Mich. newborn found frozen at recycling plant was mother’s ‘dirty little secret,’ prosecutor says
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Posted:Mar 3, 2016 9:43 am
Last Updated:Mar 3, 2016 11:27 am
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Cyndee Johnson was at work in a Roseville, Mich., recycling plant when she spotted the infant body moving toward her on a conveyor belt in January.
“It just grabbed my heart,” she said in court testimony, which was reported by ClickOnDetroit.com. “I knew something wasn’t right. He was like in a curled position, curled up like he was trying to be warm, and there was a little bit of debris on him.”
And then it hit her.
Johnson said she screamed, “That’s a real baby, stop the line, stop the line. That’s real baby!”
The baby was already lifeless when Johnson and her co-workers discovered him among the detritus — the newspapers, bottles, cardboard — they picked through every day. He was bundled in a black T-shirt that camouflaged him amid the items in the sorting line.
A medical examiner determined that he died from hypothermia.
At first, CBS reported, authorities had trouble confirming the boy’s identity, suspecting that he was a missing from nearby Lansing. But then they started hearing from friends and relatives of Angela Alexie, a recently pregnant 25-year-old.
At trial in Macomb County Circuit Court on Wednesday, Alexie stood accused of bringing her a gruesome fate: After giving birth to him in an unheated garage three days before Christmas last year, prosecutors allege, she left him there for several days and allowed him to die.
Angela Alexie, 25. (Roseville Police Department)
Angela Alexie, 25. (Roseville Police Department)
Weeks later, Alexie allegedly placed the infant in a garbage bag outside. It remains unclear how his body ended up at the recycling plant.
The mother of three, all of whom are in foster care, is charged with felony murder and first-degree abuse.
Alexie’s attorney, Steve Kaplan, believes that his suffers from “cognitive challenges,” the Associated Press reported.
According to the AP, Kaplan told jurors that she should be convicted of the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter.
During opening arguments on Wednesday, Assistant Prosecutor William Cataldo was unforgiving in his assessment of Alexie. “To Angela Alexie, that wasn’t a , it was a dirty little secret,” Cataldo said, the Detroit Free Press reported.
He accused Alexie of a history of abandonment, noting that she is not involved in her other ’s lives. Because Alexie did not want another in foster care, Cataldo alleged, “she let this die” because she considered him “a road block to her social life.”
Cataldo said that after Alexie cut her umbilical cord with her teeth, she hid the baby on the ground behind a mattress while she stayed in the house by the detached garage.
Shortly after the baby’s birth, she sent her friends selfies of her “weight loss,” the prosecutor alleges.
Alexie says that she checked on the baby every couple of hours and that she attempted to breastfeed him. Ultimately, she said, she was too injured to surrender the at the fire department. (Under Michigan’s safe-haven law, newborns no more than 3 days old can legally be handed over to a staff member of a hospital, fire station or police station.)
“My acted in a reprehensible way,” Kaplan said, the Free Press reported. “I’m not saying she’s a hero. Did Angela Alexie knowingly create a risk of great bodily harm? She’s guilty of many things. She’s not guilty of felony murder.”
Alexie never named her ; his death certificate simply reads “John Doe.” At a funeral held by members of the community, he was unofficially christened Henry Alexander Macomb, after the county’s namesake.
ClickOnDetroit.com.reported that the boy was laid to rest in a small white casket no bigger than a toolbox, with a heart-shaped sticker that read “cherished and beloved.”
The gathering was attended by local residents who had learned of the death in the news. Many of them were parents themselves.
“It’s almost like you have a pit in your stomach, like he’s one of your own,” Linda Martymiuk, a mother of two adult sons, told MLive.
Another mourner, Judy Minor said: “The first time I heard about it, I became attached. I couldn’t have . … I just felt a connection somehow, some way, I can’t explain it — spiritual.”
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The ‘ridiculously’ warm Arctic just set another ominous record
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Posted:Mar 3, 2016 9:39 am
Last Updated:Mar 3, 2016 11:28 am
3553 Views
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The warmth of the Arctic this year, featuring temperature departures many degrees above normal, has scientists floored. They used words such as ‘‘absurdly’’ or ‘‘ridiculously’’ to describe how warm the region has been.
That warmth has major consequences for key Arctic systems, including vulnerable sea ice, whose melting leaves many darker patches of ocean exposed — patches that then absorb the sun’s radiation, rather than reflecting it away as sea ice does. Thus, loss of sea ice further warms the whole system, in a process known as ‘‘Arctic amplification.’’
According to data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center, Arctic sea ice extent is running not only well below average, but also below levels seen during 2012, which eventually set the all-time record for lowest Arctic ice extent (which occurs in the late summer or early fall).
Arctic sea ice saw a record low level for its average extent in January, according to the center: more than over a million square kilometers smaller than the average ice extent seen from 1981-2010. And now, February has set another record monthly low, the center said Wednesday. ‘‘Arctic sea ice was at a satellite-record low for the second month in a row,’’ it noted.
‘‘It’s not a good start to the year,’’ said Julienne Stroeve, a senior research scientist with the center.
The average extent in February was 5.48 million square miles, or 200,000 square miles lower than the previous record low February, which occurred in 2005, the group said. That was 1.16 million square miles below average for the month.
This is happening amid a dramatically warm start to the year. Recent satellite data suggest that February was the warmest month ever recorded in this particular record of the planet’s atmosphere.
Stroeve cautions, however, that just because sea ice levels are at record lows at the start of this year — a phenomenon that may be influenced by the strong El Nino event that we’ve been witnessing — that doesn’t mean that in the summer, when sea ice reaches its annual low, there will also be a new record.
‘‘Those regions of the ice cover that are low right now, they’re going to melt out anyways in summer,’’ Stroeve explained. What remains in September is therefore something of a separate issue. The all-time record low point for Arctic sea ice occurred in September of 2012.
