Boy Scouts celebrate the first group of female Eagle Scouts


This Oct. 1, 2020 photo provided by Edmund Tunney shows his daughter, Isabella, center, with Bev Verweg, her scoutmaster, and Brian Reiners, the scoutmaster of the corresponding linked boy troop, in Edina, Minn. In February 2021, at age 16, Tunney will be one of nearly 1,000 girls and young women honored by the Boy Scouts in a virtual celebration of the inaugural class of female Eagle Scouts. It’s a major milestone, given the hallowed stature of a rank that has been attained over more than a century by astronauts, admirals, U.S. senators and other luminaries. (Edmund Tunney via AP)More

Growing up in Minneapolis, Isabella Tunney followed the progress of her older brother with admiration and occasional envy as he worked toward earning the Boy Scouts’ prestigious rank of Eagle Scout.

This weekend, at age 16, Tunney will be one of nearly 1,000 girls and young women honored by the Boy Scouts in a virtual celebration of the inaugural class of female Eagle Scouts. It’s a major milestone, given the hallowed stature of a rank that has been attained over more than a century by astronauts, admirals, U.S. senators and other luminaries.

Only in 2018 did the Boy Scouts start accepting girls as Cub Scouts; older girls were admitted into the flagship scouting program in 2019. Overall, more than 140,000 girls have joined.

Tunney, like many of the girls attaining Eagle rank, worked intensively to amass the needed merit badges within two years. A minimum of 21 badges are required to attain Eagle; Tunney earned all 137, in subjects ranging from welding to white-water rafting to coin collection.

“The quarantine helped a lot,” she said, referring to the lockdown ordered due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “I had a lot of time to spare.”

For her Eagle Scout public service project, she organized a drive to collect essentials for families being assisted by a homeless shelter.

Tunney is a junior at St. Paul Academy and Summit School in St. Paul, Minnesota, and she is interested in a career related to the STEM disciplines — science, technology, engineering and math.

As a child, she loved tagging along with her older brother, Eugene, but was sad when he and their father would go off on weekend camping trips with the Scouts.

“I was very envious of all those,” she said. “When the Boy Scouts opened up to girls, I was so excited to get the opportunity to participate myself.”

Like Tunney, new Eagle Scout Sydney Ireland also was drawn to the Boy Scouts due to participation of an older brother. She became an unofficial member of his New York City unit at age 4 and over the ensuing years was outspoken in urging the Boy Scouts to officially admit girls.

Ireland, 19, is now a sophomore at Amherst College, taking classes remotely from the Massachusetts island of Nantucket. She’s majoring in political science and psychology; law school and a career in politics could be on the horizon.

“Scouting has influenced my life in nearly every facet,” she said via email, crediting the leadership skills she learned in the Scouts for giving her the confidence to run for Amherst’s student Senate.

The Boy Scouts say about 6% of all scouts attain Eagle rank – roughly 2.5 million since the award’s creation in 1911, a year after the Boy Scouts of America was founded.

“This is a powerful moment for these young women, for all Eagle Scouts, and for our nation,” said Jenn Hancock, the BSA's national chair for programs. “People recognize Eagle Scouts as individuals of the highest caliber, and for the first time, that title isn’t limited by gender."

The celebration of the new Eagle Scouts comes at a challenging time for the Boy Scouts. Facing a wave of lawsuits, it filed for bankruptcy protection a year ago in a step toward creating a huge compensation fund for tens of thousands of men who were molested as youngsters decades ago by scoutmasters or other leaders.

The case has advanced slowly since then in a federal bankruptcy court in Delaware. The BSA is expected to unveil a plan soon explaining how the compensation fund will be financed in a way that enables the organization and its local councils to maintain their programs.

Many in the scouting community have retained their admiration for the BSA’s mission – among them is Megan Wright of Omaha. Starting about 10 years ago, she helped run a Boy Scout troop to which her son belonged, and more recently she has been scoutmaster for her daughter’s troop.

The daughter, 18-year-old Rebecca Wright, is among the new Eagle Scouts, having earned 102 merit badges. She now attends the University of Wisconsin-Madison and wants to be a genetics researcher.

“It’s been fantastic to see girls be able to participate in this program,” said Rebecca’s mom. “Just seeing the pride, the sense of accomplishment, knowing that they have achieved what so few others have.”

Tanzania's president admits country has COVID-19 problem

Associated Press
Sun, February 21, 2021
John Magufuli

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Tanzania’s president is finally acknowledging that his country has a coronavirus problem after claiming for months that the disease had been defeated by prayer.

Populist President John Magufuli on Sunday urged citizens of the East African country to take precautions and even wear face masks — but only locally made ones. Over the course of the pandemic he has expressed wariness about foreign-made goods, including COVID-19 vaccines.

The president’s comments came days after the country of some 60 million people mourned the death of one of its highest-profile politicians, the vice president of the semi-autonomous island region of Zanzibar, whose political party had earlier said he had COVID-19. The president’s chief secretary also died in recent days, though the cause was not revealed.

Magufuli, speaking at the chief secretary’s funeral in a nationally televised broadcast on Friday, urged the nation to participate in three days of prayer for unspecified “respiratory” illnesses that had become a challenge in the country.

Tanzania has not updated its number of coronavirus infections since April as the president has insisted COVID-19 had been defeated. Tanzania’s official number of coronavirus infections remains at just 509, but residents report that many people have become ill with breathing difficulties and hospitals have seen a rise in patients for “pneumonia.”

The director-general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has added his voice to growing calls for Tanzania to acknowledge COVID-19 for the good of its citizens, neighboring countries, and the world, especially after a number of countries reported that visitors arriving from Tanzania tested positive for the virus.

