House lawmakers released a report Thursday that accuses Tyson and other meatpacking companies of lobbying the USDA against health restrictions and seeking to avoid legal liability while COVID-19 spread among workers. Follow this link to read the full report.

The report from the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis claims the lobbying efforts "led to policies, guidance, and an executive order that, individually and all together, forced meatpacking workers to continue working despite health risks and allowed companies to avoid taking precautions to protect workers from the coronavirus, ultimately contributing to thousands of worker infections and hundreds of worker deaths."

Lobbying

The report claims that in March and April 2020, Tyson and other companies lobbied the USDA and White House to discourage workers from staying home or quitting. CEOs directly spoke with the Secretary of Agriculture and other officials to ensure that workers were told that if they left their jobs out of worries about the COVID-19 pandemic, they would not receive benefits.

A spokesperson with Tyson declined a request from sister station 40/29 News for an interview. He sent a statement from the company, saying Tyson collaborates with many different federal, state and local officials on pandemic issues. This includes both the Trump and Biden administrations.

The statement says Tyson became one of the first fully-vaccinated workforces in the country last year. and that the health and safety of its workers are the company's top priority.

Protein Supply

According to the report, Tyson and other companies compiled information on their plant operations to convince the USDA that oversight by local health departments and positive COVID-19 test results put the nation's protein supply in danger.

Tyson and Smithfield publicly stated that reduced operations due to plant closings or absent workers would cause a shortage of meat.

The House report states that despite a brief slowdown in production in spring 2020, there was enough pork in cold storage to supply grocery stores for more than a year.

Executive Order

At the same time, the companies lobbied for legal protection against possible lawsuits over workplace conditions during the pandemic, the report states.

Tyson wrote a draft executive order on April 13, 2020, that it believed would protect it and other meat companies from liability. The industry then used backchannels to lobby the White House to have President Donald Trump sign the order. Those lobbying efforts included phone calls between Tyson executives, including CEO Neil White, and administration officials.

Trump signed a final version of the executive order on April 28, 2020. Follow this link to read the order.

Industry Response

"Meatpacking companies knew the risk posed by the coronavirus to their workers and knew it wasn't a risk that the country needed them to take," the report states. "They nonetheless lobbied aggressively — successfully enlisting USDA as a close collaborator in their efforts — to keep workers on the job in unsafe conditions, to ensure state and local health authorities were powerless to mandate otherwise and to be protected against legal liability from the harms that would result."

A statement released by the lobbying group North American Meat Institute claims the subcommittee's report cherry picks data to create a false narrative about the industry.

"The report ignores the rigorous and comprehensive measures companies enacted to protect employees and support their critical infrastructure workers," according to the statement.

The report states that 59,000 workers at Tyson, JBS, Smithfield, Cargill, and National Beef caught COVID-19 in 2020 and 269 died.

Tyson reported a net income of about $2 billion in 2020 and $3 billion in 2021. In an email cited in the report, a meatpacking lobbyist asked a Tyson lobbyist if it was wise to publicly support a tax break for meatpacking corporations, given the high profit margins.

Watch the video above for the full story.

Hawaii Gov. David Ige announced Tuesday that he signed an executive order to protect those obtaining access to or performing reproductive health care services on the island.

Ige said those traveling to the Pacific island to receive an abortion would be safe from prosecution if other states decided to go after them.

He added that medical professionals that perform the procedure in the state would also be protected if other states tried to sanction them.

"We will not cooperate with any other state that tries to prosecute women who receive abortions in Hawaii. And we will not cooperate with any other state that tries to sanction medical professionals who provide abortions in Hawaii," Ige said in a news release.

Hawaii is the latest state to issue an executive order that protects those seeking abortions and health care providers, USA Today reported.

Those states include Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island.

The move to protect abortion rights comes after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June which federally protected the right to get an abortion for nearly 50 years, the Associated Press reported.

Hawaii's executive order takes effect immediately.

Ige added that medical records, data, or billing information will not be provided to states "seeking to impose penalties upon a person or entity related to reproductive health services in Hawaii."

Hawaii became the first state in the nation when it legalized abortion on March 11, 1970.

According to the state's constitution, people's right to privacy and personal autonomy is guaranteed.

Almost 80 years ago, people of Japanese descent from the West Coast were evacuated and forced to live in internment camps.

122,000 men, women and children of Japanese descent were forced to leave everything behind — their businesses, homes and properties. They were only allowed to bring personal items they could carry in their arms.

