Religion

Israel orders US-based Christian TV channel off air
yesterday



FILE - In this Oct. 1, 2015 file photo, evangelical Christians from various countries wave American flags in Jerusalem. Israeli regulators on Sunday, June 28, 2020, announced they ordered a U.S.-based evangelical broadcaster taken off the air, saying the channel hid its missionary agenda when it applied for a license. The controversy over GOD TV’s “Shelanu” station has put Israel and its evangelical Christian supporters in an awkward position. Evangelicals, particularly in the United States, are among the strongest supporters of Israel, which Israel has long welcomed. But most Jews view any effort to convert them as deeply offensive. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner, File)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli regulators on Sunday announced they ordered a U.S.-based evangelical broadcaster taken off the air, saying the channel hid its missionary agenda when it applied for a license.

In his decision, Asher Biton, the chairman of the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Council, said he had informed “GOD TV” on Thursday that it had seven days to stop broadcasting.

“The channel appeals to Jews with Christian content,” he wrote. “Its original request,” he said, stated that it was a “station targeting the Christian population.”

The decision was first reported by the Haaretz daily.

The controversy over GOD TV’s “Shelanu” station has put Israel and its evangelical Christian supporters in an awkward position, exposing tensions the two sides have long papered over.

Evangelical Christians, particularly in the United States, are among the strongest supporters of Israel, viewing it as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Some see it as the harbinger of a second coming of Jesus Christ and the end of days.

Israel has long welcomed evangelicals’ political and financial support, especially as their influence over the White House has risen during the Trump administration, and it has largely shrugged off concerns about any hidden religious agenda.

But most Jews view any effort to convert them to Christianity as deeply offensive, a legacy of centuries of persecution and forced conversion at the hands of Christian rulers. In part because of those sensitivities, evangelical Christians, who generally believe salvation can only come through Jesus and preach the Gospel worldwide, rarely target Jews.

In a statement, Shelanu said it was stunned by what it called Biton’s “unprofessional decision.”

It said its existing license “stated unequivocally” that it would broadcast its content in Hebrew to the Israeli public. Most Christians in the Holy Land speak Arabic. “Therefore it is not at all clear what was wrong beyond political considerations,” it said.

Ron Cantor, Shelanu’s Israeli spokesman, said the station would reapply for a license. He said the station’s management hopes the council will approve the request “and thus avoids a severe diplomatic incident with hundreds of millions of pro-Israel evangelical Christians worldwide.”

When GOD TV reached its seven-year contract with Israel’s main cable provider earlier this year, it presented itself as producing content for Christians.

But in a video message that was later taken down, GOD TV CEO Ward Simpson suggested its real aim was to convince Jews to accept Jesus as their messiah.

“God has supernaturally opened the door for us to take the Gospel of Jesus into the homes and lives and hearts of his Jewish people,” Simpson said in the video.

In a subsequent video, Simpson apologized for any offensive remarks and said GOD TV would comply with all regulations.

Freedom of religion is enshrined in Israeli law, and proselytizing is allowed as long as missionary activities are not directed at minors and do not involve economic coercion.

GOD TV was founded in the U.K. in 1995 and eventually grew into a 24-hour network with offices in several countries. Its international broadcasting licenses are held by a Florida-based non-profit. It claims to reach 300 million households worldwide.

Mathematicians behind JPEG files honored by Spanish awardJune 23, 2020

In this May 30, 2019 file photo, Mathematician Ingrid Daubechies is presented with an honorary Doctor of Science degree during Harvard University commencement exercises. An international team of mathematicians whose theories have improved the compression of large digital files of data, including images and sound, will be recognized by one of this year's Princess of Asturias awards, one of the most prestigous in the Spanish-speaking world. The Spanish foundation that organizes the annual awards announced Tuesday that the 2020 prize for Scientific and Technical Investigation will go to Yves Meyer, Ingrid Daubechies, Terence Tao and Emmanuel Candes. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)
MADRID (AP) — An international team of mathematicians whose theories have improved the compression of large digital files of data, including images and sound, will be recognized with one of the most prestigious awards in the Spanish-speaking world.

The Spanish foundation that organizes the annual Princess of Asturias awards said Tuesday that the 2020 prize for Scientific and Technical Investigation will go to Yves Meyer, Ingrid Daubechies, Terence Tao and Emmanuel Candes.

The contributions by Meyer and Daubechies in the mid-80′s on the theory of “wavelets” were key in developing the system that compresses images into JPEG 2000 files, a much more advanced version of the original JPEGs. Among other practical applications in the digital world, their theories also allowed images taken by Hubble, the space telescope, to be received on Earth and the study of the cosmic gravitational waves caused by colliding black holes.

In this Aug. 22, 2006 file photo, mathematician Terence Tao poses for the media before a press conference in Madrid. An international team of mathematicians whose theories have improved the compression of large digital files of data, including images and sound, will be recognized by one of this year's Princess of Asturias awards, one of the most prestigous in the Spanish-speaking world. The Spanish foundation that organizes the annual awards announced Tuesday that the 2020 prize for Scientific and Technical Investigation will go to Yves Meyer, Ingrid Daubechies, Terence Tao and Emmanuel Candes. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, FILE)

Building on their fellow scientists’ research, Tao and Candes later developed theories and techniques that were used for health screening with magnetic resonance imaging scanners, or MRIs.

