It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, April 12, 2021
Tishaura Jones elected first Black woman mayor of St. Louis
Tishaura Jones cries while speaking to supporters after clinching the win as St. Louis Mayor, in St. Louis on Tuesday. Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo
April 7 (UPI) -- St. Louis voters have elected Tishaura Jones as mayor, making her the first Black woman to lead the city.
Jones, the city's treasurer, secured 52% of the vote to Alderwoman Cara Spencer's 48%, according to the unofficial tally from the St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners, St.Louis Public Radio reported
Only some 3,000 votes separated the two candidates in an election that saw a 29% turnout, the commissioners said.
Before her supporters Tuesday night, Jones said this election was an opportunity for the city "to rise" and that her administration will neither shrink from tough conversations nor from confronting racism.
"It's time for St. Louis to thrive. It's time to bring a breath of fresh air to our neighborhoods," she said. "I will lead with compassion, intention, a bit of humor, and yes, I hope you get to see a bit of my style."
It was her second time running for mayor, having lost in the 2017 Democratic primary to Lynda Krewson by fewer than 900 ballots.
Krewson, who would go on to win the mayoral election, had announced in November that she would not seek a second term.
"Congratulations to Mayor-elect Tishaura Jones!" Krewson tweeted Tuesday night. "I am rooting for your success. My administration and I are prepared to make this as smooth a transition as possible."
Spencer also sent her congratulations on Jones' victory, stating "you have my support in making St. Louis the great city we know it can be."
St. Louis Comptroller Darlene Green described Jones in her congratulatory message as a strong leader "with a deep personal commitment to the people of St. Louis."
"We have many challenges and I look forward to working with Tishaura on tackling them so that St. Louis can become the thriving, equitable city we all deserve," Green said in a statement.
Jones will be sworn in April 20
Tishaura Jones is serenaded by sorority sisters at a watch party, after clinching the win as St. Louis mayor, in St. Louis on Tuesday. Jones, the current City Treasurer, made history by becoming the first black woman to become St. Louis Mayor. Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo
Exercise can help kids with autism manage behavioral issues, study says
By
HealthDay News
Being active is good for most everyone, and new studies now show it can help kids with autism manage common behavioral issues.
"Exercise goes beyond health-related benefits and increased levels of fitness for those with autism," said David Geslak, a pioneer in using exercise to help kids with autism.
"Research shows that exercise can increase focus, improve academic performance, reduce stereotypical behaviors and build confidence," Geslak said.
A study in the April issue of the Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise journal reported that 10 minutes of low-intensity exercise reduced verbal repetition of phases or words and hand-flapping, two common behaviors associated with autism.
Another recent study from Oregon State University found that targeted exercise programs should take place between ages 9 and 13, to help kids maintain physical activity.
That's when kids show the biggest decline in active time, according to the American College of Sports Medicine.
In a national survey that rated the effectiveness of more than 300 medications, nutritional supplements, diets and therapies to treat autism, more than 700 families rated exercise No. 1, according to ACSM.
Geslak's experience teaching exercise at a school for kids with autism led to development of a custom fitness program that has been included in the curriculum at 12 universities.
His passion was also key to launching the Autism Exercise Specialist Certificate program in 2018. More than 500 professionals have participated in it, according to ACSM.
"Analysis of participants' engagement in the online portion of the Autism Exercise Specialist Certificate program indicates increased confidence in using evidence-based practices," said Scott McNamara, an assistant professor of physical education pedagogy at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls.
"This shows the program is filling a knowledge gap for practitioners, which ultimately translates to increased access to quality physical activity programming for those living with autism," said McNamara.
Geslak suggested three evidence-based strategies to help kids with autism get more active.
Use visuals: Pictures and other visual aids can help those with autism make the exercise connection and establish structure and routine.
Establish routines: An exercise program should be integrated into a child's daily or weekly routine. Even one exercise session per week can be beneficial.
Choose persistence over perfection: Just get your kids moving, Geslak suggested, even if the exercise isn't what you see on TV.
"Teaching exercise to those with autism has a profound impact on the individual, their parents and the therapists or educators working with them," he said.
About 1 in 54 kids in the U.S. has autism spectrum disorder, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. April is Autism Acceptance Month.
ACA slowed healthcare out-of-pocket spending growth, study says
The Affordable Care Act has slowed increases in out-of-pocket costs for health services, a new analysis reveals. Screenshot courtesy Healthcare.gov
April 9 (UPI) -- The Affordable Care Act has slowed increases in out-of-pocket costs for those with health insurance coverage under the law by about 80%, an analysis published Friday by JAMA Network Open found.
Since the ACA, also known as Obamacare, was enacted in 2010, average out-of-pocket expenses for doctor visits, prescription drugs and other services have risen by an average of 0.2% per year, the data showed.
However, during the nine years before the law's passage, from 2000 to 2009, these fees, which are charges over and above what insurance pays, increased by an average of 1% per year.
Much of this slowed growth in cash outlays for health services has been fueled by a 24% drop in out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs under the health insurance law, according to the researchers.
"The rate of increase in out-of-pocket costs to consumers slowed as a result of the ACA," study co-author Dr. Amit Jain told UPI in an email.
Still, on average, people insured with ACA plans paid $1,148 in out-of-pocket costs in 2018, a 12% increase over the $1,028 spent in 2000, according to Jain and his colleagues.
"Unfortunately, not all states chose to [participate in the ACA], resulting in persistent inequities in access, which contribute to increasing out-of-pocket costs," said Jain, an orthopedic surgeon at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore.
Among other provisions, the ACA was designed to grow the number of people covered by either private health insurance plans or Medicaid by lowering costs for the former and expanding eligibility for the latter.
The Medicaid provision remains controversial over fears of rising costs for states as more beneficiaries access services under the government-funded program.
However, research has shown that Medicaid expansion under the ACA actually lowered healthcare expenditures for those covered.
For this study, Jain and his colleagues analyzed healthcare expenses on a per capita basis between 2000 and 2018 -- the nine years before and the nine years after the ACA's passage.
Out-of-pocket costs above what is covered by insurance or Medicaid -- for physician care increased by 0.5% per year between 2000 and 2009 and by 0.8% annually between 2009 and 2018, the data showed.
Conversely, for dental services, out-of-pocket expenses increased by 0.3% annually between 2009 and 2018, versus 1.7% per year between 2000 and 2009, the researchers said.
Out-of-pocket fees for prescription drugs declined by about 3% per year after passage of the ACA, after they had increased by more than 1% annually in the nine years before the law was enacted, according to the researchers.
"A mandate to expand insurance access to previously uninsured patients across all states would help improve care access and ultimately reduce net out-of-pocket expenditures," Jain said.
"Further, new laws that aim to limit out-of-network billing and surprise billing will further reduce out-of-pocket cost burden," he said. upi.com/7088696
Scientists find clues to why AstraZeneca's vaccine may cause clots
By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter 4/10/2021
LONG READ The AstraZeneca vaccine appears to cause certain people to develop antibodies that target a protein in the human body called platelet factor 4 (PF4), which spurs platelets into action and activates a clotting cascade, File Photo by Luong Thai Linh/EPA-EF
Doctors might have figured out why AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine may cause life-threatening blood clots in very rare cases.
The discovery, made in a pair of reports published online Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine, could be key to the global rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine, helping develop effective treatments for the side effect and providing clues on how to refine the vaccine and fix the problem, experts say.
But it also might hinder efforts to have the vaccine approved in the United States, where there are three other vaccines available.
The AstraZeneca vaccine appears to cause certain people to develop antibodies that target a protein in the human body called platelet factor 4 (PF4), which spurs platelets into action and activates a clotting cascade, explained report co-author Dr. Theodore Warkentin, a professor of pathology and molecular medicine at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada.
"It's an antibody that's somehow triggered by the vaccine, and in some circumstances this results in unusual blood clotting," Warkentin said.
The phenomenon is similar to a rare drug side effect caused by the blood thinner heparin, called heparin-induced thrombocytopenia, Warkentin said.
The vaccine's clotting side effects are so rare that the European Medicines Agency and the UK's Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency have decided to keep it on the market, concluding that its benefits outweigh the risks, AstraZeneca noted in a statement.
However, the vaccine's label will be updated to list blood clotting as an extremely rare potential side effect.
"AstraZeneca has been actively collaborating with the regulators to implement these changes to the product information and is already working to understand the individual cases, epidemiology and possible mechanisms that could explain these extremely rare events," the company statement said.
As of Sunday4, the EMA had received reports of 169 cases of cerebral clotting and 53 cases of abdominal clotting out of about 34 million AstraZeneca doses administered throughout Europe, according to Reuters.
In the United Kingdom, 19 people have died from serious blood clots related to the vaccine, CNN reported.Blood thinner heparin
Two of the three COVID-19 vaccines being distributed in the United States -- Pfizer and Moderna -- have not shown any such side effect. But on Friday, European drug regulators said they are reviewing reports of rare blood clots in four people who received Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine. Of the four cases, three occurred in the United States during the rollout of the vaccine and one person had died, and the fourth case was reported in a clinical trial, CNBC reported.
One of the new AstraZeneca vaccine reports focuses on 11 patients in Germany and Austria who developed serious clotting problems after getting the vaccine, while the other reviewed the cases of five healthcare workers between the ages of 32 and 54 who developed the side effect.
Tests revealed that all patients had developed PF4 blood-clotting complexes similar to that caused by heparin, even though none had received the blood thinner.
These new findings still don't give doctors any clue who might fall ill with excess clotting after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine, noted Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.
"It's focused in younger age groups so far, but we can't pick out in advance who these people are. So, the question will be as we go forward in public policy around the world, how you will manage this vaccine?" Schaffner said.
But the findings could help guide treatment of people who develop symptoms similar to heparin-induced thrombocytopenia, Warkentin said.
"If someone develops symptoms five or more days after the vaccine, either headache or neurological symptoms, or abnormal pain or shortness of breath, then the vaccine recipient would know they ought to seek medical attention," Warkentin said. "Just as important, the clinicians who evaluate the patient would know how to look for it."
There might already be a treatment available, based on how doctors treat an even rarer type of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia, Warkentin said.
Heparin usually directly affects PF4 to cause clotting, but in some cases the drug promotes an autoimmune response that affects the important protein, Warkentin said.
Doctors treat autoimmune heparin-induced thrombocytopenia by administering high doses of IV immunoglobulin, essentially flooding the body with healthy antibodies to drown out the signal produced by the drug, Warkentin said.Future uncertain
"We're recommending that when a doctor recognizes such a patient with this new condition, called vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia, they be treated not only with anticoagulation but with this high-dose intravenous immunoglobulin," Warkentin said.
Now that AstraZeneca knows what's happening to cause the clotting side effect, they also have the opportunity to review the makeup of the vaccine and the way it's manufactured to figure out what's happening, Warkentin said.
"There may be a way to figure out what that might be and perhaps a way to tweak the vaccine to make it safer," Warkentin noted.
These reports, Schaffner said, "implicate the vaccine as an immune initiator of a very rare event that creates antibodies which involve platelets, those tiny elements in the bloodstream that cause clotting."
Health ministries around the world now will have to weigh this information against the risks posed by COVID-19, Schaffner explained.
"This is particularly poignant because this vaccine is very inexpensive, and it can be made in large amounts and it can be handled in a normal cold chain. It was actually touted initially and anticipated this would perhaps be the major vaccine used in many developing countries," Schaffner said. "I think lots of ministers of health now have a cost/benefit analysis that is going to be undertaken."
AstraZeneca had been preparing to seek an emergency use authorization in the United States for its vaccine, but this news casts a shadow over those efforts, Schaffner added.
"I've heard nothing to the contrary, but you have to wonder whether the company wishes to go through that process," he said. "Here in the United States we appear to have, with our three vaccines under an emergency use authorization, an ample amount of vaccine at the moment. In some parts of the country, we have a vaccine supply that's exceeding demand for the vaccine. The need for a fourth vaccine has diminished enormously."
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has also cast doubt on the AstraZeneca vaccine's prospects here in the United States.
"We already have contracted for enough vaccines, from Moderna and from Pfizer and from" Johnson &Johnson," Fauci told CNN. "There is no plan to immediately start utilizing the AstraZeneca [vaccine] even if it gets approved through the EUA [emergency use authorization], which it very well might."More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about COVID-19 vaccines. SOURCES: Theodore Warkentin, MD, professor, pathology and molecular medicine, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada; William Schaffner, MD, professor, infectious diseases, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn.; AstraZeneca, statement, April 7, 2021; New England Journal of Medicine, April 9, 2021, online
Copyright 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
NIH to study allergic reactions to Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines
A health worker displays an ampule of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine at an Israeli vaccination center on March 8. Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI | License Photo
April 7 (UPI) -- The National Institutes of Health said Wednesday that it has begun a study to explore why some recipients of the COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna have seen severe allergic reactions to the shots.
Most of the reactions have been seen in people with a history of allergies, the federal research agency said.
"A clinical trial is underway to determine whether people who are highly allergic or have a mast cell disorder are at increased risk for an immediate, systemic allergic reaction," the NIH said in a statement.
"In addition, investigators will examine the biological mechanism behind the reactions and whether a genetic pattern or other factors can predict who is at most risk."
A mast cell disorder is caused by a type of white blood cell that's abnormal, overly active, or both. The disorder predisposes a person to life-threatening reactions that look like allergic reactions.
The NIH trial will enroll 3,400 adults between the ages of 18 and 69 at about three dozen U.S. research centers.
"The public understandably has been concerned about reports of rare, severe allergic reactions to the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines," added Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is part of the NIH.
"The information gathered during this trial will help doctors advise people who are highly allergic or have a mast cell disorder about the risks and benefits of receiving these two vaccines.
"However, for most people, the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination far outweigh the risks."
For people with a history of allergic reactions, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that health providers monitor them for 30 minutes after vaccination.
THIRD WORLD USA COVID-19 has worsened inequalities in U.S., across the Americas, report January 31, 2020 National Institutes of Health official Dr. Anthony Fauci (C) speaks aboutthe coronavirus during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C. Health and Human Services Secretary Alexander Azar (L) announced that the United States is declaring the virus a public health emergency and issued a federal quarantine order of 14 days for 195 Americans. Photo by Leigh Vogel/UPI | License Photo
April 7 (UPI) -- COVID-19 has increased social and economic inequality in the United States and other countries of the Americas, watchdog Amnesty International said Wednesday in its annual report on the state of human rights.
The 400-page analysis says North, South and Central America has been worst hit by the crisis, with about 55 million cases and 1.3 million deaths to date.
The United States, Brazil and Mexico have the world's highest death tolls, partly because their governments, the report says, struggled to give consistent health guidance, failed to protect the most vulnerable populations or failed to provide full transparency.
The report notes that COVID-19 exacerbated "systemic inequality, widespread repression and destructive policies" that contributed to the Americas becoming the worst-affected region.
Specifically, the study shows that women, refugees, migrants, underprotected health workers, Indigenous and Black people and other groups have borne the brunt of the pandemic. Some leaders, it says, actively exploited the crisis to ramp up their assault on human rights.
"Over the last year, we've witnessed certain leaders in the Americas respond to the pandemic with a mixture of denial, opportunism and contempt for human rights," Amnesty International Americas Director Erika Guevara-Rosas said in a statement.
"We cannot continue down the road to ruin, repeating the mistakes that left the region ravaged by inequality, discrimination and destruction, even before COVID-19 struck."
The Americas began 2020 as the world's most unequal region, and the pandemic only worsened conditions -- with an additional 22 million people falling into poverty and 8 million into extreme poverty.
COVID-19 hit the region's economy hard, while government measures "frequently undermined the social, economic and cultural rights of those in the most precarious situations," the report states.
More than 10,500 health workers across the Americas had died from COVID-19 as of last month.
"Health professionals in almost every country [have complained] about their governments' failure to provide safe working conditions and sufficient personal protective equipment," it added. "Those who spoke out sometimes faced sanctions, as in Nicaragua, where at at least 31 health workers were fired after expressing their concerns."
Amnesty says arbitrary arrests have been common and often linked to enforcement of COVID-19 restrictions, with some countries forcibly quarantining people in state-run centers that failed to meet sanitary and physical distancing standards.
Several governments detained refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants in conditions that left them at high risk of contracting COVID-19, while others forcibly returned people without considering their asylum claims, the report said.
The hard-line immigration measures from the Trump administration were also criticized by Wednesday's analysis.
Amnesty says U.S. authorities "summarily detained and deported almost all asylum-seekers on the U.S.-Mexico border, expelling over half a million migrants and asylum-seekers from March 2020 through February, including more than 13,000 unaccompanied children as of November 2020."
Prisons in the Americas were rife with poor sanitary conditions and overcrowding, and inmates were denied their right to health and were often exposed to COVID-19.
The report said pandemic-related restrictions affected freedom of expression in nations where it is under threat, including Mexico, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Uruguay and Venezuela. Mexico, in fact, was the world's deadliest country for journalists in 2020. More than 3,000 Brazilians -- 79% of them Black -- were killed by police between January and June.
Violence against women and girls across the Americas has surged since the start of the outbreak, with lockdown measures leading to a marked increase in domestic violence, rape and homicide. Measures to protect women and girls were inadequate, Amnesty says.
"The governments of the Americas must rebuild the region into one grounded in fairness, compassion and humanity," Guevara-Rosas added.
"While the first year of the pandemic has been particularly difficult for the Americas, we draw strength from the passion and resilience that we have witnessed from activists across the region, especially from women, young people and anti-racist activists. Their courage in the face of adversity shows us that we can create a more just world for everyone." upi.com/7087707
Crew completes deep dive on USS Johnston shipwreck
An expedition by undersea technology company Caladan Oceanic found the wreck of the Fletcher-class destroyer USS Johnston this week below 21,180 feet of water east of Samar Island in the Philippine Sea, the company said in a news release.
According to Caladan Oceanic, the underwater operation was the deepest shipwreck dive ever carried out.
The Johnston sank on Oct. 25, 1944, during the Battle off Samar. According to Stripes.com, it was "the central scene of action in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, one of the biggest naval battles ever fought in the attempt to liberate the Philippines from the Imperial Japanese."
The Philippines was first attacked by Japanese forces nine hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 8, 1941. Although the Philippines had a semi-independent government at the time, the United States controlled the island nation and operated several important military bases there.
The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Johnston off Seattle on October 27, 1943.
The USS Johnston was led by Cmdr. Ernest Evans, a Native American from Oklahoma. Of the 327 crew members, he was among the 186 sailors to perish when the vessel went down. According to the U.S. Navy, Evans was severely wounded during the battle, but despite his injuries pressed sailors to continue attacking. He eventually was killed and, according to Navy historians, his body vanished in the chaos of the battle.
Evans subsequently became the first Native American in the Navy to be awarded the Medal of Honor.
Cmdr. Ernest Evans at the commissioning ceremony of the
destroyer USS Johnston in Seattle in 1943.
Photo courtesy of U.S. Navy/Wikimedia
Two former U.S. Navy officers funded and carried out the expedition to film the wreck. Parks Stephenson, a retired lieutenant commander and naval historian, served as navigator and mission specialist, Caladan reported.
Retired Navy Cmdr. Victor Vescovo funded the search for the Johnston and personally piloted Limiting Factor, a deep submergence vehicle, to the wreck site during two separate 8-hour dives that Caladan said "constituted the deepest wreck dives, manned or unmanned, in history." The vehicle has no operating-depth limitation, does not require a surface tether and can hold two occupants.
"It was an honor and privilege to be the first people to directly lay eyes on her since she went down 76 years ago. At 6,000+ meters, there is little oxygen, so things don't deteriorate like they do in shallower waters." Vescovo said on Twitter.
Water temperature also plays a significant role in the decay rate of a shipwreck. According to Study.com, "higher temperature water means the water molecules have higher kinetic energy, which is the energy of motion."
Higher water temperatures mean that more molecular energy is foisted upon the shipwreck, accelerating the rate of decay. But as the water gets deeper, kinetic energy is inhibited.
"From the surface to around 10 meters down, the water temperature stays roughly constant," Study.com points out. "Temperature decreases rapidly for the next 5 meters, and then stays roughly consistent to depths greater than 50 meters," or about 150 feet. "This tells us the deeper the wreck, the slower it decays based on the temperature factor alone."
Since the USS Johnston wreck sits so deep in the ocean, lower water temperatures likely played a role in keeping it from decaying more than it has over the past 76 years.
Vescovo has held ongoing discussions with the Navy Heritage and History Command about investigation of the wreck and the protocols for not only preserving it but respecting it as the final resting place for many of its crew.
Rear Adm. Samuel Cox, director of Naval History and curator for the Navy, said in a statement, "I deeply appreciate that Commander Vescovo and his team exhibited such great care and respect during the survey of the ship, the last resting place of her valiant crew. Three other heroic ships lost in that desperate battle have yet to be found."
Taiwan cuts water two days a week amid worst drought in years Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., or TSMC, may not be affected by a recent government decision to cut water supply to central Taiwan amid a severe drought in the country. File Photo by David Chang/EPA-EFE
April 6 (UPI) -- Taiwan has started to cut water supply to its central region for two days a week as an ongoing drought threatens chipmakers amid a global semiconductor shortage.
The Taiwanese government began to ration water Tuesday to its central region that includes Taichung, Miaoli, Hsinchu and Changhua, Taiwan News reported.
Central and southern Taiwan are grappling with a water crisis amid an unprecedented drought. Typhoons that typically bring substantial rain to the island did not make a landfall in 2020, the report said.
Water reservoir levels remain critically low on the island. Southern Taiwanese cities including Hsinchu, Chiayi, Tainan and Kaohsiung could soon be expected to undergo water rationing. Kaohsiung is Taiwan's third-largest city with a population of nearly 3 million people.
The water shortage has forced the country to prioritize producers of semiconductors. Bloomberg reported last month Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., or TSMC, and Micron Technology Inc., would not be affected by the water restrictions. Both companies have plants in Taichung in central Taiwan.
The red alert on the water supply was issued for the first time in six years in March.
Taiwanese Economics Minister Wang Mei-hua said last month Taiwan has enough water to keep tech firms running until late May. Seasonal rains are expected to pick up around that time, Wang said, according to Bloomberg.
TSMC needs 156,000 tons of water daily, Nikkei Asia reported last month. Earlier this year the company was not ruling out truck deliveries of water for manufacturing.
Water quality "is extremely critical to chip production lines and the processes," TSMC said last month, according to Nikkei Asia.
"It could affect product performance, so that needs to be handled very carefully. ... So far, the situation is manageable, but if it does not rain properly and continues like this until the end of May, that would be a real big problem."
USA Lawsuits seek to stop mining, construction on sacred sites
Arizona's Ga'an Canyon in Oak Flat, also known as Chi'chil Bildagoteel, is 65 miles east of Phoenix. Apache tribal members and their allies are fighting to stop the construction of a copper mine there. Photo by Russ McSpadden/Center for Biological Diversity LONG READ
April 6 (UPI) -- Two disputes over sites that are sacred to Native Americans are on the docket at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
A group of Apache tribal members and their allies are fighting to stop the construction of a copper mine on a place in Arizona where Indigenous people have worshiped for centuries.
For members of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation and the Confederated Tribes of Grande Ronde, it's too late to save an altar and burial grounds near Mount Hood in Oregon -- the site was bulldozed to widen a highway. But they want remediation of the site, a declaration that their religious rights were violated and a promise that they will be consulted before the federal government does more construction.
In both cases, the tribes allege their rights under the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act were violated. The act bars the government from substantially burdening a person's exercise of religion except in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest -- and only if an action is the least restrictive means of furthering that interest.
The government denies imposing a substantial burden on the tribes and says they were not forced to violate their religious beliefs. University of Notre Dame law professor Stephanie Barclay, who represented the tribes in the Oregon case, said courts sometimes do not see the religious exercise and sites of Indigenous people as equally important as those of Christian churches.
As part of their traditions and spiritual beliefs, a lot of tribal people want to leave their sites pristine, said Barclay, director of Notre Dame's Religious Liberty Initiative, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the Apaches.
To some, a site might look like landscape that is nothing special, she said.
"That's a problem when we're unwilling to recognize the importance of religious beliefs of someone else just because they look different from our own," Barclay said.
Pausing for review
The transfer of the Arizona land to Resolution Copper Mining that was slated for March has been delayed, but opponents face a tough fight to save the holy site. The land, which is about 65 miles east of Phoenix, is called Oak Flat and also known as Chi'chil Biłdagoteel.
The U.S. Forest Service has withdrawn a final environmental impact statement that describes the potential effects of Resolution Copper's planned operations on 2,422 acres of the Tonto National Forest that are to be swapped for 5,459 acres of conservation lands. The agency's publication of the statement on Jan. 15 meant the trade had to go forward no later than 60 days after that date, and March 11 was set as the time for the swap.
But the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced March 1 that it had directed the Forest Service to rescind the FEIS so the agency could review "significant input received from collaborators, partners and the public" since the publication of the six-volume statement. The USDA estimates the consultation could take several months.
Wendsler Nosie Sr., former San Carlos Apache tribal chairman and a leader in Apache Stronghold -- a nonprofit organization of Apaches, other Native Americans and their supporters -- called the move "a temporary strategic retreat."
"They still intend to try and give away our sacred land," Nosie said in a statement.
The Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and Conservation Act, which was passed by Congress and signed into law in December 2014 by President Barack Obama, directed the U.S. Forest Service to convey title to the Arizona acreage, including Oak Flat.
Resolution Copper, a joint venture by British-Australian corporations Rio Tinto and BHP, says it has spent more than $2 billion to develop the project. Dan Blondeau, a spokesman for Resolution Copper, which is not a defendant in the suit, said the company is evaluating the decision to rescind the FEIS.
"In the meantime, we will continue to engage in the process determined by the U.S. government and are committed to ongoing consultation with local communities and Native American tribes," Blondeau told UPI in an email. Court battles
Apache Stronghold filed suit against the government on Jan. 12 in U.S. District Court in Phoenix asking for a permanent injunction prohibiting the land transfer and any mining that would destroy Oak Flat.
The organization also asked for a preliminary injunction stopping the Forest Service from proceeding with the swap while its suit is pending. That request was denied. Apache Stronghold appealed the denial to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The organization also filed an emergency motion asking to stop the land transfer until there is a ruling on the appeal.
"The arguments that the government is making in this case, if accepted by the court, would set a precedent for the destruction of any sacred site on any federal land," said Luke Goodrich, senior counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represents Apache Stronghold.
Soon after the appeal was filed, the government withdrew the FEIS, and the appeals court ruled 2-1 four days later to deny the emergency motion as premature.
The dissenter, Judge Patrick Bumatay, said Apache Stronghold has shown it has a strong likelihood of winning the suit, and the group is entitled to a pause on the transfer.
Bumatay wrote that "the government's 11th-hour promises of delay and consultation with the Western Apaches are not enough to allay the threat of irreparable harm."
