Reported birth of rare white buffalo calf in Yellowstone park fulfills Lakota prophecy

Amy Beth Hanson
Thu, June 13, 2024 





HELENA, Mont. (AP) — The reported birth of a rare white buffalo in Yellowstone National Park fulfills a Lakota prophecy that portends better times, according to members of the American Indian tribe who cautioned that it’s also a signal that more must be done to protect the earth and its animals.

“The birth of this calf is both a blessing and warning. We must do more,” said Chief Arvol Looking Horse, the spiritual leader of the Lakota, Dakota and the Nakota Oyate in South Dakota, and the 19th keeper of the sacred White Buffalo Calf Woman Pipe and Bundle.

The birth of the sacred calf comes as after a severe winter in 2023 drove thousands of Yellowstone buffalo, also known as bison, to lower elevations. More than 1,500 were killed, sent to slaughter or transferred to tribes seeking to reclaim stewardship over an animal their ancestors lived alongside for millennia.


Erin Braaten of Kalispell took several photos of the calf shortly after it was born on June 4 in the Lamar Valley in the northeastern corner of the park.

Her family was visiting the park when she spotted “something really white” among a herd of bison across the Lamar River.

Traffic ended up stopping while bison crossed the road, so Braaten stuck her camera out the window to take a closer look with her telephoto lens.

“I look and it's this white bison calf. And I was just totally, totally floored,” she said.

After the bison cleared the roadway, the Braatens turned their vehicle around and found a spot to park. They watched the calf and its mother for 30 to 45 minutes.

“And then she kind of led it through the willows there,” Braaten said. Although Braaten came back each of the next two days, she didn't see the white calf again.

For the Lakota, the birth of a white buffalo calf with a black nose, eyes and hooves is akin to the second coming of Jesus Christ, Looking Horse said.

Lakota legend says about 2,000 years ago — when nothing was good, food was running out and bison were disappearing — White Buffalo Calf Woman appeared, presented a bowl pipe and a bundle to a tribal member, taught them how to pray and said that the pipe could be used to bring buffalo to the area for food. As she left, she turned into a white buffalo calf.

“And some day when the times are hard again,” Looking Horse said in relating the legend, “I shall return and stand upon the earth as a white buffalo calf, black nose, black eyes, black hooves.”

A similar white buffalo calf was born in Wisconsin in 1994 and was named Miracle, he said.

Troy Heinert, the executive director of the South Dakota-based InterTribal Buffalo Council, said the calf in Braaten's photos looks like a true white buffalo because it has a black nose, black hooves and dark eyes.

“From the pictures I've seen, that calf seems to have those traits,” said Heinert, who is Lakota. An albino buffalo would have pink eyes.

A naming ceremony has been held for the Yellowstone calf, Looking Horse said, though he declined to reveal the name. A ceremony celebrating the calf's birth is set for June 26 at the Buffalo Field Campaign headquarters in West Yellowstone.

Other tribes also revere white buffalo.

“Many tribes have their own story of why the white buffalo is so important,” Heinert said. “All stories go back to them being very sacred.”

Heinert and several members of the Buffalo Field Campaign say they've never heard of a white buffalo being born in Yellowstone, which has wild herds. Park officials had not seen the buffalo yet and could not confirm its birth in the park, and they have no record of a white buffalo being born in the park previously.

Jim Matheson, executive director of the National Bison Association, could not quantify how rare the calf is.

“To my knowledge, no one’s ever tracked the occurrence of white buffalo being born throughout history. So I’m not sure how we can make a determination how often it occurs.”

Besides herds of the animals on public lands or overseen by conservation groups, about 80 tribes across the U.S. have more than 20,000 bison, a figure that’s been growing in recent years.

In Yellowstone and the surrounding area, the killing or removal of large numbers of bison happens almost every winter, under an agreement between federal and Montana agencies that has limited the size of the park’s herds to about 5,000 animals. Yellowstone officials last week proposed a slightly larger population of up to 6,000 bison, with a final decision expected next month.

But ranchers in Montana have long opposed increasing the Yellowstone herds or transferring the animals to tribes. Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte has said he would not support any management plan with a population target greater than 3,000 Yellowstone bison.

Heinert sees the calf's birth as a reminder “that we need to live in a good way and treat others with respect.”

“I hope that calf is safe and gonna live its best life in Yellowstone National Park, exactly where it was designed to be,” Heinert said.

___

Associated Press reporter Matthew Brown contributed to this story from Billings, Mont.

Amy Beth Hanson, The Associated Press

Photographer shares 'magical' photos of rare white bison calf at Yellowstone

Julia Gomez and Saleen Martin, USA TODAY
Wed, June 12, 2024 at 11:15 a.m. MDT·4 min read


A rare white bison spotted in Yellowstone National Park has social media users in awe.

Erin Braaten, an outdoor photographer from Kalispell, Montana, captured the animal on camera.

“It was pretty amazing,” she told USA TODAY on Tuesday, adding that she initially thought it was a coyote or something else. “It just seemed really odd for it to be there and we got stuck in traffic. And so I took my camera out and looked back and saw that it was actually a white bison calf that had just been born.”


A rare white bison spotted in Yellowstone National Park.

Her family was about 100 yards away from the bison. It was across a river that was flowing pretty quickly.

“They were able to experience it too,” she said. “It was just kind of a very neat, magical time for us all to see this.”

Braaten said she was equipped with her own camera that day since she was in Yellowstone. She usually keeps it on her when she’s in the area because she never knows what she’s going to see. She has even seen lots of bears in the area.

She said she sees cows in the area often, as well as bison. This is the first time she has seen a white bison though.


A rare white bison spotted in Yellowstone National Park.
White bison born in Wyoming last spring

The bison isn’t the first making headlines as of late.

Last spring, a white bison was born at Bear River State Park in Evanston, Wyoming.

Calling the new addition a “little white ball of fluff,” the white calf was born with four reddish-brown colored bison calves. The white bison calf is the first born in the 32-year-old park’s history.
How do the rare bison get their white color?

White bison appear the way they do typically because of albinism and leucism, conditions that can cause an animal to have white fur, hair, skin or feathers, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The conditions are caused by a lack of cellular pigments.

Leucism can cause the entire animal to appear white, or just patches. Albino animals typically have pink eyes while leucistic animals don’t.

White bison are typically albino, leucistic, meaning they have white fur with blue eyes, or beefalo, a bison-cattle crossbreed.

Native Americans consider white bison to be sacred, according to African Safari Wildlife Park. In fact, one social media user on Instagram came across the photographer’s post about the white bison and chimed in. "Thank you for these photos,” the Instagram user wrote. “You cannot imagine the meaning for us Lakota as a people.”

White bison are so rare that it’s estimated there are only one out of every 10 million bison births, according to the African Safari Wildlife Park.