“This award underscores the social contribution of mathematics and its significance as a cross-cutting element in all branches of science,” the jury wrote in a statement.

The annual awards, named after crown heir Princess Leonor, are handed in eight different categories ranging from arts to sports. Recipients are awarded 50,000 euros ($56,000) at a lavish ceremony to be held in October.

In this Aug. 19, 2010 file photo Yves Meyer during an event in Hyderabad, India, Thursday. An international team of mathematicians whose theories have improved the compression of large digital files of data, including images and sound, will be recognized by one of this year's Princess of Asturias awards, one of the most prestigous in the Spanish-speaking world. The Spanish foundation that organizes the annual awards announced Tuesday that the 2020 prize for Scientific and Technical Investigation will go to Yves Meyer, Ingrid Daubechies, Terence Tao and Emmanuel Candes. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A., File)

More fragments from 1952 crash in Alaska found in glacier
By MARK THIESSEN June 26, 2020

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In this June 18, 2020, photo provided by U.S. Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations, crash recovery team personnel assigned to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, search for crash remains at Colony Glacier, Alaska. A military plane carrying 41 passengers and 11 crew members crashed into a mountain near Anchorage in 1952, but remains of the victims are still being discovered. (Senior Airman Jonathan Valdes Montijo/U.S. Air Force via AP)

JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska (AP) — A lucky Buddha figurine, a flight suit, several 3-cent stamps, a crumpled 1952 Mass schedule for St. Patrick’s Church in Washington, D.C., and 480 bags containing individual human remains.

Those were among the items recovered this month from Alaska’s Colony Glacier, where an annual somber search continues for human remains and debris after a military plane crashed 67 years ago, officials said Friday.

The goal is to identify and return remains from everyone onboard the C-124 Globemaster, which smashed into Mount Gannett north of Anchorage on Nov. 22, 1952, killing all 41 passengers and 11 crew members, military officials sai

The remains of those killed weren’t retrieved at the time, and the plane and all it held slowly fell to the bottom of the mountain, where it eventually became part of Colony Glacier.

The crash was virtually forgotten until a military training mission spotted a yellow life raft on the glacier. Efforts began in 2012 to scour the glacier to see what else may have churned up, including human remains and other debris.

Now, the race is on to identify as many service members as possible before the glacier dumps the wreckage into Lake George, which will become a final resting place for everything that isn’t saved.

So far, remains have been identified for all but nine of those on board the flight from McChord Air Force Base in Washington state to Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage.

Capt. Shelby Yoakum, chief of the Readiness and Plans Division at Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operation at Dover Air Force Base, led this year’s three-week recovery effort at the glacier.

She said they might have only several more years of searching the glacier before the debris field calves into the lake.

“I think we can all safely say that there are still remains out there that have yet to melt out of the ice, and that we will be back for at least the next few years to continue this mission, especially since we have not identified all 52 that passed away,” Yoakum said.

The last area they found remains this year was about 656 feet (200 meters) from the toe of the glacier, where the ice falls into the lake.

Officials could not say when all the remains and debris from the glacier would be lost to Lake George.

“The reality of the situation is all of the debris and the remains are constantly falling to crevasses, big and small, and moving down to the toe of the glacier faster than some,” said Army Staff Sgt. Isaac Redmond, who was the mountaineering subject matter expert for the excavation.

The human remains will be respectfully shipped to Dover in transfer cases, about the same size as caskets, and draped with flags. At Dover, the process will begin to match DNA from the remains to samples that surviving family members have provided at the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory.

It’s not known how many of the nine service members who have not had matches yet could be among these remains or how long it might take to get results.

“We’re hopeful that we’ll at least get a couple of new IDs out of this,” said Katherine Grosso, a medicolegal investigator with the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System. “There will always be reassociated remains from previously identified service members, and so we’ll be able to provide those, as well, to the families.”

Tonja Anderson-Dell of Tampa, Florida, continues to lobby for the families of the nine service members whose remains haven’t been found, even after her own journey had closure.

For years, she waited for the military to identify the remains of her grandfather, Isaac Anderson, who was 21 when the plane when down.

After years of attending services for others whose loved ones were on the plane and laid to rest, in late 2018, she received word her grandfather’s remains had been found. A memorial service was held the following May.

“That was overwhelming,” she said by telephone Friday. “I finally got to see it. I’ve been to so many services and to now have my grandfather come home — very emotional for myself and for my father.”

She plans to continue being an advocate for the families but says some may never get their loved ones.

“I know that in my heart there may be one or two because it just may be that way, but I’m hoping that all of them get closure, you know, to know that it has been found,” she said.

