ATLANTA (AP) —U.S. health officials on Tuesday gave the final signoff to Pfizer’s kid-size COVID-19 shot, a major expansion of the nation’s vaccination campaign.

The Food and Drug Administration already authorized the shots for children ages 5 to 11 — doses just a third of the amount given to teens and adults. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends who should receive FDA-cleared vaccines.

The announcement by CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky came only hours after an advisory panel unanimously decided Pfizer’s shots should be opened to the 28 million youngsters in that age group.

Millions of shots made by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech have already been shipped to states, doctors’ offices and pharmacies, to be ready for CDC’s decision.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1635890433225.png" alt="CDC Director Rochelle Walensky" />
 <figcaption>CDC Director Rochelle Walensky</figcaption>
 </figure>ATLANTA (AP) —U.S. health officials on Tuesday gave the final signoff to Pfizer’s kid-size COVID-19 shot, a major expansion of the nation’s vaccination campaign.The Food and Drug Administration already authorized the shots for children ages 5 to 11 — doses just a third of the amount given to teens and adults. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends who should receive FDA-cleared vaccines.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/10/1635537216378.png" alt="The vaccine for children has an orange cap-Photo courtesy Pfizer" />
 <figcaption>The vaccine for children has an orange cap-Photo courtesy Pfizer</figcaption>
 </figure>The announcement by CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky came only hours after an advisory panel unanimously decided Pfizer’s shots should be opened to the 28 million youngsters in that age group.Millions of shots made by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech have already been shipped to states, doctors’ offices and pharmacies, to be ready for CDC’s decision.___

US gives final clearance to COVID-19 shots for kids 5 to 11

CORRECTED 1:20 p.m. Wednesday: The original version of this story incorrectly listed the wrong pay for workers at the Tyson plant. New workers start at $20 an hour.

This is the second of a two-part series looking at what meatpacking has meant for southwest Kansas. Click <a href="https://hayspost.com/posts/bed159a1-c391-4a17-a84c-31da5504046a">HERE</a> to read the first part.

By DAVID CONDOS <a href="https://www.hppr.org/hppr-news/2021-11-01/kansas-meatpacking-workers-fueled-an-economic-boom-but-many-need-food-pantries-to-get-by">Kansas News Service</a>

GARDEN CITY — Outside an old, white two-story house in
 downtown Garden City, dozens of people stand in a loose row that spills
 out of the driveway and onto the sidewalk.

Many of them show up 
here at Emmaus House — the largest food pantry in southwest Kansas — 
every Wednesday and Friday. And they walk away with free boxes filled 
with everything from frozen bacon to salad kits to frosted cakes that 
sustain their families for another week.

Much of the food in those
 boxes was donated by the area’s largest employer, Tyson Foods. Its 
meatpacking plant has lifted Garden City to new heights of prosperity in
 the four decades since it opened on the outskirts of town.

But for many of the workers who hold down the tough jobs in that giant slaughterhouse, the reality isn’t always so rosy.

Nearly
 half of the people who stand in line at this food pantry on a given 
week come from families employed at Tyson’s meatpacking plant.

The scene at <a href="https://emmaushouseks.com/" target="_blank">Emmaus House</a>
 illustrates the ongoing growing pains Garden City has faced during its 
transformation from a small farming community to a meatpacking boom 
town. In the decades since Tyson’s plant opened, the number of jobs in 
Garden City has skyrocketed, but the per capita incomes in town have <a href="http://www.ipsr.ku.edu/conferen/kepc11/HarvestofChange.pdf" target="_blank">lost pace</a> with the rest of Kansas. And the number of people living in poverty and seeking food assistance has <a href="http://www.ipsr.ku.edu/conferen/kepc11/HarvestofChange.pdf" target="_blank">soared</a>.

“A
 lot of people think, ‘Well, you're working at Tyson, so you're making 
really good money,’ Robin Marsh, Emmaus House’s executive director, 
said. “By the time you pay your rent, by the time you pay your utilities
 … they don't have enough for food.”

Tyson recently raised starting pay at this plant to $20 per hour, but many workers' families still meet the poverty income guidelines that qualify them for food assistance from Emmaus House.

Each family that Emmaus House serves falls below the poverty line in 
order to qualify for assistance. And that group keeps growing.

The number of meals Emmaus House served <a href="http://www.ipsr.ku.edu/conferen/kepc11/HarvestofChange.pdf" target="_blank">nearly quadrupled</a>
 between 2000 and 2010. On a single day, roughly 160 families pick up 
grocery boxes from the food bank. When demand peaked earlier in the 
pandemic, that number jumped to 400.

And Tyson — which directly provides roughly <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/finneycountykansas/PST045219" target="_blank">one of every five jobs</a>
 in the county — sits at the center of what’s both wildly prosperous and
 persistently challenging about life in modern Garden City. Without the 
massive beef processing operation, this small city would likely be 
withering like so many other Great Plains communities.

But when 
many workers at the area’s largest employer can’t afford their families’
 basic needs, the question of whether or not Garden City has found 
success grows more complicated.

“It's always positive when you see growth,” Marsh said. “But if you look behind the camera, there are issues.”

When what was then the world’s largest 
meatpacking plant opened here in 1980, Garden City had a problem: It 
needed thousands of new workers.

At the time, the town had roughly
 18,000 residents and virtually no unemployment. So it opened its doors 
to immigrants and refugees, with an assist from the company that 
originally ran the giant slaughterhouse, IBP.

IBP recruited many of the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3627793" target="_blank">2,000 south Asian refugees</a> who migrated to Garden City around that time. It even broadcast help wanted ads on <a href="http://www.ipsr.ku.edu/conferen/kepc11/HarvestofChange.pdf" target="_blank">border town radio</a> stations to reach potential workers in Mexico.

“They
 followed the theory from the movie ‘Field of Dreams’: ‘Build it and 
they will come,’” said Don Stull, a former University of Kansas 
professor. “And they did come.”

Stull studied the meatpacking industry’s impact on Garden City for three decades as an anthropology professor and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Slaughterhouse-Blues-Poultry-Industry-Contemporary/dp/1111828784" target="_blank">author</a>. He said the plant’s workforce grew faster than the town’s housing market and social service systems could handle.

“Jobs come with costs,” Stull said. “And they don't talk about the costs.”

And because the meatpacking jobs had an annual turnover rate of nearly <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/07311214211012025" target="_blank">100%</a>, the company had to keep recruiting new waves of workers. Over and over again.

In the plant’s first five years, Garden City pulled in <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/07311214211012025" target="_blank">6,000</a> new residents. But the town didn’t have anywhere to put them.

The situation became so dire that city leaders held a press conference <a href="http://www.ipsr.ku.edu/conferen/kepc11/HarvestofChange.pdf" target="_blank">imploring residents</a>
 to open their homes to workers who had nowhere else to sleep. A year 
after opening, the plant surveyed its employees and found that one-third
 were paying excessive rent and <a href="http://www.ipsr.ku.edu/conferen/kepc11/HarvestofChange.pdf" target="_blank">one out of 20</a> workers was living in a car or motel.

For the immigrants and refugees who come to town to join the 
meatpacking plant’s 3,000-plus workforce today, the outlook hasn’t 
gotten much sunnier.

“Once they get here, they’re like, ‘Where are
 we going to live? Crap, we can't afford a $900 house payment,’” Marsh 
of Emmaus House said. “Those are the struggles that we still deal with 
and always have. … And if you don't believe me, drive out to IBP 
trailers.”

That’s a plot with hundreds of mobile homes lined up in
 long rows on the east side of town. IBP pushed the city to rezone the 
land in the 1980s specifically to house some of the plant’s early 
employees.

And it’s still there today. Marsh says it's common for a home there to have a hole in the floor. Or no windows.

But residents often can’t afford to move to a better place — if they could even find one.

City
 manager Matt Allen said the area continues to be about 600 to 700 
housing units short of demand. And that need grows by around 10% each 
year.

“The answer is pretty simple. … We need more houses,” Allen said. “It's the ‘How do you get those?’ That's the difficulty.”

Housing is far from the only growing pain that continues to strain Garden City in the wake of the meatpacking plant’s arrival.

Law
 enforcement, hospitals and schools have had to bridge language gaps 
between critical services and the dozens of languages residents speak.

In
 2000, half the students in Garden City’s public school system received 
free or reduced lunch because of their families’ low incomes. Today, 
that number’s up to two-thirds.

The Garden City area also ranks as <a href="https://www.khi.org/assets/uploads/news/15162/finney_county_2021.pdf" target="_blank">among the state’s lowest</a>
 for quality of life and health outcomes — and the social and economic 
factors that drive them. For example, adults in Finney County are about <a href="https://www.rwjf.org/en/cultureofhealth/what-were-learning/sentinel-communities/finney-county-kansas.html" target="_blank">twice as likely</a> to lack a primary care doctor and 50% more likely to be in poor health compared to the state average.

And
 without the same resources that big cities have, the extra work to make
 sure people don’t fall through the cracks often falls to regular folks 
who choose to step in and help.

People like Dominican Sister Janice Thome.

“We don’t have to ever worry about having enough to do,” she said. “There’s always going to be plenty.”

Most every week for the past 25 years, she has pulled her compact car
 up to Emmaus House and filled it with boxes of groceries. Then she 
starts her route, delivering the food to a rotating cast of families 
scattered across Garden City who can’t afford it and aren’t able to come
 to the food bank.

Just about the only time she doesn’t do this is
 when she’s busy lending a hand to one of the community’s other many 
needs. The previous week, she drove someone to Kansas City to meet with 
an immigration lawyer.

“It’s worth the effort to do all of this,” she said, “because look how we can sustain people’s lives, better people's lives.”

Forty
 years after the town debated whether or not to welcome the meatpacking 
plant and its thousands of immigrant and refugee workers, Thome said 
it’s hard to find someone who doesn’t think pushing for the plant was 
the right decision.

Pretty much everyone she knows in Garden City 
today values how the steady stream of new arrivals keeps the town alive —
 not just economically, but also with a cultural vibrancy that has made 
the town a richer place for everyone.

For Thome, it’s all part of living in a city that boasts the slogan: “The world grows here.”

“We're living it,” she said. “And I think it's wonderful.”

But as Garden City keeps growing, the patchwork of support that takes care of so many of its vulnerable residents will continue to face strains.

Across
 the street from the mobile home park IBP built, for example, another 
food conglomerate is building a new ground beef plant that will add a 
couple hundred more jobs to the city’s meat workforce over the next two 
years.

But as rural towns across the U.S. lose residents, having to find 
ways to deal with the growing pains still beats depopulation and a 
shrinking economy.

“Whatever challenges exist, I found that in the
 vast majority of these smaller locations, refugees — and immigrants 
more broadly — were an absolute lifeline,” Pablo Bose, who teaches about
 the geography of race at the University of Vermont, said. “I actually 
heard that particular statement like, ‘These newcomers are a lifeline.’”

Bose
 has researched refugee resettlement in America for the past decade. His
 research shows that community-based systems for supporting new 
immigrants in small towns can be highly effective because they get more 
people to buy in.

But the downside is that big cities with a 
longer history of immigration tend to have more systems in place to 
support newcomers. In rural areas, makeshift community safety nets can 
fray if they’re missing just one key person. Someone like sister Janice.

“When
 that individual gets burnt out, or retires … you have to go through a 
whole process of getting somebody up to speed,” Bose said. “It makes it 
precarious.”

