From passerine birds to cranes - Neolithic bird hunting in Upper Mesopotamia

Peer-Reviewed Publication

STAATLICHE NATURWISSENSCHAFTLICHE SAMMLUNGEN BAYERNS

 

IMAGE: PILLAR 43 FROM GÖBEKLI TEPE DEPICTING A VULTURE WITH ITS WINGS SPREAD. VULTURES WERE NOT ONLY THE MOST IMPORTANT BIRDS IN THE ICONOGRAPHY OF EARLY NEOLITHIC HUNTER-GATHERER GROUPS, THEY WERE ALSO HUNTED. view more 

CREDIT: N. PÖLLATH, SNSB-SPM

Besides mammals, ranging from aurochs to hares, or fish, foragers also pursued an impressively large spectrum of bird species in Southeast Anatolia 11,000 years ago. They were hunted mainly, but not exclusively, in autumn and winter – at the time of year, when many bird species form larger flocks and migratory birds cross the area. The species lists are therefore very extensive: At the Early Neolithic settlement of Göbekli Tepe, for example, c.18 km northeast of present-day Şanlıurfa (SE Anatolia, Turkey), the researchers identified the remains of at least 84 bird species. Dr. Nadja Pöllath, curator at the Bavarian State Collection for Palaeoanatomy (Staatssammlung für Paläoanatomie München SNSB-SPM) and Prof. Dr. Joris Peters, chair of the Institute for Palaeoanatomy, Domestication Research and History of Veterinary Medicine at LMU München and director of the state collection, identified the Neolithic bird bones with the aid of the reference skeletons of the state collection.

The researchers were surprised by the large number of small passerine birds identified at Göbekli Tepe, comprising mainly starlings and buntings. In principle, the Early Neolithic inhabitants of Göbekli Tepe hunted birds in all habitats – mainly in the open grassland and wooded steppe in their direct surroundings, but also in the wetlands and gallery forest somewhat further away.

‘We do not know exactly, why they hunted so many small passerine birds at Göbekli Tepe. Due to their low live weight, the effort exceeds the meat yield by far. Perhaps they were simply a delicacy that enriched the menu in autumn, or they had a significance that we cannot deduce yet from the bone remains,’ Nadja Pöllath comments on her findings.

The inhabitants of Gusir Höyük, another Early Neolithic settlement on the shores of Lake Gusir, about 40 km south of the present-day provincial capital of Siirt, even further southeast in present-day Turkey, had a different approach: When fowling they pursued almost exclusively two species populating open hilly grasslands: the Chukar partridge (Alectoris chukar) and the grey partridge (Perdix perdix). They apparently ignored the avifauna of the nearby floodplains and the lake. Among several hundred fragments from Gusir Höyük, the archaeozoologists from Munich could not identify a single bone pertaining to waterfowl. ‘Gusir Höyük is the only Neolithic community in Upper Mesopotamia known to us that deliberately avoided wetlands and riverine landscapes when fowling, although they were present. Our results suggest that this was a cultural peculiarity of the Neolithic people inhabiting Gusir Höyük,’ said Prof. Dr. Joris Peters. ‘Our comparison of a number of Early Neolithic sites in the region revealed that the sites in the Euphrates Basin share many similarities regarding their meat procurement, while each community in the Tigris Basin seemingly developed its own subsistence strategy,’ adds Nadja Pöllath.

Neolithic settlers of Upper Mesopotamia hunted birds not only for their meat. Some species, such as cranes or raptors, certainly had a more symbolic meaning and served ritual purposes, the researchers suspect. In a future study, they will focus on these socio-cultural aspects of the human-avian relationship.

Tarsometatarsi (bone of the lower leg) of birds from the Göbekli Tepe site (from top to bottom): Eurasian jackdaw (Coloeus monedula), hooded crow (Corvus cornix), small duck (Anas crecca/Spatula querquedula), Chukar partridge (Alectoris chukar), medium-sized owl (Asio sp.).

Excavation at Gusir Höyük on the shores of Lake Gusir

CREDIT

J. Peters, LMU/SNSB-SPM

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JOURNAL

Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences

DOI

10.1007/s12520-023-01841-1 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Distinct modes and intensity of bird exploitation at the dawn of agriculture in the Upper Euphrates and Tigris River basins

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

25-Sep-2023

CRYPTOZOOLOGY

Are big cats prowling the UK? What science tells us

Egil Droge, Researcher of Conservation, University of Oxford
Fri, 25 August 2023 

THE CONVERSATION

Exploring the British countryside? Unlikely, says big cat expert. Karel Bartik/Shutterstock

Rumours that there are big cats in Britain stubbornly keep cropping up. The thought of a large predator lurking in the rural landscapes of Britain is an exciting one.

The most recent widely published claim of a big black cat in the UK does actually show a photo of a big cat species, which can be identified by the small ears relative to the size of the head. But this image turns out to have been photoshopped. The original image can be found on Getty Images, using the search term “big black cat sitting in grass”.

Dragonfly Films, the documentary makers who unearthed the photo, did not respond to a request for comment.

Often the story goes that big cats, once held in captivity, were set free to roam the British countryside when it became illegal for people to keep them as pets in 1976.

But the scientific evidence flies in the face of these tales.

First, it didn’t become illegal to keep big cats as pets. It just became a lot harder to keep them legally. In 2022 a survey of local council data found nearly 2,500 dangerous wild animals are kept by private collectors in England, including a cheetah, mountain lion and snow leopard living in Cornwall. You need to get an annual licence from your local authority, the premises have to be inspected and you must get third party liability insurance.

I’ve always been sceptical about these claims that big cats live in the British countryside.

