Scientists study coronavirus outbreaks among minks in Europe

NOT BATS OR CATS NOR RATS
FILE - In this Dec. 6, 2012, file photo, minks look out of a cage at a fur farm in the village of Litusovo, northeast of Minsk, Belarus. Coronavirus outbreaks at mink farms in Spain and the Netherlands have scientists digging into how the animals got infected and if they can spread it to people. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits, File)

REMEMBER THAT EUROPE WAS THE SOURCE OF THE VIRUS IN NEW YORK

MADRID (AP) — Coronavirus outbreaks at mink farms in Spain and the Netherlands have scientists digging into how the animals got infected and if they can spread it to people.

In the meantime, authorities have killed more than 1 million minks at breeding farms in both countries as a precaution.

The virus that first infected people in China late last year came from an animal source, probably bats, and later spread from person to person, as other coronaviruses had done in the past. Some animals, including cats, tigers and dogs, have picked up the new coronavirus from people, but there hasn’t been a documented case of animals spreading it back to humans.
ADVERTISEMENT



The outbreaks among the minks on farms in the Netherlands and Spain likely started with infected workers, although officials aren’t certain. But it also is “plausible” that some workers later caught the virus back from the minks, the Dutch government and a researcher said, and scientists are exploring whether that was the case and how much of a threat such a spread might be.

The outbreak at the Spanish mink farm near La Puebla de Valverde, a village of 500 people, was discovered after seven of the 14 employees, including the owner, tested positive in late May, said Joaquín Olona, regional chief of agriculture and environment. Two other employees got infected even after the operation was shut down.

More than 92,000 minks were ordered killed at the farm in the Aragon region of northeastern Spain, with nine out of 10 animals estimated to have contracted the virus.

After the Dutch outbreaks began in April, professor Wim van der Poel, a veterinarian who studies viruses at Wageningen University and Research, determined that the virus strain in the animals was similar to the one circulating among humans.

“We assumed it was possible that it would be transmitted back to people again,” the virus expert said, and that’s what appeared to have happened with at least two of the infected workers.

Richard Ostfeld, a researcher at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York, said that if confirmed, these would be the first known instances of animal-to-human transmission.

“With the evidence for farmed mink-to-human transmission, we definitely need to be concerned with the potential for domesticated animals that are infected to pass on their infection to us,” Ostfeld said by email.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says some coronaviruses that infect animals can be spread to humans and then spread between people, but it adds that this is rare.

FILE - In this Dec. 6, 2012, file photo, minks look out of a cage at a fur farm in the village of Litusovo, northeast of Minsk, Belarus. Coronavirus outbreaks at mink farms in Spain and the Netherlands have scientists digging into how the animals got infected and if they can spread it to people. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits, File)

Both the World Health Organization and the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health are studying the transmission of the virus between animals and people. Several universities and research institutes also are examining the issue.

The WHO has noted that the transmission on the mink breeding farms could have happened both ways. But WHO’s Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove said at a news conference last month that such transmission was “very limited.”

“This gives us some clues about which animals may be susceptible to infection and this will help us as we learn more about the potential animal reservoir of (the virus),” she said, referring to cases in the Netherlands and Denmark, another major producer of mink fur.

While scientists think the virus originated in bats, it may have passed through another animal before infecting people. A WHO team is currently in China, planning to study the issue.

More than 1.1 million minks have been killed on 26 Dutch farms that recorded outbreaks, according to the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority. The government announced Thursday that minks at a 27th farm also were infected and would be killed.

FILE - In this Sept. 4, 2015, file photo, a mink sniffs the air as he surveys the river beach in search of food, in meadow near the village of Khatenchitsy, northwest of Minsk, Belarus. Coronavirus outbreaks at mink farms in Spain and the Netherlands have scientists digging into how the animals got infected and if they can spread it to people. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits, File)
The Netherlands, which has some 160 mink farms, is the world’s fourth-biggest producer of the prized fur after Denmark, China and Poland, according to Wim Verhagen, director of the Dutch federation of fur farmers. Spain has 38 active mink breeding operations, most of them in northwestern Galicia.Both Spain and the Netherlands have tightened hygiene protocols at mink farms and banned transportation of the animals and visits to the buildings where they are kept.

China, which produces about a third of the mink fur market, and the United States have not reported any virus outbreaks in minks or in animals at other farms.

—-

Corder reported from The Hague. Associated Press writers Maria Cheng in London and Ken Moritsugu in Beijing contributed.

___

Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

Omar, seeking 2nd term, is targeted for her celebrity

CELEBRITY OR INFAMY IT IS STILL PATRIARCHY

By STEVE KARNOWSKI and MOHAMED IBRAHIM

1/7 Fifth Congressional District candidate, Democrat Antone Melton-Meaux, answers questions during an interview in his Minneapolis office Wednesday, July 22, 2020. Melton-Meaux is giving Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar an unexpectedly strong, well-funded primary challenge in one of the country's most heavily Democratic congressional districts, which includes Minneapolis and some suburbs. (AP Photo/Jim Mone) 
ALL THE PICTURES IN THIS ARTICLE ARE OF THIS GUY FREE PROMO

OMAR FACES OPPOSITION NOT ONLY FROM REPUBLICANS BUT THE DNC ESTABLISHMENT 

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — As Democrat Antone Melton-Meaux meandered through racks of headscarves and clouds of spice and pepper, he carried a pointed message to the voters he courted at the city’s largest Somali market: I want to focus on the work, not being famous.

There’s no missing the target of the dig: Rep. Ilhan Omar. Omar, a liberal Democrat, made history two years ago as the first Somali-American elected to Congress and went on to make countless headlines for making controversial statements on Israel, for tangling with President Donald Trump and for a personal life that became tabloid fodder.

All the attention has helped make Omar a progressive star, but it’s also drawn criticism and a surprisingly strong primary challenger in Melton-Meaux. The Black attorney and mediator is raising millions in anti-Omar dollars and shaking up what was expected to be an easy race.

The heated primary is playing out in a city already wrestling with racial divisions and political identity. Melton-Meaux has drawn support from some traditional Democrats uncomfortable with Omar’s style — highlighting a generation gap that has dogged Democrats this year. He’s raised big money from pro-Israel groups with strong support in the city’s first-ring suburbs. And his bid has prompted a fight for votes in the Black and Somali-American communities, each roiled by this summer’s uprising over George Floyd’s death.

“She has been ineffective in Washington because she is divisive, and she’s focused on her celebrity,” Melton-Meaux said.

Omar dismisses the criticism, along with Melton-Meaux, who she said is simply the beneficiary of deep-pocketed opponents who want to take her down.

