Scientists used the preserved hair of Tatanka Iyotanka, better known as Sitting Bull, in an innovative method of DNA testing to show a familial relationship for the first time between living and dead individuals.
In a study published in the journal Science Advances, scientists traced ancestry by searching for autosomal DNA in the genetic fragments in the sample. Each parent contributes half of the autosomal DNA in any individual, meaning that genetic matches can be made regardless of whether an ancestor is on the father’s or mother’s side of the family.
“Autosomal DNA is our non-gender-specific DNA. We managed to locate sufficient amounts of autosomal DNA in Sitting Bull’s hair sample and compare it to the DNA sample from Ernie Lapointe and other Lakota Sioux and were delighted to find that it matched,” said study co-author Eske Willerslev of the University of Cambridge.
The claim of Ernie Lapointe (pictured) to be descended from Tatanka Iyotanka “Sitting Bull” was confirmed by DNA analysis. (Courtesy Ernie Lapointe)Period photograph of Lakota Sioux leader Tatanka Iyotanka “Sitting Bull” (1831–1890). (Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.)
The match confirmed Lapointe as a great-grandson and closest living descendant of the Hunkpapa Lakota leader most known for easily defeating U.S. 7th Cavalry Lt. Col. George Custer’s battalion at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876.
“Over the years, many people have tried to question the relationship that I and my sisters have to Sitting Bull,” Lapointe said.
Until now, Lapointe’s descent from Sitting Bull could only be shown by birth and death certificates and the historical record.
It took 14 years for the scientists to determine how to get useable DNA from a piece of Sitting Bull’s hair measuring just a couple of inches. Stored for more than a century unrefrigerated at the Smithsonian Institution, the hair had become extremely degraded before its return to Lapointe and his sisters in 2007.
Previous DNA analyses looked for genetic matches of specific DNA in the Y male chromosome, or, if the ancestor was female, specific DNA in the mitochondria passed from a mother to her children. These are not very reliable, and neither was used in this case because Lapointe claimed to be related to Sitting Bull through his mother.
The technique in the study can be used when limited genetic data are available, as well as in old human DNA too degraded for analysis. This could be a boon for criminal forensic investigations and would enable confirmation of relationships between historical figures and their putative living descendants.
“In principle, you could investigate whoever you want — from outlaws like Jesse James to the Russian tsar’s family, the Romanovs,” Willerslev said. “If there is access to old DNA — typically extracted from bones, hair or teeth, they can be examined in the same way.”
Four Native Americans with their interpreter. Back: Julius Meyer (interpreter) and Red Cloud. Front: Sitting Bull (1834–1890), Swift Bear and Spotted Tail. Original Artwork: Original print in sepia. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Sitting Bull’s buried remains are in Mobridge, South Dakota, according to Lapointe. He fears the gravesite may not receive proper care. Currently, visitors come to two burial sites claimed for Sitting Bull: Morbridge and Fort Yates, North Dakota. With the new DNA evidence to confirm a family relationship, Lapointe plans to reinter his ancestor at an appropriate place.
Before the remains at Morbridge can be reburied, a genetic analysis would have to ensure a match to Sitting Bull. Lapointe owns the legal rights to Sitting Bull’s genetic data and thus can decide who should do the analysis.
At Standing Rock Reservation, Sitting Bull was shot to death by Indian Service agents and buried at Fort Yates in 1890. His descendants exhumed his purported remains in 1953 and reburied them at Morbridge.
A man has been arrested in Florida for stealing a truck and dragging its driver along the ground. His reason for taking the vehicle: he didn’t want to walk home.
The incident took place in the Flagler County town of Bunnell, Florida, on Oct. 6. It began when the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call about a carjacking near Kielb Road and State Road 100 in Bunnell.
“A power line crew was driving a bucket truck on SR-100 West in Bunnell when they noticed an unknown male in the back of the truck,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. “The victim, in a following truck, stated the male refused to exit the back of the bucket truck and notified the company of the situation.” (A bucket truck is equipped with an extendable, hydraulic boom carrying a large bucket for raising workers to elevated, hard-to-reach areas.)
In a video of the incident released by the sheriff’s department, deputies who arrive on the scene appear to wake the suspect, who initially seems to be very groggy before abruptly running away. The suspect — subsequently identified as Eric Marcotte —then got into the victim’s vehicle and starts to drive away.
