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Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It's Wednesday, September 14th. I'm Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news, and how the world's best journalists are covering them.
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Tens of thousands of American railroad workers could go on strike starting Friday. If there's no deal between freight companies and unions, this could put a massive kink in America's supply chain. We spoke to Lori Ann LaRocco who was monitoring the story from "CNBC's" newsroom.
Lori Ann LaRocco: It's ginormous. You have 52% of all rail freight, ranging from bulk commodities like agriculture and energy products, chemicals for drinking water, to 40% of consumer goods and other miscellaneous products, right, that go on retail shelves. All of these products go on rail. And the reason why is, rail is actually a cheaper way of transporting your product versus truck.
The American Trucking Association estimates the U.S. would need nearly half a million extra long-haul trucks daily to replace freight trains. And that's basically impossible. Yesterday's inflation numbers show prices for things we buy are still very high. We could have to pay even more if a rail strike cuts down supply.
Some unions say they want better sick time rules. And they say on-call policies are too strict, making it hard for rail workers to take care of personal and family needs.
LaRocco: I was told that, you know, some are on call for, say, 24 hours. Some are on call for 12 hours. You also have to be within 90 minutes away from the destination of where you're going to be going. So this prohibits workers from, say, going to the doctor, going to see their child's baseball game.
The rail companies say they give significant time off through paid vacation and personal days, and they're offering wage increases.
LaRocco: They're really pushing back on this quality-of-life accusation that the unions are putting forward.
Several unions have already agreed to deals with the railroad companies. But some are holding out, meaning that a strike could still happen at the end of this week. The Biden administration is making emergency plans if that happens. And it's telling both the companies and the unions, a strike would be too damaging to American shipping, so they need to make a deal.
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The primaries in New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Delaware were at the last bit of stage-setting for midterm election matchups. But the most impactful thing in the 2022 race that happened yesterday may have been a bill that has practically no chance of becoming a law anytime soon.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham rolled out a bill to ban abortion nationwide at 15 weeks. This would override more permissive laws in some blue states. The bill goes further than he's gone in the past. Graham's previous proposal for a 20-week ban had some Democratic support. But this one is proving to be a hard sell even with his own party. "Politico" reports on how making this move, this close to the election, has some Republicans angry. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was quick to downplay the bill.
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Mitch McConnell: Most of the members of my conference prefer that this be dealt with at the state level.
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The Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade seems to have some voters wavering about supporting Republicans. We talked recently on the show about how polls show hopeful signs for Democrats in the wake of the ruling. Forecasters now see some realistic scenarios where Democrats hold the Senate, maybe even the House too.
Democrats pounced on Graham's bill yesterday. The timing made it a welcome distraction from the worrying, new inflation numbers. The data helped push stock markets to their worst close in over two years. One snarky Democrat told "Politico" the party should "send gift baskets and champagne to Graham" for introducing the anti-abortion bill now.
You can find more coverage of the 2022 campaign, including the latest primary results, on the Apple News app.
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Here's a pretty jaw-dropping number. In just two years, 109 soldiers assigned to the Fort Bragg military base in North Carolina have died. But only four of those deaths were in overseas combat.
Seth Harp: It's almost hard to know where to begin.
That's Seth Harp. He's an Iraq war veteran reporting on this for "Rolling Stone." And he says there are three main drivers behind these high numbers. One is suicide.
Harp: They've had more suicides in the last two years than any other military base in the United States has ever experienced.
The second driver: soldier-on-soldier violence, with several murders. And there's a third issue.
Harp: They've had a large number of drug overdoses, at least 15 and as many as 30 drug overdoses since the start of 2020.
It's important to understand what kinds of soldiers are at Fort Bragg. It's full of elite troops, the people sent on the most dangerous and stressful missions.
Harp: It's the home of the Green Berets, the whole Airborne Corps and the Joint Special Operations Command. So, this is a base full of trigger pullers. It's guys who have done multiple combat deployments. And when you're seeing off-the-chart suicide, drug overdoses and homicides there, it's hard not to connect it to the amount of trauma that this community has absorbed over the last 20 years.
Harp takes a close look at drug problems at Fort Bragg. He writes about a 20-year-old named Matthew Disney. Last year, he was found dead in the barracks. The cause of death was fentanyl. Except it seems that Disney thought he was taking the painkiller Percocet. Military investigators told Disney's family that what he took was a fake. Imitation pills can contain fentanyl, which can be deadly.
Harp: There is an infinitesimal margin of error when it comes to fentanyl overdoses. Just a tiny bit more than is expected can kill a person.
Harp says the families of soldiers who've died at Fort Bragg say that when they try to get answers from the government about what happened to their loved ones, they're stonewalled.
Harp: They want the Army to acknowledge that there is a problem with drug overdoses, specifically on the base, and for them to do something, at a minimum, to educate soldiers about the dangers of the illicit drugs that are getting onto the base through drug distribution networks and drug trafficking networks.
Fort Bragg says it's increased existing steps to fight illegal drugs, including background checks on visitors, drug-sniffing dogs and random testing of troops. Harp wants to see more action at higher levels, up to the Pentagon and the White House.
Harp: Drug overdose deaths are rising alarmingly among active-duty military men over the last two or three years, so they really need to say something and do something about it.
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When a house is put up for sale, there's typically inspections of the roof, the wiring, the plumbing and also the foundation. And sometimes, a look deep under a house reveals pretty dark secrets.
The "L.A. Times" has the story of a team of structural assessors who've found all kinds of things under people's homes. And this story has all the hits, no matter what your phobia is. If it's tight spaces, like me? Yep, check. Mummified animals, black widow spiders, even a human skull that still had black hair attached to it.
Okay, I gotta tell you more about this skull story 'cause it's really wild. The assessor who found it was so spooked, he called the cops, who showed up with a forensic anthropologist. And they were sort of relieved to learn that the skull was about 2,000 years old, from Peru. A family member of the homeowner had gone on vacation there, found this ancient skull, thought it was pretty cool, smuggled it home and buried it under the house. Police ended up taking the skull. No arrests were made, and the home sale eventually went through.
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You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And when you're in the app, keep listening to hear narrated articles from our News+ partners. I'll talk with you again tomorrow.
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