Satellite almost on empty gets new life after space docking
By MARCIA DUNN February 26, 2020

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This Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2020 photo provided by Northrop Grumman shows the Intelsat 901 satellite as the Mission Extension Vehicle-1 approaches it in orbit around the Earth, bottom right. The Northrop Grumman MEV-1 will serve as a guide dog of sorts for its aging Intelsat companion which is almost out of fuel. (Northrop Grumman via AP)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A communication satellite almost out of fuel has gotten a new life after the first space docking of its kind.

Northrop Grumman and Intelsat announced the successful link-up nearly 22,500 miles (36,000 kilometers) above Earth on Wednesday. It’s the first time two commercial satellites have joined in orbit like this.

The recently launched satellite — Northrop Grumman’s Mission Extension Vehicle, or MEV-1 — will serve as a guide dog of sorts for its aging Intelsat companion.

Company officials called it a historic moment for space commerce, akin to the three-spacewalker capture of a wayward Intelsat satellite 28 years ago.

“We’re pushing the boundaries of what many thought would be impossible,” said Tom Wilson, president of SpaceLogistics, a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman. “The impossible is now a reality. Today is a great example of that.”

The Northrup Grumman satellite was launched from Kazakhstan in October. On Tuesday, it closed in on the 19-year-old Intelsat 901 satellite and clamped onto it. The duo will remain attached for the next five years.

This Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2020 photo provided by Northrop Grumman shows the Intelsat 901 satellite as the Mission Extension Vehicle-1 approaches it in orbit around the Earth, background. The Northrop Grumman MEV-1 will serve as a guide dog of sorts for its aging Intelsat companion which is almost out of fuel. (Northrop Grumman via AP)

This novel rescue was carried out at a slightly higher orbit to avoid jeopardizing other satellites if something had gone wrong. The Intelsat satellite was never designed for this kind of docking; officials said everything went well.

Once maneuvered back down into its operational orbit, the Intelsat satellite should resume operations in another month or two. MEV-1 will move on to another satellite in need once its five-year hitch is over.

Jean-Luc Froeliger, a vice president for Intelsat, said the satellite had just months of fuel remaining. It ended service late last year and was sent into the slightly higher orbit for the docking.

Officials declined to say how much the operation cost or what future rescues might cost. Intelsat CEO Stephen Spengler said “there was a solid business case” for undertaking the salvage attempt with five more years of operation ahead for the satellite.

It’s reminiscent of another Intelsat rescue that unfolded closer to home.

Spacewalking astronauts captured the wayward Intelsat 603 satellite during Endeavour’s maiden voyage in 1992. It took three men to grab the satellite with their gloved hands in perhaps the most dramatic shuttle mission of all time. An attached rocket motor ended up propelling the satellite from a low altitude to its proper orbit.

Northrop Grumman envisions satellite refueling and other robotic repairs in another five to 10 years. In the meantime, a second rescue satellite will be launched later this year.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Congresswoman: Science should guide nuclear storage decision

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN

February 25, 2020

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A member of New Mexico’s congressional delegation wants to ensure a “sound and robust” scientific review is done before federal regulators decide whether to sign off on plans for a multibillion-dollar temporary storage facility for spent nuclear fuel.

U.S. Rep. Xochitl Torres Small in an interview with The Associated Press acknowledged that the growing stockpile of used fuel at commercial reactors around the U.S. is a national problem and that elected leaders need to ensure New Mexico does not pay an unfair price as part of the solution.

“My concern is making sure that we’re looking at the science and that we are doing our best to evaluate based on that, not based on economic considerations or based on fear or bias, but based on how do we solve a challenge that is a national challenge,” the Democrat said.

While elected leaders in Eddy and Lea counties support the project, it has garnered fierce opposition from nuclear watchdog groups, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and other members of the state’s congressional delegation. They are concerned about the state becoming a permanent dump since the federal government is far from having any long-term plan for dealing with the tons of spent fuel building up at nuclear power plants around the nation.

State and industry officials also have concerns about potential effects on oil and gas development, as the proposed site is located within the Permian Basin — one of the world’s most prolific energy production regions.

Torres Small narrowly won the district and is up for re-election this year. She said she has heard from constituents on both sides of the matter — those who have concerns and those who see the project as an opportunity for more jobs and revenue for the oil-dependent region.

New Jersey-based Holtec International is seeking a 40-year license from federal regulators to build what it has described as a state-of-the-art complex near Carlsbad.

The site in southeastern New Mexico is remote and geologically stable, the company has said. Holtec executives also have said the four-layer casks that would hold the spent fuel would be made of thick steel and lead and transported on a designated train with guards and guns.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is in the process of considering Holtec’s application. It could be next year before a decision is made.

Torres Small said the clock is ticking for elected leaders to find a permanent solution as spent fuel is now stored at a variety of dangerous locations scattered across the U.S., including near important waterways.

New Mexico already is home to the U.S. government’s only underground repository for Cold War-era waste generated over decades by nuclear research and bomb-making. Some watchdogs are concerned the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant could become the final destination for other types of waste as the government prepares to ramp up production of the plutonium cores that serve as triggers for weapons in the nation’s nuclear arsenal.

Torres Small couched her support forproduction of the plutonium coresby saying New Mexico has a long history of bearing a burden when it comes to nuclear development and waste. She said the focus should be on making sure the state and its residents are kept “whole and strong” as national security obligations are met.

