on shelves until a review was completed.

"This is going to align the policy so that in the event that we do have a book that is in our library that is vulgar and overtly sexual, it can be removed without review," said Tammy Clark, an assistant superintendent in the district.

Despite the policy change, district spokesman Jeff Meador said a committee will review the books, and most of them "will likely be returned to the library shelves."

Jonathan Friedman, the director of free expression and education at nonprofit PEN America, which promotes literary culture and defends freedom of speech, said the Supreme Court has not settled the constitutionality of removing school library books without a review. Still, he said it's "highly concerning" that Hood County school board members "appear to have changed the policy just in order to appease the state lawmakers' list of books."

Friedman said that while there hasn't been a recent legal challenge related to the spate of book removals, districts could find themselves in legal jeopardy if it becomes clear that their motive was based on "hostility towards the views in those books."

Efforts to censor material usually fail, but the process can still be divisive and counterproductive, said Whitney Strub, a history professor at Rutgers University.

"I think history shows that these movements don't actually succeed, but they do a lot of damage and inflict a lot of destruction and harm along the way," Strub said. "And I absolutely think that's likely to be the case at the local level."

Seeking safety

The escalation of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric worries one Granbury mother of a 4-year-old, who asked that her name not be used as she fears retaliation because she is gay.

She recalled feeling reassured after county commissioners denied efforts to ban LGBTQ books from the local library in 2015 when she lived in a neighboring county. Although she didn't have a child at the time, she believed that the books provided an opportunity to teach children that having gay parents is normal.

On election night in 2021, she was shocked when Graft, who had led the fight against the books, won. It was then that she and her wife decided to send their son, who is entering kindergarten, to another district. "It makes me worried that someone like her would tell kids that it's not OK to be like that," she said.

The woman can tick off the incidents of hate she has experienced since moving to the county four years ago: the stranger at the grocery store who called her a "faggot," the senior citizen who threw his arms in the air in disgust and stormed off when he saw her kiss her fiancee goodbye.

She wanted school to be a safe space for her son, one that didn't vilify him for having two moms.

"I wouldn't put it past someone to physically harm me because I gave my fiancee a kiss," she said. "Seeing stuff like the school board election definitely opens my eyes. Even though this is a small town, and I know most of the people, and I grew up next door, when it comes to sexuality nobody's safe."

Disclosure: The University of Houston and the University of Texas at Austin have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune. Read the original here.

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COVID-19 robs Olympic curlers of beloved social culture

By KRISTEN GELINEAU

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John Morris, of Canada, throws a rock during the mixed doubles curling match against Britain at the Beijing Winter Olympics Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022, in Beijing. 

(AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

There is a photograph from the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics that captured curling fans’ hearts worldwide. In it, Canadian curler John Morris and American rival Matt Hamilton sit side by side, arms draped around each others’ shoulders, grinning faces inches apart, beer cans mid-clink.

It was a moment that perfectly captured the spirit of curling, a sport best known for its sweeping but perhaps best loved for its socializing. Yet it is a moment that will likely be impossible to repeat in the socially distanced world of the Beijing Games.

“One of the things I love about curling is being able to curl against my friends and then enjoy a weekend or a week around them, as well as playing cards and having a beer,” said Morris, who won the gold medal in mixed doubles in Pyeongchang and is hoping to do the same in Beijing. “That’s the best part of curling. On the ice is great, and that accomplishes my competitive drive, but the actual going to cool places, playing with and against your friends — that’s been really hard.”

Of all of COVID-19’s cruelties, the necessity of distance has caused particular angst throughout the curling community. This is a sport built around closeness, from the pregame handshakes between opponents, to the postgame drinking sessions, in which the winners typically buy the losers a round. That tradition, dubbed “broomstacking” for the original practice of opponents stacking their brooms in front of a fire after a game and sharing a drink, all but vanished after the coronavirus emerged.

Curling competitions were canceled. Ice rinks where the athletes trained were shut down. And curlers, like much of the world, were forced into isolation.

The Beijing Games are taking place inside an accommodation and transport bubble that is cut off from the rest of the city. The International Olympic Committee’s playbook warns athletes to stay at least 2 meters (6 feet) apart except during competition and to minimize any physical interactions “such as hugs, high-fives and handshakes” — common sights at curling matches. The stakes for slip-ups are huge; those who test positive are sent to quarantine and could miss their event altogether.

Bye-bye, broomstacking.

“All that’s gone away, and that’s a real challenge,” said Hugh Millikin, a vice president with the World Curling Federation. “You touch fists or elbows, but it’s just not the same and it doesn’t necessarily get you that connection with your opposition which is really the cornerstone of what curling’s about. I certainly have worries about how soon we can get back to it.”

