Analysis-Brazil's new pro-gun lawmakers aim to advance Bolsonaro's firearms agenda

By Maria Carolina Marcello and Gabriel Stargardter -


Protest in support of gun rights and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro

© Reuters/ADRIANO MACHADO

BRASILIA (Reuters) - A new wave of pro-gun lawmakers in Brazil, elected this month as part of a more conservative Congress, are likely to ensure far-right President Jair Bolsonaro's vision of a more armed citizenry lives on - even if he fails to win re-election.

Brazil's "bullet caucus" in Congress has long represented the interests of police and farmers interested in self-defense, traditional voting blocs with boots and budgets. But a series of looser gun regulations under Bolsonaro has forged a new breed of U.S.-style pro-gun politicians who put the individual's right to bear arms at the center of their conservative identities.

"The idea is to form a caucus whose priority is to defend the citizen's right to have access to firearms," said Marcos Pollon, the most-voted lawmaker-elect from his midwest farm state and the head of lobby group PROARMAS, which models itself on the U.S. National Rifle Association.

Speaking ahead of the Oct. 2 general election, Pollon told Reuters he hoped some 80 PROARMAS-backed candidates would get elected. In the end, 39 won seats, including eight senators, 20 federal lawmakers and 11 state lawmakers, according to research from the Sou Da Paz and Igarape Institutes.

Although explicitly pro-gun candidates fell short of Pollon's hopes, their conservative peers were the surprise winners of Brazil's election, giving parties allied with Bolsonaro about half the seats in the Senate and lower house of Congress.

Bolsonaro is now scrambling to win votes and endorsements ahead of a tense Oct. 30 runoff against Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a leftist former president. But even if Bolsonaro loses, his pro-gun allies in Congress are well positioned to complicate da Silva's pledge to "disarm" Brazil.

Ivan Marques, the managing director of The International Action Network on Small Arms, said it was "very likely" that newly elected conservative lawmakers would enact major reforms to broaden gun access in Brazil, the country with the world's highest number of murders.

"The Senate is really going to change the configuration of that debate," he said.

The upper house, where Bolsonaro's party is now the largest, has until now been the major obstacle to his legislative agenda on gun liberalization.

"READY-TO-USE" GUN CARRY PERMITS

Since taking office in 2019, Bolsonaro has signed dozens of executive orders to loosen gun laws, making it easier to buy weapons if Brazilians register as hunters, marksmen or collectors, or "CACs." Nearly 700,000 Brazilians have now accredited as CACs, up almost 500% since 2018.

Bolsonaro's executive orders have successfully stimulated private gun ownership, but they are fragile, and can easily be overturned by the courts or an eventual Lula administration. Even with the electoral gains for the pro-gun lobby, the next step toward legislation is not without obstacles.

For example, PL 3723, a bill which would embed the rights of CAC permit holders, allowing them to carry "ready-to-use" weapons, has already passed the lower house, putting it a Senate vote away from becoming law.

However, Senator Carlos Portinho, a leader of the Bolsonaro government's coalition, told Reuters he did not expect PL 3723 to reach a vote this year, given other legislative priorities.

The current Senate leader, centrist Senator Rodrigo Pacheco, will not allow a plenary vote on the proposal, known as PL 3723, according to a person with knowledge of his thinking.

In response to a question from Reuters, Pacheco's press office said he would wait for the bill to exit committee before deciding whether to bring a floor vote.

Pacheco's role next year is far from assured, given the new composition of the Senate. If Bolsonaro fails to hold onto the presidency, analysts say, his conservative coalition in Congress could fray, hurting the leverage of pro-gun lawmakers.

Still, the bill now stands a better chance than before the election of reaching a final vote early next year.

Experts also said they expected the renewed "bullet caucus" to push fresh legislation shoring up gun rights in Congress.

Reuters has previously reported that the Federal Police, Brazil's most respected law enforcement organization, have long opposed broadening gun access. Reuters has also revealed how Bolsonaro's gun laws have made it easier for criminals to get hold of high-caliber weapons.

The new breed of pro-gun lawmakers are united behind the effort to pass legislation formalizing CAC permits in law.

Pollon, the lawmaker-elect who got over 100,000 votes in the farm state of Mato Grosso do Sul this month, founded PROARMAS as a way to elect more pro-CAC lawmakers, and has close ties to the president via his son, federal lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro.

In an interview, Pollon said the legislative priorities for his group of CAC-affiliated lawmakers include the approval of PL 3723, broader self-defense protections for armed Brazilians and tax changes to encourage firearm ownership.

"We need to approve self-defense as a constitutional right," he said.

(Reporting by Maria Carolina Marcello in Brasilia and Gabriel Stargardter in Rio de Janeiro; Editing by Brad Haynes and Frank Jack Daniel)

Image of N.S. officers at ‘freedom fighters’ event shared without context: RCMP

Karla Renić - Yesterday 


An image of a Nova Scotia RCMP officer wearing a "thin blue line" patch while responding to a self-proclaimed "Freedom Fighters" event this weekend circulated on social media.


RCMP officers appeared in a photo at a self-proclaimed "Freedom Fighters" event.

