GEOTHERMAL IS MINING
Geothermal developer wants to delist endangered Nevada toad

By SCOTT SONNER

1 of 2
FILE - In this image provided by the Nevada Department of Wildlife, a Dixie Valley toad sits atop grass in Dixie Valley, Nev., on April 6, 2009. The developer of a geothermal power plant planned in Nevada says it intends to sue U.S wildlife officials to try to overturn the endangered species listing of a toad that lives in adjacent wetlands. The move could end up pitting two Biden administration agencies against each other in one of a series of legal battles over President Joe Biden's efforts to combat climate change with so-called "green energy" projects. (Matt Maples/Nevada Department of Wildlife via AP, File)

RENO, Nev. (AP) — In an unusual move that could pit two Biden administration agencies against each other, the developer of a planned Nevada geothermal power plant says it intends to sue U.S wildlife officials to overturn the endangered species listing of a toad in adjacent wetlands.

Ormat Technologies said in a 60-day notice of its intent to sue the Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service that the listing of the Dixie Valley toad in December was illegal.

“The toad does not meet the definitional standard for a threatened — let alone endangered — species, and the service failed to base its decision on the best scientific and commercial data available,” Reno-based Ormat said.

It’s the latest legal maneuver in a series of conflicts underscoring challenges President Joe Biden faces in vowing to protect fish and wildlife while also pushing the development of so-called green energy projects on U.S. lands to help combat climate change.

A court battle over the toad’s listing would put the administration in the precarious position of using its Justice Department lawyers to defend the wildlife service’s decision to list the toad, while continuing to defend the Bureau of Land Management’s approval of the geothermal project in a lawsuit brought by conservationists and a tribe.

The Interior Department, which oversees the Fish and Wildlife Service and the BLM, had no comment, spokesman Tyler Cherry said.

The project planned about 100 miles (161 kilometer) east of Reno is among three in Nevada at the forefront of Biden’s push to speed the transition from greenhouse-emitting fossil fuels to cleaner energy sources.

The other two, which also face opposition from environmentalists and/or Native American tribes, are lithium mines intended to produce a key element in electric vehicle batteries.

The Center for Biological Diversity and the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe first sued the BLM in federal court in Reno in January 2022 seeking to block the construction of the geothermal plant — a case that has already made one trip to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Ormat is a formal intervenor in that case, with its own lawyers arguing alongside the Justice Department lawyers representing the BLM.

A Dixie Valley toad is seen around the hot spring-fed wetland in the Dixie Valley in Fallon, Nev., Wednesday, May 4, 2022. The developer of a geothermal power plant planned in Nevada says it intends to sue U.S wildlife officials to try to overturn the endangered species listing of a toad that lives in adjacent wetlands. The move could end up pitting two Biden administration agencies against each other in one of a series of legal battles over President Joe Biden's efforts to combat climate change with so-called "green energy" projects. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via AP, File)

The opponents say pumping hot water from beneath the earth’s surface to generate carbon-free power would adversely affect the levels and temperatures of surface water critical to the survival of the toad. The hot springs that feed the wetlands are sacred to the tribe.

The service concluded in its listing decision that the geothermal project posed the single biggest threat to the toad and that “threatened species status is not appropriate because the threat of extinction is imminent.”

The decision came after the agency temporarily listed the speckled, quarter-sized amphibian on an emergency basis in April 2022, which marked only the second time in 20 years it had taken such emergency action.

The notice gives the wildlife service 60 days to “come into compliance” with the Endangered Species Act or face a lawsuit seeking to rescind the listing.

“The species is not currently in danger of extinction,” Jessica Woelfel, Ormat’s general counsel, wrote Wednesday.

The listing was “based on an outdated project design, inflated possible harms and disregard for Ormat’s mitigation plan,” Woelfel wrote. She said it doesn’t reflect a scaled-back plan to initially build a much smaller 12 megawatt power plant, instead of two capable to producing 60 megawatts.

Patrick Donnelly, the Center for Biological Diversity’s Great Basin director, said the organization is confident the listing of the toad as an endangered species will hold up in court.

“There’s widespread consensus among government and independent scientists that this geothermal project puts the Dixie Valley toad at risk of extinction,” Donnelly said. “The only ones who disagree are those on Ormat’s payroll or at the Bureau of Land Management.”

Last summer, the San Francisco-based appellate court refused to grant a temporary injunction blocking construction of the power plant the bureau approved in December 2021.

