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The discovery of more dangerous and very aggressive mosquitoes near a San Jose cemetery is prompting Santa Clara County officials to ask residents to remove standing water and permit pest control teams access to forestall the insects from becoming a long-lasting threat.

The invasive mosquitoes can transmit dengue fever, yellow fever and other serious diseases and in addition threaten “our way of life” because they feed in the course of the day, unlike the state's native mosquitoes. The district warned in a press release on Friday.

“It feeds almost exclusively on humans and does not fly long distances; it ventures less than 500 feet from its hatching site,” the county said.

Many of California's native mosquitoes are most energetic within the morning and evening when temperatures are cool and can bite at any time of day.

According to the California Department of Public Health, even a small variety of these “can become an extreme nuisance.”

As with other mosquito species, only the females bite and hunt people outdoors and indoors. According to the county's vector control district, one person feeds on multiple times. “They're known as 'ankle biters' because They tend to bite people on the ankle area“said the district.

The half-inch-long black-and-white striped mosquito was first found in Santa Clara County in 2022 and has been identified this year in San Jose neighborhoods as well as Santa Clara and Gilroy District crews use pesticides to try to eradicate them. was identified in Contra Costa County – twice this year – Santa Cruz County in 2022 and in Solano County, where it has an established populationaccording to county and state records. However, it was found in San Mateo County in 2013 hasn't been seen there since 2015. The style was also found in Alameda County about a decade ago, but it is not believed to be established.

The insects are known to transmit dengue fever – often called “broken bone fever” due to its painful symptoms – in addition to chikungunya, yellow fever and Zika.

Cedars-Sinai Hospital responded to the cases in Los Angeles County, noting that global warming is “expanding the reach” of disease-carrying mosquitoes.

Aedes aegypti “is known to invade new areas by transporting containers contaminated with mosquito eggs,” said the Santa Clara County Consumer and Environmental Protection Agency.

The insects are “container breeders” that prefer to put their eggs in containers full of water or on the stems of plants growing in water, the agency said. The eggs may even survive for a 12 months when dried – they’ll hatch when wet again, the agency said.

“They lay eggs in a container as small as a bottle cap,” the agency said.

The public “plays a critical role in controlling the spread of this mosquito,” Santa Clara County said.

County officials urged residents to examine their properties for “even the smallest amount of standing water” and dump it. “Cleaning and scrubbing birdbaths, pet bowls and other containers is a good way to remove any remaining eggs, which are about half a millimeter in size and look like tiny particles of dirt to the naked eye,” the county said.

Rain barrels, cisterns and irrigation drains ought to be screened with superb mesh, and residents should repair leaky outdoor faucets and broken sprinkler heads, the county advised.

Two mosquitoes were found near Oak Hill Memorial Park, a big cemetery about three miles south of downtown San Jose, Santa Clara County said Friday. Vector Control District staff “implement a thorough eradication plan in the area, capture adult mosquitoes, inspect properties to locate mosquito larvae and habitats … and treat any larvae they find with pesticides,” the county said.

“The district will expand its mosquito control methods as needed to include methods such as backpack spraying and large-scale larvicide spraying, conducted using truck-mounted equipment and delivered in a series of treatments.” Control methods will also be used as needed be expanded to incorporate treatments to regulate mosquitoes in adults.”

Edgar Nolasco, director of the county's Consumer and Environmental Protection Agency, urged residents of affected areas to “cooperate with county staff and allow them to inspect their properties for mosquitoes and mosquito habitat.”

Now it’s The city of Fremont announced this on Saturday County officials had received reports of “aggressive, daytime biting mosquitoes in Fremont.” Although the insects are “incredibly annoying and make the outside world unsightly,” they’re a species native to California that doesn’t transmit disease to humans. San Mateo County has reported that the gold color Aedes dorsalis “can be a major pest to humansand “Bites aggressively during the day.”

