This Buy-rated Canadian explorer-developer is working to achieve first mover status in this emerging clean energy space. Find out what all it has done and is doing.

Skyharbour Resources Ltd. (SYH:TSX.V; SYHBF:OTCQX; SC1P:FSE) announced it has entered into an agreement with Hatchet Uranium Corp. to acquire interest in several of its projects. One analyst says the "spotlight" is on uranium juniors as the energy transition drives a heightened demand for power sources.

Jericho Energy Ventures Inc. (JEV:TSX.V; JROOF:OTC; JLM:FRA) has announced a strategic move to spin off its hydrogen solutions platform into a separate entity. Read more on how this transition aims to unlock growth in both hydrogen and traditional energy sectors.

Famed investor and commentator Jim Rogers talks his preference for tangible assets, why he's leaning toward silver over gold, and uranium's role in the energy transition.

American and Mexican families play with a seesaw installation at the border near Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, in July 2019. London's Design Museum recognized the project with an award for best design of 2020.; Credit: Luis Torres/AFP via Getty Images

An art project that turned the border wall at the U.S.-Mexico border into the temporary base for pink seesaws – inviting children on each side to come play together – has won the London's Design Museum award for best design of 2020.

"We are totally surprised by this unexpected honor," said Ronald Rael, who designed the project with fellow architect Virginia San Fratello. They share the award, he said, with the Ciudad Juárez, Mexico-based art collective Colectivo Chopeke.

"That's amazing," San Fratello said in a video feed announcing the prize. The seesaw installation won both the overall prize and in the transportation category.

"Most importantly, it comes at a time when we are hopeful for change and that we start building more bridges instead of walls," Rael added.

"The Beazley Designs of the Year are the Oscars of the design world," said Razia Iqbal, a journalist who chaired the Design Museum's panel of judges. The award, she noted, highlights work that pushes boundaries of creativity and innovation.

The metal wall was meant to be a stark barrier dividing the U.S. and Mexico, the centerpiece of President Trump's aggressive immigration policies. But in one spot, it became a junction point instead – a fulcrum for a series of seesaws that let children in the two countries share a playground toy.

The project, officially named Teeter-Totter Wall, was first installed in July 2019 when workers slid steel beams through the slats of the border near El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez.

"For the first time, children from both El Paso, Texas, and the Anapra community in Mexico were invited to connect with their [neighbors], in an attempt to create unity at the politically divisive border," the museum said.

"Everyone was very happy and excited to engage the seesaws," Rael told NPR at the time. The installation went smoothly, turning an idea that had been growing for 10 years into a reality.

"It was peaceful and fun — a day at a park for the children and mothers of Anapra," Rael said.

"The project resonated with people around the world in a way that we didn't anticipate," San Fratello said when the award was announced. "It speaks to the fact that most people are excited about being together, and about optimism and about possibility and the future. And the divisiveness actually comes from the minority."

Rael is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley; San Fratello teaches at San José State University.

The seesaw project was chosen out of more than 70 nominees from dozens of countries, including a customized "stab-proof vest" that the artist Banksy designed for musician Stormzy.

Also considered: the gray and red rendering of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Commissioned by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and designed by Alissa Eckert and Dan Higgins, the famous sphere, with its menacing clusters of crowns, won the design award in the graphics category.

The Impossible Burger 2.0 won in the crowded product category, which also included Lego Braille bricks and a self-sanitizing door handle.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Poet Amanda Gorman speaks at the inauguration of U.S. President Biden on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.; Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images

When Amanda Gorman, a 22-year-old poet from Los Angeles, took to the stage on Wednesday, it was immediately clear why the new president had chosen her as his inaugural poet.

Gorman echoed, in dynamic and propulsive verse, the same themes that Biden has returned to again and again and that he wove throughout his inaugural address: unity, healing, grief and hope, the painful history of American experience and the redemptive power of American ideals.

Where Biden said, "We must end this uncivil war," Gorman declared, "We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another."

And where Biden called for an American story of "love and healing" and "greatness and goodness," Gorman saw strength in pain: "Even as we grieved, we grew," she said.

Gorman opened by acknowledging the reasons why hope can be challenging. "Where can we find light in this never-ending shade?" she asked.

But she continued: "And yet, the dawn is ours before we knew it. Somehow we do it. Somehow we weathered and witnessed a nation that isn't broken but simply unfinished."

She acknowledged the power of her own presence on the stage in "a country and a time where a skinny black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president, only to find herself reciting for one."

Like Obama inaugural poet Richard Blanco, who invoked the grand sweep of American geography in a call for unity in "One Today," Gorman dedicated a portion to "every corner called our country" from the South to the Midwest. She ended with an invitation to "step out of the shade."

"The new dawn blooms as we free it," she said. "For there is always light, if only we are brave enough to see it – if only we are brave enough to be it."

Gorman was following in the footsteps of poets like Blanco, Robert Frost and Maya Angelou as she composed the poem "The Hill We Climb" for the inauguration.

She also took her cues from orators like Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr. — people who knew a thing or two about calling for hope and unity in times of despair and division.

Gorman told NPR she dug into the works of those speakers (and Winston Churchill, too) to study up on ways "rhetoric has been used for good." Over the past few weeks, she composed a poem that acknowledges the previous president's incitement of violence, but turns toward hope.

"The Hill We Climb" reads, in part:

We've seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it,

Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy.

And this effort very nearly succeeded.

But while democracy can be periodically delayed,

It can never be permanently defeated.

In this truth, in this faith, we trust.

For while we have our eyes on the future,

history has its eyes on us.

Gorman, like Biden, had a speech impediment as a child. (Biden had a stutter; Gorman had difficulty pronouncing certain sounds.) She told NPR's Steve Inskeep that her speech impediment was one reason she was drawn to poetry at a young age.

"Having an arena in which I could express my thoughts freely was just so liberating that I fell head over heels, you know, when I was barely a toddler," she said.

For Gorman, a former National Youth Poet Laureate, her struggle to speak provided a connection not only to the incoming president, but also to previous inaugural poets, too.

"Maya Angelou was mute growing up as a child and she grew up to deliver the inaugural poem for President Bill Clinton," she says. "So I think there is a real history of orators who have had to struggle with a type of imposed voicelessness, you know, having that stage in the inauguration."

Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and John F. Kennedy were the only presidents in the past who chose to have poems read at their inaugurations. You can read all the previous poems here.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Halima Aden attends the premiere of Netflix's Travis Scott: Look Mom I Can Fly at Barker Hangar on Aug. 27, 2019, in Santa Monica, Calif.; Credit: Rich Fury/Getty Images

For Halima Aden, the decision to walk away from a career as the world's first hijab-wearing supermodel was fairly clear cut. She's felt used for so long, she says — by the modeling industry and by UNICEF, the organization she was photographed by as a child in a refugee camp in Kenya and later served as an ambassador for.

Aden has been featured on the covers of Vogue, Elle and Allure magazines. And she walked the runway for Rihanna's Fenty Beauty and Kanye West's Yeezy.

She tells Morning Edition host Rachel Martin she wanted to be a role model for young girls while being true to herself, but she wasn't accomplishing either. Modeling, she realized, was in "direct conflict" with who she is.

"I'm not a cover girl, I'm Halima from Kakuma," she says. "I want to be the reason why girls have confidence within themselves, not the reason for their insecurity."

Aden was raised in the Kakuma refugee camp in northwestern Kenya. She and her family moved to Minnesota in 2004 when she was 7.

It was there her journey as a model began, competing for Miss Minnesota USA in 2016, seeking a scholarship. She finished in the semifinals, and says from there, modeling "fell from the sky" into her lap.

Interview Highlights

You saw [modeling] not just as a chance to wear gorgeous clothes and to have your photo in magazines but also as a way to help people.

Growing up in America, not seeing representation, not seeing anybody who dressed like me look like me, it did make me feel like, wow, what's wrong with me, you know? And I'm sure if I had if I would have had representation growing up, I would have been so much more confident to wear my hijab, to be myself, to be authentic. But to be that person, to grow up and be on the cover of magazines, I've covered everything from Vogue to Allure, some of the biggest publications in fashion. And yet I still couldn't relate personally to my own image because that's not who I really am. That's not how I really dress. That's not how my hijab really looks. And, you know, fashion, it can be a very creative field, and I completely appreciate that. But my hijab was just getting spread so thin that I knew I had to give it all away, give it up. I'm not a cover girl. I am Halima from Kakuma. I want to be the reason why girls have confidence within themselves, not the reason for their insecurity.

When you say your hijab was being kind of styled out of existence, what passed for a hijab as you were walking down those runways?

Everything. Oh, my goodness. I had jeans at one point on my head as a hijab. I had Gucci pants styled as a turban. It just didn't even make sense, and I felt so far removed from the image itself.

During the pandemic you decided to walk away from fashion and UNICEF. Was it a complicated decision?

I'll be honest with you, the feelings that I've had towards the fashion industry and UNICEF, it was just multiplying as the years went on, so it was just festering. You know, because the fashion industry is very known to use these young girls and boys while their young, age 14 to like 24, I think is the average career of a model. And then they just replace them and move on to a newer model. And same with UNICEF. They've been photographing me and using me since the time I was a baby in a refugee camp. I remember getting those headshots taken and it made me feel, it's very dehumanizing. And so I wanted to show UNICEF, too. How does it feel to be used? It's not a good feeling. And so let's stop using people.

What are you going to do [next]?

For me right now, I don't know what's next. And that's OK. That's OK, because I'm young and I have time to figure it out. And I'm grateful. I'm grateful to the people that I've met. I'm grateful to the agents that I worked with. I'm grateful for the experiences I was able to have these last four years. But at the same time, I just am also grateful that I don't have to do that anymore because it was in direct conflict with who I am as an individual, as a human being.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

James Franco attends a special screening of the final season of "The Deuce" at Metrograph on Sept. 5, 2019 in New York City. =; Credit: Taylor Hill/WireImage/Getty Images

The parties involved in a sexual misconduct case against Oscar-winning actor James Franco have reached a preliminary settlement agreement. The two actors who filed the suit have agreed to drop their claims.

In 2019, Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal alleged that James Franco's Studio 4 acting school sexually exploited female students. The complaint, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, also alleged fraud and sought to represent more than 100 former female students at the now defunct Studio 4. Vince Jolivette, Jay Davis and Franco's RabbitBandini Productions were also named in the suit which accused Studio 4 of setting out to "create a steady stream of young women to objectify and exploit."

According to their joint status report filed on Feb. 11, Tither-Kaplan and Gaal agreed to drop their individual claims. The Sexual Exploitation Class claims will also be dismissed. NPR is reaching out to both parties for comment.

The original complaint was filed shortly after Franco won a Golden Globe for his performance in The Disaster Artist. Franco denied the allegations. In a statement to NPR at the time, his attorney said "James will not only fully defend himself, but will also seek damages from the plaintiffs and their attorneys for filing this scurrilous publicity seeking lawsuit."

In 2016, Franco made a docuseries based on his Sex Scenes class at Studio 4 that he posted on his Facebook page. The videos have since been taken down, but one is still available on Vimeo. Tither-Kaplan, who was a student in the class, told NPR she thought it would teach her how to "maneuver in sex scenes professionally as an actor," but it "did not do that at all."

According to Tither-Kaplan, the class did not explain industry standards such as "nudity riders, the detail required in them, the right to counsel with the director about nude scenes, the custom to choreograph nude scenes ahead of time to negotiate them with the cast and the director — I knew none of that throughout that class."

