A Single Male Cat’s Reign of Terror - The Atlantic
A Single Male Cat’s Reign of Terror - The Atlantic |
- A Single Male Cat’s Reign of Terror - The Atlantic
- Guatemala Immigration Pact Set to Spur Single Migrants to U.S. Border - The Wall Street Journal
- Burbank officials target polystyrene, single-use products in proposed ban - Los Angeles Times
- Will Banning Single-Family Housing Make for More Affordable Homes? - YES! Magazine
- New Folk Supergroup Bonny Light Horseman Unveil Debut Single - Rolling Stone
| A Single Male Cat’s Reign of Terror - The Atlantic Posted: 31 Jul 2019 07:55 AM PDT  After the victims were found dead—"decapitated" and "breasts opened"—the residents of a beachside community in Mandurah, Australia, took matters into their own hands. Five locals, along with Claire Greenwell, a biologist at Murdoch University, arranged an overnight stakeout. Another neighbor lent them a mobile home, so they could take turns sleeping at the scene. The target of all this drama? A cat. Specifically, a cat who had taken to killing in Mandurah's bird sanctuary. Mandurah had recently fenced off nesting grounds to attract a vulnerable and cartoonishly adorable native seabird called the fairy tern. Fairy terns don't usually nest near people, but to the city's great pride and joy, they did start having chicks in Mandurah. It was a success story—until it wasn't. Over the course of a few weeks, the cat managed to almost singlehandedly drive off the entire nesting colony of 220 birds, according to a study from Greenwell and her colleagues in the journal Animals. The cat was directly or indirectly responsible for the death of six adults and 40 chicks. Once it became clear the sanctuary was no longer safe, the entire colony abandoned the site. The nesting sanctuary was ultimately a failure.  The first sign of something amiss came on the night of November 18, 2018, when residents heard a commotion among the fairy terns. A white cat was chased out of the sanctuary. In the days and weeks after, Greenwell started finding dead birds—or really, parts of dead birds. Other birds went missing. The death of an eight-day-old chick, the first to hatch in the entire nesting colony, hit Greenwell particularly hard. "Every single day, I watched that chick grow," she says. "The parents were looking for it. They wouldn't leave the nest, because they were waiting for the chick to come back." Meanwhile, residents saw a cat prowling in the area again. It was white. Over the next few days, as birds kept dying or disappearing, wildlife cameras confirmed the presence of the white cat. A resident even snapped a photo from an apartment balcony, in which the cat appeared to be in the sanctuary eating something. Read: Why we think cats are psychopaths That's when they decided on the stakeout. On the night of December 1, Greenwell and the five residents took shifts. The white cat came at 7 p.m.; they shooed it away. The cat returned at midnight; they shooed it away again. The cat came back a third time that night, and Greenwall saw it slinking toward the birds. They chased the cat for half a mile before it disappeared in the coastal scrub. The group returned to stake out the area the next night, and then the City of Mandurah hired an overnight security guard for a few days. When the cat was not seen again, they thought the danger had passed. But it had not. The cat returned, and more dead birds turned up. What's more, Greenwell observed, the adults stopped spending time on the ground caring for the chicks. They also stopped working together to drive off raptors hunting for chicks, which adult fairy terns normally do by flying around and above the nests in a big group. The birds seemed to have given up on protecting their chicks. "The colony basically just fell apart," she says. By mid-December, the colony had left, and all the chicks were dead. (During this period, two other cats, both identified as pets, were also trapped at or near the site, though there's no evidence either hunted birds. The fairy tern deaths continued after these cats were removed, too. No other cats were caught on camera or seen by residents at the time.) "There was absolute outrage in the community," Greenwell says. The residents had become so invested in the fairy terns that one of them was waking up in the middle of the night to check on the birds. In July, the city council moved forward on a law cracking down on cat ownership. The law would require a permit for more than two cats, prohibit cats from certain nature reserves, and fine owners $200 not following permit rules or for letting their cats cause a nuisance. All of this comes at a time when the Australian government is attempting