Coin minted by Brutus after assassination of Julius Caesar repatriated to Greece


A gold coin commemorating the assassination of Julius Caesar, minted just two years after the death of the Roman leader, fetched a record-breaking high bid of $3.5 million at an auction in Britain. File Photo courtesy of the Numismatic Guaranty Corp.

March 23 (UPI) -- A coin minted by the Roman politician Brutus after the assassination of Julius Caesar has been returned to Greece after an investigation by Homeland Security agents and the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.

The Eid Mar coins are so named to commemorate Julius Caesar's assassination in Rome, Italy, on March 15 in the year 44 B.C., a date now known as the Ides of March. It was not immediately clear why the coin was repatriated to Greece and not to Italy.

Brutus had the coins minted in two editions, a silver edition to be used as currency and a gold edition as a token for Roman officials. There are only three gold Eid Mar coins known to still exist.

One of those three coins was sold for $3.5 million an auction by Roma Numismatics to an anonymous collector, UPI previously reported.

The other two coins are in the collection of the Deutsche Bundesbank and on loan to the British Museum, Numismatic News reported in 2020 after the sale.

However, Richard Beale -- the owner of Roma Numismatics -- was arrested in New York in January on charges stemming from that sale, according to arrest warrants obtained by ARTNews at the time.

Beale reportedly acquired the coin in 2014 from Italian coin dealer Italo Vecchi, a consultant for Beale who previously had his own similar troubles after he was caught with a trove of Greek coins trying to enter the United States in 1992.

Vecchi has not been charged in relation to the Beale case.

The duo spent several years trying to create fake documents of the coin's provenance, a word used in the art world to describe a trace of how an artwork or artifact became acquired by an individual or institution as it changed hands over the years.

Beale made several attempts to try to sell the coin and eventually had it authenticated by the Numismatic Guaranty Corporation, a coin grading service based in Florida.

"In 2020, NGC received an 'EID MAR' aureus for evaluation from a London-based auction firm and after extensive study determined it was authentic," an NGC spokesperson said in a statement to ARTnews.

"A coin's authenticity and grade are matters separate and distinct from provenance. It is not common practice for NGC to opine on the provenance of a coin, and it did not do so here."

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced the repatriation of the coin along with 28 other artifacts believed to have been looted from Greece.

"On behalf of the Hellenic Government, from the bottom of my heart, I would like to congratulate and thank the Manhattan District Attorney's Office," Greece's Minister of Culture, Lina Mendoni, said in a statement.

"The close relationship and cooperation that has been built over the last years between Manhattan District Attorney's Office and the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Hellenic Republic, guarantees that many more successes will follow."

Equinor's latest North Sea drilling campaign finds no fossil fuels


After coming up empty at a well near the Visund field, Equinor will move a drilling facility to the Vigdis oil field in the North Sea. Photo courtesy of Andre Osmundsen/Equinor

March 24 (UPI) -- Norwegian energy major Equinor had no luck in finding fossil fuels in an unproven area of the North Sea, the government's energy regulator said Friday.

Equinor was drilling a so-called wildcat well, a well drilled into an area not previously known to contain hydrocarbons, near the Visund oil and gas field.

Visund began production in the late 1990s as a largely oil reservoir, though the reserve has been yielding more natural gas this decade.

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, the nation's energy regulator, said the well results showed "poor to good" quality, but it was determined the well was dry with no commercial reserves.

RELATED Norway's Equinor pays $850 million to buy Suncor Energy U.K.

This was the seventh exploration well drilled in an area opened up to energy companies in 2009. Equinor will now move its drilling facility to a development well at the Vigdis oil field in the North Sea.

For February, the NPD said that both crude oil and natural gas production came in lower than expected. Oil production averaged 1.77 million barrels per day in February, about 2.8% lower than the government's forecast. Gas production averaged 12 billion cubic feet per day, off 1.2% from expectations.

Equinor, however, noted earlier this week that gas production on the Norwegian continental shelf increased by 8% relative to 2021 levels, an increase that came just as the European economy was breaking away from Russian supplies in an effort to rob the Kremlin of the revenue it needs to keep fighting the war in Ukraine.

RELATED A new oil discovery off Norway has a substantial upside, the government said

"The invasion of Ukraine and Russia's weaponization of energy brought further instability to already tight markets, and across the organization we have felt the responsibility that comes with being the single largest supplier of gas to Europe," Anders Opedal, the president and CEO at Equinor, said.

