Pa. Democrats aim to appeal to working-class voters with policy, symbolism, and some anger

The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS
2023/04/10

Supporters of John Fetterman wait at a campaign rally at the Carpenters Union Hall in Pittsburgh on Nov. 7, 2022. - Tyger Williams/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania Democrats are trying to show they can be populists, too.

When Gov. Josh Shapiro took office in January, he sent a symbolic message by using his first executive order to end the four-year college degree requirement for most state government jobs. Sen. John Fetterman campaigned as a Democrat who would fight for "forgotten communities." And as U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio has started his first term representing a Western Pennsylvania district, he's delivered sharp criticism of "the incompetence and greed" of "big corporations" such as Norfolk Southern.

"It's about building a government that serves everyone, not just the rich and powerful," said Deluzio, a Navy veteran and Georgetown Law graduate whose congressional bio emphasizes his work helping form a union at the University of Pittsburgh.

As politics in Pennsylvania and nationally have shifted, and Republicans have gained ground with white working-class voters — epitomized by Donald Trump's crucial victory in the state in 2016 — the GOP has portrayed Democrats as the party of a snobbish elite, attacking liberals as scolds who have lost touch with everyday workers while trying to impose their views on race, gender, guns, and the environment.

"Some of it is just cultural, and the label of the Democratic Party right now just doesn't appeal to some parts of Pennsylvania that they used to appeal to really well," said Nick Trainer, a Republican strategist who worked on Trump's 2020 reelection campaign.

But Democrats argue they've always been — and remain — the true party of working people. They say their policies, including support for labor unions, expanded health-care access, and a higher minimum wage, offer tangible help for the working class while Republicans have pushed tax cuts and deregulation that benefit the wealthy and corporations.

But populism — a broad term often used to convey everyday people's attitudes and anger toward the powerful — isn't only about policy ideas. It's often about image and approach.

"We don't have to overthink it and out-policy the other folks," said Rebecca Kirszner Katz, Fetterman's longtime strategist. "We have to be smart and remind people what we stand for and how we'll fight for them. It's not that complicated, and we've just done a terrible job of explaining it."

While some on the Democratic side, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, have embraced populism, railing against financial elites, Trump channeled it most emphatically in his 2016 victory. He blended white racial grievances with raw fury at the establishments in both parties, which he said had sold out ordinary workers. It was hugely successful in some culturally conservative parts of Pennsylvania that had lost much of their industry and that finally broke with their Democratic roots.

Despite Trump's wealth and a business career catering to the upper crust, he made disaffected voters "feel seen," Katz said. "A lot of Democratic politicians were very clinical."

Democrats have tried to correct for that, nominating more plain-spoken candidates such as Fetterman and President Joe Biden. And they've used suspicion of wealthy elites in their own way, attacking last year's GOP Senate nominee in Pennsylvania, Mehmet Oz, as a rich out-of-stater, and using a similar approach against David McCormick, a former hedge-fund executive eyeing another Senate bid in 2024.

Pennsylvania has a higher than average share of voters who didn't attend college, giving much of it a blue-collar culture and worldview.

"You can't win Pennsylvania if you're not able to appeal to non-college voters," said J.J. Balaban, a Democratic strategist based in Philadelphia.

He argues Democrats have always been the party of the working class, but it's become more important to emphasize as Trump and his imitators have adopted populist rhetoric, if not policies.

"For Democrats, populism is about economics. For Republicans, it's largely about cultural grievances," Balaban said.

The Norfolk Southern train derailment near the Pennsylvania- Ohio border presents a prime target for anger at big business.

Shapiro told The Inquirer about a conversation with a woman in Beaver County, which borders East Palestine, Ohio, the site of the crash. Her family had lost several dozen eggs from their family chickens "and this was real money for them and important for their family income."

Shapiro said that when he met with Norfolk Southern's top executive, he cited that story as he pushed the railroad to provide aid.

"That kind of stuff happens when you show up, treat people with respect, listen, and then are willing to take on the powerful," Shapiro said, a theme he came back to several times in a late March interview.

Changing the state's hiring rules, he said, would expand opportunities for people who didn't attend college. It tangibly affects only a sliver of jobs, but the fact that Shapiro made that move his first official act illustrates the political imperative of showing working-class appeal.

Fetterman rarely emphasized specific policy ideas during his campaign, but his image as the tattooed mayor of a hard-hit steel town was a powerful marker. Katz said his success came down to something more fundamental.

"He talks to people like they're on the same level as him," Katz said. "One of the bigger problems with Democrats in the past is that they have spoken down to voters, and John never spoke down to anyone."

While Katz worries some Democrats are still too concerned about appealing to wealthy donors, others appear more comfortable channeling anger and frustration, even as their victories in recent elections have depended significantly on voters from affluent suburbs.

"Who we are in Western Pennsylvania, our identity, our history, is wrapped up and tied to the labor movement, and it's tied to fighting for working people," said Deluzio, whose district straddles the Pittsburgh suburbs and more blue-collar Beaver County.

His guest at his first State of the Union speech was a mailer on strike from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Many voters, Deluzio said, are right to feel angry about being harmed by businesses and politicians.

"Folks were mad for a reason, one that I think is fair and valid: They saw jobs and factories ripped away," he said.

Fetterman's pledge to stand up for "forgotten communities" echoed some of the language that once helped propel Trump.

While the start of his Senate career has been stunted by a hospitalization for depression treatment, Fetterman's public statements so far have targeted "corporate greed" and accused oil companies of "disgusting" price gouging.

And Biden's approach toward reelection was on full display in his most recent visit to Philadelphia, where he told a room full of union members, "For too long, working people have been breaking their necks ... while those at the top get away with everything."

"Going after corporations and the ultrarich is overwhelmingly popular, and the fact that many Democrats don't do that is political malpractice," Katz said.

Fetterman's victory last year over Oz, for example, was driven by a devastating blitz casting Oz as a rich celebrity from New Jersey who couldn't relate to ordinary Pennsylvanians.

