Happy Halloween

Kroger Merger a Bad Deal For Consumers

Kroger, which operates around 2,700 stores, plans to acquire Albertsons, which has around 2,200 stores. Announcing the planned merger, Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen hinted that it would lead to lower prices for customers-- so says the man whose previous wisdom includes that “a little bit of inflation is always good in our business.”

Many people aren’t so sure that cost savings will materialize—and some are warning that the merger could increase prices. There’s damn good reason for suspicion. Grocery prices were up 13% in September over the previous year, while Kroger profits have risen, pointing to the retailer raising prices more than was necessary to account for its costs. Add that to the manufacturers of products being sold in supermarkets also having increased prices more than necessary to juice their own profits, and you start understanding why grocery prices are high right now.

A year ago, before this merger was proposed, Kroger “spent the summer of 2021 gloating that ‘a little bit of inflation is always good in our business’ before citing inflation to justify price hikes. Kroger publicly acknowledged that they could get away with increasing prices on consumers as long as prices didn’t rise by more than 3 or 4 percent.”  Then, in October 2021, Kroger’s chief financial officer said the company was “very comfortable with our ability to pass on the increases that we’ve seen at this point [...] and we would expect that to continue to be the case.”  So no-- we can’t take Kroger and Albertsons at their word when they say that, following a merger, they’ll invest in lower prices.

Companies wanting to merge often claim that economies of scale will allow them to decrease prices, but it doesn’t tend to work out that way. One 2008 study looked at five mergers and found that four of them led to increased prices. Michael Hiltzik at the Los Angeles Times looks at some more recent mergers—2011’s Comcast merger with NBCUniversal, 2018’s AT&T acquisition of Time Warner, the 2017 CVS-Aetna merger—and finds that they were justified with the likelihood of lower prices that didn’t exactly materialize.

“At a time when grocery prices are soaring, in part because of monopolies in the food chain, this merger makes no sense,” former Labor Secretary Robert Reich told Hiltzik. “The current food inflation has two sources: (1) Grain prices have been increasing around the world because of grain shortages brought on by the war in Ukraine and climate change. (2) Domestic monopolies in seeds, fertilizer, and food processing have used the cover of inflation to raise their prices higher than their increasing costs — including the costs of agricultural commodities, labor and transportation.”

“There is no reason to allow two of the biggest supermarket chains in the country to merge — especially with food prices already soaring,” Sarah Miller, executive director of the American Economic Liberties Project, said in a statement when the plan was announced. “With 60% of grocery sales concentrated among just 5 national chains, a Kroger-Albertons deal would squeeze consumers already struggling to afford food, crush workers fighting for fair wages, and destroy independent, community stores. This merger is a cut and dry case of monopoly power, and enforcers should block it.”

On Tuesday, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, along with Rep. Jan Schakowsky, wrote to Federal Trade Commission head Lina Khan, asking her to oppose the merger. “Kroger’s and Albertsons’ histories of aggressive profiteering during the pandemic present a dangerous roadmap for how a larger and more powerful company would act if this acquisition were allowed to proceed,” they wrote.  They also highlighted concerns for workers at the merged company, noting not just how Kroger cruelly cut off their employee's hazard pay just weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic.  “Kroger and Albertsons have both faced allegations of unfair labor practices and unsustainable conditions for their employees, concerns that could be compounded by this merger. A 2021 survey by the Economic Roundtable of more than 10,000 Kroger workers found that 75 percent of Kroger workers reported being food insecure, and more than 60 percent did not earn “enough money to pay for basic expenses every month.”

Sanders, Warren, and Schakowsky aren’t the only public officials with concerns. Rep. Kim Schrier, a Democrat from Washington, wrote her own letter to Khan, noting, “Last year, Kroger openly stated it was passing on higher costs to consumers while posting some of the largest profits in decades.”

Will this merger go through? The FTC’s Khan has started out with a much more aggressive approach to anti-trust enforcement than her recent predecessors, and Democratic lawmakers are obviously mobilizing to put pressure on the deal. But whatever happens with this merger, a close look at Kroger and Albertsons is a reminder of just why grocery prices and corporate profits are so high at the same time.

 

Spooky Reality

Queen - Face it Alone

Pregnancy Test Keeping it Real

Seoul Subway Murder Sparks Anger, Protests

In South Korea, a brutal murder of a woman at a Seoul subway restroom last month has become the flashpoint of anger, fear and sorrow over violence against women. The man suspected of killing her had been stalking her for years.

The details of this murder have shocked the country. The 28-year-old had been working her usual evening shift at the subway station, unaware she was being watched.  Her attacker, 31-year-old Jeon Joo-hwan, waited for over an hour outside the toilets, wearing gloves and a disposable shower cap, before following her inside and stabbing her to death. It was the day before he was due to be sentenced for stalking her.

The harassment started in 2019, a year after the pair began working together. Jeon called his colleague more than 300 times begging her to date him, threatening to harm her if she refused. When she reported him last October, he was fired from his job and arrested. But despite a police investigation and a request to the courts for him to be detained, he was never imprisoned or given a restraining order. The victim was placed under police protection for a month, until they concluded there was nothing significant to report. Jeon then continued to threaten and stalk.

