As open enrollment for Affordable Care Act plans continues through Jan. 15, you’re likely seeing fewer social media ads promising monthly cash cards worth hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars that you can use for groceries, medical bills, rent and other expenses. But don’t worry. You haven’t missed out on any windfalls. Clicking on one of those ads would not have provided you with a cash card — at least not worth hundreds or thousands. But you might have found yourself switched to a health insurance plan you did not authorize, unable to afford treatment for an unforeseen medical emergency, and owing thousands of dollars to the IRS, according to an ongoing lawsuit against companies and individuals who plaintiffs say masterminded the ads and alleged scams committed against millions of people who responded to them. The absence of those once-ubiquitous ads are likely a result of the federal government suspending access to the ACA marketplace for two companies that market health insurance out of South Florida offices, amid accusations they used “fraudulent” ads to lure customers and then switched their insurance plans and agents without their knowledge. In its suspension letter, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) cited “credible allegations of misconduct” in the agency’s decision to suspend the abilities of two companies — TrueCoverage (doing business as Inshura) and BenefitAlign — to transact information with the marketplace. CMS licenses and monitors agencies that use their own websites and information technology platforms to enroll health insurance customers in ACA plans offered in the federal marketplace. The alleged scheme affected millions of consumers, according to a lawsuit winding its way through U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale that seeks class-action status. An amended version of the suit, filed in August, increased the number of defendants from six to 12: — TrueCoverage LLC, an Albuquerque, New Mexico-based health insurance agency with large offices in Miami, Miramar and Deerfield Beach. TrueCoverage is a sub-tenant of the South Florida Sun Sentinel in a building leased by the newspaper in Deerfield Beach. — Enhance Health LLC, a Sunrise-based health insurance agency that the lawsuit says was founded by Matthew Herman, also named as a defendant, with a $150 million investment from hedge fund Bain Capital’s insurance division. Bain Capital Insurance Fund LP is also a defendant. — Speridian Technologies LLC, accused in the lawsuit of establishing two direct enrollment platforms that provided TrueCoverage and other agencies access to the ACA marketplace. — Benefitalign LLC, identified in the suit as one of the direct enrollment platforms created by Speridian. Like Speridian and TrueCoverage, the company is based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. — Number One Prospecting LLC, doing business as Minerva Marketing, based in Fort Lauderdale, and its founder, Brandon Bowsky, accused of developing the social media ads that drove customers — or “leads” — to the health insurance agencies. — Digital Media Solutions LLC, doing business as Protect Health, a Miami-based agency that the suit says bought Minerva’s “fraudulent” ads. In September, the company filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors in United States Bankruptcy Court in Texas, which automatically suspended claims filed against the company. — Net Health Affiliates Inc., an Aventura-based agency the lawsuit says was associated with Enhance Health and like it, bought leads from Minerva. — Garish Panicker, identified in the lawsuit as half-owner of Speridian Global Holdings and day-to-day controller of companies under its umbrella, including TrueCoverage, Benefitalign and Speridian Technologies. — Matthew Goldfuss, accused by the suit of overseeing and directing TrueCoverage’s ACA enrollment efforts. All of the defendants have filed motions to dismiss the lawsuit. The motions deny the allegations and argue that the plaintiffs failed to properly state their claims and lack the standing to file the complaints. The Sun Sentinel sent requests for comment and lists of questions about the cases to four separate law firms representing separate groups of defendants. Three of the law firms — one representing Brandon Bowsky and Number One Prospecting LLC d/b/a Minerva Marketing, and two others representing Net Health Affiliates Inc. and Bain Capital Insurance Fund — did not respond to the requests. A representative of Enhance Health LLC and Matthew Herman, Olga M. Vieira of the Miami-based firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, responded with a short message saying she was glad the newspaper knew a motion to dismiss the charges had been filed by the defendants. She also said that, “Enhance has denied all the allegations as reported previously in the media.” Catherine Riedel, a communications specialist representing TrueCoverage LLC, Benefitalign LLC, Speridian Technologies LLC, Girish Panicker and Matthew Goldfuss, issued the following statement: “TrueCoverage takes these allegations very seriously and is responding appropriately. While we cannot comment on ongoing litigation, we strongly believe that the allegations are baseless and without merit. “Compliance is our business. The TrueCoverage team records and reviews every call with a customer, including during Open Enrollment when roughly 500 agents handle nearly 30,000 calls a day. No customer is enrolled into any policy without a formal verbal consent given by the customer. If any customer calls in as a result of misleading content presented by third-party marketing vendors, agents are trained to correct such misinformation and action is taken against such third-party vendors.” Through Riedel, the defendants declined to answer follow-up questions, including whether the company remains in business, whether it continues to enroll Affordable Care Act clients, and whether it is still operating its New Mexico call center using another affiliated technology platform. The suspension notification from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services letter cites several factors, including the histories of noncompliance and previous suspensions. The letter noted suspicion that TrueCoverage and Benefitalign were storing consumers’ personally identifiable information in databases located in India and possibly other overseas locations in violation of the centers’ rules. The letter also notes allegations against the companies in the pending lawsuit that “they engaged in a variety of illegal practices, including violations of the (Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Organizations, or RICO Act), misuse of consumer (personal identifiable information) and insurance fraud.” The amended lawsuit filed in August names as plaintiffs five individuals who say their insurance plans were changed and two agencies who say they lost money when they were replaced as agents. The lawsuit accuses the defendants of 55 counts of wrongdoing, ranging from running ads offering thousands of dollars in cash that they knew would never be provided directly to consumers, switching millions of consumers into different insurance policies without their authorization, misstating their household incomes to make them eligible for $0 premium coverage, and “stealing” commissions by switching the agents listed in their accounts. TrueCoverage, Enhance Health, Protect Health, and some of their associates “engaged in hundreds of thousands of agent-of-record swaps to steal other agents’ commissions,” the suit states. “Using the Benefitalign and Inshura platforms, they created large spreadsheet lists of consumer names, dates of birth and zip codes.” They provided those spreadsheets to agents, it says, and instructed them to access platforms linked to the ACA marketplace and change the customers’ agents of record “without telling the client or providing informed consent.” “In doing so, they immediately captured the monthly commissions of agents ... who had originally worked with the consumers directly to sign them up,” the lawsuit asserts. TrueCoverage employees who complained about dealing with prospects who called looking for cash cards were routinely chided by supervisors who told them to be vague and keep making money, the suit says. When the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services began contacting the company in January about customer complaints, the suit says TrueCoverage enrollment supervisor Matthew Goldfuss sent an email instructing agents “do not respond.” The lawsuit states the “scheme” was made possible in 2021 when Congress passed the American Rescue Plan Act in the wake of the COVID pandemic. The act made it possible for Americans with household incomes between 100% and 150% of the federal poverty level to pay zero in premiums and it enabled those consumers to enroll in ACA plans all year round, instead of during the three-month open enrollment period from November to January. Experienced health insurance brokers recognized the opportunity presented by the changes, the lawsuit says. More than 40 million Americans live within 100% and 150% of the federal poverty level, while only 15 million had ACA insurance at the time. The defendants developed or benefited from online ads, the lawsuit says, which falsely promised “hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars per month in cash benefits such as subsidy cards to pay for common expenses like rent, groceries, and gas.” Consumers who clicked on the ads were brought to a landing page that asked a few qualifying questions, and if their answers suggested that they might qualify for a low-cost or no-cost plan, they were provided a phone number to a health insurance agency. There was a major problem with the plan, according to the lawsuit. “Customers believe they are being routed to someone who will send them a free cash card, not enroll them in health insurance.” By law, the federal government sends subsidies for ACA plans to insurance companies, and not to individual consumers. Scripts were developed requiring agents not to mention a cash card, and