Irresponsible de-regulation threatens the public

 

Bill Knight column for 10-5, 6 or 7

 The month of October is when many important environmental-protection breakthroughs have happened, when science showed politicians the need to address problems. This month, however, the Trump administration’s senseless zeal to de-regulate is continuing a wholesale reversal of decades-old progress.

Among October’s environmental milestones were establishing the non-governmental Nature Conservancy (1951), passing the Water Quality Act and the Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act (1965), approving the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and the National Trails System Act (1968), creating the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (1970), enacting  the Clean Water Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and the Coastal Zone Management Act (1972), okaying the Toxic Substances Control Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (1976), and approving Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know, part of the Superfund Amendments and Reorganization Act (1986).

October 2020, though, faces Trump’s Forest Service issuing plans to open Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, the country’s largest, to logging – weeks after Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency re-authorized the use of the herbicide atrazine, which contaminates water and has been outlawed in Europe for years.

Upending established norms, including defying science and law, has become the norm. Dismantling the role of government to protect people from unsafe substances or practices is Trump’s goal, as he said in 2017: “We're going to be cutting regulation massively.”

Besides logging public timber and again endorsing the carcinogenic atrazine, the administration is:

* relaxing 2015 regs to limit toxic wastewater from coal plants “at the expense of more than 20 million Americans who drink water and eat fish from lakes and rivers polluted by coal plant discharges,” the Chicago Tribune reported Sept. 8;

* opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil-drilling when there’s excess oil and crude prices are weak, CNN showed in August; and

* permitting thousands of oil and gas operations to stop monitoring for hazardous emissions and bypass anti-pollution rules, the Associated Press reported, also in August.

This means less monitoring for some Gulf Coast refineries and a Kentucky military complex dismantling warheads containing nerve gas, for the massive amounts of manure and carcasses at Midwestern Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), for a Nevada nuclear site, and for other chemical and sewage plants, medical-waste shipments and various industrial smokestacks.

Oddly, such a “rollback of rules regulating methane emissions, automotive fuel-efficiency standards and mercury pollution … were opposed by companies the administration claimed to be helping,” the Washington Post said in September (further noting that heads of nine drug companies found it necessary to promise to make any COVID-19 vaccine safe after Trump implied he’d fast-track its development despite regulations).

Beyond the environment, Trump issued an Executive Order requiring employees in slaughterhouses (one of the country’s most dangerous jobs before the pandemic) to continue working – hours after Tyson exaggerated the possibility of meat shortages, an order essentially excusing employers from liability for exposing workers to COVID-19. Also, his Occupational Safety and Health Administration permitted about 100,000 workplaces to ignore the requirement to submit records on injuries and illnesses, according to an August expose by the Center for Investigative Reporting.

It’s no surprise Americans are crying foul about dangers the administration has created, from routine rejection of public-interest rules to the White House’s dishonest response to the pandemic.

It is surprising, however, to see non-political publications such as the academic journal Science and the magazine Scientific American publicly criticize Trump. Science denounced him for lying and for ignoring health scientists, and Scientific American for the first time in its 175-year history endorsed a presidential candidate (Joe Biden) because “the evidence and the science show that Donald Trump has badly damaged the U.S. and its people – because he rejects evidence and science.”

October 2020 may see Trick ’r Treating scaled back due to COVID-19, but real-life horrors threaten us as much as the most nightmarish Halloween tales.

Sports activism old AND new

 

Bill Knight column for Thurs., Fri. or Sat., 10-1, 2 or 3, 2020

 On the surface, sports are starting to seem as “normal” as possible during a pandemic. Major League Baseball playoffs are underway, the NFL is back, NBA and WNBA playoffs are peaking, and a few weeks ago, Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente was once more honored.

But it’s not “business as usual.”

Bubbling beneath the surface is a growing awareness and an unprecedented willingness to sacrifice for a greater good. Tragically, that good is an end to systemic racism generally and police brutality especially.

Political activism in sports isn’t new, but it’s usually been individuals, not groups, much less strikes.

