Democratic senators push DEA to 'swiftly deschedule' marijuana

Brett Wilkins,

 Common Dreams
January 31, 2024 

A fully budded marijuana plant ready for trimming is seen at the Botanacare marijuana store ahead of their grand opening on New Year's day in Northglenn, Colorado

 REUTERS/Rick Wilking/File Photo

A dozen U.S. senators on Tuesday urged the Biden administration to "swiftly deschedule" marijuana, which remains in the most restrictive federal criminalization category despite being legal for recreational or medicinal use in a majority of states.

In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Administrator Anne Milgram led by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and John Fetterman (D-Pa.), the lawmakers reject the Department of Health and Human Services' August 2023 recommendation to reclassify cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

According to the DEA, Schedule I drugs—which in addition to marijuana include heroin, MDMA, LSD, and peyote—have "no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse." Schedule III drugs include Tylenol with codeine, ketamine, and anabolic steroids.

"While rescheduling to Schedule III would mark a significant step forward, it would not resolve the worst harms of the current system. Thus, the DEA should deschedule marijuana altogether," the senators wrote. "Marijuana's placement in the CSA has had a devastating impact on our communities and is increasingly out of step with state law and public opinion."

A record 7 in 10 voting-age Americans believe marijuana should be legal, according to Gallup polling published last November, a day after voters made Ohio the 24th state to legalize adult recreational use of the plant.

While thousands of people—exclusively U.S. citizens and permanent residents—have been pardoned for simple federal marijuana possession convictions following presidential proclamations issued in 2022 and last month, Biden has been criticized for refusing to take more meaningful steps to legalize a plant used by half of Americans at least once in their lives.

"The Biden administration has a window of opportunity to deschedule marijuana that has not existed in decades and should reach the right conclusion—consistent with the clear scientific and public health rationale for removing marijuana from Schedule I, and with the imperative to relieve the burden of current federal marijuana policy on ordinary people and small businesses," the senators wrote.

Last September, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee voted 14-9 for the Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation Banking Act, which would legally protect banks and credit unions that serve cannabis businesses and bar federal regulators from ordering financial institutions to close their accounts.

In addition to Warren and Fetterman, the senators who signed Tuesday's letter are: Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.).

"Classifying marijuana as a Schedule I drug—something more dangerous than cocaine or fentanyl—has harmed communities and denied critical relief to vulnerable patients," Gillibrand said on social media Sunday. "It's time to legalize and deschedule marijuana altogether."

The first flowers evolved before bees – so how did they become so dazzling?

The Conversation
January 30, 2024 

Wild Flowers (Shutterstock)

Colorful flowers, and the insects and birds that fly among their dazzling displays, are a joy of nature. But how did early relationships between flower colour and animal pollinators emerge?

In a study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society, we have unravelled this mystery by analyzing the visual environments in which the ancestors of today’s bees foraged from flowers.

We measured and analyzed the light reflected from today’s flowers, as well as the rocks, soil, sticks, bark and leaves that form their natural backgrounds.

From this data we built computer simulations that recreate the ancient visual environment when the first flowers emerged.

Insect color vision came before flowers

Today, bees are prolific pollinators of flowering plants, including food crops. Bees use colour vision based on ultraviolet, blue and green sensitive photoreceptors (light-sensing cells) to detect and discriminate the most rewarding flowers. In comparison, most humans perceive colour using blue, green and red sensitive photoreceptors.

When the first flowers evolved during the Mesozoic era, between 252 million and 66 million years ago, the ancestors of bees had to orientate themselves, maintain stable flight, avoid collisions, and find food among natural backgrounds. We suspect their visual systems may have been influenced by evolution to efficiently operate in that environment.

By the time the first flowering plants appeared, bees’ ancestors had already evolved colour vision – and we know it has stuck around throughout the evolutionary history of bees.

So, while bees weren’t initially around, their ancestors were. Flower colors likely evolved the vivid colours we see today to suit this ancient visual system. At the same time, the first bees emerged as the most efficient pollinators.

What colour were flower backgrounds on the ancient Earth?

Australia is an ideal place to collect data on natural background materials that early insects would have seen, as it is a geologically ancient continent.

We collected background samples from across Australia and measured their reflective properties using a tool called a spectrophotometer.

We used this data to create a database of materials that would have been present in the visual environment of flying insects more than 100 million years ago – when the first flowers appeared.

Flower colour evolved in response to bee colour vision

For our collection of natural backgrounds, insect and bird pollinated flowers, we calculated marker points – rapid changes in the intensity of light reflected from a surface, within a small wavelength band.

These marker points identify the key visual features of colored surfaces, and we can use them for statistical testing of the evolutionary process.

We then wrote computer simulations to generate possible flower backgrounds. By analysing their marker points, we tested the visibility of today’s flowers against the simulated backgrounds.

Interestingly, we showed that the distribution of marker points on petals from plants pollinated by bees clearly indicates these flowers are “salient” – that is, they stand out as stronger signals from natural backgrounds.

