FAA reaches deal with wireless carriers over 5G towers near airports
By Simon Druker

The FAA reached an agreement Friday with AT&T and Verizon, allowing the companies to safely activate more of their new 5G wireless towers near major U.S. airports. 

File Photo by Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA

Jan. 28 (UPI) -- The Federal Aviation Administration announced Friday it has reached a deal with Verizon and AT&T, allowing the wireless carriers to activate more of their new 5G network towers situated near airports.

The technical collaboration "will enable more aircraft to safely use key airports while also enabling more towers to deploy 5G service," according to the FAA.

This comes after the administration issued an Airworthiness Directive Tuesday, barring several models of Boeing aircraft from landing at airports where 5G wireless signals could cause interference, particularly during low-visibility approaches. The directive applies to approximately 177 airplanes in the United States and 657 worldwide, according to the FAA website.

At issue are the C-band towers in close proximity to airports, which could interfere with sensitive on-board instruments, including altimeters, which measure planes' altitude.

Both Verizon and AT&T had previously delayed activating parts of their 5G networks over FAA and airline concerns.

The companies have now "provided more precise data about the exact location of wireless transmitters and supported more thorough analysis of how 5G C-band signals interact with sensitive aircraft instruments. The FAA used this data to determine that it is possible to safely and more precisely map the size and shape of the areas around airports where 5G signals are mitigated, shrinking the areas where wireless operators are deferring their antenna activations," reads the FAA statement.

That allows them to safely turn on more of the 5G towers across major U.S. markets.

RELATED  Some foreign carriers cancel flights to U.S. over concerns about 5G rollout

This week, the administration said it has approved 90 percent of commercial aircraft to perform most low-visibility landings at airports where 5G towers are now deployed.

There are still restrictions on some rotary aircraft.

"The FAA continues to work with helicopter operators and others in the aviation community to ensure they can safely operate in areas of current and planned 5G deployment," said the FAA statement.

Living near fracking sites may shorten life spans, study suggests

By HealthDay News

A fracking drilling site operates in close proximity to a farm at the Niobrara oil shale formation in Weld County, Colorado, on May 30, 2012. 

File Photo by Gary C. Caskey/UPI | License Photo

Older people who live near or downwind of fracking sites have an increased risk of premature death, likely due to airborne contaminants from the sites, according to a new study.

"There is an urgent need to understand the causal link between living near or downwind of [unconventional oil and gas development] and adverse health effects," said study co-author Francesca Dominici. She is co-director of the Data Science Initiative at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in Boston.

For the study, the researchers analyzed data on more than 15 million Medicare beneficiaries who lived in all major U.S. fracking exploration regions between 2001 and 2015.

Those who lived closest to fracking sites had a 2.5% higher risk of premature death than those who didn't live close to such sites -- a statistically significant difference, the study authors noted in a school news release.

The Harvard team also found that people who lived near or downwind of unconventional oil and gas development (UOGD) sites had a higher risk of premature death than those living upwind.

The findings were published Thursday in the journal Nature Energy.

"Our findings suggest the importance of considering the potential health dangers of situating UOGD near or upwind of people's homes," said lead author Longxiang Li, a postdoctoral fellow in the department of environmental health.

Senior author Petros Koutrakis, a professor of environmental sciences, noted that while UOGD is a major industrial activity in the United States, "very little is known about its public health effects."

Koutrakis said the new study is the first to link death rates to exposure to UOGD-related air pollutants.

About 17.6 million Americans live within 6/10 of a mile of at least one active fracking site.

Previous research has linked fracking to increased human exposure to harmful substances in the air and water. It has also linked exposure to fracking with pregnancy, lung, heart and cancer risks.

But little was known about whether fracking was associated with increased risk of premature death in seniors, or how it might increase that risk.

More information

For more about fracking and health, visit the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

NASA, Boeing, UCF to study zero-carbon ammonia jet fuel
By Paul Brinkmann


NASA is researching the feasibility of using ammonia as jet fuel, including how commercial airline fleets could be converted for its use -- though it may take decades to do so. 

Photo courtesy of Boeing

ORLANDO, Fla., Jan. 28 (UPI) -- New efforts are emerging to study ammonia as a clean, climate-friendly jet fuel, led by the University of Central Florida with a $10 million contract from NASA and cooperation from Boeing.

Known to most people as an ingredient in glass cleaners, ammonia in a pure form comprises three hydrogen atoms and one nitrogen atom.

At high temperatures, hydrogen can be released from ammonia to create hydrogen fuel, according to researchers working on the study.

But NASA wants research to look at the big picture of using ammonia commercially, how the commercial airline fleets could transition to ammonia fuel and what the overall environmental impact would be, according to the agency.

The fuel research is one of many green aviation experiments NASA is pursuing, including an upcoming test flight of an all-electric plane, the X-57 Maxwell.

Burning hydrogen as fuel results in little or no harmful emissions, Jay Kapat, professor of engineering at UCF, told UPI in an interview. Traditional jet fuel, on the other hand, produces carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, particulates and other harmful emissions.

"There's a lot of attention given to hydrogen fuel today. But the bottom line is, ammonia can be stored more easily in a liquid form than hydrogen, which must be supercooled in cryogenic chambers," said Kapat, who is also director of UCF's Center for Advanced Turbomachinery and Energy Research.

