63 Asian American groups slam potential reauthorization of controversial surveillance measure

KIMMY YAM
November 16, 2023 

Hannah Beier


Dozens of Asian American organizations sent a letter to Congress this week to protest the reauthorization of Section 702, a controversial surveillance statute that critics say could be used to racially profile communities of color.

A coalition of 63 organizations, led by several Asian American groups including the Asian American Scholar Forum and Stop AAPI Hate, urged lawmakers to reject a short-term extension of the statute, which gives U.S. intelligence agencies the authority, without a warrant, to acquire communications of non-Americans who use American communications platforms.

With the program slated to expire by the end of the year, lawmakers will have to decide on its future. But the organizations argue that the surveillance has previously been used against Asian Americans, including Chinese American professor Xiaoxing Xi, who was arrested in May 2015 and falsely accused of spying for China before his case was dropped months later.

“Part of the reason why his case inspires so much concern is … the fear that the methods that were used on Dr. Xiaoxing Xi are being used against the Asian American scholar community as a whole,” Gisela Perez Kusakawa, executive director of the Asian American Scholar Forum, told NBC News. “The existing surveillance authority that the government has needs appropriate checks and balances so that racial profiling does not take place.”

The groups instead called for Section 702 and its renewal to be examined through separate legislation so it is “subject to open debate and amendment.” They also advocated for a floor vote on the Government Surveillance Reform Act of 2023, a bipartisan bill introduced earlier this month that would reform Section 702 by requiring warrants for the government purchase of private data, among other major changes.

The coalition argued that the statute has been “misused” to spy on Americans in the past. A court order showed that the FBI improperly searched for information in Section 702 databases more than 278,000 times in 2020 and early 2021 to look into Americans who participated in protests following the murder of George Floyd, among others.


In the case of Xi, the FBI relied on the statute to surveil his communications with colleagues in China without a warrant, a 2017 complaint shows. These communications were cited by the government in court papers when Xi was arrested. And the professor was subsequently threatened with up to 80 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million before the case collapsed.

While data on the use of Section 702 on Asian American scientists like Xi is scarce, the professor is one of several Asian American scientists who have been falsely accused of espionage.

“The consequences of such misuse have had a profound impact on our Asian American community, resulting in wrongful targeting, unjust surveillance, and devastating tolls on careers, livelihoods, and reputations,” the letter read. “This disproportionate targeting has fostered a climate of fear among Asian Americans and their families, causing anxiety about being stopped, monitored, or investigated while engaging in everyday activities.”

The coalition previously wrote to Congress in September, opposing Section 702 without reforms and underscoring the impact that historical discrimination and “unrestrained national security programs” have had on the Asian American community.

“During World War II, over 120,000 U.S. residents of Japanese ancestry were incarcerated in remote detention camps in the name of ‘national security’ in what was one of the darkest stains in our nation’s history,” the coalition wrote. “Yet history continues to repeat itself from the treatment of Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian (AMEMSA) communities post 9/11 to the current hate, violence, and bigotry against Asian Americans.”

Kusakawa said her organization recognizes legitimate threats to U.S. national security, but that a stronger system of checks and balances is necessary to ensure civil rights protections.

“When we lack the sufficient protections, when we lack these guardrails, it results in a chilling effect that leads to a loss of talent and trust in our country,” Kusakawa said. “When we lose talent, we lose all of those significant innovations and rich contributions of the Asian American scholar community.”

Owner of California biolab has close ties to Chinese government, military: House Report

SARAH RUMPF-WHITTEN

FOX NEWS 

UNFAIR, UNBALANCED
November 16, 2023 


The House Select Committee on the People’s Republic of China (PRC) announced on Wednesday that the owner of an illegal California biolab allegedly has close ties to the Chinese government.

According to a report shared by the House Select Committee on the PRC, Jia Bei Zhu, 62, is a wanted fugitive from Canada and a PRC citizen.

Authorities said that Zhu had previously stolen millions of dollars of intellectual property from American companies and was part of an ongoing transnational criminal enterprise with ties to the PRC.

Zhu, who went by a number of aliases, was arrested in October for "manufacturing and distributing misbranded medical devices in violation of the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) and for making false statements to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)."

Inside the Chinese-linked California biolab.

