Latest news with #TMMC
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Ninth whale dies in Bay Area this year as sightings spike
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A second gray whale that died this year from a suspected vessel strike was found in the San Francisco Bay, according to The Marine Mammal Center (TMMC). It is the ninth individual dead whale that wildlife officials have responded to in the Bay Area in 2025. Staff at the Phillips 66 San Francisco Refinery in Rodeo reported the dead gray whale on May 12 to the California Academy of Sciences, TMMC said. An expert with the academy collected measurements and tissue samples on the following day. It was learned that the 39-foot gray whale was an adult female. Experts noted that the whale had two large straight cuts through the right side of the head and jaw 'consistent with propeller wounds,' according to TMMC. Samples will undergo further analysis to confirm the findings. The whale, which had been initially found underneath a pier, was dislodged during high tide on May 16 and later surfaced on a mudflat at Mare Island in Vallejo. Popular Bay Area beach continues to see high levels of fecal bacteria: report In early April, a subadult male gray whale was found just offshore of Fort Point Rock Beach in San Francisco with 'blunt force trauma consistent with vessel strike,' wildlife experts said. That whale, which was photo identified as a well-known individual called 'Denali,' suffered 'six fractured spinal vertebrae and had associated hemorrhage in the area,' TMMC said. In total, experts have responded to eight dead gray whales and one minke whale so far this year. The minke whale was euthanized after repeatedly stranding itself in the mud during low tides off Emeryville. Comparatively, by this time last year, The Marine Mammal Center had only responded to one dead gray whale and one dead humpback whale in the Bay Area. Six of the gray whales found dead this year have an undetermined cause of death. In all of 2024, there were only four individual gray whales sighted in the San Francisco Bay, according to TMMC. This year, however, experts with the center's Cetacean Conservation Biology Team have photo-identified 30 individual gray whales swimming in the bay. 'The reason or potential reasons behind the spike in sightings this year are still being investigated by researchers,' TMMC told KRON4. The public is urged to report whale sightings in the Bay Area through the WhaleAlert app or through The Marine Mammal Center's website. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Another dead whale found floating in SF Bay
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A dead whale was located in the San Francisco Bay last week, The Marine Mammal Center confirmed on Thursday. It is the sixth dead whale the agency has responded to this year in the Bay Area. The subadult female gray whale was found on April 30 floating near Treasure Island, according to TMMC. Scientists had the U.S. Army Corps tow the 38-foot-long dead whale to Angel Island State Park, where a necropsy was performed on May 5. Experts with TMMC and the California Academy of Sciences noted that the cetacean was 'in good body condition with no obvious signs of trauma, including no broken bones.' There was evidence of recent feeding activity. An official cause of death was unable to be determined due to the advanced state of decomposition of internal tissues, TMMC said Thursday. The cause of death for all but one gray whale found dead in the Bay Area has not been determined. One gray whale that washed up near Fort Point Rock Beach on April 4 was killed by a probable vessel strike, wildlife officials said. A minke whale was euthanized in Emeryville on April 8 after it repeatedly stranded itself in the mud during low tides. Scientists have not determined what inflictions caused the strandings that led to the subadult female's death. The last dead gray whale that TMMC responded to was seen at Alameda's South Shore Beach on April 21. It was later determined that it was the same individual spotted floating near the USS Hornet Museum days earlier. A necropsy was able to be performed on May 1. However, the state of decomposition meant the cause of death was inconclusive. Approximately 30 individual whales have been documented inside the San Francisco Bay in 2025. The number is 'significantly higher' than in recent years, TMMC said. PlayStation among two tons of trash removed from Richardson Bay On May 1, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a voluntary 10-knot Vessel Speed Reduction for vessels off the California coast. 'Large ships traveling at 10 knots or less give whales more time to move to avoid a strike, reduce the lethality of a strike should one occur, and generate less harmful ocean noise and fewer air emissions,' the U.S. Coast Guard stated. The public is urged to report whale sightings in the Bay Area through the WhaleAlert app or through The Marine Mammal Center's website. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Necropsy of dead whale in SF Bay confirms ship strike
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Two dead whales have been found in the San Francisco Bay over the past week. The Marine Mammal Center (TMMC) on Tuesday provided an update after necropsies were performed on the gray whale carcasses, confirming one death was caused by a vessel strike. One dead adult male gray whale was found floating east of Angel Island on Wednesday before being towed to land the following day for further examination. On Friday, scientists with TMMC and the California Academy of Sciences performed a necropsy, or animal autopsy. This gray whale 'was found to be in good body condition with a full stomach,' wildlife officials said, which indicated that it had eaten recently. The Angel Island whale did not show 'initial evidence of blunt force trauma consistent with vessel strike.' Scientists plan to reexamine the carcass to learn more about what caused the whale's death. Another dead gray whale, a subadult male that was photo identified to be a well-known individual called 'Denali,' was found Friday caught in the rocks just offshore of Fort Point Rock Beach in San Francisco. Officials noted that Denali was also a 'healthy individual.' Study reveals ranging diet of San Francisco coyotes 'Experts confirmed the whale sustained six fractured spinal vertebrae and had associated hemorrhage in the area,' TMMC said. Wildlife officials said that the fatal injuries are indicative of a vessel strike. Denali, officials said, was known among local whale watchers 'due to a large white spot in the shape of Alaska on its left side.' The whale was first sighted in the San Francisco Bay on March 28. On March 30, the first dead whale carcass to wash ashore in the Bay Area this year was found at Black Sands Beach in the Marin Headlands. A necropsy of this female gray whale revealed it was underweight, though a cause of death was not immediately determined. The Marine Mammal Center said that ship strikes are a leading cause of death for large whales on the California coast. Anyone who sees a whale in the San Francisco Bay Area is asked to report their sighting using the free Whale Alert app. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
