It’s time for companies to pay their fair share to their employees


Nicholas Creel
Sun, January 9, 2022

Nicholas Creel is an assistant professor of business law and ethics at Georgia College and State University.

While corporate America continues to echo the claim that we are in the midst of a “labor shortage,” the current situation is better understood as a wage shortage, born of a refusal by companies earning more than ever to pay employees fairly.

One statistic makes abundantly clear we don’t really have a labor shortage: the labor force participation rate. This statistic tells us the percent of all working age adults who are working or seeking work. Currently, this rate is 61.8%, down only by the tiniest of margins from the 62 to 63.5% range it has fluctuated between over the past decade. Put another way, 39.2% of all working aged adults are currently neither working nor are they seeking work.

With well over a third of working aged adults not in the workforce, there is an incredible amount of potential growth in the number of people who could easily provide labor to companies seeking it. However, these individuals sitting on the sidelines will only enter the workforce if market wages rise to such a level as to make it worth their time.

Framing this situation as a labor shortage only makes sense if you think employers are entitled to an employee at below market wages. The plain reality is that wages, stagnant for decades, need to be raised significantly. The meager 1.5% increase in wages as of late is nowhere near enough to make up for what workers are owed.

Many corporate executives, like the former CEO of McDonalds, will claim that an increase in wages will simply be passed onto the consumer via higher prices. However, there is nothing that mandates this to happen outside of corporate greed, particularly for companies like McDonalds that are running a handsome profit.

Increasing prices to maintain a higher profit when labor costs go up is ultimately a value choice. Those companies that would raise prices after raising wages would largely be deciding that they value returns to investors more than they do paying higher wages to their employees while offering low prices to their customers. In essence, they would signal with this reaction that the investors is who they value most.

Let’s look back to McDonalds as an example for why higher wages really don’t need to lead to higher prices. McDonalds has a net operating cost of around $12 billion and 25-30 percent of those costs are wages. So, on the high end, McDonalds spends about $3.6 billion annually paying all of its employees.

If we doubled all wages at McDonalds, their current average annual net profit of $10 billion would narrow to $6.4 billion. That’s right, McDonalds could literally double wages for all of their employees and remain incredibly profitable.

Nicholas Barry Creel

True, the low wage status quo is responsible for the incredible performance of the stock market over time, but consider for a moment that the richest 10% own about 89% of all stocks. Shareholder primacy is a concept that only serves the wealthiest among us while leaving the rest of society as exploited labor to fatten the bottom line.

While some may see the term “exploited” as hyperbole, the reality is that the likes of Walmart and McDonalds have thousands of employees who are so poor that they qualify for food stamps and Medicaid. Companies raking in billions of dollars in profit annually are effectively supplementing employee wages with government welfare benefits.

Put aside for the moment the fact that no gainfully employed person should still be so mired in poverty that they require welfare programs to live. The fact that this happens at all only further highlights how poorly employees are paid.

This is why, for many Americans, staying at home to help raise children or take care of elderly parents is by far the more economical choice. Until wages go up significantly, that won’t change.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Why aren't people applying for jobs? Because wages are not high enough

‘Like telling a 30-year mortgage holder it’s all due at year’s end’ — Pressure on unfunded public pensions relies on flawed math


JANUARY 9, 2022

ECONOMY

How Healthy Are US Public Pensions?

While news media coverage – and critics of public pensions – often draw attention to the large unrestricted liabilities, a new study Provides a new way of looking at those liabilities from a public-pension business group – the economy and market they say is more relevant to the SPXWork.

The group, the National Conference on Public Employees Retirement Systems (NCPERS), argues for a new approach to considering liabilities in the context of economic development, known as “sustainability assessment”.

Critics of public pensions compare “30 years of pension liabilities, i.e. liabilities that are amortized in 30 years, with one year of state and local revenues. They then argue that public pensions are not sustainable,” says NCPER. The report’s author, Michael Kahn, writes.

“Comparing 30 years of pension liabilities to one year of state and local revenue is like a bank telling a borrower that his 30-year mortgage is due at the end of this year,” he said.

NCPERS argues that traditional methods of presenting pension liabilities are often misleading. 

Instead, Kahn writes, outstanding public pension liabilities should be placed in the context of the 30-year period in which they are amortized, not considered something that must be paid immediately.

NCPERS argues that its approach to analyzing revenue and liabilities is more accurate. 

Source: NCPRS


Kahn argues that such an approach should be an additional tool for monitoring how well-funded and sustainable a pension plan is, in addition to existing, familiar approaches such as actuarial analysis and stress testing.