“This campaign really isn’t about whether Ilhan is doing the work,” she said. “It’s about how effective we’ve actually been and how people don’t want that effectiveness to continue.”

Omar, 37, ordinarily would be expected to crush any opponent in the Aug. 11 primary in the heavily Democratic Minneapolis-area district. The former refugee from Somalia gained fame as one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress and as a charter member of “The Squad” of four progressive freshmen women of color.

But she quickly got into trouble with comments about Jews, money and Israel that even fellow Democrats denounced as anti-Semitic and led to apologies. Omar also became a favorite Twitter foil for Trump, who last year basked when supporters at a political rally chanted of Omar, “Send her back!”

She came under renewed scrutiny when she split up with her husband, then married her Washington political consultant, Tim Mynett, months after denying that they were having an affair. Conservatives raised ethical questions and filed a federal complaint over Omar’s campaign paying Mynett’s firm more than $1 million for advertising, fundraising and other services, but the law doesn’t prohibit such an arrangement.
THIS FROM THE PARTY OF CHILD RAPISTS AND GRIFTER IN CHIEF 

Melton-Meaux’s fundraising haul has bankrolled a $1.4 million TV ad buy and an extensive mail campaign that attacks Omar on ethics. He’s also pledged to focus on the district’s needs and on not missing votes, as Omar did 40 times last year. (She says many were due to the death of a family member and that most were procedural.) He said that when she does vote, it isn’t always in the district’s interests, citing her vote against the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal.

Melton-Meaux seemed to find some support for his message during a July visit to what should be prime Omar turf — a mall filled with shops catering to the city’s large Somali American community.

THERE WERE NO PICTURES OF OMAR SO I ADDED THIS ONE

Khadra Hassan told Melton-Meaux that her tiny clothing store in the Karmel Mall has been devastated by the coronavirus pandemic, and complained that the government doesn’t have a plan for helping small businesses like hers survive.

“The situation is the same all around you, with all of us,” she told him. A campaign aide promised to get back with Hassan on how she could seek help. Later, Hassan told a reporter that Melton-Meaux might get her support.

“We are looking for the person who’s going to most help us and come back to the community and focus on the things that we need on the ground,” she said through an interpreter. “And then we will make our decision. But right now we need an active person who’s willing to work for what’s happening right here in the district.”

Melton-Meaux raised over $3.7 million by June 30, most of it from big contributors, including over $530,000 from two political action committees that back Israel, NORPAC and Pro-Israel America.

Jeff Mendelsohn, executive director of Pro-Israel America, recalled Omar’s allegation that U.S. politicians supported Israel because it was “all about the Benjamins,” and her suggestion that American Jews have divided loyalties.

SHE WAS CORRECT OF COURSE DESPITE THE PREDICTABLE WHINING

The local Jewish community appears split, with many younger politically progressive Jews supporting Omar while others have endorsed Melton-Meaux.

State Sen. Ron Latz, a Democrat who is Jewish and has sometimes been critical of Omar, backs Melton-Meaux in part for what he sees as a more balanced perspective on Middle East issues than the pro-Palestinian Omar. 

PRO ISRAEL ANTI PALESTINE IS OF COURSE THE AMERICAN VERSION OF BALANCE “She seems to have found a way to restrain herself for some number of months now,” he said. “But I think that restraint has been externally imposed. We clearly know her personal inclinations because she kept saying things that were offensive to the Jewish people until the reaction got so hot that she felt she had to quiet herself down.”

Omar has some critics within the African American community, including civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong, who said Omar hasn’t paid enough attention to the heavily Black neighborhoods of north Minneapolis.

“She hasn’t built strong relationships with the people who live in north Minneapolis, and she hasn’t spent the time here to learn about the issues that impact us, or working to craft solutions to the challenges that we face,” she said.

Omar raised nearly $3.9 million through June 30, mostly from far more small donors than Melton-Meaux, and still enjoys the support of most Democratic heavyweights. Omar pointed out the party considers her district “the engine of voter turnout for our state” and is counting on her network in November to quash Trump’s dream of carrying Minnesota.

Charlie Rounds, 64, an LGBTQ advocate in Minneapolis, said he hadn’t decided between Omar and Melton-Meaux. But he said the argument that Omar cares more about fame than service doesn’t wash with him. He saw the outside money against her as Islamophobia.

“I don’t think that was Rep. Omar’s choice, I don’t think she set out to be a star,” he said. “It’s because she’s a Muslim woman and there’s a lot of people that just are going to do anything to defeat her because she’s Muslim — we have to look at that reality.”

Nour Ali, 37, a Somali American who works in the Minneapolis Public Schools system, said he’s committed to Omar.

“She does care about the real issues that’s going on, she always speaks her mind and she’s always available,” he said. “She was at the protests talking about police brutality, that’s something that shows she is relating to the people and she cares about the cause and connected to the people.”

Protests in the long term: How is a lasting legacy cemented?

FILE - In this September 1916 file photo, demonstrators hold a rally for women's suffrage in New York. The Seneca Falls convention in 1848 is widely viewed as the launch of the women's suffrage movement, yet women didn't gain the right to vote until ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. (AP Photo)


NEW YORK (AP) — What sort of staying power does it take for a protest movement to be judged a success?

This year, without a centralized team of senior leaders, perhaps the largest protest movement in U.S. history has been unfolding nationwide since the May 25 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. By some calculations, more than 15 million Americans have taken part — decrying racial injustice, reinforcing the message of Black Lives Matter.

There’s no way to know now what the movement’s legacy will be — whether it will wither or compel major breakthroughs in curbing racism and inequality. But at this moment, other major protest movements of the past — both in the United States and elsewhere — can offer clues about what endures or what, at least, leaves a tangible legacy.
FILE - In this April 14, 1963 file photo, two ministers lead protest marchers in a civil rights demonstration in Birmingham, Ala., which was later broken up by police. The U.S. civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s achieved monumental changes over a 15-year period, including landmark federal laws. Yet racism and discrimination remain pervasive problems in 2020. (AP Photo/Horace Cort)

“It’s important to see the changes over time and not be discouraged,” says Beth Robinson, a history professor at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

By some measures, it took the women’s suffrage movement in the United States more than 70 years before it won voting rights for American women. In the late 1980s, HIV/AIDS activists motivated by anger and fear made huge advances in just a few years thanks to a confrontational protest campaign.

The U.S. civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s achieved monumental changes over a 15-year period, including landmark federal laws. Yet racism and discrimination remain pervasive problems today.

“After Martin Luther King was assassinated, the movement kind of fractured and lost momentum,” says Tyler Parry, a professor of African American history at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. “After the major laws were passed, many white Americans felt that was adequate.”

