USPS revs up electric truck purchase after intense pressure


The U.S. Postal Service announces it will now convert 40% of its aging mail truck fleet to electric vehicles following intense pressure from environmental groups and states. Photo courtesy of USPS

July 20 (UPI) -- Responding to public scrutiny and a lawsuit, the U.S. Postal Service announced Wednesday it will more than double its original plan to replace aging mail trucks with electric vehicles, raising the number from 10% of its fleet to 40%.

The USPS announcement increases the number of Next Generation Delivery Vehicles to 25,000. The announcement comes after hundreds of thousands of public comments and a lawsuit saying the mail carrier's plan did not do enough.

The attorneys general of 16 states and the District of Columbia sued the USPS in April over its original plans to replace the majority of its trucks with vehicles that burn fossil fuels. They argued the plan did not comply with the National Environmental Policy Act requiring federal agencies to conduct environmental reviews before making major decisions.

"Once this purchase goes through, we'll be stuck with more than 100,000 new gas-guzzling vehicles on neighborhood streets, serving homes across our state and across the country, for the next 30 years," California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in the lawsuit. "There won't be a reset button."

RELATED Lawsuit says USPS didn't do proper environmental review for vehicle purchase plan

The USPS argued it could not afford more electric vehicles without significant new funding, while the USPS inspector general found electric trucks would save more money over their lifetime.

Wednesday's announcement by the USPS comes as a number of private delivery companies, such as Amazon and FedEx, switch to EVs.

"USPS is beginning to get the message. They're now making 40% of their next fleet purchase battery electric," Earthjustice tweeted Wednesday. "But this should only be the beginning -- it's past time we started replacing retiring gas trucks with electric mail trucks."


"These vehicles are amongst the easiest to electrify, as they tend to run on short, set routes, idling often," Adrian Martinez, senior attorney on Earthjustice's Right to Zero campaign.

RELATED Electric truck maker Rivian gets $700M investment, led by Amazon

"Ultimately, the entire postal fleet needs to be electrified to deliver clean air in every neighborhood in the country and avoid volatile gas prices," Martinez said.

"The fight continues for an electrified postal delivery fleet."

HEALTHCARE CRISIS

Surgery risks mount if anesthesiologist faces heavy workload, study warns
By Judy Packer-Tursman

The number of overlapping surgeries managed by the anesthesiologist increases the risk of death or complications after major surgery, a new study says. 

Photo by Julian Rovagnati/Shutterstock
July 20 (UPI) -- For people undergoing major surgery, new research suggests they may want to check on the anesthesiologist's workload before a procedure that will put them to sleep.

That's because the number of overlapping procedures managed by an anesthesiologist increases the risk of death or complications after major surgery by as much as 14%, according to a study by researchers at the University of Michigan.

The research findings were published Wednesday in JAMA Surgery.

With the demand for major surgery growing, according to a news release, many clinicians, including anesthesia care teams are being asked to care for more patients.

RELATED Anesthesia safe for kids, doctors' group says

The anesthesia care team is the most common model used to deliver anesthesia in the United States, the release said. An anesthesia clinician -- either a certified registered nurse anesthetist, certified anesthesia assistant, anesthesiology resident or anesthesiologist -- is continuously present in the operating room, delivering care.

However, it is not uncommon to have one anesthesiologist directing the anesthesia care delivered by other clinicians for multiple surgical cases at a time, said Dr. Sachin Kheterpal, a coauthor of the study.

Kheterpal is the associate dean for research information technology and professor of anesthesiology at Michigan Medicine.

RELATED  Study: No link between anesthesia, mild cognitive impairment

The findings "suggest potential consequences of overlapping anesthesiologist responsibilities in perioperative team models and should be considered in clinical coverage efforts," the paper concludes.

"We know anesthesiologists in the operating room make a difference. This study shows it, and we need to do more studies like this," said Dr. Randall M. Clark, president of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, which represents more than 55,000 physician anesthesiologists.

Clark told UPI in a phone interview Wednesday that the University of Michigan team is "a respected research group," asking the right questions -- "questions that ASA has been interested in for decades" -- and using a good set of data.

RELATED Anesthetic procedure could improve symptoms for veterans with PTSD

But further research is needed -- in larger groups and looking at a broader range of hospitals -- to make corresponding improvements, he said.

"This kind of analysis is exactly what we do every day," when determining staffing ratios for anesthesia during surgeries, said Clark, a professor of anesthesiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and pediatric cardiac anesthesiologist at 

"In my institution, we don't do 1-to-4 at all," meaning one anesthesiologist handling four overlapping surgery cases, Clark said. "And we always staff according to the needs of the patient and the complexity of the surgery."

Clark said that an anesthesiologist's workload can be highly variable, noting that the researchers found the group with the most overlapping anesthesia cases comprised only about 10% of the total, and "maybe less if you pull in exclusions."

In the new study, the investigators looked at major, non-cardiac inpatient surgeries performed in 23 U.S. academic and private hospitals from January 2010 through October 2017.

The researchers primarily analyzed 30-day mortality and cardiac, respiratory, gastrointestinal, urinary, bleeding and infectious complications from surgery.

The study included 578,815 adult patients, with a mean age of 55.7 years, undergoing major inpatient surgery within the Multicenter Perioperative Outcomes Group electronic health record registry based at the University of Michigan.

The researchers used anesthesiologists' sign-in and sign-out times to calculate continuous staffing for each surgery.

Then patients were placed into one of four groups: those receiving care from an anesthesiologist covering 1 operation (group 1); more than one to no more than two overlapping operations (group 1-2); more than two to no more than three overlapping operations (group 2-3); or more than three to no more than four overlapping operations (group 3-4).

After matching operations according to anesthesiologist staffing ratio, the investigators found that, compared with patients in group 1-2, those in group 2-3 had a 4% relative increase in risk-adjusted mortality and morbidity.

And, by comparison with patients in group 1-2, those in group 3-4 had a 14% increase in risk-adjusted mortality and morbidity.

The investigators acknowledged limitations of the study, including the fact that only 23 centers were involved.

And they didn't explore what they describe as the relatively rare instance of staffing more than four overlapping surgeries for the anesthesiologist.

NATURAL HIGH

Churches sue to use hallucinogenic tea in religious practice

By Pamela Manson

The Arizona Yagé Assembly’s leaders are suing for the right to use a hallucinogenic tea in their ceremonies. They meet in this maloka.

