Panel: NOAA bowed to political pressure in Dorian dispute

By SETH BORENSTEIN June 16, 2020

\ In this Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019 file photo, President Donald Trump holds a chart as he talks with reporters after receiving a briefing on Hurricane Dorian in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. A report from the National Academy of Public Administration released on Monday, June 15, 2020 says that NOAA’s acting chief Neil Jacobs and its then-communications director, Julie Kay Roberts, twice breached the agency’s rules designed to protect scientists and their work from political interference, putting out a press statement that “did not follow NOAA’s normal proves and appear to be the result of strong external pressure.” (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration leaders violated the agency’s scientific integrity when they chastised a local weather office that had contradicted President Trump’s inaccurate comments about Hurricane Dorian, an outside panel found.

NOAA’s acting chief, Neil Jacobs, and its then-communications director, Julie Kay Roberts, twice breached the agency’s rules designed to protect scientists and their work from political interference, the National Academy of Public Administration concluded. Jacobs and Roberts released a statement that “did not follow NOAA’s normal process and appear to be the result of strong external pressure,” the group wrote in the 144-page report released late Monday.

NOAA’s science department had asked the public administration group to look into several complaints, including from its chief scientist and past administrator, after Hurricane Dorian threatened the East Coast in September.

As the storm approached the U.S., Trump tweeted that Alabama, along with the Carolinas and Georgia “will most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated,” even though the National Hurricane Center had pretty much said Dorian would not hit Alabama. He later defended his statements with a crude Sharpie-drawn addition to a forecast map.

Twenty minutes after Trump’s tweet, meteorologists in the National Weather Service’s Birmingham office tweeted “Alabama will NOT see any impacts” from the storm.

After a phone call to Jacobs from his boss, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and other conversations with Commerce Department political appointees, NOAA put out the statement chastising the Birmingham weather office tweet. The statement said the Alabama office “spoke in absolute terms that were inconsistent with probabilities from the best forecast products available at the time.”

Dorian made landfall in North Carolina and had no major impact on Alabama, which is about 600 miles away.

The outside report said the violations of scientific policy were, first, issuing the statement without talking to the Birmingham meteorologists and, second, issuing it after political pressure.

No one was disciplined, and Jacobs and Roberts disputed the findings. Roberts left NOAA for another high-ranking job in the Department of Commerce.

In a response letter, NOAA’s acting chief scientist, Craig McLean, criticized the lack of discipline against the two.

“While there may be found causes of sympathy for the oppressed and meek subordinates of domineering autocratic ogres, I hardly can find sympathy in this scintilla of an argument for clemency,” McLean wrote in a response letter. “If not the single highest person in NOAA, who will stand for the Scientific Integrity of the agency and the trust our public needs to invest in our scientific process and products? The NOAA Administrator? The NOAA Director of Communications?”

In this Thursday, May 28, 2020 file photo, Neil Jacobs, assistant Secretary of Commerce for Environmental Observation and Prediction, stands next to a chart during a briefing with President Donald Trump on the 2020 hurricane season in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. A report from the National Academy of Public Administration released on Monday, June 15, 2020 says that NOAA’s acting chief Jacobs and its then-communications director, Julie Kay Roberts, twice breached the agency’s rules designed to protect scientists and their work from political interference, putting out a press statement that “did not follow NOAA’s normal proves and appear to be the result of strong external pressure.” (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

In a statement Tuesday, Jacobs called the report “an overly broad interpretation” and faulted it for creating “new standards for scientific misconduct.” He said NOAA’s unsigned statement in September “was not intended to imply Birmingham did anything wrong.”

Other investigations, including an inspector general report, are still pending.
__

AP writer Meghan Hoyer contributed to this report.

Russia’s low virus death toll still raises questions in West

BABA'S SECRET 

VODKA, HONEY, GARLIC, 

BEET JUICE

SUNFLOWER SEEDS 

SHAKEN NOT STIRRED 

By DARIA LITVINOVA and VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV

June 14, 2020

1 of 8 https://apnews.com/aa848f2d7b9f83aea0a0e53bce0a82ea
FILE - In this May 15, 2020, file photo, gravediggers in protective suits carry the coffin of a COVID-19 victim as relatives and friends stand at a distance in the section of a cemetery reserved for coronavirus victims in Kolpino, outside St. Petersburg, Russia. The way Russia counts fatalities during the coronavirus pandemic could be one reason why its official death toll is far below many other countries, even as it has reported at least 511,000 infections, behind only the United States and Brazil. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky, File)
MOSCOW (AP) — When Leonid Shlykov’s father, Sergei, died in a Moscow hospital last month after 11 days on a ventilator, the death certificate listed the coronavirus as an underlying condition but not the actual cause of death.

“Yes, he was suffering from impaired kidney function and diabetes, but if it hadn’t been for COVID-19, he would’ve been alive,” the son wrote on Facebook. “If we had known the real number of infections and deaths … it would have helped us make the decision to hospitalize (dad) earlier.”

