Tulalip News

Oglala leader confirms Johnny Depp looking at Wounded Knee

Source: Indianz.com

Actor Johnny Depp, the star of the U.S. box-office bomb The Lone Ranger, is interesting in buying the Wounded Knee massacre site, the leader of the Oglala Sioux Tribe said.

President Byran Brewer confirmed Depp’s interest in a statement to the Native Sun News and in an interview with Last Real Indians. He said representatives of the actor asked for permission to make an offer on the land.

“[A]ll I can say is that I would love for Johnny Depp to come out, the Lakota Nation would welcome him for a sit-down to see that our name ‘Lakota’ truly means Allies or Friends,” Brewer said in the interview that was posted by Last Real Indians.

Owner Jim Czywczysnki has put up the 40-acre site of the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre, plus an adjacent 40-acre site, for a total of $4.9 million. The tribe has questioned the asking price of the main site, since a recent appraisal put its value at $7,000.

Depp told The Daily Mail that he is interested in buying the site and returning it to the tribe. “It’s very sacred ground and many atrocities were committed against the Sioux there,” he told the paper.

“This historical land is so important to the Sioux culture and all I want to do is buy it and give it back,” Depp added.

Mets Alter Event, Upsetting American Indian Group

By Scott Cacciola, The New York Times

It has not been an easy season for the Mets, who are lurching toward the All-Star break with a losing record. Opposition has come in the form of hard-throwing pitchers, mounting injuries and marathon-length games, but the team suddenly finds itself facing heat from an unexpected source: an American Indian organization.

When the Mets approached the American Indian Community House, a New York-based nonprofit organization, in March about helping to organize a Native American Heritage Day, the proposal struck members of the group as a good opportunity to celebrate their involvement in the community. A date was selected — July 25 — and they began to plan pregame festivities that would include traditional dancing and singing outside Citi Field.

But there was a glitch, as far as the Mets were concerned: they were scheduled to host the Atlanta Braves that day. So in the past week, concerned that such activities might be interpreted by the Braves organization as a form of protest over its nickname, the Mets drastically reduced the day’s activities: no singing, no dancing. And now there won’t be any American Indians, either.

On Monday, the A.I.C.H. pulled out of the event, citing frustration with the Mets for thwarting months of planning. The team has removed the event from its online schedule of activities.

“Being a nonprofit in the city, we’re not in the business of making enemies,” said Kevin Tarrant, the deputy director of the A.I.C.H., which describes itself as an organization that aims to “cultivate awareness, understanding and respect” for thousands of American Indians who live in New York City. “This whole thing wasn’t even our idea. But it just feels like we’re being marginalized again within our own community.”

A Mets spokesman said the team “opted to forgo the group sale in this case as our multicultural days and nights are celebratory versus political in nature.”

The Mets host multicultural events throughout the season as a form of community outreach. During the first week of August, for example, the team will stage Irish Heritage Night and Taiwan Day.

Tarrant said his group originally hoped to hold the festivities in early June so that the game would coincide with an area powwow, a traditional American Indian gathering. But with the Mets on a road trip that week, the group suggested July 25 as another option. It was a 12:10 p.m. game, Tarrant said, which meant more children were likely to attend. Also, another powwow was planned for the following weekend in Queens.

That the Mets were scheduled to face the Braves that afternoon was coincidental, Tarrant said, though the group was not so naïve as to ignore the political overtones. Various groups have criticized the Braves for their use of American Indian imagery, in particular the team’s Tomahawk Chop chant.

“It wasn’t like we were planning to protest anything,” Tarrant said. “We just thought it would be great to show natives in a positive light — that we’re human beings, and we’re not from 300 years ago. We’re visible.” He added: “It was a win-win situation. We’d be supporting the Mets, the Braves and Major League Baseball.”