On the ice, the coronavirus also forced changes, Millikin said. Training sessions were adjusted to limit the number of sweepers to one at a time, instead of the usual two. While curlers typically cluster around the house — the bullseye-shaped target at the end of the ice sheet — they had to stand apart. And some curling clubs required players to practice in masks, which is difficult given the vigorous sweeping and frequent shouting the game requires, Millikin said.

“When you’re sweeping pretty hard, you’re breathing pretty hard, too,” he said.

The closure of ice rinks forced many curlers to come up with creative training solutions. Two-time Canadian women’s curling champion Kerri Einarson practiced on a homemade rink on Lake Winnipeg, a throwback to curling’s conception 500 years ago on the frozen ponds of Scotland. Einarson’s father and a neighbor cleared a patch of ice on the lake’s surface and drilled in a chunk of wood to serve as a hack, the block that curlers push off from before gliding down the ice.

Pandemic-related store closures meant there was nowhere to buy paint, so they were unable to mark the ice with a target. Still, the experience proved cathartic for Einarson, who struggled with the lack of socializing.

“We couldn’t even celebrate wins with anyone after we were in the bubble,” she said. “It didn’t really feel like winning, which is tough. Even afterwards when you get home, you couldn’t even go and celebrate with your friends and family. It didn’t feel like curling at all.”

For the U.S. Olympic curling teams, the cancellation of crucial competitions was the biggest stressor, said Dean Gemmell, director of curling development at USA Curling. For long stretches, all they could do was practice, and even that was tough. Players from Minnesota and Wisconsin had to travel long distances to find open rinks, on top of juggling their jobs and families.

The teams engaged in scrimmages with each other, but those don’t prepare players for the Olympics the way real competitions do, Gemmell said.

“A big part is just learning how to control your emotions in events that matter,” he said.

Yet despite the yearning many curlers feel for their sport’s beer-sharing days of yore, curling’s social aspect is precisely what makes it so risky during a pandemic. A study last year by Canadian doctors who played in a curling tournament that suffered a COVID-19 outbreak found a key transmission route appeared to have occurred off the ice, at the curlers’ buffet lunches. Of the 18 teams participating, only one team avoided contracting the virus — and that was the team that shunned the lunches and other social events.

COVID-19 nearly derailed the dreams of Tahli Gill, a member of Australia’s first curling team to make it to the Olympics. On Sunday, the Australian Olympic Committee announced Gill and her teammate were being forced to withdraw after Gill, who had the coronavirus before the Games, returned a series of positive tests. But later in the day, the committee said the medical expert panel had determined Gill’s levels fell within an acceptable range, and the Australians were allowed to compete, going on to win their first game of the Olympics against Switzerland.

Before heading to Beijing, Gill said she and many other curlers were just grateful that some competitions were eventually able to go ahead but that the isolation had taken a toll.

“Curling is such a family,” she said. “It’s slowly getting back to the new normal, I guess. I don’t know if it will ever be the same again.”

___

More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

SMOKING WAS POPULAR WITH CURLERS OF A PAST GENERATION, BEER AND CIGS BOTH NAMED EXPORT

Report: Corporate climate pledges are weaker than they seem

By CATHY BUSSEWITZ

Trees grow on forest land adjacent to Mount Rainier National Park on Monday, Nov. 23, 2015, near Ashford, Wash. The land is part of a project of 520 acres on private timberland that allows a private nonprofit to sell "carbon credits" to individuals and companies who are hoping to offset their carbon footprints. According to a report by the NewClimate Institute released on Monday, Feb. 7, 2022, many of the world's largest companies are failing to take significant enough steps to meet their pledges to achieve zero net carbon emissions in the coming years.

 (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

NEW YORK (AP) — Many of the world’s largest companies are failing to take significant enough steps to meet their pledges to vastly reduce the impact of their greenhouse gas emissions in the decades ahead.

That’s the conclusion of a new report by the NewClimate Institute, an environmental organization that works to combat global warming. Its researchers, who examined the actions of 25 companies, concluded that many of them are misleading consumers by using accounting practices that make their environmental goals relatively meaningless or are excluding key parts of their businesses in their calculations.

The companies have pledged to make their emissions reductions or to offset their emissions through such techniques as planting carbon-capturing forests over self-imposed periods ranging from 2030 to 2050.

The authors chose to study corporate giants, including Amazon and Walmart, which made bold climate pledges and who, because of their size, are seen as especially influential. In recent years, large corporations have increasingly adopted pledges to significantly reduce their carbon footprints — a priority of growing importance to many of their customers, employees and investors.

NewClimate Institute concluded that even though many companies have pledged to reach net-zero emissions, the 25 companies they studied have collectively committed to reduce emissions by about 40% — not the 100% that people might be led to believe from the companies’ net-zero or carbon-neutral pledges.