The animals can weigh anywhere from 701 pounds to 2,200 pounds and they can measure 5-to-6 feet. White bison can live for 15 years in the wild or even 25 years in captivity, the safari park said on its website.
Photographer got to witness rare bison with her family

Braaten, who captured a photo of the most recent white bison calf in Yellowstone National Park, is a mother of eight children ranging from ages 16 to 30. She had three of her youngest children with her that day.

Her family had been camping for a week and each day, they went to different sections of the park. They were in Lamar Valley, where people often see wolves and different animals. They spotted the white bison on their first day.

She said she’s a little surprised to see the reaction her photos have received.

They live close to Glacier National Park and she first got into photography taking family photos and photos of her family’s farm.

“I started doing landscapes and then wildlife,” she said. “People just enjoy them and so it has just kind of grown … It’s great therapy.”

Keep up with Braaten’s photography at www.facebook.com/DancingAspensPhotography and www.instagram.com/dancing_aspens_photo.

Contributing: Camille Fine

Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY's NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Follow her on Twitter at @SaleenMartin or email her at sdmartin@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: White bison calf spotted at Yellowstone: See photos

Colombia plans to provide medical treatment to Palestinian children injured in Israel-Hamas war

The Canadian Press
Thu, June 13, 2024 

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A Colombian military hospital would provide medical treatment to Palestinian children injured in the Israel-Hamas war under a plan announced Thursday by the country’s Foreign Ministry.

Colombia's Deputy Minister of Multilateral Affairs Elizabeth Taylor Jay told reporters the children would travel with their families to Colombia for rehabilitation. She did not provide further details, including the number of children who would receive treatment, when they would arrive in Colombia or how long they would remain in the country.

Neither the foreign ministry nor the office of President Gustavo Petro immediately responded to a request for additional information from The Associated Press. Taylor Jay made the announcement during Petro’s trip to Sweden.

The United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Germany have been receiving Palestinians in need of medical treatment as a result of the war that began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 others hostage.

Israeli bombardments and ground operations in Gaza have killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

Historically, Colombia had been one of Israel’s closest partners in Latin America. But relations between the two nations have cooled since Petro was elected as Colombia’s first leftist president in 2022.

Weeks after the Hamas attack on southern Israel, Petro recalled Colombia’s ambassador to Israel as he criticized the country’s military offensive. In May, he broke diplomatic ties with Israel saying that he could not maintain relations with the “genocidal” government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Taylor Jay on Thursday said the government believes injured children can be treated by Colombian military doctors in part due to “the expertise” they have acquired while caring for people wounded during Colombia’s decadeslong internal conflict.

Since the Israel-Hamas war broke, Colombia has repatriated 310 of its citizens on three humanitarian flights. Petro also granted Colombian nationality to a Palestinian woman, married to a Colombian man, who was trapped in Gaza with two of her Colombian children. The family settled in the South American country in November.

California legislators break with Gov. Newsom over loan to keep state's last nuclear plant running

Michael R. Blood
Thu, June 13, 2024 

The Associated Press


LOS ANGELES (AP) — The California Legislature signaled its intent on Thursday to cancel a $400 million loan payment to help finance a longer lifespan for the state’s last nuclear power plant, exposing a rift with Gov. Gavin Newsom who says that the power is critical to safeguarding energy supplies amid a warming climate.

The votes in the state Senate and Assembly on funding for the twin-domed Diablo Canyon plant represented an interim step as Newsom and legislative leaders, all Democrats, continue to negotiate a new budget. But it sets up a public friction point involving one of the governor’s signature proposals, which he has championed alongside the state’s rapid push toward solar, wind and other renewable sources.

The dispute unfolded in Sacramento as environmentalists and antinuclear activists warned that the estimated price tag for keeping the seaside reactors running beyond a planned closing by 2025 had ballooned to nearly $12 billion, roughly doubling earlier projections. That also has raised the prospect of higher fees for ratepayers.

Operator Pacific Gas & Electric called those figures inaccurate and inflated by billions of dollars.


H.D. Palmer, a spokesperson for the California Department of Finance, emphasized that budget negotiations are continuing and the legislative votes represented an “agreement between the Senate and the Assembly — not an agreement with the governor.”

The votes in the Legislature mark the latest development in a decades-long fight over the operation and safety of the plant, which sits on a bluff above the Pacific Ocean midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Diablo Canyon, which began operating in the mid-1980s, produces up to 9% of the state’s electricity on any given day.

The fight over the reactors' future is playing out as the long-struggling U.S. nuclear industry sees a potential rebirth in the era of global warming. Nuclear power doesn’t produce carbon pollution like fossil fuels, but it leaves behind waste that can remain dangerously radioactive for centuries.

A Georgia utility just finished the first two scratch-built American reactors in a generation at a cost of nearly $35 billion. The price tag for the expansion of Plant Vogtle from two of the traditional large reactors to four includes $11 billion in cost overruns. In Wyoming, Bill Gates and his energy company have started construction on a next-generation nuclear power plant that the tech titan believes will “revolutionize” how power is generated.

In 2016, PG&E, environmental groups and plant worker unions reached an agreement to close Diablo Canyon by 2025. But the Legislature voided the deal in 2022 at the urging of Newsom, who said the power is needed to ward off blackouts as a changing climate stresses the energy system. That agreement for a longer run included a $1.4 billion forgivable state loan for PG&E, to be paid in several installments.

California energy regulators voted in December to extend the plant's operating run for five years, to 2030.

The legislators' concerns were laid out in an exchange of letters with the Newsom administration, at a time when the state is trying to close an estimated $45 billion deficit. Among other concerns, they questioned if, and when, the state would be repaid by PG&E, and whether taxpayers could be out hundreds of millions of dollars if the proposed extension for Diablo Canyon falls through.

Construction at Diablo Canyon began in the 1960s. Critics say potential earthquakes from nearby faults not known to exist when the design was approved could damage equipment and release radiation. One fault was not discovered until 2008. PG&E has long said the plant is safe, an assessment the NRC has supported.

Last year, environmental groups called on federal regulators to immediately shut down one of two reactors at the site until tests can be conducted on critical machinery they believe could fail and cause a catastrophe. Weeks later, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission took no action on the request and instead asked agency staff to review it.

The questions raised by environmentalists about the potential for soaring costs stemmed from a review of state regulatory filings submitted by PG&E, they said. Initial estimates of about $5 billion to extend the life of the plant later rose to over $8 billion, then nearly $12 billion, they said.

“It’s really quite shocking,” said attorney John Geesman, a former California Energy Commission member who represents the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility, an advocacy group that opposes federal license renewals in California. The alliance told the state Public Utilities Commission in May that the cost would represent “by far the largest financial commitment to a single energy project the commission has ever been asked to endorse.”

