‘Pro-Life’ Senators Block Bill to Protect IVF

Kylie Cheung
Wed, December 21, 2022 

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith

In 2018, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) became the first senator to give birth in office after using in vitro fertilization (IVF) and senators across party lines joined Duckworth in celebrating her child’s birth. Four years later, Duckworth’s Republican colleagues—namely Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MO)—have blocked the Right To Build Families Act, a bill introduced by Duckworth and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) to create a federal right to use IVF and other fertility technologies, and prohibit any restrictions on individuals seeking fertility treatments.


On Tuesday, when Duckworth requested to pass the bill through unanimous consent, Hyde-Smith objected to it. “The same Republicans who claim to ‘defend family values’ just blocked my bill to protect the right to start a family through IVF,” Duckworth said in a tweet shortly after. The Illinois Democrat called right-wing threats to IVF “the ultimate, nightmarish blend of hypocrisy and misogyny.” In a statement shared with Jezebel, Murray called Hyde-Smith’s vote against their “commonsense” bill “outrageous,” and a result of Republicans’ “extreme stance on reproductive rights.”

Sen. Tammy Duckworth

In the absence of Roe, fertility doctors, their patients, and experts have expressed concern that abortion bans that accord legal personhood to embryos could lead to IVF being banned or criminalized—all while top Republicans including Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) have been caught on hot mic advocating for restrictions on IVF. Last month, ProPublica released audio of Tennessee lawmakers debating the right time to start going after IVF and birth control post-Roe. In other words, without a law like Duckworth’s bill, there’s a credible legal threat to doctors and their patients.


“Even if it’s not banned or heavily regulated, abortion bans mean there’s a gray area that might chill doctors from even providing those services,” Dana Sussman, acting executive director of Pregnancy Justice (formerly National Advocates for Pregnant Women), told Jezebel.

The process of IVF involves eggs being fertilized outside of the uterus, then inserted in a needle and placed inside someone’s uterus. If the embryo implants to the uterine wall, pregnancy occurs. But the chance of IVF being successful, especially on the first couple of attempts, stands at just around 50 percent. Over the course of trying to get pregnant through IVF—a process that can be immensely difficult for people navigating fertility struggles, even without legal threats—many embryos don’t implant. Fertility clinics often freeze or sometimes have to dispose of unused embryos. Post-Roe, doing so could be risky business in some states.


Over the summer, IVF providers said they’re facing confusion about what abortion bans mean for their services. The Wall Street Journal reported in June that some patients are asking providers to move their embryos to states that protect abortion rights, while providers are urging lawmakers to pass legislation that explicitly protects IVF.

Photo: Bloomberg (Getty Images)

Elizabeth Nash, the principal policy analyst for state issues at Guttmacher Institute, told Jezebel earlier this year that IVF will be “most at risk” in states with abortion bans that explicitly include “life begins at conception” language. According to Nash, language like this “defines ‘child’ as starting at fertilization,” and none of the bans offer specific exceptions for IVF. A handful of states, including Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, and Texas, have active bans that include this language.

In addition to these bans, 40 states have fetal homicide laws that effectively give embryos and fetuses personhood. These laws, originally created to address the issue of homicide as a leading cause of death for pregnant people, have been co-opted and misused by anti-abortion activists and prosecutors to criminalize people for pregnancy loss. With criminal charges for pregnancy outcomes on the rise, there’s fear IVF could be targeted with the same cruelty.

“IVF is fundamentally at odds with the ideology surrounding fetal personhood, that’s the heart of the anti-abortion movement,” Sussman said. Even as top Republicans say abortion patients won’t be criminalized for getting abortions, blocking a bill to protect IVF users flies in the face of this. Yet, Sussman points out that IVF’s broad popularity has previously resulted in an anti-abortion fetal personhood ballot measure being defeated in Mississippi in 2011. “Going against IVF activates a lot of people.”

Ultimately, a Republican Senator blocking a common-sense bill that doesn’t even specifically involve abortion is an outrage but not a surprise. Over the summer, nearly 200 House Republicans rejected a bill protecting the right to birth control. Hyde-Smith, herself, recently backed a bill to ban abortion on sovereign, Indigenous land. Fortunately, Duckworth told Axios last week that she and Murray will continue to introduce the bill until it’s successful.

 Jezebel

28 Republicans Who Call Gay People 'Groomers' Just Voted Against a Bill Addressing Child Sex Abuse

Kylie Cheung

JEZEBEL
Thu, December 22, 2022 

GREENE AND BOEBART

For the past year, we’ve been subjected to an endless, escalating right-wing fearmongering campaign presenting LGBTQ adults as innate child sexual predators, or “groomers,” and any children in their vicinity as victims. People are literally throwing molotov cocktails into establishments that host drag events, under the guise of protecting children. The now-feuding Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) have been the most front-facing proponents of this rhetoric (even though Boebert’s husband was jailed for exposing himself to teens in a bowling alley a few years ago).

Yet, on Wednesday, Greene and Boebart joined 26 other House Republicans to vote against the bipartisan Respect for Child Survivors Act, which overwhelmingly passed out of the House anyway and will address how the FBI has historically mishandled child sexual abuse cases. The bill will create specific teams within the FBI to support child victims and investigate child sexual abuse, trafficking, and child abuse content. Neither Greene nor Boebert have publicly offered explanations for their votes, and frankly, they don’t have to—the gross hypocrisy of constantly lying that LGBTQ people pose a threat to children, all while declining to protect children from actual sexual predation, speaks for itself.

The bill—introduced by a bipartisan team of senators including Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)—comes after survivors of the abusive former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar testified before Congress on how their reports of his abuse were buried or mishandled by the FBI. Even with 28 Republicans opposed to the bill, the Respect for Child Survivors Act passed with 215 votes from Democrats and 170 from Republicans.

Other Republicans who voted against the bill include Rep. Paul Gosar (R-TX), perhaps most famous for being censured for posting an anime video of himself killing co-worker Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and chronic far-right tweeter Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY).

