LIFE & TIMES OF THE 1%

Paul Newman’s daughters sue late actor’s charity foundation
By DAVE COLLIN


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FILE — Susan Newman, left, and Nell Newman arrive at the SeriousFun Children's Network event at the Dolby Theatre, May 14, 2015, in Los Angeles. A new lawsuit filed Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022, has exposed a deep rift between two of Paul Newman's daughters and the late actor's charitable foundation, over how it gives away some of the millions of dollars it makes off the Newman's Own line of food and drink products. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)


HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A new lawsuit has exposed a deep rift between two of Paul Newman’s daughters and the late actor’s charitable foundation funded by profits from the Newman’s Own line of food and drink products.

The daughters, Susan Kendall Newman and Nell Newman, allege their own charity organizations are both supposed to receive $400,000 a year from the Newman’s Own Foundation under a mandate by their father, but the foundation has cut those payments in half in recent years.

They filed a lawsuit Tuesday in state court in Stamford, Connecticut, seeking $1.6 million in damages to be donated to their foundations for charitable giving.

The daughters say their father, who started Newman’s Own Foundation three years before he died in 2008, allowed the foundation to use his name and likeness — but only on several conditions including giving each of the two daughters’ foundations $400,000 a year.

Susan Kendall Newman, who lives in Oregon, and Nell Newman, of California, worry the foundation is setting the stage to completely remove them from having any say in how some of profits from Newman’s Own products are donated to charities. They also accused the foundation of “contradicting” their father’s wishes and intentions for years.

“No one should have to feel that the legacy of a departed loved one is being dishonored in the way that Newman’s Own Foundation has disregarded the daughters of Paul Newman,” Andy Lee, a New York City attorney for the daughters, said in a statement.

“This lawsuit does not seek personal compensation for Mr. Newman’s daughters, but simply seeks to hold (Newman’s Own Foundation) accountable to the charities they have shortchanged in recent years and would ensure they receive an increased level of support in the future, in line with Mr. Newman’s wishes,” he said.

Newman’s Own Foundation has not yet filed a response to the lawsuit in court but has released a statement.

“Best practices surrounding philanthropic organizations do not allow for the establishment of perpetual funding allotments for anyone, including Nell and Susan Newman,” the statement said. “A meritless lawsuit based on this faulty wish would only divert money away from those who benefit from Paul Newman’s generosity.”

The foundation added, “While we expect to continue to solicit Newman family recommendations for worthy organizations, our funding decisions are made each year and will continue to reflect the clear aim of Paul Newman and our responsibility to the best practices governing private foundations.”

Paul Newman, who lived in Westport with his wife, actor Joanne Woodward, created the Newman’s Own brand in 1982, with all profits going to charities. Today the product line includes frozen pizza, salsa, salad dressings and pasta sauces, as well as dog food and pet treats.

In his will, Paul Newman left his assets to his wife and Newman’s Own Foundation.

Newman’s Own, the products company, is a subsidiary of Newman’s Own Foundation, a nonprofit organization. The foundation says more than $570 million has been given to thousands of charities since 1982.

According to 2020 tax records, the foundation had more than $24 million in income and paid out $11.5 million in contributions, gifts and grants. Operating and administrative expenses totaled nearly $4.5 million.

According to his daughters’ lawsuit, Newman’s Own Foundation wrote to them only four days after their father’s death, saying it would reserve the right to stop allocating funds to charities identified by the daughters. The lawsuit says that contradicted Paul Newman’s explicit instructions to the foundation.

SO WHY DIDN'T DADDY PUT THEM ON THE FOUNDATION BOARD

THE GOVERNOR IS NOT PRO LIFE

Oklahoma governor rejects clemency for death row inmate
By SEAN MURPHY and KEN MILLER

FILE - In this photo from a video screen, death row inmate James Coddington speaks to the Oklahoma Board of Pardon and Parole on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022, in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt has rejected clemency for Coddington, who is facing execution for the 1997 hammer killing of a man. Stitt’s decision on Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2022, paves the way for Coddington to be executed by lethal injection on Thursday. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)


OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Wednesday rejected clemency for a man facing execution this week for the 1997 hammer killing of a Choctaw man, despite a recommendation from the state’s Pardon and Parole Board that his life be spared.

