Month: April 2021

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Business

Coinbase’s Washington Debut – The New York Instances

Coinbase's Washington Debut - The New York Times

Players, observers, lobbyists and lobbyists view this as a critical moment for Crypto and its influencers. If it succeeds or does not succeed in convincing the officials, a decision will be made as to whether the regulation will allow the digital gold rush to accelerate or to slow it down to a sputtering.

Here are four of the big problems facing crypto lobbyists:

Call. The impression that crypto facilitates crime is voiced with some frequency by lawmakers and regulators and remains a significant hurdle to legitimacy. The first commissioned publication from the Crypto Council is an analysis of the illicit use of Bitcoin and concludes that concerns are “vastly overrated” and that blockchain technology could be better used by law enforcement agencies to stop crime and provide information to collect.

Reporting requirements. The new anti-money laundering rules passed this year will significantly expand the information available on digital currencies. The Treasury Department has also proposed rules that require detailed reporting for transactions over $ 3,000 that are “non-hosted wallets” or digital wallets that are not associated with a third-party financial institution and that require institutions that use cryptocurrencies manage, process more data. The Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental monitoring and standardization body, recently presented a draft guideline on virtual assets that would require service providers to provide further information.

Securities Uncertainties. When is a digital asset a security and when is a commodity? Technically not a mystery, this question has puzzled regulators and innovators for some time. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies shared over a decentralized network are generally considered commodities and are less regulated than securities that represent a stake in a company. Tokens released by individuals and companies are more likely to be classified as securities, as they more often represent a participation in the issuer’s project.

  • The Securities and Exchange Commission sued Ripple Labs in December, accusing them of selling unregistered securities in the form of a token called XRP. Ripple insists that XRP is a commodity. A decision in this case can prove to be a turning point in determining how to properly characterize cryptocurrencies in the future.

  • This week, an SEC commissioner, Hester Peirce, released an updated “safe haven” proposal that would allow developers a grace period to issue a token without fear of mischaracterization and keep regulators informed. “The idea is to give people a three-year runway,” said Ms. Peirce.

Catching up with China. The Chinese government is already experimenting with a digital currency from the central bank, a digital yuan. China would be the first country to create a virtual currency, but many are considering it. Some crypto proponents fear that China’s speed in space threatens the dollar, national security, and American competitiveness.

In business today

Updated

April 16, 2021, 1:30 p.m. ET

For more information, see our previous weekend edition on the future of crypto regulation.

“In any new industry, Washington is not easy to find out,” said Ms. Peirce, the SEC commissioner. Entering a highly regulated industry like finance and talking about technologies that few officials understand only compound the difficulty for the crypto crowd.

Since joining the SEC in 2018, Ms. Peirce has been a vocal supporter of the blockchain in both the halls of power and crypto insider circles, sharing her thoughts on important topics such as when there will finally be an exchange-traded Bitcoin fund in the United States there will be states. (Not soon enough from their point of view, but maybe soon.)

As the sector matures, some things become simpler, even as the landscape of actors becomes more complex. Blockchain companies will increasingly speak to regulators who understand their language, Ms. Peirce said, as new SEC chairman Gary Gensler, a former MIT professor who taught crypto classes, happened to be confirmed on the day Coinbase was listed .

Categories
Health

Biden admin spending $1.7 billion monitoring new strains

Biden admin spending $1.7 billion tracking new strains

President Joe Biden responds to a question after commenting on the COVID-19 response and vaccination status in the South Court Auditorium in the White House complex in Washington, DC on March 29, 2021.

Drew Angerer | Getty Images

The Biden government on Friday announced it would allocate $ 1.7 billion to track the highly infectious variants of coronavirus that are now a major threat to the U.S. fight against the pandemic.

The $ 1.9 trillion Covid relief plan that went into effect last month will help improve detection, monitoring and mitigation of “new and potentially dangerous strains,” a press release said White house.

According to the White House, the Covid variants now account for around half of all cases in the United States. The mutations can be up to 70% more transmissible than the original strain, said Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Their continued spread “makes the race to interrupt broadcasts even more difficult and threatens to overwhelm our healthcare system in parts of this country again,” Walensky said at a press conference.

It found that B.1.1.7, the variant originally identified in the UK, represented 44% of the US Covid circulation for the week of March 27th.

The proliferation of variants is contributing to a “very worrying” increase in cases, hospitalizations and emergency room visits, Walensky said. The average daily deaths rose to over 700 for the third day in a row, she said.

The White House said $ 1 billion of the government’s latest coronavirus investment will be used to help the CDC and other health officials expand genome sequencing, which will help them identify mutations.

“The emergence of variants underscores the critical need for rapid and continuous genomic surveillance,” said Walensky.

The White House said $ 400 million of the remaining funds would “fuel cutting-edge research in genomic epidemiology” by establishing six “centers of excellence” that form partnerships between health departments and academic institutions.

The last $ 300 million will be used to strengthen the so-called bioinformatics infrastructure “to create a unified system for sharing and analyzing sequence data that protects privacy but enables more informed decisions,” the White House said.

An initial tranche of $ 240 million will be paid out to US states and territories in early May, with California, Texas and Florida receiving the largest amounts. The White House said more money will be invested over a period of several years.

Health experts continue to urge Americans to get vaccinated against Covid.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, said in a Congressional hearing on Thursday that B.1.1.7 “is very well covered by the vaccines we use” and that so are other variants when the vaccination does not does It does not protect against an initial infection, but against serious illnesses. “

“We are in a race between vaccinating as many people as possible and as quickly as possible and the risk of virus recurrence in our country,” said Fauci.

Categories
Politics

Darkish Cash within the New York Mayor’s Race

Dark Money in the New York Mayor’s Race

The New York mayor’s race already has a national political touch thanks to one man: businessman Andrew Yang, whose long-term campaign for the nomination of the Democratic President began to falter at the beginning of last year, who is now considered to be the front runner in the city’s mayoral election. (That’s despite his talent for making a moan on Twitter.)