if a customer mentions a cash card, “be vague” and tell the caller that only the insurance carrier can provide that information, the lawsuit alleges. In September, the defendants filed a motion to dismiss the claims. In addition to denying the charges, they argued that the class plaintiffs lacked the standing to make the accusations and failed to demonstrate that they suffered harm. The motion also argued that the lawsuit’s accusations failed to meet requirements necessary to claim civil violations of the RICO Act. Miami-based attorney Jason Kellogg, representing the plaintiffs, said he doesn’t expect a ruling on the motion to dismiss the case for several months. The complaint also lists nearly 50 companies, not named as defendants, that it says fed business to TrueCoverage and Enhance Health. Known in the industry as “downlines,” most operate in office parks throughout South Florida, the lawsuit says. The lawsuit quotes former TrueCoverage employees complaining about having to work with customers lured by false cash promises in the online ads. A former employee who worked in the company’s Deerfield Beach office was quoted in the lawsuit as saying that senior TrueCoverage and Speridian executives “knew that consumers were calling in response to the false advertisements promising cash cards and they pressured agents to use them to enroll consumers into ACA plans.” A former human resources manager for TrueCoverage said sales agents frequently complained “that they did not feel comfortable having to mislead consumers,” the lawsuit said. Over two dozen agents “came to me with these complaints and showed me the false advertisements that consumers who called in were showing them,” the lawsuit quoted the former manager as saying. For much of the time the companies operated, the ACA marketplace enabled agents to easily access customer accounts using their names and Social Security numbers, change their insurance plans and switch their agents of record without their knowledge or authorization, the lawsuit says. This resulted in customers’ original agents losing their commissions and many of the policyholders finding out they suddenly owed far more for health care services than their original plans had required, the suit states. It says that one of the co-plaintiffs’ health plans was changed at least 22 times without her consent. She first discovered that she had lost her original plan when she sought to renew a prescription for her heart condition and her doctor told her she did not have health insurance, the suit states. Another co-plaintiff’s policy was switched after her husband responded to one of the cash card advertisements, the lawsuit says. That couple’s insurance plan was switched multiple times after a TrueCoverage agent excluded the wife’s income from an application so the couple would qualify. Later, they received bills from the IRS for $4,300 to cover tax credits issued to pay for the plans. CMS barred TrueCoverage and BenefitAlign from accessing the ACA marketplace. It said it received more than 90,000 complaints about unauthorized plan switches and more than 183,500 complaints about unauthorized enrollments, but the agency did not attribute all of the complaints to activities by the two companies. In addition, CMS restricted all agents’ abilities to alter policyholders’ enrollment information, the lawsuit says. Now access is allowed only for agents that already represent policyholders or if the policyholder participates in a three-way call with an agent and a marketplace employee. Between June and October, the agency barred 850 agents and brokers from accessing the marketplace “for reasonable suspicion of fraudulent or abusive conduct related to unauthorized enrollments or unauthorized plan switches,” according to an October CMS news release . The changes resulted in a “dramatic and sustained drop” in unauthorized activity, including a nearly 70% decrease in plan changes associated with an agent or broker and a nearly 90% decrease in changes to agent or broker commission information, the release said. It added that while consumers were often unaware of such changes, the opportunity to make them provided “significant financial incentive for non-compliant agents and brokers.” But CMS’ restrictions might be having unintended consequences for law-abiding agents and brokers. A story published by Insurance News Net on Nov. 11 quoted the president of the Health Agents for America (HAFA) trade group as saying agents are being suspended by CMS after being flagged by a mysterious algorithm that no one can figure out. The story quotes HAFA president Ronnell Nolan as surmising, “maybe they wrote too many policies on the same day for people who have the same income or they’re writing too many policies on people of a certain occupation.” Nolan continued, “We have members who have thousands of ACA clients. They can’t update or renew their clients. So those consumers have lost access to their professional agent, which is simply unfair.” Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071, on Twitter @ronhurtibise or by email at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com.
