Thursday, August 25, 2022

On this day: Lucien Carr, the Beats & gay panic defence

DESTINY ROGERS 25 AUGUST 2022

On August 25, 1944, newspapers reported the indictment of 19-year-old Lucien Carr on a charge of second-degree murder for the ‘honour killing’ of David Kammerer. Over the previous months, Lucien Carr brought together the men who would later comprise the leading authors of the Beat generation: William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Herbert Huncke. All had some connection to the murder.

Born into a prominent St. Louis family, 14-year-old Lucian Carr met David Kammerer at a summer camp. The English teacher and Phys Ed instructor apparently became infatuated with the boy 13 years his junior.

According to Lucien Carr and his mother, Lucien moved states several times over the next few years to escape David Kammerer’s attentions.

He went from St Louis to Massachusetts, then to a college in Maine, and finally to the University of Chicago. In Chicago, he put his head in a gas oven. His mother blamed the probable suicide attempt on David Kammerer. He had followed Lucien to Massachusetts, Maine and then Chicago.

After a two-week stay in a psychiatric ward, Lucien Carr moved to New York and enrolled at Columbia University.

David Kammerer followed.

Not everyone sees David Kammerer as the villain of the piece. Some friends insisted he was straight. Others point to Lucien’s mental health issues. Or the, at times, chummy relationship between the pair.

“When you saw them together, they seemed to be the best of friends, drinking and horsing around.”

Some claim Lucien Carr led the older man on.

But blaming Lucien Carr for the unhealthy relationship — whatever it was — ignores two crucial points. Firstly, Lucien Carr’s age when the pair met. Secondly, David Kammerer’s relentless stalking of the kid. Surely it was not by coincidence that he turned up in every town Lucien moved to.

David Kammerer might have been, as some attested, a very nice man. But nice people sometimes do bad shit. Fact.

The Beats

Lucien Carr met Allen Ginsberg at Columbia University. Then, a girl he met during art class introduced him to her boyfriend, Jack Kerouac. Lucien introduced Allan to Jack and both to William Burroughs. Burroughs was an old friend, a member of another wealthy St. Louis family.

Burroughs brought in the fifth member of the group, Herbert Huncke, a gay Times Square hustler who sometimes scored drugs for him.

By all accounts, young Lucien Carr was brilliant, charismatic… and erratic. He was the glue that held the Beats together. But David Kammerer also hung around on the periphery, obsessed with Lucien and jealous of anyone close to the golden child. William Burroughs once caught him trying to hang Jack’s cat.

Kerouac and Carr decided to escape the drama. They boarded a ship for Europe but were kicked off before it sailed so went drinking. Jack called it a night first and Lucien was still in the bar when David Kammerer came looking for him.

They went walking in a riverside park where Lucien claimed Kammerer hit on him for sex. He said that over the preceding years he always successfully rebuffed Kammerer’s advances. But not this time. They began to struggle. When the older and bigger man, according to Carr, began to get the better of him, he stabbed him out of desperation. Carr then weighted the body down with rocks and threw it in the river.

Lucien Carr went to see William Burroughs and then Jack Kerouac, telling each what happened. Both counselled him to turn himself in but neither reported him to the police.

Lucien Carr did later turn himself in. Once they recovered the body, the police also arrested Kerouac and Burroughs as material witnesses. Burroughs’ father bailed him out but Kerouac remained in the Bronx prison with Carr.

Victim or villain?

At first, cops and prosecutors struggled to understand the crime. Was Lucien Carr, as he claimed, the heterosexual victim of a predatory older man who he killed in self-defence? Or was he a depraved psychopath who’d murdered his gay lover?

A picture taken of him and Kerouac previously (top of page), shows Lucien Carr as a cocky young delinquent, cigarette clinging to the corner of his mouth. But court photos reveal a more sensitive, even delicate, youth. The book in his hand — a philosophical treatise by Irish poet W. B. Yeats — questionable reading matter for a virile all-American heterosexual.

In one way, Lucien’s delicate clean-cut appearance helped. He looked vulnerable and incapable of fighting off a bigger man. But it also hurt. Because, according to the thinking of the cops and prosecutors, if Lucien was gay, he was guilty. His only possible defence — heterosexuality.

Jack Kerouac was a seaman and had a girlfriend. So he had to be straight! The cops checked him out just to be sure. They offered young, good-looking Mafia hit men remissions off their sentences if they could seduce him. Fore-warned, Jack resisted temptation.

Kerouac, Burroughs and Ginsberg all later wrote about the murder.

In one fictionalised account by Kerouac, the Carr character whispers to him out of the corner of his mouth as they await a court hearing.

“Heterosexuality all the way down the line.”

Burroughs insinuated in his writing that he suggested that Lucien claim he killed Kammerer in self-defence after the older man attempted to rape him.

How you hung?

Between the ambiguity over Lucien’s sexuality, the jumbled facts of the court case, conflicting narratives in the writings of the Beat authors, not to mention their inner conflicts over their own sexualities and their feelings for Lucien, it’s hard to make head or tail of it all.

Kerouac once wrote, in a different story, about a man trying to pick him up in the same park where David Kammerer died.

“How you hung?” the man asks.

“By the neck, I hope,” replies Kerouac.

Added details do not help explain this story. They just further confuse the narrative. That’s life, I suppose… and death.

Lucien Carr served two years for manslaughter. After his release, he remained friends with the Beat authors but chose a more settled existence than their much-chronicled life journeys through sex and drugs and rock & roll.