Originally published: October 6, 2024 at 5:30 am

ST. LOUIS — Early last week, floodwaters in rural Minnesota pushed debris against a dam greater than a century old and carved a path around it, eroding the riverbank so badly that almost all of a house collapsed into the river. Just a few days later, heavy rains damaged a dam that stores drinking water for Houston, forcing authorities to issue a warning of a possible breach.

“Something like this could happen, and it has happened across the country,” said Del Shannon, former president of the U.S. Society on Dams.

There are about 90,000 major dams within the United States. At least 4,000 of them are in poor or unsatisfactory condition and will cause lack of life or harm to the environment in the event that they fail, in keeping with data from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. They have to be inspected, upgraded and even emergency repairs.

That's a difficult problem, partially because dams within the U.S. are about 60 years old on average. Protecting the dams from many years of damage and tear requires costly maintenance, and resources to repair the issues are sometimes scarce, Shannon says.

Blue Earth County owns the Rapidan Dam, a 1910 hydroelectric dam in Minnesota that also stands but was badly damaged last week within the second-worst flood in its history. The dam has not produced electricity since previous floods dried up that small income. The county of about 70,000 residents had considered spending $15 million on repairs or demolishing the dam at a price of $82 million.

“The dollar amounts we’re talking about are large amounts for a county our size,” said County Administrator Bob Meyer.

A government inspection in May found no major defects within the Rapidan Dam, which doesn’t pose a significant threat to the general public within the event of a complete failure. A government investigation is now expected. During floods, debris clogged the dam and compelled the river to flow around it. The damage was likely not related to the dam's need for repairs, Meyer said.

Dams are designed to resist great stress, but sometimes one flood is simply too much and causes damage, says Martin McCann Jr., director of the National Performance of Dams Program at Stanford University. Climate change could exacerbate the issue in some parts of the country. A warming atmosphere retains more moisture, allowing heavy rainstorms to release more water.

In Texas, officials said flooding had damaged the spillway of the Lake Livingston Dam about 65 miles northeast of Houston. They assured the general public that the dam was not in imminent danger of breaking.

The overwhelming majority of dams are protected, and even when one fails, fatalities rarely occur. But large dams store enormous amounts of water and energy and subsequently have enormous potential for destruction downstream. That's why even rare problems are of such concern to state and federal regulators.

In 2017, for instance, heavy rains damaged the spillway on the Oroville Dam in California, forcing nearly 190,000 downstream residents to evacuate. And after storms in 2020, the Edenville Dam in Michigan burst. Water rushed downstream and overwhelmed one other dam, causing it to fail as well.

John France is an engineering consultant who led the teams that investigated each incidents. He said that when many dams were built many years ago, engineers had less knowledge about how you can withstand flooding. And although many dams were built removed from populated areas, circumstances modified as towns and villages spread.

“The danger is gradually increasing,” France said.

After his teams' research, he has seen some improvements. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which issues hydroelectric licenses, has been conducting more thorough inspections that search for weaknesses within the design and construction of dams. Some states have already considered implementing such reviews, and France hopes FERC's more comprehensive approach will probably be expanded to state oversight programs.

Most dams are privately owned and there is a large need for resources — repairing lots of the nation's major dams alone could cost $34 billion, in keeping with a report from the Association of State Dam Safety Officials. Minnesota, for instance, regulates about 1,000 dams and contributes among the funding, but officials said there may be “a gap between demonstrated need and available funds.” The Biden administration's infrastructure bill provided a rare push for improvements. Dam owners are chargeable for the protection of their dams and might be held liable if something goes unsuitable.

“We're one step away from having bake sales to help dam owners,” joked John Roche, board member of the Association of State Dam Safety Officials. State agencies are attempting to assist owners find grants so that they can afford improvements. There is help, but the necessity is even greater.

In southeastern Nebraska, the Nemaha Natural Resources District covers eight counties and collects about $4 million annually in a small property tax. It uses that cash to take care of about 380 structures – the overwhelming majority of that are dams – including Wilson Creek Dam 9-C, an 840-foot-long earthen structure in-built the Sixties for flood control.

“Funding is probably our biggest struggle,” said district general manager Kyle Hauschild.

