#STATEHOOD OR #INDEPENDENCE

Refinery rained oil on Virgin Islands community that still awaits cleanup a month later

Juliet Eilperin, Darryl Fears and Salwan 

WASHINGTON POST

 Mar 25 2021

SALWAN GEORGES/THE WASHINGTON POST
The refinery presents one of the earliest tests of US President Joe Biden's 

vow to clean up pollution in United States' disadvantaged communities.

Two hours after midnight in this island paradise, a cloudy vapour rose from a massive oil refinery and floated over nearby homes as quietly as a ghost.

The fine mist of oil and water from Limetree Bay Refining rained down on the community of Clifton Hill, showering the slick mix onto cars, gardens, rooftops and cisterns filled with rainwater that residents use for daily tasks.

The vapour, caused by a pressure release valve triggered by an accident on February 4 (local time), came three days after the Limetree Bay refinery reopened for the first time in nearly a decade, and the incident prompted the Biden administration to investigate. The Trump administration had approved the reopening of the plant, which had shut down after facing a deluge of lawsuits alleging serious environmental violations.

Three miles from the refinery, Armando Muñoz still sees signs of oil everywhere.

“When it rains it doesn't wash out,” said Muñoz, 59, who lives with his wife and 78-year-old mother-in-law. “It's in all the plants we have, avocado trees, and breadfruit trees, and fruit trees and regular household plants.”

The refinery presents one of the earliest tests of US President Joe Biden's vow to clean up pollution in United States' disadvantaged communities. Ushered back into existence in the waning days of Donald Trump's presidency, Limetree Bay refinery embodies the difficult tradeoffs Biden faces as he tries to deliver on promises to provide a clean, safe environment and well-paying jobs.

SALWAN GEORGES/THE WASHINGTON POST
Armando Munoz stands in his garden in the Clifton Hill neighbourhood 

of St Croix, US Virgin Islands.

This week, Biden officials will withdraw a key permit for the refinery, according to two individuals briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it had not been announced yet. The Environmental Protection Agency's move will not close the plant but could lead to tighter pollution controls, marking the administration's most significant step yet in a campaign to ensure environmental justice.

Asked about the permit decision Tuesday, the EPA declined to comment.

Many officials in the Virgin Islands support the plant, so any federal action poses significant implications. The pandemic has battered the local tourism industry, leaving the refinery and its adjoining logistics hub as a significant source of revenue worth at least US$8 million (NZ$11 million) a year to the US Virgin Islands government. The two facilities also employ more than 400 full-time workers, virtually all of them territory residents.

“I'm going to be honest with you, the economy in the Virgin Islands, we were dead,” said Herminio Torres, a community organiser in the Clifton Hill neighbourhood.” Retooling the plant brought contractors to the island at a crucial time. “Those workers buy our local food, our local products. The economy has moved forward.”

Company officials said that they are addressing the contamination and that the plant is safe. According to a company report, when water gushed into a drum holding hot coke – an oil byproduct – the reaction triggered a safety valve that relieved the pressure. Refinery flares usually release a mix of water vapour and carbon dioxide: In this case tiny oil droplets entered the air, drifting as far as three miles away.

“Limetree has worked closely with our community and our regulators, investing hundreds of millions of dollars to safely reopen a modernised refinery and create hundreds of high-skilled, well-paying jobs for St Croix residents,” said company spokesman Erica Parsons.

But the incident has revived uncomfortable memories of the days before the refinery – then called Hovensa – shuttered. Residents recall times when the local high school closed because of the plant's intense fumes.

On the island's southern shore between the refinery and Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge, dozens of oily clumps are once again washing up on the beach, reeking of petrol.

“You can see the impact for miles,” said Olasee Davis, an ecologist and historian who teaches at the University of the Virgin Islands. “When it comes to the refinery, the refinery always gets its way. The politicians here, they don't have the political will. People cannot do without it.”

SALWAN GEORGES/THE WASHINGTON POST
“You can see the impact for miles,” said Olasee Davis, an ecologist and 

historian who teaches at the University of the Virgin Islands.

St Croix – where Biden celebrated New Year's 2019 with his family, and former vice president Mike Pence sought respite days after leaving office – has idyllic stretches of beaches that offer habitat for leatherback sea turtles, roseate terns and other vulnerable wildlife. But it has also been a quasi-petro state for more than half a century.

The territory's governor in the early 1960s, a White businessman named Ralph Paiewonsky, struck a deal with Hess Oil Virgin Islands Corporation to construct a refinery on 1500 acres of the southern shore. On the eve of the deal in 1965, US President Lyndon Johnson dismissed concerns raised by a resident that the trade winds would carry the plant's fumes and waste to the southern shore's “magnificent beaches.”

“As America grows,” Johnson replied, “private industry will work with local officials and interested citizens to assure the preservation of choice spots of natural beauty and avert some of the unfortunate forms of destruction you describe.”

SALWAN GEORGES/THE WASHINGTON POST
Olasee Davis holds a sample of sand covered in oil near the Limetree Bay refinery in St Croix.

Named for a partnership between Amerada Hess Corp. and Petróleos de Venezuela, the Hovensa refinery - along with a neighbouring aluminium plant and rum distillery - transformed its part of the island into an industrial landscape. The refinery ran a mix of oil and water through pipelines that were buried in the sand and became corroded. By 1982, the company identified underground contamination that ultimately released at least 300,000 barrels of petrochemicals and polluted the island's one aquifer. In 1994, the EPA determined that all the pipes needed to be replaced.

Lawsuits from local residents, the US Virgin Islands government and the EPA helped speed its demise. Hovensa's 2011 settlement with the EPA required it to pay a US$5.3 million fine and spend US$700 million to install modern pollution controls and offset its impact on local residents, including paying more than US$300,000 to start a cancer registry. The EPA later determined that at the time of the agreement the plant posed the ninth-highest cancer risk among all US refineries, but the total number of cases is hard to track because the island's health system is so threadbare that many people seek treatment in Florida or Puerto Rico instead.

After suffering US$1.3 billion in losses over the course of three years, the company halted operations in 2012 and declared bankruptcy three years later. The move meant that the company did not pay for a full cleanup, and paid smaller amounts to settle four class-action suits: US$4.7 million. Overnight, the territory lost its largest private employer, which accounted for at least 13 per cent of its GDP.

SALWAN GEORGES/THE WASHINGTON POST
Deposits from an oil spill washed onto a southwestern beach of Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge in St Croix.