 Photo by Scott Stanley/Arizona Yagé Assembly

July 19 (UPI) -- Two Arizona churches are fighting in federal court to establish a right to use a sacramental tea brewed from plants containing a hallucinogenic compound in their religious practice.

The Arizona Yagé Assembly and the Church of the Eagle and the Condor allege in separate lawsuits that their constitutional right to the free exercise of their religion has been violated by federal agencies' seizure of their ayahuasca, an herbal tea that contains a small amount of dimethyltryptamine. DMT

The churches are seeking a declaration that the government's actions stopping them from using ayahuasca violate the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The act bars the government from substantially burdening a person's exercise of religion except in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest and only if an action is the least restrictive means of furthering that interest.

The Church of the Eagle and the Condor, based in Phoenix, says in its suit that U.S. Customs and Border Protection has been seizing and destroying ayahuasca since 2020. The church was founded in 2017 and has 40 active members.

Imbibing ayahuasca is rooted in the spirituality of Indigenous people in South America and "an essential mode of worship" for church members, according to the suit, which was filed in June. However, federal agencies allege any possession of ayahuasca, even for sincere religious purposes, violates the federal Controlled Substances Act, the suit says.

The CSA classifies ayahuasca as a Schedule I controlled substance, which are drugs that have a high potential for abuse and the potential to create severe psychological or physical dependence.

The church insists ayahuasca -- also known as yagé, huasca and daime -- is not addictive and is not known to be used recreationally. Made by boiling the stalks of the banisteriopsis caapi vine and adding psychotria viridis leaves, it has an unpleasant taste and causes many people to experience nausea and vomiting, the suit says.

"The church and its members are aware that their sacrament is proscribed by law, but they have partaken in their sacrament both before and after the United States made a credible threat of enforcement of the CSA against them," the suit says. "Plaintiffs are violating and intend to continue to violate applicable law, rather than compromise or terminate their sincerely held religious beliefs and practices."

The plaintiffs -- the church; Joseph Tafur, a physician who is its spiritual leader; and four members -- claim they were not provided due process before their ayahuasca was confiscated and the Drug Enforcement Agency has refused to respond to Freedom of Information Act filings seeking more specific information about the seizures.

Trying for settlement

The Arizona Yagé Assembly in Tucson and the San Francisco-based North American Association of Visionary Churches filed suit in 2020 alleging their members are "substantially burdened" by laws prohibiting importation, distribution and possession of ayahuasca.

"Because DMT is listed as a Schedule I controlled substance under the Controlled Substances Act (the 'CSA'), and because the DEA and DHS interpret the law to enact a complete ban against the religious sacrament ayahuasca, members are forced to choose between obedience to their religion and criminal sanction," the suit says.

Arizona Yagé Assembly obtains its sacramental ayahuasca from Peru from trusted sources, according to the suit. Without ayahuasca, congregants are unable to practice their religion, the suit says.

"During ceremonies, many members experience deep religious sentiments directly connected with their own life experience, reviewing incidents from their past, recognizing their errors and those of others, purging their own guilt and forgiving others their wrongs, receiving mercy and forgiveness from the divine source and experiencing the restful peace of divine love," the suit says.

Other plaintiffs who joined the suit were Scott Stanley, director of NAAVC and founder and director of the Arizona Yagé Assembly; the Vine of Light Church in Phoenix; and the late Clay Villanueva, who was the church's founder and minister and an NAAVC board member.

The defendants in each case are Attorney General Merrick Garland and top officials with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Both suits are pending in U.S. District Court in Phoenix before different judges.

Most of the claims in the Arizona Yagé Assembly case were dismissed in March but the church filed an amended suit. The parties began settlement negotiations in mid-June and were ordered by U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver to submit an update by July 27.

'Honor the spirit'

Stanley said the Ayahuasca Yagé Assembly plans to continue meeting twice a month at its maloka, a ceremonial round house, in the desert west of Tucson. He estimates 5,000 to 6,000 people have attended the religious organization's ceremonies since its founding in 2015.

His first experience with ayahuasca was in 2009, Stanley said.

"The message in my very first ceremony was to 'honor the spirit.' Since that time, I've been making every effort to simply honor the spirit," he said.

The government has not seized all of his church's ayahuasca, but every time the sacrament is confiscated, "it brings us one step closer to not being able to engage in our religious practice," Stanley said. Arizona Yagé Assembly sued to secure its rights only after exhausting all administrative remedies.

"We tried on numerous occasions to petition the DEA, write the DEA, contact the DEA," he said. "We weren't able to."

The suit was filed on May 5, 2020. Two weeks later, Villanueva's home, where he held religious ceremonies, was raided by a drug task force, which seized ayahuasca, marijuana and psilocybin mushrooms, according to court records. The Vine of Light Church closed as a result of the raid.

Villanueva, who was not arrested then, joined the lawsuit. He was taken into custody on Aug. 23, while boarding a plane in Los Angeles to go to Peru for cancer treatment.

His lawyer, Charles Carreon, said a grand jury had indicted Villanueva on drug counts stemming from the raid, but his client was never informed there were charges pending against him or that a warrant had been issued for his arrest. Villanueva, 60, was eventually released from jail pending trial and died April 1.

Debate over sincerity

In a brief opposing Arizona Yagé Assembly's request for an injunction barring the prosecution of the church or its members for importing or ingesting ayahuasca, the federal agencies say the government has a compelling interest in protecting the health and safety of ceremony participants.

Ingesting ayahuasca has been shown to result in hallucinations, agitation, tachycardia, confusion, heightened blood pressure and vomiting and, in rare instances, seizures, respiratory arrest and cardiac arrest, the brief says.

The DEA also has an interest in reducing the incidence of illicit recreational use of ayahuasca, the brief says.

In addition, the agencies say the Arizona Yagé Assembly has not demonstrated the sincerity of its members' religious beliefs.

"AYA's filings contain very few details about basic membership requirements," the brief says. "Without this information, AYA has not demonstrated that 'membership' in AYA actually represents an expression of a sincerely held religious belief in ayahuasca as a sacrament."

Even if sincere, their religious exercise it's not substantially burdened, according to the brief, which points out religious claimants can ask for an exemption from the Controlled Substance Act for religious ayahuasca use.

