Iran has talks with EU's Mora amid efforts to save nuclear pact



Reuters
Wed, June 21, 2023

DUBAI (Reuters) -Iran met in Qatar with European Union mediator Enrique Mora as part of efforts to revive its 2015 nuclear pact with world powers, as Tehran and Washington seek to cool tensions with a mutual "understanding" to help end the deadlock.

Having failed to revive the deal in indirect talks that have stalled since September, Iranian and Western officials have met repeatedly in recent weeks to sketch out steps that could curb Iran's fast advancing nuclear work, free some U.S. and European detainees held in Iran and unfreeze some Iranian assets abroad.

"(I) had a serious and constructive meeting with Mora in Doha. We exchanged views and discussed a range of issues including negotiations on sanctions lifting," Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani said on Twitter, without elaborating.

Mora tweeted that the Doha talks were "intense" and had touched on "a range of difficult bilateral, regional and international issues, including the way forward on the JCPOA" - the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the nuclear deal is officially called.

EU spokesperson Peter Stano said the bloc was "keeping diplomatic channels open, including through this meeting in Doha, to address all issues of concern with Iran".

Bagheri Kani said last week that he had met his British, German and French counterparts in the United Arab Emirates to discuss "a range of issues and mutual concerns".

The 2015 agreement limited Iran’s disputed uranium enrichment activity to make it harder for Tehran to develop the means to produce nuclear weapons, in return for a lifting of international sanctions against Tehran.

But then-U.S. President Donald Trump ditched the pact in 2018, calling it too lenient on Iran, and reimposed sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy.

Tehran responded by gradually moving well beyond the pact's restrictions on enrichment, rekindling U.S., European and Israeli fears that it might be seeking an atomic bomb.

The Islamic Republic has long denied seeking to weaponise the enrichment process, saying it seeks nuclear energy only for civilian uses.

The meeting between Bagheri and Mora in Qatar's capital Doha came days after Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last say on all state matters such as the nuclear dossier, said a new nuclear deal with the West was possible.

(Additional reporting by Sabine Siebold in Berlin; writing by Parisa Hafezi; editing by Jon Boyle and Mark Heinrich)

‘Morning Joe’ Runs Down List of Shady Actions by Trump Kids After Hunter Biden Charges: ‘Do We Even Want to Talk About Kids?’ 

Andi Ortiz
Wed, June 21, 2023


With Republicans claiming that the plea deal offered to and accepted by Hunter Biden was “a sweetheart deal,” the hosts of “Morning Joe” are firing back. During Wednesday morning’s episode of the MSNBC talk show, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski ran down a laundry list of actions by the Trump kids that they argued deserved just as much criticism.

After a five-year investigation into his actions — so, yes, beginning during the Trump administration — Hunter Biden will plead guilty to tax evasion and will avoid being charged for unlawful purchase of a firearm. He also won’t face any jail time for his actions. You can read more in-depth about it here, but Republicans aren’t happy, saying Hunter Biden got nothing more than “a slap on the wrist” because he’s the president’s son.

“Just putting it out there, Ivanka and Jared, like, worked in the White House. They worked for Donald Trump,” Mika Brzezinski interjected, as she and Scarborough discussed the matter. “Billions have come in from Saudi — there’s so many [questions]. We’re gonna talk about kids? Do we even want to talk about kids?”

At that, Scarborough piled on, getting into more specific actions taken by Trump’s daughter and her husband.

“She got licenses in China to sell her goods around the same time Donald Trump was meeting with President Xi,” he said. “And Jared, a guy I’ve communicated with an awful lot, $2 billion from the Saudis. $2 billion! And, again, I mean, that’s a lot of money.”

He continued, “We haven’t said much about it here. A lot of money! And I’m just saying, if Republicans are going to say this about Hunter Biden, then where’s the other side of this? When they start talking about illegal influence-peddling.”

Meanwhile, panelist John Heilemann put his thoughts on Republican reactions a bit more bluntly: “You just look like morons.”

With Pandemic Aid Ending, Vermont’s Homeless Are Forced From Hotels

Jenna Russell
Tue, June 20, 2023 

Downtown Brattleboro, Vt., June 15, 2023. (Richard Beaven/The New York Times)

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. — As his few remaining hours with a place to live ticked by last Thursday, Scott Alexander panhandled near a McDonald’s in Brattleboro, in southern Vermont, while running through a mental checklist of the supplies he would need for a move back into the woods nearby.

He had a tent and sleeping bags for himself and his wife, a propane stove and a heater. But he needed tarps and propane, and in two hours of holding his battered cardboard sign — “Any Act of Kind Greatly Appreciate” — he had made only $3.

“It feels like a countdown,” Alexander, 41, said as he eyed the storm clouds gathering overhead. “I’ll be up all night, trying to get ready.”

In the progressive bastion of Vermont, it was a point of pride that the state moved most of its homeless residents into hotel rooms during the coronavirus pandemic, giving vulnerable people a better chance of avoiding the virus.

But this month, the state began emptying hotels of about 2,800 people living there — most of them with nowhere else to go. Driven by the recent end of pandemic-era federal funding for emergency housing, the expulsions have spawned a state budget standoff and, in some quarters, painful soul-searching about Vermont’s liberal values, and the limits of its good intentions.

The situation has also highlighted the growing importance of hotels in the housing crisis nationwide, for people whose other options are tents or sidewalks, and for local governments stymied by a paralyzing lack of affordable housing.

Between March 2020 and March 2023, Vermont spent $118 million in funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and $190 million in federal money altogether, to house people in hotels, according to the state, broadly expanding a program that had long provided shelter in motels in snowy or frigid weather.

It was always clear that the emergency funding would end, but some saw a potentially transformative opportunity in the temporary program: a chance to draw people into stabler settings where they could be counted, connected with services and, ultimately, helped into longer-term housing.

The effort quickly revealed the extent of the state’s housing problem. In the first year of the expanded hotel program, the number of Vermonters counted as homeless more than doubled, to 2,590 in 2021 from 1,110 in 2020. In the most recent tally, completed in January, the total jumped again, to 3,295, in part because the hotel program made people easier to count but also because of the continuing housing crisis, with higher rents and fewer vacant apartments.

The rural state, with a population smaller than any but Wyoming, had risen to the top of two national rankings by last year: It had the second highest rate of homelessness per capita in the nation, after California — but also the lowest rate of homeless people living outdoors.

To some, it felt like a launching point. “With our smaller population, our culture and our passion, I think we felt a lot of hope that we could make real progress toward ending homelessness,” said Jess Graff, director of Franklin Grand Isle Community Action, a nonprofit agency in St. Albans, near the Canadian border.

But planning for long-term solutions faltered, hindered by a lack of housing stock, labor shortages and glacial timelines for construction. As it became clear that most hotel residents would return to homelessness, tensions rose between Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, the Democrat-dominated Legislature and advocates who were calling on the state to keep people in hotels.

The end date was postponed in March, at a cost to the state of $7 million to $10 million per month. On June 1, the expulsions began. An estimated 800 people statewide were turned out of hotel rooms that day as the Scott administration stressed the need to invest in long-term housing solutions instead.