Tyson Foods said in a statement that its southwest Kansas employees are "critical to (the company's) success" and touted the plant's recent initiatives aimed at boosting worker satisfaction, such as increased pay and flexible scheduling.

But when so much of Garden City’s fortunes ride the whims of a multinational conglomerate headquartered in another state, it puts a lot of what the community has gained at risk.

The
 city has tried to bring in different industries, but city manager Matt 
Allen said that meatpacking remains the backbone of the local economy.

“We’re
 still largely dependent on Tyson not only being in operation, but being
 in operation near full capacity,” he said. “Everything else sort of 
depends on that.”

And at any point, Tyson could choose to close or relocate this plant if it makes sense for its business.

That’s not some far-fetched hypothetical for Garden City — the town has actually been through that before.

There
 used to be a second meatpacking plant here run by another giant food 
company, ConAgra. That one suddenly shut down on Christmas Day in 2000 
after a fire put 2,300 people out of work overnight and sent local 
social services agencies scrambling.

When Garden City’s leaders 
traveled to ConAgra headquarters the following spring to essentially beg
 the company to come back, its executives <a href="http://www.ipsr.ku.edu/conferen/kepc11/HarvestofChange.pdf" target="_blank">refused</a> to meet with them. The plant never reopened.

“They
 didn't really give a damn about Garden City,” Stull, the KU professor, 
said, “and I think that's true of these multinational corporations in 
general.”

So whether it’s shoring up the city’s economic future or
 caring for the needs of its residents, Stull said Garden City and other
 meatpacking towns can’t look to the companies that run the plants to 
save the day.

“They’re not in the business of providing housing or health care,” he said. “They're in the business of making meat.”

David Condos covers western Kansas for High Plains Public Radio and the Kansas News Service. You can follow him on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/davidcondos" target="_blank">@davidcondos</a>.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1635860880461.png" alt="A line of people wait for the food pantry to open at Emmaus House. Maria Hernandez, center, cooks for the shelter's soup kitchen in addition to helping pass out groceries. David Condos / Kansas News Service" />
 <figcaption>A line of people wait for the food pantry to open at Emmaus House. Maria Hernandez, center, cooks for the shelter's soup kitchen in addition to helping pass out groceries. David Condos / Kansas News Service</figcaption>
 </figure>CORRECTED 1:20 p.m. Wednesday: The original version of this story incorrectly listed the wrong pay for workers at the Tyson plant. New workers start at $20 an hour.This is the second of a two-part series looking at what meatpacking has meant for southwest Kansas. Click <a href="https://hayspost.com/posts/bed159a1-c391-4a17-a84c-31da5504046a">HERE</a> to read the first part.By DAVID CONDOS <a href="https://www.hppr.org/hppr-news/2021-11-01/kansas-meatpacking-workers-fueled-an-economic-boom-but-many-need-food-pantries-to-get-by">Kansas News Service</a>GARDEN CITY — Outside an old, white two-story house in
 downtown Garden City, dozens of people stand in a loose row that spills
 out of the driveway and onto the sidewalk.Many of them show up 
here at Emmaus House — the largest food pantry in southwest Kansas — 
every Wednesday and Friday. And they walk away with free boxes filled 
with everything from frozen bacon to salad kits to frosted cakes that 
sustain their families for another week.Much of the food in those
 boxes was donated by the area’s largest employer, Tyson Foods. Its 
meatpacking plant has lifted Garden City to new heights of prosperity in
 the four decades since it opened on the outskirts of town.But for many of the workers who hold down the tough jobs in that giant slaughterhouse, the reality isn’t always so rosy.Nearly
 half of the people who stand in line at this food pantry on a given 
week come from families employed at Tyson’s meatpacking plant.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1635861051292.png" alt="People check in to receive boxes of groceries at the Emmaus House food pantry. The number of meals served at Emmaus House nearly quadrupled between 2000 and 2010. David Condos" />
 <figcaption>People check in to receive boxes of groceries at the Emmaus House food pantry. The number of meals served at Emmaus House nearly quadrupled between 2000 and 2010. David Condos</figcaption>
 </figure>The scene at <a href="https://emmaushouseks.com/" target="_blank">Emmaus House</a>
 illustrates the ongoing growing pains Garden City has faced during its 
transformation from a small farming community to a meatpacking boom 
town. In the decades since Tyson’s plant opened, the number of jobs in 
Garden City has skyrocketed, but the per capita incomes in town have <a href="http://www.ipsr.ku.edu/conferen/kepc11/HarvestofChange.pdf" target="_blank">lost pace</a> with the rest of Kansas. And the number of people living in poverty and seeking food assistance has <a href="http://www.ipsr.ku.edu/conferen/kepc11/HarvestofChange.pdf" target="_blank">soared</a>.“A
 lot of people think, ‘Well, you're working at Tyson, so you're making 
really good money,’ Robin Marsh, Emmaus House’s executive director, 
said. “By the time you pay your rent, by the time you pay your utilities
 … they don't have enough for food.”Tyson recently raised starting pay at this plant to $20 per hour, but many workers' families still meet the poverty income guidelines that qualify them for food assistance from Emmaus House.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1635861252867.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>Each family that Emmaus House serves falls below the poverty line in 
order to qualify for assistance. And that group keeps growing.The number of meals Emmaus House served <a href="http://www.ipsr.ku.edu/conferen/kepc11/HarvestofChange.pdf" target="_blank">nearly quadrupled</a>
 between 2000 and 2010. On a single day, roughly 160 families pick up 
grocery boxes from the food bank. When demand peaked earlier in the 
pandemic, that number jumped to 400.And Tyson — which directly provides roughly <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/finneycountykansas/PST045219" target="_blank">one of every five jobs</a>
 in the county — sits at the center of what’s both wildly prosperous and
 persistently challenging about life in modern Garden City. Without the 
massive beef processing operation, this small city would likely be 
withering like so many other Great Plains communities.But when 
many workers at the area’s largest employer can’t afford their families’
 basic needs, the question of whether or not Garden City has found 
success grows more complicated.“It's always positive when you see growth,” Marsh said. “But if you look behind the camera, there are issues.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1635861292063.png" alt="A woman browses baked goods at the Emmaus House food pantry. The organization provides food for roughly 160 families in Garden City every week. David Condos" />
 <figcaption>A woman browses baked goods at the Emmaus House food pantry. The organization provides food for roughly 160 families in Garden City every week. David Condos</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Boom town</h2>When what was then the world’s largest 
meatpacking plant opened here in 1980, Garden City had a problem: It 
needed thousands of new workers.At the time, the town had roughly
 18,000 residents and virtually no unemployment. So it opened its doors 
to immigrants and refugees, with an assist from the company that 
originally ran the giant slaughterhouse, IBP.IBP recruited many of the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3627793" target="_blank">2,000 south Asian refugees</a> who migrated to Garden City around that time. It even broadcast help wanted ads on <a href="http://www.ipsr.ku.edu/conferen/kepc11/HarvestofChange.pdf" target="_blank">border town radio</a> stations to reach potential workers in Mexico.“They
 followed the theory from the movie ‘Field of Dreams’: ‘Build it and 
they will come,’” said Don Stull, a former University of Kansas 
professor. “And they did come.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1635861346153.png" alt="Workers cut and package beef in the early days of IBP's Finney County meatpacking plant. Finney County Historical Society" />
 <figcaption>Workers cut and package beef in the early days of IBP's Finney County meatpacking plant. Finney County Historical Society</figcaption>
 </figure>Stull studied the meatpacking industry’s impact on Garden City for three decades as an anthropology professor and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Slaughterhouse-Blues-Poultry-Industry-Contemporary/dp/1111828784" target="_blank">author</a>. He said the plant’s workforce grew faster than the town’s housing market and social service systems could handle.“Jobs come with costs,” Stull said. “And they don't talk about the costs.”And because the meatpacking jobs had an annual turnover rate of nearly <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/07311214211012025" target="_blank">100%</a>, the company had to keep recruiting new waves of workers. Over and over again.In the plant’s first five years, Garden City pulled in <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/07311214211012025" target="_blank">6,000</a> new residents. But the town didn’t have anywhere to put them.The situation became so dire that city leaders held a press conference <a href="http://www.ipsr.ku.edu/conferen/kepc11/HarvestofChange.pdf" target="_blank">imploring residents</a>
 to open their homes to workers who had nowhere else to sleep. A year 
after opening, the plant surveyed its employees and found that one-third
 were paying excessive rent and <a href="http://www.ipsr.ku.edu/conferen/kepc11/HarvestofChange.pdf" target="_blank">one out of 20</a> workers was living in a car or motel.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1635861386823.png" alt="This row of mobile homes sits in the part of town commonly known as "IBP trailers." It was developed in the 1980s to house some of the meatpacking plant's early workers. David Condos" />
 <figcaption>This row of mobile homes sits in the part of town commonly known as "IBP trailers." It was developed in the 1980s to house some of the meatpacking plant's early workers. David Condos</figcaption>
 </figure>For the immigrants and refugees who come to town to join the 
meatpacking plant’s 3,000-plus workforce today, the outlook hasn’t 
gotten much sunnier.“Once they get here, they’re like, ‘Where are
 we going to live? Crap, we can't afford a $900 house payment,’” Marsh 
of Emmaus House said. “Those are the struggles that we still deal with 
and always have. … And if you don't believe me, drive out to IBP 
trailers.”That’s a plot with hundreds of mobile homes lined up in
 long rows on the east side of town. IBP pushed the city to rezone the 
land in the 1980s specifically to house some of the plant’s early 
employees.And it’s still there today. Marsh says it's common for a home there to have a hole in the floor. Or no windows.But residents often can’t afford to move to a better place — if they could even find one.City
 manager Matt Allen said the area continues to be about 600 to 700 
housing units short of demand. And that need grows by around 10% each 
year.“The answer is pretty simple. … We need more houses,” Allen said. “It's the ‘How do you get those?’ That's the difficulty.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1635861424964.png" alt="Brittney Knoll, director of the Emmaus House food pantry, sorts groceries into the boxes that people will take home. She said nearly half of the people who pick up food here come from families employed at the Tyson meatpacking plant. David Condos" />
 <figcaption>Brittney Knoll, director of the Emmaus House food pantry, sorts groceries into the boxes that people will take home. She said nearly half of the people who pick up food here come from families employed at the Tyson meatpacking plant. David Condos</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Safety nets</h2>Housing is far from the only growing pain that continues to strain Garden City in the wake of the meatpacking plant’s arrival.Law
 enforcement, hospitals and schools have had to bridge language gaps 
between critical services and the dozens of languages residents speak.In
 2000, half the students in Garden City’s public school system received 
free or reduced lunch because of their families’ low incomes. Today, 
that number’s up to two-thirds.The Garden City area also ranks as <a href="https://www.khi.org/assets/uploads/news/15162/finney_county_2021.pdf" target="_blank">among the state’s lowest</a>
 for quality of life and health outcomes — and the social and economic 
factors that drive them. For example, adults in Finney County are about <a href="https://www.rwjf.org/en/cultureofhealth/what-were-learning/sentinel-communities/finney-county-kansas.html" target="_blank">twice as likely</a> to lack a primary care doctor and 50% more likely to be in poor health compared to the state average.And
 without the same resources that big cities have, the extra work to make
 sure people don’t fall through the cracks often falls to regular folks 
who choose to step in and help.People like Dominican Sister Janice Thome.“We don’t have to ever worry about having enough to do,” she said. “There’s always going to be plenty.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1635861471808.png" alt="Sister Janice Thome loads boxes of groceries into her car at the Emmaus House food bank. David Condos" />
 <figcaption>Sister Janice Thome loads boxes of groceries into her car at the Emmaus House food bank. David Condos</figcaption>
 </figure>Most every week for the past 25 years, she has pulled her compact car
 up to Emmaus House and filled it with boxes of groceries. Then she 
starts her route, delivering the food to a rotating cast of families 
scattered across Garden City who can’t afford it and aren’t able to come
 to the food bank.Just about the only time she doesn’t do this is
 when she’s busy lending a hand to one of the community’s other many 
needs. The previous week, she drove someone to Kansas City to meet with 
an immigration lawyer.“It’s worth the effort to do all of this,” she said, “because look how we can sustain people’s lives, better people's lives.”Forty
 years after the town debated whether or not to welcome the meatpacking 
plant and its thousands of immigrant and refugee workers, Thome said 
it’s hard to find someone who doesn’t think pushing for the plant was 
the right decision.Pretty much everyone she knows in Garden City 
today values how the steady stream of new arrivals keeps the town alive —
 not just economically, but also with a cultural vibrancy that has made 
the town a richer place for everyone.For Thome, it’s all part of living in a city that boasts the slogan: “The world grows here.”“We're living it,” she said. “And I think it's wonderful.”But as Garden City keeps growing, the patchwork of support that takes care of so many of its vulnerable residents will continue to face strains.Across
 the street from the mobile home park IBP built, for example, another 
food conglomerate is building a new ground beef plant that will add a 
couple hundred more jobs to the city’s meat workforce over the next two 
years.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1635861511091.png" alt="This sign marks the future site of Empirical Foods' forthcoming ground beef plant. It plans to add at least 250 more jobs to Garden City's meat processing workforce. David Condos" />
 <figcaption>This sign marks the future site of Empirical Foods' forthcoming ground beef plant. It plans to add at least 250 more jobs to Garden City's meat processing workforce. David Condos</figcaption>
 </figure>But as rural towns across the U.S. lose residents, having to find 
ways to deal with the growing pains still beats depopulation and a 
shrinking economy.“Whatever challenges exist, I found that in the
 vast majority of these smaller locations, refugees — and immigrants 
more broadly — were an absolute lifeline,” Pablo Bose, who teaches about
 the geography of race at the University of Vermont, said. “I actually 
heard that particular statement like, ‘These newcomers are a lifeline.’”Bose
 has researched refugee resettlement in America for the past decade. His
 research shows that community-based systems for supporting new 
immigrants in small towns can be highly effective because they get more 
people to buy in.But the downside is that big cities with a 
longer history of immigration tend to have more systems in place to 
support newcomers. In rural areas, makeshift community safety nets can 
fray if they’re missing just one key person. Someone like sister Janice.“When
 that individual gets burnt out, or retires … you have to go through a 
whole process of getting somebody up to speed,” Bose said. “It makes it 
precarious.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1635861551855.png" alt="A volunteer helps a woman pick groceries to add to her box at the Emmaus House food pantry. David Condos" />
 <figcaption>A volunteer helps a woman pick groceries to add to her box at the Emmaus House food pantry. David Condos</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>It’s business</h2>Tyson Foods said in a statement that its southwest Kansas employees are "critical to (the company's) success" and touted the plant's recent initiatives aimed at boosting worker satisfaction, such as increased pay and flexible scheduling.But when so much of Garden City’s fortunes ride the whims of a multinational conglomerate headquartered in another state, it puts a lot of what the community has gained at risk.The
 city has tried to bring in different industries, but city manager Matt 
Allen said that meatpacking remains the backbone of the local economy.“We’re
 still largely dependent on Tyson not only being in operation, but being
 in operation near full capacity,” he said. “Everything else sort of 
depends on that.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1635861595194.png" alt="Tyson Foods' beef plant directly provides roughly one of every five jobs in Finney County and drives the local economy. David Condos" />
 <figcaption>Tyson Foods' beef plant directly provides roughly one of every five jobs in Finney County and drives the local economy. David Condos</figcaption>
 </figure>And at any point, Tyson could choose to close or relocate this plant if it makes sense for its business.That’s not some far-fetched hypothetical for Garden City — the town has actually been through that before.There
 used to be a second meatpacking plant here run by another giant food 
company, ConAgra. That one suddenly shut down on Christmas Day in 2000 
after a fire put 2,300 people out of work overnight and sent local 
social services agencies scrambling.When Garden City’s leaders 
traveled to ConAgra headquarters the following spring to essentially beg
 the company to come back, its executives <a href="http://www.ipsr.ku.edu/conferen/kepc11/HarvestofChange.pdf" target="_blank">refused</a> to meet with them. The plant never reopened.“They
 didn't really give a damn about Garden City,” Stull, the KU professor, 
said, “and I think that's true of these multinational corporations in 
general.”So whether it’s shoring up the city’s economic future or
 caring for the needs of its residents, Stull said Garden City and other
 meatpacking towns can’t look to the companies that run the plants to 
save the day.“They’re not in the business of providing housing or health care,” he said. “They're in the business of making meat.”David Condos covers western Kansas for High Plains Public Radio and the Kansas News Service. You can follow him on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/davidcondos" target="_blank">@davidcondos</a>.

