Interior Department reverses Trump policies on placing Native lands in trust


U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland on Tuesday reversed multiple policies instituted by the Trump administration, which the agency said "undermined the ability of Tribes to establish and consolidate their homelands." Photo by Jim Lo Scalzo/UPI | License Photo

April 27 (UPI) -- The Department of the Interior on Tuesday reversed several Trump administration policies it said made it more difficult for Native American tribes to place land into trust.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to lead the agency, issued an order returning authority to review and approve applications to place land into trust to the Bureau of Indian Affairs regional directors after former President Donald Trump in 2017 directed that they be handled by the Interior Department's headquarters staff.

Tuesday's order does not apply to gaming applications, the agency said.

Placing lands into trusts allows tribes to reacquire lands within or near their reservations by having the Interior Department acquire the title to the property and hold it for the benefit of a tribe or individual.

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The Interior Department said the prior administration's changes increased the complexity in the decision-making process and "undermined the ability of tribes to establish and consolidate their homelands."

"At the interior, we have an obligation to work with tribes to protect their lands and ensure that each tribe has a homeland where its citizens can live together and lead safe and fulfilling lives," Haaland said. "Our actions today will help us meet that obligation and will help empower tribes to determine how their lands are used -- from conservation to economic development projects."

The agency on Tuesday also withdrew two policies it said "created an unduly burdensome process" for tribes seeking to place land into trust under the Indian Reorganization Act and one that "erroneously concluded" the secretary of the interior does not have discretionary authority to take land into trust for tribes in Alaska.

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"The patchwork of landholdings within existing reservation boundaries can make it difficult to develop coherent law enforcement and regulatory policies on reservations, restricting the ability to sustain community and economic development," said Bryan Newland, principal deputy assistant secretary of Indian Affairs. "These important actions are a step in the right direction to restore homelands that will strengthen tribal communities."

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M  A FAMILY AFFAIR

Facing $11B tax bill, Samsung heirs donate massive art trove

SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of — Samsung’s founding family will donate tens of thousands of rare artworks, including Picassos and Dalis, to help them pay a massive inheritance tax bill following last year’s death of company chairman Lee Kun-Hee

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© Provided by The Canadian Press

They will also give hundreds of millions of dollars to medical projects and research in an apparent attempt to improve their public image as they proceed with a multiyear plan to inherit both the wealth and corporate power of South Korea’s richest-ever businessman.

The Lee family, including his widow and three children, expects to pay more than 12 trillion won ($10.8 billion) in inheritance taxes, which is more than half the wealth Lee held in stocks and real estate, Samsung said Wednesday. This would be the largest amount in South Korea and more than three times the country’s total estate tax revenue for last year.

Giving away the late chairman’s vast collection of art masterpieces would reduce the taxable portions of his estate.

The family plans to divide the payment in six installments over five years, while making the first payment this month.

“It is our civic duty and responsibility to pay all taxes,” the Lee family said in a statement. They had until Friday to report the extent of the inheritance and payment plans to tax authorities.

Raising cash for the tax payment is crucial for the Lee family to extend its control over Samsung’s business empire, which extends from semiconductors, smartphones and TVs to construction, shipbuilding and insurance. Some analysts say the process could result in a shakeup across the group.

The late Lee owned 4.18% of Samsung Electronics, which is one of the world’s biggest makers of computer memory chips and smartphones, but also held stakes in Samsung affiliates that collectively owned a larger share than his in the crown jewel electronics company. The complex shareholding structure has allowed Lee and his family to exert broad control over the group.

In Wednesday’s statement, Samsung did not mention how Lee’s widow and children would split his assets, and there’s speculation they haven’t reached a final agreement.

Most market analysts believe Lee’s shares will be distributed in a way that would strengthen the leadership of his only son and corporate heir, Lee Jae-yong, the de facto chief of Samsung Electronics who is currently imprisoned for bribery and other crimes. Lee’s other children are Lee Boo-jin, CEO of Samsung’s Shilla luxury hotel chain, and Lee Seo-hyun, who heads the Samsung Welfare Foundation.

The family plans to donate 23,000 art pieces from Lee’s personal collection to two state-run museums. They include old Korean paintings, books and other cultural assets designated as national treasures, and modern Korean painters such as Park Soo-keun and Lee Jung-seop. There are also the works of Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, Paul Gauguin, Claude Monet, Joan Miro and Salvador Dali, Samsung said.

