Illinois enacts mandatory paid leave ‘for any reason’
Claire Savage – March 13, 2023
CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois will become one of three states to require employers to offer paid time off for any reason after Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a law on Monday that will take effect next year.
Starting Jan. 1, Illinois employers must offer workers paid time off based on hours worked, with no need to explain the reason for their absence as long as they provide notice in accordance with reasonable employer standards.
Just Maine and Nevada mandate earned paid time time off and allot employees the freedom to decide how to use it, but Illinois’ law is further reaching, unencumbered by limits based on business size. Similarly structured regulations that require employers to offer paid sick leave exist in 14 states and Washington, D.C., but workers can only use that for health-related reasons.
Illinois employees will accrue one hour of paid leave for every 40 hours worked up to 40 hours total, although the employer may offer more. Employees can start using the time once they have worked for 90 days. Seasonal workers will be exempt, as will federal employees or college students who work non-full-time, temporary jobs for their university.
Pritzker signed the bill Monday in downtown Chicago, saying: “Too many people can’t afford to miss even a day’s pay … together we continue to build a state that truly serves as a beacon for families, and businesses, and good paying jobs.”
Proponents say paid leave is key to making sure workers, especially low-income workers who are more vulnerable, are able to take time off when needed without fear of reprisal from an employer.
But critics say the law will overburden small businesses already struggling to survive the post-pandemic era amid the high inflation that has gripped the nation for nearly two years.
National Federation of Independent Business Illinois state director Chris Davis said that business owners are best positioned to work with their employees one-on-one to meet their needs.
The new law is “a one-size-fits-all solution to a more intricate problem,” he said.
Bill sponsor Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth, a Peoria Democrat, said the bill is the product of years of negotiations with businesses and labor groups.
“Everyone deserves the ability to take time off,” she said in a statement. “Whether it’s to deal with the illness of a family member, or take a step back for your mental health, enshrining paid leave rights is a step forward for our state.”
“This is about bringing dignity to all workers,” she said at the signing.
Ordinances in Cook County and Chicago that already require employers to offer paid sick leave have been in place since July 2017, and workers in those locations will continue to be covered by existing laws rather than the new state law.
Any new local laws enacted after the state law takes effect must provide benefits that are greater or equal to the state law.
Molly Weston Williamson, paid leave expert at the Center for American Progress, said the law “creates a strong foundation for employers to build from while generating a healthier, more productive workforce.”
But Williamson added that while Illinois’ law is a step in the right direction, U.S. paid leave laws remain “wildly out of line with all of our economic peers internationally.”
“In the United States, federal law does not guarantee anyone the right to even a single paid day off work. Not when you’re sick, not when you have a baby, not when your mom has a stroke. Not a single paid day,” she said.
Joan Van, a server at an international hotel chain and single mother of three, currently has no paid time off.
But the Belleville parent leader with Community Organizing and Family Issues said that knowing that she will have five days next year brings a smile to her face.
“It’s going to help out a lot of people, a lot of mothers, a lot of single mothers at that,” she said.
Trump tells Iowa campaign stop he’ll revamp ‘insane’ US schooling
March 13, 2023
Former president Donald Trump on Monday slammed the “insane” US education system and vowed to bring back “common sense” schooling as part of his “America First” campaign platform, touching on a hot-button issue that is expected to dominate next year’s election.
Speaking to potential voters in Iowa, he hit on what has increasingly become a cultural flashpoint in the United States, with Republicans taking every opportunity they get to assail Democrats over what they see as the encroachment of “wokeness” into teaching.
“We have to get back to common sense, and that is reading, writing, arithmetic,” Trump told the crowd in Davenport, in response to an audience question about schools becoming “indoctrination camps” that are “focused on sexualizing our children.”
“What they’re teaching in schools today is insane,” said the 76-year-old Republican, who is running for president again after failing to win a second term in 2020.
Trump had previewed his education policy blueprint in January, calling for federal funding cuts to programs teaching children “critical race theory, gender ideology, or other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content.”
On Monday night, he also promised to champion school choice, the right of parents to elect principals, and state — rather than federal — control over curriculums.
“School choice is where it’s at,” Trump said, referring to a movement that seeks to use tax credits and vouchers to allow parents to opt out of the public school system in favor of privately managed charter schools.
“As president I’ll fight to expand that right to every single state in America,” he said.
And he repeated a previous pledge to “keep men out of women’s sports” — a reference to Republican efforts to ban transgender women and girls from sports teams that match their gender identity.
– Shifting polls –
Iowa tends to be deluged by candidates in presidential election cycles as it hosts the first nominating contest for Republicans, and remains high in the Democratic calendar after being knocked from top spot.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — Trump’s chief potential rival for the Republican nod and a major critic of progressive messaging in classrooms — himself stopped by the Hawkeye State on Friday.
Former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, the only high-profile Republican Trump rival to have officially declared her candidacy, also campaigned in the largely rural Midwestern state last week.
A Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll out on Friday showed Trump still holding significant sway in Iowa, although his favorability rating among self-identified Republicans has fallen from 91 percent in September 2021 to 80 percent.
