Tech billionaire resigns from Mormon church and donates $600,000 to LGBTQ+ group



Axios

Tue, December 21, 2021

A billionaire from Utah announced he's officially resigning this week from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and pledged to donate $600,000 to an LGBTQ advocacy group, the Salt Lake Tribune first reported.

Why it matters: The letter, dated Dec. 23, is a rare public criticism of the church by a high-profile figure. Tech executive Jeff Green wrote: "I believe the Mormon Church has hindered global progress in women’s rights, civil rights and racial equality, and LGBTQ+ rights."

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Driving the news: Green, chair and CEO of The Trade Desk, left more than a decade ago and has since moved to California, but he wrote to President Russell Nelson to say that he wanted to make it official and have his records removed, according to the Tribune, which obtained the letter Monday.

What else he's saying: "While most members are good people trying to do right, I believe the church is actively and currently doing harm in the world," Green wrote.

"The church leadership is not honest about its history, its finances, and its advocacy," he continued.

Green pledged $600,000 to Equality Utah, with "almost half of the fund will go to a new scholarship program to help LGBTQ+ students in Utah," the billionaire said.

Of note: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 2019 said it would allow children of LGBTQ+ parents to be baptized and receive blessings from the church, in a reversal of a 2015 decision.

The church announced then that same-sex marriages would not be considered apostasy. Instead, any "immoral conduct in heterosexual or homosexual relationships will be treated in the same way."

Representatives for the church did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.

Mormon billionaire leaves faith, rebukes LGBTQ rights stance

The Salt Lake Temple, at Temple Square is shown on Oct. 5, 2019, in Salt Lake City. A billionaire who is believed to be the wealthiest person originally from Utah has formally renounced his membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and rebuked the faith on social issues and LGBTQ rights. Jeff T. Green, who has pledged to donate 90% of his estimated $5 billion advertising-technology wealth, starting with a donation to a LGBTQ-rights group in the state, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)More

Tue, December 21, 2021


SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — An advertising-technology billionaire has formally resigned his membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and rebuked the faith over social issues and LGBTQ rights in an unusual public move.

Jeff T. Green has pledged to donate 90% of his estimated $5 billion fortune, starting with a $600,000 donation to the LGBTQ-rights group Equality Utah, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

Green said in a Monday resignation letter to church President Russell M. Nelson that he hasn’t been active in the faith widely known as Mormon for more than a decade but wanted to make his departure official and remove his name from membership records.

“I believe the Mormon church has hindered global progress in women’s rights, civil rights and racial equality, and LGBTQ+ rights,” he wrote. Eleven family members and a friend formally resigned along with him.

The church didn't immediately return a message from The Associated Press seeking comment Tuesday, but in recent years has shown a willingness to engage on LGBTQ rights that is unusual for a conservative faith. It maintains its doctrinal opposition to same-sex marriage and intimacy, but the faith didn't block a 2019 ban on so-called conversion therapy in Utah and in November high-ranking leader Dallin Oaks called for a recognition of both religious rights and LGBTQ rights.

Still, the church has taken positions over the years that have been deeply painful for many in the LGBTQ community. Green, for his part, said most church members “are good people trying to do right,” but he also worries about the faith’s transparency around its history and finances.

Green, 44, now lives in Southern California. He is the CEO and chairman of The Trade Desk, an advertising-technology firm he founded in 2009.

He also mentioned concerns about a $100 billion investment portfolio held by the faith. It was the subject of an Internal Revenue Service whistleblower complaint in 2019, from a former employee who charged the church had improperly built it up using member donations that are supposed to go to charitable causes.

Leaders have defended how the church uses and invests member donations, saying most is used for operational and humanitarian needs, but a portion is safeguarded to build a reserve for the future. The faith annually spends about $1 billion on humanitarian and welfare aid, leaders have said.

The church has also come under criticism for conservative social positions. Women do not hold the priesthood in the faith, and Black men could not until the 1970s.

In recent years, though, the faith has worked with the NAACP and donated nearly $10 million for initiatives to help Black Americans. It has also worked with Equality Utah to pass a state LGBTQ nondiscrimination law, with religious exemptions.

Another prominent onetime Latter-day Saint sued the faith this year, accusing it of fraud and seeking to recover millions of dollars in contributions. James Huntsman is a member of one of Utah’s most well-known families and brother of a former governor. The suit was later tossed out

Jeff Green: Tech billionaire leaves Mormon church and blasts it in searing open letter


Jeff Green: Tech billionaire leaves Mormon church and blasts it in searing open letter

Gustaf Kilander
Tue, December 21, 2021, 6:48 PM·4 min read

The richest person from Utah, billionaire and tech CEO Jeff Green, slammed the Mormon church in a letter announcing his official withdrawal from the religious community.

Mr Green, who promised in November to give away at least 90 per cent of his vast wealth, wrote a 90-word letter in which he blasted the organisation for hoarding money and having a poor record on civil rights.

The letter was sent on Monday to the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Russell Nelson, with Mr Green saying that he thinks most members of the church are “good people trying to do right”, but that “the church is actively and currently doing harm in the world”.

“The church leadership is not honest about its history, its finances, and its advocacy,” Mr Green added. “I believe the Mormon church has hindered global progress in women’s rights, civil rights, and racial equality, and LGBTQ+ rights.”

Mr Green is a former Mormon missionary and graduated from Brigham Young University, a private school in Provo, Utah founded by Mr Young in 1875 and which is sponsored by the church.

Mr Green’s next major donation will be $600,000 going to Equality Utah, with the billionaire writing in the letter that “almost half of the fund will go to a new scholarship program to help LGBTQ+ students in Utah,” including students who “may need or want to leave” Brigham Young University.

The 44-year-old is the CEO and chairman of The Trade Desk, a tech firm. He’s estimated to be worth $4.9bn.

Mr Green currently lives in Southern California and originally left the church “more than a decade ago—not believing, attending, or practicing”. He said the letter marked his official exit from the church.

“Although I have deep love for many Mormons and gratitude for many things that have come into my life through Mormonism, I have not considered myself a member for many years, and I’d like to make clear to you and others that I am not a member,” Mr Green wrote.

The CEO noted that the church has “more than $100bn in assets” and argued that they should do “more to help the world and its members”.

He added that Mormons are “often poor” but that they still give to the church “expecting the blessings of heaven”.

“Instead, I think the church has exploited its members and their need for hope to build temples, build shopping malls, and cattle ranches… rather than alleviating human suffering in or out of the church,” Mr Green wrote.

Mr Green, who has three children, is leaving the religion alongside 11 members of his family as well as a friend. His sister, Jennifer Gaerte, told The Salt Lake Tribune that she had “that picture-perfect Mormon family” until her husband’s brother died, leading her to go into “into survival mode”. Her husband didn’t attend church while he was grieving his brother, which prompted Ms Gaerte’s family to be shunned, with other children at times throwing rocks at her’s.

Ms Gaerte went to a leader in the church and requested to be released from LDS youth organization the Young Women. The church leader said she would become an inactive member if she was released from the group. “If you won’t release me, I’ll release myself,” she said.

Mr Green’s cousin, Doug Whittemore, said his upbringing had been “wonderful” but that parts of the religion bothered him.

“Something was not clicking for me intuitively,” Mr Whittemore said. “It was pragmatic, but I could never buy into the [religious] concepts, and the teachings were about as far-fetched as you could believe.”

When he chose not to become a missionary, he was shunned by his family. “A lot of them wouldn’t talk to me for years and that still persists to this day.” Mr Whittemore now lives in Dallas, Texas.

Mr Green also said his childhood had been a good one and that his faith had been important to him as he grew up.

“The most positive part of our childhood wasn’t the strong connection we had with our parents but to the community,” he told The Tribune. “I am deeply grateful to that community and its amazing people, including my ancestors who made great sacrifices in the name of God and the community.”

But Mr Green added in his letter that “after today, the only contact I want from the church is a single letter of confirmation to let me know that I am no longer listed as a member”.

Georgians vow mass hunger-strike after reports ex-leader 'tortured'


This latest protest took place on Saakashvili's 54th birthday (AFP/Vano SHLAMOV)

Irakli METREVELI
Tue, December 21, 2021, 11:30 AM·3 min read

Several thousand supporters of Georgia's jailed opposition leader and ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili rallied Tuesday vowing a "mass hunger-strike" to secure his release after doctors said he was tortured in custody.

Waving Georgia's five-cross flag and holding banners that read "Free Saakashvili!" protesters marched through the capital Tbilisi before gathering outside parliament for the rally timed to coincide with the politician's 54th birthday.

Saakashvili's arrest exacerbated a political crisis stemming from parliamentary polls last year that the opposition denounced as fraudulent.

It also spurred the largest anti-government protests in a decade.

"Today, we are launching a mass hunger-strike that will not end until Mikheil Saakashvili is released from captivity," Nika Melia, the chairman of Saakashvili's United National Movement (UNM), said to applause.

It was not immediately clear how many people intended to participate in the hunger-strike outside the UNM headquarters.

"This is a non-violent protest, a tough move, we have no other choice but to put pressure on the regime so that it loosens its grip on the Georgian state which it has captured," Melia, the leader of the country's main opposition group, said.

In a message to supporters that was read out at the rally by Saakashvili's mother, Giuli Alasania, the former leader called for national unity and peaceful mass protests to pressure authorities to hold snap parliamentary polls.

He said Georgia's "long-time dream and historic aspiration of European integration is under threat".

"We are in vital need of free media, impartial judiciary, fair elections. We need freedom here and now, and for good."

"Changing the current regime is an essential pre-condition for the fulfilment of our Western aspirations," he added referring to the ruling Georgian Dream party founded by the powerful oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili.

- 'Back to European path' -

Georgia's richest man who made his fortune in Russia, Ivanishvili is widely believed to be the top decision-maker in the country, despite having no official political role.

One of the demonstrators, 47-year-old architect Giorgi Darsavelidze, told AFP that "Ivanishvili's regime will crumble under popular pressure".

"We will not stop until Saakashvili is free, until Georgia is back to its European path," Darsavelidze added.

On Saturday, an independent council of doctors who examined Saakashvili in custody, said he had developed serious neurological diseases "as a result of torture, ill-treatment, inadequate medical care, and a prolonged hunger-strike".

Saakashvili refused food for 50 days to protest his jailing for abuse of office, a conviction he has denounced as politically motivated.

The flamboyant pro-Western reformer called off his hunger strike after he was placed -- in a critical condition -- in a military hospital in Georgia's eastern city of Gori.

Georgia's president from 2004 to 2013, Saakashvili was arrested on October 1 shortly after he secretly returned to Georgia from exile in Ukraine.

Amnesty International has branded Saakashvili's treatment "not just selective justice but apparent political revenge".

The US State Department has urged Georgia's government "to treat Saakashvili fairly and with dignity".

Rights groups have accused the Georgian government of using criminal prosecutions to punish political opponents and critical media.

Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili sparked an uproar recently when he said the government had been forced to arrest Saakashvili because he refused to quit politics.

im/jbr/gw

Kyle Rittenhouse Confronted About His Black Lives Matter Take At Turning Point USA

Murjani Rawls
Tue, December 21, 2021

At AmericaFest, a four-day festival hosted by Turning Point USA in Phoenix, recently acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse was greeted with a hero’s welcome— complete with streamers, music, and a standing ovation from the convention crowd as if he were a wrestling champion. After he spoke on a panel, he was then asked by journalist Elad Eliahu why he expressed support for Black Lives Matter.

Elad Eliahu was then held away from Rittenhouse and got his press pass removed. Later, Eliahu posted a video showing the confrontation at Turning Point USA’s Americafest on his Twitter account.



In the video, Eliahu said: “Excuse me Mr Rittenhouse can you tell me why you support BLM?”

Eliahu is pushed further away from Rittenhouse to which he replies “I am not a threat.” He then repeats his question.

Speaking to security, he says: “Why are you pushing me? I am allowed to be here.” The journalist is then told by a member of security not to try and push past him.

Another member of security then approaches Eliahu and unhooks his press pass from around his neck, telling him “we are revoking that.” The security official added that he would be criminally trespassing on the property if he stays.

Listen, I was just as shocked as anybody when I read the excerpt from Rittenhouse’s interview with Tucker Carlson after his acquittal, given that he was seen in a bar throwing up the “OK” sign frequently used in white supremacist groups, and he showed up armed to a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha. Rittenhouse claims his ex-attorney set him up. 

To restate his comments:

“I’m not a racist person. I support the BLM movement. I support peacefully demonstrating,” Rittenhouse told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson in an interview that aired Monday night. Kyle Rittenhouse does support Black Lives Matter.

There’s a weirdness in this story: you get kicked out of the four-day festival if you even mention Black Lives Matter like it’s Candyman in a mirror. So, let’s consider Kyle Rittenhouse does support Black Lives Matter. It’s crazy how three words upset enough people to cause these outbursts. To reiterate for the people in the back, Black lives saying that they matter doesn’t take away from anyone else’s value. It’s making sure that when a discussion of people mattering happens, that Black people are included.

Chris Hayes tells Tucker Carlson to

 'grow up' as he slams people celebrating

 Kyle Rittenhouse

George Back

·Producer, Yahoo Entertainment

Wed, December 22, 2021, 

All In With Chris Hayes spent the first 15 minutes of Tuesday’s show condemning the celebration of Kyle Rittenhouse. Rittenhouse Rittenhouse was acquitted of all charges in the 2020 fatal shooting of two protesters and the injuring of another in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Since his acquittal, he has met with former president Donald Trump and experienced a meteoric rise in popularity among conservative pundits.

Over the weekend, Rittenhouse was the featured guest at a Turning Point USA event in Phoenix, Arizona. He received a standing ovation from the crown in attendance when he walked on stage.

“Kyle Rittenhouse, I mean he is known for one thing,” Hayes said. “They are literally celebrating killing people…I have to say, watching that tape of him walking out and the big cheering is one of the most ominous, despicable developments in our politics in recent memory, which is really saying something because, boy, we have been full of them.”

And while Hayes called out the right wing as a whole, he had some particularly harsh words for Tucker Carlson who has exalted Rittenhouse as an American. Carlson also dedicated a full hour of his top-rated cable show to an interview with Rittenhouse, as well as a separate documentary about his trial on Fox Nation.

“To put the politics aside again, this is a sick, sick spectacle,” Hayes said. “I mean watching Tucker Carlson…like quiver and squeal in delight, you know, you are a grown ass man. Like, grow up. Grow up. You are a man and you're groveling at the foot of this kid because of the people he killed?”

5M more Americans acquired guns during COVID-19 pandemic

By Amy Norton, HealthDay News

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a surge in new gun owners across the United States, a new study finds.

The data shows that between January 2020 and April 30 of this year, 5.1 million Americans bought their first guns, following 2.4 million who did so in 2019.

The numbers are concerning, experts said, because when guns are brought into a home for the first time, everyone who lives there is newly exposed to the risks -- including accidents, homicide and suicide.

Early on in the pandemic, signs emerged that Americans were "panic buying" firearms. Federal figures showed a surge in background checks, while some online firearm retailers reported soaring sales, according to Giffords, a gun-violence prevention group

Only two formal studies, published in medical journals, have examined the issue. And neither looked at first-time gun buying before the pandemic, for a comparison.

The new study -- published online Tuesday in Annals of Internal Medicine -- did just that.

And the researchers found that 2020 did indeed see a surge in overall gun buying: An estimated 16.6 million U.S. adults bought a firearm, compared to 13.8 million in 2019

Biden calls for action to reduce gun violence on anniversary of Sandy Hook shooting

Most of those buyers already had a gun in the home, said lead researcher Matthew Miller, a professor at Northeastern University in Boston. But owing to that overall spike, the absolute number of first-time buyers rose as well.

In 2019, 2.4 million Americans became new gun owners -- a figure that swelled to 3.8 million in 2020.

Miller said tracking trends in new gun ownership is important, because it offers a picture of how many people may be newly exposed to the hazards of having a gun in the home.

"Most people who buy a gun think they're protecting themselves, their family and their property," said Miller, who also co-directs the Harvard Injury Control Research Center in Boston.

But in reality, he said, most gun owners will never use it in defense. They are, however, putting themselves and every household member at increased risk of harm.

"Over 60% of gun deaths in the U.S. are suicide," Miller pointed out. And research shows that when a gun is accessible in the home, the risk of suicide is "substantially higher," he said.

The risks of accidental injury and homicide -- particularly where a woman is the victim -- also climb.

According to Patrick Carter, co-director of the University of Michigan's Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention, in Ann Arbor, "We know that access to an unsecured firearm in the household is a significant risk factor for all types of firearm injuries -- not just for the firearm owner, but also for the other people who live in and visit the household."

Carter, who was not involved in the study, pointed to one of its "clear" messages: "We need to continue to ensure that firearms are stored locked up and out of the reach of people who shouldn't have access to them, especially underage children who may live in or visit the home."

The findings are based on a nationally representative survey of more than 19,000 U.S. adults, including almost 6,000 firearm owners.

The researchers estimated that between January 2019 and April 2021, 7.5 million Americans became first-time gun owners: That includes 2.4 million in 2019, 3.8 million in 2020 and 1.3 million in the first four months of 2021.

Most of those buyers, the study found, had previously lived in a gun-free home. And their new purchases collectively exposed an additional 11 million people -- including 5 million children -- to the risk of harm.

Beyond the numbers, the study also found that the profile of the first-time gun buyer is shifting.

White men still account for most gun owners in the United States, Miller said. But among new buyers in this study, about half were women, and nearly half were people of color.

That pattern was seen in both 2019 and 2020, so was not unique to the pandemic.

"What's responsible for the shift, we don't know -- but it's not the pandemic," Miller said.

Any decision to buy a gun, the study authors said, should involve weighing the benefits and risks.

Unfortunately, Miller said, many people may either be unaware of the hazards, or do not acknowledge that they apply to them. In a previous study, he and his colleagues found that less than 10% of gun owners believed that having a firearm in the home increased the risk of suicide.

More information

The Nemours Foundation has advice for parents on household gun safety.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Electric truck startup Nikola settles fraud charges for $125 million

Nikola is a Phoenix-based startup that aims to produce electric- and hydrogen-powered trucks. File Photo courtesy Nikola Corp.

Dec. 21 (UPI) -- Electric truck startup Nikola announced on Tuesday that it's agreed to pay $125 million to settle federal charges that it defrauded investors.

Regulators said Nikola misled investors about products, technical advancements and commercial prospects.

In July, federal prosecutors charged Nikola founder and former CEO Trevor Milton with securities and wire fraud and making false statements about the company.

The accusations say Milton embarked on "a public relations campaign aimed at inflating and maintaining Nikola's stock price" before it had even produced a single vehicle.

The statements falsely gave investors the impression that Nikola had reached certain product and technological milestones, authorities said.

Officials said Nikola further misled investors by "misrepresenting or omitting material facts."

"Nikola Corporation is responsible both for Milton's allegedly misleading statements and for other alleged deceptions, all of which falsely portrayed the true state of the company's business and technology," Gurbir Grewal, director of the Securities and Exchange Commission's enforcement division, said in a statement.

Under the terms of the deal, Nikola doesn't acknowledge or deny the accusations of fraud. The Phoenix-based company said it will attempt to recoup some of the penalty from Milton.

"We are pleased to bring this chapter to a close," Nikola said in a statement.

Nikola will pay the $125 million fine in five installments over two years.

Google celebrates the arrival of winter, summer with new Doodles





Google is marking the start of the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere with a new Doodle. Image courtesy of Google

Dec. 21 (UPI) -- Google welcomed the start of the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and the start of the summer solstice in the Southern Hemisphere with new Doodles on Tuesday.

Google's homepage, for those living in the Northern Hemisphere, features an animated hedgehog walking through the snow with his eyes closed.

The hedgehog additionally has pine cones and leaves on his back.

For those in the Southern Hemisphere, the Doodle features the same hedgehog walking and smiling while wearing sunglasses. The animal has fruit and tropical plants on its back as the sun beams down on him.

Google presents Doodles every year to mark the arrival of the winter and summer solstice.

The company celebrated both the winter and summer solstice in 2020 along with the great conjunction, a rare occurrence between Jupiter and Saturn where the two planets nearly overlap.


Google is marking the start of the summer solstice in the Southern Hemisphere with a new Doodle. Image courtesy of Google

Winter solstice: Tuesday brings shortest day, longest night of the year

The sun sets over the Manhattan skyline in New York City. Tuesday marked the beginning of the winter solstice, which brings the shortest amount of daylight than any other day of the year. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo


Dec. 21 (UPI) -- The start of winter arrived right on schedule on Tuesday -- 10:58 a.m. EST -- as the Northern Hemisphere officially entered the year's coldest season.

The start of the season is marked by the winter solstice, which brings the shortest day and longest night of the calendar year. It is at this point that the Northern Hemisphere is tilted farthest from the sun.

The winter solstice occurs when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Capricorn.

After Tuesday, days will begin to get progressively longer until culminating with the summer solstice on June 21.

The March equinox on March 20 will mark the beginning of the astronomical spring season.

Seasons change on Earth because the planet is slightly tilted on its axis as it travels around the sun. During the first week in January, Earth is about 1.6 million miles closer to the sun.



Although the astronomical winter season began on Tuesday, meteorologists typically view Dec. 1 as the start of winter.

The date of the winter solstice varies between Dec. 20 and Dec. 23, but it most often falls on the 21st or 22nd.

Pope Francis slams excessive military spending ahead of World Peace Day

By UPI Staff

Pope Francis leads the recitation of the Angelus prayer on Sunday from the window of his office overlooking Saint Peter's Square in Vatican City. Photo by Vatican Media via EPA-EFE

Dec. 21 (UPI) -- In an address at the Vatican on Tuesday, Pope Francis called on world leaders to scale back the amount of money spent on military defense -- in favor of spending more money on more noble and peaceful pursuits.

The pontiff made the remarks at St. Peter's Square ahead of World Peace Day on Jan. 1.

"In recent years, there has been a significant reduction worldwide in funding for education and training; these have been seen more as expenditures than investments," Francis said in his remarks.

"Yet they are the primary means of promoting integral human development; they make individuals more free and responsible, and they are essential for the defense and promotion of peace.

"In a word, teaching and education are the foundations of a cohesive civil society capable of generating hope, prosperity and progress. Military expenditures, on the other hand, have increased beyond the levels at the end of the Cold War and they seem certain to grow exorbitantly."

Catholic Cardinal Peter Turkson said the pontiff's message demonstrates the need for every person to "play a creative role in the project for peace."

"It is high time, then, that governments develop economic policies aimed at inverting the proportion of public funds spent on education and on weaponry," the pope added in his speech.

"The pursuit of a genuine process of international disarmament can only prove beneficial for the development of peoples and nations, freeing up financial resources better used for healthcare, schools, infrastructure, care of the land and so forth.

Aside from dismissing excessive military spending, Pope Francis also urged partnership between older and younger generations, additional spending on education and fairer working conditions worldwide.

New reforms target US military’s missing weapons problem
By KRISTIN M. HALL and JUSTIN PRITCHARD

1 of 4

In this July 13, 2017, image provided by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command on Feb. 9, 2021, a storage container of explosive ordnance shows signs of theft after arriving at the Letterkenny Army Depot in Chambersburg, Pa. An ammunition canister containing 32 rounds of 40mm M430A1 grenades, property of the U.S. Marine Corps, was missing. (U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command via AP, File)


The Department of Defense is overhauling how it keeps track of its guns and explosives, and Congress is requiring more accountability from the Pentagon -- responses to an Associated Press investigation that showed lost or stolen military weapons were reaching America’s streets.

The missing weaponry includes assault rifles, machine guns, handguns, armor-piercing grenades, artillery shells, mortars, grenade launchers and plastic explosives.

The Pentagon will now have to give lawmakers an annual report on weapons loss and security under the National Defense Authorization Act, which Congress approved this month and President Joe Biden is expected to sign. As AP’s AWOL Weapons investigation showed, military officials weren’t advising Congress even as guns and explosives continued to disappear.

To meet those reporting requirements, the military is modernizing how it accounts for its millions of firearms and mountains of explosives.

“Clearly the accountability on this issue was stopping at too low of a level,” said U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colorado, a U.S. Army veteran and member of the House Armed Services Committee who supported the reforms. With the new requirements, “if there are hundreds of missing weapons in that report, members of Congress are going to see it and they are going to be asked about it publicly and held accountable for it.”

Pentagon officials have said that they can account for more than 99.9% of firearms, and take weapons security very seriously. Still, when AP published its first report on missing firearms in June, Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he would consider a “systematic fix.”

In response, the Army, the largest branch with the most firearms, took on a major overhaul of how units report missing, lost or stolen weapons. Paper records are giving way to a digital form, and a central logistics operations center is collecting and verifying serious incident reports that — as with other armed services — didn’t always go all the way up the chain of command.

The new system uses an existing software system called Vantage to give commanders a real-time look at what is unaccounted for, Scott Forster, an operations research analyst at the Army, said in a briefing with AP.

Other changes will affect how the military responds to law enforcement investigations.

When a gun is recovered or sought during a criminal case, the Defense Department’s Small Arms and Light Weapons Registry is supposed to determine the last known location or unit responsible. But the registry’s information was inaccurate and responses to law enforcement weren’t timely, according to internal Army documents obtained by the AP. (The Army runs the registry for the Pentagon.)

The Army is now developing an app that would search each service’s own property record databases, according to Army spokesman Lt. Col. Brandon Kelley.

The new law also requires the Defense Secretary to report confirmed thefts or recovery of weapons to the National Crime Information Center, which the FBI runs. Military regulations had required the services and units to self-report losses; the onus will now be on the highest level of the Pentagon.

The other armed services also are implementing reforms.

The Marine Corps said it is developing internal procedures for improved oversight through increased inspections of units. The Navy required units to notify a higher headquarters when reporting weapons losses. The Air Force has replaced its munitions property book system with a commercial application.

This summer, the Defense Logistics Agency began reporting to the Pentagon losses and thefts of firearms that the military loaned to civilian agencies under the Law Enforcement Support Office program. In its data release to AP, the Pentagon reported that 461 of these firearms had vanished, with 109 later recovered. AP’s reporting did not include LESO weapons.

After the AP’s initial report published in June, Gen. Milley tasked the service branches with scrubbing their data on firearms losses since 2010 -- the time period AP studied.

The Pentagon reluctantly shared the statistics it collected, which Milley’s office has provided to Capitol Hill. The official numbers are lower than what AP reported -- but also incomplete, because some services failed to include stolen weapons as documented by the military’s own criminal investigators.

The number of missing, lost or stolen firearms was “approximately 1,540” from 2010 through this summer, according to LTC Uriah Orland, a spokesman for the Office of the Secretary of Defense. The majority have been recovered, he said. That total compares to the at least 2,000 firearms that AP had reported for 2010 through 2020, a tally was based on the military’s own data, internal memoranda, criminal investigation case files and other sources.

There are several reasons for the discrepancy. In conducting their analyses, each service used different standards and systems. Despite the detailed data search by each service, AP found lost or stolen items that were not in their official accounting.

Relying on its official weapons registry, the Navy data represented that none of its shotguns have been stolen and its only explosives losses during the 2010s were 20 concussion grenades. AP identified several shotguns and dozens of armor-piercing grenades, based on case files from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

The Marines decided that any weapon that vanished in a combat zone didn’t count -- even in cases, for example, when a rifle fell from a vehicle or aircraft, or disappeared from living quarters on overseas base. Their total of “unaccounted for” firearms since 2010 was 31.

The biggest explanation for the difference between AP’s numbers and official numbers is a significant downward revision of Army totals.

In June, AP reported the Army couldn’t account for more than 1,500 weapons. Most of that total derived from internal Army memos that said 1,300 rifles and handguns were lost or stolen between 2013 and 2019. The Army had said the memos could include duplications and combat losses, which AP excluded when known.

Responding to Milley’s order, personnel hand-searched records. Their conclusion was that, in the 2010s, only 469 firearms were missing.

Army officials didn’t detail which weapons they excluded or their criteria for reaching the total, which AP was unable to verify independently.

___

Hall reported from Nashville, Tennessee; contact her at https://twitter.com/kmhall. Pritchard reported from Los Angeles; contact him at https://twitter.com/JPritchardAP.

___

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

Biden administration moves to expand solar power on US land
By MATTHEW BROWN

 In this Dec. 11, 2017, file photo, solar arrays line the desert floor of the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone as part of the 179 megawatt Switch Station 1 and Switch Station 2 Solar Projects north of Las Vegas. The Biden administration on Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021, issued a solicitation for interest in developing solar power on public lands in Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado. (Michael Quine/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, File)


BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — U.S. officials announced approval Tuesday of two large-scale solar projects in California and moved to open up public lands in other Western states to potential solar power development, as part of the Biden administration’s effort to counter climate change by shifting from fossil fuels.

The Interior Department approved the Arica and Victory Pass solar projects on federal land in Riverside County east of Los Angeles. Combined they would generate up to 465 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power about 132,000 homes, according to San Francisco-based developer Clearway Energy. Approval of a third solar farm planned for 500 megawatts is expected in coming days, officials said.

The Interior Department also Tuesday issued a call to nominate land for development within “solar energy zones” in Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico that combined cover about 140 square miles (360 square kilometers).

The invitation to developers comes as officials under Democratic President Joe Biden promote renewable wind and solar power on public lands and offshore to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet. That’s a pronounced change from Republican President Donald Trump’s emphasis on coal mining and oil and gas drilling.

Biden suffered a huge blow to his climate agenda this week, as opposition from West Virginia Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin tanked the administration’s centerpiece climate and social services legislation. The administration also has been forced to resume oil and natural gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and numerous western states, after a federal judge sided with Republican-led states that sued when Biden suspended the sales.

During a Tuesday conference call with reporters, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland did not directly address a question about the faltering climate bill and instead pointed to clean energy provisions in the bipartisan infrastructure bill signed into law last month.

“We fully intend to meet our clean energy goals,” Haaland said. She said the Trump administration stalled clean energy by shuttering renewable energy offices at the Bureau of Land Management and undermining long-term agreements, such as a conservation plan tied to solar development in the California desert.

“We are rebuilding that capacity,” Haaland said.

But without the climate bill, tax incentives to build large-scale solar will drop to 10% of a developer’s total capital costs by 2024, instead of rising to 30%, said Xiaojing Sun, head solar researcher at industry consulting firm Wood Mackenzie.

Incentives for residential-scale solar would go away completely by 2024, she said.

“It will significantly slow down the growth of solar,” Sun said.

However, she added that streamlining access to federal land could help the industry, as large solar farms on non-federal lands face growing local opposition and cumbersome zoning laws.

The Bureau of Land Management oversees almost a quarter-billion acres of land, primarily in Western states. Agency director Tracy-Stone Manning said boosting renewable energy is now one of its top priorities.

Forty large-scale solar proposals in the West are under consideration, she said.

The agency in early December issued a draft plan to reduce rents and other fees paid by companies authorized to build wind and solar projects on public lands. Officials were unable to provide an estimate of how much money that could save developers.

In Nevada, where the federal government owns and manages more than 80% of the state’s land, large-scale solar projects have faced opposition from environmentalists concerned about harm to plants and animals in the sun- and windswept deserts.

Developers abandoned plans for what would have been the country’s largest solar panel installation earlier this year north of Las Vegas amid concerns from local residents. Environmentalists are fighting another solar project near the Nevada-California border that they claim could harm birds and desert tortoises.

Stone-Manning said solar projects on public lands are being sited to take environmental concerns into account.

The solar development zones were first proposed under the Obama administration, which in 2012 adopted plans to bring utility-scale solar energy projects to public lands in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. Officials have identified almost 1,400 square miles (3,500 square kilometers) of public land for potential leasing for solar power.

If all that land were developed, the bureau says it could support more than 100 gigawatts of solar power, or enough for 29 million homes.

That’s almost equal to all U.S. solar capacity now in place.

The power generation capacity of solar farms operating on federal lands is a small fraction of that amount — just over 3 gigawatts, federal data shows.

In November the land bureau awarded solar leases for land in Utah’s Milford Flats solar zone. Solar leases are expected to be finalized by the end of the month for about land at several sites in Arizona.

Solar power on public and private lands accounted for about 3% of total U.S. electricity production in 2020. After construction costs fell during the past decade, that figure is expected to grow sharply, to more than 20% by 2050, the U.S. Energy Information Administration projects.

Developers warn costs have been rising due to constraints on supplies of steel, semiconductor chips and other materials.

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Associated Press writer Sam Metz in Carson City, Nevada, contributed to this report.

INDONESIA

Development and conservation clash at Komodo National Park

By VICTORIA MILKO

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This undated photo provided by researcher Bryan Fry shows a Komodo dragon at Komodo National Park in Indonesia. In 2021, construction for tourism in Komodo National Park has raised concerns from the United Nations officials, environmental activists and residents about damage to habitat of the Komodo dragon.

 (Bryan Fry via AP)

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — On a dirt path, forked yellow tongue darting from its mouth, a member of world’s largest lizard species lazes on an island in eastern Indonesia’s Komodo National Park as tourists snap photos. And about 18 miles (30 kilometers) away on another park island that harbors Komodo dragons, trees have been removed and concrete poured for new tourist facilities that have aroused the ire of residents and environmental activists.

The construction is part of an ambitious Indonesian initiative that has generated tensions between a government that wants to develop natural attractions for luxury tourism and conservationists who fear habitat for the endangered Komodo dragon will be irreparably harmed. United Nations officials have also voiced concerns about potential tourism impacts on this unique wildlife-rich park.

Encompassing about 850 square miles (2,200 square kilometers) of land and marine area, Komodo National Park was established in 1980 to help protect the famed dragons. Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry estimates around 3,000 of the reptiles live there today, along with manatee-like dugongs, sea turtles, whales and more than a thousand species of tropical fish.

Because of its biodiversity and beauty, the park became a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage Site in 1991. And it’s one of Indonesia’s crown jewels for tourism, typically drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world each year.

For years the government has been trying to figure out how to best capitalize on the park, most recently designating it part of the country’s “10 New Balis” initiative — an effort to draw more tourists, as the island of Bali did before border restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are embarking into a new era of tourism in Indonesia based on nature and culture, focusing on sustainability and quality tourism,” Indonesian Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Uno told The Associated Press.

Part of that multimillion dollar tourism development is a project on Rinca Island, where more than one-third of the park’s dragons are estimated to live on generally hot and dry terrain. The construction includes an expanded ranger station, viewing platform, boat dock, toilets and other infrastructure.

The project worries local environmental activists and residents within park boundaries who say their livelihoods as tour guides, boat drivers and souvenir sellers depend on the draw of the area’s natural beauty.

“When we talk about the development in the conservation area, we have to think ... whether this is a wisely considered economic effect for the local people — or the environmental effect,” said Gregorius Afioma, a member of the local non-governmental organization Sun Spirit for Justice and Peace. “The situation now is like collective suicide.

“We think that this kind of business will eventually kill others’ businesses and even themselves because they destroyed the environment,” Afioma said, adding that local residents also fear they won’t get construction jobs for the luxury tourist destination the Indonesian government is promoting.

UNESCO — the United Nations body that designates World Heritage Site status — has also raised concerns about development in the park.

“The state party did not inform us, as required by the operational guidelines,” said Guy Debonnet, chief of the body’s natural heritage unit. “This is definitely a project of concern, because we feel that the impacts on the universal value (of the park) have not been properly evaluated.”

During a meeting in July, UNESCO expressed other concerns, such as the project’s reduction of the park’s wilderness zone to one-third the previous area, addition of tourism concessions within the property, lack of an adequate environmental impact assessment, and a target to dramatically increase visitors.

“Third-party information transmitted to the State Party indicates that a target of 500,000 annual visitors for the property has been proposed, which is more than double the pre-COVID-19 pandemic visitor numbers,” said a report from the meeting. “This raises the question of how this tourism model fits (Indonesia’s) vision of moving away from mass tourism to more sustainable approaches.”

At UNESCO’s request, the country submitted more information about the project. But after reviewing it, the U.N. agency requested in October 2020 that Indonesia not “proceed with any tourism infrastructure project that may affect the Outstanding Universal Value of the property prior to a review of the relevant environmental impact assessment” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

IUCN is an international, non-governmental organization that provides UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee with technical evaluations of natural heritage properties.

After multiple attempts to get permission from government authorities, The Associated Press was unable to gain access to the construction site, which has been closed to the public for months. But satellite imagery shows construction continued after UNESCO requested the project be paused. The government did not respond to an email last week seeking comment.

As of Dec. 6, UNESCO still had not received the requested revised assessment, said Debonnet, the world heritage unit chief.

The Indonesian government also granted at least two business permits in Komodo National Park, including for projects on Rinca, Komodo and Padar islands, according to an email to the AP from Shana Fatina, president director at the Labuan Bajo Flores Tourism Authority, which helps coordinate government tourism efforts.

Some experts fear tourism expansion in the park could lead to disturbance of Komodo dragon habitat.

The predatory lizards, which can reach a length of 10 feet (3 meters) and more than 300 pounds (135 kilograms), were recently moved from “vulnerable” to “endangered” status on the IUCN list of threatened species. The organization cited the impacts of climate change and deterioration of the dragons’ habitat — including human encroachment — as reasons for the change.

Unless carefully managed, tourism projects could “have a big impact, not just from the number of people disturbing the behavior of the dragons and disturbing their prey, but also how much freshwater is being siphoned off,” said Bryan Fry, an associate professor at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Queensland in Australia. “That could dramatically impact the very delicate balance of these islands.”

The opening date for the new Rinca Island facilities has yet to be announced. UNESCO’s Debonnet said it is engaged in talks with Indonesian officials to arrange a monitoring mission to assess the impact of ongoing development on the park and review its state of conservation.

And while World Heritage sites are usually discussed by the UNESCO committee on two-year cycles, Komodo National Park will be discussed in 2022, said Debonnet. “That is kind of an indication that we see there is some urgency in this issue,” he said.

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Follow Victoria Milko on Twitter: @thevmilko

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