After a poor inspection end in 2022, the district rushed to repair a rusty spillway on the Wilson Creek Dam. The district keeps a maintenance list and prioritizes older structures, but when the general public doesn't see an issue with a dam, it tends to ignore it, Hauschild said.

States have limited power to pressure owners to repair problems. Roche said regulators attempt to work cooperatively, but when that doesn't work, they may also pressure owners through more confrontational enforcement proceedings.

“It requires great care to pursue enforcement actions as they can often take many years to resolve,” Roche said.

In Colorado, regulators consider whether a dam poses a threat to humanity and the severity of its deficiencies to assist them set review and funding priorities.

If an owner doesn't make the required improvements, authorities can hit with a “regulatory hammer,” forcing owners to store less water behind their dams to cut back pressure and ensure safety. That can trigger motion — less water in a reservoir, for instance, can affect dam owners' ability to deliver water to the communities they serve, said John Hunyadi, who oversees dam safety in Colorado.

But in lots of states, authorities cannot order the worst owners to demolish their dams, France says.

“All government agencies should have that authority,” he said, adding that the state must have the facility to accomplish that itself if a property owner refuses.

Months of relentless clashes between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah have Mass evacuations of the civilian population And widespread deathInjuries and destruction.

The violence has intensified for the reason that starting of June, accompanied by increasingly heated rhetoricBoth sides have prevented mutual attacks from escalating into full-blown war, recognizing the likely catastrophic consequences. The query is whether or not this fragile containment can hold in the longer term.

In threatening language, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said proposed on 23 June that more of the country's troops would soon be released to maneuver to the north to fight Hezbollah. A couple of days earlier, CNN reported that Israel moved Iron Dome batteries from the south to the north in preparation for a possible war with Hezbollah.

As a Scholar of Lebanon and IsraelI actually have closely followed the domestic political dynamics in each countries.

The stakes are enormous, and the implications, for my part, go far beyond the continuing conflict between Israel and Hamas. The tensions between Hezbollah and Israel have exposed the basic incontrovertible fact that the war in Gaza is in some ways also a war for dominance in the broader Middle East. It risks drawing the United States even deeper into this potential abyss, which could put Washington able to increased diplomatic efforts to maintain the violence between Israel and Hezbollah under control.

Regional dynamics

Hezbollah, a gaggle that is taken into account a proxy for Iran but has its own domestic concerns, risks turning Lebanon right into a War undesirable for many LebaneseAlthough Hezbollah professes solidarity with Hamas and the Palestinian cause, it’s motivated not by the worldwide call for justice for the Palestinians, but fairly by its support for Iran's long-term goal of destroying Israel and establishing a Palestinian state ruled by Hamas.

Iran’s regional rivals, especially Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, are closely watching how Iran exploits the Gaza conflict and growing violence on the Lebanese-Israeli border to advance its regional interests. supported by Iran in its war against Ukraine, can be monitoring the conflict and considers it as means weakening the United States.

Israel, then again, is managing the developing crisis on its northern border from a position of accelerating weakness in its struggle for regional dominance with Iran. Critics have accused Israel's far-right government there may be an absence of sufficient strategic eager about the objectives of the present conflict.

Such strategic myopia, they argue, ignores Israel's need to keep up positive relations with its regional and global allies, primarily the United States.

Instead of devastating Gaza after the October 7 massacres by Palestinian militants, Israel's leadership could have used the war to strengthen its relations with the Sunni-majority states within the Middle East and leverage its alliance with the US to secure regional support for the Jewish state. But the Israeli government's stubborn refusal to entertain any ideas about constructive political engagement with the Palestinians is resulting in a drastic erosion of Israel's relations with regional actors who would otherwise be willing to side with the Jewish state against Iran.

Potential for conflict between the US and Iran

A full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah would likely set all the region ablaze, involving Iran and its proxies, and will also drag the United States right into a direct confrontation with Tehran – a horror scenario that President Joe Biden has been trying to forestall since October 7.

