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  14. <title>Latest Political News &amp; Articles | Observer</title>
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  26. <title>New York State May Soon Have the Highest-Paid Lawmakers in the US</title>
  27. <link>https://observer.com/2022/12/the-new-york-state-may-soon-have-the-highest-paid-lawmakers-in-the-us/</link>
  29. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Courtney Vinopal]]></dc:creator>
  30. <pubDate>Mon, 19 Dec 2022 17:09:34 +0000</pubDate>
  31. <category><![CDATA[New York State Assembly]]></category>
  32. <category><![CDATA[New York State Legislature]]></category>
  33. <category><![CDATA[pay raises]]></category>
  34. <category><![CDATA[state legislatures]]></category>
  35. <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
  36. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  37. <category><![CDATA[New York Politics]]></category>
  38. <category><![CDATA[Kathy Hochul]]></category>
  39. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://observer.com/?p=1345065</guid>
  40.  
  41. <description><![CDATA[The New York State Legislature may vote to raise pay for its lawmakers to $130,000 a year from $110,000, making them the highest-paid in the U.S. ]]></description>
  42. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" class="lazyload size-full wp-image-1345084" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" data-src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/GettyImages-1333624649.jpg?quality=80" alt="View of the New York State Capitol building in Albany." width="635" height="423" data-caption='New York state lawmakers may soon vote to give themselves a pay raise. &lt;span class="lazyload media-credit"&gt;Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images&lt;/span&gt;'><noscript><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" class="lazyload size-full wp-image-1345084" src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/GettyImages-1333624649.jpg?quality=80" alt="View of the New York State Capitol building in Albany." width="635" height="423" data-caption='New York state lawmakers may soon vote to give themselves a pay raise. &lt;span class="lazyload media-credit"&gt;Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images&lt;/span&gt;'></noscript>
  43. <p>The New York State Legislature is considering a vote to raise pay for its lawmakers to $130,000 a year from $110,000, <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.newsday.com/news/region-state/new-york-state-legislature-pay-raises-gizwsisv" data-lasso-id="1923691">Newsday reported</a> Dec. 17. The salary bump would make New York&#8217;s legislature the highest-paid in the U.S., surpassing California, which <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://ballotpedia.org/Comparison_of_state_legislative_salaries" data-lasso-id="1923692">currently pays</a> its legislators an annual base salary of $119,702.</p>
  44. <p>In 2018 a compensation committee made up of current and former comptrollers from the state <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2018/12/06/committee-raises-legislators-pay-to-130k-claims-mandate-to-limit-outside-income-731894" data-lasso-id="1923693">recommended New York</a> raise the annual pay for legislators from $79,500 to $130,000 over a period of three years, as well as limit income legislators can receive from outside jobs <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://gothamist.com/news/ny-lawmakers-weighing-a-pay-hike-would-have-to-act-soon" data-lasso-id="1923694">to 15 percent</a> of their annual salary. Legislators received an initial bump to $110,000, but the subsequent raises were held up in court after a fiscally conservative group <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/politics/2018/12/14/conservative-group-files-lawsuit-on-legislative-pay-raise" data-lasso-id="1923695">filed a lawsuit</a>, arguing the committee expanded its power &#8220;well beyond the mandate it had been given.&#8221; Last month New York&#8217;s Court of Appeals <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/ny-state-of-politics/2022/11/17/new-york-s-top-court-upholds-pay-raise-panel-for-state-lawmakers" data-lasso-id="1923696">ruled the commission</a> had the authority to give the raises, opening up the opportunity for legislators to receive the salary bump they were supposed to get last year.</p>
  45. <p>The bill lawmakers are now considering would implement the $130,000 raise along with some cost-of-living adjustments, according to Newsday. It may also include the 15 percent cap on outside income, something good government groups are pushing for. Some New York lawmakers earn as much as $50,000 in additional income per year from their work outside of the legislature, <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://gothamist.com/news/ny-lawmakers-weighing-a-pay-hike-would-have-to-act-soon" data-lasso-id="1923697">according to Gothamist</a>.</p>
  46. <p>New York is one of the few legislatures in the U.S. whose lawmakers are considered full-time employees. While historically state legislatures were intended to be part-time roles filled by public-minded citizens, the increasing time demands led a handful of states to recognize only the wealthy could afford to serve. Today, <a href="https://observer.com/unequal-representation-why-there-are-so-few-working-class-state-lawmakers/" data-lasso-id="1923698">fewer than 2 percent of U.S. state lawmakers belong to the working class</a>, in part because most legislatures pay so little, and the cost of campaigning has gotten more expensive in recent years.</p>
  47. <p>Still, raising lawmakers&#8217; pay <a href="https://observer.com/2022/11/even-in-states-where-legislators-earn-more-economic-diversity-in-the-state-house-remains-elusive/" data-lasso-id="1923699">hasn&#8217;t solved</a> this issue, as higher pay doesn&#8217;t erase the problems of the high cost of campaigning and the lack of financial security that comes with elected office. Only one New York state legislator is considered working class, <a href="https://observer.com/2022/11/fewer-than-2-of-us-state-lawmakers-belong-to-the-working-class-leaving-business-owners-to-shape-public-policy/" data-lasso-id="1923700">according to an Observer analysis of data</a> compiled by Nicholas Carnes and Eric Hansen, political scientists at Duke and Loyola Chicago, respectively.</p>
  48. <p>Gov. Kathy Hochul <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://gothamist.com/news/gov-hochul-voices-support-for-ny-lawmaker-pay-raise-as-talks-resurface" data-lasso-id="1923701">has voiced her support</a> for the pay raise, which would be likely to pass in the Democratic-controlled legislature.</p>
  49. ]]></content:encoded>
  53. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">1345065</post-id><author><![CDATA[Courtney Vinopal ]]></author><section><![CDATA[ ]]></section> </item>
  54. <item>
  55. <title>Biden Urges Congress to Block Rail Workers From Striking Over Sick Days, Challenging His Pro-Union Stance</title>
  56. <link>https://observer.com/2022/11/biden-urges-congress-to-block-rail-workers-from-striking-over-sick-days-challenging-his-pro-union-stance/</link>
  58. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Courtney Vinopal]]></dc:creator>
  59. <pubDate>Tue, 29 Nov 2022 15:51:21 +0000</pubDate>
  60. <category><![CDATA[Biden Administration]]></category>
  61. <category><![CDATA[frontline workers]]></category>
  62. <category><![CDATA[labor unions]]></category>
  63. <category><![CDATA[railroads]]></category>
  64. <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
  65. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  66. <category><![CDATA[Management]]></category>
  67. <category><![CDATA[Joe Biden]]></category>
  68. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://observer.com/?p=1343118</guid>
  69.  
  70. <description><![CDATA[President Joe Biden is calling on Congress to pass legislation adopting a labor agreement between U.S. rail workers and management that was voted down by most union members, who are pushing for paid sick days.]]></description>
  71. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img decoding="async" class="lazyload size-full wp-image-1343126" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" data-src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GettyImages-1443736911.jpg?quality=80" alt="In an aerial view, freight rail cars sit in a rail yard near shipping containers." width="635" height="415" data-caption='Biden is urging Congress to avert a rail strike ahead of the holidays. &lt;span class="lazyload media-credit"&gt;Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images&lt;/span&gt;'><noscript><img decoding="async" class="lazyload size-full wp-image-1343126" src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GettyImages-1443736911.jpg?quality=80" alt="In an aerial view, freight rail cars sit in a rail yard near shipping containers." width="635" height="415" data-caption='Biden is urging Congress to avert a rail strike ahead of the holidays. &lt;span class="lazyload media-credit"&gt;Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images&lt;/span&gt;'></noscript>
  72. <p>President Joe Biden is calling on Congress to pass legislation adopting a labor agreement between U.S. rail workers and management that was voted down by most union members, challenging his promise to be the most pro-union president in history.</p>
  73. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
  74. <p lang="en" dir="ltr">I&#39;m calling on Congress to pass legislation immediately to adopt the Tentative Agreement between railroad workers and operators.</p>
  75. <p>Let me be clear: a rail shutdown would devastate our economy. Without freight rail, many U.S. industries would shut down.</p>
  76. <p>&mdash; President Biden (@POTUS) <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1597383590282682369?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 29, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
  77. <p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
  78. <p>Thus far four railroad unions have voted against ratifying a <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/15/business/rail-strike.html" data-lasso-id="1904505">tentative agreement</a> brokered by the White House in September. While this deal would offer a 24 percent raise to to all union members by 2024, as well as annual bonuses of $1,000, it doesn&#8217;t include substantial changes to the rail operators&#8217; sick leave policies, a <a href="https://observer.com/2022/09/work-life-balance-not-wages-is-driving-a-potentially-massive-railroad-strike/" data-lasso-id="1904506">major sticking point</a> in the negotiations. Currently rail workers don&#8217;t get paid sick days, and are penalized for taking time off for events like doctor’s appointments or family emergencies due to points-based attendance systems. This <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.blet104.org/here-is-the-national-tentative-agreement-in-detail/" data-lasso-id="1904507">new deal</a> would allow engineers and conductors one additional paid personal day off, as well as three days for routine medical visits without penalization, but would not give workers sick days.</p>
  79. <p>If an agreement isn&#8217;t reached before Dec. 9, workers are expected to strike, and unions who voted in favor of the deal have said they will honor the picket line. But under the Railway Labor Act, Congress is <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/LSB/LSB10861" data-lasso-id="1904508">able to intervene</a> to avert a strike.</p>
  80. <p>While <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/11/28/statement-from-president-joe-biden-on-averting-a-rail-shutdown/" data-lasso-id="1904509">Biden said</a> in a Nov. 29 statement he was reluctant to override union members&#8217; votes against ratifying the deal, he said the economic impact of a shutdown would hurt millions of people. The first week of a rail strike is expected to cost the economy <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.andersoneconomicgroup.com/likely-impact-of-averted-rail-strike/" data-lasso-id="1904510">$1 billion</a>, and could cause food and gasoline shortages as well as <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.eenews.net/articles/water-sector-warns-of-catastrophic-rail-strike/" data-lasso-id="1904511">impede access</a> to safe drinking <keyword data-keyword-id="171371">water</keyword>.</p>
  81. <p>At a &#8220;critical moment&#8221; for the economy, Biden said, &#8220;we cannot let our strongly held conviction for better outcomes for workers deny workers the benefits of the bargain they reached, and hurl this nation into a devastating rail freight shutdown.&#8221;</p>
  82. <p>Michael Baldwin, the president of the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, one of the unions that voted down the deal, <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/29/business/rail-strike-threat-recedes/index.html" data-lasso-id="1904512">said Biden&#8217;s move</a> weakens the union&#8217;s ability to address workers&#8217; concerns about paid sick time. “This action prevents us from reaching the end of our process, takes away the strength and ability that we have to force bargaining or force the railroads to…do the right thing.”</p>
  83. ]]></content:encoded>
  87. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">1343118</post-id><author><![CDATA[Courtney Vinopal ]]></author><section><![CDATA[ ]]></section> </item>
  88. <item>
  89. <title>Even in States Where Legislators Earn More, Economic Diversity in the State House Remains Elusive</title>
  90. <link>https://observer.com/2022/11/even-in-states-where-legislators-earn-more-economic-diversity-in-the-state-house-remains-elusive/</link>
  92. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Courtney Vinopal]]></dc:creator>
  93. <pubDate>Wed, 02 Nov 2022 09:00:56 +0000</pubDate>
  94. <category><![CDATA[Campaign Finance]]></category>
  95. <category><![CDATA[campaign fundraising]]></category>
  96. <category><![CDATA[diversity]]></category>
  97. <category><![CDATA[New York State Legislature]]></category>
  98. <category><![CDATA[State Legislature]]></category>
  99. <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
  100. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  101. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://observer.com/?p=1340543</guid>
  102.  
  103. <description><![CDATA[Even in states where serving in the legislature is a full-time job, few working class people run for the position. A job with term limits can be a gamble for Americans worried about putting food on the table. ]]></description>
  104. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>This article is part of <strong>Unequal Representation,</strong> a project by the Observer and Quartz. Click <a href="https://observer.com/unequal-representation-why-there-are-so-few-working-class-state-lawmakers/" data-lasso-id="1877347">here</a> to see other articles in the package.</em></p>
  105. <hr />
  106. <p>In 1966, more than two-thirds of California residents voted in favor of a <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_1A,_Revisions_to_the_Constitution_Amendment_(1966)" data-lasso-id="1875749">constitutional amendment</a> to make the state legislature full-time, and give legislators a pay raise.</p>
  107. <p>Seven years before the amendment passed, researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) offered an overview of the “staggering work load” assigned to the state’s legislators <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/443868" data-lasso-id="1875750">in a paper</a> titled “The California Legislator and the Problem of Compensation.” At the time, California’s population was growing rapidly, as was the state’s budget, and lawmakers were being asked to take on more work. Around 30 percent of legislators devoted all their time to legislative duties during a general session year, the researchers found, even though the job was intended to be part-time.</p>
  108. <p>As a result, the types of citizens able to serve in this increasingly demanding legislative role were limited, USC researchers Alexander Cloner and Richard Gable argued. “Few people can afford to spend as little as 50 percent of their time on private pursuits during a year, with little or no time at all available during any of the sessions,” the study read. Full-time workers who depended on a salary, they continued, couldn’t serve as legislators unless they had the financial support to do so. At the time, the authors of the study noted, more than a third of California legislators were attorneys, 20 percent worked in business or finance, while 15 percent worked in agriculture.</p>
  109. <p>More than 60 years after the study was published, legislators in California work year-round and earn a base annual salary of $119,702, higher than any other other state legislature in the U.S. While this relatively generous compensation should, in theory, encourage candidates from all walks of life to apply for the job, the demographic makeup of the California legislature still isn’t reflective of the state’s population.</p>
  110. <p>There are no Californians from working class backgrounds currently serving in the state legislature, according to data compiled by Nicholas Carnes and Eric Hansen, political scientists at Duke and Loyola Chicago, respectively. Their definition of the working class includes labor, service and clerical jobs, and excludes managers and employers. They compiled the research using <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_stru.htm" data-lasso-id="1875751">classifications</a> from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.</p>
  111. <p>As was the case in 1959, the law remains one of the most popular professions for California legislators—nearly a quarter are trained as lawyers, even though <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.bls.gov/Oes/current/oes_ca.htm" data-lasso-id="1875752">a far higher share of Californians</a> work in industries such as administrative support, sales, and transportation than in the legal profession. California’s legislators also trend <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://calmatters.org/politics/california-legislature/2021/01/how-diverse-california-legislature/" data-lasso-id="1875753">older, whiter, and wealthier</a> than most of the state, according to an analysis by the non-profit news organization CalMatters.</p>
  112. <p>This issue isn’t unique to California. In Michigan, where legislators work full-time and earn more money than their counterparts in most other states, there is just one working class legislator. Texas didn’t have any as of this October. Carnes <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44154225" data-lasso-id="1875754">co-published research</a> in 2016 which showed states that paid their lawmakers more had about as many blue-collar legislators as other states; one dataset suggested they even had fewer. “At best, paying more isn’t associated with any change in economic diversity,” the study concluded. “At worst, it’s associated with decreases in working-class representation.”</p>
  113. <p>Experts who focus on diversity and professionalization within state legislatures said this trend persists because campaigning has gotten more expensive, and serving in positions with term limits can be a gamble for working class Americans concerned with keeping food on the table. While paying legislators higher salaries hasn’t yet closed the demographic gap between state lawmakers and their citizens, advocates working to elect more diverse lawmakers believe investing in additional measures—such as childcare and public financing—could help.</p>
  114. <h3>How state lawmaking became a full-time job</h3>
  115. <p>The push to make more state legislatures full-time occurred during the middle of the 20th century, according to Peverill Squire, an American politics professor at the University of Missouri who studies legislative institutions and elections. Historically many state legislators came from an agricultural background, and the legislative calendar was organized around the growing season. But this structure didn’t make as much sense once <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1981/11/art2full.pdf" data-lasso-id="1875755">farm employment declined</a>, he said, and the typical American began working 40 hours a week.</p>
  116. <p>Ballot measures like California’s typically drew support from good government groups and the editorial boards of major newspapers, Squire said. The idea was that legislatures “needed to be able to meet for longer sessions in order to meet the demands for legislation in what had become a more demanding environment.” If legislators started working full-time, they’d need to be paid more as well.</p>
  117. <p>The Citizens Conference on State Legislatures, a non-profit, published <em><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://ncsl.typepad.com/the_thicket/2010/07/the-sometime-governments-revisited.html" data-lasso-id="1875756">The Sometime Governments</a></em> in 1971, which included a series of recommendations to make legislatures “functional, accountable, informed, independent and representative.” Among the recommendations was boosting legislator pay to no less than $10,000 a year (on par with the <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1972/demo/p60-85.html#:~:text=Money%20Income%20in%201971%20of%20Families%20and%20Persons%20in%20the%20United%20States,-December%201972&amp;text=Median%20income%20of%20the%20Nation's,the%201970%20median%20of%20%249%2C870." data-lasso-id="1875757">median income</a> for U.S. families at the time) and strengthening legislative department staff, while paying them “at suitable salary levels for professional qualification.” The Citizens Conference was led by Larry Margolis, former chief of staff to Jesse Unruh, the California Assembly speaker who had advocated to make California’s legislature full-time. <em>The Sometime Governments</em> <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/about-state-legislatures/what-legislatures-need-now.aspx#:~:text=The%20Citizens%20Conference%20on%20State%20Legislatures%20was%20a%20private%20nonprofit,1964%20to%20improve%20state%20legislatures." data-lasso-id="1875758">held up California</a> as an example of what other legislatures should strive for.</p>
