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Daily Mail
20 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Convicted child sex offender exploits legal loophole to have baby boy
A teacher convicted of sexually abusing an underage boy was able to have a baby with his husband through a surrogate, potentially exploiting a loophole in state law. The issue recently came to light and sparked outrage after a video circulated online showing Brandon Riley-Mitchell, 39, and his husband holding their infant boy and blowing out candles on a series of cupcakes. Riley-Mitchell, a former chemistry teacher at Downingtown West High School in Pennsylvania, was convicted in 2016 of sexually abusing a student and possessing child pornography. He had a sexually inappropriate relationship with the 16-year-old student between May 2013 and December 2014, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. More than 12,000 text messages, which included nude images and videos, were exchanged between the student and Riley-Mitchell, who was 30 at the time. Riley-Mitchell, who was placed on the sex offenders registry, spent three months in jail and was sentenced to probation with no unsupervised contact with minors. Under state law, registered sex offenders are not allowed to adopt or foster children, but there is no current law preventing individuals from conceiving via surrogacy. It remains unclear if Riley-Mitchell is biologically related to the child through the procedure, which surrogacy and adoption attorney Stuart Sacks told the Inquirer may be 'where the loophole comes in.' The couple had launched a fundraiser on GoFundMe in 2023 to raise money to help them afford a gestational surrogate. In an update, they announced that they had found a surrogate 'after three long years of searching' when a family friend reached out. The couple wrote: 'Our surrogate went through extensive medical and social worker evaluations in order to be approved for surrogacy. 'Once approved, the lengthy legal and financial process began. We are so excited that our amazing surrogate will carry one of our embryos for us, helping to expand our family!' Now, thousands are calling for the child's removal and for an update to state law that would also protect children born through surrogacy. Plea: The couple had launched a fundraiser on GoFundMe in 2023 to raise money to help them afford a gestational surrogate A petition said: 'This child is now living in the custody of a man convicted of sexually abusing a child. The public is outraged, and we are demanding immediate action,' . The petition called on Gov. Josh Shapiro, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, and the Pennsylvania Legislature to launch an investigation into the situation, remove the child, and 'close any legal gaps' for sex offenders to adopt or have custody of children. As of Saturday, the petition had garnered more than 10,500 signatures. Peter Kratsa, Riley-Mitchell's former attorney in his criminal case, told the Inquirer that his former client 'did nothing illegal or unethical in becoming a surrogate parent.' Kratsa added that Riley-Mitchell had 'accepted responsibility for his conduct, served his sentence without incident, and engaged in extensive counseling.' Kratsa told the outlet: 'Perhaps the attention of those decrying his parenthood would be more appropriately directed toward those who are not held accountable for child abuse, are not punished, and make no efforts at rehabilitation.' York County District Attorney Tim Barker told Newsweek in a statement: 'I thoroughly appreciate the concerned and outraged emotions expressed by many that a loophole exists in the law to allows a registered sex offender to become a parent through surrogacy without the same intense scrutiny, accountability, and judicial oversight mandated for the adoption process.' He added: 'This is an issue ripe for review and remedy by our Pennsylvania Legislature.' Barker added that currently no laws have been broken but he had 'full confidence' that county officials would pursue any 'constitutionally permissible legislative actions' to protect children,' the outlet reported.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Daily Mail
Pedophile teacher and his husband used legal loophole to have baby boy via surrogate
A Pennsylvania man convicted of sexually abusing an underage boy was able to have a baby with his husband through a surrogate, potentially exploiting a loophole in state law surrounding the practice. The issue sparked outrage after a video circulated widely online showing Brandon Riley-Mitchell, 39, and his husband holding their infant boy and blowing out candles on a series of cupcakes. Riley-Mitchell, a former chemistry teacher at Downingtown West High School, was convicted in 2016 of sexually abusing a student and possessing child pornography. He had a sexually inappropriate relationship with a 16-year-old student between May 2013 and December 2014, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. More than 12,000 text messages that included nude images and videos were exchanged between the student and Riley-Mitchell, who was 30 years old at the time. Riley-Mitchell, who was placed on the sex offenders registry, spent three months in jail and was sentenced to probation with no unsupervised contact with minors. Under state law, registered sex offenders are not allowed to adopt or foster children but there is no current law preventing adoption via surrogacy. The couple had launched a fundraiser on GoFundMe in 2023 to raise money to help them afford a gestational surrogate. In an update, they announced that they had found a surrogate 'after three long years of searching' when a family friend reached out. 'Our surrogate went through extensive medical and social worker evaluations in order to be approved for surrogacy,' the couple said. 