JAPAN

No tritium found in fish after treated Fukushima water release

Simon Druker
Sat, August 26, 2023 

Fish samples from the ocean around Japan’s Fukushima nuclear complex are registering normal and do not contain radioactive contaminants after the discharge of treated wastewater from the plant, officials said Saturday. File Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI


Aug. 26 (UPI) -- Fish samples from the ocean around Japan's Fukushima nuclear complex are registering normal and do not contain radioactive contaminants after the discharge of treated wastewater from the plant, officials said Saturday.

The Japanese government did not detect any amount of tritium in the first fish samples taken in the water around the damaged plant.

Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries tested fish caught within five miles of the discharged water, the Kyodo News Agency reported.

The declaration comes after Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings said Friday none of the radioactive element was detectable in seawater samples.

The company expects to gradually release up to 22 trillion becquerels of tritium per year from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station over the next 20 or 30 years.

An aerial picture of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and its tanks containing radioactive water in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, the day before treated water began being released into the ocean. Photo by JiJi Press/EPA-EFE

Officials on Thursday began releasing treated water from the damaged nuclear plant into the ocean, amid strong environmental pushback from the fishing industry and neighboring countries.

China on Thursday suspended all seafood imports from Japan ahead of the water discharge, citing the possibility of tritium contamination.

The radioactive isotope of hydrogen is considered unstable and radioactive. Tritium occurs naturally but can also be produced as a byproduct of nuclear reactors.

The United Nations nuclear watchdog has said the procedure aligned with global safety standards.

Groundwater around the stricken nuclear facility has been contaminated since a catastrophic explosion crippled the site in March 2011.

Testing is taking place within a 25-mile radius of the water discharge site.

More than 1 million tons of water have already been stored for treatment and eventual discharge.

Last year, Tokyo Electric said it would raise seafood at the Fukushima site in order to dispel rumors about contamination.

Officials will continue measuring tritium levels in both water and fish each time treated wastewater from the Fukushima plant is released into the ocean.

Volunteer moms are distressed about the water being discharged from the Fukushima nuclear plant

Janis Mackey Frayer and Larissa Gao
Sat, August 26, 2023


IWAKI, Japan — In a laboratory on the third floor of a nondescript building here, a group of volunteers pour water from plastic jerry cans through filters into large round-bottomed vessels. Others chop up dried fish and other foods and put them into small blenders about the size of a coffee bean grinder.

These people aren’t trained scientists. They’re mothers who are worried about the legacy being left for their children after the decision to release treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean.

The gradual discharge of an estimated 1.3 million metric tons of wastewater began Thursday, after repeated assurances from the Japanese government and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, that it is safe.

But around 40 miles away, in the lab where they test water samples drawn off the shore near the plant, the lab’s manager, Ai Kimura, said she was worried that the discharge might ruin the ecosystem in this area on Japan’s central-eastern coast.

“I worry about the negative legacy, which is the contamination,” Kimura, 44, told NBC News Thursday, adding that it was a “negative legacy to our children.”

Ai Kimura. (Arata Yamamoto / NBC News)

The water being released, enough to fill 500 Olympic-size swimming pools and still building, has been used to cool fuel rods in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant’s reactors since a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami in 2011 set off a meltdown that spewed radioactive particles into the air in the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986, in what was then the Soviet Union.

Though the water is filtered and diluted to remove most radioactive elements, it still contains low levels of tritium, an isotope of hydrogen that is difficult to strip out.

Fukushima shoreline. (Arata Yamamoto / NBC News)

The Japanese government and the plant’s operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco), have said that the water which they say will be released over the next 30 to 40 years and is being held in hundreds of tanks on land, must be removed to prevent accidental leaks and make room for the plant’s decommissioning, more than a decade after the disaster.

Tepco, which has in the past been accused of a lack of transparency, has vowed to put safety first and stop the discharges if problems arise.

Shortly after the first batch of Fukushima water was discharged on Thursday, the IAEA said that its on-site analysis confirmed that the levels of tritium were “far below” the operational limit.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Friday that the United States was also satisfied with Japan’s “safe, transparent, and science-based process.”

There have nonetheless been loud objections from neighboring countries, including China, where customs authorities announced an immediate ban on all imports of Japanese “aquatic products,” including seafood, to “comprehensively guard against the risk of radioactive contamination to food safety caused by nuclear-contaminated water discharges.”

Although the South Korean government reiterated this week that it sees no scientific or technical issue with the water’s release, police in the country on Thursday arrested 16 protesters accused of trying to break into the Japanese Embassy in the capital, Seoul.

Dolly Peng, 23, looks at sushi in a Hong Kong store that has a sign saying it is from Norway, Argentina and Canada. (Cheng Cheng / NBC News )

But according to data posted online by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, water with much higher levels of tritium has been discharged by nuclear facilities in countries including China, South Korea, Canada and France in line with local regulations.

In the area around the Fukushima plant the impact of the disaster is eerily clear. Three miles away, in the town of Futaba, many of the abandoned houses look like they haven’t been touched since the day of the earthquake.

Curtains flap through broken windows, pictures and clocks are still on the walls and debris is strewn all over. Cars and bicycles are covered in dust.

Back in the lab, which operates as a nonprofit called Tarachin and funds its state-of-the-art equipment with donations, Kimura said that its testing had confirmed that radiation levels in agricultural products and the ocean in the accident region had been decreasing gradually.

But she said she feared the discharge might ruin the promising future of this area’s ecosystem.

“If the treated water is once again discharged, we believe that the same tragedy from 12 years ago will be repeated,” she said.

Janis Mackey Frayer reported from Fukushima, and Larissa Gao from Hong Kong.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

At Fukushima Daiichi, decommissioning the nuclear plant is far more challenging than water release

MARI YAMAGUCHI
Sat, August 26, 2023

This aerial view shows the treated water diluted by seawater flowing into a secondary water then into a connected undersea tunnel for an offshore discharge at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima, northern Japan, Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023. For the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, managing the ever-growing radioactive water held in more than 1,000 tanks has been a safety risk and a burden since the meltdown in March 2011. The start of treated wastewater release Thursday marked a milestone for the decommissioning, which is expected to take decades. 

(Kyodo News via AP, File)

FUTABA, Japan (AP) — For the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, managing the ever-growing volume of radioactive wastewater held in more than 1,000 tanks has been a safety risk and a burden since the meltdown in March 2011. Its release marks a milestone for the decommissioning, which is expected to take decades.

But it's just the beginning of the challenges ahead, such as the removal of the fatally radioactive melted fuel debris that remains in the three damaged reactors, a daunting task if ever accomplished.

Here's a look at what's going on with the plant's decommissioning:

WHAT HAPPENED AT FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI?

A magnitude 9.0 quake on March 11, 2011, triggered a massive tsunami that destroyed the plant’s power supply and cooling systems, causing three reactors to melt and spew large amounts of radiation. Highly contaminated cooling water applied to the damaged reactors has leaked continuously into building basements and mixed with groundwater. The water is collected and treated. Then, some is recycled as cooling water for melted fuel, while the rest is held in tanks that cover much of the plant.

