What's killing sea lions, dolphins along Southern California coast?
LOS ANGELES — More than 1,000 marine mammals along the Southern California coast have gotten sick or died this month due to a bloom of toxic algae, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The Channel Islands Marine and Wildlife Institute, a local rescue organization, has logged hundreds of reports of dead sea lions and nearly 60 dolphins in the first few weeks of June, according to NOAA.
High concentrations of domoic acid — a neurotoxin produced by the marine algae Pseudo-nitzschia — have been found in waters from Orange County to San Luis Obispo County, according to forecasts by NOAA and the Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System. There are especially high concentrations around Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.
The algae tend to grow during spring and fall and during specific conditions, such as when an upwelling of water results in nutrients from deeper water rising to the surface where the sunlight is stronger, according to the Channel Islands institute. The toxin produced by the algae can cause brain damage, seizures and death in marine animals. The toxin doesn’t affect humans unless they eat it in contaminated food.
—Los Angeles Times
Search carried out at organizing committee for Paris 2024 Olympics
LONDON — Anti-corruption police in France have raided the headquarters of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games organizing committee as part of an investigation into the embezzlement of public funds.
A spokesperson for France’s financial public prosecutor, the PNF, has confirmed to the PA news agency that searches are under way at several sites, including the headquarters of the Games organizers (COJOP) and of SOLIDEO, the public body responsible for building projects linked to the event.
The spokesperson said these searches were part of two preliminary investigations opened by the PNF.
The first was opened in 2017 and was entrusted to the Central Office for the Fight Against Corruption, Financial and Tax Offences with charges of “illegal taking of interests, embezzlement of public funds, favouritism and concealment of favouritism”, targeting several contracts awarded in particular by COJOP.
The second was opened last year and was entrusted to the BRDE, the financial brigade of the Parisian police, with charges of “illegal taking of interests, favouritism and concealment of favouritism relating to several contracts awarded by COJOP and SOLIDEO”.
Paris 2024 organizers had earlier said: “A police search is currently under way at the headquarters of the Organising Committee.
—dpa
After 57 years, Vietnam War veteran receives US Army Air Medal
George Thomas Keeney, 76, a veteran of the Vietnam War, was due to receive his Air Medal from the U.S. Army on Nov. 6, 1966 — but it never came.
On Monday — 57 years later — Keeney, now bedridden, was finally presented the award in the living room of his New Windsor home, where he is receiving hospice care for heart failure and prostate cancer.
“This is going to make my day,” he said, surrounded by his children and grandchildren. “If I die tomorrow, I’ll be happy.”
Though sick and confined to his bed, Keeney was talkative, animated and overjoyed to receive a medal he never thought he would get.
Keeney, like many Vietnam veterans who returned home from the war, did not receive a hero’s welcome, but was sometimes treated poorly or scorned by society for fighting an unpopular war.
On hand to pay tribute to Kenney were Jason R. Sidock, executive director of the Carroll County Veterans Independence Project, a nonprofit organization that provides services to veterans; state Sen. Justin Ready, who represents both Carroll and Frederick counties; Carroll County Commissioner Tom Gordon III; and representatives from BridgingLife, a nonprofit that provides hospice care.
—The Baltimore Sun
Gunmen slay teen less than a block away from his Brooklyn home
NEW YORK — A 16-year-old boy died from a gunshot wound to the head in Brooklyn on Monday, cops said.
Two men wearing black “COVID masks” approached the teenage victim on Marcus Garvey Boulevard at 5:47 p.m. ET and fired three shots at point-blank range, according to police on the scene.
At least one of the bullets struck the victim in the head, and he fell onto the pavement, witnesses told the Daily News.
“I thought it was firecrackers,” said one man, who refused to give his name. “I looked across the street and his body was on the ground.”
Paramedics rushed the teen to Woodhull Hospital in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where he was pronounced dead, cops said.
No arrests have been made and the investigation remains ongoing, cops said.
—New York Daily News
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