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art said the 1,488 pieces it received from the Lee family was its biggest private donation. The works included Lee Jung-seop’s “Bull,” Dali’s “Family of Marsupial Centaurs,” Monet’s “Water Lily Pond (Le Bassin Aux Nympheas),” and Chagall’s “Red Bouquet With Lovers (Les Amoureux Aux Bouquets Rouges).”

The National Museum of Korea will receive around 21,000 pieces from Lee’s collection of Korean traditional art, including paintings, ceramics and sculptures.

Hwang Hee, South Korea’s culture minister, said some of the art donated by Lee will be displayed for the public starting in June. He expressed “deep gratitude” to the Lee family for “enriching” the country's cultural assets, but he sidestepped questions on whether he thought Samsung was trying to create a positive atmosphere for Lee Jae-yong to get pardoned.

Lee family will also donate 1 trillion won ($900 million) to help fund infectious disease research and treatment for children with cancer and rare illnesses.

About half of that money will be used to help finance the establishment of a 150-bed hospital providing specialized treatment for infectious diseases. Experts had raised the need for such facilities equipped with negative pressure rooms and other advanced systems following the emergence of COVID-19.

About 300 billion ($267 million) of the funds will go into a decadelong program with the Seoul National University Children’s Hospital to help families pay for the treatment of children with cancer and rare diseases and support clinical trials and drug development.

“Members of the (Lee family) hope to honour the life of the late Chairman Lee and his commitment to corporate citizenship and co-prosperity by giving back to communities,” Samsung said.

Before his death in October, Lee was credited for transforming Samsung Electronics from a small television maker into a global giant in semiconductors and consumer electronics. But his leadership was also marred by corruption convictions that highlighted the traditionally murky ties between the country’s family-owned conglomerates and politicians. He had been hospitalized for years following a heart attack in 2014.

Lee Jae-yong, who has since helmed the group in his capacity as vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, is currently serving a 2 1/2-year sentence for bribing then-President Park Geun-hye and her close confidante to win government support for a 2015 merger between two Samsung affiliates. The deal helped strengthen Lee’s control over the Samsung group, but the revelations about his corrupt ties with the Park government fueled a 2016 corruption scandal that spurred huge protests and ousted Park from office.

The younger Lee has vowed to improve Samsung’s corporate culture, declaring that heredity transfers at the group would end and that he wouldn’t pass the management rights he inherited to his children. He also said Samsung would stop suppressing employee attempts to organize unions, although labour activists have questioned his sincerity.

A growing number of politicians, religious and business leaders have been calling for President Moon Jae-in to pardon Lee. They say it would help Lee strengthen Samsung’s global leadership in semiconductors and he could possibly use his business reach to help the country secure more coronavirus vaccines.

Critics point out that Samsung didn’t show signs of trouble when Lee was in jail in 2017 and 2018, and that prison terms have never really stopped corporate leaders from relaying their management decisions from behind bars.

Kim Tong-Hyung, The Associated Press

HIPSTER CAPITALI$M

Trumpy Billionaire Peter Thiel Is Behind the Next Psychedelics IPO

Tarpley Hitt 

4/27/2021

In the two years since the Food and Drug Administration approved the first synthetic ketamine treatment, drug developers, VC investors, and rich guys who like Burning Man have been scheming for ways to convert psychedelics from a stoner pastime into a private enterprise.

On Tuesday, New York-based company MindMed will start trading on the Nasdaq, becoming the second psychedelic company ever to go public on a major American exchange. The debut comes six months after Compass Pathways, a drug developer focusing on the psychoactive compound in shrooms, became the first, reaching a market cap of $1.33 billion.

A third company is set to follow suit. Just last week, self-described “drug growth platform” Atai Life Sciences filed an S1 application with the Securities and Exchange Commission, announcing plans to raise $100 million in an initial public offering. The German developer was founded by prodigious meme investor Christian Angermayer—a COVID skeptic who has psilocybin’s molecular structure tattooed on his forearm. In something of a mind-bending ouroboros, Atai is also the largest shareholder in Compass Pathways.

In May, Atai Life Sciences closed a financing round of $24 million backed by billionaire right-wing donor and Trump backer Peter Thiel. The German American PayPal co-founder, who later launched the big data firm Palantir, has funded a range of controversial projects––research into seasteading, various experiments in “life extension,” and the lawsuit that bankrupted Gawker.

“ATAI’s great virtue is to take mental illness as seriously as we should have been taking all illness all along,” Thiel told CNBC at the time. “The company’s most valuable asset is its sense of urgency.”

Like Thiel’s Atai, MindMed is ultimately a biotech company, focused on developing medicines derived from the compounds in shrooms (psilocybin), acid (LSD), molly (MDMA), DMT, and Ibogaine, which some believe may be useful in treating opioid addictions. It has been trading as a penny stock under the ticker “MMEDF” and for the past year, on the NEO Exchange in Canada, after arranging a reverse takeover with a British Columbia-based gold mining company.

The IPOs are riding a wave of increasing interest in developing long-restricted substances for medical application, particularly in the treatment of mental health disorders. In 2018, the FDA granted “breakthrough” status for a psilocybin-derivative called COMP360, just months before they approved Johnson and Johnson’s ketamine-derived treatment. Last year, the state of Oregon legalized psilocybin use for therapy, and several states have passed bills to decriminalize it.

Matt Zemon, who co-founded a health platform called Psychable, which connects users to legal medical providers of psychedelic treatments, told The Daily Beast that the FDA had opened the door to more research into their efficacy.

“From our perspective, we believe we’re in the middle of a psychedelic renaissance,” Zemon said. “Research now shows the transformative power of psychedelics...The response to ketamine has been showing us that people want something different, there hasn’t been a drastic change in medical treatments for mental health treatments in decades.”

But the psychotropic trading rush also arrives in the second year of what writer David Nickles dubbed, in the academic drug outlet Psymposia, the “Corporadelic Era”—a transition from an open science approach to psychedelic research to a private one, circumscribed by proprietary concerns and patent competition.

“There are groups that believe that this should be done all under a nonprofit or an open source philosophy,” Zemon said. “There are other groups that feel like to invest what needs to be invested, they need to have patents and the ability to have long term profits from them.”


This transition has been poorly received by many proponents of psychedelic treatments. A major flashpoint in the debate took place in February, when Compass Pathways filed a patent application for psychedelic therapy using the shrooms compound psilocybin. The developer attempted to stake ownership on a range of basic uses to “treat depression and other various disorders,” suggesting to some that almost any outside application of the drug might violate the patent.

As reporter Shayla Love noted in VICE, Compass had tried to claim ownership of aspects of psilocybin therapy that went beyond the chemical composition of its drug to the basic ways the psychedelic might be administered. If other providers offered shroom therapies in “a room with a substantially non-clinical appearance,” or one that comprised “soft furniture,” or was “decorated using muted colors” ––they’d risk running afoul of Compass’ patent. Other potential violations included rooms with “high resolution sound systems” or “a bed or a couch” or “wherein the subject listens to music.”

The other psychedelic developers have signaled support for Compass’ approach. In an open letter to VC investor Tim Ferriss from March, Atai Life Sciences co-founder Christian Angermayer defended the use of patents in psychedelic drug development. Patents, he wrote, “represent the best means of accelerating patient access and optionality in the midst of a mental health crisis.”

MindMed has made similar moves. Last year, the company announced a multiyear partnership with a Swiss lab, granting them exclusive rights to the lab’s research into LSD and related compounds. When co-CEO Jamon “JR” Rahn derided the movement to decriminalize psychedelics in an interview with Forbes, prominent psychedelic commentator Mike Margolies suggested the executive wanted to restrict others’ access to the compounds.

“@JamonRahn, Director of @mindmedco, wants to ‘develop IP’ securing his company's exclusivity to sell LSD and simultaneously maintain prohibition,” Margolies wrote, in a tweet later noted by Psymposia.

MindMed and Atai Life Sciences did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s requests for comment.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

POSTMODERN COLONIALISM

Canada's Fortuna pushes into West Africa with $884 million Roxgold deal


(Reuters) -Canada's Fortuna Silver Mines Inc said on Monday it would buy Roxgold Inc in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about C$1 billion ($884.32 million), marking its foray into the lucrative precious-metal mining region of West Africa.

Fortuna, which operates in Peru, Mexico, and Argentina, would acquire Roxgold's projects in Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire with an expected annual gold equivalent combined production of 450,000 ounces.

Despite the security risks of operating in Burkina Faso, the country is attractive for gold miners as the cost of producing the metal is much lower compared with the rest of the world. At a time of high gold prices, that translates into hefty margins for miners.