WHY RELEASE THE WATER?

Fukushima Daiichi has struggled to handle the contaminated water since the 2011 disaster. The government and the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, say the tanks must be removed to make way for facilities needed to decommission the plant, such as storage space for melted fuel debris and other highly contaminated waste.

WILL THE WASTEWATER RELEASE PUSH DECOMMISSIONING FORWARD?

Not right away, because the water release is slow and the decommissioning is making little progress. TEPCO says it plans to release 31,200 tons of treated water by the end of March 2024, which would empty only 10 tanks out of 1,000 because of the continued production of wastewater at the plant.

The pace will later pick up, and about 1/3 of the tanks will be removed over the next 10 years, freeing up space for the plant's decommissioning, said TEPCO executive Junichi Matsumoto, who is in charge of the treated water release. He says the water would be released gradually over the span of 30 years, but as long as the melted fuel stays in the reactors, it requires cooling water, which creates more wastewater.

Emptied tanks also need to be scrapped for storage. Highly radioactive sludge, a byproduct of filtering at the treatment machine, also is a concern.

WHAT CHALLENGES ARE AHEAD?

About 880 tons of fatally radioactive melted nuclear fuel remain inside the reactors. Robotic probes have provided some information but the status of the melted debris remains largely unknown.

Earlier this year, a remote-controlled underwater vehicle successfully collected a tiny sample from inside Unit 1’s reactor — only a spoonful of the melted fuel debris in the three reactors. That’s 10 times the amount of damaged fuel removed at the Three Mile Island cleanup following its 1979 partial core melt.

Trial removal of melted debris using a giant remote-controlled robotic arm will begin in Unit 2 later this year after a nearly two-year delay. Spent fuel removal from Unit 1 reactor’s cooling pool is set to start in 2027 after a 10-year delay. Once all the spent fuel is removed, the focus will turn in 2031 to taking melted debris out of the reactors. But debris removal methods for two other reactors have not been decided.

Matsumoto says “technical difficulty involving the decommissioning is much higher” than the water release and involves higher risks of exposures by plant workers to remove spent fuel or melted fuel.

“Measures to reduce radiation exposure risks by plant workers will be increasingly difficult,” Matsumoto said. “Reduction of exposure risks is the basis for achieving both Fukushima's recovery and decommissioning.”

HOW BADLY WERE THE REACTORS DAMAGED?

Inside the worst-hit Unit 1, most of its reactor core melted and fell to the bottom of the primary containment chamber and possibly further into the concrete basement. A robotic probe sent inside the Unit 1 primary containment chamber found that its pedestal — the main supporting structure directly under its core — was extensively damaged.

Most of its thick concrete exterior was missing, exposing the internal steel reinforcement, and the nuclear regulators have requested TEPCO to make risk assessment.

CAN DECOMMISSIONING END BY 2051 AS PLANNED?

The government has stuck to its initial 30-to-40-year target for completing the decommissioning, without defining what that means.

An overly ambitious schedule could result in unnecessary radiation exposures for plant workers and excess environmental damage. Some experts say it would be impossible to remove all the melted fuel debris by 2051 and would take 50-100 years, if achieved at all.

Ford just got a loan bigger than anything seen ‘since the advent of the auto industry’ — here’s what the company is spending it on

Julia Taravella
Sat, August 26, 2023 

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that it will be giving Ford a $9.2 billion loan to build electric vehicle (EV) factories.

This loan, which Ford will be using to build three separate factories, will substantially increase the American car manufacturer’s capacity for building vehicles that do not rely on gas.

“Not since the advent of the auto industry 100 years ago have we seen an investment like that,” Gary Silberg, global automotive sector leader at the accounting firm KPMG, told Bloomberg.

Ford’s recent dedication to ramping up EV production includes plans to make clean energy vehicles more affordable. That’s an important development as, so far, high costs are a common reason people have not been making the switch to EVs.

“It’s going to help make great EVs available to more customers while powering thousands of good paying jobs and American manufacturing,” Dave Webb, Ford’s treasurer, said in a statement, according to The Verge.

The company will be joining forces with South Korean manufacturer SK Innovation. Together, the two brands plan to create enough battery capacity to power two million EVs annually by 2026.

The aid from the DOE couldn’t have come at a better time, as some experts predict that we’ll need 10 million EVs on U.S. roads by 2025 to evade the worst effects of our planet’s overheating.

Currently, dirty energy transportation such as internal-combustion cars and buses are responsible for nearly 30% of polluting gases that are contributing to Earth’s rising temperatures. So efforts to speed up the production of vehicles that do not release these toxic gases are important to slowing our planet’s overheating.

Moving toward a world with fewer gas-reliant vehicles benefits the planet in other ways, too. It means less need for toxic liquids like motor oil, which take years to degrade and can harm wildlife and contaminate waterways. Fewer gas-reliant vehicles can also improve air quality, especially in cities.

Women working in Antarctica say they were left to fend for themselves against sexual harassers

NICK PERRY
Sat, August 26, 2023 


2 / 10
A sign is photographed at McMurdo Station on Dec. 4, 2018. The Associated Press found a pattern of women working in Antarctica who said their claims of sexual harassment or assault had been minimized by their employers. The AP investigation came after the National Science Foundation published a report in 2022 in which 59% of women said they'd had a negative experience of harassment or assault while on the ice.

 (National Science Foundation via AP)

, New Zealand (AP) — The howling winds and perpetual darkness of the Antarctic winter were easing to a frozen spring when mechanic Liz Monahon at McMurdo Station grabbed a hammer.

If those in charge weren’t going to protect her from the man she feared would kill her, she figured, she needed to protect herself. It wasn’t like she could escape. They were all stuck there together on the ice.

So she kept the hammer with her at all times, either looped into her Carhartt overalls or tucked into her sports bra.

“If he came anywhere near me, I was going to start swinging at him,” Monahon says. “I decided that I was going to survive.”


___

Monahon, 35, is one of many women who say the isolated environment and macho culture at the United States research center in Antarctica have allowed sexual harassment and assault to flourish.

The National Science Foundation, the federal agency that oversees the U.S. Antarctic Program, published a report in 2022 in which 59% of women said they’d experienced harassment or assault while on the ice, and 72% of women said such behavior was a problem in Antarctica.

But the problem goes beyond the harassment, The Associated Press found. In reviewing court records and internal communications, and in interviews with more than a dozen current and former employees, the AP uncovered a pattern of women who said their claims of harassment or assault were minimized by their employers, often leading to them or others being put in further danger.

In one case, a woman who reported a colleague had groped her was made to work alongside him again. In another, a woman who told her employer she was sexually assaulted was later fired. Another woman said that bosses at the base downgraded her allegations from rape to harassment. The AP generally does not identify those who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they publicly identify themselves.

The complaints of violence did not stop with the NSF report. Five months after its release, a woman at McMurdo told a deputy U.S. marshal that colleague Stephen Bieneman pinned her down and put his shin over her throat for about a minute while she desperately tried to communicate she couldn’t breathe.

Bieneman pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor assault. He was fired and sent back to the U.S., court documents show, and his trial is scheduled for November. His lawyer, Birney Bervar, said in an email to the AP that it was “horseplay” initiated by the woman and the evidence didn’t support “an assault of the nature and degree she described.”

