Darkness caused by dino-killing asteroid snuffed out life on Earth in 9 months

Mindy Weisberger  Live Science

The years following the asteroid impact that wiped out non-avian dinosaurs were dark times — literally. Soot from raging wildfires filled the sky and blocked the sun, directly contributing to the wave of extinctions that followed, new research has found.

 Following the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs, parts of the planet would have been plunged into darkness.

After the asteroid struck, around 66 million years ago, the cataclysm extinguished many forms of life instantly. But the impact also caused environmental changes leading to mass extinctions that played out over time. One such extinction trigger may have been the dense clouds of ash and particles that spewed into the atmosphere and spread over the planet, which would have enveloped parts of Earth in darkness that could have persisted for up to two years.

During that time photosynthesis would have failed, leading to ecosystem collapse. And even after sunlight returned, this decline could have persisted for decades more, according to research presented Dec. 16 at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), held in New Orleans and online.

The Cretaceous period (145 million to 66 million years ago) ended with a bang when an asteroid traveling at approximately 27,000 mph (43,000 km/h) slammed into Earth. It measured about 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) in diameter, and left behind a scar known as the Chicxulub crater, which lies underwater in the Gulf of Mexico near the Yucatán Peninsula and spans at least 90 miles (150 km) in diameter. The impact eventually snuffed out at least 75% of life on Earth, including all non-avian dinosaurs (the lineage that produced modern birds is the only branch of the dinosaur family tree that weathered the extinction).

Clouds of pulverized rock and sulfuric acid from the crash would have darkened skies, cooled global temperatures, produced acid rain and sparked wildfires, Live Science previously reported. Scientists first proposed the post-asteroid "nuclear winter scenario" in the 1980s; this hypothesis suggested that darkness played a part in the mass extinctions after the Cretaceous impact, said Peter Roopnarine, a curator of geology in the Department of Invertebrate Zoology and Geology at California Academy of Sciences, and a presenter at the AGU meeting.

However, it's only in the past decade or so that researchers developed models showing how that darkness may have impacted life, Roopnarine told Live Science in an email.

"The common thinking now is that global wildfires would have been the main source of fine soot that would have been suspended into the upper atmosphere," Roopnarine said. "The concentration of soot within the first several days to weeks of the fires would have been high enough to reduce the amount of incoming sunlight to a level low enough to prevent photosynthesis."
Dark days

long-term darkness by reconstructing ecological communities that would have existed at the time of the asteroid impact. They used 300 species known from the Hell Creek Formation, a fossil-rich expanse of shale and sandstone that dates to the latter part of the Cretaceous and extends over parts of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.

"We focused on that region because the fossil record is well-sampled and well-understood ecologically, so we could reconstruct the paleocommunity reliably," Roopnarine said.

They then created simulations that exposed their communities to periods of darkness lasting from between 100 and 700 days, to see which intervals would produce the rate of vertebrate extinction that was preserved in the fossil record — about 73%, according to the presentation. The onset of post-impact darkness would have been rapid, reaching its maximum in just a few weeks, Roopnarine said in the email.

The researchers found that ecosystems could recover after a period of darkness that lasted up to 150 days. But after 200 days, that same community reached a critical tipping point, where "some species went extinct and patterns of dominance shifted," the scientists reported. In the simulations where darkness lasted for the maximum duration, extinctions spiked dramatically. During a darkness interval of 650 to 700 days, extinction levels reached 65% to 81%, suggesting that the Hell Creek communities experienced about two years of darkness, according to the models.

"Conditions varied across the globe because of atmospheric flow and temperature variation, but we estimated that the darkness could have persisted in the Hell Creek area for up to two years," Roopnarine said, adding that these findings are preliminary and

Once an ecosystem reached that tipping point, it could eventually rebound with a new distribution of species; however, that process would have taken decades, the researchers found. Extended stimulations of Hell Creek communities that went dark for 700 days showed that after the darkness lifted, it took 40 years for conditions in the ecosystem to start to rebound, the scientists reported at the conference.

Originally published on Live Science.

PROOF OF INDEPENDENCE

Why Puerto Rican Christmas Carols Are a Symbol of Patriotism

Frances Solá-Santiago

For all the political limbo Puerto Ricans have endured in the last 500 years, one thing is clear: come Christmas, we’ll cook lechón asado, improvise patriotic trovas, and drink pitorro. Despite the pervasiveness of American capitalism and influence on the archipelago, Navidad is a piece of Puerto Rican culture that hasn’t perished at the mercy of U.S.-style malls and English-language pop songs.

While the season is a time of reverence in Christianity, ​​Christmas in Puerto Rico is also synonymous with patriotism. It’s the one time a year when we fully acknowledge—no matter what political party or ideology we are aligned with—that we are proud to be Puerto Rican. Despite our colonial status, we enter a boricua utopia where music comes from a cuatro—the Puerto Rican autochthonous guitar—and food is arroz con gandules. In doing so, we’ve made Santa Claus and the Three Kings—the Christmas traditions we’ve inherited from the United States and Spain—mere commodities of the season, not the protagonists.

We revel in this boricua Eden as long as possible; after all, Puerto Rico is famous for having the longest holiday season, spanning from Thanksgiving Day to las octavitas, which is celebrated in mid-January. It’s as if come the new year, we don’t want to wake up to the realities of an oversight board, a second-class citizenship, two national anthems, and an economic crisis—just listen to our música navideña.

I grew up in a family that heralded música navideña as one of its main pillars. Every Christmas party included hours-long sessions of trova and aguinaldos. Tío Gerardo was on the cuatro, my primo Gerardito on the guitar, and my primo Luigi was the musical director. We’d sing through our well-rehearsed repertoire that started with “El Coquí” by Danny Rivera, a call to Puerto Ricans to preserve our culture and traditions amid colonialism, and came to height with “Canción de los Carreteros” by Tony Croatto, an ode to the archipelago’s rural working class. At some point in the night, tío Victor would stand in the middle of the crowd to sing the revolutionary anthem “Coño Despierta Boricua” by Andrés Jiménez; other times, titi Magie would sing a solo of the poor man’s “Allá en la Altura” by Francisco Roque Muñoz.

Looking back, this repertoire was the foundation of my own Puerto Rican patriotism, one that fuels nostalgia for the days of trullas and fogón from my current apartment in Manhattan. Every year, come November, I turn to the tunes of my childhood via a Spotify playlist, listening to songs like “Cantares de Navidad” by el Trío Vegabajeño, “Alegre Vengo,” and “Dame La Mano, Paloma.” And I’m not alone.

Growing up in Carolina, Puerto Rico, Johnny Irizarry remembers there was always music playing in the background during the Christmas season. “We listened to salsa the most and some merengue,” he says. “But, at some point in the night, Asalto Navideño—the Christmas album by Willie Colón and Héctor Lavoe—would come on.” This two-part album series—released in 1970 and 1973, respectively—are at the core of many Puerto Rican Christmas celebrations. It combines trova and salsa traditions in songs that evoke both the joy and patriotic sentiment of the season. In “Canto a Borinquen,” Lavoe professes his love for Puerto Rico, saying, “Borinquen, soy tu hijo y no voy a olvidarte.” Today, much like Lavoe in the ‘70s, Irizarry lives in Florida. But he still turns to trova and Christmas classics to engulf his nostalgic feelings for home with songs like “Defensa al Jíbaro,” written by Quique Domenech and performed by Tony Croatto, “El arbolito” by El Gran Combo, and “Aires de Navidad” by Héctor Lavoe and Willie Colón. “I think it influences that love and pride toward la patria, toward the people that build it every day,” he says.