  118. <p>In the years that followed, more states moved in the direction of California, making legislation a full-time job. The New York Times <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/04/us/lawmaking-in-states-evolves-into-full-time-job.html" data-lasso-id="1875759">documented this shift</a> across the country, and in 1989 made note of “a new breed of lawmaker,” that is, “one who has had no career other than politics.” Today 10 states are considered full-time by the National Conference of State Legislatures, with lawmakers in California, New York, Michigan, and Pennsylvania earning the highest salaries.</p>
  119. <p>Though giving lawmakers salary bumps can be politically unpopular, it’s consistently seen as a way to encourage a more diverse slate of candidates to run for legislature. Shortly after California legislators received a 37 percent pay raise in 1994, Claude Brinegar, a former transportation secretary under President Richard Nixon and then-chairman of California’s salary commission, <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6xf0f8kz" data-lasso-id="1875760">explained why he believed</a> paying legislators more was necessary: “With term limits, we feel it is urgent that we attract candidates to run for the Legislature who represent a balanced mix—not just people who are retired or want to be here for the power, but people who are willing to take mid-career interruptions to serve the state.” Just this year, Oregon legislators introduced a bill that would raise their annual pay from $33,000 to $58,500. While it received support from a state Senate committee in February, <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2022/02/22/oregon-senate-moves-closer-to-approving-big-pay-increases-for-legislators/" data-lasso-id="1875761">the bill didn’t pass</a> before legislators adjourned in March. Courtney Helstein, a political director for Family Forward Oregon who testified in favor of the bill, <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.opb.org/article/2022/02/10/oregon-lawmakers-may-raise-their-own-pay-in-effort-to-increase-access-to-elected-office/" data-lasso-id="1875762">told Oregon Public Broadcasting</a> she viewed the pay raise as a way to make serving in the legislature “more of a practical option for folks,” noting that the state’s lawmakers have historically been “whiter, wealthier, and older” than the general population.</p>
  120. <h3>Why full-time legislatures aren’t reflective of their populations</h3>
  121. <p>Even in legislatures where lawmakers earn relatively high salaries, working class representation remains low. That’s in part because as legislating became a full-time job, the competition to win office increased, as did the cost of campaigning, said Squire.</p>
  122. <p>The fundraising bar for legislative candidates has risen over the last decade as more money has flowed into state politics. Contributions to state legislative candidates running for lower chamber seats totaled $882 million in 2020, an all-time high since campaign finance site <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.followthemoney.org/show-me?dt=1&amp;c-exi=1&amp;c-r-ot=S,H#[{1|gro=c-r-ot,y" data-lasso-id="1875763">OpenSecrets</a> started tracking data in 2000. Campaign contributions to state senate candidates also reached new highs in recent years, peaking at $510 million in 2018. Candidates for the California State Assembly have raised <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.followthemoney.org/show-me?dt=1&amp;c-exi=1&amp;c-r-ot=S,H&amp;y=2022,2021,2020,2019,2018,2017,2016,2015,2014,2013,2012,2011,2010,2009,2008,2007,2006,2005,2004,2003,2002,2001,2000#[%7B1%7Cgro=c-r-ot,s" data-lasso-id="1877348">more than $1 billion</a> collectively since 2000, according to OpenSecrets, more than counterparts in any other state. A 2014 analysis by campaign finance research organization MapLight estimated candidates for California’s legislature had to <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.kqed.org/news/10574253/the-cost-of-a-seat-california-legislators-raise-more-than-1000-a-day" data-lasso-id="1875764">raise more than $1,000 a day</a> to win their seat that year.</p>
  123. <p>Not only do candidates have to deal with the rising costs of campaigning, they also have to consider the possibility they’ll lose their race, or find themselves without a job a few years down the road.</p>
  124. <p>“There’s a level of insecurity in terms of legislative service,” said Squire. He noted both the California and Michigan state legislatures have term limits—legislators in both states’ lower chambers serve just two years before they have to seek re-election, and there’s a cap on the total number of terms they can serve in the legislature. California also doesn’t offer a pension for legislative service, so these lawmakers could miss out on years of saving for retirement.</p>
  125. <p>“If you&#8217;re working class, you have to calculate, can you really afford—in terms of your lifetime earnings—to go into the legislature, knowing that you&#8217;re giving up your current occupation, for the uncertainty of being able to serve for two, four, maybe six years?” Squire said.</p>
  126. <p>Even lawmakers serving in full-time legislatures have spoken about the financial strain of campaigning, said Ghida Dagher, the president of New American Leaders (NAL), an organization that works to help immigrants, refugees, and their allies run for elected office. In a <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://newamericanleaders.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/State-of-Pay-New-American-Leaders.pdf" data-lasso-id="1875765">recent NAL report</a> looking at pay across state legislatures, Stephanie Chang, a Michigan state senator, said she had to raise more than $100,000 for her first race, which she decided to enter while in graduate school. “If I had been single at the time, I don’t think it would have been financially possible to run for office,” Chang, who earned a master’s degree in social work, told the NAL. “I had to rely on the second source of income from my spouse.”</p>
  127. <h3>Seeking solutions through public financing, childcare</h3>
  128. <p>Dagher said NAL continues to advocate for making legislatures full-time. “Our needs are around the clock and we should have legislatures that are reflecting that.”</p>
  129. <p>But her organization is advocating for additional policy changes that she said could prompt more candidates from working-class backgrounds to run. One is addressing the need for childcare, an issue <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://isps.yale.edu/news/blog/2014/04/alaska%E2%80%99s-child-care-center-for-legislators-highlights-challenges-of-working" data-lasso-id="1875766">Alaska tackled</a> by putting a daycare center next to the state capital in 2009. This appears to at least have had a potential impact on gender representation in the state legislature, as the share of women serving rose by <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/about-state-legislatures/state-legislator-demographics.aspx" data-lasso-id="1875767">10 percentage points</a> between 2015 and 2020.</p>
  130. <p>Another way to remove potential barriers to office is to consider public financing programs for candidates interested in running for state legislature, Dagher said. Several states, including Arizona, Connecticut, and Maine, give campaign funding to candidates if they collect a certain number of small-dollar donations, typically under $5. In Arizona, candidates <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.azcleanelections.gov/run-for-office/how-clean-funding-works" data-lasso-id="1875768">who run for state legislature</a> can receive up to $25,940 from the state for the general election if they collect 200 small-dollar donations.</p>
  131. <p>Athena Salman, who serves in Arizona’s house of representatives, said running a so-called clean election campaign was helpful when entered her first race at age 26, without a significant network or resources to write big campaign checks. “It was an avenue to open up funding to run for office without having to get that buy-in from a political establishment,” said Salman, who was a first-generation college student.</p>
  132. <p>“Not everyone comes from communities with the same level of resources,” she said. “Without the public funding component for people to run for office, you really are limiting your pool of potential candidates.” Still, she recognized that there are limits to what “clean” candidates can raise from the state, making it hard to compete against wealthy individuals who are able to raise unlimited funds. And in states like Arizona, which only pays its legislators $24,000 a year, salary remains a major barrier to attracting candidates from more diverse backgrounds.</p>
  133. <p>Dagher stressed that any major changes to the demographics of state legislatures will take time. “All of this work takes long-term investment, and it’s not just something we should do in election years.”</p>
  134. ]]></content:encoded>
  138. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">1340543</post-id><author><![CDATA[Courtney Vinopal ]]></author><section><![CDATA[ ]]></section> </item>
  139. <item>
  140. <title>Lessons in How Not to Quit, From Liz Truss</title>
  141. <link>https://observer.com/2022/10/lessons-in-how-not-to-quit-from-liz-truss/</link>
  143. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Courtney Vinopal]]></dc:creator>
  144. <pubDate>Fri, 21 Oct 2022 18:59:12 +0000</pubDate>
  145. <category><![CDATA[prime minister]]></category>
  146. <category><![CDATA[quitting]]></category>
  147. <category><![CDATA[resignation]]></category>
  148. <category><![CDATA[United Kingdom]]></category>
  149. <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
  150. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  151. <category><![CDATA[International Politics]]></category>
  152. <category><![CDATA[Management]]></category>
  153. <category><![CDATA[Liz Truss]]></category>
  154. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://observer.com/?p=1339496</guid>
  155.  
  156. <description><![CDATA[Outgoing UK prime minister Liz Truss insisted she wasn't a quitter just a day before stepping down. Her exit offers lessons for maintaining authenticity amid a resignation.]]></description>
  157. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img decoding="async" class="lazyload size-full wp-image-1339499" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" data-src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/10/GettyImages-1435082544.jpg?quality=80" alt="Close-up of UK prime minister Liz Truss, who is bowing her head while delivering her resignation from office." width="635" height="424" data-caption='Liz Truss called it quits on Oct. 20. &lt;span class="lazyload media-credit"&gt;Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images&lt;/span&gt;'><noscript><img decoding="async" class="lazyload size-full wp-image-1339499" src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/10/GettyImages-1435082544.jpg?quality=80" alt="Close-up of UK prime minister Liz Truss, who is bowing her head while delivering her resignation from office." width="635" height="424" data-caption='Liz Truss called it quits on Oct. 20. &lt;span class="lazyload media-credit"&gt;Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images&lt;/span&gt;'></noscript>
  158. <p>Just one day before she resigned as U.K. prime minister, <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-politics-63313539" data-lasso-id="1868608">Liz Truss declared</a>, “I’m a fighter, not a quitter.” The statement came amid a heated debate in the House of Commons over Truss’s credibility, which fell precipitously after she rolled out a series of tax cut proposals that caused U.K. financial markets to tank.</p>
  159. <p>Truss was far from the <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-42885983" data-lasso-id="1868609">first political leader</a> to utter such words—Peter Mandelson, a U.K. Labour Party politician who was forced to resign twice from Tony Blair’s cabinet, evoked the same phrase in 2001, while former U.S. president Richard Nixon insisted he had “never been a quitter” when he stepped down from office in 1974.</p>
  160. <p>Like many of the leaders who insisted they weren’t quitters before her, Truss did end up resigning, marking the shortest-ever tenure of a British prime minister. But she did so in a way that permanently damaged her credibility, argues Matt Potter, a London-based journalist and the author of <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/29066305-the-last-goodbye" data-lasso-id="1868610"><em>The Last Goodbye</em>,</a> which looks at the history of the world through resignation letters.</p>
  161. <p>“Even when things were quite plainly not going her way, she would not acknowledge it,” said Potter, who called Truss’s resignation the culmination of &#8220;dishonest discourse.&#8221;</p>
  162. <h3>What separates a good quitter from a bad one</h3>
  163. <p>From the start of her campaign to replace Boris Johnson as Britain’s prime minister, Truss was concerned with projecting the image of a statesman, noted Potter. While she was serving as foreign secretary in Johnson’s cabinet, <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/feb/12/liz-truss-instagram-diplomacy-five-photos-a-day-foreign-secretary-flickr" data-lasso-id="1868611">photos of Truss</a> appeared on the government’s Flickr account more than 700 times. Just two weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine, Truss posed for a photo in Moscow’s Red Square while dressed in fur, clearly emulating former prime minister <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/liz-truss-photos-show-margaret-thatcher-makeover/" data-lasso-id="1868612">Margaret Thatcher,</a> who struck a similar pose in 1987.</p>
  164. <p>But by the time Truss was actually elected to leadership by the Conservative Party six weeks ago, it became clear she was more concerned with images and sound bites than the substantive matters of the role, Potter said. Truss took office during one of the <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/inflation-cost-of-living-crisis-b2057356.html" data-lasso-id="1868613">worst cost-of-living crises</a> in Britain’s modern history, and even after her financial proposals caused the pound to drop to <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/sep/25/city-braces-for-more-volatility-mini-budget-rocks-pound-parity-dollar-bond-tax" data-lasso-id="1868614">$1.03 against the dollar</a>, its lowest-ever valuation, she still <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/20/liz-truss-resignation-speech-in-full" data-lasso-id="1868615">touted her vision</a> for a “low-tax, high growth economy” in her Oct. 20 resignation speech.</p>
  165. <p>Potter equated Truss’s resignation with gaslighting, a type of psychological manipulation in which a person causes others to question the validity of their own thoughts, perceptions, or reality. “Even in that moment when it became clear quitting was the only thing to do&#8230;it was almost, ignore the facts, ignore the reality.&#8221;</p>
  166. <p>There are historic examples of effective resignations, Potter said, arguing that &#8220;<span style="font-weight: 400">great resignations come from a place of authenticity.&#8221; </span>He pointed to <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/may/01/world-cup-moments-roy-keane-ireland-exit" data-lasso-id="1868616">Roy Keane</a>, a former Manchester United soccer player who walked out on the Republic of Ireland’s national team following an argument with a manager just before the World Cup in 2002. He gave a frank interview with <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2002/may/28/worldcupfootball2002.sport14" data-lasso-id="1868617">The Irish Times</a> where he said he’d “had enough,” with the way the team was being managed. “I&#8217;m not asking too much — for everyone to want what&#8217;s best,” Keane said. “If it&#8217;s a crime, fuck it, I&#8217;m guilty.”</p>
  167. <p>“It was beautiful because he meant it, and was engaging with the situation,” Potter said of Keane. “We do expect, and history is kinder (to)&#8230;those who are authentic.”</p>
  168. <p>Though Truss&#8217;s insistence that she wasn&#8217;t a quitter was an attempt to talk tough, it didn&#8217;t come across as truthful or authentic, said Chris Westfall, a business coach who advises clients on leadership and communication strategies.</p>
  169. <p>“Leaders have to be careful not to speak in absolutes,” he said. “The fact is winners quit all the time—they quit doing what doesn’t serve them and focus on what does.”</p>
  170. <p>Westfall did credit Truss for getting out at the right time. “What Liz did in her resignation was to give the British people what they really needed—an opportunity to find a leader who’s more in touch and in tune.”</p>
  171. <h3>Implications for future generations</h3>
  172. <p>There’s some evidence that it may become harder for inauthentic leaders to remain in power as a younger generation gains a foothold in the workplace. A majority respondents under the age of 25 to a <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.ey.com/en_us/consulting/is-gen-z-the-spark-we-need-to-see-the-light-report/gen-z-finding-meaning" data-lasso-id="1868618">2021 survey</a> by consulting firm Ernst &amp; Young ranked authenticity as very or extremely important, and <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.accaglobal.com/gb/en/professional-insights/pro-accountants-the-future/gen-z.html" data-lasso-id="1868619">surveys</a> <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.regent.edu/journal/emerging-leadership-journeys/gen-z-generation-z-leadership/" data-lasso-id="1868620">suggest</a> they expect the same from their leaders. Less than a third of Gen Z Americans <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/18/the-2020-election-shows-gen-zs-voting-power-for-years-to-come.html" data-lasso-id="1868621">voted for Donald Trump</a> in 2020—a U.S. president who made <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-fact-checker-tracked-trump-claims/2021/01/23/ad04b69a-5c1d-11eb-a976-bad6431e03e2_story.html" data-lasso-id="1868622">more than 30,000</a> false or misleading claims while in office, according to tracking by the Washington Post, and refused to resign when he lost.</p>
  173. <p>Both Americans and Brits of all ages can likely relate to the impulse to quit your job when it&#8217;s not going how you&#8217;d hoped. Record levels of workers in <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.standard.co.uk/business/great-resignation-uk-rate-deutsche-bank-sanjay-raja-b978084.html" data-lasso-id="1868623">both countries</a> have quit their jobs since the pandemic began, and the prime minister is just the latest employee to join in on the <a href="https://observer.com/2022/10/the-great-resignation-is-far-from-over-as-unemployed-americans-who-quit-their-jobs-reaches-30-year-high/" data-lasso-id="1868624">Great Resignation</a>.</p>
  174. ]]></content:encoded>
  178. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">1339496</post-id><author><![CDATA[Courtney Vinopal ]]></author><section><![CDATA[ ]]></section> </item>
  179. <item>
  180. <title>Inside LA&#8217;s Star Garden Strike: Strippers Are Organizing Whether You Like It or Not</title>
  181. <link>https://observer.com/2022/08/inside-las-star-garden-strike-strippers-are-organizing-whether-you-like-it-or-not/</link>
  183. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Erin Taylor]]></dc:creator>
  184. <pubDate>Thu, 25 Aug 2022 16:54:26 +0000</pubDate>
  185. <category><![CDATA[AB 2509]]></category>
  186. <category><![CDATA[AB 5]]></category>
  187. <category><![CDATA[Actors' Equity]]></category>
  188. <category><![CDATA[Actors' Equity Association]]></category>
  189. <category><![CDATA[California labor law]]></category>
  190. <category><![CDATA[erotic labor]]></category>
  191. <category><![CDATA[Labor]]></category>
  192. <category><![CDATA[Lusty Lady]]></category>
  193. <category><![CDATA[Pacers]]></category>
  194. <category><![CDATA[picket line]]></category>
  195. <category><![CDATA[sex work labor]]></category>
  196. <category><![CDATA[sex workers' rights]]></category>
  197. <category><![CDATA[Star Garden Topless Dive bar]]></category>
  198. <category><![CDATA[Starbucks]]></category>
  199. <category><![CDATA[strip club union]]></category>
  200. <category><![CDATA[Strippers United]]></category>
  201. <category><![CDATA[strippers' rights]]></category>
  202. <category><![CDATA[Union]]></category>
  203. <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
  204. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  205. <category><![CDATA[California]]></category>
  206. <category><![CDATA[Los Angeles]]></category>
  207. <category><![CDATA[Hugo Soto-Martinez]]></category>
  208. <category><![CDATA[Veen Dubal]]></category>
  209. <category><![CDATA[Stefanie Frey]]></category>
  210. <category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
  211. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://observer.com/?p=1332548</guid>
  212.  
