A Tennessee judge created and used policies - and a nonexistent law - to jail children, investigation finds

Katie Balevic
Sun, October 17, 2021

Judge Donna Scott Davenport is accused of creating policies that led to children being illegally arrested and detained. rutherfordcountytn.gov


A court judge used policies to jail and detain kids without sufficient cause, a probe found.


A county settled an $11 million suit after lawyers alleged the policy departed from Tennessee law.


The policy has ended, and Donna Scott Davenport remains judge at Rutherford County Juvenile Court.

A Tennessee juvenile-court judge orchestrated a system to arrest and jail children, many of whom were Black and some who were as young as 8 and 9 years old, an investigation by ProPublica and Nashville Public Radio found.

The report, published on October 8, said juvenile-court Judge Donna Scott Davenport of Rutherford County created a "process" that involved arresting children, taking them into custody at a detention center, and then filing charges against them.

This differed from the norm in Tennessee, where police would typically serve court summonses to children and their parents instead of arresting children and taking them into custody, the investigation found.

Davenport declined an interview with ProPublica and did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. Representatives from Rutherford County and from the state judicial system also did not respond to Insider's requests for comment.

Under Davenport's system, in 2016, 11 Black children were arrested and 10 were charged with "criminal responsibility for conduct of another" after they were said to have failed to stop a fight that was captured on video. But the attorney who represented some of the children said "criminal responsibility for conduct of another" is not a charge under Tennessee law.

Rather, it's a prosecutorial theory, the attorney Frank Ross Brazil told ABC News.

"So, that being applied as a charge in and of itself is unlawful," said Brazil, who did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on Sunday.

Davenport cultivated a public profile as a disciplinarian, discussing her work in interviews and on her monthly segment on WGNS radio. She even referred to herself as the "mother of the county," the joint investigation found.

"I know I'm harsh, I'm very harsh. I like to think I'm fair, but I'm tough," Davenport said in a 2015 profile in the Daily News Journal. "Juvenile Court is all about urgency - we are not dealing with the offense, we are dealing with the offender. We work on rehabilitation."

Davenport's "process" was challenged in a class-action lawsuit that involved over 1,000 children that alleged that Rutherford County violated children's rights by arresting and detaining them without sufficient cause. A judge involved in the case said that "children in Rutherford County are suffering irreparable harm every day" from a policy that "departs drastically" from the norm, Nashville Public Radio reported.

The case was settled in June, and the ruling permanently halted the juvenile court's use of Davenport's policies. Rutherford County agreed to pay up to $11 million, including $7.75 million to the children who were arrested and detained, the investigation found.

About 200 of the 1,500 children included in the class-action lawsuit have filed a claim to get the settlement money, News 4 Nashville reported last week.

Following ProPublica and Nashville Public Radio's investigation, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said that "the appropriate judicial authorities should issue a full review" of Davenport.

As of October 12, Davenport was no longer teaching at Middle Tennessee State University, her alma mater, where she was an adjunct professor, Nashville Public Radio reported.

The outlet also reported that the president of the university said Davenport, "whose actions overseeing Rutherford County Juvenile Court have recently drawn attention in national media reports, is no longer affiliated with the University."

Read the original article on Insider

Nurses say patients are getting more abusive, and simple questions can set them off
Allana Akhtar
Mon, October 18, 2021

31% of hospital nurses across the country have reported a small or significant increase in workplace violence as of September 2021. 

Brandon Bell/Getty Images


31% of hospital nurses have reported an increase in violence, up from 22% in March 2021.


Nurses told Insider the tense politics around vaccines and masks may be leading to patient aggression.


1 in 4 nurses faces physical violence on the job, and the hospital is one of the most dangerous workplaces in the country, according to OSHA.

Kevin Romanchik, an emergency room nurse in Michigan, said he's been punched, hit, kicked, spat on, and called "every name in the book" during his 13 years on the job.

Romanchik said he thinks abuse towards nurses has escalated recently because patients are easily agitated. Asking a simple question like whether a patient has received a COVID-19 vaccine can induce anger and aggression, he told Insider.

Once dubbed "heroes" of the pandemic, frontline workers in America are reckoning with increased violence and aggression on the job. Flight attendants are seeing a historic rise in unruly passengers. Shoppers have even killed retail workers for enforcing local mask mandates.

Nurses are not excluded from the worrisome trend. On top of dealing with short staffing and burnout, 31% of hospital nurses across the country have reported a small or significant increase in workplace violence, up from 22% in March 2021, according to a recent survey from the National Nurses United union.

"These nurses are there to help. That's a trauma in itself to feel that now they are unsafe at work and there's that risk of violence against them," Kerry Peterson, an associate professor at the University of Colorado College of Nursing, told Insider. "That can have detrimental consequences."

Why violence has increased towards nurses during the pandemic

Despite being places of healing, hospitals are one of the most dangerous places to work.

Hospitals recorded more than 221,000 work-related injuries in 2019 according to the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and had a workplace injury rate almost double the average for all private employers.

Nurses, who spend the most time at a patient's bedside, can bear the brunt of the violence. One in four nurses is physically assaulted on the job, according to a 2019 survey by the American Nurses Association. Assaults range from getting cursed at to grabbing and kicking, a 2014 survey of more than 5,000 nurses found.

Erica, a hospital nurse in Nevada, said she suspects the rate of injury towards nurses is even higher, but thinks many nurses do not end up reporting incidents due to fear of retaliation. (Insider agreed to identify Erica only by her first name for her personal safety.)

Last year during the pandemic, Erica co-founded The Last Pizza Party, a nurse advocacy group with 14,000 Facebook followers, to support professionals dealing with the onslaught of COVID-19 cases.

A 2020 NBC investigation found 77% of hospitals in California reported making no safety improvements after receiving an assault report. The assaults against healthcare workers ranged from bruising to fractures to cuts, and happened primarily in in-patient rooms and ERs.

Erica said instead of preventing assaults from happening, some hospitals have resorted to stopgap measures, like giving nurses rape whistles and panic buttons.

Better solutions to decrease workplace violence come from system-wide changes, Erica said. Nurse unions and advocates have drafted legislation to states and the federal government that would criminalize nurse abuse. Erica said hospitals must also provide nurses with enough resources and mental health support to effectively carry out their roles.

Erica encouraged other nurses to get involved with anti-abuse groups, such as The Last Pizza Party, the Silent No More Foundation, and Nurses Take DC. The momentum Erica has seen on social media - including TikTok, where she has 200,000 followers and over 3.5 million likes - during the pandemic gives her hope.

"What COVID did is it highlighted all of the issues in nursing that have been around forever, but it's made them impossible to ignore," Erica said.

Without addressing the growing crisis, however, Romanchik expects more nurses to leave the job, which will lead to the quality of care worsening overall.

"Nursing has been one of the most trusted professions for years now," he said. "So when nurses are telling you that there are problems or things are difficult, the best thing that the public hospital administration can do and local leaders can do is listen."

JUST LIKE EL SALVADOR
Group decries sentencing of Oklahoma woman for miscarriage


SEAN MURPHY
Mon, October 18, 2021,

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A national advocacy group for women on Monday blasted the sentencing of a 21-year-old Oklahoma woman to prison for a manslaughter conviction after she suffered a miscarriage while using methamphetamine.

Brittney Poolaw, of Lawton, was sentenced to four years in prison this month after a jury convicted her of first-degree manslaughter.

An autopsy of Poolaw's fetus showed it tested positive for methamphetamine. But there was no evidence that her meth use caused the miscarriage, which the autopsy indicated could have been caused by factors including a congenital abnormality and placental abruption, a complication in which the placenta detaches from the womb, said Lynn Paltrow, executive director of the National Advocates for Pregnant Women.

According to the medical examiner's report, the fetus was between 15 and 17 weeks old, which means it wouldn't have been able to viably survive outside the womb yet.

“This prosecution went forward against somebody who had a pregnancy loss before the fetus was considered viable," Paltrow said. “In this case, you not only have a miscarriage rather than a stillbirth early in pregnancy, but the medical examiner's report doesn’t even claim that methamphetamine was the cause."

Comanche County District Attorney Kyle Cabelka and Poolaw's court-appointed trial attorney, Larry Corrales, didn't immediately reply to messages seeking comment. The National Advocates for Pregnant Women said it helped retain another attorney, John Coyle, to assist with an appeal.

Such prosecutions of women who lose their pregnancies have become more common in recent years. According to a study commissioned by the NAPW, there were 413 such criminal prosecutions from 1973 to 2005. Data from 2006 to 2020 shows there were about 1,250 such criminal cases, said Dana Sussman, NAPW's deputy executive director.

“So we’re looking at three times as many cases in less than half the period of time as this first study," Sussman said. “This is far more common than I think most people would ever believe or understand."

There were at least two dozen such cases in Oklahoma, Sussman said, most involving pregnant mothers who used drugs, although in most cases women were charged with child abuse or neglect.

Just last year, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that embryos and fetuses are included in the definition of a “child" for the purposes of prosecuting child neglect cases.

Jordan Klepper Exposes MAGA Morons Who Still Think ‘Trump Won’

Matt Wilstein
Mon, October 18, 2021, 

Comedy Central

Jordan Klepper hadn’t attended a Trump rally since he inadvertently found himself in the middle of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, “a day no one will ever forget, unless you’re a Republican member of Congress,” the Daily Show contributor joked in his latest dispatch. But this past week, Klepper boldly returned to the scene, trolling the crowd at the former president’s big Iowa event for the most embarrassing devotees he could find.

What he discovered more than anything was banners, flags, and deluded supporters all proclaiming that “Trump Won” as loudly as they could. “And even though Trump won, they’re hoping he runs again,” Klepper explained. “Are we ready for this? I mean, the last guy hasn’t even conceded yet.”

He tracked down one couple that warned former Vice President Mike Pence would not be welcome in the crowd. “Do you think Mike Pence will show up here today or does he not want to hang?” Klepper asked, the double meaning seeming to go over their heads.

“I think he would be afraid to show up here today,” the woman responded. When he asked why, she shot back, “Because he was a coward and he didn’t do the right thing, that’s why!” She denied, as Klepper suggested, that he might want to stay away because “these people tried to kill him.” The man beside her, who was wearing a t-shirt that showed former President Donald Trump giving two middle fingers above the words “One for Biden, One for Harris,” saw no irony in his complaints that the current administration was “giving the middle finger” to the whole country.

And then there were the two men holding a “Trump 2024: Take America Back” banner who were particularly concerned about the “border crisis.” Klepper asked them, “And you’re from Iowa? So you’re worried about people coming in from Minnesota?”

How ‘Daily Show’ Contributor Jordan Klepper Became the King of Humiliating Trump Fans

Another man calmly explained that he believes Trump is secretly still running the military but blanched when Klepper suggested he would then have to take the blame for the mess in Afghanistan. None of them seemed to believe that their MAGA brethren were responsible for Jan. 6, instead claiming “antifa,” the “corrupt FBI,” and the “deep state” were actually behind the attack.

Two other women in matching MAGA hats and American flag overalls similarly pushed back on the notion that Trump supporters are a “cult,” while at the same time saying, “I feel like whatever he spews out of his mouth, I just love it.”

“It doesn’t matter what he says?” Klepper asked them. “But this isn’t a cult?”

“I don’t think so,” one replied with a straight face.

For more, listen to The Daily Show’s Jordan Klepper on The Last Laugh podcast.

THIRD WORLD USA

UTAH
Workers near Zion homeless amid housing crunch, tourism bump

LONG READ

By K. SOPHIE WILL

October 17, 2021

Ashley Gathman, a server at the Bit and Spur restaurant, discusses her choice to live out or a van Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021, in Virgin, Utah. Gathman can not find any affordable housing in the small gateway town of Springdale, where she works. Instead, she chooses to live in the 1976 orange and white El Dorado that blends in with the Bureau of Land Management area she camps on in Virgin. (Chris Caldwell /The Spectrum via AP)

VIRGIN , Utah (AP) — A hot wind whipped across the red sand just outside of Zion National Park where a woman and her dogs live in a 1970s camper because she can’t find housing in Springdale, where she works.

After four years of working at Springdale’s Bit and Spur restaurant, 28-year-old Ashley Gathman can not find any affordable housing in the small gateway town, the Spectrum newspaper reported.

Instead, she chooses to live in the 1976 orange and white El Dorado that blends in with the Bureau of Land Management area she camps on in Virgin. With a bed, a small kitchenette, some storage and an unplugged window air conditioning unit, she has a mobile home.

“I’d rather just suffer through it, I guess,’” Gathman said. “It’s easier for me than it would be for a friend who got kicked out of their house and is now trying to find more housing.”

But her old “neighbor,” 27-year-old Sophie Frankenburg, had to suffer through it though she was the town’s associate planner and homeless.

“There were some frustrating parts of sitting in that chair and in conversations happening about affordable housing and the people that work here can’t live here,” Frankenburg said.

And that’s not for a lack of trying on her coworkers’ part. She said the staff at the Town of Springdale would connect them if they knew of an opening.

“I think the majority of people that I came into contact with every single day while I was at my job … they would have had no idea that we were living in a 20-foot trailer in the middle of the desert with no running water,” Frankenburg said. “You just wouldn’t even know.”

At the mouth of the nation’s third most popular national park, the three-mile-long and one-mile-wide town only has slightly more than 300 housing units and over 1200 hotel rooms, officials said, most of which are occupied.

While they’re aiming to add 150 more housing units and 600 more hotel rooms, which will reach their maximum build-out, the question is, where do they put it?

“We don’t have a ton of room to be able to grow and develop ... but it’s definitely not unlimited,” Springdale Director of Community Development Tom Dansie said.

With towering canyon walls on either side of the canyon, some have thought the solution is to build high-density housing vertically like the red rock did thousands of years ago.

But residents resoundingly say no.

“We don’t want high-density housing, we don’t want a lot of apartments, we don’t want to feel urban and crammed and dense and developed,” Dansie said.

With a median age of about 60, some of Springdale’s residents remember a time when the canyon was silent and belonged to the locals.

Now, the 346 residents of Springdale see over four million people pass through their tiny town on the way to Zion yearly, which is thousands a day.

And those tourists need the service industry — from hotels to restaurants to gas stations and more.

About 30% of Springdale workers are in retail, with another 34% are in arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation and food services — meaning over 64% of Springdale’s workers are focused on serving tourists.

Statistics from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah show that one in seven jobs in Washington County was supported by visitor spending in 2019.

In October 2020, Springdale hired Zions Public Finance, Inc. to make a housing strategy against the housing crisis, which found that over 1,000 employees commute to Springdale daily to work.

“Springdale does not necessarily have to rectify the differences in housing costs with neighboring communities, but it should understand the reasoning of such and potential economic development tools that may help address the issue,” the report said.

Yet these employees feel pushed out by the rooted residents of Springdale and the “amenity migration” of newly remote workers, while there are vacant second homes and a perceived priority given to tourists.

“You know pretty soon you’re not gonna have a town, you’re not gonna have workers to cater to all of these tourists that you want to come into town,” Gathman said. “Pretty soon, you’re going to have to stop kicking us out and turning things over to Airbnb.”

While nearby St. George is one of the fastest-growing cities in the country, and even the city is having to deal with the crowding.

“St. George is facing similar strains,” Lawyer Bruce Jenkins of Jenkins, Bagley, Sperry said. “Where is the workforce going to live? They’re going to be pushed farther out farther away and have to drive farther to come into work.”

And while housing might be cheaper farther away, the added cost of commuting takes a toll on a low income. The Gardner Institute estimates that the monthly wage for leisure and hospitality in Washington County is $1,572.

“The majority of jobs available in Springdale are tourism-oriented service sector jobs, which makes it even more difficult to find adequate housing that’s affordable to people who are employed in those jobs,” Dansie said.

The labor market is red hot right now, Utah Department of Workforce Services Regional Economist Lecia Langston said, and desperately asking for more workers.

Langston said Washington County started growing jobs in August of last year, “which is pretty unusual,” partially due to the surge in tourism and tourism jobs.

“Partly because there is COVID, and we didn’t have the restrictions of our neighbors, so we’ve seen really rapid growth,” she said. “I think Washington County really benefited from the shutdowns in Nevada and California … I think that really benefited us in tourism.”

Yet the entire country is struggling with a labor shortage right now, despite opportunity and relatively high wages, and housing is compounding the issue.

“It’s difficult for people to find employees, but I think it’s more acutely in Springdale and I think part of that is because of the housing issue,” Dansie said.

Businesses are greatly concerned about the lack of housing for their employees, Nate Wells, chamber of commerce Zion Canyon Visitors Bureau president said.

“We’ve had several from outside of the area who have wanted to come and work for us, they were excited about the opportunity, and it ended up not working out because housing was so difficult to find or, or even impossible to find,” Wells said.

After four years of being a Springdale employee, Gathman thinks the town needs to change its paradigm and act fast.

“A lot of the employers in town are realizing that employee housing is a major, a major thing and that they need it because otherwise they’re gonna lose their employees,” Gathman said. “Unfortunately, I wish the town of Springdale would understand that, but they’re kind of on the bandwagon of more AirBnbs and more hotels; keep inviting all the tourists in.”

Regardless, people still obviously work in Springdale, but the commute contributes to the crowding and climate change.

“Obviously that has impacts on traffic and it has impacts on parking,” Dansie said.

The Census said most people in Springdale drive alone to get to work. More cars equal more pollution from exhaust straight into a national park. More need for parking without adequate parking spaces forces cars off-road, damaging the land and wildlife.

In terms of the green in your pocket, Langston said business owners and local officials have to think about the cost to commute to Springdale when someone could make the same, or more, in St. George with virtually no commute.

“You’ve got to cover that plus you need to attract people away from the St. George jobs, and you have to make it worth their while to have a commute,” she said. “People are spending time on the road that they might not otherwise.”

And commuters like renters, some officials say, don’t have the investment in the community that residents want to build community.

“If all the people who work in Springdale at the end of their shift, they go home, they’re less invested in the community, there’s less of a connection between the employees and the businesses and the community,” Dansie said. “And it becomes more of an us versus them businesses versus residents kind of situation.”

But experts like Dejan Eskic from the Gardner Institute wants to remind people that most everyone was a renter at one time.

“You can’t just say I want owners in my town and I don’t want renters because that’s going to have negative impacts in other places of the economy that you’re going to have to play whack a mole with,” Eskic said. “I think we are heading more into a renter market where it’s harder and harder to attain homeownership.”

While people flock to the great outdoors, they are paying greatly for their new indoors, forcing locals out.

“So we’ve now had an influx of people with massive resources coming into this little tiny county offering $150,000 cash above asking price and paying cash for all these homes,” Christensen said. “So what are you doing? You’re pricing out the community members that live there, right?”

And construction in 2021, especially in relatively remote Springdale, is more expensive and more delayed than in years past due to COVID-related supply shortages, adding to the cost.

Last November, Springdale Mayor Stan Smith lost his business as the Bumbleberry Inn crumbled in flames from an overnight kitchen fire. Even then, Smith said the supplies and equipment he needed to rebuild were delayed.

While the Springdale study noted that wildfires in the west drove newcomers and visitors to the town in droves, it also destroyed some of the lumber supply needed for construction.

“Lumber has increased four-fold in 2020, and this has further exasperated the gap between housing costs and what a median-income earning household can afford,” the report said.

Together, combined with the more expensive land right as it is next to the popular national park, all make for a hefty price tag.

“A notable consideration is that construction costs are moderately higher in Springdale than in most other competitive markets. This, in combination with limited available land, results in total overall costs that are too high for a significant portion of the market,” it said.

While costs might be high for locals, they might not be for newcomers.

A study from Harvard University this year found that without the requirement to commute due to pandemic-driven work-from-home practices, “many more” will look for lower-cost housing away from employment centers.

“People from the coast who are now able to work wherever because they’re all working remotely, and they’re able to keep their California wages or Washington wages or New York wages, they’re saying well, geez, all I need is internet in the computer,” Tai Christensen, chief diversity officer for Cedar City-based CBC Mortgage. “And a lot of people want to live outside of Zion.”

Additional space in occupied homes or vacant ones in Springdale and St. George are being converted into short-term rentals for tourists or seasonal workers.

“There’s kind of a shared demand for those homes that would otherwise be rented to employees are now available as short term,” Wells said of Springdale.

The Gardner Institute estimates that over the past five years the number of short-term rental units in Washington County jumped around 141%, from about 1,300 in 2017 to over 3,000 this year.

“The biggest problem with short-term rentals, especially the ones that are not licensed, is they take inventory off the market,” Adam Lenhard, St. George City manager said.

In St. George in that same time period, there were about 6,600 vacant units, and about 72% of those were seasonal use properties like second homes, the CDBG report said.

“If those illegal short-term rentals were turned into long-term rentals, we would immediately have several hundred affordably priced units on the market, or at least more units on the market that could be rented out long term,” Shirlayne Quayle, St. George’s director of economic vitality and housing said.

“I just can’t wrap my mind around it,” Gathman said. “if you’re only going to be there a couple of months out of a year, or whatever, like there are so many people who could use that space for even if it is just a few short months.”

But in some zones, short-term rentals are illegal, though Lenhard said the only way they’ve enforced that is through community reporting.

“I think it’s a mistake, frankly, to not allow the city to ban the listing of short-term rentals in zones that don’t allow for that,” Lawyer Jenkins said.

Over 3.6 million visitors went to Zion last year, breaking fall records even during pandemic-restricted travel. But a different demographic showed up on the roads of Springdale, the spontaneous, and often uneducated, tourists.

“Last year was very difficult,” Gathman said. “And I was pissed and frustrated and so depressed because of the lack of respect that people had for the land.”

With closures and a desire to social distance in the great wide open, thousands of campers pushed local transient residents from their usual haunts and in some ways destroyed the parcels of land they call home.

“In one of my favorite spots, someone cut down a tree just to pull in their camper,” Gathman said. “That was my hammock tree that I loved.”

In July, The Spectrum released an investigation into illegal camping in the area outside Zion that agencies have been slow to stop.

Though Washington County increased patrols and passed more rigid laws in response last month, Gathman said there are sometimes when she is forced to illegally camp outside of designated parcels.

“I’ve had no choice. There are places that I go to that I’m not supposed to be. But there’s nowhere else for me to go when it gets that busy,” she said.

Gathman feels that tourists are prioritized over residents, a perceived practice that is doomed to fail, she said.

“I think tourism brings interest to our area, we live in a beautiful place. And I think the more that gets discovered, the more demand there will be for housing,” Wells said.

Springdale’s housing strategy report recognized the need for increased housing and looked for solutions, while also dedicating pages to polls on how locals want to protect the town that exists from crowding.

From these polls, locals said they would be in favor of high-density housing up to eight units only.

“In some cases, the solution in Springdale will not necessarily be lowered, more achievable prices, but rather more opportunities for a balanced residential market that provides a greater variety of housing options,” it said.

Now a Salt Lake City resident, Frankenburg is removed from the struggle over space and reflects on being an essentially homeless city planner.

“There was a lot of irony behind that,” Frankenburg said. “I cared a lot about that community and it was really hard to see maybe some people that didn’t care enough, in my opinion.”

__

The Spectrum reporter Sean Hemmersmeier contributed reporting to this article.

'No genocide': Tibet activists sidetrack Beijing Winter Olympics flame ceremony

 

Activists grabbed the spotlight at the flame-lighting ceremony for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics in Greece on Monday by unfurling a Tibetan flag and a banner that said "no genocide" at the Games. The demonstrators pulled out the flag and banner during the ceremony in Olympia attended by International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach and several dozen dignitaries including Chinese officials.

Activists urge IOC to postpone 'genocide' Beijing Games

Issued on: 19/10/2021 -

Activists have called for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing to be postponed

 ARIS MESSINIS AFP

Athens (AFP)

Activists on Tuesday called for the postponement of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics as China prepared to receive the Olympic flame, a day after a protest disrupted the lighting ceremony in Olympia.

"This is sports-washing. There are no legitimate reasons to host the Games during a genocide," Zumretay Arkin, advocacy manager of the World Uighur Congress, told a news conference in the Greek capital.

"For sure there will be protests (in China) by Uighurs, Tibetans," said Arkin, who said she has had no contact with her family since 2017.

Lit on Monday in Ancient Olympia, the cradle of the ancient Games, the flame will be handed over to the delegation from Beijing 2022 at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, where the Olympics were revived in 1896, and will be flown to China.

During the ceremony in Olympia on Monday, the activists unfurled a Tibetan flag and a banner that said "no genocide" at the Games. A similar protest was held at the Acropolis in Athens.

Tibet has alternated over the centuries between independence and control by China, which says it "peacefully liberated" the rugged plateau in 1951 and brought infrastructure and education to the previously underdeveloped region.

But human rights campaigners and exiles say the Chinese central government practises religious repression, torture, forced sterilisation and cultural erosion through forced re-education.

Campaigners believe that at least one million Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking, mostly Muslim minorities are incarcerated in camps in Xinjiang.

After initially denying the existence of the Xinjiang camps, China later defended them as vocational training centres aimed at reducing the appeal of Islamic extremism.

"Who is going to guarantee that none of my relatives are actually now working in forced labour factories producing clothing and uniforms for the Olympic Games," Arkin said Tuesday.

"Can anyone tell me where my relatives are? I don't think so."

The activists on Tuesday said Hong Kong residents, Tibetans and Uighurs faced "Orwellian" surveillance in China, which they said was "emboldened" after hosting the Summer Games in 2008.

The IOC is legitimising "one of the worst violations of human rights in the entire 21st century" and defiling the spirit of the Games, said Pema Doma, campaigns director for Students for a Free Tibet.

"These Games cannot go ahead as planned, they must be postponed," she said.

IOC chairman Thomas Bach has batted off talk of a potential boycott, claiming the International Olympic Committee's political neutrality and saying it was up to governments to live up to their responsibilities.

A victim of the 1980 Moscow Games boycott, the former fencer has said such moves only punish athletes, and insists the IOC was addressing the rights issue "within our remit".

Around 2,900 athletes, representing approximately 85 National Olympic Committees, will compete in the Winter Games between 4 and 20 February 2022.

Arkin said the campaign "to train light on all the different abuses" was stronger than that of 2008, bringing together "Uighur communities, Hong Kong communities, Tibetan, Southern Mongolian, Chinese and Taiwanese communities".

"No one can stop us. Not the IOC, not governments, not sponsors, not athletes. We will not stop," she said.

Protesters Disrupt Torch Lighting For Beijing Winter Olympics


AP
Mon, October 18, 2021

ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece — Three activists protesting human rights abuses in China sneaked into the archaeological site where the flame lighting ceremony for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics was being held Monday and ran toward the newly lit torch holding a Tibetan flag and a banner that read “No genocide games.”

The protesters managed to enter the grounds and attempted to reach the Temple of Hera, where the ceremony was being held. They were thrown to the ground by police and detained.

A security officer tries to stop protesters holding a banner and a Tibetan flag as they crash the flame lighting ceremony for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. 

(Photo: ARIS MESSINIS via Getty Images)

“How can Beijing be allowed to host the Olympics given that they are committing a genocide against the Uyghurs?” one protester said, referring to the treatment of Uyghur Muslims in China’s northwest region of Xinjiang.

The flame was lit at the birthplace of the ancient Olympics in southern Greece under heavy police security.

With the public excluded amid pandemic safety measures, and a cloudless sky over the verdant site of Ancient Olympia, the flame was ceremoniously kindled using the rays of the sun before being carried off on a mini torch relay.

Earlier, other protestors were detained by Greek police before they could reach the site. Pro-democracy protests also had broken out during the lighting ceremony for the 2008 Beijing Summer Games.

A police officer rushes to stop protesters holding a banner and the Tibetan flag (unseen) as they crash the start of the flame lighting ceremony for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics at the Ancient Olympia archeological site. 

(Photo: ARIS MESSINIS via Getty Images)

Despite widespread international criticism of China’s human rights record, the International Olympic Committee has shied away from the issue, saying it falls outside its remit.

In his speech in the ancient stadium of Olympia, where in antiquity male athletes competed naked during a special truce among their often-warring cities, IOC President Thomas Bach stressed that the modern Games must be “respected as politically neutral ground.”

Security officers stop three protesters holding a banner and a Tibetan flag as they crash the flame lighting ceremony for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics at the Ancient Olympia archeological site. (Photo: ARIS MESSINIS via Getty Images)

“Only this political neutrality ensures that the Olympic Games can stand above and beyond the political differences that exist in our times,” he said. “The Olympic Games cannot address all the challenges in our world. But they set an example for a world where everyone respects the same rules and one another.”

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

ANOTHER NATO SUCCESS STORY
10 years since Kadhafi death, stability still eludes Libya

Issued on: 19/10/2021

People gather along the beach in Libya's eastern city of Benghazi, 

on October 15, 2021. Abdullah DOMA AFP/File


Tripoli (AFP)

Ten years since dictator Moamer Kadhafi was slain by Libyan rebels, the North African country is still struggling to emerge from the violence sparked by his overthrow.

A year-long ceasefire and a UN-led peace process have barely papered over deep divisions, and upcoming elections are unlikely to resolve the crisis, analysts say.

Kadhafi ruled Libya with an iron fist for 42 years after a 1969 coup against the monarchy, portraying himself as a revolutionary, Arab and African hero while mercilessly crushing all opposition.

In 2011, he was toppled in a revolt inspired by the Arab Spring uprisings and backed by NATO.

On October 20 of that year, rebels tracked him down to his hometown Sirte, tortured him and killed him in the street, displaying his body in a market.

His death has failed to bring democracy or stability.

Instead, Libya has fractured along regional and ideological lines, with an assortment of mafia-like militias and their foreign backers vying for control of the oil-rich country.

Last October's ceasefire was followed in March by the appointment of a unity government with a mandate to lead Libya to elections.

So with a presidential poll set for December 24 and legislative elections in January, is Libya finally turning the page on a decade of chaos?

"Relative to the past 10 years, Libya is in a much-improved situation," said Hamish Kinnear, an analyst with the research institute Verisk Maplecroft.

"The ceasefire agreed to in October 2020 continues to hold and the Government of National Unity is hanging on as Libya's sole government.

"But Libya's political stability is increasingly precarious," Kinnear told AFP.

"The next six months will tell us whether the quiet period that followed the October 2020 ceasefire was merely an opportunity for armed factions to lick their wounds or actual progress towards a political solution."

- Contested outcomes? -

Libyan academic Mahoud Khalfallah also voiced doubts that elections alone would lead to "a definitive solution" to the crisis. THEY HAVEN'T SO FAR

That would require "an end to negative foreign involvement in Libya's internal affairs, maturity of Libyan voters in choosing who represents them, disregarding tribalism and regionalism, and all sides accepting the outcome of elections," he said.

None of those is a given.

The road to the ballot box has been paved with bitter debates over electoral laws, notably a bill on presidential polls that appeared tailor-made for a bid by military strongman Khalifa Haftar and was passed in a move many of his opponents say bypassed due process.

A city name sign is pictured in front of war-ravaged buildings in Libya's eastern city of Benghazi 

Abdullah DOMA AFP/File

Haftar is despised by many in western Libya, particularly after the year-long offensive by his self-styled Libyan National Army to seize Tripoli, which killed thousands of people before he was pushed back by Turkish-backed armed groups in June 2020.

The strongman's portrait, with a vivid red cross over his face, now hangs on many official buildings.

Kinnear warned that polls based on the controversial law without wider backing from groups in the west could divide Libya once again into competing eastern and western governments.

"The risk of this would be heightened if Khalifa Haftar won the presidency, as he is a toxic figure for the armed factions that defended Tripoli during the LNA's failed offensive," he said.

- 'Irregularities' -

Foreign officials have prioritised holding elections and turned a blind eye to irregularities around the political process, including allegations of corruption around the February election of interim Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah.

"We are aware that there have been irregularities, even corruption, but we still believe that the solution lies in these elections," one European diplomat in Tripoli told AFP.

Analyst Ahmed al-Rashrash said Libyans were "hoping these elections will lead to a better life and to political stability and security".

A decade of conflict has ruined infrastructure and battered the economy, leaving the country suffering chronic power cuts and runaway inflation 

Abdullah DOMA AFP/File

But many voice doubts the process will resolve deep-seated issues.

"We're in a vicious cycle because of the failure of the political process," said Tripoli civil servant Abdelfattah Benour.

The situation has left some nostalgic for Kadhafi's era.

While the leader brutally stamped out all forms of opposition during his rule, many enjoyed high living standards paid for by Libya's vast oil wealth, with the highest GDP per capita in Africa.

That is a stark contrast to today.

A decade of conflict has ruined infrastructure and battered the economy, leaving Libya suffering chronic power cuts and runaway inflation.

That has left Libyans themselves suffering "both psychologically and economically", said Tripoli businessman Issam el-Mejri, although he said he felt "more freedom" since Kadhafi's fall.

Faraj Najib, who runs a small shop in the eastern city of Benghazi, said the elections were "a ray of hope for Libyans, who have been hugely impoverished" by the years of conflict.

© 2021 AFP

Lebanon elite united against probe seen as survival threat

Issued on: 19/10/2021 - 

Lebanese bury their dead after the official inquiry into last year's Beirut port explosion sparked bloodshed on the streets of the capital

 IBRAHIM AMRO AFP/File

Beirut (AFP)

They may often squabble but Lebanon's political parties seem united in rejecting an investigation into Beirut's massive port explosion that they fear could threaten their survival, analysts say.

The explosion of a huge stockpile of poorly stored fertiliser on the dockside on August 4, 2020 killed more than 210 people, wounded thousands and ravaged half the capital.

In the aftermath of mass protests in late 2019 demanding the ouster of the traditional ruling class, many said the disaster was just the latest example of official incompetence and corruption.

But months into a domestic investigation, no one has been held accountable.

Politicians have repeatedly obstructed the work of judge Tarek Bitar by refusing to show up for questioning, filing legal complaints against him or calling for his dismissal, which last week sparked deadly violence in the heart of Beirut.

Analyst Lina Khatib said hopes were fading of holding those responsible for the port blast accountable.

"The ruling class in Lebanon is in agreement about wanting the port probe to be abandoned and they will use all available means to derail it," said Khatib, director of the Middle East and North Africa programme at the Chatham House think tank.

The country's powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah has spearheaded a campaign to remove Bitar, accusing him of political bias.

The debate over his future, which comes after the previous investigator was removed in February, has already triggered the postponement of one cabinet meeting despite the urgency of addressing Lebanon's acute economic crisis.

- 'Battle for the rule of law' -

Nadim Houry, executive director at the Arab Reform Initiative, said that the whole ruling class felt under threat in what he described as "an essential battle in Lebanon for rule of law".

Last week's bloodshed and the funerals of those killed brought armed militiamen onto the streets of Beirut in scenes reminiscent of Lebanon's 1975 to 1990 civil war

 IBRAHIM AMRO AFP/File

"A section of society has decided that they want to go all the way and ask for truth," but they face "a political class that is willing to use threats, use violence, use even launching into another civil war to prevent that quest for truth from leading to a result," he said.

It emerged after the port blast that officials had known that hundreds of tonnes of ammonium nitrate had for years been left to linger in a warehouse near residential neighbourhoods.

Families of the victims see in Bitar the only hope for justice in a country where impunity has long been the norm.

After the 1975 to 1990 civil war, Lebanon issued a broad amnesty that benefited the country's warlords, allowing many of them to become political leaders.

"Regardless of what Bitar finds, it's the idea itself that any of them can somehow be held accountable that they are resisting," Houry said.

Any success in the blast probe would set a precedent and unravel a "impunity regime" under which each party agrees not to pursue the other for its crimes, as long as it is not targeted itself.

Tensions came to a boil last week after a rally against Bitar organised by Hezbollah and its Shiite ally Amal descended into violence that killed seven of their supporters.

- 'Price too high' -

The sound of gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades trapped residents indoors for hours, reviving memories of the civil war.

The inquiry's chief, judge Tarek Bitar, has become a bugbear not just for the Shiite parties pushing for his replacement but for the whole political elite, analysts say - AFP/File

Hezbollah accused snipers of the Lebanese Forces, a Christian party, of causing the bloodshed, but the latter has denied this.

The army, meanwhile, is investigating a video circulated on social media that appears to show a soldier shooting at protesters.

"Hezbollah is increasingly acting as the praetorian guard of the regime that has come into place since the 1990s," Houry said.

The Iran-backed movement, the only one not to have disarmed after the civil war, is at least partly blacklisted by most Western governments but holds seats in parliament.

While political parties have publicly supported an investigation, analysts say they ultimately wish to protect their own interests.

"Lebanon's ruling class may be political opponents but they are united in profiteering from the system... and they therefore oppose any steps to reform it or to instil accountability within it," Khatib said.

A spokesman for the families of blast victims quit on Saturday, after many feared he had been intimidated into toeing the Hezbollah line and calling for Bitar to step down.

Ibrahim Hoteit, who lost his brother in the explosion, lives in a Shiite-majority neighbourhood.

The following day, many refrained from taking part in a protest to mark the second anniversary of the now-defunct 2019 protest movement, fearing further violence.

"Ultimately, the ruling class want to push the Lebanese to conclude that the price of accountability is too high," Khatib said.

© 2021 AFP

Social unrest threatens Mideast economic recovery: IMF

Issued on: 19/10/2021

A protester holds a flag during clashes with armed forces in Lebanon, whose economy is in a tailspin PATRICK BAZ AFP/File

Dubai (AFP)

The Middle East and North Africa is on track for a recovery, but rising social unrest is threatening the "fragile" progress of low-income economies, the International Monetary Fund said Tuesday.

The MENA region, which includes Arab countries and Iran, saw real GDP growth shrink by 3.2 percent in 2020 due to weak oil prices and sweeping lockdowns to halt the spread of the coronavirus.

But with rapid vaccination campaigns, especially in oil-rich Gulf nations, the IMF predicted GDP growth would rise to 4.1 percent this year, up 0.1 of a percentage point from its last projection in April.

"The region is going through recovery in 2021. Since the beginning of the year, we see progress in the economic performance," said Jihad Azour, director for the Middle East and Central Asia at the IMF.

But "this recovery is not the same in all countries. It is uncertain and uneven because of the divergence in vaccination... and geopolitical developments", he told AFP.

The IMF said in a report that while the prospects for oil-exporting economies improved with higher oil prices, low-income and crisis-hit countries were witnessing "fragile" recoveries.

It warned of "a rise in social unrest" in 2021 that "could pick up further due to repeated infection waves, dire economic conditions, high unemployment and food prices".

Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan other countries have been witnessing protests in recent months by thousands of angry citizens demanding better jobs and services.

Unemployment increased in MENA last year by 1.4 percent to reach 11.6 percent, a rise exceeding that seen during the global financial crisis and the 2014-15 oil price shock, the IMF said.

- Increasing inequities -

The IMF warned of the longer-term risk of an uneven recovery, which could lead to a "permanent widening of existing wealth, income, and social gaps and, ultimately, weaker growth and less inclusive societies".

