Distant star TOI-700 has two potentially habitable planets orbiting it – making it an excellent candidate in the search for life


Joey Rodriguez, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University 

Andrew Vanderburg, Assistant Professor of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT

THE CONVERSATION
Wed, March 8, 2023 

The TOI-700 star system is home to four planets, including two in its habitable zone that could host liquid water. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA recently announced the discovery of a new, Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone of a nearby star called TOI-700. We are two of the astronomers who led the discovery of this planet, called TOI-700 e. TOI-700 e is just over 100 light years from Earth – too far away for humans to visit – but we do know that it is similar in size to the Earth, likely rocky in composition and could potentially support life.

You’ve probably heard about some of the many other exoplanet discoveries in recent years. In fact, TOI-700 e is one of two potentially habitable planets just in the TOI-700 star system.

Habitable planets are those that are just the right distance from their star to have a surface temperature that could sustain liquid water. While it is always exciting to find a new, potentially habitable planet far from Earth, the focus of exoplanet research is shifting away from simply discovering more planets. Instead, researchers are focusing their efforts on finding and studying systems most likely to answer key questions about how planets form, how they evolve, and whether life might exist in the universe. TOI-700 e stands out from many of these other planet discoveries because it is well suited for future studies that could help answer big question about the conditions for life outside the solar system.

From 1 to 5,000

Astronomers discovered the first exoplanet around a Sun-like star in 1995. The field of exoplanet discovery and research has been rapidly evolving ever since.

At first, astronomers were finding only a few exoplanets each year, but the combination of new cutting-edge facilities focused on exoplanet science with improved detection sensitivity have led to astronomers’ discovering hundreds of exoplanets each year. As detection methods and tools have improved, the amount of information scientists can learn about these planets has increased. In 30 years, scientists have gone from barely being able to detect exoplanets to characterizing key chemical clues in their atmospheres, like water, using facilities like the James Webb Space Telescope.

Today, there are more than 5,000 known exoplanets, ranging from gas giants to small rocky worlds. And perhaps most excitingly, astronomers have now found about a dozen exoplanets that are likely rocky and orbiting within the habitable zones of their respective stars.

Astronomers have even discovered a few systems – like TOI-700 – that have more than one planet orbiting in the habitable zone of their star. We call these keystone systems.

The TOI-700 system has a large habitable zone, and the newly discovered TOI-700 e, not shown in this image, orbits the star along the inner edge of the habitable zone. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

A pair of habitable siblings

TOI-700 first made headlines when our team announced the discovery of three small planets orbiting the star in early 2020. Using a combination of observations from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Surveying Satellite mission and the Spitzer Space Telescope we discovered these planets by measuring small dips in the amount of light coming from TOI-700. These dips in light are caused by planets passing in front of the small, cool, red dwarf star at the center of the system.

By taking precise measurements of the changes in light, we were able to determine that at least three small planets are in the TOI-700 system, with hints of a possible fourth. We could also determine that the third planet from the star, TOI-700 d, orbits within its star’s habitable zone, where the temperature of the planet’s surface could allow for liquid water.

The Transiting Exoplanet Surveying Satellite observed TOI-700 for another year, from July 2020 through May 2021, and using these observations our team found the fourth planet, TOI-700 e. TOI-700 e is 95% the size of the Earth and, much to our surprise, orbits on the inner edge of the star’s habitable zone, between planets c and d. Our discovery of this planet makes TOI-700 one of only a few known systems with two Earth-sized planets orbiting in the habitable zone of their star. The fact that it is relatively close to Earth also makes it one of the most accessible systems in terms of future characterization.

New tools, like the James Webb Space Telescope, can provide clues about life on distant planets, but with thousands of scientific questions to answer, efficient use of time is key. Bricktop/Wikimedia Commons

The bigger questions and tools to answer them

With the successful launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers are now able to start characterizing the atmospheric chemistry of exoplanets and search for clues about whether life exists on them. In the near future, a number of massive, ground-based telescopes will also help reveal further details about the composition of planets far from the solar system.

But even with powerful new telescopes, collecting enough light to learn these details requires pointing the telescope at a system for a long period of time. With thousands of valuable scientific questions to answer, astronomers need to know where to look. And that is the goal of our team, to find the most interesting and promising exoplanets to study with the Webb telescope and future facilities.

Earth is currently the only data point in the search for life. It is possible alien life could be vastly different from life as we know it, but for now, places similar to the home of humanity with liquid water on the surface offer a good starting point. We believe that keystone systems with multiple planets that are likely candidates for hosting life – like TOI-700 – offer the best use of observation time. By further studying TOI-700, our team will be able to learn more about what makes a planet habitable, how rocky planets similar to Earth form and evolve, and the mechanisms that shaped the solar system. The more astronomers know about how star systems like TOI-700 and our own solar system work, the better the chances of detecting life out in the cosmos.

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

It was written by: Joey Rodriguez, Michigan State University and Andrew Vanderburg, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Read more:

To search for alien life, astronomers will look for clues in the atmospheres of distant planets – and the James Webb Space Telescope just proved it’s possible to do so


James Webb Space Telescope: An astronomer explains the stunning, newly released first images

Joseph Rodriguez receives funding from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Michigan State University.

Andrew Vanderburg receives funding from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

DIGITAL CURRENCY, NO THANKS
Nigerians’ Rejection of Their CBDC Is a Cautionary Tale for Other Countries


Benson Ibeabuchi


Nicholas Anthony
Mon, March 6, 2023 

In Nigeria, citizens have taken to the streets to protest the nation’s cash shortage, further objecting to their government’s implementation of a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The shortage came about due to cash restrictions aimed at pushing the country into a 100% cashless economy. Yet, instead of adopting the CBDC, Nigerian protesters are demanding paper money be restored.

