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  • Federal EV charging stations are key to Biden’s climate agenda, yet only 4 states have them
    on March 28, 2024 at 3:18 pm

    LONDON, Ohio (AP) — Within 24 hours of buying his red Ford Mustang Mach-E, Liam Sawyer set off on a camping trip. Sawyer, who bought the electric SUV “because I think the technology is cool and the range is just long enough,” searched ahead of time for convenient charging stations between his home in Indianapolis and Allegheny National Forest in western Pennsylvania. About 175 miles (282 kilometers) into his journey, he stopped at a new public charging station at the Pilot Travel Center along Interstate 70 outside Columbus, Ohio. The station, which opened in London, Ohio, in December with four chargers, can power an EV in about half an hour while drivers buy food and drinks and use amenities. That first charge cost Sawyer, a 32-year-old civil engineer, about $20. The Ohio charging station was created from the $5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, part of the bipartisan infrastructure bill President Joe Biden signed into law in November 2021. More than two years later, only four states — Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania and Hawaii — have opened stations funded by the program. Biden, a Democrat, has set a goal of creating a national network of 500,000 publicly available chargers by 2030. Easily accessible charging ports are a key part of his effort to encourage drivers to move away from gasoline-powered cars and trucks that contribute to global warming. That effort took on greater urgency this month as the Biden administration announced new automobile emissions standards that officials called the most ambitious plan ever to cut planet-warming pollution from passenger vehicles. Meeting those standards would require a huge increase in sales of EVs and plug-in hybrids. EVs hit a record 1.19 million in sales in the U.S. last year and accounted for 7.6% of the total U.S. vehicle market, up from 5.8% in 2022. Transportation emissions are the nation’s largest source of greenhouse gases. The Biden administration says the federal charging program is on track. Several states, including Maine, Vermont and Colorado, are expected to open public charging stations later this year, while more than a dozen others have awarded contracts for projects or broken ground. “We are building this national framework from scratch, partnering with states to set plans, and we want to make sure we are taking appropriate care to set this program up correctly,″ Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt said in an interview. “The first two years were about getting the rules right, getting the plans in place,” Bhatt said. “And now what you’re going to see is this year being about the chargers coming online.” As part of the national charging station rollout, the Biden administration awarded $623 million in grants to states, local governments and tribes in January. The grants will fund 47 EV charging stations and related projects in 22 states and Puerto Rico, including 7,500 charging ports. Separately, Walmart and other private companies have pledged to build a network of affordable fast-charging stations for EVs. The federal program is also expected to serve as a catalyst for other projects. “We’re committed to making sure that all Americans can charge (their EVs) where they live, work, shop, play, pray,″ said Gabe Klein, director of the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, which runs the federal charging program. But even some of the government’s own experts say 500,000 public chargers won’t be enough to meet Biden’s ambitious climate goals. The Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimated last year that the U.S. will need 1.2 million public chargers by 2030, a huge jump from the 175,00 public charging ports now available, as measured by the Alternative Fuels Data Center, a division of the Energy Department. The availability of charging stations is key to persuading Americans to buy EVs. Driving range anxiety is still an impediment, along with cost. About 80% of respondents cited concerns about a lack of charging stations as a reason not to buy an electric vehicle, according to a 2023 survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. Seven in 10 said they would not buy an EV because it takes too long to charge and the battery technology isn’t ready. In some parts of the country — especially rural areas far from major cities — “there are definitely corridors where you have worries about range anxiety,” Bhatt said. “It is going to take longer to get to them, just like it took longer to get cellphone coverage in those places.” But he said the administration’s goal is to have chargers every 50 miles (80 kilometers) along U.S. interstates. Other major charging networks offered by Tesla, EVgo and Electrify America prioritize shopping centers, gas stations and grocery stores, but long-distance travel is where many Americans perceive the biggest gap. As Biden doubles down on clean energy as part of his reelection campaign, it’s notable that Ohio, a swing state led by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, was one of the first movers in the federal charging endeavor. “Electric vehicles are the future of transportation, and we want drivers in Ohio to have access to this technology today,” said DeWine, who appeared at the Ohio station’s grand opening in December. A state Department of Transportation program, DriveOhio, served as the charging station’s organizational structure. A public-private partnership authority helped supply money needed for the project after the federal program contributed 80% of the estimated $500,000 to $750,000 cost, including buildout, operation and maintenance for five years. “I actually don’t think these are moving very slow. I think they’re going really quickly given that they’re tiny construction projects that we’re deploying at a pretty significant scale,” said Preeti Choudhary, DriveOhio’s executive director. “Getting them in the ground quickly is important because we do have this growing contingency of EV drivers out there and they need to be supported when they’re driving across our state or across the country.” Meeting federal requirements and operating standards is a challenge for states with little experience rolling out this type of infrastructure, according to Loren McDonald, an independent analyst tracking the buildout. “The states are moving at very different speeds,” he said. “It might take a good 18 months on average for a lot of these stations to come online.” Projects can be held up for months to years by delays with permitting, approvals, electrical upgrades and equipment. The latter can be costly. In California, the state with the most electric cars, its Public Utilities Commission could spend $50 billion through 2035 just to meet demand there. Sawyer, who was charging his Mustang as semi-trucks lined up at rows of gas pumps nearby, said he intends to mostly charge his car at home overnight, but he appreciates the public stations for his occasional road trips. He doesn’t mind the half-hour charging time. “Having the 20 minutes to 30 minutes to kind of rest your feet, get lunch isn’t that bad if you’re not in a rush,” he said. “If you have the luxury of time, it’s worth it.” “I definitely think the infrastructure needs to get up there more, right?” he said. “And faster charging will come.” ___ Daly reported from Washington. St. John reported from Detroit. ____ The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