Tedros in a statement on Saturday called Tanzania’s situation “very concerning” and urged Magufuli's government to take “robust action.” Others recently expressing concern include the United States and the local Catholic church.

WHO chief calls on Tanzania to combat Covid

  

WHO chief calls on Tanzania to combat Covid

The vice president of semi-autonomous Zanzibar, Seif Sharif Hamad, died after his opposition party admitted he had contracted coronavirus

The head of the World Health Organization on Sunday appealed to Tanzania to take "robust action" against Covid-19 in the country, where the president has long played down the virus.

President John Magufuli has claimed coronavirus has been has fended off by prayer in Tanzania, and refused to take tough measures to curb its spread.

But a recent spate of deaths attributed to pneumonia has struck both members of the public and government officials.

And Magufuli on Friday appeared to admit the coronavirus was circulating in his country after months of denial.

WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said a number of Tanzanians travelling to neighbouring countries and beyond have tested positive for the coronavirus.

"This underscores the need for Tanzania to take robust action both to safeguard their own people and protect populations in these countries and beyond," he said in a statement.

Tedros said he had urged Tanzania in late January to take measures against the pandemic and to prepare for vaccinations.

"Since then I have spoken with several authorities in Tanzania but WHO is yet to receive any information regarding what measures Tanzania is taking to respond to the pandemic.

- Papaya, quail and goat -

"This situation remains very concerning. I renew my call for Tanzania to start reporting COVID-19 cases and share data.

"I also call on Tanzania to implement the public health measures that we know work in breaking the chains of transmission, and to prepare for vaccination."

The country last gave case figures in April 2020, reporting 509 infections.

At the same time Magufuli revealed he had secretly had a variety of items tested for the virus -- of which a papaya, a quail and a goat apparently tested positive.

On Wednesday, the vice president of semi-autonomous Zanzibar, Seif Sharif Hamad, died after his opposition party admitted he had contracted coronavirus.

The head of the civil service, John Kijazi, also died Wednesday.

The cause of death has not been revealed. But Magufuli brought up Covid-19 at his funeral.

"When this respiratory disease erupted last year, we won because we put God first and took other measures. I'm sure we will win again if we do so this time around," he said.

However dissent is mounting within the country to the government's position on the pandemic.

On Saturday, the Tanzania Law Society became the first professional body to call on the government to openly recognise the virus and take adequate measures.

On Sunday, Magufuli revealed that some of his aides and family members had contracted Covid but recovered, and offered some lukewarm support for the use of masks.

"The government has not banned use of masks but some of these are not safe at all… let's be careful," he said after a service in a Dar es Salaam church.

"Let us all depend on God as we also take other preventive measures. I put God first and that is why I do not wear a mask."

The health ministry in a statement Sunday called on citizens to "continue to believe in God" and also respect preventive measures, including mask-wearing.

er/fal/wdb/tgb

WHO says still has no details from Tanzania COVID-19 response



WHO says still has no details from Tanzania COVID-19 response

NAIROBI (Reuters) - The head of the World Health Organization urged Tanzania on Sunday to share information on its measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic, saying the authorities there had repeatedly ignored his requests.

President John Magufuli's sceptical approach towards COVID-19 has caused alarm among WHO officials. A government spokesman told Reuters on Feb.12 that Tanzania had "controlled" the outbreak, but it stopped reporting new coronavirus infections and deaths in May last year. At the time it had registered 509 cases and 21 deaths.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Sunday that Tanzanians testing positive for COVID-19 abroad underscored "the need for Tanzania to take robust action both to safeguard their own people and protect populations in these countries and beyond."


Tedros also repeated a call he made with Matshidiso Moeti, WHO's Africa head, in late January for Tanzania to bolster public health measures against COVID-19 and prepare to distribute vaccines.

He added that since then he had spoken with several authorities there to no avail.

"This situation remains very concerning. I renew my call for Tanzania to start reporting COVID-19 cases and share data," Tedros said in a statement on WHO's website.

Tanzania government spokesman Hassan Abbasi did not respond to a Reuters message seeking comment on Tedros' remarks.

In a statement later on Sunday, Magufuli's office said the president wanted Tanzanians to follow measures to protect themselves against coronavirus. However, it also said that:

"Magufuli wants Tanzanians to ... trust and put God first, given that wearing masks, social distancing and lockdowns have been seen to be insufficient as countries that implemented them have lost thousands compared to Tanzania."

Magufuli attended a funeral service on Friday for a senior official in his office whose cause of death was not made public, and declared three days of national prayer.

On Sunday, Magufuli said Tanzanians should wear only use locally-made face masks, saying foreign-made ones may be unsafe.

On Monday, Oman's health minister said his country was considering suspending flights from Tanzania, after 18% of travellers arriving from Tanzania tested positive for COVID-19.

Thailand reported on Monday its first case of the highly contagious COVID-19 variant first identified in South Africa, in a Thai man who arrived from Tanzania.

(Reporting by Nairobi newsroom; Editing by George Obulutsa and Raissa Kasolowsky)

Belarus opposition leader admits it looks like 'we have lost'

Theo Merz THE TELEGRAM
Sun, February 21, 2021,

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya made the comments ahead 

of a visit to Switzerland - AP

Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has admitted the protest movement against dictator Alexander Lukashneko “seems to have lost” after being on the verge of toppling his regime last year.

Ms Tsikhanousakaya, who fled Belarus after apparent threats to her children amid a violent crackdown on protests in the summer, said the path to freedom and democracy would be longer and harder than many imagined.

“I have to admit that we have lost the streets. We have no way of combating the regime’s violence against protestors,” she told the Swiss newspaper Le Temps ahead of a planned visit to the country next month.


“They have the strength, they have the guns...I know Belarusians are tired, they are afraid.”

Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Belarus in August after Mr Lukashenko, who has ruled the former Soviet nation with an iron fist for 26 years, claimed a landslide victory in a rigged election.

Police launched a brutal response, using stun grenades, rubber bullets and tear gas on the crowds. Several people died while many more reported being tortured in custody.

Criminal cases linked to the demonstrations are ongoing, with a pair of young journalists last week sentenced to two years in prison each after they covered police violence during an anti-government protest.

“We are building the structures for the struggles of tomorrow,” Ms Tsikhanouskaya added in the interview. “Our strategy is to organise ourselves better, to put the regime under constant pressure, until such a time when people will be ready to take to the streets again, perhaps in the spring.”

The 38 year old found herself the accidental face of the protest movement last year after her husband, a popular video blogger and opposition figure, was barred from standing against Mr Lukashenko and jailed.

Ms Tsikhanouskaya was allowed to run and galvanised the opposition with mass campaign rallies. She said she would have won the presidency had the vote been free and fair.

In exile she has continued to run an office and met with European leaders in a bid to keep up pressure on the Lukashenko regime. In an interview with the Telegraph last year she said she was “suffocated by fear” but could not betray the hopes of the Belarusian people.

A VERY REAL CONSPIRACY 

Malcolm X's family releases letter alleging FBI, police role in his death


FILE PHOTO: Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X 

wait for a press conference to begin in an unknown location

By Mana Rabiee

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Members of Malcolm X's family have made public what they described as a letter written by a deceased police officer stating that the New York Police Department and FBI were behind the 1965 killing of the famed Black activist and civil rights advocate.

Malcolm X was a powerful orator who rose to prominence as the national spokesman of the Nation of Islam, an African-American Muslim group that espoused Black separatism. He spent more than a decade with the group before becoming disillusioned and publicly breaking with it in 1964. He moderated some of his earlier views on the benefits of racial separation.


He was killed at New York's Audubon Ballroom while preparing to deliver a speech. Three members of the Nation of Islam were convicted in the shooting.

The letter released at a news conference on Saturday was attributed to a former undercover NYPD officer named Raymond Wood. His cousin Reggie Wood joined some of Malcolm X's daughters at the news conference at the site where the Audubon Ballroom once stood to make the letter public.

Raymond Wood's letter stated that he had been pressured by his NYPD supervisors to lure two members of Malcolm X's security detail into committing crimes that resulted in their arrest just days before the fatal shooting. Those arrests kept the two men from managing door security at the ballroom and was part of conspiracy between the NYPD and FBI to have Malcolm killed, according to the letter.

"Under the direction of my handlers, I was told to encourage leaders and members of the civil rights groups to commit felonious acts," Wood's letter stated.

Some historians and scholars have contended that the wrong men were convicted. The office of Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance last year said it would review the convictions in the case.

Following Saturday's news conference, Vance's office released a statement saying its "review of this matter is active and ongoing." The NYPD said in a separate statement it has "provided all available records relevant to that case to the District Attorney" and "remains committed to assist with that review in any way."

The FBI declined to comment on the matter.

Malcolm X's daughter Ilyasah Shabazz said she had always lived with uncertainty around the circumstances of her father's death.

"Any evidence that provides greater insight into the truth behind that terrible tragedy should be thoroughly investigated," she told the news conference.

(Reporting by Mana Rabiee; Additional reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Will Dunham)

Malcolm X family demands reopening of murder investigation

Sun, February 21, 2021, 

Malcolm X was 39 when he was gunned down

The daughters of assassinated US black civil rights leader Malcolm X have requested that the murder investigation be reopened in light of new evidence.

They cite a deathbed letter from a man who was a policeman at the time of the 1965 killing, alleging New York police and the FBI conspired in the murder.

Raymond Wood wrote his responsibility was to ensure Malcolm X's security team were arrested days before he was shot dead in Manhattan, his family says.

Three men were convicted of the murder.

The men - all members of the Nation of Islam political and religious movement - were each sentenced to life in prison. One of them has since died, while the other two have been paroled.

By the time he was gunned down, Malcolm X - who was at one time seen as a public face of the Nation of Islam but then left the movement - had moderated his militant message of black separatism.

However, he remained a passionate advocate of black unity, self-respect and self-reliance.

In 2020, the Manhattan district attorney launched a review of the convictions after meeting representatives of the Innocence Project, a non-profit legal group campaigning for justice for individuals it says have been wrongly convicted.
What does Wood's letter allege?

The letter says the New York Police Department (NYPD) and the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) covered up details of the assassination on 21 February 1965 in Harlem's Audubon Ballroom, Upper Manhattan, according to Wood's family and their lawyer.

Wood alleges that he was tasked with making sure that Malcolm X would have no door security in the building where he was due to speak in public.

At a press briefing on Saturday, Wood's family members provided no details about how and when Raymond Wood died.

But they said he did not want to make the letter public until after his death, fearing repercussions from the authorities.

"Any evidence that provides greater insight into the truth behind that terrible tragedy should be thoroughly investigated," said Ilyasah Shabazz, one of Malcolm X's daughters.
How have the NYPD and the FBI responded?

In a statement, the NYPD said: "Several months ago, the Manhattan district attorney initiated a review of the investigation and prosecution that resulted in two convictions for the murder of Malcolm X.

"The NYPD has provided all available records relevant to that case to the district attorney. The department remains committed to assist with that review in any way."

The FBI has so far made no public comment on the issue.

Malcolm X family says letter shows NYPD and FBI conspired in his murder

Oliver Laughland
Sun, February 21, 2021, 


Photograph: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Almost 56 years since the day Malcolm X was assassinated in New York City, lawyers and family members of the late civil rights and Black nationalist leader released new evidence they claim shows the NYPD and FBI conspired in his murder.

