PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY

House votes to block funding for transgender troop ban


The House on Thursday approved an amendment that would block funding for the Pentagon's policy preventing transgender people from serving in the military without a waiver. File Photo by Erin Schaff/UPI | License Photo

July 30 (UPI) -- House Democrats on Thursday voted to block funding for the Trump administration's transgender military ban.

The measure, introduced by Rep. Jacki Speier, D-Calif., and 28 Democratic co-sponsors was approved by a voice vote as part of a series of amendments $1.3 trillion spending package including the fiscal 2021 defense appropriations bill.

Republicans opposed the package but did not demand a roll call vote and no lawmakers spoke for or against the amendment.

The amendment would bar using funds to implement the Pentagon's transgender service policy, which requires transgender people to obtain a waiver to serve in the military outside of their biological sex.

The Pentagon has stated this provision, and another allowing transgender people serving openly prior to its implementation to continue, indicates that the policy is not a ban but only one such waiver has been granted since the program went into effect in April.

The House approved the same amendment last year, but it was not included in the final bill.

PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY

Lockheed, Boeing and Saab bid on Canada's fighter jet contract


Lockheed Martin, builder of the F-35, submitted its bid to equip the Canadian armed forces with advanced fighter planes, it said on Friday. Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin/Flickr

July 31 (UPI) -- Lockheed Martin, with its F-35 fighter plane, joined Boeing and Saab on Friday in submitting bids to build advanced aircraft for Canada's armed forces.

An upgrade to Canada's fleet of CF-18 planes, first purchased in 1977, is regarded as long overdue, and the process has been onerous.


A plan to purchase new planes first emerged in the 1990s, but changes in Canadian government, questions about the F-35's cost, and longstanding suspicions that the Canadian military has preferred the F-35 over competitors led to delays, and rounds of government/industry consultations and reviews.

The COVID-19 pandemic also pushed the final bid submission date to the end of July.

RELATED Lawmakers criticize Lockheed over F-35 parts, missing equipment files


Lockheed's F-35, Boeing's F/A-18 Super Hornet Block III and Saab's Gripen E are under consideration. The choice is further complicated by the benefits to Canadian industry if the F-35 is chosen.

"Canada has been a valued partner since the inception of the Joint Strike Fighter competition," a Lockheed Martin statement on Friday said. "Canadian industry plays an integral role in the global F-35 supply chain and has gained significant technical expertise over the past 15-plus year involvement in the F-35 production."

The F-35 program would continue to bring manufacturing and production opportunities to Canada, with an estimated 150,000 jobs supported over the life of the program, in which more than 3,200 aircraft are expected to be delivered by 2060, the Canadian Defense Review estimated on Friday.

RELATED Air Force inks deal to buy F-35s built for Turkey

The $19 billion program calls for eventual purchase of 88 new fighter planes, with initial payments due as Canada begins paying for four new Navy frigates, as well as dealing with the debt accrued in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

The first planes will not arrive until 2025, and defense analyst Michael Byers of the University of British Columbia suggested that Canada will purchase fewer planes. Byers noted that Conservative Party leadership, no longer in power, planned to buy only 65 planes, the minimum number the Canadian Air Force said at the time was required.

FOREVER CHEMICALS

Investigation of water-borne contaminants starts at former Reese AFB, Texas


Research began this week on carcinogens in ground water at the former Reese Air Force Base, Texas. Photo courtesy of U.S. Air Force


July 31 (UPI) -- Investigative field work began on contaminants in the groundwater of the former Reese Air Base, Texas, the U.S. Air Force said.

The base near Lubbock was closed in 1997 after a 50-year history. Like most U.S. air bases, it had relied since 1970 on foam, to put out fires, containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances [PFAS] regarded as hazardous materials. Repeated use of the foam led to contaminants seeping into ground water.

Research has linked PFAS to kidney cancer, testicular cancer, and endocrine disruption. Unusual clusters of serious medical effects in communities with heavily PFAS-contaminated water, many near military bases, have been discovered.

The investigation was announced by the Air Force in a statement on Thursday.

RELATED Wind can carry PFAS pollution miles away from manufacturing facilities

"We didn't do this in neglect or violation of environmental laws," said Stephen TerMaath, chief of the Air Force Base Realignment and Closure Program Management Division. "For a lot of years we all understood this to be a safe product and used it in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions."

