Illegal immigrant labor supports US food supply; Google small nuclear reactors; Senate likely to flip; Wildlife populations plummet "catastrophically"; Israel to limit Iran strike?
Ad Astra Podcast
October 15 2024
Good morning citizens of America. This is the ad Astra Citizen Journal, daily brief for October 15, 2024 AD. I'm here to bring you the latest news from around the world. Let's dive into today's top stories. Illegal immigrant labor supports U.S. food supply, Google small nuclear reactors, send it likely to flip, wildlife populations plummet, Israel to limit Iran's strike. One. Illegal immigrant labor keeps many food costs down, like milk. The price of everything in America has gone up except the price of milk. In the 1980s, a tractor cost him roughly $60,000. The federal minimum wage was $3.35 and his first hundred pounds of Class III milk. The kind used in making yogurt and cheese sold to a processing plant for $12.24. Since then, many of his expenses have doubled or tripled. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Peter says his costs soared and they still haven't come down. Fuel tank fittings that cost him about $2,000 in 2014 now run $13,000. Mechanics who once charged $60 an hour now charge $95. Yet the farm value of milk has been dropping since the 1970s if you adjust for inflation. For consumers picking up a gallon at the supermarket, this is a blessing. It's the reason long-term inflation for store bought milk is roughly half that of other foods in America. But for Peter, it's a tragedy. When we talked this past spring, the selling price for a hundred pounds of Class III milk covered around $15.50, roughly $3.00 above where it was 40 years ago and a 55% drop in real value. Over the years, Peter and his family have found ways to manage the declining value of milk. They've built fences out of recycled oil pipes, used brewers waste for cow feed, rented fields to grow their own alfalfa. They hedge the price of milk in futures markets and purchase revenue insurance. But the biggest cost that they can control is the cost of labor. And the productivity of his dairy and of almost every successful dairy in America now depends overwhelmingly on immigrants. The Idaho Dairyman's Association estimates that 89% of the state's on-site dairy workers are foreign-born. Nationally, the number may be closer to 51%, according to a survey published in 2015 by Texas and M. And research by academics in New York, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Vermont suggests that the majority of these immigrants are undocumented. Americans are understandably reluctant to perform dirty, dangerous, and demanding work, what economists call 3D jobs as long as they have better alternatives. Unemployment in southern Idaho has averaged 3.4% for a decade, wages for entry-level workers on Peter's farm are competitive with those for cashiers at fast food franchises. He can't pay much more, he insists, and still break even, article source, NYT. Two, Google back's first U.S. small nuclear reactors to power AI expansion. Google will back the construction of seven small nuclear power reactors in the U.S. A first-of-its-kind deal that aims to help feed the tech companies growing appetite for electricity to power AI and jumpstart a U.S. nuclear revival. Under the deal's terms, Google committed to buying power generated by seven reactors to be built by nuclear energy startup Carol's power. The agreement targets adding 500 megawatts of nuclear power starting at the end of the decade, the company said Monday. The arrangement is the first that would underpin the commercial construction in the U.S. of small modular nuclear reactors. Many say the technology is the future of the domestic nuclear power industry, potentially enabling faster and less costly construction by building smaller reactors instead of behemoth bespoke plants. Article source, Wall Street Journal Three, Senate likely to flip from Democrat to Republican. Control of the Senate appears likely to flip from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party this fall, as one of the nation's most endangered Democrats, Senator John Tester of Montana, trails his Republican challenger in. His bid for re-election, according to a new poll from the New York Times and CNN College. Mr. Tester, who first won election to the Senate in 2006, is winning over moderate and independent voters and running far ahead of the Democrat at the top of the ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris. But as of now, that does not appear to be enough to survive in Montana, a conservative state where former President Donald J. Trump is ahead by 17 percentage points and where control of the Senate hangs in the balance. Tim Sheehy, a wealthy Republican businessman and a former Navy SEAL who has never held public office, leads Mr. Tester 52 percent to 44 percent, the poll shows. Mr. Sheehy's lead is a seven-point advantage without rounding. Democrats currently hold a 51-seat Senate majority. But with Republicans already set to pick up a seat after the retirement of Senator Joe Manchin III, an independent from West Virginia who caucuses with Democrats, the party cannot afford to lose additional seats, article source NYT. 4. Wildlife populations plummet by catastrophic 73 percent over 50 years, WWF. Earth's wildlife populations have fallen on average by a catastrophic rate of 73 percent in the past half century, according to a new analysis the World Wildlife Fund released Wednesday. The WWF and the Zoological Society of London track 5,495 species of amphibians, birds, fish, mammals, and reptiles around the world through the Living Planet Index, and the database shows the extent to which human activity is decimating them. Freshwater populations fell by an average of 85 percent, according to the New Living Planet report, while terrestrial populations by 69 percent and marine populations by 56 percent in the five decades between 1970 and 2020, article source WALPO 5. Israel plans limited strike on Iranian military sites amid rising tensions. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told the Biden administration he is willing to strike military rather than oil or nuclear facilities in Iran, according to two. Officials familiar with the matter, suggesting a more limited counter strike aimed at preventing a full-scale war. In the two weeks since Iran's latest missile barrage on Israel, its second direct attack in six months, the Middle East has braced for Israel's promised response, fearing the two countries' decades-long shadow war could explode into a head-on military confrontation. It comes at a politically fraught time for Washington, less than a month before the election. President Joe Biden has said publicly he would not support an Israeli strike on nuclear-related sites. When Biden and Netanyahu spoke Wednesday, their first call in more than seven weeks after months of rising tensions between the two men, the Prime Minister said he was planning to target military infrastructure in Iran, according to a U.S. official and an official familiar with the matter. Like others in this story, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive deliberations. The White House had no immediate comment. The Israeli Prime Minister's office said in a statement that we listened to the opinions of the United States, but we will make our final decisions based on our national interest. The retaliatory action would be calibrated to avoid the perception of political interference in the U.S. elections, the official familiar with the matter said, signaling Netanyahu's understanding that the scope of the Israeli strike has the potential to reshape the presidential race. An Israeli strike on Iranian oil facilities could send energy prices soaring, analysts say, while an attack on the country's nuclear research program could erase any remaining redlines governing Israel's conflict with Tehran, triggering further escalation and risking a more direct U.S. military role. Netanyahu stated planned to go after military sites instead, as Israel did after Iran's attack in April was met with relief in Washington. Editors note, "I am always skeptical of anonymous sourcing from the Washington Post, the newspaper of a capital city filled with many political agendas. Still, it might be true and is noteworthy," article source Walpo. October 15, 1914, Congress passes the Clayton Antitrust Act, which labor leader Samuel Gumpers calls "labor's charter of freedom." The act exempts unions from antitrust laws, strikes, picketing and boycotting become legal, corporate interlocking directors become illegal, as does setting prices which would affect the monopoly. That's all for today's brief. Join us again tomorrow for more news and updates. This show was produced by Greg Loving, wishing you a great day ahead. Please follow and read us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps other listeners find us. Stay informed and add extra per aspirin. "Work boots open doors and miles and miles of junk degree. Freedom far as I can see. Road to run and road to breathe that true I am and I'll always be caught up in a country. The only way I want to be. Somewhere where the road ends out there where the creek bends, that's where you can find me."