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Senate OKs bill allowing duplexes, fourplexes in Washington

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Senate OKs bill allowing duplexes, fourplexes in Washington


A key housing invoice that will legalize duplexes and fourplexes in most neighborhoods in practically each Washington metropolis has been permitted by the state Senate.

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Home Invoice 1110 handed on a 35-14 vote on Tuesday with a few half-dozen Republicans becoming a member of Democrats to go it, The Seattle Occasions reported. The invoice would override native zoning guidelines which have lengthy saved giant areas in cities for under single-family houses.

Gov. Jay Inslee and different supporters say growing housing provide is essential to ease a statewide housing disaster that’s seen dwelling costs soar and the rise of homelessness.

“We merely don’t have sufficient housing on this state,” mentioned Sen. Yasmin Trudeau, D-Tacoma. “This drawback impacts each metropolis in each county throughout the state and it’s an even bigger drawback than any metropolis or county has been capable of sort out to date.”

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Opponents argue that planning and land use selections ought to be dealt with regionally and that the invoice could be a present to builders with out doing sufficient to extend inexpensive housing.

“I help the native communities with the ability to decide what their neighborhood seems like with out the state of Washington coming down with a hammer telling them they have to do that,” Sen. Phil Fortunato, R-Auburn, mentioned.

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The invoice will return to the Home for a vote on the Senate’s model, which amongst different adjustments, is extra lenient within the necessities it locations on smaller cities in Seattle’s suburbs.

“Exhausting to overstate what a sea change that is for the state of Washington taking proactive motion on zoning reform to create extra housing decisions,” wrote Dan Bertolet, director of housing and urbanism for the Sightline Institute.

It might not ban the development of single household houses, however it could cease cities from requiring neighborhoods to have solely single-family houses.

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Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, touted the invoice as defending non-public property rights.

“When the cities say you may solely construct one home in your half-acre lot,” Braun mentioned, “that restricts your proper to make use of your property as you desire to.”

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The state Division of Commerce estimates Washington must construct a further 1 million houses over the following two-plus many years to maintain tempo with inhabitants progress.

The necessities wouldn’t apply to environmentally essential areas or threatened watersheds round ingesting water reservoirs.

Comparable laws has failed lately, as cities have lobbied to keep up their grip on zoning laws. However supporters this yr labored extensively with the Affiliation of Washington Cities, which gave muted help final week.

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States have more and more stepped in as populations develop and housing shares fail to maintain tempo. Oregon eradicated single-family zoning in 2019 and California largely did the identical in 2021.



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Giuliani disbarred in N.Y. over false statements about 2020 election

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Giuliani disbarred in N.Y. over false statements about 2020 election


Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor and personal attorney to Donald Trump, was disbarred Tuesday in New York over his false statements about the 2020 election.

“The seriousness of respondent’s misconduct cannot be overstated,” a state appeals court said in a ruling, adding that Giuliani “baselessly attacked and undermined the integrity of this country’s electoral process.”

Giuliani was already suspended from practicing law in New York, where he was admitted to the bar in 1969.

The court ordered Giuliani to be “disbarred from the practice of law, effective immediately, and until the further order of this Court, and his name stricken from the roll of attorneys and counselors-at-law in the State of New York.”

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A spokesman for Giuliani, a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, criticized the decision and said he would appeal it.

“Members of the legal community who respect the rule of law in this country should immediately come forward and speak out against this politically and ideologically corrupted decision,” the spokesman, Ted Goodman, said in a statement.

Giuliani said in a social media post that he was “not surprised” he was disbarred. He argued that the case against him was “based on an activist complaint, replete with false arguments.”

Giuliani could be disbarred in Washington, D.C., where he has also been suspended from practicing law.

Giuliani has faced a storm of legal problems over his leading role in Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 reelection defeat. He has been indicted on criminal charges in Georgia and Arizona over alleged schemes to subvert the 2020 election in each state. Last year, he was ordered to pay $148 million in a defamation lawsuit brought by two Georgia poll workers.

