Safety Wars

In this episode of Safety Wars, host Jim covers a wide range of regulatory, safety, and current events topics. Jim opens with personal health reflections, advocating for seeking proper medical care for chronic conditions like high blood pressure rather than relying on home remedies.

The show features an FSN Radio News segment covering UK political turmoil, US-China trade talks between Presidents Trump and Xi Jinping, and rising European airfare costs tied to Strait of Hormuz disruptions.

On the regulatory front, Jim breaks down the Department of Labor's new guidance requiring English language proficiency for foreign workers operating commercial motor vehicles, drawing on firsthand job site experiences. He also covers a technical amendment restoring 2019 overtime exemption salary thresholds under the Fair Labor Standards Act, and discusses the distinctions between independent contractor and employee classification.

Jim wraps up with unemployment claims data, US Census Bureau population trends showing urban decline and suburban growth — particularly around New York City — a slow rebuilding update on Lahaina, Hawaii following the 2023 wildfires, and a hantavirus outbreak update with 41 potential cases being monitored across 12 states.

 For all your health and safety needs, visit us at our website safetywars.com, contact us at Jim@safetywars.com or 845-269-5772.


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What is Safety Wars?

Safety from a point of view that you didn't see coming.

Speaker 1:

Hi, this is Jim from Safety Wars. Before we start the program, I want to make sure everyone understands that we often talk about OSHA and EPA citations, along with some other regulatory actions from other agencies, legal cases, criminal activity. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Proposed fines are exactly that, and they are often litigated, reduced, or vacated. We use available public records, news accounts, and press releases.

Speaker 1:

We cannot warranty or guarantee the details of any of the stories we share since we are not directly involved with these stories, at least not most of the time. Enjoy the

Speaker 2:

show is brought to you by Safety FM.

Speaker 1:

Hello. Hello. Hello. It's Safety Wars for Thursday, 05/14/2026. How's everybody doing out there?

Speaker 1:

We're doing okay here. A lot going on. I'm gonna be tomorrow presenting at Rutgers via Zoom for our disaster response worker update training or credential, however you wanna talk about it. However you wanna refer to it. So let me get the arm up on this chair.

Speaker 1:

Anyway, yes, bed is made today. There were comments, trim, make the bed, make the bed. Yeah, well we made the bed. I didn't really do it to tell you the truth, but anyway. We're in the full swing of things here in the spring in the Northeast.

Speaker 1:

It's quite refreshing to accomplish things and everything else. With me, you know, because of my health issue in January, I've been working out for like the last year here since, know, for a little bit over a year consistently, not, you know, because but I had a health issue, didn't realize that one of these situations. Got it all corrected. Now I'm like, I haven't been this, I haven't been feeling this good since I'm 30 years old. So it's like it took twenty five years.

Speaker 1:

Took me back twenty five years. Feeling phenomenal. Thank you, doctor. I will give you his name in Westchester County, whole team of doctors actually really good. Why am I telling you this?

Speaker 1:

Sometimes a little bit hard on doctors with things And we went over this about two months ago. There's two competing things there, especially with Robert F. Kennedy and the positions, I'll put it to you that way, the positions that he supports out there. All right. And one of the, right, so you have two competing positions.

Speaker 1:

Number one is that you treat the situation prior to what, no, I'm sorry. Let me back up. You treat the physician and the illness when it occurs, right? So number one. The other side is you try to prevent the illness and give your body the best conditions to thrive.

Speaker 1:

And so it can heal itself and not get sick to begin with. You have two extremes, but the thing is, is this Jimmy's opinion here, my opinion is that if you have a problem, get it solved. The greatest, and this may seem like a non sequitur, but explained to my doctor with high blood pressure. People are diagnosed with high blood pressure or pre high blood pressure, elevated blood pressure, in the warning zone. And right off the bat, however you define that, oh, well, I'm not going to go on the medication.

