How Texas' Energy Woes Are Derailing Life In This Houston Neighborhood

Xander Peters
Sat, April 9, 2022

Texas has expanded storage for natural gas and propane, which backers say will shore up the state's energy grid. (Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

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HOUSTON ― The Southwest Crossing subdivision has always been a quiet place, a haven just outside the city’s concrete jungle where the sound of children laughing bounces off neatly paved streets. That was the case until last May, when some residents started receiving letters from CenterPoint Energy that a propane storage facility was moving in next door.

Within weeks, residents Eugene Pack and Brittney Stredic could hear construction equipment revving in the distance. At the time, they wondered how the decision was made to build the facility in their section of Fort Bend County ― where, of the more than 800,000 people who live in this area of the city, nearly half identify as nonwhite, according to recent U.S. Census data. The two have since become outspoken community organizers trying to stop the project.

CenterPoint Energy started work on its new propane storage facility in August. It is expected to hold 300,000 gallons of the highly flammable gas in four underground tanks the size of small submarines. The company said the project was planned to be completed in March. Stredic told HuffPost in late March that construction of the propane storage facility was still underway.

The facility is just 500 feet from homes, and residents worry about its effects on their health, their safety, their property values — their very future in Southwest Crossing.

“The level of fear that they’ve placed in this community, it’s insane,” said Pack, 71, a longtime resident and a preacher at Houston’s Praise and Worship Center in the city’s 3rd Ward neighborhood. He and Stredic were standing in a church parking lot next to the CenterPoint construction site, where workers were leaving with their lunches on a rainy day in November. “I don’t know what they were thinking — to put this much of a chemical in a residential neighborhood. This is a dense area.”

Energy has been on the minds of Texans since last year’s rare, fatal winter storm Uri caused power outages for nearly 5 million people across the state. Lawmakers and the energy sector have looked at options for reinforcing the state’s energy grid, but despite passage of legislation and new state standards, energy experts say they haven’t taken many steps.

Meanwhile, the oil and gas industry — which produces natural gas, the energy source perhaps most to blame for the 2021 blackouts after freezing temperatures caused operations to fail during peak usage — has been left alone. Propane, a byproduct of crude oil and natural gas used to heat homes and power appliances, accounted for more than 47% of the state’s electricity generation in 2019. Comparable power sources like coal, nuclear, wind and solar make up a combined 52%, according to state data.

Natural gas and propane storage expansion have been underway in Texas for years, promoted as a way to shore up the energy grid.

But Southwest Crossing residents worry about the possibility of gas leaks and explosions. They also worry about longer-term effects. Across town, Houston’s 5th Ward, another historically diverse neighborhood, has been dealing with a slowly leaking underground plume containing various chemicals ― including creosote, which preserves wood — from a former rail yard site. The plume is alleged to have created cancer clusters among longtime residents, including in children.

“All it takes is one time, one human error,” said Stredic, 27, a lifelong Southwest Crossing resident who has taken time away from her college education to organize against the CenterPoint Energy propane storage site. “People are going to make mistakes. It’s just a matter of, when is that mistake going to happen?”
Cheap Energy, But At What Cost?

Texas is the top energy-producing state in the U.S., with an energy sector worth an estimated $712 billion. The Lone Star State also consumes more energy than any other state, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. But mistakes have become commonplace as the state attempts to reinforce its power grid.

In 1989 and 2011, Texans experienced widespread power failures due to extreme winter weather. Both episodes offered warnings for future winter storms, but neither regulators nor utilities took action, setting up the calamity the state saw in 2021.

At the height of Uri, natural gas wells and wind turbines froze, and coal, nuclear and gas plants were knocked offline — effectively disabling the bulk of Texas’ power grid. As a result, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the grid, cut power for several days to 2 million homes. Natural gas use spiked as Texans weathered freezing temperatures within their homes, and power plants were unable to restart to meet needs due to extreme weather. It was the largest forced outage in U.S. history.

The decision was a last-ditch effort to keep Texas’ energy grid online, and it left Texans scrambling to stay warm. Some burned books and furniture in their homes — with some accidentally burning their homes down in the process. State estimates in the aftermath found that 246 people died in 77 counties. However, other estimates indicate that the final number of casualties from the winter storm was likely much higher.

Winter storm Uri brought historic cold weather and power outages to Texas in February 2021. (Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Natural gas utilities, Texas’ majority source of power during winter months, blamed electricity generators for the blackouts. But energy experts say the real problem was that utility companies hadn’t weatherized the grid, which would have required enclosing equipment at power facilities to better protect them from extreme weather. Pressurized dry air is needed to run turbines that then generate electricity for the grid. Importantly, the weatherization precautions keep the dry air dry, as well as operable.

Since then, the standards expected of Texas’ power plants have changed. The state’s Public Utility Commission passed new rules, effective as of December, mandating that power plants better winterize their systems, and requiring that operators provide a “notarized attestation” that fixes have been made since the 2021 winter storm. There are also comprehensive, year-round guidelines for weather emergency preparedness and standards.

Meanwhile, state lawmakers passed a bill in the most recent legislative session that set new weatherization standards for Texas’ independent energy grid. But while the legislation did create a winter storm emergency alert plan and established the Texas Energy Reliability Council, not included in the bill was funding for necessary weatherization upgrades. The upshot, energy experts say, is that substantive action since the winter storm has been underwhelming. In fact, natural gas facilities, whose failure contributed significantly to the winter storm blackout, have been left alone.

Despite pleas from across the political spectrum, upon signing the bill in June, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) declared that “everything that needed to be done was done to fix the power grid.”

‘A Pretty Scary Thought’

Texas has been the only state on its own power grid since 1935, a hawkish means of avoiding federal regulation. However, the state’s independent grid offers a unique opportunity for companies like CenterPoint Energy to capitalize on catastrophic winter storms.

As part of an enormous $40 billion spending plan that the Houston-based company announced last September, CenterPoint intends to invest $16 billion in natural gas expansion nationwide over the next 10 years. It has also pledged to lower its emissions to net zero by 2035, an initiative that entails retiring coal units and implementing more solar power technology, according to the company.