© Twitter @Seebo429

It was posted by Twitter user @Seebo429 on Saturday night, among others on social media, with the caption reading: "RCMP checking out the convoy cookout in the valley. What's that patch on the officer's chest? I don't want to get my colours mixed up again." The post received nearly 400 likes and over 100 retweets.

RCMP responded to the tweet on Sunday, saying, "The photo and information has been sent to the appropriate unit for follow up as necessary."

In a Monday news release, RCMP said the image was shared "without the accurate context."
In the release, RCMP said police were called for a noise complaint in Nictaux, located southeast of Middleton in Annapolis County, at around 8:30 p.m. Saturday.

Nova Scotia Tattoo ends partnership with group amid Thin Blue Line controversy

The complaint was made against a home where about 50 self-proclaimed "Freedom Fighters" gathered, according to police, "with a clear indication of alcohol being consumed."

Police say there was a poster displayed at the end of the driveway of the home, stating “Freedom Fighter PTSD Drive."

Police said in the release that two officers arrived to the house and a large group of men told them they were not welcome there.

"One of the RCMP officers spoke with a man who identified himself as the president of the Freedom Fighters to explain the noise by-law in Annapolis County," read the release.

"Meanwhile, the second officer was working to maintain calm among the group of event attendees that had approached the officers."

Read more:
Montreal police force reviewing uniform policy after calls to ban ‘Thin Blue Line’ patches

Police said the music was turned down to address the noise complaint.

"When the RCMP officers went to leave, one man stated that police didn’t pay the $5 entry fee which was quickly seconded by another and followed by individuals who were surrounding the officers. To keep the situation diffused and avoid the potential for violence, the entry fee was paid with the RCMP officer’s personal funds," the RCMP said Monday.

"The RCMP is not affiliated with the 'Freedom Fighters' group."

The release also said the group of men requested a photo with the police officers, and "in an effort to mitigate an escalation of the situation," the officers agreed to the photo. That's the photo circulating online.

RCMP said the officer wearing the thin blue line patch has since removed it from his uniform, and "this has been addressed by his supervisor."

The thin blue line symbol depicts a blue line across a black and grey Maple Leaf. While some consider the image a sign of police solidarity, it has also been criticized as a symbol of white supremacy.

Freedom Fighters Nova Scotia Chapter is part of a larger national group composed of veterans and civilians who say they defend Canadians' ``freedoms.'' They did not immediately return a request for comment.

In the release, RCMP also said "we would like to extend our appreciation to the man who identified as the president and quickly addressed the noise complaints."

-- With files from Alessia Simona Maratta and The Canadian Press.

RCMP say they paid Freedom Fighters group and took photo to 'avoid violence'

Tyler Dawson -  National Post

Police in Nova Scotia say they paid $5 to so-called Freedom Fighters and took a group photo in order to “ avoid the potential for violence” as they enforced a noise bylaw.

On Saturday night, Annapolis District RCMP officers responded to a noise complaint at a property near Nictaux, a community about 150 kilometres northwest of Halifax.

When they arrived, officers discovered that they had stumbled upon a “Freedom Fighter PTSD Drive,” according to a poster displayed at the end of the driveway.

There were more than 50 people in attendance, the RCMP said, and there was a “clear indication of alcohol being consumed.”

“A large group of men approached the two RCMP officers and stated that police were not welcome in the area,” an RCMP press release said.

One officer, the release says, spoke to the president of the group, while the other attempted to keep the rest of the men calm. The president provided his phone number in case of future noise complaints.

As the officers went to leave, one of the men noted that they had not paid the $5 entry fee. The men surrounding the officers agreed.

“To keep the situation diffused and avoid the potential for violence, the entry fee was paid with the RCMP officer’s personal funds,” the release says. “The RCMP is not affiliated with the ‘Freedom Fighters’ group.”

The officers also took a photo with the men, which, according to the release, was done at the request of the men in a further attempt to keep the peace.

“ The photo is circulating online without the accurate context of the situation,” the release says.

The photo shows one officer wearing a “thin blue line” patch, which is contrary to RCMP policy. The release says it has been removed.

Two further noise complaints were received that night, although the president of the group dealt with it quickly.

“We would like to extend our appreciation to the man who identified as the president and quickly addressed the noise complaints,” the release says.

MI5 missed early chance to expose Soviet agent Kim Philby, files reveal

Caroline Davies - Yesterday -The Guardian


Kim Philby could have been unmasked as a Soviet double agent more than a decade before his eventual defection had MI5 not missed an opportunity to question his close friend Flora Solomon, according to newly released intelligence files.


Photograph: PA

Solomon, born in Russia to a wealthy family, was a former lover of Alexander Kerensky, the Russian leader deposed by Lenin. She told MI5 in 1962 that Philby had tried to recruit her as a Soviet spy in 1937-38.

Philby, a British intelligence officer, was suspected to be the “third man” who tipped off Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, two of the “Cambridge five”, in 1951 when they fled to Moscow. He was exonerated in 1955, and subsequently worked in Beirut as a journalist for the Observer.

But in 1962, Solomon, then the welfare superintendent at Marks & Spencer and the widow of an English army officer, approached MI5 through the former MI5 officer Victor Rothschild. She said she had known Philby since he was a child, and that he had an infatuation with her.

