Federal officials listed seven species of Hawaiian yellow-faced bees as endangered Friday, a first for any bees in the US.
The seven species of bees had been marked for protection by the US Fish & Wildlife Service in 2011 following a yearlong study, but it wasn’t possible at the time because other species were considered a higher priority.
Yellow-faced bees are found elsewhere in the world, but the Hawaiian species are are endemic to the state and pollinate only plant species that are native to the islands. Losing them could have a devastating effect on the ecosystem.
A yellow-faced bee at Kilauea lighthouse, Kauai, Hawaii.
"Pollinators play such an important role," Fish and Wildlife spokesman Brent Lawrence told the Associated Press. "Listing these species as endangered will certainly help draw attention to the threats that have brought them close to extinction and it also allows us to begin the process of bringing about recovery."
The seven bees were added to the list along with three other animal species, the band-rumped storm-petrel, the orangeblack Hawaiian damselfly, and the anchialine pool shrimp.
Another 39 plant species from Hawaii were added to the federal list of endangered and threatened wildlife and plants. The protection takes effect Oct. 31.
El Cajon police distributed video Friday showing officers fatally shooting Alfred Olango Tuesday after responding to a call about someone who was acting erratically.
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Police released video Friday that showed an officer fatally shooting an unarmed black man earlier this week in El Cajon, California.
El Cajon Police Chief Jeff Davis released the video Friday afternoon during a news conference. The video shows Alfred Olango walking quickly around a parking lot. Two officers can then be seen arriving, and moments later shots are heard and Olango falls to the ground.
The video was taken from a fast food restaurant's surveillance camera, and from a witness who was recording on a cell phone.
Davis said the decision to release the video was made with San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and other police officials as a means to alleviate what have been outbursts of violent protests.
"Our goal today is to clarify and hopefully calm the community's concerns," Davis said, adding that officials decided to release the video "based on our collective concern for public safety in the community."
Police killed Olango Tuesday while responding to a call about someone who was acting erratically and possibly mentally unstable. Officers — who were not members of El Cajon's specialized Psychiatric Emergency Response Team — arrived at the scene about 2:10 p.m. and opened fire about within about a minute.
Olango was unarmed at the time of his death. Police have said he was holding a vape device and “placed both hands together on it and extended it towards the officers” before taking a "shooting stance."
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have reached a temporary agreement regarding custody of their six children, BuzzFeed News has confirmed.
Maddox, 15, Pax, 12, Zahara, 11, Shiloh, 10, and 8-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox will remain in Jolie’s care until Oct. 20.
The plan was proposed by the Department of Children Family Services (DCFS), the agency that is currently investigating the welfare of the children after an alleged incident on Sept. 14 between Pitt and one of his children while aboard a jet.
Pitt's camp has insisted from the start that there was no inappropriate physical contact or altercation. Five days after the alleged plane incident, Jolie filed for divorce and requested sole physical custody of their six children.
Per the current agreement, Pitt and Jolie voluntarily agreed to get individual counseling. Pitt also agreed to voluntarily participate in drug and alcohol testing, and visits with his children will be monitored by a therapist, sources close to the couple told BuzzFeed News.
“The supervised visits with the therapist are to deal with some of the trauma the kids have been through,” one source, who spoke on the condition they not be identified, said.
The temporary agreement contains a structured plan that governs how both parents will participate in decision making regarding the children for the time being.
DCFS officials plan to reassess the custody situation and might make other stipulations or parenting suggestions on Oct. 20.
Jolie still intends to seek sole custody. Pitt maintains he is committed to doing what is best for his children and, according to an earlier statement, is hopeful for "an amicable and private resolution for everyone’s benefit."
Two sisters from the US were found dead last week in a luxury resort hotel on the Indian Ocean with no signs of injuries on their bodies, authorities say. An autopsy report cites their cause of death as excess fluid in their lungs; one woman had fluid in her brain as well.
The sisters, 37-year-old Annie Korkki and 42-year-old Robin Korkki, were found unresponsive on Sept. 22 after being helped to their villa the night before following a day of drinking, the newspaper Seychelles Nation reported.
The women were staying on the Seychelles’ main island Mahé in the Maia Luxury Resort and Spa, where villas cost nearly $2,000 a night and include a gazebo, private infinity pool, and butler service.
Seychelles police on Friday released an autopsy report that found both sisters had acute pulmonary edema (a condition caused by excess fluid in the lungs).
The report also listed cerebral edema (excess fluid in the brain) as a contributing cause of Annie's death, local NBC affiliate Kare11 reported.
BuzzFeed News has reached out to Seychelles police for more information.
