Google is the latest tech company rethinking how it approaches diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace as businesses face more political pressure from President Donald Trump to roll back these initiatives.
The search giant will no longer set hiring goals that are tied to improving representation in the company. The move was first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.
Following calls for racial justice after the 2020 police killing of George Floyd, Google set a goal of increasing by 30% the proportion of “leadership representation of underrepresented groups” by 2025.
A Google spokesperson confirmed Wednesday it is reevaluating its DEI programs, saying the company is still committed to “creating a workplace where all our employees can succeed and have equal opportunities.”
“We’ve updated our 10-k language to reflect this, and as a federal contractor, our teams are also evaluating changes required following recent court decisions and executive orders on this topic,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement, referring to language it included in an annual report companies must file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Like other companies, Google changed wording in the report, omitting a previous reference to “making diversity, equity, and inclusion part of everything we do.” Tech giants such as Meta and Amazon have also rolled back DEI efforts amid mounting political pressure from Republicans to do so.
Trump signed executive orders to end DEI initiatives in the federal government and for federal contractors, a move criticized by civil rights groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union that say it’s a way to “bully” employers into abandoning efforts to create a more equitable workplace. And after a Supreme Court ruling in June 2023 that changed how universities can use race as a factor in admission decisions, companies have become increasingly wary of considering race in hiring.
In the United States, Google’s workforce is predominantly white or Asian, the company’s 2024 diversity report shows. That year, 5.7% of Google’s U.S. workers were Black, 7.5% were Latino and 0.9% were Native American, while 45.3% were white and 45.7% were Asian.
As of December, Google’s parent company Alphabet had 183,323 employees, according to its annual report filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Shootings in New York City dropped by 21% last month compared to January 2024 — reaching milestone low not seen in January for more than three decades, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Tuesday.
The drop in shootings was bolstered by a five-day streak with no shooting victims that coincided with a brutal cold snap, officials said.
“Major crime was down 16.8%, compared to January 2024 (that’s 1,700 fewer index crimes), with crime decreases in all five boroughs, as well as subways (-36%) and public housing (-14.5%),” Tisch wrote on X. “Double-digit declines in murder (-24%), robbery (-26%), grand larceny (-22%), and auto theft (-23%).
“Shooting incidents were down 21.5%, marking the LOWEST number of shootings in the month of January since CompStat started recording in the early 1990’s!” she added.
Mayor Adams is expected to mention the reduction in shootings during his budget hearings in Albany on Tuesday.
January saw 51 shooting incidents compared to 65 in January 2024, the NYPD said. There were 25 homicides compared to 33 last January.
There were drops in every crime category except for rapes, which saw a 40% jump with 149 reported — 43 more than January 2024.
The five-day stretch without a shooting victim between Jan. 19 and Jan. 23 was “the first time in 30 years, there have been 0 shooting victims in New York City for a 5-day period,” the NYPD noted last month.
But that streak ended five minutes after the NYPD posted the good news when a 34-year-old man was shot in the leg on Linden Blvd. in East New York, Brooklyn, cops said.
The victim managed to take himself to Brookdale University Hospital, where he was treated for a minor wound.
Mayor Adams last month announced that cops had seized more than 20,000 illegal guns during his administration.
The official tally — 20,137 since the start of 2022, including 377 so far this year — is updated daily on the NYPD website. More than 1,400 of the seized weapons were untraceable ghost guns.
“That’s 20,000 weapons that no longer can threaten the safety of New Yorkers and our neighborhoods, our families, and our children,” Adams said at a press conference last month with Tisch by his side. “That’s 20,000 fewer chances that a New Yorker is shot or killed.”
A former Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University student was sentenced Monday to eight years in prison after threatening to commit a mass shooting at the school, according to prosecutors.
John Hagins, 22, was sentenced after pleading no contest to charges of attempted manslaughter (firearm), attempted terrorism and written threats to kill or do bodily injury, according to a news release from the State Attorney’s Office for the Seventh Judicial Circuit of Florida. He was also sentenced to 22 years probation.
Hagins, a flight student at the school, was arrested by the Daytona Beach Police Department on Dec. 9, 2021 — the last day of classes. He was booked into the Volusia County Jail where he remains in custody, jail records show.
His arrest came after a former roommate told campus security Hagins had talked about buying a gun that could fold and fit in his backpack so he could take it to ERAU to “shoot it up,” arrest records show.
On Dec. 8, 2021, Hagins showed his roommate the gun he bought off Facebook Marketplace and told him he had 800 rounds of ammunition and said “I finished my back to school shopping,” according to his arrest report. He also said he wanted to buy a silencer so he could shoot inside the school library. Hagins told the roommate he was loading his bag for the next day and sent him a Snapchat message of the bag filled with ammo and the gun, the report said.