Hero of 'Hotel Rwanda' to be released after controversial terrorism sentence commuted

By Patrick Hilsman

Paul Rusesabagina, the hero who inspired the film "Hotel Rwanda," is set to be released after having a controversial terrorism sentence commuted by Rwandan President Paul Kagame. File Photo by Heinz Ruckemann/UPI | License Photo



March 24 (UPI) -- The man whose story of saving Tutsi civilians during the Rwandan genocide was portrayed in the film Hotel Rwanda is set to be released after having a 25-year sentence on terrorism charges commuted.

Paul Rusesabagina was convicted on terrorism charges in 2021 and sentenced to 25 years after being lured from the United States to Dubai and then to Rwanda under false pretenses that he was boarding a plane to visit Burundi.

During the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Rusesabagina sheltered more than 1,000 vulnerable people, mostly Tutsis who were targeted by extremist elements of the government, in the Hotel des Mille Collines, where he was working as manager.

In 2005, then U.S. President George W. Bush awarded Rusesabagina the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

He has since become a pro-democracy activist and vocal critic of the authoritarian government of President Paul Kagame, who came to power after the collapse of the Hutu-led Rwandan government that had backed the genocide against the Tutsi ethnic minority and which ended with more than a million deaths, according to the U.N.

However, it is Kagame who commuted Rusesabagina's sentence.

Rwandan authorities claimed Rusesabagina was involved in rebel attacks 2018 and 2019, but Amnesty International reported multiple fair-trial violations in the case against him.

RELATED Court convicts 'Hotel Rwanda' hero Paul Rusesabagina on terror charges

In May, the U.S. State Department said that Rusesabagina had been "wrongfully detained."

Rwandan government spokesperson Yolande Makolo said "commutation of sentence does not extinguish the underlying conviction."

Qatar's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majid Al-Ansari said Rusesabagina would first be transferred to Qatar.

RELATED Authorities arrest 'Hotel Rwanda' film hero Paul Rusesabagina

"He will then head to the United States of America," Al-Ansari said.

Late Friday, President Biden expressed appreciation about the news of Rusesabagina's release.

"I welcome today's release of Paul Rusesabagina by the government of Rwanda. Paul's family is eager to welcome him back to the United States, and I share their joy at today's good news," Biden said. "I thank the Rwandan government for making this reunion possible, and I also thank the government of Qatar for facilitating Paul's release and return to the United States. I add my gratitude to those across the U.S. government who have worked with the government of Rwanda to achieve today's happy outcome."

Michigan repeals right-to-work law in rare legislative victory for labor unions
By Matt Bernardini

Gretchen Whitmer, governor of Michigan, signed legislation on Friday that repealed the state's right-to-work law. File Photo by Andrew Harrer/UPI | License Photo

March 24 (UPI) -- Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer repealed the state's right-to-work law on Friday, handing a major victory to labor unions.

Michigan became the first state in more than half a century to repeal a right-to-work law as Whitmer officially signed legislation passed by the Democratic-controlled legislature.

Whitmer also reinstated a law that mandates union-level wages and benefits for state-funded construction projects.

"Today, we are coming together to restore workers' rights, protect Michiganders on the job, and grow Michigan's middle class," Whitmer said in a statement, according to the Detroit Free Press. "Michigan workers are the most talented and hard-working in the world and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect."

Friday's repeal of the state's right-to-work law is the first since Indiana did so in 1965, although they passed a right-to-work law again in 2012.

"For us, being the home of labor and getting attacked 10 years ago was a gut punch to workers across Michigan," state Sen. Darrin Camilleri, the sponsor of MI SB34 (23R), told POLITICO. "We are a state so steeped in union activism and union history that we knew this was a policy that our constituents wanted for the last 10 years as well."

When the right-to-work law was passed in 2012, 11% of workers were in a union, compared to just 9% now.

The new law will go into effect after 90 days, when the legislative session ends.

Republicans have argued that repealing the law would make it harder for the state to attract businesses.

"Gov. Whitmer and Democrats have hurt Michigan's ability to compete to attract high-paying careers," said House Republican Leader Matt Hall, R-Richland Township in a statement. "Without right-to-work, businesses will find more competitive states for their manufacturing plants and research and development facilities, and workers and careers will drift away."

