Daily Archives: October 13, 2023

Case to protect northern spotted owl headed to court after Liberal … – The Globe and Mail

Posted: October 13, 2023 at 11:37 pm

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The federal cabinet has rejected an emergency protection order for the northern spotted owl recommended by the Environment Minister.Handout

The federal cabinet has rejected an emergency protection order for the northern spotted owl recommended by the Environment Minister, disappointing advocates that had hoped the action would provide a lifeline to an endangered subspecies that is down to one wild-born bird living in the woods.

The cabinet decision was disclosed Wednesday by environmental groups Ecojustice and Wilderness Committee, as well as Spuzzum First Nation in B.C., which have spent years campaigning to protect the owls old-growth habitat. Environment Minister Stephen Guilbeaults recommendation of an emergency order and cabinets rejection occurred days before the advocacy groups were headed to court in an attempt to force Mr. Guilbeault to take the action.

The cabinet decision is the latest development in a decades-long battle over the fate of the spotted owl that involves old-growth forests, Indigenous rights and biodiversity concerns. In Canada, the only known population of the bird is in the southwestern mainland of B.C. There were an estimated population of 500 breeding pairs in B.C. before European settlement; theres now 30 in a captive breeding program, according to the province, in addition to the one wild-born bird.

In an e-mailed statement, Environment and Climate Change Canada spokesperson Kaitlin Power said the government would not be making an emergency order at this time but recognizes more needs to be done to support the recovery of the spotted owl.

The Minister has fulfilled his obligation under the Species at Risk Act and recommended the making of an emergency order to protect the species to the Governor in Council, having previously concluded the species was facing imminent threat to its recovery, Ms. Power said.

Environment Canada officials continue to develop a federal recovery strategy for the spotted owl with direct input from B.C., First Nations and a range of stakeholders, including the general public, she added.

Nathan Cullen, B.C.s Minister for Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, was not available for an interview. In an e-mailed statement, he said the province is doing all it can to help spotted owls recover, citing the captive breeding program, logging deferrals in two Fraser Canyon watersheds that provide spotted owl habitat, and work with First Nations and biologists to protect enough habitat to support a recovery objective of 125 breeding pairs.

B.C. First Nation furious after federal government rejects order to protect owls

For Spuzzum First Nation Chief James Hobart, the promise of a federal recovery strategy rings hollow.

Theyre not working with us theyre working around us, and using us as part of their message, Mr. Hobart said, saying he was distraught and upset by the cabinet rejection. Habitat protection measures taken by the B.C. government are not enough to allow the birds to survive, he said.

The entire corridor for the spotted owl needs to be expanded, needs to be protected, Mr. Hobart said, adding that hed like to see more provincial government funding for logging companies that are being asked or required to give up logging rights, especially in the context of growing First Nations involvement and decision-making in forestry operations.

Both the B.C. and federal governments have passed legislation to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which says Indigenous peoples have the right to the conservation and protection of the environment and the productive capacity of their lands or territories and resources.

The B.C.-based Wilderness Committee, represented by environmental law charity Ecojustice, in June launched a court action alleging that Mr. Guilbeault had failed to fulfill his duty to recommend that cabinet issue an emergency order, even though hed concluded as early as February that the Spotted Owl was facing imminent threats to its survival.

Now that Mr. Guilbeault has recommended an emergency order, and cabinet has rejected it, that angle of the court case is no longer in question, Ecojustice lawyer Andhra Azevedo said.

But the issue of how long a minister can take to make a recommendation under the Species at Risk Act is still an open question, meaning the court case will go ahead, she said.

The Wilderness Committee has over the past two decades made two previous requests for an emergency order to protect the spotted owl, and each time, Ottawa has instead relied on B.C. to take measures to reverse the decline, Ms. Azevedo said adding that they have not been effective.

In an April, 2023 report, Canadas Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Jerry DeMarco, found that the federal governments efforts to protect species at risk were falling short, and he flagged lengthy backlogs in recovery strategies and action plans.

Of the 520 species at risk that have been reassessed since 1982, 416, or 80 per cent, either showed no change in status or had entered a higher risk category, his report found.

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Talking to the Writer Behind a Controversial Piece on Israel – Katie Couric Media

Posted: at 11:37 pm

Katie spoke with the writer behind this provocative piece.

Eric Levitz writes about politics and economics for New York magazine, and in an October 11th piece that quickly went viral, he examined what he views as the grossly insensitive reaction from some progressives that somehow Israel deserved the brutal massacre that took place one week ago today. His op-ed, A Left That Refuses to Condemn Mass Murder Is Doomed inspired both vociferous disagreement and deep praise. But for Levitz, the correct moral stance is clear: Either one upholds the equal worth of all human lives, opposes war crimes, and despises far-right ethno-nationalist political projects or one doesnt. Whats more, cheering (or publicly announcing your refusal to condemn) the murder of children isnt just morally grotesque but also politically self-defeating.

I wanted to speak to him and untangle his thesis, and explore the notion that an explanation is dramatically different than a justification. I also wondered why dialectical thinking the practice of holding two seemingly contradictory ideas at one time (i.e. the brutality and depravity of the Hamas massacre is an atrocity and the Palestinians have suffered because of Israeli policies) has been sadly, inexplicably missing in many quarters during the past week. Here is a portion of our conversation, edited for length.

Eric Levitz: Yeah, I was pleasantly a little bit surprised by the scale of the attention.

I grew up in central Connecticut and went to school in Baltimore, at Johns Hopkins University. I write about politics and economics in New York magazine, and Ive done that for about eight years now.

I think that in the immediate aftermath of Hamass incursion into Israel and its atrocities, especially in the initial phase, any responsible observer was already aware that we were looking at mass murder. But the reports had not been really extensive yet, and the images were not quite everywhere. I think there was an impulse on the part of some left-wing people who identify with the oppressed and with the powerless in any given conflict to see a sense of catharsis in this assertion of an oppressed peoples desire for freedom, andfor a greater degree of autonomy and self-determination.

But very quickly, as more information came out, this became deeply perverse. When it became clear that we were looking at the largest mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust with militants going door to door in some villages and killing entire families I think that [the supporters make up] a small minority of people on the progressive left.

But precisely because their speech was so incendiary, they were amplified by the nature of social media platforms, where the way to get a lot of engagement on X formerly known as Twitter or on Instagram, is to say something controversial that people are going to want to speak back to. So we had a situation where for a couple of days, I think people who had broadly left-wing social networks like myself were exposed to a lot of speech either celebrating Hamass atrocities, describing them as decolonization, suggesting that settlers are not civilians and that the Jewish Israelis, by occupying stolen land, were fair targets for murder. And a bit more commonly, [there was] a sort of anti-anti-Hamas sentiment a sense that publicly saying its not our place to condemn Hamass actions because this is an oppressed group that is trying to resist really unjust conditions. And to me, this is both morally kind of sick, and politically just self-defeating. Because those who are more staunchly in defense of the Israeli government and all of its policies, its occupation in the West Bank, in its blockade of Gaza the people in that corner have forever tried to suggest that to criticize Israel, to call for a Palestinian self-determination, is tantamount to not caring about the security of Jewish Israelis.

