One method of making electricity cleanly to address climate change has been quietly advancing and on Tuesday it hit a milestone.

A California utility is backing the largest new geothermal power development in the U.S. — 400 megawatts of clean electricity from the Earth’s heat — enough for some 400,000 homes.

Southern California Edison will purchase the electricity from Fervo Energy, a Houston-based geothermal company, Fervo announced.

The company is drilling up to 125 wells in southwest Utah.

Clean electricity like this reduces the need for traditional power plants that cause climate change. The boost could go a long way toward bringing down the cost of a new generation of geothermal energy, said Wilson Ricks, an energy systems researcher at Princeton University.

“If these purchases help to get this technology off the ground, it could be massively impactful for global decarbonization,” he said. Decarbonization refers to switching out things that produce carbon dioxide and methane, which cause the climate to change, in favor of machines and methods that don’t.

Today the world still relies mainly on fossil fuels for round-the-clock power. This new deal shows that clean power can meet a growing demand for electricity, said Sarah Jewett, vice president of strategy at Fervo.

...

The Science Is Clear: Offshore Wind Isn’t What’s Killing Whales

Politicians and nonprofit groups have blamed offshore wind turbines for whale deaths, but the science doesn’t support those claims—at all

Lines of tea lights formed the large, softly flickering outline of a whale’s tail in the sand along the Jersey Shore this past October—another installment in months of protests against planned offshore wind projects in communities along the U.S. East Coast that have rallied around the slogan “Wind Kills Whales.”

This claim has been used as a talking point against wind energy by former president Donald Trump, local Republican politicians, nonprofit groups with links to the fossil-fuel industry and more than 50 Fox News segments in 2023. All have connected offshore wind development with horrific images of dead whales washing up and decaying on beaches. At a recent New Jersey campaign rally, Trump vowed to scrap the country’s offshore wind projects on the first day of a new term if he is elected again in November, declaring that “they kill the whales.”

But the current scientific consensus doesn’t back up those assertions—at all. There are “no links whatsoever between the offshore wind development activity and especially the humpback whale mortalities. None. Zero,” says Duke University marine scientist Douglas Nowacek.

The protests and spurious criticisms come at a crucial—and financially precarious—time for the nascent offshore wind industry. Some 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy (enough to power 10 million homes and offset the annual emissions of around 18.5 million passenger vehicles) need to be deployed by 2030 to meet the Biden administration’s pledge to make the power sector carbon-pollution-free by 2035. And the warming caused by those emissions does have a demonstrable impact on whales.

That isn’t to say that building huge wind turbines in the ocean doesn’t come without any environmental ramifications. “Even offshore wind proponents such as myself recognize that walking out my front door has an impact, so of course building large-scale machines in the ocean will have an impact,” says Kris Ohleth, executive director of the nonprofit Special Initiative on Offshore Wind. She, Nowacek and other experts say the key task is to understand what the potential harms of turbine surveying and construction actually are and then mitigate them.

So what is killing whales?

Several whale species dwell in and migrate through the North Atlantic, including in waters near the coastal U.S. Though populations of many of these endangered or threatened species have considerably rebounded from the effects of 19th-century whaling, significant threats remain. More than 500 humpback, minke and right whales have been seriously injured, stranded onshore or died prematurely on or near the East Coast since 2017, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Conducting necropsies on beached whales to pin down a cause of death is made difficult by the animals’ layer of blubber and by the fact that organs can literally cook inside a stranded whale. But it is starkly clear that human activity—in the form of ships that hit whales or fishing gear that wraps around them—is often to blame. “For right whales, if you take out neonatal mortality, every documented mortality in the last 25 years of a right whale has been at the hands of some human cause—ship strike or entanglement,” Nowacek says. “Every single one of them.” The New England Aquarium recently reported that a female North Atlantic right whale known by the name Shelagh had become tangled in fishing gear for the fifth known time.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16384963

