Shortly after President Joe Biden took office in January, a coalition of some 30 groups made a push for a cause that flew under the radar: curbing the power of Big Ag. The signatories, which included familiar groups like farmer advocates, labor unions, animal welfare groups, and environmental organizations, called on Biden to issue an executive order banning food industry mergers, at least until stronger antitrust rules are in place. (Disclosure: The Open Markets Institute, where I work, was one of the signatories.) The effort to shine a light on Big Ag is indicative of a broadening movement to stop the rapid consolidation of food production. It’s also part of an emergent anti-consolidation mood on the left. Antitrust policy has reemerged as a progressive priority over the past few years, though much of that focus has generally been on breaking up and regulating Big Banks or Big Tech. There’s a case to be made that Big Ag — and more specifically, Big Meat — should join that list. As author and business reporter Chris Leonard said at a recent Yale Law conference, “concentration in agriculture is only important to people who eat, otherwise it’s a trivial matter.” How we produce meat has profound implications for people, the environment, and animals. Big Meat corporations operate on an industrial model of animal agriculture that drives farmers off the land, injures workers, traps billions of animals in horrid conditions, pollutes rural drinking water, and in some states disproportionately sickens rural communities of color. Big Meat justifies this destruction under the banner of cheap meat, all the while allegedly working together to actually raise prices for consumers. To be sure, some of these problems existed in the livestock industry 50 years ago, back when we ate less meat and the industry wasn’t dominated by just a few companies. But the rapid expansion and consolidation of the meat industry since the 1970s has translated into immense political power, earned in part by giving out millions to politicians each year and maintaining a revolving door between the federal government and industry (two-thirds of meat industry lobbyists are former government employees). In fact, Tom Vilsack — who served as secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for both of President Obama’s terms, and was just confirmed to return to the post as Biden’s agriculture secretary — was a dairy industry lobbyist during much of the Trump presidency. This revolving door has resulted in legislation and regulatory policy that leans heavily in the big meatpackers’ favor. In fact, early on in the pandemic, President Trump signed an executive order to keep slaughterhouses open — and that executive order was drafted by a meat lobbyist. Obama made major promises to tame meatpackers’ power, but as secretary, Vilsack failed to make headway in the face of industry pushback. The Biden administration now has a chance to move where Obama faltered — but with Vilsack returning, food-focused activists are skeptical. Taking on Big Meat wouldn’t just help consumers, farmers, and meatpacking workers; one poll found 82 percent of

The Fed chair said better caregiving options was an “area worth looking at” for Congress, while reiterating the central bank’s full-employment pledge.Credit...Al Drago for The New York TimesFeb. 24, 2021, 5:48 p.m. ETJerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, suggested on Wednesday that improved child care support policies from the government might help pull more women into the labor market.The Fed chief studiously avoided commenting on specific government policy proposals during three hours of wide-ranging testimony before the House Financial Services Committee. But he did acknowledge, in response to a question, that enabling better options for affordable child-care is an “area worth looking at” for Congress.“Our peers, our competitors, advanced economy democracies, have a more built-up function for child care, and they wind up having substantially higher labor force participation for women,” Mr. Powell said, answering a question from Representative Cindy Axne, an Iowa Democrat. “We used to lead the world in female labor force participation, a quarter-century ago, and we no longer do. It may just be that those policies have put us behind.”The Fed chair, who had also testified before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday, repeatedly refused to weigh in on the $1.9 trillion spending package the Biden administration has proposed or any of its individual provisions. The central bank is independent of politics, and it tries to avoid getting involved in partisan debates.But Mr. Powell did voice qualified support for a few broader ideas — like exploring better child-care options — and he stressed that in the near-term, it is critical to help workers who have been displaced from their jobs during the pandemic. He made it clear that the labor market remained far from healed, that the pandemic’s economic fallout has disproportionately hurt women and minorities, and that both Congress and the central bank have a role to play in supporting vulnerable families until the economy has recovered more fully.