Police arrested Hagins the following morning as he left his apartment with the gun in his backpack, arrest records show. He told police he was going to a shooting range. He admitted to detectives he had talked about “shooting up” the school and had made references to the Columbine High School mass shooting, his arrest report said.
According to his arrest report, Hagins told investigators the gun he bought was a “Kel-Tec” with about 400 9 mm rounds paid for using money from a pickup he recently sold as well as a refund he received from the university.
A push for gun owners to be able to carry concealed handguns in North Carolina without first having to obtain a permit is gaining momentum, with GOP lawmakers in both the House and Senate filing legislation to that effect in recent days.
On Tuesday, Senate Republicans announced that they had introduced a bill that would allow for permitless carry of a concealed handgun, with the backing of the chamber’s GOP leader.
Senate Bill 50, titled “Freedom to Carry NC,” would allow anyone who is a U.S. citizen and at least 18 years of age, and who isn’t otherwise prohibited by law, to carry a concealed handgun in the state — without having to obtain a permit from their local sheriff’s office, as is currently required. It follows similar legislation filed by Rep. Keith Kidwell in the House last week.
Phil Berger, the top Republican in the North Carolina Senate, center, speaks at a press conference held Wednesday morning, March 10, 2021. (Juli Leonard/The News & Observer/TNS)
In a statement, bill sponsors Sens. Danny Britt, Warren Daniel and Eddie Settle said that the General Assembly “has made incredible strides to defend the Second Amendment rights of North Carolinians,” but added that “there is still more we can do.”
“We need to join the majority of states and recognize that law-abiding citizens should be able to exercise their Second Amendment rights without getting permission from the government,” Britt, Daniel and Settle said.
The emergence of a permitless carry bill in the Senate, backed by Senate leader Phil Berger, is notable since similar legislation has previously stalled in the GOP-controlled legislature. Two of the bill’s primary sponsors, Britt and Daniel, both chair the Senate Judiciary Committee, which typically considers legislation pertaining to firearms.
A permitless carry bill filed in 2023 by Rep. Keith Kidwell, the head of the House Freedom Caucus, appeared to have the support to move through the House that year, and quickly passed two committees ahead of a key legislative deadline for bills to pass through one chamber before moving to the next, but was ultimately pulled.
The push in the spring of 2023 to allow people to carry concealed handguns without a permit followed GOP lawmakers successfully repealing the state’s 100-year-old permit requirement for purchasing handguns, over a veto by then-Gov. Roy Cooper.
Senate leader Phil Berger told reporters when the permitless carry bill stalled in May 2023 that Republicans had already passed “substantial” legislation with the repeal of the pistol purchase permit law, which he said had been the “No. 1 goal” of many gun rights groups.
At the time, Berger said he didn’t know “if there’s a need for us to delve into additional issues dealing with guns and people’s Second Amendment rights.”
Then-House Speaker Tim Moore also indicated the bill didn’t have enough support in the House, saying that there was some “difference of opinion” in his caucus.
Now, the bill being introduced in the Senate has Berger’s support as well. The top Senate Republican signed on as a sponsor, along with seven other members of his GOP caucus.
Paul Valone, the president of Grass Roots North Carolina, a gun rights group that has been urging GOP lawmakers to legalize permitless carry, also referred to as constitutional carry, for years, thanked Berger on Tuesday for taking up the bill.
“Grass Roots North Carolina supporters thank Senator Berger for reconsidering his reluctance to pass a constitutional carry bill in the last session,” Valone said in a text message to The News & Observer. “We look forward to working with Republicans in the General Assembly to get the bill to the governor’s desk.”
The permitless carry bill filed by Kidwell and fellow Republican Reps. Jay Adams, Ben Moss and Brian Echevarria last week, named the “NC Constitutional Carry Act,” has since gained 22 additional GOP sponsors.
While removing the permit requirement for concealed carry, both the Senate and House bills would keep the permitting system in place “for the purpose of reciprocity when traveling in another state, to make the purchase of a firearm more efficient, or for various other reasons.”
A Cleveland man whose two-hour rampage included ripping up radar equipment at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport on one of the busiest travel days of the year was found not guilty by reason of insanity on Wednesday.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed that Isaac Woolley’s severe mental illnesses caused him to be unable to appreciate the seriousness of the crimes he committed on the day before Thanksgiving in 2022.
That included destroying radar equipment that monitored incoming and departing flights, carjacking a woman and later stealing a second car that he drove onto the airport runway. The airport temporarily shut down, and flights were delayed and diverted from Cleveland.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Boyko accepted the agreement, which included Woolley admitting that he’d carried out the spree.
Boyko ordered that Woolley undergo a psychiatric evaluation to determine if he’s a danger to others and set a hearing for March 17. Woolley, 28, could be committed to a mental health facility, released with orders to comply with a treatment program or outright released from custody.
The decision came after U.S. Bureau of Prisons psychologist Heather Ross found Woolley suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and brief psychotic disorder.
