Ultra-black butterflies may inspire future 'blackest-black' materials

Amanda Kooser

It may be time to ditch the Spinal Tap jokes and start dropping Iron Butterfly references when it comes to talking about the world's blackest-black materials.

© Provided by CNET "The black patches on the wings of some butterflies are 10 to 100 times darker than everyday black objects," said Duke University. Richard Stickney, Museum of Life and Science

Duke University doctoral student Alex Davis conducted a study on ultra-dark butterflies that could lead to new innovations in super-dark coatings. These coatings, the most famous of which is known as Vantablack, are used for everything from telescopes to art projects.

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But ultra-black butterflies like Rajah Brooke's birdwing butterfly give human-made coatings like Vantablack some serious competition. "As little as 0.06% of the light that hits them is reflected back to the eye," Duke said in a release on Tuesday.

What makes this phenomenon so intriguing is the light weight and thinness of the butterflies' natural coloration. Davis and colleagues used an electron microscope to take a super-close-up look at how the insects achieve this feat.

Zooming in on a butterfly wing reveals layers of scales. As for the ultra-black appearance, Duke described it as "an optical illusion created by the 3D structure of the butterflies' wing scales."

Microscope images highlight the details of these nanostructures, which appear as a series of ridges with honeycomb-like formations in between. The researchers discovered these "ridges and pillars are deeper and thicker in ultra-black scales compared to 'normal' black scales." 

© Provided by CNET A scanning electron microscope shows the structures of the wing scales of the Rajah Brooke's birdwing butterfly at three different levels of magnification. Alex Davis, Duke University

The butterfly scales aren't as black as Vantablack or similar coatings, but the paper noted they are thinner and can be fabricated at lower temperatures. The study calls for further research into the viability of turning this biological wonder into a synthetic material.

© Richard Stickney, Museum of Life and Science

The butterflies scrutinized in the study use black as a key part of their wing color schemes. Bright patches ranging from blue to green to red pop out against the ultra-dark backgrounds.

While scientists are fascinated by the potential for these nanostructures, the butterflies themselves might just be looking for a good time. "We think it's likely some sort of signal to mates or maybe a predator. But there's a host of other possibilities, and we're hoping to clear that up," said Davis.

Vantablack swallows everything it's painted on




 
a close up of a box: Surrey NanoSystems in the UK announced Vantablack, a nanotech material, in 2014 to much fanfare and many Spinal Tap jokes. It became known as one of the blackest-black materials ever created.At the time, Surrey NanoSystems described Vantablack as "revolutionary in its ability to be applied to lightweight, temperature-sensitive structures such as aluminium whilst absorbing 99.96% of incident radiation, believed to be the highest-ever recorded." None more black. Surrey has continued to refine Vantablack and even figured out how to make the light-absorbing coating work as a spray. It has since graced everything from wristwatch faces to high-end vehicles.
16 SLIDES © Provided by CNET





Surrey NanoSystems in the UK announced Vantablack, a nanotech material, in 2014 to much fanfare and many Spinal Tap jokes. It became known as one of the blackest-black materials ever created.At the time, Surrey NanoSystems described Vantablack as "revolutionary in its ability to be applied to lightweight, temperature-sensitive structures such as aluminium whilst absorbing 99.96% of incident radiation, believed to be the highest-ever recorded." None more black. Surrey has continued to refine Vantablack and even figured out how to make the light-absorbing coating work as a spray. It has since graced everything from wristwatch faces to high-end vehicles.

KLEIN FLASHBACK KENNEY RECYCLES USER FEES ON PROVINCIAL PARKS

SOMETHING ALREADY DONE ONCE AND A BIG FAIL IT WAS TOO

Strathcona Science Park users blindsided by province

March 10, 2020


On Feb. 29 the province announced it would handover 164 "small and under-utilized" parks to third parties to manage. One of those parks is the Strathcona Science Park. That has left the Edmonton Nordic Ski Club and Sunridge Ski Hill with an uncertain future. Photo Supplied


In a move to save $5 million, Budget 2020 revealed 20 provincial parks will see full or partial closures this year. PEANUTS
Eleven of those will be permanently closed, while nine will be accessible but without any services.

On Saturday, Feb. 29 the province announced it would hand over 164 “small and under-utilized” parks to third parties to manage. One of those parks is the Strathcona Science Park.

