Yang tells Dem rivals: 'Donald Trump is not the cause of all of our problems'

2020 presidential candidate entrepreneur Andrew Yang told his fellow Democrats that President Trump is not the cause of all the country's problems during Friday's New Hampshire debate and advised against continuing to obsess over him heading into the November election. 

 

© FoxNews.com 

Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang joins Neil Cavuto on 'CAVUTO Live.'

"You are missing the lesson of Donald Trump's victory," he began. "Donald Trump is not the cause of all of our problems and we are making a mistake when we act like he is. He is a symptom of a disease that has been building up in our communities for years and decades. And it is our job to get to the harder work of actually curing the disease."

Yang said voter frustration is driving traditionally Democrat voters into the arms of the GOP in states like Iowa and Ohio.

"Most Americans feel like the political parties have been playing, 'You lose, I lose. You lose, I lose' for years," he continued. "And you know who's been losing this entire time? We have. Our communities have. Our communities' way of life is disintegrating beneath our feet.

"That's why Iowa, a traditional swing state, went to Trump by almost 10 points. That's why Ohio, a traditional swing state, is now so red -- that I'm told we're not even going to campaign there," Yang added.

He also went after Amazon for not paying its fair share in taxes and said automation has hurt employment prospects for millions of Americans.

"These communities are seeing their way of life get blasted into smithereens," Yang explained. "We've automated away 4 million manufacturing jobs and counting. We're closing 30 percent of New Hampshire's stores and malls. And Amazon, the force behind that, is literally paying zero in taxes.

"These are the changes that Americans are seeing and feeling around us every day. And if we get to the hard work of curing those problems, we will not just defeat Donald Trump in the fall but we'll actually be able to move our communities forward."

AOC, Omar, Jayapal say DNC boss Tom Perez should be ‘held accountable’ for Iowa failure

Dom Calicchio FOX NEWS

The drumbeat for Democratic National Committee boss Tom Perez to be “held accountable” for recent party failures appears to be getting louder.

© Provided by FOX News 

The latest Democrats to criticize Perez include U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; and Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., all backers of 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

Recent party setbacks have included the vote-count fiasco at Monday’s Iowa caucuses and Tuesday night’s disclosure that two officials on the host committee of the party’s upcoming national convention in Milwaukee had been fired over non-specified allegations that they oversaw a work environment where staff members were not being “respected.”

IOWA MESS HAS PEREZ FACING DEM PARTY STORM, RESIGNATION CALLS

Previously, Democrats such as former Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Rep. Marcia Fudge of Ohio, Washington state Democratic chairwoman Tina Podlodowski and party strategist Neil Sroka spoke out against Perez’s leadership.

“He doesn’t lead on anything,” Fudge told Politico.

On Friday, Ocasio-Cortez, Omar and Jayapal shared their views on the party chairman.

“What’s happened in Iowa is a complete disgrace and someone needs to be held responsible,” Ocasio-Cortez said outside the U.S. Capitol, according to the outlet. “I think there’s a conversation needed around taking responsibility for Iowa and ensuring that this bungled process never happens again.”

Omar mentioned Perez by name in her remarks.

“I would say Tom Perez should be held accountable for this failure,” Omar told The Hill. “I believe it all starts from the top. These are things that Tom should do and should have done. If this was happening in my home state, we would be having a very serious conversation about what accountability would look like for our own chair."

Iowa Dems release '100 percent' of caucus vote totals showing Buttigieg ahead, amid calls for recanvass

Omar noted that the DNC had years to prepare for the Iowa caucuses and said it was “devastating” that more precautions weren’t in place to prevent this week’s vote-count situation.

Jayapal called the Iowa caucuses a “national embarrassment,” and said others deserved blame in addition to Perez.

“I’m sure there is shared blame to go around,” Jayapal told The Hill. “But Tom Perez is the head of the DNC, and I do think that there clearly was not the process in place to make sure all these [protocols] were going to be followed.”

