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Clean water piped into the home is a given for most Americans. But piped, running water isn’t universal, and people of color are disproportionately more likely than white Americans to lack piped water, finds new research in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences.

Householders of color in the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. are 34% more likely to lack piped water compared with white, non-Hispanic householders, the researchers find. In all, the authors estimate 1.1 million people in the U.S. lack what the U.S. Census Bureau calls “complete plumbing” with nearly three-quarters of them living in cities and suburbs.

The Census Bureau considers a household to have complete plumbing if it has running hot and cold water with a bathtub or shower used only by people living in the dwelling. People without a piped connection to water may still be able to access clean water by purchasing purified water from a store or retrieving water from other sources, such as a stream.

“It is hard for many people to imagine that communities in the modern-day U.S. lack such a basic life necessity, but for those of us who work at the crux of infrastructure provision and social and spatial inequality, this story — the story of systemic inequality — is an old story,” lead author Katie Meehan, a senior lecturer in human geography at King’s College London, told Journalist’s Resource by email.

The authors further find that renters are 61% more likely to lack complete plumbing compared with those who own their homes. They note that the Census Bureau often undercounts renters, people without homes and people of color, “demographics that are disproportionately plumbing poor.”

The Census Bureau has acknowledged that those groups are undercounted. Given census undercounting, the authors estimate the real number of people in the U.S. that lack complete plumbing is likely closer to 2 million — roughly the size of the Kansas City metro area, for comparison.

On Sept. 4 the Centers for Disease Control and Protection put into effect a moratorium on evictions because “housing stability helps protect public health because homelessness increases the likelihood of individuals moving into congregate settings, such as homeless shelters, which then puts individuals at higher risk to COVID-19,” the agency wrote in its order.

The American Medical Association in a recent legal brief explained the eviction moratorium is helping renters maintain physical distancing, self-quarantining and hand hygiene. With the CDC eviction moratorium set to end Dec. 31, it’s not just housing at stake for millions of Americans who rent and are already at greater risk of lacking complete plumbing — it’s the ability for people to wash their hands at home during a pandemic.

Read on to learn more about the new PNAS paper, plus four other academic studies to help journalists better understand links between race and access to indoor running water.

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Geographies of Insecure Water Access and the Housing-Water Nexus in U.S. Cities
Katie Meehan, Jason R. Jurjevich, Nicholas Chun and Justin Sherrill. Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences, November 2020.

The authors analyze Census Bureau survey data covering 2013 to 2017 and estimate that more than 1 million people in the U.S. lack complete plumbing in their homes.

Householders of color in the 50 largest metro areas are 34% more likely to lack complete plumbing compared with white, non-Hispanic households, the authors find. Householders of color make up about 39% of households in those areas, but represent 53% of households that lack complete plumbing, they find.

Metro areas with the highest percentages of households lacking complete plumbing include: San Francisco; Portland; Milwaukee; San Antonio; Austin; Cleveland; Los Angeles; Memphis; New Orleans; and New York. Metro areas generally encompass core cities and their surrounding suburbs.

The authors note that the Census Bureau often undercounts renters, people without homes and people of color, “demographics that are disproportionately plumbing poor.” The Census Bureau has acknowledged that those groups are undercounted. The authors note that, given undercounts, the actual number of people in the U.S. who lack complete plumbing is likely closer to 2 million.

“Without universal water access, efforts to limit the spread of infectious diseases — such as COVID-19 — will undermine global health and benefit certain populations over others,” the authors write.

Exposing the Myths of Household Water Insecurity in the Global North: A Critical Review
Katie Meehan, et. al. WIREs Water, October 2020.

The authors dispel the myth of “modern water,” the idea that water access is universal and secure in high-income countries.

“Recent research suggests that household water access is far from universal in high‐income countries,” they write. Based on their research review on gaps in universal water access in high-income countries they identify four contributing factors.

The first is the complicated nature of water systems in the U.S., where there are tens of thousands of public and private organizations that distribute water. Smaller systems are more likely to fall short in providing water to all households in their areas, the authors write. They note that some areas, notably in some Black communities in North Carolina, racial groups were historically and systematically excluded from political control over water access.

The second factor has to do with precarious housing driven by wealth gaps among racial groups. Simply put, people with unconventional housing arrangements are more likely to lack indoor water. The third contributing factor is citizenship status and the fourth has to do with “institutionalized structures of marginalization,” such as the forced displacement of Indigenous people.

The authors go on to explore several other myths having to do with water in high-income countries, including the myth that water is always clean, safe and affordable.

“Myths are more than a collection of misleading statistics or gaps in understanding: as shared beliefs, myths create and sustain norms and perceptions of secure water, including whose water experiences are deemed hegemonic or universal, and whose experiences are made invisible,” the authors write.

Plumbing Poverty: Mapping Hot Spots of Racial and Geographic Inequality in U.S. Household Water Insecurity
Shiloh Deitz and Katie Meehan. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, March 2019.

The authors introduce the idea of “plumbing poverty” as a way to understand water insecurity in the U.S. Analyzing a trove of census data, they identify hot spots for plumbing poverty, where households lack complete plumbing at rates higher than average.

After adjusting for income, housing type and other factors, the authors find householders who are American Indians are 3.7 times more likely to lack complete plumbing compared with householders who don’t identify as American Indian. Black and Hispanic households are also more likely to be plumbing poor than white, non-Hispanic households, they find.

Geographic hotspots include communities in Alaska, the Four Corners region of the Southwest and along the U.S.-Mexico border as well as the upper Midwest, the Northeast — particularly northern Maine and New Hampshire — the Allegheny region in Pennsylvania and Appalachia in West Virginia.

“Plumbing poverty is not a simple artifact of income, rurality, or housing type; infrastructure provision is clearly racialized and historically produced in the United States,” the authors conclude.

The Drinking Water Disparities Framework: On the Origins and Persistence of Inequities in Exposure
Carolina Balazs and Isha Ray. American Journal of Public Health, April 2014.

The authors spent five years — 2005 to 2010 — interviewing residents and water regulators in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Groundwater pumped from wells in the valley has been chronically laden with arsenic, a carcinogen, above acceptable levels set by the World Health Organization.

The authors identify examples of local water policies designed to “explicitly deprive communities of adequate drinking water resources.” The 1973 Tulare County General Plan, for example, says that so-called “non-viable communities would, as a consequence of withholding major public facilities such as sewer and water systems, enter a process of long term, natural decline as residents depart for improved opportunities in nearby communities.”

“These decisions, in conjunction with regulatory failures, a lack of community resources to mitigate contamination, and political disenfranchisement of local residents, help explain the origins of environmental injustice in the context of drinking water,” the authors conclude.

Racial Disparities in Access to Community Water Supply Service in Wake County, North Carolina
Jacqueline MacDonald Gibson, Nicholas DeFelice, Daniel Sebastian and Hannah Leker. American Journal of Public Health, December 2014.

The authors perform the first statistical analysis of how historically Black communities in North Carolina have been systematically denied municipal drinking water. Using property tax and census data for Wake County, the most populated county in the state, they find that every 10% increase in the Black population within a census block increases by about 4% the chance that people will lack municipal water service.

The authors point to a “legacy of racial segregation,” in which cities in North Carolina are allowed planning and development powers in “extra-territorial jurisdictions” up to three miles beyond city boundaries. Black communities were often excluded from cities but included in extra-territorial jurisdictions “over which majority white town councils retained control — a practice known as ‘racial underbounding,’” they write.

“This research reveals a disparity in the physical environment — access to treated municipal drinking water — that potentially could contribute to observed racial disparities in health in Wake County,” the authors conclude.

For more on water safety issues, check out lead in drinking water: key facts and reporting tips. Plus, research on race and water access in metro areas and five tips for investigating stories on water access, affordability and safety.

The post Racial disparities in entry to working water: 5 research to know appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

The 2024 US presidential election race is well and truly underway.

President Joe Biden is seeking re-election and has the backing of his party establishment, leaving him in a strong position to ward off rival Democrats who might believe they’re better placed than the 80-year-old incumbent to take on an energised Republican Party.

On the other side, former president Donald Trump’s early announcement and diehard supporters have propelled him to the top of the GOP list, but there’s a host of potential rivals, such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, seeking to break his stranglehold on the party base.

Here’s who’s seeking the White House, who’s already bowed out, and who might yet surprise us in the lead-up to the 2024 US presidential election.