FILE - In this Thursday, Sept. 14, 1989 file photo, protestors lie on the street in front of the New York Stock Exchange in a demonstration against the high cost of the AIDS treatment drug AZT. The protest was organized by the gay rights activist group ACT UP. In response to protests, the FDA agreed to speed testing and approval of new therapies — a key step in curbing the high death toll from AIDS. Activist Larry Kramer, who died in May, said the protesters’ sense of rage made a difference. “Until you have anger and fear, you don’t have any kind of an activist movement,” he told Metro Weekly, a Washington-based LGBT publication, in 2011. (AP Photo/Tim Clary, File)

The civil rights movement had some fundamental assets that helped sustain it, according to James Ralph, a Middlebury College historian. It had multiple prominent leaders in addition to King, and multiple national organizations that generally agreed on key goals even as they sometimes differed on tactics. That approach produced such tangible successes as the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

This year’s protest movement has mobilized larger numbers of people and is more diverse. But it’s too early to gauge what tangible results it will achieve. Parry advises the new wave of activists to maintain the multiracial nature of the movement and work doggedly at every level to address inequities.

“What the modern movement needs to do is not be complacent if one or two things change,” says Parry, who advises both depth and endurance: “If you destroy a few Confederate monuments, don’t stop there.”

SINCE THE BEGINNING

Protest movements have been at the core of U.S. history since before independence, and the American Revolution itself commenced after a more than decade of protests against British-imposed taxes. Over the ensuing decades, there was scarcely a lull.

The Revolutionary War had barely ended when, in 1791, the Whiskey Rebellion flared — a multistate protest against a liquor tax imposed by the new federal government. Anti-slavery protests hastened the outbreak of the Civil War. The Seneca Falls convention in 1848 is widely viewed as the launch of the women’s suffrage movement, yet women didn’t gain the right to vote until ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920.

FILE - In this Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017 file photo, a crowd fills Independence Avenue with the Washington Monument in the background, during the Women's March on Washington. The largest single-day protest in U.S history — the Women’s March — came the day after Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Compared to that long struggle, the protests of HIV/AIDS activists achieved tangible goals within a few years of organizing in the 1980s. Activists staged “die-in” demonstrations, provoked mass arrests, and in 1988 converged by the hundreds outside the Food and Drug Administration’s headquarters for day-long acts of civil disobedience.

In response, the FDA agreed to speed testing and approval of new therapies — a key step in curbing the high death toll from AIDS. Activist Larry Kramer, who died in May, said the protesters’ sense of rage made a difference.

“Until you have anger and fear, you don’t have any kind of an activist movement,” he told Metro Weekly, a Washington-based LGBT publication, in 2011.

The largest single-day protest in U.S history — the Women’s March — came on Jan. 21, 2017, the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration. An estimated half million people marched in Washington, supporting women’s rights and assailing Trump’s misogynistic remarks. Millions more marched in several hundred other U.S. cities and scores of foreign countries.

Assessing the march’s impact is difficult. With Trump in office and Republicans controlling the Senate, there’s been no breakthrough legislation on reproductive rights, immigration or other issues. Yet the mobilization lent strength to the MeToo movement, which began nine months later and caused hundreds of prominent men facing sexual misconduct allegations to lose jobs and reputations.

FILE - In this Saturday, March 24, 2018 file photo, organizer Rasleen Krupp, 17, leads a "March for Our Lives" protest for gun legislation and school safety in Cincinnati in conjunction with a Washington march spearheaded by teens from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where over a dozen people were killed in February. Congress failed to pass tough new gun-control measures in the aftermath of the massive March for Our Lives protests. Nonetheless, gun-control activists have taken credit for numerous election victories, notably helping Democrats take control of Virginia’s legislature in 2019. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Some protest movements are short-lived but leave enduring legacies. Consider the Occupy Wall Street movement that emerged in New York City in 2011. It was criticized for lacking racial diversity and a specific agenda yet helped change the discourse about economic inequality with its

“We are the 99%” slogan and denunciations of the wealthy 1%. 

THIS WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT REVOLUTIONARY STATEMENT SINCE THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO

WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE

AGAINST GLOBALIZATION!

Nelini Stamp, a director of strategy and partnerships for the Working Families Party, cites Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as politicians whose economic platforms reflect the spirit of the New York protest.

In 2006, millions turned out to protest legislation in Congress seeking to classify undocumented immigrants as felons, and penalizing anyone who assisted them. The bill passed the U.S. House but died in the Senate.

Chris Zepeda-Millán, a professor at UCLA in the departments of Chicana/o studies and public policy, credits the protests for stopping the bill and encouraging voter registration among Latinos. But he said the protests also intensified congressional polarization, dimming prospects for any immigration overhaul and citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

Congress also failed to pass tough new gun-control measures in the aftermath of the massive March for Our Lives protests organized in 2018 by students from the Parkland, Florida, high school, where a gunman killed 17 people. Nonetheless, gun-control activists have taken credit for numerous election victories, notably helping Democrats take control of Virginia’s legislature in 2019.

One advantage for U.S. protest movements: Government security forces generally permit them to mobilize. The recent deployment of federal tactical teams in Portland, Oregon, outraged protesters and Oregon officials but has been the exception, not the norm.

FILE - In this Friday, Jan. 28, 2011 file photo, anti-government activists clash with riot police in Cairo, Egypt, to challenge President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule. In 2011, a fruit seller in Tunisia who died after setting himself afire to protest economic conditions touched off a mass uprising against autocrats in the Arab world, in what became known as the Arab Spring. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

BEYOND AMERICAN SHORES

Outcomes can be different in other parts of the world. Hong Kong has a long tradition of public demonstrations dating from its days as a British colony. Many of its people strongly supported the 1989 student-led pro-democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

Until this year, marches and candlelight vigils were held annually to commemorate victims of the military crackdown, and hundreds of thousands turned out to oppose moves by Beijing to impose its political will on the city. More recently, however, protest activity has been tamped down since Beijing enacted a sweeping security law banning speech seen as promoting secession.


FILE - In this Friday, Sept. 13, 2019 file photo, demonstrators hold up the mobile phone lights as they form a human chain at the Peak, a tourist spot in Hong Kong. Hong Kong has a long tradition of public demonstrations dating from its days as a British colony. However, protest activity has been tamped down since Beijing enacted a sweeping security law in June 2020, banning speech seen as promoting secession. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

In 2011, a fruit seller in Tunisia who died after setting himself afire to protest economic conditions touched off a mass uprising against autocrats in the Arab world — what became the Arab Spring.

