2017 Morehead State Football Schedule The Ledger-Independent, 08.08.2017
DATE; TIME; OPPONENT; SITE
Aug 31; 6:00 p.m.; Kentucky Christian; Morehead
Sep 9; 6:00 p.m.; Liberty; Lynchburg, VA
Sep 16; 7:00 p.m.; Austin Peay; Clarksville, TN
Sep 23; 1:00 p.m.; Dayton; Morehead
Sep 30; 2:00 p.m.; Campbell; Buies Creek, NC
Oct 7; 1:00 p.m.; Butler; Morehead
Oct 14; 5:00 p.m.; San Diego; San Diego, CA
Oct 21; 1:00 p.m.; Stetson; Morehead
Oct 28; 2:00 p.m.; Valparaiso; Valparaiso, IN
Nov 11; 12:00 p.m.; Marist; Poughkeepsie, NY
Nov 18; 1:00 p.m.; Davidson; Morehead
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Can Video Game Playing Cost You Gray Matter? Beatrice Daily Sun, 08.08.2017
MONDAY, Aug. 7 2017 (HealthDay News) -- A new study suggests -- but doesn't prove -- that certain players of action video games may lose gray matter in a part of the brain that's linked to mental illness.
On the other hand, the Canadian study suggests, other players may actually benefit from the games.
And a psychologist not involved with the study said there's no evidence that video games are harmful to the brain.
The results indicate that the reported benefits of playing shooting-style video games -- such as improved attention and short-term memory -- "might come at a cost" in terms of lost brain matter in some players, said the study's lead author, Gregory West. He is an assistant professor with the department of psychology at the University of Montreal.
The difference may be the style of playing, the researchers noted.
The new study aimed to better understand the brain effects of so-called first-person and third-person shooting games -- such as Call of Duty, Battlefield, Killzone, or Medal of Honor -- compared to "3-D platform" games in the Super Mario series.
The researchers used a virtual-reality test, MRIs and 90 hours of game-playing involving 100 people who were either expert or nonexpert players. They also used MRIs to assess the impact on the hippocampus, the part of the brain that helps spatial and episodic memory.
The results showed evidence that gray matter in the hippocampus grew in those players who used so-called spatial strategies to find their way in the action video game. But the gray matter shrunk in those who navigated the same games by learned response.
Spatial players create maps in their heads to understand the geography of the world within the game, the researchers explained. And response players use an approach akin to learning a route that you travel every day -- make a right turn here, then a left, then a right -- so that you can drive on mental auto-pilot without thinking.
Those who played the Super Mario games, meanwhile, showed signs of growth in either the hippocampus or another part of the brain called the entorhinal cortex.
The study authors emphasized that they aren't saying that anyone who plays video games will develop a mental illness.
"But we know that those with less gray matter in the hippocampus are more at risk to get conditions like schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and Alzheimer's disease," said study co-author Veronique Bohbot. She is an associate professor with the department of psychiatry at McGill University in Montreal.
A video game expert called brain studies of game players problematic.
"Given that there are so many areas in the brain, it stands to reason that, by chance alone, some of these areas may randomly differ between any two groups of people," said Chris Ferguson, a professor of psychology with Stetson University in DeLand, Fla.
"Researchers can sometimes make a big deal out of these random differences and ascribe them to something like video games," he said.
Ferguson noted that overall brain research into the effects of the games hasn't revealed problems.
"Despite some wild headlines and press releases from time to time, the research suggests that video game playing is entirely safe for the brain," Ferguson said.
"The aggregate of studies have not suggested that playing video games, even 'violent' ones, cause either short- or long-term brain changes that are problematic or could be called 'brain damage,' " he added.
"Most studies also don't connect the brain differences to actual behavior. So brain studies often function like Rorschach cards, telling you more about what the researchers want to believe than anything actually happening with human behavior," Ferguson suggested.
What should video game players do? Study lead author West suggests that adults play shooter games for only two to three hours a week.
Ferguson noted that research is hinting that video games may reduce stress and improve problem-solving abilities.
"Playing video games should be balanced with other activities: offline socialization, exercise, work and school, family and good sleep," he said. "As long as games are part of a balanced lifestyle, there's no evidence that they cause harmful brain changes."
The study was published in the Aug. 7 issue of Molecular Psychiatry.
More information
For more about the impact of video games, visit Sutter Health.
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Can Video Game Playing Cost You Gray Matter? Farmington Press, 08.08.2017
MONDAY, Aug. 7 2017 (HealthDay News) -- A new study suggests -- but doesn't prove -- that certain players of action video games may lose gray matter in a part of the brain that's linked to mental illness.
On the other hand, the Canadian study suggests, other players may actually benefit from the games.
And a psychologist not involved with the study said there's no evidence that video games are harmful to the brain.
The results indicate that the reported benefits of playing shooting-style video games -- such as improved attention and short-term memory -- "might come at a cost" in terms of lost brain matter in some players, said the study's lead author, Gregory West. He is an assistant professor with the department of psychology at the University of Montreal.
The difference may be the style of playing, the researchers noted.
The new study aimed to better understand the brain effects of so-called first-person and third-person shooting games -- such as Call of Duty, Battlefield, Killzone, or Medal of Honor -- compared to "3-D platform" games in the Super Mario series.
The researchers used a virtual-reality test, MRIs and 90 hours of game-playing involving 100 people who were either expert or nonexpert players. They also used MRIs to assess the impact on the hippocampus, the part of the brain that helps spatial and episodic memory.
The results showed evidence that gray matter in the hippocampus grew in those players who used so-called spatial strategies to find their way in the action video game. But the gray matter shrunk in those who navigated the same games by learned response.
Spatial players create maps in their heads to understand the geography of the world within the game, the researchers explained. And response players use an approach akin to learning a route that you travel every day -- make a right turn here, then a left, then a right -- so that you can drive on mental auto-pilot without thinking.
Those who played the Super Mario games, meanwhile, showed signs of growth in either the hippocampus or another part of the brain called the entorhinal cortex.
The study authors emphasized that they aren't saying that anyone who plays video games will develop a mental illness.
"But we know that those with less gray matter in the hippocampus are more at risk to get conditions like schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and Alzheimer's disease," said study co-author Veronique Bohbot. She is an associate professor with the department of psychiatry at McGill University in Montreal.
A video game expert called brain studies of game players problematic.
"Given that there are so many areas in the brain, it stands to reason that, by chance alone, some of these areas may randomly differ between any two groups of people," said Chris Ferguson, a professor of psychology with Stetson University in DeLand, Fla.
"Researchers can sometimes make a big deal out of these random differences and ascribe them to something like video games," he said.
Ferguson noted that overall brain research into the effects of the games hasn't revealed problems.
"Despite some wild headlines and press releases from time to time, the research suggests that video game playing is entirely safe for the brain," Ferguson said.
"The aggregate of studies have not suggested that playing video games, even 'violent' ones, cause either short- or long-term brain changes that are problematic or could be called 'brain damage,' " he added.
"Most studies also don't connect the brain differences to actual behavior. So brain studies often function like Rorschach cards, telling you more about what the researchers want to believe than anything actually happening with human behavior," Ferguson suggested.
What should video game players do? Study lead author West suggests that adults play shooter games for only two to three hours a week.