Kaz Ideno was born in California and spent nearly four years of his childhood at camps in Arkansas and Texas.

"I don't know what made me arrive to the conclusion that we're in jail," said Ideno. "We're in prison."

Saturday, Jan. 19 marks the 80th anniversary of Franklin D. Roosevelt signing the executive order that authorized the internment camps under the argument that people of Japanese heritage posed a national security risk.

As we remember this stain in American history, a digital exhibit in Chicago called "Uprooted" aims to teach the next generation so we never forget. 

"It's part of a larger effort to capture oral histories of elders," said Kat Nagasawa, lead producer of the project. "What Uprooted tries to do is really try to package those stories in a way that's accessible to students and teachers."

Through graphics and videos, it follows Ideno and two other survivors as they trace the effects of their evacuation from California to their incarceration during WWII and then finally their resettlement in Chicago.

Despite being in camp for much of his childhood, Ideno says he felt a sense of shame and internal hate that he carried with him for a long time.

"I wanted to prove I was not Japanese-American," he said. "Accept [that] everything is American."

Even when his parents pushed for Japanese schooling after they were freed from the camp, Ideno pushed back and stopped learning the language.

It took Ideno years to embrace his culture and identity. Although he doesn't speak Japanese and at one point called himself Gene, he now celebrates his identity around his home. He also attends cultural events with traditional dancing to honor his ancestors.

"I kind of feel like I'm going full-circle in my life and coming back from leaving it," Ideno said.

The Japanese American Services Committee stores personal items from that time period to be preserved and shared.

"It's so very important for those stories to be told in the voices of the people who were directly impacted," said Emma Saito Lincoln, JASC Legacy Center director. "Whether that is the people who

were incarcerated themselves or the descendants of those people."

Illinois is the first state to require teaching Asian-American history, including this hurtful chapter, in all public schools.

This story was originally published by Cat Sandoval of Newsy.

President Joe Biden is signing an executive order Wednesday that forces government agencies to invest in clean energy.

In addition to a long-term goal of being net-zero emissions by 2050, Biden says the federal government will have to reach a 65 percent reduction of emissions by 2030.

To reach the goal, the plan requires government agencies to upgrade federal buildings to be more energy-efficient and replace fleets with electric vehicles.

The executive order lays out five main goals:

• 100 percent carbon pollution-free electricity (CFE) by 2030
• 100 percent zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) acquisitions by 2035
• Net-zero emissions from federal procurement no later than 2050
• A net-zero emissions building portfolio by 2045
• Net-zero emissions from overall federal operations by 2050

The White House says the bipartisan infrastructure bill that was passed earlier this year will provide government agencies with the funding to meet the goals.

"Today’s executive action is a part of the President’s broader commitment to increasing investments in America’s manufacturing industries and workers to build back our country better," the White House said in a statement on its website.

Biden believes his plan will help tackle the climate crisis and create well-paying jobs.

FRANKSVILLE — Three Republican Wisconsin Congressmen joined the backlash against the White House's decision to halt the Keystone pipeline project, claiming that "hundreds" of Wisconsin workers are losing their jobs as the massive and controversial construction project ground to a halt this week.

The decision to revoke the permit allowing construction of Keystone XL was one of the first executive orders signed by incoming President Joe Biden, leading to praise from environmental groups but heavy criticism from proponents of the oil and gas project, including three of Wisconsin's representatives in Congress.

Friday's press briefing at a Michels Corporation jobsite, a national construction contractor headquartered in Brownsville, Wis., was attended by Republican Reps. Bryan Steil, Glenn Grothman and newly elected Scott Fitzgerald. Michels is a subcontractor of TC, the Calgary-based company building the pipeline.

Watch the press briefing here:

Over 1,000 jobs connected to the Keystone project will be eliminated in the coming weeks, Keystone XL President Richard Prior said earlier this week. "Hundreds" of those jobs being eliminated are held by Wisconsin workers, the Republican Congressmen claimed Friday.

"I find his decision disgusting. Hundreds of Wisconsin workers lost their jobs because of what Joe Biden did. He needs to reconsider this action and put Wisconsin workers back to work," Rep. Steil told reporters.

Andrew Burton

A general manager for Michels at the briefing also said that hundreds of workers have been laid off, and "a lot of them live in Wisconsin."

The Keystone pipeline was to stretch 1,700-miles between Alberta, Canada and the Texas Gulf Coast, cutting through the states of Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma. The pipeline was planned to carry about 800,000 barrels of oil a day.