“Some parts of the economy have a long way to go,” he said Wednesday.Women’s labor force participation had climbed for decades in the United States before stalling out — and then actually dropping slightly — starting in the 1990s. As Mr. Powell alluded to, adult women in the United States hold jobs or look for them at lower rates than women in some other major advanced economies, such as Canada or Germany.Research has suggested that the divergence may be linked to child care policies. In a 2018 paper that asked why the share of Canadians who work or look for jobs had climbed even as United States labor force attachment had fallen, researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco pointed out that most of the gap owed to different outcomes for women. And they pointed to caregiving policy differences as a likely culprit.“Parental leave policies in Canada provide strong incentives to remain attached to the labor force following the arrival of a new child,” the paper, written by the San Francisco Fed president, Mary C. Daly, and co-authors, pointed out. “The contrast between the incentives Canada and the Unite

poly-lt-wire-logo Photo: Netflix It’s Gilmore Girls — plus everything, all at once By Feb 24, 2021, 4:16pm EST Netflix’s latest drama sounds like a modern reboot of Gilmore Girls — single mom Georgia raises teenage daughter Ginny in a picturesque New England town. (In the first episode, Georgia does actually declare “We’re like the Gilmore Girls — but with bigger boobs!”) But the series does a little more than that. In fact, it does a lot more than that, pulling in the class conflicts of Little Fires Everywhere, the rebellious teenage narrative of Euphoria, and also a Bonnie and Clyde-esque backstory. And that’s just scratching the surface of everything jam-packed into Ginny & Georgia. The show juggles so many separate big plotlines that it feels like five separate shows vying for attention. If the writers trimmed away one or two, the mother-daughter tension at its core could shine. But with so much going on, that dynamic gets lost. [Ed. note: This review contains slight spoilers for Ginny & Georgia.] Photo: Netflix Free-spirited Georgia (Brianne Howey) and her children — surly teenager Ginny (Antonia Gentry) and quiet elementary-school age Austin (Diesel La Torraca) — move to a small, idyllic New England suburb after her husband’s recent mysterious death. Ginny isn’t thrilled about moving yet again, since Georgia tends to uproot the entire family every time something bad happens. Ginny navigates peer pressure, sexual encounters, her biracial identity, her brother’s struggle with bullying, first relationships that mutate into love triangles, self-harm, internet haters, and prejudiced teachers. Georgia, meanwhile, snags a job in the office of the town’s hot mayor (Scott Porter), steals money from the school fundraiser, and tries to fit in with the Stepford-esque suburbia of bake sales and Halloween decoration contests. Oh, and also, Georgia is running away from a shady past where she was part of a motorcycle gang and robbed gas stations at gunpoint! And her dead husband’s ex has sent a PI looking for her! Fun! It’s a lot, and that’s without even mentioning the huge cast of minor characters. Some, to their credit, are unique, fleshing out the picturesque town and giving it more character. Ginny’s friend Max (Sara Waisglass), for instance, perfectly encapsulates a high-energy, unapologetically herself teenager, with all the intensity of a Monster Energy drink. Soft-hearted diner owner Joe (Raymond Alback) — who shares a past connection with Georgia he’s unaware of — builds a compelling friendship with her. But others, like Mayor Paul’s assistant Nick (Dan Beirne) and PTA mom Cynthia (Sabrina Grdevich

Cox has been making it extremely difficult or impossible for some customers to stick with their current Internet speeds despite promising that it won't force users onto plans with slower uploads. As we wrote two weeks ago, Cox informed customers with 300Mbps download and 30Mbps upload speeds that they will be switched to a plan with 500Mbps downloads and 10Mbps uploads on March 3. A Cox spokesperson told Ars at the time that customers can stay on the plan with 30Mbps uploads as long as they upgrade to a DOCSIS 3.1 modem. But Cox's email to its customers did not mention this option, and customers who called Cox customer service have since been told in no uncertain terms that they cannot stay on their current plans. Several Cox users from California emailed Ars about the problem after reading our article, all with similar experiences. "I just got off the phone with