Press play on any Puerto Rican Christmas record, and you’ll find a reference to the archipelago’s history and traditions. Unlike U.S. Christmas music, which relies heavily on the image of peace, tranquility, family, and Christianity, Puerto Rican música navideña is sprinkled with folkloric and political connotations. Take, for example, “El Coqui,”’ one of the archipelago’s most popular Christmas songs, which urges boricuas to preserve their traditions, from music like danza and bomba to the calls of the coquí. “Tienes que preservar tú la tradición porque si no el coquí no cantará,” the chorus reads. “Yo soy como el coquí que me amanezco, que la noche va alegrando, que en Borinquen he vivido, que soy nativo de aquí, coquí.”

Then, there’s also trova, a folkloric musical tradition that was born in Cuba but adopted by rural Puerto Rican communities. It relies on written and improvised poetry, as well as instruments like the cuatro, to narrate stories about daily struggles of life in el campo, patriotic sentiment, and political consciousness. According to statistics by the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, the genre generates more than $23 million annually with 70-plus festivals performed across the archipelago. Still, come November, trova becomes synonymous with Christmas.

As a kid, I always marveled at my cousins’ talent to come up with original décimas; some were rehearsed and others were improvised, but every single one evoked a sense of pride in the traditions we carried and our national identity. There were also songs that taught me to value el campo and its ways of life. In “Allá en la altura,” for example, lyricist Francisco Roque Muñoz contrasts the luxuries of modern life with the rustic lifestyle of rural Puerto Rico, saying, “Yo vivo aquí en la altura mejor que un adinerado.” Others like Andrés Jimenez’s “Coño Despierta Boricua” and “La Estrella Sola” push back against colonialism and rally Puerto Ricans to look for a better future independently. All of this in the middle of Christmas dinner.

For Patricia Ruiz, música navideña shaped how she identifies as a Puerto Rican today. Growing up in Yauco, Puerto Rico, Ruiz says she felt a strong affinity to “Villancico Yaucano.” The song, popularized by Danny Rivera, narrates a Yaucano’s devotion for Jesus, as well as his town pride, saying, “Soy del pueblo del café, por si quieres dos saquitos, también, yo, te los traeré.” While she now lives in Texas and married an American, she says the best way to teach her community and her husband about where she comes from is have them listen to Puerto Rican Christmas carols.

“Explaining our history to him through music makes me feel so good,” she says. “I’m sure that once we have kids it’ll be the same and will continue to be an important part of our family.”

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Inspiration for the movie 'The Exorcist' has been identified as former NASA engineer

The boy who provided inspiration for the movie ‘The Exorcist’ has been identified as a former NASA engineer who died last year at the age of 85.

Ronald Hunkeler and William Bowdern.

Relatives say Ronald Edwin Hunkeler, who was previously known only as Ronald Doe, underwent exorcisms in Cottage City, Maryland, and in St. Louis, Missouri in 1949, as a 14-year-old.

A NASA engineer for 40 years, Hunkeler contributed to the the Apollo missions in 1960s and even patented a technology that allowed space shuttle panels to tolerate excessive heat.

PUBERTY PRODUCES POLTERGEIST PHENOMENA

When he was a teenager, family members reported noticing strange phenomenon in Hunkeler’s wake, according to the magazine Skeptical Inquirer. As he moved across a room, chairs around him scattered, Hunkeler’s family minster wrote to the Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University. His bed, claimed Rev. Luther Schulze, rattled when he lay down on it.

The family floor was “scarred from the sliding of heavy furniture” and, at one point, a chair “threw him out,” the letter said.

Schulze’s letter describes seeing a framed picture of Jesus Christ on the wall tremble in Hunkeler’s presence.

Priests carry out exorcisms via cellphone thanks to internet access and booming demand

World's top exorcist saw the Devil in Harry Potter, yoga, and thousands of middle-aged, middle-class women

The boy’s mother worried the frightening spells were related to his recently deceased Aunt Tillie, a spiritualist who showed him how to used an Ouija board to communicate with otherworldly spirits, according to the podcast The Devil in the Details.

Hunkeler would live his life in fear that his NASA colleagues may discover the movie ‘The Exorcist’ was based, in part, on his life, a companion told the New York Post.

“On Halloween, we always left the house because he figured someone would come to his residence and know where he lived and never let him have peace,” she said. “He had a terrible life from worry, worry, worry,” she added.

After a series of medical and psychological tests failed to find anything out of the ordinary, his family appealed to religious elders.

“The family was Lutheran and they went through all the stages you see in the film: They went to doctors, clinics and finally went back to their own pastor in the Lutheran church, who recommended they see a priest,” William Friedkin, director of the Exorcist, told Entertainment Weekly in 2012.

Eventually, they sought the help of William Bowdern, a Jesuit who would perform at least 20 exorcisms on the teen in a span of three months. Bowdern’s diary describes the boy entering a trance-like state in front of more than dozen witnesses during one exorcism.

It says his mattress started shaking while there was the sound of a “scratching which beat out a rhythm as of marching soldiers.

“(A) second class relic of St. Margaret Mary was thrown on the floor,” it goes on to say. “The safety pin was opened but no human hand had touched the relic. R. started up in fright when the relic was thrown down.”

© Wikimedia Alexian Brothers Hospital. Wikimedia

Hunkeler was eventually taken to St. Louis, to expel the evil spirits said to inhabit him.

“On one evening the word ‘Louis’ was written on the boy’s ribs in deep red [scratches]. Next, when there was some question of the time of departure, the word ‘Saturday’ was written plainly on the boy’s hip,” wrote Bowdern. “As to the length of time the mother and boy should stay in St. Louis, another message was printed on the boy’s chest, ‘3 1/2 weeks.’ The printing always appeared without any motion on the part of the boy’s hands. The mother was keeping him under close supervision.”

In March 1949, Hunkleler was admitted to the Alexian Brothers Hospital in St. Louis, where, consumed in one of his fitful spasms, he broke a priest’s nose.

Less than a month later, according to the podcast The Devil in the Details, Hunkeler claimed he saw St. Michael holding a flaming sword in a vision and that he was free of the devil.

© File The Exorcist.

“In all except the last of these (exorcisms), the boy broke into a violent tantrum of screaming, cursing and voicing of Latin phrases – a language he had never studied – whenever the priest reached the climactic point of the ritual, ‘In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, I cast thee (the devil) out,’” a 1999 Washington Post article quotes Father Raymond Bishop, a Catholic priest, as saying.

The priest kept a diary of events on which the author William Peter Blatty would base his 1971 horror novel.

Hunkeler’s companion told the Post he was not religious and had later admitted to her that he was never actually demented.

“He said he wasn’t possessed, it was all concocted,” said the companion. “He said, ‘I was just a bad boy’.”

But, she said, something occurred shortly before his death last year that she couldn’t account for.

A Catholic priest arrived at Hunkeler’s door to perform last rites, she told the Post, adding that she hadn’t called for him.

“I have no idea how the Father knew to come,” she said, “but he got Ron to heaven. Ron’s in heaven and he’s with God now.”

Scientists discover microplastics in 'pristine' Pyrenees mountain air

Amanda Kooser

Humanity's obsession with plastics has consequences. Microplastics -- tiny plastic fragments that often come from products like packaging, clothing or cosmetics -- have been found everywhere from the deepest ocean to near the top of Mount Everest. Microplastics have now been discovered in what was thought to be "pristine" mountain air in the French Pyrenees

.

This is the intake for a fine particle pump located at the Pic Du Midi Observatory in the French Pyrenees. Jeroen Sonke

"While posing no direct threat, its presence far from sources of pollution is nonetheless surprising," the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) said in a statement on Tuesday.