Speaker 1:

I'm not going go on a high blood pressure. I'm going to load myself up with all different types of home remedies and all this and that. And before you know it, right, you end up with a double kidney transplant. Reportedly, based on some sort of what I've read, there were a lot of most famous celebrity known to do this is Tina Turner. She ended up with, she had high lifelong high blood pressure.

Speaker 1:

When you read her biopics, not surprising. And what ended up happening? Had high, got high blood pressure, went on all this stuff and it ended up needing a double kidney transplant. She said, I shouldn't probably shouldn't have done that. Same thing with diabetes.

Speaker 1:

There are people who with diabetes, Oh, we're going to go and we haven't lived right. And I'm not blaming the victim here at all. Right? It's very traumatic for people to be diagnosed with a chronic illness like high blood pressure, diabetes. They said, well, we're going to try all these home remedies.

Speaker 1:

Well, guess what? After a while, don't you realize the home remedies don't work or don't work as advertised? And then what happens? First, go on medications and then eventually insulin. And that's very traumatic for people.

Speaker 1:

Well, we're going to try. So if you need a doctor, you need medical attention, get the medical attention. Healthcare is right. And I'm going to leave it at that. With that, right now onto the real non sequitur.

Speaker 1:

A lot of stuff going on out there in the world, right? With this, with everything that's going on. All right. We're going to start off with the Department of Labor press releases and news releases and then we're gonna go into EPA news releases, see what's on there and then everything else. But first, let us do this.

Speaker 1:

Let's do FSN Radio News and we'll go from there. Hold on. You know what? We may not have been broadcasting here. Aye aye aye.

Speaker 1:

You know what? You're just gonna get audio tonight because, yeah, yeah, you're probably just going to get audio tonight. So, let's go with it. Alright and we're going to do Hold on. Of course, I was too confident here.

Speaker 1:

We're gonna do FSN radio news.

Speaker 3:

Terry Weir Streeting has resigned from British prime minister Kirstamer's government. It adds pressure on the UK leader to stand down after disastrous election results and a series of controversies. We're Streeting's resignation has also sparked speculation about whether a leadership contest will be launched. UK political correspondent, Ollie Barrett, reports from London.

Speaker 2:

What West Treating has done here is resigned and said that the party effectively needs a new leader. But what he calls for in this letter is a debate around what comes next, and he says that should be a battle of ideas, he says, not of personalities or petty factionalism. He says it needs to be broad, and it needs to be the best possible field of candidates. He says he supports that approach, seeming to signal there that he would be open to the kind of leadership, challenge that might include figures like Andy Byrne in the mayor of Manchester, for example, who needs to find a parliamentary seat if he is to throw his hat into the ring.

Speaker 3:

Following talks between presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, The US says China agrees with Washington's position that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon and that the Strait Of Hormuz must be reopened. The leaders have set a positive tone after the first day of discussions despite president Xi warning The US over Taiwan relations. Nick Harper reports from Washington.

Speaker 4:

The US has described the meetings as good, saying that the two leaders focused on economic cooperation and Iran. The US readout after the meeting saying that on the issue of Iran, China had agreed that Iran can never have nuclear weapon and that the Strait Of Hormuz must remain open. Also, The US says that China is interested in buying American oil to lessen its dependence on oil coming from the Middle East. We're still waiting for many of the big headline banner deals to be announced. We could see more Boeing aircraft being bought by China and more American beef and soybeans being picked up by Chinese markets as well.

Speaker 3:

The International Air Transport Association has warned that higher flight costs will be inevitable for travelers in Europe. Jet fuel prices have soared since the start of the Iran conflict, and there are fears that supplies could run low if disruptions through the strain of Hormuz continue. William Densalo reports from Brussels.

Speaker 5:

It's unwelcome news for the tens of thousands of people planning their summer holidays. Jet fuel costs have roughly doubled, and speaking to the BBC, the head of the International Air Transport Association says some of those costs will be passed on to consumers. UK and EU officials say there are no immediate concerns of fuel shortages, but the International Energy Agency says it's a possibility if the strategic Strait Of Hormuz Waterway doesn't reopen or new supply lines aren't found.