The club which has about 800 members including 100 biathlon athletes, received a provincial Community Initiatives Program grant to make $30,000 worth of upgrades to its biathlon range, but with their parks status unknown, the club president said everything is in a holding pattern of uncertainty. The club has leased the land, which is zoned to allow a firing range, since the 1990s.
“We’re in no man’s land,” Edmonton Nordic Ski Club president, Chris Hanstock, “We absolutely feel blindsided. If we were told if it was going to happen 2021, we could start planning and going through the proper processes but when the announcement came out, it was a big surprise. Really, there was no consultation. Even the people who work for Alberta Parks didn’t have much of a heads up than what the general public did.”

The Strathcona Science Park is the home of the Edmonton Nordic Ski Club’s biathlon range, which plays a crucial part in developing biathlon athletes across the province. It also hosts major provincial and western Canadian events. Photo Supplied

The venue recently hosted a provincial event with more than 200 athletes and it’s also home to the Western Canadian championship. Since there are so few biathlon courses in Alberta, Hanstock said if one is lost, it could hurt the future of the sport. In fact, this would be the third hit for the sport, following the UCP’s shuttering of the Alberta Sports Council in the 2019 budget, which they relied on for funding, and the end of the Alberta Lottery Fund, which allowed the club to build the current biathlon range.

Located in the same park, Sunridge Ski Hill is also facing the same uncertainty.

Hanstock acknowledges $5 million would be some sort of savings, but it’s merely a drop in the bucket when looking at the overall budget.

“Parks are something that people in this province hold dearly. And yeah maybe some of them aren’t used very much, but they were put there for a purpose and to be maintained for future generations. I just can’t fantom what their rationale was,” he said, adding usage of the Strathcona Science Park would counter any argument to delist it as a park.
The Edmonton Nordic president noted he was also shocked to learn the province would stop trail grooming in Kananakis next season as the club just sent 200 youth and adult athletes attend a ski race; If that disappears, that would be tragic as far as the sport is considered.”

According to Alberta Park’s website “work is underway to explore the feasibility of various alternate management approaches for each site”. As for a future with a third party operator, the department stated a community can benefit from divested sites by maintaining it for recreation and tourism opportunities.

“Sites removed from the parks system allow a greater range of uses that were previously not possible under government regulation. Successful transfer to a third party will enable these sites to continue to be part of the community while generating new economic opportunities,” read a statement on Albert Parks’ website.

Information about third-party agreements will be released on May 1.

The Sherwood Park Natural Area, a day-use park located along Range Road 231 just south of Highway 628, is also on the provincial list of parks subject to be removed from the provincial park system.

Rural Municipalities Association called the move is another “download” to municipalities from the provincial government.

“Not one square centimetre of Alberta Parks land is being sold,” Premier Jason Kenney wrote on his Facebook page on March 5. “Some sites with extremely low attendance (0.3 per cent of the Alberta Parks land base) will be returned to crown land, to ensure we aren’t frivolously spending taxpayers dollars. And some others will see improvements, by way of partnerships with non-profits or the private sector, to make a better experience for guests.”

Full closures will take place at Bleriot Ferry Provincial Recreation Area, Crow Lake Provincial Park, Greene Valley Provincial Park, Kehiwin Provincial Recreation Area, Little Fish Lake Provincial Park, Running Lake Provincial Recreation Area, Stoney Lake Provincial Recreation Area, Sulphur Lake Provincial Recreation Area, Sheep Creek Provincial Recreation Area, and Twin Lakes Provincial Recreation Area.

Partial closures are planned for Bow Valley Provincial Park – Barrier Lake Visitor Information Centre, Chain Lakes Provincial Recreation Area, Dinosaur Provincial Park – Comfort Camping, Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park – Tolman Bridge Campgrounds (East and West), Engstrom Lake Provincial Recreation Area, Gooseberry Provincial Recreation Area – Elbow Valley Visitor Centre, Gooseberry Provincial Park Lake, Lawrence Lake Provincial Recreation Area, Notikewin Provincial Park, and Smoky River South Provincial Recreation Area.

The Edmonton Nordic Ski Club president recommends if Albertans are dismayed by these changes to write to their MLAs; “Let them know you’re not happy about it and we can only hope if enough people do that, MLAs can have some sway in the decisions that are being made.”

The province recently announced fees will also increase such as $3 for base camping rates across most campgrounds and $10 for some comfort camping and group sites.

Planet is 'way off track' in dealing with climate change, U.N. says

Doyle Rice, USA TODAY

Will temperatures continue to rise in the U.S.?

The planet is "way off track" in dealing with climate change, a new United Nations report says, and experts declared that climate change is a far greater threat than the coronavirus.

"It is important that all the attention that needs to be given to fight this disease does not distract us from the need to defeat climate change," U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday, according to Agence France Presse.

