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New legislation would require women, like men, to sign up for potential draft

July 23, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — A U.S. Senate committee has approved legislation that would, if enacted, require young women to register for Selective Service alongside men, and in the rare event of a war or other national emergency, be drafted for the first time in the nation’s history.

During the Vietnam War — between 1964 and 1973 — nearly 2 million men were drafted in the U.S., according to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. Just afterward, in 1973, facing a tide of opposition to the controversial draft, President Richard Nixon officially ended military conscription, and the U.S. established an all-volunteer force.

But even though the draft is no more, most young men, including immigrants, are required to register with the Military Selective Service in case conscription becomes necessary once again. Federal law requires registration when a man turns 18 years of age, and immigrants are required to register within 30 days of arriving in the country.

The new legislation, authored by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed, D-R.I., would remove any reference to “male” in current law, leaving women on an equal playing field.

But not everyone is on board.

Committee member Josh Hawley, R-Mo., announced his opposition to the measure, tweeting Friday, “American women have heroically served in and alongside our fighting forces since our nation’s founding – It’s one thing to allow American women to choose this service, but it’s quite another to force it upon our daughters, sisters, and wives. Missourians feel strongly that compelling women to fight our wars is wrong and so do I.”

Women have been serving at all levels of the military since 2013 when the Pentagon opened up front-line, ground combat positions to them, and supporters of the Reed legislation say it’s high time that women sign up, particularly since the service has changed dramatically since the Vietnam era.

“This isn’t our grandfather’s military,” a Senate aide close to the matter told ABC News in an interview, noting that should a draft be instituted, the greater need nowadays would be for more educated conscripts in the specialty branches, like those with an expertise in cyber, technology and STEM, as well as doctors and lawyers.

“So, while a draft is highly unlikely in many of our lifetimes, none of that raises the same arguments about physicality — all of the things that were used to argue for a male-only draft,” the aide said. “It’s a different world.”

When asked if President Joe Biden supports the change, a White House aide pointed to a September 2020 Military Officers Association of America candidate forum in which then-candidate Biden said, “The United States does not need a larger military, and we don’t need a draft at this time…I would, however, ensure that women are also eligible to register for the Selective Service System so that men and women are treated equally in the event of future conflicts.”

In a Supreme Court case earlier this year, the ACLU challenged the constitutionality of an all-male draft legislation, but the acting solicitor general pointed to likely action from Congress in arguing that the high court hold off making a judgement, which it eventually acceded to.

The Reed legislation is part of a massive defense policy measure known as the National Defense Authorization Act, a highly popular piece of legislation giving raises to U.S. troops, funding many new military systems, weapons upgrades and more. It is considered must-pass legislation, and it is expected that the new selective service requirement for women will remain in place, according to the aide.

The Senate nearly passed the legislation back in 2017, but instead a national commission was created to study the issue, along with a wider mandate to look at national public service in general.

That National Commission on Military, National, & Public Service last year came out in favor of the Reed position, and the senator took his current legislation directly from the commission findings.

“In reviewing the question of whether Selective Service registration should include women, the Commission seriously considered a wide range of deeply felt moral, legal, and practical arguments and explored the available empirical evidence,” the panel’s report read.

“The Commission concluded that the time is right to extend Selective Service System registration to include men and women, between the ages of 18 and 26. This is a necessary and fair step, making it possible to draw on the talent of a unified Nation in a time of national emergency,” the report concluded.

Taken together, the Senate aide said, the sentiment was, “If we’re going to have a draft – a selective service system – then women have to be involved.”

“The recognition is that we’re probably not going to have a military draft, but if we do, then we recognize that you can’t fight with one hand tied behind your back,” the aide added.

Plus, the aide noted, back in 2016 when the initial idea was being seriously considered, all four service chiefs testified in favor of adding women.

Congress for years has shot down the idea of mandatory registration for women, but times are changing. The NDAA — with the requirement in it — passed the Senate Armed Services Committee 23-2 this week.