"Now, with the TCEQ's [Texas Commission on Environmental Quality] issuance of Protective Concentration Levels for 16 PFAS chemicals, the Air Force is taking aggressive measures to ensure the community has safe drinking water, and find long-term solutions to the contamination," TerMaath said.

The installation, in the next six weeks, of 25 monitoring wells in a 12 square-mile area near the former base is designed to provide a better understanding of water source areas and water migration.

RELATED Health-damaging PFAS 'forever chemicals' likely released at 2,500 sites

The Air Force said it has already sampled over 500 drinking water wells at or near the base, and installed 220 drinking water treatment systems of affected wells.

The Pentagon has identified 401 active and former military installations with known or suspected contamination. A 2019 bill requiring federal regulation the cleanup of PFAS on military bases was unsuccessful, leaving the matter to the states.

RELATED Many household drinking water filters fail to totally remove PFAS

US: Snake River dams will not be removed to save salmon

In this May 15, 2019, file photo, the Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River is seen from the air near Colfax, Washington. The federal government said Friday, July 31, 2020, four giant dams on the Snake River in Washington state will not be removed to help endangered salmon migrate to the ocean. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — The U.S. government announced Friday that four huge dams on the Snake River in Washington state will not be removed to help endangered salmon migrate to the ocean.

The decision thwarts the desires of environmental groups that fought for two decades to breach the structures.

The Final Environmental Impact Statement was issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation and Bonneville Power Administration, and sought to balance the needs of salmon and other interests.

The plan calls for spilling more water over the dams at strategic times to help fish migrate faster to and from the ocean, a tactic that has already been in use.

Environmental groups panned the Trump administration plan as inadequate to save salmon, an iconic Northwest species. They contend the dams must go if salmon are to survive.

``This plan is not going to work,″ said Joseph Bogaard, director of Save Our Wild Salmon.

“The federal failure to remove the dams despite clear supporting science is a disaster for our endangered salmon and orcas,” said Sophia Ressler of the Center for Biological Diversity.

Scientists warn that southern resident orcas are starving to death because of a dearth of chinook salmon that are their primary food source. The Pacific Northwest population of orcas — also called killer whales — was placed on the endangered species list in 2005.

Todd True of Earthjustice called the plan “a slap in the face to Native American Tribes, rural fishing communities and anyone in the Northwest who cares about the future of our salmon, orcas and the economic well-being of our river and ocean communities.″

The dams have many defenders, including Republican politicians from the region, barge operators and other river users, farmers and business leaders.

Three Republican members of Congress from Washington state hailed the decision.

``We have always said that our rivers and the benefits they provide are the lifeblood of our region,” Reps. Dan Newhouse, Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Jaime Herrera Beutler said in a joint statement

``The benefits of the dams along the mighty Columbia and Snake rivers are far too precious for our region to go without,″ they said. ``We are proud to see a comprehensive, science-based process come to fruition.″

The four hydroelectric dams were built from the 1960s to the 1970s between Pasco and Pomeroy, Washington. Since then, salmon populations have plunged.
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The dams have fish ladders that allow some salmon and other species to migrate to the ocean and then back to spawning grounds. But the vast majority of the fish die during the journey.

The 100-foot (30 meter) tall dams generate electricity, provide irrigation and flood control, and allow barges to operate all the way to Lewiston, Idaho, 400 miles from the Pacific Ocean.

The final report was similar to a draft plan issued in February, which concluded that removing the four dams would destabilize the power grid, increase overall greenhouse emissions and more than double the risk of regional power outages.

The four dams are part of a vast and complex hydroelectric power system operated by the federal government in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.

The 14 federal dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers together produce 40% of the region’s power — enough electricity for nearly 5 million homes.

But the dams have proven disastrous for salmon that hatch in freshwater streams, then make their way hundreds of miles to the ocean, where they spend years before finding their way back to mate, lay eggs and die.

Snake River sockeye were the first species in the Columbia River Basin listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1991. Now, 13 salmon runs are listed as federally endangered or threatened. Four of those runs return to the Snake River.

The Columbia River system dams cut off more than half of salmon spawning and rearing habitat, and many wild salmon runs in the region have 2% or less of their historic populations, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.

