Offering abortion pills on campus could eliminate boundaries to access, students say

California state schools must provide abortion pills on campus by Jan. 1.

ByNadine El-Bawab
Video byJessie DiMartino
October 15, 2022,

Colleges and universities offering the abortion pill on campus could help reduce barriers to abortion care access, even in states that currently have protections for this care, students advocating for abortion rights say.

Students in California and New York told ABC News that increasing the points of access to care, such as requiring schools to provide medication abortions, would likely go a long way toward lightening the burden on clinics that are being overwhelmed with patients traveling from other states.

MORE: Students at more than 50 schools, universities stage reproductive justice protests

A 2019 law signed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom will require state colleges and universities to provide abortion pills on campus starting on Jan. 1. This summer, Massachusetts also enacted a law requiring public universities to submit a plan for providing medication abortions on campus by November 2023.

A person holds a carton of the "morning-after" pill purchased from the Plan-B vending machine that sits in the basement of the student union building on the Boston University Campus in Boston, July 26, 2022.
Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images, FILE

A similar bill is in the works in New York State. It would require that all student health centers on college and university campuses in the state offer medication abortion services free of charge.

The University of California, Berkeley, already offers medication abortions at its student health center for pregnancies up to 10 weeks. Recently, Barnard College, a women's only school in New York, announced it would offer medication abortions starting in Fall 2023.

Demonstrators hold signs as they stage a protest in favor of abortion rights on the steps of Sproul Hall on the U.C. Berkeley campus on March 08, 2022 in Berkeley, Calif.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images, FILE

The decision at Barnard came after over two years of pressure from student groups on campus, led by a group called the Reproductive Justice Collective.

The RJC found a need for access to abortion pills on campus for three main reasons: overwhelmed New York abortion clinics; the high cost of abortion care; and long travel time to reach clinics off campus, Niharika Rao, a student at Barnard and activist with the RJC, told ABC News in an interview.

Rao said that clinics in New York are overwhelmed and have long wait times, with many patients coming from Pennsylvania and Ohio for care. Long wait times can often lead to patients needing more complicated and expensive abortion care.

MORE: Self-managed abortions may rise as access to care decreases, providers say


Medication abortion is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for up to 10 weeks into pregnancy, but some studies have shown it is an effective method of abortion up to 11 weeks.

A sign for Barnard College stands in New York, Dec. 12, 2019.
Jeenah Moon/Getty Images, FILE

The closest Planned Parenthood clinic to Barnard's campus is a 40-minute train ride away, according to Rao.

Rao said many students hope that abortion services at Barnard will be subsidized by the university and be more affordable to students than care at clinics unaffiliated with the school.

"If students who are obviously going to Planned Parenthoods now are able to access this type of care on their campus, then we're hoping that reduces the load on [New York's] clinics. It also hopefully reduces the funding pressure on our abortion funds," Rao said.

The RJC is also advocating for medication abortion to be available on campus for students at other New York schools including Columbia University, New York University and CUNY system schools.

MORE: Here's where abortion is banned 3 months after Roe v. Wade was overturned

Even in states like New York that protect abortion rights, "very real barriers to care and access still exist, despite the fact that abortion is very much legal. And if we want to be a sort of pro-choice, abortion friendly state, then we have to reconcile and deal with those barriers," Rao said.

When campuses require that a student go off campus for care, that often means they miss school, miss assignments, have to pay for travel, have to miss jobs or internships, according to Tamara Marzouk, director of abortion access at Advocates for Youth, a non-profit that helps youth, including the RJC, organize around reproductive justice issues.

Abortion rights advocates march holding placards during the demonstration against the Supreme Courts recent decision to overturn Roe Vs. Wade. in downtown in downtown Berkeley, Calif.,July 2, 2022.


While California is a state that protects abortion rights, students told ABC News that similar barriers to abortion care exist there as well.

Abortion care being offered on campuses would especially make a difference for undergraduate students who may not have local providers they trust or a means of transportation to get them to off-campus services, MacKenna Rawlins, a graduate student at the University of California, San Diego, and the vice president of external affairs for the school's Graduate and Professional Student Association, told ABC News

That being said, Rawlins said she has not seen a lot of student activism surrounding abortion care on her campus after Roe fell, which she largely attributes to the perceived "safety net" of living in California, where there are protections for the right to abortion.

Lauren Adams, a student at the University of California, Berkeley, told ABC News that she feels supported by her university but also recognizes her responsibility to demand more protections and fight for women in other states where the right to abortion is being taken away.

Student in nearly 30 states staged protests earlier this month, demanding their universities step in and protect their reproductive rights, months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending federal protections for abortion rights.

MONOPOLY CAPITALI$M

US retailers Kroger and Albertsons agree to $24.6bn acquisition to create grocery giant

The tie-up would give increased buying power and an opportunity to save on costs JOBS/WORKERS

Shares of Kroger and Albertsons fell 7.3 per cent and 8.5 per cent, respectively, following the announcement of the acquisition. Reuters

Bloomberg
Oct 15, 2022

Kroger has agreed to buy Albertsons in a deal with an enterprise value of $24.6 billion that would create a US grocery giant with almost 5,000 stores and annual revenue of about $200bn.

Investors will receive $34.10 for each share in Albertsons, which includes a special dividend, the companies said in a statement on Friday.

That reflects a premium of about 33 per cent to the closing price on October 12, the day before Bloomberg News first reported on the deal talks. The companies plan to offload as many as 375 stores through a spinoff if they can’t find buyers for them.

The proposed tie-up gives rise to a grocery giant with increased buying power and an opportunity to save on costs as brick-and-mortar retailers invest heavily to enhance their online offerings.

While the deal would create a beefed-up competitor to Walmart and other rivals, it’s sure to face tough antitrust scrutiny as US regulators under President Joe Biden cast a more sceptical eye on big mergers.

“This combination will expand customer reach and improve proximity to deliver fresh and affordable food to approximately 85 million households,” the companies said.

