Latest news with #KevinRoss
Boston Globe
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Heading to the Newport Folk Festival? Check out a mini map of the lineup.
Advertisement Between Friday and Sunday, that fully fleshed-out lineup will help Fort Adams State Park brim with a musical selection that's both worldly and surprisingly close to home. In addition to many need-no-introduction acts — Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Leading the familiar faces are Boston alt-rock staple Advertisement Repping Connecticut is soulful rock swingers A handful of other acts are familiar because they graced the stages at Boston Calling barely two months ago. Hip-hop legends Public Enemy will return to New England, as well as alt-pop peacock And while Mon Rovîa lives in Chattanooga these days, the singer-songwriter is one example of the breadth of global talent coming to Newport this weekend. Born in Liberia 'into a civil war, escaping the life of a child soldier, rescued by the hands of missionaries,' as he explains on his Bandcamp page, the artist's Afro-Appalachian folk is a bridge between cultures and continents. Beyond the straight-ahead Americana of acts like Advertisement GIG GUIDE At the Xfinity Center, 2010s teen heartthrobs There's no shortage of R&B and soul at City Winery this week, where guests can catch singers Kevin Ross ( It's been a few years since 'Africa' went viral, which means you're overdue to hear it again when and Advertisement — son of Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti — brings his band The Positive Force to the Sinclair on Also on Fronted by new vocalist Emily Armstrong, Linkin Park perform two nights at TD Garden. Jimmy Fontaine Fitz and the Tantrums release "Man on the Moon," an easy-on-the-ears pop party, on Friday. Matty Vogel NOW SPINNING Fitz and the Tantrums , Madonna , Advertisement Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist , BONUS TRACK Victoria Wasylak can be reached at . Follow her on Bluesky @
USA Today
06-02-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Bill shielding pesticide manufacturers from cancer lawsuits advances in Senate
Bill shielding pesticide manufacturers from cancer lawsuits advances in Senate Show Caption Hide Caption Gov. Kim Reynolds proposes 'all-of-the-above' energy bill Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds rolls out 'all-of-the-above' energy plan to attract tech industry investment and ensure low-cost operations across the state. Iowans facing severe illnesses such as cancer would be restricted from suing pesticide manufacturers for failing to warn of health and safety risks on their products' labeling under a bill advancing through the Senate. Lawmakers in a subcommittee Wednesday advanced Senate Study Bill 1051 2-1, which would protect pesticide manufacturers from litigation if they have "sufficient warning" product labels that comply with federal regulations. The Senate passed the highly contested bill last year but it stalled in the House. The bill would reduce litigation against pesticide manufacturing companies, like Bayer, that claim their products' labels didn't disclose it could cause potential health risks, like cancer. Bayer has faced thousands of lawsuits linking cases of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cancer to its weedkiller product Roundup. The company paid over $10 billion in 2020 to settle suits of over 95,000 cases related to Roundup labels not warning of potential cancer. Bill's supporters say it will prevent 'meritless lawsuits' Iowans such as multi-generation farmer Kevin Ross from Pottawattamie County say the bill is necessary to protect the state's agriculture industry and "reign in meritless lawsuits from greedy trial attorneys." "It is not an immunity bill. Rather, it is a mechanism to ensure that American farmers can access American-made glyphosate," he said. "Glyphosate is one of the most widely studied and tested crop production crop protection products on the market." Joel Nelson representing the Agribusiness Association of Iowa said he trusts the United States Environmental Protection Agency's vetting of the products, and losing access to them would be detrimental for farmers. "Those products help us produce a better crop, and at the end of the day, feed the hungry people of this world," Nelson said. Both of the Republicans on the subcommittee voted to advance the bill. Sen. Tom Shipley, R-Nodaway, said he doesn't want to dismiss opponents' opinions, "but I get a little concerned that we're going down a path, but I understand why we need, why I think we need to do this. We're not talking about that people can't — if they can prove that this is a problem, then they'll have cause." Avenues would still exist to sue pesticide manufacturers if the bill was signed into law, said Sen. Mike Bousselot, R-Ankeny. "What we've heard is that there is probable, there's likely, that causation has not been proven. But if it does get proven, we can still sue for strict liability, negligence, fraud, misrepresentation, breach of warrant," he said. Democratic lawmaker calls bill a 'disgrace,' says it ignores Iowans' voices Sen. Tony Bisignano, D-Des Moines, said "It's a disgrace" and it's shameful for advocates of the bill to say it's a simple fix to a problem. He said the discussions in the Legislature should be centered around Iowans, not corporations. "Why is Iowa going to be the guinea pig? Why is Iowa with No. 2 in cancer and growing going to be on the cutting edge of this saying, 'Hey, we're good with this, as long as EPA is good,'" he said. "Well, I heard that the Trump administration wants to abolish the EPA, and when someone says the government follows science, I don't think we're going to for the next four years, and so I'm concerned." Bisignano said he wants to leave the door open for Iowans to seek justice against pesticide manufacturers if necessary. Iowa Farmers Union president Aaron Lehman said pesticide manufacturers shouldn't be allowed to hide behind a label. "Instead, we should be promoting safer herbicide use, promoting better education efforts, and by promoting the use of safer chemical formulations," Lehman said. "Some of these same chemicals are formulated in other places around the world with safer formulations, our energy should be put to that rather than keeping farmers from using the court system." Fourth-generation Iowa farmer Seth Watkins from Clarinda said farm chemicals caused life-threatening health risks for his twin daughters when they were born. One of his daughters did not survive, he said. "In 2004, we did not have the data or the understanding of the impact chemicals like Atrazine, glyphosate and nitrogen have on birth defects and cancer," he said. "Today, we know that Atrazine is a proven endocrine disrupter and a leading cause of abdominal wall birth defects." He asked the lawmakers to reject the bill, adding that lawsuits over farm pesticides aren't filed to make financial gains. Health risks of Bayers' Roundup product at center of bill discussion Contradicting reports from federal agencies on the health risks associated with Roundup's primary ingredient glyphosate have prompted manufacturers such as Bayer to back Iowa's bill and in statehouses across the country. The Iowa Soybean Association wrote that glyphosate goes on 73% of soybean and 60% of corn acres in the state. A Bayer plant in Muscatine manufactures 70% of North America's Roundup. The World Health Organization in 2015 classified glyphosate as 'probably carcinogenic to humans." The EPA in 2020 reasserted its stance in a regulatory review that "there are no risks of concern to human health when glyphosate is used in accordance with its current label" and it is unlikely to be a human carcinogen. The bill says product labels are sufficient to warn users of potential health and safety risks if pesticide manufacturers have product labels complying with federal regulations under the EPA. Register Statehouse reporter Marissa Payne contributed to this article. Sabine Martin covers politics for the Register. She can be reached by email at or by phone at (515) 284-8132. Follow her on X at @sabinefmartin.