The case has exposed weaknesses in South Korea's stalking laws and led to accusations the country does not treat violence against women seriously enough.  Until last year, stalking was classed as a misdemeanor, punishable only by a small fine. An anti-stalking law was finally passed in October 2021, but many argued it was insufficient and would not protect victims, primarily because of its stipulation that a perpetrator can only be prosecuted with the consent of the victim.  This seemingly minor loophole makes it possible for stalkers to bully their victims into withdrawing cases - in the same way Jeon attempted to threaten his victim. Jeon reportedly told police he murdered her because he resented her for taking legal action.  Since the stalking law came into force last year, 7,152 stalking arrests have been made, but with only 5% of the suspects detained. In cases where police applied to the courts to get the suspect detained, one in three requests were denied.  South Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol has acknowledged the country's stalking laws are insufficient and has ordered the Justice Ministry to strengthen them.   

But despite these promises, anger is growing.  The case has also evoked memories of a similar murder six years ago, when a woman in her 20s was stabbed to death in a public restroom near Gangnam station, by a man who later said he killed her as revenge for all the women who looked down on him.  To the protesters, this murder is proof that nothing has changed. "We don't need new laws," said Choi Jin-hyup, director of the group Women Link. "What we need is to change authorities' attitudes towards victims." She blames the government, which has tied itself in knots over women's rights.

During the recent election campaign, the president pledged to close the Gender Equality Ministry, declaring it obsolete because structural sexism no longer existed. When the gender minister visited the scene of the murder, she told reporters she did not believe this was a case of gender-based violence. There are now calls for her to resign.

At the subway station, 23-year-old Lee Chae-hui lays a white flower and bows her head.  "I'm very angry," she says. "We keep reporting these crimes as just another mindless murder, but women are continuously stalked and attacked, and our politicians are ignoring it. People talk about how South Korea is a safe place, but as a woman in my 20s I can't relate to this at all, I feel I live in a very dangerous society."  Chae-hui's friends have a phrase they use to congratulate each other: "We survived another day."  The sentiment is echoed in dozens of Post-it messages asking: "How many more women need to die for this country to change?"

 

The Reflections of a Canine

The Art of Protests

Claude Monet has become the latest artist to be the focus of food-related climate protests, after members of a German environmental group threw mashed potatoes over one of his paintings in a Potsdam museum on Sunday.

Nine days after Just Stop Oil emptied tomato soup over Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers at the National Gallery in London, two activists from Letzte (Last) Generation entered the Museum Barberini and doused Monet’s Haystacks with mashed potatoes before gluing their hands to the wall.  The protesters said the stunt was designed as a wake-up call in the face of a climate catastrophe. “People are starving, people are freezing, people are dying,” one of the activists said, going further: “We are in a climate catastrophe and all you are afraid of is tomato soup or mashed potatoes on a painting. You know what I’m afraid of? I’m afraid because science tells us that we won’t be able to feed our families in 2050,” the protester said. “Does it take mashed potatoes on a painting to make you listen? This painting is not going to be worth anything if we have to fight over food. When will you finally start to listen? When will you finally start to listen and stop business as usual?”

The group said it had decided to make “this Monet the stage and the public the audience” to try to get its message across. “If it takes pelting a painting with mashed potato or tomato soup to remind society that the fossil course is killing us all, then we give you mashed potato on a painting,” it added.

A spokesperson for the museum said the painting was protected by glass and the museum later said it did not appear to have been damaged.  The spokesperson said police had arrived quickly and that the protesters’ hands were detached from the wall “relatively easily”.

Last year, members of Letzte Generation staged a hunger strike outside the Reichstag building in Berlin to protest about the lack of political action over the climate emergency. Earlier this year, they glued themselves to some of Germany’s busiest motorways.  The group, which accuses the German government of ignoring all warnings and bringing the country to “the edge of the abyss”, says it is part of the last generation that can prevent society from collapsing. “Facing this reality, we accept high [fines], criminal charges and deprivation of liberty undaunted,” it says on its website.

Art galleries have become popular venues for attention-grabbing protests recently. In July, two members of the Italian climate activist group Ultima Generazione (also Last Generation) glued their palms to the glass protecting Sandro Botticelli’s Primavera in Florence’s Uffizi gallery and unfurled a banner that read “Ultima Generazione No Gas No Carbone” (Last Generation, No Gas, No Coal).  Recently, Just Stop Oil campaigners glued themselves to the frame of a 500-year-old painting of The Last Supper at the Royal Academy in London.

 

So True

The Fallout from Hurricane Ian Continues

In a surprising development, at least nine electric vehicles suddenly caught fire in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian.  It’s unknown how many cars in total may have been impacted throughout areas in the state affected by Ian, which hit Florida as a Category 4 storm at the end of September.

The fires were apparently sparked as conductive saltwater poured over flooded cars and their charged lithium-ion batteries. Saltwater can create a dangerous “salt bridge” between the positive and negative points of the battery, which has the potential to short-circuit and start fires.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, has warned that EVs can ignite weeks after contact with saltwater.   As a result of the news, tow truck companies are now refusing to pick up water-damaged EVs, ABC News reported.  The unexpected danger from affected electric vehicles has forced local fire departments to divert resources away from hurricane recovery to control and contain these dangerous fires.  As of August, there were more than 95,000 registered EVs in the Sunshine state, up from 58,000 in 2021.

Fires in electrical vehicles run extremely hot and are challenging to extinguish.  Six vehicles in Naples burned for “hours and hours” and required “thousands upon thousands” of gallons of water to extinguish — a far more intensive battle than one posed by a gas-powered car, a spokesperson for a local fire department told E&E News.  At least one electric vehicle reignited after flames were extinguished, destroying two houses that had survived the storm, according to officials.