If the legislation survives, the measure would go into effect one year after enactment of the new law.

ABC New’ Justin Gomez contributed to this report.

Maryland wildlife refuge fights to protect American history from climate change

July 23, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Robert A. Reeder/The The Washington Post via Getty Images

(CAMBRIDGE, Md.) — While extreme heat waves, wildfires and devastating flooding bring attention to the impacts of climate change, some parts of the country are fighting more pernicious effects that threaten both protected ecosystems and important landmarks of American history.

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge is a wetland in the outer banks of Maryland established in 1933 as a protected area for bald eagles, osprey and several species of migratory birds. The government officials working to protect it say they can see the impacts of climate change in the refuge every day. As the ocean continues to warm and sea levels rise, the water is turning marshes into lakes and allowing invasive species to take over the ecosystem.

But the pressure to protect Blackwater is about more than just the plants and animals that live there. It also has deep roots in American history. Harriet Tubman is connected to multiple sites in the area, including the town where she was born, the general store where she was hit in the head after refusing to stop an enslaved boy from escaping and multiple locations she used when leading slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad.

“These are the very forests. If Harriet Tubman were here today, none of this landscape would have looked different to her at all,” said Deanna Mitchell, the superintendent of the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Historical Park.

Those forests are now also feeling the impact of climate change. The trees can’t survive the saltwater intruding on the marsh, and more and more forests are dying, turning into what U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Biologist Matt Whitbeck calls “ghost forests.”

“For many people, many visitors, if they come to the refuge, they go around our wildlife drive and they look to the south and they see this big body of open water. And it’s beautiful. You know, we have pelicans out there, we get tundra swans out there in the winter, the sunsets, and it’s just lovely,” he said.

“But once you understand the factors that cause this big expanse of open water, it’s a little alarming. So when the refuge was established in 1933, that was all the vast expanse of tidal marsh. So we had black rails, we had nesting black ducks. We had all of this habitat that has since been lost to open water.”

Whitbeck said 5,000 acres of tidal marsh at Blackwater have been converted into open water since the refuge was created, and encroaching saltwater has killed acres of forests and made irreversible changes for native species. The Fish and Wildlife Service expects sea levels around Blackwater will be 3.4 feet higher in 2100 than they are now, meaning most of the marshlands visible now will all be underwater.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has worked to restore marsh areas and is researching ways to manage the ecosystem, but Whitbeck said they won’t be able to stop all of the changes they’re seeing in the marsh as sea levels continue to rise and the saltwater makes it harder for native species to survive.

Just in the last year, a team of archeologists from the Maryland Department of Transportation announced they discovered the site of a cabin belonging to Harriet Tubman’s father, Ben Ross, where Tubman lived as a child and worked with him as an adult.

The agency recently purchased the 2,600-acre property where they found the site, because they were concerned it could be completely flooded before they were able to find and preserve what remained of the property.

“Sea level rise was already beginning to take away that particular site and that history. So if we had waited, if we hadn’t been able to begin this, even a couple of years, we might never have found it. So we found it just in time in a surprise area, in an area that was definitely being impacted by sea level rise,” said Marcia Pradines, the head of restoration efforts for wildlife refuges around the Chesapeake Bay.

Pradines and other federal officials are charged with making difficult decisions about how to prioritize the fight against climate change in protected wildlife refuges, including sometimes accepting that not every impact of climate change can be stopped or that they have to adapt their approach to determine what parts of the ecosystem will be able to survive. The federal government has adopted new guidance called Resist, Accept, Direct, acknowledging that they can no longer protect the country’s natural resources from every impact of climate change.

“I am very confident that at the end of my lifetime, Dorchester County will continue to be one of the largest expanses of tidal marsh in the Chesapeake Bay,” Whitbeck said.

“The trick is what kind of marsh will it be, and what plants and animals will live in that marsh? And that’s what we’re still sorting out.”

