Fair-goers scorched by heartland heat wave take refuge under misters as some schools let out early

FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. (AP) — Visitors to the Minnesota State Fair sought relief from soaring temperatures under misters Monday while some Midwestern schools dismissed classes early or called off sports practices.

Highs approaching the century mark combined with oppressive humidity to made it feel like 105 to 115 degrees (40 to 46 Celsius) across the country's heartland, the National Weather Service said. It issued heat warnings or advisories for large swaths of Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio.

“There’s going to be some records in play today,” warned Ashton Robinson Cook, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.

Several cities opened cooling centers, including in Des Moines, Iowa, where city buses were available to give people free rides to the sites. Experts urged those venturing outside to drink plenty of water.

“It is certainly steamy,” said Dr. Haley Taormina, an emergency medicine physician for Regions Hospital EMS, while treating fair-goers in Minnesota for heat illnesses.

By 11 a.m., she already had seen firefighters cut rings off two people's fingers after they became swollen from the heat and salty fair food. Extra health care workers were assigned to the fair's medical stations, and air-conditioned city buses were parked nearby to give sweltering fair-goers a place to escape the heat.

On the fairgrounds, Blake Perkins, of Princeton, Minnesota, watched as his giggling 8- and 7-year-old daughters played under one of the water misters, plotting the rides they planned to go on next. “Thick and humid,” was how he described the sticky conditions.

Mikosa Taylor, of St. Paul, sipped on a drink to keep hydrated.

“We are really trying to just make sure that we are staying cool and bringing kids inside when they need to be inside and standing by these misters when necessary,” she said.

Brandie Jackson wore a battery-operated cooling fan around her neck while fanning herself with a piece of paper. But she is from Shreveport, Louisiana, so the heat and humidity wasn't unusual for her. “This is the norm,” she said.

Meanwhile, Detroit’s public schools implemented a 3-hour early release for students Monday and Tuesday because of scorching temperatures. The district said in a post on its webpage that it will decide Monday evening if the early release will be extended to Wednesday. Only 30% of the district’s schools have air conditioning available, according to a spokeswoman.

The district has embarked on a 20-year facility master plan and expects that within five years nearly all of its schools will have new HVAC and air conditioning.

In the Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Township, the temperature was in the high 80s as a T & J Landscaping crew worked Monday on a drainage issue outside a home. But it was Tuesday that company owner Tom Caramagno said he was more concerned about when the temperature was expected to reach into the 90s.

“Our typical challenge when we have these extreme temperatures is to make sure the guys hydrate themselves,” Caramagno said. “If we don’t have anything to hydrate, douse yourself with a hose, take breaks, get in the shade. We don’t really look for the productivity on days like that, so really it’s just putting out more of the emergency fires.”

DTE Energy, which provides electricity for much of southeastern Michigan and the state’s Thumb region, said the utility is monitoring energy loads on its circuits and making adjustments when needed to keep the power on for customers during times of heavy demand.

“Our teams in the System Operation Center as well as field crews are working around the clock to prepare for the high heat and possible pop-up storms predicted this week,” DTE Energy said in an email.

In Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson declared “Summer is over!” as students in the nation’s fourth-largest school district headed back to class on Monday. Johnson, a former teacher and union organizer, visited a northwest side elementary school to ring in the occasion.

But with temperatures expected to climb to the mid-90s, Chicago officials said recess and physical education classes would be held indoors Monday and Tuesday. District officials also canceled outdoor athletic competitions scheduled for the start of the week.

All classrooms in the district’s more than 600 schools have air-conditioning, but common spaces in older buildings, like hallways, often don’t. District officials said if air-conditioning units malfunction, they would provide other cooling devices like chillers.

Separately, the city of Chicago opened more than 250 “cooling centers” to the public through Wednesday for residents to get relief.

In Indiana, all Gary Community Schools middle school athletic programs and events were canceled Monday and Tuesday, while all high school athletic teams have been instructed to practice — without exception — indoors, the northwestern Indiana district said Monday in an email.

By midweek, the heat will shift to the South and East, said Cook, the meteorologist with National Weather Service.

“The cool-off is coming,” he said. “It’s going to take a little bit of time.”

Corey Williams in Detroit and Sophia Tareen in Chicago contributed to this report. Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas.

A worker is diffused by heat vapors while marking pavement on a street construction project as temperatures topped 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 Celsius) on Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, in Lenexa, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

A worker is diffused by heat vapors while marking pavement on a street construction project as temperatures topped 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 Celsius) on Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, in Lenexa, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

A worker is diffused by heat vapors while directing traffic around a construction project as temperatures topped 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 Celsius) on Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, in Olathe, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

T & J Landscaping owner Tom Caramagno, third from left, and members of his crew work Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, on a drainage issue outside a home in Bloomfield Township, northwest of Detroit, where the temperature was in the high 80s. (AP Photo/Corey Williams)

Judah Boyle, of Des Moines, Iowa, splashes water as he runs on the beach at Gray's Lake Park, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Judah, left, and Abby Boyle, of Des Moines, Iowa, splash in the water at the beach at Gray's Lake Park, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Bob Boyle, center, of Des Moines, Iowa, stands in the water with his grandchildren Abby, left, and Judah Boyle at Gray's Lake Park, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Ronald Okee, of Des Moines, Iowa, walks barefoot along the asphalt trail as the heat index tops 100 degrees at Gray's Lake Park, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

A tuber floats in the lake at Gray's Lake Park as the heat index tops 100 degrees, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Ronald Okee, of Des Moines, Iowa, walks barefoot along the asphalt trail as the heat index tops 100 degrees at Gray's Lake Park, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Judah Boyle, of Des Moines, Iowa, splashes water as he runs on the beach at Gray's Lake Park, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

T & J Landscaping owner Tom Caramagno, third from left, and members of his crew work Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, on a drainage issue outside a home in Bloomfield Township, northwest of Detroit, where the temperature was in the high 80s. (AP Photo/Corey Williams)

Crowds make their way through the Minnesota State Fair in Falcon Heights, Minn., on Monday, Aug. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Vancleave)

Seven-year-old Harper Perkins, center, and her sister Brielle, of Princeton, Minn., cool off in a misting fountain at the Minnesota State Fair in Falcon Heights, Minn., on Monday, Aug. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Vancleave)

Seven-year-old Harper Perkins, center, and her sister Brielle of Princeton, Minn., cool off in a misting fountain at the Minnesota State Fair in Falcon Heights, Minn., on Monday, Aug. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Vancleave)

Judah Boyle, of Des Moines, Iowa, splashes water as he runs on the beach at Gray's Lake Park, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Judah, left, and Abby Boyle, of Des Moines, Iowa, splash in the water at the beach at Gray's Lake Park, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Bob Boyle, center, of Des Moines, Iowa, stands in the water with his grandchildren Abby, left, and Judah Boyle at Gray's Lake Park, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Ronald Okee, of Des Moines, Iowa, walks barefoot along the asphalt trail as the heat index tops 100 degrees at Gray's Lake Park, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

A tuber floats in the lake at Gray's Lake Park as the heat index tops 100 degrees, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Ronald Okee, of Des Moines, Iowa, walks barefoot along the asphalt trail as the heat index tops 100 degrees at Gray's Lake Park, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Aircraft assembly workers walked off the job at at Boeing factories near Seattle and elsewhere early Friday after union members voted overwhelmingly to go on strike.

Boeing is just the latest business to grapple with union workers over issues including wages and benefits like health care.

Here's a look at some recent company negotiations with their unions.

Late last year the United Auto Workers union overwhelmingly ratified new contracts with Ford and Stellantis, along with a similar deal with General Motors, that would raise pay across the industry and force automakers to absorb higher costs.

The agreements, which run through April 2028, ended contentious talks that began in the summer of 2022 and led to six-week-long strikes at all three automakers.

The new contract agreements were widely seen as a victory for the UAW. The companies agreed to dramatically raise pay for top-scale assembly plant workers, with increases and cost-of-living adjustments that would translate into 33% wage gains.

Top assembly plant workers were to receive immediate 11% raises and would earn roughly $42 an hour when the contracts expire in April of 2028.

