After recent floods, Legislature must act now to strengthen climate resilience
These costs in life, property, and infrastructure are why the Massachusetts Legislature needs to take action now to build climate resilience. Governor Maura Healey's
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It includes elements to support biodiversity and food security, remove excess carbon pollution, and support other resilience measures. However, two key areas of the proposal need to be improved: strengthening building codes and funding property buyouts in flood-prone areas.
The state's building code does not adequately account for the risks posed by climate change. One way to address this in the Mass Ready Act is through a 'stretch' resilience code, like what the state has done with building energy codes.
In Massachusetts, cities and towns cannot adopt stricter building codes than the state, so the state offers incentives to cities and towns to adopt a stricter state 'stretch' code. Massachusetts adopted an energy stretch code in 2009 and strengthened it to support even higher efficiency standards in 2024. Since then,
Boston and Cambridge have already taken steps toward better flood resilience. Boston has created a special zoning district to ensure that new construction in flood-prone areas meets higher standards for flood protection. These measures include requirements for elevated buildings and materials that can withstand flooding. In February 2023, Cambridge adopted flood resilience
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Another component of the Mass Ready Act that needs strengthening is the approach to properties in flood-prone areas. The American way has been to act in defiance of extreme weather events, boldly stating, 'We will rebuild.' But it's time to consider that some places may no longer be safe to rebuild in.
A few US
Massachusetts has
The impacts of climate change are already here. The Mass Ready Act is a crucial step in combatting its effects, but it needs to be stronger and more comprehensive. The Legislature should act now, before the next disaster strikes.
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Hamilton Spectator
12 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Israeli gunshots and strikes kill at least 25 in Gaza, some while seeking aid
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli airstrikes and gunshots overnight killed at least 25 people, according to Palestinian health officials and the ambulance service on Saturday, as ceasefire talks appear to have stalled and Gaza faces famine. The majority of victims were killed by gunfire as they waited for aid trucks close to the Zikim crossing with Israel, said staff at Shifa hospital, where the bodies were brought. Israel's army didn't respond to a request for comments about the latest shootings. Those killed in strikes include four people in an apartment building in Gaza City, among others, hospital staff and the ambulance service said. The strikes come as ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas have hit a standstill after the U.S and Israel recalled their negotiating teams on Thursday, throwing the future of the talks into further uncertainty. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday his government was considering 'alternative options' to ceasefire talks with Hamas . His comments came as a Hamas official said negotiations were expected to resume next week and portrayed the recall of the Israeli and American delegations as a pressure tactic. Egypt and Qatar, which are mediating the talks alongside the United States, said the pause was only temporary and that talks would resume, though they did not say when. Experts and the UN warn of famine For desperate Palestinians, a ceasefire can't come soon enough. The United Nations and experts say that Palestinians in Gaza are at risk of famine, with reports of increasing numbers of people dying from causes related to malnutrition. While Israel's army says it's allowing aid into the enclave with no limit on the number of trucks that can enter, the U.N. says it is hampered by Israeli military restrictions on its movements and incidents of criminal looting. The Zikim crossing shootings come days after at least 80 Palestinians were killed trying to reach aid entering through the same crossing. Israel's military said at the time its soldiers shot at a gathering of thousands of Palestinians who posed a threat, and that it was aware of some casualties. During the shootings Friday night, Sherif Abu Aisha said people started running when they saw a light that they thought was from the aid trucks, but as they got close, they realized it was from Israel's tanks. That's when the army started firing on people, he told The Associated Press. He said his uncle, a father of eight, was among those killed. 'We went because there is no food ... and nothing was distributed,' he said. Israel is facing increased international pressure to alleviate the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza. More than two dozen Western-aligned countries and over 100 charity and human rights groups have called for an end to the war, harshly criticizing Israel's blockade and a new aid delivery model it has rolled out. The charities and rights groups said even their own staff were struggling to get enough food . For the first time in months, Israel said it is allowing airdrops, requested by Jordan. A Jordanian official said the airdrops will mainly be food and milk formula. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer wrote in a newspaper article on Saturday that the U.K. was 'working urgently' with Jordan to get British aid into Gaza. Aid group the World Central Kitchen said on Friday that it was resuming limited cooking operations in Deir al-Balah after being forced to halt due to a lack of food supplies. It said it's trying to serve 60,000 meals daily through its field kitchen and partner community kitchens, less than half of what it's cooked over the previous month. — Magdy reported from Cairo, Egypt Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .


San Francisco Chronicle
42 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Trans athlete ban part of Trump's quest to ruin L.A. Olympics and sports, one step at a time
How did the world ever hold an Olympic Games before Donald Trump came along to show us the way? That guy's latest move to fix the Games is his executive order barring transgender athletes from competing for the U.S. team in women's events at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. This is in the wake of Trump saving the city of L.A. from total annihilation at the hands of rampaging mobs. You can already feel the order, peace and love building for this Olympics, can't you? Try harder. Trump doesn't have the authority to ban American trans athletes from the Olympics, but, well, actually he does, because he can do whatever he wants to do until someone pushes back, and that's not happening here. By its federal charter, the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee has exclusive authority over all matters regarding U.S. representation in the Olympics. The USOPC receives no federal funding. Its policy on trans athletes — which is that each U.S. sporting body sets its own rules — was formulated over years of study and discussion. Then the USOPC tossed that policy out the window like night water in a chamber pot. 'Our revised policy emphasizes the importance of ensuring fair and safe competition environments for women,' explained Sarah Hirshland, CEO of the USOPC. Whatever you do, make it sound like you're taking the high road, not that you've been bullied into submission. If rolling over and playing dead becomes an Olympic sport for '28, the USOPC 'leaders' have a shot at the gold. But they'll face stiff competition from heavyweight law firms, universities, TV empires, tech titans, big newspapers and elected officials. It's all for the better, especially in the world of sports, which has a true champion in Trump. For example: • He is leading the charge to restore abandoned team nicknames to the NFL's Washington Commanders and MLB's Cleveland Guardians. He is threatening to withhold federal wampum. • In baseball, Trump has coerced MLB into giving the dead and disgraced Pete Rose a shot at the Hall of Fame. • In golf, he patched up the rift between the PGA Tour and the LIV Tour. Wait, he didn't? He said he could fix that problem in 15 minutes, and it's already been six months? At least he's trying, maybe because the LIV Tour feeds his ego and fattens his wallet. • In pro football, he once destroyed an entire league, the USFL, but took a mulligan and saved the NFL by putting a stop to national anthem protests by 'son of a bitch' players. His bullying led the NFL to rule in 2018 that players were required to stand at attention, unless they opted to stay in the locker room. You could protest all you wanted, as long as you didn't let Trump see you. • Most recently, Trump issued an executive order setting in motion a plan to limit the earning ability of college athletes. These greedy kids have to be taught that there's more to life than money. To put teeth in his order, signed in an Oval Office decorated with more gold than King Tut's tomb, Trump will use the familiar threat of cutting federal funding. That penalty that would be administered by the Department of Education, which he is in the process of dismantling. But if one were to rank Trump's proudest sports accomplishments, his attack on trans folks would be at or near the top. It's where his heart is. He recently pulled the plug on a national suicide hotline for LGBTQ+ kids. In sports, to the man who has declared himself the winner of golf tournaments in which he didn't physically participate, the trans issue speaks to the heart of his idea of fair competition. It's also instant gratification. Trump might not be able to deliver on promises to end wars, his tariff follies might be throwing global commerce into turmoil, but with a bold stroke of his Sharpie, Trump can stop the invading horde of sports-wrecking trans athletes. Horde-lite, I should say. According to the International Olympic Committee, less than 0.001% of recent Olympians openly identify as trans and/or nonbinary. I did the math. About 11,000 athletes will compete at the L.A. Olympics. By statistical probability, one-tenth of one athlete at those Olympics will be a trans woman. If that athlete wins a medal, it should be the size of a dime. Granted, this is not a black-and-white issue. Recent polls show that a majority of Americans are not in favor of trans women and girls competing against cisgender women and girls. OK, if we're going to decide controversial issues simply on the basis of polls, then we should anticipate Trump signing executive orders to