AM Quickie

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Feb 26, 2021: Ocean Currents Worry Scientists


Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Scientists warn in a new study that global warming is seriously messing with Atlantic Ocean currents. The consequences for marine life, not to mention people living on the Eastern Seaboard, could be catastrophic.

Meanwhile, whistleblowers and the family of a police shooting victim point to a violent gang inside the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. A newly elected district attorney has pledged to tackle the problem.

And lastly, the Biden administration has expanded eligibility for unemployment benefits to cover some workers whose employers flouted pandemic safety standards. Although the new rules won’t apply to everyone affected, they’re a step in the right direction.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The Atlantic Ocean circulation that underpins the Gulf Stream, the crucial global weather system, is at its weakest in more than a millennium, the Guardian reports. Climate breakdown is the probable cause. Further weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, could result in more storms, more intense winters, and an increase in damaging heatwaves and droughts. Scientists predict that the AMOC will weaken further if global heating continues, and could reduce by up to forty-five percent by the end of this century. That could bring us close to a tipping point at which the system could become irrevocably unstable. A weakened Gulf Stream would raise sea levels on the Atlantic coast of the US, with potentially disastrous consequences.

Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, who co-authored the study published yesterday in Nature Geoscience, told the Guardian that circulation had already slowed by about fifteen percent and the impacts were being seen. Scientists have long predicted a weakening of the AMOC as a result of global heating, and have raised concerns that it could collapse altogether. The new study found that any such point was likely to be decades away, but that continued high greenhouse gas emissions would bring it closer.

Rahmstorf said QUOTE The consequences of this are so massive that even a ten percent chance of triggering a breakdown would be an unacceptable risk ENDQUOTE.

As well as causing more extreme weather across Europe and the east coast of the US, the weakening of the AMOC could have severe consequences for Atlantic marine ecosystems, the Guardian reports. Karsten Haustein, of the Climate Services Center in Germany, said the US could be at risk of stronger hurricanes as a result of the Gulf Stream’s weakening. Another reason we need the Green New Deal.

Police Gangs Stalk LA

A CBS News investigation has uncovered allegations of gangs existing within the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, possibly for decades. Current deputies out of the East Los Angeles station say the existence of gangs within law enforcement has been a problem. The deputies, who do not want to be identified for fear of reprisal, claim the most prevalent are called the Banditos – comprised of mostly Latino deputies who serve predominantly African American and Latino neighborhoods.

One deputy told CBS QUOTE They operate as a gang. They commit crimes, they assault people ENDQUOTE. The deputy said the gang is based out of East LA, and that Banditos there have been promoted and spread all over the county. Members of the gang identify themselves with a tattoo. Sources said the initiation process could involve getting in a shooting, which the deputy called QUOTE a definite brownie point ENDQUOTE. Members would plant weapons on suspects to justify those shootings.

The deputy told CBS the gang targets other young Latinos. That targeting is what grieving mother Lisa Vargas has contended happened to her twenty one-year-old son Anthony Vargas, who aspired to be a chef. He was shot thirteen times by sheriff's deputies while on his way home. Vargas claimed her son's death was part of the gang's initiations. She filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles County and the deputies who shot her son. The suit alleges that the individuals who shot Anthony were members of the Banditos gang, or prospects. Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva has denied the existence of gangs within his department. Newly-elected Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said his department takes the allegations seriously. A federal grand jury investigation has been convened. After they break up the Banditos, they need to bust some white police gangs, too.

Biden Expands Unemployment Eligibility

The Biden administration expanded unemployment insurance eligibility yesterday to include workers who refused job offers at unsafe worksites, the Washington Post reports. The new rule makes good on Joe Biden’s pledge to reduce the pressure on people who say they have been forced to choose between staying healthy or getting a paycheck. The Department of Labor made the shift in response to an executive order from President Biden in January, broadening the eligibility of Pandemic Unemployment Assistance to include workers whose unemployment benefits were denied because they refused to return to workplaces that were not in compliance with coronavirus health and safety standards.

The change in eligibility goes into affect immediately, according to the Post. But officials cautioned that it could take at least a month for workers claims to be approved, if not longer. Eligible workers will be able to receive backdated payments for unemployment claims dating to the beginning of the pandemic, as well as the supplemental $600 a week bonus that the federal government has approved through the end of July. The change in exemptions does not appear to help people who quit work in the last year, many presumably because they felt unsafe – another category of unemployed workers who have been denied benefits.

The Post reports that the guidelines will also expand eligibility for some workers who have lost hours at work, like at restaurants, but have not been eligible for unemployment insurance due to technicalities, like not making enough in wages to qualify. For workers at unsafe workplaces to qualify, they will be required to attest, under the threat of perjury, that their workplace was not in compliance with either local, state or national standards about the coronavirus, the DOL said. The new rules don’t go far enough, but they’re an improvement.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The House of Representatives yesterday voted to pass the Equality Act, which would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, the Washington Post reports. It is a top legislative priority of President Biden. In twenty-seven states, a person can be denied housing because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. It’s time for that to end.

Tax and financial records that Donald Trump fought to keep secret for nearly eighteen months have been turned over to the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is investigating fraud by Trump and his company, the New York Times reports. The records, including eight years of personal tax returns, were handed over on Monday, the same day that the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s final bid to block a subpoena for them. Fingers crossed for indictments to follow.

The US Capitol Police plans to maintain enhanced security around the Capitol through at least Biden's first official address to Congress because intelligence suggests extremists could be planning an attack, acting Chief Yogananda Pittman said yesterday, according to NBC News. She said members of the militia groups present on January 6th QUOTE want to blow up the Capitol and kill as many members as possible with a direct nexus to the State of the Union ENDQUOTE. So DC will look like a fortress for a while still.

A secretive Israeli nuclear facility at the center of the nation’s undeclared atomic weapons program is undergoing what may be its biggest construction project in decades, satellite photos analyzed by the Associated Press show. Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Washington-based Arms Control Association, said the Israeli government needs to come clean about whatever it’s doing at the plant. Is that too much to ask? Apparently.

FEB 26, 2021 - AM QUICKIE

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn


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 February 26, 2021  8m