Kan. meatpacking workers fueled boom, but many need food pantries to get by

NORFOLK, Neb. (AP) — Officials are investigating the death of a worker injured in a crane accident at a Norfolk manufacturing plant over the weekend. 

The Madison County Sheriff's Office says deputies and paramedics were called to the Continental Tire plant late Saturday afternoon by a 911 caller who said a 50-year-old man had fallen from a lift. 

Officials say the worker, Keith Polenske, of rural Randolph, was taken to a local hospital, where he later died of his injuries.

 An investigation showed Polenske had been working on a scissor lift when an automated crane hit the lift, causing it to tip over. 

Polenske fell several feet to the floor, causing severe injuries.

NORFOLK, Neb. (AP) — Officials are investigating the death of a worker injured in a crane accident at a Norfolk manufacturing plant over the weekend. The Madison County Sheriff's Office says deputies and paramedics were called to the Continental Tire plant late Saturday afternoon by a 911 caller who said a 50-year-old man had fallen from a lift. Officials say the worker, Keith Polenske, of rural Randolph, was taken to a local hospital, where he later died of his injuries. An investigation showed Polenske had been working on a scissor lift when an automated crane hit the lift, causing it to tip over. Polenske fell several feet to the floor, causing severe injuries.

Worker's death at Norfolk manufacturing plant investigated

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Police in Lincoln say one of two men shot over they weekend as they rode in a car on U.S. Highway 77 has died.

 Police say in a news release that 24-year-old Goa Dat, of Omaha, died Monday — two days after he was shot. 

Police say the other victim, a 19-year-old Omaha man, remains hospitalized with gunshot wounds to his torso and an arm. 

Police say the two men were riding in a car on the highway when they were shot around 3 a.m. Saturday. 

Police say both were taken to a Lincoln hospital in a different private vehicle than the one they were in at the time of the shooting.

 Police believe the men were targeted, but have not been able to track down suspects in the shooting.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Police in Lincoln say one of two men shot over they weekend as they rode in a car on U.S. Highway 77 has died. Police say in a news release that 24-year-old Goa Dat, of Omaha, died Monday — two days after he was shot. Police say the other victim, a 19-year-old Omaha man, remains hospitalized with gunshot wounds to his torso and an arm. Police say the two men were riding in a car on the highway when they were shot around 3 a.m. Saturday. Police say both were taken to a Lincoln hospital in a different private vehicle than the one they were in at the time of the shooting. Police believe the men were targeted, but have not been able to track down suspects in the shooting.

Police: 1 of 2 people shot on highway in Lincoln has died

WASHINGTON (AP) — As deadlines loom for military and defense civilians to get mandated COVID-19 vaccines, senior leaders must now wrestle with the fate of those who flatly refuse the shots or are seeking exemptions, and <a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/2828791/with-vaccination-deadlines-approaching-commanders-asked-to-use-compassion-in-en/">how to make sure they are treated fairly and equally.</a>

The vast majority of the active duty force has received at least one shot, but tens of thousands have not. For some it may be a career-ending decision. Others could face transfers, travel restrictions, limits on deployments and requirements to repay bonuses.

Exemption decisions for medical, religious and administrative reasons will be made by unit commanders around the world, on what the Pentagon says will be a “case-by-case” basis. That raises a vexing issue for military leaders who are pushing a vaccine mandate seen as critical to maintaining a healthy force, but want to avoid a haphazard, inconsistent approach with those who refuse.

Brig. Gen. Darrin Cox, surgeon general at Army Forces Command, said commanders want to ensure they are following the rules.

“Because of some of the sensitivities of this particular vaccine, I think that we just wanted to ensure that we were consistent and equitable” in meting out a punishment that would be “a repercussion of continuing to refuse a valid order.”

Military vaccination rates are higher than those of the general population in the United States and the reasons for objecting – often based on misinformation – are similar to those heard throughout the country. But unlike most civilians, military personnel are routinely required to get as many as 17 vaccines, and face penalties for refusing.

The military services are reporting between 1%-7% remain unvaccinated. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has called for compassion in dealings with those troops, which totals nearly 60,000 active duty service members, according to data released last week. Officials say the numbers change daily, and include those who may have gotten or requested an exemption. They have declined to say how many troops are still seeking an exemption or refused the vaccine.

Asked about possible variations in the treatment of those seeking exemptions or refusing the vaccine, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said it’s up to the services. “Each case is going to be treated specifically and individually as it ought to be,” he said.

It unclear how widely religious exemptions will be granted. Under military rules, commanders can take into account the potential impact on a unit’s mission, and reject a religious exemption if it puts performance at risk.

Commanders can also move service members into another job, deny them overseas deployment or limit unit access if they get an exemption or while a request is being reviewed. Those steps may be more common in smaller units such a special operations forces who usually deploy in small numbers.

The Navy has warned that sailors who refuse the shot and don’t get an exemption may have to refund bonuses and other financial payments, based on existing military justice procedures for disobeying a lawful order. The other services are expected to follow similar procedures.

Unvaccinated troops will also be subject to routine testing, distancing guidelines and possibly travel restrictions.

The Air Force may be the test case in some instances, because they are the first to hit a deadline. The more than 335,000 airmen and Space Force guardians must be fully vaccinated by Tuesday, and the Air Guard and Reserve by Dec. 2. According to Air Force data, as many as 12,000 active duty airmen and guardians were still unvaccinated as of late last week. Some have requested or gotten exemptions, others have refused outright. They have until Monday to request exemptions.

Air Force Col. Robert Corby, commander of the 28th Medical Group at Ellsworth Air Force Base, said that after the vaccine became mandatory in late August, appointments for shots at the base clinic doubled. He said troops have an array of questions and concerns, and commanders, chaplains and medical personnel are providing information.

“I think you also have a segment of the population that probably does not feel that they are really at risk for COVID-19,” he added.

Air Force Capt. Molly Lawlor, 28th Bomb Wing chaplain, said a “very small percentage” are seeking a religious exemption at the base. “People are just trying to figure out how this new requirement fits into their belief system and the decisions that they want to make,” she said.

