CAPITALI$M IS ADDICTION

Two Sacklers behind OxyContin maker to appear before U.S. House panel

© Reuters/George Frey FILE PHOTO: Bottles of prescription painkiller OxyContin made by Purdue Pharma LP on a counter at a local pharmacy in Provo

(Reuters) - Two Sackler family members who previously served on OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP's board have agreed under pressure to testify this week before a U.S. House of Representatives panel examining the nationwide opioid epidemic, avoiding subpoenas threatened by the committee's chairwoman.

David and Kathe Sackler reached an agreement in recent days with the House Oversight Committee to appear at a hearing set for Thursday, according to a Monday memo from Democratic Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney to members of the panel. The two are among the Sackler family members who own Purdue.

Purdue Chief Executive Craig Landau is also slated to testify at the hearing, the memo said. Landau was not at any point threatened with a subpoena, two people familiar with the matter said.

In a statement, Purdue confirmed that Landau agreed to testify, adding that the company has "consistently cooperated" with the committee. Landau's testimony will include steps that Purdue is taking to address the opioid crisis, which includes a proposal to settle widespread litigation from U.S. communities that it values at more than $10 billion, the company said.

A spokesman for Kathe Sackler declined to comment. A spokesman for David Sackler did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The opioid epidemic has claimed the lives of roughly 450,000 people in the United States since 1999 due to overdoses from prescription painkillers and illegal substances such as heroin and fentanyl, constituting an enduring public health crisis. Purdue reaped more than $30 billion from opioid sales over the years that enriched Sackler family members, and it funneled illegal kickbacks to doctors and pharmacies, investigations have found.

Maloney in November invited four family members - David, Richard, Kathe and Mortimer D.A. Sackler - as well as Landau to testify. On Dec. 1, lawyers for the four Sacklers declined the invitation and did not respond to subsequent overtures from committee staff to move the hearing to January, the memo said. That prompted Maloney last week to threaten subpoenas unless family members voluntarily agreed to appear.

After "numerous consultations" between committee staff and Sackler lawyers, the two sides reached agreement for the two family members to testify, Maloney said in the memo.

The hearing, to be conducted remotely, was originally set for Tuesday. It was delayed by two days to accommodate scheduling concerns, which included Purdue bankruptcy proceedings also set for Tuesday.

In her memo, Maloney pointed to documents the committee obtained in an ongoing investigation that she contends show the Sacklers closely involved in Purdue's efforts to expand market share for OxyContin, even after a company affiliate faced U.S. criminal charges of misbranding the painkiller in 2007.

The scheduled hearing follows a far-reaching U.S. Justice Department settlement with the Sacklers and Purdue in October that drew criticism from congressional Democrats and state attorneys general suing the company and its owners over the opioid crisis.

The lawmakers and attorneys general have said the deal failed to hold the Sacklers more accountable and faulted its endorsement of a Purdue bankruptcy plan to restructure it as a public benefit company. The envisioned new entity, while no longer controlled by the Sacklers, would still sell OxyContin, the company's addictive prescription painkiller that has figured prominently in the opioid epidemic.

GUILTY PLEA

Purdue in November pleaded guilty to criminal charges over its handling of OxyContin, which included defrauding the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and paying illegal kickbacks to doctors and a healthcare records vendor, all to help keep opioid prescriptions flowing. The plea deal was part of a broader settlement allowing the company to effectively sidestep paying billions of dollars in penalties.

Sackler family members agreed to pay $225 million to resolve Justice Department civil claims that they disputed. They were not criminally charged.

The Justice Department contends that the settlement, which foregoes most of a $2 billion forfeiture on the condition Purdue receives court approval for its bankruptcy plan, allows more money to flow to U.S. communities suffering from the opioid epidemic.

Purdue and its Sackler family owners have been at the center of thousands of lawsuits and investigations for several years seeking to hold alleged perpetrators responsible for fueling the epidemic.

Federal, state and local officials have outlined a longstanding effort by Purdue and Sackler family members to aggressively market opioids while minimizing their potential for abuse and overdosing. Sackler family members have said they acted ethically and responsibly while relying on assurances from Purdue management that the company's practices complied with regulations and legal requirements.

Justice Department officials have said recent settlements do not foreclose future criminal prosecutions of individuals associated with Purdue.

