The Tim Walz administration, on behalf of Tim Walz, hired the law firm K&L Gates, based in Pittsburgh, with offices in Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and South America, to coach Walz for an appearance in Washington on June 12 before a subcommittee wishing to question a couple of governors believed to be dragging their feet on federal immigration laws.
Walz was a predictable candidate to be summoned as he stubbornly refers to ICE agents as a modern-day Gestapo; the left in this country fanboys itself into a lather when it comes to Germany.
The coaching sessions began April 10 and continued right up to June 12 when the K&L team, their fingers crossed, boxed Walz up and shipped him to Washington for the day.
Oh, the bill. The bill was $430,000 of our money, with the K&L people promising not to wink at each other until they cleared Minnesota air space.
None of it makes sense.
Let’s start with the fact that the state employs offices full of lawyers, including Attorney General Keith Ellison. They couldn’t do it. Either they think Walz is so incomprehensibly dense that only the nation’s top legal surgeons could prep him, or our lawyers were too busy running down the streets trying to scoop up spilled food fraud cash.
In comes K&L Gates with a reported fee of $516 per hour. Among the questions we’ll never get answered is why K&L Gates? A local firm couldn’t have been tossed this bone? How about a firm that bills at, say, $316 an hour? How is it that K&L Gates just popped up on somebody’s rolodex?
Here’s another reason it doesn’t make sense. From the moment Walz got the letter summoning him to Washington, he grumped and griped about how this was nothing but a grandstand play by Republicans. He had a spokesman, Teddy Tschann, claim that the Republicans were planning a political stunt on the taxpayer dime. Practiced in the art of deflection, like a good spokesman, Tschann meant the federal taxpayer dime, not the local soaking for the legal bill.
Tom Hauser of KSTP-TV asked Walz on camera if Walz thought the taxpayers were angry about the $430,000 bill. Walz, also practiced in the art of deflection, kicked that one aside with the toe of his skate and agreed that Minnesotans should be angry that Republicans even invited him in the first place.
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Well, Tim, if you really thought that way, then why were you worried at all? You’re the alpha male of your party. You could have swaggered into that hearing room and called it for what you thought it was, a big sham.
But here’s the best reason the $430,000 doesn’t make sense. Walz served in Congress from 2007 to 2019. He was on countless committees and commissions. He held congressional hearings. Walz could walk through the nation’s Capitol building blindfolded. He not only knows all the nooks and crannies, he knowns all the tricks, the deflections, the stunts, the BS, you name it. And we’re supposed to believe that Walz needed highly specialized and outrageously expensive coaching for two months so he could handle those evil attack dogs, of whom he once was one.
JB Pritzker of Illinois was also summoned to appear the same day as Walz. Pritzker isn’t much of a governor, either, but it should be noted that he personally paid for his legal prep.
In Connecticut, construction workers in the Local 478 union who complete addiction treatment are connected with a recovery coach who checks in daily, attends recovery meetings with them, and helps them navigate the return to work for a year.
In Pennsylvania, doctors applying for credentials at Geisinger hospitals are not required to answer intrusive questions about mental health care they’ve received, reducing the stigma around clinicians seeking treatment.
The workplace is the new ground zero for addressing mental health. That means companies — employees and supervisors alike — must confront crises, from addiction to suicide. The two seemingly unrelated advances in Connecticut and Pennsylvania have one common factor: They grew out of the work of a little known federal agency called the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
It’s one of the key federal agencies leading workplace mental health efforts, from decreasing alarmingly high rates of suicide among construction workers to addressing burnout and depression among health care workers.
Private industry and nonprofits may be able to fill some of the gap, but they can’t match the federal government’s resources. And some companies may not prioritize worker well-being above profits.
“Workplace mental health is one of the most underappreciated yet critical areas we could intervene on,” said Thomas Cunningham, a former senior behavioral scientist at NIOSH who took a buyout this year. “We were just starting to get some strong support from all the players involved,” he said. “This administration has blown that apart.”
NIOSH, established in 1970 by the same law that created the better-known Occupational Safety and Health Administration, is charged with producing research that informs workplace safety regulations. It’s best known for monitoring black lung disease in coal miners and for testing masks, like the N95s used during the pandemic.
As part of the mass firing of federal workers this spring, NIOSH was slated to lose upward of 900 employees. After pushback from legislators — primarily over coal miner and first responder safety — the administration reinstated 328. It’s not clear if any rehired workers focus on mental health initiatives.
Emily Hilliard, a press secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services, asserted in a statement that “the nation’s critical public health functions remain intact and effective,” including support for coal miners and firefighters through NIOSH. “Improving the mental health of American workers remains a key priority for HHS, and that work is ongoing,” she wrote.
She did not answer specific questions from KFF Health News about whether any reinstated NIOSH employees lead mental health efforts or who is continuing such work.
Kyle Zimmer spent 25 years with the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 478 in Connecticut, for which he started a members’ assistance program, which he says helps workers with “the big three”— mental health, addiction, and suicide prevention. (Mike Gates/KFF Health News/TNS)
Kyle Zimmer spent 25 years with the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 478 in Connecticut, for which he started a members’ assistance program, which he says helps workers with “the big three”— mental health, addiction, and suicide prevention. (Mike Gates/KFF Health News/TNS)
TJ Lyons, a multi-decade construction industry safety professional, has worked at big names in the field such as Gilbane, Turner, and DPR Construction. He is confident that such companies will keep workplace mental health front and center, despite cuts to federal agencies and staff. (Raghuvaran Chakkravarthy/KFF Health News/TNS)
General contractors and project owners are increasingly incorporating mental health services on-site and as a normal part of their project budgets, says TJ Lyons, a multi-decade construction industry safety professional. (TJ Lyons/KFF Health News/TNS)
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Kyle Zimmer spent 25 years with the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 478 in Connecticut, for which he started a members’ assistance program, which he says helps workers with “the big three”— mental health, addiction, and suicide prevention. (Mike Gates/KFF Health News/TNS)
Reducing Suicides and Addiction in Construction and Mining
Over 5,000 construction workers die by suicide annually — five times the number who die from work-related injuries. Miners suffer high rates too. And nearly a fifth of workers in both industries have a substance use disorder, double the rate among all U.S. workers.
Kyle Zimmer recognized these issues as early as 2010. That’s when he started a members’ assistance program for the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 478 in Connecticut. He hired a licensed clinician on retainer and developed partnerships with local treatment facilities.
At first, workers pushed back, said Zimmer, who recently retired after 25 years in the union, many as director of health and safety.
Their perception was, “If I speak up about this issue, I’m going to be blackballed from the industry,” he said.
General contractors and project owners are increasingly incorporating mental health services on-site and as a normal part of their project budgets, says TJ Lyons, a multidecade construction industry safety professional. But slowly, that changed — with NIOSH’s help, Zimmer said.
The agency developed an approach to worker safety called Total Worker Health, which identifies physical and mental health as critical to occupational safety. It also shifts the focus from how individuals can keep themselves safe to how policies and environments can be changed to keep them safe.
Over decades, the concept spread from research journals and universities to industry conferences, unions, and eventually workers, Zimmer said. People began accepting that mental health was an occupational safety issue, he said. That paved the way for NIOSH’s Miner Health Program to develop resources on addiction and for Zimmer to establish the recovery coaching program in Connecticut.
“We have beat that stigma down by a lot,” Zimmer said.
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Other countries have made more progress on mental health at work, said Sally Spencer-Thomas, co-chair of the International Association for Suicide Prevention’s workplace special interest group. But with the growth of the Total Worker Health approach, a 2022 surgeon general report on the topic, and increasing research, the U.S. appeared to finally be catching up. The recent cuts to NIOSH suggest “we’re kind of losing our footing,” she said.
Last year, Natalie Schwatka, an assistant professor at the Colorado School of Public Health’s Center for Health, Work & Environment, received a five-year NIOSH grant to build a toolkit to help leaders in labor-intensive industries, such as construction and mining, strengthen worker safety and mental health.
While many companies connect people to treatment, few focus on preventing mental illness, Schwatka said. NIOSH funding “allows us to do innovative things that maybe industry wouldn’t necessarily start.”
Her team planned to test the toolkit with eight construction companies in the coming years. But with few NIOSH employees left to process annual renewals, the funds could stop flowing anytime.
The consequence of losing such research is not confined to academia, Zimmer said. “Workers’ health and safety is very much in jeopardy.”
Health Care Sector Braces for Fallout From NIOSH Cuts
For a long time, clinicians have had troubling rates of addiction and suicide risk. Just after the height of the pandemic, a NIOSH survey found nearly half of health workers reported feeling burned out and nearly half intended to look for a new job. The agency declared a mental health crisis in that workforce.
NIOSH received $20 million through the American Rescue Plan Act to create a national campaign to improve the mental health of health workers.
The results included a step-by-step guide for hospital leaders to improve systems to support their employees, as well as tips and suggested language for leaders to discuss well-being and for workers to advocate for better policies.
Cunningham, the behavioral scientist who left NIOSH this year, helped lead the effort. He said the goal was to move beyond asking health workers to be resilient or develop meditation skills.
“We’re not saying resilience is bad, but we’re trying to emphasize that’s not the first thing we need to focus on,” he said.
Instead, NIOSH suggested eliminating intrusive questions about mental health that weren’t relevant to keeping patients safe from hospital credentialing forms and offering workers more input on how their schedules are made.
Foundation CEO Corey Feist recently appeared on Capitol Hill with Noah Wyle, who plays an emergency medicine doctor on the TV series“ The Pitt,” to advocate for Congress to renew funding for this work. (Diana Pressey/KFF Health News/TNS)
The agency partnered on this work with the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation, named after an emergency medicine doctor who died by suicide during the pandemic. The foundation extended the campaign by helping health systems in four states implement pieces of the guide and learn from one another.
Foundation leaders recently appeared on Capitol Hill with Noah Wyle, who plays an emergency physician on the TV series “The Pitt,” to advocate for renewed federal funding for this work.
Corey Feist, foundation CEO and co-founder, said renewing that funding to NIOSH is crucial to get this guide out to all hospitals.
Without those resources, “it’s just going to really delay this transformation of health care that needs to happen,” he said.
Who Can Fill the Gap?
TJ Lyons, a multidecade construction industry safety professional who has worked at big-name companies such as Gilbane, Turner, and DPR Construction, is confident that workplace mental health will remain a priority despite the NIOSH cuts.
General contractors and project owners have been incorporating budget lines for mental health support for years, he said, sharing an example of a $1 billion project that included a mental health clinician on call for four hours several days a week. Workers would make appointments to sit in their pickup trucks during lunch breaks and talk to her, he said.
Now when these big companies subcontract with smaller firms, they often ask if the subcontractors provide mental health support for workers, Lyons said.
But others are skeptical that industry can replace NIOSH efforts.
Several workplace safety experts said smaller companies lack the means to commission research studies and larger companies may not share the results publicly, as a federal agency would. Nor would they have the same credibility.
“Private industry is going to provide what the people paying them want to provide,” said a NIOSH employee and member of the American Federation of Government Employees union, currently on administrative leave, who was granted anonymity for fear of professional retaliation.
Without federal attention on workplace mental health, “people may leave the workforce,” she said. “Workers may die.”
NEW YORK (AP) — When Claire Paré was a classroom teacher, working in a setting where every minute, down to the bathroom breaks, was scheduled, she brought granola bars, fruit and protein shakes to school so she’d be prepared when hunger hits.
Then she transitioned to a job at education publisher McGraw Hill. Working remotely at home in New Hampshire, her children’s cheddar bunny crackers and Fruit Roll-Ups lured her to the pantry, confounding her commitment to healthy snacking.
“I have the opportunity to be judicious, but I choose not to most of the time,” Paré said. “I really do enjoy being able to put the time into making something, but oftentimes convenience just has to win out.”
Eating healthy snacks during the workday can be challenging. Many people find themselves facing down a mid-afternoon slump and accompanying sugar, caffeine or carbohydrate cravings after lunch. Busy adults racing from back-to-back meetings to family commitments often reach for what’s easy, whether it’s a candy bar from the office vending machine or potato chips from a kitchen cupboard.
The problem with eating packaged sugary or salty snacks to get through the afternoon is they may spike blood sugar levels but don’t give a sustained second wind, according to Beth Czerwony, a registered dietitian at Cleveland Clinic.
“It’s going to burn off really fast, so you’re going to get that boost of energy and then all of a sudden you’re going to get another crash,” Czerwony said. “Some people just chase that for a while, and they’re drinking coffee or their energy drinks and they’re eating their candy, and it just sets you up for these spikes and these drops.”
Here are some ideas for maintaining healthy snacking habits at work.
Peppering in protein
Foods that are high in protein, such as Greek yogurt, hard-boiled eggs, cottage cheese and beef or turkey jerky, can help people feel full for longer periods of time than snacks without protein, said Caroline Susie, a Dallas-based registered dietitian and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Eating a snack consisting of refined carbohydrates such as a bagel causes blood sugar to rise rapidly and then drop, so teaming it up with another source of nutrition is preferable, Susie said.
“When you pair that carbohydrate with lean protein or have a protein-forward choice, it contributes to satiety. So you’re just going to stay fuller longer,” she added.
Czerwony recommends snacks that combine lean proteins with complex carbohydrates such as crackers, rice cakes or fruit. The combination works because carbohydrates raise blood sugar, giving you a boost, while the protein takes longer to digest, helping to sustain you for longer, she said.
“The carbohydrates are like the kindling on the fire, and then the proteins are the logs,” Czerwony said. “You’re going to get the slow burn from the protein, but you need that sudden start, so you have the carbohydrates to get you going.”
The crunch you crave
Many people find it hard to resist crunchy foods. For a satisfying munch, the American Heart Association recommends sliced apples with a tablespoon of low-sodium peanut butter, pears dipped in reduced-fat cottage cheese, vegetables such as carrots, celery, bell peppers, cucumber or zucchini paired with hummus or tzatziki sauce, popcorn, rice cakes or unsalted nuts and seeds. You can also roast chickpeas, which provide both protein and carbohydrates.
For a packaged snack, read the nutrition label to check how much added sugar and sodium it contains, the association suggests.
The Cleveland Clinic recommends whole fruit, edamame, seeds, a handful of nuts or a single-serving package of tuna that you can eat with a fork.
Pack ahead
Bringing your own snacks to work can help you control the quality and quantity of what you eat, Czerwony said. Try slicing vegetables, cheese or low-fat meats on weekends to last through the week, she said.
“If you have all that stuff already made, then it’s easy in the morning to just grab it and go,” she said.
Take along a small, soft-sided cooler to help keep snacks like yogurt, sliced veggies or hummus fresh. “Get cute little bento boxes, get little containers, make it fun if that’s something that you want to do, because we’ll eat things that are more attractive instead of just being in a Ziploc,” Czerwony said.
Petra Durnin, a Los Angeles-based senior director at commercial real estate firm JLL, blends greens, nuts, berries, avocado, banana and chia or flax seeds into homemade smoothies, which she makes in large batches. At night, she moves one jar to the fridge to thaw for the next day. An afternoon smoothie keeps her full until dinnertime and less likely to reach for chips, chocolate and sugar, she said.
“I feel like I have better brain clarity,” Durnin said. “I’m able to push through the afternoon and work more efficiently. I don’t feel bloated, bogged down. It just feels better.”’
Occasionally indulge
Adopting healthy snacking habits doesn’t mean you have to deprive yourself entirely of treats. If a coworker is celebrating a birthday, an occasional slice of cake won’t completely derail healthy habits.
“Let’s not demonize food,” Susie said.
Before dipping into a bag of chips, eat a meal that includes lean protein, complex carbohydrates and healthy fat, and then add something healthy to the snack while keeping an eye on portion size, Susie said.
“There’s not going to be a perfect substitute for chips. You can eat carrots all you want, but you can’t trick your body with thinking that they’re chips,” Czerwony said. “If you want a chip, have the stinking chip and just be done with it.”
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However, a constant hankering for chips could be a sign of a dietary deficiency, and it’s worth figuring that out so “those types of things are more treats than something that’s in the routine mix of what you’re eating throughout the day,” Czerwony said.
Gisela Marx, 53, rarely gets a chance to sit or eat while working as deputy front of house manager at the Auditorium Theater in Chicago. On event days, she works from 3 p.m. until 11 p.m. or later. She packs healthy snacks such as watermelon and nuts.
She also keeps an emergency stash of Reese’s Pieces, which her boss has to replenish if he eats the last one.
“Just having it there is a comfort. I can always have it if I want it,” Marx said.
Share your stories and questions about workplace wellness at cbussewitz@ap.org. Follow AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health at https://apnews.com/hub/be-well
NEW YORK (AP) — As job-seekers look for work in a challenging environment, an increasing number are falling victim to job scams that promise good pay for completing easy online tasks, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
The scams start innocuously, often with a tailor-made text or WhatsApp message, and the scammers take time to build trust with the victim before cashing in on the relationship.
“Most of the people who end up losing money to a scammer are behaving pretty rationally,” said Kati Daffan, assistant director of the Federal Trade Commission’s division of marketing practices. “Scammers are sophisticated, and they keep changing their tactics.”
Reported losses to job scams increased more than threefold from 2020 to 2023. In the first half of 2024, they topped $220 million, according to the FTC. Gamified job scams, or task scams, represented a significant portion of that growth. About 20,000 people reported experiencing gamified scams in the first part of 2024, compared to 5,000 in all of 2023.
Daffan said that that the number is certainly an underestimate, because many people don’t report their experiences of job scams to law enforcement or government trackers.
“Only 4.8% of people complain,” she said.
Here’s what to know:
How the scams work
The scam typically begins with an unexpected text or WhatsApp message from a “recruiter” offering online work, according to the FTC. The mystery texter will say you can “make good money” by “product boosting” or doing “optimization tasks” for an online platform or in an app, which might involve liking videos or rating product images.
This “job” promises to earn you money from “commissions” per click. Once you complete the tasks, you’ll see an increasing tally of “earnings” on the platform or in the app. These earnings are fake.
Eventually, the app or platform will ask you to deposit your own money, typically in crypto, to complete more tasks and withdraw your (non-existent) earnings. But if you do make the deposit, you lose your real money, and you never receive the illusory pay.
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Who gets targeted
Eva Velasquez, CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center, said these types of scammers typically prey on job-seekers who are new to the job market, people who have been out of the job market for some time (such as homemakers re-entering the workforce, whose children are grown), and immigrants, who may be less familiar with the employment landscape or who face language barriers.
“Often the job will have an easy interview or no interview, promise to let you work from home, and let you start right away,” Velasquez said. “Sometimes they’ll start with praise, and the person will feel their skills are recognized. ‘Oh, you think I’m great? Tell me more.’”
Velasquez emphasized the vulnerability of people looking for work, especially given ongoing economic uncertainty, who may choose to accept a role even if it initially feels shady.
“Sometimes the ask is to leave phony reviews for products,” she said. “The scammers are probably selling those reviews illegally, but a job-seeker might look at a line and say, ‘I’ll cross that line. I’ve got to eat.’”
Tips for spotting a task-based scam
Ignore any generic and unexpected texts or WhatsApp messages about jobs, no matter how specific or complimentary the messages.
Never pay to get paid, or to get a job. That requirement is a red flag that the position is a scam.
Don’t trust employers who says they’ll pay you to rate or like things online, without an above-board process for using the actual products or services you’re rating.
The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.
