Tag: southwestern united states

What a difference a year makes: From nearly no snow to a potentially record-breaking pile-up in California | CNN

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After a remarkable series of winter storms, California water officials reported Monday in their April snow survey the Sierra snowpack is among the largest on record, dating back to the 1950s.

The state’s Department of Water Resources surveys mountain snowpack once a month through the winter, and the April survey is usually the most consequential. Officials use the measurement to forecast the state’s water resources for the rest of the year.

Last year’s survey was pitifully low. Water officials had just a small patch of shallow snow to measure after a disappointing winter. The snow depth on April 2 was just 2.5 inches – part of a disastrous multiyear dry spell that triggered water cuts across the state.

But what a difference a year makes.

Twelve months later, the mountains are now loaded with white gold. South of Lake Tahoe at Phillips Station, as snowflakes fell from the surrounding hills, officials measured a snow depth of 126.5 inches and a snow water equivalent – how much liquid water the snow holds – of 54 inches.

Snowpack in the California Sierra is 221% of normal for this location at this time of year, officials at the Department of Water Resources said. Statewide, snowpack is averaging 237% compared to normal for the date – a significant boost after the back-to-back storms.

Sean de Guzman, snow survey manager for the state Department of Water Resources, said this is the “deepest snowpack” he has personally ever measured, noting that there have only been three other years when California snowpack has been greater than 200% of average in April.

“This year is going to join that list and be another year well above 200% of average,” de Guzman told journalists at a briefing Monday. “We still are waiting for more snow data and snow survey results to come in from our various cooperators and partners. But as of this morning, as of right now, it’s looking like this year, statewide snowpack will most likely be either the first- or second-biggest snowpack on record dating back to 1950.”

Snowpack in the Sierra is critical to the state’s water resources. The snow acts as a natural reservoir – melting into rivers and human-made reservoirs through the spring and summer – and accounts for 30% of California’s freshwater supply in an average year.

The state’s largest reservoirs, which were recently at critically low levels, have been replenished and are running higher than their historical averages.

While the heavy rains caused widespread flash flooding and several feet of snow trapped residents in their homes in the higher elevations, the deluge of snow and rain has largely improved California soil moisture and streamflow levels after being gripped by the drought for so long.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom last month also announced the removal of some drought restrictions, while the Department of Water Resources said it will increase the amount of water deliveries to 75% of requested water supplies this year – up from the initial plan of only 5% last year.

“Even though we have this extraordinary snowpack, we know that the droughts are getting deeper and more frequent, and that means we have to use water efficiently no matter what are hydrologic conditions,” Department of Water Resources Director Karla Nemeth said. “And the governor has emphasized that as the path forward for California, and to make sure that we are resilient as an economy and for our environment that we all continue to use water wisely in the state.”

‘Unbelievable’: CNN reporter reacts to record snowfall in California

To find out just how much snow the Sierra Nevada were buried under this winter, Airborne Snow Observatories Inc., which provides its data to California’s Department of Water Resources, flies over the range to gauge what’s fallen.

“We measure snowpack wall-to-wall over mountains from aircraft using lasers and spectrometers,” said Tom Painter, the company’s CEO. “From that information, we can then know the full distribution of how much water there is in a mountain snowpack and also how fast it’s going to melt. That’s allowed us then to change forecast errors from being pretty large to very small and really dramatically changed water management in the west.”

The planes fly for about six hours at a time, collecting different kinds of data through open portals in the belly of their planes, which they process and deliver within about 72 hours to help municipalities allocate water resources, generate hydroelectricity and meet environmental metrics.

“The scanning LIDAR is a fancy laser pointer, essentially, that sprays out laser pulses – about 500,000 pulses per second – flying along at 23,000 feet, and measures how long it takes for the laser pulse to go out, hit the surface and come back,” Painter said. “And we can use that information to then know the surface of the snow. Every square foot of mountain snow is touched by our lasers.”

The scientists then compare this data to when they’ve flown over the same area when there wasn’t any snow.

“The difference between those two is snow depth,” Painter explained. “Depth times density is equal to what’s called snow water equivalent, which is the most important water metric out there that allows civilization to exist in the Western US. It really is the mountain snowpack that drives all of this civilization.”

The year-to-year difference couldn’t be starker, Painter said, adding that this year, there will be snow in the Sierra into the summer.

Last year, the company ended its flyover season in late May; this year, they expect to be flying until August.

Courtesy Airborne Snow Observatories, Inc.

For the Tuolumne River Basin around Yosemite National Park – which supplies water to San Francisco and other Bay Area municipalities – imagery from last year this time is mostly dark blue: barely any snow. This year, the same area is swathed in orange, yellow and white, indicating snow depths of 10 to 20 feet.

On Mammoth Mountain in the eastern Sierra, about 60 feet of snow has fallen this year, breaking the old record set in 2010. And snow depths have reached more than 100 feet in some areas around Mammoth. The amount of snow is so profound that the resort has already announced that the ski season will last through the end of July this year.

“It’s fascinating to look at how the cliffs up on the upper mountain have really gotten buried and the gullies between them are filling in to where they just are kind of disappearing,” Painter noted, adding that he’s never seen Mammoth Mountain this covered.

Despite all the rain and snow that has boosted reservoirs and allowed officials to lift some water restrictions, scientists still say drought concerns are a priority as climate change continues to impact California’s weather.

“The climate models had already been predicting what it is that we are seeing now, which is this hydroclimate whiplash where we’re going from really dry years to really wet years,” Painter said, adding that this whiplash is hard on water managers. “That means we could very well have a dry year next year. No one really knows.”

And as temperatures warm again as summer approaches, experts warn more flood threats lie ahead as the snow melts. California water officials said that after today, they plan to shift their focus “from snowpack building to snowpack melting,” and actively support emergency flood protection efforts.

“We’re now heading into another issue of increasing solar radiation and chances of warm nights and lack of refreeze, and that brings up snowmelt flooding concerns,” said Benjamin Hatchett, researcher at the Desert Research Institute. “That’s going to be something to think about as we move into the spring, summer with this colossal snowpack sitting above us.”

Hatchett also warns not to get “caught up in all these benefits,” and consider what all this water can mean for vegetation growth and wildfire fuel.

“As things start to dry out and get warmer, this is a good year to really think about what’s going to happen, what’s growing, and how can you deal with [the fuels] to reduce your fire risk in upcoming seasons,” Hatchett said.

Even with California’s historic snowpack this year, the state still pulls about a third of its water needs for the southern part of the state from the Colorado River Basin, where the snowfall totals improved this year, but were not as strong as the numbers posted in California.

The country’s largest reservoirs – Lake Powell and Lake Mead – in the Colorado River Basin are still hovering at or near-record-low levels following years of drought and overuse. But it could also improve in the coming months as snowpack levels rise in the region.

“That’s good news for a very strained and stressed system,” Hatchett said. “But we probably need five, six or maybe 10 more years of this to really make a big dent in the situation there, but this is much more encouraging to see.”

In California, water officials will head back to Phillips Station in May to measure more snow. The last time a May snow survey was necessary was in 2020, when the drought began.

The difference between last year and this year in California is significant. And although the state has all this excess of water now, climate experts warn that drought is always looming, especially in a drier, hotter and thirstier world.

Nemeth said there is much more work to be done to prepare and “adapt to our new climate realities.”

“You really get a sense of the extreme nature of our climate here in California,” she said. “There’s lots of fascinating research around the degree to which climate has been driving the intensity of these storms, but also the very rapid shift from very dry to very wet.”

“It is truly an extraordinary moment,” she said. “But we don’t get to stop and enjoy that for too long.”

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April 3, 2023
California’s salmon fishers warn of ‘hard times coming’ as they face canceled season | CNN

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Sarah Bates, the captain of a fishing boat in San Francisco, had a feeling something was wrong with the chinook salmon population back in December.

“The fish weren’t coming up the river, and to a certain extent, we were just waiting,” Bates, 46, told CNN. “We thought the run was late. And then at some point, it just became clear that fish weren’t coming.”

But she and other fishermen weren’t sure how bad it could be. It later turned out that catchers along much of the West Coast likely won’t be fishing for salmon at all this year.

“Salmon is my livelihood. It’s my main fishery,” she said. “And it’s the main fishery for a lot of folks in Fisherman’s Wharf. So, I think there are a lot of us that have some hard times coming.”

In early March, West Coast regulators announced that they may recommend a ban on salmon fishing this year. It would be only the second time salmon fishing season has been canceled in California.

The looming ban comes as the West sees a massive decline in fish populations following a blistering, multiyear drought that drained reservoirs and dehydrated much of the land, particularly in California.

The potential closure, which the Pacific Fishery Management Council is discussing in a multi-day meeting that began Saturday, would affect tens of thousands of people like Bates who depend on salmon fishing for their economic livelihood. It will also upset thousands of Californians who enjoy recreational fishing during the summer.

The council, which manages fisheries off the Pacific Coast and advises the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on potential bans like this one, had previously recommended three options for this year – but all of them would result in a cancellation of the salmon fishing season through at least next spring.

These are necessary measures, according to California and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife officials, to protect the dwindling Chinook salmon populations, which scientists say have fallen to their lowest levels in recent years due to rampant dam construction as well as climate change-fueled droughts.

“The outlook is really bad,” Ben Enticknap, Pacific campaign manager and senior scientist with Oceana, told CNN.

Beginning their lives in freshwater systems, then traveling out to the salty ocean and back again to their spawning grounds, Pacific salmon face a variety of dangers.

Manmade dams, which were built decades ago and are prolific on Oregon and California rivers, prevent many salmon species from swimming back to their spawning grounds. Large swaths of wetlands and other estuaries, where smaller fish can feed and find refuge, have also been plagued by infrastructure development.