“We will make every effort to ensure vulnerable Vermonters are sheltered,” Miranda Gray, a deputy commissioner of the state’s Department for Children and Families, said in a statement.

With waiting lists for shelter beds and transitional housing, the only option available to most of those forced from hotels this month was a free tent. Across the state, social service workers handed out camping equipment, a gesture that pained providers like Graff, who saw 28 households displaced from hotels in her area of northern Vermont on June 1.

“Even purchasing the tents is awful, because you’re in the store with a cart full of camping equipment, and people are saying, ‘Looks like a fun weekend!’” she said.

A few hotels, including the Quality Inn in Brattleboro where Alexander and his wife had lived for about a year, granted homeless guests a two-week extension, until June 16. As that deadline approached last week, residents expressed frustration and fear.

Kathleen McHenry, 55, had begun packing some belongings in her car and throwing others away. She said she was weary of the assumptions people made about her — and terrified she would be raped while sleeping outdoors.

“I’m not here because of drugs,” she said. “I’m here because I could not find a place to live.”

As a steady rain fell that night, McHenry kept dry under the hotel’s beige stucco portico, fussing over another resident’s baby before heading back inside to her two cats and her chunky Lab mix, Kirby. She said the bonds among residents, “almost like siblings,” had made the hotel feel more like a home.

Outcry over the expulsions has increased since June 1, ratcheting up pressure on legislators to act. On Tuesday, the final day of their session, they voted to extend the stays of the remaining 2,000 hotel residents who had been scheduled to leave on July 1 — a group that includes hundreds of children, and some adults who are bedridden, dependent on oxygen or take medications that require refrigeration, according to advocates.

The move averted a possible mutiny by a group of progressive lawmakers who had opposed the motel expulsions — and whose votes were needed to override the governor’s veto of the budget passed by the legislature. If unopposed by the governor, the latest extension would allow the most vulnerable Vermonters to stay in motels until April, or until they find housing, as long as they contribute 30% of their income to help pay for their stays.

Brattleboro, a riverfront town tucked into the state’s southeastern corner, has deeply liberal and empathetic instincts. But it is also wrestling with rising crime downtown, and concern that it will hurt businesses and tourism. Days after the first wave of hotel checkouts, the town’s selectboard voted to hire a private security firm to patrol some areas where drug use had increased.

The town was badly shaken by the murder in April of Leah Rosin-Pritchard, 36, at the Morningside House shelter, where she was the coordinator. A resident of the shelter was arrested and found mentally unfit to stand trial. The 30-bed shelter has remained closed since.

The town, like many in Vermont, does not allow camping on public land and has made no exceptions for the people leaving hotels.

John Potter, the town manager, said the impact of the hotel program on Brattleboro, where people had come from around the state to stay in seven hotels, could be long lasting.

“We hope it helped them,” he said, “but what it leaves us with now is potentially more people looking for a roof over their heads than we had before.” The town has asked the state for help setting up a temporary 100-bed shelter in a vacant office complex.

Other states have avoided large-scale expulsions of homeless residents from hotels. In Oregon, state leaders decided early in the pandemic to buy hotels rather than rent rooms in them for months or years. The state spent $65 million in 2020 to acquire 19 properties and convert them to permanent shelters.

A few such purchases have taken place in Vermont, but by individual nonprofit groups. In Brattleboro, Groundworks Collaborative, a nonprofit agency, worked with a local land trust to buy an old chalet-style hotel in 2020, tapping federal relief funds to convert it to 35 units of supportive housing for people leaving the motels. A similar project in northern Vermont turned a former nursing home into 23 affordable apartments, Graff said.

The state made investments too, offering incentives to developers to build affordable housing and grants for renovations of abandoned properties. But as the need kept surging, the supply was nowhere near enough.

At the Quality Inn in Brattleboro, a woman who said she had lost her housing after divorcing her abusive husband worried about keeping her full-time supermarket job while living in a tent in a state park.

She said she copes with homelessness by finding “tiny escapes” — a waterfront picnic or a trip to a Chinese restaurant buffet — “to pretend, for an hour, that this is not our life.”

c.2023 The New York Times Company

Nearly one-third of nation's homeless population lives in California, new research shows


Kayla Jimenez, USA TODAY
Tue, June 20, 2023 

Nearly one third of all people who are unhoused in the United States live in the Golden State, according to a new study released Tuesday.

The California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness also reveals 50% of all unsheltered people in the country – who may or may not have a car to sleep in – live in California. Almost 90% reported that the cost of housing was the main reason they could not escape homelessness.

"The results of the study confirm that far too many Californians experience homelessness because they cannot afford housing," wrote Margot Kushel, a principal investigator of the study and director at the University of California, San Francisco's Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative.

The study encompasses findings from nearly 3,200 surveys and 365 in depth interviews with adults experiencing homelessness across the state between October 2021 and November 2022. It is the "largest representative study of homelessness in the United States since the mid-1990s," according to the study, which was requested by California Governor Gavin Newsom's administration, Fortune reported.

More than one million people experience homelessness in the United States in a given year and many more are at risk of losing their homes, according to the Biden administration. Florida, New York and Washington also had high rates of homelessness last year, the Annual Homeless Assessment Report shows. The report provides data and analysis for funding decisions by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

A homeless man sits at his tent along the Interstate 110 freeway in downtown Los Angeles. California Gov. Gavin Newsom met with the mayors of some of California's largest cities to discuss the homeless situation last month.

What does the study reveal?

The study found that many people cannot afford homes in the state. Nearly all people surveyed said they "face barriers," like poor credit history, discrimination, health challenges or prior evictions, when trying to rent or buy a home. California is experiencing a housing shortage crisis, and the states is home to some of the most unaffordable places to live in the country.

The research shows "the incalculable personal costs of homelessness," Kushel wrote in the release.

California's homeless population is growing older in age with the median age of participants being 47-years-old, the new research shows, with nearly half of the state's homeless population being 50-years-old or older. An overrepresented majority are Latino (35%), Black (26%) and Native American (12%).

Micah's Way volunteers serve food and drink to Santa Ana, California residents, including veterans and others experiencing homelessness.

A vast majority of people surveyed were from or last housed in California. And about 20% of the unhoused people surveyed came straight from institutions.

Two-thirds of all participants surveyed reported struggling with mental health issues at the time they were surveyed. And 72% had experienced some type of physical violence in their lifetime, the findings show.

Many of the unhoused people the institute surveyed are looking for jobs. "Participants were disconnected from the job market and services, but almost half were looking for work," a news release attached to the study reads.

Biden administration: Unveils initiative to combat homelessness in 5 US cities, California

To combat the growing housing needs, the group is recommending six policy changes, including:

Increasing "access to housing affordable to extremely low-income households;"


Expanding "targeted homelessness prevention, such as financial supports and legal assistance;"


Providing "robust supports to match the behavioral health needs of the population;"


Upping "household incomes through evidence-based employment supports;"


Growing "outreach and service delivery to people experiencing unsheltered homelessness;" and


Embedding "a racial equity approach in all aspects of homeless system service delivery."