> There’s a good chance that when you were a teenager, getting your driver’s license was seen as a rite of passage, and you probably couldn’t wait for the freedom promised by that shiny new card in your credit card-less wallet. At least, that’s unless you’re a teenager today, and then the picture might not be so cut and dry. Unlike when I got my learner’s permit 20 years ago, today’s teenagers have already been enjoying a new form of affordable and effective transportation freedom: electric bikes. > > And it’s changing the way they view getting a driver’s license. > > Electric bicycles have been gaining popularity in the US for over a decade, but they’ve taken off in impressive numbers over the last several years. > > Once considered an alternative for older riders looking to get back on two wheels, electric bikes have now gained favor with just about every age group. There are balance e-bikes for toddlers, children’s models, e-bikes popular with teenagers, models for the general public, and models/companies that cater to older riders. > > With more teenagers flocking to e-bikes than ever before, the “freedom” that traditionally came at 16 years old with a driver’s license is now available to teens even earlier. And while that also comes with some real concern from some parents, plenty of other parents have embraced the freedom and independence that electric bikes have offered to their teenagers. > > As Olivia Rockeman pointed out recently in the Wall Street Journal, “Many parents see e-bikes as alternatives to shepherding their kids between school and sports practices, particularly as the number of teens with driver’s licenses has fallen by about 8% over the past two decades, according to the latest data from the Federal Highway Administration. The e-bikes also grant more independence to teens not yet old enough to drive.” > > Encinitas, California resident Aaron Hebshi, whose 17-year-old daughter put off getting her driver’s license in favor of her electric bicycle, explained to Rockeman that his teen isn’t in a rush to get behind the wheel. “There wasn’t quite the imperative for her to get a license that kids may have felt when I was growing up. Before we were 16, we couldn’t go anywhere without our parents in San Diego.” > > Mother of two teen boys in Hermosa Beach, Erika Mamber, shared that e-bikes for her kids have saved her countless car trips to school, sports practice, and tutoring sessions. > > Those views are gaining steam among a wider group of teenagers and their parents, who have discovered that e-bikes are giving those kids more freedom, and by extension, giving more freedom to parents. > What’s driving teens away from cars and onto e-bikes? > > This shift from getting a “first car” to getting a “first e-bike” is driven by many factors. Still, some of the largest motivations include a mix of economic, practical factors, and environmental concerns that are reshaping the landscape of personal transportation for the younger generation. > > The economic advantage > > For many teens and their families, the cost of car ownership is a significant deterrent. From the price of the vehicle itself to insurance, fuel, and maintenance, the expenses can quickly add up. > > E-bikes, on the other hand, offer a more affordable alternative. The initial purchase price is considerably lower, and operational costs are almost zero, outside of occasional new brake pads and tires. With the rising cost of living, many families find e-bikes to be a financially savvy choice. > > For under $1,000, American teenagers can find a good e-bike. I made that much mowing lawns one summer as a teenager and that was twenty years ago. For $3,000, teens can find a great e-bike with even higher quality and longevity. Compare that to the price of new or even used cars. Just the summer-long maintenance and fuel on a car can cost as much as an entire electric bike. > > Independence and convenience > > E-bikes also provide a level of independence that many teens crave. Unlike cars, which require a driver’s license and often parental supervision during the long learning period, e-bikes are accessible immediately. Teens can start riding as soon as they have a bike and (hopefully) the necessary safety gear. > > They also don’t need to spend hours in a driver’s education course learning the nuances of car control. Most kids grow up learning to ride a bicycle and so the handling skills are already there. > > Still, driver’s education courses designed for cyclists are highly encouraged for teens who eschew cars in favor of e-bikes. The rules of the road apply equally to cyclists and car drivers, and not learning the rules is not an excuse for breaking them. > > Safety considerations > > While e-bikes offer many advantages, safety is a key concern for parents and teens alike. Many cities are adapting to the increase in e-bike usage by expanding bike lanes and implementing stricter regulations to ensure rider safety. > > Helmets, proper lighting, and adherence to traffic rules are essential components of safe e-bike riding and are highly recommended for teenagers who regularly travel by e-bike. > > At the same time, many teens have accepted the growing notion that a 6,000 lb vehicle might not be the safest option when considering all road users. Whereas many adults have their eyes on the largest trucks and SUVs, many teenagers value smaller and lighter vehicles, especially options that can get them out of the road and into the bike lane. > > The concept isn’t exactly pervasive, and America’s addiction to massive vehicles is unlikely to break anytime soon, but a growing number of younger Americans aren’t buying the same promises that the automotive industry is selling their parents. > > Environmental consciousness > > Much more so than a generation ago, today’s teenagers are increasingly environmentally conscious. The impact of climate change and the importance of sustainable living are at the forefront of many teenagers’ minds. > > E-bikes, with their zero emissions, offer an eco-friendly alternative to cars. Many teens feel that choosing an e-bike over a car is a tangible way to contribute to a greener planet. > > More than just an expanding trend > > The trend of teenagers choosing e-bikes over cars is growing. As more teens delay or forego getting their driver’s licenses, the shift is proving to be not just a passing fad but rather a reflection of changing attitudes toward transportation and lifestyle. > > Cities continue to evolve and adapt to new modes of transportation, and the role of e-bikes is likely to expand. For now, the sight of teens zipping around town on their electric bikes is becoming increasingly common, signaling a new era in personal mobility.

There’s a good chance that when you were a teenager, getting your driver’s license was seen as a rite of passage, and you probably couldn’t wait for the freedom promised by that shiny new card in your credit card-less wallet. At least, that’s unless you’re a teenager today, and then the picture might not be so cut and dry. Unlike when I got my learner’s permit 20 years ago, today’s teenagers have already been enjoying a new form of affordable and effective transportation freedom: electric bikes.

And it’s changing the way they view getting a driver’s license.

Electric bicycles have been gaining popularity in the US for over a decade, but they’ve taken off in impressive numbers over the last several years.

Once considered an alternative for older riders looking to get back on two wheels, electric bikes have now gained favor with just about every age group. There are balance e-bikes for toddlers, children’s models, e-bikes popular with teenagers, models for the general public, and models/companies that cater to older riders.

With more teenagers flocking to e-bikes than ever before, the “freedom” that traditionally came at 16 years old with a driver’s license is now available to teens even earlier. And while that also comes with some real concern from some parents, plenty of other parents have embraced the freedom and independence that electric bikes have offered to their teenagers.

As Olivia Rockeman pointed out recently in the Wall Street Journal, “Many parents see e-bikes as alternatives to shepherding their kids between school and sports practices, particularly as the number of teens with driver’s licenses has fallen by about 8% over the past two decades, according to the latest data from the Federal Highway Administration. The e-bikes also grant more independence to teens not yet old enough to drive.”

Encinitas, California resident Aaron Hebshi, whose 17-year-old daughter put off getting her driver’s license in favor of her electric bicycle, explained to Rockeman that his teen isn’t in a rush to get behind the wheel. “There wasn’t quite the imperative for her to get a license that kids may have felt when I was growing up. Before we were 16, we couldn’t go anywhere without our parents in San Diego.”

Mother of two teen boys in Hermosa Beach, Erika Mamber, shared that e-bikes for her kids have saved her countless car trips to school, sports practice, and tutoring sessions.

Those views are gaining steam among a wider group of teenagers and their parents, who have discovered that e-bikes are giving those kids more freedom, and by extension, giving more freedom to parents. What’s driving teens away from cars and onto e-bikes?

This shift from getting a “first car” to getting a “first e-bike” is driven by many factors. Still, some of the largest motivations include a mix of economic, practical factors, and environmental concerns that are reshaping the landscape of personal transportation for the younger generation.