Democrats are already running a similar strategy against McCormick, who ran against Oz last year and is considering another campaign in 2024. They point to his immense wealth, expensive homes, and years leading a hedge fund.

"So much of the attacks that worked on Oz can also work on McCormick," Katz said.

McCormick has countered by emphasizing his time growing up in rural Pennsylvania, working on his family's Christmas tree farm, wrestling in high school, and then fighting in the first Iraq War.

As with Trump, populism isn't always an obvious fit.

Shapiro, for example, is an attorney from one of the state's wealthiest counties. He has made his career climbing the political ranks and has also won praise from the business community for some of his early steps.

The governor "is always going to read like the corporate lawyer in the boardroom," said Trainer, the Republican strategist. "You can put him in a polo and a quarter-zip all you want, he's still not going to be an everyman. He never will be."

Shapiro says helping working people is less about where you're from than what you do.

"It's about your point of view or your state of mind and your focus on taking on the big fights for the people of Pennsylvania," Shapiro said. "And then being willing for years and years and years to show up in their communities and show them respect ... and then go back and show them the results of your work."

___

John Fetterman greet at Norris Square Park in Philadelphia on Oct. 15, 2022.

 - Tyger Williams/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

© The Philadelphia Inquirer

Food historian claims pizza and carbonara are American not Italian foods

New York Daily News
2023/04/10

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Food history professor Alberto Grandi made some polarizing claims in a recent interview, saying many Italian dishes are actually more American in heritage.

Grandi, who teaches at the University of Parma in Italy, told the Financial Times that he had been questioning the authenticity of certain “Made in Italy” dishes for years, specifically naming pizza, carbonara and Parmesan cheese.

“When a community finds itself deprived of its sense of identity, because of whatever historical shock or fracture with its past, it invents traditions to act as founding myths,” he said, implying Italy’s food history could be more fiction than fact.

“Italian cuisine really is more American than it is Italian,” Grandi stated in the interview.

The assertions struck a chord with the Italian government. The same day the article was published, Italy’s ministers of Culture and Agriculture made a formal submission of entering Italian cuisine into candidacy for “World Heritage Site” status with UNESCO.

That won’t be decided until 2025, but the ministries also applied to have UNESCO recognize Italian cuisine on the 2023 “Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.”

UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, is a specialized agency of the United Nations that describes part of its mission on its website as encouraging “the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity.”

But now the debate for whose culture belongs to whom is heating up. Grandi reacted to the government’s attempt, telling La Repubblica that there’s “a lot of bulls——” in the UNESCO application they submitted.

In a separate statement to CNN, Grandi explained his emotion around the controversy, saying part of the idea that Italians emigrated to the U.S. and taught people how to cook is offensive.

“They emigrated because they had nothing to eat here, they were poor,” he said. “They left because they were starving. It’s offensive to our grandparents to paint it differently.”

GOP warms to Trump's plan to bomb Mexico

Brad Reed
April 10, 2023

A new report from Politico suggests that Republicans are increasingly embracing what was once a fringe idea floated by former President Donald Trump: That America should bomb Mexico in the name of battling drug cartels.

Although it was once considered unthinkable to conduct a military invasion of the United States' neighbor to the south, Politico documents how launching attacks against the country is becoming mainstream within the GOP.

"Reps. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) and Mike Waltz (R-FL) introduced a bill seeking authorization for the use of military force to 'put us at war with the cartels,'" the report states. "Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said he is open to sending U.S. troops into Mexico to target drug lords even without that nation’s permission. And lawmakers in both chambers have filed legislation to label some cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, a move supported by GOP presidential aspirants."

Although some traditionally hawkish Republicans, including former Trump national security adviser John Bolton and Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) have expressed skepticism that bombing Mexico would be an effective strategy for stopping the flow of fentanyl into the United States, the idea is nonetheless gaining traction.

Even so, some foreign policy experts warn Politico that a war in Mexico has the potential to be a complete foreign policy disaster for the United States.

"If you thought Iraq was a bad situation, wait until you invade a country on our border,” a House Republican congressional aid

California has a new take on mezcal and tequila. How Sacramento-area farmers are leading it

The Sacramento Bee
2023/04/10

California Agave Council Director Craig Reynolds stands by to locally-grown agave spirits last month made from distilled agave plants harvested at Joe Mueller's farm in Woodland. - Paul Kitagaki Jr./The Sacramento Bee/TNS

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — On recent a brisk March morning in Woodland’s rolling hills, Raul “Reppo” Chavez was already covered in sweat.

Chavez and his cousin Antonio had spent the last half-hour hacking away at their agave plants — monstrous pineapple-looking beasts whose spiky leaves are all that can be seen above the soil.

The jimadors, as the farmers of the unique succulent are called, were harvesting agave that they planted six to eight years ago. After a stormy weekend, they will roast the 100-pound agave hearts (known as piñas) for five to seven days in an 8-feet-deep pit covered with pumice and volcanic rocks from around Mount Lassen.

This is where the burgeoning “Mezcalifornia” movement begins. It ends up in small-batch agave spirits produced by craft distilleries throughout the state.

But don’t call it call it tequila or mezcal. That distinction is specific only to agave spirits produced in certain parts of Mexico.

Regardless of the name, it’s still a very niche, craft drink. Agave grows slowly and doesn’t yet have streamlined production in the United States. The resulting liquors are scarce and expensive.

Yet more growers are planting agave — and tequila and mezcal are among the United States’ most popular drinks. When asked about the demand for California-grown agave, farmer and agave advocate Craig Reynolds replied, “I think it’s endless.”

“The craft distillers in California would buy up every mature agave 10 times what I’m producing, 100 times. They’re able to sell their agave spirits at a premium,” Reynolds said. “And it’s just a matter of it scaling up. We have a long way to go to ever come close to saturating the market for agave spirits, in my opinion.”
How agave movement got started

Agave plants grow all over California, from midtown Sacramento sidewalk plots to dirt patches bordering freeways. But most aren’t Blue Weber agave (agave tequilana), the kind most commonly used for distilling tequila and mezcal.

That’s what Reynolds and Chavez grow on neighboring hillsides owned by brothers Joe and Tom Muller in Woodland. The Chavez cousins became acquainted with the industry while growing up in the Mexican state of Jalisco where tequila is made, in a 6,000-person town called Tonaya.

“Tonaya is a little town, but it’s got a lot, a lot of acres of agave. So we started to work a little bit over there. Not too much — more over here, when (Reynolds) came and started to plant that (plot),” Reppo Chavez said.

Reynolds began growing agave in Colima, Mexico in 2006 that would later be used to make Dos Volcanes tequila, which was sold to raise money for a nonprofit called Project Amigo.

Reynolds used his vacation days to check up on the agave and moonlighted as a Dos Volcanes importer to the U.S. while he was working full time as then-state Sen. Lois Wolk’s chief of staff. After retiring, he planted his first stateside agave in 2014.

He started with 500 plants and ended up with a movement. St. George Spirits master distiller Lance Winters, who is based in Alameda, made the first batch of spirits in 2019. Others came calling, both for processed agave and seedlings to start their own plots.

Reynolds founded the California Agave Council in April 2020 to unite growers and set standards across the board. One such principle, signed into state law in September: any bottle marketed as California agave spirits must be 100% made from agave. Traditional tequila requires only 51% agave juice, with the rest coming from corn or cane sugar and coloring agents.

Though Reynolds pioneered commercial agave production in California, he’s quick to differentiate between himself and “real farmers” such as the Chavez cousins, who harvest his plants as well as their own.

That harvesting is hard work. Once the Chavez cousins cut the agaves’ quiotes (flowering stalks that shoot from the center and indicate the plant has fully matured) they have about eight months to extract the piñas.

The jimadors use two types of coas (poles with sharp, round heads) to hack off the spiky leaves and root out the piñas, which they then pull out of the dirt by hand. All that time spent growing, and that’s it for the agave, which can be harvested precisely once.

They then load the piñas into a truck for roasting, which can take another week once the subterranean oven is constructed. The agave leaves are then tilled back into the soil where beans, clover and mustard grow as cover crops.

Once roasted, the piñas are shredded and pressed to extract their sugary juices. Liquor makers then ferment and distill that liquid, proof it down to something around 40-45% ABV and bottle it for sale. Each 750-milliliter bottle requires about 11 pounds of agave.
Drink up!

When Venus Spirits began importing Mexican agave juice to make spirits in 2014, the Santa Cruz distillery was one of three in the U.S. to do so, founder and distiller Sean Venus said.

A couple hundred distillers do the same now, Venus said, but not many get their agave from California. Venus Spirits is one of the fortunate few. It released 450 bottles of El Ladrón Yolo, its first California-grown take on tequila, in 2021, using Reynolds’ agave.

The first El Ladrón Yolo bottles were sold only in the distillery’s tasting room, though the next batch will be slightly larger and distributed through other retailers. Venus Spirits still makes Mexican agave spirits, but they’re not the same.

“It’s quite a bit different. We get more of the vegetal notes from California agave. It’s less sweet, but more minerally, so it’s got more of a true character and flavor than Mexican agave spirits,” Venus said. “It’s a really interesting thing. We’re roasting over almond wood, and a little bit of that smoke character gets into the agave and comes through in the spirits.”

California dirt costs more than Jalisco land, and the traditional cooking method Reynolds uses is time-intensive.

Those factors drive the price of the resulting beverage up: a bottle of El Ladrón Yolo sells for $90, while Venus Spirits’ liquors made from Mexican agave go for $42-$68.

Yet demand is high. Americans are expected to spend more than $13.3 billion on agave spirits tequila and mezcal this year, overtaking vodka and whiskey as the nation’s most-bought spirit, according to beverage research firm IWSR.

Venus and Reynolds expect prices to fall as California’s agave industry grows and becomes more efficient. If more California farmers grow agave, Venus Spirits will buy it.

In the meantime, Venus has planted a few seedlings around the distillery and is exploring larger plots outside of Santa Cruz. “The whole kind of farm-to-bottle thing is a process that is really interesting and unseen by (many) other distillers,” Venus said. “I think it’s something really unique that is happening right now, and we’re just excited to be part of it.”

Right crop, right place?

California’s natural growing conditions — high heat, fertile soil and a Mediterranean climate — make the state suitable for agave as well as many other crops. The California Agave Council now includes farmers from counties as disparate as Lake, San Luis Obispo and Imperial.

But the Central Valley is the area to watch, because this crop takes little precious water. That has farmers like Stuart Woolf ripping out their almond trees in favor of agave plants.

Woolf’s family has farmed in the Westlands Water District since the late 1940s. The family today grows nuts, cotton, alliums, winegrapes, grains and more on 20,000 acres around Huron in Fresno County. Yet with new state laws such as the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) restricting the amount of water farmers can pump, Woolf estimates he’ll eventually fallow 40% of his land.

Woolf plans to lease some of the space to industrial solar companies, but wants to keep farming the crops he can. He began growing 4,000 agave plants in a test plot in 2019. While none is mature yet, they’re thriving so far, he said.

“Is this something akin to when California first started getting into the winegrape business, and we’d have naysayers all over the world saying ‘good luck with that?’” Woolf wondered. “When I drive around my neighborhood, there are agaves everywhere, just in gardens or off the road. We have plants out there in farm country where nobody is irrigating them and they seem to be thriving.”

They’re doing so well, in fact, that Woolf will plant 160 acres of agave this year and he plans to do the same in subsequent years — roughly 200,000 plants per year. His five children had little interest in carrying on the family’s farming legacy, yet when he told them about his agave plans over dinner, they all wanted in.

Woolf is doing all this planting with hopes that someone else will build a commercial plant to cut, heat and extract juice from that many piñas, because none currently exists in California. If no one does by the time they’re ready to be harvested, he still has a plan.

“I’m going to plant all these things and if I can’t get somebody to take them off my hands, I’m going to process them myself,” Woolf said. “It really is a chicken-and-the-egg kind of thing, and I would be getting in a lot deeper if I were to do that. But I don’t know, I’m kind of intrigued by the whole idea.”

Other people are getting involved on the research front, thanks to Woolf’s funding. He and his wife Lisa donated $100,000 last year for UC Davis researchers to investigate agave’s viability in California, with a focus on identifying growing locations, plant attributes and future funding sources.

Agave can survive with little to no water during dry years, but frost can be killer and is more likely in California than Mexico. If water is available, Woolf is looking at using drip irrigation for faster-growing, sugarier plants rather than the dry farming typically done in Mexico.

Agave spirits are rooted in Mexico, and mezcal in particular carries no small amount of mysticism and cultural lore. But California can’t and isn’t making tequila or mezcal. It’s making its own spirit.

“We’re just another part of the family,” Reynolds said. “We’re not trying to take Mexican traditions. We’re California distillers doing their own thing, learning along the way.”

Agave bulbs weighting over 100 pounds are placed in a fire pit last month to be roasted for several days. 

Sean Venus is a distiller from Venus Spirits of Santa Cruz that has ordered three tons of agave from Joe and Muller's farm in Woodland.

A field of agave grows between almond trees on Joe and Mary Muller's farm in Woodland last month. 

Antonio Chavez uses a coa to slice off the leaves of the agave "piña" bulb in Woodland last month. -

Craig Reynolds loads agave piña onto a trailer last month in Woodland

Agave farmer known as a jimador, Raul "Reppo" Chavez, harvests agave hearts called "piñas" on March 17, 2023, in Woodland that will be made into agave spirits. 

Agave hearts weighting over 100 pounds each are placed in an 8- feet-deep fire pit lined with lava rocks last month, where they will be roasted for five to seven days on a farm in Woodland.

Agave plants grow on Joe and Mary Muller's farm in Woodland last month. 

PHOTOS- Paul Kitagaki Jr./The Sacramento Bee/TNS

© The Sacramento Bee

Ranchers battle wolves in Colorado wilds as reintroduction looms

THEY GRAZE CATTLE ON PUBLIC LANDS THEY DON'T PAY FOR 

WHICH ARE WILDLIFE AREAS WHERE WOLVES LIVE

Agence France-Presse
April 10, 2023


Colorado rancher Don Gittleson has brought in six feral donkeys to deal with a pack of roaming wolves that has taken eight of his cows(AFP)

With wolves descending from the mountains of Wyoming to feast on his cattle, and his home state of Colorado preparing to reintroduce its own wild packs soon, rancher Don Gittleson says he has tried everything to protect his herd.

That is how he ended up shipping in a pack of feral donkeys to work as "guardian animals."

"They kick, they strike and they bite!" Gittleson told AFP on a visit to his snow-covered ranch on the far northern fringes of Colorado.

"If you were to get one cornered, you would not fare well. They can hold their own."

The wild burros, brought from Nevada with help from government officials, share a field with cattle at Sherman Creek Ranch.

They don't appear particularly interested in mixing with their new bovine neighbors, preferring to stick tightly together on the fringes of the herd.

But, Gittleson says, they pose enough of a threat to wolves looking for an easy kill that the fearsome predators might take their fangs and claws elsewhere.

"It's not that wolves can't kill them," he explained. But the predators are "smart enough to know when they can possibly get injured."

It is one of several nonlethal strategies -- along with red flags, flashing lights and firework-style "cracker shells" -- that ranchers are trying in an effort to keep their cattle out of the jaws of a wolf pack that reappeared in northern Colorado roughly three years ago.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW), which was involved in getting the donkeys described it as "a pilot project" for reducing cattle depredation, which it "does not necessarily recommend... more broadly."

While wolves can be shot on sight in neighboring Wyoming, they are strictly protected in Colorado, except in self-defense.

Gittleson says eight of his cows have been killed since 2021 -- the same year Colorado wildlife officials spotted the first litter of wolf pups in the state since the 1940s, born to a pair who crossed from Wyoming.

And in a referendum in November 2020, which pitted mainly urban proponents against mostly rural opponents, Colorado narrowly approved a scheme to deliberately reintroduce wolves to the state by the end of this year.

Ranchers visited by AFP say it is a mistake.

"The vote was won by people that really have no idea what you're up against up here," said Greg Sykes. "They could care less what we have to put up with, or the harm we're in... it's just one more expense that we can't afford."

Wolves will not stay put for long in the specific parts of the state where they are reintroduced, and are "not afraid to come around houses at night," agreed Gittleson.


"And we have way more people in Colorado than they do in Wyoming."
'Wolves belong'

But for many Americans, wolves embody the spirit of the wilderness and the Western frontier.

European colonists who arrived in the 1600s brought widespread hunting and trapping. By the mid-20th century, fewer than a thousand gray wolves were left in the contiguous United States -- down from at least a quarter of a million.

The 1970s passage of the Endangered Species Act helped save the apex predator from extinction, and in the 1990s wolves from Canada were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park, a vast protected area spanning Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.

Now, environmentalists such as Darlene Kobobel, who founded a sanctuary and visitor park called the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center, say it is time for them to return to Colorado.


"Wolves belong. They were here way before we were," she said.

"We've been missing them here in our ecosystem for almost 80 years... you have to have predator and prey to make that balance," said Kobobel.

An explosion in deer and elk populations has led to over-grazing and the rampant spread of chronic wasting disease, a contagious neurological condition among animals that wolves can help check by culling the infected, she said.

Kobobel was delighted when Colorado voters backed the reintroduction, insisting wolves are "no worse than any other predator," and that ranchers must learn to protect their cows and sheep, which are the true "invasive species."

"If you're moving to Colorado, or you live here in Colorado, you've moved here for a reason... not only the beauty, but the wildlife."

'Wolf kill'

For ranchers like Sykes, it is a harsh message.

Last month, his beloved sheepdog Cisco was fatally savaged by wolves barely 30 yards (meters) from his farm's porch.

Despite the likelihood of jail time, he admits he was sorely tempted to fetch his gun and try to shoot the wolves, before his wife "talked me off the cliff."


Just days later, he spotted two wolves on a nearby ridge, and the following morning found the carcass of a dead calf that had been ripped apart by the predators.

While ranchers get financial compensation for lost livestock, the process can be long, arduous and bureaucratic. They receive nothing unless officials confirm the death was a "wolf kill."

(CPW says it strives "to provide compensation as quickly and efficiently as possible" adding that it has paid out more than $23,600 for 14 animals, and denied two claims.)

Laying bare the anger in this region, several roadside signs have been erected that read:

 "IF YOU VOTED FOR RE-INTRODUCTION OF WOLVES... YOU ARE NOT WELCOME!"

"I'm not sure why there needs to be reintroduction when they're already coming in," said Sykes.

He believes ranchers must be allowed to "protect ourselves" with lethal measures.

Gittleson has arrived at more or less the same conclusion.

"These wolves should have been shot a long time ago."

© Agence France-Presse

 

Sea urchin die-off threatens reefs from Florida to Caribbean. Scientists hope to revive them

MIAMI HERALD
2023/04/09

Rachael Best/Florida State University/TNS/TNS

MIAMI — These days, long-spined sea urchins are known as the gardeners of the sea. They tend the algae on the coral reefs they call home, making sure it never overwhelms their hosts. Spotting one on the Florida reef tract is a good sign that nearby corals are doing OK.

Decades ago, their reputation was a little different. They were viewed as damaging nuisances — to divers and to reefs.

The first time marine scientist Don Levitan saw the reefs near the U.S. Virgin Islands, they were blanketed in black — the coral covered by thousands of urchins spiked with sharp, poisonous spines.

“It was so dense it looked like a reef of sea urchins,” said Levitan, a professor at Florida State University. “You couldn’t even walk into the water.”

That was in 1983, six months before a mysterious disease all but wiped out the population that reached throughout the Caribbean, including Florida’s reef tract. The average mortality rate across the Caribbean, he said, was 95%. In the following years, it would become clear that too few urchins would turn out to be worse for reefs than too many of them.

Now, after decades of gradual recovery, the population of this specific type of sea urchin, known formally as Diadema antillarum, has dramatically declined again. A recent paper led by Levitan, published in the journal of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that a die-off that began in early 2022 was equally devastating: 98% of the Diadema population was wiped out, once again.

That looms as another blow to struggling coral reefs across the entire region, including Florida.

Diadema are known as the “billy goats of the sea.” Their favorite food is the macroalgae that can clump along coral, cutting off the oxygen it needs to survive. Diadema are prolific grazers, and if there are enough of them around, they create little algae-free zones— also called halos — around coral that help them survive.

The corals also give back to the urchins. They provide nooks and crannies to hide from hungry predators like triggerfish or hogfish.

But Florida’s corals aren’t in great shape these days. Climate change has made ocean water hotter and more acidic, causing coral bleaching. The widespread and devastating stony coral tissue loss disease has weakened scores of once-strong reefs. And plumes of pollution from leaky septic tanks and sewage spills are choking out coral with too many nutrients.

That’s why, Levitan said, they need all the help they can get from Diadema. But unlike other spots in the Caribbean, Florida saw some of the slowest recovery between the first die-off in the 1980s and the second recent one, so the natural population is nearly nonexistent.

“Places like Florida, if you went diving or snorkeling in the Florida Keys between these two mortality events you just didn’t see many Diadema at all,” he said.

A collaboration of Florida scientists has been working to change that. It’s been a long, slow process without much success or funding, scientists say, but some recent wins have given new hope to the mission of reviving this species.
Diadema nursery

The first hurdle is trying to get the darn things to reproduce — and grow up — in an aquarium.

“Some of the best aquaculturists I know have been dabbling with these things for years,” said Ken Nedimeyer, technical director of Reef Rescue USA. “Most other urchins are easy to breed and raise, so easy, but Diadema are so hard.”

And the first few attempts to release those painstakingly raised Diadema into the wild didn’t exactly go well. Nedimeyer remembers one try 20 years ago where researchers loosed the urchins on a patch of restored reef. Within 24 hours, they were all gone.

It’s taken scientists a while to figure out exactly what went wrong there, but the biggest culprit was likely the other neighbors on the reefs.

“They’re kind of like chocolate-covered peanuts. Everybody likes to eat them on the reef. Fish like em, crabs like em,” Nedimeyer said. “They just can’t seem to get past the gauntlet of all the fish mouths trying to eat them.”

Scientists have tried all sorts of things to fix that, including providing urchins with tiny undersea houses made of concrete or turned-over terracotta pots. In one experiment, researchers even tied fishing lines to the released urchins to track whether having a hiding spot nearby helped them avoid predators. (It did.)

After watching several ill-fated releases, scientists like Nedimeyer realized there was another factor at play. The urchins raised in captivity didn’t behave like their wild cousins, and they were less equipped to survive.

“In the aquarium, they feed them squishy algae, like romaine lettuce for a manatee. We have to teach them to chew,” Nedimeyer said. “In the process of chewing the algae off the rock, they consume some calcium carbonate from the rock that strengthens their spines.”

Nedimeyer’s lab is currently working on that part of the equation, using a batch of aquarium-raised Diadema from Joshua Patterson, a University Florida researcher based at the Florida Aquarium who leads the state in raising the urchins. Reef Rescue is trying to turn the pea-sized urchins into “reef competent” juveniles it can one day release into the wild.

“These are one of the most important critters out there. They’re critical for the Caribbean,” Nedimeyer said.

At last, success

Some of the most recent advances are happening in Miami’s backyard, at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science. Inside, rows of lit aquarium tanks hold dozens of baby urchins, their black spines waving in the current.

Diego Lirman, an associate professor within UM’s marine biology and fisheries division, said his team has released two batches of lab-spawned Diadema from Patterson’s lab to test sites near Miami Beach, with a third release planned for the summer.

Scientists are tracking the urchins to see if they stay on the reefs and survive, or if they’re gobbled up by hungry predators instead.

While those results won’t be ready for some time, Lirman said he’s heartened by the results of the latest paper he worked on, which was published recently in the journal of the International Coral Reef Society. In it, a team of researchers showed that their efforts to drop adult Diadema on five reef spots near Key Biscayne were successful.

Those sites saw a nearly 30% drop in algae cover after three months, and after nine months, about 40 of the original 200 urchins transplanted from Port Everglades and Government Cut remained at the Key Biscayne reefs.

“We’ve shown that they will stay for us, which is promising,” Lirman said.

However, the eventual goal is not to just move the urchins around but grow them in tanks and release them wherever they’re needed. At this point, Lirman said, scientists are just trying to use Diadema to help the struggling reefs. They’re not attempting to resurrect the species.

“The goal is not to get them to spawn, the goal is to get them to stay and clean the reef so our coral restoration can be successful,” he said. “At some point it would be nice to dump millions of competent larvae — that’s a pipe dream right now.”

Two Diadema antillarum rest on a Caribbean reef. 

Don Levitan, a professor of biological sciences at Florida State University, captures a sea urchin known as Diadema antillarum.

 - Rachael Best/Florida State University/TNS/TNS

© Miami Herald

Chinese Solar Maker Says US May Be Too Pricey for Expansion




Bloomberg News
Sun, April 9, 2023 

(Bloomberg) -- A top solar material producer is planning its first factory outside China, but may pass on the US because of high costs, according to the company’s chief executive officer.

GCL Technology Holdings Ltd., the world’s second-largest manufacturer of polysilicon, wants to tap into higher prices overseas and serve foreign customers, according to Lan Tianshi, the company’s joint-CEO. Countries around the world are trying to develop their own supply chains for solar panels to compete with China’s dominance in the sector.- 

While the US took a major step forward in that regard with last year’s passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, building a factory there is still at least five times more expensive than in China and construction times are bogged down by regulatory requirements, according to Lan. While nothing has been decided, GCL has been focusing its search efforts on Europe, the Middle East and BRICS countries, he said in an interview.

“US policies are attractive, but not attractive enough,” Lan said.

GCL’s reticence on the US stands in contrast to three top Chinese solar equipment makers that have announced plans of US factories since passage of the IRA, which includes $374 billion in new climate-related spending and is designed to boost domestic renewable manufacturing capacities.

Suzhou, Jiangsu-based GCL plans to build a foreign factory through a joint venture with a local industry leader, and is likely to make announcements by the end of the year, Lan said. Given the higher prices of polysilicon outside of China, its overseas factory could reap double or triple the profit of Chinese facilities, he said.

Xinjiang Scrutiny

GCL’s operations in China include a polysilicon plant in Xinjiang, where the US and others have accused the government of human rights abuses against the ethnic Uyghur Muslim population, and forcing them to work in factories against their will. China has repeatedly denied the claims, saying they’re part of a conspiracy to undermine domestic industries.

The US last year passed a law forbidding the import of goods from the region unless companies can prove they weren’t made with forced labor, slowing the flow of solar panels to the country. Lan said GCL stands with the Chinese government on human rights issues, but will adapt to its buyers needs when it comes to manufacturing locations.

“We greatly respect others’ views on us and their choices of supply chain,” Lan said. “Wherever we build our factories and wherever our products go, in a broader scale, they are all efforts to fight climate change.”

Polysilicon Prices

Polysilicon is a highly refined form of silicon found in common sand, and is melted and sliced into thin squares that are eventually formed into solar panels. Prices of the material surged to the highest in a decade last year as demand surged beyond the capacity of existing factories. GCL cashed in on the rush, with its net income more than tripling in 2022.

Prices have fallen this year as new factories come online, and could drop to as low as $10 to $13 a kilogram in the second half compared to about $39 at last year’s peak, according to BloombergNEF. Lan acknowledged the drop in prices but said he expects them to be more resilient than expectations — between $17 and $20 this year — because of strong demand for high-quality material.

“Polysilicon makers will return to a relatively normal profit margin this year as the unbalance between supply and demand begins to ease,” Lan said.

New Technology

The company is also betting on a somewhat unique production method. Most polysilicon is produced using what’s known as the Siemens Process, requiring massive amounts of heat and caustic chemicals to remove impurities, creating material where less than one atom in every million is something other than silicon.

GCL’s fluidized bed reactor technology uses far less energy, making it cheaper and more environmentally friendly. Competitors have accused the end product of being lower in quality, but Lan said it’s now pure enough for the most advanced solar panels and even some lower-end semiconductors. The company could enjoy three to five years of relatively high return rates with the self-developed technology because of protections from intellectual property laws, Lan said.

Analysis-Heroes or villains: Short sellers' role in the U.S. bank crisis

Lawrence Delevingne
Sun, April 9, 2023


By Lawrence Delevingne

(Reuters) - As First Republic Bank's share price fell by double-digits in the aftermath of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank last month, some people close to the San Francisco-based lender were worried short sellers were exacerbating its travails, according to a source familiar with the situation.

Investors who wager shares in a company will fall were increasing bets on First Republic's stock when it was already taking a beating, making it difficult for the bank to recover its value, according to the source.

Short interest in First Republic indeed increased as turmoil in the banking sector intensified, although measures vary. The percent of shares borrowed -- the basic mechanism of a short bet -- was minimal to start the month but increased to between 7% and 37% by March 31, according to various data provider calculations, versus averages between 3% and 5% across all stocks.

Two of the banks that shut down last month, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank, showed a similar pattern: short interest increased as their stock started to fall, at varying degrees of intensity.

Problems at U.S. regional banks grew last year, as rapidly rising interest rates slashed the value of some banks' holdings in long-term assets such as home loans and government bonds. Some lenders were also challenged by exposure to cryptocurrency and technology companies. The underlying issues exploded last month when depositor flight spiraled out of control and regional lenders across the board saw their shares hit.

How much short sellers contributed to the downward spiral reprises the debate about whether so-called shorts are market watchdogs or opportunistic investors who profit from others’ misery. In the case of the banking crisis, a review of data and interviews with short sellers and their critics show, the answer may be both.

"The shorts in the months before the collapse were accurately warning the markets...that the bank (SVB) was being dangerously mismanaged," Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets, a nonprofit industry group in Washington, DC, said in an email. "The problem is once that collapse happened, shorts with various motives started targeting other banks."

Some short sellers have been public about their negative views on banks but reject suggestions that they are to blame for the problems.

Short-seller Jim Chanos wrote in a March 13 client letter seen by Reuters that investors had known about the underlying balance sheet problems that brought down SVB since last summer. But it was only when the bank, which his fund was short, "abruptly tried, and failed, to raise capital ... that anyone cared."

First Republic and Chanos declined to comment. Signature and SVB did not respond to requests for comment.

GRAPHIC: Don't blame the shorts 

https://www.reuters.com/graphics/GLOBAL-BANKS/SHORTSELLERS/gdpzqnyagvw/chart.png

CONTROVERSIAL PRACTICE

Short selling is a controversial practice, blamed in the financial crisis of 2008 for adding to the pain; it was temporarily banned, albeit with little impact. Some high profile short sellers were later celebrated as making prophetic calls about the U.S. housing market.

The crisis of confidence in U.S. regional banks started when shares of SVB plunged and depositors fled after it announced plans on March 8 to raise capital to fill a nearly $2 billion hole from the sale of securities.

The Santa Clara, California-based lender was taken over by regulators on March 10, in turn dragging down the shares of other regional lenders. New York's Signature failed on March 12, and First Republic lost more than 80% of its market value by mid-March.

As the crisis accelerated, JPMorgan Chase & Co equity analysts wrote on March 17 that short-sellers were "working collectively to drive runs on banks," and venture capitalist David Sacks asked on Twitter whether "scurrilous short sellers" had used social media to exacerbate depositor flight from SVB.

JPMorgan and Sacks did not respond to requests for comment.

Even so, interviews and public postings show at least some short sellers had placed bets against regional banks well before the crisis hit.

These included: William C. Martin, who shorted SVB in January 2023; Nate Koppikar of Orso Partners, who shorted SVB in early 2021; Barry Norris of Argonaut Capital Partners, who shorted SVB in late 2022; John Hempton of Bronte Capital Management, who shorted Signature in late 2021; and Marc Cohodes, who shorted Silvergate Bank in November 2022, according to interviews with Reuters.

Porter Collins, co-founder of hedge fund manager Seawolf Capital, said he saw how rising interest rates would likely hit banks and, in early 2022, shorted SVB, Signature, First Republic, Silvergate and Charles Schwab Corp..

"There were warning signs," he said, "that were pretty easy to see for those who looked."

Schwab and Silvergate did not respond to requests for comment.

SHORT POSITIONS

Such early short sellers, however, were in the small minority. Shorts represented only about 5% of SVB's stock float as of March 1, according to data tracker S3 Partners, with First Republic at around 3% and Signature at 6%. That compares to an average of about 4.65% across all stocks, per S3.

Data from S&P Global Market Intelligence and ORTEX, who use different methodologies, have similar numbers showing SVB, First Republic and Signature with relatively low overall short levels before the crisis.

Short positions increased over March, although the measures vary, per the three data providers. On First Republic, the percentage of shares on loan peaked at between 7% and 39% last month, while SVB peaked at between 11% and 19%, and Signature peaked between 6% and 11%.

Regardless, short positions in most regional banks were nowhere near some highly shorted stocks like electric carmaker Tesla Inc, which hit around 25% as recently as 2019, and GameStop Corp, which surged past 100% of shares in 2020, according to Refinitiv data.

An exception was Silvergate, a cryptocurrency-focused lender, which for months faced an unusually high level of short interest compared to other banks - above 75% by the time it said it would wind down operations on March 8.

S3's Ihor Dusaniwsky said the overall increase in shorts on U.S. regional banks during March was an "extraordinarily small" part of overall sector trading; the declines were driven by regular stock holders selling their shares.

"The shorts are not driving the stock price," Dusaniwsky said. "People are saying that the tail is wagging the dog. It's certainly not the case in most of these names."

Short-sellers scored regardless: overall short bets in U.S. regional banks gained $4.76 billion in March, up 35% on an average short interest of $13.4 billion, according to S3.

GRAPHIC: Shorts score in US bank crisis

 https://www.reuters.com/graphics/GLOBAL-BANKS/SHORTSELLERS/jnvwyjmgevw/chart.png

(Reporting by Lawrence Delevingne in Boston; additional reporting by Megan Davies in New York and Noel Randewich in San Francisco. Editing by Megan Davies, Paritosh Bansal and Anna Driver)

Plan to install driver protection on Halifax Transit buses 'not enough,' union says


CBC
Sun, April 9, 2023 

President of Amalgamated Transit Union 508 says protective shields could help but more needs to be done to keep drivers safe. (Robert Short/CBC - image credit)

The union that represents transit operators in the Halifax Regional Municipality says upcoming plans to install driver protection in buses doesn't go far enough.

It comes after the municipality released a quotation request for the supply and delivery of a driver protection system in Halifax Transit's buses last weekend.

Shane O'Leary, president of Amalgamated Transit Union 508, said in an interview that the protection systems are a starting point for ensuring drive safety, but more needs to be done.

"The shields will help if they're installed properly and done right and it's a good quality shield. But that's not enough," he said.

The municipality's request for quotation issued on April 1 says that HRM is looking for pricing on up to 370 units of "slide and stow" protection systems that have "a sliding partition that only the operator can adjust," and "prevent sudden intrusion into the bus operator's area," among other requirements.

CBC

Attacks on transit drivers have been on the rise in recent years, O'Leary said, and many have involved groups of youths.

Creating a transit police force with the power to issue fines and remove passengers from buses would be a further step toward protecting transit operators, he said.

Maggie-Jane Spray, a public affairs adviser with the Halifax Regional Municipality, said in an emailed statement that recently approved funding from the regional council in the upcoming budget year will mean that "all electric buses will be equipped with operator safety barriers when they arrive, beginning in late 2023."

When asked if the city has kept a record of incidents of violence against drivers, Spray said the number of incidents "is difficult to quantify, as not all incidents of aggression or violence would meet the threshold for an incident report, as opposed to a situation involving an assault for which a Halifax Transit supervisor and/or HRP would be called.

"Halifax Transit is installing these barriers in line with other jurisdictions," Spray added.

The average person's daily choices can still make a big difference in fighting climate change – and getting governments and utilities to tackle it, too

Tom Ptak, Assistant Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies, Texas State University

THE CONVERSATION
Sat, April 8, 2023 

Reducing household energy use can contribute to slowing climate change.

  Westend61 via Getty Images

The average American’s everyday interactions with energy sources are limited. They range from turning appliances on or off, to commuting, to paying utility bills.

The connections between those acts and rising global temperatures may seem distant.

However, individuals hold many keys to unlocking solutions to climate change – the biggest challenge our species currently faces – which is perhaps why the fossil fuel industry spent decades misleading and misinforming the public about it.

I’m an assistant professor of geography and environmental studies at Texas State University. My research explores how geography affects the complex relationships between societies, energy and contemporary environmental challenges. I’ve found that the human element is critical for developing creative, effective and sustainable solutions to climate challenges.

There’s a large and growing body of evidence showing that individuals can have a major impact on climate change in a number of ways. Citizen action can compel utilities to increase renewable energy and governments to enact strong climate action laws. When enough individuals make changes that lower daily household energy consumption, huge emissions reductions can result. Consumer demand can compel businesses to pursue climate and environmental sustainability.

These actions combined could bridge the “emissions gap”: the significant difference between the greenhouse gas emissions expected globally and how much they need to drop in the next few decades to avoid catastrophic climate change.

Climate change is outracing government action

People have worked for decades to slow climate change by altering national energy policies. Several states, for example, have renewable portfolio standards for utilities that require them to increase their use of renewable energy.

But 30 years of evidence from international climate talks suggests that even when nations commit on paper to reducing emissions, they seldom achieve those cuts.

The United Nations climate summits are one example. Researchers have found that many countries’ pledges have been developed using flawed data.

People are also increasingly talking about geoengineering solutions for climate change. The idea is that over the coming decades, researchers will find ways to manipulate the environment to absorb more carbon pollution. However, some experts argue that geoengineering could be environmentally catastrophic. Also, there’s significant doubt that technological “draw down” interventions can be perfected and scaled up soon enough to make a difference.

So if government, technology or geoengineering aren’t good answers, what are?

Citizen action

Pledges, goals and targets for shifting from fossil fuels to cleaner energy sources are only as good as the efforts by utilities and governments to reach them. Citizen participation and action have proved effective at compelling decision-makers to act. For example, scholars studying the economic, political and social dynamics that led five U.S. municipalities to adopt 100% renewable energy found that grassroots citizen advocacy was one of the key factors that drove the change.

According to the Sierra Club, through citizen-driven action, over 180 cities, more than 10 counties and eight U.S. states have made commitments to transitioning to 100% renewable energy. Consequently, over 100 million U.S residents already live in a community with a 100% renewable energy target.

Citizens have also been taking collective action at the ballot box. For example, in 2019, after New York City voters elected a more climate conscious City Council, the city enacted an ambitious emissions reduction law, and has since begun to enforce it. Also in 2019, after voters similarly shook up the state legislature, New York state enacted the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. Among the nation’s strongest climate change laws, New York’s measure mandates that the state shift to 100% renewable energy by 2040 and that its emissions from all sources drop 40% by 2040 and 85% by 2050.

Consumer demand

How and where people spend their money can also influence corporate behavior. Companies and utilities are changing their products and production practices as consumers increasingly demand that they produce ecologically sustainable products and lower their carbon footprints. Scholars have documented that consumer boycotts negatively affect the wealth of a corporation’s shareholders – which in turn can create pressure for a firm to change in response.

The Natural Resources Defense Council has reported that thanks to surging consumer awareness and demand, more than 565 companies have publicly pledged to slash their carbon emissions. Some of the world’s biggest brands have responded to this pressure with claims of already being powered by 100% renewable energy, including Google and Apple.

Google put its global economic might behind climate solutions when it announced in 2019 that it would support the growth of renewable energy resources by making solar and wind energy deals worth US billion.

One drawback to consumer demand-driven action is that it’s often unclear how to hold these firms accountable for their promises. Recently, two impact investing experts suggested in Vox that since around 137 million Americans own stock in publicly traded companies, they could use their collective power as shareholders to make sure companies follow through.

Shifting household energy behavior

A substantial body of research shows that small changes to everyday behaviors can significantly reduce energy demand. This may be the biggest way individuals and families can contribute to lowering fossil fuel consumption and reducing carbon emissions.

These steps include weatherization and using energy-efficient appliances, as well as energy efficiency measures such as turning down thermostats, washing laundry with cold water and air-drying it rather than using a dryer.

So is shifting transportation behavior. Using public transportation, car pooling, riding a bicycle or walking can significantly reduce individual and cumulative emissions.

Choosing to ride a bicycle, walk or take public transit rather than drive can significantly lower a person’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Sean Gallup/Getty Images

So since most governments aren’t acting quickly enough, and many technology and geoengineering solutions are still unproven or come with high risks, emission reduction goals won’t be achieved without incorporating additional strategies.

The evidence is clear that these strategies should include millions of average people factoring climate change into their everyday activities regarding their communities, purchases and personal energy use.

As the environmentalist Bill McKibben wrote in 2006 about dealing with climate change, “There are no silver bullets, only silver buckshot.”

Read more: ​7 ways to get proactive about climate change instead of feeling helpless: Lessons from a leadership expert

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. The Conversation is trustworthy news from experts. 

It was written by: Tom Ptak, Texas State University.

Read more:

What Big Oil knew about climate change, in its own words

On Twitter, fossil fuel companies’ climate misinformation is subtle – here’s what I’m seeing during COP26

Climate change is really about prosperity, peace, public health and posterity – not saving the environment

Tom Ptak receives funding from the American Council of Learned Societies, United States Geological Survey, Battelle Energy Alliance LLC, American Geographical Society.