Pittsburg bridge collapses hours before Biden touts infrastructure – National & International News – FRI 28Jan2022

Pittsburg bridge collapses hours before Biden touts infrastructure. Two union votes ahead for Amazon. 20,000 coconuts found full of liquid cocaine.

NATIONAL NEWS

Pittsburg bridge collapses hours before Biden touts infrastructure

Just hours before President Biden is to speak in Pittsburg about his $1 trillion infrastructure package, a commuter bridge in the city has collapsed. Images went viral online showing the back end of an articulated Port Authority bus dangling precariously over the edge of a collapsed bridge deck.

Fortunately, there weren’t many vehicles on the bridge at the time and emergency services were quick to respond. First responders formed a human chain to help evacuate passengers from the beleaguered bus. Rescuers also had to rappel down about 150 feet to ensure no one was trapped under the collapsed portion of the bridge. Officials have reported no fatalities from the incident, but said “slips and falls” had caused some injuries.

Later today, President Biden will be in the city speaking about the infrastructure package he signed into law in November. The bill includes $110 billion in spending to improve roads and bridges. Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey said it’s “critical that we get this funding, and we’re glad to have the president coming today”. The bridge that collapsed today passed an inspection last September.

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Two union votes ahead for Amazon

Retail giant Amazon is facing upcoming unionization votes at two of its warehouses, one in Bessemer, AL, and another in Staten Island, NY. The vote in Bessemer will be a do-over after the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Amazon had interfered in a vote that took place at that facility last year. The vote last year overwhelmingly rejected the proposition to join a labor union. But pro-union activists said that Amazon co-opted the vote in a way that made it look as though Amazon was running the ballot itself. Many Bessemer workers have since said they were intimidated by Amazon’s tactics and would vote in favor of the union if given another chance.

In Staten Island, workers at another Amazon warehouse have also just won approval for a vote to create a workers’ union. Christian Smalls, a former employee of that warehouse, is the leading organizer of the vote. Smalls was fired in 2020 for protesting working conditions and a lack of COVID safety at the warehouse.

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Related: The ongoing, 10-month long coal miner strike in Alabama you’ve never heard of.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

20,000 coconuts found full of liquid cocaine

Drug traffickers are nothing if not inventive. Colombian officials inspecting a ship’s cargo in Cartagena discovered nearly 20,000 coconuts filled with liquid cocaine. The ship was bound for Genoa, Italy. Colombian officials alerted Italian authorities to be on the look out for the shipment’s intended recipients.

This isn’t the first time that drug traffickers have smuggled their wares inside fruit. In a previous instance, Spanish authorities discovered 60 grams of liquid cocaine hidden inside a shipment of coconuts. At a food market in Madrid, police discovered a shipment of pineapples containing 65 kilos of cocaine. 

In 2020, British police found over $5 million worth of cocaine secreted inside hollowed-out potatoes and yams from Jamaica. 

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