AMERIKA

After helping prevent extinctions for 50 years, the Endangered Species Act itself may be in peril


 A bald eagle flies over a partially frozen Des Moines River, Dec. 21, 2022, in Des Moines, Iowa. Fifty years after the Endangered Species Act took effect, environmental advocates and scientists say the law is as essential as ever. Habitat loss, pollution, climate change and disease are putting an estimated 1 million species worldwide at risk. 

(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

BY JOHN FLESHER
August 3, 2023

SHARON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Biologist Ashley Wilson carefully disentangled a bat from netting above a tree-lined river and examined the wriggling, furry mammal in her headlamp’s glow. “Another big brown,” she said with a sigh.

It was a common type, one of many Wilson and colleagues had snagged on summer nights in the southern Michigan countryside. They were looking for increasingly scarce Indiana and northern long-eared bats, which historically migrated there for birthing season, sheltering behind peeling bark of dead trees.

The scientists had yet to spot either species this year as they embarked on a netting mission.

“It’s a bad suggestion if we do not catch one. It doesn’t look good,” said Allen Kurta, an Eastern Michigan University professor who has studied bats for more than 40 years.

The two bat varieties are designated as imperiled under the Endangered Species Act, the bedrock U.S. law intended to keep animal and plant types from dying out. Enacted in 1973 amid fear for iconic creatures such as the bald eagle, grizzly bear and gray wolf, it extends legal protection to 1,683 domestic species.

More than 99% of those listed as “endangered” — on the verge of extinction — or the less severe “threatened” have survived.

“The Endangered Species Act has been very successful,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in an Associated Press interview. “And I believe very strongly that we’re in a better place for it.”


Biologist Ashley Wilson holds a big brown bat in Sharon Township, Mich., June 21, 2023. Fifty years after the Endangered Species Act took effect, environmental advocates and scientists say the law is as essential as ever. Habitat loss, pollution, climate change and disease are putting an estimated 1 million species worldwide at risk. 

(AP Photo/Paul Sancya)Read More


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Biologist Ashley Wilson weighs a captured big brown bat in Sharon Township, Mich., June 21, 2023. Fifty years after the Endangered Species Act took effect, environmental advocates and scientists say the law is as essential as ever. Habitat loss, pollution, climate change and disease are putting an estimated 1 million species worldwide at risk. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

A gray wolf is pictured on July 16, 2004, at the Wildlife Science Center in Forest Lake, Minn. Fifty years after the Endangered Species Act took effect, environmental advocates and scientists say the law is as essential as ever. Habitat loss, pollution, climate change and disease are putting an estimated 1 million species worldwide at risk. 

(AP Photo/Dawn Villella, File)

 A grizzly bear roams near Beaver Lake on July 6, 2011, in Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. Fifty years after the Endangered Species Act took effect, environmental advocates and scientists say the law is as essential as ever. Habitat loss, pollution, climate change and disease are putting an estimated 1 million species worldwide at risk.

 (AP Photo/Jim Urquhart, File)

Fifty years after the law took effect, environmental advocates and scientists say it’s as essential as ever. Habitat loss, pollution, climate change and disease are putting an estimated 1 million species worldwide at risk.

Yet the law has become so controversial that Congress hasn’t updated it since 1992 — and some worry it won’t last another half-century.

Conservative administrations and lawmakers have stepped up efforts to weaken it, backed by landowner and industry groups that contend the act s tifles property rights and economic growth. Members of Congress try increasingly to overrule government experts on protecting individual species.

The act is “well-intentioned but entirely outdated ... twisted and morphed by radical litigants into a political firefight rather than an important piece of conservation law,” said Bruce Westerman, an Arkansas Republican and chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, who in July announced a group of GOP lawmakers would propose changes.

Environmentalists accuse regulators of slow-walking new listings to appease critics and say Congress provides too little funding to fulfill the act’s mission.

“Its biggest challenge is it’s starving,” said Jamie Rappaport Clark, president of the advocacy group Defenders of Wildlife.

After helping prevent extinctions for 50 years, the Endangered Species Act itself could be in peril

Fifty years after the U.S. Endangered Species Act took effect, officials say 99% of the animals and plants it protects have survived. But some scientists and activists fear the act itself is in trouble (Aug. 4)(AP video: Mike Householder)

Some experts say the law’s survival depends on rebuilding bipartisan support, no easy task in polarized times.

“The Endangered Species Act is our best tool to address biodiversity loss in the United States,” Senate Environment and Public Works chairman Tom Carper said during a May floor debate over whether the northern long-eared bat should keep its protection status granted in 2022.

“And we know that biodiversity is worth preserving for many reasons, whether it be to protect human health or because of a moral imperative to be good stewards of our one and only planet.”

Despite the Delaware Democrat’s plea, the Senate voted to nullify the bat’s endangered designation after opponents said disease, not economic development, was primarily responsible for the population decline.

That’s an ominous sign, said Kurta the Michigan scientist, donning waders to slosh across the mucky river bottom for the bat netting project in mid-June.