It urges “to monitor stability on an ongoing basis and to make fiscal adjustments to keep the ratio between unfunded liabilities and economic capacity stable, on average, over the past two decades.”

As an example, he indicates a 2020 opinion piece From the Chicago Tribune, which claims that pension liabilities in Illinois total 10 times state and local revenues. “It certainly sounds terrible,” Kahn writes, “but it is a false comparison. When we compare pension liabilities amortized over 30 years with 30 years of revenue (an apples-to-apples comparison), then They account for only 8% of the revenue.

While it may be tempting to find a new and more compelling way to frame liabilities, the NCPERS report adds to a recent wave of public-pension research that argues there are good reasons to bring broader context to the issue of pension funding.

a 2021 Working Papers from the Brookings Institution Challenged the idea that state and local governments should fund pensions in full—that is, for the entire 30-year period as Kahn refers to above.

“Governments don’t have to pay off their debt like a house,” said Lewis Sheiner, one of the co-authors of the Brookings paper, in an interview with Businesshala. “They can just keep turning it around. They are never going out of business and they have to pay all at once.”

Public pensions don’t need to be fully funded to be sustainable, paper finds

To be sure, there are some public-pension schemes whose funding levels are not sustainable, and which must be addressed urgently. The Kentucky Employee Retirement System is one of the least funded systems in the nation, according to statistics from Retirement Research Center at Boston CollegeAs of 2019, only 16.5% was funded.

He runs the worst funded public pension in the country. Here’s the story of his ‘good news’

What’s more, any analysis of sustainability relies on governments making the necessary contributions to them in both good times and bad, something that hasn’t always happened.

But there are also solid reasons to criticize those details as severely framed as a push to fully fund pension conditions. Among them: dedicating a large portion of an operating budget to future expenses that can meet actual current needs, such as schools or capital projects.

In addition, the perceived need to fully fund 30-year liabilities may cause municipalities to engage in financial practices that are arguably more risky or harmful, such as taking out loans to plug the pension gap.

Read further: State and local governments have issued more pension bonds this year than ever before

USA

Pensions May Actually Be Cheaper For Employers Than 401(k) Plans


Ben Geier, CEPF®
Fri, January 7, 2022

pensions 401(k)

With a few notable exceptions, the age of pensions is largely over in the U.S., with traditional defined benefit plans mostly being replaced by defined contribution retirement vehicles like 401(k) plans. 

A new study from the National Institute on Retirement Security, though, seems to suggest that the end of pensions may not actually be as beneficial to companies as once thought. In fact, a giving employees a traditional pension plan may actually be less costly than operating a 401(k) or other defined contribution plan.

Why Are 401(k) Plans Costlier Than Pensions?

The logic behind why companies wanted to switch to defined contribution plans is pretty simple. In a traditional pension plan, the company is on the hook for a predetermined payment every year until a worker dies. If they live particularly long, that can get expensive. With a defined contribution plan like a 401(k), however, the payment is entirely determined by how much an employee saved during their working years — and of they run out, it doesn’t impact the employer.

The group nature of a pension plan, though, may actually result in lower costs for the employers, though, according to the new NIRS study.

“Pensions have economies of scale and risk pooling that just can’t be replicated by individual savings accounts,” said Dan Doonan, the NIRS’ executive director, in a statement. “This means pensions can provide retirement benefits at a much lower cost.”

The study found that in order to replace 54% of income for employees after retirement, a DB plan required contributions of 16.5% of total payroll. A DC plan, meanwhile, required 32.3% of payroll to get to the same endpoint.

“These cost differences are a key consideration for employers and policymakers given that most Americans are deeply worried about retirement and retirement savings levels are dangerously low for the typical U.S. household,” Doonan notes. “Policymakers are wise to protect existing pensions while also fostering innovation in DC plans to improve the financial security of those relying on 401(k) accounts.”

Pension Plan Basics

pensions 401(k)

A pension plan works by having money contributed to a pool by both the company and employees who are enrolled in the plan. There may be a cliff at which point a person becomes vested in the plan — meaning that you become eligible for benefits after working at the firm for a certain amount of time.

The money put into the pool is then invested in the market so that it grows. There will often be either an investing board or a financial advisor who makes investing choices. The money from the pool is then used to pay predetermined amounts of money to retired employees, often based on how long a person has worked at the company and what their salary was while they were there.