Unlike the war against Hamas – by which American support for Israel is proscribed to diplomacy and arms deliveries – a war with Hezbollah could force the United States to provide concrete combat assistanceas it happened in April as a countermeasure to retaliatory strikes by Iran and its proxies against Israel.

Hasan Nasrallah, Secretary General of Hezbollah, has even expanded the geographical scope of the conflict by Cyprus threatenedand stated that his organization would attack the island if it cooperated with Israel in the course of the war.

Washington is clearly very concerned about the implications of an escalation of the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. Since the primary days of the Gaza war, the US has been attempting to negotiate an Israeli-Lebanese agreement This would mean the withdrawal of Hezbollah troops from the border area and their substitute by international troops and the Lebanese army.

In return, in line with the American proposal, Israel and Lebanon would form a border commission to resolve Lebanese and Israeli grievances in regards to the course of their shared border line once and for all.

But the continuing war of attrition between Hezbollah and Israel is making such an agreement increasingly difficult.

In Israel, pressure from conservative and non secular circles and from residents of the north, the war with Hezbollah is escalating. Current surveys suggest that nearly all of Israeli Jews would welcome the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) going to war against Hezbollah “with all their might”.

The Israeli Defense Forces, then again, are sending contradictory messages. Their spokesman recently delivered an aggressive message: the moment of truth is getting closer regarding the choice to go to war. Meanwhile, senior generals, including the Chief of Staff, have stated that after nine months of fighting the Israeli armed forces are overstretched and exhaustedand the opening of a front against Hezbollah cannot happen before the military receives latest forces and is reorganized.

Israel in a vulnerable situation

As for Netanyahu, who once cold and risk-averse political realist is now risking a scenario that could lead on to a complete strategic defeat for the country and undermine the safety and viability of an Israel integrated into regional politics. great concern since January If Netanyahu believes that an open war with Hezbollah would serve his narrow personal interests, he could force Israel into that war. We could also be nearing the moment when that fear becomes a reality.

Hezbollah, then again, continues to place pressure on Israel, increasing the danger of a full-scale conflagration because it recognizes that Israel could also be in its most vulnerable situation – possibly for the reason that 1948 war.

Given Iran and Hezbollah’s long-term strategic goals of eliminating Israel, continuing this war of attrition actually pays off, even when the worth is still economically and the political decline of Lebanon.

The American And the French – Lebanon's former colonial creator and ruler – has worked hard to seek out diplomatic solutions to the crisis. Hezbollah has said from the outset that it could stop its cross-border shelling if a ceasefire agreement was reached in Gaza.

But at this point, neither Israel nor the Hamas leadership appear to want to achieve that time. In fact, the post-October 7 scenario hoped for by Hamas – that its allies within the so-called Axis of Resistance will enter the war and attack Israel on multiple fronts – only appears to be becoming more likely.

In short, the Lebanese-Israeli border is currently an explosive front that’s susceptible to explosion.

Of course, continued mutual deterrence between Israel and Hezbollah could hold either side back, very similar to mutual assured destruction (MAD) held the US and the Soviet Union back in the course of the Cold War. And the US can be aggressively attempting to put out the flames.

But with no major diplomatic breakthrough, the situation is bound to proceed to simmer and will escalate right into a far deadlier war than the one which has been happening since October 7.

In recent years, Republican lawmakers in 35 states have introduced greater than 150 bills to limit academic freedom on campus, 21 of which have now been enacted.

This laws is described intimately in a brand new White Paper published by the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedoma project of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). Overall, this legislative assault has undermined academic freedom and institutional autonomy in five distinct and overlapping ways.

1. Academic Intelligence Orders

As detailed within the report, state legislators have passed 99 classroom gag orders through the 2021, 2022, and 2023 legislative sessions. All 10 of those gag orders were passed by Republican governors. These bills claim that teaching about structural racism, gender identity, or unvarnished portrayals of American history harms students.

These news blackouts are widely referred to as “divisive concepts” or “anti-CRT” laws. CRT is an acronym for Critical Race Theory, an instructional framework that sees racism as deeply rooted in America’s legal and political system. The partisan activists, like Christopher Rufushave used this term to explain a “moral panic“ as a part of a political response to the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests.

