GOP MISOGYNISTS
Here are the 5 senators who voted against giving workers break time to pump breast milk

Madison Hall
Fri, December 23, 2022 

Mother pumped milk from both boobs into Automatic breast pump machine.Blandscape/Getty Images

Five senators voted against expanding protections for breastfeeding workers.

The senators are Sens. Rand Paul, Ron Johnson, Pat Toomey, Mike Lee, and John Cornyn.

The PUMP Act will now be included in the federal Omnibus bill, which the president is expected to sign.

In a display of bipartisanship, the Senate voted 92-5 in adding an amendment to the federal Omnibus bill that guarantees people breastfeeding the space and time to express milk at work. Five senators, however, each male and Republican, voted against the amendment on Thursday:

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky


Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin


Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania


Sen. Mike Lee of Utah


Sen. John Cornyn of Texas


The Providing Urgent Maternal Protections (PUMP) for Nursing Mothers Act was sponsored by Sens. Jeff Merkley and Lisa Murkowski, a Democrat and a Republican. The bill expands upon a 2010 law that was passed by Merkley and Rep. Carolyn Maloney which guarantees time and space for hourly workers to breastfeed.

In online statements on Thursday, Merkley and Murkowski celebrated the passage of the PUMP Act.

"I am encouraged to see the PUMP Act pass the Senate—good progress toward ensuring no mother ever has to choose between a job and nursing her child," Murkowski said.

"We must make it possible for every new mom returning to the workplace to have the option to continue breastfeeding. That option is also really good for business," Merkley added. "With this bill, parents will be empowered to make their own choices on breastfeeding, and businesses can improve retention of valuable employees. It's a win-win-win."

Merkley and Murkowski initially tried to get the PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act voted on as a standalone bill on Tuesday, but the attempt was blocked by Paul. According to Jezebel, the senator blocked a vote on the bill for not including an amendment that he wanted.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis, a Republican of Wyoming, also blocked the bill in August, noting that it could upset the supply chain as the transportation industry may not be able to provide reasonable accommodations for breastfeeding workers.

Former students come forward with abuse allegations 20 years after O.C. teacher first faced accusations

Hannah Fry
Sat, December 24, 2022

Krystyna Gomez is one of three women who recently filed civil lawsuits against the Anaheim Union High School District alleging that a history teacher abused them in the early 2000s. 

(Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)

Krystyna Gomez was a senior at Savanna High School in Anaheim when she told a school counselor that the history teacher had kissed and groped her in his classroom.

Another student had confided in Gomez that she lost her virginity to the teacher. There was talk among students about an inappropriate relationship between the instructor and a third girl, Gomez said, but she was the only one of the three to come forward.

The teacher, David Sepe, was charged by the Anaheim city attorney with two misdemeanor counts of annoying or molesting a child under 18. He denied the allegation and a jury acquitted him of the charges in 2004. He later sued Gomez alleging defamation.

"My response to these charges has always been consistent," Sepe wrote in court records in the defamation case, adding that he "never touched" Gomez.

By 2008, Sepe had transferred to a neighboring high school where he continues to teach.

Gomez, 37, is one of three women who have filed lawsuits in recent months against the Anaheim Union High School District alleging that Sepe groomed them — building their trust and acting as a confidant — before touching them inappropriately in the early 2000s.

In interviews with The Times, the women described their lawsuits as an attempt to force the district to take their concerns seriously and bar Sepe from contact with teenagers.

"I know what he's done and what he's capable of doing and it irks my whole being that he's still a teacher," Gomez said. "In my heart I believe tigers don't change their stripes."

Sepe did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Sepe began working in the district in September 1995, just a few months after he first received his teaching credential, according to state licensing and district records.

Gomez alleged in the lawsuit and during an interview with The Times that while she was Sepe's teaching assistant, he asked her to stay after class or join him after school in the classroom where he would kiss and grope her.

The lawsuits, filed in Orange County Superior Court, allege that the district "turned a blind eye to his misconduct" and gave the teacher "access to a new pool of minor students" after Gomez came forward with allegations.

"As a whole, these lawsuits paint a picture of a serial abuser who was left unchecked and unsupervised," one of the lawsuit's states.

District spokesman John Bautista wrote in an email to The Times that the district "has not received any lawsuits and, consequently, has no comment." Sepe, who has also coached football and baseball, is currently teaching at Katella High School.