Large cats leave their traces

I’ve worked with large carnivores in Africa since 2007 and it’s obvious if big cats are around. You would regularly come across prints of their paws along roads. The rasping sound of a leopard’s roar can be heard from several kilometres. Livestock, mostly cattle, goats and sheep, would be attacked. Often leopards kill more than one animal in an attack. In Africa, where there are scavengers such as vultures and hyenas who move quickly, leftovers are quickly cleaned up, but you can still regularly find some remains of kills.

Wild prey, such as our large deer populations, wouldn’t completely protect livestock from big cats. There are many studies and reports of livestock being killed by large cats in areas where there also is a lot of wild prey.

Technology is also making it easier for biologists to detect wild animals.

Jaguars, leopards, tigers, snow leopards, both species of clouded leopards, and even lions are now routinely studied with camera traps. A camera trap is automatically triggered by movement within its view, like that from an animal or a human being. These camera traps can reveal information about big cats’ presence, absence, habitat use and preference, activity patterns and even diet.

DNA advancements have made it easier than ever to reveal which species is in an area. A saliva swab from a kill, hairs found on or near a carcass and faeces can show which species, and often which individual animal, left it. Environmental DNA, which is collected from water, soil or even the air, can also be used these days. For example, DNA found in soil in tracks made by animals can confirm the species that left the prints.

Cats often mark their territory using faeces, so they put it in places where they think other animals will notice it, which also makes it easier to find for researchers.

When I was studying wildcats in Zambia, my team often saw female cheetahs and their cubs but rarely encountered males.

With trained detection dogs we surveyed the area and collected faeces the dogs indicated was from cheetahs. DNA analysis revealed the scats came from seven male, and 12 female cheetahs. Without the DNA analysis we wouldn’t have realised so many males were in the area. The DNA analysis also detected more females than we had seen in previous years. In Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium DNA samples taken from faeces, and carcasses of livestock, are routinely taken to see if wolves were responsible for attacks.

However, proof like this can be falsified. You can take photos of a toy. DNA samples like hair can be planted.

The big giveaway

Let’s assume there are big cats roaming free in UK. Large cats like leopards and jaguars have home ranges of several dozen to several hundred square kilometres. There is no reason to believe they would have smaller ranges here. In the UK, there are no uninhabited areas of this size. They would encounter roads, they would cross paths where their paw prints would be noticed by walkers.

If there truly was a big cat on the prowl, the tell-tale sign would be repeated attacks on sheep. As anyone who ever kept a cat would know, cats chase things which move away from them. Big cats are no different and if sheep run away when seeing a big cat, they would chase them, and grab them.

There is no native population of big cats living in the UK. So any such big cats would have been born in captivity and with no hunting experience. Sheep in confined fields would be an irresistible target. Farmers would be quick to sound the alarm, and rightly so.

In July 2023, German authorities launched a full-scale sweep of Berlin and the surrounding woods after a video snippet of a lioness circulated online. No zoos reported a missing animal, yet the report was taken seriously. Shortly afterwards, authorities gave the all-clear. Similarly, in the UK, authorities responded quickly when a young lynx escaped a Welsh zoo in 2017 and killed it upon recapture.

There are sometimes vague photos or videos of big cats, but never clear photos or videos – or clear photos of paw prints, which would be easy to obtain because prints don’t move. But it’s the absence of attacks on sheep in such cases that is remarkable, and a tell-tale sign there isn’t a big cat out there roaming the UK countryside.

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

Egil Droge works at the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, a research group within the Department of Biology at the University of Oxford.

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/w/cornell-woolrich/black-alibi.htm

Q&A: Maui wildfires ‘an acceleration of injustices’ long felt on island

Al Jazeera speaks to Kaniela Ing, director of Green New Deal Network, about devastating Hawaii blazes and what’s next.

Protesters demand more government relief in the aftermath of devastating wildfires on Maui, August 21, 2023 

[File: Jae C Hong/AP Photo]
By Brian Osgood
Published On 25 Aug 2023

A massive wildfire driven by hurricane winds scorched communities across Hawaii’s Maui island this month, destroying homes and sending residents fleeing for their lives.

The fast-moving flames killed at least 114 people and consumed the historic community of Lahaina, home to about 13,000 residents and once the capital of the former Hawaiian kingdom.

Hundreds of people remain unaccounted for as crews continue to search through the devastation, and officials have said the death toll is expected to rise.

As Lahaina continues to reel from the deadliest wildfire in more than a century in the United States, the incident has reinvigorated a longstanding debate over climate change, the role tourism plays in Hawaii’s economy and the legacy of colonialism on the island.

Al Jazeera speaks to Kaniela Ing, a seventh-generation Native Hawaiian from Maui and the national director of the Green New Deal Network climate justice group, about the effect of the wildfires and what comes next.

Al Jazeera: Where does the toll of the wildfire currently stand?

Kaniela Ing: The scene is still quite apocalyptic. There [are] dozens of cadaver dogs sniffing through the rubble in search of our loved ones, utility workers digging up piles of electrical lines, thousands of historic buildings flattened.

There’s remarkable displays of unity, but the aftermath remains macabre.

Al Jazeera: Are people in Lahaina getting the help they need from the authorities?

Ing: Hawaii is over 2,000 miles [3,200km] from the closest mainland state, so it takes some time.

For those first few days, we had no choice but to mobilise support ourselves. Now [there’s more] direct assistance — $700 immediately went out to families right when the [emergency] declaration was signed — there’s around 20,000 hot meals being served everyday.

Less people [are] in shelters sleeping on cots and floors as people are moving into hotels and Airbnbs that are subsidised by the government.

But there’s also deeply rooted mistrust of a government that tends to only show up when there’s ribbon cuttings for hotels.

Al Jazeera: Unfortunately, a lot of people have come to associate Lahaina with these apocalyptic scenes, but it’s a place with a long history. Can you talk about its importance historically?

Ing: Lahaina was our original capital, it was the heart of the Hawaiian Kingdom. King Kamehameha’s palace stood at the centre, watching over the shoreline. It was a lush wetland.

