Bi-state sage grouse considered for threatened status, again

April 28, 2023

 In this March 1, 2010 file photo, from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a bi-state sage grouse, rear, struts for a female at a lek, or mating ground, near Bridgeport, Calif. For the third time since it first proposed listing the bi-state sage grouse as a threatened species in 2013, U.S. wildlife officials are considering again whether the bird found only along the California-Nevada line deserves protection under the Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced on Thursday, April 27, 2023, it is reopening a review of the status of the hen-sized bird that's a cousin of the greater sage grouse found across 12 western states from California to South Dakota.

 (Jeannie Stafford/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP, File)

RENO, Nev. (AP) — For the third time in a decade, federal wildlife officials are contemplating whether the bi-state sage grouse deserves protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Conservationists blame “political gamesmanship” for leaving the bird in regulatory limbo since 2013. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Thursday it’s doing a fresh review after a federal judge ruled last May that the Trump administration acted illegally when it withdrew the most recent proposal to list the species as threatened.

The hen-sized flightless bird can be found in just two states — Nevada and California — in the high desert along the Sierra Nevada’s eastern front. A formal listing could bring restrictions on development, as well as prevent livestock and off-road vehicles from entering the bird’s habitat.

“Maybe the third time will be the charm for getting this population segment the protection it so clearly deserves,” said Laura Cunningham, California director of the Western Watersheds Project.

“None of the science shows that the bi-state birds have benefited from the service’s dithering,” she said.

The population is down to some 3,300 birds, about half what it was 150 years ago, and conservationists say they likely suffered additional losses as a result of one of the snowiest Sierra winters in modern history.

The bi-state grouse is a cousin of the greater sage grouse found across 12 western states from Oregon to South Dakota. Threats to its survival include urbanization, livestock grazing, wildfires, climate change and ravens who eat their eggs.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is accepting public comment through June 23 and intends to make a new listing determination by May 2024.

The new review is a step in the right direction, said Ileene Anderson, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity.

The center, Western Watersheds Project and WildEarth Guardians had filed the lawsuit accusing the government of violating the Endangered Species Act by failing to respond to the bird’s dire condition.

“The political gamesmanship surrounding the bi-state sage grouse’s listing status is, sadly, not unique to this imperiled species,” said Lindsay Larris, wildlife program director at WildEarth Guardians.

The service rejected listing petitions in 2001 and 2005 before proposing the bird be declared threatened in 2013. But it withdrew that proposal two years later.

In 2018, a federal judge found the agency had illegally denied the bird protection and ordered a reevaluation of its status.

The agency again proposed protection, but withdrew that proposal in 2020 based on its conclusion that the bird’s population had improved.

A different federal judge ruled last May that the agency had based that decision on flawed assumptions. She reinstated the original 2013 listing proposal and ordered the service to issue a new decision.

The Fish and Wildlife Service said in its formal notice published Thursday it will be initiating an entirely new species status assessment.

China’s Mars rover finds signs of recent water in sand dunes

April 28, 2023

This Aug. 26, 2003, image made available by NASA shows Mars as it lines up with the Sun and the Earth. A new study suggests water on Mars may be more widespread and recent than previously thought. Scientists reported the finding from China's Mars rover in Science Advances on Friday, April 28, 2023. (NASA/J. Bell - Cornell U./M. Wolff - SSI via AP, File)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Water may be more widespread and recent on Mars than previously thought, based on observations of Martian sand dunes by China’s rover.

The finding highlights new, potentially fertile areas in the warmer regions of Mars where conditions might be suitable for life to exist, though more study is needed.

Friday’s news comes days after mission leaders acknowledged that the Zhurong rover has yet to wake up since going into hibernation for the Martian winter nearly a year ago.

Its solar panels are likely covered with dust, choking off its power source and possibly preventing the rover from operating again, said Zhang Rongqiao, the mission’s chief designer.

Before Zhurong fell silent, it observed salt-rich dunes with cracks and crusts, which researchers said likely were mixed with melting morning frost or snow as recently as a few hundred thousand years ago.

Their estimated date range for when the cracks and other dune features formed in Mars’ Utopia Planitia, a vast plain in the northern hemisphere: sometime after 1.4 million to 400,000 years ago or even younger.

Conditions during that period were similar to now on Mars, with rivers and lakes dried up and no longer flowing as they did billions of years earlier.

Studying the structure and chemical makeup of these dunes can provide insights into “the possibility of water activity” during this period, the Beijing-based team wrote in a study published in Science Advances.

“We think it could be a small amount ... no more than a film of water on the surface,” co-author Xiaoguang Qin of the Institute of Geology and Geophysics said in an email.

The rover did not directly detect any water in the form of frost or ice. But Qin said computer simulations and observations by other spacecraft at Mars indicate that even nowadays at certain times of year, conditions could be suitable for water to appear.

What’s notable about the study is how young the dunes are, said planetary scientist Frederic Schmidt at the University of Paris-Saclay, who was not part of the study.

