Confirmed: Global floods, droughts worsening with warming
Isabella O’Malley – March 13, 2023
People travel by boat in a flooded street in Trizidela do Vale, state of Maranhao, Brazil, May 9, 2009. The intensity of extreme drought and rainfall has “sharply” increased over the past 20 years, according to a study published Monday, March 13, 2023, in the journal Nature Water. (AP Photo/ Andre Penner, File)The remains of dead livestock and a donkey are scattered at a camp for displaced people on the outskirts of Dollow, Somalia, Sept. 21, 2022. The intensity of extreme drought and rainfall has “sharply” increased over the past 20 years, according to a study published Monday, March 13, 2023, in the journal Nature Water. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File)People wade through flood waters in the town of Moree, Northern New South Wales, Australia, Feb. 3, 2012. The intensity of extreme drought and rainfall has “sharply” increased over the past 20 years, according to a study published Monday, March 13, 2023, in the journal Nature Water. (AP Photo/Brad Hunter, Pool, File)A bridge’s columns are marked by the previous water line over the Atibainha reservoir, part of the Cantareira System that provides water to the Sao Paulo metropolitan area, in Nazare Paulista, Brazil, on Jan. 29, 2015. The intensity of extreme drought and rainfall has “sharply” increased over the past 20 years, according to a study published Monday, March 13, 2023, in the journal Nature Water. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)People walk by cracked earth in an area once under the water of Lake Mead at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Jan. 27, 2023, near Boulder City, Nev. The intensity of extreme drought and rainfall has “sharply” increased over the past 20 years, according to a study published Monday, March 13, 2023, in the journal Nature Water. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)A Philadelphia police officer rushes to help a stranded motorist during Tropical Storm Isaias, Aug. 4, 2020, in Philadelphia. The intensity of extreme drought and rainfall has “sharply” increased over the past 20 years, according to a study published Monday, March 13, 2023, in the journal Nature Water. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)People enjoy the sunny weather on dry river banks of Germany’s most important river Rhine in Cologne, Germany, after a long time of drought, April 27, 2020. The intensity of extreme drought and rainfall has “sharply” increased over the past 20 years, according to a study published Monday, March 13, 2023, in the journal Nature Water. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)
The intensity of extreme drought and rainfall has “sharply” increased over the past 20 years, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Water. These aren’t merely tough weather events, they are leading to extremes such as crop failure, infrastructure damage, even humanitarian crises and conflict.
The big picture on water comes from data from a pair of satellites known as GRACE, or Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, that were used to measure changes in Earth’s water storage — the sum of all the water on and in the land, including groundwater, surface water, ice, and snow.
“It’s incredible that we can now monitor the pulse of continental water from outer space,” said Park Williams, a bioclimatologist at the University of California, Los Angeles who was not involved with the study.
“I have a feeling when future generations look back and try to determine when humanity really began understanding the planet as a whole, this will be one of the studies highlighted,” he said.
The researchers say the data confirms that both frequency and intensity of rainfall and droughts are increasing due to burning fossil fuels and other human activity that releases greenhouse gases.
“I was surprised to see how well correlated the global intensity was with global mean temperatures,” said Matthew Rodell, study author and deputy director of Earth sciences for hydrosphere, biosphere, and geophysics at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
The strong link between these climate extremes and rising global average temperatures means continued global warming will mean more drought and rainstorms that are worse by many measures — more frequent, more severe, longer and larger.
Researchers looked at 1,056 events from 2002-2021 using a novel algorithm that identifies where the land is much wetter or drier than normal.
That showed the most extreme rains keep happening in sub-Saharan Africa, at least through December 2021, the end of the data. The rainfall extremes also took place in central and eastern North America from 2018-2021, and Australia during 2011-2012.
The most intense droughts were a record-breaking one in northeastern South America from 2015-2016; an event in the Cerrado region of Brazil that began in 2019 and continues; and the ongoing drought in the American Southwest that has caused dangerously low water levels in two of the biggest U.S. reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell. Those remain low despite heavy rains this year.
Drought events outnumbered heavy rain events by 10%. Their geographic extents and how long they lasted were similar.
A warmer atmosphere increases the rate at which water evaporates during dry periods. It also holds more water vapor, which fuels heavy rainfall events.
The study noted that infrastructure like airports and sewage treatment plants that were designed to withstand once-in-a-100-year events are becoming more challenged as these extremes happen more often and with more intensity.
“Looking forward into the future, in terms of managing water resources and flood control, we should be anticipating that the wetter extremes will be wetter and the dry extremes will get drier,” said Richard Seager, a climate scientist at the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, who was not involved with the study.
Seager said it’s a mistake to assume that future wet and dry extremes can be managed the same as in the past because “everything’s going to get amplified on both ends of the dry-wet spectrum.”
According to the U.S. National Integrated Drought Information System, 20% of the annual economic losses from extreme weather events in the U.S. are from floods and droughts.
A drastic swing between extreme drought and unprecedented flooding, dubbed “weather whiplash,” is becoming common in some regions.
Water stress is expected to significantly affect poor, disenfranchised communities as well as ecosystems that have been underfunded and exploited.
For example, the United Nations has said that Somalia is experiencing its longest and most severe drought, an event that has caused the deaths of millions of livestock and widespread hunger. Venezuela, a country that has faced years of political and economic crises, resorted to nationwide power cuts during April 2016 as a result of the drought conditions affecting water levels of the Guri Dam.
As for solutions, using floodwaters to replenish depleted aquifers and improving the health of agricultural soil so it can absorb water better and store more carbon are just a few methods that could improve water resiliency in a warming world, the study says.
Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
California cancels salmon fishing season: “It’s devastating”
Emily Mae Czachor – March 13, 2023
Officials in California have issued a ban on salmon fishing anywhere along the state’s coast for the remainder of the season, as the state’s yearslong drought is still taking its toll on the once-abundant fish population.
In a recent announcement, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said salmon fisheries that were originally scheduled to open on April 1 would remain closed through May 15. The decision came as part of a broader effort, involving state agencies in Oregon as well as the National Marine Fisheries Service, to cancel ocean salmon fishing along much of the coast — from Cape Falcon, Oregon, to the U.S.-Mexico border.