He began work as a copy boy at United Press and worked his way up to much-respected head of the news desk.

Lucien married and had three children. He wore a moustache and sometimes a full-face beard for most of his post-prison life, camouflaging his delicate features. Beards will do that.

It’s impossible to know now whether David Kammerer attempted to rape Lucien Carr on the night of his death. Whether Lucien genuinely needed to defend himself or if the killing occurred because of the young man’s own inner conflicts or simply a drunken misadventure.

But sadly, the case became a template for future instances of gay panic defence. Murderers escaped conviction by claiming a need to defend their heterosexuality against a homosexual advance.

Need a get-out-of-jail-free card and no witnesses to dispute your version of events? Claim the victim was gay.

Australia’s first known gay panic defence — The Cooyar Tragedy, the murder of a gay man in 1920.

For the latest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) news in Australia, visit qnews.com.au. Check out our latest magazines or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

Pete Buttigieg sends letter to gay teenager after his amazing speech

JORDAN HIRST 25 AUGUST 2022

US transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg has sent a heartwarming letter to a teenage gay activist who went viral for his graduation speech calling out homophobic censorship in his home state of Florida.

Zander Moricz went viral in May for delivering the speech at his graduation. The openly gay student had earlier led student protest walkouts against Florida’s so-called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law at his school in the state.

The homophobic “Don’t Say Gay” law bans discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in classrooms across the state.

Before the graduation speech, the gay teenager claimed his principal had banned him from mentioning the “Don’t Say Gay” bill or the student protests against it during the address.

So the student found a workaround: he substituted his curly hair as a euphemism instead of using the word “gay”. The graduating student’s speech subsequently gained worldwide attention.

Zander Moricz has also joined a major lawsuit to fight the law in Florida.

Zander Moricz’s speech ‘reverberated across the country’

This week, the teenager shared on Twitter that he’d received a personal letter from Buttigieg, thanking Moricz for his “voice and advocacy”.

“After Chasten and I saw your graduation speech earlier this year and heard about your appearance at the Department of Education, I wanted to be sure to personally thank you for your voice and advocacy,” Buttigieg wrote.

“Your combination of wit and courage has reverberated across the country in ways that will benefit people you’ll never even meet.”

Pete Buttigieg went on to say he was “mindful” his service as the first openly gay Cabinet Secretary was only possible thanks to the “activism and advocacy” of those before him.

“There is no doubt that your example will open doors for many others who now look up to you, even as you are just starting your own path forward following your graduation.

“Congratulations on distinguishing yourself so well already.”

Moricz thanked Buttigieg for his letter on Twitter, saying the “fight for Florida has only begun”.

Pete Buttigieg slams ‘dangerous’ Don’t Say Gay bill in Florida

The anti-LGBTQ+ so-called “Don’t Say Gay” legislation was signed into law by Republican governor Ron DeSantis in March.

Moricz is one of several plaintiffs in a lawsuit against it, which slams the legislation as an “unlawful attempt to stigmatize, silence and erase LGBTQ+ people in Florida’s public schools”.

In February, Pete Buttigieg also condemned the bill as dangerous because it sends a false message to queer kids that there is “something wrong with them”.

He also warned it would have a detrimental effect on LGBTQ+ youths’ mental health.

“And the reason is that it tells youth who are different or whose families are different that there’s something wrong with them out of the gate,” he told CNN.

“I do think that contributes to the shocking levels of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts among LGBTQ youth.”

He added it should be appropriate for a kid of any age to be able to discuss their “mom and mom or dad and dad or whatever family structure” they live with.

“That’s part of what it means to be pro-family, is to be pro-every family,” he said.

California Set To Ban Fossil Fuel-Powered Cars By 2035 In Huge Climate Victory

The new plan, set to be formalized Thursday, will shift the national landscape for new car sales as other states follow suit.

By Nick Visser
Aug 25, 2022

California will formalize its plan to ban the sale of gasoline-powered cars by 2035 on Thursday, setting a strict timeline for automakers to transition to electric vehicles and dramatically shifting the national landscape for new car sales.

The state’s Air Resources Board is set to embrace new regulations at a meeting this week, setting deadlines that would require 35% of new car sales be zero-emissions vehicles by 2026. That figure would rise quickly, to 51% in 2028, 82% in 2032 and then 100% by 2035.

“This regulation is one of the most important efforts we have ever carried out to clean the air,” Liane Randolph, the chair of the board, told reporters on Wednesday.

Many other states are expected to follow suit. The Air Resources Board notes 17 states have adopted all or part of California’s low-emissions or zero-emissions vehicle standards, efforts it said will substantially reduce airborne pollutants and limit climate change.

The Environmental Protection Agency must approve the final rule, but the Biden administration has signaled that it will likely do so.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said the effort is “one of the most significant steps to the elimination of the tailpipe as we know it” in an interview with The New York Times.

“Our kids are going to act like it’s a rotary phone, or changing the channel on a television,” he added.

The new regulations will not ban the sale of used vehicles or classic cars that run on gasoline. Transportation is the single biggest source of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, and California is the nation’s largest market for new car sales.

About 16% of new cars sold there are already zero-emission vehicles, and many carmakers have long waiting lists for green cars.

California is set to implement a plan to prohibit the sale of new gasoline-powered cars in the state by 2035 in an effort to fight climate change by transitioning to electric vehicles.
JUSTIN SULLIVAN VIA GETTY IMAGES

Automakers have long supported California’s efforts to embrace strict emissions standards. Ford on Wednesday said it was “proud” to partner with the state to combat greenhouse gas emissions at a time “when climate action was under attack.” And Toyota wrote to the air authority this week acknowledging the state had the authority to demand the environmental targets.

