WASHINGTON (AP) — With millions of Americans facing broiling heat across the Southwest, President Joe Biden on Thursday plans to announce new steps to protect workers, improve weather forecasts and make drinking water more accessible, the White House says.

He’ll be joined by the leaders of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre described the heat wave as “a difficult time” and said Biden was treating climate change with “the urgency it requires.”

The Democratic president is directing the Department of Labor to increase inspections of potentially dangerous workplaces such as farms and construction sites. He also wants heightened enforcement of heat safety violations.

As part of the initiative, the department will issue a hazard alert notifying employers and employees about ways to stay protected from extreme heat, which has killed 436 workers since 2011, according to federal statistics.

The Biden administration plans to spend $7 million to develop more detailed weather predictions to anticipate extreme weather like heat waves, plus $152 million to boost drinking water infrastructure and climate resilience in California, Colorado and Washington.

The mayors of Phoenix and San Antonio, two cities that have suffered from the heat waves, are expected to participate in the White House event virtually.

Phoenix has seen at least 26 days in a row of temperatures exceeding 110 degrees. Maricopa County, where the city is located, reported recently that there were 18 heat-associated deaths between April 11 and July 15. Another 69 deaths remain under investigation. There were 425 heat-associated deaths in the county last year.

San Antonio saw 15 straight days of 100-plus degrees. At least 13 deaths in Texas have been blamed on the extreme heat.

Thursday’s announcement follows other steps that the Biden administration has taken to adapt to increasing threats from extreme heat. Among those it is highlighting:

The Department of Labor is developing a standard for how workplaces deal with heat. The proposed rule by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration would require employers to provide adequate water and rest breaks to outdoor workers, as well as medical services and training to address signs and symptoms of heat-related illness. OSHA is holding meetings this summer to hear comments on how the heat standard would affect small businesses.

To keep low-income populations cool, the Department of Health and Human Services expanded its Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program to provide more access to air conditioning and cooling centers such as libraries, senior centers or other public buildings. The Environmental Protection Agency also has provided assistance to help communities develop cooling centers within schools.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been helping cities and towns map “heat islands” with dense buildings and fewer trees, and the Department of Agriculture issued guidance for creating more tree canopy coverage, which helps with cooling environments.

In addition, the administration launched a website called heat.gov with interactive maps, weather forecasts and tips for keeping cool amid record-breaking heat.

More than 100 members of Congress, led by Democratic Reps. Greg Casar and Sylvia Garcia of Texas and Judy Chu of California have called on the administration to implement the new heat standard for outdoor workers as quickly as possible.

“We know extreme weather events such as heat waves are becoming more frequent and more dangerous due to climate change. Urgent action is needed to prevent more deaths,″ the lawmakers wrote in a letter Monday.

The United Farm Workers and other groups also called on OSHA to immediately issue a nationwide rule protecting outdoor workers after farm worker deaths this month in Florida and Arizona.

“Farm workers need and deserve the access to shade, water and paid breaks,’’ said UFW President Teresa Romero. “How many more workers will we let dangerous heat and callous employers kill before this nation acts?”

Douglas Parker, assistant Labor secretary for occupational safety and health, called heat illness prevention a top priority. As OSHA works toward a final rule, the agency is enhancing enforcement efforts “to make sure employers and workers understand the dangers of heat illness and how to prevent it,’’ Parker said in a statement.

Casar, a freshman lawmaker from Austin, staged a “thirst strike” on Tuesday outside the U.S. Capitol, forgoing water breaks for nearly nine hours, to protest a new Texas law that bans local governments from requiring water breaks and other safety measures for outdoor workers. Casar called the law “insane″ and accused Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of being “on the wrong side of history.” Republican lawmakers and other supporters of the law say it eliminates a patchwork of local regulations that are burdensome to businesses, and they say it won’t stop workers from taking breaks.

At least 42 workers died in Texas between 2011 and 2021 from environmental heat exposure, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“Democrats are going to stand up for common sense and for working people,″ Casar said.

Ladd Keith, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona who studies heat policy and governance, said the record-breaking heat much of the nation is experiencing “is very much in line with climate change projections.” While not surprising, “they’re certainly a continuation of a concerning trend of climate impacts that we’ve seen,” he said.

Despite the recent headlines, rising temperatures have typically not received the same level of attention as other climate risks, such as flooding and wildfires, Keith said.

“Heat has just not been a topic at the national level or local level that we’ve even considered addressing until the last couple of years,” he said.

However, Keith said the administration has ramped up its focus because of searing weather events, such as the heat dome in the Pacific Northwest in 2021 that prompted record temperatures and dozens of deaths across the region.

OSHA fined a Florida farm supervisor last month for exposing workers to excessive heat after a worker from Mexico died at a farm in Parkland, Florida. Investigators determined the worker’s death could have been prevented if a labor contractor had followed established safety practices regarding heat-related hazards.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post Biden looks to provide relief from extreme heat as record temperatures persist appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

WASHINGTON (AP) — After steadily declining for nearly a year, consumer price data to be released Wednesday will likely show that U.S. inflation remained stubbornly high in April, a sign that it might be entering a newer, stickier phase.

Consumer prices are forecast to have risen 0.4% from March to April, much faster than the 0.1% increase the previous month, according to a survey of economists by the data provider FactSet.

Compared with a year earlier, prices are projected to have jumped 5% in April, the same year-over-year increase as in March. If that forecast proves accurate, it would be the first time that annual inflation didn’t fall after nine months of declines.

Pricier gasoline, apartment rents and possibly used cars are among the items that might have accelerated inflation last month. The cost of airline fares and hotel rooms, by contrast, are expected to have eased after months of increases.

For more than two years, high inflation has been a significant burden for America’s consumers, an ongoing threat to the economy and a frustrating challenge for the Federal Reserve. Yet now, new problems are emerging.

The Fed has raised its key interest rate by a substantial 5 percentage points since March 2022 to try to drive inflation back down to its 2% target. Besides making borrowing far more expensive for consumers and businesses, those higher rates have contributed to the collapse of three large banks in the past two months and to a likely pullback in bank lending. The result could be a further weakening of the economy.

Even more ominously, the government’s debt ceiling may be breached by early June, and Republicans in Congress are refusing to raise the cap unless President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats agree to sharp spending cuts. If the debt ceiling isn’t raised in time, the nation would default on its debt, a scenario that could ignite a global economic crisis.

Inflation has slowed sharply since peaking at a 9.1% annual rate last June. Still, many economists say the decline so far has likely been the easy phase. The supply chain snarls that left many grocery shelves bare and delayed the delivery of furniture, cars and electronics have been resolved. Gas prices have also dropped steadily after having spiked in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, though they rose again in April after OPEC agreed to reduce oil output.

Excluding volatile food and energy costs, so-called core inflation is also expected to have stayed high last month, with economists envisioning a 0.3% increase from March to April and 5.4% from a year earlier.

The Fed and many economists closely monitor core prices, which are regarded as a better measure of longer-term inflation trends. One major driver of core inflation — apartment costs and other housing expenses — surged 8.2% in March from 12 months earlier. Most economists expect apartment rents to grow much more slowly in coming months, helping to slow inflation, as more new apartment buildings are completed.

Chair Jerome Powell and other Fed officials are paying particular attention to the cost of services, excluding energy and housing. They consider rising services prices to be particularly sticky because they’re heavily fueled by wage increases.

Prices for restaurant meals, airline tickets and hotel rooms have risen steadily as companies have had to raise pay in those industries to find and retain workers. Restaurant prices jumped 8.8% in March from a year ago.

“The most persistent area of inflation is in core services excluding housing, which has been running around 4.5% since last August,” John Williams, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said Tuesday. Williams, who is close to Powell, is an influential voice in Fed policy.

“This is driven by a continued imbalance in overall supply and demand, and it will take the longest to bring down,” Williams said.

When they met last week, the Fed’s policymakers agreed to raise their benchmark rate by a quarter-point, the 10th straight increase, to about 5.1% — the highest level in 16 years. The Fed’s rate hikes, which are intended to cool spending, growth and inflation, have led to higher costs for mortgages, auto loans and credit card and business borrowing.

Most economists think the rate hikes will, over time, have their intended effect. Yet most also worry that the hikes will weaken the economy so much as to tip it into a recession sometime this year.

At last week’s meeting, the Fed signaled that it may now pause its rate hikes and take time to monitor the effects of its policy actions on the economy, which might take many more months to become fully evident.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post Americans likely saw little relief from inflation in April appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.