to cull 2 million feral cats—through trapping, shooting, and even dropping poisoned sausages. In Australia, these measures are meant to help save native species. The continent's birds, mammals, and reptiles evolved over millions of years without cats, leaving them especially vulnerable to feline predation. "Cats have been a driving factor in the extinction of most of the 34 mammals that have gone extinct in Australia," says John Woinarski, a conservation biologist with the Threatened Species Recovery Hub. In Mandurah, the white, male cat was finally captured on December 12 and, according to local news reports, euthanized by the City. The cat was not microchipped or collared, but it had been neutered. Read: An offbeat approach to bonding with cats In the U.S., where pro-cat groups have gained more purchase than in Australia, cat advocates promote an intensely controversial policy of trap-neuter-return (TNR), in which neutered cats are released back outdoors. Cat advocates tout trap-neuter-release as the humane way to reduce feral and stray feline populations over time. Bird advocates say the policy doesn't work, because TNR programs often aren't able to spay or neuter enough of the cats. In any case, neutered cats, once returned, are killing wildlife, Greenwell says. In Australia, the country has decided its native wildlife is more important. Of course, not every single cat is as destructive as the white cat in Mandurah. "Cats can be quite idiosyncratic," Woinarski says. Some are excellent hunters. Others not so much. Elsewhere in the world, people have also reported a single cat having a huge and disproportionate impact on a group of birds. And cats certainly do sometimes kill more prey than they eat. A study of stray cats on Jekyll Island, off the coast of Georgia, found that they ate just 83 percent of what they killed.  The abandonment of the fairy tern nesting site also demonstrates how the impact of cats ripples far beyond the birds that they directly kill. "Whether they're actually killing or not, they can incite fear in these small prey populations," says Michael Cove, a biologist with North Carolina State University. Scientists call this the "landscape of fear." In the Florida Keys, for example, where Cove has studied free-ranging cats, he thinks endangered Key Largo woodrats have been building fewer of their characteristic nests out of large sticks. "If you're a small rodent carrying this big, cumbersome stick," Cove says, "that makes it pretty obvious, almost advertising yourself in the world. You can imagine that you become easy prey." The very presence of cats—or perhaps even a single cat—is enough to change an ecosystem. We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.  Sarah Zhang is a staff writer at The Atlantic.  |
| Guatemala Immigration Pact Set to Spur Single Migrants to U.S. Border - The Wall Street Journal Posted: 31 Jul 2019 01:32 PM PDT  MEXICO CITY—The immigration pact signed last week between the U.S. and Guatemala would likely change migration dynamics in the region, lessening the flow of asylum-seeking families but raising the number of single migrants who try to enter the U.S. undetected. Under the "safe third country" agreement, Hondurans and Salvadorans would be required to apply for asylum in Guatemala instead of in the U.S. Asylum seekers from those countries apprehended at the U.S. southern border, mostly families, would be returned to Guatemala, U.S. and Guatemalan officials say. The agreement faces legal and political hurdles in Guatemala, where it is widely unpopular and the subject of protests this past weekend. The country's top court is expected to soon rule on two injunctions filed against the deal. It will clarify if the pact must be approved by Congress—where it faces opposition—and whether it was signed legally by the Interior Minister. If the accord is implemented, it would likely deter migrant families from Honduras and El Salvador, said the manager of a migrant shelter in Guatemala City. Instead, it would revive old patterns in which migrants are predominantly single adults, mainly men, as the journey becomes more perilous and costly. "Single adults and those with more resources may take a chance and get to the U.S. undetected," the migrant shelter manager said. Share Your ThoughtsWhat would a productive agreement between the U.S. and Guatemala to reduce illegal immigration look like? Join the conversation below. The pact hasn't gone into effect yet. Guatemalan Interior Minister Enrique Degenhart said details on how to implement the plan, such as the number of migrants expected to be sent to Guatemala, will be ready in the next two weeks. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan went to Guatemala City on Wednesday for a two-day visit to hash out the details with Guatemalan officials. Few experts expect a surge in asylum claims in Guatemala because the country is poor, dangerous and inhospitable to them. "If [migrants] had wanted to seek asylum in Guatemala, they would have done so when they crossed through Guatemala en route toward the U.S.," Mr. Degenhart said in an interview. But the deal could have side effects in Mexico, as Central American families seek asylum there to join a growing community of their kin. The U.S. is pressuring Mexico to sign a "safe third country" deal to require Guatemalans to seek asylum there, but Mexico has resisted.  Central Americans fleeing violence and persecution, particularly families, "may attempt to at least get to Mexico and request asylum there," said Maureen Meyer, head of the migrant-rights program at The Washington Office on Latin America, an advocacy group. Others may try countries including Costa Rica and Panama, where asylum requests are rising, she said. The arrival of migrants traveling with children to the U.S. has sharply increased over the past five years, exceeding single adults and unaccompanied minors by a large margin. In the nine months of fiscal year 2019, some 390,000 migrants traveling with children were detained at the border—57% of the total. Most came from Central America. Families benefit from U.S. asylum rules allowing them to stay in the U.S. while their proceedings are adjudicated, a process that could extend for years. Ninety-nine percent of families apprehended in the U.S. in fiscal year 2017 were still in the country in January, U.S. statistics show. The Trump administration claims that most asylum seekers are in reality economic migrants filling the country's courts with improper claims. Just about 8,500 migrants from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador were granted asylum in 2017. Some 900,000 cases are pending in immigration courts. The U.S. administration has implemented other deterrents. A rule begun in July bars migrants traveling through a third country en route to the U.S. ineligible for asylum. It has been challenged in court. Another rule required migrants with pending asylum claims in the U.S. to be sent to Mexico while their cases are heard—barring them from staying and working in the U.S. during the judicial proceedings. Some 20,000 have been returned since January. U.S. authorities are also limiting the number of asylum requests processed in U.S. ports of entry. Long waiting lists—the one in Tijuana, across from San Diego, Calif., has some 5,000 people—are already prompting some migrants to go back home. Guatemalan business groups favor last week's pact because it enables Guatemala to avoid economic sanctions threatened by Mr. Trump. "The risks and consequences of not signing would have been too great for the country," Juan Carlos Tefel, head of Guatemala's main business chamber, wrote on Twitter. But the agreement is facing opposition, with many Guatemalans fearing a flood of asylum requests. Both candidates in next month's presidential runoff election condemned the accord. Sandra Torres, the center-left candidate who leads in the polls, said Guatemala didn't have the resources to look after its own citizens, let alone foreigners. Her center-right opponent, Alejandro Giammattei, called the proposed agreement an irresponsible act by departing President Jimmy Morales. From January to May, Guatemala received just 172 asylum claims, according to the United Nations refugee agency, and just 1,300 requests since 2002. By comparison, some 259,000 people applied for asylum in the U.S. in 2017 alone, according to U.S. figures, more than a quarter from Honduras and El Salvador. Úrsula Roldán, a migration expert at the Rafael Landívar University in Guatemala City, said it was unlikely that asylum claims in Guatemala will rise sharply. Instead, she said, many migrants from Honduras and El Salvador will try to enter the U.S. undetected, and those sent back to Guatemala will likely return home.  Write to Juan Montes at juan.montes@wsj.com and José de Córdoba at jose.decordoba@wsj.com Copyright ©2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8  |
