The following links are just news items and opinions that pass my desk throughout the week. I don’t necessarily support or advocate any of the items, they are just interesting reads.
Will new bacon law begin? California grocers seek delay – A coalition of California restaurants and grocery stores has filed a lawsuit to block implementation of a new farm animal welfare law, adding to uncertainty about whether bacon and other fresh pork products will be much more expensive or in short supply in the state when the new rules take effect on New Year’s Day.
The lawsuit is the latest step in a tumultuous three-year process of enacting rules overwhelmingly approved by voters but that remain in question even as the law is set to begin. Since voters approved Proposition 12 by a 2-to-1 ratio in November 2018, state officials have missed deadlines for releasing specific regulations covering the humane treatment of animals that provide meat for the California market.
Most hog producers haven’t made changes to comply with the law. And now a coalition of business owners is seeking more than a two-year delay.
While groups are working to delay the measure, the state has eased the transition to the new system. It has allowed pork processed under the old rules and held in cold storage to be sold in California in 2022, which could prevent shortages for weeks or even months.
California is the nation’s largest market for pork, and producers in major hog states like Iowa provide more than 80% of the roughly 255 million pounds (115 million kilograms) that California’s restaurants and groceries use each month, according to Rabobank, a global food and agriculture financial services company.
Without that supply, it’s unclear if a state that consumes about 13% of the nation’s pork supply will have all the meat it demands. The North American Meat Institute, an industry group, said packers and processors “will do their best to serve the California market.” Read More > in the Associated Press
New data shines light on “California Exodus” – Is there really such a thing as the California Exodus? The takeaway from a Wednesday report from the nonpartisan California Policy Lab: It’s complicated. The report found that while the Golden State is losing more than twice as many people to domestic migration than it did before the pandemic, the decline is largely due to fewer out-of-state residents moving in, not more Californians moving out. And the report doesn’t take into account international migration — which for more than a decade has helped California’s population grow, albeit at a slower pace than the rest of the nation.
Among the report’s key findings:
- 38% fewer people from other states entered California in September 2021than in March 2020.
- 12% more Californians left the state during that period — but that uptick is on pace with pre-pandemic trends.
- All regions of California saw steep declines in people entering from out of state, but the impact was especially pronounced in the Bay Area, which saw a 45% decrease. (There was also a 21% increase in Bay Area residents moving to another state.)
- By net moves, the most popular destinations for Californians leaving the state were Texas, Arizona, Nevada and Washington. Tennessee, Montana and Idaho saw the largest percentage increase in California arrivals, according to a San Francisco Chronicle analysis.
“If these trends continue, the implications for California are significant, ranging from federal funding allocations and tax revenues to how many seats we have in Congress,” said report co-author Natalie Holmes. “Population swings can have even more dramatic effects on local jurisdictions.” Read More > at CalMatters
Where I Live, No One Cares About COVID – In November, my wife asked me whether I had seen an article with the remarkable headline “Is It Safe to Go to Thanksgiving Dinner?”
“Is that from last year?” I asked.
“No, it’s a few days old,” she said, her voice sinking to a growling murmur. “These people.”
I am old enough to remember the good old days when holiday-advice pieces were all variations on “How to Talk to Your Tea Party Uncle About Obamacare.” As Christmas approaches, we can look forward to more of this sort of thing, with the meta-ethical speculation advanced to an impossibly baroque stage of development. Is it okay for our 2-year-old son to hug Grandma at a Christmas party if she received her booster only a few days ago? Should the toddler wear a mask except when he is slopping mashed potatoes all over his booster seat? Our oldest finally attended her first (masked) sleepover with other fully vaccinated 10-year-olds, but one of them had a sibling test positive at day care. Should she stay home or wear a face shield? What about Omicron?
I don’t know how to put this in a way that will not make me sound flippant: No one cares. Literally speaking, I know that isn’t true, because if it were, the articles wouldn’t be commissioned. But outside the world inhabited by the professional and managerial classes in a handful of major metropolitan areas, many, if not most, Americans are leading their lives as if COVID is over, and they have been for a long while.