But it’s not just personalities that bridge the gap between local and national politics. It’s the money too.

This mayoral election is the first in town to feature super PACs – the dark money groups that emerged after the 2010 US Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v Federal Election Commission.

But it’s also the first race in which a number of candidates use a city policy that allows campaigns to gain access to more generous public matching funds based on their base support.

With the possibly decisive Democratic primary in just over two months, our Metro reporters Dana Rubinstein and Jeffery C. Mays wrote an article on how the hunt for super PAC cash makes the race complicated – and raises ethical questions about some campaigns, including some that are also receiving public matching funding. Dana took a moment on her Friday afternoon to brief me on the state of affairs.

Hello Dana. Citizens United’s decision was made in 2010. However, it seems like this is the first time we’ve heard of Super PACs being used on a large scale in the New York Mayor’s race. How does this development affect the city’s redesigned Matching Funds policy, which aims to encourage small donations? Are the guidelines conflicting – or, as a source in your story put it, “like mending part of your roof and the water finds another way in”?

The 2013 Mayor Primary School had some independent expenditure (or “IE”) activities, but they were not candidate-specific – with one possible exception. There was a super PAC called New York City is not for sale that was candidate specific in the sense that it targeted one candidate, Christine Quinn, and whose funding was received from Bill de Blasio supporters. But this is really the first time we’ve seen candidate-specific IEs. As they have multiplied at the national level, New York candidates have oriented themselves towards the national scene.

If you speak to people at the Brennan Center who are big supporters of the Matching Funds program, they will point it out and say that voters should take courage as it is proving to be a success in many ways. The six mayoral candidates who had qualified for Matching Funds this year were most of them. Funds will be distributed based on the number of New York City voters contributing to the campaign, and that means someone like Dianne Morales, who has no electoral history and wasn’t a big player at all in the New York political scene prior to this election able to make a real argument for mayor. She can start a real campaign. In that round, she received $ 2 million in matching funding.

But then you have this parallel universe of super PAC money. And in some cases, you have candidates who receive the appropriate funding – that’s our taxpayers’ money – and benefit from Super PACs. Of course, super PACs should be independent and not coordinate with campaigns, but it’s hard for some voters to see that and think it’s an ideal scenario.

Basically we have two parallel fundraising systems: One is almost completely unregulated, the other is very strictly regulated and contains tax money.

Who will lead the race for Super PAC money in New York? And what’s the overall state of the race these days, money matters?

Shaun Donovan, the former Housing Secretary under President Barack Obama, participates in the Matching Funds program and has a Super PAC. Scott Stringer, the City Comptroller, also has a Super PAC – albeit a much less lucrative one – and is raising appropriate funds as well. Andrew Yang has a super PAC that was started by a longtime friend of his name, David Rose. It has raised a nominal amount of money, but no one has the illusion that it isn’t going to raise a lot of money anytime soon. And there’s this other super-PAC, linked to Yang and supposedly in the works, involving Lis Smith, who was involved in Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign.

Then there’s Ray McGuire, a former Citigroup executive and one of the most senior African-American bank managers of all time. He has a super PAC that has raised $ 4 million from all sorts of recognizable names. You spend a lot with the aim of increasing its awareness.

As for the state of the race, we have no idea. As you can confirm, there has been virtually no credible poll here. In terms of the polls available, there is some consistency in what they propose: Yang has a head start, but half of the voters are undecided. You have Eric Adams, Scott Stringer, Maya Wiley, and then the rest of the pack.

It is both too early to say and alarmingly close to the actual election day, June 22nd. We really have no idea where things are. If you add to this ranking voting that’s new this year, this really is an open question.

You mentioned Shaun Donovan earlier, whose story featured prominently in the article you and Jeff just wrote. Let us know what’s going on there.

In addition to being the former housing secretary for Obama, he was also the budget manager. So he’s a very well respected technocrat who is also the son of a wealthy ad tech manager. Someone created a super PAC to support his candidacy for mayor. This Super PAC raised just over $ 2 million, and exactly $ 2 million of that sum was donated by his father.

It is entirely within the realm of possibility that his father said, “You know what? I really love my son. I think he would be a great mayor. I’ll fund his super PAC. ”Without any coordination on how the money would be used. However, it is difficult for some people to imagine a scenario in which the father and son do not talk about such things. Or maybe not! The point is, it’s almost undetectable, isn’t it?

There’s a lot of winking and nodding in this stuff, and you don’t necessarily need direct coordination to have effective coordination.

On Politics is also available as a newsletter. Sign up here to have it delivered to your inbox.

Is there anything you think we are missing? Do you want to see more? We’d love to hear from you. Email us at onpolitics@nytimes.com.

Categories
Business

J&J vaccine pause may make it tougher for some teams to get a shot

J&J vaccine pause could make it harder for some groups to get a shot

A homeless man wearing gloves and a protective mask sits with a sign that reads “Seeking Human Kindness” amid the coronavirus pandemic on April 19, 2020 in New York City, United States.

Alexi Rosenfeld | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

The Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccination break It may not slow the overall pace of US vaccine adoption much, but it will make it harder for hard-to-reach populations to get a chance.

In response to the Food and Drug Administration’s request on Tuesday that states temporarily suspend use of the J&J vaccine “out of caution” after six women developed a bleeding disorder, White House Tsar Covid Jeff Zients said the Announcement would have no impact on the US vaccination program.

“We have more than enough supplies of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to continue the current pace of around 3 million shots a day,” Zients told reporters at a news conference.

So far, this has been the case. The country reports an average of 3.3 million daily vaccine doses given in the past week, and 3 million if only Pfizer and Moderna are counted. Only about 7.8 million of the total of 202 million recordings in the US are from J&J, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

However, Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot vaccine makes up about 10% of all fully vaccinated people in the United States, a percentage that has been on the rise for weeks, and it has proven valuable in certain situations and communities.

