July 18, 2021

Dozens injured after man sprays bear repellent inside Florida Bath and Body Works, police say

MIAMI (WFLA) — Dozens of people were injured at a South Florida mall on Saturday when police say a man sprayed a bear repellent inside a Bath and Body Works before stealing two bags of candles.

The alleged incident happened in the Bath and Body Works at Miami International Mall in Doral.

According to police, at least 35 people were injured when the suspect sprayed the repellent. Most of the victims were treated at the scene. ...............(more)

https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/dozens-injured-after-man-sprays-bear-repellent-inside-florida-bath-and-body-works-police-say/

July 18, 2021

Can the Southwest Survive With Less Water?

(Bloomberg) Sometime next month, for the first time, the federal government is likely to declare a water shortage at Lake Mead.

This vast turquoise reservoir, formed in 1935 when the Hoover Dam corked the Colorado River in Arizona and Nevada, is part of a broader network of natural and artificial aqueducts and dams that supplies water to 40 million people and homes, farms, manufacturers and businesses across several states, tribal lands and parts of Mexico. Lights stay on in Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, San Diego, Los Angeles and other Southwestern cities because Hoover Dam hydropower helps generate the region’s electricity.

But the lake is shrinking, faster and sooner than hydrologists and other experts predicted. A stark white band of dry rock, 120 feet wide, circles its craggy perimeter, marking how far the water line has fallen in the ongoing drought. Locals call it the “bathtub ring.”



....(snip)....

Arizona has spent decades preparing for droughts, and the state believes it can use water-sharing agreements to aid farmers when the first big cutback happens. Chipmakers have become deft water recyclers and say that they can work with a more limited supply. Developers claim to be observing strict local regulations on sustainable water usage. But even experts who have spent their careers tackling water-management issues in the state recognize why this moment resonates.

“We’re about to declare the first water shortage ever on the Colorado River,” says Chuck Collum, a program manager for the Central Arizona Project, an agency that delivers Lake Mead water to the state. “It will be emotional to be here when that happens.”

“This isn’t just an Arizona problem. This is a Colorado River basin problem,” he adds. “We’re linked by this river, so problems in Phoenix are problems in Las Vegas.” .........(more)

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2021-opinion-us-drought-southwest-arizona-water-crisis/?srnd=premium

July 18, 2021

Calgary-Banff passenger rail project advances to development phase

Calgary-Banff passenger rail project advances to development phase
The proposed project would build a rail link between Calgary International Airport and Banff National Park.


A proposal to build a 150-km (93.2-mile) passenger rail line between Calgary International Airport and Banff National Park has entered the development phase with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Invest Alberta Corporation, the government of Alberta’s Ministry of Transportation and the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB).

The passenger service would operate on dedicated tracks constructed within the existing Canadian Pacific freight rail corridor. The proposal includes up to seven stops at Calgary International Airport, downtown Calgary, Calgary Keith, Cochrane, Morley (Stoney Nakoda), Canmore and Banff. Up to 10 departures per day would shuttle passengers between the airport and one of Canada’s most popular destinations. The project would also offer significant congestion relief to vehicles using Hwy 1.

“The YYC-Calgary-Banff rail project has the potential to be the first airport-to-mountain community transit solution of its kind in North America, making Alberta an even more compelling destination for global visitors year-round. I’m proud of Invest Alberta’s work with Alberta Transportation and Canada Infrastructure Bank to explore innovative public-private partnerships like this passenger rail solution which may even be the first hydrogen train in North America. I know they will be working hard over the next several months to develop the economic and environmental benefits to Albertans and improve the attractiveness of visiting Calgary and Banff all year round for several million global visitors,” said Alberta Premier Jason Kenney.

In 2020, the province and CIB conducted a feasibility study to evaluate the benefits of the proposed service. CIB says it continues to support the project and is still considering long-term investment. Alberta Transportation and CIB explain there has also been strong private sector interest demonstrated through an unsolicited proposal by Liricon Capital Ltd. to act as the project developer. ............(more)

https://www.masstransitmag.com/rail/article/21230691/calgarybanff-passenger-rail-project-advances-to-development-phase

July 18, 2021

The illusion of choice: five stats that expose America's food monopoly crisis

The illusion of choice: five stats that expose America’s food monopoly crisis
Here are some key findings of the investigation the Guardian published this week into America’s monopolized food system


(Guardian UK) When you walk into a US grocery store the shelves seem to be teeming with choice, with countless brands appearing to offer every type of food and drink.