The economic advantage

For many teens and their families, the cost of car ownership is a significant deterrent. From the price of the vehicle itself to insurance, fuel, and maintenance, the expenses can quickly add up.

E-bikes, on the other hand, offer a more affordable alternative. The initial purchase price is considerably lower, and operational costs are almost zero, outside of occasional new brake pads and tires. With the rising cost of living, many families find e-bikes to be a financially savvy choice.

For under $1,000, American teenagers can find a good e-bike. I made that much mowing lawns one summer as a teenager and that was twenty years ago. For $3,000, teens can find a great e-bike with even higher quality and longevity. Compare that to the price of new or even used cars. Just the summer-long maintenance and fuel on a car can cost as much as an entire electric bike.

Independence and convenience

E-bikes also provide a level of independence that many teens crave. Unlike cars, which require a driver’s license and often parental supervision during the long learning period, e-bikes are accessible immediately. Teens can start riding as soon as they have a bike and (hopefully) the necessary safety gear.

They also don’t need to spend hours in a driver’s education course learning the nuances of car control. Most kids grow up learning to ride a bicycle and so the handling skills are already there.

Still, driver’s education courses designed for cyclists are highly encouraged for teens who eschew cars in favor of e-bikes. The rules of the road apply equally to cyclists and car drivers, and not learning the rules is not an excuse for breaking them.

Safety considerations

While e-bikes offer many advantages, safety is a key concern for parents and teens alike. Many cities are adapting to the increase in e-bike usage by expanding bike lanes and implementing stricter regulations to ensure rider safety.

Helmets, proper lighting, and adherence to traffic rules are essential components of safe e-bike riding and are highly recommended for teenagers who regularly travel by e-bike.

At the same time, many teens have accepted the growing notion that a 6,000 lb vehicle might not be the safest option when considering all road users. Whereas many adults have their eyes on the largest trucks and SUVs, many teenagers value smaller and lighter vehicles, especially options that can get them out of the road and into the bike lane.

The concept isn’t exactly pervasive, and America’s addiction to massive vehicles is unlikely to break anytime soon, but a growing number of younger Americans aren’t buying the same promises that the automotive industry is selling their parents.

Environmental consciousness

Much more so than a generation ago, today’s teenagers are increasingly environmentally conscious. The impact of climate change and the importance of sustainable living are at the forefront of many teenagers’ minds.

E-bikes, with their zero emissions, offer an eco-friendly alternative to cars. Many teens feel that choosing an e-bike over a car is a tangible way to contribute to a greener planet.

More than just an expanding trend

The trend of teenagers choosing e-bikes over cars is growing. As more teens delay or forego getting their driver’s licenses, the shift is proving to be not just a passing fad but rather a reflection of changing attitudes toward transportation and lifestyle.

Cities continue to evolve and adapt to new modes of transportation, and the role of e-bikes is likely to expand. For now, the sight of teens zipping around town on their electric bikes is becoming increasingly common, signaling a new era in personal mobility.

‘It was close’ - Primož Roglič on surviving attacks to win Critérium du Dauphiné

Primož Roglič managed to survive late-stage attacks by his closest rivals in the general classification to hold on to his lead - barely - and win the Critérium du Dauphiné for the second time in his career on Sunday. He claimed the overall by a slim eight seconds on Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease A Bike), the smallest advantage since 2001 when Christophe Moreau won by one second over Pavel Tonkov.

Going into the final day's racing, another arduous mountain trek after the Queen Stage, Roglič had a seemingly unassailable margin of 1:02 seconds on Jorgenson, and 1:13 on Derek Gee (Israel-PremierTech). But it almost came undone on the final ascent of the ascent of Col des Glières (9.4km at 7.1%) with some steep pitches exceeding 10%.

The Slovenian was distanced in the final five kilometres after Jorgenson and Gee followed an attack from former Spanish champion Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers). An acceleration that Roglič simply could not follow as he watched the trio pull away from him, forcing him to continue to claw his way up and try to limit the damage.

The distance to the leaders continued to increase but Roglič went ‘all in’ as the road flattened out slightly in the final two kilometres and crossed the finish line 48 seconds behind stage winner Rodríguez, and runner-up Jorgenson.

“I was hearing all the gaps [from his DS] all the time. I was happy that the others didn’t go faster. I was just tired. It was close but finally, I’m satisfied for the team.” Roglič said.

This time around the Slovenian’s overall victory was completely different from his first in 2022. Two years ago, Roglič and his then Jumbo-Visma teammate Jonas Vingegaard rode away together to claim the final stage, and win the overall with 1:41 margin over his closest non-teammate rival in third place.

This year, not only did Roglič come to the Tour de France warm-up race with a new team, Bora-Hansgrohe, but he was returning to racing after being injured in a terrible crash at Itzulia Basque Country in April.

History seemed to be repeating itself when Roglič went down in the mass crash that caused the neutralisation of stage 5. But after undergoing assessment from his team's medical staff, he not only started the following day but powered away to claim the mountain-top stage win and take over the yellow leader’s jersey.

“It’s crazy to be able to win the Dauphiné after everything that happened, the crash and everything that came in between. It’s incredible.”

Not only was the eight-day stage race an opportunity to test his form, but it was also an important test for his team. After all, they had only raced together 14 days before the start last weekend. Bora-Hansgrohe also won the best team classification, with over seven minutes on Ineos Grenadiers.

“It’s definitely something we needed with the team, to work on the positioning, the communication, many things. I haven’t been with these guys for five years.”

Roglič was his usual stoic self when asked if the victory boosted his confidence for the Tour de France.

“Now the Dauphiné is one thing and the Tour is another. I first want to be happy because you don’t win a race like this every day.”