The way Russia counts fatalities during the coronavirus pandemic could be one reason why its official death toll of 6,948 is far below many other countries, even as it has reported nearly 529,000 infections, behind only the United States and Brazil

The paradox also has led to allegations by critics and Western media that Russian authorities might have falsified the numbers for political purposes to play down the scale of the outbreak. Even a top World Health Organization official said the low number of deaths in Russia “certainly is unusual.”

Russian authorities have bristled at the suggestions.

“We have never manipulated the official statistics,” said Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova.

Finding the true numbers during the pandemic is difficult, since countries count cases and deaths in different ways and testing for the virus is uneven.

Still, several factors could contribute to Russia’s low virus mortality rate, including the way it counts deaths, a tendency among some officials to embellish statistics, its vast geography and the shorter life expectancy of its population.

An autopsy is mandatory in Russia in every confirmed or suspected case of COVID-19, with a determination on the cause of death made by a commission of specialists, said Dr. Natalia Belitchenko, a pathologist in the medical examiner’s office in the region around St. Petersburg.

She deals with coronavirus deaths almost daily, but said only about 20% of them have been attributed to COVID-19. In other cases, the virus was determined to be an underlying condition.

“In the vast majority of cases, the pneumonia itself wouldn’t have led to death, had the underlying conditions not flared up to a point of becoming fatal,” she told The Associated Press.

Unlike Russia, some countries’ official death count includes those who had COVID-19 but died from other causes, said Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program.

“It will be important that the Russian authorities review the way in which death certification is done to reassure themselves that they are accurately certifying deaths in the appropriate way,” he said.

This photo shows fresh graves at the Butovskoye cemetery, which serves as one of burial grounds for those who died of the coronavirus, in Moscow, Russia. The way Russia counts fatalities during the coronavirus pandemic could be one reason why its official death toll is far below many other countries, even as it has reported at least 511,000 infections, behind only the United States and Brazil. (AP Photo/Dmitry Serebryakov)

In this photo taken early Thursday, June 11, 2020, fresh graves have been dug at the Butovskoye cemetery, which serves as one of the burial grounds for those who died of the coronavirus, in Moscow, Russia. The way Russia counts fatalities during the coronavirus pandemic could be one reason why its official death toll is far below many other countries, even as it has reported at least 511,000 infections, behind only the United States and Brazil.(AP Photo/Dmitry Serebryakov)

Death counts vary around the world because countries underreported the number of COVID-19 deaths early on, said Ali Mokdad, professor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. They ascribed virus deaths to other causes due to insufficient testing or initially only counted deaths in hospitals, he added.

Some countries also are overcounting by including “presumptive deaths” — those who likely died of COVID-19 but were never tested for it, Mokdad said.

What sets Russia apart, however, is a habit of obscuring embarrassing truths, said Judy Twigg, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The way mortality data is recorded in Russia is affected by a Soviet-era tradition of setting future targets for improving public health through efforts to reduce mortality from certain reasons, such as alcoholism or tuberculosis.

Health officials “shift the way they code causes of death in order to try to meet those targets,” Twigg said.

Pathologists told AP there is pressure from hospital administrators to produce better-looking reports.

FILE - In this Friday, May 15, 2020, file photo, gravediggers in protective suits carry the coffin of a COVID-19 victim as relatives and friends stand at a distance in a cemetery reserved for coronavirus victims in Kolpino, outside St.Petersburg, Russia. The way Russia counts fatalities during the coronavirus pandemic could be one reason why its official death toll is far below many other countries, even as it has reported at least 511,000 infections, behind only the United States and Brazil. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky, File)

FILE - In this May 26, 2020, file photo, grave diggers wearing protective suits carry a coffin of a COVID-19 victim for burial in the section of a cemetery reserved for coronavirus victims, outside Moscow, Russia. The way Russia counts fatalities during the coronavirus pandemic could be one reason why its official death toll is far below many other countries, even as it has reported at least 511,000 infections, behind only the United States and Brazil. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, File)

FILE - In this May 15, 2020, file photo, cemetery workers in protective suits disinfect a grave as they bury a COVID-19 victim in a section of the Butovskoye cemetery reserved for coronavirus victims outside Moscow, Russia. The way Russia counts fatalities during the coronavirus pandemic could be one reason why its official death toll is far below many other countries, even as it has reported at least 511,000 infections, behind only the United States and Brazil. (Kirill Zykov, Moscow News Agency photo via AP, File)


Requests and instructions to obscure certain causes of death in postmortems are “an inevitable part of our job,” said a pathologist in Siberia who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.

Data analysts say inconsistencies in Russia’s virus statistics suggest manipulation, such as regions reporting similar numbers of new cases for several days in a row, or the number of deaths in regional reports differing from those in federal reports.

“I don’t trust official statistics, and I believe I have reasons not to,” Boris Ovchinnikov, director of the Moscow-based Data Insight research agency, told the AP. “But we don’t have any good alternative indicators for assessing the real situation.”

Among the anomalies:

— The governor of the Lipetsk region in southwestern Russia was recorded telling subordinates last month that “numbers need to be changed, otherwise our region will be judged poorly.”

— In the Altai region in southern Siberia, a task force posted a daily infection update containing the words “for approval” addressed to the provincial governor. It quickly erased the words after it was reported on social media.