The more than 765,000 Defense Department civilians will be close behind the Air Force, with a mandated vaccine date of Nov. 22. Supervisors are grappling with the complex task of checking and recording the vaccine status of their workers, and determining who will be the final exemption arbiter.

Civilians have until Nov. 8 to seek an exemption, and as of last week, fewer than half had provided vaccination proof. Those who refuse the vaccine and don’t get an exemption will get five days for counseling. If they still refuse, they will be suspended for up to 14 days without pay, and could then be fired.

Vaccination numbers fluctuate for the military services, and drop off considerably for the National Guard and Reserve.

A bit more than half of the Army National Guard has gotten at least one shot, while the Air Guard is at 87%. Air Guard members must be fully vaccinated by early December, while the Army Guard, which is much larger and more widely scattered around the country, has until June,.

The most successful service has been the Navy, which says that only 1% of the force is unvaccinated as of last week — or about 3,500 sailors. The Air Force and Space Force was second, with 3.6% unvaccinated, followed by the Army and Marine Corps at about 7%.

Adm. Michael Gilday, chief of naval operations, told The Associated Press that even before the shots were mandated, some warships were seeing vaccination rates of 98%-99%.

“We feel like we’ve been leading the way across the services,” he said. “We’ve been promoting the vaccines since we started vaccinating last December, January timeframe.” For those who don’t want the vaccine, “we’ll deal with those on an individual basis as those challenges come up,” he said.

Marine Col. Speros Koumparakis, commander of Marine Corps Base Hawaii, said that the number of Marines who have requested exemptions at the base is fewer than two dozen, and most of those are seeking religious exemptions.

He said chaplains and pastors have been made available to discuss the religious issues, and he does the initial review of any request. But ultimately, decisions may be made by personnel leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia.

The nearly 350,000 Navy sailors and more than 179,000 Marines must be fully vaccinated by Nov. 28, and the reserves by Dec. 28. The Army, the military’s largest service at nearly 490,000, has given active duty soldiers until Dec. 15 to be fully vaccinated. Army National Guard and Reserve have until June 30, 2022. There are a total of almost 800,000 Guard and Reserve troops, with the Army accounting for more than 520,000 of them.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1635861962000.png" alt="Photo U.S. Department of Defense" />
 <figcaption>Photo U.S. Department of Defense</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — As deadlines loom for military and defense civilians to get mandated COVID-19 vaccines, senior leaders must now wrestle with the fate of those who flatly refuse the shots or are seeking exemptions, and <a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/2828791/with-vaccination-deadlines-approaching-commanders-asked-to-use-compassion-in-en/">how to make sure they are treated fairly and equally.</a>The vast majority of the active duty force has received at least one shot, but tens of thousands have not. For some it may be a career-ending decision. Others could face transfers, travel restrictions, limits on deployments and requirements to repay bonuses.Exemption decisions for medical, religious and administrative reasons will be made by unit commanders around the world, on what the Pentagon says will be a “case-by-case” basis. That raises a vexing issue for military leaders who are pushing a vaccine mandate seen as critical to maintaining a healthy force, but want to avoid a haphazard, inconsistent approach with those who refuse.Brig. Gen. Darrin Cox, surgeon general at Army Forces Command, said commanders want to ensure they are following the rules.“Because of some of the sensitivities of this particular vaccine, I think that we just wanted to ensure that we were consistent and equitable” in meting out a punishment that would be “a repercussion of continuing to refuse a valid order.”Military vaccination rates are higher than those of the general population in the United States and the reasons for objecting – often based on misinformation – are similar to those heard throughout the country. But unlike most civilians, military personnel are routinely required to get as many as 17 vaccines, and face penalties for refusing.The military services are reporting between 1%-7% remain unvaccinated. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has called for compassion in dealings with those troops, which totals nearly 60,000 active duty service members, according to data released last week. Officials say the numbers change daily, and include those who may have gotten or requested an exemption. They have declined to say how many troops are still seeking an exemption or refused the vaccine.Asked about possible variations in the treatment of those seeking exemptions or refusing the vaccine, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said it’s up to the services. “Each case is going to be treated specifically and individually as it ought to be,” he said.It unclear how widely religious exemptions will be granted. Under military rules, commanders can take into account the potential impact on a unit’s mission, and reject a religious exemption if it puts performance at risk.Commanders can also move service members into another job, deny them overseas deployment or limit unit access if they get an exemption or while a request is being reviewed. Those steps may be more common in smaller units such a special operations forces who usually deploy in small numbers.The Navy has warned that sailors who refuse the shot and don’t get an exemption may have to refund bonuses and other financial payments, based on existing military justice procedures for disobeying a lawful order. The other services are expected to follow similar procedures.Unvaccinated troops will also be subject to routine testing, distancing guidelines and possibly travel restrictions.The Air Force may be the test case in some instances, because they are the first to hit a deadline. The more than 335,000 airmen and Space Force guardians must be fully vaccinated by Tuesday, and the Air Guard and Reserve by Dec. 2. According to Air Force data, as many as 12,000 active duty airmen and guardians were still unvaccinated as of late last week. Some have requested or gotten exemptions, others have refused outright. They have until Monday to request exemptions.Air Force Col. Robert Corby, commander of the 28th Medical Group at Ellsworth Air Force Base, said that after the vaccine became mandatory in late August, appointments for shots at the base clinic doubled. He said troops have an array of questions and concerns, and commanders, chaplains and medical personnel are providing information.“I think you also have a segment of the population that probably does not feel that they are really at risk for COVID-19,” he added.Air Force Capt. Molly Lawlor, 28th Bomb Wing chaplain, said a “very small percentage” are seeking a religious exemption at the base. “People are just trying to figure out how this new requirement fits into their belief system and the decisions that they want to make,” she said.The more than 765,000 Defense Department civilians will be close behind the Air Force, with a mandated vaccine date of Nov. 22. Supervisors are grappling with the complex task of checking and recording the vaccine status of their workers, and determining who will be the final exemption arbiter.Civilians have until Nov. 8 to seek an exemption, and as of last week, fewer than half had provided vaccination proof. Those who refuse the vaccine and don’t get an exemption will get five days for counseling. If they still refuse, they will be suspended for up to 14 days without pay, and could then be fired.Vaccination numbers fluctuate for the military services, and drop off considerably for the National Guard and Reserve.A bit more than half of the Army National Guard has gotten at least one shot, while the Air Guard is at 87%. Air Guard members must be fully vaccinated by early December, while the Army Guard, which is much larger and more widely scattered around the country, has until June,.The most successful service has been the Navy, which says that only 1% of the force is unvaccinated as of last week — or about 3,500 sailors. The Air Force and Space Force was second, with 3.6% unvaccinated, followed by the Army and Marine Corps at about 7%.Adm. Michael Gilday, chief of naval operations, told The Associated Press that even before the shots were mandated, some warships were seeing vaccination rates of 98%-99%.“We feel like we’ve been leading the way across the services,” he said. “We’ve been promoting the vaccines since we started vaccinating last December, January timeframe.” For those who don’t want the vaccine, “we’ll deal with those on an individual basis as those challenges come up,” he said.Marine Col. Speros Koumparakis, commander of Marine Corps Base Hawaii, said that the number of Marines who have requested exemptions at the base is fewer than two dozen, and most of those are seeking religious exemptions.He said chaplains and pastors have been made available to discuss the religious issues, and he does the initial review of any request. But ultimately, decisions may be made by personnel leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia.The nearly 350,000 Navy sailors and more than 179,000 Marines must be fully vaccinated by Nov. 28, and the reserves by Dec. 28. The Army, the military’s largest service at nearly 490,000, has given active duty soldiers until Dec. 15 to be fully vaccinated. Army National Guard and Reserve have until June 30, 2022. There are a total of almost 800,000 Guard and Reserve troops, with the Army accounting for more than 520,000 of them.

Military weighs penalties for those who refuse COVID vaccine

MISSION, Kan. (AP) — School board races, once sleepy and localized, have become&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-education-coronavirus-pandemic-school-boards-e41350b7d9e3662d279c2dad287f7009">the new front in a culture war</a>&nbsp;raging across the nation as resentments over COVID-19 restrictions and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-elections-education-race-and-ethnicity-racial-injustice-f3e0a8198edae71980f942f2eb5ea172">anti-racism curriculum</a>&nbsp;reach a boiling point.

On Tuesday, voters weigh in on dozens of races that have been dominated by debates over masks, vaccines, race and history. The outcomes will decide not just districts’ policies but also whether the education fight has staying power as part of the national discourse and becomes a rallying issue for Republicans in the 2022 midterms.

Conservatives have eagerly taken up the cause as they look to move past&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic">the coronavirus pandemic</a>&nbsp;and to reframe the discussion on&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/racial-injustice">racial injustice in America</a>&nbsp;as a rewriting of history.

The political tracking website Ballotpedia has identified 76 school districts in 22 states where candidates took a stance on race in education or critical race theory, which holds that racism is systemic in America’s institutions and which the National School Boards Association says is not taught in K-12 public schools.

1776 Action, a group inspired by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/race-and-ethnicity-media-slavery-cultures-donald-trump-afdfa0b3454d5a7fdf544158ee1f5e1f">former President Donald Trump’s now-disbanded 1776 Commission</a>&nbsp;that played down America’s role in slavery, has been urging candidates to sign a pledge calling for the restoration of “honest, patriotic education.” At least 300 candidates and elected officials have done so, said Adam Waldeck, the group’s president.

“2021 is really going to sort of be seen as kind of a canary in the coal mine of what’s coming down the pike next year and into the future,” Waldeck said. “This will be the year that I think primarily parents stand up and say, ‘You know, we have a voice, too.’ And I think it’s going to be overwhelming.”

Board meetings have grown so contentious that they are being mocked in “Saturday Night Live” skits. Some board members have been called Nazis and child abusers. The National School Boards Association even&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-joe-biden-health-education-school-boards-940da42fac771366929fc2150c8acf4d">likened some of what is happening to “domestic terrorism”</a>&nbsp;before apologizing.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, accused the right wing of orchestrating protests to “turn schools into battlegrounds with the goal of winning elections by politicizing both public health and history.” She noted&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-donald-trump-campaigns-virginia-election-2020-a84bf1d7f2113c77197bca103fd0e81b">the Virginia governor’s race</a>, in which Republican newcomer Glenn Youngkin has seized on conservatives’ frustrations with schools over pandemic policies and diversity education.

Even&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/elections-race-and-ethnicity-racial-injustice-michael-pence-virginia-a5100eb9c96250d914e8091d7bc51592">former Vice President Mike Pence</a>&nbsp;has gotten into the game, taking a moment during a campaign rally in Ohio on Saturday to urge voters to support conservative school board candidates in Tuesday’s election.

Waldeck said his group also sent out mailers and targeted text messages in races in Johnston, Iowa, where three candidates have signed the pledge, and in West Chester, Pennsylvania, where law enforcement was called to investigate threats against school board president Chris McCune.

The backlash stems from his ordering the removal from a July meeting of a parent who kept demanding information about critical race theory after her two-minute time limit had ended. McCune, who is on the ballot, wrote in a letter to the Daily Local News newspaper in Pennsylvania that it is his duty to “maintain order” and insisted that the district doesn’t even teach critical race theory.

“National and local political forces continue to urge residents to rally against local school boards and CRT, even when board members and administrators have offered to meet to share the district’s curriculum to demonstrate that it is simply not what we teach,” he said.