Angel Martinez pours water on Jerry Fullington's head to cool him off from the heat in Santa Rosa, Calif., on Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2022. The friends who used to be a couple have been homeless on and off for years but are hoping to get inside soon.

In an attempt to reduce homelessness nationwide by 25% by January 2025, the Biden administration last month unveiled an initiative called "ALL INside" to help unhoused people in cities with high homeless populations access federal services. Those cities include Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix and Seattle.

Contact Kayla Jimenez at kjimenez@usatoday.com. Follow her on Twitter at @kaylajjimenez.

Who’s unhoused in California? Largest study in decades upends myths

Sam Levin in Los Angeles
Tue, June 20, 2023 

Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Nearly half of all unhoused adults in California are over the age of 50, with Black residents dramatically overrepresented, according to the largest study of the state’s homeless population in decades.

University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) research released on Tuesday also revealed that 90% of the population lost their housing in California, with 75% of them now living in the same county where they were last housed. The study further found that nearly nine out of 10 people reported that the cost of housing was the main barrier to leaving homelessness.

Related: ‘I’ve never seen so much vitriol’: activist Paul Boden on America’s homelessness crisis

The research from UCSF’s Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, based on a representative survey of nearly 3,200 unhoused people, contradicts several persistent myths about the population, including that most unhoused people come from out of state to take advantage of services, as well as stereotypes that homeless people are mostly young adults who prefer to live outside and don’t want help.

“People are homeless because their rent is too high. And their options are too few. And they have no cushion,” Dr Margot Kushel, initiative director and lead investigator, told the Associated Press. “And it really makes you wonder how different things would look if we could solve that underlying problem.”

California is home to more than 171,000 people experiencing homelessness, comprising 30% of the homeless population in the US and half of all Americans who are unsheltered and living outside. The crisis has become a public health catastrophe in recent years as an ageing population is forced to live in tents, cars and other makeshift shelters, with thousands dying on the streets each year. California is considered the most unaffordable state for housing, where minimum-wage earners would have to work nearly 90 hours a week to afford a one-bedroom apartment.

The study further found that among the older population, 41% said they experienced their first episode of homelessness after age 50. Most participants in the research reported that the cost of living had become unsustainable before they lost housing, reporting a monthly median household income of $960 in the six months before homelessness.

Nearly half of adults surveyed were not living on a lease in the six months before facing homelessness, meaning they were couch-surfing or had moved in with family and friends in precarious situations. Renters with leases reported a median of only 10 days’ notice that they were going to lose their housing, while people without leases reported a median of only one day of warning.

Researchers reported that participants had endured significant trauma, with two-thirds reporting mental health symptoms, more than a third experiencing physical or sexual violence during homelessness, and more than a third visiting an emergency department in the past six months. Access to care and treatment was also a major challenge cited, with one in five who use substances reporting that they wanted treatment but could not obtain it.

The study found that while Black residents make up 6% of California’s general population, they account for 26% of the unhoused population. Native American and Indigenous people were also overrepresented, accounting for 12% of the unhoused population. Latinos made up 35% of the unhoused population, fairly comparable to their proportion of the general population.

The study was done at the request of Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration, but was not funded by the state.

The researchers recommended that the state increase access to housing that is affordable to extremely low-income people, including by expanding rental subsidies; expand homelessness prevention through financial support and legal assistance, including for people leaving jails, prisons and drug treatment; expand eviction protections; increase access to treatment; and increase outreach and services for people living on the streets.

Claudine Sipili, a member of the research project’s lived expertise board, said in a statement that she hopes the research will help the state develop effective strategies that allow people to transition out of homelessness and into stable housing circumstances: “Having experienced homelessness first-hand, I vividly recall the relentless fight for survival, the pervasive shame that haunted me, and my unsuccessful endeavors to overcome homelessness on my own.”

The Associated Press contributed reporting

OHIO

College students are concerned over a strict new bill that could limit higher education: ‘You can say gravity isn’t true…’



Jane Donohue
Tue, June 20, 2023 

In recent months, the U.S. has seen a wave of conservative legislation targeting colleges and universities. A new bill in the Ohio General Assembly follows this trend by aiming to restrict what educators can teach about our changing climate.

What’s happening?

Ohio Senate Bill 83 is a proposed bill that limits discussion surrounding “controversial beliefs or policies” on college campuses.

According to the bill, one “controversial policy” involves the changing climate. The bill demands that educators “encourage students to reach their own conclusions about all controversial beliefs or policies and shall not seek to inculcate any social, political, or religious point of view.”

Among the bill’s “controversial beliefs or policies” are those surrounding “climate policies, electoral politics, foreign policy, diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, immigration policy, marriage, or abortion.”

Why is this bill concerning?

If passed, educators would have to tread carefully when discussing the planet’s changing climate despite the fact that scientific evidence has proven that human-driven environmental changes are happening. Educators and students alike worry that if the bill becomes law, they won’t be able to teach and learn accurate climate science.

Keely Fisher, a Ph.D. candidate at Ohio State University’s School of Environment and Natural Resources, worries that the bill would discourage students from studying climate change.

“We shouldn’t be pushing environmentalists and people who care about climate change away from the state,” she told Inside Climate News.

“You can say gravity isn’t true, but if you step off the cliff, you’re going down,” atmospheric scientist and educator Katharine Hayhoe told Inside Climate News. “And if you teach other people that gravity is not true, you are morally responsible for anything that happens to them if they make decisions based on the information you provided.”

What’s being done about this bill?

Students, educators, Ohio citizens, and even Ohio universities have spoken out against the bill. Demonstrators have protested by attending hearings for the bill wearing tape over their mouths to critique what they see as the bill’s infringements on free speech.

Ohio State University’s Board of Trustees released a statement criticizing the bill, writing, “Academic rigor is at the foundation of a quality education; SB 83 threatens to impair it by proposing limitations on faculty speech not ‘favoring or disfavoring’ controversial views.”

Opinion
Editorial: Sanctuary cities are working just fine, thank you

The Times Editorial Board
Wed, June 21, 2023

Ambar and her 10-year-old daughter, shown at MacArthur Park, were among the migrants bused from Texas to Los Angeles. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

When Republican Govs. Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron DeSantis of Florida bused and flew migrants to Los Angeles, New York, Washington, D.C., and other so-called "sanctuary cities," they might have envisioned they were exporting the same chaos as border states have experienced as they grapple with a historic number of migrants. They wanted leaders in these cities to admit they were wrong about their immigrant-friendly policies.

Earlier this month, Abbott sent migrants on a bus to Los Angeles. And DeSantis has admitted he dispatched migrants on two chartered flights to Sacramento a few days earlier, luring them with false promises of housing, shelter and legal help.

But Abbott and DeSantis are mistaken if they think they are teaching cities with sanctuary polices any lessons with their inhumane political stunts or causing their leaders to rethink their commitment to not treating migrants as criminals.


Those governors and their political allies also seem to be confused about what it means when cities have sanctuary policies. Though policies vary, providing sanctuary means not turning migrants over to federal immigration authorities simply for being in the country illegally. It means treating them like humans in need rather than pawns.