(Reporting by Mike Spector in New York; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Will Dunham)

Newfoundland House of Assembly approves pension unlocking

BOURGEOIS ECONOMICS ARE DANGEROUS 

FOR WORKING PEOPLE

CBC/Radio-Canada 2 days ago

© CBC The House of Assembly reopened Monday, after political proceedings were stalled Thursday in what was expected to be a one-day sitting.

Newfoundland and Labrador politicians have passed legislative changes to pension fund rules, after an afternoon of debate Monday and a false start last week.

The bill passed 31-3 in the House of Assembly Monday evening, with NDP members voting against it.

Under the amendments, a small number of people in the province will be allowed to unlock their pension funds.

The bill was introduced in an expedited process on Monday afternoon. Service NL Minister Sarah Stoodley began the debate by outlining the proposed changes, which she unveiled to reporters last week, before proceedings stalled on the floor Thursday.

All MHAs had to agree to disregard the usual, lengthier timeline for passing a bill, but one, Independent MHA Perry Trimper, objected last week.

Trimper's qualms came not from unlocking pension funds but because he wanted to ask a question about flooding in Mud Lake, a community in his district of Lake Melville.

Time in question period was not allotted for Trimper to do so, and he then withdrew his consent to continue with the Pension Act amendments, tying up the process.

Trimper got to ask his question Monday, and then joined all other MHAs and agreed to discuss the changes to pension legislation

.

© Sherry Vivian/CBC Independent MHA Perry Trimper, who left the Liberal Party in November, said he wanted time to ask questions about flooding in his district. On Monday, he got to ask his question.

Last week's political blockade drew the ire of other MHAs, as well as at least one person hoping to unlock their pension funds; Terry Hewlin spoke to CBC News on Friday, detailing his hope to be able to access some money due to low income.

Trimper, a former cabinet minister and former Speaker, left the Liberal caucus in November amid a rift over comments in which he said some homeless people chose their lifestyle.

Criteria for defining 'financial hardship'

The changes passed Monday evening apply to people who once held a pension, but no longer do, and have has those pension funds transferred to a bank or financial institution into one of three types of separate retirement savings accounts: LIRAs, LIFs, and LRIFs.

Those accounts currently cannot be touched until retirement age, and the proposed amendments would allow people to be able to unlock some of those funds and put the money toward demonstrated financial need.

On Monday afternoon, the government said the proposed amendments define financial hardship as the following:
Threat of foreclosure due to inability to make monthly mortgage payment.
Threat of eviction due to inability to make rent payment.
Inability to make first month's rent or security deposit when trying to rent accommodations.
Inability to pay for medical costs.
Inability to pay costs related to equipment or treatment related to disabilities.

People who have also been living outside of Canada for more than two years will also be able to unlock their funds. All requests for unlocking must be backed up by documentation, and the person must acknowledge the financial risks of using retirement savings toward present-day financial problems.

"Given these retirement savings arrangements are designed specifically to hold locked-in savings for individuals and their surviving spouses or partners, consent would also have to be obtained from the spouse or co-habiting partner to unlock a retirement savings arrangement," reads a media release issued Monday afternoon, outlining the proposed changes.

The government also stated that requests from low-income earners in the province would be considered. That would be based on a formula that "defines a low-income threshold of 66.66 per cent of yearly maximum pensionable earnings — which is $41,063 for 2021 — and is consistent with other jurisdictions, including Nova Scotia, Alberta and British Columbia."

NDP Leader Alison Coffin said she won't be supporting the proposed changes, arguing that it doesn't help people right now and the government should look at other solutions, like a $15 minimum wage.

She said changing the pension legislation is "misguided."

Independent MHA Paul Lane said he supports the changes, noting he knows people who would benefit from accessing these funds, but said the issue could have been communicated more clearly.

© Ted Dillon/CBC Service NL Minister Sarah Stoodley is spearheading proposed changes to legislation to allow some people to unlock their pensions.

Stoodley said last week that if the amendments passed, banks would need several months to get the appropriate paperwork in order for unlocking to begin March 1 at the earliest.

She said last week that requests for the change had doubled since COVID-19 hit.