The 1776 Project PAC, which is separate from 1776 Action and headed by New York political operative and author Ryan Girdusky, has invested in races across the country. It raised $289,544 in the third quarter, according to the latest report filed with the Federal Election Commission.

“I think anybody that’s running was probably to a degree tipped over by COVID,” said Jim McMullen, who is among three candidates the group is backing in the Blue Valley district in suburban Kansas City. The former English teacher and father of five had considered running before the pandemic but finally decided to mount a bid after the district went virtual and hybrid for parts of last year.

In Colorado, Schumé Navarro, who is running for the Cherry Creek School District, went to court last month to win the right to go without a face covering at a district candidate event. The mother of five said she’s unable to wear a mask because of abuse she suffered as a child.

“The environment and the culture that it’s creating is just stealing from our kids,” she said of masks.

In Ohio, former state Republican chair Jane Timken has taken time from her campaign for the U.S. Senate to offer guidance and funding totaling more than $40,000 to more than 40 conservative candidates in hyperlocal school board races.

“We are helping them not just financially, but my team is knocking doors and making calls with them,” said Timken, who said she completed a critical race theory “listening tour” that exposed cases of children being “indoctrinated with leftist policies.”

In Wisconsin, voters in Mequon will decide whether to replace the majority of the Mequon-Thiensville school board. Amber Schroeder, an organizer of the Recall MTSD movement, said that along with slipping academic performance, parents are most concerned with critical race theory, which she sees as evident in the district’s emphasis on equity.

“It’s huge here,” Schroeder said, noting the district’s hiring of diversity consultants. “It’s already infiltrated our curriculum.”

In Minnesota, Erin Shelton has joined two other conservative candidates on a “Vote for Three!” platform that denounces “harmful ideologies like CRT,” political indoctrination and “controversial medical mandates.” If all three are elected, they would hold an ideological majority on the board in Wayzata.

“I don’t believe that the way to academic excellence involves making any group of students feel like victims or any other feel responsible for that victimization,” Shelton said via email.

In Iowa, masking opponent Sarah Barthole received a high-profile endorsement from Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds as she runs for the school board of the Ankeny school district in suburban Des Moines. Barthole worked with Reynolds last year to reopen schools and is credited with inspiring the state’s now-blocked law prohibiting mask mandates in schools.

“The level of involvement in her campaign, I’ve never seen anything like it in a school board race before,” said Barthole’s treasurer, Steve Boal, whose own wife served on the board more than two decades ago. “Usually it’s kind of a pretty low-key thing.”

The governor’s backing in that race is just the beginning, predicted Tina Descovich, a co-founder of Moms for Liberty, a Melbourne, Florida-based group, whose 142 chapters in 35 states have fought vaccine and mask mandates.

“Our governor here in Florida has all but said he’s going to be involved in school board races,” said Descovich, who is a former member of the Brevard County School Board in Florida. “I’m curious to see what that looks like for 2022.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1635857227869.png" alt="Preparing to receive voters -photo courtesy Johnson County election office" />
 <figcaption>Preparing to receive voters -photo courtesy Johnson County election office</figcaption>
 </figure>MISSION, Kan. (AP) — School board races, once sleepy and localized, have become&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-education-coronavirus-pandemic-school-boards-e41350b7d9e3662d279c2dad287f7009">the new front in a culture war</a>&nbsp;raging across the nation as resentments over COVID-19 restrictions and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-elections-education-race-and-ethnicity-racial-injustice-f3e0a8198edae71980f942f2eb5ea172">anti-racism curriculum</a>&nbsp;reach a boiling point.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">At gatherings across the country, I’ve talked with Americans who agree we’ve learned the hard way that who sits on our local boards impacts our lives. Get out &amp; vote in your local elections. And, in Andover, KS—vote for <a href="https://twitter.com/jawellstrio?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jawellstrio</a>! (2/2)&mdash; Mike Pompeo (@mikepompeo) <a href="https://twitter.com/mikepompeo/status/1453785146872696844?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 28, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>On Tuesday, voters weigh in on dozens of races that have been dominated by debates over masks, vaccines, race and history. The outcomes will decide not just districts’ policies but also whether the education fight has staying power as part of the national discourse and becomes a rallying issue for Republicans in the 2022 midterms.Conservatives have eagerly taken up the cause as they look to move past&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic">the coronavirus pandemic</a>&nbsp;and to reframe the discussion on&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/racial-injustice">racial injustice in America</a>&nbsp;as a rewriting of history.The political tracking website Ballotpedia has identified 76 school districts in 22 states where candidates took a stance on race in education or critical race theory, which holds that racism is systemic in America’s institutions and which the National School Boards Association says is not taught in K-12 public schools.1776 Action, a group inspired by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/race-and-ethnicity-media-slavery-cultures-donald-trump-afdfa0b3454d5a7fdf544158ee1f5e1f">former President Donald Trump’s now-disbanded 1776 Commission</a>&nbsp;that played down America’s role in slavery, has been urging candidates to sign a pledge calling for the restoration of “honest, patriotic education.” At least 300 candidates and elected officials have done so, said Adam Waldeck, the group’s president.“2021 is really going to sort of be seen as kind of a canary in the coal mine of what’s coming down the pike next year and into the future,” Waldeck said. “This will be the year that I think primarily parents stand up and say, ‘You know, we have a voice, too.’ And I think it’s going to be overwhelming.”Board meetings have grown so contentious that they are being mocked in “Saturday Night Live” skits. Some board members have been called Nazis and child abusers. The National School Boards Association even&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-joe-biden-health-education-school-boards-940da42fac771366929fc2150c8acf4d">likened some of what is happening to “domestic terrorism”</a>&nbsp;before apologizing.Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, accused the right wing of orchestrating protests to “turn schools into battlegrounds with the goal of winning elections by politicizing both public health and history.” She noted&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-donald-trump-campaigns-virginia-election-2020-a84bf1d7f2113c77197bca103fd0e81b">the Virginia governor’s race</a>, in which Republican newcomer Glenn Youngkin has seized on conservatives’ frustrations with schools over pandemic policies and diversity education.Even&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/elections-race-and-ethnicity-racial-injustice-michael-pence-virginia-a5100eb9c96250d914e8091d7bc51592">former Vice President Mike Pence</a>&nbsp;has gotten into the game, taking a moment during a campaign rally in Ohio on Saturday to urge voters to support conservative school board candidates in Tuesday’s election.Waldeck said his group also sent out mailers and targeted text messages in races in Johnston, Iowa, where three candidates have signed the pledge, and in West Chester, Pennsylvania, where law enforcement was called to investigate threats against school board president Chris McCune.The backlash stems from his ordering the removal from a July meeting of a parent who kept demanding information about critical race theory after her two-minute time limit had ended. McCune, who is on the ballot, wrote in a letter to the Daily Local News newspaper in Pennsylvania that it is his duty to “maintain order” and insisted that the district doesn’t even teach critical race theory.“National and local political forces continue to urge residents to rally against local school boards and CRT, even when board members and administrators have offered to meet to share the district’s curriculum to demonstrate that it is simply not what we teach,” he said.The 1776 Project PAC, which is separate from 1776 Action and headed by New York political operative and author Ryan Girdusky, has invested in races across the country. It raised $289,544 in the third quarter, according to the latest report filed with the Federal Election Commission.“I think anybody that’s running was probably to a degree tipped over by COVID,” said Jim McMullen, who is among three candidates the group is backing in the Blue Valley district in suburban Kansas City. The former English teacher and father of five had considered running before the pandemic but finally decided to mount a bid after the district went virtual and hybrid for parts of last year.In Colorado, Schumé Navarro, who is running for the Cherry Creek School District, went to court last month to win the right to go without a face covering at a district candidate event. The mother of five said she’s unable to wear a mask because of abuse she suffered as a child.“The environment and the culture that it’s creating is just stealing from our kids,” she said of masks.In Ohio, former state Republican chair Jane Timken has taken time from her campaign for the U.S. Senate to offer guidance and funding totaling more than $40,000 to more than 40 conservative candidates in hyperlocal school board races.“We are helping them not just financially, but my team is knocking doors and making calls with them,” said Timken, who said she completed a critical race theory “listening tour” that exposed cases of children being “indoctrinated with leftist policies.”In Wisconsin, voters in Mequon will decide whether to replace the majority of the Mequon-Thiensville school board. Amber Schroeder, an organizer of the Recall MTSD movement, said that along with slipping academic performance, parents are most concerned with critical race theory, which she sees as evident in the district’s emphasis on equity.“It’s huge here,” Schroeder said, noting the district’s hiring of diversity consultants. “It’s already infiltrated our curriculum.”In Minnesota, Erin Shelton has joined two other conservative candidates on a “Vote for Three!” platform that denounces “harmful ideologies like CRT,” political indoctrination and “controversial medical mandates.” If all three are elected, they would hold an ideological majority on the board in Wayzata.“I don’t believe that the way to academic excellence involves making any group of students feel like victims or any other feel responsible for that victimization,” Shelton said via email.In Iowa, masking opponent Sarah Barthole received a high-profile endorsement from Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds as she runs for the school board of the Ankeny school district in suburban Des Moines. Barthole worked with Reynolds last year to reopen schools and is credited with inspiring the state’s now-blocked law prohibiting mask mandates in schools.“The level of involvement in her campaign, I’ve never seen anything like it in a school board race before,” said Barthole’s treasurer, Steve Boal, whose own wife served on the board more than two decades ago. “Usually it’s kind of a pretty low-key thing.”The governor’s backing in that race is just the beginning, predicted Tina Descovich, a co-founder of Moms for Liberty, a Melbourne, Florida-based group, whose 142 chapters in 35 states have fought vaccine and mask mandates.“Our governor here in Florida has all but said he’s going to be involved in school board races,” said Descovich, who is a former member of the Brevard County School Board in Florida. “I’m curious to see what that looks like for 2022.”___

GOP push to politicize school board races gets election test

Social media advertising is an effective way for small business 
to get the word out about their products. Unfortunately, the same goes 
for scams. <a href="https://www.bbb.org/scamtracker" target="_blank">BBB Scam Tracker</a>&nbsp;has received&nbsp;thousands&nbsp;of complaints about misleading&nbsp;Facebook and Instagram ads.&nbsp;In fact, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbb.org/bbbscamtrackerriskreport/" target="_blank">2020 BBB Scam Tracker Risk Report</a>
 found that online purchase scams were the most common cons reported to 
Scam Tracker and the category with the most victims, and <a href="https://www.bbb.org/article/news-releases/23276-bbb-research-shows-spike-in-online-purchase-scams-since-covid-started" target="_blank">online purchase scams have spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic</a>.

Look out for these&nbsp;common scams reported to <a href="https://www.bbb.org/scamtracker" target="_blank">BBB Scam Tracker</a>:

Products That Claim to Support Charity:&nbsp;As
 you scroll through your Facebook or Instagram feed, you see an ad from a
 small business selling adorable jewelry, t-shirts, or other 
merchandise. The best part? Some of the proceeds from the sale will go 
to a charity that helps rescue animals, foster children, or support 
another worthy cause. Some consumers even report getting direct messages
 from sellers promoting the products and asking them to spread the word 
to friends and family.&nbsp;

You make your purchase. But when your merchandise never 
gets delivered, the doubts start to build.&nbsp;When you contact the company 
about your purchase,&nbsp;they are suddenly unreachable or reply with an 
autoresponder. In reality, the product never existed. It was all a ploy 
to get your money.