The lawsuit was filed under a California law that opened a three-year window for victims of childhood abuse to sue when the statute of limitations has already expired.

Gomez, Krystal Slocum and a third former student who is not named in the complaint are seeking unspecified damages in their lawsuits against the school district.

Slocum, now 37, was a sophomore at Savanna when she was placed in Sepe's history class during the 2000-2001 school year. They became close during that time and Slocum often confided in him, she said.

Slocum and other female students would frequently spend time with Sepe in his classroom during lunch and after school, according to the lawsuit.

"It was well-known on campus that Sepe had groupies, all of whom were young female students that spent an inappropriate amount of time with him," the lawsuit states.

The alleged abuse started during her junior year, the lawsuit said, after Sepe selected Slocum to be his teaching assistant. In an interview with The Times, Slocum said the topic of her and Sepe "dating" was first discussed when she dropped off brownies she had made for him at his classroom the day before winter break.

"He pretty much went into how mature I was and how smart I was and this diatribe about what's really the difference between an 18-year-old and a 17-year-old," she said.

Slocum, who was 16 at the time, was in advanced placement classes, was vice president of the associated student body and eventually graduated with honors. She was often told by adults how mature she was for her age, she said.

"And so when he was like, 'You should date me instead of the little boys at Savanna,' I agreed," she said. "It was really simple for him and I know that he definitely targeted me for that reason."

At one point, according to the lawsuit, Sepe tried to kiss her in his classroom after school. She pushed him off, afraid she would get in trouble.

Sepe invited her to visit his apartment in Fullerton where he would sexually assault her, the lawsuit said.

"His special treatment of her and professions of love, combined with plaintiff's young age, allowed Sepe to manipulate her into unwavering loyalty," the lawsuit states. In the months that followed, Slocum "found it difficult to admit that Sepe sexually abused her, as she was terrified of getting him in trouble," according to the lawsuit.

A third plaintiff, who is not named in the complaint, alleges that during her sophomore year she began receiving phone calls from a man who identified himself as her secret admirer, the lawsuit states.

The Times generally does not identify people who have reported being victims of sexual assault.

The caller would ask the girl, who was 15 at the time, "if there were any teachers she would like to have sex with or if there were any teachers she had fantasies over," the lawsuit states.

The woman could hear the man masturbating while on the phone, according to the lawsuit. Ultimately, the man identified himself as Sepe, the lawsuit states, and soon after began touching her inappropriately in class.

After he was acquitted of the misdemeanor charges, Sepe sued Gomez and her mother alleging malicious prosecution and abuse of process, seeking more than $300,000 in damages. He alleged in court documents that his "reputation was ruined over a childish school girl infatuation."

Sepe dropped the lawsuit in December 2006, according to court records.

The period was extremely challenging for Gomez, she said. She was ostracized by her peers and transferred to another high school to finish her senior year.

"Since the beginning, honestly, all I've wanted to do is the right thing and get this guy away from kids," she said.

Gov. Gavin Newsom pardons 10 convicted of drug offenses, other crimes

Gregory Yee
Fri, December 23, 2022 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at a news conference in Sacramento on Feb. 27. On Friday, the governor pardoned 10 people convicted of drug offenses and other crimes. (Associated Press)

For 10 Californians convicted of drug offenses and other low-level crimes, Friday brought news of a second chance.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that he had granted 10 pardons, according to a statement by his office.

Most of the people pardoned were convicted from the late 1980s to early 2000s, according to Friday's announcement. One was convicted in 1973.

Their crimes included marijuana and cocaine possession, first-degree burglary and second-degree robbery, the announcement stated.

"The governor regards clemency as an important part of the criminal justice system that can incentivize accountability and rehabilitation and increase public safety by removing counterproductive barriers to successful reentry," according to Friday's statement. "A pardon may also remove unjust collateral consequences of conviction, such as deportation and permanent family separation."

Pardons don't forgive someone of committing a crime or minimize the harm caused, Newsom's office said. Instead, they recognize each person's progress and rehabilitation since the time they were convicted.

In some cases, pardons have been issued as kind of a remedy for prior injustices, or in recognition of a changing legal landscape.

