'Bit of a panic': Trump adviser's attack on bombshell WaPo report fact-checked by expert

EGYPT BRIBED TRUMP WITH $1OM 

Sarah K. Burris
August 2, 2024

Former acting director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell speaks during a campaign rally at Minden-Tahoe Airport on October 08, 2022 in Minden, Nevada. 

(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Donald Trump's former acting Director of National Intelligence, Ric Grenell, took issue with Friday's bombshell Washington Post report that accused Egypt of trying to funnel $10 million to his 2016 presidential campaign.

According to reporter Carol Leonnig, "A secret investigation pursued CIA intelligence indicating Egypt's president sought to illegally inject $10 million into Trump's cash-starved 2016 campaign. The Justice Department investigators discovered a mysterious $10 million cash withdrawal. But they were blocked from seeking key records to determine if Trump took the money, then the case was shut down."

"This is made up," Grenell posted on the social media site X. "It's not an exclusive. And it's fake news. It's been investigated and was dismissed. You pushed a fake Russian collusion story and the phony charge that Hunter Biden's laptop was Russian disinformation. Your boss Jeff Bezos said it best: 'People are not reading your stuff.' Right. I can't sugarcoat it anymore.'

The quote attributed to Bezos was actually said by Washington Post publisher William Lewis, according to Fox News.

National security expert Marcy Wheeler fact-checked Grenell's claim that the story was false.

"1) How could it be 'made up' if it was dismissed — because Barr shut down [the] subpoena? That's simply dumb!" Wheeler wrote. "2) Five of Trump's top flunkies confessed or were adjudged to have lied abt what happened with Russia."

Wheeler also wrote that the Post wasn't the "big entity who reported on the still-true Spook letter that the [Hunter Biden] laptop had the earmarks of a Russian info operation."

The infamous laptop was obtained by the FBI in 2019, but a reported "copy" of the hard drive was given to Rudy Giuliani, who then gave it to the conservative New York Post.


"When The Washington Post finally got access to the material in 2022, we were able to verify some of it as authentic. There was also evidence, though, that the material on the hard drive that went from Giuliani to the New York Post was moved around with some information added," wrote Philip Bump for the Post in June.

"Even Mac Isaac [the computer repair man who got access to the computer] warned that material being attributed to 'the laptop' was not on the laptop when he undertook the file recovery process."

Wheeler explained that "Russian involvement in the laptop cannot be ruled out."


"Wow. Poor Ric is in a bit of a panic," she wrote.

Clinical psychologist explains the power of calling Republicans 'weird'

Sarah K. Burris
August 2, 2024 


Democratic leaders began calling Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), "weird" for some of their political ideas and comments they've made about women and people of color. One clinical psychologist explained that the word has a lot more impact than one would think.

Dr. Carl Hindy, Ph.D., HSP posted in a thread on X that the power of using phrases like "that's weird" or "that's just weird" is that it conveys, "That's just not worth of discussion."

"Therein is the magic," said Hindy. "With Trump it means not allowing him to define the discussion or make the rules. It stops the Dems from chasing him down his rabbit hole. That seems to infuriate Trump, who’s now escalating to pull them back into arguments and to continue to define the game."

Hindy thinks that it ultimately has a greater impact on the person who says it, by allowing that person "to dismiss the matter more easily."

He wondered where it leads from there.

"It seems like it would be a useful CBT/type intervention for ourselves at times," he said, referencing cognitive behavior therapy. "In other aspects of our lives: a self-cueing to 'just let it go by.'"

Rhetoric expert and professor Jennifer Mercieca referred to the Friday morning Axios report that purported to reveal the real reason Trump delayed walking out on stage at the National Association of Black Journalists. According to the piece, Trump was furious that he would be fact-checked in real-time.

Mercieca explained that Trump wants to have the definitive word on everything.

