Green & indigenous News

Existing algorithms can partially reconstruct the shape of a single tree from a clean point-cloud dataset acquired by laser-scanning technologies. Doing the same with forest data has proven far more difficult. But now a team from Purdue University's Department of Computer Science and Institute for Digital Forestry and Germany's Kiel University has introduced a new AI method for isolating and reconstructing forest trees that they call TreeStructor.

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Invisible in their trillions, microbes dwell in our bodies, grow in soils, live on trees and are integral to planetary health. Yet the huge oversized roles these teeming biodiverse microbial communities play as a foundation for life on Earth is often overlooked. And so, too, are the threats microorganisms face, especially from humanity’s actions. But this scientific inattention is about to end, as a newly launched International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) species survival commission focuses on microbiology and dire threats to microbial species. “I think this is a huge milestone for microbiologists, but also for conservation overall, because for the first time, we have an official recognition that microbes need to be included in the conservation agenda,” says Raquel Peixoto, co-chair of the IUCN specialist group and chair of the Marine Science Program at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia. “We cannot talk about either climate change or biodiversity loss without talking about microbes, because we need them to keep the ecosystems healthy and working, and we need them to keep the organisms working,” she adds. All plants and animals host invisible communities of microbes. These vast unseen microbiomes are fundamental to life as we know it, but these invisible ecosystems are also threatened by numerous intensifying pressures, including pollution, climate change and land use change. Prochlorococcus microorganisms in the world’s oceans produce vast amounts of oxygen via photosynthesis. Increasing water temperatures could cause declines of this invaluable microbe. A recent study estimates that…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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Researchers from CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, have unlocked the most detailed genetic blueprint yet of a major soil-borne crop pathogen—an advance that paves the way for better crop disease management in Australian agriculture.

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A winter storm bringing very cold temperatures is expected to slam a massive stretch of the United States this week with more than 175 million people facing the prospect of power outages and travel disruptions.

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A new CIIMAR study demonstrates that natural peptides produced by cyanobacteria are capable of replacing toxic biocides that dominate the market for anti-fouling paints used in the maritime industry. The use of these peptides as an active component brings direct benefits to the environment, the blue economy and marine biodiversity.

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A six-year analysis of marine microbes in coastal California waters has overturned long-held assumptions about how the ocean's smallest organisms interact.

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In the Kenyan savanna, lions and livestock essentially live in shifts: Cattle graze during the day and are enclosed at night when lions are active.

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So-called forever chemicals or PFAS compounds are a growing environmental problem. An innovative approach to treating PFAS‐contaminated water and soil now comes from accelerator physics: high‐energy electrons can break down PFAS molecules into harmless components through a process called radiolysis.

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NOTE: The following text is the written version of the author’s presentation at the press conference of the Platform for Peacebuilding in Mexico, held during its 4th Meeting on October 28, 2025. During the meeting, we discussed the many forms of violence in Mexico, particularly in the state of Chiapas, its causes, and efforts to build the peace we want. This text focuses on aspects of feminist international relations that are central to the work of our think tank, Mira Feminisms y Democracies—regional and international contexts, the foreign policy of the current U.S. administration, and capitalism and patriarchy as generators of conflict and violence. It also reflects on the prospects for peacebuilding in Mexico and Latin America.

We believe that the events of recent weeks have given even more weight to these warnings. The invasion of Venezuela on January 3, 2026, the National Security Strategy presented at the end of November with the Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine claiming the entire continent as its own, and the intensified threats from the U.S. government against Mexico, Colombia, and other countries reflect the danger of the moment we are living in. We are deeply grateful to our partner organizations for the opportunity to work together in the Platform and other spaces to confront this danger with creativity, commitment, and hope.

We have entered a new era in this first year of Donald Trump’s second term. In this context, three aspects of President Trump’s foreign policy stand out that directly affect Mexico, generating violence, and posing major obstacles to achieving peace in the nation and here in Chiapas: the war on drugs (again), the patriarchal model, and extractive capitalism. While these have always been structural causes of violence emanating from the dominant capitalist system, they are now reinforced by Trump’s current policies.