But a joint investigation published this week by the Guardian and Food and Water Watch showed how this choice is largely an illusion. In fact, a handful of mega firms dominate every link of the food supply chain: from seeds and fertilizers to slaughterhouses and supermarkets to cereals and beers.

And that is not good news for consumers in terms of choice and real competition on prices, or for small and medium-sized farmers given little choice on what they grow or which animals they raise, while food industry workers face low pay and high risks.

....(snip)....

Here are some of the key figures and charts from our deep analysis of sales data from thousands of supermarkets across the US:

1. Almost 80% of dozens of everyday grocery items are supplied by just a handful of companies

Our research started by identifying dozens of different key grocery types that Americans buy every day, including different kinds of veggies, fruits and grains, prepared foods, beverages and animal products.

We then studied the scanner sales data from thousands of US stores that is compiled by market research firms for these products. .............(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/18/america-food-monopoly-crisis-grocery-stores

July 18, 2021

Deputies: Florida man breaks into St. Pete airport and manages to get inside airplane cockpit

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla — A Tampa Florida man is behind bars after breaking into an airplane at St. Petersburg Airport Saturday morning, Pinellas deputies say.

According to the sheriff’s office, deputies responded to reports of a suspicious vehicle at the airport around 4:48 a.m.

Deputies say they attempted to stop the driver, identified as 36-year-old Herrera Hamilton Moreno, but Moreno eluded them and drove to the U.S. Coast Guard station and crashed through the security gate. ...........(more)

https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/region-pinellas/deputies-florida-man-breaks-into-st-pete-airport-and-manages-to-get-inside-airplane-cockpit

July 17, 2021

Delta Is Driving a Wedge Through Missouri

Delta Is Driving a Wedge Through Missouri
For America as a whole, the pandemic might be fading. For some communities, this year will be worse than last.

By Ed Yong


(The Atlantic) The summer wasn’t meant to be like this. By April, Greene County, in southwestern Missouri, seemed to be past the worst of the pandemic. Intensive-care units that once overflowed had emptied. Vaccinations were rising. Health-care workers who had been fighting the coronavirus for months felt relieved—perhaps even hopeful. Then, in late May, cases started ticking up again. By July, the surge was so pronounced that “it took the wind out of everyone,” Erik Frederick, the chief administrative officer of Mercy Hospital Springfield, told me. “How did we end up back here again?”

The hospital is now busier than at any previous point during the pandemic. In just five weeks, it took in as many COVID-19 patients as it did over five months last year. Ten minutes away, another big hospital, Cox Medical Center South, has been inundated just as quickly. “We only get beds available when someone dies, which happens several times a day,” Terrence Coulter, the critical-care medical director at CoxHealth, told me.

Last week, Katie Towns, the acting director of the Springfield–Greene County Health Department, was concerned that the county’s daily cases were topping 250. On Wednesday, the daily count hit 405. This dramatic surge is the work of the super-contagious Delta variant, which now accounts for 95 percent of Greene County’s new cases, according to Towns. It is spreading easily because people have ditched their masks, crowded into indoor spaces, resumed travel, and resisted vaccinations. Just 40 percent of people in Greene County are fully vaccinated. In some nearby counties, less than 20 percent of people are.

Many experts have argued that, even with Delta, the United States is unlikely to revisit the horrors of last winter. Even now, the country’s hospitalizations are one-seventh as high as they were in mid-January. But national optimism glosses over local reality. For many communities, this year will be worse than last. Springfield’s health-care workers and public-health specialists are experiencing the same ordeals they thought they had left behind. “But it feels worse this time because we’ve seen it before,” Amelia Montgomery, a nurse at CoxHealth, told me. “Walking back into the COVID ICU was demoralizing.” ............(more)

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/07/delta-missouri-pandemic-surge/619456/

July 17, 2021

Oregon wildfire causes miles-high 'fire clouds' as flames grow

(Guardian UK) Smoke and heat from a huge wildfire in south-eastern Oregon are creating giant “fire clouds” over the blaze – dangerous columns of smoke and ash that can reach up to six miles (10km) in the sky and are visible from more than 100 miles (160km) away.

