Israel's Supreme Court, State Legislatures Lookahead, Ridding Water of PFAS
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Israel's prime minister, Benjamin a tonne yahoo I in his right wing government.

passed a law recently that .

weakened the country's supreme court. Now that me a, and this is up first for mentoring.

State legislature planned attack all issues this year that congress has been slow to take on. That includes how to limit the power of artificial intelligence.

plus the U. S. Environmental protection agency may soon set limits on several so called forever chemicals in drinking .

water exposure can impact the body's ability to fight IT factions and lead to reproductive effects or an increased risk of cancer.

How difficult and expensive easy to rid water supplies of these chemical stay with us will give you the day's news.

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Israel supreme court says the government cannot limit the courts is power after all.

by a narrow majority. The courts struck down a law that was designed to curtail the courts on authority. Prime minister Benjamin net, yahoo's coalition passed at all last year. The effort united his rightwing government but divided israel society. Large IT was the reason for massive protests in the months before the start of the war against homos.

mp. s. Daniel estrin is in television. Ve going to tell us more about this. Daniel. Good morning.

Good morning.

So would you just start by reminding us about what this law was all about?

yeah. Was the number one focus of the right wing government when I came to power in israeli year ago. And the idea was that the government wanted to strip the supreme court of some of its powers. This is the most right wing religious national government in israel's history.

And I saw the in court as two left wing to protective of palestinian rights and said the government should be the one to to rule, let the elected officials rule, accusing the court of too much in interference. And this attempt to overhaul the judiciary Spark historic protests in israel, hundreds of thousands of people in the streets, demonstrators accusing the government of weakening israel's democracy. But the government passed this law anyway this summer. It's IT strip the court of one of its powers to overturn government appointments.

And why did the court strike IT down? what? What grounds did I give for this?

The court says that this law was a close, severe and unprecedented harm to the core character of israel as a democratic country, and said the government does not have omnipotent powers. This is a landmark ruling in israel, is the first time the supreme court has overturned the equivalent of a constitutional amendment, and IT is a big blow to naturalize into his right wing allies because this judicial overhaul, the number one main agenda of the government .

and and is there any way in which this decision might play into israel's handling of the war in gaza?

Well, the israeli government, now we hear officials. They're not very happy with this ruling, but they suggest that they're not going to do anything further to overhaul the judiciary while the country is at war ah they recognize its too divisive of an issue at this time of war. But a IT does add fuel to what we're hearing as a growing discontent in israel about the war, about the government's role in in this catastrophic situation.

Israel's facing israeli defense officials in the months leading up to the war had warned publicly that israel's regional enemies saw how the country was torn apart over this judicial overhaul. Bate and that enemies were identifying this as a moment of weakens to attack israel. And indeed, haas attacked ed on october seventh.

The military spoke yesterday, said that was likely one of the reasons how must chose this moment to attack. And there are also implications, Michelle, about the day after the war. Analysts say that the government, we hear officials in the government talking about all kinds of policy proposals for what they want to see in gaza, things that the supreme court might determine to be unreasonable. And now that they've overturned this law, they will be able to wait in that .

is ampas Daniel astern speaking to us from television. Daniel, thank you so much. You're welcome. We're also following news of an earthquake that struck japan on new year's day. IT had a magic de of seven point six, which is very powerful, a struck far from the population center in tokyo, but near towns on a peninsula along japan's western coast. An associated press photo shows people who've come outside for a safety standing in a street line with massive cracks, more than one hundred after shocks are complicating rescue efforts. We will bring you more as we learn IT.

We told you a lot about what the U. S. Congress did not do last year, but state legislators are a very different story in this year.

Their agendas are packed as lawmakers head back to work at the next couple of weeks. Many of them have big plans to tackle issues that federal lawmakers have been dragging their freedom. Read Watson is here to give us a preview of the year ahead in state legislation. He is the editor in chief of plural snooze that the news service that focuses on state level policy making, and he is with us on the line from arizona. Good morning.

Good morning.

So a big topic of debate on the federal level right now has been artificial intelligence. How are state legislation talking about this?

Well, artificial intelligence policy is top of mind. And just about every state capital in the country, lawmakers are thinking about how to promote what could be this massive economic engine in their own backyards. And there are also considering ways to set up guard rails to protect against things like discrimination in algorithms.

I think this year is going to be mostly about studying government's role in AI policy. But the common thread in the dozens of conversations that we've had with lawmakers across the country about this is that the states feel the need to act because they don't trust congress to get its act in gear. We're going to see a lot of efforts to regulate social media companies in different ways this year, all in services of protecting kids online. You know, eight states past digital privacy laws in twenty twenty three, and lots more will be taking up bills that either require parental permission for kids to access social media sites or to ban addictive features in social media apps.

okay. Speaking of addiction, something we've reported on extensively is the opioid crisis, and states have been on the front line to that for years. Do you see more legislation on addiction and health .

care coming up? Yeah, this is huge in the states. We're going to see two distinct trends and health care this year. First of all, states are trying to find a solution to this massive oppoa crisis.

Blue states are considering proposals like creating safe injection sites or legalizing drug paraphernalia, fanno test trips, the theory really being users are going to use, so why not give them a safe environment in which to do so? Red states and even some democratic states are also moving to increase penalties on dealers who provide drugs that cause a user serious harm or death. The second big trend in health care is this never ending effort to bring down costs.