About seven million more people in the region are estimated to have entered extreme poverty during 2020-21 compared with pre-crisis projections, according to the IMF.

Meanwhile, inflation in the region is projected to increase to 12.9 percent in 2021 from 10.4 last year, with higher food and energy prices in some countries, before subsiding to 8.8 percent in 2022.

"Inequities are increasing. The low-skilled, the young, women, and migrant workers have been affected the most by the pandemic, as have smaller firms, particularly those in contact-sensitive sectors," said the report.

According to the international lender, the corporate sector has recovered to pre-pandemic levels, but smaller firms and those in "contact-sensitive sectors" are lagging behind.

"Fifteen to 25 percent of firms may need to be restructured or liquidated," it added.

In Lebanon, the continuing drop in the value of the currency has dashed hopes that the government formed last month can stem an economic crisis that the World Bank brands as one of the worst since the mid-19th century.

Nearly 80 percent of Lebanon's population lives below the poverty line.

"The Fund has already started technical discussions with the authorities... to develop what would be in fact that the framework within which the fund can help Lebanon," said Azour, a former Lebanese finance minister.

© 2021 AFP

Energy crunch hits global recovery as winter approaches

By DAVID McHUGH, COLLEEN BARRY, JOE McDONALD and TATIANA POLLASTR

I2 hours ago

 In this Sept. 27, 2021 file photo, steam billows out of the cooling towers at a coal-fired power station in Nanjing in east China's Jiangsu province. The world's facing an energy crunch. Europe is feeling it worst as natural gas prices skyrocket to five times normal, forcing some factories to hold back production. Reserves depleted last winter haven't been made up, and chief supplier Russia has held back on supplying extra. Meanwhile, the new Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline won't start operating in time to help if the weather is cold, and there's talk Europe could wind up rationing electricity. China is feeling it too, seeing power outages in some towns. (Chinatopix via AP, file)

Power shortages are turning out streetlights and shutting down factories in China. The poor in Brazil are choosing between paying for food or electricity. German corn and wheat farmers can’t find fertilizer, made using natural gas. And fears are rising that Europe will have to ration electricity if it’s a cold winter.

The world is gripped by an energy crunch — a fierce squeeze on some of the key markets for natural gas, oil and other fuels that keep the global economy running and the lights and heat on in homes. Heading into winter, that has meant higher utility bills, more expensive products and growing concern about how energy-consuming Europe and China will recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The biggest squeeze is on natural gas in Europe, which imports 90% of its supply — largely from Russia — and where prices have risen to five times what they were at the start of the year, to 95 euros from about 19 euros per megawatt hour.

It’s hitting the Italian food chain hard, with methane prices expected to increase sixfold and push up the cost of drying grains. That could eventually raise the price of bread and pasta at supermarkets, but meat and dairy aisles are more vulnerable as beef and dairy farmers are forced to pay more for grain to feed their animals and pass the cost along to customers.

“From October we are starting to suffer a lot,” said Valentino Miotto of the AIRES association that represents the grain sector.

Analysts blame a confluence of events for the gas crunch: Demand rose sharply as the economy rebounded from the pandemic, while a cold winter depleted reserves. Europe’s chief supplier, Russia’s Gazprom, held back extra summer supplies beyond its long-term contracts to fill reserves at home for winter. China’s electricity demand has come roaring back, vacuuming up limited supplies of liquid natural gas, which moves by ship, not pipeline. There also are limited facilities to export natural gas from the United States.

Costlier natural gas has even pushed up oil prices because some power generators in Asia can switch from using gas to oil-based products. U.S. crude is over $83 per barrel, the highest in seven years, while international benchmark Brent is around $85, with oil cartel OPEC and allied countries cautious about restoring production cuts made during the pandemic.

The crunch is likely short term but it’s difficult to say how long higher fossil fuel prices will last, said Claudia Kemfert, an energy economics expert at the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin.

But “the long-term answer that has to be taken out of this is to invest in renewables and energy saving,” she said.

 In this Jan. 14, 2021, file photo, tugboats get into position on the Russian pipe-laying vessel "Fortuna" in the port of Wismar, Germany. The world's facing an energy crunch. Europe is feeling it worst as natural gas prices skyrocket to five times normal, forcing some factories to hold back production. Reserves depleted last winter haven't been made up, and chief supplier Russia has held back on supplying extra. Meanwhile, the new Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline won't start operating in time to help if the weather is cold, and there's talk Europe could wind up rationing electricity. China is feeling it too, seeing power outages in some towns. (Jens Buettner/DPA via AP, File)

The European Union’s executive commission urged member nations last week to speed up approvals for renewable energy projects like wind and solar, saying the “clean energy transition is the best insurance against price shocks in the future and needs to be accelerated.”

In the meantime, some gas-dependent European industries are throttling back production. German chemical companies BASF and SKW Piesteritz have cut output of ammonia, a key ingredient in fertilizer.

That left Hermann Greif, a farmer in the village of Pinzberg in Germany’s southern Bavaria region, unexpectedly emptyhanded when he tried to order fertilizer for next year.

“There’s no product, no price, not even a contract,” he said. “It’s a situation we’ve never seen before.” One thing is certain: “If I don’t give the crops the food they need, they react with lower yields. It’s as simple as that.”

High energy prices already were hitting the region’s farmers, who need diesel to operate machinery and heat to keep animals warm, said Greif, who grows corn to feed a bioenergy power facility that feeds emission-free energy into the power grid.

Likewise in Italy, the cost of energy to process wheat and corn is expected to go up more than 600% for the three months ending Dec. 31, according to the grain association. That includes turning wheat into flour, and corn into feed for cows and pigs.

Giampietro Scusato, an energy consultant who negotiates contracts for the AIRES association and others, expects the volatility and high prices to persist for the coming year.

High energy prices also seep into bread and pasta production through transport costs and electricity use, which could eventually affect store prices. Dairy and meat sections are especially exposed because prices are low now and farmers may be forced to pass along the higher cost of animal feed to shoppers.

People worldwide also are facing soaring utility bills this winter, including in the U.S., where officials have warned home heating prices could jump as much as 54%. Governments in Spain, France, Italy and Greece have announced measures to help low-income households, while the European Union has urged similar aid.

Much depends on the weather. Europe’s gas reserves, usually replenished in summer, are at unusually low levels.

“A cold winter in both Europe and Asia would risk European storage levels dropping to zero,” says Massimo Di Odoardo at research firm Wood Mackenzie.

That would leave Europe dependent on additional natural gas from a just-completed Russian pipeline or on Russian willingness to send more through pipelines across Ukraine. But the new Nord Stream 2 pipeline has not passed regulatory approval in Europe and may not be contributing gas until next year.

 In this Monday, April 11, 2011 file photo, workers of the German energy company RWE prepare power supply on a high power pylon in Moers, Germany. The world's facing an energy crunch. Europe is feeling it worst as natural gas prices skyrocket to five times normal, forcing some factories to hold back production. Reserves depleted last winter haven't been made up, and chief supplier Russia has held back on supplying extra. Meanwhile, the new Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline won't start operating in time to help if the weather is cold, and there's talk Europe could wind up rationing electricity. China is feeling it too, seeing power outages in some towns. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)

Russian suppliers’ decision to sell less gas on spot markets reflects “an intention to put pressure on the early certification of Nord Stream 2,” said Kemfert, the energy economics expert.

In China, outages have followed high prices for coal and gas as electric companies power down amid limits in passing costs to customers or government orders to stay under emission thresholds.

Factories in Jiangsu province, northwest of Shanghai, and Zhejiang in the southeast shut down in mid-September, and dozens warned deliveries might be delayed ahead of the Christmas shopping season.

Chenchen Jewelry Factory in Dongyang, a city in Zhejiang, faced power cuts over 10 days, general manager Joanna Lan said. The factory makes hairbands, stationery and promotional gifts and exports 80% to 90% of its goods to the U.S., Europe and other markets.

Deliveries were delayed “by at least a week,” Lan said. “We had to buy generators.”

The biggest city in the northeast, Shenyang, shut down streetlights and elevators and cut power to restaurants and shops a few hours a day.

China’s gas imports have jumped, but surging demand in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan also helped push up global prices, said Jenny Yang, research manager for the gas, power and energy futures team for China at IHS Markit.

In Brazil, higher gas and oil prices have been compounded by the worst drought in 91 years, which has left hydropower plants unable to supply electricity and more expensive bills.

Rosa Benta, a 67-year-old from a Sao Paulo working-class neighborhood, fears she will no longer be able to provide for her unemployed children and grandkids.

“Several times, (energy company) Enel called me saying I had debt. I told them: ‘I’m not going to stop feeding my son to pay you,’” Benta said outside her concrete house on a steep, narrow street. “If they want to cut the electricity, they can come.”

Benta lives on 1,400 reais (about $250) a month and says she often has to choose between buying gas for cooking or rice and beans.

“I don’t know what we are going to do with our lives,” she said.

 In this Aug. 26, 2021 file photo, a flare burns natural gas at an oil well Aug. 26, 2021, in Watford City, N.D. The world's facing an energy crunch. Europe is feeling it worst as natural gas prices skyrocket to five times normal, forcing some factories to hold back production. Reserves depleted last winter haven't been made up, and chief supplier Russia has held back on supplying extra. Meanwhile, the new Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline won't start operating in time to help if the weather is cold, and there's talk Europe could wind up rationing electricity. China is feeling it too, seeing power outages in some towns. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown, file)

___

McHugh reported from Frankfurt, Germany, Barry from Milan, McDonald from Beijing and Pollastri from Sao Paulo.

Lake Tahoe waters plummet as drought, climate change plague resort


Alex Wigglesworth
Sun, October 17, 2021, 

People enjoy the public beach on the north shore of Lake Tahoe in Tahoe Vista. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Lake Tahoe's water level has dropped so low that water is no longer flowing into the Truckee River and salmon aren’t expected to spawn in a major tributary this year.

Some boat ramps and docks are hundreds of feet from the water line, and clumps of stringy algae have been washing up on beaches, said Geoffrey Schladow, director of the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center.

“It’s putting us on warning that things could  WILL get a lot worse,” he said.

The receding water level, which is driven by climate change and drought, comes as the latest insult to the treasured tourist destination nestled in the Sierra Nevada. Its waters have already been clouded by smoke and ash from multiple wildfires this summer.

Lake Tahoe's water level is always fluctuating. It is typically lowest in December and January and then increases in the spring as melting snow from nearby mountains flows down, Schladow said.

“This year, we didn't get that bump,” he said. “It was more or less dropping since the previous year.”

Multiple boat ramps were unable to open for the summer season.

And with no game-changing precipitation, conditions have continued to worsen. The water level is usually somewhere between the lake's natural rim, which sits at 6,223 feet, and a dam at the top of the Truckee River that is six feet higher, Schladow said. But last week, it dropped just below the rim. By Saturday afternoon, the water level was roughly half an inch below the rim — and falling, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Geological Survey.

That’s because the lake each year loses about six feet of water from evaporation — a rate of about a quarter-inch a day, which can increase with high winds, Schladow said.

“If this next year is just an average year, or worse, a dry year, it probably means that the water level this time next year will be maybe something like four feet below the rim,” he said. “And if the next year is dry, it sort of continues.”

The water last dropped below Lake Tahoe’s rim toward the end of the 2012-17 drought, which was followed by the region's wettest year on record, Schladow said. These swings from dry to wet are nothing new.

“What is changing is that these periods of extreme low and extreme high water seem to be happening more and more frequently,” he said.

That comes as climate change is causing droughts to become drier, hotter and longer, and bursts of precipitation to become shorter and more intense, he said.

“One of the manifestations of climate change that all the models seem to agree on is that there will be more extremes,” he said. “Hot and cold, wet and dry.”

Low water levels in a major tributary to Lake Tahoe forced the U.S. Forest Service to cancel an annual festival celebrating the fall migration of the kokanee salmon. The salmon are not expected to spawn in Taylor Creek this year because of the ongoing drought, although they could return in future years if conditions allow, the Forest Service said.

It’s possible that as the water level continues to drop, the streams that flow into Lake Tahoe could become blocked by sandbars, further jeopardizing the ability of salmon to navigate them, Schladow said. Although they will spawn elsewhere, they will probably have low success, he said.

So-called terminal bodies of water that permanently lose their outflows and become cut off from tributaries are known to grow salty and inhospitable to aquatic life, although that is not expected to happen with Tahoe anytime soon.

Several inches of snow fell in Lake Tahoe last week, but it wasn’t enough to make a measurable difference in the water level. The National Weather Service said more is on the way Sunday into Monday, with 3 to 6 inches expected to fall above 7,000 feet.

Another storm is expected next weekend, said Amanda Young, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Reno.

But overall, she said, this year has been drier and warmer than normal in the forecast area.

And long-term forecasts are calling for those conditions to persist, Schladow said — although that could change, he added.

If the area does see significant precipitation, especially rain, that will raise another concern: debris flows in recent burn areas including the watershed at the south end of the lake, which was scorched by the Caldor fire this year.

“Next spring there may be a lot of material being washed in from Trout Creek and the Upper Truckee River,” Schladow said.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.