Former longtime Illinois US Rep. John E. Porter dies at 87

 Former longtime Illinois US Rep. John E. Porter dies at 87

Former Illinois U.S. Rep. John E

ByThe Associated Press

June 08, 2022, 1:32 AM

FILE - In this Nov. 1, 1978, file photo, Illinois U.S. Rep. John Porter speaks in Evanston, Ill. Porter, who represented Chicago's northern suburbs for two decades in Congress and helped increase funding for biomedical research died Friday, Ju...

The Associated Press

John E. Porter, who represented Chicago's northern suburbs for two decades in Congress and helped increase funding for biomedical research has died, his family announced. He was 87.

In a statement, the Porter family said the former congressman died Friday after a recent hospitalization. The statement did not specify a cause of death.

Porter, a Republican, represented Illinois’ 10th District in Congress from 1980 to 2001. A staunch fiscal conservative, Porter also held moderate social views, backing abortion rights and gun control — positions that are almost unheard of in today’s Republican Party. Among other things, he helped lead the successful effort that created the 1994 assault weapons ban, which has since expired. He also was a supporter of international human rights and helped increase funding for scientific and biomedical research.

“The whole rough-and-tumble of classless politics was anathema to his character,” Mark Kirk, who succeeded Porter in the U.S. House before being elected U.S. senator in 2010, told the (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald. “The district wanted an independent leader, and he was that independent leader.”

Kirk, who started as an intern in Porter's office becoming its chief of staff, said Porter's main legacy was "in doubling funding for the National Institutes of Health and funding the unlocking of the human genome.”

When he retired, Port said he was most proud of that work and helping to create the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, a voluntary group that worked to identify, track and end human rights violations all over the world.

“We have probably offended every single government on earth,” he said, according to the Daily Herald. “But they deserved to be offended.”

Eight years ago, the National Institutes of Health dedicated the John Edward Porter Neuroscience Research Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

Porter is survived by his spouse, Amy, children and stepchildren, John, David, Annie, Robyn, Donna, McKay and Michelle, and 14 grandchildren.

In its statement, Porter's family said services will be held this month in Virginia and that another service will be held in Illinois over the summer.

 Ex-New Orleans officer dies, whistleblower against brutality

A Black former New Orleans police officer and whistleblower has died at the age of 70 in Houston

ByThe Associated Press

June 07, 2022, 5:01 AM

NEW ORLEANS -- Oris Buckner III, a Black former police detective and whistleblower who spoke out about police brutality in the aftermath of a white officer's 1980 shooting death in New Orleans, has died. He was 70.

Buckner participated in but then reported on the interrogations of Black people questioned after a young white officer was killed in 1980 near a predominantly African American housing project in Algiers, the city's west bank.

The ex-officer died unexpectedly last Wednesday in Houston last, his wife, Stephanie Buckner, told The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate on Friday. Family members told the newspaper Buckner had died from a sepsis infection while battling leukemia and diabetes.

Buckner was the New Orleans department's second Black homicide detective and his whistleblower testimony that year cost him dearly. He spoke out about the treatment of Blacks questioned in the days after the still unsolved shooting death of Officer Gregory Neupert.

“He was vilified by his fellow officers for violating the blue code. He and his family were subject to physical threats,” said Morris Reed, then a federal prosecutor who worked on the case. “He was stigmatized. They ostracized him. I think it worked on his psyche.”

 Nigerian civilians bear brunt of attacks by armed groups

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, faces a myriad of security threats — from Islamic State-linked militants in the north to separatist movements in the south

ByThe Associated Press

June 07, 2022, 12:50 AM

Nigerian police officers tape around the St. Francis Catholic church in Owo Nigeria, Monday, June 6, 2022 a day after an attack that targeted worshipers. The gunmen who killed 50 people at a Catholic church in southwestern Nigeria opened fi...

The Associated Press

Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, faces a myriad of security threats — from Islamic State-linked militants in the north to separatist movements in the south.

Much of the violence is related to religious extremism, but some attacks are fueled by conflicts over natural resources. What all have in common, though, is that civilians are most often the victims.

Armed groups are able to carry out prolonged assaults in remote locations where help is often delayed by an inadequate security presence. In many cases, accurate death tolls are never compiled.

A look at some of the attacks targeting Nigerian civilians in the past five years:

JUNE 5, 2022 — Gunmen attack a service at St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, located in Ondo state in southwestern Nigeria. A local state legislator says at least 50 people were killed.

 Chesapeake Bay watershed earns a C+ on latest 'report card'

The Chesapeake Bay watershed has received an overall grade of C+ on its latest report card

ByBrian Witte Associated Press

June 07, 2022, 12:32 AM

3:16

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ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Chesapeake Bay watershed received an overall grade of C+ on its latest report card, released Monday by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.

The Chesapeake Bay health score improved slightly from 45 to 50 last year, for a grade of C, the report said.

The health of the bay is a reflection of what is happening across its six-state watershed, which includes Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia and the District of Columbia.

“This year’s report card is the first to include a range of economic, ecological, and societal factors to help assess progress in improving this vast human and natural system that is a major component of the quality of life for people in the region," Dr. Peter Goodwin, president of UMCES, said in a news release.

While individual indicators of bay health had mixed results in 2021, the overall trend is improving, the center found.

Seven reporting regions had improved grades due to better water quality — both nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations continue to improve — and the aquatic grass coverage is improving, but water clarity and chlorophyll continue to degrade.

