GAVEL GAMUT

By Jim Redwine

www.jamesmredwine.com

(Week of 16 September 2024)

IT’S COMPLICATED

In the 1967 movie Cool Hand Luke Paul Newman played petit criminal Luke Jackson who was sentenced to two years in a southern prison. Strother Martin portrayed a prison captain who was determined to force Luke to strictly comply with all the prison regulations, sensible or arbitrary.

Luke found it hard to simply “go along to get along”; he preferred to endure the Captain’s sadistic whippings and beatings to compromising his resistance, what Luke saw as principles. As seen from the outside, neither man’s actions and reactions made sense. The Captain ironically explained the conflict between this contest of wills as, “What we have here is failure to communicate.”

Cool Hand Luke came to mind when I saw the bystander and police bodycam videos of professional footballer Tyreek Hill’s and Miami policeman Danny Torres’ altercation on Sunday, September 8, 2024. As with most human conflicts, the “truth” of this incident varies depending upon perspective. Just as Luke and the Captain viewed their own actions as righteous, Hill and Torres saw the situation differently.

Somethings are fairly straight forward. Hill is a thirty-year old Black man who was driving to his job when Torres and two other policemen stopped Hill for speeding. Torres estimated Hill was going sixty miles per hour in a thirty zone. Hill was driving a McLaren 720S coupe with heavily tinted windows. The 720S was manufactured in England and had a MSRP of half a million dollars. Hill has a contract that pays him thirty million dollars per year to play football for the Miami Dolphins. Torres is of Hispanic heritage and has been on the police force for twenty-seven years. According to the Internet, a Miami policeman earns between 42,000 and 86,000 dollars per year.

When Hill stopped, Torres approached his car and tapped on the driver-side window telling Hill to roll it down. Hill lowered the window far enough to hand Torres his driver’s license and told Torres to not tap on his window. This is about the point where the alter egos of Luke and the Captain appeared. Torres told Hill to lower the window all the way but Hill did not comply. Torres began to raise his voice and ordered Hill to get out of the car. From this point on perspective is important and facts are whatever that perspective believes.

Hill’s version includes questions of racism and Torres’ version includes questions of privilege. Hill said he would not have been pulled from his car, thrown on the hot pavement and handcuffed if he had not been Black. Torres asserted that if Hill had simply complied with reasonable orders the matter could have been handled as a routine traffic stop. Torres has not said so but it is possible he resented Hill’s fancy car and attitude.

We do not know what truly motivated the unreasonable actions of Hill or Torres. What we do know is that each of us has been involved in situations where our obstinance has been unreasonable and has led to bad outcomes, maybe not like handcuffs for Hill and a suspension for Torres, but other unpleasant results for us.

Perhaps Hill did react to the original stop as a violation of his status as a wealthy sports superstar. Or maybe Torres did resent Hill’s status and wealth. We do not know and probably will not find out. However, what we do know is that just as Luke, the Captain, Hill and Torres, our own stubbornness and temper have led to results that just with a little more positive behavior and an attitude that the world is not our enemy, could have saved us, and others, from heartache.

For more Gavel Gamut articles go to www.jamesmredwine.com

EPA Releases Proposed Updates to Recommendations to Help Buyers Find Sustainable Products

WASHINGTON – Today, Sept. 10, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a proposed update to the agency’s Recommendations of Specifications, Standards and Ecolabels for Federal Purchasing (Recommendations), which help federal government purchasers and other buyers utilize private sector standards and ecolabels to buy products that are more sustainable and climate-friendly and contain safer chemical ingredients. This is the first time in nearly 10 years that EPA has comprehensively evaluated standards and ecolabels to determine whether to add them to the Recommendations.

The Recommendations help to identify thousands of products and services across 35 categories that conserve energy or water, include more recycled content, or reduce the use of PFAS and single-use plastics. By helping federal purchasers identify and procure environmentally preferable products and services, the Recommendations can save taxpayers money, reduce climate impacts, and prevent pollution.

The Biden-Harris Administration’s Executive Order on Catalyzing Clean Energy Industries and Jobs Through Federal Sustainability direct federal agencies to maximize the procurement of sustainable products and services and to prioritize products and services that meet EPA’s Recommendations.

The update proposes adding 14 standards and ecolabels to the Recommendations across three new product categories, covering healthcare, laboratories, and clothing and uniforms, and expanding the existing food service ware sub-category.

“With hundreds of ecolabels in the marketplace, EPA’s Recommendations cut through the clutter and give federal purchasers and other sustainability-conscious consumers confidence when making purchasing decisions. The ecolabels and standards that EPA includes in the Recommendations have demonstrated that they can truly help us achieve sustainability at scale,” said Jennie Romer, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Pollution Prevention in EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. “Updating the Recommendations ensures the power of federal procurement, which accounted for more than $700 billion in annual spending last year alone, continues to advance the federal government’s effort to purchase products and services that are sustainable and climate friendly.”

If finalized, the updates to the Recommendations would give federal purchasers and other buyers new guidance and options for purchasing sustainable products and services in four categories, which EPA proposes to divide into nine sub-categories, including by expanding the existing sub-category for food service ware. The Recommendations currently include only one recommended ecolabel in the food service ware sub-category, which covers compostable products. If finalized, the updated Recommendations would include three additional standards and ecolabels for food service ware, covering products that are reusable, certified compostable, and certified recyclable. EPA is also providing a new resource that outlines current best practices for the procurement of food service ware sub-categories, which is available on EPA’s website.

EPA assessed the environmental sustainability of the third-party standards and ecolabels under the Framework for the Assessment of Environmental Performance Standards and Ecolabels, and also assessed for a third-party certification program to verify product conformance.

In April 2022, EPA announced stronger eligibility criteria for including standards and ecolabels in the Recommendations, which require each standard and ecolabel to have a competent third-party verification program and a current directory of qualifying products and services. EPA is proposing to remove seven standards or ecolabels because they do not meet these new requirements, are discontinued, or are no longer required by regulation.

EPA will accept public comments on the proposed updates to the Recommendations for 30 days after publication via docket EPA-HQ-OPPT-2022-0835 at Regulations.gov. EPA will use feedback it receives from public comments to inform the final updates to the Recommendations.