“The victim attempted to grab the steering wheel and was dragged about 50 feet before releasing his grip and rolling into a ditch as the vehicle fled,” the sheriff’s department said.
Eric Marcotte flees authorities on foot before stealing a bucket truck and taking off. He was arrested the next day. (Flagler County Sheriff’s Office/Zenger)
The worker, despite ending up in a ditch, was uninjured.
Meantime, the suspect managed to get away — at least for a while.
A few hours later, authorities found the stolen truck abandoned about 20 miles away, in Ormond Beach. Then, the next day, they located Marcotte in Volusia County and arrested him an outstanding warrant for violation of probation.
During questioning, Marcotte said he stole the bucket truck because he “did not want to walk all the way back to Volusia County” where he resides, the sheriff department’s statement said.
A mugshot of Eric Marcotte, 25, who faces charges for fleeing Florida authorities and stealing a bucket truck. (Flagler County Sheriff’s Office/Zenger)
“Marcotte is no stranger to law enforcement,” the statement said. “He has previously been charged in Volusia County for burglary, petit theft, loitering and prowling, grand theft, grand theft of a motor vehicle, resisting officer without and with violence, battery, liquor possession under 21, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, violation of probation and robbery in Ohio.”
Marcotte is being held at the Volusia County Branch Jail, pending extradition to Flagler County, where he will face charges of carjacking, theft of a motor vehicle and grand theft.
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, a massive storm, was discovered centuries ago. Now, scientists at NASA and at Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science are learning about its structure and depth by analyzing data transmitted from NASA’s Juno probe launched in 2011.
“We proposed an ambitious experiment that wasn’t part of Juno’s original program, but we thought that with a flyby above the Great Red Spot dedicated to gravity measurements, it could work,” said professor Yohai Kaspi from Weizmann’s Earth and Planetary Sciences Department.
“Since Juno arrived at Jupiter’s orbit [in 2016], we’ve been working like archeologists, only instead of digging below ground, we’ve been exploring what happens below clouds,” Kaspi said.
The project relied on an innovative method developed by Kaspi and Weizmann staff scientist Eli Galanti for analyzing the inner structure of planetary winds using gravity measurements.
Juno arrived at Jupiter in 2016 and has been studying the gas giant, including the Great Red Spot, which was first discovered centuries ago. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill)
Marzia Parisi, then a postdoctoral fellow in Kaspi’s lab and now a researcher at NASA’s Southern California-based Jet Propulsion Lab, which manages the Juno mission, undertook the planning of the complex experiment.
Seven years later, armed with a wealth of precise measurements of Jupiter’s gravity field, Kaspi’s team and their collaborators have reported in Science and in Geophysical Research Letters that Jupiter’s Red Spot extends about 310 miles below the planet’s clouds.
They had earlier discovered that the high-velocity jet streams responsible for Jupiter’s iconic bands and zones extend downward from the clouds to a depth of about 1,864 miles.
New interpretation of the ammonia data collected by Juno’s microwave instrument supplied evidence that the jet streams are parts of circulation systems similar to Earth’s atmospheric Ferrel cells.
Earth has two Ferrel cells, one in each hemisphere, that play an important role in the planet’s climate. Kaspi’s team found that on Jupiter — which is 11 times larger than Earth — there are 16 Ferrel cells. This is the first direct evidence of such cells on a gaseous planet, providing insights into climate dynamics on Jupiter.
On one of Juno’s passes around Jupiter, the scientists rotated the probe so that its microwave measuring instrument would scan the climate phenomena beneath the planet’s clouds. This instrument surprisingly revealed storms that are much smaller than the Great Red Spot, though still larger than Earth’s greatest hurricanes, extending dozens of kilometers below Jupiter’s clouds.
“To get an idea of its dimensions,” said Parisi, “if a storm of the same size started on the surface of Earth, it would extend all the way up to the International Space Station.”
The death rate from Parkinson’s disease rose by approximately 63 percent in the United States over two decades, according to a new study, and is twice as high among men compared to women and higher among whites than other racial or ethnic groups.
“We know that people are living longer, and the general population is getting older, but that doesn’t fully explain the increase we saw in the death rate in people with Parkinson’s,” said Dr. Wei Bao, lead author of the study that appears in the online journal Neurology of the American Academy of Neurology. “Understanding why more people are dying from this disease is critical if we are going to reverse the trend.”
The study examined the National Vital Statistics data from 1999 to 2019 on the 479,059 people who died of Parkinson’s, and after adjusting for age, it found that the number of people who died from the disease increased from 5.4 per 100,000 people to 8.8 per 100,000 in 20 years. The average annual increase was 2.4 percent. The database is part of the U.S. Center for Disease Control’s National Center for Health Statistics.
Men are twice as likely as women to die from Parkinson’s disease, according to a new study, and mortality rates are higher among whites than other ethnic groups. Michael J. Fox, pictured, has long advocated for research into the disease and raised funding through the Michael J. Fox Foundation. (Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival)
Across all ages, racial and ethnic groups and places of residence, mortality increased, according to the study. But mortality rates among men were double those for women. Women may have a lower mortality rate, according to Bao, because of estrogen, a hormone prevalent in women that leads to higher dopamine levels in areas of the brain controlling motor responses.
According to the study, white people have a higher mortality rate from Parkinson’s than other groups. The mortality rate for them in 2019 was 9.7 per 100,000 people. Next were Latinos at 6.5 per 100,000 people, and non-Latino black people were at 4.7 per 100,000 people. Previous research has shown that black and Latino people, due to socioeconomic barriers, are less likely than whites to consult an outpatient neurologist. For Bao, this suggests that whites are more likely to receive a diagnosis of Parkinson’s.
“It’s important to continue to evaluate long-term trends in Parkinson’s death rates,” Bao said. “This can inform future research that may help pinpoint why more people are dying of the disease. Also, updating vital statistics about Parkinson’s death rates may be used for priority setting and financing of health care and policy.”
The researchers caution, however, that the study examined only one underlying cause of death as recorded on each death certificate. This may not accurately reflect prevalence if multiple co-existing diseases were present at the time of death.
Three-division champion Gervonta Davis and undefeated lightweight prospect Rolando Romero aim to knock each other senseless when they clash for Davis’ WBA 135-pound title on Dec. 5 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
The hammer-fisted combatants share a genuine animosity, with Davis (25-0, 24 KOs) calling his adversary “a scared chump,” and Romero (14-0, 12 KOs) vowing “to knock Gervonta the f*** out” in a Premier Boxing Champions event on Showtime Pay Per View (8 p.m. ET).
“Gervonta Davis and Rolando Romero are both very dangerous and determined fighters with the power in both hands to get you out of there,” said Leonard Ellerbe, CEO of Mayweather Promotions.
“When you have fights like these, a lot of times it comes down to whose power can get there first. There is a very high probability that this fight won’t go the distance, so you’ll have to tune in on Dec. 5 to see what happens.”
Yet despite their acrimony, the 26-year-olds share similar backgrounds.
Davis: “Boxing has saved my life”
Davis is from a crime-filled section of West Baltimore, Maryland. He spent time in foster care and group homes before a friend, Quaadir Gurley, guided him into the Upton Boxing Center’s gym as a 7-year-old.
Gurley introduced Davis to his dad, Calvin Ford, the man who became and remains the champion’s longtime coach.
Ford guided Davis through a 206-15 amateur career that included winning a National Golden Gloves Championship in 2012, three consecutive National Silver Gloves titles from 2006-2008, and two each in National Junior Olympic gold medals, the National Police Athletic League and Ringside World Championships.
Two years before Gurley was shot and killed in 2013, Davis grieved the loss of Ronald Gibbs, a rising amateur boxer who was 17 when he was stabbed to death. The following year, Angelo Ward, another promising amateur, was shot to death.
“Before Coach Ford, I had no father figure because my father was in and out of jail. Angelo Ward, Ronald Gibbs and Coach Calvin’s son — they’re guys who died and were such a major influence on my life,” said Davis, a southpaw nicknamed “Tank” by an amateur coach for his large head.
“Whenever I fight, I feel like their legacy is going into the ring with me. It’s a big responsibility, but I’ll take that. There’s a lot of bad stuff that comes from Baltimore, but if they see that one person can do it, then the next one can do it, and so on and so on. The only thing that I can do is to bring light to Baltimore. Boxing has saved my life.”
