The American Boeing company is about to run another demonstration mission of its new astronaut capsule.
The CST-100 Starliner is set to launch from Florida to showcase how it can ferry crews to and from the International Space Station (ISS).
It will be the second test flight, and conducted with no people aboard.
The previous demonstration, in 2019, encountered software problems that very nearly resulted in the loss of the capsule.
Two years of redesign and upgrades give Boeing another chance to showcase its astronaut vehicle.
Giant Eagle to reinstate mask wearing for customers, employees
The company said all Giant Eagle, Market District and GetGo staff will be required to wear a face mask, cloth face covering or face shield starting August 4.
The company is strongly requesting that customers comply with the same mask requirement starting August 6. Complimentary masks for any guest who does not have one will be provided.Giant Eagle curbside pickup and delivery service continues to be available.
The company said the introduction of the Delta variant created a renewed sense of urgency.
Giant Eagle said it is actively reviewing paths forward regarding a potential vaccination requirement for all employees.
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DoorDash Drivers Go On Strike : NPR
Across the country, many DoorDash drivers have stopped dashing to your door.
They’ve logged off the app for the day as part of a strike organized on social media against the food delivery service, demanding tip transparency and higher pay.
Here’s why.
It all started, presumably, on Reddit
While the strike is nationwide and not affiliated with any particular organization, it appears to have originated on Reddit, where a post from July 15 circulated, titled, “DOORDASH BOYCOTT ON JULY 31ST ALL DAY !!”
The post urged Dashers — the company name for drivers — to stop using the app for the day and to instead use UberEats. At the bottom the post lists demands, including a minimum “base pay,” the amount a driver earns on each order before a tip, of $4.50.
According to information provided to NPR by DoorDash, Dasher base pay is calculated based on the estimated time, distance and desirability of an order, Right now, Dashers can expect to earn a base pay between $2 to $10+, according to DoorDash’s website. Drivers say the lower end of that range had previously been $3.
Source: DoorDash Drivers Go On Strike : NPR
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Walmart reverses mask policies as Delta variant spreads – CBS News
Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart said it will require all its workers — including vaccinated ones — to wear masks in areas with high infection rates of COVID-19. The country’s largest retailer also is encouraging its customers to wear masks in stores in areas with high infection rates from the Delta variant of the coronavirus, and will be adding back signs at entrances announcing its latest policies, according to a memo supplied by Walmart that was sent to its employees Friday. Walmart is also requiring some employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by October 4.
Source: Kroger, Walmart reverse their mask policies as Delta variant spreads – CBS News
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Hunter Biden art exhibition led to Rep. Michael Waltz’s transparency bill
A Florida Republican congressman is set to introduce a bill requiring presidents and vice presidents provide financial disclosures for their non-dependent children ahead of Hunter Biden’s much-criticized art exhibition.
Rep. Michael Waltz told Fox News Tuesday his legislation, the Preventing Anonymous Income by Necessitating Transparency of Executive Relatives (PAINTER) Act, is a bid to stop “the obvious and shameless grift that’s going on with Hunter Biden’s art sales, for which he is obviously not qualified to do and is only doing to continue to profit off of his family name.”
The first son will present a solo exhibition of 15 paintings at galleries in New York and Los Angeles this fall. Prices for the art will range from $75,000 for works on paper to $500,000 for the larger canvases.
Critics have warned that would-be purchasers of Hunter’s art could spend big money not to purchase a masterpiece, but to curry favor with the West Wing.
“The whole thing is a really bad idea,” former George W. Bush chief ethics lawyer Richard Painter told The Washington Post earlier this month. “The initial reaction a lot of people are going to have is that he’s capitalizing on being the son of a president and wants people to give him a lot of money. I mean, those are awfully high prices.”