“Consistent with prior transactions, Kroger plans to invest in lowering prices for customers and expects to reinvest approximately half a billion dollars of cost savings from synergies to reduce prices for customers.”

Kroger shares fell 7.3 per cent to $43.16 at the close in New York, while Albertsons dropped 8.5 per cent to $26.21 after a big gain on Thursday.

Kroger rose 1.7 per cent this year through October 12, the day before Bloomberg News reported on the deal talks. Albertsons fell 15 per cent during the same period, while an S&P index of consumer-staples companies slid 12 per cent.

The deal’s purchase price could decrease. It hinges on how much cash Albertsons decides to funnel to shareholders through its dividend and on how many stores are spun off.

The combination ranks among the retail industry’s biggest transactions in years, evoking such deals as Amazon.com’s purchase of Whole Foods Market in 2017 for $13.7bn and the $9.8bn acquisition of Albertsons itself in 2006 by CVS Health, Supervalu and an investment group led by Cerberus Capital Management.

Workers at Target stores and distribution centres in places such as New York, where competition for finding and hiring staff is the fiercest, could receive starting wages as high as $24 an hour this year. AP

The companies said they would squeeze about $1bn in “annual run-rate” cost savings within the first four years after the deal closes, net of divestitures, thanks to improved purchasing, technology investment and optimised manufacturing and distribution networks. They will use $500 million of the savings to cut prices.

Kroger said it has $17.4bn in fully committed bridge financing from Citigroup and Wells Fargo & Co. The deal includes the assumption of $4.7bn in net debt and is expected to close in early 2024, the companies said. Kroger chief executive Rodney McMullen will lead the combined company.

The combined company would face a competitor of comparable size in terms of grocery sales: Walmart. During their most recent fiscal years, Kroger and Albertsons brought in a combined $209.8bn in sales. Walmart’s US stores generated $218.9bn in groceries. That excludes sales at Sam’s Club, Walmart’s chain of warehouse stores.

Cold War back as US proclaims new strategy for domination

With the West flooding Ukraine with arms, what's clear is that this Cold War is getting much hotter and more dangerous

Latvian soldiers readying the RBS 70 air defence system as part of a Nato exercise (Picture: NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organisation on Flickr)

As missiles dropped across Ukraine last week, US president Biden announced a return to Cold War politics. He launched his National Security Strategy report saying the world is at an “inflection point”. He now plans to “shape the future of the international order” and ­“outmanoeuvre” competitors.

“This decade will be decisive, in setting the terms of our competition with the People’s Republic of China, managing the acute threat posed by Russia,” said the 48-page document. Biden makes it clear that this requires a massive shift of resources towards the military and that China is marked as the main enemy. The potential of nuclear war is always in mind.

China “is the only competitor with both the intent to reshape the ­international order and, increasingly, the economic, ­diplomatic, military and technological power to do it,” the administration declares.

It continues, “Nuclear deterrence remains a top priority for the nation. “By the 2030s, the United States for the first time will need to deter two major nuclear powers. “To ensure our nuclear ­deterrent remains responsive to the threats we face, we are modernising the nuclear triad—nuclear command, control, and communications—and our nuclear weapons infrastructure.”

To be sure we are getting the ­message, it continues, saying, “Nations are seeing once again why it’s never a good bet to bet against the United States of America”. Even mainstream commentators are shocked at the way the report echoes the language of the ­previous national strategy document—­written by Donald Trump’s team in 2018.

Biden’s policy shows us that the West’s war in Ukraine has nothing to do with democracy or the rights of small nations faced with imperialist aggression. The US sees the conflict as a way of both containing and diminishing Russian power as part of its long term strategic goal of economic and military domination.

The strategy document was ­published just as the Nato military alliance announced a ten-year plan to rebuild Ukraine’s military and arms industry—and fully integrate them into Nato command.

“We will be looking at defence planning requirements to get Ukraine fully interoperable with Nato,” a senior Nato official said. That would mean that Ukraine would become a member of Nato “by default”, even if its formal request for membership is denied.

Ukraine war entering a deadly new phase

It would also be a huge strategic gain for the US. But the move can only inflame the war and risk spreading it across the region. Seeking to surround Russia with Nato, or Nato-aligned, countries ramps up the threat making a nuclear conflict even more likely.

But for now the West seems ­content to pour in ever more weapons and prolong the conflict indefinitely. The Washington Post newspaper reported last week that US officials have ruled out the idea of pushing the Ukrainian leadership to negotiate with Russia.

That’s despite the administration believing that neither side can win the war “outright” and Biden saying last week that the war in Ukraine could trigger “Armageddon”.
Why missile shields won’t protect Ukrainians

Russian attacks on Kiev and a dozen other cities last week saw renewed calls for the West to supply Ukraine with missile defence shields. Some have already arrived. The first shipment of new heat-seeking missiles from Germany reached Ukraine on Tuesday.

France, the Netherlands and Spain last week pledged to send more. And the US said it would hasten the delivery of two missile launchers of the type already used around Washington. But the drive to “clear the skies” can only intensify the war, rather than make civilians safe.

Placing “defensive shields” around the Ukrainian capital and other potential Russian targets will inevitably cause Russia to send ever more missiles. Russian planners will seek to overload Ukrainian defences by inundating them with all manner of weapons.

Its military will direct attacks towards those areas in the majority of the country that remain unshielded. And even more than is already the case, they will target less well-protected civilian areas, rather than military assets where the missile batteries are based. war

The introduction of Western anti-missile technology will also push Russia towards other, even more dangerous strategies. That includes the possible use of battlefield nuclear weapons and longer-range ballistic missiles fired from deep within Russia. war

Ballistic missiles generally fly too fast and at too high an altitude to be hit by anti‑missile shields. That would mean missiles with even more deadly payloads could start to smash into Ukraine.

What would then be the West’s response? Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly asked for the US-made Patriot missile system. war

This can shoot down both ballistic missiles and supersonic aircraft. It has a range long enough to hit targets well within Russia and at high altitudes. war

If the West agreed to such a demand it would signal an escalation so grave that so far even US military officials have rejected it. Far from keeping Ukrainians safe from Russian bombs, missile shields only make them a target of even more deadly weapons.