'Once approved, the lengthy legal and financial process began. We are so excited that our amazing surrogate will carry one of our embryos for us, helping to expand our family!' It remains unclear if Riley-Mitchell is biologically related to the child through the procedure, which surrogacy and adoption attorney Stuart Sacks told the Inquirer may be 'where the loophole comes in.' Now, thousands are calling for the child's removal and for an update to state law that would also protect children born through surrogacy. 'This child is now living in the custody of a man convicted of sexually abusing a child. The public is outraged, and we are demanding immediate action,' a petition said. The petition called on Gov. Josh Shapiro, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, and the Pennsylvania Legislature to launch an investigation into the situation, remove the child, and 'close any legal gaps' for sex offenders to adopt or have custody of children. As of Saturday, the petition had garnered more than 10,500 signatures. The couple began a fundraiser, raising more than $2,000 to help them afford a gestational surrogate in 2023 Peter Kratsa, Riley-Mitchell's former attorney in his criminal case, told the Inquirer that his former client 'did nothing illegal or unethical in becoming a surrogate parent.' Kratsa added that Riley-Mitchell had 'accepted responsibility for his conduct, served his sentence without incident, and engaged in extensive counseling.' 'Perhaps the attention of those decrying his parenthood would be more appropriately directed toward those who are not held accountable for child abuse, are not punished, and make no efforts at rehabilitation,' Kratsa told the outlet. Republican Rep. Aaron Bernstine announced in July that he planned to create a bill that would prevent sex offenders from becoming parents through surrogacy and require background checks and child abuse clearances. 'This about protecting kids- period,' he said. 'The safeguards in place for adopting children should also protect those children born through surrogacy.' 'This isn't about politics. It's about basic human decency and common sense. No known predator should ever be given the legal right to raise a child in Pennsylvania.' Bernstine also criticized the pre-birth order process, which is a legal petition filed in court that recognizes the intended parents as the legal parents of a child born via surrogacy. He said the process 'bypasses the background checks, home studies, and judicial oversight that would otherwise be required in an adoption or foster care placement.' 'This loophole was recently brought to light in a deeply disturbing case in which a Tier I sexual offender - who was previously convicted of sexually abusing a minor - was successful in lawfully obtaining full legal parentage of a child through surrogacy,' Bernstine wrote,. York County District Attorney Tim Barker told Newsweek in a statement: 'I thoroughly appreciate the concerned and outraged emotions expressed by many that a loophole exists in the law to allows a registered sex offender to become a parent through surrogacy without the same intense scrutiny, accountability, and judicial oversight mandated for the adoption process.' 'This is an issue ripe for review and remedy by our Pennsylvania Legislature,' he added. Barker added that currently no laws have been broken but he had 'full confidence' that county officials would pursue any 'constitutionally permissible legislative actions' to protect children,' the outlet reported.
Gulf Today
2 days ago
- Science
- Gulf Today
Too many scientific ‘discoveries' get discredited
It's not a good look for science when the most hyped, heavily marketed, and supposedly transformative discoveries are later discredited. Among the more spectacular cases were claims that a team of scientists had discovered fossilised Martian life in a meteorite, and that spores found in amber and salt crystals had been revived after lying dormant for millions of years. Last month, the research journal Science finally retracted a headline-grabbing study published in 2010, which claimed scientists had found arsenic-based life. NASA had promoted the discovery as bolstering the case for the existence of extraterrestrials and a new tree of earthly life known as the 'shadow biosphere.' The good news is that the wider scientific community didn't buy the hype. Soon after all these bombshells dropped, skeptical scientists took a look at the research and discovered the flaws. These kinds of volunteer scientific sleuths play an important role in policing their fields. The real problem is the bureaucracy that's grown around science — the peer-review process, the people who decide what gets published in elite journals, and those who market and promote the 'discoveries.' I encountered these allegedly textbook-changing claims as a science writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer, starting with the 1996 announcement of the Martian microbes that rode to Earth on a meteorite. NASA officials wanted to keep the findings a secret until a big press conference — a situation that makes it hard for reporters to do any truth-squadding in advance. And anyone who might have doubts tends to get drowned out by a torrent of early media coverage, which usually parrots the official announcement. In this case, reporters got a lucky break when the news leaked, and we were able to arm ourselves with information and points of view from independent sources before the big show. President Bill Clinton gave a speech about the historic moment, but the media coverage was not uniformly fawning. Most scientists with relevant expertise suspected the specimen had been contaminated with earthly life, which is the consensus today. Similar contamination was also the most likely explanation for the spectacular claim that spores had sprung back to life after slumbering inside a crystal for 250 million years, according to a study published in the journal Nature. There