Rep. Grothman focused on the potential repercussions of the decision on the U.S.'s largest trading partners and neighbors, Canada and Mexico.

TMJ4

"It is so important we have good relations with the both of them," Grothman said. "I'm sure Canada thought this was a done deal. This is part of their economic development. And on day one, Biden comes out of the chute and pops Canada right in the face. Amateur night at the White House, I'll tell you that."

The pipeline was first proposed in 2008, and soon became a symbol of the tensions between economic development that relies on traditional sources of energy like gas and oil, and the effort to curb fossil fuel emissions causing climate change.

Former President Barack Obama shot down the proposal for the pipeline. Former President Donald Trump revived it.

Rep. Fitzgerald used his several minutes at the press briefing to call for a legislative push to revoke President Biden's executive order shutting the pipeline down.

TMJ4

"I'm hopeful not only by being here today but I think other elected officials - whether at the state legislative level or in Congress - that is where the answer is to reverse this," he said. Fitzgerald also called on Democratic lawmakers in Wisconsin to urge the White House to reverse the decision.

Critics of the pipeline say that operations in Alberta's oil sands increase greenhouse gas emissions and threaten the province's environment. But Rep. Steil said those fears are overblown.

TMJ4

"The environmental concerns are very misleading to a lot of people," Steil said. "The oil and gas are still going to be transported into the United States of America. It's going to be done by rail - a less efficient way of moving gas, with greater risk to the environment from rail accidents."

Tribal and environmental groups applauded Biden's decision.

“This is a vindication of 10 years defending our waters and treaty rights from this tar sands carbon bomb," Dallas Goldtooth, a member of the Mdewakanton Dakota and Dine nations, told The Guardian. "I applaud President Biden for recognizing how dangerous KXL is for our communities and climate and I look forward to similar executive action to stop DAPL and Line 3 based on those very same dangers."

Outside of the statements from the Wisconsin legislators, it is unconfirmed how many Wisconsin workers will lose their jobs in connection to the cancellation of the Keystone pipeline.

This article was written by Jackson Danbeck for WTMJ.

Video above: Florida school district defies Gov. Ron Desantis' order to ban mask mandates

School districts in Florida may impose mask mandates, a judge said Friday, ruling that Gov. Ron DeSantis overstepped his authority by issuing an executive order banning the mandates.

Leon County Circuit Judge John C. Cooper agreed with a group of parents who claimed in a lawsuit that DeSantis' order is unconstitutional and cannot be enforced. The governor's order gave parents the sole right to decide if their child wears a mask at school.

Cooper said DeSantis’ order “is without legal authority.”

His decision came after a three-day virtual hearing, and after at least 10 Florida school boards voted to defy DeSantis and impose mask requirements with no parental opt-out.

Cooper said that while the governor and others have argued that a new Florida law gives parents the ultimate authority to oversee health issues for their children, it also exempts government actions that are needed to protect public health and are reasonable and limited in scope. He said a school district’s decision to require student masking to prevent the spread of the virus falls within that exemption.

The judge also noted that two Florida Supreme Court decisions from 1914 and 1939 found that individual rights are limited by their impact on the rights of others. For example, he said, adults have the right to drink alcohol but not to drive drunk. There is a right to free speech, but not to harass or threaten others or yell “fire” in a crowded theater, he said.

“We don’t have that right because exercising the right in that way is harmful or potentially harmful to other people," Cooper said. He added that the law "is full of examples of rights that are limited (when) the good of others ... would be adversely affected by those rights.”

DeSantis has dismissed the masking recommendation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as not applicable to Florida, but Cooper cited numerous Florida laws and statutes covering health care in nursing homes, prisons and elsewhere that say state decision-makers should give great weight to CDC guidelines.

The school districts that have defied Santis' order represent slightly more than half of the 2.8 million Florida public school students enrolled this year. DeSantis, a Republican who is eyeing a possible presidential run in 2024, had threatened to impose financial penalties on school boards that vote for strict mask mandates. Democratic President Joe Biden has said if that happens, federal money will be used to cover any costs.

Orange County, home to the city of Orlando and Disney World, on Tuesday, became the latest large district to impose a mask mandate after positive tests for COVID-19 disrupted classes. Through Tuesday, the district reported 1,968 positive cases among students since school began, with 1,491 people under active quarantine, according to the district’s dashboard.

In Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday, the Broward County School Board told the Department of Education that it won’t back down on its requirement that students wear masks. Its policy, like that of most other districts, gives parents a medical opt-out for students. The board said giving parents the unlimited right to send their kids to school without a mask would infringe on the rights of other parents who want their children to be safe.