James Coddington was convicted and sentenced to die for the beating death of his friend and coworker, 73-year-old Albert Hale, inside Hale’s Choctaw home. Prosecutors say Coddington, who was 24 at the time, became enraged when Hale refused to give him money to buy cocaine.

Coddington’s execution is scheduled for Thursday morning.

“After thoroughly reviewing arguments and evidence presented by all sides of the case, Governor Kevin Stitt has denied the Pardon and Parole Board’s clemency recommendation for James Allen Coddington,” Stitt’s office said in a statement.

During a clemency hearing this month before the state’s five-member Pardon and Parole Board, an emotional Coddington, now 50, apologized to Hale’s family and said he is a different man today.

“I’m clean, I know God, I’m not ... I’m not a vicious murderer,” Coddington told the board. “If this ends today with my death sentence, OK.”

Mitch Hale, Albert Hale’s son who had urged the parole board not to recommend clemency, said he feels a sense of relief with Stitt’s decision.

“Our family can put this behind us after 25 years,” Hale, 64, said. “No one is ever happy that someone’s dying, but (Coddington) chose this path ... he knew what the consequences are, he rolled the dice and lost.”

Hale said he, his wife, goddaughter and a friend were en route to McAlester to attend the execution.

Coddington’s attorney, Emma Rolls, told the panel that Coddington was impaired by years of alcohol and drug abuse that began when he was an infant and his father put beer and whiskey into his baby bottles.

Rolls said Coddington doesn’t have any pending appeals that would delay or stop his execution on Thursday.

“While we are profoundly disheartened by this decision, we appreciate the pardons board’s careful consideration of James Coddington’s life and case, Rolls said in a statement following Stitt’s announcement.

“The Board’s clemency recommendation acknowledged James’s sincere remorse and meaningful transformation during his years on death row,” Rolls said.

The Rev. Don Heath, chair of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty said “there is no mercy or forgiveness” in Stitt’s heart.

“I am surprised, and, quite honestly, angry at Gov. Stitt’s rejection of clemency for James Coddington. Stitt’s statement does not give a reason for his denial — it simply states that a jury convicted Coddington of first-degree murder and sentenced him to death,” Heath said in a statement.

“We have 25 executions scheduled over the next 29 months. I am afraid that the Pardon and Parole Board hearings will be moot exercises,” Heath said.

The parole board had voted 3-2 to recommend Coddington for clemency.

Stitt, a Republican, had said he planned to meet with Hale’s family, prosecutors and Coddington’s attorneys before making his decision.

Coddington was twice sentenced to death for Hale’s killing, the second time in 2008 after his initial sentence was overturned on appeal.

Stitt has granted clemency only one time, in November, to death row inmate Julius Jones just hours before Jones was scheduled to receive a lethal injection. The first-term governor commuted Jones’ sentence to life in prison without parole.

Jones’ case had drawn national attention after it was featured in “The Last Defense,” a three-episode documentary that cast doubt on Jones’ conviction, and there were numerous protests in Oklahoma City in the days leading up to Jones’ scheduled execution date.

Stitt said in an interview with The Associated Press earlier this month that had he allowed Jones’ execution to go forward “that would have definitely torn our state apart.”

Coddington’s execution would the the fifth since Oklahoma resumed carrying out the death penalty in October.

The state had halted executions in September 2015 when prison officials realized they had received the wrong lethal drug.

It was later learned the same wrong drug had been used previously to execute an inmate, and executions in the state were put on hold.

Alberta school boards say they shouldn't be using savings to pay teachers


While the Alberta government touts an upcoming net provincial increase in school staff this fall, growing school boards say drawing from their savings accounts to hire more teachers is unsustainable.


Some growing Alberta school divisions say they have to pull money 

out of savings to cover the cost of staffing their schools.© Bryan Labby/CBC

The provincial government says school divisions and charter schools will pull millions of dollars out of their reserves to help pay for approximately 800 more teachers and 790 more support staff in the coming school year.