Prosecutors previously wrote in court records that Woolley put flight passengers’ life in danger, even though the backup radar kicked in.
Woolley faced six charges, including violating an airport security, violence at an airport, carjacking and destruction of airport facilities.
The string of events began about 7 p.m. on Nov. 23, 2022, when Woolley carjacked a woman by yanking her from her SUV by the neck. He drove the SUV to the airport’s radar tower on Grayton Road and disabled a security gate by ripping up its wiring.
He turned off the radar tower’s power source on the ground level, walked up eight flights of stairs and ripped up wires on the radar equipment. He left undetected.
About an hour later, Woolley stole a second SUV from a woman looking for a lost pet in Fairview Park. He drove back to the airport, crashed through a gate and drove down a runway before abandoning the SUV. He escaped out of a hole in an airport fence and was arrested about 30 minutes later.
Woolley, a military veteran, later made a series of statements to police and on recorded jail calls in which he said wanted to “make a statement for those who don’t have a voice in society,” and that he was trying to get to Alabama to see his children.
Woolley’s family had reported him missing about two months before the incident.
Northwood’s Joseph Harper has accomplished plenty on the football field. He’s been part of CIF-SS championship teams. He’s excelled at multiple positions, played through injury and earned All-County honors.
The senior believes he still has room for growth on and off the field.
That’s why he committed to Army and signed with the Black Knights on National Signing Day on Wednesday.
“I committed to Army because I knew it was a place where I could grow and develop as a man,” Harper said. “It’s an amazing institution where I know I will be surrounded by people who will make me a better football player, a better leader and better person.”
Harper, a 6-foot-2, 220-pound linebacker, said he will complete a two-year mission with the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints before beginning his journey with Army.
Religion plays a large role in Harper’s family.
His brother Adam, a former football standout at Northwood, is expected to return this summer from his mission in Australia. Harper said his brother aims to compete in collegiate athletics.
Former Northwood football coach J.C. Clarke, now an assistant, hopes Harper excels in football at Army. He is certain, however, what type of cadet Harper will be.
“I know he will an asset to the military and our country,” Clarke said. “(I) couldn’t be prouder.”
Federal law enforcement agencies conducted a large-scale immigration raid across Denver and Aurora on Wednesday, with masked agents targeting apartment complexes and individual addresses, where they deployed flashing smoke grenades, zip-tied detainees and took an unconfirmed number of people into custody.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Denver office said on social media that it was working with the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Customs and Border Protection, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the U.S. Marshals Service to search for more than 100 members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
Federal law enforcement officers detain a man during an immigration enforcement operation at the Cedar Run Apartments on S. Oneida St. in Denver on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025. (Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post/TNS)
Officials have not said how many of those gang members they located. ICE officials in Denver have not responded to questions about how many people have been taken into custody or where they are being processed or detained.
The raids, part of an ongoing pledge from President Donald Trump to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, drew widespread condemnation from immigrant rights groups and state Democratic lawmakers.
“I don’t think this is the way for a nuclear-armed superpower to be operating in the world in 2025,” said state Sen. Mike Weissman, an Aurora Democrat, adding that he’d seen pictures of armored vehicles in the streets and federal agents on rooftops in Aurora.
During his campaign, Trump dubbed his promised nationwide mission “Operation Aurora,” falsely claiming the city had been overrun by Venezuelan gang members.
“We’re here today to conduct an at-large enforcement operation looking for Tren de Aragua, the gang members here from Venezuela,” an unnamed ICE spokesperson said in a video the agency shared on social media.
“Unfortunately,” he added, “we have to come to the communities because we don’t get the cooperation we need from the jails. It would be so much easier and so much safer for our officers and agents if we could take these people into custody from a safe environment, but if we have to come out into the community to do this, that’s what we’re gonna do.”
Since 2019, Colorado lawmakers have passed laws that block ICE from arresting people at certain locations, such as courthouses, and bar county jails from holding inmates solely at the request of ICE. Some Colorado sheriff’s offices do contact immigration authorities about upcoming inmate releases, though others shy away from the practice.
U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans, the newly elected Republican representing Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, cited ICE’s comments Wednesday in calling on Gov. Jared Polis to change state laws that prevent local police from working with federal immigration enforcers.
“Cracking down on criminal illegal immigrants is an all-hands on deck situation and it’s time for Colorado Democrats to get on board,” Evans wrote on social media.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, in a statement Wednesday, said the city has confirmed that there had not been any ICE activity at schools, hospitals or churches. Denver police and city authorities have not participated in the raids, he said.
A spokesman for Aurora said neither the city nor its Police Department was involved in Wednesday’s federal raids. “We focus on enforcing state and local law,” Ryan Luby said.
The raids, which had first been expected last week, took place just minutes from schools. Denver Public Schools buses couldn’t pick up students Wednesday morning because of ICE activity at Cedar Run, district spokesman Scott Pribble said. Five buses were re-routed, he said.