DeSantis was close behind, with 74 percent of self-identified Republicans having a favorable opinion of him.
And the share of Republicans who said they’d “definitely vote” for Trump if he were the party’s 2024 presidential nominee dropped from 69 percent in June 2021 to 47 percent now.
Democratic National Committee spokesman Rhyan Lake has previously accused Trump’s support for school choice as being an effort to gut public education while pushing to move billions of dollars towards private schools.
“Everyone will see right through Donald Trump’s desperate spin about his own record as the GOP field races to out-MAGA each other at the expense of America’s kids,” Lake said in a statement.
Russia’s economy holds up, but growing challenges test Putin
David McHugh – March 13, 2023
Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures while speaking at a news conference following a meeting of the State Council at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia on Dec. 22, 2022. Russia’s economy has weathered the West’s unprecedented economic sanctions far better than expected. But with restrictions finally tightening on the Kremlin’s chief moneymaker — oil — the months ahead will be an even tougher test of President Vladimir Putin’s fortress economy. (Sergey Guneyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)A view of the business tower Lakhta Centre, the headquarters of Russian gas monopoly Gazprom in St. Petersburg, Russia, on April 27, 2022. After a year of far-reaching sanctions aimed at degrading Moscow’s war chest, economic life for ordinary Russians doesn’t look all that different than it did before the invasion of Ukraine. But with restrictions finally tightening on the Kremlin’s chief moneymaker — oil — the months ahead will be an even tougher test of President Vladimir Putin’s fortress economy. (AP Photo, File) People wait in a line to pay for her purchases at the IKEA store on the outskirts of Moscow, Russia, on March 3, 2022. Furniture and home goods remaining after IKEA exited Russia are being sold off on the Yandex website. (AP Photo, File)A logo of a newly opened Stars Coffee in the former location of a Starbucks in Moscow, Russia, on Jan. 24, 2023. Crowds might have thinned at some Moscow malls, but not drastically. Some foreign companies like McDonald’s and Starbucks have been taken over by local owners who slapped different names on essentially the same menu. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)Few visitors pass inside the GUM department store with lots of boutiques closed due to sanctions in Moscow, Russia, on June 1, 2022. U.S. officials say Russia is now the most sanctioned country in the world. But as the war nears its one-year mark, it’s clear the sanctions didn’t pack the instantaneous punch that many had hoped. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, second left, accompanied by Russian Presidential Envoy to Ural Federal District Vladimir Yakushev, left, visits the Uralvagonzavod factory in Nizhny Tagil in Nizhny Tagil, Russia, on Oct. 24, 2022. Russia has weathered sweeping Western economic sanctions better than many expected. (Ekaterina Shtukina, Sputnik, Government Pool Photo via AP, File)
Western sanctions have hit Russian banks, wealthy individuals and technology imports. But after a year of far-reaching restrictions aimed at degrading Moscow’s war chest, economic life for ordinary Russians doesn’t look all that different than it did before the invasion of Ukraine.
There’s no mass unemployment, no plunging currency, no lines in front of failing banks. The assortment at the supermarket is little changed, with international brands still available or local substitutes taking their place.
“Economically, nothing has changed,” said Vladimir Zharov, 53, who works in television. “I work as I used to work, I go shopping as I used to. Well, maybe the prices have risen a little bit, but not in such a way that it is very noticeable.”
Economists say sanctions on Russian fossil fuels only now taking full effect — such as a price cap on oil — should eat into earnings that fund the military’s attacks on Ukraine. Some analysts predict signs of trouble — strained government finances or a sinking currency — could emerge in the coming months.
But other economists say the Kremlin has significant reserves of money that haven’t been hit by sanctions, while links to new trade partners in Asia have quickly taken shape. They say Russia isn’t likely to run out of money this year but instead will face a slow slide into years of economic stagnation.
“It will have enough money under any kind of reasonable scenario,” Chris Weafer, CEO and Russian economy analyst at the consulting firm Macro-Advisory, said in a recent online discussion held by bne IntelliNews.
Apple has stopped selling products in Russia, but Wildberries, the country’s biggest online retailer, offers the iPhone 14 for about the same price as in Europe. Online retailer Svaznoy lists Apple AirPods Pro.
Furniture and home goods remaining after IKEA exited Russia are being sold off on the Yandex website. Nespresso coffee capsules have run short after Swiss-based Nestle stopped shipping them, but knockoffs are available.
Labels on cans of Budweiser and Leffe beer on sale in Moscow indicate they were brewed by ABInBev’s local partner — even though the company wrote off a stake in its Russian joint venture and put it up for sale. Coke bottled in Poland is still available; local “colas,” too.
ABInBev says it’s no longer getting money from the venture and that Leffe production has been halted. Wildberries and Svyaznoy didn’t answer emails asking about their sourcing.
But it’s clear goods are skirting sanctions through imports from third countries that aren’t penalizing Russia. For example, Armenia’s exports to Russia jumped 49% in the first half of 2022. Chinese smartphones and vehicles are increasingly available.