ASKED FOR BY WHOM - LOBBYISTS OF COURSE

The federal government and several provinces, including Ontario, allow pension fund unlocking. ALL PASSED BY CONSERVATIVE GOVERNMENTS

People who contribute to a pension, or retirees drawing from one, would not be eligible to unlock their funds under the proposed amendments.

WTO fails to agree on rules to stop over-fishing,      but will try again

OVERPRODUCTION IS THE ECOLOGY 

OF CAPITALISM'S CRISIS

By Emma Farge

GENEVA (Reuters) - World Trade Organization negotiators have failed to reach a deal by a year-end deadline to cut the subsidies that have helped decimate the world's fish stocks, but will try again next year, the chairman of the talks said on Monday.

The failure is a significant blow to the world's fish stocks, which environmentalists say could be replenished by a deal, and to the WTO, which faces questions about its ability to strike multilateral agreements.

Colombia's Santiago Wills said the talks had been hampered by delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic, though sources who attended a closed-door meeting said he had also told delegates that "major differences" remained.

But he did set out dates for further talks in 2021.

"While I am disappointed we will miss the 2020 deadline, I'm not discouraged," he told journalists. "To the contrary, the momentum is there and we must not waste it."

World leaders committed in 2015 to several U.N. targets; one mandated the trade watchdog finally to strike a deal by 2020 on ending subsidies worth billions of dollars that contribute to over-fishing.

China, the European Union, the United States, South Korea and Japan are among the main culprits.

"They have had 20 years to fix it and on certain issues they are still almost at square one," said Remi Parmentier, strategic adviser for Friends of Ocean Action.

U.S. Ambassador Dennis Shea called the progress "very modest", considering how long the talks had lasted. "This is certainly not the timeline of an organisation aspiring to be effective and relevant".

Critics say Washington has itself hamstrung the WTO by blocking the appointment of a new director-general, who might have used his or her authority to unblock talks such as these.

The U.N. food agency says that nearly 90% of marine fish stocks are fully exploited, overexploited or depleted. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Britain's Prince Charles and naturalist and broadcaster David Attenborough have all urged action at the WTO.

The Pew Charitable Trusts estimates that an ambitious deal could boost the amount, or biomass, of fish in the world's seas by 12.5% in the next 20 years, based on a model it shared with negotiators.

"If countries reach an agreement on harmful fishing subsidies that keeps loopholes to a minimum, they will achieve a conservation victory that could have a long-lasting, positive impact on our global ocean," said Pew's Isabel Jarrett.

"OH, DEAR FISH"

Delegates praised Wills, who had shown his commitment to the talks in an unexpected way by tweeting a Valentine's poem to the world's fish: "Oh dear fish/Protect you we must;/In the @WTO/You can trust..."

Negotiators had been working on a confidential draft text for months but a copy seen by Reuters in November still contained dozens of areas of disagreement - not least on the definition of 'fish'. Wills said he would send negotiators a new version this week.

A major area of contention has been a section outlining carve-outs from the rules for developing countries, submitted by India. One delegate from a wealthy country said these were so broad as to render the agreement meaningless.

Since China is the biggest subsidiser and has in the past resisted pressure to curb its fleets, the success of the talks is seen as hinging partly on Beijing.

Some expressed frustration at China's opposition to a provision targeting exploitation of the high seas by industrial fishing fleets.

China's ambassador said in September that such a prohibition "would go beyond our mandate". But Beijing has said it is willing to "fully engage" and a spokeswoman in Geneva declined to spell out its current position.

Future progress on fisheries may depend on whether a two-yearly meeting of trade ministers, scheduled for last June in Kazakhstan but cancelled due to COVID-19, can be resurrected.

(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Kevin L

© Reuters/DENIS BALIBOUSE FILE PHOTO: A delegate arrives before a meeting at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva

More N.W.T. communities pass mandatory mask policies

© Mackenize Scott/CBC News 

Bernice Lavoie owns three stores in Inuvik where masks are mandatory.

More communities in the Northwest Territories are instituting mandatory mask policies as COVID-19 cases continue to climb across Canada.

The local government in Fort Simpson recently passed a resolution requiring masks in stores. Around the same time, Fort Smith made masks mandatory in municipal buildings. Last Monday, similar policies went into effect in Inuvik and Hay River.

"Most decisions that have been made have been about safety. So putting in a mask policy in our own facilities is just another way to make sure that we can keep our residents safe here in Inuvik," said Inuvik Mayor Natasha Kulikowski.