“There was no question that when Hovensa closed the operations in St. Croix, there were close to 4000 folks that pretty much lost their jobs,” said Kenneth Mapp, who served as the US Virgin Islands governor from 2015 to 2019.

In 2015, a subsidiary of the Boston-based equity firm ArcLight Capital bought the refinery. Its push to reopen had support among Trump administration officials, looking to expand US oil production, and local politicians who were eager to find a new source of revenue. The devastation wrought by Hurricanes Maria and Irma added urgency to the territory's campaign for fast-track approval.

Mapp, in a letter, appealed to Trump to expedite the reopening “for the benefit of the Nation's energy independence and the economic resurgence of the Virgin Islands of the United States.”

In August 2018, the EPA head Andrew Wheeler directed EPA appointees to help Limetree Bay “resume operations,” according to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

SALWAN GEORGES/THE WASHINGTON POST
The fine mist of oil and water from Limetree Bay Refining rained down on the community of Clifton Hill, showering the slick mix onto cars, gardens, rooftops and cisterns filled with rainwater that residents use for daily tasks.

Officials from ArcLight – founded by GOP donor Daniel Revers – and its subsidiary worked with the Justice Department and the EPA to renegotiate the 2011 consent decree to restart the refinery. At one point, according to a document released under FOIA, Limetree Bay and its lawyers expressed “appreciation for [the EPA's] attention, coordination and responsiveness.”

For Trump appointees at the EPA, the application provided a test case for reinterpreting the Clean Air Act, which the Trump administration sought to weaken. Bill Wehrum, who headed the EPA's air office from November 2017 until June 2019, wanted to make it easier for industrial operations to expand without being forced to install stricter pollution controls.

In Limetree Bay's case, that meant the refinery would be treated as if it had never stopped operating, and would not require a new permit.

In meetings with White House officials, Wehrum cited Limetree as a model for how the Trump administration could approve plants across the nation more quickly, said two former federal officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.

SALWAN GEORGES/THE WASHINGTON POST
The Limetree Bay refinery.

Relying on a determination that Wehrum provided in an April 5, 2018, letter, Limetree Bay got a permit to operate from the US Virgin Islands government on December 30, 2019.

Limetree Bay also applied to the EPA for a new plantwide permit to process more oil. Trump officials set air emission limits based on the refinery's production a decade ago, when it processed more than 500,000 barrels a day - even though it planned to produce 200,000 barrels of low-sulfur marine fuel for its main customer, BP.

“We were literally in the dark for months, and not necessarily able to process or understand what was happening with the reopening of the refinery,” said Jennifer Valiulis, who directs the St Croix Environmental Association.

Parsons said the company spent US$100 million on environmental improvements on the plant, and has permanently shut down part of it. “Because Limetree upgraded the facility and reduced its capacity, the Limetree refinery emissions will be much lower than its predecessor.”

Even as the Trump administration helped usher through the company's applications, it documented how the refinery would affect nearby disadvantaged communities. The EPA found the adjoining neighbourhoods – where nearly 27 per cent of residents live below the poverty line and 75 per cent are people of colour – had “high risk vulnerability” to pollution. An earlier 2014 study, by the University of the Virgin Islands Eastern Caribbean Centre, found that White residents constituted 2 per cent of area residents.

“There is in fact a disproportionate burden in South-Central St Croix,” the EPA concluded in 2019, adding that “it is difficult to conclude” that the refinery “will not contribute to a disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effect” on nearby residents.

Shortly afterward, three air policy experts published a Harvard University law school paper criticising how the Trump administration had interpreted these provisions of the law, singling out Limetree Bay as an example. The paper's authors included Joseph Goffman, the EPA's acting assistant administrator for air, who is now with the Biden administration and has been reviewing Limetree's permit.

SALWAN GEORGES/THE WASHINGTON POST
Sonia Rivera and her husband, Errol Rivera, check vegetables in their backyard.

The University of the Virgin Islands 2014 study found that nearly twice as many residents “experienced asthmatic conditions during the past five years” compared with those living outside it, and that more than twice as many had chronic bronchitis.

On December 1, 2020 – less than two months before Trump left office – Wheeler took the unusual step of signing the permit allowing Limetree Bay refinery to expand or alter its operations, rather than leaving that to the regional office overseeing the island.

The refinery began producing fuel two months later.

The day it restarted, a coalition of groups – including the St. Croix Environmental Association, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Centre for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club – challenged one of Limetree's key air permits with the EPA.

Several of these groups are challenging the plantwide permit with the EPA's Environmental Appeals Board.

John Walke, the NRDC's clean air director, said the Trump administration's interpretation of the Clean Air Act violated the law.

Valiulis, of the St Croix Environmental Association, said that residents remain in the dark and that some have moved out of the area because their health was compromised.

“A lot of people live with cistern water, rainfall off the roof. Whatever goes in there you drink,” she said. “We're certainly outraged about the process, the lack of information. We don't know what the monitoring levels are, what they're allowed to do and if anybody is monitoring.”

Neither the governor's office nor the territory's department of planning and natural resources responded to requests for comment.

Mapp said Limetree Bay has provided an economic lifeline for the territory during the pandemic. “Absent of that plant, the government of the Virgin Islands would have been in significant financial problems once its tourism industry was closed.”

Several residents credited the company for being more responsive than its predecessor. According to the company, by March 3 it had contacted or inspected 213 homes, washed 208 cars, cleaned 134 roofs and sampled 135 cisterns. It has been delivering bottled water to many Clinton Hill residents, and it has hired a local claims adjuster to negotiate how to pay for damage.

But residents in the contaminated neighbourhood cannot bathe or easily wash dishes with bottled water. Limetree's contractors confirmed that Muñoz's cistern is contaminated.

“We are very uncomfortable to hear oil is in the water,” said Muñoz. But he was not surprised. “It had a little odour now and then, sometimes a little taste.”

Sonya Rivera, whose husband, Errol, only ate from their organic garden, said 90 per cent of it was lost because of the incident. “They destroyed all our foods,” she said. “Everything was dead.”

It's a concern, Rivera said, that Limetree should have addressed more rapidly and never allowed to happen again. “I'm infuriated,” said Rivera, 53. “I know things happen. That plant just opened and things happen. But just take a little more consideration on this community. You know you caused this problem, just rectify it.”