401(k) Plan Basics

A 401(k) plan is much more individualistic. Each person contributes money to their own account and choose from a menu of investment options. Once they retire, they can schedule their own drawdown plan to take money out as needed. Money contributed to a 401(k) is put in pre-tax, so participants will pay taxes when they take money out in retirement.

There is sometimes an employer element to 401(k) plans — an employer match. This is an option some employers use as a part of employees compensation package. Basically, a firm will match a certain amount of money the employee contributes. This could be a dollar-for-dollar match or a possible match, but generally the company only contributes based on how much each employee contributes.

The Bottom Line

pensions 401(k)

For the past several decades, pension plans have largely been phased out in favor of defined contribution plans, except in a few industries, notably the public sector. New research, though, shows that the conventional wisdom may be wrong and pension plans may actually cost employers less than offering a 401(k) plan.

Retirement Planning Tips

No matter what type of retirement plan your company offers, a financial advisor can help you plan for your golden years. Finding a qualified financial advisor doesn’t have to be hard. SmartAsset’s free tool matches you with up to three financial advisors in your area, and you can interview your advisor matches at no cost to decide which one is right for you. If you’re ready to find an advisor who can help you achieve your financial goals, get started now.

Photo credit: ©iStock.com/insta_photos, ©iStock.com/pinkomelet, ©iStock.com/SrdjanPav

'Angry and heartsick': Oklahoma game wardens still investigating deaths of whooping cranes


Ed Godfrey, Oklahoman
Sat, January 8, 2022

Game wardens are still investigating last month's shooting deaths of four whooping cranes near the Tom Steed Reservoir in Kiowa County.

Whooping cranes are endangered, with only about 500 of the birds in the wild in North America. It is the tallest bird in North America, standing about 5 feet tall.

On Dec. 15, an injured whooping crane was discovered near the southwestern Oklahoma lake by hunters who notified game wardens with the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. The whooping crane died while being transported to a veterinary clinic.


The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's forensics laboratory conducted a necropsy and determined the cause of death as a shotgun wound. A search of the area where the first bird was found led to finding three more dead whooping cranes.

Nathan Erdmann, chief of law enforcement for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, said Thursday that game wardens are following up on leads.

Oklahoma game warden Jeremy Brothers approaches an injured whooping crane that later died. Game wardens are still investigating the shooting deaths last month of four whooping cranes near Tom Steed Lake in Kiowa County.

"It is still under investigation," he said. "We are waiting on some search warrant information to come back."

Erdmann would not say whether investigators think the whooping cranes were mistaken as sandhill cranes by hunters or shot intentionally.

It is sandhill crane hunting season in Oklahoma. Two years ago, state wildlife officials temporarily closed sandhill crane hunting at Hackberry Flat when a whooping crane showed up on the wetland area with a group of sandhill cranes.

Sandhill cranes are gray, stand 3 to 4 feet tall with a wingspan of 5 to 6 feet. Whooping cranes are snowy white with black tips at either end of a 7- to 8-foot wingspan.

In Wisconsin, opponents of a state bill that would open a sandhill crane hunting season are pointing to the shooting deaths of the four whooping cranes in Oklahoma as why it should not be legalized.

Killing a whooping crane can lead to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine under the Endangered Species Act and another $15,000 with up to six months in jail under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, according to the Wildlife Department.

"We are angry and heartsick," said Rich Beilfuss, president and chief executive officer of the International Crane Foundation, headquartered in Baraboo, Wisconsin.

"The International Crane Foundation, along with many partners, has invested millions of dollars and decades of time and expertise to bring whooping cranes back from the brink of extinction. And in an instant four birds are gone forever."

Whooping cranes migrate through Oklahoma on their way to wintering grounds along the coastal marshes of south Texas, the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.

In the past, whooping cranes have been spotted at Lake Hefner in Oklahoma City, but their main migration path is primarily west of the Oklahoma City area through western Oklahoma.

Most whooping crane sightings in Oklahoma are reported from mid-October through November.

A long road of recovery

Whooping cranes were charter members of the Endangered Species Act when it was signed in 1973. They are endangered mainly as a result of habitat loss, but unregulated hunting in the early 1900s also contributed to their decline.

At one time, the range for the birds extended throughout midwestern North America. By 1941, there were less than 25 whooping cranes remaining in the wild and perhaps as few as 15.

By the year 2000, the population of whooping cranes had climbed to 180 birds through conservation efforts. Four years ago, a survey of the population of whooping cranes wintering in south Texas climbed to more than 500 for the first time since the late 1800s.