  213. <description><![CDATA[The Star Garden Topless Dive Bar in Los Angeles has been striking since March and filed for union representation but what happened before the strike?]]></description>
  214. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img decoding="async" class="lazyload wp-image-1332549 size-full" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" data-src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/08/GettyImages-1242603917-2.jpg?quality=80" alt="" width="4800" height="3023" data-caption='Strippers react to their colleagues addressing the crowd at a rally in support of strippers from the Star Garden Topless Dive Bar on August 19, 2022 in North Hollywood. &lt;span class="lazyload media-credit"&gt;AFP via Getty Images&lt;/span&gt;'><noscript><img decoding="async" class="lazyload wp-image-1332549 size-full" src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/08/GettyImages-1242603917-2.jpg?quality=80" alt="" width="4800" height="3023" data-caption='Strippers react to their colleagues addressing the crowd at a rally in support of strippers from the Star Garden Topless Dive Bar on August 19, 2022 in North Hollywood. &lt;span class="lazyload media-credit"&gt;AFP via Getty Images&lt;/span&gt;'></noscript>
  215. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">On the evening of August 19th at Actors’ Equity headquarters in North Hollywood, the sun was setting over a mixture of workers, union members and press teams with big black video cameras. There was a sense of excitement and curiosity as the group waited for the speeches to begin. On August 17th Actors’ Equity, the national labor union (associated with </span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://aflcio.org/" data-lasso-id="1813998"><span style="font-weight: 400">AFL-CIO</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400">) representing more than 51,000 professional actors and stage actors, had </span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.nlrb.gov/case/31-CA-292239" data-lasso-id="1813999"><span style="font-weight: 400">filed</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> a petition for a union recognition election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on behalf of workers at a topless dive bar located off Lankershim Boulevard in NoHo. </span></p>
  216. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">The Star Garden Topless Dive Bar is like any other place where people pay to see naked people, experience various kinds of intimacy, and connect for a moment with a fantasy beyond their grasp. It is a workplace riddled with as many reasons to leave as it is with reasons to stay. Star Garden dancer Charlie described to the Observer why she loved Star Garden, “The reason why all of us are fighting so hard for it: The girls, every single person we worked with, created this community that it felt like a co-op already.” Charlie’s description of this community mimics many in managed spaces; the sex trade cultivates a space of vulnerability, a feeling of survival camaraderie, and is a fertile hotbed for friendship. All of the Star Garden dancers that spoke to the Observer preferred to be identified by their stage names, which is also a common practice at their workplace. </span></p>
  217. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">If the Star Garden workers are recognized as employees (based on the union’s filing with the NLRB) they will be able to participate in a union election. They have been picketing outside of the club since March after being barred from working after raising concerns, so they haven’t technically been Star Garden employees since then, but if they’re found to have been unduly terminated they will become eligible to participate in a vote to certify the union. As the LA Times reported &#8220;Most of the dancers involved in the petition said they were barred from entering the club when they showed up for work the next day.&#8221; </span></p>
  218. <h3>It&#8217;s not about Amazon and Starbucks</h3>
  219. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">Despite its apparent relevance, the 2019 California law regarding labor classification, AB 5, had nothing to do with the ability of Star Garden workers to unionize, since an earlier law, AB 2509, specifies dancers (or workers generally in “public housekeeping establishments” and the “amusement or recreation industry”) are full-time employees, not independent contractors. A 2000 </span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="http://leginfo.ca.gov/pub/99-00/bill/asm/ab_2501-2550/ab_2509_cfa_20000627_183107_sen_comm.html" data-lasso-id="1814000"><span style="font-weight: 400">analysis</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> by the California government regarding the law’s impact states: </span></p>
  220. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">“This clarifies situations where dancers may be incorrectly identified as independent contractors and not employees entitled to keep gratuities.” </span></p>
  221. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">It is easy to throw the organizing at Star Garden side by side with the ongoing growing labor movement in the United States, with Amazon and Starbucks as two common organizing targets; however, to do so without nuance ignores a nearly fifty year (if not longer) labor movement specific to sex workers, including erotic dancers. </span></p>
  222. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">“When we were listening to the Starbucks and the Amazon union talk, they were like, they&#8217;ll take away your benefits. They&#8217;ll take away all of this and then like eventually get to your job. I&#8217;m like, they didn&#8217;t give us that, it just goes straight to being fired,” Charlie said. </span></p>
  223. <img decoding="async" class="lazyload wp-image-1332552 size-full" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" data-src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/08/GettyImages-1242654387.jpg?quality=80" alt="" width="4800" height="2856" data-caption='Strippers listen as colleagues address the crowd at a rally in support of strippers from the Star Garden Topless Dive Bar on August 19, 2022 in North Hollywood. &lt;span class="lazyload media-credit"&gt;AFP via Getty Images&lt;/span&gt;'><noscript><img decoding="async" class="lazyload wp-image-1332552 size-full" src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/08/GettyImages-1242654387.jpg?quality=80" alt="" width="4800" height="2856" data-caption='Strippers listen as colleagues address the crowd at a rally in support of strippers from the Star Garden Topless Dive Bar on August 19, 2022 in North Hollywood. &lt;span class="lazyload media-credit"&gt;AFP via Getty Images&lt;/span&gt;'></noscript>
  224. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">The circumstances behind the union movement at Star Garden have been dreadfully underreported or misreported, but the result is the same. Various reports have described troublesome events such as a customer hugging a worker without permission; non-consensual video recordings by creepy regulars; <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://jezebel.com/solidarity-with-these-strippers-who-dressed-as-their-cl-1848817759" data-lasso-id="1815426">OSHA violations</a>, and special treatment for one individual who was allowed to stay past the 2 A.M. closing time. The dancers allege that these events occurred leading up to March 18th when the strike began. </span></p>
  225. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">A noteworthy exception is Suhauna Hussain’s reporting in the </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400">LA Times</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400">: “Left to deal with inappropriate behavior from customers on their own, every dancer who spoke with </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400">The Times</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400"> described feeling vulnerable to abuse. All said they had been groped, picked up, smacked, restrained or grabbed by customers without their consent.” This matches what sources told me of their experiences at Star Garden. </span></p>
  226. <h3>Lap dance quotas as a weapon</h3>
  227. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">Every worker I talked to at Star Garden described a hostile work environment where their jobs were constantly threatened, with Charlie emphasizing an arbitrarily applied, and unusually high (for a dive bar), $200 lap dance quota that was used as a weapon whenever management wanted to get rid of a worker. All of the workers I spoke to discussed an outright hostility from management towards staff that included abuse around quotas, surveillance, and hours. Star Garden’s owners have </span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-08-17/strippers-unionize-star-garden-north-hollywood-union-actors-equity-association" data-lasso-id="1814001"><span style="font-weight: 400">not</span></a> <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/18/los-angeles-strip-club-dancers-unionize-actors-equity-association" data-lasso-id="1814002"><span style="font-weight: 400">responded</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> to </span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/strippers-turn-to-unions-after-litigation-legislation-falter" data-lasso-id="1814003"><span style="font-weight: 400">repeated</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> interview requests by multiple news outlets, including those submitted by the Observer for this piece. </span></p>
  228. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">The sole statement from a Star Garden representative came in July, when the bar’s lawyer </span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/otilliasteadman/strippers-unionizing-star-garden" data-lasso-id="1814004"><span style="font-weight: 400">spoke</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> to BuzzFeed. Joshua Kaplan denied all misconduct, calling what the dancers have said “maliciously false.</span><span style="font-weight: 400">” Kaplan did not respond to our questions. </span></p>
  229. <img decoding="async" class="lazyload wp-image-1332554 size-full" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" data-src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/08/GettyImages-1242603571-2.jpg?quality=80" alt="" width="4800" height="2940" data-caption='Supporters join strippers for a rally outside the Star Garden Topless Dive Bar on August 19, 2022 in North Hollywood, California. &lt;span class="lazyload media-credit"&gt;AFP via Getty Images&lt;/span&gt;'><noscript><img decoding="async" class="lazyload wp-image-1332554 size-full" src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/08/GettyImages-1242603571-2.jpg?quality=80" alt="" width="4800" height="2940" data-caption='Supporters join strippers for a rally outside the Star Garden Topless Dive Bar on August 19, 2022 in North Hollywood, California. &lt;span class="lazyload media-credit"&gt;AFP via Getty Images&lt;/span&gt;'></noscript>
  230. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">I attended the rally on August 19th at Actor’s Equity, as well as the picket line at Star Garden itself. I spoke to about ten workers and organizers, as well as attendees of the evening. They described a pattern of workplace abuses that they referred to as “the three strikes” (in the baseball sense) that led to the strike (in the labor sense.) While walking twenty feet from the picket line with two workers, I saw Star Garden’s security guard sitting grumpily behind  joyous protesters who were cheering at every honk from supporters driving down the boulevard. We moved to where we could speak openly without surveillance; according to both, it’s no</span><span style="font-weight: 400">t unusual for management at Star Garden to repeat workers&#8217; private conversations back to them as a not-so-subtle reminder that the dancers are always being recorded. </span></p>
  231. <h3>Strike one: A &#8220;joke&#8221; that was more of a threat</h3>
  232. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">The first “strike” has been referenced in several news reports, rarely in full; four different Star Garden workers confirmed to the Observer that a worker went to the acting manager on duty to request that a regular client (for those unfamiliar with the jargon, a regular comes regularly but often with special privileges by establishments to encourage that relationship, often at the expense of workers) no longer be allowed to stay past closing. The manager on duty responded by discrediting her concerns, making a “joke” that the regular would harm her if she caused a problem and telling her not to push it. She responded that the “joke” wasn’t really that funny; she was fired for causing problems. This happened despite many workers viewing her as a top earner. </span></p>
  233. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">Numerous workers confirmed to me that each and every client reported to management for abusive behavior continued to be welcomed as a regular. Star Garden doesn’t have an in-house black list, a way to keep track of clients who pose a genuine safety risk versus ones who might just smell bad. One worker, May, confirmed to the Observer: “</span><span style="font-weight: 400">The guy that got the dancer fired for talking about the videotaping thing was a regular. He came in maybe three or four times a week. He was constantly trying to reach over the tip bar and touch us. We all had to talk to each other and say, don’t go near him.” Sex workers keep sex workers safe, Star Garden workers kept Star Garden safe. </span></p>
  234. <h3>Strike two: customers recording without consent</h3>
  235. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">The second strike was described by Star Garden worker Charlie: “I was on stage dancing and a customer was recording without consent. Another dancer came up because obviously security is not gonna do anything about that. They don&#8217;t care, that customer was drinking, making the club money. So they&#8217;re not gonna say anything. Another dancer, bless her soul, walked up to him and was like, you can&#8217;t record without consent. Put your phone away. Thank God. It turned into a little scene because he was over served. She got fired for ‘starting drama.’”</span></p>
  236. <h3>Strike three: lack of safety</h3>
  237. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">Workers described an environment where they were discouraged or banned from </span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://jezebel.com/solidarity-with-these-strippers-who-dressed-as-their-cl-1848817759" data-lasso-id="1814005"><span style="font-weight: 400">requesting</span></a> <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CbY_gqZLMFO/" data-lasso-id="1814006"><span style="font-weight: 400">help</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> from the </span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-08-17/strippers-unionize-star-garden-north-hollywood-union-actors-equity-association" data-lasso-id="1814007"><span style="font-weight: 400">security guard</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> if they were being assaulted or harassed. A Star Garden worker told me that a member of management told her, “Hey, if you have a problem with a customer, if you&#8217;re being assaulted, you can&#8217;t go to security, you have to go to a manager.” Charlie told the Observer that “a manager wasn&#8217;t always there. And then if you did go to a manager, they&#8217;d be like, ‘oh, okay. We&#8217;ll review the tapes later.’ As if these tapes later are gonna solve the problem of you getting assaulted right now.” </span></p>
  238. <img decoding="async" class="lazyload wp-image-1332556 size-full" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" data-src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/08/GettyImages-1242603555.jpg?quality=80" alt="" width="4800" height="3023" data-caption='Supporters of strippers gather for a rally outside the Star Garden Topless Dive Bar on August 19, 2022 in North Hollywood, California. &lt;span class="lazyload media-credit"&gt;AFP via Getty Images&lt;/span&gt;'><noscript><img decoding="async" class="lazyload wp-image-1332556 size-full" src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/08/GettyImages-1242603555.jpg?quality=80" alt="" width="4800" height="3023" data-caption='Supporters of strippers gather for a rally outside the Star Garden Topless Dive Bar on August 19, 2022 in North Hollywood, California. &lt;span class="lazyload media-credit"&gt;AFP via Getty Images&lt;/span&gt;'></noscript>
  239. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">Stoney, an organizer with sex worker advocacy group </span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.strippersunited.org/" data-lasso-id="1814008"><span style="font-weight: 400">Strippers United</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> who uses her stage name professionally in her organizing work, informed me at the picket line that after the workers reached out to them seeking advice, they delivered a </span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.change.org/p/star-garden-petition-for-jobs-and-safety" data-lasso-id="1814009"><span style="font-weight: 400">petition</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> (which according to the </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400">LA Times</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400">, 15 of the 23 dancers signed) to the management on March 18th. Management locked them out the next day and required one-on-one meetings for any further contact, according to multiple sources. Stoney told me that the first lockout resulted in Star Garden workers and their supporters picketing for eight days straight until it became apparent that the club, like most managed spaces in the sex industry, is dead on weekdays. They only picket weekends now.</span></p>
  240. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">Another organizer with Strippers United, Alice, confirmed to the Observer that after meeting as a collective, the Star Garden workers confronted managers and presumed owners </span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-08-17/strippers-unionize-star-garden-north-hollywood-union-actors-equity-association" data-lasso-id="1814010"><span style="font-weight: 400">Stepan K. Kazaryan and Yevgenya Jenny Kazaryan</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> (the club&#8217;s precise ownership, even on official documents, is murky) with their demands, which didn’t go smoothly. Alice described the management’s response as “we&#8217;ll talk to you one-on-one, but we&#8217;re not talking to you as a group. And that was it, that was when they decided to strike. Strippers United has been with them ever since.”  </span></p>
  241. <h3>Dancers are workers</h3>
  242. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">At the Actors’ Equity rally someone shouted, “Los Angeles is a union town!” to which the former labor organizer and progressive LA city council candidate Hugo Soto-Martinez shouted back “That’s right, LA is a union town!” Soto-Martinez is taking aim at incumbent Mitch O’Farrell’s seat in </span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://thelandmag.com/2022-los-angeles-city-countil-primary-election-guide/" data-lasso-id="1814011"><span style="font-weight: 400">Council District 13</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400">. “When I heard about the workers here organizing I thought it was an incredible fight because it really shifts the paradigm of what a worker is,” Soto-Martinez told the Observer. “I think that there&#8217;s these false concepts that people have about who deserves to have a living wage and who doesn&#8217;t.”</span></p>
  243. <img decoding="async" class="lazyload size-full wp-image-1332559" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" data-src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/08/GettyImages-514962758.jpg?quality=80" alt="" width="635" height="500" data-caption='These Hollywood strippers, members of the League of Exotic Dancers photographed in 1955, refuse to work because &amp;#8220;the low wage scale of $95 at week&amp;#8221; they receive when they take time off. They are (l-r): Champagne; Daurene Dare; Jennie &amp;#8220;The Bazoom Girl&amp;#8221; Lee, president of the league, Rusty Lane; and Novita. &lt;span class="lazyload media-credit"&gt;Bettmann Archive&lt;/span&gt;'><noscript><img decoding="async" class="lazyload size-full wp-image-1332559" src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/08/GettyImages-514962758.jpg?quality=80" alt="" width="635" height="500" data-caption='These Hollywood strippers, members of the League of Exotic Dancers photographed in 1955, refuse to work because &amp;#8220;the low wage scale of $95 at week&amp;#8221; they receive when they take time off. They are (l-r): Champagne; Daurene Dare; Jennie &amp;#8220;The Bazoom Girl&amp;#8221; Lee, president of the league, Rusty Lane; and Novita. &lt;span class="lazyload media-credit"&gt;Bettmann Archive&lt;/span&gt;'></noscript>
  244. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">Director of Organizing &amp; Mobilization at Actors’ Equity Stefanie Frey, asked if Actors’ Equity’s move should encourage more strip clubs to seek unionization, </span><span style="font-weight: 400">responded: “Right now the focus is on the Star Garden contract. I am happy to talk to anyone from the live entertainment industries, who have long been exploited and I really hope that will lead more in the right direction in taking power back in their workplaces.” </span></p>
  245. <h3>Dancers&#8217; rights have been a long time coming</h3>
  246. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">Erotic workers have been able to form a union for a long time, even before AB 2509 and AB 5, most notably San Francisco’s Lusty Lady in 1996. AB 5, which was primarily about Uber and Lyft drivers, served to clarify that the California state government has been neglecting and not equally enforcing labor protections it established for dancers in 2000. Some sex workers choose to remain independent contractors for their own reasons, but there should be no debate as to whether in a “managed space” (such as a strip club) they’d count as employees or contractors. </span></p>
  247. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">“Sex worker unions—including stripper unions—have been around for some time and are not the result of AB5.  In fact AB5 does not affect organizing rights—only wage, unemployment insurance, and workers compensation rights,” University of California law professor Veena Dubal told the Observer. </span></p>
  248. <img decoding="async" class="lazyload wp-image-1332558 size-full" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" data-src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/08/GettyImages-2115262.jpg?quality=80" alt="" width="2189" height="3000" data-caption='SAN FRANCISCO &amp;#8211; JUNE 26: A man walks by a sign in front of the Lusty Lady strip club after the official re-opening June 26, 2003 in San Francisco. The dancers and support staff of the Lusty Lady made history by saving the famous strip club from going out of business by becoming the first employee-owned, fully unionized strip club in the nation. &lt;span class="lazyload media-credit"&gt;Getty Images&lt;/span&gt;'><noscript><img decoding="async" class="lazyload wp-image-1332558 size-full" src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/08/GettyImages-2115262.jpg?quality=80" alt="" width="2189" height="3000" data-caption='SAN FRANCISCO &amp;#8211; JUNE 26: A man walks by a sign in front of the Lusty Lady strip club after the official re-opening June 26, 2003 in San Francisco. The dancers and support staff of the Lusty Lady made history by saving the famous strip club from going out of business by becoming the first employee-owned, fully unionized strip club in the nation. &lt;span class="lazyload media-credit"&gt;Getty Images&lt;/span&gt;'></noscript>
  249. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">Sex workers have been organizing and the labor movement that currently exists is inclusive of everyone beyond borders yet recognizes everyone operates in unique contexts depending on local prostitution policy. Star Garden is on the verge of joining clubs like Lusty Lady, like Pacers in San Diego (they nearly unionized in 1993), and others in destigmatizing erotic labor. It is important when talking about Star Garden to place it not just in its position in this specific moment in the US labor movement but in the domestic sex workers’ rights movement.</span></p>
  250. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">Star Garden illustrates the power workers have when they come together to say enough is enough, even up against the unique complexities of recognizing sex work as labor. No one can reasonably debate in 2022 if sex work is work, if sex workers should be able to form a union (or reject one); if only because they were never asking for your permission. </span></p>
  251. <p><em>This story was updated on August 25. </em></p>
  252. ]]></content:encoded>
  256. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">1332548</post-id><author><![CDATA[Erin Taylor ]]></author><section><![CDATA[ ]]></section> </item>
  257. <item>
  258. <title>Workers Want Their Employers to Stop Donating to Anti-Abortion Politicians. Here&#8217;s Why They Probably Won&#8217;t</title>
  259. <link>https://observer.com/2022/07/workers-want-their-employers-to-stop-donating-to-anti-abortion-politicians-heres-why-they-probably-wont/</link>
  261. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Courtney Vinopal]]></dc:creator>
  262. <pubDate>Thu, 07 Jul 2022 09:30:01 +0000</pubDate>
  263. <category><![CDATA[abortion rights]]></category>
  264. <category><![CDATA[Citizens United]]></category>
  265. <category><![CDATA[PACs]]></category>
  266. <category><![CDATA[Political Donations]]></category>
  267. <category><![CDATA[roe v. wade]]></category>
  268. <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
  269. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  270. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://observer.com/?p=1326693</guid>
  271.  