Speaker 3:

From Euros Worldwide, this is FSN.

Speaker 6:

With FSN Spotlight, I'm Simon Marks. Today, what's at stake during president Trump's visit to China? It is evident from the numerous US business leaders that boarded Air Force One to make the journey to Beijing that trade will top the agenda with issues like the war on Iran, human rights, and Taiwan very much taking a back seat. President Trump wants to try and resolve trade disputes with the Chinese and even secure fresh Chinese investment in The US economy. Edward Luce is the Financial Times chief US commentator.

Speaker 6:

He says China holds significant leverage over The United States.

Speaker 7:

China has a bigger bazooka as it showed with its its stranglehold on the rare earth exports and then Trump agreeing to a truce in that trade war. He wants to renew that truce because China doesn't just have a stranglehold rare earths. It also has one on pharmaceutical inputs. It could really, really harm the world's pharmaceutical supply. Trump's ability to impose tariffs isn't quite as big a bazooka.

Speaker 7:

So I think China feels very much, perhaps too much, that it's in it's on the winning side of history here.

Speaker 6:

The Trump administration is also hoping for pomp and ceremony that will be screened back in The US and convey to Americans that this is the most important moment in The US China relationship since president Richard Nixon traveled to Peking in 1972 and met chairman Mao. With FSN Spotlight, I'm Simon Marks.

Speaker 3:

Here's a recap of our top stories. UK health secretary, Wes Streeting, has resigned from British prime minister, Kirstam, his government. After talks between presidents Donald Trump and Xi Xingping, The US sees China agrees with Washington's position that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon. And the International Air Transport Association has warned that higher flight costs will be inevitable for travelers in Europe. That's the latest feature story news.

Speaker 3:

I'm Mitch McCann in New York.

Speaker 1:

And thank you. Thank you there. What's the FSN Radio News? Okay. So we have a lot to talk about here.

Speaker 1:

Now that I got the video part of this straightened out, we'll edit we'll worry about that in post production. So we're gonna swing on over to the department of labor press releases. Let me do a share screen here. Okay. I am here.

Speaker 1:

And that's not what I wanted. Here? Hold on. Alright. US Department of Labor reinforces English language proficiency requirements for foreign workers operating commercial motor vehicles.

Speaker 1:

All right. Okay. The US Department of Labor's Office of Foreign Labor Certification, they issued a sub regulatory guidance in the form of frequently asked questions to clarify the information employers are required to provide when seeking foreign workers who will be engaged in the operation of a commercial motor vehicle. Specifically, the facts now clarify that all job orders and applications for temporary or permanent labor certification for physicians which would require foreign workers to operate a commercial motor vehicle must include an English language proficiency standard that is consistent with established federal requirements requiring an inclusion of the English language proficiency standard and job orders. Labor A certification application aims to address two critical issues.

Speaker 1:

First, the department is committed to ensuring the safety of both commercial motor vehicle operators and American drivers. Second, in issuing this guidance, department seeks to do its part to advance two impactful White House executive orders which are enforcing common sense rules on the road for American truck drivers designating English as the official language in The US. Holding employers to existing English language proficiency requirements is critical to keeping Americans safe on our roads, said acting labor secretary Keith Sonderling. At president Trump's direction, the Department of Labor is doing our part to ensure that foreign workers possess necessary English language skills to safely operate commercial motor vehicles. Under current regulations, the US Department of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has implemented regulations that prohibit individuals, including foreign nationals, from operating a commercial motor vehicle unless they presents the necessary qualifications, including the ability to read and speak English sufficiently to understand traffic signs, communicate with the general public, respond to official inquiries, and make entries in reports and other records.