For example, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed House Bill 7 in April 2022, which “Stop the Woke Law.” The law defines a “divisive term” as one of eight vague claims. These include claims that “virtues similar to merit, excellence, exertions, fairness, neutrality, objectivity, and racial blindness are racist or sexist.”

US District Judge Mark Walker described this law as “downright dystopian.” He noted that the federal government’s lawyers themselves have admitted that the law would likely make any classroom discussion of the merits of affirmative motion illegal. The vague wording of this news blackout has a deterrent effectThis leaves many teachers unclear about what they’re legally allowed to debate at school and what they are usually not.

2. Prohibitions on DEI programs

Expanding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) services on campus was a significant consequence of the 2020 protests for racial justice. But in 2023, the legislative backlash was in full swing. During the 2023 legislative session, 40 bills were introduced to limit DEI efforts, seven of which became law.

For example, Texas Senate Bill 17 was based directly on the tactic developed by Rufo and Manhattan Institutea right-leaning think tank. SB 17 banned diversity statements and considerations in hiring. It also restricted diversity training on campus and defunded DEI offices on Texas public university campuses.

As detailed within the AAUP white paper, only a handful of individuals testified in favor of SB 17, and just about all of them had declared or undeclared ties to right-wing think tanks. In contrast, greater than 100 Educators and residents testified or got here forward to testify against the law. Since its passage, Texas public universities have seen the closure of DEI programs and the reduction of campus services for minority students. For example, after lawmakers accused the University of Texas-Austin of violating SB 17, the university was forced to shut its DEI office. This affected Dismissal of 40 employees.

3. Weakening of the term of office

Tenure protections were put in place to guard faculty members from external political pressure. Tenure protections allow faculty members to show, conduct research, and speak publicly without fear of losing their jobs because their statements anger those in power. However, as detailed within the report, 20 bills were introduced through the 2021, 2022, and 2023 legislative sessions, with two bills weakening tenure protections becoming law. in Florida and one other in Texas.

In Florida, for instance, SB 7044 created a post-tenure system Review, which allows administrators to conduct a review of tenured faculty every five years. The law also empowers administrators to fireside those whose performance is deemed unsatisfactory. The law also requires faculty to post course content in a public and searchable database.

The AAUP criticizes the lawand noted that SB 7044 “significantly weakened tenure in the Florida State University System and, if fully implemented as written,” would “effectively eliminate employment protections.” Now even tenured faculty have reason to fear that what they teach may very well be construed as a “divisive concept,” CRT, or promoting DEI.

4. Required content

In addition, legislators in several states have passed laws mandating diversity of opinion, establishing recent academic programs and centers to show conservative content, and shifting curriculum decision-making away from teachers.

For example, Florida Senate Bill 266 expanded the Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education on the University of Florida, without faculty involvement or oversight. The original proposal for the Hamilton Center stated that the goal of the middle was to “a conservative agenda“ within the curriculum.

SB 266 also gave the boards that oversee the university and college systems the ability to make your mind up which courses count toward the core curriculum. That power was exercised in November 2023 after Manny Diaz, Florida's education commissioner, asked the boards to an introduction to the sociology courseHe explained on social media that the discipline “hijacked by left-wing activists and no longer serves its intended purpose as a general education course for students.”

5. Weakening of accreditation

The accreditation process is a narrowly defined area of ​​academic administration by which colleges and universities usually undergo external peer review. These institutional performance reviews are conducted by nonprofit accreditation agencies.

As detailed within the report, six bills were introduced through the 2021-2023 legislative sessions – three of which were passed – that weaken the accreditation process and thus make it easier for political interests to influence higher education policy.

For example, the accrediting body of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, warned the university’s Board of Trustees that the establishment of the School for Civic Life and Leadership without oversight and consultation with the college raised serious concerns about institutional independence. The legislature responded with Senate Bill 680which might require public universities in North Carolina to decide on a special accrediting agency each accreditation cycle. This policy was eventually passed as a part of Omnibus House Bill 8 and allows schools to “Shopping” for an accreditation agency less more likely to object to such political interference within the curriculum.