“At Ford, combatting climate change is a strategic priority, and we’re proud of our partnership with California for stronger vehicle emissions standards,” Ford’s sustainability chief, Bob Holycross, said in a statement. “We’re committed to building a zero-emissions transportation future that includes everyone.”

The Washington Post notes that California, long associated with American driving culture, carries massive weight among auto manufacturers. It’s logistically challenging for carmakers to sell two types of vehicles in states that have strict emissions standards and those that do not, and California’s move signals even more strength for the future in electric vehicle demand.

The decision comes nearly two years after Newsom issued an executive order banning the sale of new fossil-fueled cars by 2035. At the time, Newsom touted the effort as the “most impactful step our state can take to fight climate change.”

The move comes after the Biden administration reinstated a waiver for California under the Clean Air Act that allows the state to set its own emissions standards that are more strict than those of the federal government. Former President Donald Trump had withdrawn the waiver during his presidency, despite outcry from the auto industry.

Democrats have taken dramatic action on climate change in recent weeks, culminating in a surprise deal signed, the Inflation Reduction Act, by President Joe Biden last week. That bill will invest some $370 billion in clean energy programs and electric vehicle tax incentives and reflects the largest single investment to address climate change in the nation’s history.

The Netherlands Is Building an Ark for Its Bees

Insect hotels. Rooftop gardens. “Honey highways.” With its National Pollinator Strategy, one country is showing the world how to save its swarms.

By: Anne Pinto Rodrigues
August 25, 2022

Summer is here, and some public outdoor spaces in the Dutch city of Utrecht are a riot of colors: wildflowers in myriad hues of orange, red, yellow and purple pop in the sun. More than mere beautification projects, these wildflower patches are among an array of Dutch initiatives to help insect pollinators — part of an ambitious national strategy to support honey bees, wild bees, hoverflies, beetles, butterflies and other species.

The Netherlands is one of only a handful of countries that has a comprehensive strategy aimed directly at stemming the decline in pollinators. Launched in 2018, the National Pollinator Strategy encompasses a range of ongoing efforts and carries clear and measurable benchmarks for success. Already, it is providing a roadmap for other countries looking to conserve their pollinators.
Prioritizing pollination

The Netherlands’ awareness of the importance of pollinators began growing over the past decade following dramatic declines in bee populations that began in the mid 1940s. As wilderness and countryside became farmland and towns, and pesticides grew in use, more than half of the country’s nearly 360 bee species have become endangered. “There are too many pressures on the Dutch landscape,” says Marten Schoonman of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden.

An insect hotel in the Dutch countryside. Credit: Shutterstock

Acknowledging the critical role played by pollinators in agriculture, the Netherlands — the world’s second largest exporter of agricultural products — began conservation measures over a decade ago. In 2013, the government launched the Bee Health Action Program, an initiative focused on honey bees. In 2016, along with 13 other countries, the Netherlands became one of the founding members of Promote Pollinators, a coalition of countries (now numbering 30) sharing knowledge about protecting and conserving pollinators.

But it was the country’s National Pollinator Strategy that set it apart from its peers. Launched in 2018 with some 70 initiatives, from creating more nesting sites to improving pollinators’ access to food, the Strategy set out to make the Netherlands a haven for pollinating insects. “We have destroyed a lot [of biodiversity] in the past,” says Nicky Kruizinga, the Strategy’s project leader. “We have a lot of catching up to do.”

The National Pollinator Strategy currently consists of 120 initiatives, underway both in urban centers and agricultural regions. These programs are created and executed at the stakeholder-level, be it a nonprofit, a collective, or a city or province. They follow the general guidelines necessary to create food and nesting opportunities for insect pollinators.

“There’s a lot of energy going into the Strategy, which is a big change from 10 years ago,” says David Kleijn, a professor of plant ecology and nature conservation at Wageningen University who was involved in formulating the Strategy’s objectives. “It has drawn attention to pollinators, it has gotten people to think about their decline, and motivated them to do something about it. Today, there are over a hundred initiatives. In that sense, it’s a big success.”

Wheat fields in the Netherlands bordered by pollinator-attracting flowers.

Credit: Paul van de Veld / Flickr

The broad aim of the Strategy is “to arrive at a number of bee species showing a stable or positive population trend by 2023 and 2030.” This objective has been further broken down into measurable targets for those years. The 2023 goal is to reduce the number of species showing a downward trend by 30 percent and increase the number of species with an upward trend by 30 percent, as compared to a 2012 baseline. In 2030, the broad goal remains the same as 2023, but the target increases to 50 percent as compared to the 2012 baseline.

According to Kleijn, who was involved in formulating the objectives of the Strategy, “One of the most frustrating things in policy evaluation is that you can’t find clear objectives of what the policy aims to achieve. In this case, the objectives are measurable, so scientists can evaluate if the goals are reached.

The Strategy’s nearly 90 signatories include seven of the Netherlands’ 12 provinces, as well as municipalities that have adopted a variety of measures: wildflower patches, insect hotels and green roofs, along with bans on the use of pesticides in public green spaces.

Other signatories are very local, like De Fruitmotor, a cooperative that makes cider from “ugly” apples that won’t sell because of blemishes or deformities. The cooperative’s earnings are invested in planting pollen- and nectar-producing plants to create a pollinator-friendly area around the Betuwe River. “These plants flower at different times of the year, from early spring to late autumn, thus ensuring a steady supply of food for bees and other insects,” says De Fruitmotor co-founder Henri Holster.

