What I Saw Treating the Victims From Parkland Should Change the Debate on Guns

The Atlantic

What I Saw Treating the Victims From Parkland Should Change the Debate on Guns

They weren’t the first victims of a mass shooting the Florida radiologist had seen—but their wounds were radically different.

Lisa Marie Pane / AP

By Heather Sher       February 22, 2018

As I opened the CT scan last week to read the next case, I was baffled. The history simply read “gunshot wound.” I have been a radiologist in one of the busiest trauma centers in the nation for 13 years, and have diagnosed thousands of handgun injuries to the brain, lung, liver, spleen, bowel, and other vital organs. I thought that I knew all that I needed to know about gunshot wounds, but the specific pattern of injury on my computer screen was one that I had seen only once before.

In a typical handgun injury that I diagnose almost daily, a bullet leaves a laceration through an organ like the liver. To a radiologist, it appears as a linear, thin, grey bullet track through the organ. There may be bleeding and some bullet fragments.

I was looking at a CT scan of one of the victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, who had been brought to the trauma center during my call shift. The organ looked like an overripe melon smashed by a sledgehammer, with extensive bleeding. How could a gunshot wound have caused this much damage?

The reaction in the emergency room was the same. One of the trauma surgeons opened a young victim in the operating room, and found only shreds of the organ that had been hit by a bullet from an AR-15, a semi-automatic rifle which delivers a devastatingly lethal, high-velocity bullet to the victim. There was nothing left to repair, and utterly, devastatingly, nothing that could be done to fix the problem. The injury was fatal.

A year ago, when a gunman opened fire at the Fort Lauderdale airport with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun, hitting 11 people in 90 seconds, I was also on call. It was not until I had diagnosed the third of the six victims who were transported to the trauma center that I realized something out-of-the-ordinary must have happened. The gunshot wounds were the same low velocity handgun injuries as those I diagnose every day; only their rapid succession set them apart. And all six of the victims who arrived at the hospital that day survived.

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Routine handgun injuries leave entry and exit wounds and linear tracks through the victim’s body that are roughly the size of the bullet. If the bullet does not directly hit something crucial like the heart or the aorta, and they do not bleed to death before being transported to our care at a trauma center, chances are, we can save the victim. The bullets fired by an AR-15 are different; they travel at higher velocity and are far more lethal. The damage they cause is a function of the energy they impart as they pass through the body. A typical AR-15 bullet leaves the barrel traveling almost three times faster than, and imparting more than three times the energy of, a typical 9mm bullet from a handgun. An AR-15 rifle outfitted with a magazine cartridge with 50 rounds allows many more lethal bullets to be delivered quickly without reloading.

I have seen a handful of AR-15 injuries in my career. I saw one from a man shot in the back by a SWAT team years ago. The injury along the path of the bullet from an AR-15 is vastly different from a low-velocity handgun injury. The bullet from an AR-15 passes through the body like a cigarette boat travelling at maximum speed through a tiny canal. The tissue next to the bullet is elastic—moving away from the bullet like waves of water displaced by the boat—and then returns and settles back. This process is called cavitation; it leaves the displaced tissue damaged or killed. The high-velocity bullet causes a swath of tissue damage that extends several inches from its path. It does not have to actually hit an artery to damage it and cause catastrophic bleeding. Exit wounds can be the size of an orange.

With an AR-15, the shooter does not have to be particularly accurate. The victim does not have to be unlucky. If a victim takes a direct hit to the liver from an AR-15, the damage is far graver than that of a simple handgun shot injury. Handgun injuries to the liver are generally survivable unless the bullet hits the main blood supply to the liver. An AR-15 bullet wound to the middle of the liver would cause so much bleeding that the patient would likely never make it to a trauma center to receive our care.

One of my ER colleagues was waiting nervously for his own children outside the school. While the shooting was still in progress, the first responders were gathering up victims whenever they could and carrying them outside the building. Even as a physician trained in trauma situations, though, there was nothing he could do at the scene to help to save the victims who had been shot with an AR-15. Most of them died on the spot, with no fighting chance at life.

As a doctor, I feel I have a duty to inform the public of what I have learned as I have observed these wounds and cared for these patients. It’s clear to me that AR-15 or other high-velocity weapons, especially when outfitted with a high-capacity magazine, have no place in a civilian’s gun cabinet. I have friends who own AR-15 rifles; they enjoy shooting them at target practice for sport, and fervently defend their right to own them. But I cannot accept that their right to enjoy their hobby supersedes my right to send my own children to school, to a movie theater, or to a concert and to know that they are safe. Can the answer really be to subject our school children to active shooter drills—to learn to hide under desks, turn off the lights, lock the door and be silent—instead of addressing the root cause of the problem and passing legislation to take AR-15-style weapons out of the hands of civilians?

But in the aftermath of this shooting, in the face of specific questioning, our government leaders did not want to discuss gun control even when asked directly about these issues. Florida Senator Marco Rubio warned not to “jump to conclusions that there’s some law we could have passed that could have prevented it.” A reporter asked House Speaker Paul Ryan about gun control, and he replied, “As you know, mental health is often a big problem underlying these tragedies.” And on Tuesday, Florida’s state legislature voted against considering a ban on AR-15-type rifles, 71 to 36.

If politicians want to back comprehensive mental-health reform, I am all for it. As a medical doctor, I’ve witnessed firsthand the toll that mental-health issues take on families and the individuals themselves who have no access to satisfactory long-term mental-health care. But the president and Congress should not use this issue as an excuse to deliberately overlook the fact that the use of AR-15 rifles is the common denominator in many mass shootings.

A medical professor taught me about the dangers of drawing incorrect conclusions from data with the example of gum chewing, smokers, and lung cancer. He said smokers may be more likely to chew gum to cover bad breath, but that one cannot look at the data and decide that gum chewing causes lung cancer. It is the same type of erroneous logic that focuses on mental health after mass shootings, when banning the sale of semi-automatic rifles would be a far more effective means of preventing them.