  272. <description><![CDATA[In the aftermath of Roe v. Wade's overturning, companies are unlikely to revisit donations to anti-abortion politicians. If anything, they may get better at hiding them.]]></description>
  273. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In the wake of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, companies are facing pressure to pull their donations from anti-abortion politicians.</p>
  274. <p>An internal petition signed by hundreds of Amazon workers on June 27 asked the company to take “immediate and decisive action against the threat to our basic human rights with the overturning of Roe v. Wade,” and to stop donating to anti-abortion politicians. The retail giant <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-employees-abortion-supreme-court-roe-internal-petition-2022-6" data-lasso-id="1768157">has donated $974,718</a> to political committees that oppose abortion since 2016, including the Republican Attorneys General and the Republican State Leadership Committee, according to the newsletter <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://popular.info/p/these-13-corporations-have-spent" data-lasso-id="1768158">Popular Information</a>. The union representing Google workers called out the tech company for making similar donations.</p>
  275. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
  276. <p lang="en" dir="ltr">Google tweets that they want to help women &quot;prioritize their health&quot;&#8230;while also bankrolling anti-abortion electeds.</p>
  277. <p>Google must stop all donations to anti-abortion political committees &amp; electeds.<a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://t.co/9gKHFIMy7H">https://t.co/9gKHFIMy7H</a></p>
  278. <p>&mdash; Alphabet Workers Union (AWU-CWA) (@AlphabetWorkers) <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/AlphabetWorkers/status/1541463651390894081?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 27, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
  279. <p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
  280. <p>While companies such as Disney and AT&amp;T have pledged to expand healthcare to ensure employees can still access abortion in the wake of Roe v. Wade, these firms “are still giving to the very politicians that led us to this moment,” said Sonja Spoo, the director of reproductive rights campaigns at UltraViolet, an organization that <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://reproreceipts.com/" data-lasso-id="1768159">tracks</a> corporate donations to anti-abortion politicians.</p>
  281. <p>But experts who study corporate political spending say these companies are unlikely to halt these donations entirely. If anything, the public outcry may prompt them to adopt more surreptitious tactics for political donations, making it harder for employees and shareholders to follow the money.</p>
  282. <h3>Why companies are so tied to politicians</h3>
  283. <p>Corporations typically donate to politicians for reasons unrelated to their stance on issues such as abortion, said Jane Sumner, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota and the author of <em>The Cost of Doing Politics</em>.</p>
  284. <p>“Governments at all levels do lots of things that have consequences for companies,” and can pass policies that affect the way they do business, said Sumner. If a lawmaker is considering new labor regulations, for example, or taxation policies, companies want to have a relationship with policy makers who have a hand in these decisions. “It’s almost like an insurance policy for the company,” Sumner said.</p>
  285. <p>This helps explain why Amazon donated <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/11/6/20951648/seattle-city-council-results-amazon-kshama-sawant-egan-orion" data-lasso-id="1768160">nearly $1.5 million</a> to business-friendly politicians ahead of Seattle’s city council elections in 2019, for example, or why AT&amp;T gave <a target="_blank" target="_blank" class="c-link" href="https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2021/03/23/dallas-based-att-pledged-to-cut-funding-to-gop-objectors-after-jan-6-but-gave-to-pacs-tied-to-them/" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2021/03/23/dallas-based-att-pledged-to-cut-funding-to-gop-objectors-after-jan-6-but-gave-to-pacs-tied-to-them/" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true" data-lasso-id="1768161">thousands of dollars</a> to a conservative political fund with Republican members who voted to overturn the results of the 2020 election, even after it pledged to halt such donations.</p>
  286. <p>Brad Smith, the president of Microsoft, offered a candid explanation last year of how companies use donations made through Political Action Committees, or PACs, to maintain relationships with politicians who can help them somewhere down the road.</p>
  287. <p>&#8220;I&#8217;m sometimes calling members (of Congress) and asking for their help on green cards, or on visa issues, or help to get an employee or family member who is outside the United States during Covid back into the country because of an immigration restriction,&#8221; Smith <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/22/microsoft-president-brad-smith-defends-mspac-to-employees.html" data-lasso-id="1768162">told employees</a>. He went on to say that lawmakers who have a good relationship with Microsoft might take the interests of the company into account when it comes to issues surrounding national security, privacy, procurement reform, or taxation.</p>
  288. <p>If companies don&#8217;t donate to politicians, they might sacrifice that line of communication. Mick Mulvaney, former director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Donald Trump, described a &#8220;hierarchy&#8221; in his office when he served as a congressman for South Carolina. &#8220;If you were a lobbyist who never gave us money, I didn’t talk to you. If you were a lobbyist who gave us money, I might talk to you,&#8221; <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2018/04/25/mick-mulvaney-faces-backlash-after-telling-bankers-if-you-were-a-lobbyist-who-never-gave-us-money-i-didnt-talk-to-you/" data-lasso-id="1768163">he told</a> the American Bankers Association in 2018.</p>
  289. <p>The U.S. political system perpetuates such behavior. Corporations can spend freely on elections thanks to <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/citizens-united-explained" data-lasso-id="1768164">Citizens United</a>, a 2010 Supreme Court decision that removed political spending caps for companies and other outside groups. Though it’s typical for businesses to donate to politicians on both sides of the aisle, research indicates Republicans tend to benefit more from corporate political spending than Democrats. Between 2010 and 2020, corporations <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.citizen.org/article/ten-years-after-citizens-united/" data-lasso-id="1768165">gave $282 million</a> to Republican candidates, compared to $38 million for Democratic candidates, according to a study by the progressive consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen. CEOs of S&amp;P 1500 companies tend to favor donations to Republicans as well, according to <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/trending/0Nm-AZgRKeGzfWZhvSWTFw2" data-lasso-id="1768166">a 2019 study</a> by professors at Harvard Law School and Tel-Aviv University.</p>
  290. <h3>Jan. 6 was a test case for corporate action on political spending</h3>
  291. <p>Many companies faced heightened scrutiny over their donations to Republican politicians who voted against certifying the election of President Joe Biden following the Jan. 6 insurrection in the U.S. Capitol last year.  <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/01/19/gop-corporate-pac-funding/" data-lasso-id="1768167">A number of companies did</a> halt these donations—at least temporarily. But by July, the political action committees for many of these companies <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/comcast-goldman-sachs-resume-pac-giving-to-republican-election-objectors-11643753183" data-lasso-id="1768168">resumed those donations</a>, with American Airlines, General Motors, the United Parcel Service (UPS), and Comcast all reversing pledges to halt such spending. A number of these companies <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/more-corporate-pacs-resume-political-donations-to-republicans-who-rejected-election-results-11626446600" data-lasso-id="1768169">told the Wall Street Journal</a> that giving to lawmakers from both political parties was an important way to advocate for policies that benefitted their businesses.</p>
  292. <p>Their reversal show how deeply corporations have come to rely on maintaining political ties, and suggests the overturning of Roe won’t dramatically change their spending patterns. If anything, said Sumner, public pressure may prompt companies to obscure their donations to anti-abortion politicians.</p>
  293. <p>“They can hide things they’re doing” by having their CEO make a donation, or going through an interest group whose membership isn’t publicly available, Sumner said. A company might donate to a philanthropic organization that’s favored by a certain politician in a way that doesn’t generate an easily accessible record, or capitalize on less stringent reporting requirements at the state and local levels. It’s possible these companies have already been thinking about finding back-channel routes to anti-abortion politicians, she added. “Any time the companies think they’re going to generate public scrutiny, there’s a really strong incentive to think ahead.”</p>
  294. <p>Though it’s rare for big companies to sever ties publicly with politicians, Disney did recently face consequences after it pledged <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/11/disney-pledges-to-stop-florida-campaign-donations-dont-say-gay-00016705" data-lasso-id="1768170">to stop</a> Florida campaign donations over the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill prohibiting teachings about gender identity and sexual orientation in the classroom. A month later governor Ron DeSantis <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/04/22/desantis-disney-special-status-dont-say-gay-00027302" data-lasso-id="1768171">moved to revoke</a> the special self-governing status the company has enjoyed for more than 50 years.</p>
  295. <p>Thus far few, if any, companies facing pressure to halt donations to anti-abortion politicians have announced they’re doing so. “I think there will be a public backlash against companies that choose sides in this debate and spend on pro- or anti-abortion campaigns,” said Wendy Hansen, a political science professor at the University of New Mexico.</p>
  296. <p>UltraViolet’s Spoo said she believes there is a business case for halting donations to anti-abortion politicians, and she hopes companies will consider it. “The Republicans are already indicating where they’re heading,” with the possibility of making companies liable for aiding and abetting abortion, or meddling in corporate benefits, she said. “Do you really want to fund the person who’s adamantly going to hinder your ability to do what’s best for your workers, and attract the best talent?”</p>
  297. ]]></content:encoded>
  301. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">1326693</post-id><author><![CDATA[Courtney Vinopal ]]></author><section><![CDATA[ ]]></section> </item>
  302. <item>
  303. <title>Biden&#8217;s New Pandemic Plan Could Shift Control From the CDC to the White House and Disease Experts Aren&#8217;t Happy</title>
  304. <link>https://observer.com/2022/06/bidens-new-pandemic-plan-could-shift-control-from-the-cdc-to-the-white-house-and-disease-experts-arent-happy/</link>
  306. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Linda Carroll]]></dc:creator>
  307. <pubDate>Thu, 16 Jun 2022 09:30:01 +0000</pubDate>
  308. <category><![CDATA[CDC]]></category>
  309. <category><![CDATA[Pandemic]]></category>
  310. <category><![CDATA[pandemic response]]></category>
  311. <category><![CDATA[white house]]></category>
  312. <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
  313. <category><![CDATA[Health]]></category>
  314. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  315. <category><![CDATA[National Politics]]></category>
  316. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://observer.com/?p=1323935</guid>
  317.  
  318. <description><![CDATA[A new pandemic response plan reportedly gives control for a disease outbreak to the White House instead of the CDC. What could go wrong?]]></description>
  319. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img decoding="async" class="lazyload size-full wp-image-1323936" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" data-src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/CDC.jpg?quality=80" alt="he Emergency Operations Center at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia" width="635" height="423" data-caption="So long?"><noscript><img decoding="async" class="lazyload size-full wp-image-1323936" src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/CDC.jpg?quality=80" alt="he Emergency Operations Center at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia" width="635" height="423" data-caption="So long?"></noscript>
  320. <p>With researchers predicting there’s an <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.cgdev.org/blog/the-next-pandemic-could-come-soon-and-be-deadlier" data-lasso-id="1745417">approximately a 50 percent chance</a> the U.S. will experience another Covid-like pandemic in the next 25 years, the Biden administration is working out the details of a new National Biodefense Strategy it hopes will do a better job at containing dangerous germs than the last time around.</p>
  321. <p>While no one outside of the administration knows exactly what is in the new plan, experts expect it will build on the previously released <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/American-Pandemic-Preparedness-Transforming-Our-Capabilities-Final-For-Web.pdf?page=29" data-lasso-id="1745418">American Pandemic Preparedness Plan </a>for which the administration requested $88.2 billion in funding from Congress. There are hints that there will be a restructuring that will shift management for a crisis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the White House in an attempt to avoid the power struggles between agencies that gummed up the government’s Covid response.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
  322. <p>“The bottom line is that we know what it takes to prevent and essentially take outbreaks off the table as a threat to society,” <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-14/another-pandemic-coming-white-house-prepares-to-unveil-biodefense-plan" data-lasso-id="1745419">Andrew Hebbeler,</a> the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s principal assistant director for health and life science, told Bloomberg. “This is probably the most focused plan to date that aims to do that.”</p>
  323. <p>It’s the shifting of power away from the CDC and to the White House that worries pandemic experts.<span class="Apple-converted-space"><br />
  324. </span></p>
  325. <h3>A fear of further politicizing pandemic response</h3>
  326. <p>“The bottom line is it’s not a good idea,” said Peter Hotez, a professor at the Baylor College of Medicine and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine. “This sends a vote of no-confidence in the CDC.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
  327. <p>Hotez is most concerned about the possibility the White House ends up in charge of pandemic responses. “I think we’ve seen what happened with the Trump White House,” he said. “It allowed political influence to affect the pandemic response. That’s one reason you want this based anywhere but Washington, DC.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
  328. <p>Noting all the failings with the initial response to the pandemic, Hotez said, “at every turn the CDC came up small. My frustration is that the Biden White House seems unprepared to do the hard work of working with the CDC director to fix” the agency.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
  329. <p>Maybe fixing the CDC means streamlining it and removing some of its functions, Hotez said. “The one thing you should be able to expect from the CDC is it should know how to lead a pandemic response,” he added. “This looks like a band aid. Creating a shadow CDC based in DC is the wrong direction to go in.”</p>
  330. <p>William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist and a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, applauded the administration’s commitment to addressing the mistakes made during the initial response to Covid. “Many lessons could be learned from that,” Schaffner said. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
  331. <p>One of the government’s biggest failings was the lack of coordination between the various federal agencies, Schaffner said. And clearly that is why the plan is to make the White House the command center in a pandemic response, he added.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
  332. <p>In the past, “the CDC has been on the point of responses to pandemics,” Schaffner said. “It’s clear that the CDC was diminished in its response for a variety of reasons. This plan makes the CDC an important player, but it doesn’t put it in the lead. That’s one of the things that concerns me. Anything that comes out of Washington has political overtones. You can’t avoid it.”</p>
  333. <p>Ultimately, Schaffner said, “the devil is in the details. I don’t know the details. But I’m frankly wary of centralizing control in Washington.”</p>
  334. <p>While a national response is needed, the best strategy would be to come up with a way forward “and then let the CDC lead,” Schaffner said. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
  335. ]]></content:encoded>
  339. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">1323935</post-id><author><![CDATA[Linda Carroll ]]></author><section><![CDATA[ ]]></section> </item>
  340. <item>
  341. <title>Pat Toomey and the Strange, Winding Tale of Reserve Trust</title>
  342. <link>https://observer.com/2022/06/pat-toomey-and-the-strange-winding-tale-of-reserve-trust/</link>
  344. <dc:creator><![CDATA[James Ledbetter]]></dc:creator>
  345. <pubDate>Sun, 12 Jun 2022 14:14:59 +0000</pubDate>
  346. <category><![CDATA[Federal Reserve]]></category>
  347. <category><![CDATA[fintech]]></category>
  348. <category><![CDATA[Reserve Trust]]></category>
  349. <category><![CDATA[Banking]]></category>
  350. <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
  351. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  352. <category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
  353. <category><![CDATA[Pat Toomey]]></category>
  354. <category><![CDATA[Sarah Bloom Raskin]]></category>
  355. <category><![CDATA[Jamie Raskin]]></category>
  356. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://observer.com/?p=1323448</guid>
  357.  
  358. <description><![CDATA[The Pennsylvania Senator has launched a crusade to find out why the Federal Reserve granted, and later rescinded, a banking privilege to a small, politically connected fintech company.]]></description>
  359. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<h6>Sign up for FIN, the best newsletter about fintech. <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://fintechlatest.substack.com/" data-lasso-id="1740494">Get it in your inbox.</a></h6>
  360. <p>Nothing encourages Congressional regulatory scrutiny as much as a good partisan scrape. Americans who are concerned that a tiny, Colorado-based fintech company may have unduly received a government favor can sleep at night, knowing that Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) is taking on the issue with bulldog tenacity. This crusade is a little surprising because Toomey, who is the ranking member of the Senate banking committee and is not running for re-election this fall, usually positions himself as a friend of financial innovation.</p>
  361. <p>But, you see, the company in question—Reserve Trust, which has been neatly labeled <a target="_blank" target="_blank" href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/04/the-stripe-for-b2b-payments-reserve-trust-raises-30-5m-in-qed-led-round/" rel="" data-lasso-id="1740495">“the Stripe for B2B payments”</a>—has important ties to prominent Democrats. Toomey has been raising questions about Reserve Trust at least as far back as February, and to date the answers have been less than illuminating, even if the stakes are lower than Toomey’s hyperventilation suggests.</p>
  362. <p>Let’s start at the beginning: Reserve Trust was founded in 2016, and very quickly applied to the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City for a “master account,” meaning that the company would have direct access to the Federal Reserve’s payment system, and can settle transactions with other member banks using the Fed’s money. Very few fintech startups bother to make such applications, because it’s pretty obvious they don’t qualify. Reserve Trust is a state-chartered trust; master accounts are typically meant for federally recognized banks, savings and loan associations, and similar institutions that handle deposits. Unsurprisingly, the Kansas City Fed rejected Reserve Trust’s application in mid-2017.</p>
  363. <h3>How did Reserve Trust get a Fed master account?</h3>
  364. <p>Around that time, some politically interesting things happened. When Donald Trump took office, Sarah Bloom Raskin stepped down from her position as Deputy Treasury Secretary (at the time she was the highest-ranking woman in Treasury’s history, and she had previously served as a governor of the Federal Reserve Board). Raskin began teaching at the University of Maryland, but also joined the board of Reserve Trust and received equity as compensation. <a target="_blank" target="_blank" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/11/biden-federal-reserve-pick-raskin-lobbied-kc-fed-for-fintech-firm.html" rel="" data-lasso-id="1740496">According to Toomey</a>, Raskin called Kansas City Fed President Esther George shortly after Reserve Trust’s application was rejected. The next year, the Kansas City Fed reversed its decision and granted Reserve Trust a master account—the first and apparently only nonbank to acquire that status.</p>
  365. <p>All this surfaced earlier this year, when Raskin was nominated to be the Federal Reserve’s banks regulator. The Kansas City Fed, finding itself under Congressional fire, <a target="_blank" target="_blank" href="https://www.kansascityfed.org/documents/8617/Statement_02_07_2022.pdf" rel="" data-lasso-id="1740497">issued a statement</a> saying that Reserve Trust “changed its business model and the Colorado Division of Banking reinterpreted the state’s law in a manner that meant [Reserve Trust] met the definition of a depository institution.”</p>
  366. <p>It may not matter much, because it seems like the Fed has a fair amount of discretion in who it gives master accounts to, but as long as we’re keeping score: a) <a target="_blank" target="_blank" href="https://www.reservetrust.com/" rel="" data-lasso-id="1740498">Reserve Trust to this day</a> describes itself as a “non-depository, Colorado chartered trust,” and b) the <a target="_blank" target="_blank" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/15/bank-regulator-disputes-kc-fed-claim-about-firm-linked-to-biden-nominee-raskin.html" rel="" data-lasso-id="1740499">Colorado banking regulator labeled the Fed statement a “misrepresentation.”</a></p>
  367. <h3>Who now runs Reserve Trust?</h3>
  368. <p>Raskin left Reserve Trust in 2019, and in late 2020 sold her stock in the company for $1.5 million. This created a headache for her husband, Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD), because <a target="_blank" target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/democratic-rep-jamie-raskin-violated-federal-conflict-of-interest-law-2022-2" rel="" data-lasso-id="1740500">he didn’t disclose anything about her company role until eight months after the sale, a violation of Congressional rules</a>. (Raskin has explained that his son committed suicide around the time the form should have been filed, but that doesn’t account for the failure to disclose her work for the company in the previous years.) All of this was a factor in Sarah Raskin withdrawing her nomination earlier this year.</p>
  369. <p>But the story doesn’t end there. This week, Toomey revealed that the Kansas City Fed has now revoked Reserve Trust’s master account. The Observer reached out to the company for confirmation, and received no reply. However, the Fed master account was prominently referenced on Reserve Trust’s Web site as recently as June 10; it has since disappeared and <a target="_blank" target="_blank" href="https://www.reservetrust.com/" rel="" data-lasso-id="1740501">the site is now a single page with little information on it</a>. One of the company’s founders, Dennis Gingold, <a target="_blank" target="_blank" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-09/toomey-demands-answers-from-kansas-city-fed-on-fintech-s-account" rel="" data-lasso-id="1740502">told Bloomberg</a> that he and other board members had sold their shares to one of the company’s largest investors, <a target="_blank" target="_blank" href="https://www.qedinvestors.com/" rel="" data-lasso-id="1740503">QED Investors</a>. One of QED’s partners, <a target="_blank" target="_blank" href="https://www.qedinvestors.com/team/amias-gerety" rel="" data-lasso-id="1740504">Amias Gerety</a>, worked for Sarah Raskin at Treasury. When QED led Reserve Trust’s Series A round in 2021, <a target="_blank" target="_blank" href="https://www.qedinvestors.com/blog/why-qed-invested-in-reserve-trust" rel="" data-lasso-id="1740505">Gerety boasted</a> that its relationship to the Fed was a big attraction. No one, including Toomey, is offering a public explanation for why the master account was apparently revoked, but it would be foolish to think that Toomey will let this issue go.</p>
  370. <p>At the same time, it’s worth stepping back and figuring out what all this means.</p>
  371. <p><strong>Did the master account give Reserve Trust an advantage?</strong> Absolutely. It’s long been the first thing the company says about itself, it attracted customers that otherwise might go elsewhere, it was undoubtedly a factor that helped the company raise $35.5 million. If it’s been revoked, that may be a fatal blow to the business.</p>
  372. <p><strong>Was Sarah Raskin transparent about her contacts with the Kansas City Fed? </strong>No. While she never outright denied that she had contacted the Fed directly, she was given ample opportunity in her confirmation hearing to explain her role, which she sidestepped. It’s hard to imagine Raskin ever getting Congressional approval for another government role.</p>
  373. <p><strong>Was the Fed wrong to give Reserve Trust a master account? </strong>Morally or legally wrong? Probably not. If, as now seems likely, the Fed has determined that Reserve Trust doesn’t qualify, it certainly looks stupid, but there are rules for handling these applications, and as long as they were followed, there’s not much anyone can do to second-guess the decisions. Logistically wrong? Probably. Either the Fed gives such accounts to no nonbanks, or it gives them to some. The problem is that now there will be lots of nonbanks who think they are at least as qualified as Reserve Trust. On Friday, a Wisconsin-based financial firm called <a target="_blank" target="_blank" href="https://www.natlawreview.com/article/let-me-wyoming-special-purpose-bank-sues-fed-access-to-payments-system" rel="" data-lasso-id="1740506">Custodia filed a legal complaint against the Fed and Kansas City Fed</a>, arguing that they are unlawfully refusing to act on Custodia’s application for a master account.</p>
  374. ]]></content:encoded>
  378. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">1323448</post-id><author><![CDATA[James Ledbetter ]]></author><section><![CDATA[ ]]></section> </item>
  379. <item>
  380. <title>New York&#8217;s Bitcoin Mining Ban Shows the Limits of Crypto&#8217;s Political Clout</title>
  381. <link>https://observer.com/2022/06/new-yorks-bitcoin-mining-ban-shows-the-limits-of-cryptos-political-clout/</link>
  383. <dc:creator><![CDATA[James Ledbetter]]></dc:creator>
  384. <pubDate>Tue, 07 Jun 2022 20:52:41 +0000</pubDate>
  385. <category><![CDATA[Bitcoin]]></category>
  386. <category><![CDATA[campaign donations]]></category>
  387. <category><![CDATA[FTX]]></category>
  388. <category><![CDATA[Cryptocurrency]]></category>
  389. <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
  390. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  391. <category><![CDATA[New York Politics]]></category>
  392. <category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
  393. <category><![CDATA[New York]]></category>
  394. <category><![CDATA[Kathy Hochul]]></category>
  395. <category><![CDATA[Anna Kelles]]></category>
  396. <category><![CDATA[Sam Bankman-Fried]]></category>
  397. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://observer.com/?p=1322902</guid>
  398.  