“Its population has dropped 90% in a very short period of time,” he said. “If that doesn’t make you go on the endangered species list, what’s going to?”


TURBULENT HISTORY

It’s “nothing short of astounding” how attitudes toward the law have changed, largely because few realized at first how far it would reach, said Holly Doremus, a University of California, Berkeley law professor.

Attention 50 years ago was riveted on iconic animals like the American alligator, Florida panther and California condor. Some had been pushed to the brink by habitat destruction or pollutants such as the pesticide DDT. People over-harvested other species or targeted them as nuisances.

California Condor named Hope takes to flight at the Los Angeles Zoo on Tuesday, May 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

FILE - A Florida panther, rescued as a kitten, was released back into the wild in the Florida Everglades, April 3, 2013. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter, File)

The 1973 measure made it illegal to “harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture or collect” listed animals and plants or ruin their habitats.

It ordered federal agencies not to authorize or fund actions likely to jeopardize their existence, although amendments later allowed permits for limited “take” — incidental killing — resulting from otherwise legal projects.

The act cleared Congress with what in hindsight appears stunning ease: unanimous Senate approval and a 390-12 House vote. President Richard Nixon, a Republican, signed it into law.

“It was not created by a bunch of hippies,” said Rebecca Hardin, a University of Michigan environmental anthropologist. “We had a sense as a country that we had done damage and we needed to heal.”

But backlash emerged as the statute spurred regulation of oil and gas development, logging, ranching and other industries. The endangered list grew to include little-known creatures — from the frosted flatwoods salamander to the tooth cave spider — and nearly 1,000 plants.

“It’s easy to get everybody to sign on with protecting whales and grizzly bears,” Doremus said. “But people didn’t anticipate that things they wouldn’t notice, or wouldn’t think beautiful, would need protection in ways that would block some economic activity.”

An early battle involved the snail darter, a tiny Southeastern fish that delayed construction of a Tennessee dam on a river then considered its only remaining home.

The northern spotted owl’s listing as threatened in 1990 sparked years of feuding between conservationists and the timber industry over management of Pacific Northwest forestland.

 A northern spotted owl sits on a branch in Point Reyes, Calif., in June 1995. Fifty years after the Endangered Species Act took effect, environmental advocates and scientists say the law is as essential as ever. Habitat loss, pollution, climate change and disease are putting an estimated 1 million species worldwide at risk. (AP Photo/Tom Gallagher, File)

Rappaport Clark, who headed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under President Bill Clinton, said there were still enough GOP moderates to help Democrats fend off sweeping changes sought by hardline congressional Republicans.

“Fast-forward to today, and support has declined pretty dramatically,” she said. “The atmosphere is incredibly partisan. A slim Democratic majority in the Senate is the difference between keeping the law on life support and blowing it up.”

The Trump administration ended blanket protection for animals newly deemed threatened. It let federal authorities consider economic costs of protecting species and disregard habitat impacts from climate change.

A federal judge blocked some of Trump’s moves. The Biden administration repealed or announced plans to rewrite others.

But with a couple of Democratic defections, the Senate voted narrowly this spring to undo protections for a rare grouse known as the lesser prairie chicken as well as the northern long-eared bat. The House did likewise in July.

President Joe Biden threatened vetoes. But to wildlife advocates, the votes illustrate the act’s vulnerability — if not to repeal, then to sapping its strength through legislative, agency or court actions.

One pending bill would prohibit additional listings expected to cause “significant” economic harm. Another would remove most gray wolves and grizzly bears — subjects of decades-old legal and political struggles — from the protected list and bar courts from returning them.

“Science is supposed to be the fundamental principle of managing endangered species,” said Mike Leahy, a senior director of the National Wildlife Federation. “It’s getting increasingly overruled by politics. This is every wildlife conservationist’s worst nightmare.”

ELUSIVE MIDDLE GROUND

Federal regulators are caught in a crossfire over how many species the act should protect and for how long — and how to balance that with interests of property owners and industry.

Since the law took effect, 64 of roughly 1,780 listed U.S. species have rebounded enough to be removed, while 64 have improved from endangered to threatened. Eleven have been declared extinct, a label proposed for 23 others, including the ivory-billed woodpecker.

That’s a poor showing, said Jonathan Wood, vice president of law and policy with the Property and Environment Research Center, which represents landowners.

The act was supposed to function like a hospital emergency room, providing lifesaving but short-term treatment, Wood said. Instead, it resembles perpetual hospice care for too many species.

But species typically need at least a half-century to recover and most haven’t been listed that long, said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director with the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group.

And they often languish a decade or more awaiting listing decisions, worsening their condition and prolonging their recovery, he said. The Fish and Wildlife Service has more than 300 under consideration.

The service “is not getting the job done,” Greenwald said. “Part is lack of funding but it’s mixed with timidity, fear of the backlash.”

Agency officials acknowledge struggling to keep up with listing proposals and strategies for restoring species. The work is complex; budgets are tight. Petitions and lawsuits abound. Congress provides millions to rescue popular animals such as Pacific salmon and steelhead trout while many species get a few thousand dollars annually.

