Albert Bender says the new Sounds stadium should be put on hold to find more ancient artifacts. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District/Flickr)
Native American activists are asking Nashville Mayor Karl Dean to halt the construction of a new minor league baseball stadium after archeologists discovered ancient artifacts. One Native American activist said a lawsuit could follow if the city ignores their demands.
Activist Albert Bender writes about Native American history for a living. He said more time should be given to archeologists to study the site. Bender considers next spring’s scheduled opening date of the new $150-million-dollar Sounds Stadium to be arbitrary.
“What is the problem with halting the construction of the ballpark for a few months to a year, when we’re talking about thousands of years of history that is waiting to be unearthed?” Bender asks.
What archeologists dug from the earth were ancient pottery used to boil water in the production of salt, which was then exported around the South some 800 years ago.
Archeologists will publish a detailed analysis of all findings form the site next month.
Last week, Bender presented the mayor with a list of demands. If the stadium construction isn’t put on pause, Bender would like to see the site at least commemorated in some way.
Among his suggestions is the development of an “interpretative center” in which the artifacts could be publicly viewed in a separate museum-like building.
“This is something we’re considering,” said Bonna Johnson, spokeswoman for Mayor Karl Dean. “We’ve asked the ballpark project team to look at ways to pay homage to the Native American history in that area. We will continue conversations with the Native American groups that approached us about this and work toward a solution.”
Bender says his American Indian Coalition, which is not an incorporated group, represents “all Native Americans who feel the way we do,” but it does to have an official member count.
Bender, who is an attorney but not licensed to practice in Tennessee, says suing over the matter is not out of the question.
“To my knowledge, this is the first time anything of this nature has ever been found in the state of Tennessee, or any where in the South” said Bender, who is writing a book on Native American history. “There is so much knowledge to be gained form this site, and we feel it far outweighs any artificial schedule, rush schedule, for the completion of the ballpark.”
A similar battle unfolded in Miami recently, where preservationists convinced developers to redesign a long-planned hotel to include a display of an ancient Native American village discovered during construction. The battle delayed the project for weeks and generated international attention.
Bender said the Miami case has many parallels with Nashville’s, and he said the success of preservationists there could embolden his own effort.
The multibillion-dollar e-cigarette industry is not regulated, but the Food and Drug Administration is seeking to change that. Credit Frank Franklin II/Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration will propose sweeping new rules on Thursday that for the first time would extend its regulatory authority from cigarettes to electronic cigarettes, popular nicotine delivery devices that have grown into a multibillion-dollar business with virtually no federal oversight or protections for American consumers.
The regulatory blueprint, with broad implications for public health, the tobacco industry and the nation’s 42 million smokers, would also cover pipe tobacco and cigars, tobacco products that have long slid under the regulatory radar and whose use has risen sharply in recent years. The new regulations would ban the sale of e-cigarettes, cigars and pipe tobacco to Americans under 18, and would require that people buying them show photo identification to prove their age, measures already mandated in a number of states.
Once finalized, the regulations will establish oversight of what has been a market free-for-all of products, including vials of liquid nicotine of varying quality and unknown provenance. It has taken the agency four years since Congress passed a major tobacco-control law in 2009 to get to this stage, and federal officials and advocates say it will take at least another year for the rules to take effect — and possibly significantly longer if affected companies sue to block them.
“If it takes more than a year to finalize this rule, the F.D.A. isn’t doing its job,” said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, an advocacy group.
Thursday’s release of the blueprint — which is hundreds of pages long — is sure to set off a frantic lobbying effort in Washington as affected industries try to head off the costliest, most restrictive regulations.
Members of the Smoke Free Alternatives Trade Association, one of the e-cigarette industry trade groups, descended on Washington in November, and reported holding nearly 50 meetings with congressional officials to help them “learn more about the negative impact inappropriate regulation could have on this nascent industry,” the group said in a statement.
The industry has several trade associations, and a number of them have met with Obama administration officials about the regulations over the past several months, according to public records and industry group statements.