Speaker 1:

While federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is primarily responsible for enforcement, The department's office of foreign labor certification also ensures, right? That employers, right? They ensure employers include the required skills qualifications and certifications for job opportunities involving commercial motor vehicle operation which includes English language proficiency. Although a significant portion of the regulated community already complies to this federal requirement, The department wants to ensure uniformity among all employers seeking to hire farm workers as commercial motor vehicle operators helping to ensure maximum safety on America's roadways. Here and right.

Speaker 1:

And they just outlay this here. Implementation of the facts will be delayed by a period of thirty days following their publication today to allow the regulated community time to review and will be applied for respectfully to filings thereafter. My whole thing here is this. It's a major safety issue. Right?

Speaker 1:

We get on the projects I'm involved on, involved with, we get people with all different kinds of backgrounds. It's critical that you're able to communicate to people. In the past, what has happened, the biggest change that I've seen is this. It hasn't been over the last year. It's been over the last through about twenty five years.

Speaker 1:

It used to be you get a delivery person or you would get a crew coming in from the outside. They spoke a language other than English. Doesn't matter what it was. Believe me, because I've seen the Savin repeatedly with people all different kinds of backgrounds. Well, they don't speak English.

Speaker 1:

Leave them alone. Let them let them work without hard hats. Let them work without safety glasses. Let them work without signing paperwork. Let them just let them do it.

Speaker 1:

What's the big deal? Blah blah blah blah blah. Starting about 2009, 2010, I would go into facilities and they were like, okay. You know, oh, the person would pull the thing. Well, I have no training.

Speaker 1:

I don't speak English. And all of a sudden, okay. Well, then you can't work here. And then it came out in the contracts initially. Well, you have to have at least one person on every work crew, who's able to, converse and molt whatever language you're speaking.

Speaker 1:

And then that they would be able to write. You had to do that to avoid something like this from happening. Then it evolved where you would sign contracts that are written. No, that was the requirement on that, but also the requirement that you actually, it used to be vague. You will follow OSHA regulations.

Speaker 1:

Well, okay. Most people don't know OSHA regulation. Most people don't know, haven't been through the outreach training program, a legitimate program. So now we have a situation where it's like, it's in a contract. Here's the safety plan.

Speaker 1:

These are our requirements. General requirement, basic right PPE. If your driver, if your person doesn't show up, your crew doesn't show up with this, they're not going to be allowed on-site. And how many times does that happen where they come on-site? They don't have any, well, guess what?

Speaker 1:

I guess you can't work today. And there's a Walmart or Target or Red Wing shoes or something like that across the street, go and get what you need. We're down the road with that. We had to do that recently. Hey, the guy showed up and this was last summer.

Speaker 1:

Guy showed up in flip flops, cut off shorts and a tank top and wanted to unload equipment. Well, don't you have a hard hat? No hard hat. Workforce? No.

Speaker 1:

Well then guess what? I guess they're not going to be unloading here today. Can't have you walking around a job site like that. So, you know, it happens. So now they're more or less codifying this and I think it was always in there, but never enforced.

Speaker 1:

Now they're enforcing it. I guess that was safety related, the safety of the person, safety of the people on the road. I don't know if the roads are going to be, the thing is I don't know if the roads are going to be safer with this, doing this. Pieces of paper, again, we went through this with, now we have an upcoming series here, starting next week. Alright.

Speaker 1:

Or you're have a short series, a short web series here called ancient safety professionals. And that's all I'm saying about it. If you've been listening to the program, you heard it heard it a couple of times. Pieces of paper do not protect you. That little card, that little driver's license in your wallet does not protect you.

Speaker 1:

And someone, right? It shows that you pass an exam. It shows that, and we know there's a lot of fraud in the truck driving field, almost as much as for the OSHA outreach training, probably maybe more. Right? And that's a lot, especially New York, New Jersey area and Pennsylvania.