Although emissions have been reduced due to the virus, Guterres noted that "we will not fight climate change with a virus. Whilst the disease is expected to be temporary, climate change has been a phenomenon for many years, and and will remain with us for decades and require constant action.  

  

© Saeed Khan, AFP via Getty Images Firefighters conduct back burning measures to secure residential areas from encroaching bushfires at the Mangrove area in Central Coast, some 90 kilometers north of Sydney on Dec. 7, 2019. Bushfires are common in the country but scientists say this year's season has come earlier and with more intensity due to a prolonged drought and climatic conditions fueled by global warming.

"We count the cost in human lives and livelihoods as droughts, wildfires, floods and extreme storms take their deadly toll,” Guterres said.

The report confirmed that 2019 was the second-warmest year on record and the past decade the hottest in human history.

2019 ended with a global average temperature that was 1.1 degree Celsius above estimated pre-industrial levels, second only to the record set in 2016, when a very strong El Niño event contributed to an increased global temperature atop the overall warming trend.

“We are currently way off track to meeting either the 1.5°C or 2°C targets that the Paris Agreement calls for,” wrote Guterres in the report.

"Greenhouse gas concentrations are at the highest levels in 3 million years – when the Earth’s temperature was as much as 3 degrees hotter and sea levels some 15 meters higher,” said Guterres at a joint press conference with World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas at UN headquarters in New York.

The main greenhouse gases that cause global warming are carbon dioxide and methane, which are emitted from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas.

“Given that greenhouse gas levels continue to increase, the warming will continue. A recent decadal forecast indicates that a new annual global temperature record is likely in the next five years. It is a matter of time,” said Taalas.

“We just had the warmest January on record. Winter was unseasonably mild in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere. Smoke and pollutants from damaging fires in Australia circumnavigated the globe, causing a spike in carbon dioxide emissions.

Record temperatures in Antarctica were accompanied by large-scale ice melt and the fracturing of a glacier which will have repercussions for sea-level rise, Taalas added.

Professor Brian Hoskins, of Imperial College London, told the Guardian that "the report is a catalogue of weather in 2019 made more extreme by climate change, and the human misery that went with it.

"It points to a threat that is greater to our species than any known virus – we must not be diverted from the urgency of tackling it by reducing our greenhouse gas emissions to zero as soon as possible."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Planet is 'way off track' in dealing with climate change, U.N. says

There's a new insect named for Lady Gaga, and it's every bit as otherworldly as the pop diva

Meet the Mother Monster of the insect world.

By Scottie Andrew, CNN

© Provided by CNN The resemblance is uncanny, though

 Kaikaia gaga's aesthetic may hew more closely to Lady 

Gaga's punkish "Born This Way" era.

Her name is Kaikaia gaga (named for Lady Gaga, natch) and she's every bit as otherworldly as the pop diva. She wears a pair of devilish horns on her head, and she's unlike any other species in the forest.

Kaikaia gaga is a newly identified species of treehopper, an ostentatious but little-known insect group that populates most forests on Earth. A paper detailing her discovery was recently published in the journal Zootaxa, a peer-reviewed scientific journal on animal taxonomy. 

© L. Brian Stauffer/UI Public Affairs Kaikaia gaga is the newest species of treehopper, a common insect group known for its bright colors and ostentatious flair. The newest find shares a name -- and idiosyncratic style -- with Lady Gaga.

But treehoppers have never gotten their due, according to Brendan Morris, an entomology graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who studied and named the new insect.

K. gaga is poised to change that. 

A one-of-a-kind find

Morris knew the discovery mattered: The ruddy insect, with her pointy horns and unique body structure, more closely resembles "Old World" species endemic to Asia, Africa and Europe. But she's native to the Pacific coast of Nicaragua.

So to shine a glittery spotlight on the new species, Morris named it after one of music's great iconoclasts.

"If there is going to be a Lady Gaga bug, it's going to be a treehopper, because they've got these crazy horns, they have this wacky fashion sense about them," Morris said in a university news release. "They're unlike anything you've ever seen before."

They're certainly among the most theatrical of all insects: Treehoppers are splashed with color, and no two species look alike.

"It blows my kind that a group that is roughly 40 million years old has so much diversity of form -- diversity, I would argue, that we don't see in any other family of insects," Morris said.

CNN reached out to Morris for comment and will add their responses when they're available.
She's still an enigma

There's still a lot left to learn about K. gaga, like how she wound up in the Americas and how she evolved.

But attempts to extract DNA from her specimen haven't been successful. She was collected in the early 1990s and sat in a museum before Morris and paper co-author, Illinois Natural History Survey entomologist Christopher Dietrich, decided to take a closer look.