This finding matches with previous studies suggesting that in the Northern Hemisphere and Australia, flowering plants evolved colour signals to facilitate colour perception by bees.

The very first flowers were likely a dull greenish-yellow colour and initially pollinated by flies. However, as the first bees – with their tuned vision systems – started pollinating flowers, the flowers likely evolved new colours to match the bees’ visual capabilities.

The process of natural selection seems to have driven flower colors to stand out from their backgrounds in the eyes of pollinators.

Birds were involved, too

Birds became established as flower visitors millions of years after insect pollination evolved. Bird vision uses four types of color photoreceptors, and they can see long-wavelength red colors that bees cannot easily process against natural backgrounds.

Our analysis confirmed that bird-pollinated flowers evolved marker points towards longer wavelengths than bee-pollinated flowers. Our new discovery also showed that these flowers systematically differ from natural backgrounds.

As Earth’s climate changes, it is important to consider what might happen to ecosystems and our food production systems in a world without bees. It is vital that we understand how pollination and plant reproduction may be altered.

Our research shows that bees are a major driver of floral evolution. Unless we protect these insects and their habitat, we will lose fundamental and beautiful aspects of life we all enjoy and need.

Adrian Dyer, Associate Professor, Department of Physiology, Monash University; Alan Dorin, Associate Professor, Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University; Jair Garcia, Researcher and analyst, Monash University, and Mani Shrestha, Senior Researcher and International Fellow, Disturbance Ecology, University of Bayreuth, Germany, Bayreuth University


This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Return of hungry sea otters protects key coastal ecosystem: study

Agence France-Presse
January 31, 2024 

Otter (Photo by USFWS Pacific Southwest Region/Flickr)

Back from the brink of extinction, sea otters in central California have started restoring the degraded landscape of a key estuary -- thanks to their insatiable appetite for crabs, according to a study published on Wednesday.

The research depicts the ripple effects of the sea otters' return to Monterey Bay, California, highlighting how successful conservation efforts can improve the health and resilience of whole ecosystems.

Once hunted for their fur to the verge of local extinction, sea otters have made a dramatic recovery in central California after more than four decades of extensive conservation efforts in the region.

The otters have returned to coastal kelp forests and the the salt marsh-dominated coastal estuary, Elkhorn Slough.

And their return has heralded wide-ranging improvements around the estuary, a critical habitat that protects the shoreline.

In a new paper published in Nature, scientists in the United States and Canada found that the marine mammal slowed the erosion of parts of the estuary by up to 90 percent between the time they recolonized the area in the mid 1980s and 2018.

"One of the most remarkable things about this is that it's truly a conservation success story," study author Christine Angelini, director of the Center for Coastal Solutions at the University of Florida, told AFP.

Previous studies on salt marshes have shown the physical and chemical explanations for erosion.

But this study points a pincer at another culprit -- the shore crab.


These abundant crabs eat plant roots, burrow into the salt marsh soils and eventually can cause erosion and even collapse.

Sea otters stabilize coastal ecosystem 

© Julia Han JANICKI, Anibal MAIZ CACERES / AFP

Sea otters eat around 25 percent of their body weight every day and researchers said they have an especially large appetite for these crabs.

"After a few decades, in areas the sea otters had recolonized, salt marshes and creekbanks were becoming more stable again, said lead author Brent Hughes, associate professor of biology at Sonoma State University, in a statement.

This was "despite rising sea levels, increased water flow from inland sources, and greater pollution".

'Crab feast'

Researchers combined decades of data, over 35,000 observations of sea otters and three years of experiments manipulating the presence of top predators in a salt marsh ecosystem.

Top predators have declined in nearly every ecosystem on Earth, but conservation efforts over the past decades have helped recover species like wolves, brown bears, and eagles.

And growing research shows that reintroduction can have a wide-ranging impact on restoring ecosystems.

Sea otters eat around 25 percent of their body weight every day

 © MARIO TAMA / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File

In this case researchers said sea otter conservation has unlocked several decades worth of benefits.

"It would cost tens of millions of dollars for humans to rebuild these creek banks and restore these marshes," said study author Brian Silliman, professor of Marine Conservation Biology at Duke University.

"The sea otters are stabilizing them for free in exchange for an all-you-can-eat crab feast."

© 2024 AFP

'Not a trustworthy individual': Teamsters Exec says Trump has 'zero' chance of winning union support

TRUMP IS A SCAB  

SHAWN FAIN UAW 

M.L. Nestel
January 31, 2024 

(JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP)

Trump is courting the Teamsters for their prized endorsement, but an exec with the union whose members run 1.3 million deep says the former president can't erase his past and therefore he should save his breath

"I would say zero," John Palmer, Vice President At-Large of the Teamsters, said in a Wednesday interview on CNN. "I don't believe he does have a chance."

Palmer skipped a Wednesday roundtable powwow with former President Donald Trump and Teamsters Union brass in Washington where Trump made his best pitch to blue-collar workers that helped him march passed Hillary Clinton in 2016 and will be a focal part in key battleground states like Wisconsin and Michigan to determine what happens come November.

