
They took a stand against Amazon for their drivers. They say it cost them their businesses
CNN
Ryan Schmutzer and Tracy Bloemer, owners of businesses that deliver packages for Amazon in Portland, Oregon, hit their breaking point this spring.
Both had run technically independent businesses since 2019 that usually rent vans owned by Amazon, and are paid by Amazon to deliver its packages. The businesses are called "delivery service partners," or DSPs, for short. DSPs have about 20-40 vans and up to 100 employees. The DSP program has expanded to nine countries, creating 158,000 jobs at 2,500 DSPs, according to Amazon.
Amazon's DSPs have played a critical role as the company grew rapidly during the pandemic, and relied less on delivery companies like UPS. But many drivers who work for Amazon DSPs have reported frustrations. Pay is low compared to competitors like FedEx and UPS. Turnover is high. Working conditions worsened during the pandemic, drivers say.

Hundreds of Border Patrol officers are mobilizing to bolster the president’s crackdown on immigration in snowy Minneapolis, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Sunday, as tensions between federal law enforcement and local counterparts flare after an ICE-involved shooting last week left a mother of three dead.

Nationwide outcry over the killing of a Minneapolis woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent spilled into the streets of cities across the US on Saturday, with protesters demanding the removal of federal immigration authorities from their communities and justice for the slain Renee Good.

Since early December the US Coast Guard and other military branches have boarded and taken control of five oil ships that had previously been sanctioned, all either accused of being in the process of transporting Venezuelan oil or on their way to take on oil that has been subject to US sanctions since President Donald Trump began a pressure campaign against the leadership of the country during his first term.