The renewed war on drugs

Across the continent, the Trump administration is repositioning the “war on drugs” as a pretext for political and military interventions. Almost two decades after the imposition of this U.S.-designed model in Mexico, the results have been an unprecedented surge in general and femicidal violence, disappearances, a high human and economic cost, the uncontrolled flow of weapons into the country from the U.S., and increased militarization, corruption, and complicity. These dynamics have caused the erosion of social and community fabric and a reinforcement of patriarchal forms of domination of women, children and LBTBQ+ persons.

One of the promises of the Fourth Transformation’s electoral platform was to end the model of militarized war against the cartels, but we are currently witnessing an increase in militarization and a reaffirmation of the strategy of combating criminal violence with state violence. in a context in which criminality permeates the structures of both forces, the violence generated by the model cuts across society with profound impacts on daily life.

Now the pressures to intensify this disastrous strategy have increased. The Trump administration is using the threat of tariffs to force the Mexican government to adopt the war model that has so damaged our country, and is threatening to invade Mexico if it does not. The current U.S. government openly justifies its extrajudicial executions in the Caribbean and the Pacific by calling the cartels “terrorist groups,” suspending basic rights and empowering the armed forces, with an emboldened and enriched Pentagon in the lead. New narratives have built up a non-existent external enemy (“narcoterrorism”) to promote the war industry and avoid acknowledging serious internal problems and contradictions. The whole scheme carries enormous benefits for oligarchical elites and imperialist interests as public spending on arms rises and the U.S. government paves the way for transnational corporations to take greater control of natural resources in other countries.

We see the same logic of the external enemy in domestic policy in the hypercriminalization of migration. Anti-immigrant measures in the U.S., policies also imposed in Mexico, set up a threatening “other” and end up promoting organized crime by strengthening illegal markets in human trafficking, extortion, and kidnapping. Mexico’s southern border has been erected as a wall for the U.S., converting it into a zone of dispute and conflict, as we’ve seen for years on the northern border.

Criminalizing migration, which is an international right, turns human beings into commodities and encourages forced recruitment, which is modern slavery. In this context, 40 migrants disappeared on the coast between Chiapas and Oaxaca on December 21 last year, with total impunity to date. Once again it’s the mothers who have had to organize to search, as the government stands by pretending there is no problem.

In short, the war on drugs has become the centerpiece of the U.S.’s interventionist foreign policy. This war is false and hypocritical and its purpose is not to be won but to perpetuate conflict, create permanent instability and reorganize illicit black-market profits among new elites and reconfigured alliances.

The reinforced patriarchal model

The patriarchal model centers on the figure of the father, who traditionally assumes the role of decision-maker and authority figure and exercises social and economic control over women and children. His domination over others is based on superior physical strength, which in practice is often imposed through the use of violence, and supported by a vast structure of social norms and prejudices that maintain male privilege.

This form of social organization promotes anti-values such as competition over cooperation, rigid hierarchical systems over equality, discipline without critical thinking, and the principle of “might makes right”—the domination of the “strong” over the “weak.” It reinforces misogyny, discrimination, and racism in expressions reflected in culture, politics, social organization and physical violence.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

By denying women’s leadership, glorifying violence and dismissing dialogue, patriarchy is one of the foremost obstacles to peace.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

The reaffirmation of patriarchy is a pillar of the extreme right and of Donald Trump’s discourse and politics. It is evident in the far right’s measures to eliminate women’s hard-won rights over their bodies, including abortion and the prevention of unwanted pregnancies, and in its attacks on anti-discrimination programs. Participation of women in the public sphere is being closed off, and discourse actively devalues a series of characteristics socially considered “feminine”, such as mediation and negotiation, flexibility and tolerance, and community over the individual. It’s important to note that these social concepts have been largely preserved in indigenous communities–another reason why Indigenous Peoples are targeted by the extreme right.