Fortuna's deal comes more than five months after rival Endeavour Mining agreed to buy West Africa-focused Teranga Gold in a nearly $2 billion deal to become the region's biggest gold miner.

Roxgold's high-grade Yaramoko gold mine in Burkina Faso has a 2021 production outlook of 120,000-130,000 ounces, while its Séguéla mine in Côte d'Ivoire is projected to produce more than 130,000 ounces annually for the first six years, pending its construction decision in mid-2021.

"The combined company will be in a stronger position to continue accelerating the development of the Séguéla gold project at a lower cost," Fortuna Chief Executive Officer Jorge A. Ganoza said in a statement.

Appian Natural Resources Fund, Roxgold's largest shareholder, said it backed the deal.

Roxgold shareholders will receive 0.283 common shares of Fortuna and C$0.001 for each Roxgold common share held.

The exchange ratio implies a consideration of about C$2.73 per Roxgold share, a 42.1% premium to its last closing price.

After the merger, existing Fortuna and Roxgold shareholders will own about 64.3% and 35.7%, respectively, of the combined company.

($1 = 1.2439 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Arunima Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Ramakrishnan M.)

4/27/2021

P3 CPPIB AND BCIM OWN IT
Viterra latest to build Canada canola plant as demand surges

By Rod Nickel 

4/27/2021


WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) -Private agribusiness Viterra Inc said on Monday that it will build the world's biggest canola-crushing plant at Regina, Saskatchewan, and open it in late 2024, as interest in turning oilseeds into renewable fuel stokes already strong demand.

Rivals Cargill Inc and Richardson International also announced plans recently to build plants in the same Canadian province, with canola futures hitting record highs. U.S. soybean-crushing capacity is also increasing.

Rotterdam-based Viterra said its new plant will crush up to 2.5 million tonnes of canola per year, eclipsing Richardson's plan.

Viterra, owned by commodity trader Glencore PLC, and Canadian pension managers CPP Investments and British Columbia Investment Management Corp, did not disclose the plant's cost.

Canada is the biggest global producer and exporter of canola, a variant of rapeseed, that crushers process into oil and meal. Canola oil is used in salad dressings and other foods, and refiners plan to also produce renewable diesel, a clean-burning fuel, from it.

"We continue to feel there will be added demand on top of food, with increased fuel demand," said Kyle Jeworski, chief executive officer of Viterra's North America operations, in an interview. "Our intent is to service both markets."

Viterra has no plans to produce renewable diesel from its own canola oil, he said.

Canola meal is part of feed rations for hogs and fish.

Plans for more crush plants in Saskatchewan underline questions about supply. Canola plantings have levelled off in recent years.

Jeworski expects plantings to increase, adding that developers are producing better seeds to increase yields.

"Our western Canadian farmers are somewhat underappreciated in terms of the sophistication in technology and improvements in agronomic practices that they continually undertake - that bodes very well for projects such as this," he said.

Viterra operates smaller canola crush plants in Quebec, Manitoba and Washington state.

(Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg. Editing by Mark Potter and Marguerita Choy)

Policies designed to protect public health from fracking may be ineffective in practice

PSE HEALTHY ENERGY

Research News

 

Frequent use of exemptions may undermine public health protections of oil and gas setback policies, according to a new study led by researchers at the research institute PSE Healthy Energy, Harvard University, and Nicholas Institute for Environmental Solutions at Duke University. The study, published April 28, 2021 in Energy Policy, is the first to assess the effectiveness of distance-based setback regulations for unconventional natural gas development (UNGD) or "fracking."

"Setback regulations are commonly employed to protect public health, so we wanted to test if they're effective in practice," said lead author Drew Michanowicz, DrPH, MPH, CPH Senior Scientist at PSE Healthy Energy and visiting scientist with the Center for Climate, Health, and Global Environment at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health (Harvard Chan C-CHANGE). "From our assessment of PA's 2012 setback policy, existing well pad exemptions and waivers seem to occur frequently enough that we didn't see much change in how wells were sited in relation to nearby buildings."

Previous studies have associated adverse health impacts with residents' proximity to UNGD wells, including birth defects, premature births, asthma, migraines, and fatigue. As a result, policymakers across the United States use setback requirements to establish development-free zones around well sites. To assess the effectiveness of setbacks in protecting public health, the study focused on Pennsylvania's Act 13--a 2012 statewide law restricting new unconventional wells within 500 ft. of non-industrial buildings. Through a detailed spatial analysis, researchers observed trends in wellhead locations and proximity to likely occupied buildings both before and after Act 13.