Newsom, in a high-profile case last month, posthumously pardoned Laura Miner, a healthcare provider who was convicted of providing abortions to women in 1949 when it was still a crime in California.

Miner spent 19 months in prison after she was found guilty of numerous counts of abortion and conspiracy to commit abortion.

“In California, we’re never going back to a time when women were forced to seek basic healthcare in backrooms and underground clinics,” Newsom said in November. “Laura Miner’s story is a powerful reminder of the generations of people who fought for reproductive freedom in this country, and the risks that so many Americans now face in a post-Roe world."

And in July, the governor pardoned Sara Kruzan, whose murder conviction at 17 for killing a man who sexually trafficked her became a symbol of a flawed justice system.

Newsom has granted 140 pardons, 123 commutations and 35 reprieves while in office, according to Friday's statement.

A fed-up Michigan librarian called out conservatives who have 'threatened' and 'cursed' her over LGBTQ books: 'How dare you people?'


Jake Epstein
Fri, December 23, 2022 

Books are displayed at the Patmos Library on August 11, 2022 in Jamestown, Michigan

Joshua Lott/The Washington Post via Getty Images

A Michigan librarian ripped into conservatives who have "threatened" and "cursed at" her.


Her comments came days after the library was forced to close early for "staff safety concerns."


Locals voted earlier this year to defund the Patmos Library over books with LGBTQ themes.

A furious western Michigan librarian is fed up with conservatives in her small town who she says threatened and harassed her over books with LGBTQ themes.

The woman, who works at Patmos Library in Jamestown Township, called out people in the audience at the library's board of trustees meeting earlier this week after the library was forced to close days earlier because of safety concerns.

"I'm tired and I'm tired of all of you," the employee said at the meeting, which was shared in a Tik Tok video. She added that she's been working five or six days a week, hasn't been able to hire anyone, and regrets moving to the town in the first place.

The librarian said locals have baselessly accused her of "sexualizing" and "grooming" children.

"We broke last week — we have been threatened again. I have been cursed on the phone. I have been threatened on the phone.

"How dare you people?" she continued. "You don't know me. You don't know anything about me."

Her comments at Monday's board meeting came after the library announced on Facebook that it was shutting down early on December 12 because of "staff safety concerns."

The librarian said her grandchildren can read the threats and insults made against her.

"I'm Catholic. I'm Christian. I'm everything you are," she shouted. "I was taught to love your neighbor as you love yourself, no matter what they're like — that God loves all of us.

"That's not what I hear every day," she continued. "Not from you."

During the meeting, some people speculated without evidence that the library was lying about threats against its staff, local station Fox 17 reported. Other residents, however, backed the library's decision to close to keep employees safe.

"It doesn't matter if a threat is real or perceived, the safety of the library employees is imperative to keep the library open," one person said at the meeting, according to Fox 17. "We all have the right to feel safe in our homes, our communities, and to know that there are community members who do not feel safe here is disheartening."

The librarian said the latest harassment was "one threat too many, one accusation too many."

"And all we do is come in here to serve you, day after day after day," she added.

The Patmos Library and the Ottawa County Sheriff's Office didn't immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.

Earlier this year, Jamestown Township voted to defund the Patmos Library, the culmination of a months-long coordinated effort by right-leaning residents to punish the library over the LGBTQ-themed books.

Fox 17 reported that the library was slated to close in September 2024, but $100,000 in donations will allow it to remain open for a few more months. It'll now close in January 2025.

Read the original article on Insider

Emmett Till And His Mother Posthumously Awarded Congressional Gold Medal

Shruti Rajkumar

Sat, December 24, 2022 

Congress has passed legislation to posthumously award Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, with the Congressional Gold Medal.

The Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2021, which is now awaiting President Joe Biden’s signature, passed in the House of Representatives on Wednesday. It passed unanimously in the Senate nearly a year ago, on Jan. 10.

The Congressional Gold Medal is an award given by Congress to highlight and show national appreciation for distinguished achievements and contributions. Congress has given the medal to fewer than 180 notable historical figures, pioneers and leaders in U.S. history. Recipients have included Rosa Parks, Mother Teresa and the Wright brothers.