Then there are the consequences of the climate crisis: Warmer water temperatures and drought-fueled water shortages in rivers and streams can kill salmon eggs and juvenile fish.

Michael Milstein, a spokesperson for NOAA Fisheries, also said the models that many scientists use to forecast salmon returns and fishing success “appear to be getting less accurate.”

“They have been overestimating returning salmon numbers and underestimating the number caught,” Milstein told CNN. “That has further complicated the picture. Since the models are based on past experience, they struggle with conditions we have not seen before.”

In late 2022, one of California’s driest years on record, estimates show that the Sacramento River chinook returned to the Central Valley at near-record-low numbers. Meanwhile, the Klamath River, which flows from Oregon to California, had the second-lowest forecast for chinook salmon since 1997, when the current assessment method started.

State and federal scientists forecast that less than 170,000 adult salmon will return to the Sacramento River this year – one of the lowest forecasts since 2008, which was the only other time the salmon season was closed. They also estimate that less than 104,000 will likely return to the Klamath River.

“Climate change is expected to be detrimental to Pacific salmon populations at every life stage,” Enticknap said. “We know that the salmon need cold and clean freshwater for spawning and for growth, and that climate change and this megadrought have decreased water flows and increased river temperatures in a way that’s lethal for salmon.”

The US Bureau of Reclamation, which controls some of the dams in the Klamath River, announced in February that it would cut flows on the river due to historic lows from the drought, prompting concerns it would kill salmon further downstream.

“There’s a lot at stake with the Pacific salmon in the West; they’ve been so important to communities as a source of food, and when that’s at risk, those communities and cultures are at risk,” Enticknap added. “There’s also so many species of wildlife that depend on healthy populations. They’re the backbone of the ecosystem here.”

The $1.4 billion salmon fishing industry provides 23,000 jobs to California’s economy, and businesses that rely on large salmon populations have been particularly devastated, according to the Golden State Salmon Association.

“When someone catches a salmon, it’s really an emotional experience because the fish is so magnificent,” Andy Guiliano, a 59-year-old owner of a charter boat company, told CNN. “People really have a connection with the salmon.”

In the past 52 years, the family-owned business Fish Emeryville has chartered patrons to fish for chinook salmon. Guiliano said salmon fishing is what reels in roughly 50% of the business’ revenue.

During the ban, Guiliano said, he and other fishermen would have to make do with other fish, though he emphasized that nothing can compete with the revenue that salmon brings in.

“It’s a poor second tier. It won’t sustain the amount of effort and it is not a replacement,” Guiliano said. “We might get 10 to 15 % [of business] back.”

While the megadrought largely contributed to the downfall in salmon numbers, some fishing groups blame the way California distributes its water.

“The shutdown we are seeing now is completely avoidable,” said John McManus, the senior policy director of the Golden State Salmon Association. “Decisions made during the drought deprived salmon of the water that they need to survive. By doing so, they took away our livelihood.”

Jordan Traverso, a spokesperson for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, said water management is part of the salmon strategy. But Traverso argues that water policy in California is much more complex, underscoring concerns with regards to agriculture and pointing to the rapidly warming climate.

“Recent decisions about agriculture aren’t the reason for low numbers because these fish are returning from the ocean voyage as part of their journey,” Traverso told CNN. “Climate disruption is causing strings of dry years and hotter temperatures, shrinking salmon habitat and eliminating the space for them to rebound.”

The rivers in the middle of California are largely diverted to agriculture. The result is that these rivers are not cold enough for salmon to reproduce and not high enough to help baby salmon swim back to the ocean.

“We have major issues with barriers to passage in their historic habitat, with dams preventing them from utilizing hundreds of miles of it,” Traverso said.

The chain reaction from the announcement has already affected a huge swath of business, from bait shops to restaurants that put salmon on the table.

“San Francisco is all about the two iconic California fisheries, which are Dungeness crab and our local king salmon,” Joe Conte, owner of Water2Table, a fish distribution company, told CNN. He said he has been delivering to some of the best restaurants in the Bay Area for more than a decade.

“It’s disastrous for the fishermen and for us on the pier,” Conte added.

To meet needs, fishermen can dip into other species, but they run the risk of depleting those populations as well, as they did in 2008.

“We know exactly what’s going to happen,” Guiliano said. “We saw an enormous amount of effort on the California halibut inside of San Francisco Bay. And then there was four or five years following where the fishery was really poor.”

Up north in the Klamath River basin, the impact is taking an additional emotional and cultural toll on Native Americans. The Karuk, Hoop and Yurok tribes, in particular, have long fished for the chinook for subsistence. Other fish along the basin like the two endangered native suckerfish – the C’waam and Koptu – are also under threat.

While some tribes have set their own catch limits, others have made the tough decision to stop their hunting and fishing in hopes of the species’ recovery.

But as planet-warming pollution rises in the atmosphere, the impacts on biodiversity are ubiquitous. Without salmon, which are a keystone species, other wildlife that depend on it will suffer.

Last month, the West Coast fishery managers held a public hearing to allow stakeholders to comment on the proposed cancellation.

What’s surprising, experts say, is that many fishermen support the closure to save the dwindling salmon population, noting that they need every fish to come back to the river.

“One striking thing is that the fishing community – the commercial fleet and recreational fishing groups – have largely supported the closure of the salmon season,” Milstein said. “That has been apparent in the public comments at the council and elsewhere. They argue that they should not be fishing when the stocks have declined to this level.”

On the Klamath River, salmon recovery efforts are underway. After a decadeslong campaign by tribal organizers, the federal government in 2022 approved the removal of four dams there. The first dam is set to come down this summer; the rest will be removed by 2024.

And there are also “hopeful” signs of rebound, Enticknap said. The recent barrage of storms that pummeled the West has replenished drought-stricken rivers and reservoirs and alleviated arid conditions in California, providing somewhat of a relief for fisheries.

“We’re hoping that this is going to help salmon populations get back on track and that it’s not an anomaly – in that, this happens once and then we slip back into a drought,” Enticknap added. “My concern right now is that with climate change we’re expecting hotter conditions and more drought and marine heatwaves, where it’s ultimately worse for salmon.”

Despite the recent onslaught of rain and snow, advocates say they need federal and state officials to implement fair water allocations, since the fishing industry would have to compete with larger California markets like agriculture for the same water supply.

Although Bates says she is still digesting the new reality they’re facing, she remains hopeful.

“Don’t waste a crisis, right?” Bates said. “This is a forced opportunity, but it is an opportunity nonetheless, to fix some things that have been broken in California for a long time … so I am somewhat optimistic that this is not the end. It’s just a chapter in the middle.”

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April 2, 2023
Men’s NCAA tournament Final Four field is set after San Diego, Miami victories | CNN

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For the first time since 1970, there will be three schools making their first Final Four appearances at the men’s NCAA Tournament following victories by No. 5 seed San Diego State University and No. 5 seed Miami on Sunday.

San Diego State University clinched the program’s first-ever Final Four appearance with a closely contested 57-56 victory against No. 6 seed Creighton at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky.

With the game tied at 56, Bluejays guard Ryan Nembhard was called for a foul on Aztecs guard Darrion Trammell with 1.2 seconds left in the game. Replays showed Nembhard’s left hand on Trammell’s right hip as he jumped up for the shot attempt.

Trammell would be awarded two free throws, missing the first but making the second to give the Aztecs the lead.

“The moment it wasn’t too big for me to do everything I’ve been through,” Trammell said in the postgame news conference. “I feel like the opportunity was just set there for me. It was God’s timing and I just had to believe in that and just having that confidence that, yeah, I missed the first one but I definitely wasn’t going to miss the second one.”

Nembhard addressed the foul call in the postgame news conference, saying, “It’s a tough feeling. We worked so hard all year and it comes down to a play like that. I don’t know I think we could’ve done a little bit more to make it a game that didn’t have to go down to that but it’s a tough way to lose.”

SDSU will play against No. 9 seed Florida Atlantic in Houston, Texas on Saturday, April 1, in a battle of two first-time Final Four contestants.

Meanwhile, the No. 5 seed Miami mounted a second-half comeback to defeat No. 2 seeded Texas 88-81 to advance to the program’s first-ever Final Four in NCAA tournament history.

The Longhorns held a 13-point lead with under 15 minutes left in the game, before the Hurricanes broke off on a 12-2 run to even the game up at 72. After exchanging several buckets, the Hurricanes closed out the game on a 9-2 run in the final minute to close out the victory.

Miami guard Jordan Miller led the way with 27 points, going 7-7 from the field and 13-13 from the free throw line.

“No one wanted to go home,” Miller said to the CBS broadcast on the team’s come from behind victory. “We came together, we stuck together, we showed really good perseverance and the will, the will to just win and get there.”

The Hurricanes will play against No. 4 seed UConn in Houston, Texas on Saturday, April 1.

This year’s men’s NCAA tournament is the first time since seeding began in 1979 no team ranked better than No. 4 has reached the Final Four.

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March 26, 2023
Delta passenger opens door, deploys emergency exit slide on plane at Los Angeles airport | CNN

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A Delta Air Lines passenger was arrested after opening one of the plane’s doors and sliding down an emergency exit slide as the plane prepared for takeoff from Los Angeles to Seattle Saturday, officials said.

The incident on Delta Flight 1714 took place around 10:40 a.m. local time, while the plane was stationary at the Los Angeles International Airport, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The plane, a Boeing 737, was on the runway holding to taxi for takeoff when the passenger exited the aircraft after activating the emergency exit slide, the FAA said.

The passenger was initially detained by Delta staff before being arrested by local law enforcement, the statement read.