But just hours after that ruling, Ormat announced that it had agreed to temporarily suspend all work on the project until this year. Then, in late October, the company asked for the case to be put on hold while it developed a smaller plan in anticipation of the endangered species listing.

Ormat said in its notice of intent to sue that the wildlife service knew the company was in the process of scaling back the size of the initial project when the agency issued the listing decision.

“As a result of Ormat’s proposal, BLM rescinded the 60 MW project approval and issued a new one for 12 MW ... just days after the final listing rule,” the letter said.

“Any assessment of risk associated with a project five times larger than the approved project capacity is completely irrelevant,” it said. “A 60 MW project cannot currently threaten the (toad) because it literally does not exist.”

Bezos’ rocket company pins crash on overheated engine nozzle

By MARCIA DUNN

In this image from video made available by Blue Origin, the New Shepard rocket lifts off from the company's West Texas site on Sept. 12, 2022. An overheated rocket engine nozzle caused the failure of this launch that has grounded flights for six months, the company said Friday, March 24, 2023. The vehicle was carrying experiments but no passengers. (Blue Origin via AP)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — An overheated rocket engine nozzle caused last year’s Blue Origin launch failure that has grounded flights for six months, the company said Friday.

Jeff Bezos’ rocket company Blue Origin said it expects to resume its quick trips to space from West Texas sometime later this year.

The New Shepard rocket was carrying experiments but no passengers when its engine nozzle broke apart due to excessive temperatures last September.

As the rocket started veering off course a minute into flight, the escape system kicked in and the capsule catapulted off and parachuted to safety.

But the rocket came crashing down, with the wreckage confined to the designated keep-out zone.

No one was hurt and no property on the ground was damaged. All of the critical flight hardware was recovered within days.

The investigation found that a design change led to the problem, which is being fixed, according to Blue Origin. The next flight will carry the experiments that were on the failed launch.

It was the first launch accident for the Kent, Washington-based Blue Origin, founded in 2000 by Bezos, who also started Amazon.

The company has launched 31 people to the edge of space since 2021, including Bezos and William Shatner, the original Captain Kirk of TV’s “Star Trek.”

Los Angeles schools, union reach deal after strike

By ROBERT JABLON

1 of 9
SEIU Local 99 Executive Director Max Arias, left, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and District superintendent Alberto Carvalho lock in arms after announcing on a new contract together in Los Angeles City Hall Friday, March 24, 2023. The Los Angeles Unified School District and union leaders say they have reached a deal on a new contract for workers after a strike that shut down the nation's second-largest school system for three days. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Unified School District and union leaders said Friday they reached a deal on pay raises for bus drivers, custodians and other support staff after a three-day strike that shut down the nation’s second-largest school system.

The deal includes a series of retroactive raises going back to 2021 as well as pay bumps this coming July and January that will collectively hike worker pay by about 30%, said Max Arias, executive director of SEIU Local 99.

The deal also sets the district’s minimum wage at $22.52; provides a one-time $1,000 raise for any worker who was employed in 2020 in appreciation of their work during the COVID-19 pandemic; and creates a $3 million educational and professional development fund for union members, district Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said at a news conference.

Free health care will be provided for any employee working at least four hours a day and their families, he added, calling the deal historic and unprecedented in the nation.

“This agreement’s going to make a lot of superintendents very nervous,” he said. “And that’s a good thing. … Elevate the bar and, in the process, elevate the people.”

The deal “elevates the dignity, the humanity of our workforce, respects the needs of our students, but also guarantees the fiscal viability of our district for years to come,” Carvalho said.

He announced the deal alongside Arias and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. Both sides credited Bass, who took office in December, with helping reach the agreement.

The mayor has no authority over the schools but she does have a grandson in the district.

The deal must still be voted on by the school board and the full union, which represents about 30,000 workers also including cafeteria employees, special education assistants and other support staff. However it gives them most if not all of what they demanded and is expected to pass handily.

Those workers walked off the job Tuesday through Thursday amid stalled talks, and classes for some 500,000 students resumed Friday.

Members of United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing 35,000 educators, counselors and other staff, joined the picket lines in solidarity, lending muscle to the walkout.

Teachers waged a six-day strike in 2019 over pay and contract issues, but support staff didn’t join and schools remained open.

This time Carvalho had warned parents that classrooms would close for safety reasons because both instructors and support staff were taking part. The strike ended up snarling schedules for many parents because schools had to find alternate ways to provide daycare and the meals offered on campuses.

The strike has shone a spotlight on the issue of underpaid workers who serve as the backbone of schools across the country.