According to the parties' agreement, the allegations of fraud will be "subject to limited release." It is not clear whether monetary payments are involved. The parties say they expect to file a motion for preliminary approval of the settlement agreement no later than March 15.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

From left, jazz musician Louis Armstrong in Rome in 1968, Janet Jackson at the Essence Festival in New Orleans in 2018, and Nas at the Essence Festival in 2019. Works by each of these musicians are among 25 recordings being inducted to the National Recording Registry.; Credit: /AP

What do Janet Jackson, Ira Glass, Kermit the Frog, Nas and Louis Armstrong have in common?

These musicians, interviewers, and frogs are behind songs and other recordings to be inducted into the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry on Wednesday.

The Library of Congress announced the 25 titles picked this year are considered "audio treasures worthy of preservation" based on their cultural, historical, or aesthetic importance to the nation's heritage.

Janet Jackson's album "Rhythm Nation 1814;" Louis Armstrong's performance of "When the Saints Go Marching In;" Patti Labelle's song "Lady Marmalade;" Nas' record "Illmatic," Kool & the Gang's "Celebration;" and Kermit the Frog's "The Rainbow Connection" are now part of the collection of more than 550 other titles.

"The National Recording Registry will preserve our history through these vibrant recordings of music and voices that have reflected our humanity and shaped our culture from the past 143 years," Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden said in a statement Wednesday.

The recordings, stretching from 1878 to 2008, were chosen out of 900 nominations from the public, Hayden said.

"This American Life" is the first podcast to join the registry. The 2008 episode co-produced with NPR News telling the story of the subprime mortgage crisis will be added to the collection.

"When we put this out as a podcast, turning a radio show into a podcast, we did literally nothing to accommodate it," host Ira Glass said in a statement shared by the Library of Congress. "And my theory is that podcasting is most powerful for the same reason that radio is the most powerful. That is, when you have a medium where you're not seeing people, there's just an intimacy to hearing somebody's voice."

The inclusion of Kermit the Frog's "The Rainbow Connection" deeply touched the Muppet.

"Well, gee, it's an amazing feeling to officially become part of our nation's history," Kermit said in a statement. "It's a great honor. And I am thrilled — I am thrilled! — to be the first frog on the list!"

The song was included in the 1979 "The Muppet Movie" performed by Jim Henson as Kermit the Frog, and written by Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher.

Williams said the song is about the "immense power of faith."

"We don't know how it works, but we believe that it does," Williams said. "Sometimes the questions are more beautiful than the answers."

Under the terms of the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, the Librarian of Congress selects 25 titles each year that are at least 10 years old.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

George R.R. Martin has entered into a five year deal with HBO to develop content for both HBO and HBO Max, the network said in a statement on Monday.

The best-selling fantasy author and four-time Emmy award winner, best known for his book series A Song of Ice and Fire and its television adaptation Game of Thrones, is attached to multiple projects in the pipeline for the media company and streaming service.

The Game of Thrones television series followed powerful families aiming for the iron throne in the continent of Westeros. It ran for eight years on HBO, with the final season wrapping in 2019.

Martin has a new drama series in the works, House of the Dragon, which is based on his Fire & Blood book. The Game of Thrones prequel follows House Targaryen and is set 300 years before the events of Game of Thrones.

The show has been given a ten episode order. Paddy Considine, Olivia Cooke, Matt Smith, and Emma D'Arcy have joined the series, with additional cast members to be announced.

The show is co-created by Martin and Ryan Condal, whose prior work includes Colony, Rampage, and Hercules. Condal and Miguel Sapochnik (Game of Thrones, Altered Carbon) serve as showrunners and producers with Martin and Vince Gerardis (Game of Thrones).

Martin is also set to executive produce HBO's Who Fears Death, a fantasy post-apocalyptic series with Tessa Thompson attached to star and adapted from the novel by Nnedi Okorafor; and Roadmarks, an adaptation of the sci-fi novel from Roger Zelazny.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

The pandemic has once again felled Burning Man. Some burners still plan to gather for informal events on the dusty Black Rock Desert Playa this summer.; Credit: Bernard Friel/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

And so it goes: Burning Man 2021 is canceled. It's the second year in a row, the popular arts festival won't be held in Nevada's Black Rock Desert due to the pandemic.

"We have decided to set our sights on Black Rock City 2022," event officials announced in a blog post on Tuesday. In a frequently-asked-questions section, organizers added: "We've heard from many who don't feel ready to come to Black Rock City. While we're confident in our ability to get a permit and to safeguard public health, we know that co-creating Black Rock City in 2021 would put tremendous strain on our community while we are still ironing out uncertainty."

Many would-be attendees praised the decision in comments on the Burning Man website and on social media as a safe one; others are anxiously anticipating a bigger and better 2022 Burn.

But the cancellation has put many people in the event's host community at ease.

Wary of a trend of rising coronavirus cases in some parts of the region, Washoe County's district health officer Kevin Dick said "the right call was made," in order to lower the risk of spreading infection.

"The event draws thousands of people from all over the world," Dick said in an email. "We are seeing large outbreaks of COVID-19 occurring in a number of countries, areas where very contagious COVID-19 variants of concern are prevalent and where low rates of vaccination are occurring."

The head of a local Paiute tribe is also feeling less burdened knowing there won't be the annual pilgrimage. The main highway to get to the Black Rock Desert playa, which normally draws tens of thousands of people to the summer event, cuts through tribal lands.

"For us it is a sigh of relief," said Janet Davis, chairwoman of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe.

Although the event — which brings in about $63 million to the state annually — gives the tribal community a welcome financial boost, Davis said.

"We don't know who's vaccinated and who's not," she said. "We've been trying to keep our reservation safe and that happening was too soon for us to open."

As with last year, the organization will offer virtual programming during Burn Week, from Aug. 29 through Sept. 7, an experience they say drew 165,000 participants in 2020.

In response to a request for more details on the reasons for the cancellation, Burning Man organizers declined to comment further. Earlier this month, though, CEO Marian Goodell said the organization was "weighing the gravity" of implementing a vaccination requirement that she said challenged "radical inclusion," one of the group's 10 principles.

Still, for many burners, the news won't extinguish their plans to trek to the desert in droves. Just like last year, revelers are preparing to hold unofficial gatherings on public land in place of the annual event.

Last summer, those events — the so-called "rogue" and "free" burns or, unmistakably, "Not Burning Man" — drew an estimated 3,000 people to Black Rock Desert during the time Burning Man is normally held, according to the Bureau of Land Management, the federal agency that approves the organization's permits each year.

Kevin Jervis, one such attendee who now lives in Gerlach — a tiny desert town near the event site — welcomed this year's cancellation.

He called it "more of a relief than anything. ... A lot of us liked it better the way it happened last year."

During the informal festivities, Jervis spent a few days between the playa and its outskirts. He said he and his fellow burners felt like it represented the festival's freewheeling roots.

"I've had friends that have been going since '94 and they said it was a lot more like it used to be. We didn't have to go by regulations," he said. "We could have guns, dogs ... it was a lot freer."

Even before the pandemic, burners increasingly saw an annual gathering under siege.

Event-goers who adhere to Burning Man's counterculture beginnings say the festival's explosion in popularity in the past decade has welcomed a host of bad actors who trash the desert and surrounding communities and disregard the event's founding principles, including "decommodification" and the eco-friendly philosophy of "leave no trace."

Some of those perceived threats come from festival officials themselves, he said. A ticket to the main event alone cost over $400 in 2019 — a financial hurdle critics say goes against another tenet long espoused, that "everyone is invited."

"People that have never been before came out last year because they either couldn't get a ticket other years or they were just kind of curious. Or they didn't have the money to go to the actual Burn," said Jervis.

As for the Pyramid Lake Paiute community, with the reservation largely closed during that period last year, Davis said, "we really didn't see the impact" from a public health standpoint.

"You're not talking about 65 — 75,000 people." While there was more traffic, she said, "they moseyed on through and moseyed on out."

In the years leading up to the pandemic, BLM had been cracking down on the event's growth. Were the festival to return this year, Burning Man organizers said they would have had to meet a population cap of 69,000, down from its 80,000 limit for previous events.

Jervis says he won't miss what he describes as organizers' leniency toward "elites" who set up VIP areas at their camps and hire out to construct their art creations instead of making their own.

"A lot of people have gotten sick of what Burning Man's kind of become," he said.

Even if this year was a go, he said, burners would still be setting up their own Burning Man-adjacent happenings.

Following the announcement of the event's cancellation, people are taking to Facebook groups to reminisce about last year's unsanctioned burns and discuss preparations for their own this summer.

"So it seems that as of today there isn't going to be an official [Burning Man Ceremony] this year," James Zapata wrote. "So who's joining me in the dust?"

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Actor Charles Grodin, whose comic characters were almost always hapless, and whose serious characters generally gave that trademark haplessness a sinister twist, died Tuesday of cancer at his home in Wilton, Conn. He was 86.

His death, from bone marrow cancer, was confirmed to NPR by his son, actor Nicholas Grodin.

He was the obstetrician who gave Rosemary's Baby to a coven of witches, the dog owner who couldn't control his enormous Saint Bernard in the Beethoven movies, and the man who met the girl of his dreams just a little bit late in The Heartbreak Kid. He was, sad to say, on his honeymoon.

Grodin credited Elaine May's direction of The Heartbreak Kid with jump-starting his film career in 1972, though he'd made his debut as an uncredited child actor almost two decades earlier in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. He became a familiar face in such comedies as Heaven Can Wait and Midnight Run, in which he played an accountant pursued by Robert De Niro after having embezzled from the mob.

When not working in films, Grodin directed plays on Broadway, including Lovers and Other Strangers in 1968 and Thieves in 1974 with Marlo Thomas. And in 1975, he scored a big success opposite Ellen Burstyn as an annual philanderer in the Broadway romantic comedy Same Time, Next Year (the part went to Alan Alda in the film version).

Grodin once described himself as "low-key, but high-strung," which also described a lot of his characters. And he was so sought after as a talk-show guest on late-night TV (Johnny Carson had him on The Tonight Show 36 times), he ended up hosting a talk show host himself in the 1990s.

His knack for deadpan humor extended to books with titles such as How I Got to Be Whoever It Is I Am.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Michael Ballanger of GGM Advisory Inc. shares his thoughts on the current state of the market, and one stock he says is his top exploration/development play.

Omineca Mining and Metals Ltd. (OMM:TSX.V; OMMSF:OTCMKTS) announced it is set to restart mining and gravel extraction at its Wingdam placer gold project in British Columbia's historic Cariboo Mining District. Read why one expert thinks its new methods are a key to possible success.

Silicon Metals Corp. (SI:CSE) has expanded its Ptarmigan Silica Project by acquiring 919 hectares of contiguous claims, increasing its land position by 40% in British Columbia's Rocky Mountain Trench. Read more to find out how this expansion supports their vision for high-grade silica production.

Centerra Gold Inc. (CG:TSX; CADGF:OTCPK) has received varied analyst ratings following updates to its Q3 2024 financial results and projections. Read more on the latest analyst insights and how Q3 projections have shaped varied ratings for this gold producer.

Famed investor and commentator Jim Rogers talks his preference for tangible assets, why he's leaning toward silver over gold, and uranium's role in the energy transition.

Vox Royalty Corp. (VOXR:TSX.V) reported its Q3 2024 financial results. Read more on how strong cash flow growth, record production, and key project milestones are driving these results.

Global Analyst Adrian Day reviews results from two high-quality companies, a gold miner and a global blue chip. He also looks at changes in gold trends.

