It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, February 08, 2020
FOREVER CHEMICALS NC State researchers find high levels of firefighting foam chemical in Cape Fear bass By Adam Wagner, The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Striped bass caught in the Cape Fear River and tested for “forever chemicals” had levels of a substance known for its use in firefighting foam that were among the highest ever seen in fish, scientists from N.C. State University reported in a study published Friday.
Blood from 58 striped bass caught in the Cape Fear River had more than 40 times the PFAS of blood from striped bass raised at the Pamlico Aquaculture Field Laboratory, the study found. And it showed that fish with higher levels of the chemicals tended to have increased activity in their livers and immune systems.
PFAS — per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — are a family of chemicals that have raised concerns across the country due to their persistence in the environment and impacts on human health. PFOA and PFOS, two of the most-common kinds of PFAS, have been linked to increased cholesterol, low infant birth weights and suppressed immune function, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. PFOA also increases risk for some cancers.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has responded to concerns about PFAS exposure from eating fish by setting consumption advisory levels for PFOA, PFOS and PFNA. North Carolina has not set such levels, a state health department spokeswoman said, but is in communication with researchers who are studying the fish.
While there is a longstanding moratorium on striped bass in the Cape Fear River, the new study said it is likely that largemouth bass, catfish and other species also have high PFAS levels. People who eat fish caught in the river could be ingesting those chemicals, said Scott Belcher, the N.C. State toxicologist whose lab performed the study.
“I don’t object to people making the leap that, yes, it’s in the blood, it’s going to be in the tissues,” Belcher said, adding that levels in tissue will be lower than those in blood.
The striped bass study was a collaboration between the N.C. Center for Human Health and the Environment, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. It was published Friday in Environment International.
Cape Fear striped bassFarmed striped bass
Total PFAS551 ppb13.6 ppb
PFOS 490 ppb9.4 ppb
GenX1.91 ppb (in 48% of fish)1.64 ppb (10.3% of fish)
Nafion byproduct 20.3 ppb (in 78% of fish)Not detected
New Jersey’s fish advisory
Last year, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services mailed surveys to every household within 10 miles of Chemours’ Fayetteville Works plant. Of the 1,858 responses, about 310 people said they had stopped fishing altogether since learning about GenX and other PFAS. Roughly the same number of people had given up gardening.
“These results indicate a need to better understand whether GenX or other PFAS are found in local produce or fish, and if so at what levels,” a DHHS press release about the survey stated.
In New Jersey, the state Department of Environmental Protection tested tissue samples from various fish species for three kinds of PFAS: PFOA, PFOS and PFNA. It established consumption advisories that are issued if fish are found to have elevated PFAS levels.
The department issues an advisory, for example, if PFOS is detected in tissue at levels above 17 ppb. At that level, the general public is told to eat the fish no more than once every three months. High-risk individuals such as children, pregnant women and nursing mothers are told to avoid the fish entirely. At 51 ppb, New Jersey residents are told to eat one of the fish annually.
North Carolina has not issued any such advisories or set PFAS levels for the fish found in its rivers and streams.
In a prepared statement, Kelly Haight Connor, a DHHS spokeswoman, wrote, “There are currently no fish consumption advisories for PFAS in the Cape Fear, although this may change as new data emerge. DHHS is aware of ongoing studies at (N.C. State) and remains in communication with the researchers to better inform fish consumption advisories throughout North Carolina.”
DHHS typically sets fish consumption advisories at the request of the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality or a local health department.
If such a request is made, DHHS develops a sampling plan based on the fish consumed in the area and the known contamination. It reviews the sampling data, calculates potential exposures, then determines if an advisory is necessary and what limits should be.
Belcher’s lab plans to launch a study this spring with Duke University’s Superfund Research Center that will look at fishermen along the Cape Fear, what they eat and contamination levels. While they may not be eating striped bass, Belcher said, fish like shad, catfish and sunfish are being caught.
“We’re trying to tackle that question of who’s eating what and how, so we can work with (the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality) and other regulatory agencies to come up with some really rational guidelines,” Belcher said.
Chemicals in striped bass
Belcher said his lab plans to study PFAS concentrations in fish tissue and already has some samples. Generally, he said, concentrations in tissue samples are lower than those found in the serum.
While the striped bass study, which was part of North Carolina’s PFAS Testing Network, did not go as far as showing that PFAS caused the increased liver or immune system activity in the striped bass, there was a strong correlation between the chemicals and the increased activity.
“We’re seeing exactly the same sorts of impacts or the same associations with increasing concentrations as we’re seeing in mammals,” Belcher said.
Striped bass in the Cape Fear River have been under a harvest moratorium since 2008 in an effort to help the population recover. Surveys taken in the years before the moratorium showed that the population was not adding young fish and adults were not spawning.
PFOA and PFOS have historically been used in a wide range of products due to their water-resistant features and ability to withstand extreme conditions — the same traits that make them unlikely to break down once they are released into the environment.