The highest–scoring region was once again the Lower Bay, with 65%. The Patapsco, Back and Patuxent rivers scored lowest, at 23%.

However, long-term trends still show significant improvements in the James River, Elizabeth River, Patapsco and Back Rivers, and Upper Western Shore.

One exception is the Upper Eastern Shore, where the center blames polluted runoff from chicken farms for the first declining trend observed in any reporting region since 2014.

Building on social indicators that were added in 2021, new economic indicators were used to evaluate the health of local economies in the region. These include median household income, jobs growth, income inequality, and housing affordability.

The analysis of Chesapeake watershed health is based on 23 reporting regions and incorporates economic, ecological, and societal indicators.

UMCES said the information is critical to supporting and informing policy and other decisions related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice issues, especially around environmental justice. UMCES will begin to evaluate these relationships over the next several years, beginning with the 2022 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Report Card.

 Lawyers reveal potential defense in Alabama jailer escape

Lawyers have revealed a potential defense for an Alabama prisoner who walked out of jail with a corrections official, prompting an intensive manhunt

ByJay Reeves Associated Press

June 07, 2022, 12:05 AM

The prisoner who walked out of an Alabama jail in handcuffs with a corrections official, prompting a manhunt that came to a bloody end in Indiana, was in the woman's “care and custody” the entire time, his attorneys said in revealing their potential legal defense to an escape charge.

Lawyers for Casey White made the claim about his high-profile departure from the Lauderdale County jail in a flurry of motions filed Friday in a capital murder case in which White faces a potential death sentence if convicted. It was the defense's first public explanation of what happened.

An attorney for White, Mark McDaniel, declined comment Monday. But the defense suggestion that jailer Vicky White, 56, was in control of Casey White, 38, as they departed the jail in Florence, Alabama, on April 29 meshes with a claim made previously by Casey White's mother, Connie Moore.

"I doubt he even knew he was leaving when she came in there to get him,” Moore told The Associated Press in an interview last month.

Casey White, who is not related to Vicky White, was serving a 75-year prison sentence for attempted murder and other crimes and awaiting trial on a murder charge when he left the jail with Vicky White, the longtime assistant corrections director at the time. Video showed her escorting White to a patrol car and leaving for a supposed mental evaluation at a courthouse.

 New York bill targets Amazon's use of productivity quotas

New York lawmakers have passed a bill targeting the use of warehouse productivity quotas in the state

ByThe Associated Press

June 06, 2022, 11:23 PM

0:49

Amazon to end Cloud Cam service

Owners of the security cameras will be offered a free Blink mini security camera along with a one-year subscription to Blink Plus.

Associated Press -- New York lawmakers have passed a bill targeting the use of warehouse productivity quotas in the state, a move aiming to curtail metrics employed by Amazon that has come under more scrutiny in the past few years.

Labor and safety advocates have long criticized the e-commerce giant's use of productivity quotas that log how workers pack and stow packages. If workers are inactive for a set period of time, the company’s “time off task” tool can ding them for taking too many breaks, which critics have blamed for the company’s injury rates.

A report released in April by Strategic Organizing Center, a coalition of four labor unions, found Amazon employed 33% of all U.S. warehouse workers in 2021, but was responsible for 49% of all injuries in the industry. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has pushed back on those findings, but acknowledged in his shareholder letter that month the company's warehouse injury rates “were a little higher than the average" and said they'd work to improve them.

The legislation, passed Friday, would require the retail giant and other companies to provide workers with information on quotas they're assigned, how those quotas are developed and how such things could be used by the employer to discipline them. It would also prohibit employers from putting in place quotas that prevent workers from bathroom breaks or rest periods.

The legislation heads to Gov. Kathy Hochul, who hasn't indicated her support but has cast a critical eye towards the Seattle-based company. Last month, she announced a state agency complaint against Amazon, which alleged the company discriminated against pregnant and disabled workers by denying reasonable accommodations and forcing them to take unpaid leave.

EPA raises amount of ethanol that must be blended with gas

 EPA raises amount of ethanol that must be blended with gas

The Biden administration has set new requirements that increase the amount of ethanol that must be blended into the nation’s gasoline supply

ByDavid Pitt Associated Press

June 04, 2022, 3:34 AM

FILE - An ethanol refinery is shown on July 22, 2021, in Chancellor, S.D. The Biden administration set new requirements Friday, June 3, 2022, that increase the amount of ethanol that must be blended into the nation's gasoline supply but redu...

The Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa -- The Biden administration on Friday set new requirements that increase the amount of ethanol that must be blended into the nation's gasoline supply but reduce previous ethanol-blending requirements due to a plunge in fuel demand during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Environmental Protection Agency said it would set the 2022 levels for corn-based ethanol blended into gasoline at 15 billion gallons. But even as the new rules increased future ethanol requirements, the EPA retroactively reduced levels for 2020 by 2.5 billion gallons and by 1.2 billion gallons for 2021, reflecting the lower amount of ethanol produced and decreased sales of gasoline during a period when the virus led to a drop in driving.

Most gasoline sold in the U.S. contains 10% ethanol, and the fuel has become a key part of the economy in many Midwest states. The fuel consumes more than 40% of the nation's corn supply, and ethanol and other biofuel production plants offer jobs in rural areas that have seen steady population declines over the decades.

President Joe Biden is among many politicians from both parties who have frequently promised to support increases in the renewable fuel standard.

“Today’s actions will help to reduce our reliance on oil and put the RFS program back on track after years of challenges and mismanagement," said EPA Administrator Michael Regan.