‘‘The trends are negative everywhere, of course they’re stronger in the summer time, but they’re in the winter as well,’’ Stroeve said.
Meanwhile, there’s another possible record in the offing, although this one is a tad more complicated to explain as well as less certain to occur. It’s called a new ‘‘low maximum’’ for winter sea ice, which may sound like a contradiction in terms, but it isn’t.
In general, ice extent grows throughout the winter toward an annual peak, and then declines toward a low in late summer or early fall. Thus, the moment when it peaks is the ‘‘maximum’’ and when it reaches its lowest extent, the ‘‘minimum.’’ And in general, as Arctic sea ice has declined, its maximum extent has also declined — last year set a new record low, at just 14.54 million square kilometers.
This year, in contrast, ice has not even reached that extent, though it was extremely close Tuesday, March 1, at 14.472 million square kilometers, and appeared to be leveling off.
Thus, the coming week or more will tell whether the stunning warmth of the Arctic will continue to set new records.
Declining sea ice won’t be the only consequence of the extremely warm Arctic this winter. For instance, the outbreak of a second early season wildfire this year in Alaska — in February — hints at how this early season warmth could set the stage for other major problems in the Arctic as the year advances.
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The New York Times' first article about Hitler's rise is absolutely stunning
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Posted:Mar 3, 2016 9:34 am
Last Updated:Mar 3, 2016 9:53 am
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On November 21, 1922, the New York Times published its very first article about Adolf Hitler. It's an incredible read — especially its assertion that "Hitler's anti-Semitism was not so violent or genuine as it sounded." This attitude was, apparently, widespread among Germans at the time; many of them saw Hitler's anti-Semitism as a ploy for votes among the German masses.
Times correspondent Cyril Brown spends most of the piece documenting the factors behind Hitler's early rise in Bavaria, Germany, including his oratorical skills, for example: "he exerts an uncanny control over audiences, possessing the remarkable ability to not only rouse his hearers to a fighting pitch of fury, but at will turn right around and reduce the same audience to docile coolness."
But the really extraordinary part of the article is the three paragraphs on anti-Semitism. Brown acknowledges Hitler's vicious anti-Semitism as the core of Hitler's appeal — and notes the terrified Jewish community was fleeing from him — but goes on to dismiss it as a play to satiate the rubes (bolding mine):
He is credibly credited with being actuated by lofty, unselfish patriotism. He probably does not know himself just what he wants to accomplish. The keynote of his propaganda in speaking and writing is violent anti-Semitism. His followers are nicknamed the "Hakenkreuzler." So violent are Hitler's fulminations against the Jews that a number of prominent Jewish citizens are reported to have sought safe asylums in the Bavarian highlands, easily reached by fast motor cars, whence they could hurry their women and when forewarned of an anti-Semitic St. Bartholomew's night.
But several reliable, well-informed sources confirmed the idea that Hitler's anti-Semitism was not so genuine or violent as it sounded, and that he was merely using anti-Semitic propaganda as a bait to catch masses of followers and keep them aroused, enthusiastic, and in line for the time when his organization is perfected and sufficiently powerful to be employed effectively for political purposes.
A sophisticated politician credited Hitler with peculiar political cleverness for laying emphasis and over-emphasis on anti-Semitism, saying: "You can't expect the masses to understand or appreciate your finer real aims. You must feed the masses with cruder morsels and ideas like anti-Semitism. It would be politically all wrong to tell them the truth about where you really are leading them."
Now, Brown's sources in all likelihood did tell him that Hitler's anti-Semitism was for show. That was a popular opinion during Nazism's early days. But that speaks to how unprepared polite German society was for a movement as sincerely, radically violent as Hitler's to take power.
One other thing: if "violent anti-Semitism" was such a winning issue for Hitler, what does that tell us about the state of public opinion in Bavaria in 1922?
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Bill would let businesses refuse to serve gay customers for reasons of faith Read more here: http:/
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Posted:Feb 26, 2016 5:14 am
Last Updated:Feb 26, 2016 12:43 pm
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FRANKFORT
A Senate committee approved two “religious liberty” bills Thursday, one to legally protect businesses that don’t want to serve gay, lesbian or transgender customers because of the owners’ religious objections, and the other to protect religious expression in public schools.
The first measure, Senate Bill 180, would prohibit the government from compelling services or actions from anyone if doing so conflicts with their sincerely held religious beliefs. The bill expands the state’s 2013 Religious Freedom Restoration Act to clarify that businesses could not be punished in such cases for violating local ordinances that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
Sen. Albert Robinson, R-London, the bill’s sponsor, said there are Christian-owned bakeries, florists and photographers in Kentucky that don’t want to assist with same-sex weddings. However, they also don’t want to face civil-rights lawsuits by spurned customers and punitive fines by local civil-rights agencies, Robinson said.
“All of these business owners want to treat everyone with full human dignity and respect,” Robinson, R-London, told the Senate Committee on Veterans, Military Affairs and Public Protection. “But their consciences and religious beliefs prevent them from using their skills to promote a celebration that runs counter to what the Bible teaches about marriage. Shouldn’t their rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion be respected?”
Robinson said he’s also responding to the case of Hands On Originals, a Lexington business that refused to print T-shirts in 2012 for the Lexington Pride Festival, citing the owner’s religious objections.
The Lexington Human Rights Commission found that Hands On Originals violated the city’s Fairness Ordinance requiring service to gays and lesbians. But Fayette Circuit Judge James Ishmael overturned that decision, ruling that there was no evidence the business refused the T-shirt order because of the sexuality of the would-be customers. Rather, the business objected to the shirt’s message “advocating sexual activity outside of a marriage between one man and one woman,” he wrote. The case is now on appeal.
“There is an agenda at work here that seeks to force people with sincerely held religious convictions to either abandon these beliefs or violate them or face state action that could close their businesses and destroy them financially,” Robinson told his colleagues Thursday.
