Latest news with #Rulli
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Valley congressman demands congressional investigation
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (WKBN) — Valley Congressman Michael Rulli is hoping his colleagues in Washington will do more to look into the federal response to the East Palestine train derailment two-and-a-half years ago. Recently, a federal watchdog group discovered what it claims are emails and other messages among leaders within the Biden Administration to withhold information about the potential for cancer clusters developing in the East Palestine area because of chemical contamination from the train wreck. Rulli says he wants to know what administrators know and when they knew it. 'I think an investigation needs to be opened today,' Rulli said. 'What we discovered with the Biden administration and the way the FEMA Program handled this is unacceptable in any civilized society.' The congressman is calling the federal response a cover-up. Rulli says he wants to see long-term monitoring of residents to check for signs of cancer — perhaps for the next 20 years. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
USA Today
26-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Previewing the 2025 season for Penn State OL Dominic Rulli with his player profile
Previewing the 2025 season for Penn State OL Dominic Rulli with his player profile Going into the 2025 football season, Nittany Lions Wire will examine each player listed on the Penn State roster. Over the preseason, each profile will cover the player's background, how recruiting websites rated them coming out of high school, and what role they will play for James Franklin this season. Offensive lineman Dominic Rulli has become a fan favorite for his role in a famous fake punt that sealed a win against Minnesota last season. The former walk-on earned Penn State's Most Outstanding Run-On award in 2023. Here's a closer look at Rulli as he heads into the 2025 season. Preseason Player Profile Hometown: Burlington, Kentucky Height: 6-3 Weight: 295 lb Class in 2025: Redshirt junior Recruiting Rankings Class of 2021: Unranked Rulli received limited recruiting attention, with only one scholarship offer from Columbia University. He drew interest from programs like Kentucky, West Virginia, Army, and UConn but ultimately chose to walk on at Penn State, flipping his commitment from West Virginia in February 2022. Depth Chart Overview Rulli has carved out a niche as a reliable special teams contributor, appearing in all 13 games in 2023 and all 16 in 2024, primarily in punt and field goal units. In 2025, Rulli is projected as the primary backup center behind starter Nick Dawkins, though he faces competition from versatile lineman Cooper Cousins.
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Why are so many dead whales washing up in the Bay?
(KRON) — There is a growing crisis facing whales in the Bay Area. In the last few weeks, nearly half a dozen whales have been found dead in and around the San Francisco Bay. Now experts are sounding the alarm and alerting the public that they can help. 'In one necropsy, the whale died of a boat strike,' said Giancarlo Rulli with the Marine Mammal Center. On Friday, Rulli said the center along with researchers are working feverishly with boat services like ferries, recreation and cargo container pilots to get the word out about the migrating whales. With commercial Dungeness crab season along the Bay Area coast going through May 1, whales in the area are at risk of entanglement. Latest tech layoffs hit Meta's Reality Labs division 'We know that research shows many whales are dying in Baja,' said Rulli. According to Rulli, one way the public can help is by alerting experts of a whale sighting so that scientists can go see if there is trouble before the whale goes into distress. The Marine Mammal Center reported 11 live whales inside the Bay one week ago. An app is available for those who want to help whales. 'This is the way to help, the app is called Whale Alert,' Rulli said. Rulli also says that besides whales getting impacted by water hazards, the melting of ice depleting fish supply is also problematic. 'Whales are starving,' he said. Whales, Rulli said, serve a vital role in the bigger picture. 'They are the ambassadors, if they are dying then oceans will be impacted and a lot of other life as well,' he said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
USA Today
23-04-2025
- General
- USA Today
Fifth whale found dead in waters of San Francisco Bay within a month
Fifth whale found dead in waters of San Francisco Bay within a month The death comes weeks after a rare minke whale was discovered in the bay and later euthanized. Show Caption Hide Caption Whale remains wash up at San Francisco's Crissy Field The remains of a gray whale spotted in Northern California on Friday are those of a whale that was initially spotted dead last week, officials say. Fox - Ktvu Another dead whale was discovered in the waters of the San Francisco Bay, the fifth creature found in the area in less than a month, officials said. The female gray whale drifted overnight on April 20 and was spotted by the U.S. Coast Guard near the USS Hornet Museum in Alameda, California, the next day, Giancarlo Rulli, a spokesperson for the Marin County, California-based Marine Mammal Center, told USA TODAY. The whale marks the fourth dead gray whale and fifth whale overall to wash up in the San Francisco Bay this year, according to the Mammal Center and the California Academy of Sciences. The latest whale death also comes about two weeks after a rare minke whale was discovered in the bay and later euthanized, officials said. The minke whale was found offshore near the city of Emeryville on April 7 in poor health, with skin peeling and a reddish hue across its back due to severe sunburn. It also struggled to breathe as it tried to navigate the waters, the Mammal Center said. It was euthanized on April 8. 