Another resident, Steve, who asked to be identified only by his first name because he is afraid of speaking out against the company, said he heard sirens blare from the refinery on the morning of February 4. But Steve and his family did not understand what the siren meant and didn't find out about the accident until many days later.

“We didn't pay it no attention,” he said. “At that time, we were eating and drinking whatever's there in the water.”


The Washington Post

 Trump falsely claims January 6 rioters were 'hugging and kissing' police 

Is sex addiction really a thing? Science is skeptical

2021/3/26 ©TheAtlantaJournalConstitution

Atlanta police officers and detectives respond to the crime scene at Aromatherapy Spa and Gold Spa, both located in the 1900 block of Piedmont Road NE in Atlanta, Tuesday, March 16, 2021. - Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com/TNS

ATLANTA – To join the church Atlanta spa shooting suspect Robert Aaron Long attended, you have to adhere to certain non-negotiable edicts, a terms of agreement of sorts for membership.

In a section titled “Diligence of Members,” Crabapple First Baptist Church leaders defined marriage as between a man and a woman and said sex was limited to married couples.

“Lust is a huge problem in our culture today and the ease of access to materials that feed temptation is unprecedented,” church leaders warned on their website.

For Long, 21, the lure of sexual gratification proved impossible to ignore. Last week, after a shooting spree that left eight people dead at three metro area spas he had frequented, he told investigators he had sought to eliminate the temptations brought on by his addiction to sex. The Woodstock man, charged with eight counts of murder, had unsuccessfully sought treatment at two local clinics.

Medical science is skeptical that sex addiction is an actual thing. It is not listed as an official diagnosis in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, considered a bible for doctors, researchers and medical insurers. As a legal defense, it would be virtually unprecedented.

“I’ve never heard of it being used in a murder case,” Decatur attorney Keith Adams said. “It’s not a defense. Now maybe it’s a reason. But he can have illogical thoughts without having a mental disorder.”

Long’s addiction was real, say those familiar with his struggle to live a chaste life. Tyler Bayless, Long’s former roommate at Maverick Recovery, where they were treated in 2019 and 2020, said Long was hounded by shame and self-loathing every time he caved to carnal desires.

Bayless, writing on Facebook, said the shootings were “the product of an emotionally disturbed young man who was religious to the point of mania.”
‘Your soul is at stake’

In November, Associate Pastor Luke Folsom preached about the dangers of pornography and advised church members to get rid of their smartphones and cut off their internet service to avoid it, according to the New York Times.

“Your soul is at stake,” he said. Folsom did not respond to requests for comments by the AJC.

The church encouraged members to download software that would send alerts about “questionable web browsing” to a designated person to provide accountability.

“We owe it to our brothers and sisters in Christ, our families, and most of all, our Lord to battle against this temptation,” the church wrote. It said members who did not believe they had a problem with sex should install the app “to help avoid even the appearance of evil.”

According to Bayless, after Long left Maverick Recovery, he sought help at HopeQuest, an evangelical treatment center in Acworth, financially supported by several suburban churches.

Officials for HopeQuest did not respond to a request for comment. In one of several videos describing the center’s philosophy, Executive Director Troy Haas talks about how HopeQuest gets its clients.

“Our phone rings daily with calls from pastors, church leaders and Christians asking for help, overwhelmed with the problem of sexual addiction in context of the church and their lives,” Haas said.

In a podcast recorded in 2016, Haas urged pastors to address sinful sex in their congregations and the importance of “intensive residential treatment” for “sexual addiction or unwanted same-sex attraction.”

William Lloyd Allen, a professor of church history at Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology, said Long’s alleged acts of violence reflect a disturbed mind. But he said they do need to be viewed within the context of the evangelical church.

“In a deranged way, he is simply backing up the theology he was given. He was given the theology that women are temptresses,” he said. “They teach that women tend to tempt men and especially impure women. They teach that God wants people before marriage to never admit sexual desire, and if they do have sexual desires to think of them as sinful. So why wouldn’t he do those things if he is a little – or a lot – off balance?”

On March 21, following a somber Sunday service, the members of Crabapple voted to expel Long from the church, saying his actions showed he was not truly saved. Allen said the evidence would suggest the twice-baptized man believed himself to be a committed Christian “trying to live the life God wants him to live.”

In his regular podcast, Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, criticized the media attention placed on Crabapple and conservative Baptist theology in the wake of the shootings.

“As you look at this coverage it becomes increasingly clear that many in the mainstream media think it is, well, just odd that you would have Christians that would have such a concern with anything that might be described as lust,” he said. “Of course, the entire category of sin makes no sense in secular world view.”

Mohler said Long was not driven by the teachings of the church, but by a “tragic mixture of sexuality, of struggle, of what may well have been racism and sexual stereotyping of what was, as it turned out, a racially or ethnically patterned crime, even if that was not consciously at the heart of the crime.”

Mohler said sin, not Long’s claim of sexual addiction, was the root cause of his problems.

“One of the things that comes up in this article is the fact that this young man and others referred to his pattern of sin as an addiction. That is not a biblical word,” he said. “Therapy is not the rescue when it comes to sin. Only Christ is.”

Allen said Long was failed by a “white nationalistic religious subculture” that cloaked sex in shame and guilt, devalued women and minorities, and rejects therapy that is not “Bible-based.”

“He is not rejecting all your values. He is distorting all those values, but he got those values from you,” he said. “He is mentally deranged, but I think he is genuinely one of us – a white, evangelical Christian who went off the rails.”
Science skeptical

Sexual and mental health organizations reject establishing sex addiction as a diagnosis, said David Ley, a clinical psychologist and the author of “The Myth of Sex Addiction.”

The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders’ 2013 edition said addictions to sex, shopping and exercises were not included because there was insufficient peer-reviewed evidence to identify them as mental disorders.

“While there are people who struggle to control their sexual desires, there is absolutely no scientific evidence that struggle is an addiction,” Ley said.

Ley and Joshua Grubbs, an assistant professor of psychology at Bowling Green State University, both dismissed the idea that sex addiction can make people commit violence.

“We have studies that show millions of Americans are concerned that their sexual behaviors might be excessive or out of control,” Grubbs said. “If that is true, millions of them are not going out and committing mass murder.”

Last year, Grubbs coauthored a study that found there was “almost no empirical basis for the treatment of compulsive sexual behaviors.” But that hasn’t stopped therapists, many connected to religious organizations, from offering treatment, much of which emphasizes abstinence.

