Wednesday, August 5, 2015


News Clips For The Day


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/man-fatally-shoots-defendant-waiting-at-mississippi-courthouse/

Defendant fatally shot outside Mississippi courthouse
CBS/AP
August 3, 2015

Photograph -- The shooting happened outside Madison County's criminal courthouse in Canton, Miss.
WJTV

CANTON, Miss. -- A man fatally shot a defendant waiting in a small courtyard outside a county courthouse in a historic Mississippi town Monday morning, and a suspect is in custody, law enforcement officials said.

The suspect has been arrested and is in jail, Madison County Sheriff Randy Tucker said, but he declined to identify him.

Tucker and Madison County District Attorney Michael Guest said they don't know why the suspect would have shot the other man. The victim was Kendrick Armond Brown, according to an indictment that Guest forwarded to The Associated Press.

Brown was expected to appear in court on drug charges but was not a witness or a suspect in other current criminal cases, Guest said.

A relative of the suspect was wounded in a shooting just two days earlier, but officials didn't know whether the two shootings were linked, Guest said. That shooting also was in Canton, Guest said, and a female victim who was an informant and was related to the suspect underwent surgery. No other details about that shooting were released, and the Canton police chief couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

In Monday's shooting, the suspect got out of a car, walked up and shot the victim once with a semiautomatic handgun, Tucker said. Deputies emerged from the courthouse, and the suspect laid down the handgun and was arrested without a struggle, Tucker said.

The victim was hit in the chest and died on the scene, Tucker said. He described the shooting as unfolding quickly.

Brown's mother told CBS affiliate WJTV that about five minutes after he left the house, Brown called her to say he had been shot. The victim's mother said when she arrived at the courthouse, authorities told her he had died.

Brown's family told WJTV that he was a 37-year-old father of two.

In the courtyard, two semicircles of four benches surround a flagpole. Law enforcement officials searched with metal detectors under crepe myrtle trees, looking for the shell from the handgun. But despite an hour of sifting through pine straw, Tucker said, authorities had not yet found the shell.

There are metal detectors inside the courthouse door, but the parking lot is open to the public and unguarded. The Canton Police Department sits at the rear of the parking lot, less than 200 yards from the front door of the courthouse.

District Attorney Michael Guest said the victim had been waiting outside the courthouse with his lawyer, Rusty Willard. Guest said the victim was expected to appear for a status conference on a case for which he'd been indicted on drug charges. Prosecutors expected that the victim would reject a plea offer and the judge would set the case for trial, Guest said.

Guest said he thought there was little that deputies could have done to prevent the shooting. "There would have been, in my opinion, no way this could have been stopped," Guest said.

Canton is the seat of Madison County, just north of Jackson. It's an antebellum town with about 13,000 people and is known for its Christmas light festival on the town square. The south end of the county is a rapidly growing suburb, while the northern half is poorer and a more traditional part of the South. Canton also is the home of a Nissan assembly plant that employs more than 6,000 people.

The 1996 movie "A Time to Kill," based on John Grisham's novel, was filmed in part at the courthouse. In the movie, a father played by Samuel L. Jackson goes to court and kills two men on trial over the rape of his daughter.




“A relative of the suspect was wounded in a shooting just two days earlier, but officials didn't know whether the two shootings were linked, Guest said. That shooting also was in Canton, Guest said, and a female victim who was an informant and was related to the suspect underwent surgery. …. In Monday's shooting, the suspect got out of a car, walked up and shot the victim once with a semiautomatic handgun, Tucker said. Deputies emerged from the courthouse, and the suspect laid down the handgun and was arrested without a struggle, Tucker said. The victim was hit in the chest and died on the scene, Tucker said. He described the shooting as unfolding quickly. …. District Attorney Michael Guest said the victim had been waiting outside the courthouse with his lawyer, Rusty Willard. Guest said the victim was expected to appear for a status conference on a case for which he'd been indicted on drug charges. …. The 1996 movie "A Time to Kill," based on John Grisham's novel, was filmed in part at the courthouse. In the movie, a father played by Samuel L. Jackson goes to court and kills two men on trial over the rape of his daughter.”

I have no proof, of course, but this looks to me to be a gang-related shot, with the killer following the victim from home, probably. It could also be vengeance over some disagreement, but the way it was done so methodically and without hurry it doesn’t seem like it was a stranger crime, and if the shooter had been shooting wildly the lawyer who was with him would most likely also have been hit. The killer then, equally calmly, gave himself up to police. Gotta be vengeance. Interesting.





http://www.npr.org/2015/07/29/427464625/greenpeace-activists-protest-shell-oils-plan-to-drill-in-the-arctic-ocean

Greenpeace Activists Protest Shell Oil's Plan To Drill In The Arctic Ocean
All Things Considered
July 29, 2015

NPR's Melissa Block speaks with KUCB reporter John Ryan about how protesters are trying to block Shell's plan to drill in the Arctic by keeping a Shell icebreaker from leaving Portland, Ore.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

Thirteen environmental activist from the group Greenpeace are dangling off a bridge in Portland, Ore. They've rappelled off the St. Johns Bridge and are settled on platforms and hammocks above the Willamette River with signs reading Shell no. The protesters plan to stay up there for days. They're trying to block Shell Oil's plan to drill in the Arctic Ocean by keeping a Shell icebreaker from leaving Portland. To talk more about Shell's plans for drilling in Alaska, I'm joined by John Ryan. He's with member station KUCB in Alaska's Aleutian Islands. He's in the city of Unalaska. And John, Shell already has drilling rigs and vessels up in Alaska's Chukchi Sea. What's the importance of this icebreaker that's in Portland?

JOHN RYAN, BYLINE: This icebreaker, the Fennica, has a piece of equipment on it called a capping stack that Shell hopes to use in case an oil well should blowout. And without that capping stack, they don't have federal permission to drill for oil. They're allowed to drill but not all the way into the oil bearing layers of rock. So until they can get that capping stack in the Fennica to ship back up in place, they can't drill for oil in the Arctic.

BLOCK: And they're working against a clock here - right? - a pretty narrow timeframe?

RYAN: Right. They have federal permission to drill only during the brief Arctic summer until late September, in this case because the risk of ice coming back and interfering with the drilling or making it really difficult to clean up an oil spill is much greater after the summer.

BLOCK: And Shell has been granted drilling permits by the Obama administration. A lot of environmentalists have been very unhappy about that. There are other restrictions though. What are some of those?

RYAN: Right. The Interior Department told Shell it can only drill one site at a time. Shell had planned to go for two at once, but the Interior Department said because of the possible danger to walruses from all that drilling noise, you can only drill one of your locations at a time.