Growing the population is difficult because whooping cranes typically will have only two eggs per year. On average, only one chick will survive from that clutch.

Whooping cranes can live to be 20 to 25 years old, but they don’t mate until they are 7 years old, and the chicks and fledglings suffer high mortality on nesting grounds, according to the International Crane Foundation.

The four deaths in Oklahoma are the most whooping cranes ever killed at one time in a poaching incident, according to the foundation.

“We can’t bring back these four, but we can bring the perpetrators to justice," Beilfuss said in a prepared statement. "We can redouble our efforts to protect whooping cranes along their hazardous migration routes.

"We can expand our cooperative work with hunters and hunting groups to increase awareness of whooping crane presence. And we can continue to be the voice and act for whooping cranes on their wintering grounds in Texas and through reintroduction efforts.”

More: 'If it's not a 180, it's close to it:' Oklahoma Wildlife Department shifts bass management strategy

Game wardens now wearing body cameras

Oklahoma's 114 game wardens in the field are now equipped with body cameras.

The cameras are fully functioning smartphones using a software application from Visual Labs, a California software company. The device can also function as a digital camera, an audio recorder and a personnel locator.

"We have a phone contract with Firstnet, an AT&T service for first responders and that body camera is an app that is installed on that phone for Firstnet," Erdmann said.

"Basically, as soon as the video is taken and they have cell phone signal, it gets uploaded into a secure government cloud storage that we can access. As soon as it is uploaded I can watch it up here in the office (in Oklahoma City)."

Game wardens are instructed to use the cameras anytime they have interaction with the public, Erdmann said.

"It's not changing anything that we do," he said. "It's just adding protection for the wardens out in the field against false claims."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma game wardens still investigating deaths of whooping cranes

Massachusetts Tribe Casino Plans
Newly affirmed, tribe looks at casino plans with fresh eyes

A wooden sign advises motorists of the location of Mashpee Wampanoag tribal lands, June 25, 2018, in Massachusetts. The tribe scored a major victory in its years long battle to preserve its reservation in December 2021, but it doesn't mean the Massachusetts tribe's path to building a resort casino on the sovereign lands has become any clearer. \

AP Photo/Steven Senne

PHILIP MARCELO
Sun, January 9, 2022

BOSTON (AP) — As he begins his first full year in office, the new head of a Massachusetts tribe says he intends to take a cautious approach to gambling while turning attention to social challenges and other economic opportunities for its members.

Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Chairman Brian Weeden, who is 29 and is the youngest ever to old the post, said last month's decision by President Joe Biden's administration to affirm the tribe’s reservation and reverse a controversial Trump-era order gives the tribe legal footing to continue pursuing its long standing casino dreams.

But he said tribal leaders also want members to look at the idea with fresh eyes, given how much the landscape for gambling has changed.

Massachusetts currently has three major casinos — MGM Springfield, Encore Boston Harbor and the slot parlor Plainridge Park. The separate Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe has also broken ground on a more modest gambling hall on Martha’s Vineyard, though that’s been mired in legal uncertainty. And state lawmakers are weighing legislation to legalize sports betting in Massachusetts.

“We’re back to the drawing board, basically,” said Weeden, who took office in May, in a wide-ranging interview Thursday. “There’s still an appetite for gaming. It just needs to be a smart approach. It has to be different from the past. We need to learn from our mistakes and proceed with caution.”

Meanwhile, anti-casino residents in Taunton, the city where the Mashpee Wampanoag project is proposed, have asked a Boston federal judge to reopen their legal challenge.

They argue, as they have before, that the tribe wasn't eligible for a reservation because it wasn't an officially recognized tribe in 1934, the year the federal Indian Reorganization Act, which laid the foundation for modern federal Indian policy, became law.

The opponents have also argued the tribe's lands in Taunton shouldn't have been included in its reservation because they're some 50 miles from the tribe's home base on Cape Cod and weren't part of the tribe's historical domain. The tribe’s reservation encompasses about 170 acres in the town of Mashpee and another 150 acres acres in Taunton.

Weeden said the latest legal challenge won’t deter the tribe, which traces its ancestry to the Native Americans whom the Pilgrims encountered centuries ago but which was federally recognized only in 2007.

Just prior to last month’s decision, the tribe extended its deal with its Malaysian casino developer partners, Genting Berhad, for another year, according to Weeden.

But he said the tribe, which has roughly 3,000 members, is looking to reach new financial terms to rein in its debt to the gambling giant, which is about $600 million and growing, but which comes due only if a gambling hall actually opens. Company spokespersons didn’t respond to emails seeking comment.

