I think this is the reporting the organizer was referring to:

When Norfolk Southern train 32N derailed in Ohio earlier this month, it was not the first time it had experienced problems on the route.

The train, which originated from Madison, Illinois, on the evening of Feb. 1, broke down at least once before derailing in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 3, according to employees familiar with the matter.

The employees say there were concerns among those working on the train over what they believed was the train’s excessive length and weight — 151 cars, 9,300 feet long, 18,000 tons — before it reached East Palestine, which contributed to both the initial breakdown and the derailment.

In the two weeks since, many residents who were home at the time of the derailment, or who returned after authorities conducted a “toxic release” of the hazardous chemicals on board, have told CBS News they are suffering from headaches, rashes, respiratory problems and painful coughing.

“We shouldn’t be running trains that are 150 car lengths long,” one of the employees said. “There should be some limitations to the weight and the length of the trains. In this case, had the train not been 18,000 tons, it’s very likely the effects of the derailment would have been mitigated.”

CBS News has agreed not to name the employees because they fear retaliation by Norfolk Southern.

Norfolk Southern’s CEO Alan Shaw declined an interview. In a statement to CBS News, a company spokesperson said “the weight distribution of this train was uniform throughout” and included a mid-train locomotive “which helps manage the dynamic forces of the train” and reduces mechanical issues.

“Assigning a ‘reputation’ to a train that fluctuates by thousands of tons on a regular basis is inaccurate,” the spokesperson said of the observations about the train’s length and weight, adding that a “longer and heavier train” used to run the route, before it was “split into two shorter, lighter trains in the past few month as part of a regular review.”

Still, the train that derailed is considered to be “very long,” according to Sarah Feinberg, who served as administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) from 2015 to 2017.

“When I was FRA administrator, I was not happy with the lengths of the trains, and they were 80 or 90 cars long,” Feinberg said. “This train was 50% longer.”

Bernie’s remarks on the Senate floor about pharma gauging.

M. President: There is a lot of discussion about how “divided” our nation is and, on many issues, that is absolutely true.

But on one of the most important matters facing our country the American people – Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Progressives, and Conservatives – could not be more united.

And that is the need to take on the unprecedented corporate greed of the pharmaceutical industry and to substantially lower the outrageously high price of prescription drugs.

Today, millions of Americans are making the unacceptable choice between feeding their families or buying the medicine they need. Seniors from Vermont to Alaska are forced to split their pills in half and many have died because they did not have enough money to fill their prescriptions.

No one knows for sure precisely how many people die because they cannot afford to buy their prescription drugs.

But a 2020 study by West Health found that by the year 2030, over 100,000 Medicare recipients could die prematurely each and every year because they cannot afford to buy their life-saving medicine.

M. President: All over this country, the American people are asking the following questions:

How does it happen that people in the United States pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs?

Why is it that nearly one out of every four Americans cannot afford their prescription medication?

How does it happen that nearly half of all new drugs in the United States cost more than $150,000 a year?

M. President: A few years ago, I took a busload of people with diabetes from Detroit, Michigan, to a drugstore in Windsor, Ontario. And there, in Canada, they were able to purchase the same insulin products they bought in the United States for one-tenth the price.

In 1999, 24 years ago, I took another busload of people – this time women with breast cancer — from St. Albans, Vermont to a doctor’s office and a pharmacy in Montreal, Canada. And, there again, with tears in their eyes, they were able to purchase tamoxifen for one-tenth of the price charged in the United States.

M. President: How is it that in Canada and other major countries the same medications manufactured by the same companies, sold in the same bottles are available for a fraction of the price that we pay in the United States?

Well, the answers to all of these questions are not complicated. In fact, they can be summed up in just three words: Unacceptable corporate greed.

M. President: Over the past 25 years, the pharmaceutical industry has spent $8.5 billion on lobbying and over $745 million on campaign contributions to get Congress to do its bidding.

Incredibly, last year, drug companies hired over 1,700 lobbyists including the former congressional leaders of both major political parties – over 3 pharmaceutical industry lobbyists for every Member of Congress.

Meanwhile, as Americans die because they cannot afford the medications they need, the pharmaceutical industry makes much higher profit margins than other major industries. Between the years 2000-2018, drug companies in this country made $8.6 trillion dollars in profits.

In fact, in 2021, just ten pharmaceutical companies in the United States – AbbVie, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly, Merck, Moderna, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Amgen, Gilead Sciences, and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals – made a total of more than $102 billion in profits up 137 percent from the previous year.

But it’s not just industry profits. It is the exorbitant compensation packages that the pharmaceutical industry has given to its CEOs and other executives within the industry.

According to a report done by the HELP Committee staff released today in 2021, while hundreds of thousands of Americans died from COVID, 50 pharmaceutical executives in just 10 companies made $1.9 billion in total compensation.

These same 50 executives are in line to receive up to $2.8 billion in golden parachutes once they leave their companies.

For example, AbbVie CEO Richard Gonzalez’s made nearly $62 million in total compensation – in one year.

The CEO of Eli Lilly, David Ricks, made more than $67 million – in one year.

Incredibly, the CEO of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Leonard Schleifer, made nearly $453 million in total compensation – in one year.

