U.S.A.
July 17, 2017
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 7
Hoary bats confirmed
on Kahoolawe Island
SURPRISE ENCOUNTER. In this July 3, 2017 photo provided by Jolene Jackinsky, former U.S. President
Barack Obama holds Jackinsky’s six-month-old baby girl while posing for a selfie with the pair at a waiting area
at Anchorage International Airport, in Anchorage, Alaska. Jackinsky said Obama walked up to her and asked,
“Who is this pretty girl?” (Jolene Jackinsky via AP)
‘Oh my god, it is Obama’: Alaska
mom, baby meet ex-president
By Jennifer Sinco Kelleher
The Associated Press
A
n Alaska mother is cherishing
cellphone photos she snapped of
her wide-eyed six-month-old baby
in the arms of former President Barack
Obama.
Jolene Jackinsky was at Anchorage
International Airport looking for an
airline when she ended up in a waiting
area for private flights where a man she
thought looked like Obama was sitting.
“As I got closer, I thought: Oh my god, it
is Obama,” she recalled from Newhalen, a
small Alaska village where she’s
vacationing.
Obama then walked up to her and asked,
“Who is this pretty girl?”
They chatted about how fast children
grow while Obama carried baby Giselle.
Jackinsky took a few photos of a smiling
Obama carrying Giselle, who was wearing
a straw hat with a white ribbon.
Obama told them he was headed home
from a vacation, Jackinsky said.
When Giselle’s father approached,
Obama joked, “I’m taking your baby,”
Jackinsky said.
Giselle was calm and content during the
brief encounter, Jackinsky said. “It was
only five minutes, but it was a moment
that will last forever,” she said.
She posted the photos on Facebook.
“I think it’s unreal and pretty exciting
that I get to have a picture with him and
my baby,” she said. “Not a lot of people get
to meet him.”
Associated Press writer Rachel D’Oro in
Anchorage, Alaska, contributed to this report.
WAILUKU, Hawai‘i (AP) — After years
of speculation, wildlife officials have
confirmed the presence of an endangered
bat subspecies on Kahoolawe Island, seven
miles southwest of Maui.
The Kahoolawe Island Reserve Com-
mission used eight detectors to confirm the
presence of the Hawaiian hoary bat on the
remote island. Natural resource specialist
James Bruch told Maui News that the bat
may be the only native land mammal
visiting and possibly living on the island,
which was formerly a Navy target.
The detectors picked up the first bat in
June 2016. It detected a bat again in
August and again in September and
October, before dropping in December and
January. There were no detections again
until April, the report said.
Before this, Bruch said Hawaiian hoary
bat sightings were reported, but could not
be confirmed.
“Every once in a while either a worker or
volunteer would say, ‘Oh, I think I saw a
bat,’ but no one could verify it,” Bruch said.
“We’ve put out a detector one or two nights
out of the year and nothing was ever
picked up.”
The bat is small in size and dark in color,
making it difficult to spot. It has been seen
on Maui, Hawai‘i, Molokai, and Oahu but
is suspected to live only on the Big Island,
Maui, and Kauai, according to the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife website.
Data suggests the bats travel to
Kahoolawe and then return to their homes
by nightfall, Bruch said. He thinks it
might be possible that a small population
has taken residence and the bats may be
using the island for breeding.
The commission is continuing to review
the bat data and is hoping to acquire
funding for more research.
ENDANGERED BAT. In this May 11, 2007 file
photo provided by Three Ring Ranch Exotic Animal
Sanctuary, a Hawaiian hoary bat is seen being fed
in Kailua-Kona, Hawai‘i. Wildlife experts rescued and
nursed back to health the endangered bat after it was
found lying lifeless, dehydrated, and starving on a car.
(AP Photo/Three Ring Ranch Exotic Animal Sanctuary
via West Hawaii Today, File)
“It’s amazing how little we know about
the species,” Bruch said. “They’re cryptic.
They’re harder to detect, but the
technology is much better and the prices
are coming down to where it’s more
reasonable to do studies like this.”