An international team of researchers analyzed air samples gathered at the Pic du Midi Observatory, which sits perched atop a mountain at an altitude of 9,440 feet (2,877 meters). They found microplastics -- mostly polystyrene or polyethylene -- that likely originated from packaging that's broken down. Polyethylene, for example, is often used for plastic wrap, bags and bottles.

The team published a paper on the findings in the journal Nature Communications this week. The study seeks to understand how airborne microplastics travel.

It seems the Pic du Midi plastics weren't coming from close by. "Mathematical models of air mass trajectories used by the scientists indicate that the particles originated in Africa, North America, or the Atlantic Ocean, which indicates intercontinental atmospheric transport of microplastic," CNRS said. The science team called for more research into how the plastic particles are reaching remote areas.

From the Mariana Trench to the highest mountains, it may be there are no more truly pristine places left.

KENTUCKY

9 days after tornado, cat found in rubble of building

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Nine days after a tornado demolished his three-story office building in downtown Mayfield, Kentucky, Sonny “Hoot” Gibson was standing in the rubble when he thought he heard a faint meow.

It instantly gave him hope that his office cat, Madix, who hadn't been seen since before the storms hit, was alive. Gibson said he had tried to find the solid black cat with yellow eyes that liked to greet customers of his rental business, but had given up after a few days.

“I don't know how anything could’ve survived not just the tornado but the destruction that came along with it,” he said.

Gibson was standing in the rubble Sunday afternoon when he heard the faint noise.

“I thought I heard a meow, and I thought my mind’s playing tricks on me so I hollered his name out, and he meowed again,” Gibson said.

The noise was stifled and he couldn't locate Madix immediately so he called some employees who came to help search. Soon after, they found the cat in a hole beneath the rubble.

“It was just an incredible feeling to put him in my arms," Gibson said. “If cats actually have nine lives, he probably used up about eight of them in that nine-day period.”

Other than being very hungry and thirsty, Madix was unscathed. Gibson said he took Madix home, where he will live out the rest of his days as a house cat.

Gibson said the story of Madix the survivor is becoming popular around the town of Mayfield, where a long-track tornado demolished huge parts of the community.

“It’s a blessing for people to hear the story so they can take that and realize that great things can come out of terrible situations. If it's uplifting to one person, then Madix has served his purpose on this planet.”

Rebecca Reynolds, The Associated Press

SHOOTING THE MESSANGER

Google CEO blames employee leaks to the press for reduced 'trust and candor' at the company

insider@insider.com (Isobel Asher Hamilton) 
\

 Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet. 

REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo

Google's CEO addressed a staff concern that the company has become less honest with employees.
Pichai said trust has to go both ways, referring to employees leaking information to the press.

The pandemic and the Google's size resulted in answers from management feeling "canned" he added.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai was confronted with an employee question earlier this month asking whether Google plans to more honest and direct with its staff.

CNBC obtained audio from an end-of-year all-hands meeting hosted by Google CEO Sundar Pichai earlier this month. During the meeting Pichai read out an employee question which had been submitted via the company's internal system Dory.

The question was: "It seems like responses to Dory have gotten increasingly more lawyer-like with canned phrases or platitudes, which seem to ignore the questions being ask [sic]. Are we planning on bringing candor, honesty, humility and frankness back to Dory answers or continuing down a bureaucratic path?"

Google employees are able to vote on questions submitted through Dory, and per CNBC the question received 673 votes.

Pichai appeared to blame leaks to the press as one reason why speakers' answers at meetings might seem artificial.

"Sometimes, I do think that people are unforgiving for small mistakes. I do think people realize that answers can be quoted anywhere, including outside the company. I think that makes people very careful," he said.

"Trust and candor has to go both ways," Pichai added.

Pichai also said the company's massive size and the pandemic forcing meetings to be held virtually were contributing factors.

"I've noticed more people reading off screens during the pandemic and so I think some of it contributes to answers feeling canned," Pichai said. "I think people are always nervous to answer in this setting," he added.

Per CNBC, Pichai said the concern raised was "good feedback."

Google has faced widespread employee discontent before the pandemic. In 2018 over 20,000 Google employees staged a walkout in protest against the company's handling of sexual harassment.

Google employees formed their first-ever union in January of this year. The union called on the company to change how it handles sexual misconduct claims in July.

Sri Lanka will use tea to pay off its $251 million oil debt to Iran
insider@insider.com (Carla Mozée) 

Tamil women pick tea leaves in the highlands of Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka.

 Getty Images

Sri Lanka reached an agreement to send tea to Iran to settle a $251 million oil debt, according to reports.

Sri Lanka wasn't able to pay the debt via other means as US sanctions prohibit dealings with Iranian banks.

But Sri Lanka said its tea-barter plan does not violate UN or US sanctions against Iran.

Sri Lanka will send tea to Iran to clear its debt for past oil imports, with the south Asian country turning to the commodity as a payment method in the face of shrinking foreign reserves and sanctions on Iran, according to news reports Wednesday.

Representatives from the two countries on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding that stipulates Sri Lanka will settle $251 million in oil import dues to Iran by bartering tea, the Tehran Times reported, citing Iran's Trade Promotion Organization.

Sri Lanka plans to send $5 million worth of tea to Iran each month until the debt is settled, said Ramesh Pathirana, head of Sri Lanka's plantation ministry, according to a BBC News report.

State-run Ceylon Petroleum Corp. has a $250.9 million debt to the National Iranian Oil Co. Sri Lanka wasn't able to settle the debt through other means as US sanctions prohibit dealings with Iranian banks, but the country said the new arrangement will not violate US or UN sanctions,

Tea "has been categorized as a food item under humanitarian grounds while none of the black-listed Iranian Banks will be involved in the equation," said Pathirana, according to the news site EconomyNext.

The barter agreement also comes as Sri Lanka is undergoing severe financial stress. It's facing a fall in foreign-exchange reserves against high external debt payments and limited financing inflows, Fitch Ratings said last week in downgrading Sri Lanka's sovereign rating to CC from CCC. The downgrade reflects Fitch's view that Sri Lanka, which is among the world's top tea producers, has an increased probability of a default event in the coming months.

The country's foreign exchange reserves have dropped by roughly $2 billion since August, to $1.6 billion at end of November, or the equivalent to less than one month of current external payments, said Fitch. The ratings group said Sri Lanka faces foreign-currency debt service payments of $6.9 billion in 2022.

The country's external finances are also challenged in part by a slide in remittances and the blow dealt by the coronavirus pandemic to the economy, as tourism is a key driver, said Fitch.
Read the original article on Business Insider

DOESN'T REPLACE SEX ED & FREE BIRTH CONTROL

After SCOTUS hearing, a new look at baby 'safe haven' laws

PHOENIX (AP) — For years, Nicole Olson had longed for a baby and gone through a rigorous and emotional adoption process. Then Olson and her husband got a call asking if they'd like to adopt a newborn. That day. As soon as possible

.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The baby had been relinquished through what’s known as a safe haven law. Such laws, which exist in every state, allow parents to leave a baby at a safe location without criminal consequences. The laws began to pass in state legislatures in the early 2000s in response to reports of gruesome baby killings and abandonments, which received copious media attention. Infants are at the highest risk of being killed in their first day of life, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Olson rushed to a Target, filled four carts with baby stuff and was home with the newborn boy by dinnertime. Ten years later, the baby Olson and her husband, Michael, named Porter is thriving. He's athletic, funny and has adjusted well after a rough time during the pandemic, Olson said.

