| Knives come out for Bloomberg as billionaire former mayor rises in the polls Posted: 14 Feb 2020 11:15 AM PST  Democratic candidates and President Trump took fresh aim this week at the former New York City mayor who has staked his personal fortune on winning the White House.
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| What is CHS? Marijuana advocates warn of a little-known condition affecting heavy users Posted: 14 Feb 2020 03:00 AM PST  Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, or CHS, causes severe abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting among some heavy marijuana users — symptoms that, strangely, can be eased by taking very hot showers.
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| Angry protests in Mexico after woman's gruesome killing Posted: 14 Feb 2020 06:35 PM PST  Angry demonstrations broke out in Mexico City on Friday as hundreds of women protested the gruesome slaying and mutilation of a young woman, a case that has come to personify outrage over the rising incidence of gender-related killings, or femicides. In the morning, dozens of protesters spray-painted slogans such as "We won't be silenced" on the facade and doorway of the capital's National Palace as President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was holding his daily news conference inside. Some spray-painted the plastic shields of riot officers as the crowd chanted "Not one more murdered!" and "Justice!" Police unleashed pepper spray.
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| 6-year-old girl was committed to mental health facility without parent consent Posted: 15 Feb 2020 11:34 AM PST  The mother said her daughter can tell her "bits and pieces" of what happened: "'Mommy, they locked the door. They wouldn't let me out. Mommy, they gave me a shot.'"
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| Military-trained border agents being sent to US cities for immigration arrests Posted: 14 Feb 2020 02:00 PM PST  Donald Trump's administration plans to add military-trained and heavily armed and armoured border patrol agents to support immigration crackdowns in US cities in the country's interior.Administration officials confirmed to the New York Times that US Customs and Border Protection plans to magnify Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations with 100 agents trained to work in violent, high-risk conditions along the US-Mexico border to support what are otherwise routine arrests for people without legal permission to live in the country.
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| Are Turkey and Syria Close to Starting a War? Posted: 14 Feb 2020 05:00 PM PST  For now Turkish and Syrian ground forces appear bound on a collision course.
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| Trump budget zeroes out funding for Stars and Stripes, the military's newspaper Posted: 14 Feb 2020 11:18 AM PST  The Trump administration pulled funding in its 2021 budget for Stars and Stripes, the U.S. military news organization that has published a daily newspaper continuously since World War II for troops stationed around the world.
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| Former employee says he heard Bloomberg ask a female co-worker if she was going to 'kill it' after announcing her pregnancy Posted: 15 Feb 2020 10:02 AM PST  "Mike came out and I remember he said, 'Are you going to kill it?' And that stopped everything. And I couldn't believe it," the former employee said.
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| The Latest: Some who back Sanders more confident this time Posted: 15 Feb 2020 10:00 AM PST  Some Nevada Democrats who made Bernie Sanders their first choice in the state's early caucus voting say they think he has a better chance of being elected president now than he did in 2016. Solana Kline of Reno says she supported Sanders last time too, but didn't think he could win so she opted for Hillary Clinton because she was more mainstream. Kline says the whole political climate has changed since then and Sanders vs. Donald Trump would be viewed more as good vs. evil.
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| AOC lowers expectations on Medicare for All, admitting Sanders 'can't wave a magic wand' to pass it Posted: 14 Feb 2020 01:29 PM PST  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Thursday that if Bernie Sanders were elected president, he still might not be able to get Medicare for All, his signature health plan, passed in Congress.