Despite the regulation's intent, the study found no significant change in how wells were sited after Act 13 took effect in 2012. These findings suggest that exemptions, variances, and consent waivers provide opportunities to avoid or weaken well siting requirements. This results in wells placed within PA's setback distance (500 .)-a distance that has been previously found to be insufficient to protect against routine exposures to toxic substances such as benzene, hydrogen sulfide, and PM2.5 from UNGD. "The effectiveness of setback policies depends not just on the distance, but also on the ease and frequency with which exemptions are granted," Michanowicz said. "To protect public health and safety, regulators should complement setbacks with other emission controls and other operational and safety performance standards."

"With the myriad of health effects occurring in communities near hydraulic fracturing-increased hospitalizations to respiratory irritation to birth defects-it's important to ensure that these setback regulations are actually effective at protecting public health," said Jonathan Buonocore, Sc.D., research scientist at Harvard Chan C-CHANGE.

Of the 31 oil and gas production states across the country, an estimated 21 have some form of minimum surface setback in place. For states considering strengthened setbacks, these findings demonstrate the impact that setback exemptions and waivers can have in practice. For states with existing setback regulations, regulators could report well siting exemption rates and rationales and if warranted, consider changes to narrow exemptions that may be used too frequently.

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Other researchers on this study include Katherine E. Konschnik, J.D., Nicholas Institute for Environmental Solutions, Duke University, Shaun A. Goho, J.D., Harvard Law School Environmental Law & Policy Clinic and Aaron S. Bernstein, M.D., M.P.H., C-CHANGE, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.

Using microbes to remove microplastics from the environment

Microbiologists have found a way to use bacteria to trap microplastics, removing them from the environment and making them easier to recycle.

MICROBIOLOGY SOCIETY

Research News

 

Today at the Microbiology Society's Annual Conference, Yang Liu, researcher at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, will discuss a new technique to trap and recover microplastics.

The method uses bacterial biofilms, a sticky substance created by micro-organisms, to trap microplastic particles. The biofilm is then processed and dispersed, releasing the microplastic particles for processing and recycling.

Liu and colleagues used the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa to capture microplastics in a bioreactor. This species of bacteria is found in all environments and has previously been shown to colonise microplastics in the environment.

P. aeruginosa biofilms cause the microplastics to aggregate together, eventually causing them to sink. In bioreactors, this makes the microplastics more convenient to collect, according to Liu. Once the microplastics were captured by the biofilms and had sunk to the bottom of the reactor, the researchers used a biofilm-dispersal gene, which caused the biofilm to release the microplastics. Liu explained that this "allows convenient release of microplastics from the biofilm matrix, which is otherwise difficult and expensive to degrade, so that the microplastics can be later recovered for recycling."

Microplastics are hugely problematic and pose a major risk to food chains and human health, according to Liu: "They are not easily bio-degradable, where they retain in the ecosystems for prolonged durations. This results in the uptake of microplastics by organisms, leading to transfer and retention of microplastics down the food chain. Due to their huge surface area and adsorption capacity, microplastics can adsorb toxic pollutants, such as pesticides, heavy metals, and drug residues at high concentrations. This leads to biological and chemical toxicity to organisms in the ecosystems and humans after prolonged unintended consumption of such microplastics. Moreover, microplastics are also difficult to remove in wastewater plants, resulting in their undesired release into the environment."

The next steps of the research are moving the proof-of-concept from the lab, to an environmental setting "we next plan to isolate and identify natural pro-biofilm forming bacterial isolates either from the sewage or from aquatic environments, where they display heightened abilities to colonise and form biofilms on microplastics."

Liu and colleagues hope the technique will eventually be used in wastewater treatment plants to help stop microplastics escaping into the oceans. They also have to find natural compounds to stimulate biofilm dispersal of the pro-biofilm forming bacterial isolates, saying "this provides a basis for future applications in wastewater treatment plants, where microplastics can be removed in a safe and environmentally friendly manner".

Microplastics are a huge problem, and more techniques are needed to safely remove them from our environment, Liu states the importance of this, saying "it is imperative to develop effective solutions that trap, collect, and even recycle these microplastics to stop the 'plastification' of our natural environments".

Biofilms occur when communities of bacteria group together and create a shield, or biofilm, from sticky exopolymeric substances. Biofilms can be problematic as they protect the bacteria from against outside influences such as environmental changes and antibiotics.

Microplastics are plastic particles less than 5mm in diameter. They can enter the environment through a number of sources including the breakdown of larger plastic pieces, washing of synthetic clothing, breakdown of car tires and plastic waste directly from industry. The current methods for microplastic disposal, such as incineration or storage in landfill, are limited and have their own disadvantages.

Researchers find how tiny plastics slip through the environment

WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY

Research News

Washington State University researchers have shown the fundamental mechanisms that allow tiny pieces of plastic bags and foam packaging at the nanoscale to move through the environment.

The researchers found that a silica surface such as sand has little effect on slowing down the movement of the plastics, but that natural organic matter resulting from decomposition of plant and animal remains can either temporarily or permanently trap the nanoscale plastic particles, depending on the type of plastics.

The work, published in the journal Water Research, could help researchers develop better ways to filter out and clean up pervasive plastics from the environment. The researchers include Indranil Chowdhury, assistant professor in WSU's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, along with Mehnaz Shams and Iftaykhairul Alam, recent graduates of the civil engineering program.

"We're looking at developing a filter that can be more efficient at removing these plastics," Chowdhury said. "People have seen these plastics escaping into our drinking water, and our current drinking water system is not adequate enough to remove these micro and nanoscale plastics. This work is the first fundamental way to look at those mechanisms."

Around since the 1950s, plastics have properties that make them useful for modern society. They are water resistant, cheap, easy to manufacture and useful for a huge variety of purposes. However, plastics accumulation is becoming a growing concern around the world with giant patches of plastic garbage floating in the oceans and plastic waste showing up in the most remote areas of the world.

"Plastics are a great invention and so easy to use, but they are so persistent in the environment," Chowdhury said.

After they're used, plastics degrade through chemical, mechanical and biological processes to micro- and then nano-sized particles less than 100 nanometers in size. Despite their removal in some wastewater treatment plants, large amounts of micro and nanoscale plastics still end up in the environment. More than 90% of tap water in the U.S. contains nanoscale plastics, Chowdhury said, and a 2019 study found that people eat about five grams of plastic a week or the amount of plastic in a credit card. The health effects of such environmental pollution is not well understood.

"We don't know the health effects, and the toxicity is still unknown, but we continue to drink these plastics every day," said Chowdhury.

As part of the new study, the researchers studied the interactions with the environment of the tiniest particles of the two most common types of plastics, polyethylene and polystyrene, to learn what might impede their movement. Polyethylene is used in plastic bags, milk cartons and food packaging, while polystyrene is a foamed plastic that is used in foam drinking cups and packaging materials.

In their work, the researchers found that the polyethylene particles from plastic bags move easily through the environment - whether through a silica surface like sand or natural organic matter. Sand and the plastic particles repel each other similarly to like-poles of a magnet, so that the plastic won't stick to the sand particles. The plastic particles do glom onto natural organic material that is ubiquitous in natural aquatic environment but only temporarily. They can be easily washed off with a change in chemistry in the water.

"That's bad news for polyethylene in the environment," said Chowdhury. "It doesn't stick to the silica surface that much and if it sticks to the natural organic matter surface, it can be re-mobilized. Based on these findings, it indicates that nanoscale polyethylene plastics may escape from our drinking water treatment processes, particularly filtration."

In the case of polystyrene particles, the researchers found better news. While a silica surface was not able to stop its movement, organic matter did. Once the polystyrene particles stuck to the organic matter, they stayed in place.

The researchers hope that the research will eventually help them develop filtration systems for water treatment facilities to remove nanoscale particles of plastics.

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The work was funded by the State of Washington Water Research Cente

DISARM, DEFUND, DISBAND POLICE

Trustees vote to end program assigning uniformed police officers to Vancouver schools 

VANCOUVER — Uniformed police officers will no longer be assigned to Vancouver public schools after trustees voted to end its school liaison officer program.

Provided by The Canadian Press

The program had been under review for almost a year due to concerns that uniformed officers make some students anxious or upset, including many identifying as Black, Indigenous or people of colour.

Trustees voted eight to one Monday in favour of a motion to halt the program at the end of June.

The decision is supported by several groups, including the Vancouver District Parent Advisory Council and associations representing elementary and secondary school teachers in the city.

The school board said it will now work with Vancouver police and RCMP to create what the motion defines as a "new relationship" developing "trauma-informed approaches to working with children and youth."