Soon, Morris will head to her native Nicaragua to hopefully find more of her.

Lady Gaga has yet to comment on the discovery of the eponymous insect, but K. gaga's debut was certainly well-timed: The human Gaga premiered a new single and music video at the end of February.

A theory on why Trump's GOP approval rating (the real one) is so high

By Jonah Goldberg, Tribune Content Agency

Editor’s note: The opinions in this article are the author’s, as published by our content partner, and do not necessarily represent the views of MSN or Microsoft.

© Provided by Tribune 

Early Monday morning, Donald Trump tweeted: "94% Approval Rating in the Republican Party, a record. Thank you!"

Where the president got this specific number remains a mystery. Recent polls by YouGov put his GOP approval roughly 10 points lower, and Gallup, which has tracked Trump's popularity since he took office, puts him at 88 percent.

But I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that Trump used his Sharpie to round up his score. He's deeply invested in being -- or at least claiming to be -- the most popular Republican president in history. In July of 2018, he announced: "I am the most popular person in the history" of the GOP. "Beating Lincoln," Trump added. "I beat our Honest Abe."

For what it's worth, polling in the 1860s wasn't exactly reliable. But even if Trump's oft-repeated 94 percent number were accurate, and even if it beat Lincoln's ratings, it still wouldn't beat George W. Bush's 99 percent after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Why the president feels the need to embellish is already a well-spelunked psychological rabbit hole. But even ignoring his exaggerations, he is consistently hitting in the mid- to high 80s with Republicans in polling, which demands a question: Why are his actual numbers so high?

George W. Bush's 99 percent might offer some insight. Americans generally rally around a president during a war or national crisis. But members of the president's own party in particular can be counted on to fall in line.

The Atlantic's Ronald Brownstein argues that the key to understanding the president's standing with Republicans is that Trump is behaving like a wartime president, but the enemy is "Blue America." Trump's almost daily references to "treason" and enemies of the people may be driven by his own narcissism and persecution complex, but they resonate with a share of the electorate that believes the cultural war really is tantamount to a cold civil war.

While Trump has made it worse, this dynamic is not new. He is more the beneficiary (and exacerbator) of the polarized landscape than the creator of it. Party identification has been declining for Democrats and Republicans alike, but for those who cling to the label, the label has more meaning than it used to.

Until around 2000, it was normal for self-identified Republicans and Democrats to criticize presidents of their own parties, because people didn't cling to partisan identity nearly as fiercely. The Bill Clinton impeachment battle was a foretaste of where we are. But even during the polarized presidency of George W. Bush, partisan dissent and defections were fairly common. Existential partisanship intensified under Barack Obama's presidency, on both the right and left.

The wartime atmosphere Trump has established encourages partisans to overlook faults with their own side more than ever, because in the zero-sum logic of war, any dissent is seen as providing aid and comfort to enemies who would be worse if they gained power. Perhaps counterintuitively, Trump's myriad and manifest flaws actually intensify the effect. The need to justify your support makes it impossible to acknowledge any shortcomings at all. When Stuart Varney of Fox Business recently refused to admit that Trump ever lies, it was as if he understood that once you pull that thread a little, there's no telling where the unraveling will stop.
The irony is that the need to provide unwavering support for the president of your party is a direct function of the unwavering hostility from the president's critics. This is why polls may not be as reflective of reality as we often think. If you talk to pollsters, they will tell you that many voters understand how polls can be used as weapons and don't want to give the "enemy" any satisfaction.

Indeed, as I've argued before, there's a rough parallel with Republican support for Bush during the Iraq War. Many Republicans knew that the war wasn't going well but nonetheless supported Bush because he was a wartime president and they loathed his critics more than they disapproved of his performance. They'd be damned if they were going to give some pollster ammunition against the commander in chief. A similar dynamic explains Obama's rock-solid support among Democrats. They hated -- or feared -- Obama's enemies too much to abandon him, even if they had misgivings about him.

Both examples may shed some light on what's in store for Trump in the future. Support for Bush and the war alike started to plummet as he headed for the exit. One of the defining currents of the Democratic primaries is the base's disappointment with Obama's accomplishments, even as his personal approval remains high.

It may be that once Trump is no longer the commander in chief in the war against Blue America, the ardor of his troops will give way to a better understanding of the price the GOP paid on his watch.

(Jonah Goldberg's latest book, "Suicide of the West," is now available wherever books are sold. You can write to him in care of this newspaper or by e-mail at goldbergcolumn@gmail.com, or via Twitter @JonahNRO.)

