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  • This Afghan interpreter risked his life for US Marines. Now, they’re fighting for him to stay in the US | CNN Politics

    This Afghan interpreter risked his life for US Marines. Now, they’re fighting for him to stay in the US | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    It was November 2010 and a platoon of Marines was patrolling outside of a village in Helmand Province, Afghanistan – slowly, and carefully, to avoid accidentally stepping on hidden improvised explosive devices. They walked in a single file line meant to reduce the risk of multiple Marines being taken out in one blast.

    In the patrol formation was Zainullah Zaki, a young Afghan man working as an interpreter with 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division. As the Marines scanned for hidden explosives, Zaki, known as Zak by his American counterparts, listened to the radio, monitoring frequencies for Taliban communications.

    As they walked, he heard a Taliban commander coordinating an ambush on the very Marines he was with.

    Maj. Tom Schueman, the platoon commander at the time, told CNN that Zaki told him what was happening and said the Marines needed to “hurry up” to get into town. He recalled telling Zaki that they could only move as fast as the Marines at the front of the column, but Zaki insisted they move faster to avoid being caught in an attack.

    “Zak said, ‘That’s not fast enough,’” Schueman recalled, “And he just took off, ran a couple hundred meters through this active IED belt, mine field. He was able to correlate where the guy was observing us from, he knew what building the guy was in and went in there, tackled him, and detained him.”

    It wasn’t the last time Zaki would go far outside his job description to help the Marines he served alongside. But despite the deep trust and camaraderie Zaki formed with the Marines and his employment by US contractors for more than two years in Afghanistan, he recently received notice that his request for a Special Immigrant Visa was denied for the last time. Zaki and his family are now in uncertain territory alongside thousands of other Afghans who were evacuated from the country, as the humanitarian parole status they resettled in the US with is set to expire next year.

    A notice from the chief of mission for the US Embassy in Kabul dated November 30 said that Zaki’s request for the visa, which is meant to provide a pathway to the United States for Afghans who were employed by or worked on behalf of the US government, was denied due to an insufficient length of employment.

    “There is no further appeal of this decision,” the letter says. The denial was first reported by military news outlet Task & Purpose.

    Schueman said he doesn’t understand the problem: Zaki was employed by US contractors for more than a year, which is the required length of time to receive a SIV. Indeed, a letter of verification provided to CNN and signed by the chief operating officer of IAP Worldwide Services shows that he worked as a linguist in Kunar Province from January 2012 to December 2013 – just short of two years. Another verification letter showed he was employed by Mission Essential, another US contractor, from September 2010 to July 2011.

    However, the denial letter says that his verification letter from IAP is not valid. Pete Lucier, a Marine veteran who works with #AfghanEvac, a non-profit focused on “fulfilling the United States’ duty to Afghan allies,” said the problem likely lies with one sentence in the verification letter. The letter states that while Zaki “was not employed directly by my company, IAP Worldwide Services, Inc., he was assigned to me by our local [US Government] management.”

    “Reading denials is a bit like parsing a secret code, but they seem to be saying that since Zaki didn’t work for IAP, an IAP employee can’t confirm employment by a third company,” Lucier said.

    He added that the frustration over the paperwork is “absolutely valid. Everything that they provided should be more than enough, you shouldn’t have to dig up old records from these companies, and it’s pretty clear from what they assembled that this guy should probably be given the benefit of the doubt.”

    But that doesn’t seem to be the case, and Zaki told CNN that verification letter was all he had from his second stint of employment with US contractors. Today, he’s unsure of know how to get in touch with the US organization who’d employed him in order to request more paperwork.

    Rob Hargis, the chief operating officer of IAP who signed Zaki’s August 2021 verification letter, told CNN that Zaki was “employed by another company that worked on bases where we also worked,” and was “often on small tasks where one of our staff oversaw” him. Hargis said he was “disappointed” to hear that Zaki’s SIV had been denied and called the SIV process as a whole “hugely frustrating.”

    “To hear that Zaki’s case is denied is yet another example of an inflexible process where flexibility and judgement should be considered in each adjudication,” Hargis said. “From where we and many of our peers in the Defense Contracting Community sit, it is profoundly disappointing to see our former and faithful interpreters and other Afghan support staff languish in a process that is neither transparent, nor efficient.”

    Throughout his journey to the US and process to get his SIV after arriving, Zaki’s situation has drawn attention from lawmakers who are advocating behind the scenes to help him, as he and his family – a wife and five children, one of whom was born in Texas, where they live – face an uncertain future.

    The office of North Carolina Republican Rep. Ted Budd, who recently won a seat in the Senate, is “in contact with [Zainullah Zaki]” and “trying to successfully resolve his case,” Budd’s spokesman Curtis Kalin told CNN.

    Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, has also advocated for Zaki to receive a visa and for the passage of the Afghan Adjustment Act, which would provide a pathway to lawful permanent residency to Afghans who were evacuated to the US. But the legislation ultimately wasn’t included in the massive spending bill recently passed by Congress.

    “For 20 years, thousands of Afghans risked their lives to stand alongside our service members and diplomats during America’s longest war,” Durbin, who’s the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement to CNN. “We must now honor our commitment to them and provide a pathway to safety and certainty in the U.S. … Zaki and his family, and thousands of others, deserve no less, and I will continue to do what I can to help advocate for them.”

    The State Department declined to comment, citing visa records’ confidentiality.

    Despite the nuances and inner challenges of the SIV process, it’s all rather simple to Schueman. Zaki’s willingness to confront the Taliban in order to save the Marines on patrol, Schueman said, was “just one of many events where Zak demonstrated that he was willing to die for us.” That alone, he said, should be enough for him to receive support from the US.

    Travis Haggerty, who served in Schueman’s platoon and has since left service, said Zaki is the reason more of his fellow Marines weren’t killed or severely wounded on that deployment. He served as a “radar” of sorts, Haggerty said, helping them assess what was abnormal or dangerous in a country and culture they were unfamiliar with.

    And it didn’t stop there. Both Schueman and Haggerty said Zaki repeatedly went above and beyond his role as an interpreter.

    “If we were having to carry a casualty to a helicopter or to a safe place, Zak had no problem jumping on the stretcher and carrying a corner of that stretcher. He had no problem running with you towards someone who had just gotten blown up or shot, trying to see what he could do to make everyone safe,” Haggerty said. “He was just a constant … He stayed with us and was actively involved, because he thought we were family, and we thought he was family.”

    When Schueman met Zaki in 2010, the interpreter was roughly the same age as the young Marines he was working alongside. Schueman recalled that Zaki began working with them after others had quit; it was “too dangerous,” the Marine officer said.

    They had good reason to feel that way. The 3/5 Marines, nicknamed the “Darkhorse” battalion, lost 25 Marines during their deployment to Sangin, Afghanistan, one of the deadliest places for US and British forces in the country. Roughly 200 more were wounded. But the Marines said Zaki never balked.

    Zaki told CNN that he wanted to work with the US to “build a brighter Afghanistan.”

    That drive and passion for what he was doing was evident to the Marines who served with him.

    “From the minute we hit Afghanistan, we were told we were going into a really bad spot,” Trey Humphrey, another Marine who worked alongside Zaki, said. “Zak got assigned, and he was a pretty hard charger, I mean he was excited and eager to help … We went through some pretty f**ked up stuff, and a lot of guys got hurt or wounded or injured or killed, and I don’t know why the f**k Zak would want to do that job. There’s no way we paid him enough to do it.”

    Some of the Marines lost touch with Zaki after the deployment, but Schueman said he stayed in touch with his interpreter through Facebook. And in 2016, Zaki sent him a message telling him that persecution in Afghanistan was “increasing,” and he’d decided to apply for a SIV.

    “I think that was pretty tough for him in a lot of ways, because Zak joined with the US, allied with the US, essentially to have a more prosperous Afghanistan that he wanted to invest in, that he wanted to raise his family in, that he believed in,” Schueman said. “So, for him to make that decision to leave only came after like, significant duress, significant persecution … almost nightly death threats to his home.”

    Schueman agreed to help him, though he said neither of them knew much about the SIV process other than that it existed. In theory, he said, it’s “not complicated”– you serve a required amount of time with the US military, and you get a visa. Zaki had served roughly nine months with his Marines, and almost two years with another US contractor.

    “I thought it was pretty clear cut,” Schueman said, “but it did not end up turning out that way.”

    Like so many others who applied for a SIV, the process turned out much more laborious than they’d anticipated. For six years now the two have chipped away. Schueman said in all that time, there has “never been a person who has corresponded with us.” Instead, they get “an anonymous, kind of sanitized email” with a scripted response.