It also told a history of colonialism and capitalism. You could walk from one end of the main street to the other through the annals of colonial history, from kingdom days, to sugar and pineapple [industries], to tourism.

Al Jazeera: Do you see a connection between today’s climate crisis and the legacy of colonialism in Hawaii?

Ing: The fire is tragic, but it’s really an acceleration of injustices that local people, especially Kanaka Maoli [Native Hawaiians], have experienced for generations.

One factor is climate change: Drier vegetation, low humidity, high winds, those are all functions of climate change.

Second, there was the diversion of water from Lahaina by sugar barons at the turn of the 20th century and the introduction of dry grass. The third is the negligence and mismanagement of Hawaiian Electric, our utility on the island.

Without any of those factors, the fire wouldn’t have been as deadly as it was. And those are all connected to the legacy of colonialism in Hawaii.

Al Jazeera: A debate that has been supercharged by the wildfires is whether Hawaii exists for tourists or for the people who live there. Can you walk us through that discussion?

Ing: It feels like every few months there’s another symbol of how Hawaii’s economy is catered towards those who think of Hawaii as their playground, rather than the people who live and work there.

Recently, there was a drought on Maui and people were being fined $500 for watering their lawn. At the same time, hotels have full pools and waterslides.

It was so obvious how the government caters to these multinational corporations and the tourism industry. Right now, our economy consists primarily of tourism and real estate.

Both industries are unsustainable in that they rely on enjoyment of the natural beauty of our islands, but also the development and destruction of them.

There’s a lot of talk about diversifying our economy by politicians, but actions speak differently. We’ve created this permanent underclass. It’s a modern version of the plantation economy.

Al Jazeera: Are you worried that model could be imposed on Lahaina as the town rebuilds?

Ing: Unless the people of Lahaina and everyone in Hawaii rise up and demand immediate relief, a just recovery, and community-centred rebuilding, then we should expect nothing to change.

But this is an inflection point. The fire has left a power vacuum in a sense that it’s not immediately clear who’s going to be in charge of rebuilding, and while we’re grieving and healing, unfortunately, there’s already land grabbers and disaster capitalists circling the carnage like vultures.

There’s an opportunity to transform our economy, our land use, our political influence, and we really need to seize that opportunity. I’m really hoping for this recovery to set an example of what justice can look like and how we can centre the people most impacted in the process.

Al Jazeera: For people asking what they can do to help, what would you point them towards?

Ing: Well, don’t come to Maui yet. We need hotel rooms across the island right now. There might be a time where there could be boots on the ground support, but not now.

We need the federal government to provide aid to small businesses and workers directly like they did during COVID, so we don’t face this impossible choice of our shops needing revenue and our survivors needing places to stay.

So far, a lot of these grassroots funds have raised a lot of money. But we know that rebuilding will cost at least $6bn, and that kind of money isn’t going to come from grassroots donors or philanthropy, it’s going to come from government.

We also set up mauirecoveryfund.org. It’s a collaboration between the most rooted funds, with an eye on the long run.


This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

KEEP READING

US President Biden tours aftermath of deadly Maui fires, visits Lahaina 

Maui emergency chief resigns after criticism over Hawaii wildfire response

Hawaii’s governor promises to prevent ‘land grabs’ after Maui wildfires

Maui wildfire victims fear land grab may threaten Hawaiian culture

Andrew Hay and Liliana Salgado
Updated Tue, August 22, 2023 

EVACUEES

KAANAPALI, Hawaii (Reuters) - Deborah Loeffler felt she could not lose much more after a wildfire destroyed the home in Maui, where five generations of her family have lived, and a son died the same day on the U.S. mainland.

Grieving and overwhelmed, Loeffler was soon beset by emails with unsolicited proposals she sell the Lahaina beachfront plot in Maui where her grandfather built their teal-green wooden home in the 1940s.

"It felt like we had vultures preying on us," said Loeffler, 69, a retired flight attendant, sitting in the brown-carpeted hotel room in Maui to which she was evacuated, an untouched container of cooked powdered egg and cold potato by her bedside.

Her experience will be familiar to people in places such as Paradise, California or northern New Mexico, where buyers moved in to try to obtain distressed property after blazes in 2018 and 2022.

Loeffler fears a land grab on Maui would mean the loss of Hawaiian culture.

In Hawaii, the fire exacerbated a chronic shortage of affordable housing, potentially accelerating a drain of multi-generational families from the U.S. state looking for places they can afford to live. The population of Native Hawaiians in the state dropped below the number living on the U.S. mainland over the last decade, according to U.S. Census data.

Before Lahaina was destroyed by the most deadly U.S. wildfire in a century, its average home price was $1.1 million, three times the U.S. national average, according to the real estate site Zillow.

In Maui County, where around 75% the population is Asian, Hispanic, Native Hawaiian or of mixed race, the median household income is $88,000, just 24% above the U.S. average, according to census reports.

Affordable housing advocates such as Hawaii Alliance for Progressive Action (HAPA) are calling for a moratorium on foreclosures.

HAPA along with the state government is documenting unsolicited purchase offers in Lahaina, the early 19th century capital of the kingdom of Hawaii before its overthrow in a U.S.-backed 1893 coup.

Hawaii's Office of Consumer Protection warned of people making below-market offers, playing on fears of foreclosure and the cost of rebuilding. The office declined to comment on how many such offers had been reported.

"We will be making sure we do all we can to prevent that land from falling into the hands of people from the outside," Hawaii Governor Josh Green, who has proposed a ban on Lahaina land sales, said at an Aug. 15 press conference.

Reuters has seen two emails sent by someone claiming to represent The EMortgage in Oklahoma City, one linking to a site called Cash Offer USA. The emails claimed to represent "local buyers" seeking sellers, offering all-cash deals and no closing costs for homes as-is -- "no need to make any repairs." Clicking on the Cash Offer USA link brought up an inactive form for uploading property details.