The auto industry is facing bigger hurdles to adapt. Western automakers, including Renault, Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz, have halted production, with sales plunging 63% and local entities taking over some factories and bidding for others.
Foreign cars are still available but far fewer of them and for higher prices, said Andrei Olkhovsky, CEO of Avtodom, which has 36 dealerships in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Krasnodar.
“Shipments of the Porsche brand, as for those of other manufacturers, aren’t possible through official channels,” he said. “Whatever is on the market is scattered offerings of cars that were imported by individual persons or through friendly countries by official channels.”
While 191 foreign companies have left Russia and 1,169 are working to do so, some 1,223 are staying and 496 are taking a wait-and-see approach, according to a database compiled by the Kyiv School of Economics.
Companies are facing public pressure from Kyiv and Washington, but some have found it’s not so easy to line up a Russian buyer or say they’re selling essentials like food.
“Maybe it hasn’t affected me yet,” 63-year-old retiree Alexander Yeryomenko said. “I think that we will endure everything.”
Dmitry, a 33-year-old who declined to give his last name, said only clothing brands had changed.
“We have had even worse periods of time in history, and we coped,” he said, but added that “we need to develop our own production and not to depend on the import of products.”
One big reason for Russia’s resilience: record fossil fuel earnings of $325 billion last year as prices spiked. The surging costs stemmed from fears that the war would mean a severe loss of energy from the world’s third-largest oil producer.
That revenue, coupled with a collapse in what Russia could import because of sanctions, pushed the country into a record trade surplus — meaning what Russia earned from sales to other countries far outweighed its purchases abroad.
The boon helped bolster the ruble after a temporary post-invasion crash and provided cash for government spending on pensions, salaries and — above all — the military.
The Kremlin already had taken steps to sanctions-proof the economy after facing some penalties for annexing Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014. Companies began sourcing parts and food at home and the government built up huge piles of cash from selling oil and natural gas. About half of that money has been frozen, however, because it was held overseas.
Those measures helped blunt predictions of a 11% to 15% collapse in economic output. The economy shrank 2.1% last year, Russia’s statistics agency said. The International Monetary Fund predicts 0.3% growth this year — not great, but hardly disastrous.
Estimates differ on how hard those measures will hit. Experts at the Kyiv School of Economics say Russia’s economy will face a “turning point” this year as oil and gas revenue falls by 50% and the trade surplus plunges to $80 billion from $257 billion last year.
They say it’s already happening: Oil tax revenue fell 48% in January from a year earlier, according to the International Energy Agency.
Other economists are skeptical of a breaking point this year.
Moscow could likely weather even a short-term plunge in oil earnings, said Janis Kluge, a Russian economy expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.
Even cutting Russian oil revenue by a third “would be a severe hit to GDP, but it would not bankrupt the state and it would not lead to a crash,” he said. “I think from now on, we are talking about gradual changes to the economy.”
He said the real impact will be long term. The loss of Western technology such as advanced computer chips means an economy permanently stuck in low gear.
Russia may have successfully restarted factories after the Western exodus, “but the business case for producing something sophisticated in Russia is gone, and it’s not coming back,” Kluge said.
A Florida mother and daughter bought a house, 2 cars with a dementia patient’s $542,000
David J. Neal – March 13, 2023
Lee County Property Appraiser
Two Southwest Florida women hired to care for a 92-year-old woman with dementia instead cared only for the $542,760 they could steal from her financial accounts over two years. With that money, they bought a five-bedroom, four-bathroom house, two cars, paid off student loans and made credit card payments.
That’s all in the plea agreements of Cape Coral’s Diane Durbon, 58, and daughter Brittany Lukasik, 29, each of whom pleaded guilty in Fort Myers federal court to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Lukasik also pleaded guilty to filing a false tax return because, as generations of criminals back to Al Capone have learned, the IRS still counts criminal income as income to be reported.
Mother and daughter each are free on $50,000 bond, have handed over their passports and can’t leave the U.S. District Court Middle District of Florida before sentencing.
What follows comes from Durbon and Lukasik’s plea agreements.- ADVERTISEMENT -https://s.yimg.com/rq/darla/4-10-1/html/r-sf-flx.html
Just before Lukasik became a licensed registered nurse in 2016, they were hired by a woman to take care of her aunt “T.H.,” a 92-year-old with dementia. Durbon and Lukasik would get a combined $2,400 a month to stop by T.H.’s North Fort Myers home daily, make sure she ate and “provide … social interaction.”
In October 2017, Durbon put T.H. on the phone with Vanguard as part of a plan to get into T.H.’s Vanguard investment accounts.
“A review of interior surveillance video footage from cameras Durbon had installed inside of T.H.’s home showed Durbon putting a script that contained the answers to the Vanguard security questions in front of T.H. before and during each phone call,” Durbon’s plea agreement says. “Additionally, before some of the calls, Durbon was captured on surveillance pointing to different portions of the script to prepare T.H. for the call.”