  • Barges are bringing cranes to Baltimore to help remove bridge wreckage and open shipping route
    on March 28, 2024 at 3:18 pm

    BALTIMORE (AP) — Massive barges carrying cranes streamed toward Baltimore on Thursday to begin the challenging work of removing twisted metal and concrete in an attempt to open a key shipping route blocked by the wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. U.S. Coast Guard officials said Wednesday night that the barges were on their way to the spot where the bridge crossed the Patapsco River, but it was not clear when they would arrive. The devastation at the site of the collapse, which happened when a powerless cargo ship rammed it early Tuesday, is extensive. Divers reached the bodies of two men in a pickup truck near the bridge’s middle span on Wednesday, but officials said they would need to start clearing away the twisted wreckage before anyone could reach the bodies of four other missing workers. Divers are to resume searching once the debris is cleared. “We’re now moving from a recovery mode to a salvage operation. Because of the superstructure surrounding what we believe are the vehicles and the amount of concrete and debris, divers are no longer able to safely navigate or operate around that,” Col. Roland L. Butler Jr., superintendent of Maryland State Police, said at a news conference Wednesday. “We have exhausted all search efforts in the areas around this wreckage, and based on sonar scans, we firmly believe that the vehicles are encased in the superstructure and concrete that we tragically saw come down,” Butler said. Butler said his agency would support the unified command during the salvage assessment phase, but he asked for patience, warning that “there’s no definitive timeline.” National Transportation Safety Board officials boarded the ship, the Dali, to recover information from its electronics and paperwork and to interview the captain and other crew members. Investigators shared a preliminary timeline of events before the crash, which federal and state officials have said appeared to be an accident. Of the 21 crew members on the ship, 20 are from India, Randhir Jaiswal, the nation’s foreign ministry spokesperson, told reporters Thursday. One was slightly injured and needed stitches, but “all are in good shape and good health,” Jaiswal said. The victims, who were part of a construction crew fixing potholes on the bridge, were from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, Butler said. At least eight people initially went into the water when the ship struck the bridge column, and two of them were rescued Tuesday, officials said. The crash caused the bridge to break and fall into the water within seconds. Authorities had just enough time to stop vehicle traffic, but didn’t get a chance to alert the construction crew. The Dali, which is managed by Synergy Marine Group, was headed from Baltimore to Sri Lanka. It is owned by Grace Ocean Private Ltd., and Danish shipping giant Maersk said it had chartered it. Synergy expressed its regret and extended sympathies to the families of those lost in a statement early Thursday. “We deeply regret this incident and the problems it has caused for the people of Baltimore and the region’s economy that relies on this vitally important port,” Synergy said, noting they would continue to cooperate with investigators. The sudden loss of a highway that carries 30,000 vehicles a day and the port disruption will affect not only thousands of dockworkers and commuters but also U.S. consumers, who are likely to feel the impact of shipping delays. The governors of New York and New Jersey have offered to take on cargo shipments that have been disrupted. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said in a statement Thursday that ports in their states can handle additional shipments in an attempt to minimize supply chain disruptions. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has said the Biden administration was focused on reopening the port and rebuilding the bridge, but he did not put a timeline on those efforts. Buttigieg planned to meet Thursday with supply chain officials. From 1960 to 2015, there were 35 major bridge collapses worldwide due to ship or barge collisions, according to the World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure. ___ Witte reported from Dundalk, Maryland. Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Sarah Brumfield in Washington and Krutika Pathi in New Delhi. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