“Because of the nature of the J&J vaccine, it is often used for specific circumstances and populations who have been more difficult to obtain vaccines for,” said Josh Michaud, associate director of global health at Kaiser Family Foundation.

Bulky vaccination centers and mobile vans that deliver doses to be administered on the go are likely to have an easier time with Johnson & Johnson’s storage requirements, Michaud said. This vaccine only needs to be kept in a standard refrigerator, while the requirements for Pfizer and Moderna are stricter.

And for certain population groups, such as B. Administering a two-dose regimen can be challenging for prisoners moving to another facility or homeless people who are not permanent residents. Many states have used the J&J vaccine on these groups because Michaud says it is difficult to find people to give a second dose.

The one-shot option may also be more appealing to those who are more reluctant to get a vaccine. A survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation in March found that among those who say they’d like to wait and see how the vaccines work before being self-vaccinated, a greater proportion took the J&J single-dose vaccine compared to either dose option would receive.

One in six people in the “wait and see” group said they would “definitely get” the J&J vaccine, while roughly one in ten said the same thing about the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.

“We know there is a significant section of the people on the fence who are concerned with vaccines in general,” said Michaud. “And I think the J&J vaccine is actually a plus for this group. It’s a big selling point for people on the fence.”

Add all of these factors together and the J&J hiatus could “have a major negative impact on US vaccination rates,” he said.

It is not yet clear how long it will take to end the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The Chief Medical Officer of the White House, Dr. Anthony Fauci said the break could last anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.

Vaccinate homeless people

Shelly Nortz, assistant executive director of politics at New York City-based advocacy group Coalition for the Homeless, said Johnson & Johnson’s vaccination break will make it harder to get pictures of the populations she works with.

The coronavirus has hit the homeless in New York hard, especially in community housing. An analysis by the Coalition for the Homeless and New York University found that the age-adjusted mortality rate for homeless homeless New Yorkers was 49% higher than the citywide rate as of February.

And while the New York homeless vaccination campaign is off to a solid start – Nortz said the city’s latest announcement showed about 4,500 fully vaccinated single homeless adults out of a total of 21,000, a pace not far below the nationwide rate – the J & J-stop will be a hurdle.

“Everyone was very excited about the unique situation with J & J,” she said, “especially for people who are unprotected and therefore not predictably in the same place.”

The Coalition for the Homeless recently partnered with the Center for Urban Community Services, which provides mobile medical care across New York, to deliver the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to one of its emergency food locations. This program is now on hold, as are discussions about offering the J&J vaccine at the group’s headquarters, where many customers come to collect their mail.

Dr. Van Yu, chief medical officer at CUCS, agrees that a Pfizer or Moderna two-dose schedule makes things a lot more complicated.

“If you live outside, how will I find you in four weeks?” he said.

Yu said the protection system can make it easier to keep track of people, but there’s still a lot of churn as people come and go or are assigned to one of the hundreds of protected areas in New York City.

Nortz said the ease of keeping the J&J recordings is another benefit of vaccinating the homeless.

“The fact that the other two approved vaccines require freezer storage in one case makes it very difficult to do anything mobile or pop-up or with an unknown number of people,” she said.

Zients announced Tuesday that all vaccine delivery channels, including mobile delivery units, are equipped to deliver all three vaccines. Yu said the Moderna vaccine was easy to use in his group’s mobile locations, but due to the extremely cold refrigeration requirements of the Pfizer vaccine, it wasn’t an option.

He currently sits on 185 unused J&J doses and has no access to Moderna vaccines.

Some homeless people in the South Bronx, where Noel Concepcion works as the adult homeless service director for the nonprofit group BronxWorks, have preferred the J&J vaccine because only one dose is required. However, the hiatus and associated misinformation makes it harder to tell a group already skeptical of the government the importance of vaccination, Concepcion said, and this could lead to some reluctance to all three vaccine options.

According to Concepcion, BronxWorks had to cancel a vaccination event in order to take advantage of the existing range of J&J recordings due to the break.

J&J is more convenient for many working professionals

Other barriers to getting a Covid vaccine, such as an inflexible work schedule or responsibility for childcare, have made Johnson & Johnson’s single vaccine an essential option for some.

Liz Schwandt, who leads a volunteer group called Get Out the Shot designed to help people book vaccination appointments in Los Angeles, said many of the callers on her team’s hotline don’t have traditional work benefits or protections like work interruptions. Many of them are domestic servants such as house cleaners, private nannies or gardeners who are paid in cash from the books. Some are employees who don’t have a 9-to-5 job, like the group of night shift administrators that Get Out the Shot recently booked appointments for.

Elizabeth Raygoza receives her Pfizer vaccine from nurse-certified Alyssa Hernandez on March 17, 2021 when the City of Vernon Health Department staff used the city’s new mobile health unit clinic to help nearly 250 food processing workers at COVID-19 To give vaccinations Rose & Shore, a major local convenience food manufacturer serving supermarkets, schools, restaurants, airlines and others.

Al Seib | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images

“We hear stories all the time like hey, my employer lets me get the vaccine but doesn’t give me any free time,” she said, adding, “for a working family that misses a four-hour shift [for a vaccination appointment] can be a huge loss of wages. ”

According to Schwandt, the responsibility for childcare and the dependence on public transport make it difficult to attend multiple appointments.

While Get Out the Shot is booking appointments for all three vaccines, Schwandt said the FDA’s first approval of the J&J vaccine in February was welcome news.

“We were so excited,” she said. “We loved having the one and done option for people.”

A CDC panel on Wednesday postponed a decision on Johnson & Johnson’s Covid vaccine while investigations into the bleeding disorder continue. The panel is expected to meet again next week and decide what to recommend to the CDC.

Categories
Health

Can Covid Analysis Assist Resolve the Mysteries of Different Viruses?