The country’s experience strongly suggests the average citizen understands that CBDCs present a substantial risk to financial freedom while providing no unique benefit.

Nicholas Anthony is a policy analyst in the Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives.

It is no secret that CBDCs have been growing in popularity among central bankers, policy makers, and consultancy firms in recent years. Yet, for citizens it’s been another story. When the U.S. Federal Reserve solicited comments on CBDCs, more than two-thirds of the commenters were concerned about the risks to financial privacy, financial freedom and the stability of the banking system.

Further, CBDCs really don’t add anything novel to the market in terms of benefits for consumers. To the extent people want it, many currencies are available in digital forms through debit cards, payment apps and even prepaid cards. That much should be clear from the abysmal adoption rate in Nigeria, where less than 0.5 % of Nigerians have used the CBDC. To put that number into perspective, more than 50% of Nigerians have used cryptocurrency.
CBDC adoption incentives in Nigeria have failed

The Nigerian government has unleashed a flurry of tricks to spur adoption but none has proven effective. To its credit, the Nigerian government initially tried to encourage use through modest measures. In August 2022, it removed access restrictions so that bank accounts were no longer required to use the CBDC. Then, in October, it offered discounts if people used the CBDC to pay for cabs.

Yet, neither effort proved to be fruitful. Put simply, Nigerians prefer cash.

Read more: Why Nigerians Aren't Turning to the eNaira Despite Crippling Cash Shortages

Unfortunately, the Nigerian government doubled down and moved to more drastic measures by restricting cash itself. In December the Central Bank of Nigeria began restricting cash withdrawals to 100,000 naira (US$225) per week for individuals and 500,000 naira ($1,123) for businesses.

To make matters worse, the Nigerian government also chose to redesign the currency during this time in a “move aimed at restoring the control of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over currency in circulation” and to “further deepen the push to [a] cashless economy,” according to a CBN press release.

So not only are citizens limited in how much they may withdraw, but the commercial banks also don’t have the cash to give out because many are still waiting for the newly designed cash to arrive.

With these restrictions in place, the Nigerian government managed to drain the economy of cash and set the stage for the CBDC to finally have its moment in the spotlight.
‘You can’t legislate a change in behavior’

And yet, it didn’t work. Stories of Nigerians struggling with the cash restrictions quickly spread across Twitter posts, TikTok videos and other social media. Rather than turn to the CBDC, Nigerians took to the streets to protest the restrictions and cash shortage.

The new notes will, it is hoped, arrive soon, but even then Nigerians are unlikely to find relief. Central bank Governor Godwin Emefiele said, “The destination, as far as I am concerned, is to achieve a 100% cashless economy in Nigeria.”

The company that designed the Nigerian CBDC called the cash restrictions a creative use of marketing and said other countries could be expected to take similar steps. Yet, Nigeria should serve as a cautionary tale for other countries looking to launch CBDCs.

Ayokunle Olumbunmi, head of financial institutions ratings at Agusto and Co. in Nigeria, put it well when he said that the central bank “doesn’t want us to be spending cash. They want us to be doing transactions electronically, but you can’t legislate a change in behavior.”

CBDCs may be popular among central bankers, but money is ultimately a tool for the people. So long as the risks outweigh the benefits, it's unlikely any CBDC will gain traction in Africa or elsewhere.

Robots are performing Hindu rituals -- some devotees fear they'll replace worshippers

Holly Walters, Visiting Lecturer in Anthropology, Wellesley College

THE CONVERSATION
Wed, March 8, 2023 

A robotic arm (below on right) is used to worship by maneuvering a candle in front of the Hindu god Ganesha. Monarch Innovation

It isn’t just artists and teachers who are losing sleep over advances in automation and artificial intelligence. Robots are being brought into Hinduism’s holiest rituals – and not all worshippers are happy about it.

In 2017, a technology firm in India introduced a robotic arm to perform “aarti,” a ritual in which a devotee offers an oil lamp to the deity to symbolize the removal of darkness. This particular robot was unveiled at the Ganpati festival, a yearly gathering of millions of people in which an icon of Ganesha, the elephant-headed god, is taken out in a procession and immersed in the Mula-Mutha river in Pune in central India.

Ever since, that robotic aarti arm has inspired several prototypes, a few of which continue to regularly perform the ritual across India today, along with a variety of other religious robots throughout East Asia and South Asia. Robotic rituals even now include an animatronic temple elephant in Kerala on India’s southern coast.

Yet this kind of religious robotic usage has led to increasing debates about the use of AI and robotic technology in devotion and worship. Some devotees and priests feel that this represents a new horizon in human innovation that will lead to the betterment of society, while others worry that using robots to replace practitioners is a bad omen for the future.

As an anthropologist who specializes in religion, however, I focus less on the theology of robotics and more on what people actually say and do when it comes to their spiritual practices. My current work on religious robots primarily centers on the notion of “divine object-persons,” where otherwise inanimate things are viewed as having a living, conscious essence.

My work also looks at the uneasiness Hindus and Buddhists express about ritual-performing automatons replacing people and whether those automatons actually might make better devotees.

Ritual automation is not new

Ritual automation, or at least the idea of robotic spiritual practice, isn’t new in South Asian religions.

Historically, this has included anything from special pots that drip water continuously for bathing rituals that Hindus routinely perform for their deity icons, called abhisheka, to wind-powered Buddhist prayer wheels – the kinds often seen in yoga studios and supply stores.

While the contemporary version of automated ritual might look like downloading a phone app that chants mantras without the need for any prayer object at all, such as a mala or rosary, these new versions of ritual-performing robots have prompted complicated conversations.

