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What Would Happen if the Amazon Rainforest Dried Out? Experiment Offers Answers (Maria)
The author writes, “A short walk beneath the dense Amazon canopy, the forest abruptly opens up. Fallen logs are rotting, the trees grow sparser and the temperature rises in places sunlight hits the ground. This is what 24 years of severe drought looks like in the world’s largest rainforest. But this patch of degraded forest, about the size of a soccer field, is a scientific experiment. Launched in 2000 by Brazilian and British scientists … [it aims] to simulate a future in which the changing climate could deplete the Amazon of rainfall.”
ICE Arrests Mississippi Father at His Citizenship Hearing (Sean)
The author writes, “What led the government to rip Kasper out of the arms of his family was, to the best of his knowledge, a single document. Form I-751, appropriately clinical, a ‘Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence,’ was just one of the endless documents he needed on his decade-plus journey to American citizenship. Kasper and his wife, Savannah Hobart Eriksen, never submitted that form, which was due all the way back in 2015. She had suffered a stillbirth, losing their first child, and in the days of grief that followed, the deadline slipped right past them. But Kasper’s naturalization continued unimpeded. He corresponded with immigration officials numerous times over the next 10 years, and says agents never warned him that a critical document was missing. He paid taxes each year, reliably contributing a portion of his labor to the nation he already felt a part of.”
Trump Has No Plan For Who Will Grow US Food: ‘There is Just Flat Out Nobody to Work’ (Reader Jim)
From The Guardian: “Mendez is one of the more than 300,000 foreign agricultural workers who comes to the US every year on an H-2A visa, which allows him to temporarily work plowing fields, pruning trees and harvesting crops in states from Washington to Georgia, Florida to New York, Texas to California. But as federal immigration policies change rapidly, farmers and workers alike are uncertain about their future. ‘Without [this guest worker program], I believe agriculture in the US would decline a lot because people there don’t want to do the work,’ Mendez said. As the fate of the hundreds of thousands of undocumented farm workers remains in limbo amid Donald Trump’s mass deportation threats, and the administration’s H-2A policies are undecided, the future of these guest workers remains unclear. Their numbers grow each year – and they are increasingly central to an industry historically dominated by undocumented workers. The industry isn’t creating new jobs either.”
Pam Bondi ousts American Bar Association from Department of Justice (DonkeyHotey)
The author writes, “Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter to the president of the American Bar Association (ABA) saying that the organization is no longer welcome to weigh in on President Donald Trump’s appointments to the courts. Typically, the ABA scores the qualifications of an appointee to the bench regardless of the administration and partisanship. The ABA hasn’t yet made any scores during Trump’s latest term but in his first, of his 264 nominees, the ABA rated 187 ‘well-qualified.’ Another 67 earned ‘qualified rankings,’ and ten were rated ‘not qualified.’ Trump recently named his own personal lawyer, Emil Bove, to serve on the Court of Appeals.”
‘I Lost Everything’: Swiss Residents in Shock After Glacier Debris Buries Village (Dana)
From Reuters: “Residents struggled on Thursday to absorb the scale of devastation caused by a huge slab of glacier that buried most of their picturesque Swiss village, in what scientists suspect is a dramatic example of climate change’s impact on the Alps. A deluge of millions of cubic meters of ice, mud and rock crashed down a mountain on Wednesday, engulfing the village of Blatten and the few houses that remained were later flooded. Its 300 residents had already been evacuated earlier in May after part of the mountain behind the Birch Glacier began to crumble. Rescue teams with search dogs and thermal drone scans have continued looking for a missing 64-year-old man but have found nothing. Local authorities suspended the search on Thursday afternoon, saying the debris mounds were too unstable for now and warned of further rockfalls.”
Houston’s New Trump Burger Serves Up Plenty of Politics. How’s the Food? (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “We ordered the Trump Burger, Trump Tower and chicken tenders from a one-page menu advertising ‘Made in America’ with a US flag — never mind that merchandise on sale is made abroad, including in the Dominican Republic and Bangladesh. I decided to eat at one of the outdoor tables instead of opting for the drive-thru, which is only available at Trump Burger’s Houston location. The mini chain, which has no official connection to the president, also operates out of Bellville, Flatonia and Kemah. Before I could take my first bite, a man asked if I could snap a picture of him and his son in front of the restaurant. I agreed. They gave a thumbs up for their photo opp and left in their Lexus SUV, which was parked next door at a Chevron, without any food. They didn’t miss out.”