Can Covid Research Help Solve the Mysteries of Other Viruses?

However, symptoms such as fatigue are often not recognized as being associated with myocarditis. And Dr. McManus suspects that the fatigue that sometimes follows a battle with Covid-19 could be caused by this heart problem.

“We view Covid-19 and influenza as respiratory diseases, and indeed they are,” said Dr. Bruce M. McManus, Professor Emeritus of Pathology at the University of British Columbia. “But the reason many patients die in many cases is because of the myocardium.”

Some seriously ill Covid patients have lung damage. That can also happen with other viruses, said Dr. Clemente Britto-Leon, lung researcher at the Yale School of Medicine. He lists a few possibilities.

“You can have lung injuries and scars with influenza, herpes viruses, and cytomegalovirus infections,” said Dr. Britto and was referring to a common virus that usually doesn’t cause symptoms. All of these viruses can, on rare occasions, cause harm, he said. “You can have a very serious injury and a lot of tissue damage.”

Influenza can cause blood clots in the lining of the lungs that look just like the small blood clots in the lungs of some Covid patients, said Marco Goeijenbier of Erasmus University in the Netherlands. It happens when flu viruses infect the lower respiratory tract, an unusual occurrence since most people already have protective immunity.

Dr. Goeijenbier wants to examine the blood clots that occur in these cases. So far, he and others have reproduced and examined the effects in so few patients in laboratory studies and in ferrets – the animals of choice for studying the flu.

“It was hard to get money,” he said. “Big magazines or funders didn’t find it interesting enough,” he said.

Covid changes that.

There is now “a huge cohort of people to study,” said Pamela Dalton, a olfactory researcher at Monell. But “the big question is, even if you learn all about SARS-CoV-2” – the formal name of the coronavirus – “how generalizable is it?”

Categories
World News

How Amazon fought the union drive in Alabama

How Amazon fought the union drive in Alabama

Die Menschen protestieren am 22. März 2021 in Los Angeles, Kalifornien, um die gewerkschaftlichen Bemühungen der Arbeiter im Amazonasgebiet von Alabama zu unterstützen.

Lucy Nicholson | Reuters

Amazon hat letzte Woche eine Gewerkschaftsaktion in einem seiner Lagerhäuser in Alabama besiegt, ein großer Gewinn für den E-Commerce-Riesen, der seit langem gegen Gewerkschaftsversuche in seinen Einrichtungen gekämpft hat.

Die Arbeiter im Lagerhaus in Bessemer, Alabama, stimmten mit überwältigender Mehrheit für die Ablehnung der Gewerkschaftsbildung, wobei weniger als 30% der Stimmen dafür stimmten. Die Gewerkschaft für Einzelhandel, Großhandel und Kaufhäuser, die die Gewerkschaftsaktion leitete, beabsichtigt, das Ergebnis in Frage zu stellen, und argumentiert, dass Amazon vor und während der Abstimmung mit einigen seiner gewerkschaftsfeindlichen Aktivitäten gegen das Gesetz verstoßen habe.

Das Ergebnis ist ein Rückschlag für die organisierte Arbeit, die gehofft hatte, dass die Bessemer-Wahl dazu beitragen würde, bei Amazon Fuß zu fassen. Gewerkschaften, Arbeitnehmervertreter und einige Mitarbeiter des Bessemer-Werks, bekannt als BHM1, sind jedoch der Ansicht, dass die Bessemer-Wahlen weitere Organisationsversuche in anderen Lagern im ganzen Land ankurbeln werden. Die Gewerkschaftsführer sagten, die Wahlen in Bessemer hätten der Öffentlichkeit auch gezeigt, wie weit die Arbeitgeber gehen werden, um Gewerkschaften zu verhindern.

Nach Angaben mehrerer Arbeitnehmer und Gewerkschaftsvertreter, die die Taktik beschrieben haben, hat Amazon bei BHM1 eine aggressive PR-Kampagne gestartet, die Textnachrichten an Mitarbeiter, Broschüren, eine Website, auf der die Arbeitnehmer aufgefordert wurden, “ohne Gebühren zu arbeiten”, und Flugblätter, die in Badezimmern veröffentlicht wurden und die die Arbeitnehmer aufforderten zu “NEIN stimmen.”

Amazon verschickte Textnachrichten und Mailer, in denen die Mitarbeiter in seiner Einrichtung in Bessemer, Alabama, aufgefordert wurden, “NEIN zu stimmen”.

Die größte Gelegenheit für Amazon, die Arbeitnehmer zu beeinflussen, bestand in Form von so genannten Captive-Audience-Meetings, an denen die Arbeitnehmer während ihrer Schicht teilnehmen mussten. Amazon hielt die Treffen wöchentlich von Ende Januar bis zum Versand der Stimmzettel Anfang Februar ab. Die Mitarbeiter saßen ungefähr 30 Minuten lang in PowerPoint-Präsentationen, um die Gewerkschaftsbildung zu entmutigen, und erhielten die Gelegenheit, Fragen von Vertretern von Amazon zu stellen.

Gefangene Publikumsversammlungen sind eine gängige Taktik, die Arbeitgeber bei Gewerkschaftskampagnen anwenden. Befürworter vorgeschlagener arbeitsrechtlicher Reformen wie des Gesetzes zum Schutz des Organisationsrechts, das im Senat verabschiedet werden soll, haben argumentiert, dass Treffen in Gefangenschaft als Forum für Arbeitgeber dienen, um gewerkschaftsfeindliche Botschaften zu übermitteln, “ohne der Gewerkschaft die Möglichkeit dazu zu geben.” reagieren.” Das PRO-Gesetz würde es Arbeitgebern verbieten, diese Treffen obligatorisch zu machen.

Amazon sagte, es habe laufende Treffen in kleinen Gruppen veranstaltet, um den Mitarbeitern die Möglichkeit zu geben, alle Fakten über den Beitritt zu einer Gewerkschaft und über den Wahlprozess selbst zu erfahren.

Das Unternehmen verteidigte auch seine Reaktion auf die Gewerkschaftskampagne im weiteren Sinne und argumentierte in einer Erklärung nach dem Ergebnis, dass die Arbeitnehmer “weitaus mehr Anti-Amazon-Botschaften von Gewerkschaften, politischen Entscheidungsträgern und Medien gehört haben, als sie von uns gehört haben”.

Warum einige mit “Nein” gestimmt haben

Die Nachrichten von Amazon in den Meetings waren für einige BHM1-Mitarbeiter überzeugender als für andere.

Ein Mitarbeiter von Bessemer, der letztes Jahr bei Amazon angefangen hatte, sagte, er habe das Gefühl, Amazon habe bei Gesprächen mit Arbeitnehmern über die Gewerkschaft einige Schreckensstrategien angewandt, sagte aber auch gegenüber CNBC, er verstehe nicht, wie die Gewerkschaft den Arbeitnehmern bei BHM1 helfen würde. Diese Person, die um Anonymität bat, um Vergeltungsmaßnahmen zu verhindern, sagte, die RWDSU habe nicht erklärt, was sie für die Arbeitnehmer tun würden, und nicht auf ihre Anfrage nach Informationen darüber geantwortet, wie sie Mitarbeitern auf anderen Baustellen geholfen hätten.

Abgesehen von seinen Zweifeln an der RWDSU sagte dieser Mitarbeiter, er habe auch in erster Linie positive Erfahrungen bei Amazon gemacht. Während sich einige Arbeiter über den stressigen und anspruchsvollen Charakter der Arbeit beschwerten, sagte er, ein früherer Baujob habe ihn auf die körperliche Arbeit der Lagerarbeit vorbereitet, so dass er es leicht finde. Die Bezahlung und die Vorteile von Amazon sind auch eine Verbesserung gegenüber seinem vorherigen Job.

Am Ende stimmte dieser Arbeiter gegen die Gewerkschaftsbildung.

In privaten Facebook-Gruppen, in denen Amazon-Mitarbeiter miteinander interagieren, teilten andere BHM1-Mitarbeiter ihre Gedanken über die Gewerkschaftskampagne mit. Ein Arbeitnehmer befürchtete, dass die Arbeitnehmer bei einer Abstimmung in der Gewerkschaft den Zugang zu bestimmten Leistungen von Amazon verlieren würden, beispielsweise zum Weiterbildungsprogramm, bei dem Amazon einen Prozentsatz der Studiengebühren für die Ausbildung von Lagerarbeitern für Jobs in anderen Bereichen mit hoher Nachfrage zahlt.

Ein anderer Arbeiter war der Meinung, dass eine Gewerkschaft nicht notwendig sei, und behauptete, wenn man hart arbeitet, könne man bei Amazon erfolgreich sein: “Ich habe mit Nein gestimmt. Amazon ist nur ein Spiel mit Regeln. Lernen Sie die Regeln, spielen Sie das Spiel, steigen Sie auf, gewinnen Sie. “”

Obligatorische Sitzungen

Einige BHM1-Mitarbeiter empfanden die gewerkschaftsfeindlichen Nachrichten von Amazon als zu aggressiv.

Ein Mitarbeiter von BHM1, der als Stower arbeitet und Gegenstände in leere Lagerplätze in der gesamten Einrichtung überführt, sagte, Amazon habe die Texte, Flyer und obligatorischen Besprechungen so gestaltet, dass die Botschaft vermittelt wird, dass die Gewerkschaft niemandem helfen würde. Dieser Arbeitnehmer bat um Anonymität aus Sorge um den Verlust seines Arbeitsplatzes.

Der Arbeiter, der für die Gewerkschaft gestimmt hatte, sagte, er sei vorsichtig, Unterstützung für die Gewerkschaftsbildung vor Amazon und seinen Mitarbeitern zu zeigen, und sei nervös, Fragen zu stellen, statt dumm zu sein, um nicht gefeuert zu werden.

Luftaufnahme der Amazonas-Einrichtung in Bessemer, Alabama, 5. März 2021, in der die Arbeitnehmer darüber abstimmen werden, ob sie sich gewerkschaftlich organisieren wollen.

Dustin Chambers | Reuters

In einer obligatorischen Sitzung, die vor der Verteilung der Stimmzettel im Februar stattfand, versuchte Amazon, Zweifel daran zu wecken, wie die Arbeitnehmergebühren ausgegeben werden, indem er den Arbeitnehmern mitteilte, dass die RWDSU jährlich mehr als 100.000 US-Dollar für Fahrzeuge für Arbeitnehmer ausgab. Der Arbeiter war skeptisch gegenüber der Präsentation von Amazon und dachte, dass Amazon wahrscheinlich jedes Jahr viel mehr für Autos ausgab als die Gewerkschaft.

Gewerkschaftspräsident Stuart Appelbaum sagte in einem Interview, dass die RWDSU Autos für einige Vertreter kauft, deren Aufgabe es ist, von Arbeitsplatz zu Arbeitsplatz zu reisen, um Mitglieder zu vertreten und zu betreuen.

Amazon sagte, es wolle den Arbeitnehmern, insbesondere denjenigen ohne Vorkenntnisse der Gewerkschaften, erklären, dass eine Gewerkschaft ein Unternehmen ist, das Beiträge erhebt und erklärt, wie diese Beiträge verwendet werden können.

In einem weiteren obligatorischen Treffen teilten die beiden Bessemer-Mitarbeiter CNBC mit, Amazon habe Beispiele früherer Verträge verteilt, die die RWDSU gewonnen habe, und versucht, die Mängel der Gewerkschaft herauszustellen. Amazon behauptete auch, dass die RWDSU in erster Linie eine Geflügelarbeitergewerkschaft sei, die nur über begrenzte Erfahrung in der Vertretung von Lagerarbeitern verfüge.

Appelbaum sagte, Geflügelarbeiter machten einen bedeutenden Teil der RWDSU-Mitgliedschaft in Alabama aus, und viele der Organisatoren, die die Kampagne leiteten und sich beim Abschluss ihrer Schicht an Amazon-Arbeiter außerhalb von BHM1 wandten, stammten aus nahe gelegenen Geflügelfabriken. Die Gewerkschaft vertritt auch Arbeitnehmer in anderen Branchen, darunter Einzelhandel, Lebensmittelproduktion, gemeinnützige Organisationen und Cannabis, sagte Chelsea Connor, Sprecherin der RWDSU.

Auf die Frage, ob die RWDSU als Geflügelgewerkschaft charakterisiert sei, antwortete Amazon, sie wolle den Arbeitnehmern zeigen, wie gut oder schlecht die Gewerkschaft ihren Arbeitgeber verstehen könne.

Während der Treffen versuchte Amazon auch, negative Ergebnisse hervorzuheben, die sich aus der Abstimmung für die Gewerkschaft ergeben könnten. Amazon sagte den Arbeitern, die Gewerkschaft könne die Arbeiter zum Streik zwingen und die Arbeitnehmer könnten in Zukunft ihre Leistungen verlieren, sagten die Arbeiter gegenüber CNBC.

Das Mid-South-Büro der RWDSU, das die Organisation bei Amazon leitete, widersprach der Behauptung von Amazon, dass die Gewerkschaft BHM1-Arbeiter zum Streik zwingen würde, und nannte es laut den an die Arbeiter verteilten Mitteilungen eine “Angst-Taktik”.

“Amazon hat unterstellt, dass die Gewerkschaft Sie in einen Streik ziehen wird”, sagte Randy Hadley, Präsident des Mid-South Council, in einem Brief an die Arbeiter im Februar, in dem auch andere Behauptungen von Amazon angesprochen werden. “Hier sind die Fakten, unsere Mitgliedschaft und unsere Mitgliedschaft kontrollieren NUR, ob mit einer Super-Mehrheit gestreikt werden soll oder nicht. Dies bedeutet, dass fast 4.000 Amazon-Arbeiter abstimmen müssten, um in den Streik zu treten. Ein Streik kann bei Bedarf nützlich sein, ist es aber auch.” sehr, sehr selten. Dies ist eine weitere Angst-Taktik von Amazon. “

Amazon sagte, es wollte die Arbeitnehmer darauf hinweisen, dass die Gewerkschaft bei einer Abstimmung in einer Gewerkschaft einen Streik fordern könnte, da dies der Haupthebel der Gewerkschaft gegenüber einem Arbeitgeber ist.

Als Antwort auf die Frage, ob es den Arbeitnehmern mitgeteilt wurde, dass sie ihre Leistungen verlieren könnten, wenn eine Gewerkschaft gewählt wird, sagte Amazon, es habe versucht, die Arbeitnehmer im Rahmen der allgemeinen Bildung über Gewerkschaften darüber zu informieren, dass es viele Ergebnisse gibt, die sich aus Tarifverhandlungen ergeben können.

Nicht die letzte Anstrengung

Amazon-Mitarbeiter, Gewerkschaftsführer und Arbeitnehmervertreter hoffen, dass der Verlust in Alabama nicht der letzte Versuch sein wird, die weitläufige Belegschaft des Einzelhandelsgiganten zu organisieren.

Möglicherweise gibt es auch zukünftige Kampagnen bei BHM1. Der Arbeiter, der für die Gewerkschaft gestimmt hat, sagte, einige gewerkschaftsfreundliche Angestellte hätten die Möglichkeit diskutiert, sich an die Teamsters zu wenden und eine zukünftige Gewerkschaftskampagne in ihrem Lager durchzuführen.

An anderer Stelle erwägen Amazonas-Arbeiter und Gewerkschaften unterschiedliche Organisationsstrategien. Das Teamsters kommuniziert mit Amazon-Fahrern und Lagerarbeitern in einer Einrichtung in Iowa und erwägt Wege, um Arbeiter über den Wahlprozess hinaus zu sammeln. Amazon-Mitarbeiter in Chicago haben eine Gruppe gebildet, um Mitarbeiter in Einrichtungen in der Region zu organisieren, die Amazonians United Chicagoland heißt.

Ein Mitarbeiter einer Amazon-Einrichtung in New Jersey, der ebenfalls um Anonymität bat, sagte, er habe sich zuvor an eine Gewerkschaft gewandt, um die Einrichtung zu organisieren. Nachdem der Arbeiter das Ergebnis in Bessemer gesehen hatte, sagte er, dass sie zum Zeichenbrett zurückkehren und sich mit informelleren Taktiken befassen, um eine Hebelwirkung zu erzielen.

Susan Schurman, Professorin an der School of Management and Labour Relations der Rutgers University, verwies auf die Alphabet Workers Union, eine kürzlich gegründete Minderheitengewerkschaft mit mehr als 800 Google-Mitarbeitern, als potenzielles Modell für Amazon-Mitarbeiter.

Im Gegensatz zu traditionellen Gewerkschaften repräsentieren Minderheitengewerkschaften nicht die Mehrheit der Arbeitnehmer, sondern nur diejenigen, die sich für einen Beitritt entscheiden. Sie werden auch von der NLRB nicht anerkannt und fungieren nicht als Verhandlungspartner mit Arbeitgebern.

Schurman sagte jedoch, dass Minderheitengewerkschaften als “Weg zu Mehrheitsgewerkschaften” dienen und ein wirksames Instrument für den Aufbau von Arbeitnehmerunterstützung sein können, noch bevor eine formelle Kampagne mit der NLRB gestartet wird.

“Warum nicht bleiben und eine Organisation aufbauen und dabei bleiben?” Sagte Schurman. “Lassen Sie die Arbeiter neue Mitglieder rekrutieren und den Wert einer kollektiven Verhandlungsmacht demonstrieren.”

Appelbaum, der Präsident der RWDSU, sagte, eine Strategie der Minderheitengewerkschaft sei “eine Überlegung wert”.

“Wir haben noch keine Entscheidung getroffen, aber ich denke, wir werden es uns ansehen”, sagte Appelbaum. “Wir wissen, dass wir nicht weggehen.”

Categories
Business

The BBC coated Prince Philip’s dying for hours. Cue the complaints.

The BBC covered Prince Philip’s death for hours. Cue the complaints.

Shortly after Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh and husband of Queen Elizabeth II passed away last Friday, the BBC cut its schedule to cover its television channels and radio stations all afternoon and night.

When popular shows went off the air – including the Friday episode of EastEnders, a soap opera that has aired since 1985, and the final episode of MasterChef, a cooking contest show – expressions of displeasure flooded the BBC. To be precise, 109,741 complaints were received, the BBC said on Thursday, making it the most complained moment in BBC history.

As a UK public broadcaster, the BBC has a prominent position in the UK media and it is difficult to fund it through a license fee. It is often attacked for being too liberal and too conservative, while its access to public funds is controlled by the government, which is currently a Conservative government.

The BBC tries to reflect the mood of the nation, but recently, after Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, a heated debate erupted over the role of the royal family.

Too little coverage of tributes to the Duke and the BBC would have run the risk of not properly respecting his life. Even so, the station received so many online complaints that it set up a streamlined process on Friday – a special online form – that people could use to register their disappointment with the scope of their coverage.

The BBC said Thursday that the Duke of Edinburgh’s death “was a momentous event that generated great interest both nationally and internationally” and that the decision to change the schedule was made with careful consideration of what “the role of the BBC reflects “as a national broadcaster in moments of national importance. “

Two commercial broadcasters took different approaches. ITV, like the BBC, reportedly saw a sharp drop in viewership last Friday due to many hours of coverage of Prince Philip. Kanal 4 had special programming, but gave viewers a break by broadcasting a popular program called “Gogglebox” at 9pm, which broadcasts television viewers.

On Saturday, the BBC and ITV will broadcast the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral, which will not be open to the public due to pandemic restrictions.

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Entertainment

A Choreographer Diving Into Grief Appears to be like to Whales

A Choreographer Diving Into Grief Looks to Whales

For the film, a collaboration with composer Everett Saunders and cameraman Suzi Sadler, Brooks also thought of “Moby-Dick”. However, the main focus has been on the black body throughout history.

Whales “carry all of these toxins because of their bacon,” Brooks said. “There is a completely different aspect that has led me to how many black bodies died from Covid and how many toxins black bodies carry, whether it is trauma or whether they live near fallow land or the cost the poverty. I felt that the whale body is very similar to the black body. “

For Ali Rosa-Salas, the program director at Abrons, virtual work has its advantages with such dark themes: the viewer is responsible. “You can pause if you need to, you can play, you can come back to it,” she said. “It takes a slow pace to process grief and all the emotions that are supposed to arise in connection with what Mayfield’s research will produce.”

Brooks, who calls her practice improvising, while Black, a roof that encompasses both teaching and choreography and dance, finds connections between “Whale Fall” and “Letters to Marsha,” an earlier work based on danced and written notes to Marsha P. based. Johnson, the transgender activist whose body was found in the Hudson River in 1992.

“I think a lot about their bodies in the Hudson River and the cellular existence of bodies in the water,” said Brooks. “Like even if the body breaks down, the cells can still survive” and the idea that “their molecular structure may have communicated with some of the whales that surfaced in the bay last year.”

Recently, 50-year-old Brooks spoke about an artist’s lonely life during the pandemic, the black body, the whales, and somehow the whole point: that there is life in decomposition. Here are edited excerpts from that interview.

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Politics

Lawyer linked to deli proprietor concerned in inventory scams

Hometown International, NJ deli owner, worth millions in stock

Your deli in your hometown in Paulsboro, NJ

Google Earth

A now-disqualified attorney pleading guilty to federal crimes related to shell company fraud is listed as an attorney in early financial documents for a New Jersey company whose stock valuation rose to $ 100 million or more is, despite only owning a single small delicatessen company.

Former attorney Gregg Jaclin was copied on notices deli owner Hometown International filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2015 and 2016.

This includes the very first document Hometown filed with the SEC that is publicly available.

In June 2020, Jaclin pleaded guilty to conspiracy and obstruction of justice. Separately, in a related case in 2019, the SEC issued a final verdict against him “for operating a fraudulent shell factory system that put bogus companies public and sold for a profit,” a press release said Year.

The companies involved in this behavior – none of which was Hometown International – were founded in Nevada with the support of Jaclin, who was disfellowshipped in New Jersey for his actions last October.

Records show that Hometown International, while having its only business in southern New Jersey, was itself incorporated in Nevada.

In a 2015 letter to Hometown International, SEC officials wrote, “We believe you are a Shell company.”

Hometown International and its executives have not been accused of wrongdoing by the SEC or any other government agency.

“The pastrami must be incredible”

Hometown International’s stock, traded on the over-the-counter market, fell roughly 33% in the hours after it started trading on Friday morning. The day before, CNBC had published articles about the company’s unusually high market capitalization, which were first mentioned in a letter to clients addressed to hedge fund manager David Einhorn.

“The pastrami must be amazing,” quipped Einhorn in his letter.

Share prices recovered significantly during the day. Hometown’s stock closed at $ 12.99 per share on Friday, down 3.78% from the previous day.

Jaclin, who is still serving his three-year prison sentence for his criminal case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

There were also no other people associated with Hometown International, including top executives and the current attorney, and whoever is monitoring the company’s voicemail when CNBC reached out to them.

Paul Morina is the President and CEO of Hometown International, which owns Your Hometown Deli in Paulsboro, New Jersey.

Morina is also the director and head coach of the renowned wrestling team at Paulsboro High School. SEC documents show he holds 1.5 million shares of Hometown, with warrants for 30 million more shares.

The hometown vice president and secretary is Christine Lindenmuth, a math teacher and administrator at the same high school.

Lindenmuth’s home address is listed as the mailing address of Hometown International.

Morina and Lindenmuth’s biographies in the SEC filings do not mention any previous experience of either in the food service industry, a publicly traded company, or the financial industry.

The Hometown deli had sales of only about $ 35,000 for the past two fiscal years. The delicatessen store was closed from mid-March to early September last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Even so, the nearly 8 million common shares recently traded at nearly $ 14 per share, for a market capitalization of over $ 100 million.

A woman who answered the phone at the deli on Friday asked, “Would you like to place an order?”

She then hung up after the caller identified himself as a reporter and said he wanted to speak to someone about Hometown International.

In the SEC filings, Homeland is open about its business prospects.

“Our financial situation raises doubts as to whether we will continue as a company.” the company says in one filing.

The company suggests finding an acquisition target or additional funding to keep operations going.

“Future success depends to a large extent on management’s ability to find and attract a suitable acquisition,” Hometown said in a release last year.

Shareholder Controversy

Hometown International’s major shareholders also include companies in Hong Kong and Macau, China, a mecca for wealthy gamblers.

Hometown chairman Peter Coker Jr. is listed as chairman of a Hometown investor who also operated a luxury hotel in Macau known as The 13.

The hotel has a fleet of Rolls-Royce Phantoms that are available as limousines for hotel guests. Online booking sites indicate that the 13 hotel is not currently accepting reservations.

Coker’s father, Peter Coker Sr., is listed on the financial records as another major shareholder in Hometown.

The elder Coker, who lives in North Carolina, is listed on the SEC with 63,334 common shares of Hometown International and has warrants for an additional 1.26 million shares.

The elder Coker was identified in other SEC filings as the founder and director of Tryon Capital Ventures, a North Carolina company. The hometown pays Tryon $ 15,000 a month under a consulting agreement.

“We are assuming that the term of the consulting contract with Tryon will be extended by another year,” says the Hometown annual report.

In 2019, an investor named W. Robert Bizzell sued Peter Coker Sr. and other managing partners of a company called Tryon Capital LLC in the North Carolina Business Court.

The lawsuit related, among other things, to solicitation fraud and constructive fraud related to inducing Bizzell to invest in another Coker Sr. affiliate, SSAC Capital. It also said the Bizzell money would help grow a specialty retail operation during the Chapel Hill-based Southern Season.

Bizzell’s lawsuit stated that the defendants had “deviated” from their stated use of his money, which amounted to hundreds and thousands of dollars, and converted his interest into equity as a debtor.

Coker Sr. and the other defendants denied Bizzell’s allegations.

A filing in August 2020 revealed that Bizzell’s lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed with prejudice, which is normal when civil claims are settled out of court by the parties.

John Marshall, a Bizzell attorney, declined to comment when contacted by CNBC. He said he was bound by a confidentiality clause in the settlement agreement.

Coker Sr. has not returned any requests for comments. An attorney for him did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Public records show that Coker Sr. lived in Macungie, Pennsylvania.

In 1992, The Morning Call newspaper published an article in nearby Allentown in which American Express Bank alleged in bankruptcy proceedings filed by Peter Coker that he had “fraudulently transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars of his property to thwart their collection efforts to nearly $ 900,000.” . “

In court files, the newspaper said, American Express said Coker was “a solvent debtor who wants to appear insolvent”.

Categories
Business

SpaceX’s Starship sole winner in NASA’s HLS Moon lander program

SpaceX's Starship sole winner in NASA's HLS Moon lander program

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk ceremoniously raises his arms beneath a prototype Starship rocket under construction in Boca Chica, Texas.

Steve Jurvetson on flickr

Elon Musk’s SpaceX knocked out teams led by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Leidos subsidiary Dynetics and won a nearly $ 3 billion contract to build NASA’s next manned lunar lander.

“It is another step in an exciting set of steps that leads us to a sustainable human landing system on the moon,” said Kathy Lueders, director of NASA’s manned space program, in the agency’s announcement.

SpaceX’s order is valued at $ 2.89 billion. The Washington Post first reported on SpaceX’s victory on Friday.

NASA awarded the three teams $ 967 million last year and a 10-month contract to begin work on the lunar landing concepts as part of its Human Landing Systems (HLS) program. SpaceX received the smallest amount of the three at $ 135 million. Meanwhile, Dynetics received $ 253 million and Blue Origin received $ 579 million.

NASA was expected to select two of the three teams, which makes SpaceX’s sole selection surprising given the agency’s previous goals for the program, which is supposed to remain a competition.

Starship’s SN11 prototype rocket is on the launchpad at the company’s Boca Chica, Texas facility.

SpaceX

For the HLS program, Musk’s company offered a variation of its Starship rocket, prototypes of which SpaceX has tested at its development facility in Boca Chica, Texas. The company has had several successful Starship test flights to date, although attempts to land after the last four soaring have resulted in a multitude of fiery explosions.

NASA said their astronauts will use Starship to transfer from the agency’s Orion spacecraft when the capsule reaches lunar orbit.

HLS is part of NASA’s Artemis mission to land astronauts on the moon by 2024.

The mission was announced by the administration of President Donald Trump. President Joe Biden’s press secretary has indicated that the current administration expects to proceed with Artemis.

Bezos’ space company announced plans to build a manned lunar lander in 2019 and announced that it would partner with industry giants Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper. Dynetics from Leidos teamed up with the Sierra Nevada Corporation for his concept and was considered a dark horse in the race.