“For sure, you take everything that you get at the end or you have to take,” Roglič told FloBikes and other reporters at the finish line when asked if he would take third place on the Tour de France today if offered the chance.

“But still at the beginning, everyone has the same possibilities. To win it or be second, third or whatever position, So first of all, we have to be happy with the whole team we did a really nice race. Great job. We have to enjoy it. And then just going to the Tour and being relaxed.”

We’re not playing, Rich. Fuck them, we’re not playing. Just tell them that we’re not playing. That’s what I heard on 10 July 2015, on a call from Christie Rampone, the captain of the USWNT. I was the executive director of the Women’s National Team Players Association, the official collective bargaining unit for the USWNT. Rampone called me five days after the USWNT’s World Cup victory. While Rampone talked with me, the team were on their way from the midtown Manhattan set of Good Morning America to the beginning of the ticker tape parade in lower Manhattan’s “Canyon of Heroes” to celebrate their title.

Just a few days earlier, on the morning after the team’s World Cup victory, Sunil Gulati, the longtime president of US Soccer, called captains Abby Wambach and Rampone to tell them that the team’s request for the weekend off was denied, and they were all going to be forced to play their National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) games.

As recounted to me by Rampone, the response from Gulati was immediate. He told Rampone that the players had to play those NWSL games. He noted that all the NWSL teams had developed huge marketing and promotional campaigns around the World Cup champions to sell out their stadiums that weekend, and that he didn’t care how the players were feeling, that no matter what, they were going to play.

...

Stage 5 of the Critérium du Dauphiné was neutralised after two mass crashes with 21km remaining that saw a vast number of riders fall, including yellow jersey Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step), Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates).

The commissaires brought the race to a halt after the peloton was hit by two almost simultaneous crashes on a stretch of wet downhill road on the run-in to the finish in Saint-Priest.

Following discussions between the riders, the commissaires and the race organisation, it was later decided to cancel the remainder of the stage.

In an announcement on race radio, the organisation explained that they were unable to ensure medical support for the peloton in the closing kilometres given that the ambulances following the race were all required to bring riders to hospital.

It was decreed that the peloton would ride the final kilometres into Saint-Priest together, but there would be no stage winner and no time awarded for the general classification.

“In accordance with the jury of commissaires of the UCI it's been decided that due to the fact there are no ambulances can take care of the security of the riders because they are all busy going to different hospitals, the race will be neutralised,” was the Englishlanguage statement on race radio.

“The race will be neutralised and the peloton will ride all the way to the finish line under the escort of the Garde Republicaine. The times will not be taken into account, there will not be a winner for today's stage.”

Laurens ten Dam and his fellow former professional Thomas Dekker had arrived in America for last weekend’s Unbound Gravel.

24 hours after landing, they headed out for a three-hour training ride near Marietta, Oklahoma, finishing up outside a Mexican restaurant where they planned to have lunch. Presumably not wanting to disturb their fellow diners, all sweaty and dirty after hours out riding, they decided to have a quick makeshift shower with a bottle of water in the parking lot outside.

“After Thomas had rinsed me off, I quickly changed my pants between the car doors,” Ten Dam said on his Live Slow Ride Fast podcast. “But as I do that, I hear someone shouting very angrily across the street.”

Their European comfort with nudity was clearly too much for one local, who promptly called the police.

“Suddenly there were five police cars. The man who had shouted at us was also there and said: ‘You should go to jail for this’,” Ten Dam continued.

“Within five minutes there were five police cars. At that moment, the man who had been yelling at Thomas comes over and yells for Thomas to be put in jail.”

“Walking around naked on the street apparently caused so much offence …” Dekker explained. “It’s really not allowed there.”

“We were told that we had been charged with indecent behavior. The charges stated that we sprayed each other with water bottles like two ‘gay cyclists’,” Ten Dam explained what the pair were told by police, before Dekker added the officers had “the IQ of a shrimp.”

...

One of the UK’s leading young cyclists has been forced to pull out of this week’s Tour of Britain after being hit at “high speed” by a 4x4 driver, who she said then verbally abused her.

Kate Richardson, who won the women’s individual pursuit at the British Track Cycling Championships in February and was a European under-23 champion last year, said she had broken her collarbone again after the “incredibly scary” incident.

“I was on a narrow single track road, no more than 3m wide, on a blind bend and clearly the driver couldn’t wait 10 more seconds to overtake me,” she wrote on Instagram. “He decided to try and squeeze his huge 4x4 past me at a high speed, hitting me hard and knocking me off my bike.

“Initially, he just drove on but turned around and came back later to verbally abuse and threaten me before getting back in his car and driving off again. Thankfully another driver came across the scene pretty quickly and kindly helped me up and drove me home.”

The 21-year-old from Glasgow, who posted pictures of her badly damaged cycling kit, said she had also suffered road rash and severe bruising across her right hip in the incident. She confirmed she would miss the Tour of Britain, which starts on Thursday.

“I’m currently uncertain about what the rest of the season holds,” she added. “This is a lot more than just a physical injury, it was incredibly scary and I count myself lucky that I walked away relatively unscathed compared to what it could have been.”

Richardson, who also won the women’s edition of the Lincoln Grand Prix on the road last month, said she had reported the incident to South Yorkshire police.

“Mentally though, it will take a while to overcome,” she added. “Knowing that once again I’ll be missing a key racing block, whilst knowing what sort of shape I’ve worked so hard to be in, is hugely disappointing and hard to get my head around.

“The police are dealing with the incident, and with witnesses and potential CCTV footage I’m hopeful that some sort of justice will prevail.”

From Jefferson to Davidson to Shelby Counties, Tennessee has a housing affordability problem as the demand for new homes has outpaced supply, a new report from the state’s intergovernmental agency details.