Included in the plan is increased use of technologies like propane-air peak shaving facilities. The technology, which has been used since at least the 1950s, blends vaporized liquid propane and compressed air to store for use when natural gas supplies are short. The Southwest Crossing project is one such facility.

Propane-air peak shaving facilities “are there to be a little bit of a backup,” said Dr. Carey King, an assistant director and research scientist at the University of Texas at Austin’s Energy Institute.

The technology also has the benefit of providing additional backup for the grid when the next storm hits, he noted.

“Some places might be better connected or have more than one connection,” King said. “If one power line goes down, there’s another one that’s delivering power to a given area.”

CenterPoint Energy built its first propane-air peak shaving facility, the Bluebonnet Point Reserve, in North Houston, another predominantly Black and Hispanic section of the city, in October 2019. The Southwest Crossing facility will be the fourth in the Houston area.

“It’s a short distance away. To have two of these types of facilities is a pretty scary thought,” Stredic said. “It’s enough to take out our whole community on this side and that side.”

Stredic and Pack have been at the forefront of their community’s effort. They’ve led protests next to the construction site, and they’ve helped keep neighbors informed. They, like other members of their community, want answers from either the city or CenterPoint Energy on why neighborhoods with high shares of people of color were chosen for the facilities.

“As you can see, we’re sitting right next to a gas station, and there’s a church, and there’s another gas station,” Stredic said, pointing down the street. “I don’t know if they considered that the lives here needed to be protected.”
Why Here?

Historically, industrial sites built near diverse neighborhoods aren’t coincidental, especially in Houston.

A 2017 paper by sociologists at Rice University found that the city’s Black children, who are more likely to live in industry-heavy sections of the city, are twice as likely to develop asthma as Houston’s white children. A 2019 paper by the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists also found that 90% of Houston’s Manchester-Harrisburg community — whose residents are 90% Hispanic and 8% Black — lives within three miles of at least one industrial or toxic waste facility.

But these trends aren’t unique to Houston.

A 2017 report by the Clean Air Task Force and the NAACP concentrated on Black and brown “fence-line” communities ― that is, diverse communities that border oil and natural gas facilities. It found that more than 1 million Black Americans live within half a mile of these types of facilities. In the 91 U.S. counties that have a refinery or a facility that’s currently under construction, those facilities expose as many as 6.7 million Black Americans — 14% of the nation’s total Black population — to toxic and hazardous emissions.

We understand they want to better service this city, especially when we have adverse weather events, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of other people's safety.Brittney Stredic, Southwest Crossing resident

About 1 in 5 Black Americans lives near an oil or petroleum refinery, the report found.

Southwest Crossing organizers say they don’t want to be the next statistic.

“We’re not just an average community. We’re one that goes above and beyond to help each other,” Pack said. They’re looking to preserve Southwest Crossing for their “children, our grandchildren, to be able to live comfortably,” he said.

More than anything, community members say they’re confused. Of all the places a facility like CenterPoint Energy’s could be built, why here — why in their backyards?

“Historically, these types of facilities are hazardous to the environment and to people,” Stredic said. “We don’t want to accuse CenterPoint of making that type of move, but evidence is not speaking strongly towards that, either ... Until an emergency happens, or something is released in the air, it won’t necessarily be considered a hazard.”

Their intention isn’t to hinder infrastructure.

“We understand they want to better service this city, especially when we have adverse weather events,” Stredic said. “But it shouldn’t come at the cost of other people’s safety.”

It’s unclear what options Southwest Crossing residents have at this point.

In an emailed statement to HuffPost, Alejandra Diaz, a spokesperson for CenterPoint Energy, said company officials met with Houston Council Member Martha Castex-Tatum, whose district includes Southwest Crossing, last June. (Castex-Tatum’s office did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.) Several more meetings took place last summer, followed by a three-week voluntary work stoppage at the facility’s construction site while the company responded to community concerns.

“Throughout the process, CenterPoint Energy has remained committed to open communications with our customers and community members,” Diaz said. “We appreciate the communities’ support, and respect those who voiced their concerns. We have listened to those concerns and ensured they were addressed.”

The Southwest Crossing organizers and their efforts are a version of the classic fight against “unwanted facilities in Black and brown communities,” said Dr. Denae King, a toxicologist at Texas Southern University whose work identifies community environmental health concerns in the region.

But she noted that the community’s struggle with CenterPoint Energy is different, in that “by the time they realized, it was already approved; they’d started working on the area.”

King worries most about scenarios involving a chain-reaction explosion. “It could be pretty catastrophic,” she said. Her sister-in-law lives in Southwest Crossing.

That’s what Southwest Crossing residents have to consider each morning as they awake to the sound of construction equipment revving only about a football field away.

There have been upsides, Stredic said. Their community feels more united than ever, bonded over a shared disturbance in the place they call home.

“It’s brought a new sense of unity,” she said.

There have also been losses. In January, Pack died unexpectedly.

“We are still making progress despite our loss,” Stredic said. “Our goal is for them to shut it down and move it away from here.”

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

France's traditional parties bloodied by vote for far-right and hard-left


First round of the 2022 French presidential election

Sun, April 10, 2022, 
By Mimosa Spencer and Layli Foroudi

PARIS (Reuters) -Supporters of France's far-right and hard-left parties celebrated as presidential candidates for traditional mainstream parties failed dismally in Sunday's first-round vote.

As vote counting continued, President Emmanuel Macron was ahead of far-right party leader Marine Le Pen and polling firms estimated that far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon would win over 22% of the vote, compared to under 20% five years ago.

In a hall at the edge of Paris, a few hundred Rassemblement National supporters erupted into cheers as TV stations announced Le Pen had again made it into the second round, and with a higher score than the 21.3% in 2017.

They waved French flags and shouted "Marine for president" as Le Pen spoke to her supporters and called on voters for conservative Valerie Pecresse and rival hard-right candidate Eric Zemmour to rally behind her.

Several militants said their party was no longer ostracised by the general public and that they had generally received a warm welcome when canvassing for Le Pen.

