Dogs can differentiate between familiar and unfamiliar human languages

By Harry Baker 

They are the first non-human animals to be able to tell the difference between human languages.


Two of the dogs from the experiment next to the MRI machine.

 (Image credit: Eniko Kubinyi)

If you were to move to a new country with a different language and bring along the family dog, your pet would likely have a hard time understanding commands from the locals, according to a new study looking at how dogs' brains react to different languages.

MRI scans revealed that dogs' brains can distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar languages, making them the first-known, and so far only, non-human animals to be able to tell the difference between human languages.

The new study, which was published online Dec. 12, 2021, in the journal NeuroImage, was conceived by lead author Laura Cuaya, a neurobiologist at Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary, who recently moved from Mexico to Budapest alongside her dog Kun-kun.

One of the dogs from the experiment has its brain scanned in an MRI machine.

 (Image credit: Eniko Kubinyi)

"We noticed that the people in Budapest were very friendly with dogs and often approached Kun-kun and talked to him," Cuaya told Live Science. "Kun-kun usually pays a lot of attention to people, so I wondered whether he noticed that people in Budapest speak a different language."

Cuaya and her team trained 18 dogs, including Kun-kun, to lie motionless in an MRI machine so the researchers could scan their brains. As the dogs were being scanned, the researchers played the canines three different recordings: a Spanish reading from the famous children's book "The Little Prince;" a Hungarian reading from the same book; and a series of human noises that did not resemble speech at all. All of the dogs had been exposed to only one of the two languages, meaning one was familiar to them and the other was unfamiliar.

The brain scans suggested that not only were the dogs able to clearly distinguish between speech and non-speech, but they also reacted differently to familiar and unfamiliar languages, according to a statement by the researchers.

The researchers suspect that the the primary auditory cortex and secondary auditory cortex in dogs' brains (both located within the temporal cortex that sits at about ear level in the skull) allow dogs to process speech in two steps, known as "hierarchy processing," Cuaya said. "The primary auditory cortex detects whether a sound is speech or not," she said. "Then, the secondary auditory cortex differentiates between a familiar and an unfamiliar language."

During the experiments, researchers also found that older dogs showed more activity in the secondary auditory cortex of the brain, suggesting they were better at differentiating familiar and unfamiliar languages than younger dogs. "I think that the main reason [that older dogs are better at differentiating languages] is the amount of exposure to the language," Cuaya said. "Older dogs have had more opportunities to listen to humans while they talk."

The researchers suspect that dogs are not the only animals capable of telling the difference between human languages. "The brain is extremely good at picking up patterns, and each language has a series of sounds and patterns that makes them different from each other," Cuaya said. "After some training, the brain of many animals should be able to recognize these patterns."

However, what makes dogs unique is that they do not need to be trained to distinguish between human languages. "Their brains detected the difference spontaneously, perhaps due to the domestication process," Cuaya said. "While it is possible that many species can distinguish between human languages, dogs are one of the few that are interested in hearing us."

Previous research has shown that dogs can even tell when people are lying to them, Live Science previously reported.

Cuaya was "a little surprised" by the study's findings, but she also thinks that many people underestimate how sharp our canine friends can be.

"My experience with dogs has shown me that they are constantly paying attention to their social world and everything that happens around them," Cuaya said. "I think dogs know more about us than we imagine."

Originally published on Live Science.

Rise in rabies deaths in the US sparks CDC warning

Five people in the U.S. died of rabies in 2021, following two years of no deaths.

One of the cases involved exposure to a big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus).

 (Image credit: JasonOndreicka via Getty Images)

By Yasemin Saplakoglu 

Five people died of rabies in the U.S. in 2021, three of them within a five-week period in the fall, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

This follows two years of zero rabies cases reported in the U.S. and is the highest number reported per year in over a decade, according to the CDC. The three cases, including one child, were all exposed to bats in or around their homes between Sept. 28 and Nov. 3, and none of them sought out post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), a series of vaccines vital for preventing rabies after exposure.