Romero: Death on the doorstep
Romero slept through gunshots in his downtown Las Vegas neighborhood as a child. One day, the savagery found its way to the doorstep of his family’s home.
“Growing up, there was a lot of violence,” Romero said. “When I was about 7 years old, the brother of my best friend at the time got shot and killed right in front of my house.”
A 9-year-old Romero channeled aggression into judo, in which he excelled along with his sister, Angelica, a seven-time U.S. national champion.
“I started at the same time as my sister, who is a year and a half younger than me,” said Romero, whose nickname, “Rolly,” came from his father, Rolando Sr. “I won a lot of tournaments, but I wound up in second place in all of the national tournaments I competed in.”
Encouraged by Rolando Sr., a former boxer in his native Cuba, a 16-year-old Romero first boxed at the Las Vegas-based Johnny Tocco’s Ringside Gym.
“I didn’t start boxing until after watching the Olympics of 2012,” said Romero, whose father assists head trainer Bullet Cromwell. “Up until that moment, I never really cared about boxing. It had been a chore for me because I had never sparred. But then I started thinking, ‘I can do this.’”
Davis: ‘Floyd has passed [knowledge] on to me’
At 18, Davis displayed two-fisted power, dazzling speed, accuracy and athleticism during his professional debut in February 2013, an 89-second knockout of 125-pound rival Desi Williams, which was the first of eight consecutive stoppage victories.
After Davis recorded knockouts in all five bouts in 2015, his 14-0 record (13 KOs) caught the attention of four-division champion Adrien Broner, who introduced him to his current promoter, five-division champion Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Five-division champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. was impressed enough to sign and promote both WBA lightweight champion Gervonta Davis and challenger Rolando Romero. The undefeated duo will clash on Dec. 5 at Staples Center in Los Angeles on Dec. 5. (Sean Michael Ham/Mayweather Promotions)
“There’s a lot of knowledge that Floyd has passed on to me,” said Davis. “He has shown me the right things in and outside of boxing. I’m trying to reach the next younger generation of fighters who look up to me.”
Romero: ‘Floyd gave me his number’
An 18-year-old Romero began his brief amateur career in 2013, his 25-10 record including a third-place finish at the Olympic trials of 2015.
Romero’s skills caught Mayweather’s attention following his sparring sessions during trips to his Las Vegas-based Mayweather Boxing Club.
“I did some rounds with a lot of top guys. I can punch very hard, so I stopped a lot of people. When one of those sessions was about to start, Floyd hopped up on the side of the ring. I beat the s–t out of that guy that day,” Romero said.
“So the next day, I went over there again, I did some more damage, and, once again, Floyd hops on the ring. I was feeling so good because he said he wanted to sign me. He gave me his number, I called a week later, and the next day [in November 2016] I was signed.”
Romero was 21 when he made his professional debut — a 61-second stoppage of David Courtney in December 2016 — which was the first of four straight knockouts to begin his career.
Davis already was a 130-pound champion in 2018 when he failed to appear for a scheduled sparring session, according to Romero.
“We were supposed to spar in 2018,” said Romero. “But he didn’t show up to the gym. He did that twice because he knew he was getting beat.”
WBA lightweight champion Gervonta Davis (left) or challenger Rolando Romero (right) could lose for the first time — likely by knockout on Dec. 5 — at Staples Center in Los Angeles. (Sean Michael Ham/Mayweather Promotions)
Davis: ‘I’d rather punish Romero for 12 rounds’
“Tank” won his first crown by obliterating previously unbeaten IBF 130-pound champion Jose Pedraza via seventh-round TKO in January 2017.
“I was on a mission when I fought Jose Pedraza for the title,” Davis said. “I didn’t do any trash talking. I went in there and proved that I’m a top guy.”
Davis will be after 17th straight knockout victory against Romero, his past three stoppages coming in the 12th round over three-division champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (December 2019), the sixth against four-division title winner Leo Santa Cruz (October 2020), and the 11th to dethrone previously unbeaten WBA 140-pound champion Mario Barrios (June 2021).
Gamboa hit the deck three times as Davis won the WBA’s vacant 135-pound title, Santa Cruz was knocked out cold and stopped for the first time in his career and Barrios was floored three times as he slipped to 26-1 (17 KOs).