"Remember when I explained that, like all authoritarians, Trump is 'cognitively irresponsible,'" she posted on Friday. "He never wants to be questioned or have to give good information. He would rather 'because I said so' be the end of any conversation."

So, as Hindy explained, shutting Trump down with "that's weird" eliminates his power to end the conversation on his terms.

‘House of the Dragon’ was inspired by chaos of Middle Ages —a world without law and order

The Conversation
August 3, 2024 

"Game Of Thrones" fans have had to wait three years since the controversial finale of the cult series for more material. Now the prequel "House Of The Dragon" has finally launched. HBO Max/dpa

Daemon Targaryen, played by Matt Smith, finds himself in the middle of an internecine struggle between two warring families. Ollie Upton/HBODavid Routt, University of Richmond

Students in my medieval history courses often wonder whether historical reality can be gleaned from medieval cinematic fantasy.

I tell them that fantasy does not aspire to historical verisimilitude. But it can reflect medieval conflicts, values and norms.

The first season of HBO’s “House of the Dragon” exemplified this. Its narrative, as noted by co-creator George R. R. Martin, drew inspiration from England’s Anarchy, a 12th-century civil war sparked by King Henry I’s effort to make his daughter, the Empress Matilda, a ruling queen. King Viserys of Martin’s fictional Westeros does the same with his daughter Rhaenyra. This fantasy evoked the vagaries of hereditary succession and the misogyny characteristic of the Middle Ages.

The new season offers a more colorful medieval palette. Its themes of internecine strife, justice and the power of everyday people have broad – indeed, universal – resonance.
‘A sin begets a sin begets a sin’

One conflict encapsulates the factional violence in fictional Westeros.

The feud between the Brackens and Blackwoods, two noble families, is a storyline in both seasons.

During Princess Rhaenyra’s tour to find a husband in Season One, one of her suitors, a member of the Blackwood family, slays a heckler in her presence who happens to be a Bracken

. 

‘House of the Dragon’ co-creator George R. R. Martin pulled from medieval Europe to create his fictional world. Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic for HBO

It represents the newest broadside in an escalating cycle of retribution, with the dispute’s origins long purged from memory. As one character observes, the spark igniting the Bracken-Blackwood feud “is lost in time. A sin begets a sin begets a sin.”

No slight is deemed too trivial in the age-old hostility between these two families: At one point, the Blackwoods accuse the Brackens of moving a boundary stone to purloin grazing land, and this accusation somehow reaches King Viserys’ ears, who dismisses it as a local problem.

In Season Two, bands of Bracken and Blackwood youths meet in the disputed pasture. Hotheaded invective follows: A Bracken calls a Blackwood a “babe-killer” and “kin-slayer.” A battle ensues, resulting in a pasture littered with Bracken and Blackwood corpses, the Blackwood patriarch dead, too.

The Brackens’ victory proves ephemeral.

The surviving Blackwoods offer arms to Princess Rhaenyra’s husband, Daemon, in return for aid in assailing the Brackens. The Brackens are unmoved by the threat of carnage that Daemon can unleash on them with his fire-breathing dragon, so Daemon urges the Blackwoods to perpetrate atrocities. They do: looting and destroying sacred shrines, burning crops, seizing livestock, slaughtering peasants and abducting women and children.
Cobbling together a legal framework

Westeros’ intractable factional hatreds echo elements of the medieval experience.

When Germanic kingdoms emerged in the early years of the Middle Ages, they lacked institutions for maintaining order, such as a standing police force and sophisticated judicial institutions and procedures.

In these kingdoms, the victim of a crime could personally and legitimately impose rough justice on a suspected culprit. This could invite retaliation and spark cyclic, long-term hostilities, though the threat of a feud could also lead to a settlement of a dispute without resort to violence. The intercession of a local lord was often key here.