Related: 'The humanity of black characters is often forgotten': behind Oscar-tipped One Night in Miami

It comes in the form of a deathbed letter attributed to a former undercover NYPD officer who claimed he was pressured by supervisors to lure two of Malcolm X’s security men into committing crimes, a few days before the assassination on 21 February 1965.

The arrests kept the two men from managing door security at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights on the day of the shooting, according to the letter.

The letter, written by Raymond Wood, was authorised for posthumous release by a cousin. It was read on Saturday at a press conference attended by three of X’s daughters and members of Wood’s family. No details about the circumstances and timing of Wood’s death were provided.

“Under the direction of my handlers,” the letter states, “I was told to encourage leaders and members of the civil rights groups to commit felonious acts.”

Last year, the assassination was the subject of a six-part Netflix documentary, Who Killed Malcolm X?, which revisited longstanding questions over whether two of three men convicted in the shooting were innocent. In 2011, an NYPD detective involved wrote: “The investigation was botched.”

The documentary prompted the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr, to review convictions in the case. Following Saturday’s news conference, Vance’s office said the review was “active and ongoing”. In a separate statement, the NYPD said it had “provided all available records relevant to that case” to Vance and “remains committed to assist with that review in any way”.

The FBI did not comment.

Malcolm X was shot seconds after stepping to a lectern to speak. Days earlier, he told an interviewer he believed members of the Nation of Islam were seeking to kill him. He was being surveilled by the FBI at the time. His home in Queens was firebombed the week before he was killed.

One of his daughters, Ilyasah Shabazz, told the press conference on Saturday she had lived with decades of uncertainty.

“Any evidence that provides greater insight into the truth behind that terrible tragedy should be thoroughly investigated,” she said.

New allegations in Malcolm X assassination
Sun, February 21, 2021

Wood is the cousin of undercover officer Raymond Wood. He said during a news conference that his late cousin confessed to him that he had been pressured by his NYPD supervisors to lure two members of Malcolm X's security detail into committing crimes that resulted in their arrest, just days before the assassination at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem.

The arrest had kept the members from managing door security, he said.

Reggie Wood brought with him a letter that he says was composed by Raymond in 2011, written as a "deathbed" confession when Raymond thought he might die of cancer. While Raymond Wood continued to live another ten years, he requested his confession only be made public after his death.

Reggie Wood spoke to reporters at the site of the former ballroom, which was later turned into a memorial and is now a cultural center. Crump, the attorney, said he would submit the confession to law enforcement agencies including the Manhattan District Attorney's office.

A spokesman for Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance's office told Reuters that its "review of this matter is active and ongoing."

In February 2020 the office said it would review the convictions of two Nation of Islam members who were held responsible for the killing.

Video Transcript

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

- This is about restorative justice to try to have those Black leaders, those civil rights activists who were wrongfully convicted over 50 years ago, to have them exonerated.

REGGIE WOOD: After Ray's passing, I found a confession letter that Ray had written and mailed to my father back in 2011. This letter details his, the FBI, and the NYPD's involvement in the assassination of Malcolm X, and how he was forced to betray his people.

This letter helps me to understand the pain and guilt that Ray felt for the last 55 years. He conspired to help the NYPD assassinate Malcolm X. On behalf of Ray, he wanted the world to know that he is deeply sorry. I hope that this information helps the Shabazz family-- [SNIFFLES] excuse me-- to more clearly understand what happened to their father on that horrible day.

As a Black man, I am disgusted to know that what happened 60 years ago is still going on today. We are living under J. Edgar Hoover's Jim Crow system of policing our Black and brown people. He is the architect of these constant injustices and tactics against our people.

I am now going to give a copy of this letter to the Shabazz family. I intend to give a copy of this letter to Khalil Sayed's family, Walter [? Beau's ?] family, Thomas Johnson's family, Herb [? Colander's ?] family, and Afeni Shakur's family. These are the families of the individuals that I'm aware of who have been falsely convicted due to Ray's actions. 

New evidence points to NYPD, FBI conspiracy in Malcolm X assassination, lawyers say


Matthew Allen
Sun, February 21, 2021, 

‘So, what we’re trying to do is talk about restorative justice as lawyers — try to pursue relentless justice,’ Attorney Ray Hamlin says

Lawyers representing Malcolm X‘s estate are requesting his case be reopened in light of new evidence that may reveal that the New York Police Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation conspired to have him killed.

According to ABC News, the family and attorney of former undercover NYPD officer Ray Wood disclosed that they recovered a death bed confession letter in November 2020. The letter allegedly states that the NYPD and the FBI conspired to insure the killing of Minister X, who was gunned down in Harlem’s Audubon Ballroom during a speech in 1965.

READ MORE: New book tells stories of mothers of MLK, Malcolm X and James Baldwin

Wood’s family stated that in the letter, he wrote that it was his responsibility to have X’s security detail arrested in the days prior to his scheduled appearance at the Audubon. This would ensure that security would not be sufficient to stop the gunmen from killing Malcolm X.

Despite three men from the Nation of Islam being convicted of killing the civil rights icon, attorney Ben Crump, three of Malcolm X’s daughters and Wood’s family are hoping the case will be re-opened in light of the discovery of this letter.


Portrait of American political activist and radical civil rights leader Malcolm X as he holds an 8mm movie camera in London Airport, London, England, July 9, 1964. (Photo by Express Newspapers/Getty Images)

“So, what we’re trying to do is talk about restorative justice as lawyers — try to pursue relentless justice,” said Attorney Ray Hamlin.

Last February, Netflix released the docuseries Who Killed Malcolm X, which chronicled historian Abdur-Rahman Muhammad’s years-long research to unravel inconsistencies in the Malcolm X murder case. In the series, Muhammad worked to reveal evidence that two of the three men convicted for Malcolm X’s death were in fact not present at the Audubon on the day of this murder.