On the way to the ocean, juvenile salmon can get chewed up in the dams’ turbines.

In all, three federal judges have thrown out five plans for the system over the decades after finding they didn’t do enough to protect salmon.

A record of decision on the plan announced Friday will be released in September.

Deadline extended for tribes to seek broadband licenses

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — The Federal Communications Commission is giving tribes another month to apply for a band of wireless spectrum that would help them establish or expand internet access on their land.

Tribes pushed to be first in line to apply for licenses for the mid-band spectrum that is largely unassigned across the western United States and once was reserved for educational institutions. The tribal priority window opened in February and was set to close Monday. It’s now been extended to Sept. 2.

The extra time is far less than what tribes and tribal organizations had sought as they struggle to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.

The FCC said the extension “strikes an appropriate balance” in giving tribes more time to apply but not delaying licenses to those that already applied.

“In light of the simplified application process as well as the extensive outreach done by commission staff, a lengthy extension of the deadline is unnecessary, as evidenced by the large number of applications we’ve already received,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai.

The FCC has estimated that about one-third of people living on tribal lands don’t have access to high-speed internet, but others say the figure is twice as high.

Nearly 230 tribes or tribal entities have submitted applications for the 2.5 GHz spectrum. Some have been granted temporary authority, including the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, the Navajo Nation in the Four Corners region and Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico.

In its request, the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe said it was preparing for students to do more remote learning in the fall and planned to use the temporary license to connect about 40 homes to the tribe’s network.

The National Congress of American Indians was among those asking the FCC to give tribes more time to apply because of the coronavirus pandemic, saying hundreds could miss out on the opportunity. Some urged the FCC on Friday to reconsider its decision.

“Even before COVID-19 and despite the commission’s efforts to simplify the application process and provide staff resources, even the six months provided for the tribal window would be a tight schedule for outreach and filing complete applications,” the group wrote in asking for an extension until February.

The spectrum remaining after the tribal window closes will be auctioned off for commercial use. Telecommunications company T-Mobile said it didn’t object to an extension of the tribal priority window for up to 90 days but wanted assurance that a public auction would happen next year.

Court overturns Boston Marathon bomber’s death sentence


FILE - This file photo released April 19, 2013, by the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted and sentenced to death for carrying out the April 15, 2013, Boston Marathon bombing attack that killed three people and injured more than 260. On Friday, July 31, 2020, a federal appeals court overturned the Boston Marathon bomber's death sentence. (FBI via AP, File)

A federal appeals court Friday threw out Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s death sentence in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, saying the judge who oversaw the case did not adequately screen jurors for potential biases.

A three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new penalty-phase trial on whether the 27-year-old Tsarnaev should be executed for the attack that killed three people and wounded more than 260 others.

“But make no mistake: Dzhokhar will spend his remaining days locked up in prison, with the only matter remaining being whether he will die by execution,” the judges said, more than six month after arguments were heard in the case.

Tsarnaev’s lawyers acknowledged at the beginning of his trial that he and his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, set off the two bombs at the marathon finish line. But they argued that Dzhokar Tsarnaev is less culpable than his brother, who they said was the mastermind behind the attack.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in a gunbattle with police a few days after the April 15, 2013, bombing. Dzhokar Tsarnaev is now behind bars at a high-security supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.

Tsarnaev’s attorneys identified a slew of issues with his trial, but said in a brief filed with the court that the “first fundamental error” was the judge’s refusal to move the case out of Boston. They also pointed to social media posts from two jurors suggesting they harbored strong opinions even before the 2015 trial started.

The appeals judges, in a hearing on the case in early December, devoted a significant number of questions to the juror bias argument.

They asked why the two jurors had not been dismissed, or at least why the trial judge had not asked them follow-up questions after the posts came to light on the eve of the trial.

The judges noted that the Boston court has a longstanding rule obligating such an inquiry.

Tsarnaev’s lawyers say one of the jurors — who would go one to become the jury’s foreperson, or chief spokesperson — published two dozen tweets in the wake of the bombings. One post after Tsarnaev’s capture called him a “piece of garbage.”

Tsarnaev was convicted on 30 charges, including conspiracy and use of a weapon of mass destruction. An email was sent to his lawyer seeking comment.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Bostonsaid they are currently reviewing the opinion and declined further comment at this time.