On March 27, a Mets ticket sales representative, who was working with the A.I.C.H. on the event, sent an e-mail requesting that the group draft a letter explaining why it had chosen a Braves game. The Mets’ foremost concern, at least at the time, appeared to be squarely on the sensibilities of the American Indian community.

“It is good to inform others that the Braves do not make a profit off of the sale of the game,” the Mets representative wrote in the e-mail, “and no money would be going to support their organization.” She attached an invoice for payment.

As part of the deal, the A.I.C.H. agreed to pay a $2,000 deposit to cover roughly 15 percent of the cost for a block of 500 tickets, which the group would then help sell. In exchange, the A.I.C.H. would be free to stage pregame festivities outside Citi Field, including traditional dancing and singing as fans made their way to the stadium from the subway station. Rick Chavolla, the A.I.C.H.’s education and development officer, said the performances were largely intended to raise awareness for Native Americans living in the city.

“Not a lot of people invite us to step on a great stage like that,” Chavolla said. “We were really looking forward to it.”

The Mets also agreed to print 500 T-shirts (proposed design: the team logo adorned by feathers) and to broadcast two public-service announcements for the group on the stadium’s video boards.

Tarrant said the A.I.C.H. soon decided to make the game the centerpiece of an annual Native American Week, with events across the city like panel discussions and dance performances. NativeOne Institutional Trading, an American Indian-owned broker dealer based in New York, signed on as a co-sponsor. Tiani Osborn, a managing member at NativeOne, said the logistics required “months of planning.”

As for the game, the A.I.C.H. began to promote it in early April. In an e-mail to the Indian Country Today Media Network, the group pitched the event as a “great opportunity to educate the public about the stereotypes professional sports teams continue to promote through logos, mascots and fan traditions, such as the ‘tomahawk chop.’ ” But if Mets officials harbored concerns with that type of language over the coming months, they chose not to express them publicly.

It was not until July 1 that the Mets contacted the A.I.C.H. to inform the group of significant changes to Native American Heritage Day: no public-service announcements of any kind, and no pregame festivities outside the stadium. The group could still attend the game and do some fund-raising, but that would be the extent of its involvement.

The Mets, Osborn said, suddenly seemed “only to be interested in holding a Native American Heritage Day without the culture.”

Last Wednesday, a member of the Mets’ group sales department e-mailed the A.I.C.H. in response to a series of questions from the group, which sought an explanation.

“It was brought to my attention that we need to be sensitive to the Braves being a partner MLB team and can’t put them in a situation for a potentially negative environment to be brought upon them,” the Mets official wrote. “I know this is not the plan, but sometimes people come to events under different agendas than expected. I’m not referring to [A.I.C.H.] or any of the organizations involved, but more about unknown groups that may want to change the perception of the event.”

The Mets official wrote in the e-mail that the Braves had nothing to do with the decision. The Mets later proposed two alternate dates: Aug. 8 against the Colorado Rockies and Aug. 25 against the Detroit Tigers. Tarrant said the A.I.C.H. had already planned a full week of events around the game scheduled for July 25.

On Monday, the A.I.C.H. decided to call the whole thing off and ask the Mets for a refund.

“We’re not trying to be overly sensitive,” Chavolla said, “but it seems like we fall into this type of thing a lot. We’re led to get enthusiastic about something, and then it’s like, ‘Oh, never mind.’ It’s disappointing, but it sort of amplifies a pattern of what we’ve been dealing with for hundreds of years.”

Innu First Nation will not back down in fight against Rio Tinto’s IOC

Jean-Claude Therrien Pinette, Uashat Mak Mani-Utenam

(UASHAT MAK MANI-UTENAM, QC) The Innu First Nation of Uashat Mak Mani-Utenam wishes to remind potential purchasers of Rio Tinto’s share of Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC) that the Canadian Aboriginal group continues to fiercely oppose IOC’s mining, railway and port operations within their traditional territory. One of the measures the Aboriginal group has taken was to file legal proceedings against IOC on March 18, 2013, along with another aboriginal group, the Innu First Nation of Matimekush-Lac John, asking the Court to block IOC’s operations in Quebec and Labrador as well as to grant them damages in the amount of CAD$900 million – see press release of March 20, 2013.