“I’d rather punish [Romero] for 12 rounds than knock him out quickly,” Davis said. “This guy [Romero] is just here to talk. I’m going to do the talking in the ring on Dec. 5.”
Romero: ‘Come watch me knock Davis out’
“I told Rolly that Gervonta Davis is standing in the way of changing your family and your legacy. We got a job to do,” Cromwell said. “I have a lot of respect for Tank and his team. He’s a great fighter, but Rolly is going to be the new WBA champion on Dec. 5.”
Romero has knocked out eight of his last nine opponents and is coming off July’s three-knockdown, seventh-round stoppage of Swedish southpaw Anthony Yigit, who slipped to 24-2-1 (8 KOs).
“I’ve been calling ‘Tank’ out since 2017. He has such a big head, it’s going to be hard to miss it. He gets touched up by every opponent he faces. Leo Santa Cruz was beating him up, and Barrios was getting to him, too,” Romero said.
“Gervonta wants to run out of the ring whenever he gets hit. Everybody come watch me knock [Davis] out on Dec. 5. I’m here to knock him out in the ring. He’s arrogant and tries to act like he’s tough, but I’m going to knock Gervonta the f*** out.”
Human trafficking, including sex trafficking, has been exacerbated worldwide by the pandemic and is linked in large part to increased time spent online during lockdowns, studies say.
“In the COVID-19 era, many criminal activities are already moving online, taking advantage of the increased time people spend connected at home, or going further underground. Crime detection and investigation are more demanding, and victims become less visible to the authorities,” states a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Broadband use increased by 47 percent between 2019 and 2020, according to technology company OpenVault. Other estimates of total internet activity suggest that it may have increased up to 70 percent. Much of the surge in 2020 came from reliance on mobile devices, averaging roughly an additional 30 minutes per day for the typical American.
The connectivity underlies what some analysts have identified as three major sources fueling the increase in human trafficking, particularly in sex trafficking: An uptick in pornography consumption; increasing loneliness brought on by the lockdowns, social distancing and quarantines; and pornography as a substitute for human interaction.
“Since COVID has driven people online even more, we have seen a significant increase in the use of chat rooms and social media to advertise the sale of children and teens,” said Laura Parker, co-founder and CEO of The Exodus Road, a Colorado nonprofit that fights sex trafficking.
“Sex traffickers especially have been driven out of the in-person marketplace and are targeting the digital space.”
An increasing number of human traffickers find their victims through social media, according to the Polaris Project, a “data-driven social justice movement to fight sex and labor trafficking,” according to its website.
“Based on survivor testimony and research, sex traffickers and child predators appear to be using popular social media apps such as Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok to identify, groom and exploit children in the online space,” said Dawn Hawkins, CEO of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
“In many of the cases occurring on these platforms, minors are receiving unsolicited direct messages from strangers who will often pose as peers or as cohorts from nearby areas.”
An increasing number of human traffickers find their victims through popular social media apps such as Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok to identify and exploit children, says Dawn Hawkins, CEO of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Parker said the scope, severity and traps of human trafficking are further complicated by misinformation.
“Parents don’t realize that because of their children’s easy access to the internet and social media, trafficking risks may be as close as their child’s cellphone,” she said.
The Exodus Road has released a free training platform called TraffickWatch Academy that outlines “the basic components of labor and sex trafficking, what slavery looks like here in the U.S., how to recognize signs of trafficking and practical steps for viewers to personally combat this complex crime in their communities.”
Eighty-two percent of child sex crimes originate from social media sites, according to the Organization for Social Media Safety.
Sexting among young people has become increasingly prevalent with 27.4 percent receiving sexts and 12 percent forwarding a sext without the consent to do so, according to a 2018 analysis published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics.
A study on “Computers in Human Behavior” published in 2018 found that nearly a third of girls receive sexts from online strangers; girls have much more negative experiences of sending sexts; boys have more positive; and online risk-taking behaviors are strongly related to increased likelihood of sexting.
Sexting is dangerous for many youths because once a sext is sent, the recipient gains control and bargaining power, often threatening violence if the victim does not do as told, therapist Cheryl Kosmerl said in an article on The Exodus Road website.
Technology companies have devised ways to help parents manage and address the increased influx of inappropriate conduct on the internet. Canopy is one example of a parental control app that allows parents to filter the content on all internet sites that their children visit.