Experts see no proof of child-abuse surge amid pandemic

By DAVID CRARY yesterday

FILE - This Thursday, April 16, 2020 file photo shows a sign announcing an elementary school in Helena, Mont., is closed. When the coronavirus pandemic took hold across the United States in mid-March, forcing schools to close and many children to be locked down in households buffeted by job losses and other forms of stress, many child-welfare experts warned of a likely surge of child abuse. Fifteen weeks later, the worries persist — yet some experts on the front lines, including pediatricians who helped sound the alarm, say they’ve seen no evidence yet that a marked increase has taken place. (Thom Bridge/Independent Record via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — When the coronavirus pandemic took hold across the United States in mid-March, forcing schools to close and many children to be locked down in households buffeted by job losses and other forms of stress, many child-welfare experts warned of a likely surge of child abuse.

Fifteen weeks later, the worries persist. Yet some experts on the front lines, including pediatricians who helped sound the alarm, say they have seen no evidence of a marked increase.

Among them is Dr. Lori Frasier, who heads the child-protection program at Penn State’s Hershey Medical Center and is president of a national society of pediatricians specializing in child abuse prevention and treatment.

Frasier said she got input in recent days from 18 of her colleagues across the country and “no one has experienced the surge of abuse they were expecting.”

A similar assessment came from Jerry Milner, who communicates with child-protection agencies nationwide as head of the Children’s Bureau at the federal Department of Health and Human Services. “I’m not aware of any data that would substantiate that children are being abused at a higher rate during the pandemic,” he told The Associated Press.

Still, some experts believe the actual level of abuse during the pandemic is being hidden from view because many children are seeing neither teachers nor doctors, and many child-protection agencies have cut back on home visits by caseworkers.

“There’s no question children are more at risk — and we won’t be able to see those children until school reopens,” said Marci Hamilton, a University of Pennsylvania professor who heads CHILD USA, a think tank seeking to prevent child abuse and neglect.

Several states said calls to their child-abuse hotlines dropped by 40% or more, which they attributed to the fact that teachers and school nurses, who are required to report suspected abuse, no longer had direct contact with students.

“While calls have gone down, that doesn’t mean abuse has stopped,” said Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, which reported a 50% drop in hotline calls.

Comprehensive data on abuse during the pandemic won’t be available for many months, according to Milner.

And whatever the current level of abuse, there’s no question some of it is horrific.

Georgia Boothe of Children’s Aid, a private agency that provides some of New York City’s foster care services, said some of the children now entering the system were brought in by police officers investigating domestic violence reports.
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“The level of severity in some of those cases is unreal,” she said.

Frasier, the Pennsylvania-based pediatrician, said some of her colleagues documented a sharp increase in shaken baby syndrome and children’s head injuries during the 2008 recession, which they attributed at least partly to economic stress.

“With the pandemic, we saw the high jobless rates, the layoffs, and we thought ‘OK, now we’re in for it again,’” she said.

She and others have noted some changes during the pandemic — for example, more accidental injuries from burns, falls and mishaps on farms. What they have not seen is a surge of child abuse.

Frasier has a couple of guesses as to why — a protective effect in households where multiple people were locked down together and federal financial aid that eased the stress on some vulnerable families.

In Nashville, Tennessee, Dr. Heather Williams says she and her colleagues who specialize in child-abuse pediatrics were braced for a pandemic-fueled surge, based on the experiences of 2008. Now she wonders if the recent infusion of federal unemployment assistance may have helped ward off such an increase.

“We’d be really excited if we’re wrong,” she said.

At the Children’s Bureau, Milner says he’s gratified that child protection is deemed a high priority during the pandemic, but he was troubled by the tone of some of the early warnings. He suggested that some had “racist underpinnings” — unfairly stereotyping low-income parents of color as prone to abusive behavior.

“To sound alarm bells, because teachers aren’t seeing kids every day, that parents are waiting to harm their kids — it’s an unfair depiction of so many parents out there doing the best under very tough circumstances,” he said.

One of Milner’s top aides, special assistant David Kelly, noted that in normal times a large majority of calls to child-abuse hotlines don’t trigger investigations.

“We know that the majority of findings of child maltreatment are for neglect, not physical abuse or exploitation, and we know that there are strong associations between neglect and challenges associated with poverty,” Kelly wrote in a June 12 article in the Chronicle of Social Change.

“If we take a closer look … we might be able to see the depth of resiliency that is present and the remarkable efforts poor parents make to get by on the smallest fraction of what many of us have.”

Concerns about children’s well-being amid the pandemic extend beyond physical abuse. There are worries about children missing vaccinations as their parents skip visits to doctors’ offices.

For children with internet access, weeks away from school have increased the risk of online sexual exploitation, according to Dr. Elizabeth Letourneau. She heads the Johns Hopkins Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse.

However, Letourneau is encouraged by one recent trend — more older children are calling hotlines themselves to report exploitation and abuse.
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Coronavirus lockdowns increase poaching in Asia, Africa

By ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL and MICHAEL CASEY June 21, 2020

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This November 2014 photo provided by the Wildlife Trust of India shows a leopard caught in a trap in a forest in Karnataka, India. Authorities in India are concerned a 2020 spike in poaching not only could kill more endangered tigers and leopards but also species these carnivores depend upon to survive. (WTI via AP)

NEW DELHI (AP) — A camera trap photo of an injured tigress and a forensic examination of its carcass revealed why the creature died: a poacher’s wire snare punctured its windpipe and sapped its strength as the wound festered for days.