Thaneswar Sarmah, a Sanskrit scholar and literary critic, argues that the first Hindu robot appeared in the stories of King Manu, the first king of the human race in Hindu belief. Manu’s mother, Saranyu – herself the daughter of a great architect – built an animate statue to perfectly perform all of her household chores and ritual obligations.

Visvakarman, considered to be the architect of the universe in Hindu belief. British Museum

Folklorist Adrienne Mayor remarks similarly that religious stories about mechanized icons from Hindu epics, such as the mechanical war chariots of the Hindu engineer god Visvakarman, are often viewed as the progenitors of religious robots today.

Furthermore, these stories are sometimes interpreted by modern-day nationalists as evidence that ancient India has previously invented everything from spacecraft to missiles.

Modern traditions or traditionally modern?

However, the recent use of AI and robotics in religious practice is leading to concerns among Hindus and Buddhists about the kind of future to which automation could lead. In some instances, the debate among Hindus is about whether automated religion promises the arrival of humanity into a bright, new, technological future or if it is simply evidence of the coming apocalypse.

In other cases, there are concerns that the proliferation of robots might lead to greater numbers of people leaving religious practice as temples begin to rely more on automation than on practitioners to care for their deities. Some of these concerns stem from the fact that many religions, both in South Asia and globally, have seen significant decreases in the number of young people willing to dedicate their lives to spiritual education and practice over the past few decades. Furthermore, with many families living in a diaspora scattered across the world, priests or “pandits” are often serving smaller and smaller communities.

But if the answer to the problem of fewer ritual specialists is more robots, people still question whether ritual automation will benefit them. They also question the concurrent use of robotic deities to embody and personify the divine, since these icons are programmed by people and therefore reflect the religious views of their engineers.
Doing right by religion

Scholars often note that these concerns all tend to reflect one pervasive theme – an underlying anxiety that, somehow, the robots are better at worshipping gods than humans are. They can also raise inner conflicts about the meaning of life and one’s place in the universe.

For Hindus and Buddhists, the rise of ritual automation is especially concerning because their traditions emphasize what religion scholars refer to as orthopraxy, where greater importance is placed on correct ethical and liturgical behavior than on specific beliefs in religious doctrines. In other words, perfecting what you do in terms of your religious practice is viewed as more necessary to spiritual advancement than whatever it is you personally believe.

This also means that automated rituals appear on a spectrum that progresses from human ritual fallibility to robotic ritual perfection. In short, the robot can do your religion better than you can because robots, unlike people, are spiritually incorruptible.

This not only makes robots attractive replacements for dwindling priesthoods but also explains their increasing use in everyday contexts: People use them because no one worries about the robot getting it wrong, and they are often better than nothing when the options for ritual performance are limited.
Saved by a robot

In the end, turning to a robot for religious restoration in modern Hinduism or Buddhism might seem futuristic, but it belongs very much to the present moment. It tells us that Hinduism, Buddhism and other religions in South Asia are increasingly being imagined as post- or transhuman: deploying technological ingenuity to transcend human weaknesses because robots don’t get tired, forget what they’re supposed to say, fall asleep or leave.

More specifically, this means that robotic automation is being used to perfect ritual practices in East Asia and South Asia – especially in India and Japan – beyond what would be possible for a human devotee, by linking impossibly consistent and flawless ritual accomplishment with an idea of better religion.

Modern robotics might then feel like a particular kind of cultural paradox, where the best kind of religion is the one that eventually involves no humans at all. But in this circularity of humans creating robots, robots becoming gods, and gods becoming human, we’ve only managed to, once again, re-imagine ourselves.

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

It was written by: Holly Walters, Wellesley College.

Read more:

Discrimination based on caste is pervasive in South Asian communities around the world – now Seattle has banned it

Polish TV report: John Paul II knew of abuse as archbishop


FILE - Karol Cardinal Wojtyla, archbishop of Krakow, Poland, foreground, arrives to take part in Oct. 22, 1971 working session of the World Synod of Bishops at the Vatican. Pope St. John Paul II knew about sexual abuse of children by priests under his authority and sought to conceal it when he was an archbishop in his native Poland, according to a television news report. In a story that aired late Monday, March 6, 2023, Polish channel TVN24 named three priests whom the future pope then known as Archbishop Karol Wojtyla had moved among parishes during the 1970s, including one who was sent to Austria, after they were accused of abusing minors. 

(AP Photo/Gianni Foggia) 

MONIKA SCISLOWSKA
Tue, March 7, 2023 

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — St. John Paul II knew about sexual abuse of children by priests under his authority and sought to conceal it when he was an archbishop in his native Poland, a television news report has alleged.

In a story that aired late Monday, Polish channel TVN24 named three priests whom the future pope then known as Archbishop Karol Wojtyla had moved among parishes or sent to a cloister during the 1970s, including one who was sent to Austria, after they were accused of abusing minors.

Two of the priests, Eugeniusz Surgent and Jozef Loranc, eventually served short prison terms for the abuse, TVN24 said its 2 and 1/2 year-long investigation found. Wojtyla served as archbishop of Krakow from 1964 to 1978, when he became Pope John Paul II. He died in 2005 and was declared a saint in 2014 following a fast-tracked process.

TVN24 quoted from documents of Poland's communist-era secret security services, which sought to discredit the Catholic Church and had informers there. The documents are held in the archives of the state National Remembrance Institute. Journalist Marcin Gutowski also spoke with a number of victims and a man who said he informed Wojtyla during the 1970s about the abuse by Surgent. None of the priests were defrocked.

The TV channel also quoted from a letter that it said Wojtyla wrote to the archbishop of Vienna at the time, Franz Koenig, recommending a priest to his care. Wojtyla did not say in the letter that Boleslaw Sadus had abused young boys, and he was made a parish priest in Austria. Wojtyla kept in touch with Sadus also after becoming pope.