And, the brief says, the church has been holding ceremonies for years, advertising them for $325 to $775 on its website, which shows members have not been coerced to act contrary to their religious beliefs.

Arizona Yagé Assembly counters the DEA published "Guidance Regarding Petitions for Religious Exemption from the Controlled Substances Act Pursuant to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act" but has never granted an exemption under the guidance.

The group also says its members are sincere.

"Ayahuasca is almost exclusively consumed in religious ceremonies; accordingly, visionary churches whose sacrament is ayahuasca are using a sacrament that in itself affirms their claim of religious sincerity," the suit says.

Committed to religion

Two churches that have been using ayahuasca for years won court rulings saying their activities are legal.

The U.S. Supreme Court in 2006 affirmed the right of O Centro Espírita Beneficente União do Vegetal in Santa Fe, N.M., to continue using hoasca as a sacrament. The unanimous decision said the government had not shown a compelling interest under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to ban the substance for religious use by União do Vegetal, a Christian Spiritist group based in Brazil.

In Oregon, members of the Church of the Holy Light of the Queen, another Brazil-based religion, have been using ayahuasca, which they call daime, since the 1990s.

Jonathan Goldman, a spiritual leader, said he was introduced to daime in 1987, when he went to Brazil with his therapist. Goldman, who was living in Boston then and working as an acupuncturist, had been in therapy for many years and he said drinking the tea changed his life

"I got to feel what needed to heal in me and to start to truly heal it inside of me," he said.

After he made a trip to Brazil in 1993 and smuggled daime into the United States in his suitcase, Goldman founded the Church of the Holy Light of the Queen with authorization from the Santo Daime mother church.

Goldman has been leading ceremonies in the small town of Ashland, Ore., where he and his family have lived since 1990. He describes the faith as a "gnostic primitive Catholic religion."

In May 1999, federal agents raided Goldman's house to seize a shipment of daime tea. Goldman said he was threatened by a state prosecutor with arrest and incarceration if he were caught bringing in the tea again or holding ceremonies.

Members then decided to hold ceremonies in secret and to stop keeping records of the church's activities.

After the 2006 ruling in the União do Vegetal suit, church leaders prepared to take their own case to court. They resumed gathering information to show the sincerity of participants, the lineage of the religion, how ceremony participants are taken care of and how the daime is safeguarded.

"We documented everything, everything, everything, everything," Goldman said.

In March 2009, U.S. District Judge Owen Panner in Oregon ruled the Religious Freedom Restoration Act requires that church members be allowed to import and drink daime tea in ceremonies.

Panner noted participants fill out detailed questionnaires about their medical conditions and experienced members act as "guardians" to tend to those suffering from nausea. The fact that ceremonies were conducted in secret shows the sincerity of church members because they remain committed to practicing their religion despite the threat of criminal prosecution, the ruling said.

Goldman said the church's relationship with government agents has been "very peaceful" since the case was resolved.

"They're just people doing their job," he said. "They're really not trying to trip us up."

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yage_Letters

  

Perhaps it’s time to kick Joe Manchin out of the Democratic party

Robert Reich

At every opportunity, Manchin has sabotaged Democrats’ agenda. What’s going on here? It’s spelled m-o-n-e-y

‘Manchin has not only taken more campaign contributions from oil, gas and coal companies than any other senator but has one of the largest war chests from all big American corporations.’ 

Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA

Wed 20 Jul 2022 

After putting a final spear through the heart of what remained of Biden’s and the Democrat’s domestic agenda, West Virginia’s Democratic senator Joe Manchin now rejects any tax increases on big corporations or the wealthy – until inflation is no longer a problem.

This is rich, in every sense of the word. Raising taxes on big American corporations and the wealthy would not fuel inflation. It would slow inflation by reducing demand – and do it in a way that wouldn’t hurt lower-income Americans (such as those living in, say, West Virginia).


As a 76-year-old let me say: Joe Biden is too old to run again
Robert Reich

Manchin’s state is one of the poorest in America. West Virginia ranks 45th in education, 47th in healthcare, 48th in overall prosperity and 50th in infrastructure.

Tax revenue from corporations and billionaires could be used to rebuild West Virginia, among other places that need investment around America.

But Manchin doesn’t seem to give a cluck. After all, the Democrats’ agenda – which Manchin has obliterated – included pre-K education, free community college, child subsidies, Medicare dental and vision benefits, paid family leave, elder care, and much else – all of enormous value to West Virginia. (On a per-person basis, West Virginians would have benefitted more than the residents of all but two other states.)

It’s not as if Manchin has championed anything else Democrats have sought. Remember Manchin’s “bipartisan compromise” on the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act? Nothing came of it, of course.

Nothing has come of any of the fig leaves Manchin has conjured to cover his unrelenting opposition to every other Democratic goal.

What’s going on here? It’s spelled m-o-n-e-y.

Few if any American-based global corporations or billionaires reside in West Virginia, but lots of money flows to Manchin from corporations and billionaires residing elsewhere.

Manchin has not only taken more campaign contributions from oil, gas and coal companies than any other senator (as well as dividends from his own coal company), he has one of the largest war chests from all big American corporations.

If the Democratic party had any capacity to discipline its lawmakers or hold them accountable (if pigs could fly), it would at least revoke Manchin’s chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

To continue to allow this crucial position to be occupied by the man who has single-handedly blocked one of the last opportunities to save the Earth is a thumb in the eye of the universe.

I’m told the Democrats don’t dare take this step for fear Manchin would leave the Democratic party and switch his allegiance to the Republicans.

Why exactly would this be so terrible? Manchin already acts like a Republican.

Oh, no! they tell me. If Manchin switches parties, Democrats would lose control over the Senate.

Well, I have news for Democrats. They already lost control over the Senate.

In fact, the way things are right now, Biden and the Democrats have the worst of both worlds. They look like they control the Senate, as well as the House and the presidency. But they can’t get a damn thing done because Manchin (and his intermittent sidekick, Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema) won’t let them.

So after almost two years of appearing to run the entire government, Democrats have accomplished almost nothing of what they came to Washington to do.

America is burning and flooding but Democrats won’t enact climate measures.

Voting rights and reproductive rights are being pulverized but Democrats won’t protect them.

Gun violence is out of control but Democrats come up with a miniature response.