‘People are afraid to leave. They’re afraid to be outside’
Agents were reported at the Edge of Lowry, Whispering Pines and Cedar Run apartment complexes on Wednesday morning, among other locations.
At Cedar Run, at 888 S. Oneida St. in Denver, agents from the FBI, ICE and Homeland Security Investigations were on scene Wednesday morning. People were apprehended and loaded onto a waiting bus.
One resident, Hannah Strickline, said she opened her door to “six heavily armed officers demanding ID,” who then asked which of her neighbors might be undocumented. She said she was infuriated by the question.
“They just don’t deserve that,” Strickline said of her neighbors.
In Aurora, the Edge of Lowry apartments, at 1218 Dallas St., entered the international spotlight last year after a video of six heavily armed men forcing their way into multiple apartment units went viral.
In December, a Tren de Aragua gang-related home invasion and violent kidnapping at the apartment complex led to the arrest of 16 people on immigration violations and other charges. Aurora officials said two apartment residents were taken against their will to a vacant unit and were bound, pistol-whipped, threatened and tortured for hours.
Authorities arrived at the Edge of Lowry at about 5:30 a.m. Wednesday and were banging on apartment doors trying to get people to open them to talk, said Yamid Rey, a resident, in Spanish. He said he saw many ICE officers, and they closed down the street.
Rey said that only his family left the building. Nobody else did. Agents appeared to mark doors where nobody answered with tape, he said.
“People are afraid to leave. They’re afraid to be outside,” Rey said.
The complex has many residents who are recent immigrants. Often, he said, they have visas or other authorization allowing them to work. He said he wasn’t sure if any have criminal records.
“But they’re afraid to be taken away by immigration, so they’re not opening their doors,” Rey said.
Jannet Valenzuela, the stepdaughter of a man who was swept up in the raids, stood near the Whispering Pines apartments, located a few blocks from the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus, at East 13th Avenue and Helena Street, at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
She said she received a call around 6:30 a.m. from her mom, who heard from her stepfather that immigration officials had arrived.
“He was scared, so he hid on the roof,” Valenzuela said. She saw several men up on the roof before they were taken into custody. A video shared with The Denver Post by a witness showed five people standing on the roof at one point while authorities were in the parking lot below.
In Denver, a section of a commercial parking lot at South Colorado Boulevard and East Mexico Avenue hosted a police special reserve team vehicle, two white unmarked buses, and a gaggle of law enforcement officers.
A group of men clad in camouflage uniforms with HSI El Paso patches on their arms identified themselves to the Post as Texans, but they directed all further questions to the ICE media team.
Lamine Kane, an organizer at the Colorado People’s Alliance, stood in the parking lot at 11 a.m. and assessed the situation he saw that morning.
“There are no warrants,” he said. “I mean, would there be a warrant to be in this parking lot? This is a shopping center parking lot.”
Kane said his organization has visited buildings where people were detained Wednesday. He’s not sure if the white buses parked in the lot were being used for those purposes, but, “I know we saw a bus similar to that — a little bigger — earlier that took some people.”
He said some have been taken to a facility in Centennial. His group’s hotline is ringing “off the hook right now,” Kane said.
In Aurora, a group of neighbors gathered in front of their apartment building on Macon Street around 12:30 p.m. Their attention was focused on a dozen officers — HSI, U.S. Marshals and more — two doors down. An unmarked black Nissan Armada flashing red-and-blue lights sat in the middle of the road.
Pradev Subba, who lives nearby, said law enforcement took two people — a man and a woman — from their respective apartment buildings.
“It’s like scary,” he said.
Officers quickly left the scene in their vehicles. As bystanders dispersed, strong afternoon winds blew open the front door of the apartment building where the woman was allegedly taken.
‘Instilling fear in our communities’
The news of immigration raids Wednesday morning broadly seemed to take many — even elected officials and lawyers — by surprise. Aurora City Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky said she wasn’t aware of any raids as of around 8:20 a.m. Ashley Cuber, an immigration attorney, also hadn’t heard word until the Post reached out.
Representatives of organizations supporting immigrants in Colorado and Democratic state legislators were quick to speak out against the federal raids.
“We as a Latino service provider categorically condemn these raids that are intended to sow fear, division, pain and suffering among our communities,” said Rudy Gonzales, president and CEO of Denver’s Servicios de la Raza.
Andrea Loya, executive director of Casa de Paz, said Wednesday’s immigration enforcement was “instilling fear in our communities.”
“What I know from people on the ground is that there appear to be no warrants and again another instance of collaboration with agencies,” she said. “This isn’t making anyone safer.”
Colorado Senate President James Coleman, a Denver Democrat, said the party’s caucus has been educating its members about what resources are available to their communities and how they might help local officials. He also noted a planned rally at the Capitol on Wednesday in response to the Trump administration, including its stepping up of immigration sweeps.