"We are greeted in a completely different manner when we distribute party leaflets, we see it when we go to markets, we see people who are much more receptive - something has changed," longtime Le Pen supporter Nathalie Vaccari, 57, said.

With crowds jumping on stage and singing "on a gagne" (we have won), Le Pen's deputy campaign manager Jean-Philippe Tanguy said he was confident Le Pen could win over voters who have voted for Zemmour and Melenchon in the first round.

At a packed Cirque d'Hiver theatre in central Paris, some Melenchon fans burst into tears when the first results were announced and hundreds of supporters sang for joy, chanting "on ne lache rien" (we won't give an inch) throughout the night.

Actor Xavier Mathieu, who led the singing, said he regretted that Melenchon had not qualified for the second round, but was happy about his candidate's strong showing.

"The race is not finished because change in society does not happen in elections, it happens in the street," he said.

Jeroen Atputharajah, 18, blamed green candidate Yannick Jadot and socialist Anne Hidalgo for not backing Melenchon.

"They preferred to divide the left," he said.

Polling firms forecast Jadot at under 5% of the first-round vote, while Hidalgo was seen getting under 2%, a record low for the party that helped Francois Hollande win the 2012 election.

At the conservative party's venue, supporters had the blues, with Valerie Pecresse seen scoring less than 5%, compared to the 20.01% her predecessor Francois Fillon won five years ago.

Some 200 activists lingered after Precresse left, finishing the champagne, eating canapés, and pondering the outlook for their party, which dominated French politics for decades.

Kinata Kopi, wearing a T-shirt saying "Valerie je t’aime", said Republicans now had to stick together to prepare the 2027 election.

"I hope General de Gaulle and (former president) Jacques Chirac will inspire us so that the Republicans's flame remains alight," she said.

(Reporting by Mimosa Spencer, Layli Foroudi, John Irish and Sybille de la Hamaide; Writing by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Diane Craft and Stephen Coates)

'There must be no single vote for Le Pen,' says France's hard left Melenchon

French hardleft candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon called on his supporters not to vote for far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in the second round of the presidential election on April 24. FRANCE 24's Wassim Cornet reports from Jean-Luc Mélenchon headquarters in Paris.

Are unions making a comeback after decades of decline?

Mike Bebernes
·Senior Editor
Mon, April 4, 2022
“The 360” shows you diverse perspectives on the day’s top stories and debates.

What’s happening

Workers at an Amazon warehouse on New York’s Staten Island voted to unionize on Friday, becoming the first employees in the company’s history to form a union in the United States. It was the second high-profile Amazon facility vote after the recent election in Bessemer, Ala., where the results are inconclusive but currently favoring management.

But the union action is not limited to Amazon. The past several months have seen successful union actions in some of the country’s most important industries, including health care, retail, manufacturing and the tech sector. Some of the most noteworthy activity has involved Starbucks. Until December, none of the coffee giant’s company-owned locations in the U.S. had a union. Today, 10 of them do, and union votes are expected at 160 more locations in the coming weeks and months.

Support for unions, both among the public and in Washington, is growing. A Gallup poll from late last year found that 68% of Americans approve of unions, the highest percentage since 1965. President Biden has repeatedly pledged to be the “most pro-union president” in American history and has staffed his administration with a long list of pro-labor appointees, including naming a former union leader as his secretary of labor.

Union membership in the U.S. has declined dramatically since the middle of the 20th century. At the peak of unions in the 1950s, more than a third of American workers belonged to one. Last year, only about 6% of workers in the private sector did.

Why there’s debate

Many supporters of the labor movement say these recent breakthroughs are a sign that unions are primed to increase their influence after decades of decline. In their eyes the combined experience of the pandemic and social justice protests has fundamentally changed what workers expect from their employers. A tight labor market may also be giving them the freedom to take risks they may not have been willing to take just a few years ago. “Something special is happening in America right now,” progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren tweeted in response to the Staten Island warehouse vote.

Despite its recent gains, there’s still a lot of doubt that organized labor is due for a resurgence. Skeptics point out that the U.S. economy has transformed over the past half century, with manufacturing jobs that grew to define unions in their heyday having shifted overseas. Conservatives generally argue that the new union push will fizzle out because most workers simply don’t want to be part of one. Many on the left, meanwhile, say corporations have so much power to suppress unionization drives that a nationwide labor revival may be all but impossible without changes to federal laws. A Democrat-backed bill that would expand protections for workers’ organizing efforts passed the House last year, but its prospects in the Senate appear bleak.

What’s next

Amazon has the right to challenge the results of the union vote on Staten Island. If the company decides not to, the two sides will begin bargaining over the details of a new union contract — a process that can sometimes take years to complete.

More Amazon locations may soon form their own unions. A vote is expected at a second Staten Island warehouse later this month. Amazon workers in Bessemer, Ala., have completed their election, and the outcome may hinge on the result of a legal battle over hundreds of contested ballots that have yet to be counted.

Perspectives

A new generation of workers is transforming the landscape for organized labor

“A generation, it’s clear, is stirring. The rumblings have been audible for some time, but until recently, they’ve been contained to rarified sectors of the economy. That young workers have borne the brunt of America’s economic dysfunctions has been clear since the Crash of 2008.” — Harold Meyerson, American Prospect

Companies have enormous power to shut down union drives

“Labor organizing, historically, offers a path to workplace stability. But corporations aren’t inclined to embrace unionization. And most follow a standard playbook in an effort to stop the process — a fact that helps explain why even the most visible campaigns still run the risk of fizzling out.” — Colin Lodewick, Fortune

The pandemic has radically shifted what workers expect from their jobs

“We have not completely grasped the tsunami of changes that have fallen upon us and that will continue to fall upon us. Work has changed. Workers have changed.” — Tsedal Neeley, business administration researcher, to Vox

Skepticism of unions among workers still runs deep

“President Biden repeatedly has promised to be ‘the most pro-union president in American history.’ But there’s one key group of people standing in his way: The tens of millions of workers who want nothing to do with union membership.” — Jarrett Skorup, The Hill