To address the problem and mollify federal government critics, supporters of the act propose steering more conservation money to state and tribal programs. A bill to provide $1.4 billion annually cleared the House with bipartisan backing in 2022 but fell short in the Senate. Sponsors are trying again.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is using funds from Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act to improve strategies for getting species off the list sooner, Director Martha Williams told a House subcommittee in July.

It’s also seeking accommodation on another thorny issue: providing enough space where imperiled species can feed, shelter and reproduce.

The act empowers the government to identify “critical habitat” where economic development can be limited. Many early supporters believed public lands and waters — state and national parks and wildlife refuges — would meet the need, said Doremus, the California-Berkeley professor.

But now about two-thirds of listed species occupy private property. And many require permanent care. For example, removing the Kirtland’s warbler from the endangered list in 2019 was contingent on continued harvesting and replanting of Michigan jack pines where the tiny songbird nests.

Meeting the rising demand will require more deals with property owners instead of critical habitat designations, which lower property values and breed resentment, said Wood of the landowners group. Incentives could include paying owners or easing restrictions on timber cutting and other development as troubled species improve.

“You can’t police your way” to cooperation, he said.

The Fish and Wildlife Service proposed regulatory changes this year to encourage voluntary efforts, hoping they’ll keep more species healthy enough to reduce listings. But environmentalists insist voluntary action is no substitute for legally enforceable protections.

“Did the makers of DDT voluntarily stop making it? No,” said Greenwald, arguing few landowners or businesses will sacrifice profits to help the environment. “We have to have strong laws and regulations if we want to address the climate and extinction crises and leave a livable planet for future generations.

GRIM PROSPECTS

Stars and fireflies provided the only natural light on the June night after Michigan biologists Kurta and Wilson extended fine nylon mesh over smoothly flowing River Raisin, 90 minutes west of Detroit. Frogs croaked; crickets chirped. Mayflies — tasty morsels for bats — swarmed in the humid air.

Long feared by people, bats increasingly are valued for gobbling crop-destroying insects and pollinating fruit, giving U.S. agriculture a yearly $3 billion boost.

“The next time you have some tequila, thank the bat that pollinated the agave plant from which that tequila was made,” Kurta said, tinkering with an electronic device that detects bats as they swoop overhead.



Allen Kurta, an Eastern Michigan University professor, prepares netting to capture bats in Sharon Township, Mich., June 21, 2023. Fifty years after the Endangered Species Act took effect, environmental advocates and scientists say the law is as essential as ever. Habitat loss, pollution, climate change and disease are putting an estimated 1 million species worldwide at risk. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Biologist Ashley Wilson prepares a net to capture bats in Sharon Township, Mich., June 21, 2023. Fifty years after the Endangered Species Act took effect, environmental advocates and scientists say the law is as essential as ever. Habitat loss, pollution, climate change and disease are putting an estimated 1 million species worldwide at risk. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Hour after hour crept by. Eight bats fluttered into the nets. The scientists took measurements, then freed them. None were the endangered species they sought.

A month later, Kurta reported that 16 nights of netting at eight sites had yielded 177 bats — but just one Indiana and no northern long-eared specimens.

“Disappointing,” he said, “but expected.”
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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.
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Follow John Flesher on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com@johnflesher

WHITE SUPREMACY IS INJUSTICE 

Court throws out conviction after judge says Black man ‘looks like a criminal to me’


The Theodore Levin United States Courthouse is seen in Detroit, Monday, July 11, 2011. An appeals court on Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023, overturned the drug conviction of a Black man, saying his rights were violated by U.S> District Judge Stephen Murphy III who was upset over delays in the case and declared: “This guy looks like a criminal to me.” Murphy is based in the Detroit courthouse. 

(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

BY ED WHITE
 August 4, 2023

DETROIT (AP) — An appeals court on Thursday overturned the drug conviction of a Black man, saying his rights were violated by a Detroit federal judge who was upset over delays in the case and declared: “This guy looks like a criminal to me.”

“Such remarks are wholly incompatible with the fair administration of justice,” the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Murphy III, who is white, apologized nearly two years later when the case against Leron Liggins finally was ready for trial. He explained that he was mad at the time “and I regret it.”

Nonetheless, the appeals court said Murphy should have removed himself as Liggins’ attorney had requested. The court threw out a heroin distribution conviction and 10-year prison sentence and ordered a new trial with a different judge.

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Allowing the conviction to stand “would substantially undermine the public’s confidence in the judicial process,” 6th Circuit Judge Eric Clay said in a 3-0 opinion.

Prosecutors said the remark was a reference to Liggins’ alleged conduct, not his appearance. But the appeals court said a “reasonable observer” could interpret it differently.

Murphy said he lost his composure in 2020 after Liggins repeatedly had switched between wanting to plead guilty and choosing a trial and also failed to get along with his second lawyer. He ended up with four.

“I’m tired of this case. I’m tired of this defendant. I’m tired of getting the runaround. This has been going on since February 6, 2018,” Murphy said in court.

