Source: AP Associated Press



Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg doled out $905 million in infrastructure grants Wednesday, including to repair a cracking bridge in Seattle during a crippling heat wave and to expand ports in Iowa and Georgia to help reduce the number of greenhouse gas-emitting trucks on the roads.

The money for 24 projects in 18 states is part of a Biden administration shift of federal awards to promote climate-friendly policies and racial equity.
Federal aid will also go to California to reduce traffic fatalities in south Los Angeles and to Maine for bridge repair.

“These timely investments in our infrastructure will create jobs and support regional economies, while helping to spur innovation, confront climate change, and address inequities across the country,” Buttigieg said.

The money awarded Wednesday under the department’s Infrastructure for Rebuilding America program offers a glimpse into how the administration hopes to steer federal transportation dollars in the months ahead.



Read more: https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-climate-health-coronavirus-pandemic-business-100e9d84d539e720501c0978eb660b89

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AP had this listed in their political news, I thought that was odd.


Edit: correct title which truncated during copy/paste.

Source: ABC


In the midst of a historic heatwave creating prime conditions for a historic wildfire season, President Joe Biden announced Wednesday he plans to raise the federal firefighter pay to at least $15 an hour and offer new retention incentives amid turnover, as the White House seeks to boost its wildfire preparedness.


I compared the fried-chicken sandwiches from 3 fast-food chains, and…
These Royals Will See the Diana Statue Before the Unveiling, Sources Say

In the midst of a historic heatwave creating prime conditions for a historic wildfire season, President Joe Biden announced Wednesday he plans to raise the federal firefighter pay to at least $15 an hour and offer new retention incentives amid turnover, as the White House seeks to boost its wildfire preparedness.

"Because of climate change, wildland firefighting is no longer a seasonal endeavor," said a fact sheet from the White House.

Biden discussed the plans on Wednesday while meeting virtually with governors from Western states, Cabinet officials and partners from the private sector to discuss wildfire preparedness.

He began by invoking the devastating images from last year.

"We're remembering the horrific scenes from last year. Orange skies that looked like End of Days, smoke and ash that made the air dangerous to breathe, more than 10 million acres burned, billions of dollars in economic damage, families that lost their homes and everything they own. And too many, too many lost lives," Biden said.
Joe Biden wearing a suit and tie sitting at a desk

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news

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I think the hourly pay should be at least $20/hr.

https://twitter.com/RBReich/status/1409583805111816194

Personal group

When I looked through all the listings for groups and forums, I didn't see one labeled, Labor.

I searched and the internet returned the right location, Omaha Steve's Labor Group.

Should a Labor topic be listed with a link to this group?

Not much of an article.

Sen. Joe Manchin says he believes a Democratic-only reconciliation bill "can be done," but has not agreed on how big it will be.
Joe Manchin wearing a suit and tie: Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Oliver Contreras/The New York Times via AP, Pool © Oliver Contreras/The New York Times via AP, Pool Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Oliver Contreras/The New York Times via AP, Pool

"I've agreed that can be done. I just haven't agreed on the amount," Manchin said of the infrastructure plan on MSNBC on Tuesday morning. "I haven't seen everything that everyone is wanting to put into the bill."

The spending bill could cost anywhere from $2 trillion to $6 trillion.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/joe-manchin-says-he-s-agreed-on-a-democratic-only-reconciliation-bill-but-not-how-big-it-will-be/ar-AALAfby?ocid=Peregrine

Robert Reich (Infrastructure)
https://twitter.com/RBReich/status/1409125943382269952

Hannah Dreier (DeSantis/FEMA response delayed)

https://twitter.com/hannahdreier/status/1408855547852513289


Bloomberg Quicktake (Wuhan lab scientist)

https://twitter.com/i/events/1409342584120516609

Source: Reuters



MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Monday announced the extension of a 20-year-old friendship and cooperation treaty between their countries, both of which have strained ties with the West.
a man wearing a suit and tie: FILE PHOTO: Russian President Putin meets with Chinese President Xi during their meeting on the sideline of the BRICS summit in Brasilia

Speaking to Xi via video conference, Putin said the Sino-Russian Treaty of Friendship, signed in 2001, enshrined the two powers' support for defending national unity and territorial integrity, at a time when both Moscow and Beijing are at odds with Western countries on a wide range of issues.

"In today's world, such agreements are of serious importance," the Kremlin cited Putin as saying. "In the context of increasing geopolitical turbulence, the dismantlement of arms control agreements and increased potential for conflict in different corners of the world, Russian-Chinese coordination plays a stabilising role in world affairs."

Putin said the agreement would be automatically extended for another five years after it expires in February 2022.



Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russia-china-extend-friendship-and-cooperation-treaty-kremlin/ar-AALxwSk?li=BBnb7Kz

The link includes charts and corporate donor names and individual Congress member names including those in the Senate.

In the wake of the Capitol insurrection on January 6th, nearly two hundred corporations and industry groups said they would pause or altogether stop making political contributions to the 147 members of Congress who voted against certifying the election and continue to propagate the Big Lie that led to the attack. In the months since, corporate and industry interests have had to choose whether to do their part to uphold our democracy by turning off the flow of corporate donations to these members, also known as the Sedition Caucus, or to continue to support them in order to seek political influence.