"At this time it's not a big ask. Most businesses in town are also having their own mask policies in place and so I think having the town facilities operate in the same way … kind of makes the same expectation everywhere," Kulikowski said.

In November, stores in Inuvik including The Roost, Stanton, Northmart, the I.D.A pharmacy and the post office all implemented mask policies.

Now, with the new municipal policy in effect, residents will need to wear one if they enter the Midnight Sun Complex or the Town of Inuvik office.

© Mackenzie Scott/CBC

 Masks are now mandatory for anyone who enters the Midnight Sun Complex in Inuvik.

Inuvik business owner supports mask policy

Bernice Lavoie is a co-owner of Inuvik's Home Hardware Building Centre, Just Raven' Fabrics and More and Arctic Rim Powersports. The stores were among the first in town to require people to wear masks earlier this year.

She said when the pandemic first hit in March, her stores required masks while there were cases in the territory. But she cancelled that policy once the territory was free of cases.

As the number of cases began to rise down south, she decided to bring it back.

"The talk of the second wave being worse than the first, it did raise some concerns with me," Lavoie said.

"Especially when you look at the fact that a lot of our flights originate out of Edmonton, and with Alberta spiking right now, it's just a matter of time until it infiltrates up here."

The one Canadian North flight that arrives in Inuvik several times a week from Yellowknife originates in Edmonton.

That flight has been a concern with many Inuvik and Norman Wells residents since the pandemic began.

"You don't know if it's going to be transmitted from passenger to passenger," Lavoie said. "Is there a risk of it being transmitted?"

People following the rules, for the most part

Lavoie said she thinks it's great to see more businesses in town with similar mask policies.

She said so far, she only can think of one incident where someone might've not wanted to wear a mask. But everyone else has been abiding by the rules.

Lavoie praised the territorial government's handling of the pandemic so far, and said although she doesn't think there needs to be a territorial wide mask mandate right now, "if there's a spike in the N.W.T. we might need to revisit that."

She said if many cases do come into town, they might look into closing their stores like they did earlier in the pandemic and offer curbside pick-up.

For now, Lavoie said they will play it by ear and hope everyone stays safe and respects the guidelines.

EXTINCTION REBELLION

We're Set To Exhaust The World's Carbon Budget    By 2030

Elizabeth Blackstock 

The annual Global Carbon Budget is here, and the news is... just as bad as it’s been for a while. Despite big changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we still haven’t reduced our carbon emissions to a satisfactory level, and we only have ten years before we run out of leeway.

© Photo: DANIEL SLIM/AFP (Getty Images)

We only have eight percent of our global carbon budget left to use, the report notes. If we exceed our allotted output, that’s when we see the average global temperature exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius, which signals massive damage to the planet.

And that’s even taking into consideration the good news:
24 countries saw their carbon emissions drop in 2020
COVID-19 restrictions led to an average seven percent decline in emissions, with different countries varying
The United States saw a 12 percent decline in emissions, with the European Union following close by at 11 percent
34 billion tons of carbon dioxide were added to the atmosphere, which is still 2.4 billion tons less than last year
Surface transportation, which contributes to 21 percent of global emissions, saw its emissions drop by half
Aviation saw a 75 percent drop in emissions but only accounts for 2.8 percent of global emissions

If you’re anything like me, 2020 felt like it massively changed the ways you operate with the world. I’ve been on a single flight this year. I’ve carved back my vehicle travel considerably. I don’t go out unless I absolutely have to. So it’s a wild to me that we’ve only seen the smallest dent in emissions growth.

Video: Examining pandemic’s impact on emissions (NBC News)

But it also gives us a tangible sense of what’s necessary. It’s fairly easy to talk about how we require a dramatic reduction in emissions, but we haven’t really felt what it’s like. As it turns out, it might feel a lot like a COVID-19 lockdown when it comes to travel restrictions.

We have to carve back our emissions by 25-30 percent before 2030 if we’re going to make any tangible change in the planet. And it’s totally possible—it’s just going to be a lot of work.