“This guy looks like a criminal to me. This is what criminals do,” Murphy said. “This isn’t what innocent people who want a fair trial do. He’s indicted in Kentucky. He’s indicted here. He’s alleged to be dealing heroin, which addicts, hurts and kills people, and he’s playing games with the court.”

At trial in 2021, Murphy, a judge for 15 years, apologized and said he could be fair to Liggins.

“I lost my head,” he said.

V'GER CALL HOME

NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft after mistake led to weeks of silence


 In this Aug. 4, 1977, photo provided by NASA, the “Sounds of Earth” record is mounted on the Voyager 2 spacecraft in the Safe-1 Building at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla. On Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023, NASA’s Deep Space Network sent a command to correct a problem with its antenna. It took more than 18 hours for the signal to reach Voyager 2 _ more than 12 billion miles away _ and another 18 hours to hear back. On Friday, Aug. 4, the spacecraft started returning data again.

 (AP Photo/NASA, File)

BY MARCIA DUNN
Updated 4:40 PM MDT, August 4, 2023Share


CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft was back chatting it up Friday after flight controllers corrected a mistake that had led to weeks of silence.

Hurtling ever deeper into interstellar space billions of miles away, Voyager 2 stopped communicating two weeks ago. Controllers sent the wrong command to the 46-year-old spacecraft and tilted its antenna away from Earth.

On Wednesday, NASA’s Deep Space Network sent a new command in hopes of repointing the antenna, using the highest powered transmitter at the huge radio dish antenna in Australia. Voyager 2’s antenna needed to be shifted a mere 2 degrees.

It took more than 18 hours for the command to reach Voyager 2 — more than 12 billion miles (19 billion kilometers) away — and another 18 hours to hear back.

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The long shot paid off. On Friday, the spacecraft started returning data again, according to officials at California’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“I just sort of sighed. I melted in the chair,” project manager Suzanne Dodd told The Associated Press.

“Voyager’s back,” project scientist Linda Spilker chimed in.

Voyager 2 has been hurtling through space since its launch in 1977 to explore the outer solar system. Launched two weeks later, its twin, Voyager 1, is now the most distant spacecraft — 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) away — and still in contact.

The two-week outage was believed to be the longest NASA had gone without hearing from Voyager 2, Dodd said.

As long as their plutonium power holds, the Voyagers may be alive and well for the 50th anniversary of their launch in 2027, according to Dodd. Among the scientific tidbits they’ve beamed back in recent years include details about the interstellar magnetic field and the abundance of cosmic rays.

“We’ve been very clever over the last 10 years to eke out every single little watt,” Dodd said. “Hopefully, one of them will make it to 50. But they are old and certainly events like this one that just happened scare the dickens out of me, as far as making that type of a milestone.”
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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.

US Supreme Court won’t block a ruling favoring a Native American man cited for speeding in Tulsa


The U.S. Supreme Court is seen on Thursday, July 13, 2023, in Washington. 

(AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

August 4, 2023

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday left in place a lower court ruling that invalidated a speeding ticket against a Native American man in Tulsa, Oklahoma, because the city is located within the boundaries of an Indian reservation.

The justices rejected an emergency appeal by Tulsa to block the ruling while the legal case continues. The order is the latest consequence of the high court’s landmark 2020 decision that found that much of eastern Oklahoma, including Tulsa, remains an Indian reservation.

Justin Hooper, a citizen of the Choctaw Nation, was cited for speeding in 2018 by Tulsa police in a part of the city within the historic boundaries of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. He paid a $150 fine for the ticket, but filed a lawsuit after the Supreme Court’s ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma. He argued that the city did not have jurisdiction because his offense was committed by a Native American in Indian Country. A municipal court and a federal district court judge both sided with the city, but a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the lower court’s decision.

There were no noted dissents among the justices Friday, but Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote a short separate opinion, joined by Justice Samuel Alito, in which he said that Tulsa’s appeal raised an important question about whether the city can enforce municipal laws against Native Americans.

Kavanaugh wrote that nothing in the appeals court decision “prohibits the City from continuing to enforce its municipal laws against all persons, including Indians, as the litigation progresses.”

‘Cuddling’ is just what the doctor ordered for a 200-pound walrus calf rescued this week in Alaska

A walrus calf is being nursed back to health after being found on its own by oil field workers in Alaska

BY BECKY BOHRER
August 4, 2023

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A 200-pound (90 kilogram) walrus calf found alone and miles from the ocean on Alaska’s North Slope is being bottle fed and receiving round-the-clock “cuddling” from doting animal welfare workers who are trying to keep the 1-month-old baby alive.

The male Pacific walrus — who, so far, doesn’t have a name — was found Monday and flown a day later from the North Slope to Seward, where the Alaska SeaLife Center is based, a journey of at least 700 miles (1,126 kilometers). Staff with the nonprofit research facility and public aquarium are caring for the gigantic, brown, wrinkly-skinned baby, which was dehydrated and possibly fighting an infection.