Trump left upbeat, calling it “a very productive meeting."

He admitted that nabbing the endorsement would be a long shot, but, “Stranger things have happened.”

“Usually a Republican wouldn’t get that endorsement,” said Trump. “But in my case it’s different because I’ve employed thousands of Teamsters and I thought we should come over and pay our respects. As you know, a big part of the voting bloc votes for me.”

Palmer believes the public seeing Trump's posture dangles false hope.

"I was disappointed in the appearance, particularly the press conference that occurred after the meeting," Palmer said. "It's a tacit endorsement. He is not going to go anything for labor. Never has. Frankly, he's not a trustworthy individual."

Palmer pointed to numerous reasons he believes Trump can't be trusted.

They include crossing the picket line when IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) picketed "The Apprentice."

Watch the video below or click the link.

Monaco royals rocked by new claims over offshore assets

Agence France-Presse
January 29, 2024

Charlene and Albert (AFP)

Claims by a former close confidant of Monaco's royal family that part of its fortune is placed in tax havens have rocked the affluent city state, in the latest scandal facing the palace under Prince Albert II.

The new controversy erupted after French newspaper Le Monde last week published the allegations, which it said were based on detailed notes the palace's wealth manager made while working for the family.

Claude Palmero was for more than two decades in charge of managing the palace's assets, first for Rainier III, the husband of American actress Grace Kelly, and then their son Prince Albert when he became ruler of Monaco in 2005.

But the wealth manager, who took over from his father in 2001, was unexpectedly forced to step down last year, and he has since tried to sue the monarch over his dismissal.

Le Monde reported that, according to five books of notes Palmero took with him when he left the palace, some royal funds have been placed offshore over the years in the tax havens of Panama and the British Virgin Islands.

Jean-Michel Darrois, a lawyer for Prince Albert, confirmed to AFP that "offshore companies were indeed created in Panama in 1984 in the time of Rainier III".

But Albert II had "several times" asked his money manager to resolve the situation, "which he did not do", Darrois said.

"Since Palmero's replacement, all this is being liquidated."

Darrois said there had also been offshore companies set up in 2002 -- before Prince Albert's reign too -- in the UK overseas territory of the British Virgin Islands.

Palmero had for several years stopped paying fees on these.

This meant the firms had been struck off the registry and made it difficult for the royal family to claim what was rightfully theirs, he said.

'In their strictest interest'

But lawyer Marie-Alix Canu-Bernard, who represents the asset manager, said "Palmero never did anything without the knowledge of those employing him".

"Quite the contrary. It was always done in perfect agreement with them and in their strictest interest," she said.

It was not immediately clear why the royal family might place funds offshore as Monaco does not impose income or wealth tax on any of its nationals.

But sources close to the case say they might have hoped to prevent the press or anyone else from poking around in their financial affairs.

Monaco, the world's second-smallest country after the Vatican, has been ruled by the Grimaldi dynasty since 1297.

In recent decades its lack of tax and sunny climate have attracted many celebrities and wealthy individuals, and caused a real estate boom on the rocky outcrop of some two square kilometres (0.75 square miles).

Property sells for astronomical sums in the statelet.

According to official figures, the 88 new flats on sale in Monaco in 2022 went for a total of 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion).

Palmero was among four people close to Albert accused of schemes linked to property development in allegations posted on a website called the Dossiers du Rocher ("Rock Files") from 2021.


They have accused a property tycoon named Patrice Pastor -- who owns a large share of the market -- of being behind the website but he has strongly denied this.

Palmero, who had tried to curb Pastor's role in the sector, believes he convinced the prince to fire him.

'Confidential'

Since his dismissal, Palmero has tried and failed to sue the royal family through the Monaco legal system.

This month he filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, saying he had not received a fair trial in Monaco.

The ECHR is a court of the 46-member Council of Europe, to which Monaco belongs.

Palmero's lawyers Canu-Bernard and Christophe Llorca say he has also filed a complaint in Monaco against the royal family for "attempted extorsion and theft".

The royal family has in turn officially accused their former wealth manager of "breach of trust" and "stealing documents".

In its report, Le Monde described Palmero overseeing allowances for members of the royal household, including the prince's sisters Caroline and Stephanie and his wife Charlene and commenting on their expenses.

The Monaco-Matin newspaper in the statelet has accused Palmero of airing private matters in public.

But Palmero's lawyers defended him, saying he had told Le Monde that his notes -- handed over to Monaco authorities as part of another investigation -- were "confidential and not supposed to be shown".

The controversy comes after the Council of Europe last year warned Monaco over shortcomings in its anti-money laundering efforts.

Monaco on Friday said a new Monegasque Authority for Financial Security would start work this week to fight money laundering and other types of corruption.

© Agence France-Presse

'By far the dumbest': Right ruthlessly ridiculed for new Taylor Swift conspiracy theory

Kathleen Culliton
January 29, 2024 

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - DECEMBER 14: Taylor Swift leaves The Box after celebrating her 34th birthday on December 14, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by James Devaney/GC Images/Getty Images)


A new conservative conspiracy theory that the Super Bowl will be rigged to prop up Taylor Swift’s imminent endorsement of President Joe Biden is being torn to shreds by critics who call it “by far the dumbest.”