F.D.A. officials gave journalists an outline of the new rules on Wednesday, but required that they not talk to industry or public health groups until after Thursday’s formal release of the document.
The agency said the 2009 law gave it the power to prohibit sales to minors of all tobacco products that it has authority over, which now will include e-cigarettes and cigars. A spokeswoman said the move did not reflect a finding about the safety of these products.
Perhaps the biggest proposed change would require producers of cigars and e-cigarettes to register with the F.D.A., provide the agency with a detailed accounting of their products’ ingredients and disclose their manufacturing processes and scientific data. Producers would also be subject to F.D.A. inspections.
But the new blueprint was also notable for what it did not contain: any proposal to ban flavors in e-cigarettes and cigars, like bubble gum and grape, that public health experts say lure children to use the products, or any move to restrict the marketing of e-cigarettes, as is done for traditional cigarettes, which are banned from television, for example.
F.D.A. officials said the new regulations were the first major step toward asserting the agency’s authority and eventually being able to regulate flavors and marketing. But doing so will require further federal rulemaking, they said.
For example, to restrict the use of flavors, the agency would have to establish a factual record that they pose a health risk for young people. The same goes for marketing, an area that has been vulnerable to litigation from industry. The agency tried to impose graphic warning labels on cigarette packaging, for example, only to have tobacco companies fight the measure in court and win on grounds that it violated their First Amendment right to free speech.
“You can’t get to the flavors until you have regulatory authority over them,” said Mitchell Zeller, director of the Center for Tobacco Products at the F.D.A. He called the blueprint “foundational.”
The regulations establish federal authority over tobacco products that were not named in the 2009 tobacco control law, including certain dissolvable tobacco products, water pipe tobacco and nicotine gels. E-cigarettes are considered a tobacco product because their main ingredient, nicotine, is derived from tobacco.
One exception is sure to worry antismoking activists: Mr. Zeller said the agency was asking for public comment on whether premium cigars — hand-rolled with a tobacco leaf as a wrapper — should be placed in a special separate category not subject to F.D.A. authority. The cigar industry has lobbied Congress furiously for exemption to the rules, garnering some support from both Democrats and Republicans.
The new regulatory proposal is open to public comment for 75 days, and then the agency will make final changes, a process that will take months.
Under the new rules, companies would no longer be able to offer free samples, and e-cigarettes would have to come with warning labels saying that they contain nicotine, which is addictive. Companies would also not be able to assert that e-cigarettes were less harmful than real cigarettes unless they got approval from the F.D.A. to do so by submitting scientific information.
In the proposed restrictions on sales to minors, vending machines in public places where minors are allowed would no longer be able to carry them. A ban on Internet sales to minors, already in place for cigarettes, would extend to e-cigarettes and cigars.
E-cigarette consumption is rising fast, and in the absence of federal regulations, many states have already passed laws that ban e-cigarettes from public places, regulate their sale, and in some cases tax them. More than half of states already enforce bans on their sale to minors.
Under the new rules, companies would have to apply for F.D.A. approval for their products, but would have two years after the new rules are finalized to do so. Companies can keep their products on the market in the meantime. Eventually, the companies would have to adhere to F.D.A. standards for manufacturing their products, not unlike how drug companies and food companies do now, but the agency has yet to write those rules.
Some experts have cautioned that too high a regulatory bar could stifle smaller e-cigarette producers and help deep-pocketed tobacco companies, which have also gotten into the e-cigarette business. Innovation to make e-cigarettes better would also slow if regulations were too burdensome, they say. Meeting such requirements includes the expenses of application costs, user fees that industry pays the agency, and assembling a scientific case to show that a product should be approved.
Bonnie Herzog, an analyst at Wells Fargo Securities in New York, said the proposal would probably lead to consolidation in the fragmented e-cigarette industry, where there are now around 200 manufacturers.