After coaching T.H. into authorizing Durbon as her spokesperson, Durbon moved money from the investment accounts to a prime market money account. That checking account powers allowed Durbon to order many checks (using the excuse that T.H. didn’t like to be out of checks) and write checks worth $1,000 to $9,600 to Lukasik. In this manner, the fraudulent family stole $231,659 from T.H. between November 2017 and July 2019.
During that time, in November 2018, Durbon got into T.H.’s TransAmerica annuity policy, using a similar coaching-and-phone call method to get T.H. to cash out the annuity. When TransAmerica questioned Durbon about her actions, she said T.H. was her aunt.
Durbon’s fraud induced TransAmerica to issue a $244,521 check to T.H. That check got put in T.H.’s Wells Fargo account, from which 92 checks totaling $372,092 were issued to Lukasik between February 2019 and March 2020.
What fraud on the Florida family plan bought
With the stolen money, Lukasik paid off $29,000 in student loans and made $100,000 of credit card payments. She spent $17,735 to pay off her 2016 Nissan Rogue and bought mom a 2018 Nissan Rogue for $26,354. In March 2019, she bought a five-bedroom, four-bathroom duplex at 544/546 SE Fifth Ave. in Cape Coral, then spent $100,000 on electronics, furnishings and remodeling.
The Lee County Sheriff’s Office, the U.S. Secret Service and the IRS-Criminal Investigation unit investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Trent Reichling handled the prosecution.
Las Vegas water agency seeks power to limit residential use
Gabe Stern – March 13, 2023
A home with a swimming pool abuts the desert on the edge of the Las Vegas valley July 20, 2022, in Henderson, Nev. Nevada lawmakers on Monday, March 13, 2023, will consider another shift in water use for one of the driest major metropolitan areas in the U.S. The water agency that manages the Colorado River supply for Vegas is seeking authority to limit what comes out of residents’ taps. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)Sprinklers water grass at a park on Friday, April 9, 2021, in the Summerlin neighborhood of Las Vegas. Nevada lawmakers on Monday, March 13, 2023, will consider another shift in water use for one of the driest major metropolitan areas in the U.S. The water agency that manages the Colorado River supply for Vegas is seeking authority to limit what comes out of residents’ taps. (AP Photo/Ken Ritter, File)Water from the Colorado River, diverted through the Central Arizona Project, fills an irrigation canal, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022, in Maricopa, Ariz. Nevada lawmakers on Monday, March 13, 2023, will consider another shift in water use for one of the driest major metropolitan areas in the U.S. The water agency that manages the Colorado River supply for Vegas is seeking authority to limit what comes out of residents’ taps. (AP Photo/Matt York,File)In this April 15, 2015 file photo, a man takes a picture of the fountains in front of the Bellagio hotel and casino in Las Vegas. State lawmakers on Monday, March 13, 2023, are scheduled to discuss granting the power to limit what comes out of residents’ taps to the Southern Nevada Water Authority, the agency managing the Colorado River supply to the city. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Ornamental lawns are banned in Las Vegas, the size of new swimming pools is capped and much of the water used in homes is sent down a wash to be recycled, but Nevada is looking at another significant step to ensure the water supply for one of the driest major metropolitan areas in the U.S.
State lawmakers on Monday are scheduled to discuss granting the power to limit what comes out of residents’ taps to the Southern Nevada Water Authority, the agency managing the Colorado River supply to the city.
If lawmakers approve the bill, Nevada would be the first state to give a water agency permanent jurisdiction over the amount of residential use.
The sweeping omnibus bill is one of the most significant to go before lawmakers this year in Nevada, one of seven states that rely on the Colorado River. Deepening drought, climate change and demand have sunk key Colorado River reservoirs that depend on melting snow to their lowest levels on record.
“It’s a worst case scenario plan,” said the bill’s sponsor, Democratic Assemblyman Howard Watts of Las Vegas. “It makes sure that we prioritize the must-haves for a home. Your drinking water, your basic health and safety needs.”
The bill would give the water authority leeway to limit water usage in single-family homes to 160,000 gallons annually, incorporate homes with septic systems into the city’s sewer system and provide funding for the effort.
The average home uses about 130,000 gallons of water per year, meaning the largest water users would feel the pinch, according to the agency.
The authority hasn’t yet decided how it would implement or enforce the proposed limits, which would not automatically go into effect, spokesperson Bronson Mack said.
Water from the Colorado River largely is used for agriculture in other basin states: Arizona, California, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado.
Las Vegas relies on the Colorado River for 90% of its water supply. Already, Nevada has lost about 8% of that supply because of mandatory cuts implemented as the river dwindles further. Most residents haven’t felt the effects because Southern Nevada Water Authority recycles a majority of water used indoors and doesn’t use the full allocation.
Nevada lawmakers banned ornamental grass at office parks, in street medians and entrances to housing developments two years ago. This past summer, Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, capped the size of new swimming pools at single-family residential homes to about the size of a three-car garage.
A state edict carries greater weight than city ordinances and more force in messaging, said Kyle Roerink, executive director of the Great Basin Water Network, which monitors western water policy.
Watts said he is hopeful other municipalities that have been hesitant to clamp down on residential water use will follow suit as “good stewards of the river” with even deeper cuts to the Colorado River supply looming.