IOC’s operations on the traditional territory of Uashat Mak Mani-Utenam and their Innu brothers and sisters of Matimekush-Lac John have scarred the land as well as people’s lives for more than 60 years now. The Innu are well pas their breaking point and in addition to the above legal action, IOC can expect further acts of opposition in the coming months.

Meanwhile, Rio Tinto continues to seek to sell its majority stake in IOC. And while it is clear that Rio Tinto is looking to offload assets, the Innu First Nation of Uashat Mak Mani-Utenam cannot help but feel that Rio Tinto is also seeking to offload the “Innu problem”.

“We simply wish to make clear that any purchaser of Rio Tinto’s stake in IOC will run up against the same fierce opposition that is currently underway against IOC. The conflict will not end until the more than 60 years of injustice we have endured at the hands of IOC comes to an end,” stated Mike McKenzie, Chief of the Innu First Nation of Uashat Mak Mani-Utenam.

“While Rio Tinto is looking to move on, our people are not going anywhere. We will still be here, occupying our traditional territory like we always have and unfortunately living with all the negative impacts IOC’s projects have caused and continue to cause,” added Chief McKenzie.

In fact, the Innu First Nation of Uashat Mak Mani-Utenam would like to take this opportunity to remind any potential investor looking to do business on their traditional territory (covering much of northeastern Quebec and Labrador) that they will defend to the end the principle that any project on their traditional territory requires their consent.

Those who walk together rise up together

By Susie Cagle, Grist

From New York’s Zuccotti Park to Egypt’s Tahrir Square, popular uprisings of the last few years have often been credited to the organizing power of digital social networks like Twitter and Facebook. But shared public spaces in dense urban areas have a lot more organizing power than hashtags or retweets, and there’s new research to back that up.

The Urban Affairs Review paper “Walk and Be Moved: How Walking Builds Social Movements” by Brian Knudsen and Terry Clark underscores how dense city-living exposes residents to new ideas and connections, and in turn fosters the creation of social movement organizations. The authors (Knudsen works at Urban Innovation Analysis, a Chicago design firm, and Clark is a sociology professor at the University of Chicago) base their research on the interaction between the urbs — our physical infrastructure, our streets, our parks, our commerce — and the civitas — the people who give those places meaning collectively.

Knudsen and Clark say they are “the first to discover and analyze electronic unpublished data for environmental, human rights, and other types” of social movement groups, and compare them to how city spaces are used and lived. Their analysis shows that it’s not just the existence of those shared public spaces, but the way we use them that contributes to making a city more politically active. Specifically, a more active city is one that uses its two feet.

“The study provides substantial evidence that it is not just density, or the crowding together of people in urban areas, that shapes political and social activism, but the direct engagement of the city through walking,” Richard Florida writes at Atlantic Cities.

We’ve intuitively known that cities spawn social movements for a really long time. It’s been 45 years since Henri Lefebvre wrote about our “right to the city” — our right, that is, to “demand a transformed and renewed access to urban life.” Lefebvre wasn’t the only, or the first, one to point this out. (Hey Jane Jacobs! Hey Aristotle!) But these ideas are especially relevant in light of the last few years of global political action.

“In our historic moment, social grievances are inextricably tied to urban living,” Marc Tracy writes about the recent uprisings in Brazil at the New Republic (uprisings that, it should be noted, were sparked by an attempt to raise bus fares). “And since the characteristic attribute of a city is density and the characteristic attribute of density is the flinging together of people from different walks of life, Brazil’s protests have engaged a broad swath of the population.”

Brazil made the right to the city national law in 2001. But do the same forces come to bear in U.S. cities? Stateside, cities seem more concerned about attracting “new talent” than fostering social justice these days. Talk among urbanists is more about bike lanes and coffee shops than lowering transit fares.