In my part of rural southwest Michigan, and in similar communities throughout the country, this is true not despite but without any noticeable regard for cases; hospitalization statistics, which are always high this time of year without attracting much notice; or death reports. I don’t mean to deny COVID’s continuing presence. (For the purposes of this piece, I looked up the COVID data for my county and found that the seven-day average for positive tests is as high as it has ever been, and that 136 deaths have been attributed to the virus since June 2020.) What I wish to convey is that the virus simply does not factor into my calculations or those of my neighbors, who have been forgoing masks, tests (unless work imposes them, in which case they are shrugged off as the usual BS from human resources), and other tangible markers of COVID-19’s existence for months—perhaps even longer. Read More > in The Atlantic
Richmond Mayor Butt Hit With Restraining Order – A Contra Costa County Superior Court judge has issued a temporary restraining order against Mayor Tom Butt. The order was granted on December 7th, after the court reviewed a petition filed by the City of Richmond. The petition alleged that Mayor Butt “has willfully and flagrantly violated the City’s privilege,” and that his multiple disclosures on his E-forum constitute a violation of both attorney-client privilege and his duties as enshrined in Charter of the City of Richmond.
The City’s petition asserts that, “despite these clear legal mandates and duties, and despite warnings and requests from the City Attorney to comply with his duty as a City official,” the Mayor has refused to remove privileged information from his E-forum.
In a separate filing, the City provided a memorandum supporting its petition for a restraining order against the Mayor in detail. Here are some key points from the 17-page document supporting the petition for the restraining order:
The document provides a four-page description, entitled “Factual Background,” of the events leading to the City’s request for a restraining order against the Mayor. Details are provided about several posts made on Mayor Butt’s E-Forum, which publicize attorney-client privileged information about ongoing federal litigation. Description of subsequent actions taken to intervene were also provided, including two Cease and Desist letters from the Office of the City Attorney and a resolution passed by the City Council to censure the Mayor.
The Mayor and his supporters have indignantly maintained that the City’s actions against his confidential disclosures are a violation of his First Amendment rights. The memorandum counters this argument. Using federal and state case law, the City reminds the court that the Mayor “may benefit from the First Amendment’s shield only when they themselves are not involved in prior wrongdoing involving the communications in the first place.” Read More > at Richmond Progressive Alliance
Report: The End of 3G Could Leave Your Vehicle With Fewer Features – When people started burning down 5G towers in fear, the practice seemed a little misguided. But if you happen to be the owner of a connected automobile, there’s a chance you’ll be wishing enough of them had been taken down to delay those low-latency spires from becoming the default broadcasting network.
While you were probably aware that 3G cellular networks will be shut down in the U.S. next year so the telecom industry can focus in on 5G, you may not have been hip to the fact that this could totally nullify the connected features inside of your car. Unfortunately, loads of automobiles manufactured the early days of phone pairing and internet integration won’t be able to make the journey into 5G like the new phone or tablet you purchased. Worse yet, there are even some modern vehicles that are about to become a lot less feature rich with companies that have no intention of offering updates.
The issue is basically the same one that’s about to impact some cell phones. Older vehicles weren’t built with 5G in mind because it didn’t exist. But even after it arrived, plenty of companies stayed with 3G because most manufacturers are prefer to cheap out on components whenever possible to reduce overhead. The Federal Communications Commission also isn’t interested in holding onto 3G bandwidth just for automakers (who it doesn’t have a great relationship with anyway) when it can be reallocated to serve newer technologies.
Despite being aware of the transition to 5G, your author was under the assumption that most vehicles would be getting updates that set them up for 4G (which is supposed to be around for a while). That’s true, however, it won’t be the situation for everyone. According to The Drive’s Rob Stumpf, there’s a good chance that a lot of cars will lose items like navigational/traffic data, emergency call services, remote locking/unlocking, smartphone connectivity, voice controls, WiFi hotspot capabilities, telematic data, and more when 3G finally goes dark. Read More > at The Truth About Cars
Schools Confront a Wave of Student Misbehavior, Driven by Months of Remote Learning – School districts across the U.S. say they are seeing a surge of student misbehavior in the return to in-person learning, after months of closures and disruptions due to the pandemic.
Schools have seen an increase in both minor incidents, like students talking in class, and more serious issues, such as fights and gun possession. In Dallas, disruptive classroom incidents have tripled this year compared with pre-pandemic levels, school officials said. The Albuquerque, N.M., superintendent sent a letter to parents warning of a “rise in violence and unacceptable behaviors posted to social media” that have disrupted classes. The National Association of School Resource Officers said it has seen a rise in gun-related incidents in schools.Some schools are responding to the disciplinary problems by dispatching more staffers to patrol school grounds or by hiring more counselors. Others are reducing student suspensions, or in Dallas, eliminating them altogether in favor of counseling. Some districts have enacted what they call mental-health days, closing schools around holidays to give students and administrators a break. Peoria, Ill., is planning a special school that would be dedicated to students with issues caused by the pandemic.