 

A Germanic trial in the 14th century. Prisma/UIG via Getty Images

Early Germanic law endeavored to contain this sanctioned vigilantism. It assigned monetary values to virtually every antisocial act to encourage material compensation over vengeance. In Æthelberht of Kent’s code, every lopped-off finger, dislodged tooth or wound had a precisely delineated worth. In the case of murder, everyone had a “wergild” – literally, “man money” – assessed according to their social status. One fascinating law penalized the destruction of the male “genital limb” at three “man-prices.” Perhaps there were things deemed worse than death.

Medieval kingdoms incrementally forged more sophisticated institutions to mete out justice. The 12th century – the chronological muse of “House of the Dragon” – saw the emergence of English common law. Inquests gathered information, grand juries leveled accusations, sheriffs apprehended wrongdoers, and trial juries rendered verdicts.
Rumblings of revolt

Despite efforts to develop legal systems, in medieval Europe – as in Westeros – the king was the final arbiter.

In the show, a humble shepherd petitions King Aegon for relief from hardship for sheep taken through a royal tithe to feed dragons; Aegon refuses. The blacksmith Hugh Hammer requests payment for dragon-slaying weapons he is crafting and receives only Aegon’s empty promise of recompense.

These impositions are reminiscent of medieval taxation and the English king’s “right of purveyance,” which gave the king the ability to appropriate, at his pleasure, food and goods. Abuse of purveyance led to its regulation in the Magna Carta, the first document to put in writing that a king is not above the law.

But what did the elite’s machinations, whether in Westeros or medieval England, mean for society’s lower echelons?

To me, one of the most interesting aspects of Season Two is the focus on the everyday people of Westeros. Mysaria – an immigrant, one-time thief, prostitute and paid informant – becomes confidant to Rhaenyra. Keenly aware she is “common-born,” Mysaria is able to observe how elite animosities rain downward on a vulnerable populace that possesses little recourse

. 

Through her struggles, Mysaria, played by Sonoya Mizuno, develops a keen understanding of commoners. Theo Whiteman/HBO

In the show, Rhaenyra’s naval blockade of King’s Landing most poignantly exposes the plight of regular people. Until Rhaenyra can muster a land army, the blockade is the only tactic she could direct at her opponents.

Food becomes exorbitantly expensive. Purchasing and hoarding by the better off worsens the dearth. Hungry commoners scrap with one another over bare morsels. As starvation looms, Hugh Hammer and his family attempt to flee to the countryside, only to find themselves locked inside the city by royal command.

In her clear-eyed understanding of the dynamic between the elite and commoners, Mysaria foresees blowback for burdens inflicted on the poor.

For her, law and order is only sustained by the extent to which everyday people buy into the system. She counsels Rhaenyra not to undervalue her subjects. Their power resides in their sheer numbers.

The women devise a plan to permit unmanned boatloads of food to pass through the blockade into the harbor of King’s Landing under Rhaenyra’s banner to weaponize the people’s misery. The people conclude that Rhaenyra, even though the blockade is hers, cares for the common born, while her opponents, seemingly oblivious to their hardship, continue to feast in the Red Keep, the royal castle.

News of this food sparks a riot against the supporters of Rhaenyra’s opponent.

Clinging to power

This explosion of popular violence has its medieval analogue in the urban and rural uprisings of the 14th century, a century beset by a “plague of insurrection,” most famously the English Peasants’ Revolt of 1381.

Rhaenyra understands how decades of peace efface the collective memory of warfare’s inherent awfulness.

She poses a quintessentially medieval query after her father’s death: “As queen, what is my true duty to the realm … ? Ensuring peace and stability? Or that I sit on the Iron Throne no matter the cost?”

Rhaenyra’s musings about leadership during a fractious era evoke not only the Middle Ages, but also U.S. politics today – a moment beset by aging rulers, political tribalism, rising inequality and murmurings of armed civil strife.