The union said district support staffers earn, on average, about $25,000 per year and many live in poverty or must work several jobs because of low pay or limited hours while struggling with inflation and the area’s high cost of housing.

Carvalho agreed that what he called indispensable workers were being underpaid.

The deal came just days after the union accused the district of engaging in unfair labor practices. Arias noted that another contract must be negotiated next year but added: “There is no strike planned for the foreseeable future.”

“Thanks to the parents of Los Angeles and the students of Los Angeles and everyone who stood shoulder to shoulder with our members,” he said.

SEIU members have been working without a contract since June 2020, while the contract for teachers expired in June 2022. The unions decided last week to stop accepting extensions.

L.A. schools to reopen as support employees end three-day strike

More than 400,000 students in the L.A. Unified School District will return to classes Friday following a three-day strike by service workers that shuttered the nation's second-largest school system. 

Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

March 24 (UPI) -- The Los Angeles Unified School District will resume classes on Friday after a three-day strike by a union representing staff members concluded without a deal.

The Service Employees International Union Local 99 spokeswoman Blanca Gallegos said its members will return to work today hoping they have brought enough public attention to their situation where headway can finally be made in negotiations, which have been going on for a year.

"Our struggle was heard around the country," a statement from the union said. "We will keep standing strong until LAUSD also values our work. Our strike brought us back to contract talks with the leadership of Mayor Karen Bass. Our team has been working hard to reach an agreement."

A public schedule sent out Bass' office said she will get involved in talks between the district and the union, as her officials said the mayor hopes to "guarantee fair treatment of all LAUSD workers."

Bass' office has been engaged in trying to energize talks since Wednesday when the union's strike entered its second day.

The union represents some 30,000 workers, including custodians, cafeteria workers and bus drivers, who are asking for a 30% raise. The school district said it has responded by offering a 23% recurring raise and a 3% cash bonus.

Union demonstrators said while they are returning to work on Friday, other strikes and rallies could take place if contract negotiations don't make progress. Some have said it is already hard to make ends meet without the extra support.

"We have a lot of our coworkers who have two to three jobs, so when they come to school, we want them to be fresh, we want them to be filled with energy," Mirna Hernandez, a special education assistant and union member, told KTLA-TV.

The Service Employees International Union Local 99 spokeswoman Blanca Gallegos said its members will return to work today hoping they have brought enough public attention to their situation where headway can finally be made in negotiations. 

Mayor Karen Bass' office said she will get involved in talks between the district and the union, as her officials said the mayor hopes to "guarantee fair treatment of all LAUSD workers."

The union represents some 30,000 workers, including custodians, cafeteria workers and bus driver, who are asking for a 30% raise. The school district said it has responded by offering a 23% recurring raise and a 3% cash bonus. 

Photos by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

Indigenous artists help skateboarding earn stamp of approval

By TERRY TANG

1 of 17
Expert skateboarder Di'Orr Greenwood, an artist born and raised in the Navajo Nation in Arizona and whose work is featured on the new U.S. stamps, rides her skateboard next to her artworks in the Venice Beach neighborhood in Los Angeles Monday, March 20, 2023. On Friday, March 24, the U.S. Postal Service is debuting the "Art of the Skateboard," four stamps that will be the first to pay tribute to skateboarding. The stamps underscore how prevalent skateboarding has become, especially in Indian Country, where the demand for designated skate spots has only grown in recent years. 

(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

PHOENIX (AP) — Years ago, skateboarding was branded as a hobby for rebels or stoners in city streets, schoolyards and back alleys. Those days are long gone.

Skateboarding, which has Native Hawaiian roots connected to surfing, no longer is on the fringes. It became an Olympic sport in 2020. There are numerous amateur and professional skateboarding competitions in the U.S. And on Friday, the U.S. Postal Service is issuing stamps that laud the sport — and what Indigenous groups have brought to the skating culture.

Di’Orr Greenwood, 27, an artist born and raised on the Navajo Nation in Arizona whose work is featured on the new stamps, says it’s a long way from when she was a kid and people always kicked her out of certain spots just for skating.

“Now it’s like being accepted on a global scale,” Greenwood said. “There’s so many skateboarders I know that are extremely proud of it.”

The postal agency ceremoniously unveiled the “Art of the Skateboard” stamps in a Phoenix skate park as a skateboarding competition was going on nearby.


The stamps feature skateboard artists from around the country, including Greenwood and Crystal Worl, who is Tlingit Athabascan. William James Taylor Jr., an artist from Virginia, and Federico “MasPaz” Frum, a Colombian-born muralist in Washington, D.C., round out the quartet of featured artists. Everyone but Taylor was in attendance.