Jimmy Patronis, Florida’s chief financial officer and state fire marshal, warned early this month about the problem in a tweet. He shared a video of firefighters in Naples extinguishing a vehicle fire. Patronis said “a ton” of EVs were disabled by the storm. The fires are a “new challenge that our firefighters haven’t faced before,” he noted.  Patronis sent letters to the NHTSA and EV manufacturers with pointed questions about the fires. In a message to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, he complained about the potential of EVs to “spontaneously combust” and described the recent fires as “surreal, and frankly, scary.”

 

The Last Banderos - Every Time We Dance

Unexpected Developments in the Kevin Spacey Saga

The past five years have been turbulent ones for Kevin Spacey, but things have taken an unexpected positive turn for the Oscar-winning actor. Today, a jury found Spacey not liable for the 1986 molestation alleged by actor Anthony Rapp (when Rapp was 14 years old). There were plenty of holes in Rapp’s account of the events, which likely led to the jury's quick verdict.

Spacey had also been charged in 2017 for (allegedly) sexually assaulting the teenage son of former Boston WCVB-TV news anchor Heather Unruh at a Nantucket bar in July 2016. Then the charges against the actor were dropped after it came to light that Spacey’s accuser had altered phone records/text messages. When the accuser took the fifth in court, that sealed the deal and the case was dismissed.

That hasn’t stopped investigators from London to Los Angeles from continuing to investigate the actor over other allegations of sexual assault. Directors Paul Schrader and Bernardo Bertolucci have defended Spacey over these latest rounds of accusations.

Most of these charges stem from Spacey’s time as the artistic director at London's The Old Vic theater between 2004 and 2015. The actor did apologize for any "inappropriate drunken behavior,” but says he can’t remember any incidents of wrongdoing during that time.

The last we heard of Spacey on this side of the pond, the actor had been kicked off his own Netflix show, “House Of Cards,“ and had his already-shot role in Ridley Scott’s “All The Money In The World” completely erased and re-done by Christopher Plummer.

Last year, the New York Post reported that Spacey was already plotting his Hollywood comeback, stating that was still getting acting offers from Europe and Russia.” Spacey’s not out of the woods by a long shot-- he has yet another trial, stemming from another accuser, coming up next summer in the UK.

 

Fall Weather is Here

Deteriorating Venezuela Results in Migration Crisis

More than seven million Venezuelans have left their homeland since 2015 amid an ongoing economic and political crisis, according to new UN data. More than half of them face challenges accessing food, housing, and stable employment.  But despite the difficulties facing them abroad, the flow of Venezuelans escaping turmoil in their homeland has not let up.

Aid agencies warn that these migrants risk being forgotten amid other crises.  "There's no question both that it is a major protracted crisis that is shaking the region [of Latin America]," David Miliband, president of the International Rescue Committee, told the BBC. "But it is also clear that the competing priorities for global attention - Ukraine, famine in East Africa, trauma in Afghanistan - are draining attention in a way that is quite dangerous."  Venezuelans' reasons for leaving are manifold - ranging from lack of health care and education, which have collapsed in many parts of Venezuela, to chronic unemployment - many face the same difficulties once they arrive in their new countries.

More than 80% of those who have left Venezuela are living in Latin America and the Caribbean, in countries which often already struggle to provide health and education to their own nationals.  Venezuela's population has fallen from 30M in 2015 to an estimated 28M now based on latest UN figures.

"Many of the governments in Latin America are trying to do the right thing in managing the movement of Venezuelans, but it's a big challenge," Miliband said on a visit to Colombia, which is hosting 2.48m Venezuelans.  "It's dangerous to presume that this burden can just be borne indefinitely," he warned.

Other aid agencies have also been sounding the alarm. The UN's Special Representative for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela, Eduardo Stein, has said that half of all Venezuelan refugees and migrants cannot afford three meals a day and lack access to safe and dignified housing. 

While most Venezuelans have headed to Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, a growing number are embarking on an even more dangerous trek: north across the jungle expanse known as the Darién Gap to Panama and beyond.

 

Breaking Sports News

Yet Another Trumper Gets Called on His Bullshit

A Minnesota man who claimed Antifa set fire to his camper during the political unrest of 2020 because he had displayed a Trump campaign flag admitted to staging the event and committing insurance fraud, the Justice Department announced this week.

30-year-old Denis Molla of Minneapolis suburb Brooklyn Center was indicted by a federal grand jury in July and pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud after being accused of defrauding and attempting to defraud an insurance agency of $300,000 following the incident. Molla also scammed people on GoFundMe for about $17,000. Trump supporters are more likely to contribute to a GoFundMe out of spite than true sympathy, and this story hit their grievance centers in all the sweet spots.

In September 2020, Molla had “falsely reported to law enforcement that someone had lit his camper on fire and that three unknown males were near his home when he heard an explosion,” according to a DOJ news release. The Justice Department said Molla claimed his property was vandalized with graffiti referencing “Biden 2020,” Black Lives Matter, and Antifa.

Molla lied to  local news outlet WCCO shortly after the fire, saying that someone set the blaze in response to Trump 2020 flags he had put in his yard. “These kind of stuff should not happen, especially over beliefs of some sort,” he told WCCO.

Molla's attorney Ryan Garry tried to elicit sympathy for this client, saying, “Mr. Molla was obviously remorseful during his federal plea hearing.  Mr. Molla is a wonderful husband and father who made a mistake that he sincerely regrets. Unlike many others, he has accepted full responsibility for his actions and is sorry for what happened.”  Sorry that he got caught, most likely!  Federal guidelines call for Molla to receive a sentence of up to 51 months, plus a fine and restitution.