The Strategy even includes efforts propelled by private individuals, such as the Honey Highway, an entrepreneurial venture by bee enthusiast Deborah Postma that partners with municipalities to plant wildflowers along highways, railways, and waterways, turning stretches devoid of biodiversity into pollinator-rich zones.

A section of the “Honey Highway” in the Netherlands.

Credit: Roel van Deursen / Flickr

“All stakeholders are working towards the same goal: more food and shelter for insect pollinators,” says Kruizinga, who monitors the Strategy. In 2018 and 2019, the Pollinator Strategy team organized a large meeting where stakeholders could meet and learn from each other. “What is really working well is that our partners have started to cooperate at different levels and there is a lot of knowledge sharing.” (Due to the pandemic, their annual meeting was not held in 2020 and 2021.)

The Dutch Pollinator Strategy aims to enroll as many signatories and pollinator-friendly initiatives as possible. Naturalis, where Schoonman works, is a knowledge partner of the Strategy and is involved with its roll-out. “Making people aware of the diversity and richness of pollinator species plays a key role in their conservation. That’s why the bee count is so important,” Schoonman says, referring to the annual bee count organized by Naturalis with the help of the public.

This year was the fifth edition of the Netherlands’ annual bee count. Nearly 4,000 volunteers from across the country spent 30 minutes in their gardens counting bees on a designated weekend in April. The honey bee topped the count once again. The horned mason bee continued to be one of the most common wild bees in gardens, a species that was quite rare across the Netherlands a decade ago. While the bee count is not an exhaustive activity, it helps keep a track on pollinator population trends.

The National Pollinator Strategy has its limitations. For instance, managing issues like pesticide use and industrial pollution are beyond its scope. “How are we going to get farmers to reduce or eliminate the use of pesticides so that pollinators are not affected?” Kruizinga asks. Changing mindsets and behavior takes time, especially when commercial interests are involved. “Farmers are used to doing things in a certain way that makes sense economically or time management-wise,” says Kleijn, adding that providing subsidies can steer farmers towards difficult but essential measures. “But then a sizable budget needs to be arranged,” he says.

Meanwhile, the EU is moving forward in tackling pesticides. In 2013, it banned the use of three neonicotinoid pesticides — known to be extremely harmful to insect pollinators — on flowering crops. In 2018, this ban was extended to all crops. And in June, the European Commission adopted proposals to reduce pesticide use EU-wide by 50 percent before 2030. But there is still a lot of work to be done to reach those targets.

Another inherent limitation of the Strategy is that it relies mainly on the stakeholders to create pollinator friendly landscapes. “One could question whether that is enough to really make a difference,” says Kleijn.

Kruizinga, however, remains optimistic about the impact of the Pollinator Strategy. “There’s definitely a shift towards pollinator-friendly landscapes and nature-inclusive farming,” she says.

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Anne Pinto Rodrigues is a Netherlands-based freelance journalist, writing on a broad range of topics under social and environmental justice. Her work has been published in The Guardian, The Telegraph, CS Monitor, Yes!, Ensia, and several other international publications.

Why was a bulldozer at an India Independence Day event in New Jersey?

Bulldozers have become a symbol for Hindu nationalist politicians in a disturbing trend where authorities use excavators to demolish the homes of Muslim activists

A bulldozer, adorned with posters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi

and his ally, Yogi Adityanath, rolling through the main street in Edison, New Jersey

(IAMC)

By Azad Essa
Published date: 16 August 2022

US activists have expressed outrage after a bulldozer was used during an India Independence Day event in the state of New Jersey, something critics say has become a symbol for Hindu nationalist politicians and a tool to intimidate the country's minority Muslim community.

Hundreds of Indian Americans held a rally on Sunday to commemorate India's 75th Independence Day in Edison, a town in central New Jersey.

'You have to ask yourself: what is a bulldozer doing at a parade about independence?'

- Mohammed Jawad, Indian American Muslim Council

The event, organised by the Indian Business Association, is an annual affair. Men, women and children carry the Indian tricolour flag and walk through the streets of a town known for its Indian supermarkets, restaurants and boutique fashion stores.

On Sunday, the rally was attended by several local politicians as well as the national spokesperson of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

One Indian Muslim who attended Sunday's rally described it as "huge".

"It was heavily crowded, everyone wearing Indian T-shirts such as cricket shirts or Indian colours," the resident of Edison, who requested anonymity, told MEE.

"I got weird looks in the crowd as I have somewhat of a beard though I am young and was accompanied by family in hijab.

"I support cultural ties to my country and I thought it'd be nice to just walk down the parade. I didn't know it would be what it was but I should have known better."

Indeed, there was something a little different about this year's event.
The bulldozer

On Monday, photos and video of a bulldozer, adorned with posters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ally, Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of India's most populous state Uttar Pradesh, rolling through the main road in Edison as bystanders yelled "Jai Shree Ram", a religious chant that has now become a battle cry for Hindu supremacists in India.

Adityanath is a vocal supporter of the Islamophobic "Love Jihad" campaign in India that aims to stop Muslims from marrying Hindu women, and he once said that he would place Hindu idols inside every mosque.

Minhaj Khan, an activist from New Jersey, told Middle East Eye that it was "a blatant display of anti-Muslim hate".