There were inspirational moments, notably in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, where hundreds of thousands of people converged in daily protests, televised globally, that eventually pressured strongman Hosni Mubarak into stepping down.

However, subsequent turmoil brought to power general-turned-politician Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, whose government has muffled dissent. Uprisings in Libya and Syria — once unthinkable street protests against dictators — turned violent. Hundreds of thousands have died in Syria, while Libya after the fall of Moammar Gadhafi is an ungovernable, dangerous mess.

Texas A&M’s Robinson emphasizes that protest movements produced many of the freedoms and protections Americans treasure — including several Depression-era initiatives undertaken during President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. Yet, she says, those reforms didn’t fully benefit women or people of color, setting the stage for the new wave of dissent from the 1950s through the 1970s.

“With protest movements, it’s three steps forward, two steps back,” Robinson says. “We all want this perfect victory, to close the book and say that oppression is over ... but it’s unlikely that those are going to be achieved completely.”

She adds: “It’s always going to be a long march to justice.”

___

Associated Press reporters Deepti Hajela in New York and Zeina Karam in Beirut contributed to this report.

Portland police declare unlawful assembly during protest



Black Lives Matter protesters march through Portland, Ore. after rallying at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse on Sunday, Aug. 2, 2020. Following an agreement between Democratic Gov. Kate Brown and the Trump administration to reduce federal officers in the city, nightly protests remained largely peaceful without major confrontations between demonstrators and officers. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

A Department of Homeland Security officer stands watch as fellow officers extinguish a fire lit by protesters behind the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse on Sun, Aug. 2, 2020, in Portland, Ore. Following an agreement between Democratic Gov. Kate Brown and the Trump administration to reduce federal officers in the city, nightly protests remained largely peaceful without major confrontations between protesters and officers. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

A Department of Homeland Security officer emerges from the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse after demonstrators lit a fire on Sunday, Aug. 2, 2020, in Portland, Ore. Following an agreement between Democratic Gov. Kate Brown and the Trump administration to reduce federal officers in the city, nightly protests remained largely peaceful without major confrontations between protesters and officers. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

The Portland Police Bureau declared an unlawful assembly Saturday night when people gathered outside a police precinct in Oregon’s largest city and threw bottles toward officers, police said.

Until that point, federal, state and local law enforcement had been seemingly absent from the protests Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The demonstrations — that for weeks ended with tear gas, fireworks shot towards buildings, federal agents on the street and injuries to protesters and officers — have recently ended with chanting and conversations.
Activists and Oregon officials urged people at Saturday night’s protest in Portland to re-center the focus on Black Lives Matter, three days after the Trump administration agreed to reduce the presence of federal agents.

Groups gathered Saturday evening in various areas around downtown Portland to listen to speakers and prepare to march to the Justice Center and Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse.

A Black Lives Matter protester, who declined to give her name, examines a memorial for Black lives lost to violence on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2020, in Portland, Ore. Following an agreement between Democratic Gov. Kate Brown and the Trump administration to reduce federal officers in the city, nightly protests remained largely peaceful without major confrontations between demonstrators and officers. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Black Lives Matter protester Synnamon, who declined to give a last name, rallies at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2020, in Portland, Ore. Following an agreement between Democratic Gov. Kate Brown and the Trump administration to reduce federal officers in the city, nightly protests remained largely peaceful without major confrontations between demonstrators and officers. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

One of the more popular events, “Re-centering why we are here - BLM,” was hosted by the NAACP. Speakers included activists as well as Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley and Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty.

Merkley and Hardesty spoke about policies they are putting forward, including to cut police funding and restrict chokeholds.

“The next thing we need you to do is vote like your life depends on it, because guess what, it does,” Hardesty said.

For the first time since the presence of federal agents in Portland diminished law enforcement and protesters noticeably clashed Saturday night.

As one group of protesters gathered outside the courthouse another marched to a precinct for the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office and Portland Police Bureau.

Police stated that protesters threw glass bottles and directed lasers at officers. Just before 10 p.m., Portland police declared an unlawful assembly and told people to disperse or they may be subject to use of force or be arrested. Police could be seen charging, multiple times, at protesters in the area.

Police say a person in the crowd threw a glass jar or bottle filled with paint, striking an officer in the head. The officer was not injured.

Two people were arrested during the protest.

At the courthouse, the scene was different. Around 11:30 p.m. hundreds of people remained, standing and listening to speakers.

By midnight, protesters again began to march through the streets downtown.

Thursday and Friday’s protests also attracted more than 1,000 people — both nights were relatively peaceful. In a news release early Saturday, the Portland Police Bureau described Friday’s crowd as subdued and said there was no police interaction with protesters.

At one point during Friday’s protest, a lone firework was shot at the courthouse. In the weeks past the action would be met with more fireworks or teargas canisters being dropped over the fence into the crowd. This time, protesters chastised the person who shot the firework, pleading to keep the demonstration peaceful.

The relative calm outside a federal courthouse that’s become ground zero in clashes between demonstrators and federal agents had come after the U.S. government began drawing down its forces under a deal between Democratic Gov. Kate Brown and the Trump administration.

Portland had seen more than two months of often violent demonstrations following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. In early July, President Donald Trump sent more federal agents to the city to protect the federal courthouse, but local officials said their presence made things worse.

___

Sara Cline is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.

A QUANTUM SUPER SPREADER EVENT

Annual Sturgis rally expecting 250K, stirring virus concerns

YOU CAN'T GET THESE GUYS TO WEAR HELMETS
LET ALONE MASKS

By STEPHEN GROVES

FILE - In this Aug. 5, 2016 file photo, bikers ride down Main Street in downtown Sturgis, S.D., before the 76th Sturgis motorcycle rally officially begins. South Dakota, which has seen an uptick in coronavirus infections in recent weeks, is bracing to host hundreds of thousands of bikers for the 80th edition of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Over a quarter of a million people are expected to rumble through western South Dakota. (Josh Morgan/Rapid City Journal via AP, File)

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Sturgis is on. The message has been broadcast across social media as South Dakota, which has seen an uptick in coronavirus infections in recent weeks, braces to host hundreds of thousands of bikers for the 80th edition of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

More than 250,000 people are expected to rumble through western South Dakota, seeking the freedom of cruising the boundless landscapes in a state that has skipped lockdowns. The Aug. 7 to 16 event, which could be the biggest anywhere so far during the pandemic, will offer businesses that depend on the rally a chance to make up for losses caused by the coronavirus. But for many in Sturgis, a city of about 7,000, the brimming bars and bacchanalia will not be welcome during a pandemic.