    That impersonal process is part of the problem, according to Lucier. Like Zaki’s letter of denial shows, applicants are often not given specific reasons as to why their paperwork is being rejected, or what in particular they need to fix, he said.

    The unit that reviews SIV approval “could have had a conversation here,” he said. “They could have followed up with the letter writer, requested an explanation, or more evidence,” Lucier said, highlighting that the process’ many requirements are “really difficult for anyone to navigate, but especially for non-Native English speakers, which more applicants are.”

    Zaki had all but given up by the time the US and its allies began pulling their forces out of Afghanistan last year. Schueman said he spoke with Zaki after it was announced in April 2021 that the US was leaving: “I asked Zak, I said, ‘What are the implications of that for you?’ He said, ‘That means my family and I will be killed.’”

    What followed was months of advocacy from Schueman, including media interviews and calls and meetings with lawmakers. Like so many other veterans of Afghanistan, Schueman was in a mad dash to get his former interpreter out of danger, though there was little direction on how exactly the US government was going to help. So, he took it upon himself. Schueman said he spoke a number of times with a friend who deployed to Kabul during the evacuation, helping connect the two in order to get Zaki and his family out.

    Eventually they did. Schueman said they first went to Qatar, then Germany, and finally landed in Philadelphia. From there, they went to Virginia, Minnesota, and eventually down to San Antonio, Texas, to be near family in the area.

    Zainullah Zaki and Tom Schueman

    “From there, he started working construction,” Schueman said. “He got a one-bedroom apartment. We started writing a book together. I mean, he was happy. He was safe. They’ve got a great Muslim community down there … He’s really been embracing setting into his new American life.”

    That safety, however, once again seemed to be put in jeopardy on November 30, when Zaki received notice that his request for an SIV was rejected.

    Schueman called the letter “devastating,” and thought it was particularly difficult to understand given all the media attention that had been on Zaki’s case.

    “It’s something we’ve been working towards for six years,” Schueman said, “something that the documentation so clearly demonstrated that he earned and with no explanation, just, ‘You may not appeal. This is your final determination; you may not appeal.’”

    Lucier told CNN that due to a recent change in law, there may still be potential for an appeal, despite the letter’s assertion. But Zaki’s troubles are indicative of much broader flaws within the SIV program, Lucier said, that leave people with “confounding, confusing denials” and stuck in a “nightmare of bureaucracy.”

    It’s understandable that there’s a process, and that the process is imperfect, Humphrey said. But it’s hard not to take it personally when he and his fellow Marines saw day in and day out what Zaki did for them. There’s not “a single person more deserving of being pushed through this process,” he said, and in a perfect world, those behind the SIV process would be able to see the person and the story behind the paperwork.

    Zaki is not the only Afghan evacuee in limbo after escaping the Taliban’s rule last year. Roughly 83,000 people – including Afghan nationals, lawful permanent residents, and American citizens – came to the US as part of Operation Allies Welcome. But as evacuated Afghans near the two-year expiration date of their temporary status, advocates have pushed for Congress to take action in helping them secure a pathway to lawful permanent residency.

    Although the legislation attempting to solidify that pathway was not included in the massive spending bill voted on last week, lawmakers did include legislation to extend and expand the SIV program for Afghans who worked with the US.

    Zaki, Haggerty said, “genuinely wants the American dream for his kids.”

    “He’ll make a really incredible American citizen when that day comes,” Haggerty said. “And it should come sooner rather than later.”

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  • Deaths of 3 endangered Cambodian dolphins raise alarm

    Deaths of 3 endangered Cambodian dolphins raise alarm

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    PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Three endangered freshwater dolphins have died within 10 days of each other, alarming conservationists in Cambodia.

    The death of a third healthy dolphin in such a brief period indicates “an increasingly alarming situation and the need for an intensive law enforcement be urgently conducted in the dolphin habitats,” the World Wildlife Fund said in an announcement Monday.

    The latest Irrawaddy dolphin death — believed to have stemmed from entanglement in an illegal fishing line — spotlighted the need for law enforcement to help save the species, also known as the Mekong River dolphin, according to the statement.

    The WWF said the body of a healthy female dolphin estimated to be between 7 and 10 years old was found floating in the river Saturday in the eastern province of Kratie. It said an examination of its carcass suggested that the dolphin, 196 centimeters (6 1/2 feet) long and 93 kilograms (205 pounds), had been hooked and wrapped in a tangle of fishing line.

    Seng Teak, WWF Cambodia director, said in the statement that without immediate action “the recent increase in illegal fishing activities in the dolphin conservation areas” would destroy the Mekong River dolphin population in Cambodia.

    The statement advocated stepping up day and night patrols to protect the remaining dolphins in conservation areas.

    The first census of Irrawaddy dolphins in Cambodia in 1997 estimated their total population was about 200. In 2020, the population was estimated to have fallen to 89.

    WWF said 11 dolphins have died in 2022, bringing the total number of deaths to 29 in the past three years.

    The Irrawaddy dolphin is classified as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Other groups of these dolphins are found in two other freshwater rivers: Myanmar’s Irrawaddy and Indonesia’s Mahakam on the island of Borneo.

    In February, Cambodian wildlife officials announced the death of the last known Irrawaddy dolphin in a population on a stretch of the Mekong River further upstream, which appeared to be caused by entanglement in a fishing net.

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  • A 16-foot reticulated python was rescued in Austin, Texas after being missing for months | CNN

    A 16-foot reticulated python was rescued in Austin, Texas after being missing for months | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    An “unhappy” 16-foot albino reticulated python was rescued by an animal shelter in Austin, Texas on Monday – after being missing for months.

    The Austin Animal Center wrote on its verified Facebook page that they received a call about the huge reptile on Monday.

    “Due to the temperatures the snake was lethargic enough that a couple of residents were able to catch it and keep it in their garage,” wrote the municipal shelter, which is run by the city of Austin.

    And whereas often callers exaggerate the size of snakes when calling the shelter, in this case the python was just as big as the callers thought.

    Residents said they had been seeing the massive snake in the neighborhood since July, according to the Facebook post. The shelter put the snake in temporary overnight housing, then asked the Austin Zoo to provide “more appropriate” housing for the time being.

    In the meantime, shelter staff members recalled a social media post they’d seen months previously about a missing python. Some sleuthing led them to a post on community app Nextdoor, which included information about the owner of the python.

    Shelter staff contacted the owner, who identified the snake based on a “unique feature.”

    And they found out the owner of the snake – a female named Snow – had been visiting Austin from Dallas when a thief broke into his car, stealing a tote bag with Snow inside. It’s unclear at what point the thief let the snake free to wander around Austin.

    Now snake and owner have been happily reunited, according to the Facebook post.

    Reticulated pythons are one of the world’s longest snake species, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. They can exceed 20 feet at their longest. In the wild, the snakes are found in southern and southeast Asia, although they are bought and sold as pets around the world.

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  • Austin Pets Alive! | Letter from Dr. Jefferson: Saving Lives Together

    Austin Pets Alive! | Letter from Dr. Jefferson: Saving Lives Together

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    Dec 24, 2022

    As I write this letter, we are preparing for the dangerous Arctic cold
    front that is about to blast freezing temperatures into our community
    and throughout Central Texas, just in time for the holidays.

    Our shelter becomes severely strained with temperatures this low. To
    keep our animals warm and safe during this cold emergency, we asked our
    community to take in a foster pet during the storm, give funds to
    support the increased cost of shelter operations, and help
    under-resourced shelters across the region. And you’ve come
    through, opening your hearts and homes to the pets who are most in need,
    at the time they need that help the most.

    Even though our own shelter struggles tremendously during a
    disaster like this, we cannot turn our backs on animals in our community
    or in shelters that are severely under-resourced. We are compelled to
    help out and our community is too.     Your support allows us to distribute warm blankets and heaters to pets in need all across Texas.

    Our community stepping up to protect pets during a bitterly frigid storm is just one inspiring example of many, of how working together in 2022 we have been able to do so much for homeless pets in Austin, and beyond.

    We saved our 100,000th life in February. Copper, a
    2-month-old puppy, survived a disease that is a death sentence in nearly
    every other animal shelter, thanks to our innovative Parvo Puppy ICU.
    Copper is one of the whopping 1,035 puppies who are alive today, solely
    because they came through our Parvo Puppy ICU this year.

    We celebrated our 11th anniversary of Austin becoming a No Kill city.
    Fourteen years ago, animal lovers in Austin banded together to end the
    needless killing of shelter pets in our community. We achieved this goal
    in three years, and have never stopped fighting for it since. We’ve now
    set our eyes on expanding our lifesaving further beyond our
    geographical borders, to the areas with the greatest need.

