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Locally Sourced Vegetarian Citrus Fizz? $5.99. Grass Fed Himalayan Tuna Salad? That’ll be $9.99. Taking gentrification and a rent hike into your own hands? Priceless.

That’s how the neighbors at Jesse’s Deli in Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill neighborhood are trying to save their local convenience store.

Owner Jesse Itayim opened his doors in 1984 at the corner of Bergen and Bonds Avenue, spending time in that location and another before moving to his current location, 402 Atlantic Ave., in 1989.

The fate of the family business was threatened recently by a hike in the monthly rent — from $4,000 to $10,000. Itayim could not afford it, and he prepared to close after more than 25 years in business.

When customers and neighbors asked about the bare shelves at Jesse’s Deli, they found out it was closing by July 31.

A neighbor started a petition and sent 1,200 signatures in support of Itayim to the landlord, Karina Bilger. Bilger returned it unopened, with a note saying there would be no renewal on the lease, and declaring all past offers rescinded.

Bilger has not responded to NPR requests for comment, but she told dnainfo.com that she tried to come to an agreement with the owner two years ago.

The community showed support for Jesse’s by making mock posters that advertise prices increased two and a half times and “gentrified” products. They called the campaign an “Artisanal Rent Price Hike Sale,” and displayed the bright posters inside the store and in the front window. A social media campaign used the hashtag #jessespricedout on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Organizers also appealed to Mayor Bill de Blasio and local Councilman Stephen Levin to support Jesse’s and other small businesses by getting behind the Small Business Jobs Survival Act. The measure would require, among other things, a minimum 10 year lease.

The bill and the protest campaign for Jesse’s Deli, a neighborhood staple for the working class, middle class, and creative class in the area, may be too late. The family is looking for a new location, preferably in the same area.

Mohenad Itayim, Jesse Itayim’s son, is still confident in the business his father started over 30 years ago. “We are fighting to the end,” he said.

“We do not know where we’ll end up.”

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Julie Hamp — Toyota Motor Corp.’s first senior female executive who was appointed head of public relations just weeks ago — has been arrested in Japan for allegedly importing the prescription painkiller oxycodone in violation of the country’s narcotics laws.

A total of 57 pills were discovered by Japanese customs officials on June 11 inside a package that Hamp mailed to herself from Kentucky, declaring the contents to be a necklace, according to Japanese news reports.

Oxycodone is legal in the U.S. with a prescription.

The Asahi Shimbun writes: “When customs officials at Narita Airport checked an international parcel addressed to Julie Hamp, a 55-year-old American, they found pills, placed in bags, at the bottom of the parcel, Tokyo police said.

Hamp, who was arrested on Thursday, has denied the charges. A spokesman for Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department said she told authorities that she did not think she had imported an illegal substance.

The Associated Press writes: “The high-profile stumble of a media-savvy executive, so early in the game, is an embarrassment for the automaker. Toyota had highlighted Hamp’s appointment with much fanfare as a sign that it was promoting diversity.”

In a statement issued by Toyota, the company said it was “sorry for causing a stir.”

“We believe that it will be made clear in the investigation that she had no intention to violate the law,” the statement said.

And, at news conference today, Toyota President Akio Toyoda “bowed briefly and apologized for the troubles set off by the arrest of Hamp,” according to The Associated Press.

“To me, executives and staff who are my direct reports are like my children,” he said. “It’s the responsibility of a parent to protect his children and, if a child causes problems, it’s also a parent’s responsibility to apologize.”

Reuters offers a bit of background:

“Hamp was appointed managing officer in April as part of a drive to diversify Toyota’s male-dominated, mostly Japanese executive line-up. She joined Toyota’s North American unit in 2012 and this month relocated to Tokyo, where she was to be based. She had been staying in a hotel, a Toyota spokeswoman said.

“[Company President] Toyoda vowed that the automaker would maintain its policy of seeking out talent regardless of gender or nationality and expressed regret that the company had not provided enough support for an employee who was not Japanese and had come to live in Japan.”

According to Medicinenet.com, oxycodone is “a strong narcotic pain-reliever and cough suppressant similar to morphine, codeine, and hydrocodone.”

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For several years, Democrats have gleefully watched as Republicans threatened to eat their own at the ballot box. Trying to enforce a rigid orthodoxy, groups such as the Senate Conservatives Fund, the Club for Growth and others have funded primary challengers if Republicans didn’t fall in line on certain votes on taxes, spending cuts and other conservative issues.

Now, it’s Democrats’ turn to try and manage intra-party turmoil — also rooted in a similar economic populist strain to the fight on the right — over President Obama’s trade legislation. The fight could spill over into the next election, with labor groups threatening primaries against members — even those who sit in swing districts — who sided with the president.

Last Friday, the fast-track authority the president wanted to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership failed in the House after Democrats blocked a key part of the bill that would provide job-training assistance to those who could lose jobs if the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, a massive Pan-Asian trade deal, is finalized.

Part of that fast-track authority — with the job-training assistance stripped out — passed the House Thursday narrowly, 218-208. But it still has to get through the Senate before the president can sign it. The challenge for President Obama now is how to get enough Democrats on board in the Senate without the job assistance in the bill or if there will be a supplementary bill that puts it back in.

Labor groups — a well-funded and powerful Democratic stronghold — waged a massive campaign against the bill and claimed victory after it went down last week. Several Democrats found themselves targeted by unions and progressive groups, warning consequences if they backed the trade bill.

“Democrats who allowed the passage of Fast Track Authority for the job-killing TPP, should know that we will not lift a finger or raise a penny to protect you when you’re attacked in 2016,” said Jim Dean, chairman of Democracy for America after the House vote Thursday. “We will encourage our progressive allies to join us in leaving you to rot, and we will actively search for opportunities to primary you with a real Democrat. … Make no mistake, we will make certain that your vote to fast track the destruction of American jobs will be remembered and will haunt you for years to come.”

Some have already put their money where their mouth is, too — even if that means inadvertently helping a Republican win next November. The AFL-CIO launched a six-figure ad buy in the expensive New York City media market slamming freshman Democratic Rep. Kathleen Rice for switching her position to back the deal. The freshman congresswoman won her Long Island seat just 52 to 47 percent in 2014.

A Rice spokesman shot back telling Vox, “I wouldn’t want to be a labor leader and have to explain to my hardworking nurses or truck drivers or tradesmen why we’re wasting hundreds of thousands of their families’ dollars attacking a progressive Democrat who’s with them on nearly every issue but this bill. And I certainly wouldn’t want to have to explain to those workers that if their money is successful, they’ll get a staunch anti-union representative as their reward.”

The labor group also aired a TV ad against California Democratic Rep. Ami Bera, charging he will “do anything to keep his job, including shipping your job overseas.”

In total, just 27 Democrats voted yes on both the Trade Promotion Authority, TPA, and Trade Adjustment Assistance, TAA, measures last week. Most of those members come from centrist districts and are facing tough reelection fights. That includes Bera, who is among the most vulnerable members of Congress after only narrowly winning reelection last November. He has claimed the groups are trying to “bully” him into changing his position and that he’s voting for what is best for his district.

But labor groups don’t seem fazed by the prospect a Republican who would be at odds with them even more could win the seat.

“Ami Bera won off the support of working families’ boots in the district, knocking on doors for him,” AFL-CIO spokesperson Amaya Smith told Politico. “But no one’s saying, ‘Let’s not call him out, because we’re scared of a Republican taking him out.'”

Another California Democratic lawmaker is already seeing rumblings of a primary challenge. Labor groups are urging Assemblyman Henry Perea to challenge Democratic Rep. Jim Costa, according to Roll Call. Costa also only narrowly won reelection last year.

In California, especially, unions and progressives backing another Democrat could have an impact. The state has a “top-two” party primary system, with the top-two finishers advancing regardless of party. An anti-trade candidate could push past the incumbent in a primary and be favored over the GOP nominee, or a split among Democrats could help two Republicans make it to the general.

Some are starting to see shades of the advent of the Tea Party in the aggressive tactics. New York Times columnist David Brooks certainly thinks so, writing in a column this week raising the idea that “the Republican Tea Partiers are suspicious of all global diplomatic arrangements. The Democrats’ version of the Tea Partiers are suspicious of all global economic arrangements.”

Other groups say that the biggest threat is that their members won’t be helping with grassroots efforts. But if it comes to using the same tactics they decry in conservatives, some Democrats are embracing that moniker.

“To the extent that the Tea Party puts pressure on the Republican Party, then yes, we’re also putting pressure on Congress to behave a certain type of way,” MoveOn.org Action campaign director Justin Krebs told NPR.