As written, the bill would cover governments as well as businesses, limiting the power of public agencies to infringe on the “right of conscience” or “freedom of religion” of people who work for them.
For instance, last July, a religious group threatened to sue the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice over its anti-bias policy to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youths in state custody. The department asked a volunteer Baptist minister, David Wells, to stop working at its Bowling Green detention center because Wells would not agree to stop warning the youths about “the harms of homosexuality” as taught in the Bible.
Tolerance can go too far, Stan Cave, an attorney for the Family Foundation of Kentucky, testified to the Senate committee on Thursday. Cave said he helped Robinson draft the bill.
“Over the last 20 years, we’ve heard a lot of conversation about tolerance,” Cave said. “All of us want to be tolerant. But there comes a point where one person’s rights infringe with being tolerant of another person’s beliefs.”
The committee voted 8 to 1 to approve SB 180 and send it to the Senate floor. Sen. Perry Clark, D-Louisville, cast the sole “no” vote, saying the state and federal constitutions already offer adequate protection for religious liberties. Four senators voted “pass,” citing the Hands On Originals case and saying the Senate traditionally doesn’t like to approve legislation that would affect lawsuits pending in the courts.
After the hearing, a gay-rights advocate said Robinson’s bill is “an open attack” on Lexington, Louisville, Covington, Morehead, Frankfort, Danville, Midway and Vicco, which have ordinances that protect the civil rights of their lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens.
“It’s a clear attack on the eight cities that passed anti-discrimination fairness ordinances to protect LGBT people,” said Chris Hartman, director of the Louisville-based Fairness Campaign. “They made it crystal clear during the committee hearing that that’s what their aims are. So we’ll be doing everything we can to halt the progress of this legislation.”
There will be a continued backlash in the General Assembly as some people are frightened by the progress the LGBT community is making legally and socially, Hartman said.
“When folks lose ground, they attack more fiercely. That’s what we’re seeing here,” he said.
If Robinson’s bill is passed by the Republican-led Senate, it will cross the Capitol to the Democratic-led House. On Thursday, House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, said he hasn’t heard any of his members discuss the bill.
“We’ll give it a full and fair hearing, I’m sure, as we do all Senate bills,” Stumbo said.
Also Thursday, the same Senate committee unanimously approved Senate Bill 106, sponsored by Sen. Brandon Smith, R-Hazard.
SB 106 would require local school boards to permit “artistic or theatrical programs that advance students’ knowledge of society’s cultural and religious heritage and traditions, as well as provide opportunities for students to study and perform a wide range of cultural and religious music, literature, poetry and drama.”
At issue: Linus, the beloved Peanuts comic strip character. In December, Johnson County school officials deleted a Bible passage that Linus recites from a student production of A Charlie Brown Christmas, despite local protests from people who wanted it included. During one performance, several adults in the audience loudly recited the lines on their own.
Johnson County school superintendent Thomas Salyer sent a letter to the district’s principals Dec. 11 reminding them that federal courts have forbidden public school officials from encouraging or soliciting religious activity. Under the U.S. Constitution, citizens can express their religious beliefs, but government cannot give favorable treatment to a religion.
“The U.S. Supreme Court and the 6th Circuit (U.S. Court of Appeals) are very clear that public school staff may not endorse any religion when acting in their official capacities and during school activities,” Salyer wrote in his letter.
Senators at Thursday’s Senate committee hearing took issue with that idea. “Political correctness” has gotten so extreme in the United States that people can’t even say “Merry Christmas” without getting criticized, Smith told the Senate panel.
“That seems to be the trend today, where everybody wants to be politically correct,” Smith said. “Any sort of language that has any sort of Christian handle to it anymore is unacceptable or is offensive to people.”
Smith’s bill enjoyed strong bipartisan support.
“As a Democrat, I gladly support your bill and I want to see it passed because I saw absolutely nothing wrong with that performance,” said Sen. Julian Carroll, D-Frankfort.
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Second-grader spills the beans on mom’s boyfriend’s pot farm
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Posted:Feb 26, 2016 5:06 am
Last Updated:Feb 26, 2016 5:33 am
3189 Views
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— Authorities say a second-grader’s story about helping a farmer grow “special medicine” plants led to a big marijuana bust in Vermont.
The Times-Argus reports Windsor Detective Jennifer Frank said in an affidavit that the 8-year-old told school officials and police that he got to help his mother’s boyfriend grow “special medicine that can cure anything at all.”
Frank says the boy told her that people came to the Windsor house frequently.
Fifty-four-year-old Steven Mann pleaded not guilty this week in a White River Junction court to a felony count of cultivating more than 25 marijuana plants. A woman who answered a phone listing for a Steven Mann in Windsor County said it was the wrong number.
Police say they found two “grow rooms” next to the ’s bedroom.
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Thousands protest 'anti-immigrant' legislation in Wisconsin
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Posted:Feb 19, 2016 10:15 am
Last Updated:May 11, 2024 3:4 pm
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(CNN)Thousands of activists and allies poured into Madison, Wisconsin, on Thursday as part of a massive rally against legislation that protest leaders described as "racist" and "anti-immigrant."
Called "A Day Without Latinos and Immigrants in Wisconsin," the protests center on two pieces of legislation -- one, AB 450, would ban so-called "sanctuary cities" in Wisconsin, while another, SB 533, seeks to prevent local government from issuing ID cards to undocumented immigrants.
AB 450 recently passed the Assembly and is now expected to be considered by the upper chamber, while SB 533 has been approved by both and is headed to the desk of Republican Gov. Scott Walker. The governor's office did not immediately respond to an email asking if he plans to sign it into law.
Voces de la Frontera, one of the organizing groups, touted on its website "work stoppages, business closures and student walk-outs" in support of a broader effort to kill the bills and make a showing of immigrant economic power.