    We grew our transport program.
    This year we saved more than 2,400 at-risk pets by connecting
    underfunded and overwhelmed Texas shelters to organizations in areas of
    the country where they would be adopted. In one remarkable transport
    mission, in July we flew 89 cats and kittens and 12 dogs from Texas,
    where the animals faced likely euthanasia, to our partner in Maine,
    where they were received with open arms and hope.

    We continued our partnership with Austin FC, our hometown professional soccer club, with 22 of our animals serving as Honorary Mascots during home games.
    These include pups who are true survivors, and really deserve to be
    celebrated—like Gavin, who came to APA! with severe injuries after being
    hit by a car, and needed his jaw reattached; RayRay, who’d been
    abandoned in a home when his owner moved out and left him behind; and
    Wolff Pack and Alright, Alright, Alright, two more of our parvo
    survivors and Parvo Puppy ICU graduates. These furry mascots spread
    critical awareness about our lifesaving programs and mission—and the
    game-day attention helps them get adopted! 

    APA! brought nearly 12,000 animals through our shelter this year. We
    saved countless more with our hands-on support of under-resourced
    shelters, through our No Kill education in which we teach other shelters
    and communities how to save the most at-risk animals, and our Human
    Animal Support Services project’s focus on pet support and keeping
    people and pets together.

    These are just a few of our 2022 milestones. We can’t wait to share more with you in our annual impact report. Stay tuned!

    Now, as we turn toward the end of the year, let me say thank you for being such an important part of our lifesaving community. It is your support that lets us save these lives.

    And now your gift can do even more. A group of generous anonymous donors is matching all donations until December 31st.

    From now until the end of the year, your gift is DOUBLED. That means if you donate $1, it becomes $2! We are halfway to meeting our December goals and every dollar helps.

    Fourteen years ago, we set out to save the pets who were losing their lives in Austin, for no reason other than because they didn’t have a home. Today, as our pets are welcomed into loving foster homes, while a wicked storm approaches, we are so proud of our community. We are proud to be based here, in this city of animal lovers, where every day of every year, we work to save even more of the animals who would not survive without what we do together. We are excited to expand our lifesaving work to wherever at-risk pets need us the most, and we can’t
    wait for you to be part of it.

    On behalf of all of us at APA!, thank you for all you do. Happy holidays, and have a very happy new year.

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  • New mural painted in memory of LA’s famed mountain lion

    New mural painted in memory of LA’s famed mountain lion

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    An artist has devoted a sweeping new street mural to the memory of one of Los Angeles’ most famous residents: P-22, the celebrated mountain lion who lived in the city and was recently euthanized amid worsening health and injuries likely caused by a car

    LOS ANGELES — An artist has devoted a sweeping new street mural to the memory of one of Los Angeles’ most famous residents.

    The subject? P-22, the celebrated mountain lion who took up residence in the city and was euthanized last weekend amid worsening health and injuries likely caused by a car.

    With a sweep of her brush, Corie Mattie has erected a memorial on the side of a building showing the beloved big cat wearing a crown with the words “Long Live the King.” Earlier this year, she painted a separate mural devoted to P-22, where residents left flowers after the cougar died.

    “He’s still the king of the hill,” Mattie told KABC-TV. “There’s never going to be another P-22.”

    P-22 became the face of a campaign to build a wildlife crossing over a Los Angeles-area freeway to give big cats, coyotes, deer and other wildlife a safe path to the nearby Santa Monica Mountains, where they have room to roam.

    The cougar was regularly recorded on security cameras strolling through residential areas near his home in Griffith Park, an oasis of hiking trails and picnic areas in the middle of the city.

    Long outfitted with a tracking collar, P-22 was captured for examination in a residential backyard Dec. 12, a month after killing a Chihuahua on a dogwalker’s leash.

    Wildlife officials said the decision was made to euthanize after veterinarians determined P-22 had a skull fracture and chronic illnesses including a skin infection and diseases of the kidneys and liver.

    Daniel Richards, a 55-year-old tour guide, said it was sad to learn of P-22’s passing and he hopes the mural will stay.

    “He’s kind of a legend,” Richards said of the mountain lion. “It’s a really great mural and really memorializes something that was unique here in the city of Los Angeles.”

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  • The best food marketing stunts of the year | CNN Business

    The best food marketing stunts of the year | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Comically oversized snack foods. A cocktail infused with processed cheese. And a fine dining establishment for feline lovers.

    In 2022, there were plenty of restaurants, food manufacturers and at least one artist collective that tried to break through with their shenanigans.

    These food stunts were often outrageous and sometimes regrettable. But only a few unleashed items that made us say, “wait, what? Why would you do that? Who would eat that?” And, occasionally: “that actually sounds pretty good.”

    Here’s what caught our attention this year.

    Over the summer, Kraft Heinz

    (KHC)     introduced a new cocktail: The Veltini, a martini made with Velveeta-infused vodka, olive brine and vermouth, garnished with Velveeta-stuffed olives and Velveeta-stuffed shells. The concoction was available for a limited time at BLT steakhouses in New York, Washington, D.C., Charlotte and elsewhere.

    The drink was part of Kraft Heinz’s broader efforts to reinvigorate the Velveeta brand after it saw sales of the processed cheese jump during the pandemic. To help Velveeta stage a comeback, the brand launched a new ad campaign, made tweaks to its logo and sold a cheese-scented nail polish.

    The Veltini made a splash, even though (or perhaps because) those brave enough to try it were unenthused.

    One Washington Post writer said it looked “like a deranged cheese monster, with olives as beady eyes and a dripping Velveeta cheese rim as a lopsided mouth.” The Today Show’s Hoda Kotb tried it on air, reluctantly, and was not a fan. “Yuck,” she said, “No, girl, no.” Her co-host, Jenna Bush Hager, said it wasn’t bad.

    This cereal is supposed to be eaten with orange juice.

    To be clear, this isn’t orange juice cereal: It’s cereal designed to be eaten with orange juice instead of milk. OJ-maker Tropicana sold the honey almond cereal for a limited time in May in honor of National Orange Juice Day.

    The brand acknowledged that people might not be into the combination. “Whether you hate it or love it, you won’t know until you try it,” Tropicana said. “It may not be for everyone.”

    One reviewer who gave the franken-breakfast a shot described it as “​​not bad,” adding “I can’t imagine eating a bowl of this every day.”

    Plus, she said, it didn’t taste like it was supposed to go with orange juice specifically. “There’s absolutely nothing different from other cereals.”

    Oscar Maye's

    In August, Oscar Mayer, also owned by Kraft Heinz, introduced the “Cold Dog”: A hot-dog flavored popsicle. The item was sold for a limited time at Popbar locations in New York City, New Orleans and elsewhere.

    The idea came from a June Instagram post by Oscar Mayer which asked followers whether the idea was “genius” or “stupid.” Comments on the post range from horrified to intrigued. Enough people were interested to give Oscar Mayer the green light.

    “After the overwhelming fan excitement for our beloved Cold Dog, it was a no-brainer to make this hot dog-inspired frozen pop a reality,” Anne Field, an Oscar Mayer spokesperson, said in a press release at the time.

    So how did it taste? In at least one reviewer’s opinion, pretty good.

    “I was beyond skeptical of how they could make a hot dog popsicle taste good. And somehow, they managed to do it!” according to a writer at Delish, who noted that Popbar uses gelato as the base for its pops. “The gelato is extremely creamy and has a strong smokey flavor that balances out the popsicle’s delicate sweetness. The sweet ‘mustard’ drizzle makes it taste more like a proper ice cream.”

    A Big Cheez-It is 16 times larger than a regular Cheez-It.

    In late June, Taco Bell tested out an item called a “Big Cheez-It Tostada.” As the name implies, it’s a tostada which used a Big Cheez-It — specifically, a Cheez-It 16 times larger than a regular one — as its base. The chain also tested out a “Big Cheez-It Crunchwrap Supreme,” which included the giant Cheez-It within the wrap.

    The items were available for a limited-time at one Taco Bell location. On July 3, within a week of the launch, Taco Bell reported that the items had already sold out. “The Big Cheez-It Tostada and Big Cheez-It Crunchwrap are in such Big demand that our limited offer is no longer available,” the chain said.

    Reviewers who tried the item were mixed. “Very cheesy, mmm” said one. Another concluded that “it’s not bad, it’s just weird.” Some noted that the Cheez-It, big though it may be, was not strong enough to maintain the weight of the toppings.

    A large Cheez-It was also utilized by Pizza Hut in 2019, when the pizza chain introduced its stuffed Cheez-It pizza. The limited-time item included “four baked jumbo squares” stuffed with cheese or pepperoni and cheese, and came with a side of marinara sauce for dipping.