She said that, after returning from covering the Spanish civil war, Philby had met her for lunch in a “highly agitated state” and said: “Don’t you see ... I am 100% on the Soviet side, and I am helping them ... I am carrying [out] a terrifically important and difficult assignment, and I am in danger.”

He then tried to enlist her, she said, but she refused, telling him: “I am not of that type. It doesn’t interest me,” according to files released by the National Archives on Tuesday

Her information “clinched” the case against Philby, who had already been named by a Soviet defector to the US, according to the Spycatcher author Peter Wright, then an MI5 agent working on the case. Philby would defect shortly afterwards, in January 1963.

When the MI5 agent who interviewed her asked her why she had not come forward in 1951, Solomon replied: “Look, if you had come to me, if I had been directly approached … I certainly would have come out.”

According to a 1971 report on the case by Stella Rimington, the security services had been alerted to Solomon in 1951-52 as a result of telephone tapping at Philby’s home. But Solomon was judged at the time to be “innocuous and fairly inconsequential”.

Solomon, an ardent Zionist, told MI5 she was at one time sympathetic to the Russian cause but that changed with the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact. She had come forward in 1962 because she wanted to unburden her conscience, and because she wanted to somehow prevent Philby writing articles that were, she said, violently anti-Israel.

In her report, Rimington, who would go on to become the first female director general of MI5, questioned Solomon’s motives for not coming forward sooner. She might have – as Solomon’s sister claimed – had an emotional tie to Philby, a younger man who had “swept her off her feet at the end of her affair with Kerensky”.

She might also been under the control of the Russian intelligence service at the time, though Rimington thought if that was the case Solomon would have a more convincing reason for not coming forward other than her “feeble excuse”.

It could not be discounted, however, that the Russians wanted Philby to defect to escape the clutches of western intelligence but he was refusing to do so, and that Solomon’s story was meant to exert more pressure so “they could more easily persuade him to defect”.

It was hard to understand “why having kept this story to herself for so long, she came forward with it at the time which appears to be so consonant with Russian interest”, said Rimington, acknowledging that because of Solomon’s declining mental state in old age they would probably never know.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Pharma company linked to Brett Favre made pitch for welfare funds

THE GREAT MISSISSIPPI WELFARE FRAUD

Michael Kaplan - TODAY


NFL Hall of Famer Brett Favre hosted Mississippi officials, including then-governor Phil Bryant, at his home in January 2019, where an executive for a pharmaceutical company Favre invested in solicited nearly $2 million in state welfare funds, according to pitch materials obtained by CBS News.

A document distributed at the January 2, 2019 meeting describes plans to secure money from the state's Department of Human Services, which operates Mississippi's welfare program. The pitch was led by Jacob VanLandingham, then the CEO of pharmaceutical company Prevacus, which was attempting to develop a concussion drug.

The effort to infuse a for-profit business venture with money intended for some of the neediest families in the nation is the latest development in a welfare fraud investigation that has been swirling around the famed quarterback, a Mississippi native, and former state officials.

Former federal prosecutor Brad Pigott, who investigated the transactions for the state, told CBS News the agreement between the state and Prevacus was "an egregious betrayal, both of the poor and of the law."

The meeting at Favre's Mississippi home was not his first interaction with state officials about the company. One month earlier, text messages first reported by Mississippi Today appear to show the former NFL quarterback personally lobbied Byrant. The news site reported that VanLandingham offered Bryant stock in the company, and Bryant agreed to accept it after leaving office.

"It's 3rd and long and we need you to make it happen!!" Favre wrote to the governor, according to Mississippi Today.



Former NFL quarterback Brett Favre. / Credit: Hannah Foslien / Getty Images© Provided by CBS News

"I will open a hole," Bryant replied, a reference to the work of a football offensive lineman. Favre later updated Bryant after Prevacus began receiving state funds, according to Mississippi Today.

Eric Herschmann, an attorney for Favre, said in an interview with CBS News that state officials, including Bryant, never told Favre that the money Bryant would provide would be derived from welfare funds. Herschmann pointed out that Bryant had previously served as Mississippi state auditor, leading the department that oversees public funds.

"He knew who all the parties were involved. If there was an issue about these funds not being used, or unable to be used, he should have been the first one that stood up and said something," said Herschmann. "He never said anything to Brett Favre, nor did anyone else ever tell him that this was restricted welfare funds."

On January 19, 2019, VanLandingham and Zach New, an executive for a nonprofit tasked with doling out Temporary Assistance for Needy Families welfare funds, signed a contract for $1.7 million promising Mississippi that, in return for the money, it would have the "first right of refusal for clinical trial sites" in a future study phase described as "1B." New and his mother Nancy entered guilty pleas to state and federal charges related to bribery and fraud stemming from their work for the nonprofit Mississippi Community Education Center.

Months later, VanLandhingman asked a state welfare official for the money in a text message exchange, a screenshot of which was obtained by CBS News.

"We would love 784k," VanLandingham wrote to an employee associated with the nonprofit.

"Jake, you cannot even imagine the word stress for us right now! At any rate, we can send 400k today. I will need to let Brett (Favre) know that we will need to pull this from what we were hoping to help him with on other activities. 😩," the employee replied, before also asking for "status reports."

VanLandingham replied, "Thx sister. Can we stay in line to get the other 380k ? I Ly (sic) you guys."

Pigott is a former U.S. attorney who investigated the transactions while representing the state in a civil lawsuit seeking millions from dozens of people and companies, including Favre and Prevacus.

Pigott said Favre "was the largest single outside investor" in Prevacus when it received the state grant.

"Both Federal and Mississippi law required 100% of that money to go only to the alleviation of poverty within Mississippi and the prevention of teenage pregnancies," said Pigott, who said Prevacus ultimately received $2.1 million.

And Pigott said the grant has so far failed to live up to its promise. "They did not, as we understand it" run clinical trials of Prevacus in Mississippi, Pigott said.

Prevacus was purchased in 2021 by Nevada-based Odyssey Group International, where VanLandingham is now an executive vice president. In September, the company completed its Phase 1 clinical trial. The study was done in Australia, according to National Institutes of Health records and a September 2021 press release. The company said in a separate press release five days ago that it is moving onto Phase 2 trials.

An attorney for VanLandingham said in a letter to CBS News that VanLandingham and Prevacus were "never aware that the money received was sourced by TANF funds or that it was earmarked to help welfare recipients."

The attorney, George Schmidt II, said VanLandingham is currently identifying potential sites for the next clinical trial, "which includes sites in Mississippi per the contract."

Favre has previously acknowledged soliciting state funds for a volleyball stadium at his alma mater, the University of Southern Mississippi, where his daughter was on the team. Favre also repaid more than $1 million in speaking fees, for speeches that were never delivered and radio spots, paid for from the Mississippi welfare fund.

Favre said in a statement to CBS News that "I have been unjustly smeared in the media. I have done nothing wrong, and it is past time to set the record straight."

"No one ever told me, and I did not know, that funds designated for welfare recipients were going to the University or me. I tried to help my alma mater USM, a public Mississippi state university, raise funds for a wellness center. My goal was and always will be to improve the athletic facilities at my university," Favre said.

Neither Favre nor VanLandingham has been charged with any crime.

Calls mount for Filipino ex-senator freedom after jail riot

ASSOCIATED PRESS
JIM GOMEZ and JOEAL CALUPITAN
Mon, October 10, 2022 

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Human rights activists pressed their call Monday for the immediate release of a former Philippine opposition senator after she was taken hostage in a rampage by three Muslim militants in a failed attempt to escape from a maximum-security jail.

Police killed three Islamic State group-linked militants behind Sunday’s violence in which a police officer was stabbed and former Sen. Leila de Lima was briefly taken hostage. The militants tried to escape from the jail for high-profile inmates at the national police headquarters in metropolitan Manila, police said.

National police chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr. acknowledged there were security lapses in the detention center and said its commander has been removed as part of an investigation.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch separately expressed deep alarm over the violence and the hostage-taking of de Lima. The groups call for her immediate release.


“That she has had to endure this traumatizing and frightening experience on top of being arbitrarily detained for over five years now is the height of outrage, negligence and injustice,” Amnesty International Philippine director Butch Olano said.

About two dozen supporters held a protest for de Lima, who was brought to a metropolitan Manila trial court Monday for a hearing, which was postponed.

“We condemned what happened yesterday,” said protester Charito del Carmen. “It’s painful for us because if she got killed what would happen to the fight for justice that we’ve been waging for her?”

One of the three inmates stabbed a police officer who was delivering breakfast after dawn in an open area, where inmates can exercise outdoors. A guard in a sentry tower fired warning shots then shot and killed two of the prisoners when they refused to yield, police said.

The third inmate ran to de Lima’s cell and briefly held her hostage, Azurin said.

De Lima, 63, told investigators the hostage-taker tied her hands and feet, blindfolded her and pressed a pointed weapon to her chest and demanded access to journalists and a military aircraft to take him to southern Sulu province, where the Muslim militant group Abu Sayyaf has long had a presence.

The man continually threatened to kill her until he was gunned down by a police negotiator, she told investigators.

Following the jail violence, Filibon Tacardon said he and other de Lima lawyers were hoping the court would now grant her appeal for bail. There have also been appeals to place de Lima under house arrest.

De Lima has been detained since 2017 on drug charges she says were fabricated by former President Rodrigo Duterte and his officials in an attempt to muzzle her criticism of his deadly crackdown on illegal drugs. It left thousands of mostly petty suspects dead and sparked an International Criminal Court investigation as a possible crime against humanity.

She has been cleared in one of three cases, and at least two witnesses have retracted their allegations against her.

Duterte, who has insisted on de Lima’s guilt, stepped down from office on June 30 at the end of his turbulent six-year term.

Newly elected President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. talked to de Lima, who was confined in a hospital, by telephone and asked if she wanted to be transferred to another detention site but she rejected the offer, Azurin said.

Even before the jail violence, the European Union Parliament, some American legislators and United Nations human rights watchdogs have demanded that de Lima be freed immediately.

___

Associated Press journalist Aaron Favila contributed to this report.

Philippine then opposition Senator Leila de Lima arrives at a regional trial court for a brief personal appearance Friday, Feb. 24, 2017, in Paranaque city southeast of Manila, Philippines. Philippine police killed three inmates, including a top Abu Sayyaf militant, after they stabbed a jail officer and briefly held a detained former opposition Senator Leila de Lima Sunday in a failed attempt to escape from the police headquarters in the capital region, police said. 

Supreme Court to hear case that could raise price of pork

By JESSICA GRESKO

today

The Supreme Court is seen at sunset in Washington, on Jan. 24, 2019. The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Oct. 11, 2022, over a California animal cruelty law that could raise the cost of bacon and other pork products nationwide. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)


WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will hear arguments over a California animal cruelty law that could raise the cost of bacon and other pork products nationwide.

The case’s outcome is important to the nation’s $26-billion-a-year pork industry, but the outcome could also limit states’ ability to pass laws with impact outside their borders, from laws aimed at combating climate change to others intended to regulate prescription drug prices.

The case before the court on Tuesday involves California’s Proposition 12, which voters passed in 2018. It said that pork sold in the state needs to come from pigs whose mothers were raised with at least 24 square feet of space, including the ability to lie down and turn around. That rules out the confined “gestation crates,” metal enclosures that are common in the pork industry.

Two industry groups, the Iowa-based National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation, sued over the proposition. They say that while Californians consume 13% of the pork eaten in the United States, nearly 100% of it comes from hogs raised outside the state, primarily where the industry is concentrated in the Midwest and North Carolina. The vast majority of sows, meanwhile, aren’t raised under conditions that would meet Proposition 12′s standards.

The question for the high court is whether California has impermissibly burdened the pork market and improperly regulated an industry outside its borders.

Pork producers argue that 72% of farmers use individual pens for sows that don’t allow them to turn around and that even farmers who house sows in larger group pens don’t provide the space California would require.

They also say that the way the pork market works, with cuts of meat from various producers being combined before sale, it’s likely all pork would have to meet California standards, regardless of where it’s sold. Complying with Proposition 12 could cost the industry $290 million to $350 million, they say.

So far, lower courts have sided with California and animal-welfare groups that had supported the proposition. But for a number of reasons the law has yet to go into effect.

The Biden administration, for its part, is urging the justices to side with pork producers. The administration says Proposition 12 would be a “wholesale change in how pork is raised and marketed in this country.” And it says the proposition has “thrown a giant wrench into the workings of the interstate market in pork.”

California’s Proposition 12 also covers other animals. It says egg-laying hens and calves being raised for veal need to be raised in conditions in which they have enough room to lie down, stand up and turn around freely. Those parts of the law aren’t at issue in the case.

The case is National Pork Producers Council v. Ross, 21-468.

PHOTO ESSAY

Florida shrimpers race to get battered fleet back to sea

By JAY REEVES

1 of 21

Damaged shrimp boats and debris litter the waterfront and the pier at Erickson & Jensen Seafood following the passage of Hurricane Ian, on San Carlos Island in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., Friday, Oct. 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)


FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The seafood industry in southwest Florida is racing against time and the elements to save what’s left of a major shrimping fleet — and a lifestyle — that was battered by Hurricane Ian.

The storm’s ferocious wind and powerful surge hurled a couple dozen shrimp boats atop wharves and homes along the harbor on Estero Island. Jesse Clapham, who oversees a dozen trawlers for a large seafood company at Fort Myers Beach, is trying to get boats back to sea as quickly as possible — before their engines, winches and pulleys seize up from being out of the water.

One of two shrimpers that didn’t sink or get tossed onto land went out Sunday, but the victory was small compared with the task ahead.

“There’s 300 people who work for us and all of them are out of a job right now. I’m sure they’d rather just mow all this stuff down and build a giant condo here, but we’re not going to give up,” said Clapham, who manages the fishing fleet at Erickson and Jensen Seafood, which he said handles $10 million in shrimp annually.

The company’s fractured wharves, flooded office and processing house are located on Main Street beside another large seafood company, Trico Shrimp Co. There, a crane lifted the outrigger of grounded shrimper Aces & Eights — the first step toward getting it back in the water. Across the yard, the massive Kayden Nicole and Renee Lynn sat side-by-side in the parking lot, stern to bow.

Shrimping is the largest piece of Florida’s seafood industry, with a value of almost $52 million in 2016, state statistics show. Gulf of Mexico shrimp from Fort Myers has been shipped all over the United States for generations.

Now, it’s a matter of when the fishing can resume and whether there will still be experienced crews to operate the boats when that happens.

Deckhand Michele Bryant didn’t just lose a job when the boat where she works was grounded, she lost her home. Shrimping crews are at sea for as long as two months at a time, she said, so members often don’t have homes on land.

“I’ve got nowhere to stay,” she said. “I’m living in a tent.”

Richard Brown’s situation is just as precarious. A citizen of Guyana who was working on a boat out of Miami when Ian hit southwest Florida, Brown rode out the storm on one of four boats that were lashed together along a harbor seawall.

Shrimpers race to get battered fleet back to sea

A sun-worn dockside community is racing against time and the elements to save what's left of both a major shrimping fleet and a lifestyle on the hurricane-battered coast of southwest Florida. (Oct. 11)

 (AP Video: Jay Reeves, Rebecca Blackwell)

“We tried to fight the storm. The lines were bursting. We kept replacing them but when the wind turned everybody was on land,” he said.