Shocking Disappearance of Snow Crabs in Alaska

In a major blow to America's seafood industry, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has, for the first time in state history, canceled the winter snow crab season in the Bering Sea due to their falling numbers. While restaurant menus will suffer, scientists worry what the sudden population plunge means for the health of the Arctic ecosystem.

An estimated one billion crabs have mysteriously disappeared in two years, state officials said. It marks a 90% drop in their population.  "Did they run up north to get that colder water?" asked Gabriel Prout, whose Kodiak Island fishing business relies heavily on the snow crab population. "Did they completely cross the border? Did they walk off the continental shelf on the edge there, over the Bering Sea?" 

Ben Daly, a researcher with ADF&G, is investigating where the crabs have gone. He monitors the health of the state's fisheries, which produce 60% of the nation's seafood.  "Disease is one possibility," Daly told reporters.

He also points to climate change. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Alaska is the fastest warming state in the country, and is losing billions of tons of ice each year — critical for crabs that need cold water to survive. 

"Environmental conditions are changing rapidly," Daly said. "We've seen warm conditions in the Bering Sea the last couple of years, and we're seeing a response in a cold adapted species, so it's pretty obvious this is connected. It is a canary in a coal mine for other species that need cold water."

Prout said that there needs to be a relief program for fisherman, similar to programs for farmers who experience crop failure, or communities affected by hurricanes or flooding.  When asked what fishermen can do in this situation, with their livelihoods dependent on the ocean, Prout responded, "Hope and pray. I guess that's the best way to say it."

 

David Bowie - D.J. (Moonage Daydream Mix)

TikTok Profiting From the Plight of Impoverished Syrians

Displaced families in Syrian camps are begging for donations on TikTok while the company takes up to 70% of the proceeds, according to a BBC investigation.

Syrian children are live-streaming on the social media app for hours, pleading for digital gifts with a cash value. The gifts they're asking for are virtual, but they cost the viewers real money and can be withdrawn from the app as cash.  Live-stream viewers send the gifts - ranging from digital roses, costing a few cents, to virtual lions costing around $500 - to reward or tip creators for content. While such streams earned up to to $1,000 an hour, people in the camps received only a tiny fraction of that.  But in a cruel twist, TikTok responded to the controversy by saying it would take prompt action to eliminate the "exploitative begging".

The company said this type of content was not allowed on its platform, and it said its commission from digital gifts was significantly less than 70%. But it declined to confirm the exact amount.

Earlier this year, global TikTok users saw their feeds fill with live-streams of families in Syrian camps, drawing support from some viewers and concerns about scams from others.  In the camps in north-west Syria, the trend was being facilitated by so-called "TikTok middlemen", who provided families with the phones and equipment to go live. The middlemen said they worked with agencies affiliated to TikTok in China and the Middle East, who gave the families access to TikTok accounts. These agencies are part of TikTok's global strategy to recruit live-streamers and encourage users to spend more time on the app. Since the TikTok algorithm suggests content based on the geographic origin of a user's phone number, the middlemen said they prefer to use British SIM cards. They say people from the UK are the most generous donor. 

Hamid, one of the TikTok middlemen in the camps, sold his livestock to pay for a mobile phone, SIM card and wi-fi connection to work with families on TikTok.  He now broadcasts with 12 different families, for several hours a day. Hamid said he uses TikTok to help families make a living. He pays them most of the profits, minus his running costs.  Like the other middlemen, Hamid said he was supported by "live agencies" in China, who work directly with TikTok.  "They help us if we have any problems with the app. They unlock blocked accounts. We give them the name of the page, the profile picture, and they open the account," Hamid said.

Agencies like these, known as "livestreaming guilds" are based all around the world, and are contracted by TikTok to help content creators produce more appealing live-streams.  TikTok pays them a commission according to the duration of live-streams and the value of gifts received.  The emphasis on duration means TikTokers, including children in the Syrian camps, go live for hours at a time.  Marwa Fatafta, from digital rights organization Access Now, says these live-streams run contrary to TikTok's own policies to "prevent the harm, endangerment or exploitation" of minors on the platform.

In a statement, Twitter said: "We are deeply concerned by the information and allegations brought to us, and have taken prompt and rigorous action."  Unfortunately, the action Twitter took was to ban the accounts instead of modifying its reimbursement policies to allow more funding to go to the Syrian families.  For many in the camps, there are few options to make money other than begging online. Hundreds of families continue to go live every day, and most of the money donated is still going to TikTok.

 

Two Trumpers Die and Go to Heaven

Has Bruce Willis Sold the Rights to His Face?

It was widely reported that Willis, in the first deal of its kind, had sold his face to a deepfake company called Deepcake. Deepfakes use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technology to create realistic videos - often of celebrities or politicians. For actors that can no longer act, the technology has the potential to be game-changing. 

The Daily Mail reported that a deal had been struck between Willis and Deepcake, saying "Two-time Emmy winner Bruce Willis can still appear in movies after selling his image rights to Deepcake," the story reads.  The story was then picked up by the Telegraph and a series of other media outlets.  "Bruce Willis has become the first Hollywood star to sell his rights to allow a 'digital twin' of himself to be created for use on screen." said the Telegraph.