Ferguson noted that research is hinting that video games may reduce stress and improve problem-solving abilities.
"Playing video games should be balanced with other activities: offline socialization, exercise, work and school, family and good sleep," he said. "As long as games are part of a balanced lifestyle, there's no evidence that they cause harmful brain changes."
The study was published in the Aug. 7 issue of Molecular Psychiatry.
More information
For more about the impact of video games, visit Sutter Health.
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Jayhawks visit to Pinnacle Bank Arena highlights Nebraska 's nonconference schedule Star-Herald, 08.09.2017
LINCOLN — Nebraska revealed the more mundane part of its 2017-18 men's basketball schedule Wednesday, adding home games against Eastern Illinois, North Texas, North Dakota, Texas-San Antonio, Delaware State and Stetson.
The Huskers — which finished 12-19 last season — need some games in which they will be big favorites because a handful of the nonconference games previously announced are testers. Among them:
> Kansas, which reached the Elite Eight last season in going 31-5, comes to Pinnacle Bank Arena on Dec. 16. The 13-time Big 12 champions will be a preseason top five pick this season.
> Central Florida, an NIT semifinalist which won 24 games, is NU's opening foe in the Thanksgiving weekend Advocare Invitational in Orlando, Florida — UCF's home city. UCF returns 7-foot-6 center Tacko Fall and has three incoming transfers who will be eligible.
> Also on Nebraska's side of the bracket is West Virginia (28-9), which played in the Sweet Sixteen in March.
> Creighton will host the Huskers Dec. 9 at CenturyLink Center. The Bluejays, 25-10 last season, lost their NCAA opener and saw 7-0 center Justin Patton leave for the NBA.
"Our nonconference schedule is very strong again this season,'' said NU coach Tim Miles, whose slate last season was among the five stiffest in the country, in a press release. "We design our schedule with the idea that we want to earn a berth in the NCAA tournament.''
Besides Kansas, UCF and Creighton, the only other foe that played in the postseason last year was North Dakota, the Big Sky Conference champion.
You'll notice an empty week in early December on the schedule.
Two Big Ten games will fit in that week. Each league member will play two games that week — one home, one away — because of a compressed schedule necessary to complete play before the Big Ten tournament at Madison Square Garden in New York, played one week earlier than usual.
Following is the final 2016-17 NCAA RPI rankings of this season's 11 known nonconference opponents (Nebraska was 111th):
Kansas 4, Creighton 32, UCF 64, North Dakota 133, St. John's 148, Boston College 220, UTSA 258, Eastern Illinois 265, Stetson 328, Delaware State 332, North Texas 338.
Check out the Huskers' complete nonconference schedule below:
Sat. Nov. 11: Eastern Illinois
Mon. Nov. 13: North Texas
Thurs. Nov. 16: at St. John's (Gavitt Tipoff Games)
Sun. Nov. 19: North Dakota
Advocare Invitational, Orlando, Fla.
> Thurs. Nov. 23: UCF
> Fri. Nov. 24: West Virginia or Marist
> Sun. Nov. 26: TBA
Wed. Nov. 29: Boston College (Big Ten/ACC Challenge)
Sat. Dec. 9: at Creighton
Sat. Dec. 16: Kansas
Wed. Dec. 20: Texas-San Antonio
Fri. Dec. 22: Delaware State
Fri. Dec. 29: Stetson
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Huskers announce 2017-18 hoops schedule Beatrice Daily Sun, 08.09.2017
LINCOLN - A December showdown with Kansas at Pinnacle Bank Arena, a tournament in Florida and a pair of conference challenges highlight Nebraska's 2017-18 scheduled released Wednesday.
"Our non-conference schedule is very strong again this season," Nebraska Coach Tim Miles said. "We design our schedule with the idea that we want to earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament. We have great home games and challenging road games, but I'm excited to put our team to the test. I think it will prepare us well for conference play."
The 13-game non-conference slate is highlighted by Kansas' first trip to Lincoln since 2011, as the Huskers will host the Jayhawks on Saturday, Dec. 16 in the Shelter Insurance Showcase. The Jayhawks are coming off a season where they went 31-5, won the Big 12 regular-season title for the 13th straight season and reached the Elite Eight before losing to Oregon. KU's trip to Lincoln will be the first by a Big 12 team since the Huskers joined the Big Ten in 2011-12.
Nebraska's trip to Orlando for the Advocare Invitational includes a strong field, including first-round opponent UCF, which won 24 games and reached the semifinals of the NIT. NU could potentially run into West Virginia in the semifinals. The Mountaineers went 28-9, placed second in the Big 12 and reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament in 2017. The other teams in the field include Missouri, Oregon State, St. John's, Marist and Long Beach State.
As previously announced, Nebraska will travel to St. John's for the Gavitt Tipoff Games on Thursday, Nov. 16, and will host Boston College on Wednesday, Nov. 29 in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. It is the second appearance for NU in the Gavitt Games and the first since 2015-16. It is the first time NU has played either St. John's or Boston College.
In all, four of Nebraska's non-conference opponents (Kansas, Creighton, North Dakota and UCF) reached postseason play in 2016-17.
The Huskers will open the 2017-18 campaign with home games against Eastern Illinois on Saturday, Nov. 11, and North Texas on Monday, Nov. 13. Eastern Illinois is coached by Jay Spoonhour, the son of former Husker basketball assistant Charlie Spoonhour and returns four starters. It will mark the first meeting between the schools since 2000 and the seventh all-time matchup between the schools. The meeting with North Texas will be the first for the Huskers since the 2006-07 season, as the Mean Green is led by first-year Head Coach Grant McCasland.
After the trip to St. John's, the Huskers return to host a North Dakota squad which won 22 games and reached the NCAA Division I Tournament for the first time in program history after winning the Big Sky Tournament. The Nov. 19 matchup is the fourth between the two programs and the first since 2010-11 campaign.
The Huskers will close November and begin December with a tough stretch, hosting Boston College before starting Big Ten play with two games. Dates and opponents for the conference matchups will be announced at a later date.
Nebraska returns to non-conference action with the annual matchup against Creighton on Dec. 9 in Omaha, as the Bluejays went 25-10 and reached the NCAA Tournament. The Bluejays return a pair of starters, including senior guard Marcus Foster. The matchup with the Bluejays begins a stretch of back-to-back games against NCAA Tournament teams, as the Huskers will host Kansas on Dec. 16 after final exams.
NU will close non-conference play with home matchups against UTSA (Dec. 20), Delaware State (Dec. 22) and Stetson (Dec. 29). The matchups with UTSA and Stetson will bring a pair of former Big Eight standouts back to Lincoln. UTSA is coached by Steve Henson, who played at Kansas State in the late 1980s, while Stetson coach Corey Williams led Oklahoma State to a pair of NCAA Sweet 16 appearances in 1991 and 1992.
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"The Lyric Wore Lycra" Tryon Daily Bulletin, 08.10.2017
Mystery author Mark Schweizer shares insights at Live@Lanier
Author Mark Schwiezer presents readings and insight into the 14th book of his hilarious award-winning series, "The Lyric Wore Lycra," on Tuesday, August 15 at noon at the Lanier Library.
