(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Overnight News Digest for February 22, 2023 (Mixed bag edition) [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-22 This is an open thread where everyone is welcome, especially night owls and early birds, to share and discuss the happenings of the day. Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments. The crew of the Overnight News Digest consists of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, jeremybloom, Magnifico, annetteboardman, eeff, rise above the swamp, Besame and jck. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man, wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw. Misleading headline of the day (before you get too excited, the “prosecutor” being quoted is NOT the prosecutor in the case, you know, the guy who would actually BRING the indictment, he’s just some other guy speculating): The foreperson of a Georgia grand jury investigating former President Trump’s 2020 election interference says the jury recommended several indictments, without naming names. Former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman tells MSNBC’s Ari Melber that Trump “is going to be indicted in Georgia,” based on his analysis of the case, recent court proceedings, and the new statements by the foreperson. Trump has denied wrongdoing and asserts the process in Georgia has been an “exoneration” for him. The head of the Environmental Protection Agency threatened expensive consequences if Norfolk Southern fails to fully clean up its toxic train wreck and pay for the fallout in East Palestine, Ohio. The EPA’s new, legally binding order – set to take effect Thursday – “will ensure that Norfolk Southern pays for the mess that they’ve created,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan told CNN on Wednesday. For weeks, residents have reported a variety of health problems since the Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals derailed, spewing black clouds of smoke over the community of about 5,000 people. x Wow! EPA Administrator Michael Regan is ordering Norfolk Southern to pay for all cleanup related to the train derailment. The Biden Administration isn’t messing around!! RT if you love to see it! pic.twitter.com/lqhenuo5Zd — CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) February 23, 2023 “But why aren’t the Feds doing more?” Um... x Republican governor of Ohio Mike DeWine: “[President Biden] called me and said ‘Anything you need.’ I have not called him back after that conversation. I will not hesitate to do that if we’re seeing a problem, but I’m not seeing it.” pic.twitter.com/XG8QOzixAB — No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) February 22, 2023 And in happier news, SCOTUS actually ruled in favor of… workers? The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that an offshore oil rig worker who earned more than $200,000 annually — and whose company classified him as a “bona fide executive” — is entitled to overtime pay for having worked more than 40 hours per week. A lawyer for Helix Energy Solutions Group had argued in October that the worker, Michael Hewitt, was not entitled to overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act, despite the fact that he regularly worked 84 hours per week on the rigs. , a New York City employment attorney who has handled more than 300 cases involving the FLSA, but who was not involved in this case. “This decision could result in an enormous windfall for workers in a variety of occupations,” said Lou Pechman , a New York City employment attorney who has handled more than 300 cases involving the FLSA, but who was not involved in this case. But don’t set your hopes too high for the Roberts Court… The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to hear Buck v. Reeves, a case alleging that the state’s congressional maps are racially gerrymandered. The decision affirms that Mississippi is no longer required to get federal preclearance for its congressional maps. In 2002, a three-judge panel ordered Mississippi to use court-drawn congressional maps “in accordance with the procedures in Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.” However, in 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority struck down Section 5, with Chief Justice John Roberts saying at the time that “things have changed in the South.” … Despite being the state with the largest Black population per capita, Mississippi has only sent two Black representatives to Congress since the Reconstruction era after the Civil War: Thompson and his predecessor, former U.S. House Rep. Mike Espy. The state has not elected a Black U.S. senator or any other statewide official since Reconstruction. The ITC ruled in December that Apple infringed on AliveCor’s wearable electrocardiogram patents. While the commission called for a ban on Apple Watch sales, the order is on hold amid a dispute before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, which recently ruled that AliveCor’s patents were invalid. “This decision goes beyond AliveCor and sends a clear message to innovators that the U.S. will protect patents to build and scale new technologies that benefit consumers,” AliveCor CEO Priya Abani said in a statement. Both companies hope to bring the legal issues before an appeals court. The process could take up to 18 months before various orders take effect. This week in Big Oil: Oil companies and governments have pledged to slash methane emissions in recent years, but so far have little to show for it. Emissions of this potent greenhouse gas by the fossil fuel industry continued to climb in 2022, the International Energy Agency said Tuesday. The group condemned the oil and gas industry for failing to address this problem even as it saw record profits last year, driven up by a tighter energy market following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The technology needed to eliminate most methane emissions already exists and would require spending only a tiny percentage of those profits to deploy, the agency said. “Methane cuts are among the cheapest options to limit near-term global warming,” Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, or IEA, said in a statement outlining the findings. “There is just no excuse.” Grid News — The world has a trillion-dollar fossil fuel subsidies problem In late 2021, the countries of the world signed onto the Glasgow Climate Pact, a U.N.