PFOS, for example, was used in Scotchgard, on stain-resistant carpets and in firefighting foam. PFOA, also known as C8, was used to make Teflon cookware and other water- and stain-resistant products such as coats and carpets before DuPont replaced it with GenX.
GenX, the chemical that was discharged from the Fayetteville Works plant since at least 1980, averaged levels of 1.91 ppb in the Cape Fear striped bass. Nafion byproduct 2, another chemical associated with Fayetteville Works, averaged 0.3 ppb.
N.C. State researchers who conducted blood tests in Wilmington previously said Nafion byproduct 2 was one of four PFAS they believed was unique to residents of the area, according to the Wilmington StarNews. It was found in 99% of the samples taken from 345 New Hanover County residents.
Levels of both GenX and Nafion byproduct 2 in striped bass were significantly higher than the levels found in surface water samples nearby, meaning the chemicals are building up in the fish. GenX levels were 136 times higher in the striped bass blood than in the surface water, while Nafion byproduct 2 levels were 17 times higher.
“They are still persistent,” Belcher said.
The Nafion finding is particularly notable, the study said, because the molecule is structurally similar to PFOS, and higher levels of Nafion byproduct 2 were associated with higher levels of liver enzyme activity in the striped bass.
“These findings,” the study stated, “suggest that Nafion byproduct 2 exposures may also alter and adversely impact liver function.”
This reporting is financially supported by Report for America/GroundTruth Project and The North Carolina Local News Lab Fund, a component fund of the North Carolina Community Foundation. The News & Observer maintains full editorial control of the work. To support the future of this reporting, subscribe or donate.
Researchers from North Carolina State University have found elevated levels of 11 per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) chemicals in the blood of Cape Fear River striped bass. Two of those compounds—perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and Nafion byproduct 2—are associated with altered immune and liver functions in those fish.
Scott Belcher, associate professor of biology and corresponding author of a paper describing the research, led a team that included NC State colleagues Detlef Knappe, Ben Reading and postdoctoral researcher Theresa Guillette as well as partners from the North Carolina Wildlife Commission and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The team isolated serum from the blood of 58 wild caught Cape Fear River striped bass ranging in age from 2 to 7 years old. In collaboration with EPA researchers Mark Stryner and James McCord, they determined the concentrations of 23 different PFAS chemicals present in the serum using a combination of liquid chromatography and high-resolution mass spectrometry.
"Testing blood levels gives you an idea of the 'body burden' of these particular chemicals," Belcher says. "The levels of these chemicals in the water were measured in parts per trillion, but in the serum of the fish levels are higher and in parts per billion, demonstrating that they have clearly bioaccumulated in these fish."
The team then compared the blood serum samples from the wild caught fish to those from a reference population of 29 striped bass raised in an aquaculture facility fed by ground water. "The serum levels of chemicals in the wild caught bass were 40% higher, on average, than the background levels found in this reference population," Belcher says.
In comparison to the levels of PFAS found in Cape Fear River water, elevated levels of PFOS and Nafion byproduct 2 were found in 100% and 78% of the wild bass samples, respectively. The serum concentrations of these compounds were associated with biomarkers of altered liver enzyme activity and immune function in those fish.
"These PFAS levels are some of the highest recorded in fish," Belcher says, "but one of the most unusual findings here is that smaller or younger fish had the highest levels of these compounds. This points to the fact that PFAS chemicals are very different from other persistent chemicals, like mercury or PCBs. They have unique and very different chemical properties that cause them to bioaccumulate differently, and we're really just beginning to understand why and how they do what they do."
More information: T.C. Guillette et al, Elevated levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in Cape Fear River Striped Bass (Morone saxatilis) are associated with biomarkers of altered immune and liver function, Environment International (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2019.105358
Approximately 40 students and staffers at Silver Lake Regional High School in Kingston were taken by ambulance to local hospitals after becoming nauseous from the odor, according to Boston ABC affiliate WCVB.
Dozens of ambulances were use the ferry the sick to area hospitals throughout the morning and afternoon.
Many of the students had to leave books and book bags behind.
In addition to nausea, symptoms included dizziness, scratchy throat, and watery eyes, witnesses said.
"They just felt really lightheaded and nauseous," one student told WCVB.
"I saw a girl in a wheelchair," said another student. "And that's when we were all like, 'OK, what's going on?'"
Authorities were not immediately able to determine what caused the odor, said fire officials in Kingston, about 40 miles south of Boston.
The school was closed after the incident, and basketball games scheduled for Friday afternoon were canceled.
The building will be professionally cleaned over the weekend, WCVB reported.
AS A CUSTODIAN I HAVE TO ASK WHO WAS CLEANING THE SCHOOL BEFORE
THEY CONTRACTED OUT THIS SPECIALIZED CLEANUP WHICH ANY COMPETENT CUSTODIAN CAN DO.
Officials said they believed everyone who felt sick will make a full recovery.