Schwiezer's mysteries, based in a small town in western North Carolina, about police chief and part-time church organist Hayden Koenig, are notable for their lough-out-loud situations despite the fact that people keep dying in St. Germaine, North Carolina.
"In the fall of 2001, I began what I hoped would be a funny little book about an Episcopal choir director/detective that had a flair for bad writing," says Schweizer. "Now, 14 years later, that book, "The Alto Wore Tweed," is still getting laughs and the rest of the books—bad writing aside—are winning awards and working hard to catch up."
In 1974, Mark Schweizer, a brand new high school graduate, decided to eschew the family architectural business and become an opera singer. Against all prevailing wisdom and despite jokes from his peers, he enrolled in the music school at Stetson University. Everything happens for a reason, however, and he now lives and works as a musician, composer, author and publisher in Tryon.
"If anyone finds out what I'm up to, I'll have to go back to work at Mr. Steak," he says, explaining that he actually has a bunch of degrees, including a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Arizona. "I know! What were they thinking?" he adds.
In the field of bad writing, Mark had the distinction of receiving a Dishonorable Mention in the 2006 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, an annual contest in which the entrants compete for the dubious honor of having composed the worst opening sentence to an imaginary novel. In 2007, his sentence, now found on page 17 of "The Mezzo Wore Mink," was runner-up in the Detective Category. This, and two other of his entries, were featured in "It Was A Dark and Stormy Night: A Collection of the Worst Fiction Ever Written," edited by Scott Rice and published by The Friday Project.
Police Chief Hayden Koenig likes solving crimes. He likes his part-time job as organist at St. Barnabas Church. He likes typing his detective stories on Raymond Chandler's 1939 Underwood typewriter. Hayden is good at two of these things. Crimes rarely go unsolved in the little Appalachian town of St. Germaine, North Carolina. The music at the Episcopal parish is top notch. His writing however ….
Fat Tuesday: the only religious holiday for the horizontally challenged. It's only natural that St. Barnabas Church should offer a Lenten class called "Paunches Pilates." As the gang ponders forty days of penitence and self control, it becomes clear that there is a murderer in town. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust — will they ever get this mess cleaned up?
From The Lyric Wore Lyrca
– article submitted by Clare O'Sheel
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Super Six: Veteran offensive lineman Noah Sherburn steps up to be leader for Sequoyah roster Cherokee Tribune, 08.10.2017
As he prepares to start his senior season, Noah Sherburn knows he has a lot on his shoulders.
The 6-foot-3, 290-pound offensive lineman saw Sequoyah advance to the state playoffs in two of his first three seasons, but now that he is one of the older players, he knows he is more responsible than ever for that success.
"We haven't always had the most leadership, so, this year, we're really focused on building the team up together," said Sherburn, a member of the 2017 Cherokee Tribune Super Six. "Instead of separating everything by classes, it's just like one team. We're really coming together. That makes us more confident, and it makes us a better team."
Sherburn has not been alone in trying to create a more unified team. Sequoyah went through its annual Navy SEAL training this summer, and Sherburn said he has seen the rest of the senior class take ownership over carrying the lessons into the season.
"Coach (James) Teter is really stressing on having good leadership for our younger teammates," Sherburn said. "We did the Navy SEAL team-building stuff. We did it last year, but what they taught us didn't really carry on. This year, we're using a lot of the techniques they showed us. We're more engaged as a team in practice. We didn't have the confidence and trust last year, and I think we can really learn from that."
Besides the leadership they can offer in practice, Sherburn said he and his fellow offensive linemen will also take on increased roles during games.
After two years of running a spread attack with mixed results, the Chiefs are returning to their traditional Wing-T scheme. It is a system Teter said the offensive staff is more comfortable running, but for the offensive line, it also offers a style of play that is more enjoyable.
"Our offensive line is huge," Sherburn said. "We thought the Wing-T could be dominant. We're really coming together in it. From a lineman's standpoint, I love it. It's just pounding people into the ground. It's aggressive, not passive. I just love it."
Sherburn, a three-star recruit according to 247Sports, has picked up his share of attention, with offers from Bethel and Pikeville of the NAIA and Stetson of the NCAA's Football Championship Subdivision.
While he would like to garner more offers before his high school career ends, Sherburn is more focused on this season than beyond.
"Right now, I'm really just focusing on my senior year," he said. "If we'll be good, colleges are going to see that. I'm just trying to be the best teammate, leader and player I can be. All that college stuff will take care of itself."
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UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA AT MONROE WOMENS BASKETBALL'S SAUR PROMOTED TO ASSISTANT HEAD COACH US Fed News, 08.10.2017
MONROE, La., Aug. 10 -- The University of Louisiana at Monroe issued the following news release:
ULM women's basketball head coach Jeff Dow announced today that David Saur has been promoted to Assistant Head Coach. Saur, who joined the Warhawks staff last season after multiple stops at the NCAA Division I and II levels, will also continue in his role as ULM's recruiting coordinator.
"In the short time that David has been here he has proven to be extremely vital to our program. He has taken on a prominent role as our recruiting coordinator and as our on-the-floor skill development coach for all positions. We have eight incoming recruits (six freshmen and two junior college transfers) plus a Division I transfer (Jessica Harris) who redshirted this past year for us. David was the lead recruiter for all nine of these student-athletes and we anticipate this influx of talent making a significant impact for our program for years to come. The energy and technical ability he brings to our skill workouts has been instrumental in the development we've seen in our student-athletes."
In his first season with the Warhawks as the program's recruiting coordinator, Saur signed nine newcomers that will compete for the team during the 2017-18 season. The nine signees include high school players nationally ranked in the All-Star Girl's Report top 250 (Arsula Clark) and top 300 (Breanna Stephens), two McDonald's All-American nominees (Camryn Johnson and Tiara Malone), two Louisiana prospects twice named all-state (Diamond Brooks and Whitney Goins), a junior college forward rated as the top "mid-major" forward prospect in the 2017 class by InsiderExposure.com (Tan Walker) and a junior college wing that averaged over 18 points and 5 rebounds per game (Alexus Johnson). These eight newcomers join Jessica Harris, a proven double figure scorer at the Division I level, who finished second on her team in scoring and rebounding at Mount St. Mary's during her sophomore year in 2015-16.
Saur, who has been the recruiting coordinator at every one of his coaching stops, came to the Bayou State after a one-year stint at Division I UMass Lowell. While with the River Hawks, he mentored Lindsey Doucette to the best year of her collegiate career. Doucette for the first time as a River Hawk earned All-America East honors in 2015-16 and signed a professional contract in the top league in Switzerland. As the team's recruiting coordinator Saur secured the commitment of guard Megan Hendrick who became an America East All-Freshman team member. Hendrick started 28 of 30 games as a River Hawk, with per game averages of 8 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists.
Saur was previously at Division I Stetson University, where he helped lead the program to the WNIT in each of his two seasons there (2013-14 and 2014-15). He was named the Atlantic Sun Conference Assistant Coach of the Year by FGBScouting.com, as well as one of the nation's top mid-major assistants. Saur's two years on the staff saw the Hatters produce their winningest two-year stretch in school history with 50 wins overall and 27 in conference, including 16 league wins during the 2013-14 season, also a program record.