MoveOn.org has already put another top lawmaker on notice over trade. Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, faced backlash for his support for the bill, with the group saying there is support for a primary challenger, though no alternative has yet emerged.

Earlier this year, the group Fight for the Future began following Wyden around to town-hall meetings in Oregon with a 30-foot blimp, urging him to oppose the trade deal.

The divide isn’t just manifesting itself in Congress, though. With progressives like Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders — who’s surging in the Democratic presidential primary race — leading the charge, it’s an issue that’s spilling out into the presidential race, too.

Leading Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton has expressed skepticism about the current deal, but has yet to take a concrete position either for or against the proposal. Previously, as secretary of state, she was in favor of it.

Progressives are promising this will be a defining issue for them next election cycle and beyond — one they will use as a stringent litmus test for candidates.

“We know that our members are deeply committed to this issue,” Krebs said. “I think you will see that leading into the 2016 discussion even more.”

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On a recent morning at Sakuma Brothers Farm, eight Latino workers sat on a bench seat behind a tractor, planting strawberry roots that will bear fruit in a few years. Dust masks and goggles covered their faces.

Sakuma Brothers runs fruit operations in Washington state and in California, selling berries to top brands like Driscoll’s, Haagen-Dazs and Yoplait. The four-generation family farm is an institution in this part of the state.

But the farm lately has faced lawsuits, worker strikes and consumer boycotts, which have largely yielded victories for its workers. The disputes have caught the attention of farm owners and labor groups across the county. And a pending Washington State Supreme Court ruling on how Sakuma handles rest breaks could prompt farm workers to bring similar lawsuits against their employers elsewhere.

Some workers at Sakuma Brothers say that what’s needed is a union contract. They’re asking for a legally binding agreement on wages, and for a flat rate of $15 per hour for all harvesters, instead of the current system that pays workers by the pound for how much they pick — what’s called a piece rate.

They also want the contract to define a grievance system, medical coverage and payment of transportation costs for seasonal workers who migrate every year from California.

Ramon Torres, president of Familias Unidas Por la Justicia (Families United for Justice), says about 460 current and former Sakuma workers have joined this movement.

“We have families that have worked 10 to 11 years for Sakuma. Season after season, the same families come back to work here,” Torres says. Those families want to keep working here – but with a guarantee of fair conditions and wages, he says.

Rosalinda Guillen, a longtime labor organizer, grew up in these fields and has helped Torres’s group push for a contract.

The labor unrest flared up a few years back, when, for the first time, Sakuma brought in guest workers through the federal H-2A visa program. Local workers claimed the foreign crew displaced them and was paid better. The company disagreed. But the relationship became fraught, and longtime workers said they wanted to lock in some job security.

“This company has ruined a lot of the trust and the goodwill that they used to have,” Guillen said. “In order to build trust with workers again, they have to sign a union contract.”

Historically, farm worker contracts are difficult to achieve. Only about 2 percent of farm workers in the county are part of a union. California is the only major farm state that offers a legal framework for this type of union to operate. Which means that Familias Unidas in Washington state is charting an unusual path.

Torres and Guillen say they’re hopeful Sakuma will eventually come around.

“They say that they are a good neighbor and have been here as part of the Skagit Valley for five to six generations,” Guillen says. “So have we.”

Danny Weeden, Sakuma’s new CEO, has inherited this labor dispute at Sakuma and says he’s heard the workers’ message. As the first non-Sakuma ever at the helm, he’s one of the biggest changes at the farm this season. He came on to help the company at a turbulent time.

“For the most part we were doing the right things,” Weeden says. “We needed to change some things, too. And we’ve done that. And we’ve addressed that. And we’re going to continue to get better and better and better.”

They fired some managers and intensified training workshops. They added new benefits, including a housing stipend for workers who don’t live on the farm. They also plan to bring in more mobile health clinics and expand recreational programs. And – here’s the big one – they revamped how field workers get paid.

Weeden said Sakuma will still pay based on production, but more than before. Everyone will earn at least $10 an hour; faster berry pickers could make up to $27 an hour. They will also now pay for rest breaks, which is an issue in yet another pending court decision.

“Our most valued resource on our farm are our people and our workers,” Weeden says. “So that’s why our mantra is caring and compliance. That’s what’s going to get us for the long-term success of this company.”

Legal action prompted some of these changes. A federal class-action lawsuit forced Sakuma to pay out workers who said the farm shorted their wages. That settlement last year cost $850,000 and marked a rare win for farm labor. Familias Unidas has also won legal victories on claims that Sakuma retaliated against them in the company housing and in hiring practices.

As for the union, Weeden appears uninterested in further talks. He said that hit a dead end. And he says he believes the company is headed in a good direction.

Walking through the berry fields, Weeden and other managers say they rely heavily on the bilingual supervisors to help with worker issues. But they aim to get more directly involved, too.

On the walk, Rich Brim, company vice president, pulls out his phone.

“We believe in caring and compliance,” he says, parroting a company mantra.

The phone interpreted into Spanish: “Creemos en el cuidado y el cumplimiento.”

“I’ll practice that one,” Brim says. “And that’s a guarantee.”

Liz Jones is a reporter for NPR member station KUOW in Seattle. A version of this story first appeared on KUOW’s website.

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Just how much is Donald Trump worth?

“I’m really rich,” Trump declared during his presidential announcement Tuesday in New York at Trump Tower, one of the many buildings around the world donning his name.

But just how rich has always been a question. It was one before the real-estate mogul declared for president and, well, it remains a big question afterward, too, despite Trump holding up a one-page form declaring he is worth roughly $9 billion.

Trump has never liked to get specific about his wealth, but presidents and presidential candidates have no choice. Federal ethics law requires them to file annual disclosure reports, including a financial disclosure form 30 days after officially announcing.

“A lot of pundits on television said he’ll never run,” Trump boasted. “He’s too private, and he’s probably not as successful as everybody thinks.”

And with that, he brandished his answer: a one-page “Summary of Net Worth,” which he said was produced­ by his accounts and a “big accounting firm, one of the most highly respected.”

The summary puts Trump’s assets at $9.24 billion and his liabilities at just $503 million, giving him a net worth of just over $8.7 billion.

That’s more than double an estimate from the Forbes list of billionaires, which pegged it at $4.1 billion. But, particularly at this level of personal wealth, the numbers released hardly tell the whole story. The one-page summary makes it difficult to unravel how the math is calculated. Specific buildings, real estate and holdings are not itemized, like they are required to be in a more detailed candidate financial disclosure.

The properties Trump owns can be assessed at book value — roughly speaking, the initial cost minus depreciation — or they can be assessed at fair-market value. The real-estate market can be volatile, and sometimes there are big gaps, especially if the real estate is Trump Tower and the Grand Hyatt hotel in midtown Manhattan.

Trump appears to be leaving millions of dollars on the table, a real-estate investment adviser said, by paying off his mortgage debt rather than using low-interest loans to leverage the real estate for reinvestment.

Another questioned whether the real-estate values might be overstated. Both advisers asked to speak on the condition on anonymity.

“There’s not enough information to really understand it,” said Frederick Chinn, an advisor at the Atalon Group in Henderson, Nev. “There are a lot of questions I would have just looking at the statement.”

Then there’s the value of the Trump brand. Trump’s statement judges his “real estate licensing deals, brand and branded developments” to be worth $3.3 billion.

But to Forbes, the brand is worth less than $300 million, said Anand Chokkavelu, managing editor of the Motley Fool investing website Fool.com.

“I side with Forbes,” Chokkavelu said. “I don’t see any reason to take his self-reported net worth at face value.”

Trump has a July 16 deadline for filing the official disclosure. He said he would do it on time.

“Everything will be filed eventually with the government,” Trump declared at his announcement, “and we don’t [need] extensions or anything. We’ll be filing it right on time. We don’t need anything.”

There are legal liabilities for misreporting. Although the feds can grant deadline extensions, Fox News might not. It has a Republican debate scheduled Aug. 6, and candidates must file if they want to participate.

But even when a candidate files a more detailed disclosure, accuracy is hard to nearly impossible to enforce, watchdogs warn. Newt Gingrich in 2011, for example, filed a disclosure that did not list his paid speeches or television analyst contract. They were lumped in with income from Gingrich Productions, obscuring the details.

“Once you throw your hat in that ring, there’s a bunch of laws that are supposed to apply to you, not all of them are enforced with the same level of rigor,” Bill Allison, a senior fellow at the Sunlight Foundation, told NPR’s Joel Rose. “And the financial disclosure is one of those areas where candidates have a lot of leeway to fudge the numbers.”

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