washingtontimes--2020-05-23--Butchers overwhelmed by demand as meat supply concerns grow

BUFFALO COUNTY , Neb .
( AP ) - Phones have been ringing off the hook at local butcher shops recently .
Ravenna Locker owners Jeff and Missy Zwiener said they ’ ve received hundreds more phone calls since meatpacking plants have reduced or stopped production because of COVID-19 cases .
Missy said farmers are desperate to get their animals butchered .
Because grocery stores are limited on meat supplies , Jeff said , new and old customers have called Ravenna Locker to order meat .
Missy said , “ It ’ s crazy , because you ’ re on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ calls come in while you ’ re on the phone.
” Pleasanton Processing owner Clint Stubbs said new customers are calling his shop .
“ I ’ m on the phone constantly throughout the day .
If I didn ’ t have the headset , I wouldn ’ t get anything done , ” he told the Kearney Hub .
And the butcher shops aren ’ t able to fill all the requests .
The Ravenna Locker , Pleasanton Processing and Belschner Custom Meats in Amherst have scheduled cattle processings almost through April @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , respectively , according to Jeff , Stubbs and Belschner Custom Meats owner Casey Mitchell .
Last week , Stubbs said : “ Earlier today it was about the middle of January .
It ’ s really taken off in the past week how much we ’ re scheduled out .
Who knows what next week will bring.
” Farmers also have been searching for processors to butcher their hogs .
The Ravenna Locker and Belschner ’ s Custom Meats have penciled in hog slaughters through November , and Pleasanton Processing is scheduled @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the hogs that are getting scheduled right now aren ’ t born yet , ” Stubbs wrote in an email to the Hub .
“ ( It ’ s ) pretty crazy.
” Normally , Stubbs books beef processing two to three months in advance and pork about two months in advance .
The Zwieners said they usually schedule out their processing three to six months .
Mitchell said in the spring , usually a slower season , he only schedules cattle and hog kills out two to three weeks .
“ I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ names , ” Mitchell said .
“ Their local locker was booked up , so they ’ re seeking out a new spot.
” Jeff said he turned down 35 beef appointments Monday morning because he didn ’ t have room to butcher them now .
“ We have small operators that might have 200-500 head ( of cattle ) on the feed .
They ’ re calling and wanting to know if we can do 10-15 head a month because they got them sold but can ’ t get them anywhere because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them a price for them or a bid , ” he said .
“ Or the price is too cheap , they might as well keep them at home , ” Missy added .
Ravenna Locker is hearing from new customers as well .
“ I ’ ve got people calling down by Hastings .
I went to college with some of their friends and they ’ re trying to get in because down there they can ’ t get in either , ” Jeff said .
“ They thought maybe they could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ year.
” Missy said she ’ s been telling producers at this time that she can put them on a “ cancellation list ” in case any spots open up .
But she said , “ I guarantee you that ’ s going to be few and far between.
” Ravenna Locker has lists of people wanting to buy meat from producers , too .
As Missy flipped through her spiral notebook , she pointed out three pages - half filled with names of people wanting to buy pork and the other half @ @ @ @ @ @ @ buy beef .
Stubbs and Mitchell also have waiting lists of customers who want to buy meat .
Mitchell said people call him frequently to buy quarters or sides of beef .
The farmers get calls too , he said .
“ So if they ( farmers ) already had five ( animals ) on the books , they ’ re calling and trying to push it to 10 or 15 to accommodate all the people that have called them in the virus panic , I call it , ” Mitchell said .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to buy a half or quarter of beef from Pleasanton Processing has increased significantly .
As of Friday , 18 people were on a waiting list for a half or quarter .
He normally has two to three on the list .
“ When you call in wanting a quarter of beef , I ’ ll tell you best case scenario you might have it by Christmas , maybe , ” he said .
Mitchell said he marks names on his list with a “ move up if possible ” note in case @ @ @ @ @ @ @ place to get their animals butchered .
“ I don ’ t want it ingrained in everybody ’ s heads that it ’ s impossible to get something butchered in 2020 because when we get out of this and life goes back to normal , there could be some openings still , ” Mitchell said .
Consumers have been swarming the three butcher shops in search of retail meat , which the butcher shops buy from supply houses and cut .
Missy said Ravenna Locker ’ s retail orders doubled last month .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ orders were about triple what they normally sell .
Stubbs said new customers have bought “ huge amounts ” of meat from Pleasanton Processing .
He said he prefers that to customers buying small amounts of meat because bulk-buying limits potential coronavirus exposure .
Mitchell also has seen people drive from other Nebraska cities to buy large quantities of meat from Belschner ’ s .
“ They ’ re hoarding .
You don ’ t normally buy 200 pounds of hamburger , ” he said .
Mitchell said he probably will stop selling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ because his focus is custom processing .
Missy and Jeff said they don ’ t know if they always can get the meat from their supply house to sell to consumers .
Last week , they said , they didn ’ t get their meat order , so Jeff sent one of his employees to a local wholesaler to buy meat .
“ We were out of hamburger for two hours and that ’ s only happened twice the whole time we ’ ve owned this place , and it ’ s been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ outrageous , ” Missy said .
The Zwieners wonder if people will be able to afford beef .
Jeff said retail cuts of meat have increased dramatically .
“ I never thought I would see the day of $ 7 hamburger , and now my salesman is saying it ’ s going to be $ 8 before it ’ s said and done , ” he said .
Because beef is expensive , the Zwieners said they started to sell whole chickens they bought from their supply house .
Though they limit each @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they sold their first 60 chickens three hours after Missy advertised it on Facebook .
In total , they have sold about 240 chickens per week the past three weeks .
To try to keep up with the increase in demand for retail meat , Stubbs said he hired a new full-time employee to start work today ( Monday ) .
Normally two full-time employees work in his shop .
“ We ’ ll increase , and we ’ ll try to keep up and try to keep every customer that calls because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people fed , ” he said .
But Stubbs isn ’ t going to slaughter more animals than normal because he is “ overloaded ” with retail orders .
Mitchell , whose 10-plus employees butcher about 30 cattle and 20 hogs a week , said he is slowly ramping up production .
But Mitchell said he had planned to do that well before talk of the coronavirus .
Two years ago , he added a bigger freezer , last year he built a bigger carcass cooler and this year he expanded his cutting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more and we ’ re continuing to do more all year .
But we were going to do that anyway , ” he said .
Like Stubbs , the Zwieners run a small shop with three full-time employees .
They said they can ’ t butcher any more animals because they don ’ t have the locker space .
However , the Zwieners have come up with a short-term solution to help producers and consumers .
They are killing five to seven hogs on Saturdays .
They cut the hogs in half and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up the meat themselves .
“ We don ’ t really need the extra work but we ’ re trying to help the hog producers out and people that are in desperate need of meat , ” Missy said .
“ Some of them don ’ t have any meat .
We ’ re lucky enough to have a cooler full of meat .
Some people don ’ t live like that .
They live week to week , paycheck ( to paycheck ) and so this might help them get some pork @ @ @ @ @

BUFFALO COUNTY, Neb. (AP) - Phones have been ringing off the hook at local butcher shops recently.
Ravenna Locker owners Jeff and Missy Zwiener said they’ve received hundreds more phone calls since meatpacking plants have reduced or stopped production because of COVID-19 cases.
Missy said farmers are desperate to get their animals butchered.
Because grocery stores are limited on meat supplies, Jeff said, new and old customers have called Ravenna Locker to order meat.
Missy said, “It’s crazy, because you’re on the phone and you have four phone calls come in while you’re on the phone.”
The Zwieners aren’t alone.
Pleasanton Processing owner Clint Stubbs said new customers are calling his shop.
“I’m on the phone constantly throughout the day. If I didn’t have the headset, I wouldn’t get anything done,” he told the Kearney Hub.
And the butcher shops aren’t able to fill all the requests.
The Ravenna Locker, Pleasanton Processing and Belschner Custom Meats in Amherst have scheduled cattle processings almost through April 2021, mid-February 2021 and November 2020, respectively, according to Jeff, Stubbs and Belschner Custom Meats owner Casey Mitchell.
Last week, Stubbs said: “Earlier today it was about the middle of January. It’s really taken off in the past week how much we’re scheduled out. Who knows what next week will bring.”
Farmers also have been searching for processors to butcher their hogs.
The Ravenna Locker and Belschner’s Custom Meats have penciled in hog slaughters through November, and Pleasanton Processing is scheduled into January.
“A lot of the hogs that are getting scheduled right now aren’t born yet,” Stubbs wrote in an email to the Hub. “(It’s) pretty crazy.”
Normally, Stubbs books beef processing two to three months in advance and pork about two months in advance. The Zwieners said they usually schedule out their processing three to six months. Mitchell said in the spring, usually a slower season, he only schedules cattle and hog kills out two to three weeks.
“I’m seeing a lot of new names,” Mitchell said. “Their local locker was booked up, so they’re seeking out a new spot.”
Jeff said he turned down 35 beef appointments Monday morning because he didn’t have room to butcher them now.
“We have small operators that might have 200-500 head (of cattle) on the feed. They’re calling and wanting to know if we can do 10-15 head a month because they got them sold but can’t get them anywhere because the packers won’t even give them a price for them or a bid,” he said.
“Or the price is too cheap, they might as well keep them at home,” Missy added.
Ravenna Locker is hearing from new customers as well.
“I’ve got people calling down by Hastings. I went to college with some of their friends and they’re trying to get in because down there they can’t get in either,” Jeff said. “They thought maybe they could get in before the first of the year.”
Missy said she’s been telling producers at this time that she can put them on a “cancellation list” in case any spots open up. But she said, “I guarantee you that’s going to be few and far between.”
Ravenna Locker has lists of people wanting to buy meat from producers, too.
As Missy flipped through her spiral notebook, she pointed out three pages - half filled with names of people wanting to buy pork and the other half filled with names of people wanting to buy beef.
Stubbs and Mitchell also have waiting lists of customers who want to buy meat.
Mitchell said people call him frequently to buy quarters or sides of beef. The farmers get calls too, he said.
“So if they (farmers) already had five (animals) on the books, they’re calling and trying to push it to 10 or 15 to accommodate all the people that have called them in the virus panic, I call it,” Mitchell said.
Stubbs said the number of customers wanting to buy a half or quarter of beef from Pleasanton Processing has increased significantly. As of Friday, 18 people were on a waiting list for a half or quarter. He normally has two to three on the list.
“When you call in wanting a quarter of beef, I’ll tell you best case scenario you might have it by Christmas, maybe,” he said.
Mitchell said he marks names on his list with a “move up if possible” note in case consumers back out or producers find another place to get their animals butchered.
“I don’t want it ingrained in everybody’s heads that it’s impossible to get something butchered in 2020 because when we get out of this and life goes back to normal, there could be some openings still,” Mitchell said.
Consumers have been swarming the three butcher shops in search of retail meat, which the butcher shops buy from supply houses and cut.
Missy said Ravenna Locker’s retail orders doubled last month. Stubbs and Mitchell said last week their orders were about triple what they normally sell.
Stubbs said new customers have bought “huge amounts” of meat from Pleasanton Processing. He said he prefers that to customers buying small amounts of meat because bulk-buying limits potential coronavirus exposure.
Mitchell also has seen people drive from other Nebraska cities to buy large quantities of meat from Belschner’s.
“They’re hoarding. You don’t normally buy 200 pounds of hamburger,” he said.
Mitchell said he probably will stop selling retail once he runs out of meat because his focus is custom processing.
Missy and Jeff said they don’t know if they always can get the meat from their supply house to sell to consumers. Last week, they said, they didn’t get their meat order, so Jeff sent one of his employees to a local wholesaler to buy meat.
“We were out of hamburger for two hours and that’s only happened twice the whole time we’ve owned this place, and it’s been twice this year because retail is so outrageous,” Missy said.
The Zwieners wonder if people will be able to afford beef. Jeff said retail cuts of meat have increased dramatically.
“I never thought I would see the day of $7 hamburger, and now my salesman is saying it’s going to be $8 before it’s said and done,” he said.
Because beef is expensive, the Zwieners said they started to sell whole chickens they bought from their supply house.
Missy said chicken sales have “exploded.”
Though they limit each person to five chickens, Jeff said they sold their first 60 chickens three hours after Missy advertised it on Facebook. In total, they have sold about 240 chickens per week the past three weeks.
To try to keep up with the increase in demand for retail meat, Stubbs said he hired a new full-time employee to start work today (Monday). Normally two full-time employees work in his shop.
“We’ll increase, and we’ll try to keep up and try to keep every customer that calls because obviously we’ve got to keep people fed,” he said.
But Stubbs isn’t going to slaughter more animals than normal because he is “overloaded” with retail orders.
Mitchell, whose 10-plus employees butcher about 30 cattle and 20 hogs a week, said he is slowly ramping up production. But Mitchell said he had planned to do that well before talk of the coronavirus.
Two years ago, he added a bigger freezer, last year he built a bigger carcass cooler and this year he expanded his cutting room.
“We’re doing more and we’re continuing to do more all year. But we were going to do that anyway,” he said.
Like Stubbs, the Zwieners run a small shop with three full-time employees. They said they can’t butcher any more animals because they don’t have the locker space.
However, the Zwieners have come up with a short-term solution to help producers and consumers. They are killing five to seven hogs on Saturdays. They cut the hogs in half and cool them. Consumers have to cut up the meat themselves.
“We don’t really need the extra work but we’re trying to help the hog producers out and people that are in desperate need of meat,” Missy said. “Some of them don’t have any meat. We’re lucky enough to have a cooler full of meat. Some people don’t live like that. They live week to week, paycheck (to paycheck) and so this might help them get some pork in the freezer.”


washingtontimes--2020-05-23--Sioux City shelter has little barking, meowing this spring

SIOUX CITY , Iowa ( AP ) - A roughly 13-year-old black-and-white spotted Labrador and Blue Heeler mix called “ Broadway ” was one of only three dogs available for adoption at the Siouxland Humane Society this weekend .
His fellows at the shelter are “ Rowdy , ” a 5-month-old Australian Shepherd , and “ Gracie , ” a 2-year-old lab mix .
And that ’ s all there is .
Cats , normally plentiful at animal shelters , are also in unusually short supply — there were only nine available on Saturday , including some kittens .
Jerry @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , told the Sioux City Journal the shelter would normally have 10 to 20 dogs and as many as 40 to 50 cats .
COVID-19 has , to an extent , played a role in the reduced number of animals there .
Fewer people are going to the shelter in search of new pets , partly because of the small number of dogs and cats left available , and likewise , fewer people are giving up their dogs and cats .
“ We ’ re probably seeing , about 50 percent of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ us surrendered , which , that very likely could be that kids are out of school and home , and some people have been laid off and home and there ’ s more time for pets , ” Dominicak said .
“ So they ’ re keeping pets .
May also be that vacation plans have been canceled , because a lot of times vacations and holidays , people dump pets at shelters.
” How the shelter came to have so few animals is also part of a broader story of pets in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more popular today to get animals from shelters than in decades past , and Dominicak said that Midwesterners have , for one reason or another , gotten on board with spaying and neutering their animals .
The number of animals being left at shelters was already in decline before the pandemic left people at home , needing the dog for company .
According to ASPCA statistics , the number of dogs and cats entering shelters declined from 7.2 million in 2011 to around 6.5 million per year more recently .
The number of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ decline , and litters of abandoned puppies are now comparatively rare .
“ Animal numbers are way down in shelters , ” Dominicak said .
“ Which in some respects is a very good thing.
” Dominicak forecast that the number of cats , which are known to reproduce like the proverbial rabbits , will soon be on the upswing at the shelter .
“ I think our cat numbers are starting to pick up , ” he said .
The Siouxland Humane Society has taken some of its own initiatives to keep @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the shelter .
They ’ ve provided dog or cat food for those unable to afford it , along with some basic veterinary services like flea treatments .
The shelter has put in place some new COVID-19 restrictions — walking in to view the animals without an appointment is no longer allowed .
Potential adopters are screened to ensure they are serious about adopting , not just coming for a leisurely visit , and that they already have an animal in mind .
Similarly to grocery stores ’ “ one person ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ entire families or large groups from visiting .
This , in all likelihood , has further contributed to the decline in adoptions .
“ The week ( after ) school was canceled here in Sioux City , parents had nothing to do with kids , and we became a petting zoo .
So , the kids were cooped up at home , there ’ s nothing to do , let ’ s go to the humane society and play with the animals , ” Dominicak said .
This , of course , was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ new rules were implemented .
On the plus side , the process of choosing an animal at the shelter has been greatly simplified by the small selection of dogs and cats available .
“ A comparison would be , if you were looking for a new shirt , and you had 100 shirts to look at , it ’ s going to take you a while to pick one out , ” he said .
“ But if you only had a couple to look at , and you really wanted a new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pick one out .
”

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) - A roughly 13-year-old black-and-white spotted Labrador and Blue Heeler mix called “Broadway” was one of only three dogs available for adoption at the Siouxland Humane Society this weekend.
His fellows at the shelter are “Rowdy,” a 5-month-old Australian Shepherd, and “Gracie,” a 2-year-old lab mix. And that’s all there is.
Cats, normally plentiful at animal shelters, are also in unusually short supply — there were only nine available on Saturday, including some kittens.
Jerry Dominicak, the shelter’s director, told the Sioux City Journal the shelter would normally have 10 to 20 dogs and as many as 40 to 50 cats. COVID-19 has, to an extent, played a role in the reduced number of animals there.
Fewer people are going to the shelter in search of new pets, partly because of the small number of dogs and cats left available, and likewise, fewer people are giving up their dogs and cats.
“We’re probably seeing, about 50 percent of the animals that would normally get surrendered to us surrendered, which, that very likely could be that kids are out of school and home, and some people have been laid off and home and there’s more time for pets,” Dominicak said. “So they’re keeping pets. May also be that vacation plans have been canceled, because a lot of times vacations and holidays, people dump pets at shelters.”
How the shelter came to have so few animals is also part of a broader story of pets in the U.S. — it’s far more popular today to get animals from shelters than in decades past, and Dominicak said that Midwesterners have, for one reason or another, gotten on board with spaying and neutering their animals.
The number of animals being left at shelters was already in decline before the pandemic left people at home, needing the dog for company. According to ASPCA statistics, the number of dogs and cats entering shelters declined from 7.2 million in 2011 to around 6.5 million per year more recently. The number of dogs in particular has been on the decline, and litters of abandoned puppies are now comparatively rare.
“Animal numbers are way down in shelters,” Dominicak said. “Which in some respects is a very good thing.”
Dominicak forecast that the number of cats, which are known to reproduce like the proverbial rabbits, will soon be on the upswing at the shelter. “I think our cat numbers are starting to pick up,” he said.
The Siouxland Humane Society has taken some of its own initiatives to keep the animals in their homes rather than at the shelter. They’ve provided dog or cat food for those unable to afford it, along with some basic veterinary services like flea treatments.
The shelter has put in place some new COVID-19 restrictions — walking in to view the animals without an appointment is no longer allowed. Potential adopters are screened to ensure they are serious about adopting, not just coming for a leisurely visit, and that they already have an animal in mind. Similarly to grocery stores’ “one person” recommendations, the shelter is now discouraging entire families or large groups from visiting.
This, in all likelihood, has further contributed to the decline in adoptions.
“The week (after) school was canceled here in Sioux City, parents had nothing to do with kids, and we became a petting zoo. So, the kids were cooped up at home, there’s nothing to do, let’s go to the humane society and play with the animals,” Dominicak said. This, of course, was problematic from a virus-prevention standpoint, so new rules were implemented.
On the plus side, the process of choosing an animal at the shelter has been greatly simplified by the small selection of dogs and cats available.
“A comparison would be, if you were looking for a new shirt, and you had 100 shirts to look at, it’s going to take you a while to pick one out,” he said. “But if you only had a couple to look at, and you really wanted a new shirt, you’re gonna pick one out.”


washingtontimes--2020-05-23--Nebraska's first coronavirus patient endured tough journey

OMAHA , Neb .
( AP ) - When Dr. Brian Boer got his first look at Nebraska ’ s first COVID-19 patient , he knew he had a battle on his hands .
Emma Hutchinson , a 36-year-old Omaha woman with birth defects that hampered her breathing , was in rough shape .
Her lungs had filled with fluid .
The oxygen mask on her face wasn ’ t doing nearly enough .
She was literally drowning on her hospital bed .
Boer , the medical director of the intensive care unit set up to treat critically ill COVID-19 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said he frequently treats such dire cases of lung failure , known as acute respiratory distress syndrome , in patients with other viral infections , like influenza .
But as he assumed the care of Hutchinson the day after she arrived on March 6 , he saw that this was different .
This new coronavirus was more contagious and more dangerous than the flu .
The hospital had already started ramping up for an expected onslaught of patients .
The big concern : that this novel virus could swamp and overwhelm hospitals and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that no human body has seen this before , ” Boer told the Omaha World-Herald .
“ If everyone gets it at the same time , if too many people get sick all at once , you don ’ t have the resources to care for all of them .
“ Then you have to make the hard choices about who lives or dies .
That ’ s what happened in Italy.
” But Emma Hutchinson didn ’ t become a casualty of COVID-19 .
After 30 days at the medical center , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s home in west Omaha , including more follow-up tests for the coronavirus , she was allowed to resume eating solid food and say goodbye to “ Fred , ” her nickname for the feeding tube , attached to a steel pole on wheels , that she had been wheeling around .
Her first solid meal in almost two months ?
Her favorite sandwich at Jimmy John ’ s , the No .
9 , called the Italian Night Club .
A couple days later , she and a friend enjoyed an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Brazen Head .
Now she ’ s back at her own apartment and has resumed working at a structured workshop for the developmentally disabled in Omaha .
She made a podcast for her church , Christ Community , in which she thanked her family and friends , the doctors and nurses at the med center , and even strangers who prayed and urged her to endure , even as she lay in an ICU under heavy sedation .
“ From the beginning of March to now , I felt like giving up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ But I had a bunch of close friends and my family and the body of God who would surround me and encourage me to fight for my life .
“ They told me not to give up.
” Hutchinson and her father , Ralph , a 73-year-old Postal Service retiree who grew up in London , agreed for the first time to have their names used in a story .
He had initially reached out to The World-Herald shortly after posts on social media accused his daughter of intentionally spreading the virus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tournament on Feb. 29 at the Fremont YMCA just after returning from a trip to England for her grandfather ’ s 100th birthday .
The father , who didn ’ t want his name used at the time to avoid even further digital abuse , made it clear that Emma had shown no symptoms until the day she was admitted to the hospital and that lifelong breathing problems made it hard to discern whether she was even sick , much less infected with the coronavirus .
He and Emma made three trips to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weekend as the basketball game , believing that she was suffering from migraines - a frequent problem for her - that might have been brought on when she was hit in the head by a basketball .
On March 2 , they visited their family doctor , who diagnosed a cold .
It wasn ’ t until they returned to the hospital on March 5 - five days after the tournament - that a doctor noticed that her oxygen levels were dangerously low .
He ordered X-rays , which strongly suggested that she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that they had just been to London , COVID-19 was suspected to have invaded her lungs .
She was sent to Methodist ’ s Dodge Street hospital .
After a trying night in the hospital , Hutchinson was transferred to the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit at the Nebraska Medical Center , the hospital that has worked in collaboration with the University of Nebraska Medical Center to establish one of the few centers in the nation specializing in the treatment of contagious diseases like Ebola , SARS and now , COVID-19 .
Dr. Boer , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said that when Hutchinson arrived at the hospital , personnel in the biocontainment unit were wearing the maximum protective gear .
That included helmets into which filtered air is pumped by a battery-operated blower like they had worn when treating Ebola patients flown to the Omaha hospital for specialized treatment in 2014 .
But using those powered air-purifying respirators proved unsustainable for the several dozen nurses , techs and doctors working in the unit , who have since switched to the now-familiar personal protective equipment of face shields , N95 masks , reusable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the state ’ s first patient arrived , the hospital was ramping up for a possible surge of coronavirus patients .
The biocontainment unit had only four rooms and could hold a total of just eight patients .
So a special COVID-19 ICU was being established .
Things were moving fast .
The unit was preparing for the worst .
The stress level was high .
Working in such specialized isolation wards is labor-intensive and exhausting , Boer said .
Protective gear must be put on when entering a room and removed when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ masks - usually about three to each worker per day - must be sterilized for reuse each night .
Nurses , he said , have it the hardest , because they are frequently in and out of such rooms for extended periods of time .
Doctors , he said , can do a lot of monitoring of patients outside the rooms .
“ Our poor nurses .
They ’ re like heroes , ” Boer said .
“ They ’ re the ones getting their butts kicked.
” Soon after Hutchinson arrived , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a mechanical lung that breathes for a patient - because her own fluid-filled lungs were too rigid to allow her to breathe on her own .
She was heavily sedated and placed in a medically induced coma , in part to prevent her body from moving and consuming more precious oxygen .
“ The body doesn ’ t like something else breathing for you , ” Boer said , and will fight against the breathing tube placed in your airway .
Because Hutchinson had surgery on her airway as an infant to improve @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s partner , Dr. Craig Piquette , to place the “ vent ” tube .
But it was successful .
Her oxygen level at times dipped as low as 50 % to 60 % - anything under 90 % is low - and the ventilator was pumping at its maximum .
The severity of her illness , Boer said , was causing some kidney failure and some heart problems .
If her kidneys got any worse , he feared that she might have to be put on a dialysis machine , which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ survival .
“ We had to do a lot of tweaking , ” he said .
“ There was a solid week of not knowing if she was going to turn the corner.
” But she did .
Her oxygen levels slowly improved .
She started breathing some on her own .
Her sedation was reduced , and the induced coma ended .
Hutchinson was transferred from the biocontainment unit to the new COVID-19 ICU , and on March 24 - 18 days after she arrived at the med Center - the ventilator @ @ @ @ @ @ @ placed in a more normal hospital room .
“ The first thing she asked was if she did a good job , ” the doctor said .
She wasn ’ t out of the woods yet .
Prolonged use of a breathing tube can sometimes cause damage , blocking the airway , and Boer said Hutchinson was at high risk for that because of her medical history .
When the breathing tube was removed , a team of doctors prepared for the worst - an immediate tracheostomy to allow her to breathe .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ After Hutchinson was sent home to continue her recovery on April 4 , she continued to use a feeding tube as an added precaution .
“ Fred ” was mounted on a steel pole with wheels so she could move around .
Her father became her nurse and attendant , crushing pills twice a day every day , mixing them with fluid , then injecting them with a syringe into the tube .
“ She always said , ‘ Dad , you ’ re doing it too fast.
’ She could feel it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hutchinson , whose first wife , now deceased , had taken in Emma as a foster child at age 2 , then adopted her three years later .
She was among the 1,063 critically ill COVID-19 patients across the globe who were enrolled in a randomized , controlled trial of the drug remdesivir , an antiviral medicine that had been used on Ebola patients .
Because it was a blind study , neither the Hutchinsons nor Emma ’ s doctor were told whether she received the drug or a placebo .
Boer said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ suspicions about who received remdesivir and who didn ’ t , based on patients who seemed to recover faster than others .
But he said the recovery of Emma Hutchinson , from near death , wasn ’ t due to some “ miracle ” drug but rather to “ evidence-based , supportive care ” like that given to people with severe cases of flu .
That ’ s sticking to the basics , he said , and not trying unproven therapies outside of controlled trials , like hydroxychloroquine , that more often than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people need time , not a lot of tinkering , ” he said .
“ You just have to ride it out , weather the storm and buy her time to fight the virus on her own .
Emma Hutchinson , in her podcast , said battling COVID-19 taught her to not take her family and friends for granted and to recognize that possessions aren ’ t that important .
Her father said he ’ s grateful for neighbors and friends , for the doctors and nurses , and for the emails from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ I ’ d like to name them all , but it would get as tedious as an Academy Award acceptance speech , ” he said .
“ We were lucky , ” he added .
“ Many were not , and the toll will rise .
Our hearts go out to everyone affected , directly and indirectly , by this awful virus .
”

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - When Dr. Brian Boer got his first look at Nebraska’s first COVID-19 patient, he knew he had a battle on his hands.
Emma Hutchinson, a 36-year-old Omaha woman with birth defects that hampered her breathing, was in rough shape.
Her lungs had filled with fluid. The oxygen mask on her face wasn’t doing nearly enough. She was literally drowning on her hospital bed.
Boer, the medical director of the intensive care unit set up to treat critically ill COVID-19 patients at the Nebraska Medical Center, said he frequently treats such dire cases of lung failure, known as acute respiratory distress syndrome, in patients with other viral infections, like influenza.
But as he assumed the care of Hutchinson the day after she arrived on March 6, he saw that this was different. This new coronavirus was more contagious and more dangerous than the flu. The hospital had already started ramping up for an expected onslaught of patients. The big concern: that this novel virus could swamp and overwhelm hospitals and staff.
“The big difference is that no human body has seen this before,” Boer told the Omaha World-Herald. “If everyone gets it at the same time, if too many people get sick all at once, you don’t have the resources to care for all of them.
“Then you have to make the hard choices about who lives or dies. That’s what happened in Italy.”
But Emma Hutchinson didn’t become a casualty of COVID-19.
After 30 days at the medical center, three weeks of isolation at her father’s home in west Omaha, including more follow-up tests for the coronavirus, she was allowed to resume eating solid food and say goodbye to “Fred,” her nickname for the feeding tube, attached to a steel pole on wheels, that she had been wheeling around.
Her first solid meal in almost two months? Her favorite sandwich at Jimmy John’s, the No. 9, called the Italian Night Club. A couple days later, she and a friend enjoyed an Irish meal donated by her favorite restaurant, Brazen Head.
Now she’s back at her own apartment and has resumed working at a structured workshop for the developmentally disabled in Omaha.
She made a podcast for her church, Christ Community, in which she thanked her family and friends, the doctors and nurses at the med center, and even strangers who prayed and urged her to endure, even as she lay in an ICU under heavy sedation.
“From the beginning of March to now, I felt like giving up on everything,” Hutchinson said. “But I had a bunch of close friends and my family and the body of God who would surround me and encourage me to fight for my life.
“They told me not to give up.”
Hutchinson and her father, Ralph, a 73-year-old Postal Service retiree who grew up in London, agreed for the first time to have their names used in a story.
He had initially reached out to The World-Herald shortly after posts on social media accused his daughter of intentionally spreading the virus by participating in a Special Olympics basketball tournament on Feb. 29 at the Fremont YMCA just after returning from a trip to England for her grandfather’s 100th birthday.
The father, who didn’t want his name used at the time to avoid even further digital abuse, made it clear that Emma had shown no symptoms until the day she was admitted to the hospital and that lifelong breathing problems made it hard to discern whether she was even sick, much less infected with the coronavirus.
He and Emma made three trips to Methodist Women’s Hospital the same weekend as the basketball game, believing that she was suffering from migraines - a frequent problem for her - that might have been brought on when she was hit in the head by a basketball. On March 2, they visited their family doctor, who diagnosed a cold.
It wasn’t until they returned to the hospital on March 5 - five days after the tournament - that a doctor noticed that her oxygen levels were dangerously low. He ordered X-rays, which strongly suggested that she had pneumonia. When he was told that they had just been to London, COVID-19 was suspected to have invaded her lungs. She was sent to Methodist’s Dodge Street hospital.
After a trying night in the hospital, Hutchinson was transferred to the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit at the Nebraska Medical Center, the hospital that has worked in collaboration with the University of Nebraska Medical Center to establish one of the few centers in the nation specializing in the treatment of contagious diseases like Ebola, SARS and now, COVID-19.
Dr. Boer, a pulmonary and critical care specialist, said that when Hutchinson arrived at the hospital, personnel in the biocontainment unit were wearing the maximum protective gear. That included helmets into which filtered air is pumped by a battery-operated blower like they had worn when treating Ebola patients flown to the Omaha hospital for specialized treatment in 2014. But using those powered air-purifying respirators proved unsustainable for the several dozen nurses, techs and doctors working in the unit, who have since switched to the now-familiar personal protective equipment of face shields, N95 masks, reusable gowns and disposable gloves.
But when the state’s first patient arrived, the hospital was ramping up for a possible surge of coronavirus patients. The biocontainment unit had only four rooms and could hold a total of just eight patients. So a special COVID-19 ICU was being established.
Things were moving fast. The unit was preparing for the worst. The stress level was high.
Working in such specialized isolation wards is labor-intensive and exhausting, Boer said. Protective gear must be put on when entering a room and removed when leaving. Gloves are disposable, but masks - usually about three to each worker per day - must be sterilized for reuse each night.
Nurses, he said, have it the hardest, because they are frequently in and out of such rooms for extended periods of time. Doctors, he said, can do a lot of monitoring of patients outside the rooms.
“Our poor nurses. They’re like heroes,” Boer said. “They’re the ones getting their butts kicked.”
Soon after Hutchinson arrived, she was put on a ventilator - a mechanical lung that breathes for a patient - because her own fluid-filled lungs were too rigid to allow her to breathe on her own. She was heavily sedated and placed in a medically induced coma, in part to prevent her body from moving and consuming more precious oxygen.
“The body doesn’t like something else breathing for you,” Boer said, and will fight against the breathing tube placed in your airway.
Because Hutchinson had surgery on her airway as an infant to improve breathing, it was tricky for Boer’s partner, Dr. Craig Piquette, to place the “vent” tube. But it was successful.
Her oxygen level at times dipped as low as 50% to 60% - anything under 90% is low - and the ventilator was pumping at its maximum.
The severity of her illness, Boer said, was causing some kidney failure and some heart problems. If her kidneys got any worse, he feared that she might have to be put on a dialysis machine, which lowers a person’s chances of survival.
“We had to do a lot of tweaking,” he said. “There was a solid week of not knowing if she was going to turn the corner.”
But she did.
Her oxygen levels slowly improved. She started breathing some on her own. Her sedation was reduced, and the induced coma ended.
Hutchinson was transferred from the biocontainment unit to the new COVID-19 ICU, and on March 24 - 18 days after she arrived at the med Center - the ventilator was removed, and she was eventually placed in a more normal hospital room.
“The first thing she asked was if she did a good job,” the doctor said.
“You did an awesome job, Emma.”
She wasn’t out of the woods yet. Prolonged use of a breathing tube can sometimes cause damage, blocking the airway, and Boer said Hutchinson was at high risk for that because of her medical history. When the breathing tube was removed, a team of doctors prepared for the worst - an immediate tracheostomy to allow her to breathe. But it wasn’t necessary.
After Hutchinson was sent home to continue her recovery on April 4, she continued to use a feeding tube as an added precaution. “Fred” was mounted on a steel pole with wheels so she could move around.
Her father became her nurse and attendant, crushing pills twice a day every day, mixing them with fluid, then injecting them with a syringe into the tube.
“She always said, ‘Dad, you’re doing it too fast.’ She could feel it into her throat,” said Ralph Hutchinson, whose first wife, now deceased, had taken in Emma as a foster child at age 2, then adopted her three years later.
She was among the 1,063 critically ill COVID-19 patients across the globe who were enrolled in a randomized, controlled trial of the drug remdesivir, an antiviral medicine that had been used on Ebola patients. Because it was a blind study, neither the Hutchinsons nor Emma’s doctor were told whether she received the drug or a placebo.
Boer said personnel at the med center had their suspicions about who received remdesivir and who didn’t, based on patients who seemed to recover faster than others.
But he said the recovery of Emma Hutchinson, from near death, wasn’t due to some “miracle” drug but rather to “evidence-based, supportive care” like that given to people with severe cases of flu. That’s sticking to the basics, he said, and not trying unproven therapies outside of controlled trials, like hydroxychloroquine, that more often than not make things worse.
“These people need time, not a lot of tinkering,” he said. “You just have to ride it out, weather the storm and buy her time to fight the virus on her own.
“These are marathon cases, not sprints.”
Emma Hutchinson, in her podcast, said battling COVID-19 taught her to not take her family and friends for granted and to recognize that possessions aren’t that important.
Her father said he’s grateful for neighbors and friends, for the doctors and nurses, and for the emails from well-wishers he didn’t know.
“I’d like to name them all, but it would get as tedious as an Academy Award acceptance speech,” he said.
“We were lucky,” he added. “Many were not, and the toll will rise. Our hearts go out to everyone affected, directly and indirectly, by this awful virus.”


washingtontimes--2020-05-23--Western South Dakota aquaponic farm floats fresh food

BELLE FOURCHE , S.D .
( AP ) - A Butte County couple is putting fish to work in a new aquaponic greenhouse , growing fresh , locally-grown lettuce that now lines Northern Hills grocery shelves .
He is a Black Hills and Wyoming native , she ’ s from northeast Iowa , and together , Chris and Alexa Garro , owners of Garro Farms , have mastered the art of mimicking a natural ecosystem that combines traditional aquaculture with hydroculture in the ultimate symbiotic system .
It just so happens that the work fish naturally do , eating and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for growing plants .
And boy do those fish grow a lot of plants when they get to work .
The best of both worlds Aquaponics uses the best of all the growing techniques , utilizing the waste of one element to benefit another , mimicking a natural ecosystem .
Alexa told the Black Hills Pioneer it represents the relationship between water , aquatic life , bacteria , nutrient dynamics , and plants that grow together in waterways all over the world .
Taking cues from nature , aquaponics harnesses the power of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ waste byproduct from the fish as a food for the bacteria , to be converted into a perfect fertilizer for the plants , and return the water in a clean and safe form to the fish - just like mother nature does in every aquatic ecosystem .
“ If we were to let this system just hang out and never touch it , it ( the bacterial symbiotic process ) would happen naturally , ” Alexa said .
“ It ’ s kind of like nature wants to make it work , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The system has found shortcuts around common agricultural issues .
While gardens can be located in your backyard , industrial farms are often thousands of miles from where their food is consumed .
This requires extensive transportation , refrigeration , and packaging to get the food from farm to table .
Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without soil , by instead using mineral nutrient solutions in a water solvent .
While hydroponics solves many soil-based issues , it also offers its own problems .
Traditional hydroponic systems rely on the careful @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from mixing together a concoction of chemicals , salts , and trace elements .
For the Garros , through aquaponics , they merely feed the fish and monitor the system carefully , and grow fresh , bountiful greenery that you could have on your table the day after harvest .
Garro Farms , located approximately 18 miles northeast of Belle Fourche on Arpan Road , is home to the 2,400 square-foot commercial-scale greenhouse .
Chris , utilizing second-hand materials , built the greenhouse with the ultimate goal - to supply fresh produce to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ year long .
“ It took some imagination to get it to this , ” Chris said .
“ And I hope other people follow suit , too.
” Although there are numerous types of aquaponic systems , the Garros selected deep-water culture , or raft-based growing , that uses a foam raft which floats in a 12-inch deep channel filled with fish effluent water that has been filtered to remove solid wastes .
Plants are placed in holes in the raft and the roots dangle freely in the water .
In 2018 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in aquaponics and found the plentiful rewards it could provide .
He said the property had only a limited amount of available space , forcing him to get creative , making aquaponics the perfect solution to offer healthy , high-yielding fresh produce .
The system ’ s water starts out in a 500-gallon in-ground tank and is pumped into the tank where the fish thrive .
From there , the nutrient-rich water flows through a solids filter and into a bacterial conversion tank before being piped into the “ beds ” where the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And then back again , ” Alexa said .
“ So , it ’ s all a big cycle .
The plants clean out that nitrate , and it comes back to the fish.
” The system circulates approximately 4,500 gallons of water each hour , Chris said .
And the system works well .
“ Almost every single thing that comes out of this , there ’ s no waste byproduct , ” she said , adding that other than adding iron to the water , Garro Farms doesn ’ t provide @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Otherwise , it ’ s completely self-sustaining .
The older the system gets , the more efficient it works , and the more balanced it gets.
” “ We figured out how to basically get as much production in this size ( of ) greenhouse as we would get out of something four times this size , ” Alexa said .
“ So , by taking the square footage and doing a certain crop rotation that he did , that ’ s how we get ( the amount of production ) .
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of lettuce - green oakleaf , rouxai , adriana , salanova red incised , green incised and butter crunch .
They also cultivate microgreens , grown under natural sunlight in the greenhouse , including pea shoots , purple-stemmed radish and sunflower .
But that ’ s not all ; the Garros are experimenting with herbs like cilantro and culinary sage .
“ To be this new and have the right levels and everything producing was a stroke of genius on Chris ’ part , ” Alexa said .
Without the rotation the Garros @ @ @ @ @ @ @ next to impossible to get the amount of growth production .
“ We can do between 50,000-74,000 heads of lettuce out of here a year , ” he said .
“ And if I had done it the conventional way and not moved anything , if we just put in the water and let it grow … they need quite a bit of room when they get bigger and we ’ d of cut that ( production ) in a quarter.
” From the time the seeds are planted , the plants are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about 35 days , Chris said .
“ We ’ re not using any special seed or anything like that , ” he said .
“ We ’ re trying to provide ideal conditions , and if you give something ideal conditions , … it just does better.
” What about the fish ?
As one of the main components in an aquaponic system , the fish are an important focus for the Garros .
Chris said he stocked his 1,500-gallon fish tank , which is above ground and separate from the water @ @ @ @ @ @ @ minnows three or four months ago .
The type of fish is atypical for an aquaponic setup , Chris said .
“ This is pretty experimental , too , because I haven ’ t read about anybody doing that with bait fish , ” he said .
Due to the proximity to the Belle Fourche Reservoir and wanting to keep product procurement as local as possible , the farm gets the minnows from the Wheel In Bait Shop .
The local supply is handy but , Alexa said the fish species is particularly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ area temperatures , whereas other fish species typically used in other aquaponic setups like tilapia , koi or goldfish would struggle in the South Dakota conditions .
So , what happens when the fish get too big and the balance is thrown off ?
“ The cool thing about it is we ’ ll trade these out for smaller ones with the bait shop , ” Chris said .
A 50-pound batch of minnows will likely thrive in the greenhouse for around six months before needing to be traded out for smaller ones @ @ @ @ @ @ @ factor in because they either do a huge , massive , million-dollar scale building , or they have a little backyard system , ” Alexa said .
“ So , they either want to eat the fish or they ’ re factoring it into their revenue plan .
For us … it ’ s so weird fitting that middle ground where we ’ re not a million-dollar facility but we ’ re not a 500-gallon backyard system .
What worked for everybody else will not quite work here , especially in South Dakota @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conditions put a slight kink into the Garros ’ plans .
Chris said that the pandemic conditions related to COVID-19 have caused a supply shortage for some of the supplies needed for the greenhouse , requiring them to operate on a smaller level until more supplies arrive .
“ And we don ’ t even have this thing ( the aquaponic bed ) like a quarter of the way full , and this is ( producing ) about 860 heads ( of lettuce ) a week , ” Alexa said .
In about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would likely be at around three-quarters capacity .
Even through the rough conditions , Garro Farms is rising above and plowing through the roadblocks .
The farm ’ s produce is already on the shelves of Lueders Food Centers in Spearfish and Belle Fourche , Lynn ’ s Dakotamart in Belle Fourche , Bee ’ s Knees Natural Foods in Spearfish , Grocery Mart in Sturgis and Bearlodge Bakery in Sundance , Wyoming .
Soon , that will likely expand .
Alexa said they ’ re in talks with some restaurants all the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ provide locally grown , healthy options everywhere .
“ We had such a good response from everybody .
All the stores we ’ ve sold to … they ’ re selling out weekly , ” Chris said .
The couple , who , between the two of them , has ranched in Montana , worked in the Bakken oil fields , done professional construction work , and worked in radio and news outlets , decided they wanted a new direction in life .
“ It ’ s good work , and I didn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said .
“ But , doing something like this , to me , is a bigger thing .
Growing food , to me , is more important.
” The farm expects to be able to keep a consistent level of inventory in terms of production , year-round .
“ The way that we ’ re going to get away with that is the grow lights , ” Chris said .
“ In the wintertime , I ’ ll probably put them over all the beds .
You need 10-15 hours of sunlight ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was uniquely drawn toward growing lettuce .
Chris said that around 95 % of the country ’ s lettuce comes from the California region .
“ There ’ s no reason we can ’ t grow this locally like this , ” he said .
“ Lettuce is just one crop that you can ’ t really get it in mass in the winter in South Dakota , ” Alexa said .
“ This is something that everybody that I talked to had the same problem , ‘ I buy lettuce , it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it ’ s not really what I wanted.
’ We just kind of went , ‘ lets focus on this and get it going.
’ ” The pandemic conditions have highlighted to the couple the importance of having a local supply chain .
“ If we can do this here , I think it ’ s possible pretty much anywhere , ” Chris said .
Chris said he hopes to continue to grow the business , bring on staff , and someday , produce for most of western South Dakota and eastern Wyoming @ @ @ @ @ @ @ batches of lettuce to local stores in mid-April , the couple is already expanding on the greenhouse , planning a 12-foot addition to the front to accommodate a packaging area .

BELLE FOURCHE, S.D. (AP) - A Butte County couple is putting fish to work in a new aquaponic greenhouse, growing fresh, locally-grown lettuce that now lines Northern Hills grocery shelves.
He is a Black Hills and Wyoming native, she’s from northeast Iowa, and together, Chris and Alexa Garro, owners of Garro Farms, have mastered the art of mimicking a natural ecosystem that combines traditional aquaculture with hydroculture in the ultimate symbiotic system.
It just so happens that the work fish naturally do, eating and producing waste, is the perfect fertilizer for growing plants. And boy do those fish grow a lot of plants when they get to work.
The best of both worlds
Aquaponics uses the best of all the growing techniques, utilizing the waste of one element to benefit another, mimicking a natural ecosystem.
Alexa told the Black Hills Pioneer it represents the relationship between water, aquatic life, bacteria, nutrient dynamics, and plants that grow together in waterways all over the world. Taking cues from nature, aquaponics harnesses the power of bio-integrating those individual components - exchanging the waste byproduct from the fish as a food for the bacteria, to be converted into a perfect fertilizer for the plants, and return the water in a clean and safe form to the fish - just like mother nature does in every aquatic ecosystem.
“If we were to let this system just hang out and never touch it, it (the bacterial symbiotic process) would happen naturally,” Alexa said. “It’s kind of like nature wants to make it work, and then we just provide the facilities.”
The system has found shortcuts around common agricultural issues.
While gardens can be located in your backyard, industrial farms are often thousands of miles from where their food is consumed. This requires extensive transportation, refrigeration, and packaging to get the food from farm to table.
Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without soil, by instead using mineral nutrient solutions in a water solvent. While hydroponics solves many soil-based issues, it also offers its own problems.
Traditional hydroponic systems rely on the careful application of expensive, man-made nutrients made from mixing together a concoction of chemicals, salts, and trace elements. For the Garros, through aquaponics, they merely feed the fish and monitor the system carefully, and grow fresh, bountiful greenery that you could have on your table the day after harvest.
The Arpan setup
Garro Farms, located approximately 18 miles northeast of Belle Fourche on Arpan Road, is home to the 2,400 square-foot commercial-scale greenhouse. Chris, utilizing second-hand materials, built the greenhouse with the ultimate goal - to supply fresh produce to the Northern Hills and Wyoming areas all year long.
“It took some imagination to get it to this,” Chris said. “And I hope other people follow suit, too.”
Although there are numerous types of aquaponic systems, the Garros selected deep-water culture, or raft-based growing, that uses a foam raft which floats in a 12-inch deep channel filled with fish effluent water that has been filtered to remove solid wastes. Plants are placed in holes in the raft and the roots dangle freely in the water.
In 2018, Chris implemented a smaller backyard experiment in aquaponics and found the plentiful rewards it could provide. He said the property had only a limited amount of available space, forcing him to get creative, making aquaponics the perfect solution to offer healthy, high-yielding fresh produce.
The system’s water starts out in a 500-gallon in-ground tank and is pumped into the tank where the fish thrive. From there, the nutrient-rich water flows through a solids filter and into a bacterial conversion tank before being piped into the “beds” where the plants roost while they grow.
“And then back again,” Alexa said. “So, it’s all a big cycle. The plants clean out that nitrate, and it comes back to the fish.”
The system circulates approximately 4,500 gallons of water each hour, Chris said.
And the system works well.
“Almost every single thing that comes out of this, there’s no waste byproduct,” she said, adding that other than adding iron to the water, Garro Farms doesn’t provide any additives to the process. “Otherwise, it’s completely self-sustaining. The older the system gets, the more efficient it works, and the more balanced it gets.”
“We figured out how to basically get as much production in this size (of) greenhouse as we would get out of something four times this size,” Alexa said. “So, by taking the square footage and doing a certain crop rotation that he did, that’s how we get (the amount of production).”
Currently, the farm grows six types of lettuce - green oakleaf, rouxai, adriana, salanova red incised, green incised and butter crunch. They also cultivate microgreens, grown under natural sunlight in the greenhouse, including pea shoots, purple-stemmed radish and sunflower. But that’s not all; the Garros are experimenting with herbs like cilantro and culinary sage.
“To be this new and have the right levels and everything producing was a stroke of genius on Chris’ part,” Alexa said.
Without the rotation the Garros utilize, Chris said it would be next to impossible to get the amount of growth production.
“We can do between 50,000-74,000 heads of lettuce out of here a year,” he said. “And if I had done it the conventional way and not moved anything, if we just put in the water and let it grow … they need quite a bit of room when they get bigger and we’d of cut that (production) in a quarter.”
From the time the seeds are planted, the plants are full grown and ready for market in about 35 days, Chris said.
“We’re not using any special seed or anything like that,” he said. “We’re trying to provide ideal conditions, and if you give something ideal conditions, … it just does better.”
What about the fish?
As one of the main components in an aquaponic system, the fish are an important focus for the Garros.
Chris said he stocked his 1,500-gallon fish tank, which is above ground and separate from the water tank, with 50 pounds of fathead minnows three or four months ago.
The type of fish is atypical for an aquaponic setup, Chris said.
“This is pretty experimental, too, because I haven’t read about anybody doing that with bait fish,” he said.
Due to the proximity to the Belle Fourche Reservoir and wanting to keep product procurement as local as possible, the farm gets the minnows from the Wheel In Bait Shop.
The local supply is handy but, Alexa said the fish species is particularly hardy when it comes to handling the area temperatures, whereas other fish species typically used in other aquaponic setups like tilapia, koi or goldfish would struggle in the South Dakota conditions.
So, what happens when the fish get too big and the balance is thrown off?
“The cool thing about it is we’ll trade these out for smaller ones with the bait shop,” Chris said.
A 50-pound batch of minnows will likely thrive in the greenhouse for around six months before needing to be traded out for smaller ones, he said.
“Most people factor in because they either do a huge, massive, million-dollar scale building, or they have a little backyard system,” Alexa said. “So, they either want to eat the fish or they’re factoring it into their revenue plan. For us … it’s so weird fitting that middle ground where we’re not a million-dollar facility but we’re not a 500-gallon backyard system. What worked for everybody else will not quite work here, especially in South Dakota in the wintertime.”
Pandemic curveball meets ingenuity
The current pandemic conditions put a slight kink into the Garros’ plans.
Chris said that the pandemic conditions related to COVID-19 have caused a supply shortage for some of the supplies needed for the greenhouse, requiring them to operate on a smaller level until more supplies arrive.
“And we don’t even have this thing (the aquaponic bed) like a quarter of the way full, and this is (producing) about 860 heads (of lettuce) a week,” Alexa said.
In about a month, Chris anticipated the greenhouse would likely be at around three-quarters capacity.
Even through the rough conditions, Garro Farms is rising above and plowing through the roadblocks. The farm’s produce is already on the shelves of Lueders Food Centers in Spearfish and Belle Fourche, Lynn’s Dakotamart in Belle Fourche, Bee’s Knees Natural Foods in Spearfish, Grocery Mart in Sturgis and Bearlodge Bakery in Sundance, Wyoming.
Soon, that will likely expand. Alexa said they’re in talks with some restaurants all the way to Rapid City, hoping to provide locally grown, healthy options everywhere.
“We had such a good response from everybody. All the stores we’ve sold to … they’re selling out weekly,” Chris said.
The bigger picture
The couple, who, between the two of them, has ranched in Montana, worked in the Bakken oil fields, done professional construction work, and worked in radio and news outlets, decided they wanted a new direction in life.
“It’s good work, and I didn’t mind it,” Chris said. “But, doing something like this, to me, is a bigger thing. Growing food, to me, is more important.”
The farm expects to be able to keep a consistent level of inventory in terms of production, year-round.
“The way that we’re going to get away with that is the grow lights,” Chris said. “In the wintertime, I’ll probably put them over all the beds. You need 10-15 hours of sunlight (each day).”
The couple was uniquely drawn toward growing lettuce. Chris said that around 95% of the country’s lettuce comes from the California region.
“There’s no reason we can’t grow this locally like this,” he said.
“Lettuce is just one crop that you can’t really get it in mass in the winter in South Dakota,” Alexa said. “This is something that everybody that I talked to had the same problem, ‘I buy lettuce, it goes bad; I buy lettuce, it’s not really what I wanted.’ We just kind of went, ‘lets focus on this and get it going.’”
The pandemic conditions have highlighted to the couple the importance of having a local supply chain.
“If we can do this here, I think it’s possible pretty much anywhere,” Chris said.
Chris said he hopes to continue to grow the business, bring on staff, and someday, produce for most of western South Dakota and eastern Wyoming.
Although the farm sold its first batches of lettuce to local stores in mid-April, the couple is already expanding on the greenhouse, planning a 12-foot addition to the front to accommodate a packaging area.


washingtontimes--2020-05-23--Author Murakami DJs 'Stay Home' radio show to lift spirits

TOKYO ( AP ) - Acclaimed Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami , hosting a special radio show from home , painted a brighter side of the world with his favorite music , and said the fight against the coronavirus is a challenge in figuring out ways to help and care for each other .
The 71-year-old , known for bestsellers such as “ A Wild Sheep Chase ” and “ Windup Bird Chronicle , ” said Friday he hoped the show would “ blow away some of the corona-related blues.
” Murakami opened the two-hour late night show “ Murakami Radio @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the Silver Lining ” by the Modern Folk Quartet , followed by 18 other songs , selected from classical to jazz , pop and rock .
Their common thread : smile , sunshine , rainbow , birthday memories and other happy sides of life .
Murakami said comparing the fight against the coronavirus to a war , as politicians often do , is inappropriate .
“ It ’ s a challenge for us to figure out how we can share our wisdom to cooperate , help each other and keep balance .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ kill each other but a fight of wisdom to let us all live , ” he said .
“ We don ’ t need enmity and hatred here.
” Music serves as an important motif in Murakami ’ s stories .
An avid listener and collector of music , he has also written books on the topic and has a library of records in his study , where Friday ’ s program was prerecorded .
Murakami has hosted his “ Murakami Radio ” every two months since August 2018 on Tokyo FM .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ was Murakami ’ s idea to cheer up those who are under stress , living under a coronavirus state of emergency still in place in parts of Japan , including Tokyo .
Murakami began writing while running a jazz bar in Tokyo after graduating from university .
Following his 1979 debut novel “ Hear the Wind Sing , ” the 1987 romance “ Norwegian Wood ” became his first bestseller , establishing him as a young literary star .
Recent hits include “ 1Q84 ” and “ Killing Comnendatore.
” A perennial contender @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a social recluse , Murakami said he has worked from home for years and the lifestyle has little changed , though “ the corona situation ” did affect him in many ways , possibly an inspiration for his future work .
Murakami has written stories inspired by events that have violently shaken the society , including the 1995 Tokyo subway gassing by an apocalyptic cult and the deadly quake in Kobe , where he grew up .
Rather than documenting an event as it develops , Murakami said that as a novelist he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ a story in a different form , ” though he doesn ’ t know when or how .
The world may be experiencing “ a large-scale social experiment whose results could slowly spread across the entire society , for better or worse , ” he said .
Murakami said he worries the post-corona world may be a more closed and selfish place even if it has better protection .
“ If love and compassion are lacking , the world after the corona will surely be an edgy and insipid place even if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” he said .
“ Love is important.
” Other songs on the playlist : “ Waiting on a Sunny Day ” by Bruce Springsteen ; “ Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head ” by Isley Meets Bacharach ; “ Here Comes the Sun ” by Nina Simone ; “ You ’ ve Got A Friend ” by Carole King ; “ Over the Rainbow ” by Ella Fitzgerald ; “ Sun Is Shining ” by Bob Marley & The Wailers : “ What A Wonderful World ” by Louis Armstrong ; “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Taylor ; “ Smile ” by Eric Clapton ; “ My Favorite Things Featuring Kathleen Battle ” by Al Jarreau ; “ She Wore a Yellow Ribbon ” by Lisa Ono ; “ Happy Talk ” by Nancy Wilson ; “ They Can ’ t Take That Away from Me ” by Brian Wilson ; “ Put on a Happy Face ” by Tony Bennett ; “ Over the Rainbow ” by Fred Lowery ; “ We ’ ll Meet Again ” by Peggy Lee with Benny Goodman ; “ Mon coeur s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sigrid Onégin ; “ What the World Needs Now Is Love ” by Wei Wei Wuu .
This story corrects the number of songs played .

TOKYO (AP) - Acclaimed Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami, hosting a special radio show from home, painted a brighter side of the world with his favorite music, and said the fight against the coronavirus is a challenge in figuring out ways to help and care for each other.
The 71-year-old, known for bestsellers such as “A Wild Sheep Chase” and “Wind-up Bird Chronicle,” said Friday he hoped the show would “blow away some of the corona-related blues.”
Murakami opened the two-hour, late-night show “Murakami Radio Stay Home Special” with “Look for the Silver Lining” by the Modern Folk Quartet, followed by 18 other songs, selected from classical to jazz, pop and rock. Their common thread: smile, sunshine, rainbow, birthday memories and other happy sides of life.
Murakami said comparing the fight against the coronavirus to a war, as politicians often do, is inappropriate. “It’s a challenge for us to figure out how we can share our wisdom to cooperate, help each other and keep balance. It’s not a war to kill each other but a fight of wisdom to let us all live,” he said. “We don’t need enmity and hatred here.”
Music serves as an important motif in Murakami’s stories. An avid listener and collector of music, he has also written books on the topic and has a library of records in his study, where Friday’s program was prerecorded.
Murakami has hosted his “Murakami Radio” every two months since August 2018 on Tokyo FM. The station said Friday’s show was Murakami’s idea to cheer up those who are under stress, living under a coronavirus state of emergency still in place in parts of Japan, including Tokyo.
Murakami began writing while running a jazz bar in Tokyo after graduating from university. Following his 1979 debut novel “Hear the Wind Sing,” the 1987 romance “Norwegian Wood” became his first bestseller, establishing him as a young literary star. Recent hits include “1Q84” and “Killing Commendatore.”
A perennial contender for the Nobel Prize in literature and a social recluse, Murakami said he has worked from home for years and the lifestyle has little changed, though “the corona situation” did affect him in many ways, possibly an inspiration for his future work.
Murakami has written stories inspired by events that have violently shaken the society, including the 1995 Tokyo subway gassing by an apocalyptic cult and the deadly quake in Kobe, where he grew up.
Rather than documenting an event as it develops, Murakami said that as a novelist he is more interested in transforming it into “a story in a different form,” though he doesn’t know when or how.
The world may be experiencing “a large-scale social experiment whose results could slowly spread across the entire society, for better or worse,” he said.
Murakami said he worries the post-corona world may be a more closed and selfish place even if it has better protection.
“If love and compassion are lacking, the world after the corona will surely be an edgy and insipid place even if masks and vaccines are abundantly distributed,” he said. “Love is important.”
___
Other songs on the playlist: “Waiting on a Sunny Day” by Bruce Springsteen; “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head” by Isley Meets Bacharach; “Here Comes the Sun” by Nina Simone; “You’ve Got A Friend” by Carole King; “Over the Rainbow” by Ella Fitzgerald; “Sun Is Shining” by Bob Marley & The Wailers: “What A Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong; “Happy Birthday Sweet Darling” by Kate Taylor; “Smile” by Eric Clapton; “My Favorite Things Featuring Kathleen Battle” by Al Jarreau; “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon” by Lisa Ono; “Happy Talk” by Nancy Wilson; “They Can’t Take That Away from Me” by Brian Wilson; “Put on a Happy Face” by Tony Bennett; “Over the Rainbow” by Fred Lowery; “We’ll Meet Again” by Peggy Lee with Benny Goodman; “Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix” by Sigrid Onégin; “What the World Needs Now Is Love” by Wei Wei Wuu.
___
This story replaces a version published earlier to correct spellings and style for “Killing Commendatore” and “Wind-up Bird Chronicle.”
___
Follow Mari Yamaguchi on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/mariyamaguchi


washingtontimes--2020-05-23--Ruling allows warrantless search of probationer's cellphone

PHOENIX ( AP ) - An Arizona Supreme Court decision in a privacy rights case from Pima County says authorities @ @ @ @ @ search of the cellphone of a man who was on felony probation .
The court @ @ @ @ @ overturned a trial judge ’ s ruling that prosecutors could not present evidence that a @ @ @ @ @ the man ’ s phone .
The surveillance officer ’ search of probationer Bryan Lietzau @ @ @ @ @ of an investigation that led to charges accusing Lietzau of sexual conduct with a minor @ @ @ @ @ in 2014 ruled that people have broad expectations of privacy concerning their cellphones and that @ @ @ @ @ to search them .
But the Arizona high court ruled that probationers have a diminished @ @ @ @ @ the warrantless search of Lietzau ’ s cellphone was reasonably necessary to help determine whether @ @ @ @ @ terms from a previous conviction for aggravated harassment .

PHOENIX (AP) - An Arizona Supreme Court decision in a privacy rights case from Pima County says authorities could legally conduct a warrantless search of the cellphone of a man who was on felony probation.
The court’s unanimous decision Friday overturned a trial judge’s ruling that prosecutors could not present evidence that a probation surveillance officer obtained from the man’s phone.
The surveillance officer’ search of probationer Bryan Lietzau’s phone was part of an investigation that led to charges accusing Lietzau of sexual conduct with a minor.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 2014 ruled that people have broad expectations of privacy concerning their cellphones and that authorities generally need a warrant to search them.
But the Arizona high court ruled that probationers have a diminished expectation of privacy and that the warrantless search of Lietzau’s cellphone was reasonably necessary to help determine whether he was complying with probation terms from a previous conviction for aggravated harassment.


washingtontimes--2020-05-23--Census workers to target southern New Mexico

LAS CRUCES , N.M. ( AP ) - U.S. Census workers have started to drop off questionnaires at the front doors of some homes in Las Cruces and Dona Ana County as part of an effort to target households that don ’ t receive mail at their physical address .
The Census Bureau began hand-delivering materials March 15 but had to suspend all fieldwork just days later due to the coronavirus outbreak .
That work is resuming now that field offices have been deemed essential businesses .
“ Many of our residents are experiencing loss of their income and are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ healthcare , ” said Jamey Rickman , a community engagement manager .
“ With an accurate count , we can have the federal funding that we need to help them.
” Residents in other southern New Mexico counties also will be getting the forms .
Those include Catron , Chaves , Curry , De Baca , Eddy , Grant , Hidalgo , Lea , Lincoln , Luna , Otero , Roosevelt , Sierra , Socorro and Valencia .
There ’ s no timeline for reopening the field offices in Albuquerque or Window Rock @ @ @ @ @ @ @ remainder of New Mexico counties .
Together , officials say those two field offices serve more than 100,000 New Mexico households that are still waiting for their census packets .
Nearly 20 % of New Mexico households - one of the highest rates in the country - rely on hand-delivery of their census forms .
Officials say census employees will be following current federal health and safety guidelines , including social distancing protocols , as they drop off questionnaires .

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) - U.S. Census workers have started to drop off questionnaires at the front doors of some homes in Las Cruces and Dona Ana County as part of an effort to target households that don’t receive mail at their physical address.
The Census Bureau began hand-delivering materials March 15 but had to suspend all fieldwork just days later due to the coronavirus outbreak. That work is resuming now that field offices have been deemed essential businesses.
“Many of our residents are experiencing loss of their income and are concerned about food security and access to healthcare,” said Jamey Rickman, a community engagement manager. “With an accurate count, we can have the federal funding that we need to help them.”
Residents in other southern New Mexico counties also will be getting the forms. Those include Catron, Chaves, Curry, De Baca, Eddy, Grant, Hidalgo, Lea, Lincoln, Luna, Otero, Roosevelt, Sierra, Socorro and Valencia.
There’s no timeline for reopening the field offices in Albuquerque or Window Rock, Arizona, which collectively cover the remainder of New Mexico counties. Together, officials say those two field offices serve more than 100,000 New Mexico households that are still waiting for their census packets.
Nearly 20% of New Mexico households - one of the highest rates in the country - rely on hand-delivery of their census forms.
Officials say census employees will be following current federal health and safety guidelines, including social distancing protocols, as they drop off questionnaires.


washingtontimes--2020-05-23--Ex-congressman Allen West of Florida injured in Texas crash

WACO , Texas ( AP ) - Former U.S. Rep. Allen West of Florida was injured in a motorcycle crash @ @ @ @ @ ’ s wife wrote on Facebook that his motorcycle was hit outside Waco and he @ @ @ @ @ .
“ On my way to hospital now , ” Angela Graham-West wrote Saturday evening @ @ @ @ @ release additional details about his condition .
West , a Republican , moved from Florida @ @ @ @ @ in 2013 .
He served one term and once called for then-President Barack Obama ’ @ @ @ @ @ running for chair of the Republican Party of Texas .

WACO, Texas (AP) - Former U.S. Rep. Allen West of Florida was injured in a motorcycle crash Saturday in Texas.
The former congressman was in stable condition after having been airlifted to a hospital, according to a Saturday night post on West’s Facebook page.
The Facebook post said West was on his motorcycle when a car cut him off, causing him to collide with another motorcyclist.
West’s wife, Angela Graham-West, earlier wrote on Facebook that the crash occurred outside Waco.
The Dallas Morning News reported that West attended a rally Saturday morning at the Texas Capitol that was focused on reopening the state amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Former state Sen. Don Huffines told the newspaper West got in the accident on the way back from the rally.
West, a Republican, moved from Florida to Texas after leaving Congress in 2013. He served one term and once called for then-President Barack Obama’s impeachment.
West is running for chair of the Republican Party of Texas.


washingtontimes--2020-05-23--Asia Today: More Australians download virus tracing app

CANBERRA , Australia ( AP ) - Six million Australians have downloaded a mobile phone app that helps health authorities @ @ @ @ @ said Sunday .
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the COVIDSafe app is playing a @ @ @ @ @ s response to the pandemic and several countries have expressed interest in learning from its @ @ @ @ @ user is diagnosed , the app works to identify other users who have been in @ @ @ @ @ or more in the previous three weeks .
The government has said at least 40 @ @ @ @ @ 26 million people need to use the app for it to be effective .
There @ @ @ @ @ phones in Australia .
The government and states have been easing restrictions on travel and @ @ @ @ @ bars in the past few weeks .
Australia has recorded more than 7,100 cases of @ @ @ @ @ .
Follow AP news coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at http : //apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https @ @ @

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - Six million Australians have downloaded a smartphone app that helps health authorities trace coronavirus infections, officials said Sunday.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the COVIDSafe app is playing a strong role in Australia’s response to the pandemic and that several countries have expressed interest in learning from its positive impacts.
If a user is diagnosed, the app works to identify other users who have been in close proximity for 15 minutes or more in the previous three weeks.
The government has said at least 40% of Australia’s 26 million people need to use the app for it to be effective. There are approximately 17 million cellphones in Australia.
The government and states have been easing restrictions on travel and allowed for increased use of restaurants and bars in the past few weeks. Australia has recorded more than 7,100 cases of the coronavirus, including 102 deaths.
In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region:
- 3 NEW CASES IN CHINA: China reported three new cases of the coronavirus on Sunday, two from outside the country and one locally transmitted in the northeastern province of Jilin, which has experienced a minor outbreak now apparently largely contained. No new deaths were reported and 79 people remain in treatment, with another 380 under isolation and monitoring for being suspected cases or having tested positive for COVID-19 without showing any symptoms. China has reported a total of 82,974 cases, including 4,634 deaths.
- SOUTH KOREA RECORDS 25 NEW INFECTIONS: South Korea reported 25 additional cases of the coronavirus over a 24-hour period, amid a continuation of small-scale outbreaks in the country. The country has confirmed a total of 11,190 cases, including 266 deaths. Seventeen of the 25 new patients were locally infected, while the other eight came from overseas, health authorities said. South Korea eased many of its strict social distancing rules in early May before it saw a sudden uptick in the number of cases associated with nightclubs in Seoul’s Itaewon entertainment district. Health authorities had confirmed a total of 225 cases linked to Itaewon cubs as of noon Sunday.
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Follow AP news coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak.


washingtontimes--2020-05-23--Former PNG prime minister arrested over corruption charges

PORT MORESBY , Papua New Guinea ( AP ) - The former prime minister of Papua New Guinea has been arrested and taken in for questioning over alleged misappropriation and corruption involving the purchase of two generators from Israel .
Peter O ’ Neill was arrested by police at Jackson ’ s International Airport in Port Moresby on Saturday after flying back from Brisbane , Australia , where he had been stranded because of COVID-19 lockdowns .
He was later released on bail and will spend two weeks in isolation at his home due to the same virus restrictions .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ for seven years before quitting in 2019 after a number of resignations from his government .
Police said the investigation involves the purchase of the two power generators from Israel for 50 million kina ( $ 14.2 million ) when O ’ Neill was leading the country .
In a statement quoted by the Australian Broadcasting Corp. , police official Hodges Ette alleged O ’ Neill directed payments for the purchase of the generators without approval of parliament and without a tender process .
Ette said police believe “ there is reasonable evidence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ office and official corruption.
” Police attempted to arrest O ’ Neill in October over a different issue but they withdrew the charge when O ’ Neill challenged its validity in court .

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (AP) - The former prime minister of Papua New Guinea has been arrested and taken in for questioning over alleged misappropriation and corruption involving the purchase of two generators from Israel.
Peter O’Neill was arrested by police at Jackson’s International Airport in Port Moresby on Saturday after flying back from Brisbane, Australia, where he had been stranded because of COVID-19 lockdowns. He was later released on bail and will spend two weeks in isolation at his home due to the same virus restrictions.
O’Neill led Papua New Guinea for seven years before quitting in 2019 after a number of resignations from his government.
Police said the investigation involves the purchase of the two power generators from Israel for 50 million kina ($14.2 million) when O’Neill was leading the country.
In a statement quoted by the Australian Broadcasting Corp., police official Hodges Ette alleged O’Neill directed payments for the purchase of the generators without approval of parliament and without a tender process. Ette said police believe “there is reasonable evidence of offenses of misappropriation, abuse of office and official corruption.”
Police attempted to arrest O’Neill in October over a different issue but they withdrew the charge when O’Neill challenged its validity in court.


washingtontimes--2020-05-23--Iranian ships approach Venezuela with no sign of US threat

CARACAS , Venezuela ( AP ) - The first of five tankers loaded with gasoline sent from Iran approached Venezuelan waters late Saturday , expected to temporarily ease the South American nation ’ s fuel crunch while defying Trump administration sanctions targeting the two U.S. foes .
The oil tanker Fortune encountered no immediate signs of U.S. interference as it eased through Caribbean waters toward the Venezuelan coast and Venezuelan officials celebrated the arrival .
“ Iran and Venezuela have always supported each other in times of difficulty , ” Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza tweeted .
“ Today , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our people.
” The tanker and four behind it were finishing a high seas journey amid a burgeoning relationship between Iran and Venezuela , both of which Washington says are ruled by repressive regimes .
Russ Dallen , head of the Miami-based investment firm Caracas Capital Markets , confirmed the Fortune ’ s location using ship tracking technology .
He said the next ship was about 3 1/2 days behind the lead tanker .
Venezuela sits atop the world ’ s largest oil reserves , but it must import gasoline because production has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Critics blame corruption and mismanagement by the socialist administration amid an economic crisis that has led to huge migration by Venezuelans seeking to escape poverty , shortages of basic goods and crime .
The Iranian tankers hold what analysts estimate to be enough gasoline to supply Venezuela for two to three weeks .
Deep gasoline shortages have plagued Venezuela for years , though the problem had until recently largely spared the capital of Caracas , the largest population center and political seat .
Drivers must wait for days in lines that snake through @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that costs less than a penny for a tank .
Wealthier drivers with U.S. dollars turn to the black market , where gas costs up to $ 12 a gallon .
That ’ s a small fortune in Venezuela , where the monthly minimum wage equals less than $ 5 .
The U.S. accuses Iran and other nations of propping up Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro .
It ’ s among nearly 60 nations that back opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela ’ s legitimate president , contending that Maduro illegitimately won a 2018 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
In a new relationship between Caracas and Tehran , Iran recently also flew shipments of a key chemical needed to help jump start a Venezuelan oil refinery and produce gasoline .
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned Saturday that the United States should not to interfere with the shipment of oil bound for Venezuela .
In a statement , Rouhani said that the U.S. had created “ unacceptable conditions ” in different parts of the world , but that Iran would “ by no means ” be the one to initiate conflict .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ or anywhere in the world face any problems caused by the Americans , they will face problems as well , ” he added .
“ We hope the Americans will not make a mistake.
” U.S. officials had announced no plans to try to intercept Iran ’ s tankers .
However , the Trump administration has increased pressure on Maduro , recently offered a $ 15 million bounty for his arrest after a U.S. court indicted him as a narcotrafficker .
The U.S. also recently deployed a force of ships , including Navy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ patrol the Caribbean on what U.S. officials call a drug interdiction mission .
The Maduro government considers it a direct threat .
Maduro holds on to power with support from Venezuela ’ s military and his international allies , also including Cuba , Russia , and China .
The U.S. says these nations are engaged in “ malign activities and meddling ” around the world .
“ We will not abide by their support of the illegitimate and tyrannical regime of Nicolás Maduro , ” the Trump administration said in a statement , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ against the socialist leader .
“ Will continue until Maduro ’ s hold on Venezuela is over.
” A defiant Maduro appeared on state TV days ahead of the ships ’ arrivals , vowing a tough response to any U.S. aggression against the Iranian tankers .
He showed images of soldiers firing antiaircraft missiles streaking across the Caribbean .
“ They want to enslave us , ” Maduro said Thursday .
“ If you want peace , you must be prepared to defend it.
” Maduro ’ s defense minister , Vladimir Padrino @ @ @ @ @ @ @ forces would welcome the five Iranian tankers , escorting them with ships and planes through the nation ’ s maritime territory and into port .
Eric Farnsworth , vice president of the Council of the Americas and Americas Society research center , said he didn ’ t expect the U.S. would act against the Iranian tankers .
Such an act could too easily escalate , he said , especially in the Persian Gulf where Iran could retaliate against U.S. ships .
“ ( That ) would needlessly undermine the narrative that Venezuela , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ oil supply , has to import gasoline from Iran of all places because they have become such an international pariah , ” Farnsworth said .
“ If they don ’ t , Caracas claims a great victory for the fatherland and tries to portray the U.S. as impotent .
”

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - The first of five tankers loaded with gasoline sent from Iran reached Venezuelan waters late Saturday, expected to temporarily ease the South American nation’s fuel crunch while defying Trump administration sanctions targeting the two U.S. foes.
The oil tanker Fortune encountered no immediate signs of U.S. interference as it eased through Caribbean waters toward the Venezuelan coast and Venezuelan officials celebrated the arrival.
“Iran and Venezuela have always supported each other in times of difficulty,” Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza tweeted. “Today, the first ship with gasoline arrives for our people.”
The tanker and four behind it were finishing a high seas journey amid a burgeoning relationship between Iran and Venezuela, both of which Washington says are ruled by repressive regimes.
Russ Dallen, head of the Miami-based investment firm Caracas Capital Markets, confirmed the Fortune’s location using ship tracking technology. He said the Clavel, the last of the five ships, was about 3 1/2 days behind the lead tanker.
Venezuela sits atop the world’s largest oil reserves, but it must import gasoline because production has crashed in the last two decades. Critics blame corruption and mismanagement by the socialist administration amid an economic crisis that has led to huge migration by Venezuelans seeking to escape poverty, shortages of basic goods and crime.
The Iranian tankers hold what analysts estimate to be enough gasoline to supply Venezuela for two to three weeks.
Deep gasoline shortages have plagued Venezuela for years, though the problem had until recently largely spared the capital of Caracas, the largest population center and political seat.
Drivers must wait for days in lines that snake through neighborhood to fill up with government-subsidized gasoline that costs less than a penny for a tank. Wealthier drivers with U.S. dollars turn to the black market, where gas costs up to $12 a gallon. That’s a small fortune in Venezuela, where the monthly minimum wage equals less than $5.
The U.S. accuses Iran and other nations of propping up Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. It’s among nearly 60 nations that back opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s legitimate president, contending that Maduro illegitimately won a 2018 election that banned his most popular opponents.
In a new relationship between Caracas and Tehran, Iran recently also flew shipments of a key chemical needed to help jump start a Venezuelan oil refinery and produce gasoline.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned Saturday that the United States should not to interfere with the shipment of oil bound for Venezuela. In a statement, Rouhani said that the U.S. had created “unacceptable conditions” in different parts of the world, but that Iran would “by no means” be the one to initiate conflict.
“If our tankers in the Caribbean or anywhere in the world face any problems caused by the Americans, they will face problems as well,” he added. “We hope the Americans will not make a mistake.”
U.S. officials had announced no plans to try to intercept Iran’s tankers. However, the Trump administration has increased pressure on Maduro, recently offered a $15 million bounty for his arrest after a U.S. court indicted him as a narcotrafficker.
The U.S. also recently deployed a force of ships, including Navy destroyers and other combat ships, to patrol the Caribbean on what U.S. officials call a drug interdiction mission. The Maduro government considers it a direct threat.
Maduro holds on to power with support from Venezuela’s military and his international allies, also including Cuba, Russia, and China. The U.S. says these nations are engaged in “malign activities and meddling” around the world.
“We will not abide by their support of the illegitimate and tyrannical regime of Nicolás Maduro,” the Trump administration said in a statement, citing its “maximum pressure” campaign against the socialist leader. “Will continue until Maduro’s hold on Venezuela is over.”
A defiant Maduro appeared on state TV days ahead of the ships’ arrivals, vowing a tough response to any U.S. aggression against the Iranian tankers. He showed images of soldiers firing antiaircraft missiles streaking across the Caribbean.
“They want to enslave us,” Maduro said Thursday. “If you want peace, you must be prepared to defend it.”
Maduro’s defense minister, Vladimir Padrino López, said Venezuela’s armed forces would welcome the five Iranian tankers, escorting them with ships and planes through the nation’s maritime territory and into port.
Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas and Americas Society research center, said he didn’t expect the U.S. would act against the Iranian tankers. Such an act could too easily escalate, he said, especially in the Persian Gulf where Iran could retaliate against U.S. ships.
“(That) would needlessly undermine the narrative that Venezuela, with the world’s largest proven oil supply, has to import gasoline from Iran of all places because they have become such an international pariah,” Farnsworth said. “If they don’t, Caracas claims a great victory for the fatherland and tries to portray the U.S. as impotent.”
___
Scott Smith on Twitter: @ScottSmithAP


washingtontimes--2020-05-23--Kodiak City residents feel moderate earthquake in region

KODIAK CITY , Alaska ( AP ) - People in Kodiak City reported early Saturday that they felt a moderate @ @ @ @ @ Island region , the Alaska Earthquake Center reported .
The magnitude 4.4 earthquake hit at @ @ @ @ @ an epicenter that was 58 miles ( 94 km ) south of Akhiok and 140 @ @ @ @ @ , which has about 6,000 residents , the center said .
The earthquake had a @ @ @ @ @ 8 km . )

KODIAK CITY, Alaska (AP) - People in Kodiak City reported early Saturday that they felt a moderate earthquake that struck the Kodiak Island region, the Alaska Earthquake Center reported.
The magnitude 4.4 earthquake hit at 12:52 a.m. Saturday and had an epicenter that was 58 miles (94 km) south of Akhiok and 140 miles southwest of Kodiak City, which has about 6,000 residents, the center said. The earthquake had a depth of 5 miles (8 km.)