In an interview with PBS, Muhammad stated that his documentary even indicates that the person who fired the gun that delivered the fatal blow to Malcolm X was not one of the three men convicted.

Conservative African cardinal who clashed with pope leaves post

FILE PHOTO: Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea walks near St. Peter's square

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis has accepted the resignation from a top Vatican post of Cardinal Robert Sarah, a hero to many conservatives who often clashed with the pontiff on theological matters.

The African cardinal, who is from Guinea, held various Vatican positions in the last 20 years, the latest as head of the department that oversees matters of worship and sacraments.

Sarah had submitted his resignation in June last year when he turned 75, as Church law requires of all bishops, but the pope often allows Vatican officials to remain in their posts longer. The Vatican announced on Saturday that he was stepping down.

In his latest position, which he held since 2014, Sarah dragged his feet in implementing changes wanted by Francis, such as allowing women to be among those taking part in Holy Thursday services.

Conservatives in the Church often put Sarah on their wish list to one day succeed Francis as pontiff. But most observers saw that possibility as extremely remote because Sarah was seen as highly divisive and would not have wide support among fellow cardinals.

Apart from openly disagreeing with Francis on a number of theological issues, Sarah was involved in an embarrassing episode last year over a book in defense of priestly celibacy that he said was jointly written with former Pope Benedict.

THIS IS AT THE CORE OF THE CHURCH COVER UP OF SEX CRIMES BECAUSE IT PROVES A FAILURE IN PRACTICE, A FAILURE CREATING HORRIFIC SADISTIC IMPULSES

Just days before its publication, Benedict said he wanted his name removed from the cover because he had made only a minor contribution.

Sarah publicly contested Benedict's version but agreed that in future editions, Benedict would be named as a contributor and not co-author.

(Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Frances Kerry)

Indiana Republicans 

Boo Black Lawmakers Speaking About Discrimination

 Stephen A. Crockett Jr.

Fri, February 19, 2021, 2:00 PM

Rep. Greg Porter, D-Indianapolis, speaks against the House Republican budget proposal during debate Monday, Feb. 25. 2019, in Indianapolis.

Nothing says discrimination like booing a Black person trying to talk about discrimination.

Such is life during a floor debate inside the Indiana Statehouse on Thursday in which Black lawmakers claimed that a bill would allow students in the largely white St. Joseph County township to leave the racially diverse South Bend Community Schools to join a smaller, rural school made up of mostly white students.

Rep. Greg Porter, (D-Indianapolis,) walked off the House floor after several Republican colleagues booed and loud talked over his claims that the move was discriminatory.

The bill’s author, Rep. Jake Teshka, (R-South Bend,) told the USA Today that the move was about transportation issues.

From USA Today:

After Porter walked off the House floor overcome with emotion, Rep. Vernon Smith, D-Gary, reiterated concerns about discrimination and spoke about his own experiences facing discrimination as a Black man, being pulled over for “driving while Black” and being denied access to certain places because of the color of his skin. He was met with “boos” from several other GOP lawmakers.

Rep. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour, then walked out over his objections to Smith’s testimony.

Lucas declined to answer questions about what happened, other than to criticize media reports as inaccurate without saying specifically why.

Lucas was sanctioned by the GOP Speaker of the House, Todd Huston, over the summer for sharing a racist meme. The chairwoman of the Black caucus, Robin Shackleford, had released a scathing call for Lucas’s removal from several committees, saying he was unremorseful. She also called for the House to have bias training, saying “his thinking and his behavior is enabled by the complacency of some of our colleagues.”

Shackleford said Thursday that leadership of the Black caucus and House Democrats met with Huston after the incident on the floor and, again, asked for the training.

“If they’re feeling that we’re constantly attacking them and they’re taking it personal, then they’re going to be on the defense and we’re never going to go anywhere,” Shackleford said.

Teshka, unlike his Republican cohorts, wasn’t offended that some Black lawmakers took issue with the bill he wrote.

“I’m not taking any of this personally, so please don’t feel like you have to come to my defense,” he told his colleagues during the closing debate on his bill.

The bill passed, 52-43, USA Today reports.

DON'T DRILL BABY
Arctic drilling plan in Alaska hits roadblock

FILE PHOTO: A polar bear keeping close to her young along the Beaufort Sea coast in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge


By Yereth Rosen

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Plans for seismic surveys to help find oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge have fizzled due to a lack of protection for polar bears, according to a brief statement Saturday from the Department of the Interior.

The Kaktovik Inupiat Corp (KIC), the Native-owned company that applied for permission to conduct the survey, failed to do the required work to identify polar bear dens in the region that would be surveyed, Interior spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz said in an emailed statement

The likely demise of the seismic plan is the latest in a series of setbacks that have deflated the decades-long ambition to convert the refuge into an oil-producing frontier.

Alaska's oil production has been waning since the late 1980s, when the state produced more than 2 million barrels of crude per day. Now its output is roughly 500 bpd.

Ex-President Donald Trump passed tax legislation in 2017 that would have allowed for drilling in the ANWR, and the federal government held a lease sale in the last days of his presidency.

Identification of den sites was needed for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife to grant KIC an incidental harassment authorization, a permit that would allow seismic operations near polar bears, Schwartz said.

“The company was advised today that their request is no longer actionable,” she said in her statement.

KIC had planned, through contractor SAExploration, to conduct seismic surveys on 352,416 acres within the refuge’s coastal plain. The company missed a Feb. 13 deadline to perform its aerial den-detection work, Schwartz said.

The Jan. 6 ANWR lease sale drew qualifying bids for only 11 tracts, most from an Alaska state agency that was participating as a backstop in case oil companies did not submit bids.

