Monkey-brain study with link to China's military roils top European university





Thu, November 18, 2021
By Kirsty Needham and Stine Jacobsen

SYDNEY/COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -A Chinese professor at the University of Copenhagen conducted genetic research with the Chinese military without disclosing the connection, the university told Reuters, in the latest example of how China's pursuit of military-civilian technology is tapping into Western academia in the strategically sensitive area of biotechnology.

The professor, Guojie Zhang, is also employed by Shenzhen-based genomics giant BGI Group, which funds dozens of researchers at the university and has its European headquarters on the university's campus.

Zhang and a student he was supervising worked with a People's Liberation Army (PLA) laboratory on research exposing monkeys to extreme altitude to study their brains and develop new drugs to prevent brain damage – a priority the PLA has identified for Chinese troops operating on high plateau http://eng.mod.gov.cn/news/2021-02/09/content_4878887.htm borders.

Zhang co-published that paper https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6956719 with a PLA major general in January 2020. At the time the study was published, the university was "not familiar with the fact that the paper also included authors from Chinese military research institutions," Niels Kroer, head of its biology department, told Reuters in an email.

Zhang confirmed that he did not inform the university of the link because the university didn't require researchers to report co-authors on scientific papers to it, which the university confirmed. BGI said the study with the PLA lab "was not carried out for military purposes" and brain research is a critical area for understanding human diseases. China's government science academy said http://www.kiz.ac.cn/gre/gre7/gre73/201912/t20191223_5467586.html the study had national defence and civilian benefits on the Tibetan plateau.

Concerns about China's fusion of military and civilian technology, and about universities transferring sensitive technology to China that could help its military, have grown in the United States in recent years. Washington agreed https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/09/29/u-s-eu-trade-and-technology-council-inaugural-joint-statement last month to work with the European Union on the issue under a new joint technology and trade council. A U.S. Department of Defense report on China's military power this month flagged concern over Beijing using biotechnology to enhance its soldiers' performance.

The Danish incident, reported here for the first time, shows how China's pursuit of biotechnology with a military use has also become an issue for universities in Europe.

The European Commission says it is developing guidelines on "tackling foreign interference" at higher education institutions; a 2020 report https://leidenasiacentre.nl/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Towards-Sustainable-Europe-China-Collaboration-in-Higher-Education-and-Research.pdf from the Leiden Asia Centre, an independent group affiliated with Leiden University in the Netherlands, found at least five countries in Europe had concerns about the risks of research collaboration with China. Some universities, including Copenhagen, have long had close science ties to China.

Copenhagen university and two large Danish foundations who funded some of Zhang's work said they discovered China's military was involved only after one of the foundations saw it had been credited, incorrectly, with financing the monkey study. The work was funded by the Chinese government and military, the paper said.

The discovery came as Denmark's intelligence agency, PET, warned https://ufm.dk/en/publications/2021/files/er-din-forskning-i-fare-en.pdf 

Danish universities in May of the national security risks of being unwittingly involved in foreign military research, citing "a number of espionage activities and other foreign interference," and a student who co-authored research into 5G technology with an engineer from a Chinese military university. It declined to comment on specific cases.

The Chinese Academy of Science, where Zhang also has a genetics lab, said http://www.kiz.ac.cn/gre/gre7/gre73/201912/t20191223_5467586.html of the study at the time that brain damage and death caused by high altitude on the Tibetan plateau had severely hindered "national defence construction."

Denmark's Ministry of Higher Education and Science declined to comment on the altitude study, but said export control rules apply to some technology that can be used for both civilian and military purposes. The Danish Business Authority said most types of gene technology are not on its export control list.

The ministry said it had launched a broad review of the risks of international research cooperation, led by top university heads, to conclude at the start of next year.

The University of Copenhagen expects the review of "ethical and security policy limits" for collaboration will result in new rules for universities - and greater focus on the risks, its deputy director for research and innovation Kim Brinckmann told Reuters in an email.

"We are very proud to have Prof. Zhang ... as one of our very highly performing researchers," he said. The university did not respond to a question about how much funding BGI provides it.

China's foreign ministry said it urged Danish institutions to "abandon ideological prejudice and end groundless accusations and smears," and treat their research cooperation rationally "to accrue positive energy in the development of bilateral relations and practical cooperation."

ALTITUDE

Zhang and the head of the PLA laboratory for high-altitude research, Major General Yuqi Gao, designed the study, which also lists BGI founders Wang Jian and Yang Huanming as co-authors. BGI's other joint research with Gao has involved soldiers in Tibet and Xinjiang, Reuters reported in January.

That report was cited by two U.S. senators who called in September for BGI to be sanctioned by the United States as a military-linked company. Gao's research has directly improved the ability of China's rapid-advance plateau troops to carry out training and combat missions, according to the Chinese military's official news service http://www.81.cn/zghjy/2015-12/11/content_6811003.htm

China's Academy of Military Medical Sciences launched a four-year plan in 2012 for troops to acclimatise and adapt to the low-oxygen Tibetan plateau. That plan said BGI was working with Gao's lab to test soldiers arriving in Tibet and identify genes linked to altitude sickness, which does not affect Tibetans. It said preventing altitude sickness helped to "manage border areas where ethnic minorities gather," and had far-reaching economic and political significance.

BGI told Reuters the research with the military university aimed to understand the health risk for all people travelling to and working at high altitude.

"The project using BGI's technology studied the changes of the pathophysiology and genomics of the human body at very high altitudes," a BGI spokesman said. "In China, many military institutions ... carry out both civilian and military research," he added.

Gao wrote https://mmrjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40779-018-0150-0#author-information in 2018 that high altitude disease "is the main reason for reduced combat effectiveness and health damage of soldiers at high altitudes and influences the results of war on the highland plateau," and noted that drugs could be used in an emergency for the rapid deployment of soldiers.

China's military has recently increased http://www.mod.gov.cn/v/2021-11/01/content_4898183.htm live fire drills in Tibet after border clashes with India.

DEEP TIES

The University of Copenhagen has one of Europe's oldest genetics institutes, and it is BGI's biggest international research partner by count of science papers.

The ties run deep. Two former BGI chief executives, BGI's chairman, and the founder of its animal cloning programme previously studied or worked at Copenhagen. The university hosts more than two dozen BGI-funded researchers undertaking science and health doctorates.

Biology head Kroer told Reuters the university had been unaware of "claims that BGI has connections with the PLA." The university said that other than Zhang's salary as a professor, no Danish money was spent on the study, which animal rights activists have argued https://actionforprimates.org/public/afp_take_action_2020.php subjected the animals to suffering and distress.

The student Zhang worked with was in China and employed by BGI, the university said. Zhang's research team was not involved in the animal experiments performed in China, but did analyse the genomic data generated from the experiments, it added.

The Lundbeck Foundation, which primarily funds brain research and was incorrectly listed as a funder of the monkey brain study, "has not supported this area of his research, nor do we have any knowledge about it," a spokesman said of the monkey brain project. Lundbeck said Zhang had told them he was studying ants and genetics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2P3WGVZgJs and how this could explain brain processes in humans.

The foundation said it asked Zhang this year to remove its name from the study. The Carlsberg Foundation, which controls the world's third-largest brewer and said it gave Zhang a DKK 4 million ($623,000) fellowship in 2016, also told Reuters it had been incorrectly listed as funding the project.

The paper was published in a Chinese journal, Zoological Research, which declined to comment.

Zhang is on the journal's editorial board. He told Reuters the two Danish foundations were mentioned in the paper by mistake. "We did not spend any funding from the grants I received from these two foundations on this project," he added in an email. The journal published a correction removing the foundations' names in March 2021.

Lundbeck declined to comment on what impact the discovery might have; Carlsberg has said animal experiments conducted overseas must comply with Danish regulations, but did not comment on the military involvement.

INTERNAL DEBATE

In June 2020, the University of Copenhagen decided to close a think tank it had run with Shanghai's Fudan University since 2013, saying it had adjusted its overall cooperation strategy.

The decision prompted a debate about China inside the university, documents obtained by Reuters under freedom of information rules show. The university held a meeting in August 2020 to discuss the closure of Fudan and review its collaboration with China.

"China has engaged in a strategic civil-military fusion of research that often blurs the lines to the outsider," China Studies professor Jorgen Delman said in a note to the university's head afterwards, recommending better screening of Chinese researchers and consultations with Danish military intelligence to advise on "risks and no-go areas." He declined to comment further.

Genetic cloning technology was transferred to BGI after a researcher, Yutao Du, received her doctorate in 2007 with a team from Danish universities that created the world's first pigs using a technique called handmade cloning. She was praised by the Chinese government for bringing the technology to China, which went on to clone genetically modified pigs for the study of human neurological illnesses.

China's national science programme said cloned pigs were a stepping stone to chimeras, a controversial area where China wanted to lead the world. Chimeras are organisms composed of cells from two or more species that may be capable of growing organs for human transplantation.

Du is now vice president at BGI Genomics Ltd, and won promotion within the Chinese Communist Party, becoming a delegate to its national congress in 2017. She did not respond to a request for comment.

(Kirsty Needham reported from Sydney, Stine Jacobsen from Copenhagen; Edited by Sara Ledwith)

HINDUISM IS ARYANISM
UC Davis adds caste to its anti- discrimination policy


This photo provided by the University of California, Davis shows the university campus in Davis, Calif., on April 3, 2015. The university has added caste, a millennia-old concept that assigns people in South Asia their social statuses at birth, to its anti-discrimination policy. Under UC Davis' policy amended in September, students or staff who face discrimination or harassment for their perceived castes can now file complaints that could result in formal investigations. 

(Chris Di Dio/University of California, Davis via AP)More


Thu, November 18, 2021,

DAVIS, Calif. (AP) — The University of California, Davis, has added caste to its anti-discrimination policy after students said they have seen discrimination take place at the university based on the South Asian practice of assigning people their social status at birth.

Under UC Davis’ policy, which was amended in September, students or staff who face discrimination or harassment for their perceived castes can now file complaints that could result in formal investigations, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Wednesday.

The Northern California university may be the first public institution to address caste discrimination, which was largely imported from South Asia.


“The significance of adding caste … is it ensures that the communities most impacted and most vulnerable to this type of discrimination or harassment know that the university recognizes the harm caused,” Danésha Nichols, director of UC Davis’ Harassment & Discrimination Assistance and Prevention Program, told the newspaper.

Students started pushing for the change after receiving insulting memes in their group chats and overhearing South Asian students ask each other what caste they belonged to before picking roommates, the newspaper reported.

Estimated to be thousands of years old, caste is rooted in India’s Hindu scripture. It long placed Dalits at the bottom of a social hierarchy, once terming them “untouchables.” Inequities and violence against Dalits have persisted even though India banned caste discrimination in 1950.

The practice has traveled outside of India to Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, and occurs among Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Jains, Christians and Buddhists, said Anjali Arondekar, a professor and co-director of the Center for South Asian Studies at University of California, Santa Cruz told the newspaper.

“Caste is really about labor segmentation and sustained inequality through the years — millenniums, really,” she said.

India’s caste system, which assigns people their social statuses at birth, places Dalits, once called “untouchables,” at the bottom of its social hierarchy that can determine where they live, what schools they can attend, what jobs they can get and where they marry.

Last year, California regulators sued Cisco Systems, saying an engineer faced discrimination at the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters because he is a Dalit Indian.

The engineer worked on a team at Cisco’s San Jose headquarters with Indians who all immigrated to the U.S. as adults, and all of whom were of high caste, according to the lawsuit filed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing.

The “higher caste supervisors and co-workers imported the discriminatory system’s practices into their team and Cisco’s workplace,” the lawsuit said, and that the company did not “substantiate any caste-based or related discrimination or retaliation."

Cisco Systems Inc., a major supplier of computer networking gear that makes the internet work, has said it would defend against the allegations in the complaint.

Caste is often based on a person's last names, the village or town a person comes from, and from their religious and social practices.

Prem Pariyar, a 37-year-old graduate student at California State University, East Bay, said his family would be physically assaulted because of their lower caste in his home country of Nepal. He said the last thing he expected was to face casteism when he moved to the U.S. in 2015.

But he faced it when interacting with other South Asians in the Bay Area — at his restaurant job, at the university, at community events and at dinner parties.

“Some will ask me my last name under the pretense of getting to know me, but are really trying to find out about my caste. Others have served me meals in separate plates and utensils after they find out I’m Dalit,” Pariyar said.

He started organizing with other CSU students around the issue and their efforts led the Cal State Student Association, which represents all 23 CSU campuses, to recognize caste as a protected category this year. But the CSU school system itself has not made any changes to its discrimination policy. Pariyar was also part of the UC Davis campaign.

UC Davis' policy change feels like a big step for those trying to get caste discrimination recognized across the U.S.

“It is an issue, it’s here and it’s time to deal with it,” he said.

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2006/10/hinduism-is-fascism.html

Duchess of Cornwall visits Egyptian donkey hospital on final day of royal tour

Hannah Furness
Fri, November 19, 2021


The Duchess of Cornwall during a visit to Brooke Veterinary Hospital in Cairo, Egypt on the last day of her tour of the Middle East with the Prince of Wales. - Joe Giddens/PA

In 1931, the wife of an Army officer was so horrified to find Britain's loyal war horses working into old age on the streets of Egypt that she wrote to The Telegraph pleading with its readers for help.

The result was £20,000 in donations and a refuge for 5,000 of those horses saved from suffering and ending their lives in peace.

Today, the Duchess of Cornwall has visited the site of that sanctuary, now a modern veterinary hospital for injured donkeys and horses brought in from the streets of Cairo.


The Duchess was shown around the stables, stroking the animals' noses and asking after their welfare. She was introduced to an injured horse painted by henna and brought in by his owner, and patted two nervous donkeys recuperating in the hay.

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, visits the Brooke Veterinary Hospital in Cairo

The visit took place on the last day of her tour of the Middle East with the Prince of Wales - Joe Giddens/PA

Escorted by Sherif Foda, chairman of Brooke Egypt, the Duchess first cut a ribbon to officially open the refurbished hospital which contained row upon row of stables containing animals being treated by the charity’s vets.

"I can’t believe how clean they are, so impressive," she said. "They really are spotless."

Head of animal welfare Dr Emad Nouam, who has worked there for 32 years, gave the Duchess bardeen, a type of clover, to feed them.

She stroked one and asked what he happened to it and was told that it had been hit by a car.

"You poor thing, well you are in good hands," she said.

Dorothy Brooke, whose name and picture are still on the wall, was the wife of a Major General in the British Army who arrived in Egypt in 1930 and found the ageing war horses "dragging out wretched days of toil in the ownership of masters too poor to feed them – too inured to hardship themselves to appreciate, in the faintest degree, the sufferings of animals in their hands".

The Duchess was given bardeen, a type of clover, to feed the animals

The following year, having established the problem stretched to thousands of elderly horses once used to transport British troops in the region during the First World War, she wrote to the Morning Post, which is now The Telegraph.

"They are all over twenty years of age by now, and to say that the majority of them have fallen on hard times is to express it very mildly," she wrote.

"These old horses were, many of them, born and bred in the green fields of England – how many years since they have seen a field, heard a stream of water, or a kind word in English?"

Saying "many are blind - all are skeletons", she told readers she was setting up a fund to buy the horses, restore any she could back to health and bring a "merciful end" for the rest.

She told them: "If those who truly love horses – who realise what it can mean to be very old, very hungry and thirsty, and very tired, in a country where hard, ceaseless work has to be done in great heat – will send contributions to help in giving a merciful end to our poor old war heroes, we shall be extremely grateful; and we venture to think that, in many ways, this may be as fitting (though unspectacular) part of a War Memorial as any other that could be devised."

Newspaper readers sent the modern equivalent of £20,000, allowing Mrs Brooke to buy 5,000 ex-war horses. Most were "old, exhausted, and had to be humanely put down", the charity said.

In 1934, she set up the Old War Horse Memorial Hospital in Cairo. Four years later, the charity put shade shelter and water troughs for animals in the city, and brought in its first motorised ambulance.

It now has four hospitals and 28 mobile vet units in Egypt, provides free care for around 160,000 injured and sick donkeys and horses, most of which are brought in by owners who cannot afford to treat them.

The Duchess of Cornwall during a visit to Brooke Veterinary Hospital in Cairo, Egypt on the last day of her tour of the Middle East with the Prince of Wales. - Joe Giddens/PA

They also run education programmes about animals welfare.

It is now a multi-national charity with centres throughout Egypt and in the UK. Donations to the Cairo branch are now negligible, staff said.

The Brooke, as it is known in England, has recently put out an appeal after being hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. In Egypt, it ran a feeding programme for 1,700 horses whose owners worked in tourism and could no longer afford to keep them well.

The visit from the Duchess of Cornwall came on the final day of the royal tour to Jordan and Egypt. The Prince attended a meeting of his Sustainable Markets Initiative.

3 million workers are missing amid the labor shortage, and 2 million of them are immigrants who never came to the US because of Trump-era policies

Jason Lalljee,Andy Kiersz
Sat, November 20, 2021

The U.S. would have about 2 million more workers if not for Trump-era policies.

Alexander W Helin/Getty Images


The US would have about 2 million more workers if not for Trump-era policies, Insider estimates.


Immigrant workers typically fuel the industries that are currently experiencing worker shortages.


The current shortage of workers is causing problems for both businesses and consumers.

American businesses are feeling the impact of the current labor shortage as they struggle to hire amid a record high wave of people quitting — and Trump-era immigration policies could be to blame.

Roughly 3 million fewer people in the US are working or looking for work than in February 2020, as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics labor force participation rate. That's the labor shortage in a nutshell.

But what if we told you that problem could be cut down to just a third of its size by going back to a pre-Donald Trump legal regime?

The current dearth of workers is mirrored by the number of working-age adults who would have lived in the United States if pre-Trump immigration trends persisted, according to 2020 US Census data.

Former President Donald Trump's administration was more restrictive to immigration than any other in recent history, making good on Trump's rhetoric antagonizing immigrants of color, specifically undocumented and Latinx immigrants. According to the Migration Policy Institute, the Trump administration undertook over 400 executive actions on immigration.

We estimate that in all, about 2 million of America's missing workers are immigrants who never came to the US.

The Census Bureau estimates that about 1.07 million people immigrated on net to the US in 2016, while only about 480,000 people immigrated in 2020.

Between 2011 and 2016, the US was gaining an additional 54,000 net immigrants each year. But that began to turn around, with net international migration declining each year between 2017 and 2020. If the early-decade trend continued instead, the US would have added about 2.1 million immigrants over those four years:
Trump-era policies are responsible for the missing workers

As it turns out, industries facing labor shortages — truck drivers and construction workers, namely — would have benefited from immigrant workers had Trump-era policies not prevented them from entering the US.

Construction, transportation and warehousing, accommodation and hospitality businesses, and personal service businesses like salons and dry cleaners are the four industries currently facing the worst labor shortages, the pro-immigration think tank New American Economy found last month for a Vox investigation.

All four industries saw increases in job postings of more than 65 percent from 2019 to 2021, when comparing the period between May to July for those two years. Immigrants make up more than a fifth of the workforce in those industries.

Immigrant workers account for about a quarter of the construction workforce as well, the National Association of Home Builders reported in March. That share is even higher when it comes to construction tradesmen, and is as much as 40% in states like California and Texas. These numbers would be even higher if they accounted for construction workers hired informally.

The National Foundation for American Policy projected last year that Trump administration policies reduced legal immigration by about 49% during Trump's time in office. They also projected that average annual labor force growth would be about 59% lower as a result of the policies.

Trump issued more than 40 immigration policy changes after the onset of the pandemic, limiting legal roads to immigration and tightening rules for undocumented immigration.

He also banned asylum seekers last March, for example, re-implementing the policy and eventually extending it indefinitely throughout the year. Similarly, he indefinitely postponed hearings for immigrants returned to Mexico under the Migrant Protection Protocols.

2021 continues to chart record numbers of workers quitting. Roughly 4 million people, about 3% of workers, voluntarily left their jobs in September, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' most recent survey. That's up from 4.3 million in August, and 4 million in July. These are the largest mass resignations the US has seen in the two decades since the government started documenting them.

This labor shortage has been affecting American consumers as well, causing supply chain issues and greater price inflation, which recently hit a 30-year high in the U.S.

"When you don't have the truck drivers and we don't have the people that are working in construction, then economics says prices are going to go up," Julie Palmer, a human resource professor at Webster University, told KSDK News on Monday.

White supremacist prison guards work with impunity in Fla.




 A pickup truck with a Confederate flag-themed decal is parked outside the Reception and Medical Center, the state's prison hospital where new inmates are processed, in Lake Butler, Fla., Friday, April 16, 2021. According to public documents and interviews with a dozen inmates and current and former employees in the nation’s tenth largest prison system, Florida prison guards openly tout associations with white supremacist groups to intimidate inmates and Black colleagues, a persistent practice that goes unpunished and is allowed to fester in prisons throughout the U.S. 

(AP Photo/David Goldman, File)More

JASON DEAREN
Thu, November 18, 2021

In June, three Florida prison guards who boasted of being white supremacists beat, pepper sprayed and used a stun gun on an inmate who screamed “I can’t breathe!” at a prison near the Alabama border, according to a fellow inmate who reported it to the state.

The next day, the officers at Jackson Correctional Institution did it again to another inmate, the report filed with the Florida Department of Corrections’ Office of Inspector General stated.

“If you notice these two incidents were people of color. They (the guards) let it be known they are white supremacist,” the inmate Jamaal Reynolds wrote. “The Black officers and white officers don’t even mingle with each other. Every day they create a hostile environment trying to provoke us so they can have a reason to put their hands on us.”

Both incidents occurred in view of surveillance cameras, he said. Reynolds' neatly printed letter included the exact times and locations and named the officers and inmates. It’s the type of specific information that would have made it easier for officials to determine if the reports were legitimate. But the inspector general’s office did not investigate, corrections spokeswoman Molly Best said. Best did not provide further explanation, and the department hasn't responded to The Associated Press’ August public records requests for the videos.

Some Florida prison guards openly tout associations with white supremacist groups to intimidate inmates and Black colleagues, a persistent practice that often goes unpunished, according to allegations in public documents and interviews with a dozen inmates and current and former employees in the nation’s third-largest prison system. Corrections officials regularly receive reports about guards’ membership in the Ku Klux Klan and criminal gangs, according to former prison inspectors, and current and former officers.

Still, few such cases are thoroughly investigated by state prison inspectors; many are downplayed by officers charged with policing their own or discarded as too complicated to pursue.

“I've visited more than 50 (prison) facilities and have seen that this is a pervasive problem that is not going away,” said Democratic Florida state Rep. Dianne Hart. “It's partly due to our political climate. But, those who work in our prisons don't seem to fear people knowing that they're white supremacists.”

The people AP talked to, who live and work inside Florida’s prison system, describe it as chronically understaffed and nearly out of control. In 2017, three current and former Florida guards who were Ku Klux Klan members were convicted after the FBI caught them planning a Black former inmate’s murder.

This summer, one guard allowed 20-30 members of a white supremacist inmate group to meet openly inside a Florida prison. A Black officer happened upon the meeting, they told The AP, and later confronted the colleague who allowed it. The officer said their incident report about the meeting went nowhere, and the guard who allowed it was not punished.

The officer spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not cleared to discuss official prison business. They told The AP that, after the report went nowhere, they did not feel safe at work and are seeking to leave.

Officers who want to blow the whistle on colleagues are often ostracized and labeled a “snitch,” according to current and former officers.

Mark Caruso, a former sergeant with Florida corrections who was twice fired and reinstated after blowing the whistle on fellow officers, described the department as a “good old boy” network.

He said that senior officers-in-charge have the power to censor any allegations of corrupt behavior that occurs on their watch. This keeps reports inside prison walls.

Caruso worked at three prisons in central Florida and reported inmate beatings and officer misconduct multiple times. Being a whistleblower did not work out well for him. He was fired after reporting on a colleague at the first prison where he worked as a sergeant, he said.

He was reinstated after the officers’ union challenged the firing, and he moved to a new prison. There, he again reported an officer’s use of force and was later fired and reinstated after the union challenged it again.

In 2019, he reported for duty at another new post, the Central Florida Reception Center. He was soon greeted with signs on an employee bulletin board where his name had been crossed out and “SNITCH” scrawled instead, according to testimony at a union grievance hearing. Another officer spit on his car windshield, he said.

Despite the intimidation, Caruso continued reporting inmate abuse and other illegal activity by fellow officers.

“I have reported people when physically seeing them abuse inmates,” he testified in another grievance hearing earlier this year. The AP obtained video of the hearing at which multiple officers and leadership testified in detail about the system’s reporting structure and culture.

Corrections officers are required to file “incident reports” if they see a co-worker acting inappropriately. In some Florida prisons, supervisors often tell them not to email the reports, according to officers who testified at Caruso’s hearing. Instead, they’re told to tell their supervisor verbally what happened or write it longhand. A superior officer then types it up, choosing the language and framing the event.

A sergeant testified that the reason he typed up his officers’ incident reports was because most struggle with writing. Also, most do not have computer access at the prison.

Caruso said he refused to report incidents of corruption verbally because it left no record, and he worried that prison leadership would censor his reports. So he emailed them to create an electronic record, a decision that, he says, irked prison leadership.

After seeing his reports go nowhere, he finally went over his superior officers' heads. Caruso made contact with an investigator in the Office of Inspector General and emailed Florida Corrections Secretary Mark Inch directly. Inch responded to him expressing concern, Caruso said, and referred the matter to the IG’s office. That did not end well, either.

“For at least two years I reported to (the IG's office) all of the corruption I saw. He didn’t respond or follow up,” Caruso said of the inspector general’s investigator.

Caruso was eventually fired again after officials said he’d failed to report an inmate beating — one Caruso said he did not actually witness. It was a baffling charge given his active campaign of reporting others throughout his corrections career. He claimed, unsuccessfully this time, that the firing was retaliation.

If the inspector general were motivated to aggressively investigate reports of abuse by white supremacists or other gang members working as correctional officers he would face barriers, the former investigators told AP.

That’s because state law limits the use of inmates as confidential informants, they said, and guards are reluctant or afraid to snitch on their colleagues.

For an inmate to act as an informant, the FBI would have to take over the case because Florida law limits the inspector general’s office’s interactions with inmates, the former investigators said. “We don’t have the authority to do anything,” one said.

Officers, meantime, fear retaliation.

“Officers are saying their colleagues are members, but they can have me killed,” one former investigator said.

___

After the three guards in Florida were captured on FBI recordings plotting a Black inmate’s murder upon his release, Florida corrections spokeswoman Michelle Glady insisted there was no indication of a wider problem of white supremacists working in the prisons, so the state would not investigate further.

After the statement, an AP reporter in April visited the employee parking lot of one facility in the state’s rural north and photographed cars and trucks adorned with symbols and stickers that are often associated with the white supremacist movement: Confederate flags, Q-Anon and Thin Blue Line images.

Florida has grappled with this issue for decades. In the early 2000s, the corrections department was forced by a St. Petersburg Times expose to investigate a clique of racist guards who all carried rope keychains with a noose. The Times reported that the noose keychains were used to signal a racist officer who was willing to inflict pain, particularly on Black inmates.

The state investigated the keychains and complaints from Black guards of workplace discrimination. Department inspectors interviewed the white guards who were known to carry the noose keychains and eventually cleared them all.

“This is a pattern all over the country,” said Paul Wright, a former inmate who co-founded the prisoner-rights publication Prison Legal News. Wright helped expose Ku Klux Klan members working in a Washington state prison in the 1990s. He and Prison Legal News have since reported cases of Nazis and klan members working as correctional officers in California, New York, Texas, Illinois and many other states.

“There’s an institutional acceptance of this type of racism," Wright said. “What’s striking about this is that so many of them keep their jobs."

Most state prisons and police departments throughout the U.S. do very little background checking to see if new hires have extremist views, said Greg Ehrie, former chief of the FBI’s New York domestic terrorism squad, who now works with the Anti-Defamation League.

“There are 513 police agencies in New Jersey, and not one bans being part of outlaw motorcycle gangs. A prison guard who is the patched member of the Pagans, he can be out about it and tell you about it (with no punishment) because it’s not stipulated in the employment contract,” Ehrie said. The ADL lists the Pagans among biker gangs with white supremacist group affiliations.

This dynamic can lead to what the former Florida prison investigator described as “criminals watching over criminals.”

“If you have a heartbeat, a GED and no felony conviction you can get a job. That’s sad,” said Caruso, the former Florida correctional sergeant.

Florida state Rep. Hart and Caruso have called for a thorough investigation of the issue and a federal takeover of the prison system.

The FBI said it would neither confirm nor deny if such an investigation had been launched, but Ehrie said it is likely.

“I would be extremely surprised if this wasn’t an open bureau investigation,” he said of Florida's prison system. “It’s almost impossible that they’re not investigating.”

___

Meanwhile, reports of racist behavior by correctional officers continue, according to inmates and current and former Florida corrections employees.

In late September, at another Panhandle prison, a 25-year-old Black inmate reported being beaten by a white officer who said “You’re lucky I didn’t have my spray on me, cuz I would gas yo Black ass.” The inmate’s lip was split open and his face swollen.

The inmate’s family requested anonymity for fear of retaliation.

His mother reported the incident to the Inspector General's office on Oct. 1 and requested a wellness check on him. The office sent an investigator to the facility to interview her son, according to emails provided by the family.

After the interview, the IG refused to investigate the officer’s conduct. The mother was told it was her son’s word versus the officer’s, and there was nothing they could do. The IG’s office referred the matter instead to the prison warden.

The officer continued working in the inmate's dorm and threatened him, the inmate said in letters home.

“All them is a click (sic), a gang. Ya feel me, they all work together,” the inmate wrote in October. For weeks, he sent desperate letters saying he was still being terrorized. He urged his mother to continue fighting.

“Don’t let up Mom. This has extremely messed up my mental. Got me shell shock, feel less of a man, violated ya feel me? But I love you.”

She eventually helped him get transferred in early November to a facility with a reputation for being even more lawless and brutal, according to the family and a current officer. He is four years into a 12-year sentence for attempted robbery with a gun or deadly weapon.

“I do look forward to seeing my son one day and I can only pray,” the mother told AP. “I’m overwhelmed, tired and doing my best to hold on for my son’s sake.”

___

Michael Balsamo in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Email AP’s Global Investigations Team at investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips/. See other work at https://www.apnews.com/hub/ap-investigations.

___

Follow Jason Dearen on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/JHDearen

Staff Fumes, Ashley Judd Weeps as Time’s Up Pink-Slips Almost Everyone

Emily Shugerman
Fri, November 19, 2021

 Ashley Judd

The vast majority of Time’s Up’s remaining staffers were laid off Friday in what they described as a debacle that began with leaders revealing they gave the news to the Washington Post first and ended with board member Ashley Judd breaking down in tears.

The embattled organization, limping since its CEO and entire board resigned this summer, announced Friday that it would lay off the vast majority of its remaining staff. Leadership informed staff of the decision in a virtual meeting that started 15 minutes before the Post article made the pink slips national news.

“They said on the call, ‘The Washington Post is releasing a piece right now,’” said Stacey Ferguson, Time’s Up’s digital director. “Some staff members were like, ‘Oh my god, my mom is going to read about it before I can tell her.’”

“To paraphrase what a colleague shared on the call: For an organization that’s supposed to be advocating for fair and dignified workplaces, this feels like the opposite of that,” Ferguson added.

Insiders Say #MeToo Powerhouse Time’s Up Has Lost Its Way

In a statement, the board called the layoffs a “major reset” needed to right the ship after the events of the last year. Multiple outlets reported over the summer that the leaders of Time’s Up—which was created in response to the #MeToo movement—had counseled then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on how to respond to sexual harassment allegations against him and had disparaged his accuser in text messages.

Both CEO Tina Tchen and board chair Roberta Kaplan stepped down in August, naming former CFO Monifa Bandele the interim CEO and starting the process of hiring consultant Leilani Brown to conduct an independent review. Brown’s report, which was also released Friday, found a lack of discipline, loss of trust, and “outsized expectations without a stable foundation to grow on.”

In a statement announcing the layoffs and the results of the report, Board Chair Gabrielle Sulzberger called them “a needed reset, not a retreat.”

“TIME’S UP stands for accountability and systematic change in the workplace,” she said. “It is incumbent on us to learn from these findings, and focus on building an organization that powerfully serves women of all kinds and ends the impunity of sexual harassment and assault in the workplace.”

Gabrielle Sulzberger

Staffers who spoke to The Daily Beast said they were confused why this “reset” required all of the on-the-ground staff to be laid off, while three of the organization’s highest-ranking members—its chief financial officer, chief development officer, and head of entertainment—would stay on in order to “rebuild.”

“Most of us weren’t in the leadership team when the Cuomo stuff happened, yet we’re the ones being punished for past actions of the organization,” said one employee, who asked to remain anonymous.

“Yet again, Time’s Up is putting the interests of the organization over its own staff members,” she added. “We’ve obviously become collateral damage in all of this.”

Staffers said they learned their fates in a 1 p.m. Zoom call led primarily by Sulzberger and fellow board member Judd. The two fielded questions about why the Washington Post had been told about the decision before staff members, and why employees would receive only two months’ severance during a global pandemic—something one staffer described to The Daily Beast as “a slap in the face.” (A Time’s Up spokesperson told The Daily Beast the severance package as “generous” for a small nonprofit.)

At one point, one staffer said, Judd began to cry, saying she was “broken-hearted” about the news.

“Mind you, she’s already put out a statement [to the Washington Post] with information that staff didn’t have access to,” the staffer said. “So keep your fucking crocodile tears.”

Revealed: Time’s Up Staffers Warned of Big Problems in Memo Long Before Implosion

The Time’s Up spokesperson told The Daily Beast that the organization decided to work with the Post because the paper had already obtained some details of the report, and they wanted to ensure the resulting article painted a full picture. He added that the layoffs were necessary to ensure that the organization’s work on behalf of survivors could continue, but declined to say when its programmatic work—which will be paused Jan. 1 when the current staffers depart—will resume.

The Daily Beast previously reported on the fractures within the organization, which launched to great fanfare in 2018. Staffers at the time described an organization that was more committed to its wealthy and powerful backers than it was to survivors, and that embraced a stifling, top-down leadership style. Employees claimed they had been forced to remove photos of Cuomo critics from their website and tweet laudatory things about his office’s work; others said they were forced to drop everything and launch a petition in support of Gayle King when the celebrity was being harassed online. One survivor whom the group had initially supported asked to remove her name from a Daily Beast article in April, after a Time’s Up executive lashed out at her for participating.

Tina Tchen resigned as CEO of Time’s Up earlier this year.

Ferguson, who has been with the organization a little over a year, said she stayed on staff despite these negative reports because she believed the organization could change. But even before the layoffs were announced, she said, she had already lost that hope.

“Imagine coming to work every day and wanting to do the right things—the good things—but you are prevented by the red tape, and the culture, and this weird, super heavy, top-down way of leading,” she said.

“The 25 people on staff are amazing, and the 12 people who resigned since I started a year ago are amazing, and that is the crying shame,” she added.

A fellow employee described Friday’s layoffs as a “failure” to the staff and the movement as a whole.

Asked what she would tell the organization’s leadership, she said: “I would make it very, very clear that they should be ashamed of themselves, that this is an embarrassment and a besmirchment of everything this movement is for. And I would love to know how they can sleep at night keeping their employees in the dark."

Embattled Time’s Up, post-Cuomo, announces a ‘major reset’

By JOCELYN NOVECK

November 19, 2021

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Confusion over purpose and mission. Lack of focus on long-term goals. Ineffective communication internally and externally. Lack of accountability for top officials, especially the CEO. Too politically partisan, and too aligned with Hollywood.

These are just some of the issues raised in a report commissioned by Time’s Up and released Friday — in the name of transparency — as the advocacy group pledged a “major reset” including the termination of most of the staff. It comes three months after a damaging scandal forced the departure of chief executive Tina Tchen over revelations that the group’s leaders advised former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration after he was first accused of sexual harassment last year.

“We’re going down to the studs,” said Ashley Judd, one of the group’s most visible members and a key early voice in the broader #MeToo movement, in an interview.

“We’re going to rebuild and reset and come back in a way that honors our mandate, incorporates the voices of our critics, learns from our findings … and holds ourselves accountable but also lives up to our potential.”

Judd and Monifa Bandele, the interim leader since September, spoke to The Associated Press ahead of the report’s release, which coincides with a major staff upheaval. Most of the staff of 25 people were informed Friday they were being laid off at the end of the year, with a skeleton crew of three remaining. Four board members will stay on, including Judd, as the organization decides its next steps and chooses leadership. Bandele is stepping down.

Both women insisted that Time’s Up remains crucially important as an advocacy group for women. Bandele, who says she made the decision herself not to seek – for now – the permanent CEO role she had wanted, noted that “Even the people who are the toughest, toughest critics said, ‘We still need Time’s Up. Time’s Up is going to play a critical role in our movement. …. I didn’t see any ‘Burn it all down.’”

And Judd offered an emotional defense of the organization, saying she feels “as energized and committed today” as she did when Time’s Up launched in the wake of allegations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, whom she herself had accused of sexual harassment. “The need for fair, safe, dignified workplaces for women of all kinds is still urgent.”

In explaining the group’s relevance, Judd told the anecdote of how a visiting producer on a movie she was doing came up to her and referred to a film they’d worked on years earlier. “I should have had you when I had the chance,” he declared, she said, in front of the entire crew and his wife. Judd did not identify the producer.

Judd said she knew she’d been harassed, and looked to the home page of SAG, the Screen Actors Guild, for help. “There was no help for me. And today, because of Time’s Up, on my union membership card there’s a sexual harassment hotline.”

“All of our norms have changed,” Judd added. “No more meetings in hotel rooms. No more meetings before and after standard work hours. Intimacy coordinators on set, and you can take a buddy with you to auditions for safety. Those are tremendous strides in our industry.”

Time’s Up was formed close to four years ago by a group of high-profile Hollywood women — producers, agents, movie stars — eager to build on the momentum from the Weinstein scandal and fight sexual harassment in their own industry and beyond.

The group pledged to be a voice for women from all walks of life, but it has been plagued by criticism — from outside, and also from within — that it was too aligned with Hollywood and less attentive to the needs of others. When Bandele took over interim leadership, she pledged the group would ask itself: “What are our conflicts of interests, what are our guardrails?”

The release of the report, written by independent consultant Leilani M. Brown and first reported by The Washington Post, forms the first phase of the group’s reset; the next phase, Bandele said, is strategic planning, and a final phase will be implementation. The report was compiled over a period of two months; Some 200 people, including current and former staffers and stakeholders, were contacted and 85 agreed to interviews.

“This is a needed reset, not a retreat,” said board chair Gabrielle Sulzberger, in a statement. “It is incumbent on us to learn from these findings, and focus on building an organization that powerfully serves women of all kinds and ends the impunity of sexual harassment and assault in the workplace.”

Already, Bandele said, the report “has been successful in that we have really demonstrated transparency and openness in a way that’s vulnerable. And so it feels good. At the same time, it’s bittersweet.”

Among the findings:

—There was internal confusion about purpose and mission, which was “largely undefined for some time.” Partly this was because the organization developed too fast, the report said, ramping up ‘like a jet plane to a rocket ship’ overnight.“

—Leaders were seen as often chasing short-term goals rather than a longer-term strategic vision.

—Communication was “inconsistent and fragmented.” Some members were frustrated to hear of the allegations involving the Cuomo case from the media and not from Time’s Up itself. ( Tchen’s Aug. 26 resignation followed the earlier departure of the organization’s chair, Roberta Kaplan. Both women had angered Time’s Up supporters with the idea they’d offered any help to Cuomo, and that Tchen initially discouraged other Time’s Up leaders from commenting publicly on allegations by one of his accusers, Lindsey Boylan. Cuomo resigned on Aug. 10 amid a barrage of harassment allegations.)

—The group appeared politically partisan. The report cited members who felt Time’s Up was damaged by leaders’ ties to the Democratic Party (Tchen was once Michelle Obama’s chief of staff). The organization was accused by some of not supporting Tara Reade, who accused now-President Joe Biden of assaulting her in the 1990s — an allegation he has vehemently denied. And the Cuomo ties led to criticism that the group’s dealings with the governor smacked of political favoritism.

Bandele said in the interview that the Cuomo episode might have landed differently if the group’s structure were more sound. “The Cuomo crisis was key in where we are now,” Bandele said. “But if the inside structure … was stronger, if the communications and the transparency in the processes were stronger, something like what happened with Cuomo would be (less) likely to happen. Even if it did, “it wouldn’t have the same detrimental effect on how people view the organization because we’d have much greater trust within the community.”

The question now is how the group will rebuild that trust.

“All organizations make mistakes,” Bandele argued. “So we’ll make mistakes, too. But it’s not a nail in the coffin … this is not the end of us. The thing is that we have to build back stronger.”

The group did not provide a timeline for its next steps. Judd said it would be worth the wait.

“What we are going to manifest is an organization that has singleness of purpose and will be inclusive, and amplify the voices of women of all kinds,” she said. “We’re very excited to be able to share it with the world.”

As for herself, she said, “I’m still here because I know the urgency of how much society needs Time’s Up. The mandate is bigger and more important than the mistakes we made. And we will persevere and be of service.”

The OPEC of Maple Syrup Taps Its Stockpile to Make Sure Your Pancakes Are Covered



Jen Skerritt
Fri, November 19, 2021, 10:30 AM·2 min read

(Bloomberg) -- Fear not, pancake lovers. The OPEC of maple syrup plans to dip into its sticky stockpile to cover a shortfall of the breakfast staple.The organization, Quebec Maple Syrup Producers, said it is draining nearly 50 million pounds of syrup from barrels in its strategic reserve, about half its stockpile and the most since 2008. The amount being released is equal to more than a third of this year’s harvest in the French-speaking Canadian province, the world’s top supplier. Output plunged 24% this year following a warmer and shorter spring harvest as overseas demand soared, according to the group.

“We need to produce more maple syrup,” spokeswoman Helene Normandin said in a phone interview. “The reserve is there to make sure that we are always able to sell and offer this product.”Quebec accounts for more than 70% of world maple syrup production and its supply is governed by a kind of government-sanctioned cartel. Quebec Maple Syrup Producers sets bulk prices, caps production and sends unsold output to a warehouse in Laurierville, Quebec, allowing the agency a level of market control rivaling the grip the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has on oil markets.

Read more: World’s Maple Syrup Market Has Quebec Cartel Calling the Shots “The pandemic helped in our case because we’re seeing people cook more at home and use more local products,’’ Normandin said. “It’s not just in Quebec the demand is increasing.’’Export sales rose to 113.5 million pounds between January and September, a 21% jump from a year earlier. Next year, the group plans to allow Quebec producers to add 7 million syrup taps in response to the rising demand. ​​​​

The time frame for maple syrup production is short and the “sugaring season” typically occurs between late February and end of April as tree sap is only able to flow when the daytime temperatures alternate between freezing and thawing. Warm temperatures across Quebec cut the harvest season short this year. The production woes come even after the agency moved to increase the number of tree taps to quell black market sales and maintain market share. Quebec farmers have expressed frustration with production limits in recent years as American producers seek to boost their ouput. U.S. maple syrup production fell 17% this year to 3.42 million gallons while the number of taps rose 2% from a year earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.The reserve, which was the scene of a notorious heist uncovered in 2012, hasn’t been tapped in three years thanks to back-to-back bumper harvests.

Germany could legalise cannabis under new coalition agreement

 EMMANUEL CROSET /AFP

Marcus Parekh
Fri, November 19, 2021

Germany's future ruling coalition is expected to legalise the sale of recreational cannabis, local media reports.

Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD), along with likely partners to Greens and Free Democrats (FDP) are still working out details of their coalition deal, but any deal is expected to include rules under which the sale and use of recreational cannabis would be allowed and regulated in Europe's largest economy.

The three parties plan to "introduce the regulated sale of cannabis to adults for consumption purposes in licensed stores," according to the coalition's health group's findings.

This ensures quality control, prevents the distribution of contaminated products, and guarantees the protection of minors, it said. However, it is not yet clear whether the cultivation of cannabis within Germany will also be legalised.

The Social Democrats described the use of cannabis as a “social reality” in their election manifesto and called for an “appropriate political way of dealing with this”.

Germany could legalise cannabis under new coalition agreement - CLEMENS BILAN/POOL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock /Shutterstock

Medicinal cannabis has been legal in Germany since 2017, but the Greens and FDP have long pushed for full legalisation, as seen in Canada.

Should an agreement be reached, it would make Germany Europe's largest cannabis market. Last month, Luxembourg became the first country in Europe to fully legalise the sale of cannabis.

Legalisation could bring Germany annual tax revenues and cost savings of about 4.7 billion euros (£3.95 billion) and create 27,000 new jobs, according to survey as politicians thrash out rules for the budding sector.

The survey by the Institute for Competition Economics (DICE) at the Heinrich Heine University in Duesseldorf, and commissioned by the German hemp association, found that legalising cannabis could lead to additional tax revenues of about 3.4 billion euros (£2.86 billion) per year.

At the same time, it could bring cost savings in the police and judicial system of 1.3 billion euros (£1.1 billion) per year while creating tens of thousands of jobs in the cannabis economy.

Legalising cannabis in Germany would give a boost to a ballooning European market that is expected to be worth more than 3 billion euros (£2.52 billion) in annual revenue by 2025, up from about 400 million euros (£336 million) this year, according to the European Cannabis Report by research firm Prohibition Partners.

Cannabis bust on Indigenous land highlights legal divide



In this Sept. 29, 2021, photo provided by John Pettit, law enforcement officers with the Bureau of Indian Affairs inspect a cannabis garden at Picuris Pueblo, N.M. A federal raid on a household marijuana garden on tribal land in northern New Mexico at Picuris Pueblo is sowing uncertainty and some resentment about U.S. drug enforcement priorities on Native American reservations. The Bureau of Indian Affairs officers seized about nine plants at Picuris Pueblo while handcuffing registered medical marijuana patient Charles Farden. (John Pettit via AP)

MORGAN LEE
Thu, November 18, 2021

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A federal raid on a household marijuana garden on tribal land in northern New Mexico is sowing uncertainty and resentment about U.S. drug enforcement priorities on Native American reservations, as more states roll out legal marketplaces for recreational pot sales.

In late September, Bureau of Indian Affairs officers confiscated nine cannabis plants from a home garden at Picuris Pueblo that was tended by Charles Farden, a local resident since childhood who is not Native American. The 54-year-old is enrolled in the state’s medical marijuana program to ease post-traumatic stress and anxiety.

Farden said he was startled to be placed in handcuffs as federal officers seized mature plants laden with buds — an estimated yearlong personal supply.

New Mexico first approved the drug’s medical use in 2007, while Picuris Pueblo decriminalized medical pot for members in 2015. A new state law in June broadly legalized marijuana for adults and authorized up to a dozen home-grown plants per household for personal use — with no weight limit.

“I was just open with the officer, straightforward. When he asked what I was growing, I said, 'My vegetables, my medical cannabis,' ” Farden said of the Sept. 29 encounter. “And he was like, ‘That can be a problem.’ ”

The raid has cast a shadow over cannabis as an economic development opportunity for Indigenous communities, as tribal governments at Picuris Pueblo and at least one other reservation pursue agreements with New Mexico that would allow them to open marijuana businesses. The state is home to 23 federally recognized Native American communities. It's aiming to launch retail pot sales by April.

More than two-thirds of states have legalized marijuana in some form, including four that approved recreational pot in the 2020 election and four more by legislation this year. The U.S. government has avoided cracking down on them, even though the drug remains illegal under federal law to possess, use or sell.

The September raid has some scrutinizing its approach on tribal lands like Picuris Pueblo, where the Bureau of Indian Affairs provides policing to enforce federal and tribal laws in an arrangement common in Indian Country. Other tribes operate their own police forces under contract with the BIA.

In a recent letter to Picuris Pueblo tribal Gov. Craig Quanchello obtained by The Associated Press, a BIA special agent in charge said the agency won’t tell its officers to stand down in Indian Country — and that marijuana possession and growing remains a federal crime, despite changes in state and tribal law.

“Prior notification of law enforcement operations is generally not appropriate,” the letter states. “The BIA Office of Justice Services is obligated to enforce federal law and does not instruct its officers to disregard violations of federal law in Indian Country.”

Officials with the BIA and its parent agency, the Interior Department, declined to comment and did not respond to the AP’s requests for details of the raid and its implications. Farden has not been charged and does not know if there will be further consequences.

President Joe Biden this week ordered several Cabinet departments to work together to combat human trafficking and crime on Native American lands, where violent crime rates are more than double the national average.

He did not specifically address marijuana, though he has said he supports decriminalizing the drug and expunging past pot use convictions. He has not embraced federally legalizing marijuana.

Portland-based criminal defense attorney Leland Berger, who last year advised the Oglala Sioux Tribe after it passed a cannabis ordinance, notes that Justice Department priorities for marijuana in Indian Country were outlined in writing under President Barack Obama then overturned under President Donald Trump, with little written public guidance since.

“It’s remarkable for me to hear that the BIA is enforcing the federal Controlled Substances Act on tribal land where the tribe has enacted an ordinance that protects the activity,” he said.

Across the U.S., tribal enterprises have taken a variety of approaches as they straddle state and federal law and jurisdictional issues to gain a foothold in the cannabis industry.

In Washington, the Suquamish Tribe forged a pioneering role under a 2015 compact with the state to open a retail marijuana outlet across Puget Sound from Seattle on the Port Madison reservation. It sells cannabis from dozens of independent producers.

Several Nevada tribes operate their own enforcement division to help ensure compliance with state- and tribal-authorized marijuana programs, including a registry for home-grown medical marijuana. Taxes collected at tribal dispensaries stay with tribes and go toward community improvement programs.

In South Dakota, the Oglala Sioux in early 2020 became the only tribe to set up a cannabis market without similar state regulations, endorsing medical and recreational use in a referendum at the Pine Ridge Reservation. Months later, a statewide vote legalized marijuana in South Dakota, with a challenge from Republican Gov. Kristi Noem's administration now pending at the state Supreme Court.

The U.S. government recognizes an “inherent and inalienable" right to self-governance by Native American tribes. But federal law enforcement agencies still selectively intervene to enforce cannabis prohibition, Berger said.

“The tribes are sovereign nations, and they have treaties with the United States, and in some cases there is concurrent jurisdiction. ... It’s sort of this hybrid,” he said.

In late 2020, a combination of state, federal and tribal law enforcement cooperated in a raid on sprawling marijuana farms with makeshift greenhouses in northwestern New Mexico with the consent of the Navajo Nation president. Authorities seized more than 200,000 plants. At the time, New Mexico limited marijuana cultivation to 1,750 plants per licensed medical cannabis producer.

At Picuris Pueblo, Quanchello said the cannabis industry holds economic promise for tribal lands that are too remote to support a full-blown casino. Picuris operates a smoke shop out of a roadside trailer and is close to opening a gas station with a sandwich shop and mini-grocery.

“We’re farmers by nature. It’s something we can do here and be good at it,” Quanchello said. “We don’t want to miss it.”

He described the BIA raid as an affront to Picuris Pueblo, with echoes of federal enforcement in 2018 that uprooted about 35 cannabis plants grown by the tribe in a foray into medical marijuana.

State lawmakers in 2019 adopted uniform regulations for medical marijuana on tribal and nontribal land.

In legalizing recreational marijuana this year, New Mexico’s Democratic-led Legislature and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham emphasized the need to create jobs, shore up state revenue and address concerns about harm inflicted on racial and ethnic minorities by drug criminalization.

Judith Dworkin, a Scottsdale, Arizona-based attorney specializing in Native American law, said tribal cannabis enterprises confront less risk of interference from federal law enforcement where states have robust legal markets for pot.

“It's a lot easier for a tribe to take a position that they want to do something similar” to the state, she said. “It's still a risk.”

Quanchello said he sees federal enforcement of cannabis laws at Picuris Pueblo as unpredictable and discriminatory.

“We as a tribe can end up investing a million dollars into a project, thinking it’s OK. And because of a rogue officer or somebody that doesn’t believe something is right, it could be stopped,” he said.

U.S. to remove "squaw" from hundreds of federal lands place names


U.S. Interior Secretary Haaland addresses the Tribal Nations Summit at a 

White House auditorium, in Washington

Fri, November 19, 2021
By Nichola Groom

(Reuters) - The Biden administration will remove the word “squaw” from place names on federal land as part of an effort to reckon with the nation's racist past, the Department of Interior said on Friday.

The word, a term for Indigenous women that Native Americans find offensive, is used in more than 650 place names on federal lands, according to the Department.

Several states, including Maine, Minnesota and Montana, have already banned the use of the term in place names.

"Racist terms have no place in our vernacular or on our federal lands," said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the nation's first Native American cabinet official.

"Our nation's lands and waters should be places to celebrate the outdoors and our shared cultural heritage - not to perpetuate the legacies of oppression."

She said her agency would also create an advisory committee to begin a review to find and replace other derogatory names of places on federal land.

The so-called Advisory Committee on Reconciliation in Place Names will be comprised of representatives from tribes, Native Hawaiians, civil rights and cultural studies experts and members of the public.

The committee's creation is aimed at accelerating the renaming of properties. Currently, there are hundreds of name changes pending before the Board on Geographic Names, and the process can take years, the Department said.

A Native American rights group applauded Haaland's action.

"It is well past time for us, as a nation, to move forward, beyond these derogatory terms, and show Native people - and all people - equal respect," John Echohawk, executive director of the Native American Rights Fund, said in a statement.

(Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Dan Grebler)