Used cars keep Africans moving, but dumping concerns remain

By RODNEY MUHUMUZA and FARAI MUTSAKA 1/3/2020

In this photo taken Thursday, Feb. 13, 2020, traffic sits queued up on Uhuru Highway leading to downtown Nairobi, Kenya. In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa new wheels often mean a used car from Japan or Europe which are affordable to the growing middle class, but environmental activists and others complain that the second-hand vehicles, unable to meet stringent pollution tests elsewhere, are simply being dumped in the world's poorest continent. (AP Photo/Sayyid Abdul Azim)


KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Salesmen whistle at potential buyers of scores of vehicles shining in the afternoon sun. One truck might bring over $20,000 but it’s far from the “brand new” ride the salesman touts it to be while attempting to start the engine.

The truck is one of tens of thousands of second-hand vehicles imported each year into Uganda from Europe or Asia, especially Japan. In much of sub-Saharan Africa, the imports satisfy demand for mobility while many public transport systems are rudimentary and newer models are not affordable to many in the growing middle class.

But the used vehicles are a problem, officials say. They contribute the pollution burden on a continent that contributes far less than other regions to the emissions that cause global warming.

Africa has become “the burial ground of vehicles that run on fossil fuel as the West turns to electric and newer cleaner technologies,” said Philip Jakpor, an activist with the Nigerian branch of the group Friends of the Earth.

Many second-hand vehicles shipped to Africa from Japan are believed to have failed, or were about to fail, pollution tests there, according to the U.N. Environment Program. But in many parts of Africa such regulations are often poorly enforced, and rampant corruption ensures that used vehicles can slip by any controls.

The UNEP, which calls air pollution a “silent killer” in Africa that is responsible for about 7 million deaths each year, has warned that vehicle emissions are a major source of deteriorating air quality in booming cities.

More than 1.2 million used vehicles were imported into Africa in 2017, according to U.N. figures. Most were destined for Nigeria and Kenya, two of Africa’s largest economies. Both countries also have car-assembling plants.

“The West has refused to transfer technology or make the technology to transit to be cheap and accessible,” Jakpor said. “Our governments have equally failed to invest in renewables and transition, so we will have this dumping for a long time.”

In Uganda, more than 80% of all vehicles are second-hand imports. In part to stem the flow, legislation enacted in 2018 outlaws the importation of vehicles older than 15 years and imposes stiffer taxes on vehicles older than nine years.

A used vehicle made in, say, 2010 can seem new to both buyer and seller in the East African country without a single car-assembling plant and where rickety vehicles are ubiquitous. It’s not uncommon to see vehicles emitting a fog of dark fumes. Police frequently attribute deadly accidents to vehicles in dangerous condition.

“You cannot wake up and put a total ban” on used vehicles, said Dicksons Kateshumbwa, Uganda’s commissioner in charge of customs revenue. “There is a growing middle-income (class). Everyone who gets a job, and gets money, wants to drive.”

Taxes on used vehicles are “a key component” of the revenue agency’s overall collection targets, he said. He added there is no evidence suggesting that stiffer environmental levies on used cars cut into demand.

Car dealers in the Ugandan capital of Kampala told The Associated Press that demand for used vehicles remains solid because importers target certain vehicles that are much sought-after no matter how old they are. The Toyota RAV4 and Toyota Harrier are much-loved locally, for example.

“Ugandans are conversant with older models, so they are looking for those,” said car importer Amir Hussein of Cosmos Uganda Ltd. “For many people, it is their mindset: that old is solid, is good.”

Uganda’s government last year contracted two companies to inspect used vehicles before they are shipped. The head of the standards agency acknowledges the system is imperfect as not all vehicles are subjected to tests as they cross into the country. Inspectors based in Uganda only carry out spot checks.

Ben Manyindo, head of the Uganda National Bureau of Standards, called for a plan that eventually would lead to the banning of used vehicles from abroad.

The question of whether to impose import restrictions remains contentious despite wide recognition of the dangers of an unlimited flow of used vehicles into Africa, the continent least equipped to deal with climate-changing carbon emissions.

In Zimbabwe, where the government has tried and failed to impose restrictions amid resistance from importers and others, there is no age limit for imported cars. Used cars are not checked for emissions levels when they enter the southern African nation from ports in Tanzania, Namibia and South Africa, which notably allows the importation of used vehicles only for re-export to other countries.

Zimbabwe’s environment protection agency lacks the resources to conduct effective spot checks for emissions, and over the years the government has appeared fickle in its attempts to regulate the trade in used vehicles.

In 2010 the government banned the importation of vehicles older than five years but later backed down. In December the finance minister announced that older cars would pay less import duty than newer cars, sparking criticism from some lawmakers and environmentalists who argued the measure would encourage people to buy cars that are more harmful to the environment.


In this photo taken Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2020, a worker washes used cars for sale in the capital Harare, Zimbabwe. In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa new wheels often mean a used car from Japan or Europe which are affordable to the growing middle class, but environmental activists and others complain that the second-hand vehicles, unable to meet stringent pollution tests elsewhere, are simply being dumped in the world's poorest continent. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)


“The old cars have higher emissions and are dumped on us because they are no longer considered as fit for the roads in their countries of origin,” said Byron Zamasiya of the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association, which urges stricter controls. “We should be incentivizing people to import newer cars than older ones.”