President Joseph Biden and Interior Secretary-designee Deb Haaland oppose oil development in the refuge.

(Writing by David Gaffen; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)

How a 1960s discovery in Yellowstone made millions of COVID-19 PCR tests possible

Devi Shastri, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Sun, February 21, 2021, 11:11 AM

MILWAUKEE, Wis. – Like so many great scientific discoveries, Tom Brock started the research that would go on to revolutionize the field of biology — and pave the road to the development of the gold-standard COVID-19 tests used to fight a pandemic — with a question.

In 1964, the microbiologist was driving out West when he stopped to visit Yellowstone National Park. It was the first time he saw the park's picturesque hot springs.

"I got to the thermal area and I saw all these colors of what were obviously microbes," said Brock, then a professor at Indiana University. "No one seemed to know much about them."

As the water in the hot springs flowed out from the pools, it was cooling, creating a range of temperatures and environments for bacteria to grow. But in the hottest parts of the springs, where temperatures ranged from 70 degrees Celsius to above 100 degrees Celsius — the boiling point of water — the springs were clear, thought to be uninhabitable.

Brock wanted to know more about the bacteria and to see if any were living in the hottest waters.

The next summer, he returned to Yellowstone with a student research team and a grant from the National Science Foundation to research life at high temperatures. It was the start of what would become a decade of work studying the park's microscopic creatures.

Brock was performing what's called basic research. He did not know for sure where the work would lead him or how his findings might be used in the future. The goal was as vague as it was grand: to advance scientific understanding about the organisms living in one of Earth's most extreme environments.

In doing so, he changed the world.


Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and Montana features picturesque geysers, hot springs and wildlife.

In 1966, Brock and an undergraduate student, Hudson Freeze, discovered a new bacteria that thrived in waters above 70 degrees Celsius. Brock named it Thermus aquaticus.

The discovery of this hardy bacteria revolutionized the fields of biology and medicine.

"A lot of people thought (the research) was kind of a specialized sort of thing," said Brock, now an emeritus professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "Working on organisms in Yellowstone in the summer sounded kind of like a 'vacation study.'"

What no one could have known then was that inside that bacteria was the key ingredient for the gold-standard diagnostic tests that would be deployed nationwide by the tens of millions nearly 50 year later, on the front lines in the fight against COVID-19.

'This is our generation’s D-Day': As US nears 500,000 COVID-19 deaths, weary health care workers fight on amid the heartbreak

The key to the polymerase chain reaction, or PCR

As the news of the discovery spread, biochemists across the country started to research Thermus aquaticus' inner workings, Brock wrote in a 1997 article for the Genetics Society of America.

Brock and Freeze soon realized that the bacteria's enzymes — proteins that carry out chemical reactions inside of a cell — kept working in temperatures that were even higher than the boiling point of water. Enzymes from other organisms can't tolerate such heat; they lose their structure and stop working, like an egg that changes its form when placed in a hot frying pan.

One of Thermus aquaticus' enzymes is today the key ingredient in the polymerase chain reaction — PCR — which laboratories around the world are using to detect the virus that causes COVID-19.

PCR, a technique developed by biochemist Kary Mullis in the 1980s, is a staple procedure used to diagnose diseases. PCR also plays a role in helping scientists detect DNA left at crime scenes, sequence genomes and track mutations like those in SARS-CoV-2, and determine a person's ancestry or a dog's breed.


Microbiologist Tom Brock collects one of his first samples from the Yellowstone River in 1964. A pioneer in his field, Brock's discovery of bacteria that can live in extremely high temperatures led to major advancements in biology and medicine, including the technology that is used in COVID-19 PCR tests.

PCR can make millions and billions of copies of segments of DNA, amplifying even the smallest traces of genetic material from any germ, animal or person scientists might be searching for. The process requires heating up a sample to very high temperatures and then cooling it back down, multiple times.

The enzyme from Thermus aquaticus, called Taq polymerase, copies the DNA to make more of it. Because it can withstand the heating process, labs are able to run the tests much more quickly than they would without it, because other enzymes would be destroyed every time the sample was heated up.

While there are other diagnostic tests available for COVID-19, scientists call PCR tests the gold standard because they are very accurate, sensitive and relatively fast. Even if there is only a small amount of the virus in a patient's sample, PCR will probably find it.


Tom Brock, emeritus professor of bacteriology at UW-Madison, is pictured in 2017 during the 14th Annual Research in the Rotunda, an event that showcases the work of UW undergraduates at the Capitol Rotunda in Madison, Wisconsin.

Before PCR became widely used in the '90s, scientists would have to try to grow viruses in the lab in order to diagnose diseases, a dangerous process that takes days to weeks, said Al Bateman, director of the Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene's communicable disease division.

So fundamental is Taq polymerase that one of the COVID-19 tests used by the state lab is named after it: TaqPath.

"All of the gold-standard diagnostic PCR tests: for COVID-19, for flu, for (tuberculosis) — we run a lot of PCRs here," Bateman said. "None of that would exist."

The power of basic research

Brock was 10 years old when he got his first chemistry set. His dad set up a little lab for him in the basement of their Cleveland home. He was interested in nature early, exploring the old abandoned farm near their home as a child.

When he was 15, his father died, leaving Brock to pick up odd jobs for 25 cents an hour to help support his family. He graduated from high school in the midst of World War II, and immediately enlisted in the U.S. Navy.

After the war, he enrolled at Ohio State University in 1946, where he studied as a beneficiary of the GI Bill. He ultimately earned his masters and doctorate at Ohio State, and made his way to Indiana University as a professor in 1960. He moved to UW-Madison in 1971 and became chairman of the department of bacteriology in 1979.

The discovery of Thermus aquaticus is far from where Brock's research ended.