“Customers are being reaccommodated on a new aircraft and we apologize for the inconvenience and delay in their travel plans,” the FAA said.

The FAA is investigating the incident. CNN has reached out to Delta and Los Angeles airport police for additional information.

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March 26, 2023
Two migrants found dead in shipping container on train in Uvalde County, Texas | CNN

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Two migrants were found dead in a shipping container on a train the authorities stopped east of Uvalde, Texas, on Friday, according to local police. One other person was left in serious condition and another in critical condition.

In a news release Friday night, Uvalde police said they “received a 911 phone call from an unknown third-party caller advising there were numerous undocumented immigrants ‘suffocating’ inside of a train car.” US Border Patrol stopped the train, which was operating on Union Pacific tracks, near the town of Knippa, northeast of Uvalde, police said.

A total of 17 people were found on the train, including 15 men and two women, according to an official for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Union Pacific previously told CNN there were 15 people found in two different train cars. The railway reported that two of them died, four were airlifted to San Antonio, and six were taken to local hospitals.

San Antonio’s University Hospital said they had received two adults, one in serious condition and one in critical condition.

Three other individuals were found in a hopper car, which is used to transport loose bulk commodities like coal or grain.

The HSI official said the two people who died were men from Honduras.

HSI has opened an investigation into human smuggling regarding the incident.

“We are heartbroken to learn of yet another tragic incident of migrants taking the dangerous journey,” Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Friday night in a tweet.

In another tweet Mayorkas thanked “the Border Patrol Agents who responded to the scene and the HSI Agents who are supporting the investigation in Uvalde. We will work with the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office to hold those responsible. Smugglers are callous and only care about making a profit.”

In a statement, Union Pacific said that they were “deeply saddened by this incident and the tragedies occurring at the border.”

“We take the safety of all individuals seriously and work tirelessly with law enforcement partners to detect illegal items and people riding inside or on our rail cars.”

In the past years, migrants have taken increasingly risky paths to evade detection and enter the US. Immigrant rights advocates have attributed the rise in deaths at the border to policies that have made it more difficult for migrants to seek refuge in the US, according to CNN’s previous reporting.

2022 was the deadliest year so far for migrants crossing the US-Mexico border, with 748 people dying at the border, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Friday’s discovery follows a June 2022 incident in which 53 migrants died after being packed into a tractor-trailer and abandoned on the outskirts of San Antonio.

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March 25, 2023
Gwyneth Paltrow testifies in a civil trial that she ‘froze’ in 2016 skiing crash at a Utah resort | CNN

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Gwyneth Paltrow, the award-winning actress facing a civil trial for a 2016 skiing crash at a Utah resort, testified that she “froze” when a man allegedly skied directly into her back, causing them to collapse to the ground as their skis tangled together.

Paltrow testified on Friday that the collision forced her legs apart as she felt someone from behind her.

“I was skiing, and two skis came between my skis, forcing my legs apart. And then there was a body pressing against me. And there was a very strange grunting noise. So, my brain was trying to make sense of what was happening,” Paltrow testified. “I froze when he slid between my skis. I absolutely froze.”

“I was confused at first, and I didn’t know exactly what was happening. It’s a very strange thing to happen on the ski slope,” Paltrow continued.

Paltrow and the man both fell slowly and were nearly spooning once they hit the ground, “and I moved away quickly,” Paltrow said previously in a deposition read during the trial Friday in Park City, Utah.

Friday marked the fourth day in the skiing crash case against Paltrow, who is being sued by Terry Sanderson, a 76-year-old retired optometrist – the man she maintains crashed into her in February 2016 at Deer Valley Resort in Park City.

Meanwhile, Sanderson claims that Paltrow crashed into him and caused him lasting injuries and brain damage while they were both skiing on a beginner’s run. Sanderson also accuses Paltrow and her ski instructor of skiing away after the incident without getting him medical care.

Kristin A. VanOrman, an attorney representing Sanderson, questioned Paltrow for nearly two hours Friday. At one point, VanOrman asked whether Paltrow can demonstrate the crash with her in at the courtroom, but the judge declined that request.

Instead, VanOrman walked around the courtroom trying to reenact where the skis were and how Paltrow and Sanderson were positioned, based on how Paltrow described the incident.

VanOrman asked Paltrow whether the actress had been present when paperwork about the crash was filled out, and Paltrow said she was not but that her ski instructor stayed with Sanderson and made sure he was OK.

Later, Paltrow said she stayed on the mountain “long enough for him to say that he was OK” and to stand up, saying it was “absolutely not” a hit-and-run.

Paltrow didn’t seek medical treatment after that crash, she said, but she pointed out her knee felt like it had been “over-stretched” and her “back hurt” and decided to go for a massage later that day.

Sanderson had initially sued Paltrow for $3.1 million dollars, later amending his complaint to seek more than $300,000 in damages, according to court documents.

Paltrow has filed a counter lawsuit in which she is seeking $1 in damages plus attorneys’ fees.

Court is slated to resume Monday.

VanOrman pressed Paltrow more than once about whether the actress had sought information about Sanderson’s medical condition following the crash.

“I think you have to keep in mind when you’re the victim of a crash, right, your psychology is not necessarily thinking about the person who perpetrated it,” Paltrow testified.

Paltrow also did not ask anyone at the resort about Sanderson “because at the time I did not know that he had sustained injuries like that. I thought it was very minor on the day,” she said.

Throughout the testimony, Paltrow maintained that Sanderson skied into her and that she did not cause the crash.

“Mr. Sanderson categorically hit me on that ski slope, and that is the truth,” adding that she feels sympathetic for him.

“I feel very sorry for him. It seems like he’s had a very difficult life, but I did not cause the accident so I cannot be at fault for anything that subsequently happened to him,” she testified.

The collision happened on the first day of a family trip that Paltrow, her now-husband Brad Falchuk and both of their children were attending. It was the first time Paltrow and her then-boyfriend were introducing their children to each other to gauge whether they had a future as a “blended family.”

According to Paltrow’s countersuit, she “was enjoying skiing with her family on vacation in Utah, when Plaintiff – who was uphill from Ms. Paltrow – plowed into her back. She sustained a full ‘body blow.’ Ms. Paltrow was angry with Plaintiff, and said so. Plaintiff apologized. She was shaken and upset, and quit skiing for the day even though it was still morning.”

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March 24, 2023
No more No. 1 seeds left in NCAA men’s basketball tournament after Alabama and Houston lose | CNN

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For the first time ever in NCAA men’s basketball tournament history, all four No. 1 seeds have failed to reach the Elite Eight after the top-seeded Alabama Crimson Tide and Houston Cougars were eliminated in the Sweet 16 on Friday.

Top overall seed Alabama was stunned by No. 5 seed San Diego State, 71-64, at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky.

The Crimson Tide led by nine points with over 12 minutes left in the game, but the Aztecs went on a 12-0 run to take a 51-48 lead and they never trailed again.

San Diego State guard Darrion Trammell led the way with 21 points and five rebounds, as the Aztecs advance to the Elite Eight for the first time in men’s program history. San Diego State is also the first Mountain West team to ever advance to the Elite Eight.

“It’s just who we are, we feel like we can beat any team in the country, ” Trammell said on the TBS broadcast after the game. “We work hard, and we feel like we have the DNA of a winning team that goes far in March. We have experience, we have grit, and we feel like this is what we’re supposed to do.”

Crimson Tide forward Brandon Miller was held in check on offense most of the night, scoring just nine points on 3-of-19 shooting. He also had six turnovers.

Miller’s and Alabama’s season comes to an end after a tumultuous regular season campaign marred by an off-court issue surrounding the shooting death of a woman on campus.

San Diego State will play against either No. 6 Creighton or No. 15 Princeton on Sunday.

Friday’s action in Kansas City, Missouri, saw No. 5 seed Miami defeat Houston 89-75.

The game was close for most of the first half, before Miami took an 11-point lead early in the second half. Houston cut the deficit to 51-49 with under 15 minutes left in the game but Miami answered with a 16-2 run to put the game away.

Miami guard Nijel Pack scored at will in the victory, dropping 26 points on 8-of-12 shooting, including 7-of-10 from the three-point line to lead the Hurricanes to the Elite Eight for the second consecutive season.

“It just shows that we’re one of the best teams in the country now we’re moving to the Elite Eight,” Pack said on the CBS broadcast after the game. “It’s the top eight schools in the country right now, we still have a lot of work to do but it feels great right now.”

Miami will next play No. 2 seed Texas or No. 3 seed Xavier, which face off later Friday.

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March 24, 2023
Tom Brady buys partial stake in WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces | CNN

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Seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady has acquired an ownership stake in the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces, team owner Mark Davis announced Thursday.

“I am very excited to be part of the Las Vegas Aces organization,” said Brady in a statement on Thursday. “I have always been a huge fan of women’s sports, and I admire the work that the Aces’ players, staff, and the WNBA continue to do to grow the sport and empower future generations of athletes. To be able to contribute in any way to that mission as a member of the Aces organization is an incredible honor.”

Brady said his love for women’s sports grew out of watching his older sisters, who were “by far the best athletes in our house!”

Brady announced his retirement from the NFL in February after 23 seasons with the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. During his long career, the three-time league MVP set almost every passing record, including regular season passing yards (89,214) and passing touchdowns (649). He has also amassed the most wins of any player in NFL history (251).

“Since I purchased the Aces, our goal has been to win on and off the court,” said Davis, who also owns the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders. “Tom Brady is a win not only for the Aces, and the WNBA, but for women’s professional sports as a whole.”

Honored to be joining the @LVAces family, a world class organization with a team of incredible athletes pic.twitter.com/JGU4tndZR2

— Tom Brady (@TomBrady) March 23, 2023

Davis purchased the WNBA franchise before the 2021 season. Brady’s partial acquisition of the team is subject to WNBA approval.

The Aces enter the upcoming season as reigning WNBA champions. The team opens the season against the Seattle Storm on May 20 at Climate Pledge Arena in Washington.

In October, Brady joined the ownership group of an expansion Major League Pickleball team, along with former tennis World No. 1 Kim Clijsters, who in December attended the draft to support their new squad, the Las Vegas Night Owls.

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March 23, 2023
Utah governor signs bill requiring teens to get parental approval to join social media sites | CNN Business

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The governor of Utah signed a controversial bill on Thursday that will require minors to obtain the consent of a guardian before joining social media platforms, marking the most aggressive step yet by state or federal lawmakers to protect kids online.

As part of the bill, called the Utah Social Media Regulation Act, social media platforms will have to conduct age verification for all Utah residents, ban all ads for minors and impose a curfew, making their sites off limits between the hours of 10:30 p.m. – 6:30 a.m. for anyone under the age of 18. The bill will also require social platforms to give parents access to their teens’ accounts.

The legislation, which was introduced by Republican Sen. Michael McKell and passed by Republican Governor Spencer Cox, will go into effect on March 1, 2024.

“When it comes down to it, [the bill] is about protecting our children,” McKell said in a statement to CNN, citing how depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation has “drastically increased” among teens in Utah and across the United states Slongside the growth of social media sites. “As a lawmaker and parent, I believe this bill is the best path forward to prevent our children from succumbing to the negative and sometimes life-threatening effects of social media.”

The legislation comes after years of US lawmakers calling for new safeguards to protect teens online, amid concerns about social platforms leading younger users down harmful rabbit holes, enabling new forms of bullying and harassment and adding to what’s been described as a teen mental health crisis in the country. To date, however, no federal legislation has passed.

Utah is the first of a broader list of states introducing similar proposals. In Connecticut and Ohio, for example, lawmakers are working to pass legislation that would require social media companies to get parent permission before users under age 16 can join.

“We can assume more methods like the Utah bill could find their way into other states’ plans, especially if actions are not taken at the federal level,” said Michael Inouye, an analyst at ABI Research. “Eventually, if enough states implement similar or related legislation, we could see a more concerted effort at the federal level to codify these (likely) disparate state laws under a US-wide policy.”

Industry experts and Big Tech companies have long urged the US government to introduce regulations that could help keep young social media users safe. But even before the bill’s passage, some had raised concerns about the impact of the legislation. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group, said Utah’s specific set of rules are “dangerous” when it comes to user privacy and added that the bill will make user data less secure, internet access less private and infringe upon younger users’ basic rights.

“Social media provides a lifeline for many young people, in addition to community, education, and conversation,” said Jason Kelley, director of activism at the EFF. “They use it in part because it can be private … The law, which would limit social media access and require parental consent and monitoring for minors, will incalculably harm the ability of young people to protect their privacy and deter them from exercising their rights.”

Lucy Ivey, an 18-year-old TikTok influencer who attends Utah Valley University, agreed, saying some of her friends in the LGBTQ community may face challenges with the change.

“My worry with this bill is that it will take away privacy from teenagers, and a lot of kids don’t have good relationships with their parents or don’t have a reliable guardian that would be needed to get access to social media,” she told CNN. “I think about my LGBTQ friends; some who have had a hard time with their parents because of their sexuality or identity, and they could be losing an important place where they can be themselves, and be seen and heard.”

Ivey, who launched a publication called Our Era at age 15 and amplified its content on TikTok, said she’s also concerned about how the bill will impact content creators like herself. (If a legal guardian disapproves of a teens’ online activity or digital presence, those individuals may have to put their accounts on hold until they are 18 years old.)

“With a new law like this, they may now be intimidated and discouraged by the legal hoops required to use social media out of fear of authority or their parents, or fear of losing their privacy at a time when teens are figuring out who they are,” Ivey said.

Facebook-parent Meta told CNN it has the same goals as parents and policymakers, but the company said it also wants young people to have safe, positive experiences online and keep its platforms accessible. Antigone Davis, the global head of safety for Meta, said the company will “continue to work closely with experts, policymakers and parents on these important issues.”

Representatives for TikTok and Snap did not respond to a request for comment.

Given that the bill is unprecedented, it’s unclear how exactly the social media companies will adapt. For example, the legislation calls for platforms to turn off algorithms for “suggested content.” This particular guideline may help keep teens from falling down rabbit holes toward potentially harmful content, but it could present new issues, too. It might mean the company would no longer have the oversight and control over downranking problematic content that may show up in a user’s feed.

Some of the bill’s guidelines may also be difficult to enforce. Inouye said minors could “steal” identities – such as from family members who don’t use social media – to create accounts that they can access and use without oversight. VPNs could also complicate matching IP addresses to the states of the users, he said.

But even if legislative steps from Utah and other states prove to be flawed, Inouye says “these early efforts are at minimum bringing attention to these issues.”

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March 23, 2023
Shift in San Francisco politics serves as warning from Asian American voters to Democrats in 2024 | CNN Politics

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Allene Jue used to vote in a simple, rapid manner – scan the names on the ballot and pick the Asian sounding names.

That was before 2020.

“Something turned on during the pandemic and lit a fire,” said Jue, a Chinese American mother of two girls, ages 3 and 5, living on the west side of San Francisco. Throughout the pandemic, Jue watched as violent hate crimes against Asian Americans brought fear to the community with not enough response from local law enforcement or prosecutors. As the school closures wore on and on in California, Jue saw her local school board discuss progressive policy issues like renaming schools ahead of focusing on simply returning students to the classroom.

Jue, who generally considers herself a Democrat, recalled her anger at liberal local politicians.

“They care about policies that don’t really help someone who just lives in the city and just want to be safe, who wants their kids to be educated well,” she said. “They forgot the core problems for regular people. I wanted to do something to try to change and take that power back. It was fear and frustration, a lot of frustration, that I turned into action.”

Her involvement began with stuffing envelopes for recall campaigns against the district attorney and several school board members and then grew – she even appeared in Chinese language campaign ads for a moderate Democrat running for city supervisor.

It was a political awakening replicated to varying degrees by other Asian Americans in San Francisco, resulting in a series of political upheavals in one of the United States’ most progressive cities – including a moderate White man unseating a progressive Chinese American incumbent for supervisor of the majority-Asian American Sunset District

California activists warn that these shifts in the politics of San Francisco – a place that has long been a beacon for progressives – are a signal to national Democrats ahead of 2024 that the party needs a course correction with the fastest growing racial group in the US – Asian Americans.

“I see this frustration with the direction of the party,” said Charles Jung, a civil rights attorney and local Bay Area advocate. “Asian Americans feel like Democrats are focused on the wrong things, that they’ve let ideology run amok. If Democrats don’t redouble their efforts to focus on core Democratic issues, they will lose people of color over time.”

Supervisor Joel Engardio, a gay married man who by most national standards is a liberal, describes himself as a moderate in San Francisco. And he is quick to criticize the word “progressive.”

“To me, progressive is forward thinking, moving into the future and building a better city,” said Engardio from his San Francisco City Hall office. “For too long, we have not followed that definition of progressive. Progressive is a city that works and functions and builds toward the future.”

Engardio unseated a Chinese American incumbent last year, becoming the first non-Asian supervisor to represent the majority Asian American district in more than 20 years. He campaigned on removing roadblocks for small businesses, putting more police officers on the streets, and using merit-standards for public schools. He said his supervisor race, while close, sends a broader political message about the limits of liberal ideology.

“We should all pay attention that San Francisco, the most liberal place in America, is saying enough. We want safe streets. We want good schools. That should tell anyone – pay attention,” said Engardio.

CNN national exit polls do show the pendulum shifting among Asian American voters in recent elections. In 2018, during the Donald Trump presidency, Asian Americans overwhelmingly supported Democrats by 77% vs. Republicans at 23%. In 2022, Asian Americans remained supportive of Democrats, but that preference slid 58% vs. Republicans at 40%.

That’s a significant shift, warns Jung. “You saw a substantial double-digit erosion of support from Asian Americans from this midterm election to 2018. And incidentally, it’s not just Asian Americans, you saw the same thing among Hispanic voters,” he said. “I think if Democrats don’t redouble their efforts to focus on core democratic issues, they will lose people of color over time.”

While Asian Americans may be thought of as a Democratic constituency, Jung warns recent history shows that wasn’t always the case.

CNN’s historical exit polls on congressional vote choice show Asian American voters were closely divided or tilting toward Republicans in the 1990s. But since 1998, they have generally leaned toward the Democratic Party, by varying margins.

Erosion among Asian and Latino voters, said Kanishka Cheng of grassroots community building organization Together SF, is explained by Democrats forgetting the core values for immigrant communities.

“Democrats have a really hard time talking about public education and public safety,” said Cheng. “That’s the common denominator between the Asian and Latino community – we are immigrant communities. We came to America for stability and opportunity. Public safety and public education are the things that give us stability and opportunity. We need education and we need to feel safe.”

Engardio said that message came through loud and clear as he knocked on “14,000 doors, talking to voters. My advice is to talk about what they need, and actually, listen.”

Listening to Asian American voters is the work that Forrest Liu continues in the Sunset District as 2024 approaches. A former Bay Area finance worker, Liu left the business world and became an Asian community advocate to fight hate crimes targeting Asians.

Liu spends his day conducting field interviews to try to understand the political shift that took place among San Francisco’s Asian voters, because Liu believes it’s predictive of what will happen in the upcoming national elections. “I want to understand why they made the decisions they made last year and what they want moving forward. And what we should be advocating for,” said Liu.