According to the study’s authors, “walking effects are larger than income, local rent, or racial diversity.” But it seems ill-advised to rule those factors entirely, especially when our cities are in flux, and when the authors are using data from the year 2000. Since then, many U.S. city centers have grown more affluent and white, while the formerly cloistered, non-walkable suburbs have become more poor and brown.

What might those shifts mean for the future of urban activism? A diversity of population and ideas is what makes the real magic behind walkability — not just the walking itself. People have to be exposed to the breadth of the human condition if they might be motivated to change it. Will social and environmental justice organizations sustain in dense neighborhoods that become richer, and more homogenous? Can that diversity of ideas sustain without a diversity of people?

Put another way, will new city residents still be motivated toward social and environmental justice issues, or will they be content to sip soy lattes and ride bikes while donning very hip-looking helmets?

Ultimately — ideally! — if these dense, walkable places can accommodate newcomers without losing sight of longtime residents, everyone stands to benefit. To do that, though, we’ll need to maintain a diverse political dialog — in the public squares, of course.

State Department contractor lied Transcanada ties, another fatal flaw of Keystone environmental review

By Steve Horn, DeSmog Blog

The contractor the Obama U.S. State Department hired for the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) of the northern half of TransCanada’s Keystone XL (KXL) tar sands export pipeline overtly lied on its conflict-of-interest disclosure form that it signed and handed to State in June 2012.

A major research dossier unfurled today by Friends of the Earth-U.S. (FOE-U.S.) and The Checks & Balances Project (CBP) shows that Environmental Resources Management, Inc. (ERM Group) played “Pinocchio” in explaining its ties – or as they say, lack thereof – to Big Oil, tar sands and TransCanada in particular on its conflict-of-interest form.

The two groups dug deep and revealed State’s contractor ERM and its subsidiary Oasis Environmental both have ongoing contractual relationships with the Alaska Gas Project – now known as the South Central LNG Project – co-owned by TransCanada, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and BP. Further, ERM’s Socioeconomic Advisor Mark Jennings served as a “Consultant to ExxonMobil Development Company for the Alaska Pipeline Project, according to his now-scrubbed LinkedIn profile.

ERM’s own documents – FOE-U.S. and CBP further explain – also reveal the multinational firm has business ties with over a dozen companies active in the Alberta tar sands, including Exxon, Shell, Chevron, Conoco Phillips, Total and Syncrude.

On its conflict-of-interest form, ERM said it had no “direct or indirect relationship … with any business entity that could be affected in any way by the proposed work.” Clearly, that’s far from the case.

In March, ERM Group – a City of London-based dues-paying member of the American Petroleum Institute (API) with a history of rubber-stamping ecologically hazardous oil and gas infrastructure projects – said KXL’s northern half “is unlikely to have a substantial impact on the rate of development” of the tar sands in its SEIS. Thus, it will also have little impact on climate change, according to ERM’s SEIS, contracted out by TransCanada on behalf of the State Department.

FOE-U.S. says these most recent developments further call the entire SEIS into question, and that doesn’t include the fact that State recently revealed it’s clueless as to the exact route of the Keystone XL.

“From the beginning, the State Department’s review of Keystone has been plagued by influence peddling and conflicts of interest,” said FOE-U.S.’s Ross Hammond in a press statement.

“This is more serious: If ERM lied about its relationship with TransCanada, how can Secretary Kerry, President Obama or the American people believe anything the company says about the pipeline’s environmental impact?”

As PLATFORM London explains, ERM Group – also a dues-paying member of fracking industry lobbying force Marcellus Shale Coalition up until Oct. 2011 – is part of the “Carbon Web.” That’s shorthand for “the network of relationships between oil and gas companies and the government departments, regulators, cultural institutions, banks and other institutions that surround them.”