What really can be said at this point? Long before their votes on this bill, Boebert and Greene’s obsession with “groomers” and child sexual predation were disingenuous, exclusively focused on a nonexistent threat posed by LGBTQ adults just living openly. Time and again, their claims, made with zero basis, have yielded violent consequences. Last month, an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado became the site of a mass shooting amid an evening drag performance. For months, bomb threats have plagued an openly gay California assembly member, Scott Wiener, and Boston Children’s Hospital for providing gender-affirming care. In a statement earlier this month, Wiener specifically blamed Greene for wielding her sizable online platform to direct slurs and hate at him.

Organized anti-LGBTQ attacks have been on the rise, in general, as top Republicans and conservative media spread lies about queer and trans people targeting kids—again, by merely existing. In just one weekend at the beginning of this month, right-wing protests targeted drag events in four different states, including a local drag queen story hour event in Columbus, Ohio, that was shut down by the Proud Boys. Per tracking from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, there were nearly 10 times as many anti-LGBTQ demonstrations in 2021 than in 2020, with 2022 set to surpass 2021.

At the same time that Republican lawmakers claim to be interested in protecting kids from LGBTQ people, states are rapidly introducing bills to target and write queer and trans youth out of existence.

For all the terror and violence that Greene, Boebert, and their ilk have unleashed on LGBTQ communities—supposedly in defense of children—with their Wednesday vote on the Respect for Child Survivors Act, their real priorities are clear.

ETHIOPIA'S WAR OF AGGRESSION
Looting, rape stalk Ethiopia's Tigray despite peace deal


Simon VALMARY
Fri, December 23, 2022 


Ethiopia's allies in the Tigray war have unleashed a campaign of looting, rape and expulsions, residents and humanitarian workers in the northern region say, despite a peace deal to halt the fighting.

Since the November 2 peace agreement was signed to end the two-year-old conflict, aid has begun trickling into Tigray, phone lines have been partially restored, and the regional capital Mekele reconnected to the national electricity grid.

Access to Tigray is severely restricted and communication services are limited, making it impossible for journalists to independently verify the situation on the ground.


But interviews with eight residents and aid workers found that civilians remain far from safe, with Eritrean forces and militias from the neighbouring Ethiopian province of Amhara accused of murder, rape and other abuses.

In Shire, a town in northwestern Tigray, a resident described a climate of fear under Eritrean and Amhara occupation and "continuous looting and kidnappings."

"Shire is almost a ghost town," he told AFP in mid-December, adding that civilians were suffering dire shortages of food, fuel and cash.

"Women fear leaving their homes and moving out in the open city for fear of sexual violence."
- Looting, kidnappings, rapes -

An aid worker in Shire, who like many interviewed for this story requested anonymity for security reasons, said his organisation had recorded 11 cases of rape.

He travelled extensively around Tigray between late November and early December and encountered Eritrean and Amhara forces across the region -- observations supported by other aid workers.

In another interview in November, he said "Amhara forces are engaged in looting homes and government offices, as well as kidnapping mainly young men and women" in Shire.

"Eritrean soldiers also continue to loot and abduct young people. The Ethiopian army (is) watching and not intervening," he added.

A resident based in Adwa, reached by AFP this week, said a family of seven she knew were killed by Eritrean forces on the town's outskirts in central Tigray.

Last week Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the UN's World Health Organization, said his uncle was among 50 villagers who had been "murdered by the Eritrean army."


The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the ruling authority in the region which signed the peace deal with Addis Ababa, has also accused Eritrean forces of carrying out massacres.

Neither Eritrea nor Amhara's regional authorities participated in the peace talks, and the agreement makes no mention of their forces' presence or terms for their withdrawal.

The two parties have been major players in the conflict, backing Ethiopia's army and drawing accusations of vicious human rights abuses.

Their enmity with the TPLF goes back decades, with Eritrea fighting a bloody border war with Ethiopia in 1998-2000, a time when the Tigrayan party dominated the national government.

Nationalist elements within Amhara have long contested Tigray's claim to the fertile stretch of western Tigray, and the territory was occupied by Amhara forces after the conflict erupted in November 2020.
- 'We are scared' -

At the beginning of December, a resident of Mai Tsebri in southwest Tigray told AFP the city's Amhara authorities were "deporting and expelling ethnic Tigrayans and looting their properties".

"We are worried, we are afraid for our safety and our future," he said.

"The new leaders have started issuing identity cards to residents they consider to be of the Amhara ethnic group, as well as to settlers who arrived with the new authorities," he added.

The aid worker from Shire, who visited western Tigray in recent weeks, also confirmed the arrival of Amhara settlers, and said Tigrayans were being expelled to other regions or put into detention camps.

The latest allegations follow US warnings of ethnic cleansing in western Tigray dating back to March 2021, that were denied by Amhara authorities.

Neither the federal government in Addis Ababa, nor regional authorities in Amhara, responded to requests for comment from AFP before publication.
- 'Broken and depressed' -

The TPLF said this month that 65 percent of its fighters had "disengaged" from battle lines but Mekele remains under its control.

At Ayder Referral Hospital, conditions remain "the same as (during) the 18 months before," said Kibrom Gebreselassie, a senior official at Mekele's main medical facility.

"There is no budget, the medications we get are from donations which are barely enough for one to two days," he told AFP this week.

A humanitarian worker in Mekele told AFP this month that residents appeared "broken and depressed by the situation as well as the general shortage of food, medicine and housing" despite the resumption of aid convoys.

Conditions in the rest of Tigray were no better, said a third aid worker who travelled from Shire to Adwa in early December.


Across northern Tigray, "there is a very serious lack of medicine, hygiene and sanitation," he told AFP.

But fear of violence remains the predominant concern.

Tigrayans have been "left alone to be killed by occupying foreign forces with impunity," said Kibrom.

"Everyone is tired of war. Peace is what the people want most. But everyone is also concerned... lest the peace deal be used as a cover-up for all the crimes committed against humanity," he said.