“Over time skateboards themselves have become works of art highlighting artists’ creativity, boldness and energy,” William Zollars, of the USPS Board of Governors, told an audience of city officials and supporters. “As an American institution older than the country itself, the Postal Service is always looking for ways to highlight and honor stories and histories that are unique to the United States.”

The stamps underscore the prevalence of skateboarding, especially in Indian Country where the demand for skate parks is growing.

The artists see the stamp as a small canvas, a functional art piece that will be seen across the U.S. and beyond.

“Maybe I’ll get a letter in the mail that someone sent me with my stamp on it,” said Worl, 35, who lives in Juneau, Alaska. “I think that’s when it will really hit home with the excitement of that.”

Antonio Alcalá, USPS art director, led the search for artists to paint skate decks for the project. After settling on a final design, each artist received a skateboard from Alcalá to work on. He then photographed the maple skate decks and incorporated them into an illustration of a young person holding up a skateboard for display. The person is seen in muted colors to draw attention to the skate deck.

Alcalá used social media to seek out artists who, besides being talented, were knowledgeable about skateboarding culture. Worl was already on his radar because her brother, Rico, designed the Raven Story stamp in 2021, which honored a central figure in Indigenous stories along the coast in the Pacific Northwest.

The Worl siblings run an online shop called Trickster Company with fashions, home goods and other merchandise with Indigenous and modern twists. For her skate deck, Crystal Worl paid homage to her clan and her love of the water with a Sockeye salmon against a blue and indigo background.

She was careful about choosing what to highlight.

“There are certain designs, patterns and stories that belong to certain clans and you have to have permission even as an Indigenous person to share certain stories or designs,” Worl said.

This image provided by the U.S. Postal Service shows its new the "Art of the Skateboard" Forever stamps. The agency on Friday, March 24, 2023, is debuting the stamps at a Phoenix skate park. The stamps feature designs from four artists from around the country, including two Indigenous artists. (Courtesy of USPS via AP)

The only times Navajo culture has been featured in stamps is with rugs or necklaces. Greenwood, who tried out for the U.S. Women’s Olympic skateboarding team, knew immediately she wanted to incorporate her heritage in a modern way. Her nods to the Navajo culture include a turquoise inlay and a depiction of eagle feathers, which are used to give blessings.

“I was born and raised with my great-grandmother, who looked at a stamp kind of like how a young kid would look at an iPhone 13,” Greenwood said. “She entrusted every important news and every important document and everything to a stamp to send it and trust that it got there.”

Skateboarding has become a staple across Indian Country. In Oregon, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs will reopen a refurbished skate park March 29 thanks to a partnership with pro skateboarder Tony Hawk’s nonprofit, The Skatepark Project. Skateboarders on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in eastern Arizona recently got funding from there, too. A skate park opened in August on the Hopi reservation. Youth-organized competitions take place on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

Dustinn Craig, a White Mountain Apache filmmaker and “lifer” skateboarder in Arizona, has made documentaries and short films on the sport. The 47-year-old remembers how skateboarding was seen as dorky and anti-establishment when he was a kid hiding “a useless wooden toy” in his locker. At the same time, Craig credits skateboarding culture as “my arts and humanities education.”

So he is wary of the mainstream’s embrace, as well as the sometimes clique-ish nature, of today’s skateboarding world.

“For those of us who have been in it for a very long time, it’s kind of insulting because I think a lot of the popularity has been due to the proliferation of access to the visuals of the youth culture skateboarding through the internet and social media,” Craig said. “So, I feel like it really sort of trivializes and sort of robs Native youth of authenticity of the older skateboard culture that I was raised on.”

He acknowledges that he may come off as the “grumpy old man” to younger Indigenous skateboarders who are open to collaborating with outsiders.

The four skateboards designed by the artists will eventually be transferred to the Smithsonian National Postal Museum, said Jonathan Castillo, USPS spokesperson.

The stamps, which will have a printing of 18 million, will be available at post offices and on the USPS website beginning Friday. For the artists, being part of a project that feels low-tech in this age of social media is exciting.

“It’s like the physical thing is special because you go out of your way to go to the post office, buy the stamps and write something,” Worl said.