    We're gonna need a bigger boat.

    Unlike the Big Cheez-It Tostada, the Big Froot Loop is an unauthorized creation, made by the artist collective MSCHF.

    The loop weighs nearly half a pound, is 930 calories and recently went on sale for $19.99. MSCHF tried to make the big loop taste as much as possible like the real thing, according to MSCHF’s co-founder Daniel Greenberg.

    “We look at things in culture and figure out how to make a twist on it,” Greenberg previously told CNN. The thinking behind the project was straightforward: “Let’s make a big f—ing fruit loop and that was it.” According to the MSCHF site, the item, which went on sale December 19, is already sold out.

    Kellogg’s, which makes actual Froot Loops, was not into it.

    “Kellogg Company does not have a relationship with MSCHF and we were not involved in the creation of the Big Fruit Loop,” Kellogg spokesperson Kris Bahner previously told CNN in a statement. “The campaign does not accurately depict the Kellogg’s brand.”

    Bahner added that “given the trademark infringement and unauthorized use of our brand, we have reached out to the company seeking an amicable resolution.”

    A dish at

    Over the summer, Fancy Feast invited people to answer the question: What does cat food taste like? Well, sort of.

    The cat food maker briefly opened a restaurant called “Gatto Bianco by Fancy Feast” in New York City in August. Gatto Bianco was open for just two nights, with four seatings per night.

    The restaurant dishes drew inspiration from Fancy Feast Medleys, cat food that is itself inspired by human food like salmon primavera and turkey florentine. The restaurant’s menu was created by Amanda Hassner, in-house chef for Fancy Feast, as well as restaurateur Cesare Casella, a Michelin star winner, according to a Fancy Feast press release.

    “Food has the power to connect us to others in meaningful ways and take us to places we have never been,” Hassner said in a statement at the time. “The same is true for our cats.”

    Hassner added that “the dishes at Gatto Bianco are prepared in ways that help cat owners understand how their cats experience food — from flavor, to texture, to form.” On the menu, according to OpenTable, were baked sea bass, spare ribs, salmon, braised beef and for dessert, panna cotta, almond cake and affogato.

    A Mashable reporter dined at the exclusive restaurant and reported that “the food is tasty,” and the atmosphere feline. “The design of the restaurant itself is practically an Instagram installation for the cat-obsessed, complete with ornate cat wallpaper, gold-embellished Fancy Feast cloth napkins, and cat art (as in, artwork of cats, not art made by cats).”

    Papa Bowls are all topping, no crust.

    As a permanent addition to the Papa Johns menu, the no-crust, toppings-only Papa Bowls are technically not a stunt.

    But the menu offering was so polarizing when it launched in August that we had to give it a nod.

    The bowls were devised to help combat pandemic-induced pizza fatigue by giving Papa Johns customers an option that was, let’s say, pizza adjacent. The company also hoped that the bowls would eliminate the “veto vote,” when a restaurant is ruled out because it doesn’t have enough options for everyone in the dining party.

    The bowls come in three varieties: Chicken Alfredo; Italian Meats Trio with pepperoni, sausage and meatballs; and Garden Veggie. There’s also a build-your-own option.

    The announcement made quite a splash. Comedian Jon Stewart, who has made repeated jabs at Arby’s, said he owed an apology to the chain upon seeing news of the Papa Bowl. At least one YouTube reviewer panned the bowls, saying it was gross and slimy. But some people thought it was a good idea.

    And during a November analyst call, Papa Johns CEO Rob Lynch said the bowls are “performing well and in line with our expectations.”

    — Zoe Sottile and CNN’s Jordan Valinsky contributed to this report.

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  • Glass act: Scientists reveal secrets of frog transparency

    Glass act: Scientists reveal secrets of frog transparency

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    WASHINGTON — Now you see them, now you don’t.

    Some frogs found in South and Central America have the rare ability to turn on and off their nearly transparent appearance, researchers report Thursday in the journal Science.

    During the day, these nocturnal frogs sleep by hanging underneath tree leaves. Their delicate, greenish transparent forms don’t cast shadows, rendering them almost invisible to birds and other predators passing overhead or underneath.

    But when northern glass frogs wake up and hop around in search of insects and mates, they take on an opaque reddish-brown color.

    “When they’re transparent, it’s for their safety,” said Junjie Yao, a Duke University biomedical engineer and study co-author. When they’re awake, they can actively evade predators, but when they’re sleeping and most vulnerable, “they have adapted to remain hidden.”

    Using light and ultrasound imaging technology, the researchers discovered the secret: While asleep, the frogs concentrate, or “hide,” nearly 90% of their red blood cells in their liver.

    Because they have transparent skin and other tissues, it’s the blood circulating through their bodies that would otherwise give them away. The frogs also shrink and pack together most of their internal organs, Yao said.

    The research “beautifully explains” how “glass frogs conceal blood in the liver to maintain transparency,” said Juan Manuel Guayasamin, a frog biologist at University San Francisco of Quito, Ecuador, who was not involved in the study.

    Exactly how they do this, and why it doesn’t kill them, remains a mystery. For most animals, having very little blood circulating oxygen for several hours would be deadly. And concentrating blood so tightly would result in fatal clotting. But somehow, the frogs survive.

    Further research on the species could provide useful clues for the development of anti-blood clotting medications, said Carlos Taboada, a Duke University biologist and study co-author.

    Only a few animals, mostly ocean dwellers, are naturally transparent, said Oxford University biologist Richard White, who was not involved in the study. “Transparency is super rare in nature, and in land animals, it’s essentially unheard of outside of the glass frog,” White said.

    Those that are transparent include some fish, shrimp, jellyfish, worms and insects — none of which move large quantities of red blood through their bodies. The trick of hiding blood while sleeping appears to be unique to the frogs.

    “It’s just this really amazing, dynamic form of camouflage,” said White.

    ———

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

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  • Critically ill mountain lion cub rescued in California

    Critically ill mountain lion cub rescued in California

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    OAKLAND, Calif. — Wildlife officials rescued a critically ill mountain lion cub in Northern California and veterinarians named her “Holly” for the holiday season as they treat her in intensive care, the Oakland Zoo said Tuesday.

    A Santa Cruz resident noticed the cub on her property on Monday and alerted the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, the zoo said in a Twitter thread. Wildlife officials waited to see whether the cub’s mother would return and took the animal to the zoo when she did not.

    The zoo’s veterinarians estimate that the cub is three to four months old and critically ill. She was treated with fluids, vitamins and medication. While that improved the cub’s bloodwork, she still isn’t standing or moving around often, the zoo said.

    “We are hopeful she continues to improve but are taking it very much day by day,” the zoo said.

    The goal is to release animals back into the wild but with severely sick or young cubs like Holly, the zoo said, veterinarians are dedicated to “caring for them until they recover enough to find suitable forever homes.”

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  • Giant Aquarium Housing 1,500 Fish Bursts In Berlin

    Giant Aquarium Housing 1,500 Fish Bursts In Berlin

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    Berlin’s AquaDom, the largest freestanding cylindrical aquarium in the world, burst last week, sending a wave of 264,000 gallons of water, glass, and tropical fish pouring into the center of the German capital. What do you think?

    “So the fish are in control now, I assume?”

    James Gustafson • Chief of Complaints

    “Yet another mass-casualty event at the hands of the Germans.”

    Leilah Adkins • Curfew Designator

    “I’ll grab a mop.”

    Dale Kirkwood • Uvula Specialist 

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  • Austin Pets Alive! | Christmas Week Cold Emergency in Austin – Help…

    Austin Pets Alive! | Christmas Week Cold Emergency in Austin – Help…

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    Dec 19, 2022

    Dangerous winter weather with temperature lows in the teens is predicted to hit Central Texas this week. With some of our animal enclosures exposed to the elements, temperatures this low severely strain our facility so we must get our Town Lake Animal Center shelter pets in warm homes by THIS THURSDAY. We’re calling on our community members for help needed NOW:

    1. Foster homes for cold shelter animals
      We need our animals, especially our dogs, out now, before the coldest weather hits Thursday. With Christmas week/holiday travel, we anticipate it will be very difficult to find fosters so if you are staying in the Austin area your help is urgently needed. Email [email protected] or come to our Town Lake Animal Center location (1156 W Cesar Chavez St.) between noon-6pm to foster. We do ask that you keep them in your home until at least Monday, December 26th.

    2. Supplies or monetary donations
      With facility and extra resource needs to handle this emergency, we are seeking monetary donations now. Click here to make a gift to help fund our response and operations. We also need people to donate any of the following supplies to be two-day shipped or bring them this week to our Town Lake location. (Drop off in front of building C.) Some of these will be sent to the neighboring shelters we support as well.