“It benefits the entrenched players,” she said, referring to the three big tobacco companies that produce e-cigarettes, Lorillard, R.J. Reynolds and Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris U.S.A., as well as larger e-cigarette producers, like Njoy and Logic.
Health experts disagree over the role of e-cigarettes, with some arguing that they offer the first real alternative to the deadly risks of smoking and could save millions of lives. Others are more cautious, saying their gadgetry and flavors tempt children, and that people are using them to enable smoking habits, not to quit.
Antismoking activists say the agency must strike a balance.
“In the urgency not to stifle innovation, we shouldn’t eliminate the need for scientific evidence,” Mr. Myers said. “You can’t let them be fly-by-night operations.”
Martin Raab, center, talks about a $1.8 million contract BAE Systems signed with S&K Electronics president and general manager Larry Hall (right), for S&K to produce a component of a BAE system that protects low-flying aircraft from threats like surface-to-air missiles (Photo by Tom Bauer/Missoulian).
American military pilots and their crews will be counting on employees of a company owned by Montana’s Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.
The Missoulian reports that S&K Electronics will manufacture a key component that will be used in the Common Missile Warning System utilized by military helicopters to deter surface-to-air missiles, among other things. The announcement of the contract from BAE Systems, worth $1.8 million, came at a press conference in Pablo.
Larry Hall, the president and general manager of S&K Electronics, was beaming as he spoke to the crowd.
“We’re here to signify a growing relationship with BAE Systems,” he said. “It’s a major customer that we’ve had for several years. It’s reaching new milestones. We want to recognize this particular level and also make our workforce aware of what it means to the eventual user, which is the war fighter. One of the things that this particular system does is protect the people in the low-flying, slow-flying vehicles like helicopters, and that is a major, major effort.”
Hall said that the CMWS has saved a significant number of lives in the past several years, both in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The event attracted two-thirds of Montana’s Congressional delegation, Missoulian reporter David Erickson’s story noted.
U.S. Rep. Steve Daines, R-Mont., praised the economic impact, saying “These are manufacturing jobs that could be anywhere, and they’re right here up in the Flathead.”
U.S. Sen. John Walsh, D-Mont., noted that he has a son who flies a Blackhawk helicopter and has been deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan.
“So I know how important this piece of equipment is, not only to our active duty military, but for our Reserve component service members, men and women who are flying aircraft right out of Montana,” Walsh said. “So I want to thank you for providing this service to the men and women who serve in our military.”
Daines and Walsh are running against each other this year for Walsh’s Senate seat.
Dan Snyder, the owner of Washington’s NFL team, made brief remarks to an Associated Press reporter on Tuesday arguing that it’s time for people to “focus on reality” concerning Native American issues instead of criticizing the team’s nickname.
“We understand the issues out there, and we’re not an issue,” Snyder said. “The real issues are real-life issues, real-life needs, and I think it’s time that people focus on reality.”
Snyder’s remarks came after his football team donated copy00,000 to a high school athletic field in a Virginia suburb of D.C. The donation was based on a letter he wrote last month to announce his Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation. “I wrote a letter to the fans and it speaks for itself,” Snyder told reporters. “It tells you we did our homework, unlike a lot of people, and we understand the issues out there.”
But many say that Snyder needs a serious dose of reality himself. In a statement, the National Congress of American Indians said, “Dan Snyder lives in a world where he can get his way throwing his money around. The reality is that he is stubbornly defending the use of a slur.”
“Here’s a reality check: The longer [Snyder] insists on slurring Native Americans, the more damage he will keep doing to Native American communities,” Ray Halbritter, Oneida Indian Nation representative, said in a statement.
Snyder has insisted that he will never change the team’s’ name, calling it a “badge of honor,” and he did not respond to reporters’ questions that his new foundation is a way of throwing money around to silence his critics. Instead, he asserted that the foundation is on the right track. “I think it tells you that we did our homework — unlike a lot of people,” he said.