That's what leaders in Los Angeles, Sacramento and other "sanctuary cities" did as buses and planes dumped dozens of tired and often confused migrants on their doorsteps in recent months. They rallied attention and resources, while religious and other nonprofit organizations stepped up to welcome the migrants with shelter, food and clothes. In some instances, these migrants have even found temporary jobs, illustrating the need for their labor.

Abbott and DeSantis may also not realize that sanctuary policies were designed to help law enforcement keep communities safe. Sanctuary policies were developed because police in many cities such as Los Angeles were frustrated because undocumented immigrants were not reporting crimes or stepping forward as witnesses for fear of deportation.

Critics say these sanctuary cities have laws and policies that shield criminals and obstruct federal immigration policies. But cities with sanctuary policies have lower than average crime rates, higher household incomes and lower poverty rates, according to various studies.

Local authorities did not refuse to cooperate with immigration enforcement, as critics claim. They simply limited the role of local law enforcement in immigration cases, for example, by not using local police to do immigration checks or by not holding an undocumented immigrant in custody for a few extra days to serve federal authorities' schedules.

Los Angeles is in the midst of transitioning from a “city of sanctuary” to “sanctuary city.” The difference is more than just semantics. The former designation is little more than a statement by city leaders in 2017 that they opposed then-President Trump’s dehumanizing anti-immigrant policies, which included separating young children from their parents. Some of those children have yet to be reunited with their parents years later. Earlier this month, the City Council voted to strengthen the policy by banning city personnel or resources from being used for immigration enforcement.

It's true that the transports of migrants by the Texas and Florida governors have been inconvenient to cities such as Washington and New York, which have had to scramble to find housing and other resources. But they haven't done a thing to undermine the foundation on which sanctuary policies were built.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Greenpeace protests mass logging of old-growth forests in Carpathian Mountains


Greenpeace activists hold a news conference in Warsaw, Poland, on Wednesday June 21, 2023 outside the office of the Polish prime minister asking him to act to reduce logging in the Carpathian Mountains. Greenpeace said in a recent report that a forested area the size of five soccer fields disappears every hour from the Carpathians, which runs through parts of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Ukraine. 

(AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

VANESSA GERA
Wed, June 21, 2023

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Greenpeace activists on Wednesday called on the Polish prime minister to take action to protect Poland's forests, asking the government to limit the harvesting of timber in the vast old-growth forests of the Carpathian Mountains.

During a news conference held outside the office of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Greenpeace activists held a section of a fir tree trunk that they took from the forest. It was the conclusion of a 40-day expedition to try to raise awareness about the threats to a forest which is home to bears, lynx and other wildlife. They delivered it to the prime minister's office after the conference.

According to Greenpeace, a forested area the size of five soccer fields disappears every hour from the Carpathians, which run through parts of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Ukraine.

Activists on the expedition witnessed up to 40 trucks full of timber per day being transported out of the Bieszczady Mountains, which form part of the Carpathians, on one road alone, said Greenpeace spokesman Marek Jozefiak.

He said the government has not fulfilled its promise to put more of the country's forests under protection by declaring them national parks.

Logging in the Carpathians is highly problematic, he added, because it is the home to the only population of brown bears in Poland and to the biggest population of lynx, wolves and others species.

“It's really mindboggling. We are talking about the most precious mountain forest that we have,” Jozefiak said.

Greenpeace says that the biggest obstacle to protecting the Polish Carpathians is the appropriation of the state forests by a party in the right-wing government.

Greenpeace argues that politicians from a party that belongs to the governing coalition led by Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro “have de facto privatized Polish forests and treat them like money-making machines.”

Jozefiak said large-scale logging is taking place in all the countries, and activists are asking governments and the European Commission to take action.

“They need to act now. If you wait a few more years, it might simply be too late," he said.

One country may singlehandedly plunge rare fish population into extinction: ‘Every fish is going to be fished’



Rick Kazmer
Tue, June 20, 2023

A stubborn Russian fishing industry targeting the beaked redfish threatens to eliminate the unique creature from the waters near Greenland and Iceland, where it thrives.

What happened?

According to a report by the Guardian, Russia ranks second on a 2021 illegal fishing index that includes 152 countries. Scientists have been monitoring redfish populations in the Irminger Sea and, in 2020, found that populations of the fish, which can live up to 60 years, may only have years to exist due to illegal fishing.

The fish, which can grow to about 1.5 feet long, is known for its large eyes and orange color.

“Russia has, for a number of years, simply not been willing to accept the best available scientific advice [on redfish],” Stefan Asmundsson, the Iceland foreign minister representative to the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission, told the Guardian.

In response, Russian officials said they have done their own research about redfish populations and will continue to harvest the fish. Russia remains the lone country to continue fishing the species in international waters.

Why is illegal fishing dangerous?

Scientists don’t know a lot about how the species arrives in the Irminger Sea. They show up in April and leave in June.

The redfish also matures slowly, needing up to 15 years to reach reproductive age. Their slow development cycle makes excess fishing an extreme hazard, according to Kristjan Kristinsson, a biologist at the Icelandic Marine and Freshwater Research Institute who was interviewed by the Guardian.

“Every fish is going to be fished eventually,” he said about the redfish.

Simulations show that populations will not recover in the next decade, despite other countries halting harvests.

According to the Environmental Defense Fund, about three billion people worldwide rely on fish as a main source of protein. Without sustainable fishing practices worldwide, fisheries could collapse.
What’s being done about overfishing?

Part of the solution includes international support for the species, experts say.

The European Union has already condemned the fishing. Officials are considering banning vessels with redfish on them from ports, the Guardian reports.

Unfortunately, Russia’s redfish exploitation isn’t the only problem in the seas. Overfishing worldwide is hitting many species hard, including pollack and red king crab.

An organized effort from countries that support the industry is likely needed to report on the impact of overfishing in the seas. Leaders will need to confront countries, including Russia, that continue to exploit at-risk species.

Biden administration moves to restore endangered species protections dropped by Trump


 In this Feb. 2021, file photo released by California Department of Fish and Wildlife shows a protected gray wolf (OR-93), seen near Yosemite, Calif., shared by the state's Department of Fish and Wildlife. The Biden administration is proposing new rules for protecting imperiled species that would reverse changes under former President Donald Trump that weakened the Endangered Species Act. 

(California Department of Fish and Wildlife via AP, File)


MATTHEW BROWN
Wed, June 21, 2023 

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Biden administration proposed new rules for protecting imperiled plants and animals on Wednesday as officials moved to reverse changes under former President Donald Trump that weakened the Endangered Species Act.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it would reinstate a decades-old regulation that mandates blanket protections for species newly classified as threatened.

That provision was dropped three years ago as part of a suite of changes to the application of the species law that was encouraged by industry even as extinctions accelerate globally due to habitat loss and other pressures.

Under Wednesday's proposal, officials also would no longer consider economic impacts when deciding if animals and plants need protection. Another change would expand requirements for federal agencies to consult with the wildlife service or the National Marine Fisheries Service before taking actions that could affect threatened or endangered species.