Banning the AR-15 should not be a partisan issue. While there may be no consensus on many questions of gun control, there seems to be broad support for removing high-velocity, lethal weaponry and high-capacity magazines from the market, which would drastically reduce the incidence of mass murders. Every constitutionally guaranteed right that we are blessed to enjoy comes with responsibilities. Even our right to free speech is not limitless. Second Amendment gun rights must respect the same boundaries.

The CDC is the appropriate agency to review the potential impact of banning AR-15 style rifles and high-capacity magazines on the incidence of mass shootings. The agency was effectively barred from studying gun violence as a public-health issue in 1996 by a statutory provision known as the Dickey amendment. This provision needs to be repealed so that the CDC can study this issue and make sensible gun-policy recommendations to Congress.

The Federal Assault Weapons Ban (AWB) of 1994 included language which prohibited semi-automatic rifles like the AR-15, and also large-capacity magazines with the ability to hold more than 10 rounds. The ban was allowed to expire after 10 years on September 13, 2004. The mass murders that followed the ban’s lapse make clear that it must be reinstated.

On Wednesday night, Rubio said at a town-hall event hosted by CNN that it is impossible to create effective gun regulations because there are too many “loopholes” and that a “plastic grip” can make the difference between a gun that is legal and illegal. But if we can see the different impacts of high- and low-velocity rounds clinically, then the government can also draw such distinctions.

As a radiologist, I have now seen high velocity AR-15 gunshot wounds firsthand, an experience that most radiologists in our country will never have. I pray that these are the last such wounds I have to see, and that AR-15-style weapons and high-capacity magazines are banned for use by civilians in the United States, once and for all.

The 1 Cartoon About School Shootings Every American Needs to See

PopSugar

Parkland Shooting and Gun Control Cartoon by Pia Guerra

The 1 Cartoon About School Shootings Every American Needs to See

By Chelsea Adelaine Hassler      February 22, 2018

An absolutely stunning cartoon drawn in the wake of the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL, is breaking hearts across the internet — and it’s an image that we won’t (and shouldn’t) soon forget.

“Hero’s Welcome” is the brainchild of artist Pia Guerra and depicts Aaron Feis — the football coach and security guard who was killed when he used himself as a human shield to protect Parkland students — being ushered toward a group of children and adults by a young girl saying, “Come on, Mister Feis! So many of us want to meet you!”

“It’s not often that an image pops in your brain and you feel a lump in your throat,” Guerra told The Washington Post, noting that the crowd in the cartoon is representative of all the many individuals who have tragically lost their lives in school shootings over the years and that the cartoon was a direct response to her feeling helpless in the face of yet another mass gun tragedy.

Guerra posted the image to Twitter, and it has since gone viral — serving as yet another incredibly important reminder of the important role that each and every individual voice plays in the fight for gun control and how essential it is to our own safety as Americans to make those voices heard at the highest levels.

#NeverAgain: ‘This generation … The next generation will never have to worry about this.’

Naples Daily News

#NeverAgain: ‘This generation … The next generation will never have to worry about this.’

Patrick Riley     February 18, 2018

A press conference was held Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018, at the Florida Capitol Senate building in Tallahassee as Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students advocate for stricter gun control and mental health laws.

NDN 0216 Parkland Student 003

Nicole Raucheisen/Naples Daily News)

PARKLAND – A contingent of 100 students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the site of one of the deadliest school shootings in modern American history Wednesday, will travel to the state capital to speak with lawmakers about enacting stricter gun laws.

“Our coping mechanism is dealing with it in a political aspect,” said Jaclyn Corin, a junior at the high school who organized the trip.

“I know that a lot of us in the school have different coping mechanisms, and it’s good that we do because we need a wide variety of comfort and mourning, but also political action.”

The students will pack into buses Tuesday and make the nearly 450-mile trek from Parkland to Tallahassee, where they will split up into groups of 10 to talk to 10 state senators and representatives from both parties Wednesday. The journey comes less than a week after a gunman killed 17 people at the school.

More: Trump to hold ‘listening session’ with Florida high school students

More: Florida school shooting: Hundreds rally for stricter gun laws after massacre

More: Collier schools react to Parkland shooting with increased security

“The action has been so quick,” said Corin, 17. “And that’s necessary because this is a fresh and open wound and we can’t let it close up. We need to do something about it before it just disappears like it always has.”

Corin, who was hiding in a classroom during the shooting, said a family friend connected her with U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, whose aide helped her start organizing the trip.

A handful of other Democratic politicians, including state Sens. Lauren Book and Kevin Rader and state Reps. Carlos Guillermo Smith and Jared Moskowitz, also helped, she said.

“I knew that I wanted to change something,” Corin said. “I’m the type of person, when something bad happens to me, I can’t just sit back and cry and go in a ball. I like to speak out and I like to act and distract myself from pain.”

Because the Legislature is in the middle of a session, the group can’t introduce new bills but will instead focus on pre-existing ones “that haven’t gotten the time and consideration that they deserve” regarding assault weapons, high-capacity magazines and mental health screenings, Corin said.

Included on the students’ list of top priorities is a ban on military-style assault weapons, like the AR-15 used in the shooting. That rifle and other assault weapons were banned in 1994 by President Bill Clinton as part of the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act, but that ban expired in 2004.

Hundreds gather for gun control rally after Parkland shooting

A woman yells in response to a speech during a gun

A woman yells in response to a speech during a gun control rally in front of the federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. on Saturday, Feb. 17, 2018. Students, community members, elected officials and gun control advocates gathered together to call for common sense gun laws and firearm safety legislation in the wake of the school shooting that left 17 people dead and 15 others injured this past Wednesday in Parkland, Fla.                                     Nicole Raucheisen/Naples Daily News

The gun has been the “weapon of choice” in shootings from San Bernardino to Las Vegas and Newtown, Corin said.