Declared: Donald Trump

Former US president Donald Trump during a campaign event at the South Carolina Statehouse on Saturday, January 28, 2023.(AP Photo: Alex Brandon)

Background: Former president of the United States, real estate mogul, former reality TV host

Home state: Florida/New York

Age on election day 2024: 78

Former president, reality TV star and real estate mogul Donald Trump is seeking to return to the White House after being defeated in 2020 by Joe Biden after a single term.

Mr Trump’s presidency alienated many Americans but energised and transformed the Republican base. His four years in office were marked by a return to a more protectionist trade policy, a shunning of traditional diplomacy in favour of personal relationships with world leaders, and the installation of a 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court.

They also saw a hollowing out of the public service, an abandonment of the democratic and ethical norms surrounding the presidency, and a reliance on “acting” officials to fill cabinet-level positions for increasingly long periods of time.

After refusing to accept the result of the 2020 election, culminating in the January 6 riot at the US Capitol, Mr Trump became the first president in history to be impeached twice, although he was acquitted both times in the Senate.

He has since been indicted on a wide range of criminal charges, relating to a 2016 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, his alleged storage of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, his alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and his alleged attempts to pressure public officials to overturn the results in Georgia specifically. He was also found liable by a jury for sexually abusing advice columnist E Jean Carroll in the mid-90s.

Far from sinking his campaign, his legal woes seem to have propelled him to a massive lead over his primary rivals, making him the clear frontrunner for the GOP once again.

Declared: Ron DeSantis

Florida governor Ron DeSantis speaks after being sworn in for his second term outside the Old Capitol in Tallahassee, Florida, on January 3, 2023.(AP Photo: Lynne Sladky)

Background: Governor of Florida, former congressman, former military lawyer

Home state: Florida

Age on election day 2024: 46

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis staked out his position as Mr Trump’s biggest political threat in 2022 with a huge electoral win at home, trouncing Democrat Charlie Crist by 15 points and further reddening what was once considered a swing state.

He quickly became the go-to candidate for those hardcore conservatives who were ready to move on from Mr Trump, having achieved right-wing policy wins in Florida while also showing a flair for the kind of culture-war skirmishes that animate the GOP base (think inquiries into trans health services and legal battles with “woke” Disney).

Supporters cited his ability to pick his battles better than the former president, hoping he could essentially offer the same policies and fighting spirit in a younger, less abrasive package — the elusive “Trumpism without Trump”.

Mr DeSantis’s much-hyped White House run, however, got off to a rocky start, beginning with a campaign announcement hosted on Elon Musk’s Twitter that was marred by technical glitches.

He’s since struggled to connect with voters, robbing him of vital momentum needed to catch up with Mr Trump’s substantial polling lead and leading him to replace his campaign manager in August.

The governor is travelling the country and playing up his successes by calling Florida a “blueprint for the nation”, and is beginning to test the waters with increasingly direct jabs at Mr Trump.

But the question remains whether he has what it takes to win a head-to-head contest with his fellow Floridian, who has the air of incumbency and doesn’t play by the rules when it comes to taking on political rivals.

Declared: Vivek Ramaswamy

Vivek Ramaswamy speaks to reporters at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2023, on Friday, March 3, 2023 at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, United States.(AP Photo: Alex Brandon)

Background: Biotech entrepreneur, author, political activist

Home state: New York/Ohio

Age on election day 2024: 39

Dubbed the “CEO of Anti-Woke, Inc.” by The New Yorker, Vivek Ramaswamy announced his candidacy for president on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show ahead of the 2023 CPAC conference.

Already a successful businessman in the asset management and biotechnology sectors, Mr Ramaswamy has forged a second career as a conservative activist and author since 2020, focusing on opposing ESG investing (environmental social and governance) as well as the broader social justice, diversity and environmental movements.

The son of Indian immigrants, his platform includes shutting down the FBI and the federal Department of Education, “declaring independence” from China, and using military drones to eliminate Mexican drug cartels.

It’s an approach to presidential politics he openly credits to Mr Trump.

“I think I’m best positioned to advance our America First agenda, take it even further than Trump did, but also unite the country in the process,” Mr Ramaswamy told public broadcaster PBS.

At 39 on election day, he would be the youngest president ever elected.

Fun fact: He once moonlighted as a rapper named Da Vek while studying at Harvard, telling student newspaper The Crimson his life’s theme song was Eminem’s Lose Yourself.

Eminem has since asked Ramaswamy to stop using his music on the campaign trail.

Declared: Mike Pence

Former vice-president Mike Pence speaks to students at Georgetown University in Washington on Wednesday, October 19, 2022.(AP Photo: Jose Luis Magana)

Background: Former vice-president of the United States, former governor of Indiana, former congressman

Home state: Indiana

Age on election day 2024: 65

After four years serving as a quiet, faithful vice-president to Mr Trump, Mike Pence adhered to convention and oversaw the certification of the 2020 US election result, ensuring Mr Trump’s presidency came to an end and avoiding a constitutional crisis.

He has strongly defended his actions in doing so, but has otherwise largely avoided criticising his former boss’s time in the White House, suggesting he is keen to avoid alienating Mr Trump’s base as he makes his own White House run.

“I’m persuaded that no one could have defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016 except Donald Trump, but I think we live in a different time and it calls for different leadership,” he told the Associated Press in the lead-up to his declaration.

On paper, a staunchly conservative former VP with evangelical bona fides should be a strong candidate in a GOP primary, with high name recognition and the credibility needed to bring together a broad right-wing coalition.

In reality, hardcore Trump supporters could be heard chanting “Hang Mike Pence” during the Capitol riot, and even his supporters acknowledge his political instincts are lacking.

His position on abortion — he wants to make it not just illegal but “unthinkable” in all circumstances — is popular with large parts of his party but will be a tough sell in a general election, with a post-Roe America still grappling with the consequences of the Supreme Court’s decision to return the issue to the states.

Declared: Tim Scott

US senator Tim Scott speaks during a news conference about inflation on February 16, 2022.(Reuters: Elizabeth Frantz)

Background: Senator for South Carolina, former congressman, former state representative, insurance agent

Home state: South Carolina

Age on election day 2024: 59

South Carolina senator Tim Scott’s formal announcement ended a months-long testing of the waters that included a “listening tour” with stops in Iowa and the establishment of an exploratory committee in April.

Popular with his constituents and colleagues, Senator Scott’s early rhetoric has been different from that of his fellow Republican candidates, telling supporters they can choose “victimhood or victory”, and emphasising that the party’s nominee should be able to display “compassion for people who don’t agree with us”.

As the GOP’s only black senator, as well as a self-made businessman who grew up poor in a single-parent household, he already has a significant national profile with a compelling story to boot.

He’s backed it up with significant spending in early primary states, launching some of the largest ad buys yet in Iowa and New Hampshire to run across both broadcast and digital platforms.

He entered the race with more cash on hand than any other presidential candidate in US history, due to a leftover $US22 million ($33 million) from his 2022 Senate campaign.

Declared: Nikki Haley

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley speaks during a town hall campaign event at Ankeny, Iowa on Wednesday, May 17, 2023.(AP Photo: Charlie Neibergall)

Background: Former ambassador to the United Nations, former South Carolina governor

Home state: South Carolina

Age on election day 2024: 52

A former South Carolina governor and Mr Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley announced her run for the presidency via a video on Twitter emphasising her determination to fight back against bullies.

The daughter of Indian immigrants, she became her home state’s first female and first non-white governor in 2010 at the age of 38.

Ms Haley kept her head down during the Trump years and exited the administration in 2018 with her reputation relatively intact, but there’s no indication her time working for the 45th president won her the favour of any of his supporters.

The fact that she had previously said she wouldn’t run against her former boss in 2024 is also unlikely to help in that respect.

On the issues, Ms Haley is a frequent critic of China, a supporter of the death penalty, and has attacked Florida Governor Ron DeSantis from the right on social issues.

But it’s how she navigates the waters of her relationship with Mr Trump that could well determine the success, or otherwise, of her campaign.

Declared: Doug Burgum

North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum speaks to delegates at the Republican State Convention in Grand Forks, North Dakota, on April 7, 2018.(Reuters: Dan Koeck)

Background: Governor of North Dakota, former software executive, former chimney sweep

Home state: North Dakota

Age on election day 2024: 68

An outlier in the Republican field, North Dakota governor Doug Burgum is known more for his earnest policy positions than for battling Democrats.

The former software executive runs a deep red state but has flirted with moderate positions during his time in office, including labelling the 2020 party platform “divisive” when it came to LGBT issues.