Dryden Gold Corp. (DRY:TSXV; DRYGF:OTCQB) has announced its participation in three significant mining investment conferences scheduled for November 2024. Read more about the company's plans to showcase major project updates and connect with global investors at these key events.

GoldMining Inc. (GOLD:TSX; GLDG:NYSE.American) released results from its ongoing 2024 auger drilling program at the Sao Jorge Project in the Tapajos gold district, Para State, Brazil. Read more about high-grade gold intercepts and new exploration targets at So Jorge as GoldMining extends its search in Tapajs.

Western Exploration Inc. (WEX:TSX.V; WEXPF:OTC) announces more high-grade results from its drilling program at its fully owned Aura gold-silver project in Nevada. Find out why one analyst thinks the company is aligned for M&A attention.

Technical Analyst Clive Maund shares his opinion on gold's outlook post Trump's election win.

The permit center is in the process of adding QR Codes to the permit hard card.  The following is an explanation about how the code works from Steve Lackey.   By Steve Lackey Along with the use of smartphones and other related devices, QR Codes are becoming quite popular and useful.  Called “Quick Response Codes”, they store [...]

Over the last few years Catawba County has implemented many different ways for citizens to receive information and  interact with us.  I titled this Social Media because that term is recognized by everyone on the web.  It would be more appropriate to title it “Citizen Interaction with Catawba County” or just “Communicating” . And note [...]

Are you digitally prepared for the winter? Seems easy until you have no power and your battery in your mobile device is dead. Don't be caught digitally unprepared.

People come to Catawba County’s web site for many reasons. One is for the information and data that they find there.  The site has always been rich in information about the county and services that are provided. In recent years, as more and more people wanted data in digital format, many datasets were moved to [...]

A photo of La Soufrière erupting Friday in St. Vincent. The blast could be sending ash as far as Jamaica and South America.; Credit: Zen Punnett/AFP via Getty Images

La Soufrière, the highest peak on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent, began to explosively erupt Friday morning, forcing thousands to evacuate as ash and smoke filled the sky.

And a larger eruption may be on the way.

Richard Robertson, a geologist with the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre, said the volcano is in its explosive eruption phase. The initial explosion of dust and debris St. Vincent experienced Friday is likely just the beginning.

"The explosive eruption has started and it is possible you could have more explosions like these," he said during a press conference. "The first one is not necessarily the worst one, the first bang is not necessarily the biggest bang this volcano will give."

Ralph Gonsalves, the prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, ordered residents on the northern side of the island to evacuate Thursday out of the red volcano danger zone. The Associated Press reported some 16,000 people were forced to flee their homes.

Soot and ash fell throughout the night, blanketing neighborhoods and streets across the island Saturday morning. Robertson said the ash is expected to fall for the next handful of days, possibly even weeks.

The dome of the volcano, which is about 3,100 feet long and more than 820 feet wide, was destroyed in Friday's eruption, catapulting 460 million cubic feet of debris into the atmosphere. The ash could reach as far as Jamaica and parts of South America, Robertson said.

The last time La Soufrière had a major eruption was in 1979, which lasted several weeks. This eruption, Robertson said, "will more than likely be a bigger eruption than 1979 was." He added, "We don't know how much material is down there that wants to come out."

The fine ash particles, which are difficult to clean up, pose a respiratory risk, especially for people with underlying issues. Robertson recommended that individuals who have decided to stay on the island do their best to clean the ash before it settles or gets wet.

With more potential eruptions looming, Robertson advised residents to move as far south as possible. La Soufrière could be heard rumbling and grumbling throughout the night, he said, from the sound of magma moving inside the volcano.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Vehicles are covered with ash coming from the St. Vincent eruption of La Soufrière volcano, on the outskirts of Bridgetown, Barbados, on Sunday.; Credit: Chris Brandis/AP

Conditions on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent have worsened, as La Soufrière volcano continues to push ash and debris into the atmosphere. Dozens of individuals have been rescued from the northern part of the island after refusing to evacuate last week. Officials are warning anyone still in the red and orange zones to flee as the mountain presents a new danger to anyone still in the area.

There is evidence of pyroclastic flows, an avalanche of super-heated gas and debris traveling as fast as more than 120 miles per hour along the mountainside, in the areas around the volcano, University of the West Indies Seismic Research Center's lead scientist Richard Robertson said in a Sunday news conference. These flows are the most dangerous trait of the volcano, he said, as opposed to a slow-moving river of lava.

As La Soufrière continues to explosively erupt, ash and debris are launched into the air. Sometimes there isn't enough force behind the materials to continue upwards and the ash plume collapses on itself and it shoots back down, Robertson said. These clouds of gas can reach scalding-hot temperatures and carry car-sized boulders as the flows make their way through valleys along the mountain. Once the pyroclastic flows hit the coast, the sea water begins to boil and the clouds pick up speed, racing across the surface of the water and away from land until they run out of energy.

"These flows are really moving masses of destruction," Robertson said. "They just destroy everything in its path. Even if you have the strongest house in the world, they will just bulldoze it off the ground."

These flows can happen as the volcano goes through periods of explosive activity and venting. Every hour-and-a-half to 3 hours, Robertson explained, La Soufrière rumbles and produces tremors as the mountain vents more ash. This activity can create pyroclastic flows anywhere on the volcano, threatening anyone who didn't evacuate last week.

During the news conference, St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said the coast guard has rescued dozens of people from the northern part of the island since the volcano started to erupt Friday morning. The areas closest to the volcano were ordered to be evacuated last week, but some people decided to stay, putting rescuers at risk.

"I'm pleading with persons, please, it's past the hour to get out," Gonsalves said. "And we will still have to try and get you out."

Some 16,000 people have already evacuated, The Associated Press reported, about 3,200 of whom have fled to 78 government-run shelters.

Robertson said things will likely get worse before they get better. Instruments monitoring the eruption have shown no sign of activity dying down. The volcano, he explained, is showing a similar pattern to the volcano's eruption in 1902 that killed about 1,600 people.

"That means it's probably, unfortunately, going to cause more damage and destruction to St. Vincent," Robertson said.

But the volcano isn't just affecting the people of St. Vincent. The winds have carried ash all the way to Barbados, about 120 miles east. Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley said the country needs to prepare itself for weeks of ashfall and harsh times.

"As bad as it is, it can be worse, and that's the first thing that we need to recognize," she said in a news conference Sunday. "We are living in uncertain times."

Dr. Erouscilla Joseph, director of the UWI Seismic Research Center, said the winds that carry the debris east over the island can then also circle back around, blanketing the island with more ash from the west.

"Unfortunately, the worst case scenario is this can go on for weeks because of the changes and the dynamics of this system," Joseph said. "We have to keep monitoring the seismicity associated with the volcano and advise based on that."

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The United States and China, the world's two biggest carbon polluters, agreed to cooperate to curb climate change with urgency, just days before President Joe Biden hosts a virtual summit of world leaders to discuss the issue.

The agreement was reached by U.S. special envoy for climate John Kerry and his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua during two days of talks in Shanghai last week, according to a joint statement.

The two countries "are committed to cooperating with each other and with other countries to tackle the climate crisis, which must be addressed with the seriousness and urgency that it demands," the statement said.

China is the world's biggest carbon emitter, followed by the United States. The two countries pump out nearly half of the fossil fuel fumes that are warming the planet's atmosphere. Their cooperation is key to a success of global efforts to curb climate change, but frayed ties over human rights, trade and China's territorial claims to Taiwan and the South China Sea have been threatening to undermine such efforts.

Meeting with reporters in Seoul on Sunday, Kerry said the language in the statement is "strong" and that the two countries agreed on "critical elements on where we have to go." But the former secretary of state said, "I learned in diplomacy that you don't put your back on the words, you put on actions. We all need to see what happens."

Noting that China is the world's biggest coal user, Kerry said he and Chinese officials had a lot of discussions on how to accelerate a global energy transition. "I have never shied away from expressing our views shared by many, many people that it is imperative to reduce coal, everywhere," he said.

Biden has invited 40 world leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, to the April 22-23 summit. The U.S. and other countries are expected to announce more ambitious national targets for cutting carbon emissions ahead of or at the meeting, along with pledging financial help for climate efforts by less wealthy nations.

It's unclear how much Kerry's China visit would promote U.S.-China cooperation on climate issues.

While Kerry was still in Shanghai, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng signaled Friday that China is unlikely to make any new pledges at next week's summit.

"For a big country with 1.4 billion people, these goals are not easily delivered," Le said during an interview with The Associated Press in Beijing. "Some countries are asking China to achieve the goals earlier. I am afraid this is not very realistic."

During a video meeting with German and French leaders Friday, Xi said that climate change "should not become a geopolitical chip, a target for attacking other countries or an excuse for trade barriers," the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

On whether Xi would join the summit, Le said "the Chinese side is actively studying the matter."

The joint statement said the two countries "look forward to" next week's summit. Kerry said Sunday that "we very much hope that (Xi) will take part" in the summit but it's up to China to make that decision.

Biden, who has said that fighting global warming is among his highest priorities, had the United States rejoin the historic 2015 Paris climate accord in the first hours of his presidency, undoing the U.S. withdrawal ordered by predecessor Donald Trump.

Major emitters of greenhouse gases are preparing for the next U.N. climate summit taking place in Glasgow, U.K., in November. The summit aims to relaunch global efforts to keep rising global temperatures to below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) as agreed in the Paris accord.

According to the U.S.-China statement, the two countries would enhance "their respective actions and cooperating in multilateral processes, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement."

It said both countries also intend to develop their respective long-term strategies before the Glasgow conference and take "appropriate actions to maximize international investment and finance in support of" the energy transition in developing countries.

Xi announced last year that China would be carbon-neutral by 2060 and aims to reach a peak in its emissions by 2030. In March, China's Communist Party pledged to reduce carbon emissions per unit of economic output by 18% over the next five years, in line with its goal for the previous five-year period. But environmentalists say China needs to do more.

Biden has pledged the U.S. will switch to an emissions-free power sector within 14 years, and have an entirely emissions-free economy by 2050. Kerry is also pushing other nations to commit to carbon neutrality by then.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

A fracking site in Kern County, Calif. Fracking — short for hydraulic fracturing — is the process of extracting oil deep underground using a high-pressure water mixture to break up rock.; Credit: Citizens of the Planet/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced plans to ban hydraulic fracturing by 2024 as part of a longer-term aim to end all oil extraction in the state.

The governor has ordered the state's top oil regulator to implement regulation to stop issuing new fracking permits by 2024. He has also directed the state's air resources agency to look at ways to phase out oil extraction completely by 2045.

"The climate crisis is real, and we continue to see the signs every day," Newsom said in a Friday press release. "As we move to swiftly decarbonize our transportation sector and create a healthier future for our children, I've made it clear I don't see a role for fracking in that future and, similarly, believe that California needs to move beyond oil."

The plan aligns with the state's broader goal to reach net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2045.

Newsom's order follows a more aggressive plan to ban oil and gas production that died in the state Senate last week.

Following the bill's failure, Rock Zierman, CEO of the California Independent Petroleum Association, told The Desert Sun that it would have killed tens of thousands of jobs "in parts of the state that are struggling in this post-pandemic economy."

"We will continue to oppose bills that only increase our reliance on foreign oil which drives up gas prices, contributes to pollution in our crowded ports, and is produced without California's environmental protections or humanitarian values," he said.