      • Blankets (ideally small, fleece – NO sleeping bags)

      • Medium & large dog coats

      • Moving blankets

      • Tarps

      • Waterproof/self-warming dog blankets

      • Self-warming heating pads

      • Space heaters

      • Heat lamps

    3. Other help for shelters we support
      Many neighboring cities’ animals are also at risk during weather emergencies like this, and are often far less resourced than Austin. We are also asking for help getting the following urgent needs met for these shelters this week (list will update as we receive requests for help):

      • The City of Devine Animal Shelter needs an adopter or foster for the animals here, especially puppies.

      • San Benito needs and adopter or foster for a cat and their dogs here. 

    4. Education and help for community pets
      Read and share this checklist to protect pets where you are.

    • Bring pets inside. The best thing you can do for your pet is to bring them inside with you. While some breeds of dogs are more tolerant of cold weather than others, no pet should be left outside for long periods of time when it is below freezing (32ºF). You know your pet best, so be vigilant about watching for signs of their cold tolerance and limit outdoor activities accordingly.

    • Check your car for cats. Our feline friends like to hide from this weather in car engines and/or wheel wells, so thump the hood of your car a few times and check your wheels for stowaways before you start the engine and take off.

    • Provide a makeshift enclosure for outdoor animals. If you’ve noticed outdoor cats or other animals in your community suffering from the cold (shaking, curled up, etc.) and you are worried about them, create a makeshift shelter for them to stay warm in. A closed box or Rubbermaid bin with a cut out in the side, with towels or blankets, will help keep them safe in the frigid temperatures. Click here for example directions for cat shelters from Alley Cat Advocates and click here for more on what to do for dogs in the cold from Best Friends.

    • Or consider opening your garage slightly (and leaving a heating pad or heat lamp on) to let cats in from the cold.

    • Put a sweater on your pup. If you have a dog with a short coat, you can keep them a bit more insulated by putting a sweater or dog coat on them. Be sure the sweater and coat are completely dry for each outing, though, as damp or wet outerwear could actually make them chillier.

    • Check paws. After outdoor activity, check your pet’s paws for any signs of cracking on the paw pads, redness between toes, or bleeding. Wipe them down after each outing, too, to remove any salt, ice, or chemicals.

    For city information about cold weather shelters and warming centers, visit www.austintexas.gov/alerts.

    Need help with a community pet? Visit the P.A.S.S. Facebook group. P.A.S.S. connects you to community member support for emergency pet food, pet resource assistance, and other emergency pet help.

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  • Mystery Nevada fossil site could be ancient maternity ward

    Mystery Nevada fossil site could be ancient maternity ward

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    NEW YORK — Scientists have uncovered new clues about a curious fossil site in Nevada, a graveyard for dozens of giant marine reptiles. Instead of the site of a massive die-off as suspected, it might have been an ancient maternity ward where the creatures came to give birth.

    The site is famous for its fossils from giant ichthyosaurs — reptiles that dominated the ancient seas and could grow up to the size of a school bus. The creatures — the name means fish lizard — were underwater predators with large paddle-shaped flippers and long jaws full of teeth.

    Since the ichthyosaur bones in Nevada were excavated in the 1950s, many paleontologists have investigated how all these creatures could have died together. Now, researchers have proposed a different theory in a study published Monday in the journal Current Biology.

    “Several lines of evidence all kind of point towards one argument here: That this was a place where giant ichthyosaurs came to give birth,” said co-author Nicholas Pyenson, curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

    Once a tropical sea, the site — part of Nevada’s Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park — now sits in a dry, dusty landscape near an abandoned mining town, said lead author Randy Irmis, a paleontologist at the University of Utah.

    To get a better look at the massive skeletons, which boast vertebrae the size of dinner plates and bones from their flippers as thick as boulders, researchers used 3D scanning to create a detailed digital model, Irmis said.

    They identified fossils from at least 37 ichthyosaurs scattered around the area, dating back about 230 million years. The bones were preserved in different rock layers, suggesting the creatures could have died hundreds of thousands of years apart rather than all at once, Pyenson said.

    A major break came when the researchers spotted some tiny bones among the massive adult fossils, and realized they belonged to embryos and newborns, Pyenson said. The researchers concluded that the creatures traveled to the site in groups for protection as they gave birth, like today’s marine giants. The fossils are believed to be from the mothers and offspring that died there over the years.

    “Finding a place to give birth separated from a place where you might feed is really common in the modern world — among whales, among sharks,” Pyenson said.

    Other clues helped rule out some previous explanations.

    Testing the chemicals in the dirt didn’t turn up any signs of volcanic eruptions or huge shifts to the local environment. And the geology showed that the reptiles were preserved on the ocean floor pretty far from the shore — meaning they probably didn’t die in a mass beaching event, Irmis said.

    The new study offers a plausible explanation for a site that’s baffled paleontologists for decades, said Dean Lomax, an ichthyosaur specialist at England’s University of Manchester who was not involved with the research.

    The case may not be fully closed yet but the study “really helps to unlock a little bit more about this fascinating site,” Lomax said.

    ———

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

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  • Consider Armadillo COVID

    Consider Armadillo COVID

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    This past spring, Amanda Goldberg crouched in the leafy undergrowth of a southwestern Virginia forest and attempted to swab a mouse for COVID. No luck; its nose was too tiny for her tools. “You never think about nostrils until you start having to swab an animal,” Goldberg, a conservation biologist at Virginia Tech University, told me. Larger-nosed creatures that she and her team had trapped, such as raccoons and foxes, had no issue with nose swabs—but for mice, throat samples had to do. The swabs fit reasonably well into their mouths, she said, though they endured a fair bit of munching.

    Goldberg’s throat-swabbing endeavors were part of a study she and her colleagues devised to answer an unexplored question: How common is COVID in wildlife? Of the 333 forest animals her team swabbed around Blacksburg, Virginia, spanning 18 species, one—an opossum—tested positive. This was to be expected, Goldberg said; catching a wild animal that happened to have an active infection right when it was swabbed was like finding Waldo. But the researchers also collected blood samples, and those were more telling about whether the animals had experienced previous bouts with COVID. Analysis by the Molecular Diagnostics Lab and the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech revealed antibodies across 24 animals spanning six species, including the opossum, the Eastern gray squirrel, and two types of mice. “Our minds were blown,” Goldberg said. “It was basically every species we sent” to the lab.

    That animals can get COVID is one of the earliest things we learned about the virus. Despite the endless debate over its origins, SARS-CoV-2 most likely jumped from an animal through an intermediate host to humans in Wuhan. Since then, it has since spread back to a range of animals. People have passed it to household pets, such as dogs and cats, and to a Disney movie’s worth of beasts, including lions, hippos, hyenas, tigers, mink, and hamsters. Three years into the pandemic, animals are still falling sick with COVID, just as we are. COVID is likely circulating more widely in animals than we are aware of, Edward Holmes, a biologist at the University of Sydney, told me. “In all my 30-plus years of doing work on this subject, I have never seen a virus that can infect so many animal species,” he said. More than 500 other mammal species are predicted to be highly susceptible to infection.

    Given that most people nowadays aren’t fretting too much about human-to-human spread, it makes sense that animal-to-human spread has largely been forgotten. But even when there are so many other pandemic concerns, animal COVID can’t be ignored. The consequences of sustained animal transmission are exactly the same as they are in people: The more COVID spreads, the more opportunities the virus has to evolve into new variants. What’s most alarming is the chance that one of those variants could spill back into humans. As we’ve known since the pandemic started, SARS-CoV-2 is not a human virus, but one that can infect multiple animals, including humans. As long as animals are still getting COVID, we’re not out of the doghouse either.

    Perhaps part of the reason COVID in animals has been overlooked—apart from the fact that they’re not people—is that most species don’t seem to get very sick. Animals that have gotten infected generally exhibit mild symptoms—typically some coughing and sluggishness, as in pumas and lions. But our research has gone only fur-deep. “We certainly can’t ask them, ‘Are you feeling headaches, or sluggish?’” said Goldberg, who worries about long-term or invisible symptoms going undiagnosed in species. And so animal COVID has lingered unchecked, increasing the chances that it could mean something bad for us.

    The good news is that the overall risk of getting COVID from animals is considered low, according to the CDC. This is partly explained by evolutionary theory, which predicts that most variants that emerge in an animal population will have adapted to become better at infecting the host animal—not us. But some of them, strictly by chance, “could be highly transmissible or virulent in humans,” Holmes said. “It’s an unpredictable process.” His concern is not that animals will start infecting people en masse—your neighbors are far likelier to do that than raccoons—but that in animals, SARS-CoV-2 could form new variants that can spill over into people. Some scientists believe that Omicron emerged this way in mice, though evidence remains scant.