Given the state of play, both FOE-U.S. and CBP have called for State’s Office of the Inspector General to conduct a thorough investigation, examining how and why ERM was chosen. They’ve also called for a complete halt in the KXL review process until that transpires.

“Secretary Kerry must halt this flawed review process and direct the State Department to conduct a full, unbiased review of the Keystone XL pipeline’s impact,” Gabe Elsner, director of CBP said in a press statement.

“In addition, the State Department Inspector General should pursue a full investigation into how a contractor with clear conflicts of interest was allowed to write the U.S. government’s assessment of Keystone XL and why the State Department failed to bring those conflicts of interest to light. Finally, the State Department should determine appropriate disciplinary actions for ERM to discourage contractors from lying to the federal government in the future.”

Friends of the Earth U.S. has set up an action page where concerned citizens can send letters to State Secretary John Kerry calling for an investigation into the many conflicts of interest scandals within the environmental review process.

Oil train death toll likely to hit 50

Associated Press

LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec — Everyone missing in the fiery crash of a runaway oil train in Quebec is presumed dead, police told grieving families, bringing the death toll to 50 in Canada’s worst railway catastrophe in almost 150 years.

Meanwhile, attention focused on the CEO of the railway’s parent company, who faced jeers from local residents and blamed the train’s engineer for improperly setting its breaks before the disaster.

Officials said Wednesday evening that 20 bodies had been found in this burned-out town, and 30 people were missing.

“We informed them of the potential loss of their loved ones,” said Quebec police inspector Michel Forget, who came to an afternoon news briefing from a meeting with families of the dead and missing. “You have to understand that it’s a very emotional moment.”

Edward Burkhardt, the head of the train’s U.S.-based parent company blamed the engineer for failing to set the brakes properly before the unmanned Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway train hurtled down a seven-mile (11-kilometer) incline, derailed and ignited in the center of Lac-Megantic early Saturday. All but one of its 73 cars was carrying oil, and at least five exploded.

The crash has raised questions about the rapidly growing use of rail to transport oil in North America, especially in the booming North Dakota oil fields and Alberta oil sands far from the sea.

The intensity of the explosions and fire made parts of the devastated town too hot and dangerous to enter and find bodies days after the disaster. Only one body had been formally identified, said Genevieve Guilbault of the coroner’s office, and she described efforts to identify the other remains as “very long and arduous work.”

Burkhardt, president and CEO of the railway’s parent company, Rail World Inc., faced jeers from residents and scorn from Quebec’s premier as he made his first visit to the town since the disaster. He was expected to meet with residents and the mayor Thursday.

Burkhardt said the train’s engineer had been suspended without pay and was under “police control.”

Investigators also had spoken with Burkhardt during his visit, said a police official, Sgt. Benoit Richard. He did not elaborate.

Until Wednesday, the railway company had defended its employees’ actions, but that changed abruptly as Burkhardt singled out the engineer.

“We think he applied some hand brakes, but the question is, did he apply enough of them?” Burkhardt said. “He said he applied 11 hand brakes. We think that’s not true. Initially we believed him, but now we don’t.”

Burkhardt did not name the engineer, though the company had previously identified the employee as Tom Harding of Quebec. Harding has not spoken publicly since the crash.

“He’s not in jail, but police have talked about prosecuting him,” Burkhardt said. “I understand exactly why the police are considering criminal charges … If that’s the case, let the chips fall where they may.”

Investigators are also looking at a fire on the same train just hours before the disaster. A fire official has said the train’s power was shut down as standard operating procedure, meaning the train’s air brakes would have been disabled. In that case, hand brakes on individual train cars would have been needed.

The derailment is Canada’s worst railway disaster since a train plunged into a Quebec river in 1864, killing 99.

Quebec police have said they were pursuing a wide-ranging criminal investigation, extending to the possibilities of criminal negligence and some sort of tampering with the train before the crash. The heart of the town’s central business district is being treated as a crime scene and remained cordoned off by police tape.