— Unusual spikes in pneumonia deaths indicate possibility more virus deaths than officially reported by mid-May: St. Petersburg reported 694 pneumonia deaths, with 63 from coronavirus; the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan reported 657 pneumonia deaths and 29 from coronavirus.

“Without doubt, there have been manipulations with statistics on the regional level,” said Gleb Pavlovsky, an independent analyst and former Kremlin political consultant, adding that it seems they did it “on their own initiative.”

At the same time, he noted that a decrease in cases was a key factor for holding two big events on the Kremlin agenda that were postponed by the virus: a massive Red Square parade for the 75th anniversary of the victory in World War II and a vote on constitutional amendments that could extend President Vladimir Putin’s rule until 2036.

Citing a slowdown in infections, Putin ordered the parade for June 24 and the vote for July 1. Most regions, including Moscow, also recently lifted tight lockdowns imposed in March even though daily numbers of new infections have remained high, hovering around 9,000.

In a bid to dispel claims of underreporting mortality, the government released updated statistics for April showing patients who died of other causes while testing positive for the virus, as well as those who tested negative but likely died of it.

If those were counted as coronavirus deaths, mortality would have been 60% higher than announced. Authorities insist they shouldn’t be included in the official toll, but even if all extra deaths recently reported by federal and Moscow officials were added, it would still be around 11,000.

Russian officials credit early quarantine measures and quick expansion of hospital capacity that prevented the health care system from being overwhelmed. They also cite more than 14 million tests that helped spot asymptomatic cases that account for more than 40% of all recent infections in the country of 146.7 million.

Officials noted that infections in Russia peaked later than in Europe, and deaths are now climbing more quickly.

Experts say Russia’s statistical gaps may result from its outdated system of collecting mortality data: In many regions, a death certificate must be delivered by a relative to a local civil registry office. Many of those offices were closed or had limited hours due to coronavirus lockdowns.

“So what we’re seeing now is insufficient data in many regions,” said Alexei Raksha, an independent demographer.

He said data from civil registries he studied showed that some regions reported fewer deaths in April than in previous years. Deaths were five times lower in the southern republic of Ingushetia, while in Krasnodar, they fell by about 1,500 from the monthly average, a record low.

“Some people just bury their relatives without going to the civil registration office,” Raksha said.

Researchers expect most of these gaps to be filled in next year, when the Russian State Statistics Service issues its annual report.

Raksha said Russia’s few virus deaths could also be due to less-frequent travel across the vast country, its low population density and lower social mobility. He also said because the country has a much lower life expectancy than the West, it has fewer elderly targets for the virus
_

Follow AP pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

Temperature spike: Earth ties record high heat May reading

WE PUT OUR GARDEN IN TWO WEEKS EARLY

BY SETH BORENSTEIN June 12, 2020

FILE - In this Wednesday, May 27, 2020 file photo, a boy stands on the shore of the Ganges River during a hot summer day in Prayagraj, India. Earth's temperature spiked to tie a record high for May, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported on Friday, June 12, 2020. The global land temperature was the hottest for May on record. The heat was especially extreme in Siberia, Alaska, Asia, along the equator, the Southern Hemisphere and parts of the Northern Pacific Ocean. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

Earth’s temperature spiked to tie a record high for May, U.S. meteorologists reported Friday.

Last month the global average temperature was 60.3 degrees (15.7 degrees Celsius), tying 2016 for the hottest May in 141 years of record keeping, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

That’s 1.7 degrees (nearly 1 degree Celsius) higher than the 20th century average for Earth.

Temperature on land set a heat record, while ocean temperatures ranked second.

Parts of Africa, Asia, western Europe, South and Central America had record warmth.

“We continue to warm on the long term and in any given month we’re likely to be knocking on the door, close to a record in the era that we’re in,” NOAA climate monitoring chief Deke Arndt said.

The last seven Mays, from 2014 to 2020, have been the seven warmest Mays on record.

This past spring was the second hottest on record, behind 2016. And this year so far is the second hottest five-month start of a year.

Pangolin released into wild under China’s new protections
By SAM McNEIL  June 12, 2020

1 of 3
In this photo taken June 11, 2020, and released by CBCGDF, Sophia Zhang, a staffer from China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation, or CBCGDF, collects oral and nasal secretion sample for testing from the Pangolin named Lijin at the Jinhua wild animal rescue center in eastern China's Zhejiang province. (CBCGDF via AP)

BEIJING (AP) — Activists in China have released a pangolin into the wild to celebrate new protections for the armadillo-like animal whose numbers in the country have dropped to near extinction levels.
Volunteers had rescued and rehabilitated the pangolin nicknamed Lijin after it was found by a fisherman in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang.

“This is a good start … but this is not good enough,” said Zhou Jinfeng, secretary-general of the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Fund, the group behind the lone pangolin’s release on Thursday.

Just last year in Zhejiang, authorities arrested 18 smugglers and confiscated 23.1 tons of pangolin scales sourced from an estimated 50,000 creatures, according to Chinese state media.