___

Durkin Richer reported from West Harwich, Massachusetts.

Highways raise alarm in Cairo’s historic City of the Dead

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A tomb from the early 20th Century stands partially demolished amid construction of a new highway through the Northern Cemetery in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, July 26, 2020. Dozens of graves have been partially or fully destroyed as the government builds two large expressways through the City of the Dead, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Authorities say no registered monuments have been harmed, but preservationists have raised alarm that graves of historical value are being lost and that the multilane highways tear apart the fabric of a historic necropolis that has remained intact for centuries.(AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)


CAIRO (AP) — For centuries, sultans and princes, saints and scholars, elites and commoners have been buried in two sprawling cemeteries in Egypt’s capital, creating a unique historic city of the dead. Now in its campaign to reshape Cairo, the government is driving highways through the cemeteries, raising alarm from preservationists.

In the Northern Cemetery last week, bulldozers demolished walls of graves, widening a road for a new expressway. The graves are from the early 20th Century, including elaborate mausoleums of well-known writers and politicians. The ornate, 500-year-old domed tomb of a sultan towers in the construction’s path and, though untouched, will likely be surrounded on either side by the multi-lane highway.

The 500-year-old domed tomb of a Mamluk sultan, Qansouh, which likely will be surrounded by freeway. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

In the older Southern Cemetery, several hundred graves have been wiped away and a giant flyover bridge swiftly built. In its shadow sits the mosque-shrine of one of Egypt’s earliest prominent Islamic clerics, Imam Leith, from the 700s.

As bulldozers worked, families rushed to move the bodies of their loved ones. Others faced losing their homes: though known as the City of the Dead, the cemeteries are also vibrant communities, with people living in the walled yards that surround each gravesite.

Cairo’s governorate and the Supreme Council of Antiquities underlined that no registered monuments were harmed in the construction.

“It is impossible that we would allow antiquities to be demolished,” the head of the council, Mostafa al-Waziri, said on Egyptian TV. He said the affected graves are from the 1920s and 1940s, belonging to individuals who will be compensated.

Construction workers knock down walls of family mausoleums in the Northern Cemetery. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

But antiquities experts said that’s too narrow a view. Among the wrecked graves are many that, though not on the limited list of registered monuments, have historical or architectural value. More importantly, the freeways wreck an urban fabric that has survived largely intact for centuries. The cemeteries are included in a historic zone recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

“It goes against the identity of the location itself. They (the cemeteries) have been an integral part of the history of Cairo since its inception,” said May al-Ibrashy, a conservation architect who chairs the Mugawara Built Environment Collective and has worked extensively in the Southern Cemetery.

The government has carried out a furious campaign of bridge and highway building in Cairo and around the country. Authorities say it is vital to ease traffic choking the city of some 20 million and better link regions, presenting the projects as part of a nationalist vision of a new Egypt.

That vision is solidly suburban. The bridges and highways mainly link up suburbs around Cairo, largely made up of upper-class gated communities, as well as a new capital being built farther out in the desert.

Critics say the construction at times has no regard for the neighborhoods of Cairo it passes through. In some cases, gardens and greenery have been torn down for bridges. One flyover was built almost the exact width of the street it runs down, and residents can literally step out of their upper-story windows onto the expressway.

The new flyover arches through a swath of the Southern Cemetery cleared of tombs and graves. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

The construction in the cemeteries, antiquities experts say, is a blow to efforts to preserve what is unique about historic Cairo: not just monuments spanning from Roman-era Christianity, through various Muslim dynasties to the early modern era, but also its cohesion through the centuries.

The two cemeteries extend north and south outside Cairo’s Old City, each at least 3 kilometers (2 miles) long. The Northern Cemetery first began to be used by nobles and rulers in Egypt’s Mamluk sultanate in the 1300s and 1400s. The southern, known as al-Qarafa, is even older, used since the 700s, not long after the Muslim conquest of Egypt.

Until now, both have remained untouched by major road-building. Large Mamluk mortuary complexes create a skyline of domes and minarets over a landscape densely packed with graves and tombs from many eras.