A functioning website for Cash Offer USA in Florida does offer cash for homes, but has an entirely different format to the Cash Offer USA page sent by The EMortgage.

The EMortgage did not respond to two emails from Reuters seeking comment. Reuters also emailed and called the Florida Cash Offer USA, which did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

Many long-term resident families who lost homes in the Lahaina fire did not have insurance, either because their homes had no mortgage or did not meet building codes, said Sterling Higa, director of Housing Hawaii's Future which seeks to end the state's workforce housing shortage.

How long residents can hold out against property offers may depend on the type of transitional housing they get as they wait to rebuild, said Higa.

"There has to be real support for them in terms of housing, in terms of financial support," said Higa, whose wife grew up in Lahaina.

Disaster response experts expect temporary housing to be provided through a mix of hotel rooms and condos, conversion of rentals, mobile home encampments and possibly some family transfers to Honolulu, the state's largest city.

"Keeping people nearby and engaged in recovery is a good first step to preserving the population," said Andrew Rumbach, a specialist in disasters, climate and communities at the Urban Institute in Washington.

At stake is the survival of Hawaiian culture, said Kaliko Baker, an associate professor at the University of Hawaii.

"If people buy land and build their own Lahaina does that include Hawaiian language schools?" said Baker, in reference to one such school that burned down next to an historic Lahaina church.

Loeffler, now sheltered with her husband a few miles from their destroyed home, deleted the email offers she received in disgust. She is mourning her son, Sam, whose death was unrelated to the Maui fire, and all that her community has lost.

She escaped with her purse and a book by a friend of her late son. She said she owes her life to her tenant who saw the fire coming and went door-to-door telling people to flee.

Loeffler plans to rebuild her plantation-style family home with insurance money so Lahaina can again "look like Lahaina." She wants her grandchildren to keep their connection to an island their Japanese-German-Hawaiian family has lived on for about a century.

"I'm not selling it, if I have to go live there in a tent I'm doing it."

(Reporting By Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico, Liliana Salgado in Kaanapali, Hawaii; additional reporting by Rachel Nostrant, Daniel Trotta and Jonathan Allen; Editing by Donna Bryson and Michael Perry)

 

Hawaii officials urge families of people missing after deadly fires to give DNA samples

AUDREY McAVOY, CLAIRE RUSH and JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER
Updated Tue, August 22, 2023 


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Crosses honoring the victims killed in a recent wildfire hang on a fence along the Lahaina Bypass as a Hawaiian flag flutters in the wind in Lahaina, Hawaii, Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023. Two weeks after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century swept through the Maui community of Lahaina, authorities say anywhere between 500 and 1,000 people remain unaccounted for.

 (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Authorities in Hawaii on Tuesday pleaded with relatives of those missing after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century to come forward and give DNA samples, saying the low number provided so far threatens to hinder efforts to identify any remains discovered in the rubble.

Some 1,000 to 1,100 names remain on a tentative, unconfirmed list of people unaccounted for after wildfires destroyed the historic seaside community of Lahaina on Maui. But the family assistance center so far has collected DNA samples from just 104 families, said Julie French, who is helping lead efforts to identify remains by DNA analysis.

Maui Prosecuting Attorney Andrew Martin, who is running the center, said the number of family members coming in to provide DNA samples is “a lot lower than they’ve seen in other disasters,” though it wasn’t immediately clear why.

“That’s our concern, that’s why I’m here today, that’s why I’m asking for this help,” he said.

Martin sought to reassure people that any samples would be used only to help identify victims of the fires and would not be entered into any law enforcement databases or used for any other purpose. Those who donate also would be not asked about their immigration status or U.S. citizenship, he said.

“What we want to do — all we want to do — is help people locate and identify their unaccounted-for loved ones,” Martin said.

Two weeks after the flames tore through Lahaina, officials are facing huge challenges to determine how many of those perished and how many may have made it to safety but haven't checked in.

Something similar happened after a wildfire in 2018 that killed 85 people and destroyed the town of Paradise, California. Authorities in Butte County, home to Paradise, ultimately published a list of the missing in the local newspaper, a decision that helped identify scores of people who had made it out alive but were listed as missing. Within a month, the list dropped from 1,300 names to only a dozen.

“I probably had, at any given time, 10 to 15 detectives who were assigned to nothing but trying to account for people who were unaccounted for,” Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said in a phone interview. “At one point the local editor of our newspaper … said, ‘Hey, if you give me the names, I will print them.’ And at that point it was like, ‘Absolutely. Anything that we can do to help out.’ ”

Hawaii officials have expressed concern that by releasing a list of the missing, they would also be identifying some people who have died. In an email Tuesday, the State Joint Information Center called it "a standard held by all law enforcement and first responders here in Hawaii, out of compassion and courtesy for the families, to withhold the names until the families can be contacted.”

As of Monday, there were 115 people confirmed dead, according to Maui police. All single-story, residential properties in the disaster area had been searched, and teams were transitioning to searching multi-story residential and commercial properties, Maui County officials said in an update late Monday.

There are widely varying accounts of the tally of the missing. Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said Sunday that more than 1,000 remained unaccounted for. Maui Mayor Richard Bissen said in a pre-recorded video on Instagram that the number was 850. And during President Joe Biden's tour of the devastation on Monday, White House homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall put it between 500 and 800.

An unofficial, crowd-sourced spreadsheet of missing people posted online listed nearly 700 names as of Tuesday.

Roseanna Samartano of Lahaina said she didn’t know anyone was looking for her until an FBI agent phoned her a few days ago to say she was on a missing persons list.

“I was shocked. Why is the FBI calling me?” the 77-year-old retiree said. “But then he came out with it right away, and then I kind of calmed down.”