While federal and state officials work to balance the current impacts of climate change with the parts of Blackwater they can protect, they say they are focused on preserving the history for generations to come.

“The reality is we are dealing with climate change, and we are seeing the impacts of sea level rise to some degree,” Mitchell said.

“So I would say probably by the end of the century, things will start to change in here, you know, pretty much. But while we can do it and while we have the ability, we need to try and do as much as we can to protect what we can for as long as we can.”

Paralyzed man uses exoskeleton suit to get down on knee to propose to girlfriend

July 23, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Josh Smith, a quadriplegic, has been unable to walk or perform most activities after an accident seven years ago.

So when Smith proposed to his girlfriend, Grace on bended knee, it was a big surprise for his friends and family.

Smith was able to do so using an exoskeleton suit.

“I had this huge idea, and I didn’t know if it was even possible because I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody do it before,” Smith said. “So, I reached out to my therapists and told them I wanted to try to get down on one knee to propose, and I was hoping that we could use the exoskeleton to help with that.”

After he was given the green light, Smith got to work. But just like the last few years of his life, he knew it wouldn’t be easy.

A life-changing injury

In August of 2014, Smith was visiting some friends in Virginia Beach when he dove into a wave head first, slamming into a sandbar. He was instantly paralyzed from the chest down.

“I was floating there face down and couldn’t move anything, but my eyes were open,” Smith said. “It took me a little bit to realize that I couldn’t move at all and then once I came to, I thought I was going to drown there.”

“It was really scary,” he added. “Luckily, my friends dragged me out onto the beach and waited for the paramedics to get there.”

At 23 years old, Smith said he realized he would be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

The weeks following the accident were tough for Smith. He spent up to four months at the Shepherd Center, a spinal cord and brain injury rehabilitation center in Atlanta, where he worked with therapists to help him adjust to his wheelchair. Shortly after, he returned to his hometown of Richmond, Virginia, where he continued life, but forced to look through a new lens.

“Life as Josh knew it had changed in one horrific instant,” his mother , Caroline Smith said. “With his level of injury, living independently is very hard to achieve, but we worked together as a team to help him reach that goal.”

In under a year, Smith was making stride. He could drive an accessible van, work full-time, participate in adaptive sports and even invent products and tools for those, like himself, with limited motor functions. A little over two years after his injury, Smith lived in an accessible home he custom built for his needs, his mother said.

“It was kind of just my own drive that really pushed me forward to get independent and learn new things,” Smith said. “Help from my parents definitely makes things easier too.”

Although Smith said his life improving, there was one aspect of his life that he knew might not ever be the same again — dating.

“My self-confidence kind of went down the drain a little bit,” he said. “I didn’t really think anybody would want to date me, let alone marry me.”

Meeting “the one”

In February 2020, that notion changed when Smith connected with a woman named Grace Thompson on a dating app and realized they had a lot in common. Both Richmond natives, they discovered they attended the same church.

“The pandemic played a huge role in how serious we became because we went on the perfect amount of dates to where we both felt safe and comfortable not being in public anymore,” Thompson, 26, said. “We were pretty lucky in the timing of it all. It was a lot of game nights with another couple that we got close with during quarantine. We liked to cook dinners together and play games, and it was kind of nice to because, you know, we were still getting to know each other. We had a lot of great conversations and went out to parks a lot. He’s the only guy I’ve ever dated who I really work out with — which most people would be surprised at because he’s in a wheelchair — but he’s more active than most people I know.”

After being in a relationship for over a year, Smith said he knew Thompson was meant to be in his life forever. He planned a proposal which would include the use of the exoskeleton suit — made up of motorized leg braces — allowing him to get down on one knee and pop the question.

“I went to the hospital and met with a therapist twice to sort of work through the kinks and discuss how we were going to do it,” he said.

After sending Thompson off with her best friend to get a manicure, Smith made the final arrangements, waiting on the deck of his home in position while friends and family waited inside.

“It was just the easiest place for the therapist to set up the exoskeleton and things were just in a much more controlled environment,” he said. “It was a little bit less stressful.”

The proposal

Thompson said she was completely shocked to see Smith down on one knee after she took off her blindfold.

“I just kind of froze, staring at him and I felt like I couldn’t move,” she said. “Then my family and his family started pouring out and I was like, ‘Oh! It was very overwhelming but in a good way.”

“It was really cool that he was able to get on one knee, she added. “But to see him stand up — I’ve never seen him stand before, so that was really great and it was really strange to, like, have him hug me standing up! I wish we could do that more!”

Thompson said that meeting one another was meant to be, fueling her ambition to go to nursing school to help those who, like Smith, really needed it.

“There really is someone out there for everybody,” Thompson said. “And I think on my end of things, and from what I’ve learned, is to just try to be more patient and learn how and when to help him and know when he wants to do things on his own.”

The couple said they plan marry in October of next year and look forward to traveling more in the coming months.

“Everyone deserves love,” Smith said. “Sometimes you don’t know how it will come but it will always come when you’re least expecting it.”

Former salesman pleads guilty to role in doping racehorses

July 23, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A former sales representative for a Kentucky company that marketed a performance-enhancing drug used with racehorses pleaded guilty Friday to a criminal charge stemming from what federal prosecutors in New York called a “widespread, corrupt” doping scheme.

Michael Kegley conspired with trainers, veterinarians and others to make misbranded drugs, secretly administer them to racehorses and cheat bettors in the $100 billion global racehorse industry, prosecutors said.

According to the indictment, Kegley marketed SGF-1000, the same adulterated and misbranded performance-enhancing drug that Maximum Security was given when he briefly placed first in the 2019 Kentucky Derby before being disqualified for interference.

The feds intercepted calls during which Kegley acknowledged he did not know the precise contents of SGF-1000, the indictment said. Kegley also was overheard explaining that trainers could be charged with felonies in the U.S. for doping horses.

“We can even put on the box, you know, ‘dietary supplement for equine,'” the indictment quoted Kegley as saying. “That way it’s not, no one even has to question, if it’s FDA approved or not.”

Kegley pleaded guilty to drug adulteration and misbranding of drugs. He faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison and agreed to forfeit more than $3 million.

SGF-1000 was not approved, was mislabeled and distributed without a valid prescription, said Sarah Mortazavi, an assistant U.S. attorney.

“I knew that there was no medical description for those products,” Kegley said at a plea hearing on Friday, adding that he “knew that the product was not manufactured in an FDA facility or approved by the FDA.”

“Did you know that the trainers intended to use these products on thoroughbred racehorses?” asked Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil.

“Yes, your honor,” Kegley replied.

Sleep-away camp COVID-19 outbreak sickens 31

July 23, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(COLUMBIA COUNTY, N.Y.) — Dozens of children tested positive for COVID-19 at an upstate New York summer camp, health officials confirmed to ABC News on Thursday.

The site of the outbreak was Camp Pontiac, a 550-person sleep-away camp located in Columbia County, about 2 1/2 hours north of New York City. Thirty-one children ages of 7 to 11 contracted the virus, according to Jack Mabb, the county health director.

The sickened children, younger than 12, weren’t eligible to be vaccinated. About half of campers are 12 or older, according to Mabb, and all but four of them had been vaccinated.

The 275-person staff at the camp had a similarly high vaccination rate, with only three unvaccinated staffers. The sick campers were sent home to isolate, as were 130 other campers who were considered close contacts of those who tested positive.

“None were seriously ill when they left, but we can’t know if they become more ill at home,” Mabb told ABC News.

Community spread is currently low in Columbia County, according to Mabb. While staffers from the camp are permitted to go into Columbia County and have done so, there’s no evidence so far that the outbreak is affecting the wider community.