“It’s a city of the dead, but it’s a living heritage. This continuity is very valuable,” said Dina Bakhoum, an art historian specializing in heritage conservation and management. “This urban fabric remained in place for a very long time,” as has its use and function — “you still have the hustle and bustle that you read about” in medieval texts.

Throughout history, people have lived in the cemeteries, and to this day people come regularly to sit at their loved ones’ graves. Sultans held sumptuous processions through the Northern Cemetery. During outbreaks of plague, Cairo’s population massed there for prayers pleading to God for relief.

Many of the damaged graves in the Northern Cemetery belong to notable figures from Egypt's early 20th Century history and show unique architectural style, experts say. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

In the 14th century, the ruler of the Malian empire Mansa Musa and his entourage lived in the Southern Cemetery during a stopover en route to Mecca, giving away such fabulous amounts of gold that Egypt’s currency plunged. Mamluk texts tell of nobles riding through the cemetery at night and having visions of holy men or poets who speak, then vanish. Medieval guidebooks describe itineraries for pilgrims to tour tombs of beloved Muslim clerics and saints.

It is a testament to the cemeteries’ integrity that — seven or eight centuries later — al-Ibrashy could reconstruct those guidebooks’ itineraries in her doctoral research. Graves have been rebuilt or replaced across the eras, but largely adhering to the same pathways, sometimes preserving the original names, sometimes losing them to time.

“The thing about the cemetery is there’s a lot of hidden gems that no one knows about,” al-Ibrashy said. “You find tombstones from the Ottoman period. You find a shrine that looks modern but is actually a site mentioned in the ancient guidebooks.”

In the Northern Cemetery, the new “Firdos,” or Paradise, Expressway, will cut across its northern edge.

“I’ve lived here for 41 years, I married my husband here,” said a woman in her 60s at the mausoleum of a prime minister from the early 20th Century.

The mausoleum was intact, but bulldozers leveled its compound’s wall and the rooms that were her home. Her late husband’s family were the tomb’s guardians, and he was born and raised there. He is buried alongside the site’s owners in the mausoleum’s garden, shaded by mango and olive trees.

“We have a long connection to this place. They don’t respect the living or the dead,” she said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Authorities say no registered monuments were harmed in the demolitions, but preservationists are mourning the damage to the necropolis' historic fabric. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

In the Southern Cemetery, known as al-Qarafa, the new flyover plows through a nearly 1-mile swath once dense with graves. Underneath the span, the shrine of Imam Leith, a religious scholar who died around 791 is undamaged but now virtually hidden.

Visible a few hundred yards away is the towering dome of the Mausoleum of Imam Shafii, one of Egypt’s most beloved religious figures, from the 9th century. Shafii is said to have paid tribute at Leith’s grave, and this part of the cemetery was named after the two holy men: the Qarafa of the Two Imams. Now the bridge, soon to be thundering with traffic, separates them.

Antiquity experts said even if registered monuments were not damaged, the area is within boundaries of Historic Cairo set by Egyptian law that provides protections.

Bakhoum said some antiquities authorities in recent years have started to come around to a more comprehensive view on preserving historic areas’ broader character, not just individual monuments. The problem is, multiple government agencies have an interest and say in what happens in Cairo, responsibility is dispersed and decisions made without discussion.

What’s needed, she said, is greater consultation among all the stakeholders to find alternatives that allow development while preserving history.

“I think the real problem we have here is really how do we define what is heritage, what is valuable, and for whom.”

The sprawling Southern Cemetery first came into use 1,300 years ago and has been the burial place of nobles, holy men, scholars, poets and commoners. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Protesters vary as much as their arrests, AP analysis shows

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FILE - In this July 29, 2020, file photo, federal agents arrest a demonstrator during a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse in Portland, Ore. An Associated Press analysis of more than 200 arrests shows that even those accused of breaking the law during the nightly rallies don’t neatly fit into President Donald Trump’s depiction of protesters as “anarchists and agitators.” (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
Sheena McFerran was two rows behind a line of police at a protest in Portland, Oregon, when she saw officers pepper-spraying a Black man.

“I said, ‘Hell no,’ so I pulled his backpack back really hard and stepped into the space he was in,” said McFerran, a 34-year-old manager for the Sierra Club who’s white.

Edward Schinzing, 32, was just around the corner on another night. Prosecutors say he and 30 others broke into a building with a jail and courtrooms, destroyed an office and set it ablaze.