| Burbank officials target polystyrene, single-use products in proposed ban - Los Angeles Times Posted: 31 Jul 2019 02:19 PM PDT Burbank officials have taken the first steps to free the city of polystyrene and other single-use plastic materials. The City Council unanimously voted last week to direct city staff to hire a consultant that can help develop a ban on expanded polystyrene, commonly known as Styrofoam, over the next year. Burbank will be setting aside $250,000 to hire the consultant and conduct workshops for businesses and the public to determine the best way to implement a ban on cups, plates, clamshell containers, packing peanuts, utensils, lids, stirrers and coolers made from polystyrene, as well as single-use food containers and cups. Instead of using products with plastic, restaurants and other businesses that sell food and beverages are encouraged to use reusable or compostable food containers. Advertisement Council members also directed staff to ban the use of these products at city facilities and functions within the next three months. The City Council also directed staff members to have the consultant study the feasibility of having restaurants and other businesses charge a 25-cent fee for single-use cups. John Molinar, assistant public works director for streets and sanitation, said it can take about a year to hire a consultant, conduct workshops and develop an ordinance banning polystyrene. Kreigh Hampel, recycling coordinator for the city, added that the consultant will meet with business owners or representatives to identify how they can transition from single-use products to more sustainable alternatives. Advertisement "We would help develop protocols for each [business]," Hampel said. "We'd like to see a range of options that restaurants could adopt." Councilman Tim Murphy said he wanted to take a more aggressive approach to the proposed ban, which would have required restaurants to use reusable plates and utensils for dine-in service, as well as require that disposable food containers be compostable. "We've got to go all in," Murphy said. "It's for our kids and it's for our planet. Let's just do it." Carpio writes for Times Community News.  |
| Will Banning Single-Family Housing Make for More Affordable Homes? - YES! Magazine Posted: 31 Jul 2019 11:55 AM PDT  Nothing captures the housing affordability crisis as well as this fact: In no single city, state, or other municipality in the U.S. can someone earning minimum wage afford a two-bedroom apartment. This is compounded by the fact that housing prices continue to rise, and cities don't have the ability (and in some cases, the physical space) to add more affordable housing to help keep costs down. So Minneapolis changed the rules, and others are taking notice. In December 2018, the city approved a plan that allows for duplexes and triplexes, effectively eliminating the future of building more single-family housing. Now Oregon is following in the footsteps of Minneapolis, with a bill that the Legislature passed in June and which Gov. Kate Brown is expected to sign in the coming weeks. The bill would allow for "middle housing"—duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes—on parcels now designated for single-family housing in cities with populations of at least 25,000. Smaller cities with populations starting at 10,000 people also are required to allow duplexes. The law would affect 2.8 million Oregonians, according to the Sightline Institute, a nonprofit think tank that conducts research on many social issues in the Pacific Northwest, including housing. Many cities and states across the U.S. are struggling to meet the needs of their poorest residents. The National Low Income Housing Coalition's "Out of Reach" report, which documents unaffordable housing across the U.S., hammers home the fact that the average rent on a two-bedroom apartment far outstrips the income of full-time minimum wage workers in every state. In many cities across the country, most residential land is zoned for detached single-family homes only, the New York Times recently reported. But zoning for higher-density housing is not a solution to the ongoing lack of housing availability and affordability. "I don't think that it's a solution to immediately fix everything," said Michael Andersen, a senior researcher at Sightline. "It's not an adequate solution for everything that ails us in the housing market. It shouldn't be represented as such." Andersen said he believes allowing this type of multi-unit housing is part of a long-term investment that will slowly change the housing landscape in Oregon, and in which effects will be seen decades after implementation. "The great advantage of middle housing is that … it's a politically viable way to add relatively lower cost homes," he said. He noted that this type of housing would not be "deeply" affordable, but that it allows neighborhoods to gradually become more densely populated so they can support mass transportation, retail, and jobs that are walkable from residences, and community cohabitation that's good for extended families and seniors aging in place.