“I am horrified to see this approach,” said House Speaker Julie McCluskie, a Dillon Democrat. “Our immigrant community is critical, not just to the health of thriving communities but to our workforce in this state. I am deeply worried about families being torn apart.”
A group of state senators — most of them from Denver and Aurora — condemned the raids from the Senate floor Wednesday morning. Two lawmakers, state Sens. Iman Jodeh and Julie Gonzales, both Democrats, spoke in Arabic and Spanish, respectively, to give advice and encouragement to community members.
Weissman, whose Aurora district includes some of the CBZ-owned properties raided Wednesday, said school board members and superintendents were scrambling for information, and he said some school board members visited the raid locations to try to get more information about what had happened.
Gonzales, who called the operations “callous” and “lazy,” then described immigrants’ rights, including the right to speak to an attorney and to see copies of a warrant.
After he finished speaking, Weissman told the Post that “this is not how the United States of America is supposed to operate.” He said he didn’t know if warrants had been issued for the raids.
“It’s harmful and it’s shameful, and people should be outraged,” he said.
Polis, who said last month that he supported ICE expanding its presence in Colorado in targeted ways, said through a spokeswoman Wednesday that he’s asked for an update from federal authorities. He supports the arrest of “dangerous criminals,” the statement said, but his office expressed concern about how little information had been released.
“The governor asks the federal government to be more transparent about the enforcement actions they are taking in Colorado as fear continues to grow in our community, including more information on detention and deportation, what happens to those with legal status, children and American citizens, as well as the overall cost of these operations,” spokeswoman Shelby Wieman wrote to the Post.
Immigration action nationwide
Over the last few weeks, immigration officials have ramped up their efforts across the country.
So far, states with publicized actions include Ohio, Georgia, Illinois, Arizona, California, Florida, Texas, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey. Some reports depicted large-scale enforcement efforts, although others included individual arrests that appear to be in line with past ICE operations.
They appeared to take place at workplaces, residences and other sites, and some actions aimed primarily at arresting immigrants with criminal backgrounds. But at times, ICE has been detaining others they encountered in the course of such operations.
On Jan. 26 in Adams County, authorities arrested or detained 41 people, including some they said were associates of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang, at a party taking place in a vacant warehouse off North Federal Boulevard. Officials said a monthslong investigation resulted in the operation.
The military’s U.S. Northern Command also said last week that it would allow ICE to use Buckley Space Force Base in Aurora as a site to process and temporarily hold detainees, but U.S. Rep. Jason Crow walked back that claim Monday.
The Aurora Democrat said Buckley “is being used for Homeland Security operations, for ICE operations — that there is a footprint of federal law enforcement operating out of this facility,” but current plans for the base don’t include housing immigrants or detainees. It will mainly operate as a staging location for law enforcement and coordination center for ongoing operations, he said.
Immigration advocates at Casa de Paz — a group that visits immigrants at a separate ICE detention center in Aurora and provides aid upon their release — also noticed preparations were recently being made at that facility for new arrivals.
Loya said before the new ICE raid began that people had been released from the detention center — an occurrence that hadn’t taken place in a couple of years, she noted. It signaled to her that the facility was potentially making room for incoming detainees.
“This will not stop people seeking asylum,” Loya said.
A cookware industry group is suing Minnesota in federal court over the state’s sweeping new PFAS ban, arguing the law is unconstitutional and discriminates against out-of-state manufacturers.
“Manufacturers will be forced to either keep their products out of the Minnesota market or treat Minnesota’s regulation as the national standard,” the federal lawsuit says. “A decision permitting state regulation like Minnesota’s would allow each of the 50 states to adopt their own views of what cookware products can be sold in their states, making compliance prohibitive if not impossible for manufacturers.”
The Cookware Sustainability Alliance, a California-based organization, filed the lawsuit this week against Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Commissioner Katrina Kessler. Members of the alliance manufacture pots and pans under brand names like Farberware, Circulon, T-fal, All-Clad and Tramontina.
MPCA said it cannot comment on pending litigation but that it believes the new law is “legally sound.”
“Prevention and source reduction are the best and least expensive ways to protect human health and the environment and prevent damaging impacts caused by PFAS,” the agency said in a statement. “It is estimated Minnesota taxpayers will have to spend $28 billion in the next 20 years to remove PFAS from wastewater and landfill leachate in the state; we simply cannot clean our way out of this problem.”
PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of thousands of chemicals that make products nonstick, grease-proof and water-resistant. They also don’t break down naturally, build up in the bodies of people and animals, and some PFAS have been linked to cancers and other health problems. They have long been used to make nonstick cookware, though many manufacturers are now using ceramics and other materials as replacements.
In 2023, Minnesota enacted the country’s strictest ban on PFAS in consumer products, named for Amara Strande, a young woman who grew up drinking water contaminated with PFAS and who died of a rare cancer at 20. The first phase of the law went into effect on Jan. 1. It bans intentionally added PFAS from 11 product categories, including cookware. By 2032, almost all uses of PFAS will be banned, unless they are given an exception.