Both were arrested. Their disparate circumstances highlight what The Associated Press found in an analysis of more than 200 arrests: even those accused of breaking the law during the liberal city’s nightly rallies don’t neatly fit into President Donald Trump’s depiction of protesters as “anarchists and agitators.”

A review of court documents, social media posts and other public records from people arrested by federal and local authorities since mid-June reveals a group whose motives are as varied as the acts leading to their arrests.

They’re Black Lives Matter activists who have been in the streets since George Floyd died at the hands of Minneapolis police in May, groups of self-proclaimed parents using leaf blowers to drive away tear gas and black-clad provocateurs taking advantage of the nightly chaos that’s gripped downtown Portland for over two months and led Trump to deploy federal agents in early July.

The AP found that 95% of those arrested by police and federal agents were local. The vast majority have no criminal record in Oregon. Many appear to be college students. Their average age was 28, court records show.

They’re mostly charged with misdemeanors like failing to comply with a lawful order, while some face felonies like arson and assault on an officer. Most people have been released, and some have been arrested more than once for similar offenses.
MORE FROM PORTLAND
– Portland prepares for US agents to step back from protests
– US attorney urges city to embrace surge in federal agents
– Federal court to review 'protest bans' in Portland arrests

The federal government agreed Wednesday to draw down the number of agents whose presence has swelled the ranks of the protests. Federal forces have drawn more black-clad people accused of setting fires or assaulting officers but also military veterans seeking to lower tensions and a self-titled “Wall of Moms.”



“They have acted as an occupying force & brought violence,” Oregon Gov. Kate Brown tweeted of the U.S. officers.

Soon before the announcement, Trump insisted agents wouldn’t leave until local authorities “secured their city.” He’s spent weeks running Portland through the political playbook he used during the initial wave of nationwide demonstrations after Floyd’s death: painting those on the streets as anarchists and seeking to tie them to Democratic rival Joe Biden.

The U.S. Justice Department and Homeland Security officials have often highlighted destructive cases like Schinzing’s in their portrayal of protesters. The nightly unrest often follows a script: authorities declare a riot, sending hundreds of peaceful protesters home as smaller groups of demonstrators target the U.S. courthouse with bricks, laser pointers and fireworks. Federal agents respond with tear gas, stun grenades and arrests.

But AP’s analysis shows many of those arrested do not fit the caricature of an anarchist bent on destruction.

Moments before her arrest, police threw McFerran, the Sierra Club manager, to the ground, yanking off her mask and binding her wrists in zip ties. She was released after eight hours in jail and faces charges of disorderly conduct and interfering with police.

McFerran, who lives in Seattle, said she started protesting in her city and in Portland almost nightly after realizing she could do more in the fight for racial justice. Until Floyd’s killing, McFerran says she was a “tourist protester.”

“I realized I need to be participating in this legitimately every day,” she said. “I need to do this work.”

McFerran said she and her boyfriend, a former Army medic, provide security services and try to act as a “shield” between protesters of color and law enforcement.

Some of those charged with more serious offenses, such as assaulting officers and destroying property, have criminal histories. Most are white, according to court records.

Schinzing, who was photographed burning papers inside the county Justice Center, was ordered detained this week by a federal judge. He faces a felony arson charge, on top of unrelated harassment and assault charges from February, court records show. His court-appointed attorney declined to comment.

Acting Homeland Security Chief Chad Wolf said federal agents have made 94 arrests in Portland since July 4.

“Our federal officers have faced assaults with Molotov cocktails, mortar-style, commercial-grade fireworks, accelerants, IEDs and other violent weapons,” Wolf said at a news conference about the withdrawal of federal agents.

Lisa Hay, Oregon’s federal public defender, said her office is representing “mothers, college students, lawyers” and others from across the state and country.

“It should concern everyone that there were arrests by unmarked police officers of Oregonians who were asking what’s going on and weren’t being given any answers,” Hay said.

The state sued over those allegations, which the Trump administration denies, but a judge found the state did not have standing to win an immediate court order restraining the federal agents.

Some Black activists say the political fight distracts from the focus on combating racist policing.