Details on the proposed rules, which will take months to finalize, were obtained by The Associated Press in advance of their public release. They'll face strong pushback from Republican lawmakers, who say President Joe Biden's Democratic administration has hampered oil, gas and coal development, and favors conservation over development.

“These proposed rules take us in the wrong direction and are entirely unnecessary given the proven track record of success from private conservationists and state and local land managers," said House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman, a Republican from Arkansas.

Industry groups have long viewed the 1973 Endangered Species Act as an impediment. Under Trump they successfully lobbied to weaken the law’s regulations as part of a broad dismantling of environmental safeguards. Trump officials rolled back endangered species rules and protections for the northern spotted owl, gray wolves and other species.

Restoring those rules could speed up protections and the designation of critical habitat for threatened species, including salmon in the Pacific Northwest.

The spotted owl decision was reversed in 2021 after career wildlife officials said Trump's political appointees used faulty science to justify opening millions of acres of West Coast forest to potential logging. Protections for wolves across most of the U.S. were restored by a federal court last year and the Biden administration has said it will decide by next February if they should remain in place.

Many of the changes under Trump were finalized during his last weeks in office, giving the Republican administration little time to put them into action.

Biden administration officials say they are trying to bring the endangered species law into alignment with its original intent and purpose. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Martha Williams said in a statement that the changes "reaffirm our commitment to conserving America’s wildlife and ensuring the Endangered Species Act works for both species and people.”

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Assistant Administrator Janet Coit said the rules would ensure the species law remains effective as climate change alters habitats around the globe, and plants and animals become extinct.

The Biden administration had earlier reversed Trump’s decision to weaken enforcement of the century-old Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which made it harder to prosecute bird deaths caused by the energy industry. And officials under Biden withdrew a 2020 rule that limited which lands and waters could be designated as places where imperiled animals and plants could receive federal protection.

But environmentalists have been frustrated that it's taken more than two years for Biden to act on some of the Trump-era rollbacks. Stoking their urgency is the prospect of a new Republican administration following the 2024 election that could yet again ease protections.

“These are promising steps to get us back to the Endangered Species Act's purpose, its power to protect,” attorney Kristen Boyles with Earthjustice said of the new rules. The group sued on behalf of environmental groups to block the Trump rules and prevailed in U.S. District Court then lost on appeal.

An array of industry groups have long maintained that economic impacts are not given enough consideration in U.S. government wildlife decisions. Those groups range from livestock and ranching organizations to trade associations representing oil, gas and mining interests.

The Endangered Species Act is credited with helping save the bald eagle, California condor and scores of other animals and plants from extinction since President Richard Nixon signed it into law. It currently protects more than 1,600 species in the United States and its territories.

Column: A Teamsters strike against UPS could remake the union movement for the better

Michael Hiltzik
Wed, June 21, 2023 

Unionized UPS workers have voted to authorize a strike if the Teamsters and the company don't agree to a new contract before the existing pact expires July 31. (Nam Y. Huh / Associated Press)

Over the last year, unionization drives by Starbucks baristas and Amazon warehouse workers have all but monopolized the attention of the labor organizing world.

That may be why the most important development in the field has operated under the radar until very recently. We're talking about the contract talks between United Parcel Service and about 340,000 members of the Teamsters union.

The negotiations have already yielded an overwhelming vote by the members to strike if no deal is reached by July 31, when the current contract expires. Hand-wringing about the impact of a UPS strike has intensified lately, since the shutdown of a company that handles an estimated 6% of the nation's gross domestic product (according to UPS) could have dire economic consequences.

Sean O'Brien has made it clear that we are not going to take any concessions.
Viviana Gonzalez, Teamster steward

What's more important, however, is the impact that a successful negotiation or a strike could have on the health of American organized labor.

It would demonstrate that workers have truly gained leverage over employers after three pandemic years and a year of inflation fueled by corporate profiteering. It could also demonstrate the value of union solidarity in the face of determined resistance by employers.

As I've reported before, the notion that American workers have gained an edge over employers in the pandemic's wake has been wildly overstated.

Labor expert Theresa Ghilarducci of the New School points us to a recent survey by Oxfam showing that among the 38 developed nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the U.S. ranked at or near the bottom on measures of wage policies including minimum wages (36 out of 38), rights to organize (32nd) and worker protections (dead last at 38).

Employers have fared much better, thank you. That includes UPS, where the pandemic burnished the financial picture. UPS revenue grew to $100.3 billion last year from $74.1 billion in 2019, and profit grew to $11.6 billion from $4.5 billion in 2019.

In other words, the company's profit margin nearly doubled, to 11.6% last year from 6% in the year before COVID. If there's an argument against distributing more of that largesse to the workforce that made that growth possible, let's hear it.

Given U.S. law and past practice, piecemeal organizing drives in discrete workplaces such as Starbucks stores always face an uphill battle.

Starbucks has managed to fight many of its barista unionization efforts to a draw by exploiting the indifferent and time-consuming system of labor law enforcement in the U.S. The coffeehouse company has engaged in what a National Labor Relations Board judge found in March to be "hundreds of unfair labor practices," but his ruling came more than a year and a half after the offenses were committed; the enforcement process still hasn't concluded.

The Teamsters can't be manipulated as easily, since the union is bargaining for its entire UPS membership, companywide. That said, previous Teamster leaders have been overly indulgent toward the company; some of their historical concessions are on the negotiation table right now. Today's Teamster leadership, moreover, won their seats by promising specifically to take a hard line with UPS.

That stance has already yielded accords on numerous noneconomic issues. The most important may be the company's agreement to install heat shields and air conditioning in its delivery vehicles, in which summertime temperatures can soar higher than 100 degrees; scores of UPS drivers have reportedly succumbed to heat-related injuries.

Last summer, driver Esteban Chavez Jr. died from what his family maintains was heat stroke suffered while delivering packages in Pasadena. (The question, of course, is why it took union negotiations for UPS to address this issue.)

"We have a new person in charge," says Viviana Gonzalez, a UPS driver for nine years and a steward for Covina-based Teamsters Local 396. She's referring to General President Sean O'Brien, a former UPS employee who won his Teamsters post in 2021 by defeating a candidate handpicked by former President James P. Hoffa.

"Sean O'Brien has made it clear that we are not going to take any concessions," Gonzalez told me. She says the workforce takes pride in having kept UPS operating through the pandemic — "without us, you didn't get food, medicine, essential stuff" — but sentiment is widespread that the company hasn't sufficiently acknowledged the workers' role during that difficult period.

The most interesting aspect of the current contract negotiations may be the demand to eliminate a lower, second tier of drivers who do the same work as other drivers but for lower pay. The main difference in their duties is that they work Tuesday through Saturday, rather than weekdays.

Creating the so-called 22.4 drivers (named for the contract section that covers them) allowed the company to extend delivery services into the weekend without paying the full-time workforce extra for weekend duty or overtime.

Full-time drivers earn an average of about $95,000. The 22.4 drivers earn less per hour while receiving comparable health and pension benefits.