The NSF report triggered a Congressional investigation. In a written response to Congress that is contradicted by its own emails, Leidos, the prime contractor, said it received “zero allegations” of sexual assault in Antarctica during the five years ending April 2022.

Kathleen Naeher, the chief operating officer of the civil group at Leidos, told a congressional committee in December that they would install peepholes on dorm room doors, limit access to master keys that could open multiple bedrooms, and give teams in the field an extra satellite phone.

Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., said the proposed fixes left him flabbergasted.

“This should have been done before we sent anyone down to Antarctica,” he said at the hearing.

Monahon and all but one of the workers quoted in this story are speaking publicly for the first time. Trapped in one of the most remote spots on Earth, the women say they were largely forced to fend for themselves.

“No one was there to save me but me,” Monahon says. “And that was the thing that was so terrifying.”

___

Monahon believes she only escaped physical harm in Antarctica because of her colleagues, not management.

She met Zak Buckingham in 2021 at a hotel in Christchurch, New Zealand, where McMurdo workers were quarantining against COVID-19 before going to Antarctica. It would be Monahon’s second stint in Antarctica, a place that had fascinated her since her childhood half a world away in upstate New York.

At the hotel, Monahon says, male colleagues bothering her and a friend backed off when Buckingham — a plumber and amateur boxer from Auckland, New Zealand — sat with them.

Buckingham, now 36, was intimidating and a bit wild, but funny and charming. One night, Monahon says, she and Buckingham hooked up.

What Monahon didn’t know was that Buckingham had a history of what a judge described as alcohol-related criminal offending in New Zealand.

Three months before deploying, Buckingham breached a protection order taken out by his former partner and the mother of his three children, according to court records the AP obtained after petitioning a New Zealand judge. He’d texted his ex-partner demanding oral sex. She told him to stop being inappropriate.

“No, I will not stop being inappropriate,” he’d replied, and demanded oral sex again, according to the judge's findings. She again told him to stop. He responded, according to the records: “You need to be f----- like a slut.”

A week later, he sent her 18 texts, court records show. She warned him she’d call the police.

“Continue to threaten me and you’ll need to,” he’d replied.

___

Antarctica’s ancient ice sheet and remoteness make it ideal for scientists studying everything from the earliest moments of the universe to changes in the planet’s climate.

The population at McMurdo, the hub of U.S. operations, usually swells from 200-300 in the southern winter to over 1,000 in the summer. Typically, around 70% are men.

Funded and overseen by the NSF, the U.S. Antarctic Program is run by a tangle of contractors and subcontractors, with billions of dollars at stake. Since 2017, Leidos has held the main contract, now worth over $200 million per year. Subcontractor PAE, which employs many of the base’s workers, was bought last year by the government services giant Amentum.

There is no police presence or jail at McMurdo, and law enforcement falls to a sworn on-site deputy U.S. marshal.

Buckingham was hired by PAE. Amentum didn’t respond to questions from the AP. Leidos Senior Vice President Melissa Lee Dueñas said it conducts background checks on all its employees.

“Our stance on sexual harassment or assault couldn’t be more clear: we have zero tolerance for such behavior,” Dueñas said in an email. “Each case is thoroughly investigated.”

The NSF and Leidos declined to answer questions about Buckingham or other cases. Leidos said sharing specific details wasn’t always appropriate or helpful.

The NSF told the AP it improved safety in Antarctica last year. The agency now requires Leidos to immediately report any significant health and safety incidents, including sexual assault and harassment, it said in a statement. The NSF said it also created an office to deal with such complaints, provided a confidential victim’s advocate, and established a 24-hour helpline.

___

On the ice, with limited options for socializing, many head to one of McMurdo’s two main bars: Southern Exposure or Gallagher’s.

Neither has windows, workers say, and they smell of body odor and decades of stale beer that has seeped into the floor. In the summer, when the sun shines all night, people walk out of the bars and are dazzled by the light.

One night at Southern Exposure, Monahon told the AP, Buckingham began laughing with buddies about who was going to sleep with her and her friend. Next thing, he was forehead to forehead with another man, she says. Buckingham, reached by phone in New Zealand, declined to comment and hung up.

Monahon says she repeatedly told Buckingham she didn’t want to speak with him. Soon after, she heard Buckingham was angry at her.

Worried, she says, she told PAE's human resources she feared for her safety. They took no action. A week later, Buckingham rushed up to her in Gallagher’s, shaking with anger, shouting and threatening her, she says.

“You’ve been talking s--- about my mother,” he yelled at her, she says, leaving her baffled. “People who talk s--- about my mother deserve to die.”

Monahon says she was shocked to the core. “Snitches will get stitches,” she says Buckingham snarled as others intervened.

Cameron Dailey-Ruddy, who bartended at Gallagher’s, witnessed the commotion. He ordered everyone but Monahon to leave and called 911, which connects to the station firehouse. From the dispatcher, Dailey-Ruddy got the numbers for the Leidos station manager and PAE’s HR representative and asked them to come to the bar.

“It was kind of an open secret at that point that that guy had been harassing her,” said Dailey-Ruddy. He added that Buckingham was at the bars most nights, sometimes drank in public areas and harassed women.

Monahon says the managers brought her to a secret room and told her she could skip work the next day.

It was the last time she would feel supported by management.

___

After a night in her new room, Monahon met with PAE’s HR representative, Michelle Izzi.

Monahon claims Izzi discouraged her from reporting what happened to the deputy U.S. marshal, in part because it would create jurisdictional headaches and even an international problem, as Buckingham was a New Zealand citizen. Monahon also says Izzi told her she needed to carefully consider how filing charges might affect her personally and impact the entire U.S. Antarctic Program.

In a later recorded meeting, Izzi denied that she discouraged Monahon and said she had in fact instructed her to call the marshal. Izzi did not respond to the AP's requests for comment.

The next night, Dailey-Ruddy says, Buckingham was back at the bar. The night after, according to another person familiar with the situation, Buckingham got into a physical altercation with another man.

Dailey-Ruddy wasn’t surprised by the lack of action against Buckingham.

“It seemed like par for the course in terms of the culture, and sexual harassment, and how women’s safety was addressed on the station,” he says.

Meanwhile, Monahon had taken the machinist’s hammer to defend herself. In a statement to PAE’s HR department, she wrote: “Zak Buckingham is a danger to me. He has threatened my life. He is capable of hurting me and he wants to hurt me. … I have been living in fear for the last two days.”

With her employers doing nothing to address her concerns, Monahon's immediate boss and co-workers came up with their own plan, according to two employees familiar with the situation.

Monahon was told to pack her bags, and the next morning joined a group trying to navigate a safe route across the sea ice over eight days to resupply a tiny U.S. outpost. The crossing is risky because the ice can crumble in the spring.

“To protect her, they put her in a dangerous situation,” said Wes Thurmann, a fire department supervisor who had worked in Antarctica every year since 2012.

But they all felt it was safer than her remaining at McMurdo.