For California, the ban aims to protect the Chinook species of salmon, which previously inhabited several of the state’s largest rivers and in recent years have been seen in dwindling numbers.
Thanks to multiple atmospheric river storms in California, rivers on land are roaring but the effects of years of drought are now being seen on the salmon population, CBS Bay Area reported. Last year, just 60,000 of the adult fish returned to the Sacramento River to spawn, officials said. This was a small fraction of the 196,000 fish expected there, and approached a record annual low for the area, according to the fish and wildlife department. Officials are also hoping that the fishing ban will prevent the Chinook population from decreasing further in the Klamath River, which is also threatened.
A Chinook salmon is placed in a tank for propagation at the Livingston Stone National Fish Hatchery March 18, 2008 in Shasta Lake, California. / Credit: Photo by Kimberly White/Getty Images
The Pacific Fishery Management Council has proposed additional policies to regulate salmon fishing off the coast of California through the spring of 2024, wildlife officials said. The proposals, which would ban commercial and ocean salmon sport fishing until April of next year, were approved by the council for public review at the end of last week.
This is the second time in history that California has canceled fishing season, CBS Bay Area reported, with the last ban taking place between 2008 and 2009 in response to another prolonged drought period.
“Fishery managers have determined that there simply aren’t enough salmon in the ocean right now to comfortably get a return of adult salmon to reproduce for 2023,” said John McManus, president of the Golden State Salmon Association, in comments to CBS Bay Area.
Jared Davis, who operates a charter boat for sport fishermen, told the station his entire summer has been wiped out.
“It’s devastating,” he told the station. “This is more than just an income issue for me. It’s an inability to do what I love. So, on a financial level and on a personal level, it’s devastating.”
Dwindling marine life populations prompted wildlife officials in Alaska to cancel the winter snow crab season in the Bering Sea near the end of last year. It was a first in the state’s history.
Judge in Abortion Pill Case Set Hearing but Sought to Delay Telling the Public
Katie Benner and Pam Belluck – March 13, 2023
A photo provided by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee shows Trump nominee Matthew Kacsmaryk during the nomination hearing to the federal judiciary at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Dec. 13, 2017. (U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary via The New Yo
The federal judge in a closely watched lawsuit that seeks to overturn federal approval of a widely used abortion pill has scheduled the first hearing in the case for this week, but he planned to delay making the public aware of it, according to people familiar with the case.
Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, of the Northern District in Texas, told lawyers in the case Friday that he was scheduling the hearing for Wednesday morning. However, he asked them not to disclose that information and said he would not enter it into the public court record until late Tuesday evening.
One person familiar with the case, which is being heard in federal court in Amarillo, Texas, said such steps were “very irregular,” especially for a case of intense public interest.
Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee who has written critically about Roe v. Wade and previously worked for a Christian conservative legal organization, told lawyers in a conference call Friday that he did not want the March 15 hearing to be “disrupted,” and that he wanted all parties involved to share their points in an orderly fashion, according to people familiar with the discussion.
The judge also said that court staff had faced security issues, including death threats, and that the measure was intended to keep the court proceedings safe.
The lawsuit, filed in November against the Food and Drug Administration by a coalition of anti-abortion groups and doctors, seeks to end more than 20 years of legal use of medications for abortion. The plaintiffs, led by the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, an organization that lists five anti-abortion groups as its members, have asked the judge to issue a preliminary injunction ordering the FDA to withdraw its long-standing approval of mifepristone, the first pill in the two-drug medication abortion regimen.
At the hearing, lawyers representing the plaintiffs, the FDA and a manufacturer of mifepristone will present arguments for and against an injunction. It is unclear if the judge will decide whether to issue an order that day or sometime later.
Such an order would be unprecedented, legal experts say, and — if higher courts were to allow an injunction to stand — would make it harder for patients to get abortions in states where abortion is legal, not just in those trying to restrict it.
Medication abortion is used in more than half of abortions in the United States. That proportion has been increasing as conservative states impose abortion bans or sweeping restrictions in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the national right to abortion last June.
The Washington Post earlier reported on the Friday call and upcoming hearing.
In asking the lawyers to keep quiet about the hearing, the judge did not issue a gag order, which would bar the participants on the call from sharing the information. Rather, he asked them to keep the information secret “as a courtesy.”
He said that the court would provide seating for the public and the press, but his plan to provide little advance notice seemed likely to have the practical effect of minimizing the number of people who would attend, according to people familiar with the discussion. Amarillo, in the Texas Panhandle, is several hours drive from other major Texas cities, and only a couple of those cities provide direct flights.
On Friday, the public court record showed subtle signs that something unusual had occurred. That morning, the first new entry in 10 days was added to the case’s docket: a notice of appearance for a Justice Department lawyer, a standard document usually added to a case in advance of an upcoming proceeding, but the docket did not show any proceeding.
In addition, there was a gap in the numerical listing of documents in the docket — document 124 was missing — suggesting that a recent entry had been sealed. People familiar with the case said the sealed document referred to the Friday meeting between the judge and the lawyers.
After the meeting, participants shared Kacsmaryk’s request with their team members, who noted that it was unusual to hold the status conference under seal and to keep the public from knowing about the hearing. The federal government generally objects to closed hearings unless there they are necessary to protect national security interests.
The lawsuit claims that the FDA did not adequately review the scientific evidence or follow proper protocols when it approved mifepristone in 2000 and that it has since ignored safety risks of the medication. The lead plaintiff, the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, was incorporated in August in Amarillo, shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Kacsmaryk is the only federal judge covering the Amarillo division in the court’s Northern District.
The FDA and the Department of Justice have strongly disputed the lawsuit’s claims and said the FDA’s rigorous reviews of mifepristone over the years had repeatedly reaffirmed its decision to approve mifepristone, which blocks a hormone that allows a pregnancy to develop. In a court filing, the FDA said that overturning its approval of mifepristone would “cause significant harm, depriving patients of a safe and effective drug that has been on the market for more than two decades.”
If the judge issues a preliminary order to bar access to mifepristone, the federal government is expected to immediately appeal and to seek a stay of the injunction while the trial proceeds. Legal experts said that even if the preliminary injunction remained in place, there were several legal options that could allow the manufacturers of mifepristone to continue supplying the drug and providers to continue prescribing it to patients.
If legal access to mifepristone is blocked, some abortion providers plan to provide only the second abortion medication, misoprostol, which is used safely on its own in many countries. Misoprostol, which is approved for other medical uses, causes contractions similar to a miscarriage and is considered slightly less effective on its own than in combination with mifepristone and more prone to cause side effects such as nausea.
In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs also seek to ban the use of misoprostol for abortion, but their request for a preliminary injunction focused on mifepristone.
Many patients would also likely still be able to order both mifepristone and misoprostol from telemedicine abortion services based in other countries.
Still, such a ruling would create confusion and difficulty for patients and providers nationwide. Legal experts said that it would also be the first time that a court had acted to order that a drug be removed from the market over the objection of the FDA and that if such a ruling stood, it could have repercussions for federal authority to regulate other types of drugs.
Giant blob of seaweed twice the width of US taking aim at Florida, scientists say
Bradford Betz – March 12, 2023
Giant blob of seaweed twice the width of US taking aim at Florida, scientists say
A giant seaweed bloom – so large it can be seen from outer space – may be headed towards Florida’s Gulf Coast.
The sargassum bloom, at around 5,000 miles wide, is twice the width of the United States and is believed to be the largest in history.
Drifting between the Atlantic coast of Africa and the Gulf of Mexico, the thick mat of algae can provide a habitat for marine life and absorb carbon dioxide.
However, the giant bloom can have disastrous consequences as it gets closer to the shore. Coral, for instance, can be deprived of sunlight. As the seaweed decomposes it can release hydrogen sulfide, negatively impact the air and water and causing respiratory problems for people in the surrounding area.
Rafts of brown seaweed, Sargassum sp., pile up on the shore of Miami Beach, Florida, USA.
“What we’re seeing in the satellite imagery does not bode well for a clean beach year,” Brian LaPointe, a research professor at Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute told NBC News.
Brian Barnes, an assistant research professor at the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science, told the outlet that the sargassum can still threaten critical infrastructure if it remains in coast waters.
“[I]t can block intake valves for things like power plants or desalination plants. Marinas can get completely inundated and boats can’t navigate through,” Barnes said.
The impending seaweed comes as Floridians along the state’s southwest coast have complained about burning eyes and breathing problems. Dead fish have washed up on beaches. A beachside festival has been canceled, even though it wasn’t scheduled for another month.
Florida’s southwest coast experienced a flare-up of the toxic red tide algae this week, setting off concerns that it could continue to stick around for a while. The current bloom started in October.
Red tide, a toxic algae bloom that occurs naturally in the Gulf of Mexico, is worsened by the presence of nutrients such as nitrogen in the water. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission warns people to not swim in or around red tide waters over the possibility of skin irritation, rashes and burning and sore eyes. People with asthma or lung disease should avoid beaches affected by the toxic algae.
Red tide brings 3.5 tons of dead fish to Bradenton beaches. What to expect this weekend
Ryan Ballogg – March 10, 2023
Red tide’s presence remains strong this week on the Southwest Florida coast, including around Anna Maria Island and Manatee County.
On Tuesday, dead fish littered the waterline at Bradenton Beach, and frequent coughs could be heard from visitors who braved the sands.
The harmful algae bloom has persisted in area waters since fall, but it intensified in recent weeks with increased reports of respiratory irritation and dead fish from Pinellas County south to Monroe County.
Karenia brevis, the organism that causes red tide, was detected in 123 water samples along Florida’s west coast over the past week, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said in a mid-week update.
Eight of those samples were collected in Manatee County waters, where red tide levels ranged from low to high.
Medium levels of K. brevis were detected at five points on and around Anna Maria Island on Monday. At levels of medium and above, red tide is more likely to cause fish kills and breathing irritation.
Dead fish by the ton
County staff who clean beaches and waterways for red tide debris have seen a major increase in dead fish washing ashore over the past two weeks, according to Manatee County Parks operations manager Carmine DeMilio.
“It started getting intense,” said DeMilio, who leads the county’s red tide cleanup efforts.
The county began responding to the red tide bloom in November; between that time and mid-February, about a ton of dead fish were collected from area beaches.
Over the past two weeks alone, around 3.5 tons were collected, DeMilio estimates.
The county cleans beaches daily with beach rake tractors, and skimmer boats collect dead fish from the water.
“We start at 5 in the morning and go til around 11:30,” DeMilio said. “By that time, the beachgoers are on the beach and it’s hard to maneuver.”
DeMilio said a strong west wind began pushing more dead marine life ashore last weekend. The fallout has mostly been bait fish, he said, but some larger species like grouper and snook were mixed in.
“That was our battle — trying to keep the accumulation of fish coming to shore under control,” DeMilio said. “So when our visitors show up to our beaches, it’s clean and safe for them. That’s our goal daily.”
So far, DeMilio said this year’s bloom is mild compared to the extreme red tide that hit Southwest Florida in 2018. During the peak of that event, crews worked for 64 straight days to remove over 200 tons of dead fish.
“If we can handle that and we were successful with that, handling a smaller version is much easier,” DeMilio said. “It’s just like any maintenance that you do at your house. If you stay on it, it’s not going to accumulate.”
County staff said that conditions were beginning to improve on Wednesday as winds shifted.
Local red tide conditions
Tampa Bay area: Red tide conditions remained intense along Pinellas County’s shoreline this week, where medium and high concentrations were detected at multiple beaches from Honeymoon Island south to Mullet Key. Dead fish and respiratory irritation were reported along the coast.
Manatee County and Anna Maria Island: Medium levels of K. brevis were detected around Anna Maria Island in state water samples collected on Monday — an increase from last week. Dead fish and respiratory irritation were reported at all major public beaches.
Sarasota County: Along Sarasota County’s coast, red tide levels ranged from low to high this week, with the strongest concentrations around Longboat Key and Lido Key. Dead fish and respiratory irritation were reported at public beaches.
Southwest Florida: Red tide algae was also found at high levels offshore of Charlotte, Lee and Collier counties this week, as well as medium levels off of Monroe County.
Red tide forecast
University of South Florida’s short-term red tide forecast predicts that red tide’s presence on the coast will continue over the weekend. Very low to high levels are predicted for the entire coast line, including areas of intensity in Pinellas, Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte, Lee and Collier counties.
NOAA warns of a moderate to high risk of respiratory irritation over the next 36 hours in Pinellas, Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte, Lee and Collier. Chances increase when wind is blowing on or along the shore.
A map shows a short-term red tide forecast for Southwest Florida from the University of South Florida College of Marine Science’s Ocean Circulation Lab.
Red tide safety tips
The Florida Department of Health offers the following safety tips for when red tide is present:
Look for informational signage posted at most beaches.
Stay away from the water.
Do not swim in waters with dead fish.
Those with chronic respiratory problems should be especially cautious and stay away from these locations as red tide can affect your breathing.
Do not harvest or eat mollusk and shellfish or distressed or dead fish from these locations. If caught live and healthy, finfish are safe to eat as long as they are filleted and the guts are discarded. Rinse fillets with tap or bottled water.
Wash your skin and clothing with soap and fresh water if you have had recent contact with red tide.
Keep pets and livestock away and out of the water, sea foam and dead sea life. If your pet swims in waters with red tide, wash your pet as soon as possible.
Residents living in beach areas are advised to close windows and run the air conditioner, making sure that the A/C filter is maintained according to manufacturer’s specifications.
If outdoors near an affected location, residents may choose to wear masks, especially if onshore winds are blowing.
One of Anna Maria Island’s last trailer parks is for sale in Florida. ‘It’s a family.’
James A. Jones Jr. – March 12, 2023
Along with the bright colors, quirky personal touches and flowering plants at the Pines Trailer Park, there is sadness and uncertainty among residents.
Dating back to 1935, the park was first used by members of a traveling circus, some say, and baseball great Babe Ruth once owned a home at 402 Church Ave., that later burned down, the Bradenton Herald reported in 1990.
It’s a tight-knit group of residents, some full-time, but many seasonal. The park bumps up against Sarasota Bay. Bridge Street and Bay Drive both run through it. Visitors often walk through, taking in the local color of one of Anna Maria Island’s last two trailer parks.
It’s a throwback to the Florida of yore.
Bradenton Beach City Hall sits a few blocks to the west.
“It’s sad. We are extremely hopeful residents will be able to work out a deal with the property owner,” Mayor John Chappie said. “The Pines is really a community within a community.”
Trailer park residents respond
Pines Trailer Park and Sandpiper Mobile Resort, 2601 Gulf Drive N., also in Bradenton Beach, are the last remaining trailer parks on Anna Maria Island.
For some of the residents of Pines Trailer Park, it is the only home they have, said Linda Maerker, president of the tenant’s association.
She worries for them.
“You know the price of real estate. It’s sad,” she said.
Maerker and her husband have wintered in Pines Trailer Park for 15 years.
“This place is so important to so many people,” she said. “It’s a family. We have become very close.”
Maerker calls the park her healing place after some tragedies in her life.
Ranae Ratajczak has lived in the park for 13 years, spending six months a year there.
“It’s our happy place, our piece of paradise,” Ratajczak said.
The owners of Pines Trailer Park in Bradenton Beach want to sell the property and have offered residents the option to purchase the park for $16 million.
“Our hope is to become owners of the park. There is a lot of history here. We want to keep it as it is, as a mobile home park,” she said.
History of Pines Trailer Park
This is not the first time that park owners have offered to sell the park to residents.
In 2002, the owners also offered residents a chance to buy the park, according to records filed with the Manatee County Clerk of Court’s Office.
George and Grace Bagley started Pines Mobile Home Park — named after the Australian pine trees in the area — in 1935 and the park has had many owners over the years, according to Jonathan Torkos, historical resources librarian for the clerk’s office.
At its opening in 1935, the Bradenton Herald reported that it was a “new and strictly modern tourist camp” with a community hall, dance hall, restaurant and laundry. Budweiser was offered on draft, according to a newspaper advertisement.
In 1936, thieves entered the washroom of the park and stole all the plumbing, the Bradenton Herald reported.
In 1948, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Hively sold the park to Mr. and Mrs. James Ashby for $25,400.
This aerial depicts the southern-most portion of Bradenton Beach. To the right of the image is the Anna Maria Sound and to the left of the image is the Gulf of Mexico in this historic postcard from 1945.
One of the subsequent owners, Mr. and Mrs. Glen Fifer, sold the park in 1956 for $55,000 to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Bisbee.
In 1962, Bradenton Beach’s then-mayor Victor Reinel sold the park to Mildred Henri and Forrest J. and Elizabeth Lincoln for $150,000, the Bradenton Herald reported.
Jackson Partnership has been the owner of the trailer park since 1976.
Challenging housing market
The housing market has never been so challenging in the Bradenton area, with rental prices becoming some of the least affordable in the United States and the price paid to buy a house at record levels.
In the early 1970s, Bradenton Beach had very affordable housing that service workers on the island could afford, Chappie said this week.
That is a concern not only for Pines Trailer Park residents who want to remain in their homes but for many who are looking to rent or buy elsewhere in the Bradenton area.
The owners of Pines Trailer Park in Bradenton Beach want to sell the property and have offered residents the option to purchase the park for $16 million.
The availability of affordable housing and workforce housing has become a major concern not only for consumers but for business interests and public service providers.
The owners of Pines Trailer Park in Bradenton Beach want to sell the property and have offered residents the option to purchase the park for $16 million.The owners of Pines Trailer Park in Bradenton Beach want to sell the property and have offered residents the option to purchase the park for $16 million.The owners of Pines Trailer Park in Bradenton Beach want to sell the property and have offered residents the option to purchase the park for $16 million.The owners of Pines Trailer Park in Bradenton Beach want to sell the property and have offered residents the option to purchase the park for $16 million.