Amber Porter and Sarah Sagerer, under Saur's tutelage, were named to the A-Sun All-Freshman team in addition to both being tabbed Freshman of the Year in each of their respective freshman seasons (Porter in 2013-14, Sagerer in 2014-15). Porter also received Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2014-15 along with being voted a First Team all-conference selection in 2015-16.
In two seasons as Stetson's recruiting coordinator, Saur produced three All-Freshman team members including A-Sun Freshman of the Year, McKenna Beach, and Freshman of the Year runner-up, Myka Johnson-Matthews. Two of Saur's recruits with the Hatters also went on to have successful professional careers with Alex Ciabattoni (Australia-WNBL) and Abigail Asoro (England-WBBL) both earning Rookie of the Year in each of their respective countries top professional league. All-Star Girl's Report once ranked his recruiting class No. 1 in the A-Sun and No. 69 nationally.
Saur has helped prepare many current professional basketball players through skill development workouts in his hometown of Baltimore. Instructing the likes of current San Antonio Spur, Rudy Gay, Donte Greene formerly of the Memphis Grizzlies, former Indiana Pacer Sam Young, and former Detroit Pistons' Kim English and Dajuan Summers. For any query with respect to this article or any other content requirement, please contact Editor at contentservices@htlive.com
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Repatriation of graves is a just action The Daily Times, 08.10.2017
Though the last of the Indian schools closed in the 1950s, their impact lingers.
Forced assimilation, the nation's policy toward American Indians in the late 19th century, stands out in uncomfortably bold relief in Carlisle, Cumberland County. On the grounds of the Army War College is a cemetery holding the remains of some of the thousands of Indian children made to attend a boarding school there.
Now, the Army is disinterring the remains of three of those children - Little Plume, Little Chief and Horse - and returning them to the Northern Arapaho Tribe in Wyoming. More disinterments may follow.
Tribal leaders have pushed to have the remains returned to them, and American officials, bound by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, are honoring their wishes. The children deserve to go home.
While the seizure of Native American soil is a well-known part of the nation's history, the drive for assimilation has received less attention.
It involved the creation of boarding schools in various parts of the country where Indian children were shorn of their names, hair, clothes, language and cultural practices so they could be remade as Americans.
More than 10,000 children are believed to have attended the first of these, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, which operated between 1879 and 1918.
Photos of the children, taken when they arrived at the school and after they had spent time there, show a startling and disconcerting transformation, with some looking as if they had been squeezed into new identities that didn't quite fit.
Lt. Richard Henry Pratt, the driving force behind the Carlisle school, cast himself as something of a progressive for his era, asserting that Americanizing the Indians was the only way to save them.
However misguided Pratt appears in hindsight, his motivations must be viewed in the context of his times. Yet darker forces also were at work.
In a 2013 article in the Gonzaga Law Review, Ann Piccard described the schools as a tool for systematically destroying Native American culture, noting their organization under an arm of the War Department "speaks volumes."
Unable to kill all of the Indians, she said, this was the next best thing. Ms. Piccard, professor at Stetson University College of Law in Florida, stressed that "school" was a misnomer and that Pratt, who once ran a prisoner-of-war camp, operated the Carlisle establishment like one.
Though the last of the Indian schools closed in the 1950s, their impact lingers. Among other demands, the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition wants a "truth report" about the scope and effects of the boarding school system.
Pratt tried to take his charges' identities. But with their disinterments, Little Plume, Little Chief and Horse have reasserted theirs in a highly publicized way.
- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Aug. 9
Though the last of the Indian schools closed in the 1950s, their impact lingers.
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Matter of honor Lebanon Daily News, 08.10.2017
Forced assimilation, the nation's policy toward American Indians in the late 19th century, stands out in uncomfortably bold relief in Carlisle, Cumberland County. On the grounds of the Army War College is a cemetery holding the remains of some of the thousands of Indian children made to attend a boarding school there.
Now, the Army is disinterring the remains of three of those children - Little Plume, Little Chief and Horse - and returning them to the Northern Arapaho Tribe in Wyoming. More disinterments may follow. Tribal leaders have pushed to have the remains returned to them, and American officials, bound by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, are honoring their wishes. The children deserve to go home.
While the seizure of Native American soil is a well-known part of the nation's history, the drive for assimilation has received less attention. It involved the creation of boarding schools in various parts of the country where Indian children were shorn of their names, hair, clothes, language and cultural practices so they could be remade as Americans. More than 10,000 children are believed to have attended the first of these, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, which operated between 1879 and 1918. Photos of the children, taken when they arrived at the school and after they had spent time there, show a startling and disconcerting transformation, with some looking as if they had been squeezed into new identities that didn't quite fit.
Lt. Richard Henry Pratt, the driving force behind the Carlisle school, cast himself as something of a progressive for his era, asserting that Americanizing the Indians was the only way to save them. However misguided Pratt appears in hindsight, his motivations must be viewed in the context of his times. Yet darker forces also were at work.
In a 2013 article in the Gonzaga Law Review, Ann Piccard described the schools as a tool for systematically destroying Native American culture, noting their organization under an arm of the War Department "speaks volumes." Unable to kill all of the Indians, she said, this was the next best thing. Ms. Piccard, professor at Stetson University College of Law in Florida, stressed that "school" was a misnomer and that Pratt, who once ran a prisoner-of-war camp, operated the Carlisle establishment like one.
Though the last of the Indian schools closed in the 1950s, their impact lingers. Among other demands, the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition wants a "truth report" about the scope and effects of the boarding school system.
Pratt tried to take his charges' identities. But with their disinterments, Little Plume, Little Chief and Horse have reasserted theirs in a highly publicized way.
- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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Valerie Hiller Receives Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award Milford Mirror, 08.10.2017
Each spring, Stetson University announces the recipients of the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award at the Undergraduate Awards and Recognition Ceremony. At the ceremony on May 12, Valerie Hiller, a Jonathan Law graduate with the Class of 2013, was called to the podium to accept this honor.
The award is presented by the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Foundation and Stetson to only two members of each graduating class whose personal example and influence throughout the campus best exemplify the noblest human qualities.
Hiller was nominated for this award by members of Stetson's faculty and fellow students as a member of the graduating class who will represent to the world the finest values that Stetson nurtures.
The Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award was created more than 100 years ago to honor Sullivan's life of service to others and is generally considered among the highest recognition given to graduating seniors. It is given at many universities to recognize individuals whose “nobility of character and dedication to service set them apart as examples for others.”
“I am honored to receive the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award and I am deeply humbled to know that I was nominated based on my character and commitment to serving the community,” Hiller said. “I am excited to begin teaching at Amistad Academy Middle School in New Haven after graduation and to continue making a difference.”
Hiller graduated from Stetson University with a major in elementary dducation and a cumulative GPA of 3.92. She has worked over 800 hours in the Volusia County schools, teaching and tutoring on a daily basis.
She helped lead a program called “The Beautiful Movement,” which is geared toward promoting positive self esteem in middle school and high school girls.
Hiller has also used her Spanish minor to translate for many events at the local elementary schools.
Hiller will be teaching math at Amistad Academy Middle School and will be pursuing a graduate degree in middle school mathematics education.