Coronavirus Outbreak Has America’s Homeless at Risk of ‘Disaster’

SAN DIEGO — As the head of a homeless shelter in San Diego, Bob McElroy knows firsthand how epidemics can turn deadly for people living on the streets. Three years ago an outbreak of hepatitis A, an otherwise preventable and treatable disease, killed 20 people in San Diego County alone, most of them homeless.

Now as the coronavirus spreads across the country, Mr. McElroy is faced with a new threat, one that he can only hope to ward off with a stockpile of hand sanitizer. Under a single tent in downtown San Diego, his shelter sleeps more than 300 people, a majority of them over 50 years old, a warehouse of human beings arrayed like cadets in military barracks. Numbered bunk beds are spaced just two feet apart.

“We’re just saying our prayers,” Mr. McElroy said. “If it gets in here it would be a disaster.”

Medical researchers say the 550,000 people currently homeless across the United States have a double vulnerability to the coronavirus. They are more susceptible to contracting the disease caused by the virus because of the cramped quarters in shelters, the sharing of utensils and the lack of hand-washing stations on the streets.

Once infected the chronically homeless are more likely to get much sicker or die because of underlying medical conditions and a lack of reliable health care. One study last year found that 30 percent of homeless people had chronic lung disease.

Phoenix; Portland, Ore.; Washington, D.C.; Austin, Texas; and many cities across California have large homeless populations that are vulnerable to an outbreak. New York City, which has the largest homeless population in the country, issued an 11-page document instructing shelters to screen people for symptoms and quickly identify and isolate those who have contracted the virus in a separate room “as much as possible.”





4 SLIDES © Eros Hoagland for The New York Times

An underground tunnel in San Diego where many homeless people seek shelter.

“We should be very worried,” said Helen Chu, an infectious disease doctor in Seattle, a metropolitan area with one of the highest rates of homelessness in the nation and the current center of America’s coronavirus outbreak. So far, none of the more than 100 confirmed cases in Washington State have been among the homeless population.

Over the past several years Dr. Chu has conducted studies of diseases at homeless shelters in Seattle where mattresses, she said, are less than one foot apart from each other. Homeless people are “extremely vulnerable” to the coronavirus, she said.

Dr. Chu has argued for urgent steps to test homeless people in shelters for the coronavirus to stop the chain of transmission. But she and other experts acknowledged how difficult halting an outbreak would be.

The global response to coronavirus outbreaks has been to order people to self-quarantine. Homeless people, by definition, have nowhere to go.

There are also concerns for employees at shelters — nurses, administrators, charitable workers — who, like health care workers at hospitals, could find themselves exposed multiple times if the virus were to spread among the homeless community.

In some cases it was illness that sent many of those living on the street there in the first place. Tracy Semrow, who was a school psychologist earning a six-figure salary working with children with disabilities, learned two years ago that she had a degenerative connective tissue disorder. The costs of medical care have drained her savings.

Since August her home has been one of the bunk beds in the shelter run by Mr. McElroy’s charity, Alpha Project. She is frequently sick and sometimes cannot get out of bed.

“My immune system has gone haywire,” Ms. Semrow said.

The breadth of the homelessness problem in San Diego County, where by last count more than 8,000 people were without homes, shows the challenges that a coronavirus outbreak would pose.

Homeless people sleep in rows on sidewalks in downtown San Diego, huddling in half-mile-long drainage tunnels filled with rats. And they have erected makeshift homes in the canyons that run through the county.

Doctors say that when homeless people arrive at emergency rooms, they are often already very sick.

Homeless people have rates of respiratory infections far greater than in the general population. At one hospital in Seattle, 32 percent of people who had a common respiratory illness were homeless, compared with 7 percent of all patients hospitalized, according to a study published last year that was written by Dr. Chu and others.

Norbert Alarcon, a former janitor, has been homeless for two years and sleeps in a tent made from plastic sheeting in a forested area of National City, near San Diego. When police officers and outreach workers approached him last week he had a severely swollen hand from a deep cut he sustained in a bicycle accident. The officers urged him to seek treatment but Mr. Alarcon insisted his hand was fine. “It has color now,” he said of his hand, which was bandaged with postal packing tape. “Before it didn’t have any color.”

The hepatitis A outbreak of 2017-18 infected approximately 600 people in San Diego County, according to Natasha Martin, a specialist in infectious diseases at the University of California, San Diego. Hepatitis A is transmitted through fecal matter, sometimes by people who prepare food with unwashed hands.

The authorities and charitable organizations fought the spread of that disease aggressively with a vaccination campaign, street cleaning and the placement of hand-washing stations on sidewalks. But the measures did not arrive in time to prevent the 20 deaths.