The Vancouver Police Department is disappointed about the "political decision" made by trustees, Deputy Chief Const. Fiona Wilson said in a statement Tuesday.

Video: The VSB’s school liaison program is coming to an end (Global News)

The department had in recent months "strongly declared its desire to make changes to the (student liaison officer) program, in collaboration with all stakeholders, to address the concerns that have been raised," she said.

The end of the program "leaves a big gap in relationship building" and decreases safety for youth and staff in schools, Wilson said.

Media relations officer Sgt. Steve Addison said in a separate statement that police were open to an "evolving" relationship that could include roles for plainclothes officers in city schools.

The lone dissenting vote came from trustee Jennifer Reddy, who said in an email she didn't support the motion because it wasn't clear enough that police will be removed from schools, rather it outlined what the next steps are for working with them.

"Instead of focusing on students and listening to parent and teacher groups who all supported a clear end to the program," she said, the decision prioritized the relationship between the school board and police.

Reddy said the review process for the program and the resulting motion, with its conditions and amendments, demonstrates how often Indigenous and Black voices are ignored and sidelined in decision-making.

The New Westminster school board is also set to vote Tuesday on a recommendation that it discontinue the child and youth liaison officer program and "redesign" the relationship with the local police department.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April

Edmonton Public pushes for non-confidence vote on Alberta draft curriculum at provincial school boards meeting

Lauren Boothby

EDMONTON JOURNAL

4/27/2021

© Provided by Edmonton Journal Edmonton Public School board chairwoman Trisha Estabrooks.

The Edmonton Public School Board (EPSB) will be asking for a non-confidence vote on the draft K-6 curriculum at a spring meeting of the Alberta School Board Association (ASBA) in June.

Trustees passed a motion 6-2 Tuesday afternoon that, if the resolution is approved and passes at the ASBA meeting, would see the association lobby the government to halt the curriculum pilots and demand a rewrite. It says the draft is rife with errors and plagiarism, is not age-appropriate, and it does not reflect the province’s diversity.

EPSB chairwoman Trisha Estabrooks said the proposed emergent resolution is based on feedback from local parents and families, as well as the curriculum experts and others who criticized the draft publicly.

“The committee felt that, based on feedback, that more than a pause is required,” she said.

“If we believe that this curriculum is not good for kids in Edmonton Public, I believe we need to be strong in what we are asking for.”

The proposed motion also notes the Metis Nation of Alberta and Chiefs of Treaty 6’s call to reject the curriculum as it “perpetuates rather than addresses systemic racism.”

Estabrooks, along with trustees Michael Janz, Shelagh Dunn, Michelle Draper, Bridget Stirling, and Nathan Ip voted in favour of the motion. Trustees Ken Gibson and Sherry Adams opposed.

Prior to the vote, Gibson and Adams said while they heard from parents, teachers and others about flaws – both acknowledged signifiant concerns with portions of it – they didn’t want to make the recommendation before hearing from EPSB’s own curriculum experts.

Both also questioned the board’s right to tell other boards what to do.

Stirling noted all motions reviewed at ASBA are raised by boards individually and their recommendations are not binding, and that the curriculum as it exists needs to be revised not thrown out completely.

Around 40 Alberta school boards have publicly declined to try out the draft curriculum – Wetaskiwin Public Schools, Grande Prairie and District Catholic Schools , and Palliser School Division joined the growing list on Tuesday.

The board’s own curriculum experts will also be reviewing the draft curriculum, Superintendent Darrel Robertson said.

Also during the meeting, trustees also asked staff to look into how the division can offer free menstrual products to students’ school washrooms, including the possibility of having costs covered by a third party.

7-12 could stay home longer

The division is still facing some supply teacher shortages – between 20 to 25 every day across the division – despite Grades 7 to 12 classes going online last Thursday for a two-week “circuit-breaker” amid rising cases, Robertson said Tuesday.

He said the division doesn’t want to move classes online for younger students as that is “incredibly disruptive” to families.

“Right now we’re looking at our (Grades) 7 to 12 experience and whether or not there’s a need to extend that time that our students are online,” he said.

After the meeting Tuesday, Estabrooks told reporters the division had not formally requested the province allow them to keep those students online longer, but she said that move was “absolutely the right decision” to relieve pressure on the K-6 system amid a surge in cases.

But she thinks the last thing parents want is a “COVID coaster” where students go back to class only to be sent home again a short while later.

lboothby@postmedia.com