It turned out a friend had reported her missing because he'd been unable to get in touch despite calling, texting and emailing. Her neighborhood of Kahana — which didn’t burn — had no power, cellphone service or internet in the days after the fires.

Sen. Gilbert Keith-Agaran, representing central Maui, said he’s not aware of any rules that prevent officials from making the list public. But as someone with several members of his extended family still unaccounted for, he understands why some may not want the list released.

“I’m not going to second-guess the approach by the mayor and his people right now,” he said.

Questions are also emerging about how quickly the names of the dead are being publicly released, even after family members have been notified. Maui residents are growing increasingly frustrated as the search for their loved ones drags on.

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Tuesday that the Maui Police Department has instructed the medical examiner in Honolulu — where some burn patients were taken for treatment — not to release the names of anyone who dies from injuries sustained in Lahaina fire. The request came after one severely burned patient died and the man's name appeared in media reports after notification of his next of kin.

“I don’t know why they aren’t releasing the names," Honolulu Department of the Medical Examiner Supervising Investigator Theresa Reynolds told the newspaper.

Clifford Abihai said he feels like he's getting the run-around from authorities. He came to Maui from California after getting nowhere finding answers about his grandmother, Louise Abihai, 98, by phone. He has been just as frustrated on the ground in Maui.

"I just want confirmation,” he said last week. “Not knowing what happened, not knowing if she escaped, not knowing if she’s not there. That’s the hard thing.”

As of Tuesday, he said, he still had learned nothing further.

His grandmother lived at Hale Mahaolu Eono, a senior living facility where another member of his extended family, Virginia Dofa, lived. Authorities have identified Dofa as one who perished. Abihai described Dofa and Louise Abihai as best friends.

He said his grandmother was mobile and could walk a mile a day, but it was often hard to reach her because she'd frequently turn off her cell phone to save battery power.

Confirming whether those who are unaccounted for are deceased can be difficult. Fire experts say it’s possible some bodies were cremated in the Lahaina fire, potentially leaving no bones left to identify through DNA tests.

“Those are easy when destruction is modest,” said Vyto Babrauskas, president of fire safety research consulting firm Fire Science and Technology Inc. “If you go to the extreme of things — if turned to ash — you’re not going to be able to identify anything.”

Honea, the Butte County sheriff, said it took weeks to complete the search for remains in Paradise, and his detectives worked 16-hour days to narrow the list of the missing. Today there is only one person who still remains unaccounted for, and Honea said he has reason to believe that person was not in town the day of the fire.

The situation on Maui is evolving, but those who lived through similar tragedies and never learned of their loved ones' fate are also following the news and hurting for the victims and their families.

Nearly 22 years later, almost 1,100 victims of the 9/11 terror attacks, which killed nearly 3,000, have no identified remains.

Joseph Giaccone’s family initially was desperate for any physical trace of the 43-year-old finance executive, who worked in the World Trade Center's North Tower, brother James Giaccone recalled. But over time, he started focusing instead on memories of the flourishing man his brother was.

If his remains were identified and given to the family now, “it would just reinforce the horror that his person endured that day, and it would open wounds that I don’t think I want to open,” Giaccone said Monday as he visited the 9/11 memorial plaza in New York.

“So I am OK with the way it is right now,” he said.

____

Rush reported from Portland, Oregon, and Kelleher reported from Honolulu. Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz in New York, Janie Har in San Francisco and Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, contributed.

Kansas prosecutor says police should return computers and cellphones seized in raid on newspaper

The Canadian Press
Wed, August 16, 2023 



MARION, Kansas (AP) — A Kansas prosecutor said Wednesday that he found insufficient evidence to support the police raid of a weekly newspaper and that all seized material should be returned in a dispute over press freedoms that the White House acknowledged it is watching closely.

“This administration has been vocal about the importance of the freedom of press, here and around the globe,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at her daily briefing on Wednesday. “That is the core value when you think about our democracy, when you think about the cornerstone of our democracy, the freedom of press is right there.”

She said the raid raises "a lot of concerns and a lot of questions for us.”

On Wednesday, Marion County Attorney Joel Ensey said his review of police seizures from the Marion County Record offices found “insufficient evidence exists to establish a legally sufficient nexus between this alleged crime and the places searched and the items seized."

“As a result, I have submitted a proposed order asking the court to release the evidence seized. I have asked local law enforcement to return the material seized to the owners of the property,” Ensey said in a news release.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation said Monday it was leading the investigation into the raid and what allegedly prompted it.

Even without the computers, personal cellphones and other office equipment taken in the raid, the small staff scrambled and were able to put out a new edition on Wednesday.

“SEIZED … but not silenced,” read the front-page headline in 2-inch-tall typeface. On Wednesday's front page, stories were focused solely on the raid and the influx of support the newspaper has received.

Police raids last week of the newspaper's offices, and the home of editor and publisher Eric Meyer put the paper and the local police at the center of a national debate about press freedom, with watchdog groups condemning the police actions. The attention continued Wednesday — with TV and print reporters joining the conversation in what is normally a quiet community of about 1,900 residents.

Meyer said all of the returned equipment will be forensically audited to make sure that nothing is missing or was tampered with.

“You cannot let bullies win,” Meyer said. “And eventually, a bully will cross a line to the point that it becomes so egregious that other people come around and support you.”

He added, “We have a staff that’s very experienced, including myself, and we’re not going to take crap."

The raids — which the publisher believes were carried out because the newspaper was investigating the police chief’s background — put Meyer and his staff in a difficult position. Because their computers were seized, they were forced to reconstruct stories, ads and other materials. Meyer also blamed stress from the raid at his home for the death Saturday of his 98-year-old mother, Joan, the paper’s co-owner.