In an effort to mimic the near-constant care a calf would get from its mom, the walrus is receiving “round the clock ‘cuddling’” to keep him calm and aid in his development and is being fed every three hours, the center said. It described the cuddling as trained staff giving the walrus “the option to have a warm body to lean up against, which he has been taking advantage of almost constantly.”

The calf was found by oil field workers about 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) inland from the Beaufort Sea, in Alaska’s extreme north. A “walrus trail,” or track, was seen on the tundra near a road where the walrus was found. But it’s unclear how, exactly, he got there, the center said.

While calves rely on their mothers for their first two years of life, no adults were seen nearby, which raised concerns about the infant’s ability to survive without intervention.

The range of the Pacific walrus includes the northern Bering and Chukchi seas but the walruses are occasionally observed in areas like the Beaufort Sea to the northeast, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

The walrus — one of just 10 that the center has cared for in its 25-year history — is already taking formula from a bottle, the center said. The calf likely will be under 24-hour care for at least several weeks, a timeline that will depend on his progress, appetite and medical condition, the center said.

ConocoPhillips Alaska, a major oil producer in the state operating on the North Slope, offered a company plane to fly the calf to Seward.

Cyprus allows human COVID-19 medications to be used against deadly virus mutation in cats

 Cats sit in a shelter at the main linear park, in the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on July 19, 2023. Cyprus’ veterinarians association on Friday Aug. 4, 2023 lauded a government decision to allow its stock of human coronavirus medication to be used on cats to fight a local mutation of a feline virus that has killed thousands of animals on the Mediterranean island. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias, File)Read More

 A cat crosses a pedestrian road at the main linear park, in the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on July 19, 2023. Cyprus’ veterinarians association on Friday Aug. 4, 2023 lauded a government decision to allow its stock of human coronavirus medication to be used on cats to fight a local mutation of a feline virus that has killed thousands of animals on the Mediterranean island. 

(AP Photo/Petros Karadjias, File)

BY MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS
August 4, 2023

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus’ veterinarians association on Friday lauded a government decision to allow its stock of human coronavirus medication to be used on cats to fight a local mutation of a feline virus that has killed thousands of animals on the Mediterranean island but can’t be transmitted to people.

The association said in a statement that it had petitioned the government for access to the medication at “reasonable prices” from the beginning of this year, when the mutation that causes lethal Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP) began to noticeably crop up in the island’s cat population.

“We want to assure that we will continue to investigate and control the rise in case of FCov-2023,” the association said.

Cyprus Veterinary Services head Hristodoulos Pipis told the state broadcaster Friday that cat owners can receive medication in pill form at 2.5 euros ( $2.74) for each pill at their local veterinarian’s office following a formal examination and diagnosis.

The medication’s brand name is Lagevrio and its active ingredient is Molnupiravir. Veterinarians Association President Nektaria Ioannou Arsenoglou told The Associated Press that humans cannot contract the mutated feline virus, which isn’t related to COVID-19.

Health Ministry senior pharmacist Costas Himonas told the AP that 2,000 packages of the drug will be made available to veterinarians incrementally over the next month. Himonas said there’s no risk that current pharmaceutical stocks will be depleted to the point treatment of any COVID-19 surge in people would be compromised.

Local animal activists had claimed that the mutation had killed as many as 300,000 cats, but Arsenoglou says that’s an exaggeration.

Arsenoglou had said an association survey of 35 veterinary clinics indicated an island-wide total of about 8,000 deaths. Pipis corroborated those findings.

According to Arsenoglou, FIP is nearly always lethal if left untreated, but medication can nurse cats back to health in approximately 85% of cases in both the “wet” and “dry” forms of the illness.

What made FIP treatment difficult was the high price of the medication that activists said put it out of reach of many cat care givers.

Spread through contact with cat feces, the feline coronavirus has been around since 1963. Previous epidemics eventually fizzled out without the use of any medication, Arsenoglou said.

Measures have already been enacted to prevent the export of the mutation through mandatory medical check-ups of all felines destined for adoption abroad.

It’s unclear how many feral cats live in Cyprus, where they are generally beloved and have a long history dating back thousands of years.

An American billionaire says he’ll stop funding the think tank behind Israel’s judicial overhaul

A man carries the U.S. flag with a placard reading, “horror movie for the sake of reasonableness,” as Israelis march in support of the judicial system during a protest against the plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to overhaul it, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023. 

Israeli activist Moran Zer Katzenstein, center, leads chants as she marches with her group Bonot Alternativa (Women Building an Alternative) in support of the judicial system during a protest against the plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to overhaul it, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023. 

Israelis march in support of the judicial system during a protest against the plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to overhaul it, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023. 

AP Photos/Maya Alleruzzo

BY ISABEL DEBRE
August 4, 2023

JERUSALEM (AP) — An American billionaire and major donor to a Jerusalem think tank backing the Israeli government’s divisive judicial overhaul said on Friday that he would stop giving to the conservative group.