Weeden said tribal members should also consider whether to scale back their casino ambitions.

Before litigation and the Trump administration order derailed it, the tribe broke ground in 2016 on a $1 billion resort casino in a former industrial park. Dubbed First Light, the resort was to include a hotel and shopping, dining and entertainment options, including a water park.

Opting to build a more modest slot parlor or bingo hall, Weeden said, would exempt it from a 17% state tax on gaming revenues, even if it meant not being able to offer popular table games like blackjack and poker.

Weeden said the tribe also shouldn’t rule out abandoning the casino plan altogether and finding other ways to bring financial stability to the tribe. He’d like to see it look into opening tax-free smoke shops, tax-free gas stations, recreational marijuana shops, and other economic development initiatives on its lands.

“We need to exercise our sovereignty,” Weeden said. “Casinos are just low-hanging fruit.”

The new chair says he also intends to focus more on homelessness, substance use and other social ills facing the tribe.

Next month, tribal leaders hope to present to members a plan to spend down the tribe’s roughly $15 million allocation from Biden's coronavirus stimulus bill. Weeden says they will also pursue federal funds through the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill Biden recently signed into law, which includes some $11 billion for tribes.

Among the projects being considered is the construction of tiny homes or cabins where homeless members can live temporarily, Weeden said. The tribe also hopes to bolster staffing and programming for substance use, mental health and other critical health services.

And with the national reckoning on racism reviving calls for reparations for Black slavery, Weeden said the tribe also intends to step up its own calls for restitution.

He says the state should return seized lands or provide financial compensation as the tribe’s current landholdings represent less than 1% of its ancestral territory.

“Everything going on in this country around social injustice and racial injustice, that’s all fine and good," Weeden said. "But the original inhabitants of this country are still fighting for what little land we have. Native Americans still don’t have their fair share.”

Trump would dial Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Lou Dobbs into Oval Office meetings, report says

Alia Shoaib
Sun, January 9, 2022

The texts from Fox News host Sean Hannity, a prominent supporter of Trump, indicate he had direct knowledge of the former president's plans for January 6 and harbored concerns for them, the Jan 6 committee said.

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Fox News's top hosts served as a "Cable Cabinet of unofficial advisers," said the Washington Post.


There was an intimate relationship between the network and the Trump administration, it said.


Former administration officials told the paper that Fox hosts were dialed into Oval Office meetings.

Several of Fox News's top hosts served as a "Cable Cabinet of unofficial advisers," according to the Washington Post.

In recent weeks, the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack released numerous text messages from various Fox News hosts to former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows on the day of the insurrection.

A former senior administration official, who spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity, said that the influence extended into the very heart of the president's administration, and Trump would sometimes dial Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Lou Dobbs into Oval Office staff meetings.

"A lot of it was PR — what he should be saying and how he should be saying it; he should be going harder against wearing masks or whatever," Stephanie Grisham, former press secretary to President Donald Trump, told The Post. "And they all have different opinions, too."

The January 6 committee revealed that Fox News Hosts Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, and Brian Kilmeade texted Meadows as the insurrection unfolded, showing the closeness between the cable news network and the White House.

The texts indicated that Hannity had direct knowledge about Trump's strategy for the day of the electoral vote count and had concerns about his plan, the committee said.

Fox News hosts had a direct number to reach Trump and administration officials often posed challenges for West Wing staffers, former administration officials told The Washington Post.

Grisham told The Post how highly the former president valued the opinions of Fox hosts.

"There were times the president would come down the next morning and say, 'Well, Sean [Hannity] thinks we should do this,' or, 'Judge Jeanine [Pirro] thinks we should do this,'" Grisham told the paper.

Grisham told the paper that Fox News hosts weighed in on everything from personnel to messaging strategy.

The Washington Post said that several of Fox News's top hosts served as a "Cable Cabinet of unofficial advisers."

Alyssa Farah, a former White House communications director, told the Post that staffers would "try to get ahead of what advice you thought he was going to be given by these people" because their opinions "could completely change his mind on something."

Farah told the paper that Trump particularly valued the opinions of Lou Dobbs, Hannity, Ingraham, and Pirro.

'It taught me the power of the young producers at Fox'

Lou Dobbs introducing "Lou Dobbs Tonight" on Fox Business, January 4 2020

Fox Business

The reality TV star turned president has long been known for his obsession with cable television and ratings.

One former top White House official told The Post that Fox hosts often had more influence over Trump based on what they said on air rather than what they said off-screen to him and his team.