___

Terry Tang is a member of The Associated Press’ Race and Ethnicity team. Follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ttangAP

Navajo Tech 1st among tribal universities to offer PhD


1 of 3
In this photo provided by Navajo Technical University, graduates at the school stand during a ceremony in Crownpoint, N.M., Dec. 16, 2022. On Friday, March 24, 2023, school officials said the creation of a doctoral program focused on Dine culture and language marks a milestone for the university and is the first doctoral program among tribal colleges and universities in the United States.

 (Wafa Hozien/Navajo Technical University via AP)

A university on the largest Native American reservation in the U.S. launched its accredited doctoral program, becoming the first among more than 30 accredited tribal colleges and universities across the country to offer such a high level degree.

The program at Navajo Technical University will be dedicated to sustaining Diné culture and language. Diné is the Navajo word meaning “the people” and is commonly what tribal members call themselves.

A celebration is planned on the Crownpoint campus in western New Mexico in April, and the school already started accepting applications for the fall semester.

The offering marks a milestone for the university, which already has more than 30 degree and certificate programs spanning science, technology, engineering, business and liberal arts, Navajo Tech President Elmer Guy said.

Guy told The Associated Press on Friday that he believes the program in which students will receive a Ph.D. in Diné Culture and Language Sustainability will have a profound impact on the future of the tribe’s language and culture. He said he’s excited to see how students shape their dissertations.

The idea was to create a program that would lead to employment opportunities and effect change for Navajo communities on the reservation that stretches into New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.

“I thought it would be important to make that connection,” Guy said, explaining that it’s a step beyond the call by tribal leaders for their people to learn the language and stay engaged with their culture. “Individuals will get a degree and they’ll be professionals. You have to make it applicable. By making it more meaningful, people will have an interest in it.”

The effort is paying off. About 20 students have applied so far and will be vying for five coveted spots in the inaugural class, said Wafa Hozien, an administrator who helped with the program’s creation.

A collaboration with other academic institutions and community partners, the doctoral program was developed with the help of tribal elders, university professors and linguistic experts. Community-based research and internships will be part of the curriculum so students gain practical experience they can apply in the real world.

Guy said he’s hopeful this inspires other tribal colleges and universities to create their own programs.

Hozien said Navajo Tech’s program represents a paradigm shift in that learning through a Diné lens — with culture and language — creates leaders who can advocate for their people in the judicial system, education, land management, business, technology and health care, for example.

Guy said the work done by the university to train court reporters to document Navajo testimony and translators to help with reading ballots during election season already has addressed some of the pressing needs within communities.

The possibilities will be even greater as students earn doctoral degrees, he said.

“They will be part of solving problems,” Guy said. “These students have energy and creativity, and our job is to give them the tools.”

In this photo provided by Navajo Technical University, university President Elmer Guy poses during a higher education conference in Albuquerque, N.M., March 8, 2023. On Friday, March 24, 2023, school officials said the creation of a doctoral program focused on Dine culture and language marks a milestone for the university and is the first doctoral program among tribal colleges and universities in the United States. (Wafa Hozien/Navajo Technical University via AP)

___

Montoya Bryan reported from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Italy partisans criticize Meloni over Nazi massacre comment

By NICOLE WINFIELD

1 of 4
A man walks amid the graves of the 335 victims of one of the worst World War II-era massacres in German-occupied Italy at the Ardeatine Caves in Rome, on its 79th anniversary, Friday, March 24, 2023. 335 people were shot to death on March 24, 1944, as a reprisal for an attack by partisans that killed 33 Nazi soldiers on a street in Rome. (Cecilia Fabiano/LaPresse via AP)

ROME (AP) — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni marked the anniversary Friday of one of the worst World War II-era massacres in German-occupied Italy, but the main association of partisans who fought to free Italy from fascism quickly criticized her comments.

Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy party has neo-fascist roots, issued a statement to commemorate the March 24, 1944 massacre at the Ardeatine Caves on Rome’s outskirts. There, 335 people were shot to death as a reprisal for an attack by partisans that killed 33 Nazi soldiers on a street in Rome.

Meloni said it was up to all Italians to remember the “barbaric” slaughter and to teach future generations what happened. She said the massacre “marked one of the deepest and most painful wounds inflicted on our community: 335 innocent Italians slaughtered simply because they were Italian.”

The National Association of Italian Partisans, or ANPI, which preserves the memory of the World War II resistance movement against fascism and has warned of an emboldened far-right in Italy, criticized Meloni for “not remembering everything.”

The group faulted in particular the premier’s reference to the 335 people killed merely “because they were Italian.”

“Sure, they were Italians, but they were chosen on the basis of a selection that affected anti-fascists, resistance fighters, political opponents and Jews,” ANPI leader Gianfranco Pagliarulo said in a statement.