“When we are inherently mammals that have a drive that is hardwired into us, it is not realistic for everybody,” Grubbs said. “Total abstinence often ignores that. It sets people up for failure.”

Ley holds similar views.

“Sex addiction treatment is absolutely not supported by science,” he said. “It is frankly unethical and potentially malpractice that people are out there providing these treatments and charging people a lot of money for them when there is no evidence they work. It is essentially experimental treatment.”

Nicole Prause, a neuroscientist who researches human sexual behavior and addiction, worries sex addiction treatment centers could harm patients struggling with other conditions, including depression.

“The major concern is that these sex addiction centers are delaying treatment for something that is appropriate to treat, which is most likely to be depression but it could be something else,” said Prause, who founded Liberos, an independent research institute in Los Angeles.

“There are lots of for-profit and religious organizations that will absolutely cause you to be upset about your sexual behavior because it benefits them. They can make money off of you or they can use this to support their religious goals.”
A legal dead end

Because it’s not accepted as a mental disorder, defenses based on sex addiction are rare. If anything, defense attorneys will trot it out as a mitigating factor aimed at producing a lesser sentence. Adams, the Decatur lawyer, said you’re more likely to see it raised in cases involving child porn possession or distribution.

Long’s attorney, Daran Burns, declined comment.

There have been some cases where the prosecution seized on an alleged perpetrator’s sex life to help explain a motive. That’s how Cobb County prosecutors framed their case against Justin Ross Harris, sentenced in 2016 to life in prison plus 32 years after he was found guilty of intentionally leaving his 22-month-old son inside a hot SUV to die. They argued he killed his son in order to pursue a sex-driven, consequence-free lifestyle.

Harris’ defense team fought unsuccessfully to block testimony about Harris’ extramarital dalliances and sexting. Lead Harris attorney Maddox Kilgore told the AJC that once that evidence was admitted his team never considered using addiction to explain their client’s behavior.

“If you put it into the proper context perhaps it can humanize the defendant,” he said. “But a lot of judges probably wouldn’t allow it.”

Georgia’s mental health statutes are very narrow, Kilgore said. Defendants must prove they were incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong, for instance.

For Long, choosing between what he considered right and wrong was a constant struggle.

“I wonder how this would have gone [if] he had been in an environment where he wasn’t repeatedly told how sinful he was for the things that drove him,” wrote Bayless, Long’s old roommate.

The godfather of the sexual revolution? | The Psychologist (bps.org.uk)

The Sexual Revolution (1945) : Reich Wilhelm. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

BANANA REPUBLIC(ANS) 

Missouri GOP justifies blocking 

voter-approved Medicaid expansion 

because 'rural Missouri said no'
Brad Reed
March 26, 2021

www.rawstory.com

Even though a majority of voters in Missouri last year voted to expand the state's Medicaid program, Republican legislators in the state have continued blocking funds for the expansion.

The Kansas City Star reports that Republicans in the state insist that the Medicaid expansion vote doesn't reflect the true will of the voters, even though 53 percent of voters supported it while 47 percent voted against it.

Republican Missouri State Rep. Sara Walsh even explicitly said that she was opposed to funding the voter-approved expansion because it did not win the support of rural voters, only a third of whom voted in favor of it.

"Rural Missouri said no," she said. "I don't believe it is the will of the people to bankrupt our state."

Additionally, the Kansas City Star writes that Republican State Rep. Ed Lewis argued that "despite that 53% of those who cast ballots in favor of expansion, the number did not amount to a majority of Missouri's eligible voters or population," and should thus be ignored by lawmakers.

QAnon Has Become The Cult That Cries Wolf

By Kaleigh Rogers

FIVETHIRTYEIGHT
Filed under Q Anon

MAR. 26, 2021, AT 6:16 AM




PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY FIVETHIRTYEIGHT / GETTY IMAGES

March 4 was supposed to be a terrible day. Based on reports of a possible attack, linked to the fact the online cult QAnon had identified March 4 as the day their predictions would come true, nearly 5,000 National Guard troops were ordered to remain in Washington, D.C. Capitol police warned internally of a Q-fueled militia plot, and FBI officials noted it was on alert as well. Congress shut down operations for the day.

And then, nothing. No plot, no protests, no Q. March 4 was a limp, dried-out nothingburger.

Confidence Interval: QAnon is not going anywhere | FiveThirtyEight

Dates have always played a crucial role in the cult of Q — the baseless conspiracy theory that there is a global cabal of Satan-worshipping child sex traffickers, and that former President Donald Trump is involved in a righteous plan to bring these evildoers to justice. The group’s predictions are often tied to some date on the horizon, when Trump’s adversaries will start to be arrested and the global sex trafficking ring will be exposed. The latest date was March 4, but before that it was Jan. 20. And before that it was Dec. 5. And before that, some date in “Red October.”


RELATED: Why QAnon Has Attracted So Many White Evangelicals Read more. »

For a long time, we didn’t have to circle these dates on our own calendars. But after the attack of the Capitol building included some QAnon followers, the group’s timeline has caught the attention of law enforcement. Even if the dates aren’t signalling the fall of a global cabal, perhaps they could help us prevent another deadly attack. Just as a doomsday cult continually reworks its calculations to account for failed end of days predictions, QAnon is always moving the goalposts for when its big day will arrive. It’s the cult that cries wolf.

Just take March 4 as an example.

To understand March 4, we have to start with all the other March 4s that came before it. QAnon has long warned a “storm is coming,” and that at some point the shadowy group of Democratic and celebrity elites — said to be pedophiles who eat babies and drink children’s blood — would be brought to justice. When exactly this will take place has been a moving target since Q’s inception.

Some of the earliest messages from “Q,” an anonymous person or group of people claiming insider knowledge on which the QAnon conspiracy theory is based, specified precisely when these arrests would begin. A post in October 2017 claimed that “Hillary Clinton will be arrested between 7:45 AM – 8:30 AM EST on Monday – the morning on Oct 30, 2017.” When this didn’t happen, new dates were disseminated. Gradually, Q’s posts became more vague, allowing the followers to project meaning onto cryptic messages to decipher what would happen when. That way, if nothing happened, it was simply because Q followers had misinterpreted the scripture-like missives, not because Q was bogus. The result has been a constantly evolving ephemeris of dates, culminating in a fever pitch of anticipation for Jan. 20, 2021. Most QAnon followers believed that on Inauguration Day, Trump would reveal he had actually won the election, introduce martial law and begin public trials and executions of those in the cabal.

