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When Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, a former construction union leader, appears before a Senate committee this morning in the first round of hearings for his nomination as Secretary of Labor, it s likely many in the construction industry will be wondering how he might influence the federal policies and regulations under which they work.
Born in Boston, Walsh joined Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 223 in 1988 and worked his way up through the ranks to lead both Local 223 and the Boston Building Trades Unions before being elected mayor in 2013. Walsh also served in the Massachusetts legislature.
Labor organizations hailed Walsh s nomination as a win for American workers and the U.S. economy. For instance, Dan Langford, executive secretary-treasurer of the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters, told Construction Dive that Walsh is a great pick, and said that “what’s good for unions is good for all working people.”
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Biden’s Empty Environmentalism Shutting down the Keystone XL pipeline shows the new president’s preference for symbolism over substance on environmental policy.
Politics and law
Infrastructure and energy
For at least the past two decades, the American environmentalist movement has been split into two camps. On one side, less conspicuous, are the conservationists dedicated to working with public and private actors to keep our air and water clean, preserve America’s natural beauty, and advance common-sense solutions to pressing issues like climate change. On the louder and more flamboyant side are the progressive activists, who prioritize heated rhetoric, symbolic measures, and political purity tests over practical solutions.
The Biden-Harris call for unity, economic growth, products made in America, and an end to the pandemic has already come crashing down. The two conflicting statements below from the same
Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich reacts to President Biden following up his inaugural call for unity with left-wing decisive actions.
There seems to be a continued, deep split between the message of unity the President Joe Biden administration would like us to hear – and what its actions are communicating.
Again, President Biden’s inaugural address was great. It hit the right themes of bringing people together as Americans. But he promptly walked up to the White House and created dissonance with his first volley of clearly partisan left-wing executive orders.
Much of his first week has been filled with the consequences of these divisive orders.
(Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
No, no, the Biden administration does not represent some sort of return to Bolshevism (nothing like), but
something about its willingness to insist on ‘short-term’ sacrifice in pursuit of a radiant green future unmoored to any kind of reality is faintly reminiscent of the ruthlessness of an earlier generation of millenarians red rather than green a century ago.
President Biden climate advisor Gina McCarthy said Wednesday that the administration is “not asking for sacrifice” with its executive order to shut down construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.
According to the Keystone XL website, the project, initially proposed more than a decade ago, would have sustained about 11,000 U.S. jobs in 2021 – including 8,000 union jobs – and generated $1.6 billion in gross wages.