“This is clearly a new piece of science for this region,” he said in an email.

Small pockets of water from thawing frost or snow, mixed with salt, likely resulted in the small cracks, hard crusty surfaces, loose particles and other dune features like depressions and ridges, the Chinese scientists said. They ruled out wind as a cause, as well as frost made of carbon dioxide, which makes up the bulk of Mars’ atmosphere.

Martian frost has been observed since NASA’s 1970s Viking missions, but these light dustings of morning frost were thought to occur in certain locations under specific conditions.

The rover has now provided “evidence that there may be a wider distribution of this process on Mars than previously identified,” said Trinity College Dublin’s Mary Bourke, an expert in Mars geology.

However small this watery niche, it could be important for identifying habitable environments, she added.

Launched in 2020, the six-wheeled Zhurong — named after a fire god in Chinese mythology — arrived at Mars in 2021 and spent a year roaming around before going into hibernation last May. The rover operated longer than intended, traveling more than a mile (1,921 meters).

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AP video producer Olivia Zhang in Beijing contributed to this report.

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

Brazil's Lula, seeking to curb deforestation, recognizes new indigenous territories


Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil's president, officially recognized six indigenous territories on Friday as he seeks to slow down deforestation in the Amazon. File Photo by Andrew Harrer/UPI | License Photo

April 29 (UPI) -- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has officially recognized six indigenous territories in the first such demarcation since 2018, stepping up his efforts to stop deforestation of the Amazon.

The recognition, announced by the president on Friday, occurred in six Brazilian states -- Arara do Rio Amonia, Kariri-Xoco, Rio dos Indios, Tremembe da Barra do Mundau, Uneiuxi and Avá-Canoeiro.

"Today we demarcated six indigenous territories, an important step," Lula said on social networks, according to Telesur. "Do not stop organizing and demanding. The government exists to serve the interests of the people."

The Brazilian leader said the struggle for the demarcation of indigenous peoples "is a struggle for respect, rights and protection of our nature and our country. Let's go ahead."

Lula has pledged to demarcate more indigenous territory as a means of returning land to Indigenous peoples as well as cutting down on deforestation.

The leftist president pledged at the UN climate change conference COP27 last year to protect the Amazon rainforest and strengthen inspection bodies and monitoring systems and clamp down on "environmental crimes.

He has said demarcating lands to indigenous peoples is necessary for the country to reach its 2030 "zero deforestation" goals in the Amazon.

Brazil recognizes 6 Indigenous areas in boost for Amazon

By CARLA BRIDI and FABIANO MAISONNAVE

April 28, 2023

1 of 8
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, center, stands between Indigenous Peoples Minister Sonia Guajajara, left, and National Indigenous Foundation President Joenia Wapichana at the closing of the annual Terra Livre, or Free Land Indigenous Encampment in Brasilia, Brazil, Friday, April 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

BRASÍLIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Friday granted official recognition of nearly 800 square miles of Indigenous lands, most of it in the Amazon, in a move that seeks to safeguard critical rainforest from the unchecked exploitation that marked his predecessor’s administration.

Lula’s action was partial delivery on his promises to the Indigenous supporters and environmentally minded voters who lifted him to a narrow victory last year over far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who had encouraged widespread development of the Amazon -- both legal and illegal -- and pledged not to grant “one more inch” of land to Indigenous peoples.

The land remains under the federal government’s jurisdiction, but the designation grants Indigenous peoples the right to use it in their traditional manner. Mining activities are prohibited, and commercial farming and logging require specific authorizations. And non-Indigenous people are forbidden from engaging in any economic activity on Indigenous lands.

Kleber Karipuna, executive coordinator at Indigenous people’s organization Apib, called it a welcome shift after four years of threats and invasions targeting Indigenous territories under Bolsonaro.

READ MORE

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“For us, it is a very significant process of restarting,” he said. “Of course, there are still other lands that can be advanced.”

The Amazon rainforest, covering an area twice the size of India, holds tremendous amounts of carbon and is a crucial buffer against climate change. Studies have shown that Indigenous-controlled forests are the best-preserved in the Brazilian Amazon.

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva receives a traditional Indigenous headdress from Cacique Caiapo, Raoni Metuktire, during the closing of the annual Terra Livre, or Free Land Indigenous Encampment in Brasilia, Brazil, Friday, April 28, 2023. 

(AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

But deforestation surged to a 15-year high during the Bolsonaro years, with destruction largely caused by illegal miners and land-robbers. Destruction in the eastern Amazon has been so extensive that it has become a carbon source, rather than a carbon sink.

The designations granted Friday don’t assure protection for the rainforest, with Bolsonaro allies still in charge of a majority of Amazon states. But Lula has shown a willingness to back up his rhetoric with action. In February, armed government officials began ejecting illegal gold miners from Yanomami Indigenous territory in the northwest corner of Brazil’s Amazon.