Pope Francis will visit the French Mediterranean island of Corsica in December, days after skipping the reopening of Paris's Notre Dame Cathedral which was ravaged by a fire in 2019, the Vatican said Saturday. Francis, 87, declined an invitation from French President Emmanuel Macron to attend the Notre Dame reopening ceremony in Paris on December 7. He will however head to Corsica's capital Ajaccio for a conference on the Catholic faith in the Mediterranean one week later on December 15, the Vatican said. Some French bishops were "annoyed" by the pope's decision to stay away from the Notre Dame gala, according to one bishop speaking on condition of anonymity. But the head of the Bishops' Conference of France (CEF) Archbishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort said: "The star of the Notre Dame reopening ceremony is Notre Dame itself." The pope had not wanted his presence to be a distraction from the essential point of the occasion, he added. "It's not a snub aimed at France," said another bishop. Francis's one-day trip to Corsica will be the first papal visit to the island, where 90 percent of its 350,000 population is Catholic, according to the local Church, and religious traditions remain deeply rooted. He will give two speeches, preside over a mass and meet Macron during his nine hours on the island, the Vatican said. "It is a historic event, we will give ourselves the extraordinary means to put on an exceptional welcome for the Holy Father," said Bishop of Ajaccio Francois-Xavier Bustillo said in a video posted on social media. Francis, who will celebrate his 88th birthday on December 17, has been to France twice since becoming head of the worldwide Catholic Church in 2013. He visited Strasbourg in 2014, where he addressed the European Parliament, and last year went to Marseille for a meeting of Mediterranean area bishops, where he met Macron. He has yet to make a state visit to France, one of Europe's main majority-Catholic countries. He is also yet to make state visits to Spain, the United Kingdom or Germany. The Argentine pontiff prefers visiting smaller or less established Catholic communities, from Malta to Mongolia. The Corsica visit was championed by the popular media-friendly Bustillo, who was made a cardinal by Pope Francis in September 2023. "It will not be a state visit, but a pastoral visit. It will be a beautiful moment, a moment of hope and joy," he told AFP. In addition, the head of the Catholic Church is scheduled to be at the Vatican on December 7-8 for a service at which he will create 21 new cardinals. Rescheduling appointments over coming months would appear to be tricky, given the multitude of events due to take place in Rome in 2025, a Catholic jubilee year. Bustillo is one of the active cardinals Francis has appointed in the Mediterranean region, with the pope keen they "work together to meet the specific challenges of the area", a bishop told AFP on condition of anonymity. Those issues include migration, global warming and interreligious dialogue. Corsica will be the 47th overseas visit for Francis and his third this year, after a long tour of the Asia Pacific in early September and a trip to Belgium and Luxembourg the same month. cmk-bur/tw/jmBig Time Studios Sets December 2 As The Launch Of The New PvP Mode For NFT Video Game-Big TimeCanada's top military commander calls out US senator for questioning a woman's role in combatJayden Daniels and the offense stalling have the Commanders on a three-game losing streak
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Much has been written in recent decades about the growing influence of money on politics and elections in the United States, including titles such as ‘The Best Congress Money Can Buy and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy’. But has Donald Trump’s victory over Vice-President Kamala Harris, whose campaign had a huge funding advantage, undermined that narrative? In 1835, Alexis de Tocqueville warned of the threat that big money poses to the US system of governance in his book Democracy in America. Wary of the influence of oligarchs and plutocrats, Tocqueville wrote: “The surface of American society is [...] covered with a layer of democracy, from beneath which the old aristocratic colours sometimes peep.” Today, it is the billionaire class leveraging its financial resources to influence elections and policymaking, consolidating more power at the expense of the vast majority of ordinary citizens, further widening America’s wealth inequality, and weakening Americans’ trust in national institutions. The floodgates were opened by Citizens United v Federal Election Commission (2010), in which the Supreme Court reversed campaign-finance restrictions, enabling corporations and other outside groups to “spend unlimited amounts” on elections. The money being channelled into campaigns has since soared, with super PACs (political action committees) raising nearly $4.3bn this year, up from $89mn in 2010. But the vast amount of money