Protesting Indian farmers call for 2nd strike in a week

NEW DELHI — Tens of thousands of protesting Indian farmers called for a national farmers' strike on Monday, the second in a week, to press for the quashing of three new laws on agricultural reform that they say will drive down crop prices and devastate their earnings.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The farmers are camping along at least five major highways on the outskirts of New Delhi and have said they won’t leave until the government rolls back what they call the “black laws.” They have blockaded highways leading to the capital for three weeks, and several rounds of talks with the government have failed to produce any breakthroughs.

Scores of farmer leaders also conducted a token hunger strike on Monday at the protest sites. Heavy contingents of police in riot gear patrolled the areas where the farmers have been camping.

Protest leaders have rejected the government’s offer to amend some contentious provisions of the new farm laws, which deregulate crop pricing, and have stuck to their demand for total repeal.

At Singhu, a protest site on the outskirts of New Delhi, hundreds of farmers blocked all entry and exit routes and chanted anti-government slogans. Some of them carried banners reading “No farmers, no food.”

About two dozen leaders held a daylong hunger strike at the site, while a huge communal kitchen served food for the other protesters.

“It’s the government’s responsibility to provide social benefits (to people.) And if they don’t give those, then people will have to come together" to protest, said Harvinder Kaur, a government employee who came from her home in Punjab state to help at the kitchen.

Another protester, Rajdeep Singh, a 20-year-old student who helps his farming family back home in Punjab, said the protest would continue until their demands are met.

“Now it’s their (government’s) ego and the question of our pride,” he said.

Farmer leaders have threatened to intensify their actions and have threatened to block trains in the coming days if the government doesn’t abolish the laws.

The farmers filed a petition with the Supreme Court on Friday seeking the quashing of the laws, which were passed in September. The petition was filed by the Bharatiya Kisan Union, or Indian Farmers’ Union, and its leader, Bhanu Pratap Singh, who argued that the laws were arbitrary because the government enacted them without proper consultations with stakeholders.

The farmers fear the government will stop buying grain at minimum guaranteed prices and corporations will then push prices down. The government says it is willing to pledge that guaranteed prices will continue.

With nearly 60% of the Indian population depending on agriculture for their livelihoods, the growing farmer rebellion has rattled Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration and its allies.

Modi’s government insists the reforms will benefit farmers. It says they will allow farmers to market their produce and boost production through private investment.

Farmers have been protesting the laws for nearly two months in Punjab and Haryana states. The situation escalated three weeks ago when tens of thousands marched to New Delhi, where they clashed with police.

Shonal Ganguly, The Associated Press

Lebanon's collapse is like the Titanic's sinking,      only without the music: Le Drian

PARIS (Reuters) - French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Lebanon’s political and economic collapse was like the sinking of the Titanic, only without the music.

“Lebanon is the Titanic without the orchestra,” Le Drian told the daily Le Figaro in an interview published on Sunday. “The Lebanese are in complete denial as they sink, and there isn’t even the music.”



Le Drian’s remarks set a pessimistic tone a little over a week before President Emmanuel Macron makes his third visit to Beirut since a massive port blast destroyed swathes of the city and killed 200 people in August.

Macron is losing patience with Lebanon’s politicians as rival politicians mired in turf battles stand in the way of sweeping reforms that donors say are imperative for badly-needed financial aid to be released.

It is believed the Titanic’s orchestra kept playing for as long as it could as the liner went down in the Atlantic Ocean in 1912, trying to help keep passengers calm amid impending doom. All the musicians perished.


Reporting by Richard Lough; Editing by Frances Kerry

Hackers used SolarWinds' dominance against it in sprawling spy campaign

By Raphael Satter, Christopher Bing, Joseph Menn

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - On an earnings call two months ago, SolarWinds Chief Executive Kevin Thompson touted how far the company had gone during his 11 years at the helm.

There was not a database or an IT deployment model out there to which his Austin, Texas-based company did not provide some level of monitoring or management, he told analysts on the Oct. 27 call.

“We don’t think anyone else in the market is really even close in terms of the breadth of coverage we have,” he said. “We manage everyone’s network gear.”

Now that dominance has become a liability - an example of how the workhorse software that helps glue organizations together can turn toxic when it is subverted by sophisticated hackers.

On Monday, SolarWinds confirmed that Orion - its flagship network management software - had served as the unwitting conduit for a sprawling international cyberespionage operation. The hackers inserted malicious code into Orion software updates pushed out to nearly 18,000 customers.

