More than 25% of kids with COVID-19 spread it to others in household, study finds

While children were thought to be at lower risk of acquiring or spreading COVID-19 earlier in the pandemic, researchers now say 1 in 4 kids is the cause of household spread of the disease. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 16 (UPI) -- One in four children with COVID-19 spreads the disease to other members of their households, with the highest risk for virus transmission among infants, a study published Monday by JAMA Pediatrics found.

In the analysis of nearly 6,300 households with at least one pediatric case of infection, more than 1,700, or 27%, saw another member become sick with the virus, the data showed.

Newborns and children up to age 3 were 43% more likely to pass the virus to others in their households than those age 14 to 17, the researchers said.

The study focused on pediatric cases among households Ontario, Canada, confirmed between June 1 and Dec. 31, or before the more contagious Delta variant of the virus became the predominant one in the region.

"As the number of pediatric cases increases worldwide, the role of children in household transmission will continue to grow," wrote the researchers, from Public Health Ontario, a provincial agency.

"We found that younger children may be more likely to transmit [COVID-19] infection compared with older children, and the highest odds of transmission were observed for children aged 0 to 3 years," the researchers said.

The role of children in spread of the virus has been the subject of much debate since the pandemic started.

At least early on, studies suggested children were at lower risk for infection and, thus, disease spread.

However, in recent months, with the emergence of the Delta variant in the United States and elsewhere, an increasing number of children have developed severe COVID-19.

Nationally, nearly 2,000 children were hospitalized with the virus through Saturday, a record high, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services.

RELATED School closures reduced COVID-19 cases, deaths up to 60%, study finds

This is a cause for concern, particularly as schools across the country begin to reopen, officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevent said earlier this month.

For this study, the Public Health Ontario researchers analyzed COVID-19 spread among nearly 90,000 households in the province over a seven-month period.

Among the households included in the analysis, about 6,300, or 7%, had at least one confirmed pediatric case of the virus, the data showed.

About 12% of the pediatric cases were in children 3 years and younger, while 20% involved children ages 4 to 8, 30% occurred in children ages 9 to 13 and 38% were in children ages 14 to 17.

Nearly 31% of households with an infected child age 3 or younger saw at least one "secondary" case, or instance of virus spread -- the highest percentage of any age group.

It is possible that younger children have similar levels of virus in their bodies -- or viral loads -- as adults, which leads to higher transmission, they said.

"Differential infectivity of pediatric age groups has implications for infection prevention controls within households and schools [and] childcare [facilities] to minimize risk of house-hold secondary transmission," the researchers wrote.

"As it is challenging and often impossible to socially isolate from sick children, caregivers should apply other infection control measures where feasible, such as use of masks, increased hand washing and separation from siblings," they said.

In a commentary entitled "Yes, Children Can Transmit COVID, but We Need Not Fear," published with the study, authors from the University of Pennsylvania add, "the obvious solution to protect a household with a sick young infant or toddler is to make sure that all eligible members of the household are vaccinated."

Study: More 'green time,' less screen time boosts kids' mental health

By Denise Mann, HealthDay News

Want to see a temperamental tween or teen act happier?

The formula is simple, a large international study suggests.

"Screen time should be replaced by 'green time' for optimizing the well-being of our kids," said study author Asad Khan, an associate professor in biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.

That advice stems from surveys of more than 577,000 11-, 13- and 15-year-olds in 42 European and North American countries.

Boys who spent about 90 minutes a day on their screens -- including TV, cellphones, computers and video games -- and girls who spent an hour on devices were more likely to feel sad about their lives, the surveys found. And the more screen time they logged, the worse they tended to feel.

But the more active they were, the happier they were. What's more, physical activity helped blunt some of the negatives resulting from too much screen time.

The study was not designed to say how -- or even if -- too much screen time and too little exercise affect tween and teen well-being.

But the findings' "dose-dependent" trend -- the more screen time, the less satisfied kids were with life -- suggests a link, the researchers said. It does not prove cause and effect, however.

Only 19% of the young respondents reported they were physically active every day, and their average recreational screen time was about six hours a day.

Those who were less active physically were more likely feel irritable or nervous, and to report trouble sleeping, headaches, stomachaches and backaches, the surveys found.

The findings suggested physical activity promotes mental well-being even when kids also spend lots of time glued to their screens.

The good news: Teens who reported more than eight hours a day on their screens showed dramatic increases in life satisfaction and fewer health complaints when they bumped up their physical activity.

The findings were published recently in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health.

Based on the findings, Khan called on parents to set an example for their kids.

"We can create 'technology-free zones,' set aside times to unplug, explain why we're limiting their screen time, and create opportunities for other activities especially in outdoor settings," he said.

Khan noted the study didn't ask what kids were doing on their screens. Researchers are now trying to learn more about that.

"We're now trying to understand effects of various types of screen use on mental well-being -- whether passive [e.g. television] and mentally active [e.g. electronic games] have equivalent and dose-dependent links with the mental well-being of adolescents," Khan said.

Outside experts say the onus is on families to help get kids off their screen and into the green.

"My advice to families is to set reasonable limits on [nonacademic] screen time and to work with teens to schedule preferred activities that do not involve screens," said Sarah Hornack, a psychologist at Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C., who reviewed the findings.

"We know that family-based approaches to increasing physical activity are the most effective," Hornack said.

This can include family hiking, family step challenges, or having dance-offs, she said.

Even though kids' satisfaction with life fell after an hour of daily screen time, getting them to log off can be easier said than done, Hornack conceded.

"The American Academy of Pediatrics' recommendation is a limit of two hours daily of nonacademic screen time, which many teens have difficulty adhering to already," she said.

Excessive screen time isn't healthy for anybody -- kids or adults, added Dr. Gene Beresin, executive director of the Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

"The more we use digital media, the less time we spend being physically active and being in nature," said Beresin, who is also a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

The study took place before the COVID-19 pandemic triggered widespread shutdowns. Kids' screen time has likely increased and physical activity has likely declined as a result, he said.

"Pediatricians and physicians need to take media histories and ask how many TVs, computers, cellphones and tablets are in the house, and who is watching what," Beresin said.

What kids are doing on their screens and what type of physical activity they are getting can make a difference in mental well-being, he said. For example, "team sports teach kids lots of stuff, including leadership skills, sportsmanship and how to compete without being aggressive or violent," Beresin noted.More information

The American Academy of Pediatrics offers more guidance on screen time for children of all ages.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

DIY

Snake catcher rescues Mojave rattlesnake caught in bird netting

Aug. 16 (UPI) -- An Arizona snake expert shared video of the delicate procedure required to free a Mojave rattlesnake that became entangled in bird netting.

Bryan Hughes, owner of Rattlesnake Solutions, said in the YouTube video that one of his rescuers brought him the Mojave rattlesnake, one of the most dangerous and highly venomous snakes in the United States, to free from the plastic netting.

Hughes said the rattlesnake, the second he has had to disentangle from bird netting in recent weeks, was in a particularly difficult situation, as he had to free the snake's head first without ending up on the wrong side of its fangs.

The rescuer said he was concerned the snake may have suffered a broken jaw, but an examination after it was freed revealed the reptile's injuries were far less severe.

"The netting had cut into the skin and created a few small cuts inside the snake's mouth, but I was able to work it free," he wrote in the video's description.

Hughes said the snake will be kept under observation in a "warm, dry area" for a few days to make sure it's OK before being released back into the wild.

"If you use bird netting to keep animals out of the garden, please consider that it also kills a variety of small animals," Hughes wrote.

"I know many don't like snakes and don't care, but that list also includes birds of all types, harmless snakes that you may find beneficial, bats, lizards, and small mammals like kangaroo rats."

Minor among 13 arrested at blockade protesting old-growth logging on Vancouver Island

LAKE COWICHAN, B.C. — Another 13 people, including a minor, were arrested as RCMP officers continued to enforce a BC Supreme Court injunction order in the Fairy Creek Watershed area.

Police say protesters used locking or tripod-like devices, deep trenches and destroyed portions of the Granite Mainline Forest Service Road to block access. One officer was injured while working in one of the trenches, and was sent to hospital for treatment.

Of the 13 people arrested, 10 are charged with contempt of court, and three face charges of obstruction. The young person was released to their guardian without charges.

RCMP say since enforcement of the court injunction began in May, 632 people have been charged, at least 56 of whom were previously arrested.

In June, the B.C. government approved the request of three Vancouver Island First Nations and deferred logging of about 2,000 hectares of old-growth forest in the Fairy Creek and central Walbran areas for two years, but the protests are continuing.

The Rainforest Flying Squad say very little of the best old-growth forest remains in B.C., and the deferrals fall short of protecting what's left.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 16, 2021.

Nuxalk Nation issues eviction notice to B.C. exploration company, igniting calls for mining reform


The Nuxalk Nation on B.C.’s central coast issued an eviction notice Monday to Juggernaut Exploration, a Vancouver-based company that received two permits for exploratory work in the nation’s territory without gaining consent from the community.

The Nuxalkmc Stataltmc, which is the nation’s hereditary leadership, ordered an immediate halt to the company’s exploratory work on the nation’s territory. The eviction notice received written support from the elected Nuxalk chief and council.

“Our lands have been illegally occupied by British Columbia and Canada in their various forms since the time of the gold rush,” Nuskmata Jacinda Mack, speaking on behalf of the Stataltmc, told The Narwhal in an interview. “It’s our duty and our responsibility to protect these lands — so that’s what we’re doing.”

B.C.’s mining laws do not require companies to obtain consent from Indigenous communities before registering mineral claims or filing for permits, which critics have called archaic and colonial. The province adopted the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into law in 2019 and published a draft implementation plan in June, but has yet to move forward with amending mining legislation.

Juggernaut received two five-year permits from the province in November 2020 and March 2021 authorizing exploratory work at a pair of sites near the town of Bella Coola. One permit for exploratory mining work is on Qw’miixw (Mount Pootlass), a glaciated peak overlooking the community and above the Nutcicts’kwani (Necleetsconnay) River, which drains into the Bella Coola River where it meets the Pacific Ocean. The estuary is protected as a conservancy and is an important habitat that supports fish, birds and wildlife.

As glaciers continue to recede, an impact of climate change that is rapidly accelerating, prospectors like Juggernaut are eyeing up mineral extraction opportunities that were previously inaccessible. This new gold rush, stoked by high prices on the global market, is similarly playing out in several parts of northern B.C. such as Gitanyow territory, where the nation is developing an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area to protect salmon populations from the threats of mineral exploration.

This wouldn’t be the first time a nation in B.C. has issued an eviction notice to a mining company. In March the Tahltan Nation evicted Doubleview Gold from its territory, over what the nation claimed was a refusal to respect Indigenous law. In July Doubleview and the Tahltan entered into negotiations after the company issued a formal apology.

Mack said members of the community noticed an influx of workers in the territory this summer and an increase in helicopter flights, as the company shuttled people and equipment into the mountains.

“The helicopters are going every single day, several times a day,” she said. “They obviously have resources but they have not reached out to the community — Indigenous or not — in any way and people were shocked when they found out how advanced it was.”

In a letter to the federal and provincial governments, the Stataltmc made it clear that mining is not permitted in Nuxalk territory.

“We have not and do not consent to any mining activities including exploration. We do not recognize tenures/permits issued by Canada or British Columbia.”

Nikki Skuce, director of Northern Confluence and co-founder of the BC Mining Law Reform network, told The Narwhal B.C. needs to modernize its mining laws.

“Our colonial mining laws need to be updated to respect Indigenous Rights,” Skuce wrote in an email. “The Mineral Tenure Act is completely inconsistent with [the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act] and must be reformed.”

“Our fight really isn’t with the company,” Mack said. “It’s with the province for issuing these permits. Anybody who has any type of moral fibre to them will understand that this is wrong, and the way that they’re going about it is wrong.”

“The province makes all kinds of promises about Indigenous Peoples and reconciliation and then they turn around and they criminalize our land defenders,” she added, referring to the Wet’suwet’en struggle to protect its territory.

In Monday’s eviction order, Nuxalk leaders gave the company two days to pack up and leave the territory.

“We needed to act quickly to make sure that they know that this is unauthorized activity,” Mack said.

Juggernaut president Dan Stuart could not be reached for comment prior to publication. The company did not respond to an interview request.

B.C.’s Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation declined an interview request and did not provide a statement but confirmed it issued permits to the mining company.

This isn’t the first time the Nuxalk Nation voiced opposition to resource extraction on the territory. In early 2019, the hereditary leadership issued a letter of opposition to Goliath Resources, a Toronto-based company that was prospecting for gold in the area.

“You are in violation of Nuxalk Law and must stop all activity and return any samples you have taken,” the Stataltmc wrote in the letter.

Yet exploration companies continued to conduct work on the territory.

The nation also recently declared all commercial logging on Nuxalk territory a violation of human rights. In February, the Nuxalk Nation sent a statement to the federal government demanding that all commercial logging on Nuxalk territory be shut down.

“Through your authorization of the commercial extraction of our resources, you are willingly, knowingly and deliberately inflicting on our people conditions of life that will ultimately bring about our physical destruction.”

Mack said by upholding Nuxalk laws, they are creating solutions in the absence of government action.

“It’s about our sovereignty and it’s about picking up the work of our ancestors,” she said. “It’s about our human rights, it’s about enacting our own governance, which is still intact, and really offering up that as a solution to the problems that we face in our own nation.”

Mack was unequivocal when asked what’s at stake.

“Everything,” she said. “It’s the water, it’s the land, it’s the air, it’s the vibrations from the blasting and the drilling. It’s the sneaking around in the community that causes distrust and makes people question what’s going on and who’s involved. All of those things in a small community have really big impacts.”

She said the unity and support behind the Nuxalk hereditary leaders gives her hope.

“We need to be planning for the future of the water here, planning for different areas, and having some true reconciliation where we’re moving back into the villages that we come from,” she said. “I think raising awareness of that and inspiring action and building these relationships in our local community to strengthen what we have here would be excellent outcomes.”

She added she is inspired to see young Nuxalk step up to support the work of the Stataltmc.

“This isn’t a new story. This is just a new generation picking up the fight.”

Matt Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Narwhal

Two Holocaust researchers, including Ottawa professor, win libel case on appeal in Poland

WARSAW, Poland — An appellate court in Poland on Monday rejected a lawsuit brought against two Holocaust scholars - one of them an Ottawa professor - in a case that has been closely watched because it was expected to serve as a precedent for research into the highly sensitive area of Polish behavior toward Jews during the Second World War.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Poland is governed by a nationalist conservative party that has sought to promote remembrance of Polish heroism and suffering during the wartime German occupation of the country. The party believes that discussions of Polish wrongdoing distort the historical picture and are unfair to Poles.

The Appellate Court of Warsaw argued in its explanation that it believed that scholarly research should not be judged by courts. But it appeared not to be the end: a lawyer for the plaintiff said Monday that she would appeal Monday's ruling to the Supreme Court.

The ruling was welcomed by the two researchers, University of Ottawa Prof. Jan Grabowski and Barbara Engelking, who declared it a “great victory” in a Facebook post.

"We greet the verdict with great joy and satisfaction all the more, that this decision has a direct impact on all Polish scholars, and especially on historians of the Holocaust,” they said.

Monday's ruling comes half a year after a lower court ordered the two researchers to apologize to a woman who claimed that her deceased uncle had been defamed in a historical work they edited and partially wrote, “Night Without End: The Fate of Jews in Selected Counties of Occupied Poland.”

Lawyers for the niece, 81-year-old Filomena Leszczynska, argued that her uncle was a Polish hero who had saved Jews, and that the scholars had harmed her good name and that of her family by suggesting the uncle was also involved in the killing of Jews.

The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Monika Brzozowska-Pasieka, said in an emailed statement to The Associated Press that Leszczynska was “astonished” by the judgement and intends to file an appeal to the Polish Supreme Court.

Brzozowska-Pasieka stressed that Leszczynska thinks that the depiction of her uncle in the book was defamatory and that the historians "failed to conduct their research with due diligence.”

“We want to emphasize that the right to academic freedom, including the right to carry out historical research and publish its results, is subject to legal protection (but) this protection does not cover statements that do not pass the test of reliability,” the statement said.

Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center applauded the court ruling, calling it "an incredible win" for all who support Holocaust research.

"We are hopeful that this ruling sets a precedent to protect scholars and support Holocaust research and education at a time when we need it most," the group's president, Michael Levitt, said in a statement.

Some researchers and others feared that if the researchers were punished, it could have a chilling effect and dissuade young scholars from taking up the sensitive issue of Polish behavior toward the Jews in the Second World War.

Poland was occupied by Nazi Germany during the war and its population subjected to mass murder and slave labor. Yet amid the more than five years of occupation, there were also some Poles who betrayed Jews to the Germans or took part in their killing, while other Poles risked their lives to save Jews.

GERMANY MOVED POLES FROM GERMAN AREAS OF POLAND TO GERMANY TO WORK AS GUEST ARBITER, GUEST WORKERS.

The topic of Polish crimes against Jews was taboo during the communist era and new revelations of Polish wrongdoing in recent years have sparked a backlash.

Poland's current ruling Law and Justice party has vowed to fight what it considers unfair depictions of Polish wrongdoing. Many researchers and the Israeli government have accused the Polish government of historical whitewashing.

Vanessa Gera, The Associated Press

Japanese taxpayers were shut out from Olympic venues, but now they can foot the bill

Washington Post

 

Provided by National Post Security guards in a sea of empty seats during the Opening Ceremony for the Olympic Games at Tokyo Olympic Stadium on July 23. No fans were allowed to attend.

A day after the Tokyo Olympics concluded, social media posts in Japan showed photos and videos of a man believed to be the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) president, Thomas Bach, strolling through Ginza, a popular shopping district of Tokyo.

Those posts went viral. And not as kudos for helping finally pull off the Tokyo Games. Instead, many in Japan view Bach as complicit in pushing Japan to host the Games despite the public health risks and the financial toll on taxpayers.

To those critics, Bach personifies the costly hangover from a party Tokyo wasn’t even invited to.

Every Olympic Games is expensive for the host city or nation. But those hosts typically have gains to show in return, including global recognition and millions of tourists who spend money on local businesses.

Those benefits won’t materialize for Tokyo, host of the most expensive Olympics to date and the first to host one with mostly empty venues — and hardly any domestic revenue — because of the pandemic.

“If you’re just looking at those spreadsheets, you know, there was there was no reason for this game to go on, at least from Tokyo’s perspective,” said Victor Matheson, who studies sports economics at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass.

By conservative estimates, the Tokyo Olympics cost US$15.4 billion, a tab largely borne by Japanese taxpayers and is more than double the forecast when the city bid for the Games. Japanese government auditors have estimated the true costs are likely at least US$25 billion, which includes projects related to the Games.

The official $15.4 billion tab is on par with the past two Summer Games: Rio de Janeiro in 2016 (US$13.7 billion) London in 2012 (US$15 billion).

Every Olympic hosted since 1960 in Rome has run over budget, according to a 2020 study co-authored by Bent Flyvbjerg, a professor at the University of Oxford, who studies the economics of the Olympics.

“This is like having a tiger by the tail, you know, when you say ‘yes’ to hosting the Games. You actually have very limited possibilities of stripping down cost” because the majority of the business decisions are made by the IOC and international athletics organizations, Flyvbjerg said. “Even under the best circumstances, putting on the Olympics is quite a burden financially … COVID-19 definitely hasn’t made it easier for Tokyo.”

To be sure, even the most expensive estimate comes out to less than 1 percentage point of Japan’s total GDP, one of the world’s largest economies.

Still, experts say the unique realities of these Games are sure to put an unprecedented burden on the host city of Tokyo and the Japanese government, which is facing a ballooning national debt that is worsening because of the pandemic.

By effectively banning spectators and closing the Games to outside visitors, Japanese officials have forfeited nearly US$800 million in revenue that they had expected. Rather than attracting as many as 10 million tourists, per some optimistic projections, fewer than 100,000 official Olympics-related travelers were approved, which included athletes, team personnel and journalists. These visitors were sequestered to the Olympic “bubble” — the approved official Games venues, hotels and other special sites — for the vast majority of their stay in Japan.

“The bulk of this is going to have to come from people’s taxes … and the government will try to further borrow money from the public. So it’s going to be, at the end of the day, a huge burden on taxpayers,” said Noriko Hama, economics professor at Doshisha Business School in Kyoto

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TOKYO, JAPAN – AUGUST 08: A view as the flag bearers of the competing nations enter the stadium during the Closing Ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Olympic Stadium on August 08, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)

That loss of revenue comes on top of the economic struggles already created by the pandemic and the country’s state of emergency designation, limiting how late businesses can stay open and shutting down borders to tourists.

The postponement of this year’s Olympics added US$2.8 billion to the tab, according to organizers, who had to extend contracts and keep temporary venues longer than planned. And then there were other additional costs associated with the pandemic, such as the daily processing of tens of thousands of COVID-19 tests from inside the Olympic bubble.

Tokyo secured a record US$3 billion in domestic sponsorships, an impressive feat, Matheson said. But it’s unclear how much of that will come through in the end, he said. For example, Toyota pulled its domestic advertisements from the Olympics in the days leading up to the Opening Ceremonies.

Hosting the Olympics can often lead to long-term benefits. Investments into the infrastructure will last beyond the Games. Cities also can rebrand or introduce themselves to the world as a travel destination. But Tokyo is already a global power, and the infrastructure benefits likely will be minimal, Matheson said. And foreign journalists were largely limited to the Olympic venues, restricting their ability to showcase Japan’s culture, he said.

“The reporters couldn’t go out to do their special interest story of people of, you know, people walking in the Imperial Gardens and they couldn’t go to their story of, ‘We’re down in the Ginza district, the most spectacular commercial street in the world,'” he said. “All you could see is the inside of the gym rather than … all the sort of things that would make a fun trip to Tokyo.

On the other hand, the IOC secured around US$4 billion in revenue from broadcast media rights and international sponsorships, Matheson said.

Yuji Nakamura, professor of public administration at Japan’s Utsonomiya University who has studied the Tokyo Olympics since 2013, said he expects Tokyo will be left in a similar situation as Montreal, which hosted the Summer Games in 1976 and experienced the largest cost overrun to date: 720 per cent. It took 30 years to pay down that debt, according to Flyvbjerg’s study.

“Both the Tokyo government and central government couldn’t get their money’s worth … In the end, the price has to be paid by the taxpayers and future generations,” Nakamura said.

If the cost reaches as high as US$25 million to $30 million, that could amount to about $940 per Tokyo resident, according to Naofumi Masumoto, visiting professor of Olympic Studies at Tokyo Metropolitan University and Musashino University. That is money that could go toward other needs of the metropolitan government, such as hospital beds for coronavirus patients and purchasing vaccines, Masumoto said.

© JORGE SILVA Empty stands are seen during the game as paying spectators are not allowed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

These Japanese experts expect that the Olympic spending likely will require special government bonds or taxes, or a cost-sharing deal with private companies to cover the cost.

“Without something along those lines … they will never get financial houses in order,” said Hama, of Doshiba Business School.

It is yet unclear what there will be any significant political fallout for Japanese prime minister Yoshihide Suga, who is facing re-election this fall and is lagging in polls. Despite fears that the Olympics could become a global superspreader event and strong public opposition leading up to it, public sentiment appeared to shift once the Games began, and Olympics-related coronavirus cases were largely contained to the bubble.

“I think the political costs at this point, because there were no evident disasters during the Olympics themselves, are probably going to be limited,” said David Leheny, professor in the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies at Waseda University in Tokyo.

“Because there was so much apprehension about it, the fact that there weren’t any disasters, mixed with the fact that there were so many Japanese winners, many of them who were charming, appealing figures in many ways, people are going to be primed into thinking that the Olympics had gone as well as possible,” Leheny added.

Additional reporting by Julia Mio Inuma.

USA 

Little justice for child sex abuse victims in Indian Country

The convicted child rapist emerged from the tree line without warning, walked quickly past the elders who feared him and entered the Navajo home, where his 15-year-old daughter was feeding her pet rabbits.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

A short while later, the 6-foot-3-inch man known for being violent emerged with the girl, promising to return in half an hour. But that was a lie. Ozzy Watchman Sr. was kidnapping his daughter for the second time in six months.

Family members pleaded with tribal authorities to issue an Amber Alert, but it never came.

Nearly two weeks passed before Watchman and his daughter were found on June 30 — not by Navajo police or the FBI, which has the investigative lead in such cases, but by a maintenance worker who encountered the two as they scavenged for food.

Child sexual abuse is among the worst scourges on Indigenous communities in North America, yet little hard data exists on the extent of the problem. Some researchers estimate it could be as high as one in every two children.

Dr. Renée Ornelas, a veteran child abuse pediatric specialist working in the Navajo Nation — the largest and most populous tribe in the United States — said practically every family she sees has a history of child sexual abuse.

“They’re just little victims everywhere,” she said.

The federal government has been responsible for investigating and prosecuting “major crimes” in Indian Country since 1885. Child sexual abuse was added a century later. But not until the last decade has the Justice Department been required to publicly disclose what happens to those investigations — disclosures that suggest many child sexual abuse cases are falling through the cracks.

A Howard Center for Investigative Journalism analysis of Justice Department data shows that the FBI has “closed administratively” more than 1,900 criminal investigations of child sexual abuse in Indian Country since 2011. Such cases are not referred to federal prosecutors because, the FBI says, they fail to meet evidentiary or statutory requirements. But child sex abuse investigations accounted for about 30% of all major crimes on reservations closed by the FBI each year — more than any other type of crime, including murders and assaults, the analysis showed.

Justice Department case management data, analyzed by the Howard Center, reveals that U.S. attorneys pursued charges less than half the time in child sexual abuse cases from Indian Country — about one-third less often than they filed charges in other crimes. Only a small percentage of child sexual abuse defendants from Indian Country went to trial. Most cases, such as Watchman’s previous child sex abuse, ended in plea bargains, which typically involve lesser sentences.

“There are a lot more child sexual abuse cases than are being reported,” said child psychologist Dolores Subia BigFoot, a Caddo Nation member who directs the Native American Programs at the Center on Child Abuse and Neglect at the University of Oklahoma. “There’s a lot of child sexual abuse cases that are not being investigated, and there’s a lot of child sexual abuse cases that are not being prosecuted.”

JURISDICTIONAL THICKET

Combating child sexual abuse is difficult anywhere. The crime is often committed by a relative or family friend, increasing pressure on the victim to stay silent. Physical evidence is rare, and conviction can hinge on the testimony of someone barely old enough to describe what happened.

But in Indian Country the problem is complicated by what one former U.S. attorney calls “a jurisdictional thicket” of tribal and federal authority spread across wide swaths of territory, making communication and coordination difficult.

Tribal courts are limited by U.S. law in the kinds of cases they may try. The federal government must step in when the crime is considered major, such as child sexual abuse, or when it occurs on a reservation and the suspect is non-Native. On reservations in a handful of states, including Alaska and California, that authority has largely been handed over to the state.

This means the first authorities on the scene must quickly determine the type and location of the crime and the tribal membership of both the victim and suspect. If one of those things is in question, investigations can grind to a halt. Crime scenes can go cold, cases get closed without consequence, and cycles of violence continue.

“I suspect that’s why there’s so many adults that have these histories of child sexual abuse,” said Ornelas, who runs a family advocacy center at Tséhootsooí Medical Center in Fort Defiance, Arizona, located within the Navajo Nation. “It’s been a problem for a long time. And there’s a lot of offenders out there who get to re-offend and move on to other children in the family.”

Justice Department guidelines require that U.S. attorneys and their teams of prosecutors choose cases that are most likely “to obtain and sustain a conviction.” But, otherwise, they have wide latitude in deciding what to accept and decline. Federal prosecutors focus mostly on major fraud and counterterrorism and don’t typically prosecute violent crimes, the kind of cases handled regularly by local and state prosecutors.

“The bottom line is that they just focus on the cases that are, you know, relatively easier to do,” said Troy Eid, former U.S. attorney in Colorado and current president of the Navajo Nation Bar Association. “I think that’s human nature, right, and that’s how you stay funded.” He also noted Indian Country doesn’t have much of a political constituency, compared to the rest of the U.S. population.

Insufficient evidence is the reason most often cited for not prosecuting child sexual abuse cases

from Indian Country. But that can be a subjective call and there’s little oversight of the cases that get closed or declined, the Howard Center found.

One former FBI agent, who spoke on condition he not be named, said “there’s a lot of cases that have fallen between the cracks” in Indian Country. “I don’t think a lot of people know,” he said, calling the large number of declined cases a “dark corner in Indian Country.”

A spokesman for the Justice Department said prosecutors’ declinations were “not a useful measure of outcomes in most cases.”

“Child sexual abuse is abhorrent, illegal, and causes long-lasting damage to young lives,” Wyn Hornbuckle, deputy director of public affairs, said in a statement. “The Department of Justice takes its work to address violence in Native American communities extremely seriously, especially the abuse and victimization of children. We will continue to prioritize these efforts, including by working with state, local, and tribal law enforcement partners to maximize and coordinate our responses to such matters.”

These often-unspoken crimes — some elders believe talking about them invites trouble into the home — are part of an ongoing legacy of sexual trauma that began with colonization and continued in the boarding school era in which thousands of Indigenous children were taken from their families in a forced cultural assimilation program. Chronic alcoholism, poverty and a lack of housing — all of which are widespread on many reservations — are a vestige of and a contributor to the cycle of child sexual abuse, experts say.

Tribal court jurisdiction expanded slightly in 2013 when the Violence Against Women Act was reauthorized to include non-Native domestic abusers. The law did not address sexual crimes against children. A 2021 draft of the reauthorization bill gives tribal authorities the right to prosecute non-Native offenders if they sexually abuse a child on tribal territory. But it’s unclear if that language will survive long-held concerns in Congress about further expanding tribal courts’ power to try and sentence non-Native offenders.

“We sometimes forget that the United States has this affirmative trust obligation to provide public safety or health care or other things to tribal governments and Indigenous peoples,” said Trent Shores, former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Oklahoma and a member of the Choctaw Nation. “That’s something that our Founding Fathers agreed to and set out in treaties.”

‘DANGEROUSLY LOW’ STAFFING

It took three hours for Navajo police to arrive at the Watchman farm after the family reported the kidnapping. Such delays are not uncommon. A recent independent assessment of the Navajo Police Department found that “dangerously low” staffing was leading to slow response times.

The report said that as of October 2020 there were 158 patrol officers to cover 27,000 square miles and 173,000 residents. Other problems noted include no internet or cellphone service in parts of the Navajo Nation, which has few real addresses.

Phillip Francisco, chief of the Navajo Nation Police Department, said the incident involving the girl didn’t merit an Amber Alert because “there was no reason to believe she was in imminent danger or serious bodily harm.” He said it was an “ongoing issue” and that the daughter “voluntarily left with the father.” Nonetheless, the department put a “missing/endangered” notice on its Facebook page a day after the two went missing.

Ozzy Watchman Sr. mentioned wanting to spend Father’s Day fishing at Wheatfields Lake, on the Navajo Nation near the Arizona-New Mexico border, said his uncle, Leonard Watchman.

When he disappeared with the girl on the Friday before the holiday, Leonard Watchman said he told police that, but no one seemed to listen. In the end, that’s exactly where the two were spotted.

The girl spent three days, including her 16th birthday, in the hospital. Watchman was arrested and later indicted for an earlier assault on the girl’s mother. After the December kidnapping, the girl told a relative that her father had sex with her several times, the relative said. Authorities were notified of this, but nothing happened.

“The sex offender was taking the girl and seems like nobody cares,” said Alice Watchman.

In the void between the federal government’s responsibility for major crimes in Indian Country and Native Americans’ limited judicial authority and resources, tribes are taking a variety of approaches to healing and justice.

Amber Kanazbah Crotty, one of only three women on the Navajo Nation’s 24-member legislative body, is working to revitalize family advocacy centers, which provide forensic interviewing and physical evidence collection to help with prosecution, as well as counseling to give children a chance to tell their story to foster self-healing.

“At every level we have to be accountable (for) what’s happening to our children,” Crotty said. “I cannot depend on an investigator or a court system to provide or to make that person whole.”

___

Researchers Grace Oldham and Rachel Gold contributed to this story. It was produced by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, an initiative of the Scripps Howard Foundation in honor of the late news industry executive and pioneer Roy W. Howard. For more, see https://azpbs.org/littlevictims. Contact us at howardcenter@asu.edu or on Twitter @HowardCenterASU.

Brendon Derr, Rylee Kirk, Anne Mickey, Allison Vaughn, Mckenna Leavens And Leilani Fitzpatrick, The Associated Press

Facing an employee walkout, Activision Blizzard CEO says his company's response to lawsuit was 'tone deaf'

By Rishi Iyengar, CNN Business 

Activision Blizzard's CEO Bobby Kotick admitted that the gaming company's response to a California discrimination lawsuit was "tone deaf" amid a growing employee backlash and accusations of a "frat boy" work culture.

© Bing Guan/Bloomberg/Getty Images Employees walk across Blizzard Way during a walkout at Activision Blizzard offices in Irvine, California, U.S., on Wednesday, July 28, 2021. Activision Blizzard Inc. employees called for the walkout on Wednesday to protest the company's responses to a recent sexual discrimination lawsuit and demanding more equitable treatment for underrepresented staff.

"Every voice matters — and we will do a better job of listening now, and in the future," Kotick said in a note to employees on Tuesday. "I am sorry that we did not provide the right empathy and understanding."


Kotick's response came hours before hundreds of employees staged a walkout on Wednesday to pressure the company to do more to address a host of issues including unequal pay, gender discrimination and harassment.

Those issues burst into the open last week, when California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing, filed a lawsuit accusing Activision Blizzard — the company behind popular video games such as "Call of Duty," "World of Warcraft" and "Candy Crush" — of fostering a "frat boy" work culture where female employees have to "continually fend off unwanted sexual comments and advances by their male coworkers."

The complaint also alleges that "the company's executives and human resources personnel knew of the harassment and failed to take reasonable steps to prevent the unlawful conduct, and instead retaliated against women who complained."

A spokesperson for the company blasted the state's filing and investigation as "inaccurate" and "distorted" in a statement to CNN Business following the lawsuit.

Several former employees have detailed their experiences at Activision Blizzard on social media since the lawsuit was filed, and more than 2,000 current and former employees signed a petition on Monday slamming the company's initial pushback against the lawsuit's claims as "abhorrent and insulting."

The petition also cited an internal statement by Frances Townsend, a former George W. Bush administration counterterrorism official and Activision Blizzard's executive vice president of corporate affairs, in which she reportedly described the lawsuit's allegations as "factually incorrect, old and out of context."

Wednesday's walkout aims to "improve conditions for employees at the company, especially women, and in particular women of color and transgender women, nonbinary people, and other marginalized groups," according to a document shared with CNN Business. Its demands of leadership include an end to mandatory arbitration clauses in all employee contracts, changing hiring and promotion policies to improve representation within the company, and publication of compensation data.

Participants of the walkout are also calling on company leadership to hire a third party to audit Activision Blizzard's reporting structure, human resources department and executive staff. "It is imperative to identify how current systems have failed to prevent employee harassment, and to propose new solutions to address these issues," the document said.

In his note to employees, Kotick announced he had hired the law firm WilmerHale to review the company's policies "to ensure that we have and maintain best practices to promote a respectful and inclusive workplace." He urged employees to reach out to the law firm's team led by Stephanie Avakian, a former director of the US Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Enforcement.

"Of course, NO retaliation will be tolerated," Kotick said. He also said the company would do more to support its workers, creating "safe spaces, moderated by third parties," for employees to share their issues.

© Drew Angerer/Getty Images In a note to employees, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick admitted the company's initial response to a discrimination lawsuit was "tone deaf."

"We are immediately evaluating managers and leaders across the company," he said. "Anyone found to have impeded the integrity of our processes for evaluating claims and imposing appropriate consequences will be terminated."



More than 100 Activision Blizzard employees were expected to attend Wednesday's walkout in person outside the company's offices in Irvine, California, a Blizzard employee told CNN Business, while over 1,000 others were expected to participate virtually.

In a letter shared with CNN Business ahead of the walkout on Wednesday, participants said Activision Blizzard's latest responses did not address several of their demands, including an end to forced arbitration, greater pay transparency and employee involvement in selecting a third party to audit the company's processes.

"While we are pleased to see that our collective voices ... have convinced leadership to change the tone of their communications, this response fails to address critical elements at the heart of employee concerns," the letter said. "Today's walkout will demonstrate that this is not a one-time event that our leaders can ignore."

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© Bing Guan/Bloomberg/Getty Images Activision Blizzard employees called for the walkout on Wednesday to protest the company's responses to a recent sexual discrimination lawsuit and demand more equitable treatment for underrepresented staff.

The Mormon Church's secretive $100 billion fund cashed out its GameStop profits - and trimmed its Tesla bet by 13%

tmohamed@businessinsider.com (Theron Mohamed) 

© Shutterstock A LDS church. Shutterstock

The Mormon Church exited its GameStop position and cut its Tesla holdings last quarter.

Ensign Peak Advisors disposed of its 46,000 GameStop shares, pocketing as much as $14 million.

The church fund sold 13% of its Tesla shares, leaving a stake worth $382 million on June 30.


The Mormon Church cashed out its GameStop profits and trimmed its Tesla stake in the second quarter, regulatory filings show.

Ensign Peak Advisors - the secretive $100 billion investing arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - was a surprise winner from the GameStop short squeeze at the start of this year. The fund bought 46,000 shares of the video-game retailer in the fourth quarter of 2020, and saw its position skyrocket by about 900% to $8.7 million over the next three months as retail investors piled into the meme stock.

Ensign appears to have sold the entire holding last quarter, as the stock is absent from its latest filing. It likely raked in about $9 million from the disposal, based on GameStop's average closing share price in the period, or as much as $14 million if it sold at the peak in June.

The church fund also pared its Tesla bet last quarter, cutting its stake in Elon Musk's electric-vehicle company by 13% to 561,000 shares, worth $382 million at the end of June. Ensign grew its split-adjusted stake from about 2,500 shares to 648,000 shares during the year to March 30, but appears to have soured on the stock last quarter.

The total value of Ensign's US stock portfolio swelled by about $3 billion to nearly $50 billion last quarter. Its top two holdings were roughly $2.3 billion stakes in both Microsoft and Apple, followed by positions worth over $1 billion in each of Alphabet, Amazon, and Facebook.

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