that poured into the 2024 race did not have a decisive effect on the outcome. Trump was re-elected despite being outspent by Harris, and GOP interest groups and donors gained a remarkable return on their investment. In addition to winning the presidency, Republicans also retained their majority in the House of Representatives and won back the Senate, giving the party full control of the legislative and executive branches. Many factors contributed to Trump’s resounding victory, with the GOP nominee sweeping all seven highly-contested battleground states. For starters, as he shuttled between courtrooms and campaign stops, his base of conservative support was seemingly unshakable. Trump set new records for the Republican Party, making inroads into unions, which have historically leaned Democratic and kept him competitive in key swing states, and attracting more Black and Latino voters than any other GOP presidential nominee in recent history. Despite her fundraising prowess, Harris faced strong political headwinds, not least the unpopularity of President Joe Biden. Many voters saw the election as a referendum on “Bidenomics”, which they associated with high inflation, the attendant cost-of-living crisis, and erosion of household purchasing power. Even though the US Federal Reserve brought down inflation without triggering a recession – annual real GDP grew by 2.8% in the third quarter of 2024, above the long-run growth rate, and the unemployment rate remained historically low – the Democrats paid the political price for what Trump called a “Kamala Harris inflation tax”. Voters were nostalgic for the economy under the first Trump administration. Real average hourly earnings rose by 6.4% during Trump’s presidency, compared to only 1.4% during Biden’s. Data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta show that the share of household income needed for housing costs fell under Trump and increased by nearly 50% under Biden. Of course, many forgot that Trump inherited from Barack Obama a strong economy with the longest employment expansion on record. Trump also entered the race leading on several issues that American voters say they care about most – inflation, immigration, and crime. After months of campaigning, Trump was still ahead on all three in the weeks before the election. According to a YouGov poll conducted at the end of October, 49% of Americans thought that Trump would do a better job on immigration, whereas 35% thought Harris would. In a Gallup poll conducted in September, the former president had a nine-point lead over the vice president on the question of who would be a better steward of the economy. Voters also had more confidence in Trump’s ability to handle the Russia-Ukraine war and the Gaza war, with 70% believing that he has experience in foreign affairs. But that is not to discount the power of ultra-rich donors. Trump returns to the White House at a time when the US is deeply divided and highly unequal – more so than at any time since the post-Civil War era. The increasing influence of wealthy individuals and groups over the electoral process and policymaking has undoubtedly contributed to this widening gap between rich and poor. The wealth of the top 1% of US households grew from 36 times to 71 times that of those at the 50th percentile over the past 60 years, and now exceeds the wealth of the middle 60% of households. Economic and political inequalities are closely related. The surging power of the extremely wealthy minority has left most Americans poor and voiceless, fuelling class-based discontent. Bridging this divide may require breaking the chains that have kept policymakers beholden to the donor class for decades and undertaking a democratic shift toward broad-based accountability and more inclusive policies that strengthen individual agency, expand economic opportunities, and improve the income distribution. More than increasing the rate of upward mobility, these policies will rekindle the American dream and foster social cohesion. The future of our democracy and shared prosperity depends on steps that upcoming administrations must take to rebuild trust in our institutions and create a fairer distribution of political and economic power. As former US Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis put it: “We must make our choice. We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” — Project Syndicate •Hippolyte Fofack, a former chief economist and director of research at the African Export-Import Bank, is a fellow with the Sustainable Development Solutions Network at Columbia University, a research associate at Harvard University’s Center for African Studies, and a fellow of the African Academy of Sciences. Related Story Qatar establishes WEF's Centre for Fourth Industrial Revolution 61 countries to compete in 8th Katara Award for Reciting Holy Qur’anPresident Joe Biden described the sudden collapse of Syrian President Bashar Assad's government as a 'fundamental act of justice' following decades of severe repression. Speaking from the White House, he acknowledged the accompanying risks and uncertainties for the Middle East. The takeover by rebel groups ends over a decade of civil war and decades of Assad family rule. Biden credited the U.S. and allies for weakening support from Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah, noting this shift in power as significant. Biden reaffirmed the U.S. military presence in Syria, while focusing on new threats from terrorist entities. This geopolitical development coincides with ongoing instability in the region, including conflicts involving Russia and Ukraine. (With inputs from agencies.)