Speaker 1:

That little car, yeah, you did something at that particular time. Who knows afterwards what you do? And one of my clients, doesn't exist anymore. West Virginia Paint and Tank, they had a superintendent there whose English was pretty good, but they always trusted him. You know why they trusted him?

Speaker 1:

Because he was in the Polish army. And when he was in the Polish army, he had a very good reputation as being a safe driver. And when Castro needed a driver to drive around Poland, they, they appointed him as Castro's driver when he was in the military. So very safe driver, believe me, with that. But also a very angry driver.

Speaker 1:

What else we got here? US Survivor and Labor announced its technical amendment restoring regulations on exemptions for executive administrative and professional employees. Amendment republishes the 2019 regulatory tax on safety salary threshold. US Department of Labor's wage and hour division today announced the publication of a technical amendment to restore the applicable regulations governing the exemption of executive, administrative and professional employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Right?

Speaker 1:

The department's technical amendment removes from the code of federal regulations, regulatory language from 2024 rule that was judicially vacated, republishes the operative regulations established and a rule in the department issued in 2019. The restored regulations require that most exempt executive, administrative, and professional employees be paid a salary of at least $684 a week. The regulations also set an annual compensation threshold of $107,432 for certain highly compensated employees. This technical amendment is effect immediately upon publication, Right? So basically what wage and hour division administrator Andrew Rogers has said is that he wants everything to be clear, very clear in the regulations.

Speaker 1:

Here's what Jimmy Pozzel says. I'm going to tell you this, right? Companies, HR departments go out and they craft, right? They don't want to pay people by the hour. And they don't want to pay people time and a half, especially now that up to a certain amount overtime is not taxed.

Speaker 1:

They don't want hourly employees paying time and a half. So they hire attorneys to go out there and craft these job descriptions specifically on how, no, no, I'll frame it and what we do, safety. Well, you know, it's a professional service and where you have, and then they said, well, therefore you're overtime exempt. Not so fast. What are you allowed to do?

Speaker 1:

Are you being treated as a professional? If you, they say, here is the safety plan, enforce the safety plan and you will enforce it by to the letter. And that is what your responsibility is. And you're not allowed to make any type of interpretation as to how to, how to do it. You're given a whole set of checklists to fill out.

Speaker 1:

You're given health and safety meetings that you have to read verbatim. And you're not allowed to, you're not allowed to have stop work authority and you're not allowed to correct things and a whole bunch of other stuff. You start to get into a murky area with all, are you exempt from overtime or are you not exempt from overtime? So what is, what's the point? I would get with an accountant, an attorney, somebody who's much more knowledgeable than I am in this area, explain what you do from day to day to them, and then determine whether you are misclassified or not.

Speaker 1:

That's what I would do. Because everybody wants to know, oh, well, I'm salaried. Therefore, I'm a professional. Not allowed to make any decision. It's plain to me.

Speaker 1:

And you're not allowed to manage anyone. Explain to me how you're a salaried employee, an overtime exempt employee. This is sort of like with the, I, we're having a lot of conversations with some organizations I've worked with what an independent contractor is because that comes up, especially with the up and coming project managers. What's this with independent contractor, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, it's very simple.

Speaker 1:

IRS used to have a checklist going back twenty years and they got away from that saying, well, we have to look at the whole thing, what you do. If you are given no direction and they say, okay, Jimmy, we, you're going to work as an independent contractor with this company. And, or they say, hey, we want to hire you as an independent contractor. I call them up and we have a negotiation. Hey, when, you know, this is what we're going to do.

Speaker 1:

There's a blah, blah, blah. These are what your responsibilities are. Let's say a safety contractor wants to hire me as an independent contractor for a certain project. This is not a unique situation. Happens all the time.

Speaker 1:

And let's say that safety contractor says, is the, here's the phone number, right? To the guy or woman you need to call, find out about the job, you do it. And they leave you alone. You call up the contractor, whoever you're working for. Hey, what time do I need to be there?

