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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
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The National Nurses Union applauded President Joe Biden’s proposal to require that companies with more than 100 employees vaccinate their work force. The American Federation of Teachers once said vaccine mandates weren’t necessary but now embraces them. In Oregon, police and firefighter unions are suing to block a mask mandate for state workers. The labor movement is torn over vaccine requirements – much like the country as a whole – wanting to both support its political ally in Biden and protect its members against infection but also not wanting to trample their workers’ rights.
Those born after Sept. 11, 2001, never experienced the world before two planes crashed into the two tallest buildings in New York City at the time and took 3,000 lives, spurring a decadeslong war and permanently changing the landscape of U.S. foreign policy.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America installed its first openly transgender bishop in a service held in San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral on Saturday. The Rev. Megan Rohrer will lead one of the church’s 65 synods, overseeing nearly 200 congregations in Northern California and northern Nevada.
Democratic allies of California Gov. Gavin Newsom continued to express confidence Saturday in his chances of beating back a recall but warned his supporters not to let up on urging people to vote as they seek a decisive win, while Republicans said the contest is far from settled.
Workers at the site in Virginia’s capital where a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was taken down this week installed a new time capsule Saturday within the statue’s massive pedestal, after efforts to locate an 1887 capsule were suspended. The capsule’s installation, which a state government official confirmed was completed Saturday morning, contains remembrances of current events, including those related to COVID-19 and protests over racial injustice.
President Joe Biden has a simple message for fellow Democrats about his plan to raise taxes to remake large swaths of the American economy: look beyond the bottom line. Biden is trying to persuade Democrats to embrace a more emotional argument, namely that the plan is fair, that it increases taxes on those who can afford to pay more and spends money on programs targeting children and the middle class. The president has proposed more than $3 trillion worth of revenue increases, primarily through higher taxes for corporations and the country’s richest households as well as greater IRS enforcement that would target the wealthy. But key lawmakers voiced doubts this past week about the size and possible impacts on the economy as congressional committees considered the measures and a wide array of business groups sifted through the details to highlight what they oppose.
Darkness set in for Natasha Blunt well before Hurricane Ida knocked out power across Louisiana. Months into the pandemic, she faced eviction from her New Orleans apartment. She lost her job at a banquet hall. She suffered two strokes. And she struggled to help her 5-year-old grandson keep up with schoolwork at home. Like nearly a fifth of the state’s population – disproportionately represented by Black residents and women – Blunt, 51, lives below the poverty line, and the economic fallout of the pandemic sent her to the brink. With the help of a legal aid group and grassroots donors, she moved to Chalmette, a few miles outside New Orleans, and tried to settle into a two-bedroom apartment. Using a cane and taking a slew of medications since her strokes, she was unable to return to work. But federal benefits kept food in the fridge for the most part. Then came Hurricane Ida.
The world solemnly marked the 20th anniversary of 9/11 on Saturday, grieving lost lives and shattered American unity in commemorations that unfolded just weeks after the bloody end of the Afghanistan war that was launched in response to the terror attacks. Victims’ relatives and four U.S. presidents paid respects at the sites where hijacked planes killed nearly 3,000 people in the deadliest act of terrorism on American soil.
The unusual legal strategy used to ban most abortions in Texas is already increasingly being employed in Republican-led states to target pornography, LGBT rights and other hot-button cultural issues. While private residents filing lawsuits is a fixture of some arenas like environmental law, some warn that expanding it and applying it to new areas could have a boomerang effect if Democrats were to use it on issues like gun control.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a dire warning that the world is moving in the wrong direction and faces “a pivotal moment” where continuing business as usual could lead to a breakdown of global order and a future of perpetual crisis. Changing course could signal a breakthrough to a greener and safer future, he said. The U.N. chief said the world’s nations and people must reverse today’s dangerous trends and choose “the breakthrough scenario.”
Several hundred people line up every morning, starting before dawn, on a grassy area outside Nairobi’s largest hospital hoping to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Sometimes the line moves smoothly, while on other days, the staff tells them there’s nothing available, and they should come back tomorrow. Halfway around the world, at a church in Atlanta, two workers with plenty of vaccine doses waited hours Wednesday for anyone to show up, whiling away the time by listening to music from a laptop. Over a six-hour period, only one person came through the door.
Children play among lush green pine trees as hikers come off the John Wayne Trail to pick up lunch and a U.S. Postal Service truck rumbles by – that’s what leaders in the Malden recovery effort dream a typical summer day will look like a few years down the road. Residents and leaders alike have big hopes for the burned-out town tucked between the rolling hills of the Palouse. At the first anniversary of the Babb Road Fire, which claimed 80% of the homes in Malden and Pine City, only a handful of houses have been rebuilt. The real progress was in the planning, said Mayor Dan Harwood.
Unchecked poverty and ignorance help fundamentalist violence to take hold easily, Pope Francis said as he urged fellow religious leaders and others to counter the phenomenon by promoting schooling. Francis made the call in a message to a four-day meeting that began on Saturday evening in Bologna, Italy, with the gathering aiming to foster understanding among religions.
Catalan separatists held their first major mass gathering since the start of the pandemic on Saturday, trying to offer a display of unity despite the divisions in their ranks over upcoming talks with the Spanish government. Tens of thousands waved pro-independence flags and wore T-shirts with messages for their cause in downtown Barcelona. People used face masks for the event, which went ahead after regional authorities dropped restrictions on the number of people who could gather with COVID-19 cases dropping.
The Taliban raised their flag over the Afghan presidential palace Saturday, a spokesman said, as the U.S. and the world marked the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. The white banner, emblazoned with a Quranic verse, was hoisted by Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, the prime minister of the Taliban interim government, in a low-key ceremony, said Ahmadullah Muttaqi, multimedia branch chief of the Taliban’s cultural commission.
Pope Francis is making his first foreign trip since undergoing intestinal surgery in July, a four-day visit to Central Europe that will not only test his health but also provide one of the most awkward moments of his papacy – a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the sort of populist, right-wing leader Francis typically scorns. Francis is only spending seven hours in Budapest on Sunday before moving on to a three-day, hop-scotch tour of neighboring Slovakia. The lopsided itinerary suggests that Francis wanted to avoid giving Orban the bragging rights, political boost and photo opportunities that come with hosting a pope for a proper state visit. Trip organizers have insisted Francis isn’t snubbing Hungary, noting that the Hungarian church and state only invited him to close out an international conference on the Eucharist on Sunday. “If I am only invited to dinner, I cannot spend the night,” said the Rev. Kornel Fabry, secretary general of the Eucharist conference.
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