Though only about half the usual number of people are expected at this year’s event, residents were split as the city weighed its options. Many worried that the rally would cause an unmanageable outbreak of COVID-19.

“This is a huge, foolish mistake to make to host the rally this year,” Sturgis resident Lynelle Chapman told city counselors at a June meeting. “The government of Sturgis needs to care most for its citizens.”

In a survey of residents conducted by the city, more than 60% said the rally should be postponed. But businesses pressured the City Council to proceed.

Rallygoers have spent about $800 million in past years, according to the state Department of Tourism. Though the rally has an ignominious history of biker gangs and lawlessness, bikers of a different sort have shown up in recent years — affluent professionals who ride for recreation and come flush with cash. Though the rally still features libertine displays, it also offers charity events and tributes to the military and veterans.

The attorney for a tourism souvenir wholesaler in Rapid City wrote to the City Council reminding that a judge found the city does not solely own rights to the rally and threatening to sue if the city tried to postpone it. Meanwhile, the Buffalo Chip, which is the largest campground and concert venue that lies outside the bounds of the city, made clear that it would hold some version of the rally.

Rod Woodruff, who operates the Buffalo Chip, said he felt he had little choice but to proceed with the rally. He employs hundreds of people in August and a smaller full-time staff.

“We spend money for 355 days of the year without any return on it, hoping people show up for nine days,” he said. “We’re a nine-day business.”

Woodruff felt he could pull off a safe event, allowing people to keep their distance from one another at the outdoor concerts at his campground. He said he was emboldened by the July 3 fireworks celebration at Mount Rushmore, where 7,500 people gathered without any reported outbreaks after the event, according to health officials.

In the end, Sturgis officials realized the rally would happen whether they wanted it or not. They decided to try to scale it back, canceling city-hosted events and slashing advertising for the rally.

Jerry Cole, who directs the rally for the city, said organizers are not sure how many people will show up, but that they’re expecting at least 250,000. Travel restrictions from Canada and other countries have cut out a sizeable portion of potential visitors, he said.

Others think the rally could be the biggest yet.

“It’s the biggest single event that’s going on in the United States that didn’t get canceled,” Woodruff said. “A lot of people think it’s going to be bigger than ever.”

When the rally is over, every year the city weighs all the trash generated to estimate how many people showed up. This year, they will also conduct mass coronavirus testing to see if all those people brought the pandemic to Sturgis.

___

Follow Stephen Groves on Twitter: https://twitter.com/stephengroves

Virgin Galactic shows off passenger spaceship cabin interior
By JOHN ANTCZAK

July 28, 2020

1 of 6
This undated photo released by Virgin Galactic shows the interior of their SpaceshipTwo Cabin during a flight. Highly detailed amenities to enhance the customer experience were shown in an online event Tuesday, July 28, 2020, revealing the cabin of the company's rocket plane, a type called SpaceShipTwo, which is undergoing testing in preparation for commercial service. There are a dozen windows for viewing, seats capable of being customized to each of six passengers and mood lighting. (Virgin Galactic via AP)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Passengers flying Virgin Galactic on suborbital trips into space will be able to see themselves floating weightless against the backdrop of the Earth below while 16 cameras document the adventures, the company said Tuesday.

Highly detailed amenities to enhance the customer flight experience were shown in an online event revealing the cabin of the company’s rocket plane, a type called SpaceShipTwo, which is undergoing testing in preparation for commercial service.

There are a dozen windows for viewing, seats that will be customized for each flight’s six passengers and capable of adjusting for G forces, and, naturally, mood lighting.


Yet designer Jeremy Brown said the passengers’ most lasting impression may come from a large mirror at the rear of the cabin.

“We think that there’s a real memory burn that customers are going to have when they see that analog reflection of themselves in the back of the cabin, seeing themselves floating freely in space ... that very personal interaction that they’ll have with the experience,” he said.

Virgin Galactic was founded by British billionaire Richard Branson after the prize-winning flights of the experimental SpaceShipOne in 2004. Branson plans to be the first passenger when commercial flights begin.

Like its predecessor, SpaceShipTwo is a rocket plane that is slung beneath a special jet airplane and released at high altitude.

After a moment of free fall, the two pilots ignite the rocket and the craft pitches up and accelerates vertically at supersonic speed.

The rocket shuts down but momentum carries the craft into the lower reaches of space where it flips upside down so that the windows on the roof of the cabin give a view of the Earth far below.

\\

The passengers, clad in space suits designed by the Under Armour company, will be able to leave their seats and float about the cabin, using handholds tested by chief astronaut trainer Beth Moses during Virgin Galactic’s second flight into space last year.

The test was aimed at helping finalize the design and at learning how to train passenger astronauts for what they will experience as they become weightless and reach the top of the flight profile, known as its apogee, before the descent begins.

Moses said she tested different ways of getting in and out of the seats, moved around the cabin and waved at the mirror, concluding that it was not disorienting.

“I also purposely went to a point in the cabin to most dramatically try to enjoy apogee and a view of Earth from the stillness of space,” she said.

The passengers will need to return to their seats after a few minutes as the craft reorients and begins to interact with the increasing density of the atmosphere and then glides to an unpowered landing.

SpaceShipTwo was developed at Virgin Galactic facilities in Mojave, California, and will operate commercially from Spaceport America in southern New Mexico, where passengers will undergo several days of training before their flights.

George Whitesides, the former longtime company CEO who is now its chief space officer, said upcoming test flights will include four crew members playing the role of passengers.

Whitesides, who will now focus on future technology, recently handed the CEO role to Michael Colglazier, a former president and managing director of Disney Parks International.

The company has yet to set a date for flights with paying passengers.

The company has said more than 600 people have put down deposits. The initial seats were sold at $250,000 apiece. Whitesides said the cost may increase for a while but the long-term goal is to make the adventure more accessible, possibly at a lower cost.

STILL NOT QUITE KUBRICK'S 2001 

France’s global nuclear fusion device a puzzle of huge parts

July 28, 2020

1 of 10 

https://apnews.com/c9e1780864431c3edcd1cc2c17568c54/gallery/a69900ab90384083a3fbc6260ab37a12

Assembly hall at the construction site of the ITER ( the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), where components for the ITER Tokamak will be pre-assembled before integration into the machine in the CEN of Cadarache, in Saint-Paul-Lez-Durance, southern France, Tuesday, July 28, 2020. A project of daunting proportions and giant ambitions replicating the energy of the sun is entering a critical phase as scientists and technicians begin piecing together massive parts built around the globe of a nuclear fusion device, an experiment aimed at showing that clean energy, free of carbon emissions, can keep our planet humming. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

PARIS (AP) — A hugely ambitious project to replicate the energy of the sun is entering a critical phase, as scientists and technicians in southern France begin assembling giant parts of a nuclear fusion device, an international experiment aimed to develop the ultimate clean energy source.