When this prophecy failed, just as all the previous ones had, many QAnon followers were inconsolable. Some even decided to abandon the movement altogether, saying they felt duped. But others simply went back to the drawing board, hoping to find another date on which to hang their hopes. That’s when March 4 started to pick up steam.

RELATED: What Comes Next For QAnon Followers Read more. »

Despite the often illogical nature of QAnon predictions, the March 4 date wasn’t plucked out of thin air. As a date of significance, it predates QAnon entirely. For much of U.S. history, Inauguration Day was indeed on March 4, until the ratification of the 20th Amendment in 1933 changed it to Jan. 20. A decades-old conspiracy theory held by a group known as the sovereign citizen movement claims that at some point in the 1870s,1 the United States government was converted to a corporation owned by the city of London, and every president since Ulysses S. Grant has been illegitimate. According to this far-out thinking, U.S. birth certificates and Social Security cards are actually contracts of ownership, with U.S. citizens as property of this vast, foreign-owner corporation. Though the sovereign citizens’ conspiracy is even more elaborate, the QAnon followers only lifted the bits that served them, and decided that on March 4, the “corporation” of the United States would be dissolved, and Trump would take office as the 19th legitimate president.

This theory was floated in QAnon circles in early 2021. On Jan. 11, a user in a Q Telegram chat room wrote out the basics of the theory. “Trump will NOT be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States on January 20 Trump WILL take office as the 19th president of the United States on March 4,” the post reads. “I really don’t know all the details involved in this. Just know the end goal has always been the destruction of that 1871 corporation and the return of America to the people like the democratic republic it always intended to be.” On Jan. 15, Canadian Q vlogger Michelle Anne Tittler posted a video in which she reads out the same text, which became popular once Jan. 20 failed to deliver, as Recode reporter Rebecca Heilweil noted. The video had been cross-posted to alt-video sites, and the March 4 idea continued to spread on mainstream platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok, as well as on Telegram and QAnon message boards. By January 22, the theory had spread far enough that Reuters ran a fact check debunking the rumour. Tittler’s YouTube profile was eventually removed for violating the site’s policies, but not before the video promoting March 4 had racked up nearly 1 million views. The cross posts of her video on BitChute and Rumble have currently been viewed 124,000 and 66,000 times, respectively.

As the idea of March 4 was picking up steam in the QAnon community, it also caught on in the news media. Dozens of stories identified March 4 as the group’s latest goalpost, citing it as a potential sequel to the insurrection on Jan. 6.

But Jan. 6 and March 4 differed in a number of important ways. Jan. 6 attracted many more than just QAnon supporters. It was a rally promoted by Trump, who invited the thousands of his supporters that came to D.C. that day. Along with QAnon believers, there were also far-right militia groups with backgrounds of instigating violence who were known to be planning to come to the Capitol that day. It was also an undeniably significant date, not significant in the QAnon, cryptic puzzle sense, but in a practical sense: Jan. 6 was the day Congress was certifying the results of an election that millions of Americans wrongly believed was fraudulent, thanks to Trump’s lies. Jan. 6 had all of the ingredients necessary for a dark outcome, yet law enforcement was not prepared.

In contrast, March 4 was almost strictly QAnon-focused, and even among that group, there was little consensus. That’s the norm for dates in the QAnon almanac. When someone identifies a date of interest, it snowballs into dozens more followers promoting the idea, which then sparks debate and deliberation among the community. Followers share evidence for and against a particular date, noting that Q — who hasn’t posted since December, the longest period of silence since the entity began posting in 2017 — rarely specifies exact dates anymore.

But even when there is widespread consensus among Q followers on a given date, such as Jan. 20, QAnon rarely makes a call to action more extreme than “pop some popcorn.” Much of the Q philosophy is that the work is done through research on your computer, and when big events take place, all Q followers have to do is sit back and enjoy the show. The message is “on this date, turn your TV on,” not “on this date, we take to the streets.” This is such a well-hewn tenet of the QAnon cult that other alt-right groups often criticize QAnon for promoting complacency rather than the kind of violent uprising those groups prefer.

“QAnon is built in part on this fantasy that you can change the world in a really grand, revolutionary way just by sitting at your computer and sharing memes,” said Travis View, co-host of the podcast QAnon Anonymous, which has been tracking the movement for years. “Jan. 6 was unique because it was an event specifically promoted by Trump. You really need those big advertising powers from those influencers in order to motivate QAnon followers to do something in the physical world.”


RELATED: How Marjorie Taylor Greene Won, And Why Someone Like Her Can Win Again Read more. »

Either way, as soon as the media began publicizing the March 4 date, that coverage threw a lot of cold water on the notion. Just as quickly as the idea emerged, it was being backpedaled. As early as Feb. 9, Jordan Sather, a QAnon influencer, posted on Telegram that he had the feeling the March 4 date was “planned disinformation” designed “to dupe people into spreading probably nonsense theories that make the whole movement look dumb.” Very quickly, the prevailing theory among QAnon was that March 4 was either a psychological operation or a false flag. Q supporters began rejecting the idea and mocking media coverage of the date.

“March 4 is the media’s baby,” MelQ, a QAnon influencer on Telegram with over 80,000 subscribers, wrote on March 2. “Nothing will happen.”

Law enforcement in and around D.C. could very well have had reliable intelligence suggesting a more organized event on March 4, which may have been squelched by the increased security. We can’t know for sure. I reached out to U.S. Capitol Police officials for comment, but they only directed me to their previous statement, which does not cite QAnon or any other group by name.

QAnon, by and large, is not a violent movement, and popular “holidays” among Anons are not going to be the best place to look for predicting violent events, according to security experts I spoke to.

“There are organized, white supremacist and far-right militant groups that commit violence on a recurring basis, and that’s the biggest element that’s lost in the way law enforcement looks at these issues. They tend to look at them as standalone events,” said former FBI agent Michael German, a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice. “They’re not looking for violence these same individuals committed in the weeks, months and years previous to the attack on the Capitol that would be significant evidence demonstrating their intent.”

Instead, German said law enforcement should focus on individuals and groups with a known track record of violence, and rely on intelligence — rather than random dates tossed around on Q forums — for predicting and preventing violence. That’s not to say we should brush QAnon off as harmless: after all, there are QAnon supporters who have been involved in violent plots, including a man arrested in Wisconsin last week for threatening to commit a “mass casualty” event. And even beyond these outlier offenders, the QAnon movement, including its ever-evolving calendar of predicted catastrophes, comes with its own very real risks in undermining trust in our democratic institutions in a very real, insidious and growing way.