Till was a Black 14-year-old who was kidnapped and lynched in 1955 by two white men in Mississippi after he was accused of whistling at a white woman. His mother, who died in 2003, insisted that he have an open casket, so as to make clear the brutality of her son’s death and the racism and injustice that led to it. Till’s death is today considered a catalyst of the American civil rights movement.

The congressional award will be on display near Till’s casket at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., according to NPR.

“[Till’s] brutal murder still serves as a reminder of the horror and violence experienced by Black Americans throughout our nation’s history,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said in a press release. “The courage and activism demonstrated by Emmett’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, in displaying to the world the cruelty endured by her son helped awaken the nation’s conscience, forcing America to reckon with our failure to address racism and the glaring injustices that stem from such hatred.”

An extensive report on lynching conducted by the Equal Justice Initiative concluded there were nearly 6,500 documented racial terror lynchings in the U.S. between 1865, the year the Civil War ended, and 1950. Many historians believe the actual number of lynchings has been underreported, since the killings were not formally tracked. Mississippi, which had the highest recorded number of lynchings between 1882 and 1968, dedicated a statue to Till in October.

In March, Biden signed into law the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, effectively making lynching a federal hate crime offense. According to The Associated Press, this is the first anti-lynching law in U.S. history, following almost 200 failed attempts to pass such legislation.

“The horrendous lynching of Emmett Till and the legacy of his mother Mamie Till-Mobley, should never be forgotten. This legislation allows us to remember the Till family and the over 4,700 victims of lynching who experienced racial terror in this country,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said in a press release. “This is a meaningful step in the right direction of addressing our past, acknowledging mistakes, and using those lessons to better ourselves and our country.”

U$A
Meet a Gen Xer with $230,000 in student debt who worries payments will restart without Biden's loan forgiveness: 'It will be an excuse to say they'd done all they can'

Ayelet Sheffey
Sat, December 24, 2022 

College graduate sitting outside.

Sean de Burca/Getty Images

Timothy Babulski, 44, has $230,000 in student debt, so Biden's relief will hardly impact him.


But he says payments restarting before the relief is implemented means "the majority of borrowers will be abandoned."

Biden's student-loan forgiveness currently sits in the Supreme Court, awaiting a judgment on its legality.

Timothy Babulski knows that $10,000 in student-debt relief will hardly make a dent in his $230,000 balance.

But for the sake of millions of other borrowers dealing with debt loads, he hopes reductions to their balances will happen before they are thrown back into repayment.

As an adjunct professor in Maine, Babulski, 44, pursued two advanced degrees because he said it was the only way for him to progress in his teaching career. He received his Ph.D in 2017, but during the three and a half years it took to get that degree, his loans were in in-school deferment, meaning he did not have to make any payments but the interest on them continued to grow.

While Babulski's employer would be eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, which forgives student debt for government and nonprofit workers after ten years of qualifying payments, the program's initial rules did not allow adjunct work to qualify since it was part-time.

The Education Department announced proposals in October to permanently reform PSLF, including by establishing full-time employment as 30 hours a week and requiring employers to give adjunct faculty credit of at least 3.35 hours of work for every hour taught. Babulski is hoping he will be able to take advantage of those changes once they are implemented. But with the up to $20,000 in broad debt relief Biden announced at the end August currently held up in court, Babulski said he's worried with how the Biden administration will handle the outcome.

"My fear, regardless of the outcome of the case, is that the White House is so desperate to restart payments and get back to normal that they've forgotten that 'normal' is a decades-long debt sentence; either way, it will be an excuse to say they'd done all the can," he said. "The only difference will be whether the majority of borrowers will be abandoned— or all of us will be."
"It's a system that has historically failed us for half a century"

Biden's goal when he announced broad student-debt relief was to help millions of borrowers recover from the pandemic and ensure they would not be forced to enter repayment in a worse-off position than they were before COVID-19.

Biden's administration has used the HEROES Act of 2003 to carry out this relief, which gives the Education Secretary the ability to waive or modify student-loan balances in connection with a national emergency, like COVID-19. This is "one-time" debt relief, as Biden has frequently noted, and he maintains confidence that the Supreme Court will rule in his favor when it hears arguments to the cases beginning on February 28.

The Education Department also used the HEROES Act to recently extend the student-loan payment pause through June 30, or whenever the lawsuits are resolved, whichever comes first — meaning that borrowers might still have to resume paying off their debt if the Supreme Court ends up striking down Biden's policy

But the administration has not publicly noted what it will do, if anything, if the Supreme Court strikes down the broad debt relief. That has Babulski concerned.

