News Day Round Up [June 13, 2017]

If I Didn't Know Any Better I Would Say this is a Dinosaur! However, it's Just a 1914 Giant Croc

Boat catches on fire at Bar Harbor

Posted by Leila Kheiry

There were no injuries reported after a boat caught on fire Thursday morning while tied up at Bar Harbor.

At the scene, Ketchikan Fire Department Chief Abner Hoage said the fire was reported at about 7:45 a.m. by fire department personnel who were out on another call. He says the crew noticed smoke coming from Bar Harbor near Ramp 1.

“When we arrived on scene we found a 25-foot boat, approximately, with a 90-horsepower motor on the back, to give you an idea of size, fully involved in fire,” he said.

“There was some minimal damage to a light pole that’s near the boat, and it scorched a little bit,” he said. “That will probably have to be replaced. Other than that, the damage was limited to the vessel of origin.”

That vessel was severely damaged. Hoage said it’s too early to tell what started the fire.

Hoage said he didn’t know whether anyone was on board at the time the fire started, but it was empty when fire crews arrived.

He said the Coast Guard and local law enforcement are working with the fire department to investigate the blaze. [Source]

Where the wolves are on Prince of Wales Island

By Dustin Solberg

When you approach learning in the way they do at the three-room school in Hollis, students need more than desks, books and high-speed broadband.

They need raingear.

So, neatly hanging on the porch at the Hollis school are enough hand-me-down jackets and rain bibs – the sturdy oilskins – with boots, too, for every girl and boy in this 100-inches-a-year town.

“Equipment doesn’t prevent us from getting out in the field,” teacher Lisa Cates said.

Once dressed for success, these students follow their curiosity – even if it takes them into the depths of the rainforest. They enlisted as citizen scientists, taking on a small supporting role in a major Alaska Department of Fish and Game study of Prince of Wales Island wolves. Led by research biologist Gretchen Roffler, the study aims to estimate the island’s wolf population at a critical time.

It is important to have an estimate of wolf abundance on Prince of Wales Island and this is mainly so that we can monitor population trends over time,” Roffler says. The estimate also provides a range for the number of animals on Prince of Wales, and that is used to establish a wolf harvest quota.

Educators in three island communities said joining the study in even a small way has opened a door to a new homegrown learning experience. Students in Hollis, as well as Klawock and Craig, have now seen wildlife research up close, an opportunity funded in part by a grant from the Southeast Alaska Small Schools Math Network.

“I thought it would be great for the kids to learn what it’s like to be a biologist. Maybe some of them would be interested in a career in wildlife biology,” she said. “If so it would be great for them to know what’s involved.” [Read the rest of this great article]

Couple Forced to Destroy 50yo Pond on Their Own Property Because Govt Owns the Rainwater

It is the property’s most attractive feature, and because the government said so, they have to remove it. Although, Jon and Sabrina Carey purchased the 10-acre property near Butte Falls two and a half years ago, the pond has been in place for 50 years. That fact doesn’t remotely matter to the Jackson County Watermaster’s Office.

“I basically bought a lemon,” said Jon, who became teary-eyed at the edge of the partially ice-covered body of water being targeted by government, in an interview with the Mail Tribune.

“The Water Commission has rights to the watershed around the Careys’ property, where dozens, if not hundreds, of ponds are located, as well as Medford’s primary source of water, Big Butte Springs.”The Carey’s aren’t the only people in the watershed who had difficulties with ‘the government’s’ water. Eagle Point resident Gary Harrington spent 90 days in jail for illegally harboring some 13 million gallons of rainwater — that’s enough rain to fill around 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Wow!

Harrington masterfully made several ponds on his property — even building docks for one, and filling it with largemouth bass. His insistence that the water would assist in fire control and prevention didn’t satisfy the government. This is all in part from this “1925 state law that dictates that the water belongs to the Medford Water Commission.”

“The bigger story here is that rainwater collection is indeed kosher in Oregon, provided that you’re capturing it from an artificial, impervious surface such as a rooftop with the assistance of rainwater barrels. An extensive reservoir set-up complete with 10- and 20-foot-tall dams is forbidden without state-issued water-right permits, as Oregon law dictates that water is a publicly owned resource — and Harrington did not possess said permits.” Harrington and the Oregon Water Resources Department waged an extended battle over the ponds, and at one point, it was ruled he would be allowed to keep everything in place. That decision was backtracked in less than one year.

“Rain Man,” as he was called, was charged with nine misdemeanors, spent three months behind bars, and had to shell out $1,500 in fines — and ordered to destroy the dams and drain all of his ponds. Harrington’s case might have been much more complex than the Careys’ — considering the large volume of water and infrastructure he’d put in place — but they share a similar theme of overbearing government and arguably unnecessary law versus the right of people to do as they please with their property.

“When you’re honest, they take everything away from you,” said Sabrina Carey, who inspected country records — which plainly showed the pond — before they purchased the property. Going by the book might have been the ‘fatal’ error for the couple, however, since the county didn’t take issue with the pond until Jon sought to grow
legal medical cannabis on the land and had to prove there was a viable source of water for the grow operation. [Source]

Adam West, Straight-Faced Star of TV's 'Batman,' Dies at 88

The actor struggled to find work after the campy superhero series was canceled, but he rebounded with voiceover gigs, including one as the mayor of Quahog on 'Family Guy.'
Adam West, the ardent actor who managed to keep his tongue in cheek while wearing the iconic cowl of the Caped Crusader on the classic 1960s series Batman, has died. He was 88.

West, who was at the pinnacle of pop culture after Batman debuted in January 1966, only to see his career fall victim to typecasting after the ABC show flamed out, died Friday night in Los Angeles after a short battle with leukemia, a family spokesperson said.

West said that he played Batman “for laughs, but in order to do [that], one had to never think it was funny. You just had to pull on that cowl and believe that no one would recognize you.”

The series, filmed in eye-popping bright colors in an era of black-and-white and featuring a revolving set of villains like the Riddler (Frank Gorshin), Joker (Cesar Romero), Penguin (Burgess Meredith) and Catwoman (Julie Newmar), was an immediate hit; the Thursday installment was No. 5 in the Nielsen ratings for the 1965-66 season, and the Wednesday edition was No. 10.

"Stellar, exemplar, a king to the end," Newmar said of West in a statement: "He was bright, witty and fun to work with. I will miss him in the physical world and savor him always in the world of imagination and creativity. He meant so much to people." [Full story]

U.S. joins battle as Philippines takes losses in besieged city

U.S. special forces have joined the battle to crush Islamist militants holed up in a southern Philippines town, officials said on Saturday, as government forces struggled to make headway and 13 marines were killed in intense urban fighting.
The Philippines military said the United States was providing technical assistance to end the siege of Marawi City by fighters allied to Islamic State, which is now in its third week, but it had no boots on the ground.

"They are not fighting. They are just providing technical support," military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jo-Ar Herrera told a news conference in Marawi City.

The U.S. embassy confirmed it had offered support, at the request of the Philippines government, but gave no details.
A U.S. P3 Orion surveillance plane was seen flying over the town on Friday, media said.

The cooperation between the longtime allies is significant because President Rodrigo Duterte, who came to power a year ago, has taken a hostile stance toward Washington and has vowed to eject U.S. military trainers and advisers from his country.

The seizure of Marawi City on May 23 has alarmed Southeast Asian nations which fear that Islamic State - facing setbacks in Syria and Iraq - is establishing a stronghold on the Philippine island of Mindanao that could threaten the whole region.

About 40 foreigners have fought alongside the Philippine militants in Marawi City, most of them from Indonesia and Malaysia, though some came from the Middle East. [Source]

NIH Scientists Identify Potent Antibody that Neutralizes Nearly All HIV Strains

Scientists from the National Institutes of Health have identified an antibody from an HIV-infected person that potently neutralized 98 percent of HIV isolates tested, including 16 of 20 strains resistant to other antibodies of the same class. The remarkable breadth and potency of this antibody, named N6, make it an attractive candidate for further development to potentially treat or prevent HIV infection, say the researchers.

The scientists, led by Mark Connors, M.D., of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), also tracked the evolution of N6 over time to understand how it developed the ability to potently neutralize nearly all HIV strains. This information will help inform the design of vaccines to elicit such broadly neutralizing antibodies.

Identifying broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV has been difficult because the virus rapidly changes its surface proteins to evade recognition by the immune system. In 2010, scientists at NIAID’s Vaccine Research Center (VRC) discovered an antibody called VRC01 that can stop up to 90 percent of HIV strains from infecting human cells. Like VRC01, N6 blocks infection by binding to a part of the HIV envelope called the CD4 binding site, preventing the virus from attaching itself to immune cells.

The new findings suggest that N6 could pose advantages over VRC01, which currently is being assessed as intravenous infusions in clinical trials to see if it can safely prevent HIV infection in humans. Due to its potency, N6 may offer stronger and more durable prevention and treatment benefits, and researchers may be able to administer it subcutaneously (into the fat under the skin) rather than intravenously. In addition, its ability to neutralize nearly all HIV strains would be advantageous for both prevention and treatment strategies. [Source]