World leaders involved in the project, or their representatives, on Tuesday appeared virtually at a ceremony for the start of the new stage of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, noting that work has proceeded despite the COVID-19 pandemic in many of the 35 contributing countries.

“Clearly, the pandemic impacted the initial schedule,” said ITER’s director-general, Bernard Bigot, who led the ceremony at Saint-Paul-les-Durance, northeast of Marseille. He said none of the on-the-ground staff has contracted COVID-19.

The base of the cryostat sits inside the bioshield of the ITER Tokamak in Saint-Paul-Lez-Durance, southern France, Tuesday, July 28, 2020. A project of daunting proportions and giant ambitions replicating the energy of the sun is entering a critical phase as scientists and technicians begin piecing together massive parts built around the globe of a nuclear fusion device, an experiment aimed at showing that clean energy, free of carbon emissions, can keep our planet humming. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)


Scientists have long sought to mimic the process of nuclear fusion that occurs inside the sun, arguing that it could provide an almost limitless source of cheap, safe and clean electricity. Unlike in existing fission reactors, which split plutonium or uranium atoms, there’s no risk of an uncontrolled chain reaction with fusion and it doesn’t produce long-lived radioactive waste.

The project “seeks to create an artificial sun,” said South Korean President Moon Jae-in. “An artificial sun is an energy source of dreams.”

Among other elements, Korea is manufacturing four sectors of a vacuum vessel, a hermetically sealed chamber in which plasma particles, derived from heated hydrogen gas, spiral without touching walls. European countries are building five other sectors.

A worker walks by the ITER poloidal field coil #5 designed to shape plasma and meant for the assembly of the ITER Tokamak in Saint-Paul-Lez-Durance, southern France,, Tuesday, July 28, 2020. A project of daunting proportions and giant ambitions replicating the energy of the sun is entering a critical phase as scientists and technicians begin piecing together massive parts built around the globe of a nuclear fusion device, an experiment aimed at showing that clean energy, free of carbon emissions, can keep our planet humming. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

French President Emmanuel Macron hailed ITER as a “promise of peace” because it brings together countries that decided to forego differences for the “common good.” China, the U.S., India, Russia, South Korea and nations of the European Union are taking part in the project.

There was no sign of the acute discord currently roiling ties between the U.S. and China, and India and China.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a statement read by the Indian ambassador to France, called international collaboration “a perfect symbol of the age-old Indian belief ... (that) the world is one family.”

Bigot compared the milestone phase getting under way to assembling a giant, three dimensional puzzle that “must (have) the precision of a Swiss watch.”

Billed as the world’s largest science project, ITER is gigantic. The circular device, called a tokamak, has a 30-meter circumference, stands 30 meters (100 feet) high, and is made up of more than a million parts constructed in numerous countries.

Some pieces transported to France weigh several hundred tons. Tools to put the reactor together match that size, with giant lifts that must transfer components over the walls and down into “the pit.” A key component being built by the U.S., the Central Solenoid, is the most powerful of ITER’s numerous magnets. Together, they will be strong enough to lift an aircraft carrier.

A worker walks through large scale assembly tools in the assembly hall of the ITER ( the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), where components for the ITER Tokamak will be pre-assembled before integration into the machine in Saint-Paul-Lez-Durance, southern France, T Tuesday, July 28, 2020. A project of daunting proportions and giant ambitions replicating the energy of the sun is entering a critical phase as scientists and technicians begin piecing together massive parts built around the globe of a nuclear fusion device, an experiment aimed at showing that clean energy, free of carbon emissions, can keep our planet humming. (AP Photo/Daniel

The project begun in 2006 is far from over. The experimental reactor is to head for another landmark moment in five years, described as a “trial run” when scientists launch what is called “First Plasma” showing that the machine functions, including magnetic fields and other operations.

Bigot, the ITER’s director-general, called fusion energy a “miracle for our planet.”

He said that smaller experiments are complementary to ITER. Bigot predicts a bright future for his international baby, saying he foresees a scaled-up ITER, perhaps twice as large, to provide power to the grid. But its viability and economic competitiveness must first be demonstrated, he said.


The ITER electrical grid is pictured in front of the assembly hall at the construction site of the ITER (the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), where components for the ITER Tokamak will be pre-assembled before integration into the machine in Saint-Paul-Lez-Durance, southern France, Tuesday, July 28, 2020. A project of daunting proportions and giant ambitions replicating the energy of the sun is entering a critical phase as scientists and technicians begin piecing together massive parts built around the globe of a nuclear fusion device, an experiment aimed at showing that clean energy, free of carbon emissions, can keep our planet humming. (AP
The project’s estimated cost just for the EU was about 20 billion euros ($23.5 billion), Bigot told reporters. He said a full price tag was difficult to estimate because participating countries make their own contributions

Members of the media stand in the assembly hall at the ITER (the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), where components for the ITER Tokamak will be pre-assembled before integration into the machine in the CEN of Cadarache, in Saint-Paul-Lez-Durance, southern France, Tuesday, July 28, 2020. A project of daunting proportions and giant ambitions replicating the energy of the sun is entering a critical phase as scientists and technicians begin piecing together massive parts built around the globe of a nuclear fusion device, an experiment aimed at showing that clean energy, free of carbon emissions, can keep our planet humming. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

A worker stands in the middle of an ITER poloidal field coil meant for the assembly of the ITER Tokamak in the CEN of Cadarache, in Saint-Paul-Lez-Durance, southern France, Tuesday, July 28, 2020. A project of daunting proportions and giant ambitions replicating the energy of the sun is entering a critical phase as scientists and technicians begin piecing together massive parts built around the globe of a nuclear fusion device, an experiment aimed at showing that clean energy, free of carbon emissions, can keep our planet humming. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

Cancer researcher creates comics to explain science
By RITA GIORDANO, The Philadelphia Inquirer

July 28, 2020


PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A stalk of celery got Jaye Gardiner into science.

As a precocious first grader in Chicago, she was invited to take part in a second-grade science class, where the students were conducting an experiment. Gardiner, who’d always been intrigued by science, was “super-excited.”

The experiment was simple: Put stalks of celery into cups of colored water, then watch what happens. Over time, as the stalks absorbed the water, their leaves changed color to match the water. It was like magic to Gardiner.

“That was the first thing that had me go, ‘What is this? How does this work?’ ” Gardiner said. “I would say that mystery, and that drive to solve puzzles, is probably what attracts me to science.”