SOCIALIST WORKER

Alaska cancels snow crab season due to sustainability concerns

by Jack Birle, Breaking News Reporter 
October 15, 2022 

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced Monday the Bering Sea Snow Crab Season would be canceled for this winter, after concerns over the species population.

After an analysis of survey of the species from the National Marine Fisheries Service and the ADF&G, both agencies decided to keep the species closed to fishing for the 2022-2023 season.

"ADF&G appreciates and carefully considered all input from crab industry stakeholders prior to making this decision. Understanding crab fishery closures have substantial impacts on harvesters, industry, and communities, ADF&G must balance these impacts with the need for long-term conservation and sustainability of crab stocks. Management of Bering Sea snow crab must now focus on conservation and rebuilding given the condition of the stock," the department said in a statement.

The news comes on the heals of the department announcing the Bristol Bay Red King Crab Season had been canceled.

The canceled season come as the waters in Bering Sea are warming significantly. The snow crab harvest for the 2021-2022 season was the smallest in more than 40 year, at only 5.6 million pounds.

Officials are searching for answers on how to solve the issue of declining population, with an estimated one billion snow crab disappearing in the past two year, per CBS News.

State officials are optimistic they can find a remedy to support sustainability and conservation, but until that time the fishing seasons are on hold.

Alaskan Snow Crab Season Canceled After 90% Of Population Disappears

The fate of the animals is "a canary in a coal mine for other species that need cold water," one researcher said.

Hilary Hanson
Oct 15, 2022

For the first time in history, Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game has canceled the state’s winter snow crab season due to a shocking plummet in the crustacean’s numbers.

Between 2019 and 2021, researchers “saw the largest decline we’ve ever seen in the snow crab population, which was very startling,” department biologist Miranda Westphal told Alaska Public Media in the wake of Monday’s cancellation.

The department made the decision based on data from the National Marine Fisheries Service, which conducts an annual survey of the population in the eastern Bering Sea. In just two years, the animals’ numbers in the area dropped by about 90% — amounting to an estimated 1 billion crabs, CBS News reported.

Freshly caught snow crabs in Japan in 2020.
BUDDHIKA WEERASINGHE VIA GETTY IMAGES

Scientists are investigating what caused the crabs to vanish. Climate change is a likely culprit.

“Snow crabs are an Arctic species,” Westphal told The New York Times on Friday, adding that in previous years of warming water in the Bering Sea, “the snow crab population kind of huddled together in the coolest water they could find.”

In higher temperatures, the crabs have a metabolic need for more oxygen, according to Gizmodo. But warmer water also holds less oxygen, leading to a perilous situation for animals adapted to colder environments. Warmer temperatures have also been known to drive disease among marine life.

Fish and Game Department researcher Ben Daly told CBS that the crabs are “a canary in a coal mine for other species that need cold water.”

This week’s news is not only a severe warning sign about the Arctic ecosystem, but a major economic blow. Alaska has also canceled its king crab fishing season for the second consecutive year due to low population numbers.

Gabriel Prout, who owns a fishing business with his family, told Alaska Public Media that those who depend on the crabbing industry are “going to have to make some hard calls” about what to do next.

“Fishermen are really going to be hurting the next year,” he said.

Native Americans recall torture, hatred at boarding schools

By MATTHEW BROWN

October 15, 2022

Rosalie Whirlwind Soldier talks about the abuse she suffered at a Native American boarding school on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in Mission, S.D., Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022. Whirlwind Soldier recalled being locked in a basement at the school for weeks as a punishment. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)


MISSION, S.D. (AP) — After her mother died when Rosalie Whirlwind Soldier was just four years old, she was put into a Native American boarding school in South Dakota and told her native Lakota language was “devil’s speak.”

She recalls being locked in a basement at St. Francis Indian Mission School for weeks as punishment for breaking the school’s strict rules. Her long braids were shorn in a deliberate effort to stamp out her cultural identify. And when she broke her leg in an accident, Whirlwind Soldier said she received shoddy care leaving her with pain and a limp that still hobbles her decades later.

“I thought there was no God, just torture and hatred,” Whirlwind Soldier testified during a Saturday event on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation led by U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, as the agency confronts the bitter legacy of a boarding school system that operated in the U.S. for more than a century.

Now 78 and still living on the reservation, Whirlwind Soldier said she was airing her horrific experiences in hopes of finally getting past them.

“The only thing they didn’t do was put us in (an oven) and gas us,” she said, comparing the treatment of Native Americans in the U.S. in the 19th and 20th centuries to the Jewish Holocaust during World War II.

“But I let it go,” she later added. “I’m going to make it.”

Saturday’s event was the third in Haaland’s yearlong “Road to Healing” initiative for victims of abuse at government-backed boarding schools, after previous stops in Oklahoma and Michigan.

Starting with the Indian Civilization Act of 1819, the U.S. enacted laws and policies to establish and support the schools. The stated goal was to “civilize” Native Americans, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians, but that was often carried out through abusive practices. Religious and private institutions that ran many of the schools received federal funding and were willing partners.

Most closed their doors long ago and none still exist to strip students of their identities. But some, including St. Francis, still function as schools — albeit with drastically different missions that celebrate the cultural backgrounds of their Native students.

Former St. Francis student Ruby Left Hand Bull Sanchez traveled hundreds of miles from Denver to attend Saturday’s meeting. She cried as she recalled almost being killed as a child when a nun stuffed lye soap down her throat in response to Sanchez praying in her native language.

“I want the world to know,” she said.

Ruby Left Hand Bull Sanchez holds a binder featuring a photo of the Native American boarding school she attended as a child on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in Mission, S.D., Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)

Accompanying Haaland was Wizipan Garriott, a Rosebud Sioux member and principal deputy assistant secretary for Indian affairs. Garriott described how boarding schools were part of a long history of injustices against his people that began with the widespread extermination of their main food source — bison, also known as buffalo.