Meanwhile, M. President, while we are told over and over again that the reason we have outrageously high drug prices in America is because of the need to invest in research and development, it turns out that, over the past decade, 14 major pharmaceutical companies spent $747 billion not to research and develop life-saving drugs, but to make their wealthy shareholders even wealthier by buying back their own stock and handing out huge dividends. It turns out that the drug companies spent $87 billion more on stock buybacks and dividends than what they spent on research and development. Let me repeat that. Drug companies spent $87 billion more on stock buybacks and dividends than on research and development.

M. President: The truth is we are dealing here today not just with an economic issue in terms of the high cost of prescription drugs. We are dealing with a profound moral issue and that is: Is it morally acceptable that tens of thousands of people die each year because they cannot afford the medicine their doctors prescribe – while the industry makes billions in profits and provides their CEOs with outrageous compensation packages?

Is it morally acceptable that, at a time when, the taxpayers of this country spent tens of billions a year on the research and development of life-saving drugs, that many of these same taxpayers are unable to afford the drugs they helped develop?

Is it morally acceptable that the business model of the pharmaceutical industry today is not to create the life-saving drugs we need for cancer, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, diabetes, and so many other terrible illnesses, but through excessive greed in order to make as much money as they can?

M. President: It has not always been that way. There was once a time when the inventors of life-saving drugs were not obsessed with making huge sums of money, but were instead obsessed with ending the terrible illnesses that plagued humanity.

In the 1950s, for example, there was Dr. Jonas Salk, who invented the vaccine for polio. Salk’s work saved millions of lives and prevented millions more from being paralyzed.

It has been estimated that if Dr. Salk had chosen to patent the polio vaccine he would have made billions of dollars. But he did not.

When asked who owns the patent to this vaccine this is what Dr. Salk said: “Well, the people, I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun”

What Dr. Salk understood was that the purpose of this vaccine he invented was to save lives, not to make himself obscenely rich.
And he, among great scientists, was not alone.

In 1928, Alexander Fleming, a scientist from Scotland, discovered penicillin at St. Mary’s hospital in London. Fleming’s discovery of penicillin changed the medical world and saved millions of lives.

I am sure that Alexander Fleming could also have become a multi-billionaire if he chose to own the exclusive rights to this anti-biotic.

But he did not.

When Fleming was asked about his role, he did not talk about the outrageous fortune he could have made through his discovery. Instead, he said: “I did not invent penicillin. Nature did that. I only discovered it by accident.”

And then, M. President, there was the great scientist Frederick Banting from Canada.

In 1921, Dr. Banting along with two other scientists at the University of Toronto invented insulin. An issue we’re hearing a lot about today.

When Dr. Banting was asked why he wouldn’t patent insulin and why he sold the rights to insulin for just $1 he replied: “Insulin does not belong to me. It belongs to the world.”

It has been estimated that Dr. Banting’s invention saved some 300 million lives.

Once again, a great scientist made it clear that his purpose in life was to save humanity and save lives, not to make billions for himself.

Meanwhile, M. President, while Dr. Banting sold his patent for $1 so that humanity could benefit from his discovery, I should mention that Eli Lilly, one of our nation’s largest drug companies, has increased the price of insulin by 1,200 percent over the past 27 years to $275 – while it costs just $8 to manufacture. Not quite the spirit of Frederick Banting.

from the BBC:

In the complaint filed with government labour officials, the union cited 18 people it said the company had fired “in retaliation for union activity and to discourage union activity”.

Organisers said, based on a company chat, they believed more people had been fired and expected to add names to the complaint. They said they were still confirming how many of those fired had been directly involved in the campaign or had just indicated their support.

The Buffalo facility employs about 2,000 people, according to organisers from Tesla Workers United, which is backed by the same union that launched organising efforts at Starbucks.

The group is now seeking support from Tesla workers in Buffalo to hold a vote about joining a union. It sent a letter to the company on Tuesday outlining its plans and asking leaders to agree to ground rules for a “fair” election.

A day later, campaigners said, Tesla fired more than 30 workers and sent an email informing staff of a policy that bars recording of workplace conversations without the consent of all parties.

Organisers said the rule violated their rights under federal and state laws.

The National Labor Relations Board has previously found that Tesla violated labour rules during an organising effort at its car manufacturing plant in California.

“We’re angry. This won’t slow us down. This won’t stop us. They want us to be scared, but I think they just started a stampede,” said Sara Costantino, current Tesla employee and organising committee member.

As you can imagine, Faux Snooze fans are having a field day with this. Here’s the perfect response.

Disgusting, but not surprising from these gaslighting ghouls.

Proud of Senator Fetterman for recognizing his symptoms and seeking treatment. Nothing but love and respect for him and his recovery 💙 pic.twitter.com/K8Tkv5BZMG

— Gareth 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇺🇸🇪🇺 🕊 #FBPE (@ZacaMesaSix) February 16, 2023

@wi64

Ohio train derailment is a case study in American media. MSM is assiduously avoiding blaming Buttigieg. Right-wing media is attacking him on a culture war issue. And progressive media outlet like @LeverNews is only one covering it accurately. https://t.co/eVb0xlsFwa

— Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) February 16, 2023

Now that a train derailed in his new home state, perhaps he’ll take this issue more seriously.