But that doesn't appear to be the case. Bruce Willis's agent has denied reports that the film star has sold the rights to his face.  A representative of Deepcake interestingly said only that Willis had the rights to his face-- which isn't a denial that Deepcake has an agreement of some kind with Willis.  

Willis announced his retirement from acting in March after being diagnosed with aphasia, a disorder that affects speech.  What is true is that a deepfake of Bruce Willis was used to create an advert for Megafon, a Russian telecoms company, last year.  The tech used in the advert was created by Deepcake, which describes itself as an AI company specializing in deepfakes. At that time, the company said, "What he definitely did is that he gave us his consent (and a lot of materials) to make his Digital Twin." 

The company says it has a unique library of high-resolution celebrities and historical figures.  On its website, Deepcake promotes its work with an apparent quote from Mr Willis: "I liked the precision of my character. It's a great opportunity for me to go back in time.  The neural network was trained on content of Die Hard and Fifth Element, so my character is similar to the images of that time."

When the current story broke, the BBC asked Willis's agent whether he had ever worked with Deepcake, or whether the quote used by the company was accurate-- there was no response.  The confusion highlights just how new this technology is - and the lack of clear rules around it.

 

 

 

Happy Indigenous Peoples Day

Placido Domingo Tied to Argentinian Cult

This story has certainly gone under the radar.  Opera star Placido Domingo’s name has cropped up in an investigation of an Argentinian cult with offices in Las Vegas, Chicago and New York.  Its leaders have been charged with crimes, including sexual exploitation. Domingo, the Spanish opera singer who has faced accusations of sexual harassment from numerous women over the past three years, has not been accused of any wrongdoing in the Argentina case.

“Placido didn’t commit a crime, nor is he part of the organization, but rather he was a consumer of prostitution,” said a law enforcement official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because the investigation continues. Prostitution is legal in Argentina.

Law enforcement officers carried out dozens of raids in Buenos Aires targeting the Buenos Aires Yoga School, which “built a cult around its leader” and reduced members to “a situation of slavery and/or sexual exploitation,” according to prosecutors.  19 people have been detained in Argentina, while at least three suspects are thought to remain at large inside the South American country and four are being sought in the United States.

Sexual trafficking and exploitation were the main sources of income for the group that had an estimated revenue of around $500,000 per month, according to the judicial official.  The Buenos Aires Yoga School had numerous groups of women who were forced to maintain sexual encounters in exchange for money, prosecutors allege. At least seven women were incorporated into the group when they were still children or teenagers and were sexually exploited, according to the prosecution’s documents.

People came from the United States to Argentina to have sex with the women and investigators say women were also transported to neighboring Uruguay and the U.S. for sexual encounters. “The encounters supposed a practice of sexual slavery because the ‘students’ were put at the disposal of the clients at the time and place they wanted, for long periods of time,” according to the documents.

The organization had approximately 179 students, all of whom were ranked in seven levels. Advancing levels involved a “spiritual evolution” with the goal of reaching the seventh level that implied “eternal reincarnation.”  In order to advance, members had to participate in numerous courses and carry out tasks, with Percowicz holding the final decision on who could advance. The process involved socially isolating the members from their “biological family” and friends, according to the charging documents.

Domingo’s image was tarnished in the United States after more than 20 women accused him, in stories published by The Associated Press, of sexual harassment and other inappropriate behavior in encounters that took place from the late 1980s to the 2000s. Dozens more in the classical music world told AP his behavior was an open secret in the industry. Investigations by the American Guild of Musical Artists and the Los Angeles Opera, where Domingo had served as general director, found sexual harassment allegations against him to be credible.

 

Conservationists Destroying the Legacy of Black Farmers in the Midwest

At least 18 threatened or endangered plant and animal species, including the ornate box turtle and regal fritillary butterfly, have been sighted at the Sweet Fern Savanna Land and Water Reserve, in the heart of Pembroke Township, Illinois-- offering a glimpse into what much of the area looked like before European settlers drained swamps and cleared forests to grow corn and soybeans.  But there is a dark underbelly to this seemingly noble effort-- one that threatens the livelihoods of actual human beings.

Sixty miles south of Chicago, this wildlife reserve is among nearly 2,900 acres owned by the Nature Conservancy and other private individuals, trying to establish a network of nature sanctuaries in Kankakee County. Their efforts have overlapped with those of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which two decades ago put forward a plan to buy up and preserve thousands of acres of what conservationists consider a rare habitat, one that includes the nation’s largest and most pristine concentration of sandy black oak savanna. But the acquisition of land by both the federal government and private conservationists has continued in the face of persistent objections from local communities, including residents of this longtime Black farming community.

Founded by formerly enslaved people and later a haven for Black Southerners fleeing racial violence during the Jim Crow era, Pembroke became renowned as a symbol of Black emancipation and touted as one of the largest Black farming communities north of the Mason-Dixon Line. In its heyday, farmers and ranchers here not only raised their own food but supplied fresh produce to Kankakee and Chicago. Today, a small number of Black farmers are trying to hang on to what little they have left, while other parts of the township have struggled as well, with loss of jobs, a declining population and a crumbling village hall.   At the same time, land for the nature sanctuaries have been blithely purchased at county auctions after local residents fell behind on their property tax payments, or from outsiders who picked up the delinquent parcels and flipped them for profit, raising echoes of predatory practices that have long plagued Black landowners.