"Loving peace doesn't mean letting go (of) justice."

str-sva/amu/np/ach

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Two Biotech CEOs Charged in Securities Fraud Schemes

A federal grand jury in the District of Maryland returned an indictment that was unsealed today charging two men for their roles in schemes to defraud investors in CytoDyn Inc., a publicly traded biotechnology company (OTCQB: CYDY) based in Vancouver, Washington.

According to court documents, Nader Pourhassan, 59, of Lake Oswego, Oregon, and Kazem Kazempour, 69, of Potomac, Maryland, allegedly engaged in a conspiracy to defraud investors through false and misleading representations and material omissions relating to CytoDyn’s development of leronlimab, a monoclonal antibody investigational drug also known as PRO 140, as a potential treatment for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Pourhassan and Kazempour allegedly deceived investors about the timeline and status of CytoDyn’s regulatory submissions to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to artificially inflate and maintain the price of CytoDyn’s stock and attract new investors, and for their personal benefit, including by selling their personal shares of CytoDyn stock.

Pourhassan was CytoDyn’s president and CEO at the time of the alleged fraud. Kazempour is the co-founder, president, and CEO of Amarex Clinical Research LLC (Amarex), a private company with offices in Germantown, Maryland, that managed CytoDyn’s clinical trials, and was CytoDyn’s regulatory agent in interactions with the FDA. Kazempour also served on CytoDyn’s Disclosure Committee, which was responsible for reviewing and approving CytoDyn’s periodic filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

“The Department of Justice is committed to protecting the investing public from criminals who would exploit public health crises for personal profit,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “These charges also confirm the department’s commitment, together with our law enforcement partners, to hold corrupt C-Suite executives who abuse their positions and engage in securities fraud accountable for their actions.”

“The indictment alleges that these defendants conspired to defraud investors in order to line their own pockets,” said U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron for the District of Maryland. “Investors must be able to rely on the statements of biotech companies about their products. Executives who knowingly mislead investors must be held accountable.”

The indictment alleges that Pourhassan and Kazempour made and caused CytoDyn to make materially false and misleading representations about the timelines by which CytoDyn and Amarex would complete and submit CytoDyn’s biologics license application (BLA) for leronlimab’s treatment of HIV to the FDA. In April 2020, after CytoDyn and Amarex repeatedly missed publicized timelines, Pourhassan allegedly directed Kazempour and Amarex to submit the BLA – even if it was incomplete – so that Pourhassan and CytoDyn could announce to investors that the BLA had been submitted. Pourhassan and Kazempour allegedly knew that the FDA would refuse to review an incomplete BLA.

After Kazempour and Amarex allegedly submitted the incomplete BLA at Pourhassan’s direction, Pourhassan and CytoDyn misrepresented in a press release that a “complete” BLA had been submitted to the FDA when, in truth and in fact, it had not. Pourhassan then allegedly sold millions of dollars’ worth of CytoDyn stock based on material non-public information, including information about the fact that the BLA was, in truth and in fact, incomplete when submitted.

“Financial crimes like securities fraud may not be violent, but they certainly are not victimless. The two individuals charged today capitalized on the hopes of investors and the public in supporting new treatments for ailments that affect people and their families,” said Special Agent in Charge Thomas J. Sobocinski of the FBI Baltimore Field Office. “This indictment sends a message to all sophisticated white-collar criminals that no one is beyond the reach of the FBI and our law enforcement partners and we do not tolerate the greedy intentions of those in such trusted positions.”

“The conduct alleged in these charges erodes public trust in the safety and effectiveness of medical products, including drugs,” said Assistant Commissioner Catherine A. Hermsen of the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations (OCI). “The FDA would like to extend our thanks to our federal law enforcement partners for sending a strong message to biotechnology executives and others that these types of actions will not be tolerated.”

The indictment also alleges that Pourhassan made, and caused CytoDyn to make, materially false and misleading representations about CytoDyn’s investigation and development of leronlimab as a potential treatment for COVID-19, including the results and significance of clinical trials and the status of CytoDyn’s regulatory submissions to the FDA. Pourhassan allegedly knew that, in truth and in fact, leronlimab’s clinical studies failed to achieve the results necessary to obtain any form of FDA approval for use as a treatment for COVID-19 and the results CytoDyn publicly touted were neither statistically significant nor scientifically sound.

“Throughout history, Postal Inspectors have investigated many investment schemes and the one thing that always rings true, where there are large sums of money to be made, scammers are always lurking,” said Inspector in Charge Eric Shen of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) Criminal Investigations Group. “In this case, these individuals took advantage of the dream of a possible new treatment for HIV and exploited investors, while dashing the hopes of many waiting for a cure. Postal Inspectors and their law enforcement partners will work tirelessly to bring to justice those who break regulatory and investment standards, keeping the investing landscape safe and free of crime for the American public.”

Pourhassan and Kazempour are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud, three counts of securities fraud, and two counts of wire fraud related to the HIV BLA scheme. Pourhassan is separately charged with an additional count of securities fraud, an additional count of wire fraud related to the COVID-19 scheme, and three counts of insider trading. Kazempour is separately charged with one count of making false statements to federal law enforcement agents. Pourhassan will make his initial court appearance later today in the District of Oregon. Kazempour will make his initial court appearance later today in the District of Columbia. If convicted, Pourhassan and Kazempour each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each securities fraud and wire fraud count, and five years in prison on the conspiracy count. Kazempour also faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison on the false statements count. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The FBI Baltimore Field Office, FDA-OCI, and USPIS are investigating the case.

Trial Attorneys Christopher Fenton and Joshua DeBold and Assistant Chief Michael O’Neill of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Aaron S.J. Zelinsky and Leo Wise for the District of Maryland are prosecuting the case.

If you believe you are a victim in this case, please contact the Fraud Section’s Victim Witness Unit toll-free at (888) 549-3945 or by email at victimassistance.fraud@usdoj.gov. Victims can find case updates and additional information at: https://www.justice.gov/criminal-vns/case/CytoDyn-Inc.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Tuesday, December 20, 2022

Canadian polar bears near 'bear capital' dying at fast rate

A male polar bear walks along the shore of Hudson Bay near Churchill, Manitoba, Aug. 23, 2010. Polar bears in Canada's Western Hudson Bay — on the southern edge of the Arctic — are continuing to die in high numbers, a new government survey released Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022,

 (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP, File) 

SUMAN NAISHADHAM
Thu, December 22, 2022 at 5:27 PM MST·2 min read

Polar bears in Canada's Western Hudson Bay — on the southern edge of the Arctic — are continuing to die in high numbers, a new government survey of the land carnivore has found. Females and bear cubs are having an especially hard time.