“We need to worry about Q not because it’s about to overthrow the government,” said Mia Bloom, a professor of communication at Georgia State University and an expert on QAnon and extremism. “We need to worry about Q because the long-term effect is corrosive to democratic values.”

The cult who cried wolf is not one whose cries should be written off for good.

Bill Maher ridicules QAnon: 'You guys think about sex with children a lot' - Raw Story - Celebrating 16 Years of Independent Journalism

Covid-19 vaccine wars: developing the AstraZeneca vaccine was a triumph, but then things went wrong

Featured, Martin McKee
Comment and opinion from The BMJ's international community 

of readers, authors, and editors  

Access bmj.com

March 26, 2021

The UK’s tabloid press was having a field day. “NO, EU CAN’T HAVE OUR JABS” said the Daily Mail, a message echoed by the Daily Express with “WAIT YOUR TURN! SELFISH EU WANTS OUR VACCINES”. These headlines reflected a combination of triumphalism about the UK’s success in what, by common agreement, has been a remarkably successful vaccine rollout—especially when compared to the slower progress in the EU—anger that the decisions by certain national regulators a few days previously to suspend use of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine were somehow a punishment for Brexit, and indignation that these foreigners were trying to steal “our” vaccines. Inevitably, the reality is a little more complex.

To understand what has happened we need to go back to early 2020 when some of the key decisions were taken. The team at Oxford had produced a candidate vaccine in record time, but needed an industrial partner to bring it to market. Their initial choice was the US company Merck, which had extensive experience in manufacturing vaccines. However, this was greeted with alarm in Whitehall, as there was no guarantee that any vaccines produced by an American company would be available to the UK. Instead, the UK government insisted that Oxford reach an agreement with the Anglo-Swedish company AstraZeneca.

There was one important issue. AstraZeneca had no experience producing vaccines. The trials to assess safety and efficacy of the vaccine suffered from a series of problems. One subject developed unexplained neurological symptoms and the trials were paused. Clearly, there is always a risk when large numbers of healthy individuals are given a new product that some will experience unconnected events. The trials were soon restarted, although with some delay in the US arm. Then, 2741 subjects received half the intended dosage. This was less easily explained. However, the real problem was how both were communicated. There were clear contradictions in how the neurological problem was described in the company’s press statements, comments to investors, and internal documents. When the initial results from the trials were reported, the company focused on the figure of 90% efficacy in the group that inadvertently received the lower dose. Inevitably, this apparent success was welcomed, but soon questions were raised. Many details were missing and, contrary to best practice, the results of different trials had been combined. It was not immediately clear that the dosing difference was unplanned. Meanwhile, commentators struggled to ascertain whether the 90% figure was due to the longer delay in getting a second dose that was experienced by those getting the lower dose, or because they included few older people. Indeed, as it became clear that older people were under-represented in all the trial data, concerns grew about how effective the vaccine would be in these individuals.

These communication problems were only the start. Once production got underway it became clear that AstraZeneca was unable to deliver what it had promised. Again, this was understandable. Vaccine manufacture is extremely complex and the manufacturers of the other vaccines also faced problems. However, what was different was how each company responded. AstraZeneca had signed contracts with both the UK and EU authorities. It had agreed to deliver up to 120 million doses to the EU by the end of March 2021. Yet as the scale of the manufacturing problems emerged, it advised the EU that it could only promise 30 million doses, subsequently increased to 40 million. Understandably, the EU was unhappy, a situation not helped when it became clear that the EU was exporting millions of doses of vaccines, including to countries such as the UK that were also manufacturing vaccines, while receiving none in return. The resulting shortage had become the limiting factor holding up the vaccine rollout in several EU member states. Meanwhile, the UK was receiving vaccines from both its own factories and those in Belgium and India.

The reasons for this situation remain heavily contested, but the problem seems to lie with how AstraZeneca signed two contracts that were incompatible, given its manufacturing problems. Beyond that, however, the precise issues are far from clear. Gareth Davies, a law professor in Amsterdam, has written a helpful analysis of what we know and, crucially, what we do not know.

Seen in these ways, it is clear that the dispute is between the EU and AstraZeneca. However, a resolution is complicated by a severe breakdown in trust. In the midst of this dispute the company gave the impression that it had learned nothing from the issues with releasing the initial trial data. In an unprecedented development, the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases reported being notified by the Data and Safety Monitoring Board for the US trial that “it was concerned by information released by AstraZeneca on initial data from its Covid-19 vaccine clinical trial.” Philippe Lamberts, co-leader of the Green group in the European Parliament, spoke for many when he said “It would seem AstraZeneca has a major problem of organisational culture. It’s a culture of unreliability.” Thierry Breton, the EU internal market commissioner, reported that while he was in “constant contact” with AstraZeneca, he had “not always received consistent explanations” about supply problems.

As if this was not enough, as noted at the beginning of this piece, this dispute is being reframed by some as a UK-EU dispute and indeed there was a danger that it could become one when the European Commission proposed making provisions for a possible ban on exports, something that was not supported by the European Council. However, perhaps inevitably, this was encouraged by the well-founded distrust in Brussels of the UK, which has breached its obligations under the Northern Ireland Protocol, so that the EU has had to take enforcement action. Fortunately, calmer voices have prevailed, perhaps by ensuring that the UK officials involved in negotiating the post-Brexit agreements, whose confrontational stance has been all too obvious, have been kept away from the discussions.

It has long been known that trust is a fundamental pre-requisite for a successful vaccination campaign. Normally, this is viewed as trust between those being invited to be vaccinated and those inviting them. This case is different, but the principles are the same. Regrettably this seems to be spilling over into public concern about this vaccine in some countries and there is a danger that it may do wider damage, given the existence of many groups and individuals that seek to exploit any concerns about vaccines. AstraZeneca certainly needs to take a long hard look at how it has handled this process and learn from it. The Oxford AstraZeneca team have developed a vaccine that is safe and effective. It would be a tragedy if their efforts were squandered by self inflicted actions that lead to a loss of trust.

Martin McKee, professor of European public health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Competing interests: MMK is a member of Independent SAGE in the UK and the European Commission’s Expert Panel on Investing in Health.