"I'm thrilled to see more teachers and educational assistants will be hired in the coming school year," Education Minister Adriana LaGrange said in a press release on Wednesday.

LaGrange's acting press secretary, Erin Allin, also said school divisions with more than two per cent enrolment growth will also qualify for a new $7 million grant to help them handle the influx of pupils.

The population of Alberta K-12 students continues to grow. The ministry projects that more than 760,000 students will enrol in school this September— a jump of 2.1 per cent from the previous year.

Enrolment changes

Meanwhile, growing school boards continue to warn that the province's $142 million increase to the education budget isn't keeping pace with inflation or enrolment growth. The flux in staffing for the coming school year also varies widely across Alberta.

Leduc-based Black Gold School Division is drawing more than $2.4 million from its savings — with the minister's permission — and almost all of it will pay for staff to accommodate an anticipated 4.3 per cent enrolment decrease.

But, the division also budgeted for 13 fewer education assistants in classrooms to help pay for more teachers.

Superintendent Bill Romanchuk said in an email on Friday he hopes extra funding from a one-year learning disruption grant announced in June will help to hire some of them back.

"Drawing from reserves for any organization is unsustainable," Romanchuk wrote. "With this in mind, we are working to build capacity in each school to minimize the effect of reduced staffing in upcoming years."

Teacher and support staff numbers for 2022-23

Also dipping into savings to pay for staff is Edmonton Public Schools. School board chair Trisha Estabrooks said half of the $10 million draw down will pay for salaries to help educate an extra 2,800 students expected to enrol this fall.

Reserves should instead be used for unanticipated costs and emergencies, she said.

With a provincial funding formula that sees grants lag behind enrolment growth, the division calculates it will be short of the funding equivalent for 1,700 students.

"This is indicative of a broken funding model, right?" Estabrooks said on Thursday. "For large school divisions, this model doesn't work for us."

To soften that blow, the education ministry is giving some school divisions "bridge funding," which they intend to phase out over time.

The $7 million set aside for school divisions experiencing exceptional growth is a drop in the bucket compared to the need, Estabrooks said.

Allin said that exceptional growth funding could be higher if enrolment exceeds predictions.

Phasing out a parallel system of online schooling that was in place for much of the COVID-19 pandemic also means Edmonton Public is planning to employ 218 fewer teachers and 128 fewer support staff this coming year.

Similarly, the Calgary Board of Education is preparing for an influx of more than 1,500 new students – enough to fill a high school — with an increase of 12 full-time teaching staff. Calgary Catholic Schools is expecting 543 more pupils this year and will have three fewer teachers to work with.

Projected Alberta school budgets

Alberta Teachers' Association president Jason Schilling says asking school divisions to dip into rainy day funds to cover the ongoing cost of doing business is problematic.

"It tells me that the government's not serious about funding education appropriately," he said Thursday.

In addition to larger class sizes, teachers are seeing increasingly complex classes populated by students with more diverse needs.

The ministry is also handing schools $50 million more than it promised in the spring budget to help them pay the costs of a new collective agreement for teachers.

Dove Canada Throws Shade Over Lisa LaFlamme’s Controversial Ousting

Brent Furdyk -

Lisa LaFlamme© Photo by George Pimentel/Shutterstock

Canadian TV viewers were shocked when longtime "CTV National News" anchor Lisa LaFlamme was let go by the network's parent company, Bell Media.

That shock turned to outrage when reports emerged indicating the reason behind LaFlamme's ouster was her decision to stop dyeing her hair, with the Globe and Mail quoting a "senior company official" who said that execs were uncomfortable with her her decision to let her hair revert to its natural grey.

Bell Media took to social media for some damage control, announcing that steps are being taken "to initiate an independent third-party internal workplace review of our newsroom."

Meanwhile, controversy has only been growing since LaFlamme parted ways with her employer of 35 years, even meriting an op-ed in the Washington Post, and now an iconic Canadian soap brand is wading into the fray.

In posts on Twitter and Instagram, Dove Canada subtly threw some shade with a new campaign urging women to #KeepTheGrey.