Researchers surveyed Western Hudson Bay — home to Churchill, the town called ‘the Polar Bear Capital of the World,' — by air in 2021 and estimated there were 618 bears, compared to the 842 in 2016, when they were last surveyed.

“The actual decline is a lot larger than I would have expected,” said Andrew Derocher, a biology professor at the University of Alberta who has studied Hudson Bay polar bears for nearly four decades. Derocher was not involved in the study.

Since the 1980s, the number of bears in the region has fallen by nearly 50%, the authors found. The ice essential to their survival is disappearing.

Polar bears rely on arctic sea ice — frozen ocean water — that shrinks in the summer with warmer temperatures and forms again in the long winter. They use it to hunt, perching near holes in the thick ice to spot seals, their favorite food, coming up for air. But as the Arctic has warmed twice as fast as the rest of the world because of climate change, sea ice is cracking earlier in the year and taking longer to freeze in the fall.

That has left many polar bears that live across the Arctic with less ice on which to live, hunt and reproduce.

Polar bears are not only critical predators in the Arctic. For years, before climate change began affecting people around the globe, they were also the best-known face of climate change.

Researchers said the concentration of deaths in young bears and females in Western Hudson Bay is alarming.

“Those are the types of bears we’ve always predicted would be affected by changes in the environment,” said Stephen Atkinson, the lead author who has studied polar bears for more than 30 years.

Young bears need energy to grow and cannot survive long periods without enough food and female bears struggle because they expend so much energy nursing and rearing offspring.

“It certainly raises issues about the ongoing viability,” Derocher said. “That is the reproductive engine of the population.”

The capacity for polar bears in the Western Hudson Bay to reproduce will diminish, Atkinson said, “because you simply have fewer young bears that survive and become adults.”

___

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

THIRD WORLD U$A

Thousands trapped on Pine Ridge burn clothes for warmth in wake of storm

Darsha Dodge
Thu, December 22, 2022

With a twinge of cold in her toes and a tone of concern tinted by exhaustion, Anna Halverson relayed the message: “We’re in a really extreme emergency down here.

Winter Storm Diaz blanketed the Pine Ridge Reservation in more than 30 inches of snow – incredible enough on its own – but it was amplified by intense winds that brought the area to a standstill under drifts of snow several feet high.

A semi truck and trailer blocking a major highway on the Pine Ridge Reservation during Winter Storm Diaz.

Halverson, who represents the Pass Creek District on the Pine Ridge Reservation, described their harrowing situation to the Journal on Thursday.

“It’s been really tough,” she said. “We don’t have the proper equipment here to handle what’s been going on. We have drifts as high as some houses that stretch 60, 70 yards at a time.”

More than 10 days since the storm began, Diaz has moved on and the skies have started to clear, but the recovery process is just beginning. Halverson didn’t get dug out of her house until eight days after the storm. Others are still trapped, reachable only by snowmobile.

It seems like every time we open the road, the snow just drifts it back over,” she said.

More:Gov. Kristi Noem declares 'winter storm emergency' for South Dakota; activates National Guard

It’s an incredibly scary situation, she explained, as many of those snowed-in are missing dialysis treatments or dealing with other medical emergencies. One family ran out of infant formula, and spent four days drifted in before attempting to leave, Halverson said.

“We even talked about using drone drops to get the baby some Enfamil, because the baby was starving,” she said.

But Mother Nature wasn’t done yet.

If being trapped by formidable walls of ice and snow wasn’t enough, subzero temperatures, brought down by an Arctic front, took an already struggling region by the neck. Temperatures dropped into the negative teens and 20s this week, and the unkind Midwest wind shredded those figures with wind chills in the negative 40s and negative 50s.

Total snow reports from Dec. 13 - 16 in Western South Dakota

Cold like that is deadly, just another blow to a reservation already crippled by conditions, Halverson said.

“Most of our members use wood stoves,” she said. “We’re not able to get them with deliveries because of the roads. A lot of our members across the reservation have no propane, because the propane companies can’t reach their tanks to fill. Even right now in my district, we haven’t had anybody able to deliver out to these members that have no propane since the storm started.”

Oglala-based service organization Re-Member provides firewood to families on all corners of the reservation, but the drifts of snow have rendered their wood stockpile inaccessible still – and it’ll be that way for the foreseeable future.

“Our wood pile remains inaccessible,” read a Facebook post on Dec. 20. “Our skid steer and plow are out-of-service. Given the conditions, it would be near impossible to operate our equipment and unsafe for our staff to work in the conditions we are facing. We appreciate the efforts being made by many to keep the Oyate safe during these challenging times.”

Those that can try to use electric heaters, which Halverson said isn’t keeping houses warm. Even her own furnace went out, blowing cold air in an already frigid atmosphere. She was able to travel to her mother’s house to keep her family warm.

Power went out in some places, once for 18 hours, she said. People with cars tried to use them to stay warm.

Reservation residents are resorting to last-ditch efforts to ward off the unimaginable cold.

More:Sioux Falls Regional Airport will close through much of Friday due to blizzard

“I’ve seen across the reservation some members were burning clothes in their wood stove because they couldn’t get access to wood,” Halverson said.

The conditions got so bad so quickly that Oglala Sioux Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out penned a proclamation declaring a state of emergency.

“These current blizzard conditions have caused closure of all BIA and tribal secondary roads on the reservation due to falling snow, high winds and snow drifts,” Star Comes Out wrote. “Such blizzard conditions pose an imminent threat to tribal government operations, to public safety and the health of tribal members who currently do not have access to medical care, such as dialysis, ambulance service for crisis intervention medical care such as heart attacks and delivering babies, and private transportation to secure food and other necessities of life.”