institute tough gun-control laws, restore female reproductive rights, and give back to immigrants the due process guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. The trans athlete controversy isn't a yes-or-no deal. In 2021 the IOC released a lengthy document titled 'Framework on Fairness,' essentially a guidebook to help national Olympic committees formulate their rules regarding trans athletes. The document says, basically, let's weigh all the factors and not rush to emotional or political decisions. For instance, the Framework points out that there is no known instance of a male athlete proclaiming himself trans for the purpose of sneaking into women's competition, but the document does offer provisions to deal with that scenario. That document is way too touchy-feely for Trump. Like the part that says, 'The Framework asks sports bodies to consider the value of inclusion for, and the needs and rights of, trans athletes and athletes with sex variations.' As if. So you either go with the Framework suggestion that decisions be made after employing science, compassion, debate, fairness and all that, or you go with the Trump method, which is to trim the infant's fingernails with a chainsaw. Hold still, you little brat! It all adds to the excitement Trump is injecting into the L.A. Olympics. He has created the image of a city in chaos, overrun by violent mobs held at bay only by heavily armed federal troops. What potential Olympics visitor can't wait to wade into that party? Trump's visa restrictions, and his demonization of former allies like Canada and Mexico, figure to make the whole tourist experience much more interesting. Can you get into America? Can you get out? On the fields of play, more questions. Would Trump interfere with trans athletes from other countries getting visas? Will he try to stop them from competing? Will he have them thrown into an ICE pop-up gator gulag? Trump does not control the IOC. Not yet. But he could threaten to scuttle the L.A. Olympics if the IOC doesn't play by his rules. The charter under which the USOPC operates is not a presidential charter, but a congressional charter. Congress, for instance, created oversight mechanisms to ensure fairness to athletes. Now, though, Trump has seized the wheel from Congress and announced that he will steer this ship by himself. In a way, isn't it much simpler when one person makes all the rules and decisions for all of us? Eliminates so much mindless chatter and red tape. There should be a name for a guy who runs the whole show with unquestionable authority and ruthless, unchecked power. Any ideas, send 'em our way.


NBC News
43 minutes ago
- NBC News
Kicking the can down the road on tariffs won't work for this Maryland manufacturer
Checkbook Chronicles Independent Can Company has raised prices twice this year already after Trump imposed 25% duties on steel in March, and then doubled them in June. July 26, 2025, 7:15 AM EDT By Emily Lorsch When Rick Huether strolls the floors of his four manufacturing plants — two in Maryland and two in Ohio — employees' typical greetings such as, 'Hey, how's the family?' have been increasingly replaced with, 'Hey Rick, should I be looking for a job somewhere else?' Huether, the CEO of Independent Can Company, has had to raise prices on customers twice this year and it's the third time since President Donald Trump's first term. 'It's frustrating,' Huether said of the Trump administration's ever-evolving tariff agenda, which now includes 50% import taxes on the foreign-made steel his company relies on. 'I can't run my business the way I want to run it.' Huether, a Republican, said he shares the administration's goal of reinvigorating American industry. 'We want to bring as much manufacturing back to this country as you can. And as a family, we made a strategic commitment to being the specialty can maker in America with American workers,' he said. 'We want to be here.' But according to Huether, Trump has made that harder to do. He said he has never voted for the president because he dislikes how he treats people and communicates, and his trade policies have caused headaches for his business operations. 