"Age is beautiful. Women should be able to do it on their own terms, without any consequences. Dove is donating $100,000 to Catalyst, a Canadian organization helping building inclusive workplaces for all women," reads the caption.

This is accompanied by a video, in which the text "women with grey hair are being edged out of the place," can be read, along with "together we can support women aging beautifully on their own terms," which then features a colour photo of a woman that fades to grey, urging others to transform their own selfies into greyscale and share with the aforementioned hashtag.

Here's a sampling of how people have been responding to Dove Canada's new campaign on Twitter.

Workers say employers are guilty of 'quiet firing' them as the debate over 'quiet quitting' goes viral

bnguyen@insider.com (Britney Nguyen) - 

ciricvelibor/Getty Images© ciricvelibor/Getty Images
The term "quiet quitting" is going viral online, but social media is pushing back at what it means.
Some argue the term is making employees look bad for just doing the job they're paid to do.
"Quiet firing" is placing blame on bosses for treating workers badly instead of firing them.

"Quiet quitting" is the latest buzzword taking over the workplace. But people on social media are arguing the term is focusing on the wrong problem.

The term, which took off on TikTok among millennials and Gen Zers, is referring to employees doing what their job expects of them, and not offering to do more than what they get paid to do.

In a post on the r/antiwork Reddit page, one user wrote that quiet quitting is just "someone only doing what's in their job description and nothing more."

"Why is it apparently an expectation that someone should do more than what they have been hired to do?," the user wrote.

Enter "quiet firing" — the response to quiet quitting.

Quiet firing, as people on social media are describing it, is when employers treat workers badly to the point they will quit, instead of the employer just firing them.

Related video: Quiet Quitting Duration 1:32  View on Watch

In a reply to a tweet about quiet quitting, software developer Randy Miller said, "A lot of talk about 'quiet quitting' but very little talk about 'quiet firing' which is when you don't give someone a raise in 5 years even though they keep doing everything you ask them to."

But a raise isn't the only indicator of quiet firing. Others on social media pointed to lack of respect from employers, and bosses expecting workers to do extra work without being compensated for it, as red flags.

Another Twitter user pointed to minimal paid time off and minimal sick time as indicators of being quietly fired, too.

The debate between quiet quitting and quiet firing is reminiscent of a larger conversation about the relationship between employers and employees.

For example, employers were complaining about employees "ghosting coasting" — showing up to work as a new employee for a few days, then leaving without notice before they could be fired for being under-qualified.

But employees said it was employers who had been ghosting job applicants for years, by not returning calls and not showing up to job interviews.

While employers are placing blame on employees for not going above and beyond at their jobs by calling them "quitters," the quiet-firing crowd is pointing out that they shouldn't have to if their needs can't be met too.

Have you been 'quiet fired,' or 'quiet fired' someone? Contact the reporter from a non-work email at bnguyen@insider.com.

AN ISSUE FOR DEMS TO RUN ON

AP-NORC poll: Most in US say they want stricter gun laws

By SARA BURNETT

yesterday

Various guns are displayed at a store on July 18, 2022, in Auburn, Maine. Most U.S. adults think gun violence is increasing nationwide and want to see gun laws made stricter. That's according to a new poll that finds broad public support for a variety of gun restrictions. The poll comes from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)


CHICAGO (AP) — Most U.S. adults want to see gun laws made stricter and think gun violence is increasing nationwide, according to a new poll that finds broad public support for a variety of gun restrictions, including many that are supported by majorities of Republicans and gun owners.

The poll by the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows 71% of Americans say gun laws should be stricter, including about half of Republicans, the vast majority of Democrats and a majority of those in gun-owning households.

The poll was conducted between July 28 and Aug. 1, after a string of deadly mass shootings — from a New York grocery store to a school in Texas and a July 4 parade in Illinois — and a 2020 spike in gun killings that have increased attention on the issue of gun violence. Overall, 8 in 10 Americans perceive that gun violence is increasing around the country, and about two-thirds say it’s increasing in their state, though less than half believe it’s increasing in their community, the poll shows.

The question of how to prevent such violence has long divided politicians and many voters, making it difficult to change gun laws. In June, a conservative majority on the Supreme Court expanded gun rights, finding a constitutional right to carry firearms in public for self-defense.

Later that same month, President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan gun safety bill. The package, approved in the wake of shootings like the one that killed 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, was both a measured compromise and the most significant bill addressing gun violence to be approved in Congress in decades — an indication of how intractable the issue has become.

The poll finds that majorities of U.S. adults view both reducing gun violence and protecting gun ownership as important issues.

Nicole Whitelaw, 29, is a Democrat and gun owner who grew up hunting and target shooting in upstate New York with her strongly Republican family. Whitelaw, who now lives along Florida’s Gulf Coast, supports some gun restrictions, such as prohibiting people convicted of domestic violence from owning firearms and a federal law preventing mentally ill people from purchasing guns.

She said other restrictions — such as banning sales of AR-15 rifles — are “going too far” and may not solve the problem. Whitelaw pointed to the the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many people bought up all the toilet paper they could find.

“I think people would start trying to hoard guns,” she said, adding that a better approach is to make smaller changes and see what impact they have.

The poll shows bipartisan majorities of Americans support a nationwide background check policy for all gun sales, a law preventing mentally ill people from purchasing guns, allowing courts to temporarily prevent people who are considered a danger to themselves or others from purchasing a gun, making 21 the minimum age to buy a gun nationwide and banning those who have been convicted of domestic violence from purchasing a gun.

A smaller majority of Americans — 59% — favor a ban on the sale of AR-15 rifles and similar semiautomatic weapons, with Democrats more likely to support that policy than Republicans, 83% vs. 35%.

Chris Boylan, 47, from Indianapolis, opposes restrictions on guns. As a teacher for many years, Boylan said he has “buried more kids than I care to count” and believes gun violence is a major problem. But the Republican, who said he leans more toward Libertarian in his personal stances, believes the issue is more about mental health and a too-lenient criminal justice system.

“Blaming the gun is an oversimplification of what the issues really are,” Boylan said. “It’s not the gun. It’s a hearts-and-minds issue to me.”

The new poll finds 88% of Americans call preventing mass shootings extremely or very important, and nearly as many say that about reducing gun violence in general. But 60% also say it’s very important to ensure that people can own guns for personal protection.

Overall, 52% of Americans -- including 65% of Republicans and 39% of Democrats -- say both reducing mass shootings and protecting the right to own guns for personal protection highly important.

University of Chicago professor Jens Ludwig said the poll’s findings show that concerns raised by opponents of gun restrictions are “very off base.” Led by the National Rifle Association, the gun lobby argues that any new limitations on who may have a gun or what type of firearms may be sold will lead to nationwide bans on all weapons and ammunition.

The poll showed most Americans’ opinions are more nuanced and there is support for some changes even among Republicans, who as elected officials typically oppose gun control, said Ludwig, who also is director of the University of Chicago’s Crime Lab.

“It should shut the door to some of the ‘slippery slope’ arguments,” he said.

The poll also found that only about 3 in 10 Americans support a law allowing people to carry guns in public without a permit. Seventy-eight percent of Democrats are opposed. Among Republicans, 47% are in favor and 39% are opposed.

Ervin Leach, 66, lives in Troutman, North Carolina, north of Charlotte, believes gun violence is a major problem and says that laws should be much more strict. A Democrat, Leach said he supports measures like background checks — or what he said should be “in-depth studies” — and a minimum age of 21 to buy a gun.

The poll found 1 in 5 people have experienced gun violence themselves in the last five years, such as being threatened with a gun or a shooting victim, or had a close friend or family member who has. Black and Hispanic Americans are especially likely to say that they or someone close to them has experienced gun violence.

Leach, who is Black, said the gun violence he sees in the news has made him more cautious.

“I don’t like people approaching me,” he said. “It used to be if someone was on the side of the road, you’d stop to help. Now, you go to help somebody, you might lose your life.”

All the killings have caused Leach to contemplate buying a gun for his own protection. While he hasn’t had a chance yet to get his gun permit, he said, “That is my intention.”

___

AP Polling Reporter Hannah Fingerhut in Washington contributed to this report.

___

The poll of 1,373 adults was conducted July 28-Aug. 1 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

___

Follow AP’s coverage of gun violence at https://apnews.com/hub/gun-violence.

Just over half of Americans say U.S. should back Ukraine until Russia withdraws - Reuters/Ipsos poll

By Simon Lewis

August 24, 2022,

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After half a year of war in Ukraine, a slim majority of Americans agree that the United States should continue to support Kyiv until Russia withdraws all its forces, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Wednesday.

The polling suggests continued support for President Joe Biden's policy of backing Ukraine, despite economic worries and domestic political developments grabbing Americans' attention in recent months.

The Biden administration has provided weapons and ammunition for Ukraine's bid to repel Russian forces and is expected to announce a new security assistance package of about $3 billion, a U.S. official said, as Ukraine's marks its Independence Day on Wednesday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has vowed to recapture territory seized after the Feb. 24 invasion and in earlier incursions beginning in 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea.

Out of 1,005 people in the United States who took part in an online poll last week, 53% expressed support for backing Ukraine "until all Russian forces are withdrawn from territory claimed by Ukraine." Only 18% said they opposed.

That support came from both sides of the political divide, although Democratic voters were more likely to back the position, with 66% of Democrats in support compared to 51% of Republicans.

A slim majority, 51%, also supported providing arms such as guns and anti-tank weapons to Ukraine's military, compared with 22% who opposed.

In previous polls, higher numbers of Americans have backed providing arms to Ukraine but directly comparable polling was not available.

In line with past polling, there was little support among Americans from across the political spectrum for sending U.S. troops to Ukraine. Only 26% said they supported such an intervention, but 43% agreed with sending U.S. troops to NATO allies neighboring Ukraine who are not at war with Russia.

The poll has a credibility interval of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

(Reporting by Simon Lewis; Editing by Mary Milliken and Cynthia Osterman)

REACTIONARIES

Anti-mandate protesters converge on New Zealand Parliament

By NICK PERRY

yesterday

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Freedom and Rights Coalition protesters demonstrate outside Parliament in Wellington, New Zealand, Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022. About 2,000 protesters upset with the government's pandemic response converged on New Zealand's Parliament — but it appeared there would be no repeat of the action six months ago in which protesters camped out on Parliament grounds for more than three weeks.

 (Mark Mitchell/New Zealand Herald via AP)

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — About 2,000 protesters upset with the government’s pandemic response converged Tuesday on New Zealand’s Parliament — but there was no repeat of the occupation six months ago in which protesters camped on Parliament grounds for more than three weeks.

Many of the protesters said they had no intention of trying to stay. And police ensured a repeat was unlikely by closing streets, erecting barricades and banning protesters from bringing structures onto Parliament’s grounds.

The previous protest created significant disruptions in the capital and ended in chaos as retreating protesters set fire to tents and hurled rocks at police.

This time there was also a counter-protest, with several hundred people gathering in front of Parliament as the main march entered the grounds. The two sides shouted insults but a line of police officers kept them physically separated.

The earlier protest had been more sharply focused on opposition to COVID-19 vaccination mandates.

New Zealand’s government initially required that health workers, teachers, police, firefighters and soldiers get vaccinated. But it has since removed most of those mandates, with the exception of health workers and some others. It has also removed requirements that people be vaccinated to visit stores and bars

Tuesday’s protest was as much about lingering discontentment over the government’s handling of the crisis as it was about current rules, including a requirement that people wear masks in stores.

Protester Carmen Page said people who hadn’t been vaccinated face ongoing discrimination and people lost their jobs and homes as a result of the mandates, which she said amounted to government overreach.

“We’re not here to be controlled,” Page said. “We just want to live our lives freely. We want to work where we want to work, without discrimination.”

At the counter-protest, Lynne Maugham said she and her husband had extended a stay in the capital to attend.

“I’ve got nothing but respect for the mandates, for the vaccinations, for the way the health providers have handled the whole thing,” she said.

Maugham said the government hadn’t done everything perfectly but had done a good job overall. “There’s no blueprint for handling a pandemic,” she said.

Like many of the protesters opposing mandates and other government’s actions, Mania Hungahunga was part of a group called The Freedom & Rights Coalition and a member of the Christian fundamentalist Destiny Church.

Hungahunga said every New Zealander had been negatively impacted by the mandates. He said he’d traveled from Auckland to protest but wasn’t planning an occupation.

“We’re just here for the day, a peaceful day, just to get our message through to the public and the people of Wellington,” he said.

Many of the protesters said they were hoping that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern would get voted out in next year’s election. Protest leader Brian Tamaki told the crowd he was starting a new political party to contest the election.

Tamaki and his wife, Hannah Tamaki, founded the Destiny Church, which they say is the largest Māori and Pacific Island church movement in New Zealand.

Ardern was first elected prime minister in 2017 and her initial pandemic response proved enormously popular. Her liberal Labour Party won re-election in 2020 in a landslide of historic proportions.

But as the pandemic dragged on and the country faced new problems, including inflation, Ardern’s popularity has waned. Recent opinion polls have put the conservative opposition National Party ahead of Labour.

Authorities said there were no initial reports of violence or other problems at the protests.

Children of climate change come of age in ‘Katrina Babies’
BY DREW COSTLEY

yesterday

1 of 7

Edward Buckles, Jr., a New Orleans native who was 13 when Hurricane Katrina hit and directed the documentary "Katrina Babies," poses underneath the Claiborne Avenue overpass for a photo in the city on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022. The film looks at how a generation of New Orleans residents coming of age after Hurricane Katrina, are reconciling with the catastrophic storm that transformed their lives. (AP Photo/Chansey Augustine)


Edward Buckles, Jr. was 13 when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and completely upended his life. Buckles and his family moved from New Orleans to Lafayette, Louisiana for several months while their hometown began to recover from the catastrophic storm.

He told The Associated Press he doesn’t remember much from those months living in Lafayette, grasping for a sense of normalcy in the aftermath of one of the most destructive hurricanes in American history.

His community was experiencing so much destruction. Now as an adult, he views that blank spot in his memory as a response to the trauma of what he witnessed.

Buckles’ parents asked him at the time if he was okay, but he wasn’t quite able to figure that out for himself in the moment. Later the trauma resurfaced. With kids, he said, “what’s responsible and what’s important is that you set them up to deal with that trauma once it surfaces.”

But the filmmaker said in his new documentary “Katrina Babies” that not all the children who were traumatized by living through the hurricane and its aftermath had adults checking in on them. So that’s what he set out to do, capturing several New Orleans residents as they reconcile with a childhood marred by Hurricane Katrina.

The documentary, which has garnered critical praise, will be available for streaming on HBO Max on August 24 and debuts on HBO the same day at 9 pm ET, 17 years and a day after the hurricane formed in the Atlantic Ocean.

It shows how New Orleans and its people were changed by the storm. It depicts the childhood trauma it caused for a generation coming of age after one of the United States’ first major climate-related disasters. New Orleanians featured in the documentary share stories of seeing dead people and pets, of leaving home and returning to communities destroyed, while they were still children.

The film looks at climate past and present and, the filmmakers hope, sounds alarm bells for the climate future.

“I hope this is a local and American story that will motivate people to want to do better and care about human beings, and about how intrinsically linked we are with nature and that the future is clear: There is going to be more of this,” said Audrey Rosenberg, lead producer of the film.

Buckles said that while Hurricane Katrina might has been a formative experience for him and the youth of New Orleans at the time, more waters have come through since. Though he isn’t a climate scientist, he knows firsthand the repeated damage wrought on his hometown by hurricanes and tropical storms made more intense by climate change.

“My grandmother lost her home due to flooding from Hurricane Katrina,” he said. “She has been flooded seven more times just from tropical storms.”

Cierra Chenier, 26, was featured in the documentary and also knows people who have had to rebuild multiple times since Hurricane Katrina due to subsequent hurricanes and storms.

She said the loss of culture and history in New Orleans due to repeated climate-related disasters like Hurricane Katrina shaped her decision to become a local historian and writer.

“I got into wanting to preserve our history because of how quickly I felt my childhood became history,” she said. Even though the storm was 17 years ago, she said, it continues to shape the present.

“In preserving our stories, writing about those stories and narrating those stories, it’s always connected to the present and we can form better solutions for the future,” she said.

Chenier, Buckles and the other youth affected by Hurricane Katrina have a lot to say about the future, having experienced years of government inaction to limit climate change or prepare and recover from climate disasters. Year after year, New Orleanians and the state and federal government know that hurricane season is going to come and be potentially catastrophic because of climate change, Buckles said.

And still, he said, Hurricane Ida, which hit New Orleans 16 years to the day after Hurricane Katrina, affected people in his community in eerily similar ways to the 2005 storm. The relief measures, he said, were nearly as slow.

As a result, people in his community have become more resilient. But he said he wonders whether government agencies are relying on those harmed by climate-related disasters to help themselves when what they really need is public planning and preparation.

“The youth are tired of dealing with this, myself included,” he said. “And we cannot forget to hold accountable those who need to be held accountable.”


Follow Drew Costley on Twitter: @drewcostley.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Large section of smoldering Beirut port silos collapses

By KAREEM CHEHAYEB

yesterday

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This image from a video, shows smoke and dust rising from collapsing silos damaged during the August 2020 massive explosion in the port, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022. The ruins of the Beirut Port silos' northern block that withstood a devastating port explosion two years ago has collapsed. The smoldering structure fell over on Tuesday morning into a cloud of dust, leaving the southern block standing next to a pile of charred ruins. (AP Photo/Lujain Jo)


BEIRUT (AP) — Another significant section of the devastated Beirut Port silos collapsed on Tuesday morning in a cloud of dust. No injuries were reported — the area had been long evacuated — but the collapse was another painful reminder of the horrific August 2020 explosion.

The collapse left the silos’ southern part standing next to a pile of charred ruins. The northern block had already been slowly tipping over since the initial explosion two years ago but rapidly deteriorated after it caught fire over a month ago due to fermenting grains.

The 50 year old, 48 meter (157 feet) tall silos had withstood the force of the explosion on Aug. 4, 2020, effectively shielding the western part of Beirut from the blast that killed over 200 people, injured more than 6,000 and badly damaged entire neighborhoods.

Emmanuel Durand, a French civil engineer who volunteered for the government-commissioned team of experts, told The Associated Press that the speed of the tilt rapidly accelerated overnight on Monday, just hours before the collapse.

“There was a very sharp acceleration, which was expected,” Durand explained. “When this happens, you know it’s going to go.”

The country’s caretaker environment minister, Nasser Yassin, told Lebanese TV that the government will now look into how to ensure the southern block remains standing. He urged residents near the port to wear masks, and said experts would conduct air quality tests.

In April, the Lebanese government decided to demolish the silos, but suspended the decision following protests from families of the blast’s victims and survivors. They contend that the silos may contain evidence useful for the judicial probe, and that it should stand as a memorial for the 2020 tragedy.

In July, a fire broke out in the northern block of the silos due to the fermenting grains. Firefighters and Lebanese Army soldiers were unable to put it out and it smoldered for over a month. Officials had warned that the silo could collapse, but feared risking the lives of firefighters and soldiers who struggled to get too close to put out the blaze or drop containers of water from helicopters.

Survivors of the blast and residents near the port have told the AP that watching the fire from their homes and offices was like reliving the trauma from the port blast, which started with a fire in a warehouse near the silos that contained hundreds of tons of explosive ammonium nitrate, improperly stored there for years.

The environment and health ministries in late July issued instructions to residents living near the port to stay indoors in well-ventilated spaces.

Durand last month told the AP that the fire from the grains had sped up the speed of the tilt of the shredded silo and caused irreversible damage to its weak concrete foundation.

The structure has rapidly deteriorated ever since. In late July, part of the northern block collapsed for the first time. Days later on the second anniversary of the Beirut Port blast, roughly a fourth of the structure collapsed. On Sunday, the fire expanded to large sections of the silo.