Street Grace is another organization that uses technology to help combat the commercial sexual exploitation of children. It provides training for communities impacted by sex trafficking and has an AI chatbot called Gracie. The Street Grace initiative Transaction Intercept “works to find the ‘buyers’ of minor sex and erodes their notion of ‘anonymity,’” the site says.
“Most importantly,” the U.N. reports says, “the pandemic has exacerbated and brought to the forefront the systemic and deeply entrenched economic and societal inequalities that are among the root causes of human trafficking.
“Restriction or control of movement of victims is a common feature of trafficking in persons. Lockdowns and confinement could reinforce the isolation of victims and reduce drastically any chance of them being identified and removed from such exploitative situations.
“During the pandemic, there are additional obstacles to accessing services, assistance and support, due to rules on confinement at home and related closure of NGOs and government offices. Isolation and social distancing can exacerbate mental health issues and disrupt any access to informal support networks.”
As gasoline prices remain high, a troubling lack of crude oil production in a tight market is emerging from U.S. Energy Department data, analysts said.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration, part of the Energy Department, publishes weekly data on commercial storage levels of crude oil and refined petroleum products such as gasoline and diesel. Inventory gains are usually indicative of a slump in demand, while the opposite holds for declines.
All products — commercial crude oil, motor gasoline and distillates, including diesel — showed gains in the latest report. But all of these are below what would be normal for this time of year, showing the market remains tight, which means gas prices will remain relatively high.
U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, not counting what’s stored in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, increased 4.3 million barrels from the previous week. That took some of the steam out of the recent rally in commodity prices, which for the U.S benchmark for the price of oil is still at seven-year highs.
West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, closed trading Wednesday at $82.66 per barrel, down some 2.4 percent on the day.
US crude oil prices remain at seven-year highs, but may be cooling off. (U.S. Energy Information Administration)
Complicating the matter is the fact that commercial crude oil inventories are about 6 percent below the five-year average for this time of year.
The market still seems a bit tight given that producers aren’t putting more oil on the market, Geoffrey S. Lakings, the chief strategist at IIR Energy, told Zenger
“Neither U.S. shale nor OPEC+ is seemingly willing to bring back supply,” he said.
The White House over the course of a month or so has been pressuring OPEC and its non-member state allies, a group called OPEC+, to open the spigot. Saudi Arabia, the de facto leader of the group, has rebuffed those calls and said the broader market picture is a reflection of a lack of investments in fossil fuels more than any sort of artificial effort to keep prices higher.
OPEC+, however, does seem comfortable with oil at around $80 per barrel. But Lakings suggested that it would be a bit of a surprise to see oil prices move too much higher this year.
Domestic stockpiles of crude oil are near the bottom of the five-year range. (U.S. Energy Information Administration)
Seconding that sentiment is Al Salazar, managing director at energy data firm Enverus, who said some of the weakness in products apart from oil may spill over to take some of the life out of the bull market.
“For those that are into technical analysis, $86 per barrel is proving to be a very, very tough nut to crack,” he said of West Texas Intermediate.
That said, the fact that crude oil and refined petroleum products are below the five-year average suggests the floor won’t give way to a repeat of a rare phenomenon in April 2020, when U.S. crude oil traded briefly in negative territory. Production is still short and demand is high enough to keep prices near current levels.
Domestic production for the week ending October 22 was just under the five-year average and the cumulative daily average to that date is actually about 5.6 percent below year-ago levels, which suggests producers are more disciplined now than when they were during the pre-vaccine stage of the pandemic.
Some of the federal energy data this week was largely expected due to seasonal factors which cause demand to drift lower, such as it getting colder and darker earlier, which keeps more drivers home. But the lack of an increase in production is “a disappointment,” said Ole Hanson, the head of commodity strategies at Saxo Bank.
Producers, bending to shareholder pressure, may be favoring renewables more than fossil fuels, complicating matters in the tight market.
An Alabama woman has been charged after sheriff’s deputies resuscitated a year-old child who had ingested some of her mother’s drugs.
Jeanette Lashay Bell, “admitted that the child had accessed some of her drug paraphernalia and ingested it by putting it in her mouth,” the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
Bell was charged with chemical endangerment of a child and held on a $15,000 bond, the sheriff’s office said.