As the newspaper staff worked late into Tuesday night on the new edition, the office was so hectic that Kansas Press Association Executive Director Emily Bradbury was at once answering phones and ordering in meals for staffers.

Bradbury said the journalists and those involved in the business of the newspaper used a couple of old computers that police didn’t confiscate, taking turns to get stories to the printer, to assemble ads and to check email. With electronics scarce, staffers made do with what they had.

“There were literally index cards going back and forth,” said Bernie Rhodes, the newspaper’s attorney, who was also in the office. “They had all the classified ads, all the legal notices that they had to recreate. All of those were on the computers.”

At one point, a couple visiting from Arizona stopped at the front desk to buy a subscription, just to show their support, Bradbury said. Many others from around the country have purchased subscriptions since the raids; An office manager told Bradbury that she’s having a hard time keeping up with demand.

The raids exposed a divide over local politics and how the Record covers Marion, which sits about 150 miles (241 kilometers) southwest of Kansas City.

A warrant signed by a magistrate Friday about two hours before the raid said that local police sought to gather evidence of potential identity theft and other computer crimes stemming from a conflict between the newspaper and a local restaurant owner, Kari Newell.

Newell accused the newspaper of violating her privacy and illegally obtaining personal information about her as it checked her state driving record online. Meyer said the newspaper was looking into a tip — and ultimately decided not to write a story about Newell.

Still, Meyer said police seized a computer tower and cellphone belonging to a reporter who wasn’t part of the effort to check on the business owner’s background.

Rhodes said the newspaper was investigating the circumstances around Police Chief Gideon Cody’s departure from his previous job as an officer in Kansas City, Missouri. Cody left the Kansas City department earlier this year and began the job in Marion in June. He has not responded to interview requests.

Asked if the newspaper’s investigation of Cody may have had anything to do with the decision to raid it, Rhodes responded: “I think it is a remarkable coincidence if it didn’t."

___

Salter contributed to this report from O’Fallon, Missouri. Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed from Washington.

___

Follow John Hanna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/apjdhanna

John Hanna And Jim Salter, The Associated Press

Updates on Kansas newspaper raid: Search warrant revoked; judge has own DUI history

Natalie Wallington
Wed, August 16, 2023 

A prosecutor in Marion County, Kansas, has withdrawn the search warrant that sparked Friday’s controversial police raid of the small town’s newspaper offices.

Marion County Attorney Joel Ensey said in a statement Wednesday that the warrant was based on “insufficient evidence” that a crime had been committed. The seized electronics and documents will be returned to the Marion County Record.

The news followed days of criticism of the police search of the newspaper, which appeared to be aimed at finding evidence about how the paper obtained information that a local restaurateur, who applied for a liquor license, lost her driver’s license over a DUI in 2008.

In addition to the Record’s newsroom, the police also executed search warrants at the home of publisher and co-owner Eric Meyer and the home of Ruth Herbel, a Marion city councilwoman.

First Amendment advocates have said the raid went too far and violated legal protections for newsrooms.

Also Wednesday, new information was reported about the judge who signed the search warrant, who has her own history of drunken-driving arrests.

Here are the latest on developments following the raid on the Marion County Record:

Eric Meyer, the editor and publisher of the Marion County Record, stands outside the newspaper’s office on Monday. The office and Meyer’s home were raided by police on Friday.

Prosecutor orders seized materials to be returned to newspaper office

Marion County Attorney Joel Ensey has withdrawn the search warrant that led to Friday’s police raid. The warrant listed 15 categories of items police could seize on suspicion of “identity theft” and “unlawful acts concerning computers.”

Ensey said he concluded that “insufficient evidence” existed to establish a “legally sufficient nexus between this alleged crime and the places searched and the items seized.”

Bernie Rhodes, the Record’s lawyer who also represents The Star, said Wednesday that all the electronics police seized from the newsroom will be returned. But he argued that this is a small remedy to the harm caused by the raid.

“It does nothing about taking care of the damage that has already occurred from the violation of the First Amendment in the first place,” he told The Star.

Read more: Warrant for Kansas newspaper raid withdrawn by prosecutor for ‘insufficient evidence’

Magistrate Judge Laura Viar signed a search warrant that authorized Marion police to raid the Marion County Record’s newsroom and the home of the editor.

Judge who signed the warrant has her own DUI history

Magistrate Judge Laura Viar, who signed the warrant authorizing Friday’s raid, did so because of allegations that the newspaper had improperly obtained information about a local restaurant owner’s past DUI conviction.

But Judge Viar has a DUI history of her own. She has been arrested at least twice for driving under the influence in two different Kansas counties, an investigation by the Wichita Eagle reported Wednesday.

During a 2012 incident in Morris County, she allegedly drove off-road with a suspended license and crashed into a school building while under the influence. She was running unopposed for Morris County Attorney at the time — and won.

Viar was not sanctioned by the state’s attorney discipline board.

Read the investigation: Judge who approved raid on Kansas newspaper has history of DUI arrests

Marion locals react to the newspaper’s police raid

Tensions ran high in the small town of Marion on Tuesday as residents reacted to Friday’s raid. The newspaper has received support from around the country, including over 1,000 new digital subscriptions in the days since the raid alone.

One resident classified the paper’s coverage as “negative,” while another praised the paper for its watchdog reporting on local government and business issues.

“This newspaper is very good at investigative reporting,” he said.

Read more: Raided Kansas newspaper is known for aggressively covering small town’s many disputes

Vultures roosting on the water tower in Marion, Kansas.

KBI took over the investigation Monday

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation became the “lead law enforcement agency” in the investigation of the Marion County Record on Monday, The Star’s Jonathan Shorman reported.

KBI spokesperson Melissa Underwood told The Star that the agency will “review prior steps taken and work to determine how best to proceed with the case,” which involved a now-withdrawn search warrant suggesting that the newspaper’s offices contained evidence of identity theft and improper use of computers.

