The BulleTin • SaTurday, april 17, 2021 A3
TODAY
LOCAL, STATE & REGION
Environmental group sues
over protections for 20 species
BY GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press
This image from a 2018 species assessment
shows the Franklin’s bumble bee.
PORTLAND — An environmental
group filed a lawsuit Thursday alleging
the federal government has failed to act on
petitions to protect nine species under the
Endangered Species Act and hasn’t desig-
nated critical habitat for 11 other species
that are already protected.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court
in Washington, D.C., by the Center for Bi-
ological Diversity lists a variety of plants,
bees and animals from Oregon to Florida
to Delaware and joins a previous lawsuit
filed last year that listed 200 different spe-
cies that were awaiting protection deci-
sions.
The average waiting period for an im-
periled species to get federal protection is
Pete Schroeder via USFWS, ODFW
12 years, and 47 species have gone extinct
waiting, said Noah Greenwald, endan-
gered species director for the center.
“The Endangered Species Act is incred-
ibly successful at saving species from ex-
tinction, but only if they’re provided its
protections in the first place,” he said. “The
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s listing pro-
gram is broken and badly in need of re-
form.”
Representatives from Fish and Wildlife
and the U.S. Department of Interior de-
clined to comment on the lawsuit.
Included in the complaint are species
from across the U.S. with sometimes fanci-
ful names that are teetering on the brink of
environmental disaster.
The Franklin’s bumble bee in Oregon
hasn’t been seen in the wild since 2006.
Coronavirus
Oregon detects variant identified in South Africa
egon and across the globe —
saying they could complicate
efforts to reach herd immunity
as they continue to mutate and
attempt to evade the effective-
ness of current vaccines.
The B.1.351 variant previ-
ously hadn’t been identified
in Oregon before Saturday. It’s
thought to possibly be more
contagious and more success-
ful at undermining the effec-
tiveness of current vaccines.
Sidelinger said he has no
data yet on whether the eight
cases were among people who’d
recently traveled to countries
with higher rates of B.1.351 or
whether any of those infected
are linked to each other. More
than 450 cases of B.1.351 have
BY AIMEE GREEN
The Oregonian
Oregon’s top state epidemi-
ologist said Wednesday that
the state has detected its first
cases — eight in total — of the
B.1.351 coronavirus variant
that has been linked to South
Africa.
State epidemiologist Dr.
Dean Sidelinger told a group
of state lawmakers that other
COVID-19 “variants of con-
cern” first linked with Brazil,
the United Kingdom and Cal-
ifornia also increased by nota-
ble levels. The reported num-
bers jumped from April 5 to
April 10.
Experts are closely watching
the spread of variants in Or-
The B.1.351 variant is
thought to possibly be
more contagious and more
successful at undermining
the effectiveness of current
vaccines.
been identified in at least 35
states other than Oregon, ac-
cording to the Centers for Dis-
ease Control and Prevention.
Cases of P.1, initially linked
to Brazil, grew from one pre-
viously reported case to a total
of four.
The state reported a more
than three-fold increase in
cases of B.1.1.7, the variant first
detected in the United King-
dom — from 22 to 69.
“We’re seeing a fairly signif-
icant rise in B.1.1.7,” Sidelinger
said.
B.1.1.7 is thought to be 60%
more contagious and stud-
ies show conflicting data on
whether it causes more seri-
ous disease than the strains
that had been dominant in
the United States up until last
week, when federal officials
said B.1.1.7 had taken over as
the most common strain.
The variants first identified
in California, however, con-
tinue to show up in higher
numbers in Oregon than all
the other variants of concern
combined.
It’s Saturday, April 17, the 107th
day of 2021. There are 258 days left
in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
In 1970, Apollo 13 astronauts
James A. Lovell, Fred W. Haise
and Jack Swigert splashed down
safely in the Pacific, four days after
a ruptured oxygen tank crippled
their spacecraft while en route to
the moon.
In 1492, a contract was signed
by Christopher Columbus and a
representative of Spain’s King Fer-
dinand and Queen Isabella, giving
Columbus a commission to seek a
westward ocean passage to Asia.
In 1895, the Treaty of Shimonoseki
ended the first Sino-Japanese War.
In 1905, the U.S. Supreme Court,
in Lochner v. New York, struck
down, 5-4, a New York State law
limiting the number of hours that
bakers could be made to work.
This ruling was effectively over-
turned in 1937 by the high court’s
West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish
decision.
In 1961, some 1,500 CIA-trained
Cuban exiles launched the di-
sastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of
Cuba in an attempt to topple Fidel
Castro, whose forces crushed the
incursion by the third day.
In 1969, a jury in Los Angeles con-
victed Sirhan Sirhan of assassinat-
ing Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.
In 1972, the Boston Marathon
allowed women to compete for
the first time; Nina Kuscsik was the
first officially recognized women’s
champion, with a time of 3:10:26.
In 1973, Federal Express (later
FedEx) began operations as 14
planes carrying 186 packages took
off from Memphis International
Airport, bound for 25 U.S. cities.
In 1975, Cambodia’s five-year war
ended as the capital Phnom Penh
fell to the Khmer Rouge, which
instituted brutal, radical policies
that claimed an estimated 1.7
million lives until the regime was
overthrown in 1979.
In 1986, at London’s Heathrow
Airport, a bomb was discovered
in the bag of Anne-Marie Murphy,
a pregnant Irishwoman about
to board an El Al jetliner to Israel;
she’d been tricked into carrying
the bomb by her Jordanian fiance,
Nezar Hindawi. The bodies of kid-
napped American Peter Kilburn
and Britons Philip Padfield and
Leigh Douglas were found near
Beirut; they had been slain in ap-
parent retaliation for the U.S. raid
on Libya.
In 1991, the Dow Jones industrial
average closed above 3,000 for
the first time, ending the day at
3,004.46, up 17.58.
In 1993, a federal jury in Los An-
geles convicted two former police
officers of violating the civil rights
of beaten motorist Rodney King;
two other officers were acquitted.
In 2013, 15 people were killed
when a fertilizer plant exploded
in West, Texas. Sports returned to
Boston two days after the deadly
Marathon bombing as the Buffalo
Sabres defeated the Bruins in a 3-2
shootout (players on both teams
wore “Boston Strong” decals on
their helmets).
Ten years ago: U.S. Secretary of
State Hillary Rodham Clinton vis-
ited Japan, where she expressed
confidence the country would
fully recover from its tsunami and
nuclear disasters. Actor Michael
Sarrazin, 70, died in Montreal.
Five years ago: Pennsylvania
became the 24th state to legalize
a comprehensive medical mari-
juana program as Gov. Tom Wolf
signed the bill into law. Actor
Doris Roberts, who played the
tart-tongued, endlessly meddling
mother on CBS’ “Everybody Loves
Raymond,” died at 90.
One year ago: President Don-
ald Trump urged supporters to
“LIBERATE” three states led by
Democratic governors, apparently
encouraging protests against
stay-at-home mandates aimed at
stopping the coronavirus. Wash-
ington Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee
accused Trump of “fomenting
domestic rebellion and spreading
lies.”
Today’s Birthdays: Actor David
Bradley is 79. Composer-musician
Jan Hammer is 73. Actor Olivia
Hussey is 70. Actor Clarke Peters
is 69. Rapper Afrika Bambaataa is
64. Actor Sean Bean is 62. Former
NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason
is 60. Actor Joel Murray is 59. Rock
singer Maynard James Keenan
is 57. Actor William Mapother is
56. Actor Leslie Bega is 54. Actor
Henry Ian Cusick is 54. Actor Kim-
berly Elise is 54. Singer Liz Phair
is 54. Director/producer Adam
McKay is 53. Rapper-actor Redman
is 51. Actor Jennifer Garner is 49.
Singer Victoria Beckham is 47. Ac-
tor-singer Lindsay Korman is 43.
Actor Rooney Mara is 36.
— Associated Press
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