Since 2019, Tennessee’s median home price has risen by 44%, surpassing the national average of 34% as tracked by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The problem isn’t isolated to fast-growing counties and cities, the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR) said in its report approved by commission members last week, but across the state, adding more people are seeking to buy a limited supply of homes, driving up prices and putting the cost “out of reach for many.”

TACIR identified zoning, particularly single-family zoning, as one of the driving factors impacting the number of new homes that are built.

Single-family zoning is a type of land regulation that prevents homeowners from building more than one housing unit on a property. This type of regulation makes it harder for developers to build apartments or even split properties into multiple units. It ultimately restricts the number of people who can live in certain neighborhoods and communities, creating intense competition for fewer homes and driving up prices.

Zoning has become a bipartisan issue, with states like Democratic-controlled California and Republican-controlled Montana adopting laws requiring city and county governments to remove many of the regulations around building new homes.

Ron Shultis, a policy researcher with the conservative think tank Beacon Center of Tennessee, said the state’s single-family zoning creates a housing affordability crisis and that rents are increasing slower in cities like Minneapolis, which have abolished the policy.

“You can see the results when you put in best practices and allow for essentially the market to do what it does best, which is to meet a demand,” Shultis said.

...

Around a year ago, the Metro Nashville Police Department’s Office of Professional Accountability (OPA) gathered for a meeting. A new state law had just been passed to eliminate the OPA’s civilian counterpart — the Community Oversight Board — and the meeting was called to address how that would affect internal investigations into police misconduct allegations.

Five years after more than 134,000 Nashvillians had voted to create the Community Oversight Board, establishing a mechanism for previously unprecedented external police accountability in the city, Tennessee Republicans passed a law abolishing such bodies throughout the state. While Nashville officials quickly made plans to form a new entity, the Community Review Board, in its place, the law guaranteed that such a replacement would have a significantly diminished oversight capacity.

So, last year, OPA Director Kathy Morante called together her staff and invited Deputy Chief Chris Gilder to the meeting. But rather than calling him forward to discuss the implications of the new law on the OPA’s work, Morante used the occasion to celebrate the work Gilder had done behind the scenes, along with Assistant Chief Mike Hagar, to help get the law passed. She presented him with a small, engraved crystal trophy to mark his apparent accomplishments in reducing outside accountability for Nashville police.

That allegation is one of many found in a scathing 61-page complaint written by former OPA Lieutenant Garet Davidson, who retired in January this year. The document was the subject of a heated Community Review Board meeting earlier this week, at which members expressed outrage at the allegations within it but largely refrained from detailing them at the urging of a Metro attorney. Davidson also filed the complaint with the OPA and sent it to Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s office. CRB leader calls for federal investigation

After local media outlets, including the Banner, started obtaining unredacted copies, the MNPD released a redacted version of the document Thursday evening with some personal information omitted.

In an email, the MNPD stated that the complaint was under investigation by the OPA, which is, itself, notably the main subject of the complaint.

“We will look at whether our administrative processes for internal investigation and discipline need any refinement,” said Police Chief John Drake in a written statement.

The department did not address, or deny, one of the complaint’s most significant allegations: that members of MNPD’s command staff participated in the effort to gut civilian oversight of the police, with the full awareness of the chief.

Davidson makes numerous other allegations and cites various instances of what he sees as improper conduct by the department and its highest-ranking officials. The consistent theme of the document, though, is illustrated by his account of the trophy presentation at last year’s OPA meeting. He presents a picture of a police department that has worked to thwart external accountability, while at the same time eschewing a good-faith pursuit of it internally.

Jill Fitcheard, the executive director of the CRB — who served in the same role for the COB — told the Banner Thursday that she believed the allegations in the complaint call for a federal investigation of MNPD.

“The allegations are serious and an investigation of this complexity should be conducted by an independent external law enforcement agency or law department. I would ask that city officials bring in the US Attorney’s Office, Department of Justice or Federal Law Enforcement Partners to conduct an impartial inquiry into these serious allegations of gross misconduct by officers of the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department,” she said.

Policies not consistently applied

Davidson’s complaint describes the MNPD as a place where internal policies are not consistently followed or enforced. In his telling, MNPD higher-ups routinely interfere with internal investigations, “driving disciplinary outcomes based upon their discretion and ulterior motives rather than objective, fact-driven investigations and decisions bound by policy.” One result, according to Davidson, is an environment in which the higher up the command structure an officer climbs, the less accountability they are likely to face.

“MNPD has a culture of protecting high-ranking supervisors, providing better outcomes, interfering with investigations, taking advantage of a manipulatable disciplinary policy, and even not documenting complaints or failures in performance at all so that no written record exists—thus limiting knowledge of misconduct to a very small group of individuals and removing it from public record discovery,” he writes.

Davidson singles out Assistant Chief Hagar, a 34-year MNPD veteran, as a high-ranking MNPD official who has “enabled and perpetuated harm to employees through disparate treatment and sustaining a culture which tolerates certain misconduct.”

In one such example of “rank bias,” Davidson writes that former Deputy Chief Chris Taylor was the subject of an internal investigation stemming from a confrontation at the MNPD’s training academy in which witnesses “believed he was about to assault the training instructor.” Taylor was also under investigation for campaigning to be elected mayor of Sumner County while in uniform “and possibly on duty.” Davidson writes that Taylor was found to be in violation of several MNPD policies as a result of these investigations, but, because of his high rank, he argues, was allowed to resign rather than receive any official sanction.

Elsewhere in the complaint, Davidson contrasts two cases that he says illustrate how rank bias works in the department.