The author of AB 450, State Rep. John Spiros, a Marshfield Republican, rejected the characterization of his bill as "anti-immigrant," telling CNN he wrote it in response to the high-profile shooting death last summer of Kate Steinle. The 32-year-old San Francisco woman was allegedly killed by Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, an undocumented immigrant and felon who had repeatedly re-entered the country after multiple deportations.
"After I saw that Wisconsin had three 'sanctuary cities' -- Madison, Racine and Milwaukee County -- I went to work and said, 'How can we do something to make sure we don't have another San Francisco?'" Spiros said. "That's truly what the basis was ...This bill is not there to split up families. It's not an anti-immigration bill."
Madison Mayor Paul Soglin, a Democrat, has denied that his city is a "sanctuary city."
Thousands of Latinos, immigrants and their supporters congregate inside the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison to protest legislative bills they believe to be anti-immigration on February 18, 2016.
Thousands of Latinos, immigrants and their supporters congregate inside the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison to protest legislative bills they believe to be anti-immigration on February 18, 2016.
But opponents of "sanctuary city" and ID bills view the current fight in much broader and consequential terms.
"This battle is giving us the opportunity to build a statewide structure to organize the Latino vote that will challenge any candidate who is anti-immigrant in 2016 and beyond," said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, the executive director of Voces de la Frontera, in a statement. "Wisconsin's fight reminds us that Latino and immigrant workers are willing to flex their economic power to send the message that they will not stand idly by while politicians try to pass laws that threaten their families and take for granted their labor."
The group said buses and caravans from 19 cities around the state were expected to help fill the streets of the capital. By early afternoon, the City of Madison Police Department tweeted a crowd estimate of 14,000 people.
"Walker, escucha, estamos en la lucha," some protesters chanted in Spanish -- "Walker, listen, we are in the fight" is the English translation -- according to a tweet from WISC-TV's Jessica Arp.
On Twitter, protesters used the hashtag #daywithoutlatinos to share images and information from the marches and their gathering inside the statehouse, while others dialed it up to tag expressions of solidarity.
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Science 93-Mile-Long Ancient Wall in Jordan Puzzles Archaeologists
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Posted:Feb 19, 2016 10:12 am
Last Updated:May 11, 2024 3:4 pm
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A new map of an ancient wall that extended 93 miles (150 kilometers) in Jordan has left archaeologists with a series of mysteries, including questions over when the wall was built, who built it and what its purpose was.
Known today as the "Khatt Shebib," the wall's existence was first reported in 1948, by Sir Alec Kirkbride, a British diplomat in Jordan. While traveling by airplane in Jordan, he saw a "stone wall running, for no obvious purpose, across country."
Archaeologists with the Aerial Archaeology in Jordan (AAJ) project have been investigating the remains of the wall using aerial photography. The researchers found that the wall runs north-northeast to south-southwest over a distance of 66 miles (106 km). The structure, they found, contains sections where two walls run side by side and other sections where the wall branches off. [See Photos of the Mysterious Ancient Wall in Jordan]
"If we add the spurs and stretches of parallel wall, the total [wall length] may be about 150 km (93 miles)," wrote David Kennedy, a professor at the University of Western Australia, and Rebecca Banks, a research assistant at Oxford University, in a paper published recently in the journal Zeitschrift für Orient-Archäologie.
Today, the wall is in ruins. However, "even in its original state, it cannot have been much more than a meter [3.3 feet] high and perhaps half a meter [1.6 feet] wide," wrote Kennedy and Banks.
Along the Khatt Shebib, the archaeologists also found the remains of an estimated 100 so-called towers, measuring 2 to 4 meters in diameter. Some of the towers were constructed after the wall was built, the researchers said.
The towers likely had a variety of uses. "Some may have been places of refuge — a secure place to overnight. Others may have been [used] as watch posts. Some, perhaps, [were] places in which hunters could hide until browsing fauna was close enough to try and bring down," Kennedy told Live Science.
Ancient mystery
The research leaves archaeologists with a series of mysteries: When was the wall built? Who built it and why?
So far, the only dating information the scientists have comes from pottery found in the towers and other sites along the wall, Kennedy said. Based on the pottery found to date, the wall was likely built sometime between the Nabataean period (312 B.C.–A.D. 106) and the Umayyad period (A.D. 661–750), Kennedy said.
Though one of the kingdoms or empires that ruled Jordan in that long stretch of time could have built the wall, the structure might not have been constructed by a large state. "It is possible that local communities, seeing what neighbors have done and persuaded of its usefulness, simply copied the practice," Kennedy and Banks wrote.
The purpose of the wall is also a mystery. Its low height and narrowness indicate that it wasn't constructed for defensive reasons, said Kennedy and Banks. Traces of ancient agriculture are more visible to the west of the wall than to the east, suggesting the structure marked a boundary between ancient farmers and nomadic pastoralists, the researchers said. Or it may have marked a different type of boundary.
Ultimately, more on-the-ground fieldwork is needed to solve these mysteries. "Aerial archaeology will never resolve these key questions of purpose and date. For that, we require systematic fieldwork," Kennedy and Banks wrote.
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Scientists Find Out What Killed Millions of Starfish
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Posted:Feb 19, 2016 10:09 am
Last Updated:May 11, 2024 3:4 pm
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An epidemic swept across North America’s West Coast three years ago, but most people hardly noticed.
That’s because the disease targeted starfish, millions of starfish.
From as Alaska to Baja, Mexico, starfish populations have been decimated by the sea star wasting syndrome—a disease that turns the darlings of the tide pool world into heaping piles of goo within days of exposure.
Scientists have observed wasting events hit coastal starfish populations before, but nothing like this epidemic, which researchers are calling the single largest, most geographically widespread marine disease ever recorded.