The paper reported that former Trump chief of staff John F. Kelly told White House staffers that Trump's ideas and feelings about people often originated from Lou Dobbs's show on Fox. Watching it was critical to understanding the president.

Michael Pillsbury, an informal Trump adviser, told the paper that the former president embraced Sidney Powell, the lawyer known for her promotion of conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, after watching her on Dobbs' show.

"It taught me the power of the young producers at Fox, and Fox Business especially," Pillsbury told the paper.

Jeff Cohen, the author of "Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media," told the Post that the text messages released by the January 6 committee represent a "smoking gun."

Cohen is the founder of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), a media watchdog group.

He said that the texts were evidence of how "deeply intertwined" the channel's leadership was with the Trump administration.

Cohen told the paper that even though they are opinion journalists, the Fox News hosts violated the public trust by not disclosing the full extent of their relationship.

A spokesperson for Fox News did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

'This isn't Texas or Oklahoma ... this is Iowa': Farmers push back against proposed pipeline


Danielle Gehr

Ames Tribune
Sat, January 8, 2022

For two and a half hours Thursday, officials with Texas-based Navigator CO2 Ventures fielded questions and heard comments from Story County residents on the multi-billion dollar pipeline they plan to bury across the county.

Nearly 100 had gathered at the Gateway Hotel & Conference Center in Ames, although the room was half empty by the time the last question was asked.

At the same location in September, another company, Summit Carbon Solutions, held an informational meeting for their own carbon-capture pipeline.

The Story County meeting was one of 36 the company plans to host across the state. The Iowa Utilities Board and Navigator hosted another hour of questions at the Boone DMACC campus a few hours later.

At both Navigator and Summit meetings, attendees predominantly expressed opposition to the plans and wariness over the proposals' safety, potential effects on the environment and long-term effect on farmland.

"This isn't Texas or Oklahoma. This is Iowa and things are different here," Hardin County farmer Greg Gilbert told company officials in Story County Thursday.

What are the projects?

If approved, the companies' pipelines would run through several states, including Iowa, gathering liquified emissions from more than 40 ethanol plants along the way.

Navigator's pipeline would cut across Iowa from the southeast corner to the northeast. In Story County, the pipeline would cross borders with Boone, Hardin and Polk counties, cutting between Ames and Nevada.

Navigator identified a half-mile corridor in which the route could be adjusted to accommodate landowners and any other issues. If the route needed to be adjusted beyond that corridor, Navigator would need to restart the process of notifying landowners.

The company touts the potential to capture 15 million metric tons of CO2 annually, equivalent to the emissions of 3.2 million vehicles. The capture would not only bring environmental benefits, but also make tax incentives available to ethanol plants, including the 460 Tax Credit, and aiding in their marketability in states with net-zero emissions policies.

More: 'My family's been through this 4 times': Story County residents push back against carbon sequestration pipeline

Navigator's vice president of government and public affairs, Elizabeth Burns-Thompson, an Iowa State grad who was raised on a family farm in Linn County and pursued a career in agriculture, started the presentation by emphasizing her roots in Iowa.

"When I speak to you, know the value of what this means for the agricultural community — I'm seeing that, really, firsthand," Burns-Thompson said.

She likened Navigator's Heartland Greenway pipeline to a bus system where the riders are the tons of CO2 emissions it would transfer. Plants would pay a flat rate for the company's transportation services and then own the economic benefits.

"All those incentives and benefits remain here at home," Burns-Thompson said.

More: 'It's gonna screw up everything': Boone County farmers decry proposed carbon capture pipeline

One farmer said the analogy makes landowners the interstate, arguing they should be fairly compensated for that service.

Like Summit, Navigator would offer impacted landowners 100% of potential crop yield loss upfront in the first year, 80% in the second and 60% in the third. But Navigator would be accountable beyond the first three years, for as long as the project is operational.

Another landowner asked why they wouldn't receive a yearly payment for Navigator using their land, to which Navigator COO David Giles said annual payments could be negotiated.

But compensation did not appear to appease the opposition to the project.
Safety, land value among reasons for opposition

The company faced pushback, particularly from those in the agricultural community who are still scarred by memories of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which they said left long-term damage to the area's farmland.

Former state Rep. Ed Fallon said he knows one farmer who was impacted by the Dakota Access Pipeline who was told by an agronomist his soil won't recover from the project work for nine years and another who's been told his soil won't recover for the rest of his lifetime.

Burns-Thompson told the Tribune Wednesday that Navigator is learning lessons from mistakes made by past pipeline developers.