"It's a system that has historically failed us for half a century," Babulski said.

"We have no other options in our society to pay for that education other than debt," he continued. "That's how it has to be done. It's people who come from money versus people who don't."

While many Republican lawmakers have criticized Biden's debt relief, arguing it would cost taxpayers and benefit the wealthy, the $125,000 income cap the president placed on his loan forgiveness was intended to ensure it would benefit the lower earners.

As Insider previously reported, some Democratic lawmakers and advocates have been urging Biden to use the Higher Education Act of 1965, rather than the HEROES Act, to cancel student debt. It does not rely on the existence of a national emergency. Experts at the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School wrote in a 2020 memo that under the Higher Education Act, the "Secretary has the authority to modify a loan to zero, and exercises this authority even in the absence of any implementing regulations."

Babulski just hopes the focus on resuming payments doesn't take away from the Biden administration's promise of taking some of the student debt burden off the shoulders of borrowers.

"We should want to have that feel good story for everyone," Babulski said. "The important amount isn't the amount of debt that is canceled. It's having no debt at the end. The ambition of my generation, the millennial generation, isn't even to get ahead. It's just to get to zero."

ANTISEMITISM SAYS JEWS ARE NOT WHITE PEOPLE

Whoopi Goldberg doubled down on her comments that the Holocaust was not about race: 'You could not tell a Jew on a street'

Alia Shoaib

Sun, December 25, 2022 

Whoopi Goldberg attends A Celebration of Barbara Walters Cocktail Reception Red Carpet at the Four Seasons Restaurant on May 14, 2014 in New York City.D Dipasupil/Getty Images

• Whoopi Goldberg doubled down on her comments that the Holocaust was "not about race."

• She told The Times of London that "you could not tell a Jew on a street" but you "could find me."

• Golberg made similar comments in January before being temporarily suspended from "The View."

Whoopi Goldberg doubled down on her comments that the Holocaust was "not about race," which she made before temporarily being suspended from cohosting the TV talk show "The View" in February.

In a new interview with The Times of London, Goldberg said the Holocaust was not "originally" about race.

"Remember who they were killing first. They were not killing racial; they were killing physical. They were killing people they considered to be mentally defective," she said.

She also questioned whether Jewish people were a "race" compared to herself as a Black person.

"It doesn't change the fact that you could not tell a Jew on a street," Goldberg said. "You could find me. You couldn't find them. That was the point I was making. But you would have thought that I'd taken a big old stinky dump on the table, butt naked."

The Nazis defined Jewish people as a race, and killed six million people in an effort to purge them from the population, according to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

When Goldberg was asked about the fact that the Nazis classified Jewish people as a race, she responded: "The oppressor is telling you what you are. Why are you believing them? They're Nazis. Why believe what they're saying?"

Goldberg made her initial comments about the Holocaust on "The View" on January 31 while discussing the Tennessee school board's decision to ban the graphic novel "Maus" by Art Spiegelman, which is about the Holocaust.

She said the Holocaust was "white people doing it to white people," and not about race but about "man's inhumanity to man."

Goldberg sparked widespread criticism after the comments, which led to her issuing an apology at the time.

"I'm sorry for the hurt I have caused," Goldberg said in a statement following her comments. "As Jonathan Greenblatt from the Anti-Defamation League shared, 'The Holocaust was about the Nazi's systematic annihilation of the Jewish people — who they deemed to be an inferior race.' I stand corrected."

Neither Goldberg nor representatives for "The View" immediately responded to Insider's request for comment.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Maldives former president Yameen gets 11-year jail term


FILE PHOTO: Maldives President Abdulla Yameen attends a meeting in Beijing


Sun, December 25, 2022

MALE (Reuters) -The Maldives criminal court on Sunday sentenced former president Abdulla Yameen to 11 years in prison and fined him $5 million after finding him guilty of corruption and money laundering charges related to receiving kickbacks from a private company.

Yameen has denied any wrongdoing.

He lost power in 2018 but has been declared presidential candidate for the Progressive Party of the Maldives for an election due in 2023.