The Bulwark’s Sonny Bunch Monday took to X to vent frustrations over the strange theory — centered on Swift’s relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight-end Travis Kelce — detailed in a new Rolling Stone report.

“Of all the dumb things the nascent nouveau right has tried over the years, attempting to turn conservatives against the NFL is by far the dumbest,” Bunch wrote.

While Rolling Stone takes time to detail how Swift’s perceived liberal politics and Kansas City’s AFC victory Sunday have created an NFL “scriptwriting” narrative, Bunch doesn’t pull the punch of his summary.

"Two hot celebrities dating is a psyop culminating in the Illuminati fixing the Super Bowl so you'll have to get vaccinated," he writes. "Get people to say the dumbest s--- imaginable ... and they'll believe anything."

The conspiracy theory has been shared by people including former President Donald Trump ally Laura Loomer, failed presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, and Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec, reports and social media show.

“Thinking about when Taylor Swift called out the Soros family in 2019 for buying the rights to her music and then how she came out a super liberal in 2020,” Posobiec told X followers Sunday.

“I wonder if there’s a major presidential endorsement coming from an artificially culturally propped-up couple this fall,” Ramaswamy replied.

Rolling Stone’s Nikki McCann Ramirez wasn’t impressed by the conclusions drawn, which she argues ignore some pertinent information.

“One must really stretch the depths of credulity to convince oneself that Swift’s success isn’t a result of her record-breaking songs, albums, tours, movies, and a career that has redefined the music industry, but rather a government psyop that forced her to date an NFL star and take up entertainment as a career,” she writes.

“It’s all really stupid.”

Several X users following news of the theory agreed.

“Taylor Swift endorsed Biden in 2020 but this time it’s definitely a psy op,” wrote Noam Blum. “Amazing that people buy this grift horses--- and ask for seconds.”

"Trump’s insecure brand of fascism requires constant attention and seeks to insert itself into every situation,” wrote GQ editor Luke Zaleski. “Like a kindergartener acting like he doesn’t like the girl he’s crushing on in hopes he’ll to trick her into liking him."

‘Fedsurrection’ Looms Large as ‘Army of God’ Protest Convoy Heads to Border

Would-be participants are expressing fears that the demonstration could be a “psyop” or “honeypot,” spearheaded by the federal government.

By Tess A. Owen

VICE
January 29, 2024




AN AERIAL VIEW OF THE AREA AS MIGRANTS WALKING ALONG RAZOR WIRE AFTER CROSSING THE RIO GRANDE INTO THE UNITED STATES ON JANUARY 28, 2024 IN EAGLE PASS, TEXAS. (LOKMAN VURAL ELIBOL/ANADOLU VIA GETTY IMAGES)

Paranoia about federal entrapment is looming large over the “Take Our Border Back” convoy, which departed Virginia Beach Monday morning and plans to arrive in Texas later this week.

By noon Monday, after a few hours on the road, the convoy had amassed just a few dozen participants—so far, predominantly men over the age of 60. The convoy’s promoters promised over 700,000 participants.

The low numbers could be due, in part, to conspiracy theories riddling Telegram channels for the convoy. Would-be participants are expressing fears that the demonstration could be a “psyop” or “honeypot,” spearheaded by the federal government and undercover agents with the goal of ensnaring right-wingers into a violent event. This is the basis of the Jan. 6 “fedsurrection” conspiracy theory, which around a quarter of Americans believe, according to recent polling.

“I have 3 former associates doing lengthy prison sentences because of the J6 setup,” one person wrote in the Telegram channel for the Texas contingent of the convoy. “I know first hand, even if they don’t have charges they can pin on you, they will make some up.”

One of the organizers, former military commander Pete Chambers, who says he was a green beret, put out a video message in which he appears to directly appeal to supposed undercover federal agents.

“If you start going after these people, trying to trap them, you’re going to be found out,” Chambers said. “There’s too much momentum on the other side bro, so just let it go. Stop working for that entity. They’re just going to tear you down, they’re going to use you like a kleenex, just like they did to me.”

The convoy is expected to stop over in Jacksonville, Florida, before making its way along the southern border. Three separate rallies are planned for Feb 3, in locations near Eagle Pass, Texas, Yuma, Arizona, and a third in San Ysidro, California.

All eyes are on Eagle Pass in particular, which is the epicenter of the standoff between the Biden Administration and Texas over border enforcement. Earlier this month, the Texas National Guard seized control of Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, which abuts a stretch of the Rio Grande that’s a popular point for unauthorized border crossings, and surrounded it with razor wire. The Biden Administration said that Texas’ actions had severely limited Border Patrol’s ability to survey the area—and prevented them from conducting rescue operations, which likely resulted in a migrant woman and two children drowning. Texas denied the allegation.

The Supreme Court ruled last week that the federal government—not Texas—had ultimate authority over the border. But Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has since doubled down on the state’s actions and blew past the Friday deadline set by the Biden Administration to allow Border Patrol access to Shelby Park. Governors of twenty-five red states have since signed onto statements supporting Texas, and some have sent reinforcements to the border after Donald Trump called on them to do so.

The escalating standoff has inspired civil war fantasies of a feds versus states showdown.

Organizers of the convoy, who include QAnon-world influencers and anti-vaxxers, characterized the demonstration as an “army of god,” and have spent the last couple days putting out PR fires—and trying to distance themself from any possible future unrest or bad optics. “No we are not militia friendly,” wrote Christina Holbrook aka “Thought Criminals,” who is an admin for the convoy’s Texas Telegram channel. Holbrook has also asked participants to leave their long guns at home.

Organizers are also trying to assuage fears that the convoy is a “false flag” or “psy-op,” trying to suggest that the government is sowing paranoia intentionally. “They are trying to scare the ppl with all their “fed” “Jan 6th” crap,” wrote Holbrook.

Last week on a planning call, one of the organizers also waved off concerns about entrapment. “When J6 happened, that’s DC, that has nothing to do with the United States. It’s its own continent,” said Mark Anthony. “This is a whole different ball game. We’re out in our country, not a foreign territory. Each state and county has been strategically thought through.”

Still, one person on the Telegram channel suggested that convoy participants bring zip ties with them so they can arrest anyone they believe to be “instigating.” “Basically make-shift cuffs and put them in time out,” she wrote. “You can’t fight them, you know they’re a paid fed or paid actor.” Another said that they’ve heard rumors of plain-clothed FBI agents stationed in Eagle Pass “to create unrest” and have decided to reroute to a different rally location.

Others are suggesting that people avoid the convoy altogether. In a YouTube broadcast on Sunday night, the channel LoveTravelAdventure, which is run by a trucking husband and wife influencer duo with nearly 100,000 subscribers, warned viewers about possible traps ahead. “You're being set up, and you’re advertising every move you’re making to the people who want to know the most,” the husband, who goes by “Red Viking,” said. “There is no 1776 happening so put that out of your mind.”

Red Viking also raised suspicions about organizer Pete Chambers. Green berets are “masters of psyops,” said Red Viking. “I’d love to believe he’s not a part of this,” he said, alluding to a government conspiracy to ensnare conservatives.

“All i’m gonna say to the people who are going to the border: don’t get caught in another January 6th event and do dumb shit to get entrapped by your corrupt government,” warned the Telegram Channel Woke Societies. Patriots.win

Far-right commentator Charlie Kirk also weighed in. “Please do not fall for obvious traps at the border,” Kirk wrote on X. “Let law enforcement handle this. Don’t create or join some ad-hoc “citizen militia.” Don’t be a one-man hero. Learn the lessons from the last 3 years.”

The last multi-state convoy in the U.S., in Jan. 2022, was an utter disaster—in part because of infighting about federal infiltration. Inspired by a relatively more successful event in Canada, truckers and their counterparts drove across the country to Washington, D.C. to protest vaccine mandates that didn’t exist. Big promises to “barricade” or “occupy” DC were quickly revealed to be bluster, and the convoy ended up parked at the Hagerstown Speedway in Maryland, just outside of the District, for over a week, before heading home. 

The ‘Take Our Border Back’ Convoy Is Already a Complete Mess

Instead of immigrants, the group of extremists mostly battled each other, paranoia, and their GPS systems.

DAVID GILBERT

JAN 30, 2024 

Wire spikes on the border are viewed in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on January 29, 2024.PHOTOGRAPH: DAVID PEINADO/ANADOLU VIA GETTY IMAGES

On Monday morning, the organizers of the Take Our Border Back convoy kicked off their road trip to the Texas–Mexico border in Virginia Beach. Though they claimed that up to 40,000 trucks would be joining, only 20 vehicles made up the convoy as it rolled into Jacksonville, Florida, 14 hours later. The promised support had not materialized—not a single truck showed up, tires were reportedly slashed, participants got lost, and paranoia struck the group. In short, the convoy was a complete mess.

The convoy was organized last week as a show of support for Texas governor Greg Abbott and his decision to defy the federal government and President Joe Biden about the installation of razor wire along the Texas–Mexico border in Eagle Pass, Texas. While at least one organizer initially said they planned to hunt down migrants along the border in collaboration with sympathetic members of law enforcement, the group appeared to walk back that assertion on Monday, issuing a statement that the convoy would not be heading to the border at all but instead going to Quemado, a tiny town in Catron County, Texas. The group’s website, however, still lists the route of the convoy as “Virginia Beach, VA, to Eagle Pass,” and members of the planning group on Telegram still say they are going to the Texas border.

The organizers also repeatedly stated that the event was peaceful, though online chats in a related Telegram group show members discussing “exterminating” migrants. A known white nationalist who was kicked out of the People’s Convoy in 2022, Ryan Sanchez, is among those most active in the group. Sanchez was previously a Marine Corp reservist who says he was kicked out after he was reported to have been demonstrating alongside the Rise Above Movement, an alt-right street-fighting group that took part in the neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, which led to the death of one counterprotester.

“I think the Eagle Pass rally is going to be the ’main event,’” Sanchez wrote in the convoy Telegram channel. “We need to think strategically and concentrate our limited resources where they will have the greatest effect.”

But on the first day of the convoy, some attendees woke up to find their tires slashed, according to one of the main livestreamers who posted pictures on X of the cars outside a motel. The meeting point also had to be hastily rearranged on Monday morning when the owners of the original location told the organizers they couldn’t gather there.

When the convoy did finally come together in a hotel parking lot in Norfolk, Virginia, there were a few dozen people and around 20 vehicles, based on video footage reviewed by WIRED and comments made by the livestreamers responding to questions from supporters.

The day began with a speech from Craig Hudgins, one of the organizers, who stressed that the event was a "peaceful, peaceable demonstration.” Hudgins also claimed—without evidence—that he had heard that up to “40,000 truckers from all over the country and Canada” would be joining the convoy—although not a single one of those trucks managed to join the group during the first day. The convoy members also heard from Ivan Raiklin, who was involved in the efforts to block Joe Biden’s election win and is an ally of disgraced national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Finally, after a prayer from a pastor linked to the Church Militant, a far-right religious website, the convoy rolled out an hour later than scheduled and headed down I-95. It was spearheaded by a bus covered in MAGA slogans.

Almost immediately, one of the vehicles in the convoy got lost, according to messages posted in the Zello walkie-talkie app that the group is using to communicate while on the road. Later, when the convoy linked up to discuss evening plans, the meeting quickly descended into an argument about where they were going to be staying. Even trying to meet up at a gas station was difficult: Due to the size of a Buc-ee’s in South Carolina, convoy members couldn’t locate each other.

A few hours into the trip, the lead bus pulled over onto the highway shoulder and kicked out one of the people onboard, who had traveled on his own from Washington, DC. It was unclear exactly why he was ejected, but the man, who is part of a group that protests daily in support of people jailed for rioting at the Capitol on January 6, was left stranded in Florence, South Carolina, without his wallet, according to details discussed on a livestream of someone in contact with the man.

Throughout the day, the half-dozen people livestreaming the convoy spent much of their time responding to questions from some of the thousands of people watching.

Most of the questions were about the conspiracy that the convoy is a “setup” by the federal government to “entrap patriots.” That sense of paranoia has been present in the group from the very beginning, according to leaks of the group’s chats on Discord: “This will end up loaded with trolls and feds in no time,” one member wrote a week ago.

Paranoia was also prevalent on the Telegram channels used to coordinate the convoy in different parts of the country. “I hope it’s not another J6 trap. People need to pray for discernment about this. But after 3 years of this people are sick of it,” one member wrote, referring to the widely debunked conspiracy that the Capitol insurrection was a left-wing plan to trap Trump supporters.

On Monday, after the cars had started on the road, organizers issued a press release, claiming “groups are forming to infiltrate the convoy.” The statement also claims that “nowhere on the website does it say anything about the convoy going to the border,” which is inaccurate, as the route for the main convoy clearly states the final destination is Eagle Pass.

Additionally, one of the organizers of the convoy, Pete Chambers, told Alex Jones last week that his plan included traveling to the border to hunt migrants and work with local law enforcement to capture them. Among those traveling with the convoy, multiple people on Monday mentioned going to Eagle Pass. “We’re all going to the border,” one member declared on the livestream on Monday night.

Though the convoy’s start was full of mishaps, others planning to join the convoy still appear to be taking their plans seriously. Online, a number of people are openly talking about going to the border: “Those going to Eagle Pass on Saturday, message me,” one member of the Texas-focused Take Our Border Back Telegram channel wrote. “I'm organizing level 2 security detail composed of veterans and prior law enforcement guys. We're not going to engage any threats or go in guns blazing. We'll just keep a watchful eye and report any suspicious behavior.”

As the convoy has gained some media attention, the Telegram channels have been scrubbed of a lot of the more virulent, racist, and violent language used by members. However, leaks of the Telegram chat detail clearly how members spoke openly about “exterminating” migrants.

Since Abbott issued his letter in defiance of the Biden administration, he has seen support flow in from dozens of GOP governors and former president Donald Trump, who has urged other states to send troops to Texas. The convoy has been portrayed in right-wing media in recent days as part of a wider right-wing effort to support Abbott and resist Biden’s immigration policies, and as a result, its organizers have been able to raise over $140,000 on a Christian-focused crowdfunding website.

On Tuesday morning, the convoy departed Jacksonville for Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with a few more vehicles joining the group—but still no trucks.

David Gilbert is a reporter at WIRED who is covering disinformation and online extremism, and how these two online trends will impact people's lives across the globe, with a special focus on the 2024 US presidential election. Prior to WIRED, he worked at VICE News. He lives in Ireland.

Wayne LaPierre is 'falling on the sword' as NRA corruption exposed: Expert

Matthew Chapman
January 29, 2024 

Wayne LaPierre speaking at the 2018 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)

Disgraced outgoing NRA president Wayne LaPierre is taking the fall at the organization's civil corruption trial, "The Trace" senior staff writer Mike Spies told CNN on Monday.

"What stood out from LaPierre's testimony today?" asked anchor Jake Tapper.

"What stood out was he's in some respects falling on the sword, there's no question anymore about whether or not he had done the wrong thing," said Spies. "He's basically openly saying that the arrangements that he entered into prior to 2018 specifically, hiding payments through the NRA's longtime PR firm, are going on these fancy vacations to his vendors' yacht or the Taj Mahal, and those kinds of places, that was clearly the wrong thing to do and he should have been disclosing it to the board all along."

READ MORE: Gun magazine slams NRA for its financial woes as firearm foes celebrate decline of ‘paper tiger’

"But also, at the same time, it wasn't done in bad faith. He just sort of made a mistake and didn't know better and embarked on a course correction as they kept referring to it in 2018 and now, according to him, the slate has more or less been wiped clean and they are on solid footing," he added.

"Remind us what is at stake in this larger corruption case for the NRA?" Tapper pressed him.

"In some ways, the major thing that was at stake was whether or not Wayne was going to stay in power, but he voluntarily stepped down before the proceedings began," said Spies. "So now it's really a matter of whether or not he and several other defendants who are also going to have to really like to pay up, at the end of the proceedings, and how much money, in fact, they owe to the organization."

LaPierre's doctors told the court that he couldn't testify in the trial all day long because his brain is shrinking, a court filing last week said.

Watch the video below or at the link here.

 

Microgreens made to order: Italian scientists have tailored iodine and potassium content of radishes, peas, rocket and chard

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SOCIETY OF CHEMICAL INDUSTRY

 

IMAGE: 

THE MICROGREENS WERE GROWN IN A COMMERCIAL SETTING.

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CREDIT: MASSIMILIANO RENNA

In a significant development for personalised nutrition, researchers in Italy have cultivated microgreens with bespoke nutritional profiles to serve individual dietary requirements.

The study, published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture (doi: 10.1002/jsfa.13222), provides a blueprint for the soilless cultivation of nutritionally enriched plants in a commercial greenhouse setting.

Co-authors Massimiliano D’Imperio and Francesco Serio, both at the Institute of Sciences of Food Production (ISPA) National Council of Research (CNR); and Massimiliano Renna, professor of agricultural and environmental science at the University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy, explained the motivation behind the research.

‘Propelled by an ever-growing awareness of the importance of following dietary recommendations, interest in personalised nutrition is on the rise. Soilless biofortification of vegetables has opened the door to the potential for adapting vegetable production to specific dietary requirements,’ Renna explained.

The team cultivated four different species – radish, pea, rocket and Swiss chard – and focused on two nutrients that play a crucial role in health and nutrition: iodine and potassium.

Iodine is critical to thyroid function, with deficiency affecting approximately two billion people worldwide. Fortifying table salt with iodine is a strategy used internationally to combat deficiency, while other sources in the human diet include fish, milk and eggs.

However, recommendations from the World Health Organisation to reduce daily salt intake, paired with an increase in vegetarian and vegan diets, mean demand is growing for alternative iodine sources.

Using tailored nutrient solutions for plant growth, the team successfully cultivated plants with iodine content up to 14 times higher than unfortified microgreens, as a novel dietary source of iodine.

They also grew microgreens with a 45% reduction in potassium levels, to cater for chronic kidney disease sufferers – for whom its intake must be restricted to avoid health complications.

‘Since vegetables contain high concentrations of potassium, patients with impaired kidney function are sometimes advised not to eat vegetables, or that they should be soaked in water and boiled to reduce the potassium content through leaching.

‘However, the reduction in potassium using such cooking methods can be considered limited, while other important minerals and vitamins could be significantly lost,’ the researchers noted. ‘In this context, the production of vegetables with low potassium content could be of great interest.’

The study was conducted in a commercial setting – at Ortogourmet, a working microgreen farm in southern Italy. Crucially, this supports the viability of cultivating customised microgreens on a large scale while maintaining optimal agronomic performance.

The microgreens were grown in a soilless system, where a liquid medium is used in place of soil and the plants are fed through a nutrient solution.

Explaining the advantages of a soilless system, the authors said, ‘Soilless cultivation is considered an advanced, environmentally friendly agricultural practice for enhancing the quality of fresh vegetables. In fact, although soilless cultivation systems have been developed primarily to address the challenge of excessive soil pathogens, it is nonetheless true that they also favour optimal control of plant growth, high productivity, and an efficient use of water and fertilisers. Furthermore, soilless systems represent an opportunity to modulate the nutrient solution precisely and efficaciously.’

The researchers are now turning their attention to manipulating the biological pathways of plants to produce desired compounds. ‘The key idea is to leverage in-depth knowledge of plant metabolic pathways to identify key points where intervention is possible to increase the production of desired molecules,’ they note.

‘The optimisation of these techniques will require in-depth research into the molecular biology of plants, including the metabolic pathways involved in the synthesis of target molecules, and a constant refinement of growth conditions. The combination of advanced scientific knowledge and innovative technologies can open new perspectives in the production of healthier and nutritionally biofortified vegetables.’

The research was funded by SOILLESS GO (Rural Development Program of the Apulia Region - Italy) and NUTRAGE projects (CNR, FOE-2021 project).

The microgreens were grown in a commercial setting.

CREDIT

Massimiliano Renna

JOURNAL

Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture

DOI

10.1002/jsfa.13222 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

ARTICLE TITLE

Soilless cultivation systems to produce tailored microgreens for specific nutritional needs

Fungal-rich soil may improve green roofs

The right mix of soil and microbes could be a climate resilience tool for cities.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

DARTMOUTH COLLEGE

 

IMAGE: 

A NATIVE PRICKLY PEAR CACTUS (OPUNTIA HUMIFUSA) ON THE LEFT, THRIVES NEXT TO NON-NATIVE HORTICULTURAL VARIETIES OF SUCCULENT STONECROP SPECIES (SEDUM OR PHEDIMUS).  

 

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CREDIT: PHOTO BY BALA CHAUDHARY.

Green roofs have become increasingly popular thanks to their benefits related to climate adaptation, mitigation, and urban biodiversity management.

These vegetated surfaces on the rooftops of buildings absorb excess storm water, reduce energy use by insulating buildings, and cool neighborhoods, tempering urban heat islands, while also creating urban habitats for plants, pollinators, and wildlife.

But, in the U.S., green roofs are typically planted with non-native plants in sterile soils, and their effectiveness declines over time.

A Dartmouth-led research team set out to determine if managing green roof soil microbes could boost healthy urban soil development, a methodology that could be applied to support climate resilience in cities.

The team created an experimental green roof in Chicago to test how enhancing soil with native prairie microbes would change the soil microbial community over time. They were particularly interested in tracking the presence of beneficial mycorrhizal fungi.

Mycorrhizal fungi are well-known to live in roots and support plants in a symbiotic underground relationship, delivering nutrients and water to them in exchange for plant sugars. Mycorrhizal fungi could be particularly helpful to plants in green roofs that have to endure high temperatures, intense sun, and periodic flooding.

The researchers added soil rich with native mycorrhizal fungi obtained from a local restored prairie, referred to as "inoculum," to the experimental green roof's soil. They planted inoculated and untreated soil with native prairie plants and green roof succulents. Over two years, the team tracked changes in the mycorrhizal fungal community of the green roof. They also compared the green roof fungal species identified to those present in the inoculum and in the air.

Their findings demonstrate that active management of green roof mycorrhizal fungi accelerates soil development faster than if mycorrhizal fungal communities are left to passively reestablish on their own. Green roofs treated with mycorrhizal fungi foster a more diverse soil community that is more likely to support long-term green roof sustainability, according to the results published in New Phytologist.

"In this urban rooftop setting, we saw more diversity in the fungal communities of the inoculated soil," said lead author Paul Metzler, soil ecology lab manager in the Department of Environmental Studies at Dartmouth. "The long-term and consistent effects of the inoculum were quite surprising, as it's not necessarily something you would expect when working with such small microorganisms."

Using a molecular technique called "DNA metabarcoding," which enables the identification of multiple organisms in one sample, the researchers could identify fungi present in the green roof soils as well as potential sources of these fungi. Many fungi came from the inoculum while other species got there through some other vector such as wind.

The co-authors state that their study was different than most of its kind, as few studies track mycorrhizal community shifts over time post-inoculation and even fewer attempt to track the sources of species pools. The team also had a number of species in their green roof that likely arrived via unmeasured vectors such birds, insects, or even rats.

Still, the most diverse fungal communities were those that had been treated with the inoculum, illustrating how mycorrhizal fungi could be used to improve soil health in green roofs. The results suggest that active management of soil microbial communities is effective and worth the effort and resources in cities.

"Green roofs have a shelf life and they're not always the self-sustaining ecosystems that we think they are," says senior author Bala Chaudhary, an associate professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth. "They can be beneficial to urban areas but tend to lose their efficacy over time."

While green roofs are marketed as "set it and forget it," the co-authors explain that ecological thought should be incorporated into their design, construction, and maintenance to maximize the benefits and role that green roofs play in the climate resilience of urban areas.

"Our cities could be a window into the future," says Chaudhary. "They are experiencing the impacts of climate change—warming temperatures and increased drought and flooding—in an intensified way, which make them a great microcosm to study some of these impacts below ground."

Metzler is available for comment at: paul.metzler@dartmouth.edu. Kelly Ksiazek-Mikenas at Elmhurst University also served as a co-author of the study.

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JOURNAL

New Phytologist

DOI

10.1111/nph.19526 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Tracking arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi to their source: active inoculation and passive dispersal differentially affect community assembly in urban soils

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

31-Jan-2024