Source: Hunter Biden art exhibition led to Rep. Michael Waltz’s transparency bill
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Hasbro whistleblower claims CRT being pushed through toy packaging; training says 6 month olds can be racist | Fox News
An employee working on a project for Hasbro blew the whistle on reported critical race theory training inside the toy and boardgame giant on “Hannity.”
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Fire breaks out inside auto body shop in Beaver County
PULASKI TOWNSHIP, Pa. —
Fire crews spent about two hours at the scene after a two-alarm fire broke out inside an auto body shop in Pulaski Township, Beaver County.
The fire was reported early Wednesday morning on the 3300 block of Sunflower Road.
The Beaver Falls Fire Department said crews quickly arrived on the scene and worked to extinguish the fire.
There were no reports of any injuries.
Source: Fire breaks out inside auto body shop in Beaver County
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Who’s hiring in Pittsburgh? Alcoa, Argo AI, Schell Games and more — 7/19/21
Looking for a new job?
IT and Engineering
Argo AI is hiring a Firmware Engineer, Tools & Testing to develop software for complex embedded systems and build frameworks for software environments and firmware development ecosystems.
Alcoa has an opening for an IT Technical Services Analyst to provide operational technical support to the company’s enterprise central service team and customers.
Marketing and Communications
Kennametal is looking for an Email Marketing Manager to implement email marketing strategies and more.
Design
Schell Games is hiring a Vice President of Design to provide leadership for design, staffing and coaching, projects, performance management and business development.
Nonprofit
Neighborhood Legal Services seeks an Executive Director to oversee the organization’s administration, programs, strategic plan, fundraising, marketing and community outreach.
Kelly Strayhorn Theater seeks a Front of Worker to open and close The Alloy School space and check in with families throughout the day. Interested candidates should contact margo@kelly-strayhorn.org.
Administrative
The Mon Valley Initiative has an opening for an Office Manager to oversee office operations, including tracking tenant maintenance requests, assisting program staff with filing systems, coordinating expenses and wages, ordering supplies, making travel arrangements and maintaining relationships with vendors.
Trinity School for Ministry is looking for a Receptionist and Campus Event Facilitator to serve as the first point of contact for callers and campus visitors and handle a wide range of inquiries and requests.
Human Services
TCV Community Services is looking for a Direct Support Professional for its Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Department to provide support and training to help individuals increase their level of independence and improve their quality of life.
The YWCA Greater Pittsburgh seeks a Housing Stabilization Program Coordinator to address housing insecurity in the city, oversee housing insecurity programs, provide case management to participants and perform administrative functions.
Source: Who’s hiring in Pittsburgh? Alcoa, Argo AI, Schell Games and more — 7/19/21
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Major project could bring nearly 150 jobs to the Pittsburgh area – WPXI
A major project in Etna could bring up to 150 jobs to the area.
The AM Group, based out of New York, is leading the charge to transform a former steel pipe manufacturing building into an 88,600 square foot state of the art tech facility. The plan is to use for things like robotics, artificial intelligence and other tech-related projects.
Right now, there’s two companies reportedly eyeing the space.
Source: Major project could bring nearly 150 jobs to the Pittsburgh area – WPXI
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Tuna ‘100%’ found in new Subway tuna DNA testing: report – New York Daily News
“Inside Edition” tested the much-discussed tuna used in Subway sandwiches, salads and wraps and found, for the second time in five months, that the fast food chain does in fact use real tuna in its offerings.
This follows a June 19 New York Times report that it had purchased more than 5-feet of Subway tuna sandwiches to be tested at an undisclosed lab in California that failed to find “amplifiable tuna DNA” in the samples it examined, citing a couple possible reasons — either it’s so heavily processed no tuna could be detected or “there’s just nothing there that’s tuna.”
Subway didn’t initially comment on that testing, but has since pushed back arguing that by the time tuna reaches Subway customers, it’s been so heavily processed and “denatured” that its DNA wouldn’t be recognizable.