Under Newson's plan, the state's Air Resources Board will assess the economic, environmental and health benefits and effects of ending oil extraction.

In September, Newsom said that fracking accounts for less than 2% of the state's oil production, but that the plan to end the practice is a "symbolic" step. However, some industry groups put that figure at closer to 20%.

The governor has previously said that he lacks the executive authority to ban fracking and has looked to legislators to approve limits.

Now, Newsom is leveraging his authority to take on the state's powerful oil and gas giants during a year in which he will likely face a recall election.

California would be the largest oil-producing state to ban fracking. Environmentalist groups — who argue that fracking drains water levels, harms public health and contributes to global warming — say the 2024 and 2045 deadlines are too late.

"While precedent setting, both timelines are not aggressive enough," California's Sierra Club said in a statement. "They fail to meet the urgency of the climate crisis we face and protect frontline communities facing the brunt of fossil fuel pollution that still need immediate health and safety protections."

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Cars make their way toward downtown Los Angeles on April 22. California could regain the right to set its own vehicle emissions standards after the Environmental Protection Agency announced it was moving to curb a Trump-era policy that sought to erode the state's previously-held power.; Credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Monday it is preparing to restore California's right to set its own vehicle emissions standards, in a widely anticipated reversal of Trump-era policies.

The decision, which will take several months to be finalized, reaffirms the Golden State's powerful position as an environmental regulator after the Trump administration had in 2019 sought to remove California's powers to set its own emissions standards.

It also sets the stage for negotiations over how strict federal vehicle standards will be under President Biden.

"I am a firm believer in California's long-standing statutory authority to lead," EPA administration Michael Regan said in a statement.

"The 2019 decision to revoke the state's waiver to enforce its greenhouse gas pollution standards for cars and trucks was legally dubious and an attack on the public's health and wellbeing," he added.

The EPA will be accepting public comment until July 6 as part of the process of reversing the Trump-era rule.

The populous, car-loving state has been waging a battle against smog for decades.

And in recognition of that history, the EPA has long granted a waiver giving the state the authority to set its own standards for vehicle emissions, as long as they're more stringent than the national regulations.

That's an unusual exemption — other states can't set their own policies, although they can choose to adopt California's standards as their own.

Between California and the states that follow suit, about a third of the U.S. new car market is covered by the Golden State's policies, giving California regulators a remarkable amount of sway over the auto industry.

However, when the Trump administration weakened federal clean car standards, it also sought to revoke the waiver allowing California to set a higher bar.

That triggered a legal battle and divided the auto industry, with some carmakers choosing to side with California and voluntarily accept somewhat stricter vehicle emissions standards while the rest backed the Trump administration.

After Biden won the White House, every major automaker eventually dropped their support for the now-doomed Trump position.

The EPA has now started the process of reversing Trump's decision. The Department of Transportation last week also proposed to "wipe clean the regulatory slate," indicating that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration would no longer seek to block state emissions standards, as it had under Trump.

It's still not clear what federal regulations on vehicle emissions and fuel economy will be under the Biden administration. Some environmental groups and progressive lawmakers are pushing for the reinstatement of the Obama-era standards, with more ambitious targets to follow.

The auto industry, meanwhile, is calling for standards midway between the Obama-era and Trump-era policies.

The EPA says it will propose new fuel economy rules in July.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks to the media about the cruise industry during a press conference at PortMiami in April. DeSantis faces criticism for failing to do all he could on Florida's biggest environmental threat: climate change.; Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Brick by brick, the stucco shell of a new flood-resilient public works building is taking shape blocks from the beach, the most visible sign yet of a small community's enormous task staving off the rising sea.

"This is actually the highest point in the city," Satellite Beach City Manager Courtney Barker said, adding that right next door to the new public works building will be a new fire station.

It's a close-knit community established by rocket scientists south of Kennedy Space Center, on a low-slung barrier island between the Atlantic Ocean and Indian River Lagoon.

By 2040, community leaders expect significant impacts associated with climate change. Already flooding is a problem, and beach-front homes perch precariously atop a sand dune left exposed after a series of storms and hurricanes washed away a sea wall.

The needs are great, and in Gov. Ron DeSantis, Barker sees a potential ally.

"At least he talks about climate change as actually being real, so that's good," she said. "And he's putting money toward it so that's encouraging."

But Barker also feels DeSantis is doing only part of the job.

"We desperately need to grow up as a state and realize that we need to get our emissions down," Barker said.

Since his election in November 2018, DeSantis is making good on some of his environmental promises, including what he likes to call "resilience," a new buzzword for climate adaptation. But as the governor prepares for a reelection bid in 2022, and is seen as a potential Republican frontrunner for the presidency in 2024, DeSantis faces criticism for failing to do all he could on Florida's biggest environmental threat: climate change.

Some of his critics acknowledge that the $1 billion Resilient Florida plan he announced in January could be a first step toward helping some communities pay for adaptation. But critics also point out that DeSantis has done almost nothing to put Florida on a path to scaling back the state's heavy reliance on fossil fuels.

"I would give him probably a C-minus," said former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, who served from 2007 to 2011, and now represents St. Petersburg in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat.

Crist still gets plaudits from environmentalists for his administration's climate initiatives, including a cap-and-trade system to curb carbon emissions and an executive order that was intended to put the state on a path to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050. But those were basically abandoned by Gov. Rick Scott, the Republican now serving in the U.S. Senate.

Crist, who switched parties and this week announced he is running for governor in 2022, said DeSantis should be "encouraging renewables such as wind energy, solar energy, and particularly solar. I mean, my goodness, we're the Sunshine State."

DeSantis' press office declined to make the governor available for an interview and did not respond to written questions.

In comments at two press conferences earlier this year, the governor cited his support for spending hundreds of millions of dollars on water projects and Everglades restoration as evidence of his environmental credentials, while promising to double down on funding for coastal resilience.

Florida needs "to tackle the challenges posed by flooding, intensified storm events [and] sea level rise," he said. "When you look at how an insurance market would view property insurance, and to see that Florida is leading and trying to get ahead of some of these impacts, we think it'll be a very smart thing to do."

Lawmakers have had their own ideas on how to handle climate threats, and have passed two bills that, when taken together, are similar to DeSantis' Resilient Florida proposal.

"It's not exactly as he said he wanted it, but it's close," said Jonathan Webber, deputy director of Florida Conservation Voters. "These are policies that need to happen. It would have been better if they happened 20 years ago."

"I am not a global warming person"

In his 2018 campaign, DeSantis appealed directly to supporters of former President Donald Trump, such as in this ad where he tells one of his children to "build the wall" with toy blocks. The environment was a major issue in that election.

Residents were grappling with a toxic red tide and blue-green algae crisis that made beaches and waterways unsafe, and left marine-life belly-up.

In recent years Floridians have also experienced deadly, devastating consequences of back-to-back major hurricanes.

All the while, advocates were highlighting likely links between the state's environmental woes and global warming.

Florida's climate challenges are among the biggest in the country. Beyond those related to hurricanes intensified by climate change, they include sea level rise, extreme heat, drought and increasing health threats from mosquito-borne diseases.

By its own numbers, the DeSantis administration predicts that with sea level rise, $26 billion in residential property statewide will be at risk of chronic flooding by 2045.

But in 2018, DeSantis let voters know that he had clear limits when it came to climate change.

"I am not in the pews of the church of the global warming leftists," DeSantis told reporters at one 2018 campaign stop. "I am not a global warming person. I don't want that label on me."

Early plaudits from environmentalists

Once in office, DeSantis won early plaudits for directives aimed at cleaning up water and helping Florida adapt to climate change. He appointed the first state resilience officer and the first chief scientist, and ordered Florida's Department of Environmental Protection to make sure its decisions were based on the best available science.

In 2019, they approved of DeSantis' order to his environmental regulators to oppose fracking, but he since has failed to get his Republican colleagues in the legislature to pass a statewide fracking ban, something he advocated for during his campaign. The state's oil and gas industry does not currently use fracking as a drilling method, but environmentalists are worried it might start doing so, resulting in water pollution.

Environmental groups also praised DeSantis in 2020 when the governor announced the state was backing a plan to buy 20,000 acres of the Everglades to prevent oil development there.

And they did the same when DeSantis backed spending $166 million in settlement money Florida received from Volkswagen on electric vehicle charging stations and cleaner electric buses. The money, part of a larger $14.7 billion settlement, came after the German automaker was caught lying about its cars' diesel emissions.

"Everyone was optimistic," said Susan Glickman, the Florida director for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. "I kept hearing an opening on climate."

Two years later, though, Glickman and other advocates are assessing DeSantis' climate record much like this: He's done more than previous Governor Scott, but that's not saying much.

DeSantis quietly replaced his chief science officer in March with Mark Rains, a professor, and chair and director of the School of Geosciences at the University of South Florida. But he never has replaced his chief resilience officer after she left for the Trump administration after only a few months in the position.

"Missing in action" on renewables

In many ways, it's what DeSantis hasn't done that defines his climate record. He has chosen not to use his bully pulpit to advocate for a clean-energy future, like his Democratic Party counterparts in the Southeast states of North Carolina and Virginia, or like the mayors of Orlando and Tampa.

DeSantis has also been "missing in action" in debate over bills this year in the Florida legislature that would undermine local government efforts to transition to clean energy, said Webber, with the Florida Conservation Voters group.

One such bill, that has passed the House and Senate and awaits DeSantis' consideration, would ban local governments from restricting fuel sources. The oil and gas industry has supported such measures around the country. They aim to block the push by climate activists to ban natural gas hook-ups in new buildings, and electrify them instead to reduce carbon emissions.

Of course, electrification only reduces emissions if it's powered by renewable energy. But Florida has no requirement that utilities provide a certain amount of that. Solar power accounts for only about 2.5% of the electricity produced by utilities, while they rely on fossil fuels for about 84%.

When DeSantis had a chance to appoint someone to the state's powerful Florida Public Service Commission, a regulatory body with a big say in state energy policy, he chose the Florida chairman of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a group known for its support of fossil fuels.

"We are very frustrated by the messaging, and the lack of acknowledgement of the root of the problem of all these issues," said Yoca Arditi-Rocha, executive director of The CLEO Institute, a nonprofit that focuses on climate science education.

"We need to acknowledge the warming temperatures and the rising seas are a result of our warming climate," she said. "We cannot adapt our way out of it. We need to aggressively tackle mitigation."

"What places can we not save?"

In Satellite Beach, Courtney Barker, the city manager who welcomes the governor's help with adapting to climate change, also wants to see him tackle the emissions side of the equation.

Besides moving the public works building and fire station to higher ground, the community is fortifying its system of flood control. Barker said the community needs more funding opportunities from the state.

"We're looking for assistance in helping us engineer our way out of it," she said.

Marine and climate scientist Jeff Chanton, of Florida State University, thinks there's too much emphasis on sea walls, which can cause beach erosion and destroy tidal zones vital to marine life, including crabs and turtles.

"An ideal governor would try to lessen the impacts of growth in this state, especially along our coastlines," he said.

Before her departure, Julia Nesheiwat, DeSantis' chief resilience officer, characterized the state's infrastructure as "outdated" in a report, and called its resilience strategy "disjointed."

For Thomas Ruppert, an attorney and coastal planning specialist with Florida Sea Grant, DeSantis' emphasis on hardening infrastructure ignores that — for some communities — the investments will be futile in staving off the inevitable.

"Ultimately, what we really need is to start talking seriously [about] what places can we not save? And what is an exit strategy? Because we have no idea," Ruppert said.