Snow that has inundated northern Nevada and parts of California serves as only a temporary reprieve from dry conditions. Some states in the Colorado River basin have gridlocked on how to cut water usage, with many of them looking toward agriculture to shoulder the burden.
Municipal water is a relatively small percentage of overall Colorado River use. As populations grow and climate change leaves future supplies uncertain, policymakers are paying close attention to all available options to manage water supplies.
Santa Fe, New Mexico, uses a tiered cost structure where rates rise sharply when residents reach 10,000 gallons during the summer months.
Scottsdale, Arizona, recently told residents in an community outside city limits that it no longer could provide a water source for them. Scottsdale argued action was required under a drought management plan to guarantee enough water for its own residents.
Elsewhere in metro Phoenix, water agencies aren’t currently discussing capping residential use, Sheri Trap of the Arizona Municipal Water Users Association said in an email. But cities like Phoenix, Glendale and Tempe have said they will cut down on usage overall.
AP writer Susan Montoya Bryan contributed reporting from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Stern is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms.
Confirmed: Global floods, droughts worsening with warming
Isabella O’Malley – March 13, 2023
People travel by boat in a flooded street in Trizidela do Vale, state of Maranhao, Brazil, May 9, 2009. The intensity of extreme drought and rainfall has “sharply” increased over the past 20 years, according to a study published Monday, March 13, 2023, in the journal Nature Water. (AP Photo/ Andre Penner, File)The remains of dead livestock and a donkey are scattered at a camp for displaced people on the outskirts of Dollow, Somalia, Sept. 21, 2022. The intensity of extreme drought and rainfall has “sharply” increased over the past 20 years, according to a study published Monday, March 13, 2023, in the journal Nature Water. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File)People wade through flood waters in the town of Moree, Northern New South Wales, Australia, Feb. 3, 2012. The intensity of extreme drought and rainfall has “sharply” increased over the past 20 years, according to a study published Monday, March 13, 2023, in the journal Nature Water. (AP Photo/Brad Hunter, Pool, File)A bridge’s columns are marked by the previous water line over the Atibainha reservoir, part of the Cantareira System that provides water to the Sao Paulo metropolitan area, in Nazare Paulista, Brazil, on Jan. 29, 2015. The intensity of extreme drought and rainfall has “sharply” increased over the past 20 years, according to a study published Monday, March 13, 2023, in the journal Nature Water. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)People walk by cracked earth in an area once under the water of Lake Mead at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Jan. 27, 2023, near Boulder City, Nev. The intensity of extreme drought and rainfall has “sharply” increased over the past 20 years, according to a study published Monday, March 13, 2023, in the journal Nature Water. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)A Philadelphia police officer rushes to help a stranded motorist during Tropical Storm Isaias, Aug. 4, 2020, in Philadelphia. The intensity of extreme drought and rainfall has “sharply” increased over the past 20 years, according to a study published Monday, March 13, 2023, in the journal Nature Water. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)People enjoy the sunny weather on dry river banks of Germany’s most important river Rhine in Cologne, Germany, after a long time of drought, April 27, 2020. The intensity of extreme drought and rainfall has “sharply” increased over the past 20 years, according to a study published Monday, March 13, 2023, in the journal Nature Water. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)
The intensity of extreme drought and rainfall has “sharply” increased over the past 20 years, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Water. These aren’t merely tough weather events, they are leading to extremes such as crop failure, infrastructure damage, even humanitarian crises and conflict.
The big picture on water comes from data from a pair of satellites known as GRACE, or Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, that were used to measure changes in Earth’s water storage — the sum of all the water on and in the land, including groundwater, surface water, ice, and snow.
“It’s incredible that we can now monitor the pulse of continental water from outer space,” said Park Williams, a bioclimatologist at the University of California, Los Angeles who was not involved with the study.
“I have a feeling when future generations look back and try to determine when humanity really began understanding the planet as a whole, this will be one of the studies highlighted,” he said.
The researchers say the data confirms that both frequency and intensity of rainfall and droughts are increasing due to burning fossil fuels and other human activity that releases greenhouse gases.
“I was surprised to see how well correlated the global intensity was with global mean temperatures,” said Matthew Rodell, study author and deputy director of Earth sciences for hydrosphere, biosphere, and geophysics at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
The strong link between these climate extremes and rising global average temperatures means continued global warming will mean more drought and rainstorms that are worse by many measures — more frequent, more severe, longer and larger.
Researchers looked at 1,056 events from 2002-2021 using a novel algorithm that identifies where the land is much wetter or drier than normal.
That showed the most extreme rains keep happening in sub-Saharan Africa, at least through December 2021, the end of the data. The rainfall extremes also took place in central and eastern North America from 2018-2021, and Australia during 2011-2012.
The most intense droughts were a record-breaking one in northeastern South America from 2015-2016; an event in the Cerrado region of Brazil that began in 2019 and continues; and the ongoing drought in the American Southwest that has caused dangerously low water levels in two of the biggest U.S. reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell. Those remain low despite heavy rains this year.