Under the agreements, the automakers also ended many of the multiple tiers of wages they had used to pay different workers. They also agreed in principle to bring new electric-vehicle battery plants into the national union contract.

UPS workers that are members of the Teamsters union approved a tentative contract with the package delivery company last year. The run up to the approval was not smooth though, with contentious labor negotiations that threatened to disrupt package deliveries for millions of businesses and households nationwide.

After negotiations broke down in early July 2023, Atlanta-based UPS reached a tentative contract agreement with the Teamsters just days before an Aug. 1 deadline.

At the time the tentative agreement was struck, full- and part-time union workers were set to get $2.75 more per hour in 2023, and $7.50 more in total by the end of the five-year contract. Starting hourly pay for part-time employees also got bumped up to $21, but some workers said that fell short of their expectations.

UPS said at the time that by the end of the new contract, the average UPS full-time driver would make about $170,000 annually in pay and benefits. It was not clear how much of that figure benefits accounted for.

As part of the deal, the delivery company also agreed to make Martin Luther King Jr. Day a full holiday, end forced overtime on drivers’ days off and stop using driver-facing cameras in cabs, among a host of other issues. It eliminated a two-tier wage system for drivers and tentative deals on safety issues were also reached, including equipping more trucks with air conditioning.

Earlier this month video game performers reached agreements with 80 individual games that have signed interim or tiered budget agreements with the performers’ union and accepted the artificial intelligence provisions they have been seeking.

The performers had been striking for over a month.

Members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists began striking in July after negotiations with game industry giants that began more than a year and a half ago came to a halt over AI protections.

The interim agreement secures wage improvements, protections around “exploitative uses” of artificial intelligence and safety precautions that account for the strain of physical performances, as well as vocal stress. The tiered budget agreement aims to make working with union talent more feasible for independent game developers or smaller-budget projects while also providing performers the protections under the interim agreement.

Last month thousands of hospitality union workers on the Las Vegas Strip reached a tentative deal with the Venetian and Palazzo resorts, a first for employees at the sprawling Italian-inspired complex that opened 25 years ago.

The Culinary Workers Union announced on the social platform X that the deal came together after a year of negotiations. It covers over 4,000 hotel and casino workers, from housekeepers and cocktail servers to bartenders and porters.

Bethany Khan, a union spokesperson, said the deal mirrors the major wins secured in recent contracts awarded to 40,000 hospitality workers at 18 Strip properties owned or operated by casino giants MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment and Wynn Resorts.

Those wins included a 32% pay increase over five years, housekeeping workload reductions and improved job security amid advancements in technology and artificial intelligence.

The bump in pay under those contracts will amount to an average $35 hourly wage by the end of the contracts, according to the union. Workers at these properties were making about $26 hourly with benefits before winning their latest contracts in November.

Unions representing 85,000 health care workers reached a tentative agreement with industry giant Kaiser Permanente in October 2023 following a strike over wages and staffing levels.

The deal included setting minimum hourly wages at $25 in California, where most of Kaiser’s facilities are located, and $23 in other states. Workers would also see a 21% wage increase over four years.

The lead up to the tentative agreement included a three-day strike involving 75,000 workers in multiple states.

The tentative agreement also included protective terms around subcontracting and outsourcing, as well as initiatives to invest in the current workforce and address a staffing crisis.

Hollywood’s actors voted to ratify a deal with studios in December 2023 that ended their strike after nearly four months, bringing an official finish to a labor strife that shook the entertainment industry for most of last year.

Members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists approved a three-year contract.

Control over the use of artificial intelligence was the most hard-fought issue in the long, methodical negotiations. The contract called for a 7% general pay increase with further hikes coming in the second and third years of the deal.

The agreement also included a hard-won provision that temporarily derailed talks: the creation of a fund to pay performers for future viewings of their work on streaming services, in addition to traditional residuals paid for the showing of movies or series.

Boeing Machinists Union members Steven Wilson, left, Dave Hendrickson, center,, and Mark Erickson, right, wave to passing traffic while on the picket line at the Renton assembly plant, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, in Renton, Wash. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)