Educators at disadvantaged schools, often in low-income neighborhoods, said they had anticipated students would return to in-person learning with mental-health scars from Covid-19. The issues are also coming up at schools that previously had few serious incidents…
Peter Faustino, a school psychologist in New York who serves on the board of directors for the National Association of School Psychologists, said school psychologists across the country have seen roughly the same volume of mental-health complaints and behavioral issues in the first three months of the school year that used to occur in an entire academic year. Read More > in The Wall Street Journal
Jussie Smollett guilty of staging race-baiting hate attack to boost career – Nearly three years after he claimed two Trump-loving bigots beat him up, tied a noose around his neck and doused him in bleach, Jussie Smollett was convicted Thursday of staging a hate crime in a misbegotten bid to raise his public profile.
Twelve jurors in Chicago criminal court found the disgraced actor guilty of five of six counts of felony disorderly conduct for filing a false police report following testimony from 13 witnesses and more than nine hours of deliberation.
The guilty verdict is the final chapter in the made-for-TV saga that jurors found Smollett not just starred in but directed from start to finish when he asked two men to “fake beat him up,” gave them a script of homophobic and racist slurs to deliver, and selected a stage for the phony beatdown that he thought was in direct view of surveillance cameras. Read More > in the New York Post
U.S. Inflation Hit a 39-Year High in November – U.S. inflation reached a nearly four-decade high in November, as strong consumer demand collided with pandemic-related supply constraints.
The Labor Department said the consumer-price index—which measures what consumers pay for goods and services—rose 6.8% in November from the same month a year ago. That was the fastest pace since 1982 and the sixth straight month in which inflation topped 5%.
The so-called core price index, which excludes the often-volatile categories of food and energy, climbed 4.9% in November from a year earlier. That was a sharper increase than October’s 4.6% rise, and the highest rate since 1991.
The increase in prices for new vehicles, which came in at 11.1% in November, was the largest on record, as were those for men’s apparel and living room, kitchen and dining room furniture. A 7.9% surge in fast-food restaurant prices last month marked the sharpest on record too.
The steady rise in restaurant prices during the past few months is a sign of pass-through from wages into higher prices, economists say. That dynamic is increasingly showing up in other industries. Wages tracked by the Atlanta Fed climbed 4.3% in November, up from 4.1% in October and the highest since 2007.
Some energy prices showed signs of easing—in part because of fear in the financial markets that the Omicron variant of Covid-19 could slow growth. But gasoline rose at a 6.1% monthly rate for the second straight month. Read More > in The Wall Street Journal
Gas Up 58%, Meat Up 13%: Inside The Newest Record-Breaking Inflation Report – …the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that consumer price inflation in the United States has reached a rate of 6.8% — the largest year-over-year increase since June 1982, as well as the sixth straight month in which inflation remained above 5%.
Inflation is the erosion of a currency’s purchasing power over time. More dollars chasing fewer goods implies a diminished value for each dollar — resulting in pinched budgets for Americans who do not experience wage increases to match the rising price levels.
As summarized by CNBC, the following are some of the largest consumer price jumps between November 2020 and November 2021:
- Gas — 58.1%
- Used vehicles — 31.4%
- Hotels — 25.5%
- Meat, poultry, and fish — 13.1%
- Furniture and bedding — 11.8%
- New vehicles — 11.1%
- Domestic services — 10.2%
- Jewelry — 6.7%
- Electricity — 6.5%
- Food — 6.1%
- Apparel — 5%
- Milk — 4.6%
- Fruits and vegetables — 4%
According to a recent Gallup poll, American families — especially less advantaged ones — are feeling pressure from the rising prices.
The effect of inflation is more pronounced upon poorer households because they tend to have more of their wealth saved in the form of dollars — whether in cash, checking accounts, or savings accounts — than wealthier families, which are more likely to hold retirement accounts, property, or other assets that accrue interest or increase in value over time.
Indeed, low-income earners typically spend a greater percentage of their wages on food, fuel, and other basic necessities — the same items that are becoming less affordable due to inflation. Read More > at The Daily Wire
World population forecast to decline for the first time in centuries – A new study published in the Lancet journal revealed that for the first time in centuries, the world’s population is set to decline starting in the next few decades.
There are currently around 7.8 billion people in the world. Experts believe the global population would peak at around 9.7 billion in 2064 before steadily declining to 8.79 billion by 2100.
Up to 23 countries, including Japan, Thailand, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and South Korea, could see their populations decreased by 50 per cent as a result of low birth rates and an aging population.