Drought events outnumbered heavy rain events by 10%. Their geographic extents and how long they lasted were similar.
A warmer atmosphere increases the rate at which water evaporates during dry periods. It also holds more water vapor, which fuels heavy rainfall events.
The study noted that infrastructure like airports and sewage treatment plants that were designed to withstand once-in-a-100-year events are becoming more challenged as these extremes happen more often and with more intensity.
“Looking forward into the future, in terms of managing water resources and flood control, we should be anticipating that the wetter extremes will be wetter and the dry extremes will get drier,” said Richard Seager, a climate scientist at the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, who was not involved with the study.
Seager said it’s a mistake to assume that future wet and dry extremes can be managed the same as in the past because “everything’s going to get amplified on both ends of the dry-wet spectrum.”
According to the U.S. National Integrated Drought Information System, 20% of the annual economic losses from extreme weather events in the U.S. are from floods and droughts.
A drastic swing between extreme drought and unprecedented flooding, dubbed “weather whiplash,” is becoming common in some regions.
Water stress is expected to significantly affect poor, disenfranchised communities as well as ecosystems that have been underfunded and exploited.
For example, the United Nations has said that Somalia is experiencing its longest and most severe drought, an event that has caused the deaths of millions of livestock and widespread hunger. Venezuela, a country that has faced years of political and economic crises, resorted to nationwide power cuts during April 2016 as a result of the drought conditions affecting water levels of the Guri Dam.
As for solutions, using floodwaters to replenish depleted aquifers and improving the health of agricultural soil so it can absorb water better and store more carbon are just a few methods that could improve water resiliency in a warming world, the study says.
Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
California cancels salmon fishing season: “It’s devastating”
Emily Mae Czachor – March 13, 2023
Officials in California have issued a ban on salmon fishing anywhere along the state’s coast for the remainder of the season, as the state’s yearslong drought is still taking its toll on the once-abundant fish population.
In a recent announcement, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said salmon fisheries that were originally scheduled to open on April 1 would remain closed through May 15. The decision came as part of a broader effort, involving state agencies in Oregon as well as the National Marine Fisheries Service, to cancel ocean salmon fishing along much of the coast — from Cape Falcon, Oregon, to the U.S.-Mexico border.
For California, the ban aims to protect the Chinook species of salmon, which previously inhabited several of the state’s largest rivers and in recent years have been seen in dwindling numbers.
Thanks to multiple atmospheric river storms in California, rivers on land are roaring but the effects of years of drought are now being seen on the salmon population, CBS Bay Area reported. Last year, just 60,000 of the adult fish returned to the Sacramento River to spawn, officials said. This was a small fraction of the 196,000 fish expected there, and approached a record annual low for the area, according to the fish and wildlife department. Officials are also hoping that the fishing ban will prevent the Chinook population from decreasing further in the Klamath River, which is also threatened.
A Chinook salmon is placed in a tank for propagation at the Livingston Stone National Fish Hatchery March 18, 2008 in Shasta Lake, California. / Credit: Photo by Kimberly White/Getty Images
The Pacific Fishery Management Council has proposed additional policies to regulate salmon fishing off the coast of California through the spring of 2024, wildlife officials said. The proposals, which would ban commercial and ocean salmon sport fishing until April of next year, were approved by the council for public review at the end of last week.
This is the second time in history that California has canceled fishing season, CBS Bay Area reported, with the last ban taking place between 2008 and 2009 in response to another prolonged drought period.
“Fishery managers have determined that there simply aren’t enough salmon in the ocean right now to comfortably get a return of adult salmon to reproduce for 2023,” said John McManus, president of the Golden State Salmon Association, in comments to CBS Bay Area.
Jared Davis, who operates a charter boat for sport fishermen, told the station his entire summer has been wiped out.
“It’s devastating,” he told the station. “This is more than just an income issue for me. It’s an inability to do what I love. So, on a financial level and on a personal level, it’s devastating.”
Dwindling marine life populations prompted wildlife officials in Alaska to cancel the winter snow crab season in the Bering Sea near the end of last year. It was a first in the state’s history.
Judge in Abortion Pill Case Set Hearing but Sought to Delay Telling the Public
Katie Benner and Pam Belluck – March 13, 2023
A photo provided by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee shows Trump nominee Matthew Kacsmaryk during the nomination hearing to the federal judiciary at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Dec. 13, 2017. (U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary via The New Yo
The federal judge in a closely watched lawsuit that seeks to overturn federal approval of a widely used abortion pill has scheduled the first hearing in the case for this week, but he planned to delay making the public aware of it, according to people familiar with the case.
Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, of the Northern District in Texas, told lawyers in the case Friday that he was scheduling the hearing for Wednesday morning. However, he asked them not to disclose that information and said he would not enter it into the public court record until late Tuesday evening.
One person familiar with the case, which is being heard in federal court in Amarillo, Texas, said such steps were “very irregular,” especially for a case of intense public interest.
Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee who has written critically about Roe v. Wade and previously worked for a Christian conservative legal organization, told lawyers in a conference call Friday that he did not want the March 15 hearing to be “disrupted,” and that he wanted all parties involved to share their points in an orderly fashion, according to people familiar with the discussion.