This follows a New York Times report that didn’t detect DNA, which Subway said is to be expected when fish is ‘denatured’
Source: Tuna ‘100%’ found in new Subway tuna DNA testing: report – New York Daily News
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Utah company halts sales of Lego handgun case kits after cease and desist | US gun control | The Guardian
A Utah company has stopped selling a kit that encases Glock handguns in Lego blocks, amid uproar and after the Danish toymaker demanded it cease and desist.
Marketing the “Block19” as a “a childhood dream come to life”, Culper Precision introduced it on Instagram, saying: “We wanted the second amendment to simply be too painful to tread on, so there was only one logical solution.”
Red, yellow and blue blocks made the original weapon barely visible, disguising it as a child’s toy.
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132-Night World Cruise Sells Out In Less Than 3 Hours : NPR
The cruise will take passengers on a trip lasting 132 nights. Prices range up to $199,999. The strong interest may be a positive sign for the cruise industry as it tries to rebound from the pandemic.
Regent Seven Seas Cruises released the fares for sale at 8:30 a.m. ET Thursday. By 11 a.m., all the spots had been snapped up by people eager to spend more than four months on a cruise ship. The strong interest may be a positive sign for the cruise industry as it tries to rebound from the pandemic.
The voyage, which will span 34,500 nautical miles, includes 66 ports of call, as the Seven Seas Mariner will visit 31 countries and four continents. Passengers will also see 61 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Source: 132-Night World Cruise Sells Out In Less Than 3 Hours : NPR
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House GOP demands answers about Biden family ‘cash-grab’
A dozen Republican members of Congress demanded Wednesday that the White House turn over information related to the business interests of President Biden’s family in order to “understand the extent of the Biden family’s use of its connection to the President to enrich itself.”
The letter to White House Counsel Dana Remus from the members of the House Oversight Committee seeks information on trips then-Vice President Biden took with son Hunter to China in 2013 and Mexico in 2016. It also asks for a list of “all past and ongoing foreign business interests and past and ongoing foreign relations for members of the Biden family,” as well as all “documents and communications regarding Hunter Biden’s artwork.“
Source: House GOP demands answers about Biden family ‘cash-grab’
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Sun sets on long career at family-owned Greensburg restaurant | TribLIVE.com
The sun set in late May on the long restaurant careers of Robert and Anna Jo Noviello, owners of a popular Greensburg restaurant that had been in the family for three generations. The Noviellos sold the Sunset Cafe at South Urania Avenue and Laird Street to Ronald and Angela Mellinger
The Noviellos sold the Sunset Cafe at South Urania Avenue and Laird Street to Ronald and Angela Mellinger of Greensburg for $600,000.
Robert “Bob” Noviello said they wanted to sell so they could retire, which they have since done by moving to Port St. Lucie, Fla.
“We worked it for many years. (Anna Jo) was the backbone of the business. We had a great run,” Noviello said.
Noviello said he and his wife owned the restaurant since 1986, when he purchased it from his brother, Gerry Noviello.
“We dearly miss our customers and employees,” Anna Jo Noviello said. There were cooks, bartenders and servers who had worked at the restaurant for more than 20 years, she said.
She was proud the employees remained with the restaurant, despite the pandemic-related shutdown and the restrictions that limited them to offering takeout meals.
“This past year was the most trying year in the business,” Anna Jo Noviello said.
Source: Sun sets on long career at family-owned Greensburg restaurant | TribLIVE.com
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Biden’s assault on monopolies launches – POLITICO
The White House is scheduled to issue an executive order Friday to promote competition throughout the U.S. economy in the most ambitious effort in generations to reduce the stranglehold of monopolies and concentrated markets in major industries.
The order — whose details POLITICO first reported last week — marks a major push by President Joe Biden’s administration to focus on competition as part of the economic recovery from the pandemic. It also offers a response to progressives’ criticisms that the federal government has focused too much on supporting banks and other corporations without concern about the effect on consumers, who have watched their choices dwindle over the years.