"While a jet is in flight, the chill of the high altitude alone would keep it chilled adequately," he said.

NASA awarded UCF a five-year contract in December, and the university recently announced a larger team that will study ammonia, engines and fueling systems at airports.

Other groups participating are Georgia Tech, Purdue University in Indiana, Boeing, General Electric, Texas-based Southwest Research Institute, the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority and Pennsylvania-based software company ANSYS.



"We have a good concept," Kapat says. "And by having our partners in industry we know we'll fine tune and be ready for technology transition, so we can provide a greener future for our children."

If all goes well, Kapat hopes to have another five years to run a pilot program, possibly in Orlando. After that, he thinks it could be 2040 or 2050 before commercial fleets would adopt ammonia fuel broadly.

"This isn't something your plane will be using anytime soon, but we hope to spur it along," he said.

The process of releasing hydrogen from ammonia provides cooling, which would be an added benefit, Kapat said, that would help to keep engine turbines from overheating.

Southwest Research Institute will focus on the economics of how ammonia fuel use could be scaled for broader use, said Joshua Schmitt, senior research engineer at the institute.

"We have a decent amount of experience in aviation, in vehicle-based technologies," Schmitt said. "We even have large facilities on campus where we do testing with this type of thing, including ammonia, the intended fuel."

Ammonia doesn't come without risks, because it is flammable, but it is more similar to jet fuel than supercooled liquid hydrogen, he said.

"There already are safety systems in place to handle jet fuel," Schmitt said. "So it would really be about fitting ammonia into the existing safety systems and what new safety systems would need to be designed.

For now, the project is focused on gaining familiarity with ammonia as a fuel and what hazards and benefits it might present, he said.

China, Russia to start building lunar research station by 2026
By Simon Druker


China said Friday it will sign a deal with Russia by the end 

of the year that will see the two countries develop a joint facility on the moon. 

Pat Benic/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 28 (UPI) -- China said Friday that it expects to sign a space agreement with Russia by the end of this year that will include construction of a joint lunar research facility.

"We are intensively engaged in negotiations and have basically reached a consensus. The agreement is quite possible to be signed as soon as possible this year," China National Space Administration Vice Administrator Wu Yanhua told a Friday news conference, the Eurasian Times said.

The countries aim to begin construction of the International Lunar Research Station by 2026 and have basic infrastructure finished by 2035. It will be capable of conducting multidisciplinary research activities. The construction area will be chosen before 2025.

This comes on the same day the China National Space Administration released a white paper outlining the immediate future of the country's space program, as well as its recent accomplishments.

"The space industry is a critical element of the overall national strategy, and China upholds the principle of exploration and utilization of outer space for peaceful purposes," the paper states.

A future base also could include a reserve spacecraft capable of taking off from the moon's surface, Russia's Sputnik News Agency reported Tuesday.

"The possibility of some kind of reserve lunar ascent/descent vehicle is one new and important idea. And things will be more calm on the moon [for cosmonauts] if there is a reserve ship which can take off," retired cosmonaut Vladimir Solovyev told the agency.

It also reported member states of the European Space Agency have been invited to participate in the facility's development. The agency said it has not yet reached a decision.

In September, China and Russia jointly hosted a closed-door workshop on the lunar station. Experts from France, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Malaysia, Thailand also were invited.

Stormy Daniels testifies about supernatural interests in Michael Avenatti trial

CHALLENGING HER CREDIBILITY, 

EXCEPT GOD IS SUPERNATURAL TOO
By Danielle Haynes

Stormy Daniels walks with her former lawyer, Michael Avenatti, on April 16, 2018. Avenatti, who's representing himself in trial on wire fraud charges, cross examined Daniels on Friday.

 John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo


Jan. 28 (UPI) -- California lawyer Michael Avenatti cross examined his former client, former adult film star Stormy Daniels, during his trial Friday on wire fraud charges.

He asked her about her experiences with the supernatural in an apparent bid to question her credibility.

Avenatti, who pleaded not guilty to federal wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, took over his own representation Tuesday in his Manhattan trial. He's accused of impersonating Daniels and convincing her literary agent to send him nearly $300,000 in publisher's payments intended for her.

Avenatti said Daniels agreed to giving him part of her book advance in exchange for him representing her in a case involving allegations she had a sexual relationship with former President Donald Trump.

Daniels, born Stephanie Cliffords, began her testimony Thursday, and on Friday, it was Avenatti's turn to cross examine her. He asked her about supernatural visions she's had and her ability to speak with ghosts.

"How do you speak with the dead?" he asked.

"I don't know. It just happens sometimes," she responded, adding that she sometimes uses cards and meditation to help.

Daniels testified that she spoke with a doll named "Susan," a subject that appears in her documentary project Spooky Babes.

Avenatti also asked whether a "dark entity" had entered her home.

"That's what I was told by a medium," Daniels said.

At the end of Friday's testimony, Avenatti told the court he will likely testify in his own defense next week.

EXPLAINER: Who uses Florida-Caribbean smuggling routes?