  399. <description><![CDATA[Public complaints and substantial campaign donations did not stop New York State legislators from passing an historic bill to limit cryptocurrency mining. ]]></description>
  400. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The New York State legislature made history last week when the State Senate passed, by a 36-27 margin, a bill the <a href="https://observer.com/2022/04/breaking-new-york-state-assembly-passes-bitcoin-mining-moratorium/" data-lasso-id="1737061">state’s Assembly had already approved to place a two-year moratorium on “proof-of-work” cryptocurrency mining that uses fossil fuels</a>—effectively, a two-year ban on much bitcoin mining. It is the farthest-reaching legislation of its kind anywhere in the world, and most insiders expect Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat up for election in November, will sign it into law.</p>
  401. <p>In the last two years as cryptocurrency has become more mainstream, the industry has tried to increase its influence on public policy. In what was viewed as an <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2022-05-19/terra-s-luna-ust-field-of-dreams-is-washington-nationals-crypto-nightmare" data-lasso-id="1737062">attempt to influence Washington policymakers</a>, Terraform Labs, the company behind the recently-imploded cryptocurrency Terra paid more than $30 million to blanket the Washington Nationals baseball stadium with advertising. Protect Our Future, a super PAC controlled by Sam Bankman-Fried—the founder and CEO of crypto exchange FTX—made more than $17 million in political contributions in the first four months of this year, <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms/C00801514/1597065/#SUMMARY" data-lasso-id="1737063">according to Federal Election Commission filings</a>.</p>
  402. <p>Similarly, crypto companies have been spending money to get their message across and to block New York&#8217;s moratorium bill. Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, and other prominent crypto advocates <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://coincodecap.com/ethereum-co-founder-vitalik-buterin-opposes-the-ban-on-pow-mining" data-lasso-id="1737064">took to Twitter to oppose the measure</a>. And at least some crypto companies tried to make their voices heard through political donations.</p>
  403. <p>&#8220;Crypto billionaires, like many other dark money groups, have poured millions of dollars into PACs to try to buy elections throughout New York State,&#8221; said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York, a good government group, in a statement to the Observer. &#8220;This time around, lawmakers in the NYS legislature listened to real people—not buckets of cash—and voted in favor of a two year moratorium on bitcoin mining.&#8221;</p>
  404. <p>Hochul was not immune from such donations. <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/30/nyregion/gov-hochul-leads-rivals-donations.html" data-lasso-id="1737065">On May 30</a>, the <em>New York Times</em> reported that Ashton Soniat, the chief executive of Coinmint, donated $40,000 to Hochul&#8217;s campaign. Coinmint operates a cryptocurrency mining facility in a former aluminum smelting plant in Massena, New York, near the St. Lawrence River.</p>
  405. <p>&#8220;Governor Hochul must sign the bill or it will be seen as typical Albany pay to play politics, something she has vowed vigorously to reverse,” Lerner said. The governor&#8217;s office did not return an email request for comment.</p>
  406. <p>“Political donations have no influence on government decisions,” a Hochul spokeswoman told the <em>Times</em>.</p>
  407. <h3>How much bitcoin is mined in New York?</h3>
  408. <p>New York’s slice of the bitcoin mining pie is very large. According to <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://email.mg1.substack.com/c/eJwtkUuOwyAMhk9TdkRAaJMuWMxmrhER46ZMEojAUSa3H7cdCdkyfv18gCeccjndliuJlxno3NAlPOqCRFjEXrEMMTit275rRXCqM9CNItbhURBXHxcntn1cIniKOX1q9dVo8XS9UlojB8YgBLwBAqLt0HhEbYz6rPR7iJgAXU7LOWw-BrG4J9FWL-3XxXzzOY6jgTRCA3nl0Cij2WnFRt1feV8kZemJigeSYyTIMck1JixVbpGqJPz1VfrJx1RJ8gvlmcssZ0y0w3w2T1oXER2PNqo1ne5Mp66Naa5tC3eEPljVetX7Zl5DC6HeL1atk27qPlbyML-kieJ-FgwjEienF5v3LeMZ2K97inQOmPzIRY7KjoI-6N8chwlZLn9JGDw5fbO9VSznZu0_KEZ7Vb3VurOC14bMXck9YiKE58KNlf4Ah3idYw" data-lasso-id="1737066">figures released last year by the crypto mining pool Foundry USA</a>, 19.9% of the US bitcoin <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://email.mg1.substack.com/c/eJwlkMuOhSAMhp_msNNwUzwLFrOZ1yAIVZmjaKTG-PZTjwlpSdu_ly94hHHdL7utBdltHF4b2AxnmQERdnYU2F2KVgjVGcWi5UYG07NU3LADLD7Nlm1HP6fgMa35qRWNFGyyplE6ciFbo4ZmCG_OoxkGL7hoWz7o9hnpj5ggB7Brni-3-RTZbCfErbzUz0v-0jvPsw5ryhHKhz4LhRDCRE5yKchxeZvmLp08VnGFUk2-TDtdWC3gc-VzrM7pelIJq8Xf95GAJUtNJFfSCCMNb2pZN0qFN4Quaq4873z9WaIKsbxfmi-jqMvRF_Thuwvb7d8MsQek5HgD-UaJiSO_HDnh5SD7noos7gcwfHh_4bkRMtxbRufRilZ3mtM6rdb8oUM8G95pIYxmNDaupMp2SPkGMJOw4D9GM5bw" data-lasso-id="1737067">hashrate</a>—the collective computing power of miners—is located in New York, making it the largest bitcoin mining state, with Kentucky, Georgia and Texas not far behind.</p>
  409. <p>Assuming Hochul signs the bill into law—which environmental activists predict she will—it&#8217;s not clear how much of New York&#8217;s existing bitcoin mining will be affected. The legislation specifically targets mining facilities that use fossil fuels—some run on sustainable energy—and many bitcoin mining facilities are grandfathered into the legislation.<strong> </strong></p>
  410. <p>Despite the policy setback in New York, crypto advocates are unlikely to exit the political arena. <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://omny.fm/shows/whats-your-problem/sam-bankman-fried-wants-to-save-the-world" data-lasso-id="1737068">In a podcast last month</a>, FTX&#8217;s Bankman-Fried said that he is considering making political donations of between $100 million and $1 billion for the 2024 elections; if he does, he would become one of the largest individual political contributors in the country.</p>
  411. <p>&nbsp;</p>
  412. ]]></content:encoded>
  416. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">1322902</post-id><author><![CDATA[James Ledbetter ]]></author><section><![CDATA[ ]]></section> </item>
  417. <item>
  418. <title>Even France&#8217;s Diplomats Are Going On Strike</title>
  419. <link>https://observer.com/2022/06/even-frances-diplomats-are-going-on-strike/</link>
  421. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Courtney Vinopal]]></dc:creator>
  422. <pubDate>Thu, 02 Jun 2022 20:40:34 +0000</pubDate>
  423. <category><![CDATA[Foreign Affairs]]></category>
  424. <category><![CDATA[French ambassador]]></category>
  425. <category><![CDATA[International Diplomacy]]></category>
  426. <category><![CDATA[labor strikes]]></category>
  427. <category><![CDATA[power]]></category>
  428. <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
  429. <category><![CDATA[International Politics]]></category>
  430. <category><![CDATA[Emmanuel Macron]]></category>
  431. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://observer.com/?p=1322622</guid>
  432.  
  433. <description><![CDATA[Even France's diplomats are going on strike, over fears their role will be diminished under a proposed governmental reform.]]></description>
  434. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img decoding="async" class="lazyload size-full wp-image-1322630" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" data-src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/GettyImages-1237502815.jpg?quality=80" alt="" width="635" height="423" data-caption="A strike has pulled the curtain back from France&amp;#8217;s Quai d&amp;#8217;Orsay."><noscript><img decoding="async" class="lazyload size-full wp-image-1322630" src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/GettyImages-1237502815.jpg?quality=80" alt="" width="635" height="423" data-caption="A strike has pulled the curtain back from France&amp;#8217;s Quai d&amp;#8217;Orsay."></noscript>
  435. <p>Like a daily trip to the <em>boulangerie </em>or a glass of wine at the end of the day, labor strikes are a way of life in France. The country consistently ranks as one of the European nations with the <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.etui.org/strikes-map" data-lasso-id="1733155">most general strikes</a> each year, and certain industries are particularly prone to call off work in protest: France’s national rail service, for example, has not <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://data.sncf.com/explore/dataset/mouvements-sociaux-depuis-1947/table/?sort=date" data-lasso-id="1733156">gone one year</a> without a strike since 1947.</p>
  436. <p>But diplomats serving in France’s foreign ministry, whose headquarters are known as the Quai d’Orsay<strong>,</strong>  don’t have a significant history of worker activism. Prior to today (June 2), members of the elite diplomatic corps had gone on strike just once in the Quai’s history.</p>
  437. <p>That changed with a recent decree by President Emmanuel Macron aimed at overhauling the structure of the diplomatic corps. The move prompted some 500 diplomats <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://apnews.com/article/macron-middle-east-france-government-and-politics-d339c31c79d5541d769cbea630ea90e9" data-lasso-id="1733157">to go on strike</a> for one day over fears that their profession will be diminished at a critical period for French foreign affairs.</p>
  438. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
  439. <p lang="qme" dir="ltr"><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/diplo2metier?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#diplo2metier</a><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/fierdetrediplomate?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#fierdetrediplomate</a> <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://t.co/buoIo0xyHY">pic.twitter.com/buoIo0xyHY</a></p>
  440. <p>&mdash; Mohamed Bouabdallah🌍 🐓 (@mbouabdallahUS) <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/mbouabdallahUS/status/1532316082731720704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 2, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
  441. <p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
  442. <p>The decree, <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.politico.eu/article/france-diplomat-ukraine-war-emmanuel-macron/" data-lasso-id="1733158">which was quietly released</a> a week ahead of Macron’s re-election on April 24, calls for France’s 800-person diplomatic corps to be dissolved and incorporated into a larger group of 13,500 civil servants, who have the potential to work across different ministerial departments throughout their careers. One government official said that with the restructuring they could envision an agricultural expert one day becoming an ambassador, for example.</p>
  443. <p>This vision doesn’t sit well for some diplomats, though, who undergo rigorous education and training to pursue what has up until now been considered the most viable career path to a French ambassadorship. “Just as you wouldn’t ask a plumber to repair your roof, a diplomat wouldn’t necessarily make a great deputy director of the ministry of Agriculture. And vice versa,” Nathalie Loiseau, a former diplomat now serving in the European Parliament, <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.francetvinfo.fr/economie/greve/pourquoi-les-diplomates-du-ministere-des-affaires-etrangeres-sont-ils-appeles-a-faire-greve-pour-la-premiere-fois-depuis-vingt-ans_5173762.html" data-lasso-id="1733159">told the French news site</a> FranceInfo.</p>
  444. <h3>Fears of American style ambassadorships</h3>
  445. <p>Of particular concern is that the change will open up the door to nominations <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/GerardAraud/status/1515909664415928321?s=20&amp;t=X1S9krXCPCbmmmH0W-M-Xw" data-lasso-id="1733160">“à l’américaine”</a>—that is, the American-style assignment of political appointees with no real experience in foreign policy to coveted ambassadorships abroad. “Diplomats will serve as ambassadors to Burundi,” Gérard Araud, the former French ambassador to the U.S., <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/31/world/europe/macron-diplomats-strike-france.html?smid=tw-share" data-lasso-id="1733161">told the New York Times</a>. “Rome or London will be reserved for friends.”</p>
  446. <p>What’s more, the reform would come at a critical time for French diplomacy, some strikers argue: Europe is facing the biggest land war since World War II in Ukraine, and France and its allies are trying to renegotiate the Iran nuclear deal.</p>
  447. <p>The reform, which would take place starting next year, is part of a larger push by Macron to diversify France’s civil service and dismantle its elitist image. Last year the president <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56674726" data-lasso-id="1733162">announced the closure</a> of the Ecole Nationale d’Administration, an elite college where many diplomats—as well as Macron himself—have gotten their start.</p>
  448. <p>Aurélie Bonal, a deputy ambassador to the US who participated in the strike, argued that diplomats’ jobs are not as plum as they’re sometimes depicted. “The truth is we also visit morgues &amp; jails; we work very late hours, not always in safe countries,” she wrote in a tweet.</p>
  449. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
  450. <p lang="en" dir="ltr">7. It&#39;s fun to picture diplomats gorging on Ferreros in touristic countries. The truth is we also visit morgues &amp; jails; we work very late hours, not always in safe countries. Wherever we go, our families pay a high price. It&#39;s a vocation, not a 3-year experience.<a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/diplo2metier?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#diplo2metier</a> <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://t.co/AR8BEmqW74">pic.twitter.com/AR8BEmqW74</a></p>
  451. <p>&mdash; Aurélie Bonal (@AurelieBonal) <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/AurelieBonal/status/1532314689400709121?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 2, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
  452. <p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
  453. <p>Diplomats on strike are <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.ft.com/content/d3347fb0-d367-4f26-9645-dee8b7105154" data-lasso-id="1733163">asking for a public hearing</a> to address concerns about the planned structural reform, as well as budget and staff cuts. France’s foreign minister ​​Catherine Colonna, a diplomat herself, has not yet commented on the strike.</p>
  454. ]]></content:encoded>
  458. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">1322622</post-id><author><![CDATA[Courtney Vinopal ]]></author><section><![CDATA[ ]]></section> </item>
  459. <item>
  460. <title>In a Chaotic and Unequal World, Davos&#8217;s Brand of Do-Gooderism Is Increasingly Irrelevant</title>
  461. <link>https://observer.com/2022/05/in-a-chaotic-and-unequal-world-davoss-brand-of-do-gooderism-is-increasingly-irrelevant/</link>
  463. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Oliver Staley]]></dc:creator>
  464. <pubDate>Thu, 26 May 2022 20:20:05 +0000</pubDate>
  465. <category><![CDATA[Davos]]></category>
  466. <category><![CDATA[World Economic Forum]]></category>
  467. <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
  468. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  469. <category><![CDATA[International Politics]]></category>
  470. <category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
  471. <category><![CDATA[Peter Goodman]]></category>
  472. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://observer.com/?p=1322065</guid>
  473.  
  474. <description><![CDATA[The annual gathering of the global elite in Davos, Switzerland, says it's tackling the world's problems, but resists efforts at redistributing its wealth.]]></description>
  475. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img decoding="async" class="lazyload size-full wp-image-1322074" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" data-src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/Davos.jpg?quality=80" alt="German Chancellor Olaf Scholz addresses the assembly during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos" width="635" height="423" data-caption="Davos Man."><noscript><img decoding="async" class="lazyload size-full wp-image-1322074" src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/Davos.jpg?quality=80" alt="German Chancellor Olaf Scholz addresses the assembly during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos" width="635" height="423" data-caption="Davos Man."></noscript>
  476. <p>The organizers of <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.weforum.org/press/2022/05/after-two-year-hiatus-open-forum-returns-to-davos-at-a-crucial-turning-point-in-history">the World Economic Forum in Davos</a>, which wrapped up its four-day conference today (May 26), have maintained its annual gathering of the global elite was a venue for solving the world&#8217;s problems. That claim should always have been viewed with suspicion, said <em>New York Times</em> economic correspondent Peter Goodman. After a global pandemic, massive economic shocks, and the outbreak of war in Europe, &#8220;<span style="font-weight: 400">now it seems ridiculous.&#8221;</span></p>
  477. <p>Goodman is the author of <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/davos-man-peter-s-goodman?variant=39325320282146"><em>Davos Man: How the Billionaires Devoured the World</em></a>. He describes the book, published earlier this year, as a safari of the world&#8217;s most powerful people, and Davos as the watering hole where they gather. Davos, he said, is a forum for &#8220;billionaires rallying around themselves to convince themselves they are the good guys.&#8221;</p>
  478. <p>For the last 30 years, Davos has worked hard to present itself as promoting constructive action. But according to Goodman, it&#8217;s used that cloak of virtue to effectively quash the biggest mechanism for doing good: redistributing wealth. That&#8217;s why Dutch historian Rutger Brennan caused such a stir in 2019 when he dared speak the t-word—taxes—in a session about how to solve global inequality. &#8220;It feels like I’m at a firefighters conference and no one&#8217;s allowed to speak about <keyword data-keyword-id="147231">water</keyword>,&#8221; <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/1/30/18203911/davos-rutger-bregman-historian-taxes-philanthropy">Bregman said then</a>. &#8220;Just stop talking about philanthropy and start talking about taxes.&#8221;</p>
  479. <p>As the global population grows increasingly frustrated with the widening spread between the haves and have-nots—a gap that only grew during the pandemic—it&#8217;s harder and harder to view the earnest sentiments of Davos as anything more than elaborate public relations. This year&#8217;s conference—held in May and not its customary January because of Covid—made fewer headlines and attracted less attention than previous versions.</p>
  480. <p>But the end of relevancy won&#8217;t mean the end of Davos, Goodman said. At its core, Davos is an opportunity for billionaires, heads of state and CEOs to meet, wheel and deal, and make money.</p>
  481. <p>&#8220;The real meaning of Davos has nothing to do with the vows and the pledges,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It’s a place to get business done.&#8221;</p>
  482. <p>&nbsp;</p>
  483. <p>&nbsp;</p>
  484. ]]></content:encoded>
  488. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">1322065</post-id><author><![CDATA[Oliver Staley ]]></author><section><![CDATA[ ]]></section> </item>
  489. <item>
  490. <title>Ripple CEO Meets Georgian Prime Minister With Awful Human Rights Record</title>
  491. <link>https://observer.com/2022/05/ripple-ceo-meets-georgian-prime-minister-with-awful-human-rights-record/</link>
  493. <dc:creator><![CDATA[James Ledbetter]]></dc:creator>
  494. <pubDate>Thu, 26 May 2022 16:17:52 +0000</pubDate>
  495. <category><![CDATA[Human Rights]]></category>
  496. <category><![CDATA[Ripple Labs]]></category>
  497. <category><![CDATA[XRP]]></category>
  498. <category><![CDATA[Cryptocurrency]]></category>
  499. <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
  500. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  501. <category><![CDATA[International Politics]]></category>
  502. <category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
  503. <category><![CDATA[Brad Garlinghouse]]></category>
  504. <category><![CDATA[Iraki Garibashvili]]></category>
  505. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://observer.com/?p=1321984</guid>
  506.  