There’s no way to catch shrimp on a boat surrounded by dirt, so Brown is staying busy scraping barnacles off the hull of the Gulf Star. “It’s like it’s on dry dock,” he said — but he’s no more sure what to do now than at the height of the storm.

“It was terrifying – the worst experience,” said Brown, who is more than 2,160 miles (3,480 kilometers) from his home in South America. “I was just thinking, ‘You could abandon the ship.’ But where are you going?”

Seafood fleets along the Gulf Coast are used to getting wiped out by hurricanes. Katrina pummeled the industry from Louisiana to Alabama in 2005, and the seafood business in southern Louisiana is still recovering from Hurricane Ida’s punch last year. But this part of Florida hasn’t seen a storm like Ian in a century, leaving people to wonder what happens next.



Dale Kalliainen and his brother followed their father into the shrimping business and owns the trawler Night Wind, which landed amid a mobile home park near a bridge. He said high fuel prices and low-cost imported seafood took a bite out of the industry long before Ian did its worst.

“There used to be 300 boats in this harbor and now there’s maybe 50,” he said. “It’s going to be probably years before this business is even close to being back to what it was.”

Clapham, the 47-year-old fleet manager, has spent his entire life on shrimp boats. The industry already operates on a thin margin and needs help recovering from Ian, he said.

“These boats go out and catch $60,000, $70,000 worth of shrimp a month, but it costs $30,000 to $50,000 to put fuel on them and groceries and supplies, and then you’ve got to pay the crew. And sometimes these boats’ (catches) don’t even pay for everything,” he said. “We take money from one boat and get another boat going and send ’em back fishing just to keep going.”

Supreme Court: Gay marriage case video can be made public


The U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, Monday, June 27, 2022. The satirical site The Onion has some serious things to say in defense of parody. The online humor publication has filed a Supreme Court brief in support of a man who was arrested and prosecuted for making fun of the Parma, Ohio, police force on social media. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)


WASHINGTON (AP) — Video of a landmark 2010 trial that cleared the way for gay marriage in California can be made public, the culmination of a years-long legal fight. The Supreme Court announced Tuesday that it would not intervene in the dispute over the recordings, leaving in place lower court rulings permitting the video’s release.

The trial more than a decade ago led to the resumption in 2013 of gay marriage in the nation’s most populous state. That was two years before the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage is a nationwide right.

As is typical the justices said nothing about the case in declining to hear it, and it was among many the court declined.

The case the justices rejected began in 2008 when a California Supreme Court ruling legalized same-sex marriage. Voters, however, responded by passing Proposition 8 forbidding it. Two gay couples then sued and proponents of Proposition 8 defended it when the state said it wouldn’t.

Because of the interest in the case, the judge overseeing it, Vaughn Walker, initially ordered that it be livestreamed to other courthouses. Proponents of the measure objected, and the Supreme Court stopped the proposed broadcast from happening. Walker did, however, record the trial under rules allowing the practice, but he said it was for his own use and not for the purpose of being broadcast or televised. The video became part of the record of the case but remained under seal.

In the case itself, Walker eventually sided with the gay couples, ruling that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional and barring the state from enforcing it. The case went to the Supreme Court and in a 2013 technical ruling the justices cleared the way for the resumption of same-sex marriage in the state. Two years later the justices ruled 5-4 that same-sex marriage was a nationwide right.

Walker, for his part, has been retired since 2011. After the trial was over, however, the judge used video clips of it during public appearances. A court stopped that practice but there continued to be efforts to unseal the recording. An appeals court determined that the seal on the video would expire in 2020 under local rules.

Some proponents of Proposition 8 argued that the video should remain sealed. But a judge concluded that there was no evidence that anyone involved in the case “fears retaliation or harassment if the recordings are released.” The judge also said no one believed at the time of the trial that Walker’s “commitment to personal use of the recordings meant that the trial recordings would remain under seal forever.” A federal appeals court also ruled against the Proposition 8 proponents, leading them to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The case is Dennis Hollingsworth v. Kristin M. Perry, 21-1304.

Israel, US announce Lebanon sea deal, but questions remain

By ILAN BEN ZION

In this photo released by Lebanon's official government photographer Dalati Nohra, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Makati, right, receives the final draft of the maritime border agreement between Lebanon and Israel from his deputy Elias Bou Saab who leads the Lebanese negotiating team, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022. Israel's prime minister said Tuesday that the country has reached an "historic agreement" with neighboring Lebanon over their shared maritime border after months of U.S.-brokered negotiations. (Dalati Nohra via AP)


JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s prime minister said Tuesday that the country has reached a “historic agreement” with neighboring Lebanon over their shared maritime border that could pave the way for natural gas exploration and reduce tensions between the enemy countries.

The agreement, coming after months of U.S.-mediated talks, would mark a major breakthrough in relations between Israel and Lebanon, which formally have been at war since Israel’s establishment in 1948. But the deal still faces some obstacles, including legal and political challenges in Israel. There was no formal announcement from Lebanon, though officials indicated they would approve the agreement.

In Washington, President Joe Biden announced that Israel and Lebanon agreed to “formally end” their maritime boundary dispute. He said he spoke Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Lebanese President Michael Aoun and both men said they were ready to move forward with the agreement.

The agreement “will provide for the development of energy fields for the benefit of both countries, setting the stage for a more stable and prosperous region,” Biden said.

At stake are rights over exploiting undersea natural gas reserves in areas of the eastern Mediterranean claimed by the two countries. Lebanon hopes gas exploration will help lift its country out of its spiraling economic crisis. Israel also hopes to exploit gas reserves while also easing tensions with its northern neighbor.

Lapid called the deal a “historic achievement that will strengthen Israel’s security, inject billions into Israel’s economy, and ensure the stability of our northern border.”

Lebanon and Israel both claim some 860 square kilometers (330 square miles) of the Mediterranean Sea. Under the agreement, those waters would be divided along a line straddling the strategic “Qana” natural gas field.

Israeli officials involved in the negotiations said Lebanon would be allowed to produce gas from that field, but pay royalties to Israel for any gas extracted from the Israeli side. Lebanon has been working with the French energy giant Total on preparations for exploring the field, though actual production is likely years away.

The agreement would also leave in place an existing “buoy line” that serves as a de facto border between the two countries, the officials said.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were discussing behind the scenes negotiations, said the deal would include American security guarantees, including assurances that none of the gas revenues reach Hezbollah.

Many leading Israeli security figures, both active and retired, have hailed the deal because it could lower tensions with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, which has repeatedly threatened to strike Israeli natural gas assets in the Mediterranean. With Lebanon now having a stake in the region’s natural gas industry, experts believe the sides will think twice before opening up another war.

The two sides fought a monthlong war in 2006, and Israel considers the heavily armed Hezbollah to be its most immediate military threat.

“It might help create and strengthen the mutual deterrence between Israel and Hezbollah,” said Yoel Guzansky, a senior fellow at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies. “This is a very positive thing for Israel.”

The final draft of the agreement will be brought before Israel’s caretaker government for approval this week ahead of the Nov. 1 election, when the country goes to the polls for the fifth time in under four years.

An Israeli official said the Cabinet is expected to approve the agreement in principle on Wednesday, while sending it to parliament for a required two-week review. After the review, the government would give final, official approval, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss government strategy. It remains unclear if parliament needs to approve the agreement, or merely review it.

Approval is not guaranteed. Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the caretaker government has no authority to sign such an important agreement and has vowed to cancel the deal if re-elected. On Tuesday, he accused Lapid of caving in to Hezbollah threats.

“This is not a historic agreement. It’s a historic surrender,” Netanyahu said in a Facebook video.

The Kohelet Policy Forum, an influential conservative think tank, already has filed a challenge with the Supreme Court trying to block the deal.

Eugene Kontorovich, the forum’s director of international law, claimed the agreement requires parliamentary approval. He accused the government of trying to rush through an agreement under pressure from Hezbollah. “This means Hezbollah now overrides Israel’s democracy,” he said.

But Yuval Shany, an expert on international law at the Israel Democracy Institute, another prominent think tank, said it is customary, but not mandatory, to seek Knesset approval for such agreements.

“Peace agreements are usually brought to the Knesset, but this is not a peace agreement. It’s a border and limitation agreement,” he said.

Senior U.S. energy envoy Amos Hochstein, whom Washington appointed a year ago to mediate talks, delivered a modified proposal of the maritime border deal to lead Lebanese negotiator, Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab late Monday night, according to local media and officials.

The office of Aoun, the Lebanese president, said the latest version of the proposal “satisfies Lebanon, meets its demands, and preserves its rights to its natural resources,” and will hold consultations with officials before making an announcement.

A senior official involved in the talks told The Associated Press that Aoun, Prime Minister Najib Mikati, and Speaker Nabih Berri are all satisfied with Hochstein’s latest reiteration of the maritime border deal. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Hezbollah did not immediately comment, but its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has said that the group would endorse the Lebanese government’s position. In the past, however, he has threatened to use its weapons to protect Lebanon’s economic rights.

Nasrallah was expected to make an official statement later Tuesday.

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Associated Press correspondent Eleanor Reich contributed reporting from Jerusalem.

Conservative PACs inject millions into local school races

By COLLIN BINKLEY and JULIE CARR SMYTH

today

 Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis addresses the crowd before publicly signing HB7, "individual freedom," also dubbed the "Stop Woke" bill during a news conference at Mater Academy Charter Middle/High School in Hialeah Gardens, Fla., on Friday, April 22, 2022. As Republicans and Democrats fight for control of Congress this fall, a growing collection of conservative political action groups is targeting its efforts closer to home: at local school boards. DeSantis endorsed a slate of school board candidates, putting his weight behind conservatives who share his opposition to lessons on sexuality and what he deems critical race theory. (Daniel A. Varela/Miami Herald via AP, File)


As Republicans and Democrats fight for control of Congress this fall, a growing collection of conservative political action groups is targeting its efforts closer to home: at local school boards.

Their aim is to gain control of more school systems and push back against what they see as a liberal tide in public education classrooms, libraries, sports fields, even building plans.