“The AR-15 was what caused all of this,” she said. “We need that out. I don’t know how people haven’t realized that yet, because it’s a continuing pattern.”

Corin emphasized that the group’s pitch is to elected officials on both sides of the aisle.

“It’s just about kids’ lives,” she said. “Looking into their eyes and telling our stories, we just hope is going to make a huge difference.”

Corin and many of her fellow classmates have garnered national attention for their outspokenness on the issues of gun control in the days since the massacre.

Some of their most vocal leaders, like Emma Gonzalez, Cameron Kasky and David Hogg, have appeared on national and international news outlets and have had celebrities reach out to them on social media.

Emma González, 18, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, at North Community Park on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. González became a viral sensation after videos of her impassioned speech at an anti-gun rally Saturday in Fort Lauderdale flooded social media. Now, she is helping to lead the #NeverAgain movement with her fellow classmates. “It’s funny. I didn’t even have a Twitter account before two hours ago and it was trending on Twitter all day yesterday,” González said. “I have become somewhat of a spokesperson for this, but we’re all saying the same thing. That’s why we teamed up together like this because we know each other, we love each other very much and we all agree on the same stuff. We’re happy that all of us are still alive and we’re gonna make sure it stays that way for the people in our neighboring communities. For our neighbors, our cousins, this generation, not the next generation because the next generation will never have to worry about this because of us.” (Photo: Nicole Raucheisen/Naples Daily News)

“Maybe it’s because we’re old enough to talk about it,” said Gonzalez, a senior at the school, when asked why the students’ advocacy for change has been so visible.

“They sent us to school to get a thorough education and they act shocked that we’re educated.”

Corin said the pervasiveness of social media has also helped spread the group’s message of “Never Again.”

Emma Gonzalez, 18, center, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, is surrounded by her friends as she answers a social media message from actress and singer Zendaya at North Community Park on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. Gonzalez became a viral sensation after videos of her impassioned speech at an anti-gun rally in Fort Lauderdale flooded social media. Now, she is helping to lead the #NeverAgain movement with her fellow classmates. (Photo: Nicole Raucheisen/Naples Daily News)

“The fact that this can all be spread and our want for change can be spread in the click of a button is just so helpful,” she said. “And we’re going to use that to our advantage.”

The trip to Tallahassee comes on the heels of a gun control rally Saturday in Fort Lauderdale, where students pleaded for stricter gun laws and blasted officials who have taken political donations from the National Rifle Association. The students are currently planning a “March For Our Lives” in Washington, D.C., on March 24 to demand legislative action by Congress to address gun violence.

President Donald Trump is scheduled to host students and teachers from the school for a listening session Wednesday, although it is unclear which students will be invited to the session.

“This is just our opportunity,” said Gonzalez, 18, a senior at the school, referring to the Tallahassee trip. “This is the time to do this.”

The tight-knit group of students is poised to make sure those who come after them won’t have to suffer the way they did, she said.

“This generation,” Gonzalez said. “Not the next generation. Because the next generation will never have to worry about this.”

U.S. Courts Jailing Thousands over Civil Debts ‘Without Due Process,’ ACLU Says

Newsweek

U.S. Courts Jailing Thousands over Civil Debts ‘Without Due Process,’ ACLU Says

 Chantal Da Silva, Newsweek      February 21, 2018

Scott Walker to sign bills that will deprive poor families of public assistance

ThinkProgress

Scott Walker to sign bills that will deprive poor families of public assistance

Even more rules designed to kick low-income families further down the economic ladder.

Alan Pyke       February 21, 2018

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) with Donald Trump at a campaign event in 2016. Credit : Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Poor families in Wisconsin will soon get kicked off of food stamps and evicted from their public housing under a package of laws passed Tuesday by the state Senate.

Gov. Scott Walker (R) pushed state lawmakers to double down on his previous tweaks to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and other safety net systems. Taken together, the earlier changes and those passed Tuesday make Wisconsin a living experiment with very old conservative policy ideas. The changes are hard-hearted and soft-brained, a recipe for greater human misery masquerading as a plan to lift the destitute back toward dignity.

One bill ups existing work requirements for food stamps. Another sets humiliating new conditions for eligibility to live in public housing. Others set aside money to pay private companies that contract with the state if those companies can realize further savings.

Food stamps recipients are already required to work to receive the meager stipend SNAP provides. Though media coverage often portrays legislation like Wisconsin’s as a new corrective action, the truth is SNAP families already work. When unemployment reaches a crisis level in a given geographic area, state administrators are allowed to waive the federal requirement that able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs) work or volunteer at least 20 hours per week. That flexibility is essential to the program’s ability to cushion recessions. If there are no jobs and a family that can’t find work loses food benefits, the program can’t do what it’s supposed to, and poor people will go hungry.

Walker has already stripped his state’s food aid system of that essential responsiveness to economic conditions. A law he signed in 2015 barred Wisconsin from ever waiving the work rules, regardless of unemployment levels. For every person who found a job that met that 2015 bill’s requirements, 3.5 food stamps recipients were kicked off of the program, according to the Journal-Sentinel.

How Do You Help A Food Stamp Recipient Get A Job?

That kind of lopsided outcome — three or four times as many people dumped into the gutter as lifted into the workforce — will be replicated under the additional changes adopted this week. One bill approved by the Senate Tuesday will increase the existing work requirement from 20 hours a week to 30.

Wisconsin’s newest tweaks to food stamps rules spotlight the deception inherent to conservative policy ideas on poverty. Even if you accept the premise that a hard-and-fast requirement to work helps move people toward self-sufficiency — which you shouldn’t, since requiring work does nothing to create job opportunities— it is absurd to think that raising the bar for qualifying work hours by 50 percent will do the same.