HEY KENNEY & MOE YOU LISTENING

USA
In shift, oil industry group backs federal price on carbon

By MATTHEW DALY and MATTHEW BROWN

AP March 25, 2021

1 of 5
FILE - This Sunday, April 10, 2011 picture shows a rig and supply vessel in the Gulf of Mexico, off the cost of Louisiana. Thirteen states sued the Biden administration Wednesday, March 24, 2021 to end a suspension of new oil and gas leases on federal land and water and to reschedule canceled sales of offshore leases in the Gulf of Mexico, Alaska waters and western states. The Republican-leaning states, led by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, seek a court order ending the moratorium imposed after Democratic President Joe Biden signed executive orders on climate change on Jan. 27. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The oil and gas industry’s top lobbying group on Thursday endorsed a federal price on carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming, a reversal of longstanding policy that comes as the Biden administration has pledged dramatic steps to address climate change.

The American Petroleum Institute, whose members include ExxonMobil, Chevron and other oil giants, announced the shift ahead of a virtual forum Thursday by the Interior Department as it launches a months-long review of the government’s oil and gas sales.

API also called for fast-tracking commercial deployment of long-sought technology to capture and store carbon emissions, as well as federal regulation of methane emissions from new and existing oil and gas wells, after strongly resisting such regulations proposed by the Obama administration.

“Confronting the challenge of climate change and building a lower-carbon future will require a combination of government policies, industry initiatives and continuous innovation,” API President and CEO Mike Sommers said in a statement.

The reversal comes as President Joe Biden has made tackling climate change a top priority, moving in his first days in office to suspend oil and gas lease sales from federal lands and waters and cancelling the contentious Keystone XL oil sands pipeline from Canada.

Biden said during the campaign he supports “an enforcement mechanism” that targets carbon pollution, and the White House has left open use of a carbon tax to help lower U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has spoken in favor of the idea, telling the Senate Finance Committee, “We cannot solve the climate crisis without effective carbon pricing.”

While industry critics expressed suspicions over the sincerity of the move, Sommers emphasized that oil companies want “market-based solutions” such as a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade policy, rather than “heavy-handed government regulation.″ The oil industry played a key role in the defeat of proposed cap-and-trade legislation in the Senate a decade ago, and its endorsement of a carbon price and other federal action marks a turnaround after years of opposition to federal legislation to address climate change.

MORE STORIES:
– Science panel: Consider air cooling tech as climate back-up

– Massachusetts governor to sign sweeping climate change bill

– EU official: Leaders owe it to youth to act on climate

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on Thursday kicked off a broad review of the government’s oil and gas program that could lead to a long-term ban on leases or other steps to discourage drilling and reduce emissions.

Industry representatives and Republican lawmakers have sharply criticized the leasing suspension and warn that widespread job losses are likely in energy-producing states should it become permanent.

2012

BIDEN'S $US3Tr INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN

In a leaky underwater rail tunnel, workers race against time
By DAVID PORTER'

AP

3/26/2021

PHOTOS 1 of 16
Amtrak workers perform tunnel repairs to a partially flooded train track bed, Saturday, March 20, 2021, in Weehawken, N.J. With a new rail tunnel into New York years away at best, Amtrak is embarking on an aggressive and expensive program to fix a 110-year-old tunnel in the interim. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

WEEHAWKEN, N.J. (AP) — Seven stories below street level on the edge of the Hudson River, a race against time is being waged, foot by painstaking foot.

At stake is the health of a crucial component of the New York region’s aging and overburdened mass transit ecosystem: the North River rail tunnel, a 110-year-old tube that carries multitudes of commuters to and from Manhattan, including Amtrak trains on the busy corridor between Boston and Washington.

With a new tunnel potentially a decade away due to funding questions, Amtrak has embarked on an aggressive and expensive program to fix the most pressing problems in the leaking, crumbing tunnel before they become intractable and force an extended shutdown.

On a recent Saturday morning, workers used heavy machinery to clear away chunks of the tunnel floor after rails and wooden ties had been removed.

The goal was to get at a small pond’s worth of standing water that can degrade the tracks and wreak havoc on the tunnel’s electrical systems, sapping power or sending a false signal that a train is on the tracks.

Over a weekend, about 400 feet of track and 360 tons of ballast — the bed of rocks on which the track rests on — would be removed and replaced, and millions of gallons of water pumped out. Crews are also injecting a sealant into the walls and ceiling.




“You never stop all the leaks; it’s just a matter of keeping the water moving,” said David Pittman, Amtrak’s director of facilities and tunnels. “It’s like playing whack-a-mole. It’s never going to stop.”

Officials have estimated the rehabilitation work in the roughly three-mile span could cost as much as $150 million or more.

“If we had a new tunnel we wouldn’t be spending anything on it,” Amtrak Chairman Anthony Coscia said. “The real cost is, what is it going to take to take a 110-year-old piece of infrastructure and make it last for another seven years and not just make it hobble by, but make it highly reliable? The price tag for that is, in some sense, whatever it takes.”

For Amtrak, which already has to rely on a Civil War-era rail tunnel in Baltimore and other infrastructure built in the early 20th century, building a second tunnel into New York, at a cost now estimated at $10 billion, is considered a top priority.

“We’re at the point where we know, as a nation, that our assets were formed at a certain point to where they’re all kind of reaching end-of-life at the same time,” Pittman said.

 “So it’s all coming due.”

The challenge is multi-layered. The work, mostly protecting the tunnel from the destructive effects of water leaking in, requires the shutdown of one tube on weekends and must be finished before the Monday morning commute. On a broader scale, it must keep the tunnel operating reliably for years until a new tunnel is built and the old one can be closed for a complete overhaul.

The signs of age are everywhere.

Three-foot-wide bench walls that jut out from the tunnel’s pockmarked walls are the original 1910 concrete and are chipped and crumbling, with metal plates covering some of the worst spots. These are the only ways for workers to get down onto the tracks. Some of the wiring and other fixtures date back 80 years.

Inside the bench walls is a network of cables that includes the 12,000-volt lines that power the entire tunnel — and that can bring trains to a standstill if they malfunction.

That has happened more frequently since Superstorm Sandy inundated the tunnel in 2012, as the normal incursion of groundwater into the tunnel now activates saltwater deposits that can eat away at the concrete.

A 2019 study found that on average, rail travelers between New Jersey and New York experienced delays of at least five hours more than once per month in the previous five years, and that about three-quarters of the delays were caused by problems in the tunnel.