FILE - In this July 24, 2020, file photo, green lines cast by protesters' laser pointers cross the darkened lobby of the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse as federal officers wait for a possible skirmish with demonstrators in Portland, Ore. An Associated Press analysis of more than 200 arrests shows that even those accused of breaking the law during the nightly rallies don’t neatly fit into President Donald Trump’s depiction of protesters as “anarchists and agitators.” (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)

Mac Smiff, a 39-year-old father and analyst for a utility company, was arrested on June 6 and charged with interfering with a peace officer. He’s confident the charge will be dismissed, saying he got caught up as police swept through downtown after a protest.

A veteran activist, Smiff took to the streets after seeing a prominent politician talking about reducing funding for police on TV. He thought the wave of rallies following Floyd’s death seemed different, more focused, but said Trump deriding protesters as violent extremists is a familiar strategy.

“If you make the blame indiscriminate, then you can make the response indiscriminate. That’s just a tactic to justify using escalating force and chemical weapons against us,” Smiff said. “I own my house. I’m a professional human being. I’m out here fighting against corruption and police brutality. And the response is I’m a terrorist? That’s laughable at best.”

He welcomed the news that the federal presence in Portland would be winding down, saying the agents were a “distraction.”

“That was a side mission,” he said. “We came out here to defund the police.”

___

This version corrects the spelling of a protester’s last name to McFerran, not McFarren. It also corrects that a judge found that the state did not have the standing to win an immediate court order restricting operations of federal agents in the city, not that the judge dismissed the case.

Naishadham reported from Atlanta, and Bleiberg from Dallas. Associated Press reporters Gillian Flaccus in Portland, Oregon, Lisa Marie Pane in Boise, Idaho, and AP/Report for America Statehouse News corps member Sara Cline in Salem, Oregon, contributed to this report.

More seals means learning to live with sharks in New England

THANK THE SEAL HUNT BOYCOTT!
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A seal pokes his head out of the water in Casco Bay, Thursday, July 30, 2020, off Portland, Maine. Seals are thriving off the northeast coast thanks to decades of protections. Many scientists believe the increased seal population is leading to more human encounters with white sharks, who prey on seals. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)


PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Seals are thriving off the Northeast coast thanks to decades of protections, and that victory for wildlife has brought a consequence for humans — more encounters with sharks.

Seals are a favorite prey of large sharks such as the great white. The death this week of swimmer Julie Dimperio Holowach, who was killed by a great white off Harpswell, Maine, might have happened because the shark mistook her for a seal, authorities said.

Swimmers off the New England states have learned to be more mindful in recent years due to a spate of sightings of great whites, the apex predator made famous in the movie “Jaws.” A shark that killed a man off Cape Cod in 2018 was also believed to be a great white.

That was the first fatal shark attack in Massachusetts in more than eight decades, while the death of Holowach on Monday was the first documented fatal shark attack in Maine history.

A seal lounges on rocks in Casco Bay, Thursday, July 30, 2020, off Portland, Maine. Seals are thriving off the northeast coast thanks to decades of protections. Many scientists believe the increased seal population is leading to more human encounters with white sharks, who prey on seals. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

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“They’re not vindictive or mad or angry or preferring human flesh. They just occasionally make a mistake. And it’s tragic when they do,” said Greg Skomal, a shark specialist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. “As we restore top predators, the potential for these interactions could increase.”

Incidents of shark bites remain vanishingly rare, especially in Northeastern waters. The International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida lists only 10 unprovoked shark attacks off New England, according to records that go back to 1837.

The majority of documented shark attacks in the U.S. happen off Florida, and internationally, warm weather countries such as South Africa and Australia have higher totals than most. But shark bites are rare in those places, too. Australia has been the site of 652 unprovoked shark attacks according to records that go back to 1580, the International Shark Attack File reported.

FILE - In this Aug. 11, 2016, file photo, a great white shark tries to bite a fish head being trolled though the water as researchers chum the ocean looking for sharks off the coast of Gansbaai, South Africa. Seals are thriving off the Northeast United States coast thanks to decades of protections. That victory for wildlife has brought a consequence for humans: more encounters with sharks. The Monday, July 27, 2020, death of swimmer Julie Dimperio Holowach, who was killed by a great white off Harpswell, Maine, might have happened because the shark mistook her for a seal, authorities said. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam, File)

Shark bites in colder northern waters are not unheard of. A handful have been recorded off Russia, Finland and Washington state. And researchers are seeing more of the great whites off New England, said James Sulikowski, a researcher of Northeastern sharks who is located at Arizona State University.

