June, 13 2012, 05:17pm EDT
Deadly Bat Fungus Spreads to Iowa
Discovery at Popular Tourist Cave Means 21 States Now Affected by White-nose Syndrome
MAQUOKETA, Iowa
Iowa wildlife officials announced today that the fungus known to cause devastating illness and death in North American bats has been detected for the first time within the state's borders. The bat disease, known as white-nose syndrome, has spread over much of the eastern United States and eastern Canada over the past six years, after first appearing in New York in 2006. Bats in 19 states and four Canadian provinces have contracted the disease; nearly 7 million have died.
"The spread of this pathogen to Iowa is terrible news for our bats and for us," said Mollie Matteson, a bat specialist with the Center for Biological Diversity, which has worked for years to secure funding and cave closures to stop white-nose and this spring petitioned the White House for national action. "It's a disaster for farmers, too, who depend on bats to control crop pests by eating millions of insects."
Biologists swabbed the fungus off a hibernating big brown bat this past winter while studying the epidemic. Lab results confirmed the fungus's presence, but as yet biologists have found no associated sick bats or bat mortality in Iowa. The fungal detection occurred at Maquoketa Caves State Park, in the eastern part of the state.
For the past two years, state officials kept the caves at Maquoketa closed to tours as a precautionary measure to prevent the possible spread of the disease by people. This spring the state decided to reopen the caves to visitors, citing new funding to hire staff that will educate park visitors about the bat disease. Now the park must switch from trying to prevent movement of the bat-killing disease into the caves to trying to prevent it from being carried to new, uninfected sites. To keep fungal material contained, park officials say they will provide a decontamination mat visitors must step on after touring the caves.
Earlier this spring, white-nose syndrome was officially reported in neighboring Missouri. The fungus, though not yet the disease, was first documented there in 2010.
Biologists believe bats transmit the lethal fungus themselves, but that human transport is the primary means for the fungus to make large jumps beyond the dispersal distance of bats. Indeed, human transport likely brought the disease to North America from Europe, where it is common but does not kill bats.
"Opening a tourist cave when white-nose syndrome was documented in a neighboring state was questionable, but keeping a known contaminated cave open to a high volume of tourists is irresponsible," said Matteson. "Iowa state park officials need to reconsider their decision to open Maquoketa, in particular, because Iowa, along with Missouri and Oklahoma, now represents the western front of this catastrophic epidemic."
Researchers are working to develop an effective way to combat the fungus, including possible vaccines or antifungal treatments. However, development of a practical treatment is uncertain and at best likely several years away. Meanwhile, biologists are concerned the disease could spread across the country, threatening the survival of more and more bat species.
Background
White-nose syndrome is caused by the fungus Geomyces destructans. The disease was first documented in a cave in upstate New York in 2006. Seven species of bat have been infected. Another two bat species have been found with the fungus on them, but have not yet suffered mortality. In northeastern states, where the bat disease has been present the longest, bat populations are down by more than 90 percent. Biologists believe several bat species may go extinct as a result.
The white-nose fungus has been found on cave-dwelling bats in Europe but does not appear to cause them any significant health problems. Scientists are suspicious of long-distance leaps of the disease, especially where they have occurred in caves that are popular sites for visitation and recreation, and have expressed grave concern that the disease could spread to hibernating bats throughout North America. In all, as many as two dozen bat species could be at risk.
The loss of bats is a potential economic disaster. Scientists have estimated that insect-eating bats consume enough agricultural pests to be worth $22 billion annually to American farmers.
For more information, visit SaveOurBats.org.
At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.
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Biden Labor Department Finalizes Pro-Worker Rules on Overtime, Retirement Savings
"Democrats are delivering for working people!" declared Rep. Pramila Jayapal as the AFL-CIO noted that GOP ex-President Donald Trump "gutted the rules that required overtime pay for millions of workers."
Apr 23, 2024
Roughly 4.3 million U.S. workers will now be eligible for overtime pay under a new rule finalized Tuesday by President Joe Biden's Labor Department—in stark contrast to his Republican predecessor's rules that severely limited the number of workers who were eligible for required compensation when they worked more than 40 hours per week.
Under the new rule, employers will be required to pay overtime premiums to salaried workers who work more than standard full-time hours if they earn less than $1,128 per week, or about $58,600 per year.