Barker hopes it doesn't come to that in Satellite Beach, where she grew up.

"It's personal to all of us, because I think everyone can look at their own hometown, and you can't imagine being anywhere else."

This story is a collaboration between Inside Climate News and WMFE Orlando, a member of ICN's National Reporting Network-Southeast.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

The Biden administration is opening the West Coast to offshore wind. Companies have largely focused on the East Coast, like this wind farm off Block Island, Rhode Island.; Credit: Don Emmert/AFP via Getty Images

The Biden administration plans to open the California coast to offshore wind development, ending a long-running stalemate with the Department of Defense that has been the biggest barrier to building wind power along the Pacific Coast.

The move adds momentum to the administration's goal of reaching 100% carbon-free electricity by 2035, coming just weeks after the country's first large-scale offshore wind farm was approved off the coast of New England. Today, the country has just a handful of offshore wind turbines in the Atlantic Ocean, with around a dozen wind farms being developed in federal waters off the East Coast.

"It's an announcement that will set the stage for the long term development of clean energy and the growth of a brand new made-in-America industry," says national climate adviser Gina McCarthy. "Now we're thinking big and thinking bold."

The agreement identifies two sites off Central and Northern California with the potential to install massive floating wind turbines that could produce 4.6 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power 1.6 million homes.

Interest in offshore wind on the West Coast has grown for years, especially with California's own ambitious goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The deep waters off the coast have the potential to produce a significant amount of energy.

But the Defense Department has largely objected to the idea, since the Navy and Air Force use the area for training and testing operations. In response to the growing interest, the Navy released a map in 2017 putting large swaths of California waters off limits.

In 2018, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management solicited interest from wind developers. But negotiations with the Department of Defense have been slow going ever since, effectively blocking wind development off California.

Tuesday's announcement outlines a compromise for a 399-square-mile area off Morro Bay, a site that's appealing to renewable energy companies because of existing transmission lines nearby that once service a retired power plant. It also identifies a location off Humboldt County in Northern California.

"It's our view that the world faces a grave and growing climate crisis," says Dr. Colin Kahl, undersecretary of defense for policy. "Climate change is both a threat to the Department of Defense's operations around the world and an existential challenge to our ability to maintain resilience here at home."

Another key site, just offshore from the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, was not included in Tuesday's deal. California's last-remaining nuclear plant is scheduled to completely close by 2025, freeing up more potential transmission lines for offshore wind.

The Biden administration has set a goal of jump-starting the country's offshore wind sector with 30 gigawatts of projects by 2030. Those wind farms will foster tens of thousands of jobs, according to the White House, between renewable energy installers, manufacturers and steelworkers.

"This is a major breakthrough — a major advancement that will allow California to start planning for its carbon-free electricity goals with offshore wind firmly in the picture," says Nancy Rader of the California Wind Energy Association, who also pointed to the challenges. "Offshore wind development off the coast at Morro Bay and Humboldt will require a major port facility in each area to construct the floating platforms and assemble the turbines that will require continued proactive planning by the state and federal governments."

Still, the areas identified in the agreement may not be enough for hitting the administration's clean electricity goal, as well as California's. The state is planning to get 100% of its electricity from zero-emission sources by 2045. To reach that, renewable energy needs to triple statewide with offshore wind playing a key role, reaching 10 GW, according to a recent state analysis. Tuesday's deal could provide just half of that.

A potential lease auction for the offshore wind sites could be held in mid-2022. But the projects will still have to negotiate concerns about the potential impacts on California's fishing industry and shipping channels, as well as any environmental concerns about sensitive ecosystems.

"Far too many questions remain unanswered regarding potential impacts to marine life which is dependent on a healthy ecosystem," says Mike Conroy of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations. "The fishing industry has been told these areas work best for offshore wind developers; but no one has asked us what areas would work best for us."

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

How many oceans are there? It's National Geographic official now: There are five.; Credit: Alexander Gerst/ESA via Getty Images

Most of us learned about the world's oceans in elementary school. There's the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian and the Arctic.

Now, there's a sea change ahead.

Thanks to National Geographic, you'll soon see a fifth ocean on your maps. It's now officially recognizing the Southern Ocean, the waters swirling around Antarctica, marking the first time the organization has made such a change since it started drawing up maps over a century ago.

On World Ocean's Day earlier this week, National Geographic announced the distinction, which many scientists and researchers have unofficially acknowledged for decades.

"Traditionally, there have been the four [oceans] defined primarily by land masses," Alex Tait, National Geographic Society geographer, tells NPR's All Things Considered. "We think it's important to add this fifth ocean region because it's so unique and because we want to bring attention to all areas of the ocean."

National Geographic has produced maps, atlases and globes since 1915. But this is the first time they're drawing up a new map that will recast the oceans.

The move catches up with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recognition of the Southern Ocean in 1999, when it earned approval from the U.S. Board on Geographic Names.

The change made waves for experts already familiar with the area. For instance, it caught Cassandra Brooks, an assistant professor in environmental studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder, off-kilter.

"To be completely honest with you, I was rather surprised because I had always thought of the Southern Ocean as its own ocean," says Brooks. "I think most of the scientists who work down there really understand how the Southern Ocean is its own thing."

But the Southern is special, according to Brooks, who's spent more than 15 years of her career studying the Antarctic. It's defined by the powerful Antarctic Circumpolar Current, a critical flow that she says helps regulate the Earth's climate.

Brooks says she thinks about the Southern Ocean as "lungs" or "the heart." The ocean is "pumping water throughout the world's oceans," she says.

Both Tait and Brooks hope that this new recognition will create more awareness for a region that's often forgotten.

"Antarctica is so far away that most people don't think about it on a day to day basis. They're not seeing how important it is to literally all of our survival," says Brooks.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Washington State Department of Agriculture entomologist Chris Looney displays a dead Asian giant hornet, a sample sent from Japan and brought in for research last year in Blaine, Wash.; Credit: Elaine Thompson /AFP via Getty Images

Murder hornets. They're back.

Authorities in Washington state have announced that they've confirmed the first U.S. report this year of an Asian giant hornet, or Vespa mandarinia, in a town north of Seattle.

"Basically the only information we have is that a slightly dried out, dead specimen was collected off of a lawn in Marysville," said Sven Spichiger, managing entomologist with the state agriculture department, during a press conference.

"There really isn't even enough information to speculate on how it got there or how long it had been there," Spichiger added.

Because of its withered condition and the fact that male giant hornets don't typically emerge until July, agriculture officials believe the hornet discovered in early June was likely from a previous season and just recently found.

So-called "murder hornets" are native to Asia but have been spotted in Washington state and Canada over the past two years. The sting of the Vespa mandarinia can be life-threatening to humans, and the killer insects are known to wipe out the colonies of their fellow bugs, particularly honey bees.

According to genetic testing of the specimen discovered in Washington this month, the dead hornet was not the same as the other giant hornets discovered in North America since 2019. The hornet's coloration, which indicates it came from southern Asia, also suggested it arrived in "probably a separate event" than the ones previously known, Spichiger said.

But he emphasized that that was not necessarily cause for alarm.

"I want to very much clarify that a single dead specimen does not indicate a population," Spichiger said.

Washington agriculture officials are now setting murder hornet traps in the area of the discovery and are encouraging "citizen scientists" to do the same.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Gloria Majiga-Kamoto, an activist from Malawi, is one of six recipients of the 2021 Goldman Environmental Prize. Majiga-Kamoto has been instrumental in implementing Malawi's ban on thin plastics.; Credit: /Goldman Environmental Prize

For Gloria Majiga-Kamoto, her great awakening to plastic pollution started with goats.

She was working for a local environmental NGO in her native Malawi with a program that gave goats to rural farmers. The farmers would use the goat's dung to produce low-cost, high-quality organic fertilizer.

The problem? The thin plastic bags covering the Malawian countryside.

"We have this very common street food, it's called chiwaya, and it's just really potato fried on the side of the road and it's served in these little blue plastics," Majiga-Kamoto says. "So because it's salty, once the goats get a taste of the salt, they just eat the plastic because they can't really tell that it's inedible. And they die because it blocks the ingestion system — there's no way to survive."

The goats were supposed to reproduce for the program, with the goat kids going on to new farmers. But because of plastic deaths the whole goat chain started falling apart.

"It was a lot of expectation from the farmers waiting to benefit. So you had this farmer who had this one goat and then they lost it. And that means that in that chain of farmers, that's obviously affected quite a number of farmers who won't get their turn."

For Majiga-Kamoto, her experience at the NGO with the plastic-eating goats was the moment it all changed. All of a sudden she started noticing how plastics were everywhere in the Malawian environment and food system — affecting people's livelihoods and health.

The fish in Lake Malawi were eating plastic trash. The country's cows were eating plastic. Researchers found that in one Malawi town 40% of the livestock had plastic in their intestines.

"We're choking in plastics," Majiga-Kamoto says, "And so what it means is that in one way or the other, we as humans are consuming these plastics."

Majiga-Kamoto was also seeing how plastics contributed to the growth of disease. Huge piles of plastic trash were blocking off Malawi's many waterways, creating pungent breeding grounds for mosquitoes that carry malaria and for bacteria that cause cholera.

The 30-year-old says she remembers a time when Malawians didn't rely so much on thin, single-use plastic. "I remember back in the day when we'd go to the market and buy things like fish, like dried fish, you'd get it in newspapers."

But thin plastics have taken off in the last decade or so as new manufacturers sprung up in Malawi, selling products like thin plastic bags at cheap prices that made them affordable and accessible even in the most undeveloped parts of the country. A 2019 UNDP funded report found that Malawi produces an estimated 75,000 tonnes of plastic a year, with 80% reportedly single-use plastic. Single-use plastic refers to bags, straws and bottles that can't be recycled, and thin plastic refers to plastic that's under 60 microns in thickness.

The proliferation of this thin plastic waste led to the Malawian government's 2015 decision to ban the production, distribution and importation of single-use thin plastic. But before the ban could go into full effect, Malawi's plastics manufacturing industry filed an injunction at the country's High Court. The ban stalled.

When Majiga-Kamoto and a group of her fellow environmental NGO-workers and activists heard about the injunction they were angry and frustrated. "It sort of caught our interest to say, 'Wait a minute, you mean that there's actually people in our society who think that this is not a problem and that we should actually continue to live this way?'"

Galvanized, Majiga-Kamoto led a group of local environmental activists and NGOs to actually implement the single-use plastics ban, organizing marches on the judiciary where the decision would be decided. She kept her job at her NGO, the Centre for Environmental Policy and Advocacy, and did this work on her own time.

She rejected the plastic industry's argument that the ban would hurt Malawi's economy — and even debated an industry lobbyist on TV.

Finally in 2019, after multiple injunctions filed by the plastics industry, the High Court ruled in favor of the single-use thin plastic ban. The following year the Malawian government began closing down illegal plastic manufacturers.

Last week Majiga-Kamoto was named one of the six winners of the 2021 Goldman Environmental Prize for her work on this issue. Michael Sutton, executive director of the Goldman Environmental Foundation, says Majiga-Kamoto's fight with the plastic lobby epitomizes the spirit of the prize. "She mustered the troops, the grassroots communities, to take on the government and big industry and won several times," Sutton says, "She not only won the ban in law, but is now holding the government's feet to the fire to enforce it."

And Majiga-Kamoto isn't letting up her pressure to uphold the single-use plastic ban anytime soon. Although she is trying to get some summer vacation time with her family — that is, if she isn't interrupted.