“This morning, we have only one positive and she was not associated with the camp,” Mabb said.

Camp Pontiac sent a letter to families following the outbreak, noting that the camp had “decided to test all unvaccinated campers even though the CDC and the Department of Health do not require that we do so.”

“We consider the health and welfare of our camp community our number one priority,” the letter said. “Every camper of course is welcome back after the quarantine period ends and we will happily return or rebate pro rata tuition.”

New York’s vaccination rate is slightly higher than the national average. As of Thursday, 62% of residents had received at least one dose, and 56% were fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By comparison, 56% of Americans have gotten at least one shot, and 49% are fully vaccinated.

ABC News’ Will McDuffie and Esther Castillejo contributed to this report.

Democrats demand answers about how FBI handled Brett Kavanaugh inquiry

July 23, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Senate Democrats are demanding answers after the FBI revealed just recently that it received more than 4,500 tips about Brett Kavanaugh when he was a Supreme Court nominee in 2018 and that only ones the agency deemed most “relevant” were referred to then-President Donald Trump’s White House.

The Democrats want to know how the information from the supplemental background check was handled and whether any of it was investigated, details they say were never passed on to the senators considering Kavanaugh’s nomination.

They asked the FBI to hand over by Aug. 31 “all records and communications” related to the first-of-its kind tip line the FBI set up that produced both “telephone calls and electronic submissions” and to explain how the tips were evaluated and categorized as “relevant.”

“If the FBI was not authorized to or did not follow up on any of the tips that it received from the tip line, it is difficult to understand the point of having a tip line at all,” they said in a letter to FBI Director Chris Wray.

It’s been nearly three years since Kavanaugh’s contentious confirmation onto the nation’s highest court following allegations by California professor Christine Blasey Ford that he sexually assaulted her at a party in Maryland when they were both in high school in the early 1980s. Local police did not investigate in 2018 and weren’t asked to look into her allegations around the time she says the incident happened.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse released a letter from the FBI Thursday, dated June 30, that was written in response to a two-year-old request from Sens. Whitehouse and Chris Coons asking about how an expanded FBI review of Kavanaugh — done in response to Ford’s allegation — was pursued and how involved the Trump White House was in the probe.

In the letter, Jill C. Tyson, an FBI assistant director said the most “relevant” of the 4,500 tips received in the probe were passed to the Office of White House Counsel under Trump, but no further, as a 2010 Memorandum of Understanding between the Justice Department and White House requires. The fate and subsequent actions based off those tips remain a mystery.

The letter stated that the agency was conducting a background check rather than a criminal investigation. “The authorities, policies and procedures used to investigate criminal matters did not apply,” Tyson said.

In light of Ford’s accusations, other allegations of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh ensued, all of which he denied. Don McGahn was White House counsel at the time.

The allegations led to bitter divide among lawmakers over Trump’s nomination of the judge and saw Ford and Kavanaugh endure a heated daylong hearing in September 2018 where they were grilled by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Kavanaugh was eventually sworn into the Supreme Court in October that year.

The FBI response has only sparked outrage among Democrats. Whitehouse along with six other Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee — Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, and Coons — replied to the FBI’s letter Wednesday asking for additional details on the agreement with the White House over the inquiry and the handling of the incoming tips.

“The admissions in your letter corroborate and explain numerous credible accounts by individuals and firms that they had contacted the FBI with information ‘highly relevant to . . . allegations’ of sexual misconduct by Justice Kavanaugh, only to be ignored,” the senators wrote in response.

ABC News has reached out to the FBI for comment.

In the probe into Kavanaugh’s past, 10 witnesses were interviewed by the FBI, according to the letter, but Ford and Kavanaugh were not. It’s unclear whether those 10 were discovered through the tip line.

Debra Katz and Lisa Banks, the lawyers who represented Ford, said in a statement that the FBI’s investigations into her allegations about Kavanaugh’s alleged misconduct “was a sham and a major institutional failure.”