BLOCK: What is Shell's history with drilling in the Arctic?

RYAN: They have a long history. Most recently, in 2012, they put a lot of effort into it, and they had a lot of mishaps. They had a drill rig run aground. It eventually had to be sent to a scrap yard in China. So environmentalists say that that track record proves that Shell doesn't know what it's doing. They don't have the ability to drill safely in the Arctic. Shell - and if - the U.S. government say that they have a new plan that's better and safer and they have the ability to drill safely in this remote and fairly hostile location.

BLOCK: How much oil does Shell think that they could get from the Arctic? What's the value of that?

RYAN: Well, the value to Shell - they've put about $7 billion into the effort to find this oil. They think it's one of the biggest undiscovered oil reserves - energy reserves anywhere in the world. And they think it could actually boost U.S. energy supplies a lot in the years down the road when they actually got oil through the pipeline. And environmentalists say that it's just too dangerous a location to be drilling in between the difficulty of cleaning an oil spill in the very remote Arctic Ocean and just the general danger of climate change from all that oil being burned.

BLOCK: John, I know the communities in Alaska are quite split over the wisdom of drilling in the Arctic and what it would mean. What have you been hearing from people in your time there?

RYAN: There's a lot of support here in this town because it's kind of a one-industry town around fishing. And the support for Arctic drilling could be a way to diversify the economy, especially if it's a multiyear effort. So there's a lot of support in this town. There were protests here but much smaller than the very large protests we've seen in Seattle and in Portland.

BLOCK: John Ryan, thanks so much for talking to us.

RYAN: Thank you.

BLOCK: John Ryan is with member station KUCB in Unalaska. That's in Alaska's Aleutian Islands.




“Thirteen environmental activist from the group Greenpeace are dangling off a bridge in Portland, Ore. They've rappelled off the St. Johns Bridge and are settled on platforms and hammocks above the Willamette River with signs reading Shell no. …. . And John, Shell already has drilling rigs and vessels up in Alaska's Chukchi Sea. What's the importance of this icebreaker that's in Portland? JOHN RYAN, BYLINE: This icebreaker, the Fennica, has a piece of equipment on it called a capping stack that Shell hopes to use in case an oil well should blowout. And without that capping stack, they don't have federal permission to drill for oil. They're allowed to drill but not all the way into the oil bearing layers of rock. …. And Shell has been granted drilling permits by the Obama administration. A lot of environmentalists have been very unhappy about that. There are other restrictions though. What are some of those? RYAN: Right. The Interior Department told Shell it can only drill one site at a time. Shell had planned to go for two at once, but the Interior Department said because of the possible danger to walruses from all that drilling noise, you can only drill one of your locations at a time. …. Most recently, in 2012, they put a lot of effort into it, and they had a lot of mishaps. They had a drill rig run aground. It eventually had to be sent to a scrap yard in China. So environmentalists say that that track record proves that Shell doesn't know what it's doing. …. Well, the value to Shell - they've put about $7 billion into the effort to find this oil. They think it's one of the biggest undiscovered oil reserves - energy reserves anywhere in the world. …. RYAN: There's a lot of support here in this town because it's kind of a one-industry town around fishing. And the support for Arctic drilling could be a way to diversify the economy, especially if it's a multiyear effort. So there's a lot of support in this town.”

I’m sorry to hear that the prize to Shell is so great, because it means they will fight hard for it. I was glad to see that the redoubtable Greenpeace is on the job there. They are considered by Republicans to be villains, but down through the years they have used their imaginative and colorful activities to block everything from the cutting of old growth forests to killing minke whales to oil drilling in dangerous places such as the Arctic. Just a day or so ago, though, there was an article about five nations competing hotly for the Arctic’s newly exposed areas in their locality now that global warming is melting glaciers so rapidly. Those countries are the USA, Russia, Norway, Canada and Denmark. It is unlikely that even Greenpeace will be able to stop the drilling in all those spots. Even though they have built a new Rainbow Warrior, the forces against them are probably too strong. Still, I salute them!





http://www.npr.org/2015/08/04/427419718/the-u-s-declared-war-on-veteran-homelessness-and-it-actually-could-win

The U.S. Declared War On Veteran Homelessness — And It Actually Could Win
Quil Lawrence
August 4, 2015

Photograph -- Daniel Harmon, a veteran of the wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq, looks out the window of his room at the Hollywood Veterans Center in Los Angeles. The facility provides housing to homeless vets.
David Gilkey/NPR
Graphics -- Obama Has Tripled Funding For Homeless Veterans Programs --
Amount budgeted, in 2015 dollars
Graphics -- How Much Progress Is Your State Making On Solving The Homeless Veterans Problem? -- Estimated number of homeless veterans


This is a tale of two cities. In New Orleans, there are signs of hope that veteran homelessness can be solved. But Los Angeles presents a very different picture.

Under the deafening highway noise of the Pontchartrain Expressway in central city New Orleans, Ronald Engberson, 54, beds down for the night. Engberson got out of the Marines in 1979, plagued even back then by problems with drugs and alcohol. He says that's mostly the reason he's been homeless the past 10 years.

"My longest stretch sober was 14 months," he says. "Being out there on the streets, it's tough."

About 50,000 vets are homeless in America. In 2009, then-Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki declared that all of them would have housing by this year. At the time, even inside the VA that goal was considered aspirational at best. But last year, cities across the country said it was looking achievable. New Orleans was the first to declare, in January, that the city had done it. (Jump to the bottom to see how your state stacks up.)

So if New Orleans has zero homeless vets, why was there a Marine sleeping under the expressway?

It's called "functional zero," according to Melissa Haley, director of supportive services at Volunteers of America in New Orleans.

"Homelessness is a continuous process. There's a veteran right now who is in a home who could very well be homeless tomorrow," she says. "Functional zero is defined as having a process and the resources in place where we can immediately house a veteran."

Marine Corps veteran Ronald Engberson says alcoholism had made it hard to keep a job and an apartment. His new apartment has few possessions, but he is clean and sober. David Gilkey/NPR

So if a vet loses a job today, misses the rent and gets evicted in New Orleans, the city can get him or her housed within a month. Haley says it's often faster; they got Marine Corps veteran Ronald Engberson housed in one day.

A Volunteers of America caseworker, DaVaughn Phillips, met Engberson under the expressway and started asking him questions from a survey. When he heard Engberson's name, he looked down at a list on his clipboard.