During a decade of research on hot springs and geysers at Yellowstone, Brock authored some 100 papers based on his work.

Over his career, he's written some 250 papers and 20 books, and accumulated multiple awards.

Now 94, Brock is retired from UW-Madison but still lives about a mile from the university. He has shifted his focus to conservation, managing Pleasant Valley Conservancy in Wisconsin with his wife, Kathie.

Brock himself has held up his career, and particularly the discovery of Thermus aquaticus, as a testament to the power of basic research.

"You know, you never know what's going to happen," Brock said of such scientific inquiries.


Tom Brock collects a sample from a hot spring in Yellowstone National Park in 1995. A pioneer in his field, Brock's discovery of bacteria that can live in extremely high temperatures led to major advancements in biology and medicine, including the technology that is used in COVID-19 PCR tests.

He remembers there was public criticism of the NSF's support of his work back then, "It sounded not very important, just a tourist attraction," he said.

But Brock's work at Yellowstone led to even more scientists studying "extremophiles," microorganisms that live in extreme environments, a specialty that has unlocked theories about the origins of life on Earth and about the possibility of life existing on other planets.

"I think Tom had a catalytic effect on studies of extremophiles in general," said Michael Cox, a professor of biochemistry at UW-Madison. "He helped get the world of biology interested in these unusual lifestyles of bacteria and all kinds of things have popped out of it."

The expansive reach of this single discovery is also an example of the way in which science builds on itself, sometimes in the most unexpected ways. It takes years of research, by countless curious scientists, to move society's knowledge base forward.

"I think it was the most amazing and gratifying thing I've seen in all my scientific career," Freeze, now the director of the human genetics program at Sanford-Burnham-Prebys Medical Discovery Institute in La Jolla, California, said of the discovery's impact.

"I know a number of people, friends of mine, who have said, 'You ever want to check on the value of basic science? This is the best example, where you're looking at something that had no application and in the right setting, with the right magic potions, you change the world,' " Freeze said.

In reflecting on the fruits of Brock's curiosity, Bateman recalled a quote from another groundbreaking scientist: Louis Pasteur. "Chance favors only the prepared mind."

It's a sentiment Brock echoed when asked if he had any advice to give to the scientists of the future.

"Study hard and keep an open mind," he said.

Follow reporter Devi Shastri on Twitter at @DeviShastri.

Miami’s beaches ‘will be all gone,’ Bill Gates warns, and corrective action must be drastic | Opinion


When I recently interviewed Bill Gates about his new book on global warming, I didn’t expect him to use Miami as his first example of what may become a climate change “catastrophe.”

But that’s exactly what he did.

“There will be places near the ocean [that] the sea-level rise will completely wipe out,” Gates told me. “You know, like Miami won’t look anything like it does today. Those beaches will be all gone.”

Since I live in Miami Beach, in a building close to the ocean, I immediately asked him how soon he expects that to happen.

“Well, it’s fairly gradual, it gets worse every year. You know already in Miami you have periods where the water is coming up when you get the right weather conditions. And so, every year, the ocean will just get higher and higher. And by the end of the century, that’s very, very dramatic,” he told me.

“I love the beaches in Miami, you know, biking, walking, it’s so beautiful, and all the energy of people there,” he added. “And I think, wow, that won’t be there. You know, it’s kind of a sad thing. It’s not the highest on the list of bad things from climate change, but it makes it something that we can relate to.”

Gates’ new book, “How to avoid a climate disaster,” makes dire predictions not just for Miami, but also for the world.

There will be increasingly stronger hurricanes, floods, wildfires and extreme droughts, mass migrations, economic crises and deaths from natural disasters. By 2050, climate change is likely to be just as deadly as COVID-19, and by 2100 it could be five times as deadly, he says.

Unless we dramatically increase efforts to reduce climate change — beyond the ambitious gas-emission reduction goals of the 190-country Paris Climate Change Accord — the world faces a “climate disaster,” Gates says.

Expanding current sources of green energy, such as wind and solar, will not suffice, he says. That’s because these energy sources are intermittent. The wind doesn’t always blow. The sun doesn’t always shine. And we have not yet invented affordable batteries that can store enough clean energies.

In addition, the Paris Accord’s goals are too modest to solve the problem, Gates says, adding that the only sensible goal is to reduce emissions to near zero by 2050.

He compares existing global agreements to reduce the effects of climate change to a bathtub that is slowly filling up with water: Even if you slow the flow to a trickle, the tub eventually will overflow.

When I asked him what will happen in countries such as Mexico, which is investing oil refineries, Gates said that electric cars are likely to dominate the market in 10 or 15 years and, “Countries will have to move away from expecting to make lots of money from selling oil or natural gas.”

“That will be a challenge for the Middle East, Russia, Nigeria and Mexico,” he said. “But 30 years hopefully is enough time to ship those (oil-related) jobs into other areas.”

Most climate experts disagree with the notion that Miami will soon disappear under water anytime soon (though, to be fair, Gates was referring only to Miami’s beaches, and said that they may vanish by the year 2100.)

What’s going to happen, if nothing dramatic is done, is that Miami will have to build much more expensive water pumps, and residents will have to pay more real estate taxes.

In that scenario, Miami — like other coastal areas in Florida — may become a place where only the ultra-rich will be able to live, some climate experts predict. Like Venice, Italy, which is regularly swamped with floodwaters and is one of Italy’s most high-priced cities, Miami’s real estate would be among the most expensive in the United States, they say.

I agree that Miami won’t disappear anytime soon, nor will its real-estate prices plummet, though I wonder about the future of its beaches. Gates is right in warning that current efforts to control global warming are not enough, and that the longer we wait to fix the climate problem, the more costly it will be.