Used cars from Japan are so common in Zimbabwe that the business may be one of the few still profitable in a country reeling from serious economic woes. Zimbabweans spent over $5 billion importing used cars between 2006 and 2016, and an average of 300 pass through Beitbridge, the main border crossing with South Africa, according to official figures.

Open spaces in cities such as Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, have been taken over by used-car dealers selling anything from small sedans to rundown buses following the collapse of the country’s once-vibrant car assembly industry. A usually unreliable public transport system also fuels demand for used vehicles among people who can still afford one.

Like Uganda, Nigeria restricts importations of vehicles older than 15 years, but importers working with corrupt officials can always beat the system, according to importer Motola Adebayo. He believes the ability to bribe customs officials has encouraged an influx of very old vehicles into Africa’s most populous country.

“Many of them are being used for commercial transportation,” he said of the imports. “Very old vehicles are now becoming the standard means of commercial transportation in Nigeria.”

Oke Ndubuisi, a taxi driver in Lagos, reasoned that “here in Nigeria, because people are paying very little as transport fares, you cannot easily recover the cost of your investment in a vehicle if it is an expensive one.”

The taxi he drives is one of many that contribute to air pollution in Nigeria’s bustling commercial capital.

“The prices of new vehicles will have to come down in order to address the problem of pollution caused by old vehicles,” he said.

___ Mutsaka reported from Harare, Zimbabwe. Sam Olukoya in Lagos, Nigeria, contributed.

Baltimore squeegee kids find work, risks, cash at stoplights

By REGINA GARCIA CANO 

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In a photo taken Thursday, Oct. 24, 2019, Nathaniel Silas walks through stopped traffic at a red light while looking for cars to squeegee in Baltimore. A debate over Baltimore's so-called squeegee kids is reaching a crescendo as the city grapples with issues of crime and poverty and a complicated history with race relations. Officials estimate 100 squeegee kids regularly work at intersections citywide, dashing into the street as red lights hit to clean windshields in exchange for cash from drivers. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)


BALTIMORE (AP) — A clock starts ticking when the light turns red at Baltimore intersections. Young men huddled on the sidewalk jump into the street, a squeegee in one hand, a bottle of glass cleaner in the other.

For these “squeegee kids,” every idling windshield is an opportunity - to make a little cash, and to find work that doesn’t involve the drugs or gang violence that plague much of the city.

Nathaniel Silas’ goal is to make a dollar during every red light by cleaning windshields. Most drivers will give only a handful of change, if anything. Silas knows he has 24 seconds during each light. He keeps count in his head.

Silas is among about 100 squeegee kids — ages 14 to 21, mostly black and from low-income neighborhoods — regularly working intersections in neighborhoods across Baltimore, city officials estimate. For some, it’s a primary source of money; for others, a side hustle. They say it helps pay for groceries, rent and clothes. But many drivers call the squeegee kids a nuisance in a city with a complicated history of race relations and violence, and officials have tried for years to steer the workers to alternative jobs and have now launched a program to mentor them.

Silas, 19, scans motorists’ faces, watches for hand gestures. He passes cars with drivers mouthing “no” or shooing him away. Some turn on their wipers as a signal to stay away. But he also finds smiley drivers, and, after three years, he has regulars. He approaches one who gives a quick look of permission, and he stretches over the windshield. He jokes about accepting credit cards and Venmo.

He takes the change from the outstretched hand. The first windshield took 13 seconds. Other squeegee kids try to work at half that pace.

Silas and others know the work is illegal. Data analyzed by The Associated Press show that more than 3,100 complaints were logged about squeegee kids in 2019, the first year Baltimore used a specific designation for reports involving those cleaning windshields.

The City Council outlawed the practice in the 1980s, with white council members passing the ban and black ones opposing it. The city opened “squeegee stations,” where youths with approved badges could work after receiving safety and etiquette instructions. But the idea never caught on.

Baltimore officials have stopped short of arrests, a practice that made windshield washers virtually extinct in New York. Baltimore officers ask squeegee kids to leave the corner but don’t force them away. One was arrested in February after refusing to get off the street and fighting and biting an officer, according to a police report.

Squeegee kids - most of whom don’t want to share their name or other details because of the illegal nature of the work and the stigma attached to it - say the complaints don’t deter them.

Even so, the debate over the unsolicited window cleaning has reached a crescendo. Last year, the white CEO of Baltimore-based global investment firm T. Rowe Price requested a meeting with city officials to address the “adverse effects of the squeegee presence.” William Stromberg wrote that the “frustrations” created by the kids “negatively impact the quality of life” of his employees and city residents. Soon after, the city announced plans to help the squeegee kids with mentorship and workforce training programs.

But Silas, sitting on the sidewalk taking a break, isn’t sure he’s interested in the city’s “Squeegee Alternative Plan.” About 80 squeegee kids have connected with the incentive-based program in some way, said Tisha Edwards, head of the Mayor’s Office of Children and Family Success. Mentors have daily contact with the most active kids, encouraging them to return to school, helping them get the IDs they need for formal employment, and guiding them to workforce readiness training and permanent jobs. Organizers say about 25 kids have returned to school, and 15 now have conventional jobs.

“These are young people who’ve had a long history of not being successful in school, and they do what they know how to do, which is if the family is hungry or if the water bill needs to be paid or rent needs to be paid, they go back to the corner,” Edwards said. “We want young people to know there are opportunities available to them and they don’t have to make those hard choices of ‘If I go to school, how am I going to eat?’”