At a news conference shortly before Burkhardt’s arrival, Quebec Premier Pauline Marois faulted his company’s response.

“We have realized there are serious gaps from the railway company from not having been there and not communicating with the public,” Marois said. She depicted Burkhardt’s attitude as “deplorable” and “unacceptable.”

Burkhardt, who arrived in town with a police escort, said he had delayed his visit in order to deal with the crisis from his office in Chicago, saying he was better able to communicate from there with insurers and officials in different places.

“I understand the extreme anger,” he said. “We owe an abject apology to the people in this town.”

In an exchange with reporters, Burkhardt defended the practice of leaving trains unmanned, as was the case when the train rolled away. Canadian transportation department officials have said there are no regulations against it.

“For the future we, and I think probably the rest of the industry, aren’t going to be leaving these trains unmanned,” Burkhardt said. “We’ll take the lead with that. I think the rest of the industry is going to follow.”

Among the residents looking on as Burkhardt spoke was Raymond Lafontaine, who is believed to have lost a son, two daughters-in-law and an employee in the disaster.

“That man, I feel pity for him,” Lafontaine said. “Maybe some who know him properly may think he’s the greatest guy in the world, but with his actions, the wait that took place, it doesn’t look good.”

The disaster forced about 2,000 of the town’s 6,000 residents from their homes, but most have been allowed to return.

Power plants turning back to coal

Source: Chicago Tribune

WASHINGTON — Power plants in the United States are burning coal more often to generate electricity, reversing the growing use of natural gas and threatening to increase domestic emissions of greenhouse gases after a period of decline, according to a federal report.

Coal’s share of total domestic power generation in the first four months of 2013 averaged 39.5 percent, compared with 35.4 percent during the same period last year, according to the Energy Information Administration, the analytical branch of the Energy Department.

By contrast, natural gas generation averaged about 25.8 percent this year, compared with 29.5 percent a year earlier, the agency said in its most recent “Short-Term Energy Outlook.”

With coal prices dropping and gas prices rising, the agency said it expected the use of coal to remain on the upswing, accounting for 40.1 percent of electricity generation through 2014. Natural gas would fuel about 27.3 percent.

Power plants are the single largest source of greenhouse gases that drive climate change. The growing use of coal is occurring against the backdrop of President Barack Obama’s announcement of a sweeping plan to reduce greenhouse gases, including curtailing emissions from power plants. His initiative has already sparked opposition from the coal industry, congressional Republicans and coal-state politicians.

Opponents say new regulations are unnecessary in part because utilities have relied more on natural gas, which emits less heat-trapping carbon dioxide than coal does. But the new data indicate that power plants will readily return to coal if the price of natural gas gets too high.

“Markets on their own may go in your direction for a period of time, but to ensure that we get reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in a significant, sustained way, you’re going to need government intervention,” said James Bradbury of the World Resources Institute, a Washington think tank.

The energy administration estimated that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels would rise by 2.4 percent in 2013 and 0.6 percent in 2014, after falling about 3.9 percent in 2012.

“The increase in emissions over the forecast period primarily reflects the projected increase in coal use for electricity generation, especially in 2013 as it rebounds from the 2012 decline,” the report said.

In a speech last month, Obama directed the Environmental Protection Agency to propose rules by June 2014 to cut greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. A rule for new power plants is expected by September.

Coal-fired generation accounted for about 50 percent of the electricity produced in the U.S. about a decade ago. But a natural gas boom driven by hydraulic fracturing has pushed down prices, making natural gas more competitive with coal. By April of last year, coal and natural gas each produced about one-third of the country’s power.

Lower demand for coal drove down its average price, said Elias Johnson, a coal industry expert for the agency. At the same time, the price of natural gas ticked upward, buoyed by demand and somewhat reduced production.