And while the number of affected organizations is thought to be much more modest, the hackers have already parlayed their access into consequential breaches at the U.S. Treasury and Department of Commerce.

Three people familiar with the investigation have told Reuters that Russia is a top suspect, although others familiar with the inquiry have said it is still too early to tell.

A SolarWinds representative, Ryan Toohey, said he would not be making executives available for comment. He did not provide on-the-record answers to questions sent via email.

In a statement issued Sunday, the company said “we strive to implement and maintain appropriate administrative, physical, and technical safeguards, security processes, procedures, and standards designed to protect our customers.”

Cybersecurity experts are still struggling to understand the scope of the damage.

The malicious updates - sent between March and June, when America was hunkering down to weather the first wave of coronavirus infections - was “perfect timing for a perfect storm,” said Kim Peretti, who co-chairs Atlanta-based law firm Alston & Bird’s cybersecurity preparedness and response team.

Assessing the damage would be difficult, she said.

“We may not know the true impact for many months, if not more – if not ever,” she said.

The impact on SolarWinds was more immediate. U.S. officials ordered anyone running Orion to immediately disconnect it. The company’s stock has tumbled more than 23% from $23.50 on Friday - before Reuters broke the news of the breach - to $18.06 on Tuesday.

SolarWinds’ security, meanwhile, has come under new scrutiny.

In one previously unreported issue, multiple criminals have offered to sell access to SolarWinds’ computers through underground forums, according to two researchers who separately had access to those forums.

One of those offering claimed access over the Exploit forum in 2017 was known as “fxmsp” and is wanted by the FBI “for involvement in several high-profile incidents,” said Mark Arena, chief executive of cybercrime intelligence firm Intel471. Arena informed his company’s clients, which include U.S. law enforcement agencies.

Security researcher Vinoth Kumar told Reuters that, last year, he alerted the company that anyone could access SolarWinds’ update server by using the password “solarwinds123”

“This could have been done by any attacker, easily,” Kumar said.

Neither the password nor the stolen access is considered the most likely source of the current intrusion, researchers said.

Others - including Kyle Hanslovan, the cofounder of Maryland-based cybersecurity company Huntress - noticed that, days after SolarWinds realized their software had been compromised, the malicious updates were still available for download.

The firm has long mooted the idea of spin-off of its managed service provider business and on Dec. 9 announced that Thompson would be replaced by Sudhakar Ramakrishna, the former chief executive of Pulse Secure. Three weeks ago, SolarWinds posted a job ad seeking a new vice president for security; the position is still listed as open.

Thompson and Ramakrishna could not be reached for comment.

Reporting by Raphael Satter and Christopher Bing. Jack Stubbs contributed reporting from London; Editing by Lisa Shumaker

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE FORCE
Wearing someone else's face: Hyper-realistic masks to go on sale in Japan

By Akira Tomoshige

TOKYO (Reuters) - A year into the coronavirus epidemic, a Japanese retailer has come up with a new take on the theme of facial camouflage - a hyper-realistic mask that models a stranger’s features in three dimensions.

Shuhei Okawara’s masks won’t protect you or others against the virus. But they will lend you the exact appearance of an unidentified Japanese adult whose features have been printed onto them.

“Mask shops in Venice probably do not buy or sell faces. But that is something that’s likely to happen in fantasy stories,” Okawara told Reuters.

“I thought it would be fun to actually do that.”

The masks will go on sale early next year for 98,000 yen ($950) apiece at his Tokyo shop, Kamenya Omote, whose products are popular as accessories for parties and theatrical performance.

Okawara chose his model, whom he paid 40,000 yen, from more than 100 applicants who sent him their photos when he launched the project in October. An artisan then reworked the winning image, created on a 3D printer.

Initial inquiries suggest demand for the masks will be strong, Okawara said.

“As is often the case with the customers of my shop, there are not so many people who buy (face masks) for specific purposes. Most see them as art pieces,” Okawara said.

He plans to gradually add new faces, including some from overseas, to the lineup.

VIDEO https://www.reuters.com/video/?videoId=OVD99IQN5&jwsource=em

 

Coalition Lawsuit: Science Says Wolverines Need Protection

WASHINGTON - Today, a coalition of wildlife advocates challenged the Trump Fish and Wildlife Service’s (the Service’s) decision to deny protections to imperiled wolverines under the Endangered Species Act. This is the second time the Service has prioritized politics over science for wolverines, which number about 300 in the contiguous U.S.