That has been one of their primary attack lines against progressives on this issue. And what I feel a lot of leftists were doing was effectively affirming what is largely a smear that doesnt characterize the vast majority of Israels critics. But a loud minority was basically really tarnishing the lefts ability to speak credibly on this issue. And I think its important for them to be able to do so because I think what weve seen in the last 48 hours is really indiscriminate bombing of Gaza that is generating civilian casualties in excess of the number potentially generated by Hamas in the initial attack.

And so this is something where we really need to have people who can speak with authority in defense of the lives of all civilians, whether theyre Palestinians or Israeli.

I think it robs them of the moral authority to say that fundamentally all human lives matter, regardless of their ethnicity. And that this is, I think, the most powerful basis on which to launch a critique of Israel. We have a situation where in Gaza, there are 2 million people, a majority under 18, who for various reasons related to the threat that Hamas poses, but also related to more intense export controls and restrictions on economic activity imposed by Israel are living in poverty. An 80 percent youth unemployment rate, 60 percent of people food insecure. This is a situation thats really unacceptable from a humanitarian perspective, and then perhaps even more clear-cut in the West Bank, where Hamas is not in power. We have an Israeli settlement project that has steadily dispossessed Palestinians of land that theyre entitled to under international law.

And I think that the best way to advocate for the Palestinian cause, in both of these realms, is to insist that they deserve the same rights to prosperity, self-determination, and political freedom that Israelis do. I think if you instead take the tack that the oppressed have a right to commit violence, and the oppressor such as Jewish Israelis has rights that do not need to be respected by the oppressed, then you end up in a situation where anyone can make their own arguments for why some people have rights, and others dont.

And fundamentally, if we enter into a space where some groups are allowed to do whatever they need to in support of what they believe is right, I think you end up in basically a might-equals-right type of situation. And in that situation, I dont think Palestinians can win, because Israel is one of the most powerful militaries on the face of the earth. It has nuclear weapons, and the backing of the most powerful country in the world, the United States. And the Palestinians are a largely economically embattled people without a military. So youre just not going to win in terms of brute force.

I think that fundamental to what I understand to be left-wing values and progressive values is, again, this idea of egalitarian universalism. That were all in some sense possessing equal dignity, and theres nothing about an inherited group identity that makes one person more valuable than another person. This undergirds the lefts perspective on race, and on racial equality. It informs, in the United States, its support for immigration: The idea that people who are fleeing really awful situations in their home countries have as much right to dignity and prosperity as anyone else. And so were going to try to take them in. I think thats really fundamental.

And I think when you say by virtue of the fact that somebody was born in Israel as a Jew, that they can be shot to death while dancing, and thats an act thats either just or that we cant condemn because of the surrounding geopolitical context, I think youre betraying that fundamental value. And I think thats completely misguided.

I think its coming from a few different places. One is, as I referenced earlier, the sheer fact that this occupation in the West Bank has been going on for more than a half-century. In Gaza, weve had a blockade in place that has been economically devastating for nearly two decades. This is an incredibly desperate situation that the Palestinian people have been living in, and the nonviolent forms of resistance the Palestinians have pursued have been really undermined in various ways in the United States.

Theres the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, which people can disagree about. But that is a nonviolent civil movement that aims to put pressure on Israel to yield to Palestinian demands through boycotts. Thats been outlawed or legally restricted in various U.S. states. And so there is a sense among some on the left that the Palestinians have been left with no choice but to resist violently.

Also, [theres a sense] that fundamentally, mainstream discourse on this subject is so biased in favor of Israel. So to add their voices to the chorus condemning Hamass actions would be to somehow heighten their complicity in Israels crimes. I think that thats one line of thought. Theres a less-charitable view that Im sometimes inclined toward, where I think that in some left-wing leftist subcultures, theres status in differentiating oneself from ordinary liberals from demonstrating that one is more hardheaded and thoroughgoing in their commitment to Palestinian solidarity than a regular progressive.

So this leads people to look for dividing lines. And if there are a bunch of progressives condemning Israels actions generally, but also condemning Hamas and expressing horror at these atrocities, then one way to differentiate yourself, and establish that you are more left-wing, is to say that theres some reason why you cant condemn these atrocities, or why doing so represents a failure of solidarity or principle.

So it is true that Israel withdrew soldiers and settlers in 2005. What is also true is that Israel still exercises de facto control over the Gaza Strip. As I said before, it maintains a blockade against Gaza, which effectively controls what goods Gaza can both export and import. It also controls the flow of people, prevents Gazans from being able to visit family in the West Bank, and it also maintains a buffer zone between Gaza and Israel.

In other words, it prevents Gazans from entering a large area that is still within the Gaza Strip legally and technically, but that is bordering with Israel. And that area at various points has gotten so large as to encompass a third of Gazas arable land. And so this is not an occupation in the classical sense, but it is arguably, under definitions of international law and occupation. At the very least, it is fundamentally exercising considerable sovereignty over the strip.

Now the strip is controlled by Hamas, a militant group that has just proven its contempt for Israeli life. A lot of people will say, Look, this is devastating economically, these measures, but you need to keep weapons away from Hamas. I think that when you look into the details of the blockade, certainly it is motivated by security concerns to a degree. That you see things like, I believe as of 2018, Gazans were allowed to export tomatoes and eggplants, but not spinach or beans. There are all these arbitrary rules, some of which I think reflect agricultural interests within Israel. For example, there was a shortage of palm fronds one year, which Jewish people use to celebrate Sukkot. And in order to address that shortage, palm fronds were removed from the list of things that Gaza was not allowed to export. Palm fronds just suddenly became not dangerous or not easy to conceal weapons all of a sudden, when there was a shortage. So I think that some of the controls on Gaza are arbitrary.

And I think that, at the very least, if you want to posit that Israel finds itself in a position where in order to establish security for its people, it has no choice but to inflict misery on 2 million predominantly young people, the very least you can do in that situation is try to undermine the popular legitimacy of Hamas by honoring your obligations under international law and giving less credence to the idea that only violent resistance can bring justice. And for various reasons, the Israeli government has gone in the opposite direction, in my view. This is why the withdrawal is not, I dont think, adequate to alleviate Israeli responsibility for the conditions in Gaza.

This is a militant organization that has an ugly ideology.

Hamas was democratically elected in 2007, and there have not been subsequent elections. So most of the people of Gaza have not had the opportunity to vote for Hamas, let alone to support them. I think it is true that Hamas does not prioritize the humanitarian and economic interests of the Palestinian people above its project of violent resistance to Israel and potentially to its own corruption. In my understanding, some of Hamass leaders live very well in Qatar. So this is a militant organization that has an ugly ideology.

I think it also has some internal corruption, although at least it has a reputation for being somewhat less corrupt than some other Palestinian authorities, which is part of how it got popular legitimacy, initially. I think that ultimately, there are two ways of thinking about Hamass responsibility. On the one hand, if you had a leadership in Gaza that foresaw violence, that accepted Israels right to exist, etc., that plausibly would lead to a lifting of the blockade.

I dont think that any government of Gaza, with the blockade in place, would be able to prevent really terrible economic conditions not just from the blockade, but also the way that the blockade inhibits the capacity to rebuild, which is sadly necessary because every few years we end up with an uptick in this conflict and a lot of bombing of Gazas infrastructure. And when its so difficult to get goods in and out of the strip, that creates a situation where youre almost never catching up with the damage that was done each time.

I dont think that was the most egregious statement that was issued on that day. I do think that, as I said earlier, it just seems pointless to me and counterproductive to not affirm in the immediate aftermath of the mass killing of hundreds of Jewish civilians to not say that you condemn that act and that you place responsibility for it on the people who committed it. If you do that, I have no objection to contextualizing this by saying, were in this situation where quite likely part of the reason why theres any support for these sorts of groups and actions in Palestine is because of these background conditions that Israel is responsible for.

But theres this distinction between explanation and justification, where I think the left is often in a position where we really want to emphasize that distinction. Where, in the aftermath of 9/11, nothing that the United States did in the Middle East justified the 9/11 attacks. Is it the case that Americas military presence in the Middle East was what triggered bin Ladens obsession with attacking the United States?

It is not the case that after a certain level of oppression, human beings automatically become incapable of not mass-murdering people. So I think its wrong analytically, but its also just so politically counterproductive. Because if your goal in putting out that statement as a Harvard student group is to direct attention toward injustices you see in Israeli policy, all youve done by not merely adding some sentences at the top of your statement saying that youre horrified by the killing of hundreds of Jews is put the focus on why youre not doing that, instead of on the policies that you wish to criticize.

Personally, I wouldnt say that the differences are more consequential, but I think that these distinctions that divide ideological groups can be very vicious in some sense. I think that they occupy, for the politically engaged, a great deal of our time, because in this social media era, we find ourselves often in sort of closed-off ideological communities where were not seeing that much from people who are really far away from us.

But so then, the questions that divide our ideological group internally drive tremendous engagement and attention. And it can be very heated. With an argument between a liberal and a conservative, no ones identity is threatened by the disagreement. When a liberal and a conservative are arguing over abortion policy, the fact that the conservative comes back and says, Every fetus is a person and must be protected, doesnt threaten the liberals sense of self-political identification or their sense of their values. Because they know exactly what they think about that subject. They know that their values are just different than the values of the conservative.

Whereas in an argument between people who insist that they have the same values of egalitarianism, of support for the oppressed, this can be really intense and personal. When someone tells you that youre betraying your values and youre misunderstanding the dictates of the principles that you claim to hold, that gets very bitter. And so thats one way that those disagreements are distinct, from my perspective.

I think so. I mean, I dont have detailed access to exactly what went wrong with Israeli intelligence. It seems mind-boggling for the American security state and the Israeli security state that this kind of an attack was possible. Ive seen quotes that suggest that Hamas was shocked by its own success and did not think that it was going to be able to execute an attack of this scale, that it would have been turned back much sooner.

Potentially implicated in that fact is the reality that Israeli security forces have been distracted by domestic unrest at Netanyahus corruption. Also, as you suggested, in order to form a governing coalition that could insulate him from corruption charges, Netanyahu moved even further to the right and embraced right-wing parties that are willing to protect him from the war. And this has meant elevating individuals to cabinet positions who are former literal supporters of Jewish terrorism. The national security minister, I believe, was not allowed to serve in the IDF because of his ties to terrorism. Youve had others who have called for wiping Palestinian villages off the map.

A member of Netanyahus party, shortly after the attacks, called for a second Nakba, which refers to the original ethnic cleansing of Israeli Palestinians the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. So these are extremists and what they have done is give all manner of provocations for this sort of attack, disrespecting Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem.

There was an interesting report in Haaretz, a Jewish newspaper a few days ago, about how Netanyahu and some in his circle have sought to in some ways prop up Hamas because it is, from the Israeli perspective, politically convenient to have Palestinians divided between two different authorities one in Gaza, one in the West Bank and to have as their foil in Gaza, this terrorist group that no one can blame Israel for not seeking peace with.

Im not saying Israel singlehandedly keeps Hamas in power. But I am saying that I dont think its disputed that Israel, to an extent, has in some ways nurtured Hamass rule. So yes, I think that Netanyahu bears a great deal of responsibility. And its worth noting that in the polling that Ive seen, a vast majority of the Israeli public agrees.

I think its important to try to maintain some sense of hope and political possibility; theres a phrase, a pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the will. I dont think I should be the grand authority on this region or conflict, but I have trouble seeing how things dont get considerably worse before they get better. The situation in Gaza is horrific right now. Im not confident that Israel can destroy Hamas in the way that it wishes to, especially if we understand Hamas as one iteration of extremist violence among the Palestinians. I think that you kill a lot of terrorists when you level whole city blocks, perhaps, but you also create more terrorists from the children who see their families wiped out.

Its a very old story in human affairs, the cycle of violence and vengeance, that makes everybody potentially worse off. And right now, I think its a very bleak situation. I think the United States should use its authority to encourage Israel to show greater concern for civilian casualties in Gaza, and that we should figure out a way to address the root causes of this conflict, and the Palestinians legitimate rights and interests in self-determination, while also finding ways to to limit Hamass power and its capacity to project violence into Israel. But right now, things look fairly bleak.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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From general educational requirement to global ethical … – The Emory Wheel

Posted: at 11:37 pm

On Oct. 10, our organization published a mourning statement recognizing the unarmed Palestinian and Israeli civilian lives lost in what the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations has called a Palestinian genocide. Now, we are calling on Emory University President Gregory Fenves to remember the promises he made on Aug. 13, 2020 to include a new General Education Requirement (GER): the Race and Ethnicity Requirement.

Do you view decolonization as an abstract theory in classrooms, or as an urgent imperative demanding real-world implementation? We want to emphasize to you, our president and University administration, the leadership that you originally aimed to showcase in the GER you defined:

The first learning objective asserts that students will develop a critical awareness of how inequality develop[ed] historically through individual, institutional, and cultural forces.

This is one of the four goals set forth to enrich the minds of Emory students as we form our liberal arts foundation in pursuit of robust and ethical lives. We urge you, President Fenves, to guide our campus in what we demand as crucial: endorsing global justice in real life, real-time, outside the classroom. Not taking action signifies contributing to the very injustice you encourage us to fight against: remaining complicit in the oppression of marginalized people. Today, our learning objective is to develop a critical awareness of the structural exclusions, imprisonment and mass genocide of the Palestinian people.

Learning objective two: Discern how racial and ethnic power dynamics shape and may be reflected in intellectual inquiry across disciplines.

To genuinely consider yourself an advocate for justice and anti-colonialism, you cannot overlook the Palestinian struggle. It began with colonization by Britain in the 20s and 30s, and then the Nakba (catastrophe) of 1948, marked by the dispossession of 75% of the Palestinian population by Zionist militias. Today, two million Palestinians face being trapped in Gaza, which is widely recognized as an open-air prison, the demolition of Palestinian homes in the West Bank and the constant encroachment on Palestinian land by illegal Israeli settlers. It is of utmost importance to recognize this as structural racism and challenge these racist views seeking to paint multi-faith Palestinians as extremist terrorists who revel in violence. These views are rooted in purposeful misunderstandings of history, in culture and in the Palestinian struggle. To be an advocate for justice is to elevate Palestinian voices. Each year, more than 500 Palestinian children face detention and prosecution by the Israeli Occupations military court. Where is justice for them or the seven million Palestinian refugees unable to return home?

Learning objective three: Recognize the ways in which race and ethnicity intersect with other group identifications

Palestinian Muslims, Christians and Jews alike are forced to prove their humanity at the hands of a racist regime. This is not a battle of faith but a fundamental intersection of race and ethnic justice. The dehumanization of the colonized people is a result of land dispossession, forced resettlement, psychological torture, cultural erasure and countless killings that are associated with settler colonial occupation.

In the case of Palestinians, this dehumanization is glaring in language used by members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus cabinet, as well as members of the Israeli armed forces, politicians and military leaders in describing Palestinian resistance to their subjugation. Colonizers and their sympathizers have evoked racist, Islamophobic and ultimately genocidal rhetoric labeling Palestinians as barbarians, human animals and delegitimizing their fight for freedom while dismissing their humanity.

We urge you also to remember that there are many Israeli activists, politicians and citizens actively preaching both peace and an end to Israeli occupation.

Learning objective four: Adopt tools to communicate more effectively and respectfully with others from various racial and ethnic perspectives.

Emory students deserve a university culture that reflects the anti-colonial ethics it preaches. Emory faculty deserve a university curriculum that is backed by real material and solidarity not mere academic sloganeering. Emory staff deserve a workplace free of complicity in systemic oppression, racial bias and political discrimination.

President Fenves, we remind you of your promise, made to us three years ago, claiming, It is crucial that university leadership not simply put the burden of responsibility on you We all must work in partnership to make progress year in and year out together. That is something I commit to doing as president.

Moral consistency is key. We are waiting for you to fulfill your promise.

Just as the University recognizes the forced resettlement of Muscogee natives from the land on which it was built and recognizes the enslaved laborers who assembled this campus brick-by-brick, it is high time that Emory officials recognize their complicity in the death of the Palestinians and that of their predecessors. It is high time you speak out on land dispossession and ethnic cleansing of all people from the Muscogee to the Palestinian people so that our institution may finally begin to move to the right side of history.

We invite the Emory community standing in solidarity with the people of Palestine, regardless of their background or beliefs, to come together with compassion and empathy for a vigil for Palestine on Friday, Oct. 13 at 7 p.m. in the Canon Chapel Sanctuary.

Sincerely,

Emory Students for Justice in Palestine

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Co-Lin football’s blue-collar DNA on display in huge road win at Gulf … – Dailyleader

Posted: at 11:37 pm

Published 9:43 pm Friday, October 13, 2023

You might have noticed the Co-Lin alums and fans in your life carrying themselves with an extra amount of bounce in their steps on Friday.

Thursday night the Wolves went on the road to face the No. 4 ranked Mississippi Gulf Coast Bulldogs and knocked the home team from the ranks of the unbeaten with a 28-23 win.

It was a classic performance from a Glenn Davis coached team in his 20th year leading the football program in Wesson.

Gulf Coast plays football in Perkinston, which is located in Stone County, but the school has campuses and facilities up and down the coastline of our state with a combined enrollment that tops 16,000 students.

By comparison, Co-Lin has somewhere north of 5,000 students combined enrolled in either Wesson, Natchez or Mendenhall.

As one would expect, the resources afforded to Gulf Coast in the areas of athletics are among the top of the MACCC.

In Wesson, Davis has built a program that competes as one of the best teams in the state on a year in and out basis with his teams always having talent, but more importantly, cohesion and toughness.

He and his coaches pitch it in recruiting as a blue-collar program.

That cohesiveness, playing as a band of brothers, was needed by every man on the roster to hold off a Gulf Coast comeback attempt in the late going on Thursday.

And in typical Co-Lin fashion, it was some of the student-athletes that grew up closest to the school that made some of the biggest plays of the night.

The first one was made by sophomore linebacker Collin McGowen. A three-time Daily Leader All-Area selection while playing for the Wesson Cobras, McGowen returned a Gulf Coast fumble 38-yards for a touchdown to put CLCC up 7-0 with 6:22 left in the first quarter.

When Gulf Coast did score on Thursday, they did it in dramatic fashion. The first of those long scoring plays was a 57-yard touchdown run by Trey Hall that tied the game up just over a minute after Co-Lin got on the board.

The Wolves led 14-10 at halftime as the first offensive score of the game for Co-Lin came with 7:15 left until the break. Thats when Crystal Springs High alum Johnnie Daniels ripped off a 65-yard touchdown run.

Daniels was highly sought-after out of Crystal Springs and Co-Lin won a recruiting coup when they inked both he and his high school teammate, defensive back Navarion Benson. Benson finished the game with four tackles and had a fumble return that covered 29 yards.

The most successful Co-Lin teams during the Davis era have been ones that were balanced offensively as being able to generate yards on the ground is a Wolf Pack trademark.

This season, Daniels, and freshman Tray Minor (Natchez High) have been a formidable running back duo whove worked behind an offensive line thats overcome injuries all year.

Co-Lin opened the second half at Gulf Coast with its best drive of the night. The Wolves covered 75 yards in 10 plays and ran 4:54 off the clock.

The possession ended with sophomore tight end Tyler Fortenberry catching his first career touchdown on a 25-yard throw from quarterback DeVon Tott.

Fortenberry was a highly decorated quarterback during this high school career at Brookhaven Academy. Included in those honors was being named Daily Leader All-Area MVP and last season he was Totts backup as a freshman.

After the 2022 campaign wrapped up, Fortenberry made the move to tight end and has thrived in that new role. Last week, Fortenberry gave his verbal pledge to continue his career at the University of Southern Mississippi.

The next drive for MGCCC ended with the fumble that Benson recovered, and it only took three plays for Co-Lin to go ahead 28-10 as Tott connected with Jaylen Smith on a 4-yard touchdown pass to put CLCC up 28-10.

The Wolves had a chance to add to that lead as they had an offensive possession that ended the third quarter and started the final frame deep in Bulldog territory.

The Gulf Coast defense buckled though, and Co-Lin ended the series by missing a long field goal attempt.

One play later, Hall hit on one of those aforementioned, explosive plays as he scored on a 70-yard touchdown run that made the score 28-17 with 10:53 left in the game.

Co-Lin and Gulf Coast have had some wild and wacky matchups over the years. Gulf Coast won 31-28 last season at CLCC in a game that was on full tilt.

A refresher, that one featured a touchdown scored by the Bulldogs on a terribly botched call. A Gulf Coast running back crossed the line of scrimmage with the ball and fumbled it, which bounced backwards to his quarterback, who then threw the ball down field to an open receiver for a score.

You cant do that, FYI.

A year prior, Gulf Coast scored in the closing seconds and converted the PAT kick to beat Co-Lin 14-13, again in Wesson.

There was a sense of dread all through the second half of that one-point loss amongst Co-Lin fans as the games results felt as predictable as a movie that gives too much info away in its previews.

Some of that dread crept back into the hearts of the CLCC diehards on Thursday when Gulf Coast cut the lead to 28-23 with a 65-yard interception returned for a touchdown.

At that point, 6:08 remained in the game and Co-Lin faced a hold em or fold em type of moment.

The feeling of dread began to intensify as the Wolves were held to 3-and-out on their next series as just 50 seconds ran off the clock.

Gulf Coast took its last possession of the game with 4:19 remaining and the ball on the Co-Lin 39-yard line after a short punt and long return.

The Bulldogs got down to the 13-yard line, but facing 1st-and-10 from there, the Co-Lin defense showed they still had some tough left in the tank.

The Wolves stopped a rush for no gain on first down as freshman linebacker Malachi Williams, another local guy from Brookhaven High, didnt think twice before knifing through a gap to make a huge tackle at the line of scrimmage.

Gulf Coast quarterback Eli Anderson went to the end zone on second down and his throw was just past the hands of receiver Dayan Bilbo on a play where CLCC defensive back Jahron Manning provided great coverage.

Manning, a sophomore from New Orleans, has been playing at an outstanding level of late and again led Co-Lin in tackles on Thursday with 11 total stops.

On third down, Co-Lin linebacker Dedric Hicks (West Jones), hit Anderson in the midsection while he was throwing to his right.

As he lay on the field being attended to by trainers, Anderson had his helmet off and his arms spread out as it appeared that the wind had been knocked out of him by Hicks.

After being looked at, he tried to return to the field, but was forced to the sideline by the officials. Gulf Coast then called a timeout and Anderson wanted to go in again, but he was once again ushered back by the refs.

On fourth down, backup quarterback Kason Linke came in without warming up and threw his first pass of the night, a ball that skipped on the turf behind its intended receiver.

With that, Co-Lin was content to kneel out the clock and head for the bus in a literal sense.

Last season there were some post-game antics between the schools in the handshake line, Davis and his staff decided to send their team to the locker room rather than have the chance of that happening again.

It was a memorable win in Perkinston, a place where Co-Lin won 41-37 in the 2012 MACCC state championship game in a similarly exciting type of game.

Now Co-Lin finishes the regular season with straight games, two at home, against schools that badly want to spoil a potential playoff spot for the Wolves.

On Thursday, theyll host Pearl River (0-6) and the next week will be homecoming in Wesson with a matchup on Oct. 26 against an East Central (3-3) team that knocked off an unbeaten Northeast Mississippi team on Thursday.

The regular season ends on Nov. 2 at Hinds (3-3) for the Wolves. Gulf Coast and CLCC are now both 2-1 in the MACCC South Division with Jones (5-1, 4-0) leading the division. Jones and Gulf Coast (5-1, 2-1) close the regular season on Nov. 2 in Ellisville.

Lots of football left, but the Wolves always savor a win against Gulf Coast, because the Bulldogs are usually favored when the teams meet.

And being victorious as an underdog is one of lifes great joys, a feeling the Co-Lin football program has in its DNA.

Cliff Furr is the sports editor at The Daily Leader. He can be reached via email at sports@dailyleader.com

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DNA methylation: The hidden mechanism enabling plants to adapt … – EurekAlert

Posted: at 11:37 pm

image:

Experimental setup and phenotypic responses under common garden-conditions in Fragaria vesca plants after propagation at different temperatures for up to three asexual generations.

Credit: Horticulture Research

As global warming continues to redefine ecosystems, plants are increasingly tasked with swift adaptation to ensure their survival. One primary mechanism facilitating such rapid adaptation is epigenetic memory, specifically DNA methylation. DNA methylation, a form of epigenetic modification, involves the addition of a methyl group to the cytosine bases of the DNA, altering its accessibility in chromatin and modulating gene expression. In the context of a warming climate, changes in DNA methylation can be triggered by environmental factors like increased temperature. Such epigenetic adaptations play an instrumental role in allowing plants to synchronize their growth with evolving environmental cues. However, a comprehensive understanding of how these DNA methylation changes affect plant phenotypes, especially in response to warmer temperatures, remains unclear.

In July 2023, Horticulture Researchpublished a research paper entitled by Warmer temperature during asexual reproduction induce methylome, transcriptomic, and lasting phenotypic changes in Fragaria vescaecotypes.

To examine the influence of temperature on phenotypic and epigenetic variations, an experiment was conducted across three asexual generations on four European F. vescaecotypes (ES12, ICE2, NOR2, IT4), exposing them to 18 and 28. At the phenotypic level, the ES12ecotype had an increased stolon production at 28 during the first asexual generation (AS1) but not by the third (AS3). Conversely, the IT4ecotype displayed decreased stolon production at 28 in both AS1and AS3. The ICE2and NOR2ecotypes showed significant delays in flowering time at 28 by AS3, with statistical significance at 0.05 > p > 0.001. For petiole length, plants from the ES12, ICE2, and NOR2ecotypes had longer lengths when grown at 28 during AS1. By AS3, the increased petiole length remained only for the NOR2ecotype.The results showed a statistically significant difference between theall phenotypic traits investigated and growth temperature in the experiment, which can be preserved during asexual reproduction. Further in-depth studies at the molecular level, bisulfite-sequencing of the genomic DNA samples from the ecotypes revealed discernible differences in DNA methylation patterns between the two temperature conditions, especially in the CHG and CHH contexts. NOR2exhibited the most pronounced difference in methylation levels between the temperature conditions. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of methylation profiles showed clear differences between ecotypes grown at 18 and 28. Significant changes in both hypo- and hypermethylation occurred across all ecotypes with the largest temperature-specific methylation increases observed for the CHH context.Notably, methylation changes were identified to be correlated with genomic features such as transcription start sites (TSS) and transcription termination sites (TTS). Regions with differential CHG and CHH methylation typically exhibited hypermethylation.At the same time, transcriptome changes related to temperature increase were observed in approximately 3,500 to 5,000 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in different ecotypes. In addition, this study also explored the ecotype specific methylation and expression patterns of genes related to gibberellin metabolism, flowering time, and epigenetic mechanisms. It was found that among three or fewer ecotypes, the absolute multiple change of 1,318 related differentially expressed and differentially methylated genes (DEDMGs) was>1.5.

In summary, the research indicates that temperature variations during asexual propagation induce considerable hereditary epigenetic and phenotypic modifications, underscoring the existence of a temperature-related epigenetic memory effect in F. vescaecotypes. This groundbreaking study not only deepens our understanding of plant adaptation but also opens the door for leveraging epigenetic memory to develop crops better suited to the warming world.

###

References

Authors

YuPeng Zhang()1,2, Guangxun Fan3, Tuomas Toivainen3, Torstein Tengs2, Igor Yakovlev2, Paal Krokene2, Timo Hytnen3, Carl Gunnar Fossdal2,*, Paul E. Grini1,*

Affiliations

1. EVOGENE, Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, 0313 Oslo, Norway

2. Department of Molecular Plant Biology, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, 1431 s, Norway

3. Department of Agricultural Sciences, Viikki Plant Science Centre, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, Finland

AboutCarl Gunnar Fossdal & Paul E. Grini

Carl Gunnar Fossdal: He is currently head of Department Dept. Forest Health, Division for Biotechnology and Plant Health, NIBIO, Norway. His research areas are epigenetics, genomics, plant-pathogen interactions, phytobiome, forest health, wood decay, and fungal enzymes.

Paul E. Grini: He is a professor at the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Oslo. His research focuses on the biology of plant reproductive development.

Horticulture Research

Experimental study

Not applicable

Warmer temperature during asexual reproduction induce methylome, transcriptomic, and lasting phenotypic changes in Fragaria vesca ecotypes

31-Jul-2023

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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Neanderthals carried genes acquired from ancient interactions with … – Penn Today

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Modern humans migrated to Eurasia 75,000 years ago, where they encountered and interbred with Neanderthals. A new study published in the journal Current Biology shows that at this time Neanderthals were already carrying human DNA from a much older encounter with modern humans. The Penn-led research team, including collaborators from Addis Ababa University, the University of Botswana, Fudan University, Hubert Kairuki Memorial University, and the University of Yaound, showed that an ancient lineage of modern humans migrated to Eurasia over 250,000 years ago where they interbred with Neanderthals. Over time, these humans died out, leaving a population with predominantly Neanderthal ancestry.

We found this reflection of ancient interbreeding where genes flowed from ancient modern humans into Neanderthals, says Alexander Platt, a senior research scientist in the Perelman School of Medicine and one of the studys first authors. This group of individuals left Africa between 250,000 and 270,000 years ago. They were sort of the cousins to all humans alive today, and they were much more like us than Neanderthals.

The team arrived at this conclusion by comparing a Neanderthal genome with a diverse set of genomes from modern indigenous populations in sub-Saharan Africa.

This study highlights the importance of including ethnically and geographically diverse populations in human genetics and genomic studies, says Sarah Tishkoff, a Penn Integrates Knowledge University professor at Penn and senior author on the work.

Because most Neanderthal-human interbreeding is thought to have occurred in Eurasia, not in Africa, Neanderthal ancestry is expected to be limited in sub-Saharan Africa; however, a recent study made the puzzling observation that several sub-Saharan populations contain chunks of DNA that resemble Neanderthal DNA. The study was unable to determine how this Neanderthal-like DNA entered these populations, whether it originated from modern humans who had migrated from Africa, interbred with Neanderthals in Eurasia, and then returned, or whether it was the result of an earlier encounter between Neanderthals and humans. Because the study relied on a limited number of genomes from the 1,000 Genomes Project, all of which share a relatively recent common ancestry in Central and Western Africa, it was also unclear whether Neanderthal-like DNA is widespread among sub-Saharan populations.

To better understand how widespread these Neanderthal-like DNA regions are across sub-Saharan Africa and to elucidate their origins, Tishkoffs team leveraged a genetically diverse set of genomes of 180 individuals from 12 different populations in Cameroon, Botswana, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. For each genome, the researchers identified regions of Neanderthal-like DNA and looked for evidence of Neanderthal ancestry.

Then, they compared the modern human genomes to a genome belonging to a Neanderthal who lived approximately 120,000 years ago. For this comparison, the team developed a novel statistical method that allowed them to determine the origins of the Neanderthal-like DNA in these modern sub-Saharan populations, whether they were regions that Neanderthals inherited from modern humans or regions that modern humans inherited from Neanderthals and then brought back to Africa.

They found that all of the sub-Saharan populations contained Neanderthal-like DNA, indicating that this phenomenon is widespread. In most cases, this Neanderthal-like DNA originated from an ancient lineage of modern humans that passed their DNA on to Neanderthals when they migrated from Africa to Eurasia around 250,000 years ago. As a result of this modern human-Neanderthal interbreeding, approximately 6% of the Neanderthal genome was inherited from modern humans.

In some specific sub-Saharan populations, the researchers also found evidence of Neanderthal ancestry that was introduced to these populations when humans bearing Neanderthal genes migrated back into Africa. Neanderthal ancestry in these sub-Saharan populations ranged from 0 to 1.5%, and the highest levels were observed in the Amhara from Ethiopia and Fulani from Cameroon.

To try to understand whether carrying modern human DNA was helpful or harmful when introduced into the Neanderthal genome, the researchers also investigated where these chunks of modern human DNA were located.To try to understand whether carrying modern human DNA was helpful or harmful, the researchers also investigated where these chunks of modern human DNA were located within the Neanderthal genome. They found that most of the modern human DNA was in noncoding regions of the Neanderthal genome, indicating that modern human gene variants were being preferentially lost from coding sections of the genome, which suggests that having modern human genes in a Neanderthal background is detrimental to fitness.

This is similar to what is seen in modern humans, where natural selection has slowly been removing Neanderthal genes from modern human populations.

This research opens new avenues for exploring human evolution by identifying a genetic reference of a population that occupies a part of the human family tree that had previously been lacking from the genomic and fossil record.

Discovering this ancient lineage of modern humans is really exciting for future research because it gives us a different lens to look at human evolution, says Daniel Harris, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Perelman School of Medicine and the studys other first author. Because we don't have DNA sequences from modern human fossils from that long ago, identifying these sequences will shed light on very early modern human evolution in Africa.

Sarah Tishkoff is the David and Lyn Silfen University Professor in Genetics and Biology and a Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor with appointments in the Perelman School of Medicines Department of Genetics and Department of Medicine and in the School of Arts & Sciences Department of Biology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Daniel Harris is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Perelman School of Medicine at Penn.

Alexander Platt is a senior research scientist in Penns Perelman School of Medicine.

In addition to Tishkoff, Harris, and Platt, the study authors were Penn Medicines Matthew E.B. Hansen and Michael McQuillan; Fudan Universitys Shaohua Fan; the Hubert Kairuki Memorial Universitys Thomas Nyambo;the University of Botswanas SunungukoWata Mpoloka, and Gaonyadiwe George Mokone; Addis Ababa Universitys Gurja Belay; and the University of Yaounds Charles Fokunang and Alfred K. Njamnshi.

The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grants 1R35GM134957, R01AR076241, and 5T32DK007314-39) and the American Diabetes Association (Grant 1-19-VSN-02.

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DNA meythlation clocks and their limitations – Lifespan.io News

Posted: at 11:37 pm

The Journal Club returns on Friday October 27th at 11:30 am Eastern time on the Lifespan.io Facebook page. We will be discussing the new paper from Conboy et al. which examines current DNA meythlation clocks and their limitations in the context of aging. They also developed a noise baraometer to measure the epigenetic impact of aging. We will be joined on this episode of the Journal Club by two of the authors of the paper, Drs. Irina and Michael Conboy.

To do this, we need your support. Your charitable contribution tranforms into rejuvenation research, news, shows, and more. Will you help?

This study shows that Elastic Net (EN) DNA methylation (DNAme) clocks have low accuracy of predictions for individuals of the same age and a low resolution between healthy and disease cohorts; caveats inherent in applying linear model to non-linear processes. We found that change in methylation of cytosines with age is, interestingly, not the determinant for their selection into the clocks. Moreover, an EN clocks selected cytosines change when non-clock cytosines are removed from the training data; as expected from optimization in a machine learning (ML) context, but inconsistently with the identification of health markers in a biological context. To address these limitations, we moved from predictions to measurement of biological age, focusing on the cytosines that on average remain invariable in their methylation through lifespan, postulated to be homeostatically vital. We established that dysregulation of such cytosines, measured as the sums of standard deviations of their methylation values, quantifies biological noise, which in our hypothesis is a biomarker of aging and disease. We term this approach a noise barometer the pressure of aging and disease on an organism. These noise-detecting cytosines are particularly important as sums of SD on the entire 450K DNAme array data yield a random pattern through chronology. Testing how many cytosines of the 450K arrays become noisier with age, we found that the paradigm of DNAme noise as a biomarker of aging and disease remarkably manifests in ~1/4 of the total. In that large set even the cytosines that have on average constant methylation through age show increased SDs and can be used as noise detectors of the barometer.

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Neanderthal DNA may shape how sensitive you are to pain, genetic … – Livescience.com

Posted: at 11:37 pm

Neanderthal gene variants may boost the pain sensitivity of people who carry them and may be most common in populations with prevalent Native American ancestry, a new study finds.

The research, published Tuesday (Oct. 10) in the journal Communications Biology, focused on three versions of the SCN9A gene, which codes for a protein that shuttles sodium into cells and helps pain-detecting nerves send signals. People with any of the three variants are more sensitive to pain caused by being prodded with a sharp object, but not pain caused by heat or pressure.

"In 2020, another group of researchers studied people of European ancestry and linked these Neanderthal gene variants to increased pain sensitivity," first study author Pierre Faux, a geneticist at the French National institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment, told Live Science.

"We extend these findings by studying Latin Americans and showing that these Neanderthal genetic variants are much more common in people with Native American ancestry," Faux said. "We also show the type of pain these variants affect, which wasn't known before."

Related: Mysterious 'Viking disease' linked to Neanderthal DNA

In the new study, the scientists analyzed genetic samples collected from more than 5,900 people living in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. On average, the participants had 46% Native American ancestry, 49.6% European ancestry and 4.4% African ancestry, but these proportions varied significantly between individuals.

The analysis revealed that around 30% of the participants had one of the SCN9A gene variants, called D1908G, while roughly 13% of participants had the other two gene variants, known as V991L and M932L, which tend to be inherited together.

The participants living in Peru, who had the highest proportion of Native American ancestry among the countries studied, were most likely to carry these Neanderthal gene variants. Conversely, participants recruited from Brazil had the lowest proportion of Native American ancestry and were least likely to carry the variants.

"We know that modern humans and Neanderthals interbred something like 50,000 to 70,000 years ago, and that modern humans first crossed over from Eurasia into the Americas by 15- to 20,000 years ago," Faux said.

"The high frequency of the Neanderthal variants in people with Native American ancestry could potentially be explained by a scenario where the Neanderthals carrying these variants happened to breed with the modern humans who eventually migrated into the Americas," he said.

Related: The 1st Americans were not who we thought they were

Following the genetic analysis, the researchers carried out pain threshold tests on more than 1,600 volunteers in Colombia, 56% of whom were women, who had on average 31% Native American ancestry, 59% European ancestry and 9.7% African ancestry. In these tests, participants were asked to tell the researchers to stop as soon as they felt discomfort. The team also analyzed the gene variants carried by each of these tested participants.

In one of the tests, the team applied mustard oil, which irritates the skin, to the forearm skin of participants before pushing plastic filaments of increasing widths onto the same area of skin. In this test, wider filaments exerted a stronger force on the already-irritated skin. Participants who had any of the Neanderthal gene variants tapped out after being prodded with filaments that were significantly smaller than those who did not carry the gene variants.

"When we tested the participants' pain threshold by applying pressure, heat or cold, the gene variants did not affect pain sensitivity, so the Neanderthal variants only affected their response to pinprick pressure," Faux noted.

It is possible that carrying these gene variants gave Neanderthals, and the modern humans who first settled the Americas, some sort of survival benefit, Faux said. But that survival benefit wasn't necessarily related to pain sensitivity, he added.

"The modern humans who first reached North America would have had to bear harsh and cold conditions, so it could be that these variants have other effects beyond pain for example, they could have somehow helped humans to cope with the cold," he said. In other words, the heightened sensitivity to sharp objects might have been just a side effect of another evolutionary change.

However, the evolutionary pressures that acted on SCN9A were likely complex, and "why Neanderthals might have had a greater pain sensitivity and whether introgression in SCN9A represented an advantage during human evolution remains to be determined," the authors wrote..

Nevertheless, it is interesting to know these gene variants, which have previously been linked to small fiber neuropathy a painful nerve condition would have also caused pain in our Neanderthal ancestors, Sulayman Dib-Hajj, a professor of Neurology at the Yale School of Medicine who was not involved in the study, told Live Science in an email.