The six newly recognized territories amount to an area larger than Los Angeles and New York City combined. Lula announced it to a chanting crowd at the Free Land Camp, an annual weeklong encampment of Indigenous people in the capital of Brasilia that includes hundreds of tents on the main esplanade with Indigenous people of various ethnicities gathering to dance, sing, sell handicrafts and hold political demonstrations.

“We are going to legalize Indigenous lands. It is a process that takes a little while, because it has to go through many hands,” Lula said. “I don’t want any Indigenous territory to be left without demarcation during my government. That is the commitment I made to you.”

For some Indigenous people, Friday’s announcement was disappointingly small. The country has 733 territories with cases for demarcation pending before the federal government; the newly recognized territories accounted for just 6% of that number, according to Socio-Environmental Institute, a nonprofit.

In January, Lula’s government had pledged to create 14 new territories in the short term.

An Indigenous woman attends the closing of the annual Terra Livre, or Free Land Indigenous Encampment in Brasilia, Brazil, Friday, April 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Among lands that missed out was the Barra Velha territory of the Pataxó people in southern Bahia state. Renato Atxuab, a Pataxó leader, said “this government that we supported, that we helped build” must demarcate their land as soon as possible to prevent invasions by outsiders.

Already there are conflicts involving agribusiness and land-grabbers, he said, and drug traffickers have been moving in, too.

Atxuab said he has met with the Indigenous Peoples minister — a newly created position under Lula’s government — but has not been given any date for his land’s demarcation.

The largest new area is located in the Amazonas state. The Nadöb people’s Uneiuxi Indigenous Territory has been expanded by 37% to 554,000 hectares (2,100 square miles) of primary rainforest. It is in a remote area — from the main village, it takes four days to travel to the closest city in a low-powered motor boat, the most common mode of transportation in the region.

“The demarcation will make the Nadöb people feel safe and protected within our territory. That is where we live, fish, hunt, and gather fruits. We want to continue there, like our ancestors,” chief Eduardo Castelo, 45, told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “We don’t want the impact of the whites on our territory.”

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

REST IN POWER RIP

Outspoken abortion provider LeRoy ‘Lee’ Carhart dies at 81

By LISA BAUMANN

yesterday

In a Tuesday, June 2, 2009 photo, Dr. LeRoy Carhart wears a black arm band during a news conference in his office in Bellevue, Neb. The outspoken abortion provider Carhart has died. Clinics for Abortions & Reproductive Excellence in Nebraska says Carhart, who was the medical director, died Friday, April 28, 2023. He was 81.

 (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)

LeRoy “Lee” Carhart, who emerged from a two-decade career as an Air Force surgeon to become one of the best-known late-term abortion providers in the United States, has died. He was 81.

Carhart died Friday, according to Clinics for Abortions & Reproductive Excellence in Bellevue, Nebraska, where he was the medical director. His cause of death was not released by the clinic.

Carhart began focusing on abortions after retiring from the Air Force in 1985. He was one of only a handful of late-term abortion providers in the U.S. and was among the most vocal.

“Lee had a very simple belief that patients know what is best for their life plan and was there to support them,” the clinic’s statement said. “His lifelong commitment to serving patients seeking abortion services will be continued by his staff and doctors at both Maryland and Nebraska CARE locations.”

He founded his first clinic specializing in abortion in 1992 with a mission to provide abortion care in a compassionate, comfortable and personal environment, according to the statement. Carhart had specialized in vasectomies previously and said he wanted to offer women reproductive freedom. He defended the procedure as a way for women to control their fertility.

Carhart drew attention for twice taking his fight for abortion rights to the U.S. Supreme Court, after the May 2009 killing of friend and colleague Dr. George Tiller and when he expanded his practice outside of Nebraska after a 2010 state law limited it there.

“We have to keep talking about abortion until it doesn’t remain a four-letter word,” Carhart said in a 2006 interview with The Associated Press.

Opponents considered him a poster boy for a procedure they call partial-birth abortion to describe what is medically called intact dilation and extraction.

His Nebraska clinic, his house and those of his employees were picketed by abortion opponents, as was the equestrian center he owned and his daughter, Janine, ran. In 1991, his rural home was burned in a fire he believed was started by an abortion foe. The family dog and cat were killed, as were 17 horses trapped in a barn.

“It’s worth it to me,” he told The Associated Press in 2006. “You have to fight for what you believe in.”

Carhart was born in Trenton, New Jersey, in 1941 and earned his medical degree from Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia, now Drexel University College of Medicine, in 1973. He received his medical training while he was in the Air Force and retired as a lieutenant colonel. He and his wife, Mary, ran the Nebraska clinic.

Carhart once said he was able to champion abortion rights because he didn’t have to rely on his medical practice to pay his bills; the military pension he received provided him enough income to support his family.

Carhart assisted at Tiller’s Wichita, Kansas, clinic from 1998 until 2009 and was considered likely to take it over after Tiller was gunned down at his church by an abortion foe. Carhart later said he didn’t because Tiller’s family was resistant.