Sea stars, or starfish, are what’s known as a “keystone” species, important to maintaining biodiversity in marine environments. But an epidemic that swept across the West Coast killed millions of the multi-limbed animals—wiping out up to 95 percent of populations in some regions. Now, a new study is showing warming ocean temperatures might make mass die-offs more severe.
Without starfish to keep mussel populations in check, the sharp-shelled bivalves would push out other marine species, damaging the biodiversity of habitats along the West Coast.
RELATED: Starfish Are Not the Wallflowers You Think They Are
“Warmer water temperatures might not have been the catalyst for the disease, but our findings show that if the water hadn’t been so hot that year, the impact would most likely have been less,” said Drew Harvell, study coauthor and professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Cornell.
For the study, researchers looked at the ochre sea star. The species is the West Coast’s most prevalent starfish, known for its purple or orange coloration, five-limbed body, and voracious appetite for mussels.
The team analyzed water temperature records taken before, during, and after the wasting episode at different locations around the San Juan Islands and Puget Sound in Washington state. They found that as water temperatures rose across the region, so did the risk of infection for sea stars.
And sites where water temperatures rose the most left sea stars at highest risk of infection.
Researchers also placed sea stars in aquarium tanks set to different temperatures, ranging from 54 degrees to 66 degrees Fahrenheit. The hotter the tank, the quicker starfish succumbed to wasting, Harvell said.
“That confirmed that water temperature can effect mortality,” Harvell said.
With ocean temperatures steadily increasing thanks in part to human-induced climate change, the future of sea stars could be threatened.
The sheer size of this latest wasting event has scientists concerned. Melissa Miner, a marine biologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said that sea stars populations are still decimated across nearly all of the West Coast.
“We’ve got about nine sites, out of the 70 or so we monitor between Washington, Oregon, and California, where we have seen good recruitment of baby sea stars coming back,” Miner said. She’s cautiously optimistic that those nine sites could be the source populations that help reestablish sea stars in regions still decimated by the disease.
But in Southern California, sea star survival has been low. Miner said no sites south of Point Conception are showing much improvement.
On a walk amidst tide pools in Newport Beach’s Crystal Cove State Park last week, this reporter could not spot a single starfish. In October 2014, scientists found 191 starfish along the same rocky reef. Instead, there appeared to be an abundance of mussels lining the rocks—the ochre starfish’s favorite meal.
“We don’t have the data yet to back this up, but my gut feeling is that we’ll see an increase in mussel cover across many sites—especially in the lower intertidal zones where they are typically controlled by sea stars,” Miner said.
With the study findings limited to only a small region of starfish, Harvell wouldn’t hypothesize what climate change might mean for the species, but she did say it would be better for all starfish in the region if the water got cold, quick.
“Alaska is where the action is now,” Harvell said. “They’re experiencing incredible warm temperature anomalies in the northernmost range, and that’s the next region to see how sea stars react there.”
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Charlie Daniels’ Open Letter to America’s Enemies: You See Obama, But You Don’t Know America
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Posted:Feb 16, 2016 3:33 pm
Last Updated:Feb 17, 2016 3:47 am
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Something never rang true about the apprehension and boarding of two American Naval vessels by the Iranian Navy. Something just didn’t seem right.
These boats were equipped with the kind of space age navigational devices that should have forgone any doubt where they were within a couple of yards.
If one boat became disabled, why didn't the other boat tow it back to safe international waters?
Barring all else, why didn’t the Iranians abide by centuries old maritime tradition to assist a disabled vessel of a nation you're not at war with? We’re not at war with Iran, or are we?
Why did John Kerry make a public statement praising and thanking the Iranians for their humane treatment of our Naval personnel knowing that Iran had boarded our vessel, disarmed the sailors and forced them to kneel with their hands on their heads? Why would he do so after seeing that Iran had photographed these sailors, using the photo as an embarrassing international public relations ploy and showing the world just how spineless the Obama administration is? Just how much humiliation and insult he is willing to take?
Then, during a parade, the Iranians staged a float with Iranians dressed like American sailors on a boat standing in total submission while being laughed at and ridiculed by the people on the street.
This is tantamount to rubbing America's face in a manure pile. It was an attempt to suggest that America is supposedly weak, spineless and totally unable when it comes to protecting itself. It was meant to suggest that America has become a cowering, impotent nation whose president can be pushed around, humiliated, threatened and ridiculed without any threat of retaliation.
Putin did it, China is doing it, and now a third rate Islamic dictatorship ruled by religious fanatics is pushing Obama all over the board for the rest of the world to see just how easy it is. You can bet there will be much more to follow.
John Kerry should resign, because what he did actually gave aid and comfort to a nation that wants to destroy us. His sickening platitudes enabled the Iranians to farther this farce and humiliate this nation even more by releasing photos of one of the American sailors apparently crying.
America's enlistment rates are down, and morale in our military is low. Obama has fired so many of our most experienced officers and reduced the size of our services to the point that should we be required to fight on multiple fronts we would be severely strained to do so.
How does the rest of the world perceive America under Obama?
We're the nation that stood by and didn't lift a finger when the Iranian public was protesting their government. We voiced no support and did not try to help in any significant way, and the protest was soon quelled.
We're the nation that drew red lines in Syria and watched them being crossed without a whimper.
We're the nation that only uttered a few lukewarm words as Putin invaded the Crimea and the Ukraine.
We're the nation that traded five of the world's most dangerous terrorists for one American deserter.
We're the nation that gave away the store to insure that Iran can finance its terrorist attacks and be assured of having a nuclear device in a few years.
We're the nation that lets anybody who wants to walk across our southern border free reign to do so, and we are the nation that provides sanctuary cities to give them refuge.
NO, WE'RE NOT!!
WE'RE THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!
And judging us by the weakness and unwillingness of our president and his flower administration would be a fatal mistake.