Past American athletes stood up for more than trophies, riches and fame. There were heavyweight boxing champ Jack Johnson and track star Jesse Owens, plus Jackie Robinson, Olympians John Carlos and Tommie Smith, Billie Jean King and others. After the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Clemente and Pirates teammate Maury Wills, joined by Cardinal greats Bob Gibson and Orlando Cepeda, organized MLB walkouts.

More recently, the St. Louis Rams, Colin Kaepernick, LeBron James and others protested the killing of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner and too many others.

True, millionaire athletes aren’t as vulnerable to retaliation as most of us, but wealth and celebrity don’t shield Black athletes, who may be adored in uniform but in street clothes are at risk, too. In 2018, Milwaukee Bucks forward Sterling Brown was accosted by a group of Milwaukee police officers for a parking violation. He was tasered and jailed, but no charges were brought. Bodycam footage showed what happened, and he was offered a $400,000 settlement, which he declined, saying, “I want cops to show respect and be held accountable.”

So it wasn’t surprising after Kenosha, Wis., police shot unarmed 29-year-old Jacob Blake seven times in the back as he was getting in his car Aug. 23 that the Bucks refused to take the floor in a playoff game, and the Milwaukee Brewers followed by halting their ballgame against the Reds.

Teammates of different races participated, as 20 MLB teams chose not to play; the NBA postponed three playoff games; 10 NFL teams cancelled preseason practices; the WNBA (which had dedicated the season to Louisville EMT Breonna Taylor, killed in her bed by Louisville police) also protested; five Major League Soccer games were postponed; tennis star Naomi Osaka sat out a tourney and others in the U.S. Tennis Association demonstrated; even the overwhelmingly white NHL postponed games.

WNBA guard Ariel Atkins of the Mystics said, “We aren’t just basketball players. When most of us go home, we still are Black. Our families still matter.”

After George Floyd’s killing, outcries for justice were publicly supported not just by athletes but businesses (Gannett newspapers, Pet Smart, Tiffany’s) and – more importantly – by the public. This summer, 52% of registered voters polled by the Wall Street Journal/NBC supported athletes kneeling during the national anthem to protect racial inequality. But President Trump continues to denounce the athletes as he had Kaepernick and other social-justice demonstrations.

Such objections seem to matter less than athletes’ rising sense that it’s necessary to speak out.

On Aug. 30, Nuggets guard Jamal Murray spoke out after playing an amazing game, scoring 50 against the Jazz. Afterward he discussed Taylor and Floyd: “In life you find things that hold value to you, and things to fight for,” said the 23-year-old Ontario native. “We found something worth fighting for as the NBA, as a collective unit.”

Days earlier, after the Clippers defeated the Mavericks, L.A. coach Doc Rivers, son of a policeman, said, “All you hear is Donald Trump and all of them talking about fear. We’re the ones getting killed. We’re the ones getting shot.

“It’s amazing why we keep loving this country,” he added, solemnly, “and this country does not love us back. We got to do better, to demand better.”

When nothing’s improving, escalation and increased solidarity are inevitable.

After Kentucky officials decided not to hold police accountable for killing Taylor, Chicago Bears running back Cordarrelle Patterson addressed brutality, saying, “It happens to everybody, no matter if you’re a pro athlete or not. Athletes, we’ve just got to keep using our voice.”

At a Sept. 23 Chicago demonstration for Taylor, Father Michael Pfleger said, “March after march, protest after protest, and nothing changes in America.”

Refusing to take the court in August, James had said, “We demand change.”

Louis Moore, author of “We Will Win the Day,” said, “You’re an athlete and you’re seeing people on the street. If you’re an athlete, you’re upset: ‘What can I do about this?’ “

As Clemente famously said, “If you have the chance to make things better for people coming behind you and you don’t, you are wasting your time on Earth.”

Local newspapers – and readers – could use a break

 

Bill Knight column for Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, 9-28, 29 or 30

            Legendary newspaperman Harold Evans died last week at the age of 92, having outlived a Golden Age of newspapers.

Newspapers are hanging on, no doubt, but some are on financial life support.