Safe haven laws drew attention this month when U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett raised the role they play in the debate around abortion rights. Barrett made the comments during a hearing this month on a Mississippi law that would ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy — and possibly upend abortion rights established by the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion throughout the United States, and upheld by the court's 1992 ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

Barrett, with a long record of personal opposition to abortion, zeroed in on a key argument against forcing women into parenthood, suggesting safe haven laws address those concerns. “Why don’t the safe haven laws take care of that problem?” she asked.

Julie Rikelman, the attorney arguing against the Mississippi law, rebutted that argument, saying abortion rights are not just about forced motherhood but about forced pregnancy.

“It imposes unique physical demands and risks on women and, in fact, has impact on all of their lives, on their ability to care for other children, other family members, on their ability to work. And, in particular, in Mississippi, those risks are alarmingly high,” said Rikelman, of the Center for Reproductive Rights.

In a traditional adoption, a family knows who the mother is. They have her medical history and often keep a relationship with her.

That’s what Olson, a Phoenix-area high school teacher, was expecting when she and her husband worked with a private agency after years of trying other routes. Their son, Paul, who was 7 years old at the time, was also eager for a sibling.

But when they met their newborn, the couple didn’t know his exact date of birth, his race, or any pertinent medical information.

“We didn’t really know what we were walking into. It’s just one of those things where it’s a total leap of faith,” Olson said. “But I feel like that’s true of any child, whether it’s your biological or adopted.”

It’s hard to find critics of safe haven laws, and advocates say if they save even one baby from being killed, they are worthwhile.

But some question their efficacy.

Adam Pertman, president and CEO of The National Center on Adoption and Permanency, said the laws' effectiveness, including in preventing death, aren’t studied enough.

“It’s flawed from the get-go because a woman who would put her kid in a trash can is not instead going to see a sign and say ‘Oh I’ll go to the police station instead,’” he said, adding that a woman in that situation is “not cogent enough to make a decision, or she wouldn’t put her kid in the trash can.”

Pertman said safe haven laws don’t address the needs a woman might have if she were in such a crisis that she’d hurt her child, nor do they provide resources for someone in need.

Pertman says further restricting abortion access, or overturning Roe v. Wade altogether, could result in more children being left at safe havens and not adopted the traditional way — with medical background and thorough health information.

There isn’t a national database that tracks the number of babies turned over through safe haven laws, but the National Safe Haven Alliance, a nonprofit that promotes the laws and provides resources to parents in need, collects figures from most states each year.

Slightly over 4,000 babies have been surrendered since the first law took effect in 1999, according to both the organization and the CDC, which put out a report in 2020.

The CDC found that a majority of infant homicides that take place on the day of birth are committed by young, unmarried mothers with lower education levels who had not sought prenatal care, and that they’re often associated with a hidden, unplanned pregnancy and with giving birth at home.

The study found that the overall infant homicide rate was 13% lower in the years since safe haven laws were adopted nationwide. The study compared data from 1989 to 1998 to data from 2008 to 2017. Every state had adopted safe haven laws by 2008.

The number of babies killed during their first day of life dropped by nearly 67%, according to the study. But most homicide victims were too old to have been relinquished under safe haven laws at the time of their deaths. In 11 states and Puerto Rico, only infants who are 72 hours old or younger can be relinquished to a designated safe haven, while 19 states accept infants up to 1 month old, and other states have varying age limits in their statutes.

The CDC recommends that states “evaluate the effectiveness of their Safe Haven Laws and other prevention strategies to ensure they are achieving the intended benefits of preventing infant homicides.”

A vast majority of child welfare advocates praise safe haven laws, saying they keep babies alive and safe when a birth parent isn’t able to care for them. The babies are adopted quickly, rarely going through foster care.

But many caution that safe haven placement as an alternative to abortion is flawed: It doesn’t consider the health and economic risks a woman faces in pregnancy, nor does it account for the risks of childbirth in the nation with the highest maternal mortality rate among developed countries.

Olson helps with an organization that advocates for safe haven laws and hopes more people learn about them.

“The biggest message I’ve been trying to send out is when you have a desperate situation, somebody will be there to help," Olson said.

___

Galván writes about issues impacting Latinos in the U.S. for the AP’s Race and Ethnicity team. Follow her on Twitter.

Astrid Galvan , The Associated Press

Chile's tattooed president-elect honors homeland in ink

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — When Gabriel Boric is sworn in as Chile's president he'll not only be the youngest to lead the South American country but also the first in Latin America to sport several tattoos.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The question is whether he'll openly display them.

One person hoping he does is Yumbel Góngora, the self-proclaimed “tattoo dissident” who inked the three elaborate designs that fill Boric's arms and back with sweeping imagery from his native Patagonia region.

“It's important that a person never forgets their roots. That always keeps you focused on where you are and what’s important ... not get lost in the fame,” Gongora told The Associated Press while taking a break at her parlor in downtown Santiago decorated with artwork containing feminist slogans.

Boric, 35, scored a historic victory in Sunday's runoff over a one-time admirer of Donald Trump after campaigning on a promise to attack the nagging poverty and inequality that he and leftist supporters argue is the unacceptable underbelly of a free market model imposed decades ago by the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

Since his days as a student protest leader, Boric has made a career of flouting conventions. He shunned the traditional suit and tie when he was elected to congress in 2014 and instead wore rock band T-shirts, jeans and once even a Mohawk, all the while drawing the ire of traditionalists.

“I couldn't care less,” he said at the time, dismissing the conventions as “a tool of the elites to distinguish themselves from the low people.”

But he adopted a decidedly more conformist look in the run up to Sunday's runoff election — still no tie, but a dark sport coat, dress shirts and well-groomed beard — to court more conservative Chileans on edge about voting for an untested millennial who counts among his supporters Chile's Communist Party.

Góngora said she studied old maps of Chile for months in coming up with the first tattoo she designed for Boric nearly a decade ago: a map of the ice-capped islands and labyrinthine fjords near where both grew up in Punta Arenas, at the tip of the South American continent.

Later, she designed two more: a lenga tree twisted into knots by the strong southern winds and an end-of-world lighthouse shining into emptiness that Boric had carved into his left arm during a battle with depression.

“A lonely Magellan lighthouse among the stormy and mysterious seas of southern Patagonia,” Boric said in a 2018 social media post showcasing Góngora's body art. “I'm going to live there one day but in the meantime it lives with me.”

Góngora, whose dyed green hair, piercings and tattoos are something of a walking advertisement for her university-trained artistry, said Boric always stood out among her urban hipster clientele because of his humility — something she attributes to his upbringing far from the capital.

But she felt betrayed by her fellow activist when in November 2019 he negotiated a deal with allies of President Sebastian Pinera to put an end to nationwide protests in exchange for a commitment to hold a plebiscite on rewriting the Pinochet-era constitution. It was a risky political decision that at the time cost Boric the support of hardliners like Góngora, who identifies as a “anarchist-feminist.”

Like huge numbers of often apathetic Chilean youth, she nonetheless voted for Boric in the runoff, fearing his conservative opponent — José Antonio Kast — would be a major setback for women, indigenous rights and Chile's LGBTQ community.

In her binder sits the sketch for yet another tattoo for Boric — its design a secret — that the two discussed a while ago. With the demands of his new job and the future of Chile riding on his shoulders, she doesn't know if she get to ink it, though.

“I'd hope he doesn't stop being a rocker,” Góngora said. “But I don't know if that will fly in politics. Then again, nobody ever expected such a young president.”

___

Associated Press writer Joshua Goodman in Miami contributed to this report.

Patricia Luna, The Associated Press

H1 IS AVIAN FLU

High pathogenic Avian Influenza on N.L. exhibition farm, area under quarantine: CFIA

Canada's food safety watchdog says it has confirmed cases of high pathogenic Avian Influenza at an exhibition farm in Newfoundland and Labrador.© Provided by The Canadian Press

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says in a release Wednesday that the farm on the Avalon Peninsula does not produce birds for sale.