The butler assigned to the sisters’ villas found them unresponsive on the morning on Sept. 22 and alerted hotel management, who brought in the police, Seychelles Nation reported.
Their bodies showed no signs of violence or physical injuries, police said in a statement to Seychelles News Agency.
Medications found in the room were reportedly confiscated by police for the investigation.
The sisters had been on the island since Sept. 15, posting vacation photos to their Facebook pages with captions like “BEST PLACE EVER!!!!!” They were planning to return home to Chicago and Denver on Sept. 24, according Seychelles News Agency.
The sisters' family, meanwhile, are calling for more information in the case.
Their brother, Chris Korkki, told the Star Tribune that he and his mother, who both live in Colorado, were traveling to the Seychelles to press US and local authorities for information, saying they hadn’t heard any information through official channels.
They also planned to make arrangements to fly the bodies back to the US.
"At this point, the only details we know are the articles flying around online," Chris Korkki said to the Star Tribune describing his sisters as people who "definitely wanted to experience life to the fullest."
BuzzFeed News filed court motions seeking the release of the videos. In it, Trump implied he planned to call Mexicans “rapists” when he announced his run for president.
A Washington DC judge on Friday released video depositions of Donald Trump and Donald Trump Jr.
Trump suggests in one exchange that his incendiary comments about Mexicans made during his campaign kickoff — he said people coming here from the country were "rapists" — were premeditated. Another answer shows Trump bragging about how he signs hundreds of real estate leases but relies on others to actually read and review the documents.
The depositions are related to Trump's $200 million project to transform the Old Post Office building — a taxpayer-owned landmark just five blocks from White House — into a luxury hotel. Trump's company won the right to develop the project by making numerous promises to the government that he failed to keep.
Last month, BuzzFeed News filed a court motion seeking the release of full transcripts of the depositions. In a second motion, BuzzFeed News sought the videos, part of a lawsuit by Trump against restauranteurs who abandoned agreements to operate in the Old Post Office after Trump's comments about Mexicans.
Trump's answers about Mexicans begin around 44:30 in the first video.
Trump said not to believe anything “sources” say about him in the media because unnamed sources “don’t exist.”
Donald Trump on Friday morning tweeted that people should not believe anything unnamed sources quoted in the media say about him. "If they don't name the sources, the sources don't exist," he said.
He said the event’s security team told him that “because it was a private event, first amendment rights were out the window.”
Julia Reinstein
BEDFORD, N.H. — A Baptist pastor said he was forced to remove a "Black Lives Matter" T-shirt he was wearing Thursday at a Donald Trump campaign rally in New Hampshire.
Mark Ferrin, a 65-year-old pastor from Keene, told BuzzFeed News security officers pulled him aside and ordered him to remove the Black Lives Matter shirt he was wearing after he entered the venue.
Ferrin said it wasn't the first time it has happened to him. He wore the same shirt, covered up by another, to a Trump rally in his own town last year. When Trump began speaking about racial issues, Ferrin removed the plain shirt to reveal the Black Lives Matter one.
"Within a minute," a couple of people from Trump's security team told him to either put the plain shirt back on or he'd be kicked out, he said.
"I said to them, 'Why?'" Ferrin said. "And they said, 'because that’s a protest.' I said, 'I thought this was my first amendment right.' And they told me, 'We'll have to escort you out if you don’t put your shirt back on.'"
Ferrin said they told him that "because it was a private event, First Amendment rights were out the window."
BuzzFeed News has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.
Ferrin speculated the security team for the event may have recognized him Thursday, or noticed the neon shirt poking out of the top of his purple polo when they pulled him aside.
"They said they thought it would be better for me if I took it off," Ferrin said. "They didn’t want it to cause any problems."
Security offered to hold onto the shirt so Ferrin could retrieve it after the rally. He complied, in hopes of still being able to educate rally-goers about Black Lives Matter.
“A lot of people here said to me that 'all lives matter,'" he said. "I tried to explain to them that I don’t think all lives actually matter until black lives also matter."
Ferrin said he identifies as a liberal-leaning independent. He considered voting third party, but decided to vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton because "I really don't want Trump to get in."
"Mr. Trump talks about free speech," he said. "Here we are in New Hampshire — 'Live Free Or Die.' I was trying to live free and speak my opinion, and I’m sad and fearful that we’re losing some of those rights."
“I don’t know, maybe she should’ve been a housekeeper.”
Hillary Clinton criticized Donald Trump on Monday during their first presidential debate for mocking 1996 Miss Universe winner Alicia Machado over her weight and race.