Silas has different career goals. He says he has considered saving some of his squeegee money to buy a van for a mobile car wash. Longer term, he hopes to work in real estate or own a car dealership.

Squeegee work can be dangerous, and he knows he can’t do it forever. But it’s good money - he can make upwards of $100 a day. It’s worth the risk of getting his toes run over and fingers hit by windshield wipers. It’s worth it even when he hears stories of occasional violence, like the woman who told police that her registered firearm went off after a squeegee kid leaned inside her car. And it’s worth it even when some drivers offer Silas nothing at all, and he walks back to the sidewalk with less of his generic cleaner and no cash to show for it.

“We ain’t selling no drugs, we ain’t gangbangers, we ain’t killing nobody,” Silas said. “I never did nothing like that. I came right here, and I’m trying to make some legit money.”

Lester Spence, a Johns Hopkins University associate professor of political science and Africana studies, believes the renewed scrutiny hinges on the squeegee kids’ race. He said it’s no coincidence the pushback is happening alongside growing concerns about crime and policing since the death in police custody of Freddie Gray, a young black man who, like the squeegee workers, grew up in poverty.

“It’s not that there is a problem with people being on these corners because if there was, then we would be talking about the homeless population, who usually just asks for money and doesn’t necessarily provide services,” Spence said.

Silas, who is black, agrees that his race plays a role. He also wonders whether city officials are just trying to save face with their plan. Its estimated annual cost is $992,000, and Baltimore can fund it only through June. Edwards said she hopes businesses will pledge funds to help once the city can show the program’s positive effect.

For now, Silas will keep squeegeeing. The money is putting new shoes on his feet and paying for his baby daughter’s needs.

“If you take it serious like a job, it can be a job, money-wise,” Silas said. “Three years ago, I was like broke for real. I would never have no money in my pocket or nothing.”

But attitudes and acceptance were different then, he said. “Now everybody is mad at us. Why you all mad at us?”

He runs back into the street, and the 24-second countdown begins again.

Pope tells scandal-marred Legion they still haven’t reformed

By NICOLE WINFIELD

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FILE - In this Feb. 26, 2020 file photo, Pope Francis gives his speech during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. The Vatican on Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020 released a speech by Pope Francis where told the scandal-marred Legion of Christ religious order it still has a long road of reform ahead, making clear that 10 years of Vatican-mandated oversight didn’t purge it of the toxic influences of its pedophile founder. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis told the Legion of Christ religious order Saturday it still has a long road of reform ahead, making clear that 10 years of Vatican-mandated rehabilitation hadn’t purged it of the toxic influences of its pedophile founder.

In a prepared speech, Francis told the Legion’s new superiors a “very vast field” of work was needed to correct the Legion’s problems and create a healthy order. He encouraged them to work “energetically in substance, and softly in the means.”

“A change of mentality requires a lot of time to assimilate in individuals and in an institution, so it’s a continual conversion,” Francis said. “A return to the past would be dangerous and senseless.”


The Vatican took over the Legion in 2010 after revelations that its founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel, sexually abused dozens of his seminarians, fathered at least three children and built a secretive, cult-like order to hide his double life.

Even though the Vatican envoy tasked to run and reform the Legion declared the order cleansed and reconciled with its past in 2014, new sexual misconduct scandals have called into question whether his mission was really accomplished.

Victims of other Legion priests have come forward, indicating that a culture of abuse extended far beyond Maciel’s crimes and involved a high-level cover-up by superiors who are still in power.

Francis had been scheduled to meet with the leadership of the Mexican order and its Regnum Christi consecrated branches, which are in Rome this month to elect new superiors and set policy decisions. Francis skipped the audience because he is sick. But the text of his prepared remarks was given to the Legion and released publicly by the Vatican press office.

In the speech, Francis gave his most extensive comments to date about the Legion and Maciel, who was hailed during the papacy of St. John Paul II for his purported orthodoxy and ability to attract vocations and donations.

The Legion scandal sullied John Paul’s legacy since he and his aides turned a blind eye to evidence, including documentation in the Vatican dating from the 1940s, that Maciel was a drug addict, pedophile and religious fraud.

Francis said that while the Legion cannot deny that Maciel founded the order, “you can no longer consider him an example of holiness to imitate” — a reference to the fact that some Legionaries still keep photos of him and read the writings of a man they considered a living saint.

Francis said the cult of personality Maciel created to run the order “in some way polluted” the original spiritual inspiration for the Legion.

The pope praised Legion members for their willingness to accept change and urged them to continue the path of renewal, including with a new governing council that he said must act as a check on the superiors.

Ever since the Legion scandal erupted in 2009, the number of its priests and members of its Regnum Christi lay branch have fallen, and several of its schools and seminaries have closed. The Legion now counts 970 priests, and only 51 novices entered seminary training last year, down from an average of around 200 a year at the Legion’s height.

Scientists gather to study risk from microplastic pollution

By GILLIAN FLACCUSFebruary 23, 2020


PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Tiny bits of broken-down plastic smaller than a fraction of a grain of rice are turning up everywhere in oceans, from the water to the guts of fish and the poop of sea otters and giant killer whales.

Yet little is known about the effects of these “microplastics” — on sea creatures or humans.