Speaker 1:

What's the scope of work? How am I going to do it? Blah, blah. How am I going to be judged? And you go through all of this stuff independent and you never have to call the people that are paying you that safety contractor to ask them for anything other than your paycheck.

Speaker 1:

Guess what? You're most likely a independent contractor, a ten ninety nine employee. If that safety contractor says, you're going be working at ABC, a construction company. This is what you need to do. These are the standards.

Speaker 1:

This is what blah, blah, blah. And they say, oh, and by the way, you have to be there at 7AM. I have it 7AM to start. Guess what? Employee.

Speaker 1:

Oh, yeah. I had a client also one time, they hired an entire construction crew as independent contractors, and then somebody got hurt, seriously hurt. They went to urgent care and they said, well, we're or actually went to the hospital. It was that serious of thing. And it was a legitimate go to the hospital thing.

Speaker 1:

They said, well, where did this happen? This happened at work. Okay, workers comp. Then they get the bills from workers comp. And they said, no, independent contractor.

Speaker 1:

Insurance company gets involved. Says, and no, I called exposed factor to try to help them traverse this whole situation. And it's, Hey, Mr. Pozzol, did you tell your client that these people as they are doing are not independent contractors or employees? And I said, my understanding based on, I'm not an accountant, I'm not an attorney.

Speaker 1:

I'm just a humble safety professional, very reserved. And then everybody started laughing. All right. I said, if Now I have explained that the way that these people are hired and paid and how they are managed, likely not an attorney. They are not independent contractors or actual employees.

Speaker 1:

I have said that, however, I'm not the decision maker here. Okay. Thank you very much, Mr. Pozzo. They said to the client, Mr.

Speaker 1:

Klein, did he tell you that? He said, yeah, he told me exactly that. So what are you going to do? These are independent contractors. That was his business model.

Speaker 1:

That's what they did. This is your business model. Now to have independent contractors, remember no OSHA regulations, no workers' comp, no health insurance. And I'm sure there's a lot of other stuff that there's nothing in there with. No discrimination rights.

Speaker 1:

Nothing. Nada, zilch, zero. No retire, nothing. No retirement fund, nothing, zero. That's why they hire them.

Speaker 1:

On the other hand, if you are an impending contractor, guess what you don't have to deal with? Company politics. And guess what? In the safety industry, that's golden. Why?

Speaker 1:

Because you're looked upon by a lot of organizations very negatively. If you don't believe me, look back at five forty five programs here. Or is it 46 or 47? I don't know. Look, go look back.

Speaker 1:

You hear all different kinds of stories. Our next year. Yeah. So we're going to get back to doing regular commercials too. I'm just all fired up.

Speaker 1:

Okay. Here we have our press release here. Unemployment insurance weekly claims in the week ending May 9, the advanced figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 211,000. An increase of 12,000 for the previous week's raised revised level. The previous week's level was revised down by 1,000 from 200 to a 199.

Speaker 1:

The four week moving average was two hundred three seven fifty. Now, if you look at the graph, everything is pretty much level right here. And here we have, the weekly seasonally adjusted insured unemployment, all pretty much at the same level between one point seven five and two million. And here we have the non seasonally adjusted. What you get my point?

Speaker 1:

We have some up up here, right? Initial claims up here. Non seasonally adjusted insured employment, you go up some of these months, but they follow a certain ebb and flow. Now, you listen to some commentators out there, they say the economy is doing wonderful, but let me point out something. The inflation rate sucks.

Speaker 1:

All right. It was reported that some ridiculous number 6.8% when you include energy. I believe that's the number there. All right. Here we have census data.

Speaker 1:

This came out, today. Population growth holds steady amidst again, we're not gonna cover census data here because I think demographics and movement of people tells a lot more than any of these other economic indicators and few right leading indicators in the economy. Amid a widespread national slowdown in population growth. Holy shit. Who's been saying that for a long time?

Speaker 1:

We have a slowdown in population growth? I pointed out on The Handmaid's Tale and the Testaments stuff on Facebook. Really the only TV show I watch anymore. What happens when you have demographic issues? You know, how the author of The Handmaid's Tale, her name escapes me right now.

Speaker 1:

How that, all right, she stumbled upon a gold mine there, but didn't realize it was a demographic collapses. Amid a white international slowdown in population growth, mid sized cities remain close to previous year's patterns beginning 07/01/2024 and 07/01/2025. Drop offs in average growth were steeper among the largest cities. According to the US Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 population estimates released today. Even where the largest cities maintained strong growth, were outpaced by smaller cities in the outer portions in the same metro area.

Speaker 1:

So for example, Charlotte, North Carolina, which I did not know this, the nation's fourteenth largest city came 20,731 residents in that time period, more than any city in the country. However, among the cities with a population of 20,000 or more, Charlotte was only the seventh fastest growing city in its own metro area by a percentage increase. The fastest was Fort Mill, South Carolina, about 20 miles downtown from Charlotte. So big city growth slowed, little city growth increase. Here we have New York City's population.

Speaker 1:

Here we have local, right? Declined by 12,196 between 2024 and 2025. The greatest in the area decrease in the nation yet for incorporated. And I tell you what, those are the high income earners and they're not going to see their taxes. Although I don't even have to look at the data.

Speaker 1:

I'm going tell you that. Right? And there's going to be more here going out. So here we go. You had four incorporated places in New York's metro outer reaches numbered among the country's 200 fastest growing places by percentage change led by a wonderful town called Port Chester, New York, which ranked number 80 with a 4.1 increase.

Speaker 1:

These fastest growing suburbs are all medium sized populations between 25,040. West Port Chester used to have a really great Mexican restaurant there, Mary Ann's. Very, very well known. I mean, you know, I tell, I used to tell people I lived, I used to live in Westchester County, New York, where Port Chester is. I would tell people all over the country.

Speaker 1:

Lived in Port, I lived in Westchester. They said, did you go to Mary Ann's in Port Chester? Right. That's how well known it was. So my question is this, what are the four cities here?

Speaker 1:

I clicked on this. All right. The four metro areas ranged in population from 3,800,000 to 20,000,000 that exemplify of a variety of things. So here we have, right, New York, Newark, Jersey City, New, right? And let's see what this is.

Speaker 1:

Right. I know they mentioned Texas and everything else, but I'm not familiar with those. So I really can't comment on that. Right. And Seattle area too.

Speaker 1:

So here's what I have. A metro area population, it's up 0.1% from April 2020. Fastest growing place, Harrison Village, New York. Population 32,273. Let me see where Harrison Village in New York is.

Speaker 1:

Hold on. Maybe out on Long Island. Hold on. Let me get, Thank God for Apple Maps. Harrison Village, New York.

Speaker 1:

Hold on with me folks. Okay. If it's Harrison Village and the one that I'm thinking of here, it's out of Westchester County, actually right down the street from Port Chester. Right? With that, if that's when I got the one right, because it is New York.

Speaker 1:

New York's city's population declined by 2.5%. There was growth in the Western Suburbs Of New Jersey led by Harrison and Fairlawn. Yes. And Harrison Village was okay. So it was.

Speaker 1:

So Harrison and Fairlawn are over in Bergen County, New Jersey, which is about twenty minutes away from where I broadcast out of Rockland County, New York. As a matter of fact, I go, I was going to political meetings in Fairlawn up until fairly recently and guess what they were doing. Guess why the venue closed? Any idea? Why did the venue close?

Speaker 1:

Venue closed because it got knocked down and put up housing. So like I said, you know, I know this. So the question is why are people moving out of the cities? We have the data here that they're moving out of the cities, but why are they? Is it economic conditions, tax policy, crime?

Speaker 1:

I don't know. And as I'll point out now, people are getting wise to this, that their crime surveys are fraudulent. Who would have ever guessed that would have happened? I don't know. So, okay.