He added that the list of those who were slaughtered was compiled “with the complicity” of Rome’s police chief, the interior minister of deposed Italian dictator Benito Mussolini’s northern Republic of Salo and a Nazi war criminal. Pagliarulo said they were “all fascists.”

Opposition lawmakers also faulted Meloni’s comment. “One day will you be able to write the word ANTIFASCIST?” tweeted Nicola Fratoianni, a lawmaker from the Alliance of Left Greens.

Meloni has sought to allay concerns about her party’s neo-fascist roots, insisting during Italy’s election campaign last year that the Italian right had “handed fascism over to history” and had unambiguously condemned the suppression of democracy and anti-Jewish laws.

Since becoming premier in October, she also has reached out repeatedly to members of Rome’s Jewish community.

But one of the Brothers of Italy’s leaders, Senate President Ignazio La Russa, has also proudly displayed Mussolini memorabilia in his home. La Russa joined Italy’s president and other dignitaries at a commemoration Friday at the Ardeatine site, which took place while Meloni was in Brussels for a European Union summit.

Asked about her comments, Meloni said she was being inclusive, or “omnicomprehensive,” in describing antifascists as Italians, the ANSA news agency said.

Italy never went through a process similar to Germany’s denazification, and a neo-fascist party, the Italian Social Movement, or MSI, was part of Italy’s first postwar government in 1946. Meloni joined the MSI’s youth branch as a teen-ager in Rome and went onto lead the youth branch of MSI’s successor party, the National Alliance.

The Brothers of Italy party succeeded the National Alliance and retains the tricolor flame of the original MSI as its logo.

DEA overseas review barely mentions corruption scandals

By JIM MUSTIAN and JOSHUA GOODMAN
 

Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Anne Milgram speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2021. After nearly two years and at least $1.4 million spent, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on Friday, March 24, 2023, released an external review of its overseas operations that gave short shrift to recent corruption scandals and offered a series of recommendations that critics dismissed as overly vague.

 (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — After nearly two years and at least $1.4 million spent, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on Friday released an external review of its overseas operations that barely mentions recent corruption scandals and offers recommendations that critics dismissed as overly vague.

Much of the 50-page report outlines the DEA’s sprawling, 69-country “foreign footprint,” while lauding its efforts to plug gaping holes in the oversight of undercover money laundering operations and special vetted units overseas.

“This report is stunningly vague in its actual evaluation of known problems at the DEA and remedies to fix them,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. “This speaks to the agency’s broader effort to evade oversight. The agency has attempted to dodge my oversight inquiries but I intend to push forward.”

The external probe was announced in 2021 following reporting by The Associated Press on the crimes of José Irizarry, a disgraced former DEA agent now serving a 12-year federal prison sentence after confessing to laundering money for Colombian drug cartels and skimming millions from seizures and informants to fund an international joyride of fine dining, parties and prostitutes.

Jose Irizarry speaks during an interview the night before going to a federal detention center, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Carlos Giusti, File)

Irizarry told the AP last year that DEA agents have come to accept that there’s nothing they can do to make a dent in the flow of illegal cocaine and opioids into the United States that has driven more than 100,000 overdose deaths a year.

“The drug war is a game,” Irizarry said. “It was a very fun game that we were playing.”

Irizarry’s case got one paragraph in the external review. An ongoing federal grand jury inquiry into some of his jet-setting former DEA colleagues was mentioned in a footnote. Also, Irizarry’s lawyer told AP he offered to make his client available for an interview for the review but was never contacted.

“Interviews and documents demonstrated that the DEA has already largely implemented the recommendations from the DOJ OIG to enhance the oversight of compliance risks arising out of the agency’s foreign operations,” the review concluded, referring to the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General.

The probe found fault with the bureaucracy it said bogs down the assignment of agents to foreign divisions and recommended putting incentives in place to attract “top talent to hard-to-fill offices.” It also blamed the “corrupting influence” of cartels for instances of “individual misconduct by DEA personnel.”

“DEA also could do more to ensure supervisors are effectively evaluated and ultimately held accountable for compliance-related issues,” the review found.

Other recommendations included more regular audits of foreign offices and vetted police units, and stricter controls on expenses.

The external review was conducted by former DEA administrator Jack Lawn and Boyd Johnson, a former federal prosecutor who handled international drug cases. Public records show the no-bid contract was awarded to the law firm WilmerHale, where Johnson works, at a cost of $1.4 million. Johnson did not respond to emails seeking comment.