The agency says as the birds infected with H5N1 were located on an exhibition farm, and no other cases have been reported in the vicinity, Canada's status as 'free from Avian Influenza' remains in place.

It says no trade restrictions are expected as a result of this detection and the outbreak has been reported to the World Organisation for Animal Health.

As a precaution, the agency says it has placed the farm under quarantine and established a 10 kilometre zone with movement control measures and enhanced biosecurity to limit the potential spread of the disease.

It says Avian Influenza circulates naturally in birds and recent detections in Europe indicate an even higher risk of the disease in North American poultry flocks this year.

"This makes it more important than ever for anyone raising poultry to remain vigilant against AI and ensure they have effective biosecurity measures in place," the agency said Wednesday. "Biosecurity is a key tool for preventing the transmission of this disease to North American farm birds."

The agency says Avian Influenza, often called "bird flu," can affect several species of food-producing birds including chickens, turkeys, quails, and guinea fowl, as well as pet and wild birds.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza can cause severe illness and death in birds.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 22, 2021

The Canadian Press

Multiple Salad Kits Have Been Recalled In Canada Due To 'Microbial Contamination'

If you recently purchased a salad kit from the grocery store, you'll definitely want to double-check your items since 

Health Canada has just issued a slew of recalls.

© Provided by Narcity

On Tuesday, December 21, Health Canada issued a recall for various salads from the brand Fresh Express due to possible listeria contamination.

According to the government department, food contaminated with listeria may not look or smell like it's gone bad, but could still make you sick.

"Symptoms can include vomiting, nausea, persistent fever, muscle aches, severe headache and neck stiffness," it said. "Although infected pregnant women may experience only mild, flu-like symptoms, the infection can lead to premature delivery, infection of the newborn or even stillbirth. In severe cases of illness, people may die."

The affected Fresh Express products are:
Organic Salad Kit Organic Sweet Dijon Onion (215 grams)
Organic Salad Kit Organic Classic Caesar (278 grams)
Iceberg Garden Salad (340 grams)
Kit Caesar Supreme (298 grams)
Kit Caesar Salad (278 grams)
3 Color Deli Coleslaw - Garden (397 grams)
Kit Bacon Caesar (283 grams)
Iceberg Garden Salad (680 grams)
Spinach (454 grams)
Twisted Caesar Chopped Salad Kit Asian Caesar (272 grams)
Chopped Kit Sunflower Crisp (320 grams)
Chopped Kit Southwest (326 grams)
Chopped Kit Asian (349 grams)
Sweet Butter Salad (170 grams)
Garden Shreds Iceberg (227 grams)
Twisted Caesar Chopped Salad Kit Classic Caesar (266 grams)
Veggie Lover's Salad (312 grams)
Green & Crisp Salad (312 grams)
Spinach (227 grams)
Hearts of Romaine (255 grams)
American Salad (312 grams)
Twisted Caesar Chopped Salad Kit Avocado Caesar (275 grams)
Baby Spinach (142 grams)

All affected products have a lot code beginning with "Z324" through "Z350." They were sold in Ontario and Manitoba but may have been sold in other parts of the country as well.

Health Canada advises that you throw the items out ASAP if you have them in your fridge or return them to where you bought them.

If you think you've become sick from consuming the product, Health Canada recommends you call your doctor immediately.

Canada Is Set To Update Its Definition Of A 'Lockdown' So More People Can Get COVID Benefits

Canada Edition (EN) 10 hrs ago

The federal government has announced its plan to update its definition of a "lockdown" in Canada, which will enable more workers and businesses to apply for and receive COVID-19 benefits.

© Provided by Narcity

Speaking on Wednesday, December 22, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland joined Justin Trudeau, Dr. Theresa Tam and other federal officials to share the update.

"Today, through regulatory authorities that were approved with the passage of Bill C-2, we are announcing our decision to temporarily expand the definition of a 'lockdown,'" Freeland confirmed.

She said the change will enable businesses to access wage and rent support programs if they have faced capacity restrictions of 50% or more.

Previously, a region was required to be under an official lockdown for local businesses and workers to be able to access certain COVID-19 benefits.

It meant that — despite strict restrictions in some parts of the country — Canadians were unable to access support like the Canada Worker Lockdown Benefit (CWLB).

"For workers, our decision means that if you are working in a region where the provincial or territorial government has introduced capacity restrictions of 50% or more, and if you have lost 50% or more of your income as a direct result of those restrictions, you can qualify for the Canada Worker Lockdown Benefit," Freeland continued.

The CWLB offers $300 per week to workers to supplement lost wages as a result of pandemic-related closures.

According to the federal government's website, the easiest way for Canadians to apply for the CWLB is online via the CRA's My Account portal.

The changes are set to be effective as of last Sunday, December 19 and will run through until February 12, 2022.

Freeland concluded by reassuring Canadians that they can be "confident in the knowledge that the federal government will be there to financially support workers and businesses as we finish this fight."

This article’s cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.

Competition underway to develop carbon-capture centres in Alberta

Kyle Bakx 

Carbon pricing and the pressure to reduce global warming is sparking competition in Alberta to secure space underground to stash away harmful greenhouse gas emissions generated by oil and gas operations, agriculture and other industries.

Enthusiasm for carbon capture and storage (CCS) facilities has returned to the province more than a dozen years after former Premier Ed Stelmach committed $2 billion to kickstart the nascent industry. To this day, the number of CCS facilities can be counted on one hand, but that could soon change.

The provincial government has begun accepting proposals to set up CCS hubs throughout Alberta. The hub operator will be chosen tolook after injecting carbon emissions underground, in what could be described as underground carbon landfills, and ensure the gases are safely deposited.

At the same time, the federal government is developing an investment tax credit to incentivize more CCS construction to help reduce the country's emissions.

Several companies like Shell Canada and Enbridgeare already publicly announcing their interest in developing large-scale CCS projects in Alberta as they compete to secure the rights to pore space between rock, usually a few kilometres underground.

It's a technology that has its critics, both in terms of how realistically it can be scaled and whether it makes financial sense for governments and industry to pursue. Last year, the International Energy Agency noted CCS "has not lived up to its promise" yet as its been slow to develop, but there was growing investment worldwide

With most plans to reach net-zero by 2050, including Canada's, counting on some sort of CCS, many in Alberta are keen to take part

.

© Kyle Bakx/CBC Quest is located at Shell's Scotford complex northeast of Edmonton. After the emissions are captured using a product called amine, the CO2 is pressurized into a liquid and transported 65 kilometres by pipeline, then injected underground.

Competition underway

As companies announce their own targets for net-zero emissions by 2050, most include plans to reduce emissions with efficiencies and new technology, but also, almost always, a mention of carbon sequestration.

Shell Canada has operated the Quest CCS project near Fort Saskatchewan, northeast of Edmonton, for more than six years and is one of the players vying for pore space from the Alberta government.

"This is going to be a really important part ... of ensuring that within the country, Canada, we can meet the obligations and commitments to net-zero by 2050. And of course, avoid climate change of more than 1.5 Celsius," said Mark Pattenden, a senior vice-president with Shell and leader of its Scotford complex, which includes an oilsands refinery, chemical facilities and the Quest project.

Shell is proposing a new CCS project called Polaris, which could be built adjacent to Quest.

© Kyle Bakx/CBC The Quest project is monitored at a control centre located at the Scotford site.

Whoever is chosen as an operator of a CCS hub facility will not only be allowed to sequester its own emissions, but must also accept CO2 captured from other nearby facilities and inject them underground. The operator would charge a fee for transportation and access to the system.