  • A mail carrier was among 4 people killed in northern Illinois stabbings
    on March 28, 2024 at 3:18 pm

    CHICAGO (AP) — A postal carrier was among four people killed when a man went on a stabbing rampage in a northern Illinois city, authorities said Thursday. The attacks in Rockford on Wednesday also left seven people injured, and a 22-year-old suspect is in custody. A 15-year-old girl, a 63-year-old woman, a 49-year-old man and a 22-year-old man were killed in the stabbings. Police said three of them died where they were attacked and a fourth died at a hospital. Authorities have not released the victims’ names, but the United States Postal Inspection Service, a division of the United States Postal Service, confirmed Thursday that a USPS letter carrier was among the dead. “Postal inspectors are working with the Rockford Police Department in this investigation,” agency spokesperson Michael Martel said in an email. Authorities have released little information about the suspect, who was arrested Wednesday by a Winnebago County sheriff’s deputy responding to a reported home invasion. A woman who identified herself as the suspect’s sister declined to comment to The Associated Press. Resident Vanessa Hy, told WREX-TV in Rockford that she witnessed the arrest. “All of the sudden, we heard police run up on both sides of the house screaming, ‘Stop! Get down!’” Hy told the TV station. “Then they ran into the backyard and after a few minutes we saw them bringing the suspect down the driveway in handcuffs and he was very bloody.” Rockford Police Chief Carla Redd said she believes the suspect acted alone. “We don’t believe there’s any other suspects that are on the run or at large at this particular time,” Redd said Wednesday. “Right now, we don’t have a clear motive as to what caused this individual to commit such a heinous crime.” She said residents were being asked to review home surveillance footage for anything related to the attacks. Redd said Rockford police received a medical call at 1:14 p.m. Wednesday followed by additional calls for police and paramedics. She said not all of the victims found at multiple addresses in the city had stab wounds and none was shot. Rockford resident Cassandra Hernandez said her friend was among the victims, and that she mourns the loss of the mail carrier who neighbors believe was hit by a vehicle and stabbed during the attack. “You never expect this here,” Hernandez told the Rockford Register Star. “Just to think that it happened here, and we have such great neighbors and the mailman.” Redd said Wednesday that one of the injured was in critical condition. The Rockford Police Department and the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office have not responded to messages left Thursday seeking updates on the surviving victims’ conditions. Sheriff Gary Caruana said Wednesday that the suspect was with a woman when he was arrested, and that the suspect had attacked her and a bystander. “The young lady ran from him,” Caruana said. “She got some stab wounds in her hands and her face. She is in serious condition. One of the good Samaritans stopped to help her out. He did get some stab wounds. He is being checked out.” The violence in the city of about 150,000 people came just days days after a teenage employee was stabbed and killed inside a Walmart in Rockford, which is about 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest of Chicago. Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara wrote on the city’s Facebook page that “multiple jurisdictions” were “working on multiple crime scenes to develop an understanding of what transpired in an effort to prevent this from happening again.” “Today, we are shocked by another horrific act of violence against innocent members of our community,” McNamara said. Now that the suspect is in custody, he continued, “Our primary concern is ensuring that our community members directly impacted by this violence are supported throughout their healing and recovery.” The city of Rockford planned to hold a vigil Thursday afternoon for the victims hosted by local faith leaders, the city said. ___ Callahan reported from Indianapolis and Williams reported from Detroit. Associated Press researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed from New York. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