The media narrative around unions has changed dramatically

“Corporate America has employed brutal anti-union campaigns for decades. What has changed, from my perspective, is that such activities are now seen as newsworthy — at least when the companies involved are household names. This coverage provides a stark contrast with past media coverage, which often depicted unionized workers as ‘overpaid, greedy and undeserving of their wealth.’” — John Logan, Conversation

The nature of work has changed so much, unions no longer make sense

“Unions in their present form no longer work for our new economy. If they want to play a role going forward they need to reinvent themselves.” — Allison Schrager, Bloomberg

The tight labor market means workers have the power to demand more, with or without unions

“Everybody’s hiring. That’s not something we’ve seen in this country any time in recent memory. It doesn't necessarily lead to union activity, but it certainly makes workers feel like they can be more demanding, either individually or collectively.” — Ruth Milkman, labor movement researcher, to New York Times

The economic conditions that are helping unions grow won’t last long

“The question is: How long are we in this period where workers feel like they can quit their job and go get a better one without much hassle? How long are we in this period where workers feel like they’re in the driver’s seat? My answer is: not much longer.” — Michael Strain, economist, Washington Post

Organized labor is too fragmented to mount a nationwide movement

“We are seeing unionization drives at this workplace and that one, but we are not seeing any bigger, broader effort to channel and transform all this worker energy and discontent into a new movement, one perhaps with millions of engaged and energetic nonunion workers, that would work in conjunction with the traditional union movement.” — Steven Greenhouse, Guardian

Workers who had never considered unionizing are discovering what’s possible

“A union at Starbucks can’t substitute for stronger contracts and new or revitalized unions elsewhere. But it puts unionization on the mental map for more workers. A growing number of the people Starbucks draws upon to operate its stores are eager to unionize, and that’s a good thing. Their success builds strength for other fragments of the working class.” — Alex N. Press, Jacobin

For all of his pro-union talk, Biden has made few substantive changes

“President Joe Biden has repeatedly claimed he is overseeing the most pro-union administration in generations, while it increasingly feels like having a very generous friend who is also broke: You appreciate their altruistic spirit, you just don’t actually get much out of it.” — Hamilton Nolan, In These Times

Spain probes private taxidermy museum with 1,000 animals

In this photo provided by the Spanish Civil Guard and made available on Sunday April 10, 2022, Civil Guards check stuffed animals in Betera, Spain. Spain's Civil Guard says it is investigating a businessman in the eastern Valencia region who held a private taxidermy collection with more than 1,000 stuffed animals, including just over 400 from protected species and at least a specimen of a North African oryx already extinct. The collection would fetch 29 million euros (31.5 million dollars) in the black market and its owner could be charged with possible trafficking and other crimes against the environment, the Civil Guard said. (Guardia Civil via AP)


MADRID (AP) — Spain’s Civil Guard says it is investigating a businessman in the eastern Valencia region who owned a private taxidermy collection with more than 1,000 stuffed animals, including just over 400 from protected species and at least one specimen of a North African oryx, already extinct.

The collection would fetch 29 million euros ($31.5 million) on the black market, the Civil Guard said Sunday in a statement, adding that its owner could be charged with trafficking and other crimes against the environment.

It said the finding was the largest of protected stuffed specimens in Spain.

Investigating agents found the stuffed animals in two warehouses extending over 50,000 square meters on the outskirts of Bétera, a small town north of the eastern coastal city of Valencia.

Of the 1,090 stuffed animals found, 405 belonged to specimens protected by the CITES convention on wildlife protection.

They included the scimitar oryx, also known as the Sahara oryx, which the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, declared extinct in the wild in 2000, and at least two more species nearly extinct: the addax, or white antelope, originally from the Sahara desert and the Bengal tiger.

The agents also recorded stuffed specimens of cheetah, leopard, lion, lynx, polar bear, snow panther and white rhinoceros, among others, as well as 198 large ivory tusks from elephants.

The Civil Guard said it would investigate whether any documents exist justifying the ownership of the collection.

JUDGE , JURY , EXECUTIONER

Israeli soldiers shoot and kill unarmed Palestinian woman in West Bank


Palestinians mourn the death of Ghada Ibrahim Ali Sabateen, an unarmed woman who was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers Sunday. Photo by Abed Al Hashlamoun/EPA-EFE


April 10 (UPI) -- Israeli soldiers shot and killed an unarmed Palestinian woman in the West Bank town of Husan on Sunday morning, officials said.

The Israeli army said the woman approached soldiers "in a suspicious manner," failing to comply with their demands

"The force opened fire as part of a suspect arrest procedure that included firing into the air. After she did not stop, the soldiers fired at her lower body," the Israel Defense Forces said.

Footage from the scene showed the woman raising her hands as she moved toward a makeshift checkpoint in the village near Bethlehem as the soldiers fired at her, causing her to fall down.

The woman, identified as Ghada Ibrahim Ali Sabateen, a 47-year-old widowed mother of six, was administered first aid by Israeli forces at the scene before being evacuated to a hospital where she died of blood loss from a torn artery in her thigh. A military representative later confirmed she was unarmed.

Authorities also arrested a Palestinian man who allegedly threatened to stab an Israeli man near the Barkan industrial zone in the West Bank.

Rescuers Without Borders said the Israeli man was slightly hurt in the incident.

The Palestinian man was detained without a knife following a brief chase, police said.

The incidents came amid waves of what Israeli officials have described as terrorist violence that has resulted in the deaths of more than a dozen people.

On Friday, Israeli authorities said they tracked down and killed a Palestinian man who was suspected of opening fire in a crowded Tel Aviv bar and killing at least three people.

Israeli forces shoot, kill 2 Palestinians; one was unarmed

By TIA GOLDENBERG and LAURIE KELLMAN

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An Israeli soldier guards an opening in Israel's West Bank separation barrier that was reinforced with barbed wire to prevent Palestinians from crossing into Israel, in the West Bank village of Nilin, west of Ramallah, Sunday, April 10, 2022. Israel has stepped up its surveillance of the barrier following a pair of attacks in recent weeks carried out by Palestinians who had entered Israel without a permit.

 (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)


TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinians, including an unarmed woman, in confrontations across Israel and the occupied West Bank on Sunday, Israeli and Palestinian officials said. It was the latest in a growing wave of violence that has broken out during the holy month of Ramadan.

The shootings came as Israeli troops combed the northern West Bank city of Jenin and the surrounding area, home to two of the Palestinians who staged deadly attacks against Israelis in recent weeks. Ramadan this year converges with major Jewish and Christian holidays. Protests during Ramadan last year boiled over into an 11-day war between Israel and Gaza militants.

“We will be at every place at any time as needed to cut off these terror attacks. Israel is going on the offensive,” Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett told his Cabinet.

Four attacks by Palestinians in recent weeks have killed 14 people in one of the deadliest bursts of violence against Israelis in years. In response, Israel has stepped up its military activity in the West Bank.

At a military checkpoint near the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Israeli soldiers opened fire at a woman who the army said failed to heed calls to stop and ignored warning shots fired into the air.

The army said that soldiers aimed at the woman’s lower body. But the Palestinian Health Ministry said the woman later died from her injuries in a hospital. Local news reports said she was a 47-year-old mother of six. The Israeli military confirmed the woman was found to be unarmed and said the incident was under investigation.

Palestinian assailants often carry out attacks at checkpoints in the West Bank. But Palestinians and human rights groups say the military often uses excessive force and in some cases has injured or killed people who were not involved in violence.

In the volatile southern West Bank city of Hebron, Israel’s border police said an officer shot another woman who stabbed and lightly wounded him near the Cave of the Patriarchs, a holy site revered by Jews and Muslims. Palestinian officials said the woman was killed.

More violence broke out later Sunday as Israeli forces patrolled Jenin, considered a stronghold of Palestinian militants, as soldiers investigated the home of an attacker who killed three Israelis in a mass shooting last week. The army said soldiers came under fire from a gunman on a motorcycle and shot him. The man’s condition wasn’t immediately known.

Israel has taken a series of steps to try to calm the situation, including granting thousands of Palestinians from the Hamas-run Gaza Strip permits to work inside Israel. At the same time, it has been stepping up security measures in hopes of preventing further violence.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz signed orders Sunday placing two Palestinian citizens of Israel in administrative detention, a controversial practice that allows authorities to hold them without charge. One suspect was placed under detention for four months on suspicion that he was planning an attack, while the second suspect was jailed for six months for what it said was past involvement in militant activity, the Defense Ministry said.

Israel’s Security Cabinet approved a plan to spend just over $110 million to extend some 40 kilometers (25 miles) of the porous West Bank separation barrier. Some of the attackers are believed to have slipped into Israel without permits.

Late Saturday, Israel announced that it was tightening restrictions on movement in and out of Jenin, though it continued to allow laborers to enter Israel for work. A raid on the home of one of the assailants on Saturday sparked a gunbattle that left at least one Palestinian militant dead.

Jenin governor Akram Rajoub denounced the ongoing Israeli activity in the area, called the measures “an expression of collective punishment” meant to disrupt the lives of Palestinians rather than thwart attacks.

In Sunday’s raid, the military said a “violent riot” broke out as forces were operating in the village of Yabad, home to one of the attackers. It said forces opened fire and shot one Palestinian who threw an explosive at them. It was unclear what his condition was.

Forces arrested at least eight suspects and found Israeli military ammunition and uniforms in one of the suspect’s homes as well as illegal arms, the military said.

Earlier, Brig. Gen. Ran Kochav, the chief military spokesman, told Israeli Army Radio that some 100 Palestinians marched toward Joseph’s Tomb in the West Bank city of Nablus late Saturday and set it ablaze before they were dispersed by Palestinian security forces. Images on social media showed parts of the tomb inside the shrine smashed and charred.

Joseph’s Tomb is a flashpoint prayer site. Some Jews believe the biblical Joseph is buried in the tomb, while Muslims say a sheikh is buried there. The army escorts Jewish worshippers to the site several times a year, in coordination with Palestinian security forces.

The incident drew condemnation from Israeli leaders. “The vandalism of Joseph’s Tomb is a grave event and a serious violation of freedom of worship in one of the holiest places for every Jew,” Gantz tweeted.

Experts: Asian population overcount masks community nuances

By TERRY TANG and MIKE SCHNEIDER

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Jennifer Chau, director of the Arizona Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander For Equity Coalition, at her office Friday, April 8, 2022, in Tempe, Ariz. 

(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)


PHOENIX (AP) — Jennifer Chau was astonished last month when the U.S. Census Bureau’s report card on how accurately it counted the U.S. population in 2020 showed that Asian people were overcounted by the highest rate of any race or ethnic group.

The director of an Asian American advocacy group thought thousands of people would be missed — outreach activities had been scratched by the coronavirus pandemic, and she and her staff feared widespread language barriers and wariness of sharing information with the government could hinder participation. They also thought recent attacks against Asian Americans could stir up fears within the Asian population, the fastest-growing race or ethnic group in the U.S.

“I’m honestly shocked,” said Chau, director of the Arizona Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander For Equity Coalition.

But Chau and other advocates and academics also believe the overcounting of the Asian population by 2.6% in the once-a-decade U.S. head count may not be all that it seems on the surface. They say it likely masks great variation in who was counted among different Asian communities in the U.S. They also believe it could signal that biracial and multiracial residents identified as Asian in larger numbers than in the past.

The specifics are difficult to determine because all Asian communities are grouped together under the same race category in the census. This conceals the wide variety of income, education and health backgrounds between subgroups and tends to blur characteristics unique to certain communities, some advocates said. It may also perpetuate the “model minority” myth of Asians being affluent and well-educated.

“Asian Americans have the largest income inequality than any other racial groups in the U.S. and the overall overcount likely masks the experiences of Asian ethnic groups who were more vulnerable to being undercounted,” said Aggie Yellow Horse, an assistant professor of Asian Pacific American Studies at Arizona State University.

Almost four dozen U.S. House members this month asked the Census Bureau to break down the accuracy of the count of Asian residents by subgroups. Asians in the U.S. trace their roots to more than 20 countries, with China and India having the largest representation. But the bureau has no plans to do so, at least not in the immediate future.