By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON

U.S. Coast Guard Captain Jo-Ann Burdian, foreground, speaks along with Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge in Miami Anthony Salisbury, rear, during a news conference, Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022, at Coast Guard Sector Miami in Miami Beach, Fla. The Coast Guard says it has found four more bodies in its search for dozens of migrants lost at sea off Florida, for a total of five bodies. The maritime security agency said Thursday that it also plans to call off its active search for survivors at sunset if it doesn't receive any new information. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

MIAMI (AP) — Little is known about the 40 people believed to have been aboard a boat that capsized and was found this week near Florida’s coast with just one survivor. But they were on a route often traveled by migrants trying to enter the U.S. clandestinely, and authorities suspect the trip was organized by smugglers.

Apprehensions of migrants in the Florida-Caribbean region appear to be on pace to surpass numbers from last year, with more Cubans and Haitians taking to sea despite the dangers and stricter U.S. refugee policies.

The sole survivor told a good Samaritan and authorities that the boat capsized late Saturday after he and 39 others had set out for Florida from Bimini, a chain of islands in the Bahamas about 55 miles (88 kilometers) east of Miami.

Officials say the Bahamas is a common route for smuggling migrants. Both the Coast Guard and Homeland Security say they are treating this as a human smuggling case.

WHY THE BAHAMAS?

The Bahamas is seen as a steppingstone to reach Florida and the United States.

For the most part, the migrants are from Haiti and Cuba, but the Royal Bahamas Defense Force has reported apprehending migrants from other parts of the world, including from Colombia and Ecuador.

Refugee aid groups say some migrants opt for the longer route to avoid the increasing law enforcement along the Florida Straits. “They may island hop,” said Randy McGrorty, executive director of Catholic Legal Services.

The defense force said that last Friday it rescued 31 migrants who were on another overcrowded boat that also capsized. Those migrants had also departed from Bimini.

The Bahamas and nearby Turks and Caicos Islands have stepped up their anti-smuggling enforcement efforts in cooperation with the Coast Guard in recent years.

HOW MANY ARE MAKING THE JOURNEY?

From Oct. 1, 2020, to Sept. 30 of last year, the Coast Guard says that in the region that includes Florida and the Caribbean its crews apprehended 838 Cubans; 1,527 Haitians; and 742 Dominicans.

In less than four months since last October, crews have apprehended 686 Cubans; 802 Haitians and 685 Dominicans.

In May, a Canadian man was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison in U.S. federal court for his role in an operation that smuggled people from Sri Lanka by plane to Haiti, then by boat to the Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas to South Florida.

The total number of people making the journey is impossible to know as many try to arrive undetected and thousands have died over the years.

WHY ARE THEY COMING?

Reasons vary, with some migrants seeking better economic opportunity and some escaping political turbulence or violence.

Cuba is facing an economic crisis that has been exacerbated by the pandemic, increased U.S. sanctions and cutbacks in aid from Venezuela. The crisis has led to shortages in many goods and a series of protests that shook the island on July 11.

Legal ways to leave Cuba were strained by former President Donald Trump’s near-closure of the U.S. Embassy in 2017. The United States had been providing 22,000 visas a year to Cuba for two decades until 2017. And President Joe Biden has not resumed dialogue with the communist nation.

McGrorty, of Catholic Legal Services, says his office is seeing “very meritorious asylum claims.”

In Haiti, violence has spiked since the July assassination of President Jovenel Moise. The political instability and a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in August have deepened a growing humanitarian crisis in the impoverished Caribbean nation.

CAN THEY STAY?

The U.S. Coast Guard often repatriates people found at sea; it did so earlier this month when it sent back 119 Cuban migrants.

At the beginning of 2017, President Barack Obama eliminated a policy known as “wet foot-dry foot” that allowed Cubans who reached U.S. shores to remain, usually as refugees, while those caught at sea were sent back.

Typically Cubans would obtain parole cards that allowed them to apply for residency a year afterward. But right now the system is in disarray, with lawsuits challenging how the government treats Cuban asylum seekers. A 56-year-old law has given Cubans a virtually guaranteed path to legal residency and eventual citizenship.

Thousands of Cubans are subject of deportation, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement still lists the communist nation as uncooperative or “recalcitrant” in accepting deportees.

The U.S. government has been called out for expelling thousands of Haitians. A U.N. report estimated about 9,000 Haitians were expelled between Sept. 19, 2021, and late November. Most had arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border in September.

Activists urge athletes to speak out at Beijing Olympics


1 of 3

Human right groups gather on the United Nations international Human Rights Day, Friday, Dec. 10, 2021, to call for a boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 in front of the Bank of China building in Taipei, Taiwan. Human rights activists issued a call to action against the Beijing Olympics on Friday, Jan. 28, 2022 imploring athletes and sponsors to speak out against what they call the "genocide games."

 (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying, File)


BEIJING (AP) — Human rights activists issued a call to action against the Beijing Olympics on Friday, imploring athletes and sponsors to speak out against what they call the “genocide games.”

Speaking at an online press conference organized by the rights group Human Rights Watch, activists representing Chinese dissidents and the minority Uyghur and Tibetan populations urged international attendants to voice their opposition to China’s hosting of the Games, which begin next week.

“The 2022 Winter Olympics will be remembered as the genocide games,” said Teng Biao, a former human rights activist in China who is now a visiting professor at the University of Chicago.

“The CCP’s purpose is to exactly turn the sports arena into a stage for political legitimacy and a tool to whitewash all those atrocities,” he added, referring to the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

China’s crackdown under hardline ruler Xi Jinping has been felt across wide swaths of society. Hong Kong authorities crushed anti-government protests in the city in 2019, and the central government in Beijing passed a national security law aimed at stifling dissent, leading to the arrest of activists and disbandment of civil society groups.

Meanwhile, in the country’s western region of Xinjiang, an estimated 1 million people or more — most of them Uyghurs — have been confined in reeducation camps in recent years, according to researchers.

An independent, unofficial body set up by a prominent British barrister to assess evidence on China’s alleged rights abuses against the Uyghur people concluded in December that the Chinese government committed genocide. China has consistently denied any human rights abuses in the region and has said it carried out its actions to counter extremism in the region in order to ensure people’s safety.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin has hit back at the rights group for its continued calls to boycott the Olympics, saying that “the so-called human rights group is biased against China and keen on making mischief. Lies and rumors it fabricated are unpopular. Its egregious acts that harm the Olympic cause will never succeed.”

The Foreign Ministry has also said the Olympics should not be politicized. Yet the competition is already facing a diplomatic boycott led by the U.S., whose relationship with China has nosedived in the past few years.

Activists have failed to achieve a full boycott of the games, but have continued to speak out.

“Your silence is their strength. This is what they want more than anything: that the world will play by China’s rules, that we will follow China’s lead, that we will look away from these atrocities and crimes for the sake of business as usual,” said Lhadon Tethong, director of the Tibet Action Institute, at the press conference Friday.

She appealed directly to athletes from the U.S., UK, France and others to speak.

“I personally believe that you should use your platform and your privilege and this historic opportunity. You have to speak out against the wave of genocide,” she said.

—-

Associated Press video journalist Sam McNeil contributed to this report from Beijing.

Dissed: Olympic snowboarders still irked by secondary status
By EDDIE PELLS

1 of 7

Jamie Anderson, of the United States, celebrates winning gold after the women's slopestyle final at Phoenix Snow Park at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Monday, Feb. 12, 2018. Still bothering many of the riders was the way the slopestyle contests went down at the Pyeongchang Games four years ago. 

(AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)

ASPEN, Colo. (AP) — The wind-whipped ice pellets slammed against their faces and made their cheeks feel like frozen sandpaper. On another part of the mountain, the Alpine skiers had been sent back to their hotels, told the conditions were too dangerous for racing that day.

But for the snowboarders, the contest was on.

Four years later, that day at the Pyeongchang Olympics remains a source of bitter memories for the riders, including the gold medalist, Jamie Anderson.

It was, in their opinion, a loud and clear statement that, even 20 years after their sport was brought into the Olympics to give the Games a younger, more vibrant feel, they were still being treated like second-class citizens.

“Even if I was lucky to land a run, I think that was a really, really terrible call,” Anderson said in an Associated Press interview earlier this winter, reflecting on a winning trip down the course that included watered-down tricks that hadn’t been part of winning slopestyle runs for a decade or more. “And they really didn’t give the riders any faith.”

That lack of faith was repeated in multiple interviews the AP conducted with riders and top industry executives in the lead-up to the Beijing Games, which start next week. They expressed similar feelings about the IOC, the Switzerland-based International Ski Federation (FIS) — which runs snowboarding at the Olympics — and the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, all of which have benefitted by bringing snowboarding into the mainstream.

“When you really think about it, we’ve always been oil and water with the Olympics,” said Donna Burton Carpenter, whose late husband, Jake, invented the modern-day snowboard and got it accepted at resorts across the globe.

It started at the sport’s Olympic debut in Nagano in 1998, when the word “snowboarding” was misspelled on the scoreboard at the venue — “Snow-Bording.” The riders were placed on a rain-soaked halfpipe that made good performances almost impossible. The halfpipe contests were held in the wake of a positive marijuana test by giant slalom winner Ross Rebagliati that swamped the sport in controversy while reinforcing stereotypes that gave fuel to critics who felt snowboarding wasn’t quite a “real” sport.

Shaun White emerged as the sport’s true mainstream star after his gold medal in 2006, but in 2010 and 2014, subpar halfpipes hampered the quality of some contests, while others, including the 2010 parallel giant slalom races, were held in driving rainstorms that made umbrellas every bit as useful as snowsuits.

By 2018, snowboarders had earned a victory of sorts by altering an Olympic rule that had called for local companies to have a piece of the course-construction contracts at Olympic venues. It allowed for the industry’s top course and halfpipe shapers to take part in the building, which most people agree led to better riding conditions.

Still, accommodations and scheduling changes that were made for skiers on the Alpine course because of bad weather were not made for the snowboarders. On the day four years ago that underscored all the problems — the day of the women’s slopestyle contest — riders described communication as poor, and a general sense that if they didn’t go on the day in question, they might lose their chance to compete for a gold medal.

What resulted was a contest in which 25 Olympians each got two runs. Of the 50 total runs, 41 ended with a rider on her backside, or in a face plant, or riding off the course, unable to navigate the blustery conditions.

“It was a bloodbath out there,” said Mark McMorris, the Canadian snowboard star who won a bronze medal in the men’s slopestyle contest that also was held in windy, subpar conditions. “And to throw the women’s slopestyle out there where wind plays a bigger factor. Those people are on the ground in Alpine skiing, not flying through the air on 80-foot jumps. I think snowboarding is sometimes overlooked in that sense.”

Dean Gosper, an Australian member of FIS who has a hand in trying to give action sports a better standing both at the Olympics and within the Euro-centric organization, said FIS has done a lot of reviewing and rehashing of the events of that day. Ultimately, the tight Olympic schedule and lack of “weather days” — backup days that have long been built into an Alpine schedule — led to the event going forward under bad conditions.

“One of the prices that freestyle snowboard and freeskiing had to pay to get into the (Olympic) mix is that there’s a very tight schedule there for the execution” of their events, Gosper said.

As the riders head to Beijing for contests that begin Feb. 5, it feels strange to McMorris and many of his counterparts to be fighting essentially the same fights that their predecessors were waging in the ’90s.

Back then, while snowboarding was mushrooming into the billion-dollar industry it is today, there already was a healthy competition side in a sport that also valued backcountry riding and freedom of expression that, some felt, should not be subjected to the whims of a judging panel.

That led to some riders, most notably Terje Haakonsen of Norway, who at the time was the best freestyle rider in the world, to say “no” to the Olympics. Always outspoken about his disdain for the IOC and the Olympics, Haakonsen was famously walking into Disneyland with his kids on Feb. 11, 2002, the day the American men swept the medals at the Salt Lake City Games, and a day often viewed as a turning point for the sport’s mainstream popularity.

“I won more prize money in the ’90s than people win in a FIS contest right now,” Haakonsen said in an AP interview last winter. “So, have the Olympics been good for the sport when the prize money is lower than what it was in the ’90s? I don’t think so.”

Though there is no official database for prize money, Haakonsen won $100,000 at one halfpipe contest back in the day. These days, a good first prize is considered $45,000.

A core issue that has never been resolved was the IOC’s decision to make FIS the governing body for snowboarding. At the start, there was no synergy between skiing and snowboarding, which spent its early years trying to nudge its way onto the mountains, where most skiers didn’t want it.

“With skiers, I don’t know how much respect they have for snowboarders at the end of the day,” said Austrian snowboarder Anna Gasser, who won gold in big air a few days after finishing 15th in the 2018 slopestyle contest.

A generation later, many on the snowboarding side claim they haven’t seen much change.

Kelly Clark, a three-time Olympic medalist and one of the icons of the sport, said she recently spoke to a panel of Alpine experts in her role on the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association’s fundraising arm. Part of her presentation was about the specifics needed to build a good halfpipe, the likes of which haven’t been in play for at least half of the six Olympics at which snowboarding has been featured.

“A lot of people came up to me afterward and said they had no idea that conditions of the pipe mattered,” Clark said. “I was just amazed at the response.”

Gosper, the FIS executive, said the organization needs to keep working to include snowboarding and action sports as full partners, not simply add-ons to Alpine.

“I think there’s a long way to go,” he said. “And I think there’s definitely been some discipline bias inside FIS. It’s not through any malintent. It’s just through traditional history.”

One clear sign of Alpine’s dominance in Europe: Heading into the Olympics, the continent has 15 of the 60 top-ranked snowboarders on the world points lists for their respective disciplines; by comparison, Europeans take up 90 of the 100 top-10 spots across the five Alpine disciplines.

But in America, snowboarders account for a huge chunk of the USSA’s success. With help from current headliners White and Chloe Kim, snowboarders have won 31 Olympic medals since the sport joined the Games. Alpine skiers, including Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin, have won a total of 21 over that period.

Given those numbers, Burton Carpenter said she was shocked to find that only about 5% of the 88 people on the USSA fundraising board, on which she has a seat, have a background in snowboarding — a figure confirmed by an AP review of the panel.

“We’ve produced more medals and that’s, ultimately, how you measure success,” Burton Carpenter said. “So, giving us a fraction of the funding. It’s (expletived) up.”

The funding formula is more complex than that. In general, it takes more money to turn an Alpine skier into an Olympic medal contender, from the training and coaching costs, to the increased travel costs to compete on circuits that are largely in Europe.

While USSA does not give a public breakdown of the money given to skiing vs. snowboarding, two people with knowledge of the data told the AP the split could be at least as much as 75-25 in favor of Alpine. The people did not want their names used because the data is not public.

The head of the USSA fundraising board, Trisha Worthington, did not respond to an email sent by the AP.

At the heart of the argument is that snowboarders have always felt almost a tribal loyalty to their own, and the mantra long heard in the community is that snowboarders, not skiers, should run snowboarding — not only at the grassroots, but at the highest levels, too.

Burton Carpenter said she’s considering a push to extract snowboarding from the FIS domain, and potentially into a partnership with the international roller sports federation, which runs skateboarding and might have more in common with its winter cousins.

“Jake would say he never imagined where the sport was going to go, but it was the riders who did it, not FIS or the IOC,” Burton Carpenter said of her late husband. “I’m trying to find a way to have their voices heard. I don’t know you can do that under skiing. They’ve proven they can’t, and they don’t listen to us.”

___

More AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

WATER IS LIFE

Navy to drain millions of gallons of water daily from Red Hill Shaft

By Michelle Watson and Claudia Dominguez, CNN 

The US Navy has been granted a permit to discharge up to five million gallons of treated water a day from its Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage facility after that water was contaminated by a petroleum leak that sickened military families and children in Hawaii.

© Seaman Rachel Swiatnicki/Alamy 

Contaminated water at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam began to sicken military families late last year.

Statements from the Hawaii Department of Health and the Navy on Friday said the permit will allow the removal of contamination from the freshwater aquifer under the storage facility.

The fuel facility sits 100 feet above the Red Hill aquifer, which supplies drinking water to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and other parts of Hawaii. Nearly 1 million people on Oahu rely on it for water, according to the Hawaii Board of Water Supply.

On November 28, the Navy shut down its Red Hill well after reports of people on base suffering nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headaches and skin-related problems.

Testing revealed petroleum hydrocarbons and vapors in the water, the Navy said. US Pacific Fleet Deputy Commander Rear Adm. Blake Converse later confirmed a petroleum leak was the cause.

"When pumping begins, up to 5 million gallons a day of water will be pumped from the Red Hill Shaft," the Navy said in an email to CNN.

"Water will pass through a granular activated carbon (GAC) filtration system, where it will be closely monitored and tested to ensure it does not pose a threat to human health or the environment, before discharging into Halawa Stream."

The permit was approved by the Interagency Drinking Water Systems Team (IDWST), a coalition of the Hawaii Department of Health, the US Environmental Protection Agency, Hawaii Department of Health, US Navy, and US Army. It requires that water be tested at "each step of the treatment process," and that the operation stop if levels are not in accordance with DOH's requirements.

IDWST said the plan will reduce contamination, protect plants and wildlife and set the groundwork to understand how the groundwater was contaminated.

In early December, the Navy discovered contamination at the Red Hill Shaft. Honolulu's Board of Water Supply (BWS) later shut down the Halawa Shaft, Oahu's largest water source, after the Navy said it had found "a likely source of the contamination."

At the time, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday called the situation "completely and totally unacceptable."

CNN reached out to the governor's office regarding the permit but has not received a response.

Some trucker convoy organizers have history of white nationalism, racism

Rachel Gilmore 

As the first vehicles from the trucker convoy started appearing on Ottawa streets, some Twitter users shared a particular photo: a pickup truck with a confederate flag flying from the bed.

Now, as the convoy descends on Ottawa with the stated aim of opposing all COVID-19 mandates, anti-hate experts allege those with white nationalist and Islamophobic views don't just represent the fringes of the movement but are among the organizers of the convoy.

"We're saying that this is a far-right convoy because -- from day one -- the organizers themselves are part of the far-right movement," said Evan Balgord, executive director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network.

"They have previously been involved in far-right movements and have made Islamophobic comments in the past."

Read more:
Trucker convoy protest arrives in Ottawa for multi-day demonstration

It can be difficult to determine who is a key organizer of the convoy, but there are some names that emerge time and time again — whether as authors of the $7.4million GoFundMe campaign, as points of contact on the website that boasts a petition with 240,000 signatures, or on social media posts providing widely-shared directions to anyone hoping to join.

Global News contacted all the organizers mentioned in this story, but none responded by the time of publication. Jason LaFace, an Ontario organizer, did pick up the call, but upon the reporter identifying themselves, immediately laughed, said "no thank you," and hung up the phone.

The convoy initially kicked off with a focus on opposing vaccine mandates — especially the one aimed at truckers. The government announced in November 2021 that all Canadian truckers seeking to cross the border from the United States would need to be vaccinated in order to avoid a 14-day quarantine. That mandate went into effect on Jan. 15.

The U.S. also instituted its own ban on unvaccinated truck drivers a week after Canada implemented its policy.

In the days since the trucks hit the road, the stated goal of the movement has become muddied.

One trucker who is headed to the protest, Brigitte Belton, told Global News in a Friday interview that her goal is "to get freedom back," and that she is "not here for politics."

Commenting on other participants whose goals may be more extreme, she said "whatever their agendas are, that's not what we're here for. So they need to be quiet. They need to go home."

Read more:
Organizer of GoFundMe campaign for trucker convoy withdraws $1M, company confirms

A group affiliated with the convoy, Canada Unity, has produced a "memorandum of understanding" that it plans to present to Gov. Gen. Mary Simon and the Senate, and which it believes would force the government to rescind COVID-19 public health measures, or force the government to resign en masse.

"The GG wouldn't dismiss a Cabinet that hasn't lost the confidence of the Commons ... moreover, the GG has no authority to independently rescind laws or regulations," said parliamentary expert Philippe Lagassé.

The convoy has a number of participants with different goals and isn't cohesive, but some popular webpages help paint a picture of the people behind the convoy.

There is a GoFundMe page that has raised more than $7 million for the trucker convoy. That fundraiser has two names on it: Tamara Lich, and B.J. Dichter.

Speaking to a cheering crowd at a People's Party of Canada convention in 2019, B.J. Dichter warned listeners about the dangers of "political Islamists," and said the Liberal Party is "infested with Islamists."

He added that, by meeting "with extremists," Conservative and "establishment" politicians "put at risk moderate and secular Muslims, who want nothing more but to integrate into Canada, to become Canadian, and to leave the garbage of their birth country behind them."

"Despite what our corporate media and political leaders want to admit, Islamist entryism and the adaptation of political Islam is rotting away at our society like syphilis," he added, according to a story written for the Toronto Star by Alex Boutilier, who is now employed by Global News.

Another dominant voice within the convoy community is a man named Patrick King. King is listed as a contact for North Alberta on Canada Unity's website, which hosts the memorandum of understanding that boasts more than 240,000 signatures.

King's name was repeatedly mentioned on the convoy's walkie-talkie app, Zello, on Friday — but he has ended up in the public eye for different reasons in the past, according to footage posted online.




In a video posted on Twitter in 2019, King suggests that unless Canadians "get up off your as---s and demand change," they might want to change their names to "Ishmael" or "drop a bunch of change down the stairs" and "call yourself chong ching ching chang."

In other video footage, King can be seen repeating racist conspiracy theories. In one clip posted to Twitter by another user, King says "there's an endgame, it's called depopulation of the Caucasian race, or the Anglo-Saxon. And that's what the goal is, is to depopulate the Anglo-Saxon race because they are the ones with the strongest bloodlines," he said.

"It’s a depopulation of race, okay, that’s what they want to do.”

Read more:

‘Fringe minority’ in truck convoy with ‘unacceptable views’ don’t represent Canadians: Trudeau

He then talks about men with the first names "Ahmed" and "Mahmoud" who he claims are trying to “not only infiltrate by flooding with refugees, we're going to infiltrate the education systems to manipulate it” so there is "less procreation" which leads to "less white people — or you know, Anglo-Saxon. Let's say Anglo-Saxon, because when I say white, all the ANTIFA guys call up the race card."

In a Facebook Live posted directly to his page, King says that COVID-19 is "not a naturally occurring virus."

"It's not a naturally occurring virus, it's a man-made bioweapon that was put out to make people sick, to push the narrative for all these jabs, is what it was," he said.

“Because the jab is the, they want to be able to track you, follow you, know your every movement you do.”

King did not answer two phone calls or respond to emails from Global News.

10:38 a.m. OTTAWA 

Jason LaFace — who at times uses the name "LaFaci" — is listed as the North and East Ontario organizer for the convoy on the Canada Unity website, and has been cited in other media as the main organizer for Ontario. In photos posted to his Facebook page, which were screenshotted by Global News, he shared an image titled "Canadian politicians who are not born in Canada" and included his own caption: "traitors to our country."

According to a screenshot obtained by Global News, LaFace posted a selfie where he wore a hat with what appears to be the initials S.O.O., which is believed to stand for Soldiers of Odin — an anti-immigrant group first established in Finland.

The emergence of the far-right Soldiers of Odin group in Canada raised concerns about the potential for “anti-immigrant vigilantism,” according to a de-classified intelligence report obtained by Global News in 2017

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© Provided by Global News Jason LaFace SOO

"One of the admins on their website is actually somebody who's like the vice president of the Soldiers of Odin, a skinhead group in Sudbury, Ont.," said Dr. Carmen Celestini, a post-doctoral fellow at The Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism and an adjunct professor at the University of Waterloo.

"His name is Jason LaFace. He also uses other names, but he is a vice president of this group, which organize events that will try to stop immigration, people who are BIPOC or people who are in LGBTQ communities."

"Last summer," she added, LaFace posted a message on Facebook indicating that he planned to "paint over a mural in Sudbury for (Black Lives Matter)."

LaFace later apologized, saying he "should have researched a bit more what was going on in terms of the mission and why it was sanctioned by the city."

"I apologize for my behaviour to the entire city," he said, according to the Sudbury Star.

However, LaFace showed a slight change of heart in a recent Facebook Live.

"This whole moment in history right now has changed my life for better, for the rest of my life," LaFace said.

"I'm not a bitter little a--hole like I used to be, where I was pretty ignorant to some people online."

Read more:
Far-right groups hope trucker protest will be Canada’s ‘January 6th’

However, in that same video, LaFace also issued a message about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

"There's things that are working in the background right now, that I found out this morning, Justin Trudeau is going buh-bye. It's true, he is," he said.

"It's done, so now we just have to deploy our plan ... he's gone when we're done."

When Global News attempted to contact LaFace for a comment, he said "no thank you" and hung up.

As the ideologies allegedly supported by a number of the convoy's organizers make headlines, some truckers are getting frustrated.

"We're here to get freedom back. That's what we're here to get, out here for. Whatever their agendas are, that's not what we're here for," said Belton, referring to the more extreme voices tied to the movement.

Belton is a trucker who has been regularly making TikTok videos about the convoy and plans to attend Saturday's protest. She is also listed as a Sarnia contact on the Canada Unity webpage.

"They need to go home. We don't need them. We don't need their numbers. Yeah, we've got huge numbers with just people that want to go back to a normal life and that's what we want," she said.

Read more:
Singh’s brother-in-law has asked for his $13K trucker convoy donation back, source says

Lich, an organizer of the truck convoy, said in a video posted to the convoy’s Facebook page that those promoting violence or hate do not reflect the position of the protesters.

“As you know, we are on our way to Ottawa to hold a peaceful protest. I just want to put it out there that nobody in this convoy will be inciting violence or uttering threats. That is not what we’re here to do,” Lich said in the video.

“If you see anybody trying to associate themselves with us that is acting in that way, you need to get their truck number and their licence plate and report it to the police."

For some, the individual views of organizers aren't as important as what they're doing for the cause.

When Belton was asked specifically about organizers and told some of what Global News had uncovered about LaFace and King, she said the information about the purported views is “irrelevant” for her.

"I'm coming here for freedom," she said.

"All I know is that they're good people to me and they are helping me."

Freedom Convoy 2022 live updates: Downtown Ottawa jammed full, police called in help (msn.com)

The Hill cam view

© the hill cam A live image of the Centre Block and Peace Tower on Parliament Hill.

-32 C (-25.6 F)  YES THAT'S A CRAZY CANUCK PROTESTER SHOWING OFF HIS WHITENESS

Beleaguered Trudeau rival embraces trucker protest despite concerns of violenceBy Steve Scherer

© Reuters/PATRICK DOYLE Truckers arrive in Ottawa to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandate

OTTAWA (Reuters) -Canada's beleaguered Conservative opposition leader is backing a trucker protest against the Liberal government's strict COVID-19 vaccine mandates, with critics warning the movement is led by far-right activists with a history of trying to incite violence.

The so-called "Freedom Convoy" - due to bring hundreds of trucks to Ottawa from east and west on Saturday - started out as a protest against a vaccine requirement for cross-border truckers https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canadas-trudeau-slams-fear-mongering-over-covid-vaccine-mandate-truckers-2022-01-24, but has turned into a demonstration against government overreach during the pandemic with a strong anti-vaccine streak

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© Reuters/PATRICK DOYLE Truckers arrive in Ottawa to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandate

Some political analysts say embattled Conservative leader Erin O'Toole is now using the protest in a bid to gain more support. O'Toole has opposed vaccine mandates since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced them https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canada-require-covid-19-vaccinations-federal-lawmakers-2021-10-20 in October on the eve of the election.

© Reuters/PATRICK DOYLE Truckers arrive in Ottawa to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandate

"The convoy itself is becoming a symbol of the fatigue and the division we're seeing in this country," O'Toole told reporters on Thursday.

Canada's Anti-Hate Network, an independent watchdog, said the convoy's leading promoters, a few of whom have described the protest as Canada's equivalent of the violent storming of U.S. Capitol Hill in Washington a year ago, are not truckers but members of the far-right

 https://www.antihate.ca/the_freedom_convoy_is_nothing_but_a_vehicle_for_the_far_right

© Reuters/PATRICK DOYLE Truckers arrive in Ottawa to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandate

The Canadian Trucking Alliance, which represents some 4,500 carries, opposes the protest, saying this is "not how disagreement with government policies should be expressed." About 90% of Canada's cross-border truckers and 77% of the population has had two shots

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© Reuters/PATRICK DOYLE Truckers arrive in Ottawa to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandate

Action4Canada, one of the organizers, has vowed to stay in Ottawa until the mandates are reversed. "Put an end to the vaccine mandates and all things COVID! It is time for the tyranny and corruption to end," the group said on its website.

Organizers insist the demonstration will be peaceful, and that was the case for a few hundred people and vehicles that turned out on Friday, a day early. They paraded up and down the street in front of parliament, with some honking their horns while waving Canadian and "Fuck Trudeau" flags.

"We're staying here as long as it takes," said Jennifer from Prince Edward Island. She declined to provide her last name. She drove 18 hours to Ottawa in a convoy from the Atlantic coast.

Ottawa police were out in force on Friday, and said they would do the same on Saturday.

O'Toole, facing party calls for a leadership review due to September's election loss to Trudeau and flagging support in opinion polls, has said he would meet the truckers. He posted a video on social media blaming Trudeau for potential supply chain problems the trucker mandate may cause.

Among past Conservative voters, there was a 26 percentage point drop since last year's vote of those who have a favorable view of O'Toole, an Angus Reid Institute poll https://angusreid.org/federal-politics-january-2022 from this week showed.

'POLITICAL GIFT'

Around 20-25% of Conservative party voters oppose vaccine mandates, the highest rate among the parties in parliament, according to polls. Canada is now in the middle of a spike in Omicron variant cases that is straining hospitals https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canadian-hospitals-strain-omicron-hits-health-workers-2022-01-24.

Some convoy participants have threatened and harassed journalists trying to interview them on their way to Ottawa. Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly said on Friday convoy supporters are "inciting hate, violence, and in some cases criminality" on social media.

In an editorial published Thursday in the Toronto Sun, O'Toole acknowledged he was concerned the protest could be hijacked by "individuals who plan to use (it) as a means for violence.... (which would) only serve to delegitimize valid and reasonable concerns".

Trudeau on Friday said he was concerned about the protest turning violent in an interview with the Canadian Press, and said this week the convoy represented https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canadas-trudeau-slams-fear-mongering-over-covid-vaccine-mandate-truckers-2022-01-24 a "small fringe minority" who "do not represent the views of Canadians."

Just as a rock-throwing anti-vaccine https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canadas-trudeau-trailing-polls-goes-attack-two-weeks-before-vote-2021-09-06 protester during last year's campaign brought Trudeau sympathy and support, disruptions resulting from the protest could bolster Trudeau at O'Toole's expense.

"This is a country that's all about peace, order and good government," said David Coletto, chief executive officer of Abacus Data polling company, so if there is violence or chaos, the Conservatives will be seen as "cheerleaders".

"This is a political gift to the Liberals," Coletto said.

(Reporting by Steve Scherer, additional reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa and Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru; editing by Philippa Fletcher)