The provincial government wants to create a hub with a single operator, compared to allowing several companies to drill injection wells in the same area, to improve safety and monitoring, while keeping costs low.

"Industry players must uphold those highest standards to give the public confidence because if there is a, God forbid, a rogue player in there, that's not going to inspire confidence in anyone, even if we've been doing it for many years," said Pattenden.
Plenty of bids expected

Suncor, ATCO, TC Energy, Pembina Pipeline, Capital Power and Enbridge are among the companies involved in proposing CCS projects in the province.

Some companies, including a consortium of oilsands producers, want government support to construct the facilities because they say CCS is a cost, rather than a money-making venture. Others, including Shell, say the projects could be built without public money based on the current and projected price of the carbon tax and the Clean Fuel Standard.

The federal carbon tax is set to rise to $170 a tonne by 2030 from the current $40, making it more expensive to pollute and making carbon sequestration more economically competitive. Shell's Quest cost about $80 per tonne to construct and operate and the company had said any future facilities would be more efficient.

© Kyle Bakx/CBC The injection well at Enhance Energy's Clive project 

is used to send CO2 emissions underground.

The Alberta government declined an interview request and wouldn't say how many hubs it plans to create or how many proposals it has received. Government officials say the first successful hub operator will be located in the industrial heartland area near Edmonton and will be announced by March 2022. Applications for other parts of the province will be accepted beginning in the spring.

"What you don't want is a proliferation of small projects, I think, because we want very technically sophisticated people operating these injection facilities," said Nigel Bankes, a professor emeritus of law at the University of Calgary, who has studied the liabilities and regulations of the CCS industry for almost a decade.

Meanwhile, the federal government has a goal of reducing emissions by at least 15 megatonnes of CO2 annually with its proposed investment credit for CCS projects. Canada produces about 700 megatonnes of CO2 annually.

Alberta and Saskatchewan could store an estimated 190,000 to 640,000 megatonnes of CO2, according to the Canada Energy Regulator.

Fertilizer producers, natural-gas fired power plants, and oilpatch companies are among the variety of firms wanting to invest in CCS. The City of Medicine Hat is also applying to secure pore space to store the emissions from its power plants as well as carbon dioxide from heavy industries in the city.

Already, some companies are putting carbon to use in the province and are ready to expand.

"Our geology is second to none in the world for doing this," said Candice Paton, with Calgary-based Enhance Energy, which operates a CCS facility north of Red Deer. (That facility uses a process called enhanced oil recovery or EOR, where captured CO2 is used to help extract more crude from underground. EOR is excluded from the new provincial hub system.)

"This is the opportunity of a generation for Alberta, to allow industry to find value in making sure their emissions are being permanently sequestered," said Paton.

© Mark Matulis/CBC It's an exciting time in Alberta, says Enhance Energy's Candice Paton, as the CCS industry grows to include more large emitters from different industries across the province.

Environmental impact

There is a growing consensus among experts that CCS has a role to play in tackling climate change, said Sara Hastings-Simon, a University of Calgary assistant professor who focuses on sustainable energy development.

Still, it's important that industry find ways to reduce its emissions, before using carbon capture techniques.

"You're basically just paying to remove carbon," Hastings-Simon, who describes CCS as neither good nor bad, but a nuanced issue.

"You have a set of people who are legitimately pursuing a technology that is going to be a part of a net-zero future and then you have another set of people that are using it as a sort of justification for continuing to operate in the way that they have been," she said.

Some companies have said they would still like to construct CCS projects in Alberta outside of the proposed hub system, especially in remote areas where it could be expensive to build pipelines to transport carbon emissions to an injection facility.

AND CLOSER TO DRIED OUT OIL WELLS WHERE THE CO2 IS USED TO FRACK THEM

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for CCS 

© CBC

1% PER YEAR
Alberta registered nurses to vote on four-year deal with pay hike of 4.25 per cent

EDMONTON — An Alberta nurses' union is asking its members to sign off on a proposed four-year collective agreement that amounts to pay increases of 4.25 per cent.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The increase is among the recommendations from a third party mediating the agreement between Alberta Health Services and the United Nurses of Alberta.

The union says the deal also includes a one-time lump sum payment of one per cent for 2021 in recognition of nurses’ contribution during the COVID-19 pandemic.

There will be $5 million a year toward recruitment and retention strategies in rural and remote areas, and $2.5 million a year for relocation assistance.

The UNA, which represents 30,000 registered nurses and allied health-care workers, says the proposal is a reversal of the government’s earlier position to cut nurses' wages, along with other rollbacks.

Finance Minister Travis Toews says the deal, if approved, will lay the groundwork for long-term stability in the health-care system while recognizing the work of nurses.

"I respect the front-line and unique clinical role nurses have played — and continue to play — during the COVID pandemic," Toews said in a statement Wednesday.

"This deal recognizes their hard work and dedication, and the many sacrifices nurses have made since the pandemic began.

"Out of respect for the union's process I'm unable to speak to the specifics of the deal at this time, but I look forward to the results of the ratification vote."

UNA labour relations director David Harrigan characterized the latest round of negotiations as the most difficult in his 30 years' experience.

"We are glad Alberta Health Services was prepared to move away from its initial demands for wage cuts and to drop its efforts to impose more than 200 rollbacks," said Harrigan.

"The bargaining committee feels strongly this agreement will benefit all UNA members, and also be fair to the people of Alberta."

The deal would be retroactive to April 1, 2020, and expire on March 31, 2024.

A ratification vote is set for Jan. 17.

It had been an acrimonious process.

Toews initially demanded a three per cent rollback for members of UNA and suggested nurses were putting their needs ahead of their patients' by pushing to resume collective bargaining during the pandemic.

Harrigan in turn accused Toews of "grossly insulting" hypocrisy from a government that continued collective talks with physicians and other public sector unions, but had no time for nurses.

Toews had also said Alberta nurses were overpaid compared with other jurisdictions, making about 5.6 per cent more by comparison, and that those wages could not be sustained in a province trying to bring its budget back in balance.

"Alberta can no longer afford to be an outlier,'' Toews said in a statement as late as July 6.

The impasse had appeared headed to a strike vote by nurses.

Premier Jason Kenney's government was also facing the optics of slashing the take-home pay of front-line caregivers working to shore up a health system pushed to the breaking point by waves of COVID-19 patients.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 22, 2021.

Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press

THE SIGNS SAY IT ALL

More than 1,370 Albertans died of drug poisonings between January and October, marking deadliest year on record
Anna Junker 

More than 1,370 Albertans died of a drug poisoning between January and October, making it the deadliest year on record since tracking deaths began, the latest substance use surveillance data shows.

© Provided by Edmonton Journal

 Participants in International Overdose Awareness Day march through downtown Edmonton on Aug. 31, 2021.

On Wednesday afternoon, the province’s substance use surveillance data which tracks drug poisoning deaths was updated to include drug poisoning deaths that occurred in September and October.

According to the data, there were 156 drug poisoning deaths in September and 153 in October, bringing the total number of Albertans who have died from an overdose to 1,372.

There were a total of 1,351 drug poisoning deaths in 2020, making 2021 the deadliest year on record since the province began tracking numbers in 2016.

Edmonton continues to lead municipalities in the number of poisoning deaths. In September, there were 62 deaths with 59 of those opioid-related, while 57 occurred in October, including 56 that were opioid-related.

A total of 512 Edmontonians have died of a drug poisoning between January and October this year and of those 473 were opioid-related.

Calgary saw a total of 48 drug poisoning deaths in both September and October. There were 45 specific opioid-related deaths in September and 46 in October.