Avonna Starck, who championed the passage of the law as Minnesota state director for the advocacy group Clean Water Action, said manufacturers “should be using their expertise, their time and their money to create products that are safer and less toxic” instead of pursuing a lawsuit.
The cookware manufacturers argue the primary type of PFAS being used as a nonstick coating, PTFE, does not harm human health or the environment and is FDA-approved. Critics point to the production process as a continuing source of pollution, however.
The industry group’s suit also suggests the law favors the state’s only major cookware producer, Minnesota-based Nordic Ware, which has changed its production and is complying with the law. Nordic Ware is not named as a defendant in the suit.
David Dalquist, the CEO of Nordic Ware, said in an interview that he thought consumers would still want PFAS-free cookware, regardless of what state law says.
The company has not been using the chemicals since last June, he said, and was recognized by the state of Minnesota recently for its transition efforts.
Still, he acknowledged that the companies behind the suit have “big budgets to go after it, and they will probably cause a ruckus.”
Several states, including Connecticut, Rhode Island and Maine, have adopted phase-outs of PFAS in cookware. No other state has as broad a product ban as Minnesota, however. Minnesota is also the first state where a cookware ban has gone into effect.
It will cost the cookware companies millions to either withdraw from Minnesota, transition away from PFAS in their products or make new production capacity just for Minnesota, the industry group argues. The suit does not mention other states soon to ban PFAS in cookware.
The Cookware Sustainability Alliance suit is part of a long-running fight between the rights of states to regulate what’s made and sold in their borders and the federal government’s constitutional mandate to create a common market with free-flowing interstate commerce.
The complaint cites court precedents that point to a “discriminatory effect” in state regulations that violate the U.S. Constitution’s Commerce Clause. The suit wants Minnesota’s law deemed unconstitutional, at least as it affects cookware, or an order barring enforcement against pots and pans with PFAS.
“States generally should not be regulating in ways that are protectionist, that’s one way courts have interpreted the Commerce Clause doctrines,” said Mitchell Hamline School of Law professor Mehmet Konar-Steenberg. “And even laws that don’t act in a protectionist way, they might nevertheless get struck down if they put too much drag on interstate commerce.”
Konar-Steenberg said the suit takes a novel approach compared to other interstate commerce challenges, in that “they seem to be arguing any law that has a disparate impact on out-of-state firms is subject to challenge.”
Idaho moved another step closer Thursday to becoming the only U.S. state with a firing squad as its lead method for carrying out the death penalty.
Along a nearly party-line vote, the Republican-controlled Idaho House overwhelmingly passed House Bill 37, by a 58-11 tally. Two GOP members joined the House’s nine Democrats in opposition following limited debate. The bill now moves to the Senate for consideration.
Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, is the bill’s lead sponsor. He said he brought the legislation forward because he believes shooting a prisoner to death is a “more humane way” to end their life than the state’s current execution method by lethal injection. The firing squad also would result in less litigation, he said.
“This is a rule of law issue. It’s already been decided that these inmates should be put to death for their heinous crimes — and they are awful crimes,” Skaug, a retired personal injury attorney, said during the bill’s presentation Thursday. “This is not in any way lessening due process for those who are convicted and are facing the death penalty. Due process still takes place, but there will be a lot less appeals issues.”
The Federal Defender Services of Idaho, the legal nonprofit that represents most of the nine members on Idaho’s death row, did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment from the Idaho Statesman.
The bill also comes a year after Idaho failed to execute a prisoner for the first time in state history. Prison officials called off the lethal injection when the state’s execution team tried for nearly an hour, but could not find a suitable vein for an IV in the 73-year-old prisoner’s body.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho voiced deep concern about Skaug’s bill.
“The ACLU opposes the death penalty in any form as we believe state-sanctioned killing violates a person’s Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment,” ACLU of Idaho spokesperson Rebecca De León said in a statement to the Statesman. “We argue that all methods of execution are cruel and unusual, as each method has a history of being botched at some point, creating a traumatic and horrific situation for all involved.”
Of the 27 U.S. states that still have capital punishment, five — including Idaho — have a firing squad on their books as a backup execution method. The others are South Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah and Mississippi. Utah was last to carry out the death penalty with the controversial method, in 2010.
Skaug also carried the bill that became law in 2023 to bring back the firing squad as Idaho’s reserve execution method. The state previously had a firing squad written into its laws, but removed it in 2009. A firing squad has never before been used in Idaho to execute a prisoner.
Despite the prior law passing almost two years ago, the Idaho Department of Correction has yet to finalize a protocol for possible firing squad executions, agency spokesperson Sanda Kuzeta-Cerimagic said in an email to the Statesman. Skaug told House members Thursday that he spoke privately with IDOC Director Josh Tewalt about what those protocols will look like.