TRUMP WON OVER THE SO CALLED RUSSIAGATE MULLER REPORT WITH NO COLLUSION CLAIMS TRUMP WON IMPEACHMENT ACQUITTAL BECAUSE OF HIS BACKING BY REPUBLICANS DEMOCRATS BEING LIBERALS, LIKE BIDEN, STILL BELIEVE THE SYSTEM WORKS WHICH TRUMP PROVES DOES NOT ONLY A COMPLETE ELECTORAL BLUE TSUNAMI TAKING OUT REPUBLICANS AND TRUMP MUST BE THE AIM OF ALL DEMOCRATS INCLUDING THOSE RUNNING FOR POTUS.
Photo of Trump with pale ring around orange face prompts ridicule, hilarity and Panda comparisons
Donald Trump on the south lawn of the White House on 7 February 2020: EPA
It may be the middle of winter in the northern hemisphere, but Donald Trump’s radiant salmon-coloured suntan has not dimmed even one lumen.
The president’s curious complexion has long been a subject of intense scrutiny, chiefly among critics and comedians, with Mr Trump previously blaming his heightened facial luminosity on the glare of energy efficient lightbulbs – which he then threatened to ban.
But a new photograph of the president outside on a windy day away from any source of artificial lighting, has delivered important new evidence on the matter, revealing the full extent of his dermal colour scheme – which does not even reach the edge of his face
The bats are out of the belfry and terrorizing Australians.
Tens of thousands of the menacing mammals are frightening the residents of Ingham, Queensland, with their looming presence, reported news.com.au.
The massive fruit bat colony has been hovering over the town of 4,300 for days now.
The fearsome flock has swooped in on the town’s botanical gardens and is perched in trees near schools. Even more worrisome for residents is that the colony appears to be expanding.
“It’s like a bat tornado over the town,” explained resident Adam Kaurila, who is considering yanking his two daughters out of school over bat exposure and scratch alarms.
The biggest concern when it comes to bat bites and scratches is lyssavirus, a disease similar to rabies.
Three cases have been confirmed Down Under — all fatal.
Kaurila’s wife also expressed apprehension for her kids’ safety.
"They’re not stepping a foot in that ground until something is, we know that is, being done, said his wife, Susanne.
Bats are a protected species under Queensland law, meaning the city council is limited in how it can manage them.
While nonlethal methods such as noise, smoke and light are effective deterrents, they can’t be utilized while the bats are breeding, according to news.com.au.
In Charters Towers — located about 150 miles southwest of Ingham, residents there are also coping with a severe bat problem.
One Aussie politician says enough is enough.
“There comes a point where I think breaking the law really becomes ‘dogging it,’ as we say in North Queensland,” said state representative Bob Katter. “And I think that point has probably been reached.” WHICH RESULTS IN THISRare flying foxes shot in 'horrific' Australia attack
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SEPTEMBER 24, 2019
Bats starving to death in Australia drought
A fruit bat rescued from drought by Queensland Bats is nursed back to health at their wildlife centre on Australia's Gold Coast
Large numbers of bats are being found severely emaciated or starved to death in Australia amid a prolonged drought that is crippling their food supply, according to wildlife carers and environment officials.
There has been a "rapid increase" in the number of stricken native flying foxes found in areas of Queensland and New South Wales over the past two weeks, rescue group Bats Queensland told AFP.
Volunteer wildlife carer Ashley Fraser said Tuesday that parts of the picturesque Gold Coast, a popular tourist destination, were currently "littered" with hundreds of dead bats.
Though there have been cases of mass bat starvation in the region before, Fraser said her organisation had never dealt with an event on this scale.
"We can expect to see it get worse as well," she told AFP.
"The changing climate is going to worsen the drought and make it a pretty poor environment for bats to try to survive in."
Some flying fox species are listed as vulnerable to extinction. They are also a key pollinator of eucalyptus trees, the koala's main food source.
Queensland's Department of Environment and Science told AFP that officials believed the deaths were linked to the impact on the bats' food supply of the extended drought, as well as recent bushfires and storms.
A fruit bat hangs in a cage at a rescue centre in Gold Coast, Australia
Fraser said many of the flying foxes rescued by Bats Queensland were so emaciated their bodies had begun shutting down beyond the point of repair, forcing carers to euthanise them.
Even for those deemed fit enough to survive up to seven weeks of rehabilitation, the future remains uncertain.
"We don't want to be releasing them if there's not the food sources out there," Fraser said.
All of New South Wales and two-thirds of Queensland have been declared as in drought, with the Bureau of Meteorology predicting below-average rainfall across much of Australia's east for the rest of the year.
Thousands of flying foxes died across Australia during the last southern hemisphere summer in a series of colony collapses caused by heat stress.
The increasingly common phenomenon is the result of extreme temperatures, which cause the bats to fall from trees as their brains boil and they succumb to the heat.