Speaker 1:

Metro area population of 4.2. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't have this unshare screen, here. Alright. Now let's see what else I want to talk about today.

Speaker 1:

All right, here we have, this is from San Francisco Gate. I'm going to show this here, share this because that's where the fires were in Lahana. Look hardly any rebuilding. There's the picture courtesy of mentioned Lind and the Washington post Getty images. This is article from Christine Hitt, Hawaii contributing editor.

Speaker 1:

At the Northern end of the front street, visitors crowd the sidewalks waiting for tables and meandering between businesses that survived the twenty twenty three fire. So now we're working on three years later, which was the deadliest in The US for more than a century. Mala Ocean Tavern is serving customers. So our old Lahaina Lau, Lahana Cannery Mall, Star Noodle, Hanu Oceanside and others. Farther South, the tour boats have returned to the Harbor, drawing people back to the waterfront, but nearby old Lahaina Courthouse is still a burned shell, cracked and charred with missing windows.

Speaker 1:

So what's the point here? They are moving forward slowly according to this article. So nearly 200 residential homes have been reconstructed and are approved for occupancy while 500 building permits have been issued for homes, but it's clear there is a long way to go. Why are they so slow? Why?

Speaker 1:

Right? Again, we have a situation in this country with after major disasters in certain areas, Los Angeles being one of them, California in general, and now Hawaii slow to build. Is there an incentive not to build things back? That's what my question is. I think that's a legitimate question.

Speaker 1:

And guess what? The president had the same question. Hunter virus outbreak update 41 people monitor across The US. Find out, and this is from ivtimes.co.uk. Article by, Gotta love the spam on the phone.

Speaker 1:

Federal health authorities are actively monitoring forty one potential hunter virus cases around The US. So where are these folks? They are in 12 states here with this. So 18 repatriated individuals are receiving care at specialized facilities in Nebraska and Georgia. So right Georgia, I imagine somewhere around the CDC since that's in Georgia.

Speaker 1:

Seven passengers travel home before the official identification of the outbreak. So it's seen people are under review for possible exposure to symptomatic travelers during their flights. Current states, Washington, Kansas, Maryland, New Jersey, California, and Texas, right? Have reported to each Arizona, Illinois, Virginia, Minnesota, right? And then they have monitoring things and everything else.

Speaker 1:

Now I'm going to say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna compliment New Jersey here. And I'm not allowed to say where this is, where this likely is because information comes my way. I'm not allowed. So the last time this happened at the last time that this happened, something like this, New Jersey was very well prepared. We're talking pretty well before COVID and they had a certain facility that was abandoned that they actually put back into service to serve as a quarantine.

Speaker 1:

Hopefully New Jersey has a similar situation right now. By the way, if you need help (845) 269-5772. Give us a call here at Safety Wars. Anyway, that's what I have here with this. I had to start a little late.

Speaker 1:

We had some technical issues we had to deal with here and I had to prerecord tonight. So I will get with you if I don't hear from you this weekend by this weekend. Have a great weekend. We have a special report. I'm trying to line up an interview with someone.

Speaker 1:

If not, I have a whole bunch of stuff that I was asked to publicize, but I'm not going to do it on the network here with you on Safety FM. We'll be doing on Rumble and YouTube and X with that and possibly Facebook. If you go to us, follow us on social media, go to safetywords.com. There's links to all of our social media there in the upper left hand corner there. So for Safety Wars, this is Jim Pozzel.

Speaker 1:

I look forward to seeing you on our next program.

Speaker 8:

The views and opinions expressed on this podcast are those of the host and its guest and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the company. Examples of analysis discussed within this podcast are only examples. It should not be utilized in the real world as the only solution available as they are based only on very limited and dated open source information. Assumptions made within this analysis are not reflective of the position of the company. No part of this podcast may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means mechanical, electronic, recording or otherwise without prior written permission of the creator of the podcast, Jay Allen.