BLET News

(Source: The Hill, March 14, 2023) A conservative advocacy group called “FreedomWorks” is pushing lawmakers to oppose a bipartisan rail safety bill that was introduced following the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment. The group claims the bill would create “gross inefficiencies” for businesses and give the Department of Transportation “unimaginable authority.” Full story: The Hill

(Source: River Valley Organizing press release, March 13, 2023) Today, River Valley Organizing and more than 100 groups from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and across the country sent a joint letter to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan and other EPA leadership with expert recommendations on how to test for dioxins in East Palestine, Ohio and other…

(Source: The Guardian, March 12, 2023) Julie Su has come a long way since she first made headlines in 1995 when she, then just 26 years old, was lead lawyer for 72 Thai workers who were essentially kept in slavery, toiling 18 hours a day at a sweatshop just outside Los Angeles. Full story: The Guardian

(Source: Iowa Capital Dispatch, March 11, 2023) Businesses, left to their own devices, will pursue their own self-interests, denying the evidence of detrimental impacts and fighting against regulations requiring pneumatic brakes or adding stronger tank cars on trains carrying hazardous chemicals. It’s why we need child labor laws and worker’s compensation insurance. The power of…

(Source: Associated Press, March 11, 2023) Heather Bable speaks rapidly, recalling the terror of the night when a train loaded with hazardous chemicals derailed less than a half-mile from her home in East Palestine, Ohio. She heard an earthshaking boom and, from her bathroom window, “all you saw was the flames.” Full story: www.pbs.org