A note to our enemies:
You think you know America, but you only see the tiny, inept, incompetent, cowering political tip of a very big, very capable iceberg.
You don't know the Heartland where the people are fiercely independent and willing to defend this nation with their bare hands if that's what it takes.
You don't know the steel workers in Pittsburgh with muscles that could break a man's neck like a twig.
You don't know the swamp folks in Cajun country that can wrestle a full-grown alligator out of the water.
You don't know the mountain folks in Appalachia who can knock a squirrel's eye out from a hundred yards away with a small caliber rifle.
You don't know the farmers, the cowboys, the loggers and the seagoing folks. You don't know the truck drivers, the carpenters, the mountain men who live off the land, the hard rock miners or the small town cops who keep the peace in the rowdy border towns.
No, you don't know America. You've only seen America through the eyes of an Ivy League ideologue. There are no calluses on his hands, no notches on his gun. He is naive enough to believe that people who only understand power can be swayed by political correctness, kindness and acquiescence.
Soon America will have a new leader, and I pray to Almighty God every day that we will choose the right one.
If so, we will begin the long process of rebuilding the World's greatest military, we will level the playing field in international trade and revitalize American industry, we will give our friends reason to trust us again. Our enemies will have reason to fear us again, and our citizens will have reason to believe again.
No, you don't know America, and you don't want to find out the hard way.
What do you think?
Pray for our troops and the peace of Jerusalem.
God Bless America
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Parmesan cheese sold at stores including Walmart and Whole Foods might not be what you think it is
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Posted:Feb 16, 2016 1:47 pm
Last Updated:Feb 16, 2016 3:30 pm
3091 Views
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A new report shows your favorite Parmesan cheese may contain some ingredients that you might find disconcerting.
Bloomberg News tested store-bought grated cheeses for cellulose, revealing that all of the cheeses tested contained the anti-clumping additive made of wood pulp.
Walmart's Great Value 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese registered 7.8% cellulose, while Jewel-Osco's Essential Everyday 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese clocked in at 8.8%.
Kraft had 3.8%.
Cheese makers and retailers told Bloomberg they were investigating the test results further.
Cellulose is a safe additive, Bloomberg notes, listed as an ingredient in these "100%" cheeses. However, an acceptable level is 2% to 4%.
parmesan cheese
(tsuacctnt via Compfight cc)
Whole Foods does not list cellulose as an ingredient, but the Whole Foods 365 Parmesan tested at 0.3% cellulose.
The company told Bloomberg it is investigating the matter, but believes the test may have been a false positive.
Cheese makers often mix in higher levels of the wood pulp when making cheese because it is more inexpensive than pure Parmesan.
The FDA is investigating another cheese marker: Castle Cheese Inc.
The company’s president is scheduled this month to plead guilty to pumping products full of cellulose and using cheaper cheddar instead of real Romano.
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My Husband Went to the Store and Never Came Home, Deserting His Two
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Posted:Feb 16, 2016 1:38 pm
Last Updated:May 11, 2024 3:4 pm
3588 Views
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I saw my ex-husband in court last week. It was the first time I had seen him in longer than I could remember; the exact date lost in an 8-inch-thick legal file of court proceedings that is currently lying on my desk. In fact, I could count on one hand the number of times I have seen him since I started that file four years ago.
Up until just a few days ago, I literally could not find my ex-husband.
But before he disappeared four years ago, I was a married, stay-at-home mom of a 3-year-old and 7-month-old . Then overnight my world turned upside down when my husband said he was going to the store and simply never returned.
Not only was my marriage over, but he left me with two very young in a position where I was unable to instantaneously support us.
Quitting his job and leaving his work vehicle (his only car) in the parking lot of his employer, he turned off his phone, moved out of town, and became untraceable. His actions were not just an exaggerated statement that he no longer wanted our marriage, but it was a heartbreaking declaration that he also no longer wanted our .
And I’ve heard it all; the judgments that people love to throw my way. “Didn’t you see this coming,” and “what did you do to make him leave?” Or “this is why you never should not have been a stay-at-home mom without your own career,” and my favorite, “you had with him, you did this to yourself.”
Except that really, none of that matters. The fact is that I had two , in a marriage where my husband made it abundantly clear that he wanted me to get pregnant, and then half of the people that it took to create those walked away.
Thankfully, one half stayed.
Despite our circumstances, I still want what’s best for my , so I wasted no time in trying to pull a life together for the remaining three of us. Unlike their father, I couldn’t ignore the ’ heartache, and the last thing I wanted to do was add to their suffering with unmet necessities and hunger, which was at times a reality for us.
So thank goodness the ’s father was legally required to financially provide for us by paying spousal support and support!
Except how do you get money from someone that you can’t find?
You can’t. I didn’t.
Emergency motions were filed, temporary support orders were put in place, but at the end of the day all I had was a piece of paper stating that I should be getting money that I had no idea how to actually obtain. I was thrust face first into the reality that real life isn’t like TV, where the court system will hunt your ex down and make him pay, and kind hearted detectives are so worried about your that they will put in overtime to track down your ’s deadbeat father and throw him in jail with the rest of the nation’s criminals.
No, I learned that real life is aggravatingly slow, exceedingly clerical, and unbelievably flooded with many parents who are in the same situation as mine.
Unfortunately, I’m no special snowflake. In the U.S., only 42 percent of custodial parents (the parent with physical custody of their ) are paid the full amount of support that they are owed, leaving more than $21 billion in unpaid support that is owed to single parents like me. When you look at those astronomical amounts that our court systems are trying to deal with, it’s easy to understand why many single parents just become another number on a list and a file on a desk.
Throughout the entirety of my divorce process, my ex showed up to only one court date. It was the day he signed over all of our material possessions to me, saying he wanted absolutely nothing from his old life. When the judge asked him if he wanted visitation with his , he added insult to injury by stating that “those just aren’t worth my time.”
The judge divorced us.