Some states are pressuring the bite administration to approve permits that would allow them to reimport prescription drugs from canada. Some blue status in the process of setting up panels that would be able to set payment limits on high cost drugs. And some of the ten red states that have yet to expand medicate coverage under the affordable character are going to at least consider doing so after north CarOlina or republicans have decided to explain coverage last year.

And what about climate change? You know, we saw a number of state leaders attending the the climate change conference in doha this year. Does that say something about what the states are did in moving on?

I think he does. I think we're in the mist of a massive transition from a carbon based energy to renewable and clean energy, and the states are really leading the way on this. More states move to require utility companies to transition to entirely renewable energy portfolios by twenty four or twenty fifty.

Big renewable projects like solar or wind farms require lots of space. So we're even seeing some states move to preempt local authority to block those projects as a way to speed construction. And you know micelle, there's also renewed interest in nuclear energy. And after the development of what are called small modular reactors, these reactors there are a lot smaller and higher tech than traditional nuclear reactors you might think of. And both red states and blue states are considering new plants that would eventually provide a lot of non carbon energy to the grid.

And but what will let you go? And obviously, this is a project that requires, you know, a lot more time. But we saw the states really taking on a lot of these hot button, what we would call maybe culture war issues like gender, affirm care for my, you know, abortion rights, things that that sort are. We gonna more of that.

I think we will. Most abortion rights and gender firming care bills have passed in the states where they're going to pass. So a lot of that is going to be an issue on the ballot this year.

But in conservative states especially, one of the areas where the culture war has flared up is over. Education, sort of the watch word among conservative circles is the parents bill of rights. Lawmakers are trying to legislate.

Books can be included in libraries, what subjects can be discussed in the classroom. And that's become a real flash point in some conservative states. Others and and even liberal states haven't brought those up yet. So I expect see a lot more of that discussion coming this year.

Read Wilson is edit her in chief of plura news. We thank you so much.

Thank you.

Early this year, the U. S. Environmental protection agency is expected to set on six so called forever chemicals, known as p face in drinking water.

One city that has seen elevated levels of two of those chemicals is tampa, florida. Now the city says IT will likely be the first in the country to use technology that will make IT easier to filter out these p fest.

Joining is now to tell us more about the city's plans as Jessica mazato with W, U, S, F in tampa. Jessica, welcome. Thanks for joining us.

Thank you for having me. So could you just start by reminding us what P. F. S.

Chemicals are? sure. So pefr actually stands for a large family of toxic man made chemical compounds. They've been used in consumer and industry products since the thousand nineteen forties from clothing, a pulse ry and carpet, the microwave, p corn bags, pizza boxes and even Candy wrappers. They've been linked to negative health effects for people.

Um exposure to certain levels can impact the body's ability to fight infections and lead to reproductive effects or an increased risk of cancer. At this point, they are everywhere, so they end up in the water supply. Here is Sarah burns with tempos water department.

We are passive receiver, so we don't generate a single drop of p fast. IT just comes to us in our source water.

The tilly is actually part of a lawsuit against manufactures of p fs like three m, and do part to recover the cost of removal.

So tell us about this big new technology that temper is bringing in.

Yet the city of temper is getting the technology from the netherlands. S it's called six or suspended iron exchange. IT removes things like dickie vegetation from the water.

And the city says to filter out pee fast, you have to first remove the organic matter. Tampa's water department would be the first in the country to have this system. The other two are in europe. And the plan for this one is to filter one hundred and forty million gallons in a day.

Can I ask, why is this needed? Is temp as water that bad?

Well, it's not that the water is bad. It's just that the city gets its drinking water from the hills brow river, which is collected along with all sorts of organic matter for nature. Now, tamp a did recently find slightly elevated levels of two of six p.

fast. And its drinking water supplies. The E. P, A proposed limit is at four parts per trillion for these two. And the highest the city found in its water was just over six.

The sounds expensive. How is this going to be paid for?

All temper is still in the designing phase, and the system won't be completed until about twenty thirty two. But tempus more than seven hundred thousand water customers are already paying for IT. It's expected to cost two hundred million dollars, and it's part of a larger infrastructure improvement plan at the city council already approved, so their water bills will be increasing every october until twenty forty. That said, city officials do point out that the technology will actually save the department nearly a million and a half dollars year.

how? How will you save that money?

Well, in installing this six system means they'll use less chemicals and filters, sir burns said. If they weren't using this, they'd have to otherwise go through double the filters, plus getting the organic matter out of the water early on in the treatment process actually improves all the other stages that follow. So IT makes the system a lot more efficient.

That Jessica is is with W, U, S, F in tampa. Jessica, thank you so much. Thank you. And that's up first for tuesday, january second. I mil marine .

and i'm Steve scape. Today's up first was edited by Kevin drew, alisch whizz and susa kalo du IT was produced by the o butch ben abrams and Taylor haney. We get engineering support from static abbott and our technical directories. Carly strange.

you don't look like a strange to me now.

Okay, that coleman is our technical director, although of course we admire currently strange going to see you tomorrow.

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