Following the patriarchal model, security prioritizes the use of force over diplomacy, the annihilation of the enemy, and punitive and coercive measures over dialogue and diagnosis of causes. In most places, it is women who lead local efforts to build peace and repair the social fabric. By denying women’s leadership, glorifying violence and dismissing dialogue, patriarchy is one of the foremost obstacles to peace.

Mexico now has a woman president who has spoken out against some of these policies, but as a country and as a society, we still have a long way to go to take a different stance—in defense of equality and rejecting machismo as a form of domination. To break with patriarchy, it is also urgent to defend our sovereignty and our right to define our own policies, especially in the face of the Trump administration. So far, this defense has been timid at best.

The intensification of extractive capitalism

Capitalism must constantly expand and at this stage intensified extractivism is one way to do it. The capitalist agenda proposes to remove all state regulations that limit private investment and profit-taking, and topple all states that favor such regulation or nationalize resources in order to open everything up to large transnational corporations. Part of the strategy is to eliminate and violate the rights of Indigenous Peoples, ejidos, the environment and nature, and workers.

Through the capitalist lens, these rights are obstacles to be overcome. The land and its resources are there for them to get richer—they want 100% access for mining, oil, water, and energy exploitation. They don’t recognize global warming because the survival of the planet is not a priority, nor is the survival of human and non-human populations that don’t further their interests. What matters are their profits. Corruption, militarization to evict and exclude, and injustice are their tools and allies.

This isn’t a new situation, but this stage has some new characteristics. Under Trump, the capitalist oligarchy centered in the U.S.—the super-rich—now exercises the power of the state, the most powerful capitalist state in the world, and does so on a global level. The use of U.S. military force, the intensification of these practices, and the resulting inequities and inequalities generate constant conflict.

Three political aspects of this stage are clear: First, the US government’s open break with the rule of law, human rights, and democratic frameworks. This break puts us in unknown terrain for peace efforts–we´re walking through a minefield requiring ever more complex and risky strategies.

The second is the battle for the narrative. While denying democracy means acting without requiring the formal consent of the majority of the people, authoritarian forces still must contest the narrative to avoid rebellion. The extreme has developed a sophisticated machinery to do this.

The third is the open repression we see with the deployment of the National Guard in U.S. cities and the role of the military abroad.

Photo: Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center

Building peace must begin by rejecting and breaking the logics that generate violence and its expressions. It starts by understanding that this is not about an external enemy, but rather the interplay of social phenomena. We must end prohibitionism, because it creates illicit markets for drugs and human trafficking and criminalizes rather than protects problematic users.

It means building peace out of the lived experience and full participation of citizens, not measures imposed from above. And it means holding on to the vision–the dreams and the practices–that build real, lasting peace with justice.

Laura Carlsen is director of the feminist center for international relations studies Mira Feminismos y Democracias, based in Mexico City. She is a political analyst, commentator, and journalist specializing in regional relations, U.S. politics, social movements, and gender justice. She hosts the weekly TV show on feminist international relations, Hecho En América.

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Organoids are three-dimensional miniature models of organs, grown in a dish. They have become a valuable tool for studying human development, organ regeneration, function, and disease progression. Organoids derived from patient tissues or created through cell and genetic engineering allow researchers to investigate how specific proteins or their variants affect these processes.

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Thousands of kilometers of Balkan rivers have been damaged in recent years, a study published Wednesday found, as hydropower development, dams and sediment extraction drive a "steady erosion" of some of Europe's last pristine waterways.

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Warm Arctic waters and cold continental land are combining to stretch the dreaded polar vortex in a way that will send much of the United States a devastating dose of winter weather later this week with swaths of painful subzero temperatures, heavy snow and powerline-toppling ice.

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The Pentagon has ordered about 1,500 active-duty soldiers to be ready in case of a possible deployment to Minnesota.