  507. <description><![CDATA[During this week’s meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of the popular cryptocurrency Ripple, met with Iraki Garibashvili, the Prime Minister of Georgia, whose government has a spotty human rights record and a demonstrated hostility to LGBTQ rights.]]></description>
  508. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>During this week’s meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of the widely held cryptocurrency Ripple, met with Iraki Garibashvili, the Prime Minister of Georgia, whose government has a spotty human rights record and a demonstrated hostility to LGBTQ rights.</p>
  509. <p>On May 23, <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/GharibashviliGe/status/1528718875117993986" data-lasso-id="1727541">Garibashvili tweeted</a> that he had shared with Garlinghouse Georgia’s “vision on future of blockchain &amp; regulation,” as well as its “story as the 1<sup>st</sup> country to bring #Blockchain in public services.”</p>
  510. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
  511. <p lang="en" dir="ltr">Great talks w/ <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/Ripple?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Ripple</a> CEO <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/bgarlinghouse?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@bgarlinghouse</a>! Shared 🇬🇪&#39;s vision on future of blockchain &amp; regulation. W/ business centric environment &amp; innovative approach, we aim to evolve as a tech &amp; innovations hub. Shared 🇬🇪&#39;s story as the 1st country to bring <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Blockchain?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Blockchain</a> in public services. <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://t.co/x6NHoRLqml">pic.twitter.com/x6NHoRLqml</a></p>
  512. <p>&mdash; Irakli Garibashvili (@GharibashviliGe) <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/GharibashviliGe/status/1528718875117993986?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 23, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
  513. <p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
  514. <p><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/Ripple/status/1528875873411026945" data-lasso-id="1727542">Garlinghouse retweeted this</a>, and called it “an honor” to meet Garibashvili.</p>
  515. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
  516. <p lang="en" dir="ltr">It was an honor to meet the Prime Minister of Georgia to discuss <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Blockchain?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#blockchain</a> and <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/crypto?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#crypto</a> at <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wef2022?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#wef2022</a>. <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://t.co/kGZbvXBgMD">https://t.co/kGZbvXBgMD</a></p>
  517. <p>&mdash; Ripple (@Ripple) <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/Ripple/status/1528875873411026945?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 23, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
  518. <p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
  519. <p>Georgia has formally applied for membership in the E.U., and thus in recent years has sought to play up its respect for human rights and the rule of law. However, in many instances, Garibashvili’s government has shown itself hostile to journalists, activists, and political opponents.</p>
  520. <p>In July 2021, a long-planned LGBTQ pride event had to be cancelled after Garibashvili called the march &#8220;unacceptable for a large segment of the Georgian society.&#8221; Protesting the planned march, undeterred by police, “approximately 3,000 far-right demonstrators violently rioted through Tbilisi, destroying an opposition protest site at parliament, attacking NGO offices, and assaulting more than 50 journalists and others,” according to the <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.state.gov/reports/2021-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/georgia/" data-lasso-id="1727543">2021 US State Department report on human rights in Georgia</a>. At least one journalist died after being beaten by the demonstrators.</p>
  521. <p>The State Department&#8217;s report also documents the Georgian government’s widespread wiretapping and surveillance of journalists, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), clergy, business leaders, and opposition politicians. In August 2021, several NGOs—including Transparency International and the Open Society Foundation—<a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://idfi.ge/en/ngo_joint_statement_9463523" data-lasso-id="1727544">issued a statement</a> charging that under Garibashvili, the State Security Service “has become a firmly politicised institution protecting the interests of influential political actors and trying to preserve political power of a specific group by means of surveillance, threats and blackmail.”</p>
  522. <p>Of course, government-sanctioned human rights violations are widespread throughout the world. The Garlinghouse-Georgia meeting stands out in part because Georgia—unlike, say, China—is not an obvious business target for lots of US CEOs. At one time, Georgia was a leading country for cryptocurrency mining, but it was far surpassed by China and, more recently, the U.S.</p>
  523. <p>Ripple did not respond to an email request for details about Garlinghouse’s meeting. <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://georgiaonline.ge/world/47239/irakli-garibashvili-pm-of-georgia-meets-ceo-of-ripple/" data-lasso-id="1727545">A Georgian news outlet reported</a> that Georgia encouraged Ripple to open a business center in the country.</p>
  524. <p>Ripple’s XRP, like most cryptocurrencies, has experienced considerable price difficulty in recent months. As of May 25, it was trading below one half of its US dollar value compared to the beginning of the year. Ripple’s XRP is the sixth largest cryptocurrency, with a market capitalization of $18.7 billion. Ripple has been especially vocal in fighting a <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2020/comp-pr2020-338.pdf" data-lasso-id="1727546">2020 lawsuit from the Securities and Exchange Commission</a>, charging it with offering securities illegally.</p>
  525. ]]></content:encoded>
  529. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">1321984</post-id><author><![CDATA[James Ledbetter ]]></author><section><![CDATA[ ]]></section> </item>
  530. <item>
  531. <title>There are Good Reasons Why Sudafed is So Hard to Buy</title>
  532. <link>https://observer.com/2022/05/there-are-good-reasons-why-sudafed-is-so-hard-to-buy/</link>
  534. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Oliver Staley]]></dc:creator>
  535. <pubDate>Wed, 25 May 2022 19:10:45 +0000</pubDate>
  536. <category><![CDATA[Guns]]></category>
  537. <category><![CDATA[Meth]]></category>
  538. <category><![CDATA[Pharmaceuticals]]></category>
  539. <category><![CDATA[sudafed]]></category>
  540. <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
  541. <category><![CDATA[Health]]></category>
  542. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  543. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://observer.com/?p=1321868</guid>
  544.  
  545. <description><![CDATA[It may be easier to buy guns than Sudafed, but there is a good reason the cold medicine was locked away in 2006.]]></description>
  546. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img decoding="async" class="lazyload size-full wp-image-1321897" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" data-src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/sudafed.jpg?quality=80" alt="Packages of Sudafed." width="635" height="370" data-caption="Under lock and key."><noscript><img decoding="async" class="lazyload size-full wp-image-1321897" src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/sudafed.jpg?quality=80" alt="Packages of Sudafed." width="635" height="370" data-caption="Under lock and key."></noscript>
  547. <p>In the wake of the hideous massacre in Uvalde, Texas on May 24, &#8220;Sudafed&#8221; began trending on Twitter. Not because it&#8217;s allergy season, but because in many parts of the U.S., it&#8217;s easier to buy multiple guns than packages of Sudafed, a popular cold medicine.</p>
  548. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
  549. <p lang="en" dir="ltr">By federal law, I’m  limited to purchasing no more than 9 grams of Sudafed per 30 day period because it can be used to make a drug that kills people, but I can buy as many guns as I want per 30 day period even though they can be used to kill people.</p>
  550. <p>&mdash; Jax Persists (@LadyJayPersists) <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/LadyJayPersists/status/1529318511784472576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 25, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
  551. <p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
  552. <p>Depending on the type of firearm and region of the country, buying guns can be relatively straightforward. In many states, there is <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://giffords.org/lawcenter/gun-laws/policy-areas/gun-sales/waiting-periods/" data-lasso-id="1726953">no waiting period</a> or limit on the number of weapons that can be purchased, provided the buyer passes a federal background check. Purchases of medication containing pseudoephedrine, the active ingredient in Sudafed, however, is regulated bv the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which places strict limits on the number of tablets that can be purchased in a given 30 day period</p>
  553. <p>The two main reasons why it&#8217;s easy to buy firearms in the U.S.: <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/how-nra-rewrote-second-amendment" data-lasso-id="1726954">the Second Amendment</a> and its exploitation by the <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=Q13" data-lasso-id="1726955">political powerful gun lobby</a>. The one reason why it&#8217;s hard to buy Sudafed: methamphetamine.</p>
  554. <p>Pseudoephedrine can be used to manufacture meth, and during the <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/meth/map/" data-lasso-id="1726956">early years of the meth epidemic</a> in the 1990s and early 2000s, its easy availability helped small-scale dealers cook and sell the drug from their homes. In Missouri alone, there were almost <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.mshp.dps.missouri.gov/MSHPWeb/Publications/Reports/2004StatewideLabIncidents.pdf" data-lasso-id="1726957">3,000 meth lab busts</a> in 2004.</p>
  555. <p>In response, Congress passed the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005, part of the Patriot Act, which, among other things, made pseudoephedrine much harder to purchase. <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.fda.gov/drugs/information-drug-class/legal-requirements-sale-and-purchase-drug-products-containing-pseudoephedrine-ephedrine-and" data-lasso-id="1726958">Under the law</a>, starting in 2006, packages of the drug must be kept behind the counter or in locked cases, purchasers have to present identification and there are limits to how many tablets can be bought (the limits vary <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.nacds.org/pse/" data-lasso-id="1726959">state-to-state</a>).</p>
  556. <p>Drug companies—led by Sudafed&#8217;s maker, Johnson &amp; Johnson—adjusted by switching ingredients. The company now sells a new formulation, called Sudafed PE, which is made with phenylephrine, a chemical which can&#8217;t be used to make meth, as well as <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.sudafed.com/products" data-lasso-id="1726960">some medications</a> that still use pseudoephedrine. Unfortunately for both J&amp;J and cold and allergy sufferers, phenylephrine<a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/11/04/the-truth-about-cold-medicine/" data-lasso-id="1726961"> doesn&#8217;t work nearly as well</a> as pseudoephedrine in preventing runny noses.</p>
  557. <p>And while the restriction on Sudafed sales helped end the spread of small-scale meth labs, it didn&#8217;t end the production of methamphetamine, which simple moved south of the border to much <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/11/the-new-meth/620174/" data-lasso-id="1726962">larger-scale labs in Mexico</a>.</p>
  558. ]]></content:encoded>
  562. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">1321868</post-id><author><![CDATA[Oliver Staley ]]></author><section><![CDATA[ ]]></section> </item>
  563. <item>
  564. <title>Starbucks Joins McDonald&#8217;s as the Latest US Company to Pull Out of Russia</title>
  565. <link>https://observer.com/2022/05/starbucks-joins-mcdonalds-as-the-latest-us-company-to-pull-out-of-russia/</link>
  567. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Oliver Staley]]></dc:creator>
  568. <pubDate>Mon, 23 May 2022 19:44:26 +0000</pubDate>
  569. <category><![CDATA[McDonald's]]></category>
  570. <category><![CDATA[Russia]]></category>
  571. <category><![CDATA[Russia-Ukraine War]]></category>
  572. <category><![CDATA[Starbucks]]></category>
  573. <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
  574. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  575. <category><![CDATA[International Politics]]></category>
  576. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://observer.com/?p=1321698</guid>
  577.  
  578. <description><![CDATA[Starbucks is the latest company to exit Russia, joining McDonald's and nearly 1,000 other businesses leaving the country in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine.]]></description>
  579. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Starbucks is leaving Russia, the latest US company to pull out of the country in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine.</p>
  580. <p>The company will close its 130 stores and pay its 2,000 employees there for six months as they transition to other employment, <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2022/update-to-starbucks-partners-on-our-business-in-russia/" data-lasso-id="1724854">Starbucks said in a post on its website</a>. In March, the company had announced it would suspend business activity in Russia, and that its partner that operates its cafes there would &#8220;pause store operations.&#8221; That pause now appears to be permanent. Starbucks did not say what will become of its business partner, the Kuwait-based <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.alshaya.com/en/" data-lasso-id="1724855">Alshaya Group</a>, which operates Starbucks throughout Eastern Europe, North Asia, and the Middle East.</p>
  581. <p>Starbucks is joining a steady flow of businesses exiting Russia. Nearly 1,000 companies have partially or completely left the country, <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://som.yale.edu/story/2022/almost-1000-companies-have-curtailed-operations-russia-some-remain" data-lasso-id="1724856">according to a running tally</a> kept by a Jeff Sonnenfeld, a professor at the Yale School of Management. Among the recent high-profile departures is McDonald&#8217;s, whose first restaurant in <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.voanews.com/a/europe_mcdonalds-marks-30-years-russia/6183551.html" data-lasso-id="1724857">Moscow opened in 1990</a> and came to symbolize the end of the Cold War and the nation&#8217;s embrace of Western capitalism. The company announced last week it would sell its business there after concluding &#8220;that continued ownership of the business in Russia is no longer tenable, nor is it consistent with McDonald’s values,&#8221; <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/en-us/our-stories/article/ourstories.mcd-exit-russia.html" data-lasso-id="1724858">the company said on its website</a>.</p>
  582. <p><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/starbucks-to-exit-from-russia-11653312015" data-lasso-id="1724859">Some companies remain</a>, however, either out of loyalty to their employees there, such as Marriott, or because they cannot escape contracts with local partners, like Subway.</p>
  583. <p>The departure of international companies will further isolate the country economically, <a href="https://observer.com/2022/05/new-sanctions-on-russia-could-trigger-a-default-that-will-be-felt-across-the-global-economy/" data-lasso-id="1724860">increasing the risk of a default on its debts</a>.</p>
  584. ]]></content:encoded>
  588. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">1321698</post-id><author><![CDATA[Oliver Staley ]]></author><section><![CDATA[ ]]></section> </item>
  589. <item>
  590. <title>New Sanctions on Russia Could Trigger a Default That Will Be Felt Across the Global Economy</title>
  591. <link>https://observer.com/2022/05/new-sanctions-on-russia-could-trigger-a-default-that-will-be-felt-across-the-global-economy/</link>
  593. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Linda Carroll]]></dc:creator>
  594. <pubDate>Thu, 19 May 2022 15:28:53 +0000</pubDate>
  595. <category><![CDATA[debt]]></category>
  596. <category><![CDATA[default]]></category>
  597. <category><![CDATA[Russia]]></category>
  598. <category><![CDATA[Russia-Ukraine War]]></category>
  599. <category><![CDATA[sanctions]]></category>
  600. <category><![CDATA[Finance]]></category>
  601. <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
  602. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  603. <category><![CDATA[International Politics]]></category>
  604. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://observer.com/?p=1321281</guid>
  605.  
  606. <description><![CDATA[New sanctions on Russia which could put additional pressure on the nation's struggling economy, leading to a default on its debt. The global economy would feel the impact.]]></description>
  607. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img decoding="async" class="lazyload size-full wp-image-1321282" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" data-src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/JanetYellen.jpg?quality=80" alt="US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaks to journalists" width="635" height="423" data-caption="US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaks to journalists on the sidelines of a meeting of finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations."><noscript><img decoding="async" class="lazyload size-full wp-image-1321282" src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/JanetYellen.jpg?quality=80" alt="US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaks to journalists" width="635" height="423" data-caption="US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaks to journalists on the sidelines of a meeting of finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations."></noscript>
  608. <p class="p1">As the U.S. and its allies add to the crushing sanctions on Russia, the likelihood the country will default on its debt  increases.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
  609. <p class="p1">Currently, it’s estimated that some <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/how-sanctions-are-pushing-russia-to-brink-of-default/2022/04/06/c0eab0b2-b57a-11ec-8358-20aa16355fb4_story.html" data-lasso-id="1720207"><span class="s1">$150 billion in Russian bonds</span></a> are at risk and bondholders are becoming increasingly worried. Some fear a default could have a ripple effect, one even more damaging to the global economy than the current impact of<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/21/from-food-to-inflation-the-russia-ukraine-war-has-a-global-impact.html" data-lasso-id="1720208"><span class="s1">Russia’s war with Ukraine</span></a>.</p>
  610. <p><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60125659" data-lasso-id="1720209"><span class="s2">Recently announced sanctions</span></a> include phasing out European imports of Russian oil and gas, disconnecting Russian banks from the Swift international payment system, and cutting off Russian broadcasters from European cable and Internet. Those proposed sanctions have not yet been approved by the E.U. Additionally, the U.S. is <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/us-unveils-additional-sanctions-targeting-russian-media-financing-elit-rcna27780" data-lasso-id="1720210"><span class="s2">barring its citizens</span></a> from providing financial,<span class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>accounting or consulting services to Russians in an effort to prevent them from evading sanctions.</p>
  611. <p>With Russia’s foreign accounts frozen by the sanctions already in place, it’s almost impossible for the country to pay its debts in foreign currencies, as contracts require.<span class="Apple-converted-space">  </span></p>
  612. <p>The additional sanction would put further pressure on Russia’s economy, and increase the chance of the country defaulting on its bonds.</p>
  613. <p class="p1">A default’s “direct effect would be on Russia itself and to some extent also on those holding the debt—a good amount of which is held by western banks,” said Kislaya Prasad, academic director of the Center for Global Business at the University of Maryland.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
  614. <p class="p1">Bond holders most likely wouldn’t lose everything, Prasad said. “It’s likely there would be some attempt to renegotiate and pay at a later date,” he added. “In other cases (of default) , such as Argentina, there have always been people to buy up debt at a discount who have the ability to wait longer or the ability to press their case to get repaid at a higher rate.”</p>
  615. <h3 class="p1">A Russian default could encourage other countries to follow</h3>
  616. <p class="p1">In a worst case scenario, a Russian default could encourage “other countries to default if they felt that their debt payments were strangling their economies,” said Lourdes Casanova, director of the Emerging Markets Institute at Cornell University. “That could push the world into a recession.”</p>
  617. <p class="p1">Casanova isn’t too worried about that. In fact, she thinks a Russian default is unlikely, mainly because China has its back. “Currently Russia is exporting as much oil and gas as it was before the war with Ukraine, if not more,” Casanova said. “One of the biggest buyers is China.”</p>
  618. <p class="p1">Russia also has a stockpile of gold, Casanova said.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
  619. <p class="p1">Still, if the country defaults, it might have a long lasting impact on the average Russian. Sanctions are <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/19/business/economy/russia-economy.html" data-lasso-id="1720211"><span class="s2">already impacting everyday life</span></a> with prices of goods soaring and shortages of parts, from buttons to computer chips, stalling production of some items.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
  620. <p class="p4">With a default, “a banking crisis may follow,” Casanova said. In defaults “the value of a country’s currency falls rapidly as a result of the country’s lack of credibility.”</p>
  621. <p class="p4">All of that could result in an economic crisis with job losses and high unemployment, Casanova said. Social programs might have to be cut if the government becomes strapped for cash.<span class="Apple-converted-space"><br />
  622. </span></p>
  623. <h3 class="p4"><span class="Apple-converted-space">The example of Latin America in the 1980s</span></h3>
  624. <p class="p1"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Casanova points to the example of the Latin American <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/latin-american-debt-crisis" data-lasso-id="1720212"><span class="s1">debt crisis in the 1980s</span></a>. The defaults forced austerity on Latin American countries, leading to cuts in spending on infrastructure, education and health. Unemployment soared and people’s wages declined.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
  625. <p class="p1"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>“Some will argue that Latin America never recovered,” Casanova said. “Poverty in Latin America doubled starting in 1982 and things didn’t recover until 2004. That’s a loss of 22 years of development.”</p>
  626. <p class="p1">Even without defaulting, Russia has had a major impact on the global economy through its war with Ukraine, Casanova said. The two countries were among the biggest exporters of agricultural products, such as wheat, sunflower oil and barley, and cutbacks have driven up food prices worldwide, she said.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
  627. <p class="p1">The other side of the coin is that Russians are not able to buy technology and luxury goods, Prasad said. “That’s a big problem for the Russians,” he added.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
  628. <p class="p5"><span class="s3">Still, Prasad thinks the future for Russia and Russians might not be so dire–as long as the economy continues to receive support from China. “</span>Russian foreign debt is small,” he said. “They are getting enough money from oil sales and they don&#8217;t need to borrow much in international markets right now.”</p>
  629. <p><em><strong>Update:</strong> This article has been updated to clarify the position held by Kislaya Prasad. He is the academic director for Center for Global Business at the University of Maryland.</em></p>
  630. ]]></content:encoded>
  634. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">1321281</post-id><author><![CDATA[Linda Carroll ]]></author><section><![CDATA[ ]]></section> </item>
  635. <item>
  636. <title>New York State Accuses Amazon of Discrimination, Just the Latest Conflict Between the Company and New Yorkers</title>
  637. <link>https://observer.com/2022/05/new-york-state-accuses-amazon-of-discrimination-just-the-latest-conflict-between-the-company-and-new-yorkers/</link>
  639. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Oliver Staley]]></dc:creator>
  640. <pubDate>Wed, 18 May 2022 18:34:25 +0000</pubDate>
  641. <category><![CDATA[Labor]]></category>
  642. <category><![CDATA[workplace safety]]></category>
  643. <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
  644. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  645. <category><![CDATA[New York Politics]]></category>
  646. <category><![CDATA[Kathy Hochul]]></category>
  647. <category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
  648. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://observer.com/?p=1321176</guid>
  649.  