a Cox tech rep and she said that my current Ultimate Classic plan (300/30) is going away regardless of whether I upgrade to a DOCSIS 3.1 modem or not," a customer whose first name is Dam and lives in Aliso Viejo, California, told Ars on Thursday last week. "When the time comes in March, my new plan will be the new Ultimate 500/10. I told her about your article and she said that is not what she's seeing in her system or hearing from her higher-ups." We contacted Cox about the problem on Friday last week, and a Cox spokesperson admitted that the company failed to ensure that sales reps know customers are allowed to stay on the 300/30Mbps plan. "There clearly are some gaps that we need to address to avoid this confusion," Cox told Ars on Monday. "We're in the process of retraining our frontline-facing teams to make sure they are consistently communicating the options available to impacted customers, including staying on their existing plan of 300/30 so long as they upgrade their modem." As before, customers will be automatically switched from the 300/30Mbps plan to the 500/10Mbps tier unless they contact customer service and insist on keeping their plan. The change to download and upload speeds will happen regardless of whether customers have an upgraded modem, but customers who stick with an older modem may not get the full 500Mbps download speeds. Cox, which has about 5.3 million Internet customers in 19 states, says the changes are related to a network upgrade. Cox’s customer-service screwup The evidence (including Cox's email to customers and statements from Cox sales reps to customers) makes it seem as if Cox didn't intend to let customers keep their 30Mbps upload speeds until the company faced criticism and media exposure two weeks ago. That would explain why customer-service reps have told customers they must give up the 300/30Mbps plan and why Cox is now scrambling to tell employees about the option. However, a Cox spokesperson told Ars that the company "always" intended to let customers keep the 30Mbps upload speeds. If that is true, then the company totally screwed up its messaging to customers and the change to its customer-service systems.

A student said she was racially profiled while eating in a college dorm. An investigation found no evidence of bias. But the incident will not fade away.Credit...Christopher Capozziello for The New York TimesFeb. 24, 2021, 3:00 p.m. ETNORTHAMPTON, Mass. — In midsummer of 2018, Oumou Kanoute, a Black student at Smith College, recounted a distressing American tale: She was eating lunch in a dorm lounge when a janitor and a campus police officer walked over and asked her what she was doing there.The officer, who could have been carrying a “lethal weapon,” left her near “meltdown,” Ms. Kanoute wrote on Facebook, saying that this encounter continued a yearlong pattern of harassment at Smith.“All I did was be Black,” Ms. Kanoute wrote. “It’s outrageous that some people question my being at Smith College, and my existence overall as a woman of color.”The college’s president, Kathleen McCartney offered profuse apologies and put the janitor on paid leave. “This painful incident reminds us of the ongoing legacy of racism and bias,” the president wrote, “in which people of color are targeted while simply going about the business of their ordinary lives.”The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN picked up the story of a young female student harassed by white workers. The American Civil Liberties Union, which took the student’s case, said she was profiled for “eating while Black.”Less attention was paid three months later when a law firm hired by Smith College to investigate the episode found no persuasive evidence of bias. Ms. Kanoute was determined to have eaten in a deserted dorm that had been closed for the summer; the janitor had been encouraged to notify security if he saw unauthorized people there. The officer, like all campus police, was unarmed.Smith College officials emphasized “reconciliation and healing” after the incident. In the months to come they announced a raft of anti-bias training for all staff, a revamped and more sensitive campus police force and the creation of dormitories — as demanded by Ms. Kanoute and her A.C.L.U. lawyer — set aside for Black students and other students of color.But they did not offer any public apology or amends to the workers whose lives were gravely disrupted by the student’s accusation.This is a tale of how race, class and power collided at the elite 145-year-old liberal arts college, where tuition, room and board top $78,000 a year and where the employees who keep the school running often come from working-class enclaves beyond the school’s elegant wrought iron gates. The story highlights the tensions between a student’s deeply felt sense of personal truth and facts that are at odds with it.Those tensions come at a time when few in the Smith community feel comfortable publicly questioning liberal orthodoxy on race and identity, and some professors worry the administration is too deferential to its increasingly emboldened students.“My perception is that if you’re on the wrong side of issues of identity politics, you’re not just mistaken, you’re evil,” said James Miller, an economics professor at Smith College and a conservative.In an interview