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The world is depleting its freshwater far faster than nature can replace it, pushing many regions into “water bankruptcy,” according to a new report from the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH). The report compares Earth’s hydrological system to a household’s finances. Rivers, rainfall and snow represent annual income, while glaciers, wetlands and aquifers are long-term savings. Many regions have withdrawn too much water from both the “income” and “savings” accounts, leading to a water bankruptcy. “This report tells an uncomfortable truth: many regions are living beyond their hydrological means, and many critical water systems are already bankrupt,” lead author Keveh Madani said in a statement. Many water systems have been overdrawn for more than 50 years, the report finds. Roughly 70% of large aquifers show long-term decline while 30% of glacier mass has been lost since the 1970s due to a warming climate. Some mountains in low and mid latitudes are expected to lose their glaciers completely in the coming decades, meaning the rivers they feed won’t be replenished. When glaciers melt and aquifers are pumped dry, those resources can’t be replaced in a human timescale. Scientists have long warned of a global water crisis, but water bankruptcy is the post-crisis stage of irreversible damage to water systems. “The language of crisis — suggesting a temporary emergency followed by a return to normal through mitigation efforts — no longer captures what is happening in many parts of the world,” the report authors note. Agriculture accounts for roughly…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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With a synchronized tap from run-of-the-mill hammers on metal plates resting on the ground, researchers kneeling in nine fields across four continents believe they’ve hit upon more than just the earth beneath their feet. “Waiting for it,” someone said. And then, “Waveforms!” “Excellent, waveforms!” another said, as the tiles on screen reveal EKG-like sets of squiggles on laptops and smartphones from each of the locations. The video promotes the Earth Rover Program, a new effort to glean critical details about the soil from the way that a hammer tap tickles a set of sensors. It’s early days for the project. But its global team is working to bring the tools of seismology — known affectionately as “the science of the squiggle,” said co-founder Simon Jeffrey — to bear on teasing apart the global puzzle of soil health. Jeffrey and his fellow founders, geophysicist Tarje Nissen-Meyer and journalist George Monbiot, have staked out a far-reaching ambition to map soils with a cost-effective technology. They say they hope the program will equip farmers the world over with a better set of tools to grow crops and ensure that soils will remain healthy long into the future. “If we don’t have soil, then we don’t have the wonderful aboveground ecosystems that the vast majority of us enjoy so much,” Jeffrey, a professor of soil ecology at Harper Adams University in the U.K., told Mongabay in an interview. He’s quick to point out that soil — the accumulated minerals, organic matter, droplets of liquid…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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Stewart Huntington
ICT

MINNEAPOLIS — The  menu at the Powwow Grounds Coffee house on historic Franklin Avenue has grown in recent weeks. Along with the usual double latte or iced cappuccino there are more important items available: peace, community and a sense of security.

Nestled in the heart of the American Indian Cultural Corridor in Minneapolis, the coffee shop and neighboring art gallery space have morphed into a community kitchen, warming space and distribution center for food and supplies for a neighborhood riven with fear and confusion following the death of Renee Good at the hands of a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis in early January.

The Powwow Grounds Coffee shop in Minneapolis, shown here on Monday, Jan. 19, 2026, serves as refuge for the Native community and others as immigration agents sweep the community. Credit: Stewart Huntington/ICT

“We all came together and said, ‘Okay, let’s prepare for the worst,’” said Robert Rice, the White Earth Ojibwe citizen who owns Powwow Grounds Coffee, which many consider Ground Zero for the city’s urban Indians. “We’ll be a community and we’ll stand together.”

First up are security concerns.

Masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have pulled people from cars and conducted sweeps of neighborhoods and workplaces in search of undocumented immigrants. Reports of Native Americans getting targeted in the immigration sweeps have sent waves of fear through the community.

“People can’t go outside because they’re scared to run into ICE and get detained and deported,” said Khalani Freemont, a Omaha Tribe of Nebraska citizen. “I’m scared of that every day.”

