Iowa justices asked to reverse verdict for former workers’ comp director
In 2019, a jury decided former Iowa Governor Terry Branstad retaliated against the state’s workers’ compensation commissioner at the time, when the governor moved the commissioner from the top of the state’s salary bracket to the bottom after refused to resign. Now, attorneys representing the state and the former governor are asking the court to reverse the $1.5 million verdict and dismiss the case. An attorney representing the state argued the former governor did not know the commissioner was gay at the time. Iowa Public Radio
Hundreds of employees exposed to poisons inside Florida’s only lead factory
Tampa Bay Times reporters spent 18 months examining thousands of pages of regulatory reports and company documents, including data tracking the amount of lead in the air and in the blood of employees at at Gopher Resource in Tampa, where they extract lead from used car batteries, melt it down and turn it into blocks of metal to resell. Among the findings is the company reportedly rewarded employees with bonuses if they kept the amount of lead in their blood down and punished those who couldn’t, a practice that alarmed medical experts and ethicists. Tampa Bay Times/Yahoo! News
Employees of Minnesota factory feel aftermath of asbestos 36 years later
For over a decade, employees of a Minnesota factory where asbestos was used in the production of mineral board and ceiling tile products, claim they unknowingly risked their health, causing some to develop lung abnormalities while others died. According to a study published by the Minnesota Department of Health in 1993, approximately 30 percent of the factory’s former employees screened by the state suffered from lung abnormalities that may have been caused by asbestos exposure. However, most of those affected are limited in their ability to hold their former employer accountable due to state law. Duluth News Tribune
Scientist: Nuclear power continues to break safety records
“It is always surprising to hear the public and anti-nuke activists repeating the willfully ignorant ideology that nuclear is unsafe. It turns out to be the safest of all energy sources by any measure and in any study. At the same time, nuclear has the highest rate of electricity generation of any energy source,” writes earth/environmental scientist James Conca. Forbes