It’s unclear why the KBI, a state agency based in Topeka which provides advanced law enforcement services like forensic lab testing and special operations, took over this case.

Read more: KBI takes lead in Marion investigation following police raid of local newspaper

Marion, Kansas, Police Chief Gideon Cody

The newspaper had previously investigated Marion’s new police chief

The Record had previously investigated Marion’s new police chief, Gideon Cody, at the time of the raid. Cody had recently started the job after 24 years as a captain with the KCPD.

Editor and publisher Eric Meyer declined to comment on the exact nature of the investigation, but characterized “the charges as serious.” The paper informed city officials of allegations against Cody, but had not published anything about them at the time of the raid.

“I have already been vetted. They’ve (the newspaper) actually did a background on me. And that’s why they chose not to (publish a story),” Cody said in a Sunday interview with The Star.

“However, if they can muddy the water, make my credibility look bad, I totally get it. They’re gonna try to do everything they possibly can.”

Read more: Kansas newspaper raided, shut down by police had investigated chief who came from KCPD

The Star’s Luke Nozicka, Jonathan Shorman, Katie Moore, Glenn E. Rice and Judy Thomas contributed. The Wichita Eagle’s Chance Swaim contributed.

Maui wildfires expose rift over island’s tourism: ‘We’re more vulnerable than anyone admits’

Maanvi Singh
Thu, 17 August 2023 

Photograph: Yuki Iwamura/AFP/Getty Images

The fire that leveled the Hawaii town of Lahaina didn’t discriminate. It seared through vacation rentals and historic landmarks alike, scorched a 150-year-old banyan tree and touristic Tiki bars, reducing nearly everything to gray rubble.

And the destruction has laid bare seething tensions about the dominance of tourism on the island.

The industry brings in about $5.7bn in revenue each year to Maui – where on any given day, about one-third of the people there are tourists – and provides about 75% of all private sector jobs there. But in recent years, Native Hawaiians and other local residents have pushed back against the industry, which has strained the island’s natural resources. The industry’s hold on the local economy has also placed Maui in a precarious position, struggling to protect paradise against the tides of climate chaos.


“This is an island with finite resources, and those resources are being depleted,” said Trisha Kehaulani Watson, vice-president of the Native Hawaiian advocacy group ʻĀina Momona. “What we’ve seen from this disaster is that we are perhaps far more vulnerable than anybody wants to admit.”

***

In the immediate aftermath of the fires, tourism officials strongly discouraged non-essential travel to the region, where crews are still searching for missing people and thousands remain displaced from their scorched homes. Hotel rooms in west Maui, where Lahaina is located, were being used to house survivors and first responders, and vacation rental operators were being urged to offer space for evacuees.

Lahaina and west Maui more broadly remain closed for business. But in recent days, officials have changed their messaging.

The fires, environmental advocates and locals say, are the latest sign that Maui, and Hawaii more broadly, needs to diversify its economy. Photograph: Patrick T Fallon/AFP/Getty Images

“Don’t go to west Maui, obviously,” the Maui county mayor, Richard Bissen, said at a weekend press conference alongside the governor. “But the rest of Maui is still open.” Even as residents express irritation and anger at visitors snorkelling in the same waters where crews are searching for fire victims and survivors, many west Maui residents – including those who had lost their homes – returned to work as servers, housekeepers and concierge staff in other parts of the island.

“Many of our residents make their living off of tourism,” Bissen said.

In the coming weeks and months, officials are bracing for huge economic disruptions. About 80% of Maui county’s economic activity is generated by tourism – and the industry had just begun to recover after the pandemic. The Maui Economic Development Board estimates that the island’s “visitor industry” accounts for roughly four out of every five dollars generated here.

“For so many people to face economic uncertainty or challenges, on top of those who have lost everything in the fire – it compounds the issues and prolongs the recovery,” said T Ilihia Gionson, a public affairs officer for the Hawaii Tourism Authority. “That’s the risk of discouraging travel to Hawaii generally. It’s a fine balance.”

Many local residents see the fires as a warning that the balance should be reconfigured. The fires, environmental advocates and locals say, are the latest sign that Maui, and Hawaii more broadly, needs to diversify its economy, especially as the climate crisis threatens to bring more extreme weather and degrade the very natural resources that attract visitors.

“We need to set up our industry and our broader economy to better withstand disasters,” said Kaniela Ing, national director of the Green New Deal Network and a seventh-generation Native Hawaiian who was born and raised in Maui. “Because there will be more disasters.”

***

Even before the fires erupted, climate chaos was wreaking havoc on the island – and complicating its behemoth tourism industry. This year, the travel guide book publisher Fodor’s placed Maui on its “no list” of places to abstain from visiting, citing increasingly common droughts. Last summer, residents of west Maui and the Upcountry region faced stringent water restrictions, and fines of $500 for non-essential water use, such as irrigation and washing cars. But the island’s hotels and resorts were allowed to maintain golf courses, pools and lush landscaping, while welcoming in up to 8,000 travelers a day during peak season.

Meanwhile, sea level rise due to global heating has caused devastating beach erosion that threatens some of the island’s most popular beachfront resorts. Residents have been pressuring officials to forgo expensive beach restoration projects, and face the reality that many of Hawaii’s oceanfront resorts and rentals will have to move. Rising sea levels, massive king tides and storm surges have also threatened the island’s scenic Honoapiilani Highway, the main road in and out of west Maui.

Now, as Lahaina looks to rebuild, Ing and residents worry that the historic town and surrounding areas will be resurrected as a kitschy tourist trap, devoid of the region’s deep cultural history and ecological wonder. “There are predatory real estate agents, private equity land grabbers, circling around the wreckage like vultures,” said Ing. “And families aren’t being given the room to grieve.”