The lawyers said the FBI “handed the information over to the White House, allowing those who supported Kavanaugh to falsely claim that the FBI found no wrongdoing,” adding, “our nation deserved better.”

ABC News’ Trish Turner and Devin Dwyer contributed to this report.

Rep. Hank Johnson among 10 demonstrators arrested at voting rights protest

July 23, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., was among 10 demonstrators arrested by U.S. Capitol Police on Thursday in an orchestrated act of civil disobedience outside the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill.

Johnson and voting rights advocates participating in Black Voters Matter Fund’s “Brothers Day of Action,” a protest led by Black men to advocate for voting rights, called on Congress to end the filibuster and pass the For the People Act.

The demonstration was a follow-up to the Black women-led protest on July 15, which ended in nine arrests, including the arrest of Congressional Black Caucus chair Rep. Joyce Beatty.

While the voting rights debate remains largely partisan in Congress, the majority of Americans believe that people who are legally qualified to vote should be able to, according to a survey from Pew Research Center. Data released on Thursday revealed that 57% of Americans view voting more as “a fundamental right” for all eligible U.S. citizens and “should not be restricted in any way.” Less than 42% believe “voting is a privilege that comes with responsibilities and can be limited if adult U.S. citizens don’t meet some requirements,” according to the survey.

The push from Democrats to pass federal voting rights legislation continues to grow as at least 16 Republican-led states have passed laws that restrict voting rights, including measures that tighten rules for absentee and mail-in voting, and impose new voter ID and signature requirements.

Experts say the GOP measures, which have been pushed in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s false allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 election, disproportionately impact voter access among minorities groups.

Although Republican state and federal lawmakers maintain that voting restrictions were imposed to make elections secure, President Joe Biden blasted the efforts in a speech on July 13, calling GOP attempts to limit ballot access a “21st century Jim Crow assault.”

While Biden has used his presidential influence to embolden Democrats’ push to pass federal voting rights legislation, he has yet to endorse ending the filibuster. The president has openly supported reforming the rule.

Progressive House Democrats, including Johnson and Reps. Jamal Bowman, D-N.Y., Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, and Al Green, D-Texas, who stood with demonstrators during Thursday’s rally, said that Biden’s speech was not enough.

Bowman urged Biden to take further action to help end the filibuster rule in the Senate, a change he said is needed to pass progressive bills on the Democratic agenda. Ending the filibuster would effectively allow bills to be passed with a simple majority, instead of the 60 needed with it in place.

“These bills, they sit in the Senate, not moving at all. Why? Because of the racist Jim Crow relic called the filibuster,” Bowman said.

“It’s not just about the president giving a speech on racial equity, or writing a press release saying he’s for racial equity. It’s about your policies, it’s about your advocacy, it’s about your budget. So we are calling on the president to be a leader for racial justice and equity — so that the S. 1 bill passes in the Senate, so that the S. 4 bill passes the Senate, so that the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act passes the Senate, and so that we can really evolve into the multiracial democracy that we are,” Bowman continued.

Jackson Lee praised voting rights protesters and vowed that she and other Congressional Black Caucus members will continue demonstrating until federal voting rights legislation passes in Congress.

“We committed that the agitation is not going to stop. We will show up, day after day after day, because we embody the Constitution,” Jackson Lee said.

“Whatever it takes, we’ll be there as nonviolent perpetrators,” she continued. “Civil disobedient persons we are. I leave you in the name of the late John Lewis who said, ‘Carry on.'”

Mario Batali and Joseph Bastianich settle in NY over sexual harassment, discriminatio

July 23, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Chef Mario Batali and his former partner Joe Bastianich violated state and city human rights laws with a culture of sexual harassment and discrimination at restaurants they owned, the New York attorney general said Friday announcing a settlement.

The company, formerly known as the Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group, agreed to pay $600,000 to at least 20 former employees who were sexually harassed while they worked at the famed restaurants Babbo, Lupa or Del Posto.