The judge also said that court staff had faced security issues, including death threats, and that the measure was intended to keep the court proceedings safe.
The lawsuit, filed in November against the Food and Drug Administration by a coalition of anti-abortion groups and doctors, seeks to end more than 20 years of legal use of medications for abortion. The plaintiffs, led by the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, an organization that lists five anti-abortion groups as its members, have asked the judge to issue a preliminary injunction ordering the FDA to withdraw its long-standing approval of mifepristone, the first pill in the two-drug medication abortion regimen.
At the hearing, lawyers representing the plaintiffs, the FDA and a manufacturer of mifepristone will present arguments for and against an injunction. It is unclear if the judge will decide whether to issue an order that day or sometime later.
Such an order would be unprecedented, legal experts say, and — if higher courts were to allow an injunction to stand — would make it harder for patients to get abortions in states where abortion is legal, not just in those trying to restrict it.
Medication abortion is used in more than half of abortions in the United States. That proportion has been increasing as conservative states impose abortion bans or sweeping restrictions in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the national right to abortion last June.
The Washington Post earlier reported on the Friday call and upcoming hearing.
In asking the lawyers to keep quiet about the hearing, the judge did not issue a gag order, which would bar the participants on the call from sharing the information. Rather, he asked them to keep the information secret “as a courtesy.”
He said that the court would provide seating for the public and the press, but his plan to provide little advance notice seemed likely to have the practical effect of minimizing the number of people who would attend, according to people familiar with the discussion. Amarillo, in the Texas Panhandle, is several hours drive from other major Texas cities, and only a couple of those cities provide direct flights.
On Friday, the public court record showed subtle signs that something unusual had occurred. That morning, the first new entry in 10 days was added to the case’s docket: a notice of appearance for a Justice Department lawyer, a standard document usually added to a case in advance of an upcoming proceeding, but the docket did not show any proceeding.
In addition, there was a gap in the numerical listing of documents in the docket — document 124 was missing — suggesting that a recent entry had been sealed. People familiar with the case said the sealed document referred to the Friday meeting between the judge and the lawyers.
After the meeting, participants shared Kacsmaryk’s request with their team members, who noted that it was unusual to hold the status conference under seal and to keep the public from knowing about the hearing. The federal government generally objects to closed hearings unless there they are necessary to protect national security interests.
The lawsuit claims that the FDA did not adequately review the scientific evidence or follow proper protocols when it approved mifepristone in 2000 and that it has since ignored safety risks of the medication. The lead plaintiff, the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, was incorporated in August in Amarillo, shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Kacsmaryk is the only federal judge covering the Amarillo division in the court’s Northern District.
The FDA and the Department of Justice have strongly disputed the lawsuit’s claims and said the FDA’s rigorous reviews of mifepristone over the years had repeatedly reaffirmed its decision to approve mifepristone, which blocks a hormone that allows a pregnancy to develop. In a court filing, the FDA said that overturning its approval of mifepristone would “cause significant harm, depriving patients of a safe and effective drug that has been on the market for more than two decades.”
If the judge issues a preliminary order to bar access to mifepristone, the federal government is expected to immediately appeal and to seek a stay of the injunction while the trial proceeds. Legal experts said that even if the preliminary injunction remained in place, there were several legal options that could allow the manufacturers of mifepristone to continue supplying the drug and providers to continue prescribing it to patients.
If legal access to mifepristone is blocked, some abortion providers plan to provide only the second abortion medication, misoprostol, which is used safely on its own in many countries. Misoprostol, which is approved for other medical uses, causes contractions similar to a miscarriage and is considered slightly less effective on its own than in combination with mifepristone and more prone to cause side effects such as nausea.
In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs also seek to ban the use of misoprostol for abortion, but their request for a preliminary injunction focused on mifepristone.
Many patients would also likely still be able to order both mifepristone and misoprostol from telemedicine abortion services based in other countries.
Still, such a ruling would create confusion and difficulty for patients and providers nationwide. Legal experts said that it would also be the first time that a court had acted to order that a drug be removed from the market over the objection of the FDA and that if such a ruling stood, it could have repercussions for federal authority to regulate other types of drugs.
Russia is using one of Ukraine’s bloodiest battles to decimate the Wagner Group, after its boss started a feud with military leaders, experts say
Sinéad Baker – March 13, 2023
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Russia’s Wagner mercenary force, speaks in Paraskoviivka, Ukraine, in this still image from an undated video released on March 3, 2023.Concord Press Service/via REUTERS
Russia is using the battle for Bakhmut to kill off Wagner soldiers, according to a DC-based think tank.
The pro-Kremlin mercenary army has aided Russia’s military, but its leader has become more critical.
The military is likely trying to “expend” Wagner troops and weaken the group’s leader, the ISW said.
Russia is using the fight for the city of Bakhmut as a way to heavily weaken a mercenary force that once boosted its army but has become increasingly critical of its military leadership, according to the Washington DC-based Institute for the Study of War, or ISW.