"Mr. Engberson, we've been looking for you!" Phillips said. "When you said Ronald Engberson, I'm almost about to get up and shout!"

Nonprofits, the New Orleans VA and the mayor's office now coordinate to keep one constantly updated list of homeless veterans. Because Engberson was on the list, his military record had already been confirmed, and Phillips could get him into an apartment.

The next morning Phillips met Engberson by the expressway overpass and took him to a modest, clean apartment. First thing Engberson did was shave off his ragged beard.

"Last night I was under the bridge," Engberson said. "I'm thankful I'm inside. I have AC, don't have to deal with the rain, the lightning, people walking up on you all the time."

New Orleans went from 470 homeless vets in 2011 to functional zero today, using what are now considered best practices — such as the master list — and powered by a huge cash injection from Washington.

Nationwide, spending on homeless vets is up 300 percent since President Obama took office, hitting near $1.5 billion last year. That tracks with a reduction in homeless vets by about a third.

"We've been able to house more vets in the last five years than at any point in our history ... 30-plus years," Vince Kane, special assistant to the VA secretary, says of the agency's housing programs. "In the past, both inside and outside of VA, we were focused on models more about managing homeless than on ending homelessness," Kane says.

Part of that shift is to embrace a philosophy called "housing first."

"It's about getting guys in housing first and then treating whatever ails them afterwards," says Kevin Kincey, who does outreach for the group U.S. Vets in Los Angeles.

"Back in 2005, to come into a program ... you needed to be sober," Kincey says. "[Now] once you get in housing, if you need substance abuse treatment, mental health treatment, they'll wrap that around you."

Kincey says he's seen housing-first programs arrive just recently in Los Angeles — which VA officials acknowledge is lagging behind many other cities in the race toward the goal.

LA has the most homeless vets in the country. It also has a housing shortage that makes it hard to find places even with the funding available. And there were other problems — the Los Angeles VA was embroiled in a lawsuit about misuse of resources. Kane was sent this year from headquarters to get the Los Angeles VA back on track.

Still, LA would need to house 3,000 more homeless vets by the end of the year to reach zero, and no one expects it to happen on schedule. Angelenos say it's not fair to compare the scale of their homeless problem to smaller cities like Houston or New Orleans.

"They've all done great work, but no one has done as much as Los Angeles has done in total volume," says Greg Spiegel, who advises the mayor of Los Angeles on homelessness.

For perspective, New Orleans housed 227 vets last year to reach zero. Los Angeles housed about that many last month and the month before that. LA has found homes for about 4,000 veterans since January 2014. But Spiegel says as fast as they can house them, about seven more veterans become homeless every day in LA.

"That inflow of vets becoming homeless is so big, it essentially neutralized the incredible progress we made. That had never been done before and is more than anywhere else in the country," Spiegel says.

Many of the vets becoming newly homeless are from recent wars, raising fears of another generation of combat vets winding up spending a life on the streets.

"I don't want to see these guys homeless 40 years from now," says Jim Zenner, who runs the Hollywood Veterans Center, a barracks-style halfway house for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Zenner moved to LA when he got back from Iraq in 2008 and started pursuing a master's degree in social work at University of Southern California. The war still had a grip on him, though — even the LA freeway reminded him of routes he had driven in Iraq. Anger and depression put him on edge. At home with his wife and kids, he'd yell so loud the neighbors would call the cops.

"The fourth time the police ... basically told me that if one of us don't leave the house, then they're going to take our kids. So I packed my stuff, slept in the car that night and then got a hotel room, took my oldest son, and we stayed there for four days," he says.

After that, he had nowhere to go. He and his wife were both students. They were living off loans and GI bill money — not enough to pay two rents in Los Angeles.

He went to the VA for help, but none of the shelters at that time would take in a father and son. Then a place run by Volunteers of America did him a favor and bent the rules to house them both. He stayed seven months. Then they asked him for a favor.

"I did some volunteer work for them," Zenner says. "And in early 2010 they offered me a position to take an empty building and turn it into a readjustment facility for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans."

That facility looks a bit like one of the makeshift barracks troops made out of buildings in Iraq and Afghanistan — right down to the free weights and boxing gear in the covered alley next to the building. There's a TV lounge and a group therapy room, too.

"They try to get us to talk about it, but you know how vets are. We like to talk about it privately together. And that's the stuff that helps out the most," says Joe Scogan, who did two combat tours to Iraq.

After a divorce, he wound up living in his truck. He went to stay at a VA housing program before landing at the Hollywood Veterans Center this May.

"At the VA, I was there with some Vietnam vets, and they were great. But it really helps being with guys that you went through something with. They're different wars," Scogan says.

Zenner says his mission is to be flexible and fit treatment around school and job possibilities, even if it means bending the rules, like they did for him when he and his son had nowhere to stay.

He's got mixed feelings about the goal of ending homelessness.

"I don't think it's possible," says Zenner. "And the play-with-words like 'functional zero' and all that crap — I don't like to do that. Everybody knows in LA it's not going to end in 2015. [But] it's a good way to get people to work extra hard."

The deadline also has some worried.

"My fear is that someone will claim victory at the end of this year and funding will start going away," says Steve Peck, president of U.S. Vets.

He's already seeing it happen. This summer Peck planned to raise funds for a homeless veterans' event in Houston. Then the city declared in June that it had reached "functional zero."

"It was only weeks after that we began making calls to our community partners to help us. We get donations from all over. And one of them actually said, 'Well, wait a minute, I thought we'd ended this.' "

Peck worries that once the deadline passes with the end of this year, the momentum in Washington will disappear, regardless of how many vets are still living on the street.




“Nonprofits, the New Orleans VA and the mayor's office now coordinate to keep one constantly updated list of homeless veterans. Because Engberson was on the list, his military record had already been confirmed, and Phillips could get him into an apartment. …. New Orleans went from 470 homeless vets in 2011 to functional zero today, using what are now considered best practices — such as the master list — and powered by a huge cash injection from Washington. …. "In the past, both inside and outside of VA, we were focused on models more about managing homeless than on ending homelessness," Kane says. Part of that shift is to embrace a philosophy called "housing first." …. "Back in 2005, to come into a program ... you needed to be sober," Kincey says. "[Now] once you get in housing, if you need substance abuse treatment, mental health treatment, they'll wrap that around you." …. Still, LA would need to house 3,000 more homeless vets by the end of the year to reach zero, and no one expects it to happen on schedule. …. "I don't want to see these guys homeless 40 years from now," says Jim Zenner, who runs the Hollywood Veterans Center, a barracks-style halfway house for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. …. He went to the VA for help, but none of the shelters at that time would take in a father and son. Then a place run by Volunteers of America did him a favor and bent the rules to house them both. He stayed seven months. Then they asked him for a favor. "I did some volunteer work for them," Zenner says. "And in early 2010 they offered me a position to take an empty building and turn it into a readjustment facility for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans." …. That facility looks a bit like one of the makeshift barracks troops made out of buildings in Iraq and Afghanistan — right down to the free weights and boxing gear in the covered alley next to the building. There's a TV lounge and a group therapy room, too. …. "My fear is that someone will claim victory at the end of this year and funding will start going away," says Steve Peck, president of U.S. Vets. He's already seeing it happen. This summer Peck planned to raise funds for a homeless veterans' event in Houston. Then the city declared in June that it had reached "functional zero." "It was only weeks after that we began making calls to our community partners to help us. We get donations from all over. And one of them actually said, 'Well, wait a minute, I thought we'd ended this.' "