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| Experts weigh in on how coronavirus may, or may not, run rampant in US in coming months Posted: 14 Feb 2020 01:42 PM PST  The coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, has infected more than 60,000, killed over 1,300 and terrified millions. In the United States, residents wait with bated breath as new cases of infected Americans arise. Also worth noting is that more than 7,000 patients diagnosed with the virus have recovered, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.On Thursday, the 15th U.S. case of coronavirus was confirmed by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) after a patient returned from China to Texas earlier this week."The patient is among a group of people under a federal quarantine order at JBSA-Lackland in Texas because of their recent return to the U.S. on a State Department-chartered flight that arrived on February 7, 2020," the CDC wrote in a press release. Flower shop owner Iris Leung wears her protective face mask as she delivers flowers with masks to customers on Valentine's Day in Hong Kong, Friday, Feb. 14, 2020. COVID-19 viral illness has sickened tens of thousands of people in China since December. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu) Experts such as Elizabeth McGowan, however, have reason to believe the outbreak that has inflicted so many in Mainland China won't strike with the same impacts in the U.S.McGowan, who serves as director of Penn State University's Center of Infectious Disease Dynamics, said the size of cities where infections are confirmed and quarantine efforts will determine the stateside spread."I think in the U.S. it will be about locality," McGowan told AccuWeather in an interview. "I don't think it would be about culture or social behavior. I think it's going to be about whether it comes into smaller communities or bigger communities," she continued."Wuhan is a very large city [in China], with over 11 million people, so anytime you have large amounts of people in shared space you just have [a] greater risk for a greater sized outbreak. I think more than cultural differences and our behaviors between countries, it will be about where does it end up and whether we are able to successfully isolate those individuals."Two known cases of person-to-person transmission have been recorded in the U.S. so far -- one in California and one in Illinois, according to CNN.Experts have continually stressed the importance of proper preventative practices this flu season, particularly with the threat of COVID-19. McGowan, however, pushed the importance of using proper products that ensure the best protection. An employee wearing a protective face mask waits for customers at a shop in Hong Kong, Friday, Feb. 14, 2020. COVID-19 viral illness has sickened tens of thousands of people in China since December. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu) "We should be washing our hands with soap and doing it effectively. If you can not use soap, you can use those hand gel, alcohol-based disinfectants," she advised. "Those need to have a percentage of alcohol that's 60 percent or greater, so you need to be careful to make sure you get the right ones, check the label, and you need to make sure you rub in for 20 seconds or so before they're effective."Along with covering mouths and staying away from people while sick, McGowan added that it's important for people who feel any symptoms coming on to stay home. Hong Kong University professor John Nicholls recently stressed similar preventative measures in email exchanges with AccuWeather."Apart from hand washing (soap is just as good as those alcohol gels) and masks, an important aspect is social distancing -- if people have symptoms stay away from other people," he said in an email on Feb. 13. "If you check the local Hong Kong media today, this was not followed by a guy who was ill but still went to work and subsequently appeared to infect other people."In a leaked private conference call with investment bankers last week, Nicholls expanded on those beliefs and described the different sanitary standards practiced in different regions. People wear protective face masks on a street in the rain in Hong Kong, Friday, Feb. 14, 2020. COVID-19 viral illness has sickened tens of thousands of people in China since December. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu) "With SARS, once it was discovered that the virus was spread through the fecal-oral route, there was much less emphasis on the masks and far more emphasis on disinfection and washing hands," he said. "Hong Kong has far more cleanliness [than China] and they are very aware of social hygiene and other countries will be more aware of the social hygiene [than China]. So, in those countries, you should see less outbreaks and spreading. A couple days ago the fecal-oral route of transmission was confirmed in Shenzhen ... But in other countries the sanitation systems tends to [be] closed. My personal view is that this will be a bad cold and it will all be over by May."Nicholls seemed to soften on his certainty that COVID-19 would be nullified by May in subsequent emails to AccuWeather, but McGowan expressed similar sentiments about the effect warming weather would have on the virus and the impact it would have in countries such as the U.S.CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP"Coronaviruses are a lot like flu and cold viruses, they're transmitted in respiratory droplets when people cough and sneeze," she said. "What that means is that for their transmission to work they have to hang in the air often for enough time before they can be inhaled into someone's lungs, and we know that weather affects that. The reason cold viruses and flu viruses like coronavirus can have seasonality is because they hang in the air longer when conditions are dry and cold."Conversely, in warmer spring and summer months, McGowan explained that higher levels of humidity cause those droplets to drop to the ground quicker, lessening the capacity for viruses to spread since the droplets spend less time in the environment. Customers wearing protective face masks looks at snacks at a shop in Hong Kong, Friday, Feb. 14, 2020. COVID-19 viral illness has sickened tens of thousands of people in China since December. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu) In major countries located in the Southern Hemisphere, such as Australia and New Zealand, COVID-19 could become a bigger issue in the future as major populations enter the winter months. There, McGowan said, the opposite impact on spread could occur in the coming months.One factor that could bear watching in Northern Hemisphere areas, where spring is a little more than one month away, would be if temperatures and humidity don't rise as high as some experts may think. Strange and unexpected weather factors like that could cause the virus to further mutate, although McGowan added that communities that have already been stricken by the virus are much less likely to be impacted again."We have some coronaviruses that have just become common cold viruses and they sort of continue to circulate in human populations," McGowan said. "So, there's a possibility that that could happen with this sort of virus. These viruses are always evolving and changing all the time, so that's yet to be seen. For areas where there has been a lot of infection, that virus is unlikely to reinvade that community."Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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| Swarms of up to 80 Million Locusts Decimating Crops In East Africa, Threatening Food Security For 13 Million People Posted: 14 Feb 2020 09:45 AM PST  The United Nations (UN) has called on the international community to provide nearly $76 million to finance aerial spraying of pesticides in East Africa, where…
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| I Am Watching China Wage a 'People's War' Against Coronavirus (65,000 Cases and Growing) Posted: 15 Feb 2020 04:46 AM PST  Our latest on-the-ground reporting as the world's emerging superpower tackles an unprecedented challenge.
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| Trump to send border agents to "sanctuary" cities to help ICE Posted: 14 Feb 2020 06:28 PM PST  The move marks yet another escalation in the Trump administration's feud with cities that limit their cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
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| Mike Bloomberg once said taking too much money from the rich and giving it to the poor was a bigger problem than income inequality Posted: 14 Feb 2020 07:19 AM PST  "I think income inequality is a very big problem. But the bigger problem is, you can take money from the rich and move it over to the poor," he said.
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| Barr assigns outside prosector to review Michael Flynn case in 'highly unusual' move Posted: 14 Feb 2020 11:18 AM PST  Attorney General William Barr is having an outside prosecutor review the criminal case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, The New York Times reports. The Times notes this is a "highly unusual" move, which could "trigger more accusations of political interference by top Justice Department officials into the work of career prosecutors." Barr has reportedly been installing outside prosecutors to review numerous politically-sensitive cases including that of the former Trump adviser, who in 2017 pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with then-Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak. Since then, Flynn has been trying to change his plea to not guilty, saying last month, "In truth, I never lied." Jeff Jensen of the office of the United States attorney in St. Louis is reportedly examining the Flynn case. The news came almost immediately after the Department of Justice said it wouldn't be charging former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, a whiplash of stories likely to make Trump angry and then pleased in that order. This also comes at the end of a week in which the Justice Department suddenly reversed its sentencing recommendation of up to nine years in prison for longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone, leading four prosecutors in the case to quit. Trump, who criticized the original sentencing recommendation, subsequently congratulated Barr "for taking charge" of the case. Trump on Friday claimed he has "the legal right" to ask Barr to get involved in criminal cases but said "I have so far chosen not to!" More stories from theweek.com Everyone would fall for a Trump deepfake The arguments for and against Bloomberg's stance on the origins of the 2008 financial crisis The sidelining of Elizabeth Warren
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| Bosnian police tussle with migrants protesting over camp conditions Posted: 15 Feb 2020 08:52 AM PST  Bosnian police scuffled on Saturday with hundreds of migrants who tried to break out of an overcrowded camp during a protest over conditions at the facility and their treatment by authorities in nearby Croatia. The Miral camp lies in western Bosnia, just 10 km (six miles) from the Croatian border, and currently houses about 1,000 migrants -- 300 more than its capacity. Witnesses saw police scuffling with migrants and detaining several people during Saturday's protest, in which the mostly male protesters chanted "Freedom", "Give us our money back" and "Stop beating us".
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| For first time, Biden calls Obama deportations 'big mistake' Posted: 15 Feb 2020 03:03 PM PST  Going further than he ever has in expressing regret over Obama administration immigration policy, presidential candidate Joe Biden called it a "big mistake" to have deported hundreds of thousands of people without criminal records. "We took far too long to get it right," Biden said in a wide-ranging, sometimes contentious interview with Univision anchor Jorge Ramos. In written statements included as part of Biden's proposed immigration overhaul, the campaign already had acknowledged "pain" surrounding deportations that occurred when he served as President Barack Obama's vice president.
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| Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows Sanders's strength going head-to-head with rivals Posted: 14 Feb 2020 11:17 AM PST  A new Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows that Sen. Bernie Sanders would defeat each of the other Democratic presidential candidates in a one-on-one race — in many instances by double-digit margins.
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| Queer activists disrupt Pete Buttigieg event in San Francisco: 'We deserve better' Posted: 14 Feb 2020 10:52 AM PST  Fundraiser highlights division as growing number of LGBTQ+ voters say his views don't represent themAt the center of San Francisco's National LGBTQ Center for the Arts, two queer activists stood up and disrupted a private fundraiser for Pete Buttigieg after he received a question from the audience about his husband, Chasten.The packed room quickly booed down the activists, drowning out their pointed questions on Friday with chants of "Boot-Edge-Edge! Boot-Edge-Edge!" as they were escorted out of the building."I respect your activism, but this is a gathering for supporters of our campaign and I just got a question about my husband and I'm really excited to answer it," Buttigieg quipped from stage, drawing strong applause from the crowd.The activists were part of a group protesting outside the event that reflected a growing disquiet among the LBGTQ+ community when it came to the Buttigieg campaign. Buttigieg may be the first openly gay candidate to sweep the national stage and perform as well as he has in Iowa and New Hampshire, but more and more young queer voters say they feel he is not representative of them or their experiences."I'm definitely proud of the fact that a gay candidate has made it thus far, but it's hard to enjoy or appreciate when his stances are so middle of the road and speak to a predominantly white, upper class audience," Celi Tamayo-Lee, one of the activists escorted out of the fundraiser, said in an interview before the event.Friday's protesters cited many of the same issues that members of the LGBTQ+ community nationwide say are giving them pause – Buttigieg's unwillingness to support Medicare for All, free college for all, his issues with communities of color, his ties to billionaire donors – all issues that are not specific to the LGBTQ+ community but still affect them at certain intersections."We need better, we deserve better," Adiel Pollydore, a 26-year-old program director with Student Action who is black and queer, told the Guardian. "There's a level of irony that this event costs hundreds of dollars to attend in the Mission, a historically Latinx and immigrant neighborhood. What does it say that this event is not accessible to the folks that live in the neighborhood where it's being held?"Tickets to the fundraiser started at $250. The Guardian received a ticket from a donor associated with the groups organizing the protests."You're homophobes, that's what you all are, you're homophobes!" a Buttigieg supporter yelled at the protesters after the event."We're all gay!" a protester responded."You interrupted that question," the Buttigieg supporter said, walking toward Tamayo-Lee. "You're deplorable.""Don't walk up on us," another protester said, shielding Tamayo-Lee."You're walking up on us, going up on us because we're gay men," the supporter responded. "You're horrible."The group quickly reset after that interaction, chanting, "Hey Pete! Come out, we got some things to talk about!""The people who disrupted that fundraiser were all queer people of color," Pollydore said. "We're allowed to want the gay candidate who is running to do better and be better for queer communities of color. There's nothing homophobic about that."While Buttigieg has been open about his sexual orientation, with his husband Chasten playing a large role in the campaign, Pollydore felt there was a level of erasure in the way Buttigieg spoke about and presented LGBTQ+ issues."Pete Buttigieg represents a very small percentage of the experiences of queer and trans people in this country, being white and being cisgender and being a man, being someone who is highly educated," Pollydore said. "We know queer and trans folks of color, especially black queer and trans folks, live at the intersection of so many systems of oppression in this country. This run for president could have been a really unique opportunity to lift up those experiences and talk about all the different ways we are criminalized and our safety is constantly threatened and we are shut out of institutions on the regular. But this campaign has not been about that."Before the event, the line of Buttigieg supporters wrapped around the block to enter, with protesters chanting and waving signs while people waited. Some supporters seemed flummoxed by their presence. "Queers against Pete?" one attendee questioned, reading their signs."We're on the same team," someone muttered."What's the point?" someone else said. "Just vote for your candidate. Don't tear down the others.""You're coming to San Francisco, the heart of gay activism in America," Emily Lee, director of the San Francisco Rising Action Fund, said in an interview. "You need to actually respond to the people of San Francisco who identify as gay or queer. It's a very fitting place to be asking him these hard questions."
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| Just Ask This Russian Submarine: The Cuban Missile Crisis Nearly Ended The World Posted: 14 Feb 2020 10:30 PM PST  It was a closer call than you think.
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| The US Air Force has updated and broadened its dress code to allow turbans, beards, and hijabs Posted: 14 Feb 2020 08:34 AM PST  Airmen were previously allowed to make a request for religious accommodations, but they were granted on a case-by-case basis.
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| 6-year-old forced to leave school asked cop, "Am I going to jail?" Posted: 15 Feb 2020 04:37 AM PST  Nadia King was removed from school and involuntarily committed to a mental health facility under the Baker Act.
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| Merkel Challenger Assails the Chancellor With Her Own Words Posted: 14 Feb 2020 02:11 AM PST |
| Trump defends China's alleged cover-up of coronavirus victims: 'You don't want the world to go crazy' Posted: 15 Feb 2020 05:42 AM PST  Donald Trump has launched an extraordinary defence of China's alleged attempts to cover-up the extent of the spread of coronavirus.The US president, who has claimed without evidence the virus will likely "go away" by April, said Beijing has handled the epidemic "very professionally", despite accusations the country had attempted to suppress information about the crisis.
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| Biden calls on Sanders to take accountability for supporters' threats Posted: 15 Feb 2020 02:58 PM PST  The message comes after the powerful Culinary Workers Union said supporters of the Vermont senator had "viciously attacked" its members.
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| Venezuelan president says arrest of Juan Guaidó "will come" Posted: 14 Feb 2020 09:45 AM PST  Maduro made the remark in a meeting with the international press three days after Guaidó returned from a tour to the U.S. and Europe, in defiance of a court order prohibiting him from leaving the country. Despite the order, migration officials let Guaidó enter when he arrived on a commercial flight at Venezuela's main international airport. Maduro said that the day Venezuela's justice system decides Guaidó should be imprisoned "for all the crimes he's committed," he will be jailed.
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| North Korea's Kim makes first public appearance in 22 days amid virus outbreak Posted: 15 Feb 2020 01:48 PM PST  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made his first public appearance in 22 days amid an outbreak of coronavirus, state media reported on Saturday, to visit a national mausoleum and mark the anniversary of the late leader Kim Jong Il's birth. Kim Jong Un paid tribute to the statue of former leader Kim at Pyongyang's Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, his first public appearance since he attended Lunar New Year celebrations on Jan. 25, state media Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
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| Why this mother wants to warn people about the dangers of cannabis Posted: 14 Feb 2020 09:57 AM PST  Regina Denney lost her son to cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, an illness that affects some individuals who consume cannabis. Hot showers and the consumption of hot peppers are the only ways that individuals with CHS can find relief from the violent vomiting that this illness induces. Doctors are trying to find a cure, but currently the only way to get better is to quit consuming cannabis altogether.
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| Air strikes on Yemen kill 31 civilians after Saudi jet crash Posted: 15 Feb 2020 04:55 PM PST  Thirty-one people were killed in air strikes on Yemen Saturday, the United Nations said, the victims of an apparent Saudi-led retaliation after Iran-backed Huthi rebels claimed to have shot down one of its jets. The deadly violence follows an upsurge in fighting in northern Yemen between the warring parties that threatens to worsen the war-battered country's humanitarian crisis. "Preliminary field reports indicate that on 15 February as many as 31 civilians were killed and 12 others injured in strikes that hit Al-Hayjah area... in Al-Jawf governorate," the office of the UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen said in a statement.
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| How Bloomberg's philanthropy may have secured his political influence Posted: 15 Feb 2020 10:11 AM PST  Billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is gaining some traction in the Democratic primary, despite his late entry. Part of the reason he's been able to do that, The New York Times reports after reviewing years of campaign and nonprofit tax filings, may be because he spent years building influence by donating hefty to funds to certain causes.Per the Times, some — though not all — of Bloomberg's philanthropic endeavors appear to have secured the allegiance of powerful institutions, as well as leaders within the Democratic Party. The Times is clear that no one interviewed for the story described anything akin to threats or coercion, but Bloomberg's financial influence did speak for itself in some cases. "They aren't going to criticize him in his 2020 run because they don't want to jeopardize receiving financial support from him in the future," said Paul S. Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation at the good-government group Common Cause.In 2015, the Times reports, researchers at the Center for American Progress turned in a report on anti-Muslim bias in the U.S., which included about 4,000 words on New York City police surveillance of Muslim communities. Bloomberg, because he was the city's mayor, was mentioned a handful of times. But when the report was published, the chapter was gone. A spokeswoman for the policy group, said the chapter was removed for editorial reasons, but Yasmine Taeb, the author of the report, said there was fear about how it would be perceived by Bloomberg. An email reviewed by the Times also shows at least one official wrote that there would be a "strong reaction from Bloomberg world if we release the report as written," and three people with direct knowledge of the situation reportedly confirmed Bloomberg was a factor in the decision. Read more at The New York Times.More stories from theweek.com Everyone would fall for a Trump deepfake The arguments for and against Bloomberg's stance on the origins of the 2008 financial crisis The sidelining of Elizabeth Warren
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| Australian soldiers caring for rescued koalas Posted: 14 Feb 2020 09:19 PM PST  The soldiers fed 28 rescued koalas and helped build climbing structures for them in their new home.
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| Ex-priest convicted in Texas beauty queen's murder dies while serving life Posted: 14 Feb 2020 07:57 PM PST  John Feit was convicted in 2016 of a murder that happened over 50 years ago.
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| Hong Kong's Disneyland is letting the government use some of its land to quarantine people and stop the coronavirus spreading Posted: 15 Feb 2020 01:37 AM PST  Hong Kong is looking for secure and remote sites to quarantine people that may have the coronavirus in a bid to stop it spreading further.
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| Trump administration to deploy Border Patrol officers to sanctuary cities Posted: 14 Feb 2020 03:24 PM PST  This comes as the administration has repeatedly targeted sanctuary cities that limit cooperation with immigration enforcement authorities.
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| Navy Warhips Ought To Fear Russia's New Stealth Fighter Posted: 15 Feb 2020 08:30 AM PST  It'll sink them.
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| 'Disown them:' Biden criticizes Sanders for supporters' online attacks Posted: 15 Feb 2020 04:04 PM PST  Biden, in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press," waded into a spat between Sanders supporters and leaders of The Culinary Union, a powerful labor group in Nevada that has been critical of the senator's healthcare proposals. Nevada holds the next nominating contest in the Democratic presidential primary. "He may not be responsible for it but he has some accountability," Biden said in the interview that will air on Sunday morning.
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| Ramaphosa Speech Flags South Africa Credit Challenges, Fitch Says Posted: 14 Feb 2020 03:34 AM PST |
| Iran: Trump wrong if he thinks Tehran regime will collapse Posted: 15 Feb 2020 08:26 AM PST  Iran's foreign minister said Saturday that U.S. President Donald Trump is receiving bad advice if he believes an American "maximum pressure" campaign against his country will cause the government in Tehran to collapse. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told a group of top defense officials and diplomats at the Munich Security Conference that the information provided to the president has dissuaded Trump from accepting offers from other leaders to mediate between Washington and Tehran. "President Trump has been convinced that we are about to collapse so he doesn't want to talk to a collapsing regime," Zarif said.
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| Tennessee Republicans worry women will go on tampon-buying frenzy Posted: 14 Feb 2020 03:00 AM PST  During an annual three-day holiday, shoppers are allowed to buy computers and clothing tax-free, but a proposal to include tampons has gotten pushbackWomen can't be trusted around tax-free tampons. If you cut the price of menstrual products they're bound to go tampon-mad and buy boxes of the stuff, just for the hell of it. They'd line their walls with super-plus, they'd polish their floors with pads; it would be absolute bedlam.That appears to be what Republicans in Tennessee think, anyway. On Tuesday GOP lawmakers pushed back against a proposal that would include sanitary products in Tennessee's annual sales-tax holiday. The three-day event, held at the end of July, allows shoppers to buy items like computers and clothing without paying the usual 7% state sales tax."I would think since it's a sales tax holiday, there's really no limit on the number of items anybody can purchase," said Joey Hensley, the Republican senator, during a debate on the bill. "I don't know how you would limit the number of items someone could purchase."Hensely's legislative assistant later explained that his questions were prompted by concerns "that the possibility of people purchasing large quantities had not been factored in when determining the cost of the legislation". One would not want Tennessee to be bankrupted by residents bulk-buying tampons, after all.Menstrual products are a necessity, not a luxury; and yet, across America and around the world, they're still largely taxed as the latter. Products such as Viagra and Rogaine, however, are not subject to sales tax in America because they're considered medically necessary. Why is this the case? As President Obama joked back in 2016, "I suspect it's because men were making the laws when those taxes were passed."The annual tax revenue from menstrual products is not insignificant, ranging from around $1m in Utah to $20m in California. This is money a lot of states don't want to lose; after all they might then have to make the funds up via drastic measures like taxing billionaires a little more. In 2016, Jerry Brown, the Democratic governor of California at the time, vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have exempted menstrual products from sales tax, saying it would cost the state too much in lost revenue. Brown also shot down similar bills which would have ended certain state taxes for diapers.Over the last few years there's been increased global activism and awareness around the so-called tampon tax, and some progress has been made. Between 2016 and 2018, five US states (Nevada, New York, Florida, Connecticut and Illinois) got rid of the tax, and at least 22 states introduced bills to repeal the tax last year. California also suspended the tax in a law that went into effect on January 1, though the exemption, which also includes diapers, expires in 2022. As it stands, a tampon tax is still in place across 33 states.In 2004, Kenya became the first country in the world to end a value-added sales tax on menstrual products. Thanks to pressure from female parliamentarians, the nation has since implemented a number of progressive period policies. In 2010 it allocated almost $4m to provide free sanitary pads to schoolgirls.Canada, India, Australia, Malaysia, and Germany have all jettisoned the tampon tax in the past few years, following pressure from activists. The UK still has a 5% tax (down from an original 20%), but in 2015 set up a tampon tax fund and pledged that the money raised would be spent on women's charities.Scrapping sales tax on menstrual products and treating them like the necessities they are is an important step towards period equity. But even without sales tax, the items are still expensive and many women struggle to afford them. Last year a survey of low-income women in St Louis, Missouri, found nearly two-thirds couldn't afford menstrual hygiene products during the previous year, and one in five struggled to buy the products every month. Meanwhile, just across the border in Tennessee, we've got Republicans worrying women might abuse the system by splurging on tax-free tampons.
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| Best Washing Machines of 2020 Posted: 14 Feb 2020 01:17 PM PST  For most of us, doing laundry is a chore. But for Consumer Reports' testers, it's a mission. Our laundry lab hums year-round as the testers work to determine the best models for every budget and ...
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| The Scandal Rocking California’s Weed Industry Posted: 15 Feb 2020 02:10 AM PST  Sometime in 2018, a Chicago-area union honcho named Joseph Senese started showing up at cannabis industry mixers in California.Senese represented himself as a leader of the National Production Workers Union, an Illinois-based outfit. As he put it to curious cannabis business owners and consultants, the union was getting into weed with a new California-based local called "ProTech Local 33." The idea was to help West Coast cannabis businesses fulfill a labor-friendly licensing requirement necessary for them to obtain a state permit and open up shop.To Johnny Delaplane—an Illinois native and partner in Berner's on Haight, the first legal weed store in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury—ProTech Local 33 sounded great. Or at least a fine option to satisfy local authorities with what's called a "labor peace agreement" (LPA), essentially a promise between management and a union to not sabotage organizing efforts.But when Delaplane and his partners submitted their signed LPA to the San Francisco Mayor's Office of Economic and Workforce Development for final approval, there was a problem: Their new union partner, according to the city's workforce development director, might not actually be a union. Not only had nobody heard of ProTech Local 33—the group is not a member of state or local labor councils or federations—but it didn't appear to have any members. Even worse, the office found "several articles and court cases" suggesting ProTech was a "company union," a so-called labor outfit actually controlled by employers. For these reasons, MOEWD Workforce Director Joshua Arce wrote in a December email obtained by The Daily Beast, ProTech had not cleared the threshold of being a "Bona Fide Labor Organization."A Drop of Cannabis Oil Could Land This Pennsylvania Woman in JailThe episode has touched off a furor in California labor and in the larger cannabis industry—which, with more than 250,000 workers nationwide, most of whom are engaged in low-wage retail or agricultural work, represents a potential bonanza for organizers. So far, however, with the exception of some limited wins by the United Food and Commercial Workers and the Teamsters, organized labor has failed to make many inroads into cannabis, much as it has struggled to make much major headway organizing skilled workers at Silicon Valley powerhouses like Google and Facebook.The strange saga of a weed labor organizer from the Midwest poking around the local scene doesn't seem to be making it any easier.When things went wrong for ProTech in San Francisco, Senese struck back. In a blistering letter obtained by The Daily Beast, he suggested ProTech's rejection was made at the behest of other existing labor organizations incensed at a newcomer encroaching on their turf. "This smacks of collusion," he wrote, insisting the Production Workers had been operating in San Francisco and in California "for over 20 years." But while ProTech Local 33's website lists a phone number and an address at an office park in Bakersfield, a hardscrabble city in that state's Central Valley, several calls over a period of days to a number listed on the website were not returned. That's because that office has been closed, Senese explained to The Daily Beast in a telephone interview Thursday from Illinois, where