Already in 2019 he was sentenced to five years in jail and fined $5 million in 2019 for embezzling $1 million in state funds, which the prosecution said was acquired through the lease of resort development rights.

After his sentencing, Yameen was shifted to house arrest in 2020 and was freed months later.

Since his release, Yameen, the half-brother of former dictator Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, has returned to active politics with a campaign against Indian influence in Maldives, raising concerns in New Delhi.

Situated close to strategic shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean, Maldives is a focal point for competition between India and China over influence in the region.

(Reporting by Mohamed Junayd; Writing by Mayank Bhardwaj; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Barbara Lewis)

Dispute arises over P-22's remains as Indigenous people fight for Griffith Park burial

Nathan Solis
Fri, December 23, 2022 

Even in death, the mountain lion known as P-22 is caught between two worlds.

To many Angelenos, he was a celebrity and symbol of an untamed California that's quickly vanishing. But for centuries, Native American tribes called mountain lions teachers and viewed them as their relatives.

Now that P-22 has been euthanized by wildlife authorities, it's unclear what will happen to the remains of the famous mountain lion. While government agencies and museum officials consider the final resting place for the cat, the Native American community in Southern California wants P-22 to be buried near Griffith Park with a ceremony that honors his spirit.

Originally from the Santa Monica Mountains, P-22 gained worldwide recognition after he was photographed in front of the Hollywood sign and lived in Griffith Park on ancestral Gabrieleno/Tongva land.

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County received P-22's body from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife on Friday. Although previously considered, museum officials said Thursday they do not plan to taxidermy P-22's body or put his remains on display, which was a major concern for the Native American community.

But it's still unclear what the future holds for the big cat.

Researchers were already in the process of collecting samples and performing a necropsy — a type of an animal autopsy — on P-22 when they learned about the concerns from the Native American communities. That process has been put on hold while the museum gathers more feedback from those groups. Several Native American people contacted by The Times said they had not initially been approached by the museum for feedback but have since been in talks about how to honor P-22's remains.

Research on P-22's body could show the firsthand effects of an urban setting on a mountain lion who managed to eke out his existence for more than a decade surrounded by humans, according to biologists. It's not likely that there will be another like P-22, so he would yield unique information about his experience, conservationists say.

But the thought of P-22 going to a museum as a specimen fills tribal community members with dread.

"That's not our way. That's a scientific colonial way," said Kimberly Morales Johnson, tribal secretary of the Gabrieleno/Tongva San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians. "That cat is a relative to us."

The Tongva word for mountain lion is tukuurot. In their creation story, mountain lions were one of several animals that watched early humans grow and flourish.

Alan Salazar, tribal elder with the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians, whose ancestral land includes part of the Santa Monica Mountains, understands the importance of studying P-22's body.

But there's a storied history with universities and museums that collected Native American cultural items and human remains, Salazar said.

"Almost every university in California has boxes of Native American human remains. Bones, skeletons, skulls that they claim they need to study to learn more," Salazar said. "And our answer is always the same: 'How long do you need?'"

Alan Salazar, a tribal elder with the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians, at Chatsworth Nature Preserve on Wednesday, in Chatsworth. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Natural History Museum representatives said in a written statement that they "recognize and honor that people are impacted in different ways" by P-22's life and death and do not plan to display P-22's body at the museum.

"This has been a particularly emotional and difficult time for our team members who have devoted the last decade to understanding and learning from P-22," the statement said.

The museum said it is in conversations with Chumash and Tongva tribes to give respectful consideration to what happens to his remains.

A California Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesperson said the agency did not consult with the tribal community before it decided that the Natural History Museum would receive P-22's remains. Fish and Wildlife officials were "laser focused" on P-22's health once they found him in a Los Feliz backyard on Dec. 12 after he was hit by a car.

"It took all of our energy and effort to work through those decisions," Fish and Wildlife spokesperson Jordan Traverso said in a written statement. "I acknowledge and accept we may have overlooked this important step."

P-22's remains were being held at the San Diego Zoo, where he was brought for treatment before officials made the decision to euthanize him Dec. 17.

Whatever comes from the discussions about what to do with P-22, Fish and Wildlife believes his story will be able to teach future generations about his struggles as part of a segregated wildlife population.

State and county agencies often consult with members of tribal communities when new developments are built on their ancestral land.