“One of the worst things he said was about a woman in a beauty contest,” Clinton said. “He loves beauty contests, supporting them and hanging around them. And he called this woman ‘Miss Piggy.’ Then he called her ‘Miss Housekeeping,’ because she was Latina."
Tuesday morning, Trump responded on Fox and Friends, saying "she gained a massive amount of weight, and it was a real problem.”
Eric Draper / AP
At a Trump rally in Bedford, New Hampshire, on Thursday, supporters told BuzzFeed News the comments have no effect on their support for the Republican candidate.
Many referred to the recent focus on the issue as "political correctness run amok."
Not one person interviewed said the comments had any impact on their support of Trump, and not one said they view the remarks as sexist or racist.
John Locher / AP
Claire, who lives in the area, said she thinks "political correctness has run amok."
Claire initially said she didn't personally witness Trump mocking Machado "so I don’t know if he did that or not," and claimed to not be aware of "Miss Housekeeping" being in referral to a Latina stereotype.
"I don’t think Donald Trump is what you call a politically correct person, but he says what he means," she said.
"I’m a person that says it like it is, and if it hurts your feelings, well, I’m sorry that I hurt your feelings but that’s how I feel," she said.
Julia Reinstein / BuzzFeed News
Jim Edmunds, pictured left, told BuzzFeed News he thinks the comments isare "just a minor distraction from the real issues in the country" and will "certainly not" affect his vote.
“I think to say Trump is racist is ridiculous," Jim Edmunds' son, Matt, pictured right, said. "He’s been in the public eye for 40 years, and he doesn’t have a history of racism."
"It’s just divisive tactics by the liberals and the media," Matt said. "That’s what’s dividing our country — people calling other people racist."
Letras Libres, a culture magazine based in Mexico, has put Donald Trump on the cover of its October issue with the words "American fascist" over his upper lip to mimic a "Hitler mustache."
Letras Libres
The magazine's founder and editor, Enrique Krauze, is an outspoken critic of Trump and wrote a lengthy article for Slate about the Republican nominee's visit to Mexico in August, which he described as "a historical failure."
Yuri Cortez / AFP / Getty Images
Some people thought the cover made its point even without a translation:
Dan Gilbert, the majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, is reportedly giving a 2016 championship ring to every employee who works for the team and their home arena.
According to Cleveland.com, more than 1,000 full-time and part-time employees in the organization will receive the newest NBA championship ring.
While it's not every employee, this does include seat ushers, ticketers, janitors, security guards, and local police officers.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich suggested that "rumors" about Hillary Clinton being given presidential debate questions in advance of Monday's broadcast may be true.
"It would not shock me," Gingrich, a Donald Trump supporter, said on Sean Hannity's radio show Wednesday.
Gingrich added that Clinton and the "news media producers on the left" — such as all of the presidential debate moderators — "operate in the same circle."
"They go to the same cocktail parties, they all know each other," he said. "This whole thing is a set up."
The "rumors" Gingrich was referring to have mainly been perpetuated by a fake online newspaper called the Baltimore Gazette, which regularly publishes untrue stories.
Conservative radio host Bill Mitchell had tweeted the Gazette article the day before Gingrich's interview, and a number of other pro-Trump, alt-right online communities spread similar conspiracy theories, such as Clinton being fed her debate answers through a "communications device." The "device" was almost certainly the lapel mic worn by both candidates.
David Goldman / AP
Because Clinton's "operatives" and the liberal media producers are such "good friends," Gingrich explained, they will continue to form a "tag team" against Trump during the debates.
Gingrich also said that he didn't think Clinton bringing up former Miss Universe Alicia Moachado, whose weight Trump publicly ridiculed and criticized, was "going to work."
"The average American, in the end, is not going to say, 'I'm so offended by something which happened 20 years ago in a beauty pageant that boy, that really turns me off,'" Gingrich told Hannity, calling Moachado's statements a "fraud" set up by the Clinton campaign and "the elite news media."
"I think they become even less likely to agree to this and I think the end result in the end will be it's a diversion and we'll go on to the big issues where Trump is winning on every single one of them," Gingrich concluded.
The FBI had information in a database on Dylann Roof — accused of shooting and killing nine people in a historically black church in South Carolina — that might have prevented him from purchasing the firearm used in June 2015 fatal shooting, according to a new Department of Justice report on gun buyer background checks.
According to the report, the FBI Inspection Division’s review of Roof revealed “a prohibiting incident report” inside the National Data Exchange (N-DEX), which the bureau refers to as “an FBI-developed repository of unclassified criminal justice records.”
The N-DEX is separate from from another database, called the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), which is used by dealers and the FBI to determine whether individuals should be prohibited from buying guns.
The revelation was in an audit by the DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General of gun purchase denials through the NICS system conducted this year.
In a letter shared with BuzzFeed News responding to the audit, the FBI acknowledged the need to explore additional databases. In the letter, the FBI said it has identified two databases that could "assist in making transaction decisions" — one of which is the N-DEX.
The DOJ audit was launched after criticism that a breakdown in the background check system allowed Roof to buy a .45-caliber handgun after a three-day waiting period expired — despite him having previously admitted to drug possession.
After the shooting at Emanuel AME Church, the FBI revealed that Roof first tried to buy the gun in April 2015 from a dealer in West, Columbia, S.C. The dealer called the FBI — which is in charge of the national background check system — seeking approval. The agency did not give it, and asked for more time to investigate Roof's criminal history, which showed that he had recently been arrested.
Two days after Roof tried to buy the gun, a NICS examiner with the FBI found that Roof had been arrested that year on a felony drug charge but not convicted. The arrest alone would not have been enough to deny Roof’s purchase, but further investigation failed to obtain a police report where Roof admitted to possession of a controlled substance, which would have been enough to stop the sale.
It is unclear if that police report is the "prohibiting incident report" referenced in the audit.
The F.B.I. said the NICS examiner did send a request to the Lexington County prosecutor, who had charged Roof with drug possession. However, the prosecutor’s office failed to respond and after the three-day waiting period expired Roof was able to purchase the gun.
In its audit, the Office of the Inspector General reviewed 384 firearms transactions and found that the F.B.I. “appropriately followed its processes in 375 of them (97.7%),” calling the error rate “exceedingly low” — while noting that breakdowns can have “tragic consequences” as with Charleston.
The report also cites “weaknesses” in the FBI’s system for following up on pending gun transactions. They said that FBI told the Inspector General’s office that it intends to implement an automatic feature that send second requests to agencies that fail to respond — like the example in the Roof case.
The top official at Yosemite National Park has announced his retirement amid an ongoing sexual harassment scandal that has engulfed his park and several others across the US.
Superintendent Don Neubacher said this week he will retire, National Parks Service spokesman Tom Crosson confirmed to BuzzFeed News Thursday. Crosson did not provide additional details and Neubacher himself did not respond to BuzzFeed News' request for comment.
Neubacher's retirement comes as dozens of NPS employees have blasted the agency for a culture of rampant sexual harassment. The complaints are not limited to Yosemite, but Neubacher was singled out last week at a congressional hearing for allegedly humiliating and intimidating employees.
Others have described a widespread cultural of sexual harassment in which perpetrators are rarely punished, and more often promoted.
Earlier this week, the Interior Department also said that it was returning to Yosemite as part of an ongoing investigation into harassment at the park.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz also BuzzFeed News Wednesday that Neubacher's wife essentially shielded him from responsibility because she works as a San Francisco-based regional manager for the NPS.
Chaffetz repeatedly said that the overall scandal — which also involved allegations at Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, and Canaveral National Seashore — meant people should be fired and potentially prosecuted criminally.
“I want to see somebody in handcuffs," Chaffetz said of the nation-spanning scandal.
A Louisiana judge on Wednesday granted the release of body cam footage from the fatal shooting of a young boy who was sitting in the front seat of a vehicle his father was driving when officers opened fire on the car.
The two Marksville City deputy marshals involved in the November 2015 shooting, Derrick Stafford and Norris Greenhouse, were indicted by a grand jury the following month, for second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder of 6-year-old Jeremy Mardis.
His father, Chris Few, was critically injured from the incident.
Louisiana State Police Col. Michael Edmonson said during a news conference shortly after the officers’ arrest that he had reviewed the body camera footage and called it “the most disturbing things I have ever seen.”
The footage, shown here in two separate videos, first shows the marshals firing several shots into Few’s car. The boy’s father was unarmed and had his hands in the air inside the car before the shooting began.
In the second clip, one of the marshals can be heard telling a lieutenant that he did not know the child was in the car, nor that he was dead, as they examined the car.
“They got any weapons on ‘em?” another officer asked.
“I have no idea,” the marshal said.
“They got more than one subject in there, too. Y’all know that, right?” a different officer asked. “On the passenger side, a juvenile.”
Louisiana State Police said in Nov. 2015 that the marshals had been chasing Few and fired at the vehicle at “the conclusion of a pursuit.”
The coroner who handled Mardis’ death had said that the marshals had been attempting to serve Few with arrest warrants, but state police later said that they were unable to verify if there were any outstanding warrants for Few.
Authorities then told CBS News that the officers had been following Few after he drove off during an argument with his girlfriend.
BuzzFeed News has reached out to the Louisiana State Police for more information.
WARNING: These videos contain images and content that may be disturbing to some viewers.
Amanda Knox, who was convicted and later exonerated in the killing of her roommate in Italy, has turned her attention to helping others who've been wrongfully convicted.
In an interview with Good Morning America, ahead of the release of a Netflix documentary about the case, Knox spoke about "what it feels like to be wrongfully convicted."
"I can’t go back to the life I had before," she said, adding that others who've been exonerated have reached out to her and were a big part of her healing process.
"It's my turn now to turn my attention to them," she said. "Their stories are important."
Knox was convicted by an Italian court for the murder of Meredith Kutcher, her roommate while studying abroad in Perugia, Italy, in 2007. Knox spent four years in prison before the conviction was overturned in 2011.
Knox returned to the US and was convicted again in 2014. A year later, Italy's highest court overturned that decision, ending the possibility for any further appeals.
"What I'm trying to convey is a regular person like me, just a kid who was studying abroad, who loves languages, could be caught up in this nightmare where they're portrayed as something they're not," Knox said on GMA Thursday. "I think I'm trying to explain what it feels like to be wrongfully convicted, to either be this terrible monster or to be just a regular person who is vulnerable."
Knox, who said she is moving on with her life and plans to attend graduate school soon, said she wants to use the attention her case received to help other people who have been exonerated.
"A lot of times their stories go overlooked and I think that it’s our moral duty to examine the cases of a wrongfully convicted person from the perspective of their humanity," Knox said. "To really demand that we have objective looks at their cases and the facts of their case as well as them as people as opposed to demonizing in the way that I was."
Knox said that in the year since she has been exonerated, she has worked on redeveloping her relationships with her family and friends.
The documentary will stream on Netflix beginning September 30.
This photo was posted by 18-year-old Andrew Nguyen. He’s from Arlington, Texas, and goes to The University of Texas at Arlington. His friend Diana Le and him had to trade pants so she could go to class.
Which meant he was left chilling in the bathroom in her short shorts while she took her quiz.
Courtesy of Andrew Nguyen
“Basically, we were in the library and she was studying really hard for this exam and I was just doing my other homework,” he said.
Then right before she left, Le started panicking because she realized she didn’t have pants for the lab. Nguyen said they asked everyone on the floor if they had extra pants, but no one did.
“A lot of the labs have dress code for safety conduct, which is understandable to an extent,” he said. “They literally make you wear pants and closed toe shoes to even get in the class.”
So they traded, Le took his pants, and Nguyen just sat on the toilet in her short shorts until she got out.
The tweet has gone super viral. It’s currently been retweeted almost 75,000 times. Nguyen can't believe his story about wearing Le's shorts has spread so far
Widespread sexual harassment has been rampant across the National Parks Service for years, with perpetrators escaping punishment and officials doing little to curb the problems, according to a growing chorus of the agency's own employees.
The allegations form a constellation of harassment that stretches across the entire country. Implicated parks include the Grand Canyon in Arizona, Yosemite in California, Yellowstone in Montana, and Canaveral National Seashore in Florida. And now, lawmakers want to know why, apparently, no one has been fired or even seriously disciplined over the claims.
"This is a culture that has festered for the last couple of decades," Rep. Jason Chaffetz told BuzzFeed News on Wednesday, adding that "people need to be fired, if not prosecuted."
The most recent revelations came during a hearing with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform last week. In a tense back and forth during that hearing, Chaffetz asked Michael Reynolds, deputy director of operations at the National Park Service, how many people, if any, had been fired for sexual harassment or similar offenses.
"I don't have any recollection of any at this point," Reynolds replied.
Chaffetz was asking specifically about allegations at Yosemite, where 20 out of 21 employees interviewed by investigators described "a hostile work environment."
One of those employees, Kelly Martin, the chief of fire and aviation management at the park and one of the most prominent voices to raise sexual harassment allegations, has described decades of harassment. In written testimony to the House committee, she recalled a park ranger spying on her while she showered in 1987. Martin reported the incident to her supervisors, but out of fear of being ostracized didn't file charges.
Martin said she later left the NPS for another job, then returned to the agency in 2006 — only to discover that the man who had been looking at her in the shower all those years earlier was still working there and had been promoted.
During the hearing, Chaffetz added that the man was arrested in 2000 for "peeping at naked women at a YMCA." In 2001, the man was involved in "voyeurism issues," Chaffetz said, "and again nothing happens."
Rep. Trey Gowdy, referring to the shower incident, suggested the matter should be treated as a crime, saying "you don’t need a policy change and you don’t need a new memo, you need handcuffs and a trip to the sex offender registry."
Martin also described several more recent incidents of harassment in her testimony, and said the problem is widespread.
"Dozens of people, the majority of whom are women, are being bullied, belittled, disenfranchised and marginalized from their roles as dedicated professionals," she added in her written testimony.
Martin singled out park superintendent Don Neubacher for publicity humiliating and intimidating park staffers. Neubacher is married to a San Francisco-based regional manager for the park service.
"You have somebody who is essentially protected and empowered by his wife," Chaffetz said.
Yosemite National Park as seen on Oct. 2, 2013.
Tammy Webber / AP
On Sunday, Neubacher apologized, telling staffers in an email that "it was never my intention, in any way, to offend any employee over the course of the six and a half years I have been superintendent."
The alleged problems don't stop at Yosemite. In written testimony, Yellowstone employee Robert Hester said that he was "shocked and amazed at what I saw and heard in regard to the talk and acceptance of sexual exploitation" of women at the park. He spoke specifically of one female employee who did not actually do any work, but was "kept drunk" and was in a relationship with a male supervisor. He also "witnessed open sexual groping" and said two "female employees were spoken of and treated like whores."
Hester also said there was no accountability.
"No, firings, no resignations, no consequences, after humiliation, abuse,
discrimination, reprisals, and harassment are imposed upon decent, hardworking, and honest people," he testified.
At Florida's Canaveral National Seashore, an investigation earlier this year found a years-long "pattern of sexual harassment" involving law enforcement supervisor Edwin Correa. According to the report, a criminal investigation into the allegations was opened by the local police department.
Despite the allegations and investigations, both Correa and park superintendent Myrna Palfrey were not fired. Instead, they were told to work at home and retained their salaries — $82,898 and $116,489, respectively — according to Florida Today.
An Interior Department report released earlier this year detailed sexual harassment at the Grand Canyon. The report was prompted by a letter from 13 current and former Grand Canyon employees who said that over 15 years they saw “discrimination, retaliation, and a sexually hostile work environment.” Investigators also found 22 other people who either saw or experienced harassment, the report states.
One of the people who said they experienced harassment at Grand Canyon was Rachel Brady, who also submitted written testimony to the House. She said she was harassed during a 2013 trip down the Colorado River with two men — an area "without cell service, access to a radio" — to the point that she "had nightmares about being alone" with a man on a boat.
According to Brady, her complaint about the incidents was met with anger and the environment became so stressful that she was placed on doctor-approved leave, and eventually resigned in 2015.
A view from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon on May, 18, 2015.
Mladen Antonov / AFP / Getty Images
Another woman, Michelle Kearney, also testified that while working on a river trip one male employee exposed himself and watched her change clothes. She later quit her job "because of the hostile environment" and began working with another agency, but has since become worried for her safety after word got out that she spoke up about the harassment.
"I am now terrified to work in the Grand Canyon for fear of retaliation by the
perpetrators that I had reported," she said in testimony.
Jeff Ruch — executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Protection, which has criticized the NPS over alleged misconduct — told BuzzFeed News the Grand Canyon's river district was being "run like a buccaneer ship."
The Interior Department report details other incidents involving trips down the Colorado that included one male employee taking a picture under the dress of a female employee; a male employee repeatedly propositioning a female employee for sex; a male employee drunkenly yelling at a female employee while holding an ax; and various incidents of sexual touching. The allegations go back more than a decade.
The report states that alleged harassment wasn't adequately investigated.
Another Grand Canyon employee, Mark Nebel, also testified that the findings of the report "are unfortunately symptomatic of a larger problem and culture of abuse, harassment, a hostile work environment, and intimidation" that have been "entrenched in management at the Grand Canyon National Park since before I arrived here in 2009."
The view as the sun sets at Grand Canyon National Park on April 13, 2015.
Jim Urquhart / Reuters
For it's part, the NPS says it is trying to tackle the problem. Agency spokesman Jeremy Barnum told BuzzFeed News the park service has a "zero tolerance policy regarding harassment" and is rolling out a number of initiatives meant to gauge and correct the problem.
"We definitely recognize that there is a problem," Barnum said. "We take those allegations extremely seriously."
Among the measures the NPS is implementing is a survey that will allow employees to report harassment, additional training, a telephone hotline, and an ombudsman. When asked about discipline taken, Barnum said he couldn't comment on specific cases but that the agency was "actively pursuing disciplinary actions as appropriate."
"We recognize that we need to change the culture that has been allowed to exist," he added.
But for critics calling for proverbial blood, those measures aren't nearly enough.
Ruch said the problems at the NPS extend to administrative and "self-imposed fiscal problems," and called on Jonathan Jarvis — the agency's top official — to resign.