In the first, Davidson writes, Lt. Michael Gooch was investigated for “being at a bar for around nine (9) hours one day, instigating a confrontation following the other patron outside and causing a physical confrontation requiring the other to act in self-defense, and then getting into his truck and driving off despite being obviously intoxicated.” Gooch was later pulled over but not charged with driving under the influence. Despite all this, Davidson writes, Gooch was allowed to enter a rehabilitation program and saw several policy violations rolled into one to obscure the details of his conduct.

In another case, Det. William Thorowgood — two ranks lower than Gooch — was forced to submit a letter of unconditional resignation after he started a physical confrontation with a man outside his home, a video of which was posted online.

“The low-ranking officer received additional pressure and antagonism from leadership to force him out, possibly because there was some actual publicity on his case,” Davidson writes.

The complaint includes other examples of the department failing to uphold its own job performance standards and policies, like the enforcement of body-worn and in-car cameras. According to Davidson, an internal unit that performs monthly audits of officers’ camera footage “noted that they had individuals who had easily half-a-dozen or more of these audits without any actual formal action being taken to address the officer’s repeated violations of policy.”

Davidson also alleges that MNPD supervisors “are discouraged from scoring poor performing officers as failing or are given instructions to change scores” on annual evaluations. He writes about the case of Officer Brian Woodard who failed his annual evaluation in 2017. But that evaluation, Davidson writes, was effectively buried and a subsequent Job Performance Improvement Plan — which Davidson wrote himself for Woodard — was “not fully supervised or implemented” by Woodard’s supervisors.

In Davidson’s telling, this represented the department turning a blind eye to an officer whose conduct was raising red flags. Several years later, that officer was arrested for sexual battery. No policy on sexual harassment

In 2020, then-Mayor John Cooper’s 2020 Policing Policy Commission recommended that the MNPD create a zero-tolerance policy regarding sexual assault and sexual harassment. But Davidson writes that the department has failed to follow through on this.

Davidson cites the 2021 case of Lt. Taylor Schmitz. An internal investigation, Davidson writes, found that Schmitz had engaged in “a pattern of mistreatment towards female employees.” The conduct included “how he placed his hands on them and invaded their space, ignored them during meetings” and in one case, “carelessly moved academy equipment” in a way that led to “significant physical injury” to a female training academy officer. Despite all that, Davidson writes, the case was settled without a hearing and Schmitz was not even demoted. He adds that the woman who’d been harmed was not consulted or updated on the case.

Davidson also notes the case of Officer Sean Herman — who was recently fired by the department after he appeared in an OnlyFans video in uniform — groping a woman during a simulated traffic stop. Although he doesn’t include details, Davidson writes that Herman had previously been suspended for violating the department’s harassment and discrimination policy. Reduction in police training

Also among the issues highlighted in Davidson’s complaint is a reduction in training hours for MNPD recruits. He says the department’s training academy has been reduced by one month, from 23 weeks to 19. While he acknowledges that the department is still meeting state standards for police training, he suggests that the department has decided to accept diminished training as a means of combating ongoing struggles with recruitment and retention.

Davidson’s commentary about the department’s training requirements was the one area of his complaint that attracted a specific response from the police chief in his statement Thursday night.

“The State of Tennessee requires a minimum 488 training hours to be certified as a police officer,” Drake said. “New police officers who graduate from MNPD basic training receive 893.5 hours of training, 83% more training hours than required by the state. New lateral officers, those men and women with policing experience who have transitioned their law enforcement careers to Nashville from other agencies, receive a total of 621.5 training hours from us, 27% more than required by the state, on top of what they received from their former agencies. I believe our training process and our instructors are exemplary, and we work to ensure that our training conforms with essential elements that officers need on the streets every day to be personally and collectively successful in serving the Nashville community.” Elimination of external oversight

The elimination of the Community Oversight Board last fall left a bad taste in the mouths of many Nashvillians. That disappointment has been exacerbated by the new Community Review Board’s struggle to serve a similar role with diminished power. Davidson’s complaint arrived as the CRB has been expressing public frustration over the difficulty they’ve faced getting the MNPD to come to the table and discuss an agreement for cooperation between the two agencies.

To learn that, according to Davidson, the MNPD was involved in the process of “crafting and advising” the legislation behind the significant reduction in external oversight of the police prompted unrest at the meeting of the CRB earlier this week. It also produced obvious tension between board members and Metro Legal. The department’s attorney advised members not to discuss the allegations in the complaint, frustrating some members who were already upset by Metro’s decision not to wage a legal fight to defend the COB against the state last year.

Board chair Alisha Haddock told members that the allegations, if true, would vindicate the long-held suspicions of Nashvillians fighting for civilian oversight of the police.

“I think these allegations uncover a lot,” she said. “They uncover that we were not imagining things.”

Over 61 pages, Davidson lays out a detailed case calling into question the accuracy, fairness and effectiveness of the MNPD’s OPA, an office he worked in for 2 years. That office is now, according to Chief Drake, beginning to investigate Davidson’s complaint. To CRB members, and the community advocates who spoke at their recent meeting, that notion is even more problematic than the department being left to police itself in the first place.

“After reading through the complaint, it is my belief that the Office of Professional Accountability should not be involved in or the lead investigation of this magnitude,” the CRB’s Jill Fitcheard told the Banner.

Davidson argues in his complaint that, in allegedly lobbying for less community oversight, “the department has spit in their face by finding a solution which rather effectively overturns the will of Nashvillians.”

As it is now, he writes, “both external and internal mechanisms of addressing police employee misconduct have been reduced or eliminated, and they are on a trajectory to continue to do so.”

“Accountability of those engaging in misconduct is eroding at the MNPD, and this is being driven not by those investigating the misconduct but by a leadership willing to pull the strings to get the results they want, rather than the results the facts and public demand,” he writes.

The study made some strong remarks about the kind of people who would modify their car's exhaust. If psychopathy and sadism aren't bad enough, apparently loud truck owners would do even worse.

• A professor in Ontario, Canada, has released results of a study of people's attitudes toward loud vehicles.
• Having asked undergraduate business students whether they think such vehicles are "cool," the result, not totally surprisingly, was that many of them do.
• Respondents also scored high on the "psychopathy and sadism" scale, but the study was only for cars. Truck and motorcycle owners, the study suggests, might score even worse.

A new study by Western University in Ontario says that if you've got a car with a modified exhaust system, odds are you're a guy and probably also psychotic and sadistic. Slapping a Cherry Bomb glasspack on your Monte Carlo doesn't (necessarily) mean you're a Ted Bundy–level psycho, but the data someone points to a personality that enjoys inflicting unpleasantness on others. The study—catchily titled, "A desire for a loud car with a modified muffler is predicted by being a man and higher scores on psychopathy and sadism"—was commissioned by professor Julie Aitken Schermer, who heard many a loud car in London, Ontario, and wondered what kind of person would want their car exhaust to be louder than normal. She probably could have saved a lot of time by simply looking up Cadillac Escalade-V registrations. ...

Joe Biden will this week sign an executive order to temporarily close the southern US border to asylum seekers in a sharp political U-turn aimed at winning support on a key voter concern in a presidential election year.

The US president is expected to sign the order as early as Tuesday to seal the border with Mexico to migrants when numbers of asylum claimants rise above a daily threshold of 2,500.

Mayors of several US border cities are expected to be present in the White House for Biden’s announcement.

Biden’s move echoes a similar approach adopted by Donald Trump in 2018 when he was president and reverses his one-time philosophical opposition to his predecessor’s hostility to migrants. When he was a presidential candidate, Biden denounced Trump’s policy, saying it upended decades of US asylum law.

He has been forced to change course as the number of asylum seekers coming through the US-Mexico border has surged during his presidency, with opinion polls consistently showing immigration to be at or near the top of voters’ concerns, ahead of inflation and the economy.

An attempt by the White House to cobble together legislation tightening border restrictions by tying it to aid to Ukraine and Israel failed earlier this year after Republican lawmakers withdrew support, apparently at the urging of Trump, who did not want Biden to claim credit for resolving an issue he has attempted to make his own.

According to CBS, which broke the story, Biden’s executive order will enable US immigration officials to quickly deport migrants who enter the country illegally without processing their asylum claims.

Controversially, it will rely on a presidential authority known as 212 (f) which became infamous during Trump’s presidency because of its use to enforce certain immigration restrictions, including travel bans from Muslim countries.

Like Trump’s restrictions, Biden’s order is likely to face legal challenges.

Migration at the southern border surged to record numbers at the end of last year. But the order comes at a moment when the number of migrants crossing from Mexico is down in the past six months, a trend attributed to stronger enforcement on the part of the Mexican authorities but which is not expected to sustain itself.

An estimated 179,000 “border encounters” were recorded in April, according to US Customs and Border Protection figures, compared with a record high of 302,000 last December. More than 3,500 migrants were said to have crossed various points along the 2,000-mile border illegally on Sunday alone.

Biden initially rolled back Trump’s restrictive border policies after taking office in January 2021, issuing orders to freeze his predecessor’s border wall construction and reissuing protections set up under the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) scheme originally adopted by the Barack Obama White House.

Biden suspended Trump’s Remain in Mexico policy – whereby asylum seekers were forced to wait in Mexico while their US immigration claims were being considered – on the first day of his administration before the homeland security department formally cancelled it months later. The US supreme court subsequently upheld Biden’s approach following a lower court ruling against it.

When Trump’s policy was in operation, Biden denounced it, saying: “This is the first president in the history of the United States of America [under whom] anybody seeking asylum has to do it in another country. That’s never happened before.”

A recent Associated Press poll showed about two-thirds of voters, including 40% of Democrats, disapproved of Biden’s handling of the southern border.

Just when you thought ultra-endurance racer Lael Wilcox couldn’t go any further, any faster, she manages to surprise you. On Sunday, the Tour Divide winner set off on a new adventure: an 18,000-mile journey around the world by bike. Her trip kicked off in Chicago, Illinois, and her goal is to complete the trip in 110 days.

Two days in, she’s already covered 525 miles, riding through Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, heading towards Pennsylvania. “The first day, I rode into a headwind with dark skies and thunderstorms — a lot of rain, but it wasn’t too cold. Since then, the weather has been perfect,” she shared on Instagram.

“The ride has just felt like a celebration. People are coming out to meet me and telling me that I’m riding right by their house. This ride feels special — I’m riding through people’s lives.”

Wilcox’s goal is to ride the 18,000 miles—the distance required to set the official record—in 110 days. First, she’ll head to Newark, NJ, then fly to Portugal to roll across Europe to Tbilisi, Georgia. From there, she’ll head to Australia and New Zealand before returning to the US by way of Anchorage, riding south to Los Angeles, then back over to Chicago. Obviously, this trip doesn’t actually go ‘around the world’ but covers a good chunk of it. And to set the official record, Guinness simply demands a route of 18,000 miles that is done continuously and in one direction. You can follow along on the live tracker here and scope the entire route.

...

On Sunday, for the queen stage of the 2024 Giro d’Italia, Tadej Pogačar of UAE Team Emirates not only took a solo win, but the Slovenian also doubled his lead in the general classification. After uploading the incredible Stage-15 ride to Strava, as one does, the twenty-five-year-old pro got flagged.

“Who TF flagged me,” the 2024 Giro d’Italia leader posted to his Strava account. He also added a few emojis to let everyone know he was having a laugh about it.