"I was just at the lake a couple of weeks ago and we were there just enjoying the beautiful lake and along come these pieces of plastic." Three plastic bags floated up closer to her, her son and her niece as they played in the water.

Majiga-Kamoto grabbed for the bags.

"My family was laughing to say, 'You shouldn't be working! You're at the lake!' And I'm like, 'But I can't just leave them in there!'"

Julia Simon is a regular contributor to NPR's podcasts and news desks focusing on climate change, energy, and business news.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

; Credit: /Courtesy of TED

Part 3 of TED Radio Hour episode: An SOS From The Ocean

In 1998, Alasdair Harris went to Madagascar to research coral reefs. He's worked there ever since. He explains the true meaning of conservation he learned from the island's Indigenous communities.

About Alasdair Harris

Alasdair Harris is a marine biologist and the founder of the organization Blue Ventures. His organization seeks to catalyze and sustain locally-led marine conservation in coastal communities around the world.

His work focuses on rebuilding tropical fisheries and working with coastal people to increase their sources of income.

Harris holds a PhD in tropical marine ecology, and an honorary doctorate of science from the University of Edinburgh.

This segment of TED Radio Hour was produced by Matthew Cloutier and edited by Sanaz Meshkinpour. You can follow us on Twitter @TEDRadioHour and email us at TEDRadio@npr.org.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

• Investigators with advanced degrees will receive extra pay based on highest degree obtained:  Associates ($.25 per hour), Bachelors ($.50 per hour), Masters ($.75 per hour).  
• Investigators who possess a Law Enforcement Intermediate Certificate will receive an additional $.25 per hour.
• Investigators who possess a Law Enforcement Advanced Certificate will receive an additional $.50 per hour.  
• A salary increase is given annually upon a successful performance review (dependent upon budget availability).
• Bilingual extra duty pay is provided upon successful completion of testing (dependent upon budget availability).

• Investigators work 8 hour shifts Monday-Friday. May also be required to work weekends and evening hours.   
• Pay is bi-weekly (every 14 days).
• Excellent benefits are offered, including competitive pay, health insurance, dental insurance, and a 5% 401K match.  
• To be considered complete the on line Catawba County application in entirety, including supplemental questions.

• Provide the utmost Child Support Services by always providing excellent customer service to internal and external customers.

• Advocating for children to receive the financial stability that they deserve and providing the best customer service to all that we serve.

• Building relationships with all parties involved as well as stakeholders to obtain an order of support or to enforce an order support, so that children can receive the financial support they need and deserve.

• Striving for excellence in meeting all mandated standards in a fast – paced rewarding environment that ultimately seeks to provide financial stability for children, parents and caretakers.

As search and rescue efforts at the site of the Surfside, Fla., condo collapse stretch into day nine, officials have said that the number of confirmed fatalities has risen to 20, while the number of people unaccounted for has dropped from 145 to 128.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told reporters Friday that one of the two fatalities recovered overnight was the 7-year-old daughter of a firefighter for the city of Miami.

"It goes without saying that every night since this last Wednesday has been immensely difficult for everybody, particularly the families that have been impacted," Levine Cava said. "But last night was truly different and more difficult for our first responders. These men and women are paying an enormous human toll each every day, and I ask that all of you please keep all of them in your thoughts and prayers."

"They truly represent the very best in all of us, and we need to be there for them as they are here for us," she said.

The number of people who have been accounted for has grown to 188, officials also confirmed Friday. In many cases, detectives followed leads regarding individuals who were unaccounted for but then reached them and discovered they were safe.

They even discovered additional family members who were safe and who could have been in the building, and added them to the tally of accounted for individuals.

Officials have not yet released the names of all of the dead and missing people, and asked Friday that the privacy of the families be respected.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

To help keep weak swimmers safe, stay "touch-close" and don't rely on a busy lifeguard to be the only eyes on a crowded pool or beach. It's best, say experts working to prevent drownings, to designate a nondrinking adult to scan the water at any pool party or beach outing, and to rotate that "watching" shift every 30 minutes to keep fresh eyes on the kids.; Credit: Imgorthand/Getty Images

I'm going to let you in on one of the most important lessons I learned early on, in my years of training to become a doctor: Absolutely anyone can drown, or lose a loved one to a drowning.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 3,900 people die from unintentional drowning in the US each year — with one in five under 14-years-old. And for each pediatric fatality, another five children require emergency care for nonfatal drownings that can cause irreversible organ damage.

Every patient or family I've cared for after a drowning accident has said they didn't think it could happen to them. And yet, it happens, along with the cruel "if onlys" that haunt cautious and well-intentioned people in the aftermath: "If only I'd done something different, or known what to look for." I hear this again and again, especially from those who've lost a child.

Unfortunately, research shows that in the majority of drowning cases, the child was being supervised by an adult when the accident happened. So, as our summer of post-vaccination reunions and vacations heats up, remember just how vulnerable kids are in water. The rate of admissions for nonfatal drownings at the Arnold Palmer Children's Hospital in Orlando, for example, was already double in May what it was in the last three years at that same time.

Among basic water supervision precautions, a few potentially life-saving details are often overlooked. Here are some essentials to help keep our young swimmers safe this summer:

Follow the 'arm's length' rule

It may sound commonsensical to stay close by when kids are in or near a pool or other body of water, but it's important to know what safety experts consider close enough supervision to avoid a drowning event.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that adults who are supervising a child of any age who isn't a strong swimmer should be within one arm's length at all times when kids are in the water, offering "touch supervision" this way.

Dr. Andrew Schmidt, a lifeguard-turned-ER doctor at University of Florida Health-Jacksonville and an expert in water safety, notes the definition of a "strong swimmer" is subjective — and overestimating a child's independence in the water has led to tragic accidents.

Schmidt falls back on the way the American Red Cross, a longtime leader in teaching water safety, defines a "water competent" swimmer. According to the Red Cross guidelines , someone is water-competent if they find themselves in water over their head and are able to:

• Swim to the surface after being submerged, then float or tread water for at least one minute.
• Swim in a full circle and find an exit, then swim about 25 yards to that exit.
• Get out of the water on their own, which means exiting the water without a ladder if they're in a pool.

That's a good starting point for judging kids' vulnerability in the water, but adults still need to stay vigilant. "Even a strong swimmer can get into trouble," warns Dr. Terri McFadden, a professor in the department of pediatrics at Emory University's School of Medicine and medical director of the Injury Free Coalition for Kids in Atlanta.

Treat water safety supervision like a job

Calling appropriate water supervision an "intense job," McFadden is quick to remind the parents of her patients to stay alert even if the child is a proficient swimmer.

Having older kids or young teens — or adults that are weak swimmers — acting as chaperones isn't safe, she says. And if you're the adult in charge, doing anything that draws your eyes away from the water for just a moment is risky. Reading, using your phone in any capacity, socializing, fiddling with the bluetooth speaker or doing household chores – all such lapses are dangerous when children are swimming or playing in water. Drowning accidents have happened in the time it takes for a caretaker to run inside just long enough to put wet clothes in the dryer, or while they were looking on from a kitchen window and doing dishes. No distraction is quick enough to be safe when it comes to kids in or around water – not seconds, not minutes.

Mcfadden is among many leaders in child safety who recommend assigning an adult "watcher" at the pool or waterfront who can agree to be totally attentive for a brief period of time (15 to 30 minutes or so), then switching to another watcher in intervals; short spurts of duty making it easier to stay focused. It doesn't matter at a pool party that there are a dozen responsible adults nearby; if there isn't one pair of mature eyes devoted to watching the young swimmers 100% of the time, the risk of a deadly accident goes up.

Similarly, it's never safe to simply rely on lifeguards. Though trained to scan for emergencies and quickly respond, they can also get distracted, especially when there are lots of people bobbing along or jumping in and out of the water.

Stay sober when you're the adult in charge

There's also been a well-documented spike in alcohol use during the pandemic, and coupling that increase with an uptick in warm weather and waterside celebrations with friends and family can be a drowning accident waiting to happen.

Not only does alcohol lower our level of alertness and slow the reflexes needed to act quickly when we spot danger, it will also make swimming and helping someone to safety slower and more difficult as well.

And I'm not just talking about avoiding being drunk; cognitive processes and reflexes can slow after just a drink or two. Should something bad happen, it's not worth the heartbreak of wondering if the outcome could have been different without alcohol — something I've witnessed first-hand among some families of drowning victims.

The safest bet is to designate one fully sober adult as the watcher for 15 to 30 minutes at a time when kids are in or near the water. "Sober" means those adults agree to not use any mind-altering substances in that time — not alcohol, marijuana or even some allergy medicines or other prescription drugs that can cause drowsiness.

Use the safest life jacket, but don't rely on it alone

Life jackets do provide an added layer of protection against drowning, and most states require kids to wear them at all times when on a boat — regardless of their swimming strength.

Water safety and drowning experts recommend kids only wear life vests or jackets that are US Coast Guard-approved, which includes many different brands and will be noted clearly on the tag or printed onto the life jacket itself, along with a number that tells you what federal regulation it's approved under.

Pay close attention to what's printed there; the labels will tell you if it's not meant for weak or non-swimmers. You'll also find the weight range the vest is designed to fit. It should be nice and snug; wearing a loose life vest is like not wearing one at all.

Schmidt also cautions parents against relying on any unregulated flotation devices — including arm floaties, swimsuits with built-in floats or blow up neck rings. They may be cute, but can provide a false sense of safety that supports distracted supervision, he says.

Don't let shallow water deceive you

The risk to kids isn't equal to the depth of the water when we're talking about drowning. Small children can drown in baby pools, bathtubs or even household water buckets or tide pools — anything with enough water in it to cover their mouth and nose if they can't lift themselves out easily. They need adult supervision in these places, too.

And be forewarned — though child gates, locks and other safety measures are additional safety layers, if you've ever seen a kid use an iPhone you know that they're smart, and craftier than we realize. Most can still problem-solve their way around those barriers and into the water no matter the physical precautions.

Be ready to recognize what drowning or distress looks like

Parents and caretakers are often surprised to hear that drowning can look like nothing you'd notice, hear, or even expect — which is why it takes 100% visual and/or touch supervision to pick up the signs. The splashing, yelling and commotion you've seen in movies could certainly be a signal a child is in trouble, but it doesn't always happen that way.

Instead, be on the lookout for subtle and quick: a child motionless or face down in water or swimming upright but not making any progress forward; a lowered head, or a head tilted way back or with hair covering the eyes or face; a look of fear or doom in a child's eyes; or perhaps just a constant gaze toward shore or an exit/ladder. And a child that jumps or dives into the water but doesn't come up quickly could be missed without sharp visual supervision.

A swimmer of any skill level might need your help, and it can often take all of our senses on full-alert to identify a drowning in progress.

Swim classes are available for even very young kids. Enroll your child ASAP

Many 1-year-old babies can benefit from swim classes taught by a skilled instructor, according to the AAP. Children develop along different timelines, so check with your doctor to see if your child's ready to start.

And swim classes aren't just for beginners or kids — people of any age or ability can benefit. Even if you already know the fundamentals, swim instruction will help you expand your skills and be even safer in the water. Many instructors nowadays teach safety tactics like safer ways to jump into the water, how to safely escape an ocean's riptide or undertow, and how to save others from drowning without putting yourself in danger.

You can find classes through community pools, health departments or regional chapters of the American Red Cross or YMCA; some local nonprofits offer scholarships, so cost shouldn't be a barrier. Plus, the same groups can help you find CPR classes, which is a must for all chaperones and other adults — whether or not water is involved.