A total of 438 Calgarians have died and of those 390 were opioid-related.

Drug poisoning deaths also rose in August to 129, from 118 previously reported.

The province also released a report on the impacts drug poisonings are having on First Nations.

According to the report, in 2020 the opioid poisoning death rate for First Nations people was 142.8 per 100,000 people. This is compared to 19.5 per 100,000 people among the general population.

Between 2016 to 2019, the annual rate of opioid poisoning deaths per 100,000 people increased year over year on average by 16 per cent. However, the report states, the rate increased by 105 per cent from 2019 to 2020.

In a statement, associate minister of mental health and addictions Mike Ellis said the current crisis has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the fourth wave fuelled further fatalities.

“This trend is being seen in other jurisdictions, including British Columbia where 201 suspected overdose deaths were recorded in October alone,” Ellis said.

“My heart goes out to the families who have lost loved ones as a result of the illness of addiction, whether it be from opioids or any other substance. It is evident that addiction affects everyone in our communities.”

He noted Alberta’s commitment to funding addiction treatment spaces, and supported medication-based treatment such as Suboxone and Sublocade .

“With the onset of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, it is uncertain whether the pandemic impacts will carry into the new year,” Ellis said.

“With current world events, we expect it could get worse before it gets better. We will do everything we can to ensure Albertans continue to be able to access a comprehensive system that meets people where they are at and helps them get where they need to go.”

Alyssa Miller, founder and strategic director of Boots on Ground, a rapid, mobile outreach response to the opioid crisis, said more needs to be done.

“It’s soul crushing,” said Miller. “These are entirely preventable deaths, and I am so blown away by the lackluster response to one of the deadliest crises that we’re experiencing with this toxic supply and these drug poisoning deaths.”

Miller said Alberta’s drug supply is contaminated and a safe supply is needed. She said there also aren’t enough supervised consumption services available.

“The current government’s reactive, ideologically based recovery system is not working,” said Miller. “People are dying at unprecedented levels in Alberta and we see it on the frontlines. People who use drugs deserve compassion, dignity and personal autonomy and the current policies are stigmatizing and continuing to criminalize our community members.”

Miller said people using illicit and criminalized substances on the street don’t want to die but that’s what is happening because there is no drug checking, no regulated supply and they are not meeting people where they are at — not everybody is ready to go into treatment, she said.

If you or someone you know is using substances, do not use alone. If you are using alone, you can contact the National Overdose Response Service at 1-888-688-NORS for support, or download the BRAVE or DORS app.

— With files from Kellen Taniguchi

RICHEST PROVINCE IN CANADA

'Peril or promise': Long-term solution needed to help homeless in Alberta cities


The twinkling of festive lights in reds, greens and golds in Alberta's two major city centres is little comfort for thousands of unhoused people trying to survive another winter cold spell.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

On a frigid December night in Calgary, shoppers carried presents along the downtown light-rail transit corridor, passing dozens of people huddling in doorways or near heated bus shelters.

Three people, surrounded with shopping carts, used cardboard boxes and an umbrella to try and stay warm. It was -28 C with wind chill.

Homeless shelters are near capacity but open their doors to all when temperatures become unbearable. Still, some choose to stay outside.

Dakota Casey said it's safer that way.

"I've had food stolen, my phone stolen out of my pocket. I have had money go missing and people have taken my boots while I'm sleeping, my backpack from under my head," he told The Canadian Press.

Casey and his husband, Nathan Lunn, know there are dangers sleeping rough, too, and take turns staying awake to stay safe.

The unrelenting chill is a constant threat. Casey was treated recently for frostbite on his hands.

A tent donated by the not-for-profit relief agency BeTheChangeYYC will make living outside slightly better, Casey said.

"Right now it's just survival ... if I sleep in a tent for Christmas and I have to use motor oil for heat, you know what? That and my husband is all I really care about having."

Chaz Smith, founder of BeTheChangeYYC, was once homeless himself. His team has helped more than 15,000 people this year with warming and emergency supplies.

"It's extremely dangerous, especially if you get a little bit wet," said Smith. "They're people, too, and they deserve housing. They deserve heat. No one deserves to be out here and get frostbite and amputations and die outside in the cold."

Tim Richter, CEO of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, said the homeless sector has been battered over the last two years and now the Omicron COVID-19 variant poses greater risk.

He said homeless camps are growing across Canada and there are more people without housing. There are also compounding crises as housing affordability deteriorates and drug overdose deaths spike.

We're at the point of "peril or promise," said Richter. Either the varied threats continue to drive homelessness, or communities and multiple levels of government follow through on promises to address the challenge.

In October last year, Ottawa announced $500 million for rapid housing in 15 Canadian cities, including Edmonton and Calgary. That showed how fast support can be provided, said Richter.

Both Alberta cities also are to see funding from the provincial government. The province said in November it would be spending $21.5 million to ease capacity issues at homeless and women's shelters.

This month, Calgary city council approved $750,000 in emergency funds to help the homeless.

Commitments must not only be maintained but expanded to urgently address the growing crisis, said Richter. Otherwise peril will prevail.

In Edmonton, freezing rain that pelted the city in early December turned green spots where unhoused people had pitched tents hard and icy.

In the bush of a river valley park, a tarp hung over a fallen tree branch. Ice made it difficult for an outreach worker from Boyle Street Community Services to climb up the hill to check on potential occupants.

No one was inside as DougCooke peeled back one side of a tent. Someone's belongings were scattered on a foam mattress and in the surrounding snow. Clothing, cigarettes and food packages were frozen to the ground.

There were similar setups propped up downtown. A man with a blanket draped over his head sat near vents pushing out warm air.

Jared Tkachuk, senior programs manager at Boyle Street, said COVID-19 has cut space at shelters, leaving hundreds unable to find refuge, including an influx of people experiencing homelessness for the first time after losing jobs during the pandemic.

The risk of dying outside is high and some lives have already been lost, if not by freezing, then by fires ignited to keep warm, said Tkachuk. Gangs also prey on camps.

"Houselessness can be solved with housing. If those people get four walls and a roof above their head ... they'll be OK," he said.

"But a lot of the folks that outreach teams are working with, who are sleeping outside for years ... (they) are actually looking for a home. They're looking for a community."

It's not just an urban problem, said Dean Kurpjuweit, executive director of the Mustard Seed, a not-for-profit supporting the poor and homeless in Edmonton.

He said the pandemic has exposed a lack of funding and services in certain jurisdictions, especially rural areas.

In Wetaskiwin, southeast of Edmonton, that scarcity delayed the opening of a warming shelter while dozens slept in an open field camp.

"I'm pleased with the Band-Aids that have been put into place, but that's not going to fix the long-term problem," said Kurpjuweit, who fears increased support during COVID-19 will fade as a semblance of normalcy returns.

"If our homeless population across the province doubled, if not tripled, what are we doing to turn that around?"

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 22, 2021.

Alanna Smith and Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press

Alberta NDP opposition renews call

for paid sick leave as Omicron cases rise


Hinshaw: Omicron wave could be worst yet

CTV News Edmonton
Published Dec. 22, 2021 

Alberta's NDP is renewing a call for the province to legislate paid sick leave for all Alberta workers, but the government insists the current supports are working.

NDP labour critic Christina Gray says her party has legislation ready to go that would ensure Albertans are able to stay home when sick.

The NDP is pointing to provinces including B.C., Ontario and Manitoba as well as Ottawa's new paid sick leave program.

With the new variant spreading in Alberta, the NDP says paid sick leave is more important than ever.

"Paid sick leave is an incredibly important piece of this puzzle and we are calling on the Government again to follow the lead of other provinces and the federal government and make paid sick leave available to all Albertans today," said Gray.

NDP asks Kenney to 'come to work' and reopen legislature

Opposition pushes for paid sick leave to curb COVID-19 spread in workplaces

New legislation gives Albertans 3 hours of paid leave to get COVID-19 vaccine

In a statement, the province said that all employees who need to self-isolate can take a 14 day unpaid leave and have access to a variety of supports, regardless of their length of service.

"We encourage employers and employees to work together to find alternate arrangements that allow employees to keep working even if they cannot come into a work site," the statement said.

Alberta’s COVID-19 case count ballooned on Wednesday to its highest point since the start of October with 1,346 new cases reported.

UCP defends Christmas party just hours after 'strongly encouraging' cancellations


Sean Amato
CTV News Edmonton
Updated Dec. 22, 2021

The United Conservative Party carried on with a Christmas reception at an Edmonton restaurant Tuesday night, just hours after officials asked Albertans to cancel parties and limit contacts to help fight COVID-19.

"We strongly encourage workplaces to cancel any social gatherings, even if they're in a venue that's participating in the Restrictions Exemption Program," Health Minister Jason Copping said at a provincial announcement that started at 3:30 p.m.

At 6:30 p.m., the doors opened to the UCP's capital region Members Christmas Reception at Parlour Italian Kitchen and Bar just a few blocks from the Alberta legislature.

It wasn't clear how many UCP MLAs were at the party, but the invite said some would be in attendance.

"Albertans are frustrated. The hypocrisy we continue to see from this government undermines our public health response and exhausts Albertans,” NDP MLA Christina Gray said.

On Wednesday, a UCP spokesperson confirmed the gathering, but said it was compliant with provincial COVID-19 rules.

200 PEOPLE IS NOT COMPLIANT

"The Premier's advice to Albertans was given only a short time before our event was to begin, and given our compliance with the REP and adequate spacing in the venue with reduced capacity, we decided to proceed," UCP spokesperson Dave Prisco wrote in a statement.

Prisco ignored a question about how many people were in attendance, but said a similar event Thursday night in Calgary was cancelled " in accordance with the premier's advice."

A spokesperson said Premier Jason Kenney and Copping were not at the party.

THEY LIED

Bars and restaurants were allowed to be open on Wednesday, with masking, vaccine and distancing rules in place.

Kenney announced revised public health restrictions Wednesday in an effort to slow the spread of the Omicron variant, and he also asked Albertans to voluntarily reduce interactions.

"We are appealing to Albertans to reduce their number of daily in person contacts by half over the coming weeks," Kenney said.

"We also need Albertans to make personal choices in their daily lives that will slow transmission."

'JASON KENNEY LACKS ALL LEADERSHIP'

Kenney and the UCP apologized in January after several MLAs travelled internationally despite a federal travel warning.

He also apologized in June for not following COVID-19 rules during a rooftop dinner.

UCP MLAs were specifically told not to travel internationally this Christmas and NDP Leader Rachel Notley said her team had cancelled their travel plans.

"When we saw case counts rising, and other provinces impose restrictions, we cancelled this month's holiday staff party to reduce in-person contacts. It was the responsible thing to do," Notley tweeted on Wednesday.

"To have the health minister yesterday tell all Albertans, and all Alberta workplaces, 'we think you should be cancelling your holiday parties,' and the UCP to still hold those shows that Jason Kenney lacks all leadership," Gray said.

Invites for the party were sent to members on Nov. 27, and early-bird tickets were sold for $55. The invite said "very special guests from our MLA team and our conservative movement," would be in attendance.



An invite that the UCP sent members for a Christmas reception that was held on Dec 21, 2021.


Parlour Italian Kitchen and Bar in downtown Edmonton on Dec 22, 2021. (Sean Amato/CTV News Edmonton)

UCP holds Christmas party after asking Albertans to scale back close contacts

Tom Vernon 

GLOBAL NEWS

Hours after Premier Jason Kenney and Health Minister Jason Copping urged Albertans to cut down their close contacts by 50 per cent and cancel Christmas parties to slow the spread of the Omicron variant, members of the United Conservative Party gathered at a restaurant in Edmonton for a Christmas reception.

© Provided by Global News Edmonton area members of the United Conservative Party gather for a Christmas party in an Edmonton restaurant on December 21, 2021

"The Premier's advice to Albertans was given only a short time before our event was to begin," UCP director of communications Dave Prisco wrote in a statement.

"Given our compliance with the REP and adequate spacing in the venue with reduced capacity, we decided to proceed."

Photos obtained by Global News show among those in attendance was Justice Minister Kaycee Madu.

READ MORE: Omicron variant dominant in Alberta, premier urges Albertans to halve personal contacts

"The hypocrisy of this government continuing to ask Albertans to do what they say but not what they do is incredibly frustrating," NDP Labour Critic Christina Gray said in response to the gathering.

Gray points to last Christmas when several UCP MLAs and staffers travelled abroad as Albertans were being told to lockdown during the second wave of the pandemic, a scandal that became known as Aloha-gate, and then the June dinner on the Skypalace patio where Premier Kenney and senior members of his cabinet, including then Health Minister Tyler Shandro, broke social distancing rules.

READ MORE: 'If you're yelling at us… thank you': Alberta MLA on colleagues' travel during COVID-19

"It is frustrating, it is exhausting and Albertans are sick of it," she said.

Mount Royal University Political Scientist Duane Bratt agrees.

"There's a pattern here," Bratt told Global News, adding that in order for people to take restrictions and recommendations seriously, the governing party needs to walk the walk.

"Even if it's not legislated, even when you encourage people, you have to follow that."

READ MORE: 'I regret that': Kenney apologizes for Sky Palace dinner that broke COVID-19 rules

The UCP had a similar Christmas party planned for Calgary members on Wednesday night, that event has been cancelled.

UCP under fire after large party held hours after government pleads with Albertans to reduce contacts

By JOSH RITCHIE
Posted Dec 22, 2021

Members of Alberta's UCP can be seen inside a restaurant in Edmonton on Tuesday,
just hours after the party's leader, Jason Kenney, asked Albertans to avoid large gatherings.


SUMMARY


Around 200 members of the UCP were seen at the private gathering


According to sources, while the gathering was large, no COVID-19 protocols were broken


Another UCP Christmas party that was planned for Wednesday in Calgary has now been cancelled


Hours after asking Albertans to hold off on attending large gatherings, members of Alberta’s UCP government were seen attending a Christmas party in Edmonton on Tuesday.

According to sources CityNews spoke with, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and Health Minister Jason Copping were not present at the party, though some other familiar faces were seen.

Around 200 people were allegedly in attendance at the gathering, with Justice Minister Kaycee Madu and Minister Dale Nally both seen.

The event was held at The Parlour Italian Kitchen & Bar with restaurant staff confirming the entire venue had been bought out.

While the event was held by a large group, no COVID-19 protocols or restrictions were broken during the event.

On Tuesday, both Kenney and Copping pleaded with Albertans to consider making changes in their day-to-day lives over the holidays to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 and the new Omicron variant.

“These (new capacity limits) are largely focused at avoiding super spreader events by reducing contacts in large settings, like major events, large capacity venues and certain discretionary activities where there is a high risk of transmission,” said Kenney.

“While these changes look at reducing contacts in large settings, it’s important to remember that small everyday actions can have an important impact as well. And that is why we are appealing to Albertans to reduce their number of daily, in-person contacts by half over the coming weeks.”


The new capacity limits are set to come into effect on Friday at 12:01 a.m.

Another large event was planned for Wednesday night in Calgary, but not long after this story broke, the UCP cancelled the event.