The groups in today’s filing defeated the Service in court in 2016, forcing the agency back to the drawing board with a directive to apply the best science. Four years later, the Service has returned with the same decision to deny wolverine protective status, despite no new scientific support for such a determination.

“This is yet another chapter in this administration’s war on science,” said Matthew Bishop, an attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center. “Public records reveal the Service decided not to protect wolverine from day one and then worked backwards to figure out how to make the decision stick. It’s really unfortunate.”

In April 2016, a federal judge sided with conservation groups, agreeing that the Service’s August 2014 decision not to list wolverine as threatened was arbitrary and contrary to the scientific literature. The court held: “[T]he Service’s decision against listing the wolverine as threatened under the ESA is arbitrary and capricious.

“No greater level of certainty is needed to see the writing on the wall for this snow-dependent species standing squarely in the path of global climate change. It has taken us twenty years to get to this point. It is the [court’s] view that if there is one thing required of the Service under the ESA, it is to take action at the earliest possible, defensible point in time to protect against the loss of biodiversity within our reach as a nation. For the wolverine, that time is now (Opinion at page 83).”

The court also noted clear evidence of political interference in the Service’s reversal. “Why did the Service make the decision [to not list the wolverine]?…Based on the record, the Court suspects that a possible answer to this question can be found in the immense political pressure that was brought to bear on this issue, particularly by a handful of western states (Opinion at page 56).”

Before its decisions to deny wolverines endangered species protections, the Service identified climate change, in conjunction with small population size, as the primary threat to the species’ existence in the contiguous U.S.

 

The wolverine relies on snow year-round. With its large paws, it can travel easily over snow, and often relies on deep snow for hunting. Snow is also a “freezer” that permits the wolverine to store and scavenge food. One study found 98% of all wolverine den sites in places with persistent snowpack.

 

Published, peer-reviewed research, the independent Society for Conservation Biology, the majority of experts who reviewed the decision, and the Service’s own biologists all verified this finding.

 

The Service proposed listing the wolverine as a “threatened” species under the ESA in 2013. At the eleventh hour, however, the Service reversed course and chose not to protect wolverine, citing too many “uncertainties” in the scientific literature. This dubious about-face led the court to reverse the decision.

Today’s complaint aims to ensure the Service utilizes the best available science when making listing decisions, and provide wolverines the protective status they desperately need and deserve.

“This is something we were really hoping to avoid after the court’s 2016 decision,” said Bishop. “I was cautiously optimistic the Service would get it right this time and we’d be focusing our time and energy on developing a conservation strategy, recovery plan, critical habitat, and possibly reintroduction efforts for wolverine. Instead, we’re back in court challenging an agency that continues to put politics over science.”

The groups on today’s complaint include WildEarth Guardians, Friends Of The Bitterroot, Friends Of The Wild Swan, Swan View Coalition, Oregon Wild, Cascadia Wildlands, Alliance For The Wild Rockies, Cottonwood Environmental Law Center, George Wuerthner, Footloose Montana, Native Ecosystems Council, Wildlands Network, Helena Hunters and Anglers Association.

Background:

 

Wolverine number just 250-300 individuals in the contiguous U.S. and are dependent on high elevation habitat with deep winter snows. Imperiled by climate change, habitat loss, small population size and trapping, wolverine were first petitioned for Endangered Species Act protections in 2000. The Service found the petition did not contain adequate information to justify a listing. A federal court overturned that decision in 2006. The Service then issued a negative 12-month finding in 2008, which was challenged in court resulting in a settlement that led to a new finding that wolverine should be protected under the ESA, but that other priorities precluded the listing at that time. A landmark settlement, which resolved the backlog of imperiled species awaiting protections, then guaranteed a new finding for wolverine. In February 2013, the Service proposed listing the wolverine as “threatened” under the ESA. In August 2014, however, the Service reversed course and issued a decision not to list the species, contradicting its own expert scientists’ recommendations. In April, 2016 the court overturned the Service’s decision not to list, reinstating wolverine’s status as a candidate species and requiring a new final rule. This decision is the result.

Western Environmental Law Center

For Immediate Release

Monday, December 14, 2020