Rita Douglass, of the Good Family Partnership, asked at the Boone County meeting if she should sell her farmland now. Burns-Thompson said studies show pipelines have no impact on land value.

Others worried about safety and environmental concerns. One attendee pointed out that Navigator has never operated a CO2 pipeline and asked how are Iowans supposed to trust them to run this one adequately.

A leak by a Mississippi pipeline that forced the evacuation of hundreds of people and even caused some to foam at the mouth was brought up again. The rupture occurred during record rainfall and a resulting mudslide.

Navigator Vice President of Engineering Steven Lee said the Mississippi pipeline contained naturally occurring carbon dioxide, which contained hydrogen sulfide. The combination became problematic for that community.

Lee said Navigator will transport the purest form of CO2 and would be required to maintain 98% CO2.

Fallon commended Navigator for committing to never using CO2 for enhanced oil extraction. Summit refused to make the same commitment at a Story County meeting in September.

Some took issue with the anonymity of landowners in the pipeline's path.

Story County Supervisor Linda Murken said even the county hasn't received the names of landowners in order to follow up on the work of the county-appointed inspector for the project.

A Story County farmer who asked not to be named said it doesn't seem fair to keep landowners' names anonymous, giving landowners little ability to pool resources during negotiations.

Summit is fighting to reverse an order by the Iowa Utilities Board to release the names of landowners and business entities impacted.
Get involved:

Before construction can begin, the project still needs to be approved by the Iowa Utilities Board. Information on filing comments to be considered by the board can be found at iub.iowa.gov/efs.

For those unable to attend Navigator's in-person meetings, a virtual meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 19. Find more information on Navigator's public meetings at bit.ly/3HJLplL.

Danielle Gehr is a politics and government reporter for the Ames Tribune. She can be reached by email at dgehr@gannett.com, phone at (515) 663-6925 or on Twitter at @Dani_Gehr.

This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Navigator pipeline gets pushback from farmers at Story County forum

GEORGIA

Kemp proposes $5,000 pay raise as employee turnover hits record high


Thomas Wheatley
Fri, January 7, 2022

Governor Brian Kemp wants to give full-time state agency employees a $5,000 pay bump, plus other perks, to boost a workforce experiencing a record-high turnover rate.

Why it matters: Well before the Great Resignation, state employees have been fleeing their jobs, hamstringing the ability of Georgia government to serve the public.

In fiscal year 2021, turnover reached 23%, the highest rate on record, according to a report from the state Department of Administrative Services. It’s the sixth year that turnover has charted higher than 20%.

Details: In a letter sent Friday to state agency heads, Kemp said he was offering their “full-time, eligible benefit” employees a $5,000 pay bump.

The governor, who’s facing a primary challenge from former U.S. Sen. David Perdue, wants to make permanent a $5,000 cost-of-living-adjustment — the first such hike in 14 years, he said, and increase the state’s maximum 401k match from 3% to 9%.

In addition, employees would be eligible to withdraw up to 40 hours as pay annually, which could also buffer agencies from unexpected personnel costs when employees retire.

By the numbers: Millennials (described in the DOAS report as workers born from 1981 to 1997) and GenZ (born after 1998) are leaving state employment “quickly and in significant numbers," according to the DOAS report. "The [fiscal year 2021] turnover rate was 25.7% for Millennials and 76.4% for GenZ,” it says.

Up until six years ago, the state was able to keep up filling jobs as people left, according to the report. (The data excludes Georgia World Congress Center, Board of Regents, and higher education.) Today Georgia has fewer state employees than roughly 14 years ago, Kemp's letter said.

The turnover causes "service delivery challenges due to unplanned lost productivity, increased burdens on staff, recruiting costs, training costs, and impacts to organizational morale."

Catch up quick: In the letter, Kemp praised the officials and their employees for their “leadership, dedication, and resilience” during the pandemic and efforts over the years to keep their agencies lean.

State revenues are now running roughly $1 billion more than state lawmakers projected, the AP reports, leaving Kemp and budget officials with cash to, and in an election year.

Earlier this week, Kemp proposed a $2,000 pay increase for teachers.

What they’re saying: At a pre-session briefing with reporters on Thursday, House Speaker David Ralston said prosecutors who have been left out of pay bumps given in recent years and judges also would like another pay raise.

“I’m trying to keep count of how many groups we’re promising pay raises to,” said Ralston, one of the state officials who will consider Kemp’s proposal. “The list gets longer every day. I know we’re at a fairly good budget situation but at some point we’re going to run out before we get to everybody.”

One group that Ralston is quick to defend for a raise: “the people who work in the trenches” of the state’s accountability courts.

Axios

Israel's national library sees Arabic site traffic boom


An early Quran, that is part of the collection of the National Library of Israel, is displayed at The Hebrew University campus in Jerusalem, Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022. The library says the number of visitors to its Arabic website more than doubled over the course of 2021, thanks to the digitization of its Arabic manuscripts and archives and an extensive outreach program in recent years. 

(AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)More

ILAN BEN ZION
Sun, January 9, 2022

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's national library says the number of visitors to its Arabic website more than doubled last year, driven by a growing collection of digitized materials and an aggressive outreach campaign to the Arab world.

Around 650,000 users, predominantly from the Palestinian territories, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Algeria, visited the National Library of Israel's English and Arabic sites in 2021, said library spokesman Zack Rothbart.

One of the most heavily trafficked resources on the Arabic website is a newspaper archive with more than 200,000 pages of Arabic publications from Ottoman and British Mandate Palestine, said Raquel Ukeles, head of the library’s collections.

“We have been working on outreach to the Arab world, into the Arabic speaking public here in Israel for over a decade, and we have slowly built up a rich set of resources on our websites," she said. They include the digital newspaper archives, manuscripts, posters, electronic books and music, she said. They are open access, allowing scholars and curious web browsers to visit.

The Jerusalem library is home to an extensive collection of Islamic and Arabic texts, including thousands of rare books and manuscripts in Arabic, Persian and Turkish ranging from the 9th to the 20th centuries.

“We’re in the midst of a project to digitize our entire collection, to scan all of our Arabic, Persian and Turkish manuscripts,” said Samuel Thrope, curator of the library’s Islam and Middle East Collection. “Ninety-five percent of it has already been completed.”

Among the jewels in the crown of the collection are a 9th-century Quran from modern-day Iran with the earliest known example of Persian written in the Arabic script; an illuminated manuscript from 17th century India with illustrations of the life of Alexander the Great; and a 16th century Ottoman Turkish text on ophthalmology.

Jerusalem church leader says Israeli extremists threaten Christian presence in city

Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III in Bethlehem

Sun, January 9, 2022
By Stephen Farrell

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem has accused radical Israeli groups of threatening the presence of Christians in the holy city, in remarks that Israeli officials rejected as baseless.

In a column in the Times of London on Saturday, His Beatitude, Theophilos III, said he believed the aim was to drive the Christian community from Jerusalem's Old City, which has sites sacred to Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Israel captured East Jerusalem, including the Old City, along with the West Bank and Gaza Strip in a 1967 war. It annexed East Jerusalem after the war in a move that has not won international recognition.

"Our presence in Jerusalem is under threat," the patriarch wrote in the article, published a day after the Greek Orthodox celebration of Christmas.

"Our churches are threatened by Israeli radical fringe groups. At the hands of these Zionist extremists the Christian community in Jerusalem is suffering greatly, he said.

"Our brothers and sisters are the victims of hate crimes. Our churches are regularly desecrated and vandalised. Our clergy are subject to frequent intimidation."

By singling out extremists as Israeli, Theophilos's criticism was more personal and trenchant than that of a collective statement issued by the heads of other churches in Jerusalem before Christmas.

Their statement spoke of "frequent and sustained attacks by fringe radical groups" but stopped short of identifying them as Israeli.

A U.S. State Department report published last year on religious freedom around the world said Christian clergy and pilgrims continued to report instances of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem harassing or spitting on them.

Church groups have for some time reported attacks of vandalism at religious sites in the city. Theophilos did not accuse any radical groups by name or cite specific incidents. He did not provide evidence that they were Israeli, or that their goal was to drive Christians from the city.

On Sunday, an Israeli official said the reality on the ground for Christians was completely different from that described by the patriarch, citing a Foreign Ministry statement on Dec 22 that rebutted the earlier church leaders' claims.

"Since the day it was established, the State of Israel has been committed to freedom of religion and worship for all religions, as well to ensuring the freedom of access to holy sites," the ministry statement said.

"The statement by Church leaders in Jerusalem is particularly infuriating given their silence on the plight of many Christian communities in the Middle East suffering from discrimination and persecution."

In his column, Theophilos said the radicals that he criticised "are not representative of the state of Israel or the Jewish people," and called on Jerusalem to remain a diverse "mosaic community" of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

(Reporting by Stephen Farrell; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel)