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Biden quest for judicial diversity goes beyond race, gender

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Date: 2/10/22
Associated Press story about how President Biden’s background will influence his Supreme Court Justice nominee.

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WASHINGTON (AP) - President Joe Biden spent a recent flight aboard Air Force One reminiscing with lawmakers and aides about his start as a young lawyer in Delaware working as a public defender in the late 1960s.

The flight from New York to Washington was short, and there wasn't much time to explore the president's brief time in the job during the civil rights era. But as Biden considers his first Supreme Court nominee, this lesser-known period in his biography could offer insight into the personal experience he brings to the decision. The account was relayed by a person familiar with the trip who insisted on anonymity to discuss it.

Biden has already made history by nominating more public defenders, civil rights attorneys and nonprofit lawyers to the federal bench during his first year in office than any other president, increasing not just the racial and gender diversity of the federal judiciary but also the range of professional expertise. And it's possible that theme will continue as he looks to make more history by nominating the first Black woman to the nation's highest court.

While three of the current justices have experience as prosecutors, none was a criminal defense attorney. The last justice with serious experience in defense was Thurgood Marshall, a civil rights attorney nominated about 55 years ago. He was the first Black person on the court and retired in 1991.

Some of the women on Biden's list of potential nominees have deep public defense or civil rights backgrounds: Ketanji Brown Jackson, 51, for example, worked as a public defender and served on the U.S. Sentencing Commission before she was nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama. Eunice Lee, 51, whom Biden named to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in August, is the first former federal defender to serve on that court.

Biden's judicial appointments thus far make clear his interest in professional diversity.

Nearly 30% of Biden's nominees to the federal bench have been public defenders, 24% have been civil rights lawyers and 8% labor attorneys. By the end of his first year, Biden had won confirmation of 40 judges, the most since President Ronald Reagan. Of those, 80% are women and 53% are people of color, according to the White House.

"It's so important to have a diversity of perspectives and having the judiciary really reflect the diversity of lived experiences and perspectives of the folks who are coming before them," said Lisa Barrett, director of policy at the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund.

The Supreme Court hears only a fraction of federal cases filed each year. Federal judges are hearing most of the cases, with roughly 400,000 cases filed in federal trial courts a year. The high court hears only about 150 of the more than 7,000 cases it is asked to review annually.

Most of the judges appointed to the federal bench have worked as prosecutors, corporate attorneys or both. A survey three years ago found more than 73% of sitting federal judges were men, and more than 80% were white, according to the Center for American Progress.

A diversity of professional expertise makes for a more fair and just bench, advocates say. Judges draw on their personal histories to help them weigh arguments and decide cases, and they also learn from each other. Public defenders often represent the indigent and the marginalized, those who often can't afford their own attorneys.

"They represent the 80% percent of people in the criminal legal system too low-income to afford a lawyer," said Emily Galvin-Almanza, a former public defender who founded the nonprofit Partners for Justice. "So when you put a public defender on the bench, you're putting a person on who listens with a very different ear. You have a person on the bench with an experience of the realities of very, very disempowered people."

Biden's brief time as a public defender isn't widely discussed, and it isn't listed in his official biography on the White House website. He's more prone to talk about his 36 years as a senator and his time as head of the Judiciary Committee, where he oversaw six Supreme Court nominations.

But the president has spoken at times about his brief time as a public defender before he became a U.S. senator at the age of 29. It's informed some of his decisions in office, like directing federal grant money for public defense and expanding other federal efforts on public defense.

"Civil rights, the Vietnam War and President Nixon's rampant abuse of power were the reasons I entered public life to begin with," Biden said in a 2019 speech in South Carolina during the presidential campaign. "That's why I had chosen at that time to leave a prestigious law firm that I had been hired by and become a public defender - because those people who needed the most help couldn't afford to be defended in those days."

In a 2007 memoir, he called the job "God's work."

The president promised during his campaign for president that he'd nominate a Black woman to the bench, and he spent his first year in office broadening his potential applicant pool through judicial appointments. Most Supreme Court justices have come from federal appeals courts, but it's not a requirement. Among the current justices, only Justice Elena Kagan wasn't a federal appeals court judge before joining.

Federal judges are often chosen from state courts, which also lack in diversity. But Biden's very public push to diversify federal judges could have an impact on how judges in the states look, too.

"Neither state courts nor federal courts reflect the diversity of the communities they serve, or the diversity of the legal profession. Courts across the country are falling short," said Alicia Bannon, the director of the Judiciary Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. "But we're hoping that is slowly changing."

Biden has promised a rigorous selection process for his Supreme Court nominee. His team, led by former Democratic Sen. Doug Jones, is reviewing past writings, public remarks and decisions, learning the life stories of the candidates and interviewing them and people who know them. Background checks will be updated and candidates may be asked about their health. After all, it's a lifetime appointment.

The goal is to provide the president with the utmost confidence in the eventual pick's judicial philosophy, fitness for the court and preparation for the high-stakes confirmation fight. Interviewing potential candidates comes later, but Biden has already spoken to some of the women who may be under consideration back when they were being appointed to other courts.

Biden will also continue to seek the advice of lawmakers. He was to host Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats on Thursday, a White House official said.

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Associated Press writer Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.

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Biden quest for judicial diversity goes beyond race, gender

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WASHINGTON (AP) - President Joe Biden spent a recent flight aboard Air Force One reminiscing with lawmakers and aides about his start as a young lawyer in Delaware working as a public defender in the late 1960s.

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Congress eyes more financial disclosure for federal judges

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Date: 2/18/22
The Associated Press published this article about a bill proposed in the Senate to create transparency into financial conflicts of interest for Federal judges.

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Congress eyes more financial disclosure for federal judges

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal judges would have to publicly disclose more about their finances under a bill approved by the Senate this week, which aims to make the judiciary subject to similar transparency requirements as lawmakers.

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Federal court preparing to draw new Alabama congressional map

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Date: 2/4/22
Al.com reports on issues involving the Alabama Legislature and plans to redistribute for upcoming congressional races.

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The three-judge district court that issued a preliminary injunction blocking Alabama's use of its congressional district map in this year's elections is preparing to draw a new map on its own.

In an order issued Thursday, the judges said they gave the Legislature the opportunity to draw a new map when they issued the preliminary injunction on Jan. 24.

But state lawmakers have given no indication that they are working on a new map.

Alabama has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to issue a stay, which would block the preliminary injunction and possibly allow Alabama to avoid redrawing the districts. The Supreme Court's decision could come at any time.

Senate President Pro Tem Greg Reed, R-Jasper, asked Thursday if the Legislature was making preparations to draw new maps, indicated the state was following the lead of Attorney General Steve Marshall.

"I can tell you that the attorney general has filed motions of stay and of appeal with the Supreme Court, and we're just going to need to see what the outcomes are of those appeals and the state from the attorney general."

The timing is important because the districts will be used in this year's elections, starting with the primary on May 24.

In the meantime, U.S. Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus, District Judge Anna Manasco and District Judge Terry Moorer issued an order Thursday notifying the parties in the litigation that the court plans to hire a special master and an expert cartographer to draw a new plan.

"As of this date, we are well into the second week of the two-week period we afforded the Legislature to act," the judges wrote. "We have held two status conferences and remain unaware of any effort by the Legislature to begin the legislative process of passing a new map. Out of an abundance of caution, we have thus begun the process of preparing the court to undertake the unwelcome task of drawing a remedial map, if we are called upon to do so."

The order said if the Legislature does not draw a new map by Monday, it will issue a detailed order appointing a special master and expert cartographer who would begin work no sooner than Tuesday. The Legislature is not scheduled to meet again until Tuesday.

"We issue this order solely for the limited purpose of advising the parties of the preparations the court has undertaken to ensure its readiness for the task of preparing a remedial map, if circumstances unfold such that the court is required to commence that task," the judges wrote. "We remain hopeful that the Legislature will be able to prepare an electoral map that complies with federal law and confident that the Legislature still has sufficient time to enact such a map."

The plan approved by the Legislature in November, the one blocked by the preliminary injunction, has one majority Black district and six that are overwhelmingly white. It is essentially the same map in place since 1992, with the 7th District the only Black district.

Several lawsuits were filed challenging the map as racially gerrymandered. The plaintiffs say that Alabama, with a population that is 27% Black, should have two majority Black districts in the U.S. House out of seven districts, or two that are close to a majority.

The three-judge court, in its Jan. 24 ruling, sided with the plaintiffs, finding that they were "substantially likely to establish" that the map violates the VRA, adding that "Black voters have less opportunity than other Alabamians to elect candidates of their choice to Congress."

Attorney General Marshall said the judges' decision would force the state to make race the main factor in drawing districts, which they said is not allowed by federal law or court precedents.

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Federal court preparing to draw new Alabama congressional map

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The three-judge district court that issued a preliminary injunction blocking Alabama's use of its congressional district map in this year's elections is preparing to draw a new map on its own. In an order issued Thursday, the judges said they gave the Legislature the opportunity to draw a new map when they issued the preliminary injunction on Jan.

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Issues aplenty, but can anyone knock off Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey?

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Date: 2/18/22
AL.com published this article about competition and issues that face Governor Kay Ivey as she looks to get re-elected.

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Republican candidates looking to knock Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey out of office this year have a buffet of issues they could run on leading up to their party's May 24 primary.

Included in that cornucopia:

State schools stubbornly hover at the bottom of most K-12 educational rankings.

Alabama's rural hospitals are teetering in financial turmoil.

State prisons are decaying, overcrowded and violent with the federal government threatening a takeover.

Casino gambling, a lottery, and legalizing marijuana loom as unaddressed - and controversial - items.

Whether addressing those issues, or others, could stir Alabama voters in rocking the GOP governor's race remains to be seen. So far, the candidates appear to be concentrating on attacking Ivey on her response to several past issues including the gas tax, mask mandates and the Ten Commandments.

Eight candidates are looking to bump off Ivey, or at least push her into a June 21 runoff.

The candidates are: Lindy Blanchard, the Trump Administration's ambassador to Slovenia; Lew Burdette, president of King's Home, a program for abused women and children; former Morgan County Commissioner Stacy Lee George; toll bridge developer and former candidate for governor Tim James; Opelika pastor Dean Odle; Springville Mayor Dave Thomas; Orange Beach businessman and former congressional candidate Dean Young; and pro-yoga candidate Donald Trent Jones.

Political experts in Alabama say that for the candidates to make a move, they will need to cling to an issue or a platform that grabs the voters' attention. They will also need to campaign hard against Ivey and her record, though "negative campaigning" will be a delicate dance.

"She's very popular, her poll numbers are the best in the state," said Angi Horn, a GOP political consultant based in Montgomery who ran Robert Bentley's successful campaign for governor in 2010. "To make an impact, you have to have something you would do as a candidate that drives people to the polls. It has to be more than 'liberals are bad,' because that's not a dividing issue among Republican candidates."

She added, "You are going to have to find some issues that motivates voters to the poll that is unique to your candidacy. I don't know what that is, but you have to do more than criticize (Democrats), and have some groundbreaking ideas."

Ivey versus James

Within the past week, some of the candidates are coming out swinging while others are jockeying for attention either on social media or during a candidates' forum.

Ivey's campaign, thus far, is only responding directly to one of the campaigns - James, who twice ran for governor in 2010 and 2002, and is the son of former Gov. Fob James.

James, in his first campaign ad, blasted the Democrats. But in his latest ad, released late last week, James criticizes the incumbent governor's handling of the pandemic.

"Parents, you've been right the whole time," James said in the short clip attacking past mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic. "Governor Ivey could've stopped this by executive order. She refused. As governor, I'll stop forced masking. It's time to fight back."

The governor's campaign responded.

"We expect to see a lot of ridiculous attacks from Tim James in this election because he has nothing to run on," said William Califf, the campaign manager for Ivey.

Califf then blasted James for a radio interview he gave in January in which he said the Alabama Department of Transportation's leadership should be replaced over the unraveling of a public-private partnership proposal for a $2.1 billion Interstate 10 Mobile River Bridge & Bayway project.

Said Califf, "The one that was most surprising was the one about a bridge - I think toll bridges is the last thing Tim James would want to lecture anybody on."

James runs a company that builds toll bridges including the construction of the Foley Beach Express over the Intracoastal Waterway in the late 90s. That project was the subject of campaign scrutiny during the 2010 governor's race, as then-candidate Bradley Byrne of Fairhope blasted James for benefitting from an "insider deal" hatched during the final days of Fob James' tenure in the Governor's Mansion.

The James campaign, in response to Ivey's campaign, did not address the toll statement. Instead, the campaign continued to hit at Ivey's handling of the pandemic.

"Kay Ivey just laid out her strategy for re-election: Play cute to take attention away from her failed record on vaccine mandates, higher gas taxes and failing schools," according to a campaign spokesman to AL.com. "And say whatever it takes to stop Tim James."

Ten Commandments

Other candidates have come out swinging, including Young, who was once the campaign manager and close alley to Roy Moore.

Young, who has run in past races for Congress including a tense showdown with Byrne in 2013, is pushing Ivey on social issues - namely, the display of the Ten Commandments.

Young claims the governor should be censured by the state Republican executive committee because she has not followed through with having the Ten Commandments displayed on public property, including schools, following the 2018 approval of a constitutional amendment that backed their displays.

As Young claimed, an overwhelming majority of voters backed the Ten Commandments amendment with a 72%-28% split. Young spearheaded the amendment that year.

He said he plans to request the state GOP executive committee vote on the censure during their meeting Saturday in Birmingham.

John Wahl, chairman of the state GOP, said the party does not comment "on items that may or may not come before the committee prior to the meeting taking place."

Young, during a candidates' forum in Fairhope, got into a verbal altercation with a representative of the Eastern Shore Women's GOP club over a disagreement he had with the forum's moderator. He was almost kicked out of the event, and then later claimed that he doesn't believe any of the other candidates in the governor's race will "go after Ivey" like he plans to do.

"I think Kay Ivey is a coward for not coming to debates (or to forums)," Young said, referring to Ivey's campaign strategy in 2018, which kept her mostly from participating in forums and debates in the lead-up to an overwhelming victory in that year's GOP primary over Republicans like Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, former state Senator Bill Hightower, and youth pastor Scott Dawson.

Debates and forums

Califf did not say whether Ivey will stick to her 2018 strategy of avoiding debates and forums where her opponents are present. Ivey did not attend the Eastern Shore GOP Women's forum because, hours later, she was in Birmingham to officially kick off her re-election campaign.

"The Governor has been traveling the state every day both in her official capacity and for campaign stops at GOP events," he said. "As Governor Ivey said at her packed-out campaign kickoff last week in Birmingham, she has done what other candidates only talk about doing and her conservative record speaks for itself. She has a lot to talk about - from creating the best business climate in the country and keeping Alabama open, signing the strongest pro-life law in America, banning transgender (participation in) sports, securing our elections, and fighting back against the radical agenda coming out of Biden's failing White House."

Califf added, "The Governor looks forward to continuing to campaign on her conservative record and winning this race by vote."

Horn said Ivey, as a candidate running for re-election, is handling the campaign appropriately.

"Right now, I think until someone mounts a serious campaign, which I have not really seen yet, I think she is doing the people's business by being governor," she said. "To detract from that, I think, would be unwise as a candidate, but also as the governor."

Jess Brown, a retired political science professor at Athens State University and a longtime follower of Alabama state politics, said he doesn't believe the group running for governor "won't be as timid on messaging" as he believed was the case with the candidates who ran against Ivey in 2018.

"There is a big difference in campaign style between a Tommy Battle and a Tim James," Brown said. "(James) will go after the religious right of the party. But if (the 2022) candidates don't go after Ivey, they will fall into the same boat that the credible candidates fell into (in 2018). In a primary election, you got to make the incumbent's record an agenda item."

Brown said that James' first ad, solely critical of the Democratic Party, doesn't move the needle.

"You cannot talk about the general platitudes of the state's future," said Brown. "You have to take the fight to the incumbent. Otherwise, the people will get up on Election Day and vote for the incumbent in their party."

Gas tax

To that end, last week's candidates' forum in Fairhope began introducing some of the issues the candidates plan to hit on during the coming months.

Almost uniformly, Ivey's challengers criticized the 10-cent-per gallon state fuel tax increase adopted in 2019, to provide an influx of funding for the Rebuild Alabama Act program that aims at rebuilding roads and bridges throughout the state.

Blanchard, the former Trump administration ambassador to Slovenia and the most well-funded candidate in the race, said she would freeze the tax increase and undergo an analysis on how the money is being spent, and where it plans to go.

Other candidates weighed in, with some suggesting the gas tax increase should be redacted, though no alternatives surfaced on alternative spending considerations for fixing the state's roads and bridges.

Horn believes the candidates need to be careful while pushing back against the state fuel tax increase, noting that a gas tax increase was part of former President Donald Trump Administration's agenda for improving the nation's infrastructure.

"I would be cautious about (criticizing) Rebuild Alabama," Horn said. "As Republicans, we are a state that is very pro-Trump. Rebuild Alabama, better known as the gas tax, was in response to President Trump's call for the state to increase the gas tax for his infrastructure plan. To criticize is to criticize Trump and I think that would get you into muddy waters with Alabama Republican voters."

Trump factor

Blanchard, who aside from Ivey is the only woman in the race, said she's not worried about not having an opportunity to debate the incumbent about the issues like the fuel tax and more.

"I am going to be a 'bless her heart' campaign, and the fact that it's her decision to go where she wants to go," Blanchard said. "I'll focus on my campaign and moving forward and continuing to put the message out on how to move Alabama forward and not stay stagnate."

Blanchard said she felt the men, during the Fairhope forum, will offer up the negative campaigning.

"From what I've seen today, I think the men will do a great job at that."

Brown said that for Blanchard, the difference could be Trump's role in the campaign. He said that if Trump "is mad" at Ivey over the halting of a Trump rally at the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park last year, then it could provide a boost to one of the campaigns, presumably that of his former ambassador.

Trump, who has spoken highly of Ivey in the past, has not gotten involved in a past Alabama governor's race. He has endorsed U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville, in this year's Senate contest.

"If Trump arrives, will he suddenly elevate Blanchard's status?" Brown said. "Trump is a factor in our Senate and governor's races."

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Issues aplenty, but can anyone knock off Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey?

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The incumbent governor is the favorite, but she faces eight challengers before May 24. Some of them are starting to needle the governor on a variety of issues like the COVID-19 pandemic, the Rebuild Alabama Act and the Ten Commandments. Will any of it resonate with the voters?

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Help near for struggling Madison County recycling program

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Date: 2/2/22
AL.com reports on City Council meeting to discuss recycling issues in Madison County.

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Help near for struggling Madison County recycling program

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Huntsville and Madison County garbage crews are pitching in to help the county’s recycling program catch up on a pickup backlog

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In a first, UAB surgeons replace a patient's kidneys with genetically modified pig organs

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Date: 1/20/22
AL.com published this story about a major accomplishment in medicine performed on a Huntsville man at UAB.

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Surgeons at the University of Alabama at Birmingham replaced the kidneys of a brain-dead patient last September with genetically modified pig organs in a pioneering procedure that could bring hope to thousands of people on transplant waiting lists.

The organs performed well three days after surgery, filtering blood, producing urine and showing no immediate signs of rejection, according to an article published today in the American Journal of Transplantation. It's the first peer-reviewed study of a pig kidney transplant into the body of a brain-dead patient published in the academic literature.

The study marks a significant advance in transplant medicine, which has been increasingly exploring the potential of organs from genetically modified animals. More than 90,000 people in the United States are on the kidney transplant waiting list, according to Donate Life. Surgeons perform only about 25,000 transplants a year due to a shortage of organs, a number that could greatly increase if pig kidneys become a viable alternative.

"This game-changing moment in the history of medicine represents a paradigm shift and a major milestone in the field of xenotransplantation, which is arguably the best solution to the organ shortage crisis," said Dr. Jayme Locke, director of the UAB Comprehensive Transplant Institute and lead surgeon for the study. "We have bridged critical knowledge gaps and obtained the safety and feasibility data necessary to begin a clinical trial in living humans with end-stage kidney failure disease."

The recipient was a 57-year-old man from Huntsville. Jim Parsons was a registered organ donor who became brain dead after an accident. His family members agreed to keep him alive on life support so he could be involved in the study.

"Jim would have wanted to save as many people as he could with his death, and if he knew he could potentially save thousands and thousands of people by doing this, he would have had no hesitation," said his ex-wife, Julie O'Hara. "Our dream is that no other person dies waiting for a kidney, and we know that Jim is very proud that his death could potentially bring so much hope to others."

In October, researchers at New York University Langone Medical Center announced a similar study during which they attached a pig's kidney to a brain-dead patient's blood vessels and monitored its function outside the body. Doctors from the University of Maryland announced last week a heart transplant using a genetically modified pig organ in a patient ineligible for a human heart. Both procedures have shown signs of success.

Transplants of animal organs into humans have a mixed medical record. The most famous animal organ recipient, Baby Fae, died in 1984, 21 days after her body rejected a baboon's heart she received as a newborn.

The prospects for animal-to-human transplants improved with the creation of gene editing technology. Locke described the gene editing process as "humanizing" the pig kidneys, which are roughly the same size as human kidneys. Before the Parsons' transplant, genetically modified pig kidneys had been transplanted into primates.

But the primate studies couldn't answer several key questions, including whether the organ could withstand higher human blood pressure. The UAB study found positive results for 77 hours until it was ended.

"Along with our partners, we have made significant investments in xenotransplantation for almost a decade hoping for the kinds of results published today," said Dr. Selwyn Vickers, dean of the UAB Heersink School of Medicine and CEO of the UAB Health System. "Today's results are a remarkable achievement for humanity and advance xenotransplant into the clinical realm."

The transplant at UAB is the first in which a patient had his kidneys removed and replaced by organs from a pig. The surgery followed the standard steps that would be used in clinical trials for patients on the list for a kidney transplant who volunteer for a study.

The company Revivicor has created pigs with 10 genes edited out that could make their organs more suitable for human patients. The pig was cared for at a UAB facility designed as a germ-free environment.

The study proved the potential for pig kidney transplants, laying the foundation for a Phase I clinical trial, Locke said.

"I think it's time for us to move to that next phase," Locke said.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will regulate animal-to-human transplants, which will treat the genetically modified organs as medical devices. The organ created by Revivicor have not been approved by the agency. This study will provide valuable information about the transmission of diseases between donor pigs and humans, Locke said. No evidence of viral infection emerged during the study.

"Mr. Parsons and his family allowed us to replicate precisely how we would perform this transplant in a living human," Locke said. "Their powerful contribution will save thousands of lives, and that could begin in the very near future. Mr. Parsons' gift honors his legacy and firmly establishes the viability, safety and feasibility of this preclinical model."

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In a first, UAB surgeons replace a patient's kidneys with genetically modified pig organs

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The study was performed in September of 2021 and featured in a peer-reviewed article in the American Journal of Transplantation. Surgeons said it represents a huge leap in transplant medicine, providing hope to tens of thousands of patients on organ waiting lists.

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How tech could help out endangered languages like Cherokee

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Date: 2/28/22
The Associated Press details how technology could help endangered languages.

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How tech could help out endangered languages like Cherokee

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By itself, being able to read smartphone home screens in Cherokee won’t be enough to safeguard the Indigenous language, endangered after a long history of erasure. But it might be a step toward immersing younger tribal citizens in the language spoken by a dwindling number of their elders.

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GOP leaders in 2 counties want Dale Strong left off ballot over Confederate monument removal

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Date: 2/4/22
AL.com published this article about controversy surrounding a Madison County Commission chairman.

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GOP leaders in 2 counties want Dale Strong left off ballot over Confederate monument removal

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Leaders of the Republican party in Limestone and Morgan counties say Madison County Commission Chairman Dale Strong shouldn’t be on the party ballot for Congress because he agreed to move a Confederate statue from the county courthouse grounds

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How Marvel movies can impact Huntsville local businesses

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Date: 1/10/22
Al.com published this piece highlighting local businesses in Huntsville and how they correlate business booms with movie releases.

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How Marvel movies can impact Huntsville local businesses

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In addition to wallcrawling, superhuman reflexes, strength and of course "spider-sense," Spider-Man has another superpower: The ability to boost traffic at local comic-book-related businesses. Since its Dec. 17 opening, "Spider-Man: No Way Home," the latest movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has earned more than $620,000,000 at the box office domestically.

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US backs rare flower habitat amid Nevada lithium mine fight

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Date: 2/7/22
This Associated Press article covers controversy related to conservation efforts and lithium mines.

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RENO, Nev. (AP) - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed designating critical habitat for a Nevada wildflower it plans to list as endangered amid a conflict over a mine to produce lithium batteries for electric vehicles critical to the Biden administration's plans to combat climate change.

The agency on Wednesday proposed designating critical habitat for Tiehm's buckwheat on a high-desert ridge near the California line halfway between Reno and Las Vegas.

It's the only place in the world the delicate, 6-inch-tall (15-centimeter) wildflower with yellow blooms is known to exist.

It's also the site where Ioneer USA Corp. plans to build a big lithium mine.

Ioneer said the proposed designation was "an anticipated development" that "has no material impacts on our planned mining activities."

The Australian-based company noted that mining is allowed within areas designated as critical habitat if approved by the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Land Management.

"Ioneer has already taken this into account with its planning and proposed operations and continues to work closely with both agencies to ensure its proposed activities will not jeopardize the conservation of the species," the company said in a statement Wednesday.

The Fish and Wildlife Service said in its formal notice of the proposed designation that "this unit is essential to the conservation and recovery of Tiehm's buckwheat because it supports all of the habitat that is occupied by Tiehm's buckwheat across the species' range."

Conservationists who sued to protect the wildflower praised the move.

"This proposed critical habitat rule sends a clear message: protecting the native range of Tiehm's buckwheat is the only way to prevent its extinction," said Naomi Fraga, the conservation director of the California Botanic Garden, a group that joined the Center for Biological Diversity's 2019 petition to list the plant as endangered.

Demand for lithium worldwide is expected to double by 2025. Most of it currently comes from Australia and South America. Boosting domestic production could potentially lower the price tag on a key component of President Joe Biden's $2 trillion climate plan: offering rebates to consumers to trade in gas-powered for electric cars.

Ioneer says its mine is expected to produce 22,000 tons (19,958 metric tons) of lithium - enough to power hundreds of thousands of electric vehicles annually. But the endangered species listing process has contributed to delays in its original plans to obtain all necessary permits and begin initial construction of the $785 million project before the end of last year.

Unless the Fish and Wildlife Service reverses course because of new information, the plant will be declared endangered in September based on a court order and the agency's final listing rule in October 2021 that concluded that the wildflower may already be on the brink of extinction.

That listing triggers certain regulatory obligations, such as consulting with the service before any development or other activity that could harm the plant.

The critical habitat designation also identifies specific habitat that "may require special management and protection" - in this case "to address mineral development, road development and (off-highway vehicle) activity, livestock grazing, nonnative invasive plants species and herbivory," the agency said.

Tiehm's buckwheat grows on about 10 acres (4 hectares) - an area about the size of 130 football fields - at Rhyolite Ridge in the Silver Peak range west of the small community of Tonopah, about 200 miles (322 km) from Reno. Fewer than 30,000 are believed to exist.

The 910 acres (368 hectares) proposed for habitat designation - about half a square mile (1.3 square kilometers) - would provide about a 1,650-foot (503-meter) buffer around the plants to ensure access to bees and other pollinators.

Conservationists have argued for a buffer three times larger, while Ioneer suggested less than a tenth of the size proposed by the agency would be sufficient.

The company has said its project has a conservation strategy that includes transplanting some flowers and growing new ones with seeds it gathered as part of an experiment in greenhouses at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Conservationists said the proposed designation reaffirms their contention that won't work, or at least pass legal muster.

"Ioneer's plans to destroy much of the plant's habitat and establish it somewhere else are highly unlikely to comport with a critical habitat designation, since the rule recognizes that these areas are essential for the species," said Patrick Donnelly, the Center for Biological Diversity's Nevada director.

The Fish and Wildlife Service said Ioneer's conservation strategy remains "in the early stages."

It said Ioneer plans to avoid and fence off half of the eight separate places within the 10-acre (4-hectare) site where the flowers grow and "remove and salvage all remaining plants ... and translocate them to another location."

But the agency said soil studies and results of greenhouse experiments show there's a "unique envelope of soil conditions in which Tiehm's buckwheat thrives that is different from adjacent unoccupied soils."

"The areas outside the occupied area do not support these physical and biological features and we are not confident that they would support populations of Tiehm's buckwheat," the agency said.

U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has the authority to exclude the area from a critical habitat designation if she determines such exclusion would outweigh the benefits, "unless we determine ... failure to designate such area will result in the extinction of the species," the agency said.

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US backs rare flower habitat amid Nevada lithium mine fight

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RENO, Nev. (AP) - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed designating critical habitat for a Nevada wildflower it plans to list as endangered amid a conflict over a mine to produce lithium batteries for electric vehicles critical to the Biden administration's plans to combat climate change.

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Jewish Mountain Brook student posted photo of 'Hitler' salute, says he was reprimanded

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Date: 2/9/22
AL.com coverage of controversy surrounding symbols at a Birmingham high school.

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Mountain Brook schools are under scrutiny again, this time after a picture showing a high school student and teacher standing with arms outstretched in a salute circulated on social media.

The picture and a short clip of a video appear to show students in 11th grade U.S. History teacher Joe Webb's class standing beside their desks at Mountain Brook High School. At least two people have their arms outstretched and straight.

Two students in two different sections of Webb's class said Webb instructed them to stand and replicate the stance, which they said reminded them of a Nazi salute, during their Jan. 18 class period. Photos and a short video were later circulated on social media.

A Jewish student in the class said he was less troubled by the lesson itself than school officials' reaction after he posted a video to social media, and by other students who seem to brush off his concerns.

"They say it's not a big deal, that it was a history lesson," Ephraim "Epps" Tytell said of his fellow students. "But the thing is, even though it was, yes, it was a history lesson, he could have just told us about it or showed us a picture. He didn't have to get us to stand up and do it. He didn't have to do it. Because yeah, that symbol used to mean something good. But because of Hitler and everything, it's horrible."

Mountain Brook school officials deny that Webb asked students to stand, do a Nazi salute or the Bellamy Salute and say the Pledge of Allegiance.
Read more: Read more: Students, teachers fear impact of Alabama ban on critical race theory. The Bellamy Salute Mountain Brook backtracks on anti-bias training after parents link to critical race theory.
The district has come under scrutiny for multiple incidents of students engaging in anti-Semitic activities in recent years; the district brought in the Anti-Defamation League in 2020 to help address bias and teach tolerance, but cut ties with the organization after some local parents complained that the organization was connected with some progressive political efforts.

"The picture and three-second video being circulated are not representative of the lesson, what was being taught, or the context of the instruction that was occurring," the district said in a statement Tuesday, after media inquiries. "Any representation that this picture or video represents a Mountain Brook teacher attempting to instruct students on how to use the Nazi Party Salute or instruct them to use the salute towards the American flag is unequivocally false. No students were asked to raise their hand for any reason."

Tytell, an eleventh grader, was in the classroom and said Webb was teaching a lesson when Webb showed a slide of a "fun fact" that Americans previously used a straight-arm salute when saying the Pledge of Allegiance. The salute, typically called the Bellamy Salute in honor of the author of the Pledge of Allegiance, fell out of favor in the United States during World War II, after Nazis adopted a similar gesture.

"He proceeded to demonstrate it," Tytell said, "and to tell us to stand up and that we're going to salute the flag and say the Pledge of Allegiance. And I stand up. And then I see [Webb] put his arm up. Almost everyone put their arm up and started saluting the flag. And I was just in shock."

Tytell said students then recited the Pledge of Allegiance. Tytell and a few other students did not participate, he said. One student took a video and pictures. After the Pledge, Webb continued with his regular lesson.

After talking with his friends, Tytell said another boy who is Jewish also was upset. "Nobody else seemed to care," he said. "They were like, oh, whatever. No one saw a problem."

Zoe Weil, who is a programs and outreach director of the Alabama Holocaust Education Center, said that while modeling is a common practice in teaching, it does not mean it is acceptable when teaching all topics.

It's never appropriate to model hateful symbols or speech, or any other dark historical topic, she said.

"As a teacher you are enabling students to engage in content, but you also are creating a classroom culture where students feel safe to learn," she said. "That sense of belonging and safety is immediately abandoned when a student hears or sees his/her teacher acting out hate speech. There's no value in it. The student is no longer learning and most likely feels, at the least, uncomfortable."

And modeling the Nazi salute, or something like it, she said, is "tremendously reprehensible."

"It's a universal symbol that recalls the murder of 12 million individuals, 6 million of those being Jews, and it has no place being modeled, for any reason, by an educator," she said.

The student who took the photos and video sent them to Tytell and others after class. About an hour later, Tytell posted the video to Snapchat.

The next morning, Tytell was called to Assistant Principal Jeremy Crigger's office, where he found Webb and Crigger waiting for him.

Crigger told Tytell it was "unacceptable" to post the video and how Tytell was "making Mountain Brook look bad." Crigger told Tytell to apologize to Webb. "I didn't apologize to him because I didn't understand what [the apology was] for," he said.

When Tytell attended Webb's class a couple of hours later that day, Webb moved Tytell's seat from the back of the room to the front of the room. "And he makes our class, and our class only, put up our phones when we get in the classroom," he said. Prior to that, Webb had an "open phone" policy.
Further response
Tytell has been the target of some anti-Semitic incidents in the past, according to his mother, Mariya Tytell. She said her family has not had problems with Webb in the past, and is more upset about the school's handling of the incident.

"I want to give Coach Webb the benefit of the doubt," she said. "He had a lapse of judgment."

Epps Tytell said he's not sure what he thinks the school should do next. His mother said she wants an apology from school officials.

Webb did not respond to a request for comment.

The Birmingham Jewish Federation and the Jewish Community Relations Council released a joint statement Tuesday afternoon saying they are aware of the incident, calling it "troubling."

"We have had meaningful dialogue with Mountain Brook Schools regarding the inappropriateness of demonstrating the salute, especially in a high school classroom," the group stated. "They have assured us that they have had these same discussions with the teacher."

Mountain Brook school officials said they have addressed the controversial lesson with the teacher.

Kevin Cornes of MB Listens, a local organization that has advocated for increased diversity and anti-bias efforts, said the incident raises broader concerns about the reporting process for bias incidents. Even if a school has a good system in place for reporting hateful or inappropriate behavior, it's critical for students to feel safe to do so.

"Sure, you can do your investigation after the fact, but your first line of response should be support and empathy and understanding," he said. "...If they go to report something that's making them uncomfortable, and what they receive back is discipline and threats, that's a worst-case scenario."

The incident is an example of why social emotional support is important, and why the district needs more anti-bias training, he said. And when incidents do occur, he said, schools should treat them as teaching moments, rather than sweeping them under the rug.

"They could work through and have a continued discussion in class about what was trying to be taught... That will further their education, and they will have a deeper, meaningful dialogue and teaching moment. But it has to start with people feeling that they can speak about what might be frustrating to them and not feel like they're going to get in trouble for doing so."

Alabama's social studies standards do not require specific instruction about the Holocaust.

When teaching about the Holocaust, Weil said, the ultimate goal is to "get students safely in and safely out" of every class period. When deciding to use graphic photos or video footage, for example, it's first important to consider the learning objective, become familiar with the guidelines, and then think of any alternatives, like analyzing a poem written by a victim of a tragedy.

And if a student says the lesson made them uncomfortable, the teacher should listen to them and schedule conversations with parents and administrators. That process, she said, should be as transparent as possible.

"In our current climate, I can understand a teacher's immediate reaction being defensive, but again, the goal is for students to learn, and if they do not feel safe, they are not learning," she said.

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Jewish Mountain Brook student posted photo of 'Hitler' salute, says he was reprimanded

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Mountain Brook schools are under scrutiny again, this time after a picture showing a high school student and teacher standing with arms outstretched in a salute circulated on social media. The picture and a short clip of a video appear to show students in 11th grade U.S.

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AP investigation: Women's prison fostered culture of abuse

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Date: 2/6/22
Associated Press investigated and reported on the mistreatment of inmates at women’s prisons.

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WASHINGTON (AP) - Inside one of the only federal women's prisons in the United States, inmates say they have been subjected to rampant sexual abuse by correctional officers and even the warden, and were often threatened or punished when they tried to speak up.

Prisoners and workers at the federal correctional institution in Dublin, California, even have a name for it: "The rape club."

An Associated Press investigation has found a permissive and toxic culture at the Bay Area lockup, enabling years of sexual misconduct by predatory employees and cover-ups that have largely kept the abuse out of the public eye.

The AP obtained internal Bureau of Prisons documents, statements and recordings from inmates, interviewed current and former prison employees and reviewed thousands of pages of court records from criminal and civil cases involving Dublin prison staff.

Together, they detail how inmates' allegations against members of the mostly male staff were ignored or set aside, how prisoners could be sent to solitary confinement for reporting abuse and how officials in charge of preventing and investigating sexual misconduct were themselves accused of abusing inmates or neglecting their concerns.

In one instance, a female inmate said a man, who was her prison work supervisor, taunted her by remarking "let the games begin" when he assigned her to work with a maintenance foreman she accused of rape. Another worker claimed he wanted to get inmates pregnant. The warden kept nude photos on his government-issued cellphone of a woman he is accused of assaulting, prosecutors say.

One inmate said she was "overwhelmed with fear, anxiety, and anger, and cried uncontrollably" after enduring abuse and retaliation. Another said she contemplated suicide when her cries for help went unheeded and now suffers from severe anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.

All sexual activity between a prison worker and an inmate is illegal. Correctional employees enjoy substantial power over inmates, controlling every aspect of their lives from mealtime to lights out, and there is no scenario in which an inmate can give consent.

The allegations at Dublin, which so far have resulted in four arrests, are endemic of a larger problem within the beleaguered federal Bureau of Prisons. In 2020, there were 422 complaints of staff-on-inmate sexual abuse across the system of 122 prisons and 153,000 inmates. The agency said it substantiated only four of them and that 290 are still being investigated.

The Associated Press contacted lawyers for every Dublin prison employee charged with sexual abuse or named as a defendant in a lawsuit alleging abuse, and tried reaching the men directly through available phone numbers and email addresses. None responded to interview requests.

Thahesha Jusino, taking over as Dublin's warden later this month, promised to "work tirelessly to reaffirm the Bureau of Prisons' zero tolerance for sexual abuse and sexual harassment."

She said the agency is fully cooperating with the Justice Department's inspector general on active investigations and noted that a "vast majority" of these cases were referred for investigation by the Bureau of Prisons itself.

"I am committed to ensuring the safety of our inmates, staff, and the public," Jusino said a statement to the AP. "A culture of misconduct, or actions not representative of the BOP's Core Values will not be tolerated."

FCI Dublin, about 21 miles (34 kilometers) east of Oakland, is one of six women-only facilities in the federal prison system. As of Feb. 1, it had about 750 inmates, many of them serving sentences for drug crimes.

Women made the first internal complaints to staff members about five years ago, court records and internal agency documents show, but it is unclear whether those complaints ever went anywhere. The women say they were largely ignored, and the abuse continued.

One who reported a 2017 sexual assault said she was told nothing would be done about her complaint because it was a "he said-she said." The woman, who is suing the Bureau of Prisons over her treatment, said she was fired from her prison commissary job as retaliation.

In 2019, another Dublin inmate alleged in a suit that a maintenance foreman repeatedly raped her and that other workers facilitated the abuse and mocked her for it. When an internal prison investigator finally caught wind of what was happening, the woman said she was the one who got punished with three months in solitary confinement and a transfer to a federal prison in Alabama.

Then, in 2020, an inmate's report that two Dublin workers were abusing inmates made its way to the Justice Department's inspector general and the FBI, triggering a criminal investigation that has led to the arrest of four employees, including former warden Ray J. Garcia, in the past seven months. They each face up to 15 years in prison, though in other recent cases, sentences have ranged from three months to two years.

Two are expected to plead guilty in the coming weeks in federal court to charges of sexual abuse of a ward. Several other Dublin workers are under investigation.

Garcia is accused of molesting an inmate in the months before the pandemic began. Then the associate warden, Garcia made her and another inmate strip naked as did rounds and took pictures that were found on his government-issued cell phone and computer when the FBI raided his office and home last summer, prosecutors said. He would later be promoted.

"If they're undressing, I've already looked," Garcia, 54, told the FBI in July 2021, according to court records. "I don't, like, schedule a time like 'you be undressed, and I'll be there.'"

Garcia, the highest-ranking federal prison official arrested in more than 10 years, had an outsize influence as warden over how Dublin handling of employee sexual misconduct. He led staff and inmate training on reporting abuse and complying with the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act.

He was also in charge of the legally required "rape elimination" compliance audit, first scheduled for early 2020 but not completed until last September - about the time he was arrested. The Bureau of Prisons blamed the pandemic for the delay and said the audit, Dublin's first since 2017, is not yet finalized and can't be made public.

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission.

____

Sisak reported from New York.

___

On Twitter, follow Michael Balsamo at twitter.com/mikebalsamo1 and Michael Sisak at twitter.com/mikesisak and send confidential tips by visiting https://www.ap.org/tips

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AP investigation: Women's prison fostered culture of abuse

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WASHINGTON (AP) - Inside one of the only federal women's prisons in the United States, inmates say they have been subjected to rampant sexual abuse by correctional officers and even the warden, and were often threatened or punished when they tried to speak up.

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Smith: The danger of banning 11 divisive concepts in Alabama public education

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Date: 2/17/22
AL.com published this opinion piece about education topics in Alabama schools.

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State-mandated speech restrictions make my skin crawl. As a conservative with a strong respect for the First Amendment, legislation billed as a government effort to protect individuals from dangerous ideas and teaching grabs my attention immediately.

Rep. Ed Oliver's, R-Dadeville, bill prohibiting the teaching of "divisive concepts" regarding race, sex and religion in public workplaces and schools is no exception. The bill, HB312, defines 11 ideas that Oliver and the measure's cosponsors deem forbidden in public instruction. The banned "divisive concepts" include:

1. That one race, sex, or religion is inherently superior to another race, sex, or religion.

2. That this state or the United States is inherently racist or sexist.

3. That an individual, solely by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.

4. That an individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely on the basis of his or her race.

5. That members of one race should attempt to treat others differently solely on the basis of race.

6. That an individual's moral character is determined solely on the basis of his or her race, sex, or religion.

7. That an individual, solely by virtue of his or her race, sex, or religion, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race, sex, or religion.

8. That fault, blame, or bias should be assigned to a race, sex, or religion, or to members of a race, sex, or religion, solely on the basis of their race, sex, or religion.

9. That any individual should be asked to accept, acknowledge, affirm, or assent to a sense of guilt, complicity, or a need to work harder solely on the basis of his or her race or sex.

10. That meritocracy or traits such as a hard work ethic are racist or sexist.

11. That with respect to American values, slavery and racism are anything other than deviations from, betrayals of, or failures to live up to the founding principles of the United States, which include liberty and equality.

Legislation like Oliver's has been percolating around the country in response to Critical Race Theory and other teaching methods and concepts on race, sex, or religion. Ideas do have consequences, and what we teach our children and young adults does indeed matter. Many of us oppose the 11 divisive concepts listed in Oliver's bill and wouldn't teach them to our children. That makes taking the first steps down the path of government viewpoint regulation so much easier.

Read more Cameron Smith columns:

While I don't believe that the State of Alabama or the United States is inherently racist, I know plenty of people who do. In fact, many Americans and Alabamians subscribe to a number of these divisive concepts. Dismissing those perspectives offhand in public instruction is unwise. The answer to teaching we disagree with is adding different teaching, not silencing the voices already present.

Once we open the door to state viewpoint censorship, we're subject to changing political mores and cultural shifts. The same government tool used to prohibit ideas we reject can ultimately be used to curtail viewpoints we champion. What about the idea that capitalism is morally superior to socialism? That's a divisive concept that I'm personally willing to defend. Could a state pass a viewpoint prohibition in public education preventing me from teaching such ideas in public education? If the answer is "no," then why should it be any different for someone teaching unpopular ideas in Alabama?

Schools must constantly make decisions about curriculum to ensure that students are adequately prepared for the workforce and civic life. Reasonable minds differ in choosing books and instruction methods. We have democratic processes to sort those issues out. This legislation is different from that process.

Oliver's measure prohibiting "divisive concepts" comes across more like a book ban. It suggests that some views are so dangerous that students shouldn't be forced to encounter them in their course of study. While some concepts may not be age appropriate for younger learners, it's certainly not the case for higher education.

In my studies in high school and college, I was "forced" to encounter thinkers from Ludwig Wittgenstein to Karl Marx and F.A. Hayek to St. Augustine. Those individuals put forth quite a range of divisive concepts on topics from political economy to language and even reality itself. I didn't accept all of their thoughts as gospel, but I learned deeply from my encounter with each of them. If I could have removed myself from exposure to those ideas, I would have been worse off.

While I agree with Oliver's insistence that students, teachers, and faculty mustn't be forced to subscribe to a specific ideological view, we shouldn't develop a list of banned perspectives. Our children and young adults encounter challenging and even disturbing ideas and concepts all the time. They must develop the ability to discern and test what they believe in a world constantly begging for their attention and character. We do them a disservice "protecting" them from ideas that will only bombard them later as adults.

Legislators have tools to address concerns over a public education monoculture. Lawmakers can examine whether viewpoints of interest are underrepresented in the classroom. If they are, they can direct public institutions to address it. Creating different public education options with varying viewpoints and curricula gives parents greater control over the voices influencing their children. Soliciting input from parents and students about the classes they want and ideas they wish to discuss is also particularly useful.

Again, the answer isn't censoring a one-size-fits-all model. It's creating more options, voices, and approaches to education. Most importantly, lawmakers shouldn't open the door on banning divisive concepts because some day that ever-growing list of disapproved views may contain their own.
Smith is a recovering political attorney with three boys, two dogs, and an extremely patient wife. He engages media, business, and policy through the Triptych Foundation and Triptych Media. Please direct outrage or agreement to csmith@al.com or @DCameronSmith on Twitter.

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Smith: The danger of banning 11 divisive concepts in Alabama public education

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Many of us oppose the 11 divisive concepts listed in Oliver's bill and wouldn't teach them to our children. That makes taking the first steps down the path of government viewpoint regulation so much easier.

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Alaska court upholds voter-approved election changes

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Date: 1/19/22
AP News coverage of the Alaskan Supreme Court upholding election reform legislation.

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JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - The Alaska Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld as valid a voter-approved election system that would end party primaries in the state and institute ranked choice voting in general elections.

A brief order affirmed a lower court ruling from last year. A fuller opinion explaining the Supreme Court's decision was expected later.

The ruling comes one day after the justices heard arguments in the case.

The new system, narrowly approved by voters in 2020, is unique among states and set to be used for this year's elections. It is viewed by supporters as a way to encourage civility and cooperation among elected officials.

Under the open primary, the top four vote-getters in a race, regardless of party affiliation, would advance to the general election, where ranked voting would be used.

Attorney Kenneth Jacobus; Scott Kohlhaas, who unsuccessfully ran for the state House in 2020 as a Libertarian; Bob Bird, chair of the Alaskan Independence Party; and Bird's party sued in late 2020 over the initiative, challenging its constitutionality.

Jacobus, who argued the case before the Supreme Court, said Wednesday he was disappointed with the outcome.

"But Alaskans are going to have what they voted for. They voted for it, so they got it, whether people understood it or not," he said. "And we're going to have to live with it."

Jason Grenn, a Republican-turned-independent former state lawmaker and a sponsor of the initiative, said backers can now focus more attention on voter education and outreach ahead of the elections. He said the decision removes any lingering questions about whether the new system will be used this year.

Aaron Sadler, a spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Law, said the court's "quick decision provides clarity so that Alaska candidates and voters now know the method for conducting elections moving forward. We look forward to reviewing the Court's full opinion once it's issued."

Laura Fox, an attorney with the department, and Scott Kendall, an attorney for the group behind the initiative, made arguments in support of the system on Tuesday.

Opponents of the measure argued it would dilute the power of political parties and raised constitutional questions, including around the use of ranked voting for governor.

Kendall, who helped write the initiative, told justices Tuesday that political parties "have no right to be gatekeepers to the ballot."

He said the state and country are "at a turning point," politically and economically, and that Alaska voters created a "new electoral system that they maybe believe is an attempt to turn the tide toward reason and compromise. They have the right to do that. They have the right to make that experiment."

Grenn recently told The Associated Press that Alaska was a test case "in a major way" for similar efforts being considered in other states, including Nevada.

He said the system would reward candidates who are willing to work with others, no matter their party affiliation, and that voters will be "empowered in a different way."

Alaska lawmakers have a history of crossing party lines to form majorities in the state House or Senate. Republicans hold a majority of seats in both chambers but two Republicans in the House have joined with Democrats and independents to form a slim majority there.

This year's elections feature races for U.S. Senate, Alaska's lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives and governor.

Under the new system, candidates for governor and lieutenant governor will run as a team from the outset. Previously, winners of their respective party primaries for each office were paired for the general election.

Under a redistricting plan that is the subject of litigation, all but one of the Legislature's 60 seats also would be up for election this year.

The top office holders in Alaska - the members of the state's congressional delegation and governor - are all Republicans. The largest group of registered voters in the state is listed as "undeclared," according to the Alaska Division of Elections.

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Alaska court upholds voter-approved election changes

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JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - The Alaska Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld as valid a voter-approved election system that would end party primaries in the state and institute ranked choice voting in general elections. A brief order affirmed a lower court ruling from last year. A fuller opinion explaining the Supreme Court's decision was expected later.

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U.S. Supreme Court grants Alabama's request to block order for new congressional districts

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Date: 2/8/22
In an update to the issues with Alabama Legislature redrawing districts, AL.com reports on the Supreme Court blocks the order.

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The U.S. Supreme Court today granted Alabama's request to put a hold on a lower court ruling that would have forced the state to redraw its seven congressional districts for this year's elections, starting with the May 24 primary.

The Supreme Court's decision blocks the lower court ruling pending further orders from the justices.

The decision is a victory for Alabama Republicans, including the lawmakers who approved the plan and are defendants in the litigation.

The Legislature drew the district map in November for the reapportionment required to adjust for population changes after every census.

The map includes one majority Black district and six that are heavily white, the same ratio since 1992. Democratic lawmakers and others claimed in lawsuits that Alabama should have a second majority Black district or one close to a majority because the state's population is 27% Black.

A three-judge district court sided with the plaintiffs in its ruling on Jan. 24, finding that plaintiffs were "substantially likely to establish" that the map violates the Voting Rights Act. "Black voters have less opportunity than other Alabamians to elect candidates of their choice to Congress," they wrote.