David Routt, Adjunct Professor of History, University of Richmond

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Colombia, Guatemala learn from each other in rainforest preservation

Agence France-Presse
August 3, 2024 

Tourists walk by the "Great Jaguar" Mayan temple at the Tikal archaeological site in the Maya Biosphere in Peten, Guatemala, July 24, 2024. (JOHAN ORDONEZ/AFP)

In the lush jungle of northern Guatemala -- in the largest protected area in Central America -- 30 leaders from Colombia's Amazon basin region are swapping strategies with local ethnic Maya farmers on how to live off this dense forest without destroying it.

Under the soaring, leafy mahogany and cedar trees in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, the visiting group discusses ways to ensure the rain forest remains healthy, while studying the reserve-type model Guatemala has been developing since 1994.

Guatemala's vast sustainability project aims to achieve a balance in which communities reforest, cut down trees for timber in a controlled way, grow grains and vegetables, collect ornamental plants, and even develop low-impact tourism.

"That ensures that our communities are getting the economic resources that are also invested here for conservation," Sergio Balan, regional director of the National Council of Protected Areas (CONAP), told AFP in the village of Melchor de Mencos, near the border with Belize.

The Maya Biosphere Reserve sprawls over 2.1 million hectares (5.2 million acres) and borders Mexico and Belize.

Every year, its flora and fauna are threatened by fires, deforestation for agricultural and livestock purposes, and even drug traffickers.

Hundreds of archaeological sites are located in this territory, such as the ancient Mayan city of Tikal, one of the main tourist sites in Guatemala and the site hosting the visitors from the Forest Development and Biodiversity Centers of the Colombian Amazon.

In the reserve and near Tikal, there is also the pre-Hispanic park of Uaxactun, where both groups participated in a Mayan ceremony with a fire stoked with candles and tree resin.

The Colombian leaders, whose visit lasted a week, highlighted the achievements in reducing deforestation in the Colombian Amazon between 2021 and 2023, by 61 percent, according to data from Colombia's environment ministry.

- Farmer to farmer -

There are currently 16 active concessions that help conserve nearly 619,000 hectares of forest, CONAP says. Controlled logging permits, meanwhile, let private companies work for 25- or 30-year periods.

Concessions and reserves "not only provide employment, but also training for different jobs," says Erwin Maas, a Guatemalan tourist guide who is also familiar with forestry.

CONAP estimates that the concessions, a kind of activity grant, create about 150,000 direct and indirect jobs in the reserve.

Along one part of the path, visitors find a row of cut logs that are stacked to be taken to the sawmill. The wood comes from trees selected for felling in a controlled process that will allow the forest to regenerate.

Nearby, the sound of birds and monkeys fluttering through the branches, mixes with group's chatter.

"One of the great ideas we took away is the form of organization they have had (in Guatemala) to really last over time," says Aristides Oime, president of a Colombian farm group, Asojuntas de Cartagena del Chaira.

"From farmer to farmer, we see how we can really improve," he said. "We want to show how we truly believe that deforestation is not the way, the real route is environmental conservation."

The coordinator of the Colombia-based NGO Heart of the Amazon, Luz Rodriguez, believes that though there are differences with the Guatemalan communities, they learned lessons about how other people control land sustainably.

AMERIKA

Sens. Wyden, Paul introduce bipartisan bill to abolish military draft


Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Thursday introduced a bill to abolish the military draft. He said the all-volunteer military has eliminated the need for "the same draft that sent two million unwilling young men to war 50 years ago." Wyden's bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Rand Paul, R-K.Y., would repeal the Selective Service Act. File 

Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo


Aug. 2 (UPI) -- A bipartisan Senate bill to abolish the Selective Service military draft was introduced Thursday by Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.

"The Selective Service is a long-outdated program that eats up millions of taxpayer dollars and gives us nothing in return," Wyden said in a statement. "Our volunteer military forces are the strongest in the world, and there simply isn't a need to replicate the same draft that sent two million unwilling young men to war 50 years ago."
Advertisement

Wyden said this is a commonsense bill that saves taxpayer money. It would repeal the Selective Service Act.