After volunteers unlocked a transport crate, the foot-long pangolin crawled onto the lush forest floor outside Zhejiang’s Jinhua city. It’s brown scales and pink paws quickly disappeared in the emerald underbrush.

“We will release a lot more soon,” said Zhou, who has vowed to free all pangolins in captivity in China.

In this photo taken June 11, 2020, and released by CBCGDF, a worker from China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation, or CBCGDF, holds the Pangolin named Lijin before its release from the Jinhua wild animal rescue center in eastern China's Zhejiang province. (CBCGDF via AP)

The U.S.-based group Save Pangolins said China’s granting of top-level protected status earlier this month was “a massive win for pangolins” after years of weak enforcement of existing restrictions. Pangolin scales are an ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine and its meat is considered a delicacy by some.

Environmental groups say that poachers had regularly circumvented the original regulations to sell illegally hunted pangolin scales and meat, often sourced from Africa and Southeast Asia.

That has made pangolins “one of the most illegally traded mammals on the planet” with an estimated 1 million sold in the past 15 years, according to the Environmental Investigations Agency. Seizures have been recorded from Belgium to Singapore to Australia and the Philippines.

China’s increased protection forbids the raising of pangolins in captivity and the use of their scales in the nation’s mammoth traditional medicine industry.

Zhou said that efforts to halt the sale of pangolins in China were buoyed by a raise in global awareness of the wildlife animal trade linked to the outbreak of the coronavirus in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

In this photo taken June 11, 2020 and released by CBCGDF, Sophia Zhang, a staffer from China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation or CBCGDF, watch as the Pangolin named Lijin curls up for a rest at the Jinhua wild animal rescue center in eastern China's Zhejiang province. (CBCGDF via AP)

The June 5 order from the National Forestry and Grassland Administration did not explicitly mention the outbreak as a reason for the measure, but the timing appears to indicate it could be part of China’s nationwide crackdown on the wildlife trade following the pandemic.

Scientists say the coronavirus was most likely transmitted from bats to humans via an intermediary animal such as the pangolin.

Trade in wildlife including bats and pangolins has been linked to so-called zoonotic diseases that leap from animals to humans, and China quickly cracked down on the industry in a series of measures long-promoted by environmental groups.

Zhou said China’s native pangolins have been all but wiped out. Over the past five years, Zhou and volunteers found only five where hundreds of thousands lived just three decades ago.

Zhou said the new protections give groups like his the right to sue businesses and individuals selling pangolin scales. However, he wants to go a step further by releasing into the wild all captive pangolins in China and burning all confiscated pangolin scales, similar to how Kenya incinerated seized elephant tusks in a bid to end the illegal trade that continues to this day.

Ohio State University soil professor gets World Food Prize

By DAVID PITT June 11, 2020

1 of 2
In this undated photo provided by the World Food Prize Foundation, Rattan Lal, a professor of soil science at The Ohio State University poses at the University in Columbus, Ohio. Lai was named the recipient of the 2020 World Food Prize on Thursday, June 11, 2020. He was recognized by the Des Moines, Iowa-based organization for his soil research which has led to improved food production and a better understanding of how atmospheric carbon can be held in the soil improving climate change.(World Food Prize Foundation via AP)


DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A soil scientist whose research led to improved food production and a better understanding of how atmospheric carbon can be held in the soil to help combat climate change was named this year’s recipient of the World Food Prize on Thursday.

Rattan Lal is a professor of soil science at Ohio State University and founding director of the university’s Carbon Management and Sequestration Center.

World Food Prize Foundation President Barbara Stinson announced Lal as the winner. The ceremony was held online rather than live in Washington because of concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.

“Dr. Lal is a trailblazer in soil science with a prodigious passion for research that improves soil health, enhances agricultural production, improves the nutritional quality of food, restores the environment and mitigates climate change,” Stinson said.

Lal has developed and promoted the idea that healthy soil must not only have the usual nutrients, including nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, but must have depleted carbon restored by leaving crop residue. This focus on soil’s physical properties diverged from the conventional soil fertility strategy in the 1970s, which relied heavily on replacing nutrients by applying fertilizer. 

Lal’s research in the 1990s revealed that restoring degraded soils through increasing soil carbon and organic matter not only improved soil health, but helped combat rising carbon dioxide levels in the air by sequestering atmospheric carbon. His analysis showed that soils can sequester carbon at rates as high as 2.6 gigatons per year.

His career has taken him to posts in Australia and Nigeria. He has led soil restoration projects in Asia, Africa and Latin America, integrating no-till farming and use of cover crops, mulching and agroforestry to protect soil, conserve water and return nutrients, carbon and organic matter in the soil.

Though the concepts have been around for 50 years, farmers in developing countries are beginning to understand and implement his suggested practices. Lal also seeks wider use of soil conservation measures focused on soil health in developed countries.

“In the U.S. soil conservation is practiced only on a very small percent of the total areas,” he said. “It’s catching up, but I wish it could be at a faster speed and more area going to that kind of concept.”

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a videotaped message that a growing world population creates a need to improve agriculture productivity to feed more people.