  650. <description><![CDATA[New York State is suing Amazon for discriminating against pregnant and disabled workers, the latest point of contention between the state and the company following unionization efforts on Staten Island and the rejection of Amazon's planned Queens headquarters.]]></description>
  651. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img decoding="async" class="lazyload size-full wp-image-1283152" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" data-src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/06/GettyImages-1065011338.jpg?quality=80" alt="best amazon prime day deals 2021" width="635" height="357" data-caption="In the crosshairs."><noscript><img decoding="async" class="lazyload size-full wp-image-1283152" src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/06/GettyImages-1065011338.jpg?quality=80" alt="best amazon prime day deals 2021" width="635" height="357" data-caption="In the crosshairs."></noscript>
  652. <p>New York State is accusing Amazon of violating discrimination laws, alleging the corporation denies appropriate accommodations for pregnant and disabled workers.</p>
  653. <p>The complaint, filed by the state&#8217;s Division of Human Rights and <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-announces-complaint-filed-against-amazon" data-lasso-id="1719750">announced in a statement by Gov. Kathy Hochul</a>, accuses Amazon of forcing its warehouse workers to take unpaid medical leave instead of adjusting their duties, as required by state law. Amazon has 39,000 employees working in 23 New York facilities, according to the state.</p>
  654. <p>The state maintains that Amazon employs &#8220;accommodation consultants,&#8221; who make recommendations on how to modify duties for disabled employees, but the company empowers its managers to override those recommendations. In one case, the state claims, a pregnant worker was forced to continue lifting heavy boxes despite having asked for an accommodation. The request was denied and the worker was injured. A further request for accommodation for the injury was also denied, forcing the worker to take unpaid leave.</p>
  655. <p>In an emailed statement, Amazon said it works to support its pregnant and disabled employees. &#8220;We’re surprised by the governor’s announcement this morning because we’ve been cooperating and working closely with her investigator on this matter and had no indication a complaint was coming,&#8221; spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in the statement. &#8220;Since we haven’t received the complaint ourselves yet, we’re not in a position to comment further.&#8221;</p>
  656. <h3>Amazon&#8217;s reputation as an unsafe workplace</h3>
  657. <p>Amazon has struggled with a reputation for being an unsafe employer, and according to <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://thesoc.org/what-we-do/the-injury-machine-how-amazons-production-system-hurts-workers/" data-lasso-id="1719751">one union-sponsored study of government data</a>, its warehouse employees suffer injuries at twice the rate of workers at non-Amazon facilities. The injuries are based in part on the company&#8217;s productivity quotas, which can demand employees skip breaks or lunch hours, and have prompted California to <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/22/business/newsom-amazon-labor-bill.html" data-lasso-id="1719752">pass a law restricting them</a>. Amazon says the high number of injuries were in part the result of a rapid increase in employment during the Covid-19 pandemic, and that it spent $300 million on worker safety in 2021.</p>
  658. <p>Workplace safety was one of the rallying points for the Amazon Labor Union, the independent union that <a href="https://observer.com/2022/04/the-amazon-labor-unions-victory-was-a-product-of-staten-islands-deep-union-roots/" data-lasso-id="1719753">organized an Amazon warehouse</a> in Staten Island, New York, and the state&#8217;s lawsuit is just the latest friction point between Amazon and New Yorkers.</p>
  659. <p>Along with the unionization effort, which succeeded after similar attempts failed in other states, <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/14/nyregion/amazon-hq2-queens.html" data-lasso-id="1719754">New York City notably rejected Amazon&#8217;s bid to build a second headquarters</a> in Queens, New York. Queens and northern Virginia were selected after a highly publicized and lengthy search process, and while many cities were eager to shower Amazon with tax breaks for the privilege of hosting its offices, New Yorkers balked at $3 billion in incentives and the potential for increased traffic, rent increases and gentrification. (Despite noisily severing its deal with the city, Amazon has since <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.investopedia.com/looking-back-at-amazon-s-amzn-missed-nyc-hq2-5198638" data-lasso-id="1719755">stealthily leased huge amounts of office space</a> while hiring thousands.)</p>
  660. <p>Hochul, the former Lt. Governor who stepped in after the <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/10/nyregion/andrew-cuomo-resigns.html" data-lasso-id="1719756">resignation of Andrew Cuomo</a>, is running for election as a Democrat this fall. An upstate moderate, she is looking to make inroads with progressives in New York City. Given the city&#8217;s contentious relationship with Amazon, it seems likely that taking aim at the tech giant will only help her standing among the city&#8217;s liberals.</p>
  661. <p><em><strong>Update:</strong> This post has been updated to include a statement from Amazon.</em></p>
  662. ]]></content:encoded>
  666. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">1321176</post-id><author><![CDATA[Oliver Staley ]]></author><section><![CDATA[ ]]></section> </item>
  667. <item>
  668. <title>Corporate Support for Social Issues Is All the Rage, Except When the Topic Is Abortion Rights</title>
  669. <link>https://observer.com/2022/05/corporate-support-for-social-issues-is-all-the-rage-except-when-the-topic-is-abortion-rights/</link>
  671. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Natalia Petrzela]]></dc:creator>
  672. <pubDate>Mon, 16 May 2022 15:54:13 +0000</pubDate>
  673. <category><![CDATA[Abortion]]></category>
  674. <category><![CDATA[Abortion Politics]]></category>
  675. <category><![CDATA[activism]]></category>
  676. <category><![CDATA[corporate social responsibility]]></category>
  677. <category><![CDATA[roe v. wade]]></category>
  678. <category><![CDATA[United States Supreme Court]]></category>
  679. <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
  680. <category><![CDATA[Lifestyle]]></category>
  681. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  682. <category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
  683. <category><![CDATA[The Quick Study]]></category>
  684. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://observer.com/?p=1320853</guid>
  685.  
  686. <description><![CDATA[Most brands have remained deafeningly silent on the most fundamental issue facing women now: the rollback of reproductive rights crystallized by the leaked Supreme Court brief signaling the imminent reversal of landmark 1973 decision Roe v Wade.]]></description>
  687. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="font-weight: 400">The past several years have seen a dramatic increase in the amount of positive, inclusive marketing efforts centered on the female body and womanhood in general. The overarching idea is that the body is a source of pride to the autonomous woman who possesses it. The national chain where I get waxed encourages its freshly depilated clientele to strut confidently into the world. The online boutique where I buy bras bills its extensive size range as part of a bold inclusivity crusade to outfit “every body.” “Power in motherhood” proclaims a popular spin studio, while the website of the industry’s biggest shapewear brand cheekily announces its corporate “HERstory” in bright red letters. International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month have become occasions for businesses, from beauty concerns to less-obviously-female-focused banking, to uncontroversially and unspecifically bill themselves as on the side of women’s empowerment, bodily and otherwise.</span></p>
  688. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">For all these vague statements of sisterhood, every single one of these, and most other, brands have remained </span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/07/corporations-abortion-rights-supreme-court-wendy-davis/" data-lasso-id="1717055"><span style="font-weight: 400">deafeningly silent</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> on the most fundamental issue facing women now: the rollback of reproductive rights crystallized by the </span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/02/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinion-00029473" data-lasso-id="1717056"><span style="font-weight: 400">leaked Supreme Court brief</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> signaling the imminent reversal of landmark 1973 decision </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400">Roe v Wade</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400">.</span></p>
  689. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">In this supposed age of “woke capitalism” and milquetoast you-go-girl empowerment, why have </span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/benandjerrys/status/1521629756801916928" data-lasso-id="1717057"><span style="font-weight: 400">so few</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> companies spoken out on abortion rights that have been encoded into law for half a century? And, given corporations are, despite their rosy rebranding as “communities” or even “families,” amoral, profit-seeking entities, should we even expect that they take a principled stance on abortion rights, and be outraged at its absence?</span></p>
  690. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">First, it’s worth noting how halting the recognition of women as consumers, much less full citizens, has been. For much of American history, advertising that targeted women sold products considered almost exclusively feminine: think care of body, home, and family. Once more women worked outside the home, and then gained access to credit, they were marketed edgier items in a way that recognized, and even celebrated, this newfound independence: a lady could smoke cigarettes marketed with the slogan “</span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.voanews.com/a/youve-come-along-way-baby-but-its-still-a-mans-game/3380920.html" data-lasso-id="1717058"><span style="font-weight: 400">you’ve come a long way, baby</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400">” after going for a jog in her “</span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://news.nike.com/news/nike-women-advertising-a-40-year-journey" data-lasso-id="1717059"><span style="font-weight: 400">Liberator” sneakers</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400">. But these congratulatory advertisements rarely did much to disrupt the assumption that an ideal woman invested her money and energy in being slender, fashionable, and self-disciplined.  </span></p>
  691. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">But as ideas about women evolved, so have ideas about effective advertising. The social revolutions of the 1960s often explicitly critiqued capitalism, but American business deftly morphed to market a version of hipness and counterculturalism compatible with both this irreverent sensibility </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400">and</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400"> market imperatives. This “</span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo3618721.html" data-lasso-id="1717060"><span style="font-weight: 400">conquest of cool</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400">,” as historian Thomas Frank styles it, explains why instead  of categorically avoiding controversy, major corporations increasingly calculate that taking stances on hot-button issues can be worth the reputational risk—and even insulate them from it. In a moment when “silence is violence” is a catchphrase, speaking out on racism, gun control, and LGBTQ rights has become more common: when Nike signed Colin Kaepernick despite (or because) his taking a knee during the national anthem, some conservatives burned their apparel, but others sported swooshes ever more proudly. After the murder of George Floyd, corporations from Peloton to McDonalds </span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2021/george-floyd-corporate-america-racial-justice/" data-lasso-id="1717061"><span style="font-weight: 400">clamored to showcase their solidarity</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> in the fight against systemic racism. Each school shooting garners similar statements, often </span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/09/12/ceos-implore-senate-act-gun-violence-saying-doing-nothing-is-simply-unacceptable/" data-lasso-id="1717062"><span style="font-weight: 400">explicitly indicting those</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> who stay silent or, worse, offer only “thoughts and prayers.” We are two weeks out from Pride Month, and if recent years are any indication, financial institutions and grocery stores alike will be dutifully wrapping themselves in rainbow flags.</span></p>
  692. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">And yet the line seems drawn at abortion rights. I spoke with an executive at a major media company that often takes progressive public stances; she enthusiastically came aboard precisely for this outspokenness, and is proud of her employer’s record, and of her own role in it. But when months ago, she floated a proposal to craft messaging strategy around the likely overturn of </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400">Roe, </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400">her superiors told her to slow down. In stark contrast to the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, or more recently, the Don’t Say Gay bill, when her team was immediately authorized to spring into action to partner with activists and nonprofits, she was told “further research was needed” in the case of reproductive rights. Conversations about an action plan have restarted since the </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400">Roe </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400">news, but she was frustrated at how “we absolutely do the right things on these other issues, but when what is considered a ‘traditional women’s issue’ is at stake, there’s just that much more pause.” </span></p>
  693. <p><span style="font-weight: 400"> </span><span style="font-weight: 400">This silence on abortion can feel like a gut-punch, but those who have been paying attention are disappointed but unsurprised at the narrow definition of which “women’s issues” are perceived by brands as worth courting controversy. A decade of “girlboss” inspo—and the expansive critique that followed—has made crystal clear the hollowness of corporate feminism, in both outward messaging and internal practice. The examples touch almost every issue affecting women. Nike announced its embrace of women athletes of all sizes, but it turned out was </span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/07/opinion/nike-running-mary-cain.html" data-lasso-id="1717063"><span style="font-weight: 400">enabling the eating disorder </span></a><span style="font-weight: 400">of one of its athletes. So too did it celebrate active motherhood—while </span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/nikes-new-ad-celebrating-pregnant-athletes-falls-flat-given-its-own-history-of-mistreating-them-225310014.html" data-lasso-id="1717064"><span style="font-weight: 400">cutting the pay of pregnant runners</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> who took time off from competition. Rent the Runway touted its commitment to fair labor practices and female leadership—and was </span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rent-the-runway-coronavirus-employee-mistreatment_n_5ea9eea5c5b633a85444c202" data-lasso-id="1717065"><span style="font-weight: 400">accused of exploiting its workforce</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> comprised mostly of immigrant women. When a Levi’s executive who began tweeting about the impact of school closures on children and mothers, her employer pushed back so strenuously </span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/25/business/levis-jen-sey.html" data-lasso-id="1717066"><span style="font-weight: 400">she ultimately resigned</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400">. (Levi’s </span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.levistrauss.com/2022/05/04/protecting-reproductive-rights-a-business-imperative/" data-lasso-id="1717067"><i><span style="font-weight: 400">has</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400"> taken a stand</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> on the </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400">Roe </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400">decision, but the resistance to one of its top women executives addressing an issue affecting millions of women and children speaks to the limitations of this advocacy.) And across the board, women remain underpaid relative to men and </span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/coronavirus-leading-through-the-crisis/charting-the-path-to-the-next-normal/still-struggling-not-enough-women-in-the-c-suite" data-lasso-id="1717068"><span style="font-weight: 400">underrepresented in C-suite positions</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400">. To the exec I spoke with, changing that representation is at least part of the solution to the situation that enabled this silence on abortion rights. “I know, in part, that we acted so bravely on LGBTQ issues because for my boss [a gay man], it was personal.” What if we had more women in positions of power to make their  “personal” issues a priority?</span></p>
  694. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">I should say that some companies </span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maggiemcgrath/2022/05/07/these-are-the-us-companies-offering-abortion-related-benefits/?sh=44bb2e2076ea" data-lasso-id="1717069"><span style="font-weight: 400">are taking stronger action</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> to ensure abortion access for their own employees, and to a lesser extent, to fight for reproductive rights more broadly. But these moves aren’t nearly energetic enough, especially given the standard that now exists around companies speaking out on fraught political issues. During the Black Lives Matter protests in summer 2020, a common criticism was that brands were “only posting a black square” on social media but doing little else to combat structural racism. Peloton emerged as a positive exception, committing to </span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://blog.onepeloton.com/peloton-pledge/" data-lasso-id="1717070"><span style="font-weight: 400">company-wide policy changes</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> including changing hiring practices, raising wages, and donating to the NAACP, in addition to featuring Black instructors more prominently on the platform. On reproductive rights, however, Peloton’s official account—</span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/annehelen/status/1522197107704274944?s=20&amp;t=yEUcv6FMZ27B5dkkbD-aAg" data-lasso-id="1717071"><span style="font-weight: 400">and unofficially, many of the instructors—</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400">have been silent. It would feel like progress to be able to call out companies for not fully living up to their professed commitment to women’s reproductive rights, but we are not even there yet.</span></p>
  695. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">Indeed, one of the of the nation’s </span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/juddlegum/status/1522563650724282368" data-lasso-id="1717072"><span style="font-weight: 400">largest public relations firms</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> advised its clients to “stay silent” on abortion rights, for it was a “no-win” issue. I’m no PR expert, just one frustrated feminist-scholar-consumer, but I can only surmise about this logic: is the idea that abortion rights appears to a coveted, cool, young consumer as an issue of their mother’s generation—and is thus unlikely to fire them up—yet is still sufficiently controversial to alienate others, so not worth taking on? Well, it should be said that the maintenance—not even expansion!—of abortion rights has the support of </span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/05/06/americas-abortion-quandary/" data-lasso-id="1717073"><span style="font-weight: 400">a majority of Americans</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400">, and even more so—</span><a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/06/politics/partisan-divides-abortion-cnn-poll/index.html" data-lasso-id="1717074"><span style="font-weight: 400">67 percent—of voters under 45</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400">. Anecdotally, the crowds of high school and college students at #BansOffOurBodies protests in the last several days suggest that young people are impassioned by this issue and </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400">would</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400"> support companies who articulate commitments to women’s reproductive rights as loudly as they do to other issues perceived as less inflammatory—or worth taking heat for. </span></p>
  696. <p><span style="font-weight: 400">Policy that protects abortion rights is worth fighting for, and yes, we should absolutely pressure corporations to step up the solidarity. Brand messaging on race, sexuality, age, ability, and so forth is of course often cynical and self-serving, but even in an amoral capitalistic system, representation matters and can move the needle in meaningful ways. Companies have a choice not to parrot the most cautious, focus-group-tested version of their consumers’ mindset, and instead to move the culture forward—if they are brave enough to try. “It’s our job to educate,” the media executive told me with measured optimism, confiding she is glad to see “people are starting to shake in their boots” about how the <i>Roe </i>decision might set a precedent to roll back <i>Brown v. Board of Education </i>or <i>Obergefell v. Hodges, </i>since the specter of that slippery slope might be the only thing, for now, that spurs companies cowardly about questioning patriarchy to utter more than the usual statements of shallow sorority.</span></p>
  697. ]]></content:encoded>
  701. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">1320853</post-id><author><![CDATA[Natalia Petrzela ]]></author><section><![CDATA[ ]]></section> </item>
  702. <item>
  703. <title>EXCLUSIVE: &#8220;It Is So Modest&#8221;—Inside New York&#8217;s Bitcoin Mining Moratorium</title>
  704. <link>https://observer.com/2022/05/exclusive-it-is-so-modest-inside-new-yorks-bitcoin-mining-moratorium/</link>
  706. <dc:creator><![CDATA[James Ledbetter]]></dc:creator>
  707. <pubDate>Mon, 02 May 2022 14:39:09 +0000</pubDate>
  708. <category><![CDATA[Bitcoin]]></category>
  709. <category><![CDATA[Climate Change]]></category>
  710. <category><![CDATA[Energy]]></category>
  711. <category><![CDATA[Cryptocurrency]]></category>
  712. <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
  713. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  714. <category><![CDATA[New York Politics]]></category>
  715. <category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
  716. <category><![CDATA[New York]]></category>
  717. <category><![CDATA[Anna Kelles]]></category>
  718. <category><![CDATA[Kathy Hochul]]></category>
  719. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://observer.com/?p=1319569</guid>
  720.  