Against that backdrop, a funding dispute between local lawmakers and the administration for former President Donald Trump stalled the new tunnel project for four years.

Supporters received good news Thursday, however, when Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg indicated he would advance final environmental approval by June, a key landmark that will enable engineering, design work and land acquisition to proceed while funding is secured.

“The Biden administration recognizes how critical this project is to our regional and national economy, and that is a change as welcome as flowers in spring,” said New York Sen. Charles Schumer, who met with fellow Democrat Buttigieg in December to urge him to support the project.

In the meantime, it will be up to the repair crews to keep the trains running.

APOPHIS
NASA gives all clear: Earth safe from asteroid for 100 years
By MARCIA DUNN
3/26/2021

THIS IS THE PHOTO THAT STARTED IT ALL...

WE SAW IT COMMUNALLY

 LIKE WE DID GEORGE FLOYD'S DEATH....

AND EARTH DAY WAS BORN 2 YEARS LATER

This May 18, 1969 photo made available by NASA shows Earth from 36,000 nautical miles away as photographed from the Apollo 10 spacecraft during its trans-lunar journey toward the moon. In March 2021, the U.S. space agency announced that new telescope observations have ruled out any chance of the asteroid Apophis colliding with Earth in 2068. (NASA via AP)


CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Whew, now here’s some good cosmic news: NASA has given Earth the all clear for the next century from a particularly menacing asteroid.

The space agency announced this week that new telescope observations have ruled out any chance of Apophis smacking Earth in 2068.

That’s the same 1,100-foot (340-meter) space rock that was supposed to come frighteningly close in 2029 and again in 2036. NASA ruled out any chance of a strike during those two close approaches a while ago. But a potential 2068 collision still loomed.

First detected in 2004, Apophis is now officially off NASA’s asteroid “risk list.”

“A 2068 impact is not in the realm of possibility anymore, and our calculations don’t show any impact risk for at least the next 100 years,” Davide Farnocchia of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, said in a statement Friday.

Scientists were able to refine Apophis’ orbit around the sun thanks to radar observations earlier this month, when the asteroid passed within 10.6 million miles (17 million kilometers).

Apophis will come within 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometers) on April 13, 2029, enabling astronomers to get a good look.

“When I started working with asteroids after college, Apophis was the poster child for hazardous asteroids,” Farnocchia said. “There’s a certain sense of satisfaction to see it removed from the risk list.”

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Oregon State sues AP to stifle request in volleyball case

By EDDIE PELLS

AP

3/26/2021

Oregon State University leaders are suing to block disclosure of details about an investigation of abuse allegations in their volleyball program, even as they tout a refreshed mission for transparency following their president’s resignation over the handling of sexual-misconduct cases at another school.

The school’s trustees accepted F. King Alexander’s resignation this week after details came to light about the way his former school, LSU, mishandled sexual-misconduct cases during his tenure.

The Associated Press sought records after its own reporting uncovered complaints from more than a dozen people close to or formerly part of current Oregon State volleyball coach Mark Barnard’s program. Three players have considered suicide during his time there.

During open meetings to discuss Alexander’s future, Oregon State’s trustees apologized to their community and promised a new push for transparency and accountability when it came to protecting students on campus.

Meanwhile, in the volleyball case, the school is pressing forward with a lawsuit against The AP to prevent disclosing details about an internal investigation of the team and Barnard, who critics say has been running an emotionally exploitative program. At least a dozen players have quit or transferred over the span of the last five years.

The coach was accused of threatening not to renew scholarships as a way of motivating players to perform better. He pitted them against each other, including asking team leaders to identify weak links on the roster in efforts to ostracize them from the team, accusers say.

The university, through spokesman Steve Clark, has disputed that a harsh environment led team members to contemplate suicide. He said Oregon State clearly communicates its scholarship offers and honors its commitments to athletes.

Clark, who did not respond to an email seeking answers for this story, said “appropriate action was taken” by athletic director Scott Barnes after an investigation conducted by the school’s Equal Opportunity and Access office, but did not elaborate.

Shortly after publishing the second part of its series last November, the AP sought information and documentation about that investigation through open-records requests. Oregon State issued a blanket denial of the initial request, and after AP won an appeal to the local district attorney’s office, the university sued the news-gathering agency in state court to prevent from having to disclose anything. A hearing in that case is set for June 25.

“This denial is just a continuation of them trying to manipulate the process from the very beginning,” said Rick Lee, a former OSU basketball player who has been critical of the administration’s handling of the volleyball case. “It warrants punitive punishment, and not just for the coach. It makes no sense that they’ll open their mouth for one individual (Alexander) but stay absolutely silent in this situation.”

Among the documents AP seeks are those related to a complaint by one player that triggered the investigation into possible violations of OSU policy with regard to bullying and retaliation against members of the volleyball team. It was completed last May and no conclusions were made public, or offered to the family of the player who made the complaint.

Across the country, LSU was facing its own reckoning over its handling of sexual-misconduct cases, most of which occurred years before trouble in Oregon State’s volleyball program erupted. The key connection between the issues was the man in charge at each campus when the problems were made public: Alexander.

He was president of LSU from 2013-19, then came to Oregon State in 2020. When Oregon State’s board of trustees was confronted with the full picture of Alexander’s responses to the crises at LSU, it opted for a soul cleansing that ended with the president’s resignation and multiple statements from the trustees vowing to do a better job.

“A lot of times thing are swept under the rug,” said Lamar Hurd, a former OSU basketball player who is now on the school’s board, as he choked back tears while speaking in an open meeting Tuesday. “I want you to know that we don’t do that here. That won’t be done.”

Hurd, who vowed Oregon State would “get it right” as it moves forward, did not respond to a message left on his cell phone by AP.

At least two parents of former Oregon State volleyball players used the public hearings about Alexander’s future to ask questions about whether the volleyball issues were being considered. One said she had asked for a meeting with Alexander to discuss the volleyball program but was turned down, told the investigation into the program was closed. The trustees did not address those issues.

Nor have they responded to two emails from the AP seeking comment for this story, the second of which was also sent to the spokesman, Clark. One of the questions was about whether the board or Alexander had approved the lawsuit against AP.

“I’m guessing there’s something in those records that they don’t want out,” said Dorina Waiters, whose daughter, Kyla, left Oregon State after a year on the volleyball team triggered depression that led to suicidal thoughts.