Billionaires and big corporations are siphoning off more national wealth and income than in living memory and paying a lower tax rate (often zero), but Democrats won’t raise taxes on big corporations and the wealthy.

Which means that in November’s midterm elections, Democrats will have to go back to voters and say: “We promised a lot but we delivered squat, so please vote for us again.”

This does not strike me as a compelling message.

By kicking Manchin out of the party, Democrats could at least go into the midterms with a more realistic pitch: “It looked like we had control of the Senate, but we didn’t. Now that you know who the real Democrats are, give us the power and we will get it done.”

Maybe this way they’ll pick up more real Democratic senators, and do it.

Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com

“HE HAS SABOTAGED THE PRESIDENT’S AGENDA”: JOE MANCHIN LEFT DEMOCRATS WITH NEXT TO NOTHING

This week, Democratic leaders said they have no choice but to accept a small health care bill in lieu of the bold policies they campaigned on.


BY JULY 20, 2022

Joe Manchin addresses reporters outside a hearing July 19. 

TOM WILLIAMS/CQ-ROLL CALL, INC VIA GETTY IMAGES

Joe Manchin will get his way — again. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters Tuesday that he will accept the West Virginia conservative’s reconciliation compromise. It has a provision to lower prescription drug prices, and healthcare subsidies, and — perhaps most importantly for Schumer — the votes to pass. But it’s a crummy deal overall, especially considering what it once was. Gone are the tax increases on the wealthiest Americans, which Manchin said just a few months ago were key to beating back inflation (something he claims to care about). Gone are the environmental measures, the necessity of which has been underscored in recent days by historic heat waves and unprecedented wildfires. Gone is much of the ambition that once characterized the Democrats’ legislative agenda.

Democrats swept into Washington last year on a promise not just to hit the reset button after four years of Donald Trump, but to enact a bold platform. The signature piece of that agenda was the Build Back Better plan, the very bill that Manchin has whittled down from a transformational, $2 trillion package to “rebuild the backbone of the country” to what is now essentially a narrow piece of healthcare legislation. Democrats have little choice but to take it at this point — it’ll improve peoples’ lives, and a win is a win. “We have to be pragmatic in making progress, step by step,” as Congressman Ro Khanna told NBC News. And yet, the scaled-back bill is something of a symbol of the Democrats’ scaled-back legislative ambitions, largely due to hold-outs within their own ranks.

“He has sabotaged the president’s agenda,” progressive Senator Bernie Sanders said of Manchin on Sunday.

It’s not that the party hasn’t notched a number of policy wins. Since Joe Biden took office, they have passed COVID relief, infrastructure, and gun safety legislation; the latter was the first such bill in three decades. They have also confirmed almost 70 judges, including Ketanji Brown Jackson — the first Black woman on the high court. All of that is impressive, and none of it should be taken for granted. But much of that success has been overshadowed by setbacks — on Capitol Hill, where Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema, and 50 obstructionist Republicans have killed or weakened major parts of the Biden agenda; in state legislatures, which have been petri dishes for extreme conservative policy; and especially at the Supreme Court, where an unaccountable right-wing supermajority has, just in its most recent term, dismantled abortion rights, the administrative state, and the effort to regulate firearms. Democrats are taking action “step by step, as Khanna put it. But it feels as though the Trumpian right is moving its own agenda forward in massive leaps.

Biden is paying for that frustration in the polls, and his party may pay for it in November’s midterms — and it’s true that the Democrats own some of the blame for their own struggles. But perhaps the bigger problem with their legislative agenda is the decay of the legislative process itself, which at this point seems designed to ensure as little as possible makes it through the partisan gridlock. Much of the GOP is plainly uninterested in the actual business of legislating; they’ve outsourced that task to the Supreme Court. Jim Jordan, one of the top Republicans in the House, all but admitted as much Tuesday as he condemned a Democrat-led effort to codify same-sex marriage rights into federal law.

Democrats, meanwhile, have essentially had to rely on agencies and executive action to do much of the work of governance. But in this game of rock-paper-scissors, the conservative court seems to have the advantage, as evidenced in decisions handcuffing the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory authority and preventing the Biden administration from enacting its COVID vaccination and testing requirements.

The president and his party are not powerless, of course. Biden is expected to announce executive action to combat climate change, and is considering declaring a climate emergency, which could broaden his power to unilaterally address the issue. “If the Senate will not move to tackle the climate crisis and strengthen our domestic clean energy industry,” Biden said in a statement last week, “I will take strong executive action to meet this moment.” Democrats, meanwhile, would have a better opportunity to take up bolder legislation on the climate, reproductive rights, and other issues if they can expand their majority enough to take away Manchin’s leverage. “We’re going to have to get two more Democrats, real Democrats [in the Senate], who will actually help us to implement the president’s agenda, not obstruct it,” Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal told reporters this week. But that’s a tall task — and unless and until it comes to pass, the soaring ambition Biden and the majority of his party ran on will be weighed down by the far narrower vision of Manchin.

Why Joe Manchin Does Not Care if His Party Hates Him

Philip Elliott
Tue, July 19, 2022 

A COUPLE OF MILLIONAIRES IN AN ELEVATOR

Capitol Hill
Sen. Joe Manchin, Democrat of West Virginia, and Sen. Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, head to a vote on Capitol Hill on March 30, 2022, in Washington, DC. 

Credit - Jabin Botsford—The Washington Post/Getty Images

The contempt was sincere when Sen. Bernie Sanders took the airwaves last weekend to voice a common frustration in the Senate’s Kennedy Caucus Room: Sen. Joe Manchin was an unreliable negotiator who had double-crossed Democrats once again.

“The problem was that we continue to talk to Manchin like he was serious. He was not,” he told ABC’s This Week. In a Senate famed for its comity, this was the equivalent of unleashing an airhorn inside an oboe recital.

There’s one problem with this rage. Manchin has always been a proud fly in the legislative ointment, an unrepentant naysayer to party orthodoxy who is not worried about his relationships in the Capitol. And that’s why he will probably be the last statewide elected Democrat to represent West Virginia for a long time: he values his constituents’ contempt of Washington far more than he fears his colleagues’ contempt of him. And when it comes to President Joe Biden’s frustrations with Manchin’s singular and capricious veto-proof whimsy, Manchin truly cannot be bothered. Voters in West Virginia prize Manchin’s perceived indifference to party politics, and Manchin likes to serve them a skillet of stick-it-to-the-man every chance he gets.