Someone who’s been able to find a part-time job would suddenly lose food stamps anyhow if their boss won’t schedule them for 10 more hours a week. Resetting the definition of an acceptable food stamps beneficiary to “someone clocking 30 hours a week” only narrows the eligibility pool. This is a plan to kick people off of food stamps, not to improve anyone’s quality of life.

Walker’s agenda will cost Wisconsin taxpayers $38 million a year to implement. The inevitable savings from kicking people off of anti-poverty programs will accrue to the U.S. Treasury, not his state. Benefits are covered entirely through federal dollars, with states paying only a share of the administrative costs of SNAP.

Wisconsin Republicans Don’t Want Food Stamp Recipients Buying Beans, Potatoes, Pasta Sauce

Other bills passed Tuesday go even further to restrict access to safety net systems. The state will impose an asset test for food stamps, barring anyone who owns a home appraised at more than $321,200 or whose car is worth $20,000. Like work rules, asset tests are an old idea long understood to depress quality of life without any positive impact on poverty. Several states have gone the other direction in recent years and abandoned old asset rules.

Walker’s policy package also extends the same logic he has used for food stamps to public housing. Wisconsin residents who live in subsidized housing would have to submit to drug tests and find paying work or be booted onto the street.

Walker got his votes, but under a cloud of undemocratic illegitimacy. The governor is holding two seats — one in the Senate and another in the Assembly — vacant throughout this year’s legislative session, seemingly for fear that anti-Republican sentiment would hand the two chairs to Democrats.

Republicans would still hold majorities in each chamber even if the two vacancies went blue, and Walker would probably still get to sign the same poverty-increasing package. But his defiance of state laws mandating special elections “as promptly as possible” casts the policy changes in a dim light.

Surrounded by Big Agriculture, Ron Rosmann Innovates and Inspires

Civil Eats

Surrounded by Big Agriculture, Ron Rosmann Innovates and Inspires

Long committed to biodiversity, this Iowa farmer stands out for his commitment to stewarding the land and teaching others.

When I met Ron Rosmann last winter, he’d just had a small windfall. The Harlan, Iowa farmer was in the process of building a new hoop house for his farrow-to-finish pork operation and he’d come into some high-quality farrowing equipment—the parts needed to keep sows and their piglets warm and safe during the first weeks of their life—for a bargain. But the circumstances were bittersweet.

Rosmann’s friend and a fellow hog farmer in the area was selling off the equipment because he had gotten out of hog production. “It’s sad because he has a quarter of a million dollars worth of facilities,” Rosmann said. “He used to raise [hogs] conventionally and now there’s no money in it unless you’re huge.” The farmer in question was nearing retirement age and he had no family members willing to take over the operation, so he’d decided to shut it down completely. This was just the latest in a series of family farmers Rosmann has seen close up shop over the last few decades. “It’s just typical of what farming is like out here in the Midwest,” he told me.

Rosmann is in a different position. He and his wife Maria raise certified organic pork and beef under their own private label and for Organic Prairie, as well as corn, soy, and a range of other grains and hay in a diverse rotation on 700 acres. And as they look toward retirement—Ron Rosmann is about to turn 68—their sons, David and Daniel, are working to succeed them. In fact, their family was just chosen as Organic Farmers of the Year by the Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Service (MOSES).

Ron and Maria Rosmann in their farm store.

You could say he’s one of the lucky ones. But, if you meet Rosmann and his family, you’ll quickly realize that luck has had very little to do with it.

Take their commitment to biodiversity. The farm is divided into around 40 different fields, and in order to maintain soil health and reduce pressure from pests, they grow corn, soy, hay, oats, popcorn, turnips, and other crops in a constantly changing rotation. Some of those crops leave the farm, but much of it gets fed to the pigs and cows they raise. “We don’t buy anything!” said Rosmann.

It can be a challenge to keep this ever-changing rotation straight, he adds. But that’s key to his approach. “You have to be willing to change your mind all the time,” said Rosmann. “You can’t be set in your ways. But that’s what I love about this kind of farming. You have to be responsive to the indicators and the information out there.”

For instance, the farm survived the farm crisis of the 1980s—a time when many families in the area lost their operations due to mounting debt—by expanding on a modest scale, and taking out a bank loan to put in a farrowing nursery. Then they were early in the transition to organic and secured a coveted contract with one of the only companies paying a consistent premium for organic meat on a national scale.

Rosmann's hogs eating. (Photo courtesy of the Iowa Food Systems Council)

Rosmann’s hogs eating. (Photo courtesy of the Iowa Food Systems Council)

Surrounded by miles and miles of conventional corn and soy, just 50 miles east of Omaha, Rosmann Family Farms also serves as a beacon for those looking for local food in the area. Maria runs a small on-farm store where she stocks everything from their farm’s meat and eggs to locally made gifts and holistic body products. Meanwhile, their son Daniel and his wife Ellen run a farm-to-table delivery service and a restaurant called Milk and Honey that sources many of its ingredients directly from the farm.

And aside from running his own business, and preparing to pass it on to his sons, Rosmann has also been an avid spokesman on the issues affecting small- and medium-scale farmers like himself.

After earning a degree in biology from Iowa State, Rosmann returned to his family farm for a trial year in 1973. But his parents gave him more autonomy than most, and he realized he decided to dig in and make it his own. “I was chastised by some people who said, ‘why did you come back, if you’re a college graduate?’ You’re supposed to leave the farm, leave rural areas to improve your life.” But Rosmann felt just the opposite; he stayed, in part, he said, because “you could make a difference in a small community” by sticking around.

Rosmann’s father was an early adopter when it came to using synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, but after his father passed away, Rosmann says he began experimenting with alternative methods, and by 1983 he decided to reverse course.

One of the major revelations came when he went to a field day at the farm of fellow Iowan Dick Thompson, who had eschewed conventional pesticides and fertilizers in the late ‘60s.