Sen. Paul said in a statement, "It has been over 50 years since the draft was last used. I've long stated that if a war is worth fighting, Congress will vote to declare it and people will volunteer. This outdated government program no longer serves a purpose and should be eliminated permanently."

Selective Service has a budget of over $31 million a year, but there has been no military draft since 1973. An all-volunteer force has been used since then.
Advertisement

Among the groups endorsing the bill to abolish the Selective Service are Center on Conscience and War, World Beyond War, RootsAction.org, Military Law Task Force of the National Lawyers Guild, Resisters.info, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Antiwar.com, International Peace Research Association, American Friends Service Committee, Mennonite Central Committee U.S., War Resisters League, Fellowship of Reconciliation, and Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft.

More than 1.8 million American men were drafted during the Vietnam War, with the final draft call coming Dec. 7, 1972.

According to the Disabled American Veterans, 17,671 U.S. draftees were killed in the Vietnam War. That was a little over 30% of the total U.S. military deaths of 58,220 in Vietnam.

According to the Selective Service System, draft registration was suspended April 1, 1975. Draft registration resumed in July 1980 for men born in 1960 and later. Men are required to register for the draft within 30 days of their 18th birthday.

In 2020 a national commission recommended requiring women to register with the government for a military draft. All combat roles were opened to women by the Defesne Department in 2015.

A federal judge ruled in 2019 that a men-only military draft was unconstitutional. It came in a case brought by a men's rights advocacy group called National Coalition for Men.
Advertisement





In 2016, President Obama and the Pentagon announced their support for a universal requirement to register women as well as men for the selective service draft.

The Senate approved a bill in June 2016 that would have required women to register, but the House stripped it out.

$4B settlement offer for Maui wildfire victims announced

Members of Combined Joint Task Force 50 on Aug. 15, 2023, conduct search operations of areas damaged by wildfires in Lahaina, Maui. File Photo by Staff Sgt. Matthew A. Foster/U.S. Army National Guard/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 3 (UPI) -- A proposed $4 billion offer would settle lawsuits filed by homeowners, business owners and others a year after a wildfire ravaged Maui, Hawaii, and killed 102.

About 2,200 individuals and entities filed 450 federal and state lawsuits against the state of Hawaii, Maui County, Hawaiian Electric, Kamehameha Schools, the West Maui Land Co., Hawaiian Telecom and Spectrum/Charter Communications.

The seven defendants would pay $4.04 billion to compensate those who filed claims for compensation for damages and physical harm caused by the Aug. 8, 2023, windstorms and wildfires that ravaged much of the island of Maui.

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green announced the settlement offer Friday, which he called a "historic settlement."

Related

Hawaii officials identify 102nd wildfire victim
Hawaii considers $25 tourist tax to cover fire, environmental damage
Displaced Maui residents set to return to Lahaina after wildfires


"This global settlement of over $4 billion will help our people heal" while avoiding "protracted and painful lawsuits," Green said in a news release.

"Settling a matter like this within a year is unprecedented," Green said. "It will be good that our people don't have to wait to rebuild their lives as long as others have in many places that have suffered similar tragedies."

He said the settlement offer was reached after four months of mediated negotiations and requires court approval.

Hawaiian Electric president and Chief Executive Officer Shelee Kimura said the settlement offer enables all involved parties to "move forward."

"It will allow all of us to work together cohesively and effectively to support the people of Lahaina and Maui to create the future they want to see emerge from this tragedy," Kimura said.

She said the proposed settlement "is a powerful demonstration of how Hawaii comes together in times of crisis."

If the settlement offer is accepted and approved, payments would start no sooner than mid-2025, Kimura said.

The Maui wildfire was the deadliest in more than 100 years in the United States and occurred when a windstorm struck the Hawaiian Islands and knocked over power lines on Maui.

Argentina to use AI to stop crime before it happens

MINORITY REPORT PHILLIP K. DICK

By Mark Moran


The government of Argentinian President Javier Milei is rolling out with new AI technology aimed at preventing crime. File Photo by Gala Abramovich/EPA-EFE

Aug. 2 (UPI) -- Argentina has announced plans to use artificial intelligence to predict crimes before they're committed, the country recently announced.

The plan was announced by the Ministry of Security as Argentina takes its next step toward using artificial intelligence in more and different ways.

The new AI unit will focus on the "prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of crime," in addition to conducting drone surveillance, patrolling social media and using facial recognition to bolster security measures, a statement said.

The announcement comes after Buenos Aires court ruled in 2023 that facial recognition technology by the government was unconstitutional in the city. The judge in the case said the system was installed without complying with the legal requirements for the protection of the personal rights of the inhabitants of the City of Buenos Aires," a statement said.

Human rights groups have gone a step further, and are concerned that implementing the technology could infringe on freedom of expression as people are concerned over government monitoring of their social media posts, and having a chilling effect on what they choose to publish.

Still others are worried about how AI will affect the academic world, including what academics and students will share and whether it will be monitored by the emerging technology.

The Argentine Center for Studies on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information has said AI and similar technologies have been used to profile academics, journalists, politicians and activists.

They wanted to know how the technologies were developed, where they came from and how they will be used. The group called any lack of accountability The group said any lack of accountability would be "worrying."

President Javier Milei made a trip to Silicon Valley earlier this year that is now being seen differently in light of the move to bolster crime detection using AI. In May, he met with several tech leaders and encouraged them to consider investing in his country

Osu.edukb.osu.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/99811cbc-441e-5e67-a70b-17b27a39797b/content

Minority Report and the Law of Attempt - Knowledge Bank

Steven Spielberg's Minority Report,1 released in summer 2002, derives from a. Philip K. Dick short story first published in 1956.2 The futuristic premise of ...

Notes on Minority Report

July 2009

Authors:

I. Bennett Capers

Brooklyn Law School

Download full-text PDF

Abstract

Using Spielberg’s 2002 film Minority Report as a cultural text, this symposium essay explores the 'de-shadowing' work film does in relation to the criminal justice system, rendering visible the schism between the justice courts imagine they are administering and the justice that actually exists. This symposium essay also examines how Minority Report problematizes the role of the spectator, both as a watcher of filmic media and as a surrogate thirteenth juror assessing truth, guilt, and innocence.

Jungstudies.netjungstudies.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/rountreec1.pdf

Myth, Shadow Politics, and Peren- nial Philosophy in Minority Report

Minority Report, 2002, Directed by Steven Spielberg, Screenplay by Jon Cohen and Scott Frank, based upon Philip K. Dick,. “Minority Report,” in The Minority .

American.edudigitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2189&context=facsch_lawrev

Preempting Justice: Precrime in Fiction and in Fact

In the opening scene of Steven Spielberg's 2002 film adaptation of Philip. K. Dick's short story The Minority Report,3 we see stylistically edited, disjointed ...

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for Cesare Lombroso 

Wikipedia.orgen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesare_Lombroso

Cesare Lombroso - Wikipedia

... criminologist, phrenologist, physician, and founder of the Italian school of criminology. ... He postulated that criminals represented a reversion to a primitive ...

Britannica.comwww.britannica.com/biography/Cesare-Lombroso

Cesare Lombroso | Italian, Psychiatrist, Anthropologist | Britannica

... criminology from a legalistic preoccupation with crime to a scientific study of criminals ... primitive stage of human evolution. Lombroso contended that such ...

Wikipedia.orgen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_school_of_criminology

Italian school of criminology - Wikipedia

The Italian school of criminology was founded at the end of the 19th century by Cesare Lombroso (1835–1909) and two of his Italian disciples, Enrico Ferri ...