“Had the emergency campaign occurred earlier, it would have had an even greater impact on preventing transmission,” Dr. Martin said.

Doctors say the threat of coronavirus is analogous to that of hepatitis but with at least one key difference.

“Obviously we don’t have a vaccine for coronavirus,” said Dr. Robert T. Schooley, an infectious disease expert who advised the San Diego city government during the hepatitis outbreak.

Dr. Schooley said that early studies of the coronavirus show that it spreads easily within households, and that homeless shelters can be considered giant households.

He called those experiencing homelessness a “silent population” because outbreaks are recognized more slowly in that group than in groups that have better access to medical care.

David Corpus, a former dishwasher at a restaurant who has been homeless for a decade, is not only silent but hidden, too. On Wednesday a police officer, Daniel Duran, had to walk 200 yards in a pitch-black, dank subterranean drainage ditch to order Mr. Corpus out of the tunnel, which runs under a shopping center.

“Police Department! Who’s in there?” Officer Duran said as he spotted the piece of plywood that Mr. Corpus was hiding behind.

Mr. Corpus has diabetes and high blood pressure, and his hands cramp up for unknown reasons. He has not seen a doctor in months, he said.

“I don’t like it in the tunnels,” Mr. Corpus said as he emerged into daylight, squinting under the California sky. “But it’s the only place I can go.”

Utah's Women Senators Walk Out As Men Pass Abortion Ultrasound Bill

Six women in Utah's Senate, from both sides of the aisle, walked out on their male peers Tuesday, as they passed a bill requiring pregnant women to sit through an ultrasound before being able to undergo an abortion. 

© Scott Olson/Getty An ultrasound machine sits next to an exam table in an examination room at Whole Woman's Health of South Bend on June 19, 2019 in South Bend, Indiana. Men in Utah's Senate passed a bill seeking to force women undergo an ultrasound before getting an abortion.

House Bill 364 was passed entirely by male senators as their six female colleagues, Democrats Luz Escamilla, Jani Iwamoto, Karen Mayne and Kathleen Riebe and Republicans Kathleen Riebe and Ann Millner walked out on the vote.

According to Escamilla, who tweeted about the incident, the decision to walk out of the Senate was not planned.

"Love my sisters in the Senate," Escamilla said, sharing photos of the six women senators embracing each other after walking out. "A spontaneous decision not planned of sisterhood against the invasive nature of HB 364," she said.

In a separate statement, Henderson, who typically supports anti-abortion legislation, told local outlet 2News that the walkout was a "spontaneous decision to put an exclamation mark on our concerns about the invasive nature of the bill."

While Henderson said she is "very pro-life" and "always" votes for pro-life bills," in the case of HB 364, she is "concerned that we are overstepping with government mandates of medically unnecessary procedures."

Under the bill, which was sponsored by Republican Rep. Steve Christiansen and sponsored in Senate by Curtis Bramble, medical professionals would be required to "display live fetal images" while also describing the images to pregnant women.

Practitioners would also be required to make fetal heartbeats audible, when possible.

The bill provides that pregnant women may choose not to view the images or listen to the audio, but medical professionals would be required to provide written confirmation to women stating that they had complied with the requirements before allowing the abortion procedure to move forward.

Speaking with 2News, Christiansen said he hoped that the bill, if enacted, would lead more women to "choose life."

He also claimed that the bill was aimed at ensuring "informed consent" when it comes to abortion.

The representative, who is known to hold anti-abortion views, said he believed many women feel they have been given an incomplete picture of the physical and emotional risks of having an abortion.

"The fact that many women who have an ultrasound change their mind is a tremendous indicator...that there's probably not enough information being shared," he said. "Some women are, of course, getting good information, but far too many are not."

Christiansen also said that he disagrees with those who have deemed an ultrasound before abortion medically unnecessary, though it is not clear why. Newsweek has contacted the representative for further comment.

Newsweek has also contacted Escamilla and Henderson for further comment.

Coronavirus inevitable in prison-like US immigration centers, doctors say

CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY 

Doctors are concerned the spread of coronavirus to the US’s prison-like immigration detention centers is inevitable and will hit a system blighted by overcrowding and medical negligence.

There are two known incidents of possible coronavirus infections tied to the US immigration detention system, which has detained record numbers of people under Donald Trump.

Dr Ranit Mishori, senior medical adviser at the Physicians for Human Rights advocacy group, said it was inevitable coronavirus hits either a prison or jail, and that it was likely to hit immigration detention centers as well. “Looking at what has been happening in immigration detention centers, it doesn’t inspire much confidence in me,” Mishori said.