But the foundation is receiving a failing grade from many leaders in the Native community, including Notah Begay III a four-time winner on the PGA Tour. Begay, who spoke to USA TODAY Sports before Snyder made his comments, said that the foundation was “a gimmick” and that Snyder was trying to “offset some of the public disdain for the name of his football team. The Washington football team’s front office has tried to make the issue about them and it’s really not about them. It’s about, unfortunately, the NFL and its owners and its corporate partners condoning use of that word.
“I don’t think if a similar racially offensive word was used for the Hispanic, African American or Jewish communities that it would be tolerated,” Begay told USA Today. “But because the American Indian people historically have not had much political leverage, or because we don’t represent a great amount of buying power from a retail standpoint, we don’t get the same level of treatment that everyone else in this country gets.”
Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell will be in Washington State on April 24, to provide keynote remarks at a tribal summit organized by U.S. Representative Derek Kilmer (WA-6) and hosted by the Suquamish Tribe.
The summit will be held at the Port Madison Indian Reservation on Bainbridge Island. Jewell will meet tribal leaders and tour the Suquamish hatchery and seafood plant with Leonard Forsman, tribal chairman.
Accompanying Jewell on the visit will be Larry Roberts, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs, and Stanley Speaks, Northwest Regional Director, Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Jewell is chair of the White House Council on Native American Affairs a role that has her overseeing a comprehensive effort to enable Federal agencies to work more collaboratively and effectively with tribes to advance their economic and social priorities and improve conditions for American Indians and Alaska Natives according to an Interior press release.
The summit on Thursday will include discussions on economic development, tribal sovereignty and the impact of climate change on American Indian communities to be held in the Suquamish Community House (House of Awakened Culture). Representatives from the nine tribes within the 6t Congressional District – the Hoh, Lower Elwha, Makah, Quinault, Quileute, Jamestown S’Klallam, Port Gamble S’Klallam, and Skokomish – have been invited.
Stripping the bark from the sticks. Photo/Mike Sarich
By Mike Sarich, Tulalip News
On April 22nd, members of the Wisdom Warriors support group met up to discuss ways to they can lead a healthier lifestyle. The support group meets on a monthly basis to support each other in maintaining their health goals for living a strong life. Meetings include discussing health topics, enjoying a prepared healthy lunch, and participating in an activity. This month, the group carved “salmon sticks” from branches of the Ocean Spray bush that were harvested locally by tribal members.
For more information on the Wisdom Warriors, contact Veronica Leahy at 360-716-5642.
The Northwest would see more oil trains like these under proposed rail-to-ship terminals on Washington’s Grays Harbor. That’s the subject of public hearings Thursday and Tuesday. | credit: Flickr
Environmental regulators in Washington state are expecting a lively crowd Thursday in the coastal city of Hoquiam, where the public gets a chance to weigh in about increased crude oil train traffic.
Developers are proposing side-by-side marine terminal expansions on Grays Harbor along the Washington coast. They would receive crude oil by rail from the Northern Plains and send it out by barge and tanker to West Coast refineries. This would add to the already fast-rising number of crude oil trains crossing the Northwest. Environmentalists, shellfish growers and coastal tribes are organizing in opposition.
But one powerful state senator asserts that oil trains are “going to be with us for a while.” Republican Doug Ericksen represents a district in northwest Washington that is home to two oil refineries.
“Simply saying no — coming to a meeting and saying we just don’t want any oil coming through Washington state — that’s not realistic. It’s not going to happen. That would actually be devastating to our economy, trying to prevent these crude oil stocks from moving to our refineries,” he said.
Ericksen agrees oil train safety is a legitimate concern. Environmental campaigners argue many of the rail cars carrying crude across the region are old and unsafe and pose grave risks to rail-side communities.
What’s Next
The City of Hoquiam and Washington Department of Ecology are jointly leading the environmental review of the planned crude oil terminals in Grays Harbor County. The public can take a look at the proposals and offer comments at Hoquiam High School Thursday from 5 to 9 p.m. A second public meeting is scheduled for April 29 at Centralia High School.