Many have failed this test, some reneging on a promise to change their giving while others made no commitment and are giving like nothing ever happened. By continuing to fund members of Congress who would undermine American democracy, these corporations and industry groups are sacrificing democratic government for access and influence.

Business groups were eager to start giving to Sedition Caucus members in the wake of the January 6th

The flow of money from corporate PACs and industry groups to political committees allied with the Sedition Caucus started just days after the insurrection, and within the first few months after the deadly attack, their total contributions had already climbed into the millions of dollars.

https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-reports/this-sedition-is-brought-to-you-by/

Source: USA Today


The virus that causes COVID-19 did not originate at the Wuhan seafood market, confirms a new study of deleted gene sequences from the virus' earliest days.

The sequences had been posted to a website run by the National Institutes of Health, but were removed for unknown reasons.

Finding earlier sequences like these might help reveal new insights into the SARS-CoV-2 virus' earliest days, said Jesse Bloom, the article's author, who studies viral evolution at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

His new report, which has not yet been peer reviewed, does not suggest an answer to the question of whether the SARS-CoV-2 virus jumped directly from animals to people or was accidentally leaked from a research lab in Wuhan, China.

"I hope scientifically, we can get beyond just arguing about that," said Bloom, who in May joined a global call for more information about the earliest days of the outbreak.



Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/deleted-gene-sequences-confirm-coronavirus-circulated-before-wuhan-seafood-market/ar-AALtfHM?li=BBnb7Kz

Source: Associated Press



NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit Friday challenging Tennessee’s first-of-its-kind law that requires businesses and government facilities to post signs if they let transgender people use multiperson public bathrooms of their choice, seeking to block the requirement from taking effect on July 1.
In this Aug. 15, 2019 file photo, Rep. Tim Rudd, R-Murfreesboro, speaks on his bill that would impose new restrictions on groups that hold voter registration drives during a House session in Nashville, Tenn. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit Friday, June 25, 2021, challenging Tennessee’s first-of-its-kind law that requires businesses and government facilities to post signs if they let transgender people use multiperson public bathrooms or similar facilities of their choice. Rudd, says the law is not discriminatory and doesn’t limit businesses on which facilities they can let people use. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

The ACLU and its Tennessee chapter brought the lawsuit in Nashville on behalf of Bob Bernstein, owner of Fido restaurant in Nashville; and Kye Sayers, owner of the Sanctuary Performing Arts venue in Chattanooga, which was founded by members of the transgender community; and their corresponding businesses. It names the state fire marshal, state codes enforcement director and two district attorneys as defendants.

With the threat of misdemeanor penalties, the law requires that the following sign be posted in bold, uppercase letters outside public multiperson bathrooms, locker rooms or changing rooms wherever transgender people are not prevented from using the facilities of their choice: “This facility maintains a policy of allowing the use of restrooms by either biological sex, regardless of the designation on the restroom.” It’s one of five new Tennessee laws this year that have drawn backlash from LGBTQ advocates.

The lawsuit argues that the sign requirement infringes on the business owners' First Amendment rights by requiring them to “communicate a misleading and controversial government-mandated message that they would not otherwise display.” The lawsuit says the phrase “either biological sex" is ”offensive to transgender and intersex people because it asserts that transgender people are not the sex they know themselves to be and ignores the existence of intersex people."





Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/tennessee-sued-over-new-transgender-bathroom-sign-law/ar-AALs8ih

The article actualy contains a plan, and/or playbook of expected steps to pass both the bipartisan and Democratic infrastructure.

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2021/06/25/graham-biden-made-gop-look-like-fing-idiots-493371

MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION — President JOE BIDEN, Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER and Speaker NANCY PELOSI unveiled a rather daring new strategy Thursday for getting the president’s agenda passed.

The gist is this: If Biden’s proposal for “family infrastructure” and climate change doesn’t pass, then neither will the bipartisan infrastructure deal that senators just struck. Think of this as a Plan B after Sens. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.) and KYRSTEN SINEMA (D-Ariz.) refused to promise they’ll support Part 2, Democrats’ multitrillion-dollar reconciliation package.

But the Biden-Schumer-Pelosi playbook also has the makings of a serious legislative cluster — and high drama over whether Democrats can actually pull this off — this summer and possibly into the fall.

Here’s your new timeline, according to Hill sources, and bear with us for a bit of procedural wonkery:

1) The Senate will turn the bipartisan agreement into legislative text in the coming days so it can pass it out of the chamber in July. The House will likely have its own version. But instead of conferencing and approving a combined bill for Biden’s signature before the August recess, leaders will put infrastructure on ice until the Democrats-only bill catches up.

2) Schumer and Pelosi plan to have both their chambers pass their respective budget resolutions before the August recess, enabling Democrats to unlock the fast-tracking reconciliation tool.

3) That budget will include instructions for each committee to tackle everything from corporate tax hikes to climate change, education, paid family leave and the like — in other words, everything Democrats want that’s not included in the bipartisan infrastructure package. The panels will work over the August recess to draft the massive reconciliation bill, which Sen. BERNIE SANDERS (I-Vt.) hopes will top $6 trillion.

4) When lawmakers return in September from the August recess, they’ll have a few weeks to clear both bills at the same time. The new deadline for getting both to Biden’s desk, per Democratic leaders, is Sept. 30, when a bunch of surface transportation programs expire.