“First they took our buffalo. Then our land was taken, then our children, and then our traditional form of religion, spiritual practices,” he said. “It’s important to remember that we Lakota and other Indigenous people are still here. We can go through anything.”

The first volume of an investigative report released by the Interior Department in May identified more than boarding 400 schools that the federal government supported beginning in the late 19th century and continuing well into the 1960s. It also found at least 500 children died at some of the schools, though that number is expected to increase dramatically as research continues.


The ruins of a building that was part of a Native American boarding school on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in Mission, S.D., are seen on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022. Former students described mistreatment they received at the school, during a "Road to Healing" event led by U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. 

(AP Photo/Matthew Brown)

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition says it’s tallied about 100 more schools not on the government list that were run by groups such as churches.

“They all had the same missions, the same goals: ‘Kill the Indian, save the man,’” said Lacey Kinnart, who works for the Minnesota-based coalition. For Native American children, Kinnart said the intention was “to assimilate them and steal everything Indian out of them except their blood, make them despise who they are, their culture, and forget their language.”

South Dakota had 31 of the schools including two on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation — St. Francis and the Rosebud Agency Boarding and Day School.

The Rosebud Agency school, in Mission, operated through at least 1951 on a site now home to Sinte Gleska University, where Saturday’s meeting happened.

Students from Rosebud Elementary School perform in a drum circle during a meeting about abusive conditions at Native American boarding schools at Sinte Gleska University on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in Mission, S.D., Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022. Elders from the tribe recalled how the schools sought to stamp out their tribal identity. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)

All that remains of the boarding school is a gutted-out building that used to house the dining hall, according to tribal members. When the building caught fire about five years ago, former student Patti Romero, 73, said she and others were on hand to cheer its destruction.

“No more worms in the chili,” said Romero, who attended the school from ages 6 to 15 and said the food was sometimes infested.

A second report is pending in the investigation into the schools launched by Haaland, herself a Laguna Pueblo from New Mexico and the first Native American cabinet secretary. It will cover burial sites, the schools’ impact on Indigenous communities and also try to account for federal funds spent on the troubled program.

Congress is considering a bill to create a boarding school “truth and healing commission,” similar to one established in Canada in 2008. It would have a broader scope than the Interior Department’s investigation into federally run boarding schools and subpoena power, if passed.

Russell Eagle Bear, with the Rosebud Sioux Reservation Tribal Council, talks to U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland during a meeting about Native American boarding schools at Sinte Gleska University in Mission, S.D., Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022. Haaland has been holding events across the nation to shed light on the abuse suffered by many Native American children forced to attend the government-backed schools. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)

Earthquakes shake Hawaii's Mauna Loa volcano during unrest, cause minor damage

Aftershocks are expected to impact the Hawaiian islands for days to weeks

By Julia Musto | Fox News

A magnitude 5.0 earthquake hit the largest active volcano on the planet on Friday.

The U.S. Geological Survey said two moderate quakes occurred beneath the southern end of the island of Hawaii at 9:07 a.m. local time.

A magnitude 4.6 earthquake was slightly offshore and south of Pāhala and the 5.0 struck 24 seconds later beneath Highway 11.

The seismic events were followed by a string of aftershocks.

While most were less than magnitude 3.0, larger ones reached up to magnitude 4.0.

The USGS said aftershocks could continue for several days to weeks and might be large enough to be felt.

A nearly deserted beach at the edge on an old Mauna Loa lava flow is viewed on Dec. 16, 2016, in this aerial photo taken along the Kona Kohala Coast, Hawaii. (George Rose/Getty Images)

The two larger earthquakes were reported by hundreds of people from the island and felt across the entire state.

It said that shaking may have been strong enough to do minor local damage, especially to older buildings.

"The two earthquakes occurred within 24 seconds of each other creating shaking of longer duration and possibly greater intensity than either of the earthquakes would have created on their own," the USGS said.

Hawaii County Mayor Mitch Roth said there no immediate reports of major damage or injuries, but that there was some minor damage in Pāhala.

Backcountry on Mauna Loa summit is closed until further notice as a precautionary measure. (NPS Photo/A.Lavalle)

HAWAII NATIONAL PARK SUMMIT CLOSED DUE TO 'ELEVATED SEISMIC ACTIVITY'

Mizuno Superette, the only grocery store in rural Pāhala, closed for about an hour and a half after the shaking left broken jars on the floor and knocked out electricity.

"The ground was just shaking," cashier Laurie Tackett told The Associated Press. "It was a little scary."

The sequence of earthquakes appear to be related to readjustments along the southeast flank of Mauna Loa volcano.

A deserted beach at the edge on an old Mauna Loa lava flow is viewed on Dec. 16, 2016, in this aerial photo taken along the Kona Kohala Coast, Hawaii. (George Rose/Getty Images)

There has been no immediate effect on previously reported unrest beneath the summit, which remains elevated at levels similar to the past week.

Although large earthquakes have preceded past eruptions of Mauna Loa, they have typically been larger than Friday's earthquakes.

It is not known if this sequence of earthquakes is directly related to the ongoing unrest.

The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said it will continue to closely monitor Mauna Loa for any changes.  

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no tsunami threat to Hawaii.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.


Julia Musto is a reporter for Fox News and Fox Business Di

Conserving cultural heritage is vital for climate adaptation

BY MARCY ROCKMAN, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR - 10/15/22 
THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL

A Yellowstone National Park ranger is seen standing near a road wiped out by flooding along the Gardner River the week before, near Gardiner, Mont., June 19, 2022. Park officials said they hope to open most of the park within two weeks after it was shuttered in the wake of the floods. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)

Cultural heritage is strangely invisible in U.S. attention to climate change.

I say strangely because every community holds history and heritage. Every community has ties to places and stories that shape our senses of who we are. Heritage is part of human behavior. It’s part of the social sciences that help us understand society and how we live in the world. But somehow, climate change has come to be defined as atmospheric models, ecosystems and economic impacts — and parks that conserve heritage at the national scale as nature alone. We’ve developed a blind spot for the climate connections of deep human connections.

This summer’s stories about flood damage at Yellowstone National Park show this clearly. Damage to cultural heritage of the park was limited to a few sentences at the end of one of many articles about infrastructure and tourism. A story about planning for climate change in national parks last year was even more direct, beginning “For more than a century, the core mission of the National Park Service has been preserving the natural heritage of the United States.” It goes on to describe climate issues facing national parks using only examples of natural resources.

Therein lies part of our problem. The National Park Service is the lead U.S. federal agency for cultural heritage. Two-thirds of all national park units, of which currently there are 423, were founded explicitly to conserve cultural heritage. And all places that are now parks, including Yellowstone, hold the history and connections of people who have lived there. So, it is important to ask — if we don’t see and talk about culture, history and heritage in parks we have set aside as most important, how well are we taking care of it anywhere?

This is a key question because conservation of cultural heritage is different from that of natural resources. It requires different information and skills and, for our efforts to address climate change, gives us different things in return.

In the U.S. we are used to defining cultural heritage as things: buildings, sites, landscapes and artifacts. Indeed, heritage is all of these, but it is also far more. Heritage is both place and the values we ascribe to it, held in a web of stories, practices, ideas, knowledge and languages. Caring well for any part of heritage requires understanding its part in that web and all the connections it holds.

Climate provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed in August direct $500 million to the National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management for conservation and an additional $500 million to the National Park Service for staffing. The new law does not specify that any of this funding be used for cultural heritage. It is essential for our climate future that it is.

In my time with the National Park Service, as part of my work with cultural heritage and climate change, I was asked, by superintendents and resource managers across the country, questions such as: What can I change? How do I choose? Where should I start? How do I walk into that room and tell them we can’t save it?


Just as the stories written about parks so often remove the time-depth of people in them, the overarching narrative we tell about climate change is one of science, numbers and technology. And to be clear, I stand in awe of my physical science colleagues and all the data they have and are continuing to build — we would not and will not know the challenges we face without them.

But to do the adaptation and mitigation they have shown us we need to do over the years and decades ahead, we must also work through questions of what we do and don’t hold on to, what we choose and who makes those choices, where we start and where we go, and how we face experiences of loss and change. These are deeply human questions and science alone cannot answer them for us.

As the scope of recovery from Hurricane Ian comes into focus, what is also clear is that addressing climate change well is and will be an ongoing process. As we experience the range of impacts of climate change and move into energy transitions, we will have to ask and answer these questions over and over again. Working with cultural heritage is one of the ways we have to build our adaptive muscle.


In my time with the National Park Service, I was effectively a program of one. Even so, my program drafted policy, supported park interpreters with training in climate and story, as well as providing advice to the State Department team negotiating the 2015 Paris Agreement. By the release of a major strategy document in early 2017 the National Park Service was recognized as a voice on the world stage for climate change and heritage.

This voice was then silenced. And from all I can see from the outside, it has not been regained. Nor have other agencies or institutions taken up the call. Will Russia rejoin the international community through space, post-Putin?Ten Commandments of DC

What I have seen in my work since is that cultural heritage has many roles in climate change, and these extend far beyond parks. They include supporting environmental justice communities in valuing places they have long known to be important. Working with international partners on heritage as part of non-economic loss and damage. And exploring how heritage is interwoven with fossil-fueled conflicts, such as in Ukraine and sustainable peace-building.

The IRA is a chance to write a new story for how the U.S. responds to climate change. We have much to gain from recognizing cultural heritage as an essential character in that story. We should ensure that programs and capacity to manage and engage heritage well are built anew to carry it forward.

Marcy Rockman

formerly served with the National Park Service (NPS) as climate change adaptation coordinator for cultural resources and has held lead roles in recent major international climate heritage projects, including collaboration with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Currently she is associate research professor with the University of Maryland, College Park and founder/director of Lifting Rocks, LLC. Her major publications include “Colonization of Unfamiliar Landscapes: The Archaeology of Adaptation, Archaeology in Society: Its Relevance in the Modern World,” and the NPS “Cultural Resources Climate Change Strategy.”

CRT IS NOT ABOUT WHITE PEOPLE

What My Students Don’t Know About Their Own History
Oct. 15, 2022

Credit...Dominic Bodden


OPINION
GUEST ESSAY
By Arlene Dávila
Ms. Dávila is the founding director of New York University’s Latinx Project.

For the last 20 years, I have taught Latinx studies at New York University. My classes often provide my students, many of whom are seniors and Latinx themselves, with their first opportunity to examine their own identity and political histories. Recently, one student was shocked to learn that California schools segregated children of Mexican descent until a case legally struck down segregation for Latino students in 1946, paving the way for Brown v. Board of Education. Another student was surprised to learn that the pioneering feminist artist Ana Mendieta was not just a Latina but also Cuban American, like her. This is a reminder of how little information about the ways Latinos have enriched the country’s history have made their way into K-12 curriculums, let alone higher education.

Seeing my students’ reactions takes me back to when I was a student, decades ago. Most of the classes I took focused on Europeans, but there was little to no mention of Latino or African American history in the United States. I learned about Latinx art, culture and history on my own, and mostly during graduate school. My peers and I worked to carve spaces for Latinx studies across the nation’s universities in an effort to address these glaring gaps in education, and we often did so with limited support from our mentors and institutions.

Latinos, who make up 19 percent of the U.S. population, are vastly underrepresented in academia, newsrooms, publishing, Hollywood films, TV and more. If we’re serious about correcting this wrong, we can start with investing in Latinx studies programs, which remain siloed, underfunded and marginalized in most major universities. These courses are foundational to students’ ability to see themselves represented in all sectors of society. They also help educate and ensure that no publisher, museum director, news editor or head of any company can continue to dismiss this demographic out of ignorance. They teach all of us that Latinx history is American history.

It’s worth noting that people of Latin American backgrounds living in the United States have a long history of chafing against the various terms used to categorize them. The label “Latinx” signals an openness to gender inclusivity and more tacit recognition of our racial and ethnic diversity. Some object to the term, but whatever word we choose to describe ourselves, our students deserve to see themselves represented in their studies.

This desire for representation is exactly what fueled the development of a handful of Chicano and Puerto Rican studies programs at schools like Cal State and Brooklyn College. Those programs grew out of the civil rights movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In the years since, they have changed focus to recognize the diversification of the Latinx population.

Today, Latinx studies is a vibrant interdisciplinary field with its own scholarly organizations and peer-reviewed journals, spanning Afro-Latinx studies and Central American studies, among other fields where young scholars are innovating disciplines from art history to urban studies. These achievements are the product of hard work and activism on the part of students clamoring for Latinx studies, as well as faculty organizing to create conferences and programming to fill the voids within their universities.

Yet these efforts have done little to challenge our marginalization. Over the past year, the U.C. Berkeley professors Cristina Mora and Nicholas Vargas have been tracking the state of Latinx studies programs and departments. They found fewer than 90 programs providing majors in Latinx studies out of the close to 3,000 institutions of higher learning across the nation.

What’s more, these programs are often subsumed within Latin American or ethnic studies umbrella programs. But while related, they represent vastly different fields. Latin American studies focus on people living in that region, and not on Latinos who live in the United States. The category has also been historically recognized and supported as part of U.S. geopolitical interests in international studies. As a result, these programs have benefited from decades of financial support.

The invisibility of Latinx studies is especially harmful to Latinx students — the fastest-growing demographic in American universities. According to a study on race and ethnicity in higher education by the American Council of Higher Education, Hispanic undergraduate enrollment has almost doubled over the last 20 years. The study also found that these students are typically joining institutions where nearly three-quarters of all full-time faculty are white. Latinx faculty are concentrated in lower-ranked positions, such as instructor, lecturer or assistant professor. Students of color are more likely to see people who look like them in the ranks of clerical and service positions than in the upper echelons of academia.

Even in public institutions where Latinx people make up more than a third of the student body, the average Latinx-student-to-Latinx-faculty ratio is 146 to 1; it’s 264 to 1 in private institutions. Latinx studies scholars are also siloed from traditional disciplines. For example, few are joining graduate programs where they can teach and train the new professionals who will diversify all academic and professional fields.

Research has shown that when underrepresented students learn about their history and culture, they perform better academically and graduate at higher rates. When my own students see themselves represented in readings it leaves them empowered and curious to learn more.

Higher education must recognize the centrality of Latinx studies in all disciplines and fields. We can start by hiring Latinx scholars in schools and departments, with a special focus on Black and Indigenous Latinx scholars. We must invest in curriculums and programs that help mentor and support the next generation of Latinx professors. We must challenge traditional disciplines that remain stubborn to change, and we must nourish the interdisciplinary spaces, such as ethnic studies, that have been at the vanguard of innovation in American universities.

We can do better than to celebrate our heritage once a year, during Hispanic Heritage Month. Our students deserve to learn that their history is expansive and that our cultures have shaped this country since even before its inception.

Arlene Dávila (@arlenedavila1), the founding director of New York University’s Latinx Project, is the author of “Latinx Art: Artists, Markets and Politics.”

More on Latinos

Opinion | Elizabeth Méndez Berry and Mónica Ramírez
How Latinos Can Win the Culture War
Sept. 2, 2020

Opinion | Arlene Dávila
A National Museum for Latinos
Dec. 22, 2020

Opinion | Natalia Sylvester
The Beauty of Being Bilingual
Sept. 20, 2019

CLIMATE CRI$I$
Most of the United States is experiencing drought conditions

By Karen Graham
Published October 15, 2022

Nearly 55 Percent of the U.S. is experiencing drought. Credit - USGS/Joe Leineweber. Public Domain

Drought covers 55 percent of the U.S. – the highest percentage since the Drought Monitor launched in 2000.

According to the Drought Monitor, following a drier-than-normal September for a majority of the contiguous U.S., dry conditions continued into early October for many areas, and now covers more of the nation than it has since April

.

U.S. Drought Monitor

More than 133 million people live in drought areas, which is the highest number since 2016. That’s primarily because highly populated regions like the Southeast and Midwest are now experiencing droughts.

The ongoing drought conditions have been particularly bad for farmers in parts of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas. This has taken a serious toll on farmers and livestock producers. The record-setting hot temperatures this summer did not help production either, reports ABC affiliate KTBS.com.

The hot and dry conditions caused livestock producers to lose 50 percent of their hay yield. Their hay yield period goes as late as November and the winter forage begins.

The winter months are the prime growing season for grass and clover. With dry conditions, the soil cannot produce that grass. This means ranchers will have to either sell their cattle or use alternatives, like protein or lick buckets.

This situation creates a never-ending spiral. Using alternatives means they have to pay to feed their cattle, which eventually raises beef prices for consumers.

The Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River in Arizona has suffered a multi-year drought amid fears of the effect on local water supply – Copyright AFP Dimitar DILKOFF

California is ground zero for the drought in the West, reports the Washington Post. The entire state is experiencing at least moderate drought conditions, while a little over 40 percent of the state is seeing extreme drought conditions.

These conditions stretch from the Los Angeles area to the Central Valley all the way up into the Shasta Cascades and southern Oregon. The last three water years have been the driest in the history of the state.

Additionally, Arizona, Nevada, Washington, Idaho, and Utah are experiencing extreme drought conditions, and any sort of relief is not likely any time soon, though some rainfall is expected in parts of Southern California, Arizona, and New Mexico over the weekend.

Only 10 percent of the High Plains – that include the states of Colorado, Wyoming, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas – are drought-free.

Firefighters and farmers in Nebraska have been battling wildfires, including the Bovee Fire, which has burned more than 18,900 acres — torching a campground and killing at least one person, according to reporting from NPR.

Barges float down the Ohio River in October 2021, near the confluence with the Mississippi River at Cairo, Illinois – 

Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File SPENCER PLATT

The south, which includes Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee has seen worsening drought conditions over the past year. A year ago, less than half of this region was under drought conditions, and now, only 6 percent is drought-free.

Most people don’t associate Hawaii with drought conditions, but 90 percent of this state is abnormally dry. The U.S. Monthly Drought Outlook expects drought conditions to persist and worsen this month.

Generally, the rest of the country is experiencing pockets of drought but nothing as regionally widespread. In the Southeast, nearly all of Alabama, Georgia and parts of the Florida Panhandle are seeing abnormal dryness

And drought conditions in Missouri and Minnesota, as well as in parts of the High Plains and South, have lowered the Mississippi River to its lowest level in at least a decade. Little drought relief is expected in the coming weeks anywhere in the Mississippi River basin.

DECRIMINALIZE DRUGS UNTIL THEN...
As drug deaths surge, one answer might be helping people get high more safely

Brian Mann
Ottawa, Ont.
October 15, 2022

MPR/NPR

Max, last name withheld, is shown at a Recovery Care clinic where he is a client, in Ottawa, Ontario, on Wednesday, June 29, 2022.
Justin Tang for NPR

On a weekday afternoon, Max — who didn't want his last name used — sat on a plastic chair in a private clinic in downtown Ottawa waiting to get a supply of the drug he uses to get high.

"I used to be a complete mess before I got on this program," he said. "I used to inject a gram of meth every day three times a day."

Max is a fragile-looking man, 26 years old, who has been injecting methamphetamines for more than a decade. He doesn't have a permanent home and still gets high on the streets.

But instead of buying high-risk drugs, often laced with fentanyl and other chemicals by dealers, he injects stable doses of Ritalin prescribed by a doctor and dispensed by a pharmacist.

He receives this controversial form of addiction care, known as "safe supply," every week. The program is funded in large part by government insurance programs and closely monitored by Canadian health officials.

Max says with this kind of medical supervision, his overall drug use has declined sharply: "I've gone dramatically down. I've made big progress since last year."

This program, operated by a private company called Recovery Care, is part of a growing network of healthcare services across Canada pushing the boundaries of the public health response to an overdose crisis killing record numbers of people.

The goal of this kind of treatment, often described as harm reduction, is to reduce the catastrophic surge of drug deaths — not by ending illicit drug use but by helping people get high more safely.

Max joined the program in Ottawa after an overdose nearly killed him.

"I got on safe supply after I came out of the ICU, and I'm pretty sure it saved my life," he told NPR.

Equipment for clients, including syringes and elastic bands, on a cabinet in the staff station at the Trailer.
Justin Tang for NPR
Physician assistant Saskia Knol touches a patient's hand as they talk in the Recovery Care mobile health unit van, outside an Ottawa Community Housing residence.
Justin Tang for NPR
A tsunami of drug deaths prompts a shift in addiction care

For decades, the overwhelming majority of addiction treatment, in the United States and Canada, focused on urging people toward abstinence and long-term recovery.

But research shows tens of millions of people in both countries actively use drugs. At any given time, most of those active users, like Max, aren't ready or able to quit.

Meanwhile, the supply of street drugs has grown far more treacherous.

Most illicit opioids and stimulants are now heavily laced with fentanyl, benzodiazepines and other deadly chemicals.

As a consequence, drug deaths across North America have roughly doubled over the last five years. In the U.S., a record 107,000 people died from overdoses in 2021.

Canada's per capita death rate was lower, but a record 7,560 people suffered fatal overdoses the same year.

Critics say focusing healthcare on those willing or able to stop getting high leaves huge numbers of active drug-users profoundly vulnerable.

"We've seen abstinence being forced on people, and it just doesn't work," said Dr. Charles Breau, a physician who helped pioneer Ottawa's safe supply program.

Breau now writes prescriptions every month for hundreds of patients.

People like Max use his medications, paid for by Canada's public health system, to achieve the euphoric high they crave without purchasing toxic drugs from street dealers.

"It's about survival," Breau said. "I feel like we're helping a lot more people by keeping them alive so we can offer care. This should have happened at the start, when the overdose epidemic started."

The Canadian government has concluded these programs are helping keep people alive.
Dr. Charles Breau, substance use lead at Ottawa Inner City Health, Monfort Hospital, and Recovery Care.
Justin Tang for NPR
Pushing the boundaries of "harm reduction"

In the U.S., less ambitious forms of harm reduction are now fairly common.

Needle exchange programs are widespread, helping people avoid diseases such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis. Many communities have begun dispensing Naloxone, a medication that reverses opioid overdoses.

Acceptance of these programs has been driven in part by the grim scale of the public health crisis.

"We have an American perishing every five minutes around the clock and that is unacceptable," said Dr. Rahul Gupta, head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy in an interview with NPR.

"We know there is so much we need to do, making sure we save lives with harm reduction such as Naloxone," Gupta said.

The Canadian experiment in harm reduction goes much further.

With support and oversight from the Canadian government, most major cities, from Vancouver to Montreal, now offer a safety-net for people actively using high-risk drugs.

That includes ready access to Naloxone. People can also receive prescription drugs to get high. They can also use street drugs in supervised consumption sites.

Outreach programs bring safe "gear" — syringes, smoking pipes and other drug paraphernalia — into the community, so people can use drugs without spreading disease.

Physician assistant Saskia Knol prepares to work in the Recovery Care mobile health unit van, outside an Ottawa Community Housing residence.
Justin Tang for NPR
Physician assistant Saskia Knol and addictions counselor Jimmy Massey in front of the Recovery Care mobile health unit van in Ottawa, Ontario.
Justin Tang for NPR

While receiving these services, patients are offered other healthcare, along with access to housing and counseling.

Those ready to enter full recovery are guided toward rehabilitation clinics and offered medical treatments that can ease withdrawal.

"We see people in a vulnerable state. We see people who are just raw," said physician assistant Saskia Knol, part of a mobile outreach team that operates an addiction care clinic in a van.