Utilities, many of which have natural gas and coal plants, will probably toggle between the two fuels in the near term, burning the cheaper one more often.

“What is the least expensive form of generation gets dispatched first: renewables, hydro, then maybe nuclear and then coal or natural gas,” said Karen Obenshain of the Edison Electric Institute, a utility trade group in Washington.

Coal is not expected to grab a 50 percent share of power generation again because new regulations curtailing mercury emissions from power plants will probably shutter many small, older coal plants, said Mark McCullough of American Electric Power, one of the country’s largest coal-fired utilities. Even with such closures, the U.S. will probably fail to sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, a goal set by Obama in 2009, without a comprehensive effort to address carbon dioxide pollution.

Said Bradbury, “Electricity markets are very dynamic, and while there’s been a lot of press about the success story of the benefits of natural gas, it’s important to realize that that’s temporary and it depends on gas prices staying really low, and we’re starting to see there are these thresholds where utilities will switch back to higher-carbon fuel, like coal.”

Concern at Kmart in Marysville after man threatens to start shooting

Source: The Herald

MARYSVILLE — Police here were looking for an angry man Wednesday evening after he reportedly threatened to start shooting people at Kmart.

No one was injured.

The incident began about 6 p.m. at the store in the 9600 block of State Avenue. It didn’t end until after the building was emptied of customers, the SWAT team had swept the store and surveillance video was reviewed to confirm the man had left.

He reportedly became angry when he overheard an employee talking about store security. He apparently believed the statements were directed at him. Police say there weren’t. Either way, he became enraged, claimed he had a gun and was going to start shooting people.

“Officers were unable to identify anyone in the store that had actually seen a gun or any type of weapon in the possession of the suspect,” police Cmdr. Robb Lamoureux said in a press release.

The man was described as white, heavy set and approximately 6 feet tall. He was wearing a gray buttoned shirt and a black bandana around his head. He may have been accompanied by a woman with blonde hair.

Detectives planned to further study the video in an attempt to identify the suspect, Lamoureux said.

Program will focus on getting certain students into tougher classes

By Sharon Salyer, The Herald

New programs will be launched this fall at Cascade and Jackson high schools to increase low-income and minority student enrollment in academically rigorous courses.

The program, called Equal Opportunity Schools, is aimed at “breaking the cycle of low expectations,” said Jeanne Willard, who oversees instructional support and on-time graduation for the Everett School District.

The goal is to get more students enrolled in courses that award college credits, such as Advanced Placement English, calculus, physics and history, as well as International Baccalaureate courses.

“There’s lots of research on AP courses that says that students are more likely to graduate from high school, and when they go to college they earn more credits and have higher GPAs,” Willard said.

Nationally, twice as many white students take Advanced Placement exams as Latino or black students.

In the Everett School District, students from medium and higher income families, regardless of race, typically take the academically challenging courses more frequently than those from lower income families.

Everett’s high schools are among 79 that have been selected for the program this year.

When the program starts in the fall, Cascade and Jackson high schools will survey students and teachers on their attitudes about Advanced Placement programs, including whether students are encouraged to enroll in these courses.

Everett High School is scheduled to begin the program in fall 2015, to allow time to evaluate the program and see if there are any changes that might be made specifically for that school, Willard said.

At Cascade High School, the school district estimates that an additional 85 students could qualify for the advanced academic programs; Everett High School could enroll another 52 students and at Jackson, an additional 31 students could be enrolled.

Success will be measured by the number of students passing Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate courses.

“The benefit is colleges and universities often see AP and International Baccalaureate courses as examples of rigorous coursework,” said Tony Byrd, associate superintendent of curriculum, assessment and special programs. “We’re hoping it will inspire more students to participate.”

School districts in Federal Way and Renton also have the program in their schools. Participating school districts find more low-income and minority students enroll and continue to enroll in the challenging classes, Willard said.

Google will provide an $18,000 grant to Equal Opportunity Schools for technical assistance for Everett’s program as well as grants of up to $300 for each low-income or minority student enrolled in AP or International Baccalaureate courses.

School board member Pam LeSesne said it’s important for students to be prepared for big academic challenges.

A change has to occur from an attitude of, “Well, if it’s too hard, let’s not push the kids,” she said.

“Let’s challenge our students to think they can do it,” LeSesne said. “And let’s ensure they’re prepared to do it.”

USDA, Interior and Defense Departments Partner to Benefit Agricultural Lands, Wildlife Habitat and Military Readiness

First Sentinel Landscape Pilot in Washington State will Support Local Economy, the Conservation of Natural Resources and National Defense

Source: USDA

WASHINGTON, July 10, 2013 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Defense Acting Deputy Under Secretary for Installations and Environment John Conger announced today a federal, local and private collaboration that will preserve agricultural lands, assist with military readiness and restore and protect wildlife habitat.

Through the Sentinel Landscapes partnership, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), U.S. Department of the Interior (Interior) and Department of Defense (DoD) will work together in overlapping priority areas near military installations to help farmers and ranchers make improvements to the land that benefit their operation, enhance wildlife habitat, and enable DoD’s training missions to continue.

“This is a great example of a federal, local and private collaboration working together to achieve greater results for the American people – in this case by enhancing conservation efforts while ensuring our national defense,” Vilsack said. “As a result of this partnership between Federal agencies and private partners, producers will have greater certainty with regard to the environment, we’ll protect habitat for at-risk species, and our Armed Forces will retain access to important training opportunities.”

“Today’s announcement is a win-win for the American people and for the land and wildlife we cherish,” Jewell said. “We are taking an important step in addressing one of the greatest threats to wildlife in America today, loss of habitat, while helping to ensure the preservation of working landscapes and our military readiness.”

“The Department of Defense is committed to working together with other federal agencies to ensure we sustain a world-class training environment at military installations across the country,” Conger said. “This arrangement benefits our service members and is an innovative, efficient use of taxpayer resources. It has the added benefits of protecting important habitats for imperiled wildlife species and working lands in rural communities that surround military installations. I look forward to our applying this model at other locations across the country.”

A result of collaboration through the White House Rural Council, the federal agencies will kick off this partnership through a pilot Sentinel Landscape in the South Puget Sound region of Washington State. Home to Joint Base Lewis-McChord, an important troop training facility, this region has some of the last remaining native prairie habitat in the state.

Once covering 150,000 acres, only three percent of the original native prairie habitat remains due to development. Several of the at-risk species in this area include Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly, the streaked horned lark, and the Mazama pocket gopher. A rare native plant, the golden Indian paintbrush, is already listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act.

DoD, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Interior’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and partner organizations will invest more than $12.6 million to restore and protect more than 2,600 acres of this important prairie habitat on both public and private lands, allowing training activities at the Joint Base to move forward with more flexibility.

Many NRCS conservation and DoD programs ease pressures that development puts on wildlife habitat, including DoD’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration program. Left unaddressed, this decreasing habitat could otherwise restrict testing and training on military installations, areas to which many species flee when displaced by development.

The creation of long-term or permanent easements will protect nearby agricultural and private lands from development and help preserve farms and rural culture. Wildlife habitat can be created and managed to benefit species as well as agricultural production and military readiness.

Building on the successes of USDA’s Working Lands for Wildlife, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will provide regulatory predictability under the Endangered Species Act to ranchers who implement conservation practices in the pilot landscape, and is pursuing the possibility of granting ecosystem credits to DoD from the federal conservation investments.

With interagency and private collaboration, these Sentinel Landscapes will help preserve the land’s natural character while benefitting national defense, local economies and the conservation of natural resources.

The departments are reviewing additional sites for the partnership to collaborate in the future and will continue to capitalize on the USDA, Interior, DoD and local partners’ overlying priorities and programs.