Earlier contracts gave the company more flexibility to hire part-time workers, to the point where about half of all the Teamster members at UPS are part-timers. The company says a part-time workforce is "essential to our success," because the average workday encompasses "alternating bursts of activity and slack time."

UPS also portrays part-time opportunities as "ideal for many people" who want time to "advance their education and pursue their passions."

That sounds a lot like the argument by gig firms such as Uber and Lyft, which assert that classifying their drivers as independent contractors affords them the "flexibility" they value in their lives, even if it means giving up the job protections and benefits that come from classification as "employees." For the companies, it means lower costs, so you be the judge.

At UPS, the part-timers earn less than half the average hourly wage that full-timers receive.

Serious labor leaders know that two-tier and part-time employment is poison for workers' interests. Managements have long "assumed that full-timers wouldn't fight for more full-time opportunities and better pay for part-time workers, while the younger part-time work force wouldn't fight for better pensions or reduced subcontracting of full-time jobs," Teamster officials Matt Witt and Rand Wilson observed in a 1999 retrospective about the last UPS strike, in 1997.

That two-week strike ended with one of the best contracts the Teamsters ever achieved with UPS. After a string of mediocre contracts signed by union leaderships racked with internal dissension, the union in 1997 took a more militant stance toward UPS and, perhaps more important, leadership made a concerted effort to engage members in the contract negotiating campaign.

The issues then, as now, included the company's reliance on part-timers — who often worked as many hours as full-timers, but were paid less. During the four years preceding the 1997 contract talks, more than 80% of new hires were classified as part-time. The striking workers benefited from their positive public image, which immunized them from a company advertising campaign aimed at portraying them as greedy.

The strike's success bore lessons for organized labor generally, chiefly that successful bargaining was the best advertisement for union membership. "You could make a million house calls, run a thousand television commercials, stage a hundred strawberry rallies, and still not come close to doing what the UPS strike did for organizing," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney told the umbrella union's national convention a month later.

As it happens, however, the glow faded. Organized labor continued its steady decline in membership and influence. At UPS, the Teamsters allowed the company to implement the 22.4 classification in 2018, even though 54% of the voting membership rejected the contract.

Then-President Hoffa ruled the contract to have been ratified, citing a union rule that permitted him to do so if voting turnout had dipped below 50% or the "no" votes didn't exceed two-thirds. Turnout had been only 44%.

The strike vote doesn't mean that a walkout is inevitable, obviously. But the vote is a signal that UPS management ignores at its peril. The most important question may be on which side of the scale the Biden administration places its thumb.

In November, when railroad managements balked at union contract proposals calling for more sick days — proposals the financially flush railroads were well able to afford, thanks to record profits — Biden sided with the railroads. Then, as now, the rhetoric was all about the "crippling" effects of a strike.

Biden has been portraying himself as a pro-labor president. The truth is that he has been a better friend to labor than any of his predecessors since Franklin D. Roosevelt. That makes the UPS situation a test he can't afford to lose. He should celebrate the Teamsters' solidarity in demanding a fair share of UPS profits. Make no mistake: If there's a strike, it will be because UPS management wanted it to happen.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Teamsters, UPS come to terms on all noneconomic issues

Mark Solomon
Wed, June 21, 2023 

UPS, Teamsters agree on all noneconomic issues. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

The Teamsters and UPS Inc. came to terms on all noneconomic issues during national contract negotiations on Tuesday, the union said.

“We have reached tentative agreement on well over 40 noneconomic issues that affect all our members at UPS, and we did it as a team. The Teamsters haven’t sacrificed a single concession in these negotiations,” said Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman in a statement on the union’s Facebook page.

“Very soon we will review the language, changes and improvements in all articles with the entire membership. Plus, the fun part now begins to fight for significant wage increases for everyone — full-timers, part-timers, long-timers, everyone,” he said.

Zuckerman and Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien will review and discuss all noneconomic tentative agreements live with members during a webinar on Wednesday. Other union representatives and UPS Teamster rank-and-filers will also share their thoughts during the call, the Teamsters said.

The Teamsters National Negotiating Committee expects to exchange its full economic package with UPS negotiators on Wednesday morning. All remaining top issues affecting a tentative new contract, protecting more than 340,000 UPS Teamsters, are economic. These are the highest-profile issues and ones that are historically the most contentious.

The two sides are negotiating a new master contract to replace the existing 5-year pact, which expires July 31. The union has warned it will pull the 340,000 UPS Teamsters off their jobs if an agreement isn’t reached by Aug. 1.

The biggest issues left include full- and part-time wage increases for all; health and welfare benefit protections and enhancements; pension increases; rewards for longtime UPS Teamsters across classifications; elimination of personal vehicle drivers; and more conversion of part-time jobs to full time.

The elimination of a two-tier “22.4” job classification, which the Teamsters said penalizes junior workers who perform the same functions as senior workers, will be dealt with as part of the Teamsters’ economic package, the union said. The 22.4 refers to the number of the language in the master contract.

“Putting an end to this 22.4 classification is one of our biggest strike issues at UPS, and it will be eradicated during our economic negotiations. The Teamsters’ entire committee and our full membership are committed to making this happen,” O’Brien said. “It’s thrilling to announce that our team — representing so many hardworking Teamsters at UPS and their families — have reached tentative agreement on all of our noneconomic issues.

“Not only did we achieve this without concessions, we negotiated each of these issues favorably and to their finality for our members. Big money issues will be tackled next, so keep those chin straps buckled tight,” he said.

The post Teamsters, UPS come to terms on all noneconomic issues appeared first on FreightWaves.

UK
You’re living in a fantasy if you don't want closer EU ties, Labour tells critics
Nick Gutteridge
Mon, June 19, 2023 

- Reuters/Hannah McKay

Opponents of Labour’s plans to forge closer ties with the EU are “living in a fantasy”, the shadow foreign secretary will say on Tuesday.

David Lammy will forcefully recommit his party to negotiating new trade and security terms with Brussels in remarks at a conference organised by Best for Britain, the pressure group which campaigned for a second referendum.

During his speech to business leaders in Birmingham, he will unveil proposals to prioritise “economic diplomacy” in talks with other nations.

Senior Tories accused Labour of having a “plan to suck up to Brussels” and expressed fears the party wants to take Britain back into the EU.


Mr Lammy, a strident Remainer, will say forging closer relations with Europe is central to the party’s overall mission to boost economic growth.

“Last week, the Conservative Party press office attacked me for saying that improving our relationship with the EU will be a priority of the next Labour government,” he will say.

“I have no qualms about repeating this. Reconnecting Britain must start by reconnecting with our European neighbours. Because the EU are our biggest trading partners and our allies as we face war on our continent.

“If you do not think Britain’s relationship with Europe is of fundamental importance to our future, you are living in a fantasy.”

Top Tories attacked the remarks with Lee Anderson, the party’s deputy chairman, saying they showed “only the Conservative government can be trusted to protect Brexit”.

“This is typical Labour – doubling down on their plans to make rejoining the EU their top priority at a pro-Brussels bash organised by arch-Remoaners,” he said.

“Instead of spending their time at Lefty love-ins, Labour MPs should hit the doorsteps in Ashfield to see if real people agree with their plan to suck up to Brussels.”