“He plans to do a mechanized version of the firing squad, so there won’t be a lineup of people holding rifles,” Skaug said Tewalt told him. “It’ll be button-activated for the rifles.”
IDOC does not have any specifics to share at this time, Kuzeta-Cerimagic said. But, the agency is “considering the use of a remote-operated weapons system alongside traditional firing squad methods,” she said.
Execution upgrades priced at more than $1 million
If the firing squad bill becomes law, it wouldn’t take effect until July 2026. Lethal injections would remain the state’s primary execution method until then, which would provide IDOC ample time to prepare for a firing squad. Construction at the maximum security prison south of Boise would take about six months, Skaug said on the House floor.
That 2023 law sponsored by Skaug provided $750,000 to IDOC to renovate its existing execution chamber to accommodate a firing squad. But a recent estimate placed that cost at more than $950,000. IDOC also tapped the same fund last fall for about $314,000 to retrofit the execution chamber with a “preparation room,” to be used in future lethal injection or firing squad executions.
The total costs of execution chamber upgrades are now expected to soar past $1 million. Regardless, the state prison system does not plan to request additional appropriations from the Legislature for construction, Kuzeta-Cerimagic said.
In 2022, South Carolina retrofitted its execution chamber to provide for a firing squad at a cost of about $54,000, according to The Associated Press.
Rep. John Gannon, D-Boise, an attorney, voted against the bill Thursday. During debate on the House floor, he noted that other states with capital punishment have continued to put prisoners to death by lethal injection, and also questioned how spending that amount of money to rebuild the execution chamber in fiscally conservative Idaho was justifiable to taxpayers.
“The expense to this is getting to be considerable,” Gannon said. “Now, we’re learning that this is going to cost well over $1 million. … You can build a gorgeous, gorgeous mansion for $1 million, and I don’t know why a firing squad facility is costing so much.”
On Wednesday, a Republican state senator introduced a bill that would allow women who seek an abortion to be charged with murder, among other crimes. Idaho already has some of the strictest abortion laws in the nation, and the bill included no exceptions for rape or incest.
Senate GOP leadership said the abortion bill would not receive a public hearing or be advanced for a full vote. With some rare exceptions, a person must be convicted of first-degree murder in Idaho to be eligible for the death penalty.
House Minority Leader Steve Berch, D-Boise, took the opportunity Thursday during floor debate on the firing squad bill to draw attention to the potential nexus.
“The prospect for potentially executing a woman who has an abortion by firing squad is not my definition of humane,” Berch told fellow House members.
This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.
he officers of Station 8 in Myanmar’s southern Shan state pile out of their police car, a beat up minivan with bad brakes and a busted front light. Their mission: set up a checkpoint to search for yaba, a type of methamphetamine that’s become a scourge in Southeast Asia.
Young and slight, this contingent from the new Karenni State Police, or KSP, looks more like students on an immersive career day than a group of no-nonsense cops. A few practice waving cars to the side of the road – striving to convey a confident authority but struggling to suppress embarrassed grins.
After what locals say was years of abuse by the former police force run by Myanmar’s repressive military regime, a little humility isn’t a bad thing.
“Before, civilians didn’t trust the police, so they didn’t come to see us,” says Bel Kyaw May, 29, the commander of Station 8 who, like a chaperone, patiently watches over his officers from the side of the road. “We’re more friendly.”
The KSP was established in August 2021, six months into a civil war triggered by the Myanmar military coup.
The importance of developing a rebel-backed police force in the midst of this ongoing conflict may not be immediately clear. But rebels and outside observers of Myanmar say that for the insurgency to succeed, its backers must not only beat better-armed government troops on the battlefield but assure a traumatized public that they can replace the services that have been lost in the fighting, including security.
“If you don’t do that, you run the risk of losing the support of the population, which in the case of the Karenni movement is really critical,” says Jason Tower, a Bangkok-based analyst at the United States Institute of Peace. Karenni is a catch-all for the various ethnic groups in Kayah.
“The revolution isn’t going to end tomorrow.”
The rebel effort to rebuild the governmental institutions, they say, can serve as a model for federal democracy and a showcase for how best to avoid the mistakes of the past, which included a Myanmar Police Force that was often an instrument of military repression.
In other words, quite a lot is riding on the success of Bel Kyaw May and his bright-eyed recruits. “Now it’s revolutionary time,” he said through an interpreter. “Young people are asking, what can I do for the state?”
Police as oppressors
The challenges facing the rebels in general and the KSP in particular, however, are considerable. The biggest is a lack of resources. Insurgent leaders have created a nominal state government called the Interim Executive Council that raises revenue through fundraising, taxes and business levies.
But 70% of what it collects goes to warfighting, with the remainder split among the KSP and health, education, humanitarian and other agencies in Kayah established by the council. That means that the KSP must try to deal with rising drug use and violence – consequences of the traumas of four years of war – on a shoestring budget.