The judge did however, order my now ex-husband — who was claiming that he was unemployed and could not pay support — to begin what was called a “job diary.” My ex was supposed to apply for two jobs a day, make a record of it, and bring the record to my attorney’s office on a regular basis in order to prove that he was attempting to financially support his unwanted, but still very much existing, .
It didn’t surprise me though when he walked out of court that day and failed to ever show up to my attorney’s office with his job diary.
A year and a half after he left us, I still had not received even as much as a quarter from my ex-husband. On the phone with the support office while pleading my case, I heard my caseworker sigh as she explained “you’re just going to have to think of this as a long term savings account. At some point he will be old enough to collect social security, and at that point the state will garnish his payments and send them to you.”
I was not OK with that.
It wasn’t even money that I was after per say, but rather the necessities that the money could buy. My ex left me in a bad situation and getting out of it has proven to be financially difficult. We live below the poverty line, and I need things for the now, but Target won’t take an “I owe you” and collect my payment in 16 years.
The caseworker’s answer was not good enough for me, but unfortunately there wasn’t much I could do about it. As far as I knew, my ex was working under the table somewhere. When the support department checked his social security number, it reflected no activity that would trace him to a job, an apartment rental, a car payment, or even a credit card. Months dragged on as I watched notices being sent to my house stating that the support department had suspended his hunting and fishing license, as well as his firearm ownership card. I got a letter stating that if he didn’t start paying, they would suspend his driver’s license. Eventually a letter came that they had suspended his driver’s license.
But none of that mattered to me, because what I needed was money and I didn’t have the luxury of waiting. And the irony of it all is that in order to get money, you need money. Slapping down the last of the money I had from selling many of my possessions, I paid my attorney to take my case back to court again in the hopes that I could speed along the process.
We went to court, a warrant was issued for my ex’s arrest, and then the waiting process began for someone to stumble across him, or for the police to randomly pull him over. A process that did nothing except shatter any stigmas I believed of how easy it is to have your ex thrown in jail for nonpayment of support.
The jail was ready for him, but not if they couldn’t find him, and with real crime on the police dockets, my ex wasn’t anyone that they were actually looking for.
Months later I found out that he was working a part time job across town. Why his social security number hadn’t been flagged in the system, I don’t know, but when I called the police begging them to go pick him up, I was told that they didn’t have time. After calling every day for a week, I broke down into tears, and thankfully, the cop who had answered my call related to the struggling parent I was, and saw me as more than just a file on her desk.
My ex was picked up that afternoon, taken to jail, and mere hours later he bailed out with the entire amount of his back due support. He had the money all along, he just didn’t want any of it to go to his .
Unfortunately, he didn’t change his ways, and did not continue to keep current on his support obligations. When the amount he owed our family once again reached a staggering amount, I took him back to court again. Having been served at his place of employment, he did show up to court, only to threaten “if you throw me in jail, I’ll get fired, and then you won’t get any money out of me,” which was it was enough to cause my attorney to remind me of how the law works. The law will send parents to jail for nonpayment, and their only way to get out before serving up to 12 months in some states is to pay the full amount of what they owe.
Looking at my ex and heeding my attorney’s words that my ex probably would lose his job, and might not get another one, I begrudgingly signed an agreement that would allow him to repay the debts he owed over the course of the next five years, via a garnishment from his paycheck.
I left the courthouse that day fuming: “I can’t believe that I just let him finance his .”
I didn’t like it, but I had made the best decision that I could in a situation with no great answer, and it turned out to be the wrong one. My ex quit his job, there was no support to be garnished, and he fell off the grid again.
I’ve gone to multiple court dates since then to try and get what my are owed, but my ex never shows up and I leave with pieces of paper that just add to the clutter on an overwhelmed caseworker’s desk.
But then last week my ex surprised me and showed up to a court date for his continued nonpayment. Our case is set for hearing next month, but that doesn’t mean that I will be getting support, or that I ever will.
With the largest percentage of our population’s poverty-stricken families comprised of single parents owed unpaid support who can’t seem to catch up enough to get ahead, I fear that I may be stuck in this cycle forever. I want to give up, to stop chasing him down, but I have who need more than what I can provide them alone. I don’t like living below the poverty line, and I didn’t get into this situation by myself, but the burden of fixing it falls solely on me. My and I deserve better than what my ex is doing to us, but as I’ve come to learn, our situation is not something I can easily change.
“Just get support” people say.
If only they knew.
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NASA bans the word 'Jesus'
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Posted:Feb 8, 2016 5:37 pm
Last Updated:Feb 9, 2016 2:09 am
3388 Views
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The name of Jesus is not welcome in the Johnson Space Center newsletter, according to a complaint filed on behalf of a group of Christians who work for NASA.
The JSC Praise & Worship Club was directed by NASA attorneys to refrain from using the name ‘Jesus’ in club announcements that appeared in a Space Center newsletter.
“It was shocking to all of us and very frustrating,” NASA engineer Sophia Smith told me. “NASA has a long history of respecting religious speech. Why wouldn’t they allow us to put the name Jesus in the announcement about our club?”
Liberty Institute, one of the nation’s largest religious liberty law firms, threatened to file a federal lawsuit unless NASA apologizes and stops censoring the name ‘Jesus’.
The JSC Today newsletter is distributed electronically and includes a number of Space Center events – from salsa dancing lessons to soccer camp.
NASA issued a statement late Monday – that did not refute Liberty Institute’s charge.
“NASA does not prohibit the use of any specific religious names in employee newsletters or other internal communications. The agency allows a host of employee-led civic, professional, religious and other organizations to meet on NASA property on employee’s own time. Consistent with federal law, NASA attempts to balance employee’s rights to freely exercise religious beliefs with its obligation to ensure there is no government endorsement of religion. We believe in and encourage open and diverse dialogue among our employees and across the agency.”