'A difficult decision': Rare minke whale euthanized in San Francisco after being stranded Necropsies show that two of the three gray whales discovered before the latest deaths were in good condition, but one whale had six fractured vertebrae, likely due to being struck by a passing vessel. The fourth dead gray whale was privately towed on April 22 to Angel Island State Park, where a necropsy will be performed, Nulli said. Meanwhile, officials are still looking into other causes for the other whales' deaths, including malnutrition, according to Rulli. The previous gray whale strandings in the bay this year occurred between March 30 and April 4. "While the number of gray whale strandings has surpassed last year's totals in the Bay Area, they are in line with what we saw at the tail end of the mortality event in 2022 and 2023 at this point in the year," Rulli said. More: 29-foot-long humpback whale found dead on South Carolina 'met some trauma' before death Whale deaths are occurring during a large migration season Between March and May, gray whales migrate from Mexico, where they breed and give birth, up north through the San Francisco Bay. They eventually make their way to Alaska and parts of the Arctic, where they go to feed, officials said. Prior to 2018, whales typically avoided going through busy waters in the bay, as they put their lives at greater risk sharing the water with passing ferries, tankers and other large ships. But in recent years, officials have observed that "some are passing through to stay for a couple of days, some are staying for a couple of months. Some of them have good body condition, some do not," said Rulli. He added that gray whales "are still in a proverbial rut from losing 40% plus of their population" between 2019 and 2023. The gray whale population was around 19,260 in the latest count during the 2023-24 winter season, Michael Milstein, a public affairs officer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) West Coast Regional Office, told USA TODAY on April 22. "We will have an updated count soon from this past winter, but it is still a few weeks away," Milstein said. "We expect, based on information from the lagoons in Mexico, where many spend the winter, that the updated count will be lower." Milstein added that the gray whale population has varied within the past 10 years from as many as 27,000 during the 2015-16 winter season to about 14,500 in 2022-23. Gray whales travel more than 10,000 miles round-trip every year, one of the longest wildlife migrations, Milstein added. "In recent years, we have seen several gray whales enter the Bay each year, perhaps looking for a breather from their migration as a place to temporarily rest or feed. Some of them may die in the Bay, especially if they had not consumed enough food in their Arctic feeding grounds during the previous summer," Milstein said. "That can leave them without enough energy to complete the full round-trip. That was certainly the case during the unusual mortality event from 2018 to 2023, which brought increased strandings of gray whales" he added. That so-called "unusual mortality event" involved 690 gray whale strandings, including 347 in the United States, 316 in Mexico, and 27 in Canada, NOAA reported. A joint investigation with NOAA and other agencies concluded the preliminary cause of the event was due to "localized ecosystem changes in the whale's Subarctic and Arctic feeding areas that led to changes in food, malnutrition, decreased birth rates and increased mortality."
Newsweek
21-04-2025
- Science
- Newsweek
Cluster of Whale Deaths in California Raise Concerns: 'Quite Unusual'
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Four dead whales were found around San Francisco Bay over two weeks, alarming some scientists and reigniting memories of previous high-mortality events. Experts say while the clustering of deaths is unusual, the overall number is not outside the normal range for this time of year. Why It Matters The rapid succession of strandings has stirred memories of April 2021, when four gray whales also died in the Bay Area within nine days. That year, scientists cited ship strikes and possibly starvation as causes. Gray whales are contending with significant ecological stress. Between 2019 and 2023, the species experienced a 40 percent population decline, linked to food scarcity exacerbated by climate change. "These whales basically left the Arctic with a half tank," Giancarlo Rulli, a spokesperson for the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, told of the recently deceased whales. "The food sources that they were normally accustomed to eating that were highly nutritious for this massive, 10,000–12,000-mile journey, had moved farther away due to climate change, and as a result, these whales were left to forage on food matter that was much less nutritious." What to Know The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito confirmed the deaths include three gray whales and one minke whale. The most recent was a juvenile minke that stranded itself repeatedly before being euthanized on April 8 in Emeryville, according to KQED. The whale suffered from severe sunburn and was struggling to breathe. "Our teams have made the difficult decision to humanely euthanize this animal to relieve its suffering," Rulli said. A stock photo of a breaching gray whale in Baja California Sur, Mexico. A stock photo of a breaching gray whale in Baja California Sur, Mexico. izanbar/Getty Other recent fatalities include a gray whale that washed up at Black Sands Beach on March 30, an adult male found east of Angel Island on April 2, and a subadult male that beached near Fort Point Rock Beach on April 4. One of the gray whales had six fractured vertebrae, suggesting a vessel strike, while the causes of death for the others remain unknown. Experts said that the timing of these deaths coincides with gray whale migration season. Each spring, the whales travel north from Mexico to Arctic feeding grounds, often pausing in the Bay Area. Rulli noted that sightings of gray whales have surged around the bay since mid-March, and commercial ferry routes have been adjusted to avoid collisions. He stressed that while the minke and gray whale deaths may appear linked, "the factors involved are suspected to be quite different," according to KQED. Kathi George, director of Cetacean Conservation Biology at the Marine Mammal Center, called the number of deaths "unusual," but told that "it's coincidental that everything happened in a week and a half." What People Are Saying Rulli told Newsweek: "The goal is to investigate potentially why the animal died, but more holistically, try to give a window into understanding not only that individual life but extrapolate it more toward wider information that the individual can yield about the population as a whole. To have three dead gray whales wash ashore in a week's time is quite unusual." Rulli added: "This is a species that is a sentinel for ocean health. They're incredibly resilient animals." Moe Flannery, leader of the marine mammal necropsy team at the California Academy of Sciences, told "Although they seem high because they're concentrated into a short period of time, the numbers of dead and stranded are not any different than the recent previous years." What Happens Next Necropsies are underway to determine the precise causes of the deaths. Scientists are monitoring the situation to assess whether it could signal a new unusual mortality event.