This was first reported by the Northwest News Network.
Washington’s remarkable razor clam season continues as state shellfish managers plan to add digs in late-April and early May.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) announced a tentative schedule of new digs in light of updated harvest estimates that show a sufficient number of clams to support the additional openings.
“This has been a great year for razor clams,” said Dan Ayres, WDFW shellfish manager. “Clams this year have been bigger than average and abundant enough to add another series of digs.”
Final approval on upcoming digs will be announced after marine-toxin test results confirm the clams are safe to eat.
“Digging at Mocrocks has been fabulous lately,” Ayres said, noting that the upcoming series of digs includes three dates at that beach.
The upcoming digs are scheduled on the following dates, beaches and low tides:
• May 01, Thursday, 8:43 a.m., -1.0 feet, Twin Harbors, Long Beach
• May 02, Friday, 9:23 a.m., -0.7 feet, Twin Harbors, Long Beach, Mocrocks
• May 03, Saturday, 10:04 a.m., -0.3 feet, Twin Harbors, Long Beach, Mocrocks
• May 04, Sunday, 10:47 a.m., 0.1 feet, Twin Harbors, Long Beach, Mocrocks
WDFW shellfish managers will analyze harvest data after this series of digs is completed. If enough clams remain for more digs, the best tides are around the weekend of May 17, Ayres said.
Under state law, diggers can take 15 razor clams per day and are required to keep the first 15 they dig. Each digger’s clams must be kept in a separate container. Razor clam diggers are reminded that they may not harvest any part of another person’s daily limit, except for those who possess designated harvester cards.
Diggers age 15 or older must have an applicable 2014-15 fishing license to harvest razor clams on state beaches. Fishing licenses of various kinds are available on the department’s website at https://fishhunt.dfw.wa.gov and from license vendors around the state.
TAHOLAH, WA – The Quinault Indian Nation (QIN) is adamantly opposed to increased oil train traffic in Grays Harbor County, the construction of new oil terminals, increased oil shipping from the port of Grays Harbor and dredging of the Chehalis River estuary. “We oppose all of these for both economic and environmental reasons,” said Fawn Sharp, QIN President. “We ask the citizens, businesses and agencies from within the county and beyond to stand with us in opposing the intrusion of Big Oil into our region,” she said. “The small number of jobs this dirty industry brings with it are vastly outnumbered by the number of jobs connected with a healthy natural resources and a clean environment,” she said.
“It is time for people from all walks of life to stand up for their quality of life, their children and their grandchildren. It makes no sense whatsoever to allow Big Oil to invade our region, especially with the volume they are proposing. We all have too much at stake to place ourselves square in the path of this onrushing deluge of pollution, to allow mile-long trains to divide our communities and jeopardize our air, land and waters,” she said.
“Consider the number of jobs that are dependent on health fish and wildlife. The birdlife in Grays Harbor alone attracts thousands of tourists every year. Fishing and clamming attract thousands more. And anyone who listens to Big Oil or their pawns when they tell us how safe the oil trains are, or the ships or even the oil terminals that are being proposed needs to pay closer attention. We have already had large quantities of fish and shellfish stolen from us through development of and damage to Grays Harbor and its tributaries and we are not accepting any more losses. We want restoration, not further damage,” she said.
“Derailments, crashes, spills and explosions are extremely dangerous and they happen with frightening regularity. The fact is that there will be accidents and there will be spills, and they will do extensive damage,” said Sharp.
Sharp said there is another fact of which people must be aware: “If we stand together, speak up and demand to be heard, we can make a difference. Our collective voice empowers us.”