Any type of detention center is a cauldron for infectious disease because of the crowded conditions and limited access to medical care. Five cases of mumps in immigration detention centers in September 2018 ballooned to nearly 900 cases among staff and detainees by August 2019.

In these facilities, it can also be difficult to follow the most basic prevention advice – regular hand washing – because clean water and soap aren’t guaranteed.

“We know there have been cases of medical negligence, of lack of access or reduced access to care, we’ve heard stories about a lack of basic hygiene measures so, no soap, no hand sanitizer,” Mishori said. “And all these things are important to prevent the transmission of any infectious disease.”

Multiple reports from government watchdogs, as well as advocacy groups, have revealed the health risks at these facilities, which are run by federal agencies Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and private prison companies.

The internal watchdog for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees CBP and Ice, warned last year of dangerous overcrowding at a border patrol processing facility, before the coronavirus outbreak. “We are concerned that overcrowding and prolonged detention represent an immediate risk to the health and safety not just of the detainees, but also DHS agents and officers,” the office of inspector general’s report said.

In December, US immigration officials blocked doctors from giving flu vaccines to detained migrant children, after at least three children in custody died from complications from the flu.

Dr Josiah Rich, an epidemiologist at Brown University, said one tool the US government has to prevent the spread of coronavirus is to release some of the 43,990 people in immigration detention, while their legal cases are being processed. People are held in these detention centers for civil immigration violations, not criminal charges, and the government can release them unless they are considered a danger to the community.

“If they don’t really need to be there, get them out of there,” Rich said. “Do we really need to expose them to additional health risks? And expose them to each other? and the staff?”

© REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson Detainees are seen at Otay Mesa immigration detention center in San Diego, California, U.S. May 18, 2018.

So far, there are only two known incidents of possible coronavirus outbreaks tied to agencies involved with immigration detention.

At the Otay Mesa detention facility near San Diego, California, one person was evaluated at a local medical center for possible coronavirus symptoms in mid-February. The person was returned to the custody of Ice and placed in isolation, according to the agency.

In Washington state’s King county, which had seen the worst outbreak of coronavirus in the US so far until this week when an outbreak in the New York metro area became the largest cluster in the US, an Ice field office closed for 14 days. The move was out of concerns an employee had coronavirus, and staff were encouraged to telework and self-quarantine.

An Ice spokesperson told the Guardian on Tuesday that there were no detainees with confirmed coronavirus and that the agency’s epidemiologists have been tracking the outbreak.

“Ice continues to incorporate CDC’s Covid-19 guidance, which is built upon the already established infectious disease monitoring and management protocols currently in use by the agency,” the spokesperson said, referring to the scientific label for the novel strain of coronavirus that generated the global outbreak.

“In addition, Ice is actively working with state and local health partners to determine if any detainee requires additional testing or monitoring to combat the spread of the virus.”

Beyond health concerns, disease outbreaks can also threaten immigrants’ legal rights.

Detention facilities are notoriously difficult to access for non-government bodies, such as charities and the media, and in normal conditions advocates struggle to monitor the conditions people inside experience day-to-day. People testing positive for a contagious disease can be isolated further, which could also stop immigrants from meeting with their attorneys or other advocates.

If court hearings are held remotely, it can present challenges if the video feed is low-quality or a translator isn’t provided on either end of the process. Immigration lawyers have voiced concerns about how coronavirus will affect their clients and the immigration judges union has sent out coronavirus prevention guidance to its members in lieu of the information being made available in courtrooms.

Mishori said she was concerned immigration officials hadn’t yet publicly acknowledged what Ice will do if there is an outbreak. She said: “I’m seeing no transparency about how they are preparing to respond or to contain if there becomes a need to rather than prevention.”

Exclusive: White House told federal health agency to classify coronavirus deliberations - sources

SO MUCH FOR TRANSPARENCY AND RIGHT TO KNOW

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House has ordered federal health officials to treat top-level coronavirus meetings as classified, an unusual step that has restricted information and hampered the U.S. government’s response to the contagion, according to four Trump administration officials.  

WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS PRAYER CIRCLE 

© Reuters/Jonathan Ernst FILE PHOTO: U.S. Vice President Pence addresses reporters during his daily Coronavirus Task Force news briefing at the White House in Washington

The officials said that dozens of classified discussions about such topics as the scope of infections, quarantines and travel restrictions have been held since mid-January in a high-security meeting room at the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), a key player in the fight against the coronavirus.

Staffers without security clearances, including government experts, were excluded from the interagency meetings, which included video conference calls, the sources said.