Gardiner is now 31 and a postdoctoral researcher at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. She’s studying pancreatic cancer and the tumor microenvironment. In the past, she’s researched HIV and other viruses. She’s also using her time at Fox Chase to learn the skills she will need to operate her own laboratory one day — a goal of hers.

But the little girl who got so excited about color-changing celery is still alive and well — and very much wants to share that wonder with a wide range of folks, young and old, future scientists and nonscientists. That’s why, these days, she’s not just a scientist, but a science communicator, whose tools are less conventional than the test tubes and microscopes found in a lab.

In 2015, she co-founded JKX Comics — a website that uses comics to explain scientific concepts and diseases — with her friends Kelly Montgomery, now a grad student in at the University of California at San Francisco, and Khoa Tran, who is doing postdoctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania.

The trio’s motto: “Science creates the narrative. We tell the story.”

Their goal: “We simplify STEM concepts from multiple disciplines to create engaging comics to increase students’ scientific literacy.”

JKX Comics’ target audience is middle-school age and up. Topics have ranged from cell division and Alzheimer’s disease to a breakdown of the Epstein-Barr virus and political activism by scientists. The text is simple and straightforward, the illustrations colorful and playful.

Currently, the comics are available free on the JKX website, but the partners plan to put them into print and make them available to schools and libraries. Gardiner said the group has been exploring scholastic options with the Madison Reading Project, a Wisconsin nonprofit literacy program.

But science communication, like science comics, isn’t just kid stuff. Making science accessible is about increasing science literacy at all ages, Gardiner believes.

“That’s terribly important,” she said, “because it helps everyone make more informed decisions about their health — or about different policies that affect their health.”

Last year, Gardiner launched a line of scientist trading cards featuring profiles of scientists of diverse genders, ethnicities, and backgrounds. For now the cards are available online, but she hopes to eventually produce them for home and school use. They’re intended to expand awareness of who scientists actually are.

“If you were to Google scientists, everyone you would get would look more like Albert Einstein, but so many more people do science,” she said. “Literally anyone can be a scientist. You need to apply yourself, and you need to work hard. We’re not all geniuses.”

As a youngster, Gardiner was fortunate to have parents who encouraged her interests.

Gardiner is both the child of immigrants from Belize and a first-generation college graduate. Her mother and father stressed effort more than grades.

“So I would always put in more and more effort,” she said.

She was also lucky to have teachers who knew how to fire up students’ enthusiasm and make material accessible. One of her favorites, Mr. Coy, had his students write science-themed lyrics to the tune of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” which the class then fashioned into a video. It’s a project she still remembers vividly, 15 years later.

“He made science so much fun that I fell completely in love with it,” she said.

Because Gardiner’s teachers made such a difference in her life, she’s become passionate about doing the same for others, via teaching and mentoring. Until the pandemic shut things down, she was involved with Fox Chase’s Teen Research Internship Program.

In addition, last year she was one of 125 women innovators in STEM selected by the American Association for the Advancement of Science to mentor girls middle-school age and up. She believes diversity in mentors is important for young people, to let them see the possibilities for themselves. But the diversity may also lead to scientific solutions brought about by new approaches to scientific problems.

“Everyone views the world through their own lens that is developed by the experiences they have had,” she said. “In mentorship, diverse voices will breed diverse strategies to overcoming hardship, maneuvering careers, and acquiring success.”

Gardiner still has a way to go in charting her own career, including two more years in her postdoctoral post at Fox Chase.

“What my actual position in the end will be is kind of unknown,” she said. “I definitely think I’m making it up as I go along, and I’m not opposed to that idea.”

What’s certain is that her plans will include sharing the wonder that got a little girl in Chicago so jazzed about science to begin with.

“Science is a part of all our lives, whether we realize it or not. It can give a deeper appreciation for the things that we just take for granted,” she said. “Just to know how things work — having that knowledge is powerful.”

___

Online:

https://bit.ly/2EiMYLO

___

Information from: The Philadelphia Inquirer, http://www.inquirer.com

USA

Groups push to remove proposed funding for nuclear testing

FILE - In this April 22, 1952 file photo a gigantic pillar of smoke with the familiar mushroom top climbs above Yucca Flat, Nev. during nuclear test detonation. A defense spending bill pending in Congress includes an apology to New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and other states affected by nuclear testing over the decades, but communities downwind from the first atomic test in 1945 are still holding out for compensation amid rumblings about the potential for the U.S. to resume nuclear testing. (AP Photo,File)


ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Deep within a multibillion-dollar defense spending measure pending in Congress is an apology to New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and other states affected by radiation from nuclear testing over the decades.

But communities downwind from the first atomic test in the New Mexico desert on July 16, 1945, are still holding out for compensation for health effects that they say have been ongoing for generations due to fallout from the historic blast.

So far, their pleas for Congress to extend and expand a federal radiation compensation program have gone unanswered. The program currently covers workers who became sick as a result of the radiation hazards of their jobs and those who lived downwind of the Nevada Test Site.

Those excluded from the program include residents downwind of the Trinity Site in New Mexico, additional downwinders in Nevada, veterans who cleaned up radioactive waste in the Marshall Islands and others.

Tina Cordova, a cancer survivor and co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, said the excuse always has been that the federal government doesn’t have enough money to take care of those affected.

She said the need is even greater now since the coronavirus is disproportionately affecting those with underlying health conditions and downwinders fall into the category because of their compromised health.

“When you talk about enhancing plutonium pit production and defense spending in the trillions, you can’t tell us there’s not enough money to do this,” she told The Associated Press. “You can’t expect us to accept that any longer and that adds insult to injury. It’s as if we count for nothing.”

U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, the New Mexico Democrat who advocated for the apology, continues to push for amendments to the radiation compensation program. His office recently convened a meeting among downwinders, uranium miners, tribal members, other advocates and staff in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office.

“The congressman believes that the need for medical and monetary compensation has never been more urgent,” said Monica Garcia, a spokeswoman for the congressman.

The concerns of Cordova and other advocates are growing amid rumblings about reported discussions within the Trump administration about whether to conduct live nuclear weapons testing.

The discussions come as the New START treaty between the U.S. and Russia nears expiration in 2021. Russia has offered to extend the nuclear arms control agreement while the Trump administration has pushed for a new pact that would also include China.


FILE - This July 16, 1945 photo, shows an aerial view after the first atomic explosion at Trinity Test Site, N.M. A defense spending bill pending in Congress includes an apology to New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and other states affected by nuclear testing over the decades, but communities downwind from the first atomic test in 1945 are still holding out for compensation amid rumblings about the potential for the U.S. to resume nuclear testing. (AP Photo/File)

While the U.S. House has adopted language that would prohibit spending to conduct or make preparations for any live nuclear weapons tests, a group of senators has included $10 million for such an effort in that chamber’s version of the bill.