Former President Donald Trump, now the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, may now have to defend his 2020 rule that set the overtime pay threshold at just $35,500 per year, leaving out millions of workers.
U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) noted that the updated rule was "a major piece" of the Executive Action Agenda released by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which she chairs.
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The Labor Department posted a chart on social media showing how under Trump's policy, only workers who earn less than $688 per week are eligible for required overtime pay. The full rule is set to go into effect in January 2025.
The chart offers a "good split screen with the GOP," saidSlate reporter Mark Joseph Stern.
"It isn't just that Trump's Department of Labor fought overtime pay—it's also that Trump appointed anti-labor judges who are about to block Biden's new rule," he said.
The former Republican president's appointed judges could also block a new Federal Trade Commission rule introduced on Tuesday, which blocks companies from including noncompete clauses in workers' contracts.
"Both reforms happened because of Biden and in spite of Republicans," said HuffPost labor reporter Dave Jamieson.
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The finalized retirement security rule requires "trusted investment advice providers to give prudent, loyal, honest advice free from overcharges," said the department. "These fiduciaries must adhere to high standards of care and loyalty when they recommend investments and avoid recommendations that favor the investment advice providers' interests—financial or otherwise—at the retirement savers' expense."
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Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, said the nation's largest labor federation has "been pushing for the fiduciary and overtime rules since the Obama administration."
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More than four dozen labor unions across numerous industries on Tuesday signed a letter expressing solidarity with students who have been suspended and arrested in recent days for protesting at Columbia University, including members of the on-campus labor group Student Workers of Columbia.
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The Ivy League institution, protesters say, will remain complicit in Israel's bombardment and blockade on Gaza, the killing of at least 34,183 Palestinians in the enclave since October, and the intentional starvation of dozens of people, until it entirely divests from Israel.
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The protests at Columbia—where more than 100 students were suspended, arrested for trespassing, and in some cases, evicted from their housing—have galvanized college students and faculty members at a growing number of universities in recent days.
Campus groups at the University of Minnesota and the University of Pittsburgh both announced early Tuesday that they were setting up their own encampments in solidarity with Columbia students and victims of the Israel Defense Forces' relentless attacks on Gaza, which the International Court of Justice said in January was "plausibly" a genocide.
After police arrested students at the University of Minnesota Tuesday afternoon and broke up the encampment, thousands of members of the school community rallied to demand that the university divest from all arms manufacturers.
Encampments were also erected Monday at University of California, Berkeley and University of Michigan.
Jessica Christian, a photojournalist for the San Francisco Chronicle, reported that students were stopping to "ask what supplies the campers need as they walk by to class" at Berkeley, where roughly 50 tents were set up on Tuesday.
On Monday night, dozens of students at Yale University and New York University were arrested for protesting, setting up encampments, and "disorderly conduct."
The arrests at Columbia last week have not stopped students and educators from speaking out against the administration. A new encampment was set up last Friday and hundreds of faculty members staged a walkout Monday in support of the students.
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"This week governments have a choice: Stand up to this slash-and-burn approach by agreeing to radically reduce plastic output, or let the world be held to ransom by a dying industry."
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As the fourth round of talks for a global plastics treaty kicked off in the Canadian capital on Tuesday, campaigners with the corporate accountability group Ekō staged a die-in at Ottawa's Shaw Centre to demand an ambitious plan to reduce production.
"Plastic pollution has reached the snows of Antarctica, the deepest oceans, even the clouds in the sky—and still fossil fuel corporations are trying to ramp up production," explained Ekō campaign director Vicky Wyatt. "This week governments have a choice: Stand up to this slash-and-burn approach by agreeing to radically reduce plastic output, or let the world be held to ransom by a dying industry. It's very clear to people across the planet which way they need to go."
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(Photo: Ben Powless/Survival Media Agency)
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The protesters also highlighted that more than 180,000 Ekō members have signed a petition urging action on plastic pollution. The petition specifically calls for banning all plastic waste exports from the European Union and fully implementing the Basel Convention within the bloc, while the summit has a global focus and the plan is to have a treaty by the end of this year.
After countries agreed to draft a treaty two years ago, the latest talks in Kenya last year were flooded by fossil fuel and chemical lobbyists and ended with little progress, increasing attention on the Canadian meeting that began Tuesday and is scheduled to run through Monday.
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Sam Cossar-Gilbert of Friends of the Earth International emphasized the need to resist corporate pressure in a statement Tuesday.
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