“It’s such a huge endeavor to know how bad it is,” said Shawn Larson, curator of conservation research at the Seattle Aquarium. “We’re just starting to get a finger on the pulse.”

This week, a group of five-dozen microplastics researchers from major universities, government agencies, tribes, aquariums, environmental groups and even water sanitation districts across the U.S. West is gathering in Bremerton, Washington, to tackle the issue. The goal is to create a mathematical risk assessment for microplastic pollution in the region similar to predictions used to game out responses to major natural disasters such as earthquakes.


The largest of these plastic bits are 5 millimeters long, roughly the size of a kernel of corn, and many are much smaller and invisible to the naked eye.

They enter the environment in many ways. Some slough off of car tires and wash into streams — and eventually the ocean — during rainstorms. Others detach from fleeces and spandex clothing in washing machines and are mixed in with the soiled water that drains from the machine. Some come from abandoned fishing gear, and still more are the result of the eventual breakdown of the millions of straws, cups, water bottles, plastic bags and other single-use plastics thrown out each day.

Microplastic particles from rubber tires are seen under a microscope. (Oregon State University via AP)

Research into their potential impact on everything from tiny single-celled organisms to larger mammals like sea otters is just getting underway.

“This is an alarm bell that’s going to ring loud and strong,” said Stacey Harper, an associate professor at Oregon State University who helped organize the conference. “We’re first going to prioritize who it is that we’re concerned about protecting: what organisms, what endangered species, what regions. And that will help us hone in ... and determine the data we need to do a risk assessment.”

A study published last year by Portland State University found an average of 11 micro-plastic pieces per oyster and nine per razor clam in the samples taken from the Oregon coast. Nearly all were from microfibers from fleece or other synthetic clothing or from abandoned fishing gear, said Elise Granek, study co-author.


Scientists at the San Francisco Estuary Institute found significant amounts of microplastic washing into the San Francisco Bay from storm runoff over a three-year sampling period that ended last year. Researchers believe the black, rubbery bits no bigger than a grain of sand are likely from car tires, said Rebecca Sutton, senior scientist at the institute. They will present their findings at the conference.

Those studying the phenomenon are worried about the health of creatures living in the ocean — but also, possibly, the health of humans.

Some of the concern stems from an unusual twist unique to plastic pollution. Because plastic is made from fossil fuels and contains hydrocarbons, it attracts and absorbs other pollutants in the water, such as PCBs and pesticides, said Andrew Mason, the Pacific Northwest regional coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s marine debris program.

This Jan. 19 photo shows microplastic and other debris that has washed up at Depoe Bay, Ore. (AP Photo/Andrew Selsky)

“There’s a lot of research that still needs to be done, but these plastics have the ability to mine harmful chemicals that are in the environment. They can accumulate them,” said Mason. “Everything, as it goes up toward the top, it just gets more and more and the umbrella gets wider. And who sits at the top of the food chain? We do. That’s why these researchers are coming together, because this is a growing problem, and we need to understand those effects.”

Researchers say bans on plastic bags, Styrofoam carry-out containers and single-use items like straws and plastic utensils will help when it comes to the tiniest plastic pollution. Some jurisdictions have also recently begun taking a closer look at the smaller plastic bits that have the scientific community so concerned.

California lawmakers in 2018 passed legislation that will ultimately require the state to adopt a method for testing for microplastics in drinking water and to perform that testing for four years, with the results reported to the public. The first key deadline for the law — simply defining what qualifies as a micro-plastic — is July 1.

And federal lawmakers, including Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, last week introduced bipartisan legislation to establish a pilot research program at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to study how to curb the “crisis” of microplastic pollution.

Larson, the conservationist at the Seattle Aquarium, said a year of studies at her institution found 200 to 300 microfibers in each 100-liter sample of seawater the aquarium sucks in from the Puget Sound for its exhibits. Larson, who is chairing a session at Wednesday’s consortium, said those results are alarming.

“It’s being able to take that information and turn it into policy and say, ‘Hey, 50 years ago we put everything in paper bags and wax and glass bottles. Why can’t we do that again?’” she said.

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Follow Gillian Flaccus on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/gflaccus

Scientist nabbed for Russia spying is Mexico hometown hero

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Mexican microbiologist accused of spying for Russia in Miami is considered a benefactor in his native state of Oaxaca, the mayor of his hometown said Wednesday, and he holds positions with at least two prominent universities.

Mayor Hazael Matus said scientist Hector Alejandro Cabrera, who teaches in Singapore, has helped set up science projects in his hometown of El Espinal. Cabrera was known for his work on cardiac treatments and was hoping to produce an ointment to help heal wounds in diabetics in his home state.

“It is very strange for this to happen because he is a very altruistic person with a lot of social conscience. He helped people and all this seems strange,” Matus said. “We don’t know what happened, but I bet it is a confusion or an attack for scientific reasons. He may have discovered something that upset some people or some business interests.”

U.S. authorities said Tuesday that Cabrera had been hired by a Russian government official to find the vehicle of a U.S. government informant in the Miami area and inform the Russians of its location. The informant was not identified, but was said to have provided information to the U.S. on Russian intelligence operations.

Officials said in an affidavit that Cabrera has a Mexican wife and simultaneously also has a Russian wife. According to the affidavit, the Russian wife traveled back to her home country last March to arrange some documents, but she was prevented from returning to Germany in what may have been part of an effort by the Russians to pressure Cabrera into working for them.