The criticism of Perez followed a Twitter message the DNC leader posted Thursday, in which he blamed Iowa’s state-level Democratic Party for the caucus problems.

“Enough is enough,” Perez wrote. “In light of the problems that have emerged in the implementation of the delegate selection plan and in order to assure public confidence in the results, I am calling on the Iowa Democratic Party to immediately begin a recanvass.”

Podlodowski accused Perez of throwing Iowa officials “under the bus” after a long silence from the national DNC amid the vote-counting problems.

Neither news organizations nor the Iowa Democratic Party have been able to call a winner in Monday's Iowa caucuses while Pete Buttigieg and Sanders are both claiming victory in the state.

As of late Friday, Buttigieg held a narrow lead in state delegate equivalents (SDEs), which help decide how many delegates a candidate gets to bring to the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee later this year

Sanders, on the other hand, led in the popular vote from both the "first alignment" and the "second alignment" phases of the caucuses.

Those numbers could change, however, as the IDP has noted many irregularities in its vote count and it is highly likely candidates will call for reexaminations of the numbers, as Perez already has.

Meanwhile, DNC convention host committee members Liz Gilbert and Adam Alonso were fired Tuesday evening after initially being placed on leave following allegations made in a Jan. 30 letter signed by committee staffers, Wisconsin Public Radio reported.

“Every employee has a right to feel respected in their workplace,” the host committee said in a statement, the outlet reported. “Based on the information we have learned to date, we believe the work environment did not meet the ideals and expectations of the Milwaukee 2020 Host Committee Board of Directors. Accordingly, Liz Gilbert and Adam Alonso are no longer employed by the organization, effective immediately.”

The staffers alleged that Alonso “consistently bullied and intimidated staff members,” in particular the women, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, and accused Gilbert of allowing “a culture that coddles male senior advisers and consultants.”

Trump's Friday night massacre

Trump made no secret of his anger at Vindman's testimony, and the timing of Vindman's dismissal is likely no coincidence. Acquitted by the Senate on Wednesday, President Donald Trump feels emboldened to act on his every impulse, now that Congressional Republicans have shown him they will not hold him accountable -- no matter the risk.  Vindman was escorted off White House grounds, according to his attorney, and in a manner that was likely intended to publicly embarrass him. His brother Yevgeny Vindman, who also worked on the NSC and is also a lieutenant colonel, was fired as well. (When asked to comment on the departure of the Vindman brothers, NSC spokesman John Ullyot said, "We do not comment on personnel matters.")

Opinions | Trump is the ultimate sore winner. Now he’ll seek revenge.
Donald Trump has always been a sore loser, but if we’ve learned anything over the past three years of his presidency, it’s that he’s also a sore winner. Not content with being elected, he’s still angry at his 2016 opponent and cannot stop talking about her. He’s angry at his predecessor for having respect from the global community and most Americans that Trump himself has not earned. He’s even angry at Republicans like his former attorney general Jeff Sessions, who’ve publicly humiliated themselves to demonstrate fealty to him, for not publicly humiliating themselves enough.

Trump’s quest for revenge could mean the end of whistleblowing
President Trump and some of his allies in the Senate are kicking off the post-impeachment era with vengeance on their minds. In a speech on Thursday, Trump condemned “leakers and liars” and declared that “this should never, ever happen to another president, ever.” On Capitol Hill, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Republicans plan to launch an investigation of the whistleblower who disclosed President Trump’s effort to coerce Ukraine to investigate a political rival. Graham threatened that they are “going to get to the bottom of all of this to make sure this never happens again.”
If they carry out this threat of state-sponsored retaliation, whistleblowing as we know it may be over. That would be a disastrous blow to government integrity.
Do not doubt that the eyes of our nation are watching this situation unfold. Federal officials will now think twice before reporting any wrongdoing they witness. Their reticence will only be magnified if Republicans exact a price by grilling the Ukraine whistleblower in a Senate hearing “to make sure this never happens again.” The same will be true if Congress lets executive branch officials fire or otherwise punish the whistleblower — as the Trump administration did to Marie Yovanovitch, the former ambassador to Ukraine.