‘Do your thing’

A half a century ago, the American Indian Movement was established across Franklin Avenue from where Powwow Grounds Coffee stands today. AIM’s first actions were citizen patrols looking to keep Native Americans safe in an environment of overzealous law enforcement activity. The patrol system was reinvigorated during the riots that followed the killing of George Floyd in 2020 by a Minneapolis police officer.

It’s active again these days with volunteers from AIM and other organizations keeping an eye on the corridor, which includes centerpieces such as the Minneapolis American Indian Center and the Little Earth housing community.

Powwow Grounds is the anchor of the community.

Robert Rice, the White Earth Ojibwe citizen who owns the Powwow Grounds Coffee shop in Minneapolis, takes a quick break on Monday, Jan. 19, 2026, from doing his part to offer a refuge as immigration agents sweep the community.
Credit: Stewart Huntington/ICT

“It’s a place where you can come and be safe,” said Freemont, who for years has been active in the neighborhood security patrols. “Just like somewhere peaceful where someone can stay and feel safe and know that they have the community around them.”

And maybe get a meal, said Rice, who figured the best way he could help the community was through, well, soup.

“Soup is a big thing, you know, for protesters or patrollers,” he said. “They can come in here and get something to eat. Shut down, take a break, get warm, and then, you know, get back out there, do their thing.”

Rice says he shut down the register in the coffee shop and relies on donations during this time of stress in the community.

“I’m not actually out on the front lines, but I can do something, you know? My something is, I cook,” he said. “So that’s been my focus. And I’m just one spoke in this wheel we call the community. You know, it’s just an amazing group of people.”

In the gallery space adjoining the coffee house, stacks and stacks of supplies line the walls. Crow Bellecourt, the executive director of the Indigenous Protector Movement and the son of one of the founding AIM members, surveyed the resources.

“We have a lot of donations coming in,” he said.

Crow Bellecourt, executive director of the Indigenous Protector Movement and the son of one of the founding members of the American Indian Movement, surveys the donations on Monday, Jan. 19, 2026, at the Powwow Grounds Coffee shop, which is serving as a clearinghouse to help the Native community in Minneapolis as immigration raids continue across the area. Credit: Stewart Huntington/ICT

In one corner sits food and household supplies for families scared to go out to the store. In other piles are items for people who chose to venture to the front lines and confront the ICE officers conducting raids.

“We keep all our sage, our tobacco sweetgrass in the corner here so people can protect their spirits,” said Bellecourt, Bad River Band of Chippewa Indians. “And then we also have energy drinks, first aid stuff. And goggles, if you get sprayed by pepper spray.”

Outside, a fire burns throughout the day and evening to warm the hands, feet and hearts of the community.

Khalani Freemont, a citizen of the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska, sits inside the Powwow Grounds Coffee shop in Minneapolis, which is serving as a refuge in the Native community as fears grow over immigration raids, even for citizens. “People can’t go outside because they’re scared to run into ICE and get detained and deported,” Freemont said. Credit: Stewart Huntington/ICT

“We communicate with our spirits through our fires and our prayer fires,” said Freemont. “People keep asking if this is just for Native Americans. No, it’s for everybody. We have people in and out every day hauling stuff to different communities.”

Rice said the ICE raids have raised questions as well, including whether it’s legal tto stop people on the street and ask for identification.

 “Where’s the Constitution here?” he asked. “They’re not supposed to be able to do that. We’re basically here to help push back on that. That’s what we’re doing here.”

Attorney Chase Iron Eyes from the Lakota People’s Law Project agreed. An Oglala Lakota citizen, he drove over from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to represent people caught up in the ICE raids

“Those who would seek to do violence against peaceful American families are finding that they have met their match in Minneapolis, Minnesota,” he said, “because there are Native people here. We know what it’s like to be free. We know freedom in a different sense of that word. And all of America is welcome to know that freedom that we know.”

He feels that sense of freedom at the Powwow Grounds Coffee shop.