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OvaPrint a cell-free DNA methylation liquid biopsy for the risk … – Cancer Discovery

Posted: at 11:37 pm

Purpose High-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC) is the most lethal epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) and is often diagnosed at late stage. In women with a known pelvic mass, surgery followed by pathological assessment is the most reliable way to diagnose EOC and there are still no effective screening tools in asymptomatic women. In the current study we developed a cfDNA methylation liquid biopsy for the risk assessment of early-stage HGSOC. Experimental Design We performed reduced representation bisulfite sequencing to identify differentially methylated regions (DMRs) between HGSOC and normal ovarian and fallopian tube tissue. Next, we performed hybridization probe capture for 1677 DMRs and constructed a classifier (OvaPrint) on an independent set of cfDNA samples to discriminate HGSOC from benign masses. We also analyzed a series of non-HGSOC EOC, including low-grade, and borderline samples to assess the generalizability of OvaPrint. A total of 372 samples (tissue n=59, plasma n=313) were analyzed in this study. Results OvaPrint achieved a positive predictive value of 95% and a negative predictive value of 88% for discriminating HGSOC from benign masses, surpassing other commercial tests. OvaPrint was less sensitive for non-HGSOC EOC, albeit it may have potential utility for identifying low-grade and borderline tumors with higher malignant potential. Conclusions OvaPrint is a highly sensitive and specific test that can be used for the risk assessment of HGSOC in symptomatic women. Prospective studies are warranted to validate OvaPrint for HGSOC and further develop it for non-HGSOC EOC histotypes in both symptomatic and asymptomatic women with adnexal masses.

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After being freed once, Ohio man languishes on death row – Ohio Capital Journal

Posted: at 11:37 pm

Tony Apanovitch and his supporters are adamant: Hes innocent and theres DNA evidence to prove it.That evidence is in addition to doubts about Apanovitchs conviction raised by a state Supreme Court Justice before the existence of the DNA came to light.

In fact, doubts about his conviction are so compelling that a trial court judge freed Apanovitch in 2015, only to see the Ohio Supreme Court send him back to death row on a technicality in 2018. The courts rationale for re-incarcerating Apanovitch was that he didnt request the DNA testing that he says exonerates him.

Now Apanovitchs lawyers and his advocates are demanding a clemency hearing from the Ohio Parole Board. But Gov. Mike DeWines spokesman said this week that the governor wont request one because Apanovitch hasnt exhausted his appeals or had an execution date set.

In Ohio, there have been 11 people who have been sent to death row only to be exonerated. Apanovitchs supporters argue that he should be the 12th.

Now 68, he was convicted in the 1984 rape and murder in Cuyahoga County of Mary Anne Flynn, who was found dead in her home after she hadnt shown up for her job as a nurse at Cleveland General Hospital. Apanovitch received the death penalty.

Even before the DNA evidence came to light, the Ohio Supreme Court in 1987 nearly overturned the conviction, with three dissents to four justices voting to uphold it.

That was before the court adopted the doctrine of residual doubt overturning convictions because of a lingering fear that the defendant might not be guilty. Had that doctrine been in place, Apanovitchs appeal would have turned out differently, Justice Craig Wright wrote to the Parole Board in 1996.

There is no question that there is some residual doubt in this case and had we had that doctrine, this case would have gone the other way, said Wright, who wrote the ruling denying Apanovitchs appeal. Mr. Apanovitch would not have to face the death penalty. I think it of some interest that I have discussed this case with my now-colleague, Justice (Francis Edward) Sweeney, who was the trial judge in this case. He has indicated to me that he came close to granting a Rule 29 motion (that the evidence was insufficient for a conviction) following the states case.

Then, in 1991, an employee of the Cuyahoga County Coroners office found slides containing fluids from the victims mouth and pelvis that were previously believed to be lost, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported last year. Any DNA evidence gathered from them would be crucial, because there were no eyewitnesses to the crime; only testimony that Flynn had complained that Apanovitch had made sexually suggestive comments to her while he was painting her house that summer.

There was too little fluid to do DNA testing, given the technology at the time the slides were discovered.

But in 2000 and 2006, prosecutors asked for additional testing using more advanced technology. Crucially, however, they didnt tell Apanovitchs lawyers that they had done so, the Plain Dealer reported.

The prosecutors tests claimed to find that Apanovitchs DNA matched fluid taken from Flynns mouth, and that there wasnt enough fluid from her pelvis to test. However, they declined to present that evidence in a 2015 court proceeding, Dale Baich, one of Apanovitchs attorneys, told the Capital Journal last year.

Testing ordered up by Apanovitchs team claimed to find the DNA of two people in the samples taken from Flynns mouth and pelvis and that Apanovitchs DNA was found in neither sample. Defense attorneys also raised questions about the integrity of samples that lay undiscovered in a desk for so many years.

The events were emblematic of the slipshod nature of Apanovitchs prosecution, Tiana Bohnanon, another of his attorneys, said last week at a press conference urging the Parole Board to schedule a clemency hearing for her client.

Prosecutors said the evidence had been destroyed, Bohanon said. And then they turned around years later and tested those slides and it turns out that it wasnt Tonys DNA. Their case was that Tony was the one that raped her and murdered her, but there was no witness that Tony murdered her and his DNA wasnt on that slide.

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Robert McClelland in 2015 overturned Apanovitchs conviction and freed him after three decades on death row.

While free, Apanovitch held a job and got married. But in 2018, the Ohio Supreme Court sent him back to death row on the rationale that the DNA evidence can only be considered if Apanovitch requested the initial testing of samples he didnt know were available and that prosecutors waited years to disclose.

According to the court, the DNA statute in Ohio applies only where the prisoner makes the request to test the DNA, the group Justice 4 Apanovich said in a written statement last week. Tony didnt ask for the testing to be done indeed he never had the opportunity to make that request because the state did the testing itself in secret

As Apanovitch continues to languish on death row, his lawyers and other supporters are calling on DeWine to grant clemency. But to do that, he needs a recommendation from the parole board, which is appointed by the director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction who is appointed by the governor, DeWine.

So far at least, neither board nor governor is inclined to act.

The board has an unwritten policy of not scheduling clemency hearings until an execution date is set for a defendant. But those dates keep moving back as DeWine has delayed every execution since he took office nearly four years ago, citing the unavailability of the necessary drugs.

The governors office was asked whether DeWine would heed calls from state Reps. Jean Schmidt, Josh Williams and Bill Seitz all fellow Republicans as well as many others and call on the Parole board to schedule a clemency hearing for Apanovitch.

Without getting into the evidentiary disputes in this case, it is correct that the Parole Board could schedule a hearing if it so chose, Dan Tierney, DeWines press secretary, replied in an email. However, we are aware the Parole Board generally only does so if all appeals have been exhausted OR an execution date has been set. Our understanding is appeals have not been exhausted, so that remains the current avenue to argue actual innocence.'

Former Ohio Supreme Court Justice Herbert Brown said the Parole Board has a duty to act.

The 2018 Ohio Supreme Court decision sent a man back to death row, and effectively narrowed any legal options in the courts for Mr. Apanovitch, Brown wrote in a March 11, 2022 letter to the Parole Board. This board has the authority, even the duty, to right a wrong and correct an injustice that has now lasted almost 38 years.

He added, Although the death penalty remains a punishment accepted by the courts, legislature and the public, nobody should countenance the execution of an innocent man. Certainly not on the technical point of whether it was the state or Mr. Apanovitch who requested the exculpatory DNA evidence. Considering all of the above, I believe this Board should release Mr. Apanovitch from prison.

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