Snares like this one set in southern India’s dense forest have become increasingly common amid the coronavirus pandemic, as people left jobless turn to wildlife to make money and feed their families.

Authorities in India are concerned this spike in poaching not only could kill more endangered tigers and leopards but also species these carnivores depend upon to survive.

“It is risky to poach, but if pushed to the brink, some could think that these are risks worth taking,” said Mayukh Chatterjee, a wildlife biologist with the non-profit Wildlife Trust of India.

Since the country announced its lockdown, at least four tigers and six leopards have been killed by poachers, Wildlife Protection Society of India said. But there also were numerous other poaching casualities — gazelles in grasslands, foot-long giant squirrels in forests, wild boars and birds such as peacocks and purple morhens.

In many parts of the developing world, coronavirus lockdowns have sparked concern about increased illegal hunting that’s fueled by food shortages and a decline in law enforcement in some wildlife protection areas. At the same time, border closures and travel restrictions slowed illegal trade in certain high-value species.

One of the biggest disruptions involves the endangered pangolin. Often caught in parts of Africa and Asia, the anteater-like animals are smuggled mostly to China and Southeast Asia, where their meat is considered a delicacy and scales are used in traditional medicine.

In April, the Wildlife Justice Commission reported traders were stockpiling pangolin scales in several Southeast Asia countries awaiting an end to the pandemic.

Rhino horn is being stockpiled in Mozambique, the report said, and ivory traders in Southeast Asia are struggling to sell the stockpiles amassed since China’s 2017 ban on trade in ivory products. The pandemic compounded their plight because many Chinese customers were unable to travel to ivory markets in Cambodia, Laos and other countries.

They are desperate to get it off their hands. Nobody wants to be stuck with that product,” said Sarah Stoner, director of intelligence for the commission.

The illegal trade in pangolins continued “unabated” within Africa but international trade has been disrupted by port closures, said Ray Jansen, chairman of the African Pangolin Working Group.

“We have witnessed some trade via air while major ship routes are still closed but we expect a flood of trade once shipping avenues reopen again,” Jansen said.

Fears that organized poaching in Africa would spike largely have not materialized — partly because ranger patrols have continued in many national parks and reserves.

Emma Stokes, director of the Central Africa Program of the Wildlife Conservation Society, said patrolling national parks in several African countries has been designated essential work.

But she has heard about increased hunting of animals outside parks. “We are expecting to see an increase in bushmeat hunting for food – duikers, antelopes and monkeys,” she said.

Jansen also said bushmeat poaching was soaring, especially in parts of southern Africa. “Rural people are struggling to feed themselves and their families,” he said.

There are also signs of increased poaching in parts of Asia.
Full Coverage: Virus Outbreak

A greater one-horned rhino was gunned down May 9 in India’s Kaziranga National Park -- the first case in over a year. Three people, suspected to be a part of an international poaching ring, were arrested on June 1 with automatic rifles and ammunition, said Uttam Saikia, a wildlife warden.

As in other parts of the world, poachers in Kaziranga pay poor families paltry sums of money to help them. With families losing work from the lockdown, “they will definitely take advantage of this,” warned Saikia.

In neighboring Nepal, where the virus has ravaged important income from migrants and tourists, the first month of lockdown saw more forest-related crimes, including poaching and illegal logging, than the previous 11 months, according to a review by the government and World Wildlife Fund or WWF.

For many migrants returning to villages after losing jobs, forests were the “easiest source” of sustenance, said Shiv Raj Bhatta, director of programs at WWF Nepal.

In Southeast Asia, the Wildlife Conservation Society documented in April the poisoning in Cambodia of three critically endangered giant ibises for the wading bird’s meat. More than 100 painted stork chicks were also poached in late March in Cambodia at the largest waterbird colony in Southeast Asia.

“Suddenly rural people have little to turn to but natural resources and we’re already seeing a spike in poaching,” said Colin Poole, the group’s regional director for the Greater Mekong.

Heartened by closure of wildlife markets in China over concerns about a possible link between the trade and the coronavirus, several conservation groups are calling for governments to put measures in place to avoid future pandemics. Among them is a global ban on commercial sale of wild birds and mammals destined for the dinner table.

Others say an international treaty, known as CITES, which regulates the trade in endangered plants and animals, should be expanded to incorporate public health concerns. They point out that some commonly traded species, such as horseshoe bats, often carry viruses but are currently not subject to trade restrictions under CITES.

“That is a big gap in the framework,” said John Scanlon, former Secretary-General of CITES now with African Parks. ”We may find that there may be certain animals that should be listed and not be traded or traded under strict conditions and certain markets that ought to be closed.”


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Casey reported from Boston. Associated Press writer Christina Larson contributed from Washington.