The stats on the day showed that Pogačar rode a distance of 220.96 km (137 miles) and an elevation gain of 5,531 meters (18,146 feet), completed in six hours nine minutes and 47 seconds for an average speed of 35.9 km/h (22.3 mph). That is, admittedly, pretty wild.

And then it happened again. On Wednesday, the day after Pogačar took his fifth win of the race, he got flagged for a second time. For this one, he posted, “Haters gonna flag.” He also took the KOM on the PASSO ROLLE da bivio Valles segment.

‘Flagging’ on Strava occurs when another user on the app highlights an activity as questionable. This commonly happens when someone clearly kept their activity going even though they were in a vehicle. It also happens if someone uploads an activity under the wrong mode, like a bike ride that’s listed as a run and is thus impossibly fast.

And to be fair, Pogačar does ride his bike at speeds that could be confused for a motor vehicle, but he still doesn’t appreciate his KOMs being taken away because he’s just so fast.

Paywall-free link: https://archive.ph/3tLtL

The crash occurred on September 25, 2021, the first crisp day of fall after a hot Texas summer. Claudius Galo intended to ride a hundred miles or more that morning. “There was a chill in the air. It felt so good. The energy was high,” he recalls of the small group that gathered to ride with him.

Galo had moved to the Houston area from Rio de Janeiro, about 14 years prior. A calm and inquisitive engineer who works in the oil and gas industry, Galo had become unhealthy and overweight in his late thirties. He tried running but got hurt, so his doctor recommended adding swimming and cycling. Now 45, he’d lost 60 pounds and completed six Ironmans and almost a dozen half Ironmans. Tamy Valiente, 45, had come to the United States from Costa Rica nine years before. Inspired by the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, in her twenties, she’d dreamt of becoming a competitive bike rider, but first, “I had to raise my babies,” she says. After going through a divorce, she eventually saved enough money to buy a bike frame and slowly began building her first racing bike part by part. She would often wake at 4 a.m. to train on the narrow roads close to her home back near San José, where buses crept by within inches of her handlebar. To Valiente, the U.S. felt like paradise. “The roads seemed safe. The traffic laws were actually enforced,” she says.

On the day of the crash, David Reynolds, a 45-year-old tattooed photographer with two teenage children, had ridden 11.5 miles to meet the group at Hockley Community Center, about 30 miles west of downtown Houston. Cycling was his “Zen time,” when he could zone out and let all his worries wash through him. Though he wasn’t training for an event, he had ridden for nearly 600 consecutive days. “I just like to ride,” he says. The group that rolled out that morning included three other experienced cyclists: Craig Staples, Brad Stauffer, and Keith Conrad. The six regularly met up to ride through Waller County, an agricultural and ranching community just outside the sprawling metropolis. The group would become known as the Waller 6.

. . .

(OP note: Lizzy did a TL;dr, which is below, but I recommend reading the whole things, she documented it pretty well.)

The short story

In order to fully understand everything that has happened, I strongly encourage you to read the full article below, but this is a very short summary of what I want to say.

On 28th July 2023, I was notified by UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) that I had returned an Adverse Analytical Finding (AAF), also known as a positive test, for two substances. Formoterol, a medication I have been using for asthma for 4 years was detected at a concentration in line with how I have been prescribed it. The second substance, chlortalidone, a diuretic, was detected at a low concentration indicative of contamination. The presence of the contamination amount of the diuretic meant my asthma medication formoterol, which is normally allowed, initiated a second AAF.

I have spent the last 9 and half months of my life investigating, researching and writing my submissions to establish how the contamination event occurred. UKAD were insistent that I should have a two year ban despite the fact that both the concentration and the substance indicated a type of contamination which anti-doping bodies have been aware of for over a decade.

The matter was referred to a tribunal. Five days before the tribunal hearing, after previously stating that they would not change their position, UKAD in fact did a full 180. UKAD concluded that I was not at any fault and had exercised an extremely high level of care at all times in order to avoid ingesting a prohibited substance. UKAD therefore wanted to avoid a tribunal hearing on the basis that UKAD found me to bear “No Fault or Negligence” for the positive test and therefore have No Sanction and No period of Ineligibility imposed.

This process has cost me a huge amount, literally and metaphorically. My husband and I spent every penny of our savings and the huge mental toll has left deep scars.

But somehow, through it all, I knew I had to fight. Right from the start, I learnt of other athletes in the similar situations with a contamination of chlortalidone, whose lives and careers were also being torn apart. This process pushed me right to the edge and my fear that an athlete would go beyond that edge is what drove me to try and incite essential positive change. With my background in medicine, my good fortune in life to have had an excellent education and finally my dogged determination, I truly believed that if I couldn’t fight the injustices in this system, then no athlete could.

Prior to being completely cleared of any wrongdoing, I was repeatedly told by UKAD and lawyers that I would receive a two year ban. This simply didn’t make sense. No party thought I had “consumed” chlortalidone with any intent, yet that’s how the system works and my life continued to be torn apart for nothing.

It is difficult to emphasise enough how significant UKAD’s finding is that I bore No Fault or Negligence. To put it in black and white, I understand that this is the first time that UKAD has ever issued a finding of No Fault or Negligence (and therefore zero sanction) when the athlete has not specifically identified the exact source of the contamination.

I encourage you to read the full article below to have a complete understanding of the process. I believe you will find the behaviours of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), UKAD and the pharmaceutical industry to be shocking and at the very least, the thorough documentation below will provide you with a far better appreciation of the anti-doping system, its treatment of athletes and, most importantly, how it is currently failing honest and hardworking people.

Finally, I encourage respectful comments and discussions, whatever the opinion, but I kindly ask you to think carefully about the impact what you say will have on me and my loved ones. Please therefore: read the story in full and understand all the facts before making a judgement or commenting hastily and please remember that behind the computer screen is a human who has been going through hell for months now.

Lizzy Banks*___*