The state had given Broward and Alachua counties until Tuesday to end their mask mandates. Broward’s students began school a week ago with a mask policy in place.

"We believe that the district is in compliance. We don’t believe that we have done anything inappropriate as it relates to the executive order and the rule of the Department of Education,” Rosalind Osgood, chairwoman of the Broward School Board, said Tuesday.

The highly contagious delta variant led to an acceleration in cases around Florida and record-high hospitalizations just as schools prepared to reopen classrooms this month. By mid-August, more than 21,000 new cases were being added per day, compared with about 8,500 a month earlier. The state said 16,820 people were hospitalized on Tuesday, down from a record of more than 17,000 last week.

About 6 in 10 Americans say students and teachers should be required to wear face masks while in school, according to a poll conducted this month by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

WASHINGTON —

President Joe Biden has signed an executive order on the economy.

It relates to U.S. supply chains for large-capacity batteries, pharmaceuticals, critical minerals and semiconductors that power cars, phones, military equipment and other goods.

The United States has become increasingly reliant on imports of these goods — a potential national security and economic risk that the Biden administration hopes to address with the planned 100-day review and the possibility of increased domestic production, according to administration officials who insisted on anonymity to discuss the order. However, Biden will also look to work with international partners to ensure a stable and reliable supply chain.

Over the past year, the fragility of vital supply chains has been revealed repeatedly. The coronavirus outbreak led to an initial shortage of masks, gloves and other protective medical equipment. Automakers in the United States and Europe are now dealing with a shortage of computer chips.

Administration officials have met with automakers and are talking with foreign counterparts on how to boost supplies in the short term. But there is no magic bullet to immediately fixing the lack of semiconductors for automakers, an administration official said.

The chip shortage is indicative as to why Biden is trying to be proactive with the reviews, so that they can strengthen the supply chains to prevent additional challenges from emerging. Administration officials say that they plan to partner with industry and members of Congress as part of the effort and that no tool is off the table, including the use of the Defense Production Act.

Nearly every major automaker that produces vehicles in the U.S. has cut production because of the shortage by canceling shifts, slowing assembly line speeds or temporarily closing factories. Most automakers have tried to limit the cuts to slower-selling vehicles.

But the shortage has forced the Ford Motor Co. to at times cancel shifts at two plants that make the F-Series pickup truck, the top-selling vehicle in the nation. Besides Ford, Stellantis (formerly Fiat Chrysler), General Motors, Toyota and Honda have had to slow production.

Some are building vehicles without computer chips, which control engines, brakes, transmissions and other tasks, so they can be installed once more semiconductors are available.

The chip shortage has cost the global auto industry the production of about 1 million vehicles, according to IHS Markit. The analytics firm expects the chip crisis to hit bottom toward the end of March, with supplies constrained into the third quarter.

IHS Markit expects the lost production could be made up later in the year. But the shortage could compound already tight vehicle inventories in the U.S., driving up prices that rose when factories were closed last year due to the novel coronavirus.

Moody's predicts that the chip shortage will cost Ford and General Motors about one-third of their pretax earnings this year. It also expects electric vehicle maker Tesla to be affected, although less than GM and Ford.

Auto industry officials say semiconductor companies diverted production to consumer electronics during the worst of the COVID-19 slowdown in auto sales last spring. Global automakers were forced to close plants to prevent the spread of the virus. When automakers recovered, there weren’t enough chips.

The U.S. Semiconductor Industry Association says the country’s share of global chip manufacturing capacity has dropped from 37% in 1990 to 12% today. The association wants Washington to fund domestic semiconductor manufacturing and research and pass an investment tax credit to help build and modernize chip factories in the U.S.

The wrangling over semiconductors dovetails with China's economic rise as it became a manufacturing center for electronics. Chinese companies began to account for half of global semiconductor consumption in 2012, and demand has grown as China makes 90% of all smartphones, 67% of all smart televisions and 65% of all personal computers, noted a 2020 research paper by Chad Bown, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

President Joe Biden on Friday signed an executive order aimed at regulating the anti-competitive behavior of large technology and healthcare companies.

The order Biden signed includes 72 actions that the White House says "will lower prices for families, increase wages for workers, and promote innovation and even faster economic growth.

The calls on the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to better enforce antitrust laws and encourage them to challenge "bad mergers" that limited competition in the marketplace — particularly in the labor, agricultural, healthcare and technology markets.