Source: Biden’s assault on monopolies launches Friday – POLITICO
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Top Trump Executive Allen Weisselberg Surrenders to Face Charges From New York Grand Jury
The Trump Organization and Mr. Weisselberg have been indicted in connection with a tax investigation and company representatives are expected to appear in court later today.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office has informed Donald J. Trump’s lawyers that it is considering criminal charges against his family business, the Trump Organization, in connection with fringe benefits the company awarded a top executive, according to several people with knowledge of the matter.
The prosecutors had been building a case for months against the executive, Allen H. Weisselberg, as part of an effort to pressure him to cooperate with a broader inquiry into Mr. Trump’s business dealings. But it was not previously known if the Trump Organization also might face charges.
If the case actually moves ahead, the grand jury will announce charges today, the people said. Mr. Vance’s prosecutors have been conducting the investigation along with lawyers from the office of the New York State attorney general, Letitia James.
Today’s indictment would be the first to emerge from the long-running investigation and would raise the startling prospect of a former president having to defend the company he founded, and has run for decades, against accusations of supposed criminal behavior in connection with taxes.
Source: Top Trump Executive Allen Weisselberg Surrenders to Face Charges
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Trump Organization could face New York state criminal charges next week | Fox News
Donald Trump’s lawyers have been notified by the Manhattan district attorney’s office that it is considering charges against the Trump Organization, according to reports Friday.
The charges, which could be announced by district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. as early as next week, involve fringe benefits the organization allegedly awarded to top executive Allen H. Weisselberg – the organization’s longtime chief financial officer, an attorney for Trump Organization and Donald Trump confirmed to Fox News.
Prosecutors are reportedly looking into perks that were awarded to the top executive, including tens of thousands of dollars for private schooling for one of Weisselberg’s grandchildren, along with car leases and apartment rent doled out by the organization.
Trump has repeatedly called the investigation a “witch hunt” and claimed it is politically motivated.
Source: Trump Organization could face New York state criminal charges next week | Fox News
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Windows 11: What to expect
A build of the expected Windows 11 that leaked last week provides a hint of what Microsoft might announce at a Windows event Thursday.
- Analysts will be listening for signs of any business model updates.
- Refreshing the 35-year-old operating system can result in additional revenue growth for the world’s second-most valuable public company, behind only Apple. Over time, the new Windows will likely be widely adopted as millions of consumers and office workers make the upgrade from Windows 10, the top PC operating system.
Source: Windows 11: What to expect
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Contractor charged in two western Pa. counties, woman says she is out nearly $10,000
Jason Pirl, 40, accused of taking money for projects and not completing the work
The contractor, Jason Pirl of Proline Painting, is now facing charges accused of taking money from multiple victims across two counties without doing the work.
Source: Contractor charged in two western Pa. counties, woman says she is out nearly $10,000
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Cargo Is Piling Up Everywhere, And It’s Making Inflation Worse : NPR
A surge in imports is overwhelming transportation networks and testing supply chains, making life hard for small-business owners.
The record volume of cargo has overwhelmed longshoremen, truck drivers, warehouses and railroads. Vessels are waiting up to five days just to get into port, and it can take 10 more days for a container to be loaded on a train.
Source: Cargo Is Piling Up Everywhere, And It’s Making Inflation Worse : NPR
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‘Staff Quit. Y’all Be Easy’: Employees At Family Dollar In Garfield Quit In Protest – CBS Pittsburgh
The store has reopened and there are “Now Hiring” signs posted.
Source: ‘Staff Quit. Y’all Be Easy’: Employees At Family Dollar In Garfield Quit In Protest – CBS Pittsburgh
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Southwest Airlines Delays and Cancels Hundreds of Flights a Third Day – The New York Times
Niraj Chokshi and
Hundreds of Southwest Airlines flights were delayed or canceled again on Wednesday as the company sought to resolve disruptions from earlier in the week amid a pickup in summer travel.The headaches for Southwest, which is widely credited for pioneering the low-fare airline business model, began on Monday night, when a problem with a weather data supplier prevented the airline from safely flying planes. The issue was resolved within hours, but on Tuesday the airline suffered its own technological problems, resulting in half of its flights that day being delayed and many being canceled, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking service.