“He had a cleaner farm than we did and he wasn’t using any pesticides. I said, ‘I can do what he’s doing,’” Rosmann recalled. He was also intrigued by Thompson’s use of on-farm research using replicable, randomized strips. “These were environmentally friendly practices that didn’t hurt your pocketbook—in fact they helped. The goal was to get the same yields using less pesticides and fertilizers and then have proof that it would work, and learn from other farmers who were experimenting as well.”

Three years later, in 1986, Rosmann joined Thompson as a founding board member of Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI), a nonprofit organization that has remained dedicated to these goals ever since, and has grown from around 50 farmers to more than 3,000.

Farmers like Rosmann and Thompson relied on tools like the late-spring soil test, which allows them to measure the amount of nitrate in the top layer of soil when their corn plants were young, so they could accurately gauge the amount of nitrogen they would need to add to the soil before harvest time. “It helped us place that nitrogen very precisely. We were cutting our nitrogen 50-75 percent and sometimes we found that we didn’t need to add nitrogen at all.”

David Rosmann at the family's manure composting area. (Photo courtesy of Ron Rosmann)

David Rosmann at the family’s manure composting area. (Photo courtesy of Ron Rosmann)

The idea was to help farmers maintain autonomy in the face of massive farm consolidation and changes to the industry. Rosmann says that while there was a lot of interest in the late-spring soil test at the time, the tool’s popularity soon waned as the seed and chemical companies began to get a tighter hold on commodity agriculture.

“Biotech and Roundup came along. Farms were getting bigger, prices were low for commodities. The attrition of farmers kept going at a steady pace,” said Rosmann. Soon, he adds, “most farmers weren’t even willing to cultivate [as an alternative to using herbicide to control weeds] or test their nitrogen. They became paranoid, and said, ‘we’ve got to get this done in the fall.’ That’s the norm now. They put the nitrogen on in the fall, and 40-50 percent ends up in the groundwater because of leaching and warm weather.”

In Iowa, over the last few decades, this shift has had a nearly disastrous affect. Thirty years later, the ongoing nitrogen and phosphorous pollution has resulted in a high-profile lawsuit and a recent decision by state lawmakers to spend $282 million over the next 12 years on cleanup and prevention. Since then, PFI has played an important role in helping farmers diversify their farms, transition to organic in some cases, and just work in harmony with the natural world more generally.

Although PFI has remained an apolitical organization in an effort to reach farmers from both organic and conventional farms, Rosmann himself has always believed it was important to engage with policy. He and Maria have lobbied congress with organizations like the Pew Charitable Trust and Center for Rural Affairs on issues like farm consolidation and the overuse of antibiotics on farms. He also served as a board member and president of the Organic Farming Research Foundation for a number of years.

And he remains committed to on-farm research. For instance, Rosmann uses a lesser-known approach called ridge-tilling, which reduces the disturbance of the soil and helps retain organic matter—and he has produced data to support its efficacy. “I’ve done research trials comparing conventional disk-tilling and ridge-tilling. Every year, we get 5-7 percent more weeds in the area we disk till. So it’s a good tool for organic farmers,” said Rosmann, who adds that it’s hard to find the equipment because the practice has gone out of vogue in recent years.

Daniel Rosmann hand-counting weeds in a soybean field during the ridge-till vs. conventional till trial. (Photo courtesy Ron Rosmann)

Daniel Rosmann hand-counting weeds in a soybean field during the ridge-till vs. conventional till trial. (Photo courtesy Ron Rosmann)

He also prides himself on fixing his own farm equipment and acquiring much of the farm’s machinery used, an approach that is increasingly rare in the age of $250,000 tractors that can only be repaired by the companies that make them.

In all these ways, Rosmann stands out as a modern version of Jefferson’s educated yeoman farmer, “an enlightened citizen, trained in many fields,” motivated by the opportunity to be a steward the resources of land and community.

It’s a noble life, but also a lonely one, and Rosmann doesn’t always see eye to eye with many of the farmers in his community. So he relies on the PFI network as a way to stay connected to the handful of other “elder statesmen” farmers around Iowa and beyond.

“There are very few of us left with native knowledge passed down from our fathers,” said Rosmann. “But that’s the beauty of having Daniel and David here.” With his sons, he adds, the desire to stay curious and continue working at a human scale is a given.

Near the end of my visit to his farm—after I’d perused the hand-stitched tea towels in Maria’s shop, heard about the details of farrowing piglets, and toured the barn Rosmann’s father had built—we ducked into small stand of white pine trees he had planted in 1993 as a windbreak and wildlife refuge. The trees attract deer, a pest, but they also provide a rare home for pheasants, the occasional quail, and several other types of upland birds.

After a windy climb up a small hill, we stepped between the branches and the sound of the wind came to a stop. In that hushed environment, it was easy to imagine a time when many of Iowa’s diverse farms were dotted with trees. “We have more pheasants on our farm than any other in the county,” said Rosmann, lowering his voice so as not to scare off the visitors. And I pictured him and his family members stepping in among the trees every now and then when the day-to-day work of swimming against the agriculture tide becomes too much.

Then we turned and waded back through the February mud so Rosmann could take me to see his cows.

Top 2 photos by Twilight Greenaway.

Florida school shooting: These are the 17 victims

NBC News

Florida school shooting: These are the 17 victims

 

Image: 16 of the 17 fatal victims of the Parkland school shooting.
16 of the 17 fatal victims of the Parkland school shooting. 

 

Alyssa Alhadeff, 14 – Student

Image: Alyssa Alhadeff

Alyssa wanted to become a lawyer as well as a professional soccer player, according to her mother Lori, who attended a vigil for victims on Thursday.

She was a member of the school’s Parkland Soccer Club, who honored her in a Facebook post.

