The historic drought in the West is entering a volatile phase.
Here's the story at the Oregon-California border, where salmon are dying en masse and farmers are agitating after being cut off from water they've received every year since 1907.
With not enough water to go around, Tribes and farmers are competing against each other for what remains.
“There are folks on both sides that would really like to throw down and take things in an ugly direction,” said Clayton Dumont, a member of the Klamath Tribal Council.
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Farmers are openly talking about forcing open the irrigation gates.
They have allied with Ammon Bundy, who led an armed takeover of a wildlife refuge in 2016. His take: “Who cares if there is violence? At least something will be worked out.”
While last year brought us widespread wildfires and intense drought in the West, this year’s conditions are much worse, with more than half the west in “extreme drought.”
Here’s a slider comparison from one year ago to today.
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In Nevada, water levels have dropped so drastically in Lake Mead that officials are preparing for a shortage that could prompt major reductions in water deliveries next year. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom has placed 41 counties under a state of emergency.
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Downriver of the Klamath project, salmon are turning up dead in massive numbers. It's not just threatened coho, but also chinook, tribal scientists say.
“We are starting to talk about the ‘extinction’ word around here.”
Mercy Corps has released a report detailing sexual abuse allegations regarding co-founder Ellsworth Culver. His daughter told investigators that he abused her and arranged for others to abuse her around the world. nytimes.com/2021/05/19/us/…
Tania Culver Humphrey initially reported in the 1990s that her father had abused her. Mercy Corps largely dismissed her account. The latest report, initiated by Mercy Corps, is based on 100+ hours of interviews between independent investigators and her
Content warning: Child sexual abuse
Among the accounts in the Mercy Corps report, Tania Culver Humphrey described how she and another young girl suffered violent sexual abuse at a hotel. She reported that the other girl died. She tells me that the case happened in Thailand.
Air fresheners. They’ve been a ubiquitous accessory in American vehicles for decades. They’ve also become a justification for police officers around the country to initiate traffic stops.
Police contend that dangling air fresheners (or tassels, or fuzzy dice, or pandemic masks) can obstruct driver views in ways that violate laws.
But like other low-level issues, such as loud mufflers, tinted windows or expired registrations, it is ripe for selective enforcement.
In one case we looked at, a traffic stop supposedly focused on a pink tree air freshener led a trooper to give a warning. But he also notified immigration officers, who came to the scene. It ended in prison time and deportation for the driver.