“He’s helping the Earth’s estimated 500 million small farmers be faithful stewards of their land through improved management, less soil degradation, and the recycling of nutrients. The billions of people who depend on these farms stand to benefit greatly from his work,” Pompeo said.

Lal, 76, was born in India and studied soils from his earliest days at Punjab Agricultural University. His pursuit of higher education led him to Ohio State University for a doctorate. He established the Carbon Management and Sequestration Center in 2000.

AN ILL FITTING SUIT FIRST THING GET A CUSTOM

TAILORED SUIT FROM SEVILLE ROW, WITH YOUR WINNINGS

In this undated photo provided by the World Food Prize Foundation, Rattan Lal, a professor of soil science at The Ohio State University poses at the University in Columbus, Ohio. Lai was named the recipient of the 2020 World Food Prize on Thursday, June 11, 2020. He was recognized by the Des Moines, Iowa-based organization for his soil research which has led to improved food production and a better understanding of how atmospheric carbon can be held in the soil improving climate change.(World Food Prize Foundation via AP)

Lal said he now is focused on nutrition-centered agriculture to help the world’s 850 million undernourished and 2 billion malnourished.

“We must eliminate hunger. We must also make sure that the food consumed is healthy and this is where the concept of healthy soil, plants, animals, people and the environment is a one and indivisible concept,” he said.

The World Food Prize was created by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Norman Borlaug in 1986 to recognize scientists and others who have improved the quality and availability of food. The foundation that awards the $250,000 prize is based in Des Moines.

Spanish award honors Turkish economist wary of globalization

June 11, 2020

MADRID (AP) — Turkish economist Dani Rodrik, whose studies have warned about the flip side of economic globalization, will be this year’s recipient of the Princess of Asturias Social Sciences Award, Spanish organizers announced Thursday.

According to the jury, Rodrik, 62, “has strengthened the rigor in the analysis of the dynamics of the globalization of international economic relations” and his conclusions have made the economic system “much more sensitive to the needs of society.”

The Istanbul-born Rodrik’s career has been linked from its onset to Harvard University, where he currently holds the post of Professor of International Political Economy at its John F. Kennedy School of Government.

A supporter of free trade but a critic of what he has called “hyperglobalization,” Rodrik has published more than twenty books on political economy, some of them sparking intense debate among academics.

In “Straight Talk on Trade: Ideas for a Sane World Economy,” published two years ago as relations between China and the United States became ensnared in trade disputes, he warned about how global free trade, for all its benefits, inevitably ends up depressing some industries and communities.

The Princess of Asturias Foundation, which organizes the annual award, has as its honorary president the heir to the Spanish throne — currently the 14-year-old Princess Leonor.

The Social Sciences award is one of eight in different fields handed out annually. Recipients receive 50,000 euros ($56,400) at a ceremony held in the northern Spanish city of Oviedo in October.

Pandemic hampers raising rare whooping cranes for the wild

WHOOPING CRANES (NORTH AMERICAN IBIS) SUMMER IN ALBERTA AS DO THE GREAT BLUE HERON BOTH ENDANGERED SPECIES 

By JANET McCONNAUGHEY June 10, 2020

1 of 9
In this May 11, 2014 photo provided by the International Crane Foundation, curator of birds Kim Boardman holds an endangered whooping crane, while senior aviculturist Marianne Wellington performs artificial insemination. The foundation is not using the technique this year because foundation officials feel it would go against COVID-19 social distancing guidelines. This is among reasons that far fewer young whooping cranes than usual will be released into the wiild this fall to help bring back the world's rarest crane. (International Crane Foundation via AP)


NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The COVID-19 pandemic is drastically reducing the number of young whooping cranes to be released this fall to help bring back the world’s rarest cranes. Zoos and other places where the endangered birds are bred have had to cut not only staff size but use of two techniques to boost the birds’ numbers: artificial insemination and hand-rearing -- or, rather, costume-rearing -- chicks.

Whooping cranes are North America’s tallest birds, 5 feet (1.5 meters) high from their black feet to the little red caps on their heads. They’re white with black tips on wings spanning 7 feet (2.1 meters). They mate for life.

MORE STORIES:
– Louisiana's whooping crane comeback: 5 chicks this year
– Last of whooping cranes departs Maryland breeding program
– Reward up to $10K for tips leading to whooping crane killer

Only about 825 exist. All are descended from 15 that had survived habitat loss and hunters in 1941, breeding in Canada’s largest national park and wintering in Aransas, Texas.


In this photo provided by the Audubon Nature Institute, Heather Holtz takes semen from an endangered whooping crane for artificial insemination on Sunday, May 31, 2020, while Elyssa Buch holds the bird at the institute's Species Survival Center in New Orleans. In the background, Hanna Carter keeps the female crane from trying to protect her mate. Because of money losses and staff cutbacks due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Audubon is using the technique only for its most genetically valuable birds. (Audubon Nature Institute via AP)

Biologists are trying to establish two more flocks to mitigate disaster should anything happen to the original flock, now 500 strong. There are 75 birds based in Louisiana and 85 in a flock taught to migrate from Wisconsin to Florida by following ultralight aircraft.