India house demolitions: Another Israeli-style war crime against MuslimsRead More »

In recent years, bulldozers have come to symbolise the demolition of homes belonging to Indian Muslims on the mere suspicion of participating in protests or riots - and Adityanath was a pioneer of this strategy in his state and is often referred to, both affectionately and pejoratively, as "Bulldozer Baba".

In June, the Indian government destroyed the home of the prominent Muslim activist Afreen Fatima after protests erupted in the state of Uttar Pradesh over controversial remarks about the Prophet Muhammad by a BJP official.

Fatima recently told MEE that the decision to destroy the homes of Indian Muslims such as hers was to subjugate the Muslim minority.

"The idea is to punish Muslims and to let them know that we can say whatever we want and you can't do anything about it," Afreen said.

Earlier this year, Amnesty International urged the Indian government to end the practice, adding the "punitive demolition of family homes of suspects could also amount to collective punishment, in violation of international human rights law."

Several Indian Americans, especially Muslims, who saw Monday's footage said they were startled and outraged by the open expression of bigotry.

"We know that there are many in Edison who support the Hindu nationalist politics of Modi, and [that] they send money to the Hindu supremacist projects in India, but we have never seen anything like this," Mohammed Jawad, Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) president, told MEE.

"You have to ask yourself: what is a bulldozer doing at a parade about independence?" Jawad asked rhetorically.

'Infiltration of Hindutva'

Other organisations have also expressed outrage over Sunday's events in Edison.

Pranay Somayajula, advocacy and outreach coordinator, for Hindus for Human Rights, told MEE that his organisation was "appalled and disgusted though unsurprised by this brazen display of violent Hindu supremacy.

Afreen Fatima on the the plight of Indian Muslims under Modi

Read More »

"The diaspora, and in particular Hindu Americans, urgently need to speak out against the infiltration of Hindutva hatred into our communities," Somayajula said.

On Tuesday, Council on American-Islamic Relations-New Jersey executive director Selaedin Maksut condemned the presence of the bulldozer at the rally and the glorification of Hindu nationalist figures.

"We also call on Edison Mayor Samip Joshi to condemn these acts of hatred and block the BJP’s attempts to interfere in local New Jersey politics," Maksut said in a statement.

Khan said that activists in the area would make efforts to explain this symbol of hate to local office bearers and the general predicament facing minorities in India.

Commenting on the developments over the weekend, the Mayor's office stopped short of condemning the incident. Joshi's office told MEE the town was "committed to celebrating and working with people from all cultures" and that "no discriminatory symbol has [sic] a place in Edison."

The Indian Business Association, which organised the rally, did not immediately reply to MEE's request for comment.

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for HINDUISM IS FASCISM

NY State Yet To Meet Mandate To Publish Registry of Construction Worker Fatalities

New York State has failed to launch a registry of construction site fatalities after lawmakers passed and the governor signed legislation last year to require the reporting on one of the most dangerous industries in the state.

August 25, 2022 by Gotham Gazette

By Ethan Geringer-Sameth

New York State has failed to launch a registry of construction site fatalities after lawmakers passed and the governor signed legislation last year to require the reporting on one of the most dangerous industries in the state.

Between 40 and 70 people are killed in New York each year working on construction sites, where the risk of falling from a great height or being crushed by heavy machinery is high. Four out of five deaths are on non-union worksites and one in five workers killed are Latino, despite Latinos accounting for only one in ten construction workers statewide. In the first year of the pandemic, the per capita on-the-job death rate of workers increased even as the number of construction projects dropped.

A state law passed in early 2021 required contractors, coroners, and medical examiners to report construction site fatalities to the state Department of Labor and for the agency to publish that information in a public database. Advocates for workers said the registry would shed light on a dark corner of the construction industry and help expose employers with chronic safety issues.

The law required the state to launch the registry a year after its February 2021 signing by then-Governor Andrew Cuomo, and for it to record deaths occurring since it was signed into law.

According to a tracker of construction worker deaths compiled by the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH), an advocacy group for workplace safety, at least 11 people have died on worksites in New York City alone since the registry law was signed.

This February, the Department of Labor launched a website apparently to house the registry but never uploaded the database. No deaths have been reported despite at least two workers – Alexander Gabatashvili on Staten Island and Holger Molino Pinos in Queens – dying in New York City since the website went up.

A Department of Labor spokesperson said the reason it has not reported any deaths is because no deaths have been reported to the agency. “Since the passage of the bill requiring the establishment of a construction fatality registry, no fatalities have been reported to the New York State Department of Labor,” the spokesperson wrote in an email following a Gotham Gazette inquiry.

In that period, another government agency, the New York City Department of Buildings, reported in its public 2021 Construction Safety Report the deaths of eight workers killed on job sites in 2021.

The Department of Labor website was recently updated to add information for contractors, medical examiners, and other mandated reporters about when and how to file a report. But in a July 8 letter to DOL Commissioner Roberta Reardon that was shared with Gotham Gazette, State Senator Jessica Ramos, a Queens Democrat who introduced the legislation to create the registry, expressed concern that DOL was not conducting adequate training or outreach to inform them of their new responsibilities.

“Having this information available is critical to ensure that contractors who repeatedly engage in substandard safety practices are tracked and monitored in the official public record,” wrote Ramos, who chairs her chamber’s labor committee and represents a heavily Latino district home to many construction workers.

“Efforts are underway to better educate contractors, medical examiners, and coroners about their responsibilities when a construction fatality occurs,” wrote the Department of Labor spokesperson, declining to provide an attributable name. “We have been sharing widely our webpage that details when, how, and what to report in the event of a worker death.” When asked where the agency had advertised the website, the spokesperson wrote, “Outreach to mandated reporters is ongoing,” but provided no specifics.