Carhart opened clinics in other states after Nebraska targeted him with a 2010 groundbreaking law banning abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy based on the disputed notion that fetuses can feel pain at that time. Previous restrictions in Nebraska and elsewhere were based on a fetus’ ability to survive outside the womb, or viability.

He also took his fight on so-called partial-birth abortion bans all the way to the nation’s highest court.

The Supreme Court ruled for Carhart in 2000 in striking down a Nebraska law because it lacked an exception to preserve a woman’s health and encompassed a more common abortion method. He lost a later legal challenge to the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.

In 2007, the high court upheld the federal ban on the procedure, which generally was used to end pregnancies in the second and third trimesters. Carhart said then that the ruling “opened the door to an all-out assault” on the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion.

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned that landmark ruling last year, stripping away constitutional protections for abortion.

His Nebraska clinic posted on Facebook after the ruling that they were “devastated, heartbroken and angry” but remained committed to providing abortion care as long as it remained legal to do so.

A vote to ban abortion in Nebraska at about the sixth week of pregnancy failed Friday, keeping the procedure legal there through 20 weeks of pregnancy.

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Former Associated Press writer Timberly Ross contributed to this report.

Largest powwow draws Indigenous dancers to New Mexico

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN

yesterday

1 of 20 PHOTO ESSAY

Fourteen year-old Mylan Archuleta of Ohkay Owingeh village in northern New Mexico prepares to ride his horse in the horse parade at the 40th anniversary of the Gathering of Nations Pow Wow in Albuquerque, N.M., Friday, April 28, 2023. Tens of thousands of people gathered in New Mexico on Friday for what organizers bill as the largest powwow in North America. 

(AP Photo/Roberto E. Rosales)

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Tens of thousands of people gathered in New Mexico on Friday for what organizers bill as the largest powwow in North America.

The annual Gathering of Nations kicked off with a colorful procession of Native American and Indigenous dancers from around the world moving to the beat of traditional drums as they filled an arena at the New Mexico state fairgrounds.

“We’re ready to rock the house here,” the announcer proclaimed, after introducing drum groups, including from Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

During the event, dancers slowly spiral their way, one by one, toward the center of the venue, making for a spectacular display. This marks the 40th year for the gathering, which has grown from humble beginnings in 1983 into a massive celebration with Indigenous people showcasing their cultures through dancing and singing competitions.

Dale Metallic has been dancing for about 30 years, since he was a teenager, but this marked the first year he was able to persuade his father, Sibugug, to join him in competition. They made the trip from the Mi’gmaq Nation in eastern Canada.

“It’s a celebration,” the younger Metallic said.

“It’s in our blood,” his father added. “It’s about language, culture, family.”

And style.

Competitors wear feathered bustles, buckskin dresses, fancy shawls, and beaded head and hair pieces. Many of the dancers’ elaborate outfits are detailed with hand-stitched designs.

Twelve-year-old Violet Sutherland showed off elaborate beadwork and a fancy shawl as she spun around beneath the welcoming sign while her mother took photos. They traveled from Ontario, Canada, so Violet could fulfill a wish made the previous year.

“I always wanted to go and see everyone dance,” said Violet, nodding at the colorful Aztec dancers performing nearby.

Violet, who is Ojibwe and Cree and the youngest of three siblings, practices every day, keeping alive a tradition like her parents and grandparents before her.

As spectators and competitors took breaks to get roasted corn, fry bread and lattes, the echoing thunder of drum beats could be heard outside the arena.

In addition to the dancing and singing competitions, more than two dozen contestants from the U.S. and Canada also are vying for the title of Miss Indian World. The winner will be crowned on the final night of the powwow and will spend the next year serving as a cultural ambassador as she travels to events and other powwows.

Several hundred Native American tribes in the United States and First Nations in Canada are represented at the gathering, which has become Albuquerque’s second-largest annual festival and brings in more than $20 million for the local economy each year.

Organizers held virtual gatherings in 2020 and 2021 because of COVID-19 restrictions. This is the second in-person gathering since public health regulations were relaxed.

Should school use ‘Warrior’ nickname? Tribe to have last say


Students walk past a logo that is tiled into the wall at Salamanca High School in Salamanca, N.Y., on April 18, 2023. The school district, located on Seneca Nation of Indians territory, may have to replace its logo after New York passed a ban on the use of Indigenous names, mascots and logos by public schools. 

(AP Photo/Carolyn Thompson)

SALAMANCA, N.Y. (AP) — The profile of a Native American man, a braid trailing down and feather jutting up, is tiled into a high school hallway, dyed into the weight room carpet and laid into the turf of the football field at Salamanca city schools.

School leaders say the omnipresent logo and “Warrior” name for the school athletic teams are sources of pride here, in the only U.S. city built on land leased from a Native American reservation.

But as New York joins states moving to ban schools’ use of Indigenous nicknames and mascots because they diminish Native cultures, the tribe may have the last say over whether the logo stays. When the state Board of Regents this month voted to prohibit public schools’ use of Indigenous names, it included an exception for districts that receive written approval from a federally recognized tribal nation in New York.