Zhu's Universal Meditech Inc. lab in Reedley, California first raised eyebrows in December 2022 when Code Enforcement Officer Jesalyn Harper noticed a green garden hose sticking out of a hole at the facility and notified Zhu of the code violation.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Further inspection found that the dingy warehouse contained expensive laboratory equipment, manufacturing devices, and what appeared to be medical-grade freezers.

Harper observed several workers in lab coats who told her that they were PRC nationals.

As she continued further in the vast warehouse, she noticed that some of the freezers and containment units had glass doors.

Mice used in testing at the China-linked biolab in California.

Inside, she saw thousands of vials of biological substances. Many were unlabeled. Others were labeled in Mandarin or in code.

The city also found approximately 1,000 transgenic mice. Mice used for research of human disease, which biolab workers told them were, "genetically engineered to catch and carry the COVID-19 virus."

Bottles with chemicals in storage in a biolab in Fresno, California.

The mysterious discoveries spurred a nine-month effort by the city of Reedley to address the public health risk found in the warehouse.

The House Select Committee on the PRC said that local law enforcement attempted to contact the FBI and the CDC, but both federal agencies declined to investigate.

Equipment with Mandarin writing in a biolab located in Fresno, California.

Ultimately, local officials contacted their local Member of Congress, Representative Jim Costa, and asked him for help obtaining federal assistance.

With Rep. Costa's assistance, the CDC came to inspect the Reedley Biolab in May 2023.

Bottles and other items in containers in a biolab in Fresno, California.

A beaker with residue sitting on grime and other various equipment in a biolab in Fresno, California.

Based solely on reading the labels, the CDC reported that the facility contained "at least 20 potentially infectious agents," including HIV, Tuberculosis, and the deadliest known form of Malaria.

The CDC also found a host of "potentially infectious agents" and separated them into two subgroups: "risk group 2 and risk group 3."

The CDC defined "risk group 2" as a "human disease which is rarely serious and for which preventive or therapeutic interventions are often available, [and] [t]hese agents represent a moderate risk to an individual but a low risk to the community."

"Risk group 3" is defined as pathogens "associated with serious or lethal human disease for which preventive or therapeutic interventions may be available. These agents represent a high risk to an individual but a low risk to the community."

Stains are found next to containers in a biolab in Fresno, California.

Despite the admitted risks, the CDC refused to further investigate what appeared to be pathogens or other biological samples in the unmarked containers in the biolab.

Despite city officials offering to pay for the testing, the CDC still refused, the committee said.

The CDC summarized its findings in a three-page report, which stated that there was "no evidence of select agents or toxins" and had state and local authorities destroy evidence from the facility subject to a court order, the committee said.

Waste

The CDC ordered local officials to eradicate approximately 140 tons of general waste, including complex laboratory equipment and 448 gallons of medical and biological waste.

The committee noted that law enforcement was given "minimal guidance from federal experts" on the disposing of biological waste.

During the removal of the biological waste, local officials and contractors reported that they found a freezer labeled "Ebola" with silver-sealed bags.

Ants are found crawling inside a contaminated refrigerator in a California biolab.

The committee said that the CDC's "rufusal" to test the pathogens found at the Biolab makes it "impossible for the Select Committee to fully assess the potential risks that this specific facility posed to the community."


"It is possible that there were other highly dangerous pathogens that were in the coded vials or otherwise unlabeled. Due to government failures, we simply cannot know," the report said.


Original article source:Owner of California biolab has close ties to Chinese government, military: House Report

‘Tasmanian devil’ explosion emits energy 100 billion times that of the Sun

Astronomers are in awe of a ‘never been witnessed before’ celestial spectacle known as the ‘Tasmanian devil’.

Elliot Nash

'Newsweek' reports that a spectacular night sky show might be in store for Earth as our stellar neighbor Betelgeuse nears its end. Approximately 650 light years from Earth, Betelgeuse has been growing increasingly bright, reaching 142% of its normal luminosity in May.

Astronomers have stumbled upon a cosmic enigma dubbed the ‘Tasmanian devil’ in the depths of the Universe.

The phenomenon, officially known as a Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient (LFBOT), has defied the norms of celestial behaviour, captivating scientists with its unparalleled energy emissions, according to a report published in Nature.

LFBOTs are already recognised as rare and immensely powerful events, surpassing the might of supernovas.