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MAYOR OF ST. PETERSBURG Tampa Bay Times, 08.11.2017
The top contenders have both served as mayor: First-term incumbent Mayor Rick Kriseman is battling former two-term Mayor Rick Baker. The primary is Aug. 29. If no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two in the primary keep battling each other until the Nov. 7 general election. Paul Congemi, a perennial candidate for mayor, declined to fill out a candidate questionnaire. Ernisa Barnwell will be on the ballot but, because she bounced her qualifying check, no votes for her will count.
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Rick BakerAnthony Cates IIIRick KrisemanTheresa "Momma Tee" LassiterJesse NevelProfessionPresident, the Edwards GroupManager, WalmartMayor of St. PetersburgCommunity activistCaregiver, community activistAbout the candidateBaker, 61, an attorney, served two terms as mayor from 2001-10. He is also a published author and is currently president of the Edwards Group, a sports and entertainment company that owns the Tampa Bay Rowdies.Cates, 27, has run for mayor once before. He works as a manager at Walmart and volunteers with a charity that helps at-risk youths find employment.Kriseman, 55, an attorney, joined the St. Petersburg City Council in 2000 and was elected to two terms. He then served three terms as a state representative in the Legislature. He was elected mayor in 2013, and is now wrapping up his first term.The 61-year-old grandmother and St. Petersburg native has spent 25 years as a well-known and vocal community activist. She has served on several committees, organized community events and started her own non-profit in 2000.Nevel, 27, is a community activist and national chair of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement, a group that organizes white support for the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement, a black-led community social justice organization. He also works as a caregiver for the disabled.EducationFlorida State University, B.S., management; M.B.A.; J.D.No answer given.Boca Ciega High School; University of Florida, B.S., broadcasting; Stetson University College of Law, J.D.St. Petersburg High School; St. Petersburg College, A.A.No answer given.What are your top three priorities?Address the sewer issue, launch a public school support effort and energize the Midtown redevelopment program while addressing overspending.Affordable housing. Economic development. Youth/education.1. Eradicate poverty in St. Petersburg; 2. Upgrade our infrastructure, both wastewater and stormwater systems, to prepare for rising sea levels; 3. To finish projects such as the Pier District; St. Petersburg Police Department headquarters; Skyway Marina District; Commerce Park; and redevelopment of Tropicana Field.1. Jobs; 2. Affordable housing; 3. Small businesses in South St. Petersburg1. Reparations and economic development for the black community. 2. Ending gentrification and building affordable housing. 3. Building a sustainable sewage and stormwater infrastructure.How will you fix the sewer system? Would you reopen Albert Whitted sewage plant?Baker supports reopening the Albert Whitted Water Reclamation Facility. The City Council voted to close the sewage plant in 2011, a move carried out by the current administration in 2015. But first Baker said he would need to know how much that would cost before making a decision.By coming up with a sustainable plan that will outlive the current order of consent. I will reopen Albert Whitted plant as relief to our system because we can't environmentally afford what both Baker and Kriseman did and that's dump raw sewage into our waters.We have already spent tens of millions of dollars resolving it. By Sept. 30, 2017, the city will have completed several upgrades. We are currently using the Albert Whitted sewage plant for additional storage capacity. After studying the issue, for the near term, it was decided that our current plan makes more sense than upgrading and reopening Albert Whitted, but that remains a possibility.She would use the remaining BP oil spill settlement and find other city funds to fix the sewer system's biggest needs; would reopen Albert Whitted if that option is possible.The city must resist the influence of real estate developers. It should establish workers' councils in the Water Resources Department to protect city employees who could have spoken up before Albert Whitted was closed. Should examine turning Albert Whitted into a modern sewage plant. Impose a five-year moratorium on new high-rises and reopen a criminal investigation of the Kriseman administration.What city resources would you use to keep the Rays in St. Petersburg?Will work to keep the Tampa Bay Rays in St. Petersburg as long as it does not require raising taxes. If the Rays choose to build a new stadium on the site of Tropicana Field, the value of the land development will likely be a component of financing the construction of a new stadium.The Rays help bring economic support to the city and the local small businesses. We have to come up with a solution to keep our MLB status and team in our back yard.It is anticipated that the new ballpark funding plan would, at a minimum, consist of a public-private partnership between the Rays, the City of St. Petersburg, and Pinellas County. Funding sources could include the Rays' contribution, tourist development tax revenue, revenue generated by the redevelopment of the Tropicana Field site, and St. Petersburg and Pinellas County tax increment financing ("TIF") revenue (for site redevelopment only). I have consistently stated that no existing taxes will be raised or new taxes issued to pay for a stadium. I do not believe it is wise to negotiate or offer specifics prior to the Rays organization deciding where they would like to build a new stadium.Would not use any to keep the Rays. The citizens of St. Petersburg (have) given and invested more than enough to show they wanted them here. In my opinion, the city has overpaid already. If they want to stay fine otherwise, I have no problem with them going elsewhere, as long as they pay the monies in the original agreement for leaving early.Would spend zero dollars toward keeping the Rays when the city has other needs such as food deserts, police violence, public education, the sewage mess and other issues to resolve. He would, however, be willing to give the Rays a little league baseball field and a hot dog stand.What are the biggest needs in Midtown and how would you address them?The people of Midtown need access to the same goods and services as everyone else in the city and they need the things that provide hope for a good future for them and their children - access to quality education, safe streets, and job prospects.He stresses bringing affordable housing, economic development and livable wages to the area. He says the city must come up with a comprehensive plan to ensure a sustainable future for the citizens of Midtown. He says he is putting together a plan to help the area.Our areas of need extend beyond 'Midtown' to neighborhoods throughout south St. Pete, such as Childs Park. South St. Pete continues to be a primary focus of my administration, and while I am proud of how far we've come, there is much work to do.Lack of small businesses preventing jobs for residents of Midtown. The youth also need a safe haven there. Services for the elderly also need to be improved. Would take Community Development Block Grants and social service funds and re-dedicate them to affordable housing. Midtown's kids also need their own amusement park with books, computers and a skating rink.Reparations to black residents will be his administration's No. 1 goal. Funding will go toward building up affordable housing, black businesses and workforce training in those neighborhoods. Will also stop calling the neighborhoods there "Midtown," which was a name created by Baker when he served as mayor.Assets/liabilities/ incomeAssets: $4.3 million; house, condo, investments Liabilities: None Income: $294,756; salary, investments, book royaltiesAssets: $3,257; car Liabilities: $ 20,759 Income: $ 48,500Assets: $650,000; home Liabilities: $319,495; mortgage Income: $304,077Assets: Vehicle Liabilities: None listed Income: $9,828 (annual disability)Assets: None listed Liabilities: $26,693 Income: $25,723PersonalMarried with two college-age children.No answer given.Married with two children, ages 19 and 14.Grandmother with four children and four grandchildren.No answer givenCampaign fundraisingContributions: $355,490 Expenditures: $204,212 Seamless Florida PAC contributions: $539,553 Expenditures: $137,606Contributions: $1,607 Expenditures: $1,365Contributions: $352,124 Expenditures: $278,290 Sunrise PAC contributions: $305,950 Expenditures: $88,461Contributions: $2,096 Expenditures: $1,374Contributions: $10,371 Expenditures: $6,335On the webbakerstpete.comanthonycates.comkriseman.commommateeformayor.com/news/jessenevel.com* * *
ABOUT THE JOB: St. Petersburg's mayor is elected citywide to run Florida's fourth-largest city. The mayor earns about $180,895 a year and serves a four-year term.
