Declarations

“Retaliation takes all different forms. … Losing your job, losing shifts, losing pay — or if you’ve already lost your job, you can’t find another job in that industry.”

— Sharyn Tejani, director of the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, speaking about a study conducted by the National Women’s Law Center showing that almost three-quarters of people reporting workplace harassment suffer from retaliation if they complain. More than seven out of 10 people who reported sexual harassment at the workplace said they faced some form of retaliation, up to and including being fired, according to the study.

“My members are good people — they’re hard-working. They care about their community. They care about their employees. … They are seeing generations of their business wiped away.”

— Scott Stenger, lobbyist for the Tavern League of Wisconsin, comments on a suit by the group against Gov. Tony Evers’ administration over limits on bar and restaurant capacity. The lawsuit seeks to block enforcement of Evers’ order capping customers to 25% of the establishment’s capacity limit. The Tavern League said the order amounts to a “defacto closure.”

“Everywhere you look it’s destruction around here. … Leave Cameron Parish and go into Calcasieu it’s bad there too. You can run from the water but you can’t run from the winds.”

— Scott Trahan, vice president of the police jury in Louisiana’s Cameron Parish, comments on the impact of Hurricanes Laura and Delta on the state’s coastal parishes. Cameron Parish had about 9,800 residents when Hurricane Rita hit in 2005. By 2010, the population had fallen to 6,800. Hurricane Laura made landfall in Cameron on Aug. 27 and Delta came in on Oct. 9 near Creole, just 13 miles to the east.

“That’s exactly why we’re still seeing a high fire danger and still seeing active fires in places. Typically this time of year we’re cooling off and starting to get wetter. That just hasn’t happened yet.”

— Brian Fuchs, a climatologist with the U.S. Drought Monitor, explaining that Colorado is currently experiencing abnormally dry conditions and nearly 17% of the land area is in exceptional drought, the most extreme category.

“DuPont and Chemours have dumped PFAS into North Carolina’s drinking water even as they knew these forever chemicals pose threats to human health and our natural resources. These companies maximized their profits at the expense of the people of North Carolina. That’s wrong. I am taking DuPont and Chemours to court to make them pay for the mess they made.”

— North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, on the state’s plan to seek financial damages from companies that released so-called “forever chemicals” into the Cape Fear River from a Bladen County plant. Stein says the firms knew about the dangers of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. GenX, a type of PFAS, has been found in drinking water wells near the plant and also the municipal utility serving the city of Wilmington, about 100 miles downstream.

“Exxon Mobil made billions of dollars during its decades-long campaign of deception that continues today.”

— Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said regarding a lawsuit he filed in the state’s Superior Court against oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. for misleading the public over the impacts of climate change, making Connecticut one of the latest states to target the fossil fuel industry for violating state consumer protection laws. The suit alleges Exxon violated the state’s unfair trade practices act, deceiving Connecticut consumers about what the company knew about fossil fuels’ impact on climate change, Reuters reported.