Rabies deaths in the U.S. are rare, with typically one to three cases reported annually. But the recent uptick prompted the CDC to raise awareness about the risks of the fatal disease. Since the number of rabid bats reported to the National Rabies Surveillance System has been about the same since 2007, the recent uptick might not be attributable to an increase in rabid bats but rather to a lack of awareness about the risks of rabies and the necessity of receiving PEP, according to a statement.

Rabies is caused by a virus that infects the central nervous system, and typically spreads through a bite or scratch from a rabid animal, according to the CDC. PEP is nearly 100% effective at preventing the person from developing rabies before symptoms appear; once symptoms appear, rabies is almost always fatal, according to the statement. About 60,000 people receive the shots in the U.S. each year to prevent rabies, according to the statement.

"We have come a long way in the United States towards reducing the number of people who become infected each year with rabies, but this recent spate of cases is a sobering reminder that contact with bats poses a real health risk," Ryan Wallace, a veterinarian and rabies expert in CDC's Division of High-Consequence Pathogens and Pathology, said in the statement.\

In the U.S., about 70% of rabies cases involve exposure to rabid bats. Two of the three cases reported in the fall were "avoidable exposures," according to the statement. In one case, a patient picked up a bat with bare hands and in the other, they were exposed to a bat roost in their home. Two of the patients released the bat without having it tested for rabies

One patient did submit the bat for testing, and the bat tested positive, but the patient didn't receive PEP because of a fear of vaccines, according to the report. The other two patients didn't realize the risk because they either didn't notice a bite or scratch, or they didn't realize bats could carry rabies.

You can't always see bat bites or scratches, so any direct or possible contact with bats, even through clothing, should be assessed by doctors or other health officials to see if PEP is necessary, according to the statement. Possible contact could occur, for example, if a bat is found in a room where someone is sleeping or in a room where a child is alone.

In addition to running potential exposures by your doctor, people should call the state or local health department or animal control to trap and test the bat to help determine the need for PEP. (The CDC also has instructions for how to safely trap the bat yourself.)

But of course, "avoiding contact with bats is the best way to protect both bat and human health," the authors wrote in the report. Bats aren't the only carrier of rabies, and people can also be exposed through other wild animals such as raccoons, skunks and foxes, according to the CDC. Most rabies deaths around the world are the result of rabid dog bites.

Originally published on Live Science.

Why volunteers will be tossing tennis balls at coyotes in Edmonton

Laine Mitchell
Jan 5 2022

BGSmith/Shutterstock

Coyotes, be gone! A group of volunteers for a research project in Edmonton will be tossing tennis balls at coyotes in spots around the city where they shouldn’t be.

The community-based Aversive Conditioning Project is part of the Edmonton Urban Coyote Project. The field season for the teams starts on January 15.

The tennis ball tossing is part of what the teams call “aversive conditioning,” which is a technique used by wildlife managers to make an animal change bad behaviour by associating it with something unpleasant.

Volunteers are asked to practice throwing weighted tennis balls at coyote-sized objects (about 80 cm long). Weighted tennis balls will be provided for up to 12 volunteers in each neighbourhood.



Urban Coyote Intervention Program

You can’t just go throwing the tennis balls at the coyotes willy nilly. Aversive conditioning should be done when the coyote is in a public location, like a residential neighbourhood during daylight hours, and they should be chased with high intensity. Team members must retrieve the tennis ball(s) and avoid leaving it for coyotes to investigate later.

Don’t take part in the conditioning if the coyote is in a natural area, including ones that border residential areas. Avoid chasing coyotes into moving vehicles or onto private property as well.

If you would like to participate in the second season of the study this January, send an email to coyotes@ualberta.ca.

To be eligible, you must meet a list of requirements.

The project will run until May. It was also held last year; interim results from that project can be found here. Preliminary results suggest the scare tactics are working on coyotes in Edmonton.

ONTARIO

Animal welfare services euthanized five of the nearly 100 cattle in distress removed from Warsaw property

Province says no charges have been laid in the ongoing inspection of the circumstances at the property

Peterborough My Local news
By Todd VandonkReporter
Wed., Jan. 5, 2022


The Ministry of the Solicitor General’s animal welfare division says approximately 100 cattle in distress were removed from a property in Warsaw on the advice of a veterinarian after an inspection in December 2021.

On Thursday, Dec. 16, animal welfare officers, along with officers from the Peterborough County OPP, and several volunteers, attended the property at 1534 County Road 4, between Oke and Caves roads.

At least eight trailers loaded with cattle, ranging from calves to adults, were removed from the property.

According to Ministry of the Solicitor General spokesperson Brent Ross, the cattle were assessed by a veterinarian, given treatment where required, and then distributed to other locations in Ontario to ensure their well-being.

Further, Ross said no further animals were removed from the property, but five cattle were euthanized per the authorities given under the Provincial Animal Welfare Services Act.

At this time, Ross said no charges have been laid.

“Given there is an ongoing inspection into this matter, it would be inappropriate to provide additional detail,” he said.

While animal welfare officers removed the cattle on Dec. 16, the property owner stood and watched, telling Peterborough This Week, “I’m the guy that they’re stealing my cattle from.”

The owner, who did not give his name, said the group had been on his property all morning.

He said those responsible for taking his cattle think they’re right and he’s wrong.

“They’re crazy,” he added.

UPDATED

‘It’s a miracle’: Dog leads police to owner’s truck crash, saves two lives

By Michelle Butterfield  Global News

Posted January 5, 2022 

View image in full screen

Tinsley's owner was one of two men injured in a truck crash, New Hampshire State Police said. New Hampshire State Police / 

When police officers first came across Tinsley the Shiloh shepherd running around on a New Hampshire interstate Monday evening, they thought they had a lost or stray dog on their hands.

Tinsley wouldn’t go to the officers who were trying to remove her from the road; she would stay just out of their grasp.

“They could tell the dog was trying to show them something because she kept trying to get away from them but didn’t run away totally. It was kind of, ‘Follow me. Follow me,'” New Hampshire State Police Lt. Daniel Baldassarre told reporters.

New Hampshire state trooper Tom Sandberg and other officers from a nearby detachment followed Tinsley and quickly realized what the dog was trying to tell them – just across the border, in Vermont, they found a damaged section of guardrail.

Tinsley was peering over the side of the road, looking at her owner’s truck, which had gone off the road rolled down the embankment. The dog’s owner and another passenger were ejected from the truck, were badly injured and suffering from hypothermia. The truck was badly damaged, too.

“This was almost like a real-life Lassie situation,” Baldassarre told CNN. “It’s really quite remarkable. This dog definitely saved their lives. I don’t think they would have survived the night given the temperatures.”

View image in full screen

A handout photo shows Cam Laundry’s heavily damaged truck, which his dog, Tinsley, was able to alert to police officers. New Hampshire State Police / Facebook

Tinsley’s owner, Cam Laundry, told WPTZ that his dog is often by his side on truck rides, and called her his “guardian angel.”

“It’s a miracle that she had that kind of intelligence to do what she did.”

Laundry said Tinsley had earned some venison and back scratches for her heroic efforts.

Some still don’t know fate of pets after Colorado wildfire

By COLLEEN SLEVIN and BRITTANY PETERSON

Lisa Young walks her horse, Foxy, Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2022, in Golden, Colo. She lost her home in the grass fires that hit Boulder County last week, and likely lost her two cats as well. Taking care of her horse gives her some semblance of normalcy, she said. 

(AP Photo/Brittany Peterson)

DENVER (AP) — When Lisa Young evacuated her home as a fast-moving Colorado wildfire burned, it looked like firefighters were going to be able to stop what appeared then to just be a grass fire in a field behind her home. She just took her purse, turned off her slow cooker and television and made sure her two cats had enough food and water to drink, thinking she would be back home soon.

Later that night staying with relatives, she watched images of her home outside of Denver burning on television, her driveway recognizable because of her father’s old Corvette on fire. Her house was one of nearly 1,000 destroyed in the blaze, leading her to fear that her calico cats, Joy and Noelle, 5-year-old sisters, died in the fire.

Most people safely evacuated from the wildfire that was propelled by 105 mph (169 kph) winds, but Young is among dozens of homeowners who either had pets who died, had to scramble to find them or still don’t know the fate of their dogs or cats.

If the windows in her home broke in the fire’s heat, there’s a chance the cats, who were feral as kittens and cannot be held unless they are willing, may have escaped, she said.

“There’s that one little hope,” said Young, who has been comforted by daily visits to take care of her horse, who was safe from the flames in his boarding stable.

There have been some happy endings. The neighbors of one police officer who was at work when the fire broke out were able to rescue his family’s three dogs before his family’s home was destroyed. Another man who was away at work when his home burned was reunited with his cat, who had a burned face, after someone heard it meowing outside a home that survived nearby.




The Humane Society of Boulder Valley has reunited over 25 pets with their owners since the fire destroyed homes in the communities of Louisville and Superior, including a dog who had spent two days outside and had some burned paws, the group’s CEO Jan McHugh-Smith said. The organization has also been taking care of about a dozen animals, including a tortoise and a cockatiel, in its shelter who cannot live with their owners in their temporary living situations, she said.

Like Young, many pet owners have posted messages and photos of their pets on a Facebook page set up to help find missing animals. Others trying to help have also been posting photos of pets, mainly cats, sighted in their areas and offering to take in pets who can’t live with their owners in temporary housing.

The page’s organizer, Katie Albright, a missing animal recovery specialist from the area who now lives in Oregon, is careful not to draw any conclusions about the likelihood of still finding a pet after the fire. While working to recover pets after the Holiday Farm fire in Oregon in 2020, some were skeptical any would be found but the last cat trapped there was not captured until a year later, she said.

However, people are so eager to help though that they may end up harming other animals not affected by the fire, Albright said.

While dogs have been known to wander far from disasters, cats tend to stay within about a mile of home. Despite that, there have been some reports of people finding cats in communities beyond the fire zone and taking them to their local shelters, thinking they are missing cats from the fire area. However, they are more likely outdoor cats that live in those areas and, unless they have a microchip to identify their owners, they likely will never get back to their homes, she said.

Some owners also want to set up traps to capture missing cats but Albright instead recommends first setting out some food in an area with some kind of cover, like vegetation, and using a trail camera — the kind hunters use to scout out areas for wildlife — to check on what animals, if any, may be in the area before deciding to set up a trap to avoid capturing a cat who is not missing or a wild animal. Any traps must also be checked at least every hour to avoid having a panicked trapped animal hurt itself, she said.

People returning to newly reopened neighborhoods can also just walk around and check places where cats tend to hide such as culverts, vehicles and garages, keeping an eye out especially for injured cats, she said.

Code 3 Associates, an organization hired by authorities to rescue animals after natural disasters around the United States that is based in Longmont, Colorado, not far from the fire, set out traps in hopes of catching missing cats near neighborhoods that were burned but they did not catch any, said Janeé Boswell, the group’s director of education and partnerships. That combined with a community typically diligent in reporting stray animals to authorities makes her think there are not many missing animals out there and that the fire was a “mass casualty event” for pets who were in homes that burned.

“I am guessing they probably perished in those residences and those few who got out have been located and returned,” she said.

While people have time to pack up some belongings and their pets in slower moving disasters such as hurricanes or floods and even more typical wildfires in mountain areas, many people not at home when the Colorado fire started never had a chance to get back home to rescue their pets, she said.

Young said she will not have closure until she is able to go back to her home and find any remains of her cats.

For now, her visits to Foxy, a 20-year-old quarter horse, gives her a bit of normalcy and comfort in her upended life. The horse is so in tune with her, he is tense because he feels how stressed she is now, she said.

On a visit Wednesday, she gave him an apple, supplements, hay, a brush-down, a vibrating back massage, a stall cleaning and a final pat on the back.

“I can still hug him. I can still kiss him and love on him. He’s needy like I am,” Young said, with a laugh.

Hunters kill 20 Yellowstone wolves that roamed out of park

By MATTHEW BROWN

This Jan. 24, 2018, photo released by the National Park Service shows a wolf from the Wapiti Lake pack silhouetted by a nearby hot spring in Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. Park officials say hunters in neighboring states have killed 20 of the park's renown gray wolves in recent months, most of them in Montana after the state lifted hunting restrictions near the park. 

(Jacob W. Frank/National Park Service via AP, File)

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Twenty of Yellowstone National Park’s renowned gray wolves roamed from the park and were shot by hunters in recent months — the most killed by hunting in a single season since the predators were reintroduced to the region more than 25 years ago, according to park officials.

Fifteen wolves were shot after roaming across the park’s northern border into Montana, according to figures released to The Associated Press. Five more died in Idaho and Wyoming.

Park officials said in a statement to AP that the deaths mark “a significant setback for the species’ long-term viability and for wolf research.”

One pack — the Phantom Lake Pack — is now considered “eliminated” after most or all of its members were killed over a two-month span beginning in October, according to the park.

An estimated 94 wolves remain in Yellowstone. But with months to go in Montana’s hunting season —- and wolf trapping season just getting underway — park officials said they expect more wolves to die after roaming from Yellowstone, where hunting is prohibited.

Park Superintendent Cam Sholly first raised concerns last September about wolves dying near the park border. He recently urged Republican Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte to shut down hunting and trapping in the area for the remainder of the season.

Sholly cited “the extraordinary number of Yellowstone wolves already killed this hunting season,” in a Dec. 16 letter to Gianforte released to AP under a freedom of information request.

Gianforte, an avid hunter and trapper, did not directly address the request to halt hunting in a Wednesday letter responding to Sholly.

“Once a wolf exits the park and enters lands in the State of Montana it may be harvested pursuant to regulations established by the (state wildlife) Commission under Montana law,” Gianforte wrote.

Gianforte last year received a warning from a Montana game warden after trapping and shooting a radio-collared wolf about 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of the park without taking a state-mandated trapper education course.

In his response to Sholly, the governor said Montana protects against overhunting through rules adopted by the wildlife commission, which can review hunting seasons if harvest levels top a certain threshold.

For southwestern Montana, including areas bordering the park, that threshold is 82 wolves. Sixty-four have been killed in that region to date this season, out of 150 wolves killed statewide, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

The most recent wolf killing along the Montana-Yellowstone border happened on New Year’s Day.

Wolf trapping in the area opened Dec. 21. Under new rules, Montana hunters can use bait such as meat to lure in wolves for killing and trappers can now use snares in addition to leghold traps.

“Allowances for trapping and especially baiting are a major concern, especially if these tactics lure wolves out of the park,” Yellowstone spokesperson Morgan Warthin said.

Urged by Republican lawmakers, Montana wildlife officials last year loosened hunting and trapping rules for wolves statewide. They also eliminated longstanding wolf quota limits in areas bordering the park. The quotas, which Sholly asked Gianforte to reinstate, allowed only a few wolves to be killed along the border annually.

The original quotas were meant to protect packs that draw tourists to Yellowstone from around the world for the chance to see a wolf in the wild.

Montana’s efforts to make it easier to kill wolves mirror recent actions by Republicans and conservatives in other states such as Idaho and Wisconsin. The changes came after hunters and ranchers successfully lobbied to reduce wolf populations that prey on big game herds and occasionally on livestock.

But the states’ increased aggression toward the predators has raised concerns among federal wildlife officials. In September, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it would examine if federal endangered species protections should be restored for more than 2,000 wolves in northern U.S. Rockies states including Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.

Protections for the region’s wolves were lifted a decade ago, based in part on assurances the states would maintain viable wolf populations.

A representative of the hunting industry said outfitters and guides support the preservation of wolves inside Yellowstone. But once the animals cross the boundary, sustainable hunting and trapping should be allowed, said Montana Outfitters and Guides Association Executive Director Mac Minard.

Minard questioned whether the 20 wolves killed so far this year after leaving Yellowstone should even be considered “park wolves.”

“That just doesn’t make sense,” he said. “Why aren’t they ‘Montana wolves’ that happened to go into the park?”

Marc Cooke with the advocacy group Wolves of the Rockies predicted a backlash against Gianforte and the state for not doing more to shield wolves leaving Yellowstone.

“People love these animals and they bring in tons of money for the park,” Cooke said. “This boils down to the commercialization of wildlife for a small minority of special interest groups.”

___

Follow Matthew Brown on Twitter: @MatthewBrownAP

Man seeking RCMP files goes to court after national archives takes 80-year extension

Jim Bronskill
The Canadian PressStaff
Thursday, January 6, 2022 

A Government of Canada sign sits in front of a Library and Archives Canada building next to Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday Nov. 25, 2014. 

(Adrian Wyld/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

OTTAWA -- An Ottawa researcher is asking a judge to order Canada's national archives to speed up work on his request for old RCMP records after he was told to wait at least 80 years for a response.

In a notice of application to the Federal Court, Michael Dagg says Library and Archives Canada "has failed to establish any valid basis for the extraordinary extension of time" to process his application under the Access to Information Act.

The case is just the latest example of the frustrations and lengthy delays many users of the access law experience, particularly when trying to obtain historical records.

In March 2018, Dagg filed an access request with Library and Archives for records on Project Anecdote, a fraud and corruption investigation by the RCMP in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The archives identified 780,000 pages of paper and microfilm records, including investigation reports, witness statements, briefing notes, exhibits, search warrants and communications with foreign governments.

Library and Archives said it would need an extension of 29,200 days to process the request, making the due date March 25, 2098.

Dagg, a longtime user of the access law, said in an interview he asked for the RCMP records out of curiosity about the police probe. He called the delay "outrageous," saying the archives should have a more constructive plan.

Dagg's lawyer, Paul Champ, said that asking for an extension "measured in decades is a bad joke on Canadians."

"It is sad that government departments view access to information legislation as an inconvenience that they can ignore. Library and Archives Canada should facilitate access to Canadians, not help to bury government secrets."

Dagg complained in May 2018 to the information commissioner, an ombudsman for users of the access law.

Commissioner Caroline Maynard learned that Library and Archives needed a year-and-a-half to digitize the documents and considerably more time to go through the records and excise material too sensitive to disclose.

Consultations with the RCMP and the Department of Justice were likely necessary, with a possibility of others, including foreign governments, the commissioner's October 2021 report said.

In addition, the 80-year estimate did not even account for processing relevant information on an array of audio-visual and digital media.

Maynard concluded that while processing the large volume of records under the standard 30-day period set out in the access law would interfere with the archives' operations, the 80-year extension was unreasonable.

She said the link between the justifications advanced by Library and Archives and the length of the extension was not adequately explained, nor had the archives demonstrated that the work required to provide access within "any materially lesser period of time" than 80 years would interfere with its operations.

In March 2021, Library and Archives gave a new time-frame of 65 years to process the request.

Even so, the commissioner's report said the organization had not defined or procured the required resources to handle the request, nor worked towards completion in any meaningful way.

Maynard recommended a response to the request be provided "forthwith," but Library and Archives refused to budge.

The chief librarian and archivist said prioritizing completion "is simply not possible without severely impacting LAC's operations, and particularly its capacity to maintain equitable services in fulfilling the requests of other Canadians."

Dagg wants the court to order Library and Archives to process the records promptly and issue quarterly, interim releases of responsive documents while the processing of other records continues.

The information commissioner's findings were basically ignored in this case, demonstrating how broken the system is, Champ said.

"If the Federal Court cannot stop this wilful law-breaking by Archives Canada, it will highlight why reform is so badly needed."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 6, 2022.

 

Probe: Seattle cops improperly faked right-wing radio talk

Cops faked radio chatter

The Canadian Press - Jan 5, 2022 / 4:22 pm | Story: 356187

Photo: wikimedia commons

Seattle police exchanged detailed fake radio transmissions about a nonexistent group of menacing right-wing extremists at a crucial moment during 2020 racial justice protests, an investigation by the city’s police watchdog group shows.

The radio chatter about members of the Proud Boys marching around downtown Seattle, some possibly carrying guns, and then heading to confront protesters on Capitol Hill was an improper “ruse,” or dishonest ploy, that exacerbated a volatile situation, The Seattle Times reported. That’s according to findings released Wednesday by the city’s Office of Police Accountability (OPA).

The Proud Boys is a far-right extremist group with a reputation for street violence and with several members — including one from a Seattle suburb — who have been charged with terrorism over alleged actions related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The ruse happened June 8, 2020, hours after the police department abandoned its East Precinct and as protesters were starting to set up the temporary zone that was later called the Capitol Hill Organized Protest, or CHOP.

The officers who participated described a group gathering by City Hall and delivered reports such as, “It looks like a few of them might be open carrying,” and: “Hearing from the Proud Boys group. … They may be looking for somewhere else for confrontation.”

Social media posts warning about the Proud Boys group by people monitoring police radio transmissions caused alarm in the protest zone.

Though some people in the zone may have brought guns regardless of the chatter, the ruse “improperly added fuel to the fire,” Office of Police Accountability Director Andrew Myerberg concluded.

The June 8 radio chatter was part of an approved “misinformation effort” that police leaders knew about, according to Wednesday’s closed-case summary by Myerberg, which is now under review by police department leaders for disciplinary rulings. Fabricating the group of Proud Boys violated department policies, Myerberg determined.

It appears unlikely, however, that anyone will face punitive actions. The two employees who ordered and supervised the misinformation effort and who Myerberg sustained allegations of policy violations against have left the department, according to the case summary.

Myerberg didn’t sustain allegations of policy violations against four officers identified as having taken part in the chatter. The officers used poor judgment, but their supervisors were mostly to blame for failing to provide adequate supervision, Myerberg determined.

The Proud Boys ruse was deployed at an extremely tense moment. The murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in late May had sparked large-scale protests in Seattle, with the police barricading streets around the East Precinct and deploying tear gas.

There was no investigation into the hoax until late 2020, when Converge Media journalist Omari Salisbury asked OPA for body camera video from the officers who had supposedly tailed the Proud Boys group. OPA couldn’t locate any relevant video and launched an investigation.

OPA contacted the department’s operations center and intelligence unit and learned there had been a miscommunication effort approved, ordered and led by a captain who later became an assistant chief and then left the department.

SNAFU

Virginia officials defend response to snowy gridlock on I-95

Motorists sit stranded on Interstate 95 near Fredericksburg, Va, on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022. Hundreds of motorists were stranded all night in snow and freezing temperatures along a 50-mile stretch of Interstate 95 after a crash involving six tractor-trailers in Virginia, where authorities were struggling Tuesday to reach them. (WJLA via AP)

Sarah Rankin And Denise Lavoie, The Associated Press
Published Wednesday, January 5, 2022 7:12AM EST

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- A winter storm that started as rain - meaning roads couldn't be pretreated - followed by an unusually heavy snowfall and plunging temperatures resulted in the stranding of hundreds of motorists along a stretch of one of the nation's biggest interstate highways, Virginia officials said, as they defended their response to the gridlock.

There were no reported deaths or injuries from the calamity on Interstate 95, but plenty of outrage from motorists, some of whom were stranded overnight Monday into Tuesday, posting pleas for help on social media.

“We all need to be clear that this was an incredibly unusual event,” Gov. Ralph Northam said at a news conference, adding that he could understand drivers' “frustration and fear.”

Problems began Monday morning, when a truck jackknifed on Interstate 95 between Richmond and Washington, triggering a swift chain reaction as other vehicles lost control, state police said.

They mounted throughout the day as snow fell at a rate of up to 2 inches an hour, said Marcie Parker, a Virginia Department of Transportation engineer leading the effort to clear the interstate.

“That was entirely too much for us to keep up with,” she told reporters. “Consequently, with the amount of traffic that we had on the interstate, the trucks and the cars couldn't make it up and down the hills because we had too much snow and ice out there.”

Lanes in both directions eventually became blocked across an approximately 40-mile stretch of I-95 north of Richmond. As hours passed and night fell, motorists posted messages on social media about running out of fuel, food and water.

Prime Inc. truck driver Emily Slaughter said she was driving from New Jersey to Georgia to deliver vegetables to a FedEx facility and became stranded for five hours on the southbound side of I-95. She said everything on the road was fine until she hit Virginia.

“All of a sudden you could no longer see lines. It got a little scary there,” she said.

Slaughter said she soon came to a stop and she found out about the disabled vehicles on the radio and over social media.

“People were saying, `we're running out of gas' or `our kids are hungry,”' she said.

Meera Rao and her husband, Raghavendra, were driving home from visiting their daughter in North Carolina when they got stuck Monday evening. They were only 100 feet past an exit but could not move for roughly 16 hours.

“Not one police (officer) came in the 16 hours we were stuck,” she said. “No one came. It was just shocking. Being in the most advanced country in the world, no one knew how to even clear one lane for all of us to get out of that mess?”

Northam defended his decision not to activate the Virginia National Guard or declare a state of emergency.

He said the issue facing state crews was not a lack of manpower but the difficulty of getting workers and equipment through the snow and ice to where they needed to be. And he said a state of emergency, which would typically be declared hours or days before an event to create extra flexibility in responding, would have done no good.

Up to 11 inches of snow fell in the area during Monday's blizzard, according to the National Weather Service, and state police had warned people to avoid driving unless absolutely necessary, especially as colder nighttime temperatures set in.

Because the storm began with rain, crews could not pretreat the roads because the salt or chemicals would have washed away, officials said. Some traffic cameras were also knocked out by power outages. And Parker said the position of the traffic backups in relation to the interstate's express lanes meant they were not of much use to clear the logjams.

Crews worked throughout the day to clear the roadway, and traffic spilled out onto secondary roads, causing additional delays.

It took until around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday for the Virginia Department of Transportation to reopen the interstate. Authorities had announced earlier in the evening that all stranded motorists had made it off the highway, and road crews then focused on removing the remaining abandoned vehicles and making sure the entire stretch was plowed.

Officials never provided an estimate of the number of vehicles that tied up in the jam. Photos showed they numbered in the hundreds, if not thousands.

The storm also left passengers on an Amtrak train stranded in Virginia. Amtrak's Crescent left New Orleans on Sunday on its way to New York and got stuck near Lynchburg on Monday morning, when downed trees blocked the tracks.

Passenger Sean Thornton told AP that Amtrak provided food, but toilets were overflowing and passengers were furious. Amtrak planned for the train to complete its trip once the tracks are clear.

Kelly Hannon, a spokeswoman for the transportation department, apologized to motorists for the I-95 logjam and said the department would take an “exhaustive look” at the incident.

Marvin Romero, who was driving home from a family vacation in South Florida with his daughters, ages 10 and 8, took a rather optimistic view of the situation, despite spending 20 hours and a long, anxious night in the car.

“To me, I see it as a once-in-a-lifetime experience. How many people can actually say that they stepped on I-95, or they slept on I-95?” he said. “It's hopefully a story that I can tell my grandkids one day.”

Associated Press writers Matthew Barakat in Falls Church, Virginia; Bryan Gallion in Roseland, New Jersey; Michael Kunzelman in College Park, Maryland; Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia; and Julie Walker in New York contributed to this report.