But more density has to be paired with other solutions, he said, to address a lack of affordability and availability, which has contributed to widespread homelessness. "It should be coupled with just adequate and abundant funding for the — I don't know — 10% to 20% of the population that is just making less money than it takes to maintain and pay taxes on a property," Andersen said. "The only way to solve that problem is by giving people money, and we should because it's a human right." Minneapolis has been applauded by some policy experts and politicians for "banning" single-family housing and potentially increasing density, and some residents are taking steps to ensure they will be able to stay and thrive in their city. Me'Lea Connelly, who is the vision and strategy lead at Village Financial, a community development financial institution that is geared toward "economic renaissance in Black communities," said the region is now in a shift when it comes to housing. "I would say it's similar to the way that Seattle and Portland and some other fringe cities that have developed over the years where it just creeps up on you," Connelly said, referring to smaller cities that often don't receive national media attention. Minneapolis has been quietly changing for years, she said. "All of a sudden, you look up, and there's just no occupancy." Connelly said that now is the time that the Minneapolis area "either needs to transition into higher density, or it's going to become a very economically segregated town, like, you're going to end up pushing everybody [who] can't afford a certain rate out of that space." To be sure, the Twin Cities is already racially and economically segregated, in part because of the historical ban to build anything that was not single-family housing in many parts of the region. The decision to upzone parcels that have traditionally been reserved for single-family housing could offer a remedy for segregation.
But shortly after the approval of the Minneapolis 2040 plan, which includes the ban on single-family housing, Myron Orfield, director of the Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity at the University of Minnesota Law School, said he doubted the plan would fix segregation in any substantial way. "I don't think it's going to have any effect on racial segregation. But I think it's a good planning report. I think density is good for central cities," Orfield said. "I think the White neighborhoods will become dense and [stay] White. And I think the poor neighborhoods will not become much more dense, because there's not much demand in those neighborhoods." Connelly said that similar plans with good intentions and strategies in the past have not always benefited the people who needed them most. She pointed to affirmative action as an example. In 2006, Columbia University law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, who coined the term "intersectionality," wrote in the University of Michigan Law Review, "The primary beneficiaries of affirmative action have been Euro-American women." "So that's the part where I'm like, well, let's see what the actual outcome is going to be and hoping that it improves the covenant for Black people of color," Connelly said. Minneapolis' residents of color and those who have lower incomes have been thinking about better ways to ensure they have housing in the long term. Connelly pointed to Tameca Woods, who together with other tenants and local tenant rights organization United Renters for Justice, persuaded the city of Minneapolis to revoke the rental license of their slumlord landowner and other property owners across the city. Since that time, United Renters for Justice has been raising money to purchase buildings from negligent landowners and develop tenant-owned housing cooperatives, so that they can stay in their homes. Connelly is not involved with the tenant rights organization, but she said Village Financial has also been planning how to use its resources for cooperative housing and lending. It has already bought one lot of property that community members will have a hand in building out. Connelly said they've been answering the question, "How do we want to imagine what density and homeownership and cooperatives, and what does that look like, for us?"  |
| New Folk Supergroup Bonny Light Horseman Unveil Debut Single - Rolling Stone Posted: 31 Jul 2019 08:18 AM PDT  A month after her play Hadestown took home the most awards at this year's Tony Awards, singer-songwriter Anais Mitchell has announced her latest project Bonny Light Horseman, a folk supergroup of sorts with multi-instrumentalist/producer Josh Kaufman (The National, Hiss Golden Messenger) and Eric D. Johnson (Fruit Bats). In advance of their forthcoming debut album, the trio released their lead single, a mercurial, down-tempo rendition of "Bonny Light Horseman," an English-Irish broadside ballad that dates back to the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century. Mitchell sings lead on the song, which also features Aaron Dessner on guitar. "This is a song about a handsome soldier who may or may not ever come home. And we named our band after [the song] not because it sounds kind of cool, but because it's somewhat emblematic of what we're trying to d here," Johnson said in a statement. "Sing you ancient love songs of timeless humanity and heartbreak. Songs that are gonna make you feel something no matter what century you're in." This past weekend, Bonny Light Horseman performed one of their first shows ("our fourth or five," Johnson approximated) to a packed crowd at Newport Folk Festival. The group first formed in 2018 during a residency at Justin Vernon's Eaux Claires Festival. Bonny Light Horseman will go on the road with Mandolin Orange next month.  |
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