The decision by Arthur Dantchik, a 65-year-old libertarian multibillionaire from New York, to cut funding to the Kohelet Policy Forum reflects the scope of the unrelenting protest movement against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to weaken the Supreme Court.

“I believe what is most critical at this time is for Israel to focus on healing and national unity,” Dantchik said in a statement shared with The Associated Press announcing his move to halt funding. “Throughout my life, I have supported a diverse array of organizations that promote individual liberties and economic freedoms for all people.”

The protests have raged in Israel for seven months, exposing deep-seated social tensions and thrusting the country into a crisis over the future of its democracy.

The Kohelet Policy Forum, founded in 2012 by American-Israeli computer scientist Moshe Koppel, has emerged as one of the main architects of Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul package

Kohelet declined to comment specifically on Dantchik, saying only that the donations it receives “are broad-based and increasing steadily.”

Israeli media has reported Kohelet has been involved in negotiations over the overhaul plans. The changes would give the government more control over the selection of judges and make it harder for the Supreme Court to strike down laws. At one point earlier this year, a member of Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party said the think tank even provided the government with the same overhaul proposal that it presented to Israel’s parliament.

The Israeli parliament, or Knesset, passed first major measure in the judicial overhaul last month, unleashing widespread unrest among critics who fear it will blunt one of Israel’s few checks on government overreach and erode its democratic institutions. Supporters of the plan, including Kohelet, claim it will boost democracy by giving the elected government more power than unelected judges.

Dantchik’s announcement Friday also drew attention to the powerful influence American money and ideas have on Israeli politics. In 2021, the Haaretz daily first identified Dantchik as one of Kohelet’s two principal financial supporters in an investigation that revealed a maze of opaque third-party groups in the United States through which Dantchik and others channeled their donations.

Kohelet is not required to disclose its donations, and the exact amount that Dantchik has provided over the years is not publicly known.

As the co-founder of Susquehanna International Group, a powerful privately held financial firm in Pennsylvania, Dantchik is worth $7.3 billion, according to Forbes’ latest tally.

Kohelet’s founder, Koppel, keeps a low profile and long has avoided questions about the think tank’s donors.

Despite its support from some American Jewish businessmen, the turmoil over the judicial changes in Israel threatens to strain ties with Israel’s closet ally. President Joe Biden has publicly criticized Netanyahu’s push to overhaul the judiciary. Liberal Jewish organizations in the U.S. have condemned the legislation.

In his statement on Kohelet, Dantchik warned against the widening rifts in Israeli society that the overhaul plan has highlighted.

“When a society becomes dangerously fragmented, people must come together to preserve democracy,” he said.

NFL response to congresswoman includes call for more federal attention to illegal gambling


The NFL logo adorns the field before the NFL Super Bowl 57 football game Feb. 12, 2023, in Glendale, Ariz. The NFL has responded to a Nevada congresswoman’s inquiries about the league’s gambling policies with a detailed letter that includes a call for lawmakers and law enforcement to pay additional attention to illegal gambling and put more resources toward combating it. 

(AP Photo/Adam Hunger, File)

BY KYLE HIGHTOWER
August 4, 2023

The NFL has responded to a Nevada congresswoman’s inquiries about the league’s gambling policies with a letter that includes a call for lawmakers and law enforcement to pay additional attention to illegal gambling and put more resources toward combating it.

The NFL’s letter to U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, a Nevada Democrat who is co-chair of the bipartisan gaming caucus, highlights the league’s recent efforts to increase education for its approximately 17,000 players, coaches, team personnel and others about the league’s gambling rules.

“There is no higher principle at the NFL than safeguarding the integrity of the game,” NFL vice president of public policy and government affairs Jonathan Nabavi wrote in the letter, which is dated Friday and was obtained by The Associated Press. The league also pointed to its relationships with integrity monitoring services to help identify and address violations of its policies.

But while those efforts are geared toward the legal sports betting market, the letter said, the NFL believes “Congress and the federal government have a unique role to play in bringing enforcement actions against illegal operators” and noted that it has been “working to highlight the importance of federal engagement in this area.”

“We believe that additional attention and resources are needed from lawmakers and law-enforcement to address the illicit sports betting market, which still has the power of incumbency,” Nabavi wrote.

In her June 15 letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Titus asked the league for a rundown of its policies following a rash of recent gambling-related suspensions by the league.

“When players get suspended and coaches get fired, that means the system is working. The goal, however, should be to stop these bets before they are placed,” Titus wrote.

On Friday, Titus released a statement critical of the NFL’s response to her request, saying it didn’t provide an answer on the number of active investigations the NFL has into suspicious sports betting activity.

“With legal sports betting on the rise, it is more important than ever to maintain the integrity of games for players, bettors, and bookmakers,” Titus’ statement said. “That’s why I wrote all the leagues asking for information on their internal policies concerning betting, including education and enforcement. It’s very disappointing that the NFL has declined to answer our questions and instead pivoted to illegal sports betting generally in their response. It makes one wonder what they are trying to hide.”