Don’t miss the “Oppenheimer Presenta” TV show at 8 p.m. E.T. Sunday on CNN en Español. Twitter: @oppenheimera

Outdoors: Mammoth fish once terrorized region's waters

 

 

Matt Markey, The Blade, Toledo, Ohio

Sat, February 20, 2021, 12:31 PM

Feb. 20—CLEVELAND — Throw a fishing line into Lake Erie today and the biggest creature you could hope to catch would be a sturgeon, a very rare lake resident which might reach seven feet long and weigh 200 pounds. Cast the same line into the water and the nastiest fish you might encounter is the sea lamprey, a parasitic vampire with a sucker-like mouth decked out with circular rows of sharp teeth, and a fish that likely would be attached to an unwitting host.

Today, the sturgeon and the lamprey qualify as big, and scary, respectively. But they look wimpy and tiny when compared to the apex predator that was the scourge of the waters here in a different era.

This Cerberus of the sea was a fish that stretched to 25 feet or more in length and weighed a couple of tons. It was covered in armor and had a massive skull comprised of heavy, bony plates. There were two sets of huge protrusions that looked like monster-sized fangs, and a unique pair of self-sharpening jawbones that could produce an amazing 8,000 pounds per square inch of force as this fish chomped down on its prey.

Meet Dunkleosteus terrelli, the meanest and most terrifying fish in the marine world. This part of Ohio was covered in a shallow, warm sea at the time, and Dunkleosteus snacked on the sharks of those waters, and anything else that came into its path.

"This fish is significant because it was the top predator on Earth at its time," said Amanda McGee, Head of Collections & Collections Manager of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, where the most complete displays of Dunkleosteus are displayed. "At that time, plants and insects had colonized the land, but most of life was still in the sea, and Dunkleosteus was the Tyrannosaurus rex of that period. It was the apex predator and it lived right here."

Dunkleosteus, also known by its efficient nickname Dunk, lived in the Devonian Period, the Age of Fishes. The Devonian Period was part of the Paleozoic Era in geological history and took place between roughly 420 million and 358 million years ago. With a very warm climate, sea levels were high and about 85 percent of the planet was covered in water.

"This whole area was a shallow sea, a lot warmer than it is today, and the global sea level was a lot higher, so the oceans flooded the land," McGee said. And Dunk, a ferocious marauder, ruled those widespread seas.

Paleontologists have uncovered fossil remains of other species of Dunkleosteus in distant parts of the world, McGee said, including in Morocco, Poland, and Australia, but Dunkleosteus terrelli, which occupied this part of the planet, has provided the best historical record.

When these fish died they would settle to the bottom of the vast saltwater seas, a veritable dead zone with little to no oxygen, so their remains were very well preserved. As mud and sediment covered them, these Dunkleosteus specimens were encased in a slowly developing sarcophagus.

"Over millions of years, those layers of mud turned to rock," McGee said. "And much later those rocks got scraped away by huge sheets of retreating ice in the ice age, exposing some of these fossils."

The first recorded discovery of Dunkleosteus in the region that is now Northern Ohio took place in 1867 in the shale cliffs in Lorain County. Amateur paleontologist Jay Terrell made that find and he is recognized in the scientific name of the fish, along with David Dunkle, former Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

The giant armored skull of a Dunkleosteus terrelli is on display in the Kirtland Hall of Prehistoric Life at the facility, which is located east of downtown at University Circle.

"Most of the early finds of Dunkleosteus terrelli were from people in that area," said Jayson Kowinsky, a high school physics teacher in Pittsburgh whose website fossilguy.com celebrates paleontology and fossil hunting.

"This fish is probably the world's most famous placoderm and that area of Ohio is very important in the study of Dunkleosteus. That is the world's hot spot for this fish."

Almost 100 years after Terrell's encounter with Dunkleosteus, the Ohio Department of Transportation was starting construction on Interstate 71 in the shale-rich Big Creek Valley area near Cleveland and a team of paleontologists worked alongside the ODOT crew and excavated a wide range of fossil fish and plants, including additional evidence that has assisted in the study of Dunkleosteus.

Kowinsky explained that Dunkleosteus was larger than the biggest great white sharks that swim in the oceans today, and the force of the bite produced by Dunk's shearing jaws was unmatched by even the most ferocious predators that ever have walked the earth or terrorized its oceans.

"This bite force was likely double that of a Megalodon and stronger than that of the T-rex," Kowinsky said.

Through the use of biomechanics and computer modeling, paleontologists with the Field Museum have estimated that at the tip of its fang-like structures, Dunkleosteus terrelli could exert an "incredible force of 80,000 pounds per square inch." They also marveled at the ability of Dunk to open and close its massive mouth with such speed — in just one-fiftieth of a second. This created a powerful suction-like vacuum that pulled prey into its mouth.

"The most interesting part of this work . . . . was discovering that this heavily armored fish was both fast during jaw opening and quite powerful during jaw closing," said Mark Westneat, past curator of fishes at The Field Museum, in a 2006 paper on Dunkleosteus. "This is possible due to the unique engineering design of its skull and different muscles used for opening and closing. And it made this fish into one of the first true apex predators seen in the vertebrate fossil record."

Kowinsky said that paleontologists believe that Dunkleosteus was around for about 20 million years or more, at a time when close to 99 percent of the vertebrate life on the planet was found in the seas.

"We would not be swimming in the ocean if this fish was still around today," he said.

Late in 2020, Dunkleosteus terrelli earned the official distinction as the Fossil Fish of Ohio when Senate Bill No. 123 was signed into law by Gov. Mike DeWine. Dunk joins the buckeye (state tree), cardinal (state bird), flint (state gemstone), Isotelus (state invertebrate fossil), spotted salamander (state amphibian), black racer (state reptile), and the white trillium (state wildflower).