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On Twitter follow Ghosal: @aniruddhg1 and Casey:@mcasey1

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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.'

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Court: Montana family owns dinosaur fossils worth millions
By AMY BETH HANSON June 23, 2020
 

In this April 16, 2016, file photo, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock accepts a fossilized rib and tail vertebrae from a triceratops from Luke Phipps, 12, at the State Capitol in Helena, Mont., after the governor signed a bill to clarify that fossils are part of a property's surface rights, not its mineral rights, unless a contract separating the ownership says otherwise. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on June 17, 2020, upheld a federal judge's ruling that said dinosaur fossils are part of a property's surface estate in an ongoing battle over ownership of millions of dollars of fossils unearthed on an eastern Montana ranch. (Thom Bridge/Independent Record via AP, File)

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Dinosaur fossils worth millions of dollars unearthed on a Montana ranch belong to the owners of the land’s surface rights, not the owners of the mineral rights, a U.S. appeals court ruled.

The June 17 ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 2016 decision by U.S. District Judge Susan Watters of Billings that found dinosaur fossils were part of the surface estate, not the mineral estate, in cases of split ownership. The surface rights where the fossils were found are owned by Mary Ann and Lige Mur

FILE - In this Nov. 14, 2013, file photo, one of two "dueling dinosaurs" fossils is displayed in New York. In an ongoing court case over the ownership of the fossils and others worth millions of dollars, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on June 17, 2020, that fossils unearthed on an eastern Montana ranch belong to the owners of the surface estate. (AP Photo/Seth Weinig, File)

“The composition of minerals found in the fossils does not make them valuable or worthless,” Watters wrote. “Instead the value turns on characteristics other than mineral composition, such as the completeness of the specimen, the species of dinosaur and how well it is preserved.”

Brothers Jerry and Bo Severson, who owned two-thirds of the mineral rights on property once owned by their father, appealed Watters’ decision to the 9th Circuit.

A three-judge panel of the appeals court overturned Watters’ ruling in February 2018, but the Murrays asked for a larger panel of judges to hear the case.

In the meantime, the 2019 Montana Legislature passed a bill stating that dinosaur fossils are part of a property’s surface estate unless they are reserved as part of the mineral estate.

Before making its decision, the 9th Circuit asked Montana’s Supreme Court to rule on whether fossils were minerals under state law because at the time the case was filed, there was not a definitive law. In a 4-3 ruling last month, the Montana justices said dinosaur fossils are not considered minerals under state law.

“Because Mary Ann and Lige Murray are the undisputed owners of the surface estate here ... the (Montana) Supreme Court’s decision requires a resolution in their favor,” Chief Judge Sidney R. Thomas wrote on behalf of himself and 10 other members of the 9th Circuit.

Eric Nord, the attorney for the Murrays, declined to comment Tuesday. Shane Swindle, an attorney for the Seversons, did not immediately return phone or email messages seeking comment on whether the Seversons plan to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The dinosaurs unearthed on the ranch include a T. rex found in 2013, a triceratops skull discovered in 2011 and the 2006 discovery of a pair of dinosaurs that appeared to have been locked in battle when they died.

The T. rex was sold for millions of dollars. The so-called dueling dinosaurs drew a bid of $5.5 million in a 2014 auction, but failed to reach the $6 million reserve price.

In a legal effort to clarify the ownership of the dueling dinosaurs before trying to sell them, the Murrays sought a court order saying they owned the fossils, sparking the legal battle.

Lawsuit brewing in fight over game bird in Sierra Nevada
By SCOTT SONNER June 25, 2020

FILE - This March 10, 2010, file photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows a female bi-state sage grouse in Nevada. Conservationists are headed back to court again to try to force the Trump administration to protect the rare game bird along the California-Nevada line where the government keeps changing its mind about whether to add the cousin of the greater sage grouse to the U.S. list of threatened and endangered species. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP, File)


RENO, Nev. (AP) — Conservationists are headed back to court to try to force the Trump administration to protect a rare game bird along the California-Nevada border as the government keeps changing its mind about whether to list the cousin of the greater sage grouse as threatened or endangered.

Three groups have filed formal notice of their intent to sue after the Fish and Wildlife Service reversed course in March and abandoned its 2018 proposal to list the bi-state grouse under the Endangered Species Act.

The hen-sized bird is similar but separate from the greater sage grouse, which lives in a dozen Western states and is at the center of a dispute over the government’s efforts to roll back protections adopted under President Barack Obama

The service estimates the bi-state grouse population is half what it was 150 years ago along the eastern front of the Sierra Nevada. Anywhere from 330 to 3,305 are believed to remain across 7,000 square miles (18,129 square kilometers) of high desert sagebrush stretching from Carson City to Yosemite National Park.

Threats to the bird include urbanization, livestock grazing and wildfires.

The Fish and Wildlife Service rejected listing petitions in 2001 and 2005. It formally proposed threatened status for the first time in 2013 but abandoned that proposal two years later.

In 2018, a U.S. judge in San Francisco found the agency had illegally denied protection to the bi-state grouse and ordered it to re-evaluate the bird’s status.