However, he hasn’t hesitated to sign conservative bills into a law, including a number of anti-trans bills and a near-total abortion ban.

Mr Burgum makes no secret of the fact that he prefers to focus on energy policy, including his goal for North Dakota to become carbon-neutral by 2030 (albeit through carbon capture and storage, with continuing subsidies for the fossil-fuel industry).

Prior to announcing his candidacy in the Wall Street Journal, Mr Burgum shared a video highlighting his rise from a small town boy to a self-made entrepreneur, and a governor who has cut red tape and taxes.

He’s also well aware that his low profile outside his state makes his 2024 run a long shot, telling an interviewer: “There’s a value to being underestimated all the time.”

It puts into perspective the efforts he took to make it onto the first debate stage, appearing without painkillers despite tearing his Achilles tendon the day before, and achieving the debate’s 40,000-donor threshold in part by offering people $US20 gift cards in exchange for $US1 donations.

Declared: Chris Christie

Republican presidential candidate and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie speaks with reporters in Kyiv, Ukraine on August 4, 2023.(AP Photo: Efrem Lukatsky)

Background: Registered lobbyist, former governor of New Jersey, former US attorney

Home state: New Jersey

Age on election day 2024: 62

Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie was once considered the poster boy for loud, aggressive Republicans — until Donald Trump came along.

Ideologically a moderate, Mr Christie was happy for his governorship to be defined by heated verbal arguments with voters and political clashes with the Obama administration.

But it ended in scandal after he was implicated in the “Bridgegate” saga, in which several people close to him were found to have purposefully closed lanes to cause traffic jams on the George Washington Bridge as retribution against a Democratic mayor.

Mr Christie last ran for president in 2016, making some waves in early debates before bowing out after a lacklustre showing in New Hampshire. He then briefly led the Trump presidential transition team before being pushed out by Mr Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

He’s now casting himself as the only person with the guts to take on Mr Trump directly, launching his campaign with a flurry of personal attacks on the former president, who he described as a “lonely, self-consumed, self-serving mirror hog”.

“We can’t dismiss the question of character anymore, everybody. If we do, we get what we deserve, and we will have to own it,” he said.

Mr Christie criticised the loyalty pledge candidates were required to sign before they could appear on the first debate stage, which committed them to supporting the party’s eventual nominee in the general election.

He’s made it clear he won’t be supporting Mr Trump in a general election — but said he did what he needed to do to get onstage.

Declared: Asa Hutchinson

Former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson speaks during an interview with the Associated Press on December 13, 2022.(AP Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Background: Former governor of Arkansas, former DEA administrator

Home state: Arkansas

Age on election day 2024: 73

Asa Hutchinson says he is running for president because he is convinced Americans want leaders that “appeal to the best of America, and not simply appeal to our worst instincts”.

He served two terms as Arkansas’s governor from 2015 to 2023, winning his second term in a landslide with more than 65 per cent of the vote.

Prior to that he spent time in the George W Bush administration, firstly as the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration and secondly handling border security in the then fledgling Department of Homeland Security.

Mr Hutchinson left the governor’s office with a conservative record, but has shown a willingness to split with his party on occasional issues in the past — including vetoing a bill that would have banned gender-affirming medication for minors (a veto his party later overrode), and praising the Biden administration’s “depoliticising” of the government’s COVID response.

More recently, he’s said Donald Trump should drop out of the race following his criminal indictment in the state of New York.

Mr Trump, for his part, calls Mr Hutchinson “Ada Hutchinson” — “because of certain reasons or others”.

Declared: Larry Elder

Republican gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder speaks after the polls close on the recall election in Costa Mesa, California, United States on September 14, 2021.(Reuters: Mike Blake)

Background: Conservative radio host, California gubernatorial candidate, lawyer

Home state: California

Age on election day 2024: 72

Talk radio personality Larry Elder is a relative political novice, despite having built himself into a national brand in conservative media since he first began hosting The Larry Elder Show in 1993.

The former attorney ran his first political campaign in 2021, when he took on Gavin Newsom in a recall election effort that the blue-state Democrat won easily.

Mr Elder is, like many others on this list, a staunch right-winger — opposing minimum wage laws, environmental legislation and the Black Lives Matter movement, and supporting school choice programs and physical barriers along the border with Mexico.

He announced his candidacy for the presidency on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News program, telling the TV host his decision was in part motivated by the fact he’s the only member of his family who hasn’t served in the military.

Mr Elder said he had met the criteria required to attend the first Republican primary debate, but organisers disagreed — prompting him to declare he would sue the Republican National Committee.

Declared: Will Hurd

US Representative Will Hurd questions witnesses during a House Intelligence Committee impeachment inquiry hearing in Washington, DC, on November 21, 2019.(Pool via Reuters: Andrew Harrer)

Background: Congressman, cybersecurity consultant, former CIA agent

Home state: Texas

Age on election day 2024: 47

A self-acknowledged “dark horse candidate“, Texas congressman Will Hurd sticks out from the Republican field in more ways than one.

The 47-year-old moderate was a CIA operative for nine years in the 2000s, spending time mostly in Washington but also serving in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

He represents a nearly 70 per cent Latino district which runs for 820 miles (1,319 kilometres) along the Texas-Mexico border, which has elevated his voice as he has called for a calmer, solutions-based approach to the country’s border issues.

He has also called Mr Trump a “lawless, selfish, failed politician … who lost the House, the Senate and the White House”.

“If Donald Trump is leading in the polls, and he’s your opponent, then kissing his butt is not going to help you win,” he told his fellow GOP candidates in August.

Along with Chris Christie, Mr Hurd spoke out against the Republican Party’s requirement for candidates to sign a loyalty pledge to support the eventual nominee before they were granted access to the first primary debate stage.

Declared: Ryan Binkley

Republican presidential candidate Ryan Binkley speaks at the Republican Party of Iowa’s Lincoln Day Dinner in Des Moines, Iowa, on July 28, 2023.(Reuters: Scott Morgan)

Background: Pastor, businessman

Home state: Texas

Age on election day 2024: 56

Ryan Binkley is aiming high with his first political campaign.

The Dallas businessman and non-denominational pastor is bringing an overtly religious message to the campaign trail, promising a country that is “strong, unified and reconciled to God and each other”.

He’s focusing his message on Iowa, where he recently landed a coveted speaking slot at the state party’s Lincoln Dinner.

Mr Binkley is campaigning on immigration reform, reducing the national debt, urban education, and — in a sign of how prominent the issue has become in conservative circles as much as liberal ones — taking on the pharmaceutical industry.

But despite already having invested more than $US1.7 million ($2.64 million) into his own campaign, he’s failing to show up in most early polls — if he’s included at all.

Declared: Perry Johnson

Perry Johnson enters the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland on March 2, 2023.(Supplied: Perry Johnson for President Inc)

Background: Businessman, author, Michigan gubernatorial candidate

Home state: Michigan

Age on election day 2024: 76

A businessman known primarily for his work in quality control, Perry Johnson announced his 2024 presidential bid during conservative gala CPAC, where he came in third in a straw poll behind former president Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

His previous attempt to run for office didn’t go so smoothly, having been disqualified from Michigan’s 2022 governor’s race once fraudulent signatures were found on his nominating petition.

An avid bridge player, Mr Johnson lists among his accomplishments five National Bridge Championships and an eighth-place finish in the 1998 World Championship in Lille, France.

Like Larry Elder and Miami mayor Francis Suarez, Mr Johnson said he had met the criteria required to attend the first Republican primary debate — but organisers disagreed.

Possible: Kristi Noem

South Dakota governor Kristi Noem speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, on February 25, 2022.(Reuters: Marco Bello)

Background: Governor of South Dakota, former congresswoman, farmer

Home state: South Dakota

Age on election day 2024: 52

South Dakota governor Kristi Noem is increasingly becoming part of the conversation when it comes to the 2024 Republican field.

The 51-year-old second-term governor connects well with her party’s base, telling the story of how she had to leave college early as a young woman after her father died in a farm accident.

Ms Noem earned a reputation as a Trump loyalist during his time in office, and has been spoken about as a possible running mate.

However, she has stood up to the former president on occasion, notably calling out his trade war with China for “devastating” her state’s economy — not to mention denying him a spot on Mount Rushmore.

When asked in early 2023 if she had considered running for president, she said she’s “not convinced she needs to”.