These five overlapping and reinforcing attacks on academic freedom and institutional autonomy threaten to radically transform public higher education in ways in which serve the partisan interests of those in power.

New technologies are making it easier for corporations to set prices and discriminate against individual consumers, the Biden administration's top consumer watchdog said Tuesday.

Algorithms allow corporations to set prices without explicitly consulting with one another, posing a brand new challenge for regulators overseeing the market, Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Lina Khan said during a media event hosted by KFF.

“I think we could be entering a somewhat new era of pricing,” Khan told reporters.

Khan is taken into account one of the vital aggressive antitrust enforcers in recent U.S. history and has been particularly concerned with the harm that technological advances could cause to consumers. FTC and Department of Justice antitrust enforcement agencies setting a record for merger challenges within the fiscal 12 months ended September 30, 2022, in keeping with Bloomberg News.

Last 12 months, the FTC successfully blocked the biotech company Illumina Acquisition valued at over $7 billion from the cancer early detection company Grail. The FTC, Department of Justice and Department of Health and Human Services launched an internet site on April 18. healthycompetition.govto make it easier for people to report suspected anti-competitive behavior in healthcare.

The American Hospital Association, the most important industry group, has steadily criticized the Biden administration's approach to antitrust enforcement. In comments in September on proposed guidance issued to corporations by the FTC and the Department of Justice, This is what the AHA said “The guidelines reflect a fundamental hostility to mergers.”

Price fixing removes competition from the market and usually makes goods and services dearer. The agency has argued in court filings that price-fixing “is still illegal even when achieved through an algorithm,” Khan said. “There is no algorithmic exception to the antitrust laws.”

By simply using the identical algorithms to set prices, corporations can effectively charge the identical prices “even if they don't go into a back room, shake hands and set a price,” Khan said, using residential property managers for example.

Khan said the commission can also be taking a look at using artificial intelligence and algorithms to set prices for individual consumers “based on all this specific behavioral data about you: the websites you've visited, you know, who you've had lunch with.” , where you reside.” “

And as health care corporations change the best way they structure their businesses to maximise profits, the FTC is changing the best way it analyzes behaviors that would harm consumers, Khan said.

Hiring individuals who can “help us look under the hood of some inscrutable algorithms” is a priority, Khan said. She said it has already paid off in the shape of legal motion, “which is only possible because we had technologists on the team helping us figure out what these algorithms were doing.”

Traditionally, the FTC polices health care by difficult local or regional hospital mergers which have the potential to scale back competition and increase prices. But healthcare consolidation has evolved, Khan said.

Mergers of systems that don't overlap geographically are increasing, she said. In addition, hospitals are actually often buying up doctor's practices, while pharmacy profit managers are starting their very own insurance firms or mail-order pharmacies – or vice versa – and pursuing “vertical integration” that may harm consumers, she said.

The FTC is hearing increasing complaints about “how these companies are using their monopoly power” and “exercising it in ways that result in higher prices for patients, less service and worse conditions for health care workers,” Khan said.

Monitoring non-compete clauses

Khan said she was surprised at what number of health care staff responded to the commission's recent proposal to ban “non-compete agreements” – agreements that may prevent employees from moving to latest jobs. The FTC issued its final rule banning the practice on Tuesday. She said the ban was targeted at low-wage industries like fast food, but that most of the comments in favor of the FTC plan got here from health care professionals.

Healthcare staff say non-compete agreements are “both personally devastating and also hinder patient care,” Khan said.

In some cases, doctors wrote that their patients were “really upset because they wanted to stay with me, but my hospital said I couldn't,” Khan said. Some doctors ended up commuting long distances to avoid having to maneuver the remaining of their families after changing jobs, she said.

___

©2024 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

In the distant Alaskan village of Gambell on St. Lawrence Island within the Bering Sea, students are allowed 10 excused absences a 12 months to earn a living, primarily hunting. “If you don’t make a living, you die,” the principal says within the documentary “One with the Whale,” airing this week on public television as a part of Independent Lens.