Knol said her goal isn't to get the people she cares for off street drugs in the short term. "That's not going to happen," she said.

But she believes this kind of front-line addiction care is helping; and she rejects criticism that harm reduction might encourage illicit drug use.

"Giving someone a clean needle is not going to kill an active user. In fact, it's going to do the opposite," she said.
"There is no recovery if you're dead"

Anne Marie Hopkins, who runs an addiction program called Ottawa Inner City Health, said the basic philosophy of this harm reduction approach is simple: "There is no recovery if you're dead."
Anne Marie Hopkins, director of Operations at Ottawa Inner City Health, stands behind the staff desks at the supervised consumption and treatment facility.
Justin Tang for NPR

Ottawa Inner City Health operates a clinic where people come daily to inject street drugs under medical supervision.

On a recent day, a half-dozen people sat in small booths — like the study desks in a library — getting high. A team of nurses and other care workers watched closely for signs of overdose.

"The individual in that booth is under a very mild overdose," Hopkins said, pointing to a woman slumped forward in a chair.

"We're just going to pop her on just a little bit of oxygen, probably a very low level, to make sure she doesn't dip down further."

This kind of addiction care can appear jarring. Hopkins pointed to a booth where a nurse knelt, helping a man find a vein in his arm so he could successfully inject and get high.

"For us that's harm reduction," Hopkins said. "If we don't assist that, what we were seeing over and over again was people injecting in veins that were much more dangerous — like for example the jugular."

This kind of medical care is unavailable for the overwhelming majority of people using drugs in the U.S. and would be illegal in most states.

But in interviews with NPR, people getting high at the Ottawa clinic described the program as a lifeline.

"The staff here are very special people, to come and be here with us and for us," said a middle-aged woman named Shelly, who also asked her last name not be used.

Shelly has battled addiction for decades and now comes to Ottawa's supervised injection site regularly to take opioids. She said getting high on the street has grown far more deadly.

"I see it every day, I see overdoses. Many, many friends have lost their lives," Shelly said.
A woman prepares a syringe before getting high at the Trailer, a supervised consumption and treatment facility operated by Ottawa Inner City Health.
Justin Tang for NPR
A woman puts on makeup after injecting street drugs at the Trailer, a supervised consumption and treatment facility operated by Ottawa Inner City Health.
Justin Tang for NPR
Addiction experts and policy makers in the US are watching

Preliminary data suggests Canada's harm-reduction programs are working, helping reduce overdose deaths.

But even many advocates for safe supply and supervised consumption sites say more research is needed to determine the long-term effectiveness of these strategies.

Meanwhile, as drugs deaths surge, policy experts in the U.S. are watching the Canadian experiment with a mix of hope and skepticism.

"There is a tremendous number of Americans at risk for an overdose who will not go into treatment, or at least they're not going to go into treatment right now," said Dr. Brian Hurley, an addiction physician with the Los Angeles County Public Health Department.

"If we say, 'Let's wait until they're ready [for abstinence-focused treatment],' they might be dead."

Hurley, who is slated to take over next year as head of the influential American Society of Addiction Medicine, said he's not yet convinced it makes sense to prescribe drugs so people can get high more safely.

But ASAM has endorsed the idea of supervised consumption sites, like the ones in Canada, opening across the U.S.

"I think we should see more communities start and test safe consumption sites, see what works and what doesn't, and make modifications, in order to bring these to scale," Hurley said.

Keith Humphreys, a leading addiction researcher at Stanford University, is more critical of the Canadian approach.

According to Humphreys, opening enough supervised drug-use sites in the U.S. to help large numbers of people would be costly and controversial, diverting funds from other, more well-established forms of treatment.

He also believes safe supply drugs programs are likely to be abused, with prescription medications sold on the black market.
The Shepherds of Good Hope, which provides services to people experiencing homelessness and is the site of the Trailer, a supervised consumption and treatment facility operated by Ottawa Inner City Health.
Justin Tang for NPR

"When you start distributing opioids in the community, [people] will in some cases sell them and initiate new people onto drugs and those people will overdose," Humphreys said.

Despite these concerns, efforts are under way to provide more medical support to people using drugs in the U.S.:

Two supervised injection sites opened last year in New York City, with approval from local officials. State and federal agencies have allowed the clinics to operate, and care providers say they've already helped reverse hundreds of potentially lethal overdoses.

California's legislature approved a pilot program this year that would have opened similar clinics in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other major cities. The plan was vetoed in August by the state's Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The U.S. Justice Department is negotiating with a group that hopes to open a supervised injection clinic in Philadelphia. If such a program were to win approval from the federal government's top law enforcement agency, it would signal a major policy shift.
"We're chasing a crisis"

Canada's embrace of harm reduction is more ambitious than in the U.S., but the debate over how to help people actively using drugs remains volatile in both countries.

"There's a division and sometimes a really harsh division," said Donna Sarrazin, head of an Ottawa-based program called Recovery Care, which provides a wide variety of medical care to people using street drugs.

In part, this divide reflects a grudging shift in how substance use disorder is viewed. For decades, drug-users in Canada and the U.S. have been criminalized, often sent to prison rather than offered treatment.
A staff member speaks with a client as they sit in a booth at the Trailer.
Justin Tang for NPR
Donna Sarrazin, the managing partner at Recovery Care, sits in the doorway of the clinic's mobile health unit.
Justin Tang for NPR

While addiction is now widely recognized as a treatable illness, experts say stigma remains, complicating the public health response.

Here in Canada, front-line addiction workers offering services like supervised injection sites and prescription narcotics say they face a backlash from the community and others in healthcare — who sometimes compare them to drug dealers.

In interviews with NPR, those same care providers suggested the rest of the healthcare system will have to join them quickly, offering more medical care to active drug users, if the two countries hope to stem the epidemic of overdose deaths.

"We're chasing a crisis," Sarrazin said. "I don't see an end in sight. No matter how progressive we are or cutting edge or how much we're doing, it doesn't feel like enough."

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.