Free Trial Offers:&nbsp;Many of these 
misleading advertisements tout celebrity endorsements and promise a 
trial of the hottest new skin care or nutritional supplement for the 
minimal investment of shipping fees. What consumers report is that once 
they agree to the terms and conditions of these offers, they realize 
they have agreed to multiple monthly shipments for products in excess of
 $70-$100 each.&nbsp;

Before you sign up for these “limited time offers” research
 the company online, see if there are any other consumer complaints, 
read the terms and conditions you are agreeing to carefully, and if you 
can’t find any terms and conditions, that is a red flag. Watch out for 
pre- checked boxes and make sure that you know who and where the company
 is that you are purchasing from.

Counterfeit Merchandise:&nbsp;Name brand goods 
are prime targets for unauthorized duplication, from sporting goods to 
designer apparel and handbags. If you purchase any of these products you
 may run the risk of not only receiving a poor quality product, but it 
may not meet environmental and safety regulations either.&nbsp;

Look out for red flags. This includes items that are priced
 significantly lower than what other retailers are charging, spelling 
and grammatical errors in the advertisements, and poor quality images. 
These are all signs that the advertisement may be for a counterfeit 
product.

Engaging Ads, Poor Customer Service:&nbsp;This 
category covers a broad spectrum of complaints that BBB receives, from 
ads for beauty products to trendy clothing to kids' toys. The 
advertisements look great and the products are often inexpensive. This 
means that consumers purchase without doing any research into&nbsp;the 
website or the company behind it. However, weeks pass and the products 
never arrive. When the buyers reach out to customer service, they get a 
vague answer or they don't hear back at all.&nbsp;

Before buying, do a quick online search. Google the website
 name with the words “complaints,” “reviews,” and “scam” to see what 
other customers are saying. Check the “About Us” or “Contact Us” 
information on the company’s website to see if they contain actual 
contact details for the business. If the only way to contact the company
 is through a form this is a red flag.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Apps of Unknown Origin:&nbsp;While scrolling 
through your feed you may feel compelled to download the latest “free” 
app. Beware! By downloading this app, not only are you opening up your 
device to this unknown entities, you could possibly be signing up for 
recurring subscription fees. Victims report being&nbsp;charged fees as high 
as $99 every seven days.

Before you enter your username and password, read the 
reviews. Also read the description of the app carefully and look for 
spelling and grammatical errors. Check that the developers website is a 
working website and read the terms and conditions carefully ($99 every 7
 days adds up quickly).

How to Protect Yourself from Social Media Scams

For more ways to protect yourself from social media shopping scams, see <a href="https://www.bbb.org/article/tips/14040-bbb-tip-smart-shopping-online" target="_blank">BBB's tips for smart shopping online</a>. You can also find more general tips at <a href="https://www.bbb.org/article/scams/8767-bbb-tips-10-steps-to-avoid-scams" target="_blank">10 Steps to avoid scams</a>.

If you’ve been the victim of a social media&nbsp;ad scam, share your experience at <a href="http://www.bbb.org/ScamTracker" target="_blank">BBB Scam Tracker</a>. Your report could help other consumers avoid falling victim to similar scams.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/1/1579883951052.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>BBBSocial media advertising is an effective way for small business 
to get the word out about their products. Unfortunately, the same goes 
for scams. <a href="https://www.bbb.org/scamtracker" target="_blank">BBB Scam Tracker</a>&nbsp;has received&nbsp;thousands&nbsp;of complaints about misleading&nbsp;Facebook and Instagram ads.&nbsp;In fact, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbb.org/bbbscamtrackerriskreport/" target="_blank">2020 BBB Scam Tracker Risk Report</a>
 found that online purchase scams were the most common cons reported to 
Scam Tracker and the category with the most victims, and <a href="https://www.bbb.org/article/news-releases/23276-bbb-research-shows-spike-in-online-purchase-scams-since-covid-started" target="_blank">online purchase scams have spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic</a>.<h2>How the Scam Works</h2>Look out for these&nbsp;common scams reported to <a href="https://www.bbb.org/scamtracker" target="_blank">BBB Scam Tracker</a>:Products That Claim to Support Charity:&nbsp;As
 you scroll through your Facebook or Instagram feed, you see an ad from a
 small business selling adorable jewelry, t-shirts, or other 
merchandise. The best part? Some of the proceeds from the sale will go 
to a charity that helps rescue animals, foster children, or support 
another worthy cause. Some consumers even report getting direct messages
 from sellers promoting the products and asking them to spread the word 
to friends and family.&nbsp;You make your purchase. But when your merchandise never 
gets delivered, the doubts start to build.&nbsp;When you contact the company 
about your purchase,&nbsp;they are suddenly unreachable or reply with an 
autoresponder. In reality, the product never existed. It was all a ploy 
to get your money.Free Trial Offers:&nbsp;Many of these 
misleading advertisements tout celebrity endorsements and promise a 
trial of the hottest new skin care or nutritional supplement for the 
minimal investment of shipping fees. What consumers report is that once 
they agree to the terms and conditions of these offers, they realize 
they have agreed to multiple monthly shipments for products in excess of
 $70-$100 each.&nbsp;Before you sign up for these “limited time offers” research
 the company online, see if there are any other consumer complaints, 
read the terms and conditions you are agreeing to carefully, and if you 
can’t find any terms and conditions, that is a red flag. Watch out for 
pre- checked boxes and make sure that you know who and where the company
 is that you are purchasing from.Counterfeit Merchandise:&nbsp;Name brand goods 
are prime targets for unauthorized duplication, from sporting goods to 
designer apparel and handbags. If you purchase any of these products you
 may run the risk of not only receiving a poor quality product, but it 
may not meet environmental and safety regulations either.&nbsp;Look out for red flags. This includes items that are priced
 significantly lower than what other retailers are charging, spelling 
and grammatical errors in the advertisements, and poor quality images. 
These are all signs that the advertisement may be for a counterfeit 
product.Engaging Ads, Poor Customer Service:&nbsp;This 
category covers a broad spectrum of complaints that BBB receives, from 
ads for beauty products to trendy clothing to kids' toys. The 
advertisements look great and the products are often inexpensive. This 
means that consumers purchase without doing any research into&nbsp;the 
website or the company behind it. However, weeks pass and the products 
never arrive. When the buyers reach out to customer service, they get a 
vague answer or they don't hear back at all.&nbsp;Before buying, do a quick online search. Google the website
 name with the words “complaints,” “reviews,” and “scam” to see what 
other customers are saying. Check the “About Us” or “Contact Us” 
information on the company’s website to see if they contain actual 
contact details for the business. If the only way to contact the company
 is through a form this is a red flag.&nbsp;&nbsp;Apps of Unknown Origin:&nbsp;While scrolling 
through your feed you may feel compelled to download the latest “free” 
app. Beware! By downloading this app, not only are you opening up your 
device to this unknown entities, you could possibly be signing up for 
recurring subscription fees. Victims report being&nbsp;charged fees as high 
as $99 every seven days.Before you enter your username and password, read the 
reviews. Also read the description of the app carefully and look for 
spelling and grammatical errors. Check that the developers website is a 
working website and read the terms and conditions carefully ($99 every 7
 days adds up quickly).<h2>How to Protect Yourself from Social Media Scams</h2><ul>
 <li>Do your research. Before making a purchase, do a 
quick search for the business in question. Do they have valid contact 
information? Don’t be fooled by professional photography or consumer 
reviews on their website. These can be lifted from other sites. Check <a href="https://www.BBB.org/ScamTracker" target="_blank">BBB Scam Tracker</a> to see if others have been duped.</li><li>Search for previous complaints. Do a Google search 
of the business name followed by “complaints,” “reviews,” or “scam” and 
see what pops up. If you find other people have been cheated by this 
business, steer clear.</li><li>Use good judgment. Many con artists play on 
consumers’ desire to help those in need. Keep this in mind and use your 
head, not just your heart, when supporting charitable causes. Go to <a href="https://www.give.org/" target="_blank">Give.org</a> to research organizations before giving.</li>
 </ul><h2>For More Information</h2>For more ways to protect yourself from social media shopping scams, see <a href="https://www.bbb.org/article/tips/14040-bbb-tip-smart-shopping-online" target="_blank">BBB's tips for smart shopping online</a>. You can also find more general tips at <a href="https://www.bbb.org/article/scams/8767-bbb-tips-10-steps-to-avoid-scams" target="_blank">10 Steps to avoid scams</a>.If you’ve been the victim of a social media&nbsp;ad scam, share your experience at <a href="http://www.bbb.org/ScamTracker" target="_blank">BBB Scam Tracker</a>. Your report could help other consumers avoid falling victim to similar scams.

BEWARE: The most popular social media scams of holiday season

The
 Federal Trade Commission is sending 34,893 checks and PayPal refunds 
totaling more than $2 million to consumers who lost money through a 
deceptive direct mail publications scheme. Agora Financial, LLC, 
NewMarket Health, and other related defendants tricked consumers into 
buying pamphlets, newsletters, and other publications through false 
promises and deceptive marketing.&nbsp; The refunds will provide full 
compensation for consumers who bought certain health- and 
finance-related publications sold by the defendants.

<a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2019/10/ftc-sues-publisher-targeting-seniors-phony-diabetes-cure-money">According to an October 2019 FTC complaint</a>, the Agora defendants primarily targeted its publications, including The Doctor’s Guide to Reversing Diabetes in 28 Days, at older consumers nationwide. Agora falsely marketed The Doctor’s Guide
 as a simple and scientifically proven protocol that can permanently 
cure type 2 diabetes in 28 days, without any changes in diet or 
exercise.

The FTC also alleged that the Agora defendants deceptively marketed Congress’ Secret $1.17 Trillion Giveaway,
 falsely promising that the book would show consumers how to claim 
hundreds to thousands of dollars to which they are entitled in 
“Congressional Checks” or “Republican Checks.”

The FTC is using the <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2021/02/publisher-will-pay-more-2-million-settle-ftc-charges-it-targeted">money it recovered from Agora Financial and related defendants</a>
 to provide consumer refunds totaling $2,052,868, via paper checks and 
PayPal. People who receive refund checks should deposit or cash them 
within 90 days, as indicated on the check. PayPal refunds will be 
available for 30 days after they are issued. Recipients who have 
questions about their refund can call the administrator, Ankura 
Consulting Group, LLC, at 1-833-460-2437. The FTC never requires people 
to pay money or provide account information to cash a refund check.

In
 2020, FTC actions led to more than $483 million in refunds to consumers
 across the country, but the United States Supreme Court ruled earlier 
this year that the FTC lacks authority under Section 13(b) to seek 
monetary relief in federal court going forward. The <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2021/04/ftc-asks-congress-pass-legislation-reviving-agencys-authority">Commission has urged Congress</a> to restore the FTC’s ability to get money back for consumers.