“Alyssa Alhadeff was a loved and well respected member of our club and community. Alyssa will be greatly missed. Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family and all the other victims of this tragic event,” the post read.

Scott Beigel, 35 – Geography Teacher and Cross Country Coach

Image: Scott Beigel

Scott Beigel Family photo

Beigel was one of several adults at the school who died while protecting students from streams of gunfire.

According to the Sun-Sentinel, Beigel was shot and killed when he unlocked his classroom door in order to allow students to take refuge from the gunman. He was mortally wounded while trying to re-lock the door.

Martin Duque Anguiano, 14 – Student

Image: Martin Duque

Martin Duque. Courtesy Miguel Duque

Martin was described as “a very funny kid, outgoing and sometimes really quiet,” in a description posted by his older brother, Miguel, on GoFundMe.

According to the Sun-Sentinel, Miguel also paid tribute to his brother on Instagram, stating, “Words can not describe my pain. I love brother Martin you’ll be missed buddy. I know you’re in a better place. Duques forever man I love you junior!!! R.I.P Martin Duque!” The caption was accompanied by a photo of Martin.

RELATED: FBI got tip on Florida shooter Nikolas Cruz in January, but didn’t ‘follow protocols’

Nicholas Dworet, 17 – Student

Image: Nicholas Dworet

Nicholas Dworet

Nicholas was a swimmer at the school who had committed to competing at the college level at the University of Indianapolis at the beginning of February. He was named by the Sun-Sentinel a second-team All-County swimmer in Broward County for his 100-yard freestyle time.

His brother, Alexander, was grazed by a bullet in the back of his head.

In a statement made on Friday, Nicholas’ family said that he “dreamed of making the Olympic swim team and going to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo” and that “he believed he could accomplish anything as long as he tried his best.”

Aaron Feis, 37 – Assistant Football Coach and Security Guard

Image: Coach Aaron Feis has been identified as a deceased victim in the shooting that took place at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018.

Coach Aaron Feis Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Football team

Feis died while using his body to shield students from bullets as the gunman opened fire.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, a personal friend of Feis’, noted that the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School alum and former football player was a beloved protector of those in the community.

“When Aaron Feis died — when he was killed, tragically, inhumanely — he did it protecting others, you can guarantee that, cause that’s who Aaron Feis was,” Israel said. “The kids in this community loved him, they adored him. He was one of the greatest people I knew, he was a phenomenal man.”

RELATED: Parkland school shooting: Football coach Aaron Feis died shielding students

Jaime Guttenberg, 14 – Student

Parkland shooting

Jaime Guttenberg via Facebook

Guttenberg was a dancer who was described as the “life of the party” during a statement made by her father, Fred, at a candlelight vigil on Thursday.

“My heart is broken. Yesterday, Jennifer Bloom Guttenberg and I lost our baby girl to a violent shooting at her school. We lost our daughter and my son Jesse Guttenberg lost his sister. I am broken as I write this trying to figure out how my family get’s through this,” Fred wrote in a Facebook post that was also made on Thursday.

Guttenberg’s Facebook page has been made into a memorialized account and features photos of her posing with friends and family.

Christopher Hixon, 49 – Athetic Director, Wrestling Coach and Security Specialist

Image: Chris Hixon

Chris Hixon Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School

Hixon came from a family with an extensive background in the military and served in the U.S. Navy. He also was a huge influence on the school’s wrestling team and was killed while patrolling the school’s campus as part of his job as security specialist.

Douglas wrestler Karlos Valentin described the impact that Hixon has on his wrestlers in a statement made to the Sun-Sentinel.

“Coach Hixon, for me, was a father figure,” said Valentin, a senior heavyweight. ”We were pretty much with him six days a week – three-to-four-to-five hours. His loss was just terrible.”

Luke Hoyer, 15 – Student

Image: Luke Hoyer

Luke Hoyer Family photo

Luke was described as a “good kid” who “never got in trouble” by his grandparents, who live in South Carolina.

His uncle, Toni Brownlee, also posted about his death on Facebook: “This has devastated our family and we’re all in shock and disbelief. Our hearts are broken. Luke was a beautiful human being and greatly loved.”

RELATED: Day before Parkland, grandmother foiled grandson’s alleged school shooting plans

Cara Loughran, 14 – Student

Cara was a beach-lover and dancer whose death was felt deeply by her aunt, Lindsay Fontana.

“This morning, I had to tell my 8-year-old daughters that their sweet cousin Cara was killed in the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School yesterday. We are absolutely gutted,” Fontana wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday. “While your thoughts are appreciated, I beg you to DO SOMETHING. This should not have happened to our niece Cara and it can not happen to other people’s families.”

According to The Baltimore Sun, Loughran’s death was also felt by Baltimore Ravens running back Alex Collins, who received Irish dance training at the Drake School in Florida. Loughran was one of three dancers at the school who also attended Douglas.

Gina Montalto, 14 – Student

Image: Gina Montalto

Gina Montalto via Facebook

Gina’s family described her as a hardworking student with a keen sense of humor who “melted each heart with an infectious smile that light up a room.”

“She was a kind spirit, always eager to lend a helping hand,” the family said in a statement. “Gina will be missed not only by her family, but by everyone whose life she touched.”

Gina was also a member of Douglas’ winter guard on the school’s state-champion marching band, which was scheduled to perform at a regional competition in Tampa on Saturday, according to the Sun-Sentinel.

The winter guard’s instructor, Manuel Miranda, wrote a Facebook post about Montalto on Wednesday.

“My heart is broken into pieces. I will forever remember you my sweet angel,” Miranda wrote.

Joaquin Oliver, 17 – Student

Image: Florida Victim Joaquin Oliver

Joaquin Oliver

Joaquin was a hip hop and sports lover who became a naturalized American citizen in January 2017, after moving to the United States from Venezuela at the age of 3, according to the Sun-Sentinel.

Because students often had difficulty pronouncing his name, Oliver went by the nickname “Guac,” short for “guacamole.”

“He’s just a goofball. He’s the only kid you’d know that would dye his hair bleach-blond, walk around school, put some tiger stripes in and just be unique. He was a unique soul,” said Tyra Hemans, 19, who said she had been friends with Oliver since freshman year.

Alaina Petty, 14 – Student

Image: Alaina Petty

Alaina Petty Courtesy of the family

Alaina was extremely devoted to her local community, according to a statement made by her family via the Latter-day Saints Living publication.

“It is important to sum up all that Alaina was and meant to her family and friends,” the statement said. “Alaina was a vibrant and determined young woman, loved by all who knew her. Alaina loved to serve.”

RELATED: After Florida shooting, Trump offers comfort — to gun owners

Meadow Pollack, 18 – Student

Image: Meadow Pollack

Meadow Pollack via Facebook

According to her cousin, Jake Maisner, Meadow was the youngest member of her family and enjoyed spending time with her family, the ­Sun-Sentinel reports.

Maisner also added that his cousin had planned on attending Lynn University in Boca Raton after she graduated.

Helena Ramsay, 17 – Student

Image: Helena Ramsey

Helena Ramsey via Facebook

Her relative, Curtis Page Jr., posted on Facebook that Helena was “a smart, kind hearted, and thoughtful person. She was deeply loved and loved others even more so. Though she was some what reserved, she had a relentless motivation towards her academic studies, and her soft warm demeanor brought the best out in all who knew her. She was so brilliant and witty, and I’m still wrestling with the idea that she is actually gone.”

Page also noted that Helena was planning on going to college next year.

Alexander Schachter, 14 – Student

Image: Alex Schachter

Alex Schachter via Facebook

According to a GoFundMepage setup by Schachter’s family in the wake of his death, Schachter played the trombone and baritone as a member of Douglas’ marching band.

Schachter’s family stated on the page that “He was a sweetheart of a kid!” and “survived by his heartbroken parents, three siblings, grandparents and countless cousins, aunts, uncles and friends.”

Carmen Schentrup, 16 – Student

Image: Carmen Schentrup

Carmen Schentrup via Broward County Schools

Last September, Carmen was named one of 53 National Merit Scholarship Program semifinalists in the county. She was one of 10 Douglas students to qualify as a semifinalist, according to The Eagle Eye, the school’s student-run news magazine.

Carmen was also a piano student who had performed on Saturday at Broward College for the South Florida Music Teachers Association Spring Festival.

Peter Wang, 15 – Student

Image: Peter Wang

Peter Wang. via Sun Sentinel

Peter was a member of the JROTC program at Douglas. His cousin, Aaron Chen, told the Miami Heraldthat Peter was last seen wearing his uniform and holding the door open so that people could escape. He had planned on celebrating the Chinese New Year with his family.

Peter’s friend, Gabriel Ammirata, also told the paper that he “funny, nice and a great friend. He’s been my best friend since third grade.”

Wisconsin GOP takes over gun bill from Democrats

Associated Press

Wisconsin GOP takes over gun bill from Democrats

Scott Bauer and Todd Richmond, Associated Press    February 21, 2018

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Democrats tried to pressure Republicans into passing universal background checks for gun buyers Tuesday but GOP leaders outmaneuvered them, seizing control of the legislation and rewriting it to fund armed guards in schools.

The move capped a day of furious debate over gun control in the state Capitol in the wake of a mass shooting at a Florida high school that left 17 people dead.

Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel began the day by telling WTMJ-AM radio he would be open to letting teachers and others go armed in schools.

“Law-abiding gun owners don’t go and shoot up schools,” Schimel said. “When you make a school a gun-free school zone, the only person you’re stopping is the law-abiding gun owner who doesn’t want to get in trouble.”

Democrats, meanwhile, held a morning news conference demanding the GOP pass Democratic measures that would institute universal background checks, prohibit people convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence from buying guns and ban bump stock sales.

Students from all of Madison’s high schools appeared alongside the Democrats and demanded action.

“The incompetence of legislators who are bought out by the (National Rifle Association) has barred us from change that is long overdue,” Madison East High School junior Anne Motoviloff said.

Republicans control both houses of the Legislature. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos dismissed the Democrats’ demands as a “sad, cynical” political stunt to capture headlines. He said none of the bills have broad support in the Assembly and Democrats have never tried to talk to him about the proposals.

Minutes after the Assembly convened Tuesday afternoon, Democrats made a motion to place the universal background check proposal on the day’s agenda. In a surprise move, Republicans voted to take up the bill.

They then immediately amended it to wipe out the background checks. They added language that would create a state grant program to fund armed guards in schools. The NRA has suggested placing armed guards in every American school.

Under the Wisconsin bill, the guards would have to be police officers or former police officers. A number of schools in the state already have police liaison officers.

The GOP added other language to the bill that would make buying a gun for someone who can’t legally possess one a felony punishable by up to a decade in prison — right now it’s a misdemeanor punishable by up to nine months in jail — and create a mandatory four-year prison sentence for repeat gun violators. The mandatory sentence would end in mid-2022, when the state Justice Department would produce a report reviewing the sentence’s effectiveness.

Democrats howled that Republicans had hijacked their bill, saying armed guards can’t prevent school shootings and Republicans would take stronger action if people were dying from measles. They tried to amend the bill to restore background checks, bringing the chamber to a halt for hours as Republicans tried to decide how to handle the amendment. Republicans eventually defeated the amendment 60-35.

“This is a real, real public health crisis our state is facing,” Rep. Melissa Sargent, a Madison Democrat, said. “We need to address it as such.”

Rep. Joel Kleefisch, an Oconomowoc Republican, said celebrities and politicians use armed guards.

