Foreign veterinarians visit ailing elephant in Pakistani zoo

today

A zookeeper washes an elephant named "Noor Jehan" at Karachi Zoo, in Karachi, Pakistan, Tuesday, April 4, 2023. Foreign vets visited the sickly elephant at the southern Pakistani zoo Tuesday amid widespread concerns over her well-being and living conditions, with one of the veterinarians saying her chances of surviving are unclear. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Foreign veterinarians visited a sickly elephant at a southern Pakistani zoo Tuesday amid widespread concern over her well-being and living conditions, One vet said her chances of surviving are unclear.

Noor Jehan was brought to Karachi with three other elephants more than a dozen years ago. Now 17 years old, videos of her with her head against a tree and struggling to stand have caused alarm in Pakistan. Noor Jehan’s plight was previously highlighted by campaigners and international veterinarians in 2021 and 2022.

The veterinarians, from Austria and Egypt, say Noor Jehan is suffering from arthritis, among other health issues. Her joints are causing her enormous pain, according to Dr. Amir Khalil, who examined the elephant.

“Our biggest worry is to ensure that the elephant does not fall down,” he said. “If that happens, we fear she will never stand up again.” He rated her chances of survival as 50-50, saying she is visibly distressed and has had mobility issues for the last three weeks.

Khalil welcomed the zoo’s “strategic decision” to move her to a better place in the future.

Noor Jehan’s condition could have been the result of an accident, or a fight or collision between the elephants, said Khalil. “Was it negligence or an infection? We will know for sure exactly what the problem is.”

Two senior veterinarians from Austria are expected to join the team Wednesday, when the elephant is due to have surgery. She will undergo an endoscopy and X-ray to determine the extent of her health issues.

Noor Jehan and her sister, Madhubala, have been confined to small cement cages since May 2010, according to activist Mahera Omar, co-founder of the Pakistan Animal Welfare Society.

“Their enclosure for display has a cement floor and no access to any natural habitat,” she said. “At night they are chained by three legs and stuffed in a smaller cage in total isolation.”

Omar is fighting a court battle for the four elephants to improve their living conditions, two of whom are in another zoo in the same city.

Veterinarians from the global animal welfare group, Four Paws, look at an elephant named "Noor Jehan" at Karachi Zoo, in Karachi, Pakistan, Tuesday, April 4, 2023. Foreign vets visited the sickly elephant at the southern Pakistani zoo Tuesday amid widespread concerns over her well-being and living conditions, with one of the veterinarians saying her chances of surviving are unclear. 

(AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Zoo authorities contacted the Vienna-based Four Paws animal welfare group and described the elephant’s mobility problem. But they didn’t invite experts to visit until a few days ago when the issue went viral on social media.

The grandson of former Pakistani Prime Minister and President Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto visited Karachi Zoo and expressed his concern, spurring authorities into action. The local government said it would invite international experts to treat Noor Jehan.

In August last year, a Four Paws team performed major surgery on Noor Jehan and Madhubala at Karachi Zoo on the invitation of the regional high court.

Wednesday’s operation will involve the local fire brigade as Noor Jehan needs to be propped up by a crane to keep her stable for the procedure.

In 2020, an elephant named Kaavan was transferred from Islamabad to Cambodia, where he lives in an elephant sanctuary. Dubbed the “world’s loneliest elephant,” Kaavan had languished in Islamabad Zoo for 35 years, most of that time in chains, and he lost his partner in 2012.

Singer and actress Cher traveled to Pakistan to celebrate his departure from the country and his new life in southeast Asia.

Noor Jehan is named after a well-known Pakistani singer. Noor means light or brightness and jehan means world.

Belarus drops charges against Polish minority activist

By YURAS KARMANAU
TODAY

 The leader of a banned ethnic Polish group Andzelika Borys, center, is seen in front of a court building in the town of Volozhin, 75 km ( 45 miles) northwest of Minsk, on Feb. 17, 2010. The prominent Polish minority activist has been released from custody in Belarus after the authorities dropped criminal charges against her. The Belarusian Prosecutor General’s office announced Tuesday, April 4, 2023 that the criminal investigation against Andzelika Borys has been terminated, all charges against her have been dropped and she has been freed from house arrest (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A prominent Polish minority activist has been released from custody in Belarus after authorities dropped criminal charges against her following a two-year criminal probe, officials said Tuesday.