It's impossible to fully control environments where water and kids mix, but what we know about drowning is this: Sharp-eyed, adult supervision is key to prevention. And parents can't do it alone — if we all share the responsibility whenever we're near the water, we can save lives.

Dr. Kristen Kendrick is a board-certified family physician in Washington, D.C., and a health and media fellow at NPR and Georgetown University School of Medicine.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

For the last month, Frank Galaviz has wondered when running water will return to his town.

The 77-year-old resident of Teviston — a small rural community in Central California — has been forced to depend on stored and bottled water after the pump in the town's only functioning well broke down in early June. Since then, residents have had to travel to neighboring towns to shower or depend on the town's water storage tanks for their daily needs.

Temperatures continue to reach into triple digits as a brutal heat wave sweeps across the West Coast. The ongoing drought only exacerbates the problem, Galaviz says.

"[My wife and I] have lived through many challenges," he says. "We both have survived cancer, but we will not be able to survive without water. This is a problem that is not going away."

Teviston sits between the cities of Fresno and Bakersfield in the San Joaquin Valley and is home to mostly Latino farmworkers. Normal days in town are usually slow-paced and idyllic, Galaviz says, with many residents commuting to the nearby towns and cities on business. Now, they leave to find more water.

This is not the first time Galaviz or his neighbors have struggled with a broken well. He says two other wells had broken down in previous years and had not been repaired. A new, more modern well is in the works, but Galaviz estimates its completion is still a few years off.

The community continues waiting for repair parts to arrive in hopes it will fix the current well's pump, he added, a process that could take a few weeks.

"It is not normal to not be able to flush toilets," he says. "It's not normal to not be able to take a shower."

Residents have managed to come up with a temporary fix, using their water storage tanks to offer relief.

"We were able to get some of the water pressure back," Galaviz said. "We put a submersible pump into one of our old wells and we're forcing water from the storage tanks through that system. But it's not a permanent fix."

Rural Latino communities in California have been particularly vulnerable to drought conditions, according to a report from the state Legislative Analyst's Office.

"Having no water equals bad health," state Sen. Melissa Hurtado, who serves California's 14th District, tells Weekend Edition. Hurtado says her bill, SB 559, would allot $785 million to fund and repair water supply infrastructure. One of the waterways posed for fixing is the Friant-Kern canal, which supplies Teviston and the towns around it. Over the years, the canal has become subject to subsidence — a condition that has caused some parts of the canal to sink and means it can't deliver as much water.

"SB 559 would help fix the canal so that the basin and the communities that rely on water here would be able to have more access to it," Hurtado says.

Galaviz has spent the last few weeks knocking on doors to check in on neighbors and trying to organize help.

"I have a neighbor whose daughter has medical problems. She needs drinking water, pure water," he says. "It hurts to see people suffering."

Hafsa Fathima and Jan Johnson produced and edited the audio story.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Rescuers search for bodies from the site where a Philippine military C-130 plane crashed in Patikul town, Sulu province, southern Philippines on Sunday, July 4, 2021.; Credit: /Joint Task Force-Sulu via AP

MANILA, Philippines — A Philippine air force C-130 aircraft carrying combat troops crashed in a southern province while landing Sunday, killing at least 29 army soldiers on board and two civilians on the ground, while at least 50 were rescued from the burning wreckage, officials said.

Some soldiers were seen jumping off the aircraft before it crashed and exploded around noon in the periphery of the Jolo airport in Sulu province, military officials said. Two of six villagers who were hit on the ground have died.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said rescue and recovery efforts were ongoing. The aircraft had 96 people on board, including three pilots and five crew and the rest were army personnel, the military said, adding 17 soldiers remained unaccounted for by nightfall. The pilots survived but were seriously injured, officials said.

The Lockheed C-130 Hercules was one of two ex-U.S. Air Force aircraft handed over to the Philippines as part of military assistance this year. It crashed while landing shortly before noon Sunday in Bangkal village in the mountainous town of Patikul, military chief of staff Gen. Cirilito Sobejana said.

Military officials said at least 50 people on board were brought to a hospital in Sulu or flown to nearby Zamboanga city and troops were trying to search for the rest. "Per eyewitnesses, a number of soldiers were seen jumping out of the aircraft before it hit the ground, sparing them from the explosion caused by the crash," a military statement said.

Initial pictures released by the military showed the tail section of the cargo plane relatively intact. The other parts of the plane were burned or scattered in pieces in a clearing surrounded by coconut trees. Soldiers and other rescuers with stretchers were seen dashing to and from the smoke-shrouded crash site.

The plane was transporting troops, many of them new soldiers who had just undergone basic training, from the southern Cagayan de Oro city for deployment in Sulu, officials said.

"They were supposed to join us in our fight against terrorism," Sulu military commander Maj. Gen. William Gonzales said. Government forces have been battling Abu Sayyaf militants in the predominantly Muslim province of Sulu for decades.

It was not immediately clear what caused the crash. Regional military commander Lt. Gen. Corleto Vinluan said it was unlikely that the aircraft took hostile fire, and cited witnesses as saying that it appeared to have overshot the runway then crashed in the periphery of the airport.

"It's very unfortunate," Sobejana told reporters. "The plane missed the runway and it was trying to regain power but failed and crashed."

An air force official told The Associated Press that the Jolo runway is shorter than most others in the country, making it more difficult for pilots to adjust if an aircraft misses the landing spot. The official, who has flown military aircraft to and from Jolo several times, spoke on condition of anonymity because of a lack of authority to speak publicly.

Initial pictures showed that the weather was apparently fine in Sulu although other parts of the Philippines were experiencing rains due to an approaching tropical depression. The airport in Sulu's main town of Jolo is located a few kilometers (miles) from a mountainous area where troops have battled Abu Sayyaf militants. Some militants have aligned themselves with the Islamic State group.

The U.S. and the Philippines have separately blacklisted Abu Sayyaf as a terrorist organization for bombings, ransom kidnappings and beheadings. It has been considerably weakened by years of government offensives but remains a threat.

President Rodrigo Duterte expanded the military presence in Sulu into a full division in late 2018, deploying hundreds of additional troops, air force aircraft and other combat equipment after vowing to wipe out the Abu Sayyaf and allied foreign and local gunmen.

Government forces at the time were running after Muslim armed groups a year after quelling the five-month siege of southern Marawi city by hundreds of militants linked to the Islamic State group. More than 1,000 people, mostly militants and long-elusive Abu Sayyaf commanders, were killed in months of intense air and ground assaults.

Sunday's crash comes as the limited number of military aircraft has been further strained, as the air force helped transport medical supplies, vaccines and protective equipment to far-flung island provinces amid spikes in COVID-19 infections.

The Philippine government has struggled for years to modernize its military, one of Asia's least equipped, as it dealt with decades-long Muslim and communist insurgencies and territorial rifts with China and other claimant countries in the South China Sea.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

An American flag flies from a crane on July 4th next to the Champlain Towers South condo building, where scores of victims remain missing more than a week after it partially collapsed.; Credit: Lynne Sladky/AP

Preparations continue in Surfside, Fla. for the demolition of a portion of the Champlain Towers South still standing after much of the building collapsed in the early morning hours on June 24.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told reporters on Sunday that bringing down the remainder of the collapsed condominium in a controlled fashion is crucial to the safety of search and rescue teams.

Those teams have paused their work so demolition can take place. Levine Cava said officials are still unsure of a specific time that the demolition will occur.

"Our top priority is that the building can come down as soon as possible — no matter what time that occurs — and safely as possible," Levine Cava said at a morning news conference.

The number of confirmed dead from the collapse remains at 24. The number of people unaccounted for remains at 121.

Preparations for the demolition come as Tropical Storm Elsa is tracking towards southern Florida. The storm is expected to hit the area Monday and Tuesday.

The instability of the building could be made worse by the storm, which is expected to bring strong winds and rain at the beginning of the week. Mayor Levine Cava said that as soon as the demolition has occurred, search and rescue efforts are expected to resume.

Ahead of Elsa's arrival in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a state of emergency Saturday for 15 counties, including Miami-Dade.

On Sunday, he expressed optimism that the Surfside area may be spared from the worst of the storm.

"We could see some gusts, but it has tracked west over the last day and a half — more so than the initial forecast," he said. "So, we'll just keep watching that."

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

SURFSIDE, Fla. — Crews used explosives late Sunday night to demolish the remaining structure at Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Fla.

The heavily damaged condo building was knocked down at about 10:30 p.m. Eastern time.

The targeted blast caused the tower to fold and crumble, sending a large plume of dust and debris over a section of the beachside community. A crowd watching from a distance prayed as the building came down.

Before the structure was leveled, Miami-Dade County police urged residents who live nearby to remain indoors and shelter in place.

Miami-Dade County officials said removing the tower was an essential step so search and rescue teams could resume scouring the rubble pile for victims of the disaster.

Officials suspended recovery efforts on Saturday because of concerns about the danger posed by the unstable building.

"It will be safe to resume the search activities very shortly after the blast and that's when we'll resume it," said Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava at a press conference Sunday evening.

Demolition of the tower was also accelerated because of Tropical Storm Elsa, which could hit South Florida with high winds and heavy rains as early as Monday.

Search efforts had been ongoing since the morning of June 24, when much of the 12-story condo complex suffered a "progressive collapse" and dozens of apartments were reduced to rubble in a matter of seconds.

The number of confirmed dead from the disaster remains at 24, with the number of people unaccounted for at 121.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., told reporters Sunday the demolition of the remaining tower added to the sorrow for families who lived in the complex, destroying homes and possessions.

"So often demolitions of buildings are a spectacle, it's almost like a show," Schultz said. "This demolition is a tragic situation."

Local officials assured former residents and the public that everything possible had been done to rescue pets left behind in the structure.

"Folks can be comfortable we're not leaving anyone behind, including our beloved pets," Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett told reporters.

Multiple investigations are already underway into the cause of the collapse.

Documents acquired by NPR from an anonymous source show the condo association's board received warnings from an engineering firm beginning in 2018 that the structure needed extensive repairs.

A memo sent by the association to Champlain Towers South residents ahead of a May 2021 board meeting acknowledged the "desperate needs of the building."

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

A tropical storm with 65-mile-an-hour winds is drenching Cuba, and is expected to reach Key West and the west coast of Florida within the next 48 hours.

The National Hurricane Center expects Tropical Storm Elsa to drop between 5 and 10 inches of rain on central and western Cuba, leading to significant flooding and mudslides. The storm probably will weaken somewhat as it crosses the island, but could strengthen again as it approaches Florida.

According to the Associated Press, Cuban officials evacuated 180,000 people as a precaution against the possibility of heavy flooding.

Most of those evacuated stayed at relatives' homes, others went to government shelters, and hundreds living in mountainous areas took refuge in caves prepared for emergencies. The storm had killed at least three people on other Caribbean islands before it reached Cuba

The National Weather Service says that the western coast of Florida, including Tampa Bay, can expect a storm surge that would lift water levels between two and four feet. Much of Florida could see heavy rainfall that could reach six inches in some places. The storm will then bring heavy rains to Georgia and the Carolinas later in the week.

Florida officials were worried that the storm could destabilize what was left of the condominium building that partially collapsed over a week ago. In order to avoid an uncontrolled collapse, they approved the demolition of the remaining portion of the building, which took place on Sunday night.

"The hurricane was coming, the potential for that building to fall on the pile with the victims in it was a tragic thought," Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett told NPR on Monday.