The Federal Trade Commission works to <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/about-ftc/bureaus-offices/bureau-competition">promote competition</a>, <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/about-ftc/bureaus-offices/bureau-consumer-protection">stop deceptive and unfair business practices and scams</a>, and <a href="https://consumer.ftc.gov/">educate consumers</a>. Report fraud, scams, or bad business practices at <a href="https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/">ReportFraud.ftc.gov</a>. Get consumer advice at <a href="https://consumer.ftc.gov/">consumer.ftc.gov</a>. Also, <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/social-media">follow the FTC on social media</a>, <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/stay-connected">subscribe to press releases</a>, and read the FTC’s <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs">blogs</a>.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/4/1619632629588.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>FTCThe
 Federal Trade Commission is sending 34,893 checks and PayPal refunds 
totaling more than $2 million to consumers who lost money through a 
deceptive direct mail publications scheme. Agora Financial, LLC, 
NewMarket Health, and other related defendants tricked consumers into 
buying pamphlets, newsletters, and other publications through false 
promises and deceptive marketing.&nbsp; The refunds will provide full 
compensation for consumers who bought certain health- and 
finance-related publications sold by the defendants.<a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2019/10/ftc-sues-publisher-targeting-seniors-phony-diabetes-cure-money">According to an October 2019 FTC complaint</a>, the Agora defendants primarily targeted its publications, including The Doctor’s Guide to Reversing Diabetes in 28 Days, at older consumers nationwide. Agora falsely marketed The Doctor’s Guide
 as a simple and scientifically proven protocol that can permanently 
cure type 2 diabetes in 28 days, without any changes in diet or 
exercise.The FTC also alleged that the Agora defendants deceptively marketed Congress’ Secret $1.17 Trillion Giveaway,
 falsely promising that the book would show consumers how to claim 
hundreds to thousands of dollars to which they are entitled in 
“Congressional Checks” or “Republican Checks.”The FTC is using the <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2021/02/publisher-will-pay-more-2-million-settle-ftc-charges-it-targeted">money it recovered from Agora Financial and related defendants</a>
 to provide consumer refunds totaling $2,052,868, via paper checks and 
PayPal. People who receive refund checks should deposit or cash them 
within 90 days, as indicated on the check. PayPal refunds will be 
available for 30 days after they are issued. Recipients who have 
questions about their refund can call the administrator, Ankura 
Consulting Group, LLC, at 1-833-460-2437. The FTC never requires people 
to pay money or provide account information to cash a refund check.In
 2020, FTC actions led to more than $483 million in refunds to consumers
 across the country, but the United States Supreme Court ruled earlier 
this year that the FTC lacks authority under Section 13(b) to seek 
monetary relief in federal court going forward. The <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2021/04/ftc-asks-congress-pass-legislation-reviving-agencys-authority">Commission has urged Congress</a> to restore the FTC’s ability to get money back for consumers.The Federal Trade Commission works to <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/about-ftc/bureaus-offices/bureau-competition">promote competition</a>, <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/about-ftc/bureaus-offices/bureau-consumer-protection">stop deceptive and unfair business practices and scams</a>, and <a href="https://consumer.ftc.gov/">educate consumers</a>. Report fraud, scams, or bad business practices at <a href="https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/">ReportFraud.ftc.gov</a>. Get consumer advice at <a href="https://consumer.ftc.gov/">consumer.ftc.gov</a>. Also, <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/social-media">follow the FTC on social media</a>, <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/stay-connected">subscribe to press releases</a>, and read the FTC’s <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs">blogs</a>.

Feds send $2M to consumers duped by direct mail scheme

The
 Federal Trade Commission is sending nearly $60 million to more than 
140,000 Amazon drivers. The funds will serve as reimbursement for tips 
that Amazon allegedly illegally withheld from drivers between 2016 and 
2019.

<a href="https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/federal.trade.commission/viz/Refunds_15797958402020/RefundsbyCase"></a>In 2021, the <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/cases/192_3123_-_amazon_flex_complaint_final_not_signed.pdf">FTC brought a suit against Amazon</a>
 and its subsidiary, Amazon Logistics, alleging that the company failed 
to fully pay tips that drivers in its Amazon Flex program had earned. 
Amazon Flex drivers deliver goods and groceries ordered through programs
 like Prime Now and AmazonFresh. The complaint alleged that the company 
secretly kept drivers’ tips over a two-and-a-half year period and only 
stopped the practice after becoming aware of the FTC’s investigation in 
2019.

<a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2021/02/amazon-pay-617-million-settle-ftc-charges-it-withheld-some">Amazon agreed to settle the case</a>
 and surrender all the money it withheld from its drivers. The 
settlement also prohibits Amazon from misrepresenting any driver’s 
likely income or rate of pay, how much of their tips will be paid to 
them, as well as whether the amount paid by a customer is a tip. Amazon 
also will be prohibited from making any changes to how a driver’s tips 
are used as compensation without the driver’s express informed consent.

The FTC will be sending 139,507 checks and 1,621 PayPal payments to 
Amazon Flex drivers. Drivers who had more than $5 withheld by Amazon 
will receive the full amount of their withheld tips. The highest amount 
going to a single Amazon Flex driver is more than $28,000, while the 
average amount is $422.

People who receive checks should deposit or cash them before January 
7, 2022, as indicated on the check. Recipients who have questions about 
their checks should call the refund administrator, Rust Consulting, at 
1-800-654-8874. The FTC never requires people to pay money or provide 
account information to cash a refund check.

Drivers whose payments total more than $600—19,980 drivers in 
total—will receive an IRS Form 1099 with their payment and should report
 this income on their tax return.

The FTC’s <a href="https://public.tableau.com/profile/federal.trade.commission#!/vizhome/Refunds_15797958402020/RefundsbyCase">interactive dashboards for refund data(link is external)</a>
 provide a state-by-state breakdown of FTC refunds. In 2020, FTC actions
 led to more than $483 million in refunds to consumers across the 
country, but the United States Supreme Court ruled earlier this year 
that the FTC lacks authority under Section 13(b) to seek monetary relief
 in federal court going forward. The <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2021/04/ftc-asks-congress-pass-legislation-reviving-agencys-authority"> Commission has urged Congress</a> to restore the FTC’s ability to get money back for consumers.

FTCThe
 Federal Trade Commission is sending nearly $60 million to more than 
140,000 Amazon drivers. The funds will serve as reimbursement for tips 
that Amazon allegedly illegally withheld from drivers between 2016 and 
2019.<a href="https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/federal.trade.commission/viz/Refunds_15797958402020/RefundsbyCase"></a>In 2021, the <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/cases/192_3123_-_amazon_flex_complaint_final_not_signed.pdf">FTC brought a suit against Amazon</a>
 and its subsidiary, Amazon Logistics, alleging that the company failed 
to fully pay tips that drivers in its Amazon Flex program had earned. 
Amazon Flex drivers deliver goods and groceries ordered through programs
 like Prime Now and AmazonFresh. The complaint alleged that the company 
secretly kept drivers’ tips over a two-and-a-half year period and only 
stopped the practice after becoming aware of the FTC’s investigation in 
2019.<a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2021/02/amazon-pay-617-million-settle-ftc-charges-it-withheld-some">Amazon agreed to settle the case</a>
 and surrender all the money it withheld from its drivers. The 
settlement also prohibits Amazon from misrepresenting any driver’s 
likely income or rate of pay, how much of their tips will be paid to 
them, as well as whether the amount paid by a customer is a tip. Amazon 
also will be prohibited from making any changes to how a driver’s tips 
are used as compensation without the driver’s express informed consent.The FTC will be sending 139,507 checks and 1,621 PayPal payments to 
Amazon Flex drivers. Drivers who had more than $5 withheld by Amazon 
will receive the full amount of their withheld tips. The highest amount 
going to a single Amazon Flex driver is more than $28,000, while the 
average amount is $422.People who receive checks should deposit or cash them before January 
7, 2022, as indicated on the check. Recipients who have questions about 
their checks should call the refund administrator, Rust Consulting, at 
1-800-654-8874. The FTC never requires people to pay money or provide 
account information to cash a refund check.Drivers whose payments total more than $600—19,980 drivers in 
total—will receive an IRS Form 1099 with their payment and should report
 this income on their tax return.The FTC’s <a href="https://public.tableau.com/profile/federal.trade.commission#!/vizhome/Refunds_15797958402020/RefundsbyCase">interactive dashboards for refund data(link is external)</a>
 provide a state-by-state breakdown of FTC refunds. In 2020, FTC actions
 led to more than $483 million in refunds to consumers across the 
country, but the United States Supreme Court ruled earlier this year 
that the FTC lacks authority under Section 13(b) to seek monetary relief
 in federal court going forward. The <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2021/04/ftc-asks-congress-pass-legislation-reviving-agencys-authority"> Commission has urged Congress</a> to restore the FTC’s ability to get money back for consumers.The Federal Trade Commission works to <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/about-ftc/bureaus-offices/bureau-competition">promote competition</a>, <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/about-ftc/bureaus-offices/bureau-consumer-protection">stop deceptive and unfair business practices and scams</a>, and <a href="https://consumer.ftc.gov/">educate consumers</a>. Report fraud, scams, or bad business practices at <a href="https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/">ReportFraud.ftc.gov</a>. Get consumer advice at <a href="https://consumer.ftc.gov/">consumer.ftc.gov</a>. Also, <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/social-media">follow the FTC on social media</a>, <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/stay-connected">subscribe to press releases</a>, and read the FTC’s <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs">blogs</a>.

FTC sends nearly $60M to Amazon drivers whose tips were illegally withheld

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police say they are investigating the death of a woman in south Omaha as a homicide and have arrested an 18-year-old man in the case. 

Police say officers were called to an area along South 20th Street just before 8 a.m. Sunday for a death investigation and found the body of 61-year-old Jolene Harshbarger. 

Police determined the circumstances surrounding Harshbarger's death to be suspicion, but have not said how she died. Police announced midday Monday that they arrested 18-year-old Daniel Dejaynes-Beaman on suspicion of first-degree murder and use of a weapon to commit a felony.

 Police declined to say what relationship, if any, Dejaynes-Beaman had to Harshbarger.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police say they are investigating the death of a woman in south Omaha as a homicide and have arrested an 18-year-old man in the case. Police say officers were called to an area along South 20th Street just before 8 a.m. Sunday for a death investigation and found the body of 61-year-old Jolene Harshbarger. Police determined the circumstances surrounding Harshbarger's death to be suspicion, but have not said how she died. Police announced midday Monday that they arrested 18-year-old Daniel Dejaynes-Beaman on suspicion of first-degree murder and use of a weapon to commit a felony. Police declined to say what relationship, if any, Dejaynes-Beaman had to Harshbarger.

Death of Omaha woman labeled homicide; arrest made

WASHINGTON (AP) — A majority of the Supreme Court signaled Monday they would allow abortion providers to pursue a court challenge to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/texas-health-abortion-government-and-politics-ba02cd7c3f02b1eb5c87094257ee4db2">a Texas law</a>&nbsp;that has virtually ended abortion in the nation’s second-largest state after six weeks of pregnancy.

But it was unclear how quickly the court would rule and whether it would issue an order blocking the law that has been in effect for two months, or require providers to ask a lower court put the law on hold.

Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, two conservative appointees of former President Donald Trump, voted in September to allow the law to take effect, but they raised questions Monday about its novel structure. The law, written to make it difficult to mount legal challenges, subjects clinics, doctors and any others who facilitate abortions to large financial penalties.

“Millions and millions retroactively imposed, even though the activity was perfectly lawful under all court orders and precedent at the time it was undertaken, right?” Kavanaugh asked, one of several skeptical questions he put to Judd E. Stone II, representing Texas.