The Belarusian Prosecutor General’s office announced that the criminal investigation against Andzelika Borys, 49, has been closed, all charges against her have been dropped and she has been freed from house arrest.

Borys was arrested in March 2021 and after a year moved to house arrest due to deteriorating health. She was accused of inciting interethnic strife and condoning Nazism — charges that she rejected.

The prosecutors’ move followed comment on Friday by Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, who said that Borys has expressed an intention to stay in Belarus. “She is a Pole, but she’s my Pole,” he said.

About 300,000 of Belarus’ 9.5 million people are ethnic Poles. Belarusian authorities shut the Union of Poles that Borys headed after accusing Poland of trying to foment an uprising against Lukashenko, who has led the ex-Soviet nation with an iron fist for nearly 29 years.

The Polish Foreign Ministry welcomed Borys’ exoneration as “the first good news coming from Minsk in a long time,” and voiced hope that it would herald a shift in Belarusian authorities’ attitude toward Poles in Belarus and its readiness to engage in constructive dialogue.

In February, Andrzej Poczobut, 49, was sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of harming Belarus’ national security and “inciting discord.” Poczobut, a journalist for the influential Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza and a top figure in the Union of Poles in Belarus, has been behind bars since his detention in March 2021.

Poczobut reported extensively on the mass protests that swept Belarus after an August 2020 presidential vote handed Lukashenko a new term in office but was rejected by the opposition and the West as rigged.

Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Lukasz Jasina reaffirmed a call for Minsk to release Poczobut and drop all charges against him, adding that “this issue remains our highest priority.”

New images from inside Fukushima reactor spark safety worry

By MARI YAMAGUCH

today

A spokesperson of the Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO) shows photos captured by a robotic probe inside one of the three melted reactors at the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant, during a news conference at the TEPCO headquarters in Tokyo, Tuesday, April 4, 2023. Images captured by a robotic probe inside one of the three melted reactors at the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant showed exposed steel bars in the main supporting structure and its thick external concrete wall largely missing near its bottom, triggering concerns about its earthquake resistance in case of another major disaster. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)


TOKYO (AP) — Images captured by a robotic probe inside one of the three melted reactors at Japan’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant showed exposed steel bars in the main supporting structure and parts of its thick external concrete wall missing, triggering concerns about its earthquake resistance in case of another major disaster.

The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, has been sending robotic probes inside the Unit 1 primary containment chamber since last year. The new findings released Tuesday were from the latest probe conducted at the end of March.

An underwater remotely operated vehicle named ROV-A2 was sent inside the Unit 1 pedestal, a supporting structure right under the core. It came back with images seen for the first time since an earthquake and tsunami crippled the plant 12 years ago. The area inside the pedestal is where traces of the melted fuel can most likely be found.


An approximately five-minute video — part of 39-hour-long images captured by the robot — showed that the 120-centimeter (3.9-foot) -thick concrete exterior of the pedestal was significantly damaged near its bottom, exposing the steel reinforcement inside.

TEPCO spokesperson Keisuke Matsuo told reporters Tuesday that the steel reinforcement is largely intact but the company plans to further analyze data and images over the next couple of months to find out if and how the reactor’s earthquake resistance can be improved.

The images of the exposed steel reinforcement have triggered concerns about the reactor’s safety.

About 880 tons of highly radioactive melted nuclear fuel remain inside the three reactors. Robotic probes have provided some information, but the status of the melted debris is still largely unknown. The amount is about 10 times the damaged fuel that was removed in the cleanup of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in the United States after its 1979 partial core meltdown.

Fukushima Gov. Masao Uchibori urged TEPCO to “swiftly evaluate levels of earthquake resistance and provide information in a way prefectural residents can easily understand and relieve concern of the residents and people around the country.”