However, the ‘Tasmanian devil’ LFBOT, observed on September 7, 2022, has rewritten the cosmic rule book.

Unlike its counterparts, this celestial spectacle didn’t adhere to the expected fade after its initial burst.

Instead, it continued to explode with supernova-like energies in rapid succession, defying the conventional timescales of such events.

An artist’s impression of the ‘Tasmanian devil’ LFBOT event. 

Picture: NOIRLab


Co-author of the paper, Professor Jeff Cooke from Swinburne University of Technology and the ARC Centre of Excellence in Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) led the observations using the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. Professor Cooke said an event like this has “never been witnessed before”.

The ‘Tasmanian devil’ emitted bursts of energy so intense they exceeded the combined output of an entire galaxy containing hundreds of billions of stars like our Sun.

Even more perplexing was that, contrary to expectations, the source briefly brightened again and again after its initial burst.

Cornell University Assistant Professor Anna Ho, lead author of the paper, said the ‘Tasmanian devil’ LFBOT, “a kind of weird, exotic event,” exhibited 14 irregular and highly energetic bursts over a 120-day period, captured by multiple observatories worldwide.

Illustration of a FBOT, an explosion event similar to supernovas and Gamma-ray bursts. Source: Wikipedia

“However, these bursts are likely only a fraction of the total number,” Assistant Professor Ho said.

While the source of this astronomical spectacle remains shrouded in mystery, the current theory suggests the involvement of a black hole or neutron star formed by the initial explosion.

This celestial entity is believed to be collecting an immense amount of matter, leading to the subsequent intense bursts that have left astronomers in awe.

The observations were conducted by the W. M. Keck Observatory, as part of a global initiative involving 15 observatories.

“These (studies) are important to help understand the nature of this source, how these massive stars transition during their death process, and to help find more events to understand how common they are in the Universe,” Prof Cook said.

Stellar corpse called ‘Tasmanian devil’ reveals phenomenon astronomers have never seen

ASHLEY STRICKLAND, CNN
November 16, 2023 

Space is full of extreme phenomena, but the “Tasmanian devil” may be one of the weirdest and rarest cosmic events ever observed.

Months after astronomers witnessed the explosion of a distant star, they spotted something they have never seen before: energetic signs of life releasing from the stellar corpse about 1 billion light-years from Earth. The short, bright flares were just as powerful as the original event that caused the star’s death.

Astronomers dubbed the celestial object the “Tasmanian devil,” and they observed it exploding repeatedly following its initial detection in September 2022.

But the initial stellar explosion that caused the star’s death wasn’t any typical supernova, an increasingly bright star that explodes and ejects most of its mass before dying. Instead, it was a rare type of explosion called a luminous fast blue optical transient, or LFBOT.

LFBOTs shine brightly in blue light, reaching the peak of their brightness and fading within days, while supernovas can take weeks or months to dim. The first LFBOT was discovered in 2018, and astronomers have been trying to determine the cause of the rare cataclysmic events since.

But the Tasmanian devil is revealing more questions than answers with its unexpected behavior.

While LFBOTs are unusual events, the Tasmanian devil is even stranger, causing astronomers to question the processes behind the repetitive explosions.

“Amazingly, instead of fading steadily as one would expect, the source briefly brightened again — and again, and again,” said lead study author Anna Y.Q. Ho, assistant professor of astronomy in Cornell University’s College of Arts and Sciences, in a statement. “LFBOTs are already a kind of weird, exotic event, so this was even weirder.”

The findings about the latest Tasmanian devil LFBOT discovery, officially labeled AT2022tsd and observed with 15 telescopes around the globe, published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

“(LFBOTs) emit more energy than an entire galaxy of hundreds of billions of stars like the Sun. The mechanism behind this massive amount of energy is currently unknown,” said study coauthor Jeff Cooke, a professor at Australia’s Swinburne University of Technology and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery, in a statement. “But in this case, after the initial burst and fade, the extreme explosions just kept happening, occurring very fast — over minutes, rather than weeks to months, as is the case for supernovae.”

Tracking the Tasmanian devil

Software written by Ho initially flagged the event. The software sifts through a half-million transients detected daily by the Zwicky Transient Facility in California, which surveys the night sky. Ho and her collaborators at different institutions continued to monitor the explosion as it faded and reviewed the observations a few months later. The images showed intense bright spikes of light that soon vanished.