Simplypsychology.orgwww.simplypsychology.org/lombroso-theory-of-crime-criminal-man-and-atavism.html

Cesare Lombroso: Theory of Crime, Criminal Man, and Atavism

Feb 8, 2023 ... These atavistic characteristics, he argued, denoted the fact that the offenders were at a more primitive stage of evolution than non ...

History.comwww.history.com/news/born-criminal-theory-criminology

What Type of Criminal Are You? 19th‑Century Doctors Claimed to ...

Aug 8, 2019 ... ... primitive humanity and the inferior animals,” he wrote in his 1876 ... Italian criminologist and physician Cesare Lombroso. What ...

Missouri.edulibrary.missouri.edu/specialcollections/exhibits/show/controlling-heredity/origins/lombroso

Cesare Lombroso's Criminal Man · Controlling Heredity - MU Libraries

Cesare Lombroso was the founder of the Italian school of positivist criminology, which argued that a criminal mind was inherited and could be identified by ...

Historyextra.comwww.historyextra.com/period/victorian/the-born-criminal-lombroso-and-the-origins-of-modern-criminology/

Cesare Lombroso & The Origins of Modern Criminology - HistoryExtra

Feb 14, 2019 ... ... crime and criminals while studying Italian so

Oxygen-depleted 'dead zone' in Gulf of Mexico larger than expected this year



The Gulf of Mexico dead zone this year is a larger than expected 6,705 square miles, NOAA reported Thursday. It's an area of very low to no oxygen that kills marine life. Dr. Jill Tupitza and doctoral student Allison Noble collect near-bottom water aboard Research Vessel Pelican to obtain oxygen measurements used to determine the size of the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone. Photo courtesy of NOAA by LUMCON/LSU, Cassandra Glaspie



Aug. 1 (UPI) -- The Gulf of Mexico's "dead zone" is the 12th largest on record this year, according to a Thursday report from NOAA-supported scientists. It's roughly 6,705 square miles this year, larger than expected.

The zone is an area of low to no oxygen in the water, and it can kill fish and other marine life.

"It's critical that we measure this region's hypoxia as an indicator of ocean health, particularly under a changing climate and potential intensification of storms and increases in precipitation and runoff," said NOAA's National Ocean Service assistant administrator Nicole LeBoeuf in a statement.

She said the long-term dataset on the gulf's dead zone "helps decision makers as they adjust their strategies to reduce the dead zone and manage impacts to coastal resources and communities."

Scientists had predicted an above-average dead zone of roughly 5,827 square miles, based mostly on Mississippi River discharge and runoff data.

"The area of bottom-water hypoxia was larger than predicted by the Mississippi River discharge and nitrogen load for 2024, but within the range experienced over the nearly four decades that this research cruise has been conducted," said Louisiana State University Professor Nancy Rabalais in a statement.

The average dead zone size over 37 years is 5,205 square miles, according to NOAA.

In 2023 the dead zone was a smaller-than-expected 3,058 square miles.

The five-year average dead zone size is 4,298 square miles.

Louisiana State University scientists and the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium led the dead zone survey this year aboard the LUMCON research vessel.

The data collected is used by the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia task Force. That state and federal partnership wants to reach a goal of cutting the five-year average size of the Gulf of Mexico dead zone to fewer than 1,900 miles by 2035.

The Environmental Protection Agency's Bruno Pigott said in a statement, "EPA is committed to its partnership with state and local governments and Tribes in the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin, working together to reduce nutrient pollution and protect the health of the Gulf. In fact, thanks to President Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, EPA is investing $60 million into this effort."

Dead zones are formed from an overgrowth of algae resulting from excess nutrient runoff into the gulf waters. When the algae die and decompose oxygen in the water is depleted.

The Gulf Hypoxia Program was created in June 2022 by the EPA to accelerate nutrient reduction actions aimed at cutting the amount of nutrients that feed the dead zone algae growth.