The video taken by the robot also showed equipment that slipped down as well as other types of debris, possibly nuclear fuel that fell from the core and hardened, piling up as high as 40-50 centimeters (1.3-1.6 feet) from the bottom of the primary containment chamber, Matsuo said. The pile is lower than the mounds seen in images taken in previous internal probes at two other reactors, suggesting that the meltdowns in each reactor may have progressed differently, company officials said.

Matsuo said the data collected from the latest probe will help experts come up with methods of removing the debris and analyze the 2011 meltdowns. TEPCO also plans to use the data to create a three-dimensional map of melted fuel and debris details, which would take about a year.

Based on data collected from earlier probes and simulations, experts have said most of the melted fuel inside Unit 1 fell to the bottom of the primary containment chamber, but some might have even fallen through into the concrete foundation — a situation that makes the already daunting task of decommissioning extremely difficult.

Trial removal of melted debris is expected to begin in Unit 2 later this year after a nearly two-year delay. Spent fuel removal from the Unit 1 reactor’s cooling pool is to start in 2027 after a 10-year delay. Once all the spent fuel is removed from the pools, the focus is to turn in 2031 to taking melted debris out of the reactors.

Oil drilling in Gulf safer, but concerns linger, report says

“They have not figured out how to naturally embrace safety in particular... in who they are and what they do” but instead treat it like a box to check off

By SETH BORENSTEIN

TODAY

 A new National Academy of Science study says that 13 years after a massive BP oil spill fouled the Gulf of Mexico, regulators and industry have reduced some risks in deep water exploration in the gulf but some troublesome safety issues persist. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

Thirteen years after the massive Deepwater Horizons spill fouled the Gulf of Mexico, regulators and industry have reduced some risks in deep water exploration in the gulf but some troublesome safety issues persist, a new study by the National Academy of Sciences said.

The creation of a specific federal agency for offshore oil drilling safety, an industrywide safety center and new technology have all helped reduce risks, Tuesday’s report said. But federal inspectors remain relatively powerless over contractors on rigs, which are 80% of the workers.

The report also worried about the lack of an industrywide safety culture that integrates accident prevention into everyday work.

“There are a lot of things that are happening that are really good, but the industry is not at a place″ where it should be, said panel chairman Richard Sears. He was a longtime Shell executive who was the chief technical adviser to the federal panel that initially investigated the 2010 explosion on the BP rig that killed 11 people and caused America’s biggest oil spill — more than 130 million gallons.

A culture that gave lip service to safety but didn’t really integrate it into the way it does business was part of the problem with the accident, Sears and others said. Some companies are treating safety the proper way — including giving flash bonuses to workers who stopped drilling because of potential dangers — but others “that don’t seem to get it,” he said.

“They have not figured out how to naturally embrace safety in particular... in who they are and what they do” but instead treat it like a box to check off, Sears said.

That’s far different from the more uniform industrywide safety culture seen in commercial airlines and nuclear power plants, he said.

Wilson Ruiz, a crew member of the Joe Griffin, looks out at the oil slick as a containment vessel onboard positioned near the Q4000, background center, being lowered over the oil leak, at the site of the BP Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig collapse in the Gulf of Mexico on May 6, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

There’s a “long list” of specifics on safety culture process that “other high-risk industries” like aviation, have done but the drillers have not, said Steve Murawski, a University of South Florida marine ecologist who was a top NOAA scientist during the spill.

Federal safety inspectors lost a court case giving them power to directly regulate contractors so when they find a problem on an offshore rig they can ding the operator but not the contractor who is actually creating the problem, Sears said. It’s then up to the operator to crack down on the contractor, and it becomes complicated and not as effective, he said.

The report said that was one of the problems on the Deepwater Horizons rig.

Murawski, who wasn’t part of the study team, said the report highlights many of the recommendations that still haven’t been put into effect 13 years after that disaster, especially changes to a key oil spill law. He also said the report shows the need for greater transparency into industry actions.