Possible: John Bolton

US national security advisor John Bolton during a visit to London on August 12, 2019.(Reuters: Peter Nicholls)

Background: Former national security adviser, former ambassador to the United Nations, former Fox News commentator

Home state: Maryland

Age on election day 2024: 75

A well-known foreign policy hawk, John Bolton cut his teeth during the Reagan administration before being appointed as an undersecretary of state and then ambassador to the United Nations by George W Bush.

A committed advocate for the war in Iraq, he was later an uncomfortable presence in the Trump White House during his year-long tenure as national security adviser, and has spoken openly of his alarm at Mr Trump’s haphazard approach to foreign policy in the years since.

He says he’s seriously considering challenging the former president, calling Mr Trump’s 2024 campaign “poison” for the GOP.

A debate clash between Mr Trump and Mr Bolton would be something to witness. Mr Trump could barely hide his disdain for Mr Bolton when they were working together, and reportedly told advisers “the moustache is a problem” when considering him for a cabinet post early in his presidency.

Declared: Joe Biden

US President Joe Biden delivers the 2023 State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress.(Pool via AP Photos: Jacquelyn Martin)

Background: President of the United States, former vice-president of the United States, former senator for Delaware

Home state: Delaware

Age on election day 2024: 81 

The incumbent president has formally declared his intention to seek a second term, accompanied once again by Vice-President Kamala Harris as his running mate.

A senator for 36 years before becoming Barack Obama’s vice-president in 2009, Mr Biden has so far had mixed success when it comes to implementing his first-term agenda.

However, he’s fallen short when it comes to protecting voting rights and following through on other major campaign promises, such as raising the minimum wage.

Mr Biden’s age — and how he navigates it as an issue — will also play a significant factor in whether or not he can pull off a successful re-election campaign.

Already the oldest president in history at 80, he’ll be 82 by the beginning of his second term, and will have to convince voters he’s fit to serve up until he leaves the White House at 86.

Declared: Robert F Kennedy Jr

Robert F Kennedy Jr, nephew of former US president John F Kennedy, waves as he attends a demonstration against COVID-19 vaccines in Mmilan, Italy on November 13, 2021.(Reuters: Flavio Lo Scalvo)

Background: Environmental lawyer, anti-vaccine activist, author

Home state: New York/Massachusetts

Age on election day 2024: 70

Robert F Kennedy Jr, the son of popular former senator and 1968 presidential candidate Robert “Bobby” Kennedy, will contest the 2024 primary as a Democrat.

An environmental lawyer by trade, Mr Kennedy is more widely known as an outspoken conspiracy theorist and anti-vaccine campaigner dating back to well before the COVID-19 pandemic.

His most recent book offering is The Real Anthony Fauci, in which he argues Dr Fauci, the scientist who spearheaded America’s pandemic response, worked “in tandem with his long-term partner, billionaire Bill Gates” to suppress hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as COVID treatments in favour of vaccines.

In response, Dr Fauci called Mr Kennedy “a very disturbed individual”.

Mr Kennedy’s anti-vaccine statements have elicited strong rebukes from other members of the Kennedy family in the past — as well as from his wife Cheryl Hines, an actress on Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm.

He’s nevertheless managed to pull together a number of notable endorsements, including from Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, and recorded double-digit showings in early polls that will irritate Democrats who believe the party needs to quickly unite behind Mr Biden.

Declared: Marianne Williamson

Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson speaks at the Faith, Politics and the Common Good Forum at Franklin Jr High school in Des Moines, Iowa, on January 9, 2020.(AP Photo: Andrew Harnik)

Background: Self-help author, spiritual and progressive activist

Home state: California/Texas

Age on election day 2024: 72

Self-help author Marianne Williamson was the first notable Democrat to challenge Mr Biden for the party’s nod in 2024.

Once known as “Oprah’s spiritual adviser” due to her frequent appearances on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show, Ms Williamson has backed progressive causes throughout her career, including anti-poverty campaigns, support for HIV/AIDS charities and the establishment of a US Department of Peace.

But she’s perhaps most well-known for her unsuccessful run for the Democratic nomination in 2020, during which she initially polled high enough to be included in the first round of primary debates.

Her campaign was short-lived, but still made headlines due to her overtly spiritual approach to politics, as she told voters she would “harness love for political purposes” and take on Donald Trump’s “dark psychic force”.

Ms Williamson says she’s challenging Joe Biden because she believes she can “contribute to harnessing the collective sensibility that I feel is our greatest hope at this time”.

Unlikely: Gavin Newsom

California governor Gavin Newsom speaks to victims’ families and local leaders after a mass shooting in Half Moon Bay, California, on January 24, 2023.(AP Photo: Aaron Kehoe)

Background: Governor of California, former lieutenant-governor of California, former mayor of San Francisco

Home state: California

Age on election day 2024: 57

As the governor of California and a former mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom has earned a reputation as a slick, ambitious politician, able and willing to change tactics as circumstances require.

Despite a history of personal scandals and a number of recent crises in the Golden State, he’s currently riding high in state polls and handily beat an effort to recall him in 2021.

Mr Newsom has spoken about running for president in the future, but has repeatedly denied he’s running in 2024 — going so far as to say there’s “no one better to lead” than Mr Biden.

A day is a year in politics, though, and his recent eagerness to weigh in on national issues — not to mention his perpetual battle with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — points to someone who is aware he should at least keep the door open should circumstances change.

Poll-watchers say it’s not a matter of if, but when Mr Newsom runs for president.

Fun fact: He used to be married to Kimberly Guilfoyle, who’s now engaged to Donald Trump Jr.

Unlikely: Gretchen Whitmer

Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer speaks about an electric ute at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan, on September 16, 2021.(Reuters: Rebecca Cook)

Background: Governor of Michigan, former state senator, former state representative

Home state: Michigan

Age on election day 2024: 53

Outside of being the target of an ill-fated kidnapping attempt, Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer isn’t too widely known beyond the borders of the United States.

But as a female, second-term governor with a liberal record who is nevertheless popular in a swing state — and who just soundly defeated a Trump-backed opponent — Ms Whitmer is someone who ticks all the boxes required for a Democrat to mount a formidable primary campaign.

She’s managed to pass a slate of left-leaning legislation in Michigan despite rock-solid Republican opposition, and is beginning to see her national spotlight grow as she pioneers the use of Gen-Z-friendly platforms like TikTok and Twitch to reach younger voters.

The only issue is she’s flatly said she’s backing President Biden — even if she’s keeping her options open in the future.

Unlikely: JB Pritzker

Illinois governor Jay Robert (JB) Pritzker speaks during a science initiative event at the University of Chicago on July 23, 2020.(Reuters: Kamil Krzaczynski)

Background: Governor of Illinois, former businessman, former political staffer

Home state: Illinois

Age on election day 2024: 59

A member of the wealthy Pritzker family, which owns the Hyatt hotel chain, billionaire Jay Robert “JB” Pritzker was a longtime Democratic donor before winning the party’s nomination for Illinois governor in 2018.

While a billionaire investor might seem an unlikely ally of progressives, the 58-year-old governor has won over the party’s left with a string of policy wins in his state, having legalised recreational cannabis, enacted a $US15 minimum wage, codified access to abortions after the overturning of Roe v Wade and enacted a ban on assault weapons.

He’s also open about his intent to run for higher office one day, and hasn’t hesitated to spend his own money to achieve political goals.

Mr Pritzker was spoken about for some time as the Democrats’ “break glass” option for 2024 if Joe Biden decided not to run. But he’s now strongly endorsed Mr Biden, launching a spirited defence of the incumbent’s decision to seek re-election and taking up a position on the president’s campaign advisory board.

“I don’t think there’s anybody that’s serious that’s actually considered running against Joe Biden because he’s done such a great job,” he said.

Unlikely: Dean Phillips

United States Congressman Dean Phillips on September 16, 2020.(Pool via Reuters: Kevin Dietsch)

Background: Congressman, businessman

Home state: Minnesota

Age on election day 2024: 55

Citing polling showing most Democratic voters would prefer to field an alternative candidate to Joe Biden, third-term Minnesota congressman Dean Phillips has begun speaking out against the president’s seemingly obstacle-free path to the Democratic nomination.

“Democrats are telling me that they want, not a coronation, but they want a competition,” he told CBS’s Face the Nation in August.

“If we don’t heed that call, shame on us. And the consequences, I believe, are going to be disastrous.”

A former liquor CEO and ideological moderate, Mr Phillips says he’s calling on all qualified candidates to jump into the race.

He’s also met with Democratic donors to discuss his own possible run — although he says his own candidacy is “very unlikely” to be part of the 2024 story.