“The Powwow Grounds is a source of light,” Iron Eyes told ICT. “It is a source of light for those in Minneapolis who want to ensure the safety and the sanctity and integrity of the United States Constitution.”

‘Center of chaos’

Driving around the neighborhood near the Powwow Grounds, Bellecourt noted that things have changed since his father, Clyde Bellecourt, and others founded AIM in 1968. There are new tribal offices and embassies, new housing, a new drug recovery center, with more buildings under construction.

Some things, however, still need attention, including the homeless encampments under roadway bridges.

“Here we are in 2026,” he said. “Still fighting the good fight. And it just strikes me as odd. This is always the center of chaos. Like with the George Floyd riots. And then now we have these big ICE raids. It always pops off in Minneapolis, St. Paul. Crazy.”

Perhaps there’s something in the Twin City air?

Or maybe it’s something else, said Iron Eyes.

“It’s got to be the Powwow Grounds coffee,” he said. “It’s the fuel of the resistance.”

The post On the ground in Minneapolis: ‘The fuel of the resistance’ appeared first on ICT.

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Last Updated on January 21, 2026 In July 2025, thousands of Bhils gathered in Banswara for the Bhil Tribal Conference. The crowd’s mood was unusually charged. Master Bhanwarlal Parmar, founder of the Adivasi Family Organization, declared that “even after 70 years, the demands of Tribal communities remain unfulfilled,” adding “Tribals are the original inhabitants of […]

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The rapid growth of artificial intelligence has sharply increased electricity and water consumption, raising concerns about the technology's environmental footprint and carbon emissions. But the story is more complicated than that.

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U.S. forests have stored more carbon in the past two decades than at any time in the last century, an increase attributable to a mix of natural factors and human activity, finds a new study.

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The Northwest Forest Plan, adopted in 1994, helped quell mounting tensions between timber companies and environmentalists. It protected large swaths of old-growth forest in Washington, Oregon and California to preserve habitat for endangered species, including the Northern spotted owl and marbled murrelet.

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Human activity continues to expand ever further into wild areas, throwing ecology out of balance. But what begins as an environmental issue often evolves into a human problem.

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CRANBROOK, British Colombia | At the Nupqu Native Plant Nursery in the Canadian province of British Columbia, sulfur buckwheat seedlings fill Styrofoam trays. It’s October, the end of the growing season, and each is just a small cluster of dark-green, waxy, oval leaves, undersides bleeding to purple. Sulfur buckwheat (Eriogonum umbellatum) is a high-altitude grassland species and one of the most in-demand species for restoration of highly degraded land, says Melanie Redman, the nursery’s seed specialist. But it’s also notoriously tricky to propagate. It usually takes two to three years to coax the plant from seed to seedling. This year, however, the nursery has managed to get the whole process down to just one year. Nupqu, which means “black bear” in the Ktunaxa language, is a wholly Ktunaxa-owned land and natural resource management company, part of a number of businesses jointly owned by the four Ktunaxa First Nations in Canada and the Ktunaxa Nation Council. Five years ago, the company acquired an existing native plant nursery, located on the ʔaq̓am reserve, and has since been building up expertise and capacity. The Nupqu Native Plant Nursery, which says it’s the largest Indigenous-owned native plant nursery in Canada, now cultivates more than 60 plant species. Most are grown from seeds collected on the Canadian portion of the Ktunaxa’s traditional territory, which stretches over 70,000 square kilometers (27,000 square miles) across the Kootenay region of what is now British Columbia. It’s a land of jagged peaks, high alpine meadows, grasslands, dappled forests, fish-bearing…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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Ask people how Stonehenge was built and you'll hear stories of sledges, ropes, boats and sheer human determination to haul stones from across Britain to Salisbury Plain, in south-west England. Others might mention giants, wizards, or alien assistance to explain the transport of Stonehenge's stones, which come from as far as Wales and Scotland.