Florida prepares for influx of manatees suffering from red tide
Andrew Wulfeck – March 8, 2023
Video:Dozen manatees returned to the wild in Florida https://s.yimg.com/rx/martini/builds/54607967/executor.html
TAMPA – A massive bloom of harmful algae that has been intensifying off the west coast of Florida is now believed to be impacting the manatee population at a crucial time when biologists were cautiously optimistic that the species was on the path of rounding the corner from record die-offs.
The red tide was initially observed in the days after Hurricane Ian impacted areas around Fort Myers and has grown throughout the winter.
The Florida Fish and Wild Conservation Commission reports that levels of the organism, Karenia brevis, have reached concentrations of over 100,000 cells per liter – an amount that is ten times higher than the minimum level needed to impact wildlife and humans significantly.
Florida red tide count 3/8/2023
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it knows at least three recent cases of manatees being transported to SeaWorld’s recovery center in Orlando from West Florida.
“Those are fairly easy to care for once they are rescued. However, they do take up a bit of the rehab capacity because even though we can get the neurotoxin out of their system fairly quickly in just a matter of a few days, they may take up an entire pool while that’s happening,” said Terri Calleson, the Florida manatee recovery lead for the USFWS.
Several rescue centers around the state were already operating with the potential to quickly increase capacity due to an ongoing Unusual Mortality Event along the state’s east coast due to an increase in malnourished sea cows needing treatment over the past two years.
Over the last several months, additive-containing pools have mainly gone unused due to the apparent tailing of amounts of ill animals, but biologists stand at the ready in case figures start to rise again.
“We can’t put them back to the wild until the red tide cell counts subside for an extended period of time. So that’s going to strap us a little bit on rehab capacity, and we’re going to make some moves to try to address it,” said Calleson.
So far this year, the FWC reports 140 manatees have died – a figure below the pace of the last two record years.
The agency estimates there are only around 7,500 manatees left in Sunshine State, and if boaters see an animal in distress, they should inform the agency about the sighting by calling 888-404-3922.
Burning eyes, dead fish; red tide flares up on Florida coast
March 11, 2023
Red tide is observed near Pinellas County beaches off Redington Beach, Fla., during a flight with SouthWings volunteers on Friday, March 10, 2023. Florida’s southwest coast experienced a flare-up of the toxic red tide algae this week, setting off concerns that it could continue to stick around for a while. The current bloom started in October. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP)A health alert sign warns visitors to Sand Key Park of the presence of Red Tide in the surrounding water on Thursday, March 9, 2023, in Pinellas County, Fla. Florida’s southwest coast experienced a flare-up of the toxic red tide algae this week, setting off concerns that it could continue to stick around for a while. The current bloom started in October. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP)Red tide is observed at Clearwater Beach, Fla., during a flight with SouthWings volunteers on Friday, March 10, 2023. Florida’s southwest coast experienced a flare-up of the toxic red tide algae this week, setting off concerns that it could continue to stick around for a while. The current bloom started in October. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP)Dead fish lay at the high tide line on Clearwater Beach on Thursday, March 9, 2023, in Pinellas County, Fla. Florida’s southwest coast experienced a flare-up of the toxic red tide algae this week, setting off concerns that it could continue to stick around for a while. The current bloom started in October. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP)Red tide is observed at Clearwater Beach, Fla., during a flight with SouthWings volunteers on Friday, March 10, 2023. Florida’s southwest coast experienced a flare-up of the toxic red tide algae this week, setting off concerns that it could continue to stick around for a while. The current bloom started in October. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP)
SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) — Residents are complaining about burning eyes and breathing problems. Dead fish have washed up on beaches. A beachside festival has been canceled, even though it wasn’t scheduled for another month.
Florida’s southwest coast experienced a flare-up of the toxic red tide algae this week, setting off concerns that it could continue to stick around for a while. The current bloom started in October.
The annual BeachFest in Indian Rocks Beach, Florida, sponsored by a homeowners’ association, was canceled after it determined, with help from the city and the Pinellas County Health Department, that red tide likely would continue through the middle of next month when the festival was scheduled.
“Red Tide is currently present on the beach and is forecasted to remain in the area in the weeks to come,” the Indian Rocks Beach Homeowners Association said in a letter to the public. “It is unfortunate that it had to be canceled but it is the best decision in the interest of public health.”
Nearly two tons of debris, mainly dead fish, were cleared from Pinellas County beaches and brought to the landfill, county spokesperson Tony Fabrizio told the Tampa Bay Times. About 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms) of fish have been cleared from beaches in St. Pete Beach since the start of the month, Mandy Edmunds, a parks supervisor with the city, told the newspaper.
Red tide, a toxic algae bloom that occurs naturally in the Gulf of Mexico, is worsened by the presence of nutrients such as nitrogen in the water. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission warns people to not swim in or around red tide waters over the possibility of skin irritation, rashes and burning and sore eyes. People with asthma or lung disease should avoid beaches affected by the toxic algae.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission on Friday reported that it had found red tide in 157 samples along Florida’s Gulf Coast, with the strongest concentrations along Pinellas and Sarasota counties.
More Retiree Health Plans Move Away From Traditional Medicare
Mark Miller – March 11, 2023
President Joe Biden delivers remarks on Social Security and healthcare costs at University of Tampa, Fla. on Feb. 9, 2023. (Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times)
Bob Bentkowski, a retired New York City firefighter, has a rare, painful disease that caused his kidneys to swell almost to the size of basketballs. He needed a transplant, and in the fall of 2021, he found a donor after waiting for years — but he was unsure whether Medicare would cover his surgery.
New York City has long provided its retired employees with comprehensive health benefits that pay for most of their Medicare costs. But with his transplant approaching, the city, and a coalition of its labor unions, had thrown Bentkowski a curveball. Aiming to save $600 million annually, they were negotiating to shift 250,000 retirees out of traditional fee-for-service Medicare into a privately operated Medicare Advantage plan.
“I was panicking about what might happen if I moved over to this new plan, since I was only a month away from the surgery,” Bentkowski said. But after hours on the phone with the insurance company, he was told that it couldn’t give him an answer until he enrolled. “They just give you the runaround. How am I going to join the plan when I don’t know what it will cover?”