Rear Adm. Chad Cary to head NOAA corps overseeing research, hurricane planes


Rear Adm. Chad Cary, confirmed by the U.,S. Senate, assumed command of the NOAA Corps. NOAA announced Friday he will oversee NOAA's fleet, including "hurricane hunters" in specialized aircraft. Photo courtesy of NOAA

Aug. 2 (UPI) -- Rear Adm. Chad Cary will lead the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps and NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation Operations following confirmation by the U.S. Senate.

Part of his duties are to oversee NOAA's fleet of 15 research and survey ships and 10 specialized aircraft that include NOAA's hurricane hunters.

"Rear Adm. Cary's leadership will ensure that we can continue to provide essential services to the public -- from hurricane forecasts to nautical charts," Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement. "I congratulate him on his confirmation to serve as the next director of OMAO and the NOAA Corps and thank him for his service to our nation."

Cary has held commanded position on NOAA ships Reuben Lasker and John N. Cobb and has experience across many operational and management assignments with NOAA.

"Rear Adm. Cary is a proven leader who has the skills, experience and dedication needed to advance NOAA's science, service and stewardship mission," said NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad in a statement.

Spinrad expressed confidence that Cary will "will lead the NOAA Corps and NOAA fleet both capably and effectively as we work together to meet the challenges of a dynamic world."

Cary said in a statement, "I am grateful for this opportunity to continue serving the nation alongside our highly skilled and dedicated workforce."

Born and raised in Alaska, Cary joined the NOAA Corps in 2001 after earning a bachelor's degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

AMERIKA

Study says background checks insufficient to cut gun homicide rates

By Dennis Thompson, HealthDay News


States that require gun permits saw reductions in shooting deaths ranging from 2% to 32%, but background checks alone made little difference, researchers said. Adobe Stock/HealthDay

Background checks alone might not be enough to reduce shooting deaths in the United States, a new study warns.

States that require gun permits, rather than relying solely on universal background checks, have firearm murder rates that are 18% lower, on average, researchers reported Thursday in the journal JAMA Network Open.

"These findings cast doubt on the main strategy currently being used by gun violence prevention advocates and policymakers to reduce firearm fatalities," said researcher Michael Siegel, a professor of public health and community medicine at the Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston.

"If state lawmakers really want to reduce gun violence, the most effective policy they can enact is one that requires permits in order to purchase or possess a gun," Siegel added in a Tufts news release.

For the study, researchers compared firearm murders in 12 states with universal background checks but no permit requirements against those in seven states that have gun permit laws on the books. The data ran from 1976 to 2022.

States that require gun permits saw reductions in shooting deaths ranging from 2% to 32%, but background checks alone made little difference, researchers said.

While requirements vary by state, permit laws typically require people to go through a series of checks before granting authorization to buy guns from various dealers. The permit typically is valid for several years.

State-level criminal databases maintained for gun permit laws are more consistently kept up to date, Siegel said, and are more likely to record lower-level crimes like domestic battery or driving under the influence.

In addition, people with criminal records can buy a firearm when a background check takes so long that it passes 72-hour window in which a person can legally be kept waiting for a gun.

Permits also can be immediately suspended upon conviction of a crime that disqualifies gun ownership, while background checks might take some time to catch up to the conviction, Siegel said.

"Some gun owners might hear this and say that permits are much more intrusive, but I want to emphasize it's actually a win-win, both for gun owners and public health," Siegel said.

Siegel argues that gun owners on average have four or more firearms, so having a permit system makes it easier for them to make multiple purchases over time. They don't have to wait for a background check for each purchase.

This sort of research could lead to better laws for both gun owners and the general public, Siegel said.

"One of the major implications of this research is that it supports changing the way we do things, such as encouraging all states to adopt reciprocal permitting systems, meaning a person with a gun permit in one state would be allowed to bring their license and gun legally into another state," Siegel said.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on firearm injuries and deaths.

Copyright © 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.