Barrett, too, pressed Stone about provisions of the law that force providers to fight lawsuits one by one and, she said, don’t allow their constitutional rights to be “fully aired.”

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-supreme-court-texas-9c75eae9d7fddcd34b70bbf3fccb9be3">The justices heard three hours of arguments</a>&nbsp;Monday in two cases over whether abortion providers or&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-supreme-court-texas-bills-149e66a206890b29ccdf15ce26916085">the Justice Department</a>&nbsp;can mount federal court challenges to the law, which has an unusual enforcement scheme its defenders argue shields it from federal court review.

The Biden administration filed its lawsuit after the justices&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/texas-courts-us-supreme-court-32ee7ae7eeec9bdfd1471a848c163321">voted 5-4 to refuse a request by providers to keep the law on hold</a>. Justice Neil Gorsuch, also a Trump appointee, and two other conservative justices joined Barrett and Kavanaugh in the majority to let the law take effect. Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court’s three liberal justices in dissent.

The justices sounded less convinced that the Justice Department lawsuit should go forward, and Justice Elena Kagan suggested that a ruling instead in favor of the providers would allow the court to avoid difficult issues of federal power.

In neither case argued Monday is the right to an abortion directly at issue. But the motivation for the lawsuits is that the Texas law conflicts with landmark Supreme Court rulings that prevent a state from banning abortion early in pregnancy.

Arguing for the United States, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar told the justices that Texas’ law was enacted in “open defiance” of Supreme Court precedent. “It enacted a law that clearly violates this court’s precedents,” she said.

Under the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision, states are prevented from banning abortion before viability, the point at which a fetus can survive outside the womb, around 24 weeks of pregnancy.

The justices will hear a separate challenge to those decisions in a case over&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-us-supreme-court-mississippi-7ee64ee43f9d5c291133cf14b66f6875">Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks</a>. Those arguments are set for Dec. 1.

The most direct reference to the Mississippi case came from Justice Samuel Alito, who asked if the decision by providers to stop doing abortions in Texas “is attributable to the fear of liability if Roe or Casey is altered?”

But most questions focused on the Texas law and how it has altered abortion in the state even before the high court has made any change in abortion law. Kagan told Stone that until Texas passed its law, “no state dreamed” of trying to make an end-run around Supreme Court precedent in the same way.

If the Supreme Court doesn’t do anything about that, she said, it would be inviting states to try to flout precedent: “Guns. Same-sex marriage. Religious rights. Whatever you don’t like: go ahead,” she said. Kagan, who disagreed with her colleagues’ decision to let the law take effect, said Texas’ law has prevented women in Texas “from exercising a constitutional right.”

Kavanaugh also raised concerns about laws that might affect other constitutional rights.

The Texas law has been in effect since September when the Supreme Court declined to intervene, except for a 48-hour period in early October when it was&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-us-supreme-court-business-texas-courts-5eb085acee67615da3623212953220c9">blocked by a lower court</a>. The high court got involved again less than two weeks ago, moving at extraordinary speed. The court offered no explanation for its decision to hear the cases so quickly.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1635782546230.png" alt="Protesters outside the Supreme Court Monday -photo courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>Protesters outside the Supreme Court Monday -photo courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — A majority of the Supreme Court signaled Monday they would allow abortion providers to pursue a court challenge to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/texas-health-abortion-government-and-politics-ba02cd7c3f02b1eb5c87094257ee4db2">a Texas law</a>&nbsp;that has virtually ended abortion in the nation’s second-largest state after six weeks of pregnancy.But it was unclear how quickly the court would rule and whether it would issue an order blocking the law that has been in effect for two months, or require providers to ask a lower court put the law on hold.Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, two conservative appointees of former President Donald Trump, voted in September to allow the law to take effect, but they raised questions Monday about its novel structure. The law, written to make it difficult to mount legal challenges, subjects clinics, doctors and any others who facilitate abortions to large financial penalties.“Millions and millions retroactively imposed, even though the activity was perfectly lawful under all court orders and precedent at the time it was undertaken, right?” Kavanaugh asked, one of several skeptical questions he put to Judd E. Stone II, representing Texas.Barrett, too, pressed Stone about provisions of the law that force providers to fight lawsuits one by one and, she said, don’t allow their constitutional rights to be “fully aired.”<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-supreme-court-texas-9c75eae9d7fddcd34b70bbf3fccb9be3">The justices heard three hours of arguments</a>&nbsp;Monday in two cases over whether abortion providers or&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-supreme-court-texas-bills-149e66a206890b29ccdf15ce26916085">the Justice Department</a>&nbsp;can mount federal court challenges to the law, which has an unusual enforcement scheme its defenders argue shields it from federal court review.The Biden administration filed its lawsuit after the justices&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/texas-courts-us-supreme-court-32ee7ae7eeec9bdfd1471a848c163321">voted 5-4 to refuse a request by providers to keep the law on hold</a>. Justice Neil Gorsuch, also a Trump appointee, and two other conservative justices joined Barrett and Kavanaugh in the majority to let the law take effect. Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court’s three liberal justices in dissent.The justices sounded less convinced that the Justice Department lawsuit should go forward, and Justice Elena Kagan suggested that a ruling instead in favor of the providers would allow the court to avoid difficult issues of federal power.In neither case argued Monday is the right to an abortion directly at issue. But the motivation for the lawsuits is that the Texas law conflicts with landmark Supreme Court rulings that prevent a state from banning abortion early in pregnancy.Arguing for the United States, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar told the justices that Texas’ law was enacted in “open defiance” of Supreme Court precedent. “It enacted a law that clearly violates this court’s precedents,” she said.Under the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision, states are prevented from banning abortion before viability, the point at which a fetus can survive outside the womb, around 24 weeks of pregnancy.The justices will hear a separate challenge to those decisions in a case over&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-us-supreme-court-mississippi-7ee64ee43f9d5c291133cf14b66f6875">Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks</a>. Those arguments are set for Dec. 1.The most direct reference to the Mississippi case came from Justice Samuel Alito, who asked if the decision by providers to stop doing abortions in Texas “is attributable to the fear of liability if Roe or Casey is altered?”But most questions focused on the Texas law and how it has altered abortion in the state even before the high court has made any change in abortion law. Kagan told Stone that until Texas passed its law, “no state dreamed” of trying to make an end-run around Supreme Court precedent in the same way.If the Supreme Court doesn’t do anything about that, she said, it would be inviting states to try to flout precedent: “Guns. Same-sex marriage. Religious rights. Whatever you don’t like: go ahead,” she said. Kagan, who disagreed with her colleagues’ decision to let the law take effect, said Texas’ law has prevented women in Texas “from exercising a constitutional right.”Kavanaugh also raised concerns about laws that might affect other constitutional rights.The Texas law has been in effect since September when the Supreme Court declined to intervene, except for a 48-hour period in early October when it was&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-us-supreme-court-business-texas-courts-5eb085acee67615da3623212953220c9">blocked by a lower court</a>. The high court got involved again less than two weeks ago, moving at extraordinary speed. The court offered no explanation for its decision to hear the cases so quickly.If the court allows the providers to continue their lawsuit, it would still take a separate order from the justices or a lower court to put the law on hold.Amy Hagstrom Miller, chief executive of Whole Woman’s Health, said her four clinics would resume abortion services if they get a favorable court order.The Texas ban, signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott in May, prohibits abortion after cardiac activity is detected in a fetus, usually around six weeks and before some women know they are pregnant.The law makes exceptions for medical emergencies but not for rape or incest.A study published by researchers at the University of Texas found that the number of abortions statewide fell by 50% after the law took effect in September, compared to the same month in 2020. The study was based on data from 19 of the state’s 24 abortion clinics, according to the Texas Policy Evaluation Project.At least 12 other states have enacted bans early in pregnancy, but all have been blocked from going into effect.Rather than have state officials enforce the law, Texas deputizes private citizens to sue anyone who performs or aids and abets an abortion. If someone bringing suit is successful, they are entitled to at least $10,000. Women who obtain abortions can’t be sued under the law.During arguments Monday, Roberts at one point asked whether the law could be challenged if Texas had made the entitlement much higher, $1 million. Texas’ lawyer told him no.The structure of the law threatens abortion providers with huge financial penalties if they violate it. Clinics throughout the state have stopped performing abortions once cardiac activity is found.The result, both the providers and the Biden administration said, is that women who are financially able have traveled to other states and those without the means must either continue their pregnancies against their will or find other, potentially dangerous ways to end them.Stone and Jonathan Mitchell, an architect of the law who also argued Monday, defended the law and its unusual structure. They said both the providers and the Justice Department lack the right to go into federal court, and should be asking Congress,not the justices, to expand court access.---------WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is taking up challenges to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/texas-health-abortion-government-and-politics-ba02cd7c3f02b1eb5c87094257ee4db2">a Texas law</a>&nbsp;that has virtually ended abortion in the nation’s second-largest state after six weeks of pregnancy.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-supreme-court-texas-9c75eae9d7fddcd34b70bbf3fccb9be3">The justices are hearing arguments</a>&nbsp;Monday in two cases over whether abortion providers or&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-supreme-court-texas-bills-149e66a206890b29ccdf15ce26916085">the Justice Department</a>&nbsp;can mount federal court challenges to the law, which has an unusual enforcement scheme its defenders argue shields it from federal court review.In neither case is the right to an abortion directly at issue, but the motivation for lawsuits filed by abortion providers and the Justice Department is that the Texas law conflicts with landmark Supreme Court rulings that prevent a state from banning abortion early in pregnancy.The justices will hear a separate challenge to the decisions in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey in a case over&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-us-supreme-court-mississippi-7ee64ee43f9d5c291133cf14b66f6875">Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks</a>. Those arguments are set for Dec. 1.The Texas law has been in effect since September, except for a 48-hour period in early October when it was&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-us-supreme-court-business-texas-courts-5eb085acee67615da3623212953220c9">blocked by a lower court</a>.The high court jumped into the Texas cases less than two weeks ago, moving at extraordinary speed, but only after&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21053670-whole-womans-health-v-jackson" target="_blank">rejecting a plea to block the law</a>&nbsp;by a 5-4 vote in early September.Five conservative justices, including three who were appointed by President Donald Trump, were in the majority. Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court’s three liberal justices in dissent.The court offered no explanation for its decision to hear the cases so quickly.The Texas ban, signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott in May, prohibits abortion after cardiac activity is detected in a fetus, usually around six weeks and before some women know they are pregnant.The law makes exceptions for medical emergencies but not for rape or incest.At least 12 other states have enacted bans early in pregnancy, but all have been blocked from going into effect.But rather than have state officials enforce it, the Texas law deputizes private citizens to sue anyone who performs or aids and abets an abortion. If they’re successful, they are entitled to at least $10,000. Women who obtain abortions can’t be sued under the law.The structure of the law threatens abortion providers with huge financial penalties if they violate it. Clinics throughout the state have stopped performing abortions once cardiac activity is found.The result, both the providers and the Biden administration said, is that women who are financially able have traveled to other states and those without the means must either continue their pregnancies against their will or find other, potentially dangerous ways to end them.The state and Jonathan Mitchell, an architect of the law, say in their briefs that the providers and the Justice Department lack the right to go into federal court and can’t sue state judges and clerks who are not responsible for enforcing the abortion ban. They also contend that there is no effective way of blocking the law, in part because federal court can’t force state judges to abstain from hearing the lawsuits the law authorizes.