Another outside scientist involved in the spill, Christopher Reddy of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, said he was impressed by “the amount of positive change since 2010” but then that was offset by the safety culture issue.

“The oil and natural gas industry and the federal government have together taken great strides to enhance the safety of offshore drilling operations,” American Petroleum Institute Vice President Holly Hopkins said.

National Academy President Marcia McNutt, who was a top Obama administration official dealing with the spill in 2010, said her concern is that officials are preparing for the last disaster, not the next one.

Still, McNutt said, the public should find the report “at least partially reassuring that this isn’t high school or elementary school shootings in terms of sticking your head in the sand and ignoring the problem.”

A large plume of smoke rises from fires on BP's Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, more than 50 miles southeast of Venice on Louisiana's tip on April 2010.

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NWSL announces new San Francisco Bay Area team

By ANNE M. PETERSON


At left, two-time World Cup soccer champion Brandi Chastain speaks during an induction ceremony for the National Soccer Hall of Fame in San Jose, Calif. At right, Aly Wagner talks during an interview in New York, May 30, 2018. A group of former players — including Aly Wagner and Brandi Chastain — has joined with global investment firm Sixth Street to bring a National Women's Soccer League team to the San Francisco Bay Area.The expansion team, which is set to begin play next year, was formally announced by the league Tuesday, April 4, 2023. (AP Photo/File)

A group of former players, including Aly Wagner and Brandi Chastain, has joined with an investment firm to bring a National Women’s Soccer League team to the San Francisco Bay Area.

The expansion team, which is set to begin play next year, was formally announced by the league Tuesday. Details about where the team will play and its name will be announced later.

“It’s a historic moment for the league. We’re super excited about both the opportunity and what it means for the Bay Area and our league in the present, but also what it tells us about the future and where we’re heading,” Commissioner Jessica Berman told The Associated Press. “I feel like it’s coming at the absolute right moment in time to give us the moment to reflect on how far we’ve come and get us focused on the future of the league.”

Joining Wagner and Chastain as founders of the new team are Danielle Slaton and Leslie Osborne. All four have connections to the Bay Area and played for the United States.

“We are so grateful for the community of early investors that made this bid possible, and we know the entire Bay is going to help us make this club one that will set the bar,” Osborne, who played on the United States’ 2007 World Cup team, said in a prepared statement. “We can’t wait for this dream to become a reality on the field and see the Bay Area represented as a soccer powerhouse.”

San Francisco-based investment firm Sixth Street is the new team’s majority backer with an investment of $125 million. The firm has also invested in soccer clubs Real Madrid and Barcelona, as well as the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs.

Sixth Street CEO Alan Waxman said investing in women’s sports is good business.

“Now people can put on their iPhone or iPad and they can basically watch the NWSL like my daughter does, like a lot of the girls on her team do. That didn’t exist five years ago, didn’t exist 50 years ago. And that’s a structural change,” Waxman said. “Everyone’s like `Why is this all happening now?′ It’s not a coincidence. It’s that the accessibility has structurally changed. And as a result of that, when you think about 99% of those dollars historically have gone to only men, the barriers have now been broken down and that’s going to change. That’s what we’re investing behind. ”

Waxman will serve on the NWSL’s board of governors. Sheryl Sandberg, a former Facebook executive and author of the 2013 book “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead,” is joining the club as a board member and strategic investor. Rick Welts, former Golden State Warriors president, and Staci Slaughter, former vice president for communications for the San Francisco Giants, will also serve on the board.

The NWSL recently embarked on its 11th season with 12 teams. Angel City in Los Angeles and the San Diego Wave joined the league last year.

Last month, the league announced the return of the Utah Royals, who will also start play in 2024.

The original Royals were part of the NWSL for three seasons from 2018 to 2020 but were sold and moved to Kansas City when the owner of Major League Soccer’s Real Salt Lake stepped away from the team amid controversy. RSL’s new owners retained the rights to a future women’s team.

The league is expected to add a 15th team in the Boston area in the future.

___

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US infrastructure splurge extends to remote New Mexico farms

BROADBAND IS NOT A SPLURGE BUT A NECISSITY

From left to right, Rep. Teresa Ledger Fernandez, Sen. Martin Heinrich, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Sen. Ben Ray Lujan and Rep. Melanie Stansbury talk about the importance of broadband infrastructure to small rural communities at Kelly Cable of New Mexico on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Albuquerque, N.M. (Jon Austria/The Albuquerque Journal via AP)

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a new $40 million round of grants to extend high-speed internet to extremely remote farms, homes and businesses in New Mexico, including counties where the population density is less than one person per square mile (2.5 square kilometers).

Joe Biden and top administration officials are traveling to more than 20 states this week to buttress the president’s message on investments and economic growth before an expected reelection campaign, amid a tug-of-war on federal budget priorities with House Republicans. Biden on Monday traveled to suburban Minneapolis on Monday to tour a clean energy technology manufacturer.

Democratic leaders in New Mexico welcomed his agriculture secretary Monday in Albuquerque for the announcement, and celebrated public spending on high-speed internet in remote New Mexico communities. Vilsack and members of the state’s congressional delegation say the funds will help farms find efficiencies through precision mapping of topography, nutrients and moisture. Vilsack, a former governor of Iowa, said fast rural internet and array federal infrastructure spending will help those growers bring commodities to market and compete.

The grants to expand fiberoptic cable networks in New Mexico stem from the $1 billion infrastructure law signed by Biden in 2021, and the related “Reconnect” program that aims to fill in gaps where internet service is slow or nonexistent. The spending will help two rural telephone companies and a cooperative extend high-speed internet service to extremely remote ranch and farm lands, in counties such as Catron, Harding and DeBaca that have fewer than one person per square mile (2.5 square kilometers) on average.

“When you look at the number of farms and ranches and businesses and homes that are covered, it’s not huge. And someone said, ‘Is that a wise investment of our federal dollars?’” said U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, who represents a sprawling rural district that traverses northern and eastern New Mexico. “And I said absolutely. Absolutely because you need the connectivity no matter what your zip code is.”

As fiberoptic cables are extended, some households will be eligible for subsidies that can ensure high-speed access for as little as $30 a month, Leger Fernandez said.

A $14 million grant to the Peñasco Valley Telephone Cooperative is designed to extend high-speed internet to 550 people, including 48 farms in Chaves, Eddy, Otero and Lincoln counties. The goal is to help small and medium-sized farms attain the same profitability as large food producers.

“Those 48 farms now have the opportunity to take full advantage of this new transformational future we are building,” Vilsack said. “Those 550 people count as much as any people living in New York City or Los Angeles or Denver or any major community in this country.”

US rolls out funding for wildlife crossings along busy roads

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN

SANTA ANA PUEBLO, N.M. (AP) — Native American tribes, as well as state and local governments will be able to tap into $350 million in infrastructure funds to build wildlife corridors along busy roads and add warning signs for drivers in what federal officials are billing as the first-of-its-kind pilot program to prevent collisions and improve habitat connectivity.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was expected to roll out more details about the program during a visit to Santa Ana Pueblo on Tuesday. Wildlife managers with the New Mexico tribe have documented recent mountain lion casualties along a busy federal highway that cuts through tribal boundaries.

Nationwide, about 200 people are killed each year in collisions involving wildlife and vehicles, federal officials said.

Buttigieg said in a statement issued ahead of his announcement that launching the pilot program marks “an important step to prevent deadly crashes in communities across the country and make America’s roadways safer for everyone who uses them.”

The dedicated funding includes more than $111 million for the first round of grants that will be issued this year.

Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt said there are proven practices that can prevent crashes between vehicles and wildlife, and the infrastructure funding will open the door for communities that may not have previously had access to funding for such projects.

Many Western states — including Colorado, Arizona, Utah and Nevada — have already invested substantially in wildlife crossings and in recent years, have adopted legislation that advocates say will allow them to capture millions of dollars in federal matching funds to build the crossings.