-sponsored agreement that listed as a goal the “phase-out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.” It was an acknowledgment that various flows of money have distorted the true cost of coal, oil, and gas and slowed the transition to clean energy. More than a year later, the world is going backward. The International Energy Agency reported that subsidies for fossil fuel consumption doubled from 2021 to 2022, with the total last year topping out at over $1 trillion for the first time. An IEA analysis found that much of the subsidies “were not well targeted” to the world’s poorest or most vulnerable people. And though the subsidies did likely save some consumers money on energy bills, “they artificially maintained fossil fuels’ competitiveness versus low-emissions alternatives.” The skyrocketing subsidies are a direct result of the global energy market turmoil caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to the IEA — turmoil that helped the oil industry soar along with those subsidies to enormous record profits. The desperate response to a crisis demonstrates the danger of continued reliance on fossil fuels and how more forward-thinking policy would make last year’s spike less likely in the future. “It is far better for governments to spend time and money on structural changes that bring down fossil fuel demand, rather than on emergency relief when fuel prices go up,” IEA analysts wrote. x The world has a trillion-dollar fossil fuel subsidies problem, along with a hundreds of billions of dollars fossil fuel profits https://t.co/bBzofyNoHP via @gridnews — SmartEnergyConcepts (@smartenergy4u) February 22, 2023 Vox — What Europe showed the world about renewable energy One year ago, on the cusp of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it seemed unimaginable that renewable energy in Europe could overtake electricity from oil and gas. But not even a year later, it did. By the end of 2022, wind and solar combined overtook natural gas in electricity generation. The latest data on Europe’s renewable transition tells a remarkably upbeat story about the hard things countries can accomplish on climate change with enough political will. Before the Russia-Ukraine war, 40 percent of natural gas and 27 percent of oil imports to Europe came from Russia, and Europe lacked pipelines and terminals in locations that could distribute gas from other parts of the world like the US. After sanctions on Russian oil and gas, instability led to high price shocks, fuel shortages, and a brief uptick in coal usage this winter. But the worst fears did not materialize, either. The risk was that the EU would fill the gap left by Russian sanctions with coal, the most polluting fossil fuel. And while coal did briefly make a comeback — fossil fuel generation rose last year by 3 percent — it was a temporary increase. Meanwhile, solar energy especially is on an “unstoppable” track of growth, explained Dave Jones, an analyst at the global energy think tank Ember. Solar capacity in Europe doubled since 2018, and is on track to triple in the next four years. x Repost: Much of what you've heard about Carter and Reagan is wrong @Noahpinion https://t.co/PmGt20qR89 — SmartEnergyConcepts (@smartenergy4u) February 21, 2023 This week in climate chaos: Venice has long been known for its perennial flooding, but now it's facing the opposite problem: A long stretch of atypically low tides have left the ancient city with low water and dry canals, making many of its famous waterways unnavigable for the iconic gondolas and other boats that ply its waterways. While Venice's water woes are being blamed on a high-pressure weather system that has lingered for weeks over Western Europe, they come as environmental groups warn the Alps have received less than half of their normal snowfall this winter, prompting concern Italy could face another summer of dry rivers. Images from the lagoon city show some canals reduced to muddy pits, with awe-struck onlookers perched above on bridges. Southern California has only gotten a taste of the powerful winter storm system that forecasters say will bring an extended period of cold temperatures, high winds and snow, prompting what officials called the region’s first blizzard warning since 1989. The blizzard warning, which is in effect Friday and Saturday for Southern California’s highest mountain ranges, is likely only the second on record for the Los Angeles area, according to the National Weather Service, Officials initially called this week’s warning the first on record, then later confirmed a blizzard warning was also issued in 1989, when a strong winter storm brought rare snowfall to Southern California, from Palm Springs to the hillsides of Malibu. ...“Between late Thursday and early Saturday, we’re looking at a storm delivering more snow than any other snow in recent decades,” Sweet said. “This is an unusual storm for the area.” x Thursday is going to be one of the hottest February days ever recorded in much of the southeastern U.S. Widespread predicted highs of 80-84°F (26-29°C) are close to normal high temperatures in late May and early June. pic.twitter.com/UQC7sAhsn1 — Dennis Mersereau (@wxdam) February 23, 2023 Every year, Americans spend billions on tax prep services, paying a heavily concentrated industry of giant, wildly profitable firms to send the IRS information it already has. Despite the fact that most other rich countries have a far more efficient process, many Americans believe that adopting this process here is either impossible, immoral, or both. ...For those of you who aren't familiar with how they do it in, say, the UK, here's how it works: your employer submits all of your paystubs to the tax authorities; likewise the custodians of your pension and other people who send you money. The tax authority also knows about your major deductions, like your kids or other dependents. The tax authority uses this information to fill in a tax return for you and they mail it to you. It's simple and easy to understand. If they missed some information, or if your tax status has changed, or if you've got new deductions, you can amend this return – or throw it away and start over by yourself or with a tax professional. … The point of getting the IRS to send you pre-populated tax returns isn't to deny you the opportunity to pay excellent, knowledgeable tax-prep specialists if you need them – it's to spare most of us from the needless expense of paying Intuit and HR Block to perform the rote form-filling by which the rake in billions in profits. x Americans paid for our Social Security, our Medicare, our Medicaid. We also paid for the PPP business bailouts 80% of which never made it to workers. We also paid to bail out banks who then robo-foreclosed and libor scandled us. We also subsidize oil which price gouges us. https://t.co/j8oJ22IuKP — Amie the Great (@a_standal) February 22, 2023 x This 80 yr old man took a 7hr flight & a 10hr train ride into a hot war zone w/ no US military presence, walked around Kyiv w/ air raid sirens blaring for a mtg w/ Zelensky & is now going to 🇵🇱 for an Eastern Flank summit. And y'all think @POTUS is too old. #BidenHarris2024 pic.twitter.com/l9149K98UT — GeorgiaPeach OG Biden Babe 🥁🇺🇸 (@ChrisFromGA68) February 20, 2023 [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/22/2154495/-Overnight-News-Digest-for-February-22-2023-edition Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/