FRUIT BAT – FAMILY PTEROPODIDAE DESCRIPTION
The Fruit Bat falls into the category of the Megabat and sometimes they are called the Flying Fox in some locations. There are many differences in their size from one location to the next. Due to that variation these bats are often mistaken for many different types rather than being identified as the same.
For example some Fruits Bats are no more than two inches long. Others though are more than 16 inches in length. Some of them only weigh an ounce or two and others weigh in at a couple of pounds. The overall wing length of the Fruit Bat can be more than five feet. These bats have large eyes and they also have excellent vision.
ANATOMY
In fact, the Fruit Bat is said to have the best overall vision of all bat species. They use their vision in conjunction with their sense of smell so that they are able to find their food sources. These senses also serve to help them avoid dangerous situations. They are a big type of bat and they are said to be among the most unique of the more than 1,200 species that have so far been identified.
The Fruit Bat have the best overall vision of all bat species.
The Fruit Bat has some sharp teeth that allow it to penetrate the skin of the fruits. They also have very long tongues that unroll when they are feeding. When they aren’t eating the tongue rolls back up. It is tucked away internally around the rib cage rather than remaining in the mouth.
The shape of the wings on Fruit Bats can be very different based on location. Many experts believe that this type of anatomy difference has to do with the fact that they live in different areas and have different types of fruit trees that they eat from. The wings may be certain designs to help compensate for wind and other elements in their natural environment.
EVOLUTION
Since most species of bats consume insects, the Fruit Bat is one that people are interested in. It is believed that they turned to eating in such a manner in order to help them survive. Circumstances could have warranted them deciding to consume a different type of food source in order to compensate for not enough insects being around.
The evolution process though is one which can be very complex. We simply don’t have enough information to make accurate determinations. Experts are hopeful though that one day they will find additional clues that put it all into perspective for them.
Fruit bat – Family Pteropodidae.
BEHAVIOR
The very long wings of the Fruit Bat do much more than just allow it to fly. They also allow them to stay warm during roosting. They wrap up in those wings to conserve their body heat. They live in colonies that are very large in size because they feel safer with numbers.
Inside of each colony of Fruit Bats though you will find various sub colonies. Each of them has one male and approximately eight females. They form very close bonds with their sub groups.
HABITAT AND DISTRIBUTION
There are locations throughout the world where the Fruit Bat is able to successfully thrive. They tend to live in areas that offer them plenty of food. Where you find thick forest regions with lots of fruit trees, you can be confident they are in abundance. Most of them live in warmer climates where they can take advantage of various fruits that will grow throughout the year.
They may have to travel for long distances during certain times of the year in order to find food.
They may have to travel for long distances during certain times of the year in order to find food. They will make the journey back to their roost though before the sun comes up. Sometimes such efforts don’t leave the Fruit Bat much time at all to find lots of food though.
When the Fruit Bat roosts during the day, they do so high up in the trees. This gives them darkness and it also protects them from various predators. They may hide in crevices and other dark spaces as well. They will typically stay close to bodies of water. Indian flying fox – Pteropus giganteus.
DIET AND FEEDING HABITS
They use both vision and smell to find food.
There are hundreds of known types of fruits that grow on plants and trees that the Fruit Bat is able to consume. They don’t eat all of the fruit though like so many people believe that they do. Instead, they use their teeth to crush into the fruit. Then they will consume the nectar.
They use both vision and smell to find food. There is one known subspecies though that is believed to rely on echolocation to find their sources of food. With a Fruit Bat they can either linger in air and eat or they can land and eat it. The larger they are in size though the more difficult it is to consume food without landing first.
REPRODUCTION
Once mating has occurred they will carry the young in their bodies for about six months. The females will give birth to only one young at a time. It is going to be fully dependent upon her as the wings aren’t strong enough until they are six weeks old for flying.
The young will stay with their mother, even when she is out looking for food. They will cling to her body with claws that allow them to effortlessly remain in place. The Fruit Bat won’t take part in mating when they are struggling for habitat or to find food. It is believed this is a natural process for them that allows them to ensure overpopulation doesn’t occur in any given area where they live.
Due to the location where the Fruit Bar lives they don’t have too many natural predators. Sometimes they do encounter them though depending on their location. Various types of birds including the hawk and eagle can attack them while still in flight. Sometimes in the trees they may be eaten by snakes or weasels.
Sometimes in the trees they may be eaten by snakes or weasels.
In some areas the Fruit Bat lives very close to humans. Therefore it is possible for house cats to get them as well. In fact, some people don’t even know they have bats living in their trees until they end up finding their cat carrying one around with them.
Humans are also predators of the Fruit Bat. People that realize they have such creatures living in their trees take measures to get rid of them. These bats can get into the attic or other areas of the home as well. Usually a professional exterminator is called to remove them and to clean up after them.
Humans that want the fruit from these trees to themselves also don’t want the Fruit Bats around. However, it is important for humans to realize that the Fruit Bat helps to create more fruit by dispensing the seeds. When they fly around they will spit them out all over the place.