Cruelly, newly enacted environmental designations and restrictions have allowed these outside conservation groups to receive tax breaks that are eroding an already precarious tax base.  The loss of Black-owned land in this community exposes a cruel irony. Pembroke has been one of the few places Black landowners could gain a foothold in Illinois, in part because this land was passed over by white settlers who presumed its sandy soils were worthless. And now, after generations without large-scale development or landscape-destroying corporate farming, this land has become sought after by outside conservationists because Pembroke’s savannas remain largely untouched.  But for the benefit of who?  Not the hard-working underprivileged local citizens-- but seemingly for privileged absentee conservationists who don't deliver tangible benefits for people who actually live there.

Years of protest have done little to dissuade those pushing for more land to be dedicated for conservation.  Most of the sites reserved for conservation have banned long-standing local traditions like hunting and picking wild fruit-- restrictions which will remain in place forever, even if the land changes hands. In a community known for Black cowboys, new conservation-minded owners have even barred horseback riding-- yet still have  protected the right to cross-country ski (not exactly a popular pastime in Pembroke-- either now or back in the day when the  land was settled).

The growing tension has become a prime example of how predominantly white environmental organizations can marginalize communities of color by prioritizing conservation goals over the wishes of residents and actual people.  But as conservationists and the federal government continue to press on toward their ultimate goal of preserving savannas, Pembroke residents find themselves on the outside looking in.

Over the years, Pembroke’s farmers have suffered from the same racial inequities that permeate the American agriculture industry. Without capital or access to loans, they often used outdated equipment or planted by hand. Most farmed their land without irrigation systems, commercial fertilizers and pesticides — the hallmarks of modern agriculture. Many didn’t grow at the scale that would warrant crop insurance, leaving them vulnerable to drought or floods.  As time passed, Black farmers in Pembroke owned less and less land, due in part to financial hardship and lack of access to legal services that complicated the process of bequeathing property to heirs.

The push to preserve and restore rare natural habitats in Kankakee County, where Pembroke is the largest township by area, might have stalled out two decades ago if the only party interested was the federal government. 20 years ago, the federal government promised locals that they would not establish a national wildlife refuge at the Illinois-Indiana border until local residents were consulted and agreed to the effort.  But there were no such promises from The Nature Conservancy, which had endorsed the federal plan and accumulated land on the Indiana side of the border. Without any announcement or public input, it began buying on the Illinois side too.

 The Arlington, Virginia-based land trust has been praised for its efforts in protecting more than 125 million acres of land globally. But the organization also has been the subject of scrutiny for its real estate dealings.  A 1994 government watchdog report found some environmental land trusts, including The Nature Conservancy, had profited handsomely in some cases from selling land to the federal government. A 2003 Washington Post investigation found the organization had imposed permanent land-use restrictions on some of its properties to guard their natural features, but later sold the land to current and former trustees at reduced prices, some of whom built houses there.

 In 2015, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)revealed it would be pursuing the dormant plans for what it called the Kankakee National Wildlife Refuge and Conservation Area, the Kankakee County Board voted 22-2 in favor of a resolution objecting to plans for the refuge.  In November 2016, the Pembroke Township organized a ballot measure asking: “Should The Nature Conservancy be allowed to purchase land within Pembroke Township to establish a conservation marshland?”  Voters left no doubt about their preference, answering “no” by a margin of 708-123.

In response to the local outcry, the Nature Conservancy took conciliatory steps, agreeing to temporarily halt land acquisition efforts and consult with local residents in a Pembroke community planning project.  But conservancy leaders secretly struck a different tone in emails with government officials, characterizing the situation as a “melodrama.”  In an email later that year, the Nature Conservancy urged USFWS officials not to scrap the refuge plans despite community resistance.  “It is important that USFWS does not pull out all together because it will feed the idea that all you have to do is throw a tantrum and USFWS will pack up and leave.”  In 2017, the Nature Conservancy even schemed on how financial hardships for local farmers might favor the Conservancy's strategy.  “All it takes is two years of bad corn prices and it changes the chess board,” a Nature Conservancy official wrote in an email.

 The Nature Conservancy resorted to double dealing in its talks with Sharon White, the Pembroke Township supervisor.  ProPublic also unearthed an email a Nature Conservancy official to the USFWS, to which a list of tax-delinquent parcels in Pembroke was attached.  The email contained the note:  “Fyi. I will let you know how this works out.” Highlighted in yellow were seven parcels owned by Sharon White whose taxes were delinquent.   In an interview, White said she had no idea that her properties, mostly wooded lots neighboring her three-bedroom home, had been discussed by The Nature Conservancy and Fish and Wildlife.   “They knew me and they were trying to buy properties from underneath me,” White said.

The changes brought on by conservationists go beyond mere land use restrictions.  After gaining ownership, conservationists have obtained state designations or imposed land restrictions that drastically reduce what they have to pay in property taxes.   The Nature Conservancy enrolls Kankakee County land in the state’s Conservation Stewardship Program, which allows the property to be assessed at 5% of its fair market value. Other Nature conservancy land is earmarked for nature preserves which reduces the assessed value to only $1 per acre.

In a community where the median household income hovers around $29,000, local residents say it has been difficult to have land seized for failure to pay taxes and then see the new owners get a hefty tax break. In one instance, a Black farmer forfeited a 3-acre parcel of land in 2004 after falling behind on a $580.90 annual tax bill. The Nature Conservancy bought his land at tax sale, and two years later obtained a state conservation designation that allowed the organization to pay $19.60 annually in taxes — 96% less than the yearly amount the farmer lost it for.