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Giuliani filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York after the defamation case.

The decision Tuesday came from the First Judicial Department of the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court. The ruling found Giuliani “repeatedly and intentionally made false statements” about the 2020 election — “some of which were perjurious” — to courts, the public and state lawmakers.

“In so doing, respondent not only deliberately violated some of the most fundamental tenets of the legal profession, but he also actively contributed to the national strife that has followed the 2020 Presidential election, for which he is entirely unrepentant,” the ruling said.

John Catsimatidis, the owner of a New York radio station where Giuliani was abruptly taken off the air in May over his comments about the 2020 election, said in a text message to The Washington Post that the court’s decision was “very sad” for Giuliani.

Azi Paybarah contributed to this report.

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OSHA proposes rule to protect workers exposed to extreme heat

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OSHA proposes rule to protect workers exposed to extreme heat


The Occupational Safety and Health Administration proposed a rule Tuesday outlining steps employers must take to protect indoor and outdoor workers from the risk of heat illness, the first major regulation aimed at preventing heat-related deaths on the job.

The rule, if finalized, could add protections for 35 million workers nationwide. But it will face opposition from industry groups and major hurdles beyond that, including the possibility that Donald Trump could win a second term and block the rule from becoming final.

“The purpose of this rule is simple. It is to significantly reduce the number of work-related deaths, injuries and illnesses suffered by workers who are exposed to excessive heat and exposed to these risks while simply doing their jobs,” OSHA Assistant Secretary of Labor Doug Parker said on a call with reporters.

“Whether they are making deliveries, carrying mail all day, working construction, picking vegetables, repairing power lines, doing landscaping. It’s these things that put workers at risk.”

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OSHA officials have been working on the proposed regulation for more than two years at the urging of public health and climate advocates.

The proposal comes as summertime heat envelopes the United States and the hottest month of the year gets underway. At the beginning of this week, over 60 million Americans were under heat alerts.

Excessive heat warnings now cover much of California, including in and around San Francisco, and the National Weather Service office that serves much of California’s Central Valley warned of a “dangerous, prolonged heat wave that will last several days.” Southeastern states are also facing hot and soupy weather and at least 45 million Americans will probably have to endure highs at or above 100 degrees this week.

Under the proposed rule issued Tuesday, OSHA would adopt two heat index thresholds that would apply nationally and would factor in humidity as well as temperature. One, at 80 degrees Fahrenheit, would require employers to provide drinking water and break areas that workers can use as needed. Employers would also need to have a plan for new and returning workers to gradually increase their workload so their bodies adjust to the heat.

More protections would kick in at 90 degrees, including monitoring for signs of heat illness and mandatory 15 minute rest breaks every two hours. Employers would be required to check on people working alone every few hours and to issue a hazard alert, reminding their workers of the importance of staying hydrated.

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Juley Fulcher, a worker health advocate for the nonprofit Public Citizen, which has pushed for a national heat standard, said the proposal is based on scientific research on how the body responds to heat and borrows from state workplace heat safety laws. So far, only five states have such protections: California, Colorado, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington. Workers in Maryland could soon gain protections — there is a draft rule that is not yet final.

Fulcher praised the OSHA proposal, saying the agency had “done a really good job.” Although some Americans might balk at the suggestion they need protection from 80 degree weather, Fulcher said it’s important to remember that official temperature readings are taken in the shade. Once you factor in sunlight and humidity, an 80 degree day can feel more like 95 or 100, she said.

“If you’re doing really heavy work, you’re generating a lot of internal heat in addition to that external heat,” she said. “You’re not going to be able to cool off at those temperatures.”

The rule doesn’t cover everyone. “Sedentary” employees are exempt from the protections, as are those in indoor job sites kept below 80 degrees, emergency response workers and remote employees. And, because OSHA regulations do not extend to public employees, the regulation won’t apply to government workers and public school teachers, many of whom are confronting increasingly high temperatures in school buildings without air conditioning.

Some businesses and industry groups are gearing up for a battle over a regulation many see as burdensome, redundant and expensive.

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Critics have made their displeasure known in letters to the agency. Some industries have argued they are already protecting employees from heat and that a new regulation would be duplicative or, worse, get in the way of what they’re doing. They have pushed back against the rule’s expected acclimatization requirements, which would mandate a gradual ramping up of work hours during high heat. Some have questioned the entire initiative, saying that a workplace heat rule is unnecessary because not many workers die of heat exposure.

From 1992-2019, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found there were an average of 32 heat-related workplace fatalities per year. There were 43 such deaths in 2022, up from 36 in 2021.

Agency officials and public health advocates say these numbers underestimate the scale of the problem, given underreporting and the difficulty of attributing a death to heat. Workplace data aside, deaths from heat in the U.S. have steadily increased in recent years, exceeding 2,200 last year.



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Biden denounces Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity

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Biden denounces Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity


President Biden on Monday night issued a blistering attack on the U.S. Supreme Court for its decision earlier in the day declaring that Donald Trump was immune from prosecution for official acts he took during his presidency.

In brief but forceful remarks that came in a late addition to his schedule, Biden said that the high court was setting a dangerous precedent that could fundamentally change the world’s most powerful office.

“For all practical purposes, today’s decision almost certainly means that there are virtually no limits on what the president can do,” Biden said, adding that he pledges “to respect the limits of the presidential powers.”

The president also noted that the decision means that it is “highly unlikely” that Trump would be prosecuted before the election in November, which he called “a terrible disservice to the people of this nation.”

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“So now, the American people have to do what the courts should have been willing to do, but will not,” Biden said. “The American people must decide whether Donald Trump’s assault on our democracy on January 6th makes him unfit for public office in the highest office in the land.”

At a time when he is under scrutiny following a poor debate performance that has caused Democrats to question his stamina, Biden continued to focus on Trump and sought to crystallize the choice before the electorate.

“The American people must decide if Trump’s embrace of violence to preserve his power is acceptable,” he said. “Perhaps most importantly, the American people must decide if they want to entrust the presidency once again to Donald Trump — now, knowing he’ll be more emboldened to do whatever he pleases, whenever he wants to do it.”

The comments marked a rare rebuke of the justice system for Biden, who has sought to distinguish his presidency by attempting to restore faith in American institutions. But Biden — who, as a senator, was a longtime chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee overseeing Supreme Court nomination hearings — has also found himself at odds with some of its recent decisions, including most prominently the Dobbs decision that repealed Roe v. Wade and declared there is no constitutional right to an abortion.

“This decision today has continued the court’s attack in recent years on a wide range of long-established legal principles in our nation, from gutting voting rights and civil rights to taking away a woman’s right to choose,” Biden said in his White House remarks.

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House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) accused Biden of improperly attacking the judiciary. “What we’re seeing tonight is despicable and dangerous,” Johnson told Fox News. “The president has been trying to undermine our legal system.”

At the start of his comments, Biden reflected on the potentially sweeping effects the decision could have on the conduct of future presidents.

“The presidency is the most powerful office in the world,” he said. “It’s an office that not only tests your judgment — perhaps even more importantly, it’s an office that could test your character. Because you’re not only faced with moments where you need the courage to exercise the full power of the presidency, you also face moments where you need the wisdom to respect the limits of the power of the office of the presidency.”

Toward the end of his remarks, Biden aimed to place the ruling in the context of history, reaching back to the founding of the nation.

“At the outset of our nation, it was the character of George Washington, our first president, to define the presidency. He believed power was limited, not absolute, and that power always resides with the people — always,” Biden said. “Now, over 200 years later today, the Supreme Court decision means that once again, it will depend on the character of the men and women who hold the presidency … because the law will no longer do it.”

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He ended with a new line, saying, “May God bless you all. And may God help preserve our democracy.” Then, he added, “May God protect our troops.”

He then left the room, ignoring the shouted questions about the state of his campaign.



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