Ultimately, Bentkowski’s surgery was covered under traditional Medicare. The city’s plans for Medicare Advantage became bogged down in litigation and political battles, with the opposition led by a group of New York City retirees who organized to fight not only the city but their own unions. Their battle has continued into this year, with a group representing city workers voting Thursday to approve the latest Advantage proposal.
The fight in New York City is a highly visible example of a nationwide shift in the way some retirees receive health insurance benefits from former employers, both in the public and private sector. It pits the drive to control health care costs against retired workers’ pocketbook and health concerns.
Many employers have dropped these benefits over the past several decades, and those that still offer them are shifting retirees into Medicare Advantage plans at a rapid pace.
Half of large employers offering benefits to Medicare-age retirees have contracts with Medicare Advantage plans, nearly double the share in 2017, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. And roughly 44% don’t give retirees a choice to use traditional Medicare within their programs. Most cited lower cost as the key reason.
The growth is part of a bigger story about Medicare Advantage expansion. Advantage is an alternative to traditional Medicare offered by insurance companies, and it uses managed-care techniques to control costs. Nearly half of Medicare beneficiaries were enrolled in Advantage plans last year, more than double the rate in 2007. And enrollment is projected to cross the 50% threshold as soon as this year, according to the foundation.
Retirees who are shifted into Medicare Advantage plans may not fully understand the major differences from traditional Medicare. These include the requirement to use physicians and hospitals in their plan’s narrower network, and reduced access to care in some instances. A federal investigation concluded last year that tens of thousands of people in Medicare Advantage plans were denied necessary care that should be covered.
The shift will also mean higher costs for taxpayers and all Medicare beneficiaries, some experts say. Payments by the federal government to Advantage plans average 102% of its spending on the fee-for-service traditional program, and that contributes to higher overall Medicare spending. This occurs in part because a bonus system awards extra dollars to plans that achieve high quality ratings from Medicare.
Advantage plans have also been found to submit to Medicare inflated bills that over-diagnose their patients. According to federal audits, the practice of “upcoding” crossed the line into fraud. Excess payments totaled $12 billion in 2020, according to the independent Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, which advises Congress.
The higher costs add financial pressure to Medicare’s hospital insurance (Part A) trust fund, as well as the taxpayers, beneficiaries and state-run Medicaid programs that fund the Part B program. The Part A trust fund is forecast to run dry in 2028, leaving revenue sufficient to meet 90% of the program’s obligations.
“On the one hand, Medicare Advantage allows employers to continue to offer retiree health benefits and potentially broaden benefits, and may lower their financial liability for retiree health,” said Tricia Neuman, senior vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation. “It also has the possibility of increasing Medicare spending.”
Insurers argue that Medicare Advantage group plans are simply one choice available to retirees. “Medicare rules require that retirees always have the option to opt out of enrollment in a group Medicare Advantage plan in favor of other forms of coverage that may be available,” said Heather Soule, a spokesperson for UnitedHealthcare, one of the largest providers of Advantage plans.
But for many retirees, joining an Advantage plan can be a difficult decision to reverse. Traditional Medicare should be paired with supplemental coverage — often a Medigap policy — to protect against potentially high out-of-pocket costs. But the best time to buy a Medigap policy is during the six months after you sign up for Part B (outpatient services), when insurers cannot reject you, or charge a higher premium, because of preexisting conditions. After that time, you can be rejected or charged more in most states.
What’s more, when employers make this transition, retirees often face a choice: Join an Advantage plan or lose the benefit.
“It really takes away choice,” said Marilyn Moon, an economist and a former trustee of both Social Security and Medicare. “The whole idea of Medicare Advantage was supposed to be to give people more choice, not less.”
Seeking Cost Savings
Medicare Advantage offers employers an opportunity to reduce costs substantially. They and unions traditionally have provided a retiree health benefit that fills the gaps in traditional Medicare by paying for deductibles and co-pays, and by providing other benefits. When an employer contracts with a Medicare Advantage insurer, retirees get all of their benefits, including their Medicare-covered benefits, from this Medicare Advantage plan.
In New York City, labor unions representing retirees have been working with the city on its planned shift to Advantage. They promoted the projected savings and their ability to use their bargaining clout to negotiate for far more generous features than those in plans available for individual purchase.
“When we looked at this, we saw that we could design our own plan that would get the same benefits and even more for our retirees,” said Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, the city teachers union. “One of our greatest assets is the ability to use our buying power to get that done and, more importantly, to set up an accountability system and a contract where we’re holding the provider to every single word in our contract.”
As the plan was originally envisioned in 2018, retirees who wanted to stay on traditional Medicare could do so if they paid an estimated $191 per month to cover its higher cost to the city. But a grassroots group founded in 2021, the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees, sued over the plan, taking its battle to the City Council and organizing through Facebook, YouTube and email.
On Thursday, the Municipal Labor Committee, which represents the city’s 102 unions, approved the latest plan to offer only Medicare Advantage starting in September.
In a statement Thursday, Mayor Eric Adams said the new arrangement “improves upon retirees’ current plans,” and includes a lower deductible, a cap on out-of-pocket expenses, and new benefits. “We also heard the concerns of retirees and worked to significantly limit the number of procedures subject to prior authorization under this plan,” Adams said. “This Medicare Advantage Plan is in the best interests of retirees and taxpayers.”
The retiree group says it is considering its next steps, possibly including new litigation. “Labor should never support privatizing public health care or stripping retirees of vested earned benefits,” the group’s founder, Marianne Pizzitola, a retired city Fire Department emergency medical services employee, said in a statement.
“This is a daily anxiety the city and the Municipal Labor Committee are putting us through,” she added in an interview.
Bentkowski felt that anxiety in 2021 as he tried to learn whether an Advantage plan would cover his kidney transplant. He was among the first firefighters to respond at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, and a lung-related disability that developed afterward forced him to retire at age 45. He qualifies for Medicare now, at 53, because he receives Social Security Disability Insurance.
“The Medicare Advantage plan might be good for some people,” Bentkowski said. “But you just can’t squeeze everyone into one plan and say it’s going to work.”