PG&E spokesperson Suzanne Hosn said the figures incorrectly included billions of dollars of costs unrelated to extending operations at the plant.

The company has pegged the cost at $8.3 billion, Hosn said, adding that “the financial benefits exceed the costs.”

Michael R. Blood, The Associated Press

US Navy faces its most intense combat since World War II against Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels

Jon Gambrell
Fri, June 14, 2024 at 4:57 a.m. MDT·7 min read









The Associated Press

ABOARD THE USS LABOON IN THE RED SEA (AP) — The U.S. Navy prepared for decades to potentially fight the Soviet Union, then later Russia and China, on the world's waterways. But instead of a global power, the Navy finds itself locked in combat with a shadowy, Iran-backed rebel group based in Yemen.

The U.S.-led campaign against the Houthi rebels, overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, has turned into the most intense running sea battle the Navy has faced since World War II, its leaders and experts told The Associated Press.

The combat pits the Navy's mission to keep international waterways open against a group whose former arsenal of assault rifles and pickup trucks has grown into a seemingly inexhaustible supply of drones, missiles and other weaponry. Near-daily attacks by the Houthis since November have seen more than 50 vessels clearly targeted, while shipping volume has dropped in the vital Red Sea corridor that leads to the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean.


The Houthis say the attacks are aimed at stopping the war in Gaza and supporting the Palestinians, though it comes as they try to strengthen their position in Yemen. All signs suggest the warfare will intensify — putting U.S. sailors, their allies and commercial vessels at more risk.

“I don't think people really understand just kind of how deadly serious it is what we're doing and how under threat the ships continue to be,” Cmdr. Eric Blomberg with the USS Laboon told the AP on a visit to his warship on the Red Sea.

“We only have to get it wrong once," he said. "The Houthis just have to get one through.”

Seconds to act

The pace of the fire can be seen on the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, where the paint around the hatches of its missile pods has been burned away from repeated launches. Its sailors sometimes have seconds to confirm a launch by the Houthis, confer with other ships and open fire on an incoming missile barrage that can move near or beyond the speed of sound.

“It is every single day, every single watch, and some of our ships have been out here for seven-plus months doing that," said Capt. David Wroe, the commodore overseeing the guided missile destroyers.

One round of fire on Jan. 9 saw the Laboon, other vessels and F/A-18s from the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower shoot down 18 drones, two anti-ship cruise missiles and a ballistic missile launched by the Houthis.

Nearly every day — aside from a slowdown during the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan — the Houthis launch missiles, drones or some other type of attack in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait that connects the waterways and separates Africa from the Arabian Peninsula.

The Navy saw periods of combat during the “Tanker Wars” of the 1980s in the Persian Gulf, but that largely involved ships hitting mines. The Houthi assaults involve direct attacks on commercial vessels and warships.

“This is the most sustained combat that the U.S. Navy has seen since World War II — easily, no question,” said Bryan Clark, a former Navy submariner and a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. “We’re sort of on the verge of the Houthis being able to mount the kinds of attacks that the U.S. can’t stop every time, and then we will start to see substantial damage. … If you let it fester, the Houthis are going to get to be a much more capable, competent, experienced force.”

Dangers at sea and in the air

While the Eisenhower appears to largely stay at a distance, destroyers like the Laboon spend six out of seven days near or off Yemen — the “weapons engagement zone,” in Navy speak.

Sea combat in the Mideast remains risky, something the Navy knows well. In 1987, an Iraqi fighter jet fired missiles that struck the USS Stark, a frigate on patrol in the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq war, killing 37 sailors and nearly sinking the vessel.

There's also the USS Cole, targeted in 2000 by boat-borne al-Qaida suicide bombers during a refueling stop in Yemen's port city of Aden, which killed 17 on board. AP journalists saw the Cole patrolling the Red Sea with the Laboon on Wednesday, the same day the Houthis launched a drone-boat attack against a commercial ship there that disabled the vessel.

Rear Adm. Marc Miguez, the Navy’s commander for its Carrier Strike Group Two, which includes the Eisenhower and supporting ships, said the Navy had taken out one underwater bomb-carrying drone launched by the Houthis as well during the campaign.

“We currently have pretty high confidence that not only is Iran providing financial support, but they’re providing intelligence support,” Miguez said. “We know for a fact the Houthis have also gotten training to target maritime shipping and target U.S. warships.”

Asked if the Navy believed Iran picks targets for the Houthis, Miguez would only say there was “collaboration” between Tehran and the rebels. He also noted Iran continues to arm the Houthis, despite U.N. sanctions blocking weapons transfers to them.

Iran's mission to the United Nations told the AP that Tehran "is adept at thwarting the U.S. strategy in a way that not only strengthens (the Houthis) but also ensures compliance with the pertinent resolutions.”

The risk isn't just on the water. The U.S.-led campaign has carried out numerous airstrikes targeting Houthi positions inside Yemen, including what the U.S. military describes as radar stations, launch sites, arsenals and other locations. One round of U.S. and British strikes on May 30 killed at least 16 people, the deadliest attack acknowledged by the rebels.

The Eisenhower's air crews have dropped over 350 bombs and fired 50 missiles at targets in the campaign, said Capt. Marvin Scott, who oversees all the air group's aircraft. Meanwhile, the Houthis apparently have shot down multiple MQ-9 Reaper drones with surface-to-air missile systems.

“The Houthis also have surface-to-air capabilities that we have significantly degraded, but they are still present and still there,” Scott said. “We're always prepared to be shot at by the Houthis.”

A stalemated war

Officers acknowledge some grumbling among their crew, wondering why the Navy doesn't strike harder against the Houthis. The White House hasn't discussed the Houthi campaign at the same level as negotiations over the Israel-Hamas war.

There are several likely reasons. The U.S. has been indirectly trying to lower tensions with Iran, particularly after Tehran launched a massive drone-and-missile attack on Israel and now enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels.

Meanwhile, there's the Houthis themselves. The rebel group has battled a Saudi-led coalition into a stalemate in a wider war that's killed more than 150,000 people, including civilians, and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.

The U.S. directly fighting the Houthis is something the leaders of the Zaydi Shiite group likely want. Their motto long has been “God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse the Jews; victory to Islam.” Combating the U.S. and siding publicly with the Palestinians has some in the Mideast praising the rebels.

While the U.S. and European partners patrol the waterways, Saudi Arabia largely has remained quiet, seeking a peace deal with the Houthis. Reports suggest some Mideast nations have asked the U.S. not to launch attacks on the Houthis from their soil, making the Eisenhower's presence even more critical. The carrier has had its deployment extended, while its crew has had only one port call since its deployment a week after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

Meanwhile, the Houthi attacks continue to depress shipping through the region. Revenue for Egypt from the Suez Canal — a key source of hard currency for its struggling economy — has halved since the attacks began. AP journalists saw a single commercial ship moving through the once-busy waterway.