was no press conference that I knew of, so reporters had time to temper the excitement by talking to outside experts who had good reason to doubt this exciting find. By 2010, NASA and Science were more careful not to let the media get in the way of the story they wanted to sell. News outlets received a cryptic message about a big press event, where officials would unveil something of great significance related to astrobiology and extraterrestrials. At the event, a team of scientists explained that they'd taken a type of bacteria that can tolerate arsenic, a toxic chemical. They said they had managed to make the bacteria incorporate some arsenic into their molecular machinery. This was supposed to show that life might not need to follow the same basic chemistry we know, and could perhaps exist in ways we haven't seen. The evidence was very thin, but the presentation included music and slides of different life forms to hammer home the message that something profound was going on. The bacteria had come from arsenic-rich Mono Lake in California, but there was no apparent evidence that they had incorporated any arsenic in that environment. It was rooted in our normal tree of life. There were some big holes in the story told to the media. How much arsenic was incorporated into the bacteria? How did researchers confirm this? Why didn't the bacteria take up arsenic in the arsenic-rich environment of Mono Lake? What did this have to do with extraterrestrials? There was much innuendo and hand-waving for something that was supposed to change the textbooks. Purdue University biologist David Sanders said he heard the news on NPR. This was his area of expertise — he'd done work in the relevant area of biochemistry, so he was eager to look into it. He told me he found a fatal mistake in the scientific paper. The researchers had assumed that the bacteria were eating and incorporating arsenic because they were starving them of phosphorus, and so they must have been taking up arsenic instead. But Sanders could see that their technique would have left enough phosphorus contamination for the bacteria to pick out what it needed and fend off the toxic arsenic — all well-documented behaviour. 'It had nothing to do with the shadow biosphere. It had nothing to do with life on other planets, and it had nothing to do with reality,' he said. University of Connecticut biologist Peter Setlow felt a similar skepticism as soon as he heard the announcement. It reminded him of those claims of fossilised Martian life and spores that were supposedly born before the age of dinosaurs. The expert in bacterial spores said he was interviewed on NPR, where he explained why those trapped in 250-million-year-old material probably latched on relatively recently. It wasn't enough to deflate the hype. While all these claims were eventually discredited, Setlow said many other spurious findings have been published in respected scientific journals. Sometimes peer review doesn't work the way it's supposed to. Reviewers raise objections, he said — as he's done — and a journal will publish the findings anyway.
The Star
16-07-2025
- Science
- The Star
Saving an island from being swallowed by the sea
Lenore Tedesco doesn't need to venture far to witness sea-level rise. She tracks its relentless advance from her window at work. Tedesco, executive director of the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor, New Jersey, the United States, stood by the nonprofit's large conference room window in late May, surveying an expanse of salt marsh known as Scotch Bonnet Island. It was an idyllic Jersey Shore scene: osprey hovering over thousands of acres of spartina grass rippling in the breeze. But over the years, her view has transformed into something more unsettling. Once-solid marshland has been fractured by new channels of encroaching water. 'These open water areas used to be marsh,' Tedesco said, gesturing out toward the grass. 'It's marsh that converted to mudflats and open water. All this open water you see was once grassy.' It's similar to what is happening one hour north by car in Atlantic County, at the Rutgers University Marine Field Station in Tuckerton, where the surrounding wetlands are also disappearing as flooding becomes more common. Scientists say that saving marshland is imperative because it provides food, refuge and habitat for three-quarters of shore birds; filters water and removes contaminants; and protects communities from storm surge. Scotch Bonnet Island is being swallowed along with New Jersey's other tidal wetlands. Small squiggly channels of water have begun to merge, forming wider pools. Scotch Bonnet Channel, a waterway that cuts through the bay to connect the barrier island to the mainland, has widened by 70ft (21m) since 1970. New Jersey literally loses a chunk of itself as more open water appears. Pools of water that used to be solid marsh at Scotch Bonnet Island behind the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor. — Photos: MONICA HERNDON/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS Frequent flooding Tedesco, who holds a PhD in marine geology and geophysics, explains that sea-level rise is outpacing the marsh's natural ability to regenerate after being flooded, part of the tidal cycle of the Jersey Shore. Scientists say sea-level rise in New Jersey is running at twice the global average. They estimate the sea could rise 2-5ft (0.6-1.5m) along the coast by 2100. That is sobering news given that New Jersey has 200,000 acres (80,937ha) of tidal wetlands, valuable habitat used by shore birds and other wildlife. 