What he’s learned so far, he said, is the community is far savvier than politicians may think.

“There are some politicians out there who are like, ‘Let me get in a photo with some Asian people. Let me walk through Chinatown, shake hands with a few Asian community leaders and that’s it. I got the Asian vote,’” said Liu. “No. You actually need to be in tune with what this demographic needs.”

Liu said the political discontent that led to Engardio’s victory remains, even as publicity around “Stop Asian Hate” may have faded.

“‘Why should I feel unsafe?’ I would say that’s the summary of the emotion of the people I’m interviewing. They still feel unsafe.”

You hear three languages spoken in Jue’s house – English, Mandarin and Cantonese. Her 5-year-old daughter, Eloise, is in a Cantonese immersion kindergarten, though she also speaks Mandarin. Lucille, 3, speaks Mandarin to her parents. Jue flips from one language to the next, a product of the multilingual public schools in San Francisco.

“I’m a public school kid, from kindergarten all the way to college,” she said. “There is a common background from my core group – children of immigrants who went through public school.”

Work hard, strive for educational success, and build a safe community – that’s what Jue and her generation grew up seeking.

The effects of the pandemic began to crack into all those core values. The attacks targeting Asian American – which spiked 567% from 2019 to 2021 in San Francisco – worried Jue.

“I’m Asian, my family’s Asian. If I have to worry about just stepping out to run an errand, I think that’s a huge problem and I can’t live in a city like that,” she said.

Amid those concerns in 2021, Jue noticed the school board vote to rename 44 schools whose names were linked to former presidents like Abraham Lincoln, stating the names were linked to “the subjugation and enslavement of human beings/ or who oppressed women.”

The school district at that time still had shared no public plan for reopening schools.

Jue, juggling working at her tech job and raising kids about to enter pre-school, was incensed.

Jue was among the Asian Americans in San Francisco who rolled out recall actions first against the school board, recalling three members. Jue then helped the successful effort to recall San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, which a majority of the west side Asian communities backed.

Last November, Jue volunteered for her neighboring district’s supervisor race – where Engardio successfully challenged the Sunset district’s sitting city supervisor. She was featured in two Mandarin and Cantonese campaign ads.

Like many political shifts, Jue said the Sunset District was driven by discontent. And Jue said that discontent, while felt most profoundly in her city, is not limited to San Francisco.

The self-described socially liberal-fiscal conservative said while she is a registered Democrat, she struggles with the current state of the party entering 2024. “I don’t think they’ve gotten those basics down yet, like crime and education,” said Jue. “I know of folks that have traditionally voted Democrat that are now voting Republican because they do not feel that the Democratic Party is representing them.”

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March 22, 2023
How frustrated parents of Los Angeles students are getting creative managing their children while school is out | CNN

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Tucked into a small art studio at a California university, Sea Krob took their 3-year-old and 7-year-old to graduate school with them because they didn’t have a daycare option this week.

They are one of the parents of the half-million students who are out of school for three days because of the Los Angeles Unified School District school worker strike.

“It’s really frustrating that the one thing that was supposed to be dependable is not,” Krob, 32, told CNN. “And it’s not because the workers are striking, but it’s because LAUSD would rather make time to find volunteers and make plans for our kids not to be in school than just meet the needs of the people that they’ve employed.”

The stakes are high for school workers, including bus drivers, custodians and other support staff represented by Service Employees International Union Local 99 asking for more equitable wages, more work hours and more staffing to provide better student services.

It is the same district that shut down for a six-day strike in 2019, when teachers went to the picket lines to fight for smaller class sizes, more staff and an increase in wages.

This strike has left parents scrambling to find childcare, many cobbling together creative solutions to keep their children on track with school, while also working their full-time jobs.

For Krob, that’s meant notifying individual professors of their situation and asking if they can bring their two children with to classes. Krob is a full-time graduate student pursuing art at California State University, Long Beach.

“My partner is out of sick days for the year already – it’s March – so I am on the whims of whatever professor I have to have my kids come with me,” they said.

For safety and liability reasons, Krob cannot take their children into the art lab where they work, so they had to forgo their lab hours this week, they said. Instead, they are getting creative with how they spend time during the strike and borrowing art supplies from a university office.

“I just stretched out a big piece of paper so that we could color on it for the three days and make art, hang out and do our best,” they said.

Krob commutes on public transit two hours each way to get to the university from their Los Angeles home. It’s been an extra challenge doing that with their two children in the pouring rain this week.

What frustrates Krob, who supports the staff on strike, is that the resources for parents are through the school system, which is shut down, they said. They wish there was more support for parents.

“I think that the people who are striking are totally within their right and they should be able to engage in a strike and parents still have resources to be able to take care of their kids, and that shouldn’t be cut off.”

Sandra Colton-Medici, an online business entrepreneur, has two children in two different situations: Only one of them gets to go to school this week.

Her 5-year-old daughter attends kindergarten at a LAUSD school, while her 3-year-old attends some classes at a private school.

“I had to wake up both of them and say, ‘One of you is going to school and the other one is not,” Colton-Medici said. “That was a little bit difficult for one to say, ‘But what do you mean I’m not going to school?’”

Her 5-year-old didn’t understand that her teachers and support staff are marching outside the school, but they aren’t in school today, she said. The 44-year-old broke it down into simple terms to explain the strike to her children.

“The teachers and the support staff there, they’re going to talk to their employer, their boss, to say we need more to take care of ourselves,” Colton-Medici said. “In order to do that, they have to take a break from school.”

In a moment of innocence, she says her oldest daughter asked, “‘So do they need money? I have money in my coin purse.’”

Her daughter’s teacher provided informational and educational packets to do at home and Colton-Medici is doing her best to act as a fill-in educator – all while running her business from home.

“If I had to grade myself with how I’m dealing with their time off from school and me balancing that thing that people call work-life balance, I would probably say I’m giving myself a 10 for effort and like a six for like completion,” she said. “I know that there’s going to be something that I’ve missed.”

Colton-Medici’s husband is working in the office, but he stayed at home Tuesday morning to care for their older daughter while she took their toddler to her school. She’s grateful she can also call on her mother if she needs backup childcare, especially since she said there was enough advance notice of the strike to make plans.

“I know by Thursday, in a few days, it might be a little overwhelming, especially since I do run my own business from home,” she said.

Colton-Medici said she feels for the support staff when she sees them ushering kids into school, walking them to the nurse or giving them a hug at the end of the day. She knows that some of those staffers work as crossing guards and have double duties.

She said it’s important to support the people on strike and make sure they are valued. She reminds people that some of these support staffers also have children in school, some of whom may be at home because their parents are on strike.

“Yes, we are pseudo inconvenienced, but how do you get inconvenienced by your own child?” Colton-Medici said. “I’m just trying to be better, trying to be more of an educator today, in addition to being able to hug my kids because I think that’s really important too.”

While the strike is inconvenient for parents in the district, Wade Armstrong says he and his wife have the flexibility to make it work with their son, Declan, being out of school.

“We’re really lucky because my wife and I, we both work at home,” Armstrong, 47, told CNN. “It’s not such a big impact in terms of we have to find child care and stuff like that, which some of our friends do have to do.”

Yet, the parents are concerned because of the learning time that’s lost for all children during the strike.

“It’s annoying and we’re sad to see the learning loss for our kids,” Armstrong said. “It’s really coming on the heels of the holidays and with spring break coming up soon, it really feels like we’ve barely even had a spring semester.”

Their son is a fourth grader, but this isn’t the first time the 9-year-old has been affected by a strike. He was in kindergarten during the 2019 LAUSD strike.

The previous strike was tougher for the Armstrongs to deal with, as neither of them were working from home and they needed child care. This time around, their son is older and more self-sufficient.

Armstrong said the materials sent home from school aren’t directly related to what’s going on in the classroom, so he’s focusing more on spending time with his son and having some of Declan’s friends over to help other parents.

While Armstrong said he’s “disappointed” that the district and the union couldn’t reach a resolution, he understands why so many staffers are on the picket lines.

Armstrong said his son talks fondly about classroom aides who help special needs students, and they make time to help the whole class with projects. Cafeteria workers are also doing admirable work, especially after feeding so many children during the pandemic, he said.

“There’s a lot of the aides and staff in our schools who really aren’t getting paid much at all and I know how essential they are from what my son tells me about his days in school,” Armstrong said. “I hope they get paid.”

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March 22, 2023
Senate committee delays vote to consider Biden’s pick to lead the FAA | CNN Politics

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A Senate committee has abruptly delayed its vote scheduled for Wednesday to consider President Joe Biden’s pick to lead the Federal Aviation Administration, further holding up the long-awaited nomination.

It’s not yet clear why the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation’s vote to consider Phil Washington’s nomination on Wednesday has been delayed. His pick was first announced by Biden eight months ago and has since faced continued resistance from Republican members of Congress over a number of issues, including his slim aviation-related credentials and his potential legal entanglements.

Washington Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell, the chairwoman of the committee, announced that the vote is “moving to a future date pending information that members have been seeking.” She also underscored that the committee “will have this debate in the future,” contending that Washington is qualified for the job.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, the leading Republican on the Senate Commerce committee, said during the panel’s executive session Wednesday, “I am glad to hear that the committee is considering delaying consideration of the nomination of Phil Washington. Phil Washington has been before this committee for some time now. And I think every member of this committee knows that Mr. Washington is not qualified for the position for which he is nominated.”

The White House is continuing to stand behind Washington following the vote delay.

“The FAA needs a confirmed Administrator, and the president’s nominee, Phil Washington, has the right qualifications and experience for this role,” a White House official said in a statement to CNN. “He has led the Denver International Airport, one of the busiest airports in the world, managed large transportation safety organizations, and served as a command sergeant major in the military. This is a role with a key safety mandate and Mr. Washington’s nomination has been pending for months. We continue to urge the Senate to move swiftly on his confirmation.”