Thurmann, who was also notified when Dailey-Ruddy called 911, says he was introduced to McMurdo’s misogynistic culture when a group of men recited a list of women they considered targets for sex. Often, Thurmann says, the NSF and Antarctic contractors blamed such behavior on alcohol.

But the bosses wouldn’t ban booze, he says, because it would make deployments less attractive.

___

Monahon’s crisis on the ice wasn’t an anomaly. In November 2019, another incident involving a food worker pushed the NSF to launch its investigation. The food worker didn’t respond to a request for comment, but her case is outlined in internal emails obtained by the AP.

The woman told her bosses she’d been sexually assaulted by a coworker. Her performance was subsequently criticized by a supervisor, who was also the girlfriend of the accused man. Two months later, she was fired.

Many of the woman’s colleagues were outraged. Julie Grundberg, then the McMurdo area manager for Leidos, repeatedly emailed her concerns to her superiors in Denver.

“The fact that we haven’t come out with some sort of public statement is making the community trust our organization even less,” Grundberg wrote.

Supervisor Ethan Norris replied: “We need your help to keep this calm and be a neutral party as you have only one side of the story at this point.”

Norris did not respond to a request for comment from the AP.

The case prompted some of the women to form their own support group, Ice Allies. More than 300 people signed a petition calling for better systems for handling sexual assaults.

The food steward settled a wrongful termination claim for an undisclosed amount, people familiar with the situation told the AP. Leidos later fired Grundberg, in a move many workers believe was retaliatory.

Another food steward, Jennifer Sorensen, told the AP she was raped at McMurdo in 2015. Initially, she didn’t tell anyone.

“On station, I had no advocate to speak on behalf of my needs and protection, no jail to protect me from my rapist, and no knowledge of any present law enforcement personnel,” Sorensen said in a written account to the AP.

Still haunted 21 months later, Sorensen wrote to the man’s employer, GHG Corp., about what had happened. GHG later wrote back that it had investigated her claims with Leidos and wouldn’t hire the man again.

“We have concluded that you were a victim of sexual harassment,” wrote GHG President Joseph Willhelm.

Sorensen says it was shameful that GHG and Leidos downgraded what she says was rape to harassment. GHG did not respond to a request for comment. Sorensen also contacted the FBI, which did not file criminal charges and refused to release details of its investigation to the AP.

Britt Barquist, who worked as foreperson of the fuel department, told the AP she was attending a safety briefing with co-workers in 2017 when a man in a senior role reached under the table and squeezed her upper leg.

“It was a lingering hand on the inside of my thigh, like as close as you can get to just grabbing my actual crotch,” Barquist says.

Her boss at the time, Chad Goodale, told the AP he saw what happened and called his supervisor. He said the outcome was the man was taken off a joint project and told to avoid contact with Barquist. Yet upon returning to Antarctica in 2021, Barquist says, she was forced to work with the man again.

“It was humiliating. And awful,” she says. “I would try to not make eye contact with him, or acknowledge him at all. … Towards the end, he would talk to me about things, and I would just be wanting to throw up.”

When Barquist returned to Antarctica last year, she took a job as a cook, working alongside her husband at a tiny satellite camp rather than at McMurdo.

“I just wish I had been more protected,” she says.

___

Shortly before Monahon returned from her expedition, Buckingham was taken to a plane to go home early. The woman who normally drives people to the airfield refused to transport him.

“With my supervisor, we just decided it’s not safe, and station management can drive him out themselves,” says Rebecca Henderson.

Izzi, PAE’s HR representative, called Monahon into a meeting. Izzi’s superior, Holly Newman, was on the phone in Denver. Monahon recorded the conversation.

“The investigation was completed. We took appropriate action,” Newman says in the recording. She doesn't specify what action was taken other than to say the person was no longer on the ice. She adds that sometimes they get reports that aren't true.

Newman couldn’t be reached for comment.

In the recording, Newman then says problems with alcohol and people “hurting other people” have been occurring in Antarctica since “way before” she first visited in 2015.

“Why does it happen? Why doesn’t it stop?” Newman asks. “Those are big questions and there are not really any answers that I sit on that are satisfactory yet.”

___

In March 2022, Buckingham was sentenced to 100 hours of community service and 10 months of supervision after pleading guilty to two charges of breaching a protection order for his ex-partner.

“This is … the first time you have been before the court on any offending of this nature,” Judge Kevin Glubb concluded. “It has to be the last, Mr. Buckingham, you understand that? You come back again, all bets are off.”

Buckingham never faced any legal action or consequences for what Monahon said happened in Antarctica. He is now living back in New Zealand.

Monahon hopes her story prompts the contractors in Antarctica to face more accountability. And she wants the NSF to do more than potentially replace Leidos as the lead contractor when its contract expires in 2025.

“What are they going to do to make sure that this next contractor doesn’t do the same thing?” she asks.

Monahon was determined to keep working at Antarctica and returned in 2022, but has decided to skip this season.

“It’s that mentality of don’t let them win,” she says. “But I do think they are winning right now.”

___

AP researcher Jennifer Farrar in New York contributed to this report.

UK

Nadine Dorries resigns as Tory MP with scathing attack on Rishi Sunak

Nadine Dorries sends resignation letter to Rishi Sunak – and launches scathing attack on prime minister

ANOTHER BYELECTION FOR TORIES TO LOSE

Sophie Wingate
Updated Sat, 26 August 2023 

Nadine Dorries has resigned her parliamentary seat with a scathing attack on Rishi Sunak, accusing him of betraying Conservative principles and “demeaning his office by opening the gates to whip up a public frenzy” against her.

The Tory former minister had announced in June that she would quit the Commons with “immediate effect” in protest at not getting a peerage in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list, but failed to follow through until now.

Her exit triggers a challenging by-election for the Prime Minister in her Mid Bedfordshire constituency this autumn, amid a polling slump for his party.

Ms Dorries on Saturday said she had submitted her resignation letter to Mr Sunak, publishing the blistering text in The Daily Mail, for which she writes a column.

However, it is understood Downing Street has not received formal notice of her resignation.

In her letter, she accused Mr Sunak of leading attacks on her resulting in “the police having to visit my home and contact me on a number of occasions due to threats to my person”.

“The clearly orchestrated and almost daily personal attacks demonstrates the pitifully low level your Government has descended to,” the former culture secretary wrote.

She also heavily criticised his record in Government, saying: “Since you took office a year ago, the country is run by a zombie Parliament where nothing meaningful has happened.

“You have no mandate from the people and the Government is adrift. You have squandered the goodwill of the nation, for what?”

Ms Dorries accused Mr Sunak of abandoning “the fundamental principles of Conservatism” and said “history will not judge you kindly”



The staunch ally of former premier Mr Johnson has angered voters, Opposition MPs and some in her own party by remaining in post since announcing her intention to resign more than 10 weeks ago.

She said she was delaying her exit while she investigated why she was refused a seat in the Lords.

In recent weeks, a growing number of Tory MPs had spoken out against her, with Tom Hunt accusing her of showing “extraordinary” entitlement for failing to formally quit.

Labour, the Lib Dems and two town councils in her constituency – Shefford and Flitwick – urged her to go.