"We think he’s been one of the worst directors of the park service in recent memory, he said. "In our mind the leadership has sort of lost the vision of what they’re supposed to be doing."
Ruch described former Grand Canyon superintendent Dave Uberuaga — who oversaw the park during a period when the harassment allegedly took place — as Jarvis' "hand picked protégé." Uberuaga opted to retire earlier this year as the harassment allegations gained attention.
Chaffetz said NPS employees "need to get fired and prosecuted." Though he didn't say specifically who should lose their job, he criticized the elevation earlier this year of Reynolds from running the human resources division of the NPS to the agency's second in command.
"Reynolds, with all these problems, got a promotion," Chaffetz said, adding that the trend seems to be promoting, rather than punishing, people in the agency.
The congressman expressed doubt that the NPS can adequately be reformed with Jarvis and Reynolds at the helm and criticized the employee training plan, saying "we’re not one powerpoint away from solving this problem."
Instead, Chaffetz had another solution: "I want to see somebody in handcuffs."
California on Wednesday became the first state to require that undocumented immigrants of their right to an attorney before being interviewed while in custody.
The law, commonly referred to as the Truth Act, also requires that police departments give an immigrants’ attorney or advocate the same information they shared with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). A public forum must also be held every year to disclose local law enforcement’s role in federal immigration policy.
"Behind closed doors, ICE has inserted itself into the fragile relationship between local police and immigrant communities by requesting local police take on the role of federal immigration agents,” said California Assemblyman Rob Bonta, who authored the Truth Act. “With today’s action, California leads the nation with sensible immigration policies that protect the rights of immigrants and shine a light on flawed federal priorities.”
Jessica Karp Bansal, staff attorney with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said the public, for the most part, is unaware that such basic rights are not afforded to immigrants facing deportation.
"It's shocking, the level of due process violations in immigration given the stakes are so high," Bansal told BuzzFeed News.
Colorado and New York City have similar policies in place, but are not the result of state legislation, Bansal added.
Edwin Tamara / AP
In a bill signing message, Brown said the original bill would have constrained local police from communicating with federal immigration officials, noting that they would have been prevented from notifying ICE they had someone in custody they were seeking.
Local police departments were already weary of working with ICE.
Over the years, more than 320 jurisdictions in the US have passed ordinances or issued executive actions prohibiting local officials from working with ICE. Some were driven in part by a federal judge’s ruling last year in Oregon, which found an immigrant's civil rights were violated when she was detained on an ICE "hold," essentially a request for local officials to keep someone in custody until the federal agency can reach them.
California will no longer put a deadline on the prosecution of rape and other sexual assaults.
Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday signed the Justice For Victims Act, which eliminates the criminal statute of limitations on rape, sodomy, lewd or lascivious acts, continuous sexual abuse of a child, oral copulation, and sexual penetration. Previously, a perpetrator could only be convicted within 10 years of the crime.
“Rapists should never be able to evade legal consequences simply because an arbitrary time limit has expired,” State Sen. Connie Leyva said in a statement. “There must never be an expiration date on justice!”
The bill had received unanimous support from Republicans and Democrats in the state legislature. The California Women’s Law Center was involved in drafting its language, and local district attorneys and the California Police Chiefs Association also supported it. Six California women who have accused comedian Bill Cosby of sexually assaulting them testified before lawmakers.
One of them, Lili Bernard, visited the office of each legislator with a box of evidence she had saved over the years related to her case. Bernard first went public with her story more than 20 years after she said Cosby drugged, raped, and threatened her. After learning her case could not even be considered by prosecutors because the statute of limitations had passed, she joined with other advocates and survivors of sexual assault under the banner of End Rape SOL to lobby for the bill.
The law goes into effect in 2017. Though it does not personally affect women like Bernard, she told BuzzFeed News earlier this month it was important to fight for others so they never face the same circumstances.
“We’re trying to turn our trauma into triumph for future rape survivors,” she said.
The law does not lower the standard necessary for a conviction. Experts have said work remains to be done in processing and preserving rape kits, as well as ensuring that law enforcement, prosecutors, and juries are not swayed by stereotypes about sexual assault.
Rich Pedroncelli / AP
Statutes of limitations for rape and sexual assault vary wildly across the country. California — the most populous state — now joins the growing list to abolish a statute of limitations for at least some sexual crimes.
Earlier this month, Leyva told BuzzFeed News she hopes the law sends a message to survivors that California takes rape as the serious crime it is.
“We know it affects your life forever,” she said. “We just want to make sure you always have the opportunity to seek justice.”
The school said it will consider disciplinary actions, including suspension, against the students who allegedly used racial slurs.
The University of Missouri is investigating an incident in which two black students reported that racial slurs were used against them by other students on Tuesday night.
The fraternity's national organization said it was "aware of a verbal altercation" that took place on Tuesday and was working with the university to learn more about the incident.
"Racism and sexism have no place in our Fraternity and we expect our members to be positive contributors to inclusive campus environments," the organization said.
A teenage suspect was quickly taken into custody, officials said Wednesday.
Mike Ellis / AP
Two students and one teacher were shot Wednesday at an elementary school in Townville, South Carolina, after a teenager opened fire, officials said.
A teenage suspect was taken into custody and authorities said they do not believe anyone else was involved.
The shooting occurred around 1 p.m., an Anderson County sheriff's deputy told local news station WYFF.
The teacher and two children were taken to a nearby hospital. One of the students' injuries did not appear life-threatening, but the status of the other victims was not immediately known, officials said.
The Anderson County coroner also reported that a death on a small, gravel road behind the school was connected to the shooting, but did not specify how, or who it was.
WYFF via AP
Students were evacuated to Oakdale Baptist Church, where parents were told to come pick them up.
One parent told WYFF that her daughter and her classmates went to the bathroom as shots rang out.
"All the kids were crying, the teacher was all shaken up," she said in tears. "It's just so sad."
An entire section on Islamic history for most 7th graders currently taught in Tennessee middle schools has been removed from the proposed draft of a new social studies curriculum.
A Tennessee Board of Education curriculum draft for the 7th graders — where world religions are taught — is currently available for public comment online until late-October. Removed was a section entitled “Islamic World, 400 A.D./C.E. - 1500s,” after a summer-long revision process, The Kingport-Times Newsreported.
Here are the current sections of the proposed 7th grade social studies standards draft:
Tennessee State Board of Education / Via apps.tn.gov
“Through the review website, we solicited a wide variety of public input and feedback over four months at the beginning of 2016,” Sara Heyburn, executive director of the State Board of Education, told the paper.
BuzzFeed News has reached out to the state Board of Education.
“Through hours of intensive work this summer, the educator advisory team used that feedback, along with their expertise, to develop a revised set of social studies standards that are now online for public review.”
The review process occurs every six years and the Standards Recommendation Committee will make a recommendation in early 2017, the Kingport-Times News reported. The new curriculum will not be introduced until the 2018-2019 school year.
Michael Hughes, a Sullivan County Board of Education Chairman in north-east Tennessee, told the paper that the changes may have been because of concerned parents.
“They’re in favor of just (taking it out of the standards). I don’t believe they want it taught at all,” Hughes told the paper.
For years, parents and residents in Tennessee — in addition to other states in the US — have been at odds with Islam being taught in public school curriculums, with residents often claiming that Islamic indoctrination or conversion was afoot.
In December, 2015, many parents were upset in Maury County, Tennessee, when they learned that 7th grade students were taught the Five Pillars of Islam — the basic tenets of the faith. In August of this year, a photo showing children at a mosque in Tennessee in a position of prayer were widely circulated, prompting fears of indoctrination. The photo was not in Tennessee, and has been circulating on anti-Islamic websites since 2011, according to the fact-checking website, Snopes.
So acute was the fear that a school board member in Williamson County, Beth Burgos, introduced a bill that would “prevent pro-Islam, anti-Christian Judeo bias in class instruction,” the Tennesseanreported in October 2015. Earlier this year, the state House in Tennessee passed a bill where “schools may not indoctrinate, promote, or show bias to a religion.” The word “promote” was later replaced with “proselytize,” the Tennesseanalso reported.
According to the The Kingport-Times News, the removed sections contained many basic and fundamental aspects regarding the foundation, spread and tenants of the world’s second largest religion. Some of the removed material includes “the physical location and features of the Arabian Peninsula to the expansion of Muslim rule and cultural diffusion of Islam and the Arabic language, the origins of Islam and the life and teaching of Muhammad, including the historical connection to Christianity and Judaism,” the article said.
In addition, understanding “the Qur’an and Sunnah, different sections within Islam, the Sunnis and Shi’ites, contributions of Muslim scholars, trade routes of Arab society, art and architecture, including the Taj Mahal,” among other aspects, were also gone with the section.
According to the Tennessee Education Standards Review, which can be accessed online by the public, other aspects of Islam can be found in a section titled “Southwest Asia and North Africa: 400-1500s CE,” and do have some basic information on Islam, but, are under public review and therefore, may not be included.
Tennessee State Board of Education / Via apps.tn.gov
The public can review the standards and can recommend that the board of education should “Keep it,” “Needs to be reviewed,” or “remove it.”