Members of the Gabrieleño Band of Mission Indians, Kizh Nation, have been asked to provide feedback for state projects built on their ancestral land numerous times, Indigenous biologist Matt Teutimez said. The process can include a blessing performed by tribal elders, and in other instances tribal members provide cultural and scientific feedback.

Native American input can often feel like an afterthought, Teutimez said.

"They usually just want our participation. They already have their minds made up with their Western thought of how to remedy the problem," Teutimez said. "All they wanted was our tribe to get involved for the photo op."

He's hopeful that P-22 can provide a teachable moment on how Western culture needs to reevaluate its relationship with wildlife and consider it more than just animals.

P-22 has already left an indelible mark on the world and done more to push conservation efforts than any other animal in recent years, conservationists and researchers said.

His perilous trek across two major freeways more than a decade ago showed that mountain lions face destruction due to habitat loss and lack of biodiversity. P-22 inspired conservationists to push for an $88-million wildlife crossing over the 101 Freeway near Agoura Hills, so other mountain lions and wildlife would not be blocked in by human development.

Beth Pratt, a regional executive director in California for the National Wildlife Federation, considers herself one of P-22's biggest boosters. His death has lingered with her for days, and she has trouble imagining a Griffith Park without him. While she understands the importance of studying P-22's life, Pratt stands with the Native American community in its call to bury the big cat in Griffith Park.

"I hope discussions and some sort of compromise can be made that allows some of what the museum needs for scientific purposes, but ultimately also allow for a respectful burial," Pratt said.

More than a decade ago, a mountain lion roaming Griffith Park seemed like an urban legend to biologist Miguel Ordeñana, who grew up around the park. In 2012, he was the first person to photograph P-22 i with a motion-sensor trail camera. At the time, P-22 was an unnamed cat that proved the impossible and found his way to the park.

Miguel Ordeñana, 39, senior manager of community science at the Natural History Museum, standing next to a camera trap at the museum in April. Ordeñana was the first person to discover and photograph the mountain lion P-22 living in Griffith Park. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Ordeñana, now the wildlife biologist with the Natural History Museum, is trying to clarify the museum's intentions for P-22.

More than a year ago, he applied for the Natural History Museum to receive P-22's remains from the state for research purposes. He called it a painful decision, because he always hoped P-22 would die peacefully in Griffith Park. He previously thought that P-22 would be put on display at the museum, but now he hopes there can be a dialogue about what to do.

Ordeñana said he applied for P-22’s remains "intentionally so that it could be accessible to the Indigenous community. But I could have done better. I appreciate being able to learn from that."

Like so many in the scientific community who watched the big cat grow old, Ordeñana is still processing P-22's death. In many ways, Ordeñana is having a hard time with the death, for a creature who was more than an animal and one he speaks of with great reverence.

"We're not sure exactly what the next steps are," Ordeñana said. "I think we all want what's best for P-22."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Hungry Wolf Hunts Elk In 'Exceptionally Rare' Footage Of A Long-Distance, High-Speed Chase

Ron Dicker

Fri, December 23, 2022 

Viral footage of a wolf chasing an elk across Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming is “exceptionally rare,” the videographer told HuffPost. (Watch the video below.)

“I’ve seen wolves many times, but to see them in an entire hunt over a quarter-mile unbroken by anything, that’s exceptionally rare for being down in the Tetons,” Bo Welden, a naturalist and guide for Jackson Hole EcoTour Adventures, told HuffPost on Thursday.

The dramatic sprint ended when the elk reached a river, prompting the wolf to give up and return to the pack because wolves “aren’t great at pursuing their prey in water.”

“There is an undeniable power in both these species of animals and to see it firing on all cylinders was beyond incredible,” Welden wrote on his Instagram.

The outcome of the pursuit was somewhat predictable.

Wolves fail in the hunt around 80% of the time, defying “anti-wolf, overdramatized” stereotypes suggesting they kill all the time, Welden said.

Not to mention that elk are surprisingly fast, able to exceed 40 miles an hour.

Welden shot the clip in October 2021 but shared it last week as a “favorite moment.” Multipleoutlets reported on it.

Welden is also using this moment to remind nature lovers to keep a safe distance from wildlife: Stay at least 25 yards away from elk, moose and bison and 100 yards away from bears and wolves, he said.