    A troubling sign is that there’s already some evidence that COVID has made its way from humans to animals, where it mutated, and then made its way back into humans. Take white-tailed deer, by now a well-known COVID host. Every fall, hunters take to the golden meadows and reddening forests of southwestern Ontario to shoot the deer, giving researchers an opportunity to test some of the hunted animals for COVID. The species has been infected with the same variants circulating widely in humans—a handful of Staten Island deer caught Omicron last winter, for example—which suggests that people are infecting them. How the deer get infected still isn’t clear: Extended face time with humans, nosing around in trash, or slurping up our wastewater are all possibilities.

    The researchers in Canada found not only that some of the animals tested positive, but also that the variant they carried had never before been seen in humans, indicating that the virus had been spreading and mutating within the population for a long time, Brad Pickering, a research scientist for the Canadian government who studied the deer, told me. In fact, the new variant is among the most evolutionarily divergent ones identified so far. But despite its differences, it appeared to have infected at least one person who had interacted with deer the week before falling ill. “We can’t make a direct link between them,” Pickering said, but the fact that such a highly diverged deer variant was detected in a human is very suggestive of how that person got sick.

    This research adds to the small but growing body of evidence that the COVID we spread to animals could come back to bite us. Fortunately, this particular spillback does not appear to have had serious consequences for humans; rogue deer variants don’t seem to be circulating in southern Canada. But this is not the sole documented instance of animal-to-human spread: People have been infected by mink in the Netherlands, hamsters in Hong Kong, and a cat in Thailand. Other spillbacks have probably occurred and gone unnoticed. So far, no data show that the animal variants that have spread to humans are more dangerous for us. Even if a potential animal variant isn’t the next Omicron, it could still be better at dodging our existing treatments and vaccines, Pickering said.

    But there is also, frankly, a lack of data. Local wildlife-surveillance efforts led by researchers like Goldberg and Pickering are ongoing, but they do not exist in most countries, Holmes said. An international database of known animal infections, maintained by Complexity Science Hub Vienna, is a promising start. An interactive map shows the locations of previously infected animals, including large hairy armadillos (Argentina), manatees (Brazil), and cats (everywhere). At the very least, with animal COVID, “we need to know what species it’s in, in what abundance, and genetically, what those variants look like,” Holmes said. “It’s absolutely critical to know where [the virus] is going.” Without this, there is no way of knowing how often spillback occurs and whether it puts humans at risk. And we can’t tell whether new COVID variants are also putting animals in danger, Goldberg said; a devastating Omicron-like variant could emerge in their populations too.

    The steps we need to take to mitigate the animal-COVID problem—and prevent other zoonotic diseases from jumping into humans—are clear, even if they don’t seem to be happening. Eliminating wet markets where wild animals are sold is an obvious preventive measure, but it has been difficult to implement because the livelihoods and diets of many people, especially in the global South, depend on them. As climate change and land development decimate even more habitats, wildlife will be forced into ever-closer quarters with us, fostering an even more efficient exchange of viruses between species. Unlike mask wearing and other straightforward options for curbing the human spread of COVID, preventing its transmission to, from, and among animals will require major upheavals to the way our societies run, likely far greater than we are willing to commit to.

    Humans tend to act like COVID ends up afflicting us after traveling through a long chain of species. But to think so is like living in the Middle Ages, Holmes said, when the Earth was considered the center of the universe. As we learned then, we are not that important: Humans are but a node in an immense network of species that viruses move through in many directions. Just as animal viruses infect us, human viruses can spread to animals (measles, for example, kills a variety of great apes). There are definitely bigger problems than animal COVID—no one needs to hunker down for fear of sneezing deer—but as long as animals keep getting infected, we can’t overlook what that means for us. Paying attention to animal COVID often starts with a single swab—and a snout to stick it in.

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  • Austin Pets Alive! | 27 Roosters Rescued From Cockfighting Urgently…

    Austin Pets Alive! | 27 Roosters Rescued From Cockfighting Urgently…

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    Dec 19, 2022

    Twenty-seven roosters who were rescued out of cockfighting, now need urgent placement at sanctuaries or approved homes. If they are not placed, they may be euthanized as soon as early next week.

    These roosters were rescued out of a cockfighting bust on November 10, in which the Austin Police Department Animal Cruelty Unit seized 43 animals (9 hens and 34 roosters). After the court case, the animals were removed from the owners. The hens and two roosters were quickly adopted, leaving 32 roosters remaining at Austin Animal Center (AAC).

    AAC notified Austin Pets Alive! recently that they would like assistance placing these roosters with sanctuaries or in homes, given APA!’s success in saving the lives of animals who would be euthanized in nearly any other shelter. We did not hesitate to say yes, but time is of the essence.

    APA! has assisted with finding sanctuaries for some of the roosters already. Today there are approximately 27 birds still in the city shelter.

    These are animals who were saved out of unimaginable cruelty. “These roosters did not get a happy start to life,” says Austin Pets Alive!’s senior program manager Kelly Holt. “Cockfighting is a brutal, illegal sport. We want to help give these roosters a second chance at life, because it’s the right thing to do.”

    We don’t know the history of every individual rooster, but there are clues about what each bird has experienced. Some still have their combs and wattles—the fleshy skin on top of their head, and below their beak—and their spurs, which are horn-like leg growths the animals use to protect themselves. These are likely the younger roosters, who haven’t yet been forced to fight.

    They may have an easier time learning to trust humans and integrating into flocks, than the older birds. “The ones who have their combs and wattles removed or spurs cut are likely ones who have fought or been trained to fight. They will take more patience and time,” Kelly says.

    APA! can offer support and guidance for any potential adopters and interested sanctuaries about training, rehabilitation, and care. Kelly recommends, to start, that anyone adopting one of the rescued roosters to “give them a space to decompress and feel safe.” The roosters can be introduced to a flock of hens, and may even be able to integrate with them right away, though others may take more time.

    What is certain is that these animals, saved from a cruelty they never should have had to endure, should not now be killed simply for lack of having a safe place to stay. But time is running out.

    APA! knows that the remaining roosters likely have a few days before “quality of life” decisions will be made. If you know of a sanctuary, or person who could undergo screening from a sanctuary, interested in adopting these roosters, please email [email protected].

    “It’s a challenge finding these roosters safe homes, and it would be easy to shrug our shoulders,” Kelly says. “But I love working for an animal welfare nonprofit willing to step up and champion the lives of animals who need our help the most.”

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  • Alabama closes some oystering areas, sparking complaints

    Alabama closes some oystering areas, sparking complaints

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    DAUPHIN ISLAND, Ala. — Alabama officials have closed some oystering grounds in Mobile Bay, prompting complaints from harvesters.

    The move by the Alabama Marine Resource Division is part of a continuing effort to keep wild oyster reefs in the Gulf of Mexico from being killed by overharvesting.

    The state closed the western half of its oystering area in Mobile Bay on Nov. 23, WKRG-TV reports, and closed two small but productive areas in the eastern half of the bay on Tuesday.

    Meeting with oyster harvesters on Dauphin Island, AMRD director Scott Bannon said the closure was part of an effort to rebuild the state’s population of the bivalve.

    “Unfortunately, there’s just not enough oyster harvest available to do a longer season and to maintain that,” Bannon told the television station. “We would love to do that. We’d love to keep Alabama product in the market longer; we would love for them to be working longer and making good money.”

    Some harvesters say the state is cutting off their main source of income during the peak winter season for Gulf oysters.

    “They shut us down all the time and there’s oysters out there and they won’t let us work them,” said Harry Harris.

    Much harvesting is done from small boats, and oyster catchers say the water is too choppy for those vessels in the parts of Mobile Bay that are still open.

    “A lot of small vessels can’t get that limit; they can’t even get out there,” said Michael Williams. “It’s too rough.”

    Bannon said a new grid system implemented by the state is meant to keep small areas like the ones closed from being overworked.

    The department opened Alabama’s reefs Oct. 3. It reported late that month that the number of harvesters seeking oysters had risen from last year and that 1,200 sacks of oysters per day were being pulled out of Mobile Bay, up from 800 a day last year. Oyster harvesters are limited to six sacks per day, each holding 85 pounds (39 kilograms). Bannon said those catching the limit can make $500 a day.

    Other Gulf states have also imposed restrictions.

    Mississippi allowed no harvest at all in 2021-2022 and has not announced an opening date for this year. That state’s oyster stocks, already in sharp decline, collapsed after the Mississippi Sound was swamped by Mississippi River floodwaters released through the Bonnet Carre Spillway in 2019. Heavy rains also dumped large amounts of freshwater into the Mississippi Sound in 2021, again upsetting the salinity needed for oysters to thrive.