Jefferson County dispatchers received a 911 call from a woman who reported a 1-year-old child had overdosed, the sheriff’s office said.
The toddler was unresponsive for about 30 minutes.
Video show deputies arriving at the home and finding the unresponsive child lying on the floor.
Deputies resuscitated the child by using Narcan, which blocks the effects of opioids, and in the video, one says, “she’s breathing.”
The child was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where she was reported to be in a stable condition.
Witnesses told deputies that the child had ingested illegal drugs and that she had been unresponsive for about 30 minutes, the sheriff’s office said in its statement on Oct. 27.
Jeanette Lashay Bell admitted that the child had accessed some of her drug paraphernalia and ingested it, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said. She was charged with chemical endangerment of a child and held on a $15,000 bond. (Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office/Zenger)
The sheriff’s office said the Department of Human Resources was contacted to check the welfare of other children in the home.
The sheriff’s office report said: “On Monday October 25, 2021 at 2:36 p.m., Jefferson County dispatchers received a 911 call from a woman screaming that a 1-year-old child had overdosed. Deputies were dispatched to the 6400 block of Avenue D in Fairfield.
“Deputies arrived at that location and found a small child laying on the floor unresponsive. Witnesses on the scene informed the deputies that the child had ingested some illegal drugs, possibly fentanyl and that she had been unresponsive for about 30 minutes. Deputies began to try to resuscitate the child by using Narcan. After receiving the Narcan the child began to breathe slowly.
“The child was transported by ambulance to Children’s Hospital where she is reported to be in stable condition.
“During the investigation, the child’s mother 31-year-old Jeanette Lashay Bell admitted that the child had accessed some of her drug paraphernalia and ingested it by putting it in her mouth. The Department of Human Resources was contacted to check the welfare of other children in the home. … Bell was charged with chemical Endangerment of a Child and held on a $15,000 bond.”
Freya appeared on the Royal Netherlands Navy submarine, one of the most advanced non-nuclear attack submarines in the world, in the city of Den Helder, in the Netherlands this week.
She was first spotted Sept. 20 near the island of Schiermonnikoog.
The walrus entered the waters in the Port of Den Helder and hopped onto the HNLMS Dolfijn.
The animal has been sighted several times off the Dutch coast, including in Harlingen and Terschelling. It is assumed Freya lost her way in search of food.
Freya swims alongside HNLMS Dolfijn, a submarine of the Royal Netherlands Navy. (Royal Netherlands Navy Submarine Service/Zenger)
The Royal Netherlands Navy Submarine Service posted footage of Freya relaxing on the HNLMS Dolfijn on Twitter on Oct. 26. The message read: “Welcome on board shipmate!”
The clip has been viewed nearly 210,000 times.
On Oct. 27, Freya was back again and the Navy posted footage of the walrus swimming alongside the vessel. Another clip shows the animal bathing on a semi-submerged part of the sub.
The Royal Netherlands Navy Submarine Service accompanied the video with the message: “Good morning. We had a lovely bath and started the day fresh. Greetings Freya.”
A Navy spokesman said: “We suspect the animal chose the submarine because of its hull shape.” The walrus isn’t disrupting the submarine, as it just returned from exercises and is not currently in use.
The fin-footed mammal, known as a pinniped, has also been spotted near Denmark and Germany.
The female walrus was dubbed Freya after the local broadcaster Omrop Fryslân called on the public to give her a name.
Conservationists are asking the public to leave the walrus alone. The species weighs 881 to 1,700 pounds and is listed as vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
Freya hoisted herself onto the Dutch sub, part of the Royal Netherlands Navy. Walruses can weigh 881 to 1,700 pounds. (Royal Netherlands Navy/Zenger)
Earlier this year, a walrus was sighted in Ireland. It drew tourists hoping to catch a glimpse, which worried conservationists. That walrus was given the name Wally, which helped get the message out that he needed to be left alone. Researchers have found it is easier to keep the public away if the animal has a name.
Freya appears healthy and must have a food supply, otherwise she would have left the area by now.
Walruses’ most outstanding features are their long tusks, surrounded by stiff bristles. The tusks keep breathing holes in the ice open. They are also useful for fighting and helping the walruses haul themselves out of the water and onto an ice floe.