California is among the Western states with new legislation. It broke ground last year on what it bills as the world’s largest crossing — a bridge over a major Southern California highway for mountain lions and other animals hemmed in by urban sprawl.

New Mexico also joined the effort when lawmakers passed legislation this spring to set aside $100 million for conservation projects. That includes building the state’s first wildlife highway overpasses for free-roaming cougars, black bears, bighorn sheep and other creatures.

The massive federal infrastructure law amounts to the largest investment in road and bridges in a generation. It’s also the largest single sum ever allocated to address vehicle-wildlife collisions — a problem that stretches back nearly a century, when the government first began funding the construction of highways.

Technological advances have helped wildlife managers and public safety officials in some states identify the best locations for crossings, and where they can make the biggest difference for both wildlife and motorists.

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana is among those who have pushed for more funding for the effort. He said in a statement that investing in safer roadways will ensure future generations can continue to enjoy the great outdoors.

Fellow Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico said the migration patterns of elk, deer, mountain lions and other animals have existed for millennia longer than paved road systems. He and Buttigieg planned to visit a stretch along Interstate 25 near Santa Ana Pueblo.

“Thinking we can change those patterns with four lanes of asphalt has resulted in dangerous driving conditions and hundreds of human fatalities on our roads each year,” Heinrich said.

Biden offers $450M for clean energy projects at coal mines

By MATTHEW DALY

1 of 4
 President Joe Biden speaks about climate change and clean energy at Brayton Power Station, July 20, 2022, in Somerset, Mass. The Biden administration is making $450 million available for solar farms and other clean energy projects across the country at the site of current or former coal mines. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)


WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s administration is making $450 million available for solar farms and other clean energy projects across the country at the site of current or former coal mines, part of his efforts to combat climate change.

As many as five projects nationwide will be funded through the 2021 infrastructure law, with at least two projects set aside for solar farms, the White House said Tuesday.

The White House also said it will allow developers of clean energy projects to take advantage of billions of dollars in new bonuses being offered in addition to investment and production tax credits available through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. The bonuses will “incentivize more clean energy investment in energy communities, particularly coal communities,″ that have been hurt by a decade-plus decline in U.S. coal production, the White House said.

The actions are among steps the Biden administration is taking as the Democratic president moves to convert the U.S. economy to renewable energy such as wind and solar power, while turning away from coal and other fossil fuels that produce planet-warming greenhouse gas emission

The projects are modeled on a site Biden visited last summer, where a former coal-fired power plant in Massachusetts is shifting to offshore wind power. Biden highlighted the former Brayton Point power plant in Somerset, Massachusetts, calling it the embodiment of the transition to clean energy that he is seeking but has struggled to realize in the first two years of his presidency.

“It’s very clear that ... the workers who powered the last century of industry and innovation can power the next one,″ said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, whose agency will oversee the new grant program.

Former mining areas in Appalachia and other parts of the country have long had the infrastructure, workforce, expertise and “can-do attitude” to produce energy, Granholm told reporters on Monday.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the new plan provides a bonus investment credit of up to 10% for clean energy production in struggling energy communities. Solar farm operators “can get an extra dime on the dollar for your investment in a new facility,″ she said Tuesday.

To take full advantage of the bonus, developers must pay workers prevailing wages and use a sufficient proportion of apprentices on the job, Yellen said. “These provisions will ensure that workers in energy communities reap the benefits of the clean energy economy they are helping to build,″ she said.

Up to five clean energy projects will be funded at current and former mines, Granholm said. The demonstration projects are expected to be examples for future development, “providing knowledge and experience that catalyze the next generation of clean energy on mine land projects,″ the Energy Department said.

Applications are due by the end of August, with grant decisions expected by early next year.

In a related development, the Energy Department said it is awarding $16 million from the infrastructure law to West Virginia University and the University of North Dakota to study ways to extract critical minerals such as lithium, copper and nickel from coal mine waste streams.