It's early in the hurricane season. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted a busier-than-average Atlantic hurricane season, but it would be hard to top last year's, which set an all-time record with 30 named storms.

Tropical storms are fueled by warm water in the upper layers of the ocean, and ocean temperatures have been rising as heat is trapped by greenhouse gases.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

When a promising new drug to treat obesity was approved by the Food and Drug Administration for sale in the U.S. last month, it was the first such treatment to gain approval since 2014.

In clinical trials, weekly injections of semaglutide — or Wegovy, as it's been branded -- helped people drop an average of 15% of their body weight. That's an average of about 34 pounds over 16 months, before their weight plateaued, a far greater weight loss, obesity specialists say, than achieved with other drugs on the market. At least as important, Wegovy raised none of the alarm bells with the FDA or obesity doctors that it might trigger serious side effects of the sort experienced by some people taking fen-phen or some previous medical treatments for obesity.

But with a price tag for Wegovy of $1,000 to $1,500 a month, a very big question remains: Will insurers cover its significant cost for the many millions of people like Marleen Greenleaf, who might benefit?

Greenleaf grew up on the island of Trinidad, where her entire family paid little heed to what they ate and paid a high medical price, she says: "My husband has diabetes, my sister has diabetes, my brother has diabetes."

Since then, she's tried — and failed — at numerous diets, says Greenleaf, now 58 and an administrator at a charter school in Washington, D.C. Then, in 2018, she signed up for the clinical trial of a new drug — a once-weekly shot that changes the way her brain signals hunger.

A drug that finally stops her cravings

She noticed the change soon after her first injection of Wegovy: "For me, there was something that triggered in my brain to tell me that I was not hungry," she says. No more fierce cravings for the chocolate chip cookies she adores. Without the cravings she was able to slow down and reconsider the foods she'd been reaching for.

"I also wanted to eat healthier," she says. "I was looking at options, reading labels, looking at the calories — not just the calories, but also the sugar."

Over the 68-week research trial, Greenleaf dropped 40 pounds. Her blood pressure fell, which meant she qualified to donate her kidney to her husband, who was on dialysis.

"It was one of the best gifts of life that I could have ever given," she says.

But after that study ended, Greenleaf regained some of the weight. Wegovy is considered a long-term, possibly lifelong medication to treat chronic obesity. In the pre-marketing clinical studies, weight loss topped out at a total average weight loss of 15-18%, even as people continued to take the drug. And, as was the case with Greenleaf, once they stopped getting the weekly injections some of that weight came back.

Now, Greenleaf wants to resume the Wegovy shots.

"My only challenge actually is getting the insurance company to approve it," she says.

Reimbursement for obesity drugs' cost is patchy

Insurance coverage, it turns out, is a giant question — not just with Wegovy, but with obesity drugs in general. Some private insurers do include some prescription obesity drugs in the list of medicines they'll cover; it's too early to tell whether Wegovy will make those lists. Many doctors and patients are optimistic, because it is a higher dose of an existing diabetes medication called Ozempic, which is often covered by insurers.

A few select state Medicaid programs will cover medications that treat obesity, in some circumstances. But, significantly, Medicare does not cover obesity drugs — and many private insurers typically follow Medicare's lead.

Yet the demand for a good treatment is there, says Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, a leading obesity researcher at Harvard. She was not involved in conducting the Wegovy clinical trial, but closely followed it. "I'm excited about it," she says, because of the dramatic weight loss.

The drug acts on the brain so people eat less and store less of what they eat. That helps address the excess weight as well as helping with numerous related diseases of the liver or heart, for example.

Why the FDA has been slow to approve obesity treatments

There is a long history of drugs that have looked like promising treatments for obesity, then failed. Decades ago, amphetamines, were prescribed, until their addictive properties became apparent. In the 1990s, the combination of fenfluramine and phentermine — administered as the diet drug fen-phen — was heavily marketed, only to later be pulled from the market for causing heart valve problems.

Those experiences and others have made physicians skeptical.

"In obesity medicine field, we've learned to be cautiously optimistic each time we have a new medication that looks promising," says Dr. Ihuoma Eneli, director of the Center for Healthy Weight and Nutrition at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, who was not involved in the study of Wegovy.

So far, Eneli does not see any obvious concerns with the class of drugs that includes Wegovy, and calls the results so far "very promising." Wegovy is similar to another drug made by Novo Nordisk — Saxenda — which has been on the market since 2014, and which Eneli occasionally prescribes to her pediatric patients who are struggling with obesity.

In clinical research studies, the primary side effects reported after taking Wegovy affected the digestive system: nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, constipation, abdominal pain or intestinal infections.

Eneli says such side effects and their frequency are milder than the problems that have arisen in the past. That good safety profile may mean the drug is "less likely to come up with unanticipated risks," she says.

But, the new drug will be of little use, she and other doctors who treat obesity say, if it's not also affordable for patients.

"Before I even bring up that drug with my patients, I'm looking to see which insurance they are having on the left side of my screen — because that will determine whether I bring it up," Stanford, the Harvard physician, says. "If it's out of reach, like I said, I won't bring it up."

Stanford says her patients on existing obesity medications do extraordinary things to keep their coverage so they can afford to stay on the drugs.

"Several nurses here at the hospital that are my patients stayed working — they were supposed to retire — so they could stay on their injectable medication," Stanford says,"because that's how beneficial it was to them."

Why some are willing to pay out of pocket

Some people, like David Scheesley, 42, says he would consider paying for Wegovy, even if he had to pay the full sticker price. The Hanford, Calif., correctional officer has tried since 2019 to lose weight on various diets — low-fat, all-meat, all-vegetable — without success. His weight has led to other health concerns — with his blood fats and his heart — which makes Scheesley think of his 5-year-old son.

"I want to see him for a lot of years; I don't want to have a stroke," he says. "I don't want to have diabetes. I want to be there for him. So, for me personally, that [monetary cost] is not astronomical, if it can give me some more time."

Novo Nordisk, the company that makes Wegovy, is in talks with insurers, and acknowledges that ensuring health insurance coverage of its drug is critical. The challenge, says Douglas Langa, executive vice president of Novo Nordisk North America, is getting doctors, patients, and politicians to recognize obesity as a disease — and that therefore insurance should cover the cost of medicine to treat it.

"There's a medical component to [obesity] that needs to be recognized; this is a disease state like we should be treating any other disease state," Langa says. He says about 40% of private insurers cover Saxenda, the similar weight-loss medication the company makes.

Langa tells insurance companies this, making the case for why prescriptions for Wegovy should be covered. His company is also heavily lobbying Congress to pass legislation to allow Medicare to cover obesity medications. It makes sense from a financial perspective, he argues, because obesity is the root disease underlying so many other diseases.

"We do believe insurers understand that [untreated obesity] is a gateway into 60 other health conditions," Langa says. The need is hard to ignore, he adds. More than 100 million people in the U.S. alone struggle with obesity.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Author Ta-Nehisi Coates, seen here in 2019, will join the faculty of Howard University.; Credit: Mary Altaffer/AP

Less than a week after trustees at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill belatedly voted to grant tenure to New York Times reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones, Howard University announced Hannah-Jones will instead be joining its faculty.

Howard, the prestigious historically Black university in Washington, D.C., also announced it is hiring writer and Howard alumnus Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of Between the World and Me.

Their positions were funded by nearly $20 million in donations from the Knight Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Ford Foundation, as well as an anonymous donor.

The funding establishes the Knight Chair in Race and Journalism, a tenured position to be held by Hannah-Jones.

Hannah-Jones, who won a Pulitzer Prize for her 1619 Project, will also establish the Center for Journalism and Democracy, which the university says will train aspiring journalists in "the investigative skills and historical and analytical expertise needed to cover the crisis our democracy is facing."

The news is a blow to UNC, which has had its reputation damaged by its handling of Hannah-Jones' appointment to an endowed professorship at its journalism school. For months, trustees declined to consider granting her tenure, a highly unusual move considering her tenure was backed by the relevant academic leaders.

Some of the opposition came from Walter Hussman, an Arkansas newspaper publisher and alumnus whose $25 million donation to the UNC's journalism school led to its being named for him.

As NPR's David Folkenflik reported, Hussman said "he was given pause by some prominent scholars' criticism that Hannah-Jones distorted the historical record in arguing that the protection of slavery was one of the Founding Fathers' primary motivations in seeking independence from the British."

Amid the turmoil, other Black faculty members at UNC said they were considering leaving the university, and students protested on behalf of Hannah-Jones.

The university's student body president Lamar Richard penned an open letter last month to the UNC community, saying the university is unprepared for the reckoning that's required, and "[u]ntil this rebirth occurs, Carolina is not deserving of your talents, aspirations, or successes."

Hannah-Jones had said she would not accept UNC's offer without tenure, which UNC's Trustees finally approved in a 9-4 vote.

But the messy and contentious process spoiled it for her.

"Look what it took to get tenure," Hannah-Jones said, noting that every other chair of the position dating to the 1980s had been granted tenure, and that all were white. Hannah-Jones received unanimous approval from the faculty during the tenure process.

"And so to be denied it, and to only have that vote occur on the last possible day, at the last possible moment, after threat of legal action, after weeks of protest, after it became a national scandal – it's just not something that I want anymore," she told CBS This Morning.

Hannah-Jones said she never wanted her hiring to become a public scandal — she was simply hoping to give back to her beloved alma mater. And instead, she said, it became "embarrassing" to be passed over for tenure. She said she was never told by UNC-Chapel Hill's chancellor, provost or trustees why her tenure was not taken up in November or January.

The veteran journalist reportedly had offers from a number of universities after the botched process at UNC. So how did she pick Howard?

She said one of her few regrets was not going to Howard as an undergraduate. And she traced her choice to join its faculty to her own story, beginning as a second-grader bused to a white school.

"I've spent my entire life proving that I belong in elite white spaces that were not built for Black people," she told CBS. "I decided I didn't want to do that anymore. That Black professionals should feel free, and actually perhaps an obligation, to go to our own institutions and bring our talents and resources to our own institutions and help to build them up as well."

She said she won her battle for fair treatment at UNC, "but it's not my job to heal the University of North Carolina. That's the job of the people in power who created this situation in the first place."

Hannah-Jones said she's trying to raise even more money for Howard, and that she's eager to join the faculty this summer.

"To be able to bring that type of resources to a university that always punches above its weight, I'm so excited," she said. "Something great came out of this."

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Crews searching the building collapse site in Surfside, Fla., have discovered four more victims since Monday, bringing the death toll to 32. Authorities have identified 26 of the bodies.

Another 113 people were unaccounted for, though local officials said they had only been able to confirm that about 70 of those people were in the building at the time of the collapse nearly two weeks ago.

Detectives are continuing to follow up on reports submitted about possible victims in the partial collapse, but in some cases they have been unable to reach those who submitted the tips in the first place.

"People call anonymously. People call and don't leave return phone numbers. People call with partial information, not enough to really secure whether that person may or may not have been in the building," Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told reporters on Tuesday.

Some of the reports of possible victims are also incomplete, she said, including a name but no apartment number or no date of birth.

Levine Cava urged people who are missing loved ones to communicate with local authorities. She said there may also be victims of the collapse who have not been reported missing.

The rescue effort stopped briefly overnight due to lightning from a passing storm. Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said high winds were hampering the cranes moving heavy debris from the collapse site.

Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez said Florida has declared a state of emergency ahead of Tropical Storm Elsa, which is expected to reach hurricane strength before making landfall Wednesday morning on the state's west coast.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.