Even China, the most populous country in the world and a nation often associated with exorbitant population growth, has a projected decline from 1.4 billion people to 732 million in 2100. Read More > in the National Post
Easy Money: Fraud, Fortune and Failures. A KCRA 3 Investigates documentary – Beginning in September of 2020, KCRA 3 Investigates producer Dave Manoucheri and Photographer Victor Nieto began traveling across California and interviewing people in other states as part of an unprecedented documentary project that revealed a wave of problems created by the failures of California’s Employment Development Department, or EDD.
With nearly 15 hours of interviews from 17 people – and dozens of hours of news footage — Easy Money tells the story of what is being called the worst fraud in California history.
The documentary can be watched in four chapters below or you can watch the full version by clicking here.
Skip to Chapter 2
Skip to Chapter 3
Skip to Chapter 4
We encourage you to scroll as you go (App, Google and Facebook users, click HERE for the best mobile experience).
You’ll find a timeline of EDD’s problems , an interactive quiz that might surprise you about how the fraud operated, examples of other things you could fund with $20 billion from stolen taxpayer money and resources for how to protect your identity. Read More > at KCRA
California paid out $20 billion in fake unemployment claims. How much will it recover? – McGregor Scott was brought on by the state’s embattled unemployment agency in July with the mammoth challenge of coordinating investigations into fraud schemes targeting pandemic relief.
He found a surprise as the search for an estimated $20 billion in fraudulent payments proceeded.
“When I first assumed this role, I just broadly thought gosh, we’re never gonna see that money again,” he told The Bee in an interview.
Instead, “I can think right now off the top of my head of at least four federal cases where search warrants were executed and boxes of cash were found, each exceeding $500,000,” said Scott. That’s money linked directly to the fraud.
His job as special counsel has tentacles that could reach around the world. Along with local and state prosecutors, the Justice Department and others, the investigation is finding large organized crime efforts as well as people who simply try and try to deceive the government.
The search for the people behind the fraud centers on the now-ended federally-funded Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, created just after the COVID pandemic triggered an economic collapse in March 2020.
His surprise aside, Scott, former U. S. attorney for the Eastern District of California, figures most of that $20 billion in fake payments won’t be recovered.
“At the end of the day it’s all going to be pennies on the dollar,” he said, “because most of it is long gone.” Read More > at the Merced Sun-Star
When the “Climate Catastrophe” Levee Breaks – The climate crowd (Al Gore, JFK Heinz, and the other green profiteers, buoyed by generations of the indoctrinated) has already lost the 50-year climate crusade to Xi Jinping, Nahrenda Modi, and the African Energy Chamber.
In a carefully worded statement issued just prior to the thankfully failed climate catastrophe party in Glasgow (where activists wine and finely dine unmasked on other people’s money), Premier Li Keqiang announced that China needs to prioritize its economic development. Translation: China will continue to use oil, coal, and natural gas to generate its mammoth energy needs.
At about the same time, R. P. Gupta, India’s Environment Secretary, asserted that merely announcing a “net zero” goal creates no real-world solution to the presumed climate catastrophe. Gupta claimed that India is a victim of global warming and not a contributor. Indeed, India and China are demanding a trillion-dollar buy-in by “developed” nations before they will submit to serious net zero conversations.
India is projected to lead world oil demand growth, thanks to a five-fold increase in per capita [mostly fossil fuel powered] car ownership. The nation, already the world’s fourth largest energy consumer (behind China, the U.S., and the EU), is now the fastest-growing market for natural gas. India is on a path toward rises in demand of 75 percent for oil, 30 percent for coal, and 50 percent overall in the next decade or two.
NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the Africa Energy Chamber, spoke for much of Africa when he posted, during the Glasgow climate summit, his utter disappointment with the global elites (the aforesaid losers) for their eagerness to “rid the world of fossil fuels” before Africa (where millions die from disease or malnutrition every year) has had the chance to grow. Read More > at Real Clear Energy
‘Diet’ soda is disappearing from store shelves – As you make your way through the soda aisle, you may notice a lot less of the word “diet” than you used to.
That’s because some diet sodas are disappearing — or at least, that packaging is gone. Instead you’ll find those beverages under their new branding: zero sugar.
“Zero sugar” has replaced “diet” for many no-calorie soft drinks. Canada Dry and Schweppes ginger ales, 7Up, A&W and Sunkist, made by Keurig Dr Pepper, now label their diet drinks “zero sugar.” (One exception is the namesake Dr Pepper brand, which will still come in “diet” packaging in addition to a different zero sugar version.)
The reason for the overhaul: The word “diet” has fallen out of fashion — especially for Millennials and Gen Z-ers.
But distaste for the word diet doesn’t signal an aversion to no-calorie beverages. The diet soda segment, which includes diet and zero-calorie branded drinks, has ballooned since it first hit the mainstream in the 1960s. In 2020, the US retail diet carbonated soft drink market hit $11.2 billion, according to Mintel, a market research company.
The segment is still far smaller than the market for regular carbonated soft drinks, which was $28.2 billion in 2020, but it’s growing much more quickly. Diet soda sales are up about 19.5% from 2018, compared to just 8.4% for regular soda in the same period, making it an attractive segment for soda makers seeking growth. Read More > at CNN
For The First Time in History, a Spacecraft Has ‘Touched’ The Sun – In an incredible historic first, a human-made spacecraft has swooped in and made contact with the Sun.
On 28 April 2021, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe actually flew into and through the solar corona, the upper atmosphere of the Sun. Not only did it live to tell the tale – proving the efficacy of Parker’s high-tech heat shielding – it took in situ measurements, giving us a wealth of never-before-seen data on the heart of our Solar System.
“Parker Solar Probe ‘touching the Sun’ is a monumental moment for solar science and a truly remarkable feat,” said astrophysicist Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters.
“Not only does this milestone provide us with deeper insights into our Sun’s evolution and its impacts on our Solar System, but everything we learn about our own star also teaches us more about stars in the rest of the Universe.”
Parker Solar Probe launched in 2018, with its primary objective to probe the solar corona. In its planned seven-year mission, it should be making a total of 26 close approaches, or perihelions, to the Sun, using a total of seven gravity assist maneuvers from Venus to bring it ever closer. The April perihelion was the eighth, and the first to actually enter the corona. Read More > at Science Alert
Hybrid vehicles a better option than full battery powered vehicles – Let’s assume you want to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions with your choice of the vehicle you drive. Below is a comparison of hybrid vehicles compared to full battery powered electric vehicles, or EVs for short. The EVs offer essentially no emission savings while the hybrid vehicles do, along with significant cost savings on gasoline.
A common refrain is we must switch to EVs to minimize emissions. Federal legislation aims to spend billions on public EV charging stations and for subsidies up to $12,500 per EV to encourage people to buy this expensive option. Over 90% of all the EVs on the road are either Teslas or Chevrolet Bolts.
Let’s compare the lifetime CO2 emissions of the Chevrolet Bolt (Bolt) to a comparable compact hatchback, the Honda Fit (Fit), with a gasoline-powered internal combustion engine (ICE).
The base price of the 2021 Bolt is $31,995 compared to the Fit at $16,500, for a premium price of $15,495, thus the need for a whopping subsidy to get anyone to buy a Bolt. The original tax credit was $7,500 for the first 200,000 vehicles produced. When the tax credit ran out, General Motors dropped the price of the Bolt $5,000 to today’s price. You have to wonder what the price might be with a bigger tax credit.
The Bolt weighs a thousand pounds more than the Fit because of its 60 kWh battery pack. That means more wear on highways, but since the Bolt doesn’t use gasoline, owners don’t pay the highway repair and construction tax built into gasoline prices. That heavy battery requires mining, ore processing, shipping, and assembly that all emit CO2. A Swedish report, “The Life Cycle Energy Consumption and Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Lithium-Ion Batteries,” summarized several studies and had determined battery manufacturing emissions will average 150-200 kg CO2-eq/kWh. That translates to 9.9 to 13.2 tons of carbon dioxide per Bolt or an 11.6-ton average.
The Bolt battery is warranted for eight years, or 100,000 miles. If you need a new battery due to capacity degradation, a new one will cost $15,734, excluding labor. The Bolt will need 27,778 kWh of electricity, with 90% of the charging done at home to travel 100,000 miles. The electricity generation emits CO2. The latest system mix of our regional grid marked up 21.5% for transmission and charging efficiency losses totals 1.09 pounds CO2 emissions/kWh, or 15.1 tons for 100,000 miles. So, over the eight-year period, the Bolt will have total emissions of 26.7 tons of CO2.
The Fit gets 36 miles per gallon of gasoline and will use 2,778 gallons of gasoline which emits 19.2 pounds/gallon, or 26.7 tons of CO2 for 100,000 miles. The lifetime emissions savings of the Bolt may be zero. Read More > at CRI
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