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This column was originally published on Mark Trahant’s Substack on January 16, 2026

Mark Trahant

Friday, Jan. 16, Newsrime

Once it was fun to say ‘stop the presses’
Nowadays that idea only depresses
We recall the days of newspaper glory
Lakota Times will always be a great story

I hate to see any newspaper go away. Amanda Takes War Bonnett-Beauvais posted on her Facebook page:

Lakota Times is printing their last issue this week and will close shop. I just want to thank Connie for her endless work she did in keeping the newspaper afloat and giving our community that communication stepping stone. She has been trying to find new energy for it but had no takers. It’s a little tough for me today, as that was my baby when we started it 2005 up until we left it in her loving hands. Maybe, there is still a chance someone will take the helm. Regardless, Connie did a great job and prayers of strength for her as she moves forward.

The Lakota Times shares a history with Indian Country Today.

In the spring of 1981, Tim Giago launched Lakota Times as an independent newspaper. Then about a decade later he changed the name to Indian Country Today to reflect is growing national audience. Then he sold the paper to the Oneida Indian Nation and it moved to New York State.

In 2005, Amanda Takes War Bonnett-Beauvais led another version of Lakota Times. Indian Country Today (then under Oneida) objected, saying they “owned” the name Lakota Times, so she changed the name to Lakota Country Times. Local news for both Pine Ridge and Rosebud.

A funny story. When I was editor of Indian Country Today in 2019, Tim Giago called and asked if he could use the name Lakota Times again. (He was publishing another paper, Native Sun News, which is still going.) I researched and discovered that in Oneida Indian Nation’s transfer of assets related to Indian Country Today there was nothing written about Lakota Times. I told Tim that I didn’t think we owned the name, so yes, he was free to use it, at least in my opinion.

About a month later, Connie Louise Smith called and asked the same question. Same answer. I don’t think we own it. Do what you want. She changed the masthead that week.

Tim called again, furious. “Why did you let her do that?” I laughed. “Tim, I told her the same thing I told you, we don’t own it. She just acted quicker.”

Newspaper rivalries are the best.

Protecting sources

How does a journalist protect sources when the Trump Justice Department is willing to search a reporter’s home for private notes? The pretext was finding a source who leaked classified information.

From The Washington Post:

In a note to The Post’s staff Wednesday, Executive Editor Matt Murray said the publication was informed that neither Natanson nor The Post is the target of the FBI investigation, which was aimed at a government contractor accused of illegally retaining classified government materials. “Nonetheless, this extraordinary, aggressive action is deeply concerning,” Murray wrote.

He followed up later in the day to say “we are continuing to vigorously defend our journalists and our work.” He added that the publication is working to schedule refresher sessions to reinforce proper source and reporting practices.

That last line is critical. What practices do reporters follow, a routine. Early on in my career I was told that keeping notes was not a good idea. Get rid of them on a regular basis. The pack rat in me could not do that.

I have had a couple of tests when I worked for The Arizona Republic, some four decades ago. Both involved former Navajo Chairman Peter MacDonald, Sr.

The first time he filed a libel suit against me. I still had all the notes and went over them with attorneys for the newspaper. But that case didn’t go very far because a judge dismissed it because MacDonald was a public figure. The second time was for his criminal trial. Federal prosecutors subpoenaed me but I let them know I didn’t possess any notes at that point. (What I didn’t say, is that I sent them all to an archive. They easily could have dug them up.) I traveled to Prescott where his trial took place, but once on the stand, the lawyers for the Republic were able to get me excused. So I never had to say anything.

Over the years a few reporters have asked me to hold sensitive notes for them. Most of that material is now in an archive as well.

A Podcast history

Speaking of media, a shout out to my colleague on the Indigenous House channel, Jade Begay and her program, “Jaded.” This week she interviews Dallas Goldtooth. It’s worth a watch (or a listen). I am especially fascinated by the conversations about media literacy — a critical notion these days.

Have a good weekend.

The post ANALYSIS: Are the good Times really over? appeared first on ICT.

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New research into the impact of climate change on snow sports provides recommendations to increase the climate-resilience of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

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