The greater number of sightings is “unequivocally” because of the resurgence of seals in New England, Sulikowski said. The seal comeback traces to the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, which afforded seals a chance to repopulate after generations of human exploitation.

Grey seals, once hunted with bounties and pushed close to the point of local extinction, are now common sights in coastal Cape Cod. Some people even feel the animals have come back to the point where they pose a nuisance, in part because they draw more sharks.

The sharks aren’t looking for people, but they’re a reason for swimmers to be cautious, Sulikowski said.

“They’re not looking for us. We’re not on the menu,” he said. “But as these predator prey relationships continue, and because they are so coastal, there’s potential for interaction with humans to increase.”

In Maine, marine patrol officers are conducting searches for the presence of sharks in the aftermath of Holowach’s death. The state is restricting swimming at some state parks. And it has sent a clear message to beachgoers — if you see seals, stay away.

US officials seek limits on “habitat” for imperiled species

TRUMP DEREGULATION

FILE - In this Sept. 27, 2011, file photo, is a gopher frog at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans. Federal wildlife officials are proposing limits on what can be declared as "habitat"" for imperiled plants and animals. The proposal to be announced Friday, July 31, 2020, and obtained in advance by The Associated Press would for the first time define "habitat" for purposes of enforcing the Endangered Species Act, the landmark law that has undergirded species protections efforts in the U.S. since 1973. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)


BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Trump administration is proposing to define what land and water can be declared as “habitat” for imperiled plants and animals — potentially excluding areas that species could use in the future.

The proposal to be announced Friday and obtained in advance by The Associated Press would for the first time define “habitat” for purposes of enforcing the Endangered Species Act, the landmark law that has undergirded species protections efforts in the U.S. since 1973.

It has broad implications for how lands are managed and how far the government has to go to protect plants and animals that could be sliding toward extinction.

Legal observers said the two-sentence definition, as well as an alternative definition that officials invited comment on, would limit what areas the government can designate as critical to a species’ survival.

“This is inevitably going to restrict the agency and force it to work where it can do the most good,” said Jonathan Woods with the Pacific Legal Foundation, which has fought against government habitat designations that the firm says infringe on private property rights.

Others warned that it would seriously hobble restoration efforts, by confining struggling species to small patches of pristine land and blocking restoration work that could expand their range.

The northern spotted owl of the Pacific Northwest, which depends on old growth forests, offers a prime example, said Noah Greenwald with the Center for Biological Diversity.

Much of the bird’s historic habitat was logged. “But it will become old growth forest again one day if we protect it. So does that not count as habitat?” Greenwald asked.

“If we want to recover species, we have to restore them to more larger portions of their historic range,” he said.

Friday’s proposal from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service comes in response to a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling involving a highly endangered Southern frog — the dusky gopher frog.

Trump administration officials said the proposal would provide “more consistency” and “more transparency” for private landowners, companies and states, but would not say how much or what type of habitat could be excluded under the new definition.

In the gopher frog case, a unanimous court said the government had to decide what constitutes suitable habitat for the 3 ½-inch-long frogs before it could designate some of those areas as “critical habitat” for the species, which survives in just a few ponds in Mississippi.

The dispute arose after the Fish and Wildlife Service designated 1,500-acres (607-hectares) of land and ponds in neighboring Louisiana as critical habitat for the frog even though none lived there.

Attorneys for the landowner, timber company Weyerhaeuser Co., called it an unjust land grab, but environmentalists said designating the land as critical was necessary to keeping the frog from disappearing.
The proposed definition says habitat includes “places that a species depend upon to carry out one or more life processes,” such as breeding or eating. If that had been in place prior to the dispute over the gopher frog, the government might have been forced to limit its critical habitat designation to the ponds only, and not the surrounding land, said Wood.

“It gives a standard which we’ve been lacking for the past 45 years to guide critical habitat designations,” he said. “You won’t have the free-roaming critical habitat designations like you would have in the Weyerhaeuser case.”

In that case, the administration ended up withdrawing the critical habitat designation in Louisiana under a legal settlement.