Rare earth elements and other minerals are key parts of batteries for electric vehicles, cellphones and other technology. Biden has made boosting domestic mining a priority as the U.S. seeks to decrease its reliance on China, which has long dominated the battery supply chain.

One of the two universities that will receive funding is in the home state of one of Biden’s loudest critics, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a fellow Democrat who has decried what he calls Biden’s anti-coal agenda. Manchin complained on Friday about new Treasury Department guidelines for EV tax credits that he said ignore the intent of last year’s climate and health care law.

The new rules are aimed at reducing U.S. dependence on China and other countries for EV battery supply chains, but Manchin said they don’t move fast enough to “bring manufacturing back to America and ensure we have reliable and secure supply chains.″

Manchin, who chairs the Senate Energy Committee, also slammed Biden last year after the president vowed to shutter coal-fired power plants and rely more heavily on wind and solar energy.

The powerful coal state lawmaker called Biden’s comments last November “divorced from reality,” adding that they “ignore the severe economic pain” caused by higher energy prices as a result of declining domestic production of coal and other fossil fuels. The White House said Biden’s words in a Nov. 4 speech in California had been “twisted to suggest a meaning that was not intended” and that the president regretted any offense caused.

Biden has set a goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 and achieve a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.

White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi said Monday that Biden believes U.S. leaders “need to be bold” in combating climate change “and that includes helping revitalize the economies of coal, oil and gas and power-plant communities.″

Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, said the bonuses being offered by Treasury will help solar projects move forward in underserved communities, “helping us fight climate change and create thousands of high-quality, family-supporting jobs.″

The program “will funnel new jobs, cleaner air and low-cost electricity to tens of millions of Americans in disadvantaged communities, helping to make sure they’re a top priority″ in the clean energy transition, Hopper said.

Officials: Epic California snowpack among biggest on record

By JOHN ANTCZAK

yesterday

In this image provided by Mammoth Mountain, the ski resort is covered with snow in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., on March 16, 2023. The Mammoth Mountain ski resort in the Eastern Sierra said this has been its snowiest season on record, with 695 inches at the main lodge and 870 inches on the summit of the 11,053-foot peak, as of Tuesday, March 28, 2023.

 (Peter Morning/Mammoth Mountain via AP)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — This year’s epic snowpack in California’s Sierra Nevada could top records, state officials said Monday, and significant flooding is expected when it melts and flows down from the mountains.

Just months after the state was dangerously deep in drought, its reservoirs are filling, with the snowpack yet to melt.

The water content of the statewide snowpack as reported by a network of automated sensors on Monday was 237% of average to date, said Sean de Guzman, water supply forecasting unit manager for the California Department of Water Resources.

That is greater than any previous April reading since the sensor network was deployed in the mid-1980s, de Guzman said. Manual measurements on “snow courses” date back to 1910 and only the years 1952, 1969 and 1983 showed a statewide result greater than 200% of average in April.

The record 1952 measurement was also 237% of average, but there were fewer snow courses measured then and the addition of others over the years makes it difficult to compare across decades results with precision, according to de Guzman.

Manual measurements continue to the present day, but weather and other dangers, including the threat of avalanches, have prevented access to some locations.

De Guzman said the state is waiting for more survey results to come in from partners including the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service and utility companies.

“But as of right now it’s looking like this year’s statewide snowpack will probably, most likely be, either the first or second biggest snowpack on record,” said de Guzman, who conducted a manual measurement on snow course at Phillips Station near Lake Tahoe.

California was three years into drought, with dwindling reservoirs and parched landscapes, until an unexpected series of powerful storms including more than a dozen atmospheric rivers began in December.

While causing widespread damage, the storms also built the extraordinary Sierra snowpack, which supplies about a third of California’s water. Reservoir storage statewide is now 107% of average.

“The real challenge as we move into spring and summer though is flooding — significant flooding — particularly in the Tulare Lake Basin,” said Karla Nemeth, director of the Department of Water Resources.

The basin once held Tulare Lake, a vast body of water in the Central Valley below the western slope of the Sierra. Settlers began draining it or diverting its water sources in the 19th century, converting it to farmland. The lake has already begun to reemerge due to this year’s runoff.