U.S. Development Group is currently seeking permits to build an oil terminal on the Washington coast that could handle about 45,000 barrels of crude oil a day. The $80 million proposal at the Port of Grays Harbor is one of several in Washington that together would bring millions of barrels of oil by train from the Bakken region of North Dakota and Montana. About 17 million barrels of oil were shipped across Washington State last. That number is expected to triple this year. Grays Harbor is facing three separate crude-by-rail proposals. Westway Terminal Company, Imperium Terminal Services, and U.S. Development Group have each proposed projects that would ship tens of millions of barrels of crude oil through Grays Harbor each year. Daily trains more than a mile long would bring crude oil from North Dakota or tar sands crude oil from Alberta, Canada along the Chehalis River and into the port, where it would be stored in huge shoreline tanks. The crude would then be pumped onto oil tankers and barges, increasing at least four-fold the large vessel traffic in and out of the harbor.
Westway Terminal Company proposes five new storage tanks of 200,000 barrels each. Westway estimates it will receive 1.25 unit trains per day or 458 trains trips (loaded and unloaded) a year. The company estimates it will add 198-238 oil barge transits of Grays Harbor per year. “The chances are even those counts are very conservative,” said Sharp.
Imperium Terminal Services proposes nine new storage tanks of 80,000 barrels each. With a capacity to receive 78,000 barrels per day, Imperium may ship almost 28.5 million barrels of crude oil per year. Imperium estimates that the terminal would add 730 train trips annually, equaling two, 105-car trains (one loaded with oil on the way in, one empty on the way out) per day. The company estimates 400 ship/barge transits through Grays Harbor per year.
U.S. Development Group submitted its application in this crude-by-rail race early this month. It proposes eight storage tanks each capable of holding over 123,000 barrels of crude oil. The company anticipates receiving one loaded 120 tank car train every two days, and adding 90-120 Panamax-sized vessel transits through Grays Harbor per year.
“We are targeted by Big Oil,” said Sharp. “We will not allow them to turn our region into the greasy mess they have created in other regions. We care about our land and our water. We realize how important our natural resources are to our future and we’re not going to sit by and let them destroy what we have,” said Sharp.
Deborah Hersman, outgoing chair of the National Transportation Safety Board said on April 21 that U.S. communities are not prepared to respond to worst-case accidents involving trains carrying crude oil and ethanol. In her farewell address in Washington DC, she said regulators are behind the curve in addressing the transport of hazardous liquids by rail and that Federal regulations have not been revised to address the 440 percent increase in rail transport of crude oil and other flammables we have experienced since 2005. Hersman, who is leaving her post at NTSB April 25 to serve as president of the National Safety Council, said the petroleum industry and first responders don’t have provisions in place to address a worst-case scenario event involving a train carrying crude oil or ethanol.
Hershman added in her comments that the DOT-111 rail tank cars used to carry crude oil are not safe to carry hazardous liquids. She also said that NTSB is overwhelmed by the number of oil train accidents. At present, she said the NTSB is involved in more than 20 rail accident investigations but only has about 10 rail investigators.
“It makes absolutely no sense for us to allow our communities to be exposed to the same dangers that killed 47 people in Quebec this past summer. That tragedy was not an isolated incident. It could happen here, and there is absolutely no doubt that this increased oil traffic will cost us all in terms of both environmental and long term economic damage,” said Sharp.
“For the sake of our public safety, our long term economy, our streams, wetlands, fishing areas, shellfish beds, and migratory bird habitats, we will stand up to them. The Quinault Nation encourages everyone who cares about the future of our region to participate in the public hearings regarding the Westway and Imperium proposals being conducted at 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., Thursday, April 24 at Hoquiam High School and Tuesday, April 29 at Centralia High School. We further encourage letters and calls to the Department of Ecology, to local government and to the Governor. Now is the time for to speak out in support of the future of Grays Harbor and the Pacific Northwest!”
“We strongly encourage people to show up and make comments and submit written testimony at these hearings,” said Sharp. “A good turnout is a must,” she said. Following the hearing, written comments can be sent to Maia Bellon, Director of the Department of Ecology, at 300 Desmond Drive, Lacey, WA 98503-1274.
To join QIN in this effort, please email ProtectOurFuture@Quinault.org. “Together, we can protect the land and the water for our children, and rebuild a sustainable economy,” said Sharp.