In a normal year, breeders in various areas and wildlife agents in Louisiana and Wisconsin would collect some eggs for incubation, knowing the parents will lay a second and even a third clutch. That both increases the number of chicks per year and, in Wisconsin, helps keep wild chicks from hatching during the worst of the bloodsucking black fly season, which has proven dangerous to them.

\
Some incubated chicks get captive whoopers as surrogate parents, but there aren’t enough for all. To keep the rest from viewing people as their flock, keepers don baggy white “crane costumes” that cover them from head to ankles, and manipulate crane-head hand puppets to teach chicks to forage for insects.

Audubon Nature Institute’s Species Survival Center in New Orleans usually costume-raises a number of chicks. But COVID-19 is expected to cut revenues $21 million — nearly 37% of the year’s planned budget — at the institute, which also includes a zoo, aquarium, insectarium and nature center. That has meant staff cuts -- mostly in maintenance — which means keepers are doing some of that work and have less time overall, curator Michelle Hatwood said.

She said costume-rearing is expensive and will be used only if a crane couple turns out to be poor parents. The center’s 21 birds include eight pairs, some unmated birds and a few that would normally be housed next to growing chicks as behavior models.

The birds were moved to Audubon two years ago after the federal breeding center at Patuxent, Maryland, closed down, she said. “Most are brand-new -- they’ve never raised a chick.”

FILE - In this March 23, 2018 file photo, an endangered whooping crane flies over a crawfish pond in St. Landry Parish, La. Louisiana's flock is one of two made up almost entirely of birds raised in captivity and released in the wild to mitigate disaster in case anything happens to the only natural flock. But the COVID-19 pandemic will mean fewer youngsters than usual to release in the wild in fall 2020, helping to bring back the world's rarest cranes. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

No chicks at all are expected at the species’ largest breeding center. All 41 whooping cranes at the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin, require artificial insemination. One person holds a bird while another collects or injects sperm.

“That doesn’t really go with the social distancing guidelines,” aviculturist Kim Boardman said.

The technique is needed for a variety of reasons -- old injuries, arthritis, or because their mates aren’t the best genetic match in a highly inbred species


The big birds mate standing up, and a male with a bad wing or leg can’t do the job, Hatwood said.

FILE - In this June 11, 2018 file photo, a pair of captive-bred whooping cranes and their 2-month-old wild-hatched chicks forage through a crawfish pond near an egret, far right, in Jefferson Davis Parish, La. The COVID-19 pandemic means far fewer chicks than usual are being bred in captivity to release in the wild in fall 2020, helping to bring back the world's rarest cranes. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)


Each center sets its own policy, and Audubon decided the procedure was brief enough to let keepers in masks and eye shields work with the most genetically valuable birds.

A third person is often needed to fend off a bird’s mate during the operation, Hatwood said: “They have very sharp nails and very poky beaks.”

Other breeding centers are at the Calgary Zoo in Alberta, Canada (27 birds), the White Oak Conservation Center in Yulee, Florida (10) and the Dallas Zoo and Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Virginia (9 each), with another 25 birds too old or otherwise unsuited for breeding living at zoos for display only.


The Dallas Zoo’s birds, which arrived at a 2½-acre off-site breeding facility last August, were chosen as both genetically well suited and likely to breed on their own, said Matt James, senior director of animal care. “We’re going to try for the first couple of seasons to do this naturally,” he said.

Wild whooping cranes are hatching chicks, but those don’t get counted as members of the flock until they can fly. And even then, it isn’t easy being free. In Louisiana, 21 chicks hatched from 2016 through 2019. Seven lived to fly. Three have avoided perils such as predators, power lines and people who shoot at birds, and are still alive.

___

FILE - In this June 21, 2018 file photo, a recently hatched endangered whooping crane chick follows a keeper wearing a "crane suit," to resemble an adult endangered whooping crane so the chick doesn’t view humans as its flock at Audubon Nature Institute's Species Survival Center in New Orleans. The center usually "costume-raises" a number of chicks. But because the coronavirus pandemic has cut money and staffing it will do so in 2020 only if adult whoopers at the center are doing poorly at raising chicks. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

FILE - In this June 11, 2018, file photo, a captive-bred whooping crane and its wild-hatched chick forage through a crawfish pond in Jefferson Davis Parish, La. The COVID-19 pandemic means far fewer chicks than usual are being bred in captivity to release in the wild in fall 2020. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

Follow Janet McConnaughey on Twitter: @JanetMcCinNO

Colorado reexamines Elijah McClain’s death in police custody

By PATTY NIEBERG and THOMAS PEIPERT June 25, 2020

1 of 5
File-In this Nov. 23, 2019, file photo, demonstrators gather for a press conference at the Aurora Municipal Center after the police department released the body camera footage of Elijah McClain, who died after being stopped by three Aurora officers in August 2019. (Philip B. Poston/Sentinel Colorado via AP,File)

DENVER (AP) — The Colorado governor on Thursday ordered prosecutors to reopen the investigation into the death of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man put into a chokehold by police who stopped him on the street in suburban Denver last year because he was “being suspicious.”