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GOP state Sen. Latvala running for governor The Palm Beach Post, 08.12.2017
Florida Senate Appropriations Chairman Jack Latvala of Clearwater opened a Republican campaign for governor Friday, positioning himself as a pragmatic figure in what could become an ideologically charged GOP primary.
Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam already has launched a conservative-themed Republican campaign. House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O'Lakes, and U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Palm Coast, could also join the GOP field and challenge Putnam from the right.
Latvala, who visited Palm Beach State College on Tuesday for a briefing on the opioid crisis, will roll out his candidacy Wednesday .
In a brief interview Tuesday before the opioid roundtable, Latvala presented himself as a problem-solving figure.
"A guy like me, I've been able to put people around the table up there (in Tallahassee) on countless issues and work out, solve issues," Latvala said. "We've got a lot of issues -- not just substance abuse and mental health but infrastructure, environment, prison system, homelessness -- just a lot of issues where we need someone who is not running for higher office who can make the tough decisions and do the things that maybe aren't necessarily popular."
In a May interview with The Palm Beach Post, Latvala described himself as "a guy who's focused on getting things done and I think that's what we need in a governor ... not so much about following a particular political dogma or talking points from one side or the other. It's about seeing problems and solving them."
Latvala, 65, is the owner and chief executive of a Largo-based printing business. A graduate of Stetson University in DeLand, he is married with a daughter and a son, state Rep. Chris Latvala, R-Clearwater. Jack Latvala served in the state Senate from 1994 to 2002, then began a second Senate stint in 2010.
With Republican Gov. Rick Scott facing term limits in 2018, Democrats also have a crowded gubernatorial field.
Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, former U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham of Tallahassee and Winter Park businessman Chris King have opened Democratic campaigns, and Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine and trial lawyer John Morgan are mulling the race.
Putnam has dominated rivals in both parties in fundraising. He began August with $12.4 million in cash on hand between his main campaign and his Florida Grown political committee.
Latvala's Florida Leadership Committee raised $362,155 in July and has $3.8 million in the bank as Latvala begins his formal campaign.
Corcoran, who has said he won't decide on a run for governor until next year, heads a committee called Watchdog PAC that began August with $2.8 million.
A committee called Fund for Florida's Future has $1.2 million on hand and is expected to back DeSantis, who is considering a run for governor or attorney general.
Graham has been the top Democratic fundraiser. Between her main campaign and her Our Florida committee, she began August with more than $2.2 million in cash on hand. King began the month with $1.7 million, which includes $1 million of his own money, while Gillum had $652,434.
Levine, the Miami Beach mayor , has put $2.6 million of his own money into a committee called All About Florida. The committee had $4.4 million in cash on hand as of July 31.
gbennett@pbpost.com Twitter: @gbennettpost
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W AR OVER W O L VES The Seattle Times, 08.13.2017
By a slow slide of river deep in Washington's wolf country, Robert Wielgus laughs at the tattoo on his arm of Four Claws, the grizzly that almost killed him.
"I would rather face charging grizzly bears trying to kill me than politicians and university administrators, because it is over quickly," said Wielgus, director of the Large Carnivore Conservation Lab at Washington State University.
A Harley-riding, self-described adrenaline junkie at home in black motorcycle leathers with a Stetson and a .357 in the pickup, Wielgus, 60, is no tweed-jacket academic. For decades he has traveled North America wrangling bears, cougars and wolves to collar and study their behavior, including collaborations with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW).
Wielgus now finds himself crosswise with ranchers, lawmakers and WSU administrators - and their lobbyists. He's lost grant funding for his summer research, has been forbidden from talking to media in his professional role and has been reviewed - and cleared - for scientific misconduct.
To understand why involves a look at state policy concerning a menagerie of animals: cougars, sheep, cattle and wolves. And one more animal: homo sapiens.
In Washington, it turns out, wolves and livestock are getting along better than the people who manage and study them.
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a national nonprofit specializing in government scientist whistleblower protection, in April filed a 12-page complaint against WSU officials, alleging the university punished and silenced Wielgus to placate ranchers and state legislators who objected to his research. WSU officials declined to comment for this story, citing possible litigation.
The conflict started back in 2002, when Wielgus began publishing a series of influential papers that called into question the practice of hunting cougars to reduce livestock losses. His research led to a reversal by Gov. Jay Inslee in October 2015 of Fish and Wildlife Commission policy that would have allowed more hunting.
That was not long after Wielgus published a peer-reviewed paper that just as provocatively questioned killing wolves to protect livestock - a policy used by the WDFW by now to take aim at four wolf packs, including two members of the Smackout Pack killed so far this month.
His wolf study made national news with its finding that culling the predators can lead to more livestock kills, not fewer, because it destabilizes pack dynamics.
Normally for a university, national press for one of its researchers would be a point of pride. But the buzz over the paper alarmed lobbyists for WSU, hearing threats from state lawmakers that it was putting money for a new medical school and other pet projects in jeopardy.
Those legislators in turn were responding to ranchers and local officials seeking more lethal action from the department against wolves that harm livestock.
" ... Highly ranked senators have said that the medical school and wolves are linked. If wolves continue to go poorly, there won't be a new medical school," Dan Coyne, lobbyist for WSU, wrote his colleague, Jim Jesernig, another WSU lobbyist, two days after the paper's publication, state records show.
Jesernig, a well-connected former director of the state Department of Agriculture, and former member of the state House and Senate, agreed with Coyne, his partner at the Coyne, Jesernig lobbying firm. "That's my assessment as well," Jesernig wrote in an email copied to WSU Director of State Relations Chris Mulick. " ... We are making the med school not doable."
Replied Mulick, "We're looking a wee bit like Sonny on the causeway here," referring to a mob hit on a character in the movie "The Godfather." "We're getting in our own way on the med school enough as it is."
A magazine story prepared by a writer for the university's magazine and news service in advance of the wolf paper was spiked, Wielgus said. Just like a news release subsequently written, but never issued, on new cougar research out of Wielgus' lab.
"WTF? What happened?" wrote Jon Keehner, co-author on that paper, to Wielgus.
Wielgus answered that the university was afraid of angering Republicans in the Legislature. He explained grant funds for his wolf work were now being funneled to his lab through another researcher, to take his name off the grant.
"That's how bad it got," John Pierce, chief scientist for WDFW's wildlife program, said in an interview. Losing so-called principal-investigator status on a grant is a wound in academia, Pierce explained, where the ability to bring in grant money is a coin of the realm. Winning grants attracts top graduate students and helps researchers compete for more grants.
In particular, Wielgus had provoked Rep. Joel Kretz, R-Wauconda, a former Mercer Island resident turned cougar hunter, elected to the Legislature to represent the 7th District in Northeastern Washington.
Known for carrying the severed heads of cougars to public meetings - even plucking one for effect from his home freezer to sit, defrosting, on a table between himself and this reporter during an interview at his ranch - Kretz had butted heads with Wielgus from his first cougar papers that had thwarted Kretz's efforts to increase cougar hunting in Northeastern Washington.
He attacked Wielgus' wolf research, questioning its scientific validity to WSU officials, and opposed further funding for Wielgus.