“Celebrity and fame does not absolve someone from following the law. Sexual harassment is unacceptable for anyone, anywhere — no matter how powerful the perpetrator,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James in a statement. “Batali and Bastianich permitted an intolerable work environment and allowed shameful behavior that is inappropriate in any setting.”

This agreement comes after a four-year investigation, the attorney general’s office said, looking at allegations between 2016 and 2019 that included unwanted sexual advances, inappropriate touching and sexually explicit comments from managers and coworkers, in addition to forcible groping, hugging and kissing by male colleagues.

The investigation also included accusations of sexual harassment by Batali of servers.

The investigation also looked into instances of discrimination, as female employees said chefs and managers supported male employees and made misogynistic comments, including commenting on women employees’ appearances.

The agreement includes $600,000 going to at least 20 former employees. It also includes revising training at B&B restaurants to be more comprehensive and encourage “a safe, healthy work environment,” the attorney general’s office said.

Batali has been accused of sexual misconduct by several women. In 2019, he “fully divested” from the restaurants that made him famous. Before that, he had apologized and stepped away from day-to-day business responsibilities.

In 2019, he pleaded not guilty to an indecent assault and battery charge stemming from an alleged 2017 incident with a woman in a Boston restaurant.

Mario Batali and Joseph Bastianich settle in NY over sexual harassment, discrimination

July 23, 2021 by WDNY Radio

The investigation also included accusations of sexual harassment by Batali of servers.

In 2019, he pleaded not guilty to an indecent assault and battery charge stemming from an alleged 2017 incident with a woman in a Boston restaurant.

How sustainable is it to rent clothing? Experts and top brands weigh in

July 23, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — With landfills receiving millions of tons of textile waste each year — and growing — the environmental impact of clothing has become the fashion industry’s dirty little secret.

Today, more people are paying attention to this worsening issue and have zeroed in on the impact of rental clothing subscription services. These companies, such as Rent the Runway, Nuuly and Le Tote, give people the option to keep their clothes in an ongoing rotation, so they can swap their sweatpants for a pair of borrowed designer trousers. All they have to do is subscribe, select a few of their favorite looks, wear them and then return them later — some brands even offer an option to buy the pieces.

But while many of these companies have been marketed as a greener way to dress by contributing to a more circular, recycled economy, a recent study published in Environmental Research Letters questions how sustainable the logistical processes behind rental clothing subscription services actually are.

The study found that renting clothes could potentially cause the highest impact to global warming when compared to keeping a piece of clothing for an extended period of time or reselling it, which the study suggested impact the environment the least. The study said that rental services can impact the environment via increased transportation needs, such as shipping and packaging, as well as through the constant cleaning needed to maintain the clothes between each renter.

How does transportation play a part?

The transportation sector — including cars, trucks, boats, railroad and commercial aircraft — is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which said it contributed to 29% of greenhouse gas emissions in 2019.

Most of the items used through rental companies are delivered through these transportation modes, but as the study suggests, delivery via a bike or another lower carbon-emitting vehicle could help to reduce emissions into the environment.

Some top rental clothing services, such as Rent the Runway, have implemented alternative methods for passing off the clothes, including a network of physical drop-off locations to consolidate inbound shipments from customers while also trying to mitigate the use of high carbon-emitting vehicles.

The company has also partnered with traditional carriers and implemented other non-traditional return methods such as a network of swap stops to consolidate inbound shipments from customers.

Cleaner, greener cleaning methods and practices

When it comes to keeping the clothing fresh, some apparel companies have relied heavily on dry cleaning, while others have found environmentally friendlier practices.

Women’s monthly clothing rental subscription company Nuuly says it uses a custom-built cleaning facility along with dry and wet cleaning methods. The company told ABC News that more than 60% of its products are cleaned with non-alkaline and phosphate-free cleaning solutions, which are gentler on the environment when compared to traditional household detergents.