Spillover from that episode caused Wednesday’s problems, the airline said. About 10 percent of Southwest’s flights were canceled and another 19 percent were delayed by midafternoon, according to FlightAware.
“While our technology issues from Tuesday have been resolved, we are still experiencing a small number of cancellations and delays across our network as we continue working to resume normal operations,” Dan Landson, a Southwest spokesman, said in a statement.
Source: Southwest Airlines Delays and Cancels Hundreds of Flights a Third Day – The New York Times
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McDonald’s becomes latest company to be hit by data breach – CBS News
McDonald’s has become the latest company to be hit by a data breach after unauthorized activity on its network exposed the personal data of some customers in South Korea and Taiwan.
The fast-food giant said Friday that it quickly identified and contained the incident and that a thorough investigation was done.
“While we were able to close off access quickly after identification, our investigation has determined that a small number of files were accessed, some of which contained personal data,” the burger chain said.
Source: McDonald’s becomes latest company to be hit by data breach – CBS News
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Coal plants in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio to shut down
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) —
The owner of three coal-fired power plants in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio said Thursday that it will shut them down.
Houston-based GenOn Holdings LLC said it will shut down a generating unit at both Avon Lake station on Lake Erie near Cleveland and Cheswick station on the Allegheny River outside Pittsburgh by Sept. 15.
It said it will shut down two generating units at the much larger Morgantown station on Maryland’s Cobb Neck peninsula by next June 1.Combined, the four coal-fired units can provide up to 2,421 megawatts.
In a statement, GenOn blamed “unfavorable economic conditions, higher costs including those associated with environmental compliance, an inability to compete with other generation types and evolving market rules that promote subsidized resources.
”Coal power has fallen out of favor in the climate change era amid a push for cleaner power sources that produce less pollution and greenhouse gases. U.S. coal production has been in steady decline, down by about one-third over the past decade.
Coal also has been buffeted by a flood of cheaper natural gas from shale formations, including the vast Marcellus Shale reservoir underneath Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio.
Shutdown of the units is subject to a 90-day reliability review period by the regional electric grid operator PJM, GenOn said.
Source: Coal plants in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio to shut down
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Keystone XL Pipeline Project Is Canceled – The New York Times
The embattled project to carry oil from Canada to Nebraska had been on life support since President Biden’s first day in office and stalled by legal battles for years before that.
The Canadian pipeline company that had long sought to build the Keystone XL pipeline announced Wednesday that it had terminated the embattled project, which would have carried petroleum from Canadian tar sands to Nebraska.
The announcement was the death knell for a project that had been on life support since President Biden’s first day in office and had been stalled by legal battles for years before that, despite support from the Trump administration.
On the day he was inaugurated, Mr. Biden, who has vowed to make tackling climate change a centerpiece of his administration, rescinded the construction permit for the pipeline, which developers had sought to build for over a decade. That same day, TC Energy, the company behind the project, said it was suspending work on the line.
On Wednesday, the company wrote in a statement that it “will continue to coordinate with regulators, stakeholders and Indigenous groups to meet its environmental and regulatory commitments and ensure a safe termination of and exit from the project.”
Source: Keystone XL Pipeline Project Is Canceled – The New York Times
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Ransomware: US recovers millions in cryptocurrency paid to Colonial Pipeline hackers – CNNPolitics
Washington (CNN)US investigators have recovered millions in cryptocurrency they say was paid in ransom to hackers whose attack prompted the shutdown of the key East Coast pipeline last month, the Justice Department announced Monday.