  • Republican-passed bill removes role of Democratic governor if Senate vacancy occurs in Kentucky
    on March 28, 2024 at 3:18 pm

    FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky lawmakers gave final approval Thursday to a bill stripping the state’s Democratic governor of any role in picking someone to occupy a U.S. Senate seat if a vacancy occurred in the home state of 82-year-old Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. The legislation calls for a special election to fill any Senate vacancy from the Bluegrass State. The special election winner would hold the seat for the remainder of the unexpired term. “So it would be a direct voice of the people determining how the vacancy is filled,” Republican Senate President Robert Stivers said while presenting the bill to his colleagues. The state Senate voted 34-3 after a brief discussion to send the bill to Gov. Andy Beshear. The governor has denounced the measure as driven by partisanship, but the GOP supermajority legislature could override a veto when lawmakers reconvene for the final two days of this year’s session in mid-April. The bill’s lead sponsor is Republican House Majority Floor Leader Steven Rudy. He has said the measure has nothing to do with McConnell, but instead reflected his long-running policy stance on how an empty Senate seat should be filled. Rudy refers to McConnell as a “great friend and a political mentor,” and credits the state’s senior senator for playing an important role in the GOP’s rise to dominance in the Kentucky legislature. Rudy has said his bill would treat a Senate vacancy like that of a vacancy for a congressional or legislative seat in Kentucky — by holding a special election to fill the seat. The bill includes an emergency clause, meaning it would take effect immediately if enacted into law. Rudy introduced the bill in February and it cleared a House committee a day after McConnell’s announcement that he will step down from his longtime Senate leadership position in November. The decision set off a wave of speculation back home in Kentucky about the future of his seat. In his speech from the Senate floor, McConnell left open the possibility that he might seek another term in 2026, declaring at one point: “I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.” Aides said McConnell’s announcement was unrelated to his health. The senator had a concussion from a fall last year and two public episodes where his face briefly froze while he was speaking. Rudy has said he’s talked about changing the way a Senate vacancy is filled for more than a decade, since the conviction of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich for crimes that included seeking to sell an appointment to Barack Obama’s old Senate seat. Rudy’s district in far western Kentucky borders Illinois. Beshear — who won a convincing reelection victory last November over a McConnell protege — had already seen his influence over selecting a senator greatly diminished by GOP lawmakers. In 2021, the legislature removed the governor’s independent power to temporarily fill a Senate seat. That measure limits a governor to choosing from a three-name list provided by party leaders from the same party as the senator who formerly held the seat. Both of Kentucky’s U.S. senators are Republicans. The measure became law after GOP lawmakers overrode Beshear’s veto. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

  • US changes how it categorizes people by race and ethnicity. It’s the first revision in 27 years
    on March 28, 2024 at 1:18 pm

    ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — For the first time in 27 years, the U.S. government is changing how it categorizes people by race and ethnicity, an effort that federal officials believe will more accurately count residents who identify as Hispanic and of Middle Eastern and North African heritage. The revisions to the minimum categories on race and ethnicity, announced Thursday by the Office of Management and Budget, are the latest effort to label and define the people of the United States. This evolving process often reflects changes in social attitudes and immigration, as well as a wish for people in an increasingly diverse society to see themselves in the numbers produced by the federal government. “You can’t underestimate the emotional impact this has on people,” said Meeta Anand, senior director for Census & Data Equity at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “It’s how we conceive ourselves as a society. … You are seeing a desire for people to want to self-identify and be reflected in data so they can tell their own stories.” Under the revisions, questions about race and ethnicity that previously were asked separately on forms will be combined into a single question. That will give respondents the option to pick multiple categories at the same time, such as “Black,” “American Indian” and “Hispanic.” Research has shown that large numbers of Hispanic people aren’t sure how to answer the race question when that question is asked separately because they understand race and ethnicity to be similar and they often pick “some other race” or do not answer the question. A Middle Eastern and North African category will be added to the choices available for questions about race and ethnicity. People descended from places such as Lebanon, Iran, Egypt and Syria had been encouraged to identify as white, but now will have the option of identifying themselves in the new group. Results from the 2020 census, which asked respondents to elaborate on their backgrounds, suggest that 3.5 million residents identify as Middle Eastern and North African. “It feels good to be seen,” said Florida state Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat from Orlando whose parents are from Iran. “Growing up, my family would check the ‘white’ box because we didn’t know what other box reflected our family. Having representation like that, it feels meaningful.” The changes also strike from federal forms the words “Negro” and “Far East,” now widely regarded as pejorative, as well as the terms “majority” and “minority,” because they fail to reflect the nation’s complex racial and ethnic diversity, some officials say. The revisions also encourage the collection of detailed race and ethnicity data beyond the minimum standards, such as “Haitian” or “Jamaican” for someone who checks “Black.” The changes to the standards were hammered out over two years by a group of federal statisticians and bureaucrats who prefer to stay above the political fray. But the revisions have long-term implications for legislative redistricting, civil rights laws, health statistics, and possibly even politics as the number of people categorized as white is reduced. Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee for president, recently alluded to arguments made by people who allege Democrats are promoting illegal immigration to weaken the power of white people. As president, Trump unsuccessfully tried to disqualify people who were in the United States illegally from being included in the 2020 census. Momentum for changing the race and ethnicity categories grew during the Obama administration in the mid-2010s, but was halted after Trump became president in 2017. It was revived after Democratic President Joe Biden took office in 2021. The changes will be reflected in data collection, forms, surveys and the once-a-decade census questionnaires put out by the federal government, as well as in state governments and the private sector because businesses, universities and other groups usually follow Washington’s lead. Federal agencies have 18 months to submit a plan on how they will put the changes in place. The first federal standards on race and ethnicity were produced in 1977 to provide consistent data across agencies and come up with figures that could help enforce civil rights laws. They were last updated in 1997 when five minimum race categories were delineated — American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander and white; respondents could pick more than one race. The minimum ethnic categories were grouped separately as not Hispanic or Hispanic or Latino. The interagency group that worked on the latest revisions noted that categories are sociopolitical constructs and race and ethnicity are not defined biologically or genetically. Racial and ethnic categories used by the U.S. government reflect their times. In 1820, the category “Free Colored People” was added to the decennial census to reflect the increase in free Black people. In 1850, the term “Mulatto” was added to the census to capture people of mixed heritage. American Indians were not explicitly counted in the census until 1860. Following years of immigration from China, “Chinese” was included in the 1870 census. There was not a formal question about Hispanic origin until the 1980 census. Not everyone is on board with the latest revisions. Some Afro Latinos feel that combining the race and ethnicity question will reduce their numbers and representation in the data, though previous research by the U.S. Census Bureau did not find significant differences among Afro Latino responses when the questions were asked separately or together. Mozelle Ortiz, for instance, is of mixed Afro Puerto Rican descent. She feels the changes could eliminate that identity, even though people can choose more than one answer once the race and ethnicity questions are combined. “My entire lineage, that of my Black Puerto Rican grandmother’s and all other non-white Spanish speaking peoples, will be erased,” Ortiz wrote the interagency group. William Chalmers, in a letter to the group, worried that combining race and ethnicity questions would conflate the two definitions. “Just as gender and sexual orientation are treated as different markers so should ‘race’ and ‘culture,’” Chalmers said. ___ Follow Mike Schneider on X, formerly known as Twitter: @MikeSchneiderAP Brought to you by www.srnnews.com