Afghan girls allowed into U.S. for robotics contest
By Jill Colvin
The Associated Press
W
ASHINGTON — U.S. officials will allow a
group of Afghan girls into the country to
participate in an international robotics
competition after President Donald Trump intervened,
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders
confirmed, ending a saga that had sparked international
backlash.
Homeland Security Department spokesman David
Lapan said U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
approved a State Department request for six girls from
the war-torn country to be allowed in, along with their
chaperone, so they can participate in the competition. The
girls’ applications for U.S. visas had been denied twice.
The nonprofit organizing the competition celebrated
the reversal in a jubilant statement.
“I truly believe our greatest power is the power to
convene nations, to bring people together in the pursuit of
a common goal, and prove that our similarities greatly
outweigh our differences,” said Joe Sestak, the president
of First Global. He credited “the professional leadership of
the U.S. State Department” for ensuring that all 163
teams from 157 countries, including a team of Syrian
refugees, would be able to participate.
The U.S. State Department had declined to comment on
why the Afghan team’s visa applications were denied,
saying that “all visa applications are adjudicated on a
case-by-case basis in accordance with U.S. law.”
A senior administration official said Trump raised the
issue with his national security adviser, H.R. General
McMaster, during his trip to Germany for the Group of 20
summit, and had asked for additional options. The State
Department and Department of Homeland Security came
up with several — with the idea of “paroling” the girls
through the Depart- ment of Homeland Security
ultimately chosen by the National Security Council. The
person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the
private deliberations.
Parole is a temporary status in which a person who is
otherwise ineligible to enter the country is allowed in
temporarily because of an emergency or humanitarian
purpose, or because it’s deemed to be in the public good.
Without the reversal, which was first reported by
Politico, the girls would have had to watch via video link
ENTRY ALLOWED. Teenagers from the Afghanistan Robotic House,
a private training institute, practice at the Better Idea Organization center,
in Herat, Afghanistan. Six female students from war-torn Afghanistan have
been allowed to participate in an international robotics competition in
Washington, D.C. Of 162 teams participating, the Afghan girls were the
only nation’s team to be denied visas. First Global, a not-for-profit charity,
holds the annual international robotics challenge in hopes of sparking a
passion for science and technology among high school students around
the world. (AP Photos/Ahmad Seir)
from their hometown in western Afghanistan.
The girls wanted to show the world that Afghans could
also construct a handmade robot and they had been deeply
disappointed by the initial rejections.
“When we heard that we were rejected, we lost hope,”
said 14-year-old Sumaya Farooqi. “We applied again for
the U.S. visa and we were rejected again.”
Farooqi and her teammates faced seemingly
insurmountable obstacles to even get to a point where
they could seek permission to attend. It took them six
months to prepare, often working seven days a week, as
they constructed a robot that sorts balls, has the ability to
recognize orange and blue colors, and can move objects to
put them in their correct places.
The girls travelled from their homes in Herat after
convincing family members to let them go — no small feat
in a country where young girls are often discouraged from
pursuing academic study, especially in hard sciences such
as math.
They made the 500-mile journey to the U.S. embassy in
Kabul twice because their applications were denied the
first time, even though that location was targeted by a
deadly truck bomb on May 31 in which more than 150
people were killed and more than 400 others wounded.
War-torn Afghanistan has faced a series of large-scale
attacks as the Taliban stepped up its war against the
Kabul government in this year’s summer offensive. In
addition, the emerging Islamic State group affiliate in
Afghanistan has tried to increase its footprint with
attacks in urban areas.
Afghanistan is not part of Trump’s order to temporarily
ban travel from six Muslim-majority countries. Teams
from Syria, Iran, and Sudan — which are on that list —
were granted visas to compete. Members of the team from
Gambia were also granted visas after initially being
denied.
First Global, a not-for-profit charity, holds the annual
international robotics challenge in hopes of sparking a
passion for science and technology among high school
students around the world. It is an “Olympics”-style
competition in which one team from every nation is
invited to participate. It started July 16 and ends July 18
in Washington, D.C.
Associated Press writer Josh Lederman contributed to this report.
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