Ahead of Wednesday’s scrapped vote, a steady stream of groups lined up for and against Washington.

Aviation worker unions, former transportation secretaries on both sides of the aisle, Denver-based Frontier Airlines and the family members of crash victims who died on Ethiopian Air Flight 302 all endorsed Washington.

Former Department of Transportation officials who served at the agency during the Trump administration signed onto a letter to the president expressing their opposition to Washington’s confirmation.

Cruz and Missouri Rep. Sam Graves, the chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, have both expressed their opposition to Washington’s nomination.

The FAA has been operating without a permanent administrator for a year.

In that time, the agency has contended with several problems that have plagued travelers and the airline industry, such as recent near-collisions involving airliners, crucial staffing shortages and malfunctions of aging technology that have cause major air travel disruption.

While Democrats largely seemed supportive during Washington’s confirmation hearing earlier this month, he was grilled by Republican senators on issues that have emerged since he was named as a prospective administrator last summer.

Washington, the current CEO of the Denver International Airport, has held leadership roles at municipal transit organizations, including in Denver and Los Angeles, focused on bus and rail lines. He also led the Biden-Harris transition team for the Department of Transportation. Prior to his work in transportation, Washington served in the military for 24 years.

While Washington has worked in transportation-related positions since 2000, he had no experience in the aviation industry prior to joining the Denver airport in 2021 – a major concern among committee members.

Since being nominated, Washington has also faced questions about being named in a search warrant issued as part of a political corruption investigation in Los Angeles, along with other potential legal entanglements. Republicans have also questioned whether Washington, an Army veteran who left the military in 2000 after more than 20 years of service, would be statutorily considered a civilian – a requirement in order to serve as the FAA chief.

If he’s not considered a civilian, he would need a waiver from Congress permitting him to lead the agency. And Republicans in both the House and the Senate do not support granting Washington a waiver.

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

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March 22, 2023
A Texas university president canceled a student drag show, calling it ‘divisive’ and misogynistic. First Amendment advocates disagree | CNN

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A student drag show aimed at raising money for the LGBTQ community was canceled Monday by West Texas A&M University’s president, who called such shows “derisive, divisive and demoralizing misogyny,” drawing backlash from students and free speech advocates.

In an email to the school community, university President Walter V. Wendler said drag shows “discriminate against womanhood,” compared them to blackface and said there was “no such thing” as a harmless drag show.

“A harmless drag show? Not possible. I will not appear to condone the diminishment of any group at the expense of impertinent gestures toward another group for any reason, even when the law of the land appears to require it,” the email read.

Proceeds of the show were due to support The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention organization for LGBTQ young people.

The show was scheduled for March 31.

A university spokesperson declined to provide further comment on the president’s email, citing pending litigation.

Wendler’s decision and remarks drew backlash from both students and advocates who said the move was wrong – and unconstitutional.

A Change.org petition said the university’s student body “is calling for the reinstatement” of the performance on campus and called its canceling an “indirect attack on the LGBT+, feminist, and activist communities of the WTAMU student body.”

The petition said the president’s comparison of blackface and drag performances was a “gross and abhorrent comparison of two completely different topics” and “an extremely distorted and incorrect definition of drag as a culture and form of performance art.”

In a letter to Wendler, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a group focused on freedom of speech and religion in academia, wrote it was “seriously concerned” by his decision and asked that he reinstate the performance.

“The First Amendment and Texas law protect student expression from administrative censorship,” FIRE said in a later statement.

“As an individual, Wendler can criticize this particular drag show, or the existence of drag writ large. No reasonable person would argue that public university administrators personally endorse the views expressed at every event hosted by every student group on campus. But as a government actor, President Wendler cannot co-opt state power to force his own views on the WTAMU community,” the statement said.

“WTAMU must allow the show to go on — and we’ll continue watching to ensure that happens,” it added.

PEN America, a literary and free expression advocacy organization, called the cancellation an “abhorrent trampling on students’ free expression rights.”

“Drag shows should be welcome on campus; censoring speech the university president dislikes should not,” Kristen Shahverdian, PEN America senior manager of free expression and education, said in a statement.

As transgender issues and drag culture have increasingly become more mainstream, a slew of bills – mostly in Republican-led states – have sought to restrict or prohibit drag show performances.

LGBTQ advocates have told CNN those bills add a heightened state of alarm for the community, are discriminatory and could violate First Amendment laws.

Earlier in March, Tennessee became the first state this year to restrict public drag show performances. Its law will go into effect on July 1.

A Texas House bill introduced this year also seeks to regulate public venues hosting drag performances.

At least nine other states are also considering anti-drag legislation.

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March 22, 2023
Biden designates area sacred to tribes as largest national monument of his presidency | CNN Politics

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President Joe Biden on Tuesday officially designated a new national monument in Southern Nevada while speaking at a conservation event at the Interior Department.

At more than 506,000 acres, the Avi Kwa Ame National Monument is one of the largest tracts of land to come under federal protection so far during Biden’s presidency, preserving Nevada’s Spirit Mountain and the desert around it.

“It’s a place of reverence, a place of spirituality, a place of healing,” Biden said Tuesday. “It will now be recognized for the significance it holds and be preserved forever.”

Biden’s proclamation is a major victory for the surrounding Fort Mojave Indian Tribe, which has been advocating for the monument’s creation for around three decades.

“Avi Kwa Ame is the point of Mojave creation; it’s a very important and integral part of our history and belief system,” Ashley Hemmers, the tribal administrator for Fort Mojave, told CNN. “For us, that mountain is a living landscape; it’s like a person. If something were to happen to it, it would be like losing a loved one.”

During an emotional speech Tuesday, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland highlighted Interior’s work to honor and uplift tribal nations and their knowledge of the land.

“We’re incorporating Indigenous knowledge and honoring tribes for their role in stewarding our lands and waters since time immemorial,” Haaland said, tearing up during her speech.

“I was thinking about how the federal government tried to erase Indigenous people in so many ways; taking their lands, taking their children, taking their lives and taking away bison that were so central to many tribal nations,” she added, talking about a recent order she signed to restore American bison. “The bison are still here here, and Indigenous people are still here.”

Biden also designated the Castner Range National Monument in Fort Bliss in West Texas, which was a training site for the Army during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

“It’s a place of incredible beauty,” Biden said of Castner Range, describing the Mexican poppies that grow there as “transforming desert hills into a sea of yellows and oranges.”

Together, the two monuments will protect close to 514,000 acres of new public lands. In addition, Biden is directing Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo to consider protecting all US waters around the Pacific Remote Islands as part of a new national marine sanctuary.

Biden made the announcement at a summit for tribal leaders and elected officials that was hosted by the White House and Interior Department.

As they met, climate and youth activists demonstrated outside the Interior Department’s headquarters to protest the recently approved Willow oil drilling project in Alaska. The Biden administration approved the controversial Willow Project last week. The drilling project, which is slated for the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, galvanized a surge of online activism against it in recent months. Environmental advocates have filed two lawsuits in federal court to stop the project.

Inside the department, the focus was on protecting the new national monuments and the area around Spirit Mountain, which Biden initially vowed to designate as a national monument in November at the White House tribal nations summit.

“When it comes to Spirit Mountain and the surrounding canyons and regions in southern Nevada, I’m committed to protecting this sacred place that is essential to the creation story of so many tribes that are here today,” Biden said in his November speech, adding, “And I look forward to being able to visit Spirit Mountain and experience it with you as soon as I can.”

Spirit Mountain – known as Avi Kwa Ame in Mojave language – sits in the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts in Southern Nevada. It is a sacred site for more than 10 tribal nations and is the site of tribal ceremonies and rituals.

Designating the new monument has rankled some clean energy groups who warn it could hamper wind and solar energy development in Southern Nevada.

While Interior and the Bureau of Land Management have identified millions of acres in Nevada for renewable energy development, much of the public land within the proposed monument area can’t be considered for clean energy development because they are part of the critical habitat for a desert tortoise species, the Department of Interior said last year.

There is a pending application for a solar project on about 2,575 acres that the department has identified as exempt from conservation, an Interior spokesperson said last year.

Outside of the monument area, the Bureau of Land Management has identified more than 9 million acres of federal land that could be used to build utility-scale solar panels, as well as 16.8 million acres of federal land that could be developed for wind energy.

Hemmers said that while the tribe wants to actively encourage recreation on the newly created national monument, it wants to see energy and clean energy development done elsewhere in Nevada.

“They can both protect an area while also walking towards an energy future that gets us to our climate goals,” Hemmers said.

Hemmers, who watched Biden declare his intention to designate Avi Kwa Ame a national monument in November along with her elderly grandmother – a survivor of the brutal, federal Native American boarding school program – said seeing the proclamation finalized would bring an immense sense of “relief.”

“It would give me a sense of relief that people in my community cannot have that burden on their shoulders, being threatened by possibly losing a piece of us,” she told CNN.

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March 21, 2023
Most Californians are under a severe weather alert as another atmospheric river dumps heavy rain | CNN

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California state emergency officials have deployed crews across the state to respond to the potentially damaging impacts of yet another atmospheric river slamming the storm-fatigued state.

More than 35 million Californians – most of the state’s population – were under some kind of weather alert Tuesday afternoon.

Powerful winds, thunderstorms and showers were impacting most of central and Southern California Tuesday.

Wind gusts reaching up to 70 mph coupled with the heavy rain could down trees and cut power, the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center said. More than 170,000 customers across the state were without power Tuesday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us.