Gov. Jared Polis signed an executive order directing state Attorney General Phil Weiser to investigate and possibly prosecute the three white officers previously cleared in McClain’s death. McClain’s name has become a rallying cry during the national reckoning over racism and police brutality following the deaths of George Floyd and others.

“Elijah McClain should be alive today, and we owe it to his family to take this step and elevate the pursuit of justice in his name to a statewide concern,” Polis said in a statement.

He said he had spoken with McClain’s mother and was moved by her description of her son as a “responsible and curious child ... who could inspire the darkest soul.”

Police in Aurora responded to a call about a suspicious person wearing a ski mask and waving his arms as he walked down a street on Aug. 24. Police body-camera video shows an officer getting out of his car, approaching McClain and saying, “Stop right there. Stop. Stop. ... I have a right to stop you because you’re being suspicious.”

Police say McClain refused to stop walking and fought back when officers confronted him and tried to take him into custody.

In the video, the officer turns McClain around and repeats, “Stop tensing up.” As McClain tries to escape the officer’s grip, the officer says, “Relax, or I’m going to have to change this situation.”

File-In this Nov. 23, 2019, file photo, attorney, Mari Newman, right, hugs Sheneen McClain during a press conference at the Aurora Municipal Center after the police department released the body camera footage of McClain's son, Elijah, being stopped while walking by three officers from the Aurora Police in late August 2019. McClain died three days later from injuries sustained during the stop. (Philip B. Poston/Sentinel Colorado via AP, File)

As other officers join to restrain McClain, he begs them to let go and says, “You guys started to arrest me, and I was stopping my music to listen.”

One of the officers put him in a chokehold that cuts off blood to the brain, something that has been banned in several places in the wake of Floyd’s death May 25 under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer and the global protests that followed.

In the video, McClain tells officers: “Let go of me. I am an introvert. Please respect the boundaries that I am speaking.” Those words have appeared on scores of social media posts demanding justice for McClain.

He was on the ground for 15 minutes as several officers and paramedics stood by. Paramedics gave him 500 milligrams of the sedative ketamine to calm him down, and he suffered cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital. McClain was declared brain dead Aug. 27 and was taken off life support three days later.

A forensic pathologist could not determine what exactly led to his death but said physical exertion during the confrontation likely contributed.

McClain’s younger sister, Samara McClain, told The Denver Post shortly after his death that her brother was walking to a corner store to get tea for a cousin and often wore masks when he was outside because he had a blood condition that caused him to get cold easily.

File-In this Oct. 1, 2019, file photograph, the father of Elijah McClain, LaWayne Mosley, left, and mother, Sheneen McClain, right, flank the family's lawyer, Mari Newman, during a protest outside city hall in Aurora, Colo. Elijah McClain died after being stopped by three police officers while walking in the east Denver suburb of Aurora. (Philip B. Poston/Sentinel Colorado via AP, File)

In the video, Elijah McClain sobs as he repeatedly tells officers, “I’m just different.” Samara McClain said her brother was a massage therapist who planned to go to college.

The Police Department put the three officers on leave, but they returned to the force when District Attorney Dave Young said there was insufficient evidence to support charging them.

“Ultimately, while I may share the vast public opinion that Elijah McClain’s death could have been avoided, it is not my role to file criminal charges based on opinion, but rather, on the evidence revealed from the investigation and applicable Colorado law,” Young said shortly before Polis ordered the investigation reopened.

Aurora police said interim Police Chief Vanessa Wilson won’t comment to avoid interfering with the investigation.

Mari Newman, the McClain family’s attorney, said she was pleased with the governor’s decision.

“Clearly, Aurora has no intention of taking responsibility for murdering an innocent young man,” she said. “Its entire effort is to defend its brutality at all costs, and to lie to the public it is supposed to serve. It is time for a responsible adult to step in.”

Colorado’s attorney general said in a statement that the investigation will be thorough and “worthy of public trust and confidence in the criminal justice system.”

Nieberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

DEPT.OF DUH OH
Can tear gas and pepper spray increase virus spread?

By CARLA K. JOHNSON

June 8, 2020

FILE - In this May 31, 2020, file photo, a protester tries to talk the police back amid tear gas in downtown Atlanta, as protests continue across the country over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on May 25. Police deployment of tear gas, pepper spray and chemical agents on protesters has raised concern that the practice may have increased the spread of the coronavirus. (Ben Gray/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, File)


Police departments have used tear gas and pepper spray on protesters in recent weeks, raising concern that the chemical agents could increase the spread of the coronavirus.

The chemicals are designed to irritate the mucous membranes of the eyes, nose and throat. They make people cough, sneeze and pull off their masks as they try to breathe.

Medical experts say those rushing to help people sprayed by tear gas could come into close contact with someone already infected with the virus who is coughing infectious particles. 

Also, those not already infected could be in more danger of getting sick because of irritation to their respiratory tracts.

There’s no research on tear gas and COVID-19 specifically, because the virus is too new. 