It has put the tribe in an awkward spot.

While the Seneca Indian Nation’s leader has endorsed the ban, some citizens of the nation want to keep the logo, which was designed by a Seneca artist in the 1970s. About 38% of students in the public school system south of Buffalo, near the Pennsylvania line, are Native American, mostly citizens of the Seneca tribe.

“The logo really represents us as a community,” said Marijah Skye, a 17-year-old student and Seneca citizen.

Superintendent Mark Beehler said he thinks it’s unfair of the Regents to put any tribal nation in the middle, where its decision could upset students and the community.

“I’m really not comfortable going to the Seneca Nation and having them potentially be the bad guy here,” Beehler said in an interview.

On Tuesday, the school board authorized seeking approval from the Seneca Nation to keep the logo and Warrior nickname. The Seneca Nation did not immediately issue a decision.

New York is one of at least 20 states that have taken or are considering action to address Native-themed mascots used by public schools, according to the National Congress of American Indians, which tracks the issue.

In 2001, former New York Education Commissioner Richard Mills said using Native American symbols or depictions as mascots can become “a barrier to building a safe and nurturing school community and improving academic achievement for all students.” Today, there are more than 100 schools representing over 50 New York districts that still have such mascots.

Nationwide, 966 districts have Native “themed” mascots, according to NCAI’s database, with “Braves,” “Chiefs,” “Warriors” and “Indians” the most widely used. A push to do away with such mascots gained momentum with a campaign targeting the name of the NFL’s Washington team, which in 2022 renamed itself as the Commanders.

Seneca President Rickey Armstrong Sr. endorsed New York’s ban when it was proposed in November, while acknowledging the Salamanca school system’s “unique relationship” with the 8,000-member nation.

“We believe the state’s provision for agreements between school districts and Native nations should be rare and limited, rather than an open invitation for districts to go ‘approval shopping’ among Native nations,” Armstrong said.

He said the nation, which operates a resort casino in Salamanca and others in Buffalo and Niagara Falls, said it would “carefully consider” how the standard may apply within the community.

Oregon, Washington state and Connecticut are among those with similar laws, forbidding schools to use Native American nicknames unless they have permission from a tribe. Last year, the school board for Montville, Connecticut, voted to drop its “Indians” nickname after the neighboring Mohegan Tribe, owner of the Mohegan Sun casino, said it would prefer a different name.

In Salamanca, school officials have been preparing for the possibility of change, soliciting community input at forums and surveying students. Beehler said the majority, but not all, of those who weighed in supported the continued use of the logo and Warriors nickname.

Salamanca resident Michala Redeye, a Seneca citizen, said Native and non-Native residents have largely united around keeping the logo. That’s notable in a city that has seen divisions over issues including the property tax-exempt status of Native residents and the city’s required lease payments to the Seneca Nation.

“I feel like a lot of the comments and stuff that has been put out there about the logo reminds people of why they’re in the community, what they love about the community. They’re tied to being a Salamanca Warrior,” said Redeye, who coordinates Native American programming in the schools.

Several students who belong to the Seneca Nation said the image stirs a sense of pride.

“It’s widely known,” 14-year-old Jaxon Crouse said, “especially around territory as a school, and it’s kind of just the community.”

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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.

Facing revolt, GOP spares ethanol in drive to cut spending

TWO WORDS:SENATOR GRASSLEY

By STEPHEN GROVES

yesterday

Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, speaks during hearing March 29, 2022, in Washington. House Republicans are touting their debt limit package as a first step toward fiscal restraint. They say it's past time for Congress to reduce the swelling deficits that they say are threatening the fiscal health of the country. But a group of Midwestern Republicans went to Speaker Kevin McCarthy's office this week on a mission to preserve billions of dollars in federal support for biofuels and ethanol

.(Rod Lamkey/Pool Photo via AP, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are touting their debt limit package as a first step toward fiscal restraint, saying it’s past time for Congress to reduce the swelling deficits that they warn are threatening the fiscal health of the country.

But when a group of Midwestern Republicans went marching this week into the office of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, it wasn’t spending cuts they wanted to talk about.

They were on a mission to preserve billions of dollars in federal support for biofuels and ethanol.

The bloc of lawmakers, with Iowa’s four Republicans at its core, forced McCarthy to make revisions to the legislation in the hours before it headed to a floor vote, even after the speaker had insisted changes were off the table. The concession amounted to a $38.6 billion carve-out to safeguard the incentives for biofuels, carbon capture projects and the ethanol industry, and helped the bill pass by a narrow 217-215 margin.

The episode highlighted how, even as Republicans decry the massive spending packages passed under President Joe Biden, their opposition to federal spending often fades when it comes to money flowing to their communities. The dust-up also amounts to a warning of sorts for GOP leaders as they seek a debt-limit deal with Biden, showing that attempts to slash government programs could quickly face opposition in their own ranks.

“This bill is to get us to the negotiating table,” McCarthy said ahead of the vote this week. “It’s not the final provisions and there’s a number of members that will vote for it going forward and say there are some concerns they have.”