Cabrera then visited Moscow and his family last May and was approached by the Russian official, the affidavit said. The Russian official, ti said, brought up Cabrera’s family situation in Russia and said, “We can help each other.”

Cabrera told the FBI that the Russian official said they had met previously in professional events and exchanges, the affidavit said.

Cabrera was arrested on charges of acting within the United States on behalf of a foreign government without notifying the U.S. attorney general and conspiracy, according to the Justice Department. A pretrial detention hearing was set for Friday in Miami and arraignment for March 3.

Cabrera is listed as an associate professor at the medical school jointly run by Duke University and the National University of Singapore.

He also was appointed director in 2018 of the FEMSA Biotechnology Center at the Monterrey Institute of Technology in northern Mexico, which said he earned doctorates in molecular microbiology in Russia and molecular cardiology in Germany.

Matus, the mayor, described Cabrera as a hometown boy who made good, going to Russia to study for his graduate degrees.

But he said Cabrera never forgot his hometown of 9,500 inhabitants and helped organize the scientific community to assist in rebuilding houses in El Espinal after a magnitude 8.1 quake hit Sept. 7, 2017, and a 6.1 temblor struck two weeks later. The town has a large Zapotec indigenous community.

Cabrera had been scheduled to attend meetings in Mexico on Monday about a series of research centers that he was helping establish in El Espinal as part of a government project to upgrade rail links between the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico across the narrow Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The $430 million project is one of the infrastructure priorities of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Cabrera was a leading promoter of El Espinal’s role in the project, helping recruit Mexican universities and government agencies to set up research centers on medicine, seismology, logistics and other topics in the town.

According to the Justice Department, a Russian government official recruited Cabrera in 2019. The Russian official later directed him to rent a specific property in Miami-Dade County, but not in his own name, the Justice Department said.

Cabrera traveled twice to Moscow to meet with the official, the Justice Department said, and during the second meeting received a physical description of the U.S. government source’s vehicle. The Russian official allegedly told Cabrera to locate the car, obtain the license plate number and note the location, with the goal of providing that information in April or May.

The Justice Department said Cabrera, having traveled from Mexico City to Miami on Feb. 13, attracted the attention of a security guard where the U.S. government source resided because his rental car entered the premises while tailgating another vehicle.

According to the indictment, Cabrera asked his Mexican wife, who accompanied him, to take a photo of the source’s vehicle and license plate even though the Russian official had told him not to take a photo.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection stopped Fuentes and his wife when they appeared at Miami’s airport Sunday night to return to Mexico City. Cabrera admitted to law enforcement officers that he was directed by a Russian government official to conduct the operation, the Justice Department said.

AP

Report: Work to reduce wildfire risks has economic benefits


FILE - In this June 11, 2018, file photo, flames consume trees during a burnout operation that was performed south of County Road 202 near Durango, Colo. A report by the U.S. Geological Survey shows investments made to reduce the risk of wildfire in forested areas are paying dividends when it comes to creating jobs and infusing money in local economies. The study focused on several counties along the New Mexico-Colorado border that make up the watershed of the Rio Grande. (Jerry McBride/The Durango Herald via AP, File)

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Projects to reduce the risk of wildfires and protect water sources in the U.S. West have created jobs and infused more money in local economies, researchers say, and they were funded by a partnership between governments and businesses that has become a model in other countries.

A team from the U.S. Geological Survey reviewed work being done in several counties along the New Mexico-Colorado border that make up the watershed of one of North America’s longest rivers, the Rio Grande.

The review shows how public-private partnerships could become a critical component for safeguarding the land and benefiting the economy amid the threat of federal funding cuts and worsening wildfires brought on by climate change.

The study focused on 2018, when the partnership, called the Rio Grande Water Fund, doled out $855,000 to contractors in the region. The spending supported an estimated 22 jobs, ranging from forest thinning to research, environmental consulting and fence removal. That translated to more than $1 million in labor income and $1.9 million in benefits for the regional economy.

Spending in the area supported an estimated 15 jobs and more than $1.1 million in economic output for the 13 counties in the Rio Grande’s upper watershed, according to the findings.

In all, The Nature Conservancy, which launched the partnership, estimates the work has had an economic impact of about $18 million within five years.

“We’ve always known the water fund created jobs to get the work done. Now, we know the true economic impact,” said Steve Bassett, head of planning and data analysis for the advocacy group.

The organization and others have been pushing for land managers to consider more landscape-level restoration work as a hedge against climate change. In New Mexico, Colorado and other parts of the American West, officials persistently warn that hotter, drier conditions are ingredients for more intense fires and those types of blazes can cause more harm by damaging the soil and clogging watersheds with ash, sediment and debris.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced last week its plans to build and maintain up to 11,000 miles (17,703 kilometers) of strategically placed fuel breaks across several Western states to control wildfires across nearly 350,000 square miles (906,500 square kilometers).

The work will involve manual, mechanical and chemical treatments, including prescribed fire and targeted grazing. It comes after the agency set a record last year for the number of square miles — 1,322 (3,424 square kilometers) — treated to reduce the risk of wildfire.

The U.S. Forest Service also has been playing catch-up, but that could become more challenging as the Trump administration’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year calls for cutting funding for some research and zeroing out spending for certain forest restoration initiatives.