“We had some very critical people who did not have security clearances who could not go,” one official said. “These should not be classified meetings. It was unnecessary.”

The sources said the National Security Council (NSC), which advises the president on security issues, ordered the classification.“This came directly from the White House,” one official said.

The White House insistence on secrecy at the nation’s premier public health organization, which has not been previously disclosed, has put a lid on certain information - and potentially delayed the response to the crisis. COVID19, the disease caused by the virus, has killed about 30 people in the United States and infected more than 1,000 people.

HHS oversees a broad range of health agencies, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which among other things is responsible for tracking cases and providing guidance nationally on the outbreaks.

The administration officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said they could not describe the interactions in the meeting room because they were classified.

An NSC spokesman did not respond to questions about the meetings at HHS. But he defended the administration’s transparency across federal agencies and noted that meetings of the administration's task force on the coronavirus all are unclassified. It was not immediately clear which meetings he was referring to.

“From day one of the response to the coronavirus, NSC has insisted on the principle of radical transparency,” said the spokesman, John Ullyot. He added that the administration “has cut red tape and set the global standard in protecting the American people under President Trump’s leadership.”

A spokeswoman for the HHS, Katherine McKeogh, issued a statement that did not address questions about classified meetings. Using language that echoed the NSC’s, the department said it that it agreed task-force meetings should be unclassified.

Critics have hammered the Trump administration for what they see as a delayed response to coronavirus outbreaks and a lack of transparency, including sidelining experts and providing misleading or incomplete information to the public. State and local officials also have complained of being kept in the dark about essential federal response information.

U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence, the administration's point person on coronavirus, vowed on March 3 to offer “real-time information in a steady pace and be fully transparent.” The vice president, appointed by President Donald Trump in late February, is holding regular news briefings and also has pledged to rely on expert guidance.

The meetings at HHS were held in a secure area called a "Sensitive Compartmentalized Information Facility," or SCIF, according to the administration officials.

SCIFs are usually reserved for intelligence and military operations. Ordinary cell phones and computers can't be brought into the chambers. HHS has SCIFs because theoretically it would play a major role in biowarfare or chemical attacks.

A high-level former official who helped address public health outbreaks in the George W. Bush administration said “it’s not normal to classify discussions about a response to a public health crisis.”

Attendees at the meetings included HHS Secretary Alex Azar and his chief of staff Brian Harrison, the officials said. Azar and Harrison resisted the classification of the meetings, the sources said.

HHS did not make Azar or Harrison available for comment.

One of the administration officials told Reuters that when complex issues about a quarantine came up, a high-ranking HHS lawyer with expertise on the issue was not admitted because he did not have the proper security clearance. His input was delayed and offered at an unclassified meeting, the official said.

A fifth source familiar with the meetings said HHS staffers often weren’t informed about coronavirus developments because they didn’t have adequate clearance. He said he was told that the matters were classified "because it had to do with China.

The coronavirus epidemic originated in China and the administration’s main focus to prevent spread early on was to restrict travel by non-U.S. citizens coming from China and to authorize the quarantine of people entering the United States who may have been exposed to the virus.

One of the administration officials suggested the security clearances for meetings at HHS were imposed not to protect national security but to keep the information within a tight circle, to prevent leaks.

“It seemed to be a tool for the White House - for the NSC - to keep participation in these meetings low,” the official said.

(Roston and Taylor reported from Washington, D.C.; Editing by Julie Marquis)

Medical marijuana expansion bill advances to Iowa Senate


KCRG-TV9 News Staff


DES MOINES, Iowa (CNN) - A bill that would expand Iowa's medical marijuana program is moving forward in the Iowa legislature.

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The Iowa House passed the bill with a 52-46 vote Tuesday It would add severe autism and PSD to the list of conditions that would qualify for medical marijuana use.

It also caps the amount of THC at 4.5 grams every 90 days. THC is the chemical in marijuana which causes a high.

MedPharm, who manufactures medical cannabidiol, wants to get rid of the cap and add a purchase limit of 17 grams.

"We have actual data from our Iowa patients that says we'll be able to serve upwards of 97% of the patients with that type of cap," said MedPharm Iowa General Manager Lucas Nelson.

The Iowa Cannabidiol Board made the recommendation of 4.5 grams. A board member says there is concern that raising the cap any higher could pose health risks.

"When you get up to 17 grams per 90 days or 25 grams per 90 days, that's really really high and you run into areas where you can have a lot of side-effects," said board member Dr. Jacqueline Stoken.

The bill now heads to the Iowa Senate.