The Union of Concerned Scientists, nuclear watchdogs and environmentalists all are pushing for the funding to be eliminated. They sent letters this week in opposition and plan to lobby lawmakers.

“A U.S. resumption of nuclear testing would set off an unpredictable and destabilizing international chain reaction that would undermine U.S. security,” reads one letter.

Kevin Davis with the Union of Concerned Scientists’ global security program said resuming live testing would be unnecessary because the U.S. has been able to do sub-critical experiments and use its super computers along with data from past testing to run simulations on the nation’s nuclear stockpile.

The last full-scale underground test was done Sept. 23, 1992, by scientists with Los Alamos National Laboratory at the Nevada Test Site northwest of Las Vegas. Less than two weeks later, then President George H.W. Bush signed legislation mandating a moratorium on U.S. underground nuclear testing.

Democrat Rep. Ben McAdams of Utah is among those leading the effort to ban spending for testing. He said thousands of residents in his state are still dealing with trauma and illness as a result of previous testing.

Dozens of groups also signed on to a letter sent to congressional leaders in May advocating for the expansion of the radiation compensation program.

“We can’t continue to allow the government to walk away from their responsibility,” Cordova said.

SHE IS RIGHT

BUT THE RIGHT IS SLAGGING HER FOR IT

Bass addresses past remarks praising Scientology

The top-tier contender to be Joe Biden's running mate said in a statement she was trying to find an “area of agreement” with the church.

LIKE ALL AMERICAN RELIGIONS SCIENTOLOGY IS JUST ANOTHER BRAND OF HUCKSTERISM 

Rep. Karen Bass. | Kevin Dietsch/Pool via AP


By EVAN SEMONES

08/01/2020 01:22 PM EDT

Rep. Karen Bass, a top-tier contender to be Joe Biden’s running mate, on Saturday sought to clarify remarks she made in 2010 praising the Church of Scientology.

Video emerged on Friday of the California Democrat speaking at a ceremony for a renovated Scientology church in Los Angeles when she served as speaker of the California State Assembly. The Daily Caller first reported the video’s existence.

In her remarks, Bass called on treating humans with respect and fighting oppression, but also spoke highly of the controversial group and its founder, L. Ron Hubbard.

“The Church of Scientology, I know, has made a difference, because your creed is a universal creed and one that speaks to all people everywhere,” Bass said before an audience of some 6,000 attendees. “That is why the words are exciting of your Founder L. Ron Hubbard, in the creed of the Church of Scientology: That all people of whatever race, color or creed are created with equal rights.”

Bass said in a statement she was trying to find an “area of agreement” with the church, which has faced allegations from former members of abuse, human trafficking and intimidation.

“Back in 2010, I attended the event knowing I was going to address a group of people with beliefs very different than my own, and spoke briefly about things I think most of us agree with, and on those things — respect for different views, equality, and fighting oppression — my views have not changed,” Bass tweeted. “Since then, published first-hand accounts in books, interviews and documentaries have exposed this group.”

While Bass did not say in her statement what she thinks about the church, she mentioned that “everyone is now aware” of the allegations against it. The Congressional Black Caucus chair also stated that she’s not a Scientologist, underscoring that she worships at a Baptist church in Los Angeles.


Advertisement




Bass’s record has increasingly come under scrutiny as she has moved toward the top of presumptive Democratic nominee Biden's vice presidential short list after lobbying by fellow House Democrats.

She has also come under fire from President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign after The Atlantic reported Friday that Bass worked in Cuba in the 1970s with a group aligned with Fidel Castro’s government.

“She was always pro-Castro & later mourned his death,” Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh tweeted Saturday. “Whether Biden picks her or not, he's written off Cuban-American voters just by considering her.”

On a call organized by the Trump campaign, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) ripped Bass for “showing a stunning amount of interest in the Cuban Revolution," according to the Palm Beach Post.

“She will be the highest ranking Castro sympathizer in the United States government,” Rubio said about Bass if she’s selected to be Biden’s running mate.

Bass has sought to address the Cuban controversy in recent media appearances.

Leading Democratic VP contender Bass defends stance on Cuba


FILE - Dec. 12, 2019, file photo Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., listens during a House Judiciary Committee markup of the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington. California Congresswoman Bass has emerged a leading contender to be Democrats' vice presidential candidate. Allies say her reputation as a bridge-builder would make her a strong partner to presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Rep. Karen Bass, one of the top contenders to be Joe Biden’s running mate, on Sunday defended her past travel to Cuba and the sympathetic comments she made after the death of Fidel Castro, the dictator who ruled the communist country for decades.

Bass said she was trying to express her condolences to the Cuban people when she referred to Castro as “Comandante en jefe,” a term that roughly translates as commander in chief but is reviled by some Cuban exiles in Florida. Bass, who represents California in Congress, said she was unaware of the phrase’s political significance in Florida when she issued the 2016 statement, which called Castro’s death a “great loss to the people of Cuba.”

“Wouldn’t do that again,” Bass said during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Talked immediately to my colleagues from Florida and realized that that was something that just shouldn’t have been said.”

Bass is considered one of the leading candidates to become Biden’s vice presidential pick. But recently her decades-long ties to Cuba have drawn scrutiny because of how they could play in Florida, a key swing state in the November contest with President Donald Trump.

Bass said she traveled to Cuba to help construct homes in her late teens and early 20′s. As a member of Congress, she has taken numerous trips to the island country to participate in cultural exchanges and study the Cuban medical system.

“The Cubans also have two medicines, one for diabetes, of which my mother died from, lung cancer, which my father died from, and I would like to have those drugs tested in the United States,” Bass said. “That doesn’t excuse the fact that I know the Castro regime has been a brutal regime to its people. I know that there is not freedom of press, freedom of association.”

Bass said she does not consider herself to be a “Castro sympathizer.” She said her views of Cuba are in line with policy under former President Barack Obama, who sought to thaw U.S. relations with the country.

“I think the best way to bring about change on the island is for us to have closer relations with the country that is 90 miles away,” Bass said. “My position on Cuba is really no different than the position of the Obama administration. As a matter of fact, I was honored to go to Cuba with President Obama. I went to Cuba with Secretary Kerry when we raised the flag. So there really isn’t anything different.”

She also said recent criticism of her by Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was politically motivated.

“I believe the Republicans have decided to brand the entire Democratic Party as socialists and communists. So I’m not surprised by Rubio’s characterization of me or of a role I would play if I were on the ticket,” she said.