The bird was again proposed for protection, but in March the administration withdrew that proposal. The service said its latest review indicates the population has improved, thanks in large part to voluntary protection measures adopted by state agencies, local ranchers and other interested third parties.

Conservationists say voluntary efforts fall short of what’s necessary to comply with the law.

“We’ve watched for more than a decade as voluntary measures failed to do enough to help these birds survive,” said Ileene Anderson, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, which filed the notice of intent to sue last week with WildEarth Guardians and the Western Watersheds Project.

“Without the legal protection of the Endangered Species Act, multiple threats will just keep pushing these unique grouse toward extinction,” she said.

The Eastern Sierra Land Trust based in Bishop, California, is among those that disagree.

The coalition of ranchers, private landowners, tribal land managers and others has been active in local partnerships working to improve grouse habitat. It said the service’s March decision was a testament to their success.

“In the case of the bi-state sage-grouse, our uniquely local and collaborative approach is working without the need for the Endangered Species Act,” the trust said.

The federal agency said in March it still believes the population is distinct from the greater sage grouse — living in six population subgroups on the southwest edge of the overall species. But it no longer believes there’s any immediate threat to the survival of the subgroups.

“The best scientific and commercial data available indicated the threats … are reduced to the point that the (distinct population segment) does not meet the act’s definition of an ‘endangered species’ or of a ‘threatened species.’” the agency said.

But the conservationists say the dwindling number left is far below the 5,000-bird threshold scientists consider the minimum viable population.

Apple, AT&T, Jack Daniel’s: Fed issues details on bond buys

ALL CAPITALISM IS STATE CAPITALISM

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER

File-In this May 22, 2020, file photo, a car drives past the Federal Reserve building in Washington. The Federal Reserve on Sunday, June 28, 2020, released a list of roughly 750 companies, including Apple, Walmart, and ExxonMobil, whose corporate bonds it will purchase in the coming months in an effort to keep borrowing costs low and smooth the flow of credit. The central bank also said it has, so far, purchased nearly $429 million in corporate bonds from 86 of those companies, including AT&T, Walgreen's, Microsoft, Pfizer, and Marathon Petroleum. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)


WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve on Sunday released a list of roughly 750 companies, including Apple, Walmart and ExxonMobil, whose corporate bonds it will purchase in the coming months in an effort to keep borrowing costs low and smooth the flow of credit.

The central bank also said it has, so far, purchased nearly $429 million in corporate bonds from 86 of those companies, including AT&T, Walgreen’s, Microsoft, Pfizer and Marathon Petroleum.

The Fed announced in March that it would, for the first time in its history, purchase corporate bonds as the intensifying viral outbreak caused panicked investors to dump most types of securities in a rush to hold cash. That pushed up a range of interest rates and made it nearly impossible for companies to borrow more by issuing new bonds.

Yet once the Fed said it intended to purchase up to $750 billion of corporate debt, investors began buying bonds again and eventually large companies resumed issuing large amounts of new bonds. Recent economic research has found that simply by announcing the program, the Fed was able to boost confidence in corporate bonds and improve the market’s efficiency.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said that by ensuring large companies can borrow more, the Fed is seeking to keep those firms from having to layoff workers. But the corporations aren’t required to keep all their workers.

At a hearing last week, Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., questioned Powell about whether the purchases were still necessary, since the corporate bond market has largely recovered. Powell said the Fed had to follow through on its promises.

To avoid criticism that it might favor a specific industry, the Fed said two weeks ago that it would seek to mimic a broad market index approach and purchase bonds from a wide range of companies. Consumer product companies, such as Quaker Oats and the distiller Brown-Forman, which makes Jack Daniel’s and Woodford Reserve whiskeys, make up roughly a third of the index. That sector is followed by utilities at 10% and energy firms at more than 9%. The index also includes insurance companies but no banks.

The Fed will only buy highly rated debt from financially healthy companies, or ones that were highly rated before the pandemic struck. The Fed is legally barred from lending to insolvent companies. It has said it would report on its purchases every 30 days.

The Fed said Sunday that it made its first bond buys from 86 companies last week. Those companies include Nike, broadcaster Fox Corp., Paypal, Target, Campbell Soup and chipmaker Broadcom.

The central bank is also purchasing pools of bonds in exchange-traded funds, which operate similarly to mutual funds. The Fed currently owns $6.8 billion of bond ETFs.

The Treasury Department has provided $75 billion in taxpayer money to backstop any losses from the bond buys. So far, the Fed’s purchases remain modest relative to the program’s announced $750 billion cap.

By comparison, since March it has purchased more than $2 trillion in Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities in an effort to pump cash into short-term lending markets.