She also reached out to the leaders in the NBA, MLB and NHL as well as the NCAA and other leagues. In the NCAA’s response to Titus last month, NCAA President Charlie Baker reported it has found 175 infractions of its sports-betting policy since 2018 and has 17 active investigations.

The NFL’s response focused on its own policies.

The NFL prohibits employees and players from betting on their own games. In addition, players and personnel are not allowed to engage in gambling in NFL facilities, disclose any nonpublic NFL information, enter a sportsbook during the NFL season, or maintain any social, business or personal relationships with sports gamblers.

But they can place non-sports wagers at legally operated casinos and horse or dog racing tracks on their personal time, including during the season.

Over the past two years, 11 NFL players have been suspended for gambling policy violations.

The causes have ranged from players who placed wagers on their own teams while not participating to players who have not abided by the league’s prohibition on betting on sports while at team facilities.
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Federal appeals court upholds Connecticut law that eliminated religious vaccination exemption

 Opponents of a bill to repeal Connecticut’s religious exemption for required school vaccinations march down Capitol Avenue before the State Senate voted on legislation on April 27, 2021, in Hartford, Conn. A federal appeals court on Friday, Aug. 4, 2023, upheld a 2021 Connecticut law that eliminated the state’s longstanding religious exemption from childhood immunization requirements for schools, colleges and day care facilities.

 (Mark Mirko/Hartford Courant via AP, File)

BY SUSAN HAIGH
August 4, 2023

A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a 2021 Connecticut law that eliminated the state’s longstanding religious exemption from childhood immunization requirements for schools, colleges and day care facilities.

The decision comes about a year and a half after a lower court judge dismissed the lawsuit challenging the contentious law, which drew protests at the state Capitol.

“This decision is a full and resounding affirmation of the constitutionality and legality of Connecticut’s vaccine requirements. Vaccines save lives — this is a fact beyond dispute,” Democratic Attorney General William Tong said in a statement. “The legislature acted responsibly and well within its authority to protect the health of Connecticut families and stop the spread of preventable disease.”

The plaintiffs, We the Patriots USA Inc. and others, had argued that Connecticut violated religious freedom protections by removing the exemption. The 2021 law, they said, demonstrates a hostility to religious believers and jeopardizes their rights to medical freedom and child rearing.

“We fully intend to seek review of this decision in the United States Supreme Court, to obtain equal justice for all children — not only in Connecticut, but in every state in the nation,” Brian Festa, co-founder and vice president of We the Patriots USA Inc., said in a statement.

He said his group, which focuses on religious and medical freedom, parental rights and other matters, disagrees with the court’s conclusion that removing the exemption does not violate religious freedom under the First Amendment or the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection under the law.

In its decision, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit noted that “only one court — state or federal, trial or appellate — has ever found plausible a claim of a constitutional defect in a state’s school vaccination mandate on account of the absence or repeal of a religious exemption.”

“We decline to disturb this nearly unanimous consensus,” it concluded.

Connecticut law currently requires students to receive certain immunizations before enrolling in school, yet allows some medical exemptions. Students could seek religious exemptions as well prior to 2021, but lawmakers decided to end that after being concerned by an uptick in exemption requests coupled with a decline in vaccination rates in some schools.

The Connecticut General Assembly ultimately passed legislation that eliminated the exemption but grandfathered students in K-12 that had already received one.

Festa called the court’s decision to return part of the lawsuit to the lower court for further consideration “a victory” for special needs children in the state. One of the plaintiffs argued that Connecticut’s law denies her son a free and appropriate education under the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act by not allowing him a religious exemption.

While Festa said the plaintiffs, which also include three parents and the CT Freedom Alliance LLC, are hopeful the district court will determine special needs children cannot be excluded by opposing vaccinations based on religious belief.

Tong’s office said it’s confident that claim will be dismissed by the lower court.

'Alarming': NBA Players Union Speaks Out On Orlando Magic's Ron DeSantis PAC Donation

Ben Blanchet
Fri, 4 August 2023 

The National Basketball Players Association has dropped its two cents on the Orlando Magic’s “alarming” $50,000 donation to a super PAC that supports Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The players union said in a statement that the political contribution is “alarming given recent comments and policies of its beneficiary.”

“NBA governors, players and personnel have the right to express their personal political views, including through donations and statements,” the union said in a statement. “However, if contributions are made on behalf of an entire team, using money earned through the labor of its employees, it is incumbent upon the team governors to consider the diverse values and perspectives of staff and players.”

“The Magic’s donation does not represent player support for the recipient,” the statement continued.

The union’s remarks arrive after a spokesperson for the team said that the donation to the super PAC occurred on May 19, prior to the governor’s presidential campaign announcement.

“To clarify, this gift was given before Gov. DeSantis entered the presidential race. It was given as a Florida business in support of a Florida governor for the continued prosperity of Central Florida,” Joel Glass, chief communications officer for the team, said in a statement to HuffPost.

The super PAC was calling on DeSantis to run for president at that time, however. He formally announced his campaign days later, on May 24.