Rent the Runway says it uses similar methods, along with biodegradable detergents that are free from added fragrances and zeolites. The company said it does not use any halogenated cleaning solvents such as perchloroethylene. After cleaning, most pieces pass through a steam tunnel with temperatures between 248 and 302 degrees and are immediately sealed in plastic to protect them from subsequent handling.

Rent the Runway said it encourages customers to keep the plastic out of landfills by sending it back along with their garments. From there, the company said the plastic is recycled through a third-party partner, which in turn uses the plastic for wood-alternative building and decking materials.

Both Nuuly and Rent the Runway also say they make use of recyclable garment bags as opposed to big boxes and packing materials.

“Our goal is to power a new future for fashion, one in which women buy less and wear more, disrupting a centuries-old industry and contributing to a more sustainable future for the industry,” Anushka Salinas, president and chief operating officer of Rent the Runway, told GMA. “We are focused on shifting customer behavior, improving our operations and transforming the dynamics of the industry to drive positive change.”

The company also said it’s making progress in these areas by inspiring a customer base that buys less clothing and keeps clothing in rotation for as long as possible, thereby shifting the focus on the industry from high volumes and low price points — which are generally found through fast fashion brands — to quality, durability and utilization.

While these sustainability efforts from rental clothing companies have to be considered in the grander scheme, some experts agree that the bigger issue has to do with overall mass textile production.

The study only looked at cotton-based jeans and not other textiles

While the study examined how extended use, reselling, recycling the textile materials and renting them could potentially be harmful to the environment, it also highlighted limitations in the research and areas of future exploration. Specifically, it noted that the study was only conducted on cotton-based products and that research into clothing made from synthetic fibers might have resulted in different findings.

Some experts also agree that jeans, which were primarily used for this study, are one article of clothing that’s rarely rented.

“They’re the kind of thing you buy and wear a couple of times a week for at least a year, if not five,” Alden Wicker, a journalist and founder of sustainable fashion website EcoCult, told GMA. “Renting is great for items that you would only wear a few times or even just once, like cocktail dresses and evening gowns.”

Mass textile production and manufacturing likely hurts the environment more than rental clothing

In 2018, landfills received 11.3 million tons of municipal solid waste textiles, which equates to 7.7% of all municipal solid waste that was landfilled, according to the EPA.

The study published in Environmental Research Letters says that developing “more efficient recycling options” for textiles will not be able to reduce this amount of waste on their own.

“Currently, reduction of the total amount of products in the circuit is the most efficient way to steer the sector toward more sustainable practices,” the study said. “Reduce and Reuse strategies are the most practical for achieving such goals.”

Timo Rissanen, an associate professor in fashion and textiles at the University of Technology Sydney, told GMA that people urgently need to reduce total fashion production and consumption.

“We are in the early stages of a human-induced planetary catastrophe, and our collective cognitive dissonance in the face of that is alarming,” he said. “Rental clothing should not be employed purely to satiate a hunger for novelty and to prop up the current, inherently unsustainable worldview and levels of consumption.”

Whether you’re looking to try rental clothing services or not, there are eco-concious fashion advocates such as Clare Press, a sustainable fashion influencer and host of the “Wardrobe Crisis podcast,” who serve as guides for people looking to dress more sustainably.

“I think rental has an important role to play in making fashion circular by keeping clothes in use for longer while satisfying consumer desire for novelty,” Press told GMA. “Do I prefer renting fashion over buying a $10 dress from Shein? Absolutely.”

“Resist being told what to do by pop culture, big media and fast fashion,” she added. “It’s much more interesting and inspiring to make your own style decisions and wear what makes you happy.”

Press said that even though she loves new clothes, that doesn’t mean she should be buying new pieces every week.

“Maybe what makes you feel best will be re-wearing much-loved clothes you already own,” she said. “Quality over quantity, and styling what you already have in new ways.”

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