Unlikely: Pete Buttigieg

US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg speaks at a news conference at the construction site of the Hudson Tunnel Project in New York on Tuesday, January 31, 2023.(AP Photo: John Minchillo)

Background: Secretary of transportation, former mayor of South Bend, former US Navy Reserve lieutenant

Home state: Indiana

Age on election day 2024: 42

A former mayor of South Bend, Indiana (population 100,000), Pete Buttigieg ran an unexpectedly strong (and just plain unexpected) race for the presidency in 2020 before being chosen to become Mr Biden’s transportation secretary.

Since then, he’s been an effective surrogate for Mr Biden on morning TV and cable news, and a popular presence on the campaign trail for Democrats in the 2022 midterms.

While politically talented, experience nevertheless remains a question for Mr Buttigieg, who’ll be just 42 by the time the election rolls around — although he will have spent four years in Mr Biden’s cabinet since his last campaign.

If elected president, he would be the first openly gay person to hold the office, as well as the youngest president ever elected.

Mr Buttigieg has backed Mr Biden’s re-election campaign, and says “I don’t have any plans to do any job besides the one I’ve got.”

It’s not the most categorical of denials, but it is a sign that a challenge against his boss is very unlikely to happen.

Unlikely: Stacey Abrams

Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams concedes the 2022 governor’s race in Atlanta on November 8, 2022.(AP Photo: Ben Gray)

Background: Former Georgia state minority leader, former Georgia gubernatorial candidate, voting rights activist

Home state: Georgia

Age on election day 2024: 50

Stacey Abrams makes a point of being open about her ambitions, telling interviewers she has a responsibility to show young people of colour they can aim for the top.

She first came to national prominence after outperforming expectations in a tough governor’s race in 2018, and campaigned to be included on Mr Biden’s list of potential running mates in 2020.

The massive voter organisation effort she put together for her own campaign was credited with helping turn Georgia blue in the 2020 presidential and senate elections, as well as helping senator Raphael Warnock fend off a challenge from college football superstar Herschel Walker in 2022.

However, the Georgia governorship has remained just out of reach for Ms Abrams, and leapfrogging it to announce a White House bid could open her to attacks claiming she’s not electable — a difficulty she is already facing as she mulls a third run for the governor’s mansion.

Ms Abrams has made it clear she won’t run for president if Mr Biden is running. But if something causes him to shift course, an outsider bid would be very on-brand.

Green Party: Cornel West

Political activist Cornel West announces his candidacy for the US presidency via social media on June 5, 2023.(Supplied)

Background: Philosopher, progressive activist

Home state: Oklahoma/New York

Age on election day 2024: 72

One of America’s most prominent public intellectuals, Cornel West launched his third-party presidential bid with a video on Twitter set to jazz music.

“In these bleak times, I have decided to run for truth and justice which takes the form of running for president of the United States as a candidate for the People’s Party,” he said.

A few days later he said he would be seeking the Green Party nomination instead.

The philosopher and activist, called Brother West by his supporters, is just as widely known for his appearances in popular media as for his academic career, which has seen him teach at Harvard, Princeton and Dartmouth universities.

He’s appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher and Joe Rogan’s podcast, released hip-hop albums, and made cameo appearances in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.

Throughout his long career he’s championed progressive causes such as racial justice, ending poverty and mass incarceration, pacifism, and universal healthcare.

Dr West, a Christian who refers to himself as a non-Marxist socialist, has supported left-wing presidential candidates in the past, including Bill Bradley, Jill Stein and Bernie Sanders.

While he doesn’t stand much of a chance at winning the White House, his candidacy will worry Democrats concerned he could siphon votes away Mr Biden, potentially handing the election to the Republicans.

Independent: Joe Manchin?

West Virginia senator Joe Manchin speaks during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Afghanistan on September 28, 2021.

Background: Senator for West Virginia, former governor of West Virginia, coal and real estate broker

Home state: West Virginia

Age on election day 2024: 77

Conservative Democratic senator Joe Manchin, who represents coal-loving West Virginia, has long been a thorn in the side of the progressive wing of his party, using his position to loudly undercut left-wing talking points and stall or sink progressive legislation.

His supporters argue he’s essentially a bonus vote, delivering the Democrats a regular senator from one of the country’s reddest states who can be counted on to vote for majority leaders, judges and the occasional big-ticket item such as the Affordable Care Act.

Forever decrying partisanship and political extremes on both sides of the aisle, he’s now toying with taking things a step further, as he refuses to rule out an independent or third-party bid for the presidency in 2024.

He’s attended several events hosted by No Labels, a non-partisan group chaired by Republican Larry Hogan and former Democrat Joe Lieberman that intends to run a unity ticket as a third option in 2024.

Don’t call him a spoiler candidate, though.

“I’ve never been in any race I’ve ever spoiled. I’ve been in races to win. If I get in the race, I’m gonna win,” he told a town hall in New Hampshire in July.

“I haven’t made a decision,” he quickly added.

Independent: Liz Cheney?

Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney speaks during the Anti-Defamation League’s Never is Now summit in New York on November 10, 2022.(Reuters: Jeenah Moon)

Background: Professor of politics, former congresswoman, former diplomat

Home state: Wyoming

Age on election day 2024: 58

Former Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney, the daughter of George W Bush vice-president Dick Cheney, was once considered to have serious street cred in the Republican Party.

That changed in the wake of the January 6 attack, after which she became one of the few Republicans to genuinely stand up to Mr Trump, serving on the commission to investigate the attack and calling out her colleagues for their unwillingness to confront the former president.

Her unwillingness to “go along with President Trump’s lie” cost her her seat in Congress.

Ms Cheney has spoken openly about challenging Mr Trump since then, and has built up a considerable campaign war chest. But she’s acknowledged that if she were to be on the ballot in 2024, it wouldn’t be as a Republican.

She says she’ll make a decision soon. In the meantime, she’s taken on a professorship at the University of Virginia as she mulls things over.

Independent: Larry Hogan?

Maryland governor Larry Hogan holds a news conference in Annapolis, Maryland, on July 22, 2020.(Reuters: Jonathan Ernst)

Background: Former governor of Maryland, former Maryland secretary of appointments, land broker

Home state: Maryland

Age on election day 2024: 68

Frequent Trump critic Larry Hogan says he has made the “difficult decision” not to run for president as a Republican, citing the need to avoid repeating “the same mistakes that we made in 2016” by splitting the anti-Trump vote.

“It’s better for us to have a smaller field with a strong candidate or two rather than 10 or more people who are failing to get attention, who are all in single digits,” he said.

However, the former Maryland governor said in early September that he has not closed the door on a White House run as a No Labels candidate — the same group courting Democratic senator Joe Manchin.

“I think we should only put together a ticket in the event that it’s Trump and Biden,” he told CBS’s Face the Nation.

“Nobody’s trying to spoil anything. This is about actually receiving a majority of the votes.”

A centrist, Mr Hogan blames Mr Trump’s domination of the Republican Party for its lacklustre results in 2018, 2020 and 2022, when he said the Republicans should have won the Senate.

He says the better way forward is for parties to have a message — and a candidate — that appeals to a wider group of people.

“I think kind of doubling down on the rhetoric just to appeal to the base may backfire in a general election,” he told NPR’s Morning Edition.

His own electoral success is unquestionable, having left office due to term limits with a 77 per cent approval rating — one of the highest in the country for a governor — despite being a Republican running a deeply blue state.

The post Who’s operating for president of the US in 2024? This is your information to the candidates appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

FILE – The Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant is seen June 1, 2023, in Avila Beach, Calif. The power plant was scheduled to close by 2025. But the Legislature changed course in September 2022 and opened a path for the reactors to keep running. On Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023, operator Pacific Gas & Electric asked federal regulators to extend the plant’s operation while, supporters and critics clashed at a state hearing on Diablo Canyon’s future. (Laura Dickinson/The Tribune via AP, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — More than a year after California endorsed a proposal to extend the lifespan of its last nuclear power plant, disputes continue to swirl about the safety of its decades-old reactors, whether more than $1 billion in public financing for the extension could be in jeopardy and even if the electricity is needed in the dawning age of renewables.

Late last month, a state judge tentatively approved the blueprint to keep the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant operating for an additional five years, until 2030. The proposal, which could get finalized later this month, imposed several conditions, including that federal nuclear safety regulators greenlight the longer run and that a state loan supporting the extension is not canceled.

The twin reactors, located midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, began operating in the mid-1980s. They supply up to 9% of the state’s electricity on any given day.