'Chaos is our nemesis,' Huether said, echoing a concern many small business owners have voiced for months amid Trump's erratic tariff rollout: 'We can't plan when we don't have a vision of what's going on for the next two or three years.' Business highlights Independent Can Company's wares might already be in your cupboard. The Belcamp, Maryland-based family business, in operation since 1929, makes the packaging for everything from Wegmans' brand of Virginia peanuts to the Santa Claus tins filled with chocolates or popcorn that hit grocery shelves around the holidays. The company manufactures cans and other containers for popular consumer brands including Swiss Miss, Zippo and Titleist. One of its newest customers is the lip balm maker Burt's Bees. Independent Can Company — whose annual sales have averaged $130 million in recent years — used to have more than 30 domestic competitors in specialty can making, Huether estimated, many of which were family-owned businesses. Today there are just a couple left, he said. The company employs about 400 people across its four plants. A fifth, in Iowa, closed in 2024 due to what Huether described as a combination of clients' shifting packaging needs and Trump's first-term steel tariffs. He secured some exemptions from those levies at the time but still had to raise prices in 2018 by anywhere from 8-16%, depending on the product. Independent Can Company's manufacturing process relies on a highly specialized material called tinplate, a very thin-gauge, flat-rolled steel with an electro-coated surface of tin. Developed as a corrosion-resistant material safe for food packaging, tinplate supplies are limited — the product makes up only about 2% of global steel production, Huether estimated, and it's only roughly 1% of the steel produced in the U.S. Up until about 2007, Independent Can Company bought most of its tinplate domestically but now sources most of it overseas — the majority from Germany, along with Taiwan and South Korea — due to foreign suppliers' quality, service and price. The business adopted more efficient production systems starting in the 1990s, which included a new printing line in 2000 that uses a larger sheet size, boosting efficiency. The issue: steel coils large enough for that system aren't available domestically right now, partly because American steel companies haven't kept up with manufacturers' needs, Huether said. In addition, the materials Independent Can Company uses are about twice as expensive in the U.S. than in Asia and about 20% more expensive than in Europe, Huether estimated. Tariff impacts The cost squeeze is weighing on Independent Can Company as it struggles to rebound from a rough two years, amid pandemic-related supply-chain issues and cost swings. Those challenges left the company with a lot of expensive steel that it had to sell at a loss. But after tens of millions in capital investments, including in automation, Independent Can Company is finally settling into a new normal that Huether expects to put the company back on surer footing this year, tariffs notwithstanding. Still, access to affordable tinplate is non-negotiable and remains a wild card. That material alone represents 50-75% of its products' prices, Huether estimated. With tariff exemptions removed in March, Independent Can Company began paying Trump's 25% levies on all its imported tinplate, a steep new expense that Huether said forced the business to hike prices on some products by 8-16%. After the duties were raised to 50% in June, the company imposed another round of 8-16% increases. 'This adjustment is necessary to ensure that we can continue to provide you with the high-quality products and service you have come to expect,' Huether informed clients in a statement on the company's website earlier this year. 'We've really absorbed the amount of the tariffs that we can absorb,' he told NBC News. 'It's going to be passed through.' Bringing the shine back to 'Made in America' Huether is relieved that Independent Can Company hasn't lost business yet since the price hikes, but that worry is ever-present. There's a risk that some companies will switch to cheaper packaging, he said, including options that may not be as safe or recyclable. But it's hard to know how things will shake out… 'You instantly go to: Well, is this going to happen, or is it a tactic to get somebody to do something else? Is it real or not?' he said. In the meantime, Huether doubts whether rewriting U.S. trade policy can bring back American manufacturing overnight, or even in a few years. Huether believes in expanding vocational training in schools and eliminating the stigma often associated with certain career paths. 'We do not have the skills in this country to manage it,' he said, nodding to a reality that companies and analysts across a range of industrial sectors have underscored since the trade war began. 'It takes one to five years to get a full manufacturing plant up and running,' Huether said. 'We need time to do this.' What's more, 'We need predictability and consistency,' he added. 'We need to understand what the rules are. If the rules are constantly changing, we don't know how to play the game.' Emily Lorsch Emily Lorsch is a producer at NBC News covering business and the economy.