Hans Dunshee, a former Snohomish Democrat and top budget writer, confirmed he cut a deal with Kretz in 2015 to sidestep Wielgus from the wolf research grant. "It was our way of sanitizing it while still keeping the money flowing," said Dunshee, who retired from the Legislature last year. "I thought he was going to be OK."
But he wasn't.
Knocked off the grant, Wielgus lost his summer salary for two years - during the peak season for wolf research - and his travel budget.
In the end, money got tucked in for the medical school, in the same budget that sidestepped the funding for Wielgus. The school will begin its first classes this fall.
Jesernig, in an interview, recalled well the trouble wolves caused as he worked the medical-school issue for WSU.
"It's not a great secret; it happens to any lobbyist, you have a bill you work and all of a sudden you are in trouble with leadership, same thing here," Jerserig said. "At the end of the day the good thing about the legislative process is mostly the merits of the issue will win out on the thing you are working on, and that is what happened on the medical school."
Already targeted for his wolf research, Wielgus poured gas on the fire last summer.
As the Profanity Peak pack started killing cows and the state launched a trapper and marksmen on the ground and in helicopters to protect the rancher's cattle, Wielgus told The Seattle Times and other media outlets that Len McIrvin, a partner in the Diamond M, "chose to put his cattle on top of the den site."
The implication that the rancher - whose livestock losses in 2012 also led to the state killing the Wedge pack - purposely put his animals in harm's way to provoke the state's ensuing kill of the Profanity Peak pack ignited a firestorm.
Thousands of angry emails and phone calls from wolf advocates poured into the offices of the WDFW and the Colville National Forest, home to many ranchers' grazing allotments. Donny Martorello, the department's wolf-policy lead, hid his wife in a motel. McIrvin's family unplugged the phone at the ranch to escape death threats.
Kretz, incensed, demanded an apology from WSU just as public as the remarks Wielgus had made - and got it. The university quickly issued a news release disavowing Wielgus' statements and asserting that Wielgus had admitted he had no basis in fact for making them.
In a letter of concern written into his personnel file, Wielgus was instructed by Ron Mittelhammer, the dean of the College of Agriculture, Human and Natural Resource Sciences to have no further contact with the media without first clearing his statements with WSU. Wielgus duly went silent as the furor raged.
"He ought to be drawn and quartered and a chunk of him left everywhere in the district," Kretz said in an interview then with The Seattle Times, saying Wielgus had a vendetta against McIrvin.
"I think he is agenda-driven; it's incredible damage," Kretz said. "This is not science, it is advocacy. I would say it's beyond advocacy, it's baldfaced lying to the public. I don't want to see a nickel go through his hands."
Wielgus says today that he could have been more diplomatic; his public remarks at the time included saying "go ahead and quote me: 'Wherever McIrvin grazes ... dead wolves follow.' Quote me. He'll be proud of it!"
Wolves are returning to the state on their own from Idaho and Canada, and have surged into Northeastern Washington, where most of the state's 20 packs live. Diamond M operators had been warning the department about the Profanity pack since 2014, after three confirmed kills of its cattle by the pack. But what Diamond M ranchers and the department didn't know as the ranchers loaded up their cattle for turnout in 2016 was the pack had moved much closer to the Diamond M's operations on public grazing lands in the Colville National Forest.
Burned out by the Stickpin fire in 2015, the wolves had moved their den from the previous year to within 5 miles of the Diamond M's usual turnout site for the C.C. Mountain grazing allotment, and a quarter-mile from the salt lick put out in the same spot every year to draw cows up from lowland pastures to the mountain.
The department got radio collars on two members of the pack the second week of June, the same week the Diamond M turned out, and confirmed the den site by the end of the month.
Diamond M producers discovered the den site on their own at the same time, because of abundant wolf tracks, scat and howling in the area. They were also advised of the den site by the department.
The WDFW discovered the den site by collar data, which it does not share with the Diamond M because the ranch chooses not to be a participant in the department's sensitive data-sharing program. The ranch also doesn't accept financial compensation for its cattle kills from the state either, on principle, because it doesn't agree with the WDFW's wolf-management strategies.
Wolves travel a territory of 349 square miles on average, and the Diamond M cows, traveling through the forested grazing allotment, dispersed from the drop-off site and soon overlapped with the pack's core activity area. By July 8, the pack killed its first calf - and kept at it, even after the WDFW responded and began killing the pack.
After the first calf was killed, the department urged Diamond M operators to get more people out watching over their cows. The landscape is difficult to defend: rugged, mountainous, and forested, with many areas where the cows - and wolves - can't be seen.
On Aug. 8, the department also asked the ranchers to move the salt lick. A range rider for the Diamond M moved it, but that just made the problem of cows hanging around the wolves' core activity area worse, as cows looked for the salt that was supposed to be there, and licked and pawed the salt still in the ground.
The WDFW carried on most of the summer and into the fall killing wolves, eventually taking the lives of six adults and a pup in the pack. The department confirmed the pack killed five Diamond M calves and one cow from another ranch.
For all the controversy, Wielgus said he is still optimistic wolves will recover from local extinction in Washington. He doesn't think the same for himself.
The news release disavowing his statements was never shown to him, Wielgus said, and misconstrued a short conversation by phone between him and Mittelhammer.
While he has since attained tenure, Wielgus said he no longer wants to work at the university. "They called me a liar and ruined my career."
Wielgus' conflicts with the university would continue, after he emailed a news release reporting the latest findings from his lab to the state's Wolf Advisory Group (WAG) and others as the group debated wolf policy for 2017.
Wolf kills of livestock were exceedingly rare, Wielgus reported, occurring in fewer than 1 percent of the livestock tracked by his lab. Only in the case of the Profanity Peak pack, where cattle and a salt block to attract them were milling around the wolves' activity area, had there been multiple calf kills, more than anywhere else surveyed, Wielgus reported.
Wielgus had sent the release to WSU communications staff and administrators and received preapproval by Mittelhammer before putting it out as his personal opinion and not on behalf of the university, as they requested. But that strategy, intended to create distance between Wielgus and WSU, just created confusion.
In an email to Mulick, the WSU state relations director, Tom Davis, of the Washington Farm Bureau and a WAG member, objected that Wielgus was sending out a press release about his publicly funded research findings but labeling them his personal opinion. He also said he wouldn't attend the meeting if Wielgus was allowed to speak.
Mittelhammer went into response mode, personally meeting with Kretz and other lawmakers, then attending the advisory group meeting with several WSU officials. He followed up with a letter to lawmakers on April 12 reassuring them "while an irritant, the deliberations of the WAG were fortunately not significantly affected by Dr. Wielgus' attempt to influence the group's deliberations through the dissemination of his so-called "press release" document.
"That said, on a more individual and personal basis, it did also appear that Dr. Wielgus' actions did negatively impact a number of individuals in the room who felt that the document reinvigorated negative feelings toward ranchers by wolf protectionists."
He assured the lawmakers he had sent Wielgus a second "memo of concern," and promised to follow up with investigations of whether Wielgus had broken state law by illegal lobbying and sending the press release on his state email account. He also promised an internal review of Wielgus' 2014 wolf paper.