Manchin had committed in private last year to supporting the parts of the second iteration of Biden’s Build Back Better plan with plenty of strings attached. Manchin didn’t like parts of the first one, but promised to like the second one—that is until the sequel also ran afoul of his need to scuttle huge swaths of Democrats’ agenda, such as a tax hike on the wealthy. So Manchin pivoted, and tried a third time to outline what he could accept, and Democrats acquiesced. And then, again, the proposal ran aground of the SS Manchin’s norms because, in his mind, more government spending would only hasten inflation.

Welcome to governing in 2022, with Prime Minister Manchin running the show. (Credit where it’s due to The New Republic for the analogy.) The entire country’s agenda is set by the one Senator who stands in the breach. The Senate is split 50-50, and on matters extraneous to the budget, a 60-vote threshold is needed. However, if the Senate rule-maker gives the lawmakers a pass, Democrats can play with a 51-vote majority on anything deemed budget-adjacent, thanks to Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote. All that means that if every member of the Senate’s Democratic caucus sticks together to tuck novel ideas into the budget, they can actually get stuff done.

Democrats know they’re in a precarious position. Their governing majority is as fragile as they come, the political equivalent of a faberge egg. Anything approaching a slammed door crashes this souffle. And a dozen or so midterm races from Washington state to New Hampshire threaten those egg whites’ stability as much as any jackhammer on the street.

Put another way: Manchin has the detonator to the Democratic majority in his paws and is at best indifferent to their fate. (In his latest thwarting of the White House’s agenda, Manchin could ultimately damage U.S. credibility by derailing a global minimum tax the Biden administration negotiated with more than 100 countries.)

Manchin has long insisted that he cannot hurt his constituents. That means catering to his state’s vaunted—but vanishing—coal industry. Anything broaching green jobs is toxic for his coal-country neighbors. It’s a branding exercise that may, perhaps, keep him holding on as West Virginia’s last Democratic Senator. President Donald Trump won West Virginia by 39 points in 2020; Manchin won re-election two years earlier by three points. Manchin knows his value to his party, and Democratic leaders are careful to give him sufficient space to stay in the seat as long as he wants.

But there are limits, especially when Democrats realize their coast-to-coast hopes hinge on a Red State legislator who has an effective veto. Democrats had hoped to defend their slim majority on an agenda that defeated Covid-19, rebuilt roads and bridges and tunnels, stitched a new social safety net, saved the planet, and lowered drug prices. At best, their to-do list is half done, and Democrats now are saying they’ll take a mini-version of the to-do list just to show some progress and boost Biden’s abysmal polling.

Manchin now says he may support a two-year provision to cap prescription drug prices but wants to wait until the fall for the big-ticket items left in the queue, meaning they’ll slip past Election Day and likely into a lame-duck Congress, when it will be too late for these measures to energize voters in tight races around the country. It’s not hard to imagine why so many of Manchin’s colleagues in tough re-election fights hold him in such contempt.

TELL THAT TO MANCHIN

President Joe Biden: Climate change is code red for humanity
By A.L. Lee & Doug Cunningham

U.S. President Joe Biden waves as he departs the White House en route to Somerset, Massachusetts to deliver remarks on a clean energy future on Wednesday. Biden said "climate change is code red for humanity.". Photo by Yuri Gripas/UPI | License Photo

July 20 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden Wednesday used a stop at the former Brayton coal power plant in Somerset, Mass., to call climate change "a clear and present danger" as he touted clean energy projects.

Biden said that in coming days he will announce executive actions to combat the climate emergency.

"Climate change is literally an existential threat to the nation and the world," Biden said. "When it comes to fighting climate change I will not take no for an answer. I will do everything in my power to win a clean energy future."

The president delivered his remarks at the former Brayton coal fired energy plant in Somerset, which is being turned into a factory to make under-sea cables for wind turbines at sea.

RELATED Deadly heat wave kills hundreds, buckles runway in Europe

Biden said climate change is an emergency and "in the coming weeks I'm going to use my power as president to address it."

Biden said extreme climate-change related events caused $145 billion in damages in the United States last year alone, adding that it caused 5 million acres to burn. He noted, additionally, that extreme weather has already caused billions of dollars in damage to military installations in the United States.

Since Congress is not acting on the climate change emergency, Biden said he will soon sign executive actions to address the climate emergency.

RELATED U.N. chief says extreme heat will ultimately threaten humanity, 'no nation immune'

According to the White House, they will include $2.3 billion in infrastructure funding to help communities increase resilience to heat waves, drought, wildfires, flood, hurricanes, and other hazards by preparing before disaster strikes. The money is coming from FEMA's Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program.

Biden said his administration is moving to consider offshore wind power in the Gulf of Mexico near Galveston, Texas and off the coast of Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Biden will also direct the Secretary of the Interior to advance wind energy development in the waters off the mid- and southern Atlantic Coast and Florida's Gulf Coast.

RELATED Biden to unveil executive actions on climate change amid historic heat waves

The Labor Department will also move to help protect millions of workers from heat illness and energy through increased inspections focused on 70 high-risk industries across 43 states, he said.

"We're going to build a different future, one with clean energy and green jobs," Biden said. "When I think about climate change I think jobs."

Biden traveled to the defunct power plant to announce the actions, which follow a legislative defeat in Congress in which Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., opposed a proposed suite of new environmental measures and programs.

The actions do not appear to include any emergency declarations as extreme heat grips various parts of the world.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said earlier in the day, however, that option is "still on the table."

"This is an issue that has been front of mind for him. This is an issue that's been ... a priority," she said.

Biden's moves toward new climate actions come after days of record-setting heat in Britain and other parts of Europe, including France, Spain and the Netherlands. The mercury in London on Tuesday surpassed 104 degrees Fahrenheit -- an all-time record.

A man leaps into the water in Whitstable, Kent, in Britain on Tuesday -- the same day the country set a new all-time heat record of 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Experts say the extreme heat is a reflection of climate change. Photo by Hugo Philpott/UPI

Wednesday will bring some relief, however. The forecast for London shows a high of about 80 degrees.

Many European nations have been hit by devastating wildfires across large swaths of Spain, Portugal and France, where thousands of residents were forced to evacuate this week when temperatures neared 110 degrees.

Nearly a dozen fires burned across London and the heat warped the runway at London's Luton airport on Monday, forcing it to close for several hours.

At least 1,100 people have died from the heat in southern Europe and the wave is also being blamed for hundreds of deaths on the Iberian peninsula.

In the United States, record high temperatures have been broken in areas this week from California to the Mississippi River Valley and throughout the South and Northeast.

In Texas, where temperatures topped 100 degrees on Tuesday, the statewide power-grid run by Electric Reliability Council of Texas was handling the heat with no widespread blackouts.

Global extinction threat may be much higher than previously thought

A new study suggests the danger for massive loss of species across the planet is much higher than previously thought, with about 30% of species threatened or driven extinct since the year 1500. 

File Photo by sittitap/Shutterstock

July 19 (UPI) -- The threat of extinction to all species on Earth may be much higher than previously thought, a new study suggests, after a biodiversity survey found that about 30% of species have been globally threatened or driven to extinction since the year 1500.

An international team of researchers surveyed a "large and diverse group" of biodiversity experts from around the world "who collectively study all major taxa and habitats in freshwater, terrestrial and marine ecosystems," according to the study published this week in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

The 3,331 biodiversity experts from 113 countries were asked to estimate past and future global biodiversity loss as well as rank factors that drive species to become globally threatened or extinct.

The experts, who had all published significant studies on biodiversity of their own, also ranked the drivers of global biodiversity loss and estimated its impacts on ecosystems and people.

The researchers, led by University of Minnesota associate professor Forest Isbell, compared the survey results to other sources of information and noted that the study carries importance because "decision makers often rely on expert judgment to fill knowledge gaps."

"Expert judgment has provided estimates and predictions of key unknowns in fields as diverse as nuclear power safety, volcanic eruptions, climate change and biodiversity loss," the study reads.

"The most accurate estimates and predictions come from large and diverse groups of experts, in part because expertise declines precipitously outside an individual's area of specialization."

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A previous 2019 report from the United Nations compiled by just 145 experts from 50 countries found that about 12.5% of all species on Earth, or about 1 million species, were estimated to have been globally threatened or driven to extinction since the year 1500.

Isbell told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that the estimate provided by the survey may differ from previous estimates because it takes into account less studied species such as insects.

"Experts also acknowledged substantial uncertainty around their estimates, with perhaps as few as 16% or as many as 50% of species threatened or driven extinct over this time," Isbell noted in a press release.

Akira Mori of the University of Tokyo in Japan, a co-author of the paper, said that the study is "unprecedented" because it brought together such a large group of regional experts from around the world.

The study also made a number of conclusions consistent with previous studies, including identifying human land-use changes and overexploitation as top drivers of global loss for commonly studied land-based species while overexploitation and climate change were drivers for the loss of marine life.

For other commonly studied species like amphibians, reptiles and birds, changes in how humans use the land and sea were the most important drivers for biodiversity loss.

Meanwhile, climate change and pollution were found to be the top drivers for biodiversity loss for species less commonly studied such as aquatic invertebrates and microbes.

I/3 OF THE US POPULATION

About 100 million in U.S. under 'excessive heat' warnings as mercury rises


Triple digits are displayed on a bank marquee in St. Louis, Mo., on July 5. Many parts of the U.S. have seen excessive heat this summer, and forecasters say that some regions will see more in the coming days. Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo

July 20 (UPI) -- Dangerously hot conditions across the United States are extending Wednesday into the Northeast with at least one-third of the U.S. population under heat warnings and advisories in more than 20 states, officials said.

The National Weather Service said that roughly 100 million people are under excessive heat warnings and advisories and about 60 million will see triple-digit temperatures over the next week. That includes large portions of the southern Plains, lower Mississippi Valley, lower Ohio Valley and parts of the Tennessee Valley.

Forecasters said that more heat records across Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas were expected to be broken Wednesday.

Oklahoma recorded a high of 103 degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday, according to Oklahoma Mesonet.

RELATED London declares 'major incident' as fires break out amid 104-degree heat

"This is the first time in our network's history to have 120 sites hit that mark on the same day," Oklahoma Mesonet, a joint academic weather project, said in a tweet.

A map by the National Weather Service shows areas of the U.S. that are expected to see excessive heat beginning on Wednesday. Image courtesy National Weather Service

In Arkansas, Little Rock saw triple-digit temperatures on Tuesday for the tenth day so far this year, the NWS said. In Texas, Fort Worth recorded a high of 109 degrees, and the heat there could be even hotter on Wednesday.

The NWS says that 265 million people nationwide will experience temperatures above 90 degrees in the coming days, with some of the most intense heat in the southern Plains.

Farther west, the NWS said excessive heat is forecast in central California on Wednesday -- and along the Colorado River in the Southwest on Thursday and Friday.

Many locations in the United States and Europe have seen historic heat this week, which experts say is a reflection of the growing climate crisis. President Joe Biden was set to travel to Massachusetts on Wednesday to announce new executive actions to address climate change.

Madrid street-sweeper's death prompts curbs on heatwave working hours


Wildfires in Spain

Wed, July 20, 2022

MADRID (Reuters) - The death of a Madrid street-sweeper from heat stroke has prompted companies providing the service in the Spanish capital to adopt measures including halting work during heatwaves, the Madrid mayor announced.

José Antonio Gonzalez, 60, died on Saturday after collapsing at work the previous day. Emergency services said his body temperature was close to 42 degrees Celsius and he died from heat stroke in hospital.

The man's son, Miguel Angel Gonzalez, told El Pais newspaper that his father was hoping to have a one-month contract extended and was working that afternoon because he had swapped shifts with a colleague.

"I am convinced that he did not stop cleaning that street until he fainted. He thought his contract was not going to be renewed and he was giving his all to prove himself," he said.

His contractor, Urbaser, did not respond to a request for comment.

The death prompted municipal worker unions to call for a change in working conditions. On Tuesday, the unions and contractors providing municipal services - Cespa, Urbaser, OHL, Urbaser, Acciona and FCC - signed a new agreement that suspends street sweeping on afternoons where average temperatures climb above 39 degrees Celsius.

Over certain temperatures, the companies must also provide sun cream and caps to the 7,000 workers they employ and use only air-conditioned vehicles.

Madrid Mayor Jose Luis Almeida in a tweet on Tuesday night applauded the agreement. "The unfortunate death we experienced last Saturday cannot be allowed to happen again," he said.

The agreement came too late however for another Madrid street sweeper, who collapsed with heat stroke on Tuesday and was admitted to hospital where he remains in "very serious" condition, the hospital said.

El Pais reported that during the most recent heatwave at least 14 cleaners in Madrid were treated for dizziness and vomiting. Madrid's City Council did not respond to a Reuters request for information.

Emergency services were battling wildfires across southern Europe on Wednesday as warnings sounded in London after Britain's hottest day that the fight against climate change needed to be stepped up.

(Reporting by Belén Carreño, editing by Aislinn Laing and Nick Macfie)

Spanish worker's death shows need to adapt to climate change


RAQUEL REDONDO and BARRY HATTON
Wed, July 20, 2022 

MADRID (AP) — When José Antonio González started his afternoon shift sweeping the streets of Madrid, the temperature was 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) amid a heat wave gripping Spain.

After a long time without a job, González couldn’t afford to pass up a one-month summer contract to sweep the city, where he lived in a working-class neighborhood. Three hours later, the 60-year-old collapsed with heat stroke and was found lying in the street he was cleaning.

An ambulance took the father of two to the hospital, where he died on Saturday.

His death is driving a debate in Spain about the need to adapt labor arrangements to climate change. The poorest in society, often the elderly and the low-paid such as construction workers and delivery riders for whom heat stress is a workplace hazard, have long been identified as being at a disadvantage in attempts to adjust to rising temperatures.

“It’s obvious that social inequalities play a part” in how much people suffer during heat waves, says Júlio Díaz of Spain’s Carlos III Health Institute.

“Enduring a heat wave in an air-conditioned house with a swimming pool is not the same as five people in the same room with a window as the only source of fresh air,” he told Spanish public broadcaster RTVE.

The recent torrid weather in Europe, which has seen a spike in the number and size of wildfires, is forcing the issue to the forefront.

France has already taken some steps to alleviate heat inequality after a 2003 heat wave caused 15,000 heat-related deaths, many of them older people left in city apartments and retirement homes without air conditioning.

Ahead of France's latest heat wave, which set some record temperatures this week, the government reminded employers of their legal obligation to protect workers in extreme heat. That includes free drinking water, ventilation and, if possible, changing working hours and providing extra breaks.

And as Britain prepared for this week’s heat wave, which saw temperatures hit a national record of 40.3 degrees Celsius (104.5 Fahrenheit) on Tuesday, labor unions urged the government to impose maximum workplace temperatures for the first time. Many homes, small businesses and even public buildings in Britain do not have air-conditioning.

Unite, the country’s biggest union, is pushing for a maximum workplace temperature of 27 C (80.6 F) for “strenuous’’ jobs and 30 C (86 F) for sedentary jobs. The union also says employers should be required to take steps to reduce indoor temperatures and impose strict protections for outdoor workers whenever temperatures reach 24 C (75.2 F).

“As the climate changes, it is vital that health and safety law is updated in line with the serious challenges this presents for workers,” said Rob Miguel, Unite’s national adviser on health and safety.

In Madrid, González’s 21-year-old son, Miguel Ángel, says his father, days before he died, had searched on the internet for “how to deal with heat stroke.” The evening before he died, he had arrived home from his cleaning shift gasping for air.

Scientists say the worsening of pre-existing illnesses, not heat strokes themselves, are the main cause of deaths linked to the high temperatures.

The Carlos III Health Institute estimates that 150 deaths in Spain were somehow linked to the heat wave on the day that González died. The following day, the institute attributed 169 deaths to the heat, bringing a total of 679 cases during just the first week of the heat wave.

Ramming home the danger, another Madrid street sweeper was hospitalized with heat stroke on Tuesday.

In places accustomed to high temperatures, such as Spain's southern Andalusia region, construction workers already work only morning hours during the summer.

Three days after González's death, Madrid officials agreed with labor groups that street cleaners could postpone their afternoon shift and work instead amid cooler evening temperatures.

___

Hatton contributed from Lisbon, Portugal. John Leicester in Le Pecq, France and Danica Kirka in London contributed.

___

 https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

Trucker protests halt cargo movement at California's No. 3 seaport


 Independent truck drivers gather to delay the entry of trucks at a container terminal at the Port of Oakland, during a protest against California's law known as AB5, in Oakland, California

Wed, July 20, 2022 
By Lisa Baertlein

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Protesting truckers stopped traffic on Wednesday at a Northern California port, one of the busiest in the United States, as they demonstrated against a new state labor law that makes it harder for independent truckers to operate.

Drivers picketed gates and blocked other truckers from hauling cargo in and out of the port. The protests in Oakland began on Monday and have grown larger and more disruptive with each passing day.

Late on Wednesday, Port of Oakland Executive Director Danny Wan acknowledged protesters' frustration with California's "gig worker" law and warned that a prolonged shutdown would "damage all the businesses operating at the ports" and cause customers to shift cargo to rival seaports.
\

The protesters worry that the law, which could soon be put into effect, will impose hefty costs on them that will slash their earnings.

SSA Marine, which manages the largest terminal at the Port of Oakland in the San Francisco Bay area, closed operations on Wednesday due to the protests, which ground business at other marine terminals to a virtual halt.

SSA and Everport terminal managers sent International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) dock workers home for safety reasons, a source familiar with the situation said Wednesday.

Terminal representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The new law, formally called AB5, sets tougher standards for classifying workers as independent contractors.

Trucking industry legal challenges delayed enactment of the law for more than two years, but the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case on June 30, clearing the way for it to go forward.

Backers, including the Teamsters and the ILWU, say AB5 aims to clamp down on labor abuses and push companies to hire drivers as employees - which would enable them to join unions and collectively bargain with employers.

Some 5,000 truckers work at the Oakland port, which is a major hub for agricultural exports including almonds, rice and wine.

The protests in Oakland followed actions last week at the nation's top two seaports, at Los Angeles and Long Beach in Southern California.

The three California ports handle about half of the nation's container cargo volume. The trucker protests come as the ILWU, which represents dock workers at those and other U.S. West Coast ports, is in high-stakes contract talks with terminal operators that employ them.

Protest organizers say their actions will continue until they get an audience with Governor Gavin Newsom, who did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

On Monday, the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development said: "Now that the federal courts have rejected the trucking industry's appeals, it's time to move forward."

(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Lisa Shumaker, Cynthia Osterman and Richard Pullin)

Trucker protest shuts down operations at California port


 The protest that began Monday, July 18 involves hundreds of independent big-rig truckers that have blocked the movement of cargo in and out of terminals at the port, which is one of the 10 busiest container ports in the country. 

(AP Photo/Noah Berger, File) 


Wed, July 20, 2022 

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Truckers protesting a state labor law have effectively shut down cargo operations at the Port of Oakland, it was announced Wednesday.

“The shutdown will further exacerbate the congestion of containers" and port officials are urging operations at shipping terminals to resume, a port statement said.

The protest that began Monday involves hundreds of independent big-rig truckers that have blocked the movement of cargo in and out of terminals at the port, which is one of the 10 busiest container ports in the country, according to its website.

There was no immediate word on when the protest might end but it's exacerbating supply-chain issues that already have led to cargo ship traffic jams at major ports and stockpiled goods on the dock.

The protest comes as toymakers and other industries enter their peak season for imports as retailers stockpile goods for the fall holidays and back-to-school items.

The truckers are protesting Assembly Bill 5, a gig economy law passed in 2019 that made it harder for companies to classify workers as independent contractors instead of employees, who are entitled to minimum wage and benefits such as workers compensation, overtime and sick pay.

A federal appeals court ruled last year that law applies to some 70,000 truck drivers who can be classified as employees of companies that hire them instead of independent contractors.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters called it a “massive victory" for exploited truckers. But the California Trucking Association, which sued over the law, had argued the law could make it harder for independent drivers who own their own trucks and operate on their own hours to make a living by forcing them to be classified as employees.

The legal battle stalled enforcement of the law but last month the U.S. Supreme Court recently decided it wouldn't review the decision.

Truckers are now asking Gov. Gavin Newsom to meet and discuss the issue.

Meanwhile, there's been no word on when the state might begin enforcing the law, which is still being contested in lower courts.

Messages seeking comment from the governor's office and the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development weren't immediately returned Wednesday evening.

The director of the business and economic development office, Dee Dee Myers, emailed CNBC that “it’s time to move forward, comply with the law and work together to create a fairer and more sustainable industry for all.”

Ports already have been struggling to handle container traffic, much of it from Asia. After the COVID-19 pandemic began to take hold in 2020, cargo traffic to ports slumped drastically. But then it recovered and has been booming since.

“We understand the frustration expressed by the protestors at California ports,” Port of Oakland Executive Director Danny Wan said in the port statement. “But, prolonged stoppage of port operations in California for any reason will damage all the businesses operating at the ports and cause California ports to further suffer market share losses to competing ports.”

While the port handles many different types of cargo, it is an important distribution point for California's agricultural products.

“The supply chain already is in crisis. This is a huge disruption,” Peter Friedmann, executive director of the Agriculture Transportation Coalition told the Wall Street Journal.

California Port Closes Gates for Third Day Amid Protests


Augusta Saraiva and Ngai Yeung
Wed, July 20, 2022 

(Bloomberg) -- California’s third-busiest port shut down some of its gates and marine terminals for a third day Wednesday as truckers protesting a gig-work law that could take 70,000 drivers off the road blocked access to the operation.

Management at the Oakland International Container Terminal decided to close operations due to the independent trucker protest, and the port’s three other marine terminals are effectively shut down for trucks, port spokesman Robert Bernardo said. Some vessel-labor operations were under way.

SSA Marine Inc., the largest terminal operator at Oakland, shut down all operations for the day Tuesday, he said.

Protests began across California last week after the Supreme Court on June 30 refused to review a case challenging the application of Assembly Bill 5 to truckers. The law, passed in 2019, requires workers satisfy a three-part test to be considered independent contractors, or else be seen as employees entitled to job benefits. About 70,000 truck owner-operators in the state must now comply with the law.

The trucking industry relies on contractors -- who until now have had flexibility to operate on their own terms -- and has fought to be exempt from state regulations for years.

“Ongoing protests will only drive Oakland customers away and encourage them to take their business to other seaports,” Bernardo said. “They need to take their message to Sacramento.”

After ranking as the fourth-busiest hub in the US just a few years ago, the Port of Oakland now barely cracks the top 10. Container traffic fell for three straight months through May on an annual basis as bottlenecks mount.

Import dwell time is rising at the fastest pace on the West Coast, with containers now sitting at the terminal for an average of 17.5 days, up from 12.4 last week, according to supply-chain data provider project44.

Bill Aboudi, president of trucking company Oakland Port Services, said truckers are planning to continue protesting every day until their concerns are heard.

“One day is OK and it doesn’t hurt the terminal,” he said. “But on the third they’re really hurting, and the fourth day they might retaliate.”

Dockworkers Affected

When faced with the demonstration outside of the ports, some dockworkers chose not to enter the terminal, Bernardo said.

The guiding principles of their labor organization -- the International Longshore and Warehouse Union -- state that “every picket line must be respected as it were our own.”

The union said in a statement on Twitter that it supports AB5. Farless Dailey III, the ILWU’s Local 10 president, said in a separate statement that “workers stood by on health and safety, as is permitted in our contract when conditions at the terminals present a risk.”

The ILWU contract that lapsed at the start of the month established union members have a right to refuse to cross legitimate and bona fide picket lines without being in violation of their labor duties.

The ILWU is currently negotiating a new contract for 22,000 dockworkers across 29 West Coast ports with the Pacific Maritime Association., which represents more than 70 employers. Discussions for a new agreement started on May 10 in San Francisco, and the most recent accord expired on July 1.

Both parties have reaffirmed their commitment to avoiding disruptions even as the expiration open the doors to strikes, lockouts and stoppages.

On Monday, ILWU International President Willie Adams expressed support for the 115,000 US rail workers as their labor-bargaining process enters a White House mediation phase after 2 1/2 years of failed discussions resulted in workers threatening to strike this week.

With the Biden administration’s intervention, the unions operating at 30 railroads won’t be able to strike at least until September.

“They heroically stayed on the job without a contract or a raise,” Adams said. “It is beyond time for the private railroad companies to reach a fair agreement with the rail workers who delivered the goods -- and the profits.”

(Updates with comment from trucker in ninth paragraph, ILWU in 13th)