“To really see how the Asian American community fared, you need lower level geography to understand if there was an undercount or if certain communities fared better than others,” said Terry Ao Minnis, senior director of census and voting programs at Asian Americans Advancing Justice.

Asians were overcounted by a higher rate than any other group. White residents were overcounted by 0.6%, and white residents who aren’t Hispanic were overcounted by 1.6%. The Black population was undercounted by 3.3%, those who identified as some other race had a 4.3% undercount, almost 5% of the Hispanic population was missed and more than 5.6% of American Indians living on reservations were undercounted.

Civil rights leaders blamed the undercounts on hurdles created by the pandemic and political interference by then-President Donald Trump’s administration, which tried unsuccessfully to add a citizenship question to the census form and cut field operations short.

The census not only is used for determining how many congressional seats each state gets and for redrawing political districts; it helps determine how $1.5 trillion a year in federal funding is allocated. Overcounts, which are revealed through a survey the bureau conducts apart from the census, occur when people are counted twice, such as college students being counted on campus and at their parents’ homes.

In the 2020 census, 19.9 million residents identified as “Asian alone,” a 35% increase from 2010. Another 4.1 million residents identified as Asian in combination with another race group, a 55% jump from 2010. Asians now make up more than 7% of the U.S. population.

Some of the growth by Asians in the 2020 census may be rooted in the fluidity of how some people, particularly those who are biracial or multiracial, report their identity on the census form, said Paul Ong, a professor emeritus of urban planning and Asian American Studies at UCLA.

“People change their identity from one survey to another, and this is much more prevalent among those who are multiracial or biracial,” Ong said.

Lan Hoang, a Vietnamese American woman who works at the same coalition as Chau, listed her three young children as Asian, as well as white and Hispanic to represent her husband’s background. She used the census as an opportunity to talk to them about the importance of identity, even reading them a kids’ book about the head count.

“It talks about how important it is that you let others know that you’re here, this is who you represent,” Hoang said. “When I filled out (the form), they were totally surprised. ... ‘Yeah, you’re three different things in one. You’re special.’”

Conversations about declaring one’s Asian background are especially meaningful given the anti-Asian hate brought on by the pandemic, Hoang added. Eight people, including six women of Asian descent, were fatally shot last year at Georgia massage businesses, and thousands more attacks against Asians have happened across the U.S. since 2020.

Such factors may have led some multiracial people who ordinarily would have indicated on the census form that they were white, Black or some other race to instead select Asian, Ong said.

“When that happens, people who are multiracial go in two directions: They reject their minority identity or they embrace it,” Ong said. “With the rise of anti-Asian hostility, it forced some multiracial Asians to select a single identity.”

Another factor that may have contributed to the Asian overcount is the fact that young adult Asians were more likely to be in college than other racial or ethnic groups: 58% compared to 42% or less for young adults of other race or ethnic backgrounds. That may have led them to be counted twice, on campuses and at their parents’ homes, where they went after colleges and universities closed because of the pandemic.

UCLA junior Lauren Chen spent most of her freshman year back home in Mesa, Arizona, in 2020. Her father included Chen on the household census form even though Census Bureau rules said she should have been counted at school. Chen has no idea if she was counted twice.

“UCLA was pretty swamped with trying to figure out how to get people their belongings. ... It was a very messy moment and I don’t think I knew anyone that got mail or anything like that,” Chen said. “(The census) is definitely something that I paid attention to, especially with the way that my Dad focused on it.”

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Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MikeSchneiderAP. Tang reported from Phoenix and is a member of The Associated Press’ Race and Ethnicity team. Follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ttangAP.

Biden to nominate new ATF director, release ghost gun rule

By MICHAEL BALSAMO

FILE - This Nov. 27, 2019, file photo shows "ghost guns" on display at the headquarters of the San Francisco Police Department in San Francisco. The Biden administration is expected to come out within days with its long-awaited ghost gun rule. The aim is to rein in privately made firearms without serial numbers. They're increasingly cropping up at crime scenes across the U.S. Three people familiar with the matter tell The Associated Press the rule could be released as soon as Monday, April 11,2022. They could not discuss the matter publicly and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.

 (AP Photo/Haven Daley, File)


WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is nominating an Obama-era U.S. attorney to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, as his administration unveils its formal rule to rein in ghost guns, privately made firearms without serial numbers that are increasingly cropping up at crime scenes, six people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

Biden is expected to make the announcement nominating Steve Dettlebach, who served as a U.S. attorney in Ohio from 2009 to 2016, at the White House on Monday, the people said. They were not authorized to discuss the nomination publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

The administration will also release the finalized version of its ghost gun rule, which comes as the White House and the Justice Department have been under growing pressure to crack down on gun deaths and violent crime in the U.S.

Dettlebach’s confirmation is likely to be an uphill battle for the Biden administration. Biden had to withdraw the nomination of his first ATF nominee, gun-control advocate David Chipman, after the nomination stalled for months because of opposition from Republicans and some Democrats in the Senate.

Both Republican and Democratic administrations have failed to get nominees for the ATF position through the politically fraught process since the director’s position was made confirmable in 2006. Since then, only one nominee, former U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones, has been confirmed. Jones made it through the Senate in 2013 but only after a six-month struggle. Jones was acting director when President Barack Obama nominated him in January 2013.

The Biden administration’s plan was first reported by Politico.

For nearly a year, the ghost gun rule has been making its way through the federal regulation process. Gun safety groups and Democrats in Congress have been pushing for the Justice Department to finish the rule for months. It will probably be met with heavy resistance from gun groups and draw litigation in the coming weeks.

On Sunday, the Senate’s top Democrat, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, implored the administration to move faster.

“It’s high time for a ghost gun exorcism before the proliferation peaks, and before more people get hurt — or worse,” Schumer said in a statement. “My message is a simple one: No more waiting on these proposed federal rules.” Ghost guns are “too easy to build, too hard to trace and too dangerous to ignore.”

Justice Department statistics show that nearly 24,000 ghost guns were recovered by law enforcement at crime scenes and reported to the government from 2016 to 2020. It is hard to say how many are circulating on the streets, in part because in many cases police departments don’t contact the government about the guns because they can’t be traced.

The rule is expected to change the current definition of a firearm under federal law to include unfinished parts, like the frame of a handgun or the receiver of a long gun.

In its proposed rule released last May, the ATF said it was also seeking to require manufacturers and dealers who sell ghost gun parts to be licensed by the federal government and require federally licensed firearms dealers to add a serial number to any unserialized guns they plan to sell.

The rule would also require firearms dealers to run background checks before they sell ghost gun kits that contain parts needed to assemble a firearm.

For years, federal officials have been sounding the alarm about an increasing black market for homemade, military-style semi-automatic rifles and handguns. As well as turning up more frequently at crime scenes, ghost guns have been increasingly encountered when federal agents buy guns in undercover operations from gang members and other criminals.

Some states, like California, have enacted laws in recent years to require serial numbers to be stamped on ghost guns.

The critical component in building an untraceable gun is what is known as the lower receiver, a part typically made of metal or polymer. An unfinished receiver — sometimes referred to as an “80-percent receiver” — can be legally bought online with no serial numbers or other markings on it, no license required.

Police across the country have been reporting spikes in ghost guns being recovered by officers. The New York Police Department, for example, said officers found 131 unserialized firearms since January.

A gunman who killed his wife and four others in Northern California in 2017 had been prohibited from owning firearms, but he built his own to skirt the court order before his rampage. And in 2019, a teenager used a homemade handgun to fatally shoot two classmates and wound three others at a school in suburban Los Angeles.

Florida manatee feeding plan ends, starvation still an issue

By CURT ANDERSON

April 7, 2022

FILE - A manatee floats in the warm water of a Florida Power & Light discharge canal, Monday, Jan. 31, 2022, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Wildlife officials said Thursday, April 7, that more than 202,000 pounds (91,600 kilograms) of lettuce has been fed to manatees at a power plant on Florida's east coast where the animals gather in cold months because of the warm water discharge. Most of the cost was through donations from around the world. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)


ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — The unprecedented, experimental program to feed starving manatees in Florida is ending, but the greater issue is the polluted water that causes the marine mammals to run out of their natural seagrass forage.

Wildlife officials said Thursday that more than 202,000 pounds (91,600 kilograms) of lettuce has been fed to manatees at a power plant on Florida’s east coast where the animals gather in cold months because of the warm water discharge. Most of the cost was through donations from around the world.

With summer’s onset, that effort is ending but probably will resume next winter. Many manatees are still stressed from chronic malnutrition that won’t disappear just because of warmer weather.

Yet, during an online news conference Thursday, officials said the feeding program — again, never done before with wild animals like manatees — was generally a success.

“Going into this, we had no idea how it would work and if it would work,” said Ron Mezich, one of the main Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials involved in the project. “We haven’t had discussions about next winter yet.”

Last winter, a record 1,100 manatees died largely from starvation because water pollution from agricultural, septic tank, urban runoff and other sources has diminished their main winter food source along Florida’s east coast, especially the Indian River Lagoon that stretches from Cape Canaveral to the south.

So far this year, Florida officials have confirmed 479 manatee deaths, compared with more than 600 last year at this same time. Both are well above the five-year average of 287 manatee deaths in the time period.

There are only an estimated 7,520 of the animals in the wild today, according to the state wildlife commission.

Manatees are gentle round-tailed giants, sometimes known as sea cows, and weigh as much as 1,200 pounds (550 kilograms) and live as long as 65 years or so. Manatees are Florida’s official state marine mammal and are closely related to elephants.

Although the feeding program is seen as a success, many manatees are still debilitated from malnutrition and won’t immediately recover, officials said.

“They are still in trouble,” said Martine deWit, a marine mammal veterinarian with the FWC. “It does not mean they are getting better.”

Dozens of distressed manatees have been rescued and taken to places like SeaWorld in Orlando, zoos and aquariums in Florida and elsewhere around the country. As of Thursday, there were more than 80 manatees in care at 14 facilities, almost all suffering from starvation.

This is an unprecedented effort to save a threatened species that has long had difficulty coexisting with humans, from the pollution problem to boat strikes.

“We’re all going to keep working to see what we can do better,” said Teresa Calleson with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Aside from the feeding, there is an effort to restore the seagrass beds. Since 2009 about 58% of the seagrass has been lost in the Indian River Lagoon, state estimates show.

State lawmakers appropriated about $8 million for restoration efforts, including access to natural springs and planting new seagrass. This will take years, however, and some political will.

“What’s going to solve the problem is restoring the Indian River Lagoon,” said Tom Reinert, FWC spokesman for the manatee program.

Zoos hiding birds as avian flu spreads in North America

By JOSH FUNK

April 6, 2022

1 of 8

Magellan penguins stand in their enclosure at the Blank Park Zoo, Tuesday, April 5, 2022, in Des Moines, Iowa. Zoos across North America are moving their birds indoors and away from people and wildlife as they try to protect them from the highly contagious and potentially deadly avian influenza. Penguins may be the only birds visitors to many zoos can see right now, because they already are kept inside and usually protected behind glass in their exhibits, making it harder for the bird flu to reach them. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)


OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Zoos across North America are moving their birds indoors and away from people and wildlife as they try to protect them from the highly contagious and potentially deadly avian influenza.

Penguins may be the only birds visitors to many zoos can see right now, because they already are kept inside and usually protected behind glass in their exhibits, making it harder for the bird flu to reach them.

Nearly 23 million chickens and turkeys have already been killed across the United States to limit the spread of the virus, and zoos are working hard to prevent any of their birds from meeting the same fate. It would be especially upsetting for zoos to have to kill any of the endangered or threatened species in their care.

“It would be extremely devastating,” said Maria Franke, who is the manager of welfare science at Toronto Zoo, which has less than two dozen Loggerhead Shrike songbirds that it’s breeding with the hope of reintroducing them into the wild. “We take amazing care and the welfare and well being of our animals is the utmost importance. There’s a lot of staff that has close connections with the animals that they care for here at the zoo.”

Toronto Zoo workers are adding roofs to some outdoor bird exhibits and double-checking the mesh surrounding enclosures to ensure it will keep wild birds out.

Birds shed the virus through their droppings and nasal discharge. Experts say it can be spread through contaminated equipment, clothing, boots and vehicles carrying supplies. Research has shown that small birds that squeeze into zoo exhibits or buildings can also spread the flu, and that mice can even track it inside.

So far, no outbreaks have been reported at zoos, but there have been wild birds found dead that had the flu. For example, a wild duck that died in a behind-the-scenes area of the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines, Iowa, after tornadoes last month tested positive, zoo spokesman Ryan Bickel said.

Most of the steps zoos are taking are designed to prevent contact between wild birds and zoo animals. In some places, officials are requiring employees to change into clean boots and don protective gear before entering bird areas.

When bird flu cases are found in poultry, officials order the entire flock to be killed because the virus is so contagious. However, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has indicated that zoos might be able to avoid that by isolating infected birds and possibly euthanizing a small number of them.

Sarah Woodhouse, director of animal health at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, said she is optimistic after talking with state and federal regulators.

“They all agree that ordering us to depopulate a large part of our collection would be the absolute last-ditch effort. So they’re really interested in working with us to see what we can do to make sure that we’re not going to spread the disease while also being able to take care of our birds and not have to euthanize,” Woodhouse said.

Among the precautions zoos are taking is to keep birds in smaller groups so that if a case is found, only a few would be affected. The USDA and state veterinarians would make the final decision about which birds had to be killed.

“Euthanasia is really the only way to keep it from spreading,” said Luis Padilla, who is vice president of animal collections at the Saint Louis Zoo. “That’s why we have so many of these very proactive measures in place.”

The National Aviary in Pittsburgh — the nation’s largest —- is providing individual health checks for each of its roughly 500 birds. Many already live in large glass enclosures or outdoor habitats where they don’t have direct exposure to wildlife, said Dr. Pilar Fish, the aviary’s senior director of veterinary medicine and zoological advancement.

Kansas City Zoo CEO Sean Putney said he’s heard a few complaints from visitors, but most people seem OK with not getting to see some birds. “I think our guests understand that we have what’s in the best interests of the animals in mind when we make these decisions even though they can’t get to see them,” Putney said.

Officials emphasize that bird flu doesn’t jeopardize the safety of meat or eggs or represent a significant risk to human health. No infected birds are allowed into the food supply, and properly cooking poultry and eggs kills bacteria and viruses. No human cases have been found in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Associated Press Writers David Pitt contributed to this report from Des Moines, Iowa, Lindsay Whitehurst contributed from Salt Lake City, Julie Watson contributed from San Diego, Chris Grygiel contributed from Seattle and Tom Tait contributed from Las Vegas.

Fungus that causes fatal bat disease found in Louisiana

By JANET McCONNAUGHEY

April 5, 2022

FILE - This undated photo from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows little brown bats with the fuzzy white patches of fungus typical of white nose syndrome, which affects at least 12 species nationwide. Louisiana is now among 41 states where the fungus has been found on bats, though the disease has not shown up in the state. 

(U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP)

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A fungus that has killed millions of bats nationwide has been found in Louisiana, but no bats in the state have been sickened by it so far.

The disease it causes is called white-nose syndrome because bats develop fuzzy white patches of fungus on their noses, wings and other hairless areas. The disease also dehydrates bats and wakes them from winter hibernation, using energy that they can’t replace because the insects they eat aren’t flying around. The syndrome has killed so many northern long-eared bats that federal officials recently proposed listing them as endangered.

Louisiana is the 41st state where the fungus has been found; the disease has been confirmed in 38 of them, Marilyn Kitchell, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s white-nose syndrome spokesperson, said in an interview Tuesday.

“The news about the fungus ... being found in Louisiana is not surprising but is discouraging,” Winifred F. Frick, chief scientist at Bat Conservation International, wrote in an email. “This is especially bad news for species like the tri-colored bat that have suffered major population declines from this disease throughout the southeast.”

Bats hunt down insects and pollinate some plants for what’s estimated to be a $3 billion annual boost to U.S. agriculture.

In Louisiana, the fungus was identified on Brazilian free-tailed bats, a species that can be infected without developing the disease. The species is among 12 found in Louisiana. Three other species found in the state also can carry the fungus without becoming ill and three, including tri-colored bats, are susceptible to the syndrome, according to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

Nationwide, the syndrome has been confirmed in 12 of the 47 bat species found in North America, according to the White-Nose Syndrome Response Team website. The fungus called Pseudogymnoascus destructans, or Pd, has been found on another eight species where the disease has not shown up, Kitchell said.

It could take years for white-nose syndrome to show up in Louisiana, if it ever does, Nikki Anderson, a biologist with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, said last week.

In Mississippi, where the fungus was found in 2014, the disease was identified during this past winter, according to a national tracking map.

“This lag time is unusual,” Kitchell said in an email. “Most often, confirmation of disease follows about one year after initial detection of the fungus.”

Bats in Arkansas and Texas, the two other states bordering Louisiana, have developed the syndrome, Anderson said.

Kitchell said the other states where the fungus has been found without the disease are California, where the fungus was first identified during the winter of 2018-19, and New Mexico, where it was reported in 2021 and scientists worry that it may spread to Carlsbad Caverns.

In Louisiana, the fungus was identified in samples taken from two colonies totaling about 900 Brazilian free-tailed bats roosting in Natchitoches Parish culverts in March 2021. The department only recently got the results from confirmation testing, Anderson said.

She said biologists swabbed samples in early 2021 from about 2,000 bats in culverts across the state, which has no caves. About 300 were from the groups where the fungus was identified. The fungus was found on 50 of them. Forty-one were in a colony of 363 bats and nine in a colony of 538.

“If we follow the trends in the Southeast, we could be three to eight years out” before symptoms show up, Anderson said.

She said Louisiana’s warm winters may give bats that develop the disease a better chance of survival, because insects are available year-round.

“But Texas stays pretty warm, and Texas is getting mass mortalities” in a species of bat called cave myotis, Anderson said.