Trump, statehood, police funding fight up DC mayor’s profile

BY ASHRAF KHALIL yesterday

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FILE - In this June 16, 2020, file photo District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser wears a mask with the number 51 over a map of the District of Columbia during a news conference on D.C. statehood on Capitol Hill in Washington. Bowser must pull off a public juggling act as the city budget becomes a battleground for the country's debate on overhauling law enforcement. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)


WASHINGTON (AP) — Muriel Bowser’s national profile had never been higher, thanks to a Twitter beef with President Donald Trump and a renewed push to turn the nation’s capital into the 51st state. Now Washington’s mayor must pull off a public juggling act as the city budget becomes a battleground for the country’s debate on overhauling law enforcement.

An activist collective led by Black Lives Matter is trying to capitalize on shifting public opinion, and the demands include major cuts in funding for the Metropolitan Police Department. The District of Columbia Council had indicated it would push for up to $15 million in cuts, but Bowser is defending her 2021 budget proposal, which includes a 3.3% increase in police money.

With conservatives painting her as a radical riot-supporter, Bowser must thread this needle with both Black Lives Matter and the White House watching her every move. It’s a similar dilemma to that faced by other urban mayors of protest hot spots who must balance competing pressures without alienating either the activists or the police. In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti has faced criticism for not going far enough on law enforcement changes while the police union has called him “unstable.” In Atlanta, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is dealing with mass police no-shows over her handling of police violence cases.

FILE - In this June 23, 2020, file photo a man shouts at a line of police officers after they closed 16th Street Northwest between H and I Street, renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington. In the early days of the protests, District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser publicly sided with the demonstrators as Trump usurped local authority and called in a massive federal security response. Bowser responded by renaming the protest epicenter, within sight of the White House, as Black Lives Matter Plaza. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

Bowser is also finding herself one of the public faces of Washington’s quest to be a state. The House of Representatives on Friday, voting largely along party lines, approved a bill to grant statehood. It was the first time a chamber of Congress had approved such a measure.

But there is insurmountable opposition in the GOP-controlled Senate, where Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., singled out Bowser out on Thursday as a reason that Washington cannot be trusted with statehood. He called her “a left wing politician … who frequently takes the side of rioters against law enforcement.”

Cotton lumped Bowser in with the late Marion Barry, a former mayor who was caught on video smoking crack cocaine in a 1990 FBI sting. Barry, who died in 2014, remains a beloved figure in many parts of the district and he emerged from federal prison to serve additional terms as both a mayor and a councilman. A statue of him was erected in front of the D.C. government administration building in 2018.

“Would you trust Mayor Bowser to keep Washington safe if she were given the powers of a governor? Would you trust Marion Barry,” Cotton asked.

Granting the predominantly Democratic city statehood would likely increase the party’s numbers in Congress. And that’s what led Trump to tell The New York Post last month that “DC will never be a state.”

“That’ll never happen unless we have some very, very stupid Republicans around that I don’t think you do,” he said.

In the early days of the protests, Bowser publicly sided with the demonstrators as Trump usurped local authority and called in a massive federal security response. Bowser responded by renaming the protest epicenter, within sight of the White House, as Black Lives Matter Plaza. She also commissioned a mural with Black Lives Matter painted on 16th Street across from the White House in yellow letters large enough to be seen from space.

For Trump and his supporters, Bowser may as well have declared herself a dues-paying member of the movement’s local chapter. But that chapter didn’t feel the same, immediately dismissing it as “a performative distraction” from true policy changes.

“It’s a stunt. It was always a stunt,” said activist Joella Roberts. “We don’t need a street sign to tell us we matter. We’re here in the streets because we already know we matter.”

April Goggans, a core organizer with Black Lives Matter DC, rejected Bowser’s moves as “taking advantage of national attention,” and added, “She would never even say the words ‘Black Lives Matter’ until recently.”

Bowser acknowledged that mistrust even as she ordered the changes.

“Black Lives Matter is very critical of police. They’re critical of me,” Bowser said, not long after hanging the new street sign. “That doesn’t mean that I don’t see them and support the things that will make our community safe.”


FILE - In this June 24, 2020, file photo Aaron Covington of St. Louis, center, holds his fist up as he faces a police line while leading people in a chant as demonstrators protest in front of a police line on a section of 16th Street that's been renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington. An activist collective led by Black Lives Matter is trying to capitalize on shifting public opinion, and the demands include major cuts in funding for the Metropolitan Police Department. The District of Columbia Council had indicated it would push for up to $15 million in cuts, but District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser is defending her 2021 budget proposal, which includes a 3.3% increase in police money. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

The street mural in particular became the subject of a cat-and-mouse game that underscores the complexities of Bowser’s position.

The original mural also bore a yellow outline of the D.C. flag — two horizontal lines topped by three stars. Within days, activists had erased the stars to create the appearance of an equal sign and added their own message, turning the mural into “Black Lives Matter=Defund The Police.”

Clearly not wanting to antagonize the street activists, Bowser’s government has allowed the “Defund the Police” addition to remain. But city crews did repaint the stars on the D.C. flag image.

Now that struggle moves into the district’s decision-making corridors as Bowser finds herself caught between the D.C. Council, street pressure from a resurgent activist community and her own police department.