TVN24's investigation concluded that there was no doubt Wojtyla knew about abuse by priests in his archdiocese and sought to conceal it.

The broadcast featured a journalist who has written about cases of priestly abuse in Krakow diocese and who argued that Wojtyla reacted in line with Catholic Church procedures of the time.

The findings will gradually lead to a “deconstruction of the image of John Paul II that we have been using so far,” Dominican friar Paweł Gużyński said Tuesday on TVN24, noting that some people may not be prepared to cope with the new facts.

Gużyński stressed, however, that “there is no equality sign between sainthood and total absence of mistakes, even crimes, in someone's actions.”

Polish church officials tasked with the protection of minors said in a communique Tuesday that further research was needed before Wojtyla’s actions could be “fairly assessed.” The officials stressed that the church was prepared to hear from abuse survivors and to support them.

The channel's investigation has unleashed heated reactions in Poland, with some observers deriding it as an attempt by left-wing forces to destroy the memory of John Paul II and others demanding for the Catholic Church to reveal the truth.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, a Catholic, tweeted a photo of John Paul II greeting a crowd in Poland and added the late pope's motto “Do not be afraid," without any comment.

A Polish Jesuit priest, Krzysztof Madel, wrote on Twitter that that the focus should be on the victims, who need the truth to be told.

An official at the Ministry of Education, Radoslaw Brzozka, said on Twitter that John Paul II's reputation was under attack from people who want to eliminate Catholicism from Poland's national identity.

John Paul II is not the only pope under scrutiny for dealing with predator priests.

His immediate successor, Benedict XVI, who had a much stricter stance and defrocked hundreds of abusive priests, was faulted by an independent report commissioned by the German Catholic Church for his handling of four cases while he was Munich bishop.

Accusations of having failed to react to cases of abuse by priests in his native Argentina and in Chile, while bishop and then pontiff, have been also addressed to Pope Francis.

Commentators noted that the Catholic Church hierarchy has mostly sought to protect the image of the institution over the needs of victims.

The choice of Wojtyla for pope in 1978 energized Poland's predominantly Catholic population to openly oppose the nation’s communist system and eventually topple it.

Until recently, the Catholic Church in Poland has played a significant role in the country's public life. Revelations about pedophile priests and the church's close ties with the current right-wing government have depreciated its standing.

____

Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP's coverage of sexual abuse by clergy: https://apnews.com/hub/sexual-abuse-by-clergy

Exclusive-U.S. solar panel imports from China grow, alleviating gridlock, officials say


Exclusive-U.S. solar panel imports from China grow, alleviating gridlock, officials sayThe CERAWeek energy conference 2023 in Houston

Mon, March 6, 2023
By Nichola Groom and Richard Valdmanis

(Reuters) -U.S. imports of solar panels are finally picking up after months of gridlock stemming from implementation of a new law banning goods made with forced labor, according to two Chinese solar companies.

A White House official confirmed the thaw in shipments at an energy conference on Monday, attributing it to clearer rules around complying with the Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act (UFLPA).

The gains are a relief to major Chinese suppliers including Trina Solar and Jinko Solar, who are finally getting products into the lucrative U.S. market after long delays.

The labor protection law prohibits imports of products made in China's Xinjiang region, where Chinese authorities are reported to have established labor camps for ethnic Uyghur and other Muslim groups. China denies any abuses.

The movement of panels that have been stuck at the border or awaiting shipment from overseas should help alleviate delays in U.S. solar project development stemming from implementation of the law, which went into effect in June of last year.

The freeze in project building posed a risk to the Biden administration's clean energy and climate change goals, the industry has said.

"There's clearer guidance out, and we're seeing more shipments coming through,” John Podesta, a senior adviser to President Joe Biden on clean energy matters, told reporters on Monday on the sidelines of the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston. He did not give details on the quantity of panels that were making it through customs.

Trina Solar Co Ltd told Reuters that more than 900 megawatts of its solar panels have cleared U.S. customs in the last four months, with less than 1% of those products being detained for examination. That's about enough capacity to power more than 150,000 homes.

"Trina's data systems and supply chain management allow us to provide detailed traceability documentation, upon request by the U.S. Customs," a Trina U.S. spokesperson, Melissa Cavanagh, said in an email. "This has significantly reduced delays at the ports."

The UFLPA essentially presumes that all goods from Xinjiang are made with forced labor and requires producers to show sourcing documentation of imported equipment back to the raw material to prove otherwise before imports can be cleared.

Trina rival Jinko Solar Holding Co Ltd has also had shipments released from detention, a source close to the company said.

As of October, U.S. Customs and Border Protection had seized more than 1,000 shipments of solar energy equipment under UFLPA, the agency said in response to a public records request. None had been released.

The products were primarily made by Trina, Jinko and Longi Green Energy Technology Co Ltd, according to industry sources. Those companies typically account for up to a third of U.S. panel supplies.

Longi did not respond to requests for comment.

In response to another public records request last month, U.S. Customs said it had released 374, or more than a quarter of 1,433 electronics shipments it had detained under UFLPA. It would not specify how many of those were solar products.

Polysilicon, the solar industry's raw material, is identified as a high-priority sector in the law.