Bo Bo, the KSP’s chief spokesman, said the monthly allotments are only about 10% of what his force needs. There were 638 officers in the force as of August – 558 of whom were men and 180 of whom were women. Bo Bo estimates a few hundred more officers are still needed.
The van that ferried the officers to the checkpoint is a 1996 Toyota Granvia that would have a hard time chasing down a scooter. There are more cops than guns and so few uniforms, most days officers stay in civilian clothes.
They also aren’t regularly paid. Most live at the stations and give thanks to their constituents at every meal because that’s usually where their food comes from.
“Our effectiveness is a little lower because we don’t have much manpower; we don’t have much money,” Bo Bo, who leads a station in Mese in southern Kayah state, told RFA.
At the heart of the force are officers like Bo Bo and Bel Kyaw May, both of whom were members of the Myanmar Police Force but resigned after the coup to join a countrywide worker strike known as the Civil Disobedience Movement, or CDM, to pressure the junta to back down. More than 100 former MSP officers are now with the KSP.
In earlier decades, the police force had been accused of harsh tactics, but, according to Tower, it had begun to reform after a previous military dictatorship agreed to share power in 2011.
In the post-coup crackdown, bad habits resurfaced, as Myanmar Police Force officers busted up rallies and arrested protesters. But the coup also highlighted the fact that a number of officers, like Bo Bo and Bel Kyaw May, were more reform-minded.
Shy and soft-spoken, Bo Bo said he had dreamed of being a scientist growing up but had gone to the police academy because it was free and offered steady employment after graduation. He was first assigned to a station in his home township but was soon transferred farther away because the military didn’t want its officers to have ties to local communities, he said.
He said he quickly became disillusioned by the corruption he witnessed during those years. A friend once reported his bike was stolen but decided not to pursue the case when he learned that the required bribe was more than his bike was worth.
Officers could be roused to work on serious offenses like murder or rape, but the outcome was often preordained, Bo Bo said.
“True and false doesn’t count,” Bo Bo said. “If you had money, you win.”
The success of the insurgents on the battlefield has given them a chance to reset the relationship between police and the communities they serve, the USIP’s Tower said.
“Whereas in the past, the police were the oppressors of the communities,” he said. “There was no concept of the idea of community security or community policing.”
Developing new habits
Part of what fueled corruption in the Myanmar Police Force was the low-pay of the officers. KSP officers make even less. They often go weeks without pay. As a hedge against the type of graft that plagued the old force sprouting in the new one, recruits must complete courses that include instruction not only on police procedure but also on Karenni history and the principles of democracy and human rights that underlie the revolution here.
And in the Kayah rebel government organizational chart, the KSP sits under civilian control, unlike the Myanmar State Police, which was overseen by the military.
Still, there appeared to be a few hiccups in the operation when RFA visited. One detainee at Station 8 was being held with one ankle bound in an old fashioned British stockade, a holdover from colonial days. “Sunday” turned out to be a member of the police force. His crime? He said he’d be gone for one week but took two instead.
Other detainees at the two stations RFA visited were teens who had been caught by their parents using drugs. Fearing they were losing control of their children, they had asked the KSP to put them in jail as a form of rehabilitation.
Criminal suspects, meanwhile, can sit in jail for weeks without having their cases adjudicated because there are so few judges and attorneys in Kayah.
A dangerous job
The other challenge the young officers of the KSP face are the not insignificant dangers of their jobs.
Station 8 is located off the main road among terraced hills of yellow-green stalks of rice swaying in the wind. The picturesque setting, the youthful attractiveness of the officers, and the fact that they live at the station gives it a summer-camp vibe.
But the risks are real, and the main benefit of Station 8’s setting is that it’s hidden. The military junta would likely bomb the station if it knew where it was. Station 2 to the south was bombed on Sept. 5, 2024. Among the injured was Zin Zin Aung, the wife of a KSP officer. Her five-month-old fetus didn’t survive the attack.
KSP officers are also outgunned by local drug dealers, some of whom have ties to ethnic armies in the area.
Poppy fields cover the landscape in southern Shan, near the border with Kayah. In the chaos created by the war, Myanmar has become the number one exporter of opium in the world, according to the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime.
“Sometimes the drug dealers give a warning: We can kill you anytime,” Bel Kyaw May said.
Behind horn-rimmed glasses and a serious expression, Shun Lai Yee Win, 20, acknowledged the risks she and her fellow officers face in a brief interview with RFA. She said she joined the KSP and Station 8 simply because she wanted to be part of the process of building a new, more just society.
The old police force “was corrupt, always showing their power to civilians,” she said, before the officers set off to establish the checkpoint.
Wiliam Tun, 28, who was among the civilians who were stopped, had the same opinion. “We were afraid of the military police,” he said. “They will put you in jail just to do it.”
Asked if he minded being stopped and searched by the KSP officers, he shook his head no. He knew several from the community, he said.