Snowmelt runoff projections will be released next week, but de Guzman predicts records will be broken. That will include “an absurdly high 422% of average” for the Kern River watershed, which drains into the southern end of the Central Valley, he said.

In this aerial drone image provided by Mammoth Mountain, the ski resort is covered with snow in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., on March 16, 2023. The Mammoth Mountain ski resort in the Eastern Sierra said this has been its snowiest season on record, with 695 inches at the main lodge and 870 inches on the summit of the 11,053-foot peak, as of Tuesday, March 28, 2023. (Samantha Deleo/Mammoth Mountain via AP)

Medical examiners group steps away from ‘excited delirium’

 Critics have said the term has been used to justify excessive force by police

By CARLA K. JOHNSON and RYAN J. FOLEY

yesterday

n this image from video, Dr. Bill Smock, a Louisville physician in forensic medicine, testifies in the trial of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin, charged in the 2020 death of George Floyd, at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, Minn., on Thursday, April 8, 2021. Smock testified that he believes excited delirium is real. But he said Floyd met none of the 10 criteria developed by the American College of Emergency Physicians. In a statement posted on the National Association of Medical Examiners’ site on March 23, 2023, the leading group of medical experts says the term “excited delirium”should not be listed as a cause of death. Critics have said the term has been used to justify excessive force by police. (Court TV via AP, Pool)

A leading group of medical experts says the term “excited delirium” should not be listed as a cause of death. Critics have said the term has been used to justify excessive force by police.

The National Association of Medical Examiners had been one of the last to take a stand against the commonly used but controversial term. In a statement posted on its site March 23, the association said “excited delirium” or “excited delirium syndrome” should not be used as a cause of death. The statement has no legal weight, but will be influential among medical examiners.

Critics have called the terms unscientific, rooted in racism — and a way to hide police officers’ culpability in deaths. The American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association do not recognize excited delirium as a diagnosis. Yet some police training materials have described it as a potentially fatal collection of symptoms including elevated temperature, unexpected strength, hallucinations and extreme agitation.

“Excited delirium is often used when there’s a death associated with a physical altercation between a citizen and law enforcement,” said Dr. Roger A. Mitchell Jr., who chairs the pathology department at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he served as chief medical examiner from 2014 to 2021. “It’s not a real explanation for the death.”

Medical examiners have ruled that excited delirium caused or contributed to police-related deaths including the 2020 case of Daniel Prude in New York, the 2019 death of Julius Graves in Missouri, and the 2017 death of Adam Trammell in Wisconsin. The term came up during the 2021 trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, whom jurors convicted in the death of George Floyd.

Medical examiners investigate unexpected deaths, conduct autopsies and determine causes. Some already had been moving away from excited delirium in favor of listing the multiple causes that can contribute to such deaths, including police restraint, drug use and medical conditions.

Dr. Joyce deJong, president of the medical examiners’ association, said the group’s statement stemmed from growing concerns that the phrase might be used to justify excessive force by police and might be used disproportionally when the deceased was Black.

“Anything we can do to avoid perpetuation of a phrase that might be causing harm,” said deJong, a medical examiner for 12 counties in Michigan.

For families mourning the loss of a loved one, an excited delirium ruling could cause confusion over a term they’d never heard, or anger about what they consider a way to cover up excessive force.

John Peters, president of the Institute for the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths, which provides training and litigation support for officers, said the group’s statement could lead to more investigations of police officers.

He said that the behaviors associated with excited delirium are often triggered by the use of illicit drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamines and that they ”will continue regardless of what we call it.”

In another notable move away from the term, the Minneapolis Police Department has agreed to bar its officers from directing paramedics to inject sedatives such as ketamine into individuals they believe are experiencing excited delirium. The move came in a court agreement announced Friday by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, which alleged the practice had been part of a pattern of racially biased policing in the city in recent years.

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Johnson reported from Washington state; Foley reported from Iowa City, Iowa.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.