(Reporting by Richard Valdmanis in Houston and Nichola Groom in Los AngelesEditing by David Gregorio, Matthew Lewis and Sonali Paul)

Iowa football settles race bias lawsuit using taxpayer money


IIn this Dec. 19, 2019, file photo, Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand speaks in Des Moines, Iowa, Dec. 19, 2019. A proposed settlement for more than $4 million has been reached in the lawsuit brought by former Iowa football players who alleged racial discrimination in coach Kirk Ferentz's program. The office of State Auditor Rob Sand disclosed the proposed settlement on Monday, March 6, 2023, and he was scheduled to speak at a news conference where he will announce his opposition to using taxpayer money to pay a portion of the settlement unless university athletic director Gary Barta is fired. (Brian Powers/The Des Moines Register via AP, File, File)

ERIC OLSON
Mon, March 6, 2023

Iowa taxpayers will pay $2 million to help the University of Iowa athletic department settle a lawsuit brought by former football players who allege racial discrimination existed in coach Kirk Ferentz's program, a state board decided in a vote Monday.

The state's Appeal Board voted 2-1 to approve the use of taxpayer funds for half of the $4.175 million settlement over the objection of State Auditor Rob Sand, a board member who said athletic director Gary Barta should be fired for a series of lawsuits ending in settlements under his watch.

“I can’t imagine a private company that would still have someone at the helm after four discrimination lawsuits under that person’s leadership,” Sand said at a news conference before the vote. "The athletic department, they’ve got the funds for it. The broadcast deal brings tens of millions of dollars every year going forward. I don’t know why they can’t cover their own mistakes and pay for their own mistakes instead of having taxpayer’s do it.”

The lawsuit filed in November 2020 involved former players including former star running back Akrum Wadley and career receptions leader Kevonte Martin-Manley. They alleged they were demeaned with racial slurs, forced to abandon Black hairstyles, fashion and culture to fit the “Iowa Way” promoted by Ferentz, and retaliated against for speaking out.

A message was left for Tulsa-based attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons, who brought the lawsuit on behalf of about a dozen Black former players.

In response to a request for comment from Barta, the athletic department sent a statement attributed to him, saying the department “remains committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for every student-athlete and staff member involved in our program.”

“The Hawkeyes over-arching goal to win every time we compete, graduate every student-athlete that comes to Iowa, and to do it right, remains our focus,” the statement reads.

Barta has been Iowa's athletic director since 2006. In a statement to the Appeal Board, Sand noted four discrimination cases totaling nearly $7 million in damages under Barta's watch. The largest of those was $6.5 million to settle a lawsuit in 2017 over the firing of former field hockey coach Tracey Griesbaum. The money used to pay that settlement came from the athletic department, which does not rely on taxpayer funding.

State treasurer Roby Smith and Department of Management director Kraig Paulsen are the other two Appeal Board members.

Paulsen, before voting yes, said it's not up to the board to play a role in Barta's employment status.

“We’re here to make a decision as to what’s in the best interest of (Iowa) and it seems to me, upon the recommendation of the Attorney General, this is the wise decision to make,” Paulsen said, according to Des Moines television station KCCI.

Barta, Ferentz, his son and offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz and former strength coach Chris Doyle were dismissed from the lawsuit last week, which signaled that a proposed settlement was imminent.

Kirk Ferentz said in a statement he is “greatly disappointed” in how the matter was resolved. He said negotiations took place between the plaintiffs’ attorney and the Iowa Attorney General’s Office, which represents the university and the state Board of Regents.

“These discussions took place entirely without the knowledge or consent of the coaches who were named in the lawsuit,” Ferentz said. “In fact, the parties originally named disagree with the decision to settle, fully believing that the case would have been dismissed with prejudice before trial.”

Ferentz added that “as part of the settlement, the coaches named were dismissed from the lawsuit and there is no admission of any wrongdoing.”

The agreement calls for $2.85 million to be divided among 12 players and $1.9 million to go to Solomon-Simmons Law for fees and expenses.

In addition, the university would direct $90,000 to support graduate or professional school tuition for the plaintiffs, with no individual receiving more than $20,000, and provide mental health counseling for the plaintiffs through March 15, 2024. The athletic department also is required to hire University of Texas Black studies professor Leonard Moore to oversee a five-year diversity, equity and inclusion plan.

The players initially sought $20 million in damages plus the firings of Barta and the Ferentzes.

Doyle agreed to leave Iowa five months before the lawsuit was filed after widespread accusations that the longtime strength coach used his position to bully and disparage former players, particularly those who are Black. Iowa agreed to pay Doyle $1.1 million in a resignation agreement.

In 2020, before the lawsuit, the university hired the Husch Blackwell law firm to review the program after dozens of former players, most of them Black, spoke out on social media to allege racial disparities and mistreatment. Their activism came as protests against racial injustice swept the nation following the death of George Floyd and after attempts to raise concerns inside the program resulted in only minor changes.

The report said that some of the football program’s rules “perpetuated racial or cultural biases and diminished the value of cultural diversity.”

Iowa football settles race bias lawsuit using taxpayer money

ERIC OLSON
Mon, March 6, 2023 

Iowa taxpayers will pay $2 million to help the University of Iowa athletic department settle a lawsuit brought by former football players who allege racial discrimination existed in coach Kirk Ferentz's program, a state board decided in a vote Monday.

The state's Appeal Board voted 2-1 to approve the use of taxpayer funds for half of the $4.175 million settlement over the objection of State Auditor Rob Sand, a board member who said athletic director Gary Barta should be fired for a series of lawsuits ending in settlements under his watch.

“I can’t imagine a private company that would still have someone at the helm after four discrimination lawsuits under that person’s leadership,” Sand said at a news conference before the vote. "The athletic department, they’ve got the funds for it. The broadcast deal brings tens of millions of dollars every year going forward. I don’t know why they can’t cover their own mistakes and pay for their own mistakes instead of having taxpayer’s do it.”

The lawsuit filed in November 2020 involved former players including former star running back Akrum Wadley and career receptions leader Kevonte Martin-Manley. They alleged they were demeaned with racial slurs, forced to abandon Black hairstyles, fashion and culture to fit the “Iowa Way” promoted by Ferentz, and retaliated against for speaking out.

A message was left for Tulsa-based attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons, who brought the lawsuit on behalf of about a dozen Black former players.

In response to a request for comment from Barta, the athletic department sent a statement attributed to him, saying the department “remains committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for every student-athlete and staff member involved in our program.”

“The Hawkeyes over-arching goal to win every time we compete, graduate every student-athlete that comes to Iowa, and to do it right, remains our focus,” the statement reads.

Barta has been Iowa's athletic director since 2006. In a statement to the Appeal Board, Sand noted four discrimination cases totaling nearly $7 million in damages under Barta's watch. The largest of those was $6.5 million to settle a lawsuit in 2017 over the firing of former field hockey coach Tracey Griesbaum. The money used to pay that settlement came from the athletic department, which does not rely on taxpayer funding.

State treasurer Roby Smith and Department of Management director Kraig Paulsen are the other two Appeal Board members.

Paulsen, before voting yes, said it's not up to the board to play a role in Barta's employment status.

“We’re here to make a decision as to what’s in the best interest of (Iowa) and it seems to me, upon the recommendation of the Attorney General, this is the wise decision to make,” Paulsen said, according to Des Moines television station KCCI.

Barta, Ferentz, his son and offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz and former strength coach Chris Doyle were dismissed from the lawsuit last week, which signaled that a proposed settlement was imminent.

Kirk Ferentz said in a statement he is “greatly disappointed” in how the matter was resolved. He said negotiations took place between the plaintiffs’ attorney and the Iowa Attorney General’s Office, which represents the university and the state Board of Regents.

“These discussions took place entirely without the knowledge or consent of the coaches who were named in the lawsuit,” Ferentz said. “In fact, the parties originally named disagree with the decision to settle, fully believing that the case would have been dismissed with prejudice before trial.”

Ferentz added that “as part of the settlement, the coaches named were dismissed from the lawsuit and there is no admission of any wrongdoing.”

The agreement calls for $2.85 million to be divided among 12 players and $1.9 million to go to Solomon-Simmons Law for fees and expenses.

In addition, the university would direct $90,000 to support graduate or professional school tuition for the plaintiffs, with no individual receiving more than $20,000, and provide mental health counseling for the plaintiffs through March 15, 2024. The athletic department also is required to hire University of Texas Black studies professor Leonard Moore to oversee a five-year diversity, equity and inclusion plan.

The players initially sought $20 million in damages plus the firings of Barta and the Ferentzes.

Doyle agreed to leave Iowa five months before the lawsuit was filed after widespread accusations that the longtime strength coach used his position to bully and disparage former players, particularly those who are Black. Iowa agreed to pay Doyle $1.1 million in a resignation agreement.

In 2020, before the lawsuit, the university hired the Husch Blackwell law firm to review the program after dozens of former players, most of them Black, spoke out on social media to allege racial disparities and mistreatment. Their activism came as protests against racial injustice swept the nation following the death of George Floyd and after attempts to raise concerns inside the program resulted in only minor changes.

The report said that some of the football program’s rules “perpetuated racial or cultural biases and diminished the value of cultural diversity.”

___

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Duke comes out against Ph.D. student union in letter, students respond


Robert Willett/rwillett@newsobserver.com

Brian Gordon
Wed, March 8, 2023 

On Friday, Duke University doctoral students filed to form a federally recognized union, one with the power to negotiate wages and benefits on their behalf. Three days later, the school administration announced its position on the union — and it wasn’t favorable.

In a Dec. 6 letter addressed to Duke Ph.D. students and faculty, interim Provost Jennifer Francis wrote, “Ph.D. students are not admitted to do a job; they are selected because of their potential to be exceptional scholars.”

Doctoral students pursue their own research and don’t pay tuition but they also serve as teaching and research assistants, with duties including instructing classes, grading papers and working in labs. This academic year, Duke Ph.D. students earned a stipend of $34,660, which will rise next year to $38,600.

“Duke works because we do,” the organizing group, Duke Graduate Students Union (DGSU), wrote to Duke University President Vincent Price in late February. At the time, DGSU said a “growing majority” of the school’s 2,500 doctoral students supported unionization and was asking the administration to voluntarily recognize the union. It did not, and on March 3, DGSU and the Service Employees International Union petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for a union.

The union question seems poised to come down to an election overseen by the NLRB. A date has not yet been set. How hard the university will campaign against the union is also not yet known, though Monday’s letter makes its position clear.

“Labor unions have contributed significantly to giving employees voice and agency in our nation and around the world, and Duke has strong working relationships with several unions representing our employees,” Francis acknowledged. “However, the educational context matters greatly. The university’s institutional position remains that Duke’s relationship with our students is centered on education, training, and mentorship, fundamentally different from that of employer to employee.”

Francis pointed out that Duke Ph.D. students voted down a union in a 2017 election.
‘The win rate is astronomical’

But pro-union advocates are confident this time would be different.

In the past six years, graduate students have successfully unionized at other elite private universities, including Brown, MIT and Harvard. In the past three months, grad students have, by wide margins, approved unions at the University of Southern California, Boston University and Yale.

“The thing that has struck me more than even just the number of organizing drives is the win rate is astronomical,” said Jeff Hirsch, a labor law professor at the UNC School of Law.

Hirsch said graduate students “are not the easiest group to organize typically,” given their temporary status and the power dynamics inherent to academia.

“Your ability to get an academic job is highly dependent on recommendations from your current professors, and not to generalize, but a lot of them absolutely do not like the idea of grad students unionizing,” he said.