Environmentalists argue California has adequate power without the reactors and that their continued operation could hinder development of new sources of clean energy. They also warn that long-delayed testing on one of the reactors poses a safety risk that could result in an accident, a claim disputed by operator Pacific Gas & Electric.

Public Utilities Commission Administrative Law Judge Ehren D. Seybert’s proposed ruling did not directly address yet another question: Whether a past felony conviction against PG&E might pose an obstacle to the government financing for the extension.

California is the birthplace of the modern environmental movement and for decades has had a fraught relationship with nuclear power. In 2016, PG&E, environmental groups and plant worker unions reached an agreement to close Diablo Canyon by 2025. But the Legislature voided the deal last year at the urging of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said the power is needed to ward off blackouts as climate change stresses the energy system.

PG&E says it wants to keep the plant open to “ensure statewide electrical reliability and combat climate change” at the direction of the state. But the plant has to clear a series of state and federal regulatory hurdles, and it remains in dispute how much ratepayers will ultimately have to pay to keep it open.

On Tuesday, the same day that PG&E submitted its application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to keep the reactors running, supporters and critics clashed in a state utilities commission hearing over whether the plan is a sound investment or a financially reckless gamble. The utility is seeking a 20-year extension, typical in the industry, but emphasized the state would control how long the plant runs.

Matthew Freedman, an attorney with the advocacy group The Utility Reform Network, told regulators that PG&E was looking for a “blank check” from ratepayers.

The fight is playing out as the long-struggling nuclear industry sees a potential rebirth in the era of global warming. Nuclear power doesn’t produce carbon pollution like fossil fuels, but it leaves behind waste that can remain dangerously radioactive for centuries.

In September, environmental and anti-nuclear groups called on federal regulators to shut down one of Diablo Canyon’s reactors. Friends of the Earth and Mothers for Peace said in a petition filed with the NRC that tests and inspections have been delayed for nearly 20 years on a pressure vessel in the Unit 1 reactor. They also argued that the steel wall in Unit 1 might be deteriorating from sustained exposure to radiation and is becoming susceptible to cracking, a condition technically known as embrittlement.

The pressure vessels are thick steel containers that hold nuclear fuel and cooling water in the reactors. The NRC took no action on the request and instead asked agency staff to review it.

PG&E has maintained the plant is safe, an assessment endorsed by the NRC.

PG&E was expected to begin embrittlement testing on the vessel last month, with the plant shut down for refueling. But it told legislators that workers couldn’t remove samples inside the vessel because they did not have the correct equipment to access them.

PG&E has said workers would try again during the next refueling period, which could be as much as two years away. Once removed, evaluating the material can take another year. Under that scenario, it’s possible that information might not be available until after state reviews are completed and the NRC has considered the utility’s request for extended licenses.

State Sen. John Laird and Assembly member Dawn Addis, both Democrats, urged PG&E to determine if alternative testing can be used. In a letter to the utility, they lamented the lost opportunity to answer “allegations that the vessel is dangerously embrittled.”

Financing questions also have emerged.

In 2016, a federal jury found PG&E guilty of multiple felonies for failing to properly inspect gas pipelines before a 2010 blast that incinerated a neighborhood in San Bruno, south of San Francisco, killing eight people. Federal rules generally prohibit the government from entering into a contract with any corporation with a federal felony conviction, though exceptions can be made.

The Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility, an anti-nuclear group, has alleged that PG&E failed to disclose its conviction before it received conditional approval from the U.S. Department of Energy last year for $1.1 billion in funding for the extension.

Both the Energy Department and PG&E declined to answer directly when asked by The Associated Press if the conviction was disclosed to the department. DOE spokesman Chad Smith said in an email that “DOE is in active discussions” with the utility, without providing further specifics. PG&E said it is eligible for the money because it already received conditional approval last year.

The Biden administration gave preliminary approval for the Energy Department funding in November. The financing came through the administration’s civil nuclear credit program, which is intended to bail out financially distressed owners or operators of nuclear power reactors as part of the administration’s effort to cut planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, compared with 2005 levels.

The alliance said that if a failure to disclose the conviction is confirmed, PG&E could see its hopes for a longer run at Diablo Canyon extinguished — and possibly expose the company to penalties. Also at risk could be a $1.4 billion, forgivable state loan authorized by the Legislature, the alliance said, which is expected to be paid back with the federal funds. ___ This story has been corrected to show the state senator’s name is John Laird, not Robert Laird.

The post Disputes over security, price swirl a 12 months after California OK’d plan to maintain final nuke plant working | KWKT appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — More than a year after California endorsed a proposal to extend the lifespan of its last nuclear power plant, disputes continue to swirl about the safety of its decades-old reactors, whether more than $1 billion in public financing for the extension could be in jeopardy and even if the electricity is needed in the dawning age of renewables.

Late last month, a state judge tentatively approved the blueprint to keep the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant operating for an additional five years, until 2030. The proposal, which could get finalized later this month, imposed several conditions, including that federal nuclear safety regulators greenlight the longer run and that a state loan supporting the extension is not canceled.

The twin reactors, located midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, began operating in the mid-1980s. They supply up to 9% of the state’s electricity on any given day.

Environmentalists argue California has adequate power without the reactors and that their continued operation could hinder development of new sources of clean energy. They also warn that long-delayed testing on one of the reactors poses a safety risk that could result in an accident, a claim disputed by operator Pacific Gas & Electric.

Public Utilities Commission Administrative Law Judge Ehren D. Seybert’s proposed ruling did not directly address yet another question: Whether a past felony conviction against PG&E might pose an obstacle to the government financing for the extension.

California is the birthplace of the modern environmental movement and for decades has had a fraught relationship with nuclear power. In 2016, PG&E, environmental groups and plant worker unions reached an agreement to close Diablo Canyon by 2025. But the Legislature voided the deal last year at the urging of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said the power is needed to ward off blackouts as climate change stresses the energy system.

PG&E says it wants to keep the plant open to “ensure statewide electrical reliability and combat climate change” at the direction of the state. But the plant has to clear a series of state and federal regulatory hurdles, and it remains in dispute how much ratepayers will ultimately have to pay to keep it open.

On Tuesday, the same day that PG&E submitted its application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to keep the reactors running, supporters and critics clashed in a state utilities commission hearing over whether the plan is a sound investment or a financially reckless gamble. The utility is seeking a 20-year extension, typical in the industry, but emphasized the state would control how long the plant runs.

Matthew Freedman, an attorney with the advocacy group The Utility Reform Network, told regulators that PG&E was looking for a “blank check” from ratepayers.

The fight is playing out as the long-struggling nuclear industry sees a potential rebirth in the era of global warming. Nuclear power doesn’t produce carbon pollution like fossil fuels, but it leaves behind waste that can remain dangerously radioactive for centuries.

In September, environmental and anti-nuclear groups called on federal regulators to shut down one of Diablo Canyon’s reactors. Friends of the Earth and Mothers for Peace said in a petition filed with the NRC that tests and inspections have been delayed for nearly 20 years on a pressure vessel in the Unit 1 reactor. They also argued that the steel wall in Unit 1 might be deteriorating from sustained exposure to radiation and is becoming susceptible to cracking, a condition technically known as embrittlement.

The pressure vessels are thick steel containers that hold nuclear fuel and cooling water in the reactors. The NRC took no action on the request and instead asked agency staff to review it.

PG&E has maintained the plant is safe, an assessment endorsed by the NRC.

PG&E was expected to begin embrittlement testing on the vessel last month, with the plant shut down for refueling. But it told legislators that workers couldn’t remove samples inside the vessel because they did not have the correct equipment to access them.

PG&E has said workers would try again during the next refueling period, which could be as much as two years away. Once removed, evaluating the material can take another year. Under that scenario, it’s possible that information might not be available until after state reviews are completed and the NRC has considered the utility’s request for extended licenses.

State Sen. John Laird and Assembly member Dawn Addis, both Democrats, urged PG&E to determine if alternative testing can be used. In a letter to the utility, they lamented the lost opportunity to answer “allegations that the vessel is dangerously embrittled.”

Financing questions also have emerged.

In 2016, a federal jury found PG&E guilty of multiple felonies for failing to properly inspect gas pipelines before a 2010 blast that incinerated a neighborhood in San Bruno, south of San Francisco, killing eight people. Federal rules generally prohibit the government from entering into a contract with any corporation with a federal felony conviction, though exceptions can be made.

The Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility, an anti-nuclear group, has alleged that PG&E failed to disclose its conviction before it received conditional approval from the U.S. Department of Energy last year for $1.1 billion in funding for the extension.

Both the Energy Department and PG&E declined to answer directly when asked by The Associated Press if the conviction was disclosed to the department. DOE spokesman Chad Smith said in an email that “DOE is in active discussions” with the utility, without providing further specifics. PG&E said it is eligible for the money because it already received conditional approval last year.

The Biden administration gave preliminary approval for the Energy Department funding in November. The financing came through the administration’s civil nuclear credit program, which is intended to bail out financially distressed owners or operators of nuclear power reactors as part of the administration’s effort to cut planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, compared with 2005 levels.

The alliance said that if a failure to disclose the conviction is confirmed, PG&E could see its hopes for a longer run at Diablo Canyon extinguished — and possibly expose the company to penalties. Also at risk could be a $1.4 billion, forgivable state loan authorized by the Legislature, the alliance said, which is expected to be paid back with the federal funds. ___ This story has been corrected to show the state senator’s name is John Laird, not Robert Laird.

The post Disputes over security, value swirl a yr after California OK’d plan to maintain final nuke plant working appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Daniel Lurie decided to run for mayor of San Francisco after an unsettling but all too common moment for many city residents. It was an early June morning when a man, naked and suffering “real distress,” ambled across the street near the corner of Valencia and 15th streets.

Lurie said his children looked at him, the founder of anti-poverty nonprofit Tipping Point, as if he were going to leap into action and give the man shelter and comfort. In reality, he did what many San Franciscans are forced to: carry on.

“At that moment, I realized that we just had so much more work to do,” Lurie told The Standard. “I couldn’t just sit by as people are really mentally ill, living on the streets without care. And I fundamentally believe there is nothing progressive about having 8,000 people that are homeless each day in San Francisco and allowing them to suffer on our streets. So, that moment for me was really striking.”

A point-in-time count of homeless people in 2022 found that 7,754 people were experiencing homelessness, and 4,400 are sleeping outdoors.

Lurie’s entry into the mayor’s race has been expected for months. The nonprofit founder and heir to the Levi Strauss fortune plans to to finalize paperwork Tuesday before addressing a crowd of supporters in Potrero Hill, the neighborhood where Lurie lives with his wife and two young children.

Daniel Lurie and his wife, Becca Prowda, stand inside of the Department of Elections as he finalizes his candidacy for mayor of San Francisco at City Hall on Sept. 26, 2023. | Source: Ben Fanjoy for The Standard

Below are excerpts from an interview with Lurie on why he is running against Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Ahsha Safaí in the November 2024 election. Answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.

The Standard: Given your lack of experience as an elected official, why do you think people should vote for you over London Breed?

Daniel Lurie: We’re facing a crisis of leadership and, frankly, the direction that this city is headed leaves me deeply, deeply concerned that my children are not going to love San Francisco the way I did growing up. I created and led a large organization that has a demonstrated track record of results on issues where City Hall has missed. I have the skills and experience to bring people together instead of dividing us, and I believe I can meet this moment to make San Francisco safer, healthier and more affordable.

And I will tell you, we have the option of this trend of having insiders continuing to run, but this mayor has been in office in one of the top two positions for eight years. So I would turn the question around and say: If political experience is necessary to get us where we are right now, I’m glad I don’t have that.

Public safety is obviously a top issue for many voters. What is your specific strategy to combat property crime and confront the drug crisis?

Three points: We’ve got to fully staff our police department. You need to deter crime in the first place, so you need to have cops visible in these areas. No one is going to be selling drugs if they see cops in U.N. Plaza. No one is going into Walgreens and Safeway and robbing stores when there is a police officer out front or an increased presence of public safety officials.

No. 2, especially on the drug crisis front, we need to change the type of investigations. We need to make sure that judges are holding these drug dealers in custody instead of enabling them to just have this revolving door where, many times, they get arrested and they beat the cops back to the street. It involves going after them for the conspiratorial nature of their crimes.

And the third thing—this is really important, and it sounds really simple, but it’s not happening, as you and others have reported—you have high-level public officials saying there is not good coordination across the criminal justice system. There is a serious lack of that. We need a mayor willing to work across city departments, state departments and federal departments. We have all of these resources, and we should be grateful to the governor and Speaker Emerita [Nancy] Pelosi for making sure we have [the California Highway Patrol assisting in investigations]. I’m all for that, but we keep hearing there is a lack of coordination.

Where do you stand on the court injunction that city officials say is currently blocking them from clearing homeless encampments?

First, let me be clear, you do not have a right to stay on the street if you have been offered a shelter bed. This injunction came down in December 2022. For me, this is really framing this whole issue about why we need new leadership from the outside. We had this whole protest on the courthouse steps a [month] ago, and yet for nine months, we’ve known what we needed to do, and that is erect enough shelter beds to make sure that everyone has a place to go, shelter-wise.

We can do it compassionately. We can do it empathetically. We can have a place for our unhoused neighbors to store their belongings, have a shower, do their laundry and have case workers. But instead, we just decided to say it’s all this one judge’s fault. And frankly, that’s just one more example of our city and our elected leaders pointing fingers and saying it’s this person’s fault or that person’s fault, or it’s the Board of Supervisors’ fault.

At some point, we need leadership. We need someone to stand up and say, “This is my city, and I’m going to make sure we get the job done.”

Daniel Lurie smiles as he finalizes paperwork to run for mayor of San Francisco at City Hall on Sept. 26, 2023. | Source: Ben Fanjoy for The Standard

So when you say build more shelter beds, are we talking about taking vacant warehouses and creating larger congregate shelters?

I mean, we continue to point out there is a navigation center on the Embarcadero that, you know, the neighbors fought for a long time. And now, they’re all very happy with it. There are no problems; it’s clean, unlike some of the other ones around town. You know, you’ve seen Supervisor [Hillary] Ronen talk about the Mission one being a real problem. I visited San Diego, and they had just this unbelievable shelter: 329 people, showers, places for people to store things, people coming back from work. We would need five or six places like this, maybe not even that many. We’ll say we need about 1,000 shelter beds to abide by this injunction, because we know that when you offer shelter beds, not everybody is going to take it. But if you have enough shelter beds and people don’t take it, it does not give them the right to stay on the street.

What specific proposals will you put forward to accelerate the Downtown recovery?

What I do like is the concept of making Downtown a 24/7 neighborhood. We need to build more housing Downtown. I like the idea of a campus and maybe City College of San Francisco. We have some pretty old buildings currently [at City College], but talk about moving that Downtown? 

And we need to diversify who is in Downtown. I love that we are known for being the hub of AI innovation and the AI boom, and we should create that, but as we all know we can’t be one-dimensional again. Because we were pretty one-dimensional, and that’s caused us problems when companies fled during the pandemic. So, we should be going after a diverse group of businesses, nonprofits, arts and cultural institutions, and also our restaurant and bars and more housing.

Both you and Mayor Breed are from San Francisco. And she talks a lot about her story and how she came up in the Western Addition in public housing projects. You’ve been tagged as an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune. How do you combat that narrative?

I grew up in a family where I understood the privilege; I understood opportunities. I understood the doors were always open for me. But all four of my parents continually pushed me to remember that I have it good and I needed to be part of the community, that I have an obligation to serve, whatever that meant. 

I had a stepfather who was part of Levi Strauss and was the CEO and was committed to LGBTQ rights, committed to building the first desegregated factory. When you talk about San Francisco values, you talk about inclusion, diversity and being a beacon for hope. I saw that with my stepfather’s focus when he was running Levi’s. You know, my dad’s a rabbi who has helped tens of thousands of Jews flee persecution. I grew up in a family that was always about the community.

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A competition is underway for the best bathroom in the nation—and a local loo is in the running. 

Two “dazzling” potties at the beloved San Francisco queer dive El Rio have been nominated for the 2023 America’s Best Restroom Award along with “porcelain pioneers” from the Little America Hotel in Salt Lake City to the Hell n’ Blazes Brewing Company in Melbourne, Florida. 

El Rio’s ADA-accessible, unisex “two-stall stunners” with vibrant yellow tile and black-and-white waves, evoke “a futuristic Tokyo-bound subway,” wrote Cintas, the Ohio-based restroom supplies company that’s sponsoring the contest. “They feature brightly colored and patterned tile and paint, backlit mirrors.”

El Rio bathroom | Source: Mikiko Kikuyama

The two johns were designed by Principal Maryam Rostami and Associate Kate Thorson of TEF Design. 