    The spillway release also led Louisiana to close public oyster harvests east of the Mississippi River from 2019 through 2022. Louisiana reopened those areas in October.

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  • Beloved Mountain Lion P-22 Euthanized After Likely Being Hit By Vehicle

    Beloved Mountain Lion P-22 Euthanized After Likely Being Hit By Vehicle

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    A famed mountain lion was euthanized Saturday morning after wildlife officials determined he had likely been hit by a vehicle.

    P-22, a male cougar estimated to be about 12 years old, was suffering from “several severe injuries and chronic health problems,” according to a statement from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

    A photo of P-22 in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park in 2014.

    U.S. National Park Service via AP

    A mountain lion in the wild is considered to be in “old age” after 10, according to the Mountain Lion Foundation.

    P-22 had been tranquilized Monday in Los Angeles’ Los Feliz neighborhood for a medical exam. Prior to his capture, wildlife officials expressed worry that he was “exhibiting signs of distress.” The big cat had also raised concerns after snatching a leashed Chihuahua from a dog walker last month. The dog did not survive.

    A tranquilized P-22 being transported for a veterinary assessment earlier this week.
    A tranquilized P-22 being transported for a veterinary assessment earlier this week.

    California Department of Fish and Wildlife via AP

    Veterinarians with the San Diego Zoo Safari Park found that P-22 had “significant trauma” to his head and internal organs, according to the wildlife department. This confirmed suspicions that he had suffered a recent injury, which officials said was likely a vehicle strike. He also had kidney disease, arthritis and “extensive” parasitic skin infection. The combination of these conditions and his age led the veterinary team to “unanimously” recommend euthanasia.

    P-22 first appeared in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park in 2012, the Los Angeles Times said in its comprehensive obituary of the celebrated cat. Scientists fitted him with a radio collar to study his movements, and he quickly became a local celebrity. His star continued to rise with a story from the Times that year and then a National Geographic profile.

    To get to the park from his presumed birthplace in the Santa Monica Mountains, P-22 had to cross two perilous freeways, the 405 and 101. Though he survived the journey, he was left more or less boxed in by the busy roads and would have had to cross back to find a mate. Instead, he roamed the Los Angeles area solo for a decade.

    P-22 sticks his tongue out in a 2014 photo taken in Griffith Park.
    P-22 sticks his tongue out in a 2014 photo taken in Griffith Park.

    National Park Service via AP

    When environmentalists proposed a wildlife bridge over the 101 to help animals cross the freeway, P-22 became the face of the project. Construction on the bridge began in April, the Times noted.

    He also became the poster animal for efforts to ban rodenticides after he became ill in 2014 following rat poison exposure.

    P-22 suffering from mange in 2014, left, and after his recovery in 2015. Wildlife officials believed his overall poor health in the earlier photo was related to rat poison exposure.
    P-22 suffering from mange in 2014, left, and after his recovery in 2015. Wildlife officials believed his overall poor health in the earlier photo was related to rat poison exposure.

    Fans of P-22 mourned his loss, and conservation advocates hoped that even after his death, he would continue to spur change to protect mountain lions from threats like vehicle strikes.

    “My heart breaks for P-22,” J.P. Rose, the policy director for the Center for Biological Diversity’s Urban Wildlands program, said in a statement sent to HuffPost. “I hope we can channel this grief into action to safely coexist with and protect mountain lions, which are headed toward extinction in Southern California.”

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  • Famed LA mountain lion euthanized following health problems

    Famed LA mountain lion euthanized following health problems

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    LOS ANGELES — P-22, the celebrated mountain lion that took up residence in the middle of Los Angeles and became a symbol of urban pressures on wildlife, was euthanized Saturday after dangerous changes in his behavior led to examinations that revealed worsening health and injuries likely caused by a car.

    Officials with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said the decision to euthanize the beloved big cat was made after veterinarians determined it had a skull fracture and chronic illnesses including a skin infection and diseases of the kidneys and liver.

    “His prognosis was deemed poor,” said the agency’s director, Chuck Bonham, who fought back tears during a news conference announcing the cougar’s death. “This really hurts … it’s been an incredibly difficult several days.”

    The animal became the face of the campaign to build a wildlife crossing over a Los Angeles-area freeway to give big cats, coyotes, deer and other wildlife a safe path to the nearby Santa Monica Mountains, where they have room to roam.

    Seth Riley, wildlife branch chief with the National Park Service, called P-22 “an ambassador for his species,” with the wildlife bridge a symbol of his lasting legacy.

    State and federal wildlife officials announced earlier this month that they were concerned that P-22 “may be exhibiting signs of distress” due in part to aging, noting the animal needed to be studied to determine what steps to take.

    The aging mountain was captured in a residential backyard in the trendy Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles on Dec. 12, a month after killing a Chihuahua on a dogwalker’s leash. An anonymous report that indicated P-22 may have been struck by a vehicle was confirmed by a CT scan that revealed injuries to his head and torso, wildlife officials said.

    State authorities determined that the only likely options were euthanasia or confinement in an animal sanctuary — a difficult prospect for a wild lion.

    P-22 was believed to be 12 years old, longer-lived than most wild male mountain lions.

    His name was his number in a National Park Service study of the challenges the wide-roaming big cats face in habitat fragmented by urban sprawl and hemmed in by massive freeways that are not only dangerous to cross but are also barriers to the local population’s genetic diversity.

    The cougar was regularly recorded on security cameras strolling through residential areas near his home in Griffith Park, an island of wilderness and picnic areas in the middle of Los Angeles.

    “P-22’s survival on an island of wilderness in the heart of Los Angeles captivated people around the world and revitalized efforts to protect our diverse native species and ecosystems,” Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement Saturday.

    Ground was broken this year on the wildlife crossing, which will stretch 200 feet (60.96 meters) over U.S. 101. Construction is expected to be completed by early 2025.

    P-22 usually hunted deer and coyotes, but in November the National Park Service confirmed that the cougar had attacked and killed a Chihuahua mix that was being walked in the narrow streets of the Hollywood Hills.

    The cougar also is suspected of attacking another Chihuahua in the Silver Lake neighborhood this month.

    Beth Pratt with the National Wildlife Federation said she hopes P-22’s life and death will inspire the construction of more wildlife crossings in California and across the nation. The nonprofit was a major advocate for the LA-area bridge.

    “He changed the way we look at LA. And his influencer status extended around the world, as he inspired millions of people to see wildlife as their neighbors,” Pratt said.

    ———

    Associated Press reporter John Antczak contributed.

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  • Women Convicted Of Criminal Trespassing For Feeding Cats On County Property

    Women Convicted Of Criminal Trespassing For Feeding Cats On County Property

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    Two Alabama women have been convicted of multiple charges related to their efforts to feed stray and feral cats on public property and get them spayed and neutered.

    Beverly Roberts, 85, and Mary Alston, 61, had been feeding and trapping cats on the grounds of the Elmore County Courthouse in the city of Wetumpka, the Montgomery Advertiser reported. When they trapped cats, they would pay to get them spayed or neutered and adopt or return them to the area.

    Trapping, neutering and returning cats to their former location is a common technique aimed at reducing the outdoor cat population, typically in cases where the cats are too feral to adjust to an indoor home.

    Beverly Roberts, 85, and Mary Alston, 61, were arrested after they were caught feeding and trapping cats on the grounds of the Elmore County Courthouse in Alabama.

    Alberto Case via Getty Images

    Roberts told the Washington Post that she had trapped at least 23 cats over the past year, and all but two were adopted into new homes.

    But some local officials said that the food set out for the felines simply attracted more cats, as well as other animals, including buzzards. Richard Beyer, chief operations officer for Elmore County, testified that the cats and buzzards had caused damage to vehicles in the courthouse parking lot.

    In March, county officials warned Roberts to stop feeding cats on courthouse property. And in June, both she and Alston were arrested on county-owned property near the courthouse. There, AL.com wrote, an officer “found Alston in possession of Fancy Feast.”

    Bodycam footage published by AL.com showed a Wetumpka police officer approaching Alston on the morning of June 25 as she reacted with disbelief. “Y’all have three cop cars because I’m feeding cats?” she asked. The officer then warned Alston that she could go to jail if she returned.

    Footage from less than an hour later showed the officers coming back to find Alston still there and Roberts with her. The officers ultimately handcuffed and arrested both women. After one officer threatened that things could “get ugly” if Roberts didn’t follow instructions, she called him a “son of a bitch.”