A Nevada Math Professor Who Was Disciplined for Criticizing Curriculum Changes Will Get His Day in Court
In 2019, the Nevada System of Higher Education decided that students who needed remedial math instruction could receive it at the same time they were taking college-level math courses instead of completing it as a prerequisite. In response to that new "co-requisite" policy, the math department at Truckee Meadows Community College (TMMC) decided to make its courses less rigorous. Those changes did not sit well with math professor Lars Jensen, who criticized them in two emails to TMCC faculty members and in a handout he distributed at a January 2020 "Math Summit" where "the community" was invited to discuss the curriculum revision. Because of that criticism, Jensen complained in a federal lawsuit, he received a letter of reprimand and two "unsatisfactory" performance reviews, which triggered a termination hearing. Those disciplinary actions, he argued, violated his First Amendment rights by punishing him for constitutionally protected speech. Although a federal judge dismissed Jensen's lawsuit with prejudice in September 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit revived his claims on Monday, ruling that the alleged conduct of TMMC administrators violated "clearly established" law, meaning they were not shielded by qualified immunity. The 9th Circuit panel's unanimous ruling in Jensen v. Brown "is a major victory for the free speech rights of academics," Daniel Ortner, an attorney at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) who argued Jensen's case before the appeals court last November, said in a press release. "This decision will protect professors from investigation or threats of termination for their speech, and promote accountability for administrators who violate the First Amendment." In a December 2019 email to other math department faculty members, Jensen expressed concerns about the curriculum changes. The following month, Julie Ellsworth, TMCC's dean of sciences, convened a meeting aimed at discussing the "co-requisite" policy "with the community." But when Jensen tried to lay out his critique during a question-and-answer session, she cut him off. Jensen responded by returning to his office, where he prepared a one-page handout arguing that the decision to "lower the academic level of Math 120 so students will be able to complete the course at current rates" would undermine the value of the college's certificates and degrees. He noted that local businesses, which subsidize the school through their taxes, expect that graduates they hire will be qualified for jobs that require math proficiency. When Jensen returned to the meeting and began handing out his flyer, Ellsworth collected the copies and told him to cut it out. After Jensen "reminded Ellsworth that it was break time and that he was not being disruptive or disturbing anyone," she reiterated her command, which he disregarded. She warned him that he had "made an error by defying her." A week after that encounter, Ellsworth delivered on her threat by notifying Jensen that she planned to write him a letter of reprimand for his "insubordination," which was ultimately placed in his personnel file. Undaunted, Jensen reiterated his criticism of the "co-requisite" policy in an email to the entire TMMC faculty. The repercussions for Jensen's outspokenness continued. During Jensen's May 2020 performance review, the math department's chair recommended a rating of "excellent." Ellsworth instead rated Jensen's performance as "unsatisfactory," again citing his "insubordination." The following year, the department chair still thought Jensen's performance had been "excellent." But Anne Flesher, TMMC's dean of math and physical sciences, deemed it "unsatisfactory." She "identified minor issues with Jensen's performance, based on criteria that Jensen asserts were not equally applied to other faculty." Those two consecutive "unsatisfactory" ratings resulted in a disciplinary investigation by another administrator, Natalie Brown, and a termination hearing, although Jensen ultimately kept his job. Jensen sued Ellsworth, Flesher, and Brown in their personal and official capacities, arguing that they had retaliated against him for speech protected by the First Amendment. Assessing the viability of those claims, the 9th Circuit applied the criteria established by a line of cases beginning with the Supreme Court's 1968 decision in Pickering v. Board of Education, which involved a public school teacher who was fired for publicly criticizing the school board's allocation of funds. The 9th Circuit concluded that Jensen's criticism of dumbed-down math standards addressed "a matter of public concern." And even if he was speaking as a "public employee" rather than a "private citizen," it said, his speech was "related to scholarship or teaching," meaning it was protected under the 9th Circuit's 2014 ruling in Demers v. Austin. The appeals court also thought Jensen had plausibly alleged that his protected speech was a "motivating factor" in the disciplinary actions against him. Those considerations are not necessarily decisive, the 9th Circuit noted, because "a public employee's right to speak is not absolute and may be outweighed by the state's interest 'as an employer, in promoting the efficiency of the public services it performs through its employees.'" But in this case, the appeals court said, the defendants had failed to demonstrate any such countervailing interest. In particular, they could not point to any significant disruption of the college's operation caused by Jensen's speech. By itself, the appeals court ruled, Ellsworth's complaint about "insubordination" was not enough to override Jensen's First Amendment interests, especially since it hinged on her disapproval of what he was saying. "The state's interest in punishing a disobedient employee for speaking in violation of their supervisor's orders cannot automatically trump the employee's interest in speaking," the 9th Circuit said. "In assessing the state interest, there is good reason for focusing on the disruptive impact of the employee's speech, rather than simply disobedience to an order to stop speaking. If we were instead to allow an employer to prevail solely on the basis that the employee disobeyed the employer's order not to speak, employers would have carte blanche to 'stifl[e] legitimate speech or penalize[e] public employees for expressing unpopular views.'" Contrary to the district court's analysis, the 9th Circuit concluded that the case law on all of these points was clear enough at the time of Jensen's conflict with TMMC administrators that they should have recognized the distinction between legitimate discipline and unconstitutional retaliation. That does not necessarily mean Jensen will win the case, but it does mean he will have a chance to try. "The college's actions tarnished my reputation and chilled my speech," Jensen said in the FIRE press release. "The Ninth Circuit's decision vindicates my First Amendment rights and allows me to have my day in court." The post A Nevada Math Professor Who Was Disciplined for Criticizing Curriculum Changes Will Get His Day in Court appeared first on