The battle for the eastern Ukrainian city has become one of the bloodiest since Russia’s invasion began. And the Wagner Group, which has tens of thousands of mercenaries and former prisoners deployed in Ukraine, is heavily involved in the fighting.
In an update on Sunday, the ISW said that Russia’s defense ministry is likely using the battle to significantly reduce the Wagner Group, as a feud between them escalates.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the group’s leader, who is also known as Putin’s chef, has become highly critical of Russia’s military leadership.
And the ISW said that Russia’s leadership “is likely seizing the opportunity to deliberately expend both elite and convict Wagner forces in Bakhmut in an effort to weaken Prigozhin and derail his ambitions for greater influence in the Kremlin.”
The think tank added that “Russian military leadership may be trying to expend Wagner forces – and Prigozhin’s influence – in Bakhmut.”
The ISW said that Putin’s use of the Wagner group had likely angered Russia’s traditional military leadership, “who were then tasked with sharing limited equipment and ammunition with Wagner mercenaries.”
Prigozhin and Russia’s defense ministry have also clashed over who could take credit for Russian victories.
The ISW said that Prigozhin was waging “a relentless defamation campaign” against Russia’s military.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has also started to distance himself from Prigozhin, with the Wagner leader saying that he had been “cut off” by Putin and that Russia’s military was denying ammunition to his group, calling it an “an attempt to destroy” Wagner.
The ISW wrote that Prigozhin had previously been able to recruit from Russian prisons, but had “lost that permission and access to that manpower pool at the beginning of 2023.”
The death toll in Bakhmut is high. Western officials estimate between 20,000 and 30,000 Russian troops have been killed or injured there, though Russia is still making progress in its attempt to capture the city.
The ISW said that given the high number of Wagner troops there, Russia’s leadership might not mind the high death toll.
“Russian military leadership may be allowing the Wagner Group to take high casualties in Bakhmut to simultaneously erode Prigozhin’s leverage while capturing the city at the expense of Wagner troops.”
At the same time, Ukraine also sees the brutal fighting in Bakhmut as an opportunity to deplete Wagner’s forces once and for all, according to The New York Times.
Ukrainians fighting in the city say it has been a “living hell” for months, while commanders on both sides have called the battle a “meat grinder.”
The UK Ministry of Defence said on Monday that half of the prisoners sent to Ukraine by the Wagner Group since the invasion began have likely been killed or wounded.
All 500 original members of a Ukrainian battalion were killed or wounded in fighting with Russia, commander says
Charles R. Davis – March 13, 2023
Soldiers hold Ukrainian flags over the coffins with Ukrainian servicemen Oleh Khomiuk and his son, Mykyta Khomiuk, who were killed in Bakhmut, during their funeral service at Independence Square on March 10, 2023 in Kyiv, Ukraine.Roman Pilipey/Getty Images
Ukraine’s defense is being hindered by the loss of experienced soldiers, The Washington Post reported.
One commander said all 500 original members of his battalion had been killed or injured.
Soldiers with significant combat experience “are all already dead or wounded,” the commander said.
The war in Ukraine is bleeding both sides, with each suffering more than 100,000 military casualties (killed and wounded) since Russia launched its full-scale invasion last year. But with Moscow able to draft fighters from a population that dwarfs that of Ukraine, there is growing concern that Kyiv is less capable of suffering sustained losses — and that this will jeopardize its ability to strike back this spring, The Washington Post reported on Monday.
The gravity of the situation is illustrated by the experience of Ukraine’s 46th Air Assault Brigade. A commander of a battalion within the brigade told the Post that he’d lost every one of the 500 people he commanded back in February 2022, leading them to be replaced with fresh recruits far less capable on the battlefield.
The 46th Air Assault Brigade is part of the Ukrainian force battling Russia — and the Wagner mercenary group — over control of Bakhmut in the east of the country. In an assessment published over the weekend, the Institute for the Study of War suggested that the Kremlin is using Wagner’s mercenaries, some recruited from Russian prisons, as cannon fodder amid the fierce fighting in Donetsk, calculating that their loss of life is more palatable to the Russian public than the loss of conventional forces.
The man who commands the Ukrainian battalion, identified by the Post only by his call sign, Kupol, indicated that Kyiv does not have the same luxury.
“The most valuable thing in war is combat experience,” he said, describing the difference between a soldier with six months of experience and one who was freshly trained as “heaven and earth.”
“And there are only a few soldiers with combat experience,” he told the Post. “Unfortunately, they are all already dead or wounded.”
In his own battalion, Kupol said there had been a complete turnover in personnel since the invasion. Off the 500 men he commanded last year, 400 have been wounded and another 100 killed, according to the Post. Their replacements are not ready for war, he added.
“They just drop everything and run. That’s it. Do you understand why? Because the soldier doesn’t shoot. I ask him why, and he says, ‘I’m afraid of the sound of the shot.’ And for some reason, he has never thrown a grenade,” he told the Post. “We need NATO instructors in all our training centers, and our instructors need to be sent over there into the trenches. Because they failed in their task.”