The announcement confirms CNN’s earlier reporting about the FBI-led operation, which was carried out with cooperation from Colonial Pipeline, the company that fell victim to the ransomware attack in question.Specifically, the Justice Department said it seized approximately $2.3 million in Bitcoins paid to individuals in a criminal hacking group known as DarkSide. The FBI said it has been investigating DarkSide, which is said to share its malware tools with other criminal hackers, for over a year.The ransom recovery, which is the first seizure undertaken by the recently created DOJ digital extortion taskforce, is a rare outcome for a company that has fallen victim to a debilitating cyberattack in the booming criminal business of ransomware.Colonial Pipeline Co. CEO Joseph Blount told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published last month that the company complied with the $4.4 million ransom demand because officials didn’t know the extent of the intrusion by hackers and how long it would take to restore operations.
Source: Ransomware: US recovers millions in cryptocurrency paid to Colonial Pipeline hackers – CNNPolitics
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Make-A-Wish leader confesses to embezzling from charity for critically ill children | TheHill
The former CEO of the Make-A-Wish chapter in Iowa has pleaded guilty to embezzling from the charity almost $41,000, money that would’ve gone to help fulfill the wishes of children with critical illnesses.
Jennifer Woodley confessed last week that she made unauthorized purchases on a foundation credit card, gave herself an unapproved bonus and salary increases and falsified foundation records related to those expenses, The Associated Press (AP) reports.
Source: Make-A-Wish leader confesses to embezzling from charity for critically ill children | TheHill
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Part of former Troutman store sold; apartments planned
An Arizona-based real estate investment firm bought part of the vacant seven-story building in downtown Greensburg that formerly housed A.E. Troutman Co. department store with plans to convert it into 57 apartments.
Urban Communities Steel Valley LLC of Phoenix told city officials it wants to create “multi-family workforce apartments” in the building at 225 S. Pennsylvania Ave. Urban Communities Steel Valley, one of seven funds Urban Communities formed to acquire real estate across the nation, bought the building from Downtown Commons LLC of East Pittsburgh on April 22 for $460,000, according to the Westmoreland County Recorder of Deeds.
The 7,140-square-foot building remains linked to the original Troutman’s building on South Main Street, which was converted into apartments for senior citizens by the Westmoreland County Housing Authority more than 20 years ago. The department store closed in 1985, but the two buildings remain connected by a bridge over an alley, as well as a tunnel. Seton Hill University had used the first floor of the building from 2008 to 2015, for visual arts classes, said Jennifer Reeger, Seton Hill spokeswoman.
Source: Part of former Troutman store sold; apartments planned
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Rand Paul Demolishes Dems Over Billionaire Bailout: ‘Isn’t There Some Remnant of Decency in Congress?’
Poor Jeff Bezos.
His space flight company, Blue Origin, just lost out on a $2.89 billion NASA contract to build a system to land astronauts on the moon in 2024, according to a Fox Business report.
Bezos, who recently became the wealthiest man on the planet, lost to Elon Musk’s SpaceX. NASA reported that the SpaceX bid was lower than Blue Origin’s “by a wide margin,” Fox noted.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington, where Blue Origin is headquartered, and Sen. Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi, sought to soften the blow by adding an amendment to the $130 billion “Endless Frontier Act.”
According to the Senate website, this legislation seeks to strengthen “national competitiveness in science, research, and innovation to support the national security strategy.” The bill is designed to boost our ability to compete with China.
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CBP prevents Chinese fishing company from importing goods into U.S. due to widespread human rights abuses | One America News Network
On Friday, Customs and Border Protection issued a withhold release order for any goods that come from Dalian Ocean Fishing Company Limited, due to their use of forced labor.
Last year, the Straits Times ran a story detailing the tragic conditions crewmen faced aboard one of Dalian’s boats. It further detailed their experiences with wage withholding and abuse, which resulted in international scrutiny. While CBP has issued WRO’s for individual vessels before, officials said the scope of the allegations mandated larger action.