Relations between the City Council and the police are already fragile thanks to legislation that was quickly and unanimously passed on June 9. It prohibits police from using tear gas or riot gear to break up protests, bans the use of choke-holds, strengthens disciplinary procedures and speeds up the release of body camera footage and names of officers involved in fatal shootings.

Both Bowser and the police chief, Peter Newsham, were critical of the move, saying lawmakers reacted rashly to public pressure and did not consider enough input before passing the measure. A local TV station obtained a recording of Newsham telling fellow officers that the department felt “completely abandoned” by the D.C. Council.

A new showdown is looming over the 2021 budget. Council member Charles Allen, head of the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, said the committee received 15,000 calls, messages and video testimonials before a budget hearing this month — an exponential increase in interest from previous years. A draft report from the committee reportedly includes up to $15 million in proposed cuts to the police budget.

Bowser on Thursday said that she hadn’t read the police funding proposal yet and would wait until the Council formally submitted its proposed changes to her. She insisted that her 3.3% increase — bringing the total police budget up to $533 million — was the correct assessment of what was needed to keep the city safe.

“We sent them the budget that we need,” she said.

Goggans, the local Black Lives Matter organizer, dismissed the budget dispute as a facade, saying that the proposed cuts amount to far less than they seem.

“There’s not a compromise to made on our side. That just can’t happen,” Goggans said. “We’re going to keep putting up a massive amount of pressure and escalating our tactics and intensity.”

Fracking pioneer Chesapeake files for bankruptcy protection

By CATHY BUSSEWITZ and TALI ARBEL yesterday

FILE - In this April 23, 2010, file photo, workers move a section of well casing into place at a Chesapeake Energy natural gas well site near Burlington, Pa., in Bradford County. Chesapeake Energy, a shale drilling pioneer that helped to turn the United States into a global energy powerhouse, has filed for bankruptcy protection. The Oklahoma City-based company said Sunday, June 28, 2020, that it was a necessary decision given its debt. Its debt load is currently nearing $9 billion. (AP Photo/Ralph Wilson, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Chesapeake Energy, a shale drilling pioneer that helped to turn the United States into a global energy powerhouse, has filed for bankruptcy protection.

The Oklahoma City-based company said Sunday that it was a necessary decision given its debt. Its debt load is currently nearing $9 billion. It has entered a plan with lenders to cut $7 billion of its debt and said it will continue to operate as usual during the bankruptcy process.

The oil and gas company was a leader in the fracking boom, using unconventional techniques to extract oil and gas from the ground, a method that has come under scrutiny because of its environmental impact.

Other wildcatters followed in Chesapeake’s path, racking up huge debts to find oil and gas in fields spanning New Mexico, Texas, the Dakotas and Pennsylvania. A reckoning is now coming due with those massive debts needing to be serviced by Chesapeake and those that followed its path.

More than 200 oil producers have filed for bankruptcy protection in the past five years, a trend that’s expected to continue as a global pandemic saps demand for energy and depresses prices further.

Founded in 1989 with an initial $50,000 investment, Chesapeake focused on drilling in underdeveloped areas of Oklahoma and Texas. It largely abandoned traditional vertical well drilling, employing instead lateral drilling techniques to free natural gas from unconventional shale formations.

It became a colossus in the energy markets, eventually reaching a market valuation of more than $37 billion. Then, the first in a series of financial shocks hit Chesapeake as the Great Recession sent energy prices into the basement.

The company closed Friday valued at around $115 million.

Chesapeake grew with lightning speed under one-time CEO Aubrey McClendon, known for his aggressiveness acquiring oil and gas drilling rights. He pushed the company to acquire enormous tracks of land in several states, taking on mounting debt along the way. Chesapeake in some ways became a victim of its own success as other companies followed its lead and U.S. energy production soared, driving down prices.

As Chesapeake was expanding at breakneck speed, natural gas prices were near $20 per million British thermal units, the benchmark for natural gas trading. But frackers like Chesapeake flooded the market with cheap natural gas, sending prices to well under $2.

McClendon left the company in 2013 with questions swirling about its business practices. On March 1, 2016, McClendon was indicted on a charge of conspiring to rig bids on energy leases in Oklahoma. McClendon died the following day, the single occupant in his Chevrolet Tahoe that smashed into a concrete viaduct at nearly 90 mph.

The coroner ruled his death an accident.

Chesapeake has paid millions of dollars since to settle charges of bid rigging.

Robert Lawler became CEO after McClendon’s death and began selling off assets to get Chesapeake’s debt under control. But that debt grew more threatening within two years as the fracking boom turn to a bust in 2015. Chesapeake reported a quarterly loss of $4 billion that year and the first wave of layoffs began with 750 jobs.

Despite Chespeake’s problems, Lawler last year remained the highest-paid CEO in Oklahoma with $15.4 million in compensation, according to a ranking compiled by The Associated Press and Equilar.

Chesapeake lost an eye-popping $8.3 billion in the first quarter of this year, and it listed $8.62 billion in net debt. The company said in a regulatory filing in May that “management has concluded that there is substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.”

___ This story has been corrected to show that Chesapeake went from vertical to lateral drilling, not horizontal drilling.