Constituents complained that she was “making a mockery” of them with her absenteeism as she had not spoken in the Commons since June 2022 and last voted in April.

Mr Sunak previously said Ms Dorries’ voters were not “being properly represented”, but did not move to expel her.

In an interview with the The Mail on Sunday, Ms Dorries said it was “nonsense” her constituents have been ignored and that she was “disappointed” the Prime Minister made comments to that effect.

Nadine Dorries blamed Rishi Sunak for ousting Boris Johnson from No 10 (Oli Scarff/PA)

In her letter, Ms Dorries claimed she had first informed Cabinet Secretary Simon Case of her intention to resign in July last year, but that close allies of the Prime Minister “have continued to this day to implore me to wait until the next general election rather than inflict yet another damaging by-election on the party at a time when we are consistently twenty points behind in the polls”.

She said the book she has written titled The Plot: The Political Assassination Of Boris Johnson – to be published in September, “exposes how the democratic process at the heart of our party has been corrupted” and led her to conclude she could no longer remain as a backbench MP.

Ms Dorries told Mr Sunak in her letter that Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer “does not have the winning X factor qualities of a Thatcher, a Blair, or a Boris Johnson, and sadly, Prime Minister, neither do you.

“Your actions have left some 200 or more of my MP colleagues to face an electoral tsunami and the loss of their livelihoods, because in your impatience to become Prime Minister you put your personal ambition above the stability of the country and our economy.”

Labour and the Lib Dems are hopeful of overturning Ms Dorries’ 24,000 majority in the by-election in Mid Bedfordshire, which the Conservative Party has held since 1931.

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said: “The people of Mid Bedfordshire deserve better than this circus act that has followed the Conservatives these past few months.”

Downing Street declined to comment.

Read Nadine Dorries’ resignation letter in full - as Boris ally tells PM ‘history will not judge you kindly’

Andy Gregory
Sat, 26 August 2023 

Boris ally Nadine Dorries has finally resigned as an MP with a scathing attack on Rishi Sunak.

In her resignation letter, which was published online by the Daily Mail, Ms Dorries said Mr Sunak had not achieved anything so far in government. She accused him of abandoning Boris Johnson’s manifesto and abandoning “the fundamental principles of Conservatism”.

Here is her letter in full.

“Dear prime minister,

“It has been the greatest honour and privilege of my life to have served the good people of Mid Bedfordshire as their MP for 18 years and I count myself blessed to have worked in Westminster for almost a quarter of a century. Despite what some in the media and you yourself have implied, my team of caseworkers and I have continued to work for my constituents faithfully and diligently to this day.

“When I arrived in Mid Bedfordshire in 2005, I inherited a Conservative majority of 8,000. Over five elections this has increased to almost 25,000, making it one of the safest seats in the country. A legacy I am proud of.

“During my time as a member of parliament, I have served as a backbencher, a bill committee chair, a parliamentary under-secretary of state before becoming minister of state in the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) during the Covid crisis, after which I was appointed as secretary of state at the department of Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS). The offer to continue in my cabinet role was extended to me by your predecessor, Liz Truss, and I am grateful for your personal phone call on the morning you appointed your cabinet in October, even if I declined to take the call.

“As politicians, one of the greatest things we can do is to empower people to have opportunities to achieve their aspirations and to help them to change their lives for the better. In DHSC I championed meaningful improvements to maternity and neonatal safety. I launched the women’s health strategy and pushed forward a national evidence-based trial for Group B strep testing in pregnant women with the aim to reduce infant deaths. When I resigned as secretary of state for DCMS I was able to thank the professional, dedicated, and hard-working civil servants for making our department the highest performing in Whitehall. We worked tirelessly to strengthen the Online Safety Bill to protect young people, froze the BBC licence fee, included the sale of Channel 4 into the Media Bill to protect its long-term future and led the world in imposing cultural sanctions when Putin invaded Ukraine.

“I worked with and encouraged the tech sector, to search out untaught talents such as creative and critical thinking in deprived communities offering those who faced a life on low unskilled pay or benefits, access to higher paid employment and social mobility. What many of the CEOs I spoke to in the tech sector and business leaders really wanted was meaningful regulatory reform from you as chancellor to enable companies not only to establish in the UK, but to list on the London Stock Exchange rather than New York. You flashed your gleaming smile in your Prada shoes and Savile Row suit from behind a camera, but you just weren’t listening. All they received in return were platitudes and a speech illustrating how wonderful life was in California. London is now losing its appeal as more UK-based companies seek better listing opportunities in the US. That, prime minister, is entirely down to you.

Nadine Dorries says she has uncovered a ‘dark story’ about how Boris Johnson was removed from office (Getty)

“Long before my resignation announcement, in July 2022, I had advised the cabinet secretary, Simon Case, of my intention to step down. Senior figures in the party, close allies of yours, have continued to this day to implore me to wait until the next general election rather than inflict yet another damaging by-election on the party at a time when we are consistently twenty points behind in the polls.

“Having witnessed first-hand, as Boris Johnson and then Liz Truss were taken down, I decided that the British people had a right to know what was happening in their name. Why is it that we have had five Conservative prime ministers since 2010, with not one of the previous four having left office as the result of losing a general election? That is a democratic deficit which the mother of parliaments should be deeply ashamed of and which, as you and I know, is the result of the machinations of a small group of individuals embedded deep at the centre of the party and Downing St.

“To start with, my investigations focused on the political assassination of Boris Johnson, but as I spoke to more and more people - and I have spoken to a lot of people, from ex-prime ministers, Cabinet ministers both ex and current through all levels of government and Westminster and even journalists - a dark story emerged which grew ever more disturbing with each person I spoke to.

“It became clear to me as I worked that remaining as a backbencher was incompatible with publishing a book which exposes how the democratic process at the heart of our party has been corrupted. As I uncovered this alarming situation I knew, such were the forces ranged against me, that I was grateful to retain my parliamentary privilege until today. And, as you also know prime minister, those forces are today the most powerful figures in the land. The onslaught against me even included the bizarre spectacle of the cabinet secretary claiming (without evidence) to a select committee that he had reported me to the whips and speakers office (not only have neither office been able to confirm this was true, but they have no power to act, as he well knows). It is surely as clear a breach of civil service impartiality as you could wish to see.

Dorries accused Sunak of abandoning Boris Johnson’s manifesto (Getty)

“But worst of all has been the spectacle of a prime minister demeaning his office by opening the gates to whip up a public frenzy against one of his own MPs. You failed to mention in your public comments that there could be no writ moved for a by-election over summer. And that the earliest any by-election could take place is at the end of September. The clearly orchestrated and almost daily personal attacks demonstrates the pitifully low level your government has descended to.

“It is a modus operandi established by your allies which has targeted Boris Johnson, transferred to Liz Truss and now moved on to me. But I have not been a prime minister. I do not have security or protection. Attacks from people, led by you, declared open season on myself and the past weeks have resulted in the police having to visit my home and contact me on a number of occasions due to threats to my person.