For the Republicans who adamantly defended the tax incentives, the political turnaround was especially stark. The Iowa Republicans railed against the $740 billion price tag of Democratic priorities like the Inflation Reduction Act last year, which extended tax breaks for clean energy projects.

But the federal assistance for energy is popular back home in the Corn Belt, where a boom in energy projects is underway.

“I’m thrilled everyone is talking about biofuels,” said Rep. Ashley Hinson, an Iowa Republican who fought to save the energy provisions.

The biofuel industry contributes over $6 billion to Iowa’s economy and uses 60% of the corn it produces, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican who also lobbied for the carve-out, said in a statement this week.

Incentives in the Biden bill, which Democrats called the Inflation Reduction Act, have spurred growth in the production of ethanol and biofuels, said Tristan Brown, director of the Bioeconomy Development Institute at SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry. As auto manufacturers move towards electric cars, the next generation of the ethanol industry will revolve around manufacturing sustainable aviation fuel.

The impact of the spending is noticeable all across the region. A series of projects aimed at producing sustainable jet fuel have been announced, and plans are underway for a pair of carbon sequestration pipelines, which tap into tax credits by capturing carbon dioxide at ethanol refineries and pumping it to sites where it can be stored underground.

Geoff Cooper, president of ethanol lobbyist Renewable Fuels Association, pointed to investments in agriculture communities across the country as he warned against the repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy tax provisions this week.

“Repealing those incentives midstream would rip the rug out from underneath the U.S. bioenergy sector, leave a wake of stranded investments, and undermine the rural communities that are leading the low-carbon energy transition,” he said in a statement.

But when Democrats’ marquee climate legislation came before House Republicans last year, they all opposed it, often in strenuous terms.

In an August speech on the House floor, Hinson decried the Inflation Reduction Act as “wasting hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars on Green New Deal priorities.”

Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks had similar criticism last year, saying, “This enormous spending package is bad for Iowans, bad for the economy and bad for hardworking Americans and bad for the future of American innovation.”

Brown, the economics and agriculture professor, said it is not surprising that the Republican members of Congress would broadly oppose a Democratic-backed spending package while supporting and defending pieces that benefit the economies of their home state.

Plus, ethanol has long enjoyed political favor from both parties. And Iowa ethanol in particular has played an outsized role in politics as presidential hopefuls make appearances at fairs and ethanol refineries ahead of the state’s first-in-the-nation caucuses.

Agriculture groups also hold significant political sway in Midwestern politics. For example, one of the carbon capture pipelines based in Iowa, called the Midwest Carbon Express, is backed by the Summit Agriculture Group. The corporation’s CEO, Bruce Rastetter, is a major Republican donor who this year alone made campaign contributions of $11,600 to Hinson, $5,800 to Miller-Meeks and $6,600 to Iowa Rep. Zach Nunn.

“The biofuels industry drives the Iowa economy and is vital to our nation’s energy security,” the Iowa House delegation, which also includes Rep. Randy Feenstra, said in a joint statement this week defending the energy provisions.

Repeal of the green energy tax credits was not part of McCarthy’s initial proposal to raise the debt ceiling. But as he tried to sell the package to the wider GOP conference, a group of hard-right Republicans had insisted that repeal of the green energy tax credits be included in the proposal.

Republicans from coastal states also objected to the repeal of tax incentives for green energy projects like wind power.

“These credits have been very beneficial to my constituents, attracting significant investment in new manufacturing jobs for businesses in southeast Virginia,” said Rep. Jen Kiggans in a floor speech.

The first-term Republican voted for the bill, even as she urged for the tax credit repeal to be taken out of any final legislation.

Members of Iowa congressional delegation, however, would not budge until the bill was changed to protect the ethanol and biofuel industry.

After the bill was revised, the four Iowa Republicans released their joint statement saying they were proud to deliver a “major victory” for the industry and state.

Looking ahead, they added, “As negotiations continue, we have made it crystal clear that we will not support any bill that eliminates any of these critical biofuels tax credits.”

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for BIOFUEL 

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JUNKEY BLUES
Battle for late Johnny Winter’s music to play out in court

By DAVE COLLINS

Johnny Winter performs at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival at Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, May 3, 2014. Nearly nine years after Johnny Winter's death, a battle for control of the legendary blues guitarist's music is being fought in a Connecticut court with nasty allegations of theft and greed flying. (Photo by John Davisson/Invision/AP, File)


HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Nearly nine years after Johnny Winter’s death, a battle for control of the legendary blues guitarist’s music is being fought in court with allegations of theft and greed flying back and forth.

The legal fight pits Winter’s former personal manager and bandmate, Paul Nelson, against the family of the bluesman’s late wife, Susan, who died in 2019.

Winter’s in-laws say Nelson and his wife improperly took more than $1.5 million from Winter’s music business, including auctioning off some of the late musician’s guitars.