'The increasing frequency of flooding is causing nesting failures and declines in bird populations,' Tedesco said. Under Tedesco, the Wetlands Institute joined in 2024 with the US Army Corps of Engineers and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Division of Fish and Wildlife to raise about five acres (2ha) of Scotch Bonnet Island with sediment. The state and the Army Corps have been experimenting elsewhere with trying to stave off the loss by bringing in soil dredged from nearby channels and dumping it onto wetlands to raise them as part of the Seven Mile Island Innovation Laboratory, an initiative that began in 2019 to advance marsh restoration through new dredging techniques. Sturgeon Island and Gull Island have also been raised within the Seven Mile Island Innovation Laboratory's perimeter. Scotch Bonnet Island, off Stone Harbor Boulevard in Cape May County along the Intracoastal Waterway (NJIWW), is one of the 'islands' of marshland along the coast connected by channels. It sits within the nearly 18,000-acre (7,284ha) Cape May Coastal Wetlands Wildlife Management Area, which is managed by the DEP's fish and wildlife division. The 86-acre (35ha) island has lost more than one-third of its acreage since 1941, according to the Army Corps, and the pace of loss is quickening. Partners in the project, along with scientists at the University of Pennsylvania, predict another one-third could be lost by 2050. In addition to rising seas, the area's history of dikes from salt hay farms has altered water flow, exacerbating the issue. Overdevelopment hasn't helped. Tidal wetlands naturally replenish as sediment and organic matter get deposited during normal tidal cycles and flooding. But the tides have gotten higher and the flooding has worsened. The marshes cannot keep up and convert first to low marsh, then to mudflats, and finally to pools of open water. As the pools expand, they connect to tidal creeks that remove more sediment from the marsh system, further accelerating loss. Tedesco calls it a 'negative feedback loop'. Raising Scotch Bonnet Island The effort to raise Scotch Bonnet Island began last October as crews created a protective ring of coconut fibre logs to surround a spot of marsh. An Army Corps contractor took dredged sand and silt from the Intracoastal Waterway and pumped an estimated 25,000 cubic yards (19,114 cubic metres) onto the island. The project raised the land between 2ft (0.6m) and 4.2ft (1.3m), which should be enough to stave off land loss for two decades without further help. The raised area is now a bald patch of dirt. Tedesco said she can see spurts of vegetation and birds returning to the location. Tyler Kinney, a project manager for the Division of Fish and Wildlife, said it would take a few years for vegetation to once again cover the restored part of Scotch Bonnet Island. 'You have a natural seed source surrounding it,' Kinney said, referring to Spartina alterniflora, sometimes referred to as cordgrass. 'You really don't need to plant. That spartina is catching the seeds coming off the marsh, and it's starting to already recolonise. In two to three years, it will start to look like the rest of the marsh.' Kinney estimates that, so far, the lab has helped raise 100 acres (40ha) of marsh within the Cape May Coastal Wetlands Wildlife Management Area and about 300 acres (121ha) along the coastal region. Sediment to raise the land comes from dredging performed to keep channels navigable. It has to be tested first to see whether it is free of contaminants. But scientists say there simply is not enough clean sediment available to raise all of New Jersey's threatened wetlands. Tedesco says the increasing frequency of flooding is causing nesting failures and declines in bird populations. 'A precipitous loss' Scotch Bonnet Island is part of a larger effort to save tidal wetlands. LeeAnn Haaf, a scientist with the nonprofit Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, estimates about one-fifth of the state wetlands are no longer keeping pace with sea-level rise. 'We're approaching a threshold that a lot of scientists and researchers ... are worried about,' Haaf said. 'If we reach a certain point of sea-level rise acceleration, we might actually start seeing a precipitous loss. We're not there yet.' Haaf is part of the New Jersey Tidal Wetland Monitoring Network, launched in 2019. The network includes 15 partners, including universities and nonprofits. The network has installed surface elevation tables (SETs), which are portable devices designed to measure elevation changes, and launched a website and mapping tool to display its work. 'SETs allow us to measure a really fine-scale variation down to the millimetre,' Haaf said. 'And that's really important for tidal wetlands.' Kirk Raper, a DEP researcher, said the network has about 245 SET locations, with data for some going back to 2011. 'This is a sort of first look at assessing the statewide implications,' Raper said. The DEP estimates 61% of the state's coastal wetlands might be vulnerable. Joshua Moody, another DEP scientist, said getting the partners assembled, SETs installed, and 'bringing all the data together' was a 'huge hill to climb'. Now, he said, scientists can truly begin to track the decline of the state's wetlands. Metthea Yepsen, a DEP bureau chief, called wetlands restoration projects like Scotch Bonnet Island 'a learning process' and said that they appear to be working, but that it is too early to assess the impact. 'When you place a lot of sediment on a marsh, it's inherently disruptive. We see vegetation and animals that use the space either die or migrate off the site,' Yepsen said. 'It is a slow process as it revegetates and the animals come back. But we're learning a lot.' – By FRANK KUMMER/The Philadelphia Inquirer/Tribune News Service
Irish Independent
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Irish Independent
Tim Weiner's decades-long investigation into the shadowy CIA is top-notch
In 1988 Tim Weiner won the Pulitzer Prize for a series of articles he published in The Philadelphia Inquirer about the CIA's multi-billion dollar arms shipments to Islamist fighters in Afghanistan during the dying days of the Soviet-Afghan War (1979-1989).