But a few years ago, Joseph Hout, then an active duty Army officer, conducted a study of 6,723 Army recruits exposed to a riot control gas during basic training. The study found a link between that exposure and doctors diagnosing acute respiratory illnesses.

o-Chlorobenzylidene Malononitrile (CS Riot Control Agent) Associated Acute Respiratory Illnesses in a U.S. Army Basic Combat Training Cohort 

Joseph J. Hout, MS USA, Duvel W. White, MS USA, Anthony R. Artino, MSC USN, Joseph J. Knapik, ScD Author NotesMilitary Medicine, Volume 179, Issue 7, July 2014, Pages 793–798,

https://doi.org/10.7205/MILMED-D-13-00514

Published: 01 July 2014ABSTRACTAcute respiratory illnesses (ARIs) are among the leading causes for hospital visits in U.S. military training populations and historically peak during U.S. Army Basic Combat Training (BCT) following mandatory exposure to the riot control agent o-chlorobenzylidene malononitrile (CS). This observational prospective cohort studied the association between CS exposures and ARI-related health outcomes in 6,723 U.S. Army recruits attending BCT at Fort Jackson, South Carolina from August 1 to September 25, 2012 by capturing and linking the incidence of ARI before and after the mask confidence chamber to CS exposure data. Recruits had a significantly higher risk (risk ratio = 2.44; 95% confidence interval = 1.74, 3.43) of being diagnosed with ARI following exposure to CS compared to the period of training preceding exposure, and incidence of ARI after CS exposure was dependent on the CS exposure concentration (p = 0.03). There was a significant pre-/postexposure ARI difference across all CS concentration levels (p < 0.01), however, no significant differences were detected among these rate ratios (p = 0.72). As CS exposure is positively associated with ARI health outcomes in this population, interventions designed to reduce respiratory exposures could result in decreased hospital burden and lost training time in the U.S. Army BCT population.

FILE - In this May 31, 2020, file photo, milk is poured into a demonstrator's eyes to neutralize the effect of pepper spray during a rally at Lafayette Park near the White House in Washington. Police deployment of tear gas, pepper spray and chemical agents on protesters has raised concern that the practice may have increased the spread of the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

Could tear gas lead to an increase in coronavirus infections? “I think it’s plausible, yes,” Hout said Monday.

The gases and sprays “by their nature, make you cough, sneeze and excrete fluids,” said Hout, now employed by Fairfax, Virginia-based Knowesis Inc., a private contractor.

“If there is a person who is positive for the virus, I can see them coughing on someone else and spreading it that way,” Hout said. “Another less likely way is through irritation of the respiratory system. It could create an environment for opportunistic infection in the body.”

Last week, more than 1,000 medical professionals and students signed a letter urging public health officials to oppose any use of “tear gas, smoke, or other respiratory irritants, which could increase risk for COVID-19 by making the respiratory tract more susceptible to infection, exacerbating existing inflammation, and inducing coughing.”

In the U.S., mayors in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle have ordered limits on the use of one common gas for crowd control. A judge in Denver imposed restrictions on the use of chemical weapons by police. And officials in Pittsburgh, New Orleans and Washington, D.C., have proposed bans or limits on tear gas use.

As protests over the death of George Floyd and other black Americans killed by law enforcement continue, it will take weeks before the effect might show up in rising COVID-19 case numbers. If cases increase, there are other factors that could share the blame, such as shouting, singing and, for thousands who were arrested, being confined in close spaces with others.

FILE - In this May 30, 2020, file photo, a protester is assisted with a solution to help neutralize the effects of tear gas fired by police outside the Minneapolis 5th Police Precinct. Police deployment of tear gas, pepper spray and chemical agents on protesters has raised concern that the practice may have increased the spread of the coronavirus. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

___
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.

Venice flooded by unusual high tide, 3rd highest for June

A quarter of Venice has been submerged by a near-record high tide for June, a time of year when such flooding is rare.

June 5, 2020


A view of flooded St. Mark square in Venice, Italy, Thursday night, June 4, 2020. Venice has been submerged by a near-record high tide that is rare for this time of year. The water level in the lagoon city reached 116 centimeters late Thursday, the third-highest mark for June. That level indicates around a quarter of Venice has been flooded. (AP Photo/Luigi Costantini)

ROME (AP) — A quarter of Venice has been submerged by a near-record high tide for June, a time of year when such flooding is rare.

The water level in Italy’s lagoon city reached 116 centimeters (3 feet, 9.7 inches) late Thursday, the third-highest mark for June. That level indicates that around a quarter of Venice has been flooded.

Venice’s sea monitoring agency blamed the unusually high late spring tide on a storm in the Atlantic that brought heavy winds and rain to northern Italy. Another unseasonably high tide is expected Friday night.

The highest June high tide was registered in 2002, when the water mark hit 121 centimeters, followed by 117 centimeters in June of 2016.

Venice authorities on Friday didn’t put out pedestrian bridges, which are usually only used in the peak “acqua alta” season from September to April.

Venice and the rest of Italy are still closed to cruise ships but Italy relaxed travel restrictions for Italians and most Europeans on Wednesday.

__


Read all AP coverage of climate change issues at https://apnews.com/Climate