Nelson and his wife have countersued, saying Susan Winter’s siblings swooped in when she was medicated and dying of cancer and tricked her into giving them control of Winter’s music, stripping away Nelson’s rights as the beneficiary of Susan’s Winter’s estate.

The case was scheduled to go to trial in a Connecticut court in April, but was rescheduled for September.

At stake is ownership of Winter’s music catalogue, proceeds from record and merchandise sales and authority to approve any commercial use of his songs, the value of which is uncertain.

“The case is about preserving Johnny Winter’s legacy and vindicating and making sure the Nelsons haven’t improperly taken the moneys rightfully owed to the plaintiffs,” said Timothy Diemand, a lawyer for the Susan Winter’s siblings, Bonnie and Christopher Warford.

Nelson wants to be reinstalled as the beneficiary of Susan Winter’s estate.

“The Plaintiffs orchestrated the wrongful termination of Paul Nelson during a difficult time in Susan Winter’s last year of life,” the Nelsons said in a statement released by their lawyer, Matthew Mason. They said it was clear that both Johnny and Susan Winter wanted Nelson to be responsible for Johnny Winter’s music and legacy.

John Dawson Winter III was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas. He burst onto the world blues scene in the 1960s, dazzling crowds with his fast licks while his trademark long, white hair flew about from under his cowboy hat. He and his brother Edgar — both born with albinism — were both reknowned musicians.  

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Winter played at Woodstock in 1969 and went on to produce albums for Blues icon Muddy Waters in addition to his own music. In 1988 he was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame.

Rolling Stone magazine listed him as the No. 63 best guitar player of all time in 2015. He released more than two dozen albums and was nominated for several Grammy awards, winning his first one posthumously in 2015 for Best Blues Album for “Step Back.” Nelson produced the album and also took home a Grammy for it.

Winter, who spent two decades living in Easton, Connecticut, before his death, battled heroin addiction for years and credited Nelson, whom he met in 1999, with helping him get off methadone, according to the 2014 documentary “Johnny Winter: Down & Dirty.”

Before he got clean, bandmates and friends said they were concerned because of his frail appearance and trouble talking. Nelson also credits himself with reviving Winter’s music career.

The Winters and Nelsons became good friends. Paul Nelson played guitar in Johnny Winter’s band and started running his music company beginning in 2005. Nelson’s wife, Marion Nelson, did bookkeeping for the Winters and the music business, according to legal filings in the lawsuit.

Winter died at the age of 70 on July 16, 2014, in a hotel room just outside Zurich, Switzerland, while on tour. Susan Winter and Paul Nelson have said the cause of death was likely emphysema.

Susan Winter was the sole beneficiary of her husband’s estate, which she put in a trust in late 2016. She named herself as the trust’s sole trustee and Nelson as the successor trustee, meaning he would inherit the rights to Johnny Winter’s music after she died.

But in June 2019, four months before her death from lung cancer, Susan Winter removed Nelson as the successor and replaced him with her sister and brother.

The Nelsons allege in their lawsuit that Bonnie and Christopher Warford got control by lying to their sister, wrongly telling her the Nelsons were mismanaging the music business and her affairs.

The Warfords’ lawsuit accuses the Nelsons of improperly taking more than $1.5 million out of Winter’s business “under the guise of royalty income, commissions, reimbursements, fees, social media expenses and other mechanisms, while obfuscating and misrepresenting these dealings to Susan Winter.”

They have also accused the Nelsons of taking three of Winter’s guitars, worth about $300,000 total, and selling them at auction without permission. The Nelsons deny the allegation.

“In short, this is the classic case of a manager taking advantage of an artist-client, and worse here, an artist’s surviving family,” Diemand wrote in a legal filing.

It’s not clear why Edgar Winter, a noted musician in his own right, was not involved in his brother’s estate after his death. Edgar Winter and his representatives did not return phone and email messages seeking comment.

The Warfords’ lawsuit is similar to one the Winters filed against Johnny Winter’s former manager Teddy Slatus for alleged financial wrongdoing around 2005. Slatus died in late 2005. It’s not clear what happened with the lawsuit.

“Johnny and Susan have been battling lawsuits all their lives, and still can’t rest in peace,” said Mary Lou Sullivan, who wrote a biography titled “Raisin’ Cane: The Wild and Raucous Story of Johnny Winter” published in 2010.

Both the Warfords, of Charlotte, North Carolina, and Nelsons, of Weston, Connecticut, declined interview requests by The Associated Press.

 

Mexico’s ruling party sweeps mine reform, other bills to law

yesterday

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s Senate has approved a wide-ranging reform of laws governing the mining industry, including a requirement that companies pay 5% of profits to local communities.

The mining bill was among 18 pieces of legislation, some controversial, that were passed in a frenzied rush late Friday and early Saturday.

The bills were approved with little or no debate, based on votes by only senators from Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s Morena party and its allies. The opposition occupied the Senate’s normal headquarters to protest a lack of debate, so the Morena senators and allies met in an alternative chamber.