That could mean partnerships like the Rio Grande Water Fund will become more prevalent. Officials at The Nature Conservancy say it’s serving as a model for other communities in the U.S. West and some in India and South Africa.

The advocacy group started the initiative in 2014 to restore large swaths of land as a way to protect and bolster the region’s dwindling water resources.

More than 80 local, state and tribal partners have signed on since then, bringing in $5 million in private investments and leveraging nearly $50 million in public funding. More than 219 square miles (566 square kilometers) have been treated with thinning, prescribed burns and managed natural fires and an additional 515 square miles (1,335 square kilometers) are in the planning pipeline.

The investors in New Mexico range from municipal water utilities and federal agencies to banks and breweries.

This Aug. 6, 2018, photo shows the Rio Grande flowing south of Taos, New Mexico. A recent report by the U.S. Geological Survey found that investments made to reduce the risk of wildfire and to protect water sources in the West are paying dividends by creating jobs and infusing money into local economies. The study focused on several counties along the New Mexico-Colorado border that make up the watershed of the Rio Grande, one of North America's longest rivers. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)

Brent Racher, owner of Restoration Solutions LLC said his four-man team has gotten consistent work through the projects financed by the Rio Grande Water Fund. His company is based in a small community near the edge of the Cibola National Forest in central New Mexico.

“I’ve been able to invest in more equipment and plan for the future,” he said. “Employee stability trickles down to the social fabric of our community.”

Students push universities to stop investing in fossil fuels

FILE - In this Nov. 23, 2019, file photo, Harvard and Yale students protest during halftime of the NCAA college football game between Harvard and Yale at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Conn. Students alarmed by climate change are stepping up pressure on universities to stop investing in fossil fuel industries and are gaining wider traction in 2020. (Nic Antaya/The Boston Globe via AP, File)

By MICHAEL MELIA February 19, 2020

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Students alarmed by climate change are stepping up pressure on universities to pull investments from fossil fuel industries, an effort that is gaining traction at prestigious schools like Georgetown, Harvard and Yale.

The push that is underway at hundreds of schools began nearly a decade ago, and student activists increasingly have learned from one another’s tactics and moved to act amid worsening predictions about the effects of climate change on the planet.

Georgetown University’s board of directors announced this month that it will end private investments in coal, oil and gas companies within the next decade, and some faculty at Harvard have called for a similar shift. There were sit-ins and demonstrations last week at dozens of schools, including Gonzaga University, the University of Wisconsin, University of Pittsburgh and Cornell University.

Several dozen schools have stopped investing at least partially in fossil fuels, but there is debate over how much the move slows the effects of climate change or affects the bottom line of companies like Chevron and Exxon Mobil.

Many schools have defended their investments, citing a duty to preserve and grow the income they receive from donations, while touting efforts to use investments as leverage to engage energy companies, find solutions for climate change through research and make campuses carbon neutral by not causing any net increases in heat-trapping carbon dioxide.

For student activists, it’s about taking a moral and political stand.

At Yale University, which has a $30.3 billion endowment, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Senate on Thursday will discuss the university’s ethical obligations regarding fossil fuel investments. It became a big issue partly due to a widely covered student protest that disrupted a November football game between Harvard and Yale.

“Yale has to take it seriously. We forced them to take it seriously. The faculty discussions are evidence of that,” said Ben Levin, a student leader with the Yale Endowment Justice Coalition. “They’re also evidence of the fact that the faculty are incredibly concerned because they don’t want to be working for a university that’s on the wrong side of the most pressing issue of our time.”

Yale says it has supported shareholder resolutions calling for companies to reveal what they’re doing to address climate change and asked endowment managers not to invest in companies that fail to take steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but student activists want a clean break. 

FILE - In this Nov. 23, 2019, file photo, demonstrators stage a protest on the field at the Yale Bowl disrupting the start of the second half of an NCAA college football game between Harvard and Yale in New Haven, Conn. Students alarmed by climate change are stepping up pressure on universities to stop investing in fossil fuel industries and are gaining wider traction in 2020. (AP Photo/Jimmy Golen, File)

The campus actions are part of a broader push for insurers, pension funds and governments worldwide to end fossil fuel investments.

Environmentalist and author Bill McKibben, a leader of the movement to stop such investments, said students have played a huge role.

“They’ve kept it up through two generations of undergraduates. Administrators hoped they’d graduate and that would be the end of the pressure, but instead it keeps building,” said McKibben, a scholar in residence at Middlebury College, which announced last year it would divest its $1.1 billion endowment from fossil fuels.

Student government leaders from the Big Ten Conference called last month for their 14 schools to begin divesting from fossil fuels, passing a resolution that cited the conclusion of the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that greenhouse gas emissions are driving climate change.

A challenge for institutions is the prevalence of investments in index funds, which makes it difficult to separate out the roughly 4 percent of energy stocks in such funds, said John Jurewitz, a lecturer in economics at Pomona College. Colleges pulling their investments also wouldn’t likely hurt oil companies, which have their own internal cash flows, he said.

“It’s mainly a political statement about what the university is willing to invest in,” Jurewitz said. “It may be a worthwhile statement if you believe it will help get the ball rolling toward getting some realistic, meaningful policy like a carbon tax or cap and trade, something that will put a price on the carbon in some practical way.”