The report made little mention of the turmoil that has roiled DEA operations in Mexico, where law enforcement cooperation collapsed amid the tenure of a regional director who was quietly ousted from his post for having improper contact with lawyers for narcotraffickers.

AP reported earlier this year that Nicholas Palmeri served just 14 months in the post and retired before an Office of Inspector General report found he sought government reimbursement to pay for his own birthday party.

“For a report that cost the government over $1.4 million, it does not seem to recommend the types of changes that would actually prevent another Irizarry or other misconduct,” said Bonnie Klapper, a former federal prosecutor in New York. “While the report is very thorough in laying out DEA’s role and responsibilities, it mentions only a very few examples of misconduct, and its recommendations don’t go far enough.”

Palmeri arrived to Mexico in the wake of one of the biggest setbacks in recent years in the U.S.-led drug war: the botched arrest of former Mexican Defense Secretary Salvador Cienfuegos. The retired general was nabbed on a sealed U.S. drug warrant upon arrival at the Los Angeles airport in 2020 only to be released a few weeks later under pressure from Mexico’s leftist president, who retaliated by disbanding an elite police unit that was a key DEA ally.

Neither the Cienfuegos incident nor the arrest of another prominent U.S. ally in Mexico — ex-security chief Genaro Garcia Luna — are mentioned in the report.

“The report’s key takeaway about improving information sharing and breaking down internal silos couldn’t be more commendable,” said John Feeley, a retired U.S. diplomat who worked alongside the DEA in numerous postings overseas. “But the biggest silo that needs to be dismantled from an operations perspective is the DEA’s failure to communicate to front offices and ambassadors when it’s investigating senior officials of host nations.”

DEA Administrator Anne Milgram, who has declined repeated interview requests, said in a statement that the agency would implement all 17 of the report’s recommendations.

“DEA is committed to meeting the challenges presented by today’s global drug threats and ensuring that our work is conducted at the highest level possible,” she said.

__

Goodman reported from Miami. Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org.

Teachers press school safety in wake of Denver shooting

By COLLEEN SLEVIN, JESSE BEDAYN and THOMAS PEIPERT

1 of 15
Students and parents from schools across Colorado take part in a rally, Friday, March 24, 2023, outside the State Capitol in Denver, calling for state lawmakers to consider gun control measures during the current legislative session. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

DENVER (AP) — Colorado teachers flooded into the state Capitol Friday to press for better protections for students and school staff after a 17-year-old Denver student shot two administrators, fled to the mountains and killed himself.

Roughly 1,500 teachers and their supporters called for improved school security, more mental health support and tighter gun control measures, adding to pressure on lawmakers a day after students and parents converged at the Capitol to make similar demands.

School shootings are becoming increasingly frequent in the U.S., and teachers at the rally voiced the fears they feel during safety lockdowns that are now regular occurrences.

They also raised questions about the circumstances surrounding Wednesday’s shooting at East High School, which came as the boy was being patted down for weapons, a daily requirement because of his behavioral issues including a pending firearm charge, according to school officials.

Some East High School teachers at Friday’s rally said they did not know any students at the school were being regularly patted down until the shooting.

“I want to go into a building every day where I don’t need to ask if my kids are getting a pat down because I know nobody is bringing guns into the school,” said English teacher Josh Garfinkel.

Schools were canceled Friday in Denver in response to the shooting. Officials have said they’ll put armed officers into city high schools through the remainder of the school year, reversing a policy enacted just a few years ago in response to protests over racial injustice following the killing of George Floyd by police.

The teachers Friday gathered on the steps in front of the Colorado capitol for speeches and chants, then circled the building as some played brass instruments and drums before filing inside.

Elementary school teacher Raegan Haines said she’s had three lockdowns at her school this year. She said lawmakers need to make it harder to access guns.

“You think, what am I going to do with these kids? How can I keep these kids quiet? Who am I going to put my body in front and why do I have to make that choice?”

She added that when the teachers entered the Capitol, “we had to walk through metal detectors and everything is plated in gold. We don’t get that same sense of security at schools.”

Colorado Democrats hold majorities in both state chambers and have made gun control a priority.

Pending bills would expand who can petition to temporarily remove a firearm from someone who poses a danger, raise the minimum age to possess a firearm from 18 to 21, require three-day waiting periods after buying guns, and ban semi-automatic firearms.

The semi-automatics ban is unlikely to find traction. The fate of the others could fall to Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. He’s supported expanding red flag laws but not specifically endorsed raising the age to possess guns or the three-day waiting period.