El Rio, a San Francisco Legacy Business, opened in 1978 as a Brazilian leather gay bar and continues to be a LGBTQ+ space that is welcoming “to all good people.” San Franciscans love it for its spacious back patio, musical acts, hard-to-beat drink specials and laid-back, creative vibe. 

The bar has legions of fans, but for most of its history, El Rio’s restrooms had been its Achilles’ heel. The cramped “universal toilet” and tiny “galactic urinal”—cheeky names for gender-neutral facilities long before they became widespread—routinely had long lines at parties like Daytime Realness or Hard French until they were renovated earlier this year. 

The America’s Best Restroom contest has been running for 21 years to honor “America’s Porcelain Pioneers.” 

“A growing number of companies are going the extra mile to create the most memorable restrooms imaginable,” explained the Cintas website. 

“Many people take public restrooms for granted,” added Julia Walsh, the company’s marketing manager. “This year’s list of finalists represents some facilities that people seek specifically for the restrooms.” 

The 10 finalists were released July 11, and the public has one month to vote for their favorite toilet. The winner receives $2,500 in products and services from Cintas—in addition, of course, to the honor of being voted best bathroom. 

In a city that’s sometimes criticized for being thin on public restrooms, some San Franciscans feel a deep allegiance to their favorite loos. With the news of Nordstrom’s departure from Downtown’s Westfield Centre, some mourned not only the loss of the department store but also one of the city’s most-beloved public restrooms. 

But the city still has some world-class public bathrooms hiding in plain sight. 

The Plaza Hotel’s grand bathrooms are open to anyone who happens to stroll through its historic halls, and museums like SFMOMA and the De Young also have excellent—and clean—WCs. And if you broaden yo ur search to restaurants, you’ll encounter some heart-stopping designs, like in this recent list of favorites put together by Eater SF. 

Will El Rio end up number one? We think there’s no contest—but we’d settle for number two. 

The Standard would love to know: What’s your favorite public restroom in San Francisco? Email your top contenders to jzigoris@sfstandard, and we’ll do a follow-up story with the results. 

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SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Bay Area Rapid Transit is running trains at reduced speeds due to the warm weather, the transit system announced Friday. BART trains between Orinda and Pittsburg/Bay Point stations operate at a slower rate between 12:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m

Passengers are advised to add 20 minutes to the scheduled travel time to accommodate delays.

Eastbound traffic on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge was blocked

Trains between Hayward and Fremont as well as Castro Valley and Dublin/Pleasanton stations also run slower due to high temperatures. Passengers on these lines are advised to add 10 minutes to the scheduled travel time to accommodate delays.

Friday’s planned slowdown follows an incident in June 2021 when a Yellow Line BART train derailed between Pleasant Hill and Concord stations. BART later blamed high temperatures for the derailment. Temperatures in Concord that day were around 100 degrees.

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In the final days before the All-Star break, the San Diego Padres host the New York Mets this week.

It’s safe to say that both teams are ready to put the first half behind them.

The Padres and Mets are two of baseball’s biggest disappointments to date, trading under .500 despite high-priced, star-studded rosters. The fact that both teams are currently 38-46 seems like appropriate symmetry.

The outlook for San Diego looks a little rosier than that for New York. The Padres actually have a plus-23 running difference. They were finished off by a 5-15 record in one-run games and a 0-7 mark in extra innings. If the tight games turn for them, the Padres could certainly make a breakthrough, and unlike the Mets, their star closer (Josh Hader) is healthy.

But San Diego has lost seven of its last eight games in a section of the game that included Washington, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. A rival team shouldn’t have too many problems against this trio.

The Mets, on the other hand, got two of San Francisco’s three wins last weekend, but that was their only straight win of the last nine. New York’s bullpen was a problem after Edwin Diaz was out with a preseason knee injury, and owner Steve Cohen acknowledged his team could be a seller by the close if things don’t improve soon.

LIGHT SPOT

In a terrible season for the Oakland Athletics, they have the major league leader in stolen bases in Esteury Ruiz. At 42, he’s already surpassed last year’s leader — Baltimore’s Jorge Mateo had 35.

Ruiz has 84 hits and 14 walks this season, so he’s trying to steal about half the time he gets to base with 50 steal attempts. Brent Rooker is Oakland’s representative at the All-Star Game, but it would have been interesting to see Ruiz play as a late-inning pinch-running option for the American League.

TRIVIA TIME

The A’s have had one player since Rickey Henderson led the American League in steals, and that player clinched the title in 2011 at 49. Who was that?

RISING

The Philadelphia Phillies ended the week on a bitter note, losing two of their three losses to Washington – suffering two losses in one run to clinch a 19-4 win. But before that, Philadelphia won a three-game series at Wrigley Field against the Cubs.

The Phillies have recovered from their slow start, and after winning 19 of their last 26 games, they are just 1 1/2 games away from the final wild card in the National League. And after last year, if they can just sneak into the postseason, they know what’s possible.

FALL

The Los Angeles Angels drew in four games against the Chicago White Sox before losing two of three games to Arizona. So they had a losing record on a home side where Shohei Ohtani netted six in seven games and netted ten in his only start.

The Angels have lost a total of eight out of twelve games.

LINE OF THE WEEK

New York Yankees’ Domingo Germán scored the 24th perfect game in Major League history with an 11-0 win over Oakland on Wednesday night. He was the first pitcher from the Dominican Republic to complete a perfect game.

Germán counted three balls to just two batsmen.

COMEBACK OF THE WEEK

The Pittsburgh Pirates trailed 4-0 in game four and 7-3 in game seven before beating the Milwaukee Brewers 8-7 on Friday night. Pittsburgh scored three runs at the bottom of the ninth game and won it by hitting a two-run home run by Carlos Santana.

According to Baseball Savant, Milwaukee had a 95.5% chance of winning by the end of the seventh field.

TRIVIA ANSWER

Coco Crisp, who tied with Brett Gardner of the New York Yankees that year.

Follow Noah Trister at https://twitter.com/noahtrister

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, transcribed, or redistributed without permission.

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The Detroit Lions want to make sure no one else gets into the same quarterback situation that the San Francisco 49ers faced in the NFC Championship Game.

You may remember — unless you’re a 49ers fan who blocked it like childhood trauma — but the 49ers were effectively running out of functioning quarterbacks in the game.

Starter Brock Purdy injured his throwing arm early in the game and was replaced by backup Josh Johnson. However, Johnson was knocked out of the game with a concussion. That meant Purdy was pushed back into action despite being unable to throw the ball.

That must have spooked the Lions because they were the ones who submitted the bylaws proposal and not the 49ers.

The Lions submitted a bylaw proposal that provides for an emergency QB. Each team could nominate a 3rd QB from either the inactive or the practice team that can be activated mid-game if the 2 active QBs have been locked out for the rest of the game.

— Jonathan Jones (@jjones9) March 13, 2023

Seems like a solid idea. Given how things have gone for San Francisco, it’s hard to believe any team would fight it. Eventually someone will find a loophole and exploit it, but for now it seems like a solid idea.

However, the NFL misses an opportunity to make headlines in a way that the NHL has mastered. Soccer needs its version of Ice Hockey Emergency Goalie or EBUG.

In this case, they must implement emergency backup quarterbacks or an EBUQ.

The San Francisco 49ers’ brutal QB carousel — particularly in the NFC Championship — could be grounds for a slight rule adjustment. (Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images)

The Lions’ proposal is fine, but the NFL needs EBUQs.

You should strictly follow the template of the NHL. In short, the home team would secure the services of a backup quarterback in case of an emergency. He can be used by either team if needed. It could be anyone. Someone who was playing QB at a D-II school back then, or maybe a plumber who plays semi-pro football on the weekends.

For most games, the EBUQ just sat in the press box and ate nachos. However, if a team has both QBs out, he can put down the nachos and spring into action.

If you know how it works in the NHL, it’s exciting to see a “normal guy” dress and play in the big leagues.

The only thing that would be more fun from a fan point of view would be some kind of sweepstakes system. At the stadium on game day, washed up high school and junior college QBs who want to show they still have it can throw their name in a bucket. Then, if necessary, we grab the bucket and select a fan to jump into the game.

There’s a higher chance that the chosen person’s football career hasn’t passed Pop Warner — or that they’re completely hammered — but at least the randomness would make things fair.

Whatever the league decides, this year’s NFC Championship was likely enough for most teams to want a safety net.

Just in case you find yourself in a similar situation.

Follow on Twitter: @Matt_Reigle

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