Iraq WMD failures shadow US intelligence 20 years later

By NOMAAN MERCHANT

March 23, 2023

1 of 5
 Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., talks during an interview with The Associated Press in his office on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 15, 2021. Two decades ago, Crow was a 24-year-old platoon leader in the American invasion of Iraq. Platoon members carried gas masks and gear to wear over their uniforms to protect them from the chemical weapons the U.S. believed – wrongly – that Iraqi forces might use against them. Today, Crow sits on committees that oversee the U.S. military and intelligence agencies.

 (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — In his U.S. Capitol office, Rep. Jason Crow keeps several war mementos. Sitting on a shelf are his military identification tags, the tailfins of a spent mortar and a piece of shrapnel stopped by his body armor.

Two decades ago, Crow was a 24-year-old platoon leader in the American invasion of Iraq. Platoon members carried gas masks and gear to wear over their uniforms to protect them from the chemical weapons the U.S. believed — wrongly — that Iraqi forces might use against them.

Today, Crow sits on committees that oversee the U.S. military and intelligence agencies. The mistakes of Iraq are still fresh in his mind.

“It’s not hyperbole to say that it was a life-changing experience and a life frame through which I view a lot of my work,” the Colorado Democrat said.

The failures of the Iraq War deeply shaped American spy agencies and a generation of intelligence officers and lawmakers. They helped drive a major reorganization of the U.S. intelligence community, with the CIA losing its oversight role over other spy agencies, and reforms intended to allow analysts to better evaluate sources and challenge conclusions for possible bias.

But the ultimately incorrect assertions about Iraq’s nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programs, repeatedly cited to build support for the war in America and abroad, did lasting damage to the credibility of U.S. intelligence.

As many as 300,000 civilians died in two decades of conflict in Iraq, according to Brown University estimates. The U.S. lost 4,500 troops and spent an estimated $2 trillion on the Iraq War and the ensuing campaign in both Iraq and Syria against the extremist Islamic State group, which took hold in both countries after the U.S. initially withdrew in 2011.

Those assertions also made “weapons of mass destruction” a catchphrase that’s still used by rivals and allies alike, including before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which U.S. intelligence correctly forecast.

Avril Haines, the current U.S. director of national intelligence, noted in a statement that the intelligence community had adopted new standards for analysis and oversight.

“We learned critical lessons in the wake of our flawed assessment of an active WMD program in Iraq in 2002,” Haines said. “Since then, for example, we have expanded the use of structured analytic techniques, established community-wide analytic standards, and enhanced tradecraft oversight. As in every part of our work, we strive to learn the lessons that allow us to preserve and advance our thinking to greater effect in service of our national security.”

Only 18% of U.S. adults say they have a great deal of confidence in the government’s intelligence agencies, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Forty-nine percent say they have “some” confidence and 31% have hardly any confidence.

Shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, President George W. Bush ordered an invasion of Afghanistan, where the ruling Taliban sheltered al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and allowed the group to run training camps.

Bush’s administration soon began to warn about Iraq, which was long seen as threatening American interests in the Middle East.

Iraq was known to have sought a nuclear weapon in the 1980s and had chemical and biological weapons programs by the end of the Gulf War in 1991. It had been accused of concealing details about those programs from international inspectors, before they were kicked out in 1998.

The Bush administration argued Saddam Hussein’s government was still hiding programs from inspectors after they reentered the country in 2002 and found no signs of resumed production.

A U.S. intelligence estimate published in October 2002 alleges that Iraq had considered buying uranium from Niger and aluminum tubes for centrifuges, that it was building mobile weapons labs, that it was considering using drones to spread deadly toxins, and that it had chemical weapons stockpiles of up to 500 tons.

Some U.S. officials also suggested Iraqi officials had ties to al-Qaida leaders despite evidence of deep antipathy between the two sides.

Those claims would largely be debunked within months of the invasion. No stockpiles were found. Subsequent reviews have blamed those claims on outdated information, mistaken assumptions, and a mix of uninformed sources and outright fabricators.

Bush repeated wrong U.S. intelligence findings before the war, as did Secretary of State Colin Powell in a landmark February 2002 speech before the United Nations.

“He said he’d go to his grave with the manacles of Iraq,” said retired Col. Larry Wilkerson, who was then Powell’s chief of staff and later became a high-profile critic of the Bush administration. Powell died in 2021.

It’s still sharply debated whether the Bush administration would have ordered the invasion without the WMD intelligence.

A White House spokesperson told The Washington Post in 2006 — as Iraq had fallen into a violent insurgency — that Bush “made his decision to go to war in Iraq based on the intelligence given to him by the intelligence community.”

Some former intelligence officials argue the Bush administration stretched available information to make the case for war, particularly on allegations of ties between Iraq and al-Qaida.

Congress was already debating wholesale change to the U.S. intelligence community after the Sept. 11 attacks, an intelligence failure blamed in part on a lack of information sharing between the CIA and FBI.

Lawmakers in 2004 created the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence to oversee the other agencies, taking that leadership function away from the CIA. ODNI took control of the daily intelligence briefing given to the president and of the National Intelligence Council, comprised of the spy community’s top analysts.

Supporters say ODNI can arbitrate among the other agencies, which often have sharply different skillsets and cultures. Others criticize ODNI as an unnecessary bureaucratic layer.

The CIA revamped its training program for analysts to emphasize the study of alternatives and use of “red teams” that challenge conclusions. It also forced more information sharing so analysts could better evaluate the sources of specific reports.

Michael Allen, who served in the Bush White House and wrote the book “Blinking Red” about the 2004 intelligence overhaul, said U.S. officials in the wake of Iraq are more likely to accept differences of opinion within intelligence.

Allen noted as an example the Energy Department’s recent assessment that the COVID-19 virus likely leaked from a Chinese lab. The FBI also supports the lab leak hypothesis, but other agencies say the virus likely was transmitted from animals to humans or have declined to take a position.

The U.S. learned to “not take intelligence at face value, but to really examine the basis upon which the conclusions were made and to listen to differing views among different agencies in the intelligence community,” said Allen, now managing director of Washington-based Beacon Global Strategies.

Ukraine has been a bright spot for U.S. intelligence. The Biden administration has supplied information to Kyiv for Ukraine to bolster its defenses and declassified intelligence findings on Russian intentions to try to influence Moscow and build allied support.

And while they correctly predicted Russia’s intention to invade, the spy agencies wrongly believed Ukraine’s forces would fall within weeks.

While in Congress, Crow has pressed the agencies to review how they assess a foreign government’s ability to fight. U.S. intelligence two years ago wrongly projected the Washington-backed government in Kabul would survive months after the American withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“We’ve lived with the ghosts of Iraq for two decades and it’s impacted our credibility,” Crow said. “Now we’re starting to find it again. It’s a great opportunity for us to learn lessons of the past and do it better going forward.”

But those ghosts remain. Sitting in his office for a recent interview, Crow said he understands the limits of what a military can do and the importance of using armed forces properly. He said he thinks about his enrolling in the Wisconsin National Guard after high school as a private and moving to active duty after Sept. 11.

He pointed to a photo on a wall opposite the shelf with his Iraq War mementos, a picture of his company at Fort Bragg, an Army base in North Carolina, before they went to the Middle East.

“There’s men in that picture who died, who aren’t here anymore,” he said. “I think about those guys, too.”

___

AP Polling reporter Hannah Fingerhut contributed to this report.

WHERE IS THE 'JUST TRANSITION'

Polish coal miners protest EU methane reduction regulations

Some 300 Polish coal miners angered by the European Union directive reducing methane emissions protest noisily before the EU office saying it will deprive them of their jobs, in Warsaw, Poland, on Friday, March 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish coal miners angered by a European Union directive aiming to reduce methane emissions protested noisily Friday before the EU office in Warsaw saying it will deprive them of their jobs.

Some 300 miners chanted “Thieves” and used smoke flares and sirens to draw attention to their protest in the downtown area of Poland’s capital. Traffic was temporarily closed in the area.

Protesting miners from the Solidarity 80 union said recent climate recommendations for the 27-member EU that call for a significant reduction of methane, starting in 2027, would force most of the nation’s mines to close, with the loss of tens of thousands of jobs.

The majority of Poland’s mines have a high presence of methane gas that gets released in the coal extraction process. That also leads to serious mining accidents as methane becomes explosive when mixed in low proportions with oxygen.

Located in the southern Silesia region, the coal mines are among Poland’s major employers, offering some 77,000 jobs in the nation of 38 million.

Drag community shows up to protest Nebraska drag show bill

By MARGERY A. BECK

A group of around 200 people who turned out for a rally inside the Nebraska State Capitol hold up signs in support of the transgender community, Friday, March 24, 2023 in Lincoln, Neb. The rally was held to protest the advancement of a bill Thursday that would ban gender-affirming care for minors, as well as a bill that would criminalize allowing minors to attend drag shows. (AP Photo/Margery Beck)

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A bill that would criminalize exposing anyone 18 or younger to a drag show in Nebraska was the last one to get a public hearing in this year’s legislative session late Friday. But those opposed to the bill made sure the final hearing went out with a flash of glitter and sequins.

Among scores of people who showed up to voice their opposition were more than a dozen dressed in drag, including heavy makeup, wigs and evening gowns.

The bill’s main sponsor, conservative Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil, said the legislation is intended to protect children “from being exposed to overly-sexualized and inappropriate behavior far too early.”

The bill defines drag as a performance by someone presenting a gender identity that is different than the performer’s gender assigned at birth. It would make exposing a minor to a drag show a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. The bill comes amidst a national push by conservatives to restrict drag shows, transgender health care, bathroom access and how LGBTQ topics are discussed in schools.

“Those who allow this kind of perversion should be held accountable,” Murman said.

But Murman struggled to answer questions from Judiciary Committee members about how his bill would be enforced without violating the constitutional rights of drag performers, parents and others. Sen. Carol Blood, a Democrat from Bellevue asked how he would draw a line between drag and, say, musicians or actors who dress up in makeup and showy costumes for performances.

When Murman said the difference would come down to how scantily dressed the performer was, another Democrat, Sen. Wendy DeBoer, asked whether that would include a cheerleader in uniform twerking at a game. Murman said it would not.

“What you’re doing is cherry-picking a demographic, and that’s wrong,” Blood said.

The fact that the hearing didn’t begin until after 5 p.m. Friday did little to dissuade the public from turning out to speak on it. The crowd filled the Judiciary Committee hearing room and spilled out nearly 100 deep into the Capitol hallways.

Those supporting the bill expressed conspiracy theories of alleged efforts to indoctrinate children into queer society and used words like “groomers” and “woke culture” to describe drag shows.

But the vast majority of those attending opposed the bill, including two who identify themselves as Polly Pocket and Baby Girl, who often read picture books to children at an Omaha church’s story hour. They defended such events and drag shows as simple fun and read from the children’s book “Unicorns Are the Worst!” at a rally held before the hearing to protest the drag bill and another to ban gender-affirming care for minors.

“It’s just queer people showing queer art,” Polly Pocket said.

The church where they perform, Urban Abbey, has been hosting drag story hours since 2018. But last Saturday, the show was interrupted by an emailed bomb threat that also threatened the church’s pastor and several staff members.

“I have never in my life received an email that said, ‘Today you will die,’” Urban Abbey’s pastor, the Rev. Debra McKnight, said. “They listed my home address and the addresses of several staff members.”

Sunday service the next day was also interrupted by an emailed bomb threat, she said, noting that Omaha police and the FBI are investigating.

The bill could later be advanced or die in committee.

RIP
Darcelle, world’s oldest working drag queen, dies at 92

By CLAIRE RUSH

1 of 6
In this Sept. 2019 photo, Darcelle XV, performs in Portland, Ore. Walter C. Cole, better known as the iconic drag queen who performed for decades as Darcelle, has died of natural causes in Portland, Ore, on Thursday, March 24, 2023. (Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian via AP)

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Walter Cole, better known as the iconic drag queen who performed for decades as Darcelle XV and a fearless advocate for Portland’s LGBTQ+ community, has died of natural causes in Portland, Oregon. He was 92.

Darcelle, who died Thursday, was crowned the world’s oldest working drag performer in 2016 by the Guinness Book of World Records and was regaling audiences until the very end. As a performer, Darcelle was known for hosting the longest-running drag show on the U.S. West Coast. Off stage, Cole, an Army veteran, championed LGBTQ+ rights and charitable work in Portland.

The nightclub that Darcelle opened more than 50 years ago in downtown Portland, Darcelle XV Showplace, posted a statement on Facebook expressing grief and asking for privacy and patience.

The club, which had become a Portland cultural institution by the 1970s, was listed in 2020 on the National Register of Historic Places, making it the first site in Oregon to be nominated specifically for its significance in LGBTQ+ history. In the venue’s early days in the 1970s and 1980s, it was seen as taboo and protesters picketed outside, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.

It provided a lifeline for many in the city’s LGBTQ community, including Cole, he told the newspaper in a 2010 interview. Cole preferred female pronouns when performing, but told The Oregonian he preferred male pronouns off-stage.

“If I hadn’t admitted who I was, I’d probably be dead now,” he told the paper. “I’d be sitting on a couch retiring from ... management. Not for me.”

“She touched the lives of so many, not only through her performances but also through her fearless community advocacy and charitable works,” said Todd Addams, the interim executive director of Basic Rights Oregon, speaking of Darcelle. “She was nothing short of an icon.”

Writer Susan Stanley described the club a place of “warmth and affection” where performers were “glittering in sequins and satin and a shimmering froth of feathers,” in what’s credited as the first profile of Darcelle XV, published in Willamette Week in 1975.

When speaking of Darcelle, Cole, a gay man, referred to his persona in the third person using female pronouns. “I’m an entertainer with a capital E,” Cole told Stanley. “Darcelle is a character — like in a play — and I work very hard at her.”

Stanley wound up briefly working at the club and becoming Cole’s close friend. She described the performer not only as a talented artist, who also sewed many of the club’s costumes, but as a caring person deeply invested in the LGBTQ+ community and the fight against the social stigma of the time.

“(Darcelle) was just a very, very nurturing person. She encouraged other guys to perform and get out of their shells,” Stanley told the AP in a phone interview.

After decades of advocacy by LGBTQ+ activists organizing for civil rights and freedoms, Stanley said she was saddened to see how drag has become so polarized in today’s political climate.

“It bespeaks a really, really big misunderstanding,” she said. “Politicians wanting to step back decades in attitudes … it’s mystifying and horrifying to me at the same time.”

Cole was born in 1930 and raised in Portland’s Linnton neighborhood. He served in the U.S. Armed Forces and was discharged in the late 1950s, according to the club’s website, which says he used money he received from the military to start his first business.

After dabbling in a coffee store and a jazz club, Cole purchased the space that would become the Darcelle XV Showcase in 1967.

Two years later, he had developed the “alter ego” named Darcelle and came out as gay, according to a profile on the club’s website.

He left his wife and began a relationship with his artistic director. During the 1970s, the Showplace became a popular destination for cabaret and drag performance.

In 1999, Darcelle became the oldest drag performer on the West Coast, after the closing of San Francisco’s drag venue Finocchio’s Club.

On Friday, fans including Portland’s mayor mourned Cole’s death on social media. Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden said in a social media post that “Darcelle carved out an unforgettable chapter in Portland’s history” with “pioneering courage.”

Darcelle XV Showplace said that details of a public memorial will be announced and all shows will go on as scheduled, per Darcelle’s wishes.

“Please join us and celebrate her legacy and memory, thank you in advance for your continued support,” the club’s statement said.

___

Claire Rush 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. You can follow Rush on Twitter @ClaireARush.

 

Darcelle XV, Portland's drag queen superstar, dead at 92

 

Darcelle XV (Full Documentary) | Nation’s Oldest Performing Drag Queen | Oregon Experience | 2021

CONNECTICUT
Bill allowing limited bear killing advances, hunt nixed


 HUMAN CAUSED BEHAVIOUR

A black bear that had been previously tranquilized and removed from a Waterbury, Conn., neighborhood earlier in the year chews on a garbage container in Wolcott, Conn.

 Connecticut lawmakers voted Friday, March 24, 2023, to allow special state permits to kill bears that threaten or damage crops, livestock or bees. However, they shelved a more contentious proposal to allow a limited bear hunt supported by state environmental officials grappling with an increase in human-bear conflicts

. (Steven Valenti/Republican-American via AP, File)

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut lawmakers voted Friday to allow special state permits to kill bears that threaten or damage crops, livestock or bees. However, they shelved a more contentious proposal to allow a limited bear hunt supported by state environmental officials grappling with an increase in human-bear conflicts.

The proposed annual bear hunt, which would have been limited to a northwestern Connecticut county, was pulled following outcry from animal rights advocates who argued it was inhumane and wouldn’t reduce the number of incidences.

Data from the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, which supported the hunt, show the number of reported conflicts between humans and bears has more than doubled in recent years with less than 1,000 in 2015 to more than 2,000 in 2022. The number of towns where these interactions, such as the 67 home entries reported last year, have occurred has also increased.

There were two bear attacks last year, including an incident where a 250-pound (113-kilogram) black bear mauled a 10-year-old boy playing in his grandparents’ backyard.

The bill, which cleared the General Assembly’s Environment Committee and awaits action in the Senate, also makes killing a bear justified if the animal is inflicting or about to inflict great bodily harm to a human or is injuring or killing a pet. The proposal further prohibits intentional and unintentional feeding of a potentially dangerous animal.

COP CITY COVER UP

Georgia activist killed by troopers shot first, officers say



ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia authorities allege that state troopers in January fatally shot an environmental protester who had fired at authorities after a trooper shot pepper balls into the protester’s tent, according to incident reports obtained Friday by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The newspaper obtained multiple Georgia Department of Public Safety use-of-force incident reports through an open records request. The records offer the most complete account yet of authorities’ version of the Jan. 18 killing of Manuel Paez Terán, who went by the name Tortuguita and used the pronoun they.

Paez Terán was killed in DeKalb County’s South River Forest as officers tried to clear activists who were camping near the site of a planned police and training center that protesters derisively call “Cop City.”

Protesters have questioned officials’ assertion that officers shot Paez Terán in self-defense after the 26-year-old shot a trooper. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation continues to examine the shooting and has released few details about the incident, other than to say that preliminary evidence supports authorities’ assertions and that the trooper was shot with a bullet from a gun Paez Terán legally purchased in 2020.

According to the newly obtained incident reports, Paez Terán briefly spoke to officers who came to the protester’s tent and refused their demands to leave the area, prompting authorities to fire pepper balls. Authorities say Paez Terán then fired multiple shots from inside the tent, and six officers returned fire, shooting the activist more than a dozen times.

“I knew the suspect in the tent was shooting at us because I could hear the gun shots coming from inside of the tent,” according to a report written by a Georgia Department of Public Safety corporal. “I could see the front of the tent door flapping as the bullets ripped through it and I could hear bullets striking the vegetation surrounding me.”

The corporal said authorities had encountered Paez Terán inside the tent, and at one point the activist told the officers: “No, I want you to leave.”

The corporal said Paez Terán was “very confident” in asking authorities to leave and “it was immediately apparent” that the protester had “no intentions of cooperating.”

The corporal also wrote that, prior to the gunfire, he told Paez Terán that officers were about to fire chemical agents into the tent and that Paez Terán would be charged with criminal trespassing.

Paez Terán’s death and their dedication to opposing the training center has vaulted the “Stop Cop City” movement onto the national and international stage, with leftist activists from across the country holding vigils and prompting some to travel and join the protest movement that began in 2021. They say officers at the 85-acre (34-hectare) center would be trained to become more militarized and quell dissent, all while hundreds of trees are cut down, damaging the climate and flood mitigation in a poor, majority-Black neighborhood.

A few protests have turned violent, including earlier this month when more than 150 masked activists left a nearby music festival and stormed the proposed site of the training center, setting fire to construction equipment and throwing rocks at retreating law enforcement officers.

The Atlanta City Council approved building the proposed $90 million Atlanta Public Safety Training Center in 2021, saying a state-of-the-art campus would replace substandard offerings and boost police morale, which is beset by hiring and retention struggles in the wake of violent protests against racial injustice that roiled the city after George Floyd was killed by police in 2020.

For more than two months, Paez Terán’s family and their attorneys have called on officials to release information about the shooting. According to an autopsy the family commissioned, Paez Terán was sitting cross-legged with their hands in the air at the time they were shot. The autopsy report also notes it is “impossible to determine” whether the activist was holding a firearm at the time they were shot.

The family commissioned the autopsy after the DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s Office conducted the initial examination. Officials have not released the DeKalb County report, so it’s unclear whether it reached a similar conclusion that Paez Terán had their hands raised with palms facing inward at the time of the shooting.

The family’s attorneys did not immediately return a request for comment.