NBA spokesperson Mike Bass told The New York Times that team governors “make their own decisions on the political contributions they make,” adding that it respects “the right of members of the NBA family to express their political views.”

The Orlando Magic has made several political donations in the past. The team is owned by in-laws of former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who served in the administration of former president and DeSantis rival Donald Trump.

The Magic has been sponsored by Disney, which the Florida governor has targeted in his so-called war on “woke.”

Several figures in the sports world have weighed in on the super PAC donation, including commentator Stephen A. Smith.

“We’ve got a governor in Florida that has made a plethora of decisions that the LGBTQ community has found offensive, that Black people have found offensive, that immigrants have found offensive,” Smith said on his podcast. “Where the hell else are all these other athletes? Where are you?”

In response to the donation news, New Orleans Pelicans forward Larry Nance Jr. went after DeSantis for backing Florida’s controversial educational standards. The standards include saying students should be taught that enslaved people had opportunities to develop skills for their personal benefit.

“So the @OrlandoMagic who have a majority black roster, a black head coach, and a black GM decided it was a good idea to support a man that claims that slavery had personal benefits for the enslaved?” Nance wrote on social media.

Prior to the news of the donation, retiring Miami Heat forward Udonis Haslem slammed DeSantis and said Floridians aren’t happy with his actions.

“I happen to live there and I was born there. It’s not my fault. So please stop Florida-shaming us people,” Haslem said of his Florida ties in an interview with the Boston Globe.

“We’re not happy about what this man [DeSantis] is doing,” he added. “Diversity and inclusion and taking the [books away]. We’re not happy about that.”

Orlando Magic gave $50,000 to Super PAC backing Ron DeSantis

By Steven Lemongello

Orlando, Fla. — One name stands out among the list of millionaire and billionaire contributors to the Super PAC backing Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign: the Orlando Magic basketball team.

Orlando Magic Ltd. is listed as giving $50,000 to Never Back Down, the political committee now essentially operating as DeSantis’ campaign in many states, according to its first FEC filing.

The Magic are owned by the DeVos family, who are longtime Republican donors from the Grand Rapids area and have given millions to the party and GOP candidates over the years.

Carlos Guillermo Smith, a former Democratic state House member from Orlando and current state Senate candidate, slammed the team for contributing to DeSantis’ campaign despite holding a Pride Night event in March.


The event, which the Magic website states was “to celebrate diversity, equity, inclusion, and unity with the LGBTQ+ community,” featured a Pride Night T-shirt created by Orlando artist Adam McCabe, a halftime performance by Orlando Gay Chorus and a ceremony honoring Felipe Sousa-Lazaballet, the chair of the LGBTQ group OneOrlando Alliance and the director of Hope CommUnity Center in Orlando.

McCabe and Sousa-Lazaballet could not be reached for comment.

DeSantis has drawn the ire of the LGBTQ community for the controversial “don’t say gay” law banning instruction sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade and since expanded by the state Board of Education to 12th grade.

DeSantis has also signed laws banning gender-affirming treatments for minors and cracking down on drag shows. Someone in his campaign reportedly also created a video bashing former President Donald Trump for saying he’d protect LGBTQ people following the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando in 2016 that killed 49. The video was derided as homophobic by the conservative LGBTQ group Log Cabin Republicans.

The team raised a “49” banner in 2016 in honor of Pulse victims.

“The Orlando Magic need to pick a side,” Smith said. “… Because it doesn’t square with me that you can have a Pride Night and claim to celebrate and support the LGBTQ community, and then donate $50,000 to a presidential candidate who is running against the LGBTQ community and promoting a platform to take away our rights. These two things cannot exist at the same time.”

NBA owners have made individual contributions, including Knicks owner James Dolan’s many contributions to Republicans and Democrats in New York and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban contributing to Democrat Zoe Lofgren’s campaign in 2002.

But none of the DeVos family members are listed as having contributed to Never Back Down, just the team itself.

Magic spokesman Joel Glass said while the contribution was listed as being on June 26, the check was dated and delivered on May 19, a week before DeSantis announced his bid for the presidency.

“To clarify, this gift was given before Gov. DeSantis entered the presidential race,” Glass said. “It was given as a Florida business in support of a Florida governor for the continued prosperity of Central Florida.”

Never Back Down, though, was specifically formed in March by former Trump administration official Ken Cuccinelli to “urge Ron DeSantis to run for president.” The group ran an ad in April bashing Trump for his criticism of DeSantis.

The Magic organization has made federal political contributions in the past, including $2,000 to a young conservative group in 2014, $500 to a group called Conservative Results in 2016 and $500 to Democratic Orange County Mayor Linda Chapin’s congressional campaign in 2000, according to FEC filings.

SFGate editor Alex Shultz reported that the latest check to Never Back Down could be considered the largest-ever political contribution attributed to any NBA team, with only a few $15,000 donations by the Phoenix Suns to the Republican Party in the late 1990s as a comparison.

“There’s probably a joke in here about the Magic investing in yet another overhyped prospect,” Shultz wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, referring to DeSantis’ low poll numbers in the GOP primary.