It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Friday, September 23, 2022
Chilling video released by youth climate activists focuses on California wildfires
Alejandra O'Connell-Domenech Fri, September 23, 2022
Story at a glance
A new video released by climate organization Fridays for Future focuses on California wildfires.
The organization is a youth-led climate group inspired by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg
The short video serves as a warning as to just how destructive climate change is and will continue to be.
A powerful video released this week by Fridays for Future, the youth climate activist group inspired by Greta Thunberg, shows just how black and burnt the world can look if climate change continues.
The minute-and-a-half-long video was uploaded less than a month before the United Nations is scheduled to host its annual climate conference.
The short video focuses on California and the damage the state’s wildfires have caused to forests, homes and wildlife.
The video starts off with an image of a black-top street surrounded by the burnt remains of what appear to be houses accompanied by a chilling rendition of the state song, “I Love You, California.”
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What follows is a stream of aerial shots showing blackened hillsides, (literal) smokey mountains and forests made up of trees so burned that they look like used matchsticks.
As the young person despondently singing the anthem finishes, an image of a conifer tree engulfed in flames bursts onto the screen followed by the words, “fire season has only just begun.”
“The state song of California, adopted in 1951, celebrates the beauty of California’s rich, diverse natural landscape, from the redwood forests, to the natural exports of honey, fruit, and wine,” reads a statement below the video posted to the organization’s YouTube channel earlier this week.
“Today, these lyrics ring more painful than joyous to residents who are forced to watch these same forests and fields of grains burn down year after year.”
Wildfires are a natural part of the forest life cycle, but because of climate change wildfires are happening more and burning longer.
Wildfires in California burned through 2.2 million acres of land last year alone. This year the state has suffered another intense wildfire season, which forecasters expect will continue despite a recent downpour of some much-needed rainfall that arrived last week.
SABLE ISLAND Wild horses face unruly storms as Fiona nears Canada's east coast Wild horses face unruly storms as Fiona nears Canada's east coast
Some of the world’s largest breeding colony of grey seals are seen on the Atlantic coast's Sable Island
Thu, September 22, 2022 By Ismail Shakil
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Shaggy, long-maned wild horses grazing freely on the sandy grasslands of the crescent-shaped Sable Island in the North Atlantic are expected to come under the swipe of a powerful storm forecast to hit eastern Canada this weekend.
Hurricane Fiona, tracking northward after carving a destructive path through the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, could be one of the worst storms to hit Atlantic Canada in recent years.
Storms are not uncommon in the region and they typically cross over rapidly, but Fiona is expected to impact a very large area and bring extended periods of stormy weather, Canadian Hurricane Centre meteorologist Bob Robichaud said at a briefing.
Fiona, expected to be classified as a post-tropical storm when it makes landfall in Nova Scotia, could bring very strong winds, heavy rainfall and floods in several provinces in eastern Canada.
By mid-Thursday, Fiona was located about 1,800 km (1,118 miles) to the south-southwest of Halifax, capital of Canada's Nova Scotia province.
Off the coast of Nova Scotia is the Sable Island National Park Reserve, a narrow strip of dunes and grasslands managed by Parks Canada. Here roam some 500 Sable Island Horses alongside the world's biggest breeding colony of grey seals.
All scheduled flights for visitors have been canceled and a small team of officials are prepared to shelter in place on the island, Parks Canada representative Jennifer Nicholson said, adding team members had been busy securing materials and equipment to minimize possible damage.
But the horses, which are not indigenous to the sandbar and are believed to have been brought by European sailors in the 18th century, have practically no natural cover on the isle.
"Over the last two centuries, the horses of Sable Island have adapted remarkably well to their environment. During inclement weather the horses act instinctively and seek shelter in groups in the lee of the dunes for protection," Nicholson said.
Fiona could be a "little stronger" than 2019's hurricane Dorian, Robichaud said. Dorian slammed though Halifax as an intense post-tropical storm, knocking down trees, cutting power, and blowing over a large construction crane.
Environment Canada has issued a storm alert for much of Atlantic Canada, along with parts of Quebec, Canada's second most populous province.
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
Severe weather warning: Hurricane Fiona will be 'historic', 'extreme weather event' for Atlantic Canada
As Hurricane Fiona heads north to Atlantic Canada, experts are anticipating it to be a historic, record-breaking storm in Canada.
"Where it fits in the history books, we'll have to make that determination after the fact, but it is going to be certainly a historic, extreme event for eastern Canada," Bob Robichaud, warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada told reporters on Friday.
"It's very powerful at the present time, it's still a major hurricane and it's only 900 kilometres away from us, and it's getting bigger. So all that momentum is trapped within the storm, it's very difficult for something like that to actually wind down as it's approaching."
Robichaud added that the storm size is bigger than Hurricane Juan from 2003 and comparable in size to 2019's Hurricane Dorian, but Fiona is stronger.
On Thursday afternoon, the warning preparedness meteorologist said this is "going to be a storm that everyone remembers."
Brett Anderson, senior meteorologist with AccuWeather, says this looks like it's probably going to be the strongest storm, in terms of low central pressure, on record for Canada.
"Almost every computer model is telling us it's going to be at least 935 millibars or lower, even down into the 920s," Anderson told Yahoo Canada. "So most likely, this is going to be end up being the strongest storm in Canada's history, in terms of the central pressure."
The current record is 940 millibars, which Newfoundland saw in 1977.
"It's already strong, and...the ocean water between Bermuda and Atlantic Canada is abnormally warm, it's anywhere from two to four degrees Celsius above normal," Anderson said. "So the water is warmer and allows more energy for the storm to maintain itself."
"Another ingredient for why this is going to remain very strong, we have a strong piece of energy, basically a cold front, which brought on cold air into Eastern Canada yesterday and today,...but that front is also going to merge with the hurricane, and actually add some energy to the hurricane, it's going to re-energize the hurricane a little bit."
Hurricane Fiona becomes a dangerous category 4 storm over the Atlantic south of Bermuda. This colorful infrared satellite image belies the power and strength of this tropical storm. The brighter tops show higher clouds with the black in the northwest quadrant being the coldest / highest. A well developed eye has formed with banded upper outflow depicted in this satellite imagery.
When will the storm hit Atlantic Canada?
AccuWeather has identified that the centre of the storm will make landfall over extreme eastern Nova Scotia around 5:00 a.m. ADT on Saturday.
"That's what it looks like and confidence is pretty high with that," Brett Anderson said.
He added that the expected worst conditions will be seen in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island early Saturday morning, possibly into early afternoon. Later Saturday afternoon and Saturday night, the storm will "begin to steadily weaken," the winds will start to come down and the rain will being to ease up as well.
"Even as the storm pulls away on that south side of the storm, it's still going to be windy right into late Saturday," Bob Robichaud said on Friday.
"So the impact of having winds that strong for that long, it just creates more stress on everything like the trees, like structures. So that's why we're particularly concerned about wind."
The Environment Canada forecast expects Hurricane Fiona to move north across Nova Scotia on Friday night, passing through Cape Breton Saturday morning, and reaching the Quebec Lower North Shore and Southeastern Labrador early Sunday. Environment Canada indicates that "severe winds and rainfall" are expected to have "major impacts" for eastern Prince Edward Island, eastern Nova Scotia, southern and eastern New Brunswick, western Newfoundland, eastern Quebec, and southeastern Labrador.
The warning from Environment Canada on Friday morning also states that, "most regions will experience hurricane force winds." There is also a "high likelihood" of storm surge for parts of Nova Scotia, the Gulf of St. Lawrence and western Newfoundland.
"The southwestern part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in those north to northwesterly winds, that's where the water is going to be pushed on shore and it's going to be close enough to the centre of the storm where pressure is going to also contribute to that storm surge," Robichaud said. "Right now, our modelling suggests that storm surge, depending on the area, could be anywhere from about 1.8 to 2.4 metres, so significant rises in water level because of that surge."
"It also suggests that maybe in some areas, the peak surge may not be totally timed with the high tide However, any kind of delay in the storm in arriving will result in that peak surge actually arriving a little bit later, which could coincide with time with high tide... So tomorrow morning is when we're we have the highest concern for potential coastal flooding."
The Environment Canada forecast guidance suggests that 100 to 200 mm of rainfall will be present, but closer to the path of Fiona, more than 200 mm is "likely," but those estimates do include the rainfall from Thursday night and Friday.
Anderson warned that this amount of rain will cause flooding and with winds anywhere from 160 to 190 kilometres per hour, particularly in Prince Edward Island and eastern Nova Scotia, there is going to be tree damage, and likely several power outages.
"We could be dealing with...widespread power outages across Prince Edward Island, western Nova Scotia, southwestern Newfoundland, that could last days, if not weeks," Anderson said.
"Stay home, do not travel is absolutely necessary... Be prepared for power outages, so preparations should be made by this evening in terms of making sure your generator is ready, making sure you have restocked enough with food, nonperishable food."
While the storm will hit the Nova Scotia coast first, the impacts in Quebec are expected to worsen in the Magdalen Islands by Friday evening with rainfall expected to be in the range of 15 to 25 mm per hour, with strong winds until late Saturday, expected to last about 12 hours. The expectation is that there will be extensive power outages, particularly near the coast, and between 75 and 125 mm or rain in the Magdalen Islands, with about 30 to 50 mm of rain in the Gaspé Peninsula, and in the lower north shore, a little more than 50 mm of rain in some areas.
Court won't let Philippines declare Communists as terrorists
Patriotic Youths group protesters rally to commemorate the 49th anniversary of the New People's Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, in Manila, Philippines on Wednesday, March 21, 2018. A Philippine court, Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2022, dismissed a government petition to declare the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed guerrilla wing as a terrorist organization in a decision that officials vowed to appeal but was welcomed by activists who have long rejected the labeling of rebels as terrorists.
(AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)
JIM GOMEZ Thu, September 22, 2022
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Philippine court has dismissed a government petition to declare the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed guerrilla wing as a terrorist organization in a decision that officials vowed to appeal but was welcomed by activists who have long rejected the labeling of rebels as terrorists.
Manila regional trial court Judge Marlo Magdoza-Malagar’s ruling, signed Wednesday, is a legal victory for activists and government critics and a setback for security officials, who have long accused left-wing organizations of covertly serving as legal fronts for the Maoist guerrillas. The court asked the government to fight the communist insurgency, one of Asia’s longest, with “respect for the right to dissent, to due process and to the rule of law.” It raised concerns over “red-tagging,” or linking activists to insurgents, which it said was a “pernicious practice” that endangers government critics.
“While both rebellion and terrorism may involve the use of violence, the violence in rebellion is directed against government or any part thereof,” the court said in the 135-page decision. “Rebels in a rebellion always target agents of the state such as the military or the police.”
“Terrorism, on the other hand, is directed against the civilian population with the intent to cause the latter extraordinary and widespread fear and panic,” the court said.
Renato Reyes of Bayan, an alliance of left-wing groups, said, "labeling revolutionaries and those engaged in peace negotiations as `terrorists’ is wrong, counter-productive and undermines any possibility of a political settlement in the armed conflict.”
Emmanuel Salamat, a retired marine general who heads a government task force helping oversee efforts to end the decades-long insurgency, told reporters that he was saddened by the court decision because the rebels have committed acts of terrorism, including killings, for many decades.
“This is like disregarding the sacrifices of our troops, the front-liners in the field, our heroes who gave up their lives,” he said. He cited the United States and other countries which have listed the rebel New People’s Army as a terrorist organization.
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said the government would appeal.
The court assessed nine separate deadly attacks and acts of violence, including the burning of a chapel and rural houses in a province, which government witnesses said were carried out by communist guerrillas in the country’s south from 2019 to 2020. But it questioned the witnesses’ identification of the attackers as rebels based on their black combat uniforms and firearms.
The court also said that any fear the attacks may have sparked may have been confined to the communities where they occurred and did not reach the “widespread” and “extraordinary” panic of a terrorist strike described under Philippine law. “The nine incidents of atrocities fall within the category of small-time `hit-and-run’ attacks and sporadic acts of violence with no specified victims or targets,” the court said. It said authorities failed to establish that the attacks were committed to coerce the government to give in to a demand, a key element of terrorism as specified in the law.
The Maoist rebel force was established in 1969 with only about 60 armed fighters in the country’s northern region but it gradually grew and spread across the country.
Battle setbacks, surrenders and infighting, however, have weakened the guerrilla group, which remains a key national security threat. The rebellion has left about 40,000 combatants and civilians dead and stunted economic development in provincial regions, where the military says a few thousand insurgents are still active.
Civil society groups call for permanent residency for all migrants in Canada – September 14, 2022
In a virtual news conference, representatives from Migrant Rights Canada and other civil society organizations call on the federal government to ensure permanent residency status for all undocumented residents in the country, as well as permanent immigration status for all migrant workers, students and refugees. Taking part in the event are Syed Hussan (Migrant Rights Network Secretariat and executive director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change), Mary Foster (Migrant Rights Network Secretariat), Caroline Michael (undocumented health-care worker from Toronto), Pénélope Boudreault (national operations director of Doctors of the World), Danilo De Leon (undocumented migrant leader from Edmonton), Nina Gonzalez (coordinator of the regularization campaign for the Immigrant Workers Centre), Lauren Ravon (executive director of Oxfam Canada), Laurence Guénette (executive director of La Ligue des droits et libertés), and Caroline Brouillette (national policy manager of Climate Action Network).
GEMOLOGY
Large fancy vivid yellow diamond discovered in N.W.T.
YELLOWKNIFE — The owners of a diamond mine in the Northwest Territories say workers have recovered what is likely Canada's largest fancy vivid yellow diamond.
The Arctic Canadian Diamond Company says the 71.26-carat diamond was recovered from its Ekati mine on Aug. 25.
Fancy coloured diamonds are rare gems where the stone has a strong colour.
Yellow diamonds get their colour from the presence of nitrogen.
The grading system for the colour strength of fancy diamonds ranges from faint to fancy vivid.
A 552-carat rough yellow diamond was discovered at the Diavik diamond mine in the territory in 2018.
It holds the record for the biggest gem-quality diamond found in North America and one of the 30 largest in the world.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 23, 2022.
The Canadian Press
Untouched Whale Graveyard Captured in Eerie Photo: 'You're All Alone'
Pandora Dewan - 12h ago
Ahaunting photo of an underwater whale graveyard has netted Swedish photographer, Alex Dawson, first prize in Scuba Diving's 2022 Underwater Photo Contest Wide Angle category.
"When I capture images I want to create 'I wish I was there' feelings. That's my mantra, " Dawson told Newsweek.
Under three feet of pack ice in the bay of Tasiilaq, Greenland, Dawson and his companion Anna Von Boetticher (seen in the image) swam among 20 whale carcasses to capture the winning shot. The site, known locally as flenseplassen, which translates roughly to "skinning grounds," is where local Inuit hunters collect their carcasses and strip them down to the bare bones. When the tide is high, they pull what remains back into the water.
"Usually to see whale bones like this you would need a submarine," said Dawson. But in Greenland they lie just 15 to 20 feet below the surface and are virtually untouched.
To capture the image, he swam under the ice for over an hour, switching between breathing regulators as his breath froze in their valves. "Cold doesn't give me any fear," he said, after completing the 28F dive.
The only entry point was through a small human-sized hole in the ice. "Going down into the darkness and you're all alone," he said. "You think who's down here?
"Then you come down and you see these whale bones. They're so huge."
Minke whales, as seen here, can grow up to 33 feet in length and weigh about 10 tons.
They are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act although they are currently classed as being of least concern by the IUCN. According to Dawson, the Inuits collect only 10 whales per year out of a population of 100,000.
This was Dawson's second trip to Greenland, following a previous expedition in 2019. "What's so interesting with Greenland and the pack ice is that every time you dive it will always look different because the ice moves. It's basically a new dive every time."
The main difference on this trip, he said, was the climate: "For the first five days of the trip the weather was so warm the ice and snow started melting." In these conditions, the top of the ice starts to melt, leaving a 15 inch layer of freezing water above the pack ice beneath the fresh snow. "We had to walk in this...it took three hours to walk home from our dive.
Elon Musk continues to move the lines defining the role of a CEO.
The richest man in the world (fortune estimated at $254 billion on Sept. 22 by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index) has torn up the traditions that say CEOs should keep quiet and not meddle in geopolitical affairs to protect profits.
In a world in search of leaders, Musk sees himself as filling the void and becoming one of the champions the masses turn to when chaos reigns.
He has also become a kind of guide for world political leaders, alerting them to the issues he considers priorities for the planet.
To establish his influence, Tesla's (TSLA) CEO has mastered the social networks, where he opines and interacts on a daily basis with users, whoever and wherever they may be.
He has more than 106.7 million followers on Twitter, a platform that has a big hand in setting the daily news agendas. On the microblogging website, messaging goes the other way as well: The billionaire's fans alert him to urgent problems of the moment and he responds.
Protests
He is displaying this method right now, when many Iranian citizens and average social-media users and are calling on him for help as the government of Iran tries to crush the protests it is facing.
The protests focus on the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year old Iranian woman who was arrested for wearing what the the country's morality police judged to be an ill-fitting veil. These authorities enforce laws requiring women to wear head scarves. Amini died in police custody.
"The Islamic regime is killing the people of #Iran PLEASE HELP US AND BE OUR VOICE !" a Twitter user asked him on Sept. 21. "They cut off the internet and now they are slaughtering people."
In fact, Musk has a technological tool that can be considered a weapon against governments that manipulate and repress public opinion, often by blocking sources of communications to the outside and blocking the internet.
This tool is Starlink, the satellite-internet-connection service of Musk’s SpaceX. This service guarantees secure and independent access to the internet. It is difficult to hack. Service cuts are rare.
It provides access to the internet for residents of areas that are poorly served by the fixed and mobile networks of telecom operators. Thousands of small satellites circulating in low orbit -- mainly 342 miles (550km) above Earth -- enable the service.
Musk and his company have supplied Starlink terminals to volcano-hit Tonga, in the southern Pacific Ocean, to provide internet access to isolated and remote villages.
Starlink antennas gained popularity after Musk sent them to Ukraine after Russia invaded the country on Feb. 24. They give Ukrainians independent access to the internet and enable the country to keep in touch with the outside world. The system is used particularly in remote areas as well as places that Russia has bombed.
Musk Answers the Call
No surprise, then, that the Iranians hope they can benefit from this service when the Iranian authorities seem to have blocked the phone networks and Internet.
"I'm sure you won't answer it Mr Musk, but is it technically possible to provide Starlink to Iranian people? It could be a game changer for the future," a Twitter user begged Musk on Sept.19.
"Starlink will ask for an exemption to Iranian sanctions in this regard," the tech tycoon responded.
Less than four days after that promise, Musk and SpaceX appear to have filed the exemption request to serve Iran. And they got the permission.
"We took action today to advance Internet freedom and the free flow of information for the Iranian people, issuing a General License to provide them greater access to digital communications to counter the Iranian government’s censorship," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Twitter on Sept. 23
Musk announced that SpaceX was immediately activating service in Iran.
"Activating Starlink...", the billionaire said without providing additional details. For example, he does not say if SpaceX will send antennas on site as it did in Ukraine.
While social-media users awaited the Iranian government's reaction to the move -- which undoubtedly will disrupt its efforts against the protests -- they welcomed the billionaire's decision.
"Great news #MahsaAmini," commented one Twitter user.
"That’s awesome! Your companies are truly philanthropic. All of them truly care for the betterment of humanity. Thank you, Elon, for always caring about the humanity ❤️," said a Musk fan.
"For any Iranians reading this: remember that dishes don't have to be visible to the naked eye; they can be covered by cloth, cardboard, plastic, fibreglass... anything with minimal RF attenuation (nothing metallic / conductive or overly thick)," commented another user.
How Texas' abortion ban hurts Big Oil's
effort to transform its workforce
CAPITALI$M REQUIRES A WOMAN'S RIGHT TO CHOOSE
By Liz Hampton and Sabrina Valle
DENVER/HOUSTON (Reuters) - As Texas officials moved to restrict abortion, promote Christianity in schools and the state's power grid teetered on collapse, oil worker Steven Beaman and his wife Hayley Hollands decided it was time to live elsewhere.
By April, Beaman had joined a communications firm in Colorado, leaving behind a more than decade-long career in oil and gas, and Hollands, an attorney, soon followed, forsaking the state over its increasingly strident politics and polarization.
"It is kind of the first time I've reckoned with the idea that I don't think I'm going to live in my home state ever again," said Hollands. She likened the climate contributing to the couple's decision to leave Texas to "death by a thousand paper cuts."
Oil companies have spent millions to counter the frayed image of fossil fuels and recruit a younger and more diverse workforce. But a flaring of political culture wars - around abortion, religion and LGBT+ rights - threaten to undo hiring and retention goals, according to interviews with more than two dozen workers and a national survey.
Over half of women between 18-44 years and 45% of college-educated male and female workers would not consider a job in a state that banned abortion, according to a survey of 2,020 U.S. adults last month by opinion researcher PerryUndem.
BP, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Shell and TotalEnergies did not comment on how abortion and cultural wars are affecting their hiring and employee retention when asked by Reuters.
GRAPHIC: Workers weight abortion bans in career decisions https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-ABORTION/zjvqkrdrmvx/chart.png
RECRUITING HURDLE
"It has always been difficult to attract women into oil and gas," said Sherry Richard, a 40-year oil industry veteran most recently human resources chief at offshore driller Transocean Ltd. "When you create an environment that is unfriendly to women, it just makes it harder," she said.
Richard, 66, who now sits on the boards of two oilfield firms, said she does not plan to leave the state, but would support her son and his family if they moved.
The business risks to recruiting is especially high for oil companies, already unpopular with graduates of engineering programs, said Jonas Kron, chief advocacy officer at Trillium Asset Management. The Boston-based firm, which oversees $5.4 billion in investments outside of oil, is asking companies to take action to minimize the financial losses of a limited workforce.
"Lack of diversity is not only a problem to financial performance, which they are acutely aware of, but also one of company values," Kron said. "That is deeply concerning."
Some California members of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) have declined to attend the group's conference in Houston in October because of the state's anti-abortion law, which bans most abortions after about six weeks. The only exception is when a doctor certifies the mother's life is in immediate danger.
SWE after next year will not hold conferences for its 40,000 members in states with abortion bans due to "restricted access to women's healthcare," according to its website.
Trevor Best, chief executive of Syzygy Plasmonics, a Houston-based startup whose chemical reactors run on renewable electricity, recently had a woman job candidate from out-of-state say she would not consider relocating to Texas.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has acknowledged the state is losing workers, but does not regret the departures. "We have an exchange program going on,” Abbott said in August at a conservative political gathering. "We are getting California conservatives; we are sending them our liberals.”
SILENCE ON ABORTION
The five top oil majors have said they support travel for health treatments by employees in different states. But none named abortion in their responses, nor disclosed whether there is an internal guidance for abortion care, a concern for employees who have to administer the policies.
"The rules are not clear," said a Texas engineer who also does recruiting for an U.S. oil major in Houston and declined to be named. "Will (an employee) have to tell her manager the reason of the trip for instance? I have asked for clarity, but I received no reply."
Some workers want their employers to take a stand on abortion.
"Companies say they value employee's rights and yet finance politicians who violate my rights and wellbeing," said a 45-year-old engineer at oilfield service firm Halliburton who declined to be identified fearing reprimands. "This is hypocrisy," she said.
Oil companies contribute to politicians who advocate for free trade, tax and energy policies through political action committees (PACs). That criteria fits a majority of Republican politicians who also vote to restrict abortion rights.
A California-based Chevron engineer who is planning to have a child and also declined to have his name used said he told his boss that he could not go ahead with a relocation to Houston.
"We find it medically unsafe to carry a pregnancy in Texas," he said, adding his wife is at high risk for ectopic pregnancies. With doctors in Texas now only able to perform emergency abortions in event of immediate danger to the mother's life, "that is too close to call for me."
Dawn Seiffert, 52, and her husband, an oil company employee, returned to Texas in 2012 and planned to stay. But with Texas' anti-abortion law implemented, the mother of four is considering moving with her daughters to Maine while her husband remains to earn full retirement benefits.
Texas politics "even before Roe" were heading in the wrong direction, Seiffert said. "The public education, the grid... they're more consumed with personal freedoms versus any responsibility towards one another," she said.
(Reporting by Liz Hampton in Denver and Sabrina Valle in Houston; Editing by Gary McWilliams and Lisa Shumaker)