“Since you took office a year ago, the country is run by a zombie Parliament where nothing meaningful has happened. What exactly has been done or have you achieved? You hold the office of prime minister unelected, without a single vote, not even from your own MPs. You have no mandate from the people and the Government is adrift. You have squandered the goodwill of the nation, for what?

“And what a difference it is now since 2019, when Boris Johnson won an eighty-seat majority and a greater percentage of the vote share than Tony Blair in the Labour landslide victory of ‘97. We were a mere five points behind on the day he was removed from office. Since you became prime minister, his manifesto has been completely abandoned. We cannot simply disregard the democratic choice of the electorate, remove both the prime minister and the manifesto commitments they voted for and then expect to return to the people in the hope that they will continue to unquestioningly support us. They have agency, they will use it.

“Levelling up has been discarded and with it, those deprived communities it sought to serve. Social care, ready to be launched, abandoned along with the hope of all of those who care for the elderly and the vulnerable. The Online Safety Bill has been watered down. BBC funding reform, the clock run down. The Mental Health Act, timed out. Defence spending, reduced. Our commitment to net zero, animal welfare and the green issues so relevant to the planet and voters under 40, squandered. As Lord Goldsmith wrote in his own resignation letter, because you simply do not care about the environment or the natural world. What exactly is it you do stand for?

“You have increased Corporation tax to 25 per cent, taking us to the level of the highest tax take since the Second World War at 75 per cent of GDP, and you have completely failed in reducing illegal immigration or delivering on the benefits of Brexit. The bonfire of EU legislation, swerved. The Windsor Framework agreement, a dead duck, brought into existence by shady promises of future preferment with grubby rewards and potential gongs to MPs. Stormont is still not sitting.

Dorries told Rishi Sunak: ‘History will not judge you kindly’ (Reuters)

“Disregarding your own chancellor, last week you took credit for reducing inflation, citing your ‘plan’. There has been no budget, no new fiscal measures, no debate, there is no plan. Such statements take the British public for fools. The decline in the price of commodities such as oil and gas, the eased pressure on the supply of wheat and the increase in interest rates by the Bank of England are what has taken the heat out of the economy and reduced inflation. For you to personally claim credit for this was disingenuous at the very least.

“It is a fact that there is no affection for Keir Starmer out on the doorstep. He does not have the winning X-factor qualities of a Thatcher, a Blair, or a Boris Johnson, and sadly, prime minister, neither do you. Your actions have left some 200 or more of my MP colleagues to face an electoral tsunami and the loss of their livelihoods, because in your impatience to become prime minister you put your personal ambition above the stability of the country and our economy. Bewildered, we look in vain for the grand political vision for the people of this great country to hold on to, that would make all this disruption and subsequent inertia worthwhile, and we find absolutely nothing.

“I shall take some comfort from explaining to people exactly how you and your allies achieved this undemocratic upheaval in my book. I am a proud working-class Conservative which is why the Levelling Up agenda was so important to me. I know personally how effective a strong and helping hand can be to lift someone out of poverty and how vision, hope and opportunity can change lives. You have abandoned the fundamental principles of Conservatism. History will not judge you kindly.

“I shall today inform the chancellor of my intention to take the Chiltern Hundreds, enabling the writ to be moved on September the 4th for the by-election you are so desperately seeking to take place.

“Yours sincerely,

“Nadine Dorries”

Rishi Sunak allies have fired back at “bitter” Nadine Dorries after she accused the PM of putting her personal safety at risk by whipping up “a public frenzy” against her.

Adam Forrest
Sun, 27 August 2023

The Boris Johnson loyalist launched a scathing attack on Mr Sunak as she finally formally resigned her seat 11 weeks after promising to go – telling him: “History will not judge you kindly”.

But senior Tory Bob Neill – a loyal Sunak supporter – accused Ms Dorries of presiding over a “theatre of the absurd” with her recent refusal to go unless documents about her denied peerage were released.

“She had become an embarrassment,” Mr Neill told Times Radio. “She was a pretty useless culture secretary and she finally created her own theatre of the absurd. It is so obviously motivated by personal bitterness and bile and has got no credibility at all.

“To accuse the prime minister, who is doing his best to get back to sound economic policy … of abandoning fundamental principles, really takes the biscuit, of all the political absurdity I’ve heard.”

Mr Neill, chair of justice select committee, also suggested that MPs could consider changing Commons rules to punish “deliberate non-attendance” to stop the saga surrounding Ms Dorries – who had not spoken in parliament for a year – from happening again.

Ms Dorries accused Mr Sunak in her resignation letter of betraying Conservative principles, running a “zombie” government and putting her personal safety at risk by whipping up “a public frenzy” against her.

She accused Mr Sunak of leading attacks on her resulting in “the police having to visit my home and contact me on a number of occasions due to threats to my person … The clearly orchestrated and almost daily personal attacks demonstrates the pitifully low level your government has descended to.”

Tory peer Gavin Barwell, former No 10 chief of staff under Theresa May, said her claim that Mr Sunak “whipped up a storm” against her was “absurd” – insisting that it had come from the constituency.

Nadine Dorries accused Sunak of ‘orchestrated’ attacks (Getty)

On her attack on Mr Sunak’s record, Lord Barwell told Times Radio: “It takes a certain degree of brass neck to attack the economic record of this government, when Nadine served in the Liz Truss government.”

One senior Tory MP told The Independent that Ms Dorries was “off her rocker” and was “making a show of herself”.

The Treasury confirmed it has been notified of Ms Dorries’ intention to step down, and she is expected to be removed from the Commons by being appointed to the historical position of Steward and Bailiff of the Three Hundreds of Chiltern.

That will pave the way for a by-election to be held in her Mid Bedfordshire constituency within weeks, causing a headache for Mr Sunak as his party languishes in the polls.

In her blistering statement published in The Mail on Sunday, Ms Dorries said Mr Sunak had abandoned “the fundamental principles of Conservatism” and said “history will not judge you kindly”.

“Since you took office a year ago, the country is run by a zombie parliament where nothing meaningful has happened,” she wrote. “You have no mandate from the people and the government is adrift. You have squandered the goodwill of the nation, for what?”

Nadine Dorries was a strong backer of Boris Johnson (PA)

Veterans minister Johnny Mercer suggested on Sunday the party had become bored of Ms Dorries’ attacks on the government. “She’s obviously made a quite personal attack on the prime minister, that’s for her. I just don’t think people are interested in hearing this anymore ... we need to move forward,” he told Times Radio.

Asked about Ms Dorries’ letter criticising the Sunak government’s record, Mr Mercer said that there was “stuff in there that’s clearly not true” – referring to her attack on defence spending. “She’s entitled to her view,” he added.

The Cabinet Office minister added: “It’s far better to be seen to fail while striving greatly rather than just sort of chucking rocks on the side.”

Mr Sunak previously said Ms Dorries’ voters were not “being properly represented”, but did not move to expel her. Labour, the Lib Dems and two councils in her constituency – Shefford and Flitwick – had urged her to go. Constituents complained that she was “making a mockery” of them.

In her letter, Ms Dorries claimed she had first informed cabinet secretary Simon Case of her intention to resign in July last year, but that close allies of the PM “have continued to this day to implore me to wait until the next general election rather than inflict yet another damaging by-election on the party”.

Ed Davey and Keir Starmer have been urged to forge an electoral pact in Mid Bedfordshire (Getty)

Despite her letters, a by-election writ cannot be formally moved until parliament gets back to business in early September – so a byelection cannot be held until October at the earliest.

Labour is hopeful of overturning Ms Dorries’ 24,000 majority in the by-election in Mid Bedfordshire, which the Conservative Party has held since 1931, having come second in 2019.

But the Liberal Democrats also believe they have the chance of springing another by-election shock after overturning a 19,000 blue majority in Somerton and Frome.

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey told BBC Breakfast he is “increasingly confident we have a really good chance”. But Labour’s Peter Kyle told Sky News: “We are actually in a great position to win this seat in what would be an historic by-election victory.”

The campaign group Compass, which advocates tactical voting, have urged Labour and Lib Dems to get together and decide which party has the better chance of winning in Mid-Bedfordshire in a “non-aggression pact”.

Compass director Neal Lawson told The Independent: “The ghost of last month’s by-election in Uxbridge should loom large over Mid Bedfordshire. There, the progressive vote outnumbered the Conservative vote, but the Tories retained the seat because support for progressive parties was divided.

He added: “This must not happen in Mid Bedfordshire. Progressives can’t only do deals and work together when it’s easy - they must also do so when it’s hard.”

Lord Barwell said the Tory party’s chances in Mid-Bedfordshire were “not good” – but they could take heart from the prospect of Labour and Lib Dems splitting the vote “evenly”.

This state blew up its last coal plant to make way for a massive, community-changing construction project: ‘In our opinion, it’s irreversible’

Laurelle Stelle
Sat, August 26, 2023

New Jersey has demolished Logan Generating Station, one of its last coal-fired power plants, Bloomberg reports.

Built only 28 years ago, the plant was purchased from Atlantic City Electric in 2018 by Starwood Energy Group, Bloomberg says. The investment company intends to convert it and the nearby Chambers plant to make affordable, clean energy — meaning electricity that’s generated without putting heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere.

This project is part of a push in the U.S. and throughout the world to get rid of polluting energy sources that warm up the planet. Similar projects in Michigan, Hawaii, Colorado, Minnesota, Illinois, Massachusetts, and other states are making the country’s electric power healthier, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly.

This change could not be more timely, as a new report from the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign recently revealed the harm caused by the U.S.’s heavy reliance on coal.

The fine particle pollution from coal plants causes 3,800 premature deaths each year, often in states far away from the actual location of the plant. And that data doesn’t even include the health risks caused by other types of coal pollution.

Coal is also expensive compared to other options. According to Forbes, “209 out of 210 existing U.S. coal plants are now more expensive to run compared to replacement by new cheaper wind or solar energy in the same region.”

Meanwhile, the heat-trapping gases generated by coal plants contribute to increasing temperatures worldwide. The heat, in turn, causes more frequent and more destructive natural disasters like hurricanes and floods.

Switching to eco-friendly solar, wind, and water power is the smart move for health, finances, and long-term safety — and after the transition, former coal plants will still play a crucial role. Because these areas are wired to the power grid, they’re the perfect places to put energy storage projects, Bloomberg reports.

Most clean energy sources need battery storage because, unlike coal which generates power on demand, wind and solar depend on the weather. Providers will need to generate and store energy when conditions are favorable, then release it at night or in calm weather.

So far, New Jersey doesn’t have enough wind and solar sources to need battery storage, says Bloomberg. But Starwood Energy Group is investing in what it sees as the inevitable future.

“In our opinion, it’s irreversible,” Starwood’s CEO, Himanshu Saxena, told Bloomberg. “Folks just have to get on the train.”

WAR ON HUMAN RIGHTS
In Iowa and elsewhere, bans on LGBTQ+ ‘conversion therapy’ become a conservative target

HANNAH FINGERHUT
Fri, August 25, 2023 

Archer Trip tells the Waterloo City Council on Aug. 21, 2023, about their experiences of undergoing conversion therapy as a child, in Waterloo, Iowa. 

(Maria Kuiper/The Courier via AP) 

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — One of Iowa's largest cities repealed its ban on “conversion therapy” — the discredited practice of trying to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity through counseling — after a Christian organization threatened legal action, part of a deepening national movement to challenge protections for LGBTQ+ kids.

The city council in Waterloo voted this week to remove its restrictions after Liberty Counsel warned in a letter June 30 that it would “take further action” if the city did not repeal the ordinance by August 1. It was enacted in May.

The organization, which is based in Orlando, Florida, argued the ordinance infringes on the constitutional right to free speech and acted on behalf of a therapist in Waterloo “who was concerned about the implications of this on the practice of counseling," Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel founder and chair, said in an interview in which he promised further litigation targeting states.

In Iowa and across the country, efforts are spreading to curb the rights of LGBTQ+ kids and adopt restrictions on gender and sexuality in classrooms, youth sports and medicine. In recent years, local bans on conversion therapy in Florida also fell with the help of Liberty Counsel, which describes itself as a Christian ministry that is “restoring the culture by advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and the family.”

Such therapy has been discredited and is opposed by, among others, the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association, citing research that shows it leads to increased risk of suicide and depression.

“The mental health mainstream believes that one, that these practices don’t really work, and two, that they may cause harm,” said Dr. Jack Drescher, a Columbia University psychiatry professor and editor of the chapter on gender dysphoria in the psychiatric association's diagnostic manual. “There’s no science on the side of people who believe in conversion therapy. There’s just faith and belief.”

Laws prohibiting mental health professionals from attempting to change a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity are on the books in 22 states and Washington, D.C., according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ+ rights think tank. In 13 states, including Iowa, some municipalities have adopted their own provisions.

The issue has the potential to come to a head in the next year if the U.S. Supreme Court decides early this fall to hear the appeal of a Washington state therapist, Brian Tingley, whose lawsuit was dismissed.

While early lawsuits similar to Tingley’s failed, a Supreme Court ruling in 2018 prompted a new round of cases, said Christy Mallory, legal director at the UCLA School of Law's Williams Institute, which researches sexual orientation and gender identity. That ruling invoked free speech protections to block a California law that required anti-abortion centers to provide information about abortion.

In 2020, a panel of three federal judges in Florida relied in part on that 2018 ruling and became the first federal appeals court to block ordinances in Boca Raton and Palm Beach County that banned conversion therapy. Liberty Counsel represents the two therapists who won that case.

The diverging federal rulings in the Washington and Florida cases may be a reason for the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in this term, bringing another high-profile LGBTQ+ issue to the docket.

Staver is confident the Supreme Court will strike down bans in the near future. And Liberty Counsel has imminent plans to sue over statewide bans, he said.

“I think it is a losing proposition for any state or local government to have one of these laws, and they would be wise to repeal them before they also are sued,” Staver said.

In Iowa, Senate Democrats and a Republican in the House introduced bills for conversion therapy bans that didn’t make it out of subcommittees in 2020. That was the last time there was a concerted effort for a ban in the state, said Damian Thompson, public policy director at Iowa Safe Schools, an organization that advocates for LGBTQ+ children.

Meanwhile, in Iowa and elsewhere, laws have since been passed to prohibit teachers from raising gender identity and sexual orientation issues with students through grade six, to restrict the restrooms transgender students can use, and to ban treatments like puberty blockers and hormone therapy for trans minors. Many are facing challenges in court.

Republican lawmakers say the laws are designed to affirm parents’ rights and protect children. The issues have become flashpoints in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

But many parents and advocates worry about the deterioration of the rights and safety of LGBTQ+ kids.

In Waterloo, a city of over 65,000, Councilor Jonathan Grieder said he had heard concerns about conversion therapy happening in the area. He worked with Thompson at Iowa Safe Schools to draft an ordinance after watching statewide efforts stall but a ban pass in another Iowa city, Davenport, and in Linn County.

The Waterloo council approved it 6-1 in May, but overturned it 4-3 on Monday amid the prospect of costly litigation.

Archer Trip, of neighboring Cedar Falls, addressed the council before the repeal vote as a “survivor of conversion therapy" who had been placed there in high school.

“It does not work. Now, I am a proud queer man, but I am also here to protect everyone else,” Trip said. "We should protect our children.”

Archer's twin sister, Nic Trip, who was also put in conversion therapy, testified: “Unfortunately, not all parents always make the safest decision for their children. What is the line of what is OK to do to our children?”

Mayor Quentin Hart said, not mentioning the Liberty Counsel, that there was “threat of impending litigation moving forward,” which put the members in a “tough situation.”

“I don’t believe that the Waterloo City Council are cowards," Hart said. "I believe that they do have a decision to make tonight.”

The decision disappointed Thompson, who said Iowa Safe Schools will continue to advocate for local bans despite far-right groups’ success in turning a “common sense” issue into a “wedge culture war” one.

“Which is a shame,” Thompson said, “because in the meantime it only results in more kids being victimized and more kids, ultimately, receiving lifelong trauma.”

Transgender woman in New York reaches landmark settlement with county jail after great discrimination

Emily Barnes, Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin
Fri, August 25, 2023 at 9:37 PM MDT·5 min read

A transgender woman in New York has achieved a significant settlement with Broome County after experiencing violence, discrimination and the denial of medical care while in custody at Broome County Jail.

Broome County will adopt new policies affirming the rights of transgender people in the jail after a woman said she was discriminated against while in custody at the jail.

Makyyla Holland, a 25-year-old Black transgender woman, reached a settlement with the county Thursday after filing a lawsuit in 2022 saying she was the victim of multiple forms of harassment, including physical abuse, misgendering and refusal of access to medication and commissary items during her time in at the jail in 2021.

As part of the settlement, the county will pay Holland $160,000 for the harms she suffered, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) and Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF).


"No one should ever have to go through what I went through at the Broome County Jail and I am so grateful that with this new policy, hopefully, no one else ever will," Holland said in a written statement. "This policy and policies like it can impact a lot of my community and I will continue to fight to ensure that no other trans person in New York or anywhere has to endure what I did."
What the new policies entail

Makyyla Holland's 2022 lawsuit against Broome County for how she was treated in the jail's custody in 2021 has incited policy changes.

Under the settlement, the county is changing its policies to comply with federal and state laws, according to a statement from the NYCLU and TLDEF. Specifically, the county will:

House people consistent with their gender identity or within the unit consistent with the sex designation the person in custody believes is safest for them.


Conduct searches consistent with the person in custody’s own view of what gender officer would be safest to perform the search.


Ensure that staff at the jail respect a person’s gender identity in all other contexts, including name and pronoun use.


Ensure access to clothing and toiletry items consistent with a person’s gender identity, and facilitate access to gender-affirming items such as binders, wigs, and gaffs.


Ensure access to medical care free from discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation, including access to medical care for treatment of gender dysphoria.

This policy isn't the first to be enacted in the Southern Tier. In August 2020, the NYCLU and TLDEF reached a settlement with Steuben County, which adopted similar policies.

"Today we celebrate the stunning, transgender rights victory of courageous Makyyla Holland and the NYCLU in their lawsuit against Broome County, the Sheriff, Undersheriff, officers, and medical staff," Justice and Unity in the Southern Tier (JUST) said in a written statement Thursday. "This is a wonderful outcome, and we look forward to observing its implementation at the County jail and other facilities."

Anti-trans legislation: Is all the anger, fury really about transgender rights? Maybe not.

Broome County did not comment on the matter but referred to the jail administration.

"While this settlement stems from an incident and subsequent lawsuit that occurred before I was elected Sheriff, I’m pleased we were able to amicably reach a resolution that establishes clear LGBTI Guidelines, which were previously nonexistent, to address the rights of LGBTI inmates while maintaining the safety and security of individuals both housed and working at the Broome County Correctional Facility," Broome County Sheriff Fred Akshar said.

"It’s another important step forward in pragmatically and safely modernizing policies to meet the needs of those we serve and protect as we work to build a better, safer community for everyone in Broome County.”
What the lawsuit says

Broome County is adopting a new policy which will affirm the rights of transgender people while they are in the Broome County jail.

During Holland's first period of incarceration between January and February 2021, the lawsuit states Holland faced several injustices, including:

Being physically attacked during the intake process, suffering multiple bruises, cuts, a broken tooth and a painful lump on her head that caused her severe migraines.


Never seen by a dentist or offered any treatment for her broken tooth, the pain in the back of her head and the migraine headaches she endured as a result, other than ibuprofen.


Assigned to the men's unit inside the Broome County jail and placed in an isolated cell by herself with glass walls on all sides, visible to men in the unit at all times, despite informing correctional officers several times about her transgender status.


Denied access to a shower and the ability to leave the cell during periods when men she detained with were allowed out.

Between June and July 2021, the lawsuit claims Holland’s second period of incarceration in the Broome County jail saw similar injustices, such as:

Strip searched by several men, forced to peel off her acrylic nails without the appropriate tools and placed exclusively within men’s housing units, despite disclosing her transgender status multiple times.

Her wig, which was glued to her head, was ordered to be removed.

Medical providers denied her hormone replacement therapy medications for four weeks, never provided her with her prescribed testosterone blockers or antidepressants and only provided her with a single estrogen injection after she had been in the jail for 28 days.

Transgender rights: How abortion helped revive Alabama's ban on gender affirming care

These denials caused horrible withdrawal symptoms, according to the documents, and she had to postpone her gender-affirming surgery.

Throughout Holland’s stay in the Broome County jail, the lawsuit states she was harassed and misgendered repeatedly and was forced to shower in full view of the male staff and the men in custody.

Holland was denied access to undergarments, hygiene products and commissary items routinely afforded to women in the Broome County jail, according to the documents.

The lawsuit also states Holland reported some instances to one of the correctional officers, as well as submitted several grievance slips, which Holland’s lawsuit claims she never received any responses to.

Emily Barnes is the New York State Team Consumer Advocate Reporter for the USA Today Network. Contact Emily at ebarnes@gannett.com or on Twitter @byemilybarnes. To get unlimited access to the latest news, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: Transgender woman in New York reaches landmark settlement with county jail