Authorities have put these clouds at the top of the list of the extreme fire behavior they are seeing amid the Bootleg fire, the largest wildfire burning in the US. The inferno grew on Friday to about 377 sq miles (976 sq km), an area larger than New York City, and was raging through a part of the American west that is enduring a historic drought.

Meteorologists this week also spotted a bigger, more extreme form of fire cloud – ones that can create their own weather, including “fire tornadoes”.

Extreme fire behavior, including the formation of more fire clouds, was expected to persist on Friday and worsen into the weekend. There are currently at least 70 wildfires burning in the western United States and dozens more in Canada. ...........(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/16/bootleg-fire-oregon-fire-clouds-pyrocumulus

July 17, 2021

Critical race theory controversy is this year's 'war on Christmas'

Critical race theory controversy is this year's 'war on Christmas' | Opinion
Leonard Pitts Jr.


I have forgotten more about race than most people have ever known.

Apologies if that sounds like braggadocio, but there’s a point that needs making. I’ve spent the better part of 40 years researching and writing about the history and dynamics of race in America — and 63 years living them. I know this terrain well.

Yet until maybe six months ago, I had never heard of “critical race theory.”

It has since become inescapable, of course — panicked Republicans marching in the streets under signs demanding, “Stop Critical Race Theory Now!” while states like Oklahoma, Texas, Florida and Michigan take up legislation protecting children from its depredations. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley believes critical race theory “is going to hold back generations of young people.” Author Mark Levin says it’s about “destroying the existing society.” Tucker Carlson calls it a “poison” that will end civilization as we know it.

....(snip)....

As the world burns

There are no words — nice ones, anyway — for the cynicism of those who employ these crude manipulations. Or, for the gullibility and stupidity of those who let them get away with it, who fall for the same tired okey-doke, season after season, year after year, generation after generation.

Harsh words? Yes. But what other words are appropriate to people who, as the planet burns, as the pandemic decimates, as the rich get richer and as the random bullets fly, think their children’s greatest threat arises from an obscure academic doctrine? ..........(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/opinion/contributors/2021/07/17/critical-race-theory-distraction-real-threats-opinion/7988951002/

July 17, 2021

More Than 600 Tons of Dead Sea Life Wash Up on Florida Coast Amid Red Tide

Since late June, crews in Pinellas County, Florida have cleaned up over 600 tons of dead sea life from Tampa’s coastline amid a red tide outbreak, Josie Fischels reports for NPR.

The red tide is a sudden overgrowth of Karenia brevis, rust-colored algae that secrete a deadly toxin. Blooms of K. brevis rarely affect the Tampa Bay area in the summer—the last time the area saw a red tide in summer was 2018. This year’s disaster already shows signs of being worse than the red tide three years ago, said Amber Boulding, St. Petersburg’s Emergency Manager, in a press conference, per the Washington Post’s Julian Mark. Officials in the region had hoped that Tropical Storm Elsa would help send the algae and its victims out to sea, but instead it pushed more debris to shore.

“Tampa Bay is really sick right now, really extraordinarily bad,” says Justin Bloom, a board member for local environmental groups Tampa Bay and Suncoast Waterkeeper, to Matt Cohen at the Tampa Bay Times. “Conditions that we haven’t seen in decades.”

Blooms of K. brevis are deadly to marine wildlife because the algae secrete brevetoxins, which interfere with the nervous system. They cause animals to swim in circles until they eventually become paralyzed, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Clumps of dead fish that gather near blooms are called “fish kills.” Strong winds, like those from Tropical Storm Elsa, push the fish kills to shore. ...............(more)

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/hundreds-tons-dead-sea-life-wash-florida-coast-amid-red-tide-180978203/

July 17, 2021

Newsmax trashes Fox News for being "woke" as right-wing cable wars escalate

You can't make this stuff up.


Former Fox News personality Eric Bolling blasted his former network for being "woke" on Friday night.

The network parted ways with Bolling in 2017 after an investigation of reports of sexual harassment by the conservative host.

"Speaking of blowing woke smoke, I have to call attention to Fox News," he said.

"They seem to hate the 'woke' cancel culture agenda as much as I do, but do they really?" he asked.

Bolling went on to discuss Major League Baseball moving the All-Star Game from Atlanta to Denver to protest the voter suppression bill passed by Georgia Republicans and signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp. ............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/07/17/newsmax-trashes-fox-news-for-being-woke-as-right-wing-cable-wars-escalate_partner/