"Resolution Copper's mining activities won't just temporarily exclude the Western Apaches from Oak Flat, or merely interrupt the worship conducted there," the dissent says. "Instead, Resolution Copper will turn Oak Flat into a crater approximately 2 miles across and 1,100 feet deep."
The request to overturn the denial of the preliminary injunction request at the district court is pending at the 9th Circuit.
Two other suits fighting the land transfer, one filed by the San Carlos Tribe and the other by environmentalists, are pending.
'Place of Big Big Trees'
Tribal chiefs say they alerted government officials to the importance of the burial grounds at Ana Kwna Nchi nchi Patat, or the "Place of Big Big Trees," but the site was bulldozed in 2008. The project left the other side of the highway untouched and protected nearby wetlands and a tattoo parlor, the suit says.
Barclay said the government could have used construction techniques that would have been more protective of the site, such as putting up a retaining wall.
"Instead, the government widened the highway in the most destructive way possible, cutting down oak grove trees that the Indigenous people testified were like the wall of a church to them," Barclay said.
In 2008, hereditary chiefs Wilbur Slockish and Johnny Jackson; tribal elder Carol Logan; the Cascade Geographic Society; and the Mount Hood Sacred Lands Preservation Alliance sued the government in U.S. District Court in Portland, which led to two and a half years of negotiations that ultimately failed.
The suit stalled and then in 2015, tribal members returned to court seeking remedies for the bulldozing and a declaration that their religious rights had been violated.
"All we want is the return of our sacred artifacts, the rededication of the area for our ancestors, and the promise that we can continue to worship as our tribes have done for centuries," Logan said.
A magistrate juge -- citing an earlier 9th Circuit decision that said "a government action that decreases the spirituality, the fervor, or the satisfaction with which a believer practices his religion is not what Congress has labeled a 'substantial burden,'" -- recommended that the lawsuit be dismissed.
A district judge accepted the recommendation and closed the case in February. Tribal members have appealed to the 9th Circuit to reverse the decision.
Researchers -- pictured from left to right, Lily Momper, Brittany Kruger and Caitlin Casar -- pose next to a borehole in an abandoned mine in South Dakota where they cultivated microbial biofilms. Photo by Matt Kapust
April 8 (UPI) -- Deep beneath the surface of the earth, microbes proliferate without sunlight and oxygen -- eating and breathing minerals, these microbes colonize the rocks that buoy the planet's continents.
For obvious reason, scientists don't know a lot about these microbes, but researchers estimate they account for anywhere between 20 and 80 percent of Earth's bacterial and archaeal biomass.
Now, thanks a first-of-its-kind study conducted in an abandoned mine shaft, scientists have a better idea of how these hidden microbial communities are distributed beneath the planet's surface.
The new research, published Friday in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology, showed the mineralogical makeup of Earth's deep-lying rocks drives hotspots for subsurface life.
For the study, scientists cultivated microbial biofilms on rocks located a mile under Earth's surface inside South Dakota's Deep Mine Microbial Observatory, part of a former gold mine now known as the Sanford Underground Research Facility.
Using microscopy, spectroscopy and spatial modeling, scientists tracked and analyzed the growth of the experimental biofilms. The results showed the biofilms were thickest on rocks with iron-rich mineral grains.
"Our results demonstrate the strong spatial dependence of biofilm colonization on minerals in rock surfaces," study first author Caitlin Casar said in a press release.
"We think that this spatial dependence is due to microbes getting their energy from the minerals they colonize," said Casar, earth scientist and doctoral candidate at Northwestern University.
The study's authors' hypothesized that mineral composition drives the distribution and diversity of microbial communities deep underground, and the latest findings confirmed as much.
The findings should help scientists predict the locations of subsurface microbial hotspots, as well as better understand other subsurface phenomena.
"Our findings could inform the contribution of biofilms to global nutrient cycles, and also have astrobiological implications as these findings provide insight into biomass distributions in a Mars analog system," said Casar.