State transportation officials reported snow and windy conditions in the mountains of Southern California’s Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Officials recommended residents in the area maintain at least a two-week supply of food, water, medication and fuel ahead of the rapidly strengthening storm’s arrival.

“Visibility is at a big ‘nope’ today,” the state transportation department for the region wrote on Twitter. “Please consider travel when conditions are more favorable. If you must travel, be prepared and stay safe.”

The heavy rain and snow could worsen conditions for communities still flooded from the previous atmospheric river that pummeled the state – and ended just days ago.

“Locally several inches of rainfall is expected by Wednesday morning across especially southern California and this will foster concerns for rapid runoff, flooding and mudslides given the already wet, saturated soil conditions that are in place,” the weather prediction center said.

California has already seen at least 12 atmospheric rivers this winter season that ravaged communities, displaced residents and prompted emergency declarations as floodwater inundated neighborhoods, swelled rivers, damaged roads and sent mud and rocks sliding down hills.

“Now’s the time to ensure you and your family are prepared,” officials from the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services urged residents Tuesday.

Swift-water rescue teams, hand crews and bulldozers were also stationed in counties throughout the state.

“This is going to be yet another challenging event – probably not an extreme storm individually by historical standards – but once again, another significant event that, on top of everything that has come before, it’s going to cause some major problems,” UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said in a video.

It’s unclear how the climate crisis could be influencing the number of storms that hit the West Coast, but scientists have linked it to an increase in the amount of moisture the atmosphere holds. That means storms, like these atmospheric rivers, are able to bring more moisture inland, leading to an increase in rainfall rates and flash flooding.

Since October 1, Los Angeles has received more than 24 inches of rain — roughly twice as much as it normally gets for this time period. That’s also about 10 inches above their annual average, as the vast majority of California’s rainfall occurs from late fall to early spring.

And it’s not just Los Angeles: cities across the state are seeing very similar numbers.

San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, Stockton and Fresno have all seen 150 to 200% of their normal rainfall since October 1.

While the extreme rainfall has triggered flash flooding, mudslides and caused damage, it has also significantly increased critical state reservoirs including Lakes Shasta and Oroville, which have risen by more than 100 and 180 feet respectively since December.

The widespread rain, mountain snow and strong winds across parts of central and Southern California will continue Wednesday and will gradually clear up Thursday, said National Weather Service Meteorologist Sarah Rogowski.

The heaviest impact will likely be felt in southern California, which could see around 1 to 3 inches of rain across lower elevations and 2 to 4 inches across the foothills through Thursday.

The Weather Prediction Center raised the flood threat to a moderate level Monday for areas of Southern California, covering more than 15 million people in coastal areas from Los Angeles to San Diego.

Soils are still overly saturated with water from last week’s storms, setting the stage for more flooding and rapid runoffs.

The powerful storm could also lash Southern California with maximum wind gusts near 75 mph, adding the dangers of fallen trees and powerlines to the mix of hazards Californians are facing this week. More than 30 million people are under alerts for strong winds from California into Nevada and Arizona.

In the Sierra Nevada and Southern California mountains, as much as 3 to 4 feet of snow could be piled on top of already buried communities, likely straining infrastructure and making travel difficult, the weather service said.

Thousands were evacuated from two small central California towns, Alpaugh and Allensworth, in Tulare County, where there have been multiple breaches in waterways and repair efforts were “unsuccessful with the amount of water,” Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux said.

Officials worried roads could become impassable and isolate residents, and deputies went door-to-door before dawn Monday asking people to flee.

So far, seven structures were destroyed and more than 680 were damaged by floods in Tulare County, according to Cal Fire.

Amid fears over mud and debris flows from the El Dorado and Apple fire burn scars in San Bernardino County, an evacuation warning was issued for the communities of Oak Glen, Forest Falls, Mountain Home Village, Angelus Oaks and Northeast Yucaipa.

With more rain on the way, protecting people near vulnerable wildfire burn scar areas is among the top concerns for crews.

Scorched soil can’t absorb rain at a normal rate, making it unstable, explained Yucaipa Fire Chief Grant Malinowski, who is part of the operations group keeping watch over the El Dorado burn scar.

The fear is that mud and debris could slide down, make roads impassable, damage homes and strand people, Malinowski told CNN.

Firefighters across the state have been stationed around burn scars each time an atmospheric river menacingly takes aim at the state – and they’ve been doing it a lot this winter season.

“It’s kind of like almost like fire season right now,” Malinowski said, describing thousands of firefighters and crew members from Cal Fire and the National Guard throughout the state responding to recent storms.

But unlike with wildfires, residents could have less time to get away from mudslides.

“It’s not like a fire where they can see the fire building and getting closer. This is instantaneous. It just happens and it’s too late for you to react to it,” Malinowski said.

And performing rescues in mudslides is no easy task – so it’s important for residents to obey evacuation orders, which aren’t made lightly, Malinowski said.

“We understand the gravity of asking people to voluntarily leave their homes, but it’s also weighed with the ability for us to rescue people, knowing that it’s going to be a very difficult – if not impossible – task to get through just tons of tons of dirt and debris where we just literally can’t make access,” Malinowski said.

Up in the mountains, the concern is heavy snow stranding people.

“The storm is expected to peak on Tuesday and Wednesday and dump as much as three feet of additional snow on mountain communities that were hit with as much of 10 feet of snow during storms in late February and early this month,” San Bernardino County officials said.

The county said it is activating public works employees for 24-hour snow plowing and storm patrol, having County Flood Control District crews active on split shifts during the storm and adding additional sheriff deputies to routine patrols for the next two weeks.

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March 21, 2023
1 student killed, 1 injured in high school shooting near Dallas | CNN

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One student died and another was injured Monday in a shooting outside a high school in Arlington, Texas, police said.

Arlington police say they responded to Lamar High School just before 7 a.m. after reports of a shooting just outside the school building. Officers found a male student with an apparent gunshot wound; he was taken to a hospital but later died of his injuries, Arlington police said.

A female student was grazed by gunfire, police said.

The school day begins at 7:35 a.m., police spokesperson Tim Ciesco said, so not all students had arrived by the time the shooting happened.

The suspected shooter was taken into custody, police said.

“Because the suspect is a juvenile, the department is unable to release his name. He has been charged with one count of Capital Murder and is currently being held at the Tarrant County Juvenile Detention Center. Additional charges are pending the outcome of the ongoing investigation,” police said in a news release Monday afternoon.

“The suspect never entered the school building and ran from the campus immediately after firing the shots. The motive for the shooting remains unclear,” added the release.

Lamar High School went on lockdown after the shooting and students and staff were dismissed for the day, school district spokesperson Anita Foster said.

Arlington is a city between Dallas and Fort Worth with a population of just under 400,000.

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March 20, 2023
Silicon Valley Bank left a void that won’t easily be filled | CNN Business

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A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here. You can listen to an audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link.

New York
CNN
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It’s difficult to overstate the influence that Silicon Valley Bank had over the startup world and the ripple effect its collapse this month had on the global tech sector and banking system.

While SVB was largely known as a regional bank to those outside of the tight-knit venture capital sphere, within certain circles it had become an integral part of the community – a bank that managed the idiosyncrasies of the tech world and helped pave the way for the Silicon Valley-based boom that has consumed much of the economy over the past three decades.

SVB’s collapse was the largest bank failure since the 2008 financial crisis: It was the 16th largest bank in the country, holding about $342 billion in client funds and $74 billion in loans.

At the time of its collapse, about half of all US venture-backed technology and life science firms were banking with SVB. In total, it was the bank for about 2,500 venture firms including Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Bain Capital and Insight Partners.

But the influence of SVB went beyond lending and banking – former CEO Gregory Becker sat on the boards of numerous tech advocacy groups in the Bay Area. He chaired the TechNet trade association and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, was a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and served on the United States Department of Commerce’s Digital Economy Board of Advisors.

There’s no doubt that the failure of Silicon Valley Bank left a large void in tech. The question is how that gap will be filled.

To find out, Before the Bell spoke with Ahmad Thomas, president and CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. The influential advocacy group is working to convene its hundreds of member companies – including Amazon, Bank of America, BlackRock, Google, Microsoft and Meta – to discuss what happens next.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Before the Bell: What’s the feeling on the ground with tech and VC leadership in Silicon Valley?

Ahmad Thomas: Silicon Valley Bank has been a key part of our fabric here for four decades. SVB was truly a pillar of the community and the innovation economy. The absence of SVB – that void – and coalescing leaders to fill that void is where my energy is focused and that is not a small task.

I would say there was a fairly high level of unease a few days ago, and I believe the swift steps taken by leaders in Washington have helped quell a fair amount of that unease, but looking at Credit Suisse and First Republic just over the last couple of days, clearly we are in a situation that is going to continue to develop in the weeks and months ahead.

So how do you fill it?

We’re working to be a voice around stability, particularly about the fundamentals of the innovation economy. We can acknowledge the void given the absence of Silicon Valley Bank, but I do think we need voices out there to be very clear in highlighting that the fundamentals and the innovation infrastructure remains robust here in Silicon Valley.

This is a moment where I think people need to take a step back, let cooler heads prevail, and understand that there are opportunities both from an investment standpoint, a community engagement standpoint and corporate citizenship standpoint for new leaders in Silicon Valley to step up.

Are you working to advocate for more permanent regulation in DC?

It’s far too early for that. But if there are opportunities to enhance access to capital to entrepreneurs to founders of color or in marginalized communities and if there are opportunities to try and drive innovation and economic growth, we will always be at the table for those conversations.

Do you have any ideas about how long this crisis will continue for? What’s your outlook?

The problem is twofold: A crisis of confidence and the set of economic conditions on the ground. The economic conditions remain volatile for a variety of reasons: The softening economy, inflationary pressures and the interest rate environment. But I think right now we need to focus on stabilizing confidence in the investor community, in our business executive community and in the broader set of stakeholders around the strength of the innovation economy. That is something we need to shore up near term.

From CNN’s Mark Thompson

Switzerland’s biggest bank, UBS, has agreed to buy its ailing rival Credit Suisse (CS) in an emergency rescue deal aimed at stemming financial market panic unleashed by the failure of two American banks earlier this month.

“UBS today announced the takeover of Credit Suisse,” the Swiss National Bank said in a statement. It said the rescue would “secure financial stability and protect the Swiss economy.”

UBS is paying 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.25 billion) for Credit Suisse, about 60% less than the bank was worth when markets closed on Friday. Credit Suisse shareholders will be largely wiped out, receiving the equivalent of just 0.76 Swiss francs in UBS shares for stock that was worth 1.86 Swiss francs on Friday.

Extraordinarily, the deal will not need the approval of shareholders after the Swiss government agreed to change the law to remove any uncertainty about the deal.

Credit Suisse had been losing the trust of investors and customers for years. In 2022, it recorded its worst loss since the global financial crisis. But confidence collapsed last week after it acknowledged “material weakness” in its bookkeeping and as the demise of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank spread fear about weaker institutions at a time when soaring interest rates have undermined the value of some financial assets.

Read more here.

From CNN’s David Goldman

A week after Signature Bank failed, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said it has sold most of its deposits to Flagstar Bank, a subsidiary of New York Community Bank.

On Monday, Signature Bank’s 40 branches will begin operating as Flagstar Bank. Signature customers won’t need to make any changes to do their banking Monday.

New York Community Bank bought substantially all of Signature’s deposits and a total of $38.4 billion worth of the company’s assets. That includes $12.9 billion of Signature’s loans, which New York Community Bank purchased at a steep discount -— it paid just $2.7 billion for them. New York Community Bank also paid the FDIC stock that could be worth up to $300 million.

At the end of last year, Signature had more than $110 billion worth of assets, including $88.6 billion of deposits, showing how the run against the bank two weeks ago led to a massive decline in deposits.

Not included in the transaction is about $60 billion in other assets, which will remain in the FDIC’s receivership. It also doesn’t include $4 billion in deposits from Signature’s digital bank business.

Read more here.

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March 20, 2023
A 12th atmospheric river is headed toward storm-fatigued California, threatening even more floods | CNN

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Still reeling from an onslaught of powerful storms and destructive floods, California is bracing for a 12th atmospheric river that’s expected to bring a new round of heavy snow and rain to the state.

The latest in the parade of storms ushered moisture into California Sunday, lashing the state with high winds and dumping more rain and snow over the region before it was expected to spread inland Monday.

Thousands were under evacuation orders Sunday in two small central California towns – Alpaugh and Allensworth – as officials worried roads could become impassable and isolate residents, according to the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office. First responders from dozens of agencies, including the California National Guard, were out Sunday afternoon helping residents evacuate – a sight that has become familiar in the flood-ravaged state this winter season.

“The devastation is indescribable,” Tulare County farmer Brandon Mendonsa told CNN affiliate KFSN. “The water is still coming – this is far from being done.”

The next atmospheric river, mainly taking aim at southern California, is expected to be colder than the last and arrive Tuesday with high winds, heavy rain, mountain snow and the threat of more floods. Soils in the Golden State are still overly saturated from last week’s storm, making the ground vulnerable to more flooding and rapid runoffs, the National Weather Service said.

Though not forecast to be as potent as the atmospheric rivers of previous weeks, the system is expected to bring 1-3 inches of rain across the lower elevations and 2-4 inches across the foothills of Southern California through Thursday. Arizona could also see up to 3 inches of rainfall.

Powerful winds are also a concern. Gusts could reach up to 80 mph – strong enough to down trees and power lines from the central California coast to Southern California, according to the Weather Service.

The #AtmosphericRiver northwest of Hawaii is beautiful yet powerful. This will arrive in SoCal Tue & bring heavy rain to lower elevations through Wed with heavy snow in parts of the mountains. Strong winds will occur at times, plus a chance of flooding in low-lying areas. #CAwx pic.twitter.com/IrgSwQbiNl

— NWS San Diego (@NWSSanDiego) March 19, 2023

High wind watches were issued for Southern California, including Los Angeles, for Tuesday and Wednesday.

In the Sierra Nevada and Southern California mountain ranges, snowfall could add up to several feet for some the highest terrain and likely make for hazardous travel over the next few days.

Winter storm watches have already been issued for the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, where an additional 1-4 feet of snowfall is possible late Monday through Wednesday afternoon. The San Bernardino Mountains are also under a winter storm watch, with snowfall expected to reach up to 4 feet through Wednesday with gusts up to 85 mph.

This winter, California was hit with 11 different atmospheric rivers – long, narrow bands of moisture that can carry saturated air thousands of miles like a fire hose. While the storms have upended life for many in the state, damaging homes and forcing evacuations, they’ve also helped put a dent in the state’s historic drought.

Last week’s atmospheric river alone shattered daily rainfall records in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Santa Maria.

There’s been so much rain that the Southern California water board called off emergency drought conservation measures for over 7 million people.

Severe drought in California was cut in half from the previous week, now covering only 8% of the state – down from 80.6% just three months ago, according to the US Drought Monitor. Just over a third of the state remains in some level of drought.

The abnormally wet winter – combined with recent storms – wiped out exceptional and extreme drought in California for the first time since 2020, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“Moderate to exceptional drought coverage across the U.S. is at its lowest since August 2020 and is likely to continue improving, or end entirely, across much of California and the Great Basin,” NOAA forecasters said.

As the snowpack melts in the coming months, it’s expected to further improve drought conditions across much of the western US, according to NOAA. But, that could also mean more floods.

“Approximately 44% of the U.S. is at risk for flooding this spring,” said Ed Clark, director of NOAA’s National Water Center. “California’s historic snowpack, coupled with spring rain, is heightening the potential for spring floods.”

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March 20, 2023
New Mexico Game and Fish is now hiring ‘professional bear huggers’ | CNN

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Bear lovers rejoice: The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish is hiring for “professional bear huggers.”

The department posted an adorable job listing on Facebook on Monday, featuring precious snaps of conservation officers cuddling baby bears.

Unfortunately, a love of bears is not the only qualification you’ll need to become a conservation officer. The job listing with the formal title of the position specifies candidates should have a bachelor’s degree in “biological sciences, police science or law enforcement, natural resources conservation, ecology, or related fields.”

Interested applicants “must have ability to hike in strenuous conditions, have the courage to crawl into a bear den, and have the trust in your coworkers to keep you safe during the process,” wrote the department.

The photos are from a research project in Northern New Mexico, according to the Facebook post. They added they “do not recommend crawling into bear dens” and “all bears were handled safely under supervision.”

“Not all law enforcement field work is this glamorous, but we would love for you to join the team where you can have the experience of a lifetime,” added the department.

Applications for the next class of conservation officer trainees are open until March 30, according to the post.

The job duties include a lot more than just bear-hugging, according to the job listing. Each conservation officer is responsible for “enforcing the game and fish laws” and also “educates the public about wildlife and wildlife management, conducts wildlife surveys, captures ‘problem animals,’ investigates wildlife damage to crops and property, assists in wildlife relocations and helps to develop new regulations.”

Black bears are New Mexico’s state animal. Estimates place the population at around 6,000 bears, according to a publication from the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish.

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March 19, 2023
Democratic Arizona senator says there are ‘risks involved’ in potential Trump indictment | CNN Politics

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Washington
CNN
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Democratic Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly acknowledged there are “risks involved” in the potential indictment of former President Donald Trump by the Manhattan district attorney while reiterating that “nobody in our nation is or should be above the law.”

“I would hope that if they brought charges that they have a strong case, because this is, as you said, it’s unprecedented. And, you know, there’s certainly, you know, risks involved here,” Kelly said in an interview that aired Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Kelly also defended Trump’s calls on social media for his supporters to stage protests and “take our nation back” ahead of a possible indictment and called on law enforcement agencies to do their part to keep any protests peaceful.

“The president’s supporters, they have First Amendment rights, and they should be able to exercise those peacefully. I think it’s going to be important for law enforcement to pay attention to, you know, protests and make sure it doesn’t rise to the level of violence,” Kelly told CNN’s Jake Tapper.

Trump said Saturday he expects to be arrested in connection with the yearslong investigation into a hush money scheme involving adult film actress Stormy Daniels and called on his supporters to protest any such move.

In a social media post, Trump, referring to himself, said the “leading Republican candidate and former president of the United States will be arrested on Tuesday of next week” – though he did not say why he expects to be arrested. His team said after Trump’s post that it had not received any notifications from prosecutors.

The former president has been agitating for his team to get his base riled up and believes that an indictment would help him politically, multiple people briefed on the matter told CNN – a posture that potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu acknowledged on Sunday in a separate interview with Tapper.

“I think it’s building a lot of sympathy for the former president,” Sununu said on “State of the Union.”

“So, I just think that the – not just the media, but really a lot of the Democrats have misplayed this, in terms of building sympathy for the former president. And it does drastically change the paradigm as we go into the ’24 election,” he said.

Kelly on Sunday declined to say whether he would support fellow Arizona senator Independent Kyrsten Sinema if she decides to run for re-election, but praised her record in the Senate, calling her “very effective.”

“I’ve worked with her very closely over the last two years. I mean, really, in a very positive way. She’s very effective in the United States Senate. We’ve gotten a lot done and I look forward to doing that, you know, over the next months in the – in the rest of this year,” Kelly said.

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March 19, 2023