Local opposition has been especially intense in Hopkins Park because of the village’s desperate need to reverse years of economic stagnation and disinvestment. The conflict pits The Nature Conservancy, which in a 2019 tax filing reported $1.1 billion in revenue, against the mayor of a village that collected less than $37,000 in taxes for that year. Mayor Mark Hodge has led the chorus of naysayers against the Nature Conservancy's efforts, which have severely undercut local development plans. The conservancy purchased six parcels on Main Street, one of a limited number of places within the township served by water and sewer lines. It also bought land within several residential subdivisions.  “When they own the property, that means a house can’t go there, a business can’t go there because they are not willing to relinquish it. That would be tax revenue that we would receive for any water, sewer and other utilities,” Hodges said, adding: “It’s obvious that this is David and Goliath, the big guy trying to crush the small guy.”  Many feel that such constraints on local development and the exercise of undue tax breaks amount to “community genocide.”

When landowners reduce or eliminate their tax payments, the remaining property owners in the tax district must pay more to make up for the lost funding needed for things like schools and roads, said Nick Africano, Kankakee County’s treasurer.  “These are communities that can least afford a hit to their school and village budgets,” Africano said. “They struggle for every nickel. I think it works for one set of people, and unfortunately most have no stake in our community.”

 

Buzzcocks - Manchester Rain

Tough Times at the Strip Mall

Owning a Home While Black

A Maryland couple has sued a local real estate appraiser and an online mortgage loan provider, alleging that the housing appraisal they received was unfairly low due to their race, in violation of the Fair Housing Act, after a second appraisal returned a result nearly $300,000 higher.

Nathan Connolly and Shani Mott filed suit against 20/20 Valuations LLC, its owner Shane Lanham, and loanDepot.com on Monday, alleging the defendants 20/20 Valuations LLC and its owner “discriminated against Plaintiffs by dramatically undervaluing their home in an appraisal because of Plaintiffs’ race and their home’s location adjacent to a Black census block, notwithstanding that it is also located within Homeland, an affluent, mostly white neighborhood,” and loanDepot.com discriminated against them by relying on that appraisal in denying their refinance loan. 

Connolly and Mott are Black professors at Johns Hopkins University who applied to loanDepot.com to refinance the mortgage on their four-bedroom home in Homeland, Maryland, a predominantly White Baltimore neighborhood.  Lanham’s company, 20/20 Valuations, performed the appraisal for loanDepot and returned a valuation that was more than $75,000 below the conservative estimate of valuation which loanDepot had given the couple, according to the lawsuit. LoanDepot denied the couple the mortgage refinance because of the low valuation, according to the complaint.   “Plaintiffs were shocked at the appraisal and recognized that the low valuation was because of racial discrimination. They told this to their loanDepot loan officer and challenged the appraisal in a detailed letter,” the suit reads. 

Connolly and Mott later re-applied with another lender, and “whitewashed” their home, according to the lawsuit. This included removing photos of their Black family from the home, and having a White colleague present the property to the appraiser. The suit claims this valuation came back at $750,000, more than a quarter of a million dollars higher than 20/20 Valuations’ appraisal of $472,000.  

Lanham allegedly used an appraisal method where he compared the couple’s home to properties in a majority-Black local area, instead of the rest of Homeland.  “Defendant Lanham’s decision to geographically limit the area from which he selected comparable sales reflected his belief that, because of their race, Dr. Connolly and Dr. Mott did not belong in Homeland, an attractive and predominantly white neighborhood, and that a home with Black homeowners located adjacent to a predominantly Black area is worth less than if it were in the whiter areas that he deemed ‘the heart’ of Homeland,” the lawsuit alleges. 

The couple allege that Lanham’s dramatically lower valuation reflected his beliefs that a Black family did not genuinely belong in Homeland and could not be the owners of a higher valued home.  “Lanham violated professional standards to devalue Plaintiffs’ home because of these racist beliefs. Defendant loanDepot relied on Lanham’s appraisal despite being informed that it was infected by discrimination and stopped answering or returning Plaintiffs calls once they challenged the appraisal on that basis,” the suit states.

The couple’s lawsuit is the latest example of the difficulties and discrimination some Black homeowners say they face. Last year, a Black California couple filed a lawsuit in federal court in San Francisco, arguing that racial discrimination played a role in the low valuation of their home.

Tenisha Tate-Austin and her husband became suspicious when the Northern California home they spent years renovating was valued by an appraiser far lower than they expected. When they asked for a second opinion, a White friend pretended to own their home and they removed all artwork and photos that could show that it belonged to a Black family. The new appraisal for their home in Marin County was more than $1.4 million and nearly half a million dollars higher than the previous estimate, they told CNN at the time. Earlier this year, the Department of Justice filed a statement of interest in the case, which is still pending.

And in Indiana last year, when Carlette Duffy concealed that she was Black, she told CNN her home’s appraised value more than doubled.

Home appraisals fall within the scope of fair housing and fair lending laws. More than 50 years after the passage of the Fair Housing Act, the racial homeownership gap is wider than ever. In 2021, for example, the Black homeownership rate was 44% while the White homeownership rate reached 74% according to the Census Bureau.  Homeownership is the primary contributor to multi-generational wealth building for Black and Brown households, according to research highlighted in a report from the National Association of Realtors (NARS).  But bias in home valuations limits the ability of Black and Brown families to see equitable financial returns associated with homeownership, the NARS report said. 

 

I Wish That I Had . . .