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Thanksgiving travel live updates: Airport strikes, winter storms expected to cause delays
Airports and highways are expected to be jam-packed during Thanksgiving week, a holiday period likely to end with another record day for air travel in the United States. AAA predicts that nearly 80 million Americans will venture at least 50 miles from home between Tuesday and next Monday, most of them by car. However, travelers could be impacted by ongoing weather challenges and those flying to their destinations could be grounded by delays brought on by airline staffing shortages and an airport service workers strike . Here’s what we’re following today: Here’s the latest: “We cannot live on the wages that we are being paid,” ABM cabin cleaner Priscilla Hoyle said at a rally earlier Monday. “I can honestly say it’s hard every single day with my children, working a full-time job but having to look my kids in the eyes and sit there and say, ’I don’t know if we’re going to have a home today.’” Timothy Lowe II, a wheelchair attendant, said he has to figure out where to spend the night because he doesn’t make enough for a deposit on a home. “We just want to be able to have everything that’s a necessity paid for by the job that hired us to do a great job so they can make billions,” he said. ABM said it is “committed to addressing concerns swiftly” and that there are avenues for employees to communicate issues, including a national hotline and a “general open door policy for managers at our worksite.” Employees of ABM and Prospect Airport Services cast ballots Friday to authorize the work stoppage at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, a hub for American Airlines. They described living paycheck to paycheck while performing jobs that keep planes running on schedule. Most of them earn $12.50 to $19 an hour, union officials said. Rev. Glencie Rhedrick of Charlotte Clergy Coalition for Justice said those workers should make $22 to $25 an hour. The strike is expected to last 24 hours. Several hundred workers participated in the work stoppage. Forty-four fights have been canceled today and nearly 1,900 were delayed by midday on the East Coast, according to FlightAware . According to the organization’s cheekily named MiseryMap , San Francisco International Airport is having the most hiccups right now, with 53 delays and three cancellations between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. EST. While that might sound like a lot of delays, they might not be so bad compared to last Friday when the airport suffered 671 delays and 69 cancellations. In an apparent effort to reduce the headaches caused by airport line cutting, American Airlines has rolled out boarding technology that alerts gate agents with an audible sound if a passenger tries to scan a ticket ahead of their assigned group. This new software won’t accept a boarding pass before the group it’s assigned to is called, so customers who get to the gate prematurely will be asked to go back and wait their turn. As of Wednesday, the airline announced, the technology is now being used in more than 100 U.S. airports that American flies out of. The official expansion arrives after successful tests in three of these locations — Albuquerque International Sunport, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Tucson International Airport. ▶ Read more about American Airlines’ new boarding technology Travel can be stressful in the best of times. Now add in the high-level anxiety that seems to be baked into every holiday season and it’s clear travelers could use some help calming frazzled nerves. Here are a few ways to make your holiday journey a little less stressful: ▶ Read more tips about staying grounded during holiday travel Thanksgiving Day takes place late this year, with the fourth Thursday of November falling on Nov. 28. That shortens the traditional shopping season and changes the rhythm of holiday travel. With more time before the holiday , people tend to spread out their outbound travel over more days, but everyone returns at the same time, said Andrew Watterson, the chief operating officer of Southwest Airlines . “A late Thanksgiving leads to a big crush at the end,” Watterson said. “The Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday after Thanksgiving are usually very busy with Thanksgiving this late.” Airlines did a relatively good job of handling holiday crowds last year, when the weather was mild in most of the