The new mining law reduces the maximum length of concessions from 50 to 30 years, and punishes speculation by allowing authorities to cancel concessions if no work is done on them within two years.

The mining industry, much of it foreign and in a considerable amount Canadian, has drawn complaints because of ecological damage, speculation and the fact that communities around the mines remain among the poorest in Mexico.

Many companies, especially smaller “minor” companies listed on Canadian exchanges, do exploratory work, estimate the presence of minerals and then do nothing, waiting to sell the concession to a larger player. Many of the properties involve gold or silver deposits.

Large Mexican companies dominate mining for copper and some other metals.

The Senate also approved a bill mandating 10 to 15 year prison sentences for people who produce the synthetic opioid fentanyl in Mexico or who provide precursor chemicals largely imported from China. It makes drug production a separate crime, in addition to possession.

Perhaps more controversially, the senators approved a bill to replace the country’s science and technology commission — which hands out research grants and other funding — to include representatives from the Army and Navy on its board.

The new framework would also explicitly give priority to researchers at state-run universities over private ones.

Under another bill, the military would gain a dominant role in providing security in the country’s airspace, and would also be allowed to operate a commercial airline. That represents a potential conflict, since the army will also be allowed to operate civilian airports, and Mexican law prohibits and airport operator from also running an airline.

López Obrador has greatly expanded the military’s role to everything from building projects to operating companies.

Spain is 1st Black woman to lead South Carolina Democrats

By MEG KINNARD

yesterday

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Party operative Christale Spain gives her speech as a candidate for chair of the South Democratic Party during the party's convention on Saturday, April 29, 2023, in Columbia, S.C. Spain was elected as the first Black woman to lead the state party. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Christale Spain, a longtime party operative, was elected Saturday as chair of South Carolina’s Democratic Party, becoming the first Black woman to lead the organization in what will be the Democrats’ leadoff presidential voting state in 2024.

Spain was elected during the party’s convention Saturday in Columbia. She takes over in a wave of changes across state Democratic parties for 2024. With her election, and thanks to the party’s recent revamp of its primary schedule, four of the five states in which Democrats will vote first next year — Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and South Carolina — now have Black women chairing their state parties.

Putting states with more diversity at the top of the voting calendar was a priority for President Joe Biden, who recently moved on his own reelection bid and pushed to move South Carolina — a state where he won big in 2020 — to the top of the nominating calendar.

Calling her victory “a historic moment for our party, for women,” Spain pledged to implement “year-round voter engagement” and mobilization efforts, in hopes of garnering more statewide wins for the party, as the nation’s attention hones in on South Carolina for the 2024 cycle.

“I now know from all the experience, all of the volunteering, all of the jobs that I’ve held, the importance of this role, who is setting the stage, who is implementing the strategy, so that we can win,” Spain told reporters after.

Black women are major drivers of the Democratic electorate, particularly in South Carolina. Spain takes over from Trav Robertson, who has led the party since 2017 and announced earlier this year he wouldn’t seek another term.

Spain had backing from a slew of party leaders, including Rep. Jim Clyburn, for whom Spain previously worked doing constituency service and outreach in his district office. She was also endorsed by former party leaders such as Robertson and Jaime Harrison, who preceded Robertson as state chair and currently leads the Democratic National Committee.

In a statement, Harrison said Spain “has the experience, judgment, and strategic vision to get South Carolina Democrats back on the winning track, and I know she will be an excellent chair.”

Spain held off efforts by two other candidates, both of whom withdrew after early voting showed massive support for Spain. Brandon Upson, a progressive Democrat who chairs the state party’s Black Caucus and advised Tom Steyer’s 2020 presidential campaign in South Carolina, said he was pulling out “for the sake of unity” in the party, as it prepares for 2024.

Catherine Fleming Bruce, an author who unsuccessfully sought Democrats’ 2022 nomination against Republican Sen. Tim Scott, also launched a bid.

Spain, 46, has years of experience in South Carolina’s political spheres, working as political director for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign and serving as Sen. Cory Booker’s state director for his 2020 White House bid. For two years, she worked for Clyburn’s district office, focusing on constituent service and outreach.

She also founded 46 Hope Road, a political action committee aimed at energizing voters who had been inactive since Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, and worked on Black voter engagement for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for the 2022 midterms.

While the national prominence of South Carolina’s Democratic Party has risen — most recently when the Democratic National Committee made South Carolina the first voting state on its 2024 presidential primary calendar — South Carolina’s Democrats have struggled to notch electoral wins at many levels of office.

Winless in statewide elections since 2006, Democrats hold only one of the state’s seven House seats. The party last won a Senate race in 1998, and Jimmy Carter was the last Democrat to carry the state in a presidential election.

There have been some successes. In 2018, Joe Cunningham became the first Democrat to flip a House seat from red to blue in South Carolina in decades, though he lost his reelection bid two years later.

Opening his final convention as chair, Robertson glanced at the party’s internal disputes, but expressing confidence the party could have future successes.

“We may fight like hell, but we will always be family,” he said.

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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP.