Ocean-freight rates to bring goods from China to U.S. West Coast ports peaked at a record $20,586 per 40-foot container in September, and at more than $16,000 now remain multiples above the $1,590 pre-pandemic average.

Southern California’s ports are vowing to get tougher with the owners of containers languishing on port property, one of a series of steps announced this week to clear the U.S.’s clogged trade arteries.
The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach this week announced they will levy a surcharge on ocean carriers with containers overstaying their welcome. Starting Nov. 1, boxes waiting nine days or longer for truck transport would incur the fee, as would containers waiting three or more days by rail. The surcharge will start at $100 per container and increase in $100 increments each day.
Ocean carriers and trucking companies have each blamed the other for the lion’s share of the container build-up over the past few months. During that period, the backlog has grown.

A staffer at the US House of Representatives was arrested Wednesday and charged with possession of child pornography. Fairfax Country police said, Stefan Bieret, 41, who works as an assistant to the US House of Representative Sergeant-at-Arms, is facing 10 felonies and allegedly owns a DropBox account containing images of child sexual abuse material.

According to Fox News, Bieret, who lives in Burke, Virginia, became the subject of an investigation when the National Center for the Missing and Exploited Children was alerted about a potentially illicit image that was uploaded to the alleged DropBox account. Authorities from the task force on internet crimes against children took action on the report and tracked the owner of the account to a resident in Fairfax County.

Nancy Pelosi Announces Vote On Bill To Codify Roe v. Wade
The House speaker said she’s responding to the Supreme Court’s “cowardly, dark-of-night decision” decision to greenlight Texas’ extreme anti-abortion law.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced Thursday that she plans to bring up legislation that would codify Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that protects the right to choose to have an abortion, as soon as the House returns from recess this month.

“Upon our return, the House will bring up Congresswoman Judy Chu’s Women’s Health Protection Act to enshrine into law reproductive health care for all women across America,” Pelosi said in a statement.

Her announcement comes a day after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed an extreme Texas law to go into effect that criminalizes abortion at six weeks and deputizes citizens to enforce the ban.

The House speaker railed against the Supreme Court’s decision, saying its “cowardly, dark-of-night decision” to let the Texas law take effect “delivers catastrophe to women in Texas, particularly women of color and women from low-income communities.”