Catholic Cabal is Back in Session

At Long Last, Fresh Details on the Suicide of Anthony Bourdain

After Anthony Bourdain took his own life in a French hotel room in 2018, his close friends, family and the people who for decades had helped him become an international TV star closed ranks against the swarm of media inquiries and stayed largely silent, especially about his final days.  Neither of the two documentaries about Bourdain since then have directly addressed how very messy his life had become in the months that led up to the night he hanged himself at age 61.

An upcoming unauthorized biography of the writer and travel documentarian is filled with fresh, intimate details, including raw, anguished texts from the days before Mr. Bourdain’s death, such as his final exchanges with Ms. Argento and Ottavia Busia-Bourdain, his wife of 11 years who by the time they separated in 2016, had become his confidante.  “I hate my fans, too. I hate being famous. I hate my job,” Mr. Bourdain wrote to Ms. Busia-Bourdain in one of their near-daily text exchanges. “I am lonely and living in constant uncertainty.”

Drawing on more than 80 interviews, and files, texts and emails from Bourdain’s phone and laptop, the journalist Charles Leerhsen traces Bourdain’s metamorphosis from a sullen teenager in a New Jersey suburb to a heroin-shooting kitchen swashbuckler who struck gold as a writer and became a uniquely talented interpreter of the world through his travels.  Leerhsen portrays a man who at the end of his life was isolated, injecting steroids, drinking to the point of blackout and visiting prostitutes, and had all but vanished from his 11-year-old daughter’s life.

According to Leerhsen, non-cooperation from the Bourdain camp helped open other doors for him. “A lot of people were willing to talk to me because they were left behind by Tony and by the Tony train,” he said, adding that some were moved to speak by their anger over the damage Bourdain had done to his daughter.

The book starts with Bourdain’s early years, analyzing his parents’ marriage, his performance in school and his relationship with his first wife, Nancy Putkoski, who Leerhsen said was a helpful source.  Bourdain graduated from high school a year early so he could follow her to Vassar.  His grades there were terrible, and he was happier during the summers he worked in restaurants in Provincetown, Mass. After two years, he enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America, five miles north of Vassar in Hyde Park, N.Y.

The book traces Bourdain’s career in New York restaurants, and his relationships with the intimidating chefs who molded him. It includes the well-known tale of how his mother, Gladys Bourdain, then an editor at The New York Times, handed an article he had written about the ugly secrets of a Manhattan restaurant to Esther B. Fein, the wife of the New Yorker editor David Remnick, who ran it in the magazine.  The story turbocharged Bourdain’s writing career, leading to his best-selling book "Kitchen Confidential,"  which lead to his first show, “A Cook’s Tour,” and subsequent programs.  At this point, the story takes an unknown turn.

Brazil Has a Chance to Turn the Page Against Violence

In August last year, Brazilian farmer Reinaldo Huijsmans reported a break-in at his house in the town of Maracaju, where thieves stole six legally registered weapons, including a T4 Taurus assault rifle.  39-year-old Huijsmans is one of hundreds of thousands of Brazilians now registered to own guns, a group whose ranks have surged six-fold since far-right President Jair Bolsonaro was elected in 2018 and began loosening gun laws.

Two months later, Huijsmans' T4 turned up 800 miles away in the hands of a heavily-armed gang of alleged bank robbers ambushed and killed by cops near the city of Varginha, in Minas Gerais state.  Its presence in the hands of a group of alleged bank thieves highlights what Federal Police and public security experts say is an inevitable consequence of Bolsonaro's gun liberalizations: the criminal use of Brazil's fast-growing stock of legal weapons.

The men holed up in Varginha were part of a new breed of bank robbers conducting a wave of high-impact assaults across the interior of the country, police say. Known locally as "novo cangaco" gangs, these specialized crews terrorize cities, blow up bank safes and use human shields to escape, often stealing millions of dollars.  Named after "cangaceiros," the ragtag bandits who roamed the arid northeast in the late 19th century, Brazil's "novo cangaco" gangs have benefited from Bolsonaro's looser gun laws, according to police probes and interviews with officers involved in gun control and organized crime investigations.

Bolsonaro, a nationalist former soldier, has made it easier for Brazilians to bulk-buy firearms by registering with the army as hunters, marksmen or collectors, known as "CACs." With his encouragement, nearly 700,000 Brazilians have now accredited as CACs, up almost 500% since 2018.  Brazil's Federal Police disapproved of Bolsonaro's gun policies, arguing they would put more weapons in the hands of criminals.  "We constantly have issues with weapons bought by people with CAC permits," said one senior Federal Police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the politically sensitive subject. "Sadly, we're going to have problems with this for decades."

Of all the weapons now available to Brazil's gun fans, the T4 has emerged as the weapon of choice for its gangsters.  Manufactured by Brazilian gunmaker Taurus SA, the T4 hit the local market in 2019 as a direct result of Bolsonaro's newly liberalized gun laws. It has been a huge success for the company, which has sold around 60,000 units, helping to lift its share price around 350% since the start of 2019.

Tomorrow, Brazilians will be voting in their country’s most polarized election in decades, with Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva favored to beat the right-wing Bolsonaro.  Most polls have shown Lula with a solid lead for months, but Bolsonaro signaled he may refuse to accept defeat, stoking fears of institutional crisis or post-election violence.  Bolsonaro has threatened to contest the result of the vote, after making baseless allegations of fraud, accusing electoral authorities of plotting against him and suggesting the military should conduct a parallel tally, which they declined to do.