country. Fewer than 400 U.S. flights were canceled during Thanksgiving week in 2023 — about one out of every 450 flights. So far in 2024, airlines have canceled about 1.3% of all flights. Drivers should know that Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons will be the worst times to travel by car, but it should be smooth sailing on freeways come Thanksgiving Day, according to transportation analytics company INRIX. On the return home, the best travel times for motorists are before 1 p.m. on Sunday, and before 8 a.m. or after 7 p.m. on Monday, the company said. In metropolitan areas like Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle and Washington, “traffic is expected to be more than double what it typically is on a normal day,” INRIX transportation analyst Bob Pishue said. Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Mike Whitaker said last week that he expects his agency to use special measures at some facilities to deal with an ongoing shortage of air traffic controllers. In the past, those facilities have included airports in New York City and Florida. “If we are short on staff, we will slow traffic as needed to keep the system safe,” Whitaker said. The FAA has long struggled with a shortage of controllers that airline officials expect will last for years, despite the agency’s lofty hiring goals. ▶ Read more about Thanksgiving travel across the U.S. Workers who clean airplanes, remove trash and help with wheelchairs at Charlotte’s airport, one of the nation’s busiest, went on strike Monday to demand higher wages. The Service Employees International Union announced the strike in a statement early Monday, saying the workers would demand “an end to poverty wages and respect on the job during the holiday travel season.” The strike was expected to last 24 hours, said union spokesperson Sean Keady. Employees of ABM and Prospect Airport Services cast ballots Friday to authorize the work stoppage at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, a hub for American Airlines. The two companies contract with American, one of the world’s biggest carriers, to provide services such as cleaning airplane interiors, removing trash and escorting passengers in wheelchairs. ▶ Read more about the Charlotte airport workers’ strike Parts of the Midwest and East Coast can expect to see heavy rain into Thanksgiving, and there’s potential for snow in Northeastern states. A storm last week brought rain to New York and New Jersey, where wildfires have raged in recent weeks, and heavy snow to northeastern Pennsylvania. The precipitation was expected to help ease drought conditions after an exceptionally dry fall. Heavy snow fell in northeastern Pennsylvania, including the Pocono Mountains. Higher elevations reported up to 17 inches, with lesser accumulations in valley cities including Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. Around 35,000 customers in 10 counties were still without power, down from 80,000 a day ago. In the Catskills region of New York, nearly 10,000 people remained without power Sunday morning, two days after a storm dumped heavy snow on parts of the region. Precipitation in West Virginia helped put a dent in the state’s worst drought in at least two decades and boosted ski resorts as they prepare to open in the weeks ahead. ▶ Read more about Thanksgiving week weather forecasts Two people died in the Pacific Northwest after a rapidly intensifying “ bomb cyclone ” hit the West Coast last Tuesday, bringing fierce winds that toppled trees and power lines and damaged homes and cars. Hundreds of thousands lost electricity in Washington state before powerful gusts and record rains moved into Northern California. Forecasters said the risk of flooding and mudslides remained as the region will get more rain starting Sunday. But the latest storm won’t be as intense as last week’s atmospheric river , a long plume of moisture that forms over an ocean and flows over land. “However, there’s still threats, smaller threats, and not as significant in terms of magnitude, that are still going to exist across the West Coast for the next two or three days,” weather service forecaster Rich Otto said. As the rain moves east throughout the week, Otto said, there’s a potential for heavy snowfall at higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada, as well as portions of Utah and Colorado. California’s Mammoth Mountain, which received 2 feet of fresh snow in the recent storm, could get another 4 feet before the newest system clears out Wednesday, the resort said. Another round of wintry weather could complicate travel leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday, according to forecasts across the U.S., while California and Washington state continue to recover from storm damage and power outages. In California, where two people were found dead in floodwaters on Saturday, authorities braced for more rain while grappling with flooding and small landslides from a previous storm . Here’s a look at some of the regional forecasts: ▶ Read more about Thanksgiving week weather forecasts