Halverson praised his efforts in trying to get help for the people of Pine Ridge. The exhaustion in her voice dissipated – for a brief second – calling her people “survivors.”

“We don’t live on our reservation,” she said. “We survive on our reservation. We’re in serious need of some help.”

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Thousands trapped on Pine Ridge burn clothes for warmth in wake of storm

Colombia's oil theft soars, leaving trail of environmental harm





Clandestine oil theft for drug trafficking endangers the environment in Tumaco

Fri, December 23, 2022 
By Oliver Griffin

TUMACO, Colombia (Reuters) - In a clearing of Colombia's Pacific jungle, the dense canopy encircles an area of desolation left by a clandestine refinery, where oil waste blackens everything underfoot, seeping into the soil and coating the vegetation.

The scent of moist earth and flowers is overpowered by the stench of chemicals from stagnant pools - the waste product from a rudimentary refining process that turns oil stolen from a nearby pipeline into a bootleg fuel known as pategrillo, or 'cricket's foot', because of its greenish hue.

The makeshift gasoline is used to make cocaine and helps fuel Colombia's drug trade. The leaves of coca plants are soaked in pategrillo - or other fuels, like gasoline - to extract alkaloid compounds to make the narcotic, according to national police. It is also used to power heavy machinery at illegal mining operations, the police said.

With Colombia's potential cocaine production hitting record levels, according U.N. estimates, oil theft is on the rise: the volume stolen from two of Colombia's major oil pipelines has more than trebled since 2018 to an average of 3,447 barrels a day as of Nov. 30, according to police data.

But little is known about the scale of the environmental impact of spills from tapping pipelines and from illicit refineries, which are often in remote and dangerous regions.

Reuters accompanied a police unit tasked with tackling oil theft in September to two sites near Tumaco, a Pacific port in southwest Colombia that is the terminal for the country's Transandino oil pipeline.

The jungle clearing sheltering the clandestine refinery - larger than a soccer pitch - remained blackened by oil though it was raided by police in March and the operation dismantled.

Police said the refinery had belonged to the Urias Rondon faction of dissident FARC rebels - who reject a 2016 peace deal with the government - to produce pategrillo for making cocaine.

Reuters was not able to confirm that independently nor to contact the Urias Rondon group for comment.

Twisted metal from destroyed barrels and more than a dozen metal cooking stills - capable of processing 500 to 1,000 gallons of oil - littered the site, just over an hour's walk from the small town of La Guayacana.

Nearby trees had been stripped of their leaves by polluting vapors that escape during the refining operations.

"The damage is extreme. The animals, the trees - everything is totally burned," said Colonel Johan Pena, commander of the police unit charged with tackling oil theft in Narino, a province bordering Ecuador that is known for cocaine production.

"Words aren't enough to show the world the damage."

Much of the nearby Transandino pipeline - which carries oil from Putumayo province on the far side of the Andes to Tumaco - runs above ground, making it an easy target for thieves.

Around 951 barrels per day were stolen in the first 11 months of the year from the Transandino, up around 5% on theft levels through the end of last year.

Pipeline operator Cenit, a subsidiary of majority state-owned company Ecopetrol, did not respond to questions about the challenges facing clean up operations in remote areas.

RAIDS

Colombia's police had knocked out 112 clandestine refineries in the region of Tumaco as of mid-October this year, compared with 103 raided all of last year and 112 destroyed in 2020, Colonel William Castano, director of Colombia's rural Carabineros police force, told Reuters.

Typically, only one third of the stolen crude is used after it is refined at such sites, Castano said; the rest is dumped into the ground.

Castano said that an illegal refinery contaminates an average of three square kilometers of the surrounding environment, according to a police estimate. Reuters was unable to determine on what that estimate was based.

"It damages the fauna, the flora, pollutes the air, damages the soil, the subsoil, damages groundwater and also harms the tributaries that pass through these parts of the country," he said.

Colombia, one of the world's mega-diverse countries, boasts tens of thousands of different species and contains almost 600,000 square kilometers of jungles and forests, whose preservation is vital for tackling climate change because they store large amounts of carbon.

Reuters approached more than a dozen environmental groups, rights advocates, government agencies and international organizations who either said they had no detailed information on the extent of the environmental damage in Colombia from oil theft or did not respond to questions.

"We still don't know the environmental impacts it causes, because this is an illegal, clandestine process, hidden in unsafe places," said Hector Hernando Bernal, an official at the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) responsible for the disposal of seized drugs and chemicals.

Colombia's Ministry of Mines and Energy said in a statement that continued spills "that harm people and ecosystems" were worrying and the government was investigating the issue.

MEETING DEMAND

Potential cocaine output rose 14% to a record high of 1,400 tonnes in 2021, according to the UNODC, while demand for fuels used in the cocaine trade rose to between 447 million and 705 million liters, the organization told Reuters.

It was not possible to say what quantity of the fuel was pategrillo, the UNODC said.

"Theft of hydrocarbons also strengthens the military might of (illegal armed) groups," said Katherine Casas, an investigator for energy advocacy group Crudo Transparente.

Pategrillo is the third-largest source of income for Colombia's gangs after drugs and illegal mining, helping them to buy weapons and other equipment, Casas said.

Guerrillas of Colombia's National Liberation Army (ELN) and dissidents from the demobilized FARC rebels are also known to tax pategrillo at around $2.10 a barrel, according to a report from German foundation Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung published this summer.

LONG-TERM IMPACT

Oil pipelines are often tapped with hand drills, leaky valves and plastic tubing, and crude is stored and refined haphazardly, resulting in frequent spills, according to police, analysts and the UNODC.

Once it gets to illegal refineries, the oil is transferred to cylindrical stills and cooked at high temperatures. The resulting vapor, once cooled, makes pategrillo.

Depending on the size of a spill, ground contaminated by oil can take decades to heal and longer than a century to fully recover, Narino's environmental authority, Corponarino, said in a statement.

Police, analysts and scientists provided Reuters with similar estimates.

Oil spills on land smother soil pore spaces, restricting microorganisms' access to oxygen, said Martha Daza, a professor at Cali-based university Universidad del Valle's school of engineering of natural resources and the environment.

"By clogging these pores, water cannot circulate and the availability of oxygen for biotic activity in the soil is reduced, both for macroorganisms, like earthworms, ants, and plant roots, as well as for microorganisms," Daza said. "It's very damaging."

In Tumaco, Reuters journalists saw settlements within 200 meters of the Transandino pipeline. Oil had dripped from an illicit valve, and the tendrils of a black cloud of crude spiraled through a stagnant puddle below.

Rural communities not connected to mains water supply depend on rivers and face health risks from spills, according to Bram Ebus, a consultant for the International Crisis Group who has investigated Colombia's illicit oil industry.

"Illicit valves placed on pipelines quickly become dislodged. The crude that pours into rivers and creeks can pollute aqueducts servicing entire towns," Ebus told Reuters.

Regional health authorities in Narino did not immediately respond to questions about the health impact of oil spills.

(Reporting by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Daniel Flynn)

TOXIC MASCULINITY

Humane Society grieves reported cat-killing at Edmonton bus stop by teenage boys

EDMONTON — The Edmonton Humane Society says is it saddened and concerned over reports that five teenage boys kicked a cat to death as onlookers watched in horror.

Society head Liza Sunley says she's grateful police are taking the killing seriously and expressed sympathy for the cat's owner and those who witnessed its death.

Police said in a news release Wednesday they received reports on Oct. 9 that passersby saw the boys stomping a grey, one-year-old cat at a northeast Edmonton bus stop.

They say it was also reported that the suspects held up the critically injured animal and took photos on their cellphones.

One motorist tried to intervene, but the cat died of its injuries despite being taken to a vet by its owner.

Police are investigating and are asking the public for witnesses.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 22, 2022.

After Keystone oil spill, Kansas governor calls pipeline property tax exemption 'a big mistake'

Jason Tidd, Topeka Capital-Journal
Fri, December 23, 2022

In this photo taken Dec. 9 by a drone, cleanup continues in the area where the ruptured Keystone pipeline on Dec. 7 dumped oil into a creek in Washington County, Kansas.

After the Keystone pipeline spilled 14,000 barrels of crude oil onto Kansas pasture and into a creek, Gov. Laura Kelly is on board with reconsidering the state's property tax exemption for pipelines.

"I thought we should have done that a long time ago," Kelly told The Capital-Journal on Tuesday. "Yeah, that, I think, was a mistake that we made. ... I think that was a big mistake to provide a property tax exemption."

The pipeline failure happened Dec. 7 on the 36-inch Keystone pipeline about 3 miles east of Washington. An estimated 588,000 gallons of oil stained the prairie black and spilled into Mill Creek. It is the biggest onshore oil pipeline spill in nine years and bigger than all previous Keystone spills combined.

Cleanup efforts have been slow. The type of crude oil carried by the pipeline is particularly difficult to clean. After two weeks, just over half of the oil has been recovered. The company advised ahead of the winter storm that the weather could further slow the recovery rate.

More:As pipeline operator searches for cause of Kansas oil spill, residents await cleanup
Kansas lawmakers could end tax exemption after oil spill

Gov. Laura Kelly called property tax exemptions to new oil and gas pipelines under Kansas law a mistake.

Ending the tax exemption is likely on a short list of what state lawmakers could do in response to the oil spill as the pipeline falls under federal regulation. Meanwhile, Sen. Mike Thompson, R-Shawnee and the Senate's top energy policymaker, has expressed reluctance to do more than hold hearings.

TC Energy has benefited from several million dollars worth of tax exemptions since it opened in 2011 and before. State lawmakers passes a package of tax benefits for various energy projects as part of an effort to woo the Keystone pipeline to Kansas.

Legislative records show Kelly, who was then in her second year as a state senator, was one of two senators to vote against the bill with the pipeline tax exemption in 2006.

Kansas statute 79-227 exempts new oil and natural gas pipelines from property taxes from the start of construction until 10 years after construction is completed.

While she supports ending the tax exemption, Kelly, who considers herself to have an "all of the above" approach to energy policy, is not opposed to the oil and gas industry as a whole.

"It was a pleasure to speak at the Kansas Independent Oil & Gas Association conference in Wichita yesterday," the governor tweeted in August. "This industry unlocks the potential underneath our feet, puts tens of thousands of Kansans to work, and pumps hundreds of millions of dollars into our state’s economy."

In 2006, as TransCanada explored routing a pipeline through Kansas, legislators passed the Kansas Energy Development Act with the intention of incentivizing energy projects. The company later said it invested more than $680 million into the Kansas economy with the pipeline.

The Keystone pipeline's Cushing extension connects Steele City, Nebraska, to Cushing, Oklahoma. It spans about 210 miles in Kansas, passing through Washington, Clay, Dickinson, Marion, Butler and Cowley counties.

More:Kansas senator compares climate change message to Nazi propaganda. Here's what else was said at oil convention.
Kansas only state along Keystone route with this property tax exemption

No other states along the Keystone route had such a property tax exemption. Other provisions in the gut-and-go 21-page bill created income tax credits and accelerated depreciation. It included refineries, pipelines, coal power plants, ethanol plants and fertilizer plants.

Legislative staff estimated the pipeline provisions of the law would result in $1.7 million in lost revenue for fiscal year 2009, the only year with an estimate. The figure assumed the Keystone pipeline would qualify.

But by 2012, officials had estimated that TransCanada was avoiding about $19 million in a single year of property taxes. At the time, the Kansas Department of Revenue and local county governments challenged a Court of Tax Appeals decision to approve the exemption, citing a legal requirement for Kansas refineries to have access to the pipeline.

The Kansas Court of Appeals later upheld the exemption, ruling that while the refineries did not have direct access to the Kansas portions of the pipeline, indirect access from existing pipelines connecting the refineries to Oklahoma satisfied the law because lawmakers did not require otherwise.

"Although requiring a direct connection to a 'qualifying pipeline' by Kansas refineries would arguably benefit Kansans more, this is a question for the legislature and not for the courts. ... To find otherwise would require us to rewrite the statute, which we have no authority to do," the court opined.

The Legislature did not amend the statute after the ruling — but it has been tried.

In 2017, a bill would have repealed the exemption for new projects while leaving existing projects unaffected. Local government officials supported it. The bill died in committee after opposition from the Kansas Petroleum Council and other oil and gas companies and lobbyists. Similar proposals met the same fate in 2015 and 2016.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas could revisit pipeline tax exemption after Keystone oil spill

Feds reviewing special permit process for pipelines as Kansas oil spill cleanup proceeds


Jonathan Shorman
Wed, December 21, 2022 

As Kansas continues to clean up from the Keystone pipeline oil spill, the U.S. agency that regulates pipelines is reviewing its process for granting special permits that allow pipelines, including Keystone, to operate at pressures above the standard for crude oil transport.

The U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has commissioned an independent study of the process from Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. A 2021 audit of Keystone pipeline accidents by the Government Accountability Office, or GAO, found that the severity of Keystone’s spills has worsened in recent years.

About 558,000 gallons of oil — enough to fill around 43½ standard swimming pools — spilled in a rural area near Washington, Kansas, on Dec. 7. The spill is the largest in the history of Keystone, which stretches from Canada to Texas.

A special permit allows segments of Keystone to operate at a higher stress level than what is generally allowed, as long as its operator, TC Energy, meets 51 conditions. Typically, pipelines must only operate at pressures of 72% of its specified minimum yield strength — the stress level at which a steel pipeline will begin to deform, according to the GAO. Keystone was authorized to 80%.

Reuters first reported the agency is reviewing the special permitting process. The agency confirmed the existence of the review to The Star on Wednesday, but didn’t provide the date it began beyond saying Oak Ridge National Laboratory was commissioned for the review following the 2021 GAO audit.

The cause of the Kansas spill isn’t clear. TC Energy said Wednesday that it had removed the “impacted pipeline segment” and sent it to a lab for metallurgical testing.

But Keystone’s special permit has come under increased scrutiny in the weeks following the accident.

Josh Axelrod, a senior advocate in the nature program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group, called the review a good development. Given the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s status as a relatively small agency, he raised concerns about the agency’s ability to provide proper oversight of Keystone and other pipelines.

“My concern … is that they’re not really equipped to be watching these things as closely as they probably should be,” Axelrod said.

This map shows the route of the Keystone Pipeline across North America. The darker section in the middle is the 288-mile Cushing Extension, which remains shut down as crews continue to recover oil and investigate the cause of the spill.

Independent pipeline adviser Richard Kuprewicz previously told The Star the type of steel pipe used by Keystone, called Grade X-70 for its strength and thickness, should be able to handle a pressure increase from 72% to 80% as long as the operator followed the required safety guidelines.

State Rep. Rui Xu, a Westwood Democrat, traveled to the area on Monday and attended a briefing by government and company officials. He said the company responded to a question about the pipeline’s pressure by saying it was operating according to regulations.

Over the past two weeks, the Keystone spill has transformed a swath of land near the Kansas-Nebraska border into a massive clean-up operation. More than 600 people are involved in the response.

TC Energy said it had recovered nearly 7,600 barrels of oil so far, and warned that work may slow because of the impending winter storm.

“The affected segment of the Keystone Pipeline System remains safely isolated as investigation, recovery, repair and remediation continue to advance. This segment will not be restarted until it is safe to do so and when we have regulatory approval from PHMSA,” the company said in an update posted to its website.

Oil spill cleanup crews from pipeline operator TC Energy gather at their morning briefing on Saturday, Dec. 10, 2022, in Washington County, Kansas.

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly said in an interview on Wednesday that she was concerned by the situation. Kansas is working closely with TC Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency, she said.

“Obviously you’ve got to fix the problem immediately and then we’ve also got ongoing investigation to figure out what happened and how to ensure that this never happens again. And to hold the company accountable for whatever they did inappropriately,” Kelly said.

Kelly said the Kansas Department of Health and Environment is on site, as well as the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (roughly 100 animals have been found dead at the site).

A birds-eye image provided by TC Energy shows a base camp of sorts, with makeshift offices and dozens of vehicles. Independent images may be difficult to obtain: the Federal Aviation Administration has restricted air traffic over the site, prohibiting flights except those associated with relief operations.

The Star’s Katie Bernard and Natalie Wallington contributed reporting.

TC Energy sends ruptured Keystone pipeline segment for testing after regulator order


Investigators, cleanup crews begin scouring oil pipeline spill in Kansas

Wed, December 21, 2022

(Reuters) - TC Energy said on Wednesday that it had safely removed the ruptured segment of Keystone pipeline that caused an oil spill earlier this month and sent it for metallurgical testing as directed by U.S. regulators.

TC Energy Corp had submitted its plan to restart the Keystone pipeline to the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, nearly two weeks after the line ruptured in the worst oil spill in the United States in nine years.

Even though a cleanup will take weeks or months, the line can still restart once it is repaired and the plan approved by the regulator.

The 622,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) pipeline was shut after it spilled oil in rural Kansas.

The line leaked diluent bitumen, a heavy oil that tends to sink in water, making it harder to collect than oils that float. More than 400 people are involved in the cleanup, including TC workers, pipeline regulators, state and local officials and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

TC is required to complete an analysis of the root causes of the line's failure by early March, or 90 days after PHMSA issued a corrective action order.

Parts of the pipeline carrying oil from Alberta, Canada, to refineries in Illinois opened last week at reduced capacity.

(Reporting by Kavya Guduru and Seher Dareen in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Porter and Tomasz Janowski)

Human rights tribunal says Indigenous Services minister, AFN misled public on $20B child welfare deal

Story by Olivia Stefanovich • Yesterday 

Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu and the Assembly of First Nations misled the public by not disclosing the fact that their $20 billion child welfare compensation deal left out some victims and reduced payments for others, says the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.

The tribunal came to that conclusion in a Dec. 20 ruling obtained by CBC News that expands on its reasons for rejecting the child welfare agreement.

Last October, the tribunal concluded that the deal failed to ensure that each First Nations child and caregiver entitled to compensation under its human rights orders would receive $40,000 – even though Hajdu told the public that was the baseline for compensation.

When the final settlement agreement between Ottawa and the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) was first announced last January, Hajdu said that "$40,000 is the floor and there may be circumstances where people are entitled to more.

In its Dec. 20 ruling, the tribunal said the minister's statement left the impression the deal offered enhanced compensation.

"Nowhere does the minister say this may not be the case for all the victims/survivors who form part of the tribunal's orders," the ruling said.

"This is still a misleading statement."

In a statement sent to CBC News, Hajdu's office didn't specifically address the tribunal's criticism but said the government's position has not changed.

"We'll continue to work together with parties to deliver compensation to those who are entitled to it, and this includes a $40,000 floor for those in the removed child class," the statement said.

Cindy Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, said Ottawa has a habit in its public communications of ignoring the agreement's fine print.

"The government wasn't telling the whole truth, "said Blackstock, who filed the original human rights complaint with the AFN against Canada in 2007.

"That does a disservice to the public."

The tribunal also criticized the AFN for not informing victims that they may see their payments reduced or receive nothing at all.

"This is clearly misleading and lacking in transparency," the ruling said.

Ottawa trying to 'hide' behind AFN: tribunal

The ruling concluded Ottawa and the AFN ignored the "grave injustice" of leaving out victims in a push to finalize the $20 billion settlement.

It said Canada is trying to "shield itself" from some tribunal orders by "hiding behind the fact" that the AFN made compromises.

"This is only occurring because Canada placed a cap on compensation," the ruling said.

"While the amount of compensation is impressive, what is more impressive is the length and breadth of Canada's systemic racial discrimination over decades, impacting hundreds of thousands of victims who deserve compensation."

The tribunal identified four main deviations from its orders in the agreement. It said the agreement:
Leaves out First Nations children placed in non-federally funded child welfare placements
Leaves out deceased parents and grandparents
Offers less compensation to caregivers
May offer less compensation to victims who were denied essential services under a federal policy known as Jordan's Principle.

Canada argued victims of non-federally funded placements were not part of the orders — but the tribunal said it never limited Canada's liability based on whether a child's placement was funded by Indigenous Services Canada.

'Dangerous precedent' for human rights system

The tribunal said approving the settlement would be an "absurd interpretation" of the Canadian Human Rights Act and would undermine its ability to protect human rights. The tribunal said it would allow respondents, like Canada, to avoid liability in the future by reaching agreements outside the tribunal's jurisdiction.

"The potential for setting a dangerous precedent is significant and could have widespread impacts on the human rights system," the ruling said.

In 2019, the tribunal issued orders telling Ottawa to pay the maximum penalty under the Canadian Human Rights Act — $40,000 to each First Nations child and caregiver who was harmed by the on-reserve child welfare system or was denied essential services.

It covers all First Nations children placed in the foster care system from Jan.1, 2006, to a date to be determined by the tribunal.

The Jordan's Principle portion of the orders covers the period from Dec. 12, 2007 — when the House of Commons adopted the federal policy — to Nov. 2, 2017, when the tribunal directed the federal government to change its definition of Jordan's Principle and review previously denied requests.

The orders, which have been upheld by the Federal Court, stem from a landmark 2016 tribunal ruling that found Canada racially discriminated against First Nations children on-reserve and in the Yukon by underfunding on-reserve child welfare systems and failing to provide adequate prevention services.

There are more Indigenous children in the foster care system now than at the height of the residential school era.

First Nations, Inuit and Métis children account for 53.8 per cent of all children in foster care, according to Statistics Canada's 2021 census.

The settlement finalized between Ottawa and the AFN on July 4 accounts for half of a $40-billion-dollar pool Ottawa set aside for reparations and long-term reform of the on-reserve foster care system.

Minister hopes money will be released in 2023

Compensation was supposed to start flowing in 2023. Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller told CBC News he's optimistic that can still happen

"I certainly hope so," Miller said. "I don't like the fact that people are waiting."

Miller said the government is willing to continue negotiations with parties to release funds, "hopefully outside a judicial process."

AFN Manitoba Regional Chief Cindy Woodhouse, who is the lead negotiator for the assembly, said the government is open to talks about adding more money.

"As my boys say in hockey, you've got the puck right there and you just have to score,'' said Woodhouse, who added work will continue through the holidays.

"We're at that goal line."

The agreement aims to satisfy the tribunal's compensation orders, along with two class-action lawsuits, by pushing back the date covered by compensation to April 1991, expanding eligibility to about 56,000 more individuals.

But the tribunal is worried the agreement applies a "class action lens" to compensation and found the opt-out period from compensation is too short.

"This is not healthy reconciliation," the tribunal said.

Mohsen Seddigh, counsel for those class-action lawsuits, said the tribunal's full reasons will help parties find a resolution.

"We are doing everything that we can in collaboration with all parties to get there," Seddigh said.

What's next

In its ruling, the tribunal said the agreement can be approved if it's amended to fully satisfy the tribunal's orders — or the parties can remove the requirement for the tribunal's approval.

This would allow the federal government to settle its class action lawsuits and pay compensation in early 2023. But the government would still have to comply with the tribunal's compensation orders, which it is currently fighting in court.

The AFN also filed a judicial review. Woodhouse said it will be re-evaluated at an executive meeting in January.



An ‘every child matters’ flag flies over Ermineskin Junior Senior High School, in Maskwacis, Alta., on July 23, 2022 ahead of a visit by Pope Francis.© Evan Mitsui/CBC

The government was supposed to finalize its $20 billion plan to reform the on-reserve child welfare system by the end of 2022. Blackstock said that won't happen.

She said she troubled by the fact the government, which is facing 20 legal orders to address ongoing discrimination, is offering $19.8 billion over five years with no certainty about what will happen afterwards.

"I will not be satisfied with a five-year deal," Blackstock said. "We can't trust them to do the right thing in year six and beyond."