Lawyers for Attorney General Steve Marshall, who is defending the plan, said there was no way to create a second Black district without making race the predominant factor and sacrificing other principles about where to draw the lines.

They said the redrawing would be chaotic this close to the May 24 primary and would result in race-based maps that would be "constitutionally intolerable."

"Beyond the massive disruption in Alabama's forthcoming elections, Alabamians will suffer the constitutional harm of being assigned to racially segregated districts, irreconcilable with the Fourteenth Amendment, the Fifteenth Amendment, and the VRA (Voting Rights Act) as initially conceived."

Five of Alabama's Republican House members filed a brief supporting the state's motion for a stay.

U.S. Reps. Jerry Carl, Barry Moore, Mike Rogers, Robert Aderholt, and Gary Palmer's said they "are concerned that the remedy pursued by the plaintiffs and ordered by the district court will not only disrupt Alabama's elections but also jeopardize the State's neutral districting process."
This story will be updated.

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U.S. Supreme Court grants Alabama's request to block order for new congressional districts

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The U.S. Supreme Court today granted Alabama's request to put a hold on a lower court ruling that would have forced the state to redraw its seven congressional districts for this year's elections, starting with the May 24 primary. The Supreme Court's decision blocks the lower court ruling pending further orders from the justices.

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4 changes among No. 1 teams in final ASWA high school basketball rankings

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Date: 2/3/22
AL.com published this story regarding high school basketball rankings as teams head to the post season.

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4 changes among No. 1 teams in final ASWA high school basketball rankings

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See the ASWA top 10 boys and girls teams in each class.

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Lawmaker proposes mandatory neck guards after hockey death | AP News

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19. High school sport other than basketball

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19. High school sport other than basketball

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Date: 1/14/22
The Associated Press covered proposals for player protection related to a death in a high school hockey match.

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HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - A Connecticut state lawmaker says she plans to introduce legislation requiring all hockey players to wear a neck guard or a similar protective device during practice or games following the death last week of a 10th-grade player whose neck was cut by a skate.

While the governing body for interscholastic sports among secondary schools, the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, requires all hockey players to wear neck protection, the rules don't apply to private schools or youth hockey programs, according to Rep. Nicole Klarides-Ditria, R-Seymour, a certified sports athletic trainer.

"It's incredibly heartbreaking what happened last week and sadly this tragic accident may have been preventable had the teams been required to wear neck guards," she said in a statement released Friday.

Benjamin Edward "Teddy" Balkind, 16, a member of the hockey team at the private coeducational St. Luke's School in New Canaan, died Jan. 6 following a game at the Brunswick School, a college preparatory school in Greenwich for boys.

Mark Davis, the head of the school, said in a letter to the St. Luke's community Wednesday that Balkind was skating "upright and low" when he was injured.

"During the normal course of play, another player's leg momentarily went into the air and, through no fault of anyone's, or any lack of control, his skate cut Teddy," Davis wrote.

Police had said previously that Balkind had fallen to the ice and the other player was unable to stop and collided with him. Davis said he wanted to share a more accurate description of the accident on behalf of the Balkind family.

"Why is this important to share? Because it's accurate and because it emphasizes the lack of any fault. These boys were excellent skaters, playing a great and fair game when an unimaginable accident wreaked havoc," Davis wrote.

It is unclear whether Balkind was wearing a neck guard.

Klarides-Ditria said she has spoken with various legislators and local hockey coaches who support the concept of mandatory neck protection. Details of the bill are still being discussed. The General Assembly is scheduled to convene Feb. 9.

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Lawmaker proposes mandatory neck guards after hockey death | AP News

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HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - A Connecticut state lawmaker says she plans to introduce legislation requiring all hockey players to wear a neck guard or a similar protective device during practice or games following the death last week of a 10th-grade player whose neck was cut by a skate.

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Dana Hall McCain: Auburn turmoil reflects changes in broader culture

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Date: 2/12/22
AL.com published this column sharing an opinion about the outcome of Auburn’s investigation into Bryan Harsin.

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As an Auburn alumna, I'm feeling very Charles Dickens these days: it is the best of times; it is the worst of times. While Auburn men's basketball and Bruce Pearl fly high as a kite, thrilling us with great play and our program's first-ever number one ranking, Auburn football has smoldered for more than a week in a dumpster fire of angst.

How did we get here?

Multiple factors contribute to the football storyline. Oceans of digital ink have been spilled, pointing the finger at the AU Board of Trustees for meddling too heavily in the program, pushing salacious rumors about Harsin's personal life, and more. It's impossible to know what is true. But this we do know: the rules changes in college athletics--and changes in the culture--play a major role in this chaos, too.

I wrote several months ago about the role that name, image, and likeness deals would likely play in empowering athletes and forcing schools to adjust the way they recruit. No longer would the traditional factors of coaches, program status, and playing time be the only considerations for college prospects. The door is open for programs with less to offer in those departments but with cash in the form of NIL opportunities to compete.

But the greatest change agent is the NCAA transfer portal. When Bear Bryant or Pat Dye signed a high school senior in the old days, that kid was locking himself down for four years, or as many years as he could take. If he became unhappy with his choice, he had the unpleasant option of quitting and sitting out a year and hoping another school would offer him a second chance.

We rarely saw those transfers net a notable second chapter for a player. Only the most desperately unhappy athletes attempted it.

That culture of signing your life away at 18 gave coaches a great deal of license to coach however they wanted. To be as tough as they thought necessary to develop players to their design. And they were tough. People who survived the summer in the first few years of Pat Dye's tenure at Auburn talk about it like surviving war.

But the game has changed, the rules have changed, and what worked even 20 years ago will kill a coach today. Joseph Goodman explored this in the context of the Harsin situation last week.

On the flip side: Bruce Pearl works the transfer portal to his advantage, harvesting what he needs to fill gaps in his program. Half of the talent on the floor for this exceptional Auburn team came to Pearl and AU from other schools.

What's more, Pearl seems to connect to and motivate the modern athlete. He's often seen having fun with his players, and they respond to him. Pearl is always and forever selling Auburn basketball, both within and outside the locker room. The man could sell oil to Arabs.

One of the knocks on Bryan Harsin has been that he lost too many players to the portal in the first year. (Don't even get me started on the staff chaos.) And when Harsin's future at Auburn came publicly into question last week, a few former players took to social media to offer their critiques. Others took up for Harsin and defended his methods.

Pat Dye never had to contend with a grumpy player with 24/7 access to a large audience. For better or worse, social media gives these athletes power previous generations didn't enjoy.

And let's be honest: the kids are different, not just in athletics but also across the board in the current culture. Ask any high school guidance counselor or college instructor who has been in the game for a few decades. Young people today often maintain an adolescent mindset well into their twenties and don't exhibit their parents' and grandparents' resilience at a similar age. We can debate the reasons for this change all day, but it's real.

It may seem less obvious in athletics than in other subsets of young adult culture, but shades of it are there. These players have grown up in the age of instant gratification in a thousand aspects of life. Investing in something--at great physical cost--for years before seeing the playing time they want or the accolades they desire is foreign.

I'm not trashing them. Today's young adults didn't create the world they were born into or dictate how adults parented them. That's on us.

They didn't change the NCAA rules to allow them to bolt for greener pastures when unhappy without great consequence. That's on the NCAA.

It's also fair to note that coaches have always possessed the agency to leave at the drop of a hat if a better offer came along. Countless players have watched all the promises made to them in the recruitment process melt like a popsicle when the coach who made them landed a better job and left in the middle of the night. In light of that, the transfer portal looks like fairness.

But coaches and programs that don't adjust their strategies for player recruitment, development, and retention with these cultural realities in mind are asking for trouble. The pot boiled over at Auburn more rapidly than in some places because we tried to execute a coaching transition amid this massive cultural sea change (Malzahn-to-Harsin). But these changes will cause cracks in other programs everywhere soon, if not accounted for.

With Auburn announcing on Friday that Harsin will remain the head coach for 2022, I hope that he'll make the adjustments necessary to have success in this new landscape.
Dana Hall McCain writes about faith, culture, and politics for AL.com. While she's not a sportswriter, she's been Barnin' since the 70s and has seen a thing or two. Follow her on Twitter (@dhmccain) for takes on a wildly diverse set of topics ranging from Jesus to public policy to why you don't call a fade on 4th-and-goal from the 2-yard line.

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Dana Hall McCain: Auburn turmoil reflects changes in broader culture

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As an Auburn alumna, I'm feeling very Charles Dickens these days: it is the best of times; it is the worst of times. While Auburn men's basketball and Bruce Pearl fly high as a kite, thrilling us with great play and our program's first-ever number one ranking, Auburn football has smoldered for more than a week in a dumpster fire of angst.

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Auburn flies to No. 1 in AP Top 25 for first time in history

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Date: 1/24/22
This Associated Press article covers Auburn basketball’s first time ranked at No. 1.

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War Eagle is flying high over men's college basketball for the first time in history.

A barely ranked afterthought to begin the season, Auburn climbed past Gonzaga to No. 1 in the AP Top 25 poll released Monday. The Tigers beat Kentucky over the weekend for their 15th consecutive win, then scooped up 45 of 61 first-place votes to become the nation's top-ranked team for the first time since the poll began with the 1948-49 season.

The Bulldogs dropped to No. 2 with 15 first-place votes. Arizona remained third and earned the other No. 1 vote.

"I think for us, it's the sum of our parts," said Bruce Pearl, who led the Tigers to the Final Four in 2019. "If we're playing nine guys on a regular basis, or sometimes 10, you've got to account for all of them. And I thought (against Kentucky) we got really great contributions, you know, from everybody."

Including the teeming crowd inside Auburn Arena, and the boisterous student section known simply as The Jungle, who are no doubt celebrating the return to prominence of a school known more for its football than its basketball.

The Tigers (18-1, 15-0 SEC) spent most of the 1999-2000 season ranked in the top 10, including one week at No. 2. They also spent a week at No. 2 late in the 1988-99 season and another week at No. 2 back in February 1959.

But being No. 1? That's a whole new experience. The Tigers are the fifth team to reach that spot this season, following two stints by the Bulldogs and runs by Duke, Purdue and defending national champion Baylor.

The Bears rebounded from consecutive losses while ranked No. 1 to beat West Virginia and Oklahoma, and climbed one position to fourth. Big 12 rival Kansas was right behind in fifth after a pair of heart-stopping wins.

The Boilermakers fell two spots to sixth after losing to Indiana early last week. They were followed by Houston and UCLA, deadlocked at No. 7, with Duke and Michigan State rounding out the top 10.

The Spartans, unranked to start the season, blew out then-No. 8 Wisconsin last week and have lost once since November.

"We got after it, and that's the way it had to be, and a lot of it falls on me, too," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. "I think we got some things accomplished last week."

The Badgers fell to No. 11 and were followed by Kentucky, Texas Tech, Villanova and Southern California, which bounced back from a loss to Oregon with wins over Colorado and Utah on the road.

Ohio State climbed three spots to give the Big Ten a fourth team within the top 16. Providence, Tennessee, LSU and UConn rounded out the top 20, while Xavier, Marquette, Iowa State, Illinois and Davidson completed the poll.

Stephen Curry's alma mater is ranked for the first time since spending a Week at No. 24 in March 2015.

"We've got to learn lessons, and it seems every game has given us lessons to learn," Davidson coach Bob McKillop said, "and one of the joys of learning those lessons is we're learning them with victories and not losses."

IN AND OUT

Marquette returned to the Top 25 for the first time under Shaka Smart, landing at No. 23 after the Golden Eagles didn't have a single vote last week. That's what happens when you beat three straight ranked teams - Seton Hall, Villanova and Xavier - to run your winning streak to six heading into another showdown with the Pirates on Tuesday night.

Dropping out were Texas, which has lost three of its last five, and Loyola, which lost to Missouri State on Saturday.

UP AND DOWN

Tennessee made the biggest leap this week, climbing six spots to No. 18 following wins over Vanderbilt and LSU. Texas Tech and UConn each jumped five spots with the Red Raiders reaching a season-best No. 13 in the poll.

Iowa State tumbled the farthest, eight spots to No. 23, after losses to Texas Tech and TCU gave the Cyclones five in their last seven games. Illinois fell seven spots to No. 24 after losing a heartbreaker to Purdue and getting drilled by Maryland.

CONFERENCE WATCH

The Big Ten and Big East have five ranked teams apiece, followed by the SEC and Big 12 with four each. The Pac-12 has three and the ACC, American Athletic, West Coast and Atlantic 10 each had one.

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More AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

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Auburn flies to No. 1 in AP Top 25 for first time in history

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War Eagle is flying high over men's college basketball for the first time in history. A barely ranked afterthought to begin the season, Auburn climbed past Gonzaga to No. 1 in the AP Top 25 poll released Monday.

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APNewsBreak: MLB, players stop drug testing during lockout

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Date: 2/7/22
AP News coverage of the ongoing MLB lockout and it’s effect on league drug testing.

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NEW YORK (AP) - Major League Baseball has stopped testing players for steroids for the first time in nearly 20 years due to the expiration of the sport's drug agreement, two people familiar with the sport's Joint Drug Program told The Associated Press.

The people spoke on condition of anonymity Monday because no public announcement was made.

The halt in testing is a casualty of the sport's lockout that started Dec. 2 and a provision in the joint drug agreement between MLB and the players' association that states "the termination date and time of the program shall be 11:59 p.m. ET on Dec. 1, 2021."

"It should be a major concern to all those who value fair play," Travis Tygart, chief executive officer of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, said Monday.

MLB and the union declined comment on the halt.

Just last month, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens were denied election to the Hall of Fame by baseball writers over suspicions of PEDs use. Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez, who both served drug suspensions, fell well short in voting.

"If it's just a simple matter of agreeing to it," Tygart said, "you would have hoped they would have been able to get that figured out, so that when the game does restart, you don't have questions hanging over individual players based on size, speed, batting percentage, home run numbers, whatever it may be, that people are going to call into question again."

MLB and the union conducted 47,973 tests from 2017-21, including 7,327 during offseasons, according to a report in November from Thomas M. Martin, the independent program administrator.

Absent fear of detection, it is hard to predict whether some players will attempt to use PEDs in the period before a new collective bargaining agreement is in place along with a restoration of the drug-testing program.

"You could easily do what the cyclists were doing even in a good testing program, which was microdosing of testosterone," Tygart said. "You can do testosterone gels or oral pills that could be out of your system and you can do more in maybe weeks."

Baseball reached its first joint drug agreement in late 2002, a deal calling for survey testing in 2003.

Urine testing for PEDs with penalties for violations began in 2004 under a series of a repeatedly tightened drug agreements. Testing for banned amphetamines started in 2006, and in 2012 blood testing for Human Growth Hormone began, though it was suspended last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In December 2007, former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell issued a report commissioned by MLB that implicated 85 players in PEDs use, including seven MVPs and 31 All-Stars. Many denied the allegations.

While prominent players suspended under the drug program include Rafael Palmeiro (2005), Ramirez (2009 and '11), Rodriguez (2014) and Robinson Canó (2014), there were just five positives for PEDs among 8,436 tests in the year ending with the 2021 World Series: Miami pitcher Paul Campbell, Oakland outfielder Ramón Laureano, Seattle pitcher Héctor Santiago, San Francisco pitcher Daniel Santos and Colorado third baseman Colton Welker,

Baseball's halt in testing was signaled to players in a "Work Stoppage Guide" created by the Major League Baseball Players Association and distributed to its members, a copy of which was obtained by the AP.

"Will Joint Drug Agreement (JDA) testing be administered during a work stoppage?" read a heading on page 19.

"Based on past precedent in the NFL and NHL, it is unlikely that MLB can administer JDA testing during a work stoppage," the guide said.

On another topic, the union thinks players may sign to play with teams in Japan and South Korea during the lockout, a prospect that might become more attractive as the stoppage increasingly threatens opening day on March 31.

"The PA would challenge any attempts by MLB to interfere with players who choose to participate in a foreign league during a lockout," the guide said. "During the 2004-05 work stoppage, a large number of NHL players chose to play internationally."

In a sign of a potential grievance should the lockout extend into the regular season and cost players pay, the guide states: "The PA will take the position, consistent with other sports unions in prior lockouts, that a player who is injured and unable to play at the time of the lockout must receive his pay and access to rehab until he is medically cleared."

Teams cut off access to club medical staff and facilities when the lockout started. The union has arranged for training facilities for players.

The sides remain far apart on terms for a deal. Owners meet from Tuesday to Thursday in Orlando, Florida, and union staff will meet with players in Arizona and then Florida this week.

Players blame owners for instituting the lockout. The guide acknowledges what Commissioner Rob Manfred has said, that MLB thinks the timing of a lockout that starts during the offseason is more beneficial to clubs that a late-season strike, such as the August walkout in 1994.

"In recent years, work stoppages in other pro sports (NFL, NHL, NBA) have all been lockouts," the guide said. "Ultimately, owners would prefer to choose the timing of a work stoppage and attempt to do so when it is most advantageous to them. Management does not want players to have the opportunity to go on strike during the middle of the season, or in advance of the playoffs, when it would be most damaging to the clubs."

The guide says health benefits for players who were on 40-man rosters at any point during the 2021 season will have coverage until the 2022 season is scheduled to start. At that point, "the PA will ensure your health coverage remains intact."

The union has started making $5,000 stipends available to players from money it has saved. The guide points to similar types of payments in the past but points out "even if the executive board authorizes financial assistance to players, be aware that the amount of any assistance will be far less than the player's contract salary."

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More AP MLB coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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APNewsBreak: MLB, players stop drug testing during lockout

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NEW YORK (AP) - Major League Baseball has stopped testing players for steroids for the first time in nearly 20 years due to the expiration of the sport's drug agreement, two people familiar with the sport's Joint Drug Program told The Associated Press.

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Date: 4/9/2021
The Associated Press published this article about the evolution of the Japanese makeup industry amid the pandemic.

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Japanese businessmen brighten makeup industry amid pandemic

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TOKYO (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic has pushed many businesses in Japan to the edge of financial ruin, but Takumi Tezuka, who owns a makeup and hair salon for men in Tokyo, has seen his customer base expand...

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New York Times buys viral word game Wordle

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Date: 2/1/22
AP News coverage into a New York Times deal to buy a trending game.

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NEW YORK (AP) - The New York Times said on Monday that it has bought Wordle, the free online word game that has exploded in popularity and, for some, become a daily obsession.

It listed the purchase price as being in the "low-seven figures," but did not disclose specifics.

The Times, which has popular word games like Spelling Bee and its crossword puzzle, said "at the time it moves to The New York Times, Wordle will be free to play for new and existing players, and no changes will be made to its gameplay."

Wordle was created by Josh Wardle, a Brooklyn software engineer. He originally made it for his partner, but released it to the public in October. On Nov. 1, only 90 people had played it. Within two months, that number had grown to 300,000 after people began sharing their scores on social media.

Now, the simple puzzle that lets players guess a five-letter word in six tries with no hints, has millions of daily players, The Times said. It's also become a viral online phenomenon, spurring copycats like "Airportle," where you guess airport abbreviations, and "Queertle," with words for the queer community.

To play Wordle now, you have to visit its website. Simply type in a five-letter word. If any letters turn green, you got the right letter in the right place. Yellow letters mean right letter wrong place and gray letters mean they are not in the word of the day.

Wordle's appeal has been in part due to its simplicity, no bells and whistles or ads or asking for your email address to play - just a website with 30 blank squares and a keyboard. Some apps have tried to piggyback on its success, confusing people who downloaded - or even paid for - apps on their phone thinking it's the original Wordle.

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This story has been updated to read that the deal was announced on Monday, not Thursday.

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New York Times buys viral word game Wordle

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NEW YORK (AP) - The New York Times said on Monday that it has bought Wordle, the free online word game that has exploded in popularity and, for some, become a daily obsession. It listed the purchase price as being in the "low-seven figures," but did not disclose specifics.

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‘Wicked’ welcomes a pioneering good witch, Brittney Johnson

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Date: 3/1/22
Associated Press feature on Brittney Johnson, the first Black actor to play Glinda in “Wicked.”

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‘Wicked’ welcomes a pioneering good witch, Brittney Johnson

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NEW YORK (AP) — While many people spent Valentine’s Day with the traditional flowers and chocolates, Brittney Johnson was making theater history. The young Broadway veteran was gently lowered onto the Gershwin Theatre stage to become the first Black actor to assume the role of Glinda full-time in “W…

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Despite loosening rules, few women figure skaters pick pants

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Date: 2/16/22
The Associated Press published this coverage of fashion choices amongst Olympic figure skaters after a rule change.

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BEIJING (AP) - She wore the pants. And on this day, she was the only one.

In a dramatic black one-piece that felt like classic Audrey Hepburn - white accents and rhinestones, high bun, smoky eyes - Swedish figure skater Josefina Taljegård stood out Tuesday as the only athlete in a field of 30 who wore pants for the short program on the first day of the Beijing Olympics' marquee women's figure skating competition.

"I chose it because it fits the music, and also because I feel very strong and confident in this kind of clothes," Taljegård said.

Though women in the singles and pairs contests have for years been free to don trousers in their performances, few actually opt for pants at the most high-stakes competitions such as the Olympics.

Here, the ballerina aesthetic of flowy skirts, pastel colors, sparkles and glitter continues to dominate alongside the classical music that is synonymous with the traditional look and feel of women's figure skating.

"Even a rule change may not necessarily change the cultural expectations if it's a central part of the scoring," said Cheryl Cooky, an author and Purdue University professor who studies gender and sports. "People here - specifically judges - know what they find aesthetically pleasing is kind of wrapped up in a feminine image."

While there's been a step toward edgier and more offbeat music at the Capital Indoor Stadium during these Olympics, the artistic choices in the women's competition have so far proved less progressive in both music and costume.

That stands in contrast to the women in ice dance - one of four figure skating disciplines at the Beijing Games - where there was a critical mass of women wearing pants after a change in performance rules. On the first day of that competition last week, six out of 23 women - more than a quarter of them - wore pants for their rhythm dances.

They all returned to more standard dresses two days later, for the free dance that determined the medals.

Russian ice dancer Victoria Sinitsina wore an all-black outfit featuring a sparkly, one-shouldered, midriff-baring top with hip-hugging trousered bottoms that gave '90s New York supermodel vibes. And it fit with the performance that she did with partner Nikita Katsalapov to "Brick House" by American funk and soul band The Commodores.

"It brings something different because usually girls wear dresses, skirts," Katsalapov said. "The music for this year's rhythm dance, it let us do costumes like that, with pants for the ladies. And it looks sexy and beautiful, too."

In addition to comfort, practicality and a chic look, skaters in pants said they saw it as a way to match their male partners, as well as align with the music for this season. The International Skating Union chose "Street Dance Rhythms," with style options including hip hop, disco, swing, krump, popping, funk, jazz, reggae, reggaeton and blues.

Canadian ice dancer Piper Gilles wore a orangesicle-colored, carnivalesque, Elton John-inspired one-piece for the ice dance competition, though she previously wore a skirt version of it for the medley team event the first week of the Games.

"I was actually kind of nervous about wearing pants this year. That was something that I'd never done before," Gilles said. "We've always been told to wear skirts so it's kind of fun to be able to break out of that."

While few figure skaters wear pants in competition, nearly all do so during practice sessions.

"You don't have the weight of the skirt, like when you turn and stuff, and it feels more like practice because in practice, I just wear pants. So I find it, I think, (it is) more comfortable," said Marjorie Lajoie, a Canadian ice dancer who wore a black unitard accented by a teal-colored, sash-like ruffle in a nod to Hollywood red carpet glamour in her "Funkytown" rhythm dance performance. "You shouldn't be forced to wear a skirt."

Cooky said there are parallels between figure skating, golf and tennis - all sports where women are traditionally seen competing in skirts, skorts or dresses. The outfits in the women's competitions become culturally-enforced gender markers because the sports themselves are identically performed by their male counterparts.

"There is still sort of cultural anxiety around women's athleticism and women's physicality despite the tremendous progress we've made in that space," Cooky said. "Sports today is kind of the last cultural site where that (gender) difference is both accepted and celebrated."

The parameters among those sports diverge, however, when considering the subjectivity of figure skating. Half of the scoring is based on how judges view their performance - the music, the costume, the flow and the overall feel.

That may be why there's no push toward uniform equality in figure skating as there was last year for the Norwegian female beach handball team. Those women refused to wear the required bikini bottoms at the European Beach Handball Championships in Bulgaria and instead defied the rules by - and were punished for - wearing shorts like the male players.

Back at the women's singles competition Tuesday night, Taljegård said she's not morally opposed to skirts and incorporates all costume styles into her other performances. A skirt that can ripple through the air can provide a striking element in figure skating that pants just can't quite match.

Still, the 26-year-old from Sweden hasn't worn a skirt to practice since she was 12 years old.

"It's because it's more comfortable. Sometimes if you want to go to the restroom, it's easier," Taljegård said. "Where I skate in Sweden, we have a lot of cold rinks. If I skate with just a skirt and stockings or tights you have underneath the skirt, it's usually pretty thin. So for me, it's definitely nicer to have pants."

And while her Olympic showcase featured lightning fast spins and music from The Fugees, Taljegård didn't advance to the free skate Thursday night. But there's no doubt that she remains confident as ever in the skin - and pants - she's in.

"I'm a mature woman," Taljegård said. "And I think I look great."

___

Seattle-based AP journalist Sally Ho is on assignment at the Beijing Olympics, covering figure skating. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/_sallyho. More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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Despite loosening rules, few women figure skaters pick pants

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BEIJING (AP) - She wore the pants. And on this day, she was the only one. In a dramatic black one-piece that felt like classic Audrey Hepburn - white accents and rhinestones, high bun, smoky eyes - Swedish figure skater Josefina Taljegård stood out Tuesday as the only athlete in a field of 30 who wore pants for the short program on the first day of the Beijing Olympics' marquee women's figure skating competition.

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From tacos to wings, learning to cook with plant-based meats | AP News

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Date: 1/18/22
This Associated Press article covers meat substitutes and how they can be used in cooking.

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It's that time of year when many people resolve to eat less meat. The "whys" are varied: sustainability and worry for the planet, health considerations, ethical concerns over the treatment of animals.

One increasingly popular option is "plant-based meat," which can be found from grocery store meat sections to restaurants.

These products aim to imitate meat in taste, texture, appearance and smell, and the likenesses are now pretty impressive. The ingredients usually include a plant-based protein, such as soy or pea, and sometimes other beans, wheat or potato.

Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods are the two monster names in this arena, but there are dozens of brands. In grocery fresh food sections, plant-based options center on ground "beef," burger patties, meatballs and sausages. In the freezer aisles, there's that and also a lot of products designed to replicate specific dishes, such as "chicken" nuggets, pot pies or stir-fry kits.

So, how to cook with these products at home?

"The veggie meats are an easy substitute," says Angela Campbell, a pescatarian living in Portland, Maine, who relies on plant-based meats to enhance her cooking. She says she can use the imitation ground beef and sausage 1:1 in recipes.

They can be used in pasta sauces, stir fries, casseroles, fajitas, etc.

Like ground meat, the plant-based crumbles are perishable, so treat them as you would ground beef, using them within a few days and cooking them thoroughly.

Many of them cook more quickly than their meat counterparts, and seem to be more sensitive to precise cooking times; the packages often warn against under- or overcooking. So you might want to add them towards the end of cooking a dish. Most of the brands' websites offer recipes.

Campbell says she has had more limited success with the "chicken" products.

"Long-simmering chicken dishes or dishes made with whole breasts can't be replicated," she says. "The (plant-based) chicken is generally best in a stir fry, or with a sauce prepared separately. The chicken might brown, but nothing crisps up."

Cheyenne Cohen, a food photographer in Brooklyn, New York, eats vegan at home, and says, "When I use plant-based meat, I'm never trying to perfectly recreate a meat-eating experience. I like to get to know the texture and general taste of each brand/variety and then experiment with preparation and seasonings until I find something that works well."

She loves using soy crumbles as taco meat or any way you'd normally use ground beef, and says it's generally easy to make that swap.

Instead of featuring the meat substitutes as the center of the dish, Cohen finds them "a good recipe ingredient," just one component.

Jade Wong, owner of Red Bamboo in New York City, has run restaurants that specialize in plant-based meat offerings for 20 years. She says their menu is geared towards vegetarians and vegans who are looking for comfort food.

"Do you really want a salad on a cold winter's day? Or would you rather have a chicken parmesan hero or a burger?" Wong says.

Red Bamboo makes their own plant-based meat products (Absolute Vegetarian and Absolute Vegan) and sells them wholesale to other restaurants. Wong notes that many store-bought, plant-based meats are precooked so they just require heating.

She suggests marinating soy burger patties in your favorite marinade before giving them a quick sear on a griddle. And cooking soy-based meat substitutes on a ridged grill pan offers the eye-appeal of traditional grilled meat dishes.

Crumbled "sausage," Wong says, makes a great pizza topping or, when sauteed and mixed with vegetables, an addition to pasta dishes, perhaps bound together with sauce and seasonings.

At the restaurant, they get more creative, offering options like barbecued buffalo wings that consist of soy-based "chicken" wrapped in bean curd (they even put a stick in the wings to mimic the bone).

Some plant-based products are like blank slates, meant to be used in your favorite recipes. Others are prepared in a heat-and-eat way.

Gardein is a huge presence in the frozen foods section, known for their "chik'n" products; they also make homestyle beefless tips that you can skewer, saute, or stir fry, and sweet and sour porkless bites. Before the Butcher makes seasoned, ground, plant-based meat products and patties with interesting flavor profiles like roasted turkey burgers. They also make a lower priced line of burgers under the name Mainstream, designed to compete with beef patties not only in flavor but in price.

Celebrity chef and restaurateur Ming Tsai recently launched a line of Ming's Bings, a comfort-food bonanza of ground, plant-based meats, vegetables, cheese, and varied seasonings enclosed in brown rice wrappers that get fantastically crisp when baked.

Some plant-based meat products are vegan, some vegetarian, some gluten-free, some dairy-free; if you have dietary issues, read the packaging carefully.

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Katie Workman writes regularly about food for The Associated Press. She has written two cookbooks focused on family-friendly cooking, "Dinner Solved!" and "The Mom 100 Cookbook." She blogs at http://www.themom100.com/about-katie-workman. She can be reached at Katie@themom100.com.

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From tacos to wings, learning to cook with plant-based meats | AP News

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It's that time of year when many people resolve to eat less meat. The "whys" are varied: sustainability and worry for the planet, health considerations, ethical concerns over the treatment of animals. One increasingly popular option is "plant-based meat," which can be found from grocery store meat sections to restaurants.