The Independent Petroleum Association of America has pushed back with its own campaign, arguing divestment would cost university endowments millions a year with little impact on carbon emissions.

At Harvard, which has a $40.9 billion endowment, President Lawrence Bacow said he would take a faculty motion to the Harvard Corporation, the university’s executive board. In the past, administrators have outlined steps Harvard is taking to address climate change while arguing that ending fossil fuel investments wouldn’t have a big effect and that it makes little sense to sever ties with energy companies that heat and light the campus.

Connor Chung, a first-year student and organizer for Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard, said the group hopes the university will reconsider.

“At the end of the day, our goal is environmental justice,” he said. “Divestment is our tactic for getting there, but it’s not going to work unless we have a broader movement around the country and around the world of students demanding that their institutions end their complicity in the climate crisis.”

A group of Harvard students also want to stop investments in prisons and companies that contract with them. They sued Wednesday, arguing the school is violating state law by investing in an industry they describe as “present-day slavery.” Harvard officials didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the lawsuit.

At George Washington University, sophomore Izy Carney said a student campaign has taken inspiration from the activism of students elsewhere, including in the University of California system, which announced a plan to end fossil fuel investments in 2019.

After hearing from student activists, George Washington’s board of trustees announced a task force this month on managing environmental responsibility. But it did not mention divestment as a possibility.

Carney, a member of Sunrise GW, a student group dedicated to fighting climate change, said they would keep up the pressure.

“Right now, it sounds like profits is what our university is after,” Carney said. “We just want to make sure our school is doing everything it can to make sure it is not contributing to the climate crisis.”

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Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston contributed to this report.

Claws of health? Lobster blood could play role in new drugs

By PATRICK WHITTLE February 19, 2020

In this Friday, Feb. 14, 2020 photo, Dr. Robert Bayer holds a jar of frozen lobster blood in his lab in Orono, Maine. Bayer's company, Lobster Unlimited of Orono, is investigating whether lobster blood can be used as a potential weapon against viruses and cancer, and representatives said results are promising. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued the company a patent in late October related to its work. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine lobsters have long delighted tourists as the state’s most beloved seafood. But one company thinks the crustaceans can save human lives by providing their blood for use in new drugs.

The effort, involving a longtime lobster scientist, wouldn’t be the first example of coastal invertebrates being used to aid human health. Horseshoe crabs are harvested because their blood contains a protein used to detect contamination in medical products. A different startup company in Maine announced in 2016 that it would develop a bandage coated with a substance extracted from crushed lobster shells. And the U.S. Army has made use of field bandages treated with a blood clotting compound processed from shrimp shells.


The company working on the lobster blood project, Lobster Unlimited of Orono, is investigating whether lobster blood can be used as a potential weapon against viruses and cancer. Representatives with the company said results are promising — the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued them a patent in late October related to their work.

The blood is easy to come by because it’s a byproduct of lobster processing, company head Robert Bayer said. Lobster blood is likely a long way from playing a role in new drugs, Bayer said, but there’s “no question it has antiviral and anticancer properties” based on research needed to apply for the patent.

“Right now, this blood is literally thrown out on the floor and goes down the drain,” said Bayer, a professor emeritus of Animal and Veterinary Sciences at University of Maine. “We can collect millions of pounds of it, which makes it a viable product worth pursing.”

The company proposes to use compounds derived from hemolymph, which is lobster circulatory fluid, to improve human health and possibly the health of other mammals. Lobster Unlimited’s looking for partners in the pharmaceutical industry to work with on the development of drugs.

Scientists with the company have found that hemocyanin, a protein in the fluid, works as a powerful stimulant for the immune systems, Bayer said. For example, experiments show the substance can reduce the viral load of herpes simplex virus-infected cells, according to documents the company filed with the U.S. patent office.

The next step is to find partners in industry to work on the development of new drugs, because the company doesn’t plan to manufacture or sell its own, said Cathy Billings, another member of Lobster Unlimited. New products would also need to stand up to testing and then win approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

In this July 2007 file photo, a lobster scientist holds a 2-pound lobster underwater in a lobster pound on Friendship Long Island, Maine. Lobster Unlimited of Orono, headed by a longtime lobster scientist Robert Bayer, proposes to use compounds derived from lobster blood to improve human health and possibly the health of other mammals. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Interest in developing non-food products from lobsters has grown in recent years as Maine’s haul of the crustaceans has grown. The 2010s saw Maine’s catch of lobsters eclipse any previous decade by many millions of pounds. The remnants from processing them are used in everything from Christmas decorations and gardening soil to cooking stock. Using them in medicine represents a new frontier, Bayer said.

Invertebrate biology is very different from that of mammals, but there are some commonalities that could make it possible to use lobster products in medicine, said Diane Cowan, a Maine-based lobster biologist not involved in the Lobster Unlimited project. Those commonalities make it possible to use animals such as lobsters and horseshoe crabs to aid human health, she said.

Lobsters, like humans, have circulatory fluid, though lobster’s is a kind of bluish gray as opposed to red, Cowan said. “So to have an idea that you can take something from one animal and use it for another is not outrageous,” she said. “The circulatory fluid that runs through all bodies of all living animals is very similar.”

Steve Train, a Long Island, Maine, lobsterman, was a little surprised when he heard about the possibility of lobster blood playing a role in new drugs.

But if it can help people, “I hope it’s true,” he said, adding, “These scientists know more than I do.”