Teachers said their students also face more mental health problems and not enough social workers or psychologists to help.

At East High School, about a half-dozen psychologists and social workers at East High must take care of 2,500 students, said Kristy Skarphol, a math teacher at the school. This year they’ve also been reaching out to teachers who might be struggling amid all the lockdowns.

“We’re just spread way too thin for what we need,” Skarphol said.

___

Associated Press reporter Matthew Brown contributed from Billings, Montana.

___

Bedayn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Turkey elections: Pro-Kurdish HDP will not field presidential candidate

Move by left-wingers paves way for united front by opposition against Erdogan

CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu (C), with HDP co-chairs Pervin Buldan (L) and Mithat Sancar (R) at a press conference after a meeting in the parliament in Ankara on 20 March 2023 (AFP)

By MEE staff
Published date: 22 March 2023 

Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democracy Party (HDP), the third-largest party in parliament, announced on Wednesday it will not be putting forward a presidential candidate in the upcoming May elections, opening the way for a united opposition against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Party co-chair Pervin Buldan made the statement on behalf of the Labour and Freedom Alliance - which includes the HDP, the Turkish Workers Party (TIP) and other leftist parties - at a press conference in Ankara.

'We will fulfill our historical responsibility towards one-man rule in the presidential elections'

- HDP co-chair Pervin Buldan

“We will fulfill our historical responsibility towards one-man rule in the presidential elections," she said.

"We are determined to hold accountable those responsible for the great destruction from this government, which has maintained an administration based on poverty, corruption, plunder and rent, for the realisation of democracy, fundamental rights and freedoms, and social justice in the country."

Although she did not make it explicit in the press conference, it is widely assumed the HDP will throw its weight behind Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the Republican People's Party (CHP) leader who is the nominated candidate for the opposition National Alliance.

Kilicdaroglu met with the HDP leadership in the Turkish parliament building on Tuesday, the day before the announcement, during which he reportedly promised to remove restrictions on the Kurdish language and address other issues related to Turkey's largest minority.
Overcoming obstacles

The National Alliance had formally resisted allying with the HDP due to the Turkish nationalist sentiments of many of those involved, particularly the centre-right Iyi Party.

However, supporters of the HDP are widely seen as potential kingmakers in the election and Kilicdaroglu has made numerous appeals to Kurdish and left-wing voters.

Turkey: Leftist leader says Erdogan 'should be put on trial' for earthquake response

Read More »

A report by the independent Medyascope outlet on Wednesday indicated a surge in parliamentary candidate applications for the CHP, a party long associated with Turkish nationalism, in Kurdish-majority cities in Turkey.

The HDP has faced numerous obstacles in the run-up to the elections, which have been set by Erdogan for 14 May.

In March 2021, the chief public prosecutor of the Court of Cassation, Bekir Sahin, applied to the Constitutional Court for the HDP to be banned, citing its alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

The HDP has denied any PKK links and claims the closure case is an attempt by the government to shut down the party.

Dozens of HDP members and officials, including two former co-leaders, are currently in jail in Turkey.

On Wednesday, the Constitutional Court rejected the HDP's request to delay the outcome of the closure case until after the May election.

Morocco: Human rights activists and academics call for an end to normalization with Israel.

March 24, 2023\

A group of activists gather to protest in Rabat, Morocco 

[Abu Adem Muhammed - Anadolu Agency]

March 24, 2023 

Human rights activists, academics and community figures in Morocco yesterday called to stop the normalisation of Rabat with Israel and demanded to sever relations with it.

This comes at a time of increased military, economic and educational agreements linking Morocco and Israel, at a time when Israeli operations against the Palestinian people are escalating.

For several months now, the Israeli army has continued to carry out operations in the northern occupied West Bank, concentrating in the cities of Nablus and Jenin, under the pretext of pursuing wanted persons, resulting in the death, injury, and arrest of dozens of Palestinians.

The signatories of the statement condemned the "military occupation of Palestine" and demanded "to sever any relationship with the Israeli government and any relationship with the apartheid regime occupying Palestine."

"Such decisions will not only put Morocco on the side of justice and international legitimacy but will also respond to the deep aspirations of Moroccans and their historical attachment to the cause of the liberation of Palestine," they said.

The signatories pointed out that the demand to stop normalisation comes considering "the deteriorating situation of the Palestinian issue, positions calling for the extermination of Arabs and the demolition of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the extremism of the Israeli government."

In February, Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said his country's relationship with Israel "will not affect the relationship with the Palestinian people."