“It's almost a ghost town,” Blomberg acknowledged.

___

Follow AP's coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Jon Gambrell, The Associated Press



Houthi missile strikes set ship ablaze, injure one crew, US military says

Nayera Abdallah, Enas Alashray and Yomna Ehab
Updated Thu, June 13, 2024 at 6:51 p.m. MDT·2 min read

DUBAI/CAIRO (Reuters) -Missiles fired by Yemen's Houthi militants struck the Palau-flagged Verbena cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden on Thursday, sparking a fire and severely injuring one of her crew, U.S. Central Command said.

The Iran-allied Mouths have launched dozens of attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea region since November in solidarity with the Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas.

Thursday's attack marked their second direct hit on a merchant ship in two days, and the group said its campaign would continue until hostilities in the Gaza Strip end.

Three missiles struck the Verbena on Thursday, sparking a fire and damaging the ship, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said.

While her crew fought the fire, an aircraft from the U.S. Navy's Philippine Sea warship medically evacuated the injured mariner to a partner force ship nearby for medical attention, U.S. Central Command said.

Reuters was not able immediately to contact the Verbena's Polish manager. The vessel, loaded with wood construction material, was sailing to Italy at the time of the attack, CENTCOM said. Security and military sources said the Verbena still has power and steering capabilities.

A day earlier, Yemen's Houthi militants took responsibility for small watercraft and missile attacks that left the Tutor, a Greek-owned cargo ship, taking in water and in need of rescue near Yemen's Red Sea port of Hodeidah.

The Philippines' Department of Foreign Affairs condemned the assault on the Tutor, which had Filipino crew on board.

Some media outlets have reported that one person died as a result of the attack on the Tutor. Greek shipping authorities said they had no confirmation of that. Manager Evalend Shipping has not responded to Reuters requests for comment.

The Houthi campaign in the Red Sea region has disrupted global shipping, cascading delays and costs through supply chains. The militants have sunk one ship, seized another vessel and killed three seafarers in separate attacks.

"Operations will not stop unless the aggression stops and the siege on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is lifted," the Houthis said on Thursday.

They claimed to also have directly hit two other ships. UKMTO said the master of one of those reported an explosion near the vessel that did not cause any damage or injury. Reuters was not able to immediately verify the other account.

While several near misses have been reported, "the data would also say (the Houthis) are getting more successful with direct hits," Joshua Hutchinson, managing director of intelligence and risk for British maritime security firm Ambrey, said in a post on LinkedIn.

(Reporting by Nayera Abdallah in Dubai, Enas Alashray and Yomna Ehab in Cairo, Neil Jerome Morales in Manila, Renee Maltezou in Athens, Jonathan Saul in London and Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Toby Chopra, Bernadette Baum and Sandra Maler)


Houthi sea drone badly damages ship in Red Sea; U.S. destroys missile launchers

Paul Godfrey
Thu, June 13, 2024 

U.S. military forces launched attacks on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen destroying three anti-ship cruise missile launchers and a drone over the Red Sea after the rebel group fired anti-ship missiles and a Greek-owned bulk carrier was badly damaged by a sea drone. File photo by EPA-EFE/Houthi Media Center


June 13 (UPI) -- A Greek-owned bulk carrier flooded after being badly damaged in a ramming by an unmanned surface vessel launched by the Houthis rebels in Yemen, British and American authorities said.

The master of the 44,000-ton M/V Tutor reported the vessel was "taking on water and not under the control of the crew" after being hit in the stern by a "16-23 foot-long craft" in Wednesday's attack in the Red Sea, about 66 miles southwest of the port of Hudaydah, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said in a bulletin.

"Military authorities are assisting. Vessels are advised to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity," said the Royal Navy-run maritime coordination center.

The incident came as U.S. military forces in the region launched attacks on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen destroying three anti-ship cruise missile launchers, U.S. Central Command said in a post on X.

One uncrewed aerial system launched from a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen over the Red Sea was also destroyed.

CENTCOM strongly condemned the attack on the Tutor along with the firing into the Red Sea of two anti-ship ballistic missiles by Houthis in Yemen that failed to hit their targets.

"The impact of the USV caused severe flooding and damage to the engine room," CENTCOm said.

"This continued malign and reckless behavior by the Iranian-backed Houthis threatens regional stability and endangers the lives of mariners across the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden,"

In a statement claiming responsibility, a Houthi military spokesman claimed the attack had left the Tutor "seriously damaged, vulnerable to sinking".

He added that it had been targeted with the sea drone because the owners had breached the group's "ban on entry to the ports of occupied Palestine."

The Houthis have been menacing commercial shipping transiting the key Red Sea route linking the West with the Middle East, the sub-Continent and Asia, launching drones and missiles at vessels in what it claims is support for the cause of the Palestinians in the conflict in Gaza.

Two weeks ago, U.S. and British forces carried out their first joint "defensive" strikes since February, with warplanes hitting Houthi targets in Yemen and the Red Sea, destroying eight drones

CENTCOM said the attacks were mounted because the unmanned aerial vehicles and the other targets in Houthi-controlled areas and above the Red Sea "presented a threat to U.S. and coalition forces in the region."

Ship severely flooded after Houthi attack in Red Sea

George Wright - BBC News
Wed, June 12, 2024 

The Houthis have declared support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip [Getty Images]


The US military says a Greek-owned ship in the Red Sea has been hit by an unmanned surface vessel launched by the Houthis in Yemen, causing severe flooding and damage to the engine room.

The Royal Navy’s UK’s Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) office said it received reports of a ship being struck on the stern about 66 nautical miles southwest of the rebel-held port of Hodeida in Yemen on Wednesday.

The vessel was taking on water, and not under the command of the crew, UKMTO stated. No casualties were reported.

The Iranian-backed Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had targeted a Liberian-flagged vessel named Tutor using a sea drone.

The Houthis have been attacking shipping in the Red Sea in support of the Palestinians in Gaza, causing significant disruption to world trade.

In a statement, a Houthi military spokesman said the ship was attacked "using an unmanned surface boat, number of drones, and ballistic missiles", adding that the ship was "seriously damaged, vulnerable to sinking".

The ship was targeted "because the company that owns the ship has violated the decision to ban entry into the ports of occupied Palestine", the statement said.

US Central Command (CentCom) reported that "one Iranian-backed Houthi unmanned surface vessel (USV)" struck the Tutor, which it said was most recently docked in Russia.

The impact "caused severe flooding and damage to the engine room", it posted on X.

CentCom added that its forces had "successfully destroyed" three anti-ship cruise missile launchers in a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen in the past 24 hours, as well as one drone launched from a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen over the Red Sea.

"This continued malign and reckless behavior by the Iranian-backed Houthis threatens regional stability and endangers the lives of mariners across the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden," it said.

The armed Houthi group sees itself as part of an Iranian-led "axis of resistance" against Israel, the US and the wider West, and has declared its support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Since November, the rebel group has been carrying out attacks on ships they say are linked to Israel in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, saying their actions are in support of the Palestinians.

The US and the UK have carried out a series of attacks on Houthi targets inside Yemen in response, leading the Houthis to retaliate against ships it believes are linked to those countries.

The rebels' attacks on merchant vessels in the Red Sea prompted many shipping companies to stop using the waterway, through which about 12% of global seaborne trade passes.

Separately, the UN has said Houthis in Yemen have detained two more of its employees, bringing the total number of personnel seized by the group in the past week to 13.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said one of its staff members was among those detained. WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X he was “deeply worried” about the situation.

Who are the Houthis attacking Red Sea ships?

The US Navy's relentless battle against Houthi attacks

Toxic garlic should have prompted EPA to warn against gardening near Ohio derailment, watchdog says

Josh Funk
Thu, June 13, 2024 



The Associated Press

The Environmental Protection Agency should conduct additional soil studies near the site of a toxic train derailment in Ohio and warn people it might not be safe to garden there after independent testing showed high levels of chemicals in locally grown garlic, a watchdog group said Thursday.

In a petition filed with the federal agency, the nonprofit Government Accountability Project argues that the EPA should have already followed up on the tests of gardens and crops in the city where the Norfolk Southern derailment took place.

“It is unconscionable that the EPA has not conducted its own testing on garden crops in East Palestine, nor have they sampled for dioxins in the home produce," the nonprofit group's senior environmental officer, Lesley Pacey, told The Associated Press in advance of the petition filing. “Yet, the EPA has told residents to garden and eat home produce as usual.”

The Associated Press sent emails to EPA officials seeking comment about the petition Thursday.

The agency has been telling people it’s safe to garden since nearly three months after the February 2023 derailment, based on tests conducted by state agriculture officials at 31 locations around town and on surrounding farms. The officials tested winter wheat, malting barley, pasture grasses and rye from area farms.

“Residential soil sampling results are within typical ranges for the area, and garden plants are generally considered safe to eat,” the EPA said to the community.

In the past, agency officials have dismissed the independent tests cited by the Government Accountability Project, pointing to their concerns with quality control. The tests were performed by Scott Smith, a businessman and inventor who, since his own factory was inundated by tainted floodwaters in 2006, has been on a crusade to help communities affected by chemical disasters.

EPA officials say they can’t tell if his data is valid without reviewing all of the reports detailing his methodology and results. Smith offered last summer to share his files with the agency but only if it would share its information with him. They never reached an agreement.

The EPA has said that previous testing conducted by contractors hired by the railroad did not show high levels of dioxins or other chemicals outside the train derailment site after the initial evacuation order was lifted, and therefore, additional tests in individual yards and gardens weren't needed.

The only place the EPA reported finding high levels of cancer-causing dioxins was in the area immediately around the derailment about two weeks after the crash. That soil was included in the nearly 179,000 tons (71,668 metric tons) of material dug up and disposed of last year.

But some residents aren't taking any chances.

Marilyn Figley didn’t dare plant a garden last year after the derailment even though she and her husband do everything they can to be self-sufficient, including gardening and raising chickens for meat and eggs. She did harvest some garlic after the derailment that she had planted previously, however. Some of it had levels of dioxins more than 500 times higher than a sample of garlic grown and harvested from someone else’s yard the year before the derailment, according to Smith’s tests.

Figley said they decided to plant a garden again this year after using one of her husband's tractors to remove the top 3 inches (8 centimeters) of soil and replace that with fresh dirt.

“I’d rather eat dioxins than die of starvation I guess," Figley said. "I’m pretty worried, but what can you do?”

Dioxins have been a key concern for East Palestine residents ever since officials decided to blow open five tank cars of the derailed train and burn the vinyl chloride contained within them. The chemical is used to make a variety of plastic products, including pipes, wire and packaging materials, and is found in polyvinyl chloride plastic, better known as PVC. Thousands of residents had to evacuate their homes temporarily after the derailment and during the venting and burning of the vinyl chloride, which sent an enormous toxic plume of black smoke over the town.

Last summer, the local farmers market made a point of bringing in produce from several states away because of all the worries about anything grown in the area.

“I certainly didn't eat anybody's tomatoes or cucumbers,” said Tamara Lynn Freeze, whose freshly grown garlic was also tested by Smith and showed dioxin levels five times higher than what was found in garlic she still had sitting in her garage from a year before the derailment.

Freeze says she developed a chronic sinus infection and joint pain after the derailment — symptoms that seem to ease any time she's away from the area for more than a few hours.

Smith has visited East Palestine more than two dozen times since the derailment to test soil and water for dioxins and other chemicals. He is not a scientist by training but has traveled to chemical disaster sites for years. His testing is reviewed by a team of scientific advisers, including a former top Ohio EPA expert, and he sends all his samples to a laboratory that the EPA and others agree is reputable.

Smith is also an inventor and holds 25 patents, including for a specialized foam that repels water and absorbs oil, which he developed at his former company, Cellect Technologies. He has offered to sell the product in some of the affected communities he has visited, but he says he isn't making a profit on his work in East Palestine.

Smith got his start with disasters when floodwater contaminated with chemicals swept into a Cellect factory, destroying equipment and forcing the business to shut down for months. Since then, he has conducted investigations of dozens of environmental and health emergencies, including the BP Gulf oil spill and the Flint, Michigan, lead water crisis.

In Flint, some of Smith's results were used by a nonprofit group affiliated with actor Mark Ruffalo that questioned whether it was safe to bathe in the city's water. Smith's actions put him in conflict with scientists who were conducting their own tests and with EPA Response Coordinator Mark Durno, the same agency representative overseeing the cleanup in East Palestine.

Despite their disagreements, Durno did remark that Smith “certainly understands how to use appropriate laboratories both for the chemical work that he’s doing and the biological work that he is doing.”

“From that perspective, he seems qualified to collect samples and collect and share data,” Durno said in a video interview he gave for an unfinished documentary about Smith’s work.

But in East Palestine, Durno has consistently questioned the quality of Smith's testing. Since last summer, he has refused to meet with him or test alongside him because he believes the EPA's testing plan already gives an objective, valid sense of the level of contamination existing in the community. He added that testing in individual locations in town, as Smith is doing, won't produce useful data if it isn't part of a larger sampling plan.

Smith said he has applied the lessons of Flint by making sure that his scientific advisers review all his data before he releases it himself directly to the public.

He argues that even if his test results aren’t perfect, they should prompt additional investigation by the EPA.

“I’m basically calling for more testing," Smith said. "I’m not trying to incite more panic. My point is it’d be very easy for the EPA to just test the garlic and report it. We can find no evidence they ever tested garden crops from residents.”

Josh Funk, The Associated Press

So many self-inflicted wounds, so few allies. Alberta's energy war room was long doomed

CBC
Thu, June 13, 2024

The Alberta government spent tens of millions on pro-oil ads through the Canadian Energy Centre, like these 2021 billboards in New York. (Canadian Energy Centre - image credit)

It was never really the war room that former Alberta premier Jason Kenney dreamed of.

And even if it had turned out that way, it's not clear it would have worked any better than the pro-oil entity his UCP government actually wound up creating.

Either way, the Canadian Energy Centre never seemed to reach its promised potential. And this week Premier Danielle Smith abandoned the idea, dissolving the organization into her own government, making it a lesser tool in her own fight on behalf of the oil and gas sector.


Kenney, at a 2018 gathering of his United Conservative Party, pledged a "fully staffed rapid-response war room in government to quickly and effectively rebut every lie told by the green left about our world-class energy industry."

That line worked well in a room full of pro-oil partisans who felt their province's main industry under siege. And it surely felt familiar to Kenney himself, who'd spend so many federal elections in the Conservative Party war room, pumping out attack after counter-attack against the Liberals, NDP or any other would-be threat to his own faction.

Un-declaring war

After Kenney was elected premier in 2019, his team quickly realized that electoral skirmishes and industry advocacy didn't quite work the same way.

The "war room" title would have to go, in favour of the more genial-sounding Canadian Energy Centre, even if detractors never abandoned the combative term which Kenney used at its conception.

The "rapid response" element remained the provocative part of its initial mission, but only part, along with teams focused on research and "energy literacy." And while Kenney pitched it as a $30-million-a-year operation that would outduel the climate-activist PR machine, it instead became notorious for an abortive social-media tirade against the New York Times and going after a Netflix cartoon film for its anti-development themes.

It tried to take down Big Green. It instead picked fights with Bigfoot Family.

Other early controversies dogged the outfit, led by Tom Olsen, a former UCP candidate and press secretary to former premier Ed Stelmach. It was set up as a provincial corporation, avoiding the reaches of Freedom of Information requests. It had to scrap logos that were too similar to those of existing companies. Its taxpayer-funded research staffers were criticized for calling themselves "reporters" for pro-industry articles on its website.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney looks on as Tom Olsen, managing director of the Canadian Energy Centre, addresses a press conference at SAIT in December.

Jason Kenney, then premier of Alberta, looks on as Canadian Energy Centre CEO Tom Olsen speaks in 2019. Olsen will get three months' severance after his role in the controversial provincial agency was eliminated this week. (Greg Fulmes/Canadian Press)

And in time, its bid to become to pugnacious attacker of oil and gas detractors faded. It instead became a content factory of stories that promoted the sector, and a prolific advertiser — where most of its budget went over the years. It spent $26 million overall in 2022-2023, the last year for which figures are publicly available.

And what did it get to show for that government spending, if not a chastened anti-oil side? Fewer than half a million website visits a year, according to its own annual report.

Of those, more than one-quarter were Alberta clicks, meaning that its biggest single audience was actually in its home base — much publicly funded preaching to the converted.

"If all you're doing is targeting the people that already agree with you, you're not able to get to the rest of them," said Ryan Williams, the president of Drake Oilfield Supply, in 2020, one year into the energy centre's life.

Kenney and even some allies within the energy sector believed this provincially run — albeit arms' length — organization could succeed where the industry's own advocacy groups had struggled to spread a good-news gospel about Alberta oil.

But this taxpayer-funded information website, brimming with more than 100 pro-industry articles a year, gets fewer monthly visits than the privately funded websites of Pathways Alliance, Canada Action and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers — as well as sustainability think-tank Pembina Institute, according to similarweb.com.

A sampling of pro-industry stories on the Canadian Energy Centre website. Government-funded staff writers and freelancers pumped out more than 100 articles a year, but the website logged a little more than 1,000 visits per day.
. (Screen shot/canadianenergycentre.ca)

Its account on X (formerly Twitter) has 11,000 followers, compared to 276,800 for Premier Smith and 38,100 for Ecojustice.

It does better on Facebook, with 97,000 followers, but it also advertises heavily there to boost its profile.

"This was meant to close that gap and change the narrative. I don't think that anything changed," said Deborah Yedlin of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce in an interview with CBC News.

It became seen as home-team boosting. What the industry would actually benefit from is third-party validation, Yedlin said. "You're coming from a place of bias. You are talking [up] your own book."

Calling it a war room, she added, "doesn't necessarily set yourself up for a spirit of collaboration."

Danielle Smith's war

Smith quietly made the change this week, pulling a few staff from the stand-alone Energy Centre into the provincial government's intergovernmental relations division, which falls directly under the premier's own supervision.

Those employees will continue to produce research under the CEC brand. Olsen, the centre's $241,000-a-year chief executive, is out once the transition is complete, Smith's office confirmed. He confirmed in a social media post that he will receive three months' pay as severance.

When Smith took over the premiership from Kenney in 2022, it wasn't clear she'd maintain his big idea. She hung on to it for about 19 months.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith speaks on invoking her government’s sovereignty act over federal clean energy regulations, in Edmonton on Nov. 27. Premier Danielle Smith says she's better equipped to do fighting on the oil and gas sector's behalf than the 'war room.' (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press)

"Having the moniker 'war room,' is not what they should be doing," she told reporters Wednesday (even if Kenney tried to abandon that moniker himself five years ago with the CEC name).

"They should be giving good, credible research and data on the state of our industry, the state of our emissions reduction," Smith added.

"And they should leave the fight to me."

Smith and her team certainly have enjoyed relishing that fight, particularly against the Trudeau government's environmental policies. Kenney, too, often seemed to be swifter with the swipes at critics than his multimillion-dollar provincial agency was.

The Alberta NDP and others spent its entire four-and-a-half-year life calling the Canadian Energy Centre a bad idea and a waste of money. The Alberta government will continue to boost oil and gas in advertisements and advocacy — the NDP certainly did that — but one of the biggest targets of criticism that the UCP created is no more.

If not even the industry believed in it, not many Albertans will likely mourn its loss.

CALGARY

Water restoration delayed after work-site injuries forced pause of main break fix

CBC
Thu, June 13, 2024 

Work was paused at the site of a water main break after two people were injured. (Monty Kruger/CBC - image credit)


Fully restoring Calgary's water service will take longer than expected, but exactly how long is still undetermined.

Work to fix a feeder main break that triggered citywide water restrictions last week can now resume after two workers were injured at the site.

At around 9:45 p.m. Wednesday, a contractor was welding to install the metal collar on the new section on the pipe. While doing that, a chain broke and caused injuries.


Alberta's Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) was called in. The provincial agency determines when work can resume.

"Keeping our employees safe is a core value of the city," said Christopher Collier, the City of Calgary's occupational health and safety director.

"There are safety protocols for returning the site to operations and this has been underway since the clearance was provided by OHS Alberta."

The site was green lit for welding activities at around 10:45 a.m. Thursday. That work is expected to resume in the afternoon.

The Bearspaw south water main, which is 11 kilometres long and as wide as two metres in parts, suffered a break on June 5 that temporarily left hundreds of homes and businesses in the city's northwest without water.

The Bearspaw south water main, which is 11 kilometres long and as wide as two metres in parts, suffered a break that left hundreds of homes and businesses in the city's northwest without water.

Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said work to repair a critical water main break was halted after two workers were injured Wednesday night. (City of Calgary)

Conservation remains critical

In an update on Wednesday — a week after the main failed — officials told Calgarians they can expect water restrictions to continue into the middle of next week.

Gondek said water consumption has crept up again, this time by nine million litres, taking the city far above the safe threshold.

"I now must ask you to do more on your water conservation to support those that are working to restore our safe water supply," Gondek said Thursday.

Water supply is also lower than it has been over the past few days.

"This morning, we were at a place where we don't have enough of a cushion for emergencies," Gondek said. She said emergencies include things like water used in hospitals and for firefighting.


The City of Calgary said the first cuts to the damaged pipe were made over the weekend.

The Bearspaw south water main, which is 11 kilometres long and as wide as two metres in parts, suffered a break that left hundreds of homes and businesses in the city's northwest without water.. (City of Calgary)

On Wednesday night, firefighters battled a two-alarm fire in the southwest neighbourhood of Woodbine.

Sue Henry, chief of the Calgary Emergency Management Agency (CEMA), said crews used around 100,000 litres to put out the blaze.

In comparison, she said, a fire of that size would typically require between 600,000 and 1.5 million litres of water.

"This is a great reminder for us to ensure our first responders have the water that they need to respond to public health and safety situations while we are all making this effort to conserve water," Henry said.

Mandatory Stage 4 water restrictions that were implemented when the feeder main broke last Wednesday are still in place and the city is still under a fire ban that extends to propane and gas fires.

To date, there have been 1,250 bylaw calls for water misuse and 90 calls for fire ban violations. In response, 376 written warnings were issued. As well, two tickets were handed out for water violations — both to private construction contractors.One ticket was issued related to the fire ban.

Making progress on repairs

Before the work stoppage on Wednesday night, progress had been made on fixing the broken infrastructure. A new section for the feeder main pipe was lowered into place at the site near Home Road and 16th Avenue N.W. in Montgomery.

The removed pipe was transported to another location for failure analysis. The city said it is looking at the information collected and will use that for plans going forward.

An inspection of the rest of the feeder main pipe is ongoing. More than four kilometres, or 80 per cent, is complete, according to Francois Bouchart, the director of capital priorities and investment with the city's infrastructure services department.

But it will still be a while before the city figures out exactly what led to the pipe breaking.

"I want to stress that it will take us time to determine the exact cause. We have a team of engineers analyzing and interpreting the data," Bouchart said.

"Our focus remains on the repair crew safety and our path to restoring water."


Work to resume on Calgary water pipe after injuries; consumption continues to rise

The Canadian Press
Thu, June 13, 2024 



CALGARY — Repairs to a fractured Calgary water pipe were to resume Thursday after two workers were injured at the site, while the city's mayor pleaded with residents to step up their conservation efforts.

Chris Collier, the city's director of occupational safety, said welding the replacement pipe into place would continue after provincial officials gave the all-clear Thursday morning.

"This morning, (Occupational Health and Safety) Alberta determined welding work could continue," he said.

The workers were taken to hospital Wednesday night and one remained there with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

Infrastructure director Francois Bouchard said the injuries are likely to delay the repairs by a day or two. Previous estimates suggested repairs would be complete by the middle of next week.

Meanwhile, Mayor Jyoti Gondek continued to plead with Calgarians to conserve water after recent days saw consistent increases in consumption.

"That is taking us far above the safety threshold," she said. "This morning, we were at a place where we really didn't have enough of a cushion for lifesaving efforts like those in hospitals and firefighting."

Gondek said daily water use increased by another eight million litres on Wednesday. That would bring the city's consumption up to 490 million litres -- well above Saturday's 440-million-litre mark.

"We have to be doing this together," she said. "This is not a joke and it is certainly not a conspiracy. It is serious."

That warning became reality Wednesday night when firefighters responded to a call. Emergency management chief Sue Henry said early response allowed crews to extinguish the blaze with 100,000 litres of water instead of the average requirement of up to 1.5 million litres.

"This is a great reminder to ensure that our first responders have the water that they need," she said.

Bouchard said the seven-metre replacement length of pipe was in place and that a robot inspection device had checked out about four kilometres of line -- about 80 per cent of that section of pipe, which carries 60 per cent of the city's water.

"This experience has led us to do further tests to look at the condition of the pipe now that it has been drained for the repair," he said.

All residents have been asked to cut their water usage at home with measures like shorter showers and fewer toilet flushes. A mandatory ban was ordered on outdoor watering, window washing and fires.

Bouchard said the city does have the power to restrict indoor water use.

"We don't want to unnecessarily impact people's livelihoods," he said. "However, we are prepared to take more firm measures if consumption levels require it."

The break occurred June 5, making Thursday Calgary's eighth day of restrictions.

A seven-metre section of replacement pipe, big enough in diameter for a car to drive through, arrived on the site Tuesday.

Installing and welding the new pipe into place was expected to take about two days. Flushing and filling the pipe will take another three. Finally, readying the new section of pipe for water flow into the city's underground reservoirs will take two days.

City officials have said the pipe was 49 years into its expected 100-year life and there was no indication from any of the city's monitoring that the pipe was about to fail. Modelling of pipe stresses, including factors like age, pipe materials and operating pressures, didn't suggest an inspection was needed, Bouchard said.

The pipe was running within its pressure limits. Acoustic monitors, designed to detect early signs of failure, revealed none.

Bouchard said physically inspecting the pipe would have required shutting it down and digging it up, putting stress on both it and other pipes in the system.

Henry said bylaw officers were taking an "education approach" to calls about improper water use.

She said the city had received 1,250 such calls. Officers had issued 376 written warnings, two tickets concerning water and one for fire.

-- By Bob Weber in Edmonton

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 13, 2024.


Calgary mayor stresses water conservation as feeder main repair timeline updated

CBC
Wed, June 12, 2024 

Officials say City of Calgary crews are working 24/7 on repairing the water feeder main that plunged the city's water supply into a critical state. (City of Calgary - image credit)


The problem section of the water feeder main that ruptured in Calgary is being repaired, but that doesn't mean water supply worries are ending any time soon.

During a news conference on Wednesday afternoon, city officials continued to urge residents to limit their water use.

Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek spoke Wednesday at the city's regular update on the water main break and said the city's water use Tuesday increased from the day before.

"Preliminary numbers show us that water use yesterday was 480 million litres, which is up slightly from the day before," said Gondek.

"But it's at the threshold that we want to try to maintain. It's also down 100 million litres from our average at this time of year."

An updated repair timeline was released on Tuesday. City officials say work to repair the water main will go into next week.

An updated repair timeline was released on Tuesday. City officials say work to repair the water main will continue into next week. (City of Calgary)

Gondek said the repair plan has three main stages:

Install the new replacement pipe, which will take roughly two days.


Flush the feeder main, removing any leftover water and sediment, which could take up to three days.


Fill the pipe and ready the city's network for water to begin flowing again, which will take about two days.

Officials said Calgarians can expect water restrictions to continue into mid-next week.

Nancy Mackay, director of water services for the City of Calgary, said Wednesday that crews have now inspected 1.8 kilometres of the rest of the pipe.

The section of pipe being replaced is about seven metres long (23.5 feet).

Surrounding towns asked to conserve Calgary water

Calgarians aren't the only ones being asked to limit their use.

The City of Airdrie is one of the municipalities — like Strathmore and Chestermere — that uses Calgary's water supply.

Since the water main break, Airdrie's top 100 water users have been contacted and asked to reduce usage, according to Mayor Peter Brown.

"Everybody's been great so far," Brown said in an interview on the Calgary Eyeopener on Wednesday.

LISTEN | Airdrie's mayor talks conserving water, working with Calgary:

Brown said his community is under Level 4 water restrictions, so outdoor watering is restricted and residents are being asked to be mindful of their indoor water usage. Calgary is under similar restrictions.

He said Airdrie is almost halfway through a 20-year agreement on water sharing with the City of Calgary.

"This isn't over yet," he said. "You've got some awesome people that are working diligently to get this fixed."

As of Friday morning, bylaw officers had attended eight calls for fires and 56 calls for misuse of water, according to the City of Calgary.

Bylaw officers are attending calls for misuse of water, according to the City of Calgary. (Helen Pike/CBC)

Psyched Wellness Developing Amanita Muscaria Gummies for Sale in the USA


Newsfile Corp.
Thu, June 13, 2024 


In this article:
PSYCF
0.00%


Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - June 13, 2024) - Psyched Wellness Ltd. (CSE: PSYC) (OTCQB: PSYCF) (FSE: 5U9) (the "Company" or "Psyched"), a life sciences company focused on the production and distribution of health and wellness products derived from the Amanita Muscaria mushroom, is pleased to announce it will be releasing a new product this summer - Amanita Muscaria watermelon Gummies.

By using the Company's proprietary extract (AME-1) in the formulation, we have created the first and only legal and safe for human consumption Amanita Muscaria gummies in the United States of America.

The gummies will be called "Fly (Agaric)" and are estimated to be available online this summer, and in select retail locations. This name takes inspiration from Fly Agaric, one of the names commonly used for Amanita Muscaria mushrooms.


Fly Gummy

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:
https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/6579/212829_0e26dfc954ccebd7_002full.jpg


"Our customers told us they prefer gummies as a delivery format, so we listened. The popularity of gummies across various sectors continues to soar as enthusiasts embrace the convenience and flavor-packed charm," says David Shisel, Psyched Wellness Chief Operating Officer. "We believe the Fly (Agaric) has the potential to exceed our tincture sales and we look forward to introducing additional flavors in the future."

Psyched Wellness will be growing their route-to-market partnerships throughout the nation. If you are interested in distributing/listing Calm or Fly (Agaric) please reach out to sales@psyched-wellness.com.

Visit psyched-wellness.com for more information about ordering the product directly.

Wikipedia.orgen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_muscaria

Amanita muscaria - Wikipedia

Amanita muscaria ... Amanita muscaria, commonly known as the fly agaric or fly amanita, is a basidiomycete of the genus Amanita. It is a large white-gilled, white ...

Nih.govwww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7977045/

The Deceptive Mushroom: Accidental Amanita muscaria Poisoning

Feb 2, 2021 ... Amanita muscaria is a highly poisonous mushroom; the primary effects usually involve the central nervous system, and in severe poisoning, ...

Woodlandtrust.org.ukwww.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/fungi-and-lichens/fly-agaric/

Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria) - Woodland Trust

Fly agaric (Amanita muscaria). Famous, enchanting and highly toxic. Fly agaric is the home of fairies and magical creatures and a lover of birch woodland, where ...

Usda.govwww.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/ethnobotany/Mind_and_Spirit/flyagaric.shtml

Fly Agaric - USDA Forest Service

In the “old world”, the psychoactive fly agaric mushroom (Amanita muscaria) has been closely associated with northern European and Asiatic shamans and their ...

Foragerchef.comforagerchef.com/amanita-muscariafly-agaric/

Amanita Muscaria: A Poisonous, Hallucinogenic, Edible Mushroom

Apr 2, 2022 ... Amanita Muscaria: A Poisonous, Hallucinogenic, Edible Mushroom ... With it's bright red cap and white spots, the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) is ...

First-nature.comwww.first-nature.com/fungi/amanita-muscaria.php

Amanita muscaria, Fly Agaric mushroom - First Nature

The Fly Agaric, Amanita muscaria, is a hallucinogen and must be considered poisonous. These attractive fungi often appear in groups and are a common sight in ...

Britannica.comwww.britannica.com/science/fly-agaric

Fly agaric | Description, Mushroom, Hallucinogen, Poisonous, & Facts

Apr 26, 2024 ... fly agaric, (Amanita muscaria), poisonous mushroom in the family Amanitaceae (order Agaricales) found in forests, pastures, ...

Inaturalist.orgwww.inaturalist.org/taxa/48715-Amanita-muscaria

Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria) - iNaturalist

Amanita muscaria, commonly known as the fly agaric or fly amanita, is a basidiomycete mushroom, one of many in the genus Amanita.

Vanmyco.orgwww.vanmyco.org/about-mushrooms/poisonous/amanita-muscaria/

Amanita muscaria - Vancouver Mycological Society

These are rather large and stout Amanitas, the cap is often wider than the stem is long. They occur in a variety of colour forms with almost white through ...