“No one really knew what to say,” Ho said. “We had never seen anything like that before — something so fast, and the brightness as strong as the original explosion months later — in any supernova or FBOT (fast blue optical transient).
We’d never seen that, period, in astronomy.”


To better understand the quick luminosity changes occurring in the Tasmanian devil, Ho and her colleagues reached out to other researchers to compare observations from multiple telescopes.

Anna Ho developed the software that detected signs of life flaring from a stellar corpse. - Jason Koski/Cornell University

Altogether, the 15 observatories, including the high-speed camera ULTRASPEC mounted on the 2.4-meter Thai National Telescope, tracked 14 irregular light pulses over 120 days, which is likely just a fraction of the total number of flares released by the LFBOT, Ho said.

Some of the flares only lasted tens of seconds, which to astronomers suggests that the underlying cause is a stellar remnant formed by the initial explosion — either a dense neutron star or a black hole.

“This settles years of debate about what powers this type of explosion, and reveals an unusually direct method of studying the activity of stellar corpses,” Ho said.

Either object is likely taking on large amounts of matter, which fuels the subsequent bursts.

“It pushes the limits of physics because of its extreme energy production, but also because of the short duration bursts,” Cooke said. “Light travels at a finite speed. As such, how fast a source can burst and fade away limits the size of a source, meaning that all this energy is being generated from a relatively small source.”

If it’s a black hole, the celestial object may be ejecting jets of material and launching them across space at near the speed of light.

Another possibility is that the initial explosion was triggered by an unconventional event, such as a star merging with a black hole, which could present “a completely different channel for cosmic cataclysms,” Ho said.
The afterlife of stars

Studying LFBOTs could reveal more about the afterlife of a star, rather than just its life cycle that ends with an explosion and a remnant.

“Because the corpse is not just sitting there, it’s active and doing things that we can detect,” Ho said. “We think these flares could be coming from one of these newly formed corpses, which gives us a way to study their properties when they’ve just been formed.”

Astronomers will keep surveying the sky for LFBOTs to see how common they are and uncover more of their secrets.

“This discovery teaches us more about the varied ways in which stars end their lives and the exotica that inhabit our Universe,” said study coauthor Vik Dhillon, professor in the department of physics and astronomy at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom, in a statement.

With unprecedented flares, stellar corpse shows signs of life

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

After a distant star’s explosive death, an active stellar corpse was the likely source of repeated energetic flares observed over several months – a phenomenon astronomers had never seen before, a Cornell-led team reports in new research published Nov. 15 in Nature.

The bright, brief flashes – as short as a few minutes in duration, and as powerful as the original explosion 100 days later – appeared in the aftermath of a rare type of stellar cataclysm that the researchers had set out to find, known as a luminous fast blue optical transient, or LFBOT.

Since their discovery in 2018, astronomers have speculated about what might drive such extreme explosions, which are far brighter than the violent ends massive stars typically experience, but fade in days instead of weeks. The research team believes the previously unknown flare activity, which was studied by 15 telescopes around the world, confirms the engine must be a stellar corpse: a black hole or neutron star.

“We don’t think anything else can make these kinds of flares,” said Anna Y. Q. Ho, assistant professor of astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences. “This settles years of debate about what powers this type of explosion, and reveals an unusually direct method of studying the activity of stellar corpses.”

Ho is the first author of “Minutes-duration Optical Flares with Supernova Luminosities,” published with more than 70 co-authors who helped characterize the LFBOT officially labeled AT2022tsd and nicknamed “the Tasmanian devil,” and the ensuing pulses of light seen roughly a billion light years from Earth.

Ho wrote the software that flagged the event in September 2022, while sifting through a half-million changes, or transients, detected daily in an all-sky survey conducted by the Califrnia-based Zwicky Transient Facility.

Then in December 2022, while routinely monitoring the fading explosion, Ho and collaborators Daniel Perley of Liverpool John Moores University in England, and Ping Chen of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, met to review new observations conducted and analyzed by Ping – a set of five images, each spanning several minutes. The first showed nothing, as expected, but the second picked up light, followed by an intensely bright spike in the middle frame that quickly vanished.

“No one really knew what to say,” Ho recalled. “We had never seen anything like that before – something so fast, and the brightness as strong as the original explosion months later – in any supernova or FBOT. We’d never seen that, period, in astronomy.”

To further investigate the abrupt rebrightening, the researchers engaged partners who contributed observations from more than a dozen other telescopes, including one equipped with a high-speed camera. The team combed through earlier data and worked to rule out other possible light sources. Their analysis ultimately confirmed at least 14 irregular light pulses over a 120-day period, likely only a fraction of the total number, Ho said.

“Amazingly, instead of fading steadily as one would expect, the source briefly brightened again – and again, and again,” she said. “LFBOTs are already a kind of weird, exotic event, so this was even weirder.”

Exactly what processes were at work – perhaps a black hole funneling jets of stellar material outward at close to the speed of light – continues to be studied. Ho hopes the research advances longstanding goals to map how stars’ properties in life may predict the way they’ll die, and the type of corpse they produce.

In the case of LFBOTs, rapid rotation or a strong magnetic field likely are key components of their launching mechanisms, Ho said. It’s also possible that they aren’t conventional supernovas at all, instead triggered by a star’s merger with a black hole.

“We might be seeing a completely different channel for cosmic cataclysms,” she said.

The unusual explosions promise to provide new insight into stellar lifecycles typically only seen in snapshots of different stages – star, explosion, remnants – and not as part of a single system, Ho said. LFBOTs may present an opportunity to observe a star in the act of transitioning to its afterlife.

“Because the corpse is not just sitting there, it’s active and doing things that we can detect,” Ho said. “We think these flares could be coming from one of these newly formed corpses, which gives us a way to study their properties when they’ve just been formed.”

-30-

---

JOURNAL

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-023-06673-6 

ARTICLE TITLE

Minutes-duration Optical Flares with Supernova Luminosities

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

15-Nov-2023

ESG
Colombia creates biodiversity fund aiming to manage nearly $1 billion

November 16, 2023 



BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's government has launched a new Fund for Life and Biodiversity to help protect ecosystems in the country, the environment ministry said on Thursday, adding that it will manage close to $1 billion by 2026.

The financial mechanism will allow environmental initiatives to receive monetary resources more than once, the ministry said in a statement, adding that the fund will be managed by a trust that will oversee greater efficiency in distributing resources.

Colombia is one of the world's most biodiverse countries where swathes of Amazon rainforest and other jungles are deforested each year. Scientists say protecting rainforests like the Amazon is vital to curbing the effects of climate change.

"We hope at the end of this year to be able to deliver the first resources from this fund, a fundamental tool for environmental management and change throughout the country," Environment Minister Susana Muhamad said in the statement.

The statement did not say how much money will be used to start the fund, which will manage close to 4 trillion pesos ($981 million) by 2026.

Financing for the fund will come from five sources, the statement said, including a carbon tax, the government's budget, and donations, among others.

"We hope to mobilize resources and actors to achieve interventions that respond to the needs of ecosystems and communities (in rural areas) and generate sustainable changes over time," Muhamad said.

($1 = 4,077.44 Colombian pesos)

(Reporting by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

NUKE THE PACIFIC

US and Philippines sign a nuclear cooperation pact allowing US investment and technologies

The Canadian Press
Fri, November 17, 2023 



MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The United States and the Philippines have signed a nuclear cooperation pact under which U.S. investment and technologies are to help the Southeast Asian nation transition to cleaner energy and bolster its power supply.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. witnessed the signing of the deal by his energy secretary and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco.

"We see nuclear energy becoming a part of the Philippines’ energy mix by 2032 and we are more than happy to pursue this path with the United States as one of our partners,” Marcos said at the signing ceremony.

He said the pact, known as a Section 123 agreement, would support the development of reliable, affordable and sustainable power in the Philippines. It will also open doors for U.S. companies to invest and participate in nuclear power projects, he said.

Blinken said negotiations with the Philippines were completed within a year, the fastest for a Section 123 agreement, which is required under the U.S. Atomic Energy Act to allow the transfer of nuclear equipment and material for peaceful uses.

He noted that the Philippines has set an ambitious target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by 2030. With its peak energy demand expected to quadruple by 2040, nuclear energy will help it meet its needs in a sustainable way, he said.

“With access to U.S. material and equipment, the U.S. and the Philippines will be able to work together to deploy advanced new technologies, including small modular reactors, to support climate goals as well as critical energy security and baseload power needs within the Philippines,” he said.

“In a nation of more than 7,000 islands, small modular reactors -– some just the size of a city bus -– can generate energy locally and conveniently," he added.

The Philippines began building a nuclear generating plant, the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, in the 1970s but it was never completed after questions were raised about its cost and safety, including its location near a major fault and the Pinatubo volcano.

The United States has 23 Section 123 agreements in force that govern peaceful nuclear cooperation with 47 countries, the International Atomic Energy Agency and Taiwan.

___

Ng reported from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Aaron Favila And Eileen Ng, The Associated Press

Italians face disruption as workers strike over government budget

November 17, 2023 



ROME (Reuters) - Italians faced disruption on Friday as transport workers and other public sector employees from two of the country's largest unions went on strike in protest over the government's budget plans for 2024.

The CGIL and UIL unions have called a general strike in the central regions of Italy, as well as a walkout by public sector employees across the country. They are planning further regional protests in the next two weeks.

In a sign of tensions between the unions and the government, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini used his powers to halve the duration of the national stoppage by transport workers to four hours, from 9 am to 1 pm (0800-1200 GMT) to limit its impact. Air travel is not included in the strike plans.

"This grave step by Salvini is an attack on the right to strike that is unprecedented in Italian democracy," CGIL leader Maurizio Landini told la Repubblica newspaper in an interview published on Thursday.

Salvini, who is also transport minister, said he was making sure Italians could still go about their business on Friday.

"Yes there is the right to strike, but it's satisfying to protect the right to work for the overwhelming majority of Italians," he told broadcaster Rai's TG2 news programme on Thursday. "It's my job."

Striking workers are expected to hold a rally in Rome's central Piazza del Popolo to protest against Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's right-wing government.

Union leaders say the government is not doing enough to prevent workers and pensioners from being worse off at a time when prices are still rising.

They accuse the government, which took office last October, of pandering to its grassroots supporters with an eye on elections to the European Parliament next June.

Italy's government last month approved a budget for next year with measures worth around 24 billion euros ($26 billion) in tax cuts and increased spending, despite market concerns over the country's strained public finances.

($1 = 0.9212 euros)

(Writing by Keith Weir; Editing by Sharon Singleton)

Panthers executive named first black GM of U.S. National Team

USA Hockey made history by appointing Brett Petersen as general manager for the 2024 World Championships.

Jacob Stoller
·Contributing Writer
Thu, November 16, 2023 

In this article


Florida Panthers


USA Hockey made history on Thursday by appointing Brett Petersen as general manager for the 2024 World Championships.

Petersen, an assistant GM with the Florida Panthers, is the first-ever black GM of the U.S. National Team.

"I'm very happy that our game and our sport continues to evolve and grow where there can be 'firsts' and 'seconds' and 'thirds,’” Petersen said. “I think it just speaks to what USA Hockey has done creating opportunities for so many different people to play the game, myself included, and then to continue to fall in love with it and continue to want to chase our dreams to the highest level."

Chris Petersen has been named the first-ever black GM of the U.S. National Team. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Before joining the Panthers’ front office in 2020, Petersen, also the first black assistant GM in NHL history, was the VP of Wasserman Media Group and served as an NHLPA-certified agent from 2009 up until his departure.

This year's World Championships are being held in Prague and Ostrava Czech Republic from May 10-26. USA, who finished fourth at Worlds last year, will compete in Group B, alongside France, Germany, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Poland, Sweden and Slovakia.

Petersen will get an assist from the 10 NHL general managers on its advisory board — Kevyn Adams (Buffalo Sabres), Craig Conroy (Calgary Flames), Chris Drury (New York Rangers), Tom Fitzgerald (New Jersey Devils), Mike Grier (San Jose Sharks), Bill Guerin (Minnesota Wild), Lou Lamoriello (New York Islanders), Chris MacFarland (Colorado Avalanche), Don Waddell (Carolina Hurricanes) and Bill Zito (Panthers) — with roster construction.

"For me, this is just another opportunity to learn from a very established group of gentlemen," Peterson said. "Some of them I know well, some of them I know kind of well, and get to know what their thought processes are on things and, hopefully, continue to use that in my own growth and development as I continue to improve as an assistant GM."

Before moving into management, Petersen played four seasons of college hockey at Boston College and played five years of professional hockey — split between the AHL, ECHL and the International Hockey League — between 2004-05 to 2008-09.

For the first time, US prisoners graduate from top university


November 16, 2023 



(Reuters) - Northwestern University's Prison Education Program welcomed its inaugural graduating class of incarcerated students on Wednesday, marking the first time a top-ranked U.S. university has awarded degrees to students in prison.

Evanston, Illinois-based Northwestern, which U.S. News & World Report ranks ninth for national universities, runs the program in partnership with Oakton College and the Illinois Department of Corrections.

It was a moving commencement ceremony for the 16 graduating men and their loved ones at the Stateville correctional facility in Crest Hill.

"I have no words for this, (it's) otherworldly. Coming from where I came from, the things that I've been through and to be here is indescribable," said graduate Michael Broadway after the ceremony.

Broadway attained his degree despite several setbacks, including battling stage 4 prostate cancer.

"I'm just so proud of him," said his mother Elizabeth. "I really am. He looks so good in that gown." Due to ill health, she had not seen Broadway since he was incarcerated in 2005, and during the ceremony the two shared tears and hugs as they made up for lost time.

Broadway, 51, is scheduled to be released in 2084.

If he is released before then, he said he would like to start a nonprofit focused on youth empowerment.

Professor Jennifer Lackey is the program's founding director.

"Twenty years ago, some of these guys were in rival gangs, and here they are swapping poetry with each other and giving critical engagements on sociology assignments," said Lackey. "The love and growth that we see in the community is really unlike anything I've experienced at the on-campus commencements."

Around 100 students are enrolled in the Northwestern program across Stateville and the Logan Correctional Center, a women's prison.

Newly-minted Northwestern graduate James Soto plans to continue his education in law school.

He hopes that this first class of incarcerated students is just the beginning.

"I'm not something special, there are many more like me. And I hope that they get the opportunity to be released as well so that we can showcase and perhaps really change the world."

(Reporting by Eric Cox; Editing by Josie Kao)

UK
Prison staff retrained after administering CPR on ‘clearly dead’ inmate

MICHAEL HOLMES, PA
16 November 2023 

Prison staff “inappropriately” carried out CPR on a “clearly dead” inmate found face down in his cell, an investigation has found.

Officers at HMP Bullingdon tried to revive Dominic Burges, 30, who was found lifeless on his cell floor, before they were stopped by a prison nurse, who realised rigor mortis had set in.

In a newly published report, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman said it understood the “commendable wish to attempt and continue resuscitation until death” had been formally recognised.

But it said: “However, staff should understand that they are not required to carry out resuscitation in these circumstances.”

The ombudsman told Bullingdon bosses to make staff aware of guidance introduced seven years ago in line with European guidelines, which say CPR should not be tried when “there is clear evidence that it will be futile”.

Rigor mortis – the stiffening of a corpse – usually appears about two hours after death, while those who found Burges described him as “cold, stiff and with no pulse”.

“Trying to resuscitate someone who is clearly dead is distressing for staff and undignified for the deceased,” the ombudsman said, though it accepted workers were not sure Burges was dead when they started CPR.

It concluded: “The officers who responded to the medical emergency inappropriately administered CPR when rigor mortis was established.”

A Prison Service spokesman said: “We have since rolled out new CPR training to all staff at HMP Bullingdon to ensure the safety of staff and prisoners.”

Bullingdon, near Bicester, is a category B prison for men (PA)

Homeless and schizophrenic Burges arrived at the category B prison, which holds around 1,100 men near Bicester in Oxfordshire, in October 2021 while awaiting trial for attempted robbery and failure to surrender.

His “unusual” behaviour – including screaming from his cell – discomfited other inmates and he was moved to his own cell about five weeks before he died.

His collapse was noticed by a night patrol officer carrying out the morning prisoner count shortly before 5am on February 10 2022.

After seeing Burges lying flat on his stomach on the floor, the officer kicked the door to try and rouse him before radioing for help.

A post-mortem examination and toxicology failed to conclude how he died, though a pathologist said it is possible Burges took a drug that failed to show up in lab tests.

Sudden adult death syndrome was another suggested cause.

The ombudsman said bosses at Bullingdon have had “some success” in tackling a known problem with drug supply at the prison, but more still needs to be done.

TRAINING VIDEO

John Oliver's campaign for a 'puking bird' pays off in New Zealand's Bird of the Century contest

NICK PERRY
14 November 2023 

This 2022 photo supplied by the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society shows puteketeke at Lake Ellesmere, south of Christchurch in New Zealand. Vote count for New Zealand's Bird of the Century has been delayed by comedian John Oliver's global campaign, as he discovered a loophole in the rules, which allowed anybody with a valid email address to cast a vote. So he went all-out in a humorous campaign for his favored bird, the puteketeke, a water bird, on his HBO show "Last Week Tonight." 

(Peter Foulds/Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society via AP) 

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Comedian John Oliver has succeeded in his campaign to have what he describes as a weird, puking bird with a colorful mullet win New Zealand's Bird of the Century contest.

Conservation group Forest and Bird on Wednesday announced that Oliver's favored water bird, the pūteketeke, had won after Oliver went all-out in a humorous campaign for the bird on his HBO show “Last Week Tonight.”

Vote checkers in New Zealand were so overwhelmed by Oliver's foreign interference they had to postpone naming the winning bird for two days.

Usually billed Bird of the Year, the annual event by conservation group Forest and Bird is held to raise awareness about the plight of the nation’s native birds, some of which have been driven to extinction. This year, the contest was named Bird of the Century to mark the group’s centennial.

Oliver discovered a loophole in the rules, which allowed anybody with a valid email address to cast a vote.

Oliver had a billboard erected for “The Lord of the Wings” in New Zealand's capital, Wellington. He also put up billboards in Paris, Tokyo, London, and Mumbai, India. He had a plane with a banner fly over Ipanema Beach in Brazil. And he wore an oversized bird costume on Jimmy Fallon's “The Tonight Show.”

“After all, this is what democracy is all about," Oliver said on his show. “America interfering in foreign elections.”

Forest and Bird didn't immediately release the final vote tally Wednesday but said the group received more than 350,000 verified votes, more than six times the previous record of 56,700 votes in 2021.

They said Oliver's “high-powered” campaign temporarily crashed their voting verification system.

“It's been pretty crazy, in the best possible way,” Chief Executive Nicola Toki told The Associated Press before the winner was announced.

New Zealand is unusual in that birds developed as the dominant animals before humans arrived.

“If you think about the wildlife in New Zealand, we don't have lions and tigers and bears," Toki said. Despite nearly nine of every ten New Zealanders now living in towns or cities, she added, many retain a deep love of nature.

“We have this intangible and extraordinarily powerful connection to our wildlife and our birds,” Toki said.

The contest has survived previous controversies. Election scrutineers in 2020 discovered about 1,500 fraudulent votes for the little spotted kiwi. And two years ago, the contest was won by a bat, which was allowed because it was considered part of the bird family by Indigenous Māori.

This year, the organizers said they eliminated more fraudulent votes, including 40,000 cast by a single person for the eastern rockhopper penguin.

Toki said that when the contest began in 2005, they had a total of 865 votes, which they considered a great success. She said the previous record vote count was broken within a couple of hours of Oliver launching his campaign.

Toki said Oliver contacted the group earlier this year asking if he could champion a bird. They had told him to go for it, not realizing what was to come.

“I was cry laughing,” Toki said when she watched Oliver's segment.

Oliver described how the pūteketeke, which number less than 1,000 in New Zealand and are also known as the Australasian crested grebe, eats its own feathers before vomiting them back up.

“They have a mating dance where they both grab a clump of wet grass and chest bump each other before standing around unsure of what to do next,” Oliver said on his show, adding that he'd never identified more with anything in his life.

Some in New Zealand pushed back against Oliver’s campaign. One group put up billboards reading: “Dear John, don't disrupt the pecking order,” while others urged people to vote for the national bird, the kiwi. Oliver responded by saying the kiwi looked like “a rat carrying a toothpick.”

“For the record, all of your birds are great, and it would be an honor to lose to any of them when the results are announced on Wednesday," Oliver said on his show. “The reason it is so easy for me to say that is that we aren't going to lose, are we? We are going to win, and we are going to win by a lot.”