    At a bench trial on Tuesday, Wetumpka Municipal Judge Jeff Courtney found Roberts guilty of criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct and Alston guilty of criminal trespassing and interfering with governmental operations.

    Defense lawyers for Alston and Roberts told the Montgomery Advisor that they plan to appeal the decision and demand a jury trial for the two women.

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  • Planned wind farm told it will need to shut down for five months a year to protect parrots

    Planned wind farm told it will need to shut down for five months a year to protect parrots

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    An Orange-Bellied Parrot perched on the edge of a feeding bowl. The species is listed as being critically endangered.

    Margot Kiesskalt | Istock | Getty Images

    Plans for a major new wind farm in Australia were given the thumbs up this month — on the provision its turbines go offline for five months a year to protect a parrot species.

    In an environmental assessment report of the Robbins Island Renewable Energy Park, Tasmania’s Environment Protection Authority said its board had “determined to approve the proposal” for the project, which could have as many as 122 wind turbines and is overseen by ACEN Australia.

    One of the approval conditions relates to the Orange-bellied parrot, which the Australian government says is critically endangered.

    “Unless otherwise approved in writing by the EPA Board, all WTG [wind turbine generators] must be shut down during the northern OBP migration period (1 March to 31 May inclusive) and the southern OBP migration period (15 September to 15 November inclusive),” the EPA document says.

    Read more about energy from CNBC Pro

    In a statement last week, EPA board chair Andrew Paul said the organization had concluded that “significant mitigation measures” were needed in relation to “potential impacts on the orange-bellied parrot population.”

    This was due to “the limited knowledge about the importance of Robbins Island in the annual northern and southern migrations” as well as a need to account for a National Recovery Plan for the species.

    “This has led to the inclusion of [project approval] condition FF6 which imposes shutdown periods during the migrations totaling five months when the turbines cannot operate,” Paul added.

    Robbins Island is located in waters off the northwest coast of Tasmania, a large island and Australian state. If all goes to plan, the total capacity of the proposed wind farm could be as much as 900 megawatts.

    CNBC contacted ACEN Australia via the Robbins Island project’s website, but did not receive a response prior to publication. The Ayala Corporation, parent company of ACEN Australia majority-owner ACEN Corporation, did not respond to a CNBC request for comment.

    In a Facebook post, project developers said they welcomed approval from the EPA, adding that further approvals were needed from the Circular Head Council and the Commonwealth Government’s Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. These were expected in early 2023, they said.

    In comments reported by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ACEN Australia Chief Operating Officer David Pollington described the switch-off condition as “completely unexpected.”

    The firm would “need to consider our options going forward,” the ABC report quoted Pollington as saying.

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    Amid global plans to ramp up wind power capacity in the years ahead, the interaction of wind turbines with the natural world — including marine and bird life — is likely to become a key area of debate.

    The U.K.-based Royal Society for the Protection of Birds warns that wind farms “can harm birds through disturbance, displacement, acting as barriers, habitat loss and collision,” adding that “impacts can arise from a single development and cumulatively multiple projects.”

    The U.S. Energy Information Administration has said that some wind projects and turbines can result in bat and bird casualties.

    “These deaths may contribute to declines in the population of species also affected by other human-related impacts,” it notes. “The wind energy industry and the U.S. government are researching ways to reduce the effect of wind turbines on birds and bats.”

    Brussels-based industry body WindEurope says the effects of projects can be prevented “by adequately planning, siting, and designing wind farms.”

    “The impact of wind farms on birds and bats is extremely low compared to the impact of climate change and other human activity,” it adds.

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  • Exam finds famed LA mountain lion may have been hit by car

    Exam finds famed LA mountain lion may have been hit by car

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    LOS ANGELES — The famous Hollywood-roaming mountain lion known as P-22 is drastically underweight and was probably struck and injured by a car, wildlife experts who conducted a health examination on the big cat said Tuesday.

    The male cougar, whose killing of a leashed dog has raised concerns about its behavior, probably won’t be released back into the wild and could be sent to an animal sanctuary or euthanized, depending on its health, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said.

    “Nobody is taking that kind of decision lightly,” spokesperson Jordan Traverso said during a videoconference. He added the agency understands “the importance of this animal to the community and to California,” and “we recognize the sadness of it.”

    P-22 was captured and tranquilized on Monday in the trendy Los Feliz neighborhood near his usual haunt of Griffith Park, an island of wilderness and picnic areas in the midst of the Los Angeles urban sprawl.

    State and federal wildlife officials announced last week that they were concerned the aging cat “may be exhibiting signs of distress” due in part to aging, noting the animal needed to be studied to determine what steps to take.

    Tuesday’s examination found the cat had an eye injury, probably received from being hit by a car and more tests would be conducted to determine if the animal suffered additional head trauma, said Deana Clifford, the senior wildlife veterinarian with the department.

    A computerized tomography scan is scheduled for later this week to look into other possible chronic health issues that may have caused his decline, Clifford said.

    P-22 was first captured in 2012 and fitted with a GPS tracking collar as part of a National Park Service study. The cougar is regularly recorded on security cameras strolling through residential areas near Griffith Park.

    P-22 is believed to be about 12 years old, making him the oldest Southern California cougar currently being studied. Most mountain lions live about a decade.

    “This is an old cat, and old cats get old-cat diseases,” Clifford said. “Any of us who had cats at home have seen this.”

    “We’re working through all of those issues and we’ll take a totality of the findings into account to try to make the best decision we can for the cat,” she said.

    P-22 usually hunts deer and coyotes, but in November the National Park Service confirmed that the cougar had attacked and killed a Chihuahua mix that was being walked in the narrow streets of the Hollywood Hills.

    The cougar also is suspected of attacking another Chihuahua in the Silver Lake neighborhood this month.

    P-22 has lived much of his life in Griffith Park, crossing two major freeways to get there. He was the face of the campaign to build a wildlife crossing over a Los Angeles-area freeway to give big cats, coyotes, deer and other wildlife a safe path to the nearby Santa Monica Mountains, where they have room to roam.

    Ground was broken this year on the bridge, which will stretch 200 feet (some 60 meters) over U.S. 101. Construction is expected to be completed by early 2025.

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  • Court hears arguments in Alaska refuge road dispute

    Court hears arguments in Alaska refuge road dispute

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    JUNEAU, Alaska — A federal appeals court heard arguments Tuesday in a dispute over a land exchange proposed during the Trump administration that is aimed at building a road through a national wildlife refuge in Alaska that residents of a remote Alaska community see as a critical health and safety issue.

    The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last month vacated a decision by a divided three-judge appeals panel that reversed a ruling rejecting a proposed land exchange. In setting aside the decision from the three-judge panel, the court also agreed to a rehearing of the matter by a fuller panel of judges. Conservation groups had petitioned for the rehearing, which took place Tuesday in California.

    During the hearing, attorneys for the U.S. government, state of Alaska and conservation groups were peppered with narrowly tailored questions.

    Residents of the remote community of King Cove have long sought a land connection through Izembek National Wildlife Refuge to Cold Bay, which is about 18 miles (29 kilometers) away and has an all-weather airport. King Cove residents contend this is a health and safety issue. The refuge, near the tip of the Alaska Peninsula, contains internationally recognized habitat for migrating waterfowl.

    In 2013, during the Obama administration, Interior Department officials, including then-Secretary Sally Jewell, declined a land exchange, citing an environmental review that showed construction of a road would lead to “significant degradation of irreplaceable ecological resources.” Efforts to move forward with an exchange during the Trump administration faced legal challenges, including a 2019 agreement advanced by then-Secretary David Bernhardt that is the subject of the current litigation.

    Last year, a U.S. Justice Department attorney, in arguing a position taken under the Trump administration, told an appeals court panel President Joe Biden’s Interior secretary, Deb Haaland, planned to review the record and visit King Cove before taking her own position.

    Haaland visited King Cove earlier this year and at the time of her Alaska visit told reporters she was “in a learning process” regarding the issue. Interior spokesperson Melissa Schwartz said by email Tuesday she had no updates to share on the matter.

    Attorneys for the U.S. government, in court documents, argued against a rehearing of the case. They said the ruling from the three-judge panel in March “correctly concluded that Secretary Bernhardt assumed the facts that motivated Secretary Jewell remained the same, but placed more weight on the health and well-being of the people of King Cove than the other factors.”

    Bridget Psarianos, an attorney with Trustees for Alaska, which is representing a consortium of conservation groups in the case, said last month that in agreeing to review the matter, the court “signaled that there are significant legal questions with the split panel’s ruling that an unelected Interior Secretary may overrule Congress by giving away lands designated as Wilderness.”

    The court did not indicate Tuesday when it might rule.

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