The protection of labor agreements and the municipal code has given opponents of the New York City plan leverage to fight the Medicare Advantage transition. In the corporate sector, retiree benefits are offered at employers’ discretion — but that hasn’t stopped some retirees from trying to fight these transitions.
IBM introduced two new Medicare Advantage plans this year for its large retired workforce, replacing a plan that paid for supplemental Medigap coverage along with prescription drugs, dental and vision.
IBM retirees were given the option to stick with the old benefit — but they would lose access to balances in their health reimbursement arrangements, an employer-funded plan that reimburses certain medical expenses and insurance premiums. In most cases, employers retain the right to change this type of benefit, says Trevis Parson, chief actuary for individual marketplace business at the benefits consulting firm Willis Towers Watson.
“Most plan sponsors include language in their plan documents explicitly reserving rights to amend the plan,” he said. Some retirees were outraged by that tactic, and by the announcement of the planned transition with relatively short notice in September.
“They sprung it on us — either take Medicare Advantage or forfeit your balance,” said Steve Bergeron, who retired from IBM in 2009 after 29 years.
In a statement, IBM said that for 2023, two Medicare Advantage PPO options have “enhanced design elements above and beyond what participants were previously able to obtain with individual policies.”
Like many group plans, the new IBM offering features copays and annual deductibles much lower than those found in individual plans, and wider networks of providers. But it’s not clear how long those features will remain.
“There’s no guarantee of anything from IBM,” Bergeron said. “What if these terms were just to get people to sign up?”
Neuman of Kaiser Family Foundation shares that concern. “The question is, what happens over the longer term for retirees, perhaps five or 10 years from now, when the circumstances may change and it may be more difficult to maintain the favorable terms of a negotiated contract?” she asked.
Bergeron has been organizing retirees on social media to fight the change and with an online petition calling on IBM to drop the plan. He has also tried to recruit lawyers to sue the company, but most have advised that the case is not strong, since the retiree benefit is discretionary.
After holding out against the change, Bergeron reluctantly joined one of the Advantage plans, not wanting to forfeit the $27,000 balance in his health reimbursement arrangement.
“I never dreamed I would join, but I did,” he said. “I waited until the last minute, and signed up on the last day that I could. I really was fighting it in my brain.”
A Virginia bakery gave BLM activists free coffee. Then came the backlash.
Tim Carman, The Washington Post – March 10, 2023
Brian Noyes and Josephine Gilbert agreed to sit down on March 1 and talk it out. Noyes, founder of the celebrated Red Truck Bakery, and Gilbert, the leader of a loose coalition that demonstrates under the banner of All Lives Matter, wanted to reach an accord before events spun out of control in the usually restful town of Warrenton, Va.
The issue was coffee – and the weekly demonstrations on Courthouse Square in downtown Warrenton, where two groups have been trying to poke and prod the conscience of the city.
Since June 2020, not long after George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis, a handful of organizations have hosted a Black Lives Matter Vigil For Action on Saturday mornings when, for 45 minutes, dozens of people quietly hold up signs to remind locals about racial injustice and institutional racism. The demonstrations eventually led to counterprotests across the street, aimed at shutting down the vigils that All Lives Matter activists see as destructive to this conservative community in Fauquier County, a traditional Republican stronghold.
Red Truck got dragged into this drama on the last Saturday in February when a relatively new member of the ALM group entered the bakery, camera phone in hand. Jennifer Blevins Ragle asked a young employee why the shop was giving out free coffee to participants at the BLM vigil, but not others on the square. She implied Red Truck was discriminating against ALM.
“I just don’t understand giving free coffee to some people, but not others. I mean, that makes your store very political,” Ragle said to the 17-year-old employee behind the counter. “I’ll make sure it gets to the paper and everything else.”
Ragle’s video was posted on a YouTube channel called Singing Patriot, where it gained little traction. But it was also posted on a TikTok account, named crossstitch1954, where it has racked up more than 21,000 views and generated more than 800 comments, many of them calling for boycotts of Red Truck. Or worse.
“Hope this place burns to the ground,” wrote one commenter. “Close the place down! Let those black lives keep the place open. All the other lives don’t matter,” wrote another. “Someone please put a pallet of bricks in front of that store so we can protest against Red Truck Bakery,” added a third.
Negative reviews started appearing on Red Truck’s Yelp and Google pages, sometimes from people far from the streets of Warrenton. The bakery began receiving harassing phone calls, too. “Threats of damage and injury,” Noyes told The Washington Post.
One caller said, simply, “we are watching you,” Noyes said. “Picture a young girl answering the phone at a small bakery and hearing that.”
On Feb. 27, Noyes issued an apology and an explanation to try to defuse the situation. The owner wrote that he is not in the Warrenton store often – Red Truck’s headquarters are in Marshall, Va. – and that when he first encountered the BLM vigil in 2021, he saw no counterprotesters on the square. He treated the vigil participants to water and cranberry muffins. Noyes then told his staff that BLM members might occasionally wander in for water or coffee, which would be on the house.
“It started as an innocent and spur-of-the-moment neighborly gesture, but no good deed goes unpunished, I guess,” Noyes wrote. “I don’t remember an All Lives Matter group being there back then, but if they had ever asked me about this, I certainly would have given them the same consideration.”
Before Noyes posted the statement on his social channels, he sent it to Gilbert, as a courtesy. She acknowledged that she received it ahead of time and “thought it was fine,” she told The Washington Post. They then agreed to meet for coffee at Red Truck. They had a favor to ask of each other.
After exchanging pleasantries, Gilbert asked Noyes if he would talk to the BLM demonstrators. She hoped Noyes would use his influence in the community – earned by hosting fundraisers and events, garnering national acclaim for his baked goods, even getting a shout-out from President Barack Obama – to convince the BLM group to stop their weekly gatherings.
Gilbert had already petitioned others to stop the vigils. She had addressed the Warrenton Town Council. She had expressed her concerns to the Fauquier County Board of Supervisors. She had even talked to the city’s chief of police and mayor. “I appreciate you figuring out a way to stop this indoctrination,” Gilbert told the town council on Sept. 14, 2021.
Gilbert clarified her “indoctrination” comment for The Post.
“When I say ‘indoctrination,’ what I mean by that is, normalizing this type of protest for kids that come by every Saturday morning with their parents to the farmers market,” she said. “They’re not going to change my mind or any of the people who are standing with me. They are normalizing behavior that is not right. Warrenton is not racist.”
Like the public officials in Warrenton, Noyes rejected Gilbert’s proposal. Noyes told her that he has no control over BLM demonstrators. “That’s their right to be out there, just like it’s your right,” he said to her.
Once rebuffed, Gilbert started to raise her voice. Noyes called her loud and animated. Gilbert said she’s from Sicily. “As I get passionate about this and get excited, my voice automatically goes up,” she told The Post. She said she apologized to Noyes on the spot after raising her voice.
The meeting did the exact opposite of what Noyes had hoped. He left it feeling “discouraged and realizing that there’s no way to work with these people.” His employees were worried, too, after hearing the conversation turn intense.
Noyes decided right then he would shut down Red Truck in Warrenton for the weekend, including the Saturday when demonstrators would gather again on Courthouse Square. He said he would pay the staff for those two days. (The closure would stretch into Monday and not just in Warrenton; he also closed the Marshall shop that day as he worked to hire security to ease his staff’s fears.) Noyes even moved his signature red truck, a 1954 Ford F-100 that he bought from Tommy Hilfiger, out of an abundance of caution.
Noyes thought the closures would calm things down – and demonstrators were calm that weekend – but Gilbert thought the closings were “ridiculous.”
“Why didn’t he just shut down for the two hours that we were going to be there” on the square, Gilbert said. “This is just a game that Mr. Noyes is playing. He’s a smart man, but like I told him when I left, I’m smart too. I’m not stupid. I’m not rolling over.”
Even as the conversation turned noisy, Noyes reminded Gilbert that he still had a request. He wanted her to ask Ragle to take down the video. Not only was it stirring things up, it was putting a minor in the public eye, which was troubling to the girl’s parents and to Red Truck’s staff. Gilbert said she wouldn’t contact Ragle, that Noyes would have to do it. She said she didn’t believe in taking down the video. She wanted people to see it, as further evidence of how BLM demonstrators have divided the town, she said.
What’s more, Gilbert didn’t think Red Truck’s free coffee policy was an honest mistake or a misunderstanding, as Noyes alleges. “He got caught,” she said. “He told me he didn’t want to take sides, but he did take sides and now he got busted. And he doesn’t want the community to know he took sides.” (Noyes, incidentally, has halted the free coffee program.)
Both Red Truck employees and the minor’s mother attempted to track down Ragle, but Noyes wasn’t sure they ever made contact. Ragle’s video remains up on both YouTube and TikTok.
Ragle’s behavior has given Red Truck staff cause for concern, Noyes said. She refused to turn off her video camera, as requested by an employee, and as she exited the bakery, she bumped into a man at the front door. Ragle later contacted police and said the man, apparently a BLM demonstrator, was blocking her exit. “Our investigation revealed that that did not happen,” said Timothy Carter, Warrenton’s police chief. “It was probably just a big misunderstanding.”
Ragle has also posted more videos, including one where she appears to be on the opposite side of the street, yelling at BLM demonstrators. Another video scrolls through a recent article in the Fauquier Times, with added captions that suggest it was Noyes, not Gilbert, who raised his voice during their meeting. (Noyes denied the charge.) “Bryan [sic] Noyes,” the caption continues, “backs BLM period!!!” Cage the Elephant’s song, “Hypocrite,” plays in the background.
According to public records and one newspaper story, Ragle has had criminal charges filed against her. She was charged with violating a restraining order in 2013 and trespassing in 2014. The charges in both cases were dismissed. In 2016, the Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office arrested Ragle for assault and battery, according to the Culpeper Times. The Post could not immediately find out how the case was resolved.
The Post left a pair of voice mails to a number connected with Ragle in public records. A woman who called back did not identify herself and hung up after learning she was talking to a Post reporter. A short time later, Ragle posted another video featuring a screenshot of a 2014 news story about Red Truck. Ragle superimposed a caption over the story: “Prior Washington Post writer, sending out his goons to cover his backing of BLM.” (Noyes is a former art director for The Post.)
Ragle’s TikTok video has changed the dynamic in Warrenton, said Noyes and Carter, the police chief. It has taken an issue that was rooted in the community and spread it beyond the city’s borders. “This video on TikTok is just living a life of its own,” Noyes said. “It’s just bringing in so much… anger from people who don’t even know the store. It’s just reason for them to rally.”
The police chief harbors similar concerns: that someone from outside might “take action kind of in the fog of what’s going on,” Carter said. “I’m not really concerned about either one of our groups, but what I’m concerned about – what we’re always concerned about – is someone coming in and just using it as a platform to do something else.”
This weekend will be the first one, post TikTok video, when Red Truck is open and the demonstrators are back on the square. No one in Warrenton – not Noyes, not Carter, not BLM organizer Scott Christian – is sure what to expect. The dueling demonstrations have been generally peaceful, especially in recent weeks, said Carter and Christian, though the BLM leader has lately seen signs among ALM protesters about freeing the prisoners who were convicted of their actions during the Jan. 6 riots.
Gilbert said ALM has “no intention” of singling out Red Truck this weekend. “Our beef is actually with the town for not stopping what’s going on across the street,” she said.
Del. Michael J. Webert (R-Fauquier) released a statement on Thursday that said it was time for the community to put this incident behind them. The coffee, he noted, was given out in good faith. “We are a close-knit community that has no need to be angry or mistrust one another,” Webert said. “Let’s remember that we all have a stake in making our community the best it can be, and act like the neighbors we are.”
For his part, Noyes is debating just how neighborly to be on Saturday. He’s contemplating whether to bring muffins to people on both sides of the square, a kind of Red Truck peace offering. But he also wants to see how things unfold. He doesn’t want to make a wrong move. He’s already paid a price, both emotionally and financially. He figures he has lost between $15,000 to $20,000 because of the bakery closures. He’s paying out another $1,000 a day for security.
