U.S. News

As a part of a bill critics have dubbed the “Death Star” bill—an expansive law that preempts legislation in eight key areas of local government—the Legislature has overridden local ordinances that require giving workers water breaks. Otherwise known as House Bill 2127, it was signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott on June 6.

Since then, 11 people between the ages of 60 and 80 have died of heat-related illness in Webb County, the Associated Press reported. Most did not have air-conditioning in their homes. A teen and stepfather died while hiking in extreme heat at Big Bend National Park, per a National Park Service release.

According to the Texas Tribune, at least nine inmates, including two men in their 30s, died in Texas prisons that lack air conditioning. And at least four workers have died after collapsing while laboring in triple-digit heat: a post office worker in Dallas, a utility lineman in East Texas, and construction workers in Houston and San Antonio.

Yusef Salaam ... has won a Democratic primary for a seat on the New York City Council, all but assuring him of eventual victory.

His outsider campaign prevailed over two political veterans — New York Assembly members Inez Dickens, 73, and Al Taylor, 65 ... Democratic socialist Kristin Richardson Jordan, the incumbent council member, dropped out of the race in May ...

While all three candidates focused on promoting affordable housing, controlling gentrification and easing poverty in Harlem, Salaam capitalized on his celebrity ...

Salaam moved to Georgia shortly after he was released [in 2002] and became an activist, a motivational speaker, an author and a poet. He returned only in December to launch his campaign.

The ruling by [National Labor Relations Board] Judge Robert A. Ringler found that the company and local store managers in Pittsburgh abused their power and unlawfully targeted workers organizing with Pittsburgh Starbucks Workers United.

Three of the fired workers were part of the union’s 5-member bargaining unit, a fact that Ringler suggested was not a coincidence.

As workers at Starbucks stores nationwide have racked up organizing victories, the company has been hit numerous times with NLRB rulings that found unlawful labor practices.

It should be self-evident that issuing an emergency stay on the Fourth of July is unusual. The most charitable view I can apply is the judge wanted to be an answer to a trivia question — anything beyond that is misconduct.

There's also nothing in the story that points to a need for an emergency order in the first place. Now, if holiday news were a parade of mass shootings, maybe that would be a reason to just churn something out into the news cycle to distract.

“I strongly suspect that this person doesn’t exist,” said John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto who studies online disinformation. “It’s as if she dropped from the moon and arrived fully formed with this narrative that makes liberals look like idiots.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ninja/post/49635

Book vendors selling to Texas public schools, ranging from national sellers like Amazon to local bookstores with eight employees, must now rate all the books they sell based on sexual content, according to new legislation signed into law on June 12.

If the book vendor fails to comply with state library standards that will be in place by January 1, 2024, they’d be barred from selling to Texas public schools.

It is nice to see someone being welcoming to asylum seekers.

According to the criminal complaint, surveillance video shows Rodgers carrying a blue flag attached to a wooden flagpole as he approaches a line of law enforcement officers guarding the entrance to the East Rotunda Door. Investigators said Rodgers used his flagpole to strike a U.S. Capitol police officer three times on the helmet and then swung the flagpole twice more in the direction of officers.

More than 1,000 people have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for alleged crimes related to the Capitol breach, according to officials. More than 350 people have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.

"Along with eliminating permanent alimony, the measure will set up a process for ex-spouses who make alimony payments to seek modifications to alimony agreements when they want to retire.

It will allow judges to reduce or terminate alimony, support or maintenance payments after considering a number of factors, such as “the age and health” of the person who makes payments; the customary retirement age of that person’s occupation; “the economic impact” a reduction in alimony would have on the recipient of the payments; and the “motivation for retirement and likelihood of returning to work” for the person making the payments.

Supporters said it will codify into law a court decision in a 1992 divorce case that judges use as a guidepost when making decisions about retirement.

But, as with previous versions, opponents remained concerned that the bill would apply to existing permanent alimony agreements, which many ex-spouses accept in exchange for giving up other assets as part of divorce settlements."

It’s official: Colorado has the country’s most generous electric vehicle tax credit available to all residents. On July 1, the state’s incentive jumps from $2,000 to $5,000 for any electric vehicle with a starting price of less than $80,000. Data from the U.S. Department of Energy show that’s larger than any state-level discount on battery-powered cars.

excerpts from: https://www.newsweek.com/baltimore-mass-shooting-multiple-injured-deaths-brooklyn-police-1810337

...The shooting happened in the 800 block of Gretna Court in Baltimore's Brooklyn neighborhood early Sunday, a Baltimore Police spokesperson confirmed to Newsweek...

...Rebecca Pryor, a reporter for Fox Baltimore, tweeted that hundreds of people had gathered in the area for an annual celebration called "Brooklyn Day."

One witness told Pryor that she heard at least 20 to 30 shots fired from around 12:30 a.m. "They just kept going off," the witness said.

Pryor tweeted that police at the scene said there were at least 29 victims—10 who were transported to hospital by police and 10 who took them themselves to area hospitals.