By May, WSU President Kirk Schulz informed Mittelhammer of concern WSU might be branded with an "anti-ranching sentiment."
In other emails, the university president and Mittelhammer agreed they needed to address the school's relationship with ranchers in future faculty hires. "I feel that they need an internal champion or person that they can work with," Schulz wrote.
By then, WSU had cleared Wielgus of any scientific wrongdoing. On May 29, Christopher Keane, the vice president for research at WSU, wrote Kretz and Senate Majority Leader Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, thanking them for meeting with him in Olympia to express concern about Wielgus' research.
However, the result of the subsequent independent review completed by a WSU statistician was clear: "There is no evidence of research misconduct in this matter," Keane wrote.
But for faculty at WSU, the message nonetheless was clear, said Donna Potts, president of the local chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the nation's oldest and largest advocacy group for academic freedom. "It was very disturbing; I had never seen anything like it," Potts, a member of the English department, said of WSU's treatment of a senior faculty member.
Cary Nelson, former national president of the AAUP, who spoke on the issue at WSU last spring, said pressure from industry and from lawmakers friendly to it is nothing unusual. "But it's up to a university to protect its faculty."
Actions by state lawmakers and WSU administrators such as those taken against Wielgus have a "chilling effect" on research that could be perceived as controversial, Nelson said.
Scientists who have worked with Wielgus said they are concerned by what they see.
"It's not that Rob hasn't stirred up the hornets' nest - he can test the limits and some people think he is not very diplomatic," said Gary Koehler, of Wenatchee, who collaborated with Wielgus on bear and cougar research before retiring from the department after 14 years. "But he is a straight shooter.
"Rob is without a doubt one of the top carnivore ecologists in North America. I think Rob has been thrown under the bus."
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Turns out 'Raiders' was right The Post and Courier, 08.13.2017
HITLER'S MONSTERS: A Supernatural History of the Third Reich. By Eric Kurlander. Yale. 422 pages. $35.
Whether you learned about it from watching "Raiders of the Lost Ark" or, even earlier, from reading Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier's European best-seller "The Morning of the Magicians," who doesn't now know that Hitler and Nazi Germany were obsessed with the occult?
In "Hitler's Monsters: A Supernatural History of the Third Reich" Eric Kurlander, professor of history at Stetson University, carefully tracks the fringe movements and lunatic beliefs that swept through Germany in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
In particular, he documents the intense interest in parapsychology, New Age fantasies and so-called "border science."
Some Nazi leaders firmly believed that the Aryan race descended from the aliens who established Atlantis, that Satan was really a good guy and that werewolves actually protected clean-living Teutons against the ravages and sexual depredations of Slavic vampires.
Kurlander groups all these, as well as the Nazi obsession with the Holy Grail, witchcraft, Luciferianism, World Ice Theory, anti-gravity machines, astrology and pagan religions, under the rubric "the supernatural imaginary."
He begins his study with Jorg Lanz von Liebenfels, champion of Ariosophy, "an esoteric doctrine that prophesied the resurgence of a lost Aryan civilization peopled by Nordic 'God Men.' "
According to Lanz, in 1909 he gave some issues of his magazine Ostara to a pale, shabbily dressed young man named Adolf Hitler. Of course, the future fuhrer may have just wanted the magazine for the pictures, since it was illustrated with "muscular Aryan cavaliers defending scantily clad blond women from the advances of hideous-looking 'ape-men.' "
As the author of "The Theozoology, or the Science of Sodom's Apelings and the God's Electrons," Lanz frequently referred to "lesser breeds" as "Tschandals," a derogatory term taken from the Hindu codes of Manu.
Manu? In German theosophical circles it was commonly believed that India and Tibet preserved the hidden enclaves of ancient Atlanteans or even living Secret Masters. One lunatic named Guido von List "proved" that Baldur, Jesus, Buddha, Osiris and Moses were all pure-blooded Aryans.
Witches were simply Earth mothers and practitioners of a traditional Indo-Germanic religion that Judeo-Christianity tried to eradicate. (This is similar to the long discredited thesis of Margaret Murray's 1921 book, "The Witch-Cult in Western Europe.")
With growing frequency, the Jews were deemed the most pernicious Tschandals.
Kurlander paraphrases the British racist Houston Stewart Chamberlain, who blustered that "heroic Aryans" sought "higher knowledge and creativity fuelled by their superior 'racial soul,'" while "monstrous Semites" were "civilization-destroying materialists who lacked the capacity for transcendence."
Throughout, Kurlander underscores the dangers of insane nationalism. Georg Kenstler proclaimed, with horrific consequences, that German territorial superiority required "Lebensraum," or "living space." Walther Darre affirmed the ultra-patriotic, almost mystical association of "Blut und boden," or blood and soil.
Erik Hanussen, the country's "most flamboyant clairvoyant," helped convince "millions of Germans that they were the 'Chosen People' and that the downfall of 1918 would be reversed by Hitler's ability to make 'the impossible possible.' "
As Kurlander stresses, Hitler's rise to power resulted from multiple factors, including Germany's military defeat, onerous war reparations and economic chaos. But esoteric mumbo-jumbo clearly played its part.
He examines the popularity of the extremist horror writer Hanns Heinz Ewers and parses the racist imagery of expressionist films such as "Nosferatu" and "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari."
Hitler apparently studied Ernst Schertel's "Magic" as a self-help manual, underlining personally useful passages, among them, "He who does not carry demonic seeds within him will never give birth to a new world." Such a channeling of demonic power or "mana" has always been central to occultism. The psychologist Carl Jung would even assert that Hitler was a medium, a "mouthpiece of the gods of old."
It may seem paradoxical that once firmly in charge, Hitler turned against astrology, tarot reading and all "commercial" uses of the supernatural. In fact, he feared that these could be used to manipulate the public in ways outside his control.
Even professional magicians were legally compelled to demonstrate how their tricks were accomplished. Still, Hitler and his inner circle continued to firmly support "scientific occultism." In the mid-1930s, for instance, Rudolf Hess hoped to create a Central Institute for Occultism.
As late as 1942, Hitler could declare himself a "supporter" of World Ice Theory. "Glacial cosmogony," as it was also known, maintained that "icy moons had crashed into the earth," causing floods and geophysical damage, but also bringing "living kernels" from outer space that would evolve into Aryan superbeings.
According to SS chief Heinrich Himmler, perhaps the most ardent Nazi occultist, these Ur-Aryans possessed paranormal powers and extraordinary weapons, one dimly recalled as Thor's thunder hammer. Himmler would send an expedition to Tibet to search for traces of this primordial civilization.
In general, the Third Reich embraced crackpot doctrines "that buttressed its racial, political, and ideological goals." These goals eventually included concentration camps, monstrous human experiments and the "Final Solution."
An entire people was horribly demonized solely because of their religion and ethnicity. This couldn't happen now, could it? Some Nazis continued their grandiose self-mythologizing even when the war was lost, viewing the destruction raining down around them as a Wagnerian "Twilight of the Gods."
Eric Kurlander has written a scholarly book that reveals, to borrow Joseph Conrad's phrase, the fascination of the abomination. But he also shows how swiftly irrational ideas can take hold, even in an age before social media.
As the Reich's propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels reportedly declared, "If you repeat a lie a thousand times, people are bound to start believing it."
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