Ramos’ letter criticized the delay and questioned what the agency was doing to fulfill its mandate.

“This registry is to be maintained by DOL, and the updated information should be accurately published and accessible as of its effective date,” Ramos wrote. “However, the Workplace Fatalities Registry has yet to reflect an accurate list of fatalities that have occurred and is currently nonexistent on the DOL website.”

“This also leads me to assume no fines have been levied against contractors who have failed to report fatalities,” the letter reads.

Under the law, contractors can incur a fine of $1,000 to $2,500 for failing to report a worksite fatality. When asked by Gotham Gazette whether any contractors had been penalized under the law, the DOL spokesperson wrote, “The DOL is in the process of exercising our authority under state law to potentially fine mandated reporters who fail to submit this data.”

According to Ramos’ office, DOL has not responded to the senator’s letter.

“There is no doubt that the DOL is not in compliance with the law to report on these fatalities in a searchable database,” wrote NYCOSH executive director Charlene Obernauer, in an email to Gotham Gazette. “For watchdog organizations like NYCOSH, it makes it more difficult for us to advocate when we don’t have accurate information about fatalities that occur.”

This year, state legislators passed Carlos’ Law, which would expand the criminal liability of employers for endangering workers when someone is injured or killed on the job. The act is named for Carlos Moncayo, a 22-year-old non-union worker who was crushed to death when the walls of a trench collapsed on a construction site in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District in 2015. The incident occurred seven years to the day before Molina Pinos was killed falling down a shaft on a site in Ridgewood, Queens.

A spokesperson for Governor Kathy Hochul said she is reviewing the bill; it is among hundreds awaiting her signature or veto.

Obernauer said the fatality registry could help advocates and lawyers track unscrupulous contractors across multiple unsafe job sites in order to hold them to account under Carlos’ Law. “Advocates might be able to do research on employers that have multiple fatalities on different job sites or make overall analyses about safety on job sites if given access to this information,” she wrote.

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“In short, without data, it’s difficult to make smart policy decisions because we just don’t know what’s going on.”

***
by Ethan Geringer-Sameth, reporter, Gotham Gazette

PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY

Taiwan unveils record high defence budget amid tensions with China

China carried out its largest-ever military exercises around Taiwan after a visit by US House Speaker. Beijing saw the trip as an attempt by Washington to interfere in China's internal affairs.

Tanks operate on Bali beach while simulating a preventive measure to counter invasion as part of Taiwan's main annual "Han Kuang" exercise in New Taipei City, Taiwan. (Reuters)

Taiwan has proposed $19 billion in defence spending for next year, a double-digit increase on 2022 that includes funds for new fighter jets, weeks after China staged large-scale war games around the island it views as its sovereign territory.

The overall defence budget proposed on Thursday by President Tsai Ing-wen's Cabinet sets a 13.9 percent year-on-year increase to a record T$586.3 billion ($19.41 billion).

That includes an additional T$108.3 billion in spending for fighter jets and other equipment, as well as other "special funds" for the defence ministry. A statement from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics did not provide a break down specifics on where the money would go.

The planned defence spending, which is a record high and must be approved by parliament, marks the island's sixth consecutive year of growth in defence spending since 2017.

The double-digit rise on 2022 marks a sharp increase compared with the island's defence spending growth in recent years; yearly growth has been below 4 percent since 2017.

Statistics department minister Chu Tzer-ming said the increase in defence spending will mainly go to operational costs.

Fourth-largest spending segment

"We always give safety and national security the top priority... that's why (the budget for) operational costs rises greatly," Chu said, pointing to costs such as fuel and maintenance for aircraft and ships dispatched to counter Chinese military activities near Taiwan.

Excluding the extra budget for military equipment and funds, proposed defence spending represents a 12.9 percent year-on-year increase, compared with a 20.8 percent increase in the overall government budget proposed for next year.

That proposed spending accounts for 14.6 percent of the government's total spending for next year and is the fourth-largest spending segment, after social welfare and combined spending on education, science and culture, and economic development.

The island last year announced an extra defence budget of $8.69 billion by 2026, which came on top of its yearly military spending, mostly on naval weapons, including missiles and warships.

In March, China said it would spend 7.1 percent more on defence this year, setting the spending figure at 1.45 trillion yuan ($211.62 billion), though many experts suspect that is not the true figure, an assertion the government disputes.

Tsai has made modernising the armed forces - well-armed but dwarfed by China's - a priority.

China is spending on advanced equipment, including stealthy fighters and aircraft carriers, which Taiwan is trying to counter by putting more effort into weapons such as missiles that can strike far into its giant neighbour's territory.

China has not ruled out using force to bring the island under its control. Taiwan rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, saying that the People's Republic of China has never ruled the island and that only Taiwan's people can decide their future.

How Overruling Roe is Already Risking Women's Lives
Sian Norris
25 August 2022

Protests in Texas the day the Supreme Court published its decision that overturned 50 years of legal abortion in the US.

Photo: Bob Daemmrich/Alamy

It’s two months since the US Supreme Court ended the nationwide right to abortion, and the horror stories are already piling up. Worse is yet to come, reports Sian Norris

It’s now two months since the US Supreme Court decided on Dobbs v Jackson’s Women’s Health Organisation – a case on abortion rights that ultimately overruled Roe v Wade, the 1973 decision that allowed for nationwide access to safe and legal terminations.

The Dobbs decision was written by the conservative Justice Samuel Alito, and allows for abortion laws to be made at a state, rather than federal level. Within the first two months, nine states have implemented bans on abortion – some, like Missouri, within 24 hours. It, along with Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, and South Dakota have outlawed abortion in all cases, including when the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest.

Today, the total goes up to 11, as Tennessee, Idaho and Texas enact ‘trigger laws’ that introduce outright bans. Previously, abortion was permitted up to six weeks, as it is in Ohio and Georgia. Florida has banned abortion after 15 weeks; Utah after 18 weeks; North Carolina after 20 weeks. Indiana lawmakers have passed a near-total ban on abortion with exceptions for some cases of rape, incest, or fatal foetal abnormality, or to preserve the life or health of the woman, that will come in on 15 September.

“Millions more people will lose abortion access across the nation as bans take effect in Texas, Tennessee, and Idaho,” said Nancy Northup, President and CEO of the Centre for Reproductive Rights. “Vast swaths of the nation, especially in the South and Midwest, are now abortion deserts that, for many, will be impossible to escape”.

Abortion bans don’t stop women from ending an unwanted pregnancy, they just prevent women from doing so safely. While there have been no reports from the US yet of women dying as a result of either unsafe abortion, or after being denied a life-saving termination, those numbers will start to come in soon.

We know this because even in developed countries where bans on abortion exist, women die. This month it was revealed a fourth woman in Poland had died after being denied life-saving reproductive healthcare after having a miscarriage and developing sepsis in the fifth month of pregnancy. Justyna, who died in 2020, joins Izabela Sajbor, Agnieszka T and Ana – the four died last year after the country extended its abortion ban to include foetal anomaly. Abortion is only allowed in cases of rape and incest, or threat to the mother’s life.

In 2012, Savita Halappanavar died in Galway, Ireland, having been told she could not have an abortion despite life-threatening complications, until the foetal heartbeat stopped. In response to her requests for help, the nurse told her and her husband: “this is a Catholic country”.

Around the world, unsafe abortion due to lack of safe and legal access causes 13.4% of maternal deaths each year.

The states banning abortion therefore have to face up to the fact that women and girls will soon start to die. There is nothing special about their laws, nothing unique about the United States that means it will escape the inevitable deaths that follow abortion bans. Women died in the US before Roe and they will die again. Women die in Poland, they died in Ireland, they die in El Salvador and in Kenya. They will die in Oklahoma, Missouri, and Wisconsin, and they will die in other states too.
Too Immature for Abortion, Mature Enough to be a Mom

While, thankfully, we have not yet heard of any deaths, there have been multiple reports of tragic cases where girls who are still children themselves are either being forced to carry a pregnancy to term, or flown out of state for emergency procedures. Other cases involve women with fatal foetal abnormalities having no choice but to continue an unviable pregnancy.

In the Sunshine State, where children’s dreams come to life at Disneyworld, a court decided a 16-year-old girl with no parents herself is “too immature” to have an abortion and must therefore continue the pregnancy. This is because, as well as the 15-week upper time limit, the state has parental consent laws which mean a minor must have permission to access reproductive healthcare. The court has taken on that parental role and sees no hypocrisy in deciding a child cannot meaningfully consent to a safe and, until recently, legal procedure – but is grown up enough to endure the trauma of forced childbirth.

Within days of the Dobbs decision, a 10-year-old girl who had been raped was denied an abortion in Ohio and had to fly to Indiana. Her pain and trauma was compounded by a conspiracy theory that claimed she was fictional – a character invented by the pro-abortion movement.

Jim Bopp, from National Right to Life, told Politico that if it were up to him “she would have had the baby, and as many women who have had babies as a result of rape, we would hope that she would understand the reason and ultimately the benefit of having the child”.

In Louisiana, Nancy Davis has had to cope with the devastating news that her pregnancy is non-viable and was denied an abortion in her home state, meaning she must travel out of state or continue her pregnancy for six more months knowing her child will die.

In the days following Dobbs, 22-year-old Madison Underwood had her abortion cancelled in Tennessee, which banned abortion after six weeks of pregancy. She too had a fatal foetal abnormality.

Elizabeth Weller in Texas had to wait for a panel to approve her right to end a life-threatening pregnancy at 18-weeks after suffering premature rupture of membranes which meant she was left with very little amniotic fluid. Her other option was to wait, at the risk of developing an uterine infection called chorioamnionitis, and have the baby at 24-weeks in the hope it would survive. The chances of survival were scarce due to the loss of amniotic fluid.

“Evidence is already mounting of women being turned away despite needing urgent, and in some cases life-saving, medical care,” said Northup. “This unfolding public health crisis will only continue to get worse. We will see more and more of these harrowing situations, and once state legislatures reconvene in January, we will see even more states implement abortion bans and novel laws criminalising abortion providers, pregnant people, and those who help them”.

The End of Roe v Wade is Just the Beginning

Sian Norris and Heidi Siegmund Cuda

Already doctors are talking about the lack of clarity around what constitutes a threat to the mother’s life in cases like Weller’s, and the fear that if they don’t wait until the foetal heartbeat has stopped then they are at risk of performing an “illegal abortion”. It is these waits that kill.

This was the case for another woman in Texas who started to miscarry and developed a dangerous womb infection. The foetus still had signs of a heartbeat, so an immediate abortion was illegal under Texas law.

“We physically watched [the patient] get sicker and sicker and sicker,” Dr Jessian Munoz told Associated Press. It was not until the foetal heartbeat stopped the next day that “we could intervene”. Munoz explained how the patient developed complications, required surgery, lost litres of blood and had to be put on a breathing machine “all because we were essentially 24 hours behind.’’

And it’s not just doctors having these conversations. In a startling testimony, South Carolina’s Republican Rep. Neal Collins explained how he voted for the “foetal heartbeat bill”, only to realise now that his decision is putting women at risk of dying from sepsis, or losing her uterus.

“That weighs on me,” he said.

One wonders why Collins had not considered the risks to women’s lives before the vote.

Such stories from the US won’t stop. Children will be forced to give birth to children. Women will be forced to give birth to babies that will die, with all the grief and pain and danger that involves. Women will have to wait, their lives at risk, with medical teams strangled by the law.

And, of course, there will be millions of women who simply did not want to be pregnant but who will be made to go through the trauma of forced pregnancy and birth. These are women and girls who have had their human rights stripped away from them by a court made up of six men and three women – of which two men had been accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault.

Sean Hannity Gripes That His Low-Wage Staffers Will Receive Student Loan Relief

"We have a lot of young people that work on my TV show, they're not making a $125,000," the Fox News host said.

By Josephine Harvey
Aug 25, 2022,

Fox News host Sean Hannity on Wednesday blasted President Joe Biden’s plan to forgive some student debt after acknowledging that it would likely benefit some of his own staffers.

Conservatives and Fox News hosts were up in arms over Biden’s announcement Wednesday that certain borrowers earning less than $125,000 annually may be forgiven up to $20,000 in student loan debt.

Hannity, who’s reportedly paid upwards of $30 million a year, noted that there were Fox News employees who could be eligible to have some of their debt canceled.

“The people that likely will benefit the most are middle class. You know, think about it. You get out of college, you’re not making a lot of money,” Hannity said on his radio show Wednesday. “We have a lot of young people that work on my TV show, they’re not making a $125,000. They’re now eligible to get in some cases up to $20,000 and in other cases $10,000. This is New Green Deal radical socialism.”

According to the White House, nearly 90% of relief dollars will go to those earning less than $75,000 a year, and no one in the top 5% of wage-earners will benefit

“People can start to finally crawl out from under that mountain of debt to get on top of their rent and utilities, to finally think about buying a home or starting a family or starting a business,” Biden said. “And by the way, when this happens, the whole economy is better off.”

Wednesday’s commentary was on-brand for Hannity, who has previously made headlines for warning that tax hikes would prevent rich people from remodeling their homes, saying that struggling Americans should just pick up a “second job,” and suggesting that poor people should be grateful that rich people can give them jobs building yachts.

COLUMNIST: The tortured breeds of dogs

by Michelle Reynolds

Tribune News Service |

All caring guardians want the same thing for our dogs: a long, healthy, happy life. But even with excellent care, certain breeds are more likely to have you trekking to the vet's office than to the dog park. While all "purebred" dogs are predisposed to genetic conditions that cause discomfort and disability, one group stands out from the rest.

Dogs who have been bred (and typically inbred) to have the flat faces that the American Kennel Club and some social media influencers tout as desirable are afflicted by an uncomfortable, debilitating and sometimes fatal condition called brachycephalic syndrome. In short, it means that their disfigured snouts and constricted airways leave them struggling just to breathe. Far from being "normal," the flat faces often associated with French bulldogs, English bulldogs, pugs, Pekingese, Boston terriers, boxers, Cavalier King Charles spaniels, shih tzus and certain other breeds cause them myriad health problems, including sleep apnea, coughing, gagging, retching, tiring easily, collapsing, fainting, dental issues, eye problems caused by misshapen skulls, laryngeal collapse caused by chronic stress on the cartilage and strain on the heart from fighting for air.

It can be tough or even impossible for these breathing-impaired breeds to go for a walk or to run and play with their guardians. And according to a recent study at the University of California-Los Angeles, such facial deformities may even hamper their ability to smell. This condition affects all the things that matter the most to dogs.

During the hot summer months, breathing impairment can turn deadly. Dogs must be able to pant in order to cool themselves. And with narrow, restricted nostrils and windpipes, these dogs often can't cope. They're at least twice as likely to suffer from heatstroke as other dogs.

It's little wonder that in Germany, breathing- impaired breeds are referred to as "tortured breeds," and the breeding practices that result in pain and distress for dogs are restricted, as they are in Austria, Norway and the Netherlands. Elsewhere, breeders persist, despite knowing how much anguish these dogs endure, just to suit the latest fad. As long as people keep spending thousands of dollars to buy suffering "designer dogs," breeders will keep churning them out.

The best way to spare breathing-impaired breeds a lifetime of misery is not to buy or breed them. If you already have one, please take extra precautions during physical activities and in hot weather. Signs of heatstroke include restlessness, excessive thirst, thick saliva, heavy panting, lethargy, dark tongue, rapid heartbeat, fever, bloody diarrhea and lack of coordination. If someone you know has their heart set on purchasing one of these breeds because they think it will get them Instagram "likes," talk to them about adoption. Shelters are full of "purebred" dogs who were bought on a whim and then dumped once the excitement wore off or they became "too much work" or the vet bills started to mount. They're also overflowing with one-of-a-kind dogs who are equally deserving and less likely to have chronic health issues.

Providing a cherished adopted dog with a full, healthy and joyous life--that should be the goal.

Michelle Reynolds is a senior writer for the PETA Foundation.