David Jones, a former Brexit minister, said there were suspicions that Labour wanted to drag Britain towards returning to the EU via the back door.

Questioning why a new deal was necessary, he added: “We do, after all, have a free trade agreement and almost all EU member states, like the UK, are members of Nato.”

Sir Keir Starmer has said he will hand exporters a boost by securing a veterinary agreement with the EU that would see border checks reduced on food products.

The Labour leader has pledged to secure a deal like the one New Zealand has, where both sides voluntarily agree that each other’s standards are equivalent.

Brussels has twice rejected the Tories’ proposals for such a pact, most recently during talks on the Northern Ireland border last autumn.

Instead, it wants to tie the UK to a Swiss-style arrangement where Westminster would have to copy and paste EU rules on food production.

Sir Keir has also said he would reduce red tape for services firms by securing a deal on the mutual recognition of professional qualifications.

Such an agreement would make it easier for businesses to send workers to and fro across the Channel by scrapping visa paperwork.

However, the EU has similarly previously rejected Britain’s overtures, arguing that one must be linked to a wider climbdown on free movement.

The Labour leader has repeatedly ruled out rejoining the single market or customs union, saying that the UK’s future lies outside the bloc.

Sir Keir has also separately said he wants to agree a new pact with Brussels to boost co-operation on security such as cyber crime.

In his speech, Mr Lammy will also announce plans to carry out a “strategic assessment” of British embassies to prioritise those in emerging markets.

The aim of the review would be “to deepen our diplomatic ties with countries essential to the supply chains and economies of the industries of the future”, he will say.

Labour suggested that the outcome of the exercise would result in more diplomats being posted to economically booming countries such as India.

“The next Labour government will set our world-class network of diplomats a priority task: launching a new economic diplomacy, for the modern era,” Mr Lammy will say.

“Helping to create the conditions for growth. Navigating this new geopolitical and geoeconomic context. Driving forward the energy transition.

“Building partnerships and local capacity. Seizing the opportunity for Britain to have the highest sustained growth in the G7.”

An ‘average’ American income may no longer cut it

Daniel de Visé
Wed, June 21, 2023 

An average American income isn’t enough for a comfortable living in 2023, according to two recent reports.

The typical U.S. family earns about $71,000 per year, according to the Census. Yet, the average American believes a family needs at least $85,000 in annual household income to get by, according to a recent Gallup poll.

That finding tracks with a recent study from SmartAsset, a financial technology company, which found the average American worker needs $68,499 in after-tax income to live comfortably. (That works out to around $85,000 in total income, assuming a 20-percent tax hit.)

The two releases point to the same conclusion: Many Americans earn too little in 2023 to attain a decent standard of living in their communities.

American households are feeling the pinch after three years of relentless economic headwinds.

Inflation, a negligible factor in recent years, surged to 5 percent in 2021 and 8 percent in 2022. It stands now at 6 percent, according to federal data for the first quarters of 2022 and 2023.

Rising prices prompted an unprecedented run of interest-rate hikes by the Federal Reserve, lifting the benchmark federal funds rate from effectively zero to around 5 percent in little over a year.

All of this came amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which pushed the nation’s jobless rate close to 15 percent at the height of the national lockdown in 2020.

“We’re just coming out of this really unusual time when we had pandemic scarcity, we had loss of work. And I think it’s sort of distorted perceptions about the cost of living,” said Peter C. Earle, an economist at the American Institute for Economic Research. “Lockdowns were a sort of existential experience for a lot of people.”

The Gallup poll, taken in April, found that 30 percent of Americans believe a family needs a six-figure income to “get by in your community.” Only 14 percent of respondents said a household could make do on less than $50,000, and even that threshold is $20,000 higher than the federal poverty line for a family of four, $30,000.

“I think the real crux of this issue is, what does it mean to quote-unquote get by?” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, an economist and president of the American Action Forum, a conservative think tank.

Lower-income families, earning less than $40,000 per year, told Gallup pollsters a household needs $66,310 a year to get by, on average. Upper-income households, earning $100,000 or more, said nothing short of $100,000 would suffice.

“There’s lots of other data that says that people whose incomes are relatively high are living paycheck-to-paycheck,” Holtz-Eakin said.

Ten years ago, in an earlier Gallup poll, the average American believed a household could get by on $58,000 a year. That number exceeded the median household income at the time, $52,250.

The gap seems to be growing between what Americans earn and what they consider a sufficient income. The Gallup figure from 2013, $58,000, was about 10 percent higher than the median household income for that year. The 2023 Gallup figure, $85,000, exceeds the current median income by about 20 percent.

A lot has changed in a decade. In 2023 America, the average family might reasonably expect the price of groceries and gas to climb by 5 percent or 10 percent per year into perpetuity. The average homeowner might assume mortgage rates will remain in the 5-percent to 7-percent range for the foreseeable future, after a decade of historically low rates.

Therefore, American families would have good reason, economists say, to dial up their expectations for what it takes to live comfortably.

Salaries haven’t kept pace with inflation. Rising interest rates have pushed up housing costs. The SmartAsset report found that the average income to maintain a “comfortable lifestyle” rose by 20 percent between 2022 and 2023, from $57,013 to $68,499 in take-home pay, in the 25 largest metro areas.

That report, derived from MIT’s Living Wage Calculator, assumes the average family will allocate half of its after-tax income to basic living expenses, 30 percent to discretionary spending and 20 percent to savings and debts.

By that formula, a resident would need to clear $84,000 a year to live comfortably in San Francisco, $78,500 in New York and $76,000 in Washington, D.C., the study found.

Looking at actual salaries in those cities, it would appear that many residents do not live comfortably. Median per-capita income is about $124,000 in San Francisco, $85,000 in New York and $81,000 in D.C., according to the Census. Those are pre-tax figures: take-home pay ranges much lower.

One key factor in rising living costs is spiraling housing expenses. Monthly rents have outpaced inflation. Last spring, the median monthly asking rent surpassed $2,000 for the first time, according to Redfin.

Housing prices, meanwhile, surged by more than 40 percent in two years, from an average of $383,000 in early 2020 to $553,000 in late 2022, according to federal data. The figure slipped to $516,500 this year, as higher mortgage rates sapped purchasing power.

Cars, too, are becoming luxury purchases. The average price for a new vehicle hit $49,500 at the end of 2022, up from $38,948 three years earlier, according to the Kelley Blue Book.

Vehicle prices rose partly because of supply-chain kinks and pandemic shutdowns. Another factor was the demanding American consumer. Buyers pushed up prices by consistently choosing more expensive SUVs and tricked-out trucks over value-priced sedans.

“There’s a lot of debate about how much our expectations are feeding inflation,” said Lisa Gennetian, an applied economist at Duke University.

Homebuyers are seeking ever-larger homes. The average new home grew by 1,000 square feet between the mid-1970s and mid-2010s, according to an analysis by the American Enterprise Institute.

The same principle applies in other areas of family life, Gennetian said. An affluent household might consider private school part of a basic annual budget, while a less wealthy household might struggle to fulfill the fall supply list at public school.