Since 2001, employees had gathered during their lunch hour to pray and sing and read the Bible. There had been no censorship issues until last year.
Liberty Institute attorney Jeremy Dys told me the club had placed an announcement in the Space Center’s newsletter – announcing the theme of their meeting, “Jesus is our life.”
Join with the praise and worship band “Allied with the Lord” for a refreshing set of spring praise and worship songs on Thursday, June 4, from 11:15 a.m. to noon in Building 57, Room 106. (The theme for this session will be “Jesus is our life!”) Prayer partners will be available for anyone who has need. All JSC civil servants and contractors are welcome.
“Soon after that, the legal department called the organizers and told them they could not use the name Jesus in their announcements,” Dys told me. “They said, no Jesus.”
Click here to get the Todd Starnes Podcast – indepth interviews with conservative newsmakers!
The club’s leadership was told that “NASA would be censoring all future club announcements that featured the name, ‘Jesus’,” Liberty Institute alleged in its complaint letter.
NASA’s legal department explained that including the name ‘Jesus’ within the club’s announcement made that announcement “sectarian” or “denominational.”
They also alleged such announcements would cause NASA to violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Dys said the club organizers offered to provide a disclaimer, notifying readers that the announcement was private speech and was not endorsed by NASA or any other government agency. However, that offer was rejected as “insufficient.”
“The club members knew right away that NASA was censoring them and they were not comfortable with that,” Dys told me.
And so began a long process to resolve the matter.
“The bottom line is that NASA should not be censoring this club just because they use the name ‘Jesus’ in an employee advertisement,” Dys told me. “That is blatant religious discrimination.”
And NASA’s behavior is quite frankly baffling.
On Christmas Eve, 1968 – the crew of Apollo 8 read the Creation story as they orbited the moon. Astronauts Jim Lovell, Frank Borman and Bill Anders took turns reading from the Book of Genesis.
NASA defended the astronauts after atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair filed a federal lawsuit. The Supreme Court dismissed the suit due to lack of jurisdiction.
And astronaut Buzz Aldrin received communion on the lunar surface during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission.
“NASA should continue its tradition of protecting the great religious expression of its employees,” Dys told me.
I’m not quite sure why NASA is getting all worked up over a group of scientists and engineers who want to worship Jesus.
If they can worship the Almighty in Outer Space, they ought to be able to worship Him back on Earth.
After all, He is the Maker of Heaven and Earth.
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Looking for God Outside Scripture: What Jesus Are You Talking About?
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Posted:Feb 4, 2016 2:02 pm
Last Updated:Feb 5, 2016 11:58 am
3334 Views
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Not getting what you need from the Bible? Well, just listen for God’s voice elsewhere, we’re told. But here’s a fair warning, we often do a convincing impersonation.
A page torn from an inspirational daily calendar of Bible verses is making rounds these days on social media. It features a pretty purple flower and a quote from Luke 4 : “If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.” It’s meant to inspire—until you realize who said it: Satan.
Now whether this was an oversight by the calendar designer, or a clever Photoshop job, the takeaway is the same: Context matters when it comes to Scripture. But today, there’s an even deeper problem with how we use Bible verses, and a recent article in the Huffington Post offers a sad example of why.
Brandon Robertson, a young Bible institute graduate, recounts how his faith was shaken when he couldn’t find what he thought he needed in the pages of Scripture.
“Every time I found myself in turmoil,” he wrote, “I would reach for the Bible … [but] I was most often coming back empty handed.” That disappointment, he explained, left him “radically disinterested” in God’s word.
Describing a moment of a particular personal crisis, Brandon looked to the Bible for comfort. “With tears in my eyes,” he writes, “I opened up the Scriptures and landed on Isaiah 3—a chapter about God judging and destroying his enemies ... not exactly the encouragement I was looking for,” he said. “I turned to the typical ‘encouragement’ passages like Romans 8 and Philippians 3, but they didn’t seem to be working.”
Brandon recounts that his disappointment continued into college, until, during a lecture by biblical critic Peter Enns, he had an epiphany: “We need to be training our to cultivate a relationship with God, not a relationship with the Bible.”
Now at face value, of course, this statement is true. The purpose of the Bible is to reveal God. But for a growing number of progressive Christians, the God they want can’t be found in the pages of Scripture. So they look for Him elsewhere—in personal experience, through relationships with other people, and through private interpretations of when they say God “speaks into” their life.
Effectively, this approach untethers God from the Bible. For example, the United Church of Christ recently insisted that “God is still speaking.” Another true-at-face-value statement, until you realize they’re actually suggesting that God’s changed His mind on issues like morality and marriage, and that their ideas of who God should be trumps the God His word reveals.
Many point to Jesus Himself as their alternative to Scripture. For example, Enns, in his book “The Bible Tells Me So,” writes that “for Christians, Jesus, not the Bible, has the final word.”
But in response, Christian blogger Derek Rishmawy asked a very important question: to which “Jesus” are these folks referring? “… [T]he only real Jesus we have intellectual access to,” observes Derek, “is the Jesus revealed to us in the Bible.” That Jesus reaffirmed the exclusivity of natural marriage, endorsed every “jot and tittle” of the Old Testament, and talked as much about hell and judgement as He did the Kingdom of Heaven.
The Jesus that progressive Christians claim has no source other than, well, themselves, their own feelings, beliefs, and preferences. J. Gresham Machen wrote back in 1924, “The real authority, for liberalism, can only be … individual experience; truth can only be that which ‘helps’ the individual man. Such an authority is obviously no authority at all.”
Our approach to the Bible is vitally important. God’s inspired word is not a calendar of inspirational, therapeutic quotes. When we open the Bible, we are stepping into God’s story, understanding our place in His design, and encountering Him on His terms. When we don’t find what we’re looking for, we should ask whether we’re looking for the real God—or remaking a god in our image.
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