Biden's order also establishes a White House Competition Council to monitor the progress on those changes. That council will be led by Brian Deese, the current head of the National Economic Council.

The White House says the order takes the following actions:

• Boost job mobility by banning or limiting non-compete agreements
• Lower prescription drug prices by supporting programs that import drugs from Canada
• Allow hearing aids to be sold over the counter
• Ban early termination fees on internet contracts between consumers and telecommunication companies
• Make it easier to get refunds from airlines
• Ban manufacturers from barring self-repairs or third-party repairs on their products
• Make it easier for Americans to switch banks
• Direct all federal agencies to promote greater competition in procurement and spending

Former athletes with local ties call the latest move to pay for endorsement deals a win.

Starting July 1, Kentucky will allow companies to pay student-athletes to use their name, image or likeness. Gov. Andy Beshear signed an executive order enacting the change Thursday.

Former Cincinnati Bengals player Tim McGee said when he was in college at the University of Tennessee in the 1980s, he went hungry some nights.

“We had to eat prior to six o'clock. Once six o’clock was over, that's it. You didn't have any money, and me being from inner city, we didn't have the disposable income to provide extra money to myself and my sister," he said. "Where you knew the university was making all this money. And it just, it was just so, so, so unfair, and everyone knew it.”

Kentucky is the first in the Tri-State to enact the NIL rule. However, 19 states have passed similar legislation to allow compensation for student athletes.

Monday, the U.S. Supreme court issued a ruling that ended the NCAA limits on education-related benefits. In the past, the NCAA said its rules were in place, in part, to keep the sports amateur.

Attorney and sports agent Patrick McCarthey said the benefits will come into play for student-athletes in the form of commercials and business endorsements.

“You're going to see the super star quarterback get a car dealer, you’re going to see the All-American center get a grocery store,” he said.

He says Kentucky schools now have this as a recruiting tool. However, as other states follow suit, bigger universities could lose out to larger cities with more businesses.

For years, the NCAA has been developing a plan to allow students to accept endorsement deals with limits.

“The average fan goes, 'Well, he’s getting a free education," McGee said. "Well, you know, I always wanted someone to break down the number of hours and the hourly rate I’m getting deprived. And where else in America, the United States of America, can you give labor and get no compensation in return?”

Northern Kentucky University assistant athletic director Bryan McEldowney wrote:

"We are excited our Norse student-athletes will have the opportunity to generate revenue under Governor Beshear’s executive order based on their name, image and likeness. Today’s executive order creates a level playing field for our student-athletes and Northern Kentucky University with our peers – both in the Commonwealth of Kentucky as well as those in the Horizon League located in states which have laws in place. We have been actively preparing for NIL reform and will be ready to educate and prepare our student-athletes according to the dynamics of the executive order."

“We've been doing this a long time in terms of preparing our young people for the new world as they leave Kentucky," University of Kentucky Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart told reporters Thursday. "Now, we've just fast tracked it so they're going to get a bigger idea of what it looks like while they're at Kentucky. I think it’s certainly a changing landscape.”

FRANKFORT, Ky. — College athletes in Kentucky can receive compensation for the use of their names, images and likenesses, according to an executive order signed Thursday by Gov. Andy Beshear.

“Today’s step was done in cooperation with all of our public universities as well as leadership of both parties,” Beshear said. “This action ensures we are not at a competitive disadvantage in recruiting, and also that our student athletes have the same rights and opportunities as those in other states. For any individual athlete, their name, image and likeness are their own and no one else’s.”

Beshear is the first governor to allow compensation for name, image and likeness by executive order.

Multiple politicians and university officials applauded the order, including University of Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart, University of Louisville head football coach Scott Satterfield, Murray State University president Bob Jackson, Kentucky House Speaker David Osborne and Kentucky Senate minority leader Morgan McGarvey, among others.

"We are appreciative of that support as it is a bridge until such time as state and/or federal laws are enacted," Barnhart said in a news release. "The landscape of college sports is now in the midst of dramatic and historic change — perhaps the biggest set of shifts and changes since scholarships were first awarded decades ago."

Nineteen states have passed legislation to allow such compensation for student-athletes. The NCAA Board of Governors preliminarily approved changes to their eligibility rules that would allow such compensation, and Congress has held hearings on creating a national standard for compensation.

Officials have directed Kentucky colleges and universities to provide education and other resources to assist students with financial literacy, time management and social media and brand management, according to a news release from Beshear's office.