“We were frankly surprised and disappointed at the overall integrity of the companies’ claims” said Thomas Day of NewClimate Institute, one of the study’s lead authors. “Their ambitious-sounding headline claims all-too-often lack real substance, which can mislead both consumers and the regulators that are core to guiding their strategic direction. Even companies that are doing relatively well exaggerate their actions.”

Among the 25 companies the researchers studied, 24 relied too heavily on carbon offsets, which are rife with problems, the report said. That’s because carbon offsets often rely on carbon removal ventures such as reforestation projects. These projects suck up carbon but are not ideal solutions because forests can be razed or destroyed by wildfires, re-releasing carbon into the air.

Most of the companies, the report said, presented vague information on the scale and potential impact of their emissions-reduction measures or might have exaggerated their use of renewable energy.

The report called Amazon’s goal of net-zero carbon by 2040 unsubstantiated. It said it was unclear whether Amazon’s goal referred solely to carbon dioxide emissions or to all greenhouse gases. The report also said it was not clear to what degree Amazon planned to reduce its own emissions, as opposed to buying carbon offset credits which rely on nature-based solutions.

In response, Amazon said it has been transparent about its investments in nature-based solutions, and disputed that its net-zero goals are based on offsets. The company said it’s on a path toward powering its operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025, five years ahead of its original target of 2030. It also highlighted other initiatives including deploying 100,000 electric delivery vehicles by 2030.

As an example of a misleading goal, the report said CVS Health could potentially achieve its 2030 emissions target with little effort because it compared that target with a base year that included extraordinarily high emissions.

A CVS spokeswoman responded that after the company’s merger with Aetna in late 2018, 2019 was the first full year of data the company could use as a baseline for the new combined entity.

“By 2030, we plan to reduce our environmental impact by more than 50%, including a reduction in our energy consumption and use of paper and plastic,” the company said.

The NewClimate report said that Nestle, among the companies with the lowest marks, had emissions-reduction plans that covered only portions of its business and that its net-zero targets relied upon carbon offsets. The company also provided little detail on the renewable electricity sources it was pursuing, it said.

Nestle responded that its emissions reduction targets do cover all its activities, that it’s reducing greenhouse gas emissions 50% by 2030 and that its factories and offices are switching to renewable electricity.

Jonathan Overpeck, dean of the school for environment and sustainability at the University of Michigan, who had no role in the NewClimate report, said: “Far too many companies are coming up short when it comes to meaningful decarbonization. Corporate decarbonization goals and plans for meeting them are generally far less compelling than needed for success in halting climate change.”

Some other outside experts suggested that the NewClimate report was too critical of carbon offsets.

“Forest-based offsets are challenging, but they can be real and important,” said Christopher Field, director of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University. “A too-strong emphasis on decarbonization paths that don’t include offsets will slow overall progress and raise costs.”

The report did note some things it said the companies are doing well. Shipping company Maersk received the best ratings despite the challenges its industry faces in reducing emissions. The authors noted that Maersk is pursuing alternative fuels and has partnered with a renewable energy company to establish a factory for e-methanol. Maersk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Most of the companies studied, 15 of them, have outlined plans to reduce their “Scope 1” and “Scope 2” emissions, which are emissions released directly by the company or by its using electricity, the report said. But those companies didn’t address their “Scope 3” emissions; these include emissions released by suppliers or customers that use their products. Scope 3 emissions account for, on average, 87% of all emissions for the 25 companies studied, the group said.

The report commended Walmart, which pledged to be net-zero by 2040, for following good practice by committing to reduce its operational emissions to zero without the use of offsets and setting near-term goals for those reductions which include using 100% renewable energy by 2035. But Walmart was faulted for not including Scope 3 emissions. Walmart does have a voluntary program that guides its product suppliers to reduce emissions, and nearly a quarter of its suppliers have joined, the report said.

Walmart responded that it does have a goal to reduce or avoid one billion metric tons of Scope 3 emissions and that it reports its progress openly.

The report stressed that companies should take more responsibility to reduce Scope 3 emissions. Yet it can be challenging to track those emissions across supply chains, especially when working with smaller companies, said Maggie Peloso, a lawyer involved in climate change risk management and environmental litigation.

“It’s not always as easy as calling someone up and saying, ‘Hey, I want to know what your emissions were from the factory when you produced that 100 boxes of stuff that you sent to my stores and I sold them,’ ” Peloso said.

Among the suggestions for improvement that the NewClimate Institute offered were that companies focus on shorter-term emissions reduction targets for the next five to 10 years. It also suggested that companies set specific emissions-reduction targets with transparent accounting, instead of ambiguous net-zero goals.

If national governments created policies and regulations to meet the targets they have set, it would be far more effective, suggested John Reilly, who served as co-director of the Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change at MIT. “On the hopeful side, perhaps there is ongoing effort within companies to create rules, procedures, and strategies to achieve their ambitious targets,” he said.