Frontline workers and black, Asian and minority ethnic groups will not be prioritised for vaccination in the next stage of the Covid jab rollout, the Guardian understands.The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) updated their advice on Wednesday to recommended that people with learning disabilities be invited for vaccination to ensure people at higher risk of the disease were protected as soon as possible.However, a government source confirmed that the JCVI was also poised to reject vaccine prioritisation by occupation or race – and that jabs would proceed down the age bands of adults to 18-year-olds.“This is ultimately about who is most likely to get seriously ill and die from this disease, and when you put it like that the public do understand that has to the priority,” the source said.Unions have argued that those working in frontline roles such as teaching and the police should be prioritised in the next stage of the rollout, after older groups and the clinically vulnerable. Equality groups have also called for people from BAME communities to be prioritised, in light of research showing they are more likely to die from coronavirus.Speaking to the Commons science and technology committee on Wednesday, Prof Anthony Harnden, the deputy chair of the JCVI, said there was no good scientific reason to prioritise teachers.“We looked at the data very carefully on this, and when you look at ONS data, it doesn’t suggest that teachers are any more at risk of acquiring infections from coronavirus than any other occupation and there are other occupations more at risk than teachers,” he said.“We know, for instance, that people who work in processing plants, who are in closed environments without ventilation and a great amount of noise and having to shout, are quite a lot more at risk than teachers who teach children wearing masks and have adequate ventilation.”Announcing the addition of people with learning disabilities to the list of those currently being prioritised for vaccination, Helen Whately, the care minister, said: “I have heard firsthand how tough this pandemic has been for people with learning disabilities and their families. We are determined those more at risk from Covid should be vaccinated as soon as possible.“Following the JCVI’s updated advice and to make this process simpler and faster, we will be inviting everyone for vaccination who is on their GP’s learning disability register. This will mean those who are at a higher risk from the virus can get the protection they need.”The health secretary, Matt Hancock, said he had asked the NHS to implement the advice “immediately”.The increased risk to those with learning disabilities has been highlighted by the case of the DJ Jo Whiley, who was offered the vaccine before her sister, Frances, who has a genetic disorder and lives in residential care. Frances Whiley tested positive for the coronavirus after an outbreak in her Northampton care home and was admitted to hospital.Harnden said the aim was to reach those with severe or profound learning difficulties, adding that people with milder learning disabilities should not approach their GPs yet.�

Partners at the world’s largest consultancy firm, McKinsey, have reportedly ousted their leader, Kevin Sneader, over his handling of a string of controversies during his tenture. The firm’s 650 senior partners voted Sneader out before the final round of a leadership election that was seen as a referendum on his three years in the role, according to the Financial Times. The 54-year-old Scot would be one of the first McKinsey leaders in recent memory to serve only one term – all five of Sneader’s predecessors as global managing partner have served a two terms or more.The influential firm is known for providing expensive advice to governments and multinational companies around the world. Known as the “CEO factory”, McKinsey’s network for former employees includes some of the biggest names in business and politics.Notable alumni include Chelsea Clinton, Facebook’s former chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, and the ex-chief executive of Credit Suisse Tidjane Thiam. In Britain, those who worked or the firm including the politician William Hague, former HSBC chair Lord Green, former city regulator Lord Turner.With 30,000 staff in 65 countries, McKinsey is a go-to consultant for the UK government, and has picked up lucrative contracts during the Covid crisis. Last year, McKinsey consultants were paid £563,000 for six weeks’ work – £14,000 a day – to create a permanent replacement for Public Health England, defining its “vision, purpose and narrative”.But the firm, which has a fondness for mottos such as “Leadership through integrity”, has been stung by a string of crises during Sneader’s leadership. Earlier this month, McKinsey agreed to pay nearly $600m (£426m) to settle a lawsuit brought by 49 US states over its role in helping drug makers sell more prescription painkillers – even as the country faced a nationwide opioid overdose epidemic.The consultancy came under pressure after legal documents revealed that it advised the Oxycontin maker Purdue Pharma on how to “turbocharge” sales of the drug in 2013. The firm was found to have encouraged sales representatives to focus on doctors who already prescribed high volumes of OxyContin, and to try to move patients to more potent versions of the drug.Sneader expressed regret after the settlement but stopped short of admitting guilt on McKinsey’s behalf. The company announced two years ago that it would not advise clients on opioid-related business.The blue-chip consultancy has also faced criticism for working with authoritarian regimes. In 2018, the firm said it was “horrified” to learn that a document it produced may have been used to target government critics, while earlier this month it was one of a number of consultancies named as having received millions from a company embroiled in an Angolan corruption scandal. McKinsey says an internal investigation found no irregularities.Business morning email sign-upWith Sneader out of the running, McKinsey is likely to be led by one of two senior partners, Bob Sternfels, , or Sven Smit, w. Both have reportedly made it to the final round of the election, which is held every three years.A spokeswoman for McKinse

Unlike millions of Texans who received boil water notices from utility companies, families who rely on private wells have been left to figure out for themselves whether their water is safe to drink in the wake of last week’s deep freeze. “There’s no warning put out there in the press for what these homeowners who have their own water supply, what they should be doing in these scenarios to protect themselves and their family,” says Jackie Young-Medcalf, executive director of the nonprofit Texas Health and Environment Alliance. Bacteria and contaminants can find their way into cracks in pipes that burst after freezing. As a result, millions of people on public water systems were told by utilities to boil their tap water after frigid temperatures wreaked havoc on Texas’ infrastructure last week. But more than 1.3 million Texans aren’t connected to public water utilities, and instead depend on their own wells for their drinking water, according to the state’s Groundwater Protection Committee. Even those official numbers can easily underestimate how many wells there really are and who relies on them, according to Young-Medcalf, because people don’t always register wells that they dig. Wells that might have been most at risk recently in Texas are older wells with shallow piping. These would have been more exposed to the cold than deeper wells and probably don’t have as much protective casing. Within a private water system, pipes are most likely to have sustained damage, compared to other pieces of equipment, experts say. Any pipes that ruptured above ground should be repaired but aren’t as likely to let in contaminants. Breaks that happen underground are less likely but potentially more dangerous. “If you’ve had pipes that are broken and they’re in the ground — or worse, were flooded or underwater — then you’d want to repair that and test your water first before you drink it,” says Steven Wilson, a groundwater hydrologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He developed a free class on well maintenance that’s available online. Texas A&M University’s Texas Well Owners Network offers similar resources. Young-Medcalf is especially concerned about people who rely on well water and live in places where there’s a history of toxins polluting soil and groundwater. She says she’s heard from several people this week who are concerned about their well water and live near a Superfund site called the Jones Road Groundwater Plume just outside Houston. Superfund sites are places that have been so polluted that the federal government placed it on a “National Priorities List” for cleanup. “Folks have been reporting to [us] that their water has particles in it and that their water is varying shades of yellow and brown,” says Young-Medcalf. “When multiple groundwater well owners are reporting these observations in their water you have to think, ‘What’s in the environment that made their way into their water system?” How your water looks and smells isn’t necessarily the best indicator of whether it’s safe to drink. Naturally occurring tannins and silica in groundwater can give it a