Trump's disturbing 'celebration'
The tip-off was the fake, breathy voice -- call it Mister Rogers-on the-dark side -- that the President uses whenever he is enraged but wants us to think he's calm. He smiles and leans forward, and then spews venom in a treacly tone. Although he called it a "celebration" of his acquittal in the Senate impeachment trial, Trump's hourlong ramble in the White House on Thursday sounded more like a recriminating diatribe.
President Donald Trump recapped the many investigations against him over the last three years and directed his vitriol at those who dared oppose him. They are "evil and sick people," said Trump.
Rep. "Adam Schiff is a vicious, horrible person," he said, and Speaker of the House "Nancy Pelosi is a horrible person." Mitt Romney "used religion as a crutch," Trump said, after Romney cited his Mormon faith in his decision to become the only senator in US history to vote to remove a president of his own party. Trump went on and called the investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 elections "bullsh**."
Even his decision to hold up the front page of the Washington Post, displaying the headline "Trump acquitted," struck a sour note, since it reminded the world that he is only the third US president to be impeached -- a process that has sown deep divisions in the country. Let's not forget -- the trial was rigged. His acquittal had been guaranteed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell before it even began. Boasting about it was akin to former North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il bragging about the 11 holes-in-one he scored in a round of golf.
Like Kim, Trump is not like most people. We would expect any other president in his circumstance to express relief and perhaps a little happiness before promising to heal the nation's wounds

Trump, true to his deviance, chose to babble on about his years-ago election victory, and to curse his opponents and critics. You would hardly know that he was the billionaire who occupied the highest office in the country and had just dodged a bullet the size of a bunker-buster.

People are comparing Trump's firing of 2 officials involved in impeachment him to an episode straight out of the Watergate scandal

Alexander Vindman Fired and Escorted From the White House

Trump hasn’t offered any reason beyond the obvious for punishing Alexander Vindman

Impeachment witness Alexander Vindman and his twin brother were abruptly fired and escorted from the White House as part of Trump's payback

'I'm not happy with him': Impeachment witness Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman was escorted from the White House on Friday

#marshablackburnistrash is trending on Twitter after Sen. Marsha Blackburn labeled Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman unpatriotic and 'vindictive'

Biden to Trump: Give Vindman, not Rush Limbaugh, a medal
2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden took a shot at President Trump during the Democratic debate in New Hampshire Friday night and said he should have awarded the Medal of Freedom to Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman instead of nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh.

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.

© Courtesy New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection via Facebook NC State researchers find high levels of firefighting foam chemical in Cape Fear bass

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.

———

©2020 The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.)

High levels of PFAS affect immune, liver functions in Cape Fear River striped bass

by Scott Belcher, North Carolina State University

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

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."

Fecal excretion of PFAS by pets

---

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

Mysterious odor at high school sends dozens to hospital

A CHEMICAL RELEASE POSSIBLY CHLORINE BLEACH FROM IMPROPER DISPOSAL 

OR ITS COMBINATION WITH OTHER CHEMICALS

WHMIS MAY NOT HAVE BEEN TAUGHT TO CLEANING / SCIENCE STAFF 

Mysterious odor at high school sends dozens to hospital

Students and staffers at a Massachusetts high school were hospitalized Friday after they were overcome by a mysterious odor in the building.© 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.

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

READ ON 

Menacing bats swarming small Australian town

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 THIS Rare flying foxes shot in 'horrific' Australia attack

---30---

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.

FLYING FOXES VIDEO!
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNHmz5Tq64g

PREDATORS

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


Yahoo News•February 6, 2020

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.

---30---

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.

READ MORE