A resident takes shelter on Wednesday under a canopy on the beach near a neighborhood that was destroyed by fire. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Many residents and Native Hawaiians have long resented that Lahaina, once the burial place of the Hawaiian royal family, the first capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom, a global trading hub and center for whaling, was being marketed to the rest of the world as an oceanside resort town. “I think the fire was an acute trauma, but it’s really just a punctuation point on the injustice that local people, especially Kānaka Maoli [Native Hawaiians], and immigrants have faced for generations,” Ing said.

Tourism was initially developed as a way to diversify the economy away from an extractive sugarcane and pineapple industry, which drained the islands’ wetlands to irrigate crops. Now wetlands are being paved to build luxury vacation rentals. Across the islands – as in the continental United States – growing concerns about low pay and exploitative labor practices have also activated unions representing hotel and service industry workers in recent years.

Movements to create more sustainable tourism practices and levy a climate surcharge for visitors or a pass system have gained traction among the grassroots and within state and local governments.

Waning hospitality among Maui residents and people across the Hawaiian Islands in recent years has raised alarms among state and local leaders. “When residents reach a breaking point where attitudes about tourism become negative, that’s a sign that something needs to be done,” said Dan Spencer, a professor of travel industry management who has undertaken a series of research projects to assess attitudes toward tourism and determine the islands’ “social capacity” for visitors.

But Spencer said the state should also study its ecological capacity – looking at how many tourists each year it can welcome without degrading freshwater resources and irreversibly damaging landscapes that are doubly threatened by development and global heating.

“Going forward, I don’t know if it’s less tourism, but I think more mindful tourism,” said Kehaulani Watson of ʻĀina Momona. “We have to think about enhancing and evolving the visitor experience to be one that invites people who can contribute to Hawaii, as opposed to just taking from us.”

Avian flu vaccine for California condors approved amid fears of extinction



Vaccine gets emergency approval as ‘highly contagious’ virus sweeps through flocks of species on the brink of extinction

Gabrielle Canon and agencies

Wed 17 May 2023

A new vaccine has been granted emergency approval to protect California condors from a deadly strain of avian influenza, federal officials said this week, amid attempts to pull the endangered species back from the brink of extinction.

The emergency action underscores an outbreak that has alarmed the conservation community, which fears that condors, a vulnerable species that has spent decades in recovery, could be dealt a devastating blow. After first being detected in a deceased condor in late March, the illness has swept through the small flock of wild birds, which are closely monitored by agencies in the south-west. So far 21 condors have died, impacting eight breeding pairs, according to a statement issued by the US Fish and Wildlife service.


Top-flight recovery: the inspiring comeback of the California condor

The Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, or HPAI, is a virus that has been described as “highly contagious” by the agency. An April statement confirming deaths of the first infected condors in early April said the virus can spread quickly though “bird-to-bird contact, environmental contamination with fecal material, and via exposed clothing, shoes and vehicles”.

Several condors remain in the care of experts, including a newly hatched chick whose egg was pulled from its contaminated nest before its mother succumbed to the disease. Officials and rescue workers remain hopeful that the orphaned baby, now being nurtured with the help of a plush condor at the Liberty Wildlife facility in Phoenix, Arizona, can soon be returned to the wild. For now the chick is nestled among blankets and its stuffed surrogate, awaiting placement with foster parents at the Peregrine Fund’s captive breeding facility.

Despite it being limited to one flock in Arizona, conservation groups are concerned that the deadly illness has already taken a devastating toll on the delicate condor population. “In a matter of weeks, this event has set our recovery effort back a decade or more,” the Peregrine Fund, an organization dedicated to protecting birds of prey and a key federal partner in restoring and rehabilitating California condors to the wild, wrote in a late-April update on the HPAI impact on condors, adding that the new threat posed by avian flu “highlights the need to address preventable and manageable threats, and rely even more heavily on proven strategies such as captive breeding to increase the wild population”.

Once abundant in the skies across their western range, which spans from the Pacific north-west to Baja California, Mexico, only a few hundred of these iconic and enormous vultures remain in the wild even after decades of dedicated breeding and conservation efforts.

The fast-spreading disease is one of several threats condors have faced since populations were first decimated by hunting during the California gold rush, including dangers posed by the toxic DDT pesticide and lead poisoning from ammunition lodged in scavenged carcasses. Recovery has been slow. Condors don’t mate until they reach maturity at around eight years old, and females only produce a single egg every two years.

This dangerous strain of avian flu has rapidly spread across the US, killing millions of domestic and wild birds since it arrived in North America at the end of 2021. Though the virus is not considered a high risk to humans, it’s been among the most devastating outbreaks for birds in the country’s history. Roughly 58 million commercial poultry have had to be euthanized in attempts to slow the spread of the disease, which has also claimed the lives of hundreds of bald eagles and been detected in more than 6,700 wild birds, a figure widely considered to be underestimated.

While the emergency-use approval by the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is limited to California condors, the agency is continuing work to develop options for other types of birds. Before administering it to condors, a pilot study has been initiated to test the vaccine on North American vultures – “a similar species” – to ensure there are no adverse effects.

“APHIS approved this emergency vaccination of the condors because these birds are critically endangered, closely monitored, and their population is very small which allows close monitoring of the vaccine to ensure it is administered only to the approved population,” the agency said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

Along with the hopeful announcement that a vaccine may soon be ready to administer, efforts to isolate infected birds have been successful. Infections among the Arizona flock where the virus was found are holding steady.

“Our field teams have not detected any additional compromised California condors in northern Arizona since April 11,” the Peregrin Fund posted in an update this week, adding that four birds under its care are showing signs of recovery. “The Peregrine Fund’s captive breeding program is also in full swing, and new life is hatching,” it added. “Of 18 eggs laid, nine young have hatched and a new season for the recovery effort begins.”

The Associated Press contributed reporting