Directed by Peter Chelkowski (whose credits include the NatGeo series “Life Below Zero: First Alaskans”) and environmental journalist Jim Wickens, the film is about many things without delay: climate change; Poverty; parents fearful about their teenagers; the attempt to take care of traditions despite dwindling resources; and online bullying from activists when 16-year-old Chris Apassingok successfully hunts his first whale.

“One with the Whale” primarily follows the Apassingok family, but additionally captures a broader context of life in Gambell, where the population is primarily Yup'ik indigenous and numbers fewer than 700 people. Everything must be flown in, which is pricey. When Mom goes grocery shopping on the Gambell Native Store, she says they spend $300 to $500 every week on groceries. She holds up a box of Minute Instant Rice: $11.29. A six-pack of bathroom paper costs $13. Fresh products are briefly supply. As a result, greater than 80% of their eating regimen comes from subsistence hunting. One whale can feed your entire village for months.

Even though it's snowing all over the place (no cars in sight, just four-wheelers and snowmobiles), Chris' father is fearful concerning the lack of ice out on the water. “The walrus and the seal travel with the ice. Without this ice there is no game and no food.”

We learn that web service was introduced relatively recently in Gambell, but almost everyone on camera has a smartphone. In 2017, Chris caught his first whale and the photos were shared on Facebook. He was celebrated locally as a provider. But a whole lot of 1000’s of hateful messages and death threats poured in from people outside the community, especially followers of Paul Watson, known for the fact series “Whale Wars.” A teacher at Chris' school is horrified: “It's crazy to tell a 16-year-old from rural Alaska – where suicide rates are higher than any other part of the country – to kill himself.” The experience is visible Effect on Chris, who is nice and silly but becomes withdrawn and grumpy. He doesn't wish to confer with the filmmakers or his mother about it, and it's unclear whether he felt he could confer with anyone about his feelings. This is a consistent finding with online bullying, with the added subtext that this tight-knit community, unfamiliar with the dark side of social media, can also be at a loss. (The filmmakers focus specifically on the people of Gambell and don’t interview Watson.)

“Chris is simply doing something his ancestors have done for thousands of years,” says the principal. “It's not like they exit and pull a whole lot of whales out of the ocean, not like in Japan. According to the Whaling Commission, they’re allowed to catch two whales a 12 months, and that feeds the community.” Without the meat within the freezer, he adds, the village could die out.

It's complicated. The Apassingoks are a loving family who care about Chris' well-being but additionally grapple with the universal issues surrounding insecurity and precarity. But the filmmakers leave certain details frustratingly vague. What is the structure and rhythm of every day life in Gambell? How do Chris' parents earn cash? What jobs are there on the island? Are hunters more cautious about sharing photos? How is Chris now, all these years later? What mental health resources can be found in a village this size?

In the film, the eldest daughter Nalu is eighteen and her fingers are burning. “I'm not entirely gay,” she says with slightly giggle, “but I'm not really into boys either.” She's still figuring it out – or at the very least discuss it. She eventually moves to Anchorage, where there are bowling alleys, Vietnamese restaurants and a girlfriend. However, she occasionally feels homesick. “It's amazing that we not only survived for thousands of years, but that we thrived – at least until the white man came along. Paul Watson's attack on my brother is really nothing new. It started with the Yankee whalers, who decimated our whale population and left us nearly starving. Then came the missionaries with their crosses and boarding schools. “Kill the Indian, save the man,” I feel that was their motto. Now they’ve given us climate change. So Paul Watson and his followers are only the most recent in an extended line of (idiots).”

It's price noting that the filmmakers capture a successful whale hunt on camera in case you'd quite not see that. Like any worthwhile documentary, “One With the Whale” is a window into the lives of others and is treated with as much respect and sensitivity as one might expect from filmmakers outside the community.

“One with the Whale” – 3 stars (of 4)

Where to see: Wednesday, 8:30 p.m. ET on select PBS channels as a part of Independent Lens. (It will air three more times before the top of the week.)