“For some people, private tutoring for my kids, that could be part of my standard of living,” Gennetian said. “Other people, they might be thinking about having a running car.”

Do You Actually Make Enough to be Considered Middle Class in These American Cities?

 THERE IS NO MIDDLE CLASS NOR A CONSUMER CLASS THESE ARE 1960'S AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL TERMS TO DENY THE MARXIST DEFINITION OF CLASS; WHICH MAKES US ALL WORKING CLASS REGARDLESS OF OUR INCOME OR EARNING POWER BECAUSE OF OUR RELATIONS TO THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION  WHICH WE HAVE NO CONTROL OVER.

Patrick Villanova, CEPF®
Wed, June 21, 2023 

Single family houses with city skyscrapers in the background.

The middle class has long been considered the backbone of the American economy. But the American middle class is shrinking. The percentage of adults living in middle-income households in the United States fell by more than 10 percentage points over the last 50 years1, indicating an ongoing shrinkage of the middle class.

To find the true pulse of today’s middle class, SmartAsset calculated the bounds on middle class earnings in 100 of the largest U.S. cities, as well as all 50 states.

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Key Findings

Northeastern salaries are about 20% higher than Southern salaries — even after accounting for cost of living differences. The Northeast dominates the top 10 highest middle class salary ranges, with many middle class salaries between $60,000 to $170,000. Meanwhile, that same middle class bracket falls between about $35,000 to $100,000 in many Southern states. While the top-placing Northeastern states cost roughly 50% more to live in that the low-ranking Southern states, the middle class salary range sits about 70% higher2.


The middle class in NYC aren’t making enough to keep up with the cost of living. While other notoriously pricey cities like San Francisco and Seattle have a middle class income that trends closely with the general cost of living, New York City wages lag behind. While the middle class wage range was middle of the road of all cities examined, the cost of living in Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan are 43%, 70% and 138% higher than the national average, respectively.


Middle class status is hardest to attain in tech cities. Three out of the top five cities with the highest income thresholds for the middle class are located in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. These middle income residents need to make at least $81,623 in San Francisco, $84,673 in San Jose and $104,499 in Fremont. Seattle residents similarly need to make at least $74,223.


You’re middle class even if you make $310,000 in this California city. Households that earn up to $311,936 per year in Fremont, California, are still technically considered middle class. That’s the highest ceiling for any city in our study – Fremont’s median household income ($155,968) is almost $30,000 more than the next highest city.

Cities With the Highest Middle-Class Ceilings

1. Fremont, CA

Fremont has the highest minimum threshold for middle class at $104,499, going all the way up to nearly $312,000. Households here need a minimum income of $104,499 to be considered middle class. Fremont’s proximity to the high-paying jobs of Silicon Valley contributes to its high median income of $155,968. This Bay Area city has nearly 230,000 residents, and almost one-tenth of that population works at Tesla3.


2. San Jose, CA

San Jose is the third-largest city in California and home to high-profile technology companies, including Adobe, Cisco Systems, eBay, PayPal and Zoom. Middle class households here earn between $84,673 and $252,754.

3. Arlington, VA

Arlington, situated on the banks of the Potomac River, benefits from its proximity to Washington D.C. and a highly-educated workforce. Over 76% of residents 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, more than double the national average4. The federal government is Arlington’s top employer, with the Department of Defense and a number of other agencies based there5. Middle class households here earn up to $251,302 per year, while those earning less than $84,186 miss the threshold.

4. San Francisco, CA

While some large tech companies are based in San Francisco, including Salesforce, Uber and Twitter, the city is also home to non-tech brands like Wells Fargo and The Gap. Middle class households here earn between $81,623 and $243,652. But buying a home in the City by the Bay can be a challenge. The median home value in Frisco is $1.2 million dollars6.

5. Seattle, WA

In Seattle, households earning up to $221,562 are still considered to be middle class. Those earning less than $74,223, however, haven’t yet entered this middle income group. Nearly 66% of residents 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or higher and there are plenty of high-profile local companies to work for, including Amazon, Starbucks and Boeing.

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6. Irvine, CA

While the healthcare and technology industries contribute to Irvine’s economy, the University of California, Irvine remains the city’s largest employer with over 25,000 faculty and staff7. Middle class households in this Orange County city earn between $70,869 and $211,548 annually.

7. Gilbert, AZ

Located in the Phoenix metropolitan area, Gilbert’s population has grown 31% from 208,000 residents in 2010 to 273,000 in 20228. The median household income of $104,802 sits comfortably in the middle class range of $70,217 and $209,604 per year.

8. Scottsdale, AZ

Scottsdale is a popular tourist destination with numerous resorts, spas and golf courses. Located about 30 minutes north of Gilbert, this city is also home to healthcare and technology companies9. Middle class families here make between $66,395 and $198,194.

9. Plano, TX

Located in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Plano is home to 287,000 residents. The local economy is partially supported by the presence of some of the biggest names in banking. JP Morgan Chase, Capital One and Bank of America are the three largest employers in Plano, with a combined total of almost 20,000 workers10. Middle-class families here earn between $63,651 and $190,004. Plano has the lowest average home value of the top 10, at an average $487,000.

10. Chandler, AZ

Chandler is the third Phoenix area city in the top 10. The largest employers here include Intel, Wells Fargo and the local school district11. Middle class households here earn between $63,391 and $189,226 per year, while the average home value in Chandler sits just above Plano’s at $492,000.

What It Takes to Be Middle Class in the 50 States

Maryland, Washington D.C. and Massachusetts have the three highest floors for the middle class at a statewide level. In all three places, it takes an annual income of more than $60,000 for households to be considered middle class. New Jersey ($59,828) and New Hampshire ($59,272) round out the top five.

At the other end of the spectrum, Mississippi is the state that requires the lowest annual income to be a part of the middle class ($32,640). The Magnolia State is followed by West Virginia ($34,336), Louisiana ($34,898), Arkansas ($35,194) and Alabama ($36,122).

Data and Methodology

To determine the income limits to be in the middle class, SmartAsset analyzed U.S. Census Bureau’s 2021 1-year American Community Survey data for the median household income in all 50 states, as well as the 100 largest U.S. cities. We relied on a variation of the Pew Research definition of middle-income households, which defines a middle class salary range by two-thirds to double the median U.S. salary. We used the local median salary for states and large cities to account for the diversity of financial realities among locales.

1Pew Research Center

2The Council for Community and Economics Research Cost of Living Index, Q3 2022

3City of Fremont, California Annual Comprehensive Financial Report 6/30/2022

4U.S. Census Bureau ACS 1 Yr 2021

5City of Arlington, Virginia Annual Comprehensive Financial Report 6/30/22

6Zillow, data pulled 4/6/23

7City of Irvine, California Annual Comprehensive Financial Report 6/30/22

8U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimate Program 2022

9City of Scottsdale, Arizona Annual Comprehensive Financial Report 6/30/22

10City of Plano, Texas Annual Comprehensive Financial Report 6/30/22

11City of Chandler, Arizona Annual Comprehensive Financial Report 6/30/2021