  721. <description><![CDATA[Observer's exclusive interview with New York State Assemblywoman Anna Kelles, author and chief sponsor of the state's proposed moratorium on "proof of work" cryptocurrency mining. ]]></description>
  722. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>This interview was originally published in James Ledbetter&#8217;s FIN, the best newsletter on fintech. <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://fintechlatest.substack.com/about" data-lasso-id="1708804">Subscribe here</a>. </em></p>
  723. <p>On the evening of April 26, the <a target="_blank" target="_blank" href="https://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?default_fld=&amp;bn=A07389&amp;term=2021&amp;Summary=Y&amp;Actions=Y&amp;Text=Y&amp;Committee%26nbspVotes=Y&amp;Floor%26nbspVotes=Y#jump_to_Summary" rel="" data-lasso-id="1708805">New York State Assembly passed a bill</a> by a 95-52 vote that would place a two-year moratorium on “proof-of-work” cryptocurrency mining using fossil fuels. Assuming the bill passes in the Democratic-controlled State Senate and is approved by Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul, it will be the furthest-reaching such law passed anywhere in the world. The bill’s main sponsor was Dr. Anna Kelles, whose Finger Lakes district includes the Ithaca metropolitan area. Observer recently interviewed Kelles exclusively; below is an edited transcript of that conversation.</p>
  724. <p><strong>Observer</strong>: Tell me how you came to draft this legislation.</p>
  725. <p><strong>Kelles</strong>: It was like 12 o’clock at night, you know, seeing the environment kind of crumbling around me. Just thinking about the sheer magnitude of energy usage <a target="_blank" target="_blank" href="https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/as-cryptomining-operations-grow-in-the-us-senator-warren-raises-concerns-over-exponentially-growing-energy-use-climate-impact-and-costs-to-consumers" rel="" data-lasso-id="1708806">from fossil fuels at the Greenidge facility</a>. I had just gotten word on how many retired power plants there were in the state. And I was literally just laying in bed, stressing out, not able to fall asleep. And then thought this is a new industry that’s moving so fast. We don’t really have a handle on it, by the time we do the impact may be irreversible. It reminded me of the anti-fracking fight. And I thought, oh wait, I could push for a pause to give us the time to gather the data we need so that we can do this in a methodical way. I texted my team, who’re really used to me texting all hours of the night and have all learned to turn off the sound on their phone so that it doesn&#8217;t wake them up. And I was like, I’ll talk to you tomorrow. So that was the moment, that feeling like we’re going backwards with our energy grid.</p>
  726. <p><strong>Observer</strong>: There had been another bill in the State Senate that was introduced last year. Was that an inspiration for you or were you trying to do something different?</p>
  727. <p><strong>Kelles</strong>: That was my bill. I wrote it.  I asked [<a target="_blank" target="_blank" href="https://www.nysenate.gov/senators/kevin-s-parker" rel="" data-lasso-id="1708807">State Senator Kevin Parker</a>] to carry it, but the way that things work when you have 150 legislators versus 63 legislators, is they can review it and it’ll show up in their system first. The way the Senate works is that every Senator can put a list of priority bills and the Senate takes that very seriously. It passed within 24, 48 hours of him introducing it. <a target="_blank" target="_blank" href="https://www.fingerlakes1.com/2021/06/19/democrats-in-nys-assembly-allowed-ibew-to-veto-cryptocurrency-moratorium-bill-to-preserve-union-jobs-at-greenidge/" rel="" data-lasso-id="1708808">There was a letter of opposition from IBEW</a> and that pretty much stalled it. Over the summer and fall I worked with unions, with advocates. There were, I think, 13 letters from environmentalists throughout the state. It has been a year of very, very, very intense training and education and outreach to make sure that when people took their vote, they knew what they were voting on, which was a huge, huge shift from where it was last year.</p>
  728. <p><strong>Observer</strong>: How likely do you think it is that this will become law?</p>
  729. <p><strong>Kelles</strong>: I think it’s very likely. The bill, it’s so important that people understand: it is so modest. It is so modest. It is explicitly a pause on crypto, exclusively in fossil-fuel based power plants. You can’t get any more precise than that. What I have seen is a real attempt to completely exaggerate and mislead the public on what this actually is. Because ultimately if you are a proponent of cryptocurrency and you’re spreading a rumor that is severely false, you know, that New York is banning cryptocurrency or cryptocurrency mining even, then you’re kind of shooting yourself in the foot. I wouldn’t tell the world that, you know, a capital of the industry was closed for business when it absolutely wasn’t.</p>
  730. <p><strong>Observer</strong>: You are confident that the governor will support this and not, say, <a target="_blank" target="_blank" href="https://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?term=2021&amp;bn=S05042" rel="" data-lasso-id="1708809">the rival bill</a>?</p>
  731. <p><strong>Kelles</strong>: Yeah. Because there is a tremendous amount of pressure. I mean, literally every single environmental group has said, this is their number one issue on the agenda. The Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters, the Environmental Advocates New York, Food &amp; <keyword data-keyword-id="144243">Water</keyword> Watch, Earthjustice, local organizations, countywide organizations, federal organizations, the 1199 union. They have all said, this is a very pragmatic direction to both study and issue while protecting our environment.</p>
  732. <p>And the other bill is a political task force. The appointments aren’t required to have expertise in cryptocurrency. They’re not required to have expertise in the environment. It does not cover the breadth of environmental considerations, first of all. And second of all, it does not require any transparency. It does not require a public hearing. And here’s the last thing. There’s no reason why we can’t do both.</p>
  733. <p><strong>Observer</strong>: Assuming it becomes law, what do you think will happen to the Bitcoin mining industry in the state?</p>
  734. <p><strong>Kelles</strong>: I don’t think that this will impact it at all. I think that it&#8217;s crazy to say that it&#8217;s gonna have a huge impact. The only thing that it is doing is saying you can&#8217;t buy up the power plants. Any of the facilities with hydroelectric that they want to do, that they&#8217;re doing, they can do, anything that uses electric from the grid. So both of those are completely open for business. Any of the smaller boutique miners—does not affect them in the least.</p>
  735. <p><strong>Observer</strong>: On the other side, have you project what the carbon footprint impact will be of this bill?</p>
  736. <p><strong>Kelles</strong>: If you put all of the power plants, the 30 power plants in upstate New York, you&#8217;re getting into the gigawatt level right now in New York state already. Just look publicly at all of the cryptocurrency mining operations that are either already, operational under construction or proposed for construction, all to be complete and operational by the end of this year. Just that alone is about 1.3 to 1.6 gigawatts of energy. 1.5 gigawatt of energy is the equivalent of 750,000 homes. It is enough energy to power three Buffalos. Buffalo is the second largest city in the state, three times the size of Buffalo. So just to give a sense, all of that will still be in operation by the end of this year. This bill is not retroactive, on top of everything. It&#8217;s not even retroactive,</p>
  737. <p><strong>Observeer</strong>: Right. Although presumably they can&#8217;t renew, if they&#8217;re relying on fossil fuel.</p>
  738. <p><strong>Kelles</strong>: They can&#8217;t renew during this two year period, but none of them have been purchased yet. And Greenidge is already under renewal. So grandfathered in. Again, if you actually look at the bill, it is so modest compared to what it could have been.</p>
  739. <p><strong>Observer</strong>: Do you see other states or countries or municipalities enacting similar legislation?</p>
  740. <p><strong>Kelles</strong>: I hope.</p>
  741. <p><strong>Observer</strong>: Any in particular that maybe you’ve been in touch with or think are close to?</p>
  742. <p><strong>Kelles</strong>: No, no. I mean, the reason I say I hope so is because air doesn’t have boundaries, <keyword data-keyword-id="144245">water</keyword> doesn’t have boundaries. This industry is moving really fast and power plants that are retired are antiquated technology, they have been replaced because there&#8217;s more modern technology, that&#8217;s more efficient. If the cryptocurrency mining industry is saying, “we’re gonna be green, we’re the solution,” prove it to us. Don&#8217;t turn back to the most inefficient possible fuel-based power plants in the country. If you’re saying that you can be renewable, let’s see it.</p>
  743. <p><strong>Observer</strong>: Again, assuming it becomes law, will this have an effect on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies moving toward a proof of stake standard, is it going to create an incentive for these cryptocurrencies to change the way they do business?</p>
  744. <p><strong>Kelles</strong>: I don&#8217;t know if New York alone could have that impact. I would be in favor of that, because proof of stake uses less than 1% of the amount of energy. I think of proof of stake in the context of where we are, on the precipice of irreversible severe climate change. We&#8217;ve never been here before.</p>
  745. ]]></content:encoded>
  749. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">1319569</post-id><author><![CDATA[James Ledbetter ]]></author><section><![CDATA[ ]]></section> </item>
  750. <item>
  751. <title>Prominent Twitter Accounts Are Seeing Wild Swings in Followers After the Musk Deal</title>
  752. <link>https://observer.com/2022/04/prominent-twitter-accounts-are-seeing-wild-swings-in-followers-after-the-musk-deal/</link>
  754. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Isabella Simonetti]]></dc:creator>
  755. <pubDate>Wed, 27 Apr 2022 13:57:05 +0000</pubDate>
  756. <category><![CDATA[#Followers]]></category>
  757. <category><![CDATA[edited by OIiver Staley]]></category>
  758. <category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>
  759. <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
  760. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  761. <category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
  762. <category><![CDATA[Elon Musk]]></category>
  763. <category><![CDATA[Ron DeSantis]]></category>
  764. <category><![CDATA[marjorie taylor greene]]></category>
  765. <category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
  766. <category><![CDATA[Tesla]]></category>
  767. <category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>
  768. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://observer.com/?p=1318310</guid>
  769.  
  770. <description><![CDATA[Prominent Twitter users are experiencing big swings in their followers after the announcement that Elon Musk will buy the platform.]]></description>
  771. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img decoding="async" class="lazyload size-full wp-image-1318311" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" data-src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/GettyImages-1393786673.jpg?quality=80" alt="" width="635" height="410" data-caption="Tesla CEO Elon Musk reached a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion."><noscript><img decoding="async" class="lazyload size-full wp-image-1318311" src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/GettyImages-1393786673.jpg?quality=80" alt="" width="635" height="410" data-caption="Tesla CEO Elon Musk reached a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion."></noscript>
  772. <p>Prominent Twitter users have seen their follower counts dramatically fluctuate since Tesla CEO Elon Musk reached a deal to buy the platform for $<a href="https://observer.com/2022/04/elon-musk-twitter-board-near-takeover-deal/" data-lasso-id="1704535">44 billion</a> April 25.</p>
  773. <p>Some prominent right wing figures saw big <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/cbouzy/status/1519149945403678721?s=20&amp;t=T1yp1TWGM7Jc92sTLiVhOw" data-lasso-id="1704536">increases in followers</a> while other users have lost followers. Florida Governor <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/cbouzy/status/1519149945403678721?s=20&amp;t=T1yp1TWGM7Jc92sTLiVhOw" data-lasso-id="1704537">Ron DeSantis</a>, a Republican, gained <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://botsentinel.com/newsroom/reports?page=1" data-lasso-id="1704538">96,410</a> additional followers from accounts created since Monday, according to data from the tracking website Bot Sentinel. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican whose personal Twitter account was banned from the platform, gained nearly 100,000 followers on her official government account. Former U.S. President Barack Obama, however, lost more than <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/twitter-says-mass-deactivations-musk-news-organic-rcna26182" data-lasso-id="1704539">300,000 followers</a>. Twitter told NBC News the declines in followers can be attributed to &#8220;organic&#8221; account closures. Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</p>
  774. <p>While there is no clear explanation for the follower fluctuations, some have suggested the declines might be due to users deleting <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://fortune.com/2022/04/26/twitter-accounts-left-losing-followers-right-gaining-musk-buyout-sealed/" data-lasso-id="1704540">their accounts</a> or a sweeping of bot users. Others have <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://nypost.com/2022/04/27/conservatives-see-spike-in-followers-on-elon-musks-twitter/" data-lasso-id="1704541">speculated</a> that conservative figures have had shadow bans removed from their accounts, resulting in increases in followers.</p>
  775. <p>Musk&#8217;s takeover of Twitter has stirred up controversy due to his pronounced commitment to <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/26/technology/twitter-elon-musk-free-speech.html" data-lasso-id="1704542">freedom of speech</a>. Conservative politicians have expressed excitement over Musk&#8217;s leadership at Twitter whereas the <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://time.com/6170647/elon-musk-twitter-harassment-employees/" data-lasso-id="1704543">company&#8217;s employees</a> and liberals have shared <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://nypost.com/2022/04/26/shaun-king-other-liberals-delete-twitter-in-protest-of-elon-musk/" data-lasso-id="1704544">concerns</a> about the future of the platform under Musk. Former U.S. President Donald Trump declared his support of Musk&#8217;s Twitter takeover to Fox News, saying it was a good thing for America, but maintained that he would not rejoin the platform.</p>
  776. ]]></content:encoded>
  780. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">1318310</post-id><author><![CDATA[Isabella Simonetti ]]></author><section><![CDATA[ ]]></section> </item>
  781. <item>
  782. <title>Trump Said He Won’t Return to a Twitter Run by Elon Musk</title>
  783. <link>https://observer.com/2022/04/trump-said-he-wont-return-to-a-twitter-run-by-elon-musk/</link>
  785. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Isabella Simonetti]]></dc:creator>
  786. <pubDate>Tue, 26 Apr 2022 15:29:58 +0000</pubDate>
  787. <category><![CDATA[edited by OIiver Staley]]></category>
  788. <category><![CDATA[Truth Social]]></category>
  789. <category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>
  790. <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
  791. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  792. <category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
  793. <category><![CDATA[Donald Trump]]></category>
  794. <category><![CDATA[Elon Musk]]></category>
  795. <category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
  796. <category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>
  797. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://observer.com/?p=1318121</guid>
  798.  
  799. <description><![CDATA[Donald Trump said he won't return to Twitter, despite Elon Musk's takeover, and will instead focus on his platform, Truth Social.]]></description>
  800. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img decoding="async" class="lazyload size-full wp-image-1318179" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" data-src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/truth.jpg?quality=80" alt="Trump and Twitter illustration" width="635" height="423" data-caption="Trump says he won&amp;#8217;t return to Twitter."><noscript><img decoding="async" class="lazyload size-full wp-image-1318179" src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/truth.jpg?quality=80" alt="Trump and Twitter illustration" width="635" height="423" data-caption="Trump says he won&amp;#8217;t return to Twitter."></noscript>
  801. <p>Former U.S. president Donald Trump said he will not return to Twitter despite Tesla CEO Elon Musk&#8217;s <a href="https://observer.com/2022/04/elon-musk-twitter-board-near-takeover-deal/" data-lasso-id="1702011">$44 billion takeover</a> of the platform.&#8221;</p>
  802. <p>&#8220;I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on Truth&#8221; Trump said to <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-will-not-return-to-twitter-even-if-elon-musk-purchases-platform-will-begin-using-his-truth-social" data-lasso-id="1702012">Fox News</a>. &#8220;I hope Elon buys Twitter because he’ll make improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on Truth.&#8221; Trump launched <a href="https://observer.com/2022/04/the-future-of-trumps-truth-social-app-is-looking-bleak/" data-lasso-id="1702013">his own</a> social media platform Truth Social in February to create an online space free of the regulations of platforms like Twitter and Facebook, both of which he was banned from. Trump was kicked off of Twitter and Facebook in the wake of last year&#8217;s Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. capitol. <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/25/musks-twitter-takeover-biden-officials-worry-trump-will-return-to-platform.html" data-lasso-id="1702014">White House officials</a> are concerned Musk might allow Trump to return to the platform.</p>
  803. <p>Conservatives <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2022-04-25/conservatives-elon-musk-twitter" data-lasso-id="1702015">have cheered on Musk</a> as he pursued Twitter, eager for him to remove what they consider unfair restrictions on speaking out on topics like the 2020 election and Covid-19. There had been hope among some that a Musk-owned Twitter would also lift the bans from figures like Trump and <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/elon-musk-twitter-marjorie-taylor-greene-flynn-fuentes-1342650/" data-lasso-id="1702016">Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene</a>.</p>
  804. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
  805. <p lang="en" dir="ltr">Congratulations again Elon. You are the man!</p>
  806. <p>My only request to you is please let Donald Trump return to Twitter. Restore his account to how it was, so he doesn’t have to start from the scratch. Do this, and Twitter’s value will increase by at least 5%. Guaranteed!<a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TableShaker?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TableShaker</a></p>
  807. <p>&mdash; Reno Omokri (@renoomokri) <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/renoomokri/status/1518696473604415490?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 25, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
  808. <p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
  809. <p>On Twitter, Trump had nearly <a target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" href="https://slate.com/technology/2021/01/trump-twitter-ban-followers-capitol-riot.html" data-lasso-id="1702017">90 million followers</a> and the captive attention of the world&#8217;s media. But his comments to Fox suggest he isn&#8217;t in any rush to return, even if that were possible.</p>
  810. <p>Truth Social <a href="https://observer.com/2022/04/the-future-of-trumps-truth-social-app-is-looking-bleak/" data-lasso-id="1702018">has been struggling</a> amid the resignations of two executives and declining downloads, suggesting the platform has a <a href="https://observer.com/2022/04/the-future-of-trumps-truth-social-app-is-looking-bleak/" data-lasso-id="1702019">bleak future</a>. Trump told Fox News he will start &#8220;truthing&#8221; throughout the next week. While Trump said he does not see a Musk-run Twitter as a competitor, there is perhaps still a chance he might return to Twitter if Truth Social fails, particularly since he has a positive view of Musk.</p>
  811. <p>&#8220;I think it is good. We want liberty and justice and fairness in our country, and the more we can have open, the better,&#8221; Trump said to Fox News. &#8220;But no, I don’t view that as a competition for what I am doing.&#8221;</p>
  812. ]]></content:encoded>
  816. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">1318121</post-id><author><![CDATA[Isabella Simonetti ]]></author><section><![CDATA[ ]]></section> </item>
  817. </channel>
  818. </rss>
  819.  

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