It’s a bit ironic that Evans once criticized the enormously profitable, diversifying U.S. newspaper industry in the 1980s and ’90s, when its profit margins were two to three times the average of manufacturing. (For example, the average operating margin (profit divided by revenue, before taxes) for a U.S. manufacturing company in 1997 was 7.6 percent. The comparable average for publicly traded newspaper companies that year was 19.5%, according to industry analysts Veronis, Suhler & Associates.)

Then, Evans said, “The challenge of the American newspaper is not to stay in business – it is to stay in journalism.”

Now, the challenge, especially for local newspapers, is to stay afloat amid a flood of ignored or unforeseen factors. Otherwise, people may hear about Big News nationally or notice unreliable social-media stories, but they won’t necessarily know about the status of the hometown Meals on Wheels program, neighbors harvesting crops for a recently widowed woman, a café or tavern getting creative during the pandemic, or kids’ music or sports.

Fortunately, a sizable number of members of Congress have crafted a life preserver, the bipartisan Local Journalism Sustainability Act, that could rescue community journalism, local businesses and citizens who need news.

World and national news, plus a variety of opinions, are vital. But also important and enjoyable are obituaries and comics, coverage of arts and work, horoscopes and crossword puzzles, features and photos on food, faith and so much more.

That’s in jeopardy. Newspapers in recent years have lost advertising to the internet, circulation to busy schedules, stability to the uncertainty of the coronavirus’ effects on people’s lives and the economy, and family ownership with roots in communities to corporations whose priority is “streamlining” operations to pay down exorbitant debt and show profits to distant stockholders. Like any companies, newspapers’ layoffs decimate staffs, of course, but at newspapers that means they literally devastate coverage.

As the old business model has disintegrated, communities have increasingly missed out on trustworthy stories produced by people that live, play, work and worship alongside them.

So, many communities have become what’s called “news deserts.” There, regional dailies, the area broadcasters that still have reporters, and cable TV may claim to serve towns, but their content is global, national, state or skimpy; they miss many local celebrations and small-market government, births and deaths, stores’ or streets’ openings and closings, fundraisers and service clubs and churches and school boards and so on: The events that make up Americans’ lives – and futures.

Local journalists don’t spin news to meet some agenda. They’re working to let their neighbors know what’s going on. Studies report a correlation between losing local newspapers and rising costs of government.

The Local Journalism Sustainability Act was introduced in July by Arizona Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick, who got cosponsors Washington Republican Dan Newhouse, five other Republicans and 10 Democrats.

Soon, dozens of members of Congress realized the value – the need – of local newspapers covering public health and public safety, academic and athletic achievements, triumphs and tragedies in neighborhoods that may seem divided between Trump and Biden but have many mutual interests, from clean water and public libraries to tax bills and businesses’ hopes and losses.

As of the day Evans passed away, the bill (HR 7640) had 61 co-sponsors, including 19 Republicans and three members of Congress from Illinois: Cheri Bustos (D-Moline), Rodney Davis (R-Taylorville) and Bobby Rush (D-Chicago).

Politicians who couldn’t agree on lunch found common ground. The bill’s supporters range from Rush, a former Black Panther Party leader, to four members of the House’s Right-wing Freedom Caucus:  Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.), Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), Thomas Tiffany (R-Wis.) and Randy Weber (R-Texas).

Most local newspapers aren’t owned by national media conglomerates, private-equity firms or hedge funds, but by local folks running small businesses, and the bill offers tax relief to them, to other companies, and to subscribers:

* Subscribers to qualifying local newspapers (or their websites), would get a tax credit of up to $250/ year for five years.

* Businesses with fewer than 1,000 employees would get credits of up to $5,000 in advertising costs the first year, and up to $2,500 in the next four years.

* Local news companies would get payroll tax credits to employ and adequately compensate local journalists.

It’s time to support members of Congress who support your getting local news, and to urge those who haven’t stepped up in this bipartisan proposal to do so. It would benefit your pocketbook, your community and your awareness of what’s going on around the corner as well as around the globe.