FRUIT BAT INFOGRAPHIC!
Treasury Department sent information on Hunter Biden to expanding GOP Senate inquiry
The Treasury Department has complied with Republican senators’ requests for highly sensitive and closely held financial records about Hunter Biden and his associates and has turned over “‘evidence’ of questionable origin” to them, according to a leading Democrat on one of the committees conducting the investigation.
For months, while the impeachment controversy raged, powerful committee chairmen in the Republican-controlled Senate have been quietly but openly pursuing an inquiry into Hunter Biden’s business affairs and Ukrainian officials’ alleged interventions in the 2016 election, the same matters that President Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani unsuccessfully tried to coerce Ukraine’s government to investigate.
Hunter Biden in 2016. (Teresa Kroeger/Getty Images for World Food Program USA)
Unlike Trump and Giuliani, however, Sens. Charles Grassley, chairman of the Finance Committee; Ron Johnson, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee; and Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, have focused their efforts in Washington, seeking to extract politically useful information from agencies of the U.S. government. They’ve issued letters requesting records from Cabinet departments and agencies, including the State Department, the Treasury, the Justice Department, the FBI, the National Archives and the Secret Service.
Grassley and Johnson have sought to obtain some of the most sensitive and closely held documents in all of federal law enforcement — highly confidential suspicious activity reports (SARs) filed by financial institutions with FinCEN, an agency of the Treasury that helps to police money laundering.
The senators’ requests to the Treasury have borne fruit, according to the ranking Democratic senator on the Finance Committee, Ron Wyden of Oregon, who contrasted the cooperation given to the Republican senators with the pervasive White House-directed stonewall that House Democrats encountered when they subpoenaed documents and witnesses in the impeachment inquiry.
“Applying a blatant double standard, Trump administration agencies like the Treasury Department are rapidly complying with Senate Republican requests — no subpoenas necessary — and producing ‘evidence’ of questionable origin,” Wyden spokesperson Ashley Schapitl said in a statement. “The administration told House Democrats to go pound sand when their oversight authority was mandatory while voluntarily cooperating with the Senate Republicans’ sideshow at lightning speed.”
Sen. Ron Wyden during President Trump's impeachment trial on Jan. 30. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
The “rapid” production of sensitive financial information from the Treasury Department in response to congressional requests is apparently uncommon. A source familiar with the matter said the Treasury began turning over materials less than two months after Grassley and Johnson wrote to FinCEN on Nov. 15, 2019, requesting any SARs and related documents filed by financial institutions regarding Hunter Biden, his associates, their businesses and clients.
Just a couple of weeks later, Wyden and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, complained to FinCEN in a letter that “information requests from Congress, including legitimate Committee oversight requests related to Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs), often take months to process, and we understand that certain such requests have yet to be answered at all.”
“Sen. Wyden’s warning was spurred by concern that the agency would prioritize Republican requests over Democratic requests,” Schapitl said of the December letter to FinCEN. “Treasury’s subsequent actions have made his concerns even more urgent.”
“It's strange that any senator would complain about receiving responses to oversight requests in a timely manner,” a Grassley spokesperson said to BuzzFeed News on Thursday.
"The Democrats launched a nuclear weapon with impeachment, and then wanted to negotiate while it was in the air — that’s not how oversight works," a Republican Senate aide said, responding to Wyden's comments about a double standard between the GOP investigation and the impeachment inquiry.
Republicans also noted that Sen. Grassley had first raised his concerns about a DNC contractor potentially coordinating with Ukraine in a 2017 letter to the Justice Department.
"Senate Republicans’ investigation ramped up just as the House impeachment investigation ramped up," Schapitl said, "providing an avenue for them to pursue the trumped-up investigation President Zelensky did not announce in the face of President Trump’s extortion scheme."
With the Senate impeachment trial concluded and the Democratic primaries in full swing, the efforts of the Republican-led investigation may soon appear at the center of the political stage. The flow of information from the administration to Senate Republicans has prompted concerns among Democrats that any damaging information uncovered may be deployed at a time of maximum political advantage for the Trump campaign.
“Republicans are turning the Senate into an arm of the president’s political campaign, pursuing an investigation designed to further President Trump’s favorite conspiracy theory that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election and smear Vice President Biden,” Schapitl said. The Biden presidential campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A series of letters and public statements shows that since last autumn the senators have been pursuing a wide-ranging joint inquiry into Hunter Biden’s business affairs in Ukraine at the time his father, Vice President Joe Biden, was leading the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy and into the activities of Ukrainian officials and a Ukrainian-American Democratic political operative during the 2016 election. Then-Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter at a basketball game in 2010. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Aside from the statement from Wyden’s office, there has been scant information about what investigators have uncovered, if anything. Wyden’s statement stopped short of saying whether the “‘evidence’ of questionable origin” produced in compliance with the senators’ request included SARs.
The Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 mandates that banks generate SARs to report to FinCEN any transactions that they know or have reason to suspect violate federal criminal laws or are connected to money laundering. SARs are among the most confidential, closely held documents in federal law enforcement. They are forbidden to be disclosed or have their existence disclosed by banks or government authorities, are exempt from the Freedom of Information Act and are privileged in most cases from discovery by civil litigants.
Because SARs may be, and indeed are required to be, filed simply on the basis of a reasonable suspicion of illegal activity, the existence of a SAR doesn’t indicate that illegal activity has actually occurred.
The Republican Senate staff conducting the investigation did not respond to inquiries, and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee declined to comment. Treasury, State and Justice did not respond to inquiries. The FBI declined to comment.
The National Archives and Records Administration said that it had not turned over any records to the Senate yet, but that a review of the request by the White House and the office of President Barack Obama, which has purview over some of the records, is ongoing. “NARA has been in regular contact with committee staff,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
The Secret Service, which only received its request from the Republican investigators after the acquittal vote of the president on Wednesday, could not be immediately reached for comment.
From their letters, it’s clear that the senators’ inquiry into the Bidens deals with the same subject matter that Trump and Giuliani’s pressure campaign sought to place under scrutiny. Their interest in suspected Ukrainian influences on the 2016 election, however, has a different point of emphasis.
Instead of the debunked CrowdStrike conspiracy theory that Trump alluded to on his call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky or similar unsubstantiated theories positing that Ukraine was somehow behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee, the senators have focused on a controversial January 2017 Politico article that alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 presidential election to help Hillary Clinton defeat Trump.
The article relied heavily on the allegations of Andrii Telizhenko, then a diplomat in the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, who said he was asked by Alexandra Chalupa, a Democratic Party consultant, to get dirt on Paul Manafort, who was then the campaign manager for Trump. Telizhenko has since cast himself as a central figure in Giuliani’s Ukraine investigations.
Rudy Giuliani and Andrii Telizhenko in a photo posted last May 22. (Andrii Telizhenko via Facebook)
The Politico article has been seized on by Trump’s defenders as evidence that there was Ukrainian interference in the U.S. presidential election similar to the Kremlin-directed influence campaign.
“Whether there’s a connection between Democratic operatives and Ukrainian officials during the 2016 election has yet to be determined,” Graham said in a December statement. “It will only be found by looking. We intend to look.”
National security officials who served in the Trump administration have rejected the notion that Ukrainian efforts against Trump were coordinated or could be reasonably be likened to Russia’s systematic election interference campaign, which intelligence agencies have assessed was led by President Vladimir Putin himself.
“It is a fiction that the Ukrainian government was launching an effort to upend our election, upend our election to mess with our Democratic systems,” Fiona Hill, a former National Security Council official in Trump’s White House, testified at her House deposition in October.
Yet throughout the fall and early winter, Republican senators peppered executive branch officials with request letters on both the Bidens and the Ukraine interference theory that Hill had implored Congress to avoid.
Grassley and Johnson courted controversy with a letter to the Justice Department seeking to obtain a broad swath of information that Chalupa, the Democratic Party consultant, says she voluntarily provided to the FBI in 2016 when she felt harassed by Russian hacking.
In a January response letter to the Justice Department, Wyden called the request “outrageous.”
“To use [Chalupa’s] voluntary cooperation in order to weaponize her personal information against her in furtherance of a political attack based on unsupported claims and potential Russian propaganda would compromise public trust in our law enforcement, undermine Americans’ rights, and damage our national security interests,” he wrote.
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Winners and losers from the New Hampshire Democratic debate
LOSER
Joe Biden: Rarely do you see a candidate begin a debate by waving the white flag, but that’s kind of what Biden did on Friday. At the start of the debate, Biden acknowledged he took “a hit in Iowa, and I’ll probably take a hit here. Traditionally, Bernie won by 20 points last time.” Okay, maybe that’s some expectation-setting, but usually you see that on the trail rather than in a high-profile debate in front of a bunch of would-be voters.
As the debate wore on, Biden didn’t really do much to suggest his prediction was wrong. He rebutted an answer about the politics of the past by saying, “The politics of the past, I think, are not all that bad.” He proceeded to try to rescue the point by noting significant legislation he had participated in. Then Buttigieg shot back just as quickly, “Those achievements were phenomenally important because they met the moment, but now we have to meet this moment and this moment is different.” At another particularly puzzling moment, Biden predicted Congress would codify Roe v. Wade if the Supreme Court overturned it, which … seems pretty optimistic given the politics of abortion.
Biden tries really hard to emphasize that the past shows what can be done in the future, but you wonder how many people are buying it. Mostly, though, there was nothing Friday night to suggest Biden would arrest his backward momentum — in New Hampshire or anywhere else.
MORE APPOINTMENTS FROM MAR A LAGO Trump appoints admiral with Miami ties as recovery czar for Puerto Rico
As Puerto Rico is struggling to recover from hurricanes and earthquakes, the White House confirmed on Friday that it’s appointing U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Peter Brown as its liaison for the island.
In a statement, the White House said Brown “will coordinate United States Government efforts to build the infrastructure and resiliency of Puerto Rico.”
The U.S. territory of 3.2 million people has been hit by a series of natural and political disasters in recent years that are strangling its economy.
In 2017, Hurricane Maria razed parts of the island and destroyed the electrical grid. In August 2019, Gov. Ricardo Rosselló stepped down amid mass protests sparked by corruption allegations. More recently the island has been rattled by a series of earthquakes that peaked on Jan. 7 with a magnitude 6.4 quake, and that have destroyed hundreds of buildings.
To complicate matters, island authorities have only had access to a fraction of the $48.5 billion in recovery funds that Congress has approved since. And Trump routinely vilifies local officials as corrupt and inefficient, amid burgeoning scandals.
Brown’s appointment as Special Representative for Puerto Rico’s Disaster Recovery comes as the House of Representatives on Friday passed a bill that would provide more than $4.7 billion for education, transportation, infrastructure repairs, and disaster relief measures.
Trump has already signaled that he will veto the bill — if it passes the Senate.
Brown will work across White House offices, including the Office of Legislative Affairs, the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, and Office of Management and Budget as he supervises recovery work, the White House said.
In addition, Brown will work with Puerto Rico officials and Congress “to ensure that their concerns are communicated to the appropriate departments and agencies and to ensure the resources of hardworking taxpayers are effectively used to help the people of Puerto Rico,” the White House said.
Miami Ties
On Tuesday, Brown met with Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez and the island’s non-voting member of the House or Representatives, Jenniffer González.
Brown joined the White House in July 2019 as the Homeland Security and Counter-terrorism Advisor. Prior to that, he was the Commander of the Seventh Coast Guard District headquartered in Miami, where he was responsible for all Coast Guard operations in the Southeast United States and the Caribbean Basin.
A career Coast Guard officer, Brown’s first duty station was in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and he has served more than half his 34-year career in the Caribbean.
Arizona national monument being blown up for border wall
Audrey McNamara
A national monument in Arizona, home to rare species and sacred Native American burial sites, is being blown up this week as part of construction for President Trump's border wall, Customs and Border Protection confirmed to CBS News. "Controlled blasting" inside Arizona's Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument began this week without consultation from the Native American nation whose ancestral land it affects, according to the congressman whose district includes the reservation.
"There has been no consultation with the nation," said Congressman Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, who is the chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources and whose district contains the reservation and shares 400 miles of border with Mexico. "This administration is basically trampling on the tribe's history — and to put it poignantly, it's ancestry."
Customs and Border Protection told CBS News that the blasts are in preparation for "new border wall system construction, within the Roosevelt Reservation at Monument Mountain in the U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson Sector."
The explosions are occurring on Monument Hill, a burial site for the Tohono O'odham Nation, according to Grijalva.
The border wall cannot be constructed on the Native American reservation because it is private land. The nation's burial sites, however, which Grijalva said are "immediately adjacent" to the reservation, are on public land, making them fair game for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Customs and Border Protection.
Grijalva sent a letter to Homeland Security on January 7, expressing his "serious concerns" over the wall's construction on historically tribal land. He urged the department to consult the nation "government-to-government," before moving forward with construction.
He has not heard back.
"There's been stonewalling, no response for any request," he said.
Weeks before construction began, Grijalva — along with Tohono O'odham elders, chairman Ned Norris Jr, and archaeologists — toured the nation's sacred ceremonial sites, located within Organ Pipe. The group saw rock piles and burial sites with bone fragments dating back thousands of years. One burial site, known as Las Playas, contained artifacts that go back 10,000 years.
"What we saw on Monument Hill was opposing tribes who were respectfully laid to rest — that is the one being blasted with dynamite," Grijalva said.
In addition to the monument's cultural significance, the land is also a designated UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, an international effort to "conserve samples of the world's ecosystems."
"The Organ Pipe Cactus Biosphere Reserve is a first-generation biosphere reserve created in 1976 for the conservation of the unique resources representing a pristine example of an intact Sonoran Desert ecosystem," according to the National Park Service's website. "The biosphere designation has helped to attract scientists from around the world to Organ Pipe Cactus to conduct a variety of important studies to help us better understand the Sonoran Desert and the impact of humans on this amazing landscape."
Like other remote land that the border wall will bisect, many people are concerned with how the unnatural barrier will irreparably impact Organ Pipe's unique habitat.
Customs and Border Patrol says they have an "environmental monitor" present during the blasts and other "on-going clearing activities," but would not clarify to CBS News what the monitor is doing, or who they are.
The Trump administration has been able to legally construct the border wall over public land due in large part to a little known law passed in the wake of the 9/11.
The REAL ID Act of 2005 gives the federal government broad power to waive other laws that stand in the way of national security. Under REAL ID, the Trump administration has waived dozens of laws — including the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Environmental Protection Act — in its bid to construct the border wall.
"Of the 21 times the (REAL ID) waiver has been enacted since 2005, 16 of those instances have occurred in the last two and a half years," reads the letter Grijalva sent to Homeland Security.
According to the congressman, construction of the border wall has been expedited in Arizona due to an abundance of public land. In Texas, another border state, building the wall has been slowed because it is largely private land.
Efren Olivares, director of the racial and economic justice program at the Texas Civil Rights Project, told the Pacific Standard last year that the REAL ID has essentially eliminated federal laws protecting public land.
"The idea that the secretary of (the) DHS could come to your community and say no laws apply here, what kind of rule of law is that?" Olivares said. "People should be outraged to know that Homeland Security can wield that kind of power."
Grijalva said repealing REAL ID has been a priority of his for many years.
He plans to convene a hearing of the House Committee on Natural Resources' subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples in the coming weeks to address the impact of the wall — and waiver — on Native American communities.
In his letter to Homeland Security, Grijalva wrote: "Using this waiver to avoid essential federal government responsibilities to tribes is unnecessary, reckless, and counter to the Department's own policy."
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Coronavirus brings China's surveillance state out of the shadows
BEIJING/HONG KONG (Reuters) - When the man from Hangzhou returned home from a business trip, the local police got in touch. They had tracked his car by his license plate in nearby Wenzhou, which has had a spate of coronavirus cases despite being far from the epicenter of the outbreak. Stay indoors for two weeks, they requested.
After around 12 days, he was bored and went out early. This time, not only did the police contact him, so did his boss. He had been spotted near Hangzhou’s West Lake by a camera with facial recognition technology, and the authorities had alerted his company as a warning.
“I was a bit shocked by the ability and efficiency of the mass surveillance network. They can basically trace our movements with the AI technology and big data at any time and any place,” said the man, who asked not to be identified for fear of repercussions.
Chinese have long been aware that they are tracked by the world’s most sophisticated system of electronic surveillance. The coronavirus emergency has brought some of that technology out of the shadows, providing the authorities with a justification for sweeping methods of high tech social control.
Artificial intelligence and security camera companies boast that their systems can scan the streets for people with even low-grade fevers, recognize their faces even if they are wearing masks and report them to the authorities.
If a coronavirus patient boards a train, the railway’s “real name” system can provide a list of people sitting nearby.
Mobile phone apps can tell users if they have been on a flight or a train with a known coronavirus carrier, and maps can show them locations of buildings where infected patients live.
Although there has been some anonymous grumbling on social media, for now Chinese citizens seem to be accepting the extra intrusion, or even embracing it, as a means to combat the health emergency.
“In the circumstances, individuals are likely to consider this to be reasonable even if they are not specifically informed about it,” said Carolyn Bigg, partner at law firm DLA Piper in Hong Kong.
NEW TECHNOLOGIES
Telecoms companies have long quietly tracked the movements of their users. China Mobile promoted this as a service this week, sending text messages to Beijing residents telling them they can check where they have been over the past 30 days. It did not explain why users might need this, but it could be useful if they are questioned by the authorities or their employers about their travel.
“In the era of big data and internet, the flow of each person can be clearly seen. So we are different from the SARS time now,” epidemiologist Li Lanjuan said in an interview with China’s state broadcaster CCTV last week, comparing the outbreak to a virus that killed 800 people in 2003.
“With such new technologies, we should make full use of them to find the source of infection and contain the source of infection.”
The industry ministry sent a notice to China’s AI companies and research institutes this week calling on them to help fight the outbreak. Companies have responded with a flurry of announcements touting the capabilities of their technology.
Facial recognition firm Megvii said on Tuesday it had developed a new way to spot and identify people with fevers, with support from the industry and science ministries. Its new “AI temperature measurement system”, which detects temperature with thermal cameras and uses body and facial data to identify individuals, is already being tested in a Beijing district.
SenseTime, another leading AI firm, said it has built a similar system to be used at building entrances, which can identify people wearing masks, overcoming a weakness of earlier technology. Surveillance camera firm Zhejiang Dahua says it can detect fevers with infrared cameras to an accuracy within 0.3ºC.
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In an interview with state news agency Xinhua, Zhu Jiansheng of the China Academy of Railway Sciences explained how technology can help the authorities find people who might be exposed to a confirmed or suspected coronavirus case on a train.
“We will retrieve relevant information about the passenger, including the train number, carriage number and information on passengers who were close to the person, such as people sitting three rows of seats before and after the person,” he said.
“We will extract the information and then provide it to relevant epidemic prevention departments.”
© WCVB Ambulances respond to Silver Lake Regional High School in Kingston, Massachusetts, after about 40 students and staffers were overcome by a mysterious odor, Feb. 7, 2020.
Then-Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter at a basketball game in 2010. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