“Why don’t we insist our children are protected with the same fervor?” Kleefisch said. “I’m flabbergasted at the disingenuousness of our colleagues’ challenges to this real measure.”

In the end, the bill passed 71-24 with nine Democrats voting for it. Democratic Minority Leader Gordon Hintz insisted that he put Republicans right where he wanted them by forcing them to vote against background checks, a stance that will help Democrats on the campaign trail.

The measure now goes to the state Senate, which passed its own bill Tuesday that would make buying a gun for someone who can’t legally possess one a felony punishable by six years in prison. That bill now goes to the Assembly.

‘There’s just no reason for assault rifles to be in the hands of ordinary citizens’

Yahoo News

One of America’s best marksmen on gun control: ‘There’s just no reason for assault rifles to be in the hands of ordinary citizens’

Eric Adelson, Yahoo Sports        February 21, 2018 

American biathlete Lowell Bailey has no interest in owning a weapon that is “designed to kill another human being.” (Getty)

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea – Lowell Bailey is one of the best marksmen in America. The North Carolina native is so proficient with a gun that he has made a living off it. He is an Olympian biathlete. So his opinion on the roiling gun debate in his country is worth hearing.

On Tuesday night, after he had finished competing, he gave it.

“We’re a sport that uses a .22-caliber rifle,” Bailey said. “A .22-caliber rifle that shoots a single round is a much different thing than an AR-15. In my opinion, there’s just no reason for assault rifles to be in the hands of ordinary citizens.”

Bailey said he does not own an AR-15 and has no desire to get one.

“I have no interest in owning a weapon that can kill another human being – that’s designed to kill another human being,” he said. “And to do it in an expeditious way. Why is that allowed? It’s maddening.”

It’s especially maddening in the wake of yet another deadly school shooting back in the States. Since Bailey and his teammates have arrived here to live their Olympic dreams, America has mourned the deaths of 17 innocent people who lost their lives in a high school in Parkland, Florida. These athletes have mourned, too.

“Every time something like that happens, it makes me sick to my stomach, to think about,” said another member of the U.S. mixed relay team, Susan Dunklee. “This is so far removed from that kind of shooting. This is precision shooting. We’re using a .22. But there is that association of being a firearm, and it takes a lot of the joy I have out of pursuing a sport like this.”

Biathlon requires incredible physical fitness and mental strength. It also requires daily training and responsibility when using a firearm. The shadow of gun violence is beyond distressing to them.

“All of us are very saddened by it,” said Joanne Firesteel Reid. “We have to take it in our own way. As a target shooter you don’t even associate what you’re doing with something like that.”

Bailey says he supports the assault weapons ban that was in place in the U.S. for 10 years and then allowed to expire in 2004. He added that his nation’s gun laws come up in conversations he has with competitors from other countries.

“They’re absolutely baffled,” he said. “They’re baffled at the political landscape of the United States, and how we can continue to put an assault rifle into the hands of anyone who wants to walk into a gun store and buy one.”

Gun laws in South Korea are quite strict. So strict, in fact, that it affects this sport. While in most competitions, biathletes are allowed to store their rifles in their rooms, that practice is forbidden here. Competitors must keep their guns at the venue, locked away at all times unless they are using them for practice.

“They’re under lock and key,” Dunklee said. “We each have our own key. We ski around with them, then we bring them right back. Very controlled. Russia does that too.”

It is inconvenient to an extent. “It would be like if you’re a runner and someone locked up your running shoes,” said Reid. But it’s something the biathletes understand. Rules are rules, and they’re there for safety.

It’s somewhat telling that in this country, some of the most responsible and careful gun owners on the planet, the Olympic biathletes, are kept from having their own rifles in their rooms.

“Sometimes it’s even nice not to have a gun staring you in the face all day,” said the fourth member of Team USA, Tim Burke.

American Tim Burke, an avid hunter, says: “If locking up all of my sports rifles, my hunting rifles, meant saving one life, I would do it.”

Burke also spoke up on Tuesday after the team’s race, in which it finished 15th. He was not as expressive as Bailey and Dunklee, but it was clear he was upset by what happened in Florida.

“Not only am I a biathlete, I’m also an avid hunter,” he said. “If locking up all of my sports rifles, my hunting rifles, meant saving one life, I would do it.”

The fear among many American gun owners is that the government will confiscate their weapons and infringe upon their Constitutional right to bear arms. The reasons for that concern go back to the founding of the country, and a wariness of a too-powerful government that lasts to this day.

But there’s a way to preserve the sanctity of the Second Amendment and make a change for safety’s sake. There is a path to preserve our history, protect our kids and defend our way of life.

“There was a time in our country when the means to defend yourself against an oppressive government was an appropriate justification,” Bailey said. “That time has passed.”

He paused for a second before continuing: “That’s a debate. But I think there needs to be a respectful dialogue, an open dialogue without special interests involved. It’s time our politicians sat down and made some tough choices. What’s more important? Owning an AR-15 or having innocent school children get killed?”

Bailey, who is not a member of the National Rifle Association, has a daughter and another child on the way. His heart breaks for the families affected by this tragedy and all the others. This matters to him as a citizen and as a parent.

“I compete against all these World Cup nations,” he said. “Germany, Norway. How good are they on the range? They’re great at rifle marksmanship. Do you know how strict their gun control laws are? It’s a travesty that America hasn’t changed and continues to go down this path.

“It makes me want to cry.”

Billionaire Bill Gates says his taxes are too low.

CNN
February 18, 2018

Bill Gates says he’s paid more than $10 billion in taxes but that the government should make wealthy people like him “pay significantly higher taxes” http://cnn.it/2Cuj7th

Billionaire Bill Gates says his taxes are too low

Bill Gates says he's paid more than $10 billion in taxes but that the government should make wealthy people like him "pay significantly higher taxes" http://cnn.it/2Cuj7th

Posted by CNN on Sunday, February 18, 2018