Once seen as sleepy affairs with little interest outside their communities, school board elections started to heat up last year as parents aired frustrations with pandemic policies. As those issues fade, right-leaning groups are spending millions on candidates who promise to scale back teachings on race and sexuality, remove offending books from libraries and nix plans for gender-neutral bathrooms or transgender-inclusive sports teams.

Democrats have countered with their own campaigns portraying Republicans as extremists who want to ban books and rewrite history.

At the center of the conservative effort is the 1776 Project PAC, which formed last year to push back against the New York Times’ 1619 Project, which provides free lesson plans that center U.S. history around slavery and its lasting impacts. Last fall and this spring, the 1776 group succeeded in elevating conservative majorities to office in dozens of school districts across the U.S., propelling candidates who have gone on to fire superintendents and enact sweeping “bills of rights” for parents.

In the wake of recent victories in Texas and Pennsylvania — and having spent $2 million between April 2021 and this August, according to campaign finance filings — the group is campaigning for dozens of candidates this fall. It’s supporting candidates in Maryland’s Frederick and Carroll counties, in Bentonville, Arkansas, and 20 candidates across southern Michigan.

Its candidates have won not only in deeply red locales but also in districts near liberal strongholds, including Philadelphia and Minneapolis. And after this November, the group hopes to expand further.

“Places we’re not supposed to typically win, we’ve won in,” said Ryan Girdusky, founder of the group. “I think we can do it again.”

In Florida, recent school board races saw an influx of attention — and money — from conservative groups, including some that had never gotten involved in school races.

The American Principles Project, a Washington think tank, put a combined $25,000 behind four candidates for the Polk County board. The group made its first foray into school boards at the behest of local activists, its leader said, and it’s weighing whether to continue elsewhere. The group’s fundraising average surged from under $50,000 the year before the pandemic to about $2 million now.

“We lean heavily into retaking federal power,” said Terry Schilling, the think tank’s president. “But if you don’t also take over the local school boards, you’re not going to have local allies there to actually reverse the policies that these guys have been implementing.”

In a move never before seen in the state, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis endorsed a slate of school board candidates, putting his weight behind conservatives who share his opposition to lessons on sexuality and what he deems critical race theory. Most of the DeSantis-backed candidates won in their August races, in some cases replacing conservative members who had more moderate views than the firebrand governor.

The movement claims to be an opposing force to left-leaning teachers unions. They see the unions as a well-funded enemy that promotes radical classroom lessons on race and sexuality — a favorite smear is to call the unions “groomers.” The unions, which also support candidates, have called it a fiction meant to stoke distrust in public schools.

In Maryland’s Frederick County, the 1776 group is backing three school board candidates against four endorsed by education unions. The conservatives are running as the “Education Not Indoctrination” slate, with a digital ad saying children are being “held captive” by schools. The ad shows a picture of stacked books bearing the words “equity,” “grooming,” “indoctrination” and “critical race theory.”

Karen Yoho, a board member running for re-election, said outside figures have stoked fears about critical race theory and other lessons that aren’t taught in Frederick County.

The discourse has mostly stayed civil in her area, but Yoho takes exception to the accusation that teachers are “grooming” children.

“I find it disgusting,” said Yoho, a retired teacher whose children went through the district. “It makes my heart hurt. And then I kind of get mad and I get defensive.”

In Texas, Patriot Mobile — a wireless company that promotes conservative causes — has emerged as a political force in school board races. Earlier this year, its political arm spent more than $400,000 out of $800,000 raised to boost candidates in a handful of races in the northern Texas county where the company is based. All of its favored candidates won, putting conservatives in control of four districts.

The group did not respond to requests for comment, but a statement released after the spring victories said Texas was “just the beginning.”

Some GOP strategists have cautioned against the focus on education, saying it could backfire with more moderate voters. Results so far have been mixed — the 1776 Project claims a 70% win rate, but conservative candidates in some areas have fallen flat in recent elections.

Still, the number of groups that have banded together under the umbrella of parental rights seems only to be growing. It includes national organizations such as Moms for Liberty, along with smaller grassroots groups.

“There is a very stiff resistance to the concerted and intentional effort to make radical ideas about race and gender part of the school day. Parents don’t like it,” said Jonathan Butcher, an education fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

The foundation and its political wing have been hosting training sessions encouraging parents to run for school boards, teaching them the basics about budgeting but also about the perceived dangers of what the group deems critical race theory.

For decades, education was seen as its “own little game” that was buffered from national politics, said Jeffrey Henig, a political science and education professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College who has written about outside funding in school board elections. Now, he said, local races are becoming battlegrounds for broader debates.

He said education is unlikely to be a decisive issue in the November election — it’s overshadowed by abortion and the economy — but it can still be wielded to “amplify local discontent” and push more voters to the polls.

Republicans are using the tactic this fall as they look to unseat Democrats at all levels of government.

In Michigan, the American Principles Project is paying for TV ads against the Democratic governor where a narrator reads sexually explicit passages from the graphic novel “Gender Queer.” It claims that “this is the kind of literature that Gretchen Whitmer wants your kids exposed to,” while giant red letters appear saying “stop grooming our kids.”

Similar TV ads are being aired in Arizona to attack Sen. Mark Kelly, and in Maine against Gov. Janet Mills, both Democrats.

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The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.