Kind and well-meaning people who are not themselves homeless and who have never even been close to that condition cannot grasp the reasons why someone ends up on the street, or the number of such people who are out there at any given time. A phrase like “functional zero” does sound like there is no more problem now – we’re done with it! In addition there are always more people asking the government for money than there are funds to dispense, and there are many citizens who give up on establishing a greater prosperity for everyone. There are, of course, also too many Americans who just don’t care in the least what happens to those who can’t keep up with the strongest. As Mitt Romney said, he just doesn’t try to please the poor. Unfortunately for him, that comment went viral. So, given that we will probably never fully solve the problems, I was impressed by this group Volunteers For America, and sometime in an article over this last year or so I have seen their name before. They’re good guys. They will fight homelessness as long as anybody needs their help. They’re committed.

The VA has also been committed, but this amazing and apparently revolutionary concept “housing first” is probably the key to their recent success. Keep it simple, as AA says. The term “the worthy poor” has been a part of poverty programs of all kinds, especially in the eyes of government officials, for more years than I realized until I looked the phrase up on Google. It goes back to Queen Elizabeth I in her effort to set up aid for the poor. The poor, of course, are not necessarily “worthy” any more than the “robber barons” of industry are. Look into their history and you will find plenty of skeletons, but they don’t go to jail for it most of the time, because they can always buy their way out and afford the best lawyers if a case does go to trial.

A shocking number of these mentally deranged people with drug problems are ending up on the doorstep of the VA because war is brutal to a tenderfoot like the 17 to 19 year olds who decide to “be a man” and “serve their country” in this way. I personally would like to see a mandatory draft for all young men and women who are physically and mentally strong to go into the military, while for those who are depressive/mentally defective or physically inept can be served in public service positions – the national Poverty Corps, for instance. Instead of going off to war and becoming profoundly mentally disturbed or missing a leg as a result, they can stay home and serve their country in a more protected way. That way there will be as many soldiers as are needed and the Pentagon wouldn’t have to send the very same men and women back into conflict over and over which is part of the reason for their mental fatigue; plus there will be someone here at home to help them when they come back disabled. There would also be no more of the viewpoint that people who don’t sign up to fight in the army are just “not patriots.” I am “fighting for my country” when I write this blog, and my idea of being a patriot means standing up for the BEST USA we can have, not just the richest and most powerful. So there!!





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/camp-shelby-gunfire-soldier-reports-more-shots-fired-at-mississippi-military-facility/

Shots fired again near Mississippi military site
CBS/AP
August 5, 2015

Photograph -- Camp Shelby is currently hosting about 4,600 active-duty soldiers, National Guard and reservists from Texas and Mississippi in a summer training exercise.
WJTV
Play VIDEO -- What's really behind military operation "Jade Helm 15"?
Video at the scene where Mississippi authorities took into custody a man for questioning over two shootings near a military facility shows a small maroon pickup truck pulled off the side of the road. In the video, the driver gets out with his hands raised and backs out toward two armed law enforcement officers. The man lowers himself to his knees, lowers his arms and clasps his hands behind his back. The video ends at that point.
WHLT


HATTIESBURG, Miss. - - Shots were fired for a second consecutive day near a military facility in southern Mississippi, but there are no reports of anyone being wounded, National Guard officials said Wednesday.

At about 8 a.m. Wednesday, soldiers training at the Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center reported shots fired into the air, said Lt. Col. Christian Patterson. It was in the same area where soldiers reported gunshots fired from a pickup truck a day earlier, Patterson said.

The description of the shooter was the same in both instances, Patterson said: a white male in a red pickup truck.

The post is secure, and all personnel are accounted for.

Patterson said Tuesday that guards at all base entrances were armed under a recent order from Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant. On Wednesday, Bryant said in a statement that the shootings underscored why he signed that executive order July 20.

"The Soldiers at Camp Shelby and across the state can and should take appropriate steps to defend themselves as necessary," Bryant said.

No one was wounded in the Tuesday shooting, which occurred near a checkpoint at the post. Authorities were quick to point out that shooting took place outside the base perimeter.

"This incident occurred along the eastern edge of Camp Shelby. It did not occur on the base," County Sheriff Jimmy Dale Smith said at a news conference.

When asked whether it was an intentional shooting or possibly something like a hunting incident, Smith said it was not known.

Earlier reports that two people were involved proved to be wrong, he said.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and the Mississippi Highway Patrol is assisting the sheriff's office in their search, CBS affiliate WJTV reported.

The FBI and the ATF have also been notified, Smith said.

The large military base south of Hattiesburg is one of the premier training facilities for National Guard troops from across the country and during the height of the Iraq war was often the last stop for National Guard troops training to go to the Middle East.

Camp Shelby was designated by the U.S. military as one of the sites where a seven-state war simulation exercise called "Jade Helm 15" was scheduled to take place, The Army Times reported. The series of ongoing special forces training missions has drawn suspicion from residents who fear it is part of a planned military takeover.

Camp Shelby is currently hosting about 4,600 active-duty soldiers, National Guard and reservists from Texas and Mississippi in a summer training exercise.

This summer's training focuses on teaching troops how to operate on the platoon level - generally about 30 soldiers to a group, although that can vary.

Camp Shelby officials also were hosting a field hearing Tuesday by the National Commission on the Future of the Army.

The commission is an independent, congressionally mandated panel directed to assess President Barack Obama's recommendations for restructuring the Army's active-duty and reserve component force structures.

The base is currently hosting about 4,600 active-duty soldiers, National Guard and reservists from Texas and Mississippi in a summer training exercise.

This summer's training focuses on teaching troops how to operate on the platoon level - generally about 30 soldiers to a group, although that can vary.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jade_Helm_15_conspiracy_theories

Jade Helm 15 conspiracy theories
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Jade Helm 15)
August 5, 2015

The Jade Helm 15 conspiracy theories are based on the eponymous United States military training exercise, scheduled to take place in multiple U.S. states from July 15 to September 15, 2015. The announcements of these training exercises have raised concerns that have been characterized by The New York Times as "travers[ing] the outer edges of political paranoia."[1]

Exercise details

The exercise in unconventional warfare involves United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) with other U.S Armed Forces units in multiple states, including Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Utah. Troops engaging in the exercise will assume the roles of either occupying or resistance forces. Most locations are in sparsely populated arid regions near small towns. Some participants will wear civilian attire and drive civilian vehicles.[2] Maps of the exercise include areas of the United States such as Colorado and California where no actual operations are planned.[3 . . . .

The USSOCOM claimed "the size and scope of Jade Helm sets this one apart" from previous training exercises,[5] such as Derna Bridge or Robin Sage.[3] Some parts of the operational details have been disclosed, including that there will be 1,200 troops participating, and according to CNN, "mainly Army Green Berets, but also a small group of Navy SEALS and Air Force special operations troops as well as conventional Army infantry."[6] Lt. Col. Mark Lastoria, at an information session for residents in Bastrop, Texas, said the realistic military training helps soldiers adapt to unfamiliar terrain. In that location, sixty soldiers would take part, including the presence of two Humvee vehicles and a "water buffalo" water tank. Private land offered by residents would be used for the exercise, though he noted they would not be paid for the land or receive a tax break of any kind.[7] Lastoria also claimed $150,000 in revenue would be brought to the area because of food, fuel, and shopping.

The Jade Helm 15 military training exercise started July 15, 2015, and is scheduled to continue through September 15, 2015. The USASOC stated that this training will take place in the states Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah. Journalists were not allowed to embed in the operation, but the Texas State Guard and the civilian group Counter Jade Helm are monitoring the exercise.[8][9][10][11]

Theories

U.S. Army Special Operations Command map,[12][3] depicting the US military plans during the Jade Helm 15 exercise
The conspiracy theories seem to emanate from the map shown here from the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, that divides the region into four colors, with two "hostile" states, two "permissive" states, two states leaning one way or the other, and California divided.[13]

According to the Hartford Courant 's Jim Shea, the conspiracy theories about Jade Helm 15 include: a "psychological operation aimed at getting people used to seeing military forces on the streets" so they do not realize when an invasion actually takes place; an international operation aimed to seize people's guns; recently closed Walmarts used by the military to "stockpile supplies for Chinese troops who will be arriving to disarm Americans"; and a military plan to "round up political dissidents" and "remove key political figures" who may be against the imposition of martial law.[14] Other theories by right-wing bloggers and activists have described Jade Helm 15 as a "secret plot" to impose martial law, confiscate firearms, invade Texas, and institute "total population control."[15]

The conspiracy theories also include concern about the name of the exercise, with the jade in Jade Helm 15 possibly referring to China,[16][17] and JADE possibly an acronym for artificial intelligence developed by the U.S. military.[18] Alex Jones, a conspiracy theorist and Texan radio show host, said that helm is an acronym for "Homeland Eradication of Local Militants".[15]

Reactions

The Austin American-Statesman newspaper noted that after plans and maps of the exercise were made public, there was an "explosion of outrage on social media after the release of the map, which labeled Texas, Utah and the southern tip of California as 'hostile.'"[19] There was also speculation that shuttered Walmart stores would be used for "guerrilla-warfare staging areas and FEMA processing camps",[20] though this theory was debunked by the website Snopes, which specializes in scrutinizing urban legends and Internet rumors.[21]

A survey of registered Republicans by Public Policy Polling in May 2015,[22] found that 32% thought that "the Government is trying to take over Texas", and that half of all Tea Party supporters are concerned with an imminent Texas invasion.[23]

Greg Capers, sheriff of San Jacinto County, published a letter in the Cleveland Advocate, in response to numerous phone calls from citizens, in which he described "alternative news sources" that were spreading inaccurate information about the exercise, and encouraged citizens to "utilize legitimate mainstream news sources" for those interested in accurate information.[24]

Politicians

On April 28, Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered the Texas State Guard to monitor the operation, declaring, "During the training operation, it is important that Texans know their safety, constitutional rights, private property right and civil liberties will not be infringed."[19][25]

On May 2, 2015, Republican presidential candidate and Texas senator Ted Cruz said he had "reached out to The Pentagon to inquire about this exercise." In comments to Bloomberg News at the South Carolina Republican Party's annual convention, he said,

We are assured it is a military training exercise. I have no reason to doubt those assurances, but I understand the reason for concern and uncertainty, because when the federal government has not demonstrated itself to be trustworthy in this administration, the natural consequence is that many citizens don't trust what it is saying.[26][27]

On May 5, 2015, U.S. Representative Louie Gohmert, Republican from the 1st District of Texas, and Vice Chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, voiced his concern in a statement, saying his "office has been inundated with calls referring to the Jade Helm 15 military exercise" with concerns about the U.S. Army is preparing for "modern-day martial law". He noted a political consideration saying, "I was rather appalled that the hostile areas amazingly have a Republican majority, 'cling to their guns and religion,' and believe in the sanctity of the United States Constitution", and asserted that "the map of the exercise needs to change, the names on the map need to change, and the tone of the exercise needs to be completely revamped so the federal government is not intentionally practicing war against its own states."[27][28][29]

On May 7, 2015, Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic Governor of Virginia, called Abbott's mobilizing of the Texas State Guard in response to the training exercise "one of the dumbest things I have ever heard".[30]

Michele Hickford, the editor-in-chief of Allen West's website, discussed the timing of the Obama administration's order to ban some military-grade equipment from local law enforcement agencies in the context of the Jade Helm 15 exercise, as a plan to "disarm" the police and implement a "Federalization" of the police.[31]

Media

Radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones began spreading the conspiracy theory on March 19, 2015, by saying on his radio program and on his website that the federal government was preparing to invade Texas.[32] "They're going to practice breaking into things and stuff. This is going to be hellish," Jones said. "Now this is just a cover for deploying the military on the streets... This is an invasion ... in preparation for the financial collapse and maybe even Obama not leaving office."[32]

On March 27, 2015, Jones had a post that referenced Jade Helm with the headline, "Beyond Denial: Preparations for Martial Law in America."[33] On April 28, he warned about the "U.S. military positioning itself to take over the states and declare martial law,"[34] but on May 4 clarified his stance, blaming "mainstream media" for misinterpreting his comments, declaring, "Jade Helm 15 is NOT A Martial Law Takeover."[35] In a video posted that day, he responded to the question, "Is it true martial law is coming?" Jones said, "No, it's incremental. They're not going to take over this summer. Probably. We can never say completely. But that it's part of acclimating and conditioning."

In reaction to the sentiment that the military exercises might in fact be movement against American citizens, Dallas Morning News columnist Jacquielynn Floyd wrote a column titled, "Abbott should counter, not cater to, Texans' crazy Jade Helm fears," noting that Abbott's "response to this nut-studded fruitcake of fear was unfortunate."[36] On April 29, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest addressed the concerns of critics in the regular press briefing, saying, "I have no idea what he's thinking," regarding Abbott's letter to the Texas Guard. "In no way will the constitutional rights or civil liberties of any American citizen be infringed upon while this exercise is being conducted."[37][38]

On May 4, actor Chuck Norris voiced skepticism about Jade Helm exercises in his column for conservative website WorldNetDaily.[39][40] He supported Abbott in his letter to the Texas State Guard, and implied a link to Islamic terrorism, saying, “Whatever Jade Helm 15 actually is, I think it is more than coincidental that the FBI director just confessed in February that the presence of ISIS can be felt in all 50 states of the U.S. and that the Pentagon is suddenly running its biggest military training exercise with every branch of the military across seven Southwestern states.”

Comedian Jon Stewart addressed the debate around the exercises in a segment on The Daily Show on May 4 called "Fear and Absent Danger", noting that previous military exercises while Republican Rick Perry was governor did not raise similar concerns.[41][42]

Comet or asteroid impact

Some conspiracy theorists have connected the Jade Helm 15 military exercise with an apocalypse caused by a comet or asteroid striking the Earth.[43][44][45] The Jade Helm 15 military exercise has an ending date of September 15, 2015, which is the same month identified by some conspiracy theorists for the catastrophic impact of a comet or asteroid,[46][47][48] based in part on a statement made May 13, 2014 by the French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius that the world has “500 days to avoid climate chaos”.[49] However, the statement by Laurent Fabius may refer to a United Nations climate conference scheduled in Paris, France in November/December 2015, which is about 565 days after the date of his statement.[50]

The conspiracy theorists claim that Jade Helm 15 is a dress rehearsal for the imposition of martial law[44][51] which would be implemented in the event of a catastrophe of this level of severity. However, the NASA Near Earth Object Program publishes the Sentry Risk Table, which is a list that identifies such threats, and the list does not include any object with a high Torino Scale number (a measure of the severity of the threat) for 2015.[52] Also, a NASA spokesperson said, "NASA knows of no asteroid or comet currently on a collision course with Earth".[48][44] But some conspiracy theorists claim that the object has been tracked for years,[53] the object name is known but its published coordinates and orbit information are incorrect, and the threat is not publicly listed because of the thought that panic that would ensue.[54]




CBS -- “At about 8 a.m. Wednesday, soldiers training at the Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center reported shots fired into the air, said Lt. Col. Christian Patterson. It was in the same area where soldiers reported gunshots fired from a pickup truck a day earlier, Patterson said. The description of the shooter was the same in both instances, Patterson said: a white male in a red pickup truck. …. Patterson said Tuesday that guards at all base entrances were armed under a recent order from Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant. On Wednesday, Bryant said in a statement that the shootings underscored why he signed that executive order July 20. "The Soldiers at Camp Shelby and across the state can and should take appropriate steps to defend themselves as necessary," Bryant said. …. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and the Mississippi Highway Patrol is assisting the sheriff's office in their search, CBS affiliate WJTV reported. The FBI and the ATF have also been notified, Smith said. …. Camp Shelby was designated by the U.S. military as one of the sites where a seven-state war simulation exercise called "Jade Helm 15" was scheduled to take place, The Army Times reported. The series of ongoing special forces training missions has drawn suspicion from residents who fear it is part of a planned military takeover. …. Camp Shelby officials also were hosting a field hearing Tuesday by the National Commission on the Future of the Army. The commission is an independent, congressionally mandated panel directed to assess President Barack Obama's recommendations for restructuring the Army's active-duty and reserve component force structures.”

Please read the entire Wikipedia article. It’s very good. I am not really worried about mass violence in Texas, because rational and benign people are found in the population even there, though the others are getting a lot of attention lately; and a certain amount of mass hysteria and irrational fear in general is built into the human structure. I had a friend several years ago who told me that she never watches the news because it “makes her nervous,” but that she does “get her news from her friends.” I was amazed. Rumors from friends are more likely to frighten me, while a news story from a well-placed source like CBS or NPR calms my fears by giving me the whole story and the straight story, at least usually. If they fail to inform the public correctly they will receive irate phone calls and will post a retraction within a short period of time. That is a basic part of their code of ethics. I do get news from Daily Kos, Huffington Post, Mother Jones and other liberal leaning sources, but if the story seems fishy in any way to me I go to the Net to find more information.

This article from Wikipedia shows the extent of the paranoia and in some cases the personal identity of those spreading it. The shots, of course, have come from an anonymous angry white male in a red pickup truck. I doubt that they presage an open attack of any kind on military personnel there, but they do prove the willingness to do violence if they think they can get away with it in some of the local populations. This Tea Party and the Bush reactions to 9/11 such as the USA PATRIOT ACT, have produced a truly dangerous situation in this country in which a relatively poor and ignorant group of whites have become bonded together to produce a rightwing and fanatical religious and political “reform” of our basic governmental system. Their goal is not for more democracy, but for less. Overall, it does alarm me, though this incident alone doesn’t. “Rednecks” have been riding around in red pickup trucks and shooting off their guns for years and years. That’s the macho thing to do. I would like everybody to know that all farmers aren't rednecks, and all rednecks are not farmers. Very few of them, however, have a college degree from anywhere except one of the Bible universities around the country, and few are really prosperous people. They don’t go to art museums or listen to classical music, and they don’t like people who do. It’s a true cultural divide as great as the one between the races in this country. It is dangerous.

The problem in this country is that there is already firmly in place an “underclass,” made up of some from all races, and it’s all about the wide gulf between the rich and the poor here, the educated and the illiterate and the fact that many more people are poor, uneducated, even hungry, or at least failing economically, now, than at any time that I can remember except the Great Depression. That is the outcome as our Middle Class dwindles in number. In that Depression time period the underclass went left, whereas now they are going right, with a heavy emphasis on hatred over race and religion. Behind it all, a growing number of people are saying, is the cynical monetary and political management and manipulation of the Koch Brothers and other big business interests, who are themselves deeply involved in a Protestant Christian form of fanaticism. The calm, thoughtful and benign Christian Church of my childhood is declining. That not only scares me, it saddens me. To me religion is to improve the lives and interactions of all people, not to enrich the few or form a voters bloc.

Some of the Tea Party politicians such as Republicans Ted Cruz and Louie Gohmert are fanning the flames. I do believe that Gohmert’s comment about the Pentagon changing the map to remove the Republican ruled states from the designation “hostile” or, I would say, any state at all. Just don’t publish a map of that kind at all, and don’t give out that kind of detail about what they are doing, either. That is what caused the public panic. I don’t know if that mistake was made by Obama or someone at Homeland Security, but they shouldn’t have made it. Once one horse in a herd panics and starts to run the rest will too. It is unfortunate that members of the press have publicized this event thoroughly without getting the right advice and firmly making full assurances from the President, Congress, the Pentagon and others that the whole thing is “just an exercise,” and then setting up a number of town meetings in every area affected to discuss it and answer questions.

Exercises like these are not new to the US. The Army has been staging “war games” for years in the woods of my grandparents’ house in Moore County, NC. There have been no outbursts of fear and distrust like this one before I don’t believe, though. My aunt even had a friendly but platonic relationship with a young soldier. He would visit her on the porch some nights. My, oh my, that was a long time ago. I do wish we were still as safe as we were then.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/sheriff-ritualistic-florida-triple-murder-may-be-linked-to-blue-moon/

Sheriff: "Ritualistic" Fla. triple murder may be linked to blue moon
By CRIMESIDER STAFF, CBS/AP
August 5, 2015

Photograph -- The Florida home where three people were found murdered on July 28, 2015 WKRG

PENSACOLA, Fla.- Investigators in the Florida Panhandle are looking into the deaths of a woman and her two adult sons as a ritualistic killing that could be connected to the recent blue moon.

Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan said they've identified a person of interest in the July 28 deaths of 77-year-old Voncile Smith, 49-year-old Richard Smith and 47-year-old John Smith.

"Initial research had led us to believe it was a ritualistic killing," Morgan said Tuesday.

Asked to elaborate, Morgan said, "The method of the murder - blunt force trauma ... positioning of the bodies - and our person of interest has some ties to a faith or religion that is indicative of that. The time of death on Tuesday also coincides with what's referred to as a blue moon, which occurs every three years."

CBS affiliate WKRG reports that investigators say the person of interest in the case is a white male who may be affiliated with witchcraft.

All three victims were struck multiple times with a claw hammer and had their throats slit, and Richard Smith also had a gunshot to his right ear, Morgan said.

The bodies were discovered Friday in their Pensacola-area home. But investigators believe the Smiths were killed about 7 p.m. on July 28.

The blue moon, a rare second full moon in a single month, occurred on Friday, July 31, three days after the killings. The sheriff did not explain the discrepancy and his office did not return a telephone call seeking clarification.

Richard Smith was employed by the Department of Homeland Security and worked at Naval Air Station Pensacola, but officials with the Naval Criminal Investigative Services "have determined there are no issues involving ... national security elements," Morgan said.

That information could not be confirmed immediately with NCIS officials.

The station reports that the Smith family was "reclusive" and had lived in the residence for 27 years. The station also reports that a safe containing $7,000 was found in the home.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_moon

Blue moon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“A blue moon is an additional full moon that appears in a subdivision of a year: either the third of four full moons in a season, or a second full moon in a month of the common calendar. . . . . This happens every two to three years (seven times in the Metonic cycle of 19 years). . . . . “




“Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan said they've identified a person of interest in the July 28 deaths of 77-year-old Voncile Smith, 49-year-old Richard Smith and 47-year-old John Smith. . . . . Asked to elaborate, Morgan said, "The method of the murder - blunt force trauma ... positioning of the bodies - and our person of interest has some ties to a faith or religion that is indicative of that. The time of death on Tuesday also coincides with what's referred to as a blue moon, which occurs every three years." CBS affiliate WKRG reports that investigators say the person of interest in the case is a white male who may be affiliated with witchcraft. All three victims were struck multiple times with a claw hammer and had their throats slit, and Richard Smith also had a gunshot to his right ear, Morgan said. …. Richard Smith was employed by the Department of Homeland Security and worked at Naval Air Station Pensacola, but officials with the Naval Criminal Investigative Services "have determined there are no issues involving ... national security elements," Morgan said. That information could not be confirmed immediately with NCIS officials.

The presence of a witchcraft cult in Pensacola, FL is surprising to me since it’s a fairly sizable city of 52,703 (2013) with a number of colleges, and I would expect a more cosmopolitan population. I expect witchcraft in rural Louisiana, of course. That’s where all those voodoo movies are set. I imagine that, like racial hatred, it is more common than it appears and pops up occasionally in every group, however. This is an interesting story, which hopefully will be updated from time to time. This kind of mystery-filled case with the “reclusive” family, all adults and living in the same house together which is uncommon nowadays, and one of whom has a responsible position with the military, is always exciting to me; though when that much violent death occurs at one isolated spot without the safe even being robbed, the killer is probably insane. He didn’t come to steal. He came to kill. I do hope they find him.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/toxic-algae-bloom-in-pacific-even-larger-than-thought/

Toxic algae bloom in Pacific even larger than thought
CBS/AP
August 5, 2015

Photograph -- In this file photo, fisherman offload Dungeness Crab from their fishing vessel. A massive toxic algae bloom in the Pacific Ocean has caused the state of Washington to close more than half its 157-mile-long coast to crab fishing. JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES


A vast bloom of toxic algae off the West Coast is denser, more widespread and deeper than scientists feared even weeks ago, according to surveyors aboard a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel.

This coastal ribbon of microscopic algae, up to 40 miles wide and 650 feet deep in places, is flourishing amid unusually warm Pacific Ocean temperatures. It now stretches from at least California to Alaska and has shut down lucrative fisheries. Shellfish managers on Tuesday doubled the area off Washington's coast that is closed to Dungeness crab fishing, after finding elevated levels of marine toxins in tested crab meat.

So-called "red tides" are cyclical and have happened many times before, but ocean researchers say this one is much larger and persisting much longer, with higher levels of neurotoxins bringing severe consequences for the Pacific seafood industry, coastal tourism and marine ecosystems.

Dan Ayres, coastal shellfish manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, said the area now closed to crab fishing includes more than half the state's 157-mile-long coast, and likely will bring a premature end to this year's coastal crab season.

"We think it's just sitting and lingering out there," said Anthony Odell, a University of Washington research analyst who is part of a NOAA-led team surveying the harmful algae bloom, which was first detected in May. "It's farther offshore, but it's still there."

The survey data should provide a clearer picture of what is causing the bloom which is brownish in color, unlike the blue and green algae found in polluted freshwater lakes. Marine detectives already have a suspect: a large patch of water running as much as 3 degrees centigrade warmer than normal in the northeast Pacific Ocean, nicknamed "the blob."

"The question on everyone's mind is whether this is related to global climate change. The simple answer is that it could be, but at this point it's hard to separate the variations in these cycles," said Donald Boesch, professor of marine science at the University of Maryland who is not involved in the survey. "Maybe the cycles are more extreme in the changing climate."

"There's no question that we're seeing more algal blooms more often, in more places, when they do occur, they're lasting longer and often over greater geographical areas. We're seeing more events than documented decades ago," said Pat Glibert, professor at Horn Point Laboratory, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.

Odell recently completed the first leg of the survey, mostly in California waters. On Wednesday, researchers plan to continue monitoring the sea between Newport, Oregon, and Seattle. The vessel will then go to Vancouver Island, wrapping up in early September. Another research ship is taking samples off Alaska.

The brownish bloom was particularly thick off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, and Odell said it was unusually dominated by one type of algae called Pseudo-nitzschia, which can produce the neurotoxin domoic acid.

"It's an indication of an imbalance," said Vera Trainer, a research oceanographer with the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle. "Too much of any one thing is not healthy for anybody to eat."

Trainer said this bloom is the worst she's seen in 20 years of studying them. Harmful algal blooms have usually been limited to one area of the ocean or another, and have disappeared after a few weeks. This one has grown for months, waxing and waning but never going away.

"It's been incredibly thick, almost all the same organism. Looks like a layer of hay," said Raphael Kudela, a professor of ocean sciences at University of California, Santa Cruz.

Kudela told CBS News in June, "It's definitely the largest bloom of this particular algae seen on the West Coast, possibly anywhere, ever."

The current bloom also involves some of the highest concentrations of domoic acid yet observed in Monterey Bay and other areas of the West Coast.

In May, ocean researchers from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) measured concentrations in the bay and found they were 10 to 30 times higher than even the high end of a typical Pseudo-nitzschia bloom.

"It's really working its way into the food web and we're definitely seeing the impacts of that," Kudela said, noting that sea lions are getting sick and pelicans are being exposed. And now that the Pacific is experiencing its periodic ocean warming known as El Nino, it may come back even stronger next year, he said.

Domoic acid is harmful to people, fish and marine life. It accumulates in anchovies, sardines and other small fish as well as shellfish that eat the algae. Marine mammals and fish-eating birds in turn can get sick from eating the contaminated fish. In people, it can trigger amnesic shellfish poisoning, which can cause permanent loss of short-term memory in severe cases.

Each year California imposes a six-month moratorium on recreational shellfish harvesting from May through October, when the chance of toxic poisoning is highest, and enforces strict testing of hauls from commercial fisheries.

State health officials stress that seafood bought in stores is still safe to eat because it is regularly tested. While there have been no reports of human illnesses linked to this year's bloom, authorities aren't taking chances in fisheries with dangerous toxin levels.

California public health officials have warned against eating recreationally harvested mussels and claims, or any anchovy, sardines or crabs caught in waters off Monterey, Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara counties. Other shellfish harvests are shut down along Oregon's coast.

The most recent samples showed the highest-ever recorded concentrations of domoic acid in the internal organs of Dungeness crab, Ayres said.

"This is really unprecedented territory for us," said Ayres.



“This coastal ribbon of microscopic algae, up to 40 miles wide and 650 feet deep in places, is flourishing amid unusually warm Pacific Ocean temperatures. It now stretches from at least California to Alaska and has shut down lucrative fisheries. Shellfish managers on Tuesday doubled the area off Washington's coast that is closed to Dungeness crab fishing, after finding elevated levels of marine toxins in tested crab meat. …. The survey data should provide a clearer picture of what is causing the bloom which is brownish in color, unlike the blue and green algae found in polluted freshwater lakes. Marine detectives already have a suspect: a large patch of water running as much as 3 degrees centigrade warmer than normal in the northeast Pacific Ocean, nicknamed "the blob." …. The simple answer is that it could be, but at this point it's hard to separate the variations in these cycles," said Donald Boesch, professor of marine science at the University of Maryland who is not involved in the survey. "Maybe the cycles are more extreme in the changing climate." …. . We're seeing more events than documented decades ago," said Pat Glibert, professor at Horn Point Laboratory, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. …. The brownish bloom was particularly thick off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, and Odell said it was unusually dominated by one type of algae called Pseudo-nitzschia, which can produce the neurotoxin domoic acid. "It's an indication of an imbalance," said Vera Trainer, a research oceanographer with the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle. "Too much of any one thing is not healthy for anybody to eat." Trainer said this bloom is the worst she's seen in 20 years of studying them. Harmful algal blooms have usually been limited to one area of the ocean or another, and have disappeared after a few weeks. This one has grown for months, waxing and waning but never going away. …. Kudela told CBS News in June, "It's definitely the largest bloom of this particular algae seen on the West Coast, possibly anywhere, ever." The current bloom also involves some of the highest concentrations of domoic acid yet observed in Monterey Bay and other areas of the West Coast. …. In people, it can trigger amnesic shellfish poisoning, which can cause permanent loss of short-term memory in severe cases.”

In nature balance is everything, especially with tiny lifeforms whose bodies offer very little protection from environmental variances like just a crucial few degrees of temperature, acidity, oxygen, etc. I’m sure nature alone has produced similar variations in the past – the most believable explanation I've heard for the water of the Nile turning to blood was that a red tide developed there -- but personally I have little doubt that this is being caused by global warming this time. I’ve been reading all these news articles on dangerous environmental changes that have actually occurred already in the last ten years or so, and I’m not surprised about this except by the severity of some of the changes. An algae growth that is miles long and some 600 feet deep is a lot of algae. We are in for an environmental disaster, I’m afraid, and with the Republican dogma being so dominant in the thinking processes of our population, I have little hope that we can change our CO2 output fast enough to stop much of it from progressing. We must remember that the ocean is one our most important food sources, and our most fragile. Heaven help us to “get smart” and stop our nonsense soon. Amen.