Yet universities are also imagine-conscious, Hirsch noted, and coming out as anti-union can be a public relations blunder. “The rest of the student body cares too, oftentimes, including undergrads,” he said.

On Twitter Monday, pro-union advocates blasted the university for Francis’ letter, with some accusing the school of “union busting.”

“Unfortunately, my “potential to be an exceptional scholar” doesn’t pay the bills,” one Duke doctoral student wrote in response to the letter.

This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.
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The women who stood with Martin Luther King Jr. and sustained a movement for social change

Vicki Crawford, Professor of Africana Studies, Morehouse College

THE CONVERSATION
Wed, March 8, 2023 

Women listen during the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963.

Bettmann Archive/Getty Images

Historian Vicki Crawford was one of the first scholars to focus on women’s roles in the civil rights movement. Her 1993 book, “Trailblazers and Torchbearers,” dives into the stories of female leaders whose legacies have often been overshadowed.

Today she is the director of the Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection, where she oversees the archive of his sermons, speeches, writings and other materials. Here, she explains the contributions of women who influenced King and helped to fuel some of the most significant campaigns of the civil rights era, but whose contributions are not nearly as well known.
An activist in her own right

Coretta Scott King is often remembered as a devoted wife and mother, yet she was also a committed activist in her own right. She was deeply involved with social justice causes before she met and married Martin Luther King Jr., and long after his death.

Scott King served with civil rights groups throughout her time as a student at Antioch College and the New England Conservatory of Music. Shortly after she and King married in 1953, the couple returned to the South, where they lent their support to local and regional organizations such as the NAACP and the Montgomery Improvement Association.

They also supported the Women’s Political Council, an organization founded by female African American professors at Alabama State University that facilitated voter education and registration, and also protested discrimination on city buses. These local leadership efforts paved the way for widespread support of Rosa Parks’ resistance to segregation on public busing.

Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife Coretta Scott King work in his office in Atlanta in July 1962. TPLP/Archive Photos via Getty Images

Following her husband’s assassination in 1968, Scott King devoted her life to institutionalizing his philosophy and practice of nonviolence. She established the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, led a march of sanitation workers in Memphis and joined efforts to organize the Poor People’s Campaign. A longtime advocate of workers rights, she also supported a 1969 hospital workers’ strike in South Carolina, delivering stirring speeches against the treatment of African American staff.

Scott King’s commitment to nonviolence went beyond civil rights at home. During the 1960s, she became involved in peace and anti-war efforts such as the Women’s Strike for Peace and opposed the escalating war in Vietnam. By the 1980s, she had joined protests against South African apartheid, and before her death in 2006, she spoke out in favor of LGBT rights – capping a lifetime of activism against injustice and inequalities.
Women and the March

While Scott King’s support and ideas were particularly influential, many other women played essential roles in the success of the civil rights movement.

Take the most iconic moment of the civil rights struggle, in many Americans’ minds: the Aug. 28, 1963, March on Washington for Jobs and Freeedom, at which King delivered his landmark “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

As the 60th anniversary of the march approaches, it is critical to recognize the activism of women from all walks of life who helped to strategize and organize one of the country’s most massive political demonstrations of the 20th century. Yet historical accounts overwhelmingly highlight the march’s male leadership. With the exception of Daisy Bates, an activist who read a short tribute, no women were invited to deliver formal speeches.

Members of Carmel Presbyterian Church donating money for the March on Washington. Carl Iwasaki/The Chronicle Collection via Getty Images

Women were among the key organizers of the march, however, and helped recruit thousands of participants. Dorothy Height, president of the National Council of Negro Women, was often the lone woman at the table of leaders representing national organizations. Anna Arnold Hedgeman, who also served on the planning committee, was another strong advocate for labor issues, anti-poverty efforts and women’s rights.

Dorothy Height stands with Martin Luther King Jr. in November 1957. Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images

Photographs of the march show women attended in large numbers, yet few historical accounts adequately credit women for their leadership and support. Civil rights activist, lawyer and Episcopalian priest Pauli Murray, among others, called for a gathering of women to address this and other instances of discrimination a few days later.
Hidden in plain view

African American women led and served in all the major campaigns, working as field secretaries, attorneys, plaintiffs, organizers and educators, to name just a few roles. So why did early historical accounts of the movement neglect their stories?

There were women propelling national civil rights organizations and among King’s closest advisers. Septima Clark, for example, was a seasoned educator whose strong organizing skills played a consequential role in voter registration, literacy training and citizenship education. Dorothy Cotton was a member of the inner circle of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, of which King was president, and was involved in literacy training and teaching nonviolent resistance.

A civil rights marcher exposed to tear gas holds an unconscious Amelia Boynton Robinson after mounted police officers attacked marchers in Selma. Bettmann/Getty Images

Yet women’s organizing during the 1950s and 1960s is most evident at local and regional levels, particularly in some of the most perilous communities across the deep South. Since the 1930s, Amelia Boynton Robinson of Dallas County, Alabama, and her family had been fighting for voting rights, laying the groundwork for the struggle to end voter suppression that continues to the present. She was also key in planning the 50-mile Selma-to-Montgomery march in 1965. Images of the violence that marchers endured – particularly on the day that came to be known as Bloody Sunday – shocked the nation and eventually contributed to the passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Civil rights activist Amelia Boynton Robinson attends an awards ceremony in New York in 2011. Marc Bryan-Brown/WireImage via Getty News

Or take Mississippi, where there would not have been a sustained movement without women’s activism. Some names have become well known, like Fannie Lou Hamer, but others deserve to be.

Two rural activists, Victoria Gray and Annie Devine, joined Hamer as representatives to the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, a parallel political party that challenged the state’s all-white representatives at the 1964 Democratic Convention. A year later, the three women represented the party in a challenge to block the state’s congressmen from taking their seats, given ongoing disenfranchisement of Black voters. Though the congressional challenge failed, the activism was a symbolic victory, serving note to the nation that Black Mississippians were no longer willing to accept centuries-old oppression.

Many African American women were out-front organizers for civil rights. But it is no less important to remember those who assumed less visible, but indispensable, roles behind the scenes, sustaining the movement over time.

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

It was written by: Vicki Crawford, Morehouse College.

Read more:

John Lewis and C.T. Vivian belonged to a long tradition of religious leaders in the civil rights struggle

Wikipedia at 20: Why it often overlooks stories of women in history

In Burkina, motorbikes bring treasured independence for women

Marietou BÂ
Wed, March 8, 2023 


The motorcycles that buzz along the streets of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, have a story to tell.

Once the preserve of men and a sign of male status in this West African country, today they are used ubiquitously by women -- and are a prized tool of emancipation.

When Nigerian filmmaker Kagho Idhebor first came to Ouagadougou he was overwhelmed by how many women whizzed about on a motorbike.

"I'd never seen women drive with such attitude, such independence," he said. "There are more motorbikes than cars, and more women than men on these motorbikes."

He was so struck by the phenomenon that he made "Burkina Babes" -- a documentary which ran at the pan-African FESPACO cinema and TV festival in Ouagadougou that ended last weekend.

Dressed in jeans or a suit, some with a baby slung on their back, women of all ages ride around on motorbikes in Burkina Faso.

"The motorbike is above all a necessity" for getting around, said Valerie Dambre, who had stopped at a traffic light.

But they are also a symbol of autonomy for many women in a deeply poor country beset with problems imposed by a brutal years-long jihadist insurgency.

Nearly one person in seven in Burkina's population of 22 million has a motorbike, according to transport ministry figures for 2020.

Between 2011 and 2020, the number of motorbikes tripled as a share of the population, cementing their role as a solution for mobility.

- Breaking barriers -

"In the coastal countries (in West Africa), people went straight to cars" from walking or using bicycles, said anthropologist Jocelyne Vokouma. "But we (in Burkina) turned to motorbikes before using cars."

The key period of change was the early 1990s, she said.

Until then, "a woman would proudly say that her motorbike had been bought by her husband. 'My husband is doing OK,' was what women used to say," Vokouma said.

But the country went through wrenching austerity and many men lost their jobs.

It was women who picked up the baton, setting up small businesses such as selling fruit and vegetables to make money -- and as time progressed, many used their savings to swap their bicycle for a motorbike.

With that came greater freedom, in developing their business, taking the children to school, seeing friends or just going out for a ride.

But, said Vokouma, some important seeds had already been sown by Burkina Faso's revolutionary leftwing leader, Thomas Sankara.

During his four years in power in the 1980s, which ended traumatically with his assassination, Sankara "played an emancipating role, breaking down traditional mindsets and thrusting women into the public space, outside the home," she said. "Young women today were brought up on his ideas."

- Training -

Hand in hand with the new mobility has come an entry for women into the male-dominated business of auto maintenance.

Since 1997, the Women's School for Skills Initiation and Training (CFIAM) has trained more than 700 women to be mechanics and bodywork repairers.

Its CEO and founder, Bernard Zongo, said he set up the school to help "girls... into non-traditional areas of work, so that they can become economically independent."

He hired a full-time woman psychologist and installed a nursery for students with babies.

The centre gets by through donations from NGOs, which account for 75 percent of revenue, while the remaining income comes from fees.

The two-year course costs 100,000 CFA francs ($163) -- a hefty sum in a country where annual per-capita income is little more than $900.

Other African countries, including Niger, Ivory Coast and Mali have sent representatives to the CFIAM to see how it operates, and "boys are asking to enrol," Zongo said with a smile.

"There are people we know who are jealous of us," said one student, Salamata Congo, speaking above a racket of cutting and hammering.

But patriarchal habits and machismo die hard.

"Men try to discourage you," said Berenice Zagali, who is learning to become a mechanic.

"They say, 'You're a woman, what are doing here? This is man's work. Your place is the kitchen, the office'."

bam/pid/ri/lc

Tesla could begin producing autos in Mexico next year -Mexican official


Tesla plans a new gigafactory in northern Mexico, in Santa Catarina

Mon, March 6, 2023 

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Tesla Inc could begin producing its first cars in Mexico next year, with the electric vehicle maker close to receiving its final permits allowing factory construction to begin in Nuevo Leon near the U.S.-Mexico border, the state's governor said on Monday.

"They are waiting for the final permits ... once that's done, they can start, hopefully this very month, in March," Nuevo Leon Governor Samuel Garcia said in an interview.

"I think by next year, in 2024, there will be the first autos."

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk announced the investment last week, saying the Austin, Texas-based company had selected Mexico for its next "gigafactory" with plans to produce a "next gen vehicle."

Mexican officials have said the factory will be the world's biggest to produce electric vehicles, with investment worth $5 billion.

Subsequent phases of the plant could involve making components such as chips and batteries, Garcia said.

"That's why they bought a very large plot of land," he added.

The site in Santa Catarina, next to the state capital of Monterrey, spans several thousand acres, the local mayor said last week.

Garcia said the investment would act as an "anchor" attracting Tesla suppliers, and that the green light given to Tesla by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador - after the latter had expressed concerns over scarcity of water - sent a positive signal to other potential investors.

"It's like a kind of guide, that when they want to come set up here, it's very important they follow the law," he said, noting he had sent Lopez Obrador technical memos about the state's industrial water supply.

"The president, by authorizing and backing Tesla, sent a message to the world that they should come to Mexico."

(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon in Mexico City; Editing by Matthew Lewis)