he said he orchestrates West Coast organizing efforts.Those efforts are on the up-and-up, he insisted.In addition to the dispensary in San Francisco, ProTech has signed "close to 100" LPAs with other California cannabis businesses and has actually organized workers at five shops, Senese said, including distribution and processing centers. ("Don't hold me to that number," he cautioned of the "100" figure.)The fact that none of ProTech's members appear in any labor filings reviewed by San Francisco regulators can be explained by the fact that the union was only chartered a year ago, in January 2019, and none of that data has been reported yet, he added.Asked to name any of the outfits he'd organized, Senese declined. "That's not something most unions talk about," he told The Daily Beast. (Most other unions, for what it's worth, do talk about organizing victories, extremely publicly.)Nor would he name any other cannabis businesses with whom his shop had signed labor-peace agreements, except to say that ProTech Local 33 was active "from San Diego to Sonoma" County, north of San Francisco. Senese specifically claimed to have signed other LPAs with San Francisco-based cannabis businesses.The Daily Beast struggled mightily to verify these claims. Labor organizations in Los Angeles and San Francisco, the state's two most prominent cities with thriving cannabis industries, did not appear to be familiar with ProTech. "We have not heard about any union called ProTech," Christian Castro, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Labor Federation, told The Daily Beast in an email. "They are not affiliated with us or the AFL-CIO." Rudy Gonzalez, executive director of the San Francisco Labor Council, likewise said he'd never heard of ProTech Local 33. In California's state Capitol of Sacramento, Jerome Parra, a spokesman for Assemblymember Rob Bonta, who authored the cannabis regulation bill that contains the labor-peace language, said he was also not familiar with the organization.The union was news to cannabis regulators in other cities, too. Rayna Plummer, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Department of Cannabis Regulation, said her office had never heard of ProTech—and that it did not have any LPAs on file for any of the city's hundreds of permitted cannabis operations. (In an email, Alex Traverso, a spokesman for the state Bureau of Cannabis Control, said any information his agency might have about ProTech would be in pending license applications, and thus not subject to open-records laws.)For his part, Delaplane, who runs the San Francisco Cannabis Retail Alliance, a network of weed sales permit-holders and permit-seekers in that city, said he "did not know" of any other LPAs signed with ProTech among his members.ProTech also departs from typical union tradition with its membership in a trade group representing business owners. ProTech is the only labor outfit that's a member of the California Cannabis Industry Association (CCIA)—Senese even ran for a position on its board, and lost—which recently circulated a white paper instructing owners on how to sign business-friendly labor peace agreements. Disney Sued by Labor Union for Failing to Pay Living Wage: Employees Have to 'Live in Their Cars'Josh Drayton, a spokesman for the CCIA, declined to discuss ProTech, including whether the association vetted it before accepting payment for the union's membership, and similarly declined to discuss the memo aside from denying engaging in any union-busting activities. ProTech had been a member of the National Cannabis Industry Association, spokesman Morgan Fox confirmed, but the organization's membership lapsed in September. Privately, labor officials have suggested National Production Workers, and, by extension, ProTech, is a business-friendly front meant to help companies meet state labor requirements without ever intending to allow workers to organize. Indeed, ProTech appeared to dance very close to the definition of "a company union"—ersatz worker organizations set up by management to crush organizing efforts before they can begin—which have been banned under federal labor law since the 1930s. "This 'union,' and you can put that in quotes, does not look on the face of it to be a 'bona fide labor organization,'" said Ken Jacobs, director of the University of California-Berkeley Labor Center."You've got a union that doesn't appear to have many, or any members, is offering a labor-peace agreement that is extremely favorable to companies, and matches the criteria put forward in an anti-union memo from the industry association," said Jacobs, who added that ProTech appears to be following a well-established pattern of anti-organizing behavior."It looks to me like San Francisco made the right call," he added.Senese defended his reputation and National Production Workers. "This union has never ever been found guilty